Okay, after some procrastinating and a few days of playing Fallout 3: GOTY edition, i got this chapter done! this is where everythign will start to make sense, anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 25: Conflicting Souls part 1

Talim, Seong Mi-na and Yun Seong were busy trying to take down Astaroth together outside the castle, but the titan wouldn't go down that easily.

"Man, we need a new plan; most of our attacks won't work on him," Yun seong said as Astaroth lifted his axe.

"Tch is that the best you worms got?" he asked them. Before he could slam his axe on them, he got a good kick in the face and stumbled. The three looked at who saved them and saw it was a man wearing a white open jacket with no shirt underneath, white pants and had nun-chucks with him with Elvis Presley styled hair.

"Maxi! Man good to see you," Yun seong said.

"Heh, glad I made it, when I heard this guy was spotted here I came as fast as I could, though I never thought you'd be here," Maxi said.

"Neither did any of us," the three replied. Astaroth then began to get up and the four all charged at him, with Maxi's help, it was easy to defeat him. When Astaroth was disoriented, Maxi went up to him and poked him with his finger, causing him to fall into the river.

"I always wanted to do that…" Maxi grinned.

"I bet, now come on, the others need our help," Mina said. There was the sound of broken glass and the four saw Cervantes flying out.

"Well most of us…" Yun Seong muttered. The group headed inside and regrouped with Ivy, Kilik and Xianghua and ran inside the castle to save their friends.

Zach and Frankie were in a heated duel with Ranvitchkus; Zach was handling him in close range while Frankie shot some spells at Ranvitchkus. The latter was having a hard time dealing with the two, with Frankie's spells and Zach's attacks.

'Man, these two are stronger…but I wounded Zach to near death how did he…that old man…he must've saved him…' Ranvitchkus thought. He dodged a blast from Frankie, but got his sword knocked off by Zach and got shot by Frankie's magic blasts. He landed on a wall, badly hurt now and even bleeding a bit from the attacks. Heck, he was even coughing up blood when Zach and Frankie got to him

"Damn, you improved…a whole lot from last time…though that blow I gave you would work…guess that old man's tougher than I thought…" Ranvitchkus said.

"Tell us what's going on…about Thanatos and Malgreed," Frankie said.

"Tch, them? All I know is that Malgreed wants power…and Thanatos is the key, once we get Soul Edge we'll be one step closer to our goal," Ranvitchkus said.

"What goal?" Zach asked.

"A New World…Malgreed told us about what will happen in our future and we shall change it, once we obtain the Ultimate Sword, our dreams of a new world shall come true…heh, you're doomed…and idiots to think…that you can stop us…" Ranvitchkus coughed more blood as the color drained from his face. Zach and Frankie looked at Ranvitchkus's now dead body with neutral looks and heard the sounds of more fighting.

"Seems like we're not the only ones fighting…" Zach said as he and Frankie ran into the castle's halls.

Sosuke skidded and coughed up some spit with blood mixed into it as he looked at Malgreed with his scythe in his hands.

"Had enough?" Malgreed asked Sosuke as he got up.

"Not on your life!" he yelled and ran towards him. Malgreed just stepped to the side and slashed Sosuke, leaving a scar on his side. Sosuke panted for breath and looked at Malgreed, who just stood there with a bored expression. He then lifted his head, "Huh, it appears that our friends and Ranvitchkus are gone…" he said.

"Guess our game's over…" Malgreed then grinned and looked at Sosuke.

"Game?" Sosuke asked him.

"Yes, I was only playing with you and your friends with all the villains here, and right now Thanatos and Mark's fight is starting to heat up…can't you feel it?" Malgreed asked him. Sosuke tried to feel the battle and felt an intense power that caused him to feel sick to the point where he threw up.

"W-what the hell was that? It was…was that who I thought it was?" Sosuke wondered aloud.

"Yes, two souls fighting each other," Malgreed said. He heard someone coming and disappeared just as Zach, Frankie and the others (minus Joseph and Mark) came in and helped Sosuke up.

"Heh, your little friends came to save you…pathetic…" Malgreed said. He then looked up and sensed something.

"Hmm…this is going to be interesting…" he said with a grin and disappeared.

Joseph dodged and countered Anubis's attacks from the shadows, but he was now trying to counter them when he had no idea where he would come from and suffered a few bad scars and bruises from Anubis.

"Had enough?" Anubis asked him.

"Not really…" Joseph said and punched the ground and sent some earth bullets at Anubis. He dodged them and appeared behind him to finish Joseph off. Joseph saw this and twirled, managing to dodge the slash and cutting Anubis…hard. Anubis had tried to turn into a shadow to block it, but someone he was caught in mid transformation and got the scar.

Anubis turned to shadow again and resumed his attack from all directions, but Joseph managed to dodge most of them.

'Man, he can turn into shadow whenever he wants…like Crocodile from One Piece mixed with Pride from Full Metal Alchemist' Joseph thought. 'Wait…I wonder…' Joseph realized and started to charge up some lightning. Anubis looked with some confusion as Joseph shot a bolt at him. Anubis dodged it, but noticed it soon let out a large burst of light, causing his shadowy body to become solid and the shadow portals he used to disappear.

Anubis didn't have time to counter, being disoriented from the light, and was stabbed by Joseph.

"I had a feeling, since you used the powers of shadow like Pride from Full Metal Alchemist with a mix of Crocodile from One Piece I thought of using my lightning to make a sort of a flash bang grenade to stop you from using your shadow powers," Joseph explained.

"Not bad…you're getting better…but still…if you want to defeat Thanatos and Malgreed, you'll need to do better…" Anubis said.

"Who is Thanatos anyway?" Joseph asked.

"Someone who will help bring about a new world…" Anubis said as Joseph pulled out his sword, causing him to cough violently.

"You…can't stop us…we will have our new World…heh….hahaha…" Anubis laughed as he died. Joseph then saw Anubis's body glowing brighter and brighter until he was a ball of light. The ball flew around until it hit Joseph and went into him. He felt a strange sensation in him when the ball entered, like regaining something he lost.

He looked at Brionac and saw that it changed; it was sleeker looking with some glowing edges with a green color on them. "Wow…" was all Joseph could say before he heard someone coming.

"Who's there?" He asked and readied to fight. He soon saw it was the others and lowered Brionac in time to be glomped by Cassandra.

"Uh Cassandra…" Talim began.

"Joseph I was so worried, you okay?" Cassandra asked him.

"Fine…need air now…" Joseph croaked. Cassandra let him go and got up, as did Joseph.

"So Anubis flew the coop?" Zach asked.

"Yep, and got a new upgrade," Joseph said as he showed Brionac.

"But where's Mark?" Talim asked. That's when they all face-palmed and remembered why they were here.

"Back with Malgreed I sensed something powerful, I might've been them," Sosuke said.

"Then use that feeling and find him!" Joseph stated.

"Alright, alright, sheesh…" Sosuke groaned and ran forward with the others following.

And so now the next chapter of the story shall make everything clear. What are Mark and Thanatos up to? and what is the New World that Anubis and Ranvitchkus said before their deaths? stay tuned to learn much more! R&R plz!