"A-Are we there yet?!"

"Nope. Hurry up Arc!" A green haired man yelled behind him, answering me as I struggled to move another step up this damn mountain!

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Let's step back a bit.

Yesterday...

I was relaxing in Compa's apartment, watching Tv with Noire next to me. It had been a week since we saved the world and we've been trying to relax a bit before getting back to the hustle and bustle of our normal lives. "So you guys are going back to your jobs tomorrow?"

"Yes. I would love to stay and relax with you, but such is the life of a CPU." Noire sounded a bit sad and scooched a bit closer to me on the couch. "B-By the way, where do you plan on living from now on?"

"Now that you mention it... I can't really stay at Compa's place forever. But other than here, I don't really know where to go. I don't exactly have a home town or a place where I want to stay." I tried thinking my hardest. It would be great to get a place in one of the major cities, but the rent and prices are to high. "Ugh, why does saving the world not net me any money!"

"W-Well, Darling. Umm...well...uhh.." Noire was messing with her twintails. "W-Would you like to live with me, in Lastastion?"

"Huh?! Really?!" I stand up and grasp Noire's hands, she let out a little yelp when I did so. "That'd be great. I'll finally have a place to belong! Not to mention I get to live with my girlfriend!"

"Ah...ah..." Her face was pure crimson. "Your an idiot!" The girl wiggles her hands out of my grip and punched my arm. God your so cute!

"Arcy! You have a visitor!" Compa came into the living room, wearing a pink apron above her normal clothes. Behind her was a young looking man with long green hair. He wore white cloak with a chain dangling from his collar.

"Hello Candidate Arc. It's been a while." The man waved at me nonchalantly, as if he was a friend from highschool or something .

"*sigh* You again. What now?" Noire looked up at me confused. "This is the guy I had to fight to get the key."

"What?!" Noire jumped up and summoned her rapier.

"Woah woah! Lets all calm down here." He backed up a bit. "It was a test for Arc. Ok? No hard feelings!" Noire looked at me for confirmation. I just shrug my shoulders. "Look, I'm here to take Arc on a little training trip."

"Did I hear trip?!" Neptune came out of Compa's room, holding a tub of ice cream. "Oh, hello there stranger!"

"Hello, Lady Purple Heart." The man named Snes bowed to the girl.

"Yo." She just ate a bite of ice cream. "So, something about a trip?"

"Yes. I will be taking Arc here up to a mountain near here for some good old fashion training."

"Arc getting stronger?! I can't see that."

"You know what Neptune!" Snes came in between Neptune and I. The girl just stuck her tongue out at me. "Ugh. Fine, Nes told me I had to get stronger anyway." I moved back a bit. "So how long will this trip last."

"A month maybe longer." Snes already was walking towards the door. "Depends on how long it takes for you to beat my little test."

"A month?!" The man walked out the apartment and a golden chain came out from behind him. Entangling me. "Woah! I didn't agree to this! Noire, Neptune. Compa! HELP!"

"I'll see you when your done Darling! Good luck and please don't get hurt!"

Day 1

That's how I ended up in this situation. Carrying a camp set on my back up the tallest mountain in Planeptune. "C-Can we take a break?"

"Nope!" The man just kept walking. "We're almost there anyway. Just five more minutes."

"Ugh. Fuck you..." Sweat was pouring down my face and my legs were buckling. We had been walking for at least two hours straight. After, almost exactly five minutes...

"We're here! You can drop the baggage now."

"Oh thank god!" I gently take off the large backpack that was almost was tall as I was and placed it on the ground. Sure enough we were at a small clearing surrounded by the mountains walls. We were so high up I could even see the tip of the mountain from here. "Fuck...is it just me or is it hard to breath?"

"Nope. We are high enough that the air is a bit thinner here. It's a part of the training."

"Of course..." I drop onto my ass and take a deep breath. "..I'm gonna have to set up the tent, aren't I?" Snes just gave me a knowing look and sat down against the wall. "Fuck you..."

Day 2

I woke up to a blinding light. "Good morning!" I could see the shadow of Snes from the tent's entrance. It had to be around eleven judging from where the sun was. "Breakfast is ready. Eat up and we'll start the training." It was a pain to even get out of the tent with my back aching as much as it did. I was greeted by some pretty well seasoned sunny side up eggs and toast sitting on a plate placed on a small tree log shaped like a stool. Right in front of it was a small fire and Snes sitting on the other side. I quickly scarfed down the food. "Alrighty then." The man stood up and walked over to the wall, with his back to it. "Alright. All you need to do to end this training session is to get a ten hit combo on me. Also I'll be nice and say you can have five seconds between each hit to count as a combo and I won't move until the five seconds are up." So blue combos count, huh?

"That's it? Ten hits?" I stand a few feet away from him.

"Yup. I'm not even going to attack. I will simply dodge. Oh, and don't worry about killing me. You already know that you can't." His smirk was kind of pissing me off. "We will stop for the day when you can't use the gate any longer."

"Alright. I'll wipe the smile off your face!" I dash forward and grab Blood Scythe as it comes out of the gate. I reach him, "Breakdown!" Dark energy appears around the sword as I smash it down into the ground. Snes was nowhere near where the attack had landed, leaving a small crater where he was. "Huh? Are you faster than you were last time?!"

"Oh, I was simply holding back quite a bit when we fought in the castle." He clapped his hands. "You're going to have to do more than just rush down to beat me." I suck my teeth and rush ahead once again, this time just doing normal slices. Each time he simply dodged as if he saw what I was going to do beforehand. "Come on Arc. Your boring me here."

"Screw you!" I jumped back and switch my grip to backhand stance. "Carnage..." I dashed forward and tried to stab him. He jumped over the clear attack. "Gotcha! Gate: Devil Sword Dante!" In my other hand a black hilt had appeared, I quickly grabbed it and swing the sword upward, slicing the man's right arm off his body. When I went for another attack he placed his left hand on my head and used it was a boat to jump behind me. "Wait...what?" I looked down at the sword that I had just summoned. It was a large, two handed black broadsword with fangs running up its length and claws acting as the guard. It had a red jewel on the end of the hilt. "I've never seen a sword like this."

"Five. Combo done." I look up and grey clay came out of where Snes' arm was supposed to be. It slowly formed into an arm. "Seems like the key activated."

"Key?"

"Let's finish this training session and have you catch our dinner and then I can explain."

"Wait what?!" Snes just taunted me. Screw it.

Six hours later I was laying down on the ground covered in dirt, of course I was unsuccessful in getting even another hit after that surprise one. Immediately after I was worn out, Snes sent me down the mountain with a basket. That's how I ended up here. Dying. "Damn, that took a while. The sun's already going down." He picked up the basket of vegetables and monster meat from right next to me and walked to a small table that he had set up next to a large metal bowl. "Sit up, I made you a drink." He placed a plastic bottle next to my seat and began cutting on the makeshift table that he made me bring.

"Ugh. Alright." I sit on the log and take a swig from the drink. "Lemonade? Delicious!" I had to say, this guy is a pretty good cook for being clay. "So...about the key."

"Ah, yes. The key." Snes finished cutting up a carrot and picked up an onion. "You see, up until now, the gate that you have been using has just been a trial version. Didn't you find it strange that the only swords you were able to summon were the ones you could already project?"

"Now that you mention it...the only new things I got were the chains and that weird looking Ea."

"Yup." He nodded his head and grabbed some meat. "When you used that key, it had unlocked the full potential of the gate. Allowing you to use every weapon that has ever existed in all of Gamindustri. Just as Nes had."

"Woah, that's amazing!" I stared down at my hands. Realizing the pure potential that I had at my hands. "But, what the hell am I supposed to do with all those?"

"That is the reason for this training." Snes placed his knife down and sat across from me. "You see, it's important for you to create your own fighting style with the way you fight right now is counter productive. You summon one sword at a time, when needed. It makes sense with your terrible endurance but you need to press through. If not, then you are just wasting the potential of all those weapons." He had a point. I literally have every weapon I could ever imagine. Yet here I am limiting myself to one at a time.

"Alright, starting tomorrow, I'll get a new style down." I was about to stand up to lay down a bit in the tent before forgetting something that I wanted to ask. "Hey Snes...how do you know about all this? How are you connected to the king?"

"Ah, did Nes not mention me?" Snes chuckled to himself. "I'm Nes' best friend and the only person who could have been."

"Wait, you knew him personally? How is that possible? His age was I don't even know how long ago!"

"Well, I have a certain...gift." He transformed his right arm into some grey jelly. "I'm not exactly human. I don't even know what I am. I know I'm a sort of Maker but that's about it." Makers. Humans or beings that are able to use magic. Iffy, Compa and I are all makers or at least I used to be when I only used projection. "I don't have memories from before I met Nes. I don't know where I'm from or how I was born. All I knew was that Nes was someone that I could trust. I met him about fifty years after his kingdom had started. That's about it, without going into extensive detail. After the kingdom fell I decided to help any king's candidate and test them." It felt sort of strange that my own past was so similar to this clayman. Yeah, I don't want to think about the implications of that. But... I shook my head. Trying to get that desire for useless information out of my head. But all I did was shove it to the back of my mind. Where that thought usually lived.

"I see...that does explain a lot." I guess being made of clay makes you immortal. Which does explain why he heals as fast as he does. "Ok, but that doesn't explain why you can use a version of the gate."

"Well. That's something that you don't need to know right now."

"B-But I-"

"I need to finish cooking." Snes stands up and goes back chopping up veggies again. Jeez man.

Day 15

I was poking at the fire as it cracked in the night. My fighting style has been changing little by little but I've still got a long way to go. On the bright side, I've gotten my average summon rate from four to five a day up to ten. "*sigh* I need more inspiration."

"Well, I can help." I looked over to my right and see Nes sitting right next to be, but his whole body looked like a tv image. He even had some tv static showing up every now and then.

"Nes? Your going to join us once again?" Snes asked the image as he placed a pot right above the fire, keeping it level with his own chains.

"Yea! Why not." This has happened a couple times before. Apparently, thanks to me using the Key, he can contact me outside of my dreams now. Even showing an illusion of himself. The only reason why Snes could see him as well is because he had a connection to Nes as well.

"Are you going to answer my questions now?"

"Looks delicious!"

"Hey bastard!" The centuries old man just sighed.

"Snes? Should I?" Snes simply ignored Nes. That was enough of an answer for me. I've been wanting answers from this guy ever since we beat Arfoire. There is so much I still don't know. "Fine...I still have the right to refuse certain questions. My fetishes are a no no."

"What did Arfoire mean when she said that wasn't her first try of getting revenge?"

"Woah! Right to the point, huh? No run around." He didn't really seem to care however. "A couple centuries ago, Arfoire was able to break the seal that W had on her. She basically did the same thing that she did this time. Tried going around fucking shit up. But the four goddesses at the time were able to mostly stop her...along with a young man that was helping them."

"A king's candidate..." I squeezed my hands shut.

"Yes." Nes himself seemed really sad himself. Losing the constant smirk that he had. "Arfoire was able to kill the king's candidate at the time. Of course his friends at the time lost a lot of moral due to this and almost lost to her. They were unable to finish her off and had to seal her instead. I have no idea how she was able to break out again. W wouldn't tell me." Nes seemed pretty tired and was resting his head in his hand.

"..." It pissed me off that she would go through all of that just to get more power. "She's not dead is she. I can feel it."

"What do you mean, Arc?"

"Well, ever since you told me about how the key unlocked potential in me, I've been trying out a lot of stuff. That's when I noticed that a strange aura coming from the center of Gamindustri. It feels like her blood lust."

"Well, that's the Gamindustri Graveyard." Snes answered me as he was stirring the stew. "It's a strange place that has always and will always have that strange aura. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. If anything, that feeling is just Arfoire's ghost haunting the place."

"I hope so." No. I saw her disintegrate into nothing. There's nothing to worry about. But I couldn't shake that feeling that something wasn't right.

"Don't worry Kid. Everything's fine." Nes stretched and grew back his smirk. "Anyway! Anything else?"

"I do have a couple more." The man feigned some tears but I couldn't care less. "How many other Candidates were there before me?"

"You are the fifth. They all existed in very different times from yours. I'm gonna also answer the question you didn't feel confident to ask." Nes patted his knees "The first candidate it was very sickly. His body wasn't very strong and he died before I could explain that he was a candidate from natural causes. The second candidate simply did not want to be a candidate and refused my offer when I explained my existence to her. The third...was a mistake."

"Huh? How so?"

"Well, the third candidate let power get to her head. She took the wrong idea from my story and tried to kill all of the goddesses in order to become the one true ruler. Thankfully she didn't have access to the full gate and was easily taken care of by the goddesses."

"Wow... that's interesting." So morality doesn't have to do with being a candidate. Nor strength. I still don't get the terms. "The fourth was the one who was lost..."

"Yea... but that's in the past and Arfoire is done and gone. Anything else?" I felt like that was a really rough topic and I should end it there but there was one more thing I had to know.

"Are you and W the reason why the girls can't remember the Console War? Same thing with Neptune's memories."

"Well, your right and wrong." The man went to go slap my shoulder only for his arm to pass through. "Ah...Anyway, We sorta did have to get rid of their memories. After all they were tricked by Arfoire to start the war."

"Wait, what? Arfoire's the reason why the war happened?!"

"Did I not mention that?"

"Fuck you."

"Bahahahaha! Yeah, she started it. She tricked them and forced them into Celestia to fight for a few hundred years. We didn't want them to fight for no reason, so badda bing badda boom, false memories gone. As for Neptune, we didn't do anything. Perhaps that was Arfoire's doing or just due to her injuries during the war. I don't know." He went for the stew to try it, only to go through it again. "Fucking hell."

"..." I had a lot to say to that, but I knew that it would be in vain. I didn't know that much about this man but I knew that he was stubborn and there's no changing the past unfortunately. "Fine. Whatever."

Day 23

"Stinger!" I summoned the devil sword and dashed forward with it, trying to stab at Snes who just jumped over it and used the sword itself as a stepping stone. "Dammit! Sit still!"

"That would ruin the purpose, wouldn't it?" I had to admit, Snes was fast on his feet. He was even faster than the CPUs at points. At this rate, I'll never be able to hit the bastard ten times in a row. "Come on Arc. Your getting the hang of your new fighting style, you just need to master it and maybe you can beat me."

"We've been at it for three weeks now! I'm trying dammit!" I was having trouble staying up. Dammit. Hit my limit. "I guess we're done for today." I drop down on the ground and lay facing up, looking at the sky.

"Hey, at least you got me five times today." I didn't really count that as a compliment, especially since the man who said this threw a basket at me that hit me in the head.

"I miss Noire..." I pick up the basket and begin to walk down the mountain. Hoping that I could beat Snes soon.

Day 30

"Well, are you ready?" Snes stood up after eating breakfast and standing in his usual spot.

"Yea. This time, this is the end." I stand up and crack my knuckles. "Ready! Stinger!" I summon a the devil sword and rush forward at Snes, however the man simply stepped to the right. But he was then caught by a large purple scythe's pole and was thrown into the air. "Grim Reaper!"I swing the purple scythe in a circular motion around my body and caused a wall bounce as Snes was thrown into the wall behind him. Two.

"I must admit, you got me there."

"It's not over yet!" I called the purple scythe out and jumped to catch Snes in the air to threw him into the ground. Immediately I summoned Blood Scythe. "Nightmare Edge." I brought down the sword onto Snes and kicked him back onto the wall. "SP Skill! CARNAGE..." I dashed forward and stabbed Snes in his stomach "Scissors!" The dark blast sent Snes flying high into the air. My body was still recovering from the sp skill. Dammit! Not yet! Just four more. "Rapid!" A golden aura came off of me and my body was immediately able to move again. I sent Bloody Scythe back into the gate and summoned a multiple portals above where Snes flew. "Rainstorm!" Dozens of swords fell onto Snes and dug him into the ground. "LET'S END THIS! EXE: Drive Gate: Open..." My body felt like it was being pulled down onto the ground but I powered through it. I had to.

"Impressive..."

"ENUMA...ELISH!" The red and black sword threw out a large wave as soon as it had exited the gate. The blast was sent past where Snes had landed and even crashed into the neighboring mountain. "Holy..." The sword dissipated into golden particles and I fell onto my knees. "Hell YEAH!" I waved my arms into the air. I did it! I got stronger!

"Wow, seventeen hits. Impressive." Snes had suddenly appeared behind me, his clothes in rips and tears. "I have to say, I didn't think you'd make it within a month."

"Well, I showed you." I tried to stand up only to fall on my face.

"What an amazing candidate."

"Fuck off." I pull myself off the ground and keep myself sat down on the ground. "I get to go now right? Training camp over right?"

"For now."

"Huh?"

"Well. I'll give you a week to rest. But from now on, once every week I will visit you and fight you one on one. If you can beat me three times in a row, then I'll stop with the weekly visits. Just keep the training up." Snes began to pack up the camp site.

"Hah! Easy."

"I'll actually fight this time though. I'll go all out, unlike last time."

"..." Fuck. I'm not looking forward to this. 'W-Well, I'm gonna go as soon as my body is rested up." Snes didn't say anything back but he had a wide smile on his face. He's gonna pay me back for that combo isn't he?