This is where the newer chapters begin. Everything before this was written in 2015-2017... we are now in 2020!

Cain's sassy relationship with Julian is courtesy of the Shadow Dragon manga.

Thank you for reading this far, and sticking with this story even through the hiatus. I appreciate your support!

Into the Dark

With Khozin and his forces dead, there was no one to stop Marth's entry into the city of Pales. The thunderous sound of hooves echoed throughout the town as the Akaneian League stormed towards the Millennium Court.

With resolve burning in his chest, Marth gripped the reigns of his horse, eyes fixated on the castle ahead. Though his muscles ached from battle, the adrenaline coursing through his body ensured he felt little fatigue.

The opposite could be said for Roy, however: his sudden violent transformation earlier still had his body searing in pain. His expression betrayed his thoughts, as his entire world had been rocked not but minutes prior. To be so forcefully ripped to shreds both inside and out and turned into something so monstrous and foreign, and yet somehow strangely familiar. Being a dragon...

Roy grit his teeth slightly behind pursed lips. Here he was, still in the dark about his past, and now he was hit with this, completely devoid of context. His eyes clenched for a moment as he tried to bring his thoughts to a centre and calm himself. Now was not the time for his mind to wander to things he couldn't control.

The distance was closed between the Akaneian League's forces and the walls of the Millennium Court all too quickly. Marth's horse had barely come to a halt before he dismounted, and his hand was readied at the hilt of his blade by the time his feet hit the ground. His gaze immediately shifted upwards towards the beautiful—though currently imposing—palace before them.

Jagen's horse slowed to a stop next to Marth's, and the rest of the army followed suit. Roy stayed a few horse lengths behind Marth and Jagen, staying near Cain, Abel, and Julian. He glanced across the Millennium Court's walls- there were lines of archers dotting the open windows, their arrows trained on their army.

"That doesn't look good…" mused Abel, and Roy could only nod in agreement.

Their attention was drawn skyward at the sound of a loud, strong voice, however:

"You've finally arrived! Welcome to the capitol," came the taunting voice of an older man. Marth's grip on his sword's hilt tightened and his expression soured.

"No need for such a dark expression, prince," the man continued. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Volzhin of Doluna, the orchestrator of the final arc in your story of petty defiance."

"How poetic…" Cain muttered under his breath, causing a slight uptick in the corner of Roy's mouth. It seemed like every one of the enemy leaders had a serious power complex.

Standing firm, Marth straightened himself and shook his head. "We will not end here. We will defeat you just as we have all those that have come before you."

The old mage exhaled out of his nose and chuckled. With a slight shake of his head, he responded, "No, I promise you, it won't be so simple."

Volzhin readied his tome. "You will writhe in the flames of Bolganone! Naught will be left of you but charred bone!"

With a wave of his hand, Volzhin ordered his troops to charge- they burst forth from the court's gates, weapons readied. Almost immediately there was the clashing sound of steel on steel echoing through the air as both armies met, violence ensuing instantly; blood spattered across stone and grass as soldiers from both sides wounded one another.

Cain thrust his sword through the chest of one of the Dolunian foot soldiers that had fixated on him. "Damn, there's so many of them," he grunted as he pulled his weapon back. "We need to make a path for Marth to get inside or we're going to get overwhelmed before we even make it to the gates!"

Julian huffed as he hopped back, dodging an arrow, "Well what do you suggest then, Cain? Ya got any bright idea in that head of yours? Because-"

Cain shot Julian a look, and Abel took a moment to glance up towards the walls where archers were trained on their allies. "Here is a plan- we wipe out those archers before one of them manages to get a lucky shot."

Following Abel's gaze, Cain huffed in thought. "Yeah, I don't know about you guys, but my horse can't scale walls. And our archers are already busy trying to keep back the footsoldiers…"

Roy gripped his sword and his eyes darted across the walls of the court as he tried to analyze the situation. After a moment of consideration, he had a realization and turned to Julian. "Julian, you were with the Soothesires, weren't you?"

The other three looked to Roy, and Julian raised his brow. "Yeah, what of it? What's that got to do with anything?"

Abel caught on to Roy's train of thought. "Ah, I get it," he said, and Roy simply nodded to Abel. Abel looked to Julian. "You're an ex-thief… any chance you have any of those useful, but annoying, thief-like accessories on you?"

It took a moment for Julian to catch on, but once he did, he grinned. "You mean like smoke bombs or shrapnel bombs or something?" he mused. "I might still have a few."

Cain grunted. "Yeah, you've used those stupid smoke bombs on us whilst camping once or twice…"

Abel shrugged and looked from Cain back up to the court's walls, where the archers were stationed and still firing. "Well, it looks like those might come in handy right about now. You can complain about his pranks later after you've helped him blind these archers."

The redheaded cavalier turned his horse to better face Abel. "Me? You can't just volunteer me to ferry this guy around—"

"—Too late! C'mon, Cain—those archers won't know what hit 'em!" Julian shouted as he hoisted himself up onto Cain's horse.

With a long, aggravated sigh, Cain shook his head. "Fine, but don't pull any shit, or I swear…!"

His horse neighed loudly and reared before charging off towards the castle. Abel turned to Roy.

"That was a good idea," he said. Roy simply shrugged and shook his head."I guess we'll find out if it really was once it works… or doesn't," he mused.

Not too far away, Marth and Jagen were dealing with their own predicament. Due to Marth's initial entrance, most enemies knew exactly who he was, and many of them had eyes trained right on him—much to both the prince's and the paladin's chagrin. Though Jagen was strong, and would defend Marth with all he had, even he was struggling to keep up with the sheer number of soldiers and archers that had their hearts set on killing the prince.

"This is getting bad…" Marth huffed, growing wearier as he cut down yet another enemy soldier, though there were still more running his way. "There are far too many of them."

An arrow whizzed past him just inches away and imbedded itself into the dirt a few feet beyond him, which caught him off guard. A warrior charged forward, raising his axe quickly to prepare what would certainly be a fatal strike on Marth. Though before the prince could even react, an arrow flew from his left, right into the warrior's temple, dropping him instantly. Marth could feel his heart in his throat as he whipped his head to the side, spotting Jeorge with his bow raised and a new arrow already nocked. He simply nodded to Marth before shifting his aim towards more of the approaching soldiers, firing away.

With a slight tremble in his hand, Marth readied his sword again. He swallowed his nerves with a silent vow to not let himself get caught so off guard again—if Jeorge had not been there, Marth certainly would've been killed.

There was a dark, mocking laugh that came from the top of the castle walls. Volzhin, sensing Marth's fear, took the opportunity to taunt the young prince, "Perhaps you've come to realize the futility of your struggle here. Just lay down your weapon and die already!"

A huge swath of flame bellowed towards the prince as Volzhin cast Bolganone. Jagen's horse reared and let out a distraught neigh, barely backing away enough to avoid the powerful spell, and Jagen readied his shield to use himself as a barrier between Marth and the fire. The paladin hissed as a stray flame singed his leg, which caused Volzhin to laugh once more in amusement. The mage's laughter was cut short, however, when the sudden sound of explosions and billows of smoke burst forth from the openings in the walls. The archers all ceased their firing as they were overwhelmed by the smoke.

"What?!" Volzhin yelled as he scanned the grounds below, trying to make out what was going on through the smoke.

"Hell yeah!" Cain shouted as he thrusted his fist in the air. Julian let out a long whistle and grinned.

"That'll teach them to mess with us!" the ex-thief cheered. "Now's the time to charge the gates, before the smoke clears!"

Abel rode towards Marth with Roy following on foot not far behind. Caeda, Jeorge, and Merric came to Marth and Jagen from the other direction, using the smoke as a cover.

Jeorge coughed. "This smoke is really quite something," he said. To that, Julian smirked and gave him a thumbs-up.

Marth nodded in agreement. "This gives us the time we need to sneak inside…!"

"How DARE you!" hissed Volzhin. "You slimy rats! I will kill every last one of you!"

Through the smoke came another huge blast of Bolganone in their general direction, though thankfully the smoke had concealed them enough that the fire missed its target. Jagen clicked his tongue and looked to Marth.

"Prince Marth, go now! We will hold the line outside," he advised. "Cain, Abel, Julian, Jeorge- go with the prince, the rest of us will stay out here to keep Volzhin distracted."

Abel nodded. "Yes sir," he responded and turned his horse. "Prince Marth, with me. We need to be quick."

Marth hoisted himself up onto Abel's horse and looked to Jagen. "Please be careful," he said before looking to Caeda, Merric, and Roy. "You as well. I do not want to lose any of you today."

Caeda smiled. "We do not plan on letting you down, Prince Marth."

To that, Roy nodded in agreement. "I've still got too much to figure out to die here…" he mused.

The group of five, led by Marth and Abel, took their leave and beelined straight towards the castle gates. Once they were inside and out of view, Jagen turned to Caeda, Merric, and Roy. By that point, the smoke had begun to clear, revealing the four of them to the mage above.

With the remaining four now clearly in Volzhin's sight, the old man let out a snarl of detest. Since Marth was now inside the castle, he decided to turn his attention to the redhead. Their eyes met, and the ice blue of Roy's eyes were piercingly cold as he glared up at Volzhin.

How amusing—yes, this was clearly the one that the dark mage had told Volzhin about earlier. Well, even though the prince had snuck off, perhaps he would still be able to pry him back out of the woodwork with something a little different. Roy could tell Volzhin was weaving something nefarious in his mind by the way the old man's mouth twisted into a sick grin. Roy clenched his fists and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"How unfortunate that the prince ran away," he said slowly. "That means I have to turn my attention to someone else. Like you, little dragon boy."

The hairs on the back of Roy's neck prickled up and his lips pursed into a thin line. Jagen frowned and his horse took a slight step forward, but Volzhin only shook his head and slipped his Bolganone tome away into his robe, exchanging it for a different tome that was completely black- even down to its pages. Merric was taken by surprise by the bizarre book.

"I haven't ever seen a tome like that before," he said, and Caeda glanced from Merric to Roy. Roy's expression had grown from firm to wide-eyed with concern.

"Roy, is everything okay? Do you know what that is?" Caeda asked him.

"I… I don't know what it is… but I feel like I've seen that book before…" he muttered, not averting his gaze from the book. "But… wait…"

Volzhin flipped the book open and stared down at its pages. "I am not one to get my own hands soiled with blood if I don't have to. So, I have a better idea," he said menacingly, a smirk forming on his lips as his eyes flicked just enough away from the book to look at Roy. The air began to funnel inward towards the old man as he raised his hand up, and a surge of emotion hit Roy, like his instincts expected what was to come next.

"Get away! Now!" He shouted to his comrades, though he was barely able to finish speaking before a powerful, painful shock seized his mind. He immediately fell to his knees and grasped at his hair, letting out a loud, anguished cry. It was like lightning was shocking his body and fire was coursing through his veins as Volzhin's spell overwhelmed him.

An all too familiar darkness consumed him as he lost consciousness to the abyss.