Chapter Five—Deeper Into the Labyrinth
Lady Morin threw her head back and choked on her own laughter. Oh, this was too much fun… She let Rowen of the Strata fall to the undefined ground, slumped in a position of exhaustion. "And who, may I ask, is Sage?" A disgusting gurgle issued from Rowen's throat—blood and saliva mixing together. He spit roughly then gagged on the bitter taste. The sorceress lifted Rowen's head for him so that he was staring her straight in the eyes. "I asked you a question, Celestial Warrior."
"Burn in Hell, you rotten bitch," he wheezed, a harsh cough racking his tortured body. Whip-like lacerations snaked up and down his bare chest, crimson liquid weeping from the hideous welts. A thin cut traced the length of Rowen's jaw line, from one ear to the other—a grisly reminder of just how sharp Lady Morin's talons were. It hurt to breathe. His entire ribcage was mottled an ugly black and blue, and the outline of every bone in his chest was plainly viewed. One eye was swollen shut. The other cried a tiny trickle of blood.
"Is Sage a fellow warrior?" The Lady kneeled down to Rowen's side to rub his fresh scar under his chin. Rowen shuddered with pain, electric tingles sizzling their way through his veins. "Tell me about him, sweetheart. Bare your soul to me." Her lips pressed against his cheek, softly and seductively like a lover's. "I promise I can keep a secret."
Rowen remained bound by magical shackles; otherwise he would have slapped away the foul temptress beside him. He shook with rage he had never dealt with—the rage brought on by Talpa. In the calmest voice he possessed, the Ronin spoke. "You will die. And your death shall be horrific, too. I will merely laugh as you are shredded to pieces from the inside out. The pain will be unimaginable, and there will be no escape, no rescues. You will die." Rowen could not lift his eyes to see how Lady Morin reacted to his words. He merely stared into the black emptiness beneath him, his gaze blank and emotionless just as his voice was.
Slowly, the sorceress rose from beside the warrior, her head throbbing with imagined pain. He sounded so convinced of her demise, as though a great prophet had augured the scene centuries ago. As sure as the heavens above… Lady Morin was deeply disturbed by this turn of events. Something wasn't right about this boy. Indeed he was the last Celestial Warrior in the universe, but there was a strange aura surrounding him, a power the Lady could not quite place her finger on.
What she needed to do was take some time out and think about this mysterious strength. Before Lady Morin could feast on Rowen's soul, she needed to ascertain what powers he held and how she could steal them for her own twisted use.
But not before just a little more torture. She grinned impishly.
Rowen spit up more blood, sanguine streaks creating an eerie beard upon his chin. His wheezing deepened to a thick rattle of phlegm and blood in his chest, and tremors overtook his whipped body. Exhaustion plagued him inside and outside. Keeping his one good eye open was enough of a task for the Ronin, not to mention having to maintain concentration just to keep breathing. If he didn't have so much to live for, Rowen would have given up at any moment, letting Death lay him to an eternal rest. But he had to survive for the sake of the Ronin Warriors—and for his unknown, beautiful ally, Akemi.
"You think that pitiful little speech is supposed to dissuade me from my mission, Warrior?" the Lady finally asked at last. "Nothing will interrupt my sacred duties. You hear me, nothing!" Anger ignited the air. "And no one…"
Rowen was thrust into an upright position, pinned up like the crucifix. He did not whine, whimper or beg. He submitted. He had no choice. There was no way Rowen would give the woman anymore pleasure from his pain, not if he could help it.
A cackle sliced the air with a razor edge, taking some of Rowen's flesh with it. Spherules of blood gathered in the space before the Ronin's visage, as though gravity decided to play with him, too. His blood spun like a monstrous mobile, suspended by the magic of the sorceress. "Magnificent, is it not?" Lady Morin queried, fingers dancing hypnotically as she manipulated the twisting cyclone of blood. "Something so common as human blood transformed into a beautiful structure right before your very eyes. Don't you feel privileged to bear witness to such a remarkable event?"
"Privileged is not the word I would use."
"No matter," the Lady mumbled, releasing the droplets of liquid from her hold. They splattered on the unseen ground—vermilion on seamless black. The control had returned to her voice, and Lady Morin no longer felt the nervousness that had momentarily overtaken her. Once again she had a total hold on her captive, not the other way around. She could enjoy her work to the fullest. No more interruptions, she promised herself. "You never told me who this Sage is. I can only assume he's one of those four other Ronin Warriors I've seen in my images. Which one? The blonde, the brunette, the black-haired boy or the other blue-haired boy?" She leaned into his face again and purred. "Which one?"
Rowen refused to answer, already knowing what the result of his insolence would be. Morin drew back, smiling contentedly. She brought her right hand before her lips, flattening the palm and then blowing a sweetly evil breath upon it. The gentle breeze tickled Rowen's nose for an instant as he breathed it in, then he blinked twice, astounded that nothing had happened. For a brief moment in time there was no pain. What had she done to him?
"Which one?"
Then it hit Rowen. Perhaps she was trying to coax him into telling her who Sage was with the promise of relief. Well he wasn't going to fall for it! He lifted his head up in defiance, and in the harshest tone he could muster, Rowen answered. "The blonde!" He grinned at his sharp rebellion before he realized the truth had been told. Quickly, the smile was wiped from his face and distress replaced it.
Lady Morin giggled.
Truth serum. Devilish witch! All along she had known he would never fall for such a ruse as the empty promise for relief of his suffering. So she'd cut some corners and veiled his eyes, and now she had complete control of his mind. "That's better," Lady Morin cooed, stroking a finger under Rowen's neck.
"Now tell me, my pet," she whispered, cheek pressed to his and lips brushing his ears, "who is the other sorceress that thwarts my efforts?"
"None of your damn business!"
Amazed that the serum had worn off so fast, Morin applied a few more droplets to her fingertips and pressed them to Rowen's tightly sealed mouth. The liquid absorbed into his flesh, and he shuddered at the realization. "Her name, love?"
"Lady Ka—" He fought the drug with all of his might, but the Ronin could feel the name slipping through his lips. "Ka— Ka—"
"Come on now, Warrior. I don't have all day."
"Kayu—NO! I won't tell you! I won't! You can't control me anymore!"
Dammit! Lady Morin was losing patience fast. She cracked Rowen across the face with the back of her hand. "Listen here, you human piece of trash! I need the answers, and I need them now! Lord Yusaki shall not wait any longer. It's already been 5000 years. I'm tired of playing games with you humans. Now…" She grabbed his naked shoulder and squeezed until her talons had punctured the soft skin, embedding themselves in the tender muscle. Rowen quivered with the flashing pain, but tried to remain as cool as he could be. "Tell me the sorceress' name."
His eyes fixated on hers, and briefly the battle was moved from the physical plane to the intellectual. "Never." Red spittle flew from his lips and speckled the flawless ivory skin of Lady Morin. She roared with an untapped rage, withdrawing her nails so quickly that skin came shredding off with them. Wiping away the blood splotches from her face, Lady Morin streaked fresh gore from Rowen's shoulder unknowingly.
"Death is upon you, Celestial Warrior!" With that curse, the viper vanished into thin air.
@~~`~~~
Unagi Swamp was desolate region within the bounds of Fantasia Forest. No trees except the most rugged grew in the disgusting mud; and even those were gnarly and every bit as hideous as their surroundings, without leaf or life. Sharp brown grasses sprouted on tiny hills of earth, jutting up from steaming pools of liquefied dirt. The revolting pops of earthly gases belched forth throughout the murky setting, leaving behind a stench that stung the nostrils.
Ryo perused the scene, shuddering at the thought of having to trek through the place. But Unagi Swamp was merely too expansive for him to just circle around it. That would take an extra day and a half he did not have.
A new day was already beginning, Ryo knew, although the sun had yet to rise over the mountains. Judging from the look of the sky, the Ronin estimated the time of day between three or four in the morning. At least that was one advantage to coming into Unagi Swamp: Ryo could finally get a glimpse of the heavens, which had previously been masked by a dense layer of foliage. Briefly he thought of Rowen…
Ever so slowly, Ryo took some cautious steps forward, his feet instantly sinking to his ankles in lukewarm mud. The mushy stuff flooded his boots, creating an unpleasant squishing in them. Ryo tolerated it though, pressing onward directly through the gurgling marsh. The Ronin Warrior coughed on the concentrated, noxious gas in the air, searching for more breathable stuff. The dueling fumes mashed together, and snippets of bright white light flickered like lightning bugs as a result.
Darkness still shrouded the area, blacking the opposite side of the forest. Shadows jumped and writhed in the sparkle of the moonlight, more alive than Ryo had hoped. He wondered what monster he would encounter next. Lady Kayura had assured him that there would be Four Trials. If he could overcome all of them and make it to Faerie Heath, all he had left to do was gain the faeries' hard-earned trust and he would meet the empress.
Ryo supposed the gnome was the first test, and he had passed that one okay. But he still had three others upcoming and no idea what they would be.
Needless to say, he was wary. The Ronin stalked through the swamp, eyeing everything with suspicion from the ghoulish trees to the mud right before him.
Something didn't feel right. Although Ryo had felt watched from the moment he had stepped up to the forest edge, nothing compared to the uneasiness that swept through him then. It was as if he wasn't simply being watched but analyzed, also. Ryo could almost feel the stale breath of his hunter burning upon the back of his neck. Once again he scanned the terrain, but all that he could see were the globs of muddy concoctions and sparse plant growth. However, the feeling persisted.
The deeper he was drawn into the bowels of Unagi Swamp, the more intense Ryo's emotions became. With every step further into the soggy realm, the prickling on the back of his neck intensified to a sharp biting. Yes, something was wrong. Ryo withdrew one katana, resting it at his side… for the moment. At least if he was attacked, he would be somewhat ready.
He was only a quarter of the way into the swamp when he heard the growl. It was low, barely audible above the burbling swamp waters, but it was there. It had a vicious sound to it, and it was definitely otherworldly. The snarl of a warthog came to Ryo's mind. He had no way of telling where the sound came from, for the swamp manipulated noise as it chose.
The warrior stopped dead in his tracks, surveying the scene yet again. There seemed to be no change, no movement. But that didn't mean something was out there. His sword quivered with excitement, and slowly Ryo drew it before himself protectively. He waited for the creature to make its move.
Nothing happened. Surely, it was smarter than that. If it were watching Ryo this intensely, it would have known better than to come charging at a man with a formidable sword guarding him. For the time being, that thought alone would keep it at a distance. But for how much longer? If the critter was clever enough to assess the danger of the sword, then it was clever enough to think of a way around the sword. That realization left Ryo unnerved. This beast would be prepared for someone who was capable enough to make it through the entrance of Fantasia Forest. This beast was designed to hunt effectively the type of hard-nosed humans who would make it to its swampy homeland in one piece.
Tentatively, Ryo stepped forward. Nothing happened. Keeping the sword drawn tight against his body, he proceeded—always watching, always alert.
He heard the trembling bellow of his hunter. It was louder this time and much more pronounced. And it was closer. Then he heard it again, only this time it was sharper. Then one more time, higher-pitched and more of a whine than a growl. In quick succession there were two more snarls, and it was at that point Ryo determined there was more than one monster stalking him. That left him with an unknown number of opponents.
While carefully skirting around the exposed root of looming tree, Ryo did not see the dirty water stir before him. Instead he focused all his concentration into avoiding the sudden graveyard of dead tree limbs. Suddenly, he tripped, fell to his knees in the muck and simultaneously lost the grip on his katana. "Shit!" Ryo roared as he watched the blade sail ten feet in the air and land several meters beyond his reach.
Vulnerability was instant. Without his Wildfire sword, he felt naked. Normally, he wouldn't think twice about just getting up and continuing on, but Fantasia Forest was a place where you needed a weapon—the bigger, the better.
The shadow creatures reacted at once. To Ryo's horror, a slimy dome began to emerge from the mud puddle in front of his face, dirty water and algae sliding down the glistening exterior. Instantly, the Ronin clambered to his feet, glancing around him. Four other brown domes poked the surface, utterly smooth craniums developing with each passing second. The tops of pointed ears sliced the surface. Even under the blackened water, Ryo could see the glow of the eyes. God, they were monstrous eyes. Solid emerald green. There were no pupils, no whites to the eyes. Just two pulsing green orbs of light without eyelids. They possessed a hungry quality to them, and Ryo could see his reflection in their unearthly light. Next, the long slit of a mouth appeared, gaping like a great white shark's but with double the teeth. Row after row of nasty incisors lined the jaw. The throaty growls issued all around him. Soon their entire bodies had been revealed, and Ryo knew instantly what they were.
Goblins.
By the looks of their frail but surprisingly muscular bodies, Ryo knew without a doubt that these were the goblins about which Lady Kayura had told him. She had said that goblins always traveled—and hunted—in packs. They had no fears other than excessive light, which explained their disturbing eyes. Their vocal chords were underdeveloped, so he could not communicate with them as with the gnome. "The goblins of Fantasia Forest are primitive but remarkably efficient killers. I hope you don't run into them, Ryo of Wildfire—for your sake." Kayura's words echoed in his head.
"Fan-freaking-tastic," Ryo mumbled as he stared at the Big One, presumably the leader. Slime dripped off the bridge of its crooked, hooked beak of a nose. Inwardly, the Ronin cringed. These things were beyond ugly—and beyond just dangerous, too. With that thought, Ryo's subarmor snapped on again.
Sensing they were about to enter attack mode, Ryo lunged for his Wildfire sword, hoping to reach the handle before the goblins could reach him. The Big One screeched like a banshee, alerting the others to ensnare the escaping prey. From behind, Ryo was grabbed by the ankle, and in seconds he was lying face first in a heap of decaying plant matter.
While he was momentarily blinded, the Big One made several grunts and snorts, using a language the Ronin had never come in contact with before. Ryo tried to clear the muck out of his eyes, but two of the monsters were sitting on his back, pinning his hands under their weight. He struggled uselessly, cursing the goblins into oblivion. But they could not understand him, as he had expected.
The Big One hunched over and sniffed Ryo curiously, licking his chops with delight. A horrendous odor spilled forth from its lips, washing a terrible taste down Ryo's throat. "It's called a toothbrush," he muttered sardonically as he pondered over possible escape plans in his head.
Ryo needed his weapon—badly. But he estimated it was still two meters beyond his reach. There would be too little time for him to fight his way free and make it to the sword and THEN kill the five goblins.
One of the smaller goblins nipped at his exposed neck, just to taste a bit of blood. Although the pain lasted only momentarily, he knew the next bite would not hold the same passiveness. The next bite would most likely be the killing bite.
Suddenly, sticky fingers were all over him, massaging his skin and head. A shiver rippled through Ryo's veins. One monster pinched his cheek, feeling for the scrumptious meat beneath. Another knocked on his coat of armor, requesting—through several shrieks—that the Big One take it off so they could finally eat. From the sounds of their leader, it seemed perplexed as well. It rapped on the solid metal with a bony knuckle.
The Big One cried angrily, hungry ferocity in its depths. Ryo waited to make a move. He waited for the pressure on his back to let up. He waited. Minutes passed, and the leader was still whining. The others apparently halted for orders, for they no longer explored his body with the previous eagerness. Still Ryo waited.
One of the goblins shifted its weight from Ryo's back to his butt. The other unknowingly eased its hold on Ryo's wrists.
In a flash, the Ronin shed his captors and was up and running—blindly, but running nonetheless. He swiped madly at his eyes, clearing his vision only somewhat but yet enough for him to catch a glimpse of the Wildfire katana. The Big One yelped and raced after him on all fours. Ryo could feel its presence gaining on him, but he tried to ignore it as he came within a yard of the sword.
He plunged forward, adrenaline feeding his quickened pace. He just hoped it was enough to keep him ahead of the goblins. Swamp muck sucked at the boots of his armor, but Ryo refused to succumb to the ravenous marsh. The other goblins were coming up fast behind the Big One, fevered purrs seeping from their mouths along with saliva. Ryo snagged his toe on a root and struggled to keep his balance. He faltered, wavering in the air. He knew he was going to fall. He knew it was unavoidable. But he also knew he couldn't fail, not when he was getting so close to the heath, so he pulled his legs under his body at the last possible second, executing a somersault on the marsh surface. Ryo landed inches from the handle of the katana, and without missing a single beat, he snatched it up.
Just as the Big One was about to pounce onto the warrior's back, he swiveled around and thrust the sword forward. The goblin fell onto the unyielding metal, Ryo's glimmering savior protruding from the creature's hunched back. It screamed pitifully, the odor of Death spewing from its gaping maw. The other goblins watched with unexpressive eyes as their leader was shish-kabobbed. The moment its last breath escaped its misshapen nose, the lanterns in its head dimmed from the brilliant jade to onyx stones. The others remained watching, staring, waiting.
Ryo stood up, frowned menacingly at them and yanked the blade of his sword out of the corpse. The others glared blankly at him. The hunger had left their eyes, and now there was simply nothing there but plain green jewels, frightening and possessive. Ryo shoved the Wildfire sword toward them, and instantly they jumped back, their bodies slowly sinking back into the swamp from whence they came.
Watching them warily, the Ronin Warrior kept the sword pointed at them until the tops of their skulls had vanished beneath the surface. Although he was uncomfortable with the thought of not knowing where his opponents had vanished to, Ryo backed off, gathering what few possessions of his were left behind. His supply pack had been raided by the goblins, and much of his food rations had been devoured or lost in the folds of the swamp. But at least he was alive and whole; however, not without a handful of bruises. He never sheathed the sword again.
@~~`~~~
"Jesus, Lord in Heaven!" Cye wailed from the living room. "What the hell happened to Rowen?"
Sage and Anubis sat in Rowen's bedroom, tending to the stricken Kayura. She was still in the midst of a very deep—and much needed—rest. "Stay with her, Anubis," Sage ordered as he got up to investigate the commotion in the other room. "What's the matter?"
"Need I even tell you?" Cye queried smartly as his fellow Ronin entered the room.
There on the sofa rested Rowen. He remained unconscious (that much had not changed), but now he was coated in a dark layer of his own blood. Hideous stains marked the leather cushions. Rowen's clothes were absolutely soaked through with the sanguine liquid. Welts and malicious cuts covered nearly his entire torso and face. Trickles of blood emanated from the corners of his mouth, and one eye was so badly bruised that it was swollen up like a golf ball. A puddle of vermilion formed on the floor under Rowen's dangling hand, a revolting slash in his wrist staring wickedly at Sage. "Oh my god! Rowen!"
Kale was already in the bathroom seeking out bandages, gauze and other first aid necessities. "Hurry!" Sehkmet called from the living room. The former Dark Warlord hustled through the cabinets, gathering the last of the essentials, and hightailed it back to the couch. There, the other Ronins and Warlords anxiously awaited Kale to distribute the medicines. Cye snatched some iodine out of the Warlord's hand and applied it generously to a vicious scratch above Rowen's eyebrow. "Man, where is Kayura when you need her?" Kento mumbled as he bandaged some his friend's ruptured skin.
"Sleeping in the bedroom," Sage informed. Halo looked worriedly on his best friend. How did this happen? No one could have entered the apartment Rowen without Sage or Anubis noticing.
"Well, this is no time for a nap!" Sehkmet snapped.
"It's not like she chose to just up and go to bed," Sage retorted in defense of the woman who had helped so much in the passing day. "Anubis fed her some information that her brain was not ready to process, and then bam! she passed out."
Mumbling under his breath, Kale said, "Not good. We're dropping like flies."
Kento overheard Kale, looked to Dais incriminatingly, and the Warlord turned away, disgusted with himself. Upon noticing the glare, Cye stared hard at his best friend. "Quit it, Kento. We can't start turning on each other now!"
"Sorry," Kento whispered to the spider man, and although the apology was issued, Dais kept his face hidden from the others. "Come on, Dais," the orange Ronin insisted. "I needed some help bandaging Rowen's head anyway." Eventually, the Warlord turned to offer assistance, but the self-loathing was an ever-present aura surrounding him. Kento instantly regretted establishing it there.
A short while passed before anyone said anything. Each person was engaged in his own task: swabbing one cut or wrapping another. The warriors industriously attended to Rowen, silently praying that he would pull out of his trance okay.
Sage could barely focus on anything but the gory sight before him. All he saw was the blood. So very much of it. Red and oozing. Staining everything around him. Sage's world turned crimson, and he was washed away on a sea of blood that dumped into an ocean of it. And every drop of it belonged to Rowen. His best friend's visage loomed over the open, brewing sea, a ghastly mourning sun. His eyes cried sullen tears of blood that stirred the ruby waters into a fitful rage. Sage was adrift in the middle of it all, in a life raft on a sea of death. He searched for land, and his eyes fell upon a mountainous region in the distance. Immediately, he rowed the boat in that direction, all the while under Rowen's thoughtful stare. After what seemed like ages, the raft touched land and Sage clambered out. To his astonishment, there was a blood-red path under his feet. He recognized it instantly: the cryptic message written on the bloody stones. But this time there was one more word to the phrase. "Venture down my way, Ronin. Peace awaits those who have the courage to follow me blindly. I alone am your savior. Rowen…" Rowen's name was printed on every brick in the path all the way into oblivion. As far as Sage could see, the road lead into the far off mountains, and every one of those stones had the name Rowen scrawled in it. Every one. A message, but from whom?
Suddenly Sage was aware that someone was shaking him wildly. His eyes flew open to find himself back in the living room, with the other Ronins and Warlords staring concernedly at him. "Jesus, man!" Cye scolded as he relinquished his grip on Sage's shoulders. "We thought you'd been taken from us, too. Don't you ever do that to us again."
"I'm sorry," he whispered, his head swelling with the dark memory of his dream. "I don't know what came over me. One minute I'm fixing up Rowen, and the next I'm in this gloomy world where everything was blood-covered. My god, you should have seen this place! It was beyond comprehension. And the road. Oh, that road! It was back again, but it was changed."
The others glared at him as if he were a madman. But Sage knew he was not crazy. No, now he was a messenger. "What are you talking about?" Kento said, a touch of humor in his voice.
"The road! The road!" he shouted madly, as if the others should know what he was speaking of.
"What road?" Kale demanded.
"The crimson road, the one that leads into the mountains. The one with Rowen's name in every brick. The one with the message. You know!"
"No," Sehkmet said, shaking his head, "we don't. You said yourself this was in another world. A dark world."
Kale smiled slightly with the thought of his darkness. "Tell me about it, Sage of Halo. Maybe I can help."
Sage tried desperately to explain this scarlet realm to Kale and the group, but they could not grasp what he was saying. On and on he rambled about the strange ocean and the even stranger path; however, the others simply could not understand him. When Sage came to the part about the inscription in the stones, Dais most of all sat intrigued. A mystery, a code. Dais liked those.
"Sounds to me like this is a message for Rowen," Cye commented once Sage had concluded his explanation. "But if it is, how are we supposed to give it to him?"
Sehkmet looked to Rowen then asked, "And whom are we supposed to tell him it's from?"
A door opened behind Sage, and he turned to see who had just emerged from Rowen's room. Lady Kayura waltzed in with her usual authoritative air, but the dark bags under her eyes made her look frail instead of omnipotent. "What's going on?" she yawned, confused by her surroundings.
"You're awake," Kento said.
"Yes, thank you for that startling piece of information."
Kento sagged in his leather chair. "Why's everyone always got to pick on me?"
"Why not?" Cye laughed and the rest of them chorused in shortly, reveling in the light moment. "Sorry," Kayura whispered sleepily. "What'd I miss?" Kale motioned to Rowen, and the Lady drew in a deep breath. "Oh, Rowen of Strata! How did this happen?"
"You're guess is as good as ours, Lady," Sage stated dolefully.
"You just found him like this?" They nodded. "And no one could have sneaked in and done this?" They nodded again. "Very well. Then that leaves only one way for this atrocity to have been committed. Morin is playing with his soul on her own turf."
Sage was jolted out of his seat. "Who? You found out who did this?" A great murmur rose throughout the room as each warrior chattered excitedly over the news.
"Calm down," Kayura ordered. "The news, though in some respects relieving, is actually anything but." She motioned for Sage to have a seat while she took center stage. Her audience waited patiently for her to draw in a breath and begin. "I'm afraid that I know whom we're up against, and although it's a scary thought for us, she is worse than Talpa."
"She!" Kento blurted. "A woman did this to Rowen?"
Lady Kayura cleared her throat. "Not exactly. 'She' is a Dualar, which means 'she' is actually a dragon. The form we see is the actual Dualar, a race of people who once populated all of Japan. Dualars could take into their bodies the spirits of dragons, but they don't do it willingly. You see, once the dragon's spirit is absorbed into the body of the Dualar, the Dualar's own spirit is imprisoned by the dragon. So there are essentially two souls in one body; however, one is dominant and the other is dominated."
"But why would a dragon want to possess a human body?" Dais queried.
"The power. Dualars augment the power of a normal dragon tenfold, which then allows a dragon to do things it could not do in the typical dragon form. For instance, magic. Dragons are far too big and bulky to create delicate magic. Therefore, they need to find another, more agile form. Also, in the host body, dragons have few limitations. Because Dualars are not entirely human to begin with, they have a much longer life span—say several hundred years longer. When combined with the ancient dragons' blood, they are nearly immortal. Worst of all, they never travel alone. Every Dualar, when playing host to a Japanese dragon soul, has a partner, mainly because Japanese dragons tend to travel in pairs."
"Excuse me," Cye butted in from the corner of the living room, "but who is this Morin? You mentioned the name earlier. How do you know of her, Lady Kayura?"
The sorceress exhaled, wishing she could drift away on the breezes. Here we go… "Lady Morin is her official name, and she was key advisor and court sorceress to Lord Yusaki."
"Who…" Cye began again, but the Lady stopped him with a wave of her hand.
"We'll get to him later on. As of now he's is not of whom we should be wary. Lady Morin, once she had assumed control of a Dualar's body, proceeded to climb her way up from the lower ranks of Lord Yusaki's army to his high court. There she insinuated herself into the structure of the empire to become his right-hand woman. Lord Yusaki went through all his battle tactics first with Lady Morin, and he never did anything without her approval. Not that she was more powerful than he was; however, it was rumored that he had been taken by her beauty. Little did he know that Lady Morin's dominant soul was a male dragon from his lowly army." The six men snickered at the thought in spite of the grim situation.
"Anyway," Kayura continued, casting a warning glance at them, "Eventually, Lord Yusaki's tyrannical rule was violently concluded when a band of country peasants led by the then fledgling sorcerer, Lord Talpa, staged a revolt and cast Yusaki's soul into Hell. In a rage, Lady Morin and her best friend, a dragon named Rantach, stormed Talpa's home base, killing most of his battalion. Only three men and Talpa escaped with their lives. Among the dead was Talpa's mentor (yes, even Talpa had a mentor!), Lord Osumi, the radically evil man who had originally called Lord Yusaki down from the throne of the gods! Talpa, as an act of revenge, risked his life to conjure a realm where Lady Morin and Rantach would live in suspended animation, so to speak. They were imprisoned in this forbidden world for 5000 years, until the day you Ronins destroyed Talpa."
"But, Kayura, that was over four years ago!" Kento exclaimed, disbelieving all that he had heard. "What the hell have they been doing all this time?"
"Maybe there was delay on the spell that kept them asleep until recently. Magic isn't always precise, you know. Or maybe they've been preparing."
Sage didn't like the way Lady Kayura had said that. "Preparing." Something wasn't right about it. Her tone was ominous. There was silence for a moment, and only Halo dared to speak. "Preparing for what?" Sage felt as though he had just sealed their doom with that question.
"To resurrect Lord Yusaki."
Sehkmet shook his head. "No, no! Not possible. I remember when Talpa used to tell us the story of Yusaki and Morin. I remember now. But the Lord is dead, banished to Hell by Talpa's and Osumi's own hands. There's no way!"
Dais shuddered with the thought that passed through him. "But from what I remember of Talpa's story, there is… one way. Damn near impossible, but I suppose if a 5000 year-old Dualar and dragon can come back to life in modern day Toyama, I guess they could pull this off too."
"And what way would that be?" inquired Sehkmet.
"The Necronomicon," Anubis answered from the doorway of Rowen's bedroom. Apparently he'd been standing there the whole time without anyone's knowledge. Everyone turned to face the specter floating a foot above the floor. "The blasted Necronomicon."
"Oh, not more history!" Kento whined. "We went through so much already, I think my head's about to split! Can't we just go rescue Rowen now?"
"No," Kayura shouted. "Ryo of Wildfire has to finish his job in Fantasia Forest. There is no other way. I can't possibly defeat Lady Morin. I'm not that strong."
Anubis drifted into the living room, joining Lady Kayura in the center of the circus ring. "I'm sorry, Kento of Hardrock, but part of being a Ronin Warrior is learning about your enemy and ways to defeat him… or her… or it. Whatever. You need to know this last bit of information. About the Necronomicon."
Kento sighed wearily, and the rest of the group commiserated. Anubis continued. "Look, this is important. The Necronomicon has the capability to bring the dead back to life as well as retrieve souls from Hell. For eons it has been guarded by an all-powerful, immortal monk within an unknown cave in a forbidden region of Tibet. How the Lady stole it and where she is now remains a mystery Lady Kayura and I have yet to solve. But at least our goal is clear. We must retrieve the Necronomicon, kill Lady Morin and her accomplice Rantach and stop this God-awful resurrection!
"Now, Kento of Hardrock, our history lesson is finished!" With that dramatic speech, the room fell silent.