1 Master of Death
The blur and the flash that veiled Dawne's eyes began to dissipate and now she could see that she had now returned to the cave of the summoned monsters. Unfortunately a warding did not allow her to move directly into the cave itself. Nor was she able to go directly to the land of the summoned monsters, for that lied in another dimension of sorts. Though Naxos told her not to mind the trip through the cavern, as they would then get a chance to practice their abilities further and from that grow in power and blah blah blah blah blah. It seemed to her now a day that almost everything that came out of Naxos's mouth was complete and utter crap. Because all that he could talk about was becoming more powerful, gaining honor, and yet through all of that he made everything out to be so cynical and dreary that it made her want to smack him. He had never been the life of the party granted, but now he was just acting like the world was ending and that he would have to pay for whatever sins he had by himself, or something like that.
"The magma out here is far too bright, we should go inside the cavern now so that it doesn't blind us, and we die before we can do anything." Naxos said in the dour tone that he was famous for in her mind.
"Oh please, I think the magma here is almost beautiful. And if you're worried about it blinding you, then you really should have your eyes checked. It's not that bright at all." Dawne said knowing that she sounded quite frustrated with him.
"Let's just go anyway. It's pointless to just stay out here and bicker, even though it seems that's all you ever want to do with me."
Flames and magma surged deep within Dawne when she heard that. She was just about to lay her mind down upon him, and the back of her hand as well, but then she realized how utterly pointless that would be and she began to walk towards the caves entrance. Not caring weather Naxos joined her or not. Though she soon heard his footsteps jogging up to get to her.
The two entered the cavern, and for the briefest of moments Dawne had to let her eyes get used to the lack of light. But when she could see again, she wished that she couldn't. Before her the entirety of the ground was littered with thousands of corpses. She ran up to the closest one to her and looked at it, she soon recognized that this was one of the Guardians soldiers. She looked around hastily, and about forty feet away she saw the corpse of what appeared to be one the gray paladins that Kain and the others had told her about. She approached the gray paladin to take a closer look, as she first approached him she noticed that everything about him reeked of a foul smell; a smell even worse then that of a thousand decaying corpses scattered around the ground. Everything he wore and all of his skin seemed to be white, but then coated in an oily black, to form a grayish color that sickened her just to look at it.
"By the light!" Naxos said right behind her, frightening her wits from out of her. "This is horrible, and just think about what in the world that could have caused what looks to be a legion of the guardians finest soldiers to fall here."
"That's a good question Naxos, but I don't think I would not want it answered if that meant that I would have to meet it."
"No, we will meet who or what ever did this and we will make them pay for their sins."
"Naxos…" The one thought that circled in her mind now was that he was a fool. "Don't you realize that whoever did this HELPED US? These are the men that would have tried to kill us. They deserve no pity, and whoever did this to them, deserves our thanks."
"Maybe so, but we should still keep our guards up though." And at that Naxos began walking on and over the corpses trying to get to the path that lead down into the depths of the cavern.
"No time to morn the dead I suppose." Dawne said shrugging, she wanted to vomit, she wanted to run, but she couldn't she had to press forward she wouldn't let the dead get to her, she wouldn't let it happen, she would not.
She began to walk slowly after Naxos trying for the life of her not to step on any of the corpses that lay before her, and as she was looking down to make sure that she did not step on any of them was when she looked down and noticed that she could not see any wounds, cuts, burns, or any other causes of these men to be dead. "Naxos stop for a sec would ya?"
Naxos slowly turned around looking as though he expected her to have a chipped nail. "Yes?"
Yet again she wanted to smack him. "Naxos… look at the corpses, can you see any reason for them to be dead?"
Naxos gave her a surprised look; but then a very frightened and worried look replaced it after a few seconds. He began to look down at the corpses and then found one in particular that he seemed to spark his interest and he began to exam the corpse with great detail. He then looked at Dawne and said, "I can find no reason either." He then pressed two of his fingers upon the corpse's throat, where the jugular was. He then looked at Dawne and said. "There is no pulse, this doesn't make…" and his words trailed off as he began to stare down at the corpse's face, and the expression on it to be more specific. He then looked at a few more corpses, all with the exact same expression on their faces, absolute and utter terror. It was then that Dawne began to hear Naxos begin to chant in the arcane tongue that she could speak, but which she never understood exactly what it was she was saying. "Avom tergium etu narcium, avom tergium etu herlagen, avom tergium etu zergansses, voiten avom lazz purier." Suddenly his eyes began to glow first blue, then red, then they moved through all the colors of the rainbow and once they had glowed every color, they began to repeat. Dawne was thoroughly confused, she had never heard of any spell like that before; she had no idea what it was that he was doing. With these newly radiant eyes he looked throughout the cavern, almost like he was trying to see every corpse at once and peer into all of them.
"Naxos, what…"
"I am seeing with eyes unhazed by reality." He paused and then chanted one word. "Hestuen." Suddenly his eyes returned to the normal deep dark blue they had always been. "Dawne, I looked and I noticed that these men have no soul within them."
"Isn't that normal for the dead?" Dawne asked, even more frightened then she was a few minutes ago.
"To a degree, but the thing is, there are pieces left here. It's almost as though their souls had been torn out of their bodies." He paused looking back at the corpse and then at her. "Dawne, you know the ancient spell that the elders' talked about called doom?"
"Yes I remember it, it summoned a reaper to come and collect early upon the body's soul."
"That's kinda what it looks like though, like they knew that they shouldn't be dieing right then and their, they knew that that shouldn't be happening, and as such they didn't give their souls willingly, but fought whatever it was; this caused them to actually retain a few pieces of their souls. Not nearly enough to do anything, but enough to leave a clue at least."
"Naxos, I think we should just keep going, whatever this is. We either fight it or we run, and something tells me you ain't going to run." She said, knowing that fear coated heavily on her breath.
Naxos's only response was to give her a smile, what looked to be an almost true and sincere smile, one that she had never seen from him before. And then he turned around and began walking down the trail again, towards the bottom of the cavern.
The further they traveled downward the fewer the corpses that laid on the ground, until finally their were none on the ground at all, and the last one that they had seen had been that of a large gray paladin, one that looked to be of importance.
Suddenly Dawne felt a cold chill across her body, as she felt it only one thing crossed her mind, fear. Dawne screamed letting out every breath in her lungs until she could scream anymore, for there was no air left in her lungs to scream with. At that point Naxos looked at her in an almost mocking way and said. "Are you quite done yet?"
"Didn't you feel that?!?!" Dawne said after she had refilled her lungs. Naxos looked at her a more confused fashion now as he shook his head. "I felt a cold breeze, come over me, I swear I thought whoever had killed these men had just come upon me or something."
"Caverns are drafty places Dawne, I'd remember that if I were you." Naxos said after he had turned around and continued walking.
Dawne followed him again, and again she wished she wasn't, she wished he would just lighten up. That was when it finally hit her, Naxos was trying to act like Kain, only he wasn't doing a very good job of it sense Kain had always at least been a gentleman towards her, and everyone else for that matter. Dawne gave a small smirk as she watched Naxos ahead of her confident that she knew what was going on inside of his head, and also ready to use a new weapon should he choose to fight her again.
After a good hour's walk they finally reached the end of the cavern where the portal connecting their world with the world of the summoned was. As they reached it, Naxos stopped a few feet away from the portal looked back at Dawne and said. "Do you want to go in now, or should we look around for what caused what we saw back there."
"Let's go in, maybe whatever it was went inside of there already, in which case…" A terrible fright came over her, because it was then that she began to think about how if the death creature had gone within the portal, it could very well and easily have destroyed the entire realm, along with the summoned inhabitants… and if her summoneds were destroyed then she would become very powerless, very soon. And with that thought on her mind she ran into the portal with speed beyond thought. As she got to the portal she jumped upon the altar and from there she felt her body dematerialize, it felt like her body was being torn apart form the inside out, and then being put back together again. And then she was back in the world of the summoned, and as soon as she arrived she felt at ease, and at peace, feelings she had not had sense she had first left the portal, and that felt like a long time ago.
Then she stepped off the altar and within a moment Naxos had appeared behind her. She didn't bother looking at him though; instead she looked around at the world that she had left behind… It looked exactly the same, exactly. There were still people and monsters living happily side-by-side, they were fine, if not perfect, or untouched. It seemed bizarre to her, very bizarre.
"Everything seems fine to me." She heard Naxos say from behind her. "We should go talk to Leviathan quickly. I hope that he has some idea of what the hell happened in the cavern." And then Naxos walked off towards the center of town, where the library, and the lord of this town resided.
As they walked through the town, many of the humans gave them odd looks, and only one or two of the people that she saw looked even slightly familiar. Though none of them seemed to recognize her at all. No one stopped her on the street, not a soul. Even the monsters that she had known before, and talked with before that she saw on the street looked at her, but acted as though they didn't even know her. At one point, she saw the great titan walking down upon the street and wondered up to him and said hello, he looked down at her, but then continued walking down along the streets. To her this was getting eerier and eerier, and now she was down right frightened.
As the two finally reached the library they went down into the second cellar where they both knew that Leviathan and his wife Asura would be. And when they reached the second basement of the library they were there; with another monster talking with them. A monster that Dawne had never once seen before, and that frightened her more, because she knew every single one of the summoned ones in this town. The monster was gowned completely in black, it's face looked old and wrinkly, and he seemed very much like a normal human. Except everything about him screamed sickly, and of death and dying; this was no man, this was a summoned one and a monster, that alone she knew.
Out of the corner of her eye (both of which were glaring at the black monster) she saw Naxos take to his knee and say, "Lord Leviathan, I have returned here with Dawne. It is good to see you again my lord."
At that natural pause in Naxos's speech Leviathan looked out at him and said. "Child, I do not know you, but a welcome visitor that proclaims me lord is always welcomed in my realm."
"No these are not friends my lord." A sickly voice stated. "They are the ones that can tear you from this realm and make you do their bidding, they call themselves summoners and they are an evil sort."
"Is this true!" Leviathan boomed at the two standing before him.
"We are summoners my lord, but we are not an evil sort. We only summon those of you that have agreed to be summoned."
"No monster here would ever agree to something as foolish as that, human. We are a noble breed and we are not the servants of humans, they are our servants if anything."
"And that is why we have come here my lord, to beg and to plead and to let us state our case before you."
Dawne was confused beyond reason, she now had no idea what either of these two were saying, it was like neither of them had ever met before, even though they had countless times. So she whispered to Naxos. "What the hell is going on here?"
Naxos whispered back "Follow my lead, and don't say anything. For the light's sake, just trust that I know what I'm doing."
"What was that, if I may ask?" Leviathan said inquisitively.
"My colleague here just made a very interesting point to me my lord. I find it very rude of myself to talk to you here like this, may we speak to your adviser there in private so that we do not need to disturb you from your duties."
"I find nothing wrong with that. And I thank you for being so respectful, when Milon here told me of your kind he made you all seem so repugnant, dishonorable and evil. I never thought that your kind would have such good manners, or respect."
"I thank you my lord. Master Milon was it, if you would be so kind as to follow me."
A faint and ominous growl was heard followed by a "If my master finds it a good idea, then I will follow it."
And with that the three exited the basement throne room and came to the second basement of the library. As they did Naxos went over to the door to the next level and closed and then locked it, then he closed the small door that led down to the basement. "So master Milon, let me come out and be quite honest. I know what's going on here; you know what's going on here. And to be quite honest I want you to stop this little mind controlling thingy that you've got going on here."
"Quite insightful." The ominous voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once spoke. "But you will not leave here alive fool."
"Will you kill us like you killed that army that was within the cavern?"
"Insightful indeed." And then Milon took from his robe a rose, with petals completely black and said. "Tell me, are you ready to die."
"Always."
It was right then that Dawne finally figured out that a fight was about to break out, and all the only weapons at her disposal against a beast that could steal her very soul was a great number of arcane words.
"Infrigenod diszeon arctaneous hex!" Dawne heard Naxos shout as she too began to chant. "Nearzouleon infrigidarous moruron." Though her chant was much more silent.
Suddenly out of the palms of Naxos's hands came bursts of fire that shot straight towards Milon and as they hit him they erupted in huge explosions that threw him across the side of the room. And then Dawne flung out her hands forward and aimed there where the Milon beast had landed, she felt her hands growing colder and colder, and then she chanted the last arcane word. "Trent." The freezing cold then left her hands immediately and she saw the black form that had been thrust into a corner being covered with ice. Then the ice broke off and melted wherever it landed.
Milon stood, just barely. Then it fell down face forward, he looked to be quite dead.
"Get another spell on your lips Dawne, and make sure it's a fire spell this time."
"Why?"
"Didn't I tell you before to just trust me?" It was at that point that Dawne decided that shutting up might just be a good idea, even though it was an idea that she hated.
After looking at what they both thought was Milon's corpse for about a minute. They both watched as the corpse began to quiver and shake. And then Milon stood back up, and as he did he shed his black robes on the ground. Then the weak frail body under the robes began to grow and mutate until it suddenly appeared as a huge monster, large enough to rival the size of the great titan himself. It then laughed and said "Fools I am more powerful in death then you could ever imagine!"
Dawne and Naxos had both already begun their chanting, when the creature was growing and mutating and now, they both let their spells rip into him. Naxos poured the exact same explosive fireballs that he had laid into the creature the time before. Ten large fireballs were hurled upon the creature fountaining into ten huge explosions.
Dawne decided on doing something a bit different, the most powerful spell that had ever been taught to her, it was kinda a fire spell, but she had never used it. Nor had she seen anyone else ever use it, but she needed to use it. She finished her last word and then pointed up to the ceiling above Milon and then pointed down to his head. Suddenly a great swarm or small almost tiny little sparks of fire appeared out of nowhere, millions of them appeared, and then threw themselves into Milon's body. After every one of them had disappeared into deep within Milon they seemed to erupt inside of his body and then They scattered back out of his body to where they had came from.
Milon could not stand up to such a bombardment and feel down. Naxos and Dawne watched as the fallen body turned to dust before their eyes. And then weakness enveloped Dawne's body and she felt herself falling down. But before she actually hit the ground something stopped her, but that didn't matter because she was already fast unconscious.
* * *
Dawne finally awoke in a small room, in a small bed. On a set beside her bed Naxos was sitting down reading a book. "Naxos." She managed to whisper even though her body begged her to do nothing but lay down.
"Good you've awoken."
"How did you know… everything?"
"It's the kind of things that monsters, and other evil things like to do a lot. I've read it about a thousand times in the books that I like to read and the stories that I've been told. You should really pay more attention to Kain's stories too you know. That thing that we fought just then was something that Kain told me he had fought a long time ago as well. Though he actually told me that it was a story of a story because…" And it was at that point that Dawne's body decided to go back to sleep, though she was glad it did, so that she wouldn't have to listen to Naxos lecture her.
* * *
Kain hated to just sit around and waiting while the Big Whale flew him to the Ruby Moon (or maybe he should call it the ruby planet now?). It was incredibly boring without anyone else there, and he could only do so much training in one day by himself. He wished that he had agreed to let Naxos come along with him now; at least the boy listened to his stories. Even if he was a bit misguided, he was at least willing to learn, in his own special way of course.
"Those who write reviews shall be karmikly rewarded."
-Kain DeLuman
The blur and the flash that veiled Dawne's eyes began to dissipate and now she could see that she had now returned to the cave of the summoned monsters. Unfortunately a warding did not allow her to move directly into the cave itself. Nor was she able to go directly to the land of the summoned monsters, for that lied in another dimension of sorts. Though Naxos told her not to mind the trip through the cavern, as they would then get a chance to practice their abilities further and from that grow in power and blah blah blah blah blah. It seemed to her now a day that almost everything that came out of Naxos's mouth was complete and utter crap. Because all that he could talk about was becoming more powerful, gaining honor, and yet through all of that he made everything out to be so cynical and dreary that it made her want to smack him. He had never been the life of the party granted, but now he was just acting like the world was ending and that he would have to pay for whatever sins he had by himself, or something like that.
"The magma out here is far too bright, we should go inside the cavern now so that it doesn't blind us, and we die before we can do anything." Naxos said in the dour tone that he was famous for in her mind.
"Oh please, I think the magma here is almost beautiful. And if you're worried about it blinding you, then you really should have your eyes checked. It's not that bright at all." Dawne said knowing that she sounded quite frustrated with him.
"Let's just go anyway. It's pointless to just stay out here and bicker, even though it seems that's all you ever want to do with me."
Flames and magma surged deep within Dawne when she heard that. She was just about to lay her mind down upon him, and the back of her hand as well, but then she realized how utterly pointless that would be and she began to walk towards the caves entrance. Not caring weather Naxos joined her or not. Though she soon heard his footsteps jogging up to get to her.
The two entered the cavern, and for the briefest of moments Dawne had to let her eyes get used to the lack of light. But when she could see again, she wished that she couldn't. Before her the entirety of the ground was littered with thousands of corpses. She ran up to the closest one to her and looked at it, she soon recognized that this was one of the Guardians soldiers. She looked around hastily, and about forty feet away she saw the corpse of what appeared to be one the gray paladins that Kain and the others had told her about. She approached the gray paladin to take a closer look, as she first approached him she noticed that everything about him reeked of a foul smell; a smell even worse then that of a thousand decaying corpses scattered around the ground. Everything he wore and all of his skin seemed to be white, but then coated in an oily black, to form a grayish color that sickened her just to look at it.
"By the light!" Naxos said right behind her, frightening her wits from out of her. "This is horrible, and just think about what in the world that could have caused what looks to be a legion of the guardians finest soldiers to fall here."
"That's a good question Naxos, but I don't think I would not want it answered if that meant that I would have to meet it."
"No, we will meet who or what ever did this and we will make them pay for their sins."
"Naxos…" The one thought that circled in her mind now was that he was a fool. "Don't you realize that whoever did this HELPED US? These are the men that would have tried to kill us. They deserve no pity, and whoever did this to them, deserves our thanks."
"Maybe so, but we should still keep our guards up though." And at that Naxos began walking on and over the corpses trying to get to the path that lead down into the depths of the cavern.
"No time to morn the dead I suppose." Dawne said shrugging, she wanted to vomit, she wanted to run, but she couldn't she had to press forward she wouldn't let the dead get to her, she wouldn't let it happen, she would not.
She began to walk slowly after Naxos trying for the life of her not to step on any of the corpses that lay before her, and as she was looking down to make sure that she did not step on any of them was when she looked down and noticed that she could not see any wounds, cuts, burns, or any other causes of these men to be dead. "Naxos stop for a sec would ya?"
Naxos slowly turned around looking as though he expected her to have a chipped nail. "Yes?"
Yet again she wanted to smack him. "Naxos… look at the corpses, can you see any reason for them to be dead?"
Naxos gave her a surprised look; but then a very frightened and worried look replaced it after a few seconds. He began to look down at the corpses and then found one in particular that he seemed to spark his interest and he began to exam the corpse with great detail. He then looked at Dawne and said, "I can find no reason either." He then pressed two of his fingers upon the corpse's throat, where the jugular was. He then looked at Dawne and said. "There is no pulse, this doesn't make…" and his words trailed off as he began to stare down at the corpse's face, and the expression on it to be more specific. He then looked at a few more corpses, all with the exact same expression on their faces, absolute and utter terror. It was then that Dawne began to hear Naxos begin to chant in the arcane tongue that she could speak, but which she never understood exactly what it was she was saying. "Avom tergium etu narcium, avom tergium etu herlagen, avom tergium etu zergansses, voiten avom lazz purier." Suddenly his eyes began to glow first blue, then red, then they moved through all the colors of the rainbow and once they had glowed every color, they began to repeat. Dawne was thoroughly confused, she had never heard of any spell like that before; she had no idea what it was that he was doing. With these newly radiant eyes he looked throughout the cavern, almost like he was trying to see every corpse at once and peer into all of them.
"Naxos, what…"
"I am seeing with eyes unhazed by reality." He paused and then chanted one word. "Hestuen." Suddenly his eyes returned to the normal deep dark blue they had always been. "Dawne, I looked and I noticed that these men have no soul within them."
"Isn't that normal for the dead?" Dawne asked, even more frightened then she was a few minutes ago.
"To a degree, but the thing is, there are pieces left here. It's almost as though their souls had been torn out of their bodies." He paused looking back at the corpse and then at her. "Dawne, you know the ancient spell that the elders' talked about called doom?"
"Yes I remember it, it summoned a reaper to come and collect early upon the body's soul."
"That's kinda what it looks like though, like they knew that they shouldn't be dieing right then and their, they knew that that shouldn't be happening, and as such they didn't give their souls willingly, but fought whatever it was; this caused them to actually retain a few pieces of their souls. Not nearly enough to do anything, but enough to leave a clue at least."
"Naxos, I think we should just keep going, whatever this is. We either fight it or we run, and something tells me you ain't going to run." She said, knowing that fear coated heavily on her breath.
Naxos's only response was to give her a smile, what looked to be an almost true and sincere smile, one that she had never seen from him before. And then he turned around and began walking down the trail again, towards the bottom of the cavern.
The further they traveled downward the fewer the corpses that laid on the ground, until finally their were none on the ground at all, and the last one that they had seen had been that of a large gray paladin, one that looked to be of importance.
Suddenly Dawne felt a cold chill across her body, as she felt it only one thing crossed her mind, fear. Dawne screamed letting out every breath in her lungs until she could scream anymore, for there was no air left in her lungs to scream with. At that point Naxos looked at her in an almost mocking way and said. "Are you quite done yet?"
"Didn't you feel that?!?!" Dawne said after she had refilled her lungs. Naxos looked at her a more confused fashion now as he shook his head. "I felt a cold breeze, come over me, I swear I thought whoever had killed these men had just come upon me or something."
"Caverns are drafty places Dawne, I'd remember that if I were you." Naxos said after he had turned around and continued walking.
Dawne followed him again, and again she wished she wasn't, she wished he would just lighten up. That was when it finally hit her, Naxos was trying to act like Kain, only he wasn't doing a very good job of it sense Kain had always at least been a gentleman towards her, and everyone else for that matter. Dawne gave a small smirk as she watched Naxos ahead of her confident that she knew what was going on inside of his head, and also ready to use a new weapon should he choose to fight her again.
After a good hour's walk they finally reached the end of the cavern where the portal connecting their world with the world of the summoned was. As they reached it, Naxos stopped a few feet away from the portal looked back at Dawne and said. "Do you want to go in now, or should we look around for what caused what we saw back there."
"Let's go in, maybe whatever it was went inside of there already, in which case…" A terrible fright came over her, because it was then that she began to think about how if the death creature had gone within the portal, it could very well and easily have destroyed the entire realm, along with the summoned inhabitants… and if her summoneds were destroyed then she would become very powerless, very soon. And with that thought on her mind she ran into the portal with speed beyond thought. As she got to the portal she jumped upon the altar and from there she felt her body dematerialize, it felt like her body was being torn apart form the inside out, and then being put back together again. And then she was back in the world of the summoned, and as soon as she arrived she felt at ease, and at peace, feelings she had not had sense she had first left the portal, and that felt like a long time ago.
Then she stepped off the altar and within a moment Naxos had appeared behind her. She didn't bother looking at him though; instead she looked around at the world that she had left behind… It looked exactly the same, exactly. There were still people and monsters living happily side-by-side, they were fine, if not perfect, or untouched. It seemed bizarre to her, very bizarre.
"Everything seems fine to me." She heard Naxos say from behind her. "We should go talk to Leviathan quickly. I hope that he has some idea of what the hell happened in the cavern." And then Naxos walked off towards the center of town, where the library, and the lord of this town resided.
As they walked through the town, many of the humans gave them odd looks, and only one or two of the people that she saw looked even slightly familiar. Though none of them seemed to recognize her at all. No one stopped her on the street, not a soul. Even the monsters that she had known before, and talked with before that she saw on the street looked at her, but acted as though they didn't even know her. At one point, she saw the great titan walking down upon the street and wondered up to him and said hello, he looked down at her, but then continued walking down along the streets. To her this was getting eerier and eerier, and now she was down right frightened.
As the two finally reached the library they went down into the second cellar where they both knew that Leviathan and his wife Asura would be. And when they reached the second basement of the library they were there; with another monster talking with them. A monster that Dawne had never once seen before, and that frightened her more, because she knew every single one of the summoned ones in this town. The monster was gowned completely in black, it's face looked old and wrinkly, and he seemed very much like a normal human. Except everything about him screamed sickly, and of death and dying; this was no man, this was a summoned one and a monster, that alone she knew.
Out of the corner of her eye (both of which were glaring at the black monster) she saw Naxos take to his knee and say, "Lord Leviathan, I have returned here with Dawne. It is good to see you again my lord."
At that natural pause in Naxos's speech Leviathan looked out at him and said. "Child, I do not know you, but a welcome visitor that proclaims me lord is always welcomed in my realm."
"No these are not friends my lord." A sickly voice stated. "They are the ones that can tear you from this realm and make you do their bidding, they call themselves summoners and they are an evil sort."
"Is this true!" Leviathan boomed at the two standing before him.
"We are summoners my lord, but we are not an evil sort. We only summon those of you that have agreed to be summoned."
"No monster here would ever agree to something as foolish as that, human. We are a noble breed and we are not the servants of humans, they are our servants if anything."
"And that is why we have come here my lord, to beg and to plead and to let us state our case before you."
Dawne was confused beyond reason, she now had no idea what either of these two were saying, it was like neither of them had ever met before, even though they had countless times. So she whispered to Naxos. "What the hell is going on here?"
Naxos whispered back "Follow my lead, and don't say anything. For the light's sake, just trust that I know what I'm doing."
"What was that, if I may ask?" Leviathan said inquisitively.
"My colleague here just made a very interesting point to me my lord. I find it very rude of myself to talk to you here like this, may we speak to your adviser there in private so that we do not need to disturb you from your duties."
"I find nothing wrong with that. And I thank you for being so respectful, when Milon here told me of your kind he made you all seem so repugnant, dishonorable and evil. I never thought that your kind would have such good manners, or respect."
"I thank you my lord. Master Milon was it, if you would be so kind as to follow me."
A faint and ominous growl was heard followed by a "If my master finds it a good idea, then I will follow it."
And with that the three exited the basement throne room and came to the second basement of the library. As they did Naxos went over to the door to the next level and closed and then locked it, then he closed the small door that led down to the basement. "So master Milon, let me come out and be quite honest. I know what's going on here; you know what's going on here. And to be quite honest I want you to stop this little mind controlling thingy that you've got going on here."
"Quite insightful." The ominous voice that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once spoke. "But you will not leave here alive fool."
"Will you kill us like you killed that army that was within the cavern?"
"Insightful indeed." And then Milon took from his robe a rose, with petals completely black and said. "Tell me, are you ready to die."
"Always."
It was right then that Dawne finally figured out that a fight was about to break out, and all the only weapons at her disposal against a beast that could steal her very soul was a great number of arcane words.
"Infrigenod diszeon arctaneous hex!" Dawne heard Naxos shout as she too began to chant. "Nearzouleon infrigidarous moruron." Though her chant was much more silent.
Suddenly out of the palms of Naxos's hands came bursts of fire that shot straight towards Milon and as they hit him they erupted in huge explosions that threw him across the side of the room. And then Dawne flung out her hands forward and aimed there where the Milon beast had landed, she felt her hands growing colder and colder, and then she chanted the last arcane word. "Trent." The freezing cold then left her hands immediately and she saw the black form that had been thrust into a corner being covered with ice. Then the ice broke off and melted wherever it landed.
Milon stood, just barely. Then it fell down face forward, he looked to be quite dead.
"Get another spell on your lips Dawne, and make sure it's a fire spell this time."
"Why?"
"Didn't I tell you before to just trust me?" It was at that point that Dawne decided that shutting up might just be a good idea, even though it was an idea that she hated.
After looking at what they both thought was Milon's corpse for about a minute. They both watched as the corpse began to quiver and shake. And then Milon stood back up, and as he did he shed his black robes on the ground. Then the weak frail body under the robes began to grow and mutate until it suddenly appeared as a huge monster, large enough to rival the size of the great titan himself. It then laughed and said "Fools I am more powerful in death then you could ever imagine!"
Dawne and Naxos had both already begun their chanting, when the creature was growing and mutating and now, they both let their spells rip into him. Naxos poured the exact same explosive fireballs that he had laid into the creature the time before. Ten large fireballs were hurled upon the creature fountaining into ten huge explosions.
Dawne decided on doing something a bit different, the most powerful spell that had ever been taught to her, it was kinda a fire spell, but she had never used it. Nor had she seen anyone else ever use it, but she needed to use it. She finished her last word and then pointed up to the ceiling above Milon and then pointed down to his head. Suddenly a great swarm or small almost tiny little sparks of fire appeared out of nowhere, millions of them appeared, and then threw themselves into Milon's body. After every one of them had disappeared into deep within Milon they seemed to erupt inside of his body and then They scattered back out of his body to where they had came from.
Milon could not stand up to such a bombardment and feel down. Naxos and Dawne watched as the fallen body turned to dust before their eyes. And then weakness enveloped Dawne's body and she felt herself falling down. But before she actually hit the ground something stopped her, but that didn't matter because she was already fast unconscious.
* * *
Dawne finally awoke in a small room, in a small bed. On a set beside her bed Naxos was sitting down reading a book. "Naxos." She managed to whisper even though her body begged her to do nothing but lay down.
"Good you've awoken."
"How did you know… everything?"
"It's the kind of things that monsters, and other evil things like to do a lot. I've read it about a thousand times in the books that I like to read and the stories that I've been told. You should really pay more attention to Kain's stories too you know. That thing that we fought just then was something that Kain told me he had fought a long time ago as well. Though he actually told me that it was a story of a story because…" And it was at that point that Dawne's body decided to go back to sleep, though she was glad it did, so that she wouldn't have to listen to Naxos lecture her.
* * *
Kain hated to just sit around and waiting while the Big Whale flew him to the Ruby Moon (or maybe he should call it the ruby planet now?). It was incredibly boring without anyone else there, and he could only do so much training in one day by himself. He wished that he had agreed to let Naxos come along with him now; at least the boy listened to his stories. Even if he was a bit misguided, he was at least willing to learn, in his own special way of course.
"Those who write reviews shall be karmikly rewarded."
-Kain DeLuman