Chapter 3: Strangers in a strange land.
The strangers had done nothing but sip their ale and whisper to each all night. Not
even Adam's aural receivers could decipher what the two were discussing. Only Max and
Adam were watching the two; the rest of the tavern's populace were too busy practicing
to become masters of drunken buffoonry. One of the drunken townsfolk, who had been
dancing a jig, had fallen from his chair and onto an indignant farmer's wife. The angry
female had promptly begun to beat him even more senseless. Max heard a good-natured
chuckle from one of the strangers, and he relaxed a little bit. Evil was not renowned for
it's sense of humor. Max grinned and shook his head. All his time in combat had made
him a bit paranoid. The two robed ones were probably just scholars on their way to
Manarina, or Shade Abbey…
That thought was quickly interrupted when four more figures in robes entered, but
these were not the simple traveler's clothes the first two had worn. These were robes as
black as the sky on a starless night, and adorned with skulls. Red eyes peered from within
the dark folds of their hoods, and Max knew exactly what he faced. The rare class of
mage powerful enough to dub themselves "Demon Masters". Max slowly reached for the
hilt of his sword, and with a shock, he recalled that he had left it at his home.
i"Great… I let my guard down for one lousy night…"/i Max thought, frustrated at
the fact he was completely unprepared. Adam turned to face the evil mages with a
clanking sound. The mages had positioned themselves in a diamond formation, with what
appeared to be the leader in front.
"Give us Max, and we will depart in peace. Give us Max and you can go back to
your lives. Give us Max and your little world will go on. Disobey, and your world will be
torn asunder like a piece of carrion among ravenous rats," the lead mage threatened in a
cold, almost ethereal voice. Bixen, the tavern owner rose to his feet.
"Good sirs, we have no one named Max in this town, surely you seek another
town… Urk!" The portly tavern owner was brought off the floor by the surprisingly
strong hand of the Demon Master.
"Don't try to lie to us, we know he is here… Give him to us or die!" the mage
threatened as he shook poor Bixen around. Max grimaced inward. He had given his name
as "Aleron", and had grown a short beard and mustache to insure he wasn't found out by
a chance passer-by that happened to know his name or face. The poor good-natured
townsfolk here were fairly ignorant of outside events. There was no way Bixen knew
what the Demon Master was talking about. Max was about to steel himself to go down
swinging when one of the first travelers spoke.
"Let the poor man down and leave at once, and you might yet see the sun rise on
another day," the man in the cloak said quietly, but with a hint of steel behind the words.
The other man, the one completely covered in robes, shifted to face the four evil
intruders.
"Who dares to issue demands to us, our Dark Lord's chosen??!!" the lead mage
snarled as he let the fat bar-keep drop, who was wheezing for more breath. The dark
figure strode toward the two travelers, who sat with an unnatural calm given the
circumstances. The hooded one spoke next.
"Discretion is the better part of valor, they say. Perhaps it would be best to
exercise said discretion now, instead of meeting a rather violent end. This will be your
final warning. Oh, and see, Clain? I told you he was Max," the hooded one ended his
speech with a smug tone.
"What?? You know where he is?? Tell us n…" the Demon Master was cut off as
the cloaked one, who had been called 'Clain', threw aside his cloak and attacked. He
slashed upward at the mage with a large sword that had up until now been hidden within
the deep recesses of his cloak. Now that the cloak was gone, Max saw he had indeed been
correct. The man wore heavy white plate mail as well as a white rune encrusted cape. The
three remaining mages started to cast spells, and Max quickly tapped Adam three times
on the shoulder-plate.
"Affirmative," the tall robot intoned. "Initiating attack pattern 'Omega'," the war
machine said as he barreled at the trio of mages, metal fists swinging. The hooded one
also let his robe fall, revealing a slim man in a black outfit which reminded Max of the
ninja Hanzou's nightsuit. The man drew a device that looked like a crossbow with the
cross part taken off and replaced with a tube of metal, with another small tube on top. The
man aimed it at one of the mages and with a loud crack, the mage fell, mid-spell, a round
wound through his torso. Adam had just finished off his mage when the last remaining
mage finished his spell and blasted the room with an icy blizzard. Max shivered, but his
experience allowed him to resist the spell's effects somewhat. The two strangers
grimaced, but did not fall. Some of the tavern's bystanders were not so lucky. Those
innocents caught in the spell died encased in a thin shell of ice, faces locked in a
permanent expression of frozen terror. Max looked at the bodies of the former townsfolk,
and was reminded of all the death that Darksol and his foul armies had wrought during
the Shining Wars, and now it was happening again. Inside of him, something snapped.
Max snarled and leapt at the last mage, now trying to make a get-away. Reacting quicker
than the mage, Adam, and the two strangers, he tackled the mage and locked his hands
around his throat.
"You… are…. NOT… doing… this… AGAIN!!!!" he shouted as he strangled the
cause of yet more death in Max's life. The mage struggled for a minute, then went limp
under Max's rage-filled assault. Max, still shaking with anger, stood up slowly and
surveyed the now empty tavern. Everyone but the dead, Adam, and the two strangers, had
fled. The stranger who had been addressed as Clain stepped forward.
"I am Clain Hayes, and this is my associate, Jace Wreven," he said, striding
towards the battle weary figure of Max. "And you, my friend Max, are in serious trouble."
Anri was snuggled up nice and cozy in her bedroll inside her tent. The dying fire
was still letting out an occasional crackle, and the few people who still gathered around it
let the sounds of gentle murmuring provide a comforting background noise. Her eyelids
already drooping, the Queen of Guardiana was asleep in no time at all.
iAnri was running from something behind her, something that kept following her
no matter where she went. She was running through the forest, dark and misty, with trees
outstretching bare branches in an effort to trip her. She stumbled over a tree root, and
hastily got up, the thing behind her gaining ground with each pause… A dark,
impenetrable mist surrounded her, she felt a cold hand, no, hands, grasp her legs and
pull her to the ground. She saw the two eyes of blackness in the mist, and knew pure
terror. Meaningless words crawled through her head… A crunching branch alerted her
to her pursuer… It was right behind her… She turned and saw the face of the thing that
had chased her. It was…/i
"Anri? wake up, you're having a nightmare…" said a melodic feminine voice.
Anri opened her eyes to see sunlight streaming in through the tent flaps, and Tao standing
over her, a concerned look on her face.
"Tao? What are you doing…" Anri started but Tao interrupted her.
"Well, Diane was cooking up some eggs for breakfast, and I came in to wake you,
but you were shaking hard and whimpering, and tears were running down your face… I
assumed you were having an awful nightmare, and so I woke you," Tao explained. "What
were you dreaming about?"
"I…" Anri stopped, the horror she had felt in the dream, the primeval terror, still
with her. "I don't want to talk about it." Tao nodded slowly and stepped back outside,
closing the tent flaps behind her. Anri sat in her tent for a long time after Tao had left,
shivering. The group broke camp and set out again a little while after.
"It's all really quite simple, you see," Clain told Max as they left the village. "You
pose the greatest threat to the only other free devil-king on Rune, Lucifer."
"That really doesn't explain much," Max said as he and Adam kept pace with the
two strange warriors. He and the two warriors who had insisted on accompanying him
were leaving the village in the hopes of making sure more assassins didn't show and kill
more townsfolk.
"It does when you know what we know," the other one, Jace, said. "You are not
only a great swordsman, Max. You are one of the greatest leaders this world has ever
known. As if that weren't enough your body has spent so much time near powerful relics
of Light, such as the Chaos Breaker and the Orb of Light, that your very nature has been
infused with holy energy. You killed both Darksol and Dark Dragon. It's only natural that
Lucifer realize you are one of the greatest threats to his rise."
"But I threw down my sword! I retired! I'm… well I was a farmhand before you
guys came along and shook things up…" Max said as Jace shook his head.
"Shook things up? Well excuse us for saving your life," Jace said disapprovingly
as he looking at Max.
"I was doing just fine…" Max started but Jace cut him off.
"Yeah, sure, you didn't even have a weapon! If it weren't for us those mages
would've cast spells of ice at you before you would have a chance to react…" Jace said as
he walked.
"How do you know they would've known it was me?" Max asked indignantly.
"Because you would not have allowed then to kill that barkeep. You would've
revealed yourself or struck out before letting an innocent die. You're not the sort to let
people die in your place, Max, else the entire Force would've died trying to get you free
of the Chaos Breaker…" Clain said as he looked off into the distance, as if peering into
the past.
"Yeah…" Max said as he realized Clain was right. There was no way he'd ever
allow someone to die because of his inaction. Not ever again… Max blinked hard and
warded off the bad memories of all the people that had died during the conflict. The
unlikely group had reached the edge of the Dragon's Rest forest, the wood that
surrounded the town of Alino, and shielded it from the outside world. The forest was the
main reason Alino had remained insular and untouched by the war, and it stretched from
the tip of the continent down to the quarries of Bustoke. No paths led through it, as the
forest seemed to resent such intrusion. All efforts to pave roads had failed, the dirt and
gravel being mysteriously replaced the next day with grass and trees.
"Well, I thank you for your assistance, but I am quite capable of handling myself.
If this Lucifer is truly a threat as such you say, I must go find and stop him before he can
do anything. Come, Adam," Max said as he began to up his pace in an effort to leave the
group. A surprisingly strong hand clamped down on his shoulder and stopped him.
"We too have business to settle with Lucifer. We know what he's planning, and
where he is. We know where his spies are, we know where his bases lie. If you are serious
about halting this threat and not just going off to vainly die, you'll come with us," Clain
said with a tone reminiscent of pure steel as he held Max back from walking. Max looked
at the towering figure of the solemn armored man, an expression of frustration on his
face.
"I hate to admit it, but you make sense with that statement. Fine, but where are we
headed, then?" Max said ruefully.
"We journey to Manarina, first," Clain said as he began walking again.
"To Manarina? Why? What's there?" Max questioned as he fell into pace along
side Clain.
"A certain ruin … We have sources that tell us something is afoot there that reeks
of trouble," Jace said as he fiddled with his weapon, something he had referred to as a
"sniper rifle". "Speed is of the utmost importance, here. If the site has been disturbed…
Well, let's just hope it hasn't." Clain turned to Jace.
"We both know it has been, Jace, otherwise we wouldn't be here. My question is
what happened to the guardians of the tomb, and who managed to get by them…" Clain
looked down for a moment, deep in thought.
"What's in this tomb that's got you worried so?" Max inquired, with a small
amount of concern.
"A great good… and a great evil… but which has been set loose?" Clain said
more to himself than Max.
"Does this place have a name, or are we going to just call it, 'the ruins' all the
time?" Max asked as he stopped to lace up a boot. The others halted, and Clain spoke
with a reverent tone.
"It's true name has long been lost even to us. In the tongue of the Ancients, it's
name is Thanas."
"Powerful secret…" Adam translated in his monotone voice.
The group journeyed on, towards Manarina and the mysterious ruins.
"Anri!! So glad to see you… What's wrong?" Lowe had bounded off the throne to
welcome Anri back home, but stopped when he saw her. Anri had bags under her eyes, a
pained expression on her face and a generally disheveled appearance. She was also
nervously fingering a rune encrusted pouch.
"I… I haven't been sleeping well…" Anri started.
"She's been having bad nightmares for the last few days while we traveled
here…" Tao said quietly.
"I just need some rest is all… No need to worry, I'm fine…" Anri said as she
walked towards the door that led to her chambers and the heavenly apparatus known as
her bed. So weak from exhaustion was she that the pouch containing the chain link
dropped from her hand as she collapsed into bed. She soon fell into a deep slumber, free
of dreams.
"So you're the great Max, sealer of Dark Dragon and foremost of the saviors of
Rune," Jace said as he sat down on a log with a bowl of stew. The group had stopped to
make camp for the night, and were using some felled logs for firewood and furniture.
Three tents had been set up for the humans, and a tarp was provided for Adam's power
down- recharge cycle. A roaring fire with a pot of rabbit stew hanging over it gave the
campsite a cheery feel despite the foreboding events that had brought the two strangers
here in the first place.
"Yeah, but you already knew that," Max replied as he took a swig of his canteen.
Jace chuckled.
"Yes, but that was a rhetorical question designed to stimulate a conversation. You
don't socialize much, do you Max?" Jace said as he began to eat his stew. Max shrugged.
"Fair enough, I am a bit laconic. But I strongly suspect you already know anything
of import I could tell you," Max said as he watched Jace grimace in pain as he burned his
tongue on the hot stew. Jace wiped his mouth and looked at Max with a grin.
"You'd be more than right about that. We've been watching you for a while, Max.
We know a great deal about you. Nonetheless, knowing about someone and knowing
someone are two different things. I'm curious as to whether my observations about you
are correct," Jace said as he set his stew down to cool.
"Well, then you have me at a disadvantage. I don't really know anything about
you two aside from you names and the fact that you've been guarding me from Lucifer
unseen for quite a while! I don't even know how you know about this, 'Lucifer"! Max
said as his voice raised a little. Clain smiled faintly.
"I'm afraid that any answer we could give would only raise questions enough to
delay our journey. For now, know this. We have been sent here by an… alliance of many
different peoples, to make certain that Lucifer's plans do not come to fruition," Clain said
looking at Max with a piercing gaze.
"To be truthful, we know less about what Lucifer is doing than we first let on,"
Jace said as he scratched his head. "We know that his ultimate goal is rulership of Rune,
as usual, and we know a little of the strategies he employs, but other than that, zippo!"
Max sighed.
"Well, if we're to fight together, I'd like to know a little more about my comrades
in arms. Jace, what's your story?" Max asked as he turned to the black haired sniper, who
was currently gobbling his now cooled stew.
"Mmm? Mmf, mmmph!" Jace mumbled through a mouthful of food as he hastily
chewed and swallowed. "Ahh, that tastes good… What do you want, now?"
"What's your story? You seem to know everything about me, I'd like to know a
little about each of you at least," Max said as he got up and ladled some stew into his
bowl.
"Jace? Oh, he's a technologist. He and his kind put their trust in steel and silicon
instead of sword and sorcery," Clain said as he looked at Jace. Jace nodded and began to
speak.
"My story? Well, well, the famous Max wants to hear my little old tale… All
right, I'll spill. I grew up in a nice home, had a good childhood. Ah, my homeland! Truly
a place of wonders! Technology such as this world has never seen brought miracles more
magical than true magic to it's green surface. Life was prosperous and good for me and
my family. I enrolled in the finest schools and I excelled at computer programming…"
Jace noted the questioning look on Max's face. "Programming gives robots their, uh,
'soul', among other things… Anyway, even thought I was doing well in school, I found
that my true passion was with the military, so I joined up with the defense forces. I
excelled there as well, being sent to sniper school and elite training courses. I was pretty
sure someone was grooming for something, but I didn't know what. Then one day, one of
the higher ups called me into his office and offered to induct me into a kind of secret
society that dedicated itself to defending the innocent and righting wrongs… That may be
common here, but in my world, such things were largely part of old myth and legend. I
ended up joining, though, what else was I gonna do? I consider myself a crusader on
some level, and this group seemed to fit in with my ideals perfectly…" Jace chuckled a
bit. "The dramatic pay increase didn't hurt either. Anyway, I joined up, and the rest is
history. I go on long extended missions far, far away from my home, and in return I get to
know I've made a difference to someone, somewhere. I've had to make a few sacrifices,
but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat," Jace finished his tale with a wistful look
on his face, as if seeing past the innumerable miles and beholding his home again.
"Sounds rough to be away from home for so long, how long has it been since you
left?" Max inquired sympathetically. Jace looked down at the ground, wistfully.
"It's been two years since I last trod upon familiar soil," he said quietly.
"So where is this grand homeland of yours? What is it called?" Max asked, trying
to lighten the mood.
Jace smiled a bit and said, "It's too far away for me to measure… A lovely green
and blue place called 'Earth."
Max broke the short silence by asking, "Your hometown is named 'Dirt?"
Jace broke out laughing, and even the normally grim Clain managed a rare smile.
"That's an interesting way to look at it," Jace said as he resumed eating.
"One thing, I'm curious about though, you kept mentioning 'worlds' in your
history, kept referring to your home as your world… What do you mean?" Max asked
hesitantly. Jace's expression changed to that of one who knows a great secret and delights
in the fact that he knows it.
"I suppose we can trust you with this, our greatest of secrets. We are not native to
this world. You know what a dimension is, right?" Jace asked Max with a shrewd look in
his eye. Max nodded.
"We sealed Dark Dragon away in an alternate dimension, yes. Dimensions, as it
was explained to me, are separate universes… Are you saying you two came from an
entirely different universe???" Max exclaimed as realization dawned on him.
"Exactly. We are from different universes, planes, dimensions, call it what you
will," Jace said, seemingly enjoyed the astonished reaction the words got from Max.
"Wait, how do I know you two aren't crazy or something? How do I know that
you guys are telling the truth?" Max asked, a bit of suspicion lodged in the words.
"We are who we are, Max. And I think you are perceptive enough to realize we
are not lying. What reason would we have to? If you want proof, there's Jace. He knows
things only the Ancients of your world really fully understood. He wields a technological
weapon rarely seen in this world. If you want something more concrete, we'd be willing
to undergo a lie detector spell if you could find a mage capable of casting it," Clain said
as he stared off into the forest.
"But how… and why…" Max asked, almost rhetorically.
"We told you, we've been watching this place for a while. Things of great
consequence are stored here, not to mention that this place is a nexus of magical energy.
This place needs guarding from threats more ancient and evil than the demons imprisoned
here. We are the guards As for the how, our group has mastered inter-dimensional travel
with both magical and technological methods," Jace said with a hint of pride.
"Two men guard an entire world?" Max asked with disbelief.
"No, no… We have a base set up with more people. I'm just here on rotational
assignment, and Clain's just been permanently assigned a little while ago," Jace answered
quickly.
"If you have this obligation to guard this world, why didn't you help in the
Shining Wars?" Max asked as he finished his stew and drank a little more form his
canteen.
"We did!" Jace said indignantly. "You ever wonder why Runefaust, noted for it's
preference for foul play never sent one assassin or saboteur into your rather blatantly
displayed HQ? Well me and some of my pals shot each and every one of them before they
even got close enough to see you! You wonder why the enemy troops' tactics were rife
with bad strategies and poor command decisions? That was the work of our Manipulator
Mages, who muddled the enemy commanders' heads with delusions of grandeur, or
visions of fear. You may have done most of the work, you may have taken the most risks,
but don't you tell me we didn't help! We just helped in secret was all."
"So then… Tell me more of this group that sees fit to help in secret and guard this
place," Max said as he cleaned his bowl with a rag and put it back in his backpack.
"Well, I guess we can trust you. You are the leader of the Shining Force after all,"
Jace said as he leaned back against a tree. "Our group is called the 'Guardians Defense
Organization', or just 'Guardians', or sometimes 'G.D.O.' We are charged with the task
of ensuring that evil never takes hold in any world. We're a multi-dimensional fighting
force that takes it's members from all over creation, and we defend the innocent from any
evil scourge that threatens them. We travel all across the worlds, setting up bases,
sometimes in secret, sometimes not, to aid the natives in case of dire emergency."
"You could think of us as a type of 'Shining Force' on a much grander scale,"
Clain interjected.
"Why all the secrecy?" Max asked as he took out his sword and absentmindedly
began to sharpen it with a whetstone.
"It is sometimes necessary. Some places we would not be openly welcome, some
places our presence would draw deadlier foes than we could handle to the world in
question, and sometimes our presence being known would result in drastic steps being
taken by the forces we have come to stop," Clain said solemnly as he rubbed his chin and
stared into the flickering fire.
"All right, why then do you deem it necessary to step in against Lucifer with direct
aid instead of your usual covert actions?" Max asked as he finished sharpening his sword
and sheathed it. Clain flinched a little.
"Lucifer is… different. He's crafty and subtle, far more so than Darksol was. He
operates in secret and is a master of covert strategies. We originally were going to leave it
to you and your force, but then you retired instead of going back home. So we took upon
ourselves to insure that Rune's greatest military leader would be ready and back with his
troops when the dark days came."
"That can't be the whole story," Max stated in disbelief. Clain grimaced and said,
"No, you are correct. We started out by sending a few covert operatives to
infiltrate Lucifer's forces and find out what exactly he was up to. None of them made it
back, and a message intercepted by us indicated Lucifer had successfully… interrogated
one of the agents and had learned of our presence here. Among other things, we fear our
agent may have told him about the Thanas ruins, which is the main reason we were sent
out. We have to find what happened there. Those ruins contain two items, both of terrible
power, enough to defeat all who opposed the wielder. All we know right now is that
someone breached it's defenses."
"Why only the two of you if it's so important? Why not scramble your whole
garrison?" Max inquired off hand as he got up and stretched.
"We MUST keep this quiet! The ruins are a secret! If certain factions learn this is
where the Bla… where those items were kept, then this world is doomed. So many armies
will descend here to claim them that annihilation is guaranteed," Jace said with urgency
in both his tone and face.
"That's all for tonight. Let's get some rest, and tomorrow we will tell you more of
the events that led to us coming here," Clain said as he rose and headed for his tent.
The strangers had done nothing but sip their ale and whisper to each all night. Not
even Adam's aural receivers could decipher what the two were discussing. Only Max and
Adam were watching the two; the rest of the tavern's populace were too busy practicing
to become masters of drunken buffoonry. One of the drunken townsfolk, who had been
dancing a jig, had fallen from his chair and onto an indignant farmer's wife. The angry
female had promptly begun to beat him even more senseless. Max heard a good-natured
chuckle from one of the strangers, and he relaxed a little bit. Evil was not renowned for
it's sense of humor. Max grinned and shook his head. All his time in combat had made
him a bit paranoid. The two robed ones were probably just scholars on their way to
Manarina, or Shade Abbey…
That thought was quickly interrupted when four more figures in robes entered, but
these were not the simple traveler's clothes the first two had worn. These were robes as
black as the sky on a starless night, and adorned with skulls. Red eyes peered from within
the dark folds of their hoods, and Max knew exactly what he faced. The rare class of
mage powerful enough to dub themselves "Demon Masters". Max slowly reached for the
hilt of his sword, and with a shock, he recalled that he had left it at his home.
i"Great… I let my guard down for one lousy night…"/i Max thought, frustrated at
the fact he was completely unprepared. Adam turned to face the evil mages with a
clanking sound. The mages had positioned themselves in a diamond formation, with what
appeared to be the leader in front.
"Give us Max, and we will depart in peace. Give us Max and you can go back to
your lives. Give us Max and your little world will go on. Disobey, and your world will be
torn asunder like a piece of carrion among ravenous rats," the lead mage threatened in a
cold, almost ethereal voice. Bixen, the tavern owner rose to his feet.
"Good sirs, we have no one named Max in this town, surely you seek another
town… Urk!" The portly tavern owner was brought off the floor by the surprisingly
strong hand of the Demon Master.
"Don't try to lie to us, we know he is here… Give him to us or die!" the mage
threatened as he shook poor Bixen around. Max grimaced inward. He had given his name
as "Aleron", and had grown a short beard and mustache to insure he wasn't found out by
a chance passer-by that happened to know his name or face. The poor good-natured
townsfolk here were fairly ignorant of outside events. There was no way Bixen knew
what the Demon Master was talking about. Max was about to steel himself to go down
swinging when one of the first travelers spoke.
"Let the poor man down and leave at once, and you might yet see the sun rise on
another day," the man in the cloak said quietly, but with a hint of steel behind the words.
The other man, the one completely covered in robes, shifted to face the four evil
intruders.
"Who dares to issue demands to us, our Dark Lord's chosen??!!" the lead mage
snarled as he let the fat bar-keep drop, who was wheezing for more breath. The dark
figure strode toward the two travelers, who sat with an unnatural calm given the
circumstances. The hooded one spoke next.
"Discretion is the better part of valor, they say. Perhaps it would be best to
exercise said discretion now, instead of meeting a rather violent end. This will be your
final warning. Oh, and see, Clain? I told you he was Max," the hooded one ended his
speech with a smug tone.
"What?? You know where he is?? Tell us n…" the Demon Master was cut off as
the cloaked one, who had been called 'Clain', threw aside his cloak and attacked. He
slashed upward at the mage with a large sword that had up until now been hidden within
the deep recesses of his cloak. Now that the cloak was gone, Max saw he had indeed been
correct. The man wore heavy white plate mail as well as a white rune encrusted cape. The
three remaining mages started to cast spells, and Max quickly tapped Adam three times
on the shoulder-plate.
"Affirmative," the tall robot intoned. "Initiating attack pattern 'Omega'," the war
machine said as he barreled at the trio of mages, metal fists swinging. The hooded one
also let his robe fall, revealing a slim man in a black outfit which reminded Max of the
ninja Hanzou's nightsuit. The man drew a device that looked like a crossbow with the
cross part taken off and replaced with a tube of metal, with another small tube on top. The
man aimed it at one of the mages and with a loud crack, the mage fell, mid-spell, a round
wound through his torso. Adam had just finished off his mage when the last remaining
mage finished his spell and blasted the room with an icy blizzard. Max shivered, but his
experience allowed him to resist the spell's effects somewhat. The two strangers
grimaced, but did not fall. Some of the tavern's bystanders were not so lucky. Those
innocents caught in the spell died encased in a thin shell of ice, faces locked in a
permanent expression of frozen terror. Max looked at the bodies of the former townsfolk,
and was reminded of all the death that Darksol and his foul armies had wrought during
the Shining Wars, and now it was happening again. Inside of him, something snapped.
Max snarled and leapt at the last mage, now trying to make a get-away. Reacting quicker
than the mage, Adam, and the two strangers, he tackled the mage and locked his hands
around his throat.
"You… are…. NOT… doing… this… AGAIN!!!!" he shouted as he strangled the
cause of yet more death in Max's life. The mage struggled for a minute, then went limp
under Max's rage-filled assault. Max, still shaking with anger, stood up slowly and
surveyed the now empty tavern. Everyone but the dead, Adam, and the two strangers, had
fled. The stranger who had been addressed as Clain stepped forward.
"I am Clain Hayes, and this is my associate, Jace Wreven," he said, striding
towards the battle weary figure of Max. "And you, my friend Max, are in serious trouble."
Anri was snuggled up nice and cozy in her bedroll inside her tent. The dying fire
was still letting out an occasional crackle, and the few people who still gathered around it
let the sounds of gentle murmuring provide a comforting background noise. Her eyelids
already drooping, the Queen of Guardiana was asleep in no time at all.
iAnri was running from something behind her, something that kept following her
no matter where she went. She was running through the forest, dark and misty, with trees
outstretching bare branches in an effort to trip her. She stumbled over a tree root, and
hastily got up, the thing behind her gaining ground with each pause… A dark,
impenetrable mist surrounded her, she felt a cold hand, no, hands, grasp her legs and
pull her to the ground. She saw the two eyes of blackness in the mist, and knew pure
terror. Meaningless words crawled through her head… A crunching branch alerted her
to her pursuer… It was right behind her… She turned and saw the face of the thing that
had chased her. It was…/i
"Anri? wake up, you're having a nightmare…" said a melodic feminine voice.
Anri opened her eyes to see sunlight streaming in through the tent flaps, and Tao standing
over her, a concerned look on her face.
"Tao? What are you doing…" Anri started but Tao interrupted her.
"Well, Diane was cooking up some eggs for breakfast, and I came in to wake you,
but you were shaking hard and whimpering, and tears were running down your face… I
assumed you were having an awful nightmare, and so I woke you," Tao explained. "What
were you dreaming about?"
"I…" Anri stopped, the horror she had felt in the dream, the primeval terror, still
with her. "I don't want to talk about it." Tao nodded slowly and stepped back outside,
closing the tent flaps behind her. Anri sat in her tent for a long time after Tao had left,
shivering. The group broke camp and set out again a little while after.
"It's all really quite simple, you see," Clain told Max as they left the village. "You
pose the greatest threat to the only other free devil-king on Rune, Lucifer."
"That really doesn't explain much," Max said as he and Adam kept pace with the
two strange warriors. He and the two warriors who had insisted on accompanying him
were leaving the village in the hopes of making sure more assassins didn't show and kill
more townsfolk.
"It does when you know what we know," the other one, Jace, said. "You are not
only a great swordsman, Max. You are one of the greatest leaders this world has ever
known. As if that weren't enough your body has spent so much time near powerful relics
of Light, such as the Chaos Breaker and the Orb of Light, that your very nature has been
infused with holy energy. You killed both Darksol and Dark Dragon. It's only natural that
Lucifer realize you are one of the greatest threats to his rise."
"But I threw down my sword! I retired! I'm… well I was a farmhand before you
guys came along and shook things up…" Max said as Jace shook his head.
"Shook things up? Well excuse us for saving your life," Jace said disapprovingly
as he looking at Max.
"I was doing just fine…" Max started but Jace cut him off.
"Yeah, sure, you didn't even have a weapon! If it weren't for us those mages
would've cast spells of ice at you before you would have a chance to react…" Jace said as
he walked.
"How do you know they would've known it was me?" Max asked indignantly.
"Because you would not have allowed then to kill that barkeep. You would've
revealed yourself or struck out before letting an innocent die. You're not the sort to let
people die in your place, Max, else the entire Force would've died trying to get you free
of the Chaos Breaker…" Clain said as he looked off into the distance, as if peering into
the past.
"Yeah…" Max said as he realized Clain was right. There was no way he'd ever
allow someone to die because of his inaction. Not ever again… Max blinked hard and
warded off the bad memories of all the people that had died during the conflict. The
unlikely group had reached the edge of the Dragon's Rest forest, the wood that
surrounded the town of Alino, and shielded it from the outside world. The forest was the
main reason Alino had remained insular and untouched by the war, and it stretched from
the tip of the continent down to the quarries of Bustoke. No paths led through it, as the
forest seemed to resent such intrusion. All efforts to pave roads had failed, the dirt and
gravel being mysteriously replaced the next day with grass and trees.
"Well, I thank you for your assistance, but I am quite capable of handling myself.
If this Lucifer is truly a threat as such you say, I must go find and stop him before he can
do anything. Come, Adam," Max said as he began to up his pace in an effort to leave the
group. A surprisingly strong hand clamped down on his shoulder and stopped him.
"We too have business to settle with Lucifer. We know what he's planning, and
where he is. We know where his spies are, we know where his bases lie. If you are serious
about halting this threat and not just going off to vainly die, you'll come with us," Clain
said with a tone reminiscent of pure steel as he held Max back from walking. Max looked
at the towering figure of the solemn armored man, an expression of frustration on his
face.
"I hate to admit it, but you make sense with that statement. Fine, but where are we
headed, then?" Max said ruefully.
"We journey to Manarina, first," Clain said as he began walking again.
"To Manarina? Why? What's there?" Max questioned as he fell into pace along
side Clain.
"A certain ruin … We have sources that tell us something is afoot there that reeks
of trouble," Jace said as he fiddled with his weapon, something he had referred to as a
"sniper rifle". "Speed is of the utmost importance, here. If the site has been disturbed…
Well, let's just hope it hasn't." Clain turned to Jace.
"We both know it has been, Jace, otherwise we wouldn't be here. My question is
what happened to the guardians of the tomb, and who managed to get by them…" Clain
looked down for a moment, deep in thought.
"What's in this tomb that's got you worried so?" Max inquired, with a small
amount of concern.
"A great good… and a great evil… but which has been set loose?" Clain said
more to himself than Max.
"Does this place have a name, or are we going to just call it, 'the ruins' all the
time?" Max asked as he stopped to lace up a boot. The others halted, and Clain spoke
with a reverent tone.
"It's true name has long been lost even to us. In the tongue of the Ancients, it's
name is Thanas."
"Powerful secret…" Adam translated in his monotone voice.
The group journeyed on, towards Manarina and the mysterious ruins.
"Anri!! So glad to see you… What's wrong?" Lowe had bounded off the throne to
welcome Anri back home, but stopped when he saw her. Anri had bags under her eyes, a
pained expression on her face and a generally disheveled appearance. She was also
nervously fingering a rune encrusted pouch.
"I… I haven't been sleeping well…" Anri started.
"She's been having bad nightmares for the last few days while we traveled
here…" Tao said quietly.
"I just need some rest is all… No need to worry, I'm fine…" Anri said as she
walked towards the door that led to her chambers and the heavenly apparatus known as
her bed. So weak from exhaustion was she that the pouch containing the chain link
dropped from her hand as she collapsed into bed. She soon fell into a deep slumber, free
of dreams.
"So you're the great Max, sealer of Dark Dragon and foremost of the saviors of
Rune," Jace said as he sat down on a log with a bowl of stew. The group had stopped to
make camp for the night, and were using some felled logs for firewood and furniture.
Three tents had been set up for the humans, and a tarp was provided for Adam's power
down- recharge cycle. A roaring fire with a pot of rabbit stew hanging over it gave the
campsite a cheery feel despite the foreboding events that had brought the two strangers
here in the first place.
"Yeah, but you already knew that," Max replied as he took a swig of his canteen.
Jace chuckled.
"Yes, but that was a rhetorical question designed to stimulate a conversation. You
don't socialize much, do you Max?" Jace said as he began to eat his stew. Max shrugged.
"Fair enough, I am a bit laconic. But I strongly suspect you already know anything
of import I could tell you," Max said as he watched Jace grimace in pain as he burned his
tongue on the hot stew. Jace wiped his mouth and looked at Max with a grin.
"You'd be more than right about that. We've been watching you for a while, Max.
We know a great deal about you. Nonetheless, knowing about someone and knowing
someone are two different things. I'm curious as to whether my observations about you
are correct," Jace said as he set his stew down to cool.
"Well, then you have me at a disadvantage. I don't really know anything about
you two aside from you names and the fact that you've been guarding me from Lucifer
unseen for quite a while! I don't even know how you know about this, 'Lucifer"! Max
said as his voice raised a little. Clain smiled faintly.
"I'm afraid that any answer we could give would only raise questions enough to
delay our journey. For now, know this. We have been sent here by an… alliance of many
different peoples, to make certain that Lucifer's plans do not come to fruition," Clain said
looking at Max with a piercing gaze.
"To be truthful, we know less about what Lucifer is doing than we first let on,"
Jace said as he scratched his head. "We know that his ultimate goal is rulership of Rune,
as usual, and we know a little of the strategies he employs, but other than that, zippo!"
Max sighed.
"Well, if we're to fight together, I'd like to know a little more about my comrades
in arms. Jace, what's your story?" Max asked as he turned to the black haired sniper, who
was currently gobbling his now cooled stew.
"Mmm? Mmf, mmmph!" Jace mumbled through a mouthful of food as he hastily
chewed and swallowed. "Ahh, that tastes good… What do you want, now?"
"What's your story? You seem to know everything about me, I'd like to know a
little about each of you at least," Max said as he got up and ladled some stew into his
bowl.
"Jace? Oh, he's a technologist. He and his kind put their trust in steel and silicon
instead of sword and sorcery," Clain said as he looked at Jace. Jace nodded and began to
speak.
"My story? Well, well, the famous Max wants to hear my little old tale… All
right, I'll spill. I grew up in a nice home, had a good childhood. Ah, my homeland! Truly
a place of wonders! Technology such as this world has never seen brought miracles more
magical than true magic to it's green surface. Life was prosperous and good for me and
my family. I enrolled in the finest schools and I excelled at computer programming…"
Jace noted the questioning look on Max's face. "Programming gives robots their, uh,
'soul', among other things… Anyway, even thought I was doing well in school, I found
that my true passion was with the military, so I joined up with the defense forces. I
excelled there as well, being sent to sniper school and elite training courses. I was pretty
sure someone was grooming for something, but I didn't know what. Then one day, one of
the higher ups called me into his office and offered to induct me into a kind of secret
society that dedicated itself to defending the innocent and righting wrongs… That may be
common here, but in my world, such things were largely part of old myth and legend. I
ended up joining, though, what else was I gonna do? I consider myself a crusader on
some level, and this group seemed to fit in with my ideals perfectly…" Jace chuckled a
bit. "The dramatic pay increase didn't hurt either. Anyway, I joined up, and the rest is
history. I go on long extended missions far, far away from my home, and in return I get to
know I've made a difference to someone, somewhere. I've had to make a few sacrifices,
but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat," Jace finished his tale with a wistful look
on his face, as if seeing past the innumerable miles and beholding his home again.
"Sounds rough to be away from home for so long, how long has it been since you
left?" Max inquired sympathetically. Jace looked down at the ground, wistfully.
"It's been two years since I last trod upon familiar soil," he said quietly.
"So where is this grand homeland of yours? What is it called?" Max asked, trying
to lighten the mood.
Jace smiled a bit and said, "It's too far away for me to measure… A lovely green
and blue place called 'Earth."
Max broke the short silence by asking, "Your hometown is named 'Dirt?"
Jace broke out laughing, and even the normally grim Clain managed a rare smile.
"That's an interesting way to look at it," Jace said as he resumed eating.
"One thing, I'm curious about though, you kept mentioning 'worlds' in your
history, kept referring to your home as your world… What do you mean?" Max asked
hesitantly. Jace's expression changed to that of one who knows a great secret and delights
in the fact that he knows it.
"I suppose we can trust you with this, our greatest of secrets. We are not native to
this world. You know what a dimension is, right?" Jace asked Max with a shrewd look in
his eye. Max nodded.
"We sealed Dark Dragon away in an alternate dimension, yes. Dimensions, as it
was explained to me, are separate universes… Are you saying you two came from an
entirely different universe???" Max exclaimed as realization dawned on him.
"Exactly. We are from different universes, planes, dimensions, call it what you
will," Jace said, seemingly enjoyed the astonished reaction the words got from Max.
"Wait, how do I know you two aren't crazy or something? How do I know that
you guys are telling the truth?" Max asked, a bit of suspicion lodged in the words.
"We are who we are, Max. And I think you are perceptive enough to realize we
are not lying. What reason would we have to? If you want proof, there's Jace. He knows
things only the Ancients of your world really fully understood. He wields a technological
weapon rarely seen in this world. If you want something more concrete, we'd be willing
to undergo a lie detector spell if you could find a mage capable of casting it," Clain said
as he stared off into the forest.
"But how… and why…" Max asked, almost rhetorically.
"We told you, we've been watching this place for a while. Things of great
consequence are stored here, not to mention that this place is a nexus of magical energy.
This place needs guarding from threats more ancient and evil than the demons imprisoned
here. We are the guards As for the how, our group has mastered inter-dimensional travel
with both magical and technological methods," Jace said with a hint of pride.
"Two men guard an entire world?" Max asked with disbelief.
"No, no… We have a base set up with more people. I'm just here on rotational
assignment, and Clain's just been permanently assigned a little while ago," Jace answered
quickly.
"If you have this obligation to guard this world, why didn't you help in the
Shining Wars?" Max asked as he finished his stew and drank a little more form his
canteen.
"We did!" Jace said indignantly. "You ever wonder why Runefaust, noted for it's
preference for foul play never sent one assassin or saboteur into your rather blatantly
displayed HQ? Well me and some of my pals shot each and every one of them before they
even got close enough to see you! You wonder why the enemy troops' tactics were rife
with bad strategies and poor command decisions? That was the work of our Manipulator
Mages, who muddled the enemy commanders' heads with delusions of grandeur, or
visions of fear. You may have done most of the work, you may have taken the most risks,
but don't you tell me we didn't help! We just helped in secret was all."
"So then… Tell me more of this group that sees fit to help in secret and guard this
place," Max said as he cleaned his bowl with a rag and put it back in his backpack.
"Well, I guess we can trust you. You are the leader of the Shining Force after all,"
Jace said as he leaned back against a tree. "Our group is called the 'Guardians Defense
Organization', or just 'Guardians', or sometimes 'G.D.O.' We are charged with the task
of ensuring that evil never takes hold in any world. We're a multi-dimensional fighting
force that takes it's members from all over creation, and we defend the innocent from any
evil scourge that threatens them. We travel all across the worlds, setting up bases,
sometimes in secret, sometimes not, to aid the natives in case of dire emergency."
"You could think of us as a type of 'Shining Force' on a much grander scale,"
Clain interjected.
"Why all the secrecy?" Max asked as he took out his sword and absentmindedly
began to sharpen it with a whetstone.
"It is sometimes necessary. Some places we would not be openly welcome, some
places our presence would draw deadlier foes than we could handle to the world in
question, and sometimes our presence being known would result in drastic steps being
taken by the forces we have come to stop," Clain said solemnly as he rubbed his chin and
stared into the flickering fire.
"All right, why then do you deem it necessary to step in against Lucifer with direct
aid instead of your usual covert actions?" Max asked as he finished sharpening his sword
and sheathed it. Clain flinched a little.
"Lucifer is… different. He's crafty and subtle, far more so than Darksol was. He
operates in secret and is a master of covert strategies. We originally were going to leave it
to you and your force, but then you retired instead of going back home. So we took upon
ourselves to insure that Rune's greatest military leader would be ready and back with his
troops when the dark days came."
"That can't be the whole story," Max stated in disbelief. Clain grimaced and said,
"No, you are correct. We started out by sending a few covert operatives to
infiltrate Lucifer's forces and find out what exactly he was up to. None of them made it
back, and a message intercepted by us indicated Lucifer had successfully… interrogated
one of the agents and had learned of our presence here. Among other things, we fear our
agent may have told him about the Thanas ruins, which is the main reason we were sent
out. We have to find what happened there. Those ruins contain two items, both of terrible
power, enough to defeat all who opposed the wielder. All we know right now is that
someone breached it's defenses."
"Why only the two of you if it's so important? Why not scramble your whole
garrison?" Max inquired off hand as he got up and stretched.
"We MUST keep this quiet! The ruins are a secret! If certain factions learn this is
where the Bla… where those items were kept, then this world is doomed. So many armies
will descend here to claim them that annihilation is guaranteed," Jace said with urgency
in both his tone and face.
"That's all for tonight. Let's get some rest, and tomorrow we will tell you more of
the events that led to us coming here," Clain said as he rose and headed for his tent.