Disclaimer: I forgot to put this in the first chapter, so here it is: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS, MOVES (ie Holy Sword, Ice Crush, Finaldance), OR ANYTHING THAT BELONGS TO Natsume or Taito.
Author's Note: All ideas accepted. Thanks to all the reviewers who actually read the first chapter…
Also, someone, somewhere, got the idea stuck into my head that the Dual Blade was lost after defeating Zalbak, so I'm incorporating it into my story.
And now onto…
Estoland: The Quest Continues
Ksshhhh… Ksshhhh… Ksshhhh…
Deckard stood against the railing of the wooden ship, listening to the ocean waves as they rose and broke under the ship's bow, a faint smile on his lips as he watched Wain and Dei spar on the deck.
"Ha! Got you there!" Dei swung his sword at Wain's torso, only to have it blocked by a quick flash of the Alum Blade. "Oh, no you don't!" Dei swung again, but Wain blocked it with his shield, and feinted towards the left, fooling Dei who had brought his shield around to block, and stopped his blade, now next to Dei's jugular.
They both lowered their weapons, and shook hands. "Good, Wain. I see you've gotten better." "Same to you, old friend."
They went down to the hold to put their weapons away.
Right after they went down, Aima and Seena came up onto the deck, respectively clad in a white toga with golden lining and a blue vest with silver lining. The two walked over to where Deckard was standing.
"Deckard, do you know where Wain and Dei are?" Aima asked, her expression as peaceful as the ocean breeze that was blowing. "Yes. They have just gone to the hold to put their weapons away, since they just finished sparring." Deckard replied.
"Oh, then we'll wait for them, right Seena? Seena?" Aima had turned to the young lady, who was staring into the horizon.
"Hmm? Oh, I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention." The girl turned, her cerulean hair rippling in the moist ocean breeze. Aima smiled at her.
"Deckard?" Seena's bottomless eyes were now gazing serenely upon Deckard, causing the older man to glance away from her. "How long until we arrive at Estoland?" Deckard was just about to reply when Wain and Dei, who had just came onto the deck, pointed out something.
"Hey, Deckard… Is it just me, or are those storm clouds?" Wain spoke, pointing at the quickly gathering storm clouds, which were moving speedily their way.
However, Deckard replied after thinking all the possibilities and courses of action through, and responded with the great intellect he possessed, responding with a "Huh? I didn't hear you, say that again?" Wain and the others fell to the deck in an anime facefault.
"Oh, _That's_ what you meant…" Deckard spoke again, after the group had regained their ability to stay upright. "Anyway, we shouldn't have to worry, since by the time the storm gets here, we'll have moved out of its path. See?" Deckard drew out a large map out of his back pocket and started writing complex navigational math that no one but him could understand. Well, at least most of them couldn't understand, Wain began questioning him.
"Deckard, here you write that the vector includes the velocity of the storm, but did you input the acceleration?" Wain pointed to a tiny scribble next to an insanely large arrow that took up half of a map grid. "No, but as you see here, I substituted a triangulation submatrix into the equation here, and…"
Dei whispered quietly to Aima and Seena. "How do you suppose that he knows all this stuff, while I don't even know what a sub-whatcha-ma-callit is. Seena, is there any chance that Wain has gotten smarter, or am I just confused by seasickness?"
"I think that Wain must have known it all along, because he definitely never had a chance to study anything of the sort, much less complex mathematics." Seena replied, watching the two men argue a fine point of navigational equations. "If you ask my opinion, I just think that Wain knows a lot more than he lets on.
"For instance," Seena related an incident to the other two. "A couple of weeks ago, Wain and I were going to find the Ruby Apple in the Tanba Caves, and we came upon six King Hydras, and, he used a bit of Gale magic to *freeze the walls so the lasers bounced off the walls and back at the Hydras!* Needless to say, we won, but without moving except for the Gale magic!"
"Whoa, I never knew he was *that* smart. Even I couldn't have thought that one up." Dei remarked, drawing the confused looks of Aima.
Aima looked at Dei, with one eyebrow raised. Dei looked back, and asked, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"That's not saying a lot, Dei…" Aima smiled at Dei. "Huh? What do you mean, of course it wasn't a lot, only a few sentences said… HEY!" Aima and Seena could almost see the single candlestick above his head flare into life. "That's not nice, Aima." Seena said, as she took the place of the mediator. "I know… But it took him that long to figure it out!" Aima chuckled a little more to further the embarrassment of Dei.
"That's it. I'm going back to my cabin." With that, Dei turned around and stomped towards the steps. Aima hurried after him, with a look of concern in her voice.
"Dei, I didn't mean it. I was just joking…" She caught Dei by the shirt sleeve and turned him to face her. Seena hurried to catch up to them, since Wain and Deckard were still arguing.
She arrived to see Dei shaking silently whilst looking down, and Aima with a worried look on her face trying to find out what was wrong.
"Dei? Dei? You know that I was joking, right? Dei?" Seena looked on as Dei rose his head, but he wasn't crying, he was laughing.
"You actually thought that I would cry over something as trivial as that?" Dei cracked up again. For a moment, Seena was worried that Aima would strike him for that bit of deceit, but was relieved when Aima also began to laugh.
Seena shook her head slightly, 'Older people sure are strange in expressing love…' She had been quite observant and had noticed all of the small 'signs' that Dei and Aima had both been giving out while near each other over their last week on board the ship, such as the happier mood, they were certainly more jovial, they shot small glances when they thought that the other wasn't looking, and they were more prone to staring out of the corners of their eyes.
"What's so funny?" Deckard stopped next to Seena, indicating Dei and Aima with a slight nod of his head.
"Yeah, Seena, what happened that was so funny?" Wain also stepped up next to her, his crimson hair whipping around in the wind.
"Oh, nothing…" Seena smiled a little, the corners of her mouth twisting upwards a little.
Just then, the boat rocked, as a tall wave crashed near the starboard.
"What?" Deckard's confusion was evident on his face as he looked upwards at the darkening sky. "The storm's course should have blown it a couple kilometers to the south of us, but what I don't understand is why it's still here!" Deckard shouted over the heavy rain that had just come out of nowhere.
As the company hurried to ready the ship to weather out the storm, Wain, who was acting as lookout, spotted, among a break in the waves, another ship out there, with a figure he could barely make out standing on the bow, seeming to be casting something; Wain could see the golden sheen of Bolt Magic. Before he could make out what the figure was doing, several lightening bolts came out of the sky and came dangerously close, one only a few centimeters away from hitting the ship. When Wain looked up, the ship and the figure were gone.
He didn't have any time to look for them, though, since a huge tidal wave, about thirty meters tall, was bearing down at them. Wain ran over to Seena, who was waving at him to come and join the rest of the group down in the hold, and threw himself over her, shielding her from the wave that crashed down onto the deck. All went black…
You know you shall not succeed.
Wha? Who are you? Wain looked around at the blackness that surrounded him.
You shall fall, descendant of Maxim…
Who are you? What do you want?!
Ah… The Spiritual Force is strong in you. No matter. The Cult of Darkness shall overwhelm all.
Who's the cult of Darkness? What do you mean?
Alaric has failed to kill you, but I-er-we shall succeed where he has failed…
Why would you want to kill *me*?
A new world order shall rise from the ashes…
Are you insane? In need of mental help, maybe?
And, above all, the Cult shall rule, their power and control stemming from the ground to the heavens…
Yep, I was right. There still *are* loonies in this world…
Insult us all you'd like, but you shall see our power soon enough. The time has come, and we shall arrive with the fury not unlike the storm you have weathered through…
I will stop you, whatever your plan is.
Try all you might, but even you cannot oppose the flow of the river. We shall meet in the very near future… Goodbye for now, Son of the Spiritual Force…
Make no mistake, I will stop you whoever you are…
Wain… Wain… Please wake up…
Wain opened his eyes, blinking a few times, getting used to the light. He blinked once more, and the view of a cerulean-haired girl came into his field of vision.
"Seena?" Wain groggily spoke. "Oh, Wain." Seena gently kissed Wain's forehead. "What happened? How is the ship? What happened to the storm?"
"Wain, we're all right. We made it through the storm, after you protected me from the wave." Seena smiled lovingly down at her best friend now turned boyfriend. "It's all right now. We made it to Estoland. We're currently in the makeshift hospital near the docks of Estopolis."
"Estopolis? Why didn't I hear of that before?" Wain queried Seena.
"Because, Wain, they just built it when they realized that a lot of people would want to come and see the legendary Doom Island." Seena replied, stroking Wain's red spikes absentmindedly.
Wain sat up, stretching. "Where are Dei, Aima and Deckard? I need to find out who the man was, and why he wanted to kill me."
"What man?" Seena asked, confused. "The man on the ship next to us near the storm," Wain replied, looking at Seena in confusion. "Didn't you see the ship? There was a man on the prow, and he looked like he was using Bolt Magic…" Wain trialed off, realizing the implications of what he had just said.
"Bolt Magic?" Seena asked, her eyes widening. "Why would someone want to kill you, Wain? Especially with Storm magic. Everyone knows that it's dangerous to use Bolt Magic in the middle of the ocean, since the water would shock them too…" Seena trailed off, as she stared blankly into nothingness.
Just then, glass shattered outside the door. Shouts of terror could be heard down in the main room of the hospital, as clangs of blades crossing, and axes swinging could be heard throughout the hospital.
"Let's go help out Dei and the others," Seena said, as she heard the all-too-familiar battlecry of Aima and the whoosh of Dei's throwing daggers.
"Yes, let's go." Wain replied as he donned the Terror Armor he had picked up from defeating Daos the first time, and fingered the small dragon scale on his necklace that he had obtained from killing an ancient dragon that was terrorizing a local town. (A/N: In this, Wain can wear both the Terror Armor and the Dragon Scale at the same time. (+460 DEF and +100 REG)!!!) He picked up the Alum Blade lying near his head, while Seena drew the Iris Blade from the belt where it hung around her waist.
When Seena and Wain arrived into the room, the bandits had all but taken over the room; However, one thing did surprise him: Amongst the fighters cornered into the hallway, he spotted Dei, Aima, Deckard, and two of his old friends: the Princess Melphis and Captain Randolph of her Royal Guard.
With the knowledge that they were safe, he told Seena, "Go and help them out, it's me that they want to fight."
Seena nodded wordlessly, then began to slash her way across to their friends as Wain shouted a battlecry and launched himself towards the main contingent of the enemy. However, the 'bandits' were better trained that Wain had thought. Before long, he too, had been cornered, with gashes all over his body.
However, before he could be taken prisoner or killed, he swung his sword one last time.
This time, however, it was different.
As he swung, he began to feel a strange sensation, not unlike a warm, tingly feeling. Before his own eyes, and everyone else's, his sword began to glow a vibrant blue. Energy seemed to flow back into his muscles, readying them for another round of fighting. Wain seemed to straighten from his tired slump, and he swung, the arc of indigo sweeping across the bandits, cleaving several dozen into pieces, a circular holy sign appearing where he stood.
The remaining bandits, seeing his newfound power, retreated out of the building and fled.
After the bandits fled, his companions slowly approached him cautiously, eyeing him suspiciously with the exception of Seena, who walked right up to him.
"Wain, how did you use a Holy Sword Attack? I thought that all our Spiritual Forces became dormant after you destroyed Zalbak and the Sinistrals." Seena asked, her eyes expressing a confused wondering.
"They did." Wain replied to his companions, now with Melphis and Randolph among them. "I suppose you told Melphis and Randolph about the storm and my blacking out?" Dei and Aima nodded as one.
"Well, there's something I didn't tell you yet…" "We figured as much," Deckard muttered. "But it isn't what you all think. I haven't been hiding anything, I was just as surprised as you were when I did the attack. During my blackout, I heard a strange voice. I assume that Seena has filled you all in about the ship and the man?" "Or woman," Aima put in; she had always maintained that a woman could fight as well as a man, and she wasn't going to stop now. "Or woman," Wain agreed.
"Well, I heard a voice, that came and told me about how a 'Cult of Darkness' was going to come and destroy the world and create an new world order," Wain paused to survey the expressions of his friends.
"And, they also said how even though I was the 'Son of the Spiritual Force', they would still find a way to destroy me. And, from that, I can pretty much draw the conclusion that the Spiritual Force is starting to reawaken to confront this new evil."
"Wain is right." Seena stepped up to face the rest of them. "While I was battling, I felt a strange something, and that feeling was the same as the one I had when I first began my journey from Northland to Southland. I trust that you felt it too, Wain?" Wain nodded.
"All of you should have felt that feeling, am I correct?" Slowly, the rest of the friends began to nod in unison. "That means that the Spiritual Force has been restored to you, and we can now feel the power we had when fighting the Sinistrals. We are now at the height of our powers when we were still fighting them, and we shall only get stronger."
"All right. If we are going to go save the world one more time, I think we should first find the rest of the team, so we could fight better." Dei spoke up, and everyone agreed.
"Then it's decided. We'll go find our friends and set out again, on a " Great Adventure"." Seena spoke, leaving no more room for doubt. "Where shall we go now, Wain?"
"The Doom Island landed near Putriken, a small trading settlement a couple of days south of here. We should go there first; the rest of the guys should be there."
Then, after that was said, the friends exited the now destroyed building and began to head South.
Author's Notes: So, do you like it? I hope it satisfies you, I liked it a lot. Sorry for the delay and blah blah blah. You know what I mean, with all the schoolwork and stuff, it's been hard to find some time to type this.
Next Time on Estoland: The Quest Continues: What will happen along the way south to Putriken? Will the others be there? What is the Cult of Darkness up to? How will Wain and his friends stand up to them?
Next time on Estoland: The Quest Continues: Reunion!
Please Review!
Thanks!
Blackraven