Author's Note: O_o What? What gave you the idea that Rayen is evil now?
Just because he was smiling? Is he not allowed to smile or something?
Although Kongol was the last Giganto, it's not necessarily true that Oraeus in a descendant of his. Before Kongol, there were many Gigantos, and one of them could have had a child with a human before Kongol was even born. Belzac was half-Giganto, as you may remember. Thus, the result is a half- Giganto, and they couple with more half-Gigantos, and so on. So, Oraeus COULD be a descendant of Kongol, but he could not. There's no real way of telling unless I specifically say so.
Yes, Rayen is back. I know it was obvious he wasn't gone forever, and he wasn't gone nearly long enough, but hell, I needed a way for someone to find out what's going on, and he needed to be back before the portal opened. So that was the way I chose. Sue me. No, wait. Don't. I don't have any money; you wouldn't want to sue me anyway.
Rebirth of a Legend passed the 60,000-word mark last chapter. There are only 7 Legend of Dragoon fics in the entire category that are that long. Yay. I feel special. I did it in three months, too. Yay again.
Chapter 47
Phil dropped his weapon in relief. "So, where the hell have you been?"
Rayen sat down with his back against the huge trunk of the Divine Tree. "Ah, nowhere important. Just having a brief chat with the creator of the universe, you know, the ordinary stuff."
Phil raised an eyebrow. "You're joking, right?"
"You said it yourself, Phil. I never joke."
Phil spoke again, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "OK then, what did this 'creator of the universe' say, oh almighty messenger to the gods?"
Shade was less skeptical. "Did you find out what is waiting on the other end of that portal?"
Rayen's smile faded, and his face became grave. "Yes, I did."
Phil finally realized Rayen was being serious. "So, what is it?"
Rayen sighed resignedly before speaking again. "Well, we'd better start at the beginning..."
He stood up, gazing up at the starry night sky before starting the tale. "The divine being watches over all of creation. The divine being's duty is to maintain the balance of nature. To do so, life and death, good and evil, creation and destruction, must all be in constant tandem. Therefore, the divine being, or Soa as we call him, is made up of not one, but two entities. One is the Creator, the one that we all acknowledge as Soa. However, most people do not know of the other entity."
Phil interrupted, but Rayen did not seem angered. He had asked the same question himself. "So, wait. There's two gods?"
Rayen shook his head. "No. They are both part of one being."
Dawn looked up from where her chin rested on her folded hands. "Like a split personality."
Rayen looked surprised. "Actually, it's a great deal like a split personality. Anyway, the other entity is known only as the Murderer. While it is the Creator's duty to create life and maintain it, it is the Murderer's job to take it away and destroy it. The two constantly clash, and because there is an equal amount of effort put forth by both entities, they counterbalance each other, and neither side dominates. When the Murderer created the Moon Prophecy, the Creator limited its usage by creating the Moon Objects. When the Murderer gave Melbu Frahma knowledge of the Moon Objects, the Creator gave Charle knowledge on the ability to create the Signet Spheres. They are constantly checking each other's power."
Shade's brown eyes narrowed. "Do they not realize they are the same being? If they did, wouldn't they not throw themselves at each other when all their jobs truly are is to counterbalance each other instead of trying to gain supremacy?"
"That's a good point. Yes, they do realize that they are the same being. However, their single most primordial instinct is to attempt to gain power over the other. They cannot fight it. Everything the Creator makes the Murderer curses. Humans were damned with greed and lust, Winglies with arrogance and disdain, and Gigantos with brutality and ineptitude. Thus, all life is imperfect, and the balance continues to reign."
Oraeus's fists clenched at the mention of Gigantos, but he relaxed. As much as he hated to admit it, true Gigantos were brutal and inept. But the true problem was that humans had trouble not applying the same adjectives to half-Gigantos.
Rayen went on. "But in the past millennium, the Murderer's presence seems to have lessened. There have been no wars in the past thousand years, only minor skirmishes. Life expectancy has skyrocketed; people just aren't dying as much as they used to. At first, the Creator believed the Murderer had burned himself out after the Second Dragon Campaign, but in the past thirty years or so he's gotten suspicious. Thus, he returned the Dragoon Spirits to Endiness."
Dawn jolted when she heard Rayen mention the date. Her mother had found the Silver Dragoon Spirit thirty years ago. Her Spirit must have been one of the first to return. It was all starting to make sense.
Phil scratched the back of his head. "So the Creator made the Dragoon Spirits?"
Rayen nodded and continued. "Yes, but both sides of the divine being agreed to their creation. The Dragoons are the ultimate defenders of the balance, because whether they are used for protection or destruction is determined solely by the people who wield their power. Anyway, right before I found my Dragoon Spirit and this all started, the Creator learned why the Murderer had been so seemingly docile for the past thousand years. During the past millennium, the Murderer has been saving his energies, using only minimal amounts of his power so that he appears beaten, but not plotting revenge. But he is in reality putting those energies to better use."
Rayen stopped, then looked at the portal that hovered menacingly over the gigantic tree. "On the other side of that gateway is an army."
Phil shrugged. "No big deal, how large is this army?
"Its size is unfathomable. Everything that has lived or been born in the past one thousand twenty-six years has a counterpart on the other side. Everything, animals, humans, Winglies, even Dragons."
Nieva seemed troubled at this, and the Sacred Sister voiced her concerns aloud. "But the Murderer can't create, can he? He can only destroy."
Rayen nodded. "True. But he didn't truly create them. Spawned would be a better word. Each of those demons is made from the dark emotions of their copies, their anger, their fear, and their sorrow. Remember the Divine Dragoon? When the Murderer watched him release the Dragons, he decided to reveal himself to the man, use him to open the portal. His plan worked. The fool lent his body to his demon clone, and the Divine Dragoon was the result. He sabotaged me and stole the Divine Dragoon Spirit, then used its power to gain possession of the Moon Objects and the Moon Child. Then he was able to open the gateway through which the army will now pass through."
Phil took this opportunity to make a sarcastic crack. "Do they always intervene this much, or are they just giving us special treatment?"
Rayen sighed. "They are manipulating the world every day. They tailor the situations to the way they believe that will profit them most. However, they have no control over the decisions we make. They just doctor the world around us and hope that we do what they want. Forcing us to do something is the one thing that is truly beyond their powers. As often as not, we take a different direction. That is what frustrates them most."
Sean spoke up for the first time. Now only Kyra remained silent. "But what I don't get is, how can there be a Moon Child without the Moon that Never Sets?"
Rayen gave a small chuckle before he answered. "Ah, now there was the Murderer's one stroke of genius. The Moon that Never Sets is truly only a front, while the real danger lies inside it. The moon was hollow. Inside it was a vortex of pure magical energy. When he learned of it, the Creator limited its power by only allowing it to grant the status of Moon Child to one person every one hundred and eight years. Every time a Moon Child is born, the vortex expends the enormous amount of magical energy it gives to the Moon Child. The Moon that Never Sets glowed red every hundred and eight years because of that magical energy leaving the vortex and entering the body of the Moon Child. Thus, the Moon Prophecy was born. After the Moon that Never Sets was destroyed, the vortex remained, but there is no longer a visible sign that a Moon Child is being born."
Shade stood up. "But there's one thing I don't understand. Why did the Creator tell you all of this?"
"Because there was one last creation he made as a last resort, when all else was doomed to fail. The Guardian Dragoon."
Another puzzled look crossed Phil's face. "Guardian Dragon? I've never heard of one of those..."
Rayen smiled. "That's because there isn't one."
Phil grew even more confused. "Then how do you get a Spirit if a Dragon has never died?"
"Simple. I make my own."
He held out his hand, palm upwards, and suddenly a beam of light shot from each of the seven other Spirits. The Dragoons looked down at their gems, but they remained unharmed. In Rayen's palm sat a new Spirit, exactly identical to the others, except that it appeared to be made of clear crystal. Rayen frowned down at it, apparently disappointed. "It is incomplete. I must go to Ulara. They have something I need there."
Kyra finally broke the silence, speaking for the first time since Rayen had arrived. "You can't go there. Ulara disappeared eight hundred years ago, with a mountain sprouting up in its place."
Rayen turned to her. "Don't you find that slightly odd?"
The Wingly tossed her head impatiently. "Of course, but explorers have checked every inch of that mountain. There's nothing unusual about it, just how it got there."
"Well, thanks for the load of reassurance, but I'm sure I can find it. I'll borrow Balaeris for a little while, and I'll be back in a day or two."
Kyra still wasn't convinced. "What if the portal opens while you're gone?"
"It won't. Even if it did, one young Dragon won't make too much of a difference, and if my Dragoon Spirit doesn't work, I won't be much good anyway."
The Violet Dragoon shook her head, her mane of silver hair rippling. "You're wasting your time."
Rayen shrugged. "If I'm wasting my time, then I might as well be quick about wasting it so I can get back. Nieva, you don't mind me taking Balaeris, do you?"
The Sacred Sister waved her hand. "Of course. As far as I'm concerned, he belongs to you anyway."
"All right then." Rayen motioned to the young Dragon, and Balaeris responded eagerly. As Rayen slid onto the crimson-scaled back, the Red-Eye took off, wings slicing through the night air.
Once the other Dragoons were out of sight, and the Divine Tree was a mere twig on the ground below, Balaeris spoke to his rider. "Why do think that we can find this city? Kyra said people checked all of it, right?"
Rayen folded his hands behind his head, his hair whipping about in the wind. "The explorers saw what the Winglies wanted them to see. Do not worry, they will admit us."
Author's Note: I basically rewrote Endiness theology in this chapter. *blink, pause* *shrugs* Ah well, sucks for them.
So there isn't a Red-Eye/Divine fusion, there's an everything fusion. I know it's not exactly original, but wait a little while. You'll find out that there's a lot more in that Spirit than even Rayen knows about... *insert evil chuckle here*
Anyway, I explained all about the portal and the Moon Objects and stuff, so be happy. I hope that got rid of all the questions and junk like that.
Plushies... I could make a lot of money off of those... *summons a horde of plushies* Yay! *grabs one of each character for himself* *dances around with a Rayen and a Shade plushie taped to his head* Buy yours today! O_o I have issues.
Although Kongol was the last Giganto, it's not necessarily true that Oraeus in a descendant of his. Before Kongol, there were many Gigantos, and one of them could have had a child with a human before Kongol was even born. Belzac was half-Giganto, as you may remember. Thus, the result is a half- Giganto, and they couple with more half-Gigantos, and so on. So, Oraeus COULD be a descendant of Kongol, but he could not. There's no real way of telling unless I specifically say so.
Yes, Rayen is back. I know it was obvious he wasn't gone forever, and he wasn't gone nearly long enough, but hell, I needed a way for someone to find out what's going on, and he needed to be back before the portal opened. So that was the way I chose. Sue me. No, wait. Don't. I don't have any money; you wouldn't want to sue me anyway.
Rebirth of a Legend passed the 60,000-word mark last chapter. There are only 7 Legend of Dragoon fics in the entire category that are that long. Yay. I feel special. I did it in three months, too. Yay again.
Chapter 47
Phil dropped his weapon in relief. "So, where the hell have you been?"
Rayen sat down with his back against the huge trunk of the Divine Tree. "Ah, nowhere important. Just having a brief chat with the creator of the universe, you know, the ordinary stuff."
Phil raised an eyebrow. "You're joking, right?"
"You said it yourself, Phil. I never joke."
Phil spoke again, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "OK then, what did this 'creator of the universe' say, oh almighty messenger to the gods?"
Shade was less skeptical. "Did you find out what is waiting on the other end of that portal?"
Rayen's smile faded, and his face became grave. "Yes, I did."
Phil finally realized Rayen was being serious. "So, what is it?"
Rayen sighed resignedly before speaking again. "Well, we'd better start at the beginning..."
He stood up, gazing up at the starry night sky before starting the tale. "The divine being watches over all of creation. The divine being's duty is to maintain the balance of nature. To do so, life and death, good and evil, creation and destruction, must all be in constant tandem. Therefore, the divine being, or Soa as we call him, is made up of not one, but two entities. One is the Creator, the one that we all acknowledge as Soa. However, most people do not know of the other entity."
Phil interrupted, but Rayen did not seem angered. He had asked the same question himself. "So, wait. There's two gods?"
Rayen shook his head. "No. They are both part of one being."
Dawn looked up from where her chin rested on her folded hands. "Like a split personality."
Rayen looked surprised. "Actually, it's a great deal like a split personality. Anyway, the other entity is known only as the Murderer. While it is the Creator's duty to create life and maintain it, it is the Murderer's job to take it away and destroy it. The two constantly clash, and because there is an equal amount of effort put forth by both entities, they counterbalance each other, and neither side dominates. When the Murderer created the Moon Prophecy, the Creator limited its usage by creating the Moon Objects. When the Murderer gave Melbu Frahma knowledge of the Moon Objects, the Creator gave Charle knowledge on the ability to create the Signet Spheres. They are constantly checking each other's power."
Shade's brown eyes narrowed. "Do they not realize they are the same being? If they did, wouldn't they not throw themselves at each other when all their jobs truly are is to counterbalance each other instead of trying to gain supremacy?"
"That's a good point. Yes, they do realize that they are the same being. However, their single most primordial instinct is to attempt to gain power over the other. They cannot fight it. Everything the Creator makes the Murderer curses. Humans were damned with greed and lust, Winglies with arrogance and disdain, and Gigantos with brutality and ineptitude. Thus, all life is imperfect, and the balance continues to reign."
Oraeus's fists clenched at the mention of Gigantos, but he relaxed. As much as he hated to admit it, true Gigantos were brutal and inept. But the true problem was that humans had trouble not applying the same adjectives to half-Gigantos.
Rayen went on. "But in the past millennium, the Murderer's presence seems to have lessened. There have been no wars in the past thousand years, only minor skirmishes. Life expectancy has skyrocketed; people just aren't dying as much as they used to. At first, the Creator believed the Murderer had burned himself out after the Second Dragon Campaign, but in the past thirty years or so he's gotten suspicious. Thus, he returned the Dragoon Spirits to Endiness."
Dawn jolted when she heard Rayen mention the date. Her mother had found the Silver Dragoon Spirit thirty years ago. Her Spirit must have been one of the first to return. It was all starting to make sense.
Phil scratched the back of his head. "So the Creator made the Dragoon Spirits?"
Rayen nodded and continued. "Yes, but both sides of the divine being agreed to their creation. The Dragoons are the ultimate defenders of the balance, because whether they are used for protection or destruction is determined solely by the people who wield their power. Anyway, right before I found my Dragoon Spirit and this all started, the Creator learned why the Murderer had been so seemingly docile for the past thousand years. During the past millennium, the Murderer has been saving his energies, using only minimal amounts of his power so that he appears beaten, but not plotting revenge. But he is in reality putting those energies to better use."
Rayen stopped, then looked at the portal that hovered menacingly over the gigantic tree. "On the other side of that gateway is an army."
Phil shrugged. "No big deal, how large is this army?
"Its size is unfathomable. Everything that has lived or been born in the past one thousand twenty-six years has a counterpart on the other side. Everything, animals, humans, Winglies, even Dragons."
Nieva seemed troubled at this, and the Sacred Sister voiced her concerns aloud. "But the Murderer can't create, can he? He can only destroy."
Rayen nodded. "True. But he didn't truly create them. Spawned would be a better word. Each of those demons is made from the dark emotions of their copies, their anger, their fear, and their sorrow. Remember the Divine Dragoon? When the Murderer watched him release the Dragons, he decided to reveal himself to the man, use him to open the portal. His plan worked. The fool lent his body to his demon clone, and the Divine Dragoon was the result. He sabotaged me and stole the Divine Dragoon Spirit, then used its power to gain possession of the Moon Objects and the Moon Child. Then he was able to open the gateway through which the army will now pass through."
Phil took this opportunity to make a sarcastic crack. "Do they always intervene this much, or are they just giving us special treatment?"
Rayen sighed. "They are manipulating the world every day. They tailor the situations to the way they believe that will profit them most. However, they have no control over the decisions we make. They just doctor the world around us and hope that we do what they want. Forcing us to do something is the one thing that is truly beyond their powers. As often as not, we take a different direction. That is what frustrates them most."
Sean spoke up for the first time. Now only Kyra remained silent. "But what I don't get is, how can there be a Moon Child without the Moon that Never Sets?"
Rayen gave a small chuckle before he answered. "Ah, now there was the Murderer's one stroke of genius. The Moon that Never Sets is truly only a front, while the real danger lies inside it. The moon was hollow. Inside it was a vortex of pure magical energy. When he learned of it, the Creator limited its power by only allowing it to grant the status of Moon Child to one person every one hundred and eight years. Every time a Moon Child is born, the vortex expends the enormous amount of magical energy it gives to the Moon Child. The Moon that Never Sets glowed red every hundred and eight years because of that magical energy leaving the vortex and entering the body of the Moon Child. Thus, the Moon Prophecy was born. After the Moon that Never Sets was destroyed, the vortex remained, but there is no longer a visible sign that a Moon Child is being born."
Shade stood up. "But there's one thing I don't understand. Why did the Creator tell you all of this?"
"Because there was one last creation he made as a last resort, when all else was doomed to fail. The Guardian Dragoon."
Another puzzled look crossed Phil's face. "Guardian Dragon? I've never heard of one of those..."
Rayen smiled. "That's because there isn't one."
Phil grew even more confused. "Then how do you get a Spirit if a Dragon has never died?"
"Simple. I make my own."
He held out his hand, palm upwards, and suddenly a beam of light shot from each of the seven other Spirits. The Dragoons looked down at their gems, but they remained unharmed. In Rayen's palm sat a new Spirit, exactly identical to the others, except that it appeared to be made of clear crystal. Rayen frowned down at it, apparently disappointed. "It is incomplete. I must go to Ulara. They have something I need there."
Kyra finally broke the silence, speaking for the first time since Rayen had arrived. "You can't go there. Ulara disappeared eight hundred years ago, with a mountain sprouting up in its place."
Rayen turned to her. "Don't you find that slightly odd?"
The Wingly tossed her head impatiently. "Of course, but explorers have checked every inch of that mountain. There's nothing unusual about it, just how it got there."
"Well, thanks for the load of reassurance, but I'm sure I can find it. I'll borrow Balaeris for a little while, and I'll be back in a day or two."
Kyra still wasn't convinced. "What if the portal opens while you're gone?"
"It won't. Even if it did, one young Dragon won't make too much of a difference, and if my Dragoon Spirit doesn't work, I won't be much good anyway."
The Violet Dragoon shook her head, her mane of silver hair rippling. "You're wasting your time."
Rayen shrugged. "If I'm wasting my time, then I might as well be quick about wasting it so I can get back. Nieva, you don't mind me taking Balaeris, do you?"
The Sacred Sister waved her hand. "Of course. As far as I'm concerned, he belongs to you anyway."
"All right then." Rayen motioned to the young Dragon, and Balaeris responded eagerly. As Rayen slid onto the crimson-scaled back, the Red-Eye took off, wings slicing through the night air.
Once the other Dragoons were out of sight, and the Divine Tree was a mere twig on the ground below, Balaeris spoke to his rider. "Why do think that we can find this city? Kyra said people checked all of it, right?"
Rayen folded his hands behind his head, his hair whipping about in the wind. "The explorers saw what the Winglies wanted them to see. Do not worry, they will admit us."
Author's Note: I basically rewrote Endiness theology in this chapter. *blink, pause* *shrugs* Ah well, sucks for them.
So there isn't a Red-Eye/Divine fusion, there's an everything fusion. I know it's not exactly original, but wait a little while. You'll find out that there's a lot more in that Spirit than even Rayen knows about... *insert evil chuckle here*
Anyway, I explained all about the portal and the Moon Objects and stuff, so be happy. I hope that got rid of all the questions and junk like that.
Plushies... I could make a lot of money off of those... *summons a horde of plushies* Yay! *grabs one of each character for himself* *dances around with a Rayen and a Shade plushie taped to his head* Buy yours today! O_o I have issues.