Disclaimer: You know. Take a wild guess. Same as chapter 1. D3fan, I meant no offense in my other story "Babysitting". I'm serious. I didn't mean to offend you if I did. CooperPrincess, I'm in your brain! I shall control your mind! Bwahahahhahahhahahah!

(Ha, just kidding. Or am I???) Anyway, on with the story! Please read and review.











Chapter 8

The Finding of the seventh Realm



The gang had been searching the Medieval Planet for three days now. No luck on finding the Seventh Realm. Not even Robin, Link, or Bentley had any idea where the sacred realm was. The group had to search another day when Bentley finally radioed Fox on the realm's location.

"Fox, are you there? Fox, do you read?" Bentley screamed ion to the communicator.

"Yeah Bentley, I hear ya loud and...very loud." Fox replied irritated.

"Sorry." Bentley apologized. "I just can't contain my excitement. I think Peppy may have the realm's relative location."

"Good patch him through." Fox replied.

"Fox, scanners have indicated that the Seventh Realm is located in the Dark Forest." Peppy said as he got on the communicator.

"Okay then, point us in the right direction." Fox replied with a hint of relief in his voice. They finally could narrow the search down.

"C'mon!" Krystal pushed. "Time is of the essence!"

"Simple to find Fox." Peppy replied. "Just turn around."

The group turned around. Behind them was a forest that was said to be cursed. It was dark and the trees were tall and forbidding. There was a low hanging mist that covered the ground in an ghostly fashion.

"I ain't goin' in there." Bill stated as he backed away.

"That makes two of us." Katt added as she too backed away from the forest.

"Are you sure?" Fox asked Peppy as sweat trickled down his back.

"Yep. Sorry Fox. Once your inside that Forest, your on your own. The communicator... is..already...breaking....off...." Peppy said as the communicator was cut off by the trees. Or was it something else.

"Okay gang, lets do it!" Carmelita said as she readied her shock pistol.

"Easy for you to say." Krystal sweated.

"There could be some evil us eatin' monster in there." Falco added.

Carmelita looked at the forest. She thought she saw a pale, white figure. It looked like an Egyptian raccoon. She shook herself and blinked. When she looked into the forest again, the ghostly figure was gone. She shuddered.

"Okay. We'll go in as a group." Carmelita said to everyone nervously. Everyone got into a group and all at once, went into the forest.

Sly lingered a moment longer. The ghostly figure that Carmelita saw appeared before him. He blinked, but the figure got closer when he opened his eyes.

"Don't make my mistake..." the ghost spoke in a low, distant voice. "You are the only hope for Lylat."

"What..." Sly started to say.

"You must destroy the Taznagolon." The ghost continued. "I will guide you further when you reach the Seventh Realm. There, lies the sword that has the power to destroy Zeramon."

"But... I'm weak." Sly replied. "My ancestors weakness and lust for power flows in my blood."

"No. You are pure of heart. Look how loyal you are to your lover. Your friends." The ghost reassured him as it disappeared.

"Slytenkumen?" Sly asked himself. Then Carmelita appeared from out of the forest.

"Where were you?" She asked with a worried look in her beautiful brown eyes. "I thought I'd lost you."

Sly thought about how to describe what he had just seen.

"I'm sorry Carm. I was... thinking." Sly replied.

"About what?" Carmelita asked.

"About whether or not I'll make the same mistake my ancestor made." Sly sighed.

"You will face the same evil, Sly. And when that time comes, you will defeat it." Carmelita assured him as she pecked his lips. "Now c'mon, lets go and find fac our destiny's. Together."

"Okay." Sly replied as he readied his cane, which he kept strapped to his back. The two then went into the forest to catch up to the rest of the group. Behind them, Slytenkumen appeared and smiled.

"He won't make my mistake. He will destroy HIM." The ghost reassured himself. He disappeared to wait in the Seventh Realm. While the group would face but one challenge, Sly would face a great challenge that the others wouldn't.

The group stayed together and as they walked through the forest, they had to shoot several goblins, which were just plain ugly, but hostile creatures that came at them with spears. Carmelita, Fox, and Krystal managed to take them all out before they even got close. Carmelita was the most accurate and deadly by far.

"I can't help but notice." Carmelita couldn't help but brag. "But I seem to be outshootin' a bunch of mercenaries."

"Hey, shut up!" Krystal retorted playfully.

"Yeah. Our tactic is shoot first, shoot some more, shoot some more, shoot till there all dead then ask questions." Fox smiled.

"It works." Carmelita replied with a chuckle.

"Later! There's something up ahead." Bill said. He was basically defenseless, seeing as how his .357 magnum was out of ammo. Katt and Falco were in the same condition.

"This sucks!" Falco whined as he kicked a goblin in the head, breaking it's neck.

"We know!" Katt retorted as she took a goblin's spear and fended off other goblins with it. "Don't remind us!"

Sly was ahead of the group. He was the scout seeing how as he was fastest and nimblest. He was whacking off dozens of goblins. Carmelita ran over to join him. The two stood back to back, killing the army of goblins that were coming. After the battle, the group entered the clearing. It was a huge, beautiful field. Lucius green grass covered the field. Patches of blue, red, and yellow flowers dotted the field. The group entered the field. Then someone found something. A stone tablet sat on the groung in the middle of the field. The group approached the stone. The tablet that rested on it was written in the Cerinia language. Only Krystal could read it.

"What's it say?" Fox asked.

"It says.." Krystal began to read. "To find the entrance to the realm, a password you do not tell, There is a challenge you must face, to find the realm you must not get chased, do not run but fight instead, if you don't you'll soon be dead."

"That don't sound good." Sly stated as he looked around.

"Hold on, there's more." Krystal said as she held up her hand to silence him.

"Say these words and win the fight, the portal will open and you will be sent to the realm in a magical flight.

Kxo, dxo, sxo Dragaxo!"

"That's a weird summoning." Falco stated.

"Really weird." Katt said as she to looked around for a creature that the spell might have summoned.

A few moments later, the roar of a huge animal could be heard. Then a black dragon ripped out of the forest. It looked at the group and roared angrily.

"HOLY SHIT!" Carmelita screeched.

"SWEET JESUS!" Fox screamed.

"OH MY GOD!" Krystal screeched as she jumped into Fox's arms. The dragon was huge, but it's wings were full of huge rips, so luckily it couldn't fly.

"How do we beat this behemoth?" Sly cried. In his head, he heard the ghostly voice of Slytenkumen speak.

"Find a way to strike at it's heart." The voice spoke.

Sly looked at the dragons chest. A small hole big enough for a dagger was above the area where it's heart should have been. Sly then thought of a plan. It involved great risk. His plan was to try and climb up the dragon's leg and stomach, using the scales for climbing tools, and stab into the hole that revealed it's heart.

"Fox, you still got that dagger in your pack?" Sly asked.

"Yeah, but what freakin' good will that do against that thing?!!?!?!?" Fox replied.

"Look. See that hole where it's heart should be?" Sly said as he pointed to the dragons chest. Fox saw the hole and figured out what Sly planned to do.

"You're crazy!" Fox said. He handed him the dagger anyway. It was about 1 foot long and extremely sharp with jagged edges.

"Alright guys. Listen, distract the dragon while I move in close." Sly commended. He was acting braver than he felt, but he knew that he had to do this.

"Got it." Katt assured him.

"I got the perfect distraction." Bill stated.

"What?" Carmelita asked quickly. "Lets hear it."

"We scream like girls and run around the field." Bill said as he took off running.

"I can live with that." Krystal added as she to started to run in an attempt to distract the dragon. Carmelita looked worriedly at Sly.

"Good luck." She said as she kissed him. Then she to took off running

Soon everyone was running. Sly noticed the dragon was walking slowly after them. It look like as though the dragon knew that it would catch them. It took one step and caused a shock wave that shook the whole clearing. This threw the runners off balance. Then it did something unexpected. From it's mouth it shot a few globs of green slime. Each glob hit one of the runners, pinning them down. The Dragon roared thinking it had caught its latest meals.

"Sly, Hurry!" Carmelita called out from under the green slime that encased her whole body except her head.

"I think it's hungry!" Falco called. "Hey kid, Hurry!"

Sly didn't waste a second. He ran to the dragons feet.

"Hey ugly!" Sly hollered. The dragon looked down at him. It tried to step on him, but Sly just jumped as it brought it's foot into the air and landed on top of it. Sly began to climb up the dragons leg. It let out a roar and unleashed its fire breath. The fire breath set the green globs on fire. Only the outside luckily, but soon Sly's friends would be burned to a crisp.

"Hurry racoon!" Katt cried.

"Yikes!" Bill cried as he tried to blow on the flames that were at his feet.

The dragon, still trying to shake Sly off, stomped the ground on all fours. Sly managed to grab onto a scale. He was now about 10 feet from the hole. The dragon snorted out oil from it's nose. The oil strengthen the fire. Now Sly had even less time.

"Hurry up!" Krystal called. The green encasement that surrounded them was almost gone now.

Sly looked at his friends in danger. He felt something surge through his body. It was like a surge of energy. A type of energy he couldn't explain. Then it hit him. Pure energy. He didn't have time to marvel over the discovery. If he didn't do something fast, or his friends would die. Then Sly jumped for the hole. He made the jump. He stabbed the dagger into the dragon's heart. Sly hit the ground and ran over to his friends faster than he'd ever ran before. He didn't know it, but invisibly, a blue aura of pure energy, a energy only those that were pure of heart had was emitting from his body. This was how he had jumped 10 feet. He gave a quick glance at the dragon behind him. The dragon reared back in pain, let out a final roar, and collapsed in a dead heap. As it did, it disappeared. So did the fires and green globs that encased the others.

"What just happened?" Carmelita asked with a hint of fear in her voice.

"Was that thing a MAGIC dragon?" Fox asked in amazement.

"Who cares!" Bill said. "Its gone!"

"Like we should be!" Katt added. Then in the middle of the field where the stone tablet sat, a white portal opened in the ground. The portal swirled into a vortex, awaiting the group that had defeated the dragon. The group all looked at each other and once. Then they all jumped in. One after another. They flew through a white magical tube. After what seemed like an hour, they were dropped in a huge hallway. It was dark, so it was hard to see.

"Where are we?" Krystal asked as she clung close to Fox who was clinging close her.

"Man, its freezing." Falco complained as he shivered.

"Guys....." Sly stared to say with a hint of relief in his voice.

"What baby?" Carmelita asked.

"This is it. THIS is the Seventh Realm." Sly stated. As he did, the hallway lit up. Huge columns were on each side of the white marble floor. Statues of the originally seven swordsmen were between the columns. The group stared at the ancient heros and noticed that Slytenkumen's statue was missing. The they looked at the end of the hallway. At the end, a huge statue of Slytenkumen stood up straight with his hands folded out across his chest. He appeared as though he was holding something. Two stairwells led up to his flat hands on each side of his palms.

"There they are." Fox stared at the statue in awe. The group walked up the stairs. It took forever because the stairs had over 5000 steps. (The statue was really tall.)

Once up there, the swords could be seen resting in there stone pedestals. Everyone except Sly walked up to one of the 6 swords sitting there. As they grabbed the swords and began to pull, blue energy shot out of the swords and lit up the room. Soon all that anyone could see was a sea of blue energy. All that Sly could hear was his friends crying out in pain at the energy charge surging through there bodies. After the energy disappeared all Sly's friends looked the same. But they could do amazing things.

"So what can you guys do now?" Sly asked excitedly.

They just looked at each other and said all at once: "We don't know."

"Forget it. We'll find out later." Sly sighed.

"Hey Sly, where's your sword?" Falco asked sarcastically. "Ain't you special enough to wield one."

"Falco shut the ..." Krystal started. Then blue beams shot out of everyone's swords. The blue beams worked there way to the statue's mouth. After they all were absorbed by the stone mouth, a rumble could be heard. Then the mouth opened and a small staircase popped out of the mouth.

Everyone backed away. They could barely see inside the mouth. Unfortunately, it was dark, so they couldn't see anything.

"Sly... I think your sword is... in there." Fox gulped.

"Hey kid, good luck Falco said. He stared to pat his shoulder, but in a flash of blue magic, he and everyone else that was holding a sword except Carmelita, disappeared. They reappeared in the field where they'd fought the dragon. The portal was gone, so they couldn't reach them.

"I hope they make it." Krystal said.

"Yeah. In the mean time, lets see what powers our swords gave us." Katt suggested.

"Yeah. We need to learn our swords limits." Bill added. They then began to practice.

Meanwhile in the realm, Carmelita kissed Sly and He just looked a her. He took her by the arms and looked her right in the eyes.

"Carmelita, if I die, I just want you to know that I love you and that you're the only hope for Lylat."

"Sly, you're not gonna die. I know you can do it." Carmelita told him in a unsteady tone. Sly just smiled. He then entered the dark room inside the mouth. Carmelita tried to follow but the minute she entered the mouth a force field popped up. Sly turned around and looked at Carmelita. Fear was clearly visible in her eyes. Sly smiled a smile that said to Carmelita "I'll be alright. Don't worry about me." He then turned and slipped into the darkness.

"NO Sly!" Carmelita cried. She pounded her hands against the invisible barrier that separated her from her loved one.

Meanwhile in the room Sly was in, he walked for about ten minutes. Then a small portion of the room lit up in white light. The light was centered on the final sword. It to rested in a pedestal. It had a golden handle and a long shining steel blade. The handle hand a diamond in the center and on each side of the hilt it had blue jewels. Then the ghost of Slytenkumen appeared above the sword.

"My descendent, to be able to wield this sword, you must absorb the orb of pure energy, as this sword has unspeakable power that no one but someone with an unspeakable pure energy level can wield." The spirit spoke.

"I understand. If this is what I have to do to save Lylat, then lets do it!" Sly said as he accepted the challenge. The sword made a blue energy ball that was about the size of a beach ball.

"The pain this orb causes as you absorb it is beyond words. If you give into the pain, your insides will disintegrate. If you succeed, then you will be given powers beyond words and the ability to wield the sacred sword." The ghost added. The orb was then sucked into Sly's body. He stood there for a second then inside his body, the pain began to hit. He fell to his knees, clutching himself trying to fight the pain. He was screaming in pain as he rolled on the floor, tying to absorb the orb. Carmelita heard his cries. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" She heard him scream in pain.

"Sly!" She screamed. "He's in pain! I've got to go to him!"

She started to run toward the mouth, but she bounced off the force field. "Oh Sly." She said as a tear rolled down her cheek. She rested her head on the force field.

Three days later, Sly finally absorbed the orb. Carmelita was finally allowed to walk into the room. She found Sly lying on the floor. He was burning up. Carmelita cradled his body in her arms. She opened her canteen and poured some water into his mouth. Sly didn't even blink. Carmelita ripped a piece of her jacket off and wet it into a rag. She dabbed it on Sly's forehead. He sighed and opened his eyes.

"Rest easy." Carmelita told him. "You need to rest."

"But Carmelita, ain't you hungry?" Sly asked weakly. "You've been here for three days."

"I love you more than food. I'll stay with you until you recuperate." Carmelita said as she held his hand tightly. Sly smiled at her and out of the corner of his eye, saw Slytenkumen smiled at him and said something he heard inside his head.

"You did it." The ghost then disappeared. Sly went back to his rest. Carmelita kissed his brow. "Rest easy Sly. Your our only hope." She whispered in his ear. Sly nodded his head and went back to sleep. He needed to save his energy. It was up to HIM to destroy Zeramon.