Daleth watched the Echo before him as it talked. "You, Daleth, killed me and my friends only hours ago... No, wait, you didn't kill us. You released us. But despite the fact that that thing of evil no longer controls us, we were not allowed into the gates of paradise. Xenif, Taelos, Sreaya, Quanzirman, and myself are stuck in purgatory. We have killed so many people in the last six hundred years that we were deemed an evil, despite the fact that we were not the ones killing. Evil was 'forcing' us to do so. You have no idea..." his voice faded, and he paused.

Daleth merely stared, and although he tried to speak, his voice would not come to life.

"Once again, more people will be punished after death for crimes they did not commit: your friends. And so, it has been decided that the others and I shall atone for our crimes by killing the evil that spawned our hatred and theirs, while at the same time saving your friends. I will not allow this darkness to consume any more lives." The Echo drew his own, shadowy sword, and turned toward Takmir. "This is memory re-lived." Daleth thought he heard it chuckle. "And as such, I know his power. At one time, I wielded it as well. That vision he gave you...that is his strength. He can create fantastic visions that appear real to the one he uses them on. Daleth, beware of this power."

Katmir stood a mere ten feet in front of the white Takmir, and to Daleth's eyes, it was almost like a mirror's reflection. He pointed at the mirror and yelled at the Echo: "How can you come out of the mirror if only an Echo of Takmir is allowed to come out?"

"Because...I am Takmir. And Takmir is I. We are one in the same blood. The same goes for the others. Only Taelos has two souls."

"Then I was right. Celos..."

"Yes. Now, I must redeem myself!"

He charged Takmir and jumped into the air. Takmir was waiting for him, and as Katmir took to flight, Takmir followed. The two clashed swords in mid air, leaving a resonance that pierced Daleth's ears. Katmir twisted around in mid air and swung under Takmir's second attack, then kicked him to the ground in one fluid motion. Takmir was flung to the ground in a flurry of air, tumbling head over heel, but managed to land untouched on his feet. Katmir landed right in front of him, and the two clashed swords. There was a flurry of motion, and the ground began to shake once more. Daleth watched as Takmir bashed the Echo with the butt of his sword, then proceeded to grab him by the tail, and start spinning him around. After he gained some speed, Takmir let go and heaved the Echo across the arena. Katmir flew directly into an archway with broke into bits by the impact, but it also knocked Katmir back into awareness. When he approached the wall on the other side of Lower Jueno, he turned around, placed his feet on the wall, and pushed back. He shot like a missile back at Takmir, who wasn't quick enough to dodge. Katmir tackled the pale warrior and the two were sent tumbling over in a flurry of fists. Soon enough, Takmir was kicked off of Katmir, and the Echo got up and watched as Takmir recovered his footing and began to place a finger on his forehead. Takmir closed his eyes, and the air began to ripple, and then wave. Daleth tried to yell to the Echo, but found no air to scream with. He was choking; the air had been sucked away from him. When he tried to breath, he found nothing there to put in his lungs.

"Daleth. Listen to me. His power of hallucination works on the body, mind, and soul." Daleth tried to concentrate through the red. "You must resist this one yourself, he is telling your mind there is no air to breath, and that you are choking, but in fact, nothing had changed. Steady yourself. Resist."

Half unconscious, Daleth told himself that there was oxygen in the air, and that he was breathing just fine. The air was there, only his perception was not. Soon enough, his mind cleared, and he was breathing normally, as though he had never been choked.

Takmir watched Daleth get his air back, and after seeing his attempt at killing him fail, placed his other hand on his forehead once more and concentrated much like the first time. The air grew hot and stifling, but did not choke Daleth. Takmir took the hand off his forehead, and to Daleth, nothing looked different, except that the Echo looked absolutely horrified of Takmir now. Daleth watched in horror as Takmir walked up to Katmir, took his sword, and swiftly cut him into two pieces. After watching the Echo fall apart, Takmir walked over to the mirror, and shattered it by throwing it against a wall.

"No. NO!" Daleth was stunned. All was lost? The mirror and the Echo, both were dead. Was there no hope now?

Suddenly, the voice reappeared in Daleth's head.

"It is merely another illusion Daleth. Once again, you must resist it yourself. Nothing has changed. Tell yourself that."

Daleth nodded to himself, and closed his eyes, despite the fact that Takmir was walking toward him with the sword in hand. He told himself no hope was lost, and that both the Echo and mirror were still intact. When he opened his eyes, he once again found the Echo standing in front of Takmir with his sword out, and the mirror was back in a full piece.

"Man, this is confusing as hell." Daleth was feeling rather sick.

At this time, the pale Galka was obviously starting to get agitated. He placed both hands on his forehead and for a final time closed his eyes. This time Daleth felt no change in the air, and his vision remained the same.

Then he noticed Takmir was shimmering, like a TV set that had not been very well focused. He suddenly turned a golden color, and promptly split into several different clones. Daleth found himself staring at nearly a dozen pale Galkas, all of which looked the same.

Daleth calmed himself down. Obviously, this was merely another illusion...right? "Uh, Katmir, these aren't real right?"

The Echo paused, and then spoke. "Somewhat."

"What exactly do you mean, 'Somewhat'?"

Again, the Echo hesitated, and continued. "Only one of these Galkas you see in front of you is the real Takmir. But..."

"But WHAT?"

"Despite the fact that they are illusions, any one of them can kill you just as ably as the original."

"Oh, shit."

The dozen pale Galkas suddenly jumped in several directions; most of them went for the Echo, and a few jumped out of sight, and one of them came directly for Daleth.

"Shit! I can't attack him!"

"If you do not, he will kill you."

"He's my friend! Can't I just like, try to talk my differences out with him or something?!"

"You can try."

Daleth looked at the approaching mirage and tried to converse with it as it walked towards him. "Hey, Takmir, buddy....uh.....wanna go farm for silk threads?"

Takmir kept walking.

"Maybe we can go pick up some mithra chicks!" Daleth rolled his eyes at his own lame joke. (Mithra chicks? What the hell was I thinking?) he wondered in his mind.

"Maybe we can go ki-" Daleth jumped back as Takmir swung at his torso. "Shit that was close! Dammit, sorry Takmir, I got no choice!"

Daleth flipped back down onto the ground and met Takmir's sword with his lance. The two struggled for a moment, and then Daleth snapped over to the side and swung his left leg to trip one of the Takmirs. The pale Galka hopped up into the air, and placed his sword in a piercing motion as he rushed towards Daleth's head. Daleth rolled to the side, and found that the attacking Galka was gone. There was a screech in the air, and he looked up to see Cerulean flying toward him. Daleth readied his lance as the wyvern dived at him, but at the last moment, it pulled up, and flew behind Daleth onto a nearby roof of a house where Takmir was waiting for it. The two of them came off the roof and walked towards Daleth. Cerulean suddenly rushed forward and grabbed the lance out of Daleth's hand and flew off with it. Takmir continued walking towards him, and Daleth started backing away, totally unarmed.

He turned back to see if the Echo was any better off, and found that it was fighting a hopeless battle against several of the clones/Takmirs. One of the Galkas rushed forward and smashed Katmir in the face, and while he was stunned, two of the Takmirs charged forward and slashed at the Echo. There was a moment of silence, and Katmir fell onto the ground, unconscious and bleeding. The remaining pale warriors put away their swords and started walking towards Daleth as well.

Daleth knew he was going to die; he was unarmed and outnumbered. "I can't even go out with a fight!" He voice was meek and childish, but inside, he felt some strength left. He closed his eyes and listened as the dozen sets of footprints come closer, and then stop, only a few feet from Daleth.

He opened his eyes to see all twelve of them with their swords raised high in the air ready to strike. Daleth sighed heavily, and gave a look at disgust at one of the pale Galkas.

"Do you remember that you borrowed 20k gil from me a week before, Takmir?"

Daleth summoned his strength and pushed it into his legs, and pushed himself away from the ground. He timed his flip to land behind one of the clones, and as soon as he landed, swung his left leg around him, tripped the clone, and grabbed the black sword that flew from the Galka's hand.

"Well, sorry, but I'm gonna hafta stick around until I get it repaid."

He put the sword out in front of him, and looked at the sword gleam. The Takmirs charged, and Daleth swung madly about him, dodging blows and slices and flipping back and forth attacking the others. He never actually got a hit off, the Galka's were far too quick, but he did exactly what he needed to do. Let the Echo recover.

There was a large, heaving cry in the background, and two of the Clones were picked off the ground and slammed into each other's heads. They fell to the ground in a slump and vanished, and the remaining clones looked at the bleeding Echo that was breathing heavily standing before them.

He rammed the nearest clone with his shoulder and followed it as it flew through the air and met it before it hit the wall. The Echo drew his sword and pierced Takmir through the heart, and it disappeared as well.

In the meantime, Daleth jumped into the air and landed in the middle of the circle of Galkas. He uppercutted one of them into the air, rolled underneath, and slashed at its back. It gave a cry, and vanished. Daleth jumped back toward the Echo and stood next to it, sword poised and ready.

The eight remaining pale Galkas stared at the two warriors in front of them breath heavily for a moment, then sheathed their swords. They stood silent for a moment, and seven of them vanished, leaving the real Takmir behind, who was scowling

And he was pissed.

Daleth didn't even see it coming. Before he knew what was happening, he found the Echo next to him had been knocked into the air, slashed by an unseen force, punched in the air by a flurry of fists, and thrown into the wall. Daleth blinked. It all happened in about half a second, and Takmir was standing back in front of him once more. He gave another angry look, and was gone.

Daleth looked wildly about the street, and found nothing there except the dead bodies. There was a flash of wind, and Daleth was in the air and flying toward a wall before he had even known it. With a slam, he hit the wall face first, gave a cry, and was slashed in the back by a sharp blade. He slumped to the ground, was picked up by the back of the neck, and thrown once more, this time straight up into the air.

Feeling helpless as he accelerated upwards, Daleth gave a moan, and then felt several more cuts rip across his body. The blade was so sharp he felt no pain, but he realized blood was quickly being excavated from his body. He was dying.

Once more a hand grabbed Daleth by the neck, and he was heaved toward the ground. Daleth crashed into the ground with a large cracking noise and a snap, and found that he could barely move his fingers and eyes, but not the rest of his body.

He looked up to see the sun blotted up by a large, black figure with a white face. Daleth clenched his eyes and teeth and pain, and heard a sword smack the pavement next to his fingers. He rolled his head to see the Echo's sword next to his fingers.

"Daleth. Use it."

Daleth struggled to grasp his fingers around the sword, and met Takmir's sword with the Echo's. He fought against the force of Takmir's strength, and found he was losing, and Takmir's sword was drawing close to his throat.

Then the sword in Daleth's began to shine.

It was faint, at first, a pale blue glow. It grew into a golden light, and soon became a feel blown explosion of white light. Daleth felt warmth in his body, and he got up, sword in hand, to see that Takmir was blinded by the light.

"NOW DALETH." The voice seemed to be having trouble speaking.

Daleth stared at the shining sword in his hand for a second, turned it around, and impaled Takmir squarely upon the heart. The Galka gave a cry, and then turned the same color as the sword in Daleth's hand.

"Run..." The voice was fading, and Daleth knew the Echo was dying.

Daleth turned on his heals, and hauled ass. He ran as fast as he could towards the nearest undamaged building and felt his back start to get scorched by an incredible heat. He looked back to see that Takmir was exploding with a red light, and it was filling the street with heat. Daleth dove into the building just as the explosion reached him, and covered his head from the falling rocks from the ceiling as the ground shook from the power of the light.

Then it grew silent, and Daleth walked into the street, finding it utterly demolished. Rubble was all the remained of the structures and walls, and Daleth limped over towards the mirror, which seemed untouched, and picked it up. He glanced over at the sword, which was now black and shimmering, and lying next to a Galka. He looked back at where the Echo had been knocked into the wall, only to find it gone.

"The sword left behind houses the soul of the thing, which corrupted your friend, and must never be touched by anyone except you. That is who you are Daleth: the Carrier. You must keep this accursed weapon away from mortal hands, because it will reinstate the evil we stopped here today should anyone touch it save you. Keep it hidden, now and forever. However, your task is not done. Four more are left, and you must do the same there as you have done here. However, I wish to thank you, my friend. I have attained my redemption, and may now enter eternity. When you see my friends, tell them that I miss them and eagerly await their arrival. We shall be friends once more in the afterlife. Thank You, Daleth." The voice faded away with the wind, and Daleth felt a presence leave with a brush of wind.

"No." Daleth said. "Thank you, Katmir. Rest in peace."

And he was left alone with the steady breathing of Takmir.