"Another has fallen."
"How can that be?! You are the heir to the greatest perfection, the ancestor of a power greater than any other. And now you tell me that she not only fell, but that she failed to destroy Truth OR the Light?!"
"It isn't so simple as that. You know the girl was helped, and without the two souls we are still unbalanced."
"Then perhaps we must fight as one, not separately. Although our plans are working, I do not see a very good outcome from this. We need an outlet."
"We have already decided upon that. The girl, she has already been chosen for the trap."
"Fine. Whichever of you should come face to face with the girl, you must lose. This is a delicate balance, and we must regain our lost trait of being hidden. Be sure to leave the girl applicable to our ways as you die."
"An end to the fun? But fighting the Sandorian armada was so much entertainment..."
"You know what must be done. Pleasure after success."
"We were doing well until Katmir interfered and let the girl know about these events. I would gladly ring his neck, should I see him again. Shame he is dead."
"Forget about that, we will use he own tricks against him."
"What about the others...the ones they call Fupac and Halystaru?"
"I care not. Kill them, beat them, maim them, or do whatever you like, but make sure they do not save the girl. We must continue to make them think they understand. One word of caution, if Fupac or Halystaru should learn, I want them dead. Eliminated. Obliterated."
"They are coming."
"Remember to take the fall. Only then can we rise."
He came at midnight.
A wily fellow, he did not seem eager about his job, but it was most certainly he. He was perplexed by the silence I had left, curious about the lack of bodies or monsters. When I had finished off the foolhardy men and women around the area, I soon grew bored and took on the monsters for sport as well. They weren't much of a challenge, just something to ease my mind while I waited.
But now, he had finally arrived. The Elvaan bearing Truth, unaware I was watching him all the while. I always found these animals curious, they tended to try and explain things as they occurred, thinking before acting. I saw no use in it; a slow act meant a quick death. Shedding blood easily solves many conflicts. Regardless, it made them smart, cunning, unpredictable in ways that seem the most obvious. That was why most of their kind is best killed off immediately before they can comprehend anything.
But...what harm could it do? I was bored; I needed entertainment. Something to ease my mind. Perhaps a little game of cat and mouse would do, and if I made sure to put my speed to good use, perhaps I could decapitate him or slit his throat before he had an actual chance to lift Truth. I had no interest in fighting the soul of my predecessor; I knew his power.
He turned, obviously studying something, and I reacted without a moments notice. I hopped from my perch and drew my axe, and sped over to him, standing a mere few inches behind him. He did not sense me immediately, but when he did, I stayed to his back and out of sight, making sure to let him get a quick glance of me, but not enough to confirm whom I was.
Odd...he didn't seem shocked. Most of his kind's hearts erupted with energy at such an encounter, a beat that made me smile. He seemed resilient. He merely stared into the air. Perhaps I will need to be more direct. Once more he turned looking for me, but I easily stayed out of his sight with my speed. It is difficult not to create a windstorm with my agility, and thus alert him, so I didn't move as fast as I possibly could. When he still did not appear changed, I promptly ran in front in full force, grabbed his throat, and slammed him against a nearby rock wall in a second's time. Far too quick for any man to comprehend.
Ah...there it was. His heart was finally reacting, increasing in speed, a beat that I can follow and listen to. It did not grow as high as I thought it would, but it was enough to make me smile, and I was growing eager for shed blood. Not yet however...I still need more of a response.
For a moment, I watched him try to think. Once again, I could easily have cleaved his skull in two, yet...I was curious as to how he would react. After rubbing his chin for a moment, he picked up Truth, and looked into its reflection. I let him see me, standing behind him, but I was ready for what the mirror would show. I held the axe above his head, eager for an excuse to splice his head, and he merely stared. All I was waiting for was an action, anything, that would let me drop the axe. Playing with these creatures isn't half the fun of taunting them with their own demise.
He stared for a moment. I grew impatient, thinking his stupidity to be a kind of game, and just before I decided to kill him, he turned the mirror upwards, shining light into my eye. I was blinded for only a short moment, long enough for him to roll away, and I quickly dissipated into the night air so that once more he would be clueless.
But he was getting smart, he seemed to know what he was up against. I decided that I should wait no longer to finish him off. Odd however, he is running? Hoho...funny, I did not think his type to be a coward. Perhaps the game can go on a little longer. I sped after him towards the beach, intent on playing with him some more, then got out of sight to see what he would do. He kept running, into the ocean and its waves, and stood there. Looking for me. Why?
Fupac looked side to side, searching the entire area for Seryaa. She was nowhere in sight, but he knew she was there nonetheless. Seryaa, even before the Silver had come along, had a habit of playing games and teasing others. That would only be escalated in this new form, and Fupac knew that Seryaa could have easily cut him apart without any notice should she have chosen too.
The main threat here was Seryaa's speed. Her incredible agility made for an impossible way to follow her with sight, and she was so quick that hearing was too slow to follow her as well. So instead of waiting helplessly around, he had run to the ocean. She may be fast, but she wasn't a ghost. So he waited.
Five minutes, which seemed like an eternity, passed, and Fupac hadn't felt nor saw any movement. If he hadn't known any better, he would say he was alone, but Evil apparently had insane patience. When it finally did come, Fupac recognized it immediately.
The water lifted in a line into the air and rushed towards Fupac, who dodged immediately to the side and ran around to the other side of the beach. The water continued to rise out for a distance, and then stopped at a point where a blur formed into a white Mithra who stared, eyes burning, right at Fupac. To get to him, Seryaa had to run through the water, and the water was like a beacon screaming out her location, since her speed caused it to fly into the air. Fupac smiled to himself. Maybe he did stand a chance.
I took too long, just like I thought, the creatures are contemplative, and are good thinkers, and I have been tricked by playing with him for too great a time.
After chasing this man into the ocean, there was no chance of stealth. The waves and water did not make for an easy path of no detection, so I decided to reveal myself and fight this man one on one. I held up my axe so that he could see it shimmering in the moonlight, hoping to scare him, but he did not stir nor move. Pah.
In a moment, I was upon him. The waves slowed my movement and revealed me, but my greatest weapon was still my speed, and he barely met his scythe with my axe in time. He gritted his teeth as I tried to throw down his power, but I remained calm, serene. His strength was great, but he head forgot one thing. My speed.
In a second I had ducked underneath his scythe, punched him in the stomach, and elbowed him in the back, and he was thrown into the ground on his belly. He had forgotten my speed, for which I had repaid him in tow. He looked unconscious, and I was not prepared when he struck out and tripped me, and before I could react, he had picked up Truth, that damnable mirror, and shone it right into my face.
Fupac felt the mirror pulsate and warm, and before it had finished, the Mithra had retreated over to the other side of the beach, but the mirror had gotten its look, and that was all it needed. Fupac struggled to hold it in place as the entire area was lit by the glow, but he did not let go as an Echo stepped out of the mirror and into the water, leaving the mirror to rest.
Fupac let the mirror fall and looked in front of him to see a beautiful Mithra, with white hair and a dangling tail, standing before him. Fupac had always found Mithras pleasing to the eye, but this one's magnificence was uncanny; he was perplexed by its looks. Fupac quickly regained himself from the fight and stepped to the side so that he could get a clear look at Seryaa again, and without turning his eyes, he talked to the echo.
"Sreaya?" The Echo nodded, but did not speak. "I need your help..." Fupac's voice trailed off, and the Echo did not respond, but it seemed to hear him. All it continued to do was stare at the pale warrior in front of her, and Fupac continued to stare with here, intent on waiting for an opening.
-----------------------------
"That is what you get, my child, for being cocky and vain." Sreaya's voice spoke into my mind, and the memory of her voice and the power I once had left me angry, bitter.
"When will you give up evil? You know you cannot defeat these warriors, you are imperfect, and they know all your plans."
You think these mortals stand a chance?
"More than that, they can and will defeat you. In time they will find light, and when they do, you will still be imprisoned in those weapons bearing your name."
You don't seem to understand how we work. We know everything they plan, and we have adjusted.... accordingly.
"No matter what path you take, Evil, you still will not win. And today, right now, under this moonlit sky, you will fall as well, and my daughter will remain unharmed."
If and when I lose this body, Sreaya, it will be at my own choosing, and although you may get her back, you won't be alive to see it.
I charged at the Mithra, in full speed, but she was prepared; she had once had this power too. She simply sidestepped me, and I was left stumbling for a foothold...with this great of speed, it was impossible to stop without sliding in the water. She took an advantage of this; I felt a slash across my back and fell forward, silver dripping softly into the ocean. I turned and charged her and knocked her down onto her back, then lifted my axe for a blow, when the blasted Elvaan appeared once more and sent it flying from my hand with his scythe.
In anger, I turned around and grabbed his throat and lifted him into the air, my teeth gritting, and worked on crushing his throat. Sreaya, who was behind me, knocked me senseless and thereafter I turned around and sent her flying with a kick to the chest. I turned once more towards the man, and saw a scythe flying through the air, aimed for my head.
Fupac felt the blow would land, since Seryaa was still partially stunned and she had no weapon, but instead of taking the blow, she grabbed the scythe with both hands, and prevented it from hitting her. Fupac watched in horror and sliver irked out around Seryaa's hands as she struggled to hold the scythe back, then yanked it from Fupac's hands, and slashed him across the chest.
It was enough of a blow to get through his armor and send him into a daze, but it left no blood. Quick to react, and knowing that the scythe was slow to yield, Fupac smashed the Mithra across the face with a punch, which sent it stumbling backwards into Sreaya, who tripped her from the back and bunted her in the stomach with her own axe. The pale Mithra seemed stunned, but soon got up, and seeing how it was loosing, started a new tactic. It ran, back and forth, across the waves on the beach, using its incredible speed, which lifted the waves into the air. As she increased in speed, the waves got higher, until they were nearly twenty feet tall, whereupon Seryaa started running in a circle instead of a line.
The large column of water followed Seryaa, and soon curved into tornado of rushing liquid. It grew in size until it was huge, and Seryaa grew into a blur, then started running towards Sreaya and Fupac, with the tornado shortly in tow.
Fupac, half stunned and half shocked at this monstrous creation, was far too unprepared to dodge the whirlwind in time, and was sucked into it, along with Sreaya. Fupac felt like his whole body was being torn apart and the water felt as needles against his skin, piercing him and striking him millions of times across his whole body. Soon after, he was thrown from the towering water like a doll into a nearby wall, which smashed him senseless and left blood trickling out his mouth and down his chin. When Fupac finally regained himself, he saw that Seryaa stood on the other side of the arena, holding a bleeding Sreaya into the sky with her hands and her axe at Sreaya's throat. Fupac looked viciously all over for anything to save the Echo's life, but he did not see anything, until the tornado, still partially alive even without it's owner running around, sent his scythe flying at him and into the wall, two feet to Fupac's left.
I told you, even if you did get this body back, you would not leave here alive.
"I am already dead, you bastard. Nothing you do now nor ever will let you have me again, and I guarantee you won't have that body for long." She spit into my face, which I wiped off with my free hand, and gave her a playful look.
Defiant to the end?
"You know it."
I may not be able to kill you, but at least I can finish you off before your "mission" is complete, which will land you in an eternity of purgatory.
"Don't be so sure. Bad guys like you always get what they deserve."
Justice? Death? Imprisonment?
"No. A scythe in the back."
Before I could contemplate what she meant, there was a sound of a blade cutting through air, and I felt a great, powerful, shining blade bite directly into my back, and I felt the power of the Echo's imprisonment spread throughout my body.
Fupac, without a bit of hesitation, had thrown the Scythe head over heels at Seryaa's back. The blow was good, a direct hit at where the heart would be, and the stunned, Pale warrior fell to the ground on her knees and dropped the choking Sreaya. Fupac hauled over towards the two of them, and Seryaa began to light up and glow, a yellow golden light, which began to expand. Fupac half dragged, half carried Sreaya away from the beach, around a bend, and into a small cave when the entire area of the Dunes exploded in a ball of fire and light. Sand filled the air and flew into the cave where the two of them sat, and Fupac felt the heat of the blast like it was a breath of hot air bent on cooking him alive. When the air cleared, he looked out to see the air was choked with clouds of dust like a sandstorm, and he left Sreaya behind in the cave to look out at what had happened to the Pale warrior.
He found Seryaa, no longer pale and breathing, lying unconscious on the edge of the beach, with the water gently brushing against her. Next to her lay Fupac's scythe, which was no longer the silver, gleaming blade he knew it to be. It was now black in color, and its shape had twisted into a dark looking weapon, and it seemed to gleam at him in the moonlight. He left it stand there in the sand, and walked over to pick up Truth. He stared at the mirror for a moment and wiped off the sand on it, then walked back to the cave to see that Sreaya was gone. No trace of her was left, but Fupac felt sad that he had had no chance to say goodbye. He heaved the mirror over his shoulder and felt a light breath of wind go across his face, and as Fupac trounced off for Jugner Forest, he felt a little better about Sreaya's sudden disappearance.