For disclaimer see prologue.

{ …. } -thought speaking

Chapter 03

The Big Time

Yume started awake and knew something was wrong. All around his was darkness, the exact opposite of the void he normally met his master in. This place felt heavy as if moving would be too much effort. It was like he was in water; it took just a bit more effort to move. As opposed to endless whiteness, this was endless dark. His robe with its odd coloring blended seamlessly with the surroundings making him all but disappear.

"Ahem."

The sound instantly caught his attention, and he spun around as fast as his body would let him. Quickly as he could he brought his scythe to bear and stood ready. What greeted him however was an odd sight. A man, shorter than himself, in a brown version of his own cloak stood before him.

"Greetings Will or should I say Yume?"

Tightening his grip on the scythe Yume spoke slowly.

"How do you know my name? More importantly who are you and where are we?"

"I am the soul of the one who drown in the spring you fell into at Jusenkyo."

Yume nodded taking notes down in a notebook.

"As to why I am here …. Well your new mantle seems to have an adverse effect on the magic of the pool. It seems to attract souls that have yet been sent to the beyond. I believe that if you had touched any of the other pools you would have taken that pools trapped soul as well."

Yume nodded and continued taking notes as he finished he dispelled the pen and notebook (it is his mind after all). He then began to look around the figure before him.

"What may I ask are you looking for?"

"The monkey."

The figure before him face-faulted hard.

"Monkey?"

"Well the guide said that I fell into the spring of the drowned man holding a monkey."

"No the only thing to drown there was me."

The figure's tail made an appearance as he waved for Yume to see. The smile on Yume's face faltered as he heard that.

"Oh no …. Please tell me you're not a saiyian."

"A what? I'm just a sorcerer that was cursed by an enemy warlock. It was the same warlock that drowned me there."

"So you're just a normal sorcerer with a curse?"

"Basically."

Yume shoulders sagged in relief as he let out a shaky breath.

"So what exactly do you want? I can't send you to the beyond; I still lack proper soul reaping training. And the last thing we want is for me to try and botch it and trap you in limbo or something."

The figure shook his head vehemently.

"Oh no I certainly don't want that. I mean this is a better spot than the bottom of that pool."

"So what do you want then? If you want to take over my body I'll have you know that I won't let it go without a fight."

So saying Yume brought his scythe to a tighter grip before him. Again the figure shook its head.

"No, no, no, I've grown through my teens once already and that was enough. I have no desire to do it again. However it would seem that it is advantageous for me to help you in assisting you in your trial."

"Oh? And how would you do that?"

"Well as I previously stated I am quite an accomplished sorcerer in my own right. However I haven't mentioned much else."

Yume nodded and re-summoned his pad of paper and pen.

"My name is …. Err …. Was Typhous I was a mage in this valley some 5000 years ago. The cursed springs were a rather spectacularly failed experiment of mine."
Yume took a moment to digest that and shuddered at the thought of the power and control needed to make such a place. He remembered the power he had used to cast the fireball spell and that to him felt like a lot. Jusenkyo however was a massively monumental site of concentrated magical energy.

Near the springs is a rocky cliff-side there is where I made my home long ago. If my guess is correct it should still be there."

"So?"

"So in there is my collection of magical texts, scrolls, and tomes. Many of which go far beyond the book you are currently reading."

Yume stopped writing and began to ponder this. As it was he had absolutely no idea what kind of trial he would have to face and any advantages he could get would help immensely.

"What do you get out of this?"

"Aside from not spending eternity in the bottom of that pool or an equally dreary abyss?"

"Wait a sec if you created Jusenkyo why didn't you use your magic to get yourself out?"

"To perform magic I need a physical outlet when that warlock killed me and tossed my body into that pool my soul became trapped. That is of course till you came along."

Yume took to sitting and what he guessed was the equivalent to that floor and thought about that. After all it seemed like a decent enough deal. He gets knowledge and possible goodies and Typhous get a ticket out of the pool and a free comedy show.

"Well I guess as long as you don't try to take over or nothing I see nothing to hold me up."

Holding out his hand as he stood Yume smiled at Typhous.

"It's a deal."

Typhous smiled and firmly shook Yume's hand.

"Deal."

---------

Yume started awake in the darkness of his temporary room. Resting quite comfortably on his left arm was his new bride, Perfume. As he looked around the room he could see the shadows playing off the walls. The trees outside the window shifted softly in the breeze casting all the shadows into a slow dance around the room.

{Come, Yume we must go there is much to do.}

'Huh well there goes the idea of that having been a dream.'

With that Yume began the rather tricky task of prying Perfume from his arm. In the end he was forced to make liberal use of his scythe and a rather handy pillow. Once done Yume shook his cloak out and grabbed his scythe, giving Perfume a light smile.

'I won't be gone long will I?'

{No, of we make good time we should be back before dawn.}

With that Yume nodded and made his way out of the house.

As he approached the gate he stopped when he noticed the two rather alert guards. Two of them total were scanning both inside and outside the village walls. Sliding up next to a building safely out of visual range Yume decided that he would ask a question to his accomplice.

'Just out of curiosity why don't you just …. You know give me all of your knowledge?'

{Doesn't work like that. Your body needs to experience the training process so that you can build the proper power and control. Except for the initial power-up when you got the body, you have no magical skills what so ever. So while you can use magic you need practice to increase your control over it so you don't end up hurting yourself or pulling a muscle or something.}

The fact that Yume was confused was like saying the sun was bright, it was just a given. His response was basically.

'So no book no new powers?'

{*sigh* Basically.}

'Okay.'

Now with that out of the way Yume and Typhous were returned to their initial problem, how to get out of the village without any trouble. Yume happened to be looking around for something to throw in order to create a distraction, when his eyes caught the moonlight reflected by his scythe. In that instant Yume was struck with inspiration. Remembering what his boss had implanted in his head. Calling upon the powers needed, his form began to shift. Slowly his flesh began to seemingly melt away from him leaving nothing more than bare bleached-white bones. Although melted was as such a correct term as having said it evaporated, taking the form of a hazy black mist around his form. His height instead of shrinking as one would have thought grew at least six inches. Even the tail of his newly acquired cursed form (from which he had yet to change back) was not spared, it seemed to form an interlocking bone chain belt that surrounded his waist and tied in the back, adding to his overall appearance. Even his scythe changed, the blade or darkness had faded leaving a new shiny and wickedly sharp silver colored blade. Using said blade he took stock of his new appearance. The sight that greeted him was a hollowed skull. Slowly his pulled the hood of his cloak over his head returning it to shadowed obscurity. Please at his new appearance he slowly made his way to the gate and comforted in that fact that no one could really recognize him. By the time he was within four feet of the gate he was spotted.

"Halt who goes there?"

Yume pondered a response, and then rasped out one word.

"End."

That said he began to move forward again the light of the torches seeming to actively avoid his very presence. The younger of the guards reached out and grabbed his cloak halting his movement.

"You aren't leaving Will, very bad thing happen to a man who walks out on and Amazon wife."

His face still obscured in shadows he turned and rasped to the guard a slow mist rolling from his mouth as he did so.

"I know not of this mortal you speak of, as I said before."

Then he pulled his cloak down reveling the skull that was his head. Staring at the now frightened guard with his cold empty sockets.

"I am End, I am Death.'

The girl's hands recoiled quickly in both fear and shock. Yume continued.

"My business here is done for now, let me pass."

Neither girl argued as he stepped past them and into the night almost instantly disappearing into the darkness.

After quite a bit of walking he came to a stop when he felt Typhous speak in his mind.

{Turn left here.}

Looking to his left he saw a rather thick tangle of forest and shrugged. Still maintaining he death façade the cloaked skeleton move silently into the brush. After a bit of walking and a good deal of hedge trimming with his scythe he found the cliff-face he was looking for, at least he hoped so.

{Now follow the rock face north till you reach a corner of sorts.}

'Corner?'

{You know a ninety-degree corner.}

'This cliff has one of those?'

{ ….. Yes.}

'Ok … then what?'

{I'll tell you when we get there.}

So Yume moved north ducking under the occasional branch or outcropping from the cliff-side.

High above unbeknownst to our schizophrenic hero. A phoenix sentry was watching the trespasser, with the strange aura, move deeper into phoenix territory. Already he had sent his partner back to Mount Phoenix to inform Lady Kiima of this development. So now as opposed to attacking he flew gently above and behind the cloaked figure, making sure to keep him in sight.

Yume finally reached the only thing he'd seen so far that resembled a corner.

'So now what?'

{Look up and to your left. See that root sticking out of the rock? Pull it.}

As Yume did just that he began to hear a sound much like running water. A few moments later a part of the cliff-face began to fall away and formed a door. Cautiously he stepped into the darkness of the cave and out of the light provided by the moon.

{Now hurry enchant your blade with a low illumination spell, and pull the root back to close the door.}

Yume puzzled over the illumination spell for a moment till it came to him. Slowly he cast the spell and the blade of his scythe lit up with a dull bluish-green glow. Focusing he made the light a bit brighter then turned around and pulled the root that was now on his right. He heard the sound of moving water again and turned to his right.

'What's with the water noises?'

{Basically I devised a system to open the door using an underground spring, and a system of pulleys. You pull the root one way and a basin fills with water weighing it down and pulling the door up. Pushing the root in the other direction triggers a drain the empties the basin and closes the door.}

By now the drool that rolled down from Yume's mouth was beginning to form a sizable puddle.

{ …. Let's get going.}

'Uh yeah.'

With that Yume began his descent into the bowels of the cave.

Outside the sentry that was trailing Yume now stood near the entrance to the cave his eye riveted to the root that he had seen the stranger pull to make the door appear. Trying to let little distract him due to the fact the he could easily loose sight of the right spot in the dim moonlight. Moments later he was hailed by his partner followed closely by Lady Kiima leader of the royal guard. His eyes still fixated on the rock-face he addressed the two.

"The intruder entered into the cliff-face through a secret door here."

Kiima nodded and looked at the officer coolly though he could not see it.

"Show where and how Talon."

"Yes my lady."

Slowly he reached forward and pulled on the same root he had seen the figure pull earlier. The sound of moving water was heard by the three in the quiet of the nighttime forest. When the door finally opened they all peered in and at the end of the declining path they saw a light fade. Slowly Kiima straightened and nodded. Turning to Talon and his younger partner she spoke.

"You two follow down, observe what you can and avoid detection at all costs. I must confer with Lord Saffron about this."

The two winged sentries nodded and saluted. Kiima then spread her wings and took flight back in the direction of Phoenix Mountain. Talon waited a moment then turned and nodded to his companion.

"I'll take lead you follow behind. Remember be careful."

His companion nodded and slowly they began their descent down the dark path.

Yume sighed as he continued to use his scythe as a flashlight, and a thing to clear cobwebs from his path. Finally he came upon a rather heavy wooden door. Looking at it he tried to pull it open but to no avail. Smirking he reared back with his scythe and with a mighty lunge forward he tapped the blade against the doorknob and pushed the door inward.

{Very dramatic.}

'Thanks.'

However further exchanges were stopped as Yume suddenly heard an odd sound. It was a slow steady and rhythmic sound like a, "Tap …. Tap ….Tap." If he could judge the way the echoes bounced off the walls then he could tell it was coming from behind him.

'Oh shit I think we're being followed.'

{Why do you think that?}

'I think I hear footsteps.'

{Hurry enter the chamber and bolt the door, hopefully it will buy us enough time to get ourselves ready.}

Yume nodded and quickly slipped through the opening and into the chamber. Once inside he found a relatively sturdy piece of wood and used it to bar the door shut. Leaning against the door for a moment he sight then held his scythe out before him lighting the room. The walls he could see were stone and grimy looking; the furniture was strewn about the room haphazardly. And directly before him was a sturdy looking bookcase that was positively overflowing.

{Go to the table in the center of the room, you'll find a book lying open near a scrying orb.}

'A what?'

{A crystal ball.}

Yume nodded and did as he was instructed by the voice in his head. Carefully he lifted the massive book and looked at the faded pages. The page had nothing more than gibberish scrawled across it. Taking a second look the gibberish seemed to reform right before his eyes and became legible.

{No towards the center of the left page is a short spell cast it.}

Again Yume did as he was instructed. As the magic coalesced during the casting he could almost feel the room tighten in response. The wall felt harder the door felt stronger.

{That's a barrier spell you're casting. It should keep anyone normal at bay for a while.}

Yume nodded heaving a sigh of relief. The last thing he wanted to do was go up against a Musk or a member of the Phoenix people. He was pretty sure he could hold off and average Amazon warrior, but the other two he wasn't counting on it. Finally Yume completed the spell and yelled the final focal word.

"Shield."

No sooner had the word left his lips, that he felt the air in the room freeze and then burst into motion as if all the air in the room left and moved into the walls hardening them. As suddenly as the sensation had begun had it ended.

"Whoa."

{Now we must hurry there's no telling who is following us or how powerful they are.}

'So what do I do?'

{Open the book to the green placeholder.}

Yume looked over the placeholders sticking from various positions in the book and definitely couldn't find any green one. In fact most of them seemed a dingy gray color. Throwing caution to the wind he picked on and flipped to it.

'Okay … Now what?'

{There should be a spell for storage cast it into your cloak. It should let you carry what you need without much effort on your part.}

Yume breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the bold letter that stated Storage Spell.

'So it's kind of like an easy version of Hidden Weapons?'

{Uh …. I guess.}

'SWEET.'

{Now hurry the is much to do and little time left if we want to get back to the village before dawn.}

So with that Yume began to learn his next spell.

Talon and his cohort scanned the walls of the dark hallway with their sensitive eyes. Even though during the day there would have been little light coming into the hall, there was far less since it was night (although early morning would be a better term). Talon looked down at his young partner. This was an odd occurrence by any stretch of the imagination this being only the boys second patrol must be doing havoc on him.

"How are you holding up kid?"

The kid jumped at the sudden noise in the otherwise quiet tunnel.

"I'm doing ok sir. I just hope that whatever this is, it isn't too serious."

"We can only hope. We can only hope."

So they continued making their way down the narrow tunnel and high alert.

Yume sighed and wiped some sweat from his skull's brow, as he bent down to get more manuscripts, and tuck them into the volumes of his cloak. While it had been a relatively easy spell to cast it still took a good deal of his energy to make the area he needed to store all the stuff with. The 'moving' of Typhous' lair was indeed a long process but he was making good time. He began to ponder whether or not he should drop his death guise, but Typhous made his opinion known.

{I would not suggest it, as of now we have no idea how the guise affects your energy levels. As far as we know this could be the only thing keeping you from being completely spent and defenseless for whoever is out there.}

With such an upstanding case Yume decided against dropping the guise. Beside it did look pretty cool. So Yume began another scan of the room making sure he didn't miss anything. So intent was he in noticing important thing that he never noticed the crack in the floor that just happened to catch the edge of his bony toe. With a startled yelp he fell forward and into the now mostly empty bookcase. With a resounding "Whack" Yume smashed into and through the shelves. Lying where he was for a moment he allowed himself to try and regain some semblance of control, or at least a decent coherent thought.

'Ow.'

Worked well enough for him. So he slowly dragged himself to his feet and dusted off his cloak. Looking up he was surprised to see a room was hidden behind the bookcase.

'Classy Typhous, a hidden room.'

{Wait what hidden room?}

'Yeah behind the bookcase.'

{Wait, don't go in there!}

'Oh …. Now I got to.'

However the voice of common sense (which sounded a lot like Typhous) was soundly beaten down by his overwhelming curiosity. So he stepped into the room and watched as his visions slowly cleared as the dust settled. The dark room was lit as he brought his scythe to bear. The air of the room was stale. As he looked around the empty room his vision fell upon a pedestal. On top of it bound to it with heavy rusted chains was a rather odd looking spear, perhaps even a naganita. However the thing that really got his attention was the decorative ribbon. It was tied even and cleanly near the head of the weapon. It was what said ribbon was doing that really surprised him. It was currently wrapping around his leg. Quickly he began kicking at it in an attempt to dislodge it from his leg. As he did so a strangled disembodied voices echoed in his ears.

"Free us. Release us."

The voice sounded as if two voices were speaking in tandem. Getting a bit worried he decided to listen to reason (Typhous).

'Uh …. Out of curiosity, exactly why didn't you want me to go in here? It wouldn't happen to be another experiment gone wrong, would it?'

Typhous' voice in his head suddenly felt very nervous.

{Uh …. Err …. No?}

'Uh huh. Want to try that one again?'

{Oh alright you got me, I had heard stories of a powerful weapon. A rune weapon. It was said that the Rune Sword had a soul trapped in it and that was what gave it its tremendous power. So I figured that if I did it right I could make an equally powerful weapon. Unfortunately when I summoned to soul to possess the weapon, something went wrong.}

'Roughly translated you screwed up.'

{More or less. Anyways whether it was a misspoken word or whatever, two souls were brought forth, one evil and malicious and the other Kind but quite powerful}

'Yin and yang?'

{Basically, so not only did it attempt to split the weapon but also it gave the entities a near physical form. Luckily both were evenly matched and weaken by their attempts at winning dominance, however their energies changed and mutated the spear I wished to possess. I sealed them together and bound them to that summoning altar.}

Yume nodded in understanding, or at least some semblance of it. Smirking he lifted his scythe high and slashed at the ribbon, but missed, and ended up cutting through the chains binding the spear, thusly freeing the spear. The room flashed with a bright purple light, blinding Yume's sight. He lifted his hand to shield himself and dropped his scythe onto the pedestal. The blinding light faded and the room glowed faintly. Looking down he saw his scythe lying across the spear. Cautiously he reached out and tapped his scythe, but nothing happened. Shrugging he reached down and picked it up.

[Who? Who's there?]

Yume almost dropped the scythe as the new voice resounded in his head (hey I can name the voices in my head if I want, after-all how else would I tell them apart?)

'Uh, I'm Yume.'

{And I am Typhous.}

The voice meekly replied.

[Is Master?]

Before Yume could reply Typhous spoke.

{Yume is your master now.}

[Master Yume.]

Yume seat dropped.

'Uh I guess. What's your name?'

[We are half of the whole.]

'Uh yeah.'

He looked down at the spear that still lied on the summoning altar. Slowly he picked it up but quickly shoved it into his cloak.

'What should I call you?'

[Siren.]

'Ok …. Siren you do know that you're my weapon, right?'

[Yes Siren serve the Master Yume.]

With that his scythe glowed and shifted the blade lengthening and appearing to become sharper. The grips shifted molding to the contours of his hand.

{Oh SURE I work and slave over an alter, and what do I get nothing. You stumble in here and Poof! Everything is coming up roses and sunshine.}

Yume grimaced at the mental image.

'Just lucky I guess.'

{Shut up.}

Yume had the distinct impression that Typhous was pouting. He just shrugged it off and left the room. Yume gave the room another glance as he stepped into it trying to do his second sweep, which had been interrupted by his 'trip'.

Talon and his partner reached the heavy wooden doors that led to Yume. As they attempted to open it they found that they couldn't get the proper leverage or power to force the door down without making themselves known. So they had to content themselves with waiting. They didn't have to wait long. Soon enough the dark hall was filled with a bright light. Both guards bowed reverently. Saffron had arrived.

Yume shrugged and began to approach the door only to stop when he heard Typhous in his mind.

{I think it might be best to find a different way out especially if we were followed.}

'Good point, so you got a back way out?'

{Sort of, in that big book there should he a teleportation spell towards the front, around the first three pages.}

'Sweet.'

Yume quickly reached into his cloak and withdrew said book and scanned the pages. As soon as he found it he smiled. Unknowingly missing the bright flare of light coming from the cracks in the door. He read the spell and began to cast it envisioning himself back in the room he had at Perfume's house. As he was about to finish the spell the door to the room burst forth in a huge explosion of flame and charred wood. Looking up startled Yume's vision of the room shifted a bit in his mind as he saw a flaming boy step through the wreckage of the door. With a quick squeak of the spells release word he disappeared. Saffron's eyes narrowed as he watched the strange figure's image waiver then disappear. It seemed that this cave bared looking into. Turning to his subjects he nodded and walked from the room. The two guards bowing deeply as he stepped past. Kiima bowed as well but not as deeply.

"Strip this place and burn the remains."

The guards nodded and Saffron left Kiima following closely.

"I don't like this Kiima, I can't help but feel this may come back and cause trouble for me when my ascension to a full phoenix is at hand."

"Don't worry my Lord I'm sure it's only your imagination."

Saffron sighed nodded and looked skyward.

"I hope so."

As he began to fly he can't help but remember the face of the stranger. A skull nothing more, clothed in a cloak of darkness. And for the life of him he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.

(TBC)