Chapter 14:
"No!" Adel suddenly yelled out with his eyes filled with shock and sadness.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Zanus asked as the two mages stopped ascending the staircase that lead to Adel's keep. Zanus was carrying the unconscious Satoshi in his arms; he knew they had to get him and Daisuke to safety fast if they even hoped to have a chance to stop Verruckt.
Adel shut his eyes tight and tears began to roll down his face, "Xilef...his...his majesty is dead...no..." He said and clenched his fists, "The fool! I warned him not to try and fight Verruckt alone...the...the fool..." He repeated over and over again in disbelief and anger.
Zanus too was angered by this...but turned his head away and fought away his tears; "Adel...there is nothing we can do for him now...he made his own decision..."
Adel looked up at Zanus and then down at the ground again.
"We're almost there...if we plan to avenge his death then we have to stop any chance that Verruckt has of winning. Which means sending these four back before he finds them. Understand?" Zanus said returning to his firm and emotionless composure.
"You're right..." Adel said slowly, "But how will we find the other two?"
"Leave that to me...now hurry!" Zanus commanded and the two continued to run up the staircase.
The entire castle was now full of blood and still much fighting, fires broke out everywhere and chaos was mass and widespread. The soldiers of black armor seemed to have the upper hand on the Galseran knights. However, both sides had taken heavy damage...but Madria still had its king, and the victor is decided by who still holds power. Galseran was doomed.
Even if the once majestic city was done for, the two guardians of the World of the Shadows still had one chance left to save the two worlds. However, though they had Daisuke and Satoshi, Dark and Krad were still unaccounted for.
The two sorcerers reached the top of the staircase and opened a portion of the wall sealed with magic, this lead to Adel's Keep. A room with what seemed to be no ceiling, only an image of the night sky that looked endless. The room was completely silent except for the foot quick paced footsteps of the small red haired boy running towards the visitors and stopping short at the sight of Satoshi.
"Satoshi-kun!" Daisuke called out as Zanus entered holding him.
Zanus stopped and stared at Daisuke a moment, he knew that he would look similar to Adel...but it totally amazed him to meet the small boy in person.
"Hello Daisuke," Adel said as he magically locked the door behind him, "This is Zanus...my friend that I told you about..."
Daisuke stared back at Zanus who looked as equally surprised as him to see one another.
"Um...hello Daisuke..." Zanus said and shook his head out of his trance, "Forgive me child but we have little time for introductions. Adel..." Zanus said and turned to him handing him Satoshi, "I'm going out to look for the other two...prepare while I'm gone, time is a gift we have little of." He replied and teleported out of the room.
Adel took Satoshi over to Daisuke and placed him on the ground as the red head dropped down beside him.
"Is...is he okay?" Daisuke asked worried.
Adel smiled at Daisuke reassuringly, "Yes Daisuke...he's just fine...only a little tired. I'll be right back all right? Look after him." He replied and walked to a bookshelf on the far side of the room.
Daisuke looked down at Satoshi with a sigh and lifted him up a bit and held him tightly, "I'm glad you're safe...Satoshi..." He said softly and smiled hugging the blue haired boy close.
At the sound of Daisuke's familiar voice Satoshi's eyes opened slowly...and realizing that he was in Daisuke's embrace he smiled and returned the hug, much to Daisuke's surprise, "Good to see you too...Daisuke..."
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Zanus's spell had returned him back to the main hallway, there were bodies everywhere and blood covered the walls and floor. The thick and heavy sense of smoke and heat in the air was stifling, but it didn't waver Zanus one bit. He quickly looked at his surroundings; he had no tracking spell, only a keen sense that picked up on magical energies. He quickly looked around, there was defiantly a powerful energy nearby, but whom's he couldn't tell. He ran down the great hall after the source, hoping it was Krad's or Dark's.
"Please don't let me be to late..."
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"Krad! Krad come on what's the matter with you!" Dark yelled as he held Krad from falling to his knees from behind. The smoke that filled the air was too much and the two had to land...but as soon as they did, Krad began to feel immense chest pain. "Krad!"
"I...I can't...help it...Ahhh..." He gasped grabbing his chest, "So...something's happened to...me..." He managed to get out before the pain was too much for him to speak and he fell to his knees despite Dark's efforts.
"Krad!" Dark yelled and tried to lift Krad back up, "This is not the time to have a bad case of acid indigestion!" Dark yelled in frustration, even though he knew damn well that this pain Krad was feeling was defiantly not heartburn.
Krad was panting and seemed to be out of breath even though the smoke in this area wasn't as bad as the rest of the palace. "It...it hurts like hell..." Krad screamed as another shoot of pain washed over his body.
"Yeah I can see that..." Dark said and lifted Krad up and put one of his arms over his shoulder, "Just suck it up okay...we'll be out of here soon..." He replied reassuringly, even though he was worried about the other people in the castle, Krad was his first priority; they had to find away out!
Suddenly a wave of arrows swept into the room tipped with fire and what seemed to be small containers filled with some kind of liquid, problem was as the heat busted the containers open, a silver gas began to seep out, rather quickly!
"What the hell!" Dark exclaimed, suddenly he realized that this gas was making him light headed and dizzy, "Damn..." He said and put his free arm over his nose and mouth.
This situation just went from bad to worse! Krad was down for the count, and the room was filling with fire and that gas! Dark thought about making a break for it out the window, but since that's where the attack was coming from, who knows what was waiting for them out there! Plus with Krad's weight to carry, it would be impossible to fly.
'I'M NOT GOING TO DIE HERE!' Dark yelled to himself and pulled out a feather from his wings, he quickly chanted a spell and threw it to the floor causing an explosion! The ground beneath them gave way and Dark, keeping a firm grip on Krad, fell with the floor. Well now that was the end of the poison gas and fire arrows...but what Dark didn't anticipate was how far down the drop was!
Dark had blown a hole through the floor above the large and very tall throne room! He tried to flap his wings in an attempt to soften the impact, but with Krad's weight adding to his own, it did little to help and the two crash-landed onto the floor in a cloud of dust and debris.
It took a moment for Dark to regain his senses...he moaned as he opened his eyes and tried to get up...but his whole body ached, and he had fallen on his side. His right arm felt numb, and it hurt to breath...he must have broken a few ribs...he prayed that was all he broke...He slowly looked over at Krad, he looked to be in a bit better shape then Dark because he had wrapped his wings around himself before he fell, though he still looked to be in pain from his chest, so if there was any danger around here, he doubted if he could fight. However, Dark really wasn't in much condition to fight either.
Dark slowly rose to all fours and coughed as some of the dust settled still, however Dark was also coughing some blood...that was never a good sign. The room was really warm, he guessed that the original fire had spread to down here too, as Dark focused his eyes on the room, and despite the massive headache, he could clearly see fire, but for some reason...it seemed to be in a ring around the room! Blocking the exits and the entire perimeter around the room...yet no damage or smoke was in the center, of which he and Krad...and two other figures were located. He couldn't see them clearly though...they were kind of silhouetted, and his vision was still blurred, but from what he could see, one was motionless on the ground and the other stood above him with a sword in hand.
The standing figure had turned to him, and all Dark could really make out was blood colored eyes starring at him. They were full of evil, Dark could feel this beings dark energy, and it was almost suffocating. Then Dark slowly rose to his knees and grabbed his right arm quickly as pain shot through it. Yep, it defiantly wasn't numb any more, and it hurt like hell. Then he starred back at the darkened figure.
"Quite a fall...I'd imagine you didn't know what was below you...else you wouldn't have dared that stunt..." The dark figure of red eyes said with obvious amusement filling his voice.
"Yeah...well...I've been known to do crazier things..." Dark retorted realizing he couldn't stand up and remained on one knee.
"Hm...sarcasm...you really are my other self..." The man replied with a grin and slowly walked towards Dark, sword in hand.
Dark was getting a little worried now, his body was in pretty bad shape, he was in no condition to defend himself, but this man's answer confused him, "Other...self?" Dark asked not taking his eyes off of this dark man.
"So...they haven't told you yet?" He asked as the light of the fire began to show on his face revealing himself.
Dark stared in shock, this demon looked exactly like him! But then again, with all the madness he'd seen over the past week or so...he wasn't all that surprised...but he was still hoping this was one big nightmare. "Who the hell are you?" Dark demanded in a threatening tone.
"I am you...and vise versa my friend. My name is Verruckt...you've already made a visit to my lovely city...and now I'd like to invite you to my humble home, though I assure you it won't be for pleasantries." Verruckt said stopping just in front of Dark, as Xilef's blood still dripped from the sword in his hand.
"Sorry to be rude...but I'll have to turn down your generous offer..." Dark growled then smirked, "Mom said not to follow strangers home."
"My dear boy..." Verruckt answered with a smile and rose the blade's tip to Dark's throat drawing a bit of blood, "I'm not giving you a choice..."
Dark glanced down at the blade without moving his head for fear of the blade moving any deeper into his neck, seeing the blood covering then sword, then glared back at Verruckt, "Just curious...who did you kill before you decided to kill me?" He asked in disgust.
"You need'nt concern yourself with that..." Verruckt answered with a smile, "Just settling an old score...however I will say this...Galseran is to say...a dying flock without its Shepard." He replied tilting his head towards the burning throne.
Dark looked back over at the body on the floor, but before he could make it out there was a flash of light on the ground in front of him and Verruckt jumped backwards causing Dark to fall backwards sitting now on the ground and cringing as his arm now hurt worse.
"Verruckt! Next time I won't miss!" Came a voice from the other side of the room.
Dark looked over to where he heard the voice and saw what looked to be...Satoshi? Oh great...that bump on his head is making him hallucinate now...he thought to himself.
"Zanus..." Verruckt said aloud and still smirking returning to his normal composure as the blue haired sorcerer with his hand rose to him from the other side of the room stood in a threatening tone, "You're a little late...the deed is done..."
Zanus glanced over to the body of his fallen king lying not far from Verruckt. The sorcerer still held his hand to the dark king and glared at him with undying hatred, "And I intend to avenge him..." He growled with his golden eyes flashing with rage.
"Hmph...and what do you plan to do? Shoot another little fireball at me? Please..." Verruckt laughed, "My power has grown to strong...even for the likes of you. Guardian of the Seal? Hah! My rebirth into the World of Light is at hand, and not even you can stop it!"
"Grrr...We'll see!" Zanus said and chanted another, more powerful spell of light, and threw the massive energy ball at Verruckt. Victory seemed to be at hand...no!
Verruckt never moved, all he did was raise his hand the intense and powerful spell fell as ash, "...I'm still here..." He smirked.
Zanus stood in shock; he never imagined that Verruckt would have grown to be so powerful in such a short amount of time! "Impossible..." He whispered to himself.
"You should never had underestimated me...Zanus, I'm disappointed in you..." Verruckt grinned, "And don't think I wasn't aware of your plan...assassinate the children and then the spirits? Tsk Tsk...you should be ashamed of yourself..."
"What...children?" Dark repeated, "Daisuke and Satoshi are here!" Dark demanded turning to the blue haired sorcerer.
Zanus glanced over at Dark then back at Verruckt feeling like he had his back against the wall, "Anything to stop you..." He growled not feeling to proud of his earlier plan.
"But you failed...because your king is dead..." Verruckt taunted and enjoying every second of the mage's lose for words, "For had you killed the boy..." He said then glanced over at Dark, "And because he's still alive...so am I."
The heat of the room and his own helplessness was causing him to sweat, and he stood there in silence.
"Well what's the matter Zanus? He's right there...kill him..." Verruckt taunted, "End all of your problems. If you did slaughter the other boy...then why don't you finish the job? Put an end to the great Felix Verruckt by taking an innocent life. What's the matter? Lose your nerve?" Verruckt asked.
Zanus still stood silent, what could he say? He had lost his nerve to kill the kids...and with them alive, he couldn't kill Dark or Krad...because they would only return to Satoshi and Daisuke's minds as they once had. But by killing Daisuke and Satoshi, Dark and Krad would cease to exist, and therefore Verruckt would be destroyed and fail. For due to Dark and Krad's presents, both Verruckt and Xilef shared a tie with them. Killing Dark would be killing his shadow, and vise versa...and since Xilef was dead...he guessed that's why Krad was unable to fight back at all...he was dying...slowly and painfully dying, which didn't give Verruckt to much time left to sacrifice them.
"You didn't kill the other boys did you...you're pathetic Zanus...you and Adel." Verruckt laughed, "Some guardians..."
"They're innocent...they don't deserve to die!" Zanus countered unable to control is anger anymore.
"Hmph...it doesn't matter anyway...once I'm free of this world I plan to destroy the link between the two. Then you'll be nothing more then a memory. Now..." Verruckt said and began to walk over to Dark and Krad, "If you'll excuse me...my guests are waiting..."
"VERRUCKT!" Zanus cried out, but before he could get a spell out, the three were gone. Krad, Dark, and Verruckt had vanished, Zanus fell to his knees. He had failed! Nothing could save them now! Verruckt had the two keys to opening the portal back to the World of Light! How could he have let this happen!
"We're doomed..."
Notes from the Author:
OMG! First Xilef and now Dark and Krad! NOOOOOOOOOOO!!! TT This can't be happening! Well I thank you all for continuing to read, and comment! AND I SHALL CONTINUE TO TRY AND UPLOAD AT MY SUPER HUMAN SPEED!! But making the story good matters to me more then uploading fast, but whenever an idea pops into my head...THERE'S NO STOPING THESE FINGERS!! bows Thank you once again! bow bow bow Meow! I love you guys!