Author's Note: I've got nothin' 2 say right now…..so just read on!
-Chapter IV-
It was high noon. Silent's party was walking across the scorching sands of the dessert region of Morocc. About to die of thirst, they resorted to one last thing: Faerore's holy water. They drank it to sustain their life. As they were walking, a pack of desert wolves chased them. They ran as fast as they could, but as they were on the desert floor, they tripped every now and then.
"Blast those wolves!" Silent shouted so that everyone could hear
"Certainly" and Zan summoned flaming balls from the heaven's to drop down and "blast" the wolves.
"Well……….shall we continue?" Faerore said, after she stared blankly into the now dead pack of wolves. They passed through Morocc, where, as Faerore had foresaw, demons roaming the city. She asked a local resident why this had happened.
"Umm…..excuse me. Why…why are there demons roaming around Morocc? Did they come from the sphinx?"
"I don't know! You're the high priestess! You tell me!" and the man ran away into the distance.
"How rude! Anyway, let's go to the sphinx.
"What did you want to do here anyway?" Silent asked
"Just follow me." They entered the sphinx. People have been known to die of hunger here as they could not find their way out. They twisted and turned through the passageways, meeting the occasional Zerom. It was either Zan who blasted them or Silent slashed them.
"Ah! Finally! There it is! The stairs……..to go even deeper down.."
"Whaa…?"Silent and Zan both complained to Faerore. Another level of twisting and turning, but as they ventured deeper and deeper inside, the space became wider and wider until they reached a wide, open space
"We came here for this?" Zan said, angrily.
"Watch" and from the distortion in the space of the sphinx that was conjuring, a demon came forth. It was a evil druid.
"Why have you sent your demons to Morocc?" Faerore shouted at the Evil druid.
"Because."
"Because what?"
"Because…….I want to!"
"Damn you!" Faerore chanted something in Latin, and lit up the ground with a holy light. The angels descended and hit the demon. Magnus Exorcismus. The evil druid was badly injured.
"Hmph! Useless!" and it healed its wounds instantly.
"Feast your eyes on this!" and it summoned a great number of Matyrs that chased their party. Faerore couldn't move as she was in a state of shock. Silent pushed her so that the Matyrs wouldn't hit her. But then their reaction times were too quick for them to escape, so, instead of letting Faerore be the target, Silent blocked the dogs' path, and he was the one bitten and badly injured.
"You………!" which were the only words that escaped Faerore's mouth as she attempted to send holy energy straight at the demon. She couldn't though. The evil druid jumped on top of her, and she let go of her staff. She couldn't cast without it. They were all hopeless. Except for one. Zan. He quickly summoned the fury of the heavens to rain down on the evil druid. Silent was out of range, and because Faerore was underneath the evil druid, she was, in a way, protected. The evil druid was now limping, trying to escape before they killed him. Too late. As Faerore had picked up her staff and shot holy energy at it. It "melted". She went over to Silent and healed him. He opened his eyes.
"Ugh……..am I….still…..alive?"
"Yes. I want you to check this out." The three went over to the corpse of the evil druid and examined it. They saw an emblem of some sort. It looked like an "L" with a moon in the angle of the L.
"Do you know what this is, Silent? Faerore asked him
"Loki?"
"That's right. A mercenary assigned to raid the city of Morocc."
"And might I ask, just WHO is this Loki person?" Zan said, not understanding a word the two were talking about.
"Loki, the legendary warrior that stabbed Freya is now the lord of death."
"L-Lord of death?" Zan shouted.
"I….don't think this is the place to discuss this. Let's go set up camp somewhere and I'll tell you more."
"Where're we going next anyway?" Zan asked
"Ayotaya" the two said, in chorus.
-Meanwhile…..-
"HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE I ORDERED YOU TO LOOK FOR THEM?" Dy Phawn asked the assassins, full of rage.
"A week." Faquir answered
"And you call yourselves assassins!" suddenly, the watchman of the guild came bursting in, panting.
"Lady Dy Phawn! Silent was spotted leaving the sphinx a while ago, along with to other strangers: a wizard and a high priestess!"
"Hmmm……he's got a party now eh? Wait…..did you say that there was a high priestess with them?"
"Yes, my lady."
"Did she have long, golden hair?"
"Yes."
"Well, well, Faerore has teamed up with Silent huh? Cancel the search! They'll come to us sooner or later!"
-Silent's Party-
"Ok, so let's go review the things we need." Silent said, just to make sure. "Do we have food? A tent?"
"Yes, yes, let's just go now!" Zan hastily said.
"Wait, let's check the map one last time."
"sigh…..fine" Zan opened up the map of Midgard and plotted down the places they needed to pass through. "Okay, first we, obviously, go out of Morocc, into the desserts, then into the fields of Prontera. From here, we head east, into the endless fields as people would call it. From there, we just need to go straight 'till we see it! So can we go now?"
"Fine….fine….." and they left the gates of Morocc and into the dessert, once again. This time, it was a much safer journey, as they only met pickies, peco pecos and their eggs, and drops. The distance was also shorter, and they arrived at the fields of Prontera sooner than they had expected. A warm breeze passed through the fields, making the leaves of the trees rattle.
"Okay, from here we go?" Faerore asked their "guide", Zan
"East." They did. And not so long later, the trees got lesser and lesser, until they were in a clear opening: nothing but the pure green grass below, and the serene blue sky above. The sun was nowhere to be seen: hidden by the clouds. They were here. The endless fields. Silent couldn't help but lie down on the grass, hands behind his head.
"Silent! Hurry! We're almost there! Just a few more hours!" Zan said irritated
"Maybe we should stay here. I mean, we're tired. Besides, it really is pleasant to just lie down on the grass, hand behind you head, and gaze into the "abyss above"." Faerore lay on the grass as well. Zan followed. And soon, they were all gazing into the calming sea above.
"Say Silent! If you're an assassin, why, of all things, why do you like gazing up into the sky?"
"Don't you?"
"It's not that, I mean, you're an assassin, an assassin cross even. You kill people."
"I never noticed the beautiful world around me until I………." a moment of silence.
"Never mind, I understand now."
"Well, I'll go set up camp. You guys just stay here."
"Sure!"
Silent picked up some logs for their campfire later on. He killed some pecos who were strangely there, along with their eggs, which Silent also picked up. Zan was bored, so he played with his magic. He conjured a fireball, hurled it at the sky, and before it scorched him as it was going to fall on his face, he disintegrated it, and he did this over and over again. Faerore, on the other hand, had fallen asleep, her hair blowing across the horizon. She seemed so calm, and relaxed. Zan, on the other hand was bored, so he conjured a fireball and threw it up and down, like what any other guy would do when he's lying down and bored.
Silent saw a willow, and immediately headed towards it, with a swipe of his katar, he killed the willow, and he picked up the trunks it left behind. The air was getting colder. He looked up. No more serene, blue sky. It was now a bloody vermillion color. He looked for the sun. Only a part of it could be seen in the horizon. It was sunset.
"I'd better hurry back! Those two would be worried!" he looked around. "But……how do I get outta here?"
Zan hadn't noticed that the sky was now a deep blue color, as he was bored the whole afternoon. He looked at Faerore. She was still asleep.
"Faerore! Faerore!" Zan rocked her hastily, trying to wake her up. "It's night and Silent's still not here!"
"Hmmmurrrrrr(I can't make out the noise you make when you wake up)……?" she stood up, and looked at Zan.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's look for him!" and she snapped her fingers and a blue flame hovered above her in circles.
Silent remembered that the sun was on the left side when they were at the camp. The sun was on his right side when it had set. He was facing south. He turned right, and just followed that path. His instincts were right, and he eventually reached the camp. But wait, where were Zan and Faerore? There was something in the shadows, it was coming closer and closer.
"Who are you!" no reply. "Answer me!" still, nothing. He drew out his katar, ready to fight.
"Wouldst thou fighteth a god?" and the figure went out of the darkness and into the light. It was wearing the same clothes Silent was. An assassin cross. But then several features were changed. His left sleeve was torn, exposing his left arm which was covered in a bandage. His right "glove" had been shattered, replaced by bandages. His eyes……his eyes……a demon's eye. They burnt a fiery red, eyeing Silent fiercely.
"Loki!"
Loki just laughed. His body changed color. It became watery, and then solid again, but a different form. Decipher.
"…….?" Silent was in a state of shock. How was this possible? "W-Why are you here?"
"You made me suffer an infinite amount of pain. Now I will let you experience the same. You have made many countless people suffer. Now……you will make your self suffer!" he pointed a hand at Silent, and blue flames started emitting from his body. His spiritual power, as Decipher had done to him before.
"It hurts….it hurts….it hurts….it hurts….." Silent kept repeating this, as if it were a chant.
Then Faerore came out of the shadows, and intersected Decipher's path.
"Foolish woman!" and Decipher shot his hand through her body, and out the other end, and when it did come out of the other hand, Decipher's hand was holding Faerore's heart. She dropped dead immediately. With the hand that now held her heart, he crushed it, and her blood flew into the sky, and rained down upon them. Her body exploded, and her different parts flew off in different directions. Her mutated head fell beside Silent. Her eyes popping out, ear cut, you could see her brain. Silent slowly looked to his left and saw the head.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he yelled.
"Whoa! Silent! Calm down!" he opened his eyes, and saw he was at camp. He saw Zan, cooking tonight's dinner, and Faerore, on top of him, body intact.
"What's the matter?" she said, getting off of him
"Ugh…..just another bad dream. Is the food ready? I'm starved!" and he ran towards the table and started devouring the food Zan had just placed only seconds ago. Faerore just laughed. She then headed towards the table and ate with them.
"Umm…….. you…..uhh…….tell me of your past?" Faerore politely said, after she swallowed her food.
"S-Sorry……I can't"
"Why not?"
"No…it's just………why don't I just sing a song?" he started singing, with such a beautiful voice that everything became quiet.
Going Under by Evanescence
Now I will tell you what I've done for you
50 thousand tears I've cried
screaming deceiving and bleeding for you
and you still won't hear me
don't want your hand this time I'll save myself
maybe I'll wake up for once
not tormented daily defeated by you
just when I thought I'd reached the bottom
I'm dying again
I'm going under
drowning in you
I'm falling forever
I've got to break through
I'm going under
blurring and stirring the truth and the lies
so I don't know what's real and what's not
always confusing the thoughts in my head
so I can't trust myself anymore
I'm dying again
I'm going under
drowning in you
I'm falling forever
I've got to break through
so go on and scream
scream at me I'm so far away
I won't be broken again
I've got to breathe I can't keep going under
"Whoa! You have a beautiful voice" Silent said after listening in awe.
"That's………the dragon's voice. The voice that changes the world." Faerore exclaimed
"hm?" Silent asked
"The dragon's voice is the voice that sings of events in his life, and can alter the flow of the universe." Faerore explained "Zan, so you did tell me about your past!"
"It's true……I………I was reborn into this wizardly form."
Silent's eyes opened wide. The two were chatting about divinity and the such, and he wasn't very good about the mystical things of this world.
"In my life before, I…….I was a clown, and I sang hand in hand with my gypsy partner, who by the way danced divinely, Dy Phawn!"
Silent's eyes opened even wider.
Author's note: Well? What did you think? Anyway, tell me if there's a song out there better suited for Zan's past. If ya read the older version of chapter 4, in the last author's note, it said "email it to !" the space between to and ! was suppose to be my email ad……hehe…….didn't appear on ffn
-Lord Decipher