Rudra no Hihou

Return of the Dark Ones

It had been nearly four thousand years since the four Jade Warriors defeated Mitora, and all seemed to have gone well. Once more, Danans, Mermaids, Reptiles, and Giants flourished, but this time together and with the Humans. Four thousand years of natural regrowth with no worries of having to be faced with another Rudra arrival had done the Great Earth well.

The Jade Warriors still lived, their Jades had given them longevity... Unfortunately this was as much of a curse as a blessing... Foxy, Ture, Legin, Sok, Garlyle, Pipin, Marina, and Cid all gone, age had caught up with them. Ramyleth still lived as the controlling essence of the Ark, and Lolo had grown quite old, but his Danan heritage kept him alive, for at least possibly a few more centuries.. But all wasn't for naught, as the descendants of the dead had grown and flourished like everything else. Gafu still rotated souls' destinies, as it had done since its beginning.

Of course, after these 4,000 years, something was still on the Four's minds... he eventual return of the destructive shadow beings of the heavens... The cycle that had been broken four millennia before, as bad as it was, was meant to strengthen the next race to come along... But had the world grown enough naturally to counter that return?

Unfortunately, it wouldn't be very long until it was time to find out.... The seal had weakened much over the 24 millennia it had been around since the Four Greats stopped them. And this seal was about to break, the stress of the awaiting evil beyond it was cracking it....

17 days til the anniversary of Mitora's defeat... It appeared the cruel cycle was never truly broken.... Just warded off... And that's when the seal on the evil broke. With a horrifying shriek, something burst from the break in the seal, and towards the world.... It was payback time. The Four Greats may be dead, but their successors were now the target....

Mt. Delphi

A figure stood atop the Tuhla Temple, looking up into the night sky, the new moon the jadebearers had created to replace the one that had been destroyed gleaming on his armor. A red headband looped through his spiky blonde hair, and the red jewel in his right eye socket also gleamed... Scion no longer wore that eyepatch, the Life Jade was like a natural eye, he could see perfectly. And he sensed something....

"Trouble's coming...." he said to himself and looked upwards.

Riza's Tower, Near Karn

The heir of Meifa, the Great who represented love and nature looked over the balcony in her beautiful tower. The light green gem glittered in her forehead thanks to the moonlight... Her long, red hair flowed about in the wind. This was Riza, the holder of the Holy Jade, and the protector of the environment... But her body felt twingey... something was wrong, something bad was coming soon...

"Looks like a new adventure." she sighed, grabbing her armor, bow, arrows, and rapier and walking down the tower stairs. She headed off towards Babel, to get a boat to Danelf... But first the forest awaited her... And not every forest creature respected her.

Gafu, Shumisen, Underworld

A figure stood near Gafu's main hub, his long billowing cape floating around in a nonexistent breeze... He sighed, adjusting his glasses and running his fingers through his greenish blue hair. Surlent, the holder of the blue Resurrect Jade, the walker between life and death, and now seer of the underworld and Gafu's guardian... Gafu suddenly boiled, the souls seemed to panic and hectically fly about within.

"Wh-what's happening to Gafu?" Surlent asked himself in shock, although within himself, he already knew the answer. Something bad was on its way. And Gafu feared for itself.

The Ark Ramyleth

"Dune... I feel something very strange and frightening..." Ramyleth relayed to the thief, and holder of the Jade of Death and Knowledge "And I don't like it."

"I can feel it, too, Ramyleth." Dune sighed pushing his goggles back up on his cap "I think... THEY'RE coming.... Mitora warned us about this... and now they've come to settle a 24 millennia old score... Get us back to the surface.... it's time for I and the others to have a talk... It is time to prepare."

"I feel the presence of evil energy coming and shooting past...." Ramyleth said was something rocked the Ark for a moment... "And it's still descending... towards Ompross."

"Scion! We need to get to him, quickly."

Only 16 days remain til the 4000th anniversary of the defeat of Mitora...