Rudra no Hihou

Return of the Dark Ones

Mt. Delphi

Day soon broke in the world, the bright shine of the moon had gone and now the glow of the morning sunrise had come. Scion still stood on top of he ruins, concern throughout his mind. He could feel something coming, and he somehow absolutely knew it was something big, bad, and dangerous... And that's when he saw something streak downwards to the base of the mountain, along with a terrifying howl as it descended.

"What in the hell?" he muttered to himself, and proceeded to bound down the mountain. Scion was not obligated to slow down at the moment. His armor clanged as he did so, his hair bouncing about. Finally, he stopped, now at the entrance of the cave that led into the mountain. The sunrise-soaked Ompross City was a little further ahead.... When the whole adventure to stop the new Rudra from annihilating humanity happened, Ompross had been a small, quaint little seaside village... It had grown quite considerably since then... Scion had to protect the city from whatever had arrived...

Before Scion, laid a relatively big impact crater of some kind, obviously caused by what had just fallen from the skies.... There was still some smoke left from the impact.... but... It looked awfully thick to be such.... Scion held his hand on the hilt of his Apocalypse Blade, waiting for the next turn of events to arrive.

The "smoke" was now converging into something, and soon became a dark mist, then a sludge, and then it seemed to solidify into something's prone form.

"Alright, you.... Stand up before you get a thrashin'." Scion spoke to it.

He was replied to by a growl. A growl that sent shivers even through this brave hero's spine...

M-m-maybe it's just some random space creature! Nothing evil, just something feral.... It did just crash land on the planet, after all, it has a reason to be snippy... "Please, just stand up...."

"Heh heh heh." it responded.... "Very well....I'm probably leaving you wondering, hmm?"

"You speak our language?!"

"Of courssssse."

And then, it stood.... If that growl hadn't been chilling enough to tell the creature's self.... This certainly would. It was about the same size as an average Giant, but quite a bit lankier.... Its skin or fur was a pitch ebony black, it had long arms with large 3-clawed talons on each hand, and armor on the forearm along with a small gauntlet on the hand, a red crystal embedded within it. On its chest was an odd yellow symbol Scion had not laid eyes on to before. Its upper arms had a studded band on each, and its shoulders had some sort of plate armor on them... And then there was its head.... Large, broad jaws filled with rows of sharp teeth, small beady crimson eyes, and a massive amount of quills protruding from the back, and a short, thick neck. It had quite a few Reptilian features, but there was no way it was of that race. Its legs also stood out, with two wicked clawed toes and a claw sticking out of the top of its ankle. Its lower legs were armored. It also had a long, snakelike tail. The only garments it wore was a large red loincloth, that symbol on its chest was also on it. There were some armor plates covering the hips as well.

"Who or WHAT are you?!" Scion questioned, trying his best not to quake in his boots.

"Ho ho. Oooh hoo hoo... You won't live long enough to find out!"

And that's when Scion's courage returned to him, and he brandished his sword.

"Let's see you try, ya freak!"

That was enough to get a response, the creature unleashed a swipe of its claws, Scion jumped back to avoid it, and then slashed with his sword.... It parried with its claws, and headbutted him backwards. He rushed in again, taking another swipe, but the creature simply stepped aside with great speed, and slashed again, Scion ducked under this, and swiped again, this time, grazing the creature's flesh, even though it was only a small amount, it was enough for the creature to reel back. It stomped the ground, and Scion jumped over the resulting shockwave, and slashed again, but the creature batted him away before his sword reached close enough.

The creature took this moment to mouth something, flailing its arms about and bowing its head.

Uh oh!

Scion had no time to react before the creature finished casting its mantra! From seemingly nowhere, a meteor came crashing down, the impact explosion knocking the warrior for a loop. And by Meifa, that HURT! Scion quickly regained his bearings and responded with a mantra of his own.... Thunder cracked, and blasted the creature.... But, to Scion's astonishment, the creature didn't even flinch. And it quickly replied, with a quick slash.... Scion wasn't able to move in time, and he got slashed, and he fell to the ground... he looked for any wounds, there were none, but the slash had cut into his armor!

Scion snarled, jumping back up... Now he was really really mad. He slashed not once, but twice with his sword, giving the creature twin, but very shallow gashes into its chest... But as expected, it did draw blood... of a navy blue variety! The creature swiped with its tail, making Scion leap a few feet backwards, but that was all the creature needed to cast its next spell, and a shocking one at that, confusing Scion, who flailed around, trying to attack, but missing his target by a mile. He regained his bearings only to be hit by that meteor attack again... This creature seemed to be one proficient in Thunder and Void spells. He cast a Wind mantra, hoping it would be just what he needed.... Searing gusts of wind hit the creature, pushing it back a bit. The creature whipped its hand out and Scion was blasted by a doozy of a Thunder mantra, a large energy beam. And then it backhanded him, and in his now quite weakened state, was sent flying backwards onto the ground... He tried to get up, but he couldn't move.

The creature laughed.

"For the successor of Saizou, you sure are a weakling, Scion!"

"What... How did you know my name... and how did you know about Saizou, and my succeeding him? Arrgh..."

"I've watched all the events on this world unfold for nearly twenty four thousand years! Can you believe it, twenty four... THOUSAND! Hahahaha! I bet you can pretty much guess my affiliation now, boy!"

"Oh no... you're one of... THEM, aren't you?! One of the beings who the Four Greats and the warrior Vilshnan battled and sealed... The ones that caused the Greats to act out the Cycle of Destruction and Regeneration... The ones I and my friends have been waiting and preparing for.... The ones Mitora warned us of.... My feelings were... right."

"Very observant, brilliant, and fascinating, Scion."

Another laugh.

"As such, you deserve a reward... You will not die.... just yet! Enjoy your second chance.... For it will be your last.... As for an answer to your question about my identity, I'm sure you want my name..."

"What...?"

"I am Malevol. You will soon earn the right to loathe and fear that name very much! We will meet again, Scion.... just don't be such a sucky opponent next time!"

With a growl, Malevol turned his back to Scion, raised out his arms, and vanished. Scion lay there, trying to regain his bearings... and that's when the taste of a remedy herb came to his senses.... He gained just enough strength to jump back up. He looked forward, to see a very familiar backwards red hat, coat and pair of goggles.

"Dune! Sure, NOW you get here now that Malevol kicked my ass and left me here! But thanks anyway."

"Hey, I tried getting here as fast as I could, alright?" Dune scoffed.

Both of them then laughed aloud.

"Anyway, they've finally come.... Well one of them anyway..... They aren't exactly the prettiest creatures. The guy's name was Malevol... Packs a mean punch, just look what he did to my armor!"

"He's probably just the first to arrive... I don't doubt there will be more. We need to get ahold of Surlent and Riza, a-sap!"

"Come on, we'll go through the temple."

"Right. Lemme just get the Ark into a safe place."

"Alright. I need to heal up after that battle anyway!"

With that, they headed off to the airship.

Space

Once again, the unsealed dimensional rift began to ripple and swirl about... And as before, something shot out from it, followed by another. One landed on the New Moon... The other continued hurtling towards the planet., but instead stopped short of the atmosphere, and floated there.

Where to go, where to go....

It thought for a little bit, and soon felt the power of something on the surface that wasn't Malevol.... It figured who it was quickly.

Riza, the successor of Meifa! This'll be fun!

With that, it flew down towards Riza's location.

To be Continued