Summary: They worked for an underground organization of bounty hunters. Time after time, they took care of threats to Rune-Midgard. But this time, their target isn't anything of the ordinary; it's a boy who knows the key to the next Ragnarok.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ragnarok Online. :P But the characters in this story belong to my friends and I.
Author's Note: I'm back with a revision of The Ragnarok! W00t! There have been some changes (mostly the fight scenes and some dialogue...also the new "Wings Armada" group), so I suggest to those who have read this before read it again. Sorry for the trouble. DX Ah, yes, an important fact: I changed some things just a little concerning the rules of Ragnarok Online. It's not a big change though. Anyways, on with the story! XD
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The Ragnarok
Chapter Four: Sacrifices
-
Daisuke and Khaos stared menacingly at each other. Matt, Blades, and Rya were frozen in shock. Absolute silence hung in the air. Khaos grinned again. "Kania, Haru, and Naru aren't here. You should be glad."
Daisuke gritted his teeth together. "Get the hell out of our way."
"What's this?" Khaos acted surprised. "Helping the captives? You should know better; Kania would be disappointed in you."
"She doesn't give a shit about me, and I don't give a shit about her either," Daisuke retorted, reaching for his sword hilt. "Now get out of our way."
Khaos unsheathed his sword, which had a deadly glow to it. "Get past me, and maybe I will consider."
Daisuke let out a piercing battle cry before charging head on at Khaos.
-
Miraka sat down grumpily on the docks of Izlude, waiting for the ship to arrive to get her to Alberta.
"Hey, c'mon, chill." Tyler urged, finally catching up to her. He had been following her since she punched him and left.
Wow, he sure is dedicated in annoying me to death.
"You expect me to chill when my friends are in danger?" Miraka questioned, standing up when she saw the ship in the horizon.
"Well, yeah," Tyler laughed nervously as Miraka gave him a death glare. "Hey, you can't just charge in wherever they are, blinded by your own rage. You might not even find them because you're too stressed over it that you can't think clearly. You wouldn't help them that way."
Miraka stayed silent as his words sunk in. He did have a point after all.
"That's it, just calm down. Everything's going to be just fine." Tyler grinned.
"Thanks..."
"Always welcome."
Tyler joined Miraka in her wait to board the ship; it was already docking. As soon as the sailor let the travelers go ashore, much to Miraka's surprise, she saw Payon and the others leave the cabin, heading out of the ship. "Payon!"
Payon also noticed Miraka. "Miraka! You're safe!"
"Of course I am Payon. I can take care of myself," Miraka grinned, but her grin disappeared as quickly as it came. "I don't see Rya...or Blades either. Did they...did they...?"
"No, they didn't get killed," Payon proceeded to explain to her all the events that had happened, after they had left the ship.
"Why did you let her?" Miraka demanded as soon as Payon had finished giving her the details, while the others cut in to add their own comments.
"You know Rya. She is stubborn as she is caring," Payon sighed.
"And Blades?"
"He'd do anything for the ladies!" Skoo joked.
"Skoo!" Miraka looked disapprovingly at Skoo's comment but couldn't resist a small smile. But she also couldn't hide the pang of sadness in her heart that her two friends were still unsafe.
"Hey, who's the new guy?" Paroid asked as he looked over at Tyler. A grin formed on his mouth. "Is he your boyfriend, Miraka?"
Miraka and Tyler glanced at each other. Simultaneously, they shouted out, "Hell no!"
"Well you know what they say, hate leads to love!" Paroid laughed as he ran away, both Miraka and Tyler pursuing him. Explosions and crowds of people screaming were heard further into Izlude.
"The perfect picture," Evol grinned. "That's something zeny can't buy."
"You can take a picture and buy it, fool." Skoo swatted at the Wizard's head.
"...let me have my fun, for once," Evol groaned. Skoo grinned in triumph.
-
Daisuke summoned fire and blasted it into Khaos from his sword with his left hand. His right arm had been injured by a heavy blow from Khaos' sword from a sword-to-sword battle. Effortlessly, Khaos reflected the attack and the flames bounced back towards Daisuke, who dodged it with ease. However, as Rya, Matt, and Blades jumped out of the fire's way, it scorched the walls and the dry wallpaper went up in flames.
"Crap, crap, crap, crap!" Blades helplessly looked around the room as it, in no time, was engulfed in the ravenous inferno. The three, who weren't fighting, backed up against each other in the middle of the room. Daisuke and Khaos, on the other hand, continued fighting as if nothing happened.
Daisuke dealt a heavy blow to Khaos' stomach with his foot, distracting him while he scorched him successfully with another fire spell. His attack sent Khaos flying out of the door. Daisuke took the chance from his fallen opponent and held Khaos up, pinning him against the wall outside. "Go! Now!"
The three in the middle of the room hesitated but as soon as Blades ran out of the fiery room coughing from the smoke, Rya and Matt followed suit. Daisuke looked satisfied as Blades, Matt and Rya were out of sight and turned back to face Khaos. Khaos merely smirked. "Never turn away from the enemy,"
Daisuke felt something cold run through his body. He looked down and realized Khaos had run his sword through him. He slumped down when Khaos brought out his sword and wiped the blood on Daisuke's cloak. "Kania, two of our captives are heading towards the entrance. The little Archer boy is with them as well. The rest, I believe, have already escaped."
"Alright, Khaos. I'll cut the three off once they get to the entrance. How did they escape?"
"Daisuke," Khaos spat the name disgustingly while he brutally beat Daisuke's limp body. Feeling satisfied after awhile, he kicked Daisuke's broken body into the flames. "Frost nova! Frost diver!"
Khaos did a series of freezing spells and aimed them in the fire-lit room. The flames froze as well as Daisuke's body. "Ice wall!"
The room became encaged with ice, forever to be locked away.
"Let's see you escape that, Daisuke."
-
Blades led the way, running as fast as he could. He remembered every single step Daisuke had led them through. "This way! Hurry Rya! Matt!"
After twists and turns, they saw a pillar of light. "We're out!"
All three ran into the warp portal. Blades felt sick after running, but the warp portal only made him feel worse by spinning him around and around. He closed his eyes to find comfort, but as soon as he opened his eyes, his eyes met what he did not want to see. Kania and two men stood in front of them. Kania smiled sweetly and she drew her sword, pressing the cold steel to his neck. Both men mimicked her and pointed their spears to Rya and Matt's necks.
"You're in safe hands," Kania pleasantly said, and in a flash, she knocked Blades out with a violent blow with the hilt of her heavy sword. The two men followed suit and knocked out the other two.
"We'll take them to someplace else," Kania ordered. "Aria is in need of repairing. Khaos, if you're still there, put up the traps."
The two men nodded as they took hold of the unconscious Archer, Hunter, and Swordsman, warping away with Kania.
-
He was frozen, unable to move.
Trapped in an oasis of ice.
He knew his fate. It pointed to death. But a surge of energy rushed through his dying body. He wasn't about to die that easily. He wouldn't die to his hands.
"Te...l...e...por...t..."
Through the clear ice, a body flickered until it completely disappeared. Screams and shocked voices met his ears. With the last ounce of energy he had, he smiled and slipped into unconsciousness.
He had made it to Prontera.
-
Tyler pouted but Miraka snickered. Shishkabob tended to his wounds, containing her laughter. During the chase of Paroid, he had accidentally hit a Thief Bug without knowing it and attracted a giant mob of Thief Bugs. It was a funny sight however, seeing Tyler completely drowned in a mountain of angry Thief Bugs.
"Serves you right! Trying to kill me of all people," Paroid grinned.
"You just shut up and all of Rune-Midgard will be fine," Tyler retorted.
"Oh shut up, you two," Shishkabob sighed. "Stay still Tyler, or your wounds won't heal. Good. Heal!"
Tyler's wounds slowly began disappearing as a bright light washed over him. "Thanks."
"No problem."
Soon, they were entering the capital city, Prontera. There, they would have to stock up on supplies for their mission.
"Did you hear? A Wizard boy warped into the middle of the city, almost dead!"
"Yeah! Everyone thinks that a monster attacked him. He won't say anything, but the Priests know he's pretty experienced in monster killing; he brought in a few bounties before. But now everyone is worried that the monsters have begun to become stronger and are planning to wipe out the human population! It's like the start of the Ragnarok or something!"
"Impossible! Maybe the boy just, uh...tripped?"
"Tripped, with wounds like those? That's completely insane!"
Paroid's eyes narrowed. "Wizard boy that teleports? My gut tells me that that is not right."
"Daisuke..." Payon breathed. "That means...something happened. Rya and Blades were with him!"
Payon ran towards the duo of Archers talking amongst themselves. "Do you know where the boy is? He is a friend of ours."
"Friend of yours? Where were you when he was attacked? Ran away, you coward?" One of the Archer boys scoffed rudely.
"He's at the church, the Priests have healed him to almost full health but won't let him leave until he talks, which he won't," His friend answered.
"Thank you," Payon said dully, ignoring the other boy's comments.
"He's at the church. We have some questioning to do," Payon acknowledged the rest of the crew as he ran towards the church, everyone trailing behind him.
Bursting into the church and startling the Priests, Payon roared, "Daisuke! DAISUKE WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"
An elderly Priest, who seemed to be in charge of the church, made a "shh" sound and put his finger to his lips. "Quiet boy, there are people resting. Hmm, Daisuke is it? There is only one person whose name we do not have registered. Is that the name of the Wizard boy?"
Payon nodded as the rest of the crew ran into the church. "Yes."
"Friend of yours? Perhaps you will have more luck than us talking to him," The Priest said as he ushered Payon to where Daisuke was. Paroid looked at the others and shrugged, following Payon.
"Here we are. He has nearly recovered from his wounds, but he will not talk to us about what happened. Not even his name," The Priest said quietly as he opened a door.
Payon entered the room. Daisuke sat up against two pillows on the bed. His Wizard uniform lay torn and bloodied on a chair nearby. Bandages covered his stomach, ribcage and arms, and a cast was wrapped tightly around his right arm. It seemed that the Priests could not finish healing him for some strange, unknown reason. Daisuke turned from the window. "You."
"Me," Payon glowered. "What happened to Rya and Blades; they were with you."
"They ran off. Then Khaos ran his blade through me." Daisuke said monotonously as he turned to face the window again.
"What? Khaos?!" Payon growled.
"Yes. Why so surprised, Knight?" Daisuke questioned. "Kania left him in order, did you not know?"
"I did. But I thought he was –" Payon began.
"– having a competition with Miraka? She escaped and he came back early," Daisuke finished.
"How did you know he was competing with her?!" Payon narrowed his eyes at Daisuke. "I thought you were dismissed from Kania's order!"
"I have my sources."
"Payon!"
Seven teenagers burst into the room, the Priest scolding them from behind.
"Whoa, what happened to you?" Skoo demanded. "And Rya! And Blades!"
"Where are they?" Shishkabob questioned.
"Quiet in there! The boy needs rest!" The Priest yelled from the other side of the closed door.
"What we need is an explanation," Payon said.
"Especially the part about Kania kidnapping us, and where Blades and Rya are," Evol added.
"And what happened," Shishkabob reminded.
Daisuke remained motionless as he looked up to the group. "Then listen carefully and do not interrupt me."
-
"Ugh..."
Blades groaned loudly as he flipped over on his stomach, feeling the coldness of snow touch his face.
"Wait...snow?"
Blades pried his eyes open and blinked a couple of times. Indeed, the place he was in was snowing. And there was only one place he knew that snowed at this time of the year.
"Lutie..."
-
"Do you know of the Ragnarok?" Daisuke asked.
The group shot quick glances at each other, confused.
"No, we don't." Payon answered.
"Were you not told about it? Even when you became the classes you chose, or even as a myth from your parents?" Daisuke raised an eyebrow as the group shook their heads, after glancing at each other for an explanation.
"Odd. I will explain to you briefly about it then," Daisuke grumbled. "The Ragnarok is a myth of when the gods fall, and chaos will be inflicted among everyone in Rune-Midgard. It was said only the humans will survive, but everywhere would be destroyed and communication scarce."
"Okay, but what does this have to do with Kania kidnapping us specifically?" Paroid questioned. "She only told us that she wanted us to help her cause 'the end of the world', but not why or how. I still don't see why she chose us. We're just kids!"
"Kania believed the coming of the Ragnarok, and was determined to make it come true since she was but a child, but with one change. She wanted all the humans except for her loyal followers, or the most powerful ones, to die, so she could rebuild Rune-Midgard to her liking. She kidnapped you, because she sought out for the strongest group in Rune-Midgard to help her in her plans."
"Hold it buddy, how can we be the strongest group? I mean, come on! We are just 14 year olds! There are probably hundreds of older men and women that are way stronger," Ramza objected. "And she probably has some strong friends right? She's in about her late teens or early twenties so there should be plenty of older people who are stronger than us."
"She had no friends," Daisuke bluntly stated, and moved on. "Kania knew that the oldest and strongest people would die and grow weak faster. She thought of fresh teenagers that would grow to be strong and have many more years to live and have many years in them to serve her. And that group happened to be yours."
"So that's the reason Kania kidnapped us?" Evol gawked.
"Yes."
"Impossible!"
Everyone turned to face the foreign voice at the door.
-
"Rya, Matt," Blades shook each of them in turn. "Aw, c'mon just wake up already!"
A groan emitted from Rya as she turned her back to him.
"About time!" Blades shook his head with a sigh. "No! Don't go back to sleep! We're in Lutie!"
Blades rolled Rya on her back, took a handful of snow, and gave her a face wash. "UP!"
Instead of shock or a scream as Blades had predicted, Rya calmly brushed off the snow from her face, her eyes glowing dimly of red.
"W...what? Rya? Are you okay?" Blades stuttered as Rya stood up, as her eyes glowed brighter. "Sorry! I didn't mean it! Rya?"
Rya's image became distorted as Blades stuttered, apology after another.
"Rya?!"
The distorted image of Rya flickered for a second and vanished. Instead, someone else replaced her.
A Doppleganger.
"What the hell?" Blades blinked as Matt's body vanished, but nothing replaced him. He was gone. "Rya? Matt?"
The Doppleganger charged at Blades and pinned him down. Its eyes glowed again and flickered into the image of Kania. Blades struggled but the Doppleganger, now Kania, had an iron grip and was not about to let go.
Blades yelled out the first thing that came to his mind.
"RRRAAAPPPEEEEE!"
Splat.
Rya threw a snowball at Blades' screaming figure. Spluttering, he sat up with a jolt. "Where's he?!"
"So you were being raped by a guy?" Rya stifled a laugh.
"What...?" Blades inhaled deeply.
"You screamed "rape" while you were unconscious," Rya couldn't contain herself and began laughing uncontrollably.
"So that was all a dream? You mean we're not in Lutie?" Blades eagerly asked. He was disappointed when he saw snow gently falling down.
"We're in Lutie alright...and this particular place seems deserted. Doesn't look like anyone's been here for quite awhile."
Blades shook off the layer of snow that covered him while he was unconscious and took a good look at his surroundings. A sturdy fence surrounded them, and everywhere else was covered in untouched snow. "A fence? Why didn't you just jump over it?"
"I can't. An invisible force prevents us from getting out," Rya explained, checking on Matt. "He's still unconscious. Those spearmen must've hit him hard."
"Invisible force my ass," Blades stood up and ran towards the fence, jumped, and bounced back into the snow as if he hit a wall. "Ow..."
"See? It just bounces you back..."
Blades groaned as he rubbed his head. And then it clicked. "Rya, do you have any fly or butterfly wings? I'm all out."
Rya mumbled something and slung her bag from her back onto her lap and rummaged through it. "I've got...two butterfly wings. I used my last fly wing a few days ago."
"Two..."
There were three of them.
"Matt definitely goes," Rya said, Blades nodding in agreement.
"Ladies first," Blades grinned. "I'll stay, you go for help."
"Who decided that?"
"What – hey!"
Rya shoved a butterfly wing into Blades' hands and before he knew it, he was engulfed in a pillar of light, being sent to Prontera.
"Sorry, but I'm staying, Blades. You'll be able to find reinforcements faster than I can."
Looking over to Matt, she brushed away the blanket of snow covering him. "You're going back to your family where it's safe..."
Rya placed the last butterfly wing in his hand and a pillar of light engulfed him, sending him to Prontera.
-
Blades screamed at the top of his lungs. What the hell is she thinking?! I should stay!
The whirling stopped as he arrived in an alley in Prontera. Quickly, he clicked a few buttons and was instantly yelling at Rya. "Rya! RYA! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!"
There was no answer.