Of Light And Darkness: Path Of Eternal Nightmare

by Crazy Rob

Heroes aren't heroes because they were given the easy choices. Come and hear the tragic tale of one chosen to restore the realms the tragedy of Ladis. Rated M for language and blood

2. First blood drawn

OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS:

Path of Eternal Nightmares

Sometimes this life, is so cruel in abuses,

that keeping on going seems totally useless,

with all the day's worries, and every condemnation,

everything around us becomes only frustration

But don't give up hope yet,

Every dark tunnel has its light

Keep walking the walk,

Keep up the good fight

Ballad Of The Unnamed Bard, Verse II

CHAPTER 2: BATTLE AGAINST DESPAIR, DEMON OF DEVOURED HOPES

Life for Fate was good.

His servants obeyed him without question. Those imbeciles, those infernal fools whom had denied him the authority to kill his sister, Faith, with their foolish laws and morals, now were under his control, having been imprisoned by the odium storm. He devised a fitting punishment for them… forever to chisel in hard clay, with their bare fingers and stripped of all magic, their every fault and transgression, their work illuminated only by huge, crude torches that accepted only two types of fuel, one readily available: Their bibles, their moralistic guide. If the torches ever went out for refusal to burn their sacred books, then their children would be brought in to be offered to the barbaric torches as fuel. Any resistance in his former superiors was broken, when, to illustrate the fact no exceptions would be made, he threw a four-year old girl into one of the gigantic torches as a warning to the others.

They never could die, of course. They would arise from the ashes every so often, the pain so vividly fresh in their minds, that any resistance that would have been seeded in the young was instantly and irrevocably quelled. No, death was too lenient a punishment. Eternal retribution in pain and suffering would be needed to sate his wrath.

He sat on an ivory throne, his scythe at his right hand, enjoying a goblet of ambrosia of pain, an ink black liquor-like substance formed from the utter sorrow and pain of all under his rule. He had no need of food, the mage who had given him such power had told him, but, the mage had added, this would sate his new hunger that sustained him- the pain and hopelessness of others.

He imbibed deeply of the black liquor, tasting all the sorrow, all the futile rage, the anger, the humiliation, the indignity, the sheer hopelessness of all living things he had in his grasp.

He smiled a loathsome grin. Who needed the self-destructing, minimal pleasures rumored to come with procreation processes when he had this? No degrading himself to animalistic level to further his lineage, and no need to, either. He was an immortal god, the mage had told him, who could only be slain if his grasp on the worlds he'd conquered was broken.

And, he thought to himself, that was a sheer impossibility, no questions asked. All the heroes of those realms suffered an appropriate, eternal punishment along with the rest of the doomed inhabitants. One he personally enjoyed devising, he remembered with glee, was the fate of an innocent realm, where a fool known as the Keybearer, a young boy, was said to live.

The futile resistance the boy offered was utterly crushed by Despair, no contest. As punishment for his crimes of living a life like those idealized by his mentally deficient former superiors, the boy and his young lady friend would be placed on opposite ends of the island they knew as home. They would know where the other was, and would, in their primitive emotions, dash to the other to console one another.

Fate found it utterly hilarious to make sure that this fool's lady friend suffered a rather amusing handicap- a permanent limp for her entire, futile sprint.

He allowed them to always get close enough to see each others face, to think they would make it… and then, (and at this thought he could not help but to laugh out loud) a gigantic meteor would strike, vaporizing the foolish lovers as they came so close to an embrace. Again and again, each morning, this cycle would repeat. He wondered when they'd stop trying to reach each other. But, as he had suspected, they never had. So many countless years, and they never did anything but try their best to reach one another!

He chuckled malevolently at this thought. He supposed, in the outdated, prehistoric morals of his former society, that sort of behavior would be praised as tenacity and perseverance. He had a different, more suitable name for it: IDIOCY! Idiots seeking the love of idiots! And they kept trying different routes to one another, trying to outrun the fiery destiny that Fate had condemned them to!

Idiocy upon idiocy!

He got up, walked down from his ivory throne, viewing the ebony halls constructed of stable odium, his castle, his palace.

Nothing could possibly go wrong now, he mused. He was God here, the master of this world and any other. What manner of imbecile would dare to rise against him, anyway?

He mused at this, the prospect of boredom becoming apparent. Perhaps, in a few hundred years, he'd let one of the heroes… slip out of his clutches… maybe even two or three… let them get stronger, build of some hope of conquering him, and then utterly crush them for all those he had condemned to eternal suffering to view, the ultimate morale breaker!

"Great Lord Fate!" came a cry, sounding like a man being drowned again and again.

Fate's massive body turned to glare upon the kneeling forms of his eight servants. The one who had announced their presence was Despair, and his typically demonic grin that revealed rows of dagger-like teeth was replaced by a solemn (If a giant reptile could make such a face) expression that hinted the news he brought would not be pleasing.

"What is it! Why do you bother me? Did I not make my command implicitly clear?" he roared.

The great reptilian beast, named Despair, raised its head to meet Fate's. "There has been an intrusion in my realm." He said, his macabre voice quaking with fear. "The Nightmare Citadel is being infiltrated.

"Despair fails at such a simple task, my lord." chuckled Cruelty, the gigantic winged skeletal demon of agony and suffering of all innocents. "May I make personal recommendations of suitable reprisal for his failure?" he asked, his skeletal grin showing delight at the prospect of another, even a brother-in-arms, suffering.

Fate started to grow angry, his scythe's blade glowing a brilliant, bloody red, then, suddenly, to the bewilderment of the Dreamslayers (and relief on Despair's part), he smiled.

"A diversion, then." He said, smiling. "I stand corrected, my minions. There appears to be a challenger to my supreme authority. I suppose the insects must attempt to sting before being trodden on."

He looked at Despair, his grin showing. "Who is this fool? One of the heroes you let loose for amusement? Surely not the keyblade holder! I hear he still chases after his whore!" And at this, all but Despair shared a laugh.

"No, my master… it is a new one… a young man… an outsider."

The laugh quickly subsided. Fate, for the first time, appeared confused, out of his normal form of supreme and utter omnipotence.

"What do you mean by outsider!" he roared at the beast, who trembled.

"He… he comes from a realm, now gone into the fabric of time, that you did not bother to conquer." Despair explained.

Fate blinked. "The… mundane realm! The mundane realm? The place where no magic lives! Where the enemy's son was born and died but nearly everyone was too stupid to realize it! Are you actually telling me some ignorant fool managed to cross impossible boundaries no non-mage can ever cross, and now is in your realm!" Fate snorted. "Your pathetic attempt at a joke nauseates me, Despair."

Despair groaned a sigh that sounded like all the death-wails of the dying in one nightmarish chorus. "I do not lie to the God of all, master. The fool is indeed from the mundane realm, but I believe he had help crossing…"

At this, Fate and the remainder of his servants turned their heads to Despair.

"What is more, master… is that this boy… this man-to-be… he bares on his arms and legs the Actraiser Armor!"

Fate's eyes closed in rage, and he suddenly exhaled a string of curses in a demonic tongue. The Actraiser Armor. He'd heard the legends, of course. The armor was said to appear only when something on the level of multirealm devastation was imminent.

Its purpose was that of what the inferiors would call a noble purpose. It gave the bearer the power necessary to destroy aberrations, things created not naturally, but by demonic magic. And, unfortunately, Odium, the pride of Fate's empire, fitted into this category of things.

"WHAT IS THE FOOL'S NAME THAT DARES DEFY ME!" he roared, grabbing Despair in his left hand, pressing his tyrannical, maddened face to glare the beast in the eye.

"La… Ladis, sir."

Fate abruptly dropped him.

"His name, you say, is Ladis." He said, his voice flat.

"Yes, oh master." Despair said, finding his voice at length.

Fate was aghast. In his village's old tongue, "ladis" was a short word for the answer to a prayer, but, more specifically, the answer of God to the prayers of thousands of innocents pleading for freedom from a catastrophic disaster. How then, did the mundane ones get such a name to call their child?

Sheer coincidence, he told himself. The mundane ones must be trying to spice up their dull lives by giving their offspring more vivid names, and somehow they had decided, in a rare stroke of true ingenuity, to give this one a name with meaning.

Fate turned to his minions, smiling malevolently. "This, my servants…" he said, trying to restore the idea he was omnipotent, "is an example I regret to say you may yet see again and again- the example of human arrogance."

"This boy has somehow obtained the very weapon that sunders Odium. I will not pretend to be so ignorant to the fact that he constitutes a threat to my empire. However, this threat, on a proportionate scale, is the threat of a bee to a Behemoth. If the bee is allowed to fly within the beast's mouth, it shall sting an unprotected area. However, if the behemoth is aware, it can have sport with it before crushing it utterly."

He smiled as he said these words, the black walls of his castle illuminated only by the red glow of his scythe, bathing his reverent followers in a bloody sheen.

"It seems chance has chosen this insect die in Despair's realm. Let it be so." He said, seating himself in his ivory throne once more. He held out his hand, and materialized a large spherical globe, in which the entirety of the Nightmare Citadel of Earth- The Reverse Spire- could be seen. He placed this sphere in between him and his servants, so that they could all have a good look at the farce about to unfold.

"I do hope he makes good use of that armor. A good diversion like this is so very hard to come by."

He smiled with demonic joy as he watched the form of a boy clear the last few steps that wound down into the area where the Nightmare Citadel was held...

The tunnel Ladis had entered, after making his way down an extremely long, spiraling flight of stone stairs, was lit, dimly, only by the glow of his weapon. Using it as a light source, Ladis could make out a crude brick path leading further down the tunnel. Without moving forward, he couldn't see any further.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Ladis moved forward cautiously, looking about for any hint on danger, natural or otherwise. There was none, and he kept moving forward.

After a few minutes of walking, Ladis could see a dim, very dim light emanating from what appeared to be the end of the tunnel, and Ladis hurried toward it, holding the soul blade ahead to illuminate his path. As he exited the tunnel, he saw what the source of the illumination was- large, gigantic skeletons, impaled on enormous, spire-like stalagmites, with huge bonfires crackling in the skulls and chest areas.

He was on a stone bridge, inside some sort of enormous hollowed-out dome within the earth, the bridge connecting to the top of what seemed to be a massive tower that seemed to extend far into the crust. Looking over the bridge, Ladis could not even see the bottom of the spherical area. Curious, he swung the soul blade, cutting off a portion of the stone wall from the tower, and flung it over the edge.

Waiting a few minutes, he could not even hear any indication it had hit bottom. The consequences for falling from where he stood seemed very obvious, and very lethal.

Turning, he eyed the massive tower that extended into the earth. The bridge connected to a doorway at the top, a massive, stone portal that was encased within a demonic looking gigantic serpentine clay head, and Ladis, for a moment, wondered if its stone fangs would crash down as he neared the door.

Moving forward, he tested the area before the door with his foot, then, seeing as it was relatively safe, opened the door.

Or, at least, tried to.

The stone doors refused to budge, and Ladis felt a bit angry at such a mundane obstruction so early in his quest. Taking the soul blade in both hands, making it larger and more powerful, he hacked at the door, the first slashes putting impressive gashes in the stonework, the last few tearing a hole in the door, which then crumbled apart.

It was about then Ladis realized that, while powerful, the energy blade which the gauntlets of the Actraiser Armor produced was not omnipotent. He had to put effort behind his swings for it to cut, and the blade felt more like a real sword, with enough weight and mass for a feel for it, now that he was actually using it. Nor was the blade's cut by any means absolute. He suspected it would encounter less resistance with stone as he grew stronger himself, as Garadien had said, but he wondered if the power he had now was enough to tackle whatever lay ahead…

Suddenly, Ladis sensed movement from behind the rubble of the doors. Black puddles were oozing over the rocks, forming three similarly sized pools of inky mass near him. These ooze puddles suddenly bubbled, rose, and began a hideous metamorphosis, changing into humanoid shapes about Ladis' height, with arms and legs, but where hands should be, there were instead short, curved, metallic blades, one on each arm. Their heads held dark, purple, evil eyes, and in their chest, a crystal containing what appeared to be swirling, dark red, grey, and violet mottled sludge, appeared.

Their gaze shifted to Ladis as their transformation completed, and their eyes narrowed. They slowly walked at first, testing their legs, then ran at Ladis.

Ladis, rather than turning and running, (which, at the time, seemed like a good idea) used the enhanced jumping power of the leg armor to boost himself up and over the swipes of the beasts, landing behind them.

As he spun around, Ladis noticed that these creatures seemed confused and uncertain after this evasive tactic. Taking this low intelligence as an opportunity to attack, Ladis charged, swinging the soul blade at the center of the group.

Hearing his footstep, two of the shapes clambered out of the way, while the one Ladis targeted glanced at it's comrades, then behind it.

As the blade descended on it, Ladis swore he saw a mixture of shock and fear in the creature's eyes as they expanded to twice their size as the creature realized it's doom.

The energy blade slashed across it's chest, through the crystal, almost severing it in two, had the beast not stumbled back in surprised. Even though it had no mouth, Ladis could heard a gurgling and dim cacophony of cries within it's body as the wound sizzled and hissed, giving off a black vapor and showing a deep, bloodless gouging of it's black flesh from the blow, the part of the crystal that was cut off dissolving into black vapor and dissipating.

The beast reeled back, it's eyes wild in pain, then, when it regained it's balance, it's eyes narrowed, glowing an ominous purple hue, and Ladis had no doubt that these creatures could feel both pain and rage.

The beast charged, it's bladed arms flailing madly, swinging at the air in front of it in a berserker dash.

Raising his arms in defense, Ladis spun to the side, but not fast enough as one of the blades slashed into the gauntlet, generating a shower of sparks. The beast howled, and drew away it's arm as if burnt.

Ladis inspected the left gauntlet, and saw it was not even scratched. That put one worry at ease- the armor, so far, could not be damaged.

Now I just have to protect the rest of my body, he thought with savage irony.

Ladis rushed again, slashing at the creature with a backhand slash, cutting off it's right arm. Not caring to suffer from an attack from it's left, he brought his right hand back again in a rising forehand slash, slicing the beast in two.

The separated halves quickly dissolved into black mist, and Ladis felt an odd prickling at the back of his neck…

Ignoring it, he turned to the remaining two shadowy creatures, who were rushing forward, bladed arms flailing.

Ladis met their charge by dashing forward and hacking at the closest one, receiving a few cuts on his back in retribution for the dash and slash technique he used. The shadow, however, was noticeably wounded by the attack, a smoking gash eroding at it's body from where Ladis had struck.

Ignoring the sting of the cuts on his back, Ladis spun, going for the third, slashing it across the chest with a backhand strike, then stabbing at it's crystal with the soul blade.

Wondering if the armor allowed for ambidextrous techniques, Ladis tried to form a second soul blade in his left hand. The result was a second, but slightly shorter, less brilliant blade, and his right decreased in size and brightness as well.

Ignoring this, he launched into a series of stabs and cuts, spins and slashes, effectively tearing the shadow to pieces that evaporated into the same, fading black mist. Not stopping, he used his last bit of momentum to dash at the third, and executed two simultaneous backhand slashes across the creature's chest, the hissing, smoking, bloodless black wounds being almost parallel to each other.

Ladis now switched back to a single blade in his right hand, bringing it down on the creatures head. Its eyes went dim as the blade slashed, stopping in the chest area, and the body dissolved into black mist.

Seeing as he was in no immediate danger, Ladis now felt the burning pain of the cuts he'd suffered. As they were on his back, he had no way to tell how severely he was injured, or even a way to mend the damage…

Seems now would be a good time to teach you about using magic. A voice, impish and mischievous, resounded in his head.

"Where are you!" Ladis said, spinning to find the source of the voice.

"I'm where I was before. We're communicating through telepathy, one of my personal talents. Now, seems you taken a bit of damage, kid. Luckily for you, those blades weren't poisoned.

Yeah, great… Ladis thought, wincing.

Fortunately, you seemed to have absorbed enough white aether to form a simple spell. Fortune's voice echoed. Seems those things are gifted with regeneration, so it's lucky you killed them quick.

Ladis groaned silently. Great, more fun to loom forward to.

Fortune's laugh could be heard in his mind. Now, then, magic. You need a healing spell for occurrences like this. Focus all your thoughts on a single thing: Healing your body. You should be able to forge a healing spell from your memories.

Ladis, concentrating hard, searched his mind for a healing memory. His family wasn't much help, nor was school…

Words came to him, powerful words that seemed to be forcing their way from his stomach out to his mouth… he felt, again, the prickling on his neck intensify and then suddenly disperse, as he murmured potent arcane words.

"Shine Balm! CURE!" Ladis yelled, holding his hand outstretched.

As he did, he felt some sort of small amount of energy go out of him, not unlike exhaling. From out of nowhere, small white and blue sparks appeared, circling him and landing on his back and entering his body. Instantly, Ladis felt his wounds close and the pain disappear.

That's the Cure spell. It's disinfectant and healing all in one, but it can't handle poisoning. So be careful. It can fix cuts and maybe some sprains, but it can only heal so much damage at a time. You'll have to recast it again if you're badly injured.

Ladis nodded. Got it.

Another thing is, you only have so much… oh, what is a word you'd understand? Fuel. You only have so much magical fuel to make these spells happen. We refer to this as "Mana". Every time you use a spell, you use up some mana. When you don't have enough mana left to use that spell, you can't cast it.

Okay, so there's a limit. Yeah, I think I felt some energy go out when I used that spell. Is there a way to increase it?

As you get stronger and use magic more often, you'll increase your mana little by little. Resting for a while will also restore your mana.

Ladis nodded mentally, then headed into the citadel.

So what do we know about this place, anyway? Ladis asked mentally.

Effectively, nothing. Came Fortune's reply. We have no maps, no clues, and no reservations. We can provide advice, but, as far as directions go, you're on your own.

Ladis now stood at a large hole, near the door where he'd unceremoniously cut through. Below, he saw a small room, though what was within lay out of sight.

Leaping down, using the power of the leg armor to slow his descent slightly, he landed, and a quick look around confirmed he was in no immediate danger.

The walls around him were lit by much smaller versions of the macabre torches he'd seen outside, smaller skeletons, slightly bigger than Ladis himself.

All along the wall were crude pictographs depicting a large, reptilian monster steadily prevailing over a boy who swung a…

Ladis blinked, and moved closer.

A Key?

Yep, it's something called a keyblade. Crazy little thingamajig. Cut like a hot knife through butter against those… heartlacks or something or others, but did jack squat against Odiumspawn. Fortune's voice rang.

Odiumspawn?

Those beasts you just sliced up? Those were Odiumspawn. Made with all the piss and vinegar Fate had stored in him.

Fate? Who's Fate?

Even though he was nowhere near Fortune, Ladis could feel an incredulous gaze on him. You're joking. You're not even aware who Fate… oh, I see, Garadien never told you… okay, then, long story short, he's a nasty little sonofabitch who sold his soul, made life in all the realms shitty, and gets off seeing other people suffer.

Ladis sighed. Well, then I'll just have to kill him too, won't I?

First things first. Realms need to be restored. Fate feeds off others being miserable. If you were to tackle him right now, you'd be annihilated. We need to weaken him and strengthen you.

With that, Ladis began looking for a door out of the room. A quick look around brought up an interesting problem: No door, no portal, no indication of an exit whatsoever existed in the room.

Ladis examined the walls by what light the skeleton torches provided, and saw that all the walls of the rectangular room were similar, the same depiction of the monster overcoming a boy with a key.

Ladis then saw, as the image came closer, that the crude image of a boy looked remarkably similar to the young man called "Sora" by the doomed girl…

Wait. The image moved closer?

Ladis backed up, and saw, to his horror, that the longer walls were steadily closing in on him. Dashing over to the hole he had dived through, he prepared to jump out... only to have a rock slab close over the area.

Ladis, in desperation, called forth the soul blade and leapt, slashing at the slab, but instead of even scratching the obstruction, he was instead flung back, slamming into the stone wall, the shock of some unknown energy still ringing in his arm.

Getting up slowly, he could see the walls still moving closer, inching every forward to crush him.

Ladis! The walls are being reinforced by some sort of energy! Your blade can't cut them now! Came Fortune's desperate cry, all traces of humor gone.

Suggestions! Ladis mentally screamed.

There are generators for the power in there… they can't fuel that sort of thing from far away… Fortune stammered.

Ladis looked around, the walls getting every closer. There was nothing other than the walls and their pictures, except for maybe the…

Skeleton torches?

Ladis hastily slashed at one of the skeletal torches, quickly turning the macabre light source into a pile of calcium rubble. Although it was not extremely obvious, the walls had slowed their contracting, it seemed.

Hoping it was not a hallucination, Ladis dashed to the torches, slashing at them, the room growing dimmer with each destroyed torch, but the walls slowly grinding to a halt as his rampage continued. At length, after all of said torches were destroyed, the stone slab opened, and, as if in haste, the walls slid back, giving Ladis far more breathing room.

By the light provided by the hole above him, Ladis could see there was now a way out, but still no way forward. Still, the prospect of being crushed had faded, and now he had time again to think.

Or so he did before the shadows began to converge into several small blobs of darkness. They formed stubby legs, small, midget bodies without arms, and one long, bladed tail. Their heads had the same malevolent glowing eyes as the first Odiumspawn Ladis had encountered, but not the jewel in the chest or the height.

The first odium beast ran at him at a waddle, appearing almost comical were it not for the knifelike blade on it's tail. Dodged as it struck, Ladis swung his weapon at its head, striking a solid blow at its neck and beheading it, the body and tail dissolving into black mist.

The other four beasts hesitated, then rushed at Ladis en masse, tails swinging. Ladis, knowing meeting their charge would result in jury, retreated steps at a time, slashing and parrying, and after several swipes, the remaining four were reduced to two.

One foolishly lunged in an aerial attack at Ladis, it's eyes gleaming scarlet. It was rewarded with impalement on the Soul Blade, where it twitched, gave a short gurgle, and vaporized into black mist.

The last one jumped back, and wrapped it's tail around it's body, giving the appearance it no longer was ready to fight. But then, slowly, it began to spin in place, slowly accelerating to the point it was a blur, then unraveled it's tail, hurling itself in a spinning whirlwind of slashes at Ladis.

The attack would had been a very impressive maneuver had Ladis not demonstrated the ancient art of ducking out of the way, leaving the whirling mass of odium to soar harmlessly over his head, landing a few feet away, still spinning.

Slowly, it's movement slackened, and even though it had only eyes for facial features, Ladis could tell the attack left it disoriented. Wasting no time, Ladis hurled himself, soul blade at the ready, at the remaining odiumspawn. Just as it regained it's balance, it looked at Ladis, and it's amethyst eyes grew wide with fear…

…then flashed, abruptly dimming as the blade cut through its body, dissolving into black vapor.

Ladis stood, wiping some sweat from his head, feeling that tingle on his neck again.

He slapped at the back of his neck in irritation. "What keeps doing that?" he growled.

That's aether entering your body. You absorbed some from the monsters you just offed. Came Fortune's mental reply.

Cool! So I can get a new spell!

No, you haven't absorbed enough black, white, or jikku aether for that yet.

Then how'd I learn Cure from just three creatures!

Fortune was silent for a few moments. We're not entirely sure. We think you must have absorbed some residual aether from the armor when Garadien infused you with it. Otherwise…

Otherwise what? Ladis asked.

There was a long pause, and Ladis could hear his own heartbeat slowing down after the rush of battle. Fortune…?

Nevermind, it was a crazy idea. That's one of my fault's; coming up with ridiculous ideas. Nothing worth mentioning right now. Now, then, the energy permeating that area should have weakened enough to reveal the portal.

Ladis looked around, holding the soul blade up for light. Suddenly, to his left, a portion of the wall crackled and flickered with electricity.

That should be it, the portal. Fortune spoke. Just walk through it. It should be like going through an open door.

I thought you said you knew nothing about this place. Ladis thought, his curiosity growing.

This is… no… was a common setup where I came from… and, again, the mirth and joviality in Fortune's voice faded to a sadness wistfulness. It's the same design as home… but, nevermind. Just walk through, and let's kill this damned thing.

Ladis eyed the crackling, sparking wall. It seemed more likely to electrocute him than give him safe passage, but, slowly, he put one hand towards the crackling section, bracing for a painful shock.

Then felt his hand hit empty space as it passed through the wall.

"Sonofa…" Ladis swore softly. Moving forward, he stepped through the sparking area of the wall, blinking as his face moved through solid stone.

He was in another room, a much larger one, with a series of bridges connected to the stone walls by large, rock cylinders. Looking down, Ladis could see, far below, that there was a pit of green, bubbling liquid, and the scent of acrid fumes wafted up from below.

Ladis, I know this is pretty obvious, but if you fall off, well, there's no saving you. That stuff below is grade sigma acid!

What does "grade sigma" mean? Ladis mentally asked out of morbid curiosity.

If you were hanging about ten feet over the stuff, you'd need full body protection, or the fumes would burn you horribly. All that'd be left in a few minutes is a gooey skeleton and the gauntlets. But, hey, no pressure.

Ladis shivered at the thought. Gee, thanks. That image reaaaaallly helps. He said sarcastically, viewing the long jumps he'd need to make from bridge to bridge.

Just take it slow, and don't do anything stupid. Fortune advised.

Ladis shook his head. I came here willingly, didn't I?

There was a long pause. Correction: Don't do anything stupid for non-heroic purposes. People cry if you die a hero. They laugh if you die an idiot.

Ladis surveyed the area he had to work in. The bridges had small gaps in them that the boots would easily allow him to cross. The pillars themselves looked sturdy enough. He smirked. If this was supposed to be a challenge, then…

He felt something shudder beneath his heels, and jumped forward, just as the section of bridge he was on fell apart, falling into the acid below.

"Oh, fuck." He hissed, as the section he'd stepped on began to shudder too.

SHADDAP AND RUUUUUUUUNNN! Screamed Fortune into his head.

Ignoring the temporary headache the command gave him, Ladis jumped from bridge piece to bridge piece, each one falling quicker than the last. Several times he nearly hesitated too long, almost plunging to a boiling death.

The last piece was in sight, but the platform with another, crackling section of that had to be a door (Ladis prayed he was not incorrect), was at least 30 feet away. However, Ladis was near a long length of wall that led to the corner with the portal…

These boots can accelerate me for a while, right! He asked nervously.

DO IT! Replied Fortune, reading his mind and understanding the psychotic, last ditch maneuver.

Ladis called forth the boots power, his reflexes in his legs and body doubling in speed, and, with a dashing start, leapt, and began to run along the wall, his boosted momentum keeping him from falling. However, Ladis could feel the momentum and enhanced reflexes staring to fade…

"Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleaseworkpleasework…" he chanted as he switched the Soul Blade to his left hand, stabbing it into the wall as his agility faded.

Swung upwards into the air and switched off the soul blade…

Kicked off the wall, hurtling himself at the platform…

And sprinted inside the next room as the last platform fell into the acid bath below.

"WHO DA MAN? I DA MAN! I DA MAN! I…" Ladis' chanting fell short as he was interrupted.

"Are you finished yet, irritant?" came a rasping, gurgling voice.

Ladis opened his eyes, and saw a humanoid odiumspawn, equipped with arms, legs, and a muscular body, onyx black armor over his lower and upper body, two small sickles held in his hands. The only thing he held similar to the other Odiumspawn was the black, tarlike body, the midnight purple, glaring eyes, and in his chest, on top of his breastplate, was a much large, diamond-shaped jewel with the same chaotic matter within Ladis had seen in the first three odiumspawn.

Ladis glared down his foe, drawing the Soul Blade in his right, and double gripping it to power it up. "So you can talk." He said in a growl.

Though the odiumspawn had no mouth, Ladis could swear it smiled. "Fate has made us able to do many things, irritant. One of them is to proclaim his will without the need of a primitive human's mouth." It extended its hand, and a longsword of blood red steel appeared in its grip.

"Die proud, mortal. None have ever forced me to awaken for actual combat." It hissed, lunging at Ladis with a slash…

…and meeting only empty air.

"What! Where did you… AAAAARRRGGH!" it screamed, caught off guard by a backstab to its left shoulder. "You cheap, lowlife, insignificant little piece of shAAAAAAAHHH!" it roared, its curse cut off by another slash across it's chest.

"I was hired to save the worlds. No one said I had to be nice about it." Ladis said, not letting any honor get in the way of this fight.

"Fine, irritant. I can play dirty too!" the odium beast roared, extending its left hand.

"Earth Fist! STONE!" it roared, its arm crackling with energy. Small stones appeared out of the air and merged swiftly to create a small boulder that hurled itself at Ladis.

Reacting out of pure instinct, Ladis put up his arms and activated the soul barrier, the stone missile shattering against the rippling wall. However, as Garadien had warned, it was not foolproof, and Ladis was hurled backwards, slammed against the earthen floor of the room.

The odiumspawn chuckled. "Pitiful. Utterly pitiful. You can't block one measly attack." It taunted.

Ladis jumped to his feet. "Neither can you, apparently."

The odiumbeast chuckled, its longsword at the ready. "True, irritant, you scored twice on me, but such minor injuries are not going to be the end of one such as me."

Ladis extinguished the Soul Blade, holding his chin. "Wow, impressive! But tell me, before you kill me, how did you survive the twenty stab wounds I gave you afterward?"

The beast's left eye rose, and its guard slackened in confusion. "What twenty stab wou... AAAAAAAHHHH!"

Ladis, calling once more on the boots, charged forward, forming the two twin Soul Blades, rapidly alternating his stabs. After twenty lightning quick hits, he jumped away, as the odiumbeast fell forward, groaning, slowly dissolving into black mist.

"THOSE twenty stab wounds." Ladis said, feeling a surge of aether flow through him. But this was different, like he'd reached a goal… but he had so far to go… he couldn't of met the final room, unless… yes, the aether was telling him. He had enough power now to form an offensive spell, fueled by the raw destructive purposes the black aether allowed.

Hey, Fortune! What's a good spell to learn? He asked mentally.

He heard Fortune sigh. Oh, right, I nearly forgot to tell you a really important rule about magic- elements.

Elements?

Yes. There's Nine Basic elementals. Earth, Wind, Water, Thunder, Cold, Fire, Holy, Dark, and Poison. These are the basic elementals used in war magic, though they also provide some supportive power.

Ladis felt a mental image form in his head, no doubt a work of Fortune's. Now, then, what you just saw was the first spell of Earth: Stone. It creates a small ball of magical stone out of nothing and hurls it at someone's noggin."

Ladis blinked. It creates stone out of… nothing?

Correction. Out of your mana. Yes, it is thermodynamically impossible. No, you won't understand it if I explain it to you. Yes, even if you could, it'd make your head hurt to the point you'd pass out.

Right. Go on.

Right-o. Now then, each of the six prime elements, Fire, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water, and Cold have a "family" of offensive spells, three apiece.

Ladis blinked. That's it?

He could feel Fortune's grin. Yeah, but they'll do you well. Now, take an element, say, wind, for example. The three spells of offensive value are Aero, Aera, and Aeroga.

Why the odd names?

There's a reason to that. The lone name is the basic spell, the one new mages learn. The -a, -ra or –ara suffix is a magical term for "greater". The –ga, or –aga suffixes are terms for "master". Then there's the –ja category, which

What's the –ja category? Ladis asked. He was suddenly rewarded with a comical vision of a cartoon wizard in hell, yelling "Blizzaja!", and an equally cartoonish devil, along with the once fiery background, being suddenly blasted by a apocalyptic blizzard and large icicle javelins.

That's the essence of the –ja families. Nasty, nasty stuff. They were only used when there was simply no other way around utterly destroying an enemy. Hence, the –ja suffix means "no peace", or "the war is beyond the point where peace can be reached." You probably won't need them… I hope. Fortune added, his mental tone slightly wavering.

So that's it, then. Nine elements, each with 3 spells apiece, including the -jas?

A gamebuzzer sounded in Ladis' head. ANNNGKT! Wrong! I said the first SIX main elementals. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Now, on to getting a spell. You have Cure, a healing spell for all the mild injuries your likely to sustain on this little endeavor. You need something to attack with.

The general rule of elements in magic is that certain monsters have tolerances, weaknesses, immunity, and affinity with certain elements. For instance, an earth elemental monster, which, might I add, you're likely to encounter in this little funhouse, would absorb elemental earth spells, be immune to thunder, and would be weak to… you fill in the blank, kid.

Ladis went with the first thought that came into his head. Wind?

A loud cacophony of bicycle horns and applause rang in Ladis' head, and he made a mental note to smack Fortune for that when- and if- he got out of here.

CORRECT! So, it's in your best interest to learn a spiffy spell of wind. Now, focus your mind and spirit on what makes you angry. Something or someone you would like to see hurt or destroyed. Don't tell me there's no one you know. Now, imagine that thing or person being torn apart by tornadoes, blown off a cliff by strong gusts, flung into a brick wall by a hurricane, any sort of nastiness associated with wind.

Ladis thought of his brother/tormentor, Terce, being thrown screaming into a brick wall by a tornado, and the spell came like it was already in his memory…

He stretched his hand out towards a skeleton torch on the wall, and spoke the words that came to him.

"Wind Cleaver! Aero!" he screamed, feeling once more his mana being drawn out into the spell, giving it life.

Streams of hurricane force air blasted from his hand, combining to a small, whirling vortex, blasting and shredding the skeleton torch to the point it fell apart at the seams. Ladis blinked, not quite believing what he had just seen.

And that, my boy, is the reason most people never get to use the dark arts. Lots of people feel totally justified with blowing up someone who flicked them off. However, most of the guys you'll be dealing with will want you dead, so feel free to use your newfound power at your discretion. But remember, the stronger the spell, the more mana it uses. So be careful.

Ladis now looked over his surroundings. He was in a long, brick-walled hallway, the overhead, the walls, everything but the dirt floor made of brick. Skeleton Torches illuminated the hall, and Ladis could see that the hall was lined with doors made of iron, with ring handles, barred windows- the stuff of medieval prisons.

Trust me, kid. Don't open those doors, no matter what. If they're what I think they are, opening them would mean bad shit. Feel free to look, but nix the opening. Fortune warned.

Ladis wasn't sure he even wanted to view what was behind those doors.

Walking with the intent to pass them by altogether, he had no intention of stopping, until…

"Is someone there?" came a young man's voice.

"Please! Help us!" echoed a elderly woman's.

"No one can help us! No one! Get out while you still can!" came the plea of a female child.

"The pain, the pain! WHY WON"T HE KILL US AND BE DONE WITH IT?" Came a young woman's cry.

Ladis dashed over to where the child's voice had came, peered through the bars, and gasped at what he saw. The girl was dressed in tattered clothes, her body bloodied, her gaze sorrowful.

"Don't open the door! You'll get sucked in if you do!" the girl warned.

"How do I get you out of here!" yelled Ladis, his mind racing.

"You… can't. No one can. Go back where you came from! He'll hurt you too! I… Oh no!" cried the girl, looking at the ceiling above her.

Ladis looked up, and saw the ceiling had grown large, sharp stone spikes, and was rapidly descending.

As he heard the sickening crunch and muffled screams from all around, he fell backward, backpedaling away from the horror he had just seen.

A dark fluid now seeped from under the doors, into the dirt floor, and the smell of death, a new and horrible sensation, hit Ladis full force.

"Alldeadalldeadalldeadalldead" Ladis babbled, his mind reeling, stumbling over his own feet. This couldn't be happening, it had to be an illusion. He must've hit his head during the Klansman debacle, and was in a coma…

Ladis! Get out of there now! It's an illusion!

A-an illusion? Ladis had great difficulty focusing on the shortest bit of telepathy.

Yes! The magic here is designed to drive you insane! And if you stay around much longer, it will! Run straight ahead, I'm detecting an exit there.

Ladis, forcing back his vomit and nausea, ran blindly towards where he faintly heard crackling and sparking of energy, signaling a portal. Suddenly, the portal's hissing and crackling halted, and Ladis, looking up, saw that it had stopped completely.

A faint gurgling attracted his attention, and, slowly turning around, he saw that the pools of… liquid were beginning to bubble.

Ladis' nausea faded, replaced by a sense of bewilderment. If all this was an illusion, then how did the blood get there, and why was it slowly starting to form…

"Aw, crap." Ladis growled, as the blood slowly turned black, oozing upward, forming humanoid shapes.

The blobs of black-red ooze slowly grew, shaped into human-like shapes, save for the utter ink-black exterior. Ladis noticed that these were bereft of the chest jewels, but instead, possessed blinking, gigantic eyes. Where their predecessors had long blades, they had shorter, cat-like claws. Their eyes gleamed scarlet, and, as they reached their final formation, they emitted low, hissing noises, even with their lack of mouths. Slowly, they stretched their limbs, as if having awoken from a long slumber…

Then, one by one, they noticed Ladis' presence. Their claws clenched and unclenched, and they began to lumber, slowly, adjusting to their legs and new sense of mobility, towards Ladis, their eyes filled with hatred.

Ladis decided it was time to try out a new tactic, rather than simply trading blow for blow with the odiumspawn. He raised his hands at the nearest odiumspawn, and focused his will on his magic…

"Wind Cleaver! Aero!" he yelled, calling on the destructive force of wind.

As before, he felt his mana ebb away, and streams of air became a scything vortex that slashed mercilessly at the odiumspawn, faded away after a few seconds, and left it a mass of cuts and slashes. The odiumspawn's flesh hissed and faded into the same black vapor as the wind slashed it, but, as the vortex subsided, it became apparent that it was still standing, if but barely.

The magical assault on it's body, however, was not particularly pleasing, as it lunged, it's claws swiping at Ladis as it hurled itself recklessly at it's target.

Ladis, gripping the soul blade with both hands, swung it in a roundhouse swing, ducking its slashes as he went into a roll, slicing down at the odiumspawn's abdomen as he went, cutting it in two.

One down, five to go.

The second lunged without hesitating, and clawed Ladis across the chest as he rose the blade for a down slash. Ignoring the burning pain that came with the wound, Ladis brought the weapon down, severing the beast in two.

The next two came slashing wildly, and Ladis met their charge with a backhand slash, meaning to take them both out at once. One fell to the tactic, but the other slashed his right shoulder and slammed a black foot into his side, slamming Ladis into a wall.

It chuckled. It chuckled at his pain.

Ladis had never before felt this sensation. This feeling of hate…

The desire to utterly EVISCERATE it.

He turned towards it, saw its red eyes twitch slightly.

No death. Not enough. Too easy.

DESTROYDESTROYDESTROYKILLKILLKILLKILLKILL

Ladis.

KILLKILLKILL

LADIS!

Calling? Who's Calling?

LADIS WAKE UP!

Ladis opened his eyes. The three other odiumspawn were nowhere to be seen.

Ladis, where the hell did you learn that sort of schiznit! I mean, Garadien said you had issues, but daaaaaaammn… came Fortune's comical, if a bit nervous, telepathic voice.

Ladis saw that they were splotches of red-black muck on the wall. Remains of the last three. He had heard the odiumspawn laugh at his pain, and then…

Laughing, then…

Then…

Rage. He had felt rage. Indignation. He felt hatred beyond words for the odiumspawn who had injured him.

Nonexistent realm to Ladis, come in Ladis… came Fortune's mental jab.

Yeah, I'm here. What the hell happened just now? Ladis asked as he used a Cure spell to mend his wounds.

What do you mean, "what just happened"! came Fortune's exasperated reply.

I meant what happened after the odiumspawn hit me into the wall.

There was a long silence.

You really don't remember? Came a timid response.

No.

You're not joking, are you? Because this isn't the sort of crap to joke…

I'm not joking.

An even longer pause.

You screamed, and then… well… my link with you went fuzzy, but as far as I can tell, you released a lot of raw magical energy through the soul blade. Garadien says it's your emotions resonating with the weapon, getting used to what you have… or it's quite possible you're just going insane.

Ladis sighed. Getting a straight answer out of Fortune on this would be pointless.

His t-shirt was torn, and Ladis realized now he was feeling extremely tired. He had healed his wounds, but not having gotten any sleep last night after the incident with his family, he was nigh dead tired. But it wasn't like he could just relax in this place… much less take a quick doze.

Have to keep moving. He told himself. Have to… or they'll get me…

He moved, a bit sluggishly, through the portal, the prospect of just how many thermodynamic laws were being broken during this entire debacle a mere afterthought.

He was now in a circular room, lit by the same damn skeleton torches…

His left leg was slumping at the knee from exhaustion. He could barely keep his eyes open.

Need sleep. He thought. But sleep means death. No sleep means death. No sleep, die, sleep, die… fuck.

He noticed, out of the corner of his eye, a floating sphere of soft, gentle, white light.

Fortune, any idea what the heck that is?

No, not really. Came the reply. It's not one of Fate's doings…

It seemed so gentle, so pure…

He reached his hand out towards it…

Ladis! What are you…!

"Rest, hopebearer. Shut your eyes and let the slumber of a day fall upon you." Came a female voice, so pure, so… innocent… it had to be an angel…

I died, and an angel came to take me to heaven. Ladis thought. Fortune… Garadien… Ansem… I'm sorry… need to rest…

He heard no response as a soft light enveloped him, like a tender embrace…

"You're hurting." Came the voice.

"I'm fine…" Ladis replied, drunk with tiredness.

"Your soul. It's hurting." The voice said, worry seeping in.

"I'll be fine." Ladis assured the voice. "I just need to rest a little…"

"I can give you rest… please… stay with me a while… It's been a long time since I've had any mortal company…" the voice said, coming closer.

"What's your name?" came the female's voice.

"Ladis."

There was a pause. "La-dis?" the voice called, as if it was unsure of what he had said.

"I know it's a funny name. My parents gave it to me… and they didn't care for me much."

He could make out a face against the soft light… an angelic face, with… lavender hair…? Huh… angels must have odd tastes in style.

Her face bore a sad, understanding smile, she was, as far as Ladis could tell, about his age, eighteen, and a beautiful young woman garbed in a robe of what seemed to be… light woven into fabric.

"I know the feeling. My parents spent all their attention on my brother." She said, sighing.

"Funny… mine gave me a lot of attention… just never any good attention…" Ladis said, yawning…

"I never caught your name…" he said, as he said, as he felt his body float upward, his eyes closing slowly…

"My name?" The girl sounded surprised. "You… want to know… my name?" she said, slowly.

"Sorry…" Ladis said quickly… "I didn't mean…"

"No! No, I was just… well, back where I was, I wasn't really well liked…"

"Neither was I."

He could hear her soft giggle, a beautiful one. "It's Faith. My name is Faith…"

Faith?

A beautiful name for a beautiful girl…

And Ladis, enveloped in light, fell into the deepest slumber of his life, unaware he was levitating four feet in the air, reclining on nothing.

Faith stepped forward, her hands at her front.

He was handsome, as she was told.

But then, was her Lord ever to lie? Was he even capable?

He promised her, even as she watched from this place as her brother tore countless lives apart, that a hero would come. A hero who would know her pain.

Even now, the promise was being fulfilled.

She allowed herself to recline, to be lifted up, and, for the first time in her entire life since her tenth birthday, fell asleep without crying, her floating form only a few inches away from Ladis'.

At peace.

For the idle man, there are a thousand devils for his torment,

For the diligent, there is but one,

But woe be unto the man who does good without want of reward,

For the masses of hell itself shall toil for such a man's misery.

Proverb of the SoulBlazer

"WHERE IS HE!" bellowed Fate, as the mortal boy who had single-handedly slew several of his Watcher Odiumspawn in one fell swoop, vanished in a flash of light.

"My… my lord… I do not know…" Came Despair's moaning reply. "I have no indication he is even in that realm anymore!"

Fate glared at his creation. "You put no such device in the Citadel? No portals to aid your journeys to and fro!" he growled.

"No, my lord, as you know in your knowledge, I am bound to thee. You need only speak and I appear. You need only dismiss and I go." came the groan.

Fate waved his hands, and large spheres of odium came to him in multitudes, each about the size of a cannonball.

Then they opened, revealing disturbingly lifelike eyes, the pupils glancing all as one at Fate.

"Go, all of you, my sentinels, unto all realms I have under my control, and seek out this menace!"

At once, without any flash or smoke, the eyes disappeared, as if they'd never been there at all.

The search, with their sole purpose being to scan an entire realm for beings, should take only a few seconds…

But seconds became minutes, minutes Fate did not care to spend.

"WELL!" he bellowed.

At once, the orbs reappeared.

"My lord, he is not here nor there, nor anywhere."

"Low and high we sought the thorn in your side."

"Nowhere he can be seen."

"Perhaps he flees?"

"Perhaps he died?"

"Perhaps he has a power solely meant for not being found?"

There was a collective gasp as all the eyes, the Dreamslayers, and Fate's raging, demonic gaze swept over to the trembling Sentinel Odiumspawn who spoke such a thing.

Fate lifted his hand, and prepared to, molecule by molecule, rip the offender apart, calling forth the demonic arcane forces needed for such a brutal death, when, suddenly, to the amazement (and disappointment in Cruelty's case) of all present, he stopped, his eyes blank.

"There was only one who would dare to do such a thing… to give respite to this infection within my own territory…"

The trembling odiumspawn opened its eye, the prospect of such an impossibility outweighing the fear of death.

"But Lord, you are beyond the god of old. Who dares stand in thy way, lest he be swept aside by thine wrath?"

The odiumspawn screamed as a wave of reddish energy tore it into dust. Cruelty stifled a chuckle, but the rest, even Judgment, quickly moved away from the spot where the offender had been.

"Let that be a lesson to you all to question me." He warned, his hand still crackling with evil energy.

"But a question shall never die once it has been spoken. I am thus bound to answer. However, the questioner has perished in pursuit of knowledge, for true knowledge is as nectar to me, and I will not share it without price."

"But the price has been paid, and so I shall divulge this hindering which I did not think to guard against."

All eyes were on Fate as he spoke. "T'was a time before the worthy Fate became a god, and the mundanes ruled."

"And the god of old was foolish, not guiding us to true power." Came the chanted reply.

Fate smiled at the obedient reply. "Yes… In that time, I had an… annoyance. A sister. Rebellious. Faithful to the old god. An inferior citizen of inferior life."

"I tried to kill her at my ascension, but for reasons unknown, the old god not doubt has sided with her in a desperate attempt to stoke the dying fire of this futile and utterly worthless crusade against my empire."

Fate chuckled. "Indeed, the old god grows desperate."

He allowed the laughter to spread a little among his minions.

"But, retaliation is necessary for any sort of damage this menace inflicts…

If, indeed, he does destroy the Demon Heart, then, Despair, the responsibility of his death falls to you alone."

The beast bowed best it could. "If it is necessary, I shall do it. Still, he has the rest of the citadel to conquer… and it shall be the killing blow to the hope of the people here when his broken body is exhumed from the depths of your first temple…"

Fate smiled. This diversion would prove most profitable.

Still…

The light bothered him.

It bothered him severely.

Looking at the sphere that surveyed the entirety of the worlds he'd conquered, seeing that imperfection… Ladis…

It reminded him he was fallible.

He dismissed the sphere, bid his subjects leave with but a thought.

He would not look upon the sphere again for entertainment. It reminded him of what so many of the mundane world did for amusement.

He was in the darkest halls of his castle, where no illumination existed.

But the light was still burning in his mind.

Burning. Like an injury from a Fira spell gone wrong.

And the darker the room, the brighter it burned.

The mage had warned him of such occurrences. Warned him the light must be extinguished.

Otherwise the burning never stops.

He calmed himself with the thought that no mortal could ever hope to survive in a nightmare citadel. No mortal, whatsoever. No matter what armament. No matter what magic. There was simply no way a mortal, particularly from the mundane realm, could survive.

But, what if a mortal had a God on his side?

What if this was the God's way of mocking him, sending something so weak, giving him just enough power to accomplish the task?

That answer kept him pacing for a long time.

Ladis awoke.

He felt… rejuvenated. His body no longer felt sleepy or exhausted. It was like…

A recharge. A reviving.

He surveyed now his surroundings…

Wait…

How'd he get back into the hallway? Hadn't he…

He whirled around, and, sure enough, the floating orb of light still remained, as before.

LADIS! Screamed Fortune's panicked voice, the psychic force knocking Ladis to his knees.

GEEZ! Don't do that! Why are you yelling?

Oh, I dunno… oh wait… yeah, it's coming to me… I think it was YOU DISAPPEARING WITHOUT A TRACE INTO THAT BALL! Screamed Fortune.

Relax, I'm fine… even better, now.

Better? Came a more calm, more collected response.

As in like I've spent an entire day sleeping.

A day? You were in there for five seconds, tops!

Ladis shrugged. Somehow, with all of this happening around him, he wasn't surprised.

Whatever. Anyway, there's a girl in there… her name's Faith.

Faith. There's a girl in the ball of light named Faith. Came Fortune's voice, slow and deliberate, as if talking to someone on medication.

Yes.

Ladis expected Fortune to ask something criticizing, like if he had taken drugs or hit his head, but instead, he got a much different response, urgent, probing.

What color was her hair?

Uh… Purple.

Lavender?

Yeaaaaah… you know her?

Yes. Big man said you'd have Faith's support. I thought he meant you'd just be religious, but I guess he meant it literally.

She's faith incarnate?

No, slappo, it's her name. The one thing her traitor parents did good for her.

Traitors?

It's complicated. There was this ceremony called the "Anointing" in her village, made a person one of the community, otherwise they were an outcast. You had to have it done before you hit ten. When she was four, she had a brother, and all the attention shifted to him. Ladis could hear Fortune sighed a ragged breath. She never was anointed, and by the time her parents realized what they'd done, it was too late. She lived for eight years as an outcast.

Ouch. Who was her brother?

There was a long pause.

You don't want to know.

I can handle it.

You swear, by the God who made you, you will not despise her for what I tell you.

I swear. My brother wasn't so hot, either.

Her brother's worse.

I find that hard to believe.

Even if I told you her brother was Fate?

Ladis reeled back. While it fit with what the girl, Faith, had told him, it still was a shock.

Fate! Fate's her brother?

More like a tormentor/personal demon, came Fortune's reply.

Ouch. Sounds like she had a rough life.

"Rough"? Yeah, rough. Rough isn't haven't trash thrown at you just because someone forgot to have holy water poured on your head. Rough isn't being forbidden to eat with your family because of what they did. That's called Fucksville, population: Faith.

Ladis shook his head as he surveyed his surroundings. She's very beautiful. Very kind, very gentle, too.

Keep it in your pants, kid. Came Fortune's taunt, now back in his usual jester's tone. First things first. Fate needs to be dethroned. Realms need to be restored. My main source of entertainment these past few millennia has been heckling Garadien about his fashion sense and learning card tricks.

Ladis now walked about the circular hallway he had stumbled into. More skeletal torches. More depictions of the battle between the reptile-beast and the key-wielding boy.

Screw Garadien's fashion… this guy's place is just plain creepy.

After circling the hall once, Ladis found five other crackling portals other than the one he'd emerged from. The middle portal, however, seemed different… tainted.

He tried going through it, and was rewarded with an ominous flash of dark energy that, had he not jumped aside, would have lanced through his heart.

Ladis, that door's being blocked by negative energy. You need to find the source of it and cut it off to proceed. came Fortune's mental voice.

Ladis, after a quick and random decision, entered the farthest door on the left.

He'd expected more horrifying images, more tormenting nightmares. At the very least, a guardian odiumspawn.

Instead, Ladis found, inside the square, stone room, two normal torches, and a wooden door at the end.

"What the…?" he said, a bit shocked.

Huh. Now that's something you don't see everyday. A normal door in Crazyville.

Should I? Ladis asked, reaching for the doorknob.

I don't think we have other options. Responded Fortune. Just be extremely careful in there. It's going to be major sucksville for us if you do something stupid, like, say, die.

Ladis tapped the doorknob with the back of his hand, checking for traps, heat, or other unpleasantness. The last two doors of this type had given him an entirely new definition of "unreal", and thus, the Soulblazer exercised a bit more caution than normal.

Opening it with a jerk, the Soul Blade at the ready, Ladis found not odiumspawn, not another deathtrap, but a statue of a warrior, holding a greatsword, blade pointed down.

He was dressed in armor, with a metal circlet around his head, and his face was downcast, his eyes closed, as if the statue knew that all was not well outside the citadel.

Then the eyes opened.

Ladis nearly jumped out of his skin, but a voice resonating in his head calmed him.

Who is this, he who bears the end of our suffering?

"I'm… Ladis."

Ladis. The answer of God to the tortured masses' cries.

Ladis felt the stone eyes watch his every move. The statue was so detailed, so life like, he expected it to move at any moment.

This world, and many others… countless others… are in torment, their lives made unreal by Fate.

"Tell me about it." Ladis said, recalling the ghastly images he witnessed overground.

Long ago, the worlds were one. Heroes banded together to fight the evils. But now the evils have banded together to fight them, under the demonic banner of Fate.

"From what Garadien told me, I'm supposed to stop it."

The promise was not specific in who or what would stop the Eternal Nightmare, but it was a promise nonetheless, and I am grateful God allows me now to see his promise manifest.

Ladis scratched his head. "I've still got a long way to go." He said, humbly.

Such is the reason I am here in this den of sorrow. I, and two others who defied the darkness before, shall lend you our strength to fight Fate's evil.

Ladis was puzzled, as from what he'd heard from Garadien and Fortune, he was on his own in this battle. "How?"

We shall lend you the power we held in life… the powers of the former soulblazers.

As the statue finished his sentence, Ladis felt his arms and legs begin to tingle where the soulblazer armor was, feeling a new, faint power course through his arms.

I am Blazer, the first bearer of the light. Unto you I give the power of awareness, the gift to sense ill will in flesh and stone, bone and metal. Precognition… Awaken.

Ladis felt his mind go berserk, his senses overload, and nearly blacked out from the intensity of the energy coursing through him.

Then, all was calm. He felt… more alert… more aware, like he had gained a more deeper understanding of what was going on around him. Like he had gained an extra sense, a sort of radar, even…

He looked up, after his mind had cleared, to thank the statue/soulblazer/whatever the hell he called himself…

And saw a pile of dust.

The statue has silently and swiftly disintegrated after the power had been bestowed.

Ladis? What's going on? You went awol mentally for a while.

I dunno… I met this statue named Blazer… he said something about helping me…

Hold on. Interrupted Fortune. Blazer? He said his name was Blazer?

Yep.

What did the statue look like? Came the excited response.

Uh… a guy with a greatsword, a circlet, armor…

Yep, that's him, no mistake. Blazer is the first SoulBlazer, hence, the title was named after him.

What's he doing here?

He isn't doing anything. What you saw was a sort of spiritual imprint, his last prayer to God before Odium consumed his world and flung him into the Neverafter. Apparently, that prayer was to make you more aware.

If I…

Yes, if you defeat the Dreamslayer responsible for his disappearance, he will come back. Assured Fortune. That's Fate's weakness with Odium: He can use it to trap people in torment until doomsday, but he can't kill them permanently with it.

That's not exactly a positive, Fortune. Amended Ladis. I'd take death over letting him have his fun with me after what I've seen.

True, that. But we've got a world to save. Chop, chop, and stab too, kiddo.

Ladis exited the room, heading back into the circular room, making a quick scan for enemies.

There were no odiumspawn in the room, nor any immediate perils, and yet…

Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

Something in the back of Ladis' brain prickled, like a small tingle of electricity…

And the young SoulBlazer leapt aside just before a gigantic axe crashed down where he had been a moment ago.

Looking at the wielder of the axe, he saw it was a much larger, much more muscular version of the blade-armed odiumspawn he had dealt with earlier, except this one had, instead of simple blades, large axeheads on the ends of its arms. It stood easily 8 feet tall, its cruel, vermillion eyes glaring down at Ladis.

It raised the axe-arms for another strike…

…and was rewarded for exposing its chest with a downward slash followed by two swift kicks to its legs that sent it sprawling to the ground with a loud crash. However, it quickly rose with a kick flip, and charged, its axe-arms slashing wildly.

Ladis leapt into the air, using the boots to boost his height to the point where he was midway between the floor and the ten-foot ceiling. Holding his hands downward, he invoked the Aero magic again.

"Wind Cleaver! AERO!"

The small tornado ripped at the behemoth odiumspawn, but only served to give it a few slashes, along with infuriating it beyond rational thought. (Assuming, thought Ladis, it could think in the first place.)

Landing, Ladis narrowly avoided being split in two as the raging odiumspawn began to slash wildly, its attacks landing on either wall or thin air as Ladis decided to back off from the madness of its assault.

After a few seconds, the Odiumspawn noticed it wasn't hitting Ladis at all, and rushed madly at him, a faint gurgling audible from what Ladis could only discern as its head.

Ladis simply raised his hands…

"WIND CLEAVER! AERO!" he roared, evoking the black magic once more.

The Odiumspawn, not to be caught off guard twice, raised its massive blades to block the spell, the large axe-heads being knocked aside in response to the blast of slicing winds.

That was all the time Ladis needed.

The moment the spell struck the blades, Ladis charged, accelerating with the boots' power, readying the soul blade. Knocked off balance from blocking the spell, the Odiumspawn had no time to react…

And consequently was split in two as Ladis charged past, swinging the soul blade with both hands in a diagonal slash at the giant's abdomen.

Ladis spun, facing the odiumspawn's back, ready to attack again if it turned around. It remained motionless, the searing slash from the soul blade beginning to hiss and emit black mist.

It gurgled, the sound of an elderly man being drowned coming from within it's black structure.

Then its top half fell off, dissolving into black smoke. The bottom half toppled, dissolving as well.

And the prickling on Ladis' neck came and went again. This time it felt like small lightning bolts were shooting up his spine.

It was creepy. But he knew it was power. Power he could use.

Power he would need to use.

Ladis? Feel free to move sometime this millennia… you know, you aren't required to stand still every time you kill a baddie… came Fortune's taunt, urging him along.

Ladis began to fire off a retort to Fortune mentally, but held it. He was right… he did need to keep moving.

The next door, from the right of the door Ladis had previously entered, had the same crackling and hissing of electricity indicated it was ready for entry.

Ladis willed away the instincts that prevented him from walking into solid objects once again, and stepped through the stone wall.

As he stepped through (blinking involuntarily as his face passed through the crackling stone portal), he saw now he was in a smaller room, where, in front of him, was a large square pit before him, with stone platforms sticking out of a field of sand.

It would have been like a large-scale Japanese rock garden had the illumination source of the room been more of those infernal skeletal torches.

Ladis saw, looking at the odd scene before him. The rocks themselves looked sturdy enough, but… there was something…

Wrong.

The scene… was lying… but that was crazy. How could inanimate scenery lie?

Simple. It was made to look relatively harmless. There was something there that made it not harmless. It was lying.

To test his theory, Ladis slashed at the stone floor, cutting a chunk of stone big enough for him to throw, a handful of rock. He casually tossed it underhand into the sand.

As soon as it landed, it began to sink, as the sand seemed to part from underneath it, the hole growing wider and wider rapidly, as the sand fell at an alarming rate to make it larger, more difficult for an intruder to escape. At last, all the sand had fallen into a large pit, like it had been… suspended over it, and Ladis could see what awaited at the bottom.

Spikes. Large, sharp, metallic spikes. The stones sticking out of the sand were, actually, large stone pillars jutting up from the pit,

As he was wondering if a cure spell could help him against such dire wounds, watching safely from the stone floor entrance, the sand suddenly rose back up to its normal position, creating the same layer that prevented Ladis from seeing the it, reshaping as if nothing had happened. The rock was nowhere to be seen, assumingly at the bottom of the pit.

Ladis now looked at the path the stones made, and saw that they led to a crackling section of stone wall on the other side, which had to be a portal…

Yo, Fortune, are those pillars sturdy?

Beats me. You're the first one in here, remember?

Ladis shrugged. Fortune was right, there was no point in asking someone who'd never seen the inside. Taking a short breath, he leapt to the first pillar…

Nothing. The pillar didn't collapse, no arrows shot out of the walls, no odiumspawn came, nothing.

The next pillar. Nothing.

Neither with the third. Or the fourth. The fifth was the same.

After the fifth, Ladis clear the last section of the spike pit, and passed through the crackling wall, hesitating as a large spark popped at him harmlessly.

This is gonna take some getting used to, he thought as he closed his eyes and passed through the wall. Now he stood in a large, stone room, lit again by those skeletal torches, where, in the center, on a marble, circular pedestal covered in runes, was a large, dark violet crystal sphere, at least ten feet in diameter, floating over the pedestal, hovering in midair.

Even from a distance Ladis could feel demonic energy emanating from the orb. It seemed (and this felt slightly ridiculous) that the crystal was a manifestation of hopelessness itself, the id of all impeding thought.

Ladis grinned and lit up the Soul Blade. In every teenager's heart, there is always at least some small portion of their soul that shakes with glee at the idea of destroying something so intricate and precise, just to piss someone off.

And Ladis just happened to be fortunate enough to have justification for this act of vandalism. If it didn't help open the center door, then at least he could get some stationary practice in with his new weapon…

Taking it in both hands, increasing the energy blade's length, Ladis charged, his face twisting into a homicidal grin.

"ITTTTT'S SMASHY TIME!" he yelled, leaping into a jumping slash…

Ladis' world suddenly stopped, as if someone had hit "Pause". He had an out-of-body vision of his body being impaled on a spike of dark energy as he descended in an arcing slash.

Then, as quickly as it came, the vision ended, Ladis back in his body…

"AHHHHHFUCK!" he screamed as he twisted out of the way of the dark blast that would have lanced him in midair, landing in a crouched position.

"Smashy time? Do you mortals bother to even think about the nonsense you spew?" came a voice. Ladis noticed it was coming from the direction the orb was.

"Let's skip the small talk, eh?" Ladis muttered, as he drew on the boots power to airdash (Think MegaMan X2) at the orb…

…Shooting upward at the last moment to avoid a dark wave of negative energy that vaporized a section of wall, and would have taken Ladis with it had he not acted so fast…

"Hasty to die, are we? That can be arranged…GAH!"

The orb's ethereal taunt was cut off with a demonic rasping and wheezing as Ladis fell in a slash, landing a solid blow on the orb. While it didn't cut through, it left a very deep gash, crystal shards flying and dissipating into black dust.

"That was not a wise move, human! Earth Fist! STONE!" The orb screamed, as it sent a magically formed boulder crashing into Ladis' chest, causing him to stagger and spit blood as he and the boulder crashed to the ground.

Mercifully, the stone rolled off him, allowing him to see, as his vision cleared from the pain, that the orb had now risen into the air, moving toward him…

A prickling at the back of his mind was all the warning Ladis had before another dark javelin lanced him, and he barely rolled out of the way of the blast…

…and was rewarded with pain like he'd never felt as he realized he'd had several ribs broken.

Another dark lance shot out at him, and, gathering himself to his feet, he tumbled away, but not before the lance grazed his left side, drawing blood.

Ladis nearly screamed from the pain as his flesh was removed from existence.

"Sh…Shine Balm! Cure!" he gasped, hoping the healing magic would be sufficient to heal some of his injuries. But as the healing lights flowed into his body and into his wound, the sphere shot out another lance, aimed straight at Ladis' head.

Ladis, on sheer instinct, swatted at the bolt, and sent it harmlessly into a stone wall, where it vaporized a small chunk of stone. The force, however, knocked the blade of light from his hand, which disappeared. Apparently, letting go of the blade extinguished it as well as mentally willing it away.

Ladis noticed only one rib was now broken, and the wound on his left side wasn't bleeding as bad. Still, it hurt like hell.

He was about to invoke the cure spell again, when he noticed the Orb charging directly at him.

Ladis' face twisted into a hateful scowl as he shifted into an attacking stance.

Enough running away.

As the orb neared, he leapt over it, slashing down with the Soul Blade. He was rewarded with the shock of impact coursing up his right arm, and a psychic howl of pain from the orb.

As he landed, he invoked Cure again, and this time, his injuries were completely healed, his wounds gone like he had never been hurt.

Again, the stinging pricks in the back of his mind came, hinting at impending danger…

Calling on the boots' power, he leapt into a back-flip, just barely avoiding being smashed by the sphere trajectory, and the orb smashed into the wall, causing the room to shake violently.

"You need to work on your aim, pal." Ladis taunted, crossing his arms.

"And you, mortal, need to work on dying with some dignity!" the sphere roared as it charged at Ladis again…

…and seemed slightly unnerved when Ladis, screaming a battle cry, charged head on at it, the soul blade burning bright in his outstretched right arm.

The sphere, however, ignored this show of bravado, and kept charging at full speed…

…failing to notice Ladis gave one small jump right before they collided.

Ladis spun into a barrel roll, stabbing with his right hand, flipping, gouging out a large hunk of the sphere's crystal body, stabbing down with the soul blade transferred to his left, gouging again, and repeating the grim spin, as he rolled over the demonic crystalline orb, scoring over all five well placed hits, and fell off the sphere, landing in a crouched position.

The sphere gave one last psychic howl as it crashed into the opposite wall, shattering into millions of fragments, which quickly evaporated into black gas.

Fortune, how's that barrier looking?

Weaker, but still strong enough to block any attempt to break through.

Ladis turned to leave, when he noticed a small, glowing ball of light hovering where the Crystal Orb had shattered.

Fortune, is that another portal to Faith?

Fortune took a while to answer. No, no… this… this is one of their prayers…

Ladis noticed that Fortune's normally giddy tone turned sorrowful. Who's prayers?

The prayers of those Fate enslaved, but kept their faith. Manifestations of hope they hadn't lost yet.

Hadn't…?

No one can endure Fate's tortures without losing their minds… these are the last wishes of the faithful before they… lost their hope.

Reaching out, Ladis touched the floating ball of light…

­­"Please… let it end… help us God… my children… my poor children don't deserve this…"

…and felt a weight in his hand.

Looking at it, it appeared to be a small flask of pale green liquid.

"…..eh?" Ladis muttered, raising an eyebrow.

Oh, that'd be a Potion. The healing kind. This seems to be the minor injuries kind that will heal a mildly serious injury, but won't save you from death. Came Fortune's telepathic call.

Great, but what do I keep it in? Ladis replied. He hadn't thought to take his backpack with him, and his jeans' pockets weren't large enough to hold the flask…

Oh, yeah, that's another little trick of the armor. It'll hold stuff like that for you. Due to a whole lot of factors, only 30 different types of items can be held at a time, and only 10 of any item.

…

Hey, we just gave the armor. The wacko responsible for forging it went bonkers long, long ago.

Right, so how do I store it?

Envision a vault, or something like a safe, and focus on storing it in that safe. To retrieve it, focus on taking it out.

The process took little effort, the merest thought on the details Fortune described was sufficient to make the item disappear, and somehow, Ladis knew it had been stored safely.

Exiting the room, Ladis saw the same set up of pillars, with the façade of a sand floor. Now that he knew what he was facing, the challenge of the spikes below seemed nowhere near as daunting as before…

…Then, as if to take affront for his relaxed attitude, three winged masses of odium, about the size of an adult dog, bamfed into existence, hovering over the pillars. These actually had mouths, and the sharp teeth that protruded from them made no illusion of coming away with minor injuries if one was bitten. The three beasts spotted Ladis, and, with howls resembling those of dying wolves, charged.

Ladis, as he drew the Soul Blade, found himself a bit amused at his first thoughts on the demonic apparitions: he'd momentarily wondered if he'd get in trouble with the S.P.C.A for having to fight them…

One hasty, nigh-effortless fight later, (The Fangwings, Ladis had called them, ceased to be a problem once their wings were removed.) Ladis exited into the circular hall again. The door in the middle still had the infernal aura about it, but it seemed a bit weaker.

Taking the far right portal (again, he realized that walking through walls was something he REALLY needed to get used to.), he entered a larger room, this time, a lone figure in a grey robe sat at a crude wooden desk, sorting various coins of shapes and size.

Ladis' eyes widened as he saw, that, behind the man, lay several hundred bags, from which spilled golden coins, valuable gemstones, and ancient-looking scrolls and tomes. He wasn't by any means a master of determining values of artifacts, but still, the sum of the baubles' worth had to be extremely high.

The man raised his head, revealing a pale, grinning face, with eyes that glowed a foreboding yellow. "Go ahead. Try and take it. They'll rip you apart in three seconds, and even if you got some out, there's nowhere to spend any."

Ladis jerked to attention. "No, I didn't…"

"Yes, you did. But you won't. You're not the kind of asshole who makes a livelihood out of cheating others."

Ladis blinked. "Uh…yeah… uh… what are you doing here?"

The man smiled, then his grin faded, replaced by puzzlement. "What am I doing here? What, pray tell, are YOU doing here? And how, in the name of the mighty God of heaven and earth, did you avoid those horrific creatures?" he asked, hope ringing in his voice.

"I'm Ladis, sent by Garadien to kill the Dreamslayers. And I didn't avoid those odiumspawn, I cut them in two."

At this, the man laughed, a hollow, bitter laugh. "Oh, your sense of humor could dry out the Water Elemental Plane! Do you realize the sheer idiocy of such a statement! Those things don't die!" To illustrate this, he drew, from a nearby chest, a very sharp katana- or what remained of it, the sword had been broken in two. "Weapons are useless against those beasts." He said, tossing aside the ruined weapon. "And magic's no better!" he drew a scroll, bound in black silk, from one of the bags. "This here, contains the precise and exact knowledge necessary to, once, only once, mind you, call forth a blast of unchecked elemental fire that is more commonly used to refine raw adamantium! Those… odorspawn, or whatever you called them, shrug off the flames as it they were mere sparks!"

Ladis scratched his head. "Have you tried elemental wind? I did, it worked well…"

The robed man looked at Ladis, his glowing yellow eyes giving him an incredulous look. "Are you truly daft? Nothing works on them! The only way one could hope to damage, let alone destroy those aberrations is..."

The man stopped, his eyes falling upon the gauntlets and leg bracers that made up the Soulblazer Armor. "My… my God. It can't… it isn't… it… it is, isn't it…"

He stepped forward, and trembling, touched Ladis' right gauntlet. "The armor… the armor that conquers fate… bless the father, I'd never believed that I'd live to see such an artifact… and in use! Worn by the hero! The sheer impossibility!"

Ladis took back his hand from the man's grasp. "Yeah, that'd be me, I'd guess. Now, what are you doing here?"

With a nod, calming himself, the man cleared his throat. "I am the Merchant, m'lad. Surely you've heard of my endeavors?" Looking disappointed when Ladis shook his head, he continued. "I am a salesman, sir, and, in all modesty, I do believe I can proclaim I am the grandfather of such endeavors. I travel from realm to realm, world to world, peddling my wares. I pander to only a few well selected groups, but still you will not find a better selection anywhere else, I assure you. I am the supreme merchant of all material goods…" and here he sighed. "…or so I was until that bastard Fate came along and meddled with everything. I've been tallying my sales to keep sane."

"Uh… what about food? Water?"

The merchant laughed. "My boy, I also sell foodstuffs of all manner and sorts. Allow me to tell you, by the way, that gyshal greens and growth mushrooms should never, under any circumstance, be consumed together." He held up a large bottle of some unidentifiable liquid. "Ugh… Demetrian Firebrew. Never, ever, ever, touch this stuff. Unless, of course, you LIKE burning from the inside out."

He rummaged a bit more, and pulled out some meat, bread, and flasks of green liquid. "Cazmarous Sheenberry juice." He said in way of explanation. "Very pleasant taste."

A small meal later, the Merchant cleared his throat. "I can't bring myself to charge you for that, m'lad, but, I'm afraid even a hero like you needs to earn some gil…"

Ladis blinked. "Gil….?"

The man stared at him, slightly incredulous. "Money. The universal gold standard. Minted in Baron and accepted worldswide. Or were you under a rock these past few centuries?"

Ladis sighed. "Sort of."

The merchant shrugged. "Anyway, I've found that many an outerplane alchemist wants the odiumspawn dead, for various reasons. One of the most common is that the odiumspawn create a malevolent anomaly in the aether flow, ruining any practical gauging of a realm's magical potency."

To Ladis' bewildered look, he added. "Think of having a magnet in a computer lab. A really, really, big magnet."

Ladis nodded as he got the comparison. "So we have allies in this."

The merchant sighed. "Yes, and no. While they want the Odiumspawn gone as much as you and I, they are, due to laws beyond our comprehension, unable to directly interfere with the realms."

Ladis facepalmed. "Great. And here I thought red tape would be the LEAST of my worries… so what's the point? I still need to kill these damn things."

"The point, lad, is that these individuals are prepared to reimburse you for the task of annihilating these wretched aberrations. You'll need to purchase supplies once you've freed this realm, because from what I hear, this is the least occupied realm. The others are swarming with much more powerful Odiumspawn. Speaking of such, you've been credited 246 gil for your services thus far."

With that, the merchant plunked a small bag of gold coins on his table.

Ladis counted it absentmindedly, wondering, for the moment incredulous, that, maybe, if he kept it up, he could actually make a living after all…

No. Later. First save the world(s). Then worry about financial situation.

"Any chance I can buy some stuff?"

A bit later, Ladis walked out of the room with only 26 gil remaining, but had a leather vest and some medicines to show for it. The leather armor protected his back, chest, and side, and gave him a bit of courage that maybe he could shrug off a blow or two.

Entering the next portal, the one to the right of the middle, darkened portal that still remained impenetrable, Ladis came upon another giant crystal sphere, hovering over a similar pedestal.

Ladis sneered. "Let's skip the part where you act like you can't see me, and move on to the part where I break your crystal hide, okay?"

As expected, the crystal orb crackled with dark energies, as if in affront to the insult, and charged.

Ladis stood still.

Fortune had sensed Ladis' lack of movement, and expressed his concern in a torrent of curses, the summary of which were instructing Ladis to move out of the way, fast.

Ladis ignored them. No more running away.

As the sphere neared, his face twisted into a dark, hateful smile…

Rearing his hands back, he envisioned a lance, made of the soul blade's energy…

…and, lunging forward, slammed the formed, huge, medieval-style lance of spiritual energy with both hands into the center of the orb.

But Ladis was not done.

He released the spear, allowing it to fade instantly, and ducked down, bringing his left foot forward and his right back in a crouch…

…rose in a rising backhand slash with his left hand's soul blade…

…released it, let it vanish, and continued the spin with a forehand right-hand slash…

Brought both hands over his head, increasing the soul blade's length and power…

…and, in one earth-shattering blow, brought the formed greatsword of light crashing down on the sphere.

The blow gashed away nearly a third of the crystal, the remainder flying across the room to slam into an adjacent wall, where the entire sphere broke apart.

…my, my, my. Someone has a temper. Came Fortune's mental voice.

Ladis smiled at the way Fortune allowed everything to go in stride, not overreacting at all to the fact Ladis had defeated the beast in no time flat.

The barrier?

Dead. Good luck in there, Ladis. I'm not sure of what's in there, but I'm guessing it's nothing pleasant.

Ladis headed back through the portal, back into the circular hall. He faced the center portal, now devoid of its infernal barrier.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped through….

Back at Fate's Castle, the Dreamslayer Guardians were gathered, trading insults and speculations on who or what the intruder was.

Judgment, his eyes glowing a glaring white, stood with his arms crossed. "Does it matter what he is or is not? He has violated our Lord's code, and must be punished with death and damnation! Such is my divine justice!" He touted, stroking his long, gray beard.

Hatred snorted. "Your justice? You make it sound as if your idea is unique, Judgment, when in fact all you do is mimic the master's own ideals."

Rage growled, his impossible body tensed, as if daring someone… or something… to challenge him to fight. "Already he has done several impossible feats: Infiltrate one of the master's realms, find the nightmare citadel, defeat not one, but multiple odiumspawn, and he defied the master's sight!" His draconic gaze swept to Despair's reptilian form. "How, in all mighty Satan's name, Despair, could you fail so miserably at a simple task!"

Despair growled, the noise and stench of a hundred dying men emanating from his throat. "Be silent, Rage! I was told not to appear in physical nor spiritual nor any form unless the demon heart was destroyed. Until then, I am forbidden to intervene. If it is your wish to tell Fate you find his demands faulty, then none of us shall impede you on your quest to achieve a very painful, very elaborate death."

Rage summoned orbs of lightning to his scaled and furred hands, but, after seeming to consider his options, ceased, though his hateful eyes glared at Despair.

"Perhaps…." Spoke Blasphemy, getting the other seven's attention.

"Perhaps we could suggest a more amusing diversion to Lord Fate…"

Apathy, her icy body motionless until now, suffered to move her frozen head to gaze at Blasphemy. "You wish for death too? Go find it yourself." She said, her voice void of any emotion.

Blasphemy chuckled, and, in response to the demonic cacophony that emerged from within his cloak, all but Cruelty shifted away from him.

"The boy had a family… a family who despised and hated him. Yet he always had a bit of hope for them… some small wish that they could change… perhaps we could arrange for them to… impede his progress."

Despair shared an incredulous look with the rest of his comrades. "How do you know such things?" he asked, with both jealousy and reverence in his voice.

Blasphemy smiled, revealing rows of ivory teeth. "I have my ways." He said, simply.

Cruelty rose with a start. "Why have them simply… impede! Have them fight the fool to the death!"

Blasphemy held his cloaked head in thought. "…perhaps Satan does allow some of his wisdom to circulate. Break his spirit, then break his body. Make him kill his own flesh and blood." Blasphemy chuckled. "Fiendishly clever. But why stop at his family? I know of two other souls who wished the boy, Ladis, none but the worst. Perhaps they will not impede him as morally as the others, but we can always use more cannon fodder…"

Ladis cast a Cure spell on himself, gasping as the spines of the Spiker Odiumspawn were ejected from his body by the healing magic's power. Apparently, the Cure spell disinfected and removed foreign material from his wounds, as well.

When he was healed and spine-free, he snorted. He had arrived in a room, where, in the midst of a bottomless chasm, stood five, gigantic pillars that rose in ascending height, and on each pillar he leapt to, he had to deal with various fiendish odiumspawn, the worst of which were the "Spikers", spiked balls of odium that hurled black spikes at him, which sunk into his arms and legs and burned like fire while they remained inside. Fortunately, he had removed them, and his armor had survived the battles. The odiumspawn, numerous as they were, however, did not.

After the last odiumspawns' corpse had faded, he spied yet another small, glowing ball of light.

Another prayer, he thought solemnly.

Touching it, he heard the sad voice of a young boy…

They're hurting mommy… make them stop, God! Make them stop hurting mommy!...

In his hands formed what the merchant had described as an Ether, a potion that replenished lost mana.

"The soulless bastards…" he growled. "They'll pay for this…"

He turned his attention, after storing the item, to a raised platform a few feet away from the pillar on which he stood. From where he was, he could vaguely make out the form of a portal…

Calling on the boots power to aid him in a jump, he leapt over to the ledge, and landed in a crouch. Before him was the portal he'd spied, and only now could he detect the raw dark energy that lay behind it.

Not bothering to even brace for the stepping through of solid rock, Ladis charged in, his soul blade lit and ready for battle.

When he opened his eyes, he saw, in the middle of a large, circular room, a pulsating orb of pure dark.

The Demon Heart…!

Back on the beach, the specter known as Ansem heard again the signs that the eternal tragedy the island suffered was repeating yet again.

"Kairi!"

"Sora!"

In the dead, grey sky, a large, red object slowly descended, the pinpoint of red becoming larger and larger…

Ansem fell to his knees. In repentance for what he had done. In sorrow for two young lovers who would never again embrace. In despair for the future he could have had…

…and in remorse for condemning the young boy who just arrived to die in the Nightmare Citadel.

Ladis dashed forward, the soul blade gleaming blue-white. He leapt, slashing down as he fell, brutally gouging the dark sphere.

It moved. The blob of pure darkness moved, shifted away from Ladis. Then, in a macabre transformation, twisted and stretched itself to form a large, serpentine beast with a horned snout, and red, glowing eyes.

It lunged, and blade met hide in a cacophony of a howl and a battle cry.

Ansem looked up, watching as the sand on the beach began to part and spray away as the infernal fireball from above descended…

Why, oh God? Why make them suffer for my sin?

Why punish them?

I never wanted to hurt anyone.

He didn't hear the two doomed lovers' cries to each other as they futilely raced against their grim fate…

If you will spare them, whatever god or goddess is listening, if you will grant them peace, freedom from this agony… this eternal nightmare…

I can only offer my tattered, broken soul, oh god. I offered myself up as an atonement sacrifice to spare them from this… misery.

Even in as he prayed, his mind mocked him for his worthless offer.

Ladis grunted as he was thrown against the brick walls for the third time by the serpent's thrashing tail. It hit like a wall of concrete, and Ladis' bloody body showed the results.

"Shine Balm! Cure!" he yelled, not stopping to bask in the relief as his wounds healed.

Instead, he waited for the serpent to lunge with it's fangs, and he leapt.

As before, the serpent swung it's tail to bat him away into the wall…

Ladis twisted in midair, aiming his back at the snake's head…

"Wind Cleaver! Aero!" he yelled, forming a jet of air to propel him out of the way of the tail, towards the gigantic black serpent's head…

…twisted again, forming the giant lance of pure energy as he fell.

He glared down at the beast that was responsible for maintaining the eternal nightmare on this realm, summoning all his righteous anger…

…focusing it into one, shearing thrust aimed at the serpent's skull region…

"Kairi! We'll make it! Keep running!"

"It hurts… my leg hurts…"

"Don't give up! We can't give up!"

"Sora! Help me!..."

As the farce played out again, Ansem wept spectral tears in repentance.

The gigantic fireball's fiery mane kissed the air above the lovers as the gap between them closed ever tighter…

"YOU…" roared Ladis as the spear crashed into the startled snake's skull.

"WILL…" he growled as he shifted the blade into the greatsword, shifting and ripping away a large portion of the writhing serpent's head.

"NOT…" He raised the blade above his head, and the serpent, with its one good eye, saw for the last time the incarnation of its kind's doom.

"KILL…" The blade roared with crackling white energy, as Ladis slashed down on the injured area of the snake's skull.

"AGAIN!"

The entire room was flooded with brilliant blue-white light as the blade hit its mark, producing a brilliant flash of light that eviscerated the serpent's black, foul body.

And when the dust settled, there, standing, weary but victorious, was Ladis.

Not the student. Not the withdrawn subordinate. Not the child afraid of each new dawn.

But a warrior of all that was holy and just.

Ansem closed his eyes.

Why it had to end this way was beyond him.

Why the two couldn't have a nice, sappy, normal life together… the reason eluded him.

Why the entire island had to be judged by fire…

Fire…

Wait…

"Kairi!"

The faint sound of two bodies colliding… the absence of the infernal comet's roar…

It… it couldn't be…

He opened his eyes…

Sora and Kairi were locked in a hug.

The meteor was nowhere to be seen. It was impossible… it was inconceivable… it defied any logic or explanation…

But miracles don't need explanation. A voice told him.

For the first time since he couldn't remember, Ansem laughed. A healthy, lively laugh.

"GAAAAAAAAAH!" came a voice next him.

He jumped, and saw, with a start, that the boy he has seen dash into the nightmare citadel had returned, albeit in a heap, as though he had… fallen?

Oy… remind me to brace myself next time I beat one of those damn demon heart thingamajigs.

HOLY SHIT! HOLY SHIT! YOU DID IT! YOU DID IT! YOU DESTROYED THE DEMON HEART!" Fortune mentally screamed.

Ladis got to his feet, ignoring the cheers from both the couple, Ansem, and Fortune. "It's not over, is it?"

Hearing those words, the couple and Ansem stopped laughing. Ladis was glaring at the sky, still a dead grey.

"I know you're out there! I just wrecked your home, you overgrown lizard! What're you gonna do about it?" challenged Ladis.

The soul blade lit again in his hand, and wisely, Sora, Kairi, and Ansem retreated away from him.

"WELL!" He roared impatiently, his challenge echoing in the stagnant air.

In Fate's castle, Despair rose with a start. His comrades glanced at him for an explanation.

"The… the demon heart… he… he destroyed it!" he announced, fear creeping into his voice.

The others, Cruelty and Blasphemy included, murmured in fear. This was not what Fate had foretold; resistance and uprising where there should have been submission and suppression.

Despair's reptilian eyes glowed with a dark energy. "I will return with the fool's corpse! Tell Master Fate to witness his creation's skill in combat if it pleases him!"

And, in a burst of dark electricity, the huge reptile was gone.

Desecration was the first to speak.

"Who wagers he dies a horrible and embarrassing death?" she spoke with a cruel smile.

All around, for the first time in ages, the Dreamslayers nodded in assent.

Finally something they could agree on.

Ladis stood at the crimson water's edge, ignoring the stench of dead fish and rancid water.

Waiting for the cue for battle.

Then, as if to answer his challenge, the red waters began to split, not unlike some twisted parody of the biblical parting of the Red Sea.

The bloody waters kept receding further and further apart, revealing a bowl shaped crater out away from the beach. The sand where the water had been was disturbingly dry.

In the middle of the crater, a crack was forming, and a slow upheaval of stone and sand signified something large was surfacing.

Ladis, ignoring the warnings from the three behind him, rushed out to the arena of earth…

As he entered the crater, the stone and sand parted to allow a huge, reptilian, green-scaled beast to leap out. It landed with a crash ten or so feet away from Ladis, and it glared at him with eyes full of hate and loathing.

"FOOL! YOU DARED TO DESECRATE MY REALM! NOW YOU SHALL JOIN THE INFIDELS WHO RESIDE HERE!" the beast bellowed.

"I am Despair, the eater of all life's hope, and today you die, SoulBlazer!" it hissed.

Ladis' cold, unfeeling scowl remained. "Enough talk. You die. Now." He said calmly.

As if some signal had been sounded, heard only by Despair and Ladis, the two charged at each other, each sounding a cry of anger and hatred for the other.

The Keyblade Master, his princess, and his former enemy could only watch in horror as the most terrible, most rancor-soaked battle the island had seen began to unfold.