HI! Sorry for a long wait! Lack of inspiration and time! WAAAH! Gomen, gomen, gomen!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! I had hoped to say Happy Easter out loud, but I never had the time to finish this chapter earlier. So it became Happy Easter, a afterwards.

Today's chapter is inspired partly by the Film Nightmare Before Christmas... which in my opinion ROCKS! (A/N: This is a very unusual glossary for my part). Okay, maybe the story is partly a bit goofy, but the characters as well as animation of it are cool. It's pretty old, I think I was five when it was released... anyway, if you haven't seen it and want to see a classic then watch it. Especially if you enjoy this fic with weird creatures, skeletons, rag dolls, werewolves, ghosts and humour...

Loads of things have happened to me during this long wait. I turned eighteen some days ago, and I have finally got my lazy but out to learn how to drive.

Oh, and before you go. For the following weeks until summer there may be a possibility that I will not have any time to update at all. I have all of the hardest exams left, so i am hoping to have at least one more chapter out before summer. I feel awful, but don't blame me for it. Blame the ones who made the exam-schedule.

OH, and BIG NEWS! I have finally got my lazy ass to display the map of Nemorisa. The map can be found at http / www . deviantart . com / deviation / 32758567 / (excluding the spaces)

Chapter 18

The Lost Soul

Some monsters are created out of evil deeds...

Some terrors are born out of hate and rage...

Some mistakes are deliberate...

Some nightmares never meant to exist...

She was all that...

The first Schakal was a Poltergeist. Not an evil creature, just someone whose job was to play pranks and create the living hell for the living. From the very first beginning she was not evil, she was like everyone else. A good formless heart, she only did what was in her nature. That until...

Something evil spotted her, and made plans for her soul. She never noticed it herself as her soul was slowly destroyed. The very Schakal we know came when she did her first evil deed by killing some of her very own, drinking their powers.

And the final form came, as an evil spirit she appeared in the now destroyed, Locked Tower close to the MistHimi lands. That tower held a certain object from the Evil Wars called the Blood Core, a crystal created from all the blood spilled during that war. In her own pain and fury she absorbed its power and thus became the Lady of Terror.

For over a hundred years she haunted the dreams of every creature existing and thus so her appearance differs between man and woman her goal is the same. Every man that gaze at her sees the most beautiful woman imaginable and every woman who sees her see what she really is. The worst nightmare of a woman's life...

Flashback

It was a bright summer day, and the snowy fields shimmered like an endless sea of white water. Two boys, one being an accepted soldier and the other a six years old child stood watching the miracle before their eyes.

"Listen carefully, Tomoki!" his older brother said smiling. This is one of the most memorial places of our lands. You know about the demon wars, well... of many battles one battle was fought here. At this landscape, our ancestors fought. And Chak, the ice Warrior.

The little tomoki looked up, his eyes sparkling of his proud heart. It was widely known in his country that he and his brother carried the untouched blood of the Warrior of ice, even though it had not been decided yet who had inherited the powers. The stargazers had predicted that one of them had to carry the blood, and the powers.

His brother smiled. "Tomoki," he said looking down at his brother ruffling his hair. "one day one of us will have to carry out the mission this blood has given us. And I want you to swear to honour that blood, and let its power guide you through any misery, through any pain and let you see the truth. To let you see the purity of your pure little heart."

Tomoki nodded. "Yes niisan (brother), I will!" he said happily, not knowing yet what responsibility he one day would meet.

End flashback

It all seemed hopeless... the dark side, with so many complete armies, seemed to gain victory. Indeed, not was a battle fought at the Dragon's home... it affected everyone everywhere.

In the Ghost lands the poltergeists, ghosts and phantoms that did not travel down to battle, darkness crept upon them like a poisonous snake. A ghost is said to be hard to kill, indeed impossible to kill... yet it did not seem real when ghost after ghost fell. For they did not die, they were taken by darkness, never to wake up again...

In the werewolf dessert werewolves and Dark vampires sided with each other to kill their own kind who sided with Demons. Normally did Dark Vampires stay out of light, but with dark umbrellas they can appear in the sun, yet as all vampires already knew. If the umbrella vanished so did the vampire under it.

Yet most of the fighting only came to defend your home and the creatures closest to you. However there were three parts that received some serious damage, and one of them that we all know about. The other two were the Sea were mermaids and other creatures sided to vanquish the poison that threatened their waters and Monster City, which was by now almost completely destroyed by darkness...

However, turning back to the third critical point things went bad as well... Even if dragons were strong creatures they too couldn't fend of everything. In history this will be remembered as the worst catastrophe for all the dragons, ever...

Some did not know exactly what they fought against, from the mass of fighting you could sometimes not distinguish between foe or friend. Their goal was to destroy all Evil once and for all, to save what they could save from a land that had through thousands of years been poisoning itself to destruction and hopefully cleanse it from that danger.

However there were two creatures this day that really did know what they fought for... revenge of someone they had lost, long ago...

(A/N: This part is written with a lot of supernatural feelings, so if you suddenly start to think I've gone mad... uhm, I guess I may be close to become so. It is truly rare for me to write supernatural things when there are few gods/spirits in the chapter)

Blood, blood was all little Tomoki could see before his eyes. Even though his young age, he could see the blood so clearly... the blood of his family and of his brother...

Tears, tears were what Izumi had in her eyes as she hurried to get to her foe of Death and Life...

Indeed as the two of them approached their foe the colours around them swirled and the reality seemed upside down. Neither of them had ever tried to hurt anyone else out of pure will. Sure Tomoki suspected them all when they turned up in his country, but he didn't kill them. He didn't try to kill them. He would never in his life turn into something like Schakal.

Izumi was the first to arrive and took out the longbow Kouji had given to her on her birthday. The tears still trickled down her cheek, her very thought lost in memories. Tsukiko...

"What's the matter blondie?" Schakal said seeing how broken her opponent already seemed to be. "Has the cat got your tongue?"

Izumi wiped out the tears that shrouded her vision and prepared to shoot. She was smiling back, a mysterious smile. It seemed to have a slight effect on Schakal, who wondered what was going on?

The bow sang as the arrow left and aimed at it's target the wind sizzled around it. Schakal's bewildered expression turned to a smile as she slowly ducked it. A red aura formed around the evil creature and Izumi's eyes widened as the transformation, as all females could see it, began. Two large goat-horns, a forked tail and a snake like body that showed woman-features and yet looked more like a dragon. Green slime oozed from her mouth, dripping to the ground. Long claws appeared together with scales that covered the entire body.

Izumi shielded her eyes as the hideous creature before her started to shriek of joy. Right then, Tomoki caught up to shield his eyes as well, but from other things. The illusion all males saw. An illusion of immortal beauty.

"Tomoki!" Izumi said, but it came too late. As she dropped her guard the huge clawed hands caught her by the waist.

"Tomoki!"

Tomoki however didn't move, he was paralysed. Somewhere inside of him, a voice of reason told him to move, to avenge this thing that had killed everyone that loved and protected him.

Izumi wanted to make her friend wake up, but Schakal covered her mouth with her hands. The Aquila's vision darkened and to her fears she realised that her hands, as really the rest of Schakal's foul body gave out a poisonous smell. It was that smell that would slowly take her life.

As the furious and panicking Aquila struggled to set free, Tomoki was lost in memories of his childhood. It was a burning memory... of something he made a promise to.

"One day one of us will have to carry out the mission this blood has given us. And I want you to swear to honour that blood, and let its power guide you through any misery, through any pain and let you see the truth. To let you see the purity of your pure little heart."

Something within his heart woke. It was not like a beast-instinct like Junpei's. It wasn't a flame like Takuya. It was something else... a deep knowledge of how this world would appear if they lost. He could see the darkness, and it frightened him.

He shrieked scared of his own shadow. He could see his family die, even though he hadn't been there to witness it himself. He could see stars falling, and dying. And he could see, in his young confused mind... a boy, only a few years older them himself, clad in a white tunic with the same hair, the same lines on the face and not to mention the symbol of Sit Nalta. He had white pants, and a slim sword hanging in his belt. A cap made of white fur, the same kind of fur they used for the Iceman illusions.

Tomoki's eyes widened. He was standing opposite of this guy, staring at his very ancestor. Somehow he knew this had to be Chak, the boy that went to war with nine companions protecting the peace of Nemorisa.

"Ch-Ch-Chak..."

The older boy opposite of him smiled. Tomoki didn't know how he should translate that. Was he dead, had Schakal killed him? What about his revenge? Was Izumi alright?

"It's not too late to light up the darkness. Even though Schakal has done much to deserve hell, heaven has asked you warriors to turn her back to her original form. To cleanse her from the darkness that has taken hold of her light. Tomoki, you are the last born with my pureheart, a heart that can never be corrupted by datkness. See through her illusions, activate that powers hidden within your blood. Save her from dying in darkness."

Tomoki opened his eyes to, like Izumi, see the most hideous creature ever born. However, looking more closely he could see as well that it was nothing more that an illusion. Deep inside he could see the outline of the former Schakal.

He wasn't sure what chak had asked him of, to save this creature by his pure heart. To activate the hidden powers of ice. It all seemed like nonsense as he had no idea how to do it.

But he didn't have time to think. Izumi, as he could see, was in a clear danger.

The Aquila had feinted, the poison seeped through her body destroying her from inside. She was sweating badly, and her breath came in short gasps. Without thinking straight, only knowing he had to defend the person who was the closest to sister he had ever had, the magic dwelling deep within his body suddenly burst out. A mass of swirling colours suddenly shot from his body. Schakal, out of both shock and fright let go of Izumi, who opened her eyes. As the body stopped flowing into her, the beryl around her neck started to glow. It healed her, reawakening her.

It was as if the time had said it all... as the two warriors looked at each other they could both see the image of someone else in the other. Truly, Izumi saw Chak and beside Izumi was Zephyr. Izumi's wings glowed purple as the two Warriors took each others hands as in a prayer. Around them the combined power of ice and wind erupted, forming into a powerful source that obviously Schakal couldn't come near.

The power moved closer and closer to Schakal until it hit her, full power. The creature shrieked as layer of layer of her powers were taken from here. All layers were returned to either their original spot, or to something in deep use.

As the great mass of magic power settled both Tomoki and Izumi fainted out of exhaustion. However, before Tomoki's eyes closed he could see the outline of a plasmic creature. A female poltergeist who smiled back. She had light brown hair, clad in a green dress. The beautiful, the real beauty that he would soon be able to describe her with was her turquoise eyes.

"Thank you!" she said before she closed her eyes, dying.

Tomoki smiled back, and his smile remained as sleep finally won over the two warriors. Around them the battle would continue, but they would be happily unknowing about it for a while. As it became, light had won again.

Meanwhile Kouichi had a bad run in with another of their foe, and truly the ghost did not like this thing. Trix was yet another of the Horrors, but the ghost saw nothing but red looking at him.

Around them, darkness came closer. In another dimension the 13 Royal Knights bent their heads. Being trapped in such a world, they could do no more than to watch, so was the will of darkness that made these horrors happen.

Takuya gazed up at the sky, as the moon lit above them illuming the night. The Warrior of fire sighed, sitting on a rock looking at his sword. The pale moonlight showed only his sad face, his bright wings and his blue eyes determined to do whatever that needed to be done, even though it would probably brake his heart forever.

TBC

WAH, like i said there will be few updates for the next weeks. All school exams, assignments, homework, National tests and such will be finished first after the start of June. Until then, hope everyone will have patience with me.

Love you all, readers and reviewers

Please review and keep my mood up. With over 20 exams and loads more work I can feel quite depressed sometimes!

Shitza