Vyser: And I'm back!
Sane: About time, what took you so long?
Vyser: Hey shut up, I've got school and other fanfics.
Sane: Let's just get this chapter going.
Vyser: Then say the disclaimers.
Sane: Vyser doesn't own ToS or the characters you reviewers submitted. He does own characters like Crystal and me.
Vyser: Now enjoy!
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Chapter 36: Truth, Ice, and Penguins
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Sheena, Suzu, Zelos, Jet, Mime, Sane, Elemmírë, and Vezerini had just arrived at Icicle Valley. Icicle Valley was covered with snow and ice; it was like a huge ice palace with regular buildings. Snow was falling gently from the sky as we find the group walking through the snow-covered streets.
"Well, this is certainly a beautiful city," Suzu stated as she bushed off some snow from her shoulders.
"Almost as beautiful as the sights I see," replied Zelos as Jet, Sane and Vezerini sighed.
"Shut up!" Jet yelled as Sheena looked around.
"I wonder why there aren't any people around here," said Sheena as everyone noticed that she was right.
"Quite a quandary none the less," Vezerini added.
"Hey there was something I wanted to ask you something Vezerini," said Sane as Vezerini nodded. "How exactly do you know Exodus?"
"That's something that crossed all of our minds," Elemmírë added as Vezerini looked down.
"I'll explain slightly, during the time that Mithos was going on his venture Exodus was the main cause for the ancient war," explained Vezerini as everyone began to lean against the walls. "He caused the murder of one the kingdom's princes, and everyone thought that the opposing kingdom was the cause. Eventually, Mithos and his party had managed to stop the war by discovering that Exodus was the murderer. That's when Exodus decided to no longer be in secret, he came out in his most powerful demon form to destroy anyone who made him suffer. Exodus was able to achieve his perfect demon form by absorbing the powers of the Summon Spirits, that's why Mithos had to make pacts with the summon spirits, he thought that by doing so he could actually weaken Exodus. Unfortunately, he was wrong, Exodus only got stronger. That's when I came into the picture, I've been watching Exodus since the time his power became overwhelming. I told Mithos that the only way to defeat Exodus was to use his power against him. That's why Mithos split the worlds, you see Exodus's demon form was linked to a certain mana flow, but when the worlds were split, the flow of mana changed. As long as Exodus stayed on this world he would turn into his demon form and would be in extreme pain. Exodus disappeared after that, I thought he was dead, but I guess I was wrong."
"That really explains a lot," Said Suzu as Mine noticed something on the roof of a building and poked Suzu in the arm. "What's up Mine?"
Mine simply pointed towards the building's roof and everyone turned to see a familiar figure standing on the roof.
"Great, I've got impudent people in my kingdom of ice," Said the figure as she grinned and looked over the group and noticed Zelos. "You!"
"Me?" Zelos asked as the figure jumped off the roof and landed on the ground softly.
It was Crystal only with longer hair and her skin was light blue.
"You bastard, you remember me right?" asked Crystal as Zelos was thinking for a second.
"Oh now I remember you, weren't you that girl from summer last year?" Zelos asked as Crystal got mad.
"No! We met at the Deep ruins a long time ago!" yelled Crystal as Zelos sighed.
"Zelos what did you do to her?" Sheena asked as Zelos remembered.
"Hmm," muttered Zelos.
-Flashback-
At the deep ruins, Zeek and Zelos were fighting Crystal who had used the Dark spirit's power to make two of herself. Zeek and Zelos were fighting off the two Crystals when the two Crystals jumped into the air.
"I'll handle this Zeek," said Zelos as the Crystals missed their targets and Zelos charged at the two Crystals.
"How's he going to do that?" Zeek questioned as Zelos ran past the two Crystals.
"Looks like your friend is a coward," said both Crystals as they began to charge at Zeek when all of a sudden they yelped.
Zeek saw that Zelos was behind the Crystals and his sword was put away. Zeek noticed that he saw Zelos' hands were extended and they were grouping, well, need I say more?
"Zeek now!" Zelos yelled as Zeek ran and quickly took slashed the dark spirit off of Crystal's forehead and the second Crystal disappeared.
"You bastards!" screamed Crystal as she disappeared in a white light.
"Let's just keep this between us Zelos," Zeek requested.
-End of Flashback-
"You're not still mad about that are you?" asked Zelos as Mime was putting up an invisible wall before him.
"Zelly-chan, what did you do to her?" Suzu asked as Crystal snapped her fingers and many penguins appeared on the rooftops.
"Ooh, look at the cute penguins." said Jet as everyone looked at him strangely. "What? I like penguins."
"Now my penguin army! Attack them!" Crystal commanded as penguins began to flap their wings.
"What are they going to do to us?" Asked Elemmírë as the penguins began to slid off the roofs.
"How about pierce right through us!" Vezerini yelled as everyone except Mime began to run from the falling penguins.
Mime's wall protected him from the penguins' attacks. Everyone else was running from the penguins. Crystal quickly snapped her fingers and the penguins stopped attacking, the entire group then turned towards Crystal as she held something in her two hands.
"Why'd you stop?" asked Sheena as Crystal showed what was in her hands.
"Because, I'll kill you all by my own hands." Crystal answered as she showed that she had a dark spirit and a white crystal. "Watch as I invoke the power of the Dark Spirit and the Summon Spirit of Ice, Celsius!"
Before the group could do a single thing, Crystal quickly placed the two crystals on her forehead and a bright light engulfed her. When the light died down, Crystal had armor that made her look like a fox. She had a long black fox tail and short black hair that had a pair of fox ears sticking out. She had a cloth that looked to be a long skirt that had her right leg uncovered from the knee. There was a fox mask that covered the top part of her face and the two crystals were embedded in the mask.
"This doesn't look to be good at all." Remarked Elemmírë as Crystal stretched her arms.
"It's been a while since I fought, but this will feel good." Crystal said as a small snowstorm engulfed her.
"I wonder what's up with this attack?" questioned Jet as Zelos growled.
"I think I've got a pretty good idea what's about to happen." Zelos answered as the snowstorm died down and everyone was shocked at the site.
Eight Crystals were standing in front of everyone and were wielding many blue crystal swords. One Crystal had the two crystals on the mask.
"Not what we needed." Said Vezerini as the Crystals jumped into the air.
"Prepare to die!" The many Crystals yelled as everyone else drew his or her weapons.
Jet managed to block the Crystal with his two swords. Suzu also blocked with her blade, Sheena dodged by jumping backwards with Crystal following her. Mime just managed to block the attack with an invisible wall that one of the Crystals crashed into. Vezerini managed to slap his hands together to catch the blade that another Crystal was about to slash him with. Sane dodged and quickly began to fire a volley of bullets at the Crystal he was fighting, Elemmírë managed to use her whip to catch the sword and pulled it away. Zelos was dealing with the Crystal that had the two crystals on her mask.
"So any chance you just letting me off the hook?" asked Zelos as he dodged the crystal sword.
"No way!" Crystal yelled as Zelos blocked her attack.
"Aw come on, I don't want to really fight an elegant lady like yourself." Complimented Zelos as he accidentally tripped Crystal to the ground. "Not a bad view at all."
All of a sudden a snowball hit Zelos in the head. Zelos turned to see that Suzu had thrown the snowball.
"Zelly-chan concentrate!" Suzu yelled before she quickly dodged the next attack from another Crystal.
"Fine." Said Zelos as Crystal got up and charged at him.
"Die!" Crystal screamed as Zelos dodged.
"No thanks."
Vezerini was dealing with another Crystal and still had his hands clasped on the blade.
"Take this!" yelled Vezerini as he sent a shock wave of energy through the sword and into the Crystal clone instantly turning it into snow. "That was easier than I thought."
The rest of the group was finishing off the Crystals, Jet had quickly slashed the Crystal Clone in two, and Suzu did the same. The two Crystal clones also turned into snow. Sheena kicked her enemy into the wall, Mime had made an imaginary hammer and smashed the Crystal to the ground. Sane used a bomb he had in his poncho to incinerate another Crystal clone and Elemmírë slashed the final Crystal clone. Zelos was staring down with the real Crystal as her clones were destroyed.
"You may have defeated my regular power, but feel the strength of my new power!" Crystal yelled as a huge blizzard engulfed everyone and blew the group close together.
"This is nuts!" yelled Sheena as Sane was grabbing items from under his poncho and connecting them.
"What are you doing Sane?" Suzu asked as Sane pulled out what appeared to be a bazooka.
"I'm attaching some of my weaker weapons to form this baby!" answered Sane as he knelt down in the piling up snow.
"You have to try to stop Crystal." Vezerini said as Sane was looking for where to fire but the blizzard was causing him to lose balance.
"He needs something to block the wind!" announced Jet as Mime went to work to create a large invisible wall that blocked the snow temporarily. "I guess you actually do come in handy."
"Meteor Flame Cannon ready!" Sane yelled as he pointed the cannon towards the sky and fired making many fireballs shoot straight into the sky and quickly fell down.
After the many fireballs crashed to the ground many explosions surrounded the group at safe distances, the blizzard seem to stop and Icicle Valley village was destroyed and many buildings were on fire, the penguins were no where to be seen. The group looked around the snow-covered town and eventually found Crystal, who was back to normal, knocked out and burned a little. The dark spirit was destroyed, and the crystal that held the summon spirit was next to her.
"We'll be taking that." Said Zelos as he took the summon spirit and pocketed it.
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An hour later, Crystal woke up in the snow looking around to see that her kingdom of ice was no more. Crystal stood up and looked around, sighed, and began to walk aimlessly.
"Great, I'm alone again." Crystal thought as she disappeared into thin air.
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Vyser: Wow! That was fast!
Sane: Hey! How come this chapter didn't take up two chapters like with the previous groups?
Vyser: Oh shut up, I'm going to skip the fight with Marina anyway.
Sane: Shouldn't you ask the reviewers if they want to see that chapter or chapters?
Vyser: All right, reviewers! Do you want to see the fight with Marina? If not, I'll be getting to the chapter I had planned for after that.
Sane: You can be such a jerk sometimes you know that right?
Vyser: Aw shut up.
