Chapter 46: Final Paradise Part 2

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Gold lifted his brother's lance, each of his hands now fully armed. "With the skill of my brother…I will not fall!"

"Ya know…for gatekeepers, I expected you guys to be tougher," Lloyd commented before Gold jumped into the air.

"FOR SILVER!"

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"Well…as a minority of you all know, I have the ability to turn almost anything into a beast," Zephyr answered as he raised his whip. "I am a mythical beast tamer, and with my whip of life…

Zephyr jumped into air and just like magic his whip began to grow and slapped the multiple suits of armor. When Zephyr landed on the ground, the suits of armor began to glow. "I can make an immortal army… a reason why I was chosen to be a part of Exodus's Dark Generals. NOW MY AMORS! ATTACK THESE FOOLS! MAKE MINCEMEAT OUT OF THEM!"

"Prepare yourselves everyone, Raine announced as the suits of armor began to walk towards the group.

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"FOR MY BROTHER!" Gold roared into action as he charged towards the group.

Just as the mighty guardian was about to attack the group, he flipped backwards throwing the axe and spear into the air. As Lloyd and the others watched as the weapons spun in the air, not noticing the strange aura that had emerged from Gold. It wasn't until the weapons fell back into his mighty hands. "Silver and Gold technique number two! Treasure Barrage!"

"Incoming!" Lloyd shouted but it was too late.

Gold slammed his powerful legs into the ground sending a powerful force through the ground sending the group into the air. Then, a golden blur jumped into the air towards Lloyd, he could only watch as he was struck with the broad side of the axe sending him into the ground. Gold just simply aimed his lance towards Lloyd and dropped straight towards Lloyd.

"Its time to die!" Gold roared as Regal shifted his body weight.

"Oh no you don't!" Regal yelled as he managed to dive his feet directly into Gold's face sending him flying towards one of the pillars.

When the group landed onto the ground, Gold slammed directly into the pillar. After Gold slid to the ground, he immediately jumped to his feet, his eyes filled with content. "I'll kill you all!"

Sheena took this opportunity, and threw one of her cards directly towards Gold. "Come on, get on target."

At the last second, Gold noticed the card, but it was too late. The card pierced him right in the eye before he held his hand to his face. "ARGH! MY EYE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY EYE!"

"That was a nice shot," Colette complimented as Gold ran around the room screaming in pain.

"THAT WAS MY GOOD EYE!"

"Uh…shouldn't we finish the job?" Lloyd asked as Gold breathed in deeply.

Then with a strong pull, Gold forced the card out of his eye with blood gushing out. Only the blood wasn't red…it was black. "That's going to sting in the morning…okay, who's the dumb ass who did that to my eye?"

"Whose the only one in the room with cards?" Sheena asked as Gold began to get very angry.

Slamming his powerful fist into the pillar he crashed into, Gold scowled at his enemies. "Prepare to die first! Once I get my hands on ya, I'll make ya into a human pretzel!"

Just as Gold ran from the pillar, Lloyd noticed that the pillar that was on the edge of breaking, maybe it was all the cracks that were growing. So with a well accurate throw, Lloyd sent his sword directly towards the pillar.

As soon as the pillar was struck, the force caused the pillar to fall over Gold and Silver's body. Gold looked at the mysterious shadow that had just appeared over him, and as he turned his head to see what it was, his eyes bulged just before the ancient relic just crashed on him and his brother. "Damn…"

"It's been said before, but these guys aren't really that strong for guardians," Sheena stated as Lloyd picked up his sword.

The gate now was open, the chains were shattered and the room seemed to have lightened up. Lloyd headed towards the doors. "Well, I'm not going to complain about the results."

As soon as the group left, Gold began to twitch. "Well…this is certainly embarrassing."

"Just shut up and let the pillar crush you, we'll be free soon," Silver groaned. "And why did you attack? I told you to take me to the emergency room!"

"Since we're dying," Gold gasped as he slammed his fist into the ground. "You stink brother…both personality wise and literary."

"Same to you!"

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"Crush them my armor!" Zephyr yelled as his armor monsters walked over to the group.

"Ideas would be good right now," Zelos commented while kicking the helmet off one of the armor monsters.

"What do you think we've been doing?" Genis asked ducking from a punch.

Zephyr slapped his whip onto the ground and the suits of armor stepped back. "You could think for twenty years…or all of eternity! And you still wouldn't be able to come up with anything!"

"What makes you so sure of yourself?" Presea asked as Zephyr rubbed his chin.

"Hmm, that's a good question," Zephyr stated as he started to hum.

"Oh boy, looks like we're going to head for a bad guy's story as to why he became the way he is," Raine sighed slapping her forehead.

With a wide smirk, Zephyr tightened his whip. "Give the lady a prize, that's exactly what I'm going to do! Cue the flashback!"

- Flashback -

The sunlight shot down on the streets of an extremely old town as two young boys with bags of bread ran through the streets, two older men chasing them.

"Get back here you punks!"

"You damn thieves are only making it worse!"

Turning quickly into a small alley, the two young boys came across a dead end. As they turned around, the older men had cornered them, both with wicked grins on their faces.

"Uh oh…"

A few minutes later, the men walked from the alley with two bags of the bread. Back into the alley the two boys struggled just to stand, their bodies battered and bruised. As one of them pulled a small piece of bread from his pocket, a cough emerged with his mouth as well as some blood.

As the two shared their bread looking at the sky's twilight, tears flowed down both of their faces. "Brother?"

"Yeah Zephyr?"

"Why did mom and dad go?"

"Well, that stupid king and his taxes…"

"Vex…that didn't answer the question."

"Because, there's no real answer."

"Okay, now you're just confusing me."

"Zephyr, we just need to get by."

All of a sudden, a looming shadow appeared over the two as they looked over to see Exodus with both of his wings out. "Pain and suffering have been inflicted upon both of you. However, by simply channeling your pain and suffering into anger, you will be able to change the way you live.

"If you wish to live your lives the way you wish," Exodus turned around beginning to walk away. "Then follow me and see how far you can go…or you can rot in your miserable lives till the day you die."

Vex and Zephyr just watched Exodus walk away, the steps echoing through the streets. All of a sudden, Vex and Zephyr started to run after the mysterious Exodus.

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"…And that's how my bro and me met Exodus," Zephyr finished as everyone in the room now adorned a confused look on his or her face.

Zelos just scratched the top of his head. "You and Vex were brothers?"

"Yeah, it confuses me too, but we're from the same blood," Zephyr stated as he clenched his whip. "And since my own flesh and blood died, I now have revenge on the brain! And with my armor army at my side, I cannot lose!"

The suits of armor raised their arms towards the group who just raised their weapons in defense. "What I want to know is how are you able to make things come to life?"

"Raine was it? It's quite simple," Zephyr stated raising his whip. "I can control the flow of life initially, but with small things like stones and sand. Then I can reshape anything I want into anything I want. However, with my whip right here, and a couple of dark spirits empowering it, I can attach drifting souls to my armor.

"Think of it as possession of spirits on the armor giving them life. Only they don't bleed nor do they ever get hurt. They'll just keep coming!"

"So you take the spirits of people and transfer them into the suits of armor is that it?" Presea asked as Zephyr nodded.

"Sort of, only they are more like mindless drones," Zephyr stated as all of the suits of armor turned towards him. "What the…?"

"Who are you calling mindless drones you dolt?"

Taking a step back out of surprise, Zephyr raised his whip. "What? The armor! It spoke to me! And an insult none the less!"

"Wow…" Genis stated as one of the suits of armor turned towards the group.

"We apologize if we almost injured you people," the armor apologize. "We just want to relax and rest in the afterlife. But this joker keeps calling us back in his damn creations. Is there anyway we can do as an apology?"

"Maybe inflict the damage to Zephyr that he was planning on us," Zelos implied as Zephyr's face dropped.

All of the armors raised their hands into the air and all replied at the same time. "No problemo! Get him!"

Raising his whip, Zephyr roared loudly into the air. "I'm not becoming a human pretzel!"

With a quick lash, Zephyr sent the whip flying towards one of the suits of armor. However, he eyes widened as his whip was pulled from his hands. "This is not good…"

Raine and Zelos covered Genis and Presea's eyes. "You kids shouldn't watch this."

From all the noises of punching and kicking…

"Get your hands off me!"

"That doesn't go there!"

"SPINES DON'T BEND THAT WAY!"

"ARGH!"

When Genis and Presea could see once more, they were both shocked to see that Zephyr's whip was snapped in two. What was more shocking to see that Zephyr's legs were in his face from his back with his arms between the legs. "Well…at least my neck pains are gone."

The suits of armor just stood there lifeless once more as the group walked past the paralyzed Zephyr. "Hey! Wait! You're not going to leave me like this are you?"

Genis just walked up to Zephyr, then out of nowhere, Genis just kicked Zephyr in the neck. "OW! My neck pains are back tenfold!"

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As the smoke cleared, the mysterious man stood in front of the weird machine that Exodus was working on earlier. The multiple crystals glowing their individual colors as the man stroked the machine. "Soon…"

Walking from the machine and towards the weirdly familiar statue, the man just chuckled to himself prodding the statue. "Soon…my dream…your dream…"

Spinning the statue as if it was a feather, the weird man looked into the stoned carved eyes of the stone. "Soon…my dream…your dream…our father's dream will soon…"

With a slight push, the statue fell to the ground shattering into a million pieces. Among the remains were golden feathers and purple scales. "Soon…my dream…my father's dream…will soon become reality…"

The machine hummed to life causing the crystals to gleam even brighter, the weird man picked up the remains of the statue's face. A small smile crept on his face. "My brother…my pawn…you were a mere sacrifice for the grand scheme of things. But, soon the final pieces will assemble."

Looking onto the screen of the room, watching Lloyd and the others meeting up with Raine and the others, the group raced up the stairs. "I need only more negative energy used…"

Raising the statue's face to his own, the man's grip tightened causing cracks to appear in the stone. "That was also thanks to you my brother, Exodus. When those fools face off against Chaos and Mithos…both whom have been embed with negative energy…a.k.a. Dark Spirits, it'll be enough to fuel the machine…no matter what the outcome."

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"I-hate-stairs!" Zelos groaned.

"Knock it off Zelos," Sheena warned. "Or I'll knock your block off!"

"That's it! I'm going back!" Zelos shouted as he began to turn the other way.

"If you do, you'll be going down all the stairs you came up on," Colette pointed out as Zelos turned around once more and climbed the stairs grumbling curse words.

After a few more minutes of silent walking up the stairs, a large door appeared before them. The door had dark angel statues around it, the door itself was decorated with black paint and blood red jewels.

No one knew it at the time, but they were all thinking the same thing. "Wonder who's behind door number three?"

The entire group began to push the doors to the next room, and as the doors began to slide open…

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To be continued…