I'm back with the second installment of A Necessary Evil! So, read and review you person, you! So you know, the line thingy isn't working. So instead I'll use a row of bolded O's. And italicised things are thoughts.
I do not own Maple Story or any of its titles, characters and whatever else is copywrited.
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Ellinia was once a flourishing forest, now it's a charred wasteland. How could that happen?
Realn and Nack walked through the ruins of Ellinia. There was no green to be found. The trees that once reached toward the sky were now broken and an ugly black. The dead bodies of fairies and humans littered the ground. The fire that obviously took place here didn't kill some. One Fairy was impaled by several arrows. A young thief's limbs were torn off.
"Damn, who could have done this?" Nack asked rhetorically.
Realn was speechless. Instead of words he shakily pointed toward a nearby tree. Stuck in its trunk was a Cutlus. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"A Cutlus?" Nack asked, puzzled.
"Laer's Cutlus" Realn breathed.
"Oh, shit. How can you tell?"
"Look at the hand guard. It's not connected to the bottom of the hilt. Lear broke it trying to fight stone golems."
Realn grasped the hilt of the Cutlus and drew it out of the tree. The tip of the blade was broken off and it was bloodstained. Human blood. Before the two could look for any traces of Laer's body, a loud groan broke the dead silence of the once lush forest.
"What was that?' Nack cried as he jumped
"A groan, it means someone is still alive."
Nack and Realn Darted toward the source of the groan, calling back to find the exact place. They found none other than Grendel the Really Old lying in the dirt.
"Grendel?" Realn said, shocked.
"Who's this?" Grendel asked.
"Realn and I'm Nack" Nack replied.
"Ah, I thought I recognized those voices." The old man said.
"Grendel what happened here? Why can't you see?" Realn asked.
Grendel sighed. "I suppose I should tell you the whole story, then? The other day I was meditating in my library when I heard voices down below. That was normal, except that it sounded like a whole group of people and I didn't like what they were saying. I went down to lecture them. I was correct; it was a large group of about fifteen Maplers of all jobs. I told them to get out of Ellinia if they were going to cause trouble. They assured me they were just healing to go fight monsters. I still didn't like them, but allowed them to stay.
"A few hours later a boat from Ossyria arrived and the gang walked toward Sixtopia. What was odd is that they hadn't left the town to fight monsters at all since I went down there. Why would they got to Ossyria without killing any monsters? So I followed them to Sixtopia. When I got there I found that a boat full of people just standing there. Even I could be defeated by such a group, so I hid behind a barrel and listened in. All of them were talking at once, the original group and the people from the boat. I couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but it seemed like they were all friends."
"They were probably a guild!" Nack interrupted.
"They were, a guild called The Legion. Now allow me to continue. After a few minutes everyone went silent. A magician stepped out of the crowd and created a Fire Arrow. He focused on making it large and powerful, charging it for a long time. Eventually the magician aimed it toward a tree.
" I stepped out from behind the barrel and said 'Now what is going on here?' An assassin pushed out of the crowd and said 'If we told you, you would try to stop us. Let's just say we are getting rid of the monsters around Ellinia forever.' I didn't like the sound of that!
"The magician released the Fire Arrow and set the tree aflame! I jumped back startled and someone punched me in the gut and I fell out of Sixtopia. I landed on a platform below where Laer greeted me. I warned him of the fire and we ran up back to Sixtopia. The Legion attacked us and we started fighting. Everyone in Ellinia helped out to stop the guild from burning down the forest. But we were all too caught up in the battle to stop the fire. By time we realized what had happened the fire was burning out of control. While I was distracted someone snuck up on me and slashed my eyes. I used magic to create shields to protect me from the fire. It looks like I was the only one…"
"Wow." Realn said, speechless.
"Grendel, we need to get you to Henesys for medical help." Nack said after a few moments of silence.
"No Nack, I'm afraid not." Grendel solemnly replied.
Surprised, Realn asked, "Why not?"
"My time has come, and who am I to tempt fate?" Grendel casually replied.
"But you're Grendel the really Old! You can't die!" Nack half yelled.
"Magic can't last forever. It was the only thing keeping me alive. And I'm afraid I wasted all my remaining energy telling you what happened." Grendel answered.
"And you knew!" Realn realized.
"Yes, but I would have died eventually anyway." Grendel replied, "And I knew I should let you know the whole story." Grendel's breathing was hard now. "Tell the other town leaders what happened to me. Stop the guild…"
Realn and Nack nodded.
Grendel produced a glass orb from his robe and said, "Keep this with you at all times, keep it safe."
Realn grabbed the orb, he and Nack were crying now.
"And I need you to do me one more favor."
"What's that?" Nack asked.
"From now on, call me by my first name."
"First name? Isn't that Grendel?" A puzzled Realn asked.
"No, Grendel is my surname. My true name is simply Hines."
"Hines?"
"Yes, just Hines. Promise me that is what you will call me"
Realn and Nack nodded.
Hines slumped his head on the charred ground and died silently. A bright light engulfed his body and he slowly dematerialized.
Realn jumped to his feet.
"Where are you going?" Nack asked.
"Where else? To find and destroy The Legion."
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All right! Now I'm going to set a quota of two(2) reviews before I release the next chapter, which I still have to write! So review this story, and tell all your friends to as well, okay?
