An eerie wind crept by at that moment, chilling the travelers as they pondered whether or not to trust the peddler. They'd only just met, and after hearing that the man had been following them since the very beginning, not to mention he seemed secretive, they weren't sure what to do.
"What do you want?" Link questioned. There was something other worldly about him.
Pleased he'd gotten through to them so quickly, the Happy Mask Salesman nearly rejoiced before opening his arms wide before him. "I need for you to right what I've wronged," He explained, as if it was the simplest thing imaginable. "Nothing more, I assure you."
Link glared. Right what he wronged? Was he referring to Majora's Mask? Or was there something else much darker that he was not aware of? "Explain yourself. What wrong have you committed?"
He covered his eyes with his hand, shaking his head as he let out a small groan. "That mask was nothing but trouble…Had I not..." He paused before dropping his hand, folding both of them in front of him as he smiled before the group eerily like. No…he didn't want to give too much information. Too much was never a good thing. "I'm afraid I've caused nothing but trouble for everyone in Termina…" The merchant explained. Abruptly, he couldn't help but glance down at his sleeve before withdrawing a small object before hastily returning it to its original place. "Oh, but it seems I don't have much time left…" He replied before looking back at the group. "And neither do you…" Once again, he lowered himself into a bow, bending at the waist with a plea gracing his once happy expression. "I beg you! Do me this one favor!"
Judging by how he was reacting, Link would come to the conclusion that Majora had resurfaced, but he still wasn't entirely sure. Leave it to the peddler to start trouble, again.
Link allowed himself a moment's pause before considering the Happy Mask Salesman's proposal. He was doing it again, being sneaky, and yet, the peddler hadn't lied to him in the past when he swore to return Link to his original human form after he had been cursed into a Deku Scrub. "And what would we gain from this?"
It was then that the peddler smirked, as if he had been waiting for someone to ask that very question. "The thing you most need in order to summon the Goddesses, of course!"
"You seem to know an awful lot for being a merchant…" Inuyasha replied distrustfully.
The peddler did not respond, but turned his attention to Link. "The decision rests with you."
Link turned back to his friends, who in return couldn't help but look to one another for reassurance. When Link saw that they seemed to reach an agreement, he turned back to the merchant. "Very well."
Pleased, the Happy Mask Salesman couldn't help but smirk. Finally…finally were the very words that echoed in his thoughts. As if taken by surprise, he turned his head to glance behind him before turning back to the group. "It would seem we have a visitor…" He voiced with a disgruntled glance over his shoulder, his once happy smile falling into that of a frown.
"Huh?" Shippo couldn't help but mutter in confusion.
A bright blaze of red light flashed from the hazy mist behind the salesman, and from the expected attack, the peddler swiftly turned his back to the group. For a merchant, lugging around an enormous backpack full of many ancient artifacts, masks and what not, it was surprising for the group to watch him with such nimble movement. One moment he had his back to them and the next he had jumped into the air, possibly to dodge the attack, however, the spear followed his movements, acting as if it were some type of heat seeking missile.
To everyone's surprise, it seemed the peddler had been struck by the ball of fire, and he laid there, his enormous bag of masks hiding his body as smoke surrounded him.
Link didn't hesitate to run forward and kneel beside the fallen mask keeper, but he never expected to see a missing merchant. "He's gone…" Somehow, he'd up and vanished, leaving behind his important bag.
"What the…" Inuyasha was almost stunned by the event.
Hesitant to move forward beside Link, Kagome readied her bow and arrow, searching through the hazy mist for any signs of movement. Beside her, Sango and Miroku took a stance, looking ahead and behind them distrustfully, while Inuyasha narrowed his eyes ahead of him where he thought his ears had picked up on the sounds of footsteps.
Someone was walking toward them that very moment, their tall, menacing silhouette shifting through the fog as they approached. A billow of fabric could be heard as the wind passed by, and the footsteps louder. Soon after, the footsteps ceased, and the individual revealed himself before them.
"So it would seem you have arrived…" A deep masculine voice replied, bringing everyone instantly to a standstill and their gaze forward. "How very fortuitous for me…" It saved him the trouble of hunting them down.
Standing there, at a height of at least six feet in stature, with long black hair tied at his lower back in a loose braid, and dressed almost similarly to Link, stood the very man intent on destroying Termina. Clutching a red covered book to his side, and wearing a black cloak over his purple tunic, he stood there passively observing the group.
Elaborate gold trim decorated the ends of his long sleeves, where gold bands adorned his wrists and his neck. Upon his forehead, where his raven bangs parted, was a golden crown where a red ruby sat innocently in the middle. Their enemy was dressed in old styled and yet very costly knee-length brown boots with white leggings. Strapped to his waist by means of a simple belt, etched with the emblem of Ikana, was a long curved silver septor, somewhat resembling the one that had belonged to Aveil back in Great Bay.
With the ears of a Terminan, though only longer than those of the present time, he didn't seem too different from a regular citizen, except for his pale complexion and somewhat otherworldly jewelry. Around his neck, standing out as clear as day was the Sacred Jewel, its pink tint darkened by his dark lust.
Though he seemed unfazed by their silence, allowing them a brief moment to take in his characteristics, he allowed his green eyes to stare into that of soft blue ones belonging to Link. From his view, the boy was confused yet there was also anger swirling in those irises.
"So you finally show yourself!" Inuyasha remarked before crossing in front of Link to stare the individual down, his sword unsheathed and his eyes narrowed.
The enemy merely cocked an eyebrow, passively acknowledging the one with silver hair and golden eyes, and he knew this person to be the very half demon that traveled with Link. No doubt, he knew everyone in the small group, by name, by likes, their personality, weaknesses and so much more, but he found it tedious to ponder at the time being. "Indeed…" Was his only reply, before pushing a strand of hair from his face.
In a way, he spoke with an air of coolness, standing there in a regal stance, unbiased to anyone at the time being or the fact that he had a sword in front of him and a half demon baring his fangs. He truly seemed bored with this entire ordeal, acting indifferently as he stared, acting as if he hadn't just fired a blazing fire ball at the peddler who had up and vanished into thin air a few moments prior.
With the few last moments with Serena still burned into his subconscious, and how her last words had pained him terribly, Link distanced himself from his friends, ignoring Inuyasha and Kagome in the background. This entire time, the very person responsible for plunging this pitiful land into despair was him. Whether he was Ganondorf or Majora in disguise made no difference to the young warrior. What did, of course, was that he lost another friend…
"You killed her…" Link whispered under his breath, and it was barely audible, but nonetheless, Inuyasha and his opponent heard it loud and clear.
To be expected, his adversary merely arched a brow, regarding the youth before him disinterestedly. "She was in the way of something much bigger," Was his reply, and he knew it was enough to send the boy over the edge; that's what he wanted. After all, for personal reason, it was Link's life that he sought.
"Link!" Kagome and Inuyasha shouted, but it was too late.
In that split second, the youth had charged forward, his sword unsheathed, intent on wiping the smirk off the evil doer's face for good. Link knew there was no possibly way to bring his fairy friend back to life, nor could he reverse time just as he was once capable of doing. He no longer had that kind of power; the only thing he had left was his sword and the few friends left in his heart still alive this very moment. Somehow, he would prevail; he would protect them until the very end, and if he died in the process, he wouldn't care. As long as they were safe, that was all that mattered.
In one fell swoop, Link lunged, his sword prepared to pierce his pale skin, but as the individual stood there, passively staring back, he had disappeared into thin air, leaving Link searching the premises for his whereabouts. Of course it wasn't long for Link's ears to pick up on the sound of shifting fabric from above him, and he immediately leapt out of harm's way effortlessly.
So he was capable of teleporting, was he? Did that mean he was some type of Sorcerer?
"Do you really believe you have the power to harm me?" A chuckle reached the Hylian's ears suddenly, and it was enough to irritate Link further, plus the fact that no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get a hit in. "I'm sure the Hero of Time can do much better than this."
His Sword pierced the air suddenly, and he wasn't surprised when the individual yet again fled from his attack, but what did upset him was how he knew so much of Link's past. Never once had Link ever seen this person back in Hyrule, and somehow, here in Termina, he knew much of Link. How was that?
"Shut up!" Link hollered, turning aggressively toward the magic user standing behind him. "How do you know of my past? Who told you?!"
He laughed.
Snarling, Inuyasha took this opportunity to attack while the enemy had his back to him, and his attention focused on Link. "He asked you a question!" Unfortunately for him, their enemy wasn't stupid and instantly teleported away some distance from Link and Inuyasha near the entry way into town.
But just as the sorcerer had landed safely on the other side, Sango's Hiraikotsu flew at him. Unfortunately, no one was prepared when with just a raise of his hand; a gust of wind sent the weapon hurdling back at them.
Luckily, everyone avoided the collision, but the Hiraikotsu flew some distance away, its edge stuck in the bark of a tree back near the cave belonging to the entrapped Enchantress of Magic. Kirara, in her saber tooth form, reacted instantly to retrieve the weapon.
At this point, Miroku stood alongside the half demon and Link, followed by Kagome, Sango, Shippo and Kirara. "Who are you, explain yourself!" He exclaimed with a loud voice, but the enemy merely continued staring at him. "You've caused great panic in this land, and to the people! Are you not ashamed of yourself?"
"Ashamed?" He scoffed. "So quick to judge, aren't we?" He asked, though he didn't bother to listen to an answer. "The only ones capable of judgment are the very deities you and your little friends side with," He explained, referring to the three Goddesses themselves. "Pointing fingers and throwing profanities at me will simply get you nowhere. So why stop indulging myself now that this world has lost all meaning?" He asked with a slight raise of his hand. In all honesty, he could do whatever he wanted to the land, after all, it was supposedly forgotten by the Goddesses long ago, after The Great War.
Shippo glanced between him and his friends. "What's he talking about?"
"Who are you?!" Sango shouted, her hand clenching her boomerang tightly.
A spark of scarlet colored his irises, and he raised his chin as he looked upon the group. "Since you won't live long enough to remember, would it really matter?" He asked, and when this irked a few glares, he almost sighed. "You may know me as Armaros Du Rexford the Fourth, son of Hildan Du Rexford."
Kagome couldn't help but openly point. "Wait! It's you!" She exclaimed suddenly, causing all eyes to fall on her in bewilderment. "You visited my dream!" Kagome thought she recognized the voice and the fact that this guy seemed cloaked by shadows. Even his eyes, though as different as they were, shifting from green to red, seemed very familiar to her; it had to be him. Of course she meant the dream back on Great Bay, the one with the hourglass full of black sand. If it was him, then why did he visit her in that dream? To torment her?
Inuyasha only stared at her. "What dream?" He didn't remember the priestess voicing anything about this. What the…So this bastard was also capable of sneaking into people's dreams?
Armaros merely arched a brow. "I know not of what you speak, little girl," He replied. Could it be that his other half had spoken to the child? "Perhaps and perhaps not…and it does not matter."
Inuyasha snarled. "Shut the hell up!" With that said, he lunged forward with his sword raised, intended to rip his head from his body, but unfortunately for the half demon, the evil doer had once again strangely teleported out of range and atop the tree top.
"He's so fast!" Shippo cried.
Raising his light hued blade above his head, Inuyasha unleashed the power of his sword, given to him by the Great Fairy. The blue light that emanated from the edge of the blade, shot out in furry of intense electrical waves of energy, and it was enough to bring a surprised look on Armaros's face.
'That sword! Why does he have it?!' Armaros managed to dodge the attack, teleporting a safer distance away, this time atop the Clock Tower. The red book he had clutched to his side immediately flew open and he chanted a spell under his breath before raising his palm outward. Immediately after, an electrical discharge shot from his very hand, flying at the group who scrambled out of harm's path. As expected from the travelers, they had avoided the collision of his bolts of lightning.
Inuyasha cursed. Honestly, he hadn't planned on an enemy so fast, a magic user at that, but that didn't mean he would give up. Before he could jump atop the wall to reach the sorcerer atop the Clock Tower, Sango held her hand out.
"Wait, Inuyasha. If you release that in the main square, you might hurt someone," The slayer was referring to the citizens who hadn't managed to evacuate from town.
"So what do we do?" Kagome cried, with Shippo snug on her shoulder, his emerald eyes wide and frightful as he examined the small craters left behind by those lightning strikes.
Armaros smirked. "Wise decision," His voice carried from the tower. He didn't understand it. How did those vermin acquire such a powerful and deadly sword from the previous Great War? It was impossible! That sword should have been sealed away after the King's death…but somehow it had resurfaced. Then it hit him. 'That's right…the Great Fairy…but even she lacked the ability to handle such a weapon…' Unless of course, the power residing inside the blade was not entirely released… If that was so, then it meant the seal wasn't completely broken.
"He's just standing there…" Kagome muttered, unsure of his next move. Right now he had the Sacred Jewel and the fourth pendant in his grasp, and without either, they were at a completely standstill.
Not wasting a minute, Link hurriedly reached for one of his arrows from his quiver before notching it onto his bow. Narrowing his eyes, the tip of the arrow head brightened to a strong golden color, and once he had his target within reach, he released the arrow. Unfortunately, that attack proved feeble when Armaros reacted quite nimbly, catching the shaft between his two fingers, the tip mere inches from his face.
"You're pathetic attempts are proving to become quite tedious…" Armaros replied blatantly before throwing the arrow off the side of the tower. "I had expected more from you, but I was wrong to expect anything more." It was at this point that he pulled from his long sleeved tunic a very familiar, circular artifact, the amethyst gem shimmering from atop the Clock Tower on which he stood some distance away from the group.
Inuyasha cursed. "You bastard!"
"It's the pendant!" Kagome cried. It was the one that was stolen from Ikana's Castle! So he really did have it! What was he going to do with it? Somehow they had to get it back from him, but the priestess had a feeling this wouldn't be simple.
Link's heart drummed suddenly when a distressing thought surfaced, and he anxiously looked between Armaros and the pendant expectantly. He wasn't planning on…
Too late.
Just as he had expected the worst, the worst happened. Armaros had clenched the pendant tightly within his grip, so tightly that fragments fell from the ancient artifact. The entire time, he was smirking at them, watching the transition of their faces contort from anger to trepidation. Without this pendant, their goal to save Termina would abruptly end.
Armaros dropped the last of the fragments from the tower before chuckling in satisfaction. "I'm afraid this is where our little game ends…" Very soon, he would smite them with the very magic that had helped the travelers since the very beginning, the power he had absorbed from the Great Fairies in the land.
"He…broke it…" Shippo gasped with his eyes wide and his mouth agape in worry. "He broke it!" He cried.
Kagome held a hand over her mouth in shock. Everything that they had worked so hard to achieve was for nothing. Without that last pendant, how would they summon the Goddesses? How would they bring peace to Termina? This was the final battle…but how could they touch him if he was so fast?
Miroku furrowed his brow, his hand clenched tightly around his staff. Honestly, he hadn't planned on this happening, and he felt the weight of Termina completely fall upon him. Surely the Goddesses were watching this. If they had wanted them to save the land, they wouldn't lose their faith like this, would they?
Inuyasha was shocked speechless. He had crushed it, demolished the pendant, their only hope to save Termina. Enraged, he felt the sword in his grasp pulsate, its blue light suddenly glimmering brightly. At the same time, he felt his demon blood respond to this strange power radiating off the blade, and his eyes flashed red for a brief second.
Armaros was no fool. He felt this strange energy emanating from the half demon, and he sensed the power of the seal surrounding the blade beginning to break. 'That fool! Does he not realize how dangerous that sword is?' Why on earth would the Great Fairy give him such a dangerous sword?
No longer able to stand there waiting, Sango turned to her large feline before propping herself onto her back. When Miroku saw this, he decided to follow her, and soon they were soaring toward Armaros ahead. When they were within a reasonable distance, Sango threw her boomerang at her intended target.
Armaros, however, dodged the blow, sending the slayer and the monk a glare as the two circled him from the Clock Tower. Although his attention was shifted to them, he couldn't help but glance back at the half demon.
It was at this moment that Kagome, Link and Shippo heard the half demon in front of them growling, and from the sight of the blade blindingly flashing in front of them, they couldn't help but hold their hands up to cover their eyes. What was happening?
Seeing this, Sango and Miroku looked back, their eyes widening as they took in the scene before them. What was happening?
The sorcerer didn't waste a minute to await the impending doom that was to follow after. Immediately he opened his spell book, his eyes briefly scanning over the ancient text before he murmured a few chants. After which, he raised his palm outward. Armaros had planned to play with them just a little bit longer, but sensing that his plans for world domination would abruptly end, he decided to simply end them for good.
"Oh no you don't!" Sango shouted before once again throwing her Hiraikotsu, but instead of side stepping past her attack, he disappeared from the Clock Tower. Where had he disappeared to?
"Up there!" Miroku cried, and when Sango realized he was pointing well above them, she found their enemy hovering some feet above the Clock Tower. He had such strange power.
What was happening to Inuyasha?
Desperate to find out, Kagome ran forward and grasped his elbow, but when she saw the purple markings on his skin appear and the gold of his irises shift to red, she couldn't help but back away. "I-Inu…yasha?"
Link saw this too. Was Inuyasha turning into his full demon form? "What's happening?"
"Hey watch out!" Shippo cried out to his friends.
As Sango and Miroku cried out to their friend's safety, it was too late. A surge of smoldering, black fire hurdled toward their four friends below, and because they were not quick enough to stop it, they watched in horror as their friends were engulfed by the flames.
Angered, Sango threw her Hiraikotsu at Armaros, and Miroku joined in with his sutras, but they were thrown aside by a powerful gust of wind; it was the result of Armaros's power, which sent them hurdling into a nearby building in the main square of town. They collapsed upon the ground unconscious.
From the blast of fire thrown at them, a numbing sensation washed over their bodies, and a feeling of falling left them drifting through the darkness encompassing them. So this was what it was like to die? But because they were still conscious, yet unable to move, they felt a warm light flutter around them, and it was so comforting, that it lulled them into a deep sleep. As they slept, laughter resonated around the void in which they silently drifted.
"I'll keep you to your promise," Replied the voice of the Happy Mask Salesman. "But time is short, so listen closely. What you have lost can be regained if you go to the castle. In return, I ask that you put a stop to the one stealing the mask from the tower," He explained. "Be quick about it, my friends and believe in your strengths, believe…"
As they slept, a swarm of colors and shapes sped past them, many taking on the forms of people, past events, chaos and laughter.
It was at this moment that two members of the Bombers witnessed the entire event while peeking behind one of the trees in the grassy area. Both witnessed the short and effortless battle take place between good guys and the bad guy, and though they had been silently praying for the adults to win, sadly they did not. They saw the massive crater left behind where a couple of the adults, that including Link, had been previously standing, and their jaws had dropped, literally.
"Shit just got real…" Aaron replied almost breathlessly before turning back to his younger friend beside him.
Noah, who was practically devastated by everything, held his hands upon his head despondently. "Sango!" He cried. After witnessing the huge gust of wind throw her, the monk and the giant saber tooth plummeting into the main square, he couldn't help but cry out. "SANGO!"
Aaron sweat dropped. "Get yourself together! We don't have time for water works. We have to tell Jim!"
Nodding, he scrambled after his Bomber friend, only looking back once to where the adults had last been standing before returning back to their headquarters to notify the boss.