A thud woke Soshi from his state of unconsciousness. He tried to regain his eyesight, but light never came. Soshi's initial reaction was to panic. His eyes had failed him. He had gone blind. As he frantically shook himself, he saw a faint outline of his hand in front of him. Relieved, he flopped back down onto the cold floor. He wasn't blind. There just wasn't any light in the room. Quickly, he snapped out of his trance, and got back up on his feet, scanning the room as he did so. Soshi saw not the slightest trace of movement. Not a single sign of a soul anywhere in sight.
"This is strange." he thought to himself. "I expected to wake up in the worst condition possible. Maybe Koujin's getting soft. Wait…I can't even assume that it was Koujin's army who took me. Argh, I can't remember anything about them. Were they human? No, they were…some sort of shadow things. They had to have been Koujin's. There's no other explanation. Unless…"
His thoughts were cut short as a loud, intimidating voice permeated the room.
"Hmm. So you have awakened."
Soshi immediately recognised the voice. It was Koujin after all. "You coward! Show yourself!"
Koujin's voice chuckled. "A little anxious to be rushing to our death aren't we? No matter. They all think you're dead anyway."
Soshi was baffled by this statement. "What do you mean!" he shouted. "Who thinks I'm dead!"
"Why, everyone, of course. The princess, the army, even that pathetic Sergeant." Koujin's voice had a hint of disgust, but soon returned to its original malevolent tone. "You see, when my army ambushed you back at the castle, they all saw you, a bloody corpse taking up space on the castle grounds."
Soshi was still confused. "But you took me here! How could I be still at the castle? Why are you doing this?" Soshi's voice started to waver.
"Must I explain everything?" Koujin took a pause to let Soshi become lost in emotion. "You see, I merely scanned a copy of you in your place." Koujin drew out every word to relish Soshi's helpless position. "For all the princess and everyone else knows, you're long gone. Oh, and did I mention I had the unspeakable pleasure to break the news to mommy, too?"
"What!" Soshi couldn't believe it. Now Koujin was spreading lies to his own mother. The only connection Soshi had left felt like it was severed. But then, Soshi realized, she must be alive herself. However, that didn't change that Koujin was definitely trying to play with his emotions, weakening him until he was rendered incapable of rational thought. He would destroy himself from the inside out. Soshi felt Koujin's plan working as his true emotions breached the surface.
"You inhuman demon! Is this how you get your fun?" The normally level-headed dragon was now pulsing with an enormous amount of emotional pain. "Preying on the emotions of others! It's bad enough that you killed all those innocent soldiers at the castle, why are you singling me out! What have I ever done to you!" Soshi tried to hold back the tears that were already steadily streaming down his face. He collapsed on his hands and knees on the ground, breathing heavily as thoughts of everyone he knew, and everything he cherished, was about to be stripped away. All this was being dumped on him in mere seconds. He felt his hands rapidly losing heat for some reason, but was too preoccupied with his thoughts to pull them away. Instead he dug his nails into the floor, hoping that it would hjelp him get a better grip on reality, on keeping his focus. As he started to regain his composure, Koujin's voice rang again, sill in its usual cocky tone.
"Well, if you feel that strongly about it…" Soshi could only wait for Koujin to continue, but instead, a flash of light illuminated the once-dark room. Soshi could now see he was kneeling on a floor of solid ice and quickly pulled his hands out. He looked about him, and there, standing in the corner, was Koujin, somehow looking smug even under his cloak. Soshi could feel some anger rushing back into him. He gritted his teeth as he stared his kidnapper down. Koujin elongated the icicle-wand he held in his hand, grinning as the blue stone on top came in contact with the light. Soshi instinctively grabbed for the Radiant Ruby, but just as he clasped it, Koujin finished his sentence. "…are you prepared to fight for it?"
Soshi froze. "What? He wants to fight? That must be his plan. He's already gotten into my head with his lies. He knows they've weakened me. So why do I continue to believe them? It's as if…some part of me…believes it's true. But what am I saying? It can't be true, or else I wouldn't be here. It's all so confusing…"
Soshi was about to drop to his knees again, consumed by his thoughts, but much to Koujin's surprise, he shook all the thoughts out of his head and stared at Koujin with newfound resolve. "Just focus." Soshi told himself. His hand grasped the magical item tighter, and Soshi held his weapon out in plain view. He unfurled his wings, and stood slightly shifted backward in a defensive position, ready for anything Koujin could throw at him.
Seeing the Radiant Ruby brought great pleasure to Koujin, as he eyed it hungrily. "Soshi," he said, "you have no idea the kind of power you are wielding. Allow me to take it off your hands." On these words, the ice lord dissapeared. Soshi was on his guard, however, and just a fraction of a second later he heard a sound behind. Soshi whirled around just in time to see Koujin attacking with a blue energy blast. Soshi deflected the blast with his wand, and flew straight at the cloaked figure behind it. Soshi was about to make contact, when Koujin disappeared in a wisp of smoke. It was just an illusion.
The tiny amount of time that Soshi stopped was enough for Koujin to nail Soshi with freezing cold blast, courtesy of his wand. As he reeled, Soshi glanced upward to see that Koujin now also wielded his sword. Soshi knew he wouldn't have a chance against two weapons, so he had to take the offensive now. With no hesitation, Soshi lifted off, and breathed a fireball at Koujin. Aside from singing his robe a bit, the attack proved futile. However, Soshi expected this. The dragon had used the fireball as a distraction, time enough for him to take in a deep breath and spew a continual flame of fire at Koujin. The ice lord was engulfed by the flames, and Soshi continued the devastating assault. When the fire subsided, Soshi saw that Koujin had conjured a chunk of ice and had held it there in midair. It had absorbed the attack, and Koujin was unharmed. Koujin guided the ice shield through the air to Soshi. Thinking quickly, Soshi dove and aimed his wand for an attack under Koujin, however, Koujin conjured another ice chunk, and blocked this attack as well. Koujin soon surrounded himself in a solid ball of ice, which seemed to take on a blue glow. Soshi was caught slightly off guard as it swooped down on him with blinding speed. Soshi jumped out of the way, as Koujin crashed into the ground, but the resulting stinging wpray of ice blinded Soshi. During that few seconds' time, Koujin somewhow dislodged himself from the ground and crashed into Soshi again. Still having a firm grasp on his Radiant Ruby, Soshi blew another flame at Koujin. However, instead of blocking it, the flame turned around and aimed at Soshi, Koujin having returned the dragon's own attack.
The intense temperature change caused more pain to Soshi than it should have, but Soshi still continued to press through. Soshi saw Koujin's sword jut out from his protective barrier, and once again, he blocked with his wand. Koujin, however, was able to overpower Soshi and rip a gash in his stomach. Soshi watched in horror, as a steady stream of blood spilled out of the jagged cut. Still, he pooled his remaining strength toharden his wings. If he hit the ball with enough force, he could shatter it. Koujin foresaw his plan, and slammed into Soshi's body, not stopping until he had slammed Soshi against the wall of the room. The bone-crushing blow was almost too much for Soshi to bear. Koujin raised his wand, and blasted him with icy beams, despite how much Soshi tried to resist. He could feel his grip on his wand weakening. Seizing his chance, Koujin snatched the wand from the Sky Yoshi's broken claws, slashing him in the face as he did so. Soshi was too weak to resist. He felt the blood trickle down his face, the sole warmth in this freezing,unforgiving room, where he would surely meet his end. He watched as Koujin now held his own weapon above him, triumphant, confident that the battle was over, Soshi having hardly put up a fight.
"You should be thanking me. You have helped me move one step closer to dominating this puny planet. And you have also given me your life." Koujin broke the barrier surrounding him. "I wish I could say you were a formidable adversary. However, who would that fool?"
Weakly, Soshi turned toward his foe. In an almost inaudible voice, he mumbled, "Someone will stop you. This is not where it ends. Someone will find a way. And as always…" he even managed to smile slightly. "My word is my bond."
This seemed only to fuel the rage and bloodlust Koujin harbored. He so looked forward to seeing his adversary crushed by his own weapon. As he pointed the wand at the dragon, he muttered while shaking his head slightly. "Such a pitiful promise."