Chapter Eleven: Meeting

Stan walked along the path, his thoughts dark, like usual.

How dare this Devil King try and fight me! How dare he try to challenge me?!

~A long stream of "How dare he" later…~

Stan reached the curling cliff that stretched over the sea near Rashelo. The edge of the cliff curled in on itself, an interesting phenomena that attracted quite a crowd in the summer. Cliff diving was popular here, Rosalyn had even said that she had dived from here once…

Rosalyn.

Stan felt something rare, guilt, twist his heart. Stan knew why she was having nightmares, like his, but different. The Hero was too proud to say they scared her, but Stan knew she got up a lot at night to just…escape them.

It wasn't anywhere near midnight, so Stan sat down on the cliff, watching the waves but keeping his ears pricked for sound, and thought about his own dreams.

Usually it was darkness everywhere around him, which didn't bother the Evil King one bit, but then voices would come. Something about heralding the true king's arrival, and then he saw what must be the Spiritus, a white orb, and the Necomortis, a black one. Something was holding them and laughing, something with weird multicolored eyes. This being then released the Spiritus, and Beiloune would have it, then it went…somewhere.

Shaking his head, Stan decided not to think about some of the more violent nightmares, and closed his eyes.

Rosalyn. Poor Rosalyn. She didn't know what the darkness was doing to her yet. It was what he had wanted, but then he thought, maybe the reason he liked Rosalyn was because she was the opposite of him…

I never thought like this before. Being in a bottle for three hundred years made me soft.

And… He paused, frowning. She's changing me, darn her!

These thoughts continued for a long time, while Stan waited for midnight.

***

Coracinus felt groggy. He groaned, opening his eyes. His vision was different than a human, some color humans don't have a name for framed the edges of his sight. Not only that, but his vision was slightly clearer and a little more oval than any human or ghost.

He blinked, seeing someone staring at him. "Linda?"

She clapped her hands, grinning. "Coracinus! You're awake!"

Coracinus sat up, realizing he had started to break down into a wispy form. Shadowy bits near his wings and feet were just floating there, like a frozen fog. He gathered himself up, shaking his head to clear it, and tiredly dragged his body into another form, this one a cat.

"How do you feel?" She asked, green eyes sympathetic.

"Not very well." He groaned, laying his head on his paws. "Where's Epros?"

Linda giggled. "He went out for dinner or somethin', we need supplies too. We suspect Ari and the others should be here soon."

Coracinus nodded, shaking his head tiredly. He was still exhausted, and his tail was beginning to disintegrate to black wisps again.

"You're not dying, are you?" Linda asked in a panicked tone.

"No. Just takes a lot of concentration to hold a form up." The Black Shapeshifter closed his eyes and was snoring before Linda could say anything else.

***

Stan heard it behind him. The almost inaudible noise of a cloak swishing. He stood up and turned around, staring at the figures.

There were two. One was tall, taller than him even, between seven and eight feet. The other was only at his shoulder height.

Height never bothered Stan before, Beiloune had been a fourteen foot monstrosity and he still kicked his butt.

Stan smirked. "Which one of you is the Devil Evil King?"

The taller figure chuckled. His voice was like ice sliding over your skin, cold and unfeeling.

"That would be me." His accent was heavier than any ghost had now, the accent you got from something long ago.

Stan laughed. "You had to bring a guard?" He gestured to the smaller figure in the black cloak, which didn't as much as twitch.

The Devil King bowed. "T'was true, I suppose. Hard to tell with Evil Kings, you may decide to backstab me right now! You're dismissed." He added to his guard, who vanished in a swirl of darkness.

"What do you want, you wannabe? You're too chicken to face me yourself? Is that why you sent that griffin after us?"

Addonexus sat down in midair, crossing his legs. His long black cloak completely protected his entire body, Stan had no idea what he looked like, aside for the fact he was humanoid.

"Calm down, Shadow Evil King Stanley HiHat Trinidad the Fourteenth. And yes, I sent my Shapeshifter, Tawnvele, after you. I'm glad it managed to deliver the message."

Stan crossed his arms. "So you have heard of me. What do you want?"

Addonexus put his long fingers together, the gloves not hiding the fact he had extensive nails underneath.

"I want to talk about you, King Stanley. I must ask…" He twirled his finger, and red patterns appeared in the air. They formed themselves into words, while the hooded figure continued to speak.

"What made you fall for a mortal, hmm?"

Stan laughed contemptuously. "I didn't fall for her; this is part of my plan. I'll strike her down when she least suspects it!"

Addonexus didn't react, but the red in the air spelled out "Rosalyn".

"Do not lie, King Stanley. I'm full aware of your relationship with her."

The words transformed into a red orb, which depicted the sleeping figures of Ari and the others. Rosalyn glowed gold.

Stan scowled. "Maybe so, fine. But she's not important. I want you out of this world, even if I have to take you down myself!"

"I did not come here to fight." Addonexus politely disagreed.

"I did!" Stan shot down thunder, blasted fire, and shot ice at the Devil King all at once. The red orb broke up into little shards that formed a shield and took the blunt of the attack. Everything else simply parted and went around it. Addonexus hadn't even moved.

Stan stared, feeling the immense drop in his energy from using any "Friendly" attack without his Slave's help.

Addonexus stood up to his full imposing height. "Quite finished, Evil King Stanley? I have just one thing to say. You better listen to exactly what I articulate, or Rosalyn will not survive the night."

"No one tells Evil King Stan what to do!" Stan roared, but feared flickered in his chest. Darn that love, it gave him a weakness!

Addonexus laughed, that was all.

"Are you listening?"

Stan needed to think, he wanted to consider about what was more important to him…

"Why would I listen to a wannabe afraid to show his face?!"

The Devil Evil King sighed, pulling his hood back. The face behind it was like a canine, sloped and round, but the skin was black, and there was no fur. His face was locked in a constant skeletal grin, the teeth thin and sharp, his ears pointed likewise. His skin danced with designs of fire, the tattoos glowing brightly, shining light out in a dull radiance. The eyes were amazing, black on the outside, and then ridged by orange, yellow, gold, and finally red in the very middle, flanked by blue and white. The irises were diagonal, cutting across his eyes.

Stan spat out the word for the type of ghost that was considered to be extinct.

"Hellhound."

Addonexus laughed, crossing his arms. His cloaked was burned off in a flash, revealing his body to be long and powerfully built, his tail swished from side to side, and his entire body was covered with strange designs that glowed. The tattoos were long and thin, wide in some places, and completely covered the back of his legs in orange light. With each tail swish ash from the cloak was shed on the ground.

"Do you want to listen to my proposal, Evil King Stanley?" His eyes shone.

Stan considered everything in his life in an impossibly fast time.

"I'm listening."

***

Stan's got a trick up his sleeve. He's very mad right now you're even considering he is working for a lower class evil being like Addonexus. Be sure to review.