Dark Lord Link: Oi readers! Chapter 2 of 'War of Souls' is here! I asked OneWingedHeron53 to input his brilliant ideas for this chapter because he is awesome like that, oh yes you better believe it! In my opinion, that guy has got some great tricks up his sleeve! I know you all will enjoy this one!
OneWingedHeron53: In shorter words, he means I'm writing this chapter...Read and Review
Soul Calibur II: War of Souls
Chapter 2: Dusk of Departure
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The sun shone down lazily, going over the hill as it marked the end of the day. It has been a while, but Link arrived at the castle. A noble woman of divine beauty sat on a throne and on top of the throne were statues, surrounding three golden triangles, combined to make a bigger triangle. The young woman's dress appeared white with golden markings, including the three golden triangles. Her upper dress appeared purple, with a deep V-neck at her back, revealing it greatly, if it weren't for her golden brown hair covering it. She wore white sleeves, that extended to white gloves, and like our Hylian Hero, she had three golden triangles, one shining brighter than the other.
She sat properly, as is expected by Queens and Princess', on the throne. She looked ahead as she saw a figure storming. She stood up and saw that it was the Hero of Time. Normally, his calm nature was glued on his face, but he was mad, which is rare. Tilting her head to the side, she rose from her throne and walked towards the hero.
She met with him halfways and placed both hands on front of her, "Link, what's wrong?" She asked in concern. It was highly unlikely that anger would overcome him, so if he's mad, than something is terribly wrong.
The first thing Link did was hand over a red fragment concealed within a wrapped cloth. "This...What is it?" He asked. Showing the cursed fragment to the Princess.
At the first sight of it, Zelda felt bad aura's that emitted from the shard. She gripped her head, trying to clear her senses, but it was filled with negativity, such as hatred, anger, and despair.
"That bad?" Link asked, covering it up and putting it inside his 'magical' pouch.
Once it went away, Zelda gave a sigh of relief. "Where did you get that?" She asked in a tone of concernment.
Link crossed his arms and thoughted, "I found it in a nearby village. People were fighting over it. Any idea on what it is?" He stated, keeping a still position.
"I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, it's incredibly evil." She answered, and before they could talk further. A golden chicken came into view with a note on it's beak.
"Rusl's chicken?" Link muttered, picking it up and taking the note, handing it to Zelda. While he continued to observe the chicken.
Zelda grabbed the note and removed the ribbon that tied it. After a quick reading, she folded it and put it in her pocket somewhere. "The Twilight Mirror is finished. Midna and the others wants us there." She explained, making way to her throne where she grabbed her sword.
"Two years of constructing it and they finally finished it." Link replied, holding the chicken like you would a puppy.
Zelda walked beside him and held her hands in front of her, "To cut time, I'm going to teleport us there. Ready?" She informed and asked, looking towards him.
Link nodded and stood straight, putting the chicken down. While Zelda created a magic ball and raised it over them and they disappeared in a ball of light that flew out towards the sky. With the chicken chasing behind.
The next thing they knew, they arrived on top of the Arbiter's Grounds. Where Midna and the Rebellion were waiting for them...and the chicken can be seen following behind.
Midna (In her real form) watched them appear with the chicken following behind. She embraced Zelda in a polite hug and moved to give a handshake to Link.
"What? No hug?" He sarcastically asked, which earned a smack from both princess' but a hint of amusement from Midna, like always.
"The Twilight Mirror is complete. I'll finally be able to return home and research on what caused me to come here." Midna replied, walking in front of the mirror with the two following.
"Ah, Link." A voice came from behind the rock which stood as one of the many pathways to the Twilight Realm. A figure in a helmet appear with a broad sword strapped onto his back. He stood and removed his helmet, revealing blond hair, held straight by a head band. With blue eyes, he stared at the Hero, "Have you brought my chicken?" He asked, and the golden wonder answered his call and rushed to reach over to him.
"I still don't know why you call him Mr. Chicken, Rusl." A deeper voice replied and out came a bigger man wearing a hood.
"It was Colin who named it, Auru." Rusl answered. Looking towards him.
"...So you see, when you divide by two, it will always be half of what the original number was." A more younger voice can be heard from behind the rock.
A man and a woman came walking from behind, with the man holding open a book, blabbering away while the female looked bored.
The female, not wearing as much armor as she usually wore, since it's the desert, turned around frustrated. "Look, Shad. You made your point when your 'equations' worked on the construction of the Twilight Mirror. So, will you please, shut up?" The female requested in a frustrated tone.
"You were the one who doubted my equations, Ashei." Shad muttered. Out of all the groups, only Rusl and Ashei had round ears.
As the two bickered away, the more mature group gathered in front of the Twilight Mirror and started to converse.
"So, does it work?" Link asked, examining the Mirror.
Rusl followed behind him, "Yes, and without my permission, they used a test sample." He answered, and muttered the last bit.
"Really? What did they use?" Zelda asked, curious.
"We used his chicken." Ashei answered, walking up towards them, somehow knowing what they were talking about, with Shad following behind.
Rusl only turned away, holding his chicken like he would his own child, "Your lucky it works." He muttered, petting his chicken.
Before the conversation can continue further, Link broke it and turned towards Midna, "Maybe you would know. Do you know what this is?" He asked, pulling out the shard.
Midna grabbed it and the shard glowed red in her touch. "No. I don't know anything of what it is. Where did you find it?" She answered, directing a question towards him.
Before the man could reply, the Mirror glowed bright red as well, acting towards the shard. Everyone held onto to each other for support. The entire area began to rumble as the Mirror activated, but instead of glowing white, it was an eerie red color. "The Mirror!" Midna pointed out, marking it's about to do something.
Sensing this, Mr. Chicken flapped and clung it's nails deeply into Shad's face, earning him a painful yell. Before they could get away, the Mirror activated and ripped them into pieces, sending them into the rock. Leaving behind, Rusl's helmet...and a golden egg.
*On the other side*
The portal opened somewhere near the sky, inside a forest and sent them out, one by one. Link, Zelda, Midna, Rusl, Auru, Ashei, and Shad respectively.
They all groaned when they landed on the ground. Slowly, they got onto their feet and looked around. "I...never knew...Twilight travel...would be this painful..." Auru muttered between breaths and stood straight and breathing puffs, that marked 'I'm getting too old for this'.
"Where's Mr. Chicken?" Rusl asked, and before the group can protest, a clucking of a chicken can be heard in the air, and down came a flapping chicken, landing gently into Rusl's arms.
"Oh good. When we get hungry, we can have chicken." Ashei replied, resting her hands on her knees.
Rusl only scoffed and sat besides a tree, "We're not eating Mr. Chicken" He replied, stroking the bird.
"I'm just saying. If we ever run out of food here..." She added, standing up and gripping her sword.
Midna looked around, "This isn't the Twilight Realm. So, where are we?" She asked, looking at Link and Zelda, who too, looked at their surroundings.
Link continued to look and grip some dirt from the ground and tilted his hand. "This place, it's somehow...familiar..." He replied, looking towards the two princess' who looked at him confused. "I mean, it's like I've been here before." He added, looking at the leaves falling slowly.
"Remarkable!" The young scholar stated. All eyes turned towards him, "This place. It's almost the same as Hyrule. The dirt, the air, the leaves, everything!" Shad added, looking at everything else.
"So, in shorter words, we're like, somewhere else in the world?" Ashei asked.
"Something like that. Or we could even be on another planet." Shad answered, not bothering to turn around, except only looking at the rocks.
"What?" They all answered, not understanding the word 'planet'.
"Well, let's just say that somewhere in the sky is our home." Shad answered, still not turning and only writing notes.
Ashei scoffed, looking up at the sky, "So, how do we get back home?"
"I'm not quite sure, we could use the same method here, except we don't know what caused it in the first place." Shad stated, drawing a rock and a stick.
The two princess' looked at each other than at Link, "Can we see that shard again?" Zelda asked Link, who pulled it out.
"This is what caused the Mirror to act in a strange way. If we build another Mirror, maybe it can happen again." Midna pointed out, looking at the shard.
"We don't have time to build another Mirror. It took us two years to build the last one." Auru stated, standing up and looking at the two princess'.
Shad, pulling out his knife, started to peel bark off a tree, "On the contrary, chances are one-in-a-million. The first time, we ended up here. Next time, we could end up in a world with small, green dinosaurs and giant, fire breathing turtles." He explained, pulling bark off a tree.
The group sighed greatly. "So, basically, we're stuck here." Rusl muttered. Thinking about his wife and two kids.
As Zelda looked at the shard, she heard whispers...
"Kill them all. Gather the rest. Restore Soul Edge. Kill them all...!"
The whispers chanted over and over again. Midna noticed Zelda looked spaced out, so she shook her, "You okay?" She asked, looking at her.
"The whispers...do you hear them?" She asked, handing the shard over to her. But before Midna could grab it, a black raven swooped by and took it.
"That's our only ticket out of here!" Link shouted, looking at the shard go away.
Rusl stood up and went towards them. "Mr. Chicken. Go!" He shouted and the golden wonder flew after the raven.
The chicken caught up quickly, and pecked at the raven. Causing it to drop the shard. But it couldn't turn around, because of it getting attacked, so it flew off.
The group, minus Shad who was still writing notes, ran where the shard was dropped. Mr. Chicken flew back towards Rusl, who had a victorious smirk on his face. "Mr. Chicken can do things you couldn't imagine." He replied, looking at the group.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, it can fly people ten times its weight at a limited distance, we get it." Ashei replied, looking at Link pick up the shard.
Link wrapped the shard up, hoping it would help keep the negative energy away, "Ganondorf is behind this." He replied, causing everyone to looked at him.
Zelda's eyes widened, "Ganondorf? But he..."
"Escaped the Sacred Realm again. When I took the shard from the village, I teleported to the Sacred Realm to check the seal. There, I saw Ganondorf escape." Link explained, looking at the sky. "He said it was a toy of mine that freed him. Could it be the shard?" He asked, noticing that the sun is lowering.
"No use trying to figure it out. We should get more answers." Zelda assured, and looked towards Midna. "I heard whispers when I held the shard, it said gather the rest, and restore Soul Edge. Do you suppose Ganondorf is after Soul Edge as well?" She explained. Trying to put the puzzles together.
"If the shard is what released Ganondorf, then he's probably roaming these lands in search of it." Link replied, crossing his arms. "We should split up. That way we can cover more ground. I'll go with Rusl, and Zelda. You, Shad, Auru, and Ashei will protect you." Link added, talking to Midna, who only nodded.
"Can we take Mr. Chicken?" Ashei asked, which was quickly answered with a "No!"
"Guys. This is amazing! Everything here, is the same as everything at home!" Shad shouted in joy, holding various rocks and sticks and bark.
"Alright, we'll meet up later on." Auru replied, ignoring Shad.
"What? Meet up? What I miss?" Shad asked, dropping his junk.
Auru only chuckled, walking away with Ashei, and Midna. "Come on, scholar boy. Your with us." He answered with a big pat on the back which caused Shad to yelp in pain.
"What about Mr. Chicken? Won't we get hungry?" Shad asked, rubbing his shoulder.
Rusl groaned, "For the last time. We're not eating Mr. Chicken!" He shouted as his group began to walk the opposite direction.
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OneWingedHeron53: And there we have it. The long await chapter of War of Souls. We've decided to take our creativity to new levels by adding Midna and the Rebellion into the mix. Also as candidates to being paired up as well. Two references in here. Can you find it?
Dark Lord Link: HUMOR! R&R that was the best adventure chapter I ever read! What a way to get straight to the story! Readers, expect the next installment soon! It's my turn! :D