Me: Wwwelcome back, you guys! Here's another chapter for y'all! Enjoy! :D BTW, you guys better throw in yo OC's, Hamel Arc is almost about done, in 2 - 3 chapters, unless I throw in a side chapter. 2-3 more, gais! 2. TO 3. FRIGGIN'. MOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHH*Gurgleguglegurgule* And, Warning. A little bit more violence than the last few chapters. I've warned you...
Elesis' POV
Sometime I wish Xen was ALWAYS joking and not be serious for 99% of a whole year! Then again, he had good reasons to do so. But, he was seriously injured, or well, not injured, he seemed really out of energy, and his clothes were torn from dodging the beams of the Shadow Snipers, them and their mouth beams - I could totally see him imagine the demons saying, "IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZOR! BLAAAAAAAARRGGGHHH!" - and yet, he continued going. He mentioned that it was to either bring Ara's brother, Ran/Aren back to the 'Side of Justice', as he might call it, or some other stuff, like "The Cool Peoples' Side", "The Side of God", or maybe even his infamous quote we once heard at Altera, "Xen World" if he plans on beating Ran up. Good El, I just realized I rambled on about how Xen was actually being legitimately serious while making a few jokes about him that maybe true. I snap back to reality, only to bump into Xen, as he had stopped. We find ourselves staring at a large, shut door. Xen attempts to open the door, but it doesn't budge. Locked.
"Anyone got a way to open this door? Maybe use Chung's cannon as a battering ram?" He asks. He nods towards Chung, who put down his Destroyer. Everyone gathered around it, held it by a different part, swung the heavy cannon back and forth.
"3," Xen counts
Swing forward,
"2,"
Swing back,
"1!"
We charge at the door, with Chung firing a cannonball out of the end away from the door to boost the momentum, and we slam his Destroyer into the door and it budges only a bit. We continue ramming at the door, until we give up and drop the cannon. Everyone pretty much just looks at Xen, as if asking him what else to do.
"I'll try and open this door with my fists and punch it hard and slam it down. Add, Raven, help me punch the door down. We pretty much need as many hands as we can. Everyone else, try and do your best to help out, if you can." Xen answers their silent question. He walks up to the door, followed by Add and Raven. He pulls his arm back, charged with Hellfire and electricity, Raven charges his Nasod Arm, Add's Dynamos fly in front of the gate, all 6 of them, forming a circle for a spot to punch. Next thing I knew, their fists are flying at the door, the 3 violently punching the for-some-reason-hard-to-break-door. Elsword summons some magical blades and throwing them at the door, Aisha throwing some random spells at it, Rena shooting arrows at it, Eve shooting it with Nasod Spears and guns blazing, Chung throwing grenades and shooting Red Cannonballs, Ara clawing at it and stabbing, and me shooting a bunch of Fireballs at it. It takes us 5 minutes to finally break the door, only for us to see why it was hard to open.
1,000 demons were waiting for us on the other side, crammed up against each other on the door to keep us out. And just like a closet full of junk, they flood in, an army of demons, or more of a tidal wave. "Tactical Field!" Chung said as he created a shield around us to keep us from being swallowed into the tidal wave of demons. A lot of us were doing our best to kill some demons that flew by the shield. By that, I mean going all out. By the time Chung's Tactical Field disappeared, the Demons stopped coming. We look around to check if there aren't any left. None. "Heh, wow. Who knew there were a bunch of demons piling against the door like that? Let's go on, shall we?" Xen says. We walk in to see what was behind the wave of demons.
2 figures standing in the middle of the room, guarding what's ahead.
"Woaah, what are these guys, and from which circus did they come from? They're totally bizarre!" Xen said. "I don't think we've met these two, right?"
"Only one of the two." I point at a Dark Elf standing there, with a small amount of armor on her, pink hair tied into a pony tail, holding a dagger, and covered in dark splotches, like darkness molded into paint, and thrown on random sides of her. "Chloe."
"Chloe? Oh yeah, didn't that crazy druggy back in Velder mention something about that chick? I did NOT expect to see..." He makes a straight-hand-swiveling-right-and-left-continuously motion, "...that! And, so if she's a Dark Elf, and Rena is a Regular Elf, then I guess those two don't mix well with each other?" I turned my head towards Rena, who nodded at Xen's comment about her and Chloe. Rena continues for me, "Yeah. We first confronted her back at Hope Bridge, a few days before we met you, Xen, when it wasn't burning by the Crazy Puppet. When we beat her, she lost her bow, and the second time was at South Gate, to summon the Dark Nephillim. But now, why's she back HERE? Of all places? I'm not sure. The other guy? We don't know him."
Xen's PoV
3 minutes after the encounter, we pretty much beat up 'Chloe' and that bizarre midget on a flying saucer, from dodging kick and stabs, to freaking giant Nasod Arms coming out of nowhere. "Jeez, that was so lame!" I say, while I'm kicking the deactivated flying saucer. "Xen, quit doing that! It might blow up in your face!" Elesis scolded me. I stop kicking the object and turn to the others. "Alright, so that was easy as hell. Let's continue on and do... whatever." I turn again towards the exit, and the rest follow. Suddenly, I feel wind blowing against me. A lot of it. I stop and ask the others, "Hey guys? You feel that?" They all nod. I try to struggle and move, but it feels like there's air pushing me into one spot, seems the same for the rest. Just then, a human-like demon approaches us through the door Chloe and the midget were guarding. They are heavily armored with clothes, and covered with so much armor and clothing, the only visible skin is his face and semi-long white hair. At his side, he holds a long crimson rapier. His skin is like the skin of demons, but only slightly lighter. "Aren!" Ara exclaims, few feet behind me. She struggles to walks towards him, but she couldn't. "'Aren'? I no longer use that name. It is now Ran."
"What kind of crazy wind power do have on you? I can't move a damn muscle!" I demand. Ran replies with, "Oh? That wind magic is not mine. It belongs to someone else. I'm sure you've known her since childhood, Xen."
"What? What are you talking about!?" He possibly can't know who she is, can he? I think in my head.
"I'm sure you know. I can show you who that girl with wind magic is." Ran claps his hands twice, and a swirl of red wind appears behind Ran. When the red wind dissipates, she stood there. As beautiful as the last time I saw her unharmed. Aera Strom. My jaw tightens at the sight of her. She looks different. Her hair has a streak of blood red on it, and her eyes aren't the same beautiful sky-blue eyes I saw back when she was alive in Firossel, when everyone was still alive, instead, it's now a blood-red color. She holds a golden sword, sheathed on her side, and it looks almost crystal. It looks like an El Officer's kind of Rapier. But this one, it gives off an odd aura.
"Hello, Xen... It's been a while, hasn't it?" She asks. Suddenly, the air restraining me disappears and I fall onto a knee. The others remain unreleased from their windy prisons.
"Aera, what the hell? What are you doing, with this... this bastard?!" I hear Ara cough somewhere behind me. "Sorry, Ara, couldn't find any other word for him that doesn't sound stupid and less hurtful." I apologize.
"He revived me from the dead, and I must repay him for doing so. By helping him." She says. I grip my hands into fists so hard, my knuckles turned white.
"You're going to help some demon who resurrected you take over a world you lived on?!"
"Yes. And, because I accepted, he gave me a 'certain' demon sword from someone to assure I live."
"Wait... you mean... Edan the Blood Colonel? That guy we read about in folktales back when we were children? He and his demon sword really exist?!"
"Surprisingly, yes." she says with a smile. I pound the ground hard enough to almost create a small shockwave.
"What kind of crap are you spouting on about?! The Aera I know wouldn't do something that evil just because I was just resurrected and given a demon sword!"
"Really? What reminder must I give to convince you, Xen?" She asks with an innocent smile. She walks towards me and kneels down to look at my face, while I'm still knelt down on the ground. "I didn't think you would think so stubbornly of me, ever since back at our town, Firossel, Xen..." I look up to look at her eyes. I feel the same cold wind rushing through me whenever I looked at her back then. For some reason, I would only feel it when I look at her, nobody else. I was never sure why. But this is her, alright. I felt every muscle in me tense up, and it feels like I might burst into Hellfire. Suddenly, it feels like the others aren't near me anymore.
"But, if you want... you can join me in the darkness, Xen."
"What?! Why the actual hell would I want to do that?!"
"To be with me. Besides, Hellfire users were meant to use Hellfire for darkness, however some others don't. They don't use it for evil purposes. The evil kinds are called, 'True Hellburners'. The good ones don't have names, since there are so little of them. Ran has tracked 1 and a half down; you, and someone else being that half. We don't know who the other one is, but we're focusing more on getting you to become corrupted. Come on, Xen. Join me and Ran, with the demons." I got angry at that. I notice a difference of background. I see that the wall behind her isn't a wall anymore. It's now a sky.
Suddenly, I realize why it feels like the others aren't nearby anymore. It was literal. Because they aren't there. I didn't even pay attention to what was happening around us. I stood up and looked around. We were standing far up in the air. Above Hamel. Almost near the atmosphere, at that. "What the hell? How did we get up here?!" I demand.
"Ran bought us up here with his power, because we thought you wouldn't come with us easily. So, I'll do it by force. And, even if you still won't..." She says as she unsheathes the rapier on her side. "...I'll eliminate you." She gave me a sly smile. Crap. She still remembers. My 2nd most worst, HATED, and damned weakness; My respect to not injure women. "Hey, wait a minute, I can't fight a chick!" I exclaim.
"You don't have to, if you just come with us. We need you, Xen."
I stand there staring. My hands grip, and I throw a fist at her sword, planning to destroy it and see if it's the source of whatever makes her evil, but wind blows against me, and I'm thrown on my back. I groan, and I feel the wind floor that keeps us up. I sit up and take a good look. She didn't move a muscle. I stand up and dust myself off.
"What kind of batshit crazy magic was that?!" I demand.
"It' called Bloodwind. It's one of the types of magic where you fuse 2 magic powers together to get one whole power. I obtained the bloodiness from the demon sword from Edan that Ran retrieved specifically for me." She explains. "It's much like with you. With you and your Hellfire/Lightning combination." I groan at her lecture.
"God, I didn't need the details... Whatever. If it's from your demon sword, I'll have to break it!" I run towards her. I feel a gust of wind coming up, and I side-step to my right to avoid it and I keep running. She sends another. I jump over the gust and her too, and I immediately jab at the sword. But once I do, I'm pushed back with great force, and I'm thrown backwards hard. I feel serious pain and bleeding from my punching hand, and I hold in a yell. I stand back up, and I throw a ball of Hellfire at her, but it's blown away. "Huh?"
"Bloodwind is able to effect other odd magic that like it's own element, but bland and normal. It can also treat thing like it's small, and the Bloodwind is big." She says. I grunt and I shoot an arc of lightning at her sword, but she swats it away like a fly. I look in disbelief. She smiles innocently, yet filled with killing intent.
"You have no chance against me, Xen. Even if you were the one who could take on Victor a second time by yourself, Avalanche without even doing more than one skill, and able to destroy the Nephillim with a weak skill, you can't hit me head on, and you know it. You won't be willing to join the darkness. So I'll have to extinguish the flame that keeps you going. In simpler words... your life." She points her sword at me, and I feel air pushing down at me. It's the same thing she did to restrain me an hour ago. But this time, it's stronger, making me bleed, and it feels like my bones are being force down by gravity; it's pain. More pain than I ever have faced. More pain than when the Magmanta nearly murdered my arm. I scream and I'm already down on my knees. The pain is too excruciating for me to handle, and I can't do anything about it. I stare into the sky, yelling in pain from the force of the wind. I feel like my body is tearing away, and the air I breathe starts to thin, like she's causing me to run out of breathe. I try to hold my throat but the air is restraining them too. Suddenly, I remember a joke Aera would play on me every once in a while we were kids.
It's like this. But it's not painful. It would be playful actually. She would keep me in place with her Air magic, and I would constantly struggle. I would always have to pretend like she's killed me from being imprisoned by the air, and she'd stop. Then when she walks over to me, and I'd grab her into a bear hug and roll around on the ground, laughing our asses off. If only... I could actually do this at this moment... My screaming falters.
"Aera... what happened to you...?" I manage to whisper out, and I see darkness. Then light. And then, nothing.
Elesis' POV
I watched as Xen and that girl disappear into thin air. More like blood-red thin air. The rest of us stare at Ran, the man behind most of the invasions of Hamel, Velder, and Feita. He smiled evilly, and he speaks. "My, my. I'm afraid that convincing him didn't work... Too bad Aera had to eliminate him now..."
"Wait... what?! Eliminate? Wha..." And my voice falters as I hear as an ear piercing scream flies through the air. I recognize that kind of scream. It's Xen's. He's always randomly yelling out of rage, but this one; it's of pain. And then; nothing. At that moment, Ran smiles.
"Good... she eliminated him... Just as we planned... Now, conquering Elrios will be much easier without that pyro." Ran laughs. Something, somewhere inside me, snapped. Tears started streaming out of my eyes. "H-He... You're saying... he's... dead..?" I stutter out. Ran nods. I clench my fist. I look behind me to see the others having a similar reaction. Ara looked disappointed at the fact that Ran made Xen's past love kill him. I look back at him. I. Am. ANGRY. I run up to Ran and give him a good slug to his face, my fist burning with fire.
"I WILL DESTROY YOU!" I yell.
Me: Damn, Elesis is piiissed. XD
Xen: WHY DO I DIE?!
Me: Hush, it's part of the plot for the story. Besides, you'll still come back. ouo
Xen: *Flip off*
Next Time! A Side Chapter!: Commited!
Xen: I just HAAAD to be killed, didn't I?!
Me: *Shrug* owo
Like what you saw? Drop a favorite or follow for me and/or the story! 2 Moar OC's, guys! Chapter count left: 2 or 3. (or 4 if you count the Side Chapter. owo)