Me: Hmmm... is that dress White and Gold..? Or Black and Blue..?

Xen: Seriously? You saw the Dress, too?

Me: Yeah. Oh, and btw, i'm keeping my word this chapter, as I will type it the longest I can. I'll go for... 5,000 Words or above! :D But I'm gonna split it into 2 parts.

Xen: Yeah. Incoming finger cramps. The whole part 1 of the chapter is going to be in 3rd Person POV, so yeah. Don't ask why. Before we start, review responses! Take it away, Shark.

To Aero-chan3, Chapter 13, 14, 15: Ahahahah, Ara's sitting in the corner sulking now, so i'm sure she wasn't listening. ^^l| Xen: And hands off o' my beer!

To: Yukitsune12, Chapter 15: Oh, no, I understood what you meant, I was just warning you, and yes, Mary Sue's suck. That's why I'm 'nerfing' Xen. By hurting him. A lot. Unlike some people (no offense to those some people!) I realize i'm making Xen rather OP, so i'm nerfing him. With pain. Besides, if I WERE making Xen a Mary Sue, I would have him destroy everything in one hit, but that's not the case, is it? Nah. XD And 'Hendel Bites' is the name of Ran's sword that he carries, as named in the game as a boss drop from Ran. So beat Ran up, you get his sword as an accessory. :3

Me: Btw, guys, there's gonna be a brief reference in here that I will NOT note with a *. If any of you get it, you get to... whip Elsword's ass to death. :P

Elsword: WHAT?

Me: Yeah. And you also get 10 cookies every time you whip him. :3

Aisha: I WANNA WHIP HIM! ME! I WANT TO WHIP THE ELBAKA! AND I WANT COOKIES! QWQ

Me: You might.

Aisha: :D

Me: IF you figure out the reference.

Aisha: D:

Xen: What's with you and references?

Me: Dunno. Impulse or something.

"It's hella dark in this hallway! I can't even make a damn spark or even a small ember of Hellfire. It's like this hall is magic proof or somethin'!" Xen complains as he wanders around the mysterious hallway, along with Aera Strom. "Ah, I'm not sure, Xen. Perhaps it's so we can't destroy it..?" Aera replies. "Sure, that answers it, but I'm pretty sure the darkness is unnecessary. Could help if there were some torches on the walls, I guess." Xen says. "...Hey, you worked with Ran for a while, right? You know the way through here?"

Aera shakes her head, saying, "Unfortunately not. I think I forgot things I've seen while I was controlled. Sorry." She shrugs, and the couple continue wandering through darkness.

"..."

"..."

"...hey, I think I see some light at the end of this hallway!" Xen says after minutes of silence, besides the echoing of the two's footsteps. Xen starts sprinting towards the light, with Aera close behind him. The closer they get to the end, the louder they can hear the roars of demons. Almost like cheers. "Huh? What's that?" Aera questions. "Dunno, we'll just have to see." Xen replies. Once they get to the end of the dark hallway, they are met with a blinding spotlight, aimed directly at the two. Xen shaded his eyes, and Aera stood behind Xen, using him to keep the spotlight from blinding her.

Then an ear piercing voice boomed through the room, saying, "Looky here, the pyro is here!". Xen was familiar with this voice, and he was clearly annoyed to constantly hear it. "Dammit, Victor! Quit buggin' me, would ya? This is the third time we met! And the second time I'm kickin' your ass fast, like round 2, too!" Xen shouts, who still has his eyes covered. When he thinks it's safe to see, he uncovers his eyes, which then widen from the sight. Xen and Aera were standing in a large coliseum, Demons shouting and cheering from the seats around the arena. "The hell? What's this place for?" Xen wondered aloud. Then, Victor jumped from the sky and into the middle of the coliseum.

"You'll be fighting me, this time in my element!" Victor says. Xen steps up. "Pfft, I'll beat you the same way I did last time, you whale!" Xen remarks as he attempts to summon Hellfire at his will, but to no avail. "Yeah, y'see, bug, this arena was made specifically to keep your Hellfire from being able to be summoned!" Victor gives a toothy grin. "Shut up, I'll destroy you as many times as you want me to!" Xen shouts as he dashes towards the wrestler demon, giving him a slug to Victor's face. Unfortunately for Xen, Victor seemed unaffected, as the poor Hellfire-user was thrown aside by Victor, causing Xen to crash into one of the walls of the stadium, making a crater. Aera stood by, shocked as this is the first time Xen hadn't done any damage to anyone using a punch.

Victor approached Xen, who had gotten up and recovered from the crash. "W... what the hell was that?!" Xen demanded. Victor gave a grin. "My muscles are now made from a nearly indestructible iron. You must not've notice it." Victor flexed, and his muscle's skin was like shining iron inside a snake. "Tch, so you went through all this trouble just to specifically kill me?" Xen questioned. "That's stupid, even for a sumo-psycho with a tiny rock for a brain." As Xen says this, he started realizing that Victor wasn't aware of Aera's presence. "So what if it's stupid. I have this chance to destroy you, now!" Victor gave a hearty laugh, and threw down a fist towards Xen, who rolled out of the way.

Victor slides his arm towards Xen's stomach, pushing out the breath in his lungs, and coughing up some blood. Xen places his hands on Victor's arm, and tried to summon lightning, surprisingly sending millions of volts of Lightning into Victor, who had been pretty much been made of metal, making him a Lightning Rod. Victor roared in pain, and threw another punch at Xen that was surprisingly fast, giving Xen no time to get out of the way, and ending up making a hole in the wall. Demons from the bleachers roared in excitement. Xen recovered, and he dashed towards Victor, slugging him in the face with a Thunder-charged arm, only making a small dent in Victor's jaw. Victor grabbed Xen's arm, and threw the Hellfire-user into the ground, making a dust cloud.

Xen back-rolled out of the dust cloud, using it as a Smokescreen, and fired a large stream of thunder towards Victor, pushing the demon into the wall. However, Victor quickly retaliates and throws himself into Xen, causing a heavy Body-slam, throwing him into another wall. Victor beats on his own chest like a gorilla, and roared, as well as the demons at the stands. Xen stands up and recovers a second time, only to see the Arena stage empty. He looks up to see the spotlights are all directed on one place, whereas every other part of the Arena is dark. Victor stands on a high pedestal, pounding chest like an ape, while the demons watching cheer and scream for death. Xen finds himself unable to move. "E-eh?! Hey! What the-?!" He looks at his feet and notice that chains have been tied around Xen's legs, restraining his movement. "It's Showtime!" Victor laughs from his pedestal, and he dives down at the Arena.

Suddenly, BOOM. Victor lands on the ground on his stomach, where Xen once was.

Then, Xen suddenly jumped on Victor's neck, stepped a few steps away from Victor. Xen survived it by stepping aside from Victor's landing spot, then it made it look like he got squashed. Half the entire stadium boo'ed that Xen didn't die, while the other half, who thought Xen was squashed, cheered, confusing the disappointed half of the stadium. Victor got up, trying to look for Xen, but he was too busy trying to get the Burning Thunder off his back while Xen pounded him with his fists in the back of the demon sumo's head. Victor stumbled around flailing his arms around at Xen until he finally whacked him in the chest, hard, throwing the boy off of him, Xen landing on his side. Xen groaned on the ground, holding his chest. "Ugghh..." He croaked while he rolled onto his back. Victor stomped over to him. "Heh, you snuck up on me while avoiding my Showtime was impressive, even for a bug, I'll give you that. But your life ends here!" Victor laughs. He raises a fist in the air, and throws it down at Xen, almost ending it with a punch to finish it off. Xen closed his eyes and waited for death to come. But the punch never came. When he realized it never came, he opened his eyes to see Victor's fist an inch from his face. Suddenly, the demon was thrown back onto his back, 5 meters from Xen with a loud 'BOOM!'.

Then, Xen sat up, and saw Aera standing there in the Air. "What the... Commander Aera! What are you doing, you damn bimbo?!" Victor demanded. Aera only gave a smirk as she says, "Sorry, Victor. I was on the wrong side. I should be helping DEFEATING the demon army, not help the demon army itself. Besides, Xen is my interest, so it would only make sense if I protected my lover, anyways..." Then, Xen understood what happened. Aera protected Xen with her Air magic. Then, Xen noticed something about Aera that made his face hotter than his own magic.

Aera had been wearing a skirt, and due to her being in the air, Xen could see everything underneath. Everything. One of Xen's nostrils had a drip of blood out of it, whilst his face turned a nice burning shade of red. Luckily, Aera floated down on to her feet in front of Xen, enough to keep her panties from view. Aera turned towards Xen, still on the ground, asking him, "You OK, Xen?" She asked. "Your face is red, and your nose is bleeding. Are you out of breath? Is your nose broken?" Aera had a slight tone of worry, but Xen just shook his head while stood up, wiping his nose. "N-no.. I'm fine." He says as he walks next to Aera's side, although he had a tint of pink on his cheeks. Then, Aera figured Xen was lying, and realized he looked at her panties. Her face went red too, from embarrassment and anger. "You looked under my skirt while I was floating, didn't you?!" Aera demanded to Xen. "W-what? N-no, I didn't!" Xen stammered.

"Don't lie to me, Xen! I know you saw my underwear!"

"I-I didn't! Where did you even get that idea, anyways?!"

"Your nose was bleeding and your face was completely red after I floated in the air!"

"D-doesn't mean my nose was bleeding and I was blushing! Maybe Victor broke my nose or something, and I was out of breath!"

"Stop lying, I know you looked at my panties!"

"I did not!"

"Yes you did!"

"Besides, why did you float in the first place? You knew you were wearing a skirt! Plus, it wasn't even necessary to float in the air, you could've just walked in!" Then Aera's reddened face start to show more embarrassment than anger. "I-I wanted to make a cool entrance like you would, Xen!"

"Why would you want to look cool while showing off your panties?!"

"I don't know, I wanted to! Besides, I didn't mean to show my underwear!"

Meanwhile, Victor was laying down on his side, with his head resting on his right hand, his left hand resting on his waist. He yawned, "Are you two done yet?" Victor got up, and continued angrily, "This is getting annoying!" Xen and Aera then turned their attention back to Victor. "Yeah, yeah, we know you want the spotlight, whale-guy." Xen remarked. "We'll get back to this panties situation, Aera." Aera blushed madly at this, but the blush faded almost instantly to show her seriousness. "Yeah," She agreed, "Let's throw out the garbage!" The two charged at Victor. Victor taunted them, "Bring it on, bugs! You have no chance!". Xen jumped and knee'd Victor in the jaw, while Aera shot a heavy blast of Air. At the impact of both attacks, Victor is launched backwards onto his rear end. Xen leaped above Victor, and flew down at him with a clenched fist powered with electricity. Victor rolled away from the attack, and drop kicked Xen with his enormous body, as well as dropping with a loud 'BOOM'. Xen gets thrown back from the hit, while Aera flies in and fires Wind-Shockwaves towards Victor, the shockwaves blowing up upon impact on Victor's body. Victor immediately recovers from the attack, and throws a punch at Aera, throwing her out of the sky. Xen sneaks up on Victor, and fires a large beam of electricity directly into Victor's neck, throwing the demon wrestler back down. Victor groans, turning over to face upwards while Xen goes back to Aera's side, helping her up from being thrown out of the air. The couple walks up to Victor, until they stop a few meters away from him. The sounds of their feet clapping against the ground echos in the large stadium, as the demons mysteriously went silent.

"This isn't over yet, you two bugs, I've still got one trick up my sleeve..!" Victor gets up, and pulls out a strange weapon. It's a dark steel sphere that even from afar emits a dark aura from it. "What's that supposed to do?" Xen questioned. Victor only grinned. "You'll see." Then, Victor chucked the sphere towards the two, and hit a spot right in front of the two. "Huh?" Aera wondered. Then, the sphere cracked. Xen and Aera's eyes widened, and before they could react, the sphere exploded into dark energy, blasting both Xen and Aera, while shaking the entire Arena, into a wall with a loud THUMP!, then they slide onto the ground. Victor walks over to them. He stops 10 feet away from the two. "Pathetic. That's all you have? C'mon, girly, you fought less than Xen, how are you already defeated? You bugs are weak!" Victor laughs. "Joke's over, and so is your lives. Nobody to protect you two from dying, now!". Aera was still conscious, while Xen is trying to stay in consciousness, but having a difficult time doing so. Xen has been fighting longer than I was against Victor, and now it's starting to take it's toll on him... Aera thinks. "This is the end of the traitor and the annoying bug!" Victor roars, as he pulls out another sphere.

Then, everything goes silent. Then there's a loud hum. Then the sounds of things cracking. Victor looked around to see chunks of the ceiling falling, and the ground cracking. The outraged demon turned to the two, "What did you do, here?!" he demanded. Then, Xen chuckled softly under his near-unconsciousness. "Heheh... Idiot... we didn't do anything... you did.". Victor turned directly at the weakened Hellfire user. "What? What are you talking about?!"

"Don't you understand? The constant body slams and dropping from you shook the arena like a miniature earthquake. It was all about to fall apart. Then, it was so weak, it only needed an explosion, then one more large vibration to the whole place. You blew up a bomb. We were sent back, and made a heavy impact against this wall..." Xen grinned. "You... you cheeky little liars! You meant to do this!"

"Right-o, Victor. I did mean for you to crash against the ground tons of times. I even meant to pretend I couldn't use my Hellfire.". Xen countered in a soft tone, as he is nearly unconscious. Victor questioned, "What? Pretended? You couldn't use it at all!". Xen shook his head, while he summoned a ball of Hellfire, much to Victor's dismay. "How?!" he roared loudly. Xen grinned again. "Demon magic shouldn't be able to block powerful magic from hell. Sorry to disappoint. I was only preserving my Hellfire to beat up Ran. Didn't think you'd put up a good fight, Victor, I'll give you that. Heh...". Victor shouted extremely angrily "Fine! I'll have to destroy you before I'm crushed!". Xen shook his head again at this. "Actually, I think I should be saying that..." Then, he stood up, using every last bit of his consciousness. He ran and drop kicked Victor, using the last few bits of strength, making the demon drop down hard on the ground, creating more and more miniature earthquakes. Then, Xen jumps high into the air, and coated himself in an electric aura shaped like a spear. "Aera, gimme some more power!" Xen commanded, and Aera obeyed to do so. As Xen turned upside down while covered in an electric aura, he flies down at Victor, with Aera pushing him down with wind magic to increase the strength. "Thunder Lance!" Xen yelled as he punctured through Victor's iron skin, and right into the demon's chest. Then, Victor just disappeared. Xen rose from where Victor used to be, covered in Victor's blood. Aera ran over to him, and helped Xen from collapsing, as he was now having a difficult time standing from the amount of energy he just used.

Aera wrapped Xen's arm around her neck, her doing likewise to Xen. Then, the two slowly hurried to the exit of the collapsing arena. When they reached the exit hall, the whole entire arena collapsed behind them. Then, the two was silent and standing still. "So... you think that's the last time we see the damn demon?" Xen asked Aera, who merely nodded. "Yeah. We killed him. He shouldn't be able to come back and bother us now.". Xen smiled at this answer. Inside of Aera, she was content with Xen's reaction. It's not so often that Xen smiles out of happiness, rather than just his stupid and joking grins. In fact, it was extremely rare to see Xen smile happily. Xen's smile is really peaceful... I wish he smiled more. Aera thought, as Xen passed out leaning on her shoulder. She got Xen onto her back piggyback while holding his legs, his arms hanging around her neck. Aera continued down the hall, not knowing where the tunnel leads to.

Raven and Rena walked through the hallway they chose. The whole hallway through, had mustard n' ketchup streak line designs on the walls disturbed the Elf and the Mercenary. Not only that, the walls were over-killed with tons of torches aligned the wall, making the walking difficult. Rena once nearly got her hair torched if not for Raven pulling her from the flame. "What exactly is at the end of this hall? A fire-themed hot-dog restaurant?" Raven questioned, "These damn design of the walls are giving my Nasod Arm fits." He gestured to his spike-covered Nasod Arm, randomly generating sparks from some small cracks on it. "It's even creepy, too." Rena added in. Then, as they progressed through the wall, carnival music could be heard. "Wha..? A carnival? Harmony Festival is only 2 or 3 weeks ahead, who could be celebrating so early?" Rena asked, Raven answering with a simple shrug.

Once the pair reached the end of the hall, it was outside, the glare of the night-sky moon shining. They looked around to see a festival! An amusement part, in fact. Except, empty. Deserted. "...what's this place supposed to be celebrating for?" Raven asked this time, and this time as well, Rena shrugs. Then, the two hear's a giggle coming from everywhere. Then a crazy laugh. Raven readied his Nasod Arm, Rena readying her bow. "Come, one or two, and find me in this deserted fun-place... Then defeat me... if you can... Ahahahah..."

Suddenly, Raven shuddered. "Ugh, god, it's like a video game all over again. I swear, if some robotic animal pops up and scares the shit out of me, I'm outta here.". Raven asked. "I'm sure there aren't any..." Rena responded. "No robotic animals here, no no no! Hahaheheh, b-haah-buut... haheh... You will be facing puppeetts... Kekekeke..." The same voice said. Suddenly, the hall they walked through was no longer there, much to their surprise. Suddenly, in random areas of the Amusement Park, burst out enormous pillars of fire. "Thooosse are where the puppets are... destroy them, then I will be revealed... if you can beat them..!" The voice giggled. Raven glanced at Rena. "I can tell this will take a long time..." He said. Then, geysers that were dark burst out in the distance away from Raven and Rena. 11 dark geysers in total. Then, the geysers took different colors. The first, dark red. Second, dark purple. Third, dark green. Fourth, black. Fifth, dark pink. Sixth, navy blue. Seventh, dark orange. Eighth, regular red. Ninth, white and magenta. Tenth, dark red, but mixed with black. Lastly, eleventh, light blue. Then, they disappeared into thin air. Then, 'BOOM!'. Where the pillars once were, explosions had occurred, each in their own perspective color. The explosions rattled the entire deserted amusement park, throwing Raven and Rena off their feet. "Whoa!" Raven exclaimed! "Eep!" Rena eep'd (Is that even a word?). "Two of your friends passed one of the 5 main Trials, but you won't pass mine... Hah... Kekek..." The same voice emitted from nowhere. "You two will face the dark sides of all of your friends...". Raven groaned. He definitely knew this was gonna take a long time...

Elsword, Elesis, and Aisha wandered down their perspective hall. Elesis found the silence the whole way rather disturbing. Neither Elsword or Aisha even spoke a word, much less speak a sentence. Couple of times, Elesis tried to break the ice, like asking "How's your guys' day?", or "So, how's this weather..?", or even, "Are you two gonna say something, or be mute like little shits?". Not even that worked. Both Elsword and Aisha would answer Elesis occasionally, though, but if Elsword said something, and then Aisha, Elsword would stop talking, even if it were a conversation. Likewise the other way around. It was a disturbing silence that couldn't be broken. Suddenly, 11 loud 'BOOM's could be heard even from where they were. It rattled the hall like a bell. The three never knew, but it was the sound of Raven and Rena about to take on a difficult challenge...

Me: AAAND FINISHED with part 1! Man, I haven't updated in a long time. I hope I didn't keep you guys waiting too much. XD Next part, it's gonna be 4,000 or higher AGAIN!

Xen: Man, you just LOVE to murder your fingers...

Me: Nah, I just care for the readers. :3

Next Time: The Horror of a Loss, 2/2, Lost Soul!

Xen: LOST Soul? THE HELL? WHAT DOES THAT IMPLY?!

Me: You'll see.

Xen: How many times are you going to say that?

Me: Dunno. Btw, Chapters with 2 parts count as just one chapter, not 2 different chapters, just in case you wanted to know. :3

Feel free to R&R!

~Sharkist