Xen: SHARK.
Me: ?
Xen: TELL ME.
Me: Tell you what?
Xen: WHO'S DYING?
Me: I said you'll see, so you'll see.
Xen: Don't make a habit out of saying that every time you have someone in suspense, please. :L
Me: No promises. :P Oh, and guys, by the time the next story is here, I will be sure to give ALL of the characters (Yes, even the other authors' OC's, I certainly haven't forgotten you guys. ouo) SPOTLIGHT! A good amount of it, while I'm at it. Why am I putting this up here? I read back on the story, and noticed it was literally mostly about Xen or Elesis, so I want to give the others some of the thunder, too. Starting this chapter! :D Oh, and since I'm adding Aera to the story, here's her class. owo
Aera Strom, Air Spinner, 22
Me: And I apologize for the overly MASSIVE gap between this chapter and Chapter- which one was it again?
Xen: Part 1 of Chapter 11?
Me: Yes! Chapter 11, Part 1, as of recently I have been procrastinating. Hardcore. Hardcoresico. (lol its an inside joke between me and my guild. im sorry if you don't understand. im not rly that sorry tho. lol.) and Mondai Songeki got the reference in the previous chapter (Short updates don't count.), he found the FNAF reference! Although I didn't intend to do that Pokemon reference... but still. *Hands Songeki a whip and a few cookies*. Now, whip that Elbaka to death! :3
Elsword: O.O!
Me: You are now demoted to Songeki's tool... For AMUUUUUSEMEEEEENNNTT! :3 He's all yours... friend. ouo
And, before you, the reader, goes on with this chapter, the following El Gang ships are officialized for the story, starting from this chapter: ElswordAisha, RavenRena, ChungEve, AddAra, and Elesis is all alone. :3 The ships are like permanently tattoo'd on to the story...
Oh, one last thing, I promise, for those of you who's wondering about what I'm gonna do with Lu/Ciel, I will put them in. Just haven't decided on their classes yet... it's just like ingame; can't choose between Noblesse/Royal Guard, or Chilliarch/Dread Lord...
3rd Person POV
"...Come back to life and help Xen, I said... It'll be easy, I said..." Aera muttered to herself while carrying Xen on her back. Well, at least I get to be with him, and he's made new friends. Surprisingly. He has an annoying personality from time to time when he's joking, but other times, he's just a... "SOCIOPAAAATTTHHH!" ...yeah, he's like a sociopath. Waitwhat.
Aera noticed the Hellfire-summoning clown starting to come to his senses on her back. "Sociopath... of... Sushi..." Suddenly, Xen woke up and threw himself off Aera's back, resulting him to hit his head on the ground. "What the- where am I?!" He cried while he looked around to identify the surroundings, then he saw Aera. And he instantly remembered what he did before he got conked out.
"Bah crap, we're still going through these halls of hell!"
"Xen?"
"Yeah, Aera?"
"Why were you dreaming about being a sociopath towards sushi?"
"Uh... Japan, knives, grenades, seafood, vegetables, you know. Sushi stuff..."
"Err... I see..."
Xen got up and brushed himself off, stretching before speaking, "Ahh! So far, we pretty much killed Victor in the last hour?" Aera reluctantly responds with, "...Yyyyyes... And, uh, speaking of killing, and since I almost considered you as a sociopath, I need to ask; Do you ever feel something deep down inside of you every time you just... kill someone..?"
"...Something deep down? What do you mean, like, be more specific, please?"
"Y'know... feelings? I mean you did just end a life recently... And you've probably killed a lot of other things before this..."
"I... don't follow."
"Wouldn't you feel guilt, regret, anything?"
"Ohhhh! Yeah! You mean the pleasure of ending a life with my own hands, right? Yeah, I feel that, Aera." Xen said, completely ignoring the feelings Aera just suggested.
"...Sometimes I wonder if you really are a Sociopath..."
"Ahahahahahahaha! A what?"
"Oh, uh... Nothing."
Silence takes on the entire tunnel before they begin to walk, footsteps being the only thing that can be heard, asides from their voices.
"Hey, I uh... think I see some light up ahead..." Aera says after about half an hour.
"Ugh, God, please don't let it be some other damned Demon... Which, you can consider is actually a thing in a literal sense." (He says 'a literal sense', because demons are literally damned. Some kinda anti-religious joke, I guess.)
"I hope the others are having more fun. I pretty much almost died..." Xen complained before making a loud-ass groan as soon as the couple reached the end of the tunnel.
Raven and Rena didn't seem to be having any fun, having to dealing with darker versions of each member of the team. Including both of their selves. You'd expect them to know how to deal with their own selves, right? Well, things are more difficult than they seem. Compared to Raven n' Rena, with their Dark Versions, they had completely different combat styles. Raven's Dark Version (Veteran Commander) used flames and put long-lasting injuries on the two, while Rena's Dark Version (Night Watcher) sets up several, deadly traps, but their teammates were just as bad to deal with.
It took them about an hour to destroy the teammate doppelganger who made the two dodge crap load of swords, demon bats, lasers, bullets made of mana, (literally) hellish energy balls, cracks of space-time, tons of blood, sometimes accompanied by occasional deadly wind, and for god-knows-why, transparent balls that made Raven and Rena feel like their souls were getting sucked up. They assumed the soul-sucking-balls were from Xen's counterpart. Why? Because Xen was the only one who made sense to have some balls that sucks your soul dry just by looking at 'em. (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!). Raven could've sworn that Xen doppelganger summon a freaking shark made from souls that was coming after him. Rena even saw a bunch of bats made from souls attack her. These doppelgangers were all just absolutely bizarre. Raven kept throwing as many punches as he could at his doppelganger, which returns the attacks with fire. One screaming from the rage and pain being inflicted on himself, and the other just some shadow mimic screaming from the pain and his burning arm. To simplify what's happening, they're just trading blows, which would look very stupid if you put in the right music. Rena, who stands by watching the battle between Raven and his DG, (DG for Doppelganger, I'm not using the same word over and over again. ewe) But as for Rena's own DG, they are nowhere to be seen. The actual Rena sighs to herself, thinking Good God, they're screaming their heads off while punching or burning each other... This can't get any stupider.
"Hmm." Xen hummed. "This place is strange."
"I'll say." Aera agreed. "Where do you think we are?"
"Dunno, but I bet this giant gap under this bridge-kinda-thing has some sorta use... Hey, wait!" Some detail suddenly hit Xen, something that made him point in the direction of a large ball of water with something floating inside of it.
"Huh?" Aera looked where Xen was pointing. "What's that?" Xen asked.
"I... don't know."
"Can't you, uh... y'know, look through your head for some kinda memory with this... whatever it is?"
"Dunno, how about you look closer?"
"Oh." Xen did so and what he saw somewhat surprised him.
It was a girl. More specifically, the Water Priestess. Xen didn't know how, but he just knew it. Call it confusing bullshit, but he just knows.
"W...r P...s." Xen mumbled something under his breath, which Aera turns to Xen asks him to repeat it louder as a response, as she doesn't hear it the first time.
"Water P...s." He repeated.
"Water What?"
"Priestess."
"Water Priestess?"
"Yeah, I read about this in a library while you've been, uh, dead, but there is a priestess to represent each elemental variation of El Shards Fire, Nature, Light, Darkness, Water, Air, you get it?"
Aera nodded and turned back to the priestess, ignoring the fact that Xen, of all people, reads, and left that as a question to interrogate Xen about. "And that's the Water Priestess?"
"Yep. I have no idea what kinda junk Ran wants with or in the Water Priestess, but looking at that horny bastard and his personality? I say it's bad. Like, really bad."
"By your guess, how bad?"
"Dunno, kill us all, probably."
"That's bad."
"Very."
"So what do we do?"
"Hmm... I'm not sure... Let's free her!"
"Yeah!"
"And when I say 'Let's' free her, I mean 'you' free her!"
"Wait what?"
"Yo, you can fly, I can't. Pretty much comes down to you."
"Fly is a strong word. More like hop on air."
"Oh, like Rena and Ara?"
"Re-who and wha-ra?"
"Teammates, Elf lady, green hair, and chick with black hair and a spear. Point is, you get the Water Priestess."
"Fine. But wait, couldn't you just throw your self across with a blast of your Hellfire?"
"My Hellfire doesn't work that way..."
"Alright..." Aera said as she started to get a running start.
"...Atleast, I don't think it works that way." Xen muttered, watching Aera hop over the large gap between his platform and the Water Priestess' platform.
Meanwhile, with Rena and Raven, the latter is pushing against his DG with their hands interlocked, trying to stand their ground, pushing with all their might, screaming unnecessarily. It may seem badass and intense through either's perspective, which both may or may not be inserting awesome rock music in their heads while doing so, but for the third person, it looks rather ridiculous and retarded. Yes, it's one of those scenes.
I was wrong. This got even more stupid. Rena thought. Screw this, I'm ending it. Rena stood to her feet with her bow in hand. Unexpectedly shooting an arrow at her DG, who just so happened to attempt a sneak attack out of nowhere, for them to disappear into black smoke, signaling the defeat of a DG. She then fired and arrow at Raven's DG, for it to disappear into black smoke as well, which the actual Raven fell to the ground face first. (Hah, Rena's actin' just a bit out of character in this, isn't she?) The Elf walked over to the Human-Nasod Hybrid and looked down at him. She sighed and flipped Raven over onto his back, using her right foot to do so. "It was so easy, Raven~."
The mercenary sighed with a hint of a groan in response.
With Ara and Add, one of them is singing while killing, the other one is letting the other do the work, and you'd be surprises at who's doing what.
"I've got a ton of demons wanting to die, doo-doo-dodododoo, all waiting for me just to make 'em die, do-do-doo, one corpse, two corpse, all as dead as the dirt! Give 'em a stomp, blast 'em to dust, and that's how demons lose, Kahahaha!" The Lunatic Psyker sang to himself as he slaughtered tons of demons in the hallway he went through, giving his 'hall-mate', and as he put it, Ara the Fox Spirit Woman with a Spear (Or in other words, the Fox Spear-it.) no chance at killing a single demon.
With Add here, it's extremely easy to go through this hall without trouble...
With Chung and Eve, both of them are climbing up tons of flights of stairs and down, destroying the occasional demon. To the pair, it's rather excruciating. Actually, it's hurting Chung's feet, and him only. Eve, meanwhile, is being carried by her two Drones, Moby and Remy, and trying to block out Chung's groans of pain, speaking of which, whenever the Tactical Trooper asks the Code: Nemesis if he could sit on of her drones too, the latter insists that it is, 'Excellent exercise while carrying the Destroyer at the same time.' and that it 'Helps build muscles', but Chung knows she just says that because she's teasing the boy. They both find walking unsurprisingly absolutely boring.
Elesis, Elsword, and Aisha have the worst route; or more for just Elesis; An empty route with wide enough walls to echo for a long time. Aisha and Elsword tend to argue, which includes loud shouts and a red head getting whacked with a staff, but mostly a red head getting whacked with a staff; and I'll tell you which red head isn't being whacked with a staff; Elesis. And yet, she's the one out of the three that's having the worst time. The echoing walls make the two young adults seem like they're screaming much, MUCH LOUDER. For the love of the El Priestess, you two, keep it down!
"Sorry!" They both said.
(Hah! Unexpected 4th wall breaking is unexpected. Good job, 3rd Person POV Narrator!)
Thank you, author man.
After Aera flew/walked-on-air over to the Water Priestess and back carrying said priestess, Xen exclaims, "A'ight! We got a Water Priestess!"
"Ah-ah; the Water Priestess. There's only one priestess for each El Shard, Xen." Aera corrected.
"Right, right, unnecessary Fun Facts that aren't fun..."
"C'mon, let's just go." Aera said, which Xen responded to with a nod and the couple walk out the room. However, once they entered another room, something bad happens to them...
Meanwhile, in a large empty room, the only thing there being 5 large openings to halls, several footsteps are heard from the respective openings. 9 people, the El Search Party, emerged, 2 people from three of the openings, and 3 people from one of the openings. The fifth one, the path without someone coming through it, has a large golden door with complicated, yet fancy design on it, shining like it's been there for an extremely short amount of time, unlike the other opening, which have no door at all. Speaking of which, one of the members spoke up.
"Huh? Where are we?" Chung asked upon entering the room, along side Eve.
"Chung? Eve? What are you two doing here?" Elsword questioned.
"Anyone could ask the same questions, you two." Raven said. After El Search Party sorted everything out to make sense, Elesis pointed something out to everyone else after everyone gathered into the middle of the room.
"Hmm... wait, only nine of us are here, but we were a group of eleven by the time we split up through the tunnels. Elsword, Aisha, Rena, Raven, Eve, Chung, Ara, Add and I are here, which means Xen and his girlfriend aren't here."
"And there are only 5 pathways, but the fifth is different from the others. Nobody came out of it, unlike the other four..." Raven continued.
"So? What do you guys think happened?" Elsword asked, only for Aisha to knock him on his head.
"Take a hint, moron. The fork in the road led 4 paths in the same direction, and there was only one path that went a different way. Xen and his girlfriend took that way."
"Quit calling me a moron every time I make a mistake!"
"Quiet you two, this is serious. Who knows where that path led those two." Raven silenced them. "Aside from the other paths we came through, there's the giant golden door that could lead us to where those two went."
"And what if it doesn't lead us to them?" Elsword asked.
"Worst case scenario, it's a trap. Let's just hope that isn't the case."
The entite group opened the golden door and went through into the hallways behind the door. However, they hear a large explosion, with tiny pieces rubble falling from the ceiling...
Xen's POV
What... what happened..? Wait... It's all starting to come back to me here...
Flashback
As soon as Xen and Aera walked into a large room, the door behind them had closed shut almost immediately.
"Hmm... I'd like to say, what a surprise, you're both here."
They were surprised at the door shutting, but their attention was directed to the voice.
"Tell me; have you heard this joke?"
The voice belonged to the Dark Earl, Ran.
"A Pyro and an Air-Magic User walk into the bar. Suddenly, a demon commander shows up..."
Instantly, Ran had appeared behind Xen and Aera. "to knock out the Pyro..." He had knocked the butt of the hilt of his sword hard on Xen's head. Ran then turned to Aera, who accidentally dropped the Water Priestess from shock, "And kill the Air-Magic User!" In almost a flash, Ran had slashed Aera across the body and attacked her with a powerful blast of darkness, and sent her crashing out the wall. Ran turned to Xen. "Demons! Restrain him to a wall. I'd like to torture him until he begs for mercy."
As I lay on the ground, demons grab chains and tie them around my ankles and wrists and hoist me on the wall and connect the other ends of the chains to the ceiling and other walls. Ran, the Corrupted Haan, which I call him, approaches me with his Hendel Bites. "Sad I couldn't get the 9 other members of the El Search Party. I guess just 1 will have to do. I'll just have to kill you, and when I get my hands on the others, I'll kill them too. Even my sister, Ara, just like how I killed Aera. On the topic of her, it's a real shame, y'know. She was a good servant, but you turned her against me. But, I guess I'll just have to do anything to take over Elrios, even if it means that I'll have to kill anyone in my way..Gahahahahah!" He laughed like an asshole.
"You..! Aera, who worked with you against her will... You killed her... and now... you're going to kill your sister...? You bastard!" I manage to cough out, due to being hit various times by Demons.
"Oh, why thank you. I've heard those last two words right next to each other so much, it's almost a compliment at this point."
I need to get out of here...'I think, while I look around for an exit, which would be hard for YOU to do when demons are assaulting you while being laughed at by a Demon General, all while they scream for bloody murder.
"Alright, that's enough demons. I'll take it from here now!" He laughs, as he puts up Hendel Bites and aims it at my chest, precisely in the middle of my heart, for guarunteed death. "When you see your girlfriend Aera in where-ever it is you go to when you die, tell her that I, Ran, had said: 'Pick up your last check in Hell.'. Now, Die!" Ran thrusts Hendel Bites, but right as soon as the tip was only half an inch away from my chest, everything seems to stop. The water stops, Ran's blade stopped, the Demons stop, and even the chains im tied too stop, like they're all frozen.
And then suddenly; I'm no longer inside of the Water Temple and I am now in the middle of my old village. Burning. The surroundings were wavy, like a dream, and what I saw was me when I was younger, on his knees, letting his arms hang and touch the ground, in the middle of the burning village. There was something else there that seemed to catch my attention. Dead corpses. 2 of them, to be exact. A very short memory flashes. Younger-Aera dying in Younger-Xen arms, then back to the other backflash.
"Aera... Warren... Felix... They... They died... by my hands..? I... I killed them... It was my fault that they die...? Warren, Felix... you guys were my best friends... but you, Aera, I loved you, and Warren, Felix, you guys were my friends... but... You three died... I killed them...! Why..?! Why did I have to have powers that can end more lives than in tens of thousands of disasters?! And why ME?! Why not someone else, huh?! Why?!" He/I yelled in anger. I knew what happened, but I didn't realize until seconds after Young Me spoke up that this was apart of my memory from my past, but I had forgotten about it... Then I found myself in another place.
It was young me, kneeling on the ground in-front of a gravestone, which I knew was my Family's gravestone in one, while Red Cross Guard Penensio and Vanessa, whom is known as today, the 'Chief' of Velder during it's invasion, or something, stood behind Young Me waiting for me to finish my/his mourning. "C'mon, kiddo, we gotta get you to Velder." Penensio said in a low volume. Young Me nodded, stood up and followed Penensio and Vanessa back to Velder.
The Scene changed again, and I was standing in the middle of Velder with Grail, while the confused One-year-younger me was asking Grail several questions, like, "Why are you a dog and not a human for a professor?", " Why do you still have to wear the coat?", and "Why do you have to be the most fluffiest and adorable proffessor I had ever met?". I didn't realize it then, but this must have been a moment before Aera thought I was cheating on her. Grail sighed and asked me/him if I/he had a reagent for changing him back. He tried using it and no effect appeared, except for a really funky gas surrounding us that smelled like Demon's Fart. At that time, past-Elesis walked in confused and waving the smell away from her nose. "*Cough*, who let a demon fart in our camp?" She asked. Even though she was still a Pyro Knight back then, and she was still a bit naive, yet she would still be protective as ever. Or well, as protective as she's going to be. "Oh, uh, sorry about that, lady... Who are you, exactly..?" Past-Me said.
"Elesis Sieghart." She extends her hand for me.
"Really? Elesis Sieghart? The red haired knight? Anyways, I'm Xen." Past me shakes her hand.
"That's it? What, you don't remember your last name, Xen?"
"Oh. Uh, I think it's Adreal."
"Xen Adreal, huh? That's neat, but it's kind of a strange name..." Not exactly for me. A lot more things sillier than that have happened, like back in Firossel, where I tripped on a pig and falling into a puddle face-first, and getting thrown off a horse and into Aera (some years ago) and accidentally groped her, which gave me a slap across the face. "So, I never have seen you in Velder before, Xen. Are you new here?" Past-Elesis asked. "Oh, yeah, I am." I answer, afraid of what she might ask next but I hide it. "Oh, I heard your town you lived in before got burnt down and Penensio and Vanessa found you? Do you remember what caused it? Ah- I'm also really sorry for your losses, and all..."
"Yea... And I know what caused it, but it's kinda too hard to explain, really. And thanks for your concern." For some reason, to me, when people say 'sorry for your loss(es)', it feels weird, like it doesn't exactly sound sincere. It doesn't feel right. It feels hollow. It wouldn't feel right unless the person who says they are sorry are truly sorry, and knew the one they are sorry for.
The scene changes again. It's now the me that I look like now and he's about to face Joaquin the Crazed Druggy, back in Chapter 1. Me/Him charged at Joaquin as I/he was energized. All of the same things happened, but now I see what happened after I fainted. "Xen!" Elesis has asked me as soon as I passed out while at the same time the other defeated Joaquin. "Ugh, it's like he WANTS to die..." Elesis had groaned. Elsword had asked, "You know the guy, Elesis?"
"Yeah. It's a thing that happened while I had been gone."
"Hmm... Hey, sis, curious question, but uh... You liiiike him, Don't ya, sis~?" That had made Elesis immediatly blush and hit him with the butt of her claymore. "S-s... Shut up... Let's just take him back to the Villa... I care about him... Not in a like-like way... Whatever, let's just go!" She had grabbed the back of my/his shirt and dragged me/him across the ground to wherever, like a rag doll, and the rest followed. And the flashback ended.
I still feel the wind of Ran's Hendel Bites' blade rushing towards my heart. Then, I remember hearing Aera tell me before she died. The same memory of the same voice, of the same words, repeating over and over again in my mind every time I'm almost killed.
Then I remember a promise I made Aera right before she died in my arms. What the full version of the memory flash was during the first flashback.
"Xen... Promise me not to let yourself get killed if there was a way to avoid it..." She had told me. "Don't worry. Warren, Felix, your family, and I will wait for you... in the afterlife... you can take your time. Please... promise me?" She had said before giving me a sweet smile. "Y-yeah... Yeah I p-promise... Aera..." I had said halfheartedly. And then Aera's breathing had become very shallow. Then, it stopped. I had closed Aera's eyes and placed my hands on my face, screaming to myself.
...
"Y-yeah... Yeah I p-promise... Aera..."
...
The scene changes back to current time. "Now, die!" Ran says. The blade of Hendel Bites hit my chest. I whisper, "Not today, bucko.", then, I let out tons of Hellfire and Lightning, releasing a large aura of heat and electricity, and upon impact, the tip of Hendel Bites broke and millions of electricity and heat course through Ran's body, burning and electrifying him. He yells out of pain and drops to one knee, smoke curling off from his body. The chains restraining me start to melt around my wrists and ankles and I drop to the ground, whispering to myself. "I promised... And..." I shoots millions of arcs of lightning through the demons, each demon dropping dead, one by one, leaving Ran the only survivor. He stands to his feet, staring at me with confusion and anger. "...It's a promise I plan on keeping!"
Elsword's POV
All 9 of s run through the halls, checking every corner for wherever Xen and his girlfriend are. "Jeez, he has one hell of a death wish if he wants to deal with Ran with just two people!" I growl while we continuously run, unknown to each other when the halls end at. Aisha replies, "We already talked about this, moron...". I replies with a grunt of irritation. God, so annoying...
"I feel it... The two... they're near... I need to stop Xen from killing Aren!" Ara says as she runs ahead. We run around the halls, losing track of the Asura, for hours.
After several hours, dead-ends, needing to stop whenever run into a demon, which would only to be burnt to a crisp by sis, we then start to approach a wall which has a door that had been shred to pieces. Means Ara came in here. We hear fire and crashing and several roaring that could only belong to one pyro, Xen, which is abruptly stopped with a clang, and indistinct voices from Xen and Ara. When we reach the door itself, there are two figures standing there; Xen, Hellfire in hand. And Ara, holding her Spear rady to attack.
Xen's POV
"It's useless!" Ran summons a dark claw to hit me with, but I immediately burn it. "You said you would kill your sister, Ara, if it meant having to kill her? Tch, that's sick, you corrupt jackass." I summon a ball of Hellfire in my hands with lightning surging through it. I ready my arm to punch and finish him off. "You don't deserve to be bought back to the justice if you threatened to kill your one and only younger sister, Ara! She went through all the trouble of trying to FIND you, formed a CONTRACT with a fox-spirit, destroying demons for MONTHS, and yet... you plan to kill her and the rest..!? Haven't you caused enough grief by killing people?!" I thrust my arm at Ran, only for it to be interrupted with a spear, and blocks me away from Ran with 3 Claw-Scratches. I step back to see who it was. "Ara!" I look at her in disbelief. How long has she been here? And had she been listening? "What are you doing?!"
"Listen, I know he threatens to kill the entire group, but I know we can purify him if we do it right, then he can be better..!" At that moment, Ran had decided to flee and I tried to run after him, but Ara gets in my way a second time. "Ara, he's gettin' away!"
"It's better than letting you kill him!" She won't let me pass! "Xen. If you wish to get revenge by killing my brother... I'll have to defend him!"
At that same moment, the rest of the Elgang run in. Elsword, Aisha, Raven, Eve, Chung, Elesis, Add, seeing us arguing.
"Dammit, Ara, let me have at him, or else he'll get away!"
"I would rather have him escape than be killed by you! Besides, I can tell you're the kind of person who wouldn't hurt a girl." She then raised her arms up in a line, same way Elesis had before I went on in to the Halls of Water. Damn... I can't do it, but I'm desperate... I need to get her out of my way. What is it with women getting in my way?
3rd Person's POV
Standing by with the rest of the El Search Party, Elesis was able to tell that Xen was having a hard time on deciding what to do, as she knew what the situation was. From the way Xen glared at Ara, she knew which decision Xen was leaning more over to.
"I hope you don't really intend on hurting her, Xen..." Elesis mumbled.
Clenching his fist, Xen starting to lose his patience with Ara, his voice starts to get raised, "Ara. Move. Aside. Now."
"Or what, you'll hurt me?"
Geez, Ara, where did all this stubbornness come from? Each member of the El Search Party thought this, as it was a sudden change in the girl's personality. Xen knows her couldn't easily get by her. He can guess on about how well she can use her spear.
"Ara, if you don't get out of my way, I will have to hurt you." At this point, you could hear the venom in his voice.
"I'd like to see you try, Xen."
"...Okay. But..." Once she says this, Xen slowly raises up his open hand, and points his palm towards his spear-wielding teammate. His glare intensifies, "I won't try. I will."
All of the El Search Party gets more and more worried, especially Ara.
"Y-you wouldn't..!"
A sphere of Hellfire and Electricity appears in the palm that threatens to fire at Ara.
"You wanna bet? 'Cause just WATCH me." At this point, Xen was close to shouting. For a second, Xen's image changed. His casual clothes changed to a long black coat with complicated red designs and rims, as well as a single sleeve, dark gray baggy pants with dark red fire designs on the side, with black shoes mirroring the same designs. His hair was wild and unkempt. His eyes showed anger and resent. He had wild red glowing tattoo's on his left arm and face. But then his image changed back to being the casual clothes. However, his eyes still showed the irritation of the other image. The light from the sphere shining on his face defined the irritated look on his face further.
"Xen, don't do it!" Elesis screamed, while the rest were panicking.
In one flash, Xen then suddenly appeared behind Ara, in the same pose he was in before appearing behind the Martial Artist. He removed the Hellfire from the sphere, slide the Electric energy to his entire fore-arm, and struck Ara in the back with his elbow. Ara fell to her knees from the blow, being temporarily paralyzed and knocked out. It was too fast for anyone to see.
Xen said nothing while Ara fall to the ground, and went through to the hall where Ran escaped through. The other members of the El Search Party ran to Ara's aid, besides Elesis, who was talking to herself. "What... What was that? Xen, he... For a moment... he changed. Not just his personality... During that moment... a different image of him flashed for a second. He looked...
Evil."
Elesis: Damn, Xen! That was terrifying!
Me: Oh well, damage has been done, now Xen is gonna fight Ran. :P
Ara: D-Don't kill my brother! ;w;
Xen: I KILL WHAT I WANT TO KILL. AND I WILL KILL RAN.
Ara: Shark, you won't have him kill Aren, will you?!
Me: Huehuehue... we'll see in due time...
Next Chapter!: Evil or Good?
Xen: Hey, I need to avenge Aera!
Ara: And I wanted Aren to not be killed by you, but you just HAD to just knock me out right after scarring me for life!
Xen: If I didn't, it would be us fighting, not me and Ran! I'm a guy who needs to avenge his girlfriend!
Ara: And I'm someone who needs to protect her older brother!
Aera: Hey, I was blasted through a wall, what about me?
Me: Eh... Let's just say, you won't be moving for a while.
Aera: ;w;
Me: And geez, it took a lot of chapter editing, writing, reading-over, getting ideas, and procrastinating, but hey, it was all worth it. It ended up being 5,950 Words.
(Fun Fact!: Xen's full name (Xen Adreal) is an anagram for Alexander.)
(Fun Fact!: The different-side of Xen flashed was one of his other classes, Blazing Soul)
(Fun Fact!: The second half of the chapter, which started at Xen's POV, was actually pre-written.)
(Fun Fact!: Sharkist had originally intended to have Xen and Ara fight, but ultimately scrapped the idea.)