Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Talk:Dantega

2013-05-29T05:29:41Z

98.155.19.101:

Out of curiosity, where IS this project link located? Can't find it under Light Novels, Pending Projects, or Teaser Projects with the navigation bar. The only way I can locate this project currently is through the updates. Was this an oversight or am I just missing something and it isn't really called 'Dantega'? [[User:Unknownadd|Unknownadd]] ([[User talk:Unknownadd|talk]]) 16:44, 28 May 2013 (CDT)

:Says it's made by [[User:Deck of cards]] so it's user-created. It'll probably be linked under the Original Light Novels section...if someone puts it there. Not entirely sure if there's an approval process for that, not entirely sure if this was ''put'' under said approval process in the first place. -[[Special:Contributions/216.16.230.126|216.16.230.126]] 17:10, 28 May 2013 (CDT)

Yeah it's under hosted projects and original light novels. I don't think there is really much of an approval process, Dantega was approved by TLG and was allowed to be posted on the wiki. From what I understand, it isn't allowed otherwise.

Dantega:Volume 4 Chapter 6

2013-05-22T18:40:08Z

98.155.19.101:

(PART 3)

“Shit, we've been separated.” Cyrus quietly voices his displeasure whilst hiding in a bush in the middle of the jungle alongside Aria.

Due to their docked ship being attacked the seven of them were forced to run off in three different directions.

“What should we do?” asks Aria.

Cyrus ponders for a couple moments and answers, “We should look for them, we have no clue where we are going otherwise.”

“This is bad, we could get lost pretty easily in here because it's so dark.”

Cyrus knows that is the case but they really don't have a choice; he can hear the voices of the other pirates and their footsteps seem to get closer to their position. If they stay much longer there is a high chance of a confrontation, so in order to avoid that they begin to move in a random direction.

After walking for a bit Aria twitches her eyebrow as if something has come to her mind.

“Hey I got an idea!”

“What is it?”

Aria grabs a melon like fruit from a tree and holds it in her hand, she walks until she finds an opening in the tree line and tosses it up.

BAAAAANGGG!!

The fruit explodes in a bright red light and shines much like a flare would, but of course this was completely overdone.

“This should get their attention, they'll know it's us if they see it.”

Cyrus looks at her dejectedly and thinks that this is a terrible plan, there is a slim chance that Rage and the others were able to see it above the tree line. To make matters worse it would more than likely bring unwanted attention to them, in his heart he really wishes that the pirates aren't foolish enough to move towards an explosion.

And sure enough, they are.

A group of six people are seen running towards them through the jungle.

Hissing at his predicament, Cyrus pulls out his thin long-sword and awaits the attack.

Once the pirates get there, they don't even say a word before they start attacking.

Two men with sabers rush at him and he ducks under one attack and blocks the other with his sword.

“Aria! You need to do something about the others, I can't handle all of them!”

“Okay!”

She picks up a couple sticks off the ground and holds them out; the other four pirates stare at her quizzically and then burst into laughter. The reason for this is because they all have guns, late 18th century handguns to be exact, they point it at her and simultaneously pull the trigger.

The three iron balls zoom towards her face, she drops the stick and as it falls it blows up directly towards the four men and sends the bullets along with their bodies flying violently through the jungle.

“I knew it! I can control it now!!” Aria says excitedly.

She can now maneuver the size and angle of her explosions, with an ability like this she is virtually unstoppable.

The two men who are clashing with Cyrus stare at her in shock, and in that moment of distraction they are cut down by the sword of the Eiyalazonian guard.

“I think it's best we get moving, we either have to hope we bump into them or we need to find somewhere safe to stay for the night.”

“Ahhh man fine, let's just hope we don't run into more of these guys on the way. It's a killing spree out here.”

“Just like them, we need to do whatever it takes to survive and reach the Gate.”

--------------------------

“Wow Phoenix you're amazing!” Xavier exclaims in awe.

He has been watching Phoenix easily defeat a countless number of gun bearing pirates. To Xavier, Phoenix is just his religious adviser and a normal priest, the fact that he can do all of these incredible things still hasn't hit home with him yet.

“Now now no need for flattery.”

“But really, how long have you been able to do these things?”

Phoenix slightly laughs and puts his hand on his chin in wonder, “Hmmm, it's been a while.”

“Oh come on be more specific.” the young Prince urges.

Answering with complete honesty, Phoenix replies, “Over a thousand years.”

The young Prince is gravely disappointed, and one can see it on his face. “Now you're just being sarcastic.”

Phoenix can only laugh at this, he has just told the truth. He has been able to fight with the weight of his words since the Apocalypse a thousand years earlier, his ability to control flame has come during that time frame as well when he was given the power by a certain Angel. Little does Xavier know that Phoenix is actually the only begotten son of God.

“Well then, we ought to get going so more people don't come.” Phoenix changes the subject while walking away from the scene of his triumph.

“Where are we going?”

“To the Gate obviously.”

“But doesn't Rage have the map? How can we get there if we don't know where it is?”

Phoenix keeps walking. “Don't worry about that, I know exactly where it is.”

Surprised, Xavier wants to ask how but Phoenix answers his question before he could finish.

“I can feel that area, and the person guarding it is someone I know very well. So I'd like to meet him before everyone else.”

The way he explains this makes it sound like he was expecting this situation to unfold right from the beginning. But this feeling flies over the head of Xavier, who just agrees with him and readily follows the Priest into the darkness of the jungle.

-------------------------

Rage is carrying an injured Sora while walking alongside a distraught Niera; the three walk in silence and only the shoddy breathing of the injured guard is heard. Each breath causes Niera's anxiety to rise tenfold, she feels that this is all her fault because she didn't predict this outcome and the amount of guilt she is putting on herself is causing her to meltdown mentally.

“I've managed to slow down the bleeding a little, but you're still not out of the clearing yet. We need to get to Phoenix, I know he can't heal the way he used to but there is certainly something he could do.”

Rage said that and quickly realizes he is more than likely talking to himself, Sora wouldn't respond with more than one word even if she could and Niera is so out of tune that she can't speak. He doesn't need them to respond really, he just wanted to tell them what the plan was. Whether it put them at ease or on edge is up to their perspective, in this situation the chances are it's the latter of the two. Finding Phoenix in the dark of this large jungle island is like finding a needle in a haystack, adding to the low odds is the fact that they are on a strict time limit due to Sora's health.

Rage tut tuts and continues walking through the jungle until he hears the horrified screams of what seems to be hundreds of men. This sound catches him off guard cause he wasn't expecting it one bit, other then the occasional battle cry followed by a gun shot there hasn't been anything like this.

This is the kind of sound only a demon could create, and he immediately gets a sickening feeling in his stomach.

“What in the world is going on over there?”

The screams continue and Rage is overcome with curiosity, he lets Sora to the ground and leans her up against the tree.

He then turns to Niera and says, “You two need to stay here for a moment, keep an eye on Sora while I'm gone.”

Niera doesn't respond but he knows she had heard him so he leaves the two behind, walking toward the source of the gurgled screams he becomes a little nervous. He doesn't know why, he knows that some of these pirates should have abilities because they are 'aware', it's just that he knows none of them would be strong enough that they would emit such a strong feeling of death.

He reaches a clearing in the jungle and sees a sight straight out of Hell, body parts scatter the grassy clearing, so much so that he can't distinguish just how many people they belong to. In the middle of this carnage is a beast, it is a massive black dog with three heads, and it is covered with the blood of humans as it eats them as though they were a snack.

Rage knows exactly who this monster is, its name is Cerberus and for thousands of years it has been the guardian of the Gates of Hell. This is a ferocious beast that will not hesitate to devour anything in its path, and this beast turns one of its heads toward Rage and looks him square in the eye.

This is the perfect signal to flee, Rage quickly turns around to run and Cerberus gives chase without a moments hesitation.

Rage reaches Sora and picks her up over his shoulder, he holds his scythe out and it stands on its own.

He then grabs Niera's arm and shouts, “Hang on to me with all you have!!!”

Without an explanation, Niera is confused as to why he is doing this but seeing the urgency in his face she obliges without question.

A black cloud rises from under Rage's scythe and it spreads to below his feet, they begin to float in the air and once at a certain height, he feels that this is about all the time he has before he has to get moving. Turns out that that gut feeling is spot on because behind him the sound of trees falling violently moves closer and closer, and then out of the brush comes Cerberus with its mouths wide open for attack.

The cloud they are standing on narrowly avoids a fatal bite and zooms through the jungle at a ridiculous speed. If Niera of Sora were standing on the cloud with their own feet there is no doubt they'd be thrown off and seriously injured. Thanks to Rage's body being one with the cloud he can stay balanced atop such an object and hold on to them to keep them safe.

Even moving at such a speed, they are barely avoiding being devoured by Cerberus who is crashing through trees and overhanging branches as if they were twigs. This monster that looks so clumsy and big is moving with such agility it's frightening, just one miscalculation in the trees for Rage on his cloud and the three will be doomed.

This chase is as loud and hectic as can be and the pirates who happen to be walking by are caught in it and trampled by Cerberus or the trees and debris it sends flying with each step. The speeds in which the two are moving causes the sight of Rage on his cloud feel like a blur, and Cerberus following it is like a giant black ball rolling downhill.

“What is that thing!?” Niera asks while looking back at this fast moving beast giving chase to them.

“Its name is Cerberus, its a demon from Hell.” Rage calmly replies as if this is a normal occurrence.

“Then what is it doing here!?”

“I don't know, I haven't seen that thing for years. And I've never seen it outside of Hell before.”

Niera shuts her eyes in fear and throws her head into his shoulder; Sora is just glaring at it giving chase with no expression change as usual. It's not as though she isn't afraid, she is absolutely terrified about being eaten alive by such a beast, she can't help but think that all hope is lost for her.

Especially when she hears one of the voices of Cerberus speak excitedly, “The woman on Rage's shoulder! It's you! The delicious smelling blood from earlier is coming from you!”

“Shit!” Rage hisses.

Cerberus is blinded by the thirst for Sora's blood, which means it has lost control of itself and will stop at nothing to eat her.

“Is that thing targeting Sora!?” Niera asks as if Sora wasn't right there to hear such a frightening possibility.

“It looks like it, once that monster finds a target it wants it loses all control of itself.”

Niera keeps pounding Rage with questions, but each one carries a more panicked tone.

“So how do we make it stop!?”

He hates to say this but he answers truthfully, “We can't... There is no way it will change its mindset on Sora.”

“No way...”

The two stay in silence and Sora's feeling of uneasiness grows, she has become a burden and there is nothing she can do about it.

But these thoughts are quickly interrupted by an unknown voice speaking from up ahead.

“That is unless I do something about it.”

Sora is unable to turn around due to her position on Rage's shoulder which is causing her to look straight into the teeth of Cerberus. For an odd reason this person's voice was spoken with such confidence that it actually gave her some kind of hope, but she finds that feeling is all for naught when Rage says the voice's name in shock,

“Amon!?”

The red haired man standing in front of them has a swirling vortex of distortion in front him and Rage is about to make a head on collision with it.

He quickly halts his cloud but it is too late, the momentum in which they were moving makes stopping before making contact with this distortion impossible.

So as a last ditch effort he spreads his black cloud in front of them so it is that which makes contact first, and as a result the cloud distorts and explodes sending the three of them flying off in three different directions.

Rage lands into a pile of closely grown trees and tears them apart upon impact because he was the one who took the brunt of the initial attack. He coughs up a little blood and grits his teeth, scouring the area he sees that Niera and Sora aren't anywhere near him and immediately gets the feeling that one of them will die unless he reaches them soon.

He uses his scythe to help himself stand to his feet and begins to run, that is until he is hit from behind by a swirling vortex of distortion and is sent flying in a twirling motion face first into a thick tree.

“Where do you think you're going? We haven't seen each other for a while now, what do you say we have a little fun?”

Rage wipes the blood dripping from his forehead off from around his eyes and glares at the demon in front of him. Amon, the 4h ranked Demon of the Hierarchy and the one who represents the sin of 'Wrath' is walking towards him.

Rage understands how bad of a situation he and the others are in, so much so that barring a miracle, he feels there is no way all of them will survive this battle.

----------------

Niera happened to land in a creek and has no apparent injuries, she is completely lucky, especially when she looks to the left and right of her and sees jagged rocks and sharp poisonous looking plants she could have landed on instead.

Once out of the crystal clear water she looks around for any sign of Rage and Sora, and when she doesn't see them anywhere she starts to think that they are seriously injured or even dead.

This makes her increasingly nervous so she starts to shout their names, and just how she thought it'd be, she gets no reply.

She keeps calling and calling and still no answer, she begins to panic and comes to the conclusion that she can just predict where they are.

Having been filled with hope, she attempts to use her new found ability and shuts her eyes to await a vision.

There isn't a doubt in her mind that this will work so she truly is excited about this, but when nothing happens for a few seconds, her heart starts to beat wildly in angst. Then, to her worst fears, before she even got an image in her head the voices of a few men are heard coming closer.

“This way! I heard a girl's voice over hear I swear!”

“There really wouldn't be a girl alone on this island would there??”

“Shouldn't be, but I swear I heard it. If there is, just think about how great that'd be on a lawless island like this, she'd be fair game.”

Niera's shoulders jump, and she shoddily backs into a tree in a stiff shock. Perhaps the worst possible outcome has fallen upon her, she is powerless and alone in a dark forest with blood thirsty pirates closing in on her position.

She puts her hands over her ears and drops to a squatting position, begging to herself,

“S-Somebody... Please help.”

-----------------------

Landing extremely hard on the ground, Sora's wound reopens and she again begins to bleed profusely, still trying to catch air in her lungs she slowly opens her fuzzy eyes. She finds herself in an open field tattered with rocks, she then attempts to get up and gets stunned with a pain in her stomach so bad she drops straight back to the ground.

Moving her head from side to side she tries to see if Rage or Niera are around, the royal guard finds that there is no one in sight and this makes her wonder just how far she flew away from her original position.

While thinking things like this, she feels a warm breeze of air flow over her head from behind her; she finds this odd and doesn't think much of it until she feels it again, this time accompanied by a deep sounding grunt.

This sound causes her face to turn blue because she recognizes the tone of this grunt, looking back as far as she can from her body's position on the ground, she sees what she feels to be her death staring her square in the face.

Cerberus is standing over her chomping at the bit for the taste of her blood.

Sora is completely defenseless.

Barring the miracle that Rage was reluctantly wishing for, she will be devoured in mere moments.

-----------------------------

“Jeez this is getting really repetitive, every few minutes we run into pirates and have to fight them. We're seriously not making any progress towards finding the others.” said an annoyed Aria.

Cyrus isn't much of a talker but he definitely agrees with her, he isn't too happy about this whole thing either. “I don't want to say this is hopeless, but this is definitely close to impossible.”

“That's the same thing as saying we have no shot you idiot.”

“Well I'm not one to be a blind optimist.”

“Doesn't mean you have to be so negative, we'll find them. It's just a matter of time.”

“I sure hope so...”

The way Cyrus said that signified just how worried he actually is, he is separated from the one person he is supposed to be protecting and has no clue whether she is safe or not. All he can do is walk blindly in the jungle and hope they stumble onto the others before anymore pirates.

After walking for a few minutes the hope they were so desperately clasping to becomes non apparent and they really feel like this is completely pointless, frustration begins to grow deep as each step feels more useless than the last.

That is until they spot a few pirates running past them saying, “We're almost there!”

Cyrus and Aria hide behind a tree and watch them run rather fast down a small hill and disappear into the jungle.

“Where do you think they're going? It looks like it's pretty urgent.” Aria asks while thinking to herself.

The two of them ponder this for a moment and then they both jump to the same conclusion and simultaneously say,

“The Gate!?”

Thinking about it, everyone on this island is searching for the Gate so it's only logical that they'd think that these certain pirates have found it.

“Let's follow them!” Cyrus shouts as he takes off down the hill in pursuit.

The two chase them but quickly lose sight of the three men in the dense jungle, feeling as though they had lost them for good, they once again get a grasp on their position when they hear their voices just out in the distance.

“Hey hey well look what we have here, I knew this is what we'd find.”

“Hahaha damn how lucky are we?”

Aria and Cyrus sneak around toward the voices without making much of a noise at all, from what the pirates are talking about they truly think that they have stumbled upon the second Gate. Once they get closer they find that to be the exact opposite of what is actually happening, the three men are crowded around someone who is leaning against a tree.

“Why don't you come with us for a bit?”

One of the men asked while pulling out his gun and pointing it at the person.

Cyrus and Aria can't see who they are crowded around because their bodies are blocking their view. Not knowing and not really caring the two prepare to leave when the voice of the person who is surrounded is heard saying,

“I-I don't want to...”

They instantly recognize this girl's voice and it causes their hearts to skip a beat.

“Niera!?” The two shout loudly and this gets the pirates attention.

The three men move away to look and the view of Niera crouched up against a tree can be seen, her face is full of fear and this throws Cyrus into a rage.

Seeing the person he is trying to protect look so frightened has gotten his blood boiling, he knows exactly what those pirates were going to do to her if he hadn't been there at that certain moment.

He rushes the men and they look at him like he's crazy, they have pistols and rifles and he has a mere sword.

Knowing that Cyrus is at a distinct disadvantage, Aria decides to do something.

She picks up a rock off the ground and shouts, “Cyrus close your eyes!”

Not needing an explanation, Cyrus continues his run and shuts his eyes, right after he does, a flash bomb explodes and makes vision for the three men impossible.

The three men not having a clue what is going on randomly shoot ahead of them, one of the bullets grazes Cyrus' shoulder but that doesn't stop him, he opens his eyes and can see just fine. His targets are still stunned and are only a couple feet away from him, with a simple slash of his sword the three of them are slain and Niera is safe.

“Are you okay Princess!?”

Holding tears back Niera faintly smiles and replies, “You guys found me... Thank goodness.”

Aria comes rushing up to her, she is very happy that her friend is okay but there are still others she is worried about. So instead of beating around the bush she asks, “Where is everyone else?? Is Sora okay?”

The tears Niera was holding back come streaming out of her eyes, her voice cracks when she tries to explain, “Sora is... Sora is hurt... We have to go help her!”

“What!? Where is she?”

“I-I don't know...”

Aria frowns and shouts, “Damn it!” She then picks Niera up to her feet and yells, “We shouldn't be waiting around here then! Let's go find her!”

----------------------------------------

Xavier and Phoenix Navara are walking through the jungle without much action at all, in fact, there hasn't been a single encounter with anyone thus far. The gunshots and screams that were heard earlier are now so distant it's as though there is no danger at all in this walk.

They enter a clearing and reach an environment that looks completely different from what they have been experiencing this whole time. It is a sheer cliff about 50 meters high, and coming from the top of that cliff is a beautiful plunge waterfall that falls all the way to a large waking pond. In the middle of this small lake there are stone steps that lead all the way into the middle of the waterfall, and looking closely one can see that the are two large pillars that are made up of diamonds. This really gives off the vibe that those stairs that are leading in between those pillars signify that something grand awaits whoever walks through.

“What is this place Phoenix?”

Phoenix walks up to the lake, turns around and replies, “It's the Second Purgatory Gate.”

“Eh?? This is really it!?”

“Yup.”

“Incredible, what do we do now? We're going to wait for the others right?”

“I don't know about that, I'm sure they'll find their way here eventually... It's just a matter of whether we cross and end up somewhere random or not. If it's a set spot then there is no point in waiting.”

“But don't you think that's a little unfair? I mean, we all went through the same troubles to get here, leaving them behind just feels... Off.”

Phoenix ignores the prince and walks onto the water towards the steps, reaching the first step he senses that something is odd about this Gate. He walks on the first step and realizes something,

“He's not here...”

Xavier is left to wonder and before he could ask Phoenix finishes.

“The Gatekeeper is not here, we have a free ticket to pass through this Gate.”

Seeing the disappointed look on Phoenix's face, Xavier can't help but ask, “Then why don't you look happy about it?”

Phoenix sighs and answers, “The Gatekeeper... I could feel him from the moment we stepped foot on this island, he's a friend of mine who I haven't seen for many years. And I was really hoping to see him.”

--------------------

“Man you are really out of shape Rage, I don't remember you being so weak.” said Amon mockingly as he stands over a downed Rage.

Rage is coughing up blood and looks really beat up, he is breathing hard as he attempts to stand.

“Don't fuck with me, you know I am not defeated just yet.”

“What makes you think that? Are you holding back on me for some reason? Come on now that's just being stupid, if you're worried about collateral damage I recommend you forget it.”

Amon is dead on in this assessment, Rage is worried about dragging Niera and Sora into one of his attacks. He doesn't know how close they are or even if they are safe for that matter but he thinks it'll be too risky to lay out a full scale attack with that possibility still out there.

Amon laughs a little and points his index finger up. “I'm sure they are both dead by now, with a hungry Cerberus searching for them there is nowhere to run. It's impossible to escape that monster's nose.”

Rage grits his teeth, what Amon says is true, and now that he thinks about it Cerberus was in a frenzy trying to eat Sora. There is no doubt that she is its first target; all he can do is hope for the best and try to end this battle as soon as possible.

Even though he says this to himself, he truly doesn't feel that there is anyway to reach a successful outcome. Amon is not an enemy that can just be blown over, and Cerberus is a beast that no regular human has a fighting chance against.

Rage scowls at this disposition and decides to try to attack with all his might anyhow, the black cloud surrounds his scythe and he points it at Amon.

With that, he rushes towards his enemy to start this full fledged battle to the death.

---------------------------

Cerberus is breathing impatiently over Sora, it's like the beast is deciding which head it wants to chew her with.

Sora is looking up at it and is waiting for the moment where she is taken away by one of its mouths, this anxiety is truly heart wrenching and if she could she'd be crying right about now.

While waiting for such a moment, in a perfect cliché, her life flashes before her eyes.

She remembers everything that has made a lasting impression on her...

----------------------

It all started on her seventh birthday when her parents sent her off to a school that specifically trains children to become military men and women. Which is somewhat odd because her parents weren't in the military in anyway, her father was an architect and her mom a school teacher.

It's not as though Sora was a problem child, she had a lot of energy and was always hyper so the normal schools found it hard to teach her, even her mother couldn't do anything about it. So with two other children they needed to raise, Sora's parents sent her off to the military academy in hopes she'd come back a mature and prestigious person.

When Sora entered the academy she had no friends, that is until she was moved into the barracks and met a roommate who slept on the upper bunk above her.

She was a black girl and her name was Olga Avandale.

They immediately hit it off because they were both the loud and energetic type. Throughout the two years of knowing each other their bonds grew deeper and eventually, Sora was introduced to another friend, his name was Haas Avandale and he was the older brother of Olga.

The three of them were inseparable, that is until another two years later on the day La'Juune was invaded by Troy and Eiyalazo.

The three were no older than twelve when this happened, but due to the dire situation, everyone in the military schools no matter what age were called to arms.

Sora, Haas, and Olga, were ordered to fight head on with hardened military men. Every child aged from seven to fourteen were fighting for their lives and their country in a battle that would go down in history as one of the biggest ever. Naturally, most of these students were easily killed and did little to no damage to the opposing armies, but some thrived and showed skills that even they didn't know they had.

Three of those amazing children were the best friends, they were better than half of the veteran La'Juutian soldiers on the front line. The were able to deal far more damage to the invading forces, a huge reason behind that was because they were so small they could fly under the radar and take out opposing soldiers from behind enemy lines.

The battle raged on like this until the La'Juutian army was pushed back into the city, once there the remaining soldiers along with the three friends prepared to defend the city walls with all they have. That is when the news of their Commanding General's death reached them, panic ensued throughout the final line of defense, and dismay began spreading like wildfire.

The young Olga joins in this panic as she says, “Now we have no chance to win! I-I got to go find my parents!”

Sora is also worried about her parents but she feels that the best way to protect them is to keep the armies of Troy and Eiyalazo from entering the city.

She bites her lip and tries to remain strong when she replies, “We need to stay here, our parents will be fine.”

Olga looks at her dejectedly and turns to Haas. “What about you Haas!? Aren't you worried? We are just kids, I don't want to die here before I get a chance to live my life!”

Haas shows the same reaction as Sora and pretty much says the same thing, “Mom and Dad would want us to fight for La'Juune, that's why they sent us to the academy in the first place... I can't disgrace them by leaving now.”

Olga frowns and vehemently disagrees with them, in a situation like this her instincts take over and her legs move themselves. This time they are not moving along with her two best friends, but rather, they are moving away from them and the front line.

“Olga!!”

The two prepare to talk her into staying but they are interrupted by the sound of hundreds of men shouting,

“RAISE SHIELDS!!!”

Haas and Sora turn around and look up to the sky to see thousands of arrows falling toward them, the first wave of the attack starts with taking out as many soldiers as possible with an aerial strike. It is a textbook invasion process that is followed by catapult mortar strikes to weaken the wall, and then a full frontal rush at the damaged wall to break through and enter the city.

A couple La'Juutian soldiers push Haas and Sora to the ground and cover them with large shields, these shields are normally only enough to cover one person, but since their size they were easily protected.

The sound of the arrows hitting the shields and the stone of the walls hurt their ears, but the fear of this situation is directed toward the area in which Olga went running. She had no chance of escaping the arrows and within an instant there are dozens of arrows protruding from all parts of her body.

Sora is forced to watch the blood of her best friend spill and Haas is forced to watch his only little sister die a horrible death.

Soon after this, Napoleon takes control of the La'Juutian army, and the Capital city, along with the entire country is saved from destruction.

The two live through the battle but at a terrible loss, not only did Haas lose his sister, his parents died fighting as volunteers on the front-line.

Sora lost one of her brothers and her father lost an arm.

This battle changed the two forever and the happiness of the past seemed to fade away, the two graduated from the academy at fourteen and immediately after, they join the upscale and secretive Dravic branch of the military.

The Dravic branch specializes in breeding machine like soldiers. Haas and Sora were no exception, they graduated that phase of their lives at eighteen and their lives as youths were officially over. The two rarely saw each other again and even when they did, they were physically unable to speak anything significant to one another.

Now, at 21 years of age, Sora is reminiscing that tragic past as death grows ever closer to her; she finally realizes that she regrets how things went in her life and would do anything now to change it. She regrets how once she got out of the academy all relations with her family were pretty much dropped, and once out of the Dravic branch it was like they were complete strangers.

She wonders what her family is doing now and what they truly think of her. Are they disappointed in the way she turned out? She wouldn't have any idea because she hasn't talked to them since she was accepted as a royal guard. She hopes that they are all well and wonders if her remaining brother has found a girlfriend by now, or if her parents have bought a new house as of late.

These are things she'll never know and it finally begins to show on her face, her eyebrows move closer together and her nose flares a little. Her eyes start to water and tears fall down her face, she reveals a look that she hasn't shown since Olga died, and she cries and weeps as she looks up at Cerberus.

Cerberus seems to enjoy this and the child voice speaks to her, “Hahaha your emotions will make you taste better! Cry for me more! Cry!!”

Sora's tears still fall even though Cerberus is enjoying it, all the emotion she has shut away for so long is finally being released and the burden of regret she carried finally breaks through the robotic expression that was implanted into her by years of severe training.

Through her cracked voice she speaks in a tone that doesn't even hint at how much she trained to eliminate her emotions.

“I don't...”

“Are you going to beg me for your life!?” the man voice of Cerberus asks in absolute enjoyment.

Sora knows she is about to die but she wants to show herself she can say that she wants to live with the voice she hid away for so long.

At the top of her lungs she screams,

“I don't want to die!!!!”

Her words are like a signal for Cerberus to attack, and its middle head violently drops to eat her alive.

Sora slams her eyes shut and she suddenly hears a BAATHUUUNNKK!!!! noise. She hasn't felt any pain yet and it makes her think that she has died so quickly that the pain never got a chance to settle in.

Something is odd about this though, she doesn't feel any different from before and her mind begins to wonder just what is going on. She opens her eyes and looks up, only to see the night sky and the light its stars hold, the area where Cerberus once occupied is empty and it causes her to become very confused.

She looks around but can only see a limited amount around her because of her injury, the pain from her stomach is still there so she knows she is somehow alive.

“What's going on?” she asks herself, fully not expecting an answer.

But sure enough, one came...

“It looked like you were caught in quite the pinch there, I'm glad I could help.”

Sora shifts her eyes towards the source of the voice and sees a man shining in a golden light, he has longish blond hair and teal eyes. This man really gives off a vibe of immense grace, his white outfit looks like an angel's robe.

To her, this man has to be an angel.

And to prove to that assumption he walks to Sora and leans down. He takes one glance at the wound on her stomach and smiles, he then takes his hand and rests it on the wound.

All of the sudden the pain dissipates and the hole in her abdomen heals back into the form of her smooth white skin. The energy lost flows back into her and she is able to stand once more, she gets up quickly and looks the man in the eye, she then notices that he isn't looking at her, instead his attention is on something from behind.

She turns as well and sees Cerberus struggling to get up, blood flows from the middle head's mouth and this time one could tell that it isn't the blood of someone else.

The beast reaches it's feet and with its six eyes it glares at its attacker.

“You... Who the fuck are you!?”

The man smiles and ignores his question by saying, “I knew I sensed a Demon." The man sighs. "And you aren't the only one either.”

The man's face turns serious and he starts to walk toward Cerberus.

Sora is drawn to his aura and can't help but ask the same question the Demon had just asked a moment earlier,

“Who are you..?”

The man turns around and smiles in reply, “My name's Micheal.”

Cerberus' hair rises up and all three heads gnarl their teeth, the man's voice rises loudly when it inquires,

“The Archangel Micheal!?”

The man named Micheal frowns at the beast and simply answers,

“That's right.”

One Step Behind: (END)

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Dantega:Volume 3 Chapter 12

2013-04-27T18:27:23Z

98.155.19.101:

(PART 3)

"How did I end up getting paired with you as a guinea pig?" asked Lennox. He is walking right in the open of the city alongside Jessiah. "Oh yeah that's right, it's because you volunteered me to join you!!!"

Jessiah smiles as the light from the fires they leave behind shine on his bald head. "Come on Lennox, we're not guinea pigs, we are diversions."

"That's the same thing you meat head!"

"Whaaatever, either way this is definitely the best job because all the action comes to us, stop being such a pansy."

Lennox lets out a sigh of exasperation and stops talking, the two walk in the middle of the street with weapons in hand, each building or house lights on fire the moment they pass. This isn't their doing though, flame tipped arrows land perfectly into windows, lighting the curtains on fire and sending the structures ablaze.

"Wow, Allia sure is a good shot ain't she?" says Jessiah when he looks at the destruction in awe.

Lennox scratches his head, "No shit, that's her job. If she wasn't the best she wouldn't be here."

"You sure are in some kind of a piss ant mood aren't you? You seem a lot happier around everybody else."

"That's because you are by far the most annoying out of everyone."

Jessiah is about to reply to this subtle insult when he sees a group of a few dozen soldiers running up the road toward them.

"Hey hey, no cavalry?"

Lennox pulls his sword out of its sheathe and says, "Beggars can't be choosers."

Jessiah swings his long spear over his head readies himself in a battle position. "I ain't begging, I just wanted a little bit more of a warm up to start off the night."

At the end of his words he fearlessly rushes at the group of soldiers. Lennox holds a straight face as he follows closely behind.

The soldiers have no clue what to think about this situation, they look around in confusion trying to find more intruders, but instead of over thinking it they let their instincts take over and they run to attack the two.

However, the instincts and adrenaline that go along with hand to hand combat would never be felt by either side of the opposing forces. The reason for this is that the group of a few dozen Trojan soldiers are brought to an abrupt halt when a bundle of flaming arrows hits the front line of the men square in the chest. The front men drop and the back men fall over them, the ones that fell struggle to get off of their dead and flaming comrades without lighting themselves on fire.

Lennox and Jessiah stop their attack and have looks on their faces like, 'No fair!!'

The two look at each other and Jessiah says, "We can't let her have all the fun."

Lennox smiles as if he hates to agree with him and the two rush towards the remaining men. But once again they are stopped, this time it's by something that makes the two have no choice but to jump backwards in fear for their life.

The remaining men burst into a swirling inferno.

Running along the rooftops is Allia, she had just thrown a makeshift molotov cocktail into the center of the group of soldiers whom had flaming arrows sticking to their chests. The result of this is the painful death of of every last one of them. Allia smiles and waves at the two as she jumps from one rooftop to another and disappears out of sight.

The two men stare in amazement toward the direction where she ran off to, the only thing of her that can be seen is her flaming arrows flying through the night sky and the sound of the screams after they land.

"Ahh fuck that! She snaked us!!" shouts Jessiah.

Lennox scopes the area and wonders which way is the best way for a strategic attack, that's when he realizes that from the beginning, the two of them are the only ones of the Ten Knights that aren't hidden.

They are out in the open to lure the brunt of the Trojan army occupying the town while the rest of the ten pick them off in stealth like attacks. it would seem that it has worked because of Allia setting all of those fires and leading soldiers to their position, it's only a matter of time before a full fledged defense force is sent to counter the intruders.

"Alright, now it's time for the marathon to start." says Lennox as he keeps his hearing set on the approaching footsteps of countless soldiers.

Jessiah smiles wholeheartedly as his anxiety rises more and more with each passing second. "On the count of three?"

Lennox runs his hands through his hair and pulls a mirror out of his pocket, he makes some faces like he is some kind of model and then says, "I'm too damn good looking for this kind of grunt work."

Jessiah twitches his eyebrow. "Hey, we kind of have a tense moment here, why the hell do you always do that before a battle? Is it some kind of superstition?"

Lennox smiles and says in a cocky tone, "Superstition? Na, I just need to keep the look of my pretty face stuck in my mind so I make sure it doesn't get scratched. I guess you can call it extra motivation."

Jessiah smacks him rather hard on his back and laughs, "That's a little gay but whaaaaaatever. Do the damn countdown already."

Lennox frowns and shouts, "It's not gay at all!!" J

essiah laughs aloud causing Lennox to start his countdown in frustration.

"3! 2! 1! GO!!"

The two split up and run in opposite directions down two different alleyways, as soon as they do this, hundreds of soldiers run down the street to confront them. All of the soldiers stand battle ready as they scour the surrounding area in silence, the sound of the fire cracking a wooden post breaks their focus and they all shift their attention toward the source of the sound.

When they see that it was nothing, they turn back to their original post.

But something is odd, it feels like they are missing something.

The left, and the back flank each have four or five downed and dead men, how this happened is certainly a mystery. They all ask themselves a question of how and try to come up with an answer, in the time it takes them to think of what could have happened a few more of them are dead.

This time the men died on the front and the right flank. By now, the soldiers realize that they are dealing with a formidable foe; little do they know, they are dealing with the best that La'Juune has to offer.

----------------------------

Celestia Letrova is inside a house directly in the center of Tronoble, this area is surrounded by homes, condominiums, restaurants, shops, and even an outdoor theater. All of these living areas cast over a town circle that has a fountain with a statue of a large horse standing in the middle of a man-made lake. Close to a thousand soldiers are packed in the town center and are being debriefed from a few higher ups as to what is happening.

Celestia carelessly pokes her head out through the window as she wears a smile and listens to them. One of the soldiers is standing on the platform to the outdoor theater, he has decorations all over him so it is obvious that he is a man of rank.

He holds his arms out as he addresses the men, "As you all know, enemies have intruded Tronoble. Though we don't know how many intruders there are, it is safe to assume that the country of Eiyalazo has commenced this attack to assassinate the King. What we all need to do is start our search from here, and work our to the outskirts of town, there are seven more battalions of our size occupying the city so they will be searching as well. Our job is to protect the King at all costs, the manor in which the Ball is being held is completely surrounded by our soldiers so all that is left to do is find, capture, and kill our enemies."

The address is cut short by the sound of a giggling girl heard from above, all of the soldiers look up and see a cheery looking pink haired girl standing atop a rooftop a few houses away with a smile on her face.

She moved through the house to the roof so she can be heard much easier when she declares, "Haha, you are all so cute when you're confused like that. You all really have no clue what exactly is going on, but luckily for you I'm here to give you the answers!"

The mass of soldiers all glare at her in a serious confusion, they don't know whether to take her as an intruder or just a girl, that is, until she speaks to the man in charge standing on the platform.

"This attack isn't by Eiyalazo... Take a look behind you."

The decorated man looks turns his head to the wall behind him and that is the last thing he would ever see, the man's head is decapitated at his shoulders by what looks like a golden rounded shield and it slams into the wooden wall and sticks. The edges of this shield are razor sharp and over six inches long, its shape faintly bulges up towards its center and a small hole with an extremely thin wire flows out of it.

The men all jump in shock, the shield then slides out of the crater it was in and falls to the floor next to the man's body. A few soldiers quickly rush to the scene and find an emblem embedded on its center, it is the simply designed crest of La'Juune.

One of the men has a cold sweat run down his temple when he says, "No way."

Celestia laughs, "Hahaha that's right! You are way off on your deduction, the attacking country is La'Juune and there are only ten of us committing this act. So.."

Celestia jumps off the roof top and lands in the middle of a road that's just outside of the town circle. With a flick of her hand the shield jumps from the platform and slings itself all the way back to her position. She can do this because of a silver-mail glove she is wearing that connects to the wire of the shield. With a simple flick of a finger she can control the distance, direction, and angle in which the shield travels. Despite her airheaded attitude and demeanor, Celestia is actually a full blown genius, she invented and made this weapon herself and has been making many other weapons for the La'Juutian military since she was the young age of ten.

"Let's see if all of you muscular men can put up a fight against a small girl."

The soldiers become infuriated and a group of about twenty rush at her, Celesia smiles and doesn't even attempt to move. The sprinting men show no sign of wavering until they are cut to pieces and their body parts fall at Celestia's feet. Every last one of the twenty men were decapitated before they could even comprehend what had happened, and the rest of the soldiers look at the gruesome scene in shock.

Celestia cheerfully laughs and twirls her blade shield over her head when she says, "This is one of my very own inventions, this is transparent piano wire. Well now you can see it because of their blood." She points at the area where this string is tied, the entire length of the gap between the houses and buildings are bound with this invisible wire. Celestia stretches her arms and back as she finishes, "Every last alleyway is covered, don't even try to cut it, it's pretty damn close to unbreakable. And wouldn't recommend trying to ease your way in between the gaps either, one wrong move and you'll get stuck and be cut to bits, as you can tell it's razor sharp ya' know."

After her stretching she swings her shield and throws it atop a building, the wire retracts itself and it shoots her up like a bungee cord.

"All of you are trapped in my web and none of you will escape! Hahahaha I hope you guys are ready!"

Celestia starts sprinting across the roof tops, the majority of the gaps in between the houses aren't too big but the bigger, street side ones, are more then thirty feet across. She easily jumps that distance with length to spare. A bold attempt considering she just got done saying that there are razor sharp invisible cable wires below her just waiting to chop her into pieces. She flings her shield downwards and attacks a group of fifteen or so men that are separated from the rest, they are picked off like they were made of cardboard, limbs fly all over and the area and just like that, a small chunk of the battalion had been defeated.

She continues her run and continues her assault, taking out large numbers of men as they scurry around in panic, some try to run into a house to get to the rooftops but find that they are completely useless once there. They cannot jump half as far as she can and are killed instantly from one of her long distance attacks. Some try to cut the wire that holds the shield but their steel swords are sliced in half as if they were sticks of butter.

Many other desperate attempts are being conjured up and attempted but none of them seem to work, the water of the pond in the middle of the town center turns red with blood as many more men are systematically being eliminated.

All of this carnage carries itself out while one cheery pink haired girl dances atop rooftops and laughs loudly in pleasure.

----------------------------

"Let go of me." Rain viciously says with an abundance of hate in her eyes.

Noah squeezes her even tighter and says, "Keep watching Rain, this is a once in a lifetime experience for someone like you."

"Tch, I don't know what makes you think you know me so well."

"I have a spy in Eiyalazo who is very close to you, and he has informed me of every last quirk of yours."

Rain's eyes grow large in shock. "Spy!? Impossible!"

Noah ignores her surprise and continues, "I have grown very interested in you Rain, so much so that one of the reasons I chose to invade this town was specifically in spite of you."

Rain grits her teeth, "And what is it that makes a lowly member of nobility such as myself so interesting to the extent that the only remaining member of the royal family of La'Juune has a personal interest in me?"

Noah smiles and presses her body up against the balcony railing as he looks out at the destruction of Tronoble. "Quite a few things actually... One of them is what goes on in that head of yours, the way you think as a Battle Strategist intrigues me to a certain extent."

"Hehehe, I see, so you are hoping that I'd give up some information if you torture me... I doubt an idea like that will work, I'll bite my own tongue off before I ever offer you a single word."

Noah faintly laughs until his face turns solemn and his demeanor turns cold, he squeezes her hand extremely hard and says, "That isn't what I want to do... What I really want to know about is this disgusting hand of yours."

Rain is once again in shock, 'It can't be...' she thinks to herself. Then she thinks back at how she hasn't been able to use the powers bestowed on her by the tattoo of the pentagram on her hand, it was only a few days ago that with its help, she easily killed off nine men.

"What are you talking about?.." she wearily asks.

Noah leans into her ear so close that she can almost feel his lips rub against it when he replies, "You are being used... And there is a reason why this is so. The one pulling the strings definitely needs you to fulfill something, and it is that pathetic thought of revenge flowing through your head that makes you so much easier for him to control."

Noah turns her around and holds her right hand with his left and her neck with his right, it would seem that he is confident in his strength to kill Rain if needed so he lets her left hand hang free. Sensing this, Rain doesn't try to fight back, without the use of her right hand she is just a regular girl.

Looking into his cold eyes makes her very angry, it's as though he is looking down on her. She halfheartedly smiles and says, "My pathetic revenge? You contradict yourself Prince Noah, weren't you the one who declared war on my country and Troy as vengeance for the death of your father and disappearance of your two brothers? I don't want to be frowned upon by a hypocrite who has sacrificed so many lives for his own revenge."

Noah holds a straight face until his lips faintly rise. "I must say, you are indeed wrong in that assessment."

"What?"

"I don't bear feelings of such trite, as a child I modeled myself after a person who held nothing towards his enemies and felt close to the same for his friends and family. If one can do that, revenge would be the last thing on their mind if a situation like this occurs."

"Then what the hell did you declare war for!?"

"That is simple, whoever killed my father, kidnapped my two brothers and our great General Napoleon has committed an act of war."

Rain stares at him in silence, she can't understand how his mind is so set on military and political actions that revenge doesn't even matter when his father is murdered. All she can do is mutter in sarcastic disbelief, "Is that so..?"

Noah looks down at the ground behind Rain and then his eyes shift back at her. "But... There is something that has been bugging me. How is it that the intruders murdered a heavily guarded King, kidnapped eleven people, demolished a large castle room, escaped the city and then the country without anyone noticing their presence?"

An interesting question to say the least; according to Rain, it could have been the Trojans who did it cause she certainly knows it's not Eiyalazo. But in all likely hood she figured that had to be La'Juune, they were the only ones capable of such a feat.

She stands in silence as Noah continues, "There is something not right about this whole war... And I'm closing in on its source, starting with you."

"I still don't get what you are talking about."

"Are you familiar with religion Rain?"

"Huh?.. I can't say that I am, I don't see how that has anything to do with-----."

"That putrid tattoo on your hand is a religious symbol, and according to my numerous spies in both Troy and Eiyalazo, you aren't the only one who has it. Prince Dice has one obviously, and another is General Sturgess of Troy. This is becoming more and more intriguing as the numbers of higher up players in this war begin to have their souls swallowed by their Deadly Sins."

Rain glares at him in confusion, "You've lost me here Prince, Dice has nothing that I have... I don't understand where you are going this."

She is genuinely bewildered, she doesn't know that Dice has the same tattoo of a pentagram on his hand so she thinks that what Noah is saying must be false.

Noah pays no mind to her clueless attitude as he keeps adding, "You are controlled by Wrath. Prince Dice is swallowed by Lust... And General Sturgess is consumed in Greed. Only one person is capable of controlling all of these sins and is able to tempt people into letting themselves be devoured by them. People like you who can hold influence on the world are needed to fulfill this puppet master's plan, and I truly believe that you three have met one of the real culprits behind the disappearance of all three of our country's royals."

Rain tries to piece together what he is saying, it takes her a few moments but it is slowly starting to hit her as her eyes grow larger. In an instant her perspective as gotten much wider and her mind begins to move more towards his direction, she can't discredit his theory because she knows that the impossible and far-fetched has already begun to happen starting with her hand.

Noah looks like he is about to speak again when he is interrupted by a voice from above saying, "I recommend that you take off now Noah, things are going to get really sketchy in a minute." Jeffrey is standing on a rooftop and nonchalantly scratching his head as if the danger doesn't apply to him.

Noah doesn't turn around when he responds, "Alright then, you know what your job is."

Jeffrey cracks his neck and replies, "Yeah yeah, kill the King of Troy right? That shouldn't be too hard."

All the thoughts of the bigger picture that Noah has presented in Rain's head snap and turn to nothing but black. Her face contorts and she shouts, "Don't you dare touch him! He is mine to kill!!"

Jeffrey smiles and waves at her, his figure disappears as he jumps off the roof and walks into the balcony door.

Rain pleas in anger, "WAIT! WAIT!!!"

Noah squeezes her neck so she can't speak and says, "Hmmm, I see that this hatred runs even deeper than what I've imagined. It looks like you'll be coming with me for some intense rehabilitation."

The white of Rain's eyes turn red, not only out of lack of oxygen but also out of pure anger, the thought of someone else slaying the King of Troy has gotten her blood running so hot that it could heat up an entire room if she were standing in it. Another thing that adds on to this is the fact that the powers in which the snake gave her are mysteriously non existent, she is bitter that she cannot blow this pestering Prince to pieces.

Noah is amused at how much her psyche has deteriorated due to the pentagram, he lets go of her neck and picks up her mask that was hanging on the balcony, he puts it on her face and then pulls his own mask out of his pocket and does the same.

"You'd be wise to hang on to me."

Noah hops up atop the ledge of the three story balcony and jumps off, pulling Rain along with him.

--------------------------------

"What's going on Dice?" Ash asks as quietly and as calmly as possible.

"Do you remember fighting an Eiyalazonian Captain by the name of Detreig Von Ronheim?"

"Huh? Why does----- geeechhkk!"

Dice interrupts her by pushing the knife so hard into her back that it breaks her skin. "Just answer the question."

Ash winces and replies, "Y-Yes I do.."

"Which one of you killed him? Was it the King?"

"I-I don't understand what's going on? Who are you?"

Dice slowly starts walking her away from the rest of the dancing crowd when he says, "My name is Dice Di'Vore, I am the Prince of Eiyalazo."

"What!?"

"Quiet down.." he says as he presses the knife further into her back.

Ash is really starting to feel like a slip of his hand would result in a fatal injury, she takes deep breathes and calmly asks, "Why is someone like you threatening me like this?"

Dice politely smiles at a few people passing by as their numbers become smaller and smaller the more the two walk deeper into the castle. His polite smile turns sour when he says, "If you just answer my question, you might be able to live through this... Who was it who inflicted the fatal blow on Captain Detreig?"

Ash has no choice but to oblige to his question, this threat is very real and like any hostage would, the demands of the hostage taker come before anything.

"I-It was me... I was the one."

Dice viciously frowns and he explains, "I'm in love with that man's daughter... But she cares more about her revenge on the ones who killed him than she does about my feelings. So what do you think I have to do to get that devotion of hers turned towards me?"

A sickening feeling surfaces in Ash's chest, she knows the answer to his question and doesn't need him to clarify it before she realizes that she has to do something. Ash is trained in martial arts and is actually an extraordinary fighter, but do to the surprise of Dice's attack and the manner in which she is being held, there isn't much she can do without running the high risk that she'll be stabbed.

The only thing she can think of doing is something that will certainly not work, her only hope has been shut out and despair surfaces upon her face.

Dice notices this and smiles when he whispers in her ear, "I can tell by the look on your face that you know what is going to happen... Hmph, I bet you never would have thought in the beginning of the day that this night would be your last."

-----------------------------

Ebihara Seiri and Haas Avandale are sitting atop the roof of a building; no matter where one goes in Tronoble, the large castle that holds the Ballroom can be seen.

Seiri has a smile on her face as she stands atop a chimney. "Just a little bit longer."

She is anxious about what the scene that awaits them will look like; this girl is much like Aria, she gets very excited by explosions. The one difference between the two is age and the way they go about making their bombs. Aria can turn any object she touches into a bomb, but she is clumsy when determining how big and what kind of an explosion that object will have when she uses her ability. Seiri on the other hand uses bombs she makes from scratch with her own two hands, most of her explosives have a sole ingredient of alcohol, but being the genius she is she has created something that is far more flammable and once it is deprived of oxygen it turns into something so combustible that it is even stronger than dynamite.

She carries this liquid in little flasks that she always carries with her, some aren't very dangerous at all, and some can level dozens of city blocks if not treated with care; one of the semi harmless flasks was given to a certain man just a couple ours earlier. She calls these potent flasks of destruction 'Light shows.'

When someone asks her why she brings up some kind of nonsense about how bombs and actors are similar to each other.

Haas looks at his watch and struggles to say, "...I... Need to go... Help... The others..."

Seiri flips her hair at him and says, "Fine fine, my mission is accomplished for the night, so I'm just gonna stay here and watch the light show."

"...Understood..."

Haas pulls two small swords out of his duffle bag and jumps off the roof, leaving the twelve year old Seiri by herself.

She pays no mind to his absence, instead her eyes grow large with the reflection of the castle as she repeats what she said earlier,

"Just a little bit longer.."

----------------------------

The knife that Dice holds is about to sink into her back and Ash knows it, she shuts her eyes and shouts the only thing that comes to mind,

"ZURVICK!!!!!"

Dice lets go of her arm and covers her mouth with his palm, with his knife wielding hand he readies to make a huge thrust forward when

BBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!

The roof atop the ball explodes and thousands of pounds of debris and flames fall on the patrons who are dancing on the Ballroom floor. The frilly dresses worn by the women ignite and they all panic and run about, lighting table cloths and curtains on fire as well. Literally within a couple seconds of the explosion, the entire Ballroom is ablaze.

"What the fuck was that!?" Dice yells in an angered surprise. He shakes off those thoughts of surprise and switches it to the assassination of the girl in front of him. "First thing's first."

As soon as his arm moves to stab her, his vision goes black and a loud thud can be heard, he senses that something has just hit him square in the eye and pain quickly follows. His body flies away from Ash and crashes into a pillar that stands on the outskirts of the Ballroom.

Ash falls to her knees with the mindset that she has been fatally wounded and just hasn't felt it yet; from her knees she again falls to the ground but she is caught in the arms of a man before she lands. As soon as she feels the security of the man's arms it hits her, she hasn't been stabbed and she will survive.

'But how?' she asks herself.

She shifts her eyes upwards to look at the person who's arms she rests in and sees a sight that fills her with the utmost of joy.

The man is Zurvick.

The King of Troy has come to save this lowly eighteen year old girl when he heard her yell his name in horror. A switch went off in his head and his heart dropped when he heard her frantic voice, so much so that he instantly rushed to her and almost completely ignored the explosion that had just occurred. Once he saw what the shout had indicated he unhesitatingly clinched his fist and struck the assailant to get him off of her.

On the King's face is a frown full of anger. He lifts Ash to her feet and steps in front of her, guarding her intensely.

Addressing Dice, who is holding his eye and glaring at him furiously, Zurvick speaks, "I don't know who you are and what you are intending to do... But anyone who dares to harm Ash in any way, is an enemy of mine."

Dice clicks his tongue and takes his hand off his already swollen eye, the bloody knife he holds in his right hand shines ominously with the light of the surrounding flames. He stands straight on his feet and his lips begin to rise.

"Hehehehehe.... HAHAHAHA!!!"

He squeezes the hilt of his knife with all of his strength and an odd black smoke surfaces from the back of his hand and flows up his arm.

"There isn't a doubt that she'll fall for me now! All I need to do is kill the both of you and she's mine!!! Hahahah she'll be all mine!"

Dice's words hold a severe tinge of insanity and it seems that the mysterious black smoke feeds off his cockeyed expression when it wraps around his whole body.

His arm is so covered that it is not visible, Zurvick and Ash look at him in disbelief at what their eyes are seeing. The black smoke around his arm stretches to the ground, spreads wide and then dissipates in a small blast, what comes out is a three meter black sword he holds in his hand.

Dice smiles widely and declares, "The both of you will die and I will finally be able to hold her in my arms!"

He readies to rush forward to slay them, just by standing there in the fearsome presence of such insanity it is blatantly obvious who would win the fight in this situation. Ash's knees are shaking wildly and even Zurvick is feeling somewhat afraid at the aura of evil surrounding him.

Dice takes his first step forward but is stopped by the figure of a man in a stylish black suit with dirty blond hair. The man steps in between the two and says, "I doubt that you'll be holding anyone at the end of all this."

Dice frowns and spits at the ground. "Who the fuck are you?.."

The man standing in between the three is none other than Jeffrey Durbin.

He shrugs his shoulders and says, "I don't really matter all too much, but the person that matters the most to you is being taken away as we speak."

"What?"

Jeffrey points to the window behind Dice and says, "Take a look."

Dice turns around and looks out the window to see Rain being held tightly against her will and taken away by the same orange haired person he saw with her earlier.

"Rain!!" he shouts out the window.

Rain hears his shout and turns to look at the source of the noise, she shows him a face that screams out, 'Help me.'

All of the thoughts that he had of engaging Ash and Zurvick go screaming out of his head and only one thing remains. Dice's eyes widen and he takes a few steps from the window, he lifts his black sword and swings at the wall; with that simple motion the wall holding the window violently exploded sending debris flying into the night sky.

Dice hurriedly jumps through the large hole in the building and abandons his aspirations of exacting Rain's revenge on the two; the black smoke that surrounded him gently leaves the hallway and eerily follows him outside.

A strange feeling of calm reaches the two with Dice's exit. Ash takes a deep breath and doesn't know which of the numerous questions in her head to snatch out and ask, Zurvick's tense shoulders loosen up as he looks at the destruction that had just taken place. That feeling of calm is short lived when the sound of screams coming from the burning Ballroom are heard.

Zurvick knows that he has to go into the fire to help as many people as he can, he lets Ash out of his arms and turns to Jeffery.

"Thanks for your help, you really saved us back there."

Jeffery shrugs his shoulders and says, "Just doing my job for my King."

Zurvick smiles and lifts his hand for a handshake as if to say thanks again. Jeffrey smiles softly and grabs his hand, the two's eyes meet for a moment and it becomes obvious that something is wrong.

The second this becomes evident, Zurvick feels a dull pain in his gut, he looks down and sees an eight inch knife stabbed deeply into his abdomen. His eyes shift from his wound and back to the eyes of Jeffrey, who sighs when he says,

"There's only one problem, You are not my King."

Zurvick drops to his knees and blood begins to puddle below him, by looking at how much red fluid is flowing from him one can't help but think that his is a fatal wound. Ash is taken aback by this, so much so that there was a delayed effect in her comprehension speed; now that she sees his face growing paler and paler, she is thrown into a blind rage.

She turns to Jeffrey and glares at him with her bright crimson eyes, the anger that brews in her frown is more then evident when she rushes him for an attack. Jeffrey sidesteps and easily avoids her wild punch, he grabs her arm and brutally kicks her in the stomach, the air flies out of her lungs and her whole body becomes limp when she falls face first on the ground, completely unable to move.

"Easy there little lady, I don't have orders to kill you... Granted, you'll probably end up dying in this Ballroom anyway, two of my men set up a fuse bomb that will systematically destroy this entire castle with a different explosion every five minutes." Jeffrey looks at his watch and says, "The next one is going to happen way before you get a chance to escape... That's too bad.."

He turns his back to the two and ganders out of the massive hole in the wall that Dice made, there he sees Dice chasing after Noah and Rain. He releases a sigh of exasperation and says, "I guess I'd better help him, it sure looks like he'll need it."

Without paying Ash or Zurvick any more mind than they are worth, he jumps out of the hole and disappears out of sight. This is the way the Ten Knights of La'Juune work, once the job is complete then it is on to the next one.

Ash is desperately trying to breath as she attempts to stand, she shakily reaches her feet and moves to tend to Zurvick, but to her surprise he is already standing there with a broken smile on his face.

"We gotta escape Zurvick, we gotta get you some help." she says with a begging tone in her voice.

Blood falls from his tilted lips when he replies, "No... You have to escape."

"Huh? What are you talking about? Can't you see that this whole damn building is on fire!?"

Zurvick stumbles when he walks toward her. "That's exactly why you are the one that needs to leave."

Ash becomes suspicious. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this..?"

Zurvick grabs her shoulders and walks her to the ledge of the hole that Dice created, "I need to help them..."

"N-No that's ridiculous! You are injured and you can barely move! What kind of help do you think you can accomplish!? You may even need it more then they do!"

He smiles and pushes her out of the hole in the wall, it's only about ten feet to the ground but she definitely felt in when she landed square on her back. She quickly rises to her feet and glares at him with desperate eyes.

Zurvick salutes her and says, "I'll be damned if I didn't do anything."

He turns and gets ready to walk into the blaze; watching the back that she adores so much become smaller with each one of his steps leading away from her, she becomes more and more distraught. She knows that if he goes into the burning Ballroom, there is no way he'd survive. He has an eight inch dagger sticking into his stomach and is losing incredible amounts of blood, that along with the strange man's warning that there will be another explosion any moment pretty much signifies exactly what will happen.

She puts every last bit of her strength in her voice box when she yells, "DON'T DO IT!!! YOU'LL DIE YOU IDIOT!!!"

Zurvick keeps walking as he replies, "You know me well enough to know that I'm extremely lucky Captain Ash... There's no way I'll die."

And with that, the injured and bleeding Zurvick waves her goodbye and vanishes in the bright light of the fire.

Ash is devastated, "He left me..." she says to herself as tears begin to fall from her eyes, "That idiot really left me..." She bites her lip and frowns, "I'm not letting this happen!"

She runs to the ten foot wall below the hole and begins to climb, with all her might she is going to give chase to him. But these efforts are fruitless, before she can even get half way up the wall it is obliterated.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!

The second explosion rips through the area where Zurvick just was and knocks her more than twenty feet back, she slams into the manor lawn and her body makes a loud thud.

For the most part she is unscathed, just a few scratches around her arms can be seen and one would say she is extremely lucky that she didn't lose a limb in that blast. She shakily lifts her upper body up and opens her dazed eyes. The only thing she can see is orange and red blurs and she smells through her nose a bitter smoke; it takes her a few moments to recover from this out of body experience she is having and when she does, one of the first thoughts in her head is how badly she would like to have that feeling back.

The reason for this is the horrifying scene that stands before her, the area that Zurvick just walked through is now non existent, only rubble and flames remain. The Ballroom is just about utterly demolished and the rest of the castle begins to deteriorate as well. Not much of anything is left of the Ballroom and there is no doubt that everyone who hadn't escaped yet is dead, and that includes the one person she cares about most in the world.

Her body starts to shake wildly and her breathing becomes very spotty. "N-N-No... This isn't happening right?"

As if to add insult to injury, dozens of smaller blast suddenly wrap around the circled tip of the castle and blow their way down until the seven hundred year old structure is nothing more than dust.

Ash throws her hands on her face as she looks at the destruction in horror. "This isn't happening..."

All of the smiles and happy moments between her and Zurvick flash through her head like a old movie and eventually turn to despair when she thinks about that smile of his going to be gone forever.

She can't do anything but deny that this ever happened and scream at the top of her lungs,

"ZURVICK!!!!"

----------------------------

Dice is running after Noah and Rain who are entering a horse drawn carriage that was supposed to be guarded by Trojan soldiers. Those soldiers are now all dead and their bodies are scattered all over the area, a large battalion of them has been slaughtered within the time frame of the Knight's assault only an hour earlier. But that is not the most amazing thing about it, it's the fact that only ten people are the ones that handed all of those men their deaths.

In the carriage holding the reins is one of those ten, Elise Whittier is covered in blood and is looking annoyed about how long it is going to take for her to wash it all out of her hair. Once Rain and Noah enter she says, "Sweet now we can get out of here! I'm dying to take a shower.. Ooooaah she's cute! This is gonna be a good ride after all."

Rain recognizes her from the dress shop and mutters in surprise, "Y-You?.. Wha?"

"Keep your pants on and drive." Noah replies.

Elise sticks her tongue out at him and asks, "Where to boss?"

Noah glares at Rain and then out to the burning city of Tronoble, he slightly smiles and blows a sharp breath of air out of his nose. "To La'Juune."

"Roger that!"

Dice is gaining on the carriage, each step of his that lands on the ground carries so much hate mixed with determination that it almost sends shock waves into the ground as though it was an earthquake.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!!!"

Noah stares at his abnormality with a straight and unworried face, he holds out his hand and simply snaps his finger. With that, Dice is surrounded by the weapons of Jeffrey, London and Allia.

The carriage begins to move and Dice's rage becomes seemingly unstoppable, but the black and evil aura surrounding him doesn't seem to faze the three. Without a hint of nervousness, Allia points her bow and arrow at him, Jeffrey has another dagger pressed against his back, and London has a long fencing sword pressed against his neck.

Rain stares at the evil aura around Dice and has a different reaction to it than the others. "That power..? He was telling the truth?"

Through the window Noah speaks to the three, "I don't think it'd be too wise to waste your energy on that abomination, it's already far too late for him."

London pushes up his glasses and asks, "So what do you want us to do?"

"Just keep him here for a little, we'll be out of the city soon. I don't want that pest to follow me."

Rain is sitting in the moving carriage gritting her teeth, just by looking at how these knights had damn near killed off an entire city, she feels that there is no way Dice will win with his mind in such an out of control state. In a normal circumstance like this, one would worry about the other comrade's well being but in this case, Rain is only thinking about how she can somehow benefit from this situation.

She throws her head out of the carriage window and shouts, "Dice! You have to go back to our regiment! We can still win this battle if you tell them to invade!" With an unwearied look on his face, Noah leans his back into the leather carriage seat as she continues, "There are only ten La'Juutians who caused all this, we can defeat them by shear numbers when we attack."

Dice looks surprised and asks, "La'Juune? They are the ones who did all this?"

Rain is becoming further and further away and her voice gets fainter. "There is a spy that knows of everything in the higher ups of Eiyalazo! Find that spy and kill him! Once you're done..."

By now she is so far the carriage she is riding in can barely be seen, but her voice rings loud and clear in Dice's ears when she finishes with,

"COME FIND ME!!!"

Dice watches her drift out of sight, she has been taken from under his nose against her will and there was nothing he could do except watch. He flares his nose and frowns when he glares at the three La'Juutian Knights. "I'm coming back to kill you all."

The black smoke envelopes his body and blows outward, slightly knocking the three back allowing him to get some room so he can escape.

Dice begins to run with all his might, but this time it is in the opposite direction of the person he wants to be with the most at this moment. With his head down he begins to shout obscenities, "Damn it all! Damn it all!!" he then lifts his head up and screams at the sky with all his might, "DAMN IT ALL!!!!!!!!!"

-----------------------------

Allia has been raining down fire on just about everyone she saw in the town until she made her way back to the now destroyed castle and ran into Dice, so she isn't well informed as to what is going on so she asks, "Should we really just let him go? If he gets that regiment to attack us I don't like our chances of winning."

London pushes up his glasses and smoothly says, "Don't worry about that."

Then Jeffrey lets out a tired sigh of exasperation, "That regiment is long gone by now."

-------------------------------

On the outskirts of Tronoble lies the thousands of men that belong to Rain's regiment, Dice's division is stationed there as well and they are all watching the city burn in awe. The soldiers all ask questions about this occurrence but there is one man who is not surprised about this in the least, this man with two different colored eyes is the second in command, his name is Heinrich Zimmer.

He is so calmly watching from afar because he has known about the looming destruction of Tronoble for a while now, he is Noah's spy from La'Juune.

One of the soldiers wearily walks to Heinrich and asks, "What should we do?"

Heinrich doesn't turn his way and answers, "We retreat."

"What? But Rain and Prince Dice are in that town!"

Heinrich stands from a sitting position on top of a large rock and coldly states, "Can't you see that they are most likely dead? It's obvious that the city was attacked by La'Juune, if we head in there carelessly without a plan there's a high possibility that we will lose."

The man looks troubled and says, "But Rain told us to attack the city if she isn't back by 10 o'clock."

Remaining calm, Heinrich rebukes, "Yeah but she didn't plan on the city being sacked by an enemy army before that time. As far as I'm concerned this whole mission was a lost cause, and as the new Captain of this regiment my orders are for us to retreat."

The soldier shifts his eyes away for a moment and then back. "Yes sir."

With his new command due to Rain's absence, the entirety of the Eiyalazonian army that are present all leave the burning city and head back home.

Heinrich can't help but smile at how great things have turned out for La'Juune, with this, the approaching La'Juutian army can easily occupy Tronoble with no conflict. This has been a successful mission, everything has gone exactly the way Noah had predicted it would go, La'Juune now holds the reins to this bloody world war.

--------------------------

"What do you intend to do to me?" Rain asks and breaks the awkward silence in the cabin of the carriage.

Noah simply answers, "I don't quite know yet."

Rain clicks her tongue and begins to pound him with questions. "How do you know so much about the powers of my hand?"

Noah is holding her right hand and hasn't let it go since they were dancing. "I know a lot of things."

This angers her and she shouts, "God damn it would you just give me an explanation already! How can you suppress the powers that I now have!"

Noah glares at her and replies, "You just said it yourself... God."

"God?"

"That's right, I am a person who takes in knowledge very well, before the war started there was a certain priest who preached to me the word of God. You told me earlier that you know nothing of religion correct?"

Rain huffs air out of her nose and looks out of the window. "People rely on religion just like a fairy tale is used for children who are afraid of the dark."

Noah mockingly laughs and replies, "It seems that your lack of this knowledge will be the end of you."

"That's ridiculous."

"Is it now? Who do you think bestowed you with those powers of yours? Have you not realized that the one who did now controls your soul? You are damned forever Rain." he squeezes her hand and looks her in the eye before finishing, "That is... Unless I do something about it."

Rain doesn't know what to say about this, it takes her a few moments to ask, "And how are you going to do that?"

"That priest of mine was not an ordinary priest... Before he was kidnapped along with the rest he revealed his deepest secret to me, and soon after, with the touch of his hand... I was blessed. Though I am not benevolent to say the least, I have still been given a gift. I guess you can say that I hold the opposite kind of power that you do. I was born into this world specifically to stop wretched people like you, so I will begin to negate your powers and in due process I will find the whereabouts of my loved ones and put an end to this war."

Rain turns her head and tries to ignore his statement, but his words ring in her mind; in order to contrast these thoughts she uses her instincts as a Battle Strategist and conjures up the many different ways she can get out of this.

That's when it dawns on her, a perfect plan.

She smiles and softly says, "Not if I kill you first."

Noah hears this and smiles as well, these are two bitter enemies sharing a carriage for a long ride, and the atmosphere between the two shows it as plain as day.

---------------------------

Dice is running to where his comrades are supposed to be, and when he reaches the spot he finds that they are long gone. Not knowing which direction they went off to he becomes confused, and that confusion turns to anger when he shouts at the pentagram on his hand,

"How did you let this happen!!? How did you let her be taken from me!?"

The snake's voice takes a few moments to appear and then it rings in his head. "This is all in due process my fair Prince."

"How!? I don't see how her being kidnapped will make her fall in love with me!"

"You need to open your eyes... This is the perfect opportunity to show her how devoted you are... She told you to find the spy and kill him correct?"

Dice sits on the ground, it would seem that he is exhausted from all of the effort he has put into the night, he lays on his back and points his hand to the air.

"That's right."

"Who do you think that spy is?"

"How the fuck am I supposed to know that!?"

The presence of the snake becomes more and more heavy with each passing second. "That is what you have me for... I can tell you."

Dice becomes irritated and demands, "Then tell me."

"Who do you think has the power to make all of today's events possible?"

"......"

"Since you have to assume that it was La'Juune who commenced the attack on that city, you must know that the spy who is able to work with the elites of that country must have an immense pull amongst the soldiers of Eiyalazo."

"I just don't see who can do something like that..." Dice says while clinching his fists in wonder.

The snake's voice reverberates wildly as it begins to inquire, "Let me ask you something... Didn't your parents oppose you coming along with Rain on this mission?"

"Of course they were hesitant at first, but I convinced them that it was time to let me out on the battlefield."

"Hmmm, If I'm not mistaken... They had somewhat of a grudge against Rain's father right?"

Dice's face moves as if he is starting to realize something, "Now that you mention it... They disgraced her father ten years ago after the Battle of La'Juune in which Troy and Eiyalazo lost embarrassingly to General Napoleon."

"Then do you think that they still hold some of that animosity towards Rain? Wouldn't it make sense that if they did, they would do anything to sabotage her efforts in reinstating the Von Ronheim name? Wouldn't that make them look bad and embarrass them if honor was to be once again instilled in that name?"

Dice sits up and his eyes widen. "You don't think that---"

The snake's voice interrupts, "That's right... There is only one type of person that would betray her with such trivial reasoning..."

"It can't be..."

"It makes sense doesn't it? The spies.... The true betrayers are..."

Dice stands to his feet and frowns, "The King and Queen of Eiyalazo... My parents."

"It couldn't be anyone else... Now is your chance to show her how much love your bear towards her... What will you do my fair Prince?"

Dice grits his teeth and puts all of his strength in his clinched fists.

"I have no choice... I must kill my parents."

--------------------------

The sun has almost completely risen over the destroyed city of Tronoble and the majority of people are either dead or they evacuated the town.

But there is a certain girl that is searching frantically through rubble.

Ash Alworth.

She is moving away the brick and stone of the castle with the remaining of her sleep deprived strength, trying to find one person, Zurvick Niveusvenia, the King of Troy.

But sadly her search is of no avail, all she finds are burnt and crisped bodies of the former nobles who died in the blast the night before. The destruction is so bad that she hasn't even found a hint of life in the many piles of broken castle; the dress that she wore so beautifully the night before is torn and stained and her hands are bruised and bloody. This shows the belief she has in Zurvick's survival, but the longer she searches she understands that the possibilities of his survival are close to zero, there are no signs of life around and La'Juutian soldiers surrounding the area begin to grow by the hundreds.

This is it, the end of her search.

'It's all over...' she thinks to herself as she lets her tired body finally take a break.

She begins to weep wildly and tears fall rapidly from her tired eyes and slide off her cheeks like flowing river. It has finally hit her that he really is gone, the only man this young Captain has ever loved has now ceased to exist. It would seem that all of the energy she put in crying has gotten to her both physically and mentally drained; after hours of back breaking work, her frail body finally succumbs to exhaustion.

Her crying stops and her body falls limp onto the manor lawn, sadly for her, she will eventually have to wake up once more to bear the same pain of her loss.

--------------------------

The next day the afternoon sun shines over the castle that resides in the Capital city of Troy.

Queen Lelaine walks down the hallway and reaches the bathroom door. Once inside that unnecessarily large room with a pool sized bath she takes off her clothes and gets ready to enter, the reason why she is bathing herself so late in the day is because she had stayed up late the night before and slept in the morning after.

Walking past the expensive looking vases and other decorative items, she finally reaches the warm water that fills the bath and takes a step in; she has been overly stressed the last few weeks so the soothing aroma of the shampoos and soaps calm her mind.

She sinks in the water and thinks to herself, 'Here comes another tiresome day...'

With these thoughts of weariness and self pity running through her head she becomes completely disinterested at how her life is going. That is, until she hears an unusual knock on the bathroom door, she can tell it isn't one of her maids knocking to see is she needs any kind of assistance simply by the force of the knock.

She lifts her head out of the bath water and asks, "Who is it?"

A familiar voice comes from behind the door.

"It's Sturgess."

"What do you want?" she replies in haste so he can leave her alone.

He pauses for a few seconds and says, "I have terrible news to report to you."

Lelain raises her eyebrow, "Is it so bad that you have to tell me while I'm bathing?"

"Unfortunately... It is. I hate to come to you with such bad timing but I'd assume this is something you'd want to hear immediately."

"Then spill it already."

The pause between Sturgess' words are far longer than before and this makes Lelaine become quite anxious.

After what seems like a few hours Sturgess finally speaks, "The King is dead..."

Lelaine grows silent and remains that way for quite some time until she asks with not much concern in her voice, "Really?"

Sturgess replies in a professional manner, "Yes... From what our reports say, King Zurvick was on his way back to our Capital when he stopped in Tronoble, while he was there the La'Juutian army attacked the city and defeated all its military occupants. The city held a Ball last night for the King's arrival, but the Ball was cut short by more than a few massive explosions, King Zurvick was caught in one of those blasts and as result, he was killed."

Lelaine remains silent and just glares at a well done painting in the bathroom as if she is in a trance when Sturgess continues,

"A few soldiers found a charred body that held the King's flask, they are sending it here to the Capital for burial."

When no reaction comes from this, Sturgess takes a deep breath and begins to smile, but this smile of his is broken by the sound of pottery smashing against the bathroom door he leans on. He takes a few steps back and the sound of heavy and sharp objects breaking becomes more frequent.

"I'm sorry Queen Lelaine, but you must calm down and stay rational."

Another pot was thrown in his direction and shattered against the wall.

"Rationality!? Bullshit!!!"

With the sound coming from the inside of the bathroom one can't help but think of the destruction occurring inside, Sturggess tries to suppress a laugh and realizes that it would be best if he just walked away. But not before he leaves her with some final words, "I'm sorry for your loss."

Another vase is thrown into the door due to Lelaine's temper tantrum, she is searching for something to destroy when she shouts, "This is bullshit!!! FUCKING BULLSHIT!!!"

She grabs a bath stool and chucks it into a window, completely shattering it. Now out of things to break, she herself begins to breakdown, she falls on her knees and then lays on her side in a half angled fetal position.

"No...... No..... This is.... False information or something, he has to come back."

Lelaine starts to shake uncontrollably and her wet body slides on the smooth tile floor, she remains like this for minutes and all of the moments between her and Zurvick pass through her head much like Ash's did, but Lelaine's is different. She once again remembers the day they met when they were children, the day they got married, the day when Trojia was born, but what hits her hardest is the day when Zurvick left as part of the lowest rank of the military after their daughter disappeared.

She remembers the last time she was held in his arms and the look on his face when he said, "Don't look so worried, there is no way I'm not coming back."

She put her head into his chest and replied, "You never break your promises... So promise me."

Zurvick lifted her head and looked at her square in the eye, with a sincere smile he said, "I promise I'll come back for you."

With the thought of that day running through her head she desperately clings for hope and tries to talk herself out of the facts by saying,

"He's not dead..."

----------------------

Sturgess walks down the hallway with a huge grin on his face, his mission to dispose of Zurvick has finally been accomplished. Though this wasn't his doing, his death still brings all of the same benefits.

At the corner of the hallway sits a set of stairs, he readies to walk down them when he sees the faces of his comrades Anders, and Cardinal Luudnt.

"So how did it go?" asked Anders.

Luudnt looks at him as if asking the same question, Sturgess chuckles a little bit and answers the two, "Better than expected."

Luudnt laughs and replies, "Well I have more good news for you, the financial aspect of our coup has now officially been completed."

Anders added, "If you consider the royal guard as our main supporting force, you can say that they are more then prepared as well."

Sturgess' body is brewing with pleasure and excitement. "This couldn't get any better... Give me a week, I'll set up a battle plan and we'll begin our coup the second I'm finished."

Anders leans his back on the wall and asks, "Should I set the schedule?"

Sturgess walks down the stairs and past the two, he turns to them and shows a confident grin when he responds, "Mark the day on the calender, one week from now, the country of Troy will be ours."

Aders and Luudnt smile and salute him. Simultaneously, they both shout, " Yes sir!"

The three go their separate ways to prepare for an epic betrayal.

Now by his lonesome on the outskirts of the castle and resting on a grassy bank by the moat is Sturgess. Though one would not think that he is alone when he begins to talk to someone.

"I must say, you are indeed fulfilling those far-fetched words of yours snake."

The snake's head appears from the back of his large hand and says, "I do not lie General Sturgess. My words are gold if you wish to work with me."

"I can't believe it, I finally get to have Lelaine all for myself, and along with her, the entire country of Troy. Both of them are in my grasp."

"Believe it my fair General, not only will you have the two desires you wish to have most, but you will also take rule of all the Kingdoms of this world."

Sturgess' face becomes distorted with an insane smile, the thoughts of such grandeur extend his greedy nature tenfold as a sickening pleasure grows in his body.

"That's right! It will all be mine!"

The snake slides up his arm and speaks,

"With me by your side, anything is attainable."

--------------------------

In a dark room sits a man on a throne with a large chessboard in front of him. Unlike the last time where there were few chess pieces that were positioned away from its original starting point, today almost every piece, both black and white have been moved and some of them are on the floor by his feet signifying that they have been defeated.

Though his face can't be seen due to the darkness covering the upper part of his body, his red eyes glow and it becomes obvious that a menacing grin has surfaced under them.

"Prince Noah... You certainly have a troublesome ability, but little do you know, everything you had just done made things much easier on me."

Once again there is a man who stands at the base of the throne, this man is not Beelzebub nor Damien, he has dark blue hair and bright blue eyes. His name is Leviathan and he ranks second in the Hierarchy.

Leviathan is glaring at the chessboard and asks, "Judging by the atmosphere surrounding you, I'd assume everything is going great."

The man on the throne simply replies, "That's right, I am only a few steps away from owning the human world."

"How so?"

"Take a look at the chessboard, look at the position of the chess pieces ."

Leviathan looks at it and finds that the two white pieces, along with a bishop and a knight are surrounded by numerous black pieces.

"Is it relevant?"

"Of course it is, the white pieces represent the only obstacles that are in the way of me dominating the world... The white pieces are Noah of La'Juune, Lelaine of Troy, and King Gile and Queen Diana of Eiyalazo."

"I don't know much about this game, but basically, this means 'check' right?"

"Yes, that's exactly what it means. I have made my moves perfectly and everything is starting to fall into place."

"What do you need to have done in order to win this game?"

The man leans his head on his hand and says, "It's not what I need to have done, it's what will happen... The Prince of La'Juune was foolish enough to kidnap one of my pawns, with my help, Rain Von Ronheim will kill him as soon as the opportunity presents itself. General Sturgess lusts for Queen Lelaine, but now that King Zurvick is dead, a weak minded person like her is extremely vulnerable, so I will have him kill her during the coup. And Prince Dice is already on his way to kill his parents thanks to his foolishness in believing in my lies when I told him that King Gile and Queen Diana are actually the spies that sabotaged Rain."

Leviathan gently smiles in amusement, "Humans truly are easily manipulated."

"Especially when you offer them their wildest dreams on a gold platter, all one has to do is show them the fainest of results and they drool for more."

"With temptations like that, no man can deny you, the master conniver."

The man agrees and speaks, "Once the leaders of the three largest countries are dead, the ones left in line for power are the ones who's souls are bound to me under contract. Once their contract is fulfilled, I will damn those three and make their bodies my own. Once that happens, with my powers finally returned to Earth, I will be able to topple the leadership Troy, La'Juune and Eiyalazo and firmly plant myself as ruler."

The man laughs and unexpectedly stands to his feet, he walks down the three steps and past his chessboard; the dim light begins to shine on him and his blood red and black overcoat can be seen. Once the light hits his almost pale face, his features shine the room with a red aura. He has black hair that falls far below the nape of his neck, and has shining red eyes and a menacing smile on his face. He looks almost exactly like Damien except for the the two lines that fall from his eyes that make him look older.

This is Damien's father, this man is Satan.

He spreads his arms and states, "Soon enough, no man on either Earth nor Heaven will deny me as God. I am four deaths away from 'Checkmate'... And I am only four deaths away from holding all of the world in my hands."

The world has changed for the worse as the people in the shadows move in secret against the people of the light; tragedy awaits those who don't conform and that truth has already been self evident.

The future holds nothing but despair and all of the pleasant memories of the past fade away into nothing.

This sudden difference in every day life, all changed after the Night of the Ball.

Night of the Ball: (END)

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Dantega:Volume 2 Chapter 9

2013-04-26T15:46:33Z

98.155.19.101:

(PART 3)

Belphegor sighs and continues to tend to his wound, he is pretty pale and it would seem as though him sending the group to his soul storage facility has expended a lot of his energy. After getting himself out of the embedded lie he was once in, he falls to the floor and leans on the wall of the crater and relaxes.

"I wonder if they'll like my little world. Hehehe..." he coughs and covers the wound in his stomach to keep blood from coming out. "As soon as this thing is healed, I'll be joining you all there. Hahaha, no one can stop me in there, not even you Rage."

He sits there and laughs softly to himself until he sees a shadow being cast by the sun form over his head and to the front of him.

The person who made this shadow floats softly to the ground and lands in front of him, the man is clad in priest garments and is holding a bible, he is a black man with starch white hair and glowing purple eyes. This person is Phoenix Navara.

Belphegor is stunned at his appearance and asks, "How are you here? I sent you away with all of the others, I'm positive you were in my range."

Phoenix smiles and responds with a confident voice, "I was..."

"Then how!?"

"Hahaha, like I'd ever let myself to be sent somewhere against my will."

Belphegor is in a weakened state at the moment and he cannot fight very well if it came down to it, a perfect example of his strength level would be that of a normal human. He smirks and chuckles, "Though that doesn't explain how, I think the most important thing to ask you is what you intend on doing at this moment. So what is it priest, do you plan on fighting me?"

Phoenix puts his hands behind his back and shuts his eyes with a wry smile. "Not at all, I try to avoid fighting." He takes a step closer to Belphegor and leans down to his level. "But I will kindly ask you to release my comrades and leave this place."

"HAHAHAHHAHA are you kidding?"

Phoenix smiles and doesn't answer his question, Belphegor thinks nothing of him and keeps speaking, "I don't know who you think you are but there is no way I'll give up such a big advantage. Those people are as good as dead."

Phoenix stands back up and repeats himself, "I once again I must ask, will you let them go and leave this place?"

Belphegor finds his persistence to be annoying and spits when he answers, "Not gonna happen."

----------------------------

"Where is everybody?" asks Niera when she wakes up alone in one of the rock houses. She exits out of the home and finds that the village is just about completely demolished. "Umm... Did I miss something?"

She is really worried for the others safety and she starts to explore.

Out in the distance she spots a couple plumes of smoke that rise into the air, she decides to head in that direction when she finds the hundred yard crater.

'Where did this come from!?' she thinks to herself.

She walks to its edge and sees Phoenix standing worry free in this anomaly of a hole. Niera is about to shout to him until he sees that he is looking down on an unfamiliar man. Though she has yet to find out that they have been under attack, she recognizes the downed man as the one who was laying on the mountain of bodies before she fainted. Instead of reaching out to him, she chooses to lay down in silence and listen because she wouldn't know what to say to them in a situation where she has no clue what is going on.

-------------------------------

Phoenix turns away and walks a few feet in the opposite direction while talking, "Isn't this exactly what you dislike doing? Isn't it a lot of effort to keep them in there? I can see how it is affecting you."

"Of course, this is a shitty job but someone's gotta do it."

Phoenix turns around, "Does it have to be you?"

Belphegor frowns and replies, "If this is some kind of an attempt to change my mind it won't work buddy. I'm stuck on this, and when a lazy person like me is committed to something, there is nothing that will stop me."

Phoenix takes a deep breath and pulls out his bible, his face is serious and he even looks annoyed, he once again leans over and says, "Since you won't voluntarily do what I ask, I guess there is no choice but to use something that will make it harder for you to resist."

He opens the bible and puts it a couple inches away from Belphegor's face.

Belphegor suddenly feels himself tighten up and he cannot control his own body, confusion rips through his head when Phoenix begins to glow gold and speaks with a frown and a smile, "May the power of Christ compel you."

Belphegor's eyes start to burn red and he writhes in pain. "Is this some kind of exorcism!? I'm not such a piece of garbage that a mere human can exorcise me back to Hell!"

Phoenix continues his smile and pushes his bible so close it is touching Belphegor's forehead. This kind of thing should be impossible, the fact the the Book of God is making direct contact with one of the Seven Demons of Hell should be noted down in the history books as one of the most incredible occurrences of all time.

"GRRRAAAGGGCCKKK!!! THIS SHOULD'NT BE POSSIBLE!!"

He keeps screaming in agony while he feels that his soul is being ripped from his body as a red light glows around him and separates. The light floats off and plants itself into the center of the crater, it grows large until it looks like a ten foot high and ten foot wide square.

Belphegor starts to fade away when his body is engulfed in purple flames, this is extremely painful and through the back of his throat he mutters, "Who are you...?"

Phoenix opens his bible and reveals a conniving smile. "I am a man of this book. If you read it closely, you'll find me there."

Belphegor's body is quickly disappearing as he is spirited away, the last part of him that can still be seen is his head. 'Wait a second, those eyes of his... I've seen them before.' Belphegor thinks to himself, his eyes start grow large when an epiphany reaches his conscience. With the last bit of strength he has left he says, "No way... It's you! You are--------"

Before he can finish his sentence, Phoenix abruptly shuts his book, making a loud thud. His mouth fades into transparency and his eyes look as if they are seeing a ghost, they too fade and just like that the evil Demon Belphegor is no longer a threat.

Phoenix chuckles and says to a person who is no longer there, "Thank you for accepting my request... Had you stayed, you just might have ruined my plans."

----------------------------------

"Alright... That means that Phoenix got away somehow, so there's nothing we can do but go on ahead as planned." says Rage as he holds his hand on the door knob.

"Okay, let's go." says Cyrus.

Rage opens the door quickly and they all rush out in a wave of adrenaline.

"Huh?" Rage is confused when he sees that they are in the same crater that they were in before they were sent away.

Aria has her eyes shut when she runs out so she doesn't see that Rage has stopped and she ends up running into his back and she falls on the ground. "Owww..." she groans as she looks up and finds a scene that is far from what she was expecting. "Eh? We're back??"

They had all came rushing out of the box of red light that came from Belphegor's body, and once they exited it quickly dispersed into the sky.

"Glad to have you back! I was getting worried." said Phoenix with a pleased smile.

Rage turns to him suspiciously, "What happened?"

Phoenix rubs his head, "It would seem that he was really weakened by your attack Rage. He fled shortly after all of you disappeared."

They all take a collective sigh of relief upon hearing that. "That guy was a real monster, huh Sora?" asks Aria as she nudges Sora's shoulder.

Sora doesn't reply but she definitely agrees, what they had all just experienced was one of the most evil beings in all of Hell, it's without a doubt that the reality of their situation has finally struck them.

Rage is still weary of everything and he asks, "How did you avoid being dragged with us?"

Phoenix shrugs his shoulders and replies, "I guess I'm lucky."

Rage clicks his tongue and is starting to really doubt who Phoenix truly is as a person because he knows that he's hiding something. "Well then, if that's the case then there is no point in us hanging around here. Let's get going."

"Um.." this tiny little voice comes from Niera, who is standing above on the surface and looking down at them.

"Oh you're awake Niera! Man have we got some stories to tell you, you're lucky you got to sleep through it all." says Aria with a smile, she is happy to see that she is alright because just like Niera, she feels that the three girls' relationships are very close.

Phoenix is looking up at her with a troubled face and it makes Niera a little nervous. 'What was that?' she thinks, she is pondering about what Phoenix had just done to that man. She had thought that he was a normal priest until then, at that point in time he didn't look like anything good, and she assumes that it is something that he doesn't want any of them to know.

'Oh? Have I been found out?' Phoenix wonders, he chuckles and says, "Now that we're all here, we should leave now in case he decides to come back."

Though Rage prefers to be the one handing out orders, he agrees and they all head north once again and exit the doomed village.

----------------------------------

After traveling for the remainder of the day, they finally stop to rest by a river in a group of trees. The three girls all go to the shallow yet three foot deep river to bathe and wash away the troubles of the day.

"So that all happened while I was asleep huh?" asks Niera when she is told the details of the battle.

Aria starts swimming around in the water merrily and says, "Yeah, you didn't miss anything that you'd have wanted to see."

"I guess that's good... I'm just happy that everyone ended up unharmed." Niera's lips faintly rise and she lays back on a rock in the crystal clear water.

"... Cold..." Sora breaks the mood and says something far from the content of the current conversation. She has her arms crossed around her chest making her breasts look larger than they already are, it is obvious that she is cold because of the water but Aria and Niera become insecure at this sight.

They look down at their chests with diminutive eyes and feel self pity at their bust size, though Niera's are very small and Aria's are average, they both pail in comparison to Sora's.

"Just because you're cold doesn't mean you have to show off!" Aria shouts.

Sora tilts her head and asks, "... What..?"

Niera grabs her chest and looks weary when she shyly says, "At least mine are around the same size as Daey's. But yours and Tsubiri's are just unfair."

It would seem that this has been in the back of her mind for a while, when the entire group was together she noticed that Tsubiri and Sora are around the same size.

Sora is really confused as to what they are talking about, she wants to ask if she had said something wrong when she was complaining that the river water was a tad bit brisk. Little does she know that they are consumed with jealousy at her bust size, it's a shame that she can't convey theses feelings to them because her constant straight face is giving them the impression that she is bragging somehow.

"Um... If you feel too cold you should get out and dry off, you don't want to get sick like Ubica did." says Niera with concern.

This brings back some memories and Aria holds her chin, "Oh yeah! I haven't thought about that guy in a while."

Niera twiddles her fingers and has a red face, "I hope he's alright..."

She never got a chance to talk to him after he woke up back at the scene of the abyss, so she does not know if he has recovered fully yet. Of course this is also the same to the rest of their groups well being also.

"Oh? That sounded like you have a little crush on him." Aria grabs her around her shoulders and begins to mess with her hair.

Niera flails her arms in the water and nervously retorts, "N-No that's not it! I just... I just."

Aria stops her assault and teasingly smiles, "Think he's cute?"

Niera is flushed and she looks away, a quiet nimble voice comes from her mouth, "Y-Yeah..."

"Hahaha you don't need to be so shy about it, I thought the same thing too. I never talked to the guy once though."

"H-He's really kind."

Aria giggles and sighs, "It's a bummer that he didn't end up in our group huh?"

Niera looks a little sad when she reveals a strained smile. "Yeah, but there are others that definitely feel much more strongly about that than I do."

"You mean your sister?"

"Yes, and Trojia too... Even if he were here I could never get in the way of my sister and my best friend."

Aria looks at her in a way that shows sympathy, she shoves her and says, "So Trojia's your best friend eh? What does that make me!?"

"Uaahhh, N-No you're really important to me too!"

They wrestle around a little and Aria starts to laugh, eventually she realizes that they have left Sora out of the conversation. " So what do you think about all this Sora? Do you think that guy's cute too?"

Sora just stares at her, she is still completely confused as to why her saying that she was cold is molding into something so off topic. She folds her arms over her chest even tighter than before making it look much bigger, it would seem that she is angry and she gets up out of the river and says, "...Cold..."

She grbs her towel and walks away. She remembers why she hates to talk, the one time she tries to strike up a conversation it ends up like this.

Aria is still clasping to Niera and she considers what had just happened and when she thinks about it, she comes to the conclusion that there is no way Sora would be interested in such a thing. She shrugs her shoulders and blows it off when she says, "That was a dumb question."

-----------------------------------

Belphegor sits on a large velvet chair, he is breathing hard and his wounds from the earlier battle are still apparent. "Damn that priest... Who would've thought that he is----"

"I never woulda thought that one of the Seven Demons of Hell would get whooped so bad."

The voice comes from the darkness behind the large chair that he sits on, he doesn't turn but he replies angrily, "The same result would've come to you if you were there Abaddon."

"Oho? Now why do I not believe you?"

"Because you're a piece of shit... And I won't allow you to talk down on me, know you're place."

Abaddon laughs and then a door opens from one of the walls of this dark room and in comes Damien.

Damien is wearing that same confident smile as always as he says, "He does know his place, it is you who does not Belphegor. The one with superiority is Abaddon."

Belphegor coughs and blood comes out of his mouth, he leans back in his chair and replies, "You think that I'll just let that happen?"

"No I don't actually... I don't give handouts, he has to show me his worth."

"And how is he going to do that?"

Abaddon leans down the back rest of his chair and answers Belphegor's question with a menacing whisper, "I just gotta kill ya."

Belphegor frowns and the direction in which his speech remains towards Damien, "Did you get the approval from your old man?"

"I don't think it'd matter if I did or not."

"I won't do anything unless I know for sure that he agreed to it."

Damien smiles and replies sternly, "You don't have a choice."

He snaps his finger and in an instant they are in an endless room with a checkered white and black marble floor, the windows of this eternal place are all leading to something so black it seems that someone had put a drape over all of them.

Damien spreads his arms and declares, "This is a part of Purgatory, so you both know the rules that apply with that." he then raises his index finger and states his final words, "Only one of you can leave this place."

As soon as he finished that sentence, he disappears and leaves the two men to their ways, he intends for the two to fight to the death for the right of power.

Belphegor gingerly stands off of his chair and blood falls from his stomach onto the marble floor, he stretches his arms and cracks his neck. "Man what an awful day, this is truly a day of excess effort."

Abaddon puts his hand in his red cloak and pulls out a bag of marbles, he grabs a few of them and starts tossing them up in the air. "Ya know how long I've been waitin' for this day to come? It's finally my time to take your seat and begin my rise up the Hierarchy."

A blue light shines around Belphegor's hands and his eyes start to glow, he looks very angered and this is an emotion that he hasn't shown thus far, even when he was critically wounded. This overwhelming hate he holds towards the former Angel of God makes him feel as if all of his strength has returned to him, but that feeling is to the contrary of his actual condition, this would seem to be a one sided fight that is similar to kicking a man while he's down.

With one final sigh, Belphegor states something that gives him just a little more motivation to kill Abaddon. "Don't look so cocky just cause I'm injured, I have some important information about a certain priest to give the big boss, so I won't lose."

Abaddon holds a marble in a flicking position and smiles pleasurably. "Whatever that info is, it isn't near as important as this!" he says as he flicks a marble at Belphegor's face.

While looking and the approaching projectile Belphegor frowns and says, "This info is far more important than either of our lives."

-------------------------------------

It has been two days since the incident at the rock village, and other than that set back, they have been proceeding as planned. There have been no problems with visits from the enemy or anything else for that matter, it is mid day and they are walking up a large hill that leads to a dry mountain range.

"Hey, it's been a while since we left. We got to be getting close, what does the map say?" asks Cyrus. He knows that they are ahead of schedule and that they were close a week ago so it has to mean that they are within striking distance now.

Rage reaches into his long over coat and pulls out the piece of paper that holds the etchings of the map, after scanning it for a moment his eyes widen. "It says we're right on top of it!"

Cyrus jolts in shock, "Really!" he seems to be excited and he runs down the hill to inform the rest of the group that is lagging behind.

The reason for this is that Rage is always leading the group from afar, he is very anti social and he walks very fast because he doesn't seem to get fatigued, so there is usually just one person who struggles to keep up with him every once in a while and at this moment of time it's Cyrus.

Rage double takes on the map and finds that they are only a mile away from the first Gate, he starts to feel a little nervous as to what to expect upon reaching it. 'We did get here quite quickly. I wonder where Ubica and the others are?' he thinks this as he turns to the rest of the group who are now celebrating in a way. He sees that Phoenix is jogging up the hill effortlessly and wonders what this mysterious priest is coming to say.

"I would like to join you for this walk to the Gate Rage." Phoenix says as he jogs past.

Rage follows him and asks, "What's the rush?"

Phoenix turns and smiles while he starts to jog faster. "I want to be the first to see it."

"That kind of desire doesn't suit your personality."

" I have come to find that my personality has completely changed since arriving in this place."

Rage blows air out of his nose and asks, "Good or Bad?"

Phoenix starts running and begins to laugh, "That would depend on how you want to perceive it."

Rage wants to investigate further into it but Phoenix is still gaining speed and leaves him behind.

"Hm, fog?" Phoenix comments to himself on the environment atop of this large hill as he proceeds to walk through the thick fog. This place is odd because there aren't many trees around but the ground in which he walks is covered with fallen leaves and twigs, with each footstep he makes, an incredibly eerie noise cracks under his feet and breaks the silent serenity of the fog he's found himself in.

Rage catches up and joins him in the fog, "We're supposed to be at the Gate... In Achille's diary, the description of this place and what it actually looks like is way off."

Phoenix shrugs his shoulders and replies, "Well this kind of fitting don't you think?"

"Hmph, I don't know about that."

Out in the distance, the fog seems to weaken and some beams of sunlight are protruding through the denseness. "It looks like the Gate is just yards away." Phoenix says with a smile, he is starting to become excited and rushes out into light. He stops and basks in the sight that is the Gate, it is just as Achille Gallo said. connected to the face of a massive cliff, is a Gate.

This Gate stands well over fifty meters high and one hundred meters wide, the arch is engraved in gold and numerous different colored diamonds. The stone was painted with the design of angels and their children depicting a glorious image of Heaven.

"So this is it huh?" Rage asks in a manner that is opposite of awe, it almost seems that he is disinterested in the painting of Heaven on such a grand scale.

Phoenix starts to walk toward the white light that sits in the middle of the Gate causing Rage to become concerned.

"Wait! It's dangerous if you get too close!"

Phoenix keeps moving forward and nonchalantly waves his hand back at him as if saying 'whatever.'

Rage clicks his tongue in anger, he wonders if Phoenix has been entranced by the light of the Gate just as Achille did, he readies his scythe and runs forward, fully expecting yet another battle.

Phoenix is just steps in front of this Gate, he looks around anxiously and is wearing a serious face.

"Are you looking for me?"

This unfamiliar voice comes from a man who is standing atop of the fifty meter high Gate, he spreads his arms and floats downwards. Phoenix backs away and lets him land softly, the man has short brown hair and the only the white of his sclera can be seen in his eyes, he has intricately designed red armor on and a white cloak flows down his shoulders and back that drags to the ground.

From behind him comes Rage who is running on the stone pathway that leads to the Gate. "Phoenix! Get away from him!"

Phoenix shrugs his shoulders and takes a few steps back, Rage makes it to him and looks at the man who had just appeared. Rage looks surprised and says, "Is that?---"

He is swiftly interrupted by Phoenix who is frowning and smiling and the same time causing him to look cynical. "Pontius Pilate."

"What is he doing in a place like this? Didn't he kill himself?" asks Rage.

Phoenix starts to laugh, "No, the history books were wrong, this man was far too proud to do something as cowardly as that."

The man named Pontius spreads his arms and ignores them, in a business like fashion he asks, "Do you wish to pass the Gate?"

Rage pulls out his scythe and swiftly answers, "Yes we do."

Pontius raises his arms to the air and says, "Very well then."

All across the the length of the cliff appears thousands of crosses, and nailed upon them are people, some still alive, some dead, some are rotting and some are all bones, they have all been crucified.

Pontius points out his hand and says with authority, "I shall add you to my collection of people who have attempted to pass this Gate."

The smile from Phoenix's face dissolves and is replaced solely by a bitter frown, he walks toward the Gatekeeper and says, "I had heard that because you washed your hands of the deed, you avoided going to Hell for sending Christ to the cross."

Pontius Pilate was a Prefect of the Roman Province of Judea during Jesus' time, and as a result, he was the judge at Jesus' trial and gave the authorization for his crucifixion. But as soon as he made this order, he washed his hands of the deed, claiming that he sent the so called conspirator against Rome out of reluctance.

"That is correct." Pontius replies, it is very difficult to tell his emotional state because of his eyes, it looks more like his expression belongs in a statue.

Phoenix turns to Rage and asks, "Purgatory... This place is out of the view of Heaven right?"

Rage looks confused and responds wearily, "Yeah that's right."

Phoenix starts to laugh rather loudly, "Hahahahahah! This is good!" he pulls out his bible and points it at Pontius.

"I recognize you. Though you do look slightly different." says Pontius as he walks toward Phoenix.

Rage is completely bewildered as to what is going on, it's like the two of them are moving in their own pace and left him behind in the dust.

"That's right... I know exactly who you are." Pontius puts out his hand, as if he is announcing something to the audience of crucifixion victims, he says rather loudly...

"BEHOLD THE MAN."

These words send shockwaves down Rage's spine, he now knows the secret that the mysterious Phoenix has been hiding. "Impossible." he says, he is stunned as he looks to Phoenix's back.

Phoenix walks to Pontius but speaks to Rage, "Let me handle this one, my arrival has long since been overdue."

Rage steps back and he is shaken up at this sudden revelation; he watches the two proceed on a collision course with each other and mutters the words confirming the priest's identity.

"It's you... The Messiah."

Revelation (END)

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