The Coming Darkness

Enzo lowered his eyelids as Volitaire spoke. He was just as curious as him as to who he was in the past. "And you will, Voli." He assured his friend, that he would be a different person, that he would be able to erase the mistakes his own kind made. He walked up to the portal, looking straight through it to the endless forest. The ruins were near the portal. He could feel it as soon as he neared the portal. A since of 'belonging' filled him as he thought about it.


Enki on the other hand, sat comfortably, despite being on a boulder. "That would be cheating, Marcus. I'll stay up here and watch you two." He said with a smile on his face.

Artizle hid a confident grin. He figured he'd break some of the tension by making a silly comment or try to better introduce himself. "You two seem quite ready for what's to come. Though... Why are you battling in such a beautiful place? Looks almost unfitting... Though at the same time it'll be horrible to think of the damage of the battle, wouldn't it?" He curved his lip while looking up at the two. "My name is Artizle by the way, Enzo? Was it? I'm only going by what Voli said. I'm his stepbrother. You see. I figured I'd help by tagging along for the big fight. Voli actually insisted I should." He laughed after explaining himself. He always loved first introductions, he hoped to get to see what his friends' skills were. "Aah. Yeah... He's Artizle, Enzo. Came here with Montesque. Speaking of which... Where is he?"

She nodded, did as she had done prior, but this time she withdrew her weapons, placed her shoulder bag on a nearby boulder, and summoned them again and made sure they could be 'picked' up and were completely invisible.

"I've never fought, so I suppose you should--for now," she responded as came at him carefully with her sword breaker being closer to her body and with short sword a bit further from her chest.

It was like a flash of lighting when he darted towards her, he feinted to the left, kicking off a sandal to distract her as it came close to her face, only to be sliced in half by an unseen blade. "There's one..." Marcus continued to dart in, fall back, side step and maneuver in unpredictable patterns in front of Dora, slightly off balance until he kicked off the other sandal in her direction, it too being sliced in half. "That's two..." He hadn't exactly know what she had conjured, if he used his magic, he could, but he agreed to take it easy on her, he would only use hand-to-hand. But he assumed it was just the two blades from before, albeit invisible. His eyes focused in on hers, not breaking contact, watching them shift back in forth trying to keep with his movements. For a tall and kind of bulky guy, he moved fast. "Focus, Dora. You know your conjurations are there, you can take the bulk of your concentration off them. Where is your enemy? Does he or she move in patterns? Keep your mind open, yet closed at the same time. Open to thought and observation, closed to the feinting and psyche-outs of your enemies. A mind is powerful thing, and it is your greatest asset in combat." He moved in again and shot a roundhouse kick to her head stopping just before his foot came in contact with her temple. And pulled back again, "That was hit, I could have knocked you out cold." It was surprising, the usually friendly and charming man had become a ruthless and aggressive teacher. But it was all part of his teaching regime. Their enemies will never be nice, and will do what they can to get in their heads, they need to learn to overcome the mind games.

"I'm not sure you really want to come with us." Enzo knew it wasn't possible for him to take along another soul. He was already tasked to watch a group of emotionally unstable teenagers, but to add on someone he doesn't even know? He gave Artizle a nervous smile, then back to Volitaire as he brought up Montesque.

"O-Oh, Montesque, he, uh.." Enzo tried finding the best way to tell his friend that Monte had been taken away by the Council. "The Council arrested him."


Enki raised an eyebrow. "No fighting experience?" He asked, but didn't expect an answer as they began their session. "Well that's why we're here. To gain experience."

"WHAT!?" "WHAT!?" They both shouted in surprise. "Why did they do that!? At a time like this too!? He had the trump card we needed to change the tide of the battle if things begin to go wrong!" Artizle didn't want to start, he knew Volitaire was probably going to yell at him if he said the wrong thing. With Artizle's silly mannerisms he sometimes couldn't help but crack a joke and look more to the brighter side of things. But this time he really couldn't. "Aaaarrrgghhh!!" Volitaire growled. "There was nothing you or Kenji could do to change their minds? He lowered his voice and tried to relax, if anyone he couldn't blow up at Enzo. He turned to Kenji and noticed the book and pieced together that it must've been Aurora. Which explains why it's here and Montesque isn't. He tapped his foot impatiently trying to cope with the anxiety. "Well we do have the book... But Montesque was the only one to know how to use it... Then WHO ELSE CAN DO IT!?" He muttered and hissed under his breath.

Dora focused, removed a large amount of her concentration from her summons, and kept her mind closed, but aware. She winced slightly when his had gotten too close to her, so she had withdrawn her blades and decided to block any on coming attacks with her arms and legs. She didn't need weapons at this point, she just went with instinct as she watched Marcus. She knew she could easily dodge given the chance with her own unrelated technique's.

Enzo backed away from Volitaire as he threw a tantrum. It was frightening, seeing Volitaire, who was a calm person, explode into a rage. "No, we.." It seemed like he couldn't get a word in, but it wasn't needed. Volitaire calmed down afterwards, and so did Enzo. "Aurora was put into the first Sky's hands..." He looked down, remembering the book he read, about how magic had first come into existence.

"Aurora was created by the Soulless.." His eyes shot up to the others, filled with determination to go all the way. "I'll do it! I'll activate Aurora when the time comes!"

It was rather strange. Ines had been so traumatized when she heard of the events that occurred, not because they were scary, but because she wasn't there to help her students.The time after that was a blur, every day the same thing...sleepy...moody...just...just plain tired, actually. The strawberry haired woman blinked, dazed.

"Nn...I suppose I'll walk around..." Her blue eyes shifted around, and managed to find a few articles of clothing that she found somewhat decent. Her getup this time was a jogging suit accessorized with a tasteful blue scarf; not something the usual Ines would wear, but it was the best she could do in this funk.

Ines made her way to the beach, her shoes making a soft thunking sound on the ground. Then she heard voices. Who...? Ines squinted, walking closer to see the source of the sound. It turned out to be none other than Marcus, along with a shorter doll like girl. They seemed to be in the midst of battle. Ines found it hard to step in and interrupt, as they seemed a bit engrossed in it, but instead stood to the side, observing.

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"..."

"Now I see why you put so much faith in the boy, Voli." Artizle thought behind a confident smirk. Volitaire curved his lip, a little unsure if Enzo really knew how to get it to work Or if he was just going to wing it. "You sure? I mean, I don't doubt you... I just didn't know you knew how to activate the thing. I guess you did your homework after all." Volitaire chuckled then letting out a long sigh, trying to relax himself. Some of his anxiety cleared when Enzo proposed to use Aurora. But he was really counting on Montesque to bring out the mysterious effects of the tome. He turned to Kenji, squatting down to reach his level. "What do you think? You've been pretty quiet since I walked in. You usually intervene by making us look like fools by now."

"Don't act like you know me." Kenji booped Volitaire on the head with Aurora when he came close. "I would voice my thoughts, but none of you are in the position to hear it right now."

He walked around Volitaire. "As for Montesque- do not worry about him. Right now, you should all be focused on the path ahead."

"Hmm. Fine.. Ow.. How thick is that thing?" Volitaire rubbed the top of his head to try and alleviate the ringing pain of being hit on the temple with a book the size of a Harry Potter novel. Meanwhile Artizle was trying his hardest not to burst into laughter at how silly a baby had smacked Volitaire with a large book. Awkwardly snickering while covering his mouth and hunched over while looking at both Kenji and Volitaire. His eyes were glistening from the tears that was starting to build up.

JD snagged Silver’s hand and led her away. To be honest he had no idea where Eos was or even if she would respond well to the news, but he had to let her know. He would hate to die by the hand of his own sister this early in life.
As they came out of the command center there was a hesitation as he saw the top of a blonde head leaned rather despairingly against the wall. At that moment JD had oddly conflicting emotions. He was still hurt, still pained, but he was elated now at what possibilities the future might hold (and a wee bit scared to be honest). Eos was his anchor, or at least he would acknowledge her once again as the piece that weighted his thoughts.
Slowly he approached his sister and cleared his throat. “Hey E,” he stated softly. “Can we three speak in private?”

He smiled, watching as Dora's eyes focus intently on his movements, eyeing his footing the way he bounced back in forth like a boxer weaving through punches. "Good, you learn fast." At of the corner of his eye he saw a shimmer of pink, "Care to join us Ines?" Marcus shouted. It wasn't just because he was restless and hoped to keep the battle lively, he also wanted to try and distract Dora, and pull her attention away from him. Apart from a slight wince, she was undeterred by his ruse. "Alright, she's focused. Time to put her to the test." He charged and rolled towards her left, grabbing a handful of sand as he did so and holding it behind his back when he came to his feet. Before is trickled completely through his hands, he swung his arm wildly in her direction, chucking the sand up into her eyes. Oh yes, it was a dirty move. But what enemy ever fought fair? He used his brief opportunity to get behind her, and sliding out of reach. He hoped within the couple of seconds of sand induced blindness, she wouldn't see him slip into her flank.

Even with the eye's full of sand she could hear his movements behind her, she did a back handspring, and then quickly turned to face him. She quickly brushed the sand from her hands and grinned softly as she painfully wiped the sand from her tearing eyes.

"A gymnast I see, flexibility and mobility come in handy during a fight." Without warning he tumbled towards her, landing directly at her toes and swung a heavy leg at the weak point of her ankles, trying to throw her off her feet.

Seeing that she was quickly dug her toes into the sand, pulled them out from underneath him, and did two more quick back handsprings out of the way--she even made sure to kick up a lot of sand in Marcus's direction. "I've been a gymnast since I was six years old. Bars and beams are my favorite, but I'm equally good at floor," she paused, "Though, I won't always be able to get out from under everyone. If this were concrete or dry dirt, I would have lost a toe nail or worse."

The kicked up sand made him draw back a bit. His glasses blocked the brunt of most of it, but some had gotten in his nose and mouth causing him to cough a bit. "Very nice move. I commend you for it." Marcus stood to his feet and brushed off the excess dirt covering his face and chest before cracking his neck and popping his knuckles, "Seeing as how you learn so quickly, I think it's time to step it up a notch." He lunged at her again, taking an oddly straight on approach without moving from side to side like he normally would. Seconds before reaching the petite female, his eyes locked on hers, "Drop your guard..." Was all she heard echo in her mind. Dora's brain shot off signals to her body and her arms dropped to her sides. "You didn't close your mind." He spoke softly pulling an arm back and turning with the full force of his body, his fist coming within mere inches of her face, only to have an index finger shoot out and flick her gently on the nose. "I'm sorry, that was dirty of me." His usual warm and friendly smile returned on his lips and he let out a soft chuckle. Backing up a few feet away he stood back in a ready stance. "Alright, I was only kidding with you there. Come at me with all you got, conjurations or not."

Enki watched with uninterested eyes as they practiced. They both back and fourth, neither of the two giving it their all just yet. He felt the energy of the portal open, and in a way, wanted to see Enzo and the others on their way out, but he knew that if he saw Enzo march to his own death, he'd jump in there after him.

He closed his eyes for a moment. At this time, Ines approached, and made him reopen his eyes. The first thing they landed on was Ines and her outfit. Something felt different about her, but he wasn't going to dig.

The wind started to pick up. His red hair swayed, yet he didn't move, his eyesight didn't budge from the ground in front of him. Stay safe. All of you. He wished as his eyes narrowed from the wind.

My mind is any impenetrable force-field, it's a competition I must show no emotion, and I must concentrate, She thought as her body remained relaxed, her mind was sharp but closed. She ran, summoned up an invisible springboard, leapt upon it, and as she soared through the air she summoned an invisible force large enough to mask her as she flipped tumbled through the air twice and landed on her feet behind him. She didn't completely remove herself from the field, but she carefully lifted her leg up and poked him in the back with her toe before she withdrew the veil and springboard,

Marucs kept his eyes trained on Adorra, only to have her vanish in split-second flash of pale light. "Cloaking yourself, good girl." It was about then he staggered forward slightly as a dainty toe poked the small of his back. "Gah!" Surprisingly, her false attack caught him off guard, making him let out an unexpected yelp. "Very funny." He chuckled, making an about turn to face her again, noting an almost playful smile on her face. "Alright, I think you've done well for yourself today. If you were in an actual class, I'd give you a B+!" He took off his glasses and started to clean the scattered pieces of sand on them, "I'd imagine you're pretty worn out though. How about we head in and get ourselves some lunch? If you want to of course. Oh, and Enki, Ines, feel free to tag along as well."

"Thank you. I may not be a skilled fighter, but I suppose my abilities should come in handy. Though, I really want to learn to fight with hand-to-hand techniques and swords." Her smile broadened, "I'm actually not that tired, I used to train for hours on end. I'm a healer, when my muscle's got sore or I ached I'd take a small break and heal myself while no one was watching. So, you can say I cheated a little." She giggled, "Lunch? I could summon something up if you know what you'd like. I'm probably just going to swim a bit."

By now, Enki had moved all of his attention away from the two practicing in front of him, so when he name was heard, his head shot up to see who said it. "Huh? Oh, you two go ahead." Enki had to keep himself away from the building, for if he saw his only childhood friend leaving, he would jump in there too.


Meanwhile, in the Gaze, and across distant stretches of land, a castle and city hybrid stood, floating on a single, large rock, a late 17th century ship cruised it's way across the gap between floating islands and bared it's direction for the castle's port.

On the ship was a scout, working for the entities, he rushed off of the floating transportation and sprinted through the streets, heading for the castle in the middle.

After passing through security checkpoints, the scout found himself standing before the doors into the throne room. No matter the news he carried with him, the large doors looked oppressive and ominous.

The scout entered, quickly spotting Destruction and Darkness, who seemed to be bickering over something. "M'lord," He announced himself, followed by a bow. Darkness and Destruction looked over to him. "These 'medieval' guys are entertaining." Darkness commented. "Why are you here?" "A portal to the living has opened, sir, near the tomb of Aries."


Destruction's face flushed with pride, for he knew who opened the portal, and who was coming. "Guardians..." "I see, so still, they attempt to march in here and stop me." His tone wasn't as mysterious as before. "They have acquired their flames, indeed. They will be a tough match up, even for you." "Wrong. I've already grown stronger by consuming the Sun Guardian, but it seems I need another boost, if they're all going to charge in here."


"A boost? What do you mean?" Darkness stood up, raised his hand and summoned his scythe, and turned to Destruction. "The time has come when I surpass the rest of the entities, and take both realms for myself."

And right before the scout's very eyes, the two guardians engaged in battle. He knew that this meant war between the entities now, and that there was nothing the poor souls could do but wait and see who would come out the victor.

The room flashed with mixes of orange flame and an indigo mist. They were too fast for the scout's eyes to catch up, he could only see the craters being made on the floors and walls, followed by blood spatters. It was hard to tell who was winning.

It was then that the scout realized he needed to call for help, so he turned around, and made a dash for the exit. Several craters formed in front of him, all he could guess was that they were moving around the room and had crashed in front of him a few times. He made it out of the room, accidentally sliding when he came to make a turn down a corridor. First thing's first, he had to find War and Lightning. They were the strongest ones other than Destruction and Darkness.


He charged down the door to the armory. War was there, already about to leave. "War, Dark-" "-I know." He brushed past the scout and began walking back towards the throne room. "Ready the others!" He shouted back.


Unlike the other entities, War disliked Darkness the most. He never liked what he did. There was a thin line keeping the two from attacking each other, but now, that line was broken. He stood infront of the throne room doors, quickly forming a large, red hammer from thin air. The battle inside seemed to have gotten quiet, which only meant someone won and someone lost. War kicked down the room door. The dark corruption literally seeped out of the room from the ground, spreading like wild plants. The inside of the room was pitch black, but that didn't stop War from going in. "Saren! Where are you, you slimy fucker?!" He shouted in the room, but got silence in return. "I've had enough of your bullshit! Answer me!"

"Sure."

Spoiler

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"Where's Destruction?"
He demanded. "Consumed. I now have his memories and his strengths." As Darkness drew closer, he swung around his scythe in a taunting fashion, it whistled in the air and sliced up the ground around him. The raw power coming from Darkness made War fall to his knees. "Saren.. I'll.. kill you for this.." "Really? Doesn't look that way to me. Something wrong with your legs?" He asked in a taunting tone. He knew there was so much flame power coming from him, that it was nearly impossible to lift a finger to him just from that alone. "Tch- Why can't I move?!" "You lack a lot of things, knowledge is one. This is caused by fear. Now that you're in my domain, you know in your heart you can't beat me. Fear."

Darkness raised his scythe to War's neck. He looked down on him with some thought. "On second thought, I won't kill you."

"I have a better plan for you."

Ines blinked, "Oh, no, I shouldn't join you," she said, waving her hands in front of her face, "I'm no good at fighting anyways...unlike this little lady, haha." Ines gave a friendly smile to the shorter girl, "What is your name? Are you a new student?"

-----

After spending about thirty minutes navigating the hallways, Sasha finally found her way into some room of some sort. Looking around, it seemed to be a training room.

Just then, a familiar voice found its way to her ear. Turning around, Sasha found two faces that she'd known for a while, "Yo," she called, giving a slight wave towards Enzo and Volitaire...and who was that white haired guy next to Volitaire anyhow?

"Look at all the friends coming together at the big finish! Hello, madam. You seem like tom-" His greeting towards Sasha was cut short by a sharp elbow from Volitaire to Artizle stomach. He hacked and coughed from the sudden impact and stumbled over, attempting to regan is breath. "Hi, Sasha. I haven't seen you since the fight with Alarick and Beatrice. How are you holding up? Oh and this is my stepbrother, Artizle. He'll be helping us in our final battle." Volitaire said with a long sigh afterwards. He was still a bit on edge from Montesque being imprisoned, and he did not need Artizle saying the wrong things to Sasha of all people. The fierce little cheetah would probably flood the place if Volitaire let him continue.

Enzo could of swore he snapped his neck when he heard Sasha's voice behind him. He had to stop himself from running over to her. It was too long since they had seen each other. An entire week?

"Sasha..." He felt renewed. "Where have you been?"

The white haired male had begun to speak to her, when he was elbowed rather roughly by Volitaire. Sasha raised an eyebrow at the action, but didn't comment on it. "Hmph, I've been here and there," she replied, not about to admit that she'd just been lazing around in her own little funk. Sasha gave a small nod in the direction of the other white haired male...Artizle, was it?

Her attention was directed towards Enzo, and she gave him one of her rare fleeting smiles, relieved to see him as well. Sure, it only lasted about a second, but still, a smile is a smile. "I've just been...around."

For a moment, Enzo was elated, but it was soon brought down a few notches, having remembered their mission. "I hope we're ready." Of course, the state of the Guardians wasn't the best, half of them were taken by surprise at the entire situation.

And with this, he doubted that he could uphold his promise with David about returning them all back safely. It was unlikely, but he was ready to give it his all - maybe even his life - to return them to their homes, and to instill peace back into the hearts and minds of their magical world.

Enzo turned to the portal. He was still holding it open with his flames, yet couldn't do that for much longer, for he had to slow one current of time down to match the speed of the other. Two days in the Gaze meant over a month in this realm.

"I'm going in." He declared with determination.
Taking a step forward into the portal, he instantly felt gravity shift, pulling his body in entirely, and he quickly found himself falling down to the forest ground below.

Fortunately, due to his training, he was somewhat agile, and landed on his feet rather heavily. The air was definitely colder in the Gaze than before. He could see his warm breath in front of him. Around him was nothing but standing trees and fallen ones. He felt a faint flame off in one direction, and figured that was where the ruins were.

Before he moved on, he looked up to the portal in the air and waited to see if anyone would come in with him.

Volitaire wasn't far behind his friend. Wrapping himself with orbiting runes he slowly fell to his feet by releasing himself from the pull of gravity. The soft crunching of grass broke the silence. A soft wind was carried through the branches of trees around them, rustling the leaves and blowing through the hollow trunks of once living trees. Volitaire's breath was caught in the cold, stiff air. He didn't remembering it being this cold last he was hear. Nonetheless he enjoyed the chilling wind. "Back again, huh Enzo?" He asked while taking a look at his surroundings. Gaze was still a fascinating place to behold, still not worthy of the scene of a final battle to him. He wouldn't want to damage such a beautiful place.

Meanwhile...

Artizle was still behind the portal, a bit about uncomfortable going inside. The portals strange, flame surrounded design frightened him. He felt he'd probably burn himself while entering. He peered closer inside, spotting Volitaire and his friend below. They seemed unharmed but it didn't relieve him of his premonitions to jumping through the thing. He took a breathe and ran in, hopping over any flame surrounding the portal and traveling through the warped space from inbetween the two worlds. He safely came through and landed with a thud, not properlly preparing himself for landing because of his fear of injury of jumping into the portal in the first place. He dusted himself off and was stolen by the foreign beauty of Gaze. Not saying a word in protest to his brief trip here.

"Oh... JD." She looked up from the wall with a tired expression and smiled. "Is everything alright?" His expression was hard to read, and there seemed to be some urgent and intense energy sparking about both JD and Silver.

"That's strange..." She muttered outloud. "My powers must be out of wack..." She didn't go on to elaborate considering she was talking to herself mostly. What was confusing her was the fact she could sense three immediate auras, but only her brother and Silver were standing before her. The third aura seemed like a mesh between the two, so perhaps it was just a misreading, but it felt strong...