The Coming Darkness

[[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgUR61Loj78&feature=my_liked_videos&list=L LomTt16CvcvgmFeoaVBG9LQ ]]

Grim crossed his arms. He looked towards Red, who was the only one in the ship's interior. "What are you doing in Nor?" Red had found courage to ask him questions, though he had no weapon with him."If it really concerns you.." Grim replied with his eyes closed. He uncrossed his arms and looked at Red intently. "We're in search of a book." He starts to explain the cults goal. "If you know your stuff about magic, I shouldn't have to tell you what book it is."

"What is he going on about?" Enzo muttered, glaring at Grim. "He's talking about the spell Aurora." Kenji said, walking up to the hole in the ship. "Aurora was one of the original magic spells. The first one, actually." Kenji explained. Grim smiled at the fox, clearly intrigued at his knowledge. "What sort of familiar are you? Information?" He questioned. "I'm not a familiar, i'm a bodyguard." Kenji retorts in an annoyed tone.

"Anyway, Aurora works like a genie. Whoever casts it, can have one wish carried out, no limitations. Someone stumbled upon it a few decades ago, and wished magic for everyone." By now, Enzo was standing next to Kenji, and he was crouched down so he could hear Kenji's voice over the water surrounding the ship. "Of course, some people just had to have the spell for their own good and desires, so it was locked away in an medieval castle, called Castle Aurora." Kenji sighed at the end of his speech. "I had heard about it, sure, but I never knew it was this close to Sorcerers."

"So all we have to do is beat these idiots down and hide it?" Enzo stood up and looked down at Grim from the deck. "That'll be easy."

Einso laughed at Maria's name she gave him. "If you wouldn't mind, please help me look after my younger brothers body. He transferred his will into his clone so he can actively fight without being effected by the gravity magics. If his body is harmed his clone is destroyed, thus Volitaire returns to normal." Einso sighed after giving the explination.

Meanwhile, on Valor and Grim.

Volitaire heard what Kenji said above deck. He dove down and stood in beside Red. "Here." Volitaire lent Red his sword. "This book, it has to be hidden. I can't risk Montesque getting to it." "Montesque..how would you know that name?" "I'm a Lucath." Grims eyebrow rose. "Ain't this something. Taking revenge on the old man, I presume?" Volitaire remained silent. "Hah, interesting. He'll find comfort knowing you'll arrive. That is if your team gets pass me. "Then come.." Volitaire spread his wings and a ominous wind blew. Grim braced through the gust and used his magic to halt the wind. Volitaire placed two hands on the ground and undead entities rose from beside him, he retreaded above deck and prepared another spell. "Boy does he play hard to get.." Grim intensified the gravity around the undead, crushing their bodies. He leaped upward and found Volitaire raising his hand and red spheres fired from his palm and landed over the ship. Grim carefully landed in a safe spot. "What did you do here?" "Trap magics. Step on one, you're trapped." "Good enough." Grim slowly walked towards Volitaire then picked up pace. Volitaire retaliated by slamming his hand on the ground and chains flew from a portal on the ground. Grim slid under them, and made a quick roll on the ground moving out the way. Volitaire reached out and a shadow cast from a ledge was taken and coated his hand, growing claws. He moved up towards Grim and sliced, leaving 4 marks and his shirt ripped. Grim roundhouse kicked Vol in his jaw, causing him to fall back. Grim proceeded to advance and attack again, Vol thought quickly and summoned another undead in front of him. "Enough with this trickery!" He threw the undead aside and saw Vol had a spell charged and fired a black and green fireball. Grim turned to his side and the fireball traveled over the ocean, splitting the water it traveled over. "You little.."

Maria looked at the body that lay next to him, it's eyes closed as if it was sleeping but there was no peacefulness on this face. It showed pain and dedication. " All right we should probably move him further away them." she said walking closer and squatting down, putting one arm under his legs and the other under his arm and lifting him as if he was a doll. She him to the back of the boat and laid him down softly. She looked at him and blushed a little before getting the hair out of his eyes. " Don't worry, I'll protect you " she said softly and looked towards the others. " Rika see if you can help that kenji person down there, but please don't use it unless we really need to." She said in a soft tone. Rika bounced off towards the gravity field and walked through with out much of a problem, She jumped into the hole and found kenji. " What do we need to do?" she asked

Volitaire growled and his eyes grew a faint yellow glow. Grim blasted Vol with a odd wave and he was pushed back but tried to maintain stature. He ran up to Grim and gave him a swift kick to his side, Grim had blocked it and more of oncoming attacks from Volitaire. He frowned some more, and gave a quick punch. Grim, of course grabbed his fist and attempted to throw him. Before he could toss him, Volitaire vanished into black feathers from his wings taking on wind turbulence from moving so quickly. He came back in front of Grim and gave him a palm thrust to his stomach, and left a red mark there. Grim stepped back and noticed the mark. "Is this how you plan to attack me? If this is just some other sad attempt to trap me in your chains your wrong." Volitarie smiled under the hair blowing in his face. "This is no attempt." Volitaire flung his hand and shot another fireball, smaller than before. Grim jumped back and landed in the middle of the deck. "Good.." Volitaire snapped his fingers and all the pentagram traps shot chains all in his direction. The top of the ship was covered in chains, almost web-like. Grim was trapped in a tangle of it all, it was difficult to see where he could move around to squeeze through. "You- Well, you caught me. But don't think I won't give him to your petty dark magics." Volitaire looked up at him. "You're not." Volitaire said with an aggressive tone.

Kenji shook his head. "We don't have to do anything now. Volitaire's got it all set up." He said, simply observing the fight. Grim laughed, clearly not worried about the situation he was in. "I can break these chains." He said confidently. Enzo walked up to Grim while he was chained up, and grabbed Grim by his shirt. "Are there anymore like you?" He questioned him. Grim held a wicked smile. "Of course, and i'm the lowest of them." Red finally made it up to the deck, carrying Volitaires sword. "Sounds like he likes that." Red sneered, with his arms crossed. "They are atleast twice as powerful as me, and once i've been knocked out, they'll sense it, and kill all of you." Enzo stared at him, bearing no happy expression. He looked to the left, and then to the right, observing the chains that held Grim in place. He reached with his other hand and grabbed onto it, burning the chains away.

"There's no need for pointless things like that." Enzo muttered. Grim shook free of Enzo's grasp, and jumped back to regain some space and energy. Dark aura started to form in Grim's hands. The water barrier started to split in half, letting in the sunlight. Acting automatically, Enzo flashed forward, again leaving nothing but his flames in the distance. He quickly closed the distance between them, and uppercutted Grim in the stomach, sending him up into the water barrier's opening. "Guh, it's no use.. I'll.." Grim was cut off when he realized Enzo had not even been 5 feet away from him. He flew upwards with Grim, repeatedly punching him in his mid-section. Blood started to escape from Grim's mouth, but Enzo didn't stop. He kept hitting Grim upwards, sending him sky high with every blow.

Kenji observed this, concern for Enzo was on his face. He's fighting the enemy, but.. Kenji sighed. Enzo pulled back his fist, preparing for the last strike. Grim could only watch as his body ached, on the verge of exploding. This isn't magic... He thought. It's alright, because they won't get anywhere near Void. He closed his eyes as Enzo punched him in the face with the powered up fist. Flames bursted out of his gloves, creating a beam of fire to soar upward into the sky.

When the beam disappeared, Grim was nowhere to be seen, and Enzo's flames had disappeared. It looked like he was going to faint. Falling back down to the ship, He noticed that the island was close by. He sighed of relief and closed his eyes, falling back down to the ship.

Meanwhile, in Castle Aurora... again again. Void's eyes opened after he had fell into a quick sleep. "He was taken out?" Void said to himself. He laughed silently. "Come, heroic idiots. Give Endine a challenge they've been seeking."

Volitaire stood in silence. "I don't feel I'm ready for this challenge. I couldn't seem to trap him, or get him with my ranged attacks good enough, this is rubbish...I need to get over my hiatus of close combat. It probably would've worked better. I guess I gotta practice some more. I've been rusty from not having a able fight..." The clone disappeared and Volitaire's body regain consciousness. He opened his eyes and noticed Maria was watching over him and Einso was over at the door looking after them both. He sat up and laid back against the wall. "Thank you, for looking after my original body. No way this body could've handled gravity magics." Volitaire sat there in silence thinking what he did wrong.

Maria smiled and nodded. " It's perfectly fine as long as your okay. I did say I would protect you " she said happily watching Rika bounce onto deck and over to her before vanishing again. " If that was the weakest of what were facing most of us won't do much damage if any to them, we could have people act as distractions to help others out... " She said thoughtfully. She sat thinking for a minute before putting it out of her mind, she got to her feet and offered him her hand. " You probably shouldn't be laying down anymore, it will give way soon. " She said with a sweet voice.

Enzo's eyes were spirals, he looked like he had just gotten a one-hitter quitter. Red shoves him about with his boot. "I'd beat sense into you, welp, but i'll let you go this time for beating Grim. Kenji was also looking down on Enzo, but with worry. "All that fast movement must have made him faint." He said, mostly to himself. He looked up to where the ship was heading. The water barrier had broken down, and they were right near Nor's fishing spots. "On another note, we're at the island." Suddenly, the captains cab door swings open, and a very intoxicated sailor slumbered his way out. His clothes were torn, looking like a bum. In his hand was a bottle of rum. He uses his other hand to block out the sunrays from his eyes. "Ayeee.... We be dere." He tried to say, before collapsing over.

After a brief stare, Kenji noticed neither Sarus or Ling showed. He turned to the direction he had last seen them in. "Strange.. what happened?" He said, again to himself.

Volitaire shook his head. "I'm fine. Don't worry." Volitaire sighed and relaxed his head on his hand. Einso looked at them both them left to the deck to check on Enzo and the others. "You all okay?" Einso noticed Enzo out cold, and chuckled. "How much juice did he use up?" He turned to Kenji.

"Everyone is okay." Maya nodded to herself. "And Enzo," she glanced over casually, "he really must be the chosen one out of all of us, if there is such a thing."
She almost seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, but, during the battle, she had taken up residence in the safest spot she could find. Maya knew that she would have hurt more than she would have helped, and she needed to protect her egg. She leaned down beside Enzo, clutching her egg with one arm and extending the other to lightly nudge him.

"He really doesn't have a limit. In his cursed form, pain is reduced." He explained to Einso. Then he turned to Enzo. "It must have caught up with him." He figured.
Red crossed his arms and glared at Kenji. "So, who is this Montesque?" He asks the fox. "I don't know." He replied back. Red flipped out at his answer. "But you seem to know everything else?!"

Enzo slowly opened his eyes. They had returned to their original color. His vision was blurry, but after a little bit of blinking, he could see clearly again. "Wha..." He muttered. All he could see was the clouds above them. He put on a small smirk. "We won~" Enzo went back to closing his eyes, but Kenji kicked him in his side. Enzo jumped up suddenly, putting his hands up to gaurd himself from whatever hit him. "Huh!?" Kenji looked disappointed in Enzo. "This isn't over yet. We're at the port." He said. Enzo remembered the mission at hand, and nodded.

Seeing the odd, egg carrying girl sitting next to him, he couldn't help but wonder what was in that egg, or why she had it.

Einso began to speak but was interrupted by Volitaire starting to speak. "Montesque is the man that murdered me and my brothers family." Volitaire walked from the cabin. "He also, took my family's spell tomes and relics. He now uses our magic as his own. The worst part is he took one of our most powerful tomes. Time Magic. By now, he should be what is described as a Time Lord. I wouldn't be surprised if he's leading this expedition for the book. With his intentions he very much could ask for the power to use limitless Time Magic. Making himself literally unstoppable. He wishes to imitate the man who originated Time Magics. It's why I'm so paranoid on stopping him. Volitaire walked in front of Red and took his sword back. "I hope that answers it." Volitaire recalls his weapon and sits on the side of the ship looking down at the water.

Maria blinked and looked around a little, seeing everyone was okay and feeling a little worried. " I don't think I should be here... I serve no real help " She said softly to herself moving further to the back of the boat and sitting down, her arms wrapped around her legs. " Mama ... " she whispered as if some distant memory had tried to return but failed to do so. She was worried for everyone but mainly for the new person she had managed to save even if she hadn't done much. She looked up again and saw everyone talking. She glanced at the girl with the egg and wondered curiously. ' who is she... ' She thought, blushing and looking away as the girl looked at her. ' I don't want to be caught staring at anyone... it's rude'

"This mission isn't an easy one for a bunch of newbies.." Kenji looked up to Enzo, who was now standing, with his fist clenched. "..Enzo?" Enzo's hair was covering his eyes, sealing away his expression. "Vol... I'll..." His fist shook with a mixture of shock and sudden anger. "I'll see to it that Montesque is dealt with."

Enzo's best friend had his family murdered by a thief. He was never going to let that go lightly. It was rare for him to talk as he did without being in his cursed form, so it made those who knew him well, uneasy. "I should try and contact Sorcerers. Let Boone know about the situation, yeah?" "No, sir. Comms have been rusty ever since we got near this rock." The drunk captain must have recovered from his... fall?

[[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F70twzqpavo&feature=my_liked_videos&list=L LomTt16CvcvgmFeoaVBG9LQ ]]

"Seriously?" Kenji turned to the captain to ask him some question, but Enzo was walking over to board that allowed people to enter and exit the boat. "Kuh, he's serious about this now." Red muttered. He followed after Enzo, getting off of the boat and catching up to him. "Hey, welp. You owe me a sword." He said, while walking behind him. Enzo kept walking, not worried about his weapon. He stopped suddenly when he saw some people wielding swords and spears was infront of the two. "Who are you? Are you wizards? Magicians? Mercs?" The soldier threw many questions at them, and Enzo was caught off gaurd, stuttering before he said anything.

Kenji hopped up onto Enzo's head and pushed his hair out of the way for a proper view. "We're your rescue." He stated. The soldier let go a sigh of relief, and beckoned team Valor to follow them.

It wasn't a far walk until they reached the village of Nor. It looked like a old, third-world village. The buildings were decaying, and they still had a central fireplace in the center of town. A stream of red fluid was coming from the center of the town. Enzo looked at it. What is this..? He thought. The trail led up to a large set of ice spikes. Some of the villagers were impaled on it. Enzo stopped and put his hand to his mouth, instantly going to feel sick.

The brothers followed, Einso remained quiet but Volitaire walked next to Enzo. "It's fine. I've been looking towards ending him all my life. I'm sorry for not telling you sooner, a touchy subject, you know?" Volitaire looked towards the villagers and closed his eyes in disgust. "These poor people...this isn't Montesque's magic, but I would like to know who did this." Volitaire walked forward and saw other houses, the doors and windows were closed, some had shades covering them. "This is..cruel. To use my favorite school of magic like this.." Einso turned to a frown and looked at the piked people.

Maya could make out the smell and the sight of it before the others. She stopped as the others began to slow down. As the small girl with the strange cat ears and tail who used to be trailing at the very back of the group began to pass her, Maya grabbed her arm and motioned for her to stop. Maya had seen how the girl had reacted earlier, and knew that there was no way she could handle such a gruesome scene. "I don't think you should look." She looked again. "This is not something for the--" Enzo's near-sick experience made her point. She looked again at the small girl, and let her go. "Very cruel indeed."

Maria blinked and looked at the girl and nodded covering her eyes with her hands and moving to face the direction she was. "If I don't look will you guide me? I don't want me be left behind... " she said softly her eyes sitting down a little as if afraid she's say no. Maria had never liked being along but thinking about it made her feel like she should be for this mission. She peeked through her fingers to see what her expression was and her big worried eyes showed through the cracks between her fingers. " pretty please? " she asked

Maya sighed, but said nothing. She gently held the girl's arm again and tugged, getting her to follow. Maya herself had to shift her glance away from the terrible inhumanities that had occured here. She walked a few paces behind the others, the situation in front of them making her incapable of doing or thinking about anything else. She could feel her uneasiness start to worry the girl she was attempting to guide, and, in an attempt to keep the calm, she spoke. "I'm guessing where we're headed is not far from here?"

[[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICIafTBvAUo&feature=my_liked_videos&list=L LomTt16CvcvgmFeoaVBG9LQ ]]

"Where you need to go is to the castle up there." The soldier replied, pointing to the large, eerie looking castle, which was sitting on the highest point on the island. The sky was turning red, indicating sunset. It made the castle seems even more intimidating. Enzo walked past the spikes and looked toward the castle. His sickness changed to determination. "Is Endine up there?" He asked. The soldier nodded. "The entire cult is in there, along with 3 of the brutes. One already went in your direction." Kenji smiled with confidence as if he was the one who did all the work. "That last one isn't a problem anymore."

The villagers started to gather around team Valor, seemingly praying to him. They all started to mutter words the team didn't recognize. "What's going on here? Enzo asked, feeling uneasy. Are they worshipping us? One of the villagers stopped, and looked toward him. "We're giving you our prayers. It allows Defense and Luck to protect you." The chief said.
Defense and Luck... Those words sounded familiar to Enzo. "They're gods, Enzo." Kenji seemed to have noticed his confusion, and acted.

Einso was pleasing the commoners with reassuring words in the background. Volitaire felt uneasy with all the attention. "I uh.." The villagers were crowing around the team and Volitaire walked forward, trying to avoid any more attention. "My goodness, this is going to get shitty..." Volitaire sighed kept his face to the ground and kept walking.

Maya slowed down, but kept pace behind Voltaire, letting go of the girl to let her wander as she wished. She wasn't sure what else to do. Maya had never been put in such a situation. The sky slowly darkened, and danger was looming in the air. She mumbled to herself, "I hope there are such gods. Otherwise, we're screwed." She knew Enzo couldn't do all of the fighting by himself, and, if she were forced to fight, all she could do is tire her opponet out. It would, nonetheless, end in their loss.

After recieving the villagers prayers, Team Valor set off toward the castle. Thankfully, it wasn't far at all. They followed a mountain path that twisted up the hill that the castle was on. By the time they reached the castle, the sun had gone down. There were small torches along the path they walked, lighting their way. When they reached the gates, they opened automaticly, revealing the grand hall inside. Enzo gulped and went in first. The air was cold, and the room was very large. It looked alot like the lobby of Sorcerers. Once he deemed the room safe, he turned around to face his team. "We should split up." He started to explain his plan. "There are two things we need to take care of. One team needs to find and secure the book Aurora, and the other team has to deal with whoever is running this operation." Kenji smiled and nodded slowly. "Have you been thinking this out?" He asked Enzo. "Uh, a little bit..." He said, scratching his head.

Volitaire looked up the steps. "Montesque is mine.." Volitaire's voice darkened and he began walking down the hall, but Einso pulled him over. "Vol, no. You go with the team to secure the book. I don't want you doing a lot of fighting." Volitaire's face suddenly went into shock. "Einso, I've been waiti- No, we, have been waiting our whole lives to get our hands on Montesque. Why shouldn't I fight?" "I don't want you to befall to that virus AND die. I'm not letting you risk your life like that. I'll go and help with handling who runs this place. You stay in safety!" Einso shouted at Volitarie with a commanding tone. Volitaire turned his head away and didn't say another word. He walked outside the group and awaited for teams to form.

"If we separate, we're as good as dead." Maya said as Voltaire stormed away. "The man we met on the boat, if he's really the weakest of them, how are we going to handle this at all?" She shifted uneasily, looking at the girl with the tail and instinctively coddling her egg, knowing she could protect neither.

Maria held the back of Maya's shirt lightly and felt a little shy. " I-I'll go with the searching party, I'm sure I can help out a little. " she said in a soft voice, barely being heard over everyone. She tugged a little on her shirt to get Maya's attention and looked up at her. " You should join that team too, you can keep it safe and be helpful. " She said softly hinting at the egg in her arms, Hoping she'd be a little helpful.

Volitaire nodded. "The girl has a point. If we split up we'll be endangering ourselves. But altogether we're endangering ourselves. I say we all just look for the book. They must know we're here, after Grim said they'd know if he die. So we have no choice but to avoid the enemy and obtain the book. That's the most important aspect to this mission." "Now look who's thinking." "Shut your mouth, blondie." Einso felt a little offended. "Oh shush up, Vol." Volitarie smirked and walked to the door, looking up at the sky.

Even though Enzo's plan was thwarted, he silently agreed with everyone. Find the book, end it all. "This team is quite the democracy." Kenji whispered to himself, but everyone still heard it. "Then it's decided." Enzo said. "We'll stick together and find the book." After taking a quick glance around, he realized Red was gone. "EH?! Where's Red?!" He shouted. Red had disappeared as soon as he entered the castle. "He'll be fine," Kenji pulled one of Enzo's hairs in the direction of a hallway. "Now mush! heave!" Kenji shouted out. Enzo winced at the nagging pain and started to walk in the hallway.

After a while, The team ran into a few of the cult members. They looked different than the ones with robes. They wore uniforms that looked like it came from a school like Sorcerers. 4 of them stood in their way. "Are those the wizards? heheh, we'll use their magic power to unlock the book!" One of them said. The one cult soldier charged through towards Enzo, jumping in the air and spawning a blade in his hands. He swooped down his sword towards Enzo's hair, and was stopped instantly. Enzo hadn't moved. Infact, he was confused. Did my hair really stop that attack..? He thought. The cultist got a closer view, and saw that Kenji had stopped the blade with one paw. "You're annoying." Kenji muttered. The cultist let go of the blade and hopped back towards his comrades. "Is that a nine-tailed fox familiar?" The cultist asked in fear. "I'm not a familiar." Kenji responded coldly.

The attacking cultists is blasted back with a black fireball and quickly burning alive. Volitaire stands at the door with his hand on fire and pointed forward. Einso noticed the sudden sinister reaction and wondered if Vol is suffering from his bloodlust side effect. "Never get too close to Enzo." Volitaire walked up and a portal-like energy warped around and surround his hand. He shot chains out from them and they pierced another offending wizard. Volitare pulled the chain and a soul-like outline was ripped out and dissipated in the air, the wizards body fell over. "I will handle them, just go the rest of you. We shouldn't waste time standing around. I'll catch up with you." Einso ran up next to his brother. "I'm helping you." Volitaire saw his brother and nodded. "Sorry for getting bratty, my anger got the best of me." "It's okay, I know this means a lot to you. I just want you to be safe." The two brothers charged in, facing the rest of the wizards.

"A... That wasn't necessary..." Maya hesitated before backing away. "I'll help us avoid any more run-ins with the cultists. I think the more ancient parts of the castle would be down this way." She paused before heading into the battle-area of the cultists and the wizards, ducking when necessary until turning left and going down a seemingly dead-ended area. There were offices all around, but at the end of the hallway, there was a painting. There was something obscured by the large dust-heavy painting. "Here?"

Enzo stared at the painting. I've read horror stories.. I know how this goes. He figured. He grabbed the painting and slide it off it's hinges, revealing a small vent behind it. "YES!" Enzo leaped into the air, actually being right about it. He then crawls into the old vent. Spiderwebs cling onto Enzo's face. "Ungh, so creepy..." He muttered. Kenji did his part and cleared Enzo's eyes from the web. Enzo's hand suddenly felt the floor give in a bit, and he stops. "Huh?" was the only thing he could say before the floor gave in, making Enzo fall down into another vent. This vent seemed much larger, and was going down steeply. Enzo rolled and tumbled around the vents.

Meanwhile, Kuro, and an unknown female, were accompanying a few dozen cult members, as they searched the library for the book. "You know, I can't wait for us to finally have our own land..." Kuro's face was locked in wonder. "We're not getting slaves. You can do the work yourself." The woman replied. "Come on, Chrome. Why must we go down the path of-" Kuro was interrupted as Enzo fell on top of him. Kenji landed beside the two on his feet.

[[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxVKekyHdFw&feature=my_liked_videos&list=L LomTt16CvcvgmFeoaVBG9LQ ]]

"What the hell?!" Kuro grunted under Enzo's weight, and threw him off easily. Enzo landed on his face, skidding a few feet before stopping. "Ayeeee..." Enzo groaned.