Dark Age Legends

[Dude Man]

Duilin and Valos had followed Draven back toward the empire. Valos stood about ten feet away from Draven. Duilin, was let in threw the gates with Valos. He stood beside Valos.

"Ha ha ha..." Valos laughed as Draven blew off the head of the soilder.

Duilin oddly smiled. He found joy in the man's death. He was surprized at first. He was starting to realize that he was changeing ever since he killed Darion, so many years ago.  

"Vikingagarð, ruins, eh?" Valos said, as he walked closer towards Draven and Zeros'. "Perhaps, it was supost to go in the incorrect derection? To trick you."

"But how could Haraldur get the message if it went the wrong way?" Duilin asked as he walked closer.

----

"I saw Duilin and the others return, Rink." Marshal told the imp.

"Well, let's try and get in, see what's going on?" Rink replied

"Will they let us in?" Marshal asked

"Of course, we have an alliance remember?" Rink told

"That mind message thing, I got really gave me the creeps. Can Duilin do that?" Marshal asked, as they walked to the gates.

"Yeah, apparently, he couldn't allways but not he can." Rink explained "Infact, I belive before I met him he didn't even have wings."

"Could he still blast stuff?" Marshal asked

"Yeah...I think. His father was a demon, and he's trying to courpt him. Even threw *ahem* death." Rink finished as they arived at the gates. 'I just hope I was able to keep him dead'

"We are with, Lord Draven, let us in." Marshal told the guards at the gate.

[Xorlak]

(North, South, whatever.  As long as we know what is going on.  Heh...)

Draven continued his walk towards the capital.

"If it turns out that everyone is incompetent, then yes, I shall remove all their heads..."

He stroked his chin.

"Hmm, yes.  It would make sense that the letter was a decoy.  Making it fly in the exact opposite direction is a tad obvious, but worth looking into..."

By this time the four bodyguards had arrived from the sky and joined the group.  Citizens and soldiers alike gawked at the entourage of warriors.

As they approached the crimson fortress, it became obvious that in addition to the larger airship Draven had arrived in, there were a few other smaller ones docked at the fortress sides as well.

The front gates opened, revealing a magnificent torch-lit golden hallway...

----

"Hyah!!"

Another parry, then a stab.  Ven's silver blade punctured the neck bone of the dragon, and the white aura left the sword and surrounded the beast.  The white fire began to burn away the monster slowly, and after a minute it evaporated into nothing.

Ven fell to the ground rather clumsily, then sat up, sticking his sword into the ground and breathing heavily.  His vision seemed blurred a bit, and since the other two were a safe distance away fighting their dragons, he decided a 60 second break couldn't hurt...

He happened to look up at the collapsed opening to the temple he had broken his way through a few minutes ago.  The rocks seemed to be bending and moving...  He thought he was just tired and seeing things, but then got up on one knee to better study the opening.  It wasn't just the rocks, but everything around the temple opening seemed to be bending and twisting...

The opening itself began to give off a soft violet aura.  Ven could have sworn when he was last in there, there was a dark staircase leading down.  But now, he could clearly see a long straight corridor with a floor made out of some sort of deep green stone...

----

Seeing the red imp, the two guards nodded to each other and opened the gates.

"Straight ahead."

[Zeros']

Zeros' looked around where they entered curiously.

"AHh... Well, Draven, it seems you were busy in my five year absence," he said, looking at the golden archway. "But, yes, as you said, the letter flying in the opposite direction would, more then likely, be a ruse," he said towards Draven then turned to Duilin.

"As for recieving the letter, I'm sure they were more then likely several spells on the letter. That is porbably how he got the message even without seeing it directly," he concluded.

[Dude Man]

Marshal and Rink dashed towards, the group.

"We are here." Marshal said.

Duilin nodded.

"Duilin, you look, a little different." Rink said.

Duilin said nothing to this, he turned his face, and looked at the others. He gave a slight eye contact with Valos. Valos nodded, and gave an evil grin.

Marshal turned his head. "So, what is the plan?"

"It appears that Haraldur, hasn't finished his vengace perhaps." Duilin said, looking into the sky. He then turned and faced Marshal "So, we are going to find him, and stop him."

Rink tilted his head "So, who were those tatto guys, his army or something?"

"I think so." Duilin said, he then turned to Zeros' and Draven "So, you think we should go to Vikingagarð?"

[Trent]

Zion leaped into the air, trying to slash straight down through the dragon. Nothin' doin' there, but it did inflict some damage. The dragon swiped at him, connecting and knocking him back quite a bit. Zion got to his feet, and the dragon unleashed a breath of flame. Zion rolled to the side, then jumping up when it was done and issuing a boot to its face, knocking it over. Several ki blasts were fired at it while he was still in the air to finish it off.

Xenai was having more luck with his sword, as it was fscking huge. He swung the blade at the boner dragon's arm, shattering the upper part of it and allowing the rest to drop. The dragon retaliated with a fierce breath of fire that Xenai could do nothing about. It scorched him, badly. So he came back, retaliating by swinging Zero Weapon at the neck, demolishing it and sending the head flying. He then cut straight down through the remainder of it.

[Haraldur]

"Nikola."

Tesla turned, and walked to Haraldur's side.

"Nikola, I am going to place a protection spell on the settlement and all those within. The settlement will seem not to exist, its spacetime folded out of the universe. I want you to participate with the spell. The result will be that for the settlement to join the universe again, both of us must allow it to, or both of us must die. You know why we do this, our comrades are not as strong as that."

"Yes," said Tesla.

They left the bounds of the settlement and then faced it. Then Haraldur made some hand signals, which Tesla mirrored. Then Haraldur made his hand look as if it was holding something small between thumb and finger, and the space got smaller and smaller.

The settlement vanished. The only clue to something strange was the huge distortion of space around the area, which would now be dangerous to enter.

"At least they are now impervious to attack," Tesla said.

"Indeed. Now let us continue negotiations. Let us go south, then east, to the Crimson Capital."

[Zeros']

Zeros' felt a shift in the air (Because of his long life span, he can detect the slightest distorions and irregualr activites all over the planet) and narrowed his eyes. He shook his head, putting the distortion that appeared for later investigation, even if it was from the direction the old empire Haraldur came from.

"No, Duilin, I do not think we should. Haraldur's followers will more then likely have similiar powers as he himself has, though significantly less powerful. Still, the number of them that escaped could cause some problems, as well as others they may have already rescued," he said.

Zeros' turned to Duilin for a moment, his eyes snapping to Duilin's forehead for a only a moment, before he made it look as if he was looking at the sky, where smoke was gathering above them in great, gray and black clouds.

"And yes, I also think that the men with that tattoo are party of Haraldur's regime," he said agian. His eyes then traveled to Valos and narrowed slightly, but he said nothing, and turned to Draven. The wind shifted alittle, causing the smoke above them to seperate and move away.

"What do you think, Draven? We will need your millitary stategies and support to make this work. Like I said, going in their half-cocked will get us killed."

[Xorlak]

Draven continued leading the group, they entered the palace and began winding up a large staircase.

"The men of Vikingagarð are a unique enemy.  Attacking them with a large air or sea force is unwise, as many of their warriors are able to manipulate weather conditions, which if used correctly, could prove disastrous.  The question is, of course, if the enemy really is the nation of Vikingagarð, or some new threat..."

They arrived at another large set of doors.  Now they were in a large war room.  A long table stood at the center.  Some maps were thrown on top of it and some more fastened  to the walls.  Guards stood at full attention at either end.

"I do not believe the prisoners to be from Vikingagarð, else they would have been identified and put in more magic-resistant confines many years ago.

"Ragnar, of course, is a unique enemy as well.  If he plans on building an army 50 prisoners at a time... well, that's just futile.  The man does, however, specialize in wide area attack spells.  I believe even an army of 1,000 low class soldiers would have some amount of difficulty.  However..."

He stopped in front of a golden throne, turning to face the group.

"... if this is made to be a battle of us mages and warriors... He is quite outclassed and outnumbered."

----

Ven sheathed his sword and stood up.  He wiped the sweat from his brow as a cool breeze rustled his black cloak.  He watched the strange opening for a minute.  It looked like a gateway to another world...  Nothing seemed to surprise him anymore...

He turned his head to Zion and Xenai.

"So, what'd ya think?  Painfully obvious trap, huh?"

He took a few steps closer, but not too close (for fear of being sucked in or something).  It was definitely a straight corridor that went on for several hundred feet, but there was no ceiling.  The green stone walls on each side seemed to be about ten feet high, and a sort of violet cloudy sky was visible above...  In the distance, behind some more of these walls, was a sort of temple made of the same green stone...

[Zeros']

Zeros' nodded at Draven's assessment.

"Yes, Haraldur is well outmatched in numbers. But there in lies the problem... even if we have thousands of battle-readied soldiers, how many of them could survive a spell from Haraldur and not be almost totally exhausted? Almost all of your men have little to no magical training, and even then, it still wouldn't be enough to survive one of Haraldur's entertaining spells.

Even with us, Duilin, Marshal, Rink and your elite mages, we can only hold shields on the soldiers for so long before we run out of magic," he said.

Although, I use ki more then magic, so running out of it wouldn't hamper me in the slightest. He thought to himself.

[Trent]

"Well, it doesn't look to be safe," said Zion as he looked it over, sheathing Eternity Weapon.

"There might be somethin' there worth goin' to, but we'd probably have to go through hell for it." Xenai put Zero Weapon on his back as he observed it.

[Dude Man]

"Well the thing is, you can send fifty soilders at Haraldur, and he could kill every single warrior with a single spell. Yet, one mage can put up a descent fight. It's odd really." Duilin said

"Yes, the mind is stronger then a sword." Valos added, and he rubbed his chin, walking closer to the table.

"Perhaps, if we were able to get enough mages then we would be able to take 'em down." Rink subjested

"Yeah, but were the hell are we going to find, over a hundered mages." Duilin said. "Unless there is like some cult of mages or something."

"Well..." Marshal replied "We may not be exactlly mages of offenive spells, yet members of the Blue Minotaur have been know to summon giant subterrian creatures and powerfull beasts, such as minotaurs, and even dragons." Marshal turned to Draven and Zeros' "Perhaps, a few additonal Summoning Mages may be of help?"

[Haraldur]

"Now we must take, ah, heh, a pretence at defending the island as if we were defending our comrades. But they are safe, so we shall make a defence of this vast land as part of our last stand, well hopefully not the last, but a stand nonetheless. Why they seem to wish to attack me so I simply cannot fathom. Either they are evil, maybe involved in oppression, repression and persecution, or they think of me in similar terms, the origin of the latter I cannot begin to have an idea about. But needs must and we must prepare ourselves. They probably know exactly where we are, especially if they have any intelligence. Let us begin!"

Tesla caused a wall of water to rise up from the sea, which when people got within a kilometre of it, would spurt water at them at high speeds and masses.

Tesla rose his arm upwards, holding his palm open, then lowering it. There was a faint sloshing sound as an aerial barrier hit the ocean and then went into it, blocking entry from underwater as well as from the surface and the air.

Haraldur caused the sea beyond the wall of water to be very turbulent, and when someone was above it, water would be spurted up towards him at high velocity.

In addition, he caused there to be a large storm, the fitting the whole country within its eye, and surrounding it with swirling winds and clouds, and lightning strikes.

As a finishing touch, Haraldur caused an invisible field to surround all the defences and beyond the defences. When this was breached (and the people would not have got to the defences yet and would be quite safe), it would speak thusly:

The nation of Aspyes bids you welcome, and thanks you for your thought of paying a visit. However, there are things we are busy with at the moment, and we would emphatically prefer not to be disturbed. If you are traders, rest assured we will arrange deals at a later dates. Please leave and come again, thankyou

Afterall, thought Haraldur, if there is a possibilty of death, why not have a laugh?

[Xorlak]

"You've all touched on my point."

Draven walked to a large map pinned to the wall.  It was a map of the old world, before the planet reshaping events of five years ago.  To the right of it was another map, much cruder in design.  It was an estimate of what the world looked like now, though not very accurate.  The main contents were in the same place, but had generally different coastlines and seemed to have spots missing that had sunk into the sea, and there were more islands and smaller continents in the oceans.

He looked at the large island nation labeled "Vikingagarð" on the old map, then at the corresponding unmarked island on the new one.

"A full frontal assault would be useless.  We must attack in two stages."

He pointed at the center of the island.

(*Cue SeeD music from FF8*)

"First a small elite unit must be formed, composed of no more than a few warriors.  These warriors must be capable of confronting and subduing Ragnar alone.  The first objective of this unit will be to ensure the safe passage of an army-- basically find and destroy any traps, neutralize any defensive spells, etc.  This objective must be fulfilled as quietly as possible.

"The unit's second objective will be to confront Ragnar himself.  This battle must serve two purposes: 1) to prevent Ragnar from casting any more protective spells and 2) to ultimately defeat him...

"While the elite unit is keeping Ragnar busy, stage two will begin.  This will be a full scale invasion, care of the safe passage provided by the elite unit.  I will send an army of 10,000 to obliterate the land-- burn the forest forests, villages, fortresses, whatever he's hiding over there.  A few stronger warriors shall be necessary in this vast army as well, to protect the common soldiers in case something goes wrong."

Draven folded his arms.

"That is it.  Choose your group wisely, 1 or 2, and this nation of Aspyes shall be removed from the face of Gaian before the next sunrise..."

----

"Well, I've come this far.  No sense turning back."

Ven walked towards the eerie gateway.

"You guys have been a lot of help, but I don't blame ya if you turn back.  This is my battle, after all..."

The air around him rippled as he stepped through the portal, and his boots clicked on the strange green stone floor on the other side.

[Zeros']

Zeros' walked over to the maps and crossed his arms and looked back and forth between the maps serveral times. He closed his eyes for a moment, thinking over Draven's words.

"So, basically, one unit will remove and traps, ulimately fighting Haraldur in the end, while the second unit will destroy the land and resources," he said, summing up what Draven said in one sentence.

He thought about it for a moment and nodded.

"I'll go with the elite force. Because of my Umi Sen-Ken," he said, using the skill for a brief moment to disappear completely from view, both from the eye and from the senses, "I could sneak past any sentries Haraldur had set up," he finished.

[Haraldur]

Tesla had a look of concentration on his face, and then said, "Haraldur, they cannot find us so easily if the country moves."

"Indeed. Even better, we can move it North, the worse the weather, the better for us. Also, the space distortion will stay in place, so anyone who can detect it will not see us moving, especially since are auras are suppressed."

There was a loud bang and a groan as a new tectonic plate was formed. Then, the edges of the surrounding plates melted, so it would not cause huge earthquakes when it moved.

Slowly, it moved north, leaving the distorted space behind it, and having a hole in its land mass where the settlement used to be.

To the North, the vast icecaps would not know what would hit them.

"Means to an end. This is the means, freedom is the end."

Tesla nodded in agreement.