Dark Age Legends

[Dude Man]

Duilin and Rink arrived at the ship just in time to hear what the mechanic had to say and then quickly leave.

"He left in a hurry." Rink said

"He's probably scared of us. I don't blame him." Duilin replied. "I mean, I've known Zeros' for quite a wile and he still gives me the creeps sometimes." He then looked at Zeros' and smiled. "No offence."

"So, who's going to drive this thing?" Rink asked

"I guess I could." Duilin answered. "It's been a wile since I drove a ship. Darion and his buddies were always to drunk or just plain lazy to do it themselves, so the just taught me how to."

"Well, I dunno. Remember what happened with that fishing boat a year ago? I still don't think they found Eddie's wooden leg."

"Hey! That wasn't my fault!"

[Zeros']

Zeros' smirks slightly.

"No offense taken. And, you go ahead. I want to take a break for once," he said and sat on a ledge near the window looking out of the helm. He folded his legs underneath him in an indian style, crossed his arms across his chest, and leaned back.

"I'm starting to wonder if Gaian will ever truely be free of all it's pain and torment again..." he muttered, looking out into the sky.

---

Allen landed gracefully on his feet, in the middle of nothingness. There was nothing around him... Nothing at all. Only sickly blackness all around. He could hear screams of pain, sorrow, anguish... He could hear it all. He knew what he'd have to face... And he didn't like it.

Not one bit.

There was a shimmer behind him, and he turned quickly, and came face to face with...

Fear.

The true representation of fear...

Fear itself. He feared fear itself.

[Xorlak]

Vincent shrugged.

"Suit yourself."

He pointed at the three and shouted behind him.

"Bound their hands and feet and hogtie them each to a log.  Carry them to Bandervil; I'll decide what to do with them later."

Vincent turned and made his way back to the front of the mass of soldiers and out of sight as menacing hands clutched the three.  Three long logs were conveniently produced by another set of soldiers along with some heavy chains...

[Trent]

The three submit quietly, Xenai snickering the entire time. Zion glared at him, and Tsu retained his apathetic expression.

--- --- ---

The illusionary Tsu drew closer. He leapt up...

?九音刃りゅ！　九音下降！?
(Kuon Yaiba Ryu! Kuon Kakou!)
Eternity Blade Style, Eternity Drop

He brought Shin Kuon Yaiba right out from the sheath, bringing it down mercilessly toward Aura's head.

"Take this! Holy Spiral Sphere!" She brought the sphere up to meet Tsu's blade, and the two forces started to push against each other. Tsu was shocked, just like the real one would be. When did she create such an advanced move?

[Dude Man]

Darak rubbed his chin as we watched the tree be carried off and then walked next to Vincent.

----

"To be honest I don't think it ever will." Rink sighed. "Sure, at times it will be at a lesser extent, but the world will always have problems."

Duilin read a few pages of the manual. "Bleh..." He then walked over towards the captain's wheel. "Okay, let's get this thing going..."

[Haraldur]

//Dude Man, could you do something about Ein's characters? Get him to post from your house or post for him? Thanks.//

[Zeros']

Allen stood there, shifting on his feet with his hands resting in his pockets, as he observed Fear.

The figure was cloaking a couple feet off the ground, covered in a tattered black robe, with long, sweeping sleeves and a hood that covered his face, which was enshadowed by darkness.

Allen breathed, and saw his breath. He shivered slightly, as the room he was in dropped below freezing. He looked at the figure, and saw the figure breath - it was a hollow sound, rattling and shaky.

"So..." Allen spoke slowly, and observed the floating figure. "You are my representation of... Fear?" he asked. The figure - Fear - nodded, and took another rattling breath.

Now... How the hell was he supposed to conquer... Fear?

[Xorlak]

Zion and co. were quickly tied to the logs, and four big men, two in front and two behind, carried each log horizontally as they began to resume their marching order.

Vincent made his way to the front of the resting army as three figures appeared over a rocky hill to the west.  The three messengers he had sent ahead to Bandervil earlier had made it back.  They were former Crimson troops, riding atop large long-leged scaly lizards, suited for quick running.

They stopped in front of Vincent and Darak, bowing to the officers as the lizards' heads bobbed up and down.

"My lord."

"Well?"

"General Ajax of Bandervil said that he will accept the rule of any new emperor, with sufficient proof.  But he will not accept you as High General.  He believes this to be a ploy, sir..."

The second soldier pointed to a moist spot on his left chest plate, and said in a wimpy voice:

"He... he spit on me, sir..."

Vincent ran his hand through his hair.

"I expected this.  Very well, then.  If it is proof he wants..."

[Trent]

The trio couldn't do much but watch the events in progress.

"So..." Xenai attempted to break the awkward silence. "...Seen any good swordfight matches lately?" This directed to the entire soldier body in general.

"Shut up." Zion retaliated.

"Oh, come ON!" He was earnestly hoping for an answer. //Because everything's been too serious around here. Razz

--- --- ---

Aura let out a yell and pushed forward, even harder. The spiralling sphere... It was twisting at the blade! Tsu couldn't keep the grip, and the katana flew out of his hand, spinning off to the side. Aura pushed through to Tsu's gut with the rest of her power. "Ugh! What's...!" Tsu was sent back, spinning around the axis of the line that connected him, Aura, and the sphere. He righted himself in the air and landed on Paradox's imaginary floor. "Amazing..." He dropped to one knee.

What a tough bastard! He can still fight!?

[Dude Man]

//Yeah, I'll see if I can do that. What do you need Ein to do though? He's just standing there doing nothing, he can just assume he's following Marshal.\\

Duilin began to pilot the ship back towards the area of Alphagrad and Retangrad (that's were we're going, right?).

"I have a feeling that a lot has changed since we left." Duilin mumbled

"Most likely. I wonder how Zion and the others are doing." Rink said.

-----

Valos slowly emerged from the darkness behind Abodahon, as they stood at a near by hill from the location were Vincent and Darak are.

"They've been carried off. Now our new ally is attempting to gain the trust of the rest of the Crimson Empire." Abodahon said.

"I see, master..." Valos said weakly.

"We can let him handle this." Abodahon turned and looked towards the ocean. "I can sense Duilin going back towards the direction of Alpha and Retangrad. I believe he may have his friends with him, most likely Zeros'. I want you to find them and lead Duilin to me. He will be much easier to persuade if we have him in captivity."

"Heheh, of course master. I'm not afraid of Zeros'..." He then walked off, and readied to leave, and then turned back. "Nothing can stop me. Not even death." He then laughed and flue off.

[Xorlak]

"Well, uh yeah, actually it was pretty cool back there in Sigmund when that one guy took out--"

"Stop conversing with the prisoners!"

"Uh, sorry..."

The order to march was given up ahead, and the three prisoners now found themselves in the middle of a marching brigade, their heads narrowly missing the occasional sharp rock on the ground as they hung from their logs...


In the front of the marching soldiers, Vincent was the first to top the rocky hill in font.  He was actually getting a little worn out.  He wasn't used to walking so much, with his former desk job back in Redvik and all...

Pish!  I'm a High General now.

He motioned one of the riding messenger soldiers (there were only a few) to come his way, and ordered the man to get off the lizard-thing he was riding.  Mounting it's back, he found the beast difficult to control, but it beat walking.

Before them was a fairly steep, but not unwalkable decent.  Then a rocky plane, with Bandervil in the center...

The fortress wasn't terribly huge, but it was built upon another naturally perfect location much like Sigmund.  It was built on top of a plateau in the center of the relatively flat land around, and huge walls topped the already steep cliffs on all sides.

He stopped as the troops began to clear the top of the hill, turning his ride to Darak.

"If we happen to have any Crimson Empire banners left, we better raise them along with the Greys.  I'd really rather avoid a fight here, if at at all possible..."

[Dude Man]

"Yes sir." Darak replied. He then took out a banner from a pocket underneath his armour. He then unfolded it and then passed it to one of the soldiers caring a banner, since their were several Grey Empire banners he replaced it with the Crimson Empire one, other soldiers also had some left and a couple others were raised.

"That should do it sir, however..." He then wielded his axe. "Just in case. This thing can be a bit slow on the draw."

[Trent]

Yeah, that fight in Sigmund was good. Wait... In Sigmund... in Sigmund... in Sigmund?! "Tsu, you had a match with Aura in Sigmund, didn't you?"

"Please don't bring her up right now, Xenai..."

"Come on, tell me!"

"Yeah, we did have a match there a while back. It was the closest she'd come to beating me. It's not really surprising since it was the last match we'd had before all of this started back up. She had me up against the ropes, but since she'd figured she had won, her guard was not all the way up. She tried to attack head on, leaping at me with a downward slash, but I rolled off to the right and hit her in the back of the neck with the flat end of my blade. I turned the match around instantly. I fought from there and won."

"I see..."

--- --- ---

"This won't be like in Sigmund... I've shown you that already! Now I'll finish you!" She leapt at Tsu, and slashed downward. When Aura was a foot from him, he looked up with cold, stony eyes, and rolled off to the right, and onto his feet. He didn't even look at Aura when he pointed his left hand at her.

"Twilight Blast!"

The sparkling blacklight beam shot forth and hit her head on. She was sent flying for about a decameter. Tsu turned around and looked at her. "Won't be like in Sigmund, huh?" He had instantly turned the match around.

Paradox commenced to change the environment. They were now there... In the stadium at Sigmund. Or at least an illusion of it, complete with dirty dirt, fresh air, solid stadium walls, and even the roaring crowds.

[Zeros']

Zeros' shook his head, as he observed the water pass by them from his position. It was the more peaceful sight he had ever observed, since he came back, five years ago...

"I'm sure their fine... Those three won't go down without a fight," he said.

---

Fear took another, rattling breath, as Allen crouched down and clutched his head with both hand in agony.

"AA-- A... AA-- AARGH!" he screamed out, as he felt memories consume him. Suddenly, Fear disappeared from sight, as the walls of Paradox shifted and changed rapidly, before Allen was landed painfully somewhere.

He lifted his head weakly and saw he was now smaller... Much, much smaller. He pushes himself to a sitting position painfully, as a voice he hadn't heard in many, many years called out to him.

"ALLEN!" screamed a feminine voice, as he was suddenly engulfed into a hug. Allen stiffed slightly and turned his head...

Only to see a tearful face...

The one of his dead mother.

[Xorlak]

Vincent nodded his head.

"Excellent."

He turned the lizard towards the fortress below.

"Forward!"

The beast began a slow trot down the hill, and the soldiers followed at a marching pace.  Their numbers overwhelmed the steep slope as they made their way down the rocky incline.  

The fortress on the plateau grew larger and larger...

Hmmm, they haven't shown any signs of resistance, or acceptance for that matter... It they were going to attack, they would probably do it by air, with wyverns.  The fortress was just a bit two small to hold a airship dock.

Vincent's mind raced as he looked at the formidable fortress on a rock.  What could it's weak point, be?  He had never been in a situation quite like this before.  Really, he hadn't had much experience in the field either...  There were a few garrisons he lead when he was a colonel, but never in any strategic battles.  And his job in Redvik was mostly alchemic and airship production research, and the occasional defense of the city...

The fortress grew larger and larger...

But this is what he wanted, right?  To finally be out there in the field!  To finally be respected! ...  Maybe he should have settled for sabotage in this one too...  His eyes trailed to Commander Darak to his right.  No!  Do NOT let him know you have no idea what you're doing!

"Forward!"

The hill was now completely covered with Grey soldiers, descending and marching towards the fortress ahead...