Trickster Remixed

Chapter 11 - Jen appears

2009-03-20T14:13:00.003+08:00

The trio reached the house several minutes later. The place was trashed and no one was around anymore.

At this point of time, Jen was rushing towards Platonia in search of Angii and Veraca. But someone else was also on their way there.

"Go hide somewhere safe," Veraca said. "We will find your father."

Veraca and Angii split up to find Dr. Jelly. Veraca walked around Platonia cautiously. She felt that someone was watching her, but she was unable to pinpoint exactly where they are. Suddenly, from a second story of a building nearby, several sword wielding fighters jumped down to attack her.

She dodged the attacks quickly and retaliated. Pushing them backwards with Impaling Rage, she created a distance between them. Five people in front of her. They all seemed very skillful.

The five charged out in different directions towards Veraca. Veraca parried against the front, left and right attacker, but was open for attacks from behind. Just as the last two fighters was close enough to deliver a powerful blow, the were stopped by a Whirlwind Blaze. The immediately jumped away and turned back.

They saw Angii standing behind, casting spells. The tallest of the five, which was attacking Veraca gave the other two a signal, and they immediately started attacking Angii, pushing her away from Veraca.

Angii's spells have very short casting time, keeping the two fighters busy dodging them. After a while, after casting so many spells rapidly, Angii started panting as she fell to her knees. She managed to injure one of the two fighters, but he was still going strong.

Back at Veraca, the three fighters couldn't get to close at the same time, because of Veraca's Impaling Rage. One fighter dashed from the back, and Veraca reacted with a Card Strike, which he blocked easily with his sword. The second one came from the front. He was still a distance away when he waved his sword. Veraca then felt a stinging pain on her left arm. A cut! How...?

She looked up at his blade, and it was covered with a glowing aura, making the sword larger and longer. "Chi Blade..." Veraca mumbled.

The two continued their attacks, with Veraca fending them off. After several minutes, she was getting tired. Out of no where the third person joined in, and Veraca immediately used her Impaling Rage again. However this time, the three fighters disappeared into thin air. Immediately, the tallest person came from the front and delivered a Uppercut into her stomach, knocking her out instantly. She had been fooled by the Shadow skill one of the fighters had used.

Angii was about to be defeated by the two fighters, when suddenly, Jen came running out of one of the buildings, catching the two person by surprise. Jen knocked the swords out of their hands, and Angii gave them a high energy Arrow Rush, knocking them away, defeating them.

Jen immediately rushed towards where Veraca was. But when she reached, the place was trashed, but empty and quiet.

"I'm too late..." Jen said, clenching her fists.

Chapter 10 - Platonia

2009-03-12T16:38:00.002+08:00

Platonia, a small town way beyond Aquarius. It was forgotten for centuries after a giant tsunami destroyed the town. In those hundreds of years, the monsters in the area grew so much stronger than those around Caballa. There were two cases of adventurers that attempted to reach Platonia, but they had lost contact with the outside.

Being so desserted, Veraca and Angii battled their way through the horde of monsters, and finally after two full days they reached Platonia. When the entered the town, they were weak and exhuasted. They lost conciousness right after they entered the town.

They awoke a few days later, and found themselves inside a well furnished room. Suddenly, the door opened and a young girl walked in. She seem to be wearing a pink jellyfish on her head.

"You have woken up!" she exclaimed happily. "Jim! They are awake!"

"That's great, Jill" Jim replied as he walked into the room. Jim was wearing a blue jellyfish on his head.

"I'm Jill," the girl said. "How are you two feelling? My brother found you two unconcious near our home."

"We're fine, just exhausted," Veraca said. "I'm Veraca and that's Angii."

"I heard that this place is totally desserted for ages. do you live here?" Angii asked.

"Our parents and grandparents were scientist and explorers." Jill explained. "They came out here to study the place twenty years ago. It seems that the monsters got a lot stronger and they were unable to leave the place. My brother and I, we borned here. Twins."

Jim brought Veraca and Angii downstairs to the dinning table where two more men sat. One of them looked really dorky and nerdy. He has a blue jellyfish on his head and wore a pair of large round glasses. "You can called me Dr. Jelly. I'm Jim and Jill's father."

The older man sitting beside Dr. Jelly was asleep. "That's our grandfather," Jim said.

As soon as Veraca and Angii sat down at the table, Dr.Jelly asked. "So, is there any reason you girls are here? It must have taken a lot of effort to get to this area."

Veraca and Angii took turns explaining what exactly happened. It seems that they had no idea what happened outside, as they have no way of communication with the outside world.

After explaining everything, Dr. Jelly said, "You are welcome to stay here if you want. You might not be so lucky to survive getting out this time."

And that was three years ago. Now, Veraca and Angii were staying in Platonia happily with the Jelly family.

Veraca, Angii and Jill was walking around the abandon town when in the distance, outside of town, they saw some bright lights. It kept flashing and it was getting closer.

They dashed back to the house and Jill shouted out to her father. "Dad! There are some light outside! There might be people coming this way!"

"Really?!" Dr. Jelly pulled open the drapes and opened the window. This time the light was a lot brighter and closer. Dr. Jelly responded to the light with a spotlight in is laboratory. After a while, the light in the distance died out.

"If those were people, I think they didn't make it..." Dr. Jelly said after thirty minutes. He went back to his work, depressed. Veraca and the rest left the house and went back to strolling around the town.

After some time, several people entered Platonia and ran into the house, all armed with weapons.

A loud scream from the house was heard. This caught the attention of the trio, and the immediately sprinted back to the house.

Meanwhile, back with Tykro, in the underground city, Lina refused to answer him. "There will be more people coming here. We will talk then. For now, just rest." With that, Lina left the building, leaving Tykro at the doorway, alone.

Chapter 9 - Saviours?

2009-03-04T09:41:00.002+08:00

After three years of running, the world remained in it's sorry state. However, during that period of time, there were other people, other then the AGA, looking for the members of the Guardian Angels. They were the ones who believe in them.

"There he is!"

Several hunters spotted Tykro wandering in the Tapasco fields, and started giving chase. Tykro managed to take out a few, but several of them were really skillful, and continued to give chase. He ran through a giant tunnel and hid on the other side.

Suddenly, loud footsteps was heard. A Spicy Dragon! It slowly advanced towards Tykro. Its mouth opened up, and flames started to form in its mouth. Exhuasted from the running, Tykro didn't even try to fight back.

Suddenly, a beeping sound was heard. It got louder and faster, until it sounded like it was just beside him. As sudden as it started, it stopped. A boulder near by him started to float. Curious, Tykro approached it. Someone in a robe was lifting it.

"Hurry, in here!"

Without thinking twice, Tykro jumped into the hole below, and the boulder closed right after. Right at that moment, the hunters emerged from the tunnel, and were caught in the flames of the Spicy Dragon. Screams were heard. Painful screams.

Tykro dropped to the floor, exhuasted. He looked up at the person in the robe and said, "Thanks for saving me... Who are you...?"

The person pull down the hood. A blue hair Boxer. "My name is Lina. Follow me. We will talk somewhere else."

Lina led the way through a long tunnel. Finally after a twenty minutes walk, a light at the end could be seen. They walked into the light, and to Tykro's surprise, it was a underground city. Lights were attached to the top of the caves. The view was amazing, from the top. They decended the stairs into the city.

Lina brought Tykro to the biggest building, in the middle of the cavern. There was a large table with ten chairs around it. As soon as they entered, two person emerged from the room at the back.

"You've found your target, Lina?" the white haired Bard said.

"Yeah, I got to him in time, before the Spicy Dragon or the Hunters could touch him."

"Alright time for me to leave than," the Entertainer said.

"Be careful out there, Jen."

With that Jen left the building. Lina turned to Tykro and said, "There's a several rooms at the back. Take a rest in one of them and we will talk when you are feeling better."

Lina pushed him into the rooms, and then went back to the front.

"Have you located your target, Amelie?" Lina asked.

"Not yet... She runs around too much. It's hard to get a lock on her..."

"You must hurry... We mustn't let the AGA catch them, or else we will be in trouble. Bring her back as soon as possible."

"Alright," replied Amelie. "I'll go try to find her again."

Amelie went into the room at the left. Once the door closed, Lina walked to the door at the back, and said, "Are you done eavesdropping?"

Tykro opened the door. Face to face, Tykro asked, "What is this place?"

Chapter 8 - Destruction

2009-02-06T19:49:00.003+08:00

"Take this," Yomi said, as he passed a small blue orb to each and every one of them. "It will grant you extra power when used."

He then walked towards the biggest computer in the room. He pushed several buttons, and the machine started up. They heard a whirling sound for several seconds, before it died out.

"That's all...?" Lolli asked.

"That's lame..." continued Para.

"The fun part is just beginning," Yomi replied, with a menacing grin on his face. He turned on several computer monitors. One showed the Tapasco area, another showing Megalopolis, and other screens showing different locations of Caballa. One screen showed the whole of Caballa, from top.

When he stopped talking, everything happened. The volcanoes around Caballa started erupting. Earthquakes were happening all over Caballa. Heavy rain started. Strong winds brewed, and in some places, hurricanes swept the area. Caballa was being devastated by these phenomenon. The only place that was safe was this area.

"Now go and assist the destruction. Wipe out those who get in the way!"

Sei, Para, Lolli, Alpha and Beta left the room immediately, heading towards Megalopolis.

Meanwhile, Tykro exited the Monster Guild.

"What's with this sudden change in weather...? I can see the volcanoes erupting in the distance..." Tykro mumbled.

Suddenly, he was pulled in by Liange. "Watch out... There's a hurricane heading this way."

Alpha and Beta led the attack in the city. They destroyed the buildings everywhere. Of course, the reason they led the attack was to mislead the people that they were Chio and Aurora.

Yomi used his machine to control the hurricanes, to surround the Monster Guild, preventing anyone to leave or enter. This gave them time to destroy the city.

City after city was destroyed. Burned down to the grounds. Only after almost every city was destroyed, was the hurricane around the Monster Guild stopped.

At this point of time, many people in Megalopolis gathered outside the Monster Guild. Several of them were injured, blood on their arms, legs or on their head. They came to demand an explanation, as to why Chio and Aurora were destroying the place, and why they did not come to help.

No one believed them when they said that the Chio and Aurora they saw were imposters. They couldn't confirm that themselves either. Everyone left the Guild, the only building left standing after the disaster. Many people now think that they were in cahoots with those who destroyed the city, and more than three quarters of Caballa.

The people started to hate them. They slowly got casted aside, despised by majority of the people of Caballa.

Caballa then became a chaotic place. People started losng trust towards Rosetta, as they felt that she was helping the wrong people. A secret organization was set up, by the higher-ups of the castle, called the "Anti Guardian Association", or AGA. It hired skillful fighters as bounty hunters to find the members of the Guardian Angels* and possibly, kill them.

After several attempts, they had no choice but the leave the Monster Guild, hiding from everyone else. They went their own different ways, and at the same time investigating the disappearence of the rest of the Guardian Angels.

However, there were people who still believed that they were innocent, and the truth was hidden somewhere. But since those who believed those words were the minority, it was dangerous for them to talk about it, the AGA also aims to finish them off.

Months pasts. Cities were halfway to restoration. That was when Yomi activated his machine again, destroying the cities yet again. This went on, several times, until the citizens gave up on trying to revive their hometown. Their hatred towards the Guardian Angels became stronger.

*Guardian Angels: The group name for the good guys, which was named in Part 1, chapter 4. For those who remembered something was disbanded, it was in Part 1, Chapter 19. It was the Paladins that was disbanded, the group that was fighting the TenterLion before the Guardian Angels joined the battle. Even I forgot which was disbanded ._.

Chapter 7 - Operation Mass Capture

2009-01-27T18:52:00.005+08:00

Bakaeep and Soul froze in their positions. They heard a loud crashing sound from the room beside theirs. Immediately, they went back to trying to free Chio. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't break or split open the bars.

They heard footsteps closing in to their room. Seconds later, voices. Then another crash. This time, it was the door from the opposite side. Right after that, it was quiet outside.

"You think they are gone...?" Bakaeep asked.

"I doubt so.." Soul replied.

Suddenly, Chio groaned and moved a little.

"Chio!" Bakaeep shouted. Soul immediately placed her hands over her mouth.

"Keep quiet!"

Chio's eyes opened a little, and closed straight away. Right at this moment, they heard the door knob turning. The door wouldn't open, as they had locked it. Seconds later, the door knob stopped moving, and a shot was fired. The doorknob along with the lock was damaged, and the door just swung open.

Sei walked in with Para.

"That's the end of the line." Sei said as he pointed his gun at Bakaeep's head.

Soul placed her fingers secretly into the small pocket on ther side of her coat. She quickly took out a small knife, lifted her hands and prepared to toss it at Sei. But Soul froze in position. She couldn't move. The knife was immediately shot out of her hands. Her eyes immediately went to Para, who had used a Skunk Pouch without her knowledge.

This time, Sei was holding a second gun, which was smoking away. The target of the second gun, Soul's head. "Don't try anything funny..."

Both Bakaeep and Soul are immobilised. They couldn't even struggle. The effect of the Skunk Pouch was several times stronger than Veraca's. All of a sudden, they both felt a sudden sting on their arm.

The effect of Para's Skunk Pouch wore off. They turned around to find a small knife in their arm, with Lolli behind them. They felt weaker and weaker. Even without the Skunk Pouch, they could hardly fight back.

"Poison Assault...?" Soul muttered weakly. Seconds later, they both fell to the ground, unconcious.

Sei turned to the Inventors and Explorers. "Bring them away, and fix these doors!"

With that, the three of them left the area, leaving everything to the Inventors and the Explorers. Bakaeep and Soul were moved to the room's with their names, and placed in the capsules.

Meanwhile, in Megalopolis Monster Guild, everyone was taking turns taking care of Rwinna. She was still unconcious, tossing and turning in her bed. She has a high fever which wouldn't go away.

Two days later, Rwinna's condition didn't get any better. Sighing, Liange walked out of the room to get some water. As she approached the kitchen, she heard the sound of breaking glass from Rwinna's room. She dashed back and to her surprise, Rwinna was no longer in her bed. Liange looked out of the window, but saw no one suspicious.

Outside, in the SouthEast Forest, HornedBull was trying to master his new skill. He struck a huge tree infront of him. The tree split into two halves, revealing the hidden Beta. Of course, HornedBull mistook her as Aurora. Alpha suddenly appeared behind HornedBull, and used an UpperCut. The force sent him flying, unable to move. Alpha then appeared above him, and sent him crashing back to the ground with a Tetra Punch.

"Operation Mass Capture is almost complete," Alpha said. "Now we have... Five more left."

"Yup. Tykro, Liange, Angii, Veraca and Tuvis. But no one has heard from Tuvis in a long time. Wonder where we can find him..."

"It doesn't matter. We will do what we can."

Suddenly, there was a beeping sound. Alpha pulled out a Portable Port AD. "Message from the boss. Operation Mass Capture is to be placed on hold. We are to return. He will be doing something, and wants us to be there."

"Okay. Let's go."

With a press of a button, the two teleported back to their hideout.

They entered an observertory at the top of the building. They were greeted by Lolli and Para at the entrance.

"Welcome back." Yomi said. "Now, you shall witness the most interesting thing in the world!"

Chapter 6 - Three more People

2009-01-19T19:20:00.003+08:00

Bakaeep turned around, to her surprise, it was Soul.

"What's going on...? Where is this place?" Bakaeep asked.

"I don't know... I was at the Tapasco Mines with Rwinna, and we met Chio and Aurora. Probably imposters. We fought a little, and i was knocked out. When I woke up, I found myself in giant capsule. I forced myself out, and I'm looking for a way out."

"I see..."

Suddenly, from the door at the entrance of the hallway, they heard fast footsteps. "They're in there! Get them!"

"Hide!" Soul whispered.

The two dashed in to the middle room, and locked the door. The jammed the door by stacking the chairs against the doorknob. They looked around the room, and Soul just froze on the spot.

"What's wrong...?"

"This room...! I came from this room!"

Indeed, one of the capsules was broken. Glass and some liquid from the capsule were all over the floor, with footprints leading to left of the two doors at the other end of the room. Just then, they heard the people outside trying to force open the door.

"Let's go, the right door!"

They dashed through the door, heading out. At this moment, gun shots were heard outside. The lock was blown off the door, and it was easily pushed open. A Cyber Hunter walked into the room, holding a gun in each hand. Smoke were coming out of the barrel. He walked in and surveyed the area.

"Go the the left door, Group A. Group B, follow me through the right door! Move, move, move!"

He ran through the room, behind him was two groups of Inventors. They split up, and went through each door.

Bakaeep and Soul emerged in another hallway. This time, there were loads of doors. The ran through the hallway, when something on the door caught their attention.

"Chio"

"Aurora"

"Soul"

"Rwinna"

And so on. It was the names of everyone on each door. Then entered the room with their own names, but it was empty. Just a cell, and a capsule. Then they entered the door with Chio's name. To their surprise, they saw Chio sitting at one corner of the cell, not moving at all. They dashed towards the cell, and tried to break open the bars.

Outside, the Cyber Hunter entered the hallway. He was greeted by two person. A Diva and a Hunter Lord.

"What did you lose this time, SeiMizu?" the Hunter Lord asked.

"Call me Sei will do. And it's none of your business..."

"Third room on the left. You will find what you have lost there," the Diva said.

"Thanks, Para." Sei replied.

He walked towards the room, and positioned himself right outside, together with the several Inventors.

I signalled to one of the Inventors to knock the door down.

One.... Two.... Three! The Inventor kicked the door off it's hinches, and it crashed to the ground creating a large cloud of dust.

"Don't move!" Sei shouted.

Chapter 5 - Accidental Infiltration

2009-01-05T17:34:00.002+08:00

Yomi sat in his big chair in the middle of the dark room and he started questioning Alpha and Beta, after they had returned. "Why is there only one...?"

"My apologies," Alpha said. "The two Thief Masters had reinforcements, and we had to retreat."

"You could have defeated them anyway..." Yomi said, eyeing them suspiciously. "I expect you to finish this job before you rest. I want you to set off as soon as possible, and bring her here!"

"Yes sir!" Alpha and Beta said, and left the room.

At this point of time, Bakaeep got closer and closer to the building. She advanced carefully, just in case there are traps around. About 10 kilometres away, she had to stop to rest. She leaned against a tall tree and started catching her breath.

Suddenly, a few minutes later, a giant boulder infront of her started to shake. Bakaeep ducked behind a tree, and watched. The boulder slid to the side, revealing a passageway. Alpha and Beta then emerged. But of course, Bakaeep still didn't know who they are.

The two walked forward, and to avoid being seen, Bakaeep started walking around the tree. Suddenly, Alpha stopped and looked towards Bakaeep's direction. Bakaeep stood still, scared to move. She had stepped and a few branches and dead leaves, giving off some snapping and crushing sound.

Alpha walked towards the tree, going to investigate. Before he reached, Beta grabbed her on the shoulders. "Stop wasting time. We've got work to do..."

Alpha walked away, but she was still surveying the area carefully. Finally, she stopped and sped off into the distance with Beta. Bakaeep sat on the ground, giving off a sigh of relief. She then returned to the boulder, but was already back in its original location.

She pushed the boulder with all her might, but the boulder wouldn't budge. Countless efforts proved to be in vain. Finally, she tried moving it with her spells, but it still didn't work. After walking around for days, her spells just didn't have the power to crush or move the rock.

Bakaeep moved back, but tripped over something. She dug out some of the soil and noticed there were metal tracks for the boulder to slide on. In between the tracks was a red handle. She gave it a pull, and the boulder slid open.

She entered the passageway, and followed the winding hallway. There were many rooms on each side, but were mostly empty. Only some room had several boxes and crates. Finally, after walking for an hour, she reached a flight of stairs. "Up or down...?" she thought.

From the bottom, she heard a lot of sounds. Metal clanking, and some static. She ventured downwards. The hallway wasn't very long, and there was only three rooms at the end of the hallway.

She peeked into the left room and noticed it was a storeroom of weapons. She noticed someone at the back of the room. In the room on the right, there were machines and computers. Finally, she walked to the last room at the end of the hall. As she was about to turn the doorknob, she felt someone's hand on her shoulder.

"What are you doing here...?!"

Chapter 4 - Third Victim

2009-01-04T11:40:00.001+08:00

Knowing something was amiss, Rwinna and Soul kept their distance from Alpha and
Beta. They also set up mines along the way.

BOOM!

The first mine was set off by Beta, and she fell to the ground in shock.

"They know we are here..." Alpha said, as she turned towards Beta. "Why couldn't you
have tested your skill elsewhere...?"

"Oops..." Beta replied, sticking her tongue out.

"There will be more mines, be careful."

Alpha and Beta continued on cautiously. They got past the field of mines. Rwinna and
Soul dashed towards the exit, attempting to escape. However, in their hurry, i forgot
about their minefield.

Both Rwinna and Soul set off a mine each. Their Hide was cancelled, and it definitely
caught the attention of both Alpha and Beta.

"Beta! Hurry up!"

"Not good!" Rwinna exclaimed, as she and Soul picked up their pace towards the exit.
A light at the end. The exit! They ran faster and faster. But just as they were almost
reaching, a shadow blocked the light. They stopped short. The shadow got closer to them.

"Good job," Alpha said from behind them. "Beta."

Both Rwinna and Soul drew their daggers.

"Who are you...?" Rwinna asked. "Why do you look and sound like Chio, and Aurora?"
"Come with us, and you will know," Beta replied. "Cleaving Terra!"

Both Rwinna and Soul jumped to the side, avoiding the skill. Hide! Both of them
disappeared from sight.

"Mana Storm!"

"EarthQuake Blade!"

They casted the skill, with them as the center. Rwinna and Soul's Hide were cancelled as
they were hit by the Area of Effect skills. They were trying to get behind them to deal a
Sudden Attack, but have failed. They were knocked back.

"This power..." Soul said. "It seems amplified..."

Alpha dashed towards Rwinna with a UpperCut. Soul cut in and blocked the attack. The
impact was so strong that Soul's dagger shattered. The force also pushed Soul aside, as she
banged against the cave walls, before falling to the ground. Soul was knocked unconcious.
The shadow immediately appeared beneath her, swallowing her. Rwinna got up and ran
towards Soul, to pull her out. Half way there, Rwinna found herself moving slower and
slower. She looked down, and saw... Deadly Fen!

Beta has casted Deadly Fen without her knowing. Beta then followed with an Arrow
Rush. Rwinna defended against 4 of the arrows, but the speed of the last three arrows
was a lot faster. Unable to keep up with the speed, the arrows hit her directly.
The force knocked her out of the Deadly Fen. Before she even landed, the shadow appeared,
waiting for her to fall. Just then, Alpha and Beta suddenly jumped away from their
position.

"Someone's here!" Alpha exclaimed. "Retreat!"

As the ran away, they heard several gunshots. Tykro entered, and caught Rwinna in
midair, and landed outside the shadow. At this point of time, the shadow swallowing
Soul had closed up.

Veraca was following behind Tykro. As she walked into the cave, she felt two person
dashing past her, then disappearing.

Tykro walked out, carrying Rwinna on his back. "Did you see the two person who
escaped, Veraca?"

"I noticed two person running out. But they were moving so fast, i hadly had time to
react..."

"I see... Let's return to base first. We might not be save here anymore."

Several hours after the attack against Rwinna and Soul, Bakaeep noticed a white building
sticking out in the distance. She climbed up a tree to get a bird eye's view of the area. The
building was massive... She only notice it now, because the forest now has lesser trees
then it had earlier.

"Why is there a building there...." she thought.

Chapter 3 - Beta

2009-01-03T23:13:00.000+08:00

Bakaeep came to several hours later. She found herself lying on a beach, in an area she has never been before. There was a forest around a kilometre in front of her. After resting for a while, she got up and headed towards the forest to explore the area.

The forest was very thick. Not much sunlight entered. There were also many monsters around. They were the same few monsters that are all over Caballa, just stronger. But those monsters didn't pose a threat to her. She continued going deeper. The deeper she went, the stronger the monsters got. Fending off the stronger monsters tire her out quickly.

The area was so large that even after five hours, there wasn't any signs for a clearing at all. Unable to go on due to fatigue, Bakaeep camped in a cave she found near a cliff. The next two days, she just wandered around the forest.

"Aurora...! Aurora...! Can you hear me...?"

"This voice..." Aurora thought. "Who...."

Aurora's eyes slowly opened. Everything was blur.

"Bars...? A... Cell...?" She thought. "Who's that... Across the... Room...?"

"Aurora...!"

"Chio...?"

"Wake up...!"

Aurora's eyes began to focus. Indeed. It was Chio in the opposite cell, calling out to her. Chio still felt weak. She hadn't recovered from what had happened to her. Aurora was also feeling weak, and was unable to stand.

"What's going on...? Where is this...?"

"I don't know.... But someone is trying to take over the world, and he's trying to destroy us first."

"I knew... That wasn't you..." Aurora said, as she lost conciousness again.

"Aurora...!"

Back at the monster guild, everyone was getting worried.

"Where have the three of them went...?" Tykro said. "Three days, and no contact..."

"Let's go out and find them,"Liange said, as she opened the main door of the Monster guild.

"Where are you going to start? Caballa is a huge place. For all you know, they might not be in Caballa anymore."

"Darn it..." Liange thought.

At this moment of time, Soul and Rwinna were in the Tapasco Mines, excavating the precious gemstones, to use and to sell. From out of nowhere, the ground started shaking. Fire bats flew in to the mining lots. They were in disarray.

"Something's coming. Hide." Rwinna said.

Both Rwinna and Soul used Hide, and stayed behind a big rock. Then they heard two voices coming from the entrance. Chio and Aurora? Rwinna and Soul was about to disengage their Hide and greet them, when that started talking.

"Beta, how are the skills?"

"Working fine. I like the Cleaving Terra i just used," Beta replied. "By the way, Alpha, who are our targets this time?"

"Two Thief Masters. Called... Erm... Rwinna and Soul. They should be around here somewhere. Keep a lookout for them."

"Alpha and Beta...?" Rwinna thought, as she turned towards Soul, confused.

Chapter 2 - Swallowed

2009-01-03T23:11:00.000+08:00

Alpha walked towards Aurora, keeping eye contact at all times.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" Aurora asked. "Is there something on my face? Does my clothes not match?"

"Nothing," Alpha replied. " By the way, follow me. I found something interesting near Ceremonia."

"You sound a little different. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," Alpha said, as she led Aurora away.

"Close your eyes," Alpha said, when they reached the entrance of Ceremonia.

Aurora closed her eyes, and waited patiently. Alpha walked around Aurora, and took out a small rod from her pocket. By pressing a small button at the side, high voltage electricity starting flowing through it. The electricity was purple in colour, mixed together with poison. She lifted it up, and swung it down at Aurora. Suddenly, Alpha stopped. A force shield around Aurora. A Lightning Shield!

Aurora turned around, and quickly placed her palm on Alpha's stomach. "ElectroAttack!"
A ball of electricity came out of Aurora, and electrified Alpha, blowing her away. Her rod flew a different direction. Aurora walked towards Alpha. "What are you doing... Chio...? No... Who are you...?"

Alpha slowly got up, shaking off the excess electricity flowing through her body. "Electricity... A fourth element...?"

"I wasn't easy. But training paid off. Now, answer me. Who are you?"

"Me? I'm Chio, of-"

"No you aren't!" Aurora shouted, as she prepared another ElectroAttack in her hand. "Now, speak the truth."

"Fine..." Alpha replied. She drew her swords, two swords. A Afrit Sword in her right hand, and a Mars Sword in her left. "If you won't come quietly, i will have to take you by force!"

Alpha charged towards Aurora. Both swords becam engulfed in flames, indicating a strong fire elemental attribute infused within. Aurora casted several ElectroAttack, but was easily deflected by the flames. Alpha attacked very quickly, and it slowly took its toll on Aurora. Even her Fire Shield couldn't protect her from all the flames. Aurora managed to damage Alpha a little, with her Salamander's Blessing.

After receiving damage from the Blessing skill, Alpha jumped back. Before she landed, Aurora casted a Deadly Fen on the ground. Alpha landed in the Deadly Fen, and her movement was restricted straight away.
Aurora casted several Mana Arrows. They attacked Alpha's hands, and knocked her swords out of her hands. Alpha now will not be able to deflect any spells. Immediately, Aurora casted a WhirlWind Blaze around Alpha, and a Mana Storm, to contain the flames.

After thirty seconds, the skill slowly stopped. Aurora let off a sigh of relief.

Bakaeep then emerged from the monster guild. "What's all that noise...? Aurora?"

Aurora turned to Bakaeep, signalling to her that everything was fine.

The flames died down. But... Nothing was there. Suddenly, Aurora couldn't move! Her arms and legs didn't obey her. She struggled to move, but was unsuccesful. Bakaeep started rushing to her. Then from behind Aurora, a black shadow started spreading across the ground. It slowly started swallowing Aurora inside.

The black shadow came out of the ground, and covered Aurora. Aurora still had her hand outside, but was also sinking in. Bakaeep reached Aurora and tried to pull her up. As a result, Bakaeep was also pulled into the shadow. The shadow then closed up, and disappeared.

Just as the shadow disappeared, Liange exited the Monster Guild. "Bakaeep! Where did you go?"

She walked around, and something caught her eyes. A pink earring. "This is... Bakaeep's..."

Chapter 1 - Before Disaster

2009-01-03T23:09:00.000+08:00

The dark aura swirled in the skies above, as it slowly disintegrated. The work of Poseidon's Blessing. That was exactly what happened one year ago.

A mysterious figure sat in a dark room, with monitor screens all around him. The biggest monitor screen showed the reenactment of the final battle. Several smaller monitors showed various scenes of the individual characters.

The person left the current room, and went in the opposite room. There were many prison cells in there, with a capsule beside each cell. But they were all empty, except for one cell. The prisoner's hands were chained up above her head. She was unconcious, or maybe asleep, but definitely alive. The mysterious person walked up to her, grabbed her hair, and lifted her head. Chio!

"It hurts...." Chio thought, as she slowly came to. She opened her eyes, with her vision blurred at first. Her eyes started to focus after a while. It shows how long she had been out for. Probably several days.

The person stuck several probes on her forehead, then returned back to the other room. All the images on the monitor screens changed to Chio's. Her lifestyle, her battle style, everything. Everything was being recorded down, and extracted. The person snapped his fingers, and one extra person appeared, kneeling down behind him.

The capsule beside Chio's cell started up. The second person entered the capsule, then the capsule started filling with green liquid. The data extracted were transfered to the capsule, and the lights at the top started blinking rapidly. There were a lot of bubbles in the liquid, until finally, the person inside couldn't be seen.

Finally, when the bubbles cleared, the person inside looked exactly liike Chio! This caught Chio's attention, but she felt too weak to speak. The other guy entered the room, and gave the imposter several instructions.

Chio struggled, and managed to say a few words. "Who... Are... you...?"

The man turned to Chio and replied. "I'm surprised you are still able to speak. Normally, no one would be able to speak for weeks. But for you, it seems to be a different story."

"Who... Are... you...?" Chio asked again.

"Me? I'm just someone who wants everything. Especially the world. My name is Yomi."

"What's... going... on...?"

"Nothing much actually. I am going to take over the world. But first, I'm going to remove you and your friends from the face of the earth. I don't want anyone to get in my way, just like what had happened to Karan. My plan now to to destroy what you have once protected, and then work from there, to be the god of the new world! And I have people who share the same interest as me."

"Take her for example," Yomi continued. "She shares my view for the new world, and is willing to sacrifice everything to realise our dream. And now, she looks exactly like you. Acts exactly like you. Everything is now similar. And this is step one of the entire plan. And I will call her... Alpha! Though, I wonder why i bothered telling you all these. You probably don't have much longer to live."

With that, Yomi and Alpha left the room, leaving Chio all alone in her cell. Chio slowly recalled a little about what had happened. But everything was blurrly. She remembered that a stranger bumping into her. The man stared at her with cold eyes, that froze her for a second. Then the man stretched out his arms, and she felt a force from behind sucking her in. The next thing she knew, she was chained in the cell, after being unconcious for several days.

Megalopolis. Still as lively as usual. And it's where our heroes hang out. Aurora exited from the Monster Guild, and started towards the Skill Garden. She went around the corner, then she shouted out to someone.

"Chio! Where have you been the past few days?"

Chapter 43 - The End

2009-01-03T23:07:00.000+08:00

The light from the crystals formed in to chains. The shot up into the sky quickly, binding Kitasen in midair, and brought him back down. He was being binded so tightly, that he could hardly move.

"Release me!"

The light from the harkon, Poseidon's Blessing, was cleasing the evil in the area. The dark aura began to disappear around Kitasen. And he started reverting back to his normal size.

Both halves of the charm in Lycan's and Rosetta's hand started to glow. They joined it together to form a full heart. It glowed even brighter than usual and then it formed a sword. A golden sword, with the pink and blue heart near the handle.

"The legendary Forever Sword...." Lycan said. "Shall we?"

Rosetta nodded, and held to the sword with her other arm. Together, they ran towards the black dragon, and stabbed it right in the chest, causing the dark aura to disappear immediately. In it's place, was Kitasen, the normal Kitasen. And he was now unconsious. The pulled out the sword, and there wasn't a wound on Kitasen.

"The Forever Sword,"a voice from behind said. Eclipse. "One that was created a long time ago with out secret technology, which was the weapon Lycan was using, the day he fell into this dimension. It was specially created to cleanse the evil within a person. It eradicates the evil within, and it doesn't harm the person."

Poseidon's Blessing started to cleanse the dark aura all around Caballa Island. The army of Iron and Brass Knights and the other monsters disintegrated into dust, and were blown away in the wind. Even the aura with in the evil side disappeared. As it left their body, they screamed in pain, before losing conciousness.

Eclipse walked towards Rosetta. "Thank you for saving my brother."

Eclipse kneeled down and place her palm near Rosetta's right shoulder. She closed her eye, and the clock on her staff started turning backwards. Some weird energy formed formed at Eclipse's palm. Then, in the next instance, Rosetta's arm was back.

Eclipse then stood up, and said, "The manipulation of time and space. I will now use it to revert Caballa Island to what it was like before."

Taking several minutes, Caballa was as good as new. Everyone's injuries was healed. Kitasen and his group started to regain conciousness.

"What happened...?" Pharrell asked. "What year is this...?"

A voice from afar was then heard. "My name is Poseidon. I thank you all for saving me. I have cleanse the evil within the area, which would result in their memory being affected. It seems that their memory was controlled by the dark aura Karan gave them to you. You have lost many years of you time. We wish you the best."

Then from far, they saw coloured light, flying from the ground back to space. The planetary warriors had completed their mission, and are returning back to their home.

Three months later, Rosetta took over the throne as Queen of Caballa, along side her, was Lycan, whom she plans to marry once the time was right. She invited Chio and her group to attend the wedding when it is held, as thanks for everything they had done. As for Kitasen and his group, they disappeared from the hospital one month ago, and no one had been able to locate them.

As for Chio and the rest, they went of in their own paths, of training, or travelling, whatever it may be.

Is there more evil in the world that need to be cleanse? We may never know.

Chapter 42 - Lycan's Battle

2009-01-03T23:05:00.000+08:00

"This world will be mine!" Kitasen, in the Black Dragon form, roared, as the flew towards Lycan.
Lycan avoided his attack. His claws glowed red again, and he slashed down on Kitasen. He flew away quickly to avoid Lycan's attack. Lycan again, ripped the dimensions with his claws.

"The other dimension... IT WILL BE MINE!"

Kitasen flew towards the rip, in an attempt to enter the other dimension. Lycan ran quickly to the back, and held on to it's tail. He pulled Kitasen away from the rip, as it started to close.

Furious, Kitasen used his tail and hit Lycan in his face, sending him flying to one side. He then flew towards the rip again, but it closed completely as he reached.

"Lycan!" Rosetta screamed, as she ran towards him.

"I said stay back," Lycan shouted back. "I don't want you to get hurt anymore!"

Kitasen turned around and flew close to the ground, towards Lycan. Halfway there, he ascended again, but this time, with Rosetta in his hands.

"Rosetta!" Lycan shouted, with his hands stretching out.

"Lycan! Save me!"

"Let her go...!"

"Never! You ruined everything i have planned, you destroyed everything because of this girl. And now, I will destroy everything that matters to you!" Kitasen started closing his fist, crushing Rosetta. Rosetta then lost conciousness.

"NOO!" Lycan howled, as he kicked off the ground, tackling the dragon. From that attack, he accidentally released his grip on Rosetta, sending her falling a hundred feet from above.

Lycan immediately change course to catch Rosetta. He placed her safely against a building, as his attention changed back to Kitasen.

"How romantic," Kitasen said sarcasticaly, laughing.

Growling, Lycan pounce on him. Kitasen then ascended to avoid Lycan. "It's ends now, Lycan..."
When he was so high up, out of reach of everyone, Kitasen opened his mouth. The aura around gathered in his mouth, and when there was a high concentration of the dark power, he released it.

"Flames of Hell!"

The dark flames blew down in Rosetta's direction. Lycan immediately jumped infront of Rosetta to protect her. At this point of time Rosetta regained conciousness, and the first thing she saw was Lycan's painful expression, which immediately put her to tears.

"Run.... Rosetta....!"

"I won't leave you, Lycan."

Kitasen closed his mouth. However, the flames on Lycan's back, continued to burn as strongly as ever. "It's over."

Rosetta went up to Lycan, and hugged him. "I love you.... Please, don't get hurt anymore..."

Lycan was about to fall, when he heard Rosetta's plead. He held on to Rosetta in his hand, and replied, "I love you too."

Lycan started howling, forcing the dark aura out of his body.

"What...?!" Kitasen said.

The flames on Lycan's back started to extinguish. His fur changed colour, from black to blue. Because he forced out the aura, he reverted back to his normal size. "Thank you, Rosetta..." Lycan said.

Rosetta then spotted something on Lycan's pants. A blue charm, which was the shape of half a heart. Taking out her pink charm, with was also half a heart, Rosetta said, "I can't believe you still held on to it all this while..."as tears of joy formed in her eyes.

In Nefertiti's Shrine, the planetary warriors started to release Poseidon from captivity. After a while, the harkon statue started to glow, and it lighted up the sky. The harkon shards in the other locations also started to glow, forcing the dark aura out.

"What's going on...?!" Kitasen roared from above.

Chapter 41 - The Black Dragon of Darkness

2009-01-03T23:04:00.000+08:00

"NOOOO!" Kitasen screamed, furiously.

As everyone was distracted, Veraca signalled to Liange, who wasn't caught in the Skunk Pouch. Veraca tackled Levy and pushed her away from the group, negating the effect of Skunk Pouch. Liange went in and attacked Pharrell. They then brought the two away from the group.

Kitsune jumped in to reinforce them, but was blocked by Soul and Rwinna.

Furious, Kitasen pulled out a sealed scroll from his robe.

"Isn't that...?" Shimega asked. "Wouldn't you...?!"

"I have no choice as of now! Back away, brother!"

As her opened the scroll, more and more of the aura enveloped him, until he couldn't be seen anymore. The aura around Kitasen grew larger and larger, and then formed into a giant dragon. A really long dragon. A black dragon of darkness. "I will end this, once and for all!" he roared.
Lycan, still with his black fur and red eyes, pushed Rosetta aside. "Stay back. From now on, I will protect you, even if I have to sacrifice myself."

With that, Lycan started absorbing the aura as well. Due to the large amout of the dark aura entering his body in one shot, it powered him up by several time, and he even became a lot bigger than usual. Soon, it was a face off between a giant dragon, and Lycan, an incomplete werewolf.

Veraca started her attack with a barrage of Card Strikes and One Pairs. Levy defended it well, and went in for a 2-Hit Combo. Veraca defend with her own Power Blow and Volley Kick. Veraca then used her Evolution and Levy did the same. Their attacks were on par, however, Veraca's attack speed got faster the more she attack, and Levy got slower.

"About time for my long training to kick in." Veraca thought.

She had trained under one of the greatest Diva of all times. She was the one who mastered a endurance ability, that allow that person to get stronger, the more they fight, instead of getting weaker.

Veraca finally pushed Levy to her knees. "That ability... Your mentor... Could she be...?"

"You got that right," Veraca replied, with her sword at her neck.

"Heh... I've lost that battle." Levy said.

Liange went in for a Tetra Punch. Again, it was countered easily by Pharrell. Right after the attack, and just as Pharrell was about to land a hit on her, Liange dashed backwards and around him, going for a Flash Cut. She landed a hit on his stomach, then gave him a UpperCut, followed by a Tornado Bomb, sending him flying.

Pharrell used his legs and then kicked off the wall of a nearby building, in an attempt to return a hit back at Liange. Just as his attack was about to land, Liange disappeared, then reappeared behind him.

"What?!" Pharrell thought, as he turned around.

Unable to react, Liange used a Flamming Fist on Pharrell, sending hims crashing to the ground. Pharrell struggled to get up, but stopped when he saw shadows around him. Looking up, he saw Chio and the others surrounding him. "Haha... I give up..."

The three Thief Masters were exchanging Fan of Knives. Many projectiles were thrown all over the place, but none had hit its mark. In the middle of the chaos, Soul and Rwinna had thrown some mines out, together with the porjectiles, unknown to Kitsune.

Running around attacking each other, Soul and Rwinna worked together and slowly lured Kitsune towards the mines. Finally, when she was nearby, they detonated it.

The blast injured Kitsune badly, and she was in no condition to continue fighting.

Back at Mirage Island, the planetary warriors finally located Poseidon in Nefertiti's shrine.

Behind them, was the remains of the Golems. Rocks everywhere. Seems like the Golems were no threat to them at all.

"Time to release Poseidon," Mercury, the eldest of them, said.

Back at Megalopolis, Shimega got caught immediately. He doesn't like fighting, and gave in instantly.

Above in the air, the battle between Lycan and Kitasen, the black dragon of darkness, began.

Chapter 40 - Reunion

2009-01-03T22:59:00.000+08:00

Lycan ran loose in Megalopolis. He started attacking innocent people in the city. Many people had perished under him. He was a strong and talented warrior, but the dark aura brought out his deepest potential.

Chio had a hard time against him. Even with weapons, she was at a disadvantage.

Finally, all five of them reached the centre, and they had Chio's group surrounded.

"Keep them away," Kitasen ordered.

The other four started attacking Chio and the rest very very quickly. Suddenly, Pharrell, Shimega and Kitsune jumped away. Levy then used a Skunk Pouch. It immobilized everyone in the area, and brought them aside. However, Veraca was immuned to it. But she pretended that she was under it's effect. The were held captive at the base of Don Cavalier's statue in Megalopolis, or at least, what remains of the statue. Levy and Pharrell stood guard.

Kitasen walked to the centre of Megalopolis and stuck the last shard into the ground. By transfering some of the dark aura into it, it caused the shard to light it. A beam of light shot up into the sky, and was joined by five more light, mainly from the shards from Snow Hills, Paradise, Aquarius, Tapasco and Carbigal.

It formed a hemisphere around the whole of Caballa Island. A dark hemisphere. The hemisphere gathered into a huge concentration of energy and it entered Lycan in one shot. Lycan howled in pain His eyes became all red and evil. The accessory Ecplise gave him years ago started to glow bright red. And so did his claws.

"Tear the dimensions!" Kitasen shouted. "Do it! Lycan!"

Lycan lifted up both arms, and with his red claws, he swiped down. As his swiped down, it tore the air around him, ripping the dimensions. The rip got bigger every second. After tearing the dimensions, Lycan went on a rampage. One swipe could slice through a building, a clean cut. At the same time, creating another tear in the dimensions.

After a while, the whole area was full of rips. On the other side, They were preparing for a battle. Armies stood ready at every possible entrance.

Surprisingly, Rosetta managed to run around Megalopolis, unharmed. She was trying her best to find Lycan, when she heard a loud howl. She turned to the direction of the howl and saw Lycan, with black fur and red eyes, standing on top of the Monster Guild. He was grinning, and has saliva dripping out of his mouth.

"Lycan..." Rosetta said. "LYCAN!!!"

Lycan's looks didn't scare her. She ran towards the Monster Guild. Upon hearing her shouts, Lycan changed his attention to her. He immediatly got to his feet and rushed towards her.

"Rosetta!" Aurora shouted, but she couldn't do anything, as the effect of Skunk Pouch was still in effect.

Lycan dashed infront of Rosetta with one hand up in the air.

"Lycan.... don't do this...." Rosetta pleaded, as she cried. "Lycan..."

Grinning, Lycan swipe down at Rosetta. Lycan's swipe was so powerful that it ripped off Rosetta's right arm, and then Rosetta was flung to the side. She landed on the ground, but got up immediately. She ignored the pain and continued towards Lycan.

"Lycan... Remember me? We were best of friends. We were more than just friends... Come back to me...! Please...! You swore you will never make me cry. You swore you will never allow me to get hurt. Please... Come back..." Rosetta pleaded dearly, as she stretched out her left hand towards Lycan. "I love you, Lycan. Come back..."

"It's useless. He has totally lost his mind. He's just a puppet under the control of the dark aura. A mindless slave!" Kitasen shouted. "Now, all that's left is for the rips around to open, for our army to enter and to conquer everything!"

Suddenly, the rips started to shake.

"What's going on?!" Kitasen shouted.

Lycan stopped his attacks. He held his head with both hands, and fell to his knees. He the started howling, then a scream of his human side was heard. His transformation was getting out of control, due to the influence of the aura. The more he howl and scream, the more the rips started shaking.

"It's getting unstable," Shimega said. "And the rips are closing up!"

"Our plans for a new world! I will not tolerate failure at this point!" Kitasen shouted, as he turned to Rosetta, angrily. He then casted a Dark Lance on her. As the Dark Lance was about to hit Rosetta, Lycan jumped up,and caught the lance in his hands, and landed back down.
He turned his head towards Kitasen, holding the lance infront of him, with his eyes, back to normal.

"You will not harm the princess! You will not harm Rosetta!" Lycan howled, as he broke the lance with one hand, negating the spell.

"Lycan!" Rosetta shouted, with tears forming. However, this time, it was tears of joy.

Chapter 39 - Reminising the Past

2009-01-03T22:58:00.000+08:00

Megalopolis is now surrounded by the army of monsters. The path behind them were all trashed. Rosetta ran around Oops Wharf area, and noticed that a lot of animals and people in the area were killed by Lycan, because of the claw marks. There was no mistaking it. Lycan was with Kitasen.

The monsters continued to advance. Although the front line of those army fall, there were many more behind.

Liange rushed through the horde of monsters and caught a glimpse of Tuvis. The stared at each other, and Tuvis lifted up his hand, and the movement of his army stopped. He approached Liange. "What do you resist us so much?"

"What?!" Liange shouted back. "Why are you fighting for evil and not for us?!"

"This is my fate. This is what i was suppose to do, the day my hometown got trashed. It has been decided."

"You are no longer the Tuvis we all knew. I think this leave me no choice..."

Liange drew her sword and attacked Tuvis. Tuvis defended it easily. They were dashing all over the place, with their swords clashing everywhere.

"This is just like old times, isn't it, Tuvis?! The time when we use to spar with each other in school?!"

"That's all in the past. You still lose to me because you still fight for the weak. And reminising makes one weak. As a fighter, we must overcome everything. Feelings is the barrier that separates the weak from the strong. With those feelings, you will never become strong, you will never defeat me!"

"I don't believe a word you are saying! How could you change so drastically from what you were before?! This is unacceptable! You aren't a bad person!"

Furious, and powered by Adrenaline, Liange's attack got fiercer, in hopes of bringing Tuvis to his right state of mind. Their swords clashed countless of times. Liange's Flamming Fist was often weakened by Tuvis' Tidal Slash. Even their Tetra Punch were on par.

"I see you have improved. But it isn't enough."

Liange pulled out another sword, which surprise Tuvis. This increase the amount of hits on Tuvis. Tuvis wasn't able to it all, and finally, Liange manage to send his sword flying, and hand another sword at Tuvis' neck.

"Dual swordplay. Where did you learn that?"

"It was something I picked up, after you said it was useless, back in school."

"Well, you got me. Aren't you going to finish the job?"

"I can't do it. You're my friend, in school and now. Furthermore, you are free of the dark aura..." Liange said, as she kept her sword.

"How naive..." Tuvis said. "Never show sympathy to an enemy."

Tuvis snatched one sword from Liange's hand and placed the blade at her neck.

"It ends now."

"If I can't prevent a friend from going to the wrong side, do I still deserve to live, Tuvis?"

Tuvis brought the blade down. "This is what i meant. Feelings make you weak. Forget it. You aren't worth my time. When you have discarded them, come and find me. Then, we will have an all out battle."

After saying that, Tuvis left the battlefield, and his army disappeared into thin air, leaving Liange standing alone at the direction of Paradise.

Chapter 38 - The war begins

2009-01-03T22:56:00.000+08:00

The earth shook. Armies were starting their invasion all around Caballa. They came from all directions. Each of them led one army to invade Caballa.

Their army all consisted of Iron Knights and Brass Knights, with something extra.

Pharrell's army had Coal Mine Soldiers and he stormed through Aquarius. Tuvis' army had Personas and he used them to storm through Paradise.

Kitasen and Shimega's army has the Bone Magicians. Kitasen stormed through Oops Wharf, while Shimega went from the north, to storm through Tapasco.

Kitsune's army consisted of the Guard Ians and she stormed through Cabigal. As for Levy, her army has all they types of Coolems, and she stormed from Snow Hill down.

Their target, and destination was Megalopolis, Rose Garden and the Caballa Castle, since that is where everyone was. Once they meet at the center of Megalopolis, it will be time for a new world.

Among Kitasen's army, Lycan was there. There's no life in his eyes. His body was no longer covered with blue fur, but rather, black fur. Everyone of them held on to a chip of Poseidon's Blessing, a harkon piece. It glows in different colours beautifully. However, a ritual needed to be done. Five points around Caballa and one in the middle will create a glyph to activate the ritual.
From that, Lycan's hidden power will be unleashed and they will take over the other dimension.

For now, they all have to reach Megalopolis first. The first five shards were already in place, and guarded by hordes of knights.

Chio and friends split up to confront them. Together, they had elite fighters from the disbanded Paladins that returned to join in the fight. Even at this point of time, Radiant's location was unknown to everyone.

Chio and Aurora went to confront Kitasen. Rwinna and Soul, as usual, went on to Kitsune. Angii and Bakaeep went to find Shimega. Veraca and Tykro set off to face Levy. Liange went to find Tuvis and HornedBull left to face Pharrell.

Chio and Aurora started cutting down Kitasen's army. But the numbers were too great. They were being pushed back, all the way from Oops Wharf, towards the gate. But, what Chio and Aurora doesn't know was, Rosetta was following them the whole time, Hoping to find Lycan.

The same went for the others. No matter how far away from Megalopolis they started the fight, they were all being pushed towards the centre of Caballa Island. There was totally no way of removing the harkon shards from the locations.

While everyone was busy fighting, the planetary warriors had infiltrated into Mirage Island, to look for Poseidon. As that was their only objective. They were met with a strong resistance from the monsters in the area. There were a giant horde of Golems in the area as well. At the Alteo construction site, they were confronted by a woman with long pink hair, wearing a dress, with black and red at the top and a pink skirt, with a rose in the front. She was holding on to a grass whip. However, she was limping out of the area.

"Help me..." she said weakly.

Then, the black aura enveloped her. She started screaming. The aura entered and left, and the cycle continued for a while. She was resisting the aura, but in the end, she wasn't strong enough, and the aura took total control. She started attacking the warriors, but they scattered and defeated her with one blow. As she fell to the floor, she smiled and mumbled weakly, "Thank... You..."

She disappeared and in her place, a rose started to grow.

"Rest well," Mars said, with his eyes close. "Rosepina."

Chapter 37 - Declaration of war

2009-01-03T22:55:00.000+08:00

Mars started the story:

Every thousand years, when the planets align, we always gather for some meeting at a random place in the universe. Last year, when the planets aligned, obviously, we were suppose to meet.
However, only the five of us gathered. Hence, we started to scout the universe, searching for the missing four, when we reached the proximity of Earth, and that is where we faced our strongest enemy ever, Karan.

We faced off with him, and out battle lasted for days. Even with the five of us, we were no match. He wanted to capture us, for his evil plans, when we realise why the other four didn't gathered. Apprentally, they found out about this plot and were unable to contact the five of us.

Just when we were at out limit, Karan made a mistake. From that mistake, we managed to escape to the the closest planet, Earth. We were already weakened in battle, hence we changed back into out meteorite forms, and crashed down into Earth.

We were slowly recovering, when Karan's minions found us. Then we realise something.

Poseidon, the guardian and warrior of Earth, was already held captive by Karan. Among the nine of us, the sons and daughters of Alpha and Omega, Poseidon is the strongest.

We were unable to do anything as we were imprisoned in our meteorite form. They used some dark art to seal our power, disabling us. The weird device they used forced use to change forms.
The last thing we remembered was fighting you guys. Our objective now is to rescue Poseidon.

"... And we apologise for what we had done..." Venus said, as she finish off the story.

"I see... " Aurora replied. "You guys had gone through a really tough time."

Suddenly, thunder was heard, and the wind became very strong that it blew open the main door of the Monster Guild. Everyone rushed out to see what was going on. Then, in the dark sky, holograms of the the evil side appeared. They started introducing themselves.

"My name is Kitasen."

"I'm Shimega."

"Kitsune."

"Pharrell."

"Levy."

"Tuvis."

"Tuvis?!" Everyone exclaimed in shock. "What's going on?!"

"We are the future rulers of this world. This dimension and the other. And the universe. Take this as our declaration of war. We will destroy those who stand in our way. We will destroy everything there is now, and build a new world! One where we are the rules! This time, darkness will prevail!" Kitasen continued.

The others started laughing, except for Tuvis. He was looking away from the others, and couldn't be bothered.

"What's going to happen now...?" Chio asked.

"Lycan..." Rosetta said softly, holding her hands at her chest, with her eyes closed, as tears formed at the corner of her eyes.

Chapter 36 - Return of the Planets

2009-01-03T22:53:00.000+08:00

Back at Caballa School, Liange, Bakaeep and Chio started surveying the laboratory. They went into the secret room, and found lots of machines.

"I think we should call Tykro to take a look at these stuff," Chio said.

"Good idea,"Bakaeep replied. "This is his field of speciality."

Chio took out her communicator, and gave a call to Tykro. Tykro then headed towards Caballa School, still holding the rocks. Upon reaching the secret room, he dropped all the stones and stared at all the machines. "Those machines... It's technology is one that I have never came across before...!"

"Let me study these for a while." Tykro continued. "I maybe able to figure out how these works."

After a few hours, Tykro stood up. "Yup. I've got it. This is a secret technology, not from our world, or should i say, our dimension."

After playing around with the controls, Tykro managed to start it. Making sure that it was still working, it rewired it to give a oppsite effect. When he was done, he fired it up. The machine gave off an energy, similar to the one from before. It fired up, and landed back down on the school.

Everyone ran to the previous room and saw a middle age man in Mad Ray's place. "Thank... you..." he mumbled before he passed away. They then stood there and prayed for him...
Liange and Bakaeep then exited the laboratory and went to the corridors and the classrooms. Few moments later, they returned, all happy and excited. "It's worked! Everyone is back to normal! They are just unconcious though."

"That's great!" Chio exclaimed. "Let's evacuate them immediately."

"You guys go ahead," Tykro said. "This machine here... Looks like it could do something usseful. I want to check it out."

Chio, Liange and Bakaeep brought everyone out of Caballa School, and to Oops Wharf. They placed the victims under Angii's group's care. It took them a lot of trips to evacuate them, and several hours. I was close to midnight when they evacuate everyone. And that was about five hours.

They returned back the the secret room, to see Tykro placing the rocks in the machine. "Step back," Tykro warned.

Firing up the machine, the rocks started to glow, and this time, there isn't any dark aura getting in the way. The light grew so bright that it blinded everyone. Finally, when the light died down, they saw Mars, Venus, Saturn, Pluto and Mercury standing around them.
"What happened to us...?" Mercury asked.

"I do not know," replied Mars. "Who are these... Humans?"

"Our friends brought you back, from the hands of the evil people," Tykro said.

"I see..." Pluto said. "Can you be trusted?"

"We do not want to suffer that pain, with the weird aura from before...." Saturn continued.
"We swear," Chio assured them. "We are trying to save this world."

Chio, Liange, Bakaeep and Tykro led the way and brought the planetary warriors back to Oops Wharf. When Angii's group saw them, their first instinct was to draw their weapons.
"Drop your weapons!" Liange shouted. "They are friendly now."

Tykro called for reinforcements from the monster guild and medical staff came to aid the victims. Then everyone went back to the monster guild.

They entered a giant auditorium, where they asked the planetary warriors what had exactly happened.

Chapter 35 - Lycan and Rosetta

2009-01-03T22:11:00.000+08:00

Back in Megalopolis Monster Guild, Aurora was still looking after Rosetta. She sat down beside Rosetta on the sofa, to perhaps try to comfort her. But she wanted to know what exactly Lycan was to her.

"So, Rosetta," Aurora asked. "What's Lycan to you? You look really worried and sad at the same time."

"Why do you ask this...?"

"If I am making you feel uncomfortable, you don't have to answer that question."

"No... I'm fine. I think you guys need to know about this.

"Lycan was my childhood friend..." She continued.

Lycan was a unique and special person. Not because of what he is now, but way before that. He was one day found lying in the castle courtyard, unconcious. And Rosetta found him. No one knew how he got past the palace guards, and every single one of the guards said they did not seen him.

Rosetta took care of him for the next few days. Back then Rosetta was only ten years old, and it was eight years ago. Lycan only regained conciousness days later. He had no memory of anything, where he came from, and his name. Nothing. Hence, Rosetta gave him the name "Lycan".

When he came to, he was unable to speak or understand English. He always spoke another weird language, which no one could understand.

Everyone believed that he was from another world, but it sounded quite farfetched. Hence, people started to doubt that possibility. During some of the routine checkups, doctors would take some blood samples from Lycan and pass them on to Scientists to study it. In his blood sample, they found a weird compound that was not from this world, which confirmed their doubts.

One day, a woman in black appeared. She seems to know Lycan. Speaking in their own native language, they spoke for hours long. During that time, Rosetta was eavesdropping, and obviously, she didn't understand a single word they said. Finally, the woman gave him a charm that will allow him to be able to speak and understand English. After that, the woman disappeared, and didn't show herself again, until recently. Eclipse.

After that encounter, Lycan was able to communicate with everyone. He and Rosetta became the best of friends. As time past, Lycan began remembering about his past. Also, feelings between Lycan and Rosetta developed.

Lycan slowly told Rosetta about his past, as he remembered them. It seems that he came from another dimension, the same one as Eclipse. He was the first of their kind to break through the dimensions and arrive here. Eclipse wasn't able to bring him back to their dimension at that point of time. At times, a rip in the dimensions will appear infront of Lycan, but he refuse to return, as he want's to repay his debt to Rosetta for rescuing and taking care of him.

Four years passed, and their relationship got closer. As a way to repay his debt, Lycan became Rosetta's bodyguard. At this point, he suddenly remembered another portion of his past.

Four years ago, an evil force was threatening their dimension, and they were defending it. The evil force was from their dimension as well. In a clash between him and their leader, the dimensions tore and they fell through. Unable to endure the change in conditions, the opposition died. However, before going to battle, Lycan's sister, Eclipse, gave him a special accessory. That accessory helped him endure the change in conditions of the dimensions, keeping him alive. All he suffered was some injuries, and his memory loss.

As Lycan was the first person to cross the dimensions, he hold the key to travel back. That accessory Eclipse gave him. Hence, Kitasen and his gang were after him. Back then, when Kitsune attacked the castle, they wanted to kill Rosetta for two reasons. One, to kill the next person in line for the throne, and two, so that Lycan would lose his will to fight. And they can take the chance and put him to use. But Lycan saved Rosetta.

In the end, they still managed to aquire Lycan. And they will be using Lycan soon enough, and the world will soon be in danger.

As Rosetta told the story, tears started forming in her eyes. "Please... I beg you... Save Lycan..."
Touched by the story, and by Rosetta, Aurora held her hands and said,"I promise. We will save him," as she also teared up.

Chapter 34 - Released from Agony

2009-01-03T22:09:00.000+08:00

Liange pushed her sword away. Her sword was swallowed into the dimension gap. However, the gap got bigger and it became like a vaccuum and started sucking stuff inside. Unable to hold on to anything, Liange and Bakaeep were sucked inside. Immediately, the gap closed. However, looking from the outside, the two were trapped in a dark sphere.

But to Liange and Bakaeep, they were in a vast area, and it was total darkness. They started wondering around the vast area. It feels like they are still standing on the same spot.

Occasionally, they could see images of people, and hear their screams. The longer they stayed in there, the more screams they would hear. Soon, it got quite unbearable, and it affected their mind.

Shimega emerged from the room behind the Science Laboratory. He started up a machine, which activated several weird looking laser guns. They all pointed towards the dark sphere, changing up energy.

Just then, from outside, a loud banging sound was heard. Someone was trying to knock down the iron door. After several hits, the door dented, and then, the banging stopped. Few seconds later, one final bang was heard, and the door flew off it's hinges, and crashed into Shimega's machine, spoiling it in the process.

Chio dashed in, with her target, Shimega, right infront of her. Shimega lifted up his right hand, and the aura formed into his staff, and he used it to defend himself against Chio's punch. Chio's punch broke his staff, and force Shimega to retreat back. Chio immediately went for Mad Ray.
Chio struck Mad Ray from the back knocking him out in one blow. Mad Ray crashed against a wall, and fell to the floor, motionless.

Back in the dark sphere, Liange and Bakaeep are still facing the agony of the weird dimension. Then, suddenly all the loud screams and the images stopped. Silence. Then an image of a middle aged man appeared infront of them.

"Help me...." he groaned.

The vast area started shaking violently. The image and the voice disappeared as soon as the shaking started. From outside, Chio was punching the dark sphere continously. A small crack appeared after a while. Shimega silently casted a Arrow Rush at Chio. His Mana Arrows were all black, tainted by the aura. Chio jumped out of the way, just in the nick of time, and five of the arrows hit the sphere, while the other two flew after Chio. It chased Chio around the room. Chio managed to deflect one to the back room, wreaking some of the machines there. As for the second arrow, Chio blocked it with her sword, head on, destroying it.

After getting hit by five of the dark arrows, the sphere started cracking, more and more. slowly, the cracks spread over the whole sphere, and it shattered. Liange and Bakaeep fell to the ground, and slowly regained conciousness. Chio ran over to help them immediately.

Sensing danger, Chio turned around, with her sword held up vertically. A Mercenary had appeared out of nowhere and attacked them. He was overpowering Chio. Then, Liange picked up her sword, that had also dropped out of the shattered sphere, and swung it at the Mercenary. He jumped backwards to avoid her attack.

"Pharrell..." Shimega said. "What are you doing here?"

"I was sure something was going to happen, so i dropped by, and what do you know? I was right."

Chio wasted no time, and swung her sword, firing off a Piercing Wave, but was countered by Pharrell's.

Pharrell continued with a Inferno Blade. His Inferno Blade was special. He wasn't the centre of the attack. His, however, was able to follow the target and any direction. Chio deflected some with his Tidal Slash, neutralising some of them. However some made it through the water skill, and headed towards the group.

Suddenly, Bakaeep ran infront of them, kneel down and lifted her right hand. "Fire Shield!"
A huge red barrier appeared from her hand and she successfully defended against the fire swords.

Liange and Chio dashed out when the fire swords disappeared. Chio used her Tetra Punch at Pharrell's right side and Liange used her's on Pharrell's left side. Pharrell lifted both hands and countered Chio's and Liange's attack. By executing four punches with each hand, his attacking speed is surprisingly fast.

Pharrell was about to attack again, when a loud voice was heard. "Pharrell, Shimega. Return immediately. It's time."

"Lucky..." Pharrell grumbled, as he and Shimega retreated into a rip.

Liange wanted to follow them, but was stopped by Chio and Bakaeep, as they watched the rip close.

Chapter 33 - Mad Ray attacks!

2009-01-03T22:08:00.000+08:00

Liange and Bakaeep reached Caballa school and the necklace "died". It stopped glowing and just dropped down. There is definitely something here. Also, Jia was no where around. They continued into the school, hoping to find her.

"This place has gotten a lot more creepier..." Bakaeep said, with a shiver.

"The atmosphere has changed, after what had happened," Liange replied. "Thankfully, it happened only after we had graduate..."

The twins ventured deeper in, and climbed to the second floor. Suddenly, a Red Goblin jumped down the stairs from the third floor and attacked them. The goblin swung his giant bone down, and the twins managed to dodge, but they just made it. Liange straight away went from behind, giving it a Tetra Punch, knocking it out.

Suddenly, from one of the classrooms, Jia emerged, scaring the twins for the second time.

"Who are you...?"

"You sent us to Eclipse, remember...?" Bakaeep asked, sarcastically.

"Oh, right. The two girls... So, what did you find out?"

"Eclipse couldn't help. Analysing blood isn't her job. But she said to find the source of the problem." Liange replied. "I believe the source lies in this very school."

"I see... However, my job here is done. The rest is up to the two of you," Jia said, as she vanished into thin air, surprising the twins.

Liange and Bakaeep then continued deeper, until they reached the Annex. Happy memories of their time in the school came back, and they knew it will never be the same again. They were walking around, looking for anything that could help solve this mystery, when they heard a loud rip coming from below. They followed the sound and went to the first floor of the school's annex and into the Science Laboratory.

The ripping sound stopped. They walked deeper into the lab. As the reached the centre of the room, the door behind them slammed shut. It wasn't some wooden door that was commonly used, but was a thick iron door. They ran back to the door, and just as they reached, it locked.
This time, behind them, they heard a voice. "Welcome... To... My... Lab!"

The twins turned around. The floor started shaking, and the sound of footsteps got louder and louder. It was coming from behind the wall on the other side of the room. Louder and louder... Then a crack appeared on the wall.

Suddenly, the wall was blasted open. Debris flew everywhere. Liange used Guard to protect themselves from the flying debris. A figure emerged from the dust... Mad Ray!

Mad Ray walked towards them slowly, speaking the same thing, over and over again.

"Welcome... To... My... Lab!"

He took out a bottle of green chemical and tossed it at the twins. It was dodged easily. The bottle crashed on the wall, and melted a hole in it. It's a deadly acid!

Liange dashed around the room, trying to attack Mad Ray if she got a chance. Occasionally, she just dash up to attack him, but had to retreat immediately because Mad Ray would take out another bottle of the acid and tossed it at her. While Liange was keeping him busy, Bakaeep casted a Arrow Rush at him. Mad Ray changed his attention to Bakaeep immediately, and tossed out several bottles of blue liquid this time. The bottles break open upon contact with the Mana Arrows. At the same time, the Mana Arrows melted and were negated!

Mad Ray throw out more chemicals, in assorted colours, all around the room. Some melted the tables and chairs and some exploded. However, they had to be extremely cautious of the bottle containing black liquid. When it hits something, it swallows it and tossed it into another dimension. Several tables and chairs in the room has disappeared like that.

Mad Ray started throwing more and more black chemical bottles. Bakaeep got cornered near the iron door. A black bottle was heading towards her, and there wasn't anywhere to run, due to the debris around. Liange dashed infront to help and used her sword to hit the bottle lightly, just to deflect it. But is just shattered upon contact! The gap in the dimension opened up, and it started swallowing everything nearby...

Chapter 32 - Their painful past

2009-01-03T22:06:00.000+08:00

Tuvis and Levy arrived in the Trickster Shrine. They were straight away greeted by Kitasen.

"You sure took your time," Kitasen said. "You were due here three months ago. What took you so long...?"

"Wouldn't you like to know...?" Tuvis replied in a rude manner. "I want to know everything about the past, about why I have to be here."

"The past?" Pharrell interupted. "I would say, it's the same with all of us."

"Very well," Kitasen replied. "I guess you deserve to know."

So, Kitasen told Tuvis the truth, about what exactly happened ten years ago. Back then, Karan was already starting his reign of terror on Caballa. He was searching for talents that he can use to take over the world. Where ever he sees talent, he would go for it. Kids were often taken away from their homes.

Those that couldn't perform or were below standard were not returned back to their homes, but were killed. The few talents chosen were Kitasen, Shimega, Kitsune, Levy, Pharrell and Tuvis. They were all picked by Karan when they were ten years old.

Back when Karan chose Tuvis, he went in to his hometown to take him away. Which was Oops Wharf. He was the last kid to be chosen. Tuvis graduated from Caballa School with the highest grade in both acadamic and in battle styles. Apprentally, this caught Karan's eye.

Everyone knew that Karan will come soon, after hearing news about genius kids in every aspect around Caballa being kidnapped. Finally, on Tuvis' tenth birthday, Karan came to take him away. The villagers were prepared and put up a huge fight against Karan. They hid Tuvis somewhere safe. However, the villagers were no match to Karan. Karan entered Tuvis house, to find his parents with their swords preparing to attack him. In order to protect their son from going over to the side of evil, the sacrificed themselves.

Karan searched but was unable to find Tuvis. Days later, Tuvis emerged from a trap door under a carpet in his home's living room. He had ran out of food, and wanted to stock up. He slowly opened the main door, and to his surprise, the whole village was still intact!

He saw his parents and the villagers walking around, but he was ignored by everyone of them. Then, the surrounding rippled, and everyone walking around disappeared. What he saw next was the damaged village, with dead bodies all around. He ran back home, to see his parents on the floor, in a pool of blood.

He staggered backwards then tripped, and fell out of his house. There he was, confronted by three teenagers. Two Magicians and a Warrior. He picked up a sword from beside him and started attacking the three.

"Pharrell, take him from the left. Shimega, go to the right," said one of the Magicians.

The three teenagers separated and attacked him from each side, weakening him. Tuvis fell to the floor, but he was still concious. He looked up and asked weakly,"Why did you do this...?"

Then a voice from above was heard. "Revenge."

Tuvis looked up higher to see a figure floating down. "Who are you...?"

"I'm Karan. You have been chosen by me as a outstanding warrior to help me conquer the dimensions of this world and to complete my revenge!"

"I will not join... I will not help you!"

"This isn't for you to decide." Karan said, as he kneel down and placed his hand on Tuvis' head.
Tuvis head throbbed. A sharp pain could be felt. He screamed and fainted. Right before he lost conciousness, he heard Karan again. "Our job here is done. One day, he will appear before us."

Few days later, he woke up in a hospital in Megalopolis. He had totally no memory about what had happened. Occasionally, some memories of Karan would leaked into his mind, giveing him a severe headache.

Five years after the incident, Tuvis returned to Oops Wharf after a long intensive training in the Tapasco region, under Warrior Kei and Boxer Jeanne. There he was confronted again, by the same three, with another two more person. The two Magicians were Dark Lords, and the Warrior was now a Mercenary. The other two was a Thief Master and a Primadonna. One of the two Dark Lords stepped out and spoke first.

"Welcome back, Tuvis. I'm Kitasen. I think I didn't introduce myself, five years ago."

The moment the incident that happened five years ago was mentioned, Tuvis' head started to hurt. Then, there was a loud 'pop' cound from his head.

"I see Karan's sealing technique has finally been broken. Now his brainwashing technique is about to kick in. Ready to join us?"

"I don't think i have a choice," Tuvis said weakly, as he held his head.

"Your first assignment. Join the Paladins. They are a group of people who are acting against Karan's will. If possible, destroy them from inside."

Tuvis agreed. He worked his way up the ranks and became a one of the higher ranking officers in the Paladins. Many times, he tried to destroy the Paladins, but he was unable to do it.

Another five years down the road, after fighting Kitasen and Kitsune in the Chaos Tower, they started to doubt Tuvis' loyalty. Until recently, he returned to the group.

"That's the truth you really want to know. Your past is what we experience as well. However, we swore revenge against Karan and the world, and we are already halfway done," Levy said.
A beeping interrupted the group's conversation. Shimega took out a device from his pocket.

"I got to go!" Shimega said. "Two of them are heading to Mad Ray!"

With that, Shimega took off, and entered the rip in the air, as Liange and Bakaeep neared Caballa School.

Chapter 31 - Betrayal?

2009-01-03T22:05:00.000+08:00

The Wolf started his attacked. It's howl created sharp wind blades that sliced through the trees. Angii stepped up and casted her Wind Shield. From the other side, the Water Dragon sent off another water blast. Angii lifted another hand. "Water Shield!"

She blocked two attacks at the same time, then casted her Undine's Blessing and Sylph's Blessing. Knowing what to expect this time, the Wolf and Dragon didn't budge from the reflected attacks.

However, Venus' Unicorn came from the front. It's horn glowed brightly and a beam of light was shot towards the group.

Meanwhile, Chio, Tykro, Bakaeep and Liange were still chasing the pendant. It went through the SouthWest forest and into the Gate of Oops Wharf. It continued through the Wharf Fields and into Oops Wharf. In the middle of Oops Wharf, Tykro managed to catch the pendant again.

"Why is the town so quiet...?" Bakaeep asked. "It's creepy."

"No ide-" Liange replied, but was cut off when a explosion from the north was heard. The pendent pointed to the north. They followed the direction it was pointing at.

Right before the beam of light hit Veraca's group, Angii had stepped on her broken staff, channeling her magical powers into it, staff glowed at the top, and she casted a Light Shield. The beam hit the shield and caused an explosion, which was what Chio and the rest heard.

Angii slowly went to her knees. Casting three shields and holding them up was taking a lot of energy out of her. HornedBull dashed out. He stuck one sword in a tree. He used the handle of that sword as a step to jump higher. His right leg stepped on the handle and pushed himself up. Using his left leg, he kicked the handle, loosening it from the tree and sent it flying towards the Dragon's head.

The Dragon stopped his attack to dodge the sword. HornedBull predicted his movement correctly, and he was right infront of it. His sword glowed, and he executed a skill. "Gale Strike!"
He sliced through the Dragon's neck, and appeared on the other side. The two parts of the Dragon fell back to the ground and became puddles of water. Mercury fell to the ground. Using her free hand, Angii casted another Shard of Glacier.

Veraca spammed her Card Strikes at Venus, pushing her away from Angii, allowing her to drop one of her shields. Soul and Rwinna used their Shuriken Mastery to push Pluto's Wolf away. Halfway during during the attack, Soul used Hide and disappeared.

The two warriors were being pushed closer and closer, but the Wolf stood strong. Soul then reappeared with a Sudden Attack, knocking the Wolf to the ground. As it was about to get up, Veraca got the Unicorn beside the Wolf.

Right at this moment, mines detonated. There were at least five mines. The mines did the job as the summons fell to the ground and disappeared. The warriors were weak and could barely stand. Angii also didn't have enough strength to freeze them, but it doesn't matter now.

The ice shards shattered releasing the other warriors. The summons disappeared as well, and they fell to the ground too. The dark aura came out from them and dispersed. The five warriors then glowed in their respective colours and became the coloured stones again. The group then sat down, panting and happy they finally won.

Just as the battle ended, Chio's group reached the scene. She ran up to them holding her sword shouting,"Where's the enemy? Let me at them!"

"Chio...?" Rwinna asked. "If you guys were coming, you should have came earlier."

"We weren't coming anyway," Tykro said. "But this pendant brought us here, and we want to know why. How are you guys doing?"

"We just won," Soul replied as she pointed to the stones. "Those stones there. We beat them."

Tykro went up to the stones and got excited. "These stones aren't from Earth! I could learn so much from this! I got to study this!"

Tykro then passed the Pendant to Liange. "Continue to find out where this pendant is going. I'm bring these stones back to the lab. Bakaeep, follow Liange and Chio shall help Veraca and the others back to town."

"Alright," Chio agreed. "I'll come to reinforce you in a while, Liange, Bakaeep."

"Okay." Bakaeep replied, as she and her sister dashed up further north towards Caballa School.

Back at the Trickster Shrine, Shimega was getting angrier. "No! My warriors!"

"Calm down. It wasn't exactly a waste," Kitasen said.

"Precisely," Pharrell continued. "Levy will be back with a new ally soon enough."

Meanwhile, Levy appeared at Oops Wharf harbour, through a rip of the dimensions. There, someone was waiting for her.

Just at that point of time, Chio and the others reached the city. Chio ran forward to breath in some of the ocean air. She inhaled deeply. As she exhaled, she looked down towards the harbour that was on a lower ground. She thought to herself, "What's Tuvis doing there?"

Just as she was about to call out to Tuvis, he started to talk to a Primadonna. Then they both enter the rip in the air. Tykro, carrying the stones walked up to Chio, as the rip closed. "What's wrong?"

"Did you see that?" Chio pointed to the harbour.

"What?"

"Tuvis, he left through a rip in the air. What's going on?"

Chapter 30 - Putting up a hell of a fight

2009-01-03T22:03:00.000+08:00

Back at the Monster Guild in Megalopolis, Tykro was informed of a abnormal reaction from Count's pendant. Tykro went to inspect the pendant. The red core was glowing very brightly. It was the first time it was having such a reaction.

Tykro picked it up by the chain. The pendant seems to have a life of it's own. It floated freely and was pointing to the west. Tykro felt a pulling force, exerted by the pendant. Chio entered the lab shortly after. Tykro had his back facing Chio, so Chio went up to him and gave him a giant pat on the back. That caught Tykro by surprise, and he released his grip on the pendant.

The pendant then flew away, towards the direction it was pointing to. It navigated it's way around the obstacles and out of the Monster Guild. Chio and Tykro gave chase, followed by Aurora, Liange and Bakaeep.

"Stay behind and look after Rosetta, Aurora" Chio said, as she left the monster guild.

They followed the pendant around Megalopolis and into the SouthWest Forest.

Meanwhile, the summons of the planetary warriors began. The Pheonix rose higher into the air, while the others backed off. The Pheonix then inhaled heavily for a second.

"Breath of the Pheonix~" Mars said.

The Pheonix exhaled and lots of flames came out of it's mouth and engulfed the whole area. It was so hot that even before the fire touches anything, it would start burning.

The group barely managed to escape. They ran to a heavily forested area to regroup, and to hide from them for a while.

"We will have to take them out, one by one," Veraca said. "Or we'll won't win at all."

"Let's plan a strategy," Soul replied. "As fast as possible."

"By the way," Angii cut in. "Where's Tuvis?"

"Oh yeah..." HornedBull said. "I didn't see him, a few moments before they summoned those beasts."

As they spoke and discuss, the summonings were slowly destroying the forest, looking for them. When they finally got a strategy up, they got up and to their surprise, the whole forest was totally different from before. Parts of it was burning, some parts had the trees totally cut down, and some parts were all frozen.

As they got up, the summonings noticed them.

"Let's go!" Rwinna shouted.

The Pheonix soared down at them first, at the same time, breating fire. HornedBull lifted his sword above his head and swung down towards the ground. "Tidal Slash!"

His water attributed attack extinguished the fire in front of the group. The rest took the chance and ran past HornedBull to attack. Rwinna and Soul used Hide and planted some mines around, just before Mercury used his Revealing Eye to detect them. After detecting them, Mercury's Water Dragon fired a powerful water blast at the Thief Masters. Angii then jumped infront of them. She lifted one hand towards the water blast, and... "Water Shield!"

Her water shield defended them successfully. Taking the chance, she casted her Undine's Blessing. It reflected the Dragon's attack back at it, pushing it backwards. As it fell backwards, it crashed into Venus' Unicorn and blocked Pluto's Wolf.

Veraca continued towards the Pheonix. The Pheonix blew fire at her again. She dodged the first blast, but wasn't fast enough to dodge the second. "Sumo Suit!"

A big blue aura covered Veraca, as the flames engulfed her. However, the damaged was minimized due to Sumo Suit and she continued strongly. She skid to a stop when she was right underneath the Pheonix head.

"Volley Kick!"

Stretching up, she kicked the Pheonix's head pushing it upwards.

"I'm not done yet!" Veraca shouted. "Double Hit!"

Another Volley Kick sent the Pheonix higher, and a Power Blow right at it's neck pushed it away. The Pheonix crashed onto the ground, and Mars jumped off to safety. Mars then ran back to the Pheonix, as the Pheonix was getting up, but Angii stopped him.

"Shard of Glacier!"

Angii froze both Mars and the Pheonix at the same time, leaving two giant ice blocks at one side. HornedBull started his assault on the Tiger summoned by Saturn. The Tiger swiped it's paw at HornedBull. HornedBull dodged it. The paw hit one of the trees, and it immediately froze. The Tiger continued to attack HornedBull in the same manner and cornered him against a tree. It drew it's claws and was about to swipe down when Soul and Rwinna used their Shuriken Mastery, forcing the Tiger to retreat. Angii came by and used her Razor Gale. HornedBull ran up to attack as well, and was slightly slower then the Razor Gale.

The Tiger breathe out it icy breath, creating a ice pillar infront of the Razer Gale and HornedBull. The Razor Gale just chipped a little off the ice. HornedBull continued running, as three mines right under the ice pillar detonated, destroying it. HornedBull emerged from the smoke with a Tempest Strike. His spinning blade caught Saturn offguard and he inflicted heavydamage on the Tiger. It fell to the ground, and was frozen by Angii as well.

The three other warriors finally confronted the group. Wind, water and light.

Chapter 29 - Summonin

2009-01-03T22:02:00.000+08:00

The five warriors retreated and regrouped. They stood in a circle, facing outwards and all directions. Then they were covered by the dark aura. But the dark aura dissipated and their own coloured aura appeared. Blue, red and orange. Their aura combined and it swirled around the five of them.

Their aura became a giant multi-coloured orb, and it began floating upwards. When the orb was above the treetops, it stopped ascending. Instead, it started spinning, and it's spin got faster by the second. When it was spinning at it's fastest, attacks were fired off from it! Saturn's Rings of Destruction, Pluto's Meteor Storm, Mercury's Elemental Barrage, Mars' Volcanic Flames and Venus' Solar Dance's energy blades come out of the giant orb and hit every possible location.

It was consuming a lot of energy to dodge them. However, Rwinna noticed something unusual. The attacks were always at it's minimum when firing at Tuvis. Tuvis didn't use much energy to avoid the attacks, and he countered them all just by a swing of his sword.

"Something is wrong..." Rwinna thought.

Soul studied the attack. After a few seconds of thinking and calculations, she came out with a theory. She immediately told everyone. "The attack from those warriors has a fixed distance. Stay outside of a fifty-metre radius and we should be fine!"

After a few minutes, the spinning slowed down, and stopped. The orb landed and started disappearing. A large area had been cleared by the attack. Just nice, outside of the fifty-metre radius, the trees, gress and bushes were unharmed. And so was everyone. As the orb hindered the warriors' vision when they were inside, the group took the chance to attack.

Soul and Rwinna threw mines into the disappearing orb. "Explosive Expert!"

"Arrow of Light!"

"Piercing Wave!"

"One Pair!"

All except Tuvis attacked. Their attacks hit the mark, knocking the five apart, injuring them. At that point of time, Tuvis backed off and disappeared among the trees.

After being knocked apart and being injured, the five warriors were furious. The moved together and stood in a circle, around the group. They kneeled down, and place both palms on the ground. By chanting a short inchantation, they were engulfed in their own aura. The ground beneath them started to crack. Beneath Mars, fire came out through the cracks. Water came out from those under Mercury. Light from Venus', ice from Saturn and wind blew out from Pluto's.

"Summoning technique~" They said together.

"Fire!" Mars shouted.

"Water!" Mercury continued.

Venus followed, "Light!"

"Ice!" Saturn continued.

Ending it, Pluto shouted, "Wind!"

The ground underneath them blew open, flinging soil, grass and dust everywhere. Then, a Pheonix rose from beneath Mars' with him standing on it, and it flew higher above the treetops. A Dragon rose from underneath Mercury, a Unicorn from under Venus, a white Wolf from under Pluto and a white Tiger from under Saturn. They all stood on their summons.

"We are in for a hell of a fight..." HornedBull said.

Chapter 28 - Universal Power

2009-01-03T21:59:00.000+08:00

The planetary warriors slowly advance towards the group. They then separated to face off. Mars and Mercury approached Tuvis, Venus towards Veraca, Pluto towards HornedBull and Saturn towards Angii.

Venus ran towards Veraca and their swords clashed. Venus has a very fast attacking speed, and Veraca was only able to defend. Veraca used her Siren Song, but was countered easily by Venus'. However, Venus' Siren Song was way stronger. It stopped Veraca's Siren Song, and continued to attack Veraca. Veraca quickly dodged it by jumping onto the trees nearby. Venus couldn't locate her, so she stopped chasing and stood steadly, and closed her eyes, with her sword infront of her face.

"Solar Dance~"

Venus' sword started glowing. Then she started dancing around. Her graceful footwork made her dance look really elegant. As she danced, she swung her sword around and every direction. Every swing will emit a blade of energy, solar energy, to attack her opponent. Her solar energy blades sliced through the trees and cleared a portion of the forest. Veraca was forced to leave the trees. A slight movement was dected by Venus, and she straight away attack. She flew towards Veraca with a really high speed, and swung her sword downwards onto Veraca.

Veraca blocked her attack with her own sword, using one hand. With her left hand free, she dug into her pockets and pulled out some cards. "One Pair!"

She threw the cards at Venus. The cards hit Venus and she flinched. Taking the chance, Veraca kicked her towards the ground. Venus fell to the ground, causing a huge impact, producing a lot of dust and smoke. When the dust and smoke cleared, Venus was standing , unbattered, wrapped in a orange forcefield, with the cards stuck halfway in the forcefield.

HornedBull charged at Pluto, but Pluto levitated and dodged all his attacks easily, and he slowly built some distance between them. When the distance was just right, Pluto lifted up his left hand and with his right hand holding his staff, right infront of him. Pluto closed his eyes and chanted an inchantation quietly, as the orb of his staff glowed. A fiery blue orb formed on his left hand. He moved his left hand infront of him as he moved his staff away. Then, Pluto opened his eyes.
"Meteor Storm~"

Many miniature sized meteors flew out of the orb and towards HornedBull. As more of the meteors flew out, the orb got smaller and smaller.

HornedBull managed to dodge some of the meteors. To protect himself, he ran behind a tree, but the meteors shot through the trees and caught HornedBull off guard. HornedBull got hit in the chest. He quickly turned around, and placed his shield infront of him to fend off the meteors, while holding his chest. When the barrage of meteors ended, HornedBull's shield was almost destroyed. Pluto flew down towards HornedBull, as he chanted another inchantation, which made the tip of his staff really sharp, in an attempt to finish HornedBull off.

When the reached, he stabbed his staff through the shield. The shield crumbled, but, it was empty behind! Pluto looked around, and heard a whirling sound. He looked up at a tree top, to see HornedBull at the top of a tree with his sword swung totally to the side. Infront of him, was three Piercing Waves flying towards Pluto. Pluto dodged the first two, but got hit from the third one. After the smoke cleared, just like Venus, Pluto was covered in a blue force field.

Angii kept attacking Saturn relentlessly. However she was unable to lay a single attack on her. Angii's Arrow Rush was always deflected by Saturn's as Saturn's Arrow Rush always have a higher number of arrows. Saturn was also able to use all the elemental spells.

After the barrage of attacks from Angii, Saturn countered. The rings around her started rotating.

"Rings of Destruction~"

Several rings flew out, and her attack looked similar to the normal Mana Ring, but something was different. The rings chased Angii around the forest. Angii jumped onto a tree and jumped off immediatly. One of the rings missed Angii and caught the tree in the center instead. With a target in the center, the ring got smaller and spun faster. Finally, as it shrunk, it sliced the tree into half, effortless. It was a clean cut. Once a target was destroyed by the rings, the ring immediately return to Saturn.

"Would be fatal, if i get caught in it," Angii thought.

Angii used the same trick to get rid of the rings. The last ring came from behind and caught her by surprise. She managed to avoid it, but with not much time to react, she tossed her staff in to the centre, sacrificing her staff.

With all the rings returned, Saturn flew around the air and casted spells at Angii. To keep up with Saturn, Angii used her Razor Gale to get up into the air. Angii casted another Razor Gale towards Saturn. Two blades flew towards Saturn. To counter, Saturn's Razor Gale had three blades. Both of Angii's wind blade were stopped, and a the third blade from Saturn continued to approach Angii.

Using her left leg, Angii kick outwards, firing off one of the blade she was standing on to stop the third blade. As they collided, smoke filled the sky. Unable to balance on one blade for long, she kicked the other blade out. Before she reached the ground, she casted a few Arrow Rush from all directions. The last blade flew through the smoke and towards Saturn, who had her guard down. The rings around Saturn started rotating rapidly again, in every direction, until it looked like Saturn was in a sphere. Due to the speed of the rotation, all the incoming spells were deflected upon contact, and crashed all over the ground, slicing and penetrating some of the trees and bushes.

Mars drew his huge sword and started attacking Tuvis. Mars was attacking slowly, and Tuvis had no problem defending. However, it seems that Mars was attacking slowly on purpose as he is definitely stronger that what he is now. Even when he had an opening, Tuvis didn't take the chance to attack.

"Volcanic Flames~!"

Mars swung his blade, and a Piercing wave, that was on fire, flew out towards Tuvis. Along the way, even plants nearby, not touching it, would catch on fire. However, it was easily countered by Tuvis' Tidal Slash. As compared to the other warrior's skills, Mars was definitely not giving his fullest. Furthermore, Mercury stood behind not attacking anyone at all.

Suddenly, a few darts and needles were thrown at Mercury. Mercury immediately dodge them, and the projectiles hit the ground instead. Mercury then pulled out a lot of daggers from his pockets.

"Elemental Barrage~"

His daggers glowed with different colours of different elements to increase the damage inflicted. He threw them at the direction the darts came from.It was an unexpected attack from Mercury. The daggers flew everywhere around. The fire daggers hit Soul on in her left hand and the ice elemental daggers hit Rwinna on her right leg.

Soul and Rwinna's Hide were negated. The fell to the ground, and managed to land on the ground on their feet. Soul pulled out two daggers from her left hand, and Rwinna pulled out one from her right leg.

The group were facing a tough fight. It's now six versus five. Can they win?

Chapter 27 - Planetary's impact

2009-01-03T21:58:00.000+08:00

A machine in Nefertiti's Shrine started up. A rip in the dimensions appeared, and Kitsune walked out.

"Have you completed the search?" Kitasen asked.

"All done. Here's the data, and a sample."

Kitsune passed a small device to Kitasen. Kitasen activated it. The device lighted up, shining a very bright light. When the light died down, what was on the light place was two suit of armour, a golden one and a silver one.

"Well done. This will come in handy. However, I have receive reports of suspicious activities in the Wharf fields. And I am talking about those pest from before."

"Leave them to me!" Shimega said, as he ran to a corner of the room, and pull a blanket off a machine. Under it, was a machine, identical to the one in Caballa School Lab. Shimega fired it up, and the target was Caballa School again.

Machines whirling to a start was heard in the school. It seems that this time, many things were brought to life. Skeleton models, junk disposal machines and even toilet bowls!

The monsters marched out of Caballa School, heading towards Oops Wharf, threatening the safety of the villagers. Tuvis and Veraca stood ready to fend off the monsters. HornedBull and Angii we forced to the Gate of Oops Wharf. Their numbers were too big.

It took them quite a while to cut down the numbers, and to keep them from advancing any further. After pushing the remaining of the monsters back into the school, Angii set up a barrier to prevent them from coming out. But of course, this was just a temporary solution.

"Your monsters failed again..." Kitasen said.

"Fear not!" Shimega shouted. "I have something that will make them pee in their pants."

Shimega went back to the Trickster Shrine, followed by the rest. He pushed a hidden button, below the Shiny Egg, and the three murals lowered into the ground. There were some strange rocks behind it. Two were blue, two were orange and one was red. Five rocks in total. Shimega took the stones, one by one, and placed them on the table around the Shiny Egg. Everyone there inserted some of their aura into the egg. The egg became black, then the aura inside divided into five portions and were transfered into the five rocks.

After absorbing the aura, the rocks glowed in their respective colours. It glowed so bright that it blinded everyone. When it finally died down, the rocks were gone, but someone was standing on the rocks' place. The one standing on the red rock's place has blonde hair, wearing a full suit of silver armour, with a red cloak from the back of his left hand and it went around him from his back, going to the fron, covering his right hand, and ending at his neck. Instead of a piece of armour on his right shoulder, it was a bunch of black feathers. He also has a giant sword on his back, which was in his red shealth.

One of the blue ones has grey hair, and was wearing a blue T-shirt with a blue scarf. He has a pair of white gloves and is wearing a pair of black shorts. He is holding a dagger in one hand and a gun in another. The other has short black hair. He wore a dark grey shirt and was wrapped in a grey cloak, with a fluffy white cotton border at the top. He was wearing a pair of white pants. He was holding a long silver staff, with a blue orb at the top.

One of the orange ones has long white hair and was wearing a brown schoolgirl-like uniform. She was wearing a black skirt and was holding a orange staff in one hand. Her staff has a dome on the top. She also has some weird rings around her. Occasionally, her hair would become black, and then change back. The other has long blonde hair and was wearing a elegant dress the same colour as her hair. Her dress was until her knees. She has a thin orange sword in one hand.
In the eyes of the five, there seem to have a black flame burning inside, except that the flame is the aura itself.

"I found these rocks around Caballa. One in Tapasco Field, one in the Seabed Field, one Techichi Field, one in the Desert Field and the last one, in Mirage Dungeon. After reaching for months, I finally know what they are! They were metorites from other planets, from Mars, Mercury, Pluto, Saturn and Venus! And now, they belong to us!"

"How well can they fight?" Pharrell asked.

"I assure you, they are elite fighters. Using the secret technology I stole from the other dimension, I found out everything about them. Also, they will appear on their own planet and then gather together somewhere in the universe once every few thousand years, when all the planets align together. And this day last year, the planets aligned, and during their gathering, a dark force forced them apart, and five of the nine fell to Earth. The dark force was no other than Karan. He wanted to use the power of the planets for his revenge, but he was unable to locate the five after they landed on Earth. Two months before you killed Karan, I located the last one, which was in Mirage Dungeon. In these five months, i was researching on them, and finding a way to revive them as a side job. And I have succeeded. Now go! My Warriors!"

The five warriors disappeared after receiving the command from Shimega. At the same time, Tuvis, HornedBull, Veraca and Angii had just finished trapping the monsters back in the school and were exhuasted. They were making their way back to Oops Wharf, when the five warriors appeared infront of them. Tuvis' group drew their weapon, in preparation to fight. "Here we go again," Angii said.

At that point of time, Chio's group escorted Rosetta out of the dungeon, and into Megalopolis Monster Guild, their headquarters. When they reached, one of the researchers, ran up to the group. "The pendant, it's having a weird reaction...!"

"What...?!" Tykro shouted, as he ran back into the lab.

Chapter 26 - Reaching Rosetta

2009-01-03T21:56:00.000+08:00

The three paths extended longer, but eventually, merged back together. They regrouped and continued on through the long corridor, going down and up a few flights of stairs. They finally came to a large room. The walls were filled with paintings and there were coffins around. It was a dead end, however. Then, they heard voices from the earphones again.

"Where are you...?" The voice, presumebly to be Rosetta, said. However this time, the reception was clear, with no static.

"We've reached a room, filled with paintings and coffins," Tykro replied. "But, it's a dead end."

"Perfect. By any chance, have you met Alfredo outside the castle?"

"Yup," Aurora said.

"Then you must have the key, right?"

"Yes, we have it," Chio interrupted, shacking the keys in her hands.

"Great. Now, go over to the red coffin and open it. You will then have access to where I am."
With that, the transmission was cut off. Chio ran over to the red coffin, and found a keyhole at the side. She stuck the key in and turned it. The coffin lid slid off and revealed high tech computer in it. There was a keyboard too, however, it was in a weird language.

Tykro pushed Chio aside and started studying it. "These characters... They look so familiar..."
"Isn't that the ancient language of Alteo?" Bakaeep asked.

"Alteo..."Tykro mumbled to himself. "Right! No wonder it looked familiar. Let me try to decipher it."

"Leave it to me," Bakaeep said. "I had been studying it for years, before coming becoming a Soul Master."

Bakaeep looked at the screen, and started reading out the words. "These riddles are the key to proceed. Answering them correcly and you may proceed, if not, doom awaits."

Bakaeep continued. "Level One, Riddle one: Protector of the roses."

"That's easy, Beast Vincento," Liange said.

"Beep Beep, correct," a voice suddenly came out of the computer, in the modern language.

"Next, level one, riddle two: One who sweeps, and and kill, with the same thing."

"Lydia?" Aurora said. "Maid Lydia?"

"Correct! Now, Level two, riddle one: Headless chunks of metal, with swords. Name two."

"Iron and Brass Knight," Chio replied. "Pretty sure that's the answer."

"Right again! Next Level two, Riddle two: Magic bead."

The group thought for a while, and were interrupted by the machine. "You have ten seconds to answer. Ten... Nine..."

"What!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Hurry!" Aurora said. "Erm... I'll take a Random guess.... Bone Magician!"

"Three... Two... Correct! Now, Level three, final riddle: Robe."

"Robe...?" Chio said. "How are we suppose to guess?!"

"Either answer, of face impending doom," the machine replied. "You have thirty seconds."

No one could think of an answer, until the computer completed it's countdown. "Time's up. Doom awaits." Then, the computer shutted down. The room started to shake, and the walls opened up. Behind it was another wall, but a spike wall! The wall started closing in on the group. Luckily for them, the wall was moving quite slowly. Chio and Liange used their sword to cut off the spikes, but the broken spikes were immediatly replaced, automatically. As time pass, the speed of the walls increase.

Suddenly, part of the wall infront of the group opened up, revealing a passage way, with a light at the other end. Right when the passageway opened up, while the speed of the spike walls increased drastically. Then a voice shouted out to them. "This way, hurry!"

The group dashed towards the doorway and into the tunnel very quickly. Just as the last person, Aurora, entered the tunnel, the two walls crashed, sending a lot of dust into the passageway.
"That was a close one..." Aurora said. "I thought i was a goner..."

They exited the passageway, and in another room, they saw a woman being tied up in a corner, with a same headphones and microphone the group had found. Rosetta!

Aurora and Bakaeep ran forward to untie her.

"Thank you," Rosetta said, with tears in her eyes. "I thought no one would ever find me."

"Tell us what happened," Liange said. "We may be able to help."

Rosetta was about to speak, when Eclipse entered the room, again through a ripple in the air.
"Eclipse!" Rosetta exclaimed.

"You're Eclipse?" Bakaeep and Liange asked.

"Yes, that's me. The controller of time and space."

"My sister and I were sent to you, by Jia, Shaman girl Jia," Liange said. "The people in Caballa school were changed into weird puppets, and we were told to pass this blood sample to you, to analyse it, so you can help to reverse the effect."

"Analyzing the blood isn't my job. I am able to help, but you need to find someone else in that field of speciality. Besides, I can control time, i am able to reverse what happened, if I know where the source is. Find it first."

"Controller of time and space?" Tykro asked. "I would assume that you aren't from our world. Where are you from, and why have you come here?"

"I'm not exactly from another world. I'm from this world, but just in another dimension. We watch over this dimension from there. The reason why I'm here, is because both dimensions are on a verge of destruction. The group, that attacked Lycan and Rosetta are threatening our dimension as well. I have been sent here to prevent it from happening. The reason why I appeared before you is because I can't do it alone, and I will need your help. They have found a way to enter the other dimension. It seems that they picked up our secret technology from somewhere."

Chapter 25 - Foiling yet another plan

2009-01-03T21:53:00.000+08:00

Tykro ran around the room, followed by the clone, directly opposite of him. He was trying to find an opening where he can make an attack that would count. While doing so, the wound inflicted on the clone had already healed and so did the crack on the mirror.

Finally, after a while, Tykro stopped, and so did the clone. He fired a Double Shot, and as expected, the clone did the same. The bullets collided in midair and cause an explosion, and the room was engulfed in smoke. Tykro eye's turned blue, from the effect of Revealing Eye. He located the clone, and straight away fired off another Double Shot but was countered with the clone's own Double Shot. An opening! After an attack, there will be a delay. Tykro took the chance and pull out another gun as his gunblade had to be reloaded for the next shot. The second gun was a powerful one as well, and using that, Tykro fired a Double Shot again. This time, the attack hits it's mark, disabling both of the clone's arms.

The clone dashed towards Tykro, looking for a hand-to-hand combat, but his speed had slowed down from the injuries. Tykro got behind of the clone immediately, and has both his gun at the clone's head. Without hesitation, he fired. The clone became the dark aura and dispersed, and the mirror shattered, allowing further access into dungeon.

Back at the centre room, Liange's and Bakaeep's fight continued. Liange dashed up and used a Tetra punch. Each punch was met with the clone's fist. After the last hit, Liange used her left fist, and swung up, using an UpperCut. The clone moved her head to the side, and the attack merely brush against it's face. The clone then kicked Liange in the stomach, sending her all to the other side of the room.

Meanwhile, Bakaeep used a Marsh Field around her clone, but was unable to get it. She then casted a Marsh Field underneath the clone, and to prevent her clone from jumping away, she casted a WhirlWind Blaze all around the Marsh Field. To escape, the clone could only jump upwards. Then at the same spot of the Marsh field, Bakaeep used a Dragon Storm. It burned upwards, and hit the clone on the mark. The clone fell to the ground, hurt. As usual, the mirror cracked. Enraged, the clone casted a huge barrage of Arrow Rush at Bakaeep. By using a Mana Shield, Bakaeep manage to lessen the impact and some damage of the Arrow Rush. However, due to the huge barrage, the damage inflicted was still quite servere.

"They know our moves too well," Liange said. "Let's change opponents, perhaps we will fare better."

"Alright."

Liange and Bakaeep crossed path, heading to each other's clone. Bakaeep casted a Arrow Rush at Liange's clone, while Liange used a FlashCut on Bakaeep's clone. However, the spells and skill hit their mark, and the clones didn't even try to avoid it. After the attack, Liange's clone continued to go after Liange, while Bakaeep's clone, towards Bakaeep. It seems that the clone will only attack the original, and not anyone else.

"That's it!" Bakaeep said. "We should be fine if we can dodge our clone's attacks and we can win if we attack each other's clones!"

Liange continued to dash up to Bakaeep's clone and sent in barrages of skills, Tetra Punch, Flamming Fist and UpperCut. While Bakaeep attack Liange's clones with her fire and earth spell. Finally, they manage to group the two clones together, right infront of the mirror.

"Let me finish them off," Bakaeep said. "With my new skills! Shard of Glacier!"

Bakaeep froze the two clones, and at the same time, damaging them. The mirror behind them has a lot of cracks and on the verge of shattering. Finally, Bakaeep used a Pheonix Rising, which destroyed the ice and burned the two clones. Liange then dashed up, to make sure of their victory, used both fist and useda double Uppercut on both of them.

That attack worked. The two clones were defeated, and the mirror shattered, revealing the path ahead. Without wasting anytime, the twins dashed ahead.

Back in Nefertiti's shrine back at Mirage Island, Kitasen, Shimega and the third person were staring into the Shiny Egg, watching the group's progress.

"They've won," Kitasen said. "What now?"

"How dare they destroy my mirrors!" Shimega screamed.

"Leave them to me," the third guy said. "I'll finish them off."

"Let them be, Pharrell," Kitasen said. "We have more important things to do."

Just as Kitasen finished his sentence, the Primadonna with Lycan on her shoulders entered the Shrine.

"Welcome back, Levy." Kitasen said. "It all went well, i assume?"

"Yes, it did. Here is what you wanted., Lycan," Levy replied as she tossed Lycan at one corner of the room.

"What now?"

"The time to execute our next plan is almost here. Tell Kitsune to return."

Chapter 24 - To beat ourselves

2009-01-03T21:52:00.001+08:00

Chio's clone charged at her and swung her sword down. Chio quickly used her sword to block it, but she went on her knees due to the amount of power exerted by the clone. The clone's blade glowed and a Piercing Wave was fired out. At such close range, Chio was knocked back a few metres, with a few scratches, nothing serious. Meanwhile, Aurora's clone casted many spells at her, without any delay, keeping Aurora busy with casting her magical shields.

Chio got up, and picked up her sword. Both her and her clone then charged at each other and both of them clashed in the middle of the room. Both of them were pushing forward. None of them were letting up. Chio decided to learn from the clone and used her Piercing Wave at that close distance, but to her surprise, her actions were followed and two Piercing wave crashed and caused an explosion, which blew them back further. Chio was thrown all the way across the room, and crashed on the wall. As for her clone, she slid to a stop and didn't seem to suffer any injuries. No emotions on the face and she wasn't panting.

"Chio!" Aurora shouted out.

Aurora let her guard down, and suffered an Arrow Rush right on her body, and was also blown away, and landed next to Chio. Chio struggled to get up. She help Aurora up, and wiped off some blood on her mouth, then picked up her sword again.

"Try to get them together, Aurora," Chio said. "I'll try to defeat them both at once."

Chio dashed to the right and Aurora, to the left. Chio threw a barrage of attacks at her clone without letting up, forcing the clone to keep defending. The clone's sword glowed again, and just as the Piercing Wave was about to be executed, Chio ducked down, leaving the wave of energy flying to the wall, causing a lot of debris flying everywhere.

Chio balanced on her hands and used her legs and to kick her clone backward, towards the centre of the room. The clone staggered, and Chio took the chance and swung her sword from the left and used a Tidal Slash. This pushed the clone to the centre of the room. Also, the clone suffered a deep cut on her torso. However, no emotion show on her face, and instead of blood gushing out, it was the aura. Right at the same time when Chio inflicted damage on her clone, a crack appeared on the mirror behind. The clone's wound started healing, and so did the crack.

"Seems like whatever damage inflicted will appear on the mirror too," Aurora said. "And since we can't break the mirror..."

"Then we will have to defeat them to continue on!" Chio continued.

Aurora casted a Dragon Storm in front of her to block an Arrow Rush from her clone. While defending, Aurora casted Arrow Rush, which flew through the Dragon Storm, back at the clone pushing her back. Then she casted a Lava Field right beneath the clone, and a WhirlWind around her. This forced her clone to jump up then backwards to avoid them all. The clone landed beside Chio's clone, and Aurora casted another Lava Field beneath them. As both jumped upwards to avoid the spell, Chio kicked off the ground and charged towards them. Her sword glowed a different colour, then...

"Blazing Strike!"

Chio cut through both the clones with a lot of power. The two clones changed back into the aura, and disappeared. The mirror behind them then just shattered, revealing the pathway again. Chio rubbed off the remaining blood stains off her mouth, then continued on with Aurora.

In the left room, Tykro faced off against his clone. Every shot made was countered by the other. Tykro shook his gun, and it became a gunblade. Of course, the clone did the same. Both of them clashed. At the same time, both fired a shot out, and grazed each other's shoulder. This resulted in a small crack in the mirror.

In ther centre room, Liange and Bakaeep also fought their clones. Liange used her Flamming Fist, and her clone followed. Their fists came in contact. After exerting too much power, an explosion occured, and caused a big fire in the room. Bakaeep and her clone were casting spells at each other, and dodging them together. No one could get a hit on the other.

What's going to happen now?

Chapter 23 - Reflections

2009-01-03T21:29:00.000+08:00

The trio dashed to the lowest level of the tower. However when they reached there, the place was empty. No sign of anyone at all. Meanwhile, back outside, the person behind the mask was a blone-haired Primadonna. She removed a mechanical device from inside the mask, one that can help change the sound of your voice. She went up to the door and locked it tight, then sealed it with her dark arts.

"Why is this place empty...?" Chio asked. "Did Lycan escape?"

"Impossible. The King said he was still weak," Tykro replied. "Remember?"

"Let's go back to the King," Aurora said. "Maybe he missed something."

Outside the tower, the Primadonna released a technique of hers. A pile of leaves changed and became... Lycan! She picked Lycan up and toss him over her shoulder and walked around to the back of the tower. There, she used another weird skill, and then teleported away, together with Lycan.

The trio reached the door, but were unable to open it. After trying some skills on it and to no avail, Aurora then manage to detect that there was a barrier perventing it from opening. Not knowing what to do, they decided to climb up, and hopefully find a window to escape from. At the fifth level, they found an unlocked door. They entered and found a window that wasn't blocked, and fifth floor isn't really that high. But near the window, they saw a set of headphones with a microphone. Tykro took it, and the gang jumped out of the window.

When they landed, they found the garden empty.

"Let's return to the castle. Maybe we can find something there," Aurora suggested.

"Good idea," replied Chio.

They took off, and ran out of the garden. At the gate of the garden, the Gladiators and Mercenaries were lying of the ground, all motionless. They weren't even breathing anymore. Continuing on, they saw Liange and Bakaeep on the way to the castle. Just nice, as they met up, they heard some voices from the headphones Tykro took. Tykro took a mini amplifier from his bag, and connected it to the headphones so everyone could here. A lot of static could be hard, and the reception wasn't that good.

"Anyone... bzzt... There...?" The voice said. "Can.... you... bzzt... me?"

"We can hear you,"Chio answered through the microphone. "Who are you...?"

"Great... bzzt...! I'm Rose...bzzt...! Please... bzzt... me! I'm... bzzt... the.... bzzt... Dun...-!"

The voice was cut short. Totally no reception at all.

"Rose.... Rosetta?" Bakaeep asked. "And the last word, could it be 'dungeon'?"

"Possibly," Liange said. "Besides, we're are here to find someone called Eclipse. We heard you have came in contact with her."

"Who...?" Chio asked.

"I don't remember coming in contact with anyone by that name,"added Tykro. "However, there was a woman in black who approached earlier.

"That can wait,"Aurora said. "Right now, we have to help Rosetta!"

The gang now ran through the fields and into the castle. They ran down the stairs, with Chio and Aurora leading the way. However, they found a fork in the road. Three paths. The only way was for them to split up. Chio and Aurora took the right path, Liange and Bakaeep took the center and Tykro took the left path.

Chio and Aurora hurried forward. Eventually, they reached a large round room. Directly opposite of the room was another path out, so they increased their pace. Just as they were about to reach the doorway, a mirror dropped down from the top and blocked the path. They stopped right in front and Chio used her sword and hit it really hard, but she didn't even scratch it.

Suddenly the mirror was engulfed in the black aura, and was absorded into the mirror. Then, the black aura came out of the mirror in a shape of a human, and splitted into two. They slowly changed and features appeared. It's... A duplicate of Chio and Aurora!

The same thing was going on to Liange and Bakaeep, and Tykro. Only, the aura took the form of the one standing before them.

Everyone took their stance, getting ready to fight with themself. What surprise them was, the clones took the same stance as all of them. However, the clones did not hesitate even for a single second and charged right at them.

Chapter 22 - The new creation works!

2009-01-03T21:27:00.000+08:00

Kitasen returned to the science lab, with data on the people needed for Shimega's machine.

Shimega and Mad Ray got to work immediately. First, Shimega inserted a tube of green liquid into the machine, then with a punch of few buttons, here and there, and the ceiling opened up, revealing the skies above. Then zap! A laser was emitted from the machine and then it spreaded out. It then landed back on the school, destroying some parts of it. Screams were heard. It would seem that it was no longer a school holiday!

Of course, the laser caught the attention of Liange and Bakaeep and then rushed towards the school.

Everyone in the school were turned into lifeless puppets. Reversible or not, it's wasn't known. But those puppets, now roamed the school.

"Names..." Shimega muttered. "I know! Marie Toy! Maro Toy! Keeper! Leader Toy! These shall be the names of those who transformed with the help of my machine!"

"Now, with that's done, we have to return to Mirage Island for the time being. It seems that someone is approaching." Kitasen said.

"What about Kitsune?"

"She's on her own mission. Let her continue."

"Fine."

Shimega closed the ceiling. He walked towards the corner of the room and pulled a cloth off one machine. Again, with a punch of a few buttons, the machine powered up, creating a rip in the dimensions. Both of them entered the rip. On the other side, was the Trickster Shrine. What a handy device.

Liange and Bakaeep stopped right at the gate of Caballa School. "A barrier..." Bakaeep said. "Kitasen and Kitsune?"

"Possible. Now, we just need to find a way in."

Back to Mirage Island, Kitasen and Shimega walked into Nefertiti's Shrine. There were groups of insanely strong monsters in there, but with the help of their dark aura, they are able to stay safe, as the monsters dare not approach them.

"This poseidon statue, this harkon statue," Kitasen said. "It shall grant us even more power than what we already have. We just need to know how to unlock it."

"Let me create a power drill to drill it open!" Shimega shouted in excitement.

"Foolish brother! You would destroy the power within!" Kitasen shouted. "You will not come near this statue with any devices you have! If you do, I won't show any mercy!"

"My my. Quarreling again, huh?" a voice cut in. "It seems you two Dark Lord brothers never change. Always threatening each other. Chill."

The mysterious figure entered the room.

"You..." Kitasen said. "Have you decided to join us?"

"Join you? Well, that's what I'm here for."

Meanwhile, at Caballa School, Liange and Bakaeep still hadn't broken through the barrier. They have used all kinds of skills but to no avail. They were about to give up, when they heard the ringing of some bells.

"Evil spirits! I can sense evil spirits within..." said a small sized woman with green hair.. There were clusters of bells tied to ther hair, so that' where the sound came from. She walked to the barrier and placed her hand on it. Closing her eyes, she chanted something, that wasn't in english. It was foreign. When she opened her eyes, the barrier shattered, like glass.

"Who are you...?" Bakaeep asked.

"Wha..."she replied. "Ahh! Don't sneak up on me!"

"Sneak up...?" Liange asked. "We were here the whole time. Did you not see us?"

"You were? Well... Lets just say i didn't feel your presence and leave it at that. I'm Shaman Girl Jia, but calling me Jia is fine. You are... Liange and Bakaeep, am I right?

The twins stared at Jia in shock. "How did you know?"

"I'm a shaman. I know stuff. Right now, it's time to clear this place up."

The three of them entered the school building. It was in a terrible condition. Classrooms were trashed, windows broken, floorboards all over the place. All trashed in less than a day. Jia sat down, and started meditating. Not long, she suddenly got up. "Fight those puppets and get me some of their blood. I will see if this effect is reversible."

Liange and Bakaeep went to work. Defeating the puppets were easy, but just incase it was reversable, they left them unconcious instead. Collecting of the blood was also an easy task. After a few minutes, they returned a few small bottles of blood to Jia.

"Hm... This blood is... Complicated..." Jia said. "We need more expert help. Find this woman called Eclipse. The controller of time and space. Seek her out, and we may be able to reverse this."

"How do we find her?" Bakaeep asked.

"I do not know. I believe she has made contact with your friends, including the princess of Caballa, Rosetta, and her bodyguard Lycan. They may know something. Go to Caballa Castle, now!"

The twins then took out a port from their pocket and headed for Megalopolis.

Just at this moment, Chio and her group found a group of Gladiators and Mercenaries behind a giant hedge. Behind them was a giant tree, reaching up to the sky. Aurora took out the key and showed it to them. "Go on in. move the leaves on the tree trunk and you will find a keyhole."

Aurora went forward and inserted the key in, then turned it. The tree rotated, and on the other side, there was a hole in the trunk. The hole in the trunk rippled. Chio bravely took the first step in, followed closly by Aurora and Tykro. When the reached the other side, they found themselves in a beautiful garden. A tower stood tall there as well. Then they saw one person walking towards them, the King!

"Are you the ones Radiant mentioned??" The King asked.

"Yes, your highness," Aurora said, as the three started to kneel down.

"I see. Spare the formalities. There's no time. Go the the room on the lowest level and talk to Lycan. He's still weak, and he probably can harm you. See if you can help him."

The trio then dashed down to the basement. The King then sat down on one of the benches, and laughed to himself. He took off his mask and beneath it was...?

Chapter 21 - Palace Panic

2009-01-03T21:25:00.000+08:00

"There he is!"

Lycan was woken up by the shouts of some palace guards.

"Lycan!"

"Funny... Why do i hear the princess's voice?" Lycan thought.

"Stay back, Princess!" The guards shouted. "He's dangerous! He has destroyed many things on the way here!"

"Stand back, Rosetta." The King interupted. "Escort her back to the castle, and do what is needed."

"Yes, Sire!"

Rosetta was dragged back to the castle, and locked deep in the castle dungeons. The guards chained her up and locked the door to the cell. As the left the dungeon, part of the guard's face chipped off, revealing, a... Puppet face! The mist leaked out of them, and they collapse, and remained motionless.

Back at the Monster Guild at Megalopolis, Tykro was still doing the research on the pendant, when they heard loud footsteps at the corridor. A Mercenary dashed through the door and shouted.

"A message from Radiant! Caballa Castle was attacked. He said he witnessed the whole event. He also said that the attacker was Kitsune! He want's you all to go to the castle and investigate. The palace guards are already expecting you all."

"What?!" Chio, Aurora and Tykro shouted together.

"He wants all three of you to leave immediatly. End of report!" With that, the Mercenary saluted and exited the room.

All three of them left the building and they straight away noticed a dark mist over Rose Garden. The trio raced towards Rose Garden and right before entering, Tykro and Aurora stopped in their tracks, while Chio continued, and banged into a barrier infront.

"Ow!" Chio cried out, as she fell to the floor.

"What's a barrier doing here...?" Tykro said.

"This barrier... Isn't normal. It feels evil," Aurora replied, having a shiver. "You think it was Kitsune who did it?"

"Probably."

Tykro tried a Double Shot while Aurora tried an Arrow Ruch, but were unable to break through it.

"Done yet?" Chio asked, rubbing ber nose. "Let me try-"

Justt as she was about to finish her sentence, the air beside them rippled, and someone walked out of it. Eclipse! Her halbard's blade glowed at the edges, and she slashed down on the barrier, breaking it. "Go. The princess needs you. Right now, the palace priests are trying to remove the memory of Lycan being still alive from Rosetta.Take these Time Trap Stones. If you get a chance, give Lycan and Rosetta once each. Keep one for yourself, just in case."

After saying that, Eclipse entered the ripple, and disappeared. The trio continued forward. When they entered, they were straight away confronted by a lot of people. Not the palace guards though. They were all on the ground around Rose Garden. Instead, it were surrounded by dancers. The male dancers look alike, and same goes for the females. They were like dolls, but, they still seem alive like normal people.

"Just knock them out." Tykro said. "Seems like Kitsune has some bigger weapon this time."
Chio dashed everywhere, knocking them out one by one. Tykro used his gun's handle to knock them out, by hitting them at their neck. Aurora followed behind, casting her new skill, WhirlWind! By trapping the dancers in th whirlwind, they are protected.

Further up, before a hedge maze, they noticed a weird machine. It looked like a robot, but it has a keyboard and a computer screen. However, it was none of their concern this time, so they ignored it. The trio meet no resistance while navigating the maze, but was immediatly attacked by a group of monsters, Beast Vincentos! They were suppose to be guarding the gardens and only attack if someone threatens the garden. However, there were being coated with the dark mist. The trio couldn't sense any life through their eyes.

"You have to win a duel against us if you want to touch the flowers!" Roared all the Vincentos, before charging at the group.

"Forgive us..." Chio said, and she dashed to the centre of the group, and stuck her sword in the ground. "Inferno Blade!"

The fire blades rained down, and devastated the entire group of Vincentos. Continuing on, nothing more attacked them. However, when they neared the castle, they heard screams. To their surprise, some of the window from the front were shattered. People layed motionless around the place. More monsters emerged from the castle. Maid Lydias and Mr. Freaks. Maids and butlers from the castle? Perhaps.

They were about to enter the castle when someone at once corner called out to them. "Psst! Over here!"

The trio turned around to see a red-haired man, in green clothes. He was wearing a pair of glasses that made him look a little nerdy.

"Are you the people that Priest said that were coming? I think he was called Radiant."

"Yes, that's us." Aurora said.

"I can't be too sure. Prove it, you may be in cahoots with the Thief Master that attacked. Radiant said i can be sure, if you would clear the entrance."

"Fine," Chio said, rolling her eyes. "Troublesome..."

They returned five minutes later. The man then greeted them again. "Done?"

"Yup." Aurora said. "Anything else?"

"Nope, nothing more. This is sufficent as prove enough. My name is Alfredo. I'm a servant to the royal family here. Take this key. Go back towards the maze. Before entering, turn right. you should see some Gladiators and Mercenaries. Show it to them and they will know what to do."

After accepting the key, the trio were about to speed off, when Alfredo interupted them again. "Before i forget, take this box."

"What's in it?" Tykro asked, as he took it from Alfredo's hand.

"I do not know. I was told to pass them to you. Radiant's request. He says when the time is right, you will know what's inside."

"Alright. Let's go!" Chio said impatiently.

With that, they speed off towards the maze.

Chapter 20 - Transformation

2009-01-03T21:23:00.000+08:00

Over the past few days, sounds of screams and shouts were heard from the school. There wasn't suppose to be school, since it was the holidays, hence, Liange and Bakaeep entered the school often to find out what's going on, but they were unable to find anything suspicious.

There were reports of missing people, both childrens and adults. Investigations has not found out anything at all.

Back in the secret room, Shimega and his creation Mad Ray just completed another machine. Around the room were their experimental subjects, lying motionless on the floors and the tables. Of course, the subjects were humans. Some were childrens and some were adults. The missing people! However, there were several of them still alive. All the male children look a like, same goes for the female children. Teenagers and Adults as well. They were like dolls, puppets.

Kitasen entered the room and looked around. "I hope there's good news."

"Good news?" Shimega replied. "It's better than just 'good'. It's great!"

"Alright. That's good." Kitasen said, then shouted out, "Gather!"

Kitsune appeared instandly at the door way. "You called?"

"Yes. Time to allocate missions." Kitasen said. "Kitsune, infiltrate Caballa Castle. I want you to find some things that would be more useful in our hands. Shimega, Now all you need are more people?"

"Yes, we need more people to finish the whole plan."

"Fine. I'll get right to it. You just keep the machine working, and Mad Ray under control. Let's go!"

With that, Kitasen and Kitsune disappeared.

Meanwhile, at Caballa Castle, Lycan still hadn't recovered from the attack, or to be more precise, his condition worsen. Occasionally, he would wake up and get violent, trashing the room he is in, but after a while, he would fall to the ground, unconcious. He was kept away from everyone else, including Rosetta. Rosetta, of course was worried, and tried many ways to visit him, but to no avail. The king and queen couldn't stop Rosetta, that finally, told her that Lycan had died. That shocked Rosetta, leaving her all depressed, that she locked herself in her room, refusing to exit. She would't even meet some of her closest friends, from the 7 Princess Club.

Lycan was brought to another place. A secret room, which is only known to the King and the Queen. Lycan was left there. There was nothing that could be done. No medicines helped. No spells helped. No one had no idea what the dark magic that was inflicted on Lycan was.

At this very moment, Kitsune infiltrated the castle and headed into the dungeons.

That night, it was a full moon. Lycan's condition got worse. He tossed and turned in bed, screamed and shouted in pain. From the shadows, a woman walked out. She lifted her staff and chanted something, foreign. A language never heard before. Bright energy particles came out from her staff. It lit up the room. The woman, was wearing black, and the tip of her staff, or to describe it better, a halberd which had a clock near the blade. The energy particles gathered over Lycan, and landed on him. After that, his violent reactions stopped. He just slept peacefully. Hence, the woman disappeared into the shadows.

The woman then reappeared in Rosetta's room. Of course, it scared Rosetta a little.

"Who are... You...?"

"My name is Eclipse. Lycan is still alive, and somewhere in this castle. Act fast."

Then, Eclipse disappeared, leaving Rosetta stunned and happy at the same time. At the very same moment, Lycan woke up, but he was different. His eyes looked liked one of a wolf. Fur all over his body. What exactly is he?

With a glint in his eyes, trashed the whole room. He wasn't in control with any of his actions and emotions. Dents on the floor and walls. The bed was shredded. Feathers from the pillows filled the room. The furniture were all destroyed. He charged towards front of the room and gave powerful punch, which broke through the wall. Or to be exact, a hidden door. From the outside, Lycan broke through a painting, and the dashed out of the room. He continued running until he ended out outside the castle.

Just then, Rosetta ran out of her room to look for Lycan. She stopped when she reached the second level, where she saw a big hole in the painting. That surprised her. She entered and found some blue fur on the floor. "Lycan...?" She thought.

Chapter 19 - Evil Schemes

2009-01-03T21:21:00.000+08:00

Right after the explosion that occured, there were shouts and screams around the castle. Guards ran towards the courtyard to protect the princess, but were over ran by the attackers, monsters! There were Mud Bigfoot, Swamp Sharks, and many more that were from the Swamp areas. Furthermore, the monsters were being covered by the black mist.

Lycan took his stance. He ran up towards the monsters to fight. One by one, he manage to defeat them. Lycan was specially chosen by the king, because of his strength and him being Rosetta's childhood friend, to be by Rosetta's side to protect her. From this, they developed a deep bond. Back to reality, Lycan defeated the group of monsters with his bare hands, but was already panting.

A second wave of monsters broke through the palace gates, but they stopped roughly ten metres away from Lycan and Rosetta. Someone then jumped off the top of the castle and land in between them. Kitsune! She disappeared and reappeared right infront of Lycan.

"She's fast!" Lycan thought, having no time to react.

Kitsune right fist came out of nowhere and attacked Lycan."Tetra Punch!"

Her attack sent Lycan flying and he layed unconcious on the groud, away from Rosetta. Kitsune then walked up to Rosetta, while taking the scroll out of her pocket. Kitsune opened it and started chanting. While she was doing that, guards came out from other doors around the courtyard to protect the princess, but Kitsune was able to draw her gun fast, and shoot them all. The guards fell one by one, with none being able to approach Kitsune.

Finally, Kitsune looked up from the scroll, and faced Rosetta. The black aura covered Kitsune. It swrilled and and it spreaded towards the princess. Rosetta closed her eyes, and screamed in fear. But the aura didn't hit her. Instead, Lycan was standing infront of her, being enveloped by the aura. He was screaming in pain. The aura was then slowly absorbed by his body. Lycan fell to one knee, and said weakly,"You... will... not... harm... the... princess...!"

Furious, Kitsune drew her sword, the red sword that Chio was using against Blood three months earlier. "How dare you interfere! Get out of my way!"

She then charged towards Lycan, but was stopped by an Arrow of Light. Kitsune sensed the incoming attack and jumped away, just in the nick of time and the skill hit the ground. Kitsune looked up, to see someone on top of the castle walls. Gladiators and Mercenaries jumped off the castle in swiftly eliminated the mist-controlled monsters. Kitsune was surrounded. Hence she was forced to retreat.

Lycan fell to the floor. Just before he blacked out, he heard Rosetta shouting to him. "Thank goodness she's safe..." Lycan thought to himself. Then, it went all black.

Kitsune retreated back to Mirage Island, after a failed mission. However, no one was in the Trickster's Shrine. But a message for her was in the shiny egg.

"Come to Caballa School, Science Lab. Be quick. Those people are patroling the area. You must not be seen."

Kitsune used Hide and dashed through the forest, on the treetops, staying well hidden from Liange and Bakaeep. When she arrived at the Science Lab, she was greeted by Kitasen.

"Mission failed?"

"I was interupted. I will return to finish the job right now."

"Stay. That mission can wait," Shimega cut in. "I will need both of your help."

Shimega brought them to a secret room behind the Lab. There, they saw one geeky professor being strapped down on a table. He was unconcious, and was barely moving. Above him, was a weird gun-looking device. There were also five weird tablets around him.

"I developed this machine to create a new and powerful mind. I need all the dark aura we can spare to make this work."

Kitsune, Kitasen and Shimega occupied one tablet each.

"Channel the aura into the device."

All three of them inserted their aura. The machine slowly powered up. It took about ten minutes for it to be fully charged. Shimega walked up to the control panel and pressed various buttons very quickly. At the tip of the gun-looking device, energy was gathering there. When the ball of energy was sufficient, Shimega pressed one final button.

"Now, back off!" Shimega shouted.

All three of them jumped away, and exited the room, while the ball of energy was released, and it hit the professor. The professor woke upimediately, and screamed in pain. An explosion was heard and the whole room was filled with smoke.

The three entered after the smoke cleared. The table was broken, but on the floor, on the same position was one big sized man. He was holding all kinds of science gadgets, and grinning at the same time. The machine used was destroyed after giving out so much energy in the process.
"How do you like this creation?" Shimega asked. "I call him, Mad Ray!"

Chapter 18 - A New Beginning

2009-01-03T21:20:00.000+08:00

Three months later, there were sightings of a new undiscovered island beyond Oops Wharf. But sailors could never reach there. It was visible once every few days.

Whenever it was seen, a black mist will cover the Wharf areas. Monsters there started getting more agressive, even the passive monsters. The monsters even entered the town to attack villagers.

Liange and Bakaeep were sent north of Oops Wharf to prevent things from getting out of hand. HornedBull and Angii were sent to patrol the Wharf fields, while Tuvis and Veraca were at Oops Wharf, defending the town if any stray monsters were to enter.

Also, during the three months, the remains of the Chaos Tower was being cleared, and a pendant was found among the rubble. It was a pendant that was worn by Blood, as reported by Chio, Aurora, Liange, Bakaeep and Tykro. The core was bright red, just like a ruby. However, it wasn't known what kind of gem it is. Scientists were studying it, and occasionally, a weird power will be emitted from it. Hence, it was kept under tight security. Weird shards had also been discovered.
Tykro was placed in charged of the research work on the pendant and the shards, while Chio and Aurora were in charged of security.

As for Soul and Rwinna, they were sent of to research the on Mirage Island. Radiant disappeared after assigning all the missions. All he left was a note, saying he left for a secret mission, and that the Paladins has been disbanded.

In the Trickster's Shirne, Kitsune, Kitasen and his brother stood around the egg. From the egg, they can see any part of Caballa they want.

"So what do you think of the dark mist, my very own creation?" Kitasen's brother asked.

"Brilliant," Kitasen replied. "We will use this to finish what Karan started. We will take over the world. Kitsune. You know what to do."

"Right. I'm on it," she replied. "Shimega, i will need the mist to complete my task."

"Fine. I'll give it to you too, brother."

Shimega stretched out his arm, with his palm wide open. The mist came out from the egg and gathered on each of his palm and it swirled around until it became a black orb. He than passed one orb to both Kitasen and Kitsune. They both crushed the orb and absorbed the dark mist into their body. Kitsune then touched one of the murals and one part of the mural opened up. She stuck her hands in and took out a scroll, one filled with forbidden magic. Then she disappeared.

On the other side of Caballa, everything was peaceful. Especially at the castle. At nights, the princess and her body guard would sneak out to the courtyard, to look at the beautiful moon. Yes, they were Rosetta and Lycan. They were both very in love with each other, but they can't showed it openly because of their status. On one afternoon, Rosetta brought Lycan out to the courtyard to have a chat. Suddenly, it became dark. They both look up towards the say, to see an eclipse, a beautiful one indeed. But the ecplise rippled, and something flew out of the center, and then disappeared. As sudden as the eclipse appeared, it disappeared.

Suddenly, an explosion occured at the front of the castle. The whole castle fell into a state of chaos. What is going on?

Chapter 17 - They've returned!

2009-01-03T21:18:00.000+08:00

Strong winds were blowing down from the top. The same place the object flew by to attack Blood. Everyone looked up, and to their surprise, they saw a giant winged dragon. The flapping of it's wings was causing the strong winds. Kneeling on it was... Kitsune and Kitasen! Kitasen was holding his servered right arm in his left hand.

"You two..." Blood said. "Is this betrayal?"

"Betrayal?" Kitsune said. "I think i heard that you were going to kill us after this, Karan! Or should i say, Blood! Cut the act!"

The other group, with Veraca and the others saw it as well, from the bottom of the tower.
"How...?" HornedBull stuttered.

"Something is up with the dark abyss below," Tuvis said.

"We can't get up there to help them," Rwinna said.

"Yeah, seems like they are on their own now," continued Veraca.

Back at the top of the tower, Kitasen continued after Kitsune.

"Now, it's time for us to take over. We had no intention of ruling the world with you. You were merely part of our plan!"

As Kitsune was speaking, Kitasen casted a dark magic. His right arm seemd to dissolve into the air, and became smoke, or a better description, the black aura. The aura went back to his right arm. When the aura was at his arm, it solidified and Kitasen's right arm was healed! However, the skill that was used took a lot out of him and he was panting harder than usual.

"How did the two of you survive?" Chio struggled to asked. "Didn't the two of you fell into the depths?"

"That abyss?" Kitasen replied, while still panting heavily. "That was another dimension the two of us created with the dark arts. We can cancelled it at will, if we were fall in. But, if an enemy falls in, we can devour them, and they will become our source of power. So far, ten people have fell victim to it. Let us show you exactly what this mean!"

With that, Kitasen and Kitsune was engulfed in the black aura again. When it dispersed, but of them were healthy again! No signs of injuries! What is going on?!

Kitasen jumped off the dragon and walked over to the blue sword Aurora was using. He pulled it out of the ground, and in a split second, was right behind Blood. He held the sword in his right hand and swung it to the left. The sword glowed, and it seems to be storing power.
"Piercing Wave?!" Chio shouted. "How...?!"

"Your time is up, Blood," Kitasen said with a smirk. " Die!"

Then, he swiped the sword to the right. "Piercing Wave!"

At such close range, even Blood couldn't take the attack. Blood was also caught off guard. He was blown over the side of the level they were at, into the abyss, Kitasen's and Kitsune's dimension.
"You... Traitor...!" Blood screamed, as he fell deeper.

After Blood was out of sight, both Kitasen's and Kitsune's eyes glowed a different colour. Their right eyes became red and the left eye, become blue. Kitasen then walked up to the red sword, and pulled it out of the ground. Then, he walked towards Chio. "Now, what you saw just now, was exactly what I meant. Now it's your turn!"

Kitasen lifted up both swords and was about to stabbed down when from now where...

"Razor Gale!"

Two wind blades flew down at high speeds from even higher above. By the time they knew what happened, the blades cut through the dragon's neck. Kitsune had to jump off imediately. The dragon's body fell right infront of Chio, forcing Kitasen to retreat. The head dropped outside the tower, and landed beside HornedBull, scaring everyone.

Chio looked up, to see a Witch, standing on another of her Razor Gale, floating in mid air. She crossed her arms and looked down to Chio and the others and said,"I came to fight Blood, and you're having trouble with these guys?"

"Blood's been defeated by that mage over there," Chio replied.

"Glad you could join the party," Liange said. "Angii."

"Of course. I wouldn't miss it for the world," Angii said, laughing.

She jumped off her Razor Gale and landed on the dragon's body. Angii continued casting Razor Gale at Kitasen and Kitsune, keeping them on the move, unable to retaliate. They were finally drove to one corner.

"Let's retreat," Kitsune told Kitasen. "We are using too much power here."

"Fine, I'm almost out of power as well."

Again, they opened another scroll, and both chanted an inchantation. Then, another giant dragon was summoned, as the one that Angii killed disappeared. They both jump on.

"We'll meet again," Kitsune said. "But mean while, here's a present for you all."

Then, Kitsune detonated her mine around the tower, cauing a cave in. They flew away immediatly. Everyone struggled to escape. Both Aurora and Bakaeep used EarthQuake to get down quickly, by breaking the floor. Finally when they reached the first level, they were helped out by Veraca and the others, just as the tower collapsed. Along the horizon, the dragon's shadow disappeared.

Everyone returned to Megalopolis Monster Guild. There after receiving treatment, Radiant entered. "Great job everyone. Blood's gone, the world isn't in anymore big threats."

"That's not true," Liange said. "We didn't manage to defeat Kitasen and Kitsune, not even Angii."

"Yup." Bakaeep continued. "They will return again."

"Well, until then, we will just have to be on guard." Tuvis interrupted.

At this very moment, the dragon landed in an unknown island. One that is seen by only a small number of people. Mirage Island. Kitasen and Kitsune entered the building, the Trickster's Shrine. There were murals along the wall, and a giant shiny egg in the middle. Someone then emerged from behind the pillar.

"Have you completed your job," he said, "Brother?"

Chapter 16 - The other side of Karan

2009-01-03T21:17:00.000+08:00

As the aura cleared, the figure within started to get clearer and clearer. But when the aura disappeared...

"Count Blood?!" Everyone exclaimed!

"But... How...?" Chio asked.

"Remember the story Radiant told us," Liange replied. " Count Blood is another part of Karan, the same person."

"The same person?!" Blood shouted. "Hahaha! Clever humans! It's still me. Karan. Count Blood! All me! Those two humans who were fighting with me unsealed me from the depths of the world, where you humans let me suffer for decades! Centuries! This time, it's my turn to seal you all humans away. Then I will reign supreme! Take your stance, humans. I will kill you and make my vision a reality! Hahahaha!"

Blood moved towards Bakaeep, and took out a red sword from under his robe. Liange dashed infront and blocked the attack, but Blood was so strong that kep kept pushing her backwards.

Chio then went to the side and used a Piercing Wave. Blood pulled his other hand out from under the robe and stopped the Piercing Wave with his bare hands. Tykro then used a Double Shot on Blood, however, Blood pulled out a blue sword from his robe and deflected the bullets.

Aurora casted a Arrow Rush and used it to hit Blood's back, and from under him, a Dragon Storm. As the magic skills hit, everyone around Blood jump back.

After a moment, then Dragon Storm cleared. But, Blood was no longer on that spot. But then, Niwerts were summoned in the centre. The Niwerts moved out and separated the group. Both Aurora and Bakaeep used Cleaving Terra, while Tykro used Berserk, and caught the attention of the Niwerts. This left Chio and Liange free. Aurora toss the sword that excavated from the castle dungeon to Liange.

Chio unshealth her sword, which is also the one that was found at the castle dungeon. Both Chio and Liange then charged towards Blood. They both slashed down, one at each of Blood's shoulder. Blood then held his own swords and block the attacks. This time, when the swords came in contact they started to glow, just like how Tykro's gun did. Except, Chio's sword glowed red and Liange's, blue. Even their equipments, the bat winged-like hat and the shield, glow the same colour. The bat winged-like hat that Aurora was wearing glowed blue, and so did her shield. However, Chio's sword glowed bright red, while Liange's sword glowed a dimmed blue.

"I see you obtained that sword that was used to seal me in the castle dungeon," Blood said.

"Now, let's see if you can wield it!"

They continued their volly of attacks. Their attacks grew stonger. They were able to keep up with Blood. Their attacks were of equal strength. Chio would attack the front, then Liange attack the back. And when Chio hit right, Liange would go left. However, Liange's attacks weren't as powerful as Chio's. Chio just kept attacking non-stop. Even after all that, Blood was still going trong.

Finally, the group of Niwert was defeated. Aurora, Bakaeep and Tykro ran up to support them. Both Chio and Liange were panting, but Chio wouldn't give up, and kept attacking. Suddenly, Blood changed target. He went straight towards Aurora. Aurora casted Arrow Rush and move back at the same time. Blood just used his blue sword to deflect them. Just as Blood was going to strike a blow on Aurora, Chio snatched Liange's sword and jump infront of Aurora. Using both swords, she prevented the attack from hitting Aurora. This time, the blue sword became very bright.

"It must be resonating with the rest of the set," Aurora said.

Blood then swung his red sword down at Chio. Chio then grabbed on to Aurora and dashed away, just in time. Chio handed the blue sword to Aurora.

Chio ran towards Blood, twirling the sword above her head. Blood swung his red sword at Chio from the left and his blue sword from the right. Chio blocked the attack from the right and pushed Blood's sword to the side, while Aurora just blocked the attack. Chio saw an opening and took the chance. She brought down her fist to gather strength and power and in a split second, used a UpperCut right on Blood's body. Aurora then casted a short range Arrow Rush.

Blood staggered a little. He shouted and charged right at Aurora, with both swords coming at her. Chio jumped infront to block the attack. Chio's sword was in the center of both Blood's sword. Blood pulled his sword away quicky and with a lot of force. That sent the sword flying out of Chio's hands. Blood then continued and slashed Chio on her right arm with the blue sword.

Blood then pick her up by her neck and threw her to the side. Now, Blood turned her attention to Aurora. He swipe his swords at Aurora. She picked up her sword and placed it vertically and braced herself for the attack.

Blood used the red sword and knocked Aurora's sword out of her hands. Then, he brought the blue sword down, but as it was about to hit, the attack stopped. Aurora was covered in a blue aura, which deflected Blood's attack with the blue sword. Blood then used the red sword to slash down. Liange dashed out and picked up the red sword and protected. But Liange didn't have the bat wing-liked ears and shield, so she didn't have a red aura. Blood kicked Liange aside and stabbed Aurora on her right shoulder. Again, Blood threw Aurora to one side. Only Bakaeep was left.

She ran around the room, casting magic at Blood. Arrow rush and Pheonix Rising, together with Earthquake and Cleaving Terra at Blood's summons. With every attack, Blood got weaker, and his speed started to slow down. However, Bakaeep's speed has also slowed down. Finally, Blood summoned a giant group of Bone Mages as a final attempt to catch Bakaeep. Bakaeep still managed to wipe them out, but it took too much out of her. This time, Blood got to her. He aimed for her vitals and stabbed down. Bakaeep managed to dodge a little, and Blood's sword only stabbed her right leg.

"Now, it's time for me to finish you all. After you are gone, Kitasen and Kitsune wiill be next. Hahaha!" Blood shouted at them.

Blood started to chant an inchantation. he was getting ready to cast Thunderbolt, and to finish the four of them at once, when a giant object flew by towards Blood. This distracted him, and he didn't manage to finish casting his spell.

"Shuriken Mastery..." Blood mumbled. "Who's there?!"

Chapter 15 - Face off against Karan

2009-01-03T21:15:00.000+08:00

"This world will never become your's, Karan!" Chio shouted.

Karan took out his gun straight away and shot right at Chio's head. Tykro's speed wasn't as fast as Karan's but it was fast enough. He fired a shot and the bullets from their guns collided and caused a mini explosion two metres in front of Chio. This blew Chio back a few steps.

Chio drew her sword and charged right up at Karan. Karan fired several shots at Chio, but Chio used her sword to deflect them. When Chio was near him, she slashed down towards Karan's head. Karan shooked his gun, and a blade appeared along the barrel. He used the blade to block Chio's attack. The gunblade was so thin and sharp that it cut through a little of Chio's sword.

Liange ran up to assist Chio. She jumped in the air and was about to slash down when Karan shot a bullet out of the gun! So, Karan's gunblade can attack multi-targets at a time! Liange managed to block the bullet with her sword, but a a result, her sword was chipped at one side.

Bakaeep and Aurora fired off Mana Arrows. Karan jump back a few steps and fired off bullets at the arrows. He was able to break the arrows and negate the effect. He could also use the gunblade to negate the arrows. Tykro used a Double Shot, but was countered by Karan's own Double Shot.

Chio and Liange retreated back then dashed out again. They attacked Karan's side at the same time. First Karan blocked Liange attack, but instead of firing a shot a Chio, he stretched out his other arm, and another gun lid out of his sleeve. Again, he shook the second gun and a blade appeared and he used it to defend against Chio.

Karan's body is unguarded from the front. The barrels of his gun were pointing up. Aurora and Bakaeep casted Arrow Rush while Tykro used Power Shot and Double Shot straight away. Just as the attacks were about to make contact, the black aura, similar to the one with Kitsune and Kitasen, enveloped Karan. The force was so strong that it neutralised the incoming attacks and knocked Liange and Chio to the ground.

The aura grew bigger and darker. Karan was granted more and more power. He fired a bullet from each gun, and it shattered Liange's shield straight away. And when the bullets collide with Tykro's, the explosion was no long mini, but huge.

Karan charged up at Tykro. His movement was so fast, probably boosted by the black aura, that no one else caught his movement until was right infront of Tykro. Karan was bringing his gunblade down, and Tykro used his gun, the one excavated in Ghost Blue, to block the attack. The gunblade hits Tykro's gun, but the blade couldn't cut through it. Karan then brought his second gunblade down, but it still wasn't enough to cut through. Instead, when the guns came in contact, there was a bright light being emitted from the guns. The equips that Tykro was wearing, the ones excavated from Ghost Blue, started glowing. The gun glowed with the same sparkle as Karan's. Tykro than shooked his gun, and no surprise, a blade came out from the barrel.

Karan and Tykro then clashed again. This time, the light from the clash neutralised the aura around Karan, and the rest took their chance to attack. Chio dashed in and used UpperCut, sending Karan flying in the air. Liange then used a Flamming Fist which knocked him towards the Soul Masters. Aurora casted a Arrow Rush that came from the top and knocked Karan to the ground, and as he landed, Bakaeep executed an Earthquake.

Tykro jumped into the air and fired several rounds at Karan from above, then changed is gun to the gunblade. As Tykro reached the ground, his gunblade stabbed Karan in his chest.

Karan layed motionless on the ground. Tykro got up and pulled out his gunblade. Karan's gun lost his glow, but Tykro's remained. Seems whoever wielding one got defeated, the gun would lose the glow, and will only get it back then another of the same kind came in contact.

The group gathered together. Finally, Karan has been defeated. The battle is over and the world is safe. But... What that they didn't realise was that the scattered aura that was neutralised by Tykro started gathering above Karan. Just as the group was about to leave the tower, the aura entered Karan's body.

"This battle is far from over, Humans!" Karan's voice boomed.

Startled, the group turned back. Karan slowly rose to his feet. The aura around got thicker and thicker, that after a while, they couldn't even see Karan's body.

Karan's voice came out of the aura. "This... Power...!"

As the aura became thinner, and a figure started to form. But it wasn't Karan that was standing infront of them. Who is it that?

Chapter 14 - Separation

2009-01-03T21:13:00.000+08:00

After a while, the group reached the tower. It was spectacular. It was so tall than i wasn't possible to guage how many levels there were. They entered the tower. To their surprise, the floors in the interior were transparent, like glass. Occasionally there were holes all around. Tykro shot a bullet down, but they didn't hear any impact at all. It shows how deep it really is, and if someone were to fall, it will be over.

They ran up to the fifth floor and were confronted by Kitsune and Kitasen. They immediatly started attack the group. Kitasen again, held to the magical scroll and had an even stronger evil aura around him. Kitsune also held onto one. Kitasen casted an Arrow Rush at the group, but instead of white, the magical arrows were black, filled with the evil aura. When ever they dodge the attacks, the arrows will hit the floor, causing cracks. The longer the battle drags on, the more dangerous. Kitsune's mines gives of black smoke and fire whenever it blows up.

"You guys go on ahead." Tuvis said. "The few of us will be more than enough to defeat them."

"Yeah," Radiant agreed. "Chio, Aurora, Liange, Bakaeep and Tykro, you guys go on and face Karan and whatever he dishes out!"

"I won't let you pass!" Kitasen shouted, and casted a Gravity Crush.

"Searing Light!"

Radiant casted it at Kitasen. Kitasen got distracted by the Searing Light and mis-aimed his Gravity Crush. Just as his Gravity Crush hit the floor, Chio and the rest reached the stairs to the sixth floor. From the power of the Gravity Crush, it shattered the floor of the whole level, that everyone then fell back down to the fouth level.

Soul, Rwinna and Veraca surrounded Kitsune and Tuvis, HornedBull and Radiant cornered Kitasen.

Soul, Rwinna and Kitsune, all being a Thief Master, have very fast movement. They would dash up and their knives and daggers would clash. Kitsune was so skillful that she was able to wield a sword in each hand, while still using a shield. After a few clashes, Kitsune remained uninjured due to the black aura around her. However Soul and Rwinna had cuts on there arms and legs.

Even some of their clothes have slash marks. Veraca took over and send a volley of Card Strike and One Pair at Kitsune. She threw and ran up to Kitsune at teh same time. Soul and Rwinna ran beside her to back her up. When she got near Kitune, Veraca executed a Volley Kick. While upside down, she noticed the aura around Kitsune's legs wasn't as much at her upper body. She immediatly used a Power Blow.

That Power Blow weakened Kitsune's legs and she went down on one knee. Soul and Rwinna took the chance and threw a mine each at her legs before retreating back with Veraca. The landed as a safe distance and detonanted the mines. To their surprise, Kitsune had already burried some mines around Veraca , Soul and Rwinna. She detonated it at the same time. When the smoke cleared, Veraca and her group were panting heavily, while Kitsune was still on one knee, but wasn't as injured.

Meanwhile, Kitasen started attacking Tuvis's group. He used Dark Lance on each of them but were easily dodged. Kitasen's Dark Lance created a lot of cracks that he finally broke half of the level, and he, along with Tuvis's group fell to the third floor. Tuvis and HornedBull ran up towards to Kitasen and started attacking. They both have amazing attaking speed, that their actions were a blur. However, the aura around Kitasen kept him safe. Suddenly, Kitasen casted an Arrow Rush on each of them. The impact of the arrows almost broke through their shield.
One Arrow Rush even took down Radiant's Shield of Heaven.

Both HornedBull and Tuvis ran around Kitasen and kept using Piercing Wave and Tidal Slash at Kitasen. When they concentrated all their attacks on one spot, it created an opening in the Aura, and Tuvis slashed Kitasen's arm. It was followed up by Light Wave. HornedBull attacked the opening again, and as a result, severed Kitasen's right arm. Kitasen fell to his knees, screaming in pain.

Back at Veraca's group on the fouth level, Kitsune took out a few shurikens. Kitasen threw the whole bunch of shurikens at Veraca and her group. From the power of the aura, it increased the sharpness and speed of the shurikens. It broke through their shields and cut them in the shoulder. The aura acted like a poison and numbed their hand. Both Soul and Rwinna charged up Sixth Sense and Precise Pitch. And using the other good arm, the threw out shurikens in hopes of resisting her dark powers. Both of them used Fan of Knives, but only did minimal damage. Finally, Veraca used Evolution and attacked Kitsune furiously and knock her off to the thired floor. Kitsune landed beside Kitasen.

Both Kitasen and Kitsune then took out their dark scrolls, and chanted an inchantation together. The aura exploded and everyone fell to the second floor. Kitasen then casted a Gravity Crush and Kitsune threw out mines at the group. The Gravity Crush hit its mark and so did the mines. By struggling against the force of Gravity Crush, Radiant managed to cast an Hinder Snare on both Kitasen and Kitsune. This released the Gravity Crush and preventedd Kitsune from detonating her mines. Both of them were immobilized. Tuvis and HornedBull went up to them.

"This is where it ends,"HornedBull said.

"If only we could have been comrads instead," said Tuvis.

After that, Tuvis and HornedBull took out their Earth Attributed Sword and shouted together.
"Earth Quaker!"

They stick their swords into the grond breaking it, falling to the first floor, then that's when the effect took place. The ground beneath Kitasen and Kitsune broke off, causing them to fall into the depths of the bottomless abyss. When they fell, Radiant released his Hinder Snare, and Kitsune smirk, and detonated her mines. Thankfully, her mines didn't have as mush power and the floor only cracked. From the explosion, Rwinna, Soul and HornedBull was injured.

Hence they exited the tower, and waited for Chio's group to finish their job.

Meanwhile, Chio's group reached the twenty-first floor. And there, Karan waited.

"Welcome! Welcome to the Chaos Tower! The place where my throne will be, where i can watch over the world as it slowly becomes mine! Hahahaha!"

Chapter 13 - Karan's Past

2009-01-03T21:11:00.000+08:00

After the incident at Ghost Blue, everything else seemed normal for the next few days. Research groups were surveying the room beyond the Whirlpool of Agony and the Vampire Castle.

However, there were sightings of a giant tower a little beyond Blooming Cora. Several group of researchers were dispatched to the tower, but none of them returned.

After a while, Radiant gathered everyone, to brief them on everything thay have found out. "We've found out the history of Karan and found some interesting stuff."
"Tell us," Chio said impatiently.

"I intend to," Radiant replied, then he told the story...

Karan was bored into the royal family, and was to take over the throne when he reached eighteen. Since he was to take over the throne, he was refrained to leave the castle. Hence he always explore the castle. One day, he came across a secret room, with a lot of coffins in the dungeons beneath. Being more curious than afraid, he opened them. They were empty.

Suddenly, he heard the fluttering of wings. Then out of no where, someone appeared behind him. That person, or thing, obviously was Count Blood. Being a weak and frail boy, he didn't know how to react and froze there. Taking the chance, Count Blood bit him on the next. Then, Blood said,"Now you shall carry on my curse!" And with that, Count Blood disappeared.

Karan was found unconsious the next day by the palace guards. The guards reported that to the King and Queen, and another weird fact. The number of coffins in the room had gone up by one.

For the next several years, Karan's curse was subdued by Priests from around the world. Noone was allowed to speak of this. However, at the age of eighteen, Karan ran away from the castle, and wasn't seen again. The King and Queen announced that he passed away due to a sickness. Karan roamed the world when he met La Vida. La Vida had the ability to supress the vampiric desire Karan will have frequently. Thinking that would be the bestfor him, Karan accepted her invitating aboard her ship. La Vida then taught him some gunner skills. He picked it up quickly and mastered it within months. He then embarked a journey with La Vida as a pirate. However, an unforunate incident at sea capsized and kill all the crew on board.

But, there was a group of people, who practiced the dark arts and manage to revive both Karan and La Vida, but the skill they used wasn't perfect. La Vida was brought back as a ghost, but she is visible to humans. Karan was brought back but the dark art that was used seperated his body into two individuals. One as a pirate and another as his vampire self. The vampiric self went back to the castle dungeons, and was sealed there by priests. While the pirate self, was sealed in the room past the Whirlpool of Agony.

He was released from the sealed room only recently, by a human. And now Karan is trying to reclaim his throne and to be the king of this world.

"... And that's what we have manage to find out so far." Radiant added. "But we found two chests at the castle dungeon where Count Blood is found, and a chest in the room past the Whirlpool of Agony."

Radiant opened the chest. Inside 2 of them was the same things. A sword, a shield and a hat that looks like a bat's wings. Both sets of equipments looked really old but were still sturdy and were suitable for combat. In the third chest, there was a pirate hat, a gun and an eyepatch. The gun also looked really old, but like the other set of equipments, it was still suitable for combat.

However, the gun's design looks a lot like the one Karan was using. Chio took one set of the equipments and wielded it. Aurora took the other set and Tykro, being the only gunner, took the set with the gun. The new weapons were stonger than their own, hence they decided to use it to fight Karan, Kitasen and Kitsune.

"I believe Karan now resides at the tower beyond Blooming Cora." Radiant said. "But this time, I'm going along with you all. Let's go now!"

"Roger!" everyone exclaimed in unison.

Hence, the group consisting of, Chio, Aurora, Liange, Bakaeep, Tykro, Soul, Rwinna, HornedBull, Veraca, Tuvis and Radiant headed out for the final battle.

Chapter 12 - Defending Evil

2009-01-03T21:10:00.000+08:00

Tykro pushed the door, but it wouldn't budge. The trio tried pushing together but it didn't work. Even attacking the door didn't help. They sat down to think about what to do, when the Theif Master, who saved Chio and Aurora from before came up to them. "A barrier as been erected. First, you need to take down the barrier."

"We never did catch your name. What is it?" Veraca asked.

"Me? Call me Soul. Now, we need to know how this barrier works."

The four moved back, and the barrier came down. But whenever the moved towards the door, the barrier automatically activates. So, Soul came to a conclusion.

"Leave it to me. Hide!"

Through Hide, Soul approached the door, and the barrier stayed down. When she opened the door, and disabled Hide, the barrier remained down. Hence, Veraca, HornedBull and Tykro ran into the room, and the were greeted by Kitasen.

"You shall not proceed any further." Kitasen said.

Behind Kitasen was Karan, but he seemed different. He was sitting on the ground, with crossed legs. There were blue flames around him.

"Karan is finishing up his ritual. Before that, i will be your opponent," Kitasen continued. "Dark Lance!"

"Mana Reflector!"

Veraca defleted part of the damage from Dark Lance back at Kitasen, while Soul used her Explosive Expert. HornedBull and Tykro used a volley of skills to lure Kitasen towards the mines. Right when Kitasen was on the mines, Soul detonated them.

However, when the smoke cleared, Kitasen stood there, totally unharmed. To their surprise, Kitasen was covered in a black evil aura, which seems to be protecting him. Soul decided that taking out the defenceless Karan would proof more effective. She used Hide and snuck towards Karan.

Meanwhile, the battle became fiercer. HornedBull charged up towards Kitasen and swung his sword down. Kitasen used his Nocturnal Staff to block his attack. However, HornedBull immediatly used Inferno Blade which broke through the aura damaged Kitasen slightly. Veraca followed the attack with Card Strike and One Pair, while Tykro gave a Power Shot. Kitasen immediately casted Dark Shield and Arrow Rush at HornedBull. Veraca who had Mana Reflector jumped infront of HornedBull to reflect some of the damage.

After meeting with such resistance, Kitasen took out a scroll from his robe. The scroll was filled with black magic, and it seems to be the source for the evil aura covering Kitasen. The magical energy sealed within was so strong that it blew the trio back a few feet. When he opened the scroll, the aura around him became bigger. He chanted an inchantation, and summoned a huge group of monsters to aid him in battle. HornedBull switched his weapon to one with Water Attribute, a Coral Sword.

"Tidal Slash!"

With that, few rolls of monsters were wiped out at once.

"Berserk!"

Tykro's Berserk allows him to shoot any enermies around him randomly, causing massive damage. However Veraca stood still, not executing any attacks at all. The monsters came closer and closer to her, and piled up on her, when...

"Impaling Rage!"

Huge amount of power was released from Veraca, and it blew all the monsters on and around her away. These minions were no match against them. However, Soul still hadn't reached Karan. It seems that there were few layers of barriers to prevent any interference from the outside.

HornedBull fired off a Piercing Wave and Tykro gave a Double Shot at Kitasen. He used his staff to block the attack. While Kitasen was distracted by the attack, Veraca used a Card Strike and knocked the scroll out of Kitasen's hand. Without the scroll, the aura around Kitasen dissipated and blocking two attacks at once proved to be too much for one person to handle. Kitasen's staff broke and the Piercing Wave hits him right in the stomach, pushing him backwards and the Double Shot hit him on each leg. The trio then went up to confront Kitasen.

Before the trio reached Kitasen, he struggled and reached for the scroll. The aura enveloped him again. Then, chanting another inchantation, Kitasen released a HellFire, one much stronger and bigger than the average HellFire. The fire stopped the trio in their tracks. Even HornedBull's Tidal Slash couldn't put the fire out.

Right at this moment, Soul finally broke through the fifth and last barrier and walked right up to Karan. She took out her sleek black dagger and prepared a Sudden Attack. Just as she was about to attack, Karan opened his eyes. His eyes glowed a different colour. Revealing Eye! Soul' Hide was disabled and could no longer use Sudden Attack. Karan pulled out his gun and pointed it right at Soul. His movement was so fast that all Soul saw was a blur. Karan fired a shot. Soul had no time to react. All she could do was close her eyes and face the worst.

But... Nothing happened? She opened her eyes to see a shield, in between her and Karan. Another Thief Master!

"It's been a while, Soul." She said. "The first time we meet after 3 years and under this life threatening situation?"

"Haha, so we meet again, Rwinna," Soul replied.

Karan took a few steps back, and fired more shots. His gun gave off a bright sparkle. It was a gun beyond words, in terms of looks and power. Every shot they defended gave their shield a small dent. Karan constantly used Shooting Spree and Berserk. In the process, he injured Veraca and HornedBull. Tykro, being a gunner himself, managed to dodge his bullets, compensating for a lack of a shield. A Power Shot of his manage to scrape Karan's arm, but it took a few attempts.

Finally, Karan backed off and kneeled down beside Kitasen, panting a little. "Let's go. The ritual has been completed. I used too much energy fighting this humans," he said to Kitasen, then turned to Veraca and the others. "We'll finish this fight another time, at the final destination. The throne is rightfully mine, and i will be the king of this world!"

And with that, Karan fired another Shooting Spree, with smoke bullets, and disappeared with Kitasen.

Reinforcements arrived just as Karan and Kitasen left. Hence, they helped the group evacuate while some stayed behind to survey the area.

Chapter 11 - To find the Mastermind

2009-01-03T21:08:00.000+08:00

Chio and Aurora woke up at an inn in Megalopolis. In the same room was Bakaeep and Liange. Everyone had suffered serious injuries. Thankfully, none of it was fatal.

As for Kitasen, he was being confined in the Aquarius Monster Guild. The monster hunters were interrogating him, but they couldn't get any information if he is truly linked to Karan. Even Radiant tried getting information, but to no avail. Kitasen just wouldn't say a word.

Finally, after 5 hours, Kitasen opened his mouth. "It's time..." He mumbled under his breath, then he shouted, "Dark Shield! Gravity Crush!"

His skill crushed the Aquarius Monster Guild, togetherwith everyone in it. But due to Dark Shield, he didn't suffer any injuries. People who were in the guild at the time either suffered heavy injuries or lost their lives. Fortunatly, Radiant and the hunter masters only suffered injuries, nothing more.

Kitasen ran off towards Nora's Sewage. As he moved, he destroyed more and more of the town. By the time he reached the Nora's Sewage, half of Aquarius was already destroyed.
Word spread fast. Veraca, HornedBull and Tykro dispatched from the inn in Megalopolis to give chase.

"Let me go as well," Chio said.

"Stay and rest," Veraca replied. "The four of you are in no shape to fight."

With that, the three of then ran off. When they reached the Sewage, Kitasen was nowhere to be found. After a through inspection of the area, a small entrance was found on the northwest corner of the Sewage. It was only noticed because someone saw a Nora Joe squeezing through. The trio enlarged the opening with their skills, to find a brand new area, far different then the Seabed fields.

They were then greeted by... A fish? A Ninja-Fish, to be more precise.

"Back off, humans," the Ninja-Fish said. "I have orders from Lord Karan and Lord Kitasen. No one shall go ahead, unless you pass my test. Only if you manage to collect 5 Skull KeyChain 1, then you may proceed."

"Piece of cake!" HornedBull exclaimed.

As expected, it was easy to gather the items. The more they proceed on, the more monster appeared. Not before long, another Ninja-Fish appeared before them, asking for the Skull Keychain 2. After that, a third Ninja-Fish confronts them. "Collect 30 of this marbles and only then, you may proceed."

The marbles was no easy task. The monsters constantly use Electroshock, forcing them to only use range attacks. Thankfully, HornedBull has Piercing Wave, Veraca has One Pair and Tykro, well, uses a gun. When they finally exited the Trench of Patience, they reached an area called the WhirlPool of Agony. There was a giant door at the opposite end from them. A Merman Ghost at the entrance straight away stunned Veraca and attempted a Banish skill. Tykro immediatly reacted, with a Double Shot, took out that Merman Ghost, cancelling the effect of Faint and Banish.

They wandered around for a while. They weren't getting closer to their destination. Only then did they realise they were in a maze, and a complicated one, in fact. Having wasted so much time wandering about, they decided to go straight to the door, by jumping over any trenches ahead. Only then, did they manage to reach. Just as Tykro was about to open the door, Veraca stopped him.

"I feel Kitasen's Magical energy inside. And another energy, similar to Karan's. Be cautious."

Chapter 10 - Allies and Enemies

2009-01-03T21:07:00.000+08:00

Back at Oops Wharf. Skull had gotten up, unnoticed by Veraca and HornedBull. He picked up his sword lying on the floor and crawled towards them. When he was closed enough, he swung his sword down. Right at this moment, Veraca and HornedBull heard the sound of the sound of the sword coming down. HornedBull managed to bring his shield above his head to protect himself. As the attack came unnoticed, HornedBull didn't have enough strength to hold it up for long. Before long, cracks appeared on his shield.

Veraca was about to use a Volley Kick on Skull when suddenly someone jump out from among the trees.

"Double Shot!"

The precisely aimed shot was fired at Skull's head. Skull dropped the sword, and disappeared into thin air, indicating a defeat. HornedBull's shield then shattered from the amount of force applied on it. The Scientist then landed on the ground and said, "Saved you lives. You guys owe me one."

"How long have you been there, Tykro?" Veraca asked, laughing under her breath.
"From the very start. I want to know how strong you guys really are."

HornedBull, obviously wasn't that pleased. "You could have came out sooner..." he grumbled.
Happening at the same time, Liange and Bakaeep were facing a life threatening situation. Needles of rain were about to fall on them, when someone dashed out.

"Piercing Wave!"

A powerful wave came out of the sword and hit Odinea right on the chest. It's... A Duelist! "Chio?!" Bakaeep exclaimed.

"No, that isn't Chio. I would have known if it was her." Liange said.

After Odinea flinched from the Piercing Wave and had almost recovered fully, the Duelist used Inferno Blade. The flames from her blade was so much stronger than Chio's. The blades then striked Odinea, and she fell to the ground, defeated. The ice needles in the air melted as soon as Odinea hit the ground.

"So you finally decided to show yourself, huh, Tuvis?" Liange said.

"You knew?"

"Of course."

"Haha, I expected as much. Job's here is done. Let's go."

With all the bosses of of the way, the day is saved, at least for a while. But Chio and Aurora are still facing a new danger.

"My name is... Kitasen! Soki was my slave and you defeated him. Not bad, Duelist. That goes to you too Soul Master. Or should i say, Chio and Aurora...?"

"How do you know our names?" Chio shouted back.

"You don't need to know. Now die! Gravity Crush!"

A giant force around Chio and Aurora appeared. They were pulled to the ground, unable to move. Chio struggled to look up at Kitasen. "What... do... you... want...?" she said weakly.
"Me? Isn't it easy to tell? I want Caballa Island! I want the World! But with you all in the way, it's slowing me down. And i like to complete what i need to do, fast! Gravity Crush!"
Kitasen picked up Chio's Blood Sword that she dropped. Then, from behind, a Thief Master appeared.

"Kitsune...?!" both Chio and Aurora exclaimed, while still in pain from the Gravity Crush.
Kitasen passed the sword to Kitsune. Kitsune gave Chio and Aurora an evil grin, then used Hide, and disappeared.

Suddenly, a beeping sound was heard. It came from underneth Kitasen. It got louder and louder. A mine! Kitasen jumped back, and within a split second, the mine exploded. Just as Kitasen landed, a sharp thin blade was held at his neck.

"Release the Gravity Crush, Kitasen," the Thief Master said. "Or you lose your head."
The Gravity Crush was finally released, and it left Chio and Aurora unconcious. Reinforcements came and brought Chio and Aurora back to the city, Megalopolis, for treatment. Also, the arrected Kitasen. However, Kitasen didn't look scared or whatsoever, and he still had an evil grin on his face. What exactly is he plotting?

Chapter 9 - Odinea's Reign

2009-01-03T21:06:00.000+08:00

Odinea didn't hesitate. She immediatly used ThunderBolt on Liange and Bakaeep. As expected, Liange defended the both of them with Guard. When the skill hit, a lot of smoke was produced. Even before the smoke cleared, Odinea's summons started their attack.

"Dragon Storm!"

Taking themselves as the center, Bakaeep blew the first wave of attacks away, and successfully protected themselves from the attack of the summons. The summons didn't stand a chance against Liange and Bakaeep.

"Seems like i have to do it myself to get the job done...!" Odinea screamed.

She advanced straight at Liange and Bakaeep, casting Mana Ring and Arrow Rush at the same time. Liange too more damage then Bakaeep as she has a lower magical defence. The battle progressed slowly for them as Bakaeep had to cure Liange constantly.

Finally, an opening! Liange took the chance and used Flash Cut, and linked it with her Flamming Fist. Odinea turned around, and used the back of her ice throne to protect herself. A crack formed on the throne as a result of the damage inflicted. Odinea then casted Rust on Liange. Then frozen ice created by Odinea rained down on Liange. The manage to guard herself, but just barely.

Odinea raised her hand and froze the water particles in the air around her staff. This extended the length of it. She swept it at Liange. Liange dodged it the first time, by jumping up in the air. This time, Odinea swung it high up. Liange was defenceless, as the effect of Guard wore off after the last attack from the hailstones.

"Incinerate!"

Bakaeep aimed her Fire skill on Odinea's wand. But the temperature of the fire wasn't enough to melt the ice of her staff. However the force was enough to knick it off course. Instead of hitting Liange directly on her body, Odinea just managed to scratch Liange's leg. Liange landed, unbattered. Odinea turned her attention to Bakaeep, giving her a cold bloody stare. Bakaeep stood still, paralyzed for a moment. Odinea flew directly at Bakaeep, with her staff right infront. She froze the air, making her staff into a sharp spear.

Liange rushed to save Bakaeep, but reached a second too late. Liange only managed to push Bakaeep silghtly to the side. Odinea's icy spear impaled Bakaeep's arm. The coldness of the spear numbed her hand immediatly. Still holding on to her spear, she turned to Liange. Liange looked away from her eyes, and dashed to the front. She spammed her Flamming Fist on the spear. After 5 quick attacks, only a crack appeared. Seems like Rust was still in effect. Bakaeep was beginning to regain her senses.

The numbness in Bakaeep's hand was beginning to spread. Too much longer and it would be fatal. Liange dashed everywhere around Odinea and used Flamming Fist on the spear from every angle. When Rust finally wore off, her final Flamminf Fist broke the spear into half. The half of the spear which had impaled Bakaeep's arm immediatly turned into water, while the other half in Odinea's hand remained solid. Liange brought Bakaeep behind some trees to retreat for a moment. But they couldn't stay for long and to change place often, as Odinea keeps freezing the air making ice needles rain down on them.

Finally after a while, the recovered a littleand got ready too attack. This time, Liange put in all her strength and rushed out with her Flash Cut. She hit the mark, then followed by a small volley of Flamming Fist, until Odinea moved her throne backwards to escape. Liange charged up with another Flamming Fist, while Bakaeep chanted an inchantation. This time, Odinea turned around, and Liange's Flamming Fist hit the back of her throne, together with Bakaeep's Dragon Storm. As a result, Odinea's ice throne shattered. Odinea fell to the ground, but landed on her feet. She scream, froze two more spears and made ice needles above Liange and Bakaeep, as she advance towards them in high speed. Both Liange and Bakaeep were already exhuasted. Just as the ice needles were going to fall on them, the shadowed figure hiding among the trees dashed out.

Was the intention of that person to aid them, or to finish them off?

Chapter 8 - Soki's Assault

2009-01-03T21:04:00.000+08:00

The Fire Golems started the fight. One punch from them created cracks in the ground. A single punch from them right on the boday would be fatal. Apart from their strength, their Mana Arrow can deal quite a lot of damage to Chio. Thankfully, Aurora has Mana Shield to protect them.

Chio retaliated.

"Tetra Punch!"

Using Tetra Punch, Chio knocked away 4 Fire Golems at once. The fourth Golem got the most damage. Chio and Aurora then continued to destroy the summons first. It didn't take too much time. Finally, it was time to face Soki. The Golems had created countless of cracks on the ground. Seem like there is a limited area of land to run about.

For starters, Soki send off a ShockWave. Chio and Aurora jumped up and dodged it easily, but Soki released a second ShockWave at them. Unable to dodge the second one, Chio successfully used Dash in midair, and manage to protect Aurora and herself with Guard. Chio only just made it. A single second of miscalculation would have been disastrous.

Soki swipe his staff at them. Chio stopped it with her bare fist and held it there. This gave Aurora a chance to attack.

"Arrow Rush!"

Soki was knocked back, and it staggered for a split second. In the process, Soki had released it's grip on his staff. Chio threw the staff away, far away from Soki's reach. Now they have the upperhand. Soki released a ShockVibe that stunned Chio and Aurora for a second.
"Continue the attack!" Chio shouted.

However, it seems this time, her punches and strikes weren't as powerful as before. Aurora's Magic skills also started to miss frequently. Chio and Aurora retreated for a moment and hid behind come of the crumbled walls in the area, and wait for the effect of ShockVibe to wear off. After a few minutes, the resumed their attack.

"Pumping Heart! Bull's Eyes! Hyper Beat! Aura of Haste! Guard!"

"Mana Shield! Mist of Mana! Aura of Mana! Gnome's Blessing!"

Chio advanced with caution. As she got nearer, Soki lifted up it's hand to attack. Right before contact, Chio used Dash, and came to a stop right in fornt of Soki. Then...

"Uppercut!"

The force from UpperCut, together with Counter Punch, was so great that it sent Soki flying. Aurora used the chance and unleased a barrage of Mana Arrow at it. Right before Soki landed, Aurora opened the ground with Earthquake. Soki held on tight to the edge of the cracks. The hole opened by Aurora was so deep that even Soki wouldn't survive. Aurora then used Dragon Storm on Soki's hand. As Soki lost his grip and fell, Chio executed another attack.

"Inferno Blade!"

Fire swords appeared and flew into the hole with high speed. They knew it made contact when the heard a loud roar, followed by an explosion.

Aurora started jumping up and down happily, but Chio took out her sword and pointed towards the trees nearby.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Haha... So, you've noticed."

"Of course. I felt your presense from the beginning. Who are you?"

"Me?" The mysterious figure said as she walked out. "I'm someone you wouldn't want to meet. My name is..."

Chapter 7 - Skull Carnage

2009-01-03T21:03:00.000+08:00

No time was wasted. The Crows started their attack as soon as they surrounded HornedBull and Veraca. Mana Arrows were being shot at them. While they defended against the Mana Arrows, they had to be on the move, as the Quiems casted Banish rapidly.

"Blazing Strike!"

HornedBull dashed through the giant group, defeating the several Quiem at once.
"Evolution!"

Veraca changed into a tanned-skin, sexy beast. With her increased in attack speed and power, she was able to defeat more Quiems and Crows at the same time. But it was still too overwhelming.

"Cover me, Veraca," HornedBull said. "Berserker!"

With Berserker, HornedBull crashed through the giant group, defeating all the monster in his path, and around him. After using Berserker 3 times, he managed to wipe out all of Skull's summons. Just as reached Skull, his Berserker wore off, but he followed it with a Tempest Strike, slicing Skull's leg. To increase the damage dealt, Veraca added in a Wild Nail, while in her Evolution mode. Skull suffered a bleeding effect, wich was vital to a battle like this.

"Sonic Slash!"

A huge wave was emitted from HornedBull's sword. Combined with the Water Attribute compounded, the damge dealt was greatly heighten. With an additional effect, the sonic wave created hinders the enemy's sense of hearing. With this advantage, they will be able to attack from any angle with almost no trouble of being countered back.

"One Pair!"

"Shadow!"

Veraca aimed for Skull's eyes, blinding him straight away. While Skull flinches, HornedBull's Shadow scored a direct hit on it neck, knocking it down to the ground. Skull lay there motionless. The remaining number of his summons disappeared. Veraca and HornedBull sat down, panting heavily.

But, Skull suddenly stood up, but silently, while HornedBull and Veraca were oblivious to it. And Skull was swung his sword down on them...

Meanwhile, the battle between Chio and Aurora against Soki began.

Chapter 6 - Three ways to complete a task

2009-01-03T21:02:00.000+08:00

A few calm days past. No signs of Karan's activities. This worries the group. More days of peace means more time for Karan to plot Caballa Island's demise. People in each town, each city, were preparing for immediate evacutaion if any more monsters were to attack again. Noone is allowed to let their guard down, not even for a second.

Suddenly, an alert sounded. Bosses were sighted. One... Two... No! Three Bosses were sighted across Caballa Island. What were they...? A Captain Skull near Oops Wharf, Soki near Tapasco Gate and an Odinea that is threatening the destruction of Snow Hills.

"Looks like we need to split up," Veraca said. "I'll go with HornedBull to face Skull."

"Fine. Aurora will come with me to stop Soki," Chio said.

"Guess it's just me and Liange against Odinea, " Bakaeep replied.

"Well, now that's decided," Radiant said. "Veraca! Guardian Angels! Move out!"

With that, they all splited up into their groups and left from the Cabigal Monster Guild.
The first to reach their destination were Veraca and HornedBull. Wharf field 2, totally empty. Bodies of the dead Requis lay motionless on the ground, slowly disappearing.

"Wait..." Veraca said. "I feel something..."

"Veraca! Duck!"

HornedBull pulled Veraca to the ground, just in time to avoid a ShockWave.

"He's near!" HornedBull shouted. "Show yourself!"

The leaves rustled. Then, Skull stood up, facing them with a menacing stare, that was enough to leave one with a weak mind paralyzed. This time, it didn't seem that bad. Skull just looked as tall as a tree. They were probably just half its size. Without warning, Skull summoned Crows, Quiems. Even the wild Quiems from all around the field surrounded them.

Meanwhile, just as Veraca and HornedBull were surrounded, Chio and Aurora reached their destination. Just as the stepped into Taspasco Field 4, they were surrounded by hordes of Fire Golems and Aabons. There is totally no way to escape. With Blazing Strike and Earthquake, they were about to knock out the first wave of summons, but more kept coming. It seems neverending.

Right at that moment, Liange and Bakaeep reached Snow Hills, where they were greeted by a huge drop in temperature, which can freeze almost anyone instantly. Thankfully, Bakaeep was able to cast fire magic to keep themselves warm. As they continued on, they ran into Odinea nearby the Snow Hills Mines. Screams were heard from the Mines. Some miners were being chased out by the Great Coolems, while some of the Coolems were carrying what seems to be bodies or some unfortunate miners. Ichthyosaurs and Predators were summon to join in the fight.

While all 3 groups faced extreme danger, three shadowed figures overlook the battles. Friend or foe...?

Chapter 5 - Tenter Terror

2009-01-03T21:00:00.000+08:00

Aurora started the combination attack. First attack, Arrow Rush. She use it to hit the Tenterlion's back. As it lift it's paw up to have a swipe at Aurora, HornedBull would Tidal Slash to knock it's paw off course. When it's paw hits the ground, away from Aurora, Liange took the chance and used Flamming Fist hit it's leg, rendering it useless. Horned and Chio again, jumped on it's back, and used an Inferno Blade, which, this time, called upon more then 10 flamming swords to hit it's target.

When the Tenterlion used it's tail to try to sweep Chio and HornedBull off it's back, Veraca would use Card Strike to hit it away. Then Liange used Flashcut to cut off it's tail, after using Pumping Heart and Adrenaline. Bakaeep then run towards Aurora, then both of them used Arrow Rush to hit it's under side of it's body, followed by a Dragon Storm. As the Tenterlion stood on it's 2 hind legs and prepares to stomp Aurora and Bakeeep, Chio and Liange used Dash until they were right under, when the execute a UpperCut plus CounterPunch, knocking Tenterlion onto it's back. Once on it's back, The Tenterlion found himself defenseless.

"Berserk!"

HornedBull executed Berserk and attacked it with a high boost of power and attcking speed and when Tenterlion used Thunderbolt, Chio use Dash and protected HornedBull with Guard and Liange did the same to Aurora and Bakaeep. As Tenterlion is unable to cast 2 or more ThunderBolt in a row, Chio and Liange then took the chance and used Tetra Punch on it. Veraca then executed Evolution and attacked Tenterlion ruthlessly. After this barrage of attacks, Tenterlion lay motionless on the ground. Right then they started to rejoice, Tenterlion hopped back on it's feet, ready to fight again. Gunner hidden on the trees, Cyber Hunters, Scientist and Hunter Lords opened a barrage of fire at the beast's eyes, taking it's vision out.
Power Shots and Double Shots were rapidly being fired at the Tenterlion, but it has little effect.

"Double Shot!"

Two powerful blow made contact on the Tenterlion, making it flinch a little. The Guardian Angels took the chance to attack.

"Arrow Rush!"

"Dragon Storm!"

"Piercing Wave!"

"Tidal Slash!"

"Flash Cut!"

"Double Shot!"

"One Pair!"

With the contact of all the attacks, they created an explosion on the Tenterlion. It's was going fall to ground, before it manage to catch it's balance, but it was trembling in exhaustion. Liange took the honor of giving it the finishing blow.

"Flamming Fist!"

That did the job. The Tenterlion fell to the ground on it's side. At the moment right before it hit the ground, it released another ThunderBolt. Chio managed it protect HornedBull and Veraca while Liange defended Aurora and Bakaeep. But what about the person who fired that Double Shot?!

As the smoke cleared, trees around them were all gone. Everyone was fine. But what about the extra person?

Then, among the tree stumps, was... Radiant with his Shield of Heaven, defending the gunners around the place. Thank goodness Radiant made it, or results would have been disastrous. The Scientist the walked up to the group and introduced himself as Tykro.

"Glad you made it in time, Tykro." Raidiant said.

"My pleasure. Call me anytime."

As like the previous time, the Tenterlion body disappeared into thin air. Then as expected, the skies turned dark again. Thunder roared and whirlpools formed in the swamps. Then, Karan appeared infront of them.

"Not bad, humans. Once again, you have proved to be a nuisance to my plans. Trust me, this is far from over. I swore revenge against the cursed land when you human seal me away. I await the day when you have enough power to face my wrath."

Chapter 4 - Saving Carbigal

2009-01-03T20:58:00.000+08:00

After what had happened, the group returned to town. They were greeted by Radiant at the entrance.

"I won't be able to join you on more of your quest." Radiant said. "I will be leaving with another group to investigate this incident. I look forward to seeing you all again."

After saying that, Radiant took out a PPD and teleported away. Hence, the group went to the Gate of Desert Beach to have a talk. They had to know what Karan is up too, and what other challenges will come. For now, Chio and Aurora has forgot about Kitsune. Everyone assume Karan is trying to take over Caballa Island, and use it to expand his reign of terror to the rest of the world. He has to be stopped. Everyone was silent. Noone spoke and were deep in thought, when they were interupted by a beeping sound. It came from Chio's bag.

Chio searched her bag, to find a... weird device which she had never seen before. The beeping suddenly stopped, and Radiant appeared on the screen of the device.

"Guys, I have new information for you. It seems that a Tenterlion is on the lose. It has hit the Gate and is slowly advancing towards Carbigal. The Paladins, a group of elites formed to protect Caballa Island that was just formed, are already in combat. They could use some help though. It seems Karan has buff this one up by a lot. Time is running out. Hurry."

"Alright, we are on our way," said Chio.

"Hang on, Chio," Liange said. "Let's battle this Karan-guy together. But to move around easier, we need a name for our team."

"How about... The Guardian Angels?" Bakaeep suggested.

"That's nice," HornedBull said, with Chio and Aurora agreeing with him.

"Alright then. Guardian Angels, Move out!" Chio shouted.

So, the Guardian Angels rushed to Carbigal. They were shocked at the state the Gate was in. The Item shop was smashed. The swamp in the centre was now... the shape of a giant foot print. Just how big is this Tenterlion?

They heard crashes deeper into the swamp, right in the direction of Cabigal. The Guardian Angels raced against time. When they reached, to their surprise, the Tenterlion was... easily 3 times bigger! Chio remembered the last time she fought against a Tenterlion. She was at least 2 feet shorter than it. But now, she was barely reaching it's knees of each leg! Bodies of some the Paladins lay motionless among the tress. Some of them were just injured. A few Cyber Hunters and Scientist were hiding on the trees, using Power Shot and Double Shot, but it seems to have little effect. The Guardian Angels werre than greeted by one of the Paladins' general. She introduced herself as Veraca.

"Who are you?" Veraca asked. "It's dangerous here. It's better if you evacuate with the rest of Cabigal right now."

"We're the Guardian Angels," Aurora said. "We're here to aid you in the fight. Our friend told us to come."

"No. Do not inter-"

"It's okay, Veraca." Radiant said, as he walked out from behind the trees. "I told them to come."
"But, are you sure...?"

"Yes. I have seen their abilities. They are strong."

"Fine. Do as you wish, Guardian Angels. But do not get in our way."

"Wait, soo... What's Radiant doing here anyway?" HornedBull asked.

"I'm the founder of the Paladins. How do you think I was able to get information so quickly?" Radiant replied.

So, the Paladins resumed their attacks on the Tenterlion MKII, with the aid of the Guardian Angels. With more attacks, things were looking bright, perhaps this battle doesn't seem that hard. But not long... Summons! Masses of Stoor Worms, Slug Gs, Kilimajaro and Yetis appeared. It over ran one quarter of the whole of Black Swamp. At least the summons looked normal. They didn't seem to be buffed up. The Guardian Angels splited up to destroy the monsters, while Liange remained to aid Veraca, since she didn't have any AoE(Area of Effect) skill.

Chio and HornedBull were a great combination, because they were able to use the same skills. Blazing Strike and Inferno Blade. With a big mob, Inferno Blade was able to destory more than 5 at once, together with Blazing Strike. Looking from a birds' eye view, the Kilimanjaro and Yeti mob disappeared quickly. Fire Sword were seen everywhere, continued with Tidal Slash to wipe out any stray fire and monster.

"Earthquake!"

Aurora and Bakaeep could also wipe out the Stoor Worms and Slug Gs pretty fast. With Cleaving Terra and Earthquake, monsters were unable to get close them. Finally, after a few minutes, the mob were defeated. Now, it's back to the Tenterlion. The Tenterlion stopped in it's track, and turned around. Retreating? Wrong. It challenged the Paladins and the Guardian Angels. It shot a bolt of thunder, which incinerated a large area of land, roughly as big as the Spicy Dragon MKII's fire attack! It's no pushover. Radiant came up to Veraca and the Guardian Angels. He passed them a wireless radio, for communication.

"Use it to make a formation and come up with a strategy against this beast. Stopping it is our first priority." Radiant told them. "I will study this Tenterlion, and see if it has any weak spot."
So, as they attacked randomly, from every direction, they were planning their strategy and formation. Finally they were in position.

"Alright. Do as we've planned. Go!" Veraca shouted.

"Roger!" the Guardian Angels replied, as all 6 of them charged at the Tenterlion together.

Chapter 3 - Spicy Treat

2009-01-03T20:55:00.000+08:00

"I have..." Kitsune was about to finish her sentence when they were interrupted by loud screams that came from the north of Paradise. The ground also started shaking, as though an earthquake as occured.

They all ran towards Beach Field 5 when they saw a huge figure at the horizon. Many people were running away from the figure, screaming. Being curious, Chio wanted to approach the giant figure, but was held back by Aurora and Radiant. But out of nowhere, a Mercenary dashed out, pulling his sword from it's shealth. The figure kept advancing towards Paradise. Did that Mercenary fall to that... Thing...?

Few minutes later, they all noticed the Mercenary limping back. He mumbled, under his breath, before toppling to the ground. " Spi...cy-"

Radiant and Aurora immediatly started healing him.

"I'll bring him to town and take care of him." Radiant told Chio and Aurora. " See if you help the people running here, and possibly hold it back. From what he said, i think it's a Spicy Dragon."

"Spicy Dragon?!" Chio, Aurora and Kitsune shouted.

"I thought Spicy Dragons where only exclusive at Tapasco areas, and are also extremely rare?" Aurora asked, frantically. "How did it get here?"

"We have to investigate this, but for now, the safety of everyone comes first."

"Alright!" Chio said. "Lets go, Aurora. Will you be coming, Kitsu-?"

Kitsune has disappeared. But where she was, layed the Blood sword, possibly the one Chio had obtained from the Count Blood. Did she lose in the Boss Seals tally, or did she just dropped it? Chio didn't think that much, and just picked it up. The moment Chio wielded the sword, she felt a strong power surging through her. But it wasn't compounded with any attribute, so Chio decided to keep it for another time.

Chio and Aurora hence ran to the front, to aid some of the injured people, and to join the frontline battle to stop the beast. But wait! The Spicy Dragon looked different. Giant wings, and the horns were bigger and glowing. Also, it seems to be twice... or thrice in size! A different breed? It was taking down fighters one by one, without breaking a sweat. One breath of fire could wipe out an area as big as a football field. However, 2 of the fighters seems to be doing well.
As the Spicy Dragon blew fire, the... Champion, having quick reflexes was able to use Dash to escape the area, but impressively, was able to help another Soul Master out of the predicament as well. The Dragon flinches for a split second, they took their chance and attack. Flash Cut, Uppercut, Arrow and Pheonix Rising were a great combination. It goes to show how much teamwork the two had in them. Even when they were unable to escape, the Champion was able to use Guard to protect herself and the Soul Master at the same time. A perfect combination.

Chio and Aurora ran up towards them.

"We are here to help prevent this beast from reaching the town." Aurora said. "Is there anything in particular we could do?"

"You, the Duelist." the Champion said. "Can you use Dash? If you can, bring your Soul Master friend and go around to it's back and attack it, and fight like how we are doing, but watch the tail. If not, just stay back."

"Alright, fine," Chio replied. "What's your na-"

"No time for introductions now!" the Champion snapped back. "Go!"

Chio then brought Aurora to the back to attack it. Being already tired from collecting Boss seals none stop, Chio decided to keep her distance.

"Piercing Wave!"

"Dragon Storm!"

After a volley of attacks, the Spicy Dragon only staggered a little. It would seem that whatever they are doing doesn't seem to be working. Suddenly, out of nowhere...

"Shadow!"

Clones appeared all around the Spicy Dragon, and they all attacked it once, to a big attack. It seemed to deal more damage. The Spicy Dragon seemed weaker. But the fight is long from over.

"Here to aid." the Gladiator said. "Let's go!"

After a giant volley of attacks, The Spicy dragon still hasn't fall! The fighters know they have to act fast. The Spicy Dragon is still advancing towards Paradise. The people of Paradise waits, wishing it will not reach. All hopes were pinned on the few fighters left.

"You're a Duelist, right?" the Gladiator asked Chio.

"Yeah."

"Good. Use Dash, and go up onto the Spicy Dragon. Bring me up as well. I've got a plan."
The Gladiator told Chio what to do, and told Aurora to stay behind as it could get dangerous. As soon as Aurora backed off, Chio executed Dash, and brought the Gladiator up, and stopped right on it's head.

"Keep your balance, Duelist! Now, do it!"

"Inferno Blade!" Chio and the Gladiator shouted.

Swords of fire appeared above the Spicy Dragon, drops down at hit it, dealing huge amout of damge at once. This attack made it fall to it's knees in pain. It seems the Spicy Dragon is reaching it's limit. However, Chio, the Gladiator and the Champion were already panting. They were all tired. Chio pulled the Blood sword out of her shealth and throw it to Aurora.

"Aurora! Catch! It also give a huge amount of Magic power as well. Use it to finish the Dragon off."

Aurora caught th sword, ran over to the other Soul Master and show the sword to her. She nodded her head, and held the sword in her hands. They started chanting their incantation.
Right before the Spicy Dragon recovered...

"Arrow Rush!" the two Soul Master shouted together.

14 arrows, with a high concentration of Magic power flew out and hit the Dragon hard, right in his chest, as Chio and the Gladiator jumped off it's head. due to the power of the Blood Sword, the arrow dealt more damage then usual, defeating the Spicy Dragon. The Spicy Dragon then just fell to the ground motionless. They've won! They all cheered, along with the people within Paradise. The fighters then gathered around the two Soul Masters.

"Well done. I've underestimated your power, Duelist." The Champion said. "What's your name? And your name, Soul Master?"

"Chio. ChioBuneary. That's my close friend, Aurora. AuroraAngel."

"Nice to meet you. My name is Liange. That's my sister, Bakaeep. I look forward to seeing you in action again."

"Me me! I'm HornedBull." the Gladiator said excitedly.

Just as they were going to celebrate, the sky turned dark. Thunder was heard. Whirlpools were seen in the lakes around the fields. Then a figure from the sky appeared, floating in the sky. A human? No... What is that...?

"Don't rejoice, humans!" A voice boomed from the figure.

The figure became clearer. A human! He young man, but what's going on?

"Who are you?!" Chio shouted.

"My name is Karan! I'm the one who sent this Spicy Dragon on a rampage. I'm the one who made these monsters different, stronger! To be called Bosses! But... they were all defeated by you, mere human beings! That Spicy Dragon was my latest creation. The Spicy MK II! To be defeated by the five of you... It must mean you are strong. But you aren't strong enough to defeat me yet. The rampage will continue. Await my challenge, humans! Muahahaha!"

With that, Karan disappeared. The whirlpools subsided and the sky cleared. Even the body of the Spicy Dragon disappeared. What's going to happen now?

Chapter 2 - The Boss Challenge

2009-01-03T20:53:00.001+08:00

"Kitsune!" Chio screamed, as she raced towards her, with her fist up in the air. Just as Chio was about to land a hit on Kitsune, someone shouted out.

"Hinder Snare!"

Both Kitsune and Chio found themselves immobilize. They turned to their right, and saw a Priest walking out of the Monster Guild.

"Fights like this shouldn't be carried out here. Go to the battlefield if you want to fight. My name is Radiant, and if you continue to disturb the peace in this town, I will not hesitate to take down both of you," he said, as he cancelled the effect of Hinder Snare.

"I see you are still sore about losing your Blood Sword to me, Bunny," Kitsune said proudly. "Oh, I don't believe know your name."

"Pointless," shouted Chio. "I will take you down!"

"Oh really? Well, prove it! Lets see who can bring down the most boss monsters in 1 month. The one who brings back the most seals wins. We'll let Radiant be the judge. If you win, fine, I'll return this sword. But, if you lose... Well, let's leave the details for later. Hahaha!"

"What...? Don't I get a say in this...?" Radiant asked.

"Wait! In that amount of time, i could huant another Blood-"

Before Chio could finish her sentence, Kitsune teleported away, with the Blood Sword.
"Darn it!" Chio screamed. "She's going to pay for this!"

"Don't worry, Chio," Aurora said. "I'll help you get the seals too. This way, we can get more seals in that 1 month and win her."

"Hang on. You are... Chio, is that right?" Radiant asked.

"Yeah, and that's Aurora."

"I see. Let me offer my services as well. I don't like that fox's attitude. Let's win this contest together."

"Really?! Alright! I'll go and fighter Tenterlion, while Aurora kills Captain Skull and Radiant, you kill Soki. How about that?"

"Roger that, Chio!" said Aurora and Radiant in unison.

After that, they all split ways, and arranged to meet back once every week.

Week 1. Chio had gathered 20 Tenterlion seals, and felt very proud of herself. But, Aurora and Radiant got 35 of the seals they were assigned to. Of course, Chio didn't feel too happy about it, but what matters is the contest and the total number of seals.

Week 2. The total number of seals doubled. They are now at 180 seals.

Week 3. 270 seals. The toll of fighting bosses are starting to show. Injuries like scratches and bruises were seen. Fatigue started to show. But there's only 1 week left. No giving up now.

Week 4. All 3 of them were drained. 400 seals in total were collected. Chio had pushed herself pass her limit just to get more. Though they had gotten stronger through the ordeal, fighting bosses obviously takes a lot of of them.

Judgement day. The 3 of them went to the O/X booth at Paradise to wait for Kitsune. 3 hours had past, but there wasn't a sign of her. They continued to wait. 4 hours. 5. 6. 7. 8 hours. Finally, at midnight, they noticed Kitsune.

"Look there she is!" Chio exclaimed.

"No... Wait..." Aurora said. "Kitsune is a Explorer, that's a Thief Master. Shouldn't be her."

"Don't be too sure, Aurora." said Radiant. "1 month is plenty to reach their Third Job Advancement and pass it. But this may mean she has lesser seals due to her training."

Suddenly the Theif Master infront of them disappeared. But out of nowhere, a voice was heard. "He's right, you know? 1 months is plenty to get to third job."

Chio fell to the floor in shocked. "What the...?!"

"Not to worry. It's the Thief Master's skill, Hide," Radiant said. "Show yourself!"

"Haha. So I see you really did get the seals. So how many do you have? I should warn you, I have a lot of them."

"We have 400 seals! 100 Tenterlion seals, 130 Skull seals and 170 Soki seals, " Aurora said.

"Beat that! We're getting the Blood Sword back."

"400 seals. Not bad. You did better than i had expected. Now, let's see the winner. I have..."

Chapter 1 - First Encounter with Blood

2009-01-03T20:44:00.000+08:00

"Wahaha! Who are you that dares enter my lair?!" Count Blood's voice blasted through the castle.

"Oh no! What is this light beneath?" Chio shouted to Aurora, turning to her with a puzzled look.

"I believe Count is teleporting us away from him. He probably don't want trespasses on his lair! Let's get out of here while we still can!" Aurora replied.

"No way! We've came so far! I've just killed 25 Vampire bats and used up a lot of my elixir potions. It's too late to be turning back!"

Suddenly, Chio and Aurora found themselves before the Kerberos, Guradian of the 1st trials to Count Blood.

"Haha, I see Count has woken up again. So... Still want to enter his lair?" said the Kerberos, with an evil glint in it's eyes.

"Of course, " said Chio. "He will cower in fear when he sees me!"

Hiding behind Chio's back, Aurora said, "Lets not get too overconfident, Chio. I don't know if i can even harm him."

"Relax! Your job is just to kill his minions, which i believe to have Niwerth, which is weak against your magic. We'll be fine! Now let us in, Keberos! Follow closely, Aurora, alright?"

As Chio and Aurora dashed through the Guardian Keberos infested room, damage upon them were inflicted frequently. Aurora was incharged of keeping both of them healthly, to face the further challenges ahead. As they reached the 2nd Trials, the Maid Lydia, Guardian of the 2nd trials started laughing. "Welcome back. Are you giving up soon?"

"Shut up and watch me in action!" Chio rebutted, and ran towards the iron grills, where she saw a lot of Vampire Bats nearby. "Hurry, Aurora! Use your magic and kill those on the right side. You will easily get the last 15 needed. I will handle those on the left with my Piercing Wave."

Few minutes later, both Chio and Aurora completed the monster quest. Before continuing on, both of them had to recover their mana first. They were comparing some skills and strenght when Maid Lydia interrupted them.

"Haha. Time is almost up. Do you still want to continue on?" she shouted to them. "I smell another human coming. Probably right where Kerberos is."

"Of-of course we are going!" Chio said, shocked that someone was right behind them. "Hurry, Aurora, before the other person catches up."

"Oh-oh okay"

When they reached the next room, the noticed Mister Freaks, Guardian of the 3rd trials, pacing to and fro, stratching his head, looking really bored and irritated. Suddenly, out of nowhere, he screamed out. "Why isn't anyone coming?! I have been waiting for ages! Why was I appointed to be Guardian of this boring--" He stopped short when he saw Chio and Aurora giving him a really really weird look. Feeling embraressed, Mister Freaks started looking away, and not keeping in eye contact. Then he continued. "Here for the wisdom trials, are you? Well well, if you are, you won't pass it easily! I have spent that last 5 minutes getting a really tough one for each of you."

Chio replied in disbelief. "Waiting 5 minutes equals to waiting for ages...? What's wrong with you...?"

Mister Freaks replied angrily. "Fine! Insult me! I just won't give the test to you OR your friend. I will just give it to the person reaching here soon."

"Ah-ah-. I'm Sorry! I didn't mean it that way!" Chio answered frantically, with Aurora giggling away at the back.

"Isn't this a Sudoku puzzle?" Aurora asked. "It's simple. Pass them to me."

"Here," said Aurora, after a few seconds of scribbling. "The answers for the puzzle."

"... ..." Both Chio and Mister Freaks were speechless. "How... Did you solved them so quicly...?" said Chio and Mister Freaks in unison.

"It's a secret," replied Aurora, winking. "So, did we pass?"

"Just go..." said Mister Freaks, in a sad tone. "The next person will get the toughest puzzle ever!"

A howl was heard from the next room, followed by a groan, a human groan. And yes, it was Lycan in the middle of the room. With.... Maid Lydia and Mister Freaks at each side of the room?!

Lycan said, " This is a trial of luck. Either you make it to Blood or you go back out. Your choice. Talk to either Mister Freaks or Maid Lydis when you are ready..."

"But... Lydia... Freaks... Lydia... Freaks...! Weren't they just outside..?" Chio said, still stuck in that moment of shock.

"Them?" Lycan asked, then answered. "Twins.Heard that word before? T-W-I-N-S. Need more explanation...?"

Chio shook her head and turned to Aurora and ask,"Which path should we take? The right or the left? I'll let you choose, but don't screw up!"

After thinking for a moment, Aurora shouted, "Right! The Right is right."

"... ..." went Chio. "Were you even choosing..?"

Aurora stuck out her tongue and pull Chio towards Maid Lydia." We choose this path!"

In the path, there were a lot of... Guardian Kerberos again! They dashed as fast as they could and ran through the door on the other side. When the entered, they saw... Count Blood! But wait... As they looked around, bodies of past adventurers and travellers lay motionless all over the room.

Undetered, Chio charged up her skills. Pumping Heart, Bullseye, Eagle Eyes, Hyper Beat and Guard. As for Aurora, She charged up her Aura of Mana, Bolster Ballad and Mist of Mana. After that was done, Chio charged right at Blood. Blood laughed at their foolishness.

Thinking to herself, Chio went, "First, Tetra Punch. Then Uppercut, then Quad Punch, then repeat."

As Chio attacks, and recharging Guard after every few hits, Aurora supports from the back, with Cure, and when no cure was needed, Cleaving Terra and Earthquake were used to wipe out Blood's summons and to deal damage to Blood himself. Just when Blood was about to fall, a giant marble flew in, hitting Blood hard, giving the final blow. Chio and Aurora then turned to the doorway in dismay. An Explorer walked, tossing a Gong Marble up in the air and catching it back, gave them a proud look.

Aurora suddenly shouted to Chio, "Look! a Blood Sword!, Take it, hurry!"

As Chio was about to dash for the sword, the Explorer took something out of her pocket and threw it in Chio's and Aurora's direction.

"It's a mine! Explosive Expert! Aurora, duck!" Chio shouted.

When the mine exploded, the whole room was engulf with smoke and dirt. Chio and Aurora couldn't see what was going on anymore. Kitsune took this chance and went to the front, picking up the Blood Sword, and laughing at both Chio and Aurora. For a quick escape, Kitsune took out a port from her pocket. Just as she was about to use it, she said, "My name is ShinigamiKitsune. You can call me Kitsune for short. Remember it well. Oh, and thanks for the seal and sword!" Then she teleported away.

"Grr... That darn Explorer... My Blood Sword! I'll get you!" screamed Chio.

"Calm down, Chio,"Aurora said, as she passed Chio a port to Paradise. "We'll hunt it again tomorrow."

Right when they arrived in Paradise, the first thing they saw was Kitsune showing off her newly aquired Blood Sword to the public.