Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

Beuce winced as Ananta tended to his wound. It stung quite a bit, but that was to be expected. He was kinda, ya know, missing an arm. Kross had asked him if it hurt. Beuce stared at him for a moment. He was missing a freaking arm. Of course it hurt. This is war man! There's no time for stupid questions! "Nah. Not too much." Beuce said coolly. Karina was right behind him, so obviously he had to look like a total badass. Then Ananta handed him the blue cloak. He smiled, seemingly please with the appearance. Throwing it over his shoulder, it flowed like a cape, held onto his shoulders through some unknown force. It seemed to suit him rather well. "So, how do i look?"

Hikaru had made his appearance at that time, along with the ducks. They said something about a "thin" and then ran off after a rather vague and cryptic conversation. Seriously, can nobody just say "oh this is what we're going to build. it'll be ready in about an hour." Evidently not. Minnie began conversing with another anthropomorphic animal, apparently named Horace. Given that she said she hadn't seen him in such a great amount of time that she thought he moved, Beuce briefly wondered if he was related to Kel. After that Minnie walked off to attend to princessly duties.

They still had to search for Mickey, and Hikaru brought up an interesting point. Now, what that point exactly was, Beuce was completely lost on. Something about time travel and different incarnations of the same person along his timeline. But the gist of it was summed up as that they needed to go through time and look for him. "Well, if we're going to go traversing time to look for this guy, then I'd suggest we hang around the town for a bit first. We'll look for him here first, and take a breather while we're at it. Everyone is pretty beat from the thousand heartless battle, and if we're going to go, it'd be a good idea to go prepared. I say we sit around town for a bit, until we're all ready. When everyone is ready, we'll meet up back here." He turned to Karina, before nodding his head toward the door. "Come on. I have a bargain to keep."

 

Kaida stood up, holding her stomach, and took a deep breath before she let out a yell and leaped up in the air and struck down at Pete. She put all of her effort into getting him. When she made impact, she knew the fight was over. And Kaida panted in exhaustion, keeping her keyblade up just in case Pete or someone else tried to pull a fast one. She looked over at Cailyn and smiled at her, "Good job."

ooc:
80 words= 4 EXP
Pete: 0/300

 

Ananta nodded to Beuce and sat the backpack down. In her right hand, she placed a fire spell. In her left hand, she placed a cure spell. Placing her left hand down first, Ananta focused the spell over the wound by placing her hand on his shoulder. "This'll hurt...so please bite on some cloth like...um.." she let go of the fire spell and reached into the backpack. Her hand pulled out a wad of gauze. She placed it in his mouth and proceeded to use the fire spell to cauterize Beuce's stump. After he stopped wailing like a child, she reached into the backpack and grabbed out new gauze and placed pieces all over the wound, continuing the cure spell. Ananta moved her Cure hand to hold the gauze in place and used the other to grab some tape out of the backpack. Thus, she began to tape him up, finishing it off with a good final Cure spell.

From behind her, she heard Kross question Beuce on whether his wound hurt. "Uh...Kross.." she began before Beuce interrupted and gave his answer. Ananta nodded and turned to hear Merlin and Hikaru speak about events that were unfolding. Crossing her arms, Ananta began to think about things. If she understood what they were saying, then this world was being affected by this time travel business. The fact with the three ducklings surely confirmed this. "Maybe we should stay behind and rest awhile. I understand you fought just as bravely as everyone and have better stamina, Hikaru, but some of us aren't as young and spry as the rest." she said. Chuckling, she added "And some of us need a hand with a few things as well." she glanced at Beuce.

Turning to Glen, Ananta caught him staring at her crystal. "This?" she said, holding the crystal in her hand. "Well, everyone on my world has a crystal that's been either passed down in their family or one they requested from the Sages. Mine came from the Mother Crystal. But, my memory is kind of fuzzy on how or why mine was given to me straight from the Mother Crystal. I suppose my parents didn't actually have one ready for me?" she said, confused a little. "But, anyway, these crystals can refresh the mana in the world. Although it's kind of useless in battle since it takes awhile. That's why I eat a lot of food...there's tons of mana in food, ya know." she said. "That's all I really know. I'm still an apprentice Sage..." she sighed.

"Kross, wanna go hang around the town?" she asked, waiting Glen's reaction.

 

Kel had been extremely quiet during for quite some time. he'd mainly just been standing around looking at the current surroundings. When the others had walked by where he was standing, he pushed himself off of the wall and follow behind them. From what eh could guess, it looked like they were going to get some more information.

"I say we look around here. Who knows one of use might just run into him while we're exploring." Plus this could be a good time to look explore without having to deal with any heartless. The town looked peaceful enough and if there was going to be a festival held here, then that might just make it worth checking out. Since he had no set place that he wanted to check out, he'd probably just wander around for a bit before trying to find someone else to group up with for a bit.

 

Beuce and Karina were the first to exit the house. It had been dark inside, but outside was quite the contrast. It was a bright and vibrant town, full of life and activity. The mood around town was the same as one would expect from a festival. Lots of games and laughter. And then there was the dark cloud hanging over the black haired girl accompanying Beuce. Looking at her, he realized she was still wearing nothing but a tank top and her underwear, due to her skirt being burnt off! What kind of insensitive dick would do that?! Why if Beuce ever got his hands on the- oh right. Well then.

They walked through the town until they got to what seemed like the shopping district. There were stores of every kind lining the streets, selling everything from food to jewelry to clothing. It was a good thing he had some munny on him, considering there were a few things he wanted to buy from them. He first entered the clothing store. He needed something else to replace his lost coat. Picking out a black coat with red cuffs, Beuce put it on contently, with his newly given cloak over it. Satisfied with the appearance, he paid the shopkeeper for that and something else. Something to act as a replacement. Next, he went into the jewelry shop. This one was more for an apology. He looked around, ignoring the odd glances from the shopkeeper. Wasn't every day someone with a newly missing arm strolled into the shop.

Finally, he saw exactly what he wanted, and bought it. Lastly, he visited the food shop, and purchased two dishes of blackberry ice cream. Bringing it all outside, he walked up to the bench where Karina had been sitting for the past few minutes while he'd been shopping. "Hey. Sorry i kept you." Then he handed her the three things he'd bought for her. On the bottom was a pair of tight black leather jeans. They seemed to fit her style a bit more than a skirt did, at least. On top of that was the ice cream, and a red crystal pendant. He sat down and put his own ice cream in his lap. With a sigh, he began to speak. "So, you want to know why i saved you. Well, i already told you it was because we were the same..." He paused for a moment, as though trying to find the words. He'd never been this open with anyone before, so he was finding it hard to word right.

"We're alone. People expect us to be something, but all they see is what's on the outside. You try to mask it with your strength. You hope that one day you'll be strong enough to bear it on your own. I play the part of the clown, hoping that maybe someone will end up laughing with me one of these days. We deal with it in different ways, but inside we're both lonely. There are people who are comrades for sure, but there's nobody who doesn't have something they'd leave us behind for. If there was something i had to do. Something so important to me, that if i didn't, i'd never be able to live with myself, but i had to stop with this journey to do it. Do you think anyone would help me? But i mean, at least you've got one person who'd go with you." He looked over at her and gave a sincere smile. "I'd do it." He said, simply saying what came to mind. The words might have been awkward, but it was the truth. Maybe, if she could not be so alone...She wouldn't need to be so strong.

 

Surprisingly, Rain didn't stumble or crash into anything but some wall when stepping through the mirror. One thing was for sure that even a blind person could've guessed, it was dark. She shifted herself in a open hug like position to her right just in case someone else happens to come flying through. Although rain had a feeling that she was the last one to pass through. She stood there about a minute so that her eyes can adjust to the darkness. "I guess the random night strolls back at home seemed to have its advantages" It still wasn't clear as day to her but better than what she has seen at first. The thought of casting a fire spell to illuminate the way crossed her mind but she discarded it. She honestly preferred to be in darkness instead only because it can keep things out of sight.

Rain cautiously strolled about the rooms that she soon figured it belonged to a mouse who lived in a house. The frames of pictures that hung on the wall plus the adorable miniature of objects that would suit someone of that height made her suspect it had to be of that mouse. "Wonder why we would even go into a place like this... " she carefully lifted a piece of silverware and tea cup that rested on the kitchen counter. "I mean look at this. This is straight out of some fairytale, so delicately detailed..and small.. and-" she took a quick pause after hearing some distant voices. "Um hello?" She gently put the objects down as how they were and began walking towards the direction of where the noise had come from. "Oh this is a two floored house, not bad mr.mouse. Not bad..." she commented upon the sight of the stairs. Conversations of some sort could be heard from up above so that explained the noises she heard before. Some voices were recognizable but others were still unknown to her. Not given much of a choice on where to go next, she slowly walked upstairs quietly to avoid any creaking sounds so that no one will get startled.

"This place has a....what's the word?.....oh yeah..an attic. Huh?" By where she was standing she could now hear what everyone in the attic was saying. Although the most she was able to pick up was about some festival in town and that everyone will be out there. "That sounds like a break to me, which is good since some actually do need it after that fight" she told herself with a big sigh and walked over to the banister to lean on. "It's times like these that remind me of the old days...nothing but the good ol' solitude." At the wave of her hand she summoned her keyblade. "Show every one what I got huh? Heh I still have yet to show myself what even I can even do. But I'll give my best for you guys and for the sake of the worlds." The key chain swiftly rocked side to side as she held it in front. A simple short chain with an emblem attached to the end. And that's when it hit her. "OH!- I mean ohhhh so that's what that's for."

 

"So you carry around that thing all the time, buuuuuut know next to nothing about it?" Glen asked, surprised at Ananta's lack of knowledge on the crystal. While she did seem to know what the crystal was for, she certainly didn't strike him as knowing much about it. He shrugged it off and turned away from Ananta as he noticed people making the decision to leave. While he could see why people would want to search the town, he himself thought of it as almost pointless. Had none of them been listening to Hikaru? Nobody from that world had seen Mickey for weeks, but they'd seen him less than an hour ago. He'd gone through the same mirror as them, yet not only had they not found Mickey when they went through it, but nobody had seen him leave the house or anything, so chances were he wasn't even in that world anymore, or at least if he was he wasn't somewhere he would be found easily. Maybe he was hiding from somebody. And where would be a fantastic place to hide? Back in time.

"You guys can go have fun with your little festival thing. Racing around town searching for someone that probably isn't here isn't really resting, if anything it's going to exhaust you guys more. Wouldn't somebody have seen the mouse if he did stay here? Do you remember what lead us here? He was trailing ink. Do you see any ink around here? Because I sure as hell don't. Hikaru's right, I don't think it's a matter of where he is, but when. But hey, what do I know right? Nobody ever listens to me anyway" Glen scoffed, sitting down on the steps nearby as he waited for them to actually use some common sense.

 

Kross's smile faded, just a little bit as Karina brushed him off, didn't acknowledge his existence, flat out ignored him. It stung, and it reminded him of the many tims his mother would just brush him off without a second thought. He didn't wince, he didn't flinch, he didn't even move. He could only stare with a distant haze in his eyes. He was then brought to attention as Beuce answered him. He looked at the man and nodded once, the man could lie all he wanted, but Kross picked up on his body language. He was only acting cool, Kross knew he hurt, but he didn't mind if Beuce lied about anything. It did kind of hurt seeing that two people he considered friends was shutting him out. "Beuce...I need to talk to you..I..."He paused in his words as Ananta walked over and invited him to join her in exploring. They had more important things to do than play games though, the sting of losing Master Yen Sid still emenated in his heart. He knitted his brows together as he looked at Ananta and looked at Beuce. He gave him a tiny encouraging smile before he hurried to follow Ananta. He trailed off behind her a bit but managed to catch up before speaking to her."What did you want to do around here?"He asked."There's a lot to do, so I can't really decide but..I haven't really been here before so..." This was awkward, what was he supposed to do? He didn't want to ruin Ananta's fun but..they still had things to do, couldn't she see that? He heaved out a mental sigh, this was going to be more difficult than he thought. He looked around. The many attractions were fascinating but finding one would do nicely.

 

Beuce listened silently as Karina recounted her past, and talked about herself. He could tell she hadn't meant to say nearly as much as she did, but he was glad she did. Maybe it would take some of the burden off her shoulders. "To find who I am is a journey I have to take on my own, without the influence of others. I have changed enough for them as it is and it hasn't gotten me very far." She said, before turning to walk away. Trying to gather the words to say, he called out to the girl. "You shouldn't let someone else decide the road you take, but that doesn't mean you have to walk it alone." That was all he said before she disappeared from sight.

Still sitting on the bench, Beuce was at a loss for what to do next. He stared down at his half eaten ice cream, appetite completely gone. He sighed and leaned back, thinking about what had been said. At first he wondered what she thought of him, then about what the culture was like on her world for that type of thing to happen. On his world, some of the best warriors he knew were women, so the concept of why someone would think that they were inferior warriors was beyond him. He thought back to Flame, his best friend. If it weren't for Hellion, they might have become more than that. The thought of his past enraged him. Hellion...that *******. He was the reason everything he had was gone. The only reason Beuce didn't go out and look for revenge was because Hellion was gone along with it.

If anyone were to see Beuce, they'd notice a sour expression across his face. The thought of Elyos in general wasn't a pleasant one for Beuce.

 

Ananta stopped and turned to Kross as he approached her outside. She gave him a good look, noticing many things from his body and face. "Kross, let's just walk for a bit. Maybe get something to eat..maybe sit down and chat." she began. Not knowing what else to really say, she walked over and placed her right hand in his left hand. She squeezed his hand and frowned at him. "I know you're sad and tired...but...let's just enjoy ourselves and try to rejuvenate ourselves...ya know?" she said, giving a fake smile. Remembering what Glen said made Ananta question what she really knew about the crystals and her own world. True, she couldn't really explain a lot, but it wasn't her fault. She was still an apprentice, there was much about her world she couldn't know yet. And now that her world is gone, there's no ways she'll ever be able to learn anything else about her world now.

Sighing, she turned and lead Kross away from the small house. She had written down the address and number of the house before they left, not wanting to get lost later, and so she walked with Kross. Her hand was in his and they were both not talking very much. As they approached a small area with a garden, Ananta noticed a small general store off to the side. Staring in it's general direction as they approached the little park, Ananta nodded to herself and stopped in front of a bench with Kross. "Wait here just a sec...I'll be right back, okay?" she said letting go of his hand. Hurrying along towards the general store she saw before. As she approached, she could smell delicious food being baked in the shop. It seems this was more than just a regular general store after all...

Placing her hand on the door, Ananta opened it to find the entire store was filled with a sweet smell. Following her nose, Ananta walked to where the smell originated from. On the wall was a small opening that was in full view of an oven. Standing at the oven, removing a pie from it, was a chicken woman. She noticed Ananta as she turned around and smiled. After setting the pie down to cool, she approached Ananta. Once she was there, she asked what Ananta needed. Smiling back, Ananta ordered some food. The chicken told Ananta it would take a little bit, the pie hadn't even cooled down, so she wanted her to wait a moment. Nodding, Ananta turned to explore the store to see if she could find anything interesting.

Looking around, Ananta came across a wall in the back that had handmade jewelry hanging. Eying the different bracelets and necklaces, Ananta spied one that looked familiar. Sifting through the other necklaces in front of it, Ananta pulled a necklace out that looked very different from the rest of them. Tilting her head, she examined it and noticed that in the middle was a symbol that looked nearly identical to the tattoo on Kross' arm. The necklace itself seemed to be made of a hemp rope that had a knot holding the small oval with the symbol in it. Beads were dotted along the hemp rope, all looking pretty custom made. Deciding that this might be a good present for Kross, she kept it in her hand as she returned to the counter. By now, her food order had been fulfilled and she could finally pay for it. Handing the necklace to the chicken to be rang up with the food, Ananta handed the munny she had tucked away in her pocket that she brought from her home world. It was supposed to be saved for desperate times. She considered this to be desperate since she was extremely hungry.

Walking out of the store, Ananta walked back to the bench Kross was at and sat down to his left. Placing the bag of food between her and Kross, she removed her jacket. It was pretty warm here and Ananta wanted to relax and cool off. The jacket scraped against her scar and caused her to wince, holding the place where the pain originated in her scar. After the pain subsided, she turned to Kross. "Here, have this." she said, handing him a simple tuna sandwich. She held her own tuna sandwich in her hand, holding a water bottle between her legs. "I got all of this food so maybe you could recover and feel better. Maybe it'll make you feel better after losing Master Yen Sid.." she spoke softly. "I know it isn't much, but I've been where you are now. It hurts, yes, but you have to live on and continue fighting to protect those you hold dear. If you stand around and mope constantly, you'll never move on and be strong for others..." she frowned, opening the sandwich. "Master wouldn't want you to be sad...he'd want you to fight and find a way to save him."

Ananta took a big bite out of the sandwich and began to think while she waited for Kross to say anything. Her hand reached into the bag and pulled the necklace out. She quickly placed it in her pocket so she could surprise him later. Taking another bite of the sandwich, Ananta almost felt like crying herself. Maybe it was just her remembering losing her own Master. Or maybe she was being sad for Kross, since he didn't cry himself. In any case, Ananta wiped the tears away and smiled again. "Just...keep smiling...being sad and crying won't do anything...keep smiling and you'll be able to handle any hardship." she said quietly, reminding herself more than telling it to Kross.

 

Kross waited outside for Ananta, taking the opportunity to take the town in. It was a bright town, from what he could see. Mouse heads everywhere, it seemed to be a recurring theme for this place. Attractions were many, the candy shop, the ice cream shop, Fruitball Court and the racing track were just a few of many. His gaze settled onto a figure in the distance, it was Beuce. He was sitting alone on a bench, which surprised Kross. Beuce was usually quite social, given, the guy had a few screws loose but he was still well liked and he still found a way to cheer people up. It was also the chance to go and talk to him, but Ananta interrupted his thoughts. her words were encouraging but Kross couldn't help but feel down. It just seemed everyone here was in a bad mood. He looked at the sandwich he was given and placed it to his side, looking at Ananta."I'll be right back."He told her with a tiny smile. He knew exactly what to do. He went to the ice cream shop and bought some ice cream. He made his way over to where Beuce was sitting and stood infront of him, holding the ice cream out to him."On my island, it's bad luck to be seen with half-eaten food."He said, his expression was appraising, looking him over just slightly. beuce was down, and Kross could guess one of two reasons: Personal, or Karina."You look down, mind if we talk? It could help cheer you up."He said, sitting down beside Beuce and turned his head to look at him."What's on your mind?"He asked.

 

Raisor had listened in on the chat between the rest of the group and mouse in the house, and decided it was just best for him to leave the house for the time being. He really had no idea what to do, since he was having mind blanks for a while lately, and he figured he was just too exhausted to do much of anything at the moment. As he got out of the house, he looked around town to see what it was he should do.

While passing through a part of the town, Raisor's stomach began to growl. He figured it was best to use this time to rest and grab something to eat. He want to a stall and bought himself a nice basket of french fries and a burger, and sat down at a bench. There were people passing by as he enjoyed his meal, and he wondered how they were going to find the mouse that they were searching for. If he remembered, the name was Mickey, if his memory wasn't messing with him, but he really just didn't want to think about it. He was so tired and hungry he just wanted to take this chance and cool off. The atmosphere in the area was nice to him, and he began to think back to some of his better memories while younger. Going to festivals with his siblings, and laughing carefree. For the first time in a while, Raisor found himself smiling.

"Hahaha," he chuckled as he put his meal down, "I can't believe I managed to smile after all this."

Raisor began to wonder what his plans were once he finished up with the mission at hand. After all his work as a keyblader, he still had a job back on his homeworld. There wasn't anyone waiting for him there yet, but he was going to change that. If nothing else, it was nice to know he had made some friends here that he could count on. And if he couldn't rightly call them "friends", at least they were comrades he could trust. He picked up his meal again and finished off the last of it. Soon he began to get sleepy, and let his eyes slowly shut, drifting off to sleep.

 

"Well looking through time might not even help at all, but if you actually want to look through them that's up to Merlin." Kel said walking on into the town. He didn't quite care either way whether they looked through time or actually walked around and looked, but something about looking through time didn't seemed to have much benefit to him. Huh, maybe he did slightly care about what they did. Gosh even his internal monologue weren't truly apathetic anymore.

He'd ended up walking in front of a glass window pane of a wig shop before a stray gust of wind was felt. The wind seemed to be isolated solely to his location and lasted long enough for something to land of Kel's head. Once the wind had faded the first thing that Kel did was to feel what was own his head. It felt like hair, but it didn't feel like his own hair at all. Fortunately the glass pane in front of him revealed that a white wig had somehow managed to fit perfectly over his head.

A strange look was on his face as he examined how the wig looked on his head. For some strange reason it actually looked good on him, not just the wig, but the white hair in general. "Weird." The weirdness didn't stop him from from making a few minor faces to get all of the different angle of said wig. It was a good thing that there weren't anyone around to see this. That would be the last thing that he would need to happen.

Now for the most important part. Deciding whether or not to buy said wig. First he needed to see the price of the wig before he made any decisions. Seeing as how he had 2,440 munny on hand, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to get it. He then grabbed the wig and lifted it off of his head and say the price tag before him. "8,560 munny!? It's a white wig, one that had been running around on the ground before falling on his head perfectly." He wasn't going to steal it cause this is Disney and no one steals in Disney. Since he definitely didn't have the money to pay for it, Kel just placed it on top of one of the display heads and walked away. On the bright side the idea to change his hair color was now planted in his head.

 

Beuce had been leaning his head back and not realized someone approach him. He only noticed his presence after he spoke. "On my island, it's bad luck to be seen with half-eaten food." He said. He'd never had much interaction with Kross, but he knew who he was. Earlier in the house, he'd tried to get his attention and speak with him. "Thanks. Sorry about ditching you before." Beuce said, taking the ice cream he offered. Kross what was on his mind. Man, that was a simple question with a complicated answer if there ever was one.

"Heh, where do i begin? Well to start off with Karina is being all depressed and everything you say is wrong. She told me about her past, and that got me thinking about mine. Man, did that piss me off." Beuce gathered his thoughts. So far, he'd never said two words about where he came from to the people in this group. Maybe it was about time he did...Taking a long and deep breath, Beuce began telling Kross about his homeworld, his past, his life, and Hellion. He told the story about his destiny.

"My homeworld...It's called Atreia. It could almost be considered two separate worlds, but they share the same heart so it's more like two unconnected halves. Or, it was." Beuce said, it still being odd to talk about his world in past tense. "See, these two worlds were constantly at war with each other. We both hated the other with a burning passion that even the greatest diplomat couldn't put out. They were called Elysea and Asmodae. I was on the side of the Asmodians. We were darker than the Elyos because we were forced out of the light and did what we could to survive. Together, we beat the harsh environment and ended up rebuilding in it. We developed claws, darker skin, and manes because of it. As for why i don't have those now...I guess it's just like how your appearance differs from world to world, this is my default one, outside Atreia. The soldiers of this war were Daevas, immortal warriors chosen to ascend into a higher state of being and given the blessing of flight by the Empyrean Lords, gods." Beuce began his story, more or less describing the setting at first before continuing into the actual events of his life.

"I was supposed to be significant among the Asmodians. When i Ascended, this old fortuneteller trapped in a crystal named Munin foretold that it would be my destiny to battle with the leader of the Elyos army, as it was his destiny to battle with me. His name was Hellion. Now, the prophecy only said we would fight, it didn't say how or when or who would win. Just that it was going to happen. Whoever won would become the thirteenth Empyrean Lord and lead their race to absolute victory over the other, by bumping up their god roster from six to seven, giving their race the edge. It didn't happen for a while. First, i had to prove that i deserved to be a Daeva to the rest of Asmodae. Along the way, i made a few friends. Flame, Yana, and Dane. Dane was a little...enthusiastic about his job, but he was a good guy. Yana we met completely by chance. We fought against her in the training coliseum, and became good friends. And Flame...Flame was with me since the beginning." He stopped for a moment, reminiscing about his times with his old friends. They were gone now, and would never come back.

"We had some good times together. Heh. There was this one time where we were walking around in a desert and out of freaking nowhere this giant bird swoops in and knocks Dane off his feet. We barely managed to get out of that one, but he swore death to that bird with an undying vengeance. We went back several times, but each time, we never found the bird. It found us. It was crazy how sneaky it was for something so enormous. Eventually we found out it was some legendary creature named King Consierd. We ended up killing it by luring it into this huge patrol camp. When it was dead, the first thing Dane did was jump up and start dancing on its body. Let's just say he isn't the best dancer around. Me, Yana, and Flame just about died laughing from that.

We were all soldiers in the Asmodian army, and we all wanted to restore Asmodae to before we had to struggle to survive. We thought we could achieve it and hell, we almost did. If it weren't for that prophecy, we may well have won the war. But there's no escaping destiny. There came a time when i knew the battle was approaching. I could feel it in my bones, and from the result, I'm betting Hellion could too. We both took steps to make sure we won the battle. I learned every bit of information about magic i could jam into my head about magic from Mayden. He was considered by most to be the best sorcerer in the world. I trained every day under Iczel, our own commander. She was the greatest fighter I've ever seen. Never once was i able to beat her. If she'd been the one fighting instead of me, the rest of us may as well have just sat back and sipped our drinks with a fancy umbrella in it while she went to work.

I don't know why, but it had to be me. I returned to Munin, trying to see if there was some way to increase my odds of being able to beat Hellion. He told me about an ancient weapon called a Spirit Blade, which was capable of channeling the power of one's soul. Evidently mine was absurdly powerful, but i never saw how. No one had seen one, or even heard of how to make one in centuries. I had to get the instructions on how to make it from Marchutan himself. He was the leader of the Shedim Lords, the Asmodian half of the Empyrean Lords.

I ended up having to fight my way through pirates to get some kind of treasure they'd stolen, not knowing what it was for. Then i went into this haunted castle, defeated it's lord, and took the blue golem from him. A crystal he used as a necklace for his wife. And finally, i had to travel into an alternate timeline in which the apocalypse had happened, and life was all but gone, aside from dragons to get one of their hearts. Although that last one wasn't all bad. I mean, i even befriended one and it followed me back. He was nice, so everyone liked him. So i named him Pie. I mean, everyone loves pie right? I thought it was a pretty fitting name." Beuce chuckled at the name of his dragon. If he'd known what was to come next, he'd have demanded it stayed in Dark Poeta. That way, at least in one of the timelines, he'd still be alive. Beuce's expression turned to a frown once again.

"I brought the materials to the Tigraki Worshop, a hidden island between the two halves of Atreia where there were craftsmen like no other. They didn't even charge me for the honor of making a spirit blade, and believe me, if you knew what munny grubbers these guys were, you'd be dead from shock they did something for free. So, as it turns out, this "spirit blade" was a keyblade. A personification of the heart. It doesn't take its true form right away though. None of us, even now, actually have our unique keyblades. We haven't been able to unlock their true form. Using this new weapon, i went to the tower of eternity. The heart of both worlds. I knew Hellion would be there as well. It was time to decide the result of the war. But...It wasn't a fight. It was a massacre. Naturally the rest of the Asmodians followed to see the battle, but the Elyos pulled an underhanded tactic. While we had gotten me my keyblade, they'd been constructing a super weapon. One of massive destructive power. It was a battleship called the Dregion. The Asmodians there were gunned down like it was nothing. Together, Me, Flame, Dane, and Yana boarded the Dregion. It took all we had. Dane and Yana...They gave their lives protecting me. Getting me through to Hellion. Sure enough, our fight happened. We fought in the control room of the Dregion. It was a fierce battle, but in the end neither of us were the winner.

Hellion was insane. Rather than letting there be a chance for the Asmodians to survive, halfway through the fight, he veered the ship off course and crashed it into the tower of eternity. Knowing my weapon could turn into a vehicle, Flame shoved me through the evacuation hatch of the Dregion, leaving me outside while she kept Hellion there. There was no going back. I got on my glider and flew away, leaving them behind. Looking back, all i saw was a blur of white as the tower of eternity fell, tearing apart both Elysea and Asmodae alike. Because Hellion couldn't stand the thought of us winning, he instead took out everyone alongside each other. I'm the last surviving Atreian." Beuce was no longer looking at Kross as he told the story, rather just staring off into the distance.

"And so, having nowhere to go, i just kind of wandered through the lanes between until i met Hikaru. Well, at the time he was still going by Krowley. Him, Shapur, and Base were all doing something that seemed important, so i figured why not tag along. And that is how i ended up with this group." He said, completing his explanation of his past. He didn't really know what people would think of it. By all accounts, that had been a war between light and darkness, and he was the darkness. Some could view him as the villain, and Hellion had made a noble sacrifice to prevent the spread of darkness. He'd nearly punched the guy who'd told him that one. But seeing what darkness did outside of Atreia, he could see why people would get that conclusion. Darkness was only as evil as the one using it, the same with light. Neither side was really better than the other, but one thing was for certain. No matter where you were, no matter what world you came from, light and darkness were at war with each other. They always had been, and from the looks of things, they always would be.

 

Everyone seemed to just walk off before any decision could actually be made, leaving Steel in the dust standing next to Glen. Said person seemed particularly upset about their situation. Steel found that he couldn't really blame him; he hadn't really wanted to go out exploring either. Nevertheless, the majority of their comrades were long gone. Finding little else to do, Steel once again resumed messing around on his cell. He shook his head as they all ran off: If they wanted a break, they could have just said so. It seemed to him a better alternative than trying to justify one's actions with a reason that had no logic. Then again, they might find him... but he really didn't expect such a thing to happen. Feeling the awkward silence, he decided he might try to say something to his companion. He considered it for a moment before he actually said anything. "I agree with you, ya' know. There isn't really much of a reason to look here. I mean, I guess he could have always time traveled to this point and that's why no one's seen him, but..." Steel paused for a moment to consider his next words. He was failing so he naturally just kept talking anyway. "Since we can't time travel, maybe... we could..." He was racking his brain to think of something useful they could do. It took him a minute, but it finally hit him. "...Research! Yeah, let's do some research on Mickey; it seems he's well known around here. Besides, we might as well do something useful." He began to play with his phone again as he patiently awaited Glen's response.