FicWad

A full moon lights the night sky above a inn in the city of Vlad, near the Kryunu dynasty. There are no clouds to obstruct its radiant beauty. The night is quiet, peaceful. Not even the usual sounds of crickets or bullfrogs can be heard.

Bright moonlight streams through an open window as the noble swordsman, Scion, tosses and turns in fitful sleep, a sheen of perspiration covering his bare skin. For the past three nights, he has had the same recurring nightmare. Tonight, however, will be different. Tonight, his nightmare will become horrible reality.......

"W-Where am I??"

Scion looks around at the barren landscape. It seems to be a desert, yet the sand is blood red. Barefoot and only wearing a G-string, he can feel the heat rising from the desert floor. A cold, bitter wind howls, blowing through his shoulder length, blonde hair and biting into his bare, muscular chest. The wind feels harsh, and yet.....sensual?.......as it caresses his body. The sky is dark and gloomy. There are no stars shining, yet Scion notices a red glow in the golden sky. Looking in that direction, he sees mountains, off in the distance. Mountains......on fire?

"SHIT. What going on?....... Gomora?.......... Saizou??..........Who ever you are, show yourself!!"

"We are right here......."

Spinning around, Scion's eyes snapped open as he turned his head to see his friends and party members: Doug, Ramyleth, Ture, Mira and Foxy standing behind him.

"Guys! Damn, am I glad to see you!" Scion smiles as he walks towards them.

"Too bad the feeling is not very mutual, young one.....", sneers Ramyleth, the chief of the Danan mystics.

"Yeah, Scion dear....", adds Foxy, the adventurer woman that saved Scion from the power crazed giant, Sult, on the Kyojin Giant's Temple. "You don't really think we are going to help you after all you have done, do you?" Foxy crossed her legs and gave Scion a cold look.

"What...?? But, Foxy, I......"

Scion tries to approach his girlfriend, but is blocked by Ture and Doug.

"Back off. You have scarred her enough!" says Mira, her voice cold and hard as lead.

"Yes, I really think it would be in your own best interest to remove yourself from the vicinity......" adds Doug. Scion's un-patched eye widdens in great shock.

"Come on, guys! Please get over this farce! I explained it all to you, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, we remember, bro. We remember all of your stupid little lies. But, basically, what it always comes down to is your own pathetic weakness!", growls Ture, disgust and sarcasm dripping from every word.

"What?!?", cries Scion, looking around the room frantically. Then Scion pulls his sabre out, noticing something suspicious about the whole scene.

"Oh, we mean it, SEXY. Show him, Ture. WHOOP ASS ON HIM!" sneers Foxy, noticing Scion charging Ture, brandishing his wire sharp sabre. Suddenly, a Wind element mantra from Ture lands Scion on the ground. For a second, everything is a blurry, but when his vision clears Scion sees his five friends staring down at him, smiling wickedly.

"We should've done this months ago......", says Mira.

"Yeah, if it was not for me and Foxy, you would've been killed by Sult a long time ago....", adds Doug, looking rather sleepy-eyed.

"Not to mention how many times we've saved you from yourself .....". As Ramyleth speaks, Scion realizes he is surrounded now by a Crystal wall, with prisms shining every colour of the rainbow.

"And how did you pay us back? By taking over everything, making us look stupid, destroying everything in your path like a typhoon......", Ture sneers coldly.

".....and handing me over to a demon, making me become a mindless zombie until a priestess with a Holy Jade stone had to help me!", yells Foxy as she starts to flip her middle finger off to Scion in anger. "You are useless! Fuck off Scion!"

The crystals formed around Scion's face, leaving him in total blurryness as he listens to his friends' evil laughter. It is only when he hears the sound of mining tools hitting the hard crystals that he realizes his friends are trying to impale blo blood coming out of his body. Panicking, he begins to shake around violently, trying to get the crystals off and the tools away from him.

"Guys, STOP THIS! Don't do this! I am soooooo sorry! Don't leave me here! Come back! I'm sorry........" Suddenly, Scion's eyes snap open.

"GRRRRRRRRRRAH!"

Scion bolts upright in his bed, sweat pouring down his face, eye patch and chest. His sheet and pillowcase is soaked from perspiration, as are his white boxer-briefs. Hazily, he looks up at his clock, hyper venalating.

"Oh, man.....What a nightmare.....", Scion muttered, rubbing his temples. Throwing off the sheet, he heads for the nearby bathroom. Reaching the sink, he turns on the cold water and throws some on his face. As he opens his eyes, he stares at his tired, gaunt expression.

"Boy, I look like Hell.....", he says to himself. "What a horrible night....."

"This is only the begining of things to come!"

".....THE HELL...? Who's there...??"

"Silence Humanoid." Scion was boiling over with rage, shaking his fists at the mirror.

"Damn it! I'm sick of your games, whoever you are! Show yourself or else....!!", Scion yells, slamming his fist against the mirror. The only answer he receives is an evil, demonic laugh and blood dripping down his knuckles...........

Meanwhile, in the Kyojin Giant's Temple, Ture is practicing his mantra that he learned from the wise new Danan mystic chief, Osiris. It was unknown to him about what happened to Ramyleth. He was missing and was either pressumed Dead or in another world.

"Ho ho ho ho!!! Excellent, Ture! Let's break for today, and start again next week. You did well, my child!"

"Thanks, Master!", replies Ture, kneeling to his great master and father figure. As Ture steps out of the room, he lifted his towel, traveling sack and heads to a hot-spring deep in the calm, tranquil woods. Anticipating some relaxing "down time" before his he studies more Mantra, Ture takes off all his garments and slips in to the warm fine water. As he watches the warm bubbles float to the surfacethe the water, Scion suddenly appeared right behind him.

"Hi Ture." Scion said in a groggy voice. Ture slightly jumped in utter surprise, thinking that he was alone.

"YAH! Scion, don't EVER scare me like that!"

For a minute, Ture isn't sure he's seeing correctly. The man looked like his companion Scion, but it's weak, tired. And Ture could swear that Scion looked tinged with more than a little....fear?

"Scion? Is that you?"

"Yeah, man, it's me......."

"You look awful, bro....."

"Sorry. I....I have not been sleeping too well. Seems like I might as well never sleep again!"

"Scion, what's wrong? What's hapening?", asks Ture, feeling greatly concerned. Scion did not wear his eyepatch, exposing his sacred "Life Jade" where his right eye used to be. He was also quite pale, with colour around his eyes.

"Errrrr, Ture.....I hate to ask you this, but........can you PLEASE keep me company? I........I think I am going mad!"

Ture freezes. He befriended Scion and Foxy after they saved him from being imprisoned in a temple by the wicked Kyojin giant , Sult. Yet, Ture has never heard Scion's voice crack with such desperation before. To Ture, Scion seemed brave and fearless, he never seen him become so frightened. If Scion was this petrified, then Ture knows he has no choice.

"Very well Scion. I won't leave you be" Ture said, smiling.

"Ohhhh, thank you so much Ture! I knew you could help me out." Scion says as Ture gotten himself out of the hot spring, dried himself off and got dressed again. Ture then sees Osiris wandering around by himself.

"Osiris, this is an emergency! I think I won't becoming back for a while, Scion is in great desperation!" Osiris started to think about it for a bit, and then, looked at Ture, smiling.

"Okay Ture!" Osiris responded. "I need to learn more from the Mantra mistresses anyways."

"Thank you." Ture whispered as he got ready to leave.

Hours later, Ture and Scion decided to share a room at the Vlad inn at the Kryunu dynasty, holding Scion in his arms.

"Don't worry Scion. Everything will be okay." Ture whispered as quietly as he could to Scion.

"Thanks Ture. I just hope everything is okay......"

As tears begin to well up in his eyes, the destined Rudra-to-be feels the pain and death of his old friends, Rosdam and Hui all over again, as if just the thought of him has ripped open a recently healed wound.

"It haunts me still...." Scion groaned. "Rosdam and Hui's death, the floating continent of Lien crashing, Foxy becoming a zombie and....OH GOD! HAVING TO GO TO THE NETHERWORLD ONE DAY!"

I am one of the warriors whom carries a sacred Jade, in order for the semi-divine humanoids to become a Rudra. The only others I have seen was a theif at the Toula temple, a priestess on a cruise to Delphi Mountain and a mysterious blue-haired Sorceror at the netherworld one day.

"I just cannot get over it! I cannot believe we smited the aging Rudra and we are to become Rudra ourselves one day.....What is the meaning of this? And Ramyleth is now assimilated with the sacred flying ark....."

Scion suddenly notices his hand clenching unbidden into a fist.

"Easy, man. There'll be another time to settle things with this mysterious creature. Thank God everyone he knows id safe on Dai-Chi and in their villages. If anything happened to them, too, I would, I would ........"

Scion started to feel some horrible feelings within his body and started to embrace Ture harder.