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The menacing laughter echoed through the halls of the dark castle, a
laughter that would send a chill down one’s back. There was no one there to
listen to it, however, for the halls were rather empty... as though every living
being had evacuated in fear of an attack. The centuries-old portraits, the
furniture, and the suits of armour that stood along the side of the halls were
covered in inch-thick layers of dust, and there was an unusual stench in the
gloomy atmosphere… a stench unusual to most people, but not to those accustomed
to battles.
The stench of death.
The floors that once gleamed in a thousand dances and banquets, that were once
admired by many, were now stained with blood from the corpses scattered all over
the halls, among the broken pieces of weapons and armour, whilst the carpet
turned into a deep crimson colour… yet there was no sight of the person – or
creature – that had mercilessly done this massacre. Perhaps it was lurking in
the glowering shadows, preparing its attack on the next unknowing victim…
However, it turned out that one man was still alive. Somehow he made it to his
feet, staggering as he moved due to the numerous wounds on his body. His
garments and weapon were stained with the blood of his allies and his own, and
his shoulders heaved with the effort to breathe as he stood with one hand on the
wall to stable himself. His eyes narrowed in his anger, strange eyes that would
make one shiver with fear, for the left one was as clear as glass and the other
was blood red, like the eye of a demon.
This man, the only one alive among the group of people, was Kryden Swordius.
An extraordinarily large silver wolf stood at his side, giving a soft howl as
its green eyes glowed with its feelings of concern for its master. He raised a
bloodied hand to its head to reassure him that he was fine, then lifted his
unusually long red-hilted sword from the ground, yet the frown on his face
remained. He gritted his teeth, cursing the demon that had killed his friends,
cursing at himself for not being able to stop him from doing so. He was too
powerless – too weak to even help himself.
All these years… he thought. All these years of training and searching
for that demon… He swung his sword angrily and broke a part of a stone
pillar, ignoring the pain that surged through his body. And for what?! To be
defeated and have them killed?! It's as if I’ve killed them with my own hands!
“That's right, Kryden,” a deep voice echoed in the hall, the same one
with the menacing laughter earlier. “It was as surely as you have killed them
with your own hands!”
“Shut up, you demon!!” he yelled. “Where are you anyway?!!”
“You don’t know? Well, you’ll just have to figure that yourself.”
Kryden narrowed his eyes again, searching the darkness, and just ahead of him
were large double doors with a strange design that represented something that
was too hard to understand.
Perhaps there…
He limped to the doors, using his five-foot blade to support him as the wolf
followed closely behind, and pushed them wide open to reveal the throne room
that was as dark and gloomy as the halls. Here the stench of death was even more
overpowering, enough to make one feel weak from just inhaling it, but he ignored
it as he glared forward. All he cared about now, though, was the lone shadowed
figure sitting at the throne, and even though was hard to see who the figure was
or even how it looked like, he knew who it was.
“Druegen!” he shouted, his voice filled with so much hatred and anger for the
man standing ahead of him.
“Such hatred,” Druegen said, shaking his head in the shadows, yet he grinned in
amusement. “Your hatred will bring you only doom.”
“You’re the one who’ll DIE!!” The warrior lunged towards him and raised his
sword with his left hand, ready to strike his opponent. All his concentration
was on killing that demon and nothing else mattered to him, even his own death.
Just as long as he killed him…
The man in the shadows did not move from where he stood. He simply raised his
hand in front of him, the palm facing outward, and chanted some silent words as
a dark light surrounded his hand. Kryden swung the sword in the form of a
powerful upward slash, but his blade never hit its target as a ball of dark
light was thrown right in his face, hitting him with such force that he was sent
flying into the wall a few feet behind him. Howling, the silver wolf charged
forward with lightning speed, but there was another flash of dark light and then
it fell to the floor, unconscious.
“RAY!!” Kryden exclaimed and instantly sprang to his feet, once again rushing
towards his opponent.
However, he stopped when he saw the throne room disappearing from view and was
being replaced by the scenery of outer space – stars surrounded them and planets
circled in their orbits as nebulae glowed with a mixture of red and blue, and
occasionally a comet whizzed past them. Druegen, once again glowing a dark
light, raised a hand in front of him as he cried the name of the spell with
triumph.
“Nebula Solarcrises!”
Kryden screamed as everything around him exploded in a mixture of white and dark
light, sending a wave of hot, brutal pain through him. Again and again his
surroundings exploded, and then a large dark beam in the shape of a dragon-like
creature charged through him, forcing him back onto the floor. There he lay,
unable to get up, gritting his teeth in utmost pain.
“It’s no use resisting me, Kryden,” Druegen said, slowly approaching him. “You
know that, don’t you?”
The warrior tried to get up, but he fell back once again, his breathing rapid.
“Druegen…! T-that spell…!!”
The shadowed man laughed loudly. “That’s right! I can finally use Time and Space
Magic, but this is only the first step towards my goal!” A black sword
materialized in his hand. “You’re a hindrance to me, Kryden – you must DIE!!”
He thrust his sword forward, aiming for Kryden’s heart, but when the blade was
only inches away from its target, suddenly there was a burst of dark light that
knocked him backwards and caused him to fall. The warrior slowly stood up as
though he wasn't injured as the dark light around him glowed menacingly, his
clear glass and red eyes glaring at his enemy.
“So, you’ve finally shown your true power,” Druegen stated as he got up;
apparently he wasn’t hurt at all.
“DIE!!” Kryden yelled as he charged forward with lightning speed, zigzagging to
avoid the beams of dark light that were sent at him, and with a cry, he thrust
his sword forward.
And the blade pierced Druegen right through the chest.
Kryden was breathing hard, for he was still hurt, but now he felt satisfied
seeing the dark blood oozing out from the wound. His hated enemy was finally
dead.
However, to his horror, Druegen suddenly spoke in a confident voice, instead of
a weak one he had expected.
“Nice try, Kryden… but it won’t kill me!”
Before Kryden could even react, the black blade pierced him in the stomach,
causing him to double over in pain.
“Augh…!! How… how could this be?!!” he exclaimed. As he collapsed onto the
floor, he fought to stay awake, but he had already lost too much blood, and a
new wound was too much for the body to bear. The dark light around him faded
away and he remained still, unconscious.
Druegen pulled the red-hilted sword out of his chest, stained with his own
blood, and calmly threw it on the warrior’s back as well as any uninjured person
could.
“Fool,” he said. “He knew he couldn’t beat me.” He looked at the brown-haired
man for a moment, and then an evil grin came to his face. “But he’ll be able to
seek out the Celestial Hunter out for me.”
He raised his hand again and another dark light surrounded Kryden and the silver
wolf. Then, there was a blinding flash of white light, and Druegen’s voice
echoed in the halls.
“I shall be waiting for you, Celestial Hunter…”
And yes, I do have a pronunciation guide! =P
Kryden – Kree-den (‘den’ as in the word ‘olden’)
Druegen – Drew-gen (the ‘G’ in ‘gen’ is pronounced the same as the one in
‘go’ and the ‘en’ is pronounced as in ‘olden’)
Ray – Don’t tell me you don’t know how to pronounce this… =P
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