Nine Kingdoms: Forever War

The man smiled before he transformed into his natural demon form "Ah, you noticed! It seems you are still on par with your own kind even though you have been living with these vermin for countless years. Tell me brother, how is it you did not get pushed back into Rai when the war was over? How did you manage to slip by their forces and continue to live among them?"

 

" Well you see, even with that war going on I just didn't want to get involved. Not that I hated my fellow demons' motives, but I had other things on my agenda. I was busy trying to get back something that was stolen from me years ago. Long ago I wanted power, but the only way I could get that was to turn my heart and soul over to the darkness. But a pretty young flower came along and tried to defeat me, she could have done so but instead she stole my heart. . . No literally she stole it and hid it in order to prevent me from gaining power again. When I found her again I killed her and took my heart back, which by then was sealed inside of gem. But then I realized that my heart wasn't inside of that gem, it was a fake, my heart was sealed inside the flower's daughter whom I had lost track of. Right now I am still searching for the brat. . . and that's why I am still in the mortal world." He said putting the pipe out and began picking at his sharp teeth.

 

"I see." Bheliar simply said. He acted as though the story had not satisfied him. Bheliar then smiled and reached his hand over to the man. Gently held the side of his face. "Then you are useless to me... your power is gone... and whatever power you have left, will belong to me!" Suddenly Bheliar's eye's turned dark and darkness began spraying out of mouth. Bheliar then tightened his grip on the man's face and then banged him into the ground.

 

Istven pretended to have been killed on impact and laid there on the stone floor, his hood had been pushed off revealing his head but his hair was covering his face. Then all the sudden the stone floor beneath them began to crack and shake. Istven jumped up and grabbed Bheliar by the neck as if to strangle him but instead he lifted him up and threw him into the wall, causing him to bust through it. He then lifted his arms up into the air as the light around them began to turn red and the wailing sounds of spirits began to sound in the air as Istven's pupils began to turn foggy and glossy gray. " What did you say about my powers being gone? Don't forget I sacrificed more then just my heart to get where I am !!"

 

Bheliar turned into a shadow before he hit the wall and crept onto it. "I never said your powers were gone, I said they would be gone... Once I kill you and take them, OF COURSE!" Bhelair cast a darkness into the room eliminating any light that Istven had created. Concealing both of them in darkness "You have lived among the humans too long brother... You rely on light as a source of power. SO DO THESE VERMIN! I will show you how darkness is a more powerful ally." Suddenly the darkness began growing spikes in the room and stabbing Istven.

 

Istven let the spikes impale him and as a result black colored blood game dripping down his chest as he hanged there on the spikes. But then he started laughing like crazy even though there was no emotion behind it. " You think I would use the light as my source of power? You are clearly mistaken. The darkness is my friend and perhaps my only friend. Plus. . . whats the point of trying to kill a heartless man . . .? No matter how many times you stab me in the chest, it will hit nothing !!" He said as he grinned his sharp teeth showing as he sent a wave of dark fire through the room.

 

Bheliar laughed as the fire came hurtling towards him. He knocked it aside with his hand. "Your lack of a heart makes you weak... However, it's not your heart I'm interested in." Bheliar came closer towards Istven, then held his head with both of his hands, pointed his eye's to look directly into Bheliar's. "I don't want your heart... that's your concern. No, I will take YOUR SOUL!" Using his dark magic, Bheliar began to suck out Istven's soul through his eye's.

 

" Go ahead take it !!!! I Dare you !!!" He said with a smile even though he was in Bheliar's grip but after a few moments it seemed like something didn't seem right. " That tickles . . you know, I don't understand why you have to be so cocky . . ." He said looking a little bored as he looked across the room at something laying on the ground, he lifted his hand up and summoned his demon sword. He then slashed it at Bheliar's chest, he then threw a punch at Bheliar's face, possibly breaking his nose, but Istven didn't care, he just wanted to see him bleed. Istven then jerked out of Bheliar's grip and walked back a bit. He chuckled and then began opening his mouth really wide as a jet black substance came pouring out and covered the ground. The black substance came alive as it began moving all over the place as it went through the pub and began swallowing everything in it's path, Istven then disappeared behind a wave of blackness and his laughter could be heard everywhere as the black mass began swallowing the entire place.

 

The punch did nothing to Bheliar, but the sword caused a scar on his chest. Darkness poured out of the wound, instead of blood. Bheliar quickly used dark magic to seal up the wound so that it may have time to heal. The black goo was of no consequence. Bheliar actually figured this incident could be used to his advantage. No doubt, Bheliar was going to be tracked by the Sephrim government. The other demon would serve as a decoy for them to track down. "Laugh while you can, brother. For it is obvious that your time here has made you weak... not the lack of your heart. When you are ready to die, come track me down. I will be willing to end you." Bheliar then turned into his human form again and began making his trip across the desert.

 

Istven appeared on the top of a nearby room with a smile on his face. " If this place is suppose to make one weak, why did you want to come back to it so bad? If I was the weak one the army could have thrown me in the lion's den along with you. But then again who was the one who got trapped in the forsaken place for a while? Oh yeah you. So keep running from the jail keepers, Atleast I will be a free man for as long as I live. Once I get my heart back, you're a deadman !!" He said with a laugh . As the dark substance that had engulfed the pub receded and went back into his mouth, leaving nothing but rubble and skeletons. " Hmmm . . . drunkards don't taste so good." He said to himself as he stood up and smiled. The fight had provided him a welcome burst of activity since he was always so bored these days. He could have fought all day with the newcomer but of course there were other things on his agenda, After all he couldn't miss his flight.

 

Mya smiled, already knowing the dragon wasn't too happy meeting her, but letting the thought go. She took his hand and mounted the dragon behind him. "So, where are we heading off to?"

 

Bheliar ran through the desert with haste. He needed to get to the Vision Kingdom and fast. He decided it would be best to follow the shoreline, as many had told him to in order to reach the kingdom. However, Bheliar wasn't certain on weather he was following the right shoreline. If he was incorrect, then he might end up in Aria... Bheliar just hoped he would be travelling in the correct direction.

 

“We should head to Saradi, either to the Free Lands or the Kingdom, each one has a possibility of something going wrong, after that we have to cross Ungrate” Alastair said, as he finished Alyssa flew up and headed East at a fast speed.

 

Istven boarded the airship on a airship strip out on the dunes. The sand was swept up by the wind the propellers on the airship caused, making little dust devils that spun around for a bit then died out after a few minutes. The heartless man watched as the airship lifted up into the air, leaving the desert below behind them and it making look like nothing but a giant sandbox. It took four hours for the airship to cross the desert at full speed and reach its destination. A destination that wasn't as sandy and desolate as the place he had just come from.

Meanwhile . . .

Suri went through the day not doing much but walking around the palace and its ground. An hour ago she had just had lunch. Lunch itself was certainly better then the peasent dishes she was used to but still it couldn't compare. Life in the palace was just so different, it was so noisy and crowded. Suri couldn't relax and hear the birds even, back in her home in the black forest it was always so peaceful, but here everything was always moving. Suri got bored walking around on the palace grounds and decided to go take a walk in the city and see some sights.

Her boots padded softly on the cobblestone road as she walked through the busy streets. It was chilly out due to the sun hiding behind the clouds. She could see the vapor of her breath in the air as Suri walked so she decided that it was time she warmed herself up a little. So she took her hands out of her cloak she had wrapped around herself and begain rubbing them together creating sparks. This in turn gave birth to a small floating orb of fire in her palms that helped warm up her hands. Suri was now standing near a pond where there was a lonely swan drifting across the water's surface. Here she found some sort of peace and quiet. There was a couple stone statues stationed around the edges of the pond and there was also a giant willow tree which she wandered towards and sat underneath, laying her back against the trunk. She was undisturbed for a while in her little paradise but after an hour a figure appeared in a wall of fog that had drifted land because of the chill. It was the figure of a tall man dressed in black, he was handsome yet there was something dark and dreary that she sensed about him, Suri dried to avoid eye contact with him because she really didn't want to talk to anyone right now nor did she trust anyone in city.
When the gentle stone footsteps stopped Suri looked up from her deep world of thought and saw that the man was now walking through the wet green grass towards her but he walked in a calm manner.

" My lady . . .you shouldn't be out in weather like this, you might fall ill from this cold chill."
The man said as he stopped five feet from her and looked over at her.
" Sir, everything is fine. I have been in blizzards before, I think I can handle myself pretty well. And I'm sorry to inform you but I'm not a Lady, I'm just a studying apprentice from the mountains."
Suri said as she pulled her knees in and rest her chin on them. The man broke out into laughter as he all the sudden created a throne of dark stone that jutted out of a ruined statue nearby and he sat in it. " Not a Lady? Thats the best joke I've heard in a long time. I'm not just calling you a lady just to flirt with ye lass. I'm just referring to you as one because thats what you truely are. Don't tell me you have no idea what you are?" Suri was surprised by the sudden laughter and alerted by the fact he had just created a throne out of no where. She felt a bit afraid while wondering what this man was and why he was here. Was he another sorceror or was there something else to him? And why was he talking about her as if he knew her.
"What are you talking about you don't know me, stop pulling my leg." She said standing up on one of the roots of the tree as she stared at him, her minty eyes reflecting the chilling light of the cloudy sky above.

" I'm not pulling your leg, I'm just laying on the facts. Its sad though that your family didn't come looking for you after she died . . . they cared deeply about her yet they couldn't take in her only child? Pathetic. But no matter, I don't want to corrupt the mind within that pretty little head of yours with such a terrible tale, I might as well knock you out before you go and start asking questions."
He said as he hopped off the throne and slid a pair of black leather gloves on over his hands as he began walking towards her but then he rushed forward at a quick pace and attempted to knock her out but Suri dodge his hand and shot powerful wind spell at him that blew him off his feet and into the trunk of a nearby tree at such a force that it would have broken his back if he were just any human. But unfortunatly he wasn't human so he just slid off and shook the dizzy feeling out of his head and then ran back after her. Fire jetted from Suri's hand and came flying at him, the fire morphing into the form of a phoenix that then engulfed the man in a firestorm large then a house. Suri watched as the giant bonfire burned but all the sudden it was extinguished by a giant black mass of mist which turned the ground and pond nearby black as soot.Suri covered her head and face as the mist swept by her and decentergrated.When she opened her eyes she saw she couldn't see the man anywhere and then all the sudden something grabbed her by the leg and jerked her down to the ground, knocking her down onto her back. When she caught a glimpse of what was grabbing her she nearly screamed, it was a dark figure in the shape of a jet black skeleton that was reaching out of a pool of dark nearby but it didn't pull her, it just kept her from running away. When she looked away she saw the man from before standing near her with his hands in his pockets.
" I'm sorry Missy if I was a little rude, but you set me on fire so I had no other choice. Now stop resisting and lay still you have something that belongs to me and I want to take it back, now if you will just listen you will understand." He said as he got down on a knee and began searching her cloak for something.
" What the hell are you doing, don't touch me, Stop !!" Suri shouted as the man kept searching and when his hands came up empty a confused look appeared on his face." Now this isn't right, I sensed it on you, so it should be here somewhere. . . Tell me girl, where is it?
Suri pulled her leg out of the skeletons grip and kicked it in the head as she tried to throw a punch at the mans face but he caught her palm in his and squeezed it tightly.
" I don't know what you are talking about, just leave me alone." She shouted in distress as he moved his down onto her wrist and pushed it down on the ground so she couldn't hit him. He then held his hand over where her heart was and went silent. " Interesting she sealed it inside of you, looks like I have to do more then just take it from you, there is a powerful curse placed on you. I can't possibly removed right now. Looks like you will have to come with me on the road." Suri didn't know what he was talking about but she didn't like the idea of coming with him so she took her knee and nailed him right in the crotch which surprised him for a moment that she could free her hands and then use a powerful power that created a orange ring around him and suddenly a pillar of orange energy shot up into the air about a hundred feet while engulfing him. The air around her began to get an orange aura with small ancient runes spinning around as the spell got bigger but then it exploded creating a huge explosion about the size of a house. Thankfully though she had planned so the spell would stay in that area and it would disappear before it damaged the surronding city. Suri didn't even bother to see if the spell had taken care of the man, instead she got up and took off back torwards the palace in a attempt to get to a saferer place. She came rushing onto the palace grounds and then collasped on the grass from exhaustion, breathing heavily.

Back at the pond, everything had returned back to normal and the black substance had receeded. Istven sat on a nearby stone wall, his whole body incased in some sort of firey orange substance that caused him great pain. He rose his hands and sudden a dark mist covered him and ate away at the firey substance, revealing his body underneath that seemed to be perfectly fine.
" That girl was more trouble then I thought. . .but then again considering how powerful her mother was why would expect any less.I guess I will have to go all out on her when I meet here again, not that I can argue with that. But its best that I come back and search for her once the chikadee leaves the nest again . . . its not wise to go chase her down right now." He thought to himself as he disappeared into a pool of black energy and was gone.

 

Mya flinched and grabbed onto Alastair. "Ugh. Guess I'm not a big fan of flying. Anyways, it seems like that you're expecting something specific at that area. What do you know about the situation there?"

 

Music:

As Bheliar travelled through the desert he came across a few people here and there. He made sure their souls were his, and their bodies were reduced to dust before he was done with them. Bheliar travelled through the one place in the world that contained barely any humans. It almost gave him joy to be able to be in his natural form and not have to worry about people seeing him. The desert offered Bheliar some refuge from his enemies, something that would be valuable later on. Bheliar soon found a town. He changed his appearence to a man and walked casually through it. It was now time to find out where he was, and what his next step would be.

 

The sun was setting outside and everything seemed to be calm except for the fact that there was now a new found wave of chatter and rumors spreading amongst the servants and others in the palace. It had seemed the explosion in the old city park was now a hot topic among the people of the city. Though sadly none had any idea on what actually happened, some said it was a terrorist attack, a threat from enemy forces, or something from a higher power. All were crazy stories but Suri had no intention of lending her explanation, she simply just nodded on and listened to those who were bold enough to mention it to her. Suri kept to herself mostly throughout the day and decided it was time she'd pay a visit to Alux and tell him of what happened to her. Though she was afraid of worrying Alux any further then he need be she had to tell him since a powerful man in the city prove a danger to her again or even to Richmond. Suri wandered down to the lower section of the castle where the giant gate sat and found that Alux was sitting on the floor a few feet from the gate and he was meditating. She saw that Alux had been at work studying the gate all night due to a rolled up sleeping mat and a few empty dishes on the ground, he might as well had camped out down here.
" Master Alux, there is something very important I have to tell you." Alux's eyes shot open and he turned his head towards Suri as he then straightened a kink in his neck. " What it Suri?" He said as he closed his eyes again and sat there in silence. Suri walked over to his side and knelt down slowly.
" I went on a trip today to the park . . . well it was a very lovely visit except . . . well, I was attacked by a man in the park and He tried to kidnap me but I used my magic to fend him off, I'm afraid for my life Master." She said as she stared the floor, avoiding eye contact with him.

"So you were behind that explosion at the park?! I was hoping it wasn't you, I guess its too late for that. I forbid you from leaving the palace alone ever again. Whoever was harassing you might try to come after you again and I just can't allow you to get hurt. So please next time take Richmond with you or avoid the park completely. Thats all I can suggest you to do right, I would go and check things out but I have my hands full and I don't want to wreck our reputation so please watch out for yourself and follow my orders. . . . Also before you head off . . . I want you to tell me, what did this man look like and did he mention a name?" He said a concerned look on his face. Suri only shook her head and stood up " He didn't mention a name, but he was rather tall, dark hair, and there was just something strange about him that I couldn't quite figure out." Alux's look of concern worsen and he looked away. " Well I want you to stay in the palace after dark. And next time before you leave let me know when and where you are heading, also try and stay near crowded places, you will be more safer then." He said as he dismissed Suri and she walked off. But Alux knew more already from what little Suri had told him, inside he felt shocked about the news. He knew he had to verify what he had been suspecting and for that to happen he'd probably have to take a midnight walk later and do some detective work.

Suri left and headed towards the royal library where she could maw over these raging questions in her head and maybe try to relax. She sat down on a seat near the window of the spacious library and looked out while deep in thought.

 

“It’s, Saradi, when isn’t there a problem, right now one supports the Empire while the other doesn’t” Alastair said as Alyssa flew towards the border.

The town was occupied by soldiers from the Seraphim Empire, unlike the soldiers at the citadel these soldiers didn’t wear heavy armour but instead theirs was more leather and they all wore travelling cloaks.

 

Mya frowned."Well that's swell. Sounds like Saradi might fall into a civil war or something at this rate. Sounds really bad. If this starts, the empire might step in. Now, what's our job in this situation?"

 

Bheliar casually walked up to one of the gaurds, "Excuse me sir, I'm new here, exactly what is this town called?"