Chapter 15: Years ago

                        At sunrise, Zero is standing on the tallest building looking at the whole city, a great view indeed; he seems to be tracing the scent of the man he’s looking for.

            “I can’t find his trace anywhere in this city anymore… I guess I have nothing else to do here… might as well leave and look elsewhere.” Zero remembers the party and says. “It was fun while it lasted guys, I’ve never been good at farewells, guess this is where we part ways.”

                        Zero unexpectedly is nowhere to be seen, meanwhile Lloyd is dreaming, in the dream he’s killing hundreds and thousands of innocent people somewhere around the world, but it’s strange, even though it is him he doesn’t really feel like himself, blood and guts everywhere, he suddenly says to some people that look quite blurry. “We’re close to Lemuria, remember, we’re just going to investigate those high traces of Spirit Force and nothing more.”

                        Lloyd abruptly wakes up after saying this in his dream; he sits on his bed and says to himself. “What the hell? Why was I killing so many people? The high traces of energy in my dream could mean the demons that been appearing lately, but I doubt anyone except us would notice.”

            “Are you awake now Lloyd?” Yumi’s voice asks from the hallway.

                        Lloyd stands up and opens the door, he greets her. “Hey Yumi, as early as always…”

            “Something wrong Lloyd? You look pale.” Yumi asks with a worried expression.

            “It was nothing, just a dream…” Lloyd says walking into his room.

            “The one about the angels and demons again?” Yumi asks.

            “No, this time it was another dream, a new one.” Lloyd replies.

            “What happened?” Yumi asks.

            “Oh don’t worry about it, it was nothing special.” Lloyd says fixing his bed.

            “Alright then, get changed, we’re gonna be late for school.” Yumi says crossing her arms still standing in the hallway.

                        Lloyd closes the door and changes into his black high school uniform, he opens the door and walks to the bathroom where he brushes his teeth and he leaves the apartment with Yumi. Meanwhile at the entrance of Lemuria, a mysterious man with slightly short blonde hair and dark blue eyes enters, he has white fur along the collar and he’s wearing long pants with boots. He looks around like if he’s looking for someone, he rapidly senses something and thinks to himself. “I can feel it, this energy, very close by… I’ve been looking for you for some time now and I finally found you.’

                        The man keeps on strolling on the sidewalk, while Yumi and Lloyd keep on walking to the school, they find Seshiro on the way as well like always, they greet and start talking. “Aww man I’m so sleepy today…”

            “Why’s that?” Yumi asks.

            “Probably stayed up all night long giving himself some love if you get what I mean, heh.” Lloyd says laughing and hitting Seshiro’s arm with his elbow.

            “Are you nuts!? Well for your information, I had a tough science project that I have to give in today and I stayed up finishing it until who knows what time in the morning. I just want to go to bed…” Seshiro says sighing.

            “Well, you can always give in the project and go to your house and get some rest.” Yumi suggests.

            “I was thinking about doing that, hell I’ll do it right now, so I’m going on ahead, take care guys and careful not to encounter more demons.” Seshiro says walking away waving his hand.

            “Sure, talk to you later Seshi.” Lloyd says.

                        All of a sudden the mysterious man from before passes by Lloyd and Yumi, he quickly notices something and thinks. “The energy that I’m looking for… it’s coming from one of them! But which one? The energy is too strong to tell which of them the person I’m looking for is! I’ll have to get my hands a little dirty.”

                        Lloyd and Yumi notice a pressure in the air, like if the gravity is pulling them to the ground, the ground shakes, Lloyd falls on his knees as well as Yumi and they are both having trouble breathing. Some of their body were ripping leaving only slight cuts, their bones seemed like they wanted to break any minute. Lloyd and Yumi are both feeling lightheaded, they slowly look back and see the mysterious person staring sharply at them, this person asks. “Which one of you is the light?”

                        Lloyd and Yumi widen their eyes as to what this person had said, they know what he’s asking, Lloyd, and Yumi look at each other shocked. The mysterious man walks towards them and grabs them both by their throats lifting them up in the air; he begins to analyze them closely. He looks at Lloyd and then Yumi, he looks at Lloyd again and says. “You’re not the one.” He throws Lloyd against a wall and looks at Yumi saying. “You’re the light I’ve been looking for all this time.”

                        Lloyd furiously stands up not caring that this person has tremendous Spirit Force and strength. Yumi unable to resist such a strong Spirit Force falls unconscious.

            “Let her go!” Lloyd yells angrily.

                        Lloyd attacks him under all the spirit pressure, forcing himself to fight, desperately trying to save Yumi, the mysterious person easily blocks and throws him yet again against a wall. Lloyd concentrates wind on his hand and uses it as a knife desperately cutting a nearby stop sign metal tube, he then gets in fighting stance with the metal tube. Lloyd quickly rushes towards this man, but the man lifts Yumi and placed her on his shoulder, then quickly extending his right arm back and says. “Erase, reform.”

                        He materializes with light powers what seems to be a lance and without a second thought swiftly pierces Lloyd’s stomach thus breaking even the metal tube, Lloyd just stands there, paralyzed, the mysterious man’s lance disappears engulfed by light. Lloyd quickly falls on the ground, the mysterious man leaves as if he just defeated some bug. After a few minutes Lloyd stands up and unable to support himself standing up for long, he begins to walk against the wall leaving a trail of all blood of his stomach.

            “I have to hurry… Kyo’s place is the nearest…”

                        Lloyd slowly walks back to Kyoshi’s apartment, but he faints like five minutes before arriving. Kyoshi late for school quickly walks out of his apartment, a few minutes later on his way to school him he finds Lloyd on the ground losing a lot of blood; Kyoshi widens his eyes in shock and hurries to aid Lloyd.

            “Lloyd! Lloyd! Answer me!” Kyoshi checks Lloyd’s pulse for a few seconds and says. “D****t!”

                        Kyoshi lifts Lloyd up to his shoulder and takes him to his apartment as quickly as possible. Without delaying he rapidly lays Lloyd on the couch and takes out a medical kit and starts healing him, he ends applying some bandages on his stomach, after a few hours Lloyd wakes up desperately and asks in a loud voice almost shouting. “Yumi! Where’s Yumi?”

            “I don’t know, she wasn’t with you when I found you on the ground almost bleeding to death.” Kyoshi says sitting on the couch.

            “Oh no! We have to find that b*****d!” Lloyd shouts angrily.

            “What are you talking about? What happened to you?” Kyoshi asks worried.

            “Some guy beat me and took her!” Lloyd says desperately.

            “Oh my god! We have to call the others!” Shou left this morning without telling me as well.” Kyoshi says anxiously.

            “No! I can feel his tremendous Spirit Force about to leave the city; we have to hurry now before it’s too late!” Lloyd shouts standing up slowly.

            “We? I really want to help, but you know I don’t like to fight.” Kyoshi says.

            “Kyoshi, this is Yumi we’re talking about here! It’s an emergency! Plus I’m one that’s gonna do the a*s kicking, not you.” Lloyd says in a loud voice.

            “Fair enough, let’s go get your weapon quickly and track down this person.” Kyoshi says rapidly.

                        Lloyd along with Kyoshi hastily leaves towards his apartment and grabbing his sword, they run as quickly as possible out of Lemuria. Meanwhile Zero is traveling through the country, he smells the person he’s looking for in a city nearby, he suddenly remembers a woman. “Humph… I wonder what that crazy chick is doing right now. Hahaha, I still remember with detail what happened that time.”

                        Zero begins to remember how he met the woman he’s thinking about, one day, during his travels when he was slightly younger, he was walking through a snowy valley with no money, cold and starving to death, with no village or city to stop to, barely living hunting the few animals that area had to offer. Zero abruptly smelled something from afar, he smelled food, but didn’t see anything, he noticed a few animals disappearing from one point, when he walked to that direction he saw a big fortress next to the edge of the freezing sea and asks himself. “So they had this place hidden with an invisible barrier, but why?”

                        From a safe spot, Zero observed a few guards in position, he noticed their long ears and quickly and remembered something. “Oh, I remember I was told by master that they had a fortress here… the top floor of this place is heavily guarded because it has some kind of device that transports Elves instantly to their floating cities in the skies.” Zero’s stomach growled. “Heh, I guess the best way of getting some food and a room is being caught by these Elves. I guess I have no choice.”

                        Zero came out of his hiding spot and the guards spotted him instantly, Zero raised his hands up, they got close while pointing their weapons at him, one of the guards goes behind him and takes Zero’s broadsword from his back, the other Elf asked in his unknown language. “Uwh ier ayu? Whu ddo ayu tgi irhi?”

            “Hey, I’m just a traveler.” Zero replied.

            “Yeah right, with a sword that big! You want to kill a giant buffalo or something?” The second Elven guard asked.

            “Something like that.” Zero replied with a grin.

            “Stop mocking us!” The Elven guard shouted.

            “Let’s throw him in the dungeon; we can’t have anyone else discover this place besides those authorized to pass.” The second Elven guard said.

                        The Elven guards took him to the dungeon and threw Zero in a cell taking his jacket and sword away.

            “Where are you taking my sword and jacket?” Zero asked.

            “Heh, you’ll never see this sword again, as for the jacket, well, I’m thinking of keeping it if you don’t mind.” The Elven guard said.

            “…” Zero stared at him angry.

            “That’s what I thought.” The Elven guard said.

                        The days past, they brought Zero three meals a day, and also slept all day long. After a week Zero got tired of this situation and thought. “I’m getting bored of this place and I have to find him soon… That Elf have better kept my jacket clean of I’ll swear I’ll punch him hard in the face when I get out.”

                        Zero unexpectedly saw an Elven maid with dark green hair; she passed by and saw Zero inside the cell and asked. “Ud ayu keisp Ivlesh? Ud ayu dnetsridan im?

            “I speak little.” Zero answered.

            “Tewh so rayu imne?” The Elven maid asked.

            “…… no need to know my name.” Zero replied.

            “Hmm… Hey… it’s kinda strange seeing they actually have someone locked down here… I can help you escape, just give me a minute.” The Elven maid said.

            “Why bother? It’s pretty comfortable in here, and hell, I even get to eat three times a day.” Zero said.

            “Huh? Are you insane? Do you even know what you’re talking about? You know what I’m getting you out no matter what you say.” The Elven maid said annoyed and determined.

            “You’re pretty stubborn. I just told you to leave me alone nicely and you didn’t get it.” Zero said.

            “What! Now I’m really getting you out to kick your a*s!” The Elven maid said angrily trying to open the lock faster.

                        Close by an Elven guard heard the maid making a ruckus and called another guard. As the guards got there they spotted the maid and quickly knew she wasn’t one of the maids of the fortress.

            “Hey! You’re not a real maid of this fortress, how did you get in here?” The Elven guard asked in a loud voice.

            “Hey calm down buddy, how about we have some fun with her.” The Elven guard suggested.

            “What!? You b******s!” The Elven maid shouted.

            “Hehehe, I like them feisty.” The Elven guard said with a grin.

                        The guards ran towards the maid in order to obviously take advantage of her.

            “Here goes my meal.” Zero said sighing.

                        Zero quickly got up and kicked the cell door open with so much force it broke and landed on one of the guards, the other guard quickly ran upstairs.

            “I didn’t need your help whoever you are.” The Elven maid said angry.

            “Tch, they’ll be back with reinforcement so I suggest we get out of here.” Zero said.

            “But I-” The Elven maid was cut off as Zero lifted her up to his right shoulder and ran to the first floor.

            “Put me down this instant you b*****d!” The Elven maid yelled as she hit Zero’s back with her hands.

            “Heh, not a chance!” Zero said as he ran.

                        When Zero got to the first floor there were many guards waiting for them at the entrance, Zero threw the maid to the air and pushed a table at them therefore knocking most of them out, he then jumped in the air making a front flip and catching her in midair, he then landed on the two remaining guards. Zero placed the maid down at the entrance and looked back inside the fortress.

            “Who the hell do you think you are? Are you freaking crazy! Throwing me to the air just like that! I’m gonna kill you! And why are you still looking inside, let’s escape!” The Elven maid shouted.

            “I’ll be back in less than thirty seconds.” Zero said.

            “What?” The Elven maid asked puzzled.

                        Zero ran back inside the fortress, he ran up the stairs and into what seemed like an armory, he busted the doors open and saw the Elven guard that took his jacket, surprised to see he had it on.

            “How dare you use my jacket?” Zero yelled.

            “Umm…” The Elven guard had a shocked terrified expression.

                        Zero swiftly charged towards the guard and took his sword that was in between other weapons and placed it in the guard’s neck, the guard peed his pants.

            “You’re pathetic.” Zero said looking down at the Elves pants.

                        The guard took off Zero’s jacket and handed it over nervously; Zero noticed a little stain and asked. “What the hell is this stain?”

            “Ket…chup…” The Elven guard said fearfully.

            “You’re definitely dead.” Zero said as he clenched his right fist and punched him so hard in the face that shattered the window to pieces throwing the guard out the third floor, Zero jumped behind him. In midair Zero put on his jacket in a stylish fashion and landed perfectly in front of the maid doing a front flip.

            “You went back just to get a sword and a jacket?” The Elven maid asked confused.

            “Never mind that, here they come.” Zero said.

                        The guards from the top floors all came rushing towards Zero and the maid, Zero quickly grabbed the maid and lifted her on his right shoulder once again.

            “Again!? What the hell are you goi-” The Elven maid shouted angrily.

            “Hold on.” Zero said looking down the ledge next to the fortress at the cold water.

                        Zero jumped from that very high ledge into the freezing water, they both swam to the nearest shore where some small caves could be seen. It was snowing and they both decided to get inside one of the caves and the maid started to fight verbally. “What the hell were you thinking? We could have got hypothermia! You’re a psycho; I can’t believe I got you out of that cell. I should have let you rot in there for all I care!”

            “I told you so.” Zero said.

            “Why you!” The Elven maid said angrily.

                        Zero, noticed she was freezing to death, he took off his jacket and put it around her.

            “Thanks…” The Elven maid said blushing.

            “I see you’ve finally calmed down a bit.” Zero said as he lay against the rocky walls.

            “Shut up idiot…” The Elven maid said as she covered herself more with Zero’s jacket.

            “You got a name?” Zero asked.

            “Yeah.” The Elven maid replied.

            “Well…” Zero says as he waited for her answer.

            “Luna…” She said.

            “A beautiful name indeed.” Zero said as he grinned.

            “Thanks, what about you?” Luna asked.

            “Zero.” He replied.

            “Huh? Is that even a name?” Luna asked warily.

            “Hahaha, you could say so.” Zero said as he laughed.

            “Haha, can I ask you something?” Luna asked staring at Zero.

            “What?” Zero calmly asked.

            “Are you a Kaizer by any chance?” Luna asked.

            “I guess Elves know fairly a lot, but yeah, I am.” Zero answered.

            “I can tell, those eyes, that strength and speed, it can’t be a mistake.” Luna remarked.

            “Now it’s my turn to ask you a question.” Zero said.

            “What?” Luna asked distrustfully.

            “What were you doing in that place? The guards clearly knew you weren’t a maid.” Zero asked.

            “I guess it won’t hurt to tell you, I infiltrated the fortress because I was planning on using the transport device.” Luna answered.

            “What for? Don’t all you Elves have authorization to use it?” Zero asked warily.

            “Well yeah, but not anymore, not since the king begun to get aggressive and throw many Elves out of the city that opposed his newly ways of ruling.” Luna replied.

            “What happened?” Zero asked.

            “Ever since this human oracle named Zaphyr was let inside the royal castle in order to predict the king’s future he has started to change, like if she were manipulating him, I wanted to investigate if this was truly a fact; my group of rebel Elves and I have been trying to investigate this for some time now.” Luna explained.

            “Rebels? You’re their leader?” Zero asked surprised.

            “Yeah…” Luna answered in a low voice.

            “Humph… so in other words I jeopardized your mission am I right?” Zero asked.

            “You certainly did, and now you owe me a favor.” Luna said staring at Zero seriously.

            “Sure…” Zero said calmly.

            “I’m tired, I’m going to sleep, and you better not even think about weird things you perverted Kaizer!” Luna shouts after yawning.

            “As if.” Zero said as he smirked.

            “Anyways, I’ll talk to you in the morning, dugu thogn.” Luna said as she closed her eyes.

            “Good night to you too.” Zero said.

                        They both fell asleep after a while, hours past and sunrise was already at hand. Luna was waking up, and before opening her eyes, she said. “Gninorm Zero.”

                        She woke up completely and noticed Zero as well as his jacket was nowhere to be found.

            “That damned Kaizer!” Luna shouted angrily.

                        Zero had left her alone in that cavern without hesitation, the flashback now over and back to the present Zero is getting close the city where the scent of the man he’s looking for is.

            “Those were some crazy times back then, oh well; it’s all in the past anyways, better get a grip and concentrate on getting this b*****d.” Zero says to himself while walking.

                        Somewhere in Lemuria four strange people appear dressed with a very detailed design custom hoods, the first man has a porcelain mask with what seems like a strange smiling tattoo on his mask, he’s wielding twin blades on his waist. The other is a woman with dark green eyes wielding a spear. Another accompanies them, she has light brown eyes wielding no particular weapon at all, and the last person is a man with black eyes, he has a long sword on his waist and a zweihänder on his back. These four people’s faces cannot be clearly seen due to their hoods.

            “The Spirit Force that we felt here has left the city, Keisuro, you stay here, just in case the target comes back.” The masked man commands.

            “Understood.” Keisuro says.

            “What about me?” The woman with no weapon asks.

            “You’ll stay as well Arai. Reika, you come with me.” The masked man says.

            “Alright Harayoshi.” Reika says walking next to Harayoshi.

            “Move out.” Harayoshi says.

                        Harayoshi and Reika moves out of the city, Keisuro and Arai seem to be observing the city and unexpectedly Keisuro says to himself. “So you’re here huh.”

            “Are you feeling the Spirit Force of some old friend?” Arai asks.

            “… Yeah, I’m off to pay a little visit.” Keisuro replies.

                        Arai widens her eyes noticing something.

            “Something wrong?” Keisuro asks casually.

            “It’s nothing; I guess I’ll be paying a little visit as well…” Arai answers.

                        They finish talking, and then split from each other each walking to the opposite direction; meanwhile Seshiro in his house trying to sleep lying on his bed, he’s feeling uneasy and thinks to himself. “Damn, where have I felt this Spirit Force before…” He then realizes something widening his eyes and says in a loud voice. “Keisuro!!! It can’t be.”

                        Seshiro jumps off his bed and takes his sword which is lying right next to him; he leaves his apartment looking for this man and spends a little while searching.

            “Where could he be? He’s always been good at hiding his Spirit Force, but does that mean he knows I’m here? Did he feel my presence as well?” Seshiro asks himself looking all around him.

                        Seshiro still tracking Keisuro he notices something and thinks. “Since this morning I’ve noticed that Lloyd, Kyoshi and Yumi’s Spirit Force has disappeared, suddenly vanished. I wonder if they’re ok, it’s strange, but I’m sure I felt an insanely strong Spirit Force as well along with many others, something strange is going on here, why would so many strong Spirit Forces be concentrating in this city? I mean, besides me, Yumi, Lloyd and the rest there isn’t anyone else with strong Spirit Forces… This is very strange…”

Reviews

[Felipe]

holy crap that guy defeated lloyd like he was nothing O_O i hope Yumi is ok, great chapter dude, i am very interested in this thing about the light, keep it up man!