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Several hours had passed as Joel, Lynn, and Ryan set foot into the Shroud Forest. Even though it was the morning and the sun shined brightly outside, in the forest there was a darkness like night created by the thick mist. Wild crickets sounded off continuously all around the three as they traveled through warily of their surroundings. Lynn stepped ahead of Joel and Ryan and began leaning against a tree to rest for a moment.

"Can it get any darker in here?" Lynn complained, "All the technology in the world of our day and age, and we can’t mow down one lousy dark forest!"

Joel stopped near her with an open fire in his left hand and sword in his right and said, "Who’s to say the forest is to blame for the darkness and the mist? Maybe it was some odd spell cast around here by some magic user in a war long ago."

Ryan nodded as he walked by the two of them and said, "That’s pretty much it. Back when most of the world was still in Old World there were some pretty big battles out here. The trees provide great defense and shelter to those who use them wisely." He tossed his hands up and said, "Indeed a magic user did cast a spell to create this fog. It was a very great magic user, I should say, and they were unlike any Guardian I have read about. It was more of a warlock for one of the kingdoms that once were."

Joel and Lynn ran back up behind Ryan and continued down the path through the forest.

"So what happened to this guy?" Lynn asked.

Ryan lowered his head and grinned slyly and said, "She... died in that very same battle." He chuckled, "No one could come close to her level of powers, so the mist just stuck around up to this day." He looked around and said, "So lots of monsters inhabited this place because of its convenience. Some evolved over time with great night vision. Imagine what would happen if we suddenly broke the fog and shed some real light on them."

Ryan swung his Masamura blindly out to the side into the darkness and heard a high pitched screech. He brought his sword back into his sight and found a large lizard-like monster still stuck onto the end.

"Well speak of the devil." Ryan said, flinging the monster off his sword, "A chameleon crawler."

Joel looked down at it and said, "I bet it was waiting for Lynn to pass by." He looked back at Lynn as she shuddered at the monster’s corpse, "What do you think?"

"I’m taking my weapons out now..." Lynn pouted, reaching into her overalls for her rings, "I wish there were a faster way of going through this place."

"Is it my fault you both can’t fly?" Ryan asked with a shrug.

"Shut up!" Joel and Lynn yelled together with annoyed faces.

"Yeah, yeah." Ryan said. He picked up the monster from the ground and said, "Might make for a good lunch. How about we stop for a break?"

Ryan stopped and put his sword away. He waved his free hand around and a group of sticks flew in from their surroundings and piled up high in front of him. The three sat around the bundle of sticks, and Joel threw his fire onto it to begin a cooking flame.

"Are we really gonna eat that thing?" Lynn asked with a slightly disgusted look.

"Sure. It’s bound to be edible." Ryan said. He looked slightly away and whispered, "For a Guardian."

Lynn stood up and moved over next to Ryan, and she hit him over the head with his fist.

"I heard that!" she growled.

"Oww, hey!" Ryan chuckled, "Don’t worry, it’ll be fine, man." He looked at Joel and asked, "Hey, let’s see that sword of yours."

Joel looked at the Masamune for a moment and handed it to Ryan. He wobbled a bit and lowered the blade towards the ground slowly by its weight.

"Good god, man, you’ve gotten strong!" Ryan said, looking at the sword, "It was so much lighter last time I saw Zareon."

Lynn looked at the two with a dumbfounded look across her face and asked, "Do you mean the sword was supposed to be lighter? Or is it naturally heavy?"

Ryan let go of the Masamune, and the sword crashed down into the ground, leaving an imprint in the earth. He drew his Masamura from its sheath and offered it to Lynn. When she took hold of the sword and Ryan let go Lynn began to feel her arms quickly dropping towards the ground from the weight of the small sword. She let it out of her hands before they were crushed between the sword and the ground, and Ryan quickly retrieved it before it landed. Lynn’s eyes grew large with surprise as her heart took turns skipping beats.

"If I were really weak it would be really light." Joel told Lynn, "But the stronger we get, the heavier our weapons become. Kind of like they have a mind of their own to keep us hard at work so we keep getting stronger as we use them."

"Really. But what happens if you become all too strong and the sword begins to weigh more than the planet itself?" Lynn asked.

Ryan shrugged and said, "Time to get a new planet?"

He put his Masamura back into its sheath. Ryan tossed the chameleon crawler’s corpse on the ground, then lifted Joel’s Masamune with both hands. He stabbed the monster’s body and held it over the flame and let it cook.

"So who’s this Zareon guy you mentioned?" Lynn asked, "Was he the previous owner of that sword?"

"Yeah, you might say that, man." Ryan said with a nod.

"It was me before my last death." Joel told her.

"Last death?" Lynn asked, slightly disgusted, "You mean you never actually die?"

Ryan shook his head and explained, "We die when our core is either destroyed, drained of blood, or suffocated. It is then the core is returned to the heavens and reconstructed. It maintains all of our memories and previous bodies, but the gods above fuse us with a new warrior spirit and send us back down to be recreated over many years." He looked slightly up, "Zareon. He was one of the three known Guardians to have never died for as long as we’ve been around, and he was the third strongest Guardian of us all. Now there’s only two remaining in the world who have never tasted death before. I can remember his face pretty well, actually. His skin was bright orange and red like fire, and his hair was up and jagged kind of like Joel’s is now, minus a few bangs of hair. He was the coolest guy I ever knew in my life." Ryan shook his head briefly and said, "Too bad Euzhacho killed him."

Joel sat back and thought for a moment, then looked up and asked, "Hey Ryan, you never told me your Guardian name before."

"Err..." Ryan stuttered a moment, beginning to sweat, then said, "I, uh, don’t use it just like you don’t, man. Besides, it’s nothing you could understand."

Joel and Lynn began to lean forward with interest, and Ryan began to sweat even more.

Ryan looked over at the cooking lizard and said, "Oh hey, look! Lunch is almost done, how about it?"

He brought the Masamune out from the cooking fire and leaned the sword down onto the ground. He handed the sword’s hilt to Joel and took out his Masamura. Ryan began cutting off portions of the lizard’s cooked body and brought it up to eat it, but Lynn slapped Ryan’s hand out of the way before the meat reached his mouth.

"Wait!" Lynn yelled, "That food isn’t spiced!"

Ryan looked down at Lynn and asked, "What’s your point?"

"I’d be nasty!" Lynn told him. She reached into her center overall pocket and revealed several packets of food spices and said, "How long have you gone without some of these?"

Joel nodded at them and said, "Well, Miss Lynn did work at a restaurant, so she must know her cooking rather well."

"But I like it plain..." Ryan whimpered.

Lynn sighed and rolled her eyes, saying, "Fine, eat it then. But do you have any lighter carving utensils I could use for this? And maybe some plates?"

"Yeah... I carry some in my big bag." Ryan mumbled.

Lynn walked over to Ryan’s bag and searched through it. Under most of the clothing and spare goods she found the plates and silverware. She brushed them off along the sides of her clothes and blew them off.

"Geez, when’s the last time you used these? And why were they at the bottom under all those dirty clothes?" Lynn asked.

"Because I eat with my hands, what else?" Ryan told her, "It’s not like I’m going to die if I eat a little dirt."

"You forget who you’re talking to!" Lynn exclaimed, walking back to Joel with two plates and some forks and knives.

She put the eating materials down on the ground with the silverware on top of the plates. She opened up some of the spice packets and began mixing them together in a busy shaking fashion, and Lynn shuffled the blend on top of the cooked monster.

"Now put it over the fire for just a little longer to cook the flavor in and it’s all done!" Lynn said with satisfaction.

Ryan turned away and sat down on the ground by himself, nibbling away at his piece of meat. Behind him Joel had put his sword with the meat over the fire again for another several minutes, then Joel took it off and Lynn began cutting portions of it off onto the two plates. Joel stabbed his sword’s blade into the ground so it would stand up with the rest of the dead monster hanging there and took a plate presented to him by Lynn. Lynn raised her own plate onto her lap, and the two began eating. Ryan crawled away a bit further as he heard the two others eating their share of the food and groaned quietly.

"Thank you, Miss Lynn." Joel thanked Lynn, "If only Ryan knew what he was missing."

"Well I’m glad!" Lynn said with a wink. She put her knife up to the backside of the monster where it was not spiced and asked, "Want to try the part Ryan ate?"

Joel scratched his head, thinking for a moment, then he put his plate out and said, "Sure, I’m game."

Lynn cut a portion of the meat off from what was left of the monster that was not spiced under the fire and put it on Joel’s plate. Joel cut the meat up and put a piece in his mouth, and he began shaking a bit with a purple face. He looked around quickly, then swallowed loudly.

"Wow, I’ve seen blue and red, but never purple as a food reaction!" Lynn said with amaze.

Ryan looked back at his friends and called out, "Yeah, get used to it, too!"

Joel shook his head and said, "Get used to it? It tasted like cold turkey that was leeching taste from my body, though! And it was cooked and hot, too!" He paused for a moment, then said, "I don’t think it was even cold turkey that it tasted like..."

"Well that’s chameleon crawler for you." Ryan said, rolling his eyes.

Joel stood up and rubbed his tongue off. He picked the Masamune up from the ground and shook it off into the fire, letting the rest of it burn, and he put the sword back in its sheath on his back. Lynn collected the dishes and silverware and put them back in Ryan’s bags. Joel stepped up behind Ryan and tapped him along his mantle a few times to get his attention.

"So how much farther?" Joel asked him.

Ryan stood up and brushed off his blue leather suit and said, "A half a day’s walk or less." He walked up to his bags and picked them up, tossing them over his shoulder, "That’s if we don’t run into any monsters to delay our trip."

Joel walked up to his bag and picked it up and asked, "Like what?"

Ryan thought for a moment and began pointing off into different directions in the dark and said, "I dunno, like that crawler, and that one, and that one... And let’s not forget that one."

From all around in the background they began to hear crashes over the ground. Joel summoned a fire to his free hand and began looking around, and he saw various chameleon crawlers that had fallen on the ground with humiliated looks on their faces. Ryan grinned and chuckled briefly at them, and Joel turned back with a smile.

"Wow, you told them, didn’t you?" Joel called out to Ryan.

Ryan shrugged and began walking along the path again, and Lynn followed closely behind the two of them.

"Chameleon crawlers are great hunters and all with their long lashing tongues and ability to blend in with their surroundings, but they’re nothing compared to..." Ryan trailed off.

"The Guardian of the mind..." Joel and Lynn monotonously followed Ryan up with.

Ryan stood up tall and proud as if he were surrounded by bright lights and fireworks and said, "Exactly! You are learning well and fast, students!"

"Eww, let’s just keep walking!" Lynn said, "And let’s not keep them for food either! I don’t have enough spice to last a life time!"

The three walked on again, and Ryan asked, "So women aren’t really made of sugar, spice, and everything nice?"

"Sugar, spice, and everything, huh..." Joel said slowly.

He began picturing Lynn bent over on a large glittering platter surrounded by various food items. Lynn looked up at Joel for a moment and noticed him staring off into space in his imagination and burst his bubble.

"Wha, woah, what was I thinking?" Joel said, shaking his head.

"No, no, no, that comes later!" Lynn yelled at him, waving her arms around.

Ryan peered down at Lynn with an odd and funny grin on his face, and he began giggling about Joel’s thought. Lynn turned to Ryan and pushed into him.

"Enough of that already!" she grumbled, "I’m not in the mood for that stuff..."

"Yet?" Ryan asked, giggling some more.

Lynn looked away from Ryan and grumbled quietly.

The three passed further into forest along the path given by Ryan. As they passed through the forest they began to smell a trace of smoke from up ahead. The more they moved foreword the stronger the smell became, and they started to see gray clouds above them that were not part of the thick mist above the forest.

Lynn looked at Joel and asked, "Did you forget to put out the fire?"

"No, I didn’t." Joel told her, shaking his head. He looked ahead and said, "It doesn’t even feel like my fire. Something else is up."

They both looked up at Ryan, and he grinned and said, "We have another Guardian to deal with, and he doesn’t think too friendly." He looked down and told them, "It’s Doransha, the Guardian of lightning. If I remember correctly, he uses some form of a gun, so I wouldn’t be too afraid of him if he tries fighting us. Just as long as we put Joel up as our front line."

Joel scratched his head at Ryan and asked, "You were going to put me up first anyway, weren’t you?"

Ryan chuckled and said, "You know my goals too well now, man." He looked ahead and said, "We’ll help you transform into a Slayer however we can."

"Oh, I see." Joel said, "I guess it has been a while since I’ve fought anything big."

Lynn backed behind Joel and Ryan and bumped in between then and said, "Hey! What’s a Slayer? Slay what? Sounds creepy!"

Ryan looked at Joel and said, "She’s a growing girl, isn’t she?"

Lynn gave Ryan another annoyed look, and Joel nodded slightly at Ryan.

"A Slayer is a super powered form of a Guardian." Ryan told her, "There’s only two known Slayers in the world today, and Joel’s closest to becoming the third." He looked to the side a bit and mumbled, "Now if I could only get him to unlock the full potential of Zareon..." Ryan looked back and told Lynn, "It’s probably why people call us demons because of how it transforms the Guardian’s appearance."

"But why would you want to make Joel look like a scary hated monster?" Lynn asked Ryan curiously.

"Well, because!" Ryan exclaimed, "For one thing, it’s better for the world in case Hades wakes up if we’re as strong as we can get, and it also provides us all with a little friendly competition."

"Um, I like friendly." Joel told them quickly.

They began seeing the fire burning across the forest as they moved closer to the Guardian of lightning in their path. As they passed each fire, Joel approached each of them and absorbed them all into himself with a reach of his hand. They entered a larger and more open area that was lit up from different waves of lightning that danced across the ground from the person in the middle. It was another youth that looked as if he were 16 years old. He had shortly spiked green hair that shot backwards from his head, and across the sides of his face he wore green face paint. He wore a sleeveless dark red vest with long and baggy white pants. He turned his head slightly at Ryan and gazed at him for a while.

"Susalini, I thought I could feel you messing inside my head." The character called out to Ryan.

Joel and Lynn both fell down on the ground laughing out loud deep from within their lungs.

"Susalini!" Joel laughed, "You can’t be serious!"

"Man, that’s a weird name!" Lynn laughed, tears rolling down her face.

Ryan looked at his companions, beginning to swear in humility, and said, "Hey guys, knock it off!" he turned to the character in the middle and called out, "Doransha, you know better than to call me that. Its Ryan!"

Joel and Lynn cleared their throats and stood up and faced Doransha calmly.

Doransha looked slowly over Joel and called out, "So, I see Zareon is with you as well." He paused for a moment, then said, "He looks quite dead."

Joel began looking around as if he was confused, looking around his shoulders and far into the background, and he said, "Zareon? Where Zareon? Who Zareon?" he looked away and began whistled a tune, then said innocently, "I’m Joel."

Doransha stopped the lightning dancing around the area and said, "Oh don’t play games with me. Your sword is a dead give away."

"Nope, nope, don’t know what you’re talking about. Sorry." Joel said, looking away.

"You have a lot to talk about being dead." Ryan told Doransha, "Just look at you, man! You must have changed forms at least three times the last time we had a decent Guardian get together!"

"That’s none of your business!" Doransha exclaimed. He took a deep breath and looked at Joel again and said, "Zareon, have you achieved the Slayer state yet, as we all have predicted? Your defeat of Ro`Ten was rather spectacular. We could feel that surge of energy you let out. That must be why Susalini sought you out."

Ryan shook his fist at him and yelled, "Damn it, quit calling me that!"

"I dunno, what are you getting at?" Joel asked quietly, still looking away.

Doransha raised his hands up high and began stepping out from the top of a broken tree stump, saying, "Why not join me? We can get strong together and master the Slayer form! You should leave the human and Susalini. They’re just plain tricksters and will only cause you trouble."

Ryan fell down to the ground with a thump on his head as he heard the name again, feeling completely humiliated. Lynn looked down at him and poked him in his back a few times.

Joel shook his head and said, "Sorry, but Ryan’s already promised me a lot."

"Note to self." Ryan thought, "Rewrite all brains across the world to forget that name."

Doransha let out an empty sigh and shook his head, saying, "That’s just too bad, Zareon. Too bad indeed." He turned around and looked up into the thick mist above the forest and said, "This is a great place to train and power up. The monsters are plentiful here to fight, and by trying to break the dark mist spell over this forest you can gain an exceptional amount of power every day. You should see me in action."

He put his hand up to the clearing at the top of the forest where the mist could visibly be seen and shot a large beam of lightning up into the air. The beam hit the mist and built up underneath the clouds, and it broke through leaving an open path for sunlight to enter the darkened forest. As the light entered into the forest and spread through the trees, many loud screams and cries from the various animals and monsters could be heard from the background. The mist soon patched itself up and closed the opening of light. Joel looked down from watching the beam strike through the mist and gave Doransha a deeply serious look.

"That’s a good look. I like seeing Zareon serious. It always gave me a nice tingling feeling of pleasure." Doransha said with a grin, "Of course, that means you know what would happen if I were to suddenly break this mist spell from the forest."

"Hmm, yeah." Joel nodded, "That means all the creatures here would suffer from not being able to take the light. They’d run out on blind rampages in the local cities until they found a new dark place to live." He looked down at Ryan for a moment, then back at Doransha, "Looks like I’m going to have to fight you anyway and make sure that doesn’t happen."

Doransha nodded and said, "Exactly what I had planned. I was hoping to fight you anyway, and maybe I’ll be able to take pleasure in annihilating you. But are you going to spare me this time like you did all the other Guardians you beat, or are you going to kill me like you did Ro`Ten?"

"Whatever." Joel said, shrugging his shoulders, "Smile all you want, though. I measured how strong you are through that one blast you shot." He tilted his head to the side at Doransha and grinned, "And the more you cause the trees to burn up like you have been the more energy I keep. Don’t expect anything good to come out of this."

Lynn looked down at Ryan, who had taken his ground and sat down again, and asked, "Is he really going to be alright, Ryan?"

Ryan nodded at her and said, "Yeah, sure, man. Last time I checked Doransha was only an intermediate. Joel’s in the advanced class, I’d say." He looked over between Joel and Doransha and said, "If he plays his cards right he’ll be done with this in no time flat."

"Oh." Lynn said slightly. She waved at Joel from the back and said, "Good luck Joel! Get him good!"

Joel stepped foreword slightly and looked back at them normally and said, "Thanks Miss Lynn! Try to stay out of the way, alright?"

Joel looked at Doransha again. He bent his legs down slightly and put his right hand up around his left shoulder on his sword’s hilt, ready to draw it at any moment, and he put his left hand up in front of him between himself and his opponent. Doransha nodded slightly and put his hands down on his belt where his guns were.

"Ah yes, your Khurinza’s Fury Dance style against my Venerisk Wing Rave style." Doransha said, "And I do remember that metal bullets don’t work against the Guardian of fire." He lifted his right gun and fired at Joel, and the bullet melted and splattered across his face, "In fact I remember Zareon makes quite a mockery out of those who try. So how about it."

Joel stood silent across the dark field from Doransha and did not answer him. He began to slowly side step to the left around the area in a circle, and Doransha kept a close eye on Joel with his hands on his guns. Joel looked to the side to make sure that Ryan and Lynn were out of a direct line of fire between the two of them. Doransha quickly tossed his gun back into its holster and put his hand out. He shot a long and solid lightning beam towards Joel, and Joel retaliated by shooting his very own Fire Bolt. Their waves locked into each other for a moment, but Joel began overpowering Doransha quickly. Doransha put his other hand up to contribute more power to his attack, but Joel was still too much for his powers to handle.

Doransha cut off his beam and jumped away to the side desperately from Joel’s Fire Bolt, then leaped into the sky and began hovering above him. Joel cut off his own attack and watched Doransha from below as he started showering Joel’s area with a storm of small lightning bolts. He unsheathed his sword and began twirling it around in his hand, deflecting the stream of energy shards away and dissipating away. Joel looked around quite annoyed as he tried to determine a method of getting at Doransha in the air since he could not fly himself.

Joel leaped up into the air at his opponent, but Doransha dodged and moved out of the way. He began falling down and kicked back up towards Doransha from a tree. Joel swung his sword at Doransha, but once again he moved out of the way in the air. This time Doransha reached out as Joel finished his swing and in the middle of recovering, and he grabbed onto Joel’s neck, letting him hang. Joel grumbled and swung his sword up at his opponent’s arm in an attempt to cut free, but he suddenly felt a strong surge of electricity enter through him. The pulsing energy flowed to each limb of his body, burning his skin and standing his hair up. He let out a loud scream, and his voice jolted out and in with the flow of electricity through his neck.

Lynn looked at Ryan and bopped him over the head and said, "You said he’d be fine!"

Ryan rubbed his head and shrugged, saying, "What? He isn’t dead yet, is he?"

Lynn reached into her overalls and retrieved one of her rings, extending it into its hoop form.

"I’ll help get him free!" Lynn exclaimed, stepping foreword.

"Are you sure, man? You’ll probably be caught in the electrical current, too, since the hoop is made out of metal." Ryan told her.

Lynn shook her head at Ryan and said, "But you said that Guardians die when their cores are destroyed. Isn’t that what that guy’s doing to Joel now?"

"Yup, that’s right." Ryan replied with a nod. He pointed up and said, "But keep watching and see."

They both looked up and continued watching Joel. Joel suddenly let go of the Masamune, and the sword dropped down, slicing into the ground. He continued to jolt and shake rapidly from Doransha’s lightning attack. Joel gritted his teeth sharply and slowly reached his hands straight out. He opened his fists and shot two Fire Bolts up towards Doransha, burning his body until Joel was released. They both fell down and bounced off the ground as they landed on their faces.

Joel cringed for a moment and picked himself up from the ground. He shook his head a few times and groaned, then picked up the Masamune and put his foot down over Doransha’s near-unconscious body. Joel looked over his opponent and put the sword down near his neck. Doransha began to moan as he regained his senses and tried bringing his hands up to attack Joel again, but Joel only pressured his foot on Doransha’s charred chest.

"When I said you were nothing, I meant it." Joel told him with an unusually ominous voice. He began thinking, "Maybe he gets the point now, so I could just leave him alone from here."

"Ah, Zareon. You were so right as always." Doransha uttered as he coughed from the burning attack.

Ryan pulled Lynn down to him and said, "You might want to cover your eyes, man. This could get ugly."

"Wha? But that was the goal, right? Killing him?" Lynn asked.

Ryan shook his head and grinned, saying, "Killing a Guardian never is."

"Just kill me now. That’s the only way I’ll become stronger, you know." Doransha told Joel.

Joel looked at Doransha, then at his sword. He kicked the man away and put the Masamune back in its sheath. A strange voice began entering his mind that sounded much like his own.

"Kill him." It echoed deeply.

"No. I don’t have to." Joel thought.

"They never learn. They always come back." The voice slithered.

Joel shook his head and thought, "No, I’m sure he’s learned his lesson."

He heard his heart beat pumping louder and louder as the voice sounded off.

"I should know. They never left us alone." The voice told Joel.

"And who do you think you are?" Joel thought.

He looked at Ryan.

"Not him." It called out, "I am he who can take you beyond your limits. I can change your life."

Joel’s heart pounded harder, and the core within his neck began pulsing, as if it had a heartbeat of it’s own.

"Kill him. Kill everyone." The voice echoed again.

Joel looked around. He began feeling an unusual pain from within his neck, and he bent over with his hands over his neck. Ryan and Lynn looked at Joel from far away oddly.

"Hey Joel, are you alright?" Lynn called out to him.

Joel turned sharply at Lynn and swung his hand at her and yelled, "Stay away!"

Ryan scratched his head and said, "Woah that’s strange. Never seen him act like that before."

Doransha staggered on his back and limped away in a crawl a few feet away from Joel and gasped in fear of what was taking place.

Joel lowered his head and began shaking and said, "Wait, are you... him?" he shook his head, "No, it can’t be! I won this fight. I don’t need any help this time! I’m fine!"

"I am he who will change your life." The voice echoed inside Joel’s head, "Allow me to show you the way."

Joel began struggling with himself, breathing deeply. Suddenly his whole body jolted upward, and Joel let out a great roar of agony. His eyes flared red and his body glowed with fiery heat. His teeth began to take shape of sharp fangs with his canines sticking out as he closed his mouth, and his ears grew long towards the back ends of his skull. Joel’s body expanded and grew larger to the point where he stood a foot taller than he did before. Magic symbols appeared around his body and red marks like blood slid down his face and blackened into two black rectangles around his eyes from his forehead to under his cheek, and a black triangle in the middle of his forehead. Joel had lost complete control over his body.

Joel looked over himself thoroughly in his new appearance and thought, "What’s... happened... to me?"

He found himself looking down at Doransha and said with a dark voice, "So you thought you could mock me with your petty bullets." He shook his head with an evil frown over his face, then spit to the side, "I forbid you the right to live. Now die."

A bright sparkling light appeared over Joel’s hand as he pointed his arm at Doransha again, and Doransha cried, "No, no wait! Zareon, please!"

Joel shot the attack over Doransha, covering him with an incinerating ray, and Doransha faded away with an empty cry of desperation and failure. The light flashed and covered the entire area for a moment, then faded away. Joel stood there silently looking over the pile of ash and the long line of charred earth he marked. Ryan jumped up on his feet and ran up to Joel in amazement.

"Woah, sweet, man!" Ryan said, "You actually made it!"

Lynn walked up behind Ryan and asked, "Made it? Is this what a Slayer is like?"

Ryan nodded and said, "Yeah. Joel’s the third one in history now!" he put his hand out to Joel and asked, "So, how does it feel?"

Joel shook his head and sighed, then said deeply, "Painful."

Joel turned around and gazed down at Ryan with his two red eyes. Ryan looked back at him with a now curious look, and Joel quickly punched Ryan hard through his face guard on his mantle, breaking it apart and hitting Ryan in his face. He quickly drew his arm back and hit Ryan again in the chest. Joel began walking slowly by Ryan as he curled over on his feet from the sudden attacks.

"And my name is Zareon." Joel said.

Ryan cringed with his hands over his chest, then let out short laughs and said, "Eheh, um, remember! I’m still the bigger man!"

Joel approached Lynn and glared at her evilly, and Lynn began taking short steps back with fear in her eyes. She began breathing quickly as the large body drew near her, and she began letting out small sounds of panic. Suddenly Joel threw his hand towards Lynn’s body and stabbed through her chest. Lynn cried in pain and looked up at Ryan hopelessly as Joel’s hand stuck through her with her blood dripping down. Joel brought his hand out from Lynn and turned away, and Lynn fell weakly down to the ground.

"And... so this... is how my... my life ends..." Lynn slowly cried in pain, "If only I... If I could have... home... Mama..."

She closed her eyes slowly as she took deeper breaths.

Ryan threw his arm out and took a step forward and yelled, "No! Why did you do that, man?"

Joel shook his hand a few times and told Ryan, "Because unlike you I can kill a human much more easily." He turned and looked away and said, "Now it’s time to test this new power of mine."

Joel leaped up into the air and began flying away westward, away from Traquo and the forest. He disappeared through the thick black mist above them. Ryan watched him leave and began limping towards Lynn as his core slowly regenerated his wounds to health. He dropped to his knees by her side and looked long and hard over her.

"No. It can’t be." Ryan mumbled slowly.

He put his hand over his headband for a moment and thought quickly, then shook his head. Ryan then began taking off his cape and wrapped it around Lynn’s body.

"There’s no way in heaven or hell I’ll let that guy get away with this." Ryan said, burying his face into Lynn with tears rolling down his cheeks. He turned his face into the sky and opened all his telepathic connections and roared, "Celia!"

He lifted himself into the air with Lynn in his arms and began flying northward with great speed.

"Ryan? What is it?" Celia’s voice came in.

"I need your help! I’m flying your way with someone hurt very bad." Ryan told Celia.

"Why? What’s wrong?" Celia asked.

Ryan shook his head and paused for a moment, then growled and said, "It’s Joel. He’s gone mad..." he trailed off, then said, "No, I’ve gone mad."

"Mad? What’s going on, Ryan?" Celia asked again.

"I... I can’t explain, man. Get ready to spread those healing powers of yours right away. I’m coming in as fast as I can!" Ryan said, "It’s just all my fault."

He flew a great deal of distance before he found the mountain where Celia and Koichi were training together. As he landed the winds caught up with him and began blowing the surrounding trees in the area nearly over on their sides. He ran up to Celia and put Lynn’s body down.

"Go!" Ryan commanded Celia.

She nodded quickly and kneeled down to cast her healing spells over her.

"Who did this? The wound is almost like it’s right through this girl. It’ll take a while, if she lives." Celia told Ryan.

Koichi walked away from his partner in training and up to Ryan and looked at his injured friend.

"I heard." Koichi said, "So Joel did this." He looked up at Ryan and asked, "Are you going to find him and try fighting him yourself?"

"Exactly." Ryan said, lifting off into the air and flying off. He brought his hands together and chanted, "Haste!"

A circle of transparent time symbols began circling around Ryan’s body, and he disappeared with a quick beam of light. He began flying back southwest at an even higher speed than he was originally as he searched for Joel. He continued to hear Koichi’s voice through his telepathic links.

"Hey! I know about your links!" Koichi told Ryan, "Bring me with you, damn it!"

Ryan shook his head and said, "No way! This is between Zareon and me alone. A broken bond of trust that’s gone on over a thousand years!"

"What the..." Koichi questioned.

"I don’t care. I’m breaking the link now!" Ryan said, clearing his link between the two of them.

Ryan began tracing Joel’s position and followed him to an isolated town far southwest of Traquo. As he landed and looked around he saw Joel ruthlessly killing every man in sight like he had with Lynn. Joel felt Ryan’s presence and stopped for a moment, standing up tall and looking down at Ryan. Ryan glared at Joel with his own threatening face, leaving his once friendly and happy looks behind, and prepared for battle with his long time friend and respected elder all in the shell of his new best friend, Joel.

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