Sitting at his desk, bent over writing a paper, the young man hears a knock at his door. He looks up from his work and looks to the door.
“Come on in.” he says
The door opens and his friend enters the room.
“Hey what’s up?” Dayen asks, looking up at his friend
His friend shrugs, “There’s nothing much to do.”
“Hmm,” Dayen pauses for a moment before saying with a smile, “Want to hear a story?”
The friend is taken aback a bit by the question but replies, “Y-Yeah sure, why not.”
He pulls up a seat across from his host, who clears his throat and begins the story.
“This, is the story of two boys…” he begins
---------------------
Falodar, Adreark
A young boy sits in a room reading to a younger boy when a knock can be heard at the door. The boy pays no attention but soon his name is called.
“Koka!”
Kokazai gets to his feet and walks to the door to find his aunt and uncle standing there, looking at the person who has just walked into the house. The Dominu, flanked by a pair of Veldt on either side of him, he looks down at Koka, staring at him with interest. Koka looks from his aunt and uncle, to the Dominu, wondering what he has been called for. His aunt and uncle are wondering the same thing but they wait for the moment that the Dominu decides to speak again.
“This is Kokazai?” he says, addressing the other two but still looking at Koka
“Yes, this is him.” the uncle answers
“Is there a problem Lord Dominu?” asks the aunt, knowing it has to be something important that the Dominu would visit
“Alas, I admit. I do not come bringing joyous news.” Looking back at the pair, “It’s about your Heads of House.”
“What’s happened to my brother?” the uncle exclaims, “Spit it out.”
The Dominu ignores the misconduct of the man and lets out a sigh.
“They’re dead.”
Koka’s aunt feints, falling back against the wall as her husband bends down to check on her.
The Dominu pays no mind to that and looks at Koka again.
“We don’t have all the details at the moment,” he says, “But I will return tomorrow morning and give you all the information we have gathered.” He turns to leave, but looks back at Koka, “I’m sorry for your loss.”
And walks out into the night.
---------------------
The next day…
The Dominu and Koka are in Koka’s room as Koka sits on the bed, looking down at the floor, as the Dominu stands up above him, while the two Veldt stand guard outside the door. Koka uses his sleeve to wipe the tears from his eyes.
“I know this is hard for you to handle but I have news on your parents’ murder,” the Dominu says
Koka’s head jerks a bit, his hair over his face, “Murder?”
“That’s right; my Intel informs me that your parents were assassinated.”
“Who would hurt my parents?” Koka asks, “I thought everyone loved them.”
“They call themselves, The Five.” The Dominu states, “A group of rogues who are occasionally soldiers for hire.”
“Who hired them?”
“We believe that it was the Fire Kingdom.” The Dominu says. After a short pause he asks, “Is there anything I can do for you?”
Koka continues looking down at the floor, his eyes closed, the only way to keep the tears inside. His throat is constricted but he manages to croak out.
“What can I do?”
The Dominu, assuming Koka misheard him, replies “No, I asked what can I~”
“What can I do” he repeats, “to avenge my parents’ murders?”
The Dominu is shocked for a moment, opening his mouth but no words escape him. He closes it again, unable to find anything to say. Koka closes his eyes tighter, the tears begin to seep through, dropping onto his pants. He clenches his teeth and tightens his hands into fists.
“I can’t just sit here as my parents lay dead and their killers continue to breathe.” His voice deep with emotion as he looks up and stares the Dominu in the eyes
The Dominu’s face regains its impassive expression, “Well what are you going to do about it?”
“I want justice.” Koka says
“What you want is revenge.” The Dominu says
“I want that too!” Koka, “I don’t care what you call it; I just want to get my hands on the people who took my parents away.”
“And then what?” the Dominu replies, “You think you can do what two highly skilled magikos could not?”
“Then teach me.” Koka demands, “Teach me what I need to know so that I may be able to avenge my parents!”
The Dominu nods his head, “Alright. I’ll train you, so that one day you may get your revenge.”
He turns and begins to exit the room, stopping in doorway.
“Oh and Kokazai…” he says
Koka, having put his head down again, looks up at the back of the Dominu.
“Don’t ever let me see you cry again.”
He exits the room and the Veldt follow him out of the house leaving Koka in the room.
-------------------------
Flazca, Kingdom of Fire
“Where do you little punks think you’re going!?”
“Come on hurry up, they’re getting away!”
“I’m gonna kill those two!”
Running away from the angry voices, the two boys, Ascerane and Devygon, hurry through the busy streets of the capital. The thugs are not far behind as they push through people in their efforts to catch up the boys. This catches the attention of a pair of policemen who glance at each other before rushes after the lot of them. The boys turn a corner and run into a dead end.
“Nowhere to run.”
Ascer and Devygon turn around and see that they are trapped, the three thugs, blocking the only way out of the alley. The police finally catch up and one opens his mouth to stop the likely beating.
“Hey you gu~”
He is stopped mid-sentence as he is put into stunned silence at what he sees next. Ascerane bends down and Devygon leaps off of his back, flying high into the air at the thugs with a Flaming Fist attack. Distracted by Devygon, the thugs don’t pay attention as Ascer rushes forward and sends a blast of fire one of the thugs, sending him flying backwards into another, with both of them slamming into the trash as Devygon lands a hard Fiery Punch to the face of the last one, sending him hard to the ground. The police are silent for a moment, blinking multiple times before either is able to utter a word. Still in awe, the second policeman is able to speak.
“G-Good job.”
The boys finally register that the officers are even there, they turn to them, not sure what to do.
Snapping back to his senses the first policeman steps forward, smiling and says, “How would you boys like a job?”
Ascer and Vygon look at each other and crack big toothy grins as Ascer puts his arm behind his head and scratches the back of his head.
---------------------------
9 Years Later…
“Ugh…Hrrrmm”
Ascerane slowly rises to his feet defiantly, holding his left side, nursing bruised ribs. His hair lay matted across his battered and bleeding face, as he looks onward at his opponent. His breathe coming in shallow heaves from a bloody mouth. Bent over slightly, his left arm hanging uselessly by his side, Ascerane readies himself for another attack.
“It’s time we end this.” Kokazai says, his voice emotionless, more bored
Koka raises his wand for a final attack.
“Don’t…count me out…just…yet”
A smirk appears of Ascer’s face as he turns slightly, guarding his left side, preparing to attack.—Koka tightens his grip on the wand.—Ascer charges forward with a final burst of energy, a flaming streak—
“Huuuuhhhhhh!”
Ascerane leaps—spins—and sends out powerful burst of fire.
“Avio..”
Kokazai’s wand tip emits a purplish glow, as if collecting energy, glowing bright, spreading a purple glow around the scene, before shooting out, rushing forward, fast—faster—
“He’s dead.”
The Dominu walks over, hands clasped together behind his back, and looks down at the fallen Veldt, then at Koka, who despite his previous composure, was now breathing heavily.
“You pass.” the Dominu states, “but that Killing Curse cost you far too much energy than what need be. You exhausted nearly a 3rd of your mana on it; you should have it down to half.”
“Yes my lord.” Koka bows to the Dominu
“Otherwise…good job.” the Dominu gives a half smile
Ascerane stands over his opponent, his arm extended, waiting for the order.
“Stop.”
The lights come on and Ascerane stands back upright, and extends his arm again, this time, helping his comrade to his feet. The par-level visart gives a small smile to Koka.
“I’m impressed.” he says, “You surprised me with that last attack, I thought I had you beat.”
“Thank you.” Ascer says in between deep breathes
The two turn as the door opens and three evaluators step into the room. Ascerane straightens up, though he feels like he could fall out any second. A woman steps forward.
“We’ve analyzed your progress, rated your intelligence, and seen your fighting ability.” she says, “After brief discussion we’ve come to our final judgment.”
Ascerane listens intently, hoping that he hears the news he’s trained all these years for, yet prepared for disappointment.
“Welcome to the Par Core.”
------------------------
Ascerane and Devygon were quickly put to a 5 man team, working together for nearly a year on covert missions before receiving their first big assignment.
“We have to do what!?” Devygon exclaims
“That’s what the order said, straight from the King.” Ascer says, “But we will back auxiliary.”
Azeric, leaning against the wall with his arms folding in front of him chuckles. Devygon turns to him.
“What’s so funny you?” Vygon says
“You’re quite scared aren’t you?” he mocks
“No!” Vygon replies, giving him an angry look
“Cut it out you two, you’re always at it.” Shiiza says, and then turns, in a whisper to Naroka, “Don’t be scared okay?”
Naroka nods her head and looks up at Ascerane, who has just cleared his throat to speak.
“We set out tonight,” he says, “It will take up some time to get there but we are in no hurry, the target isn’t going anywhere. Let’s get ready.”
The team gets up to leave and Vygon, walking beside Ascerane, explains his cause of alarm.
“It’s just, you don’t really go into work and expect to get an order that will start a war.” he says
“Well we did,” Ascer says, “We must kill the Dominu.”
--------------------------------
Falador, Adreark
“From the Queendom of Vitreus, gifts to the Lord Dominu!”
The Dominu sits atop his throne in the front of the room as his subordinate Councilmen are seated on either side against the far walls in smaller, but just as similar thrones. Beside each of the Councilmen stands a Council Guard at attention, while the Dominu himself has a Veldt to his left and a long haired CG to his right. The Dominu seems bored as he receives his guests and presents from foreign lands today, a show of friendship from the leaders of Elemark. The CG on the right leans over to the Dominu as the female dancers from Vitreus begin to perform.
“Quite a site eh my lord?”
“Koka once you’ve been to all the places I have, and done the things I’ve done, these women are nothing compared to what you have to search to find.” the Dominu says
Koka eyes the Veldt on the Dominu’s left, “Is he..?”
“Yes I’ve already done that, he can’t hear us.” the Dominu says, “But like I was saying, perhaps travel to some place like the Land of Sand or Serere, now those girls are something.”
Koka grins, “I’ll take your word on it my lord.”
They turn their attention back to the entertainment, watching the mesmerizing fluid motions of the Vitri women. Koka frowns, and looks at the Dominu. The Dominu gives no indication that he felt anything, but Koka is sure he feels it too. The Vitri are finished and the next presentation steps forward.
“To the Lord Dominu, we bring to you—
The shattering of glass interrupts the presentation. Glass shards rain down from the ceiling, followed by five figures, one after the other, they drop from the ceiling. The last person drops down in front of the other four and slowly rises to his feet.
“Courtesy of the Land of Fire, Lord Dominu.” he proclaims, “We present to you…The end.”
The guests begin to clap, showing their appreciation for what they believe is some sort of performing arts show.
Ascerane steps forward, but as soon as he does, a purple blur comes from behind—the light catches the steel—Ascer ducks. Koka misses with the Levid sword, and does not turn in time to avoid a kick to the face from Vygon. Koka is knocked back a few feet, sliding on the floor. This all happened in a matter of seconds, little time for anyone to really register what happened. The Council Guard quickly rushes into action; a team of Veldt comes from out of hiding to protect the Dominu. The guests finally realize this isn’t a show and begin to rush out of the exits, the traffic blocking any of the other Veldt from rushing in to help.
“This was suicide!” called Devygon, ducking a kick from a CG, grabbing his leg and swinging into another one
“We have to complete the mission!” Ascer calls
He runs at a trio of CG, leaps into the air, and Dropkicks the middle CG in the chest. Now completely horizontal, he kicks one leg forward and the other back, and takes out the other two. Ascer falls to the floor and is getting to his feet as a Veldt points his wand directly at him. Before he can make a move, Vygon rushes forward, jumps off of Ascer’s back, and drives his sword into the Veldt’s chest. Ascer gets to his feet as Vygon bends over to pull the sword out. Ascer rolls across Vygon’s back and shoots a series of Flaming Blasts at the Veldt guarding the Dominu. They deflect his shots with spells of their own, which Ascer, and then Vygon, dodge as they continue trying to move forward.
The guests are gone now and more CG and Veldt are pouring into the Hall. The outnumbered team continues fighting them off. Shiiza and Naroka are back to back, constantly turning in place, fighting back the magikos with a constant fiery flurry. Some ways away, holding his own against a group of Veldt, Azeric swings his sword and sends another Fire’s Edge attack at the mass of Veldt, and turns in the direction of Ascerane and Devygon.
“Call in the damn reinforcement’s wouldja!” he yells
Ascerane nods and rolls out of the way of another shot before reaches into his pocket, pulls out a flare, and tosses it up through the broken glass ceiling. As he turns back to the fight, he is shot in the chest from a Veldt and goes flying.
“Won’t do you any good.”
Azeric turns, and is met with a hard punch to the face from Kokazai, who floors him. He falls on his face and tries to quickly get to his feet, but Koka leaps forward, and slams his face back down into the floor. Azeric tries to get to his feet again but Koka brings his leg up, and stomps down hard on Azeric’s back.
“AAHHH!”
Azeric cries out in pain as Koka brings his foot down for a second time. Koka smirks and takes a step back, pointing his wand at Azeric. It begins to glow purple…
“Avi—Ugghh!”
Ascer comes from Koka’s right and blind sides him with a Flaming Fist shot to the side of the face. Koka stumbles backwards and Ascer rushes forward, and jumps up, slamming his knee into Koka’s chin.
“Move! Move! Move!”
Fire Kingdom reinforcement fights their way into the room and finally relieve the tired team who had been holding off two dozen magikos. The Dominu is finally ushered out of the Hall as more Veldt rush in to help. Ascerane’s face expresses his agitation at this obviously failed mission. He turns back to Koka, and swings another punch at him, but this time Koka sidesteps him and brings his knee up, slamming into Ascerane’s gut, but Ascer takes the shot and turns around, giving Koka a shot to the jaw again. Koka takes a few steps back, and wipes a trickle of blood from his mouth; his eyes go wide for a second before turning back to Ascerane.
“You really thought you could kill the Dominu?” in a mocking tone, “Even if you’d gotten past me, he surely would have killed you. Though I must say…You’re the first opponent to make me bleed. I’m impressed.”
Ascerane says nothing. The two men begin circling each other as the fighting ensues around them. As they circle each other, Koka taps his wand against his thigh, humming to himself. After a few revolutions around, Ascerane stops and suddenly charges at Koka whose eyes go wide at the shock of his speed.
“Ah..Ah..Uhh…”
Kokazai looks down and puts his hands on the blade of the sword, now lodged in his midsection. Ascer lets out a sigh of relief and begins to pull the sword out.
“Perhaps you should have held that breathe a little longer.”
Ascerane’s eyes go wide as a wand is pressed against the back of his head. He slowly stands back up right and drops his sword.
“Pity.” he says, “You were a good oppo—naah!!”
A blast from Devygon sends him flying head over heels before flipping back upright and landing on his feet, an angry scowl on his face.
“Dammit you guys just keep popping up out of nowhere!”
Vygon glances at Azeric, “Is he okay?”
“I haven’t been able to check,” Ascer replies, moving to stand beside Vygon, “from the look of it, doubt it.”
“We’re in pretty close,” Vygon calls to Koka, “Unless you are certain in your aim and ability to shot us, I’d advice you not use that wand there. Hand to Hand Combat.”
“Two against one.” Koka notes, “I’ve had worse odds.”
“His energy level just kicked up.” Vygon whispers, “He must be running on Life Essex.”
“Ready?” Ascer asks, Vygon nods
The duo rush forward, one behind the other, then split in two separate directions, appearing in the air on both sides of Koka, who remained motionless in place. They both put their hands together and fire out one of their most powerful attacks, Final Blast. Ascerane smirks, ‘pointblank range’ he says to himself. Faster than the eye could see, Koka suddenly extends his arms and opens his hands, in the directions of both visarts.
“I’m certain. AFLATUS!”
Ascerane’s eye’s go wide as orangish-white energy shoots violently and uncontrolled from Kokazai’s hands. Devygon, through the damaging blast, yells out.
“This---will---get---THROOOUUUGHHH!”
They both continue their Final Blast attacks even as Koka’s attack envelopes him. Kokazai can only think, ‘Too fast…Impossible’…
Dayen closes the book and smiles, “And that’s the end.”
His friend blinks a few times before speaking, “First off, you didn’t read from that book one time, you just picked it up half way through the story so you could close it when you got done.”
Dayen’s eyes narrow, “Maaayybeee.”
“What d’ya mean maybe? I just saw you do it.” He replies, “Anyways, why’d you stop? That can’t be the end of the story. I want to know what happened. Did Ascerane and Devygon’s attacks get through to Kokazai? Or did they die?”
Dayen gets to his feet and walks to the door. He pushes it open.
“Let’s find out.”
Kokazai and Ascerane, both sporting beards and a considerable amount of years older, look on as a rectangular shape floods light into the previously pitch darkness. The outline of a person can be seen standing in the doorway. It walks forward.
“Welcome, to AltereAlity!”
Subject: .:AltereAlity:. One Shot [Short Story Version] ![.:AltereAlity:. One Shot [Short Story Version] Empty](https://2img.net/i/fa/empty.gif)
Thu Jul 14, 2011 5:46 pm
