Chapter 3: Selene Aglarus (Part 2)

<Continues>

Selene is troubled by Siren's army. This army is not something her father would expected. It is not just a defensive force, but also a great invasive force. Selene uses her injuries as an excuse to delay her quest, and spend her time in Aquaria to investigate on Siren's army.

She spent her time walking among the soldiers for a month, and found out that Siren has created an army of more than two millions men and is mass producing Light Half weapons. These weapons make normal men become as dangerous as an adequate magic user, not to mention that Aquarian people are twenty times as strong as the earth walking people in physical strength. With this army, Siren is not just only be able to control the oceans, but also can be a major threat to all the dry lands. Beside of that, Selene also notice that Siren's war council has a regular meeting with some strange people every weeks. Those people are two times taller than the average statue of men, and always cover their faces behind a dark shadow. To her guess, these people could be the leaders of the Light Half, and they are behind an evil plan with Aquaria to seize over the control of this world. However, unless she can confront them and check her theory, there is no other way to know what they are up to. So she and Torum decided to kidnap one of them for interrogation.

They has acquired the moving pattern of those people by observation, and Torum disguised into an Aquarium soldier to get close to them. The shadowy people did not notice the deceiving words of a new guard, and was tricked into a secret tunnel, dug beforehand by Selene earth magic. In there, she closed the entrance with rocks, blocking their only mean to get out. When the shadowy people realized that they has walked into a trap, it was too late. Hiding inside the wall of earth, Selene observes them, and expects them to panic, so she can begin her interrogation with the advantage of fear.

However, the shadowy people are calm, and organized. There are twelve of them, and none shows any fear. They just sit in a circle and wait. Selene is not a person with much patience. Inside the wall, she speaks, concealing her body and her voice:

"I am the guardian of this realm, you are in my body, and you must answer me my questions if you want to ever see the light again."

One of the twelve men then stands up, walks into the center of the circle, and calmly speaks:

"We has been in the dark for thousands of year, long enough to learn that darkness and isolation are our ally, not the enemy. You show us no fear here, even if you wished so, Lady Selene Aglarus."

Selene is shocked, somehow these men has already figured out her identity and clearly stated that. She knows that hiding in the walls is not effective anymore, so she walks out and face the men.

"How do you know it was me? Who are you people?", she asks, with Torum standing beside her, prepare to protect his Lady from any potential threat.

"Earth aura is a rare power. There are only three persons ever have that power in them. The first one was Gaia, the goddess of earth, one of the twelve angels sent to our world to close the Gate of Hell. She has a daughter, whose name is Thalia. She was the second person to be able to bend the soil under her feet as will. Thalia's only daughter also has inherited her power at birth, and was the last Earth Mage we can ever see, since Thalia's tragic death. And it is you, Lady Selene." The man says.

Selene becomes angry, and she shouts to him "Liars, my mother's name is Ailaht, it is true that she was gone but she was not Thalia the daughter of Gaia. Why are you making up this lie? What is your purpose?"

The standing man still speak calmly, "We are proud Ice Giants, and Ice Giants never speak against the truth. It was your mother who hid the truth from your eyes, to protect you, for she loved you much."

"Liars, Ice Giants had been vanished from the surface of this world thousands of year ago. You are the spies of the Light Half, and you story does not make any sense. If you don't tell me the truth right now, I will let it be hidden from my eyes forever, along with your lies under the weight of this earth!" She cries.

"Then let the truth betray us, Lady Selene, for we never betray the truth." They all speak at once.

Selene is ready for her anger to doom them, for with only one finger, she can let the rocks above their heads crush all of them in a blink of an eye, but Torum, who was standing silently beside her, halts her.

"Stop Lady Selene, they were telling us the truth!"

"Why are you speaking for them? How do you know if they are telling the truth, Torum?" She says.

"Because me and Torim was fighting along side with the Ice Giants during the Damned War of The Fallen, and their statues truly fit the image of an Ice Giant. I doubt that the human of the Light Half can be at their size." Then he pauses to look at Selene again, and says, "And they were right about Lady Ailaht, I was there when Lord Solaris saved her from the wolves of Azaru highland, and brought her back to Skythea and wed her. Only me, Torim and Lord Solaris ever learned the truth that she is indeed the daughter of the Goddess Gaia, but she made us sworn not to speak her past to anyone else, because the remnants of The Fallen will find her and war would be brought to Skythea. Since then, she has adopted the name Ailaht, or Thalia spelled backward."

Selene looks at him in shock. From the words of her most trusted warrior, she now knows the truth. When she was a still a small child, her mother, Ailaht has passed away before she could ask her why she has the power to control the earth, but other children of Skythea do not. And since then, she has never stopped grieving for Ailaht's death, thus the question was put aside. However, even if the shadowy men were telling the truth about her blood, they are still too suspicious in their shadow cover.

"If you are really the Ice Giant, then why do you have to cover your face? Reveal yourselves!" She speaks.

"Because no one beside the lords should learn our existence, however, in front of the daughter of Lord Solaris, who will soon be a Lord, and in front of my old friend Torum here, we shall let you see our true face." The man says, which wakes up Torum's curiosity.

Then all of the Ice Giants laugh, blow away their shadow covers, and reveal themselves.

"Aluis! My friend, you are alive!" Torum suddenly cries and runs toward the Ice Giant who just spoke, hugs him.

"Yes I am, brother, it was such a long time!" Aluis says in tears.

Selene can not believe in her own eyes, the people in front of her match exactly the descriptions of Ice Giants in the books her father used to read for her as bed time stories. They are no doubt the Ice Giants as they claimed. More than that, Torum knows one of them, and the two are jumping in tears and joy.

Torum turns to his Lady and explains "Here, Lady Selene, is my brother in arm, General Aluis, we fought along side during the war. I thought he and his entire race were erased when people of the East betrayed our alliance."

 Then they explained more about how the Lords had decided to keep them in secret for thousands years. With the hostile situation has gone, they are know speak to each others in a more friendly tone. Selene asks them,

"Tell me general Aluis, what is going on in this place? Why did Siren build such a great army, armed with weapons from the Light Half?"

Aluis then says, "They are not weapons from the Light Half, Lady Selene, they are the modified version of them. And we, the Ice Giants, helped them to do that." then looks at Selene then continues, "The Ice Giants are like the Sky people and the Elves, we lives for thousands of year and slow at reproduction. Our population was never enough to afford our own army for the incoming war against Chaos. We don't want to be once against betrayed by the human anymore, so our elders had decided to join with Queen Siren and lord Thirdule of the Elves to create our own force. The force must be big enough for war and for protection of our kingdom against the treacherous human at the same time."

"Then why didn't you speak with my father?" she asks.

"We did, but Lord Solaris is a wise man. His land is surrounded by many human lands, and is an important trading knot of the entire world. If we execute our plan there, the human may turn on him, and it is dangerous for his people. More than that, there are more than half of his men are human too, so it would not be wise to raise an anti human army there."

"In your words, I see hatred, Aluis. Is that true that Ice Giant hates human so much?", Selene speaks her thought.

"I am not going to deny our dislike for human, but hatred is a big word. It is true that our mothers, our sons were massacred by the hand of them, but not all of them are bad. They still have more hope in their heart than in ours, and they are truly strong. Most of my valiant friends were among them. If we are going to win this war, we can not put the human aside."

"You are thoughtful, and your words are indeed wise. I have misunderstood Queen Siren, and I must apology to her." Selene says.

"Your heart is honest, and honorable, lady Selene. You are a true friend to anyone who befriended you. May you always find friends as true as you are." Aluis says.

After that, Selene opens the way out for the Ice Giants, and she herself goes to the palace, explains everything to Siren then apologies to her. Siren says to her: "Selene, my young friend, there is no need to apology. Your concern is very thoughtful. It really was my fault for being so oblivious to your thoughts. Things would go vague for both of us if Torum, your brave warrior wasn't there. I would like to personally thank him for everything."

Then Selene calls Torum in to meet the queen. He walks in, in his old and stained armor, tattered cloak but his eyes glitters. Even though he has been more than eight thousands years old, age doesn't seem to have any effect on him. He looks like a young human man at his prime, with long, curly black hair and a muscled statue. Siren has her feeling for him since she learned his battle alone with the Great Kraken for his brother. And when she was treating his wounds, he had never uttered any sigh of the great pain of many bones broken or the grief of his fallen twin. "A brave heart!" was what Siren thought of him. She also lost her dear brother, but she wept for months and left her people, her responsibility behind, while he just stand up again and again for his duty. He took his pain into action, and sworn to do both his job and Torim's job at the same time. Siren knows that she has learned more from this valiant man in a month than from her thousands years of existence. For that, her heart leans on his, and she really wish to be with him, but she doesn't know if he has the same feeling or not.

<To be continued>

Chapter 3: Selene Aglarus (Part 1)

On a shore line in the West, where the unusual, cold and devilish winds are blasting into the main land from the sea, three hooded figures are moving in a rush. The sands that are blown up by the gusts continuously hit their outfits, and would choke any one who is not well protected, but they can not penetrate through the fabric masks of these people, that only their glittering green eyes are revealed. Two of them, who are big and seemingly strong, also carry two spears on their back, while the third one, who always stays in the middle, resembles that of a woman.

Their destination is a cave near the spiky rocks, that heads out to the open water. It is old and mossy, but the beautifully carved structures inside indicate that this is not something nature could come up without the hands of people. It is called the Aquarius Entrance, or the Gate to Ocean's Heart. The trio slowly moves deeper into it, with their eyes widely opened to assert the surrounding environment. They have a feeling of being watched.

Their feeling is true, when swiftly, from the dark of the corner of the cave, many man with heavy arms and scale armors come out, pointing their guns toward them.

"Freeze! Who do you think you are to enter this sacred place?", one of them steps out and shouts.  He is the one in charge here, to guard this gate and to command his men. Gladirus is his name.

"Since when the Aquarius people start to use Light Half weapons?" The smallest person of the hooded figures speaks with her soft voice. They seem calm as no weapon was drawn.

"It's none of your business, strangers. Who are you and what do you want in here?" Gladirus asks them again.

Then the girl pull her hood down, reveal her face and her golden long hair, as she speaks "My name is Selene Aglarus, daughter of Solaris Aglarus, heir of Skythea. I am here to deliver an important message to Leviathan's sister, Siren the Mermaid. These people are my guardians, Torim and Torum."

The two other hooded men then pulled down their hood, reveal themselves to be identical twins. However, neither of them really gets the attention of the sea men, as her magnificent beauty instantly stunts all of them already, except for Gladirus.

"What do messengers of Skythea want to deliver? It has been four hundreds years since Skythea and Aquarius had made any contact." He speaks in doubt.

"I will only speak to queen Siren, and no one else." Selene says.

Although he is still doubting these strangers, but he is not in a position to reject a messenger, so he says, "Very well then, Lady Aglarus, please come with me to our queen. However, I am afraid that your two guards must stay here until you come back. And please don't worry about them, for they are our guests here, and they will be treated generously with seafood and wine."

"I guess I can't say no to such a generous offer. My men will stay here as you say. Please lead the way.", then she signs to Torim and Torum, telling them to stay.

Gladirus and several men in silver scale armors escorts her to the end of the cave, which is a massive water fall. Behind it is another massive cave, that in turn leads to a whole city inside a gigantic bubble beneath the ocean. Around the bubble, one can see many sea creatures of many size diving in their natural habitat. Some of them are as big as an island, while other smaller one move in hosts of thousands individuals, creating a truly mesmerizing scene of the sea world. Of course no normal human can be able to see to the end of this vast city and its protection bubble. However, Selene is not a normal human, her eyes sight is said to be even more mighty than the Dragons of the North, as her people call her the Phoenix Eyes.

"This world is so beautiful!" she says.

"It is, Lady Aglarus. We sea people try to protect and reserve the nature of the ocean as much as we can, so the future generations will have a chance to experience all of this beauty. And not to the acknowledge of most people, this city is called Aquaria" Gladirus speaks.

They then go to the center of Aquaria, where a jade, magnificent palace stands. Its four towers point high to the top of the bubble, provides a convenient place to cover the whole city under them. This is the Siren's palace, where she places her lordship upon all the oceans, while her brother, Leviathan went away to join the council of the Lords. She used to come out of her palace to visit her people and to bless them, but now she is just staying inside it, with all the doors shut, grieving since the news of his dead was brought upon her. The whole city is covered in black garments, to cry for him.

Gladirus escorts Selene to a big room, that seems to be a bed room for some sort of giant people, then he tells her to wait their until the queen decides to meet her before leaving. In the center of the room, there is a giant bed, with blurry mist coming out of it, concealing the person it carries in the middle.

"This is where we were hatched, from our parents eggs. The only two eggs that survived." a woman's voice is heard inside the mist.

"My name is Selene Aglarus, it is my pleasure to meet you in person, Queen Siren." Selene introduces herself.

"He had been the most caring person ever. Our parents had left us since we were just kids, and he was the only family I had", the queen continues to weep, ignoring Selene presence.

"Um..Queen Siren?" She asks "I am here to deliver a message from my father, lord Solaris. We want..."

"I know what you want, Phoenix Eyes. And deep in my heart, it is not what I desire." Suddenly the queen speaks back to her, and from the mist, she walks out, reveal her true stature similar to that of a mermaid, but at the size of thrice the size of an Ice Giant. As she moves closer to Selene, her body shrinks, until she is just as Selene's size. For a moment, the princess of Skythea wonders about how big actually this beautiful queen is. However, it is not a proper time to ask her about that, when her eyes are still filled with tears. But even the tears and sadness couldn't conceal that brilliant beauty. The curls of black hair fall down her bare shoulders bouncing on air as waves on the sea of a stormy day. Her eyes glow like the stars on a deep night sky, and even in darkest sorrow, these stars still sparkle tenderly like a rare jewel under the deep ocean, not every one have chance to see it, but once it has been seen, no one can get it out of their mind. If someone at this era really has to compare the beauties of Selene Aglarus with Siren the Mermaid, he would probably compare them as the images of the brilliant Sun and the elegant Moon. Selene shines in the day, her heavenly light nurtures the earth surface, give colors, warmness and life to every living things that light can reach, whilst Siren gently sings a lullaby to sweet children, lights up and leads lonely strangers back to their home, where their loved one are waiting. Add more to that, Selene's look is somewhat more impulsive than Siren who's light is dimmer, and beautiful in her own way.

In this room, two most beautiful women of the world are facing each other, and one is sobbing for her loss.

"Your kingdom has always prepared for war, waiting for the day The Fallen One revenges on us. It is not the first time Lord Solaris sends messengers to me to ask for support. Although, this is the first time he sends his only daughter on such a mission." the mermaid says.

"And all of those times, you have avoided to answer the question."

"Yes, I did. Because my people belong to the sea. We vowed to keep the balance of nature, to reserve sea life, not to die in the battlefield." She then sighs, "But now everything has changed. The oceans are rampaged by monsters, and my brother can not protect us anymore..." she weeps again.

Selene feels sympathy to her, so she says, "I know your feeling, I have lost a very dear person in my life too. But tears and sorrows won't change anything, you must grow stronger, and then you can do what Leviathan could not, and make him proud."

"Thank you, I have already thought of that. He would never sit in one place and do nothing like me. That is why I have an army properly armed and is now ready to join Lord Solaris on the war against the Fallen One and all of other threats" She says.

"Thank you Queen Siren. It is certainly a good news for my father. I will transfer your words to him. However, there is another reason for me to come to your kingdom." Selene says.

"And what is that?"

Selene then take out something from her cloak. That thing glows purple light on her hand, and light up the whole room. It is a Glowing Blossom.

"I am here because of this flower, queen Siren." She answers her and give the blossom to her.

Siren holds the blossom in her palms, and says "The Glowing Blossoms are extremely rare, and the reason why you came here with one must be very special."

"Yes it is, queen Siren. My father and Lord Leviathan were brothers in arm. They fought together, and in many battles they almost died together. For him, Leviathan's family is considered his own, and his matters are also my father's matter. Upon learning Leviathan's fate, sorrow has struck down on him has hard as it has done to you. He refused to believe in it because Leviathan's body was never recovered, and led his own investigators to discover the truth. And he found this flower." Selene says calmly, with a voice of sympathy.

Siren caress the blossom in her hand gently, "I appreciate Lord Solaris efforts, but this flower is not the same flower my brother always carried by his side. Even if the looks are the same, the feels are different."

"Because they are truly not the same. However, my father knows that you also have one of those flowers, given to you by the goddess Cardia - the goddess of Healing before she departed. Please look closer to the flower on your hands, and compare it with the flower you have."

Siren takes her words, and she takes out another Glowing Blossom from the top of her crown, which is normally hid from the curious eyes of anyone else by a spell. Suddenly, her tears dried away, as a happiness smile shines on her face.

"This can't be! He is alive!"

"That is also what my father found out. Leviathan's only son, your nephew is still alive. And three months ago, he has absorbed a petal from the Flora Magical System." Selene explains.

"Even we have never been able to prove the existence of the System, but if what the old tales are true, then only the third generations of the old gods can absorb magic from the flowers." Serene adds.

"Yes, and the part that belonged to the water god vanished from all of our flowers. Only Leviathan's son can make that happen. He has returned to our land. We must find him." Selene concludes.

Siren sees hope again. She knows that even if Leviathan was alive, he would never stop seeking for his son, and now she must do it for him, to fulfill his final wish. Without any hesitation, she gladly accept Selene quest, but still, she asks her to stay in Ocean's Heart for several days, so she can have enough time to prepare. And Selene stays as she said, even though she knew nothing about what Siren is about to do.

On the third days of her stay, the Kraken attacked Aquaria. It is one of the enormous legendary monsters what were released because of the first order of the Lords to counter Light Half's invasion. It is a giant octopus with a mentality to destroy and feed  on everything on its way. And now, this city is on its way. Its tentacles quickly destroys many buildings and kills a majority number of civilians in the west part of the city. The guards tried their best, but they cannot stop such deadly force from advancing further into their land.

The mayhem was immediately reported to Siren, and Selene offered her help. Siren is not a warrior like her brother, as she spend more time in healing people than fight with them, therefore Selene's offer is welcomed by her. She sends one thousand elite men to go with Selene to the West of the city, along with her twin guards.

"Your only task is to delay Kraken, so please don't engage him directly, or many lives will be loss, Lady Selene." She says to Selene.

"Why so? What is the point of delaying him, when that will not make him go away?" Selene asks her, trying to figure out what Siren has in mind.

"Because then you can give enough time for Gladirus and his men to prepare our secret weapon. Please go now, you must hurry. When it happens, you will understand everything."

Selene asks no more, she trusts Siren. Then they depart to the battle ahead. And when they arrive, Kraken has already destroyed  the West district. She sends five hundreds men to help finding the survivors and lead them out to other parts of Aquaria. The rest stay with her to lay traps on every paths that Kraken go. They stay in the shadow, unknown to him, and run behind the standing walls of the ruined district. Even their petty traps could not make any significant harm to him, they enraged him and lure him to the rear of the city, so he couldn't advance any further. However. as he furiously seeking for the people who dare to challenge him, many men fell under his might, including Torim. He was placing a lighting trap under the a tower, but Kraken was near and he can smell the scent of him. So he attacked and level down that tower, buried Torim in the wreckage. When Torum heard his cry, he ran as fast as he can to his dying brother, but it was too late. Kraken search the wreck and found him first, then eat Torim right in front of the horrified face of Torum. Couldn't bear the lost of his brother, Torum take out his titanium spear, and threw it at Kraken's right most eye, injured him. But that only made Kraken became more furious, and with nine eyes left, he still can see the attacker and immediately hurled a large rock back at Torum. Torum dodged that rock, and cast multiple wind slash spells into Kraken face, but merely scratch it. This led to an all out battle between the men under Selene's command and the legendary monster.

Selene has the Earth and Air auras in her, but even with her exceptional magic skills, she is not a trained fighter. While her men are fighting against the great Kraken and falling one by one, she can merely cast rock barriers spells to protect her fellows from being crushed by his tentacles. Torum, otherwise, is a capable warrior who has fought during the War of the Fallen many thousands of year ago. He and Torim have faced many dangerous foes before Kraken, their wisdom in battle was the reason why Lord Solaris sent them to protect Selene on her quest. However, now he is blinded by anger, and leaves many of his weakness visible for Kraken to exploit. Once Kraken is aware of that, he strikes a tentacle on Torum in middle of his leap, sending him flying to a nearby forest. Luckily, Selene was fast enough to cast a wind spell on him that greatly reduces the impact of the landing, but still, he broke several bones and can not move for now. There are only twenty five men left, struggling with Selene to fight against the wrath of the great Kraken, and they are all weary after so many jumps and dodges. Even with the magic of Selene, they can barely hold off Kraken at the border and now Selene is wounded for a debris was hurled at her arm. Kraken spotted her, the leader, and is now standing in front of her as a mountain.

He looks down to her, then say: "o tiny human, how dare thou to challenge mine might? one eye thou might took, but thou shall not overcome mine wrath! prepare to be crush'd." Then he raises up four of his tentacles, ready to deliver the final blow.

At that moment, when Selene thinks the outcome of the battle has been settled, suddenly Kraken receives two devastating blasts on his face, and falls to his back. Selene turn herself to look at the outside of the bubble, where two enormous black figures appeared. They looks like two big whales, but cold and lifeless, covered in black metal. As the men cry in wonder and joy for their supports have finally arrived, from the holes on the surface of those things, many smaller things is fired toward the great Kraken.

"They are the submarines of the Light Half's army, and the things that are coming out from them are called missiles. They are fire-propelled explosive arrows that can tear down the thick skin of Kraken." One man explains to her in joy.

"Are the people of the Light Half controlling those things?" she asks.

"No, lady Selene. Master Gladirus and his men are inside those machine. They are controlling them to destroy our enemy!"

Kraken cries in agony. The ships continuously shot missiles at him and the explosions rip his tentacles off. His cry soon fades away in the sound of the explosions. Then the ships stop firing, as Kraken lifeless body lays there in the victory cheers of the survivors.

That day, the Aquarius people tow away the body of once a legendary monster, and throw it into the darkest, deepest crack of the ocean. Selene's men come into the forest where Torum fell, search for him and then takes him back to queen Siren, where she can heal his wounds. She also offers to heal Selene wound, but she politely refuses. Selene has realized that there are too many things in this city that she hasn't known of, and she does not want to accept any help from the people here unless she finally discover their true purpose and their connection to the Great Invasion of the Light Half.

Chapter 2: The adventure begin (Part 5)

<continues>

"Yes, this is definitely it, the sword that was born in the flame of Abbardu's mightiest volcano, is purely heavenly metal. My father used to tell me about its glories, and this is undoubtedly the Lightbringer." Toduras says.

Lenny grabs the sword's hilt, expecting to feel some thing strange and awesome. However, much to his disappointment, it is still the same as before, not lighter, nor filled with magic nor anything else.

"This is still my sword. I can't see anything different here except for its shape." He says.

"My child, this sword itself does not make a legendary weapon. You must engage a powerful enemy with it and by faith, it will show its true might. Weapons can only find themselves worthy in war.", light continues to glitter from Dararia eyes, as she is speaking on behalf of Ophion.

Lenny looks at the sword again, then turns to Ophion, with fire in his eyes, and says "Great Ophion, I don't seek for war, nor welcome it. My fate brought me here in this land by war, laid waste to countless of good people's life. I seek peace only, and the answer of my origin. But if I may have to use this sword again in battles for the good of people, or to stop these meaningless wars, then war I shall come to. Hope that the end of Chaos will also be the end of this blade and all other deadly tools we have."

"Very well my child, if your good heart desires peace, not glories, then this sword of light will lead you to the right path. Your enemies will be broken wherever you place your footsteps on. For now, I must bid you farewell and join my high father on his table. But worry not, I will always watching after you and all of other Neo-gods, for they are the last hope of this world and the grimiest days have yet to come." Ophion says, then before Lenny could do anything, his soul departed, leaving Dararia sitting confused on the ground, after a glittering light streamed to the stars.

"What just happened? I feel so dizzy.." She speaks, as Lenny picks her up to his shoulder again.

"I will tell you later, Dararia, but now we must flee from this place. The gate has detected us already." He says.

The gate was alerted by the light of Ophion departing, so it starts to cry out many weird spells that even Dararia cannot understand. The ground shakes violently, as many things emerge from it. They then revealed to be the lifeless rotting bodies of many fallen creatures that was consumed by the Gate. They are moving like puppets on strings, as the Gate is controlling them to get to its preys.

The trio runs fast, breaks through countless rings of those monster, desperately trying to get away. They keep standing up after being struck down by Lenny and Toduras, for they are already dead and nothing can kill the dead. The heavenly light of the Lightbringer continuously flashing through the rotten flesh of the summoned, leads Lenny and his companions nearer to the swamp. Even if they are outnumbered, Lenny and Toduras are not normal warriors so they have little to fear. Toduras with his devastate punches throw many monsters back to the gate like the winds blowing leafs. His icy breath frozen the ones that escaped his punches, making enough obstacles to slow down their hosts. At the rear of the swamp, deems that it is far enough from the Gate, he throws his Shadow Horses on Lenny and Dararia, so all of them escape to the ruin city right before the confused eyes of the dead puppets.

When there is no more danger chasing them, they stop to discuss about the next thing to do.

"I would want to come back and say goodbye to grandma Mely, but we do not have time. The people of Dakurtasia must be warned before Mors falls. " Lenny says.

"But she doesn't know about the danger coming from the Gate neither. If we don't warn her, she may come here looking for us and risking her life meeting the Fallen One." Dararia speaks her thought.

"You are right. Therefore, Dararia, you must come back to her and tell her everything we know and tell her to go to the south, where the cities of the human still stand. They also must be warned. We don't know for sure where the army of Chaos will attack next. The herd of dragons immigrating to the south later tomorrow will be a good transportation mean for all of you."

"How about you?" She asks him.

"I must go with Toduras, for I am the only one who can wield the Lightbringer, and if anyone will have to face Chaos, it will be me. If I live, we will meet again", Lenny speaks firmly.

Dararia doesn't want to part him, but there is no other choice, so she cries his name while Lenny and Toduras figures fade away in the darkness. She knows that her chance of reuniting with her young master is as little as the life left in this land. Now, the fate of the southern cities are lying on her little wings, as if she and the grandma cannot warn them on time, the war will start before their lords have their best preparation.

This is the end of Lenny's first adventure. While he and Toduras are rushing back to Dakurtasia and Dararia is telling grandma Mely to warn the lords of the south, another story has already started in a very far place to the west of the Dark Half.


<To be continued>
Chapter 3: Selene Aglarus (Part 1)

Five years of love and still going

I met her on a stormy night, outside of a class during my third year. She was so much different from my ex: more elegant, taller, and more capable of memorizing my bullshits. We have been through a lot of things together since. Most of the time, she was by my side, be there to take whatever I threw at her, both joys and sorrows. There were times I thought I lost her forever, when I almost cried like a little kid looking for every corners to find her. But she always found a way to come back to me, much to my surprise, to continue looking after my problems.

Sometimes I even asked myself, what would happen to my life without her light? Would I still be here writing these nonsense or would I bow on my knees out there begging for spare coins in the coldest of nights? She has been everything for me. She has changed my life forever, through every small things she did, despite of all the bad things I did to her. Forgive and forget, it is like her only attitude toward life, and toward me.

Five years have passed, and we are still together working through many hardships life is bringing to us. Such a happy time... For the years to come, I want you to never leave me again, for you are already the most wonderful thing ever happened to my life.

I love you, my 8Gb HP USB.

'til death do us part!

P/s: My EX was a 8Gb USB too, but her real capacity was only 7.45Gb, while you has 7.6Gb. So no jelly, ok?

A true story at the library

_This is a true Story_

I was borrowing a Tolkien's book from Merrill-Cazier library at the counter. After some document works, the librarian finally gave me the book...

... And she said: "You will have to return this book by maaaaate!"

"Mate?" said the apparently confused me.

"Yes, maaaaate." she stressed on that word again.

At that time, the only word that comes with such pronunciation in my dirty mind was 'mating'. My eyes were wide opened and 'Why does she say such thing?' was my thought.

"Is that okay?" she said.

"What is okay?" I uttered.

"Maaaaate." again, the word was stressed.

"ummmm..." My brain was frozen, so was my face. She is certainly a beautiful girl, but this is just not right. I couldn't believe this is happening to me. 'Or am I hearing wrong?', I thought.

She seemed to notice my confusion, "Does maaaaate make any sense to you?".

"I don't think so. It doesn't make any sense to me." I lied, because it made perfect sense for such a handsome creature like me. Just the context of this conversation did not really add up.

"Oh right, it is okay. I sent you an email, you can look at it later", she smiled suspiciously.

"An email?" I spoke my thought out loud, expecting her to clarify something that can clear my confusion. Why email?

"Yes, by email, it will give you all the detail.", again, her smile became unbearably suspicious.

After that, both of us exchanged some thanks, and a goodbye. I walked out of the library with tons of unanswered questions inside my head. How could she say such thing? and why? Did I miss anything? Was it a prank? And if what I've heard was true, shouldn't it be 'mating', not 'mate'? Isn't it a word for animals only?

Then the phone in my pocket vibrated, indicated a new email had just arrived. I took it out of the pocket and opened the email. It says:

"DUE DATE: 05-08-15 (May Eight)"

Damn you English! Life is hard for a non-native speaker.

Chapter 2: The adventure begin (Part 4)

<Continues>

This land used to be the place where the most fearsome battle between the Light Half's army and the Hell Spawns took place. The human had failed and was crushed completely by the overwhelming power of the Hell Spawns, especially when they were having the surprise element on their claws. Many of his friends have fallen here with no proper burial. Their fleshes are here for the ravens to feast until nothing but bones left. Still, their terrified screams echoes on the wind until today.

They walked carefully around the decomposed bodies, avoid disturbing their sleep. Toduras picks up every swords and guns he could find, then puts them into a small pocket. "It's a bottomless pocket.", he said. Meanwhile, Lenny still tries to find his way to the crate where Joe was killed. It is the last place he could still remember before hibernated for six months straight.

Suddenly, Toduras yells: "Beware Mister Leonard, I feel endless evil from where you are heading to."

Lenny then recalls his last piece of memory, which is an image of a terrifying portal lies at the center of a crate where the evil shadows pour out endlessly. Lava streams around it as the fire burns every unfortunate creatures that fell within to ashes. The heat is even more intense than all his fire spell combined. If what grandma Mely said were right, then that image should be the Hell Gate, and it is located upon where Joe thought it was their base. Moreover, Lenny, Toduras and Dararia are very close to it.

"Me too, Master. The scent of evil is weakening my wings. I can't fly anymore in this state." Dararia quivers. Lenny has never seen her like that. He takes her on his hands, then put her on his shoulder. "Stay on my shoulder Dararia, I am sure my sword is laying somewhere near that big hole. We will get out of here when we get that, okay?"

"Okay" says Dararia, in her tired voice.

Toduras walks over, looks at them and says "I will go too. Better three of us than just two of you.".

Lenny thinks he is right, as he looks at his eyes and nods. The group then moves ahead to the direction Toduras felt evil lies. In this dark night, for every step they take, the gravity field becomes much stronger. They feel like their feet are getting heavier, to the point the earth under them starts to level down. Without strength enhancement by magic, there is noway a human could walk this near to the gate. Even though, Lenny still feels strange because he and Joe were running straight to the crate without any magic that day. There must be something different going on here.

"The reason why the gravity force here is getting stronger is the spell Stata used to close the gate. It is a graviton spell that seal the entire area surround it with earth force." Toduras explains to him, after seeing his friends struggled to stay on their feet.

"Can you cast Shadow Horse on us to make us lighter? I hate this gravity, aww" Dararia says her thoughts out loud.

"Sorry I can't. I would be too risky. The gate is a living thing, it can smell that spell and steal it to free itself." says Toduras.

"It's fine, we can still continue, quit complaining old bookie." Lenny mocks her, makes her grumpy again but can't fight back because her body can't move. Then Toduras points to the shimmering light a head, whispers "Look, there it is!"

Lenny immediately realizes that exact place where Joe were burned, and he himself got blown away. It still looks like before, in front of the huge crate. His eyes become red, as the memory of his best friend comes back more powerful than ever. But there is no time to grieve, they must search for the sword and leave here before the Gate realizes there are some intruders. At the bottom the the crate, the black, gigantic Gate is grunting in pain. Its faint sound can be heard in the dark if someone get close enough. However, that is also a death wish if that someone let it know its presence. Surround it lies countless of white bones of Hell Spawns who wandered near the Gate by mistake. Their souls were eaten alive along with their fleshes. It has no ally, nor foe. Its only purpose of existence is to feed with the souls of everything, living or dead. One tenth of the Hell Spawns who got out of its portal were consumed as a payment for their freedom. The legend said it only vowed to serve the Fallen One, but now its master is dead, no one or nothing can make it bows down again.

While Toduras and Lenny are carefully search on the ground for any sword that resemble what they are looking for, Dararia notices a shiny light peaks out from under the dirt. "Hey, I saw something there, check it out Master!", she points her paw to the shiny thing.

Toduras is nearer to it, so he swiftly digs it up, reveals a beautiful, but rusty sword. It is about three feet long, with some odd words carved on the side. Lenny immediately recognize his sword, which was given to him by his king for a reason he never knows. Toduras grabs the hilt and starts to pull it out of the dirt, but it doesn't move, no matter how hard he pulls. For the first time in his freezing life, Toduras feel sweat runs down his face.

"No one can hold it except me and the king. It was told to be a powerful relic of the ancient time. That is why I thought it would be worth this trip." Lenny explains to the exhausted Toduras with a calmly voice. Then he move forward, grabs the hilt with one hand and easily lift up the entire sword in front of Toduras's surprising face. "As you can see on the side of it, these are the ancient words. I don't know what they mean but I saw the same thing written on the cover of Dararia the first time I met her.", he points to the words.

Toduras takes a closer look at the words, and starts to speak, " These are the language of the Ice Giants of the ancient time. It says -Here sealed the might of Ophion. Only his bloodline can discover the truth-".

"Isn't Ophion the god who had slain The Fallen One?" Lenny asks him.

"Apparently yes. But I never knew what were written on my cover, are you sure you saw the same thing on my cover?" Dararia doubts her master, for this is the first time she has heard about such thing.

"I am very sure about that. The same notations I have been looking at for years in the military school." Lenny says.

"Hmmm, so how can you and your king can use one of Ophion's relics? Also, how did people in the Light Half get a hold of this relic in the first place?" Toduras states some questions he is not yet able to answer.

"I don't know. The king gave it to me after he met me in the military school. None of my other comrades got any thing from him so I was very proud of myself. More over, I feel most comfortable using this sword than any other sword." As he speaks, Lenny swings his sword and makes some slides on the air, impress Toduras.

"Hmm, That's strange. There must be some explanations on this." Toduras puts his hand to hold under the chin, while looks deeply to the sword, thinking.

However, while Toduras is busy striking for an explanation and Lenny is swinging his favorite sword on the air , they don't notice a change on Dararia. Her eyes start to glitter blue, and her wings can work again. She takes off from Lenny's shoulder much to his surprise.

"Hey Dararia, weren't you feeling tired just a minute ago?" he asks her, but she doesn't reply. Her eyes still glow, soullessly. She is now hovering in front of Lenny and Toduras.

"I am Ophion. OR part of him. I am pleased to know that you, my descendant are alive and well.", she says, in a majestic male voice.

This stunts both Toduras and Lenny, they never expected such things to happen. Dararia, their friend, is now speaking behalf of Ophion, the ancient god, and not be herself anymore.

"What the hell are you doing, Dararia?" Lenny shakes his face.

"Mister Lennard, it is not her." Toduras turns to him.

"Dararia is a part of my soul, son. I asked Dararie to create her to carry on my will after I died. Now, at this moment, you have fulfilled the task of collecting two of my relics. Therefore I took over her body to grant you your directions you need before I must fade away to join with my brothers and sisters on the Void of Time." Ophion speaks to them.

"By two relics, you meant Dararia and this sword?" Toduras asks him.

"Ahhh, the son of Kozuras, my great old friend. Please send him my blessings when you meet him again. Yes, I meant Dararia and this sword. My child here has found them himself, and started his long journey to find the rest of my relics until he can defeat the Fallen One once and for all." He speaks.

"I will send your words to my father, and I believe he would be very pleased to know that you are still here, on Terra." says Toduras. "However, you mentioned the Fallen One, who was slain by your might long ago, how could he still live?"

"Son of Kozuras, unlike the tales about my victory over The Fallen One, in reality, I failed to destroy him. Instead, me and the other gods had to seal him in the deepest pit of Hell. He since then has been vowed to revenge on Terra's creatures. Now, as his power are growing stronger every day, he can freely release himself from the seal and is wreaking havoc in the underworld. The army of Hell Spawns built by Mors are clashing with his army while we are continuing this conversation. Mors will not be able to hold him for long. Once he fall, the last frontier between this world and The Fallen One will be broken." Ophion speaks.

"Who is Mors?" Lenny utters.

"Mors is the Death God, the god and the ruler of Hell. He is Stata's father and people has been long suspected him for raising an army of demons and Hell Spawns in the underworld. We didn't know that his army was to fight again the Fallen One.." Toduras explains.

"It was a secret kept among gods. We want to give the races of Terra enough of peaceful time to grow until you can be strong enough to fight against him once and for all." Ophion continues his speech. "More over, my child, you and four other Neo-Gods are the hope of people, as you all received the might of us to carry on our fight with our more powerful than ever archenemy. The Fallen One has remembered his real name, given by the Creators themselves to the one and only Destroyer of Worlds. His name has been revealed by Sága to the people of this world long ago."

"CHAOS??? It can't be.." Toduras speaks his thoughts out loud, to the surprise of Lenny.

"Yes, his real name is Chaos, the Destroyer of World. His sole purpose is to destroy everything and turn everything back to the void, not to rule by violent as the tales once said." Ophion helps Toduras to clarify his worst fear, makes him fall on his knees.

"This can't be true, because if it is, Dakurtasia is in great danger. The Fallen One hates my father the most. Once he get pass Mors, Dakurtasia will be the next destination for his army to match to." His voice contains deep concern of his people.

Lenny looks at him, and says "Then we must hurry, Toduras. We will have to warn them so they will have a plan to counter this attack."

"You are right, mister Leonard. We must hurry." He says to Lenny.

"Yes, you must, my children. However, let me give you something that may help you on your journey." Ophion says, then Dararia's eyes start to glow brighter in front of Toduras and Lenny.

The sword in Lenny's hands then pull itself out of his owner's palm, and float in front of him. The rust on its blade starts to fade out, so do the words on the side. Its shape is taking a drastic change, from a beautiful, majestic sword into a more fearsome, more elegant, but somewhat extraordinary one. Lenny quickly recognizes it as the sword his statue was holding in Toduras's vision, but Toduras recognizes a different thing,

"That is... unbelievable....it is the Lightbringer! Mister Leonard, you were holding the legendary Lightbringer these entire time!" he utters in tears. These are the tears of happiness when a blacksmith sees for his own eyes the masterpiece of all weapon creations.

"The.. lengedary Lightbringer you ..and Dararia told... me about earlier?" Lenny stutters.

<To be continued>

Mors fighting against Chaos Army

*NEW* Silly Taro and Caro's adventure diary

This new fictions is written by my little brother, who is only 9 years old up this day. The expression maybe not as beautiful as what adults can do, but his idea is quite original and also some what pretty!

<The story begins>

My name is Caro. I live in a planet called "The valley of the fools" because everyone who live there are extremely stupid, except me, of course. I always wanted to travel the Milky Way so one day, I packed up and asked my best friend, Caro the Silly, to begin our adventure!

Chapter One: The desert road and we thought we were dead.

Me and Caro walked on the star road. It is a huge desert and after 45 kilometers, Caro screamed at top of his lung: "I NEEEEEED WATEEER!"
I said: "We are out of water, Caro. Hold on, we will be at the next planet soon.." Then we scrawled 3 more hours.
It wasn't easy because we also had to walk pass the Cactus Graveyard, where the cacti are like nowhere else. Their thorns are so long we needed two hours just to get rid of them. Luckily we didn't get much scratches from that.

We even met the Nobits, underling of the Gladiator. They were shooting at us.  I had to use my old rusty shield to cover myself while Caro was hiding behind a rock. Unfortunate for him, his leg got a bullet in the flesh.

Suddenly, a masked man appeared and took down one of them, scared the rest to escape away.

<to be continued>

Chapter 2: The adventure begin (Part 3)

The Fallen One and the Axe Of Destruction

<continues>

"Who is he? He seem to be a famous person." Lenny asks.

"He is the one who forged the Lightbringer, the sword that put down the Fallen One.", she says.

Lenny scratchs his head, "To be honest, I barely understand what you two are talking about. Fallen One? Lightbringer? Wars?"

Dararia looks at him, then explains and Lenny listens to her carefully, "umm. I forgot to teach you some history of this land. Here we go... Ten thousands years ago, there is no Dark Half or Light Half. The world was populated by the human and their flourishing civilization. They had big cities everywhere on the surface of Terra, powered by their advance technologies and industrial developments. The legend said, they even explored the space outside of this world in the hope of finding other worlds or civilizations out there. However, they didn't know that what they wanted to find was already within Terra itself, and they shouldn't discover it. But they did. There were many regions and beliefs among mankind at that time, and with the stubborn nature of man, conflicts arised. They started out with small conflicts then came to a total, destructive war that later brought apocalypse upon their civilization. Their weapons were designed to not just destroying their enemies, but themselves too. Life faded out of Terra surface, as there was no longer a mean for anything to survive on a toxic surface anymore, people had to dig to the ground beneath. However, they dug too deep. The survivors of mankind found something that was meant to be left alone, as it is the seal of all evil, a portal to another world. It was hidden by the Creators of this world, so mankind would never find it."

Toduras continues her story, "...yet they found it, and opened it out of curiosity. The evils lies within the other world then poured into their home like flood, and there was nothing humankind can do to stop them. Men was on the brink of  extinction, so is everything else in our world. There seemed to be no hope left, until the Creators finally decided to interfere to change the fate of mankind. They were always watching over this world, and the opening of that portal made them no longer to just sit and observe anymore. They sent their twelve children to Terra to help mankind fought against the evil. Their leader, Maasai, was the most powerful of all, has restored life on the surface so men can be able to walk on it again, and gathered them under one flag. He and other children of the Creators then led them to battle, defeated the evils and even match into their world, conquered them. However, that was against the wish of the Creators, as they only wanted their children to maintain balance of the mortal worlds, not destroying it. Their children did not listen to them, which angered them to the point that they wished to never see their children again, then closed the door to their home. The children of the Creator had no other choice but to stay with men even after they had done their deed. Men called them Gods, as we know it. Maasai was exhausted after the war, so he decided to rest in the evil world, and called it Hell. He became the first god of Hell and banished all living creatures out of that world, then sealed the portal away. However, there was something in Hell that had entered our world within the first opening of the portal, it is magic. There is noway for even the gods to put magic back into Hell, so they taught mankind how to utilize it... " He then pauses to grab a drink from Dararia and let her continues the story.

"...yes, the god taught people to use magic, but not everyone wanted to learn. Mankind has long relied on their technologies, they refused to believe in things that they can not explain. Their leaders asked the gods to leave and return the land to them, which deeply hurt their feeling. Legend said that they then created a great invisible wall on the seas, separate Terra into two parts, one with magic, and one without it, that was how the Dark Half and the Light Half were created. Only men who believes in magic were allowed to move into the Dark Half. The invisible wall is actually a region on the sea, in which hungry monsters and unpredicted weather anomaly make it impossible for men to cross. Magic is also trapped in the Dark Half, because the other half doesn't need it. Since then, history of men was split into two different paths, unknown to each other. The gods then created many other creatures to help men to rebuild their civilization, including the Ice Giants of the north, the Phoenixes of the south, the Mermaids of the West and the Elvens of the east. For two thousands years, they all lived in peace and harmony under the rule of the gods until the portal to Hell was opened again. An army of Hell Spawns matched into the Dark Half, but they were more organized than the two thousands year prior. They had a new leader, who is called the Fallen One. The Fallen One was also a child of the Creators, in fact, he was the first child of the Creators, no one knows his real name, even him had forgotten it long ago. He was sent to Hell world right after the Creators created him because of his ambition to rule everything by violence, and that suits the nature of Hell. Upon matching his army into Terra, he sent a finger of Maasai to the gods, declared that Maasai had been slain, and he would then aim for the others, thus started the War of The Fallen One. Mankind, Ice Giants, Elvens, Mermaid were all participated in the war to protect their land.  Together, they were able to push the force of the Fallen One back to the region of Abbardu, where he fortified to become his base to attack the other regions. However, upon the power of the Allies of human and other races, he knew that he cannot win the war without breaking their trust. The Fallen One knew the the greedy nature of the human, and used it to serve his purpose. He deceived the human leaders into believing that they will be ranked among gods if they follow him and destroy the other gods. His snake tongue soon poisoned the minds of half the human army, led them against the other races and the ones who follow the gods. They used the weapons provided by the Ice Giants to attack the Ice Giants, killed many of them, drove them into extinction. Luckily, Tod here told us that it wasn't entirely true, and the Ice Giant survived."

"Tod?" Toduras utters.

Lenny giggles, "Looks like you got a new name from her foul mouth."

"Foul mouth? Master, do you want me to tear your tongue into ten thousands parts??? And yeah, Tod, I like to call you icy face that way, is there any problem?" Her bullet eyes point to Toduras, startle him.

"Oh no no, it is fine by me, lady fairy dragon.", he tries to avoid the trouble, but still adds a comment after, "you are really a strange couple of magic companion and master."

"Don't worry Toduras, she likes to speak like that, but she never be able to harm anyone with that little body of her. Ouch!", Dararia smashes him on his head.

"Yeah, feel that? Now you can stop complaining about me and listen to the rest of the story already!"

He embraces his head and hisses, "okay, please continue you grumpy book.", this time it is Toduras's turn to giggle, but he does not dare to say anything.

"That will teach you a lesson. Now listen carefully here. Hmm, where was I?" She pauses a second then continues, "Ahhh. The Ice Giant empire was annihilated by the treachery human, and their leader, Kozuras of the North was captured. He was known as the greatest blacksmith of this world, so the Fallen One thought he could be valuable to him. He gave Kozuras a large piece of Orihalconium metal, which is a magical metal that was sent to Terra as the vessel of the gods. It has the ability to protect the them from harming during their trip to our world. Even Adamantium is not as hard has that kind of metal, and beside the gods, no one else can hold them on their hands. The Fallen One ordered Kozuras to forge it into a powerful weapon for him, so he can use it to defeat other gods. However, Kozuras, who is loyal to the good gods, only used half of that precious metal to make the Axe Of Destruction and gave it to the Fallen One. With the material left, he then made the Lightbringer, or the sword of light, and secretly gave it to Ophion - Maasai's younger brother, god of the ocean - as he was the only god who's water power rival that fire power of the Fallen One. Ophion then led the last of the Allies to Abbardu, where they confront the evil god once and for all. With the mighty Lightbringer, Ophion managed to slain the Fallen One to revenge his brother, but he and other gods were also injured badly after the fierce battle. Afraid that the human might take that chance to overthrow them, they fled to unknown lands and hid away. Many years later, when mankind had almost healed from the war, some powerful people appeared one by one, claimed to be sons and daughters of the gods, came back to claim their influence. They are now known as the Lords. One of them, Sága, the lord of wisdom, who interestingly has the same power to see the future as our Tod here has given us the prophecy of Chaos before disappeared entirely. Some says that her vision was too terrible that she couldn't bear it anymore and killed herself. But that's what people said, perhaps Tod can tell us more about it." Both she and Lenny turn to Toduras at the same time, wait for his answer.

He then laughs out loud, "Haha, that's not true, lady Dragon Fairy. She actually fell in love with my father, and moved to Dakurtasia to live with him as husband and wife. Dakurtasia is a place hidden away from the eyes of men, so that is why no one knows she's there. I am their only son.", he speaks proudly.

"I knew it, so Sága is still alive. I am her biggest fan ever. Master Dararie created me out of her inspiration! Master Leonard, can we travel to Dakurtasia to meet Tod's mom? I have so many questions to ask her!!" she turns back to Lenny.

"Hey, don't ask me. I don't even know where that is. Also I am only interested  in going back to the Light Half. So if you want, you can go there alone.", he coldly responses.

"You ungrateful master. If I can go there alone then I wouldn't ask!!" she is getting angry.

Seeing the duo is about to fight again, Toduras interrupts them politely,
"Ha ha ha, please don't fight about that. Mister Leonard, if you want to cross the Invisible Wall, you should pay my father a visit. We have collected some sunken metal ships from the people of the Light Half to study their secret of travelling through the Invisible Wall without the bless of Leviathan. They may be the invaders, but their technologies are quite impressive. My father thought that if we can utilize those technology, we will gain an upper hand in the incoming war. Beside, after the death of Leviathan, there is no other way to cross the Invisible Wall anymore, especially when the six legendary sea monsters are still rampaging the ocean out there."

"See? We WILL visit Tod's mom, master. This can't be decided other way!!" Dararia ups her nose.

"Hmm. Alright, looks like I don't have any other choice. Thank you Toduras, for being so nice to me. Is it possible for us to join you after tomorrow? Because I need to say goodbye to grandma. She helped me so much. If it wasn't her help, I wouldn't be here speaking with any of you.", he speaks in a grateful tone.

"It's fine by me, Mister Leonard. I am glad that I can help. Also I am still not done with gathering Adamantium scales of that monster your defeated in the city. So we will have to wait for another day until I am able to go." Toduras shows his big, creepy smile.

Lenny and Dararia looks at each other in silence, they feel bad for AAPEP. That poor creature is not going to have any scale left soon, given Toduras's enormous arms and hands.

"Oh right, are you about to cross this swamp?" Toduras reminds them of their initial intention.

"We can't find any way to get pass. There are countless of things lurking under the water, we can't just swim over it." He explains their situation to him.

"Don't worry Mister Leonard, since I am about to cross this swamp too, why don't we go together?" He smiles generously.

"That's certainly cool. Thank you very much Toduras. But how exactly are you going to do it?"

"Okay, lets go!" He smiles and stand up, ignore Lenny's question.

Toduras then promptly walk to the rear of the swamp while Lenny and Dararia look at him with doubtful eyes. He says something to the wind, and three shadow clouds appears in front of them.

"They are the Shadow Horses, my own spells of transportation. If you walk inside it, your body will be as light as a feather and nobody can see you in this thick and dark fog. With them, we can walk over this swamp to the other side." He smiles and explains calmly. "I will wait for you on the other side", Toduras walks in one of the cloud, bends himself to the color of the environment then fade away, while Lenny and Dararia still look at it in awe.

The duo then reluctantly move inside their clouds, with the bigger one for Lenny and the smaller one for Dararia. Inside it, they can not feel their weight anymore, instead, they feel like they become one with the wind. Lenny has never run that fast in his life without spending any effort. They literally walk on water, as it has became concrete hard. Lenny can sense the presences of many monsters beneath the water or around the trees but they seem to not detect them at all. After a while, they hear a voice from their left.

"Mister Leonard, how is it?", Toduras asks while running in parallel with the duo.

"Thank you Toduras, it feels great. It feels like flying now!" He responses.

"I am glad that I can help, haha", Lenny can hear his loud laugh.

"By the way, why do you want to cross this swamp?" Lenny ask him.

"I've heard that there are many metals left in the graveyard. So I think I could go there and take them back to my kingdom." his voice raises again.

"That sounds interesting, because we are going there too, for my sword. I left it there when I was unconscious after the gate to Hell opened and wiped my platoon." He says loudly, afraid that the howling wind would make it hard for Toduras to hear.

"Oh, So you were with the invasion army? You surely have a very interesting background sir. Son of Leviathan and Stata, who then came back to his origin land with a huge army backing him up. That's awesome!" His voice is getting excited.

"You have heard my conversation with ATPIT, right? No, I am not the son of Leviathan and Stata. He has just mistaken me with someone else. Dararia also said that I am not born by normal mean, so I don't even know who I am now. That's why I wanted to travel to the Light Half and maybe I can find some answers for me there." He explains loudly.

"I believe his name is AAPEP, Mister Leonard. I saw the name on its belt, which is also made of Adamantium so..."

"... so you took that also? ohhh poor AAPEP ohhhh", Dararia giggles on the wind.

"yes. It is better in our hands than theirs, I think. Also, Mister Leonard, my mother can look into the past of people, so maybe she can help you to find the truth in case you can not cross the ocean." The howling wind doesn't block his words at all.

"Really? That's the best thing I have heard today, right, Dararia?", Lenny shouts to the wind.

"Yeah, another reason to meet my childhood's idol! Oh Sága I love youuuuuuuu!" Lenny can hear she is screaming.

The other side of the swamp starts to be visible to their eyes. Soon, they run to it and do not stop. The group keeps running toward the graveyard. Lenny starts to remember its familiar smell, the disgusting smell of dead bodies that violently rubbed into his nose when he woke up here three months ago.

<to be continued>

Ophion with the Lightbringer

The Hall of the Neo-gods

<Continues>

"But they are so smelly, I don't want to keep them", Lenny covers his nose firmly with his hand, like he would never want to see the tip of his nose again.

So they ended the fight like that, with a bit of preparation before hand and some acting skills. The young man and his companion is now heading for Road I. It took them some time to figure out which road is Road I since the fight had completely destroyed Clock Square and the marks. On the bright side, all the lesser Hell Spawns, those were lucky enough to escape the fight unharmed have already fled from the city, as Lenny can not feel any of their presences any more. But there are something, or someone to be exact, is following our man, unknown by him. The shadow moves behind the wall, agile as a cat and light as a feather. The fog covers its body, the wind blocks its sound, and the night supports its footsteps.

On the way, Lenny could not stop himself from thinking about what AAPEP said earlier, about him being the lost son of Stata and Leviathan. Even if the ages of them do not add up, it is still what he feared the most. What if he was really the lost boy fifty years ago? What if his mother was really the mass murderer who killed all of his friends and millions of other? Who erased Dararia's knowledge about him and why? There are so many questions raising on his mind, but none of that could be answered by now. So he can only hope for the spell that his little dragon said about, the one that can get his memories back.

 After a while, the great Swan Swamp appears before Dararia's tiny eyes, as she calls out her master to come forth and see what she feared the most: There is no transportation mean for them to cross the swamp. Despite of its beautiful name, the swamp is now a place that even Death would refuse to stay more than five minutes. There is no water, only a green, sticky fluid spreads all over the place. And its smell is like that of a thousand dead bodies. Also, there is something moving under it, something big and certainly not very friendly. Even with enhanced vision, Lenny still can not figure out what that thing is, but sometime its fins briefly emerged onto the surface for a moment before disappears again into the green fluid.

"There is noway we can get to the other side, Master!", Dararia seems to be quite disappointed.

Lenny looks at her, then looks at the swamp again. He is trying to think of a way. The map ends here as the graveyard is just several minutes of walking after this swamp. Grandma Mely has crossed this swamp many times before, there must be another way. Maybe she hides a boat somewhere, or maybe there is a tunnel that goes under these nasty fluid. At this time, he starts to feel a little bit regret for not asking the grandma every single detail about the trip. Turning back now is not an option, because giving up is never his trait. So there must be a way.

While Lenny is still concentrating in finding a possible method to get to the other side, Dararia, as usual, can't stop herself from complaining about everything here. She can't bear the smell, nor withstand the creepy environment this place has brought up. But then, she stops talking as she is seeing something coming from behind Lenny. She gives him a knock on his head to make him turn back.

"ouch! What are you doing, I am still thinking", he turns back and immediately grumbling.

However, she doesn't care about that, as her little paw is point toward the shadow that is slowly coming to them. Lenny finally notices that.

"Be careful Dararia, it is another Hell Spawn!", he speaks and jump in front of her, ready to fight.

"Be not afraid, Mister, for I am not a Hell Spawn", it speaks, to the shock of the duo.

The fog around it starts to fade out, and a tall man appeared. He wears a black hood that cover most of his body, only leaves out the big, musculus gray, lifeless arms with black sharp nails grew out at the tip of the fingers. He is two time taller than Lenny. His face is covered by the shadow of his hood, with only a pair of yellow eyes glow out of the dark. From the sleeves and inside the hood, icy mist steams out slowly, turns the grass under his feet into ice. If he doesn't speak, anyone would mistake him with a Hell Spawn.

"My name is Toduras, nice to meet you sir." He comes close, and show his hand toward Lenny, asking for a shake.

Lenny is still shocked, he doesn't want to shake hand with such a suspicious creature, of course. He could be a Hell Spawn in disguise, no human would look like that.

"Oh my bad, Mister. Most human are scared of our looks, but me and my people mean no harm. I am one of the Ice Giants of the north mountains." Toduras says, calmly.

"I knew it, the first second I saw you, I knew it. You really are an Ice Giant!!!", Dararia screams like a mad girl then flies around the Ice Giant to have a better look at him.

"You know him?" Lenny asks.

"Yes, of course. The Ice Giant are the best smiths in this world. But they went extincted thousands of year ago, during the Great War against the Fallen One. Hey buddy, your appearance here is a miracle!!", she can't hide her excitement.

"Actually, it was the lords' plan to cover our existence from everyone eyes. Our people survived the assault of the Fallen One's army and fled deep into the mountains of the north..." He explains.

"wooooo, so you are one of the survivor!!" She doesn't let him finish his sentence.

"Dararia... I think he is not that old...", Lenny corrects her.

"Mister here is right, Lady Dragon Fairy. I am the descendants of the survivors. Actually we have built a great kingdom in the north mountains and for a long time, had we decided to stay out of your people's sight."

"So why did you decided to show up in front of us?" Lenny asks him.

"Time changed, situations are changing, Mister. The greedy nature of human was the reason the Fallen One raised and destroyed our lands. We had discussed with the lords and decided to stay out of the rest of the civilization for our own safety. However.."

"However?" Dararia interrupts him again.

""However, after the invasion of the people on the Light Half, we knew that the prophecy is coming true, and the end of our land is near. The elders and our King have decided to join the mainstream events, and we will try our best to help other races to overcome this challenge. Helping others is helping ourselves, that is always our value." He continues explaining, waving his big arms on the air to demonstrate his point.

"How will you do that?" Lenny asks him.

"Our men are being sent to every corner of the world, gathering best metals and transport them back to our kingdom, Darkutasia. We are forging the best weapons to prepare for war. These weapons will be armed by other races' armies."

"Just like the old time!" Dararia utters out.

Lenny doesn't understand what she meant. "Old time?", he asks.

"Yeah, old time. The ice giants were the major weapons and armor provider for all the race to fight against the Fallen One."

"Yes, that's true, Mister. But then the human used most of our weapons against us.." his tone becomes deeper. "This time, we will only provide weapon to human if they can prove their trustworthy, and for the contingency plan, we also have our own army to protect our kingdom. The Elves and the Mermaids will be on our side."

"Well, to be honest, all of that is none of my business. I just want to get back to the Light Half to find out what happened to me" Lenny states his intention.

"Indeed, we also want to know what happened in the Light Half that led them into invading our lands. However, Mister human, your fate is bound to the prophecy of Chaos. You will have to fulfill your destiny first before you can do anything else. Being a Neo-god is already a burden you can not leave behind."

"How do you know that Master is a neo-god??" Dararia jumps into his mouth.

He smiles, reveals his creepy sharp teeth to her, making her feels uneasy. "Mister here will tell you more about it", he points his finger to Lenny.

"huh?", before he could ask, his eyelids become heavy. The light fades out quickly, then turns into darkness. The only things that shine out of the dark are Toduras's eyes, as they are staring straight into Lenny.

Then the light comes back, as fast as how it had gone. He is not at the swamp anymore, instead, he is inside a white, crystallized castle. Standing in the middle of a large white hall, where everything are sparkling mysterious light, Lenny can not believe his own eyes. The sun light glimmers through the walls, brighten up every single tiles under his feet. No one is here but him and five gigantic statues made of granite. The makers of those statues must be very talented as the statues own a magnificent and beautiful look. From left to right, Lenny sees a mermaid girl riding a current carrying a jar over her shoulder, a tall and thin man with long hair and pointy ears drawing his bow, aiming to the front. Then he recognize a face in the middle.

The face is of a young man, holding a sword that points to the sky with a deterministic look. Beside him is a small dragon that sits on his shoulder. That dragon is awfully familiar to Lenny. No doubt, it is Dararia. Her high-and-mighty face can not be mistaken with any thing else. By this moment, Lenny realizes that this statue is about him, wearing a fancy armor and holding a fancy sword.

However, what catches his eyes the most is not his own statue, but the statue next to it. It is a young, gorgeous girl standing on a flying beautiful big bird. She wears a crystal circlet with shiny diamonds attached on her head. Looking at her eyes, he can feel his heart beats faster than the wind that is blowing her silky hair. Her smile makes him feel warm again in this cold, lonely place. It is so much like the first time the sun seeded its light on earth, giving life to the forests, the lands and the seas. Lenny involuntarily asks himself why such a beautiful girl can ever walk on this land and instantly bring love to his soul, even if this is just her statue?

Suddenly, he feel like he is being watched by someone, and turn his head around, just to make eye contact with the last statue. The statue is looking at him with its yellow glowing eyes. Lenny immediately recognize its appearance.

Then he feels a slap on his face. Lenny open his eyes, just to see Dararia standing on his nose, with a piss-off look on her face.

"Wake up Master!!" She yells at him.

He gets up on his knees, seeing Toduras is sitting in front of them, beside of a small camp fire.

"How long did I sleep?" He asks.

"2 hours already, Mister Leonard. Lady Fairy Dragon almost killed me for casting that spell on you. mwa hwa hwa", Toduras laughs with his weird voice.

"What spell?"

"The spell of the truth. It gives you a glimpse into the future, one possible future. What did you see?" Dararia answer his question for Toduras.

"So that is what it's all about.", he speaks with a deep voice. "I saw several statues, one of them is me and you, Dararia. And also, I saw... you there, Toduras, as one of the statues. What does that mean?"

"I see. What you had seen in your dream was the Hall of the Neo-gods, Mister Leonard. That is what people will build to memorize the Neo-gods when they win the war with Chaos. Each statue is a Neo-God." He briefly explains in his deep voice.

"The Hall of the Neo-gods? But I saw your statue there also, unless you are..." Lenny opens his eyes widely, and turn to Dararia who is also dropping her jaw to the ground.

Toduras turns his face up and laugh loudly, shaking the whole swamp, as Lenny can feel some hordes of bats flee out of their cozy holes on their trees. "Mwa hwa hwa, now you know the answer to your prior question."

As our young man and his dragon are still jaw dropping, he continues "I am also a Neo-god, I was born with the gift to control shadow, to see visions of future and the past. I am Toduras Erebor, son of Kozuras Erebor of Darkutasia."

"Are you the son of Kozuras the Legendary?" Dararia quickly tries to clarify his identity.

"My father prefers to be called Kozuras the Smith more, dear Lady Dragon Fairy", he smiles.

<To be continued>