Episode XXI: Shining Hero Alamin!
The fluid began rushing into Ryo's veins, as Ryo began to cry. He saw his
life slipping away, to be replaced by a demon's life. But, when the needle was
only half injected, he saw a throwing star fly past and break the needle.
"Who... did... that...?" Ryo faintly asked. Ryo looked up to a see a boy and
his fire Shoyru standing high atop a support beam.
"ALAMIN! Grr... why have you come back here!?"
"To stop you from creating another monster like Apokari. You're abusing the
ancient beast's power." The way he moved was more fantastic than Ryo OR Kage.
He jumped off anything he could until he reached the ground. He moved with fabulous
speed and had Ryo over his shoulder in a matter of seconds, running through
the pandemonium.
"Don't worry, buddy, you're gonna be okay," Alamin said as he ran.
"It's too late... the cells are already in my body."
"Not near all of 'em. If they were, you'd be Apokari right now. Don't worry.
Once we get you out of here, we'll form a plan and regroup. Anyway, your friend
Brad should be here soon. He must have all the gems by now."
"You've... seen Brad?" Ryo faintly muttered.
"Worse yet, I burned his village down." Ryo didn't have the energy to try and
comprehend what that meant. He just let Alamin carry him away from the awful
place. "Hey Ryo, left or right? Just pick one." Ryo opened his eyes to find
a fork in the pandemonium.
"Hm... left. Go left." Alamin ran into the left direction, which was a grave
error. They ran right into a dome, and watched in horror as the door closed
behind them.
"That isn't too assuring," Ryo muttered out as Alamin set him down. "What's
with all the panels in the walls?"
"Oh no... we're in the the Claw Chamber!" Alamin exclaimed. DemiDragon looked
extremely worried. Ryo didn't even need to ask what that meant. He knew it was
bad, and that's all he needed to know. At that moment, all the panels opened
up and hundreds of black claws shot at Alamin, Ryo, and DemiDragon.
"Ryo, watch out!" Alamin yelled. Ryo now had enough strength to support himself,
and quickly got up to dodge the claws.
"DemiDragon, try to fight them off!" DemiDragon complied and flew up in the
air to attack. "You know what attacks to use!"
"Right, Alamin! Flame Wrecker!" Demi Dragon put his arms up and legs down to
make himself aerodynamic, and spun around, releasing fireballs as he swirled
himself.
"It's working, but it's not enough!" Alamin ran to the edge of the dome and
dragged Ryo with him. "Courage Tornado, now!" DemiDragon kept spinning, but
a tornado of fire started forming. Pretty soon, a pyromaniac's idea of a cool
natural disaster was storming across the room. When it had cleared, there were
about twenty-five claws left. DemiDragon fell to the ground.
"I'm too weak to keep fighting... a lot of the claws got through."
"It's okay, buddy, you worked hard," Alamin said affectionately. Ryo felt a
strong shock go through him, and felt stronger than ever. He threw caution to
the wind and ran into the danger zone.
"Hmph... this isn't so dangerous," Ryo muttered as he effortlessly knocked
claws away. He was emitting a soft dark glow, and slowly floated into the air.
He then closed his eyes and held his head in pain. "What's... happening!?" He
was quickly engulfed in a black hole, and what came out wasn't Ryo; well, it
was, but in Apokari's form.
"Apo-Ice!" Ryo yelled. His long black arms shot out a hundred icicles into
the remaining claws, destroying every one of them.
"This is NOT good," Alamin muttered. It immediately brought Ryo's attention.
He simply roared like a maniac and began to attack.
"Anti-Creation!" Ryo yelled. The beam shot a hole right in the dome wall. DemiDragon
seemed to be in condition enough to fight, and he did just that; fight.
"Courage Tornado!" The attack had little, if any effect on Ryo. But Ryo's now
twisted mind had many violent thoughts to do with the small dragon.
"Shock Claw!" Ryo's claw extended to grab the Shoyru, and sent a pulsating
force right through his body.
"Demi!!! Get up!" Alamin yelled. DemiDragon was engulfed in light when he got
up. He seemed to be powering up for something.
"I will keep fighting 'til I can fight no more... FORCE PULSAR!" A stream of
glowing light was released and completely surrounded Ryo. When the massive force
had cleared, Ryo could be seen falling to the ground, now in his normal form.
Alamin ran over and caught him.
"Poor guy... he has no control anymore. I'm sure the injection can be reversed,
but it's not safe going in there with just us. We'll have to get his friends
to come in with him." Alamin ran back to the fork and took the other route to
the exit. He exited the castle to find himself in clear glass tunnel suspended
above a lava pit. He tried not to look down as he ran.
"Boy, he couldn't build his castle in a more user-friendly place, could he?"
he quickly escaped from the tunnel to find himself in a hollowed part of the
tree. He kept running, but he was eventually met with a massive door separating
them from the outside of The Horror Shell. Alamin set Ryo down against the wall.
"Let's hope that doesn't again happen for a while," Alamin muttered. "Come
on Brad, Ryo needs you... he can't last much longer without help."
Episode XXII: Melodies in the Darkness
"Brad?" was what I woke up to as I looked up to see Laura staring right at me.
Needless to say, I jumped.
"AH! Don't DO that!" I yelled at her. I looked around to see everyone else
is already up. "Umm... what time is it?"
"It's ten o'clock," Dracosis replied to me. "Time to get in there and save
everyone. I'm sure they're pretty impatient by now." She took a sip of a drink
she had laid out, and then resumed talking. "Oh, and that scar changed into
a 'V'. Now, as I said, they must be impatient."
"And hungry," Kisaki joked.
"Speaking of food... good thing you just happened to be carrying a bag full
of food Kisaki. One question... why?"
"I happened to be on a picnic, and I was checking my e-mail on my laptop. I
guess I have Sakari to thank for dragging me away from my lovely day, right?
Some friend..." Okay, I was nervous now. I had to interfere. But I wasn't getting
in any time to talk. They were starting to get into a deep conversation.
"Yeah, really..." Laura mumbled. "Dragging me away from my loved ones without
a proper warning."
"Laura, correct me if I'm wrong, but you believed my stories, and said you
wanted to come here. Why the sudden change of heart?" I asked.
"Well, after the defeat of Kisei, I thought the danger here was over. But it
was just the beginning, Brad, wasn't it?"
"Honestly Laura, I'm not too sure... there may have been a lot more evil in
This world before Kisei, and other Users. I'm not entirely sure Kisei was defeated,
but one can only hope," I shakily replied. "But, no use dwelling in the past!
Just like how Kage is no longer the Emperor of Shadows and Ritsuzen is no longer
the Gryphon of Evil, it's time to move on! Onto Apocaly Pandemonium!"
Laura yelled, "Yeah!"
***
Fall to sleep great angel,
Close your weary eyes.
For tomorrow you will spread your wings
And take off to the skies.
I'll stand here and watch you grow,
Bring yourself back to your home,
With your wings.
Remember when your clash comes,
Draw your sister's faith,
And drive the darkness away
From the world.
Sakari was quietly singing to herself as she huddled on the non-existent ground.
Kage could hear her mumbling and walked over to her.
"Even when you're really quiet, you have a beautiful singing voice, do you
know that?" Sakari lightly blushed.
"I didn't think anyone was listening to me," she muttered under her breath.
"Don't worry, it's just me awake. All the others are still asleep. Tell me...
what's that song called?"
"I'm not sure if it has a name... my mother song it to me as a lullaby, so
I always just referred to it as the Angel's Lullaby. Even now, I still sing
it to myself if I'm restless or depressed."
"Let me guess... you feel guilty about Ryo taking the blow?"
"Of course I do, Kage... it should've been me Apokari had taken!" Tears were
sliding down Sakari's face now.
"Sakari, you don't even know what true guilt is. Think of everything I have
done. And I did that, not someone else. It's all my fault..." It was indeed
an awful day. Luckily for each and every one of them, the day was about to get
a lot better.
***
"There, that's all three of 'em," I said as I put the last gem in the tree.
A glowing line split down the middle of the door, and the two massive pieces
of steel moved aside to reveal... Ryo, the kid, and his pet!?
"YOU! You're the one who burned down the village! What have you done to Ryo!?"
I yelled.
"How rude, Brad," Alamin said. "I also gave you the gem so you could get in
here, and told you how to get to the World of Pendulum."
"That doesn't make up for that village of people that were burnt to ashes!"
"Indeed it doesn't. And as for Ryo, I didn't do anything to him. Malum did."
And so Alamin sat me down and explained everything to me.
***
"Oh my..." were to only words that escaped any of us, and they were Laura's.
I just sat there, concentrating my hatred towards Malum.
He will pay for what he did to you, Ryo. He will pay with his life...
"Hmm?" Ryo muttered as his eyes slid open. When he looked up, his eyes shot
open. "Brad!? I knew you'd come for us! I knew it! Sakari was right! As always."
"I'm glad to see you to... hey, where's SnowOhki?" Ryo automatically started
crying, and explained the whole horrifying story to me, bit by bit. I'd never
felt so much emotion as I did right now. It just made me hate Malum more. I
now found myself crying during Ryo's story. Once the ordeal had finished, I
got up.
"Hmmm..." I took out Kage's dagger and
carved something in the tree. "Look's great!"
Ryo got up to read it.
"In the loving memory of SnowOhki, and, quite soon, the despicable memory of
Malum. Very witty, Brad."
"I know!"
"Ahem," DemiDragon said, "Shouldn't we be going to rescue your friends?"
"Yeah, really, have you forgotten, Brad?" Dracosis whined. Elci and Kisaki
were relatively new to This, and just sat there, mute.
"MmHmm, I remember. Kid, would you happen to know the way to the sealed World
of Apocaly?"
"Yes. And don't call me kid, my name is Alamin." And so we headed out in search
of the World of Apocaly.
***
Sakari was singing to herself, and indirectly to Kage, another verse of the
lullaby.
Summon your sister from afar,
She'll always know where you are.
Just sing the Siren's Song a loud,
And watch the radiant faith be handed to you...
Shining light and glistening steel,
It will always know the way you feel,
Faith can guard your entire life,
Take you through every single strife,
Just trust in it and you'll be safe,
Just keep your trust in faith...
"You're quite enamoured with that song, aren't you, Sakari?" Kage slyly commented.
"You're still listening? And THEY'RE still asleep?" It was about noon now,
and they were all sleeping in.
"Can't blame 'em, there's nothing to get up to. Just the same old darkness."
"Good point... and YOU seem to like it quite a bit to, Kage. You've been listening
to me sing it This entire time."
"It's an interesting song," he said with a deep honesty. "It has to mean something..."
***
"Alamin, are you SURE you know where you're taking us?" Elci asked.
"Of course I'm sure. I've been here for a few days, I know my way around. The
Apocaly Genesis Device is just down This corridor." Alamin seemed to like boasting
of his superiority.
"It's certainly taking long enough to get there," Dracosis whined in her usual
obnoxious tone.
"Fools. Marching along your way, as if nothing can happen." We all turned around
to see Valens atop her magnificent Uni. "Atrox is expecting you. You've been
under surveillance the entire time. Just past the Genesis is the chamber where
Atrox will be waiting. Honestly, you should really think things out more." Valens
then had her Uni gallop off. "Oh, and Brad! Did my gift come in handy?" She
then giggled and ran away.
"That was... erm, strange," Ryo said with a strange expression on his face.
"Why does she always disappear like THAT!?" I asked to nobody in particular.
"HEY!" DemiDragon yelled. "We found the Genesis Device! But there's some weird
voice coming out of it..." We all ran up to listen to the voice.
***
Sakari was singing at a much louder tone, half to wake the others up, and half
because Kage had given her a enough confidence in her voice that she wanted
to sing at her best. Kage was very much enjoying it, while the others were just
waking up. Sakari then took a brief interval.
"Kage, do you enjoy listening to me THAT much?" Sakari asked.
"At least your not talking," Kage said jokingly. As all the others got up and
stretched, they saw a white portal open up. And guess who they saw.
"Nice voice, Sakari," I said.
To be continued... | 
