The Darkest Hour, my Tales of Phantasia fanfic

[Ultima66]

I wrote 3 chapters already, and I'm doing the 4th, but I'll post the prologue first and see if you guys like it.

The Darkest Hour
By Ultima66

Prologue

I raised up my knife to my chest. It was time for me to leave this world. My own soul ravaged me, and I knew that there was nothing left of my life worth staying alive for. Far too many crimes have I committed in the past, and now that I finally realize that there is indeed good in my heart, I realized that the best thing left for me to do is put an end to the evil by freeing myself to this lonely world.

I stuck the knife in. I felt the cold blade inside me, and then felt pain more than anything I could have imagined I caused so many other people. My mind drifted away, almost like it was trying to escape the pain, but to no avail. Hot blood flowed all over my hands, and I felt faint. Everything then turned white, and up until now, I have no clue what happened.

To be perfectly honest, I have no clue what I am doing even now. I feel no more hatred or resentment, so I am sure that the pure evil part of my soul has finally left me. Then again, so has everything else. I am here to tell my tale, and that is all I have left to offer; far more than anything I could have offered anytime in the past at least.

They say that everyone is born with innocence. I feel otherwise, because I know as a fact that I have never had any innocence, at least not up until the point where I heard those fateful words that tormented me for days, before I finally gave in and freed myself from the world. I was a mage, and a swordsman. I have no true name, I was simply a mercenary to myself. I suppose you could have called me a specter, living my life over no real purpose but to plague others. My life consisted of following and killing people that I decided were for me to murder. I felt no reasoning behind any of it; I simply followed the evil heart that had plagued me and the world. You may ask how I felt nothing through all of this, but even I cannot answer that. As I have said, the evil that plagued my heart was something so dark there was nothing that could overcome it, at least that is how it was up until I the young girl's words were spoken, who I then killed.

Indeed I was powerful, but it meant nothing to me. I could have done so much with my abilities. I could even time travel. Instead I let it all go to waste over my bloodlust. A shame and a waste, but what was anyone to do about it?

I suppose I have to tell the tale of those that finally gave themselves to stop me. They were the heroes of time: Cless, Chester, Mint, Klarth, Arche, and Suzu. I decided they would be the ones I was to defeat and kill, and indeed I succeeded on that level. I had followed these warriors throughout time, watching them defeat the dark lord Dhaos 3 different times. These 6 were all scattered across time, though, and after Dhaos' defeat they proceeded to return to their own respective times: Cless, Chester, and Mint to my present, Suzu to 100 years in the future, and Arche and Klarth to 50 years back. After I witnessed Dhaos' defeat, I hung around the future and waited.

And that is where my time begins. From then on, I would never be the same, never return to my old life, and never return to the barren waste that is the earth to continue what I had left behind. My life was about to change, and I would finally feel what a soul was. I have given this world nothing, and I will never get a chance to give anything in return other than this. My tale is my repentance, and my old life, a symbol of what darkness truly is. I suppose that Edward D Morrison said that "If there is truly evil in this world, then it lies in the hearts of men," but I feel otherwise. True evil lied in me, and it is gift to the world enough that I may never step foot there again.

And now I must tell my tale, so that others may learn. Perhaps there is no point, since I doubt there will ever be another evil incarnate, but perhaps there is and will be. I may never know, but I at least will share the story regardless.[/u]

[lionden_56]

Thats a...um...interesting way to start a story. I like it, though. Very dark, very ominous. I definately look forward to reading more of this tale.

[Ultima66]

Okay, then. Yeah it's meant to be dark. Anyways, here's chapter 1. And I have to tell you, they're long. Like 7-8 pages Times New Roman 12 pt.

The Darkest Hour
By Ultima66

Chapter 1

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Life and death has always been an evergoing cycle, and has lasted eternity. What is it all really? Is life really the main priority of all? Is death really the end?
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I waited. My eyes were closed, but I knew everything that was going on around me. It was all a matter of time, now. Suzu would show up, and I would have part of my vengeance; a sick, untold vengeance that had no beginning nor end. It was this vengeance, though completely unfelt by me, that pushed me to be so evil. I was mad at something. It wasn't the world, it wasn't any specific person. It was absolutely nothing I could point out. I was just simply mad. Nothing meant anything to me. I was driven by an untold destiny, and untold force. It was absolutely unexplained, yet in itself the truth lie in its complete and perfect whole.

I sensed it. The time had come. Suzu had shown up at the outside of the Ymir forest. I made haste. I dashed through the plains next to the forest and quickly entered from the side opposite the edge Suzu had arrived at. The various creatures of the forest attacked. I simply ignored them they were not important to me. I dashed past their strikes and quickly made it to the ninja village. Then I started looking for my target.

I knew everything about our movement. I could sense anything I wanted to track, so I knew exactly where in that tangled maze of a forest we were going to meet. I found a spot of the woods that was relatively empty that I knew she would pass. Then I continued waiting.

"What are you doing here, traveler?" asked a voice from behind me.

I wheeled around. An elf was standing in the cover of the trees, watching over me. He had long, blue hair, and was wearing white robes. He was obviously suspicious of my actions and motive, but I didn't care too much.

"Look. I have nothing to settle with you. Please leave me be, for your own good," I replied.

"But I must conquer. This is our forest. Besides the ninja village, the entire forest of Ymir belongs to us. Without our permission, you have no right to be here," he replied.

"Like I said, it's for your own good that you leave me be," I said, wasting no time in focusing on my real target.

"In that case, I suppose you'll have to be shown out," he replied. He was now holding up a bow at ready, staring at me with a glare that told me he was ready to shoot at me.

"For your own good," I said, on last time, letting it ring in his mind. I drew my sword and dashed before he even knew what was happening. In a split second, my sword had flown through his side and it had sliced his side open, sending blood pouring out away from me. I then held up the sword again and stabbed him in the chest, watching him drop his bow, releasing the arrow upwards into the limb of a tree. The bloody corpse, having a side sliced apart entirely, and a stab wound reaching through his entire chest and exiting the other side, could do little more than spit out blood, which flowed down his chin and then into the dirt, as I released him and heartlessly let him fall onto the ground.

"For... your... own.. good." I repeated slowly, "What did I tell you?" The blood began to let out a stench, but I didn't care. My target had fallen into the trap, and I had just completed my warmup.

Suzu, noticing the elf's corpse, dripping with newly spilled blood, and stepped into the clearing. I can't help but wonder that if she hadn't done this, would she still be alive? Of course, I highly doubt it, since a target of mine had never escaped me, but it still comes to mind.

She wore an orange ninja suit, and had a yellow scarf around her neck. She was relatively short, with brown hair tied back. She carefully walked towards the corpse.

"What the hell happened here?" she said, not noticing me, as I was hiding in the shade.

"Hello, Suzu, and welcome... to your grave," I said solemnly, lacking any sense of emotion at all.

Her eyes widened, and she reached for her katana. "Who the **** are you and why are you here?" she yelled.

I gave a small grin, not implying happiness, but more gravely the evil that had taken place just a minute or two before. "I can't quite say, Fujibayashi Suzu. I have no name, not that I know of, and I have no real motive, just what I feel when I'm being pulled by a force I can't quite explain," I replied. My eyes showed no compassion, no mercy for this girl. She was just a target, nothing more.

"Dammit! Tell me who you are! How do you know me?" she yelled. She had now pulled the katana out of its sheath.

"That is all I can tell you. I do not even know anything further than that much, but I know one thing: you're a target," I simply stated. I felt nothing more than a machine feels, nothing more than just the knowledge that I was going to kill Suzu.

"Target? What's that supposed to mean? Tell me," Suzu asked, still yelling in anger and confusion. She had never witnessed a dead elf laying on the ground of the forest which both her and the elves called home.

"All I'm going to say is that it means you and the other so called 'heroes of time' are not going to be living for much longer. Besides, I have followed you for quite a while. You could say I have followed Cless for 150 years. I have been planning for this, and nothing ever escapes my plans," I said.

"You're after Cless? If that's how it is then I'm going to stop you, you *****," she said, staring at me with a feeling of malice.

She ran at me with the katana in from of her. I felt it quaint how a warrior like Suzu would ever, knowing that I had the ability to at least dispatch an elven warrior, run right at me rather than play it safe from a distance. I jumped over her, holding my sword behind me so that she wouldn't have a chance to strike at me in midair. She pulled out 3 stars from somewhere in the ninja suit and threw them at me. I landed fast, wheeled around, and slashed at the stars, knocking them to the ground. She put up her katana and drew spiked from both her sleeves, holding them like claws. Then she proceeded to toss them in two flurries at me. I blocked the first volley, but it seemed as if the second volley was going to strike me.

Within inches of my body, a wall of energy suddenly blazed up, blocking the strike. If vanished as rapidly as it had appeared and then I charged for her. We parried and struck for a few seconds, my sword to her katana, then we broke apart and jumped to the trees. I then slashed into the air, letting loose a burning wave of fire from my sword. It headed for Suzu, who jumped out of the way, then cleanly sliced down the upwards portion of the tree. We both jumped to another tree to avoid the falling mass of wood and leaves. I could catch sight of her slightly slipping on the jump to avoid the tree.

"You're quite a skilled warrior," she said to me.

"I know you're getting tired," I said. I could see her breathing heavily, and I knew she was losing her agility from watching her slip.

Shock showed in her expression. She knew I was right. Here I was, someone no one knew, and several feet away from me, Fujibayashi Suzu, a hero of time, looking stunned. She was afraid, very afraid, if not for her own life for the lives of the others.

"You're tired. You know how this is going to end, but yet you deny it, because it is the worst possible scenario. Don't attempt to have any optimism in you; it won't do any good," I heartlessly stated, "just let me do this and you won't have to work as hard."

My words seemed to have a detrimental impact on her morale, something else I didn't expect from her. I thought she would be a much greater opponent, but apparently I was wrong on that aspect.

With a sudden burst of speed I jumped at Suzu, sword held forward. She quickly jumped out of the way, but as I expected, her reflexes were slowed. The blade flew through her arm, leaving a several-inch deep gash. She yelled out in pain. My sword, already covered in mostly dried blood, now had fresh blood on it again. I took the sight of blood satisfyingly, not sure why, but it was one of the few things that made me even the slightest bit cheery. Suzu's orange suit was now stained red on one arm, and she knew that arm wouldn't be able to be used in a fight any more.

She stared at me with angry eyes. Dark, but burning with hatred towards me. She still had her right arm, so she wouldn't be in too much trouble, or I suppose that was what she would have thought. "You *****," was all that she said.

"What then? What are you going to do? There is nothing you CAN do, so please, give it up," I said.

She took no more of my threats. She charged at me. With a swift jump I landed behind her and flung my arm back to hit her back with the hilt of my sword. Her katana fell out of her arm and clattered down onto the ground. She tried to jump down to get it, and I followed, in a falling strike. We met in midair a few feet from the ground, sending my sword straight through her shoulder, then proceeding to shoot downwards towards the ground at an angle, until my sword went all the way into the ground nailing her there by her there, now both of us covered in her blood.

I pulled the sword out, letting the force of it, combined with the friction between her shoulder bones and my sword, yank her upright. She fell to her knees, barely having any energy left. I gave another slash, straight through her stomach. Blood spurted out. She tried to yell, but she didn't have the energy to do even that. A somewhat weak sound escaped her, and blood started flowing down her chin and neck. I started for her katana.

Holding it up, I turned to face her. She was a pathetic sight, pools of blood on the ground, even more blood soaking her suit. Her eyes were barely open, for the first time, a look of deep depression and hopelessness on them. Of course, I can't say I looked any better. I had almost as much blood on me as her, only none of it was my own.

"What are you going to do?" she asked, weakly.

"You know what I'm going to do, but you're just denying it. Am I correct?" I asked, starting for her. I put up my own sword.

"Please... don't..." she could barely say anything more.

I laughed softly, chillingly. I was close now, my feet were stepping in her blood.

"You know that even if I didn't do anything more to you that you would still die. What's the point in asking for mercy?" my words were still cold and dark.

I grabbed her with one hand by her throat. Holding her up, I walked over to the nearest tree and held her against it, still strangling her. I held her own katana up to her chest. My grip was loose, so she could still breathe, not that it mattered at that point. Tears were pouring down her face, mingling with the blood on her neck and my hand. With a thrust, I impaled her chest, nailing her to the tree. Her eyes widened in surprise, then closed. Closed forever.

Suzu was dead. The first part of my mission was complete. I left her there, hanging by her own blade, hanging from that tree. With a grimace, I set off again.

"Now to the past I go," I said, as I used a spell to clean the dark, drying blood off myself, and I left to finish what I started. That godforsaken deed that was my life. The darkest hour had just begun.

[RealJungleMonkey]

now thats my kind of writing. please pm me when you finish and get it published. i must read it. also look at my brothers book in this thread

[Ultima66]

Uh... yeah. I have 3 chapters done like I said. Should I post chapter 2 now?

[RealJungleMonkey]

no.. dont post everything. save your thoughts for yourself.. just keep writing

[Ultima66]

This isn't going to get published... I mean, it's on fanfiction.net, but it's not going to any book or anything. Speaking of which, you COULD go to fanfiction.net and read the whole thing...

Anyways, I'm no professional writer. Don't worry about it, I'm not interested in publishing this stuff, and the whole thing's only gonna come out to like 6-7 chapters.

[Streetz]

Interesting stuff. Good job.

[CrystelDragon]

that was very interesting can you post the next chapter i wanna find out what happens XD :!: plus in my next comp class were learning about the history of the USB port "sob" (this is sad considering im in a grade 11 course and i dont think the history of the USB is very important!!)

p.s. HURRA FOR SUPERNESS

[Ultima66]

Chapter 4 is done and around.

Here's chapter 2, tell me if you want chapter 3. Oh, and BTW, Aether Reaper says chapter 4 is my best yet, so if you guys are interested in this, just let me know.

The Darkest Hour
By Ultima66

Chapter 2

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They say that most of life is fate, and a small part of it is our will, but what will can really come of us, if fate wills us to do our will?
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I found a clean clearing in the forest. I knew I could do anything, anything that I desired, and no one would know. This tranquility, perfect peace, and isolation from everyone but the elves, which never strayed through the forest anyways in fear of monsters, meant that nothing done here would be recorded. On the other hand, only one thing held its grip on my mind: my mission, or to put it in better terms, my will.

I closed my eyes and held my arms in front of me. Suzu's body lay in the forest, still impaled to the tree where I had left it, soaked in blood, a dark, sadistic memoir.

"Someone will find it," I thought to myself, "But it will do them no good. I'll be long gone, and no one suspects me in the first place."

A blue circle appeared on the ground around me. Leaves started to blow around. The darkness that plagued me seemed impossible to tell, yet for some odd reason, to any passerby I would have easily been pointed out as pure evil. I don't know how I know this, but I knew that anyone could see I was evil, even though I seemed perfectly normal. And it wasn't the fact that I was here opening a time portal either. There was just an unexplained air about it. All I know is that as I look back upon my old self, I realize that something just wasn't normal. everything at a glance looked normal. You could draw a portrait and it would look just like any average person, or as average as warriors get, but once you actually got close, the darkness was chilling.

The blue circle began to form into a spell circle- a deeply intricate pentagram with flowered lines and flowing curves in perfect symmetry from just about any direction. Then, a hole ripped through the center, where I was standing. A pitch-black energy enveloped me and in a flash, I was gone.

It was like falling through an endless hole. Visible energy patterns covered the sides, and the time warp twisted and bended, but somehow, I kept falling straight down. Suddenly, a force shoved me to a halt. It wasn't a force that came from any particular direction. It wasn't pulling me from above, and it didn't feel like I was landing on anything. All I know is that it felt like I was free falling, then suddenly stopping. The vortex around me was swirling to a stop, and enclosing itself around me. It slowly shrank into a sphere, which was now surrounding my body, and vanishing. Slowly, the world of the past was revealed to my eyes.

I was in a small field. Apparently, the forest had yet to grow into this area yet, and I could see Ymir off a few dozen yards to my side. If I moved southeast, around the forest, I could go back up, travel east, then continue northward, following the mountain range in that area. Then I would reach the bridge leading to the famous island of Alvanista. From Alvanista I could travel eastwards, and after crossing some mountains, I would arrive in Cless' hometown, which at the point was named Beladum.

From there, I would go northward, to Klarth's hometown of Vennezia. That is where I planned to go.

On the other hand, there was a strait separating Ymir and the continent where Beladum lay. If I could get through that strait, I would just have to cross the mountains which surrounded Beladum and I would bypass Alvanista altogether, along with almost halving my traveling time. But at the moment, I couldn't figure out just what to do. Then the obvious rained on me, now more focused on getting there rather than accomplishing my goal, both of which needed to be done.

“Dammit! I'm next to a ****ing forest and I can't figure out how to get across a few damn yards of water? What the hell was I thinking? Well, then, better now than later,” and I got to work. I cut down a tree with my sword, coupled with my magic, searing a slice of a tree making it crash to the ground. After an hour so of dragging the tree over and cutting them up, I had a boat. I hiked for a few minutes, dragging the tiny vessel over to the water. The boat was not impressive, nor was the tree that made it, but I didn't care. I just wanted to make haste.

It was a tiny stretch, only about a half of a mile across. It wouldn't be hard to swim, but I couldn't not with my sword, and with what I could do with my magic anyways, I felt no need to swim. I cast off, using the sword as a makeshift paddle, as I was in a hurry and didn't want to bother with making a paddle. It's not like it mattered with this small of a distance anyways.

I arrived a few minutes later. Unfortunately, that was the easy part. The hard part would be traveling all those miles to Vennezia. I knew it would take days, so I decided to tell others that I was simply a wandering traveler and swordsman, wandering looking for a job. Unfortunately for me, I still had absolutely no clue as to how I was going to get Klarth and Arche alone anyways, but I kept my own priorities at a maximum. Sadly, those priorities were not exactly decent, wholehearted ones, with murder as a top. I began my trek up the mountains. This stretch wasn't so bad, but mountains are tough terrain regardless.

It's just as I said, I knew I had potential. It was just wasted potential, living a shell of a life, tearing that shell to pieces every time I killed another, yet never stopping, never ceasing, for that dark soul. Some are perfectly pure, I was perfectly impure. I wish I had found the light. Darkness should not have guided my actions, darkness should never guide anyone's actions. My heart bound by deep hyperbole: a full bodied nothingness, a perfect imperfection. I was a loner, so lonely I was unsure of whether I threw myself out from this world, or whether I was simply rejected. So much shrouded in darkness, so much unexplained. The only warmth I ever felt was the warmth of blood, flowing down my hand, a silent sign of murder. I cannot question why any of this happened, though, it was simply loud, overbearing, screaming silence. I have no clue why I impaled the young girl to that tree back in Ymir of the future. Life for her might have been perfect, she was, as it was apparent, a great warrior, and of only 13 too. It is, as you might say, fate that wrought her deathbed, or something else. Everything is apparently guided by fate, shrouded by a mystery that none can ever unravel. It was perhaps fate that I was so dark, so pitiful, and so murderous.

After several hours of trekking, I arrived at Beladum. I found the inn, and asked for a room. A few questioned me, saying that I seemed kind of like the travelers that saved the world from Dhaos. Little did they know, of course, that Dhaos would be back, to plague the future twice, not that it mattered at all, as the heroes would defeat him. Klarth and Arche would have already saved the world by now, no real harm would be done; Cless, Chester, and Mint would simply miss out on ever seeing Arche again. A dark humor surrounded the thought, and I laughed at it. Why the subject of friends never being able to see each other again was amusing to me I had no clue of. As I saw them say, Arche said that at least she would be around in the present, seeing as she's a half-elf. I knew she was wrong, and simply destroying some people's dreams were far more to laugh at for me than was appropriate.

I got to my room and went to bed, still feeling the humor in me, the dark humor that was nowhere near appropriate. The thought would make most people cry, in fact. I set down my sword, recalling the evil that I committed wielding it for a second, picturing dead bodies, and most of all, the image of Suzu stuck in the tree, and went straight to sleep.


“Please. Don't hurt her. Take me.”

A voice, faint and weak, pleaded for mercy. A sound of a sword slicing through flesh was heard. A man's voice yelled out. Something fell to the ground. A sickly feeling spread over me, the same as when any murder is committed by me.

“I will take you both,” another said.

“You're evil. Damn you. Damn you,” were the man's last words.

Then, a third voice cried out. A girl's voice.

“I know what lay ahead for me. My life will end, but that is not end for me. I cannot say the same for you, however. A plagued soul does not rest, and sooner or later, you shall be no more on this earth. Did you ever consider that?”

“You talk of saving me when you're the one who is about to lose their life? You are quite pathetic.”

“Pathetic? Am I? You can say all you want, and do all you want, but there is one thing you cannot erase. Whatever happens...”


I awoke. Light was feeding through the windowsill, and it was time for me to get going. ”What did that all mean?” I wondered to myself. Everything was so blurry. It could have been something that had happened before, but I didn't recall anything distinctly like that situation. I had never targeted a couple, or whatever that was.

“It's probably just something my mind is making up,” I said quietly. I stepped out of the hotel and left the quiet town. I started traveling north.

Some say isolation and wilderness bring out the worst in us. Some say the best. There didn't seem like there was much left for me, seeing as how futile it would be to picture someone worse than me. And as far as better, that was quite ridiculous. I even dreamed about murder. My isolation gave me time for my mind to wander. Time to breathe and think for itself, separate from my heart and soul, filled with emptiness. My mind created that situation, my mind shed light on what may have been a glimpse of the future.

I made it to Euclid Pass, a was through the mountains to get to Euclid. From there, Vennezia was close. There was a man selling his wares there, and a statue of a man next to him, and a small pass behind the statue. I asked him for directions, not that I entirely needed them, and he told me to head on forward for the long way, or to go past the statue for a shortcut that takes me over the mountain. Naturally, I took the shortcut.

“Aren't you going to at least look at what I'm selling?” he asked me, as I turned and started walking. I was silent, and moved on, and he understood.

The view from the mountaintop was quite nice, but I had no time to bother with this. I found a few pouches with some supplies in them just lying there, but I left them alone. A bugbear stood in my way, and by now the “path” had become a small 3 foot long cliff edge. The bugbear was hunched over and held a small club, having the features of a bear, only humanlike. It swung at me, which I met with my sword. Then I swung downwards at him, which it had to fall back to avoid. I simply gave him a swift kick, sending him sliding off, like a ragdoll off a slope.

“Pf... dumbasses,” I said to myself. The bugbear had landed, making a cloud of dirt at the foot of the mountain. I moved on.

I arrived at Euclid. It was a lively city, much more going on than the lonely Beladum. Children were racing in the streets, and there was a minstrel in the city square. I stopped at the cafe, found a seat, and sat down to take a breather.

“I'll have a cup of coffee, please,” I said, even though it was a bit late for coffee. It was a few hours past noon, and everyone had already eaten lunch, so the place was relatively empty. A waitress brought in my cup, and I sat, drank, and thought. It was almost disturbing how someone who appeared so normal would be really out on such a horrible mission. I wondered if the people who saw me could tell I was evil or not, but I came to the conclusion that though they could tell, they banished the thought. I, being so solemn and silent, would seem mysterious enough to be shrouded in such an evil air.

I moved on. Euclid was fine, but I still had a job to do. Moving north, I arrived at a bridge. It led to ruins, ruins of a city Dhaos' followers had destroyed called Harmel. It would be gone forever; no future ever held plans for rebuilding it.

Moving through the silent city, I headed on north. This would be Bart's house. Klarth spent a lot of his time here, and since Arche was now always with him, she might be here, too. If so, I'd save the time it took to go on to Vennezia. Bart himself wasn't tehre, but I found an all too familiar sight- a girl riding on a broom, seemingly very relaxed and casual, sitting on it sideways- Arche. She was gazing at the Sylph's Mountain, where the Sylphs lived, until Klarth brought them into his control, creating their contract.

“Arche Klaine,” I said, loud enough that she would notice.

“Hm? Who are you, sir? A friend of Klarth's? Why are you calling for me?” she responded.

She was a cute, bubbly girl. She always seemed casual, relaxed. She had bright pink hair and it was tied up in a long but rough ponytail. It was quite interesting how this 18-year-old was so innocent and immature, while Suzu, only 13, was so focused and determined.

“No, but I am calling for you, because I am going to be the one that is going to determine your fate,”

“What? Come on, I don't know you,” she said, casually, still having no clue about the situation.

“Arche, I am here... to take your life,”

Her expression suddenly turned to shock.

“You're kidding, right? You better be,” She said, sounding a bit more serious. A tiny bit worried.

“In fact, I'm not,” I said.

“I need to find Klarth,” she said, to herself, jumping on her broom and flying off into the valley.

I knew Klarth was at the Sylph's Mountain. I slowly followed. Haste was needless. I had those two just where I wanted them, and nothing warranted their escape. Their deaths were approaching, and nothing was to stop that.

“Take your sweet time. It's more important than you realize,” I said, once Arche was off in the distance.

The darkest hour was rising, and no one could do anything about it. Fate had guided my hand, and it was going to guide me to kill these innocent people. Nothing was otherwise. If I was to be nervous, fate would guide me to be nervous. On the other hand, I was perfectly calm. I knew that it was over for them, and nothing can stop that which is inscribed in fate.

[CrystelDragon]

yay

[Ultima66]

Er... Might as well. Yeah, Dimnina Chronicles is better than this, and Aether Reaper and I both read each other's works, so...

The Darkest Hour
By Ultima66

Chapter 3

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People take everything forgranted until they lose it, or do they? One questions this when it comes to life, but one thing is certain: that death strikes us all eventually.
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It was hopeless now, the two's fates. I had sealed them, and their souls would be free to roam soon, here in the Valley of Wind.

I paced forward, to the valley's entrance. Arche was long out of sight by now. Of course, I could sense her presence in the valley, so I followed her. This was a small place, and there would be nowhere to escape, not that escape would have helped their cause any.

I could feel her heart racing. How quaint it is, to be able to know how others feel, yet never having such warmth inside yourself. The main part of the Valley was straight, with high cliffs hanging over the sides. I walked toward the end of the valley, where Klarth was and Arche was headed.

Arche had now alerted Klarth. I knew her to be a quite loud girl, and quite a rebel, but she was loyal to Klarth. Klarth was her mentor, and the one she would turn to for help in the worst situations, and this was definitely a bad situation for her. Moments later they appeared in front of me.

Klarth was relatively tall, wearing a pointed brown hat and long vest, and an orange suit. Tattoos covered his body, and he held a large tome. Several rings were visible on each hand: his summoner's rings that granted him contracts with all the spirits.

Arche followed on her broom, pink baggy pants with a white shirt. They both looked determined to stop me at whatever I was going to do.

“Why are you here, and who are you?” he asked.

“Didn't Arche tell you already? I'm assuming she did, which means that you know I'm here to claim your lives. Of course, if she didn't I see no reason you'd be so angry to see someone you don't know,” I said, almost jokingly.

“So she's correct. In that case, I have only one thing I can do, and that's to stop you,” he said, solemnly.

“It's so interesting you're acting as angry at me, seeing as you are normally so carefree, and flirt with every woman you meet,” I said, still making fun of him.

He didn't say a word. I knew it mean that the battle has begun. Apparently, Arche took to this as well, as she held up her arms, yelling “Lightning!”

A green spell circle appeared behind her. A moment later a bolt of electricity flared forward and right at me. In quick action I jumped to the side, my hand now on the hilt of my sword. The bolt hit the ground, leaving a burn mark. I pulled my sword.

Then I suddenly noticed Klarth. He had his tome open, and was now saying the oath of the contract. An enormous spell circle was on the ground under him. I leapt towards him, only to be met with a fireball, almost striking me. Then, Klarth raised his hand, and shouted the name of the ruler of this place.

“SYLPH!” he yelled.

A group of three sylphs appeared above. They held their hands in front of them, and sent a burst of wind forward at me. I was knocked to the floor, dirt flying everywhere. Klarth stared at me solemnly.

“Leave now, and bother us not. I will spare you,” he said.

Getting up, I sheathed my sword. I realized this was not a battle to be fought with my blade. Not this time.

“I'm nowhere near done fighting. If you want me to actually start fighting, then so be it. You're through,” I said, menacingly.

It was my turn to attack. I held my hand upwards and with my own spell circle behind me, shouted “Fireball!” and sent a flurry of fireballs roaring at the sylphs. They blocked with another burst of wind, which caused one fireball to go flying at Arche. She managed to avoid it, but only barely, and she was shaky getting back up.

I continued to channel fireballs. They were all avoided, but the sylphs and especially Arche were having a hard time avoiding it. They all fired at me at once, Arche with a blast of frost. I leapt upwards, and channeled my own spell in midair.

“Lightning!” I yelled. This time, I was up in the air, so the sylphs didn't have a chance to avoid the attack. The dematerialized back into their own world, like ghostly spectres vanishing into thin air.

By the time I landed, however, Klarth was already calling another spirit.

“Luna!” he called. The spirit of the moon came down from the clouds, piercing the sky. She fired a barrage of crescent beam at me. I quickly brought up an energy shield, but the barrage was doing it's damage. I quickly focused on a spell, and I noticed the green spell circle had appeared behind Arche too.

Moment later, I released my shield.

“INDIGNATION!” we both yelled simultaneously. Lightning bolts started exploding everywhere, annihilating anything around. The enormous spells met between us and caused a huge explosion.

I was thrown back. Klarth was apparently out of the blast range, and Arche and Luna had apparently flown high enough to dodge.

“I think it's time for some moves you've seen before, perhaps performed by Cless?” I said.

I focused myself. Suddenly, I burned with fire. Becoming a deep-red flaming bird, I took flight and dive-bombed Luna, past her barrage of crescent beams. As I hit I reverted and started falling down. Luna then dematerialized just like the sylphs.

“So, how do you like a Phoenix attack used against you?” I said

Klarth looked unconcerned. He started chanting another spell. And before I could react, Arche had readied a spell of her own.

“Lightning Blade!” she yelled, as a stream of lightning pured forward and covered the area with bolts. I quickly blocked, but this time I was thrown down. I got up slowly, watching Arche for any spells she might decide to throw at me.

Suddenly from behind, a burst of fire erupted, and there were minuscule explosions and heat that I could feel on my back. I wheeled around, and in front of me now hovered the god of fire: Ifrit. Ifrit pelted the area with fireballs, and it was the most I could do to block. Waiting for and opening, I found one and leapt upwards, landing behind a rock, temporarily blocking Ifrit and Arche's assault.

“Alright, then. Klarth is getting to be a huge pain. Every time I take down one of those damn spirits, anotehr takes it's place,” I said to myself, thinking. I drew my sword.

I held the sword upwards, as a blue barrier enveloped me, containing an enormous gust blowing straight up, lifting me up a few inches. Suddenly, I vanished.

“He can teleport!” said Arche in surprise. By now Klarth was looking shocked. Who in the world can use the most powerful skill of their leader, Cless?

I reappeared next to Klarth, slashing at him. He fell back, but was unharmed. I warped back to where I had began, behind the rock. I thought for a second.

“Alright, time to prove why I have this sword. It better hold a charge,” I stated to myself. I knew what I was doing now. My sword was able to hold a spell, so that I wouldn't have to charge it myself. Unfortunately, my past attempt at this didn't work right. It had released too early, sending my fireball spell exploding in every direction, without me having the time to aim it.

I began focusing energy towards the blade. I ran out from behind the rock, discovering Arche having a Tidal Wave spell ready, sending a torrent towards me. No time to worry now, I thought. I just kept on running forward, avoiding the torrent. Ifrit saw me and began throwing more fireballs, in a rapid flurry rivaling that of an entire army of bowmen. I kept on running. I dashed behind Klarth, making him have to jump to the side to avoid Ifrit's attack.

Then suddenly, my sword glowed. I dug my foot into the ground, wheeling all the way around mid-motion, and pointed my sword at Klarth.

“Indignation!” I yelled, as the enormous explosion of lightning roared out, heading straight for Klarth, who had still not gotten up after Ifrit had fired his direction. He was sent flying, shocked and severely hurt, hitting the cliff on one side of the valley.

His eyed glowed with shock. He didn't speak, but even Arche could tell what he wanted to say. He knew he had met his match, someone that could beat his summons and still be able to attack him. I wasted no time. I dashed forward, holding my sword forward, and ran right at him. The blade sank into his stomach, and as I pulled it out, blood freely gushed from the wound. He dropped his tome and fell to the floor, almost in a sitting position, then fell forward and closed his eyes.

“No!” yelled Arche, “You can't die! Klarth!”

“It's over, there's no denying it.,” I said. Ifrit had now begun dematerializing, for without a contract, the spirit would not follow the orders of anyone else.

“You... you MURDERER! You're nothing but a no-good murderer!” she yelled at me.

“If you must blame me for something by yelling it in my face, why don't you make it a less obvious quality of mine?” I said coyly. She couldn't do anything about it. I didn't care about killing anyone. A normal person would feel guilt, but I didn't. I held up my sword, covered in blood, and turned to Arche.

“I... You're... ugh. God! I have to try to stop you! It's the only thing I can do, and I have to do it!” said Arche.

“That's futile thinking, as for one, you won't stop me, and besides, your death will be this part of my quest coming to a close won't it? So you really do stop me by dying, not that I haven't done what I wanted,” I said.

We stared at each other. Silence. Moments passed.

“Indignation!” we both yelled simultaneously. Again, the two enormous spells hit, but this time, Arche was obviously really after me, and I conformed to her anger by making my attack just as large as hers. The resulting blast caused a rock slide on one side of the cliff, and I dodged, while she flew higher. Using the falling rocks, I jumped upwards towards the top of the mountain. With another momentous leap, I was in the air only a few feet from Arche. I slashed, this time using the properties of the sword to engulf it in energy, extending the range. Arche flew backwards, but the tip of the blade caught the broom and it started falling. Arche tried to regain balance, but couldn't, as she fell towards the mountain.

She regained balance at the last minute, and stopped, but now she was floating dangerously near a cliff, with nowhere to go. I used my own spell.

“Explode!”

A flare ripped through the mountain, sending Arche flying. The broom flew upwards, toward me, and I caught it in my own fall. I landed cleanly, while Arche slammed into the ground, a few feet from Klarth's dead body. I tossed her broom behind me. All the better for me if I could actually reach her.

She got up slowly. She was weakened, but I knew from the burning look she gave me that she could take me on. We stood facing each other silent again.

Minutes passed. We were both focusing our energy so that we could cast a chain of spells. This was going to be one firefight I wasn't going to forget. I started.

“Fire Storm!”

A torrent of flaming debris flew forward, and a burning tornado formed. The storned towards Arche, scorching the ground in their wake.

“Stone Wall!”

Arche conjured a wall of rock, repelling the fire and the wind. She was now out of sight, but not out of trouble.

“Explode!”

The wall shattered, leaving us facing each other again. Now Arche decided she would be the one to fire at me.

“This is for Klarth F. Lester, the greatest researcher I have ever known. God Breath!”

A freezing wind picked up, and the scorched rock was now frozen over as the water in the air suddenly condensed and became solid.

“Fire Wall!”

I raised a wall of fire, completely reversing the flow of condensation, causing a massive explosion of as the water in the air struggled to change temperatures this fast.

“Ray!”

Arche's spell tore through the steam, as beams of light covered the area.

“Black Hole!”

A dark hole began forming over us. I felt the immense gravity push me upwards. The rocks around were now flying upwards toward the hole. I looked into it, and found the core.

“Indignation!”

The bolt struck the core of Arche's spell, canceling it. We were both breathing hard, after that test of reaction.

“You still got any left?” I asked, knowing she was more tired than me.

She remained silent. We both focused for a few seconds. We knew what was going to happen, and this real test would show the victor. A few seconds...

“METEOR STORM!!!”

Enormous rocks flew from everywhere to everywhere. Neither of us could tell what the hell was going on; the insane amount of power a single Meteor Storm packed was almost beyond measure. Two being cast at the same time was unheard of. I used what energy I had left to make a shield, and allowed the assault to continue. Several minutes later, the rocks stopped falling. I looked over and saw Arche on the ground, almost no enrgy left, sitting next to Klarth's body. I knew she cared. She didn't love Klarth or anything, but to her, Klarth was a really important figure. Klarth was her teacher, her role model, and she used all of her energy to shield his body, even though she could barely protect herself.

“Please. Don't leave him down here. I'm going to die, and I don't know what will happen to me, but at least show him some respect,” she pleaded, knowing the end was here.

“Arche, is it that you fall in with every guy you know, or that you'll be stupid enough to fight for whatever sentimental cause you have even though there's no point?” I said, “You don't love Klarth and you never did. So what is it that's making you care so much now?”

“It's... it's because I can't let someone like you prevail with destroying the memory of my friends. You just don't understand. You don't have a heart!” she said.

“Very well then. I don't care. I'm just here to do this, and I'm going to no matter what you say,” I said. I tensed my grip on my sword. Slowly, I walked over to her.

“Please, don't leave him here...” she said again.

I walked forward. I grabbed her by her shoulder, lifting her up. She couldn't stand up, but I kept my grip. She turned her head towards me, tears flowing down her cheeks. I turned her around and pulled her close, grabbing her by the stomach. I held my blade up to her neck.

“So,” I asked, “Any last words?”

She remained silent.

I pulled the sword closer, now touching her neck. I pulled the sword across her neck in a swift motion. A last breath escaped her, and her eyes flew open, staring forward, an empty look. Blood flowed down her chest, staining her blouse a deep red, then down to my other arm that was gripping her around the stomach.

She fell down as I loosened my grip, and closed her eyes. She fell to the dirt, and lay in a heap, stained with blood.

“Goodbye, Arche Klaine. You'll be missed, I suppose,” I said, staring at the bloodstained corpse that lay in front of me.

“So, you wanted me to not leave Klarth here? Come on Arche, would I really give a damn about Klarth? If someone finds you two, I guess they can worry about it. I have things to be doing,” I said, turning away from her, “Half of my mission is complete, so now it's time for me to move on to my own time, and finish off the other 3 heroes of time.”

With that, I started walking towards the entrance of the valley. Half of the mission was now over, and I was to go on to finish it, my dark nocturne of a quest of death and destruction. It was time for the darkest hour to reach it's climax, and I would be the driving force behind it. My dark heart burned with the will of murder, and I was off to follow it.

[stolin]

wow, I can't believe I just took the time to read that.

good, morbid, yet interesting...... :P

props

[Ultima66]

It's done... I'll just post a link to Fanfiction.net since the thing is so big it takes like 10 seconds to load all the way.

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2530551/1/

[UnknownKnowned]

excellent work ultima, i love it
keep on writing

^^
*smoke bomb*

[Ultima66]

I started writing a notebook about the way society works.