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A Visit to Church "It's so nice of you to come with me to Sunday Service today, Vince," Stephanie said. It was the day after Vince's battle with the Mystic. Vince, Stephanie, and Stephanie's little sister Tina had entered a Cathedral of Alliatus. The Cathedral was large and spacious. Any sound made easily echoed across the entire building. The walls were decorated with fine-crafted silver ornaments and statues of Angels and Saints. Vince seemed rather out of place wearing a plain T-shirt and jeans. All around him, people were dressed up in their best Sunday outfits. Even Stephanie and Tina had picked out their cleanest, whitest skirts and blouses. "I thought you were atheist," Stephanie said. "Well, I decided to take a look," Vince replied somberly. "You seem...a little tired today," Stephanie said. "In fact, I noticed you've been very tired recently, like for the last month." "Well," Vince said hesitantly, "it's this new dojo I'm training at. It meets at night." "It looks like you haven't had time to sleep," Stephanie said. "I think you should quit this dojo and get some more sleep." "I want to stay at this dojo, though," Vince responded. "It's the only one up to my level. I've been looking for a good dojo ever since I quit that easy one in ninth grade." "Still, though, if you don't start getting some sleep, you could hurt yourself," Stephanie said. "And I don't want you to get hurt." Vince hugged her and smiled. "It's always nice that you care about me, Steph," he said warmly. "Come on, let's sit down," Tina implored. "It's beginning! It's beginning!" The Priest to Alliatus was still performing his sermon. Vince had lost track of time, but it felt like the Priest had been talking forever. "Steph," he whispered. "Is it okay if I go visit the nearby Temple? Right now?" "Hmm? The Temple of Light? Sure," Stephanie replied. "I thought you'd get bored of the sermon. That's why I picked a seat in the back row." "Thanks." Vince stood up. "Take your time, Vince," Steph warmly said. "I'll see you at lunch." Vince gave her a quick hug before he walked away. He walked straight toward the exit at the back of the Cathedral. Vince was sure several pairs of eyes were watching him with contempt, considering that he walked out on their "Holy Sunday Service", but he didn't care. He was a Dark Fiend. The Church of Alliatus could not possibly hate him more. When Vince was outside, he looked off toward a building to the side of the Cathedral. It was much smaller, but fancier, made of pure silver. Its shape was that of a large block with an opening at the front to be used as an entrance. "There's the Temple of Light," Vince thought. "I'll find my answers there." Vince walked into the Temple of Light. The inside looked much like the outside. The light reflected from the silver walls filled the Temple with brightness. Vince looked at the walls and noticed that the silver made them very mirror-like. The structure of the interior was a large empty room with a thick, squarish column in the center. On the walls were a few crevices where more statues of Angels and Saints sat. "There's no one here," Vince thought with a smile. "They must all be in the Cathedral for the Sunday Service." Vince walked to the central column and peered at it. On the front side of the column, two panels were distinctly separate from the rest of the column. These two panels were tall and rectangular and stood side by side. Only the consistency of the silver made the panels nearly invisible to anyone who wasn't specifically looking for them. Vince walked around the column and noticed a small square panel, on the right side of the column, equally hidden. He pushed down on the panel, and the two panels on the front of the column swung inward, opening like a pair of swinging doors. In the new opening was a stairway, which Vince promptly descended. "The inner sanctum," Vince thought. At the bottom was a series of hallways and rooms. Men and women dressed in white robes were walking around, performing various tasks. Some were Mystics, like the one he had encountered yesterday. Others were wearing heavier robes, complete with skullcaps of cloth and short staves. These were the Priests of Alliatus. Still others wore heavy armor, some plated, some chain-mail, all of them made of silver. These were the Paladins of Alliatus. Vince took a look around. Then, a flare burst forth from his body and enclosed him. When the flames cleared, he was covered in black hide, and his hair was long, red, and tangled. All around him, the Priests, the Paladins, and the Mystics swarmed around him, enclosing him. Priests held out their staves. Paladins held out their swords. Mystics stood ready in fighting stances. "I'm here to talk," Vince calmly explained. "Revert to your mortal form!" a Mystic yelled. Vince hesitated, calmly returned to his human form. Immediately, a few of the Servants to Alliatus grabbed him and restrained him. The crowd of Alliatus clergy that had previously surrounded him had cleared away. Vince was now being held firmly on either side by a pair of Paladins. Ahead and behind him were a Mystic each. At the front, leading the pack, was a Priest. They forcedly dragged Vince down the hall and into a room. The Paladins pressed Vince against the wall, and the Priest waved his arms. Chains grew out of the wall, as if in response, and entangled Vince. "So, you wanted to talk?" asked the Priest. "Yes," Vince said. "Yesterday, my friend and I were attacked by one of your Mystics." "Ah, yes, him," the Priest said, nodding. "What happened to him?" "My friend killed him," Vince said, "in self-defense. But, before he died, he told me that I was a weapon for Skias." "You're the Dark Fiend of Fire," the Priest said. "Let me tell you about Shadow, Alliatus, and the third ancient religion called Hades. In the beginning of time, the Universe was consumed by Chaos, and a god, thriving under the Chaos, emerged. He was called Skias. At the same time, the energies of the Chaos coalesced to form Heaven, and from Heaven, the Great Power was formed. The Great Power created Lunar, the Silver Dragon of the Ether, to subdued the Chaos. Lunar banished Skias to the Shadow Realm and brought Order to the Universe. As the Universe was Ordered, one planet, our planet Earth, produced life. "To preserve the Order, Lunar created the great god Uranus as the ruler of the Earth. However, over time, Uranus became corrupted by the Chaos, and he brought strife and discord to the people of Earth. Uranus' son, Cronus, led the people to overthrow his father. After banishing Uranus to the vast emptiness of space, Cronus became the new king of the Earth. However, he too became corrupted by the Chaos. Then, Cronus' son Hades began to lead the people against his father's tyranny. "Lunar saw this cycle of destruction and beseeched the Great Power in Heaven to create a race of beings to restore the Earth to Peace and Order, to create a race that would be under the full control of the Great Power in Heaven, so that the strife and discord brought by the wars of Uranus, Cronus, and Hades would never be repeated. This race became what we now know as the Angels. After a long war between Hades' forces, Cronus' forces, and the Angels, Cronus was killed and his soul banished. Hades was banished to the realm of fire, which became what you and I know as Hell. "From these events, the three ancient religions spawned. The followers of Shadow are those who want to return the world to the Chaos. They believe that the world's natural state is in Chaos and work all they can to destroy the Order. The followers of Shadow worship the god of the Chaos, the Shadow Lord Skias. "The followers of Hades believe that he was wrongly deprived of his throne, that he should rightfully rule the world. These people fight the current rulers of the world to try to bring Hades into power. These people have chosen to worship Hades as their god. "Finally, in ancient times, in Angels descended upon the town of Alliatus and met with the townsmen. They convinced them to start up the Church of Alliatus, not only as a tribute to the Great Power in Heaven, but also as a defense from the Chaos bringing Shadow and the followers of Hades. Shadow and Hades both strive to topple the current structure of the world, threatening to bring war and death. As the Servants to the Holy Order of Alliatus, we cannot allow that." "Nice story," Vince said, "but you still haven't told me anything about the Dark Fiends." The Priest chuckled slightly. "Impatient aren't you?" he said. "Well, most of what we know about the Dark Fiends are rumors and conjectures. However, it has been confirmed that about 36 years ago, Skias, wanting to create champions to destroy the world Order and bring Chaos, implanted Shadow Energy into seven souls waiting to be born. The receivers of these souls were destined to become the Dark Fiends, a grand total of 7 of them. You became a Dark Fiend, therefore you are a pawn of Skias, to be used to disrupt the Order and restore the Chaos." Upon hearing this, Vince looked down with an expression of sorrow in his face. Then, the expression was anger. "Damnit!" Vince yelled with all his might. "Damnit! Why me? Why me, of all people?" "It is unfortunate, my child," the Priest said. "I hope you'll understand if we have to destroy you." Vince looked up with an expression of shock in his face just as the Priest began chanting. A gentle beam of bright energy seemed to resonate from the Priest and shine on Vince. Vince felt as if this beam were trying to dissolve him, trying to pull his molecules apart. Vince was in pain. It felt like the burning he had felt when he touched the Mystic's sword the day before, only much more intense. Vince gave off a yell. Then, a pulse of flame shot outward from his body and swept across the room, knocking over the two Mystics, the two Paladins, and the Priest. Vince was now the Dark Fiend of Fire. Focusing fire into his hand, he heated the silver chains until they were red-hot. Then, with a quick pull, he shattered them. Now free, Vince ran. "Don't let him get away," the Priest shouted. The two Mystics and the two Paladins chased Vince into the hall. However, all around him, Priests, Paladins, and Mystics were pouring out of doors and hallways, trying to stop and restrain Vince. Vince ran, pushing, punching, shoving his way through the crowd of Alliatus clergy. Despite the all rain of blows, the shower of energy bolts coming from the various Servants of Alliatus, Vince struggled his way through, trusting himself to his most vicious instincts. Vince dodged one sword here, grabbed another staff here, was hit with a bolt of energy there, smacked someone over there. Vince didn't remember having to fight so many people since the day over a month ago when he was confronted by Steve Lin and his Hybrid Alliance. Finally, through the pain and suffering, Vince finally made it to the stairway that led to the surface. Unfortunately, the doors were closed and a Paladin was blocking the switch. Vince turned his fists into balls of flame and began bashing the doors repeatedly with all his might. Finally, they opened. He then ran up the stairs and bashed at the set of doors on the other end. All the while, Servants of Alliatus were grabbing at him, casting spells on him, trying to restrain him. At last, the doors came open. Vince ran with all the energy he had left. In the outer chamber of the Temple, two Paladins blocked his path. The Paladins drew their swords. Vince quickly jumped into the air, kicked off the ceiling, and dive-bombed into the Paladins, knocking them down. With a quick forward roll, Vince was back on his feet and running for his life. Vince ran out of the Temple and around to the back of the Cathedral. Here, with a great flash of fire, he reverted to his human form. Continuing to run a circle around the Cathedral, Vince came to the front of the Cathedral. Near the front doors, Vince collapsed onto his hands and knees, panting, trying to catch his breath. The front doors opened and people came out. From the Temple, Paladins, Priests, and Mystics came swarming out, looking around. Vince didn't look at them, but he hoped they wouldn't notice him within the crowd of people that had just emerged from the Cathedral. "Vince!" Stephanie shouted as she exited the Cathedral. "What happened to you?" "Nothing really," Vince said weakly, his breaths short. "I just got roughed up by--by some punks, that's all." "Vince, tell me what happened," Stephanie demanded. "Trust me, Steph," Vince implored. "It was nothing." He climbed to his feet. Come on, let's go to lunch." "If you insist," Steph said plainly. Vince thought to himself, "All of them say that I'm a weapon of destruction for Skias, but what about what Lydia said? Maybe it's only Alliatus propaganda. There's still one source I'll need to check out." Vince sat, as a human, at a table in a darkened room with a book in hand. The only light he had to read with was a small lamp. All around him were shelves packed full of books. It was nighttime, the night after the incident in the Temple of Light. Vince was in the Trioustan Public Library. Even though it was closed, Vince had broken in by melting open a window. Vince had searched book after book, shelf after shelf, and he still found nothing that pertained to him. It was late into the night, beyond midnight. Vince continued his search and still found nothing. Finally, Vince put the book down, throwing it into a pile of other books he had thrown down. Vince stood up and walked toward a door with a sign that read "Forbidden Books. Do Not Enter." Vince tried the doorknob, but it refused to turn. Then, even though he was not in his Dark Fiend physicality, he summoned forth a blaze of fire over his right fist and bashed the door down. Then, Vince spent a few more hours looking through the "forbidden" books. Finally, after searching through most of the shelves, he came across a set of five books. All the books had black covers made of hardened leather and lettering on the cover with silver ink. Four of the books were written in a strange language Vince couldn't even recognize, let alone understand. The fifth book however was written in English. Its title was A Treatise on the Dark Fiends of Skias, written by the Dark Mage Loscinnion. Vince checked the publication date and found it was published 34 years ago. "Two years after Skias supposedly implanted the Energies into the souls," Vince said to himself. Vince read the book, finally finding the information he sought. After a brief sample of the reading, Vince looked up from the book and, in reflective summary, spoke to himself. "So, Skias infused seven souls in Heaven with the Dark Fiend Energies. He didn't know when exactly his Dark Fiends would be born, but he took a gamble that these 7 souls would be born close enough to work together. His goal was to create the 7 Dark Fiends to return the world to Chaos. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Lightning, Ice, and Ether. The Ether Fiend, also known as the Destruction Fiend or the Chaos Fiend, the Ultimate Fiend. I'm Fire. Lydia's Air." Vince pounded the table. "Damnit!" he quietly whispered to himself. "This Dark Mage Loscinnion is a follower of Shadow, and if a Shadow can admit it, then I really am a pawn, a bringer of chaos, a weapon." Then, he yelled with all his lungs. "DAMNIT!!!" Vince kicked a table. The table flew upwards and hit a shelf, knocking it over. The books on the shelf fell out, causing a clatter on the floor. Vince stood in the middle of the room, the book clutched in his hands. He breaths were long and harsh. Suddenly, a burst of wind blew through the room and caught the book, pulling it out of Vince's hands and ripping it to shreds. "No!" Vince yelled. His back had been to the door. He slowly turned around and saw a black humanoid creature with long, disheveled purple hair. "Don't read that book," the Dark Fiend of Air said. "It's bad for you." |