Short Story [DND] Volt 's Dead 'n' Dreaming

『Voltear』

Skeletron Prime

THE THREAD WITHOUT A SOCIAL FORUM

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Howdy, I'm Voltear, a real Volt Prime. I use spells really only for healing, I drink root beer, and r1p everything.

So I decided to make this thread, to post maybe creative contents that arise from the chaos of my daydreaming. I try writing, I try drawing, I do what I can to express my thoughts. I try my best from atop of this Tower of mine.

I'd say most of the things I'll post here are from Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder to be more specific. I think about campaigns and my characters a lot and I love rereading chat logs over and over again. There will be other stories or things outside of Pathfinder.

I may not be a good creator curator or even be good at all but my best is my best.

"How do people get so 'deep'? Why was I shortchanged? Seems the more I try to write, the more I think I'm strange."


STORIES:

Volt's Note: This is about a character of mine in one of Suweeka's campaigns. It's gonna be filled with the races from the Pathfinder PFSRD and Suwee's custom races in his campaigns. I apologize if any of the races can be confusing or hard to imagine. I basically made my own parody of A Christmas Carol.

On a cold and bright Christmas Eve in Gray Town, along and within the dark bricks and snowy roofs of homes houses a group who are finishing preparations for Christmas Day.

A genius intellectual silmoran with their tentacle-like limbs and many eyes complete their robotic Christmas tree which lights up in many vibrant colors as it spins its razor sharp leaves while a sly, yet charming brown haired, bunny-eared female ika lays a surprise present next to a small flame-haired, horned oni boy lying on the floor, completely drunk and passed out.

Outside and at a warm bakery, a wavy black haired male human with an armored black tailcoat walks out with a gray-masked female figure who wore a heavy brown coat, chatting about their recent adventures dealing with crazy, insane, murderous, genocidal, maniacal, psychotic, hysterical, and ridiculous shining children. Meanwhile, a strange blindfolded and white haired man with a deformed face, watches the two in the distance for a bit and then disappears into the shadows.

And lastly in a guild building nearby, a small male oni in a brown and black outfit struggles to accept how much gold and platinum coins he lost by letting his vampiric, adopted sister borrow his wallet for Christmas decorations. The building did look extremely festive with the items that were bought but no amount of apologies or Christmas lights could wipe the tears of a now poor merchant oni.

Things were looking up on the evening before Christmas for most people, they were content and the festive time was exciting. Except to one person.

Stepping out of the spacebus and onto the ground with her dark boots, she adjusts her black and white winter clothing and looks around with her silver eyes. The monochromatic aasimar: Mono Kromea held her new sheathed rapier she earned as a reward from her charismatic contractor and stood in front of the entrance of Gray Town, looking at the newfound Christmas decorations. Mono had recently completed a job of taking an accessory from a target and returned to Gray Town only because of a free break. She rolls her eyes and sighs upon the smell of Christmas trees and proceeds into Gray Town to her apartment.

Walking along the connecting houses, each look around resulted in more and more decorations annoyed her. She herself had no intention of celebrating a strange and pointless holiday. Even during these times, work is far more important and is better for the long run. Before making another turn, Mono hears a familiar voice calling out to her and turns around to see who it was. Mono soon found herself standing in the presence of Ryuusei, her white haired, female ikathian captain and Ryuusei's second in command: Flavius, a white haired and light blue male aasimar who wore the outfit of the Arc Hons.

"Captain." Mono addressed to Ryuusei as she moved her new rapier out of her Captain's sight.

"Haven't seen you around in a while, glad to see that you could be around for the festive season." Ryuusei stated.

"I had time to kill so I figured I would return and relax for awhile."

Ryuusei looked over to Flavius and nudged her head towards Mono. Flavius, a bit distracted over trying to see what was in Mono's hand quickly got the signal and composed himself.

"Um, we were wondering if you could join the us for a Christmas dinner party tomorrow." Flavius said.

"A Christmas dinner party?" asked Mono.

Ryuusei replied, "Yes, most of our friends will join us and we would like it if you could be there. We haven't seen you around in a while so we figured we could all catch up on each other's lives."

Mono thought for a bit. A Christmas dinner party with the others? What's the point if half of them aren't really fond of Mono herself? The main party members don't really even like her for her decision on working for a dangerous contractor and would rather keep her away.

"Sorry, but I must refuse this invitation. I don't want to enter the dining room with multiple guns aimed at my head." Mono grudgingly replied as she quickly walked away before Ryuusei or Flavius could say another word.

She continued walking down to her apartment, a little more grumpy after the invitation and soon stood before another familiar resident of Gray Town. Twitch, the green and bold silmoran turned towards Mono and began typing on his keyboard gloves which allowed them to speak from text.

"Mono."

"Twitch." she replied.

The two looked at each other for a while and Mono noticed a rather sad expression coming from Twitch as he was typing out his next sentence.

"Mono, I know we aren't the closest of teammates and we've nearly fought on decisions in the past,"

She remembered all those times she and Twitched argued on things about her contractor. Their clash of ideals weren't common on the days before her contractor showed up.

"But my brother Iron is deeply wounded from a bathroom incident and I ask for your help to heal them. They may not make it this time..." typed Twitch.

Iron was extremely precious to Twitch as any sibling should be and Twitch would do anything to keep them safe. But Mono remembered that she had earned her own coins herself by working for the being that Twitch despised. Mono looked at Twitch with annoyance; why should she help them? All they did in the past was berate her for her choices.

"I don't have time for this." Mono replied rather angrily and stormed off past Twitch. All she wants now is to just relax and not deal with any stupid holiday or rather anyone.

Soon Mono arrived at her apartment, she enters and sets her new rapier leaning on her big and comfy chair that stands next to a fireplace. After lighting the fireplace and changing to a more comfortable home clothing, she sits in her big chair and thinks. She refused an invitation and the deed of helping someone. Whatever, who cares. After some time passes by, she begins to feel a bit dozy and soon fell asleep.

She then opened her eyes and saw herself standing in a room of complete darkness, wearing her winter clothing and holding her unsheathed new rapier. She saw that the rapier had a tint of blood red and felt a dark aura emanating from it. She then looks ahead and sees a gray burning flame with pure white chains rising out of it.

To Be Continued...
Mono stared at the mysterious flame for a while before hearing an unknown, male voice behind her.

"Mono Kromea, the loyal pawn, the broken queen, or perhaps the devil's fool."

She quickly turned around and saw humanoid with ghost-white skin, ruffled black hair and pencil-like horns who seemed to be binded to a strangely familiar chair by pure white chains. He sat there, motionless with his simple dark shaded shirt and pants and then suddenly looked up at Mono with his eyes still closed.

"Who the hell are you?" Mono asked with confusion.

The binded one responded with slightly deep and menacing voice, "I am a being known as 'The 7th Host' or more commonly, 'Host'."

"And what do you want with me? Is this another dream-like vision like when Harpp took control? I don't want any business with you, I've already dealt with enough people today!" Mono replied with anger in her voice.

Host opened his eyes and glared at her. His eyes were cold, as if he was soulless which struck fear into Mono.

"I have been observing your entire ordeal with your contractor," He smiled and chuckled for a bit. "Blindly serving them and working your best to complete your assigned tasks. You are quite a well fit pawn. I have done the nearly the same in the past. Working on a sacred mission and doing whatever it takes to finish it."

The ground rumbled for a bit and Host dropped his smile.

"But I will tell you this... What you lack in yourself will result in your own demise."

Mono became confused. What does he mean? How is the path I'm on leading to my doom?

"Oh please," Mono responded. "And what do you know?"

"Further steps onto your current path will lead you to this same predicament," Host states while slightly moving the chains on him with his arms. "Greed and selfishness will leave you with no one as they will abandon you."

Mono refused to listen.

"You don't know me, I know what I'm doing, I know what I've planned," She points her rapier at Host, "You're just some cool kid character who doesn't deserve to tell me what to do!"

As Mono scolds Host, he soon stands up and breaks the chains that bound him to the chair. The chains floated and burnt up into white flames as Mono backs away as Host steps towards her with intimidation. The flames soon start combining and form into two white ghosts that floated right next to Host. One ghost wore a summer hat with black flowers while the other wore a white boater hat.

"The path to reform starts with listening, Mono. You will be visited by three spirits and you best listen to them. Otherwise..." says Host before he summons a long white chain on Mono's left hand, "You will be cursed to carry chains stronger and longer than mine own."

Mono had no choice but to follow along. She thought to herself that if she could just somehow wake up and break out of this strange dream, she could continue her life as normal and forget all about this.

Host takes out three cards, "By these three cards, the three apparitions will be called, the first one representing the past," Host stated as puts down a floating Strength Tarot card in front of Mono. The Tarot card had a picture of a mighty hammer, held in the air by chains with demonic hands below attempting to grab it.

"The second one representing the present," Host stated as he puts down the Justice Tarot card. The Tarot card had a picture of a young boy who had a blindfold on whilst holding a sword and a scale in which it shows money outweighing a single heart.

"And the final one representing of what's yet to come." Host stated as he places down the Death Tarot card. The Tarot card had a picture of a solar eclipse with halves of an upside down Omega symbol right next to it.

"This is your one and only chance to avoid your fate. If your heart truly does change, then you will be freed from your chains. Keep your eyes open and your heart listening." Host says as he begins to walk away.

Mono shouted, "Wait! I have questions!" But was too late as the dark scenery around Mono began to change and Host completely disappears.

Mono opened her eyes again. It seemed as if that dream was over in which Mono sighed in relief but then she realized something. She wasn't in her home. She found herself outside, sitting and leaning against a tree in a middle of an concrete open ground. She stood up with her rapier still in hand and chain around on the other and looked around. The surrounding buildings were shiny and made of gold and she turns to see the floating Strength Tarot card in front of her.

The card suddenly changed form into a familiar silhouette and Mono looked at them with pure surprise.

"How can this be...?"

To Be Continued...
The card's transformation was complete and their true physical description was in clear view of Mono. She looked at them with shock.

"Pollie...?" Mono asked.

The figure stepped forward and spoke proudly, "I am the ghost of Christmas past!"

Mono was confused. The apparition was exactly in the form of her older half-sister: Pollie Kromea. She was more muscular, bigger, and older in comparison to Mono and instead of simply being black and white like Mono, Pollie had a more colorful body palette with different shades of orange and black. On the ghost's back was the exact weapon that Pollie had which was a large hammer that no one else other than large beings could wield.

"I apologize if you thought I was truly your sister, Mono," the apparition spoke. "I was ordered to take this form to guide you from meeting your destined demise."

"Oh really? And what could the 'ghost of Christmas past' do? And where in the world are we!?"

The apparition looked around at the golden buildings, "Where we are doesn't matter right now. As the ghost of Christmas past, it's my duty to show you the past, your past. To the time of innocence, before your heart was chained by loyalty and apathy."

Mono looked at the apparition with disgust. She already had enough in dealing with her past and she doesn't want some apparition that took form of her presumed dead half-sister to show her memories. But before Mono could say anything, a large, wide window appeared from nowhere and began showing her memories but not from the perspective of her own.

The window showed Mono standing straight next to Pollie who was being scolded at by their mother, Eura Kromea. Mono watched herself stand there, doing nothing to support her older sibling in tears and looked to the ground solemnly. The apparition noticed her expression and began playing another memory. This time it showed Mono being trained by her mother, practicing the use of the rapier. Mono saw herself taking in every order on how to effectively kill an opponent, to precisely strike their weakpoints and quickly finish the battle. She was taught to kill and take no remorse for the future lives she would take.

"You took your training very seriously." the apparition stated. "But you were trained your entire life to be nothing but loyal and following someone else. Not only just that, but you would stay in silence whenever someone else was being treated unfairly."

Mono glared at the apparition, "Pollie was being treated like that because she couldn't take the heat. Our family had high expectations of us and so I did my best to fulfill those expectations."

"Allow me to show you this last memory." the apparition stated.

The window showed to Mono, herself standing in front of a destroyed manor. She saw herself in the memory lacking any emotion and walking away from the destruction with no expression at all.

"That manor you stood in front of... that was the very manor you and your family lived in." the apparition spoke.

Mono responded, "Yes, the Kromea family had ties to criminal syndicates and did so to stay alive. But as criminals do, they betrayed us, killed most of us, and destroyed our home... I was the only one who lived."

"That is why you now have the opportunity to become better than that. Instead of doing your best to stay alive alone, you can form strong bonds with others and support them as much as they have supported you!"

Mono gripped her rapier and quickly pointed it at the apparition and the apparition stood back in surprise.

"Their deaths was the result of their own choices! I do choose for myself and I don't need you to tell me that I have to change my ways to stay alive! Friends!? Strong bonds!? To HELL with that!"

Mono glared at the apparition with wrath. The apparition looked around in fear of what Mono was about to do next.

Mono shouted, "Get the hell out of my face!"

With full force, she charged at the apparition with her rapier which began sparking with dark energy. As she stabbed the ghost of Christmas past, the scenery changed back into darkness and the apparition changed its form back into the Tarot card of Strength. The card faded away as Mono stood there in rage.

Mono soon heard a noise behind her and saw a new Tarot card floating in the darkness. It was the Justice Tarot card, with the picture of a blindfolded boy who was holding a sword in one hand and a scale in the other which had money outweighing a single heart. Just as the card began to transform into another humanoid, Mono charged at them with her rapier again. But suddenly, the figure had formed what seems to be like a scimitar in their hand and parried Mono's attack, knocking her off into the side. She looked up at the figure who's form was finally complete and saw that they looked like a young boy with brown hair and brown eyes.

She held her rapier at the boy, ready for a fight.

To Be Continued...
The boy was well-dressed for an apparition. He wore a slightly dark blue peacoat with white buttons, a long gray gray scarf, and black trousers. They snapped their fingers and the scenery around them and Mono began to change. She watched as the scenery changed into what seems to be an opening in a forest, under a bright blue sky. A dark stone path leads to a tall wooden and red shrine, a cyan flame flickers near its entrance, and numerous fey and small animals roam around the area.

Mono kept her battle stance in front of them and was readied herself for an attack but the boy just stood there and looked at her with disappointment.

They scratched their messy brown hair and spoke, "I am the ghost of Christmas present. Me and the other apparitions are not here to fight you, we're here to help you." After introducing themselves, they placed away the scimitar in their sheathe.

Mono was about to charge again but then felt her left hand tighten up and saw that another pure white chain was wrapped around her hand.

The apparition saw the chain and spoke, "You remember what he said didn't you? You only have one chance at this."

Mono soon calmed down but kept her guard up. "What's the plan then, ghost of Christmas present? Now that I think about it, I actually don't recognize your form or this place." She looked around and saw that the place reminded her or Eryal, a planet full of nothing but plants and mystery. The planet was also absolutely way more worse than Inoni, a planet that is just one big desert.

"You have made quite the impression of yourself to your fellow team members, Mono. You lack a festive spirit because of your apathy."

"I don't need some stupid 'festive spirit', I can do well for myself."

"You're missing the point, there is much more to life than your work. Money isn't everything and it isn't enough to buy you from death. Take a lesson from an apparition who has taken form of someone who nearly is just like you."

"What are you saying?" Mono asked. Does that mean that the apparition's form was someone just like her? What does this human boy have in common with her?

"They're skilled with the use of the scimitar just as you are with your rapier, they follow orders from people who are very influential, and they have their own ideals that they follow, just like you do."

"Ideals?"

"However, unlike you they have mercy, compassion, and justness in their heart. They follow their superiors but aren't afraid to step onto their own path to be just. They would do so much just to save the lives of their friends or family. But you would rather just sit their in your comfy chair and let Twitch's sibling, Iron die from his wound."

Mono remembers what she said to Twitch. Her cold refusal to help their brother would lead Iron to hsi death and it was all because of her own grudges and selfishness. She began to imagine herself in Iron's situation and too would be heartbroken if someone they considered their teammate left them to die.

"If truly knew the spirit of Christmas then you would then best start placing strong relationships with your teammates on your wishlist," the apparition spoke. "And maybe you'd start sharing your money with the less unfortunate."

The apparition points in the direction behind of Mono and she turns around and see two fey creatures who were bloody and emaciated. She then began to feel more guilty and held her head in stress.

"Wait!" Mono realized something. "There is one more apparition right!? After they're finished talking, would this dream finally end??"

The apparition looked and Mono and sighed. "Yes, the dream would end and you must make a choice to listen to us and change your ways or be fated to your own demise."

The apparition turns away from Mono and informs her one last thing, "It's time for the final apparition to guide you, Mono. Don't forget that you only have one chance in this."

They begin walking away and the scenery begins to disappear into darkness. The shrine, the two fey, everything disappeared, leaving Mono alone by herself. The next thing Mono saw was the final Tarot card, the Tarot card of Death.

She heard the rattling of chains and a soft evil laugh nearby.

To Be Continued...
The Tarot card disappeared from Mono's sight. From out of nowhere, red and black flames suddenly surrounded her and pure black chains rose from it. From every direction a maniacal female laugh is heard and then a solar eclispe appears in the sky above Mono. Orange flames began to make up what seems to be devilish eyes and grinning mouth; behind it was an upside down Omega symbol split in half.

"I am the ghost of what is yet to come!" a female voice echoed from the orange flaming mouth and eyes.

Mono tried to speak by fear but realized that her throat was suddenly dry and was unable to speak. She truly felt the heat of the red flames going to her head, it was unbearable.

The undiscernable apparition spoke, "The dream is at its end, Mono! But you will soon reach your own demise... No one will love you and none shall cry for you as you held your own grudges and selfishness higher than your own teammates!"

Mono kept trying to speak but nothing was heard from her. The orange flaming mouth grinned much more and its eyes squinted at her.

Suddenly, Mono suddenly no longer felt her right hand, the one holding her new rapier. She looked at it and saw that her hand was pure white and she quickly realized that the rapier was killing her.

The apparition spoke, "On the bed of your death, you will have nothing but your regret. With Iron's innocent blood on your hands, your rotting corpse will forever rot with silence!"

Mono fell to the floor trying to scream in agonizing pain from her hand but nothing came out. The noises of slot machines began echoing throughout as Mono suffered and the apparition laughed.

Above Mono appeared a giant skull of a bull and surrounding it appeared four large weapons: a chainsaw, a circular saw, a laser gun, and a minigun. She watched as the four weapons aimed towards her and began charging up. The apparition did nothing but watch, this was the moment they were waiting for.

"Heed my final words, Devil's Fool!" The apparition declared, "The punishment for the way you behave is as clear as a broken grave with your name on it!"

The chainsaw and circular saw charged down at Mono as the two guns fired. Mono cried out in silence, feeling the agonizing pain and saw nothing but gray flames burning her body and chains holding her down.

Mono jumped up in her comfy chair, sweating and breathing heavily. She looked around and saw herself truly back at home with the fireplace burnt out, the sun shining through her windows, and her new rapier still by her side. She quickly got up and wore her winter outfit and threw out her new rapier. She walked to the door and knew it herself of what needed to be done.

She roamed around Gray Town and in search and soon found the person they were looking for. Twitch was sitting on a bench alone, meditating and Mono approached them. They quickly opened their eyes and saw her approaching them which in result had them glaring at her. Mono soon stood in front of an irritated Twitch and looked at her feet solemnly and quickly took out a bag and tossed it at Twitch. They quickly catched in and find that it's full of gold coins.

"Please let Iron know that I hope they get better." Mono said to Twitch and she went away, leaving Twitch surprised and wondering what happened to her.

Mono soon found herself in front of Ryuusei's door, hesitating to knock. She could her different voices from inside and was extremely nervous but she soon composed herself and knocked on the door twice. The door opens slightly, showing a confused Flavius on why Mono herself was here.

"I... I'm really sorry for how I was yesterday," Mono said, looking slightly down. "I do truly wish to join Captain and you for Christmas dinner. I want to reconnect with everyone again..."

Flavius fully opens the door, with Ryuusei standing nearby.

"I suppose we could start over again." stated Ryuusei. "Let's talk to each other this time without anger or apathy."

They let her join the Christmas dinner and Mono began treating everyone with kindness, generosity, and compassion. The spirit of Christmas was within her and she became better friends with everybody around Gray Town. Meanwhile with Mono's money, Iron is fully healed and grateful for her generosity.

And that is the end of A Christmas Kromea.

FIN

A short horror story inspired by @Solir

He arrived back, into his newly bought house which sat upon the boundary to the city and its railroads to the stillness of life. The evening was setting and the trees played in the soft October breeze. A crinkle of keys and a satisfying click, he enters through his front door and is greeted by what eternity will be. The same furniture he'll see, the same color, the same day.

As it is everyday.

A brief routine of settling. He gets comfortable in the new home. His previous was smaller, more homely to the single man but outgrown with one like him. The house was fine, a new color, a different day, but they will become static. As it is everyday.

He enters his bedroom. An unfinished room. A simple drawer, bed, and lamp but a mirror resting in the corner of the room. That mirror had been with his mother and now with him. A simple sign of reflection but nothing more. A rest of body and no swift of thought, he gets comfortable in his room. Work was busy. It's the same color, a different day. As it is everyday.

He notices the mirror and begins to remember. That very day in September. Of him buying this new home. He could remember joy and color, his face gleaming with possibilities from the city and railroads. Had tomorrow a new car? Had tomorrow a something new? The glee of possibilities from imagination. But today had no new car or anything new at all. No rainbow, no tomorrow. As it is everyday.

He stands up, breaking from his typical answer of repetition and presented himself to the mirror in the corner. A new idea to set one's self straight for the coming of days. He picked up the mirror and walked to his drawer and placed it upon. He walks backwards and sits back upon his bed, looking directly to the mirror before him. Tomorrow will have him wake up and see it, everyday, but with determination of something new.

The evening had fully settled in, soon inviting the night. His body desire for sleep and his mind had drawn blank. A call for the wonderland had been needed. He lays down, feeling the mattress from yesteryear and the clock ticking from the hallway counts. Perhaps tomorrow will be a different day, a new color. As it...

In the dead of night, the house spoke no word as he rests. The only light on was his lamp beside him, the dark hadn't been conquered yet for him. However, an eerie creak is heard from within the house and a strange coldness had somehow welcomed itself in. He continues to rest, the crickets in their song. Until it was finally dead mute.

No movement, no sound, no wind, no time. A dance in dreamland interrupted by a sudden tug at his feet, his eyes open.

Revealing nothing but of the same static bedroom and the monochromatic expression of the whole room, the darkness and the lamp.

He lies there in sweat, despite the chill of the room. Any attempt of movement by him is restricted. Head to toe, a stasis of paralyzation. Only his eyes moved around the room but his mind was racing with thoughts. After looking around the room, he finally settles his eyes on something. Directly in front of him. He sees the mirror. Its not alone as a figure stands within, staring at him back. A creep follows through his spine as he inspects closer upon realizing that he is staring as his own reflection.

No movement follows from both of them. He laying on his bed, staring at it in the dread of fear as it stares at him, directly standing up. Suddenly it begins to move, he tries to quickly move and run but to no avail. It begins climbing through the mirror and the walls begin to bleed. The whole room watches in monochrome as it erratically climbs through the mirror, continually staring at him. It then reaches the floor after climbing out, a removal from his perspective. A silent but threatening calm lingers in the room.

It then grabs at his feet, a shrieking of cold felt through its lifeless body. He tries to scream but only silence writes. He sees it looking straight at him, he sees it dragging him, its eyes and mouth bleeding. He is taken of his bed and it climbs the drawer backwards, the blood on the walls and from it landing on his face. It enters back into the mirror and soon enough, he goes in as well.

A reflection in every direction, he regains his body movements and stands up alone. He looks behind himself and sees his room and attempts to return only for him to be blocked. Banging his hands, he cried out for help. He was trapped in the most claustrophobic glass room. Sooner or later he sees himself, he sees it in his room, staring back at him. His reflection took him and placed him here.

No matter how or what he cried out, it just stared back. It smiles and waves as it goes to his bed and begins to rest.

All he could do was watch.

A brief routine of settling. It gets comfortable in the new home. Its previous was smaller, more homely to the single being but outgrown with one like it. This house was fine, this world was fine. A new color, a different day, but they will become static.

As it is everyday.

As it is everyday.

As it is everyday.

"Even the feeblest existence can gain tremendous power once the chains on its heart are broken."

Volt's Note: The stories posted here are from a set of one-shot campaigns I have DMed, meaning that I was the dungeon master. Will I DM more one-shot campaigns to write more stories here? The world may never know.

Warning: Video contains a single swear.

My name was Merdo Stronzo. I wasn't a very complex man; with my thin body physique, my shaggy short brown hair, and my quiet demeanor, one wouldn't easily distinguish me as a part of the Stronzo family. The Stronzo family wasn't one that was very well known or even a good one for a matter of fact. My family members were either addicts, manipulators, or just simply crazy maniacs. I wasn't like the horrible beasts as the other family members, I was something different.

For my entire life, I studied and worked hard for my dreams. While my family watched their world fall apart, I held onto my life with a small single thread. For me, I was always particularly interested in the bodies of mankind and I meant that in a way that is referring to all the races of Chapter, the very world we lived on. The mechanical way of legs, arms, and more fascinated me. Every single movement of any of our physical movement is from an instant message from the brain. But what I loved in the world in return gave me disgust from everyone else.

People looked at me as if I was strange. Feeling and touching the bodies of my previous companions has resulted in nothing but physical pain for me. Why was the world like this? I had done nothing wrong back then...

I was interested on the bodies of mankind but was irritated in the personalities that were made up within them. Why wouldn't anyone understand me? For the long years of being bullied and hurt, I had no choice but to truly take matters to my own hands. My genius intellect truly was monstrous in the eyes of man.

I began taking people myself, with or without their consent. They don't deserve these divine bodies if they use them everyday for wasted potential. Slowly but surely, I captured more and more people. Some were extremely easy and barely resisted me but some were annoying and had to be cut off of life. Alive or not, their bodies are only I wanted.

But of course, I was soon at my point of extinction. I made one mistake in the snowy lands of Daedra and the Black Lancers, the guardsmen of several towns began to track me down. I had my back against the wall and they were in mere moments of infiltrating my home. I knew my life couldn't end here, there had to be some other way to continue my desires and my life.

And that's when it happened...

Whether it was a god or a demon, a strange and slender pink humanoid appeared to me. Time felt as if it was stopped and the being spoke to me in a charming female voice and began talking about a deal. They promised me to give me power to fulfill my desires as long as I offer them some souls of the people I take with those powers. I had no choice but to accept the deal but even so, it was perfect for me. I was bestowed a violet, glowing orb and I felt so powerful that day that I couldn't contain my laughter. I soon faced the Black Lancers but with the orb in my possession they were no match for my power. After eliminating them, I soon gathered my items and left Daedra and went on back to my hometown. With the new townspeople, it was time to have some fun

From that point on with the power of the orb, I took more people. Kidnapping was so easy and none could resist the charming power of my orb. Even a foolish amateur monk couldn't save his stupid brother from being captured. With my power, I felt like I was the king and with the amount of people I gather, their bodies were all mine to play with.

Several weeks passed by and many people filled my violet stronghold. I was able to summon beings to fight and defend me and the orb began to affect nature itself around my hold. But one day, four adventurers infiltrated my home and began fighting their way towards me. I was confused on how they knew where I was. Soon enough those foolish peasant-looking adventurers reached my main hall. I quickly prepared my slaves for battle with my cannon as a trump card. I glared at the adventurers and knew what had to be done.

I will take them down without failure.
I layed there, from within the darkness of my main hall. The walls in decay, the purple flames that lit my empire burnt out, with that orb destroyed my entire life was over. My unleashed, demonic form was defeated but I was not slain and so with the little energy I have left, I sat up from the fading corpse of my unleashed form.

To think a being such as I would be defeated from four mere adventurers. The people I took were freed and I am alone once again. This feeling truly is painful. I looked up at the entrance to my main hall and saw a figure of someone in the darkness.

The tall dark figure had glowing reddish winged-like eyes and small blue sparkles around the area of their torso. Right beside them was another figure in the darkness but they were much smaller similar to that of a child and their pupils from their eyes glowed white in the dark. I tried to crawl away from them but I was too weak and lacking energy. The sounds of their footsteps were louder and louder as they approached me. I could do nothing but watch my inevitable death.

The tall figure soon stopped and looked down upon me. They spoke with a calm, yet vengeful male's voice about how much I was distorted and that a thing such as a "heart" no longer belongs to someone like me. I tried to speak but nothing came out from me. It was as if there was a burning fire within my throat that removed my ability to speak.

I felt a strong pain coming from my chest as the tall dark figure stabbed me, aiming directly for my heart. They then retracted their weapon and what I saw before me was my own heart, glowing in the dark with pink and purple energy with small traces of white electricity. The last thing the tall figure said to me before I died was that this "Heart of Lust" is something I don't deserve.

I had reached my end. There was nothing more to this story as I laid dead within the walls of my own hold. My life truly was just a stupid story. That was what I thought until I was in a room filled with the darkness of shadows and a faint red flame. The sounds of chains rattled nearby and a distorted voice echoed throughout the room.

Something else is beginning for me.


> The Chapter World Adventure Series:


"Determination of the strong."


In the world of Chapter, under the watch of the full moon, the clouds clear away from the destruction. The ember glow of a destroyed village light up in the blue, dark night as the seemingly steel cloud hovers above. A massive, striking black and white spaceship with a large green "I" representing of The Supreme Imperium, an empire fueled by burning hate and madness to anyone that are not like themselves, continue their onslaught upon the poor village, tearing apart its roots with squadrons of troops and imposing weaponry.

Within the control room of the Imperium ship, several crew members along the the front manage the ship's controls, weaponry, and systems. Sitting higher among them in the middle of the room is the admiral of the entire ship; a fearsome woman with long, braided dark blue hair with a dark flight cap that has a white "I" on front, a black suit coat that has green and red accents with white gloves, and dark gray pants with circular ornamants to the sides of her black heels. Her right eye has the color of dark green, however, her left eye is cybernetic; having light green pupils and black scelera being surrounded by metallic parts that cover the leftmost part of her face.

The Admiral, brimming with confidence, watched on a screen as more of the destruction of the village unfolded.

"What is the status on finding that LN-001 Sphere?" The Admiral asked to her subordinates.

One subordinate replied, "Our troops have acquired the artifact, Admiral. They are getting ready to return."

The Admiral chuckled, "Good... Start up the Ocular Vulcan then, we'll be using it to grab ourselves that E-VOL Tear in the next area. That 'heroic' Collective won't stand a chance against us now!"

Suddenly, there was a massive explosion at the front of the ship which shooked the control room for a bit.

"Admiral! Our Ocular Vulcan has been destroyed by some mortar attack!"

"What!? How did it get past our sensors!?" The Admiral exclaimed with anger.

The Admiral, gritting their teeth, looked out towards the front of the ship in a far distance where the large Ocular Vulcan cannon was placed and saw nothing but a massive flame but strangely enough, a very small figure in her perspective was standing in front of the flames.

At the wreckage, the small figure turned around from the flames and looked towards the ship. Under the moon's shine and in front of the flames, it was hard to distinguish their appearence other than what seems to be their oversized gauntlets for a humanoid as big as a gnome, their horns, and their bright, glowing yellow eyes.

Immediately recognizing the mysterious figure, the Admiral shouted, "Grrrr... It's them again! Just what does it take to take down those damn small onis!?"

At once, black and white weaponized Imperium robot troops, ground and air, were deployed and begun pursuing their intruder. The small oni braced themselves and began running towards the robots at a dashing speed, faster than the average human monk. They quickly dodged the ranged attacks and pummeled through the crowds of robots with explosive and fiery power from their gauntlets. Swiftly, the small oni made themselves combust with explosive and blazing shards, destroying most of the lines of robots and continued dashing forward without any harm.

As the small oni continued running, flying robot drones took chase after them and were trailing behind. The drones began shooting blasts of energy but the oni quickly side stepped while running, dodging most of the attacks. The oni looked forward and saw a large imposing mech in the distance getting ready to intercept and so the oni began to slow down a bit. As a result, some of the drones flying behind went ahead of them and at once the oni jumped up and directed an attack in on one drone by punching it in the air and aiming for another, thus chaining the attacks and gaining height in the air. Soon the oni was high above and mech began firing its double mounted turrets. The oni focused and like a meteror, shot down onto and through the mech, blowing it up as a result and continued running on forward, barely exhausted.

The Admiral watched as countless troops were taken out by a single small oni and became furious.

"Looks like I have to do everything myself!"

The oni reached the metallic entrance on top of the ship and saw that the doors began to open. Immediately rushing out, a huge hovering black samurai-like armored mech with large dual-wielding sabers and laser wings went and attempted to slash the small oni. The oni quickly backed off and looked up at the menacing machine and saw the Admiral, controlling it from the very top.

"You've got a lot of nerve attacking me now at this current time. I would assume that if you're here then the rest of your foolish Holy Agents of the Nitegarde are with you as well?"

The Admiral grinned and the oni tried to run past the huge mech and was only denied by several slashes from the mech's sabres resulting in the oni needing to stay and fight.

The oni began charging up and their gauntlets glow bright with an orange light. The Admiral charged with their mech and soon the oni jumped forward at them with a fiery, blazing gauntlet. Their weapons clash and a great battle follows.

VOLUME HANAA
Two regions in Chapter lay close side by side. Sunnyside Tops, the cliff and mountain paradise with everblooming green fields, large lakes, and waterfalls. Its soil has a strange pattern of hexagons, varying between the hues and shades of brown and throughout the region overgrown temple like structures, broken or whole, can be seen and are without origin. Tarrask Bones Desert on the other hand is full of great dunes and sharp, rocky mountains that pierce out of the ground. Its emptiness counters the wholeness of Sunnyside Tops.

It was a bright and sunny day in the two regions. At the edge of Sunnyside Tops, before the average traveler finds themselves stuck in the sand-falls of Tarrask Bones Desert, a quick small figure runs across one of the cliffs and jumps down to a clear grass field before continuing running at a dashing speed again. They were a small female oni with fair skin and short, orange flame-like hair with a brown diadem that sports glowing symbols from the front, and eyes with yellow pupils with pitch black sclera. They wore a dark brown light armored shirt with their right shoulder bearing striking orange glowing crystals and their left shoulder pauldron resembling to that of a brown meteor. Their pants were black and boots were armored with several bits glowing an orange energy and on their arms were gauntlets too big of their size that had a black and orange color scheme with several more orange crystals at the forearm. Their horns were dark purplish and most notably, they had crescent shaped mask that covered around their right eye, matching in color with the diadem.

Despite wearing over-sized gauntlets, it didn't seem to hamper them in any way as their ran through the grass effortlessly without any sign of exhaustion. As the oni kept running, they received an emergency call from their earpiece.

"Hanaa! You've gotta get over here quick, these shadow bastards are all over the village of Plork and I can't keep fighting these guys alone!" An out of breath male voice cried out as sounds of explosions and roaring monsters can be heard from the background.

The female oni, Hanaa responded, "Got it, I'll be right there."

Hanaa looked up and saw several shadow beasts with demon like forms, emitting a strange dark smoke, they were flying in the same direction as she was and so she continued to follow them by running off a hill and jumping onto a higher ground and traversing more of the landscape. Soon the flying shadow beasts began to descend and land on a clearing near a large cave with several more monsters of their kind. Hanaa jumped down into the area and saw them surrounding a helpless female half elf. The oni, seeing how dire the situation is, decided to charge up and casted a spell with their gauntlets glowing in bright orange color and soon became more focused and fearless.

Bless!

She quickly charged in and slammed the nearest monster with a fiery and energy filled punch, gaining the attention of the others. The monsters turned away from the half elf and began focusing on the bigger threat despite the oni's size. One of the shadow beasts attempted to slash at Hanaa with their claws but she easily ducked and the beast trips over and falls prone. The biggest shadow beast of the group screamed at the oni in an attempt of intimidation but failed as the oni just glares back at them. Hanaa stepped around the prone monster and quickly slammed down her gauntlets on them in a quick and burning succession, rendering the beast dead.
One of the other shadow beasts lunged with their mouth, attempting to bite her with sharp and painful fangs, but Hanaa blocked the attack by guarding with their gauntlet. The large shadow beast slammed down their fist and with quick reaction, Hanaa jumps and lands on the large shadow beast's arm and punches them multiple times, knocking them back with heated bruises. The rest of the shadow beasts jump the oni and begin piling onto her, pinning her down. But alas, with fiery might, the oni combusts with explosive power, destroying the shadow beasts around her. She looks straight at the large shadow beast, the last one remaining, and quickly charges them. Jumping high in the air above them, she slams down her burning gauntlet on its head and the beast crumbles in a dark smoke.

As the last shadow monster falls, Hanaa checks her surroundings and walks over to the half elf to check if they were okay.

"Thank you so much! I was trying to head back to my village through the cave but these beasts suddenly ambushed me!"

Hanaa responded, "Was it the village of Plork? I've been told it's currently being attacked by the same monsters."

"Really? Oh, what am I supposed to do now?" The half elf worried.

"You said that this cave lead directly to the village?"

"Yes, but-"

"Listen, I'll go on ahead and try to help your village. Just stay back from the action alright?"

The half elf nodded and Hanaa then began running into the cave. The cave was dark and there were only a couple torches here and there but thanks to Hanaa's oni heritage, she was able to see in the darkness fine. Hanaa dashed through the cave's turns and corners and soon found herself running on a bridge within a large cavern under the tops of Sunnyside. Some lights beam through the holes in the ceiling and the sounds of a rushing waterfall can be heard in the distance. As she continued running, she passed a couple rocky pillars that stand close to the long bridge and as she looked left, Hanaa saw a strange flying creature covered in the darkness flying by with her. Its form was unlike the shadow beasts and as she continued to look at them, they soon glared back with glowing red and purple eyes. As the next rocky pillar passed by, the mysterious figure disappears. Suspicious and concerned, Hanaa began running faster and soon reached the end of the bridge.

Hanaa runs out of the dark cave and finds herself on a cliff-side. Looking down, the small village of Plork is seen with several villagers running in fear as a variety of shadow beasts brought upon an onslaught of chaos. Determined to stop the madness, Hanaa runs to her right and starts descending down the cliff. She then hops off and lands down on one of the village's streets and begins looking around.

Hanaa then stops as a cry is heard nearby, she saw a human family of four being attacked by single large shadow monster but its form resembling that of large snake. She then rushes in and quickly blocks an bite from the large shadow snake. The family of four were surprised but take this as a chance to move away. The shadow snake slaps Hanaa back with powerful force from its tail and the oni is knocked back to a wall into a building. Hanaa, struggling to get up, sees the slithering beast charge at her but with quick reflexes, she activates her gauntlets which releases a cloud of ash around her. The monster, having difficulty in see through the cloud, crashes into the wall above Hanaa, providing the oni the chance to roll away.
Burning embers begin to fill the cloud and its intense heat leaves scorching pain upon the beast's body and it struggles to breathe. Unaffected by her own cloud, Hanaa takes her opportunity and grabs onto the snake. The snake wriggles in response and quickly moves out of the enclosed building. Soon after, with its intense movements, the snake launches the oni into the air. Quickly turning the situation around, she readies a blazing punch as she falls back down and strikes the beast's head into the rock hard ground. The shadow beast breaks into fog like pieces and Hanaa lands, taking a look in her surroundings before suddenly a group of shadow beasts landed in front of her.

Bracing herself for another fight, Hanaa soon attempts to cast a spell before suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant blast of fire explodes the group of shadow beasts, eradicating all them. Surprised, Hanaa looked forward and saw a familiar looking male human figure.

They had the same male voice from before, "Whew, am I glad to see you're here, Hanaa. These guys just won't ever end!"

"Now is not the time for rest, Garan. We just need to help as much people as possible." Hanaa responded.

Garan Notte, the tall and a bit muscular male human with a fair skin tone and short spiky brownish-blonde hair. His outfit consists of an armored dark brown leather jacket with a picture of a red dragon's head on the back, black pants and boots, and red gloves. Most notably, Garan's eyes were bright red and on his cheeks were dragon like scales with orange energy on the edges. On his right hand and on his back are what seem to be adamantine pickaxes with the one on his hand with frost like energy and the other with fire like energy. Another object on his back seems to be some sort of silver rectangular technological item.

"Let's get moving then!" Garan says with determination in his breath.

Hanaa nods and begins dashing back onto the main street. Unable to catch up on foot, Garan grabs the technological item on his back and begins running. He then throws it in front of him and it transforms into a pristine hoverboard with glowing yellow energy. With the hover board, Garan catches up with Hanaa's quick running speed and follows her to the next area.

The two enter the center area of the town. Hanaa stops to see if any more people around were in trouble but the place was suspiciously silent. Garan hops off his hover board and it returns to its normal form and places it on his back. Hanaa takes one glance and quickly jumps away before a giant shadow beasts slams down into the center of the area. It was bigger than the rest of the other monsters and its form took after a fierce spider. White streaks of light glow from its head to the end of its body and its shrieks were loud enough to nearly pierce anyone's ears. Hanaa looks up at the powerful beast and then looks at Garan; he looks back and nods and at once begins to dance.

Much to the beasts confusion, Garan's breakdancing seems to enhance his own and Hanaa's fighting capabilities. Their focus and strength becomes stronger and soon the beast sticks to a battle stance.

"Alright, let's rock!" Garan shouts out loud at the shadow monster.

The spider charges, attempting to trample over both Hanaa and Garan but both were easily able to roll away. The beast turns back around and gets ready for another attack. Hanaa, quickly readjusting herself, holds her gauntlets close and begins emanating an aura of light orange color. Herself and even Garan from a distance become buffed as four orange lights float around them similar to that of meteors. Garan on the other hand, whilst dancing, casts a spell in which a yellow clock appears under both himself and Hanaa and begins turning clockwise at a fast acceleration.

Haste!

Stronger and faster, the duo readied themselves for another attack. The monster charges at Garan and attempts to bite at him with its dark fangs. The boy tries his best to block the attack with his pickaxes but as a result was bit in arm and felt a strong amount of pain.

"Damn! This thing hits hard!"

Hanaa rushes the shadow monster while it attacks Garan and strikes it with her blazing gauntlet and dealt a good portion of damage to the body. Garan steps a bit back and quickly draws his other flame imbued pickaxed and began hitting the shadow spider with both of his pickaxes, imagining it as if it was just another pile of rocks. The spider's attention was split upon the two but decides to aim towards the small oni and with great strength, it slams its body against Hanaa and the oni flies back into a big rock on the ground prone. Hanaa took a big hit and had trouble standing back up but nevertheless she regained her focus. She looked under the shadow beast and noticed that its underside looked a bit weak and swiftly came up with an idea.

Garan was having a bit of a hard time fighting the beast alone. Though his dance moves were aiding him on the offensive, he wasn't getting much chances to take on the defensive and heal up the heavy wounds from the shadow beast. But then, with ever-filled anger, Garan took a hard swing with his main pickaxe and digs in the spider's head strong which resulted in the beast backing away still standing but confused and unstabilized.

Hanaa shouts towards Garan, "Garan! Get ready for a fireball!"

"Wait, what!?"

Hanaa begins casting a spell with great power and with all her might punches the ground with her gauntlet. The ground shaked under Garan, making him off balanced for a bit, and a gushing stream of hot water erupted from under the huge shadow spider.

Geyser!

The spider was taken high up into the air by an intense eruption of heated water. Its body was heavily bruised and soon began to fall down. Garan understood what he had to do and drops one of his pickaxes. He begins casting a spell and his hand begins heating up with fiery energy and then he throws a punch in the air, aiming at the falling shadow spider and a strong ball of fire casts from his hand.

Fireball!

The fireball hits the falling spider, completely blowing it up like a firework and the huge shadow spider is no more. Some of the hot water from the geyser begins falling down around the area but due to their fire resistances, both Hanaa and Garan were unaffected. Hanaa swiftly dispels the geyser and all the shadow beasts around the area scream at the two and begin to flee. Survivors hiding in the broken houses walk out as they hear the remaining shadow beasts leave and start cheering as the threats were gone. Some of the survivors head towards the center and thank them profusely for their help.

"Our guard forces were easily defeated and there was no hope for us! We would have never survived without you two here!" An elven man says with his two kids around his arms.

"It's no problem, sir. We couldn't just sit around and watch." Garan responds.

Hanaa watches as Garan becomes surrounded by cheering civilians and looks around. The area seemed clear of danger for the most part but the village needed deep repair. Just before she started to move, Hanaa quickly jumps away from red and purple energy shots from the sky. The group of civilians back off and Hanaa looks above and sees the dark flying figure from before looking down upon at her.

Their appearance was seen clearer in the daylight as they were a female aasimar in nearly all jagged and spiky black armor with a couple red and purple accents here and there. On their lower back extended their black great-wings which the right wing glows in red energy while the left wing glows in purple energy. Their skin was light and hair was long and gray and kept by some sort of circlet on their head. Their right eye was red in color and their left eye was purple and in their left hand was dark great-sword.

They easily held the great-sword in their left hand and glared at the oni from above.

"The hell's the meaning of this!?" asked Garan.

"Hanaa the oni." The dark armored figure began to speak. "With your unholy strength and magical capabilities, you will not walk into another day bringing harm to others!"

"Bring harm? I'm not bringing harm to anybo-"

Just before Hanaa could finish, the dark figure raises their right arm and fires more red and purple energy blasts. Hanaa dodges them but realizes the dangers of fighting with this many civilians nearby.

"Hanaa, what do we do!?" Garan shouts.

"She's after me, I'll head out of the village and deal with her."

Hanaa then turns around and begins dashing from the dark figure, aiming for the entrance of the village.

Garan shouts, "Wait, hold up!" before the dark figure begins flying after Hanaa with their great-wings.

"You're not getting away!"

To Be Continued
A battle under the high sun, colors of orange and brown against the colors of red and purple piercing the wind. The running speed of the oni, Hanaa, is rivaled by the flight power of the dark hunter's great-wings. The two were moving fast through and around the tops, following the road ahead of them and reaching a road that went along the edge of a small ravine.
The dark hunter raised their right hand once again at the oni, the color of red from their gloves began to glow and multiple small blasts of red and purple energy shot out. Hanaa quickly dodged most of but the final shot which delivered a small shocking hit. Following up, the dark hunter spun herself towards the oni and with the strength of their great-wings they hit Hanaa, dealing a painful shocking sensation and knocking the oni off the road and down into the ravine.
Hanaa, getting herself together, manuevered herself to land on the wall that was on the other side of the ravine. Breaking a bit of the rock upon landing, Hanaa jumped off and continued wall jumping off mutiple rock pillars until she lands on the at the bottom of the ravine which the road from above continued down upon, barely taking any damage from the fall.

The dark hunter, swiftly flying down and from above, attempts to divebomb Hanaa with their black greatsword but Hanaa quickly jumps and rolls forward, dodging the attack as the dark hunter slams their greatsword down and breaks the earth around them. She turns around to face the dark hunter as they stand up once again. Her orange gauntlets glow slightly and the dark hunter begins to float again with their great-wings and turns around to face the small oni.

"Who are you and what is your deal?" Hanaa asked with grit.

The dark hunter looked at the oni with their cold red and purple eyes. Their expression was colored with solemness and dignity.

"I am Arkos. A holy agent of the Nitegarde."

"The Nitegarde?" Thought Hanaa.

Recalling her religious knowledge, the Nitegarde was a well known holy religious group that fights against the strongest forces of evil in the name of Noirwick, the powerful and recognized lunar deity of the night, order, and divine judgement. Just and determined, the Nitegarde are a feared name in the ears of many hellish beings and are known to have the most trained and powerful celestial agents or knights.

"An agent of the Nitegarde, huh? Then how am I unholy?" said Hanaa, demanding for an answer.

Arkos points her great-sword at the oni and replies, "To think that you don't already know the answer, you are not a normal oni, you are a masked pure-blooded demon oni. A very threat to those around you!"

"Pure-blood demon oni? Hold on a se-"

Just before Hanaa could finish, Arkos tightly gripped her blade on their left hand and flies straight at the small oni, slashing at her strangely from a distance people normally couldn't attack from. Hanaa ducks down fast enough to dodge the attack and to retaliate, she moves forward and quickly jumps back up and uppercuts Arkos with their gauntlets, delivering a furious blow and knocking them back. Angered, Arkos extends her great-wings and with great force spins head-forward again at Hanaa, attempting to slam the oni down as before. Remembering the move, Hanaa moves forward at her and slides under, avoiding the attack entirely and quickly stands back up to face Arkos.

Channeling magical energies within, Arkos turns to Hanaa and closes her eyes, holding her greatsword close to their chest and at once colors of red and purple outline her body as a yellow clock appears under herself and begins turning clockwise at a fast speed.

Haste!

She charges at Hanaa, slashing at her with incredible speed. The oni struggled to block and dodge most attacks and recieved a lot of cuts all over their body. She felt both the pain of electricity and fire from the greatsword but was able to slightly nullify most of the fiery damage. A different plan of attack was needed.

The oni quickly steps back a couple feet and prepares herself for another attack. Just as Arkos went forward and held her blade up for another slice, Hanaa activates her gauntlets and clouds of ash spew out from it, surrounding her and ruining Arko's vision. She struggled to hit the oni as she felt the burning embers of the cloud but was able to keep herself in check from choking. Hanaa dashes out from the cloud, the opposite direction Arkos was facing and ran down the continuation of the road in the ravine. Arkos flew up from the cloud and quickly looked around the environment and saw her target swiftly getting away and began flying fast towards the quick oni. Meanwhile, on the road at the edge of the ravine above, Garan rides on his hoverboard in hopes to catch up on the battle to support his friend. He looks slightly down over the ravine and sees Arkos making continuing her way down the road and speeds himself up as his hoverboard glows brighter.

Hanaa runs down the small ravine, the walls and opening becoming more tighter and closed. She dodges more of the small electrical blasts from Arkos as she flies from behind. Soon enough, the oni reaches the ravine's end but was luckily able to notice a cave to the right. Hanaa takes a swift sharp turn and Arkos struggles to stop herself from crashing into a wall for the unexpected turn but eventually flies fast into the cave as well. With her dark vision, Hanaa noticed some strange vert faint greenish temple-like stone walls at the sides of the caves at times but soon snapped back on track as more blasts were fired from Arkos. The cave led out to what seemed to be an old and crooked brown bridge that was below a cliff in which the stone walls had bits and pieces of a gray hexagonal pattern. Taking an opportunity, Arkos flew below and under the bridge and began breaking through its supports. The bridge began to collapse and Hanaa tried to run much faster but Arkos began casting a spell, her hand was engulfed in a red and purple flame and she throws a punch at one of the supports far ahead.

Fireball!

The supports blew up, collapsing the entire bridge Hanaa was running on and Arkos was quick enough to fly away from the debris to fall on her. Hanaa falls and lands in the rubble, feeling a significant amount of pain upon crashing down. Before Hanaa could even get up, Arkos comes down and swoops her up, grabbing her by the hair with their unarmed hand and carries the weakened oni with all her strength, flying fast to near where the bridge began. She then throws the oni down hard into the ground, Hanaa rolls across the dirt and grass until they were stopped by a small broken temple wall structure. Hanaa was pretty injured as she hasn't taken the time to heal herself.

"This is the end of the line, Hanaa the oni." Arkos grimly stated as she held her greatsword high in the air.

Hanaa looks up at Arkos and sees the sun shining from behind them. Just before Arkos was able to slash down her blade, a war cry was heard as Garan, coming down from the sun's shine, crashes himself and the hover-board upon Arkos's head and back. The hover-board shuts off and lands flimsily to the side while Garan, taking a bit of damage from the crash, lands and rolls to the left of Hanaa. Arkos on the other hand was slammed down into the ground, eating the dirt and feeling some serious head pain.

"Aggh! :red:, I didn't expect to land this bad..." Garan groaned as he rolled over and looked over at Hanaa before quickly realizing her state of health. "Oh :red:, Hanaa! You're hurt!"

Hanaa, with the left of her strength, gets up and focuses herself.

"I'm fine... I suffered worse than this." Hanaa replies to Garan with heavy stress.

Her hands hold close and a light blue energy manifests, outlining her entire body. Faint images of a green and blue forest surround her and multiple light blue and green colors spiral around her. A golden butterfly manifests above Hanaa and floats down above her head. At once, her wounds heal critically and most of her energy is restored. The imagery around Hanaa fade away and Garan himself gets up and begins casting magic upon himself as colors of blue and green spiral around him as well and fast as a finger click, three orange lines spiral up and down around as well. The wounds from his fall heal reasonably.

Both healed up, Hanaa and Garan both face the prone Arkos. Hanaa readies her gauntlets and Garan quickly draws one of his pickaxes on his right hand.

"They are known as Arkos, they're a member of the Nitegarde." Hanaa states to Garan.

"A Nitegarde member!? Why would they be after you!?"

Arkos, rubbing her head, quickly gets up, grabs her great-sword, and floats in the air once again. She looks down upon Hanaa and Garan as they both were ready for another round.

"For good reason. This battle does not concern you."

"Hell yeah it does! Hanaa did nothing wrong! And there is nothing that you can do that will stop me from protecting my best friend!" Garan shouts back at Arkos, all fired up.

Arkos was moved. She holds her blade less tighter and looks slightly down at herself. At that moment, Hanaa begins to read a bit more into her character, as if what Garan said made her remember something.

"No, it is my duty..." Arkos says solemnly.

All three ready themselves for a fight and just before they even move a bit forward, the environment around them suddenly shifts in color. Looking around, everything looked dark and bleak in color. Distortions of static stutter about.

"The crap's going on!?" Garan shouts out loud.

Soon right after, the bridge's rubble begins to move slightly and all three stand side by side, facing the movement. Blasting out of the debris, a towering pitch black tree with the same static distortions appears and strange dark vines come out of it, moving like tentacles, and aim at the trio.

Arkos spoke to the two while facing the tree, "It's a trace from the Shadowzone!"

"Shadowzone??" Both Hanaa and Garan question right as the strange shadow tree attempts to whip its vines at the three.

Hanaa, Garan, and Arkos were all able to quickly dodge and move back as the strange shadow tree begins to grow taller but they quickly realize that it is standing on its roots and moving about with it like legs.

"The Shadowzone is place or existence of pure chaos. It's all a matter of perspective on understanding it."

Garan quickly runs left and grabs his dropped hover-board on the ground and places it on his back. Hanaa runs up to the dark tree and punches it multiple times, breaking and burning a bit of its bark as it waves itself back and forth in pain.

"From our perspective, their forms are not discernible and are completely chaotic. But from a perspective of a demon or perhaps a protean, their sort of 'true form' is revealed. It's all in theory!"

Garan begins to dance, his dancing begins affecting Hanaa and strangely enough Arkos as well, all three being more focused and stronger. Surprised, Arkos looks over at Garan.

"This thing is like the shadow beasts we fought before! Are you gonna fight with us or not!?" Garan expresses towards Arkos.

Arkos knew that the bigger threat in this situation was a bigger priority than putting down the oni as they too were focusing on them. She flies a bit higher and moves fast towards the tree, slashing it in a quick succession and floating near by Hanaa. The tree strangely groans in pain as its size wasn't able to dodge attacks that easily and their attacks were burning through it.

A white light outlines the tree and with sparks of light, mutiple shadow beasts spawned floating in the air around it. They were identical to the normal shadow beasts both Hanaa and Garan fought at the village in demon-like form. The shadow minions flew towards Hanaa and Arkos and began battling them. Their claws slash hard but Arkos blocks with her wings and Hanaa parries every attack thrown at her. Garan quickly runs around the tree, it notices him and as a result it uses two of its vines in attempt to slap him down and grab him but Garan was able to draw his second pickaxe with his left hand in time and parry the first attack and he swiftly jumps over the second vine.
Hanaa quickly steps back and begins casting a spell upon herself. An orange light outlines her body and a transparent bull's head appears above her with glowing yellow eyes and it exhales with anger before fading away.

Bull's Strength!

Hanaa felt her strength greatly enhance and delivered more powerful and blazing blows to the shadow beasts around her, quickly slamming them down, obliterating them. The tree with its vines, shoots forward at Arkos and grabs her by surprise as it wraps around her body. The tree attempts to throw and slams Arko's body upon Hanaa and both felt a moderate amount of pain. Luckily, Hanaa's strength allowed her to not be knocked down and she was able to slam down the vine, freeing Arkos. Another one of the shadow beasts move toward Arkos and slash at her. Due to being unable to quickly react in time, they slash her torso and head, dealing an irritating amount of pain.
Garan then from around the tree, swiftly puts away his pick on his left hand and begins casting a spell. His hand becoming engulfed with flames and with little delay he throws a punch at the tree and a ball of fire shoots out.

Fireball!

The tree is hit with full force of the flames and is weakened greatly. The shadow minions turn their attention to Garan and he readies himself for them. Arkos, filled with anger, shouts out a battle cry and becomes full on enraged. Unaware of her fury, the shadow minions and tree were sliced rapidly by Arkos as she furiously assaulted them with her great-sword. Hanaa watched as she tore apart the shadow minions and took her chance to follow up upon the shadow tree, dealing fiery strikes to its bark. The tree groans in great pain, it knows that it is severely weak. With its bulky mass, the tree attempts to burrow down into the earth to escape but not before Arkos grabs two of its vines with her powerful might and flies up, keeping it from escaping.
Garan draws his second pick and charges straight at the tree. He begins to imagine it as a pile of rocks and slams down his adamantine pickaxes, dealing both a fiery strike and frosty sting. Taking her chance and flanking it with Garan, Hanaa channels the blazing power within her gauntlets and summons multiple tiny meteors that float around her weapon. Striking the tree with the help of the small meteors in a quick succession, as it helps deal more damage, the tree's bark completely breaks apart and the top limps over as it dies. The tree begins to glow brighter and brighter and before Hanaa, Garan, or Arkos could react, the ground beneath them suddenly breaks apart and collapses and along with the tree, Hanaa and Garan fall down deep into the earth within.

To Be Continued
My eyes open, the shine of the hazy sun rests upon the horizon, the coolness of the air and clouds begin to take over. I adjust my mask with the diadem; my brown leather gloves brushing off the sweat of today. I look down at my hands and outfit. A soft but lazy dirt stained white shirt with dark brown overall shorts and worn out black boots. I kick at the ground, a moment of distraction.

A deep voice calls out to me, one that I could never forget, "Little one, you seem to be falling behind."

I turn to my right. His tall intimidating stature standing in the midnight of the towering trees, their clothes and long hair billowing from the cool breeze.

"...Sorry, there's... There is just a lot on my mind." I respond, my expression hanging.

"The night is calling out its foes. Gripping onto the fogginess of the past will hold you back. You must keep moving forward, with your sight clear or not." He spoke with a determined tone. I nod as I look back over at the distant sunset.

He turns around, taking back onto the road, "Come little one, we have much work to do at home and tomorrow." He gestures for me to follow. I take one last view at the light of yesterday and at once I jog forward to him, eventually catching up to their confident pace and joining them in the shade.

"Will we continue training tomorrow?"

He responded quick, "We will see, little one."

I look forward down at the dirt road. The trees around us breath for a moment before resting back into silence. A couple paces more and the breeze returns but a strange yet familiar faint voice calls out.

"Hanaa..."

"Huh?" I return with confusion. "Did you hear that?" I ask him. He shakes his head and continues marching forward.

The voice calls out again, the air breathing colder, "Hanaa.."

My mind becomes tense, I quickly analyze the area. The voice becomes louder and louder.

"Hanaa." The voice speaks, as if it was right in front of me this time. I hold my head. Just who is this...!?


"Hanaa!"

Hanaa gasps, suddenly opening their eyes and seeing Garan, crouching right next to her. Hanaa coughs for a moment and sits up, feeling slightly dizzy and cold. She looks down at herself, her gauntlets still functional and glowing and her outfit being the same as normal. Hanaa glances around the room and notices that they seem to be in a dark cave with the walls lining up with mysterious temple bricks and bits of moss and small tree branches climbing along the walls. Behind Garan was a deep looking pit of water, with a familiar looking broken tree, no longer covered in shadow, floating at the surface of the water. A single lit torch illuminated the area.

Garan sat back and brushed off his head from sweat, "Whew! Thank goodness you're okay! I was worried the fall did a number on you."

"The fall?" Hanaa asked, trying to recall what happened.

"Yeah, when we were beating that shadow tree whatever, the floor under us collapsed and we landed in the water there. I was able to move you here safely."

"Thanks, Garan. I appreciate it." Looking above the water shows a crumble of rocks, blocking the path up from where they fell. Hanaa then stood up and brushes herself off of any dirt and dust. Garan stands up as well, collecting his adamantine pickaxes and bag off the ground. He points down at a dark pathway with the walls and ceiling changing from the natural cave rock to the solid untouched temple bricks.

"I believe that way seems to be the only way out," Stated Garan as he then walks over to the torch on the wall and takes it out of its sconce, "As much as we both can see through the dark fine, I rather we see it better with light." Hanaa nods and the two begin moving down onto the path with the oni taking the initiative up front.

As they both walked down the dark hallway, Hanaa notices from time to time that the seams of the bricks on the wall sometimes have a faint blue lights that run across it. She takes note of this and keeps on walking. Not for long, they reach a closed wooden door at the end of the hallway. Hanaa takes hold of the handle and looks back at Garan, he quickly draws one of his pickaxes with his other hand, preparing himself. The oni quickly opens the old door and are greeted with a large room, the room was brightened as the broken ceiling welcomed the sun's shine. A large strange symbol rested upon the stone of a wall and in the middle of the room was an empty stone rectangular alter. The wall across the room from Hanaa and Garan had a open broken doorway that lead out back into the Sunnyside.

Hanaa began walking out into the clearing of the room, continuing to inspect the area while Garan places down the lit torch while keeping his pick at the ready. Other than the entrance that lead out, two more entryways were visible but were closed off due to them being blocked off by collapsed rock. This place hasn't been touched for a very long while. A small breeze from the outside rests itself in for a bit as Hanaa stands under the light that beams through from the ceiling.

The oni walks next to the stone alter and then focuses upon the strange symbol upon the ceiling. The symbol depicted flames burning through similar to that in a crescent shape facing the left, from the center shoots out a powerful ray of some kind. From another perspective, it could even look like a meteor.

"Woah, dude," Garan stated, moving next to Hanaa, crouching down and laying his bag, "That's the same symbol from the journals!"

Rustling through his magical extra-dimensional bag, he takes out a journal. Its cover being that of dark brown leather and upon the center of the front cover lies jewels forming the shape of flame, half of the jewels being that of amber and the other being sapphire. The spine is held together strong and two straps above and below the center jewel keeps the journal from opening. He quickly unstrapped them and flipped through until stopping at a certain page. Hanaa looks over at the journal next to Garan, seeing clearly the same symbol within.
"The Lunar Nemesis Orb," Garan says, reading the page out loud, "A legendary artifact manifested from the energies of the deities: Noirwick and LeNémesis. Say, ain't LeNémesis the evil deity of 'Purity', Injustice, and Vengeance or somethin', right?"

Upon hearing the Lunar Nemesis, a flurry of quick and unclear flashbacks appeared to Hanaa. Reminiscence of a crimson night, being engulfed by the edge of flames. The blinding of a green light followed by a brief feeling of anger. Finally, a recall of a complete darkness, the feeling of coldness and isolation runs through her spine. Hanaa holds her head and Garan turns his head to see her troubled.

"Whoa, you okay? What's wrong?"

She recollects herself, "I... I'm fine. It's just that Lunar Nemesis thing. I had a sudden recollection of painful flashbacks, some of which I don't even understand."

Garan closes the journal and places it back in his bag. "This stuff were from your relative, right?"

Hanaa turned away for a second, a faint blue feeling casts upon her, "They were passed down to me from my ninong. They were no stranger to religious studying and analysis."

"I just don't get that some of the stuff on here were written in some other language I can't understand while other bits are written in the common language."

Turning back and seeing Garan grab more journals of multiple colored hard covered journals and flip through them quickly whilst dropping them, Hanaa grabbed the journal he was holding and began picking up the couple others on the floor. "Don't toss them around like that! These are personal."

"Oh crap, sorry! I didn't mean too, I was just umm..."

She places them back into the bag. Before peering back into the bag, the oni stands up straight and swings her arms back, making her over-sized orange gauntlets disappear. Upon so revealed her normal arms and her brown gloves. She took out a map from the bag and began heading straight to the doorway that lead outside. Speaking with a bit of solemness in her voice, "Ninong said that with those journals, I'll eventually understand and one day make a decision."

He picks his bag up, sheathes his pickaxe, and catches up with Hanaa, developing a big smile on his face as they both walk out of the ruin and see a great view of the massive plains. "Well, that's why we're heading to Daecott! That town probably has the information we need to uncover more about 'em, right!?"

Hanaa nods at Garan and unfolds the map. Daecott, the neighborhood of pages, was far northeast from their location due to the events that unfolded in the village of Plork and the battle with Arkos. A travel within the vast landscape of Sunnyside Tops wouldn't take up too much time for people like Hanaa and Garan.

"Say...," she began asking with concern, "The village of Plork is okay, right? We don't need to stay with them for a while to keep them safe?"

Garan scratches his head for a bit and recalls his memory. "They said that they were fine on their own to rebuild their small village and such. They quickly told me about them reworking their defense systems or something. That allowed me to go after you and help out to deal with Arkos."

"Hmm, alright. If they say so I guess."

"Oh! They did give me a bag full of gold coins! We should totally divide them up!" Garan takes out a brown bag and hands it to Hanaa. She opens it and sees nothing but gold coins. They take a bit of time to distribute the coins between them and soon finish up on it.

Garan took out his hover-board and deployed it on the ground, the tech quickly transforming itself and readily hovering. Hanaa hands back the map to Garan and he puts it back in his pack.

"It should only take the remaining time of today and a couple more hours for us to reach Daecott. The road to it should easily keep us on track." She states to Garan as he jumps on his hover-board.

"Alright, let's roll!" Garan cried out, giving a big thumbs up.

At once, Hanaa began dashing to the direction of Daecott with Garan quickly followed from behind. Hours and minutes pass by, the sun drifting through the sky. The quick footed oni continues running without tire along the dirt road. She was used to this kind of long-distance travel. Garan on the other hand kept his best of moving along with her. This wasn't the first time he traveled along with Hanaa to far places but the endurance to keep standing on his hover-board was fading. But with his strength and willpower, he was able to endure more hours of riding through the Sunnyside. He was most certainly glad that his hover-board possessed the capacity to match with Hanaa's extraordinary running abilities. The tech had enough energy to last through the entire day. During the nights, he'd have it recharge itself over time.

The sun began to settle upon the horizon and there was still more road to take until Daecott. The two stop and settle for a camping spot, a place to rest for the night. They set up two tents and with Garan's fire capabilities, set up a campfire. Before resting up for the night, Garan sat by the fire eating up upon his rations for the day. His rations was the basic for most adventurers. He chewed upon herb bread with beef sausage, along with a bit of cheese and dried fruits. He kept his bag behind him, resting a bit on it while his hover-board, in an inactive state, laid next to him. Hanaa on the other hand sat nearby around the fire, eating a very different kind of food with her mess kit. Her meal was a savory stew of pork simmered in a rich and slightly spicy dark gravy of pig blood along with a garlic, vinegar, and various spices. The stew was paired along with bread buns. Garan watched as Hanaa ate the dark meat off her plate without any problem. The kind of food was incredibly bizarre to him.

"Uhh, Hanaa?"

"Mhmm?" Hanaa responded as she chewed on her food.

"How the hell do you preserve THAT for a long time?" he asked with his eyes wide open.

She finishes up her meal and breathes for a moment, "Preservatives." A moment of silence passes by upon the two, "Also the fact that my bag is within your bag which is an extra-dimensional storage."

"Uhh, okay. Well, speaking of dark and menacing, do you think that the Nitegarde person err... Arkos! Yeah, do you think she'll come around again?"

Hanaa thought for a moment, recalling her encounter with Arkos. Their combat and mobility certainly made them a tough opponent. One wouldn't go as far to battle with those from the Nitegarde. When battling against that strange Shadowzone tree, she very well remembered Arkos' capability to gather more strength from her anger. "Possibly. But if a second round were to occur, I mustn't underestimate them."

With a big bite, Garan thoroughly chewed upon a piece of bread and swallowed it, "I ain't lettin' you fight alone, Hanaa."

"Garan, they work for the Nitegarde. I don't want you getting in bad terms with them just because of me. This is my decision."

"So what about the Nitegarde, dude? I ain't gonna sit back and watch my best friend get hurt when I know I can help in the fight!" He put aside his food and stood up from his spot and began to punch at the air in front of him, pretending to fight with somebody, "It'll be like when we fought that big dumb Shadowzone spider! I'll keep 'er at bay and you come around and explode 'em!"

Hanaa chuckled at Garan's enthusiasm. His headstrong attitude and determination greatly emanated to those around him. She appreciated those kinds of traits from him. She watches as he continued to punch the air with a big grin on his face.

"Your decision was to deal with Arkos yourself, right?" Garan says as he turned to Hanaa, "Well! It's gonna be my big decision to help out! Together, we'll take 'er down good!"

Hanaa smiled as he then sat down and continued to eat. "Well, then together we will."

Garan's gave out a big thumbs up when he saw her smile. That sort of expression isn't shown a lot for him and so he's glad that he is able to support and make his friend smile.
Eventually, the moon fully rises from the horizon and the two begin to take turns to keep watch through the course of the night. Hanaa took the first watch and did for most of the entire night. Due to her training, she was able to keep up the endurance needed to stay up. She kept a keen eye in her surroundings as the campfire lit the dark, blue area around her. Nothing was noticed for the most part and eventually, she wakes up Garan for his turn.

As Hanaa slept, Garan keeps himself busy during his watch by looking more into the journal with the amber and sapphire flame. Hanaa didn't like showing the journals off to anybody except for him as he was a trustworthy companion. Reading through more of the pages he could understand, his curiosity over his friend grew more and more. In the time they've spent together, he knew that she wanted to discover more about the journals and he wanted to help her in this as much as possible. However, how Hanaa herself as a person came to be and that of her powers and abilities were still a mystery to him. Garan closed the journal and sighed. Although he doesn't know Hanaa by a lot yet, he knows that in due time, when she wants to that she will tell him. For now the focus should be on heading to Daecott and finding more information.

The night soon came to an end. The shine of the sun rises from the horizon, the warmness of the air begin to take over. The two quickly pack up their tent and belongings. Garan activates his hover-board and at once, Hanaa and Garan set out to the town of Daecott. In their path, answers await.

To Be Continued
 
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And lastly in a guild building nearby, a small male oni in a brown and black outfit struggles to accept how much gold and platinum coins he lost by letting his vampiric, adopted sister borrow his wallet for Christmas decorations.
Embrace the christmas spirit :red:

I like to think the entirety of the thread's name is 100% related to the only story on it.
 
Added Part 2 to A Christmas Kromea. I may have rushed this one because of my limited time.
 
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Completed and added Part 3 to A Christmas Kromea. I had a bit of trouble typing this one, that's why it was a bit late.
[doublepost=1514017257,1513918446][/doublepost]Part 4 for A Christmas Kromea has been released. I really am bad at this.
[doublepost=1514103591][/doublepost]A Christmas Kromea has reached its Finale. Yeah. For real.
[doublepost=1514448037][/doublepost]Posted a story for one of my one-shot campaigns. Wrote this one to forget the mistakes made in writing A Christmas Kromea.
 
Posted the Epilogue of KILL: Forever Desire in the One-Shot stories.
[doublepost=1518944514,1514668009][/doublepost]Wow, I swear I have been posting here in my head. Anyways, a prologue for the Volume Hanaa series has been written and I can't be a writer if I don't write at all.
[doublepost=1519695624][/doublepost]Episode 1 of Volume Hanaa has been published. This one took some time to make but I hope you guys enjoy it.
[doublepost=1522562808][/doublepost]Volume Hanaa, Episode 2 - Darkness Piercing Souls has been published! I need to stop procrastinating.
[doublepost=1527101964][/doublepost]It's my special happy birthday today! That means for Episode 3 - Nightbreak for Volume Hanaa is here! Hooray!
[doublepost=1541035067][/doublepost]Happy Halloween! Tonight's story is The Man in the Mirror, a short story inspired by a good friend of mine. Volume Hanaa will be continuing soon once I get my crap together so enjoy this piece for now!
 
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