FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

We drove for quite a while. It perhaps took us about three hours to get to an estimated spot for the Time Twisted Fields to be in my sight but not go near it. It was an obvious landmark, with it emitting a large blue light into the sky even during a bright sunny day. It was a bit easier to see today though, as it was cloudy and it was beginning to rain. The journal entry had just said "near" the Time Twisted Fields and I had assumed that the search for Vinchi's hideout would be easy as there were very few buildings in this area, if there were any at all. It did turn out that there were a few more than I expected, but they'd be easy to search since they looked like they were abandoned. It would have been a perfect cover for Vinchi to have a base of some sort stashed up here. I also had a nagging feeling that someone had followed Tay and I, but I shrugged it off as being paranoid when I couldn't honestly prove if we were or not.

We stopped by the first building we came across and did a quick overlook inspection of it. It seemed to be a former office building, with most of the furniture inside from what I could see from just looking in the window from my Hooverbike. I parked it and then hopped off of it. I then helped Tay get off as we went inside to look around. If Vinchi had any more lackeys, they'd probably show up soon. I wanted to make sure we were inside a building so she would have time to load her Shockgun. I rummaged through my left overcoat pocket and pulled out my Cryptic Guard military grade Laser Pistol. I felt like I didn't need it anymore, but a nagging feeling in the back of my mind told me it'd be better to keep it around just in case especially since I could transform it into various types of firearms before I was able to conjure up the dual katanas and finally the katana-scythe. It honestly felt like it was a lifetime ago that I was relying more on bullets than I was on my own powers. I couldn't get rusty with a gun though. I'd never know when I might need it.

The building was clearly abandoned. It was covered in dust and dirt. Parts of it were also falling apart. It looked like it used to be a diner of some sort and then someone or something trashed it. Judging from the decaying furniture and design patterns that I could barely make out on the walls, it was a safe bet to assume that its lifetime was easily equivalent to two of my own or more. I watched Tay kick around a few turned over chairs and tables as she was searching for any sign of an entrance or a lead to where Vinchi was.

"I don't think this building is being used as cover," I said. "For one, it's difficult to move anything in here. The cover building may look torn apart, but it'd be superficial. We'd have found an entrance by now."

"I guess you're right about that," Tay said. "Going to the next building then?"

I nodded and lead her outside as the next building of interest was adjacent to the one we were in. The doors were closed, unlike the diner, and seemed to be intact. I tugged on the handle of one of them and it wouldn't budge due to corrosion and rust. I stepped back before lifting my right leg and kicking the door hard. With a suddenly crack, the handle broke off and flung past both Tay and I. The lack of a handle now forced the door to slowly open. We went inside, looking around just like before. There were a few shelves with nothing on them, cobwebs on every corner and some obviously outdated and broken equipment.

"An old supermarket," I said. "This... town we're in seems pretty old."

"Yeah," Tay said, pulling out her Communicator. "I think I did a report on a town being consumed completely by warfare. I think we're in the small town of Sharn. It was a town that prospered for quite a few years before the Great War."

"That old, huh?" I asked. "I guess it's not normal to come out here and try to reclaim the town for renovation. Especially since it's so close to the Time Twisted Fields."

"Most thought it was cursed or that the Ancients wanted the town abandoned due to the War," she said. "And by Ancients, I mean the people my kind believes in. It's about equivalent to Magazor being believed in by the Bodarens."

"I'm aware," I said. "Remember, I'm a book worm. A nerd, if you will."

"I know," she giggled, patting the top of my head. "If this is Sharn, I'm surprised the Cryptic Guard hasn't tried to take it over or destroy it."

"It's possible that not even they know the ruins still exist," I said. "It's the only way it'd make sense that Vinchi knows where this place is considering the nature of the Crimson Gavel being this strange cult... thing. I don't see anything of interest here though."

"At least not in this building," she said, crossing her arms as she looked out the nearby window. "There's a couple more we still need to look at. I dunno how big this town exactly was, but I can't see any other buildings within view distance."

I nodded after looking through a broken desk that was halfway through a wall. I assumed that meant the room on the other side was a manager's office at some point. We headed out of the building and to the nearest one we hadn't investigated yet. It was fairly large, as if it had either been a warehouse or a small factory. I headed inside while Tay looked around on the outside searching for more clues. Unlike the other buildings, this one on the interior seemed to lack physical evidence of any sort of decay. It was old, however, judging from the style of the technical equipment. I approached a fairly large terminal computer and searched for its power switch. Unlike the terminals that I had experience with in the Cryptic Academy or even in the Tonoko Square Marketplace, this ancient looking one took up an entire wall. It seemed to have rust here and there, though not all over it like I expected. Surprisingly, the terminal began to boot up once I did find the power switch.

"Strange," I said to myself. "This equipment shouldn't be working."

"It's possible that this is the fake decaying building," Bane said, though it made me jump as I could see him leaning against the wall alongside Payne. Payne himself looked relaxed and was smoking a cigarette. I didn't want to question why as I hated that activity. "How am I able to see you two without being passed out or poisoned?"

"Relax," Payne said. "Noble boy here will tell you everything you wanna know."

"And why can't you?" I asked.

"I'm lazy," he chuckled. "I am the negative side of you, Lane. Lazy is a negative attribute to you."

"Fair point," I said. "So, gonna answer the question, Bane?"

"Well, if you just shut up for five seconds, I would," Bane said, shaking his head. "Sometimes it's a pain remembering our host is naïve."

"I still don't buy that you're my good side," I said, crossing my arms now. "You're still a bit of a douche."

"I try," he said. "Moving on though. You can see us right now because your dormant power is awakening. However, it is a bit alarming with how fast it has happened. If you get too powerful too quickly, you might suffer some sort of injury in a fight you're not prepared for. On the other hand, we'll probably need that power to defeat Vinchi and then go after Baron Runo."

"You make it sound like I want to immediately go after Runo," I said. "I know I need to fall back and make a plan once Vinchi's dealt with."

"Right now, you know," he said. "If rage or lust for battle takes hold with the fight with Vinchi, you may act irrational and charge him head on. There's also the matter of if you're able to project us right now, we might not be around to give guidance much longer."

"What?" I asked, blinking.

"Look at that, Mr. I Want to Save the Day actually looks upset about that," Payne chuckled. "Well, at least about you. I haven't been here that long. Still, I felt and saw those fights Sprock, Morta and Jagger put us through. I wanted to break free, unleash your murderous intentions upon them, but your will is strong. It's actually something I'm glad that stopped me. We'd be no better than the Crimson Gavel or the Cryptic Guard if we blindly killed."

"What do you mean though?" I asked. "I might still have to pursue the job as a bounty hunter when this is done to pay the bills. I need to stay under the radar as it is, so having an irrational thought from time to time wouldn't be too bad."

"You're advancing your powers faster than anticipated, even by Ryjy and Donjy standards," Bane said, crossing his arms. "Soon enough, we'll all fuse into one entity. That's when you turn from just a hybrid of light and dark to a being capable of combining both sides at will. Yes, you can somewhat do that right now, but only with one or two strikes. Once you achieve this unison, you will be able to control every ability or strike of yours if you'd like for it to be Nether based, Light based or a combination of both. You wouldn't need these personifications anymore. Both factions refer to this being as Tele Sombrus. It is a rather ancient term and very unlikely any others exist on Krater or anywhere else in the universe, really. Literally translated from your ancestors' language, it means The Shadowguard. These beings were responsible for keeping a balance of light and dark - basically good and evil. There's no black and white to the Code of The Shadowguard. It's left up to the individual to act on what they believe to be right or wrong."

"The Shadowguard?" I asked. "Sounds intimidating. I kind of like it."

"I figured," Bane said. "There's your little history lesson. As for explaining why Payne and I know this, yet you don't, it's in your head as well. It's just locked, waiting to be open when the time is right. I'm sure by now you've realized one side of your family isn't what they seem."

I blinked and turned toward Bane, staring him down.

"What?" I asked.

"I said-" he began before I interrupted by grabbing him and pushing him into the wall.

"I know what you said," I said. "You know more than you're letting on. Tell me now."

"Rising to physical threats won't exactly help," he said. "I'm you, so if you hurt me, you hurt yourself. Right now, there's not much time with Vinchi still about to be wasting talking about it. If we're unified by the time this is over, then it wouldn't be long until you uncovered the secret yourself. I can leave you with a clue though. The Time Twisted Fields."

"You have a point," I said, sighing and letting go of him. "Let's see what's on this terminal then" I walked back over to it. "And I don't think I'll step foot into the Time Twisted Fields. As far as I know, that's more of a death sentence than it is a luxury."

The operating system loaded right into the administrative account, which was a tad unusual. It was old, however, and this could have been a personal terminal to a CEO or a scientist way back in the day. I began to look through the various files that were still available and noticed a few were named a bit strangely. There was a folder labeled as "Video Logs" and there were only three video files in it. When I opened the first one, I could now accurately tell how old the machine was due to the quality of the log. It was the first advancement of being able to record pure digital footage. That was much older than the Great War itself, but somehow the machine was still operational. It gave one explanation - someone did come by here and actively restored and maintained it for whatever reason. The first Video Log looked like the footage was recorded on an ancient camera built into the terminal. The quality wasn't nearly as good as my Communicator's obviously, but I could at least tell that the man talking to it was a Lunga.

"First log of a few," he started. "Several attacks on the town due to perfect isolated location and resource value have occurred. The townsfolk are already fleeing and those who stay, like me, likely die when a squad from the bigger cities come and try to steal the aforementioned resources. This is a sacred land, to my kind and to the Bodaren. Sharn was one of the first towns founded when Mortion was established. I hope if anyone finds these logs, they'd know how to stop them from demolishing the area just for some petty Nether Energy rumor."

The video ended and I clicked on the second video file. I scratched my head, wondering what these videos had to do with anything.

"Second entry," the Lunga said, though this time there seemed to be urgency and panic in his voice. "They've come. They're killing anything that moves and decimating entire buildings. I learned that Sharn is sitting atop a vat of Nether Energy. It's possibly enough to theoretically establish a gateway from our realm into the Nether Realm. I don't know why those sophisticated snobs want to try something like that. The Nether Realm is full of nothing but pure evil. Corrupted souls go there when their bodies die and there's nothing good from being able to see someone like a serial killer or a mob boss there, for example. This means that survival is unlikely and I must somehow signal for help or at least leave evidence behind."

The second log ended somewhat more abruptly than the first, as if the Luna hurried to shut it off. I shook my head and tried to resist playing the third file as I still didn't know what this had to do with anything recent. My curiosity got the better of me in the end and I clicked on it anyway.

"Third entry," the Luna said, but sounded absolutely frightened now. "Total annihilation of the population is imminent. I fear I might be the only one they hadn't found and took out. I did overhear this group's goons talk about a plan to link the world to the Nether Realm after all. Are they mad? The destruction that realm would bring would destroy us. The souls of the departed that are trapped there aren't the souls people would have known. It's speculated even pure souls might get caught up in it and might become the most vicious if the legends were to be true due to how corruption affects purity." He took a deep sigh and tried to relax before jumping as the door behind him suddenly opened.

"Well, well, well," a familiar voice chuckled. "Look what we missed, boys. It's a little science Lunga. You know, I'm one of the ones who are glad that you're running into a population problem, Lunga."

The Lunga shook in fear as the black silhouette approached him.

"Let me make it a bit quicker," the silhouette said before there was a gunshot and the Lunga fell out of view of the camera It walked toward the camera now and I was shocked at what I saw.

"That can't be right," I said, backing away from the terminal. "Vinchi? That long ago?"

There was then a sudden and loud distorted roar for a second before the terminal monitor was completely overtaken by a much clearer Vinchi figure sitting in a chair and sipping on a wine glass.

"Hard to believe, right?" he asked, chuckling. "And no, that's not a relative that you saw. That was me, Lane." He cackled with confidence and it made me only tense up with anger.

"So you're a very old man," I said. "That's not exactly intimidating."

"That's not one of my intimidating features, Lane," he chuckled. "Is it wrong to give a small idea of what you're up against? There was more to it than that though." He smirked as an alarm suddenly went off and the windows and doorways were suddenly shielded with metallic blockades that looked heavily reinforced. "Can't have you going anywhere, you know."

"Dammit, Vinchi!" I shouted. "This goose chase is going on for far too long. You have diarrhea of the mouth and I'm quite sick of it. Just face me if you're so keen on killing me!"

"Not yet, my dear friend," he said. "There's some things you should know prior to your inevitable death. One, I like toying with you. Two, there's a secret still." He snapped his fingers and there was a sudden loud bang and the room began to rapidly fill up with smoke.

I coughed wildly and covered my mouth and nose with my left arm and approached the terminal closer so I could still see him.

"Dirty tricks won't have you win," I said, though I did begin to feel a tad light headed.

"Iridum as a gas seems to not be as good as it is as a solid," he said. "I'll take note of that. You saw those videos. It may give some insight to my true intentions, but I'm not going on about it yet. There are two things though."

"Yeah and they are?" I asked through coughing.

"One, while you've decimated my ranks and most talented members, the Dons, the Cryptic Guard has been planning an assault on Jaden. With my group no longer there acting as a deterrent, you've signed Roland's death warrant. You know, the man you worshipped?"

"What!?" I asked, then looked around and tried to run to one of the blocked off doors. I rammed my shoulder into it repeatedly now as Vinchi sat there and watched me.

"That's amusing, but not for very long," he said, chuckling. "You can't get out even with your powers with Aridium filling the room. However, it's too slow for my liking. This brings me to the second thing. You let people get too close. You should pay more attention."

"What are you-" I began before feeling a jab right into my chest. I gasped for air and looked down and noticed a strange shaped knife-like shard made of Aridium stabbed into it. It didn't hit my heart as it didn't go that deep. I saw the hand that had it gripped firmly at the hilt. Slowly, I managed to make use of my rapidly fading vision as I looked at the culprit's face and heard a clank as something hit the ground. It caught my attention and I had noticed it was a vial of some sort. I then looked back at the face and stopped struggling to stay awake, as the shock had made me pass out faster.

It had been Tay's and she was grinning, with the shard in my chest.

It felt like days or even weeks had passed by in total darkness before I seemed to jerk awake. I sat up, breathing heavily as I put my left hand on my forehead to make sure I'm still alright. I looked around slowly, but my vision was currently partially blurred. I managed to climb off of the very uncomfortable prison-like bed and coughed up a storm. I was trying to piece together what had happened as I managed to get myself to a dirty, but functioning mirror. I didn't have my overcoat on, nor did I have my t-shirt on. For some reason unknown to me, they had left me shirtless. I could see the mark where the shard had been stabbed into me and shook my head. I felt the top of my head and even my goggles were gone. I then looked at my hands and then toward the bars that made up the exterior wall as I was in an actual jail cell. I tried to concentrate and make my scythe appear for a quick escape, but there was only a flicker and nothing happened.

"What the hell?" I asked myself. I hadn't had my abilities fail on me before, so this was very new to me.

I looked around and found a smaller, though probably just as old, terminal built into the wall. It suddenly beeped as the screen lit up and had "Incoming Transmission" across the screen. Once it loaded, which took about a minute to do so, I saw Vinchi on the screen sitting in a leather chair and seeming to sip on some sort of drink.

"Ah, Lane, you're up," he said. "It's about time. I was worried Tay may have actually killed you. You know, her having accomplished something my best people couldn't do."

My fists clenched as I stared at his smug face, not really having the ability to answer as anger rose up rapidly in my mind as he mentioned Tay. Her face flashed into my vision for a moment with that grin. She had been happy to stab me. That didn't set well with me and I knew Vinchi had something to do with it.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Lunga got your tongue?" He chuckled as he sat back in his chair. "This isn't going to end well, regardless if you get out of there or not. I'm telling you this now and we may be able to come up with some sort of agreement. Face it, Lane. You've lost. You'll only die by my or by your girlfriend's hand at this point."

"Take the deal and shove it up your goddamn ass," I snapped at him. "I want to know what you did to Tay and what you did to me. Now."

"So demanding," he said. "It's like you're my angry wife and I've had an affair with you, isn't it? I stole your love, claimed it as my own, and now she resents you."

"What are you going on about?" I asked. "Give clear answers because I swear I will gut you where you stand if you give me any damn riddles or coded messages." I slammed my fist against the wall near the terminal. I felt the pain, but I didn't care right now.

"Touchy, touchy," he said. "Alright, fine. Perhaps you at least deserve to know the situation you're in. Back when Jagger captured you - which was a mistake, by the way. He should have just killed you - he insisted that you and your 'team' be poisoned rather than immediately slaughtered. Initially, I opposed the idea. I wanted you and your friends dead, but then he made a fair point. What if we got them working for him and I? That's when the mind control poison came into play. We even tried it on you, but out of most of them, you rejected it. The rest of your so called 'team' adapted to it immediately once we caught them. As far as you're concerned, your influence over them ended as soon as they were under my control."

"So you took my team from me without having to kill them," I said, my fists clenching again. "Then why the hell was there a missile launched at an abandoned building where I was taken? You could have turned them all against me, forced me to fight them, but you choose to kill them!"

"Would you have rather killed them yourself?" he asked.

"Of course I wouldn't want to kill them," I said.

"It'd be awfully suspicious if suddenly your entire team saw you as an enemy, right?" he asked, pouring another round of his drink into his glass. "Well, I did the next best thing. We poisoned a squad that had access to one of the missile silos in the Cryptic Guard months prior. I thought it'd be a fitting end to the excess, non-worthy members of your team. It was a way to execute them and leave no evidence of their existence besides paper records, which we're wiping, and in your mind."

"So you decided to waste a nuclear missile on a small team," I said. "Something not even the Baron would have done. He would have just sent troops after me, which he did, if you didn't know that."

"I knew he did. It was one reason our relationship with the Cryptic Guard began to sour," he said. "It was never my intention to befriend and keep the deal we had between us and them. The plans in motion for this group were already set and gaining speed, so I severed ties with that act."

"I see," I said. "You said most of my team didn't reject your mind control poison. What did you mean by that?"

"There were two others that didn't react to it, but I let them go anyway since they played along with the others. Your entire team was at that abandoned building though, so those two are pretty much dead. You're welcome to go and look after you deal with me. That is, if you can deal with me," he chuckled. "There's still the whole thing with Runo planning on sieging Jaden since my group's influence now doesn't exist and The Seekers aren't equipped well enough to handle that big of a threat."

My eye twitched at him mentioning Jaden again. I had to end this soon and try to figure out if Roland was alright or not. If he wasn't, then it'd be my fault if anything happened to him. I had already lost too much. I couldn't lose my idol. If I did, I don't know what would happen.

"You didn't account for two of my team members and you planned Tay getting away with me, I'm sure," I said. "Two young adult Promi weren't even in the building with my team and Tay and I had run into them as we were escaping the Cryptic Guard."

"Oh?" he asked. "That's unfortunate for me, but it probably won't mean much. If Jagger didn't tell me about them, then they were unimportant or he had a different plan that kept me in the dark. Oh well. You can sort that out later if you're, you know, still breathing." He cracked a malicious grin at my mention of Tay again. "How'd you know? If there was any way to get to you without my own team, it would be through her. That's why I didn't give her a mind control poison. I gave her another type. It wasn't like yours, which was supposed to be pure deadly poison. You expelled that but Tay can't expel this. It's too far gone now according to what I've read of Jagger's data."

"Another type?" I asked, my left eye twitching again. "What the hell do you mean another type?"

"The type I injected her with has three stages," he said, sighing as he seemed to not want to explain this. "First, she enters a mind controlled state, hence why Jagger was able to make her kill that big fellow on command. The second stage was regaining cognitive control and realizing what she had done. The third stage, which had taken effect by the time you were found and 'rescued' was mind altercation. Her memories, her thoughts, her desires all belong to me. She believes she has always worked for the Crimson Gavel and that she must stop you getting to me. She's basically a Lieutenant. Not quite ready for Don status unless she manages to kill you." His grin didn't fade.

I just stared at the terminal monitor for a few moments. My fists clenched tighter than before, with my teeth beginning to grind. He took Tay away from me. The one person I openly admitted to loving Vinchi managed to snatch it away. Hell, from the sounds of it, I don't think when I confessed to Tay, it was the same Tay that I fell for.

"Silence," he said. "How strange. I expected you to yell a little more. She sides with me, Lane. Even thinks of me as the man she's always loved. She sees you as the enemy and only the enemy. Oh and watch this."

I watched as the camera seemed to move and show Tay downing the vial of Nether Energy we had found a few hours ago. It was another well placed trap that Vinchi wanted us to find. He was going to corrupt Tay even more, closing in on the point of no return. There had to be something I could do to get her to remember me and back on my side. If she gained Nether Energy abilities by the time I could do that, it'd be a bonus but something I'd rather not sacrifice her sanity for.

"Easy to watch, isn't it?" he asked. "She's becoming a Don fairly soon if you do become a problem. Otherwise I'm fine with you rotting away and dying of starvation in that cell. I'm surprised you haven't asked about the shard though."

"You disabled my powers with it," I said, though clearly holding back more anger that I was showing. "Bortelli tried that, but it only made my Nether Powers more powerful. You've completely shut them off from me."

"Correct," he said. "Bortelli didn't know how to properly harness the Aridium. All he wanted was to make you psychotic enough to join forces with us. I, however, made a Shard Knife out of the material. I instructed Tay to stab you just enough to let the shard get pieces of itself in your blood stream. That would disable your abilities long enough for you to die in that cell without any regeneration or hard hitting attacks that would break the wall. That's enough talk for now though. I'll see you when you're dead, hopefully. If you do get out, then remember that Tay's my girl now." With that, the terminal shut off.

As soon as it did, I let out an angry roar and grabbed the only chair in the cell and smashed it as hard as I could into the monitor, effectively smashing it to pieces. I was breathing heavily as I still wasn't calmed down so I took the chair and repeatedly bashed it into the monitor until it was nothing but parts strewn about the floor. I sat on the bed and put my face into my hands as I tried to think of a way out of the cell. There had to be a way. There also had to be a way to combat the Aridium in my blood stream. A counter attack of some sort, maybe? If I could get out, I could probably find some notes on it. I just stared at the cell bar walls, still thinking.

Several hours had passed and I was already going insane. I still couldn't get out of my cell and I was still angry. I don't think I would ever calm down. Not until I tried to get Tay back or kill Vinchi. This was the one time where I wasn't conflicted in killing someone. He deserved to die for this. The other Dons were merely a reaction to a "kill or be killed" situation. This was different. He was taunting me. He was trying to emotionally break me. He was going to pay.

I sat up suddenly when I heard a noise along the vents in the walls. I raised an eyebrow curiously, looking around as I stood up and walked over to the cell bars. There was a sudden crash as the grate on the ceiling fell to the ground and a familiar face fell onto the ground.

"Ow, that friggin' hurt," I heard them say. The figure got up and then looked over at me. "Laney boy! You're alright!"

"Bernie?" I asked, blinking. "How the hell did you get here?"

"Minnie and I followed you and Tay," he said, running up to the cell. "She's still up there. We agreed only one of us comin' down here would make sense unless she was also needed. They put you in a cell? They didn't kill you? That's good. We got a chance at stoppin' Vinchi still."

"One, why did you follow us when I told you not to?" I asked. "Two, you'd need to get me out of this cell first before I could do anything to get to Vinchi. And three, Vinchi has Tay. To say the least, she's not on our side anymore."

"Wait, what?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"Vinchi... altered her mind somehow," I said. "She thinks I'm the enemy and she'd very likely think you and Minnie are, too."

"T-That's impossible," Minnie said, peeking slightly from the open hole in the ceiling. "She's my best friend. She wouldn't harm Bernie, you or me."

"I'm sorry, Minnie, but it's true," I said, pointing to the marking on my chest. "She stabbed me and forced me to lose connection with my special abilities. I woke up in here. More than likely she was ordered to put me here."

Minnie just let out a whimper and looked away, causing her to disappear into the vent.

"We'll find some way to fix that, right?" Bernie asked. "If we can't, then..."

"Then I have no choice," I said, thought quieter to avoid upsetting Minnie more. "I'll have to take her on and... kill her."

"Alright," he said, sighing. "I trust you know what the right thing to do would be, Laney boy. You've gotten us this far. Now, where are the keys or the code or whatever to this cell?"

"Listen to me, Bernie," I said. "If you and Minnie can get out alive, then run as far as you can once I'm freed. I want you to keep no contact with me. I lead the entire team to their deaths and let one get enslaved. I won't be blamed for your deaths, too."

"We don't blame you, Lane," Minnie said as she hopped down from the hole. "We want to help and we're going to. You're not completely alone in this. We may not be great in combat, but we can help from the sidelines. Bernie knows his way around technology, I can translate anything foreign to him, and we can try and keep patrols to a minimum. We went past a security control post through the vents. We can go back there and take care of cameras and reroute some guards. Just never, ever tell us to abandon you. We can't abandon you. No, we won't abandon you."

"Fine," I said. "But once Vinchi's dead, go into hiding. I don't know what's going on in Tonoko, but I'm sure it'll require going off of the radar. There's no argument about that."

"That's a better deal," Bernie said. "But we're keeping occasional contact with you, regardless of being off the radar. Now, if you excuse me, I have a cell to unlock." He took Minnie's hand and they ran off into the other room to look around for a console.

I had noticed my cell was isolated, with just a smaller room in front of it and an office to the right. It seemed like it was designed only for one person to begin with. Perhaps it was originally a community jail cell, rather than a prison cell?

It felt longer than it actually did by the time I heard the jail cell door slide open. I quickly rose to my feet and walked past it before it closed rather fast behind me. They had managed to get me out, which was good, but I needed to find my gun. My shirt and overcoat would be nice, but I could always replace them. I ran out of the room and down the hall, leaving Bernie and Minnie behind as they had to find a way out on their own. I couldn't waste any time and they knew that.

Once I was in a bigger hall, I slowed my pace and ducked down behind a rolling trash can. I made sure the coast was clear before beginning to slowly push it forward. I had to use cover for now until I could locate my weapon. With my powers currently disabled and with no form of armor, I wasn't about to try bringing a fist to a gunfight. The only things I had on my mind were how could I make Vinchi's death slow and painful along with figuring out how to snap Tay out of the trance she had entered. Mind alteration made it seem impossible, but for such a thing to exist there had to be some sort of counter to it. If there wasn't, then I'd be tasked with killing her. Even thinking about it made my stomach churn.

I had made it toward the end of the hall before hearing a guard walking down it. They said something I vaguely heard about chili and somehow that was also associated with the phrase "the Lunga broad is hot". I shook my head and looked around as I waited for the guard. I could take him out, get his shirt and vest along with his weapon. It'd make mobilization faster and if I was found out, I'd have a weapon ready.

Once the guard turned the corner and walked a fair bit down the hallway, I grabbed him and put him into a sleeper choke hold. I made sure his mouth was covered firmly with my hand so not even his muffled screaming could be heard. When he fell unconscious, I dragged him behind a desk and began to take his vest off and undershirt and slipped into it myself. I grabbed his gun and his helmet before placing it upon my head before making sure he was hidden underneath the nearby desk. I pushed the trash can in front of the said desk to avoid anyone noticing a body lying down under it for now. I then headed down the hall and looked around, trying to get an idea of where my things might have been stored. Wherever my things were, they were likely guarded. I don't think my half-assed attempt at a disguise would fool anyone but the bottom feeder rank.

I slowly made my way down the hall, trying to look as normal as I could with a low rank guard patrol route. After going several halls with not running into another guard, I did decide to let my pace speed up a little. I did stop to check the guard's vest when I heard some chat over the radio stashed in the pocket.

"Tranferring shifts, O'Riely?" a guard asked.

"Yeah," the guard named O'Riely answered.

"Good. Remember where to go?"

"Yeah. Room 23B, Locker A. Brown overcoat, weird Laser Pistol, and for some reason a white t-shirt."

"Good kid."

The chatter turned to a dead silence after that. I didn't know if the guards were stupid enough to constantly shout out the location of anything they took or if that was just a lucky break. I shut the radio off out of a bit of paranoia that some other guard might hear. I continued my path unobscured until I heard a couple of voices in the distance. A conversation was going on, from the sounds of it, as there wasn't enough unnecessary yelling to be a higher rank demeaning a lower rank. I approached the corner and was stopped by one of them.

"Hey, you new?" the short Lunga with a rather baggy uniform asked.

"Well, kind of," I said.

"Must be," he said. "This is our patrol zone. You walked into it. Now, for newbies, we are a bit lax on our dominance, but for kind of newbies, not so much."

"Yeah!" the taller, though skinnier, Festo chuckled.

"So, you gotta pay a toll to get past our zone or you gotta face the consequences," the shorter one said. "So, what'll it be, "kind of" newbie?"

I sighed and shook my head gently at them.

"You hear that, Squeaks?" he asked to the taller Festo. "He wasn't the consequences. Let's give him-"

I silenced him by punching him square in the face before looking at a suddenly distraught Festo guard that reached for his weapon. I rolled my eyes and punched him as well, easily knocking them both out.

"Definitely hire new people," I said to myself before walking on ahead.

I soon approached and elevator and looked at the directory. It would seem that Room 23B was a couple of floors above me. I walked into the elevator and pushed the button to my destination. Once the elevator dung and opened up, I dove out of sight when I thought I heard Tay's voice in the distance. It turned out to be true as she seemed to be giving a lacky a hard time. As she spoke, I found it hard to believe it was the Tay I knew.

"So which one of you decided to sleep on the job and not monitor who or what got that monster out of his cage?" she asked, arms crossed. She had even changed her attire into a red pair of camo pants and a plain red shirt. Her blonde hair was still in her usual ponytail, but that didn't help me much.

My fists were clenching tightly again, but I had to stay calm and focused in order to get my possessions back.

"Sorry, boss," one obviously frightened guard said. "Anthony dosed off and by the time I found him, he was gone."

"Dosed off?" she asked. "We finally got this creepy murderous asshole and your 'friend' doses off!?"

Creepy, murderous... asshole? The last word used to describe me seemed to sting the most, though I feel like murderous should have still impacted more. Vinchi had turned her, in my eyes, into the type of person she had hated. She was in a criminal organization - or something more - taking orders from him, assuming I'm the enemy and a monster, and yelling at the weaker goons that were supposed to be on her side.

"The potion's not taking effect yet, so find 'im," she said, interrupting my thoughts. "Once he's found, either attempt to kill him, or lead him here." It was after that sentence that she switched to a hushed whisper I couldn't make out.

A potion? What was she talking about? After a few seconds of thinking, it did dawn on me as I flashed back to the vial I heard hit the ground. The vial of Nether Energy from that old house.. She had been the last one to grab it. She drank it? That wasn't good at all. Was Vinchi really trying to make her into a new Don?

My train of thoughts was interrupted when I heard footsteps coming my way. I held my breath and sank as far as I could into the shadows against the wall. I didn't hear Tay anymore as the footsteps were becoming louder. A guard came around the corner and didn't notice me at first, but I had to grab him and knock him out with the sleeper chokehold I had used earlier. I didn't think it through that well, however, as two guards in the distance saw the one I had knocked out on the ground.

"Boss, he's here!" one shouted into his walkie talkie.

"Good," Tay said from the other side. "One way trip though. Try and kill him or something. He's not much of a threat or a challenge without those stupid powers. Anyone not dead and he's still alive is fired. As in, from a cannon."

I grumbled at that, shaking my head.

"Open fire on that desk!" a guard shouted.

I blinked before watching the desk I wasn't near was shot up within no time and quickly looked like a large, rectangular wooden piece of Swiss cheese.

"Dammit, he wasn't there," the guard who had ordered the others to shoot up the desk said. "Come on, spread out. Look under every chair, desk, totem pole, bathroom stall and glove compartment. Understood?"

There was a universal 'yes, sir' while I just had my face in my palm. I shook my head disappointingly before grabbing the unconscious guard's flash grenade on his belt. I pulled the pin before throwing it into the group of guards, one of which ended up complaining about being hit in the head. It went off and caused them to panic and scatter. I used the distraction as a way to sneak past them, heading into the elevator. I quickly pressed the top floor button and had the doors close immediately and it adjusted to start going up. I raised an eyebrow curiously when I heard gunfire and groaning. If they were open firing on each other in a blind panic, then it'd mean less soldiers to deal with if I could get Tay to return to normal and get out of here.

The elevator dinged after a minute of going straight up. I walked out of it and looked around to get an idea of the floor I had gone to. It seemed to be a storage facility and I saw more windows along the wall that had sunlight shining through them. There were no windows along the outer walls below, which told me that the entire floor was underground. Luckily, the corridor was fairly wide and empty. I still hesitated for a moment before running down it. Once I got past the doors, I saw Tay leaning on a guard rail high above me. It was if she was waiting for me.

"Figures those idiots wouldn't be useful," she said. "I take it you're looking for your possessions. Fat chance you'll be getting them back, you know. We dismantled that gun and blocked any signal coming from the Communicator."

"Tay, listen to me!" I shouted. "This isn't you! Snap out of it!"

"Snap out of what?" she asked, turning away from a moment. "I'm just fine, Silverbane. You're the one murdering the organization I'm in. We're going to get rid of the Baron and return freedom to Mortion. You want to stop that. You want Runo to rule us forever!"

My heart sank as I heard her say that I wanted Runo to remain in power.

"No, I don't," I shouted. "I want Runo as much as the next guy, but the Crimson Gavel need to be stopped, too! They're not going to save anyone! They're turning people into monsters! They're no better than Runo himself!"

"Ha, that's rich," she laughed. "You wanting Runo dethroned? That's unlikely, considering you're his ally and assassin."

"What!?" I asked, clenching my fists out of anger. "I'm not an ally and I'm not an assassin!"

I blinked and jumped back when Tay pulled up a large modified Plasma Launcher and fired at me. She kept firing as I ran under the catwalk, forcing her to have to turn around. I doubled back when I noticed the laser targeting pointer was on the opposite side of her now. I grabbed the top of a crate and began to climb up it as I was out of her line of sight to fire the weapon.

"If you're neither, then you're just a monster," she said, firing randomly now and destroying supplies left and right.

"That's bold coming from a woman who blindly follows Vinchi and drinks liquid Nether Energy," I said, having fully climbed to the catwalk. Before she could react, I shoved her and forced her to drop the Plasma Launcher to the far below floor.

She growled at me before running at me, swinging her fists in a rapid motion as she blindly tried to hit me. I dodge every punch and jumped up with every attempted kick.

"Hold still, you prick!" she shouted angrily.

With how she was flailing around, I could read her movements. Since she was so distracted with connecting painful blows to me, I managed to sweep under her and knock her off of her feet. As she fell, she cursed very obscenely at me before quickly hopping back up.

"You're getting lucky," she said, having jumped back to get distance from me. "I'm the best Vinchi's ever trained. I even got inside your head. You're not better than me! Only Vinchi is!"

"You're not trained at all by him," I said. "I helped you hold a gun and I helped you gain the confidence to fight. You were just a reporter when we met, Tay. He's lying to you. He's using you. He's trying to force me to kill you."

"Vinchi would never lie to me!" she snapped back immediately. She swung at me only for me to catch her fist.

"Stop it," I said, though I was caught off guard by a sudden swift kick to my groin.

Attempting to double over while still having a grip on her fist appeared to be a bad idea as we went over the railing and crashed into several wooden crates. Due to my lack of powers, the pain didn't subside. It was enough to make my vision blur and brighten for a few seconds, but I regained myself as I slowly began to get up onto my knees. I heard Tay grumble a bit as she was already on her feet.

"You have a death wish," she said as she walked over to a console and slammed her fist on a button. "Before I kill you, I'd like to make it interesting. And give time for that stuff to work its way into my system."

I blinked and stumbled as the floor below me shifted and the spot I was on suddenly sunk into the ground. It left me in a deep trench-like linear pathway. I couldn't climb back up and there was a whirling noise behind me.

"I'll repeat this again," I said. "He's using you, Tay. He'll turn you into a monster and kill you off. He did it to the other Dons! He'll do it to you!"

"I'm not weak like they were," she said, pulling a nearby lever. "Survive this and you'll get a chance to kill me for earning your trust and crushing it before you."

She walked out of sight before I could reply. I did have more pressing matters as the whirling behind me became a loud buzzing sound. There was a large saw blade moving in an out of a large hole in the ground while on the sides there were two large open ducts that spat out fire every so often.

"Gonna play this game, huh?" I asked myself before turning away from the deadly contraption. "So be it."

I took off and as soon as I did, I heard a loud siren for a few seconds as the device was released from its clamps and began to slide on its rails after me. The contraption was a bit speedy, but I managed to outrun it. It wasn't that long, however, until I noticed gunmen in the high up catwalks. They took aim and began to fire at me. I began to zig zag, frequently changing the directions I'd go as I ran. The end of the trench was approaching and I was far enough ahead of the contraption to hatch a quick plan. I jumped over a couple of crates before hearing a beeping noise as a grenade landed a few feet in front of me. As I ran, I moved my hand down to scoop it up before quickly aiming it back at where it had come from and heard it explode after a few seconds once it landed. Needless to say, whoever threw it to be originally was probably dead or seriously injured.

I had noticed the trench walls were getting narrower, but the machine could still fit through them. As I ran, I stayed to my right before ascending a series of crates that conveniently made for makeshift steps. I think positioned myself as I jumped off of them and kicked the right wall to help push myself toward the left wall. I managed to grab the ledge and began to pull myself upward. It was dangerously close, but I managed to get myself up and above the machine seconds before it passed me. It slammed into the wall at the end, breaking it down completely. I peeked down to the room and noticed a door on the other side and I also noticed that the room was labeled as 23B. I found a locker labeled A and to my surprise, it just opened. I grabbed my overcoat and shirt, putting them both on as quick as I could. I found my gun, but I didn't find my cap. I nearly missed my goggles, but I found them and put them on as well.

"Good as new," I chuckled to myself. I held my head gently as it began to throb like it did earlier before and after I defeated Bortelli.

The room was suddenly lit in a purple hue and I saw a distant image of Tonoko City. It then switched to Jaden and I went wide-eyed, noticing it was on fire and there was tons of smoke everywhere. It shifted again to an image of Tay, who had a gun pointed at me.

"Asshole," I heard the image speak. "I never did love you." The gun proceeded to fire and it felt like the bullet hit me, but that's when the images and the purple hue in general disappeared. I did hear a faint male voice, however, before it did. It shouted "welcome to Hell" and had a barrage of gunfire in the distance.

"What the hell is going on with me?" I asked myself, grunting as I shook my head. "Worry about it later. Need to deal with Tay and with Vinchi." I took my gun in my left hand and ran out of the door.

The hall was narrow, but there was no one in it. I made it halfway down the hall before my head began to hurt yet again and the purple hue returned. I stumbled before regaining myself and noticing someone or something was waiting for me at the end of the hall. I stopped in my tracks and began to back up a bit when it started heading toward me. I was thrown off guard when it sped up and disappeared, only to reappear a second later and strikes me in the face and slam me into the wall. Both attacks felt massive to me, but in reality, they were nothing I hadn't had happen to me before. As I regained focus, I did notice something about this foe.

It was me and it was composed out of the same material of the shard Tay used to stab me - Airdium.

"It's finally time to die, Lane," my Aridium doppelganger chuckled. "This'll be fun. I'm in your blood, but you still have some defenses. You won't when I'm done with you though."

"I... am not... going to die," I said, grunting as his hand was around my neck. "Not... like this... anyway."

I summoned quite a bit of strength to kick him in the stomach. It was enough force to make him stumble and release me. Dropping onto my feet, I put my gun back in its holster since it was obvious he wanted a fist fight.

"Never bring a gun to a fist fight," I said before lunging at him and locking a hard punch to the jaw.

It seemed to damage him a bit, but not much. He retaliated with a hard punch with his right fist, then with his left and repeated this motion rapidly several times to my stomach. He finished his 'combo' off by upper cutting me hard enough to send me into the air, barely avoid the ceiling and slam down onto my back on the tile flooring. I grunted out of pain, but I got up rather quickly despite feeling it. The other me seemed to only get some mild amusement out of it before dashing at me and striking hard into my stomach.

I let out a loud gasp as it knocked the wind out of me and I flew back a few feet before landing on the ground and tumbling a few more feet. Once I came to a stop, I coughed up blood and struggled to get up. I heard my opponent's footsteps walk toward me. I had no doubt that he had an ego larger than the planet if it had a physical form. I let him grab me by the collar and lifted me into the air as we looked each other in the eye.

"Any last words, punk?" he asked, chuckling.

"Yeah," I said, looking him over. "Give me my powers back." With a sudden kick to his stomach, I caused him to stumble and use this time to land a powerful punch right to his face I jumped down and slowly walked toward him as I dug through my right coat pocket. I pulled out my gun and aimed quickly at him before firing at his right foot.

It was a clean shot, causing him pain and making him fall over onto his back. I was only a foot away when I heard noise from down the hall.

"I knew something was fishy,": Tay said, sporting a purple aura around her. "And now I that elixir's finally working. It's time to die, Silverbane."

I looked at her for a few seconds before turning back to her and concentrating on my Aridium self.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" Tay shouted, growling and gritting her teeth. "Fine, you want to play hard to get. I'll play along."

There was a sudden rise in pressure around me and I looked back momentarily to see that she had disappeared. Before I knew it, she had reappeared in front of me and had already landed several punches to my stomach and face, causing me to stumble slightly. I kept my balance when she let off and kept walking. I aimed my gun and fired at the position she dashed to in order to keep her moving.

"So a little punch won't stop you?" she asked, grinning from holding onto the top of the wall. "How about this then?" She dropped down as I was standing over my Aridium counterpart. She began to speed around both of us in a circle. The air heated up around us rapidly and there were sparks in the air. She kept at it until she lit up the room with the orb-like structure she had created. I had seen her jump out and heard her run to the end of the hall. I aimed my gun at my Arididum counterpart's head and shot as the contained energy erupted in the hallway, filling it completely with deadly light.

"That should do it," she said, having stood just enough outside of the blast radius. She had her arms crossed, enjoying the view. It did seem more likely, however, that she was making sure the job was done.

As the smoke cleared from the explosion, she'd be in for a surprise.

"What the hell?" she asked, blinking.

I stood there, with my shirt singed off of my body and my overcoat lying on the ground. My fur had turned bright white and my left and right sides had small black arrow-shaped markings. Both sides had two small arrows pointing at each other. The two pointing to the right on my left side were slightly about the ones on my right side that pointed left. There was also a strange looking symbol etched into my fur on my left arm. I held my large Katana-Scythe in my left hand, though it was different in design itself. It had a much sharper edge and looked like it had gauze tape wrapped around the handle and it went up to around the middle of it. Part of it even hung off, as if it had been freshly tied. My goggles were on my head still, but my hair was now a dark grayish color. There was an aura emitting around me as well that frequently flashed between black and white. Everything else about my attire was relatively the same.

"Holy shit," Tay said, then narrowed her eyes. "You have some stupid tricks, you know,"

I didn't answer her as I just looked at her.. My grip was tight on my weapon, but I didn't want to use it. I didn't feel any of the pain from earlier, but it didn't stop me from feeling the emotional pain I had felt when Tay had betrayed me.

"Gonna say anything or just stand there like a statue?" she asked, seeming to grow impatient.

I continued to stay silent until she lost her temper and dashed toward me to attack. To me, it appeared like it was in slow motion and I was able to easily block her melee strikes. I did it repeatedly, only angering her further.

"Fight back!" she shouted. "Quit being on the defensive!"

I sighed and shook my head before sing my weapon and swinging it at her. I launched a large projectile, which hit her almost immediately and sent her flying into a more open space. She crashed into a pile of crates before getting up and having a small tantrum.

"I told you I don't want to fight you," I said. "I'm here for Vinchi and that's it. He's brainwashed you. You were never a Don in training. You were never his top spy. These are all implanted in your head."

"Spouting more conspiracy bullshit!" Tay growled. "Fine. You made me do this. Vinchi told me this was to only be done in an emergency, but I'll do it right here, right now!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked, then blinked as she suddenly had an explosion of Nether Energy burst out of her.

"Yes!" she laughed maniacally. "The power! So much power!"

I had to shield my eyes for a few seconds before noticing a strange occurance. Markings were appearing on her body that were in the exact same position as mine were before I saw her hand extend and a weapon formed within it. Her fur had become white like mine and her hair gray. It wasn't until the weapon form fully appeared that I realized what had just happened.

"You have the ability to mimic," I said, backing away slowly.

"Yup and it's all thanks to Jagger's research," Tay grinned. "I have so much power flowing through me that it feels like it should be oozing out of every pour, every hole!"

"That's nice and all, but just because you have the power doesn't mean you know how to use it," I said.

"Oh, I know how to use it," she said. "And I'm going to use it to kill you once and for all."

I had to react fairly quickly as she had swung her own Katana-Scythe at me and fired a projectile. I used my own to deflect it, but had to start moving. I took off down one of the open aisles and heard her immediately take off after me.

"Hey, get back here and die like a man!" she shouted. "Are you that afraid of your own power?"

"No," I responded, still running down the asile.

She let out an audible growl before I noticed she jumped in the air after picking up speed on the ground. She landed in mid-air and looked like she was now running on the air. I hadn't figured out I could do that yet, but she did. She was able to run to the top of the shelf on my right and now run along the very top as she followed me.

"Good view, but not good enough!" she said before jumping off and slamming her weapon down and into the ground.

It resulted in sending a large pulsing shockwave toward me. I shook my head and then attempted to do what she had done. It took a bit more effort, but I was soon running on air myself. I climbed up to the top of the shelf and continued on my way. The shockwave passed and I could only hear the infuriated shout come from Tay.

"The point of a battle is to fight!" she shouted. "You're just running!"'

She sped toward me now as she was sprinting a bit faster than I was in order to catch up to me. I blinked when she was right next to me and swung her weapon at me. I ducked below it and swung my own weapon back. She jumped over it. We then attempted to swing our weapons at the same time, causing a loud clank. The motions kept repeating themselves for a minute before we reached the end of the shelf. Neither of us were concentrating on keeping ourselves in the air, so we fell toward the ground. I landed on my feet, though it wasn't a soft landing. Tay managed to land in a pile of empty crates, but was immediately back up as soon as she was able to regain her footing.

"Why won't you just die already!?" she asked. She then lifted her weapon above her head before letting out a loud grunt as she swung it over her head as hard as she could. A powerful projectile came out of the blade and headed straight toward me.

I held up my weapon and turned it sideways, letting the blast hit my blade. The attack was absorbed, though it still did a bit of damage to me. I moved it from being directly in front of me when the blast past.

"Stop doing this, Tay," I said. "I don't want to hurt you. I've never wanted to."

"Fight back," she said, her fists clenched out of anger. "You killed everyone else so damn easily. Fight me! Kill me!"

"No!" I shouted, clenching my own fists now out of frustration.

"And why not?!" she asked, her eye twitching. "I got into your head! I played you like a fool! I want my piece of the action Vinchi keeps telling me about!"

"I can't kill you," I said. "I won't kill you."

"Why not!?" she shouted.

"Because I love you," I said.

She seemed to be shocked by the revelation and suddenly held her head as she stumbled forward.

"Tay?" I asked, blinking.

"You... No, no," Tay said, groaning. "I'm going to be Vinchi's right hand woman. I'm going to be the one who murders you!"

"Tay..." I said, though I noticed something more peculiar about her now.

A sudden eruption of purple energy emitted from her and surrounded her body as I stood there and watched. There was a loud roar as the Nether Energy was completely taking control of her mind and body. I feared that now with her transforming, there might not be a way to save her.

When the energy dissipated, a monstrous variation of Tay now stood where her normal self once stood. She was much taller - perhaps three times my own height, had overly muscular arms and legs while her hands had long, razor sharp claws. The markings were still there and so was her weapon, though it became much larger as well. She was drooling from her mouth, which now stayed open and showed off her razor sharp teeth. She only snarled now, no longer forming a single word. Her eyes were pure black now as well, though her hair and basic body shape stayed the same.

I got into a defensive position before noticing she had disappeared. I looked around and then before I could react, she landed a sudden strike to my stomach with her fist. I was sent flying toward the nearby shelf and slammed into it. When I regained myself after a plethora of boxes fell upon me, she had disappeared again. She was incredibly agile now, even against me. I had to read her abilities or at least predict where she went, but I didn't know how I would do that yet. There was a low audible growl from behind me and it gave me enough warning to roll out of the way of her sudden attempt at stabbing me with her weapon.

I had to move quickly as she was rapidly coming down on me with her weapon with little to no time between each attempted slashing. I was on the run again, heading down this new aisle. I swiped at the pillars holding up the shelves as I passed them, causing the shelves to collapse in front of her. I figured it'd somewhat stall her, but not for long. She did use her weapon to blow boxes away by spinning it rapidly with both of her hands. In the process, she was effectively using the said boxes as makeshift projectiles as they flung toward me.

I stopped at the edge of the aisle and turned around before positioning my Katana-Scythe in a sporting matter.

"Batter up, Tay!" I called out.

As the boxes neared closer to me, I swung at each one and sent them hurling back at her at an even higher speed than they initially went. Tay seemed to get flustered at that and opted to dodge them instead of return fire. She growled at me when all of the boxes passed before charging at me.

"Snap out of it!" I shouted before charging in myself. I couldn't keep running and trying to think of a way to save her. It might have been futile now, too, so I had to figure out how to stop her.

We both slammed into each other, our weapons holding the other ones barely at bay of our own heads. They shook as we both were exerting as much force as we could with our blow, resulting in the stalemate.

"As I... said, Tay," I grunted. "Snap out of... it! Come back!"

She just roared out and began to push my weapon back. The mere idea of this Tay being able to kill me both frightened and infuriated me.

"Come back!" I shouted again. My power rose suddenly, catching even me off guard before a powerful beam was emitted from my Katana-Scythe.

It blinded me and I'm sure it blinded her as well, though I could feel my weapon winning the battle and I swiped through the air as soon as the stalemate broke. Once the blinding late dissipated, I saw Tay laying on the ground, breathing heavily.

I was breathing a bit heavy as well but it didn't stop me from running over to her and looking her over. She had reverted to her normal looking self, but looked awfully confused. She had gashes alongside her left cheek, right arm, and left side of her stomach.

"W-What happened?" she asked, coughing as I leaned down to hug her closely. "Lane, what's going on?"

"It's alright, Tay," I said, hugging her close. "You're okay. Vinchi just messed with your mind. I'll make him pay for it." I pet her gently before helping her stand up.

"Get that bastard then," she said, holding her stomach gently. "For me, for the team. For Mortion. Okay?"

I nodded and looked around for an easy exit out of the warehouse. I noticed Bernie peeking through one of the vents along with Minnie.

"I told you two to get away from here!" I called out.

"We still wanted to help!" Bernie called back, though his look became that of horror on his face as well as Minnie's.

"What's wrong?" I asked, scratching my head.

"I hate to interrupt your pal chat, but turn around," Vinchi's voice suddenly echoed, causing me to freeze up for a second. My fists then did clench as I turned to attack him, only to be stopped by a horrifying site.

A blade, perhaps as sharp as my own, was pierced through Tay's chest and covered in blood as a grinning Vinchi stood behind her.

"L-Lane..." Tay said weakly before the blade pulled out and she collapsed onto the floor.

"Vinchi!" I shouted, attempting to grab him before he disappeared from view.

"Oh, how I do love breaking up young couples!" he said, now appearing on the catwalk above. "If she couldn't kill you, she was as good as dead, Lane. Say your goodbyes and come find me in my humble abode. Tata for now." He then disappeared.

I quickly ran over to Tay and held her close, looking her over and tried to put my hands over it, hoping my own regeneration power could be used on her. Unfortunately, it wasn't working.

"M-Make him suffer, Lane," she said weakly.

"I will, but not until you're safe," I said. I knew I was crying now, but I couldn't feel the tears on my cheeks as I was so focused in trying to save her.

"I-It's okay, Lane," she said, coughing up blood. "If... Vinchi dies... Then it was worth it."

"No, it's not worth losing you," I said. "Not... you. Not the team. This is all my fault."

"No," she said, holding my left cheek gently. "We all... knew the risks. We followed you... and promised to the death." She weakly wrapped her arms around me in an attempt to hug me. "I love you, Lane. But... when this is... over... Move on. Take out... Runo. Be the hero... I know you can be."

"Tay, but..." I said, then sighed. "Okay, Tay. I'll get Vinchi and I'll go after Runo. I just hoped it would be with you, too."

She held the hug as best she could, but there wasn't a response nor could I hear any gasping anymore.

She was gone. I closed my eyes as I only ended up crying harder as I held her for a few more minutes. When I was calm enough, I laid her down on the ground and gently rubbed her forehead before getting up. I then turned away from her and noticed Bernie and Minnie now in the room and on the ground.

"Let us help now," Minnie said, obviously distraught and sounded rather angry.

"Minne, I know you're angry, but she wouldn't want me putting you in more danger," I said. "You already risked too much coming here."

"I'm not letting that douchebag gloat," she said, then buried her face in Bernie's chest as she began to sob.

"I promise you, Minnie, I'll make him pay," I said, kneeling down and hugging her close. I pet the top of her head and looked at Bernie. "Make sure she's alright, Bernie. And you aren't allowed to do anything stupid either."

"Right," Bernie nodded. "Laney boy, you better come back alive."

"I will," I said. "And I'll be going after Runo next. According to Vinchi, he's attacking Jaden soon."

"What!?" Minnie blinked. "He can't assault Jaden!"

"He can when the Crimson Gavel presence isn't there anymore," I said. "And that's my fault."

"No!" she said. "That's it. We're gonna be helpful, Lane. Pooky, we're going to Jaden. We're protecting Tay's childhood city if it's the last thing we do."

"Pooky?" I asked, raising an eyebrow curiously at Bernie.

"Pet name, stop asking," Bernie said. "But whatever you say, toots. I'm itchin' to protect somethin'. Go get 'em Lane!"

"You two be safe," I said before grabbing my Katana-Scythe and shaking my head, trying to temporarily block what had happened.

It didn't work, but I managed to let it fuel my anger toward Vinchi. He was going to die tonight, no matter how much effort it would take. I then ran down the hallway that lead to the last large area in the building.

There were no traps or guards. There wasn't a convoluted maze of doors or rooms either. It was just a long, empty corridor. It felt almost too easy to get to Vinchi now. It also felt like he wanted an excuse to kill Tay, which made my blood boil. My left hand gripped the handle of my Katana-Scythe firmly as my desire to avenge her and my team was turning more and more into a burning passion. I slammed through the double wide doors, only to come to a practically empty area that vaguely resembled the area I had fought Tay in. I shook my head when I thought of her. Right now, she wouldn't want me mourning her. She wanted Vinchi dead especially with what he had done to her.

"Having a headache?" Vinchi asked from the other side of the room. "You might not be in peak condition like I thought you were after all."

I narrowed my eyes at him and held my Katana-Scythe firmly.

"You're going to die here, Vinchi," I said. "Plain and simple."

"Guess you're on a little rampage after all," he said, having his arms crossed as he stood in a rather confident pose. "You desire to kill your enemy without really knowing who they are."

"Philosophical bullshit," I said. A ball of energy began to form just in front of the tip of my blade and slowly began to increase in size.

"Is it really bullshit?" he asked. "You spent majority of your life reading books, so you should be used to having someone spell it out for you. Allow me to enlighten you. No doubt about it, you found Jagger's diary, correct?"

"Yeah, what's it to you?" I asked. "That's how I know you're serving someone higher up and that's how I know your plan after overthrowing and possibly killing Runo wouldn't be any better than what Runo is doing now."

"If it isn't any better, then why am I your target?" he asked, chuckling.

"You know why," I said, the ball of energy gaining speed now with its size increase rate.

"Do enlighten me," he said.

"You took everything from me," I said. "My team, my plan, my girlfriend, and..."

"Your parents?" he asked. "Is that really what this is all about?"

My eye twitched before I swung my weapon, launching the large energy orb at him without thinking. I blinked when the orb exploded in front of him, but went completely around him and dissipated within a few seconds.

"What the hell?" I asked. I didn't enjoy his smug look at all.

"Answer the question," he said. "Is that really what you're after? Finding the people who did it, finding closure in getting revenge and then going on your merry way? No nobility for Mortion anymore?"

My hand shook as more rage boiled inside of me. It was true. Part of me wanted to find the bastards who had murdered my parents, but I also had put it to the back of my mind with the recent events.

"Maybe," I said. "Are you admitting to having something to do with it?"

"Well, no," Vinchi chuckled. "Surprisingly, I had nothing to do with it. Sure, your father owed me quite a bit of money, but he was slowly working it off. I didn't want to transfer the debt to a young kid. In retrospect though, maybe I should have. Anyone could tell I would have been a better parent than either of those idiots."

"Idiots?" I asked, looking directly at him. "The only idiot I see here is you. You think you're intimidating me, especially with that barrier. It won't work. All barriers have a weakness and barriers tend to fall when they're found."

I swung my weapon at an angle now, sending the blast from the tip into the ground and caused a powerful shockwave. It forced Vinchi to jump off of the ground and that gave me the knowledge that his current barrier was useless against ground attacks. I slammed my weapon down in front of me, sending out another shockwave. I repeated the process several times in rapid succession. Vinchi was jumping around to avoid damaging his barrier.

"Focusing on one weakness isn't a smart thing to do," he said before I felt a swiftly connected kick to my stomach cause me immense pain.

It sent me flying back, but I managed to recover my landing by flipping backward and landing on my feet. I was gasping for air for a second since he had struck me in the chest rather hard, but I was able to recover fairly quickly. I gripped my weapon with both hands and turned it sideways as he tried for another melee attack. I effectively blocked it and managed to counter it by kicking him in the stomach. He didn't seem to show any signs of taking damage, but he did get knocked back.

"Feisty," he said. "It is tiresome though. Let's get things rolling."

I reverted to only wielding my weapon with one hand and I dashed toward him. I channeled my energy as best I could before jumping in the air and beginning to run on the air due to the amount of energy I collected. Vinchi had run off and gotten onto a higher level in the building. He jumped to the other end of the above catwalk as I fired a large blast of energy at him. It missed, but caused the catwalk he once was standing on completely crumble and detach from the wall.

"Stand still!" I shouted as I fired another blast of energy as I ran in his direction on the air.

Each shot would barely miss as Vinchi was able avoid them with just enough time to move out of the way. I stopped in my tracks and began grinding my teeth. I now gripped my weapon with both hands as energy began to pulse through the blade.

"I said stand still!" I shouted again.

I swung my weapon with all of my might and aimed it a fair distance ahead of Vinchi. The resulting blast was much bigger than the previous blasts. It managed to engulf Vinchi rather easily and seemed to catch even him off guard. I had to let go of my weapon with one of my hands to shield my eyes from the bright projected light it caused. I looked around for Vinchi when it dissipated and wondered if I had gotten him.

"That was mildly impressive," he suddenly spouted from his mouth in a rather cocky manner.

My grip on my weapon tightened, wishing that blast had been enough to kill him, but it was already untrue. Vinchi looked slightly different now, sporting a claw-like melee weapon that covered his entire left hand and went up to his mid-arm. He also had small markings on both arms, along the edges of his muscles.. His shirt and pants seemed to be a tad bit tattered due to the blast, but otherwise they weren't touched.

"I had to call out my weapon and put up a weak protective barrier," he chuckled. "Otherwise I might have lost an arm or two. This is getting to be somewhat interesting, don't you think?"

"No," I said. "I'm already tired of you."

"That's too bad," he said. "I've finally warmed up to you. Watch!"

I blinked when he suddenly vanished and then felt once again an immense amount of pressure as he clocked me hard in the stomach before connecting with another punch onto my left cheek. The impact sent be flying backward and into the wall before I fell toward the ground. I managed to use my energy to stop my fall and land on the air as if it were made of invisible flooring.

"Did it hurt when I connected?" he asked.

I simply gave him an annoyed look as I stood up straight, though I stumbled a little bit as a result from the attack.

"You can still stand, huh?" he asked. "That's more impressive. I didn't hold much of my energy back that time."

"It felt like a baby punched me compared to what Bortelli could do," I said. "A somewhat strong armed baby, but a baby nonetheless."

He seemed to be offended by the statement as he grunted before he disappeared and tried the attack again. I managed to figure out where he was going to strike and moved my weapon in between myself and him, blocking his attack completely.

"Ooh, lucky guess," he said before disappearing again.

"Not lucky," I said. "I was trained in combat to read a person's presence. I know your goal as well. In order to achieve it, you need to have a great strategy and some great power because I won't let that happen."

"Full of yourself, I see," he said. I quickly turned to my left and blocked his melee attack again with the blade of my weapon. "Just like Jason."

I knew the name he spoke well, considering he was referring to my father. The struggle to overpower each other's attacks soon broke as he jumped back and I had my weapon ready to attack.

"You did deal with my father then," I said. "I saw in that ancient recording you looked very similar to how you look now. The problem with that is that I don't remember you looking like that when I first met you. Doesn't matter though. I'm here to do one simple thing. Kill you."

He seemed to be surprised as I suddenly vanished from his sight. He didn't seem to anticipate my ability to study even though he knew how quickly I could absorb information. I slashed from his right side, though he managed to jump back just enough to make me miss. I disappeared again and appeared on the left, slicing at him once more. Again, he barely managed to avoid the slice. I made things more interesting now by speeding up my disappearance and slicing attacks. In only a matter of seconds, he was hopping around and tiring himself out while he repeatedly dodged my near misses.

"You infernal brat," he said, making a large purple orb appear around his fist weapon and held up his arm to block my most recent slice attack. "You might possess great power that your father didn't, but it won't deter me." He managed to grab the tip of my blade and throw it downward with such force that I was pulled down along with it.

I slammed into the ground, though on my feet. I created a small crater on the ground from the impact. I was shaking a little, but I was still standing.

"That doesn't intimidate me at all," I said. "I've been through hell and back trying to get to you. I've lost majority of my team and two people I cared deeply about. Your target was me and you killed them anyway. Why? Was it to try and send me a message? An attempt to make me go insane?"

"Dear boy, whoever decided to back you on your futile destiny to challenge Her was as good as dead," he said, still hovering in the air. "I'm sure a couple of your followers knew that. Admit it though. The Tay thing almost broke you, didn't it? My best work, if I do say so myself."

I gritted my teeth and growled under my breath.

"You're not mortal," I said. "I know that. That recording was old, yet you were in it. I know you love to talk. Why not explain that one to me?"

"That'll only happen if you greatly impress me," he said. "I doubt that will happen because you're already boring me. It's time to end this." He punched his normal hand into the palm of the one that had the fist weapon on it. "She shines down upon me, giving me strength. Empower me, Zandue."

"Who is this woman you and your damn clan keep referring to!?" I asked, raising my tone. I was getting rather impatient now and wanting answers.

He didn't seem to hear me as a sudden booming light surrounded him as the pressure around him rose significantly. His eyes were glowing bright red as his fist weapon grew larger and now had hundreds of small spikes along the entire weapon. A second one appeared on his right hand and arm, matching the one on his left. He had more markings on various edges of his arms and now the bottom of both cheeks.

I fully uncovered my eyes when the light dispersed and watched him float in the air. He chuckled as I moved my weapon and channeled my energy into it. I then swung at him, firing a ball of that energy at him. He reached up and caught it with one of his hands. He then threw it back at a much greater force. I was forced to jump out of the way as it exploded on impact with the ground as if his throw empowered it significantly.

"You thought mimicking your abilities was problematic," he said. "I can reflect and even empower them."

I looked around when he suddenly vanished. However, within that split second of me turning my head, he was in front of me and landing a connected blow to my stomach. It was much stronger this time and hurled me into a nearby wall. I let out a pained groan before I fell to the ground and gasped for air as the wind had been knocked out of me.

"You have no chance at winning this battle," he said. "It's futile and you know it."

I propped my Katana-Scythe upward and used it to help myself up. My vision was becoming hazy as I had indeed taken quite a bit of damage. I was also fairly far from where Vinchi now was since he floated to the ground and was now slowly walking toward me.

"Feeling helpless?" he asked. "You should be. You may have taken out majority of my operation, but if it means I'll kill you, then their sacrifices weren't for nothing."

"I... want... answers," I said, coughing up blood as I was struggling to stand now. "Who is... this woman? Why am I your target? Does... she fear me? Why did almost everyone else have to die if I'm your target?" I growled audibly when there was just silence. "Answer me, dammit!" I could feel my blood boil as my free hand clenched into a fist. Despite my body losing blood from the scrapes of the blow to the wall and my head trauma, I didn't feel bad enough to keep myself from becoming angry.

"So many questions," he said. "You aren't worthy of the answers. If you just die, then we'll be done."

"You will answer me, dammit!" I shouted. "I will not let Yuno's and the other's deaths be for nothing!" I lifted my weapon up high and slammed it on the ground.

I blinked when the ground started to rumble and cracks began to form around where I was standing. Vinchi seemed to stop in his tracks, seeming baffled by what was happening. Blue colored light began to shine through the newly formed cracks before I felt it target me and pierce through my body. It hurt like hell for the first few seconds before I felt no pain at all. In fact, I didn't feel like I had taken any damage suddenly. The light widened and soon engulfed me like the purple light had engulfed Vinchi for a few seconds. I felt my weapon suddenly vanish and I couldn't feel the breeze on my shoulders anymore. I was in the middle of the blue light and I looked over myself, noticing the scrapes were cleared and the bleeding had stopped. I watched as my overcoat reappeared altered, with a red lightning bolt going across from the bottom left to the top right of it, over my body. There wasn't a shirt underneath it still, but I could worry about that later. I looked around and saw my weapon in front of me. I grabbed it, noticing it was slightly different as the blade was longer and curved a bit more. The bottom grip still had tape, though it looked more worn down. I grabbed it, letting out a pained yell, but couldn't let go despite it feeling like it was burning my palm. I heard something echo in the distance and looked to my right.

A small enclave opened up while I was still in the light and I saw several figures walk toward me. The silhouettes looked familiar enough, but then I started hearing them talk.

They all began to speak at once before one voice quieted them down and a silhouette appeared in front of me. "Fight through the pain," it said, carrying a familiar female tone. "We did not die to let Vinchi win. Fight for us. We don't blame you."

"Yeah," a male voice said. "We knew the risks. You're not just fighting for us though."

"Fighting for a lot more than us," another female voice said. "We will aid you, Lane. Calm down and concentrate."

I gulped and did close my eyes and attempted to concentrate. It was a bit difficult to do as I knew who was talking to me.

"I have to recover," I grumbled to myself as I could feel all of the spirits surround me. "I need to... make sure you all didn't die for nothing. I need to..." My eyes shot open now. "... win!"

The light suddenly exploded upward and tore a hole in the roof of the building we were in. The spirits swirled around me and were absorbed into my weapon as the light dispersed. I had a shift black and white aura around my weapon and my body as markings had formed over each side of my neck, forming arrow-like shapes. The edges of my overcoat were spike-like, as if looking a bit tattered. The overcoat was now black with the outer edges being while all around it.

As Vinchi returned to my view, I noticed him looking very surprised.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," I said, pointing my weapon toward him.

"She may have been right after all," he said, seeming to ignore my comment. "No matter. You're still going to die."

I shook my head and dashed toward him, already channeling my newfound energy pool into my weapon. He also charged toward me and we soon collided. However, we still entered a stalemate. It didn't last for long though as our conflicting power resulted in an explosion that engulfed the entire building. I could hear the building begin to crumble around us. The explosion then expanded farther and completely took out the building and possibly anything in the immediate area.

When the dust settled and I could see again, looked around to see where Vinchi had gone. I was panting slightly as I did just exert a lot of energy.

"Forcing my hand after all, huh?" Vinchi asked, seeming to cough as he was knocked onto his back. He was quick to stand, however. "Then fine. Your questions might not get answered today, but if you can kill me, then you'll be on your way to finding them."

"And all it took was blinding you and knocking you down," I said.

"You're still a naïve fool," he said. "Zandue, my fist weapon, is only a portion of my power." He began to chuckle before our surroundings began to flash rapidly.

I blinked and looked around.

"What the hell?" I asked. "What are you doing?"

"Showing you more of my power," he chuckled.

The desert soon disappeared from view and there was just nothing but purple sky and just a void of nothingness around the ground we were standing on. I let out a groan as my head began to throb like it had before. I stumbled and then blinked as there was an image projected in front of me, replaying my fight with Tay and then switching over to Bernie and Minnie as they escape from the building just before our joined power caused it to crumble.

"Where are we?" I asked, feeling like I was actually somewhat weakening.

"Welcome to the Nether Realm, Lane," he chuckled. "Do you not feel it? The pressure upon you? You're in the darkness. The void. The place everyone thinks the dead go to linger. In truth, the Nether Realm is used to gather Her soldiers for the assault on the Mortal Realm. Souls caught by our scouts going to either side of the afterlife are taken to this place and turned into our soldiers."

"So that's what Runo's mimicking then," I said. "The same process, but with mortals."

"Yes, but in the Nether Realm, no one can oppose Her," he said, shaking his head.

"I see," I said. "I can ask questions all day, but I only have one more than I want answered before we duke it out."

"Very well," he said, seeming annoyed.

"Who are you?" I asked. "I highly doubt your name is really Vincent Vinchi. That seems too modern to someone that may be over several hundred years old."

He chuckled at first, but then it developed into a maniacal laugh.

"I suppose I shouldn't hide it anymore," he said, beginning to transform and grow in size. He was now towering over me, even if he was at a distance, and had large demonic wings growing out of his back and large black horns coming out of his forehead. His eyes lost their pupils and became a bright purple color while his fur became a darker shade of the same color. His teeth sharpened considerably while his fingernails became claws that were amplified by his dual fist weapons.

"I am Vinezo, Lieutenant to the glorious Overseer," he said, his voice now deep and booming much like I'd expect to come from a demonic creature. "I established this false crime syndicate as a way to spy on Runo for Her. It just so happens it perfectly doubled as an attempt to get you on our side, subtle brainwashing if you will. It was against Her initial orders to just try and kill you, but I convinced Her you might become an ally. Now since that has failed, Her predictions might become true after all. I have one last chance to stop that and I will do so."

"Predictions?" I asked. "Is She psychic or something?"

"You'll find out in due time if you can kill me after all," he said. "Exerting that amount of power in the Mortal Realm already confirms suspicion of you being a Tele Sombrus. I'm sure you figured that out. Every one of them had a way of presenting their power to themselves. Knowledge is locked inside, but it needs a means to get to the active mind of the Sombrus."

I raised an eyebrow at that, wondering if my sudden surge in power meant Payne and Bane no longer existed as they were only a means of learning my abilities. If that were true, then I was truly on my own now.

"You don't have a chance in this realm, Sombrus," he said. "I gave my captains - dons as they were called - their abilities. Even the ability to transmute." He began to cackle again.

I narrowed my eyes at him and readied my weapon. I knew what it meant. He had the traits transmutation, pure strength, and the ability to transform into deadly creatures. There might have been more.

"Now, are you ready to die?" he asked.

"No," I said, making my blade glow brightly rather easily. "Are you?"

"Bold words coming from an insignificant worm within my realm," he said.

"Your realm?" I asked.

"Yes," he said, raising his left muscular arm into the air. "Enough talk. It's time to die."

I quickly moved from my spot as large bolts of purple energy rained down on my former position. He was rapid firing them as I moved, making it impossible to stand still. I ended up swerving in a pattern and altered my directions when he became wise to them. However, he ended up firing multiple bolts at once and surrounded me with what was equivalent to purple fire.

"Got tired of me running?" I asked, looking up at him.

"It was rather boring," he said.

"I'm sorry," I said, throwing my weapon in the air. "I'll fix that." I jumped up and kicked the air as I grabbed my weapon's handle and ran toward Vinezo. I sung at him hard, connecting with him as he blocked my attack. Sparks flew as I tried to overpower him before I was pushed back.

"Showing off will get you nowhere," he said before firing a bolt of energy in my general direction.

I moved out of the way and landed on the ground due to the limited time I could remain in the air. When he fired another I moved my weapon and with my blade, I caught the blast and fired it back at him. He jumped out of the way as it was his attack mixed with my own, effectively empowering it. He let out a dissatisfying grunt before raising both of his arms and conjuring a large ball of pure energy before slamming his hands together as it split into several smaller energy orbs. They all floated down to the ground and began to take shape into demonic entities. They were loosely modeled after Vinezo's appearance, though made of the energy they were created by.

I had to turn my attention toward them as they closed in on me. I noticed that they were emitting a powerful chain lightning effect while they were relatively close by one another. I blocked and countered the first demonic entity, slicing through its right arm before having to jump to the left side of it to avoid the second one from using its energy axe to slice through me. I quickly swung my weapon at the first attacker, hitting it directly between its eyes with an energy blast. It stumbled back and seemed to distort itself for a moment before reforming. The second entity was already running at me as it was intent on using its axe to damage me. The third entity was approaching behind me, readying its own weapon. I ducked out of the way as the thrid's spear-like energy weapon ended up going straight through the axe wielding one's stomach while the spear one's head as sliced down the middle. They were distorted for a few seconds before they reformed and turned their attention toward me again.

I had run in the opposite direction, wanting them to run after me. When I noticed the idea had worked, with all three surprisingly running behind one another, I turned around and dashed back toward them. I held out my weapon with one hand, pointing the blade upward in their direction. We nearly collided, but my blade went through all three of them and was distorting them worse than their own energy weapons as they couldn't do any harm to me currently. I let out a loud grunt before my weapon absorbed all three entities and I pointed it back at Vinezo.

"Present for you!" I shouted before firing it from my supercharged blade with a hard swing.

Vinezo let out a confused gasp as the large amount of energy hit him quite hard, causing a bright explosion. When it cleared, Vinezo was still standing. He had used his own energy to create a Nether Shield and seemed to still be rather confident.

"Energy minions are nothing," he said as the ground suddenly drew a line around his feet. It was in the shape of the scar as the ground began raising as it seemed like a strange pedestal he would now be standing on as it rose him several feet in the air and he was surrounded by an even stronger Nether Shield. "But can you handle my loyal guards?"

I looked around as portals began opening up in all directions and strange twisted creatures began to pour out of them. A few of them looked like mutated trees with little to no leaves, while others looked like normal native Krater species'. Muscle bound versions that looked like they were injected with drugs were present, but so were leaner variations. It wasn't long until I was surrounded by the newly summoned minions and I put my second hand on my weapon's grip.

"Bring it on," I said before swinging at a few directly in front of me.

The swordsmen were rather skilled at blocking my blade attacks while the gunners seemed to be rather accurate with their bullets. If I didn't keep moving, I'd possibly be a dead man. I continually dodged gunfire and slid onto my backside to get under several soldiers who were trying to block my path. Their swords swung down at me, but it did end up making them slice at each other. There were groans and complaints before they were focused on me again. I immediately blocked another swordsman's attempt attack at slicing at my arms, but in doing so, another managed to scrape my lower left side. I let out a pained groan as I wanted to stop and check the damage, but it'd have to wait. I managed to kick away the swordsman that had scraped me before stabbing my weapon into the stomach of the swordsman in front of me. I pulled it out immediately and stabbed it into a gunman who had attempted to try and hit me with the butt of his gun.

The minions he had summoned to do his bidding were quickly multiplying and if I didn't do something about them fast, they'd be overrunning me. Using my weapon, I clutched it with both of my hands and swung it around in a complete circle. I sliced through several more of the minions this way and continued my spinning motions until majority of them were dealt with. When I stopped, I had to regain my balance as quick as possible.

Vinezo jumped down from his pedestal, attempting a hard blowing fist attack. I still had both of my hands gripped on my weapon as I moved it in between myself and him and blocked him completely. There was a loud clang noise before there was a flash and I heard him jump back to avoid my blade so he didn't come in direct contact with it. Once the light dimmed, I ran toward him and sliced at him repeatedly, though I was now back to wielding my weapon with one hand.

"Determination is not enough to defeat me, Silverbane," Vinchi grunted as he was avoiding and blocking my attacks.

I ignored his taunt as I continued to swing at him. He, however, unfortunately found and opening and connected a hard punch to my chest. I let out a loud gasp and coughed as it felt like the punch directly hit me and then my inner spirit as I was launched high into the air. It felt like I was as heavy as a boulder with how fast I fell back toward the ground, slamming into it and creating a crater. Pain was inflicted through my body yet again due to the impact, causing me to gasp for air a second time as I struggled to stand back up.

"Turns out your upgrade isn't enough," he said with a smug grin. "If that nearly took your life, then this definitely will."

He slammed his fists together a few times before an orb of energy formed around them. He then grunted as he thrust his arms forward, firing the now very large orb of energy in my direction. It was a direct hit, lighting up a good portion of the battlefield as it slammed my body further into the ground.

"There, that should do it," Vinezo chuckled in a low tone. "She has nothing to worry about now." He began to turn and head toward a crystal.

He stopped half way there as he heard a noise and looked back. The dust was clearing and once it did fully clear, he'd see a shield around me despite being knocked well into the ground. I was standing, though shakily, as I stared him down. The shield only prevented more than a certain amount of damage from being inflicted on me. That didn't mean it still didn't hurt like I had run through a field of spikes.

"Impossible," he said, raising an eyebrow curiously. "That had every type of energy fused into it. You should be a pile of ash."

"Bringing me here was a big mistake," I said as the spirits from before came into view and surrounded me. "I'm this... Shadowguard... thing. Half of my abilities feed on Nether Energy. It might not be enough to defeat Her yet, but's sure as hell enough to kill you." The markings on my body began to glow bright blue as the spirits turned into forms of energy and began to surround me. The energy then poured into my Katana-Scythe as I held it up.

There was a strike of what I could only assume was lightning before more spirits poured into the sword. My power skyrocketed before I pulled my weapon back down to my waist.

"Vinezo, you're dead," I said before vanishing from sight.

Something seemed to unnerve him now as he was looking around with a frightened look in his eye. He began to run toward the crystal now.

"It's not going to help, Vinezo!" I shouted as I was purposely behind him. "The spirits of the fallen are guiding me. They're not your slaves that you used on me. You took almost everyone away from me. Allow me to return the favor!"

I slammed down my weapon in front of him, making him stop in his tracks and try to turn around. I sliced at his tail, cutting it clean off. He let out a howl of pain and tried to hold it as he continued to run. I disappeared and reappeared in front of him and sliced at his arms. I managed to leave large gashes within both of them before jumping above him and using a hard kick to the face make him fall over. When he hit the ground, I didn't hesitate to run up to him and run my blade directly through his chest. He let out a gasp for air as time seemed to slow down before my weapon emitted a massive energy blast through him, ensuring he'd have no way of regeneration. I bent down and leaned in toward his left ear.

"I win," I whispered before pulling my weapon out.

"You... may have... defeated me," he said, gasping for air. "But... You cannot... kill Her."

"We'll see about that," I said, noticing the Nether Realm dimension beginning to shake.

"If you... wish to live to celebrate... your victory, you'll use that crystal to get out of here," he said, still gasping.

"Not until I know more information," I said, grabbing the top of his head and forcing him to look at me.

"Tell me who She is," I said, though it immediately turned into yelling. "Tell me why my team had to die! Tell me about Runo's planned Jaden invasion!"

"Friends of an enemy... are also an enemy, Silverbane," he said, coughing violently now. "And She... is... who you've studied. She is the one who watched over Krater before the uprising. She is... Magazor."

"What?" I blinked, and then narrowed my eyes at him. "She was killed during that uprising. How is she commanding you?"

"That... you'll have to find out on your own," he said, wheezing now. "As for... Runo's invasion... It's happening as we speak."

"That bastard," I said. "Bernie and Minnie are there." I let go of him and ran toward the crystal now as the rocks began to crumble.

"Silverbane... I hope you do not plan on taking him on," he said. "You needed help from the spirits to kill me. You certainly won't have that help in the Mortal Realm."

"Knowing you, you'd be lying," I said, stopping in front of the crystal. "I'm going to kill Runo just like I did to you on this day."

"Cockiness will get you killed," he said. "With any luck, Runo will kill you before you challenge a Time Lord."

With that, he collapsed and I touched the crystal as fast as I could. I teleported from the realm back to where the building once stood. I stumbled forward, but I felt my wounds healing rapidly. The Nether Realm had to have blocked that ability since I didn't regenerate any wounds. I'd have to remember that if I ever have to go back in it.

I pulled out my Communicator and attempted to contact Bernie. I sighed with relief when he picked up immediately.

"Laney boy!" he said excitedly. "Did ya do it? Is the ole crime boss dead?"

"Yeah, he is," I said, still catching my breath. "Listen, Bernie, you and Minnie need to stay away or get out of Jaden. Runo's coming to invade the city."

"We were just heading out," Minnie said, waving at me. "We heard some commotion and decided we'd probably be better off hiding at a new place in Tonoko or in a smaller town near the Marsh Swamp. We'll update you with where we are when we get there, okay?"

"Alright," I nodded. "Only contact me for that and if you get in trouble. Otherwise, we can't talk. I mean it, Bernie."

"Fine, fine," Bernie said. "See ya Lane. Good luck getting to Jaden."

He hung up and I ran toward my Hooverbike as I dialed Roland's personal number.

"Hello?" Roland answered.

"Roland, you have to get out of there, now," I said. "Runo's planning on invading Jaden and I don't think your soldiers are a match for them yet. I have an idea that could make them suitable for battling them, but it will take a while to train."

"Well, uh, Lane, is it?" he asked. "That's nice and all, but that ship has sailed."

"What?" I asked, my eyes widening.

The Communicator was passed over to Runo, who was cackling maniacally.

"Silverbane," he said. "The thorn in the Crimson Gavel's and my side. I see you learned of my invasion of the one major city that refused my control. Well, that ends today. It's all thanks to you, really. If you hadn't preoccupied the Gavel, they would have left the city in a weakened state. There's just only one thing left to do."

My free hand clenched into a fist when I heard a gunshot and then a thud on the ground.

"Now, look what you've caused," Runo chuckled. "Mayor Rutan's dead and it's entirely your fault. I now have the two major cities of Mortion in my control and slowly I'll be building up my army even more." He let out a cackle and seemed to shove something off of the desk. "Oh, by the way, I have some presents for you. Switch your Communicator to Channel 50 once this call ends."

"I swear I will kill you, Runo," I said, becoming angrier than I had ever been. "Vinchi's dead. The entire Mortion Crimson Gavel is gone. Be ready."

"Fair enough," he chuckled, seeming amused at my threat. "See you, Silverbane. Just remember, I always win." The call then ended.

I then switched the Communicator's channel to 50 and blinked, noticing newscast after newscast was labeling me a terrorist threat again, though this time on a much larger scale. There were high rewards for trying to turn me in. The highest award was turning me in dead and with the interviews with citizens I saw, they were all denouncing me and wishing I'd be brought to justice. I was just labeled number 1 on the Most Wanted List from the Cryptic Guard bulletin board, effectively replacing Vinchi.

I let out a loud growl of frustration and couldn't hold back the tears rolling down my cheeks. I had unintentionally made Jaden vulnerable and now Roland was dead. I made my weapon disappear and I hopped onto my Hooverbike. I turned it on and quickly spun it around, though I nearly fell off when doing so. I then sped off toward Jaden.

When I arrived, I saw gunfire between Roland's small military and the Cryptic Guard. It seemed like even with Roland dead, they still wanted to attempt to keep Runo from claiming ownership of Jaden. I hopped off of my Hooverbike and ran behind several Cryptic Guard soldiers and whacked them in the back of the head with the butt of my gun. It seemed to be rather effective and I used the excess strings from their suits to tie their hands behind their back.

"There," I said before jumping down and motioning the guards to move into cover. I held out my hand when they left and let my Katana-Scythe form within it again.

I then ran through the front gates of the city and made my way toward City Hall. Several guards tried to stop me, but I sliced through them like I was nothing since I was coming off of a battle with Vinezo - or Vinchi as everyone else knows him.

"Runo!" I shouted. "Get out here!" I was rather determined to try and kill him right here, right now. It made me not notice my power wasn't nearly as high as it was in the Nether Realm.

"And there's the guest of the hour," Runo said, coming out of the door. "Men, stand down and go check the outposts. Let Silverbane and I have some alone time."

The guards took the order and left Runo and I alone together. I wasted no time running up to him and attempting to slice through him. I blinked when he moved slightly and managed to grab my face and slammed me into the ground before standing back up. I let out a pained groan as he chuckled and crossed his arms.

"Do you really want to do this?" he asked. "Will it just be easier for you to go into hiding?"

"No," I grunted and slowly got back onto my feet. "I came here to kill you and that's what I'll do!"

He shook his head and grabbed me again, shoving me into the wall and looked me over.

"You made me do this," he said quietly.

The next thing I knew, his fist was connecting with the middle of my face repeatedly. My nose felt like it was broken by the time he stopped and let go and blood was dripping from it and my mouth. I fell forward onto the ground, coughing and wheezing.

"Still not going to give up?" he asked, kicking me hard in the stomach now. "If Vinezo is dead, then that proves nothing, Silverbane. He was weak, even if he is a Lieutenant to that She-Witch. Listen to me, boy." He lifted my head and made me look at him. "Just go into hiding and never come out. Consider this an act of kindness. I could kill you right now, but there's no fun in it. I'm more powerful than that wash up. Quit while you're ahead. You helped me get Jaden. Be proud of that. Or don't. I honestly don't care. Just never step foot in Jaden or Tonoko City again."

He let go and began to walk away as my vision blurred and my eyes began to close as I was going to pass out. He knew about Vinchi's secret and Magazor. And he harmed me more than Vinchi or any other Don did. I was legitimately frightened before the world turned dark. Before finally passing out, I heard a scream and that was it.

When I finally came to, I coughed up a storm and gasped and quickly sat up. I was trying to breathe despite my injuries being healed up due to my regeneration. I shook my head and then looked around, noticing Minnie peeking into the room.

"Thank the Goddess, you're alive," she said, sighing with relief. "Bernie's been rather worried himself. He's not here right now, but he'll be back soon."

"Thanks," I said as I stood up. "I've got some stuff to figure out though." I tried to walk, but my legs felt like jello as I nearly fell over.

"Rest," Minnie pouted, pushing me back into the bed and crossed her arms as she watched over me.

"Alright, fine," I said. "Only until I can walk again though."

"Deal," she nodded. "What happened though?"

"Runo happened," I said. "He's more powerful than Vinchi himself and Vinchi was powerful. I need to figure out something, but in the meantime, when I get better, I need to stay away from you two. I'm a high profile criminal right now and might be for a while."

"I understand," Minnie nodded, sighing gently. She leaned down and hugged me gently. "At least Vinchi's gone. I hope our friends can rest in peace now."

"Yeah, me too," I said.

I looked toward the window, noticing it was night time. I saw the stars twinkle and closed my eyes. I thought about my parents in a positive thought for once, rather than reliving the explosion. It calmed me down as I felt like I was being held by my mother. However, in the daydream, I noticed something strange. My mother had eyes similar to how Vinezo's looked. My eyes shot open as I jerked up.

"What's wrong?" Minnie asked, now sitting in a chair and reading a book.

"Nothing," I said, shaking my head.

I closed my eyes again and drifted off to sleep.