Sentinal

Before I begin, I just wanna say how much I hate today. Ever since I woke up this morning, I haven't been able to go ten minutes without remembering what happened a year ago. What happened to Malkator. God dammit, I hate this.

But moving on.

You already saw what Tony said. It was true. After I posted that fight, I left. I went walking and I didn't stop. I don't know why. I just had this urge to keep moving. I couldn't stop. I couldn't sleep. I just kept walking. I left the town behind. Then the roads. I just kept walking for days. Until the scenery changed. It wasn't a sudden change. It was slow, subtle. I didn't realize it anything was changing for hours. Then I started noticing it. The sky, the ground. Everything was gradually changing. Over the course of a day, the world around me had gone. I was on the Path OF Chaos again. That same twisted nightmare of a world I had barely escaped from a long time ago.

But I still couldn't stop. My legs kept moving, for a long time. I'm not even sure how long it was before I found my way to where they were. It was only then that I was allowed to stop.

Enhanced Daniel. Red Daniel. And Dark Daniel. All three of their bodies were floating in the air above the elevated stone path. Dark Daniel's sword was still stuck through his chest, and the Omnibolg was sitting on the ground beneath Enhanced Daniel.

"What is this?" I asked.
"This is the reason I've brought  you here," said a voice. I turned and saw him there.
"What do you want?" I asked the Sentinal. "Why are they like this?"
"So that I can consume them," he said, as if it was nothing.
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I demanded.

He raised a hand to silence me, and began fiddling with the latches on his neck, releasing his helmet. He gripped it tightly, and slowly lifted it off his head. He then turned, and looked me dead in the eyes.

"What... the fuck?" I asked.
"Interesting, isn't it?" he asked.
"Why do you look like me?" I demanded.

Okay, maybe that wasn't entirely accurate. He looked like me, only his hair was a lot shorter. And his eyes were purple. And he had purple markings under his eyes, leading down to his chin. And his ears were pointed. But other than that, we were pretty much identical.

"I'm like them," he said, gesturing to the other Daniels floating a short distance away from us. "I'm you. Another universes version of you. I was trapped her on the Path Of Chaos several years ago. I was unable to complete my challenge.I died here. But the Path gave me a second chance. It revived me, as its Sentinal. I am now its servant."
"So why are you here?" I asked. "In my universe?"
"It's the Path's power," he said. "It can connect nearby universes, allowing me to travel between them. But that's just one of the powers it gave to me."
"What else can you do?" I asked hesitantly.
"You heard what I said before, right?" he asked. "About consuming them?"
"Yes," I said.
"That's one of my gifts," he said. "I can absorb alternate versions of myself, and gain their powers."

So hat was his plan. He was going to steal the abilitis of all the Daniel's who have been killed.

"It's a trick I've used before," he said. "I travel to different universes, and kill their Daniel's. Then, I devour them. However, the Path and I figured out a different way to go about it."
"You mean making me do the killing for you?" I asked.
"That's right," he said, smiling. "Congrats on figuring it out. We created a key in two pieces, and a key hole in another two pieces. The keyhole was hidden in plain sight."
"The alter inside the church basement, and the idol right outside," I said.
"That's right," he said. "Then you and Tony had to earn the pieces of the key. After that, it was just a small matter of waiting for you to figure out how the pieces fit together."
"And then it created that event of Dimensional Bleeding," I said. "And these three were pulled into my universe."
"Exactly," Sentinal said.
"So that's what all this has been about," I said. "This was all just some plan for you to gain more power."
"Pretty much," he said. "Now, if you'll just wait there for a moment..."

He began walking toward Dark Daniel's body. I charged at him, drawing Kyle's knife from my pocket. You know, I keep forgetting he gave that thing to me. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to use it. A long, purple sword appeared in Sentinal's hand, and the knife shattered as the two weapons collided. He then kicked me, and I was sent flying. I hit a boulder a few yards away and collapsed. When I got back up, Dark Daniel's body was gone, and his sword went clattering to the ground.

"Ah, now that feels good," Sentinal said. "I've never taken power from a Devil Killer before."

He turned and made his way toward Enhanced Daniel. I got back up and tried to stop him. He simply turned on me and said "Please stop."

I stopped in my tracks. I couldn't move. I didn't want to. Damn it, I had been charmed! I watched as he touched Enhanced Daniel's body with one hand, and it simply dissolved into some kind of purple energy and flowed into his mouth. I couldn't let him get Red Daniel too. This was just the Unnamed Child's power. I could resist it, with some effort and willpower. I struggled against the charm and managed to break free. I charged at him again, ad I tried to summon my sword. Nothing happened. It wasn't coming to me. I kept running, and he swung his sword at my. I ducked under it and punched him under the jaw. He stepped back, rubbing his jaw where I had hit him.

"Hold still!" he demanded.

His shadow came to life and wrapped itself around my torso. I couldn't do anything as he approached Red Daniel and absorbed him too. Shit. He had successfully gained the powers of all the other Daniels. How the fuck was I supposed to deal with that?

I didn't have time to blink before he was in front of me again. His shadow dissolved, and he struck me in the chest with all the strength of an Enhanced. I hit the ground a distance away. He started laughing.

"This is incredible!" he shouted. "All this power! Nothing can beat me now!"

He glanced at me, and began walking over.

"Especially not you," he growled. "I'm going to kill you, and then add all of your power to mine."

Dark Daniel's sword was lying a few feet away. I grabbed it as quickly as I could and swung with all my strength. The blade hit him in the face, but his blood hardened before it could actually do him any harm. He grabbed the blade and wrenched it out of my grip. He dropped it to the ground and charged at me, swinging his sword. I slipped into the Godsway quickly and reappeared further down the Path.

"How did-?" he asked, before noticing me. He began running toward me again, but this time thongs were different. Last time I was on the Path Of Chaos, I couldn't make use of the Godsway. But now I could. I could fucking teleport. I slipped into the Godsway before he could reach me.

I could feel it. Along with the pain that being in the Godsway brings me, I could feel something else. A connection. I was in sync with every world. Every domain. I was linked to all of them. I tried summoning the wakizashi again, and a smile spread on my face as I felt its familiar handle in my hand. I returned to the Path Of Chaos and faced Sentinal again.

"You had a chance to escape," he said. "Why come back?"
"Simple," I said, raising the wakizashi as it burst into flames. "I'm going to atop you before you can kill any more of us."
"You can't beat me," he said.
"We'll see," I said.

I warped behind him and slashed at him. He turned sharply and blocked my attack. He shot a bolt of lightning at me, but I warped away again. He noticed me a distance away, and sent a wave of razor sharp petals in my direction. I released a burst of flames that reduced the petals to ash before they could hit me. Sentinal was starting to get impatient. And what do people do when they're impatient? Apparently, they blow up the fucking floor. Yeah, he started attacking the ground with fireballs, destroying it. I managed to avoid most of the blasts, but one of them was so close that I was still hit by the force. My leg was pinned beneath a slab of rock. I was cornered.

"Say goodbye," he said, as he built up this weird weird peach coloredenergy in one of his hands. Don' recognize that power. He must have gotten it from another Daniel.

Anyway, I needed to do something fast. There was a boulder a few feet away. I've never moved anything that heavy before, but it was worth a shot. I used the Empty City's power and tried to lift it. I budged a little, but it was too heavy.  I focused harder, and managed to get it up a few feet.

"Pathetic," he said. "Do you really think that will help you now? You must be retarded."

And that's where I drew the fucking line. The boulder shot up into the air and fell back down on him. He raised him sword, and the rock crashed into the flat side of the blade. He stopped building up energy and focused on trying to support the weight. I concentrated harder, pushing the boulder down on him harder. I flung the slab of stone off of my leg and stood back up.

"You can't stop me," he hissed, lifting himself up against the weight of the stone. "I'm stronger than you!"

And idea came to me. Dark Daniel could alter the mass of objects. So could I. I was a Devil Killer, god damn it! I focused with all my strength and anger, pouring it all into that boulder. It began  glowing, and expanded. It doubled in size. Then tripled. It was taking all of his strength to keep it from crushing him. That was my chance. I gripped my sword and teleported right in front of him. The sword burst into flames as I plunged it into his solar plexus. I warped away again as the rock fell, crushing him.

"Nobody fucking calls me that!" I growled.

I turned and walked away. Yeah, I had just killed another of my selves, but that didn't concern me at the moment. He was a monster. He deserved what I did to him.

I stopped when I heard an explosion behind me. I turned to see the boulder scattered in pieces all over the place. He was standing again, but he wasn't himself any more. I could feel the Path's power filling his body, corrupting and transforming him. His body expanded, until his was twice his normal size. A second pair of arms sprouted from his ribcage, and armor formed over them. his sword, in his upper right arm, grew even larger. The Omnibolg rose from the ground and flew into his upper left hand, and Dark Daniel's sword flew to his bottom right. He sliced the palm of his bottom left hand with the Omnibolg, and his blood flowed out, and reshaped itself into a crystal sword.

"Oh shitfuck," I muttered.

The new Sentinal charged at me, and I tried everything I could to avoid its attacks. I through every power I had at him. Nothing worked. He was practically invincible. The best I could do was dodge his attacks.

That's when it happened. I'm still not sure what it was. But I could feel it. All of my power, every bit of Eldritch Energy I had ever absorbed, all flowed through my body, building up in my right hand. My hand began giving off a black glow. A black light, just like I saw in that dream. IT expanded, taking the form of a long sword. A sword made of the black light of Fear.

The Sentinal swung the Omnibolg at me, and the sword moved on its own. It rose up, cutting the Omnibolg. I swung the sword again, cutting through the crystal blade. Sentinal let out a mighty roar and lifting his remaining swords. He slashed them both down simultaneously, but I lifted my new sword to block the attacks. The swords were cut in two, just like the other ones were. I swung it again, cutting him across the chest. He roared again, and a bright purple light flowed from his hands. He was gonna hit me with some kind of energy blast, and I'm not sure if the sword would have hep against that.

Of course, he didn't get a chance to release it. Blood suddenly rushed out from the wound on his chest, and swirled around him wildly. His hands were wrapped up and tied behind him. He was bound by his own blood. A tendril of blood rose into the air and began shifting its form. IT grew arms, and a head, and began slowly developing more details. Long hair, a spikes coat, and his face... it looked exactly like Red Daniel .And when it spoke, it sounded like him.

"Finish him!" the mass of blood said. "I can't hold him forever! Kill him now!"

I didn't give it a second thought. I swung the sword, cutting Sentinal in half. His body collapsed, lifeless, and his blood fell to the ground in a large red puddle. I had won. The sword in my hand faded away to nothing.

I only had a few moments before things went bad again. I should have seen it coming. I had just killed the Path Of Chaos's Sentinal. Of course it wouldn't let me live after doing that. The ground collapsed beneath me, and I began falling into the void bellow.

I tried to escape using the Godsway. It didn't work. I couldn't teleport. I tried using the Intrusion's power to sprout wings. tat didn't work either. I tried using each power I thought would help me, but none of them worked. And then I figured it out. The reason I couldn't use my powers.

It was because I didn't have them anymore. That sword was made from al of my power. nd it had faded away. I didn't have anything left. Icouldn't save myself. I was gonna die. Either that, or I would just keep falling for the rest of eternityinto an endless void. Didn't get a chance to find out.

I suddenly landed on my back in front of the old church. A few feet away from my was a circle of glowing symbols. A familiar looking one. There was someone else there. A girl.

"You alive, dumbass?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said. "How did I...?"
"He pulled you out of there," she said, motioning to the doorway.

There was a man standing in the shadows. I couldn't make out anything about him. Except his hair. My god, it was long.

"Who are you guys?" I asked.
"I'm the Liar," she said. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm leaving."

She started walking away. As she left, the symbols stopped glowing. Of course. The Dying Man. A Fears presence is what gives those symbols their power.

So, I guess I owe you an explanation, huh?" the man said. His voice kind of surprised me.

I approached hm. As I got closer, I could see more of him. He was leaning with his back to the door frame. I could only see his left side from that angle. He looked exactly like me. Only... older. He was at least 30. Maybe 35. And he kept the eye that I could see closed.

"Another one?" I asked.
"It's complicated," he said. "I came from another timeline. Totally different from this world."
"How so?" I asked.
"Well, the main difference is that the Ace Of Chaos never existed in my world," he said. "So he never seduced the Vision. The Game Master never killed her, or went into his violent rage afterwards. Chaos Magic was never discovered. The Godslayer was never forged, and the Fears and their servants never ended up fighting over it. Hell, I was even born under a different name than you."
"So what is your name?" I asked.
"I'll get to that in a minute," he said. "You see, since the Vision never died in my world never died, she was around to cause me trouble. She started stalking me. One day she showed me exactly how I would die."
"What did she show you?" I asked.
"Car accident," he said. "I was riding my bike, and then a truck hit me. OF course, I managed to avid the situation when it actually came along. That's when I learned that she has the power to show people their future. She did it again. Showed me I would be killed by a robber in the dead of night. And it almost happened. He broke in, tried to kill me, but I was ready. I cheated death yet again."
"Wow," I said. "That's pretty impressive."
"It was know big deal," he said. "I knew how it played out, and I knew how to avoid it. So, after that, I started investigating her. I found a bunch of old books, containing a bunch of werd things. Magic spells, ancient histories, and infoon the Fears."
"So you were able to learnabout her?" I asked.
"Yep," he said. "Anyway, he showed me my death again. This time, it looked inescapable. A terrorist attack. A building blown to the ground, with me trapped inside."
"So all you had to do was avoid going in the building, right?" I asked.
"Well, the thing is, I didn't know which building it was, and I had business to take care of in several locations. I decided to just take my chances, and when a building was bombed wile I was facing off with this really annoying Proxy, I somehow managed to stay alive. I broke a leg and damn near punctured a lung, but I lived."
"Holy shit," I said. "You're an idiot, you know?"
"I am you, aren't I?" he asked, smiling.
"Whatever," I said.
"Anyway, while I was healing up, I decided to look into those magic books," he said. "They contained a number of magic rituals triggered by the presence of the Fears. I memorized a bunch of the spells, but some of them were a little... mixed up."
"Come again?" I asked.
"Basically, the pages were old and stuck together a bit," he said. "When the Vision came again, I tried to use her power to activate what I thought was a protective charm. Turns out, it was a time travel ritual."
"ime travel?" I asked. Of course. He said he was from another timeline. I guess it made sense.
"Yeah," he said. "I ended up getting sent 800 years into the past."
"800 years?" I asked. "Isn't that... when the Vision was..."
"Catching on?" he asked me, smiling.

He opened his eyes, which was glowing a bright green. He turned his face, revealing that his other eye wasn't there at all, replaced by a long, vertical scar.

"My universe never had an Ace Of Chaos," he said, "Because I am the Ace OF Chaos. When I went back in time, I created  new universe, in which I existed in the past."
"So, it was after that that you and the Vision...," I started.
"Got together?" he asked. "Yeah, pretty much. But when, it gets even more confusing!"
"Does it?" I asked.
"You see, Time Travel isn't the only way to create new timelines," he said. "Every time the Vision, or a Scion, or someone else who has seen the future decides to change things, they cause I split in the timelines. They create one time line where things stay the same, and one or more timelines where things stay the same. So from that one timeline I created, millions more ended up branching off from it."
"So that's why there's so many universes so close together," I said.
"That's right," he said.
"You're Marshall, aren't you?" I asked.
"That's right," he said. "As I said, I was born under a different name due to the difference between our universes. While you and many of the parallel yous are named Daniel Ferris, I was named Marshall Smith."
"Thatn that thing," I asked, gesturing to the magic symbols on the ground. "That's like the one you used to revive the last time?"
"Yes," he said. "The Liar owed me a favor, so I asked her to set up and activate the spell for me."
"I see," I said.
"Now, moving on to you," he said. "You're powerless now, correct?"
"Wha- how did you-?" I stammered.
"I can sense energy, and you have absolutely none," he said. "You're not a Devil Killer any more. You're human again."
"While I was in the Path Of Chaos, my power turned into a blak energy sword, then faded away after I beat Sentinal<" I said.
"I know," he said. "I saw it. I've never seen a Devil Killer use that power before."
"I don't know how I did it," Isaid. "It just kind of happened. Do you think I'll ever get my powers back?"
"I don't know," he said.
"So I'm back to being human again...," I muttered.
"Now, about your destiny," he said.
"What about it?" I asked.
"My descendant told you, didn't he?" he asked.
"Oh yeah," I said. "Me and ParaDan. One of us is going to defeat the Fears, while the other..."
I stopped for  moment.
"The other will have to sacrifice them self," I said. "It's gonna be me, isn't it?"
"I don't know," he said. "But with out your powers, the odds of you being the one to reaign victorious over the Fear have decreased significantly."

He stayed quiet for a while. I'm guessing he was giving me some time to think. IT was a couple minutes before he spoke again.

"So, here's my question for you," he said, smiling. "What will you do?"

I thought a bit more. Then I looked him in the... um... eye... and told him.

"I'm going to keep fighting against them," I said.
"Oh?" he asked.
"Even if I have to sacrifice myself in the end, I'm going to do as much harm  to them as I can before that time comes. Even if my powers are gone, I can still be a thorn in their side."
He started laughing when I sad that. "I was hoping you'd say that," he said. "I guess we are the same person after all!"

He suddenly keeled over, and his body flickered,

"Oh yeah," he said. "The resurrection spell is temporary. That means I'm gonna die again in the exact same way."
"Wait, you mean-?" I asked, but before I could finished, he looked up at me again, revealing that a mask had appeared on his face, with the number 1 on it.
"I'm gonna blow up now!" he said, as the number changed to 0.

His body was engulfed in a small explosion, and I had to shield my eyes from the blast. When I looked again, his body was gone.

"Sorry about that," his voice said, as an ephemeral image of him appeared before me. "That never gets any less painful."
"Wow," I said. "So that's what, the third time you've exploded?"
"Yep," he said. ""You should get going now. Tony's worried."
"Okay," I said.
"Oh, and one last thing," he said. "There's something important you need to be aware of."
"And what's that?" I asked.
"Mana," he said, "Has a mind of it's own."
"And what does that mean?" I asked.
"You'll understand soon enough," he said, as he faded away.




So, I left, reqrouped with Tony, and we'll be moving out soon. I also have to shut this blog down. I'm going on a little hunt, and I'll need to drop off the radar for a while. This is goodbye. For now.

Don't worry. I'm not running away. I'm running toward them. Like I told Marshall, I have every intention of fighting against them. But first things first.

I. Want. Nachos!

Voicemails

Hey, this is Tony. I thought I should give some kind of update.

After Daniel made that last post on his blog, he kind of just wandered off.

I haven't seen him again, I'm not sure where he is, but I saw something... some kind of vision... and I think he might have gone back to the Path of Chaos. And I think one of those voicemails said he was doing something there. I really hope that's not the case.

Before he left, he left his phone behind, and it's been getting a ton of messages. I decided to post them in the video up above. Figured

Daniel would mention them on his blog anyway. He also received a text from an unknown number saying “This is Fury. I want answers.” I don't know how half those people got his number, but that's not important. I also tried to subtitle them as best as I could, because they were a little hard to make out. I think there's a problem with Estren's phone or something, judging by how quiet it is, and David at one point said "You" when he clearly meant "I".

Anyway, I'm gonna go now. Fingers crossed.

Demise

We spent the next several days on board the ship, waiting for Marshall to show up.
“Damn it,” I said to myself, while I was sitting above deck. “When the hell is he gonna get here?”
“As soon as he finds her,” ParaDan said from behind me.
“Wha- when the hell did you get here?” I asked.
“Just now,” he said. “I’ve been busy looking for… something.”
“Any luck finding it?” I asked.
“Nope,” he said.
“Great,” I said. “So who’s ghost boy looking for?”
“Someone who owes him a favor,” ParaDan said. “So where’s Kelterry?”
“At the helm,” I said. “Hey! Kelterry! Get over here!”
He took his sweet time, but he came.
“Been a while, paradox,” he said.
“Yes it has, pirate,” ParaDan replied. “How have things been?”
“Been dealing with more dreams,” Kelterry said. “I think we can expect trouble soon.”
“Visions of the future?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Kelterry replied. “Dead for 800 years, but that woman is still driving people crazy.”
“You mean the Vision, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Did you know her?” I asked.
“I’ve had a few encounters,” Kelterry said.
“Same here,” I said.
“Hey, I have something for you,” he said, reaching his hand out to me. He dropped Demetri into my hand.
“You’re… giving me this guy?” I asked.
“He still has some recovery to do,” Kelterry said. “But I think you’d make better use of that shoggoth than I could.”
“Shoggoth!?” I exclaimed.
“Yeah,” Kelterry said. “I created him in order to translate languages that are native to the layer of reality we were on earlier.”
“Hey, Kelterry,” ParaDan said. “You know that trouble you were talking about? I think it’s here.”

I turned to the front of the ship, where a strong presence had suddenly appeared. There was a gate opened into the Path Of Black Leaves, and standing inside of it was Ren Takeru. ParaDan immediately drew his rapier, and Hideaki ran over to us, drawing his own sword. Several more gates opened, and people boarded the ship, with sharp red spikes sprouting from their bodies.

“Saplings,” ParaDan muttered.
“Hello there, Time Walker,” Ren said. “And you too, Hiroshi. Or Akihiko, or whatever the hell you’re calling yourself now.”
“It’s Hideaki,” Hideaki said.
“I see,” Ren said, drawing a sword shaped thorn.
“ParaDan and I can handle these guys,” Hideaki said. “Daniel, Dad, make sure everyone else is safe below deck.”
“Sure thing,” I said.

ParaDan began cutting down the Saplings, while Hideaki charged and clashed with Ren. Kelterry and I ran over to the door going bellow deck. It swung open as we approached it. My mom and Tony were standing there.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked. “We heard…”
“Get back below deck!” I said. “We have trouble.”
“Yes, you do,” said another voice.

I turned sharply to see the tip of a long katana sticking out of Kelterry’s chest. Dark Daniel was standing behind him, with a hateful look in his eyes.

“You!” I said.
“Daniel,” Kelterry said weakly. “Get out of here.”
“No way,” I said, drawing my sword. “Let him go!”
“Fine,” he said, pulling his sword from Kelterry, who slumped to the floor.

I charged forward, passing through the Godsway briefly. I clashed swords with him while Tony ran over to try to help Kelterry.

“I’ve been waiting a long time to settle things with you,” Dark Daniel said. “Let’s end this.”
“Yes,” I said, swinging my sword at him. “Let’s!”

He swung his sword, throwing me back some. He swung it again, and I had to duck to avoid the twelve foot long blade. I slipped into the Godsway and reappeared behind him. He vanished before I could attack and reappeared off to the side. I brought my sword up to stop his, but he was stronger than I had expected, and managed to break through my guard to cut my shoulder. I slipped into the Godsway again and reappeared at the helm. I shot a bolt of lightning at him, but he deflected it with the blade of his sword. He slipped out of his coat and disappeared. He suddenly emerged behind me, wrapping his coat around my head, trying to suffocate me. I reached up, grabbing one of his arms. I tried to freeze him, but he broke away from me before I could. I unravelled his coat from my head, and turned to try and find him. His foot caught my chest with a powerful side thrust kick, knocking me off the helm. I landed next to Tony, and Kelterry.

“Hey man, I don’t want to get in the way of your fight, but Garrot’s kind of bleeding out here,” Tony said.
“Use this,” I said, tossing him the coat. “Try to staunch the bloodflow.”

I teleported back onto the helm, but the other me was gone before I got there. I looked up to see him floating with a pait of wasp wings. He raised a hand, and a burst of flames shot from it. I dodged through the Godsway and reappeared on top of one of the sails.

“You can use more than one power at a time?” I asked.
“I’m better than you,” he said, launching a bolt of lightning at me. I teleported out of the way as it hit the sail. I reappeared on the deck, but I couldn’t move again. I looked down to see my feet frozen in place. Fuck. I looked up to see the other me raising a hand, which was glowing with red flames. He shot a large ball of fire at me. I released a blast of cold air, stopping his attack before it reached me. I looked down at my sword.

“Come on,” I whispered to it. “I need flames!”
“As you wish,” said a voice, just as the sword burst into flames.

The ice around my feet melted. I warped through the Godsway, reappearing in the air next to him. I swung my sword repeatedly, but he deflected all of my strikes and swung his sword down. I blocked his attack, but I was knocked down to the deck. My sword slid from my grasp. Dark Daniel landed in front of me, as his wings vanished. His shadow rose from the floor, holding me in place. He raised his sword.

“Say your prayers,” he hissed, preparing to bring his blade down on me. But someone stepped between us.
“Mom?” I asked, surprised to see her between us with her arms outstretched. She was protecting me.
“Stop this!” she ordered.
“Oh, now you want to do something for him?” Dark Daniel chuckled. “Since when do you care?  You ignored us most of our lives! You were never there for me or him, and now you want to protect him?” his face twisted into anger. “I should kill you both.”

I screamed in pain as the tentacles tore from my back, lashing at him. He jumped backwards, trying to dodge. The shadows broke through his shadow, freeing me. I ran through the Godsway, coming out in front of him, lashing out my tentacles, knocking him into the mast, which cracked from the impact.

“She may be a neglectful bitch, but she’s still my mother!” I shouted angrily at him.
“Slender Man’s power?” he said. “Do you have any idea of the risk you’re taking by using that?”
“I don’t care!” I yelled, swinging my tentacles again.

He ducked into the Godsway. I followed him through and grabbed him with a tentacle before he could return to the real world. I swung him with all my strength, flinging him into something nearby. Not sure what it was exactly. This was my first time actually getting a good look at the place. I… can’t describe it. At all. It was too out of this world to make sense of. I charged at him, swing a right hook at him. He tried swinging his sword at me, but my tentacles bound his arms before he could. My knuckles collided with hi9s jaw. Once. Twice. Three times, four, five. My muscles were beginning to burn. I had stayed in that place too long, and it was starting to take its toll. But I ignored it, continuing to beat the crap out of him. He wrestled one of his arms free of my tentacles, and grabbed me by the throat. We were suddenly back on the ship. We both collapsed, having taken a lot of pain from staying in the Godsway that long.

“Damn it,” I said, trying to get to my feet.

My sword was just a few feet away. I inch for it, wrapping my fingers around its familiar handle when I finally reached it. I stood up, with some pained effort, and turned to Dark Daniel. He was still lying on the ground, panting in agony. MY tentacles retracted into my back as I approached him. I had won. He was on the ground, in pain from both the Godsway and the beating I had given him there. I just had to finish it. I raised my sword to his face.

“Go on,” he said. “Do it. Finish things.”

I froze. The memory of Malkator had suddenly returned to me. The sight of him standing on the edge of that building, telling me his last words. I lowered my sword.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“Malkator was wrong,” I said. “I’m no hero. But I’m not a murderer either. I can’t kill you.”
“Oh, how sweet!” said a voice from the helm. I turned to see a figure in a gas mask with black wings standing up there. The Archangel.
“Great, now this guy’s here,” I said.
“And I’m sure you know why, don’t you?” he said, decending from the helm to the deck.
“I have a few guesses,” I said.
“I’m here to kill you,” he said. Yeah, figured. “I’ll take back all the souls you’ve taken from me, and yours as well.”
“As if!” I said, raising my sword, which caught fire.
“You can’t fend me off forever,” the Archangel said, summoning a pitch black scythe. “This time, you will die.”
“We’ll see about that!” I snapped, charging at him.

He parried my attack and sliced at me with his scythe. I ducked under the curved blade and stabbed him in the chest. He vanished. I heard him appear behind me and stepped out of the way before his next attack could hit. He raised a hand and I was knocked back by a gust of black mist. I hit the railing on the side of the ship. It cracked under the force, and I had to enter the Godsway again to avoid falling overboard. That was a mistake. I was still in pain from the last time being there, and returning just made it worse. I got out as quick as I could and collapsed on deck.

“What’s wrong?” the Archangel laughed. “Can’t handle our domain?”

Dark Daniel suddenly appeared behind him, sword raised. The Archangel turned and blocked the attack with his scythe.

“You stay out of this!” the Archangel hissed.
“Like hell!” Dark Daniel roared.

What happened next was a blur of black and silver as they clashed blades. I got to my feet, ignoring the pain as best as I could. That’s when it hit me. Pain. I could use it to my advantage. Of course, after that red bitch almost took complete control of me before, I didn’t really want to. But then again, what else could I do. I allowed the redness to flow through my body, and the pain mixed with pleasure, strengthening me. I rushed forward, joining the battle. It was two on one with the Archangel outnumber. As if in desperation, the Archangel sprouted a second pair of arms and struck us both, sending us crashing into what was left of the railing.

“I need your help,” I said, turning to Dark Daniel. “I can’t beat him on my own.”

He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before nodding. He raised his sword, and I drew the gun from my belt with my free hand. I fired at the Archangel, who vanished again. He appeared in the air above us, with another scythe. He swung down at us, and we deflected his attacks. Dark Daniel stabbed at the Archangel’s mask, breaking a chunk of it off on the right side. A portion of the Archangel’s face was exposed.  His eye was red, with a glowing diamond shaped iris. The skin around it was pale and wrinkled, and what I could see of his hair was a transparent white. He slashed at us quickly, knocking the weapons from our hands. He slashed Dark Daniel across the stomach with his scythe, leaving a deep gash. Dark Daniel collapsed, holding the wound to try to stop the blood flow.

“That’s for interfering,” the Archangel said.

He turned back to me, and swung one of his scythes. I rushed up close and caught the handle. I kicked him in the face, breaking away more of his mask and tearing the scythe from his grip. As soon as he released it, the color scheme changed, becoming more purple than black. The Archangel swung his remaining scythe, and I dodged under it, getting behind him. I swung the scythe I had took from him, and he parried. We clashed again and again. I managed to hook the blade of his scythe using mine, and I pulled hard, yanking it from his grip. He conjured a rifle and aimed at my heart. I tried to dodge, but the bullet grazed my ribs. Another bullet grazed my leg, and I went down. The Archangel aimed his gun at my face.

“It’s over,” he said.

Before he could pull the trigger, Dark Daniel got him from behind, putting all of his arms into a full nelson. He shifted his weight some, cracking the Archangel’s collar bones, causing the rifle to slip from his grip.

“Daniel!” Dark Daniel said. “My sword!”

The twelve foot katana was a few feet behind me. I just had to reach for it.

“Hurry!” he barked.

The Archangel tried to get free, but Dark Daniel sprouted Rake-like claws from his fingers and dug them into the Archangel’s chest. I grabbed the sword and stood up/. The Red Cap’s power had worn off, and I was in pain again, but I fought it and turned to face them. I could feel the Archangel’s power being drained by Dark Daniel. He was becoming vulnerable.

“Hurry!” he shouted. “Stab him! In the heart!”
“I can’t with you behind him like that!” I said.
“Forget about me!” he said. “Kill us both!”
“But-,” I protested.
“You may not be a murderer, but what you are is a Devil Killer!” he said. The Archangel struggled in his grip. “Now kill this devil!”
“I can’t do that to you!” I snapped.
“I can’t hold him much longer!” he said. “I don’t deserve to live! Just finish this now!”

My thoughts returned to when my blade stabbed into Red Daniel. The way that he thanked me for ending his life. I didn’t want to do that again. The Archangel got and arm free, and black mist began swarming around it. He was forming something big. He was gonna destroy the entire ship. I had no time.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, plunging my sword through the Archangel’s heart and through Dark Daniel.

I dropped the sword as I was consumed by unbearable pain. My chest hurt, as if I had also been stabbed through the heart. Dark Daniel took a few steps back, pulling the Archangel of the edge of the ship. Then it was gone. The Archangel’s power suddenly ended, and when it did, I was struck with the mother of all migraines. I fell over, unable to see straight. It was the worst feeling I’ve ever had.

Apparently, I lost consciousness after that. It’s been about 20 hours since all that happened. According to Tony, Ren and ParaDan both disappeared when I killed the Archangel. The ship had taken so much damage during the battle that it fell from the sky. Hideaki and Seraph managed to get everyone off safely before it happened. Everyone except Garrot Kelterry. I wish I could say he made it, but he didn’t. The wound he received from Dark Daniel was too much. He died.

I’m at Tony’s house right now. He had Dark Daniel’s jacket washed repeatedly. Then he gave it to me, seeing as my vest was kind of destroyed. I've also got  a new scar. Right over my heart. The same place I stabbed the Archangel.

I need to go. For a walk or something. I need to clear my head after all that shit that went down…

Veratis Kalohella part 2

Okay, so after Pavouk ran away (like a pussy!) I entered the giant stone door, which was unlocked for some reason. I was inside of a vast, dark chamber. I couldn't see a goddamn thing. Then I heard a voice, speaking in that weird ass language. But thanks to the weird lizard thing on my head, I could understand it perfectly.

"Who's there?" it demanded.

I recoiled a bit. Someone else was there, and he didn't sound too happy.

"Tell me your name!" the voice demanded.

"It's Dan," I said nervously.

"Your FULL name!" the voice commanded.

"Daniel Xavier Ferris," I said.

"Ferris...," the voice said thoughtfully.

Suddenly, lights came one, and I could see a man in front of me. He was taller than me by about a foot (And I'm 5'9", so that's pretty tall), and he was dressed in black clothing. His outfit looked really weird. His shirt was cut off in a bizarre way. One one side, it was short enough to expose his pale ribcage, and the other side went down almost to his waistline. His pants were made of a rigid, spiky material, and a long cloak hung from his right shoulder. He had pitch black hair, which was long on the sides but shorter in the back. He had on a mask concealing his face.

"You aren't by chance related to Leopold James Ferris, are you?" he asked curiously.

"He was my ancestor," I said.

"You look nothing like him," the man said.

"I take after my mother," I said.

"I see," he replied.

"Did you... know him?" I asked.

"Leopold James Ferris came here a long time ago," the man said. "There was some difficulty communicating, but I was able to learn his language fairly quickly."

"You mean you speak English?" I asked.

"I used to," he said. "It has been a long time. The memories of that tongue have faded away."

"Oh," I said. "So who are you?"

"My name is Has'thyk," he said. "I am the son of this castle's owner."

"So, you live here?" I asked.

"I am prisoner," he said. "Half human, half monster. I'm not allowed to leave these walls."

"That... sucks," I said.

"Leopold James Ferris once promised to free me," he said. "But he is gone now, isn't he?"

"I'm afraid so," I said.

"A shame," he said. "I was sure he was gone because of this."

He reached into a pocket on his cloak and pulled a mirror out of it. This was what I was here for. I could tell, just like Kelterry said.

"I gave this to him a long time ago," he said. "When it leaves this tower, it will return once its holder is killed. I knew he had died when it reappeared here."

He handed it to me.

"This is what you came for, isn't it?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "What does it do exactly?"

"It's a unique object," he said. "You see, just as the Fears are unable to enter this layer, items from this layer can not be touched by the Fears."

"You know about the Fears?" I asked.

"Of course," he said. "My mother was a servant."

"Wow," I said, looking into the mirror and seeing my reflection. "So, you mean the Mother Of Snakes can't get to me through here?"

"No, she cannot," he said. "The Fears are bound to the first layer."

"Cool," I said.

"There's more to it," he said. "That mirror can only reflect the truth. Illusions will not appear in it."

Our conversation was interrupted by another loud roar, this time from inside the castle somewhere.

"My father," Has'thyk said. "You must go."

I turned to head for the door, but he grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Not that way!” he said. “The guards will get you before you make it to the ship! Go that way!”

He pointed to one of the walls.

“ don’t see a way out over there,” I pointed out.

“Use the mirror!” he said.

I positioned the mirror so that I could see the wall through it. But there was no wall there. Just a large opening into a huge tunnel.

“What the...?” I said.

“The mirror won’t show illusions,” he said. “This castle is full of them. Use the mirror to find your way through.”

I ran to the fake wall, before turning back to him.

“Are you coming?” I asked.

“My father will catch you if I don’t stop him,” Has’thyk said. I could feel something powerful growing closer to us.

“I’ll come back sometime and get you out of here,” I said. “I’ll do what my ancestor couldn’t.”

“Do you mean that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“You’re a good man, Daniel Xavier Ferris,” he said, turning to face a door at the end of the room. That massive presence was somewhere behind it. “He’s almost here. Go, now.”

I turned and ran. The castle was difficult to navigate. There were walls that weren’t real, openings that should have been, fake floors, trick staircases. I’d have died if I didn’t have the mirror to guide me. I eventually found my way to an upper balcony. I could see the Tantalus nearby, but I couldn’t jump all the way there.

There was suddenly an explosion a few feet from me. I turned to see three massive bug like creatures flying at the other end of the balcony. One of them opened its mouth and shot a ball of fire at me. I dodged it, but I got hit by the next one. It crashed right into my chest, knocking me to the ground. Demetri fell out of my hair, hitting the ground in front of me. One of the bugs shot another fireball, which crashed right next to me and detonated. Both me and Demetri were blown a few feet back by the explosion. I quickly picked Demetri up and ran to the edge of the balcony. Jumping didn’t seem like a good idea, but then again, neither did staying there with the explosion shooting bug monsters.

I jumped off the edge just as another fireball exploded behind me. It was time to see if any of my Devil Killer powers would work on that layer. I concentrated, then, with a great deal of pain, a pare of wasp-like wings sprouted from my back. I flapped them as hard as I could to remain airborne, and flew toward the ship. I landed on it a bit clumsily. I’m not used to using the Intrusion’s power.

“Holy shit, you can fly!” Tony asked when he saw me.

“Yes, now let’s get the fuck out of here!” I said.

So yeah, we got out of that place, and eventually made it back to the first layer. Took a while. Kelterry has been giving Demetri medical attention. He says it’ll be a while before he’s back to full health. Right now, we’re waiting for Marshall to get back, because apparently Kelterry needs to talk to the creepy glowing ghost guy.

Anyway, I’m gonna sign off here. I’ll update when something happens.

Veratis Kalohella part 1

I'm splitting what happened in Veratis Kalohella into two posts, for reasons.

 

After my last post, tings got weird. he ship teleported to anther layer of reality. That's what Kelterry told me ayway. Weird place that I can't really describe. We were there for a long time before we finally found our destination.

"Here it is," elterry said.

We were flying before a giant, floating island with a huge castle on it, with all kinds of balconies and terraces and stuff that didn't look normal at all.

"If I remember correctly, that back door right over here is the place," he said.

"So, you want me to go in and grab whatever it is we're looking for?" I asked.

"Pretty much," he said. "It's a hand mirror. You'll know it when you see it."

"Okay," I said.

I tried to get there through the Godsway, but it didn't work.

"Why can't I use the Godsway?" I asked.

"The Godsway only exists on the first layer of reality," Kelterry said. "You can't enter it here."

"Damn," I said. "What about my other powers?"

"No idea," he said.

"I guess I'll have to jump down then," I said, not very happy about it.

"Gravity's weak here," he said. "You'll be fine."

"If you say so," I said.

"Oh yeah, and take this," he said, holding out a hand. Some kind of small black slimiy looking lizard was crawling around on his palm.

"And that is?" I asked.

"Demetri," he said. "Let him ride on your head, and you'll be able to understand what the natives here say. He's basically an Eldritch translator. Try it out."

"Okay...," I said, reaching my hand out. It crawled on my arm, and burried itself in my hair.

Kelterry cleared his throat, and then spoke some weird words that sounded like he was trying to gargle and vomit at the same time. But I could understand it. He was saying "How's it working?"

"Nicely," I said. "Where's you get this guy?"

"Long story," he said. "Now go on."

I jumped down and landed on the ground on the floating island. Managed to stick my landing unharmed.

As soon as I made it down there, another figure showed up. Someone I recognized.

"Oh god, it's you," I said, as PAvouk approached me.

"Hello, Ferris," he said. He was still speaking that weird language from the last time I saw him, but Demetri translated for me. Which must have meant that PAvouk was connected to this world somehow.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

"A rematch," he said, lifting up his dueldisk.

 

So, yeah, the rest of this post is gonna be a card game, so if you want, you can just skip it. I'll cover everything that happened after the duel in my next post.

 

Anyway, as he was in my way, I decided to humor him. I got out my own duel disk and stood across from him. I remember his deck had an anti xyz strategy. Lucky for me, the deck I had with me didn't even use xyz monsters.

 

"I'll go first!" I said. "I summon Maha Vailo in attack mode!"

A spellcaster appeared on my field, with 1550 attack points.

"Next, I equip him with Mist Body!" I said. "Do to this card's effect, Maha Vailo can't be destroyed in battle. And additionally, Maha Vailo gains 500 attack for every card equiped to him!"

My monster's attack pwer rose to 2050.

"I end my turn," I said.

 

"My turn!" Pavouk said. "I activate the spell card One For One! Now, by discarding Intrusion Milipede from my hand, I can special summon my level 1 Intrusion Firefly from my deck!"

A glwing insect appeared on his field. it only had 200 attack points.

"Next, I use Firefly's effect," he said. "Since I control no spell or trap cards, I can pay 1000 life points to summon another copy of it from my deck!"

His life dropped to 7000, and another Fiefly appeared.

"I'll use this effect again!" he said.

His life dropped to 6000, and a third bug showed uo.

"Now, I build the overlay network with these three level 1 monsters!" he declared. "I call forth Intrusion House Fly!"

The largest god damn fly I've ever seen appeared on his field. It had 1500 attack and 1000 defense.

"Now, I use my monsters effect!" he said. "By using an overlay unit, the Intrusion Milipede in my graveyard becomes level 7!"

At the time, I had no idea what he was planning. But he kept going.

"I use another overlay unit to turn the Intrusion Firefly in my graveyard into a level 7!" he said. "And then I'll use this effect one last time to turn another of the Intrusion Fireflies into a level 7 monster!"

"Where are you going with this?" I asked.

"I activate the spell card Eclipse Of Fear!" he said. "Now, I can banish all level 7 Fear cards from my graveyard, and increase a Fear monster's attack power by 1000 for each of them!"

Now it made sense. There were three level 7 Fear cards in his graveyard now, and as he banished them all, his House Fly rose to 4500 attack points.

"Now, attack!" he ordered.

His House Fly buzzed forward, and I received 2450 damage. Fortunately, my monster survived.

"Now I move to main phase 2," he said. "From my hand, I use the effect of Intrusion Zicada!"

He placed a level 7 monster with 3000 attack points into his spell and trap card zone.

"I can activate this caard as a continuous spell card," he informed me. "Then, it will gain 7 sleep counters, one of which will be removed each time an end phase passes."

"And what happens when they're all gone?" I asked.

"When that happens, I can special summon it to the field," he said.

Not good. In 7 end phases, he'd be bringing out a 3000 attack point Fear card.

"I end my turn," he said, and a sleep counter was removed from his Zicada. His House Fly's attack returned to normal.

 

"My turn!" I said, drawing. "I activate Cost Down, so by discarding Sword Hunter, the levels of every card in my hand is reduced by two. Now, I tribute my Maha Vailo to summon Archangel, Lord Of The Fallen!"

The Archangel appeared on my field, with its mighty 2500 attack points. Pavouk drew back a bit, remember when I used it in our last duel.

"I use his effect!" I said. "Now, I can equip him with the Sword Hunter in my graveyard!"

The Archangel took Swrd Hunter's form.

"Now, I'll have him attack your House Fly!" I declared.

He received 1000 damage and his monster was destroyed.

"Next, Archangel's effect activates!" I said. "Since he gains Sword Hunter's effect, I can convert your monster into an equip spell that gives him 200 attack."

Intrusion House Fly equipped itself to Archangel, raising his attack to 2700.

"Archangel gains the power of every monster equipped to him," I said. "However, House Fly's effect is useless to me, so I'll activate the Archangel's other effect, allowing me to destroy a monster equipped to him and equip him with a different monster from my graveyard! Sure, He'll lose the 200 attack he gains from House Fly, but in exchange, he'll gain Maha Vailo's effect! And you know what that means!"

The Archangel's attack power went up to 3500; and extra 500 for each card equipped to him.

"Now, I set two cards face down and end my turn," I said. Another sleep counter was removed from Zicada.

 

"You'll pay," Pavouk hissed, drawing a card. "I summon Intrusion Lance Beetle!"

A new monster appeared on his field. It was level 4 (first time I've seen him use something other than 1 or 7) and had 500 attack. It was a very large beetle holding two spears.

"When Lance Beetle is summoned, I can destroy all of my opponent's equip spell cards!" Pavouk said.

"Oh shit...," I muttered, as his beetle wiped out both the cards equipped to Archangel, returning his attack to normal.

"Now, for each card destroyed this way, Lace Beetle gains 1000 attack until the end phase!" he said.

His monster rose to 2500 attack. The same as my Archangel.

"Now-" Pavouk said, but before he could finish, there was an Earthshaking roar at the other end of the castle. He paused for a moment, before turning from me. "We'll settle this later," he said, taking off.

"What the hell?" I said out loud.

I don't know what made that roaring sound, but it had scared off Paavouk. I was starting to have second thoughts about this mission. But I had to keep going.

I'll finish this later. I need a break now.