The Catalyst Core

[Rinji]

Chapter 1:- Ketarhr
The Catalyst Core Part 1
Ketarhr

The skies shined with all three of their suns, Siem, Klume, and Redec. And yet the skies were colored blood. The red in the sky made the sands look black, and the winds did not cool you off in the least. This was a rotten, barren wasteland of a desert. Though much of it was desert to begin with, it had never come to this point of corruption. A great famine wiped out entire towns, rumors of hidden demons were a common complaint from the townsfolk, until they themselves died under mysterious circumstances, or went missing. Two diseases broke out in particular. Some towns more than others. The doctors were helpless against them, and both of them proved fatal within days.

What demons lie within these plains and dunes of Ketarhr? Why would their few remaining forests die, growing black and sickly? Reve, the ebon-skinned gunslinger asked himself these questions as he took a long drag on his smoke, the hot winds pushing the smoke toward the west, going toward the black-feathered wings and pushing over them. He had them retracted for as little wind resistance as he could, but it didn’t help a whole lot. He fixed his black ten-gallon hat, and then patted Krol on the arm, nodding to him to go on ahead.

The Ratoul’an looked toward him and nodded, walking across the dune, his black fur blowing up in the wind and shifting quickly. He walked on all fours, his front fore-claws were flexible, and could grip like a human’s, but his nails were kept quite sharp. Both of them knew there had to be some reason for such a horrible happening, something was causing this pestilence on their people, they were all dying slow, horrible deaths, and what few remained were leaving their homes, or disappearing so quickly, that none of their things were packed, and many times, half-eaten meals were found, no people, no struggle, nothing to even clue anyone in on where they were planning to go. There had to be an answer.

“Yeah, it’s a legend, Krol.” Reve dropped his stub into the sand and pressed it in with his snakeskin boot. Then his hands moved to his waist, and his hands rested on his Eagle Wing Peacemaker .45’s. He kept them in prime shape, polishing their dull steel shine and fine darkwood handles. They were as much a part of his arms as his wrists, given to him by his father on his fifteenth birthday. “There ain’t no one that can see the future. What we need is a damn compass, mine hasn’t worked since I’s a young’n.” Reve said, just remembering he’d stepped on it when it fell out of a hole in his jacket without him knowing it.

“My people can actually do just that… to a very small degree. But what I am talking about are Oracles who can see far into the future, but none of them are Ratoul’an.”

“Mauforaum?” Reve inquired, already knowing there weren’t any legends of oracles in his people’s legends.

“Humans, actually.” Krol replied with a grin.

“No kiddin’.” Reve said, he had nothing against any of the races, but even though he was raised by a good pair of them, he also found them to be one of the most despicable creatures, though he knew bad people of all the races on Ketarhr, the humans in general take the most pleasure in killing. “So how do you know they ain’t dead?”

“I think they would see this coming, Reve. If I saw this coming I would indeed take the safest shelter I can.”

“Well I don’t know what they was thinkin’, comin’ to hide out here in this damndable desert. Three straight days’a this crap would kill me.”

“Yes, there’s not much to eat out here. Even the snakes are rancid.” He said, seeing a dried up cactus, one that hadn’t finished molding all the way to the sand, but was very close. But there was something else that was rancid, its stench filled Krol’s nostrils first.

Just as Reve smelled it, he winced. “Damn, Krol, warn me when they’re silent.”

“No, Reve, I smell death.” Krol said, looking up at Reve with green, cat-like eyes. “Over there.” He nodded toward the north, where Klume, their second sun, was. There on the dune, was someone lying on their side, a long cloth wrapped around the head.

Reve slid down the dune toward the body, and started walking up to the top and kneeling down to view it closer. She had been dead for some time, but her skin had barely started to decay, it being far too dry to sufficiently start decomposing. He didn’t quite have the heart to search a lady’s dead body. He was raised with a better set of principles than that.

But as he turned to walk back to Krol, the girl with the part-rotted face sat up, her head slanted to the side, and her eye sockets were completely empty. There were large holes that clearly penetrated her skull and showed the deep black inside, on her forehad. As she opened her mouth, and sand drooled out, no saliva was present. She let out an exasperation as she tried to get to her feet and reach out toward Reve. Before she could get within three paces of him, Reve pulled is pistol and burned her down, slapping his gun back into its holster half a second after it went off. The bullet went directly into the center of her throat, and shattered her neck, her head barely hanging on by the remaining skin.

“Hate this damn desert.” Reve said, looking back at Krol as he turned, but then stopping. One of them rose up from the sand and grabbed onto Kroll’s black fur, and bringing himself to bite him. Krol whipped around suddenly, his fore-claw gash the hole-man’s face hard, and knocking out many of his remaining teeth. Then Krol simply planted his claw into the hole-man’s chest, and put him back down onto the sand, this time breaking his rib-cage, and then his spin as he stepped hard enough. Reve looked down at the woman, his eyes going to her wedding finger, which indeed had a very stunning diamond ring. Then he was willing to bet that the other one had a wedding ring as well. He kneeled, sliding the ring slowly off of her finger, and holding it up, examining it closely.

The ring had two rows of very well-cut diamonds, they were quite small, but very precise. He looked over at Krol, who was viewing Reve’s moment with the jewelry. He sighed, and slipped the ring into his pants pocket, where he wouldn’t be tempted to look at it for the moment.

“Reve…” Krol said, drawing his attention. He reached his paw up and pointed into the distance. There was a small stream of smoke coming up from the desert. It was a campfire, and without a moment to lose, both of them began to tread once again. Though a campfire could mean many bipedal predators of different natures, it was still better than seeing the same damn desert.

Catalyst Core Part 1.2
Ketarhr

Reve propped himself against the black dune as he peered over it with his violet eyes. There was indeed a campfire, and the aroma of coffee filled the air, stale coffee that almost made the Mauforaum gag. There were three humans, all of them sat around the fire, motionless. One of them covered his face from the sun with a bandana, the others had a very dark complexion, as if they had been baking in the sun for many days now, and were growing immune to sun burns. One of them finally lifted his hand to drink some of the coffee, but his hand shook terribly, and he needed to grip the metal mug with his other hand to keep it steady, still not doing a very good job of it.

One of them finally said something to the others, they simply nodded with abandon, not really paying attention to the other.
Reve motioned Krol over. “They’re human alright, somethin’ scared the livin’ piss out of them, though.” By this time, two of the suns were down, only Redec remained in the sky, and it was almost touching the horizon.

“Suppose we would scare them more?” Krol rested his forelegs on the dune, lower than Reve, he was much larger and more easily noticed. “Perhaps it’s best if we just pass them by, we have better things to do than listen to their—“ before he could finish, his ears twitched and went up. “Move!” He pushed Reve out of the way, and an invisible force shot straight through the dune, kicking up black dust and nearly striking the gunslinger.
“The hell was that?” Reve said, he peeked over the dune once more to see the men pulling out their weapons, two had rifles, one of them had a rapier.

“There…” Krol said, pointing to the other side of the clearing where the men stood, there was something hiding, very little of its hair visible to the naked eye.

“What do you think it is?” Reve asked, but then another shot came at them, this time it was from one of the men’s rifles, almost an entire foot from actually hitting him. “Oh, that’s not nice…” Reve peeked up for an instant and fired one shot, and getting back under cover, the bullet striking the man’s foot causing him to cry out in pain and fall to one of his knees and topple over. Once more, an invisible force pushed out from under Reve, the sand shooting up at him and pushing him down the edge. He rolled and tried frantically to recover his balance.

The men down in the clearing began to fire their guns up at Krol, who backed away from the dune. It was then he heard one of the men talk to the other one, even his keen ears couldn’t quite hear him, but judging simply by the gunfire, they were covering each other so the other could go around and get a better angle. Without a moment to lose, Krol went back up, luckily to find the man reloading his rifle. With one peek at the campfire, he concentrated on it, widening his eyes and causing the fire to expand and blow straight into the man. The man threw his rifle down on the ground and frantically tried to drop and roll the fire off, his other companion trying to pat him down.

It was then that Krol remembered the man with the sword, and sure enough, the man was right behind him, the rapier lifted to strike. Reve’s Eagle Wing .45 fired and scored a hit straight through the man’s hand. The man’s scream of pain was very high pitched as he dropped the blade and gripped his hand. Krol simply smashed his fist against the man’s jaw, knocking him cold.
“Them first shots weren’t bullets.” Reve said, dropping the empty casings from his six-shooter and then reloading them with the reflexes in his hand.

Krol shook his head. “Evocations of—“ He stopped and looked over at the humans in the clearing, though the men successfully put the fire out with minimal damage to his skin, they were both dead. The skin under their shirts completely ripped apart and red blotches staining their white shirts. “Damn…” He said, looking to see the other figure they had seen before was gone. “It was powerful, whatever it was.”

“C’mon” Reve said, putting his hand on his hat as the wind kicked up, rustling the feathers in his wings on his back. He slid down to examine the bodies, both of them quite badly brutalized, the coffee in their canister splashed across the campfire, extinguishing it. Just as he slid down the dune, though, the dust kicked up and hit something that didn’t seem to be there. In an instant, Reve drew his pistol, but a great, black, rancid claw reached out from nowhere and grabbed onto his hand, making the pistol fire upward, and the rest of the creature materialized in front of both of them. It stood almost seven feet tall, and its eyes almost glowed a horrible, sharp yellow color. It appeared to be a Ketonn Hraal, a normal creature of Ketarhr, but it was much more sinister than the like of its kin. Its teeth were much longer, and sharper, much more like a large coyote’s teeth. It snarled at Reve, its breath stinking of death, but more than that, of corruption.

Krol stared the beast down, the fur that covered the creature’s body was ebony, the same color of Reve’s skin, but it was clearly unwashed. Just as the creature reached up with his other hand and pointed it at Reve’s torso, the gunslinger felt two sharp points stick into his skin, drawing blood, but before they could go any deeper, Krol released a gust of flame from his maw, and blew the creature back.

Reve felt the heat from the flames and fell backward, putting his hand on the two points he was bleeding from. The creature burned for a few seconds, but waved his hand once, and extinguished the flame with his powerful psychic energy. Then he stood in front of the travelers, his form very intimidating, as he loomed over them both.

Reve got to his feet beside Krol and dusted off his shoulder. Then he quickly picked his pistol from the ground, holding it along with its twin at his sides, ready for the beast to make a move.

Catalyst Core Part 1.3
Ketarhr

In the blink of an eye, Ketonn Hraal’s black claw thrust forward toward the both of them, and a strong force of power pushed them both back against the hard, black sand. But as Reve hit the ground, he rolled, and got to his feet in a hurry, and in that same motion, he draw both of his guns, firing off two shots from each of them. The Ketonn Hraal was already in motion before he shot, but he took one bullet directly in his arm. The blood splattered on the ground in front of Reve, and he noticed the blackness of it, as it almost perfectly blended in with the sand.
But as the beast got back his momentum, he lashed straight forward at Reve, but his claws were caught by a blade, as Krol’s human-like hand held a saber that one of the others dropped, and he made flames lick up the blade and badly scorch the Beast’s claw, causing him to shriek in anger and pain as he pulled his hurt claw away from it. All of the sudden, Krol felt himself get heavier, and at once began to hunch down from horrible pressure.
However, it all lifted off of him at once, causing him to fall forward. The black beast was lifted off of the ground and thrown backward with Reve’s telekinetic ability. Before the thing could get back up, Reve put two more bullets into its shoulder and upper back. Even with its injuries, it threw its arm around, and knocked Reve backward even harder, this time Reve could feel one of his ribs break from the impact.

Krol was right back on all four of his legs and blowing an enormous amount of flame at the beast. It took it a few seconds, and the flames came in very close, singing the hair off of the beast’s chest, but it was able to build up a shield that held off the flames. This time the Ketonn Hraal lurched forward, twitching some and having to concentrate even harder.

However, the beast felt a cold steel press up against the side of its head, and before it could turn off the barrier, Reve squeezed the trigger, black pouring out the side of the beast’s head, and the thing instantly falling forward, dead.

The skies were getting very dark now, and Reve fell down to his knees and gave a great sigh.

“What was he…” Krol said, going up to sniff the corpse, and getting a horribly rancid stink from it. “It is unlike anything I’ve ever smelled.”

“Hell, I don-no.” Reve said, taking a self-made cigarette out from his jacket pocket and striking a match. He touched the flame to the end of the cigarette and dragged in a cleansing breath of hot smoke. Then he winced and clenched onto his side, the blood showing from below his dirty white undershirt. “Damn, I suppose this is a good a place as any to camp, coffee’s already made and all, can’t be too old by now…” Reve said, walking over to the fire and picking up the coffee can by its clothed handle. Then he picked up two cups from his satchel and began to fill them.
Krol sat down in front of the fire, taking the coffee from Reve’s hand and taking a good gulp of it, holding up an empty cup to him. The dark skinned gunman gave a small laugh, and then drank his own coffee as he refilled Krol’s to the brim.

“It’d be nice if we could find some beer on some of these guys.”
“Yeah…” Krol said, in a very quiet voice. “Treat your wounds and get some sleep, Reve, I will watch over you tonight, I am not particularly tired.” Krol then picked up the entire coffee pot and took a long sip, downing half of it.

Reve had never liked the sight of his own blood, but he got over it in a hurry while he was living out as a nomad in the Ketarhr deserts and forests. He had stubbed his toe on a sharp rock once, and didn’t notice the blood until it had covered most of his foot. The first time was the hardest, of course. It took his parents a long time to calm him from the experience. The next few times were not much easier, but the cuts and broken bones he saw on others of his caravan quickly hardened him against it. With very hard, callus fingers, he slid the tip across the middle of the bandage, pressing it against the cotton pad he pressed against the two bloody spots on his torso. Once the bandaging was done, Reve took Krol’s advice and tipped his hat over his brow.

“Sleep well…” He said, and Reve was not far from that, as he let his limbs loosen up, and slip deeper into a numbed state. His mind wandered for a while, but soon came loose from his body and he saw a very strange night sky, one with a strange blue color that reflected purple off of him. He looked over at where Krol sat, and notice that Krol had turned to stone, but for some reason that did not bother him. As he got up from the fire, and looked around at all of the other camp fires, all of them lined up in rows that went on forever. All of them burning the same flames, but in the distance, he noticed three figures sitting around one of them. They were vague, and for some reason they looked very strange, like their heads were too big for their bodies. He tried to move his feet fast to walk, but for some reason, he was still somewhat numb, and he moved slowly.
He made his way to the fire where they sat and noticed that they wore helmets made of some kind of wicker baskets, none of them had eye holes, but all of them had different faces, one smiling, one neutral, one frowning.

One of them picked up some of the black sand, and tossed it into the flame, creating an illuminant blue and green… and before long there came a globe of fire, it rose from the wood and the smoke, and it came up above it, beginning to spin. It was Ketarhr, a small world indeed. It was Ketarhr as it once was, green mostly, with plenty of bodies of water, and few deserts. But soon the globe began to turn more brown, all around it, spots began to emit from the green, and it began to become dominant. As the globe began to rot at a frightening pace, the man in the smiling wicker mask spoke.

“Greetings, wanderer, I am sure you are aware of this… but before you go upon your journey, there is much to learn about the foe that you face…” As he spoke these words, a dark, black flame arose from the center of the globe, and inside of it, there was a portal. “Behold, wanderer, the demon portal that has crippled this world.”

[Rinji]

Catalyst Core 1.4
Ketarhr

“As the legend goes, he came from a time and a dimension that has not existed for eons. He is the last of his race, a race that has the capacity for infinite power, and infinite life. He has existed in four multiverses, and now has descended upon this dimensional plane. He came here, in the beginning, when the forces of man were no match for his evil reign of horrid nightmares and demons. After draining the Negaverse of all of its life, he found a portal into the dominion of the Universe. With hardly an effort, he erected a fortress, one that held his bloody thrown and held entire worlds in check.

“It was the Gods who showed pity upon us as this infection was killing the universe. One of them sent their Avatar down to the plane of the Dark One’s fortress. As he neared the center of evil, he was met with horrible beasts and traps that did little more than slow the white-skinned warrior with God-like strength. Baring only a lance in his hand, the Avatar dashed past the demons, and destroyed any one of them that stood in his way. If the demon ingested the Avatar, he would walk out of them as if they were sand. Even the Demon Lord’s greatest creation battled the Avatar, and in the end was pinned to the ground and taken apart piece by piece, scattered to the four winds. Finally, when the Avatar stood before the Lord of Tyranny, he hoisted the lance above his head as a javelin, and thrust it straight and true, striking the powerful being’s mouth, and impaling straight through the back of his head. As his power was drained, the Avatar’s Lance dissipated, and so did the Godly presence. However, the terrible Lord was not killed. Though he could no longer control anything but his body, he began to walk.

“Many eons have past since that day, and from that place, that horrible monster, whose name reigns horror to those in the service of the Demon Shields. Kriel Sin has found that which he searched for so long. No one knows how he found it, some pact with the devil, or the fact that he is indeed the devil incarnate. He latched onto it like a parasite, and he is now draining and destroying the Catalyst Core, thus regaining his magical supremacy and thus destroying all of the dimensions that it served as a source of life.”

The man fell to silenced, and added two more logs to the fire, causing the orb to turn a dark purple. “Now, all that remains… is what lies inside of you, Reve Tosund…”

“What’d you call me?” Reve said all at once, almost not even hearing the rest of the sentence.

“The one that slumbers in you…” The man rose to his feet, glaring Reve in the eyes. “The one that slumbers… will awake to his favorite tune…” The tribal shaman took a step forward, toward the flame, but to Reve’s surprise, he did not stop. He stepped into the flame, and stood in front of Reve face to face. “Now… such death shall wreak across the land…” He said as he began to burn… but instead of looking worried, the man snarled as the flames engulfed his face, turning him completely into flames, all of them turning red, and two shining purple eyes glaring at him, everything around them turning completely white. “You… DEMON!!!” The being in front of him shouted with great scorn showing through his voice, and the red flames engulfing his body.
Reve awoke with his boot lifting off of the ground and then slamming into the sand, then he gave a wince and a grunt of pain shooting through his torso as the two bleeding spots were tensed. He lied his head back into the sand, his cowboy hat drifting more over his face. “Damnation…” Then he smelled something delightful. He slowly lifted his head and took off his hat, letting his sandy blond hair drift in the wind.

Krol sat at a fire, his yak-like body sat up straight, and his human-like claws poked at the side of some ham in a pot.
“Morning.” Krol said. “Your timing couldn’t be better.”
“Hey buddy…” Reve said, his mouth was chapped dry, and his throat was the same. He put his hand on his water pouch, but he was lying on the strap, he began to struggle up, his eyes closed shut as the pain rushed through him, but then he felt a hand against his face and his hat pressed against it, falling off. He opened his eyes to see Krol’s claw holding his water cantine. Reve got it and pulled off the cap, drinking one good gulp and then returning it with a nod. The black-furred beast pulled Reve to his feet with minimal effort, and he dusted off.

Two of he suns had not been up long. Their traveling was not altered by Reve’s injury, though he was somewhat fatigued by it, it showed no signs of infection. After thirty-four dunes, Krol let Reve ride on his back. The relationship of mount and cowboy was of the utmost respect for the other, though it was a very rare occasion, and was never seen by another soul.

“Reve… I’m not sure if I am dehydrated or not… but do you see a—“
“A well?” Reve finished, it was indeed there.

They came near it, and noticed that there was already another patron occupying the well. The bucket was on the side, right beside the man’s head. He was very bald, only two long patches of hair on either side of his head. His skin was tan, and his nose was very round. The clothes he wore were not unlike Reve’s, but they were torn to shreds, and bloodied up, as if he had torn them to bandage his horribly wounded body. He sat with a serene look on his face, he even looked up toward the travelers and nodded his greeting.

“I killed a man to get this well…” He smiled, it was not at all what they had expected to hear as the man’s first words.

“…Howdy…” Reve said, dismounting and standing at Krol’s side.

“How silly I felt…” The man chuckled, and that turned into a burst of laughter. “How silly I felt when it was absolutely and completely bone dry! Completely!” The man clapped his hands together, then rubbed them. He sucked in a breath and looked back at them. They could not find the words to say just then. “I was so angry… I threw his body into a… well… it wasn’t… this one…”

A gust of wind passed over the dunes, and Reve took in a deep breath. Then he slowly brushed his nails across the front of his hair. “Well… There’s always room for one m—“ In an instant, Reve’s hand flew down to his right gun, and the man beside the well leaped completely into the air. Just as Reve drew his gun from its holster, the man thrust his arm straight for the Mauforaum gunman, and both fired at the same moment. Reve’s bullet drove into the man’s chest, while a bright shining light emitted from the man’s hand, bashing against Reve’s already wounded torso. He coughed a cloud of blood as he hit the sand, and skid to a stop. But with no lost speed, Reve jumped to his feet and pulled back the hammer to his Eagle Wing, and put the barrel straight between the man’s eyes, as he was already back behind the Reve.

Both of them looked each other in the eyes, however he could feel the man’s fingers pressing against his back. It took every ounce of Reve’s willpower to hold his finger in place, the cylinder twitching and almost twisting around.

Catalyst Core Part 1.5
Ketarhr

In an instant, the bald man put his hand on the pistol’s barrel and pulled it just enough to the side where the shot grazed his cheek and ear. However, in the next instant, as if by reflex, Reve drew his other gun, and swiped it across the man’s face. Reve was just in time to move his head out of the way, the man’s fist jolted with a blue flash of power, which knocked off his hat. Reve fired both of his pistols at the man’s torso, the bullets spun around on the tip of the man’s skin, but a flash of blue knocked the bullets out of him and there was no bleeding in the bullet holes.

Reve’s eye twitched and he stood back, both pistols pointed toward the man’s head. He stood there, bone-skinny, his eyes out wide and his grin unbearably wicked. He moved his neck to the side and popped his joints all over. Then with an enormous ball of light emitting from his hands, he held his fists side by side as he concentrated, but Reve saw his chance and dashed forward, firing off two bullets from each gun before the man fired his beam of light. As the gunman rolled across the ground, he holstered his gun in and instant and pulled out a lighter, one that caught his beast-like companion’s eye. Reve flicked it open and lit it, an enormous blaze coming from it, one that would use up all of the gas in just under five seconds.

Krol blinked his eyes, and sparked at the core of the flame, making it huge enough to be a blast in itself, one that engulfed the man entirely, causing pieces of him to blast off instantly. Reve closed his empty lighter, and put it back in his jacket pocket, watching the man cook through his dark violet eyes.
Just as Reve began to turn around to an approaching Krol, he saw the man move to stand erect once again. Then the burning man took a step.

“What in hellfire…” Reve said as he turned to face the man once again.

“Haha! You shall see more, many more just like me! Puny mortal! With that mark on your hand, we shall be drawn to you like a beacon! This realm is one of many, it shall not be the last, on the contrary, the very first! This realm is where he shall build his bloody throne once aga-“ He was caught off guard as Reve concentrated on the burning man’s skeletal jaw, and squeezed his hand into a fist, causing the jaw and the neck bone to break completely off his head.

Reve looked a little more than disturbed by what the man said, he holstered his gun, then looked at the back of his hand. The symbol was a circle, it had a strange “Y” shape in the middle of it, and inside each of the lines of the circle, there were strange glyphs and markings in a sort of pattern. Whenever a demon spawn was near, it would tingle with a strange sensation, or sometimes, for a reason he was not sure of, it glowed.

“Reve…” Krol said at length. “I know you don’t like talking about it…”

Reve turned to Krol, who wore an expression he did not see very often. Ratoul’ans were a peculiar race, although their race were quadruped and covered in fur, their facial expressions were very similar to that of humans. Krol never looked like this unless he was honestly worried. Reve had never figured Krol as a softy, so he had to reconsider his principles just a little bit.

They set a fire in the middle of the patch where the man was still burning. They had to wear bandanas on their faces so they didn’t have to smell the rancid stench it emitted. Reve threw incense into the fire, but they would not take full effect for some time, and he also threw three or four full dried-out cacti. Slowly but surely the air cleared up, and they both could breathe easier. This made it easier, because there was a story to be told.

Reve dug out his rolled stogies from his pocket, and lit the end of it, dragging in a good puff of smoke. As he blew out the first cloud, he sighed. “I was nineteen… My mom and dad, they was human. I was found as a babe… couldn’t have been more’n a year old when they saw me cryin’ between two rocks in the middle of the desert. My wings barely had feathers on’em.” Reve drew in another puff of smoke, and then took off his hat, and combing his fingers to part the front of his sandy blond hair.

“Anyway, when I was nineteen years, I just started at gettin’ good with my pistols. And my mom and pop wanted me to shoot them up some crow, I never liked eatin’ crow, they was too rough, but they liked them. So I’d usually shoot some vultures for m’self, or some snake, they’s good. But when I went shootin’ I didn’t feel s’good. I got tired fast, and m’stomach ached somethin’ fierce. I shot up 3 crows in a hurry, and didn’ bother with the pheasants I saw, I wasn’ hungry no more. So I took my parents’ food up, and ran back in a hurry.” His face turned grim some. “That’s when the first one hit…”

In his mind, he could remember an enormous explosion, one that blew apart the first wagon that led his caravan that he had lived on for all of his life. “The blast killed the leader of the nomads… He was a good man… a good leader. One instant… he was gone. Along with his family and some friends… That’s when I ran faster to’em, I was screamin’ for my mama and pop… they’s lookin’ for me too, I heard them. Among the screamin’ gypsy folk and the boys and girls I knew… they were hit next… Blown to pieces… Even the girl I wanted to marry. She died in the next one…” The next drag on his cigarette, the Ratoul’an could see the tears that crept up into his friend’s violet eyes. “After that I stopped watchin’em. I pulled out botha my guns and I reloaded them as fast as I could. I wasn’ as fast as I am now, but I’s pretty good. I ran toward where I saw’em. They’s laughin’ while they loadin’ that… mortar cannon. The next one was aimed for me… I went quick and knocked it off course with mah mind… I was knocked a little, but I ran like the demon… My blood was fire and my soul burned for their blood. When I’s in range I fired the first shot… got the first through the nose… his head lurched and he fell on his back. The next one aimed the mortar cannon in a hurry… he launched it… then launched it again before I could get a good shot… I wasn’t… as fast…” He looked down at his guns… then he felt a hand take hold of his shoulder. He looked up to see Krol crouched near him.

“Okay, Reve… you don’t have to…”

“No… I’m alright…” He patted Krol’s hand, and he removed it. “I buried them…” He continued. “I buried my family, and then burned the lot of them. Not one of them made it, those bastards took them all. So I left them out for the birds…” Reve looked up, and then stubbed his stogie out in the sand. “After that… I took what I could… and I walked… For miles I walked… I don’ even remember if I rested once on that walk. Nothin’ I could think of, nothin’ I could do could take back that thought… All I ever loved was dead… Them bastards wiped them off the map with one weapon, and with some pieces of lead and metal… Somehow, shootin’ them pigs in the head was just too good for’em… put me on the same level as th-“

“No… Reve… Don’t ever think that… Never think that you fell out of favor. You’ve never killed without a purpose…”

Reve nodded his thanks… “Well… After what seemed like a week… no food… Water was gone… I didn’ care… There was no sign of a village in that desolate place. I finally lost my balance… in the middle of the night I fell on my face’n hit the ground hard. But that was when I felt the first… burnin’ pain in my hand.” He held up the demon sealed hand. “It felt like hellfire was blastin’ through, and I screamed… Long time I screamed… and some guy was whisperin’ to me… laughin’. If you ask me now I couldn’ tell ya what he said. I just remember the blarin’ in my hand… Then there was nothin’. After all that, it stopped. It all died away and I felt no pain anymore. I thought I was a goner. But the next mornin’ I woke up like I dreamed it all, even the pain seemed like it never happened… but I looked, and there it was.” He held it within view. “An’ after I walked, perfectly fine, perfectly healthy, I foun’ that I didn’t even feel the heat from the sun… I found a town later that day. I don’t know why, but no one would talk to me like a normal person after that… No one said anything to me until a little girl walked up to me… asked me why my eyes looked so perty. I looked in a mirror… sure enough… they weren’t blue no more.” Then Reve stopped… and he took out his cantine, drinking from it.

Krol couldn’t stop staring at the demon seal as Reve talked. After hearing such a tale, he had many, many questions, but he knew Reve had no answers for them.

[Rinji]

Catalyst Core Part 1.6
Ketarhr

The plague affected that horrible little village much as it had for the past month. The pit fever hit them harder and harder every day, and more people found themselves infected by it. They were being killed one day at a time, and there didn’t seem to be anything anyone could do to stop its spread. There were only three hundred people in that village left, and those who were left crept into their corners, piling themselves with their loved ones, knowing that soon their eyes will fade, and they will see the Pit for themselves.

Chadum put a fire under the tea kettle and blew out the match. There wasn’t a whole lot of flavor to the tea, but then again there wasn’t much flavor in anything anymore. The dull wooden floors, scarred terribly by rain which never seemed to fall anymore, and even the picture mounted on top of his wooden night table beside his bed. He wasn’t really afraid of the fever, no not Chadum. Let it come, he kept thinking to himself. It never really seemed to make a difference in the first place, the town was already falling apart because of the gold in the hills drying up and the miners all leaving, on to bigger and better mountains in Ketarhr. There didn’t seem to be anyone left but the humans that had originally lived there. The last race they ever saw otherwise was a Ratoul’an, though he died of the fever before he could leave the village.

Yessiree, the town was going to hell, and Chadum was going to ride into the fiery pit right along with it. With that thought, he blew out the fire underneath the tea as he heard the whistling steam. However, before he could grab his tin cup, there was a small commotion outside. The first thing that ran through his head was Nade’s gang trying to rob old man Kit’s bank, but as he looked out his window, he saw what it was all about himself. A Mauforaum and a Ratoul’an coming down from the dunes outside of the village. That desert had grown several miles over the past year, the thought of anyone trying to make it across from the other end was completely insane. Chadum went quick to his footlocker and opened it, inside there was a whole stock pile of ammunition in boxes, most of them were 45 caliber, for his old revolver, but the damn thing wasn’t as good as Chadum had though, and the cylinder cracked. The damn thing cost him almost a fortune, and there was no way in all of the thousands of hells that he could get another one. There were no skilled blacksmiths like that for miles around.

Instead he pulled out his old rifle, knowing that he had already loaded at least five shots in it. He took a handful and stuffed them in his pocket just in case. As he opened the door to his tiny house, which was more along the lines of a hut, he noticed that there were three other men already outside, Jeki, Donn, and Slimdon all stood in a row, one brandishing a fine rifle, and the others carrying a scimitar and a machete.

“Hold it right there you two!” Chadum said, drawing all three men’s attention. Reve and Krol had already gotten within a few yards of the village. As they both stopped as ordered, Chadum motioned for the other three to follow him. As all of them approached the travelers, Chadum and Jeki held up their rifles.

“What’s yer business here, boys? Ain’t no work to be found here, hell, ain’t nothing to be found here.” Chadum said, calmly. That was until he laid eyes on Reve’s finely crafted dark-wood handles to his pistols that were at his waist. When his eyebrows lifted at the sight of them, Reve’s hand went down.

Both men readied their rifles and cocked them both in place. “Hold it there, boy!”

Reve pulled out a hand-rolled smoke and lit it in his mouth. “You better get yer eyes off my hardware there, sheriff. You may got a handsome face, but I’ll drill one straight in it.” Reve said, both of his purple eyes never left Chadum’s. This made the human’s eye twitch.

“We only need a room for the night.” Krol said, “We don’t plan on staying for long.”

With that said, all of the men brought down their weapons and relaxed them.

“Well that’s fine, but we got rules in this town, boys. If I see either of you breakin’ them, I’ll either hang’ye or I’ll kick ya both in the ass and tell you to leave.”

“That’s all well an’ good there Sheriff, but we been walkin’ since Deinoforaum, and we’d like a drink, unless the drink-well’s also dry.”

Of all the things that ran weak in that village, spirit, morale, health, one thing remained strong, the alcohol. Through out the famine, the breweries continued to produce their drinks. Reve found this stranger than anything, wondering why they would spend all of this money on their whiskey, and none of it going toward a cure for the fever, but he did not say anything.

Chadum sat across the table from Reve and Krol, the ebon gunslinger put his hat on his chair, and began to fill up the shot glasses, putting his cheap bullets up on the table in exchange for each of them.

The human down the first glass, and then pointed at Reve. “Been meanin’ to ask you ‘bout them-“

“Pistols…” Reve said, already on his second shot. “Yeah, I know. I ain’t said nothin’ cause you did a good job-a hidin’ it. Now…” Reve said, taking both of his precious items off of his gun belt, starting to unload them. “I will let you look at’em all you want. But don’t expect to see’em again… less you wanna be at the other end of the barrel.” Reve said, not even joking. He put them both on the table, and then took up another shot, tapping glasses with Krol and then downing it along with him.

Chadum’s fingers delicately ran along the wooden handles of the weapons, and felt the balance of the gun. “Where did you get it?” The sheriff said, pulling out the cylinder and spinning it, letting it click freely and come to a stop.

“My uncle was a blacksmith. ‘Rode with us in our caravan for a long time, gave’em to my father ‘fore he left. When I was old ‘nough, he gave’em to me.”

“And you…” He said, pointing to Krol. “What’s with them marks all over ya.” He said, pointing to the tattoos that coiled and covered a very large portion of Krol’s body.

“A Raoul’an protection seal…” Krol said, not saying anything else about it. It was well past sunset now, and they had been in the tavern for some time. Though there was still a piano-player, he did not have very jolly tunes to play. Though, through all of this Krol heard the last thing he’d expected: a child’s laughter. It was vague, but he turned around to the bat-wing doors to see two little girls dressed in little brown and white dresses peaking at them from under the doors. Both of them looked almost exactly alike, and had the same exact bemused expression on their faces, obviously fascinated with the new comers.

“He sees us!” Ana whispered and ducked back behind the wall, along with her sister. “What do you think they want?”

“I don’t know, but did you see those things on the bird-man’s belt? The sheriff had something like those! They shoot like a rifle.” Avri said, then she held up her hands like she was holding a rifle and shot.

“Avri! Look! Redec is down!” She said, and it was already getting very dark outside. “We need to get home! Mama will be looking for us!” Ana took her sister’s hand and they began to run across the front porch of the shops and stores, but Avri couldn’t keep up with her sister’s pace, and before she could say anything, her foot slid and she lost her balance yelping in surprise and skidding her knee across the paneling hard.

She let go of her sister’s hand and cried as she put her hands on her knee.

“I’m sorry Avi!” Ana said, “But come on! We gotta go! Mama will spank us both!”

But they didn’t see it. They didn’t see what looked at them from underneath one of the structures. Yes there was something under that town, and it was the source. Its horrid lust for the human’s essence was insufferable. Its gruesome green eyes glared with hunger toward the little children. The blood from the crying one’s knee called to him, and seduced him into creeping forward even more, savoring in the anticipation.

They began to run again, this time faster. With a thought, and slight push, it streamed forward, in a line of shadows that guided his way, and allowed him to seep into the smallest, darkest crevices. As the two little girls neared their home, it hurried even faster, as there was a small clearing before the stores turned to Lady Magne’s Tailoring Shop. That was the clearing; he waited in a building nearby, just enough to spring upon them as they walked off of the barber shop. And just as Ana took her first careful step off of the platform. The shadow took form and shot for them.

“Hey!” A voice called out from behind the thing, and it quickly zipped underneath a porch as the two little girls turned to see the man standing outside of his store. “What are you two doin’ out at this hour a’the night? Yer mama’s been worried sick now get’in there and tell her you two is sorry!” Bach said, in a more worried than angry tone.

“Sorry!” Ana said, leading her sister to the house and opening the door.

Bach shook his head; he should have been keeping better watch of them. Magne was struck with the fever, and her time was short on this world. Without even her asking, he took it upon himself to look after them, having been doing so when Lady Magne was busy at work and he was a free hand. As he turned back to his store, though, his head became very hazed with a horrible blackness, and he began to sway to the side as he felt something being taken away. He did not see it, but a black mist exited his body, through the orifices of his face, and through his ears.

The thing stood up beside him, a shade of blackness that loomed over his person, grinning as he feasted upon everything that made the poor soul live. Its green eyes stared down on the puny mortal as he allowed him to drop, knowing that when he woke up, he would no longer want to live, and soon would not.

The thing danced as it skipped and jumped in streams and streaks of shadow, fast as the wind blew, it blasted through the streets, and into the black mist that would soon envelope everything that he saw.

Catalyst Core Part 1.7
Ketarhr

Reve capped the bottle of oil, and began to smear it over the cylinder, already having brushed the residue out of each bullet hole. It was rather close to dawn, so the lantern beside him gave him the light he needed, Krol sat across from him at the table, munching on a large piece of jerky, remaining silent for the most part. His moose-like maw biting down hard so it could get soft enough to actually chew.

“We shouldn’t stay for too long, Reve. These people don’t know what’s causing this illness. And from what I understand, our kind is not at all immune to it.” Krol finally got his jerky in a good clump.

“These people don’t know… but you and I both know what’s doin’ this. We can’t leave…” Reve said, drawing Krol’s undivided attention, him seeing his comrade spin the cylinder into place, almost sounding as if it had been made yesterday. They were back to their dull-iron shine, and the handles were cleaned and polished. “Not ‘til we find what the hell kind’a monster is doing this.”

Krol sighed, knowing that Reve was more than likely right. If they didn’t stop it now, it would go on to the next remaining village and terrorize it further. “Then I suggest we take a look at the afflicted ones…” Krol said, reluctant.

The Mauforaum got up from the table, putting on his hat. “Yessir.” He said as he began to reload both of his pistols.

“And what makes you think they will allow two strangers into their sick bay?” Krol finally swallowed the jerky.

“Well hell, they’re already gonna die, what harm could we do?”

Krol was almost taken aback by how matter-of-factly Reve said that. He ignored it, and rose up his hind legs, popping them both and sighing in satisfaction as he walked toward the door along with Reve.

“You been feelin’ it, right?” Reve said as he locked the door to their room at this rundown inn.

Krol looked at him for a moment as they walked down the hall, and entered the main room.

“The presence…” Reve said, showing his demon mark to Krol, and to his surprise, there seemed to be a slight shimmer of red to it. The luster did not show unless Reve moved it around, but it was there. “It’s been tingling ever since last night…”

“Yeah… same…” Krol said his tattoos around his body indeed felt the horrid presence of something most foul, but it was not close.

“We gotta be on our guard, ol’buddy.”

Most of the sick were gathered in a number of rooms, they ranged from sixteen to thirty people at a time, all of them afflicted with the horrid virus. As the sickness grew worse, there was a terrible loss of skin pigmentation, causing them to turn a very dull shade of gray. Their eyes, however, were the worst part of all. When the sickness was in its final stages, they grew large veins of black that covered the entire thing over time, even the iris. They went completely blind, and their eyes looked as if you could see directly in a black void. They lost all motor-skills, and they were unable to eat solid foods.

The two travelers walked up to the door of one of the sick bays, and knocked on the door. They waited, and looked at each other when the door did not open. Instead of trying again, Reve cracked open the door to see one of the beds was right next to the door. He saw the man, he couldn’t have been more than thirty, and was obviously in the first stages, as his skin was darker than most of the others. When no one reacted to his entrance, he opened the door further, and was met with an over-clouding smell of bodily fluids. As he looked at all of the beds lined against the walls, there was a desk and a woman with her head down. A dull lantern gave a very light, but both of them noticed the sweat gleaming on her forehead. She was young, and quite attractive, even with the bandana wrapped around her face, either to keep the smell away or to lessen the risk of infection.

“S-s-sir… sir…” The man beside Reve whispered to him, and slowly reached his hand to the Mauforaum. “You…you must help me…”

Reve’s chest dropped some in dismay, knowing he had no way of making this man better.

“The children… two little girls… you have to help them.” He put his hand on Reve’s gunbelt, and was barely able to pull him closer. “I-I would never forgive myself…” tears began to stream down the sides of his eyes. “If… it… took them…”

“Hey!” Both of them looked over to the desk, where the woman sat. She stood, adjusting her mask over her nose. “What are you doing here? Don’t you know what these people have?” She spoke in a stern voice.

“Beg ‘pardon, ma’am.” Reve took off his hat in the presence of a lady. “We’s needin’ to ask some questions.”

She walked quickly over to the man lying in the bed, taking his hand and putting it on his stomach. Then she turned her eyes sharply to the travelers. “What kinda questions you wanting to ask these people? Don’t you see they’re in no manner to speak?”

“We do apologize…” Krol said, “But we will not be here long.”

“Please!” The man said again, his breathing became more rapid. “Please… help them!”

“Mr. Bach, please, don’t speak.” She took a wet rag and dabbed it across his head. She turned back to them. “We don’t have any answers, boys. You probably know more than I do. I am not a doctor by any means. I just make’em more comfortable.”
“Where’s the doctor?”

“Dead… All of them. Even the assistance died of the fever. They were the first to go.” She said.

As she said this, Bach leaned back further into his bed and began to shake some. His eyes went blank and his mouth fell in awe. “Wha…wha…what is this…. Thing…”

Reve crouched down beside the bed. “What’s what… what’re you seein’?”

“It’s… terrible…” He began breathing through the mouth, and his head began to shake. “Green…”

“Green?” Reve repeated.

“It’s the same every time…” The lady said.

“Every time?” Krol asked.

She nodded. “Every time they get like this… They see the same damn thing… All of them see this glowing green pool of… stuff. Then they get the shakes e’en worse… Then they see monsters, then when a few days go by… they say it’s flooding them… an’ they drown…”

Both travelers looked at her oddly.

She nodded. “Never seen nothing like it. They drown in green goop… it comes out of their nose and mouth and they die as it fills their lungs…” Her face twisted at the thought of the past few days. What she had seen would never go away, those poor townsfolk… even the children. The children never lasted more than a few days, the infection struck them the worst and finished them off very quickly. She had to stick her hands in the green, and she was certain that the smell would never leave her memory, the mere thought of it was enough to make her vomit, and she did when the job of care-taking was first appointed to her.

“Deina! What is the meaning of this?” A man in a bowler hat stepped it, a white cloth pressed against his nose. “Who are these… ‘people’” He said with a notable hint of disgust.

“Mr. Fora… They were aski—“

“You are not to have any visitors in here! Don’t you think this virus has spread far enough? I want them both to leave immediately!” He said, both Reve and Krol looked at each other oddly as he spoke as if they couldn’t hear him.

“We was jus’ leavin’.” Reve tipped his hat to Deina and smiled. “Ma’am.”

Krol nodded his respectful goodbye to her and walked out the door, neither of them paying attention to the bowler-hat man, in fact Reve’s wing feathers swiped against the man’s shoulder.

As they left, the man wasted no time in turning and swatting the woman’s face. She grunted, expecting the blow from him.

“You will see that this does not happen again! I have put too much money into taking care of these people, and you have a responsibility, a responsibility that indicates you are to see my orders are carried out to the word! To the word! Do you understand?”

She nodded, her hand pressed against the hot red place on her face.

The man dusted himself once more, gaining his composure once more and turned, walking out the door. As he took one step out of the door, he felt a few soft pats on his shoulder. As he turned, one black fist rammed into his cheek, he felt a shattering pain, and saw a flash of colors in front of his eyes, his mouth going numb for an instant. He fell to the ground, and winced terribly as his cheek felt the sand.

“So, what if I wanna to come back to this place here?” Reve said, stepping forward, making the man scoot away from him. “Well, tough guy? What if I’d like to come back and visit Miss Deina?”

“Y-you just hit me!” The man said, obviously flabbergast.
Reve shook his head. “Wrong answer.” He then stepped his snake-skin boot onto the man’s shoe, twisting it toward the ground and making him cry in pain. “I asked you, sir, what are you gonna do if I wanna come back and visit that perty lady?”

“You can! You can come back!” Reve released his foot and allowed him to get to his feet. As he took two steps back from the Mauforaum, he bumped into his counterpart. As he turned to look at Krol, the beast snorted, flames puffing out of his nostrils toward the man, the way he jumped caused Reve to burst a few good laughs.

The man recovered his bowler hat from the ground, and began to walk away, trying in vain to keep his dignity as he scurried away as fast as he could without looking like he was running.

Reve lit a smoke, and waved his match out. “Come on, let’s see what else they got here.” He patted Krol on the back and they walked the opposite way.

Catalyst Core Part 1.8
Ketarhr

Reve sat on the floor. There was nothing surrounding him. There was nothing in that place, but what was that place? He was naked, and his knees were hugged tightly against his chest as he stared into the void that he knew all too well. It was black all around him, not ebon like his skin, but completely pitch black. As he tried to move, his wings felt a horrible pain as it felt that they were being pulled as he leaned. He looked back to see two nails had been driven through the very top of them, on the joints that allowed them to move.

“Leaving so soon, are we?” A voice uttered through the black, causing all of his being to rumble, and the very fabric that made up that place to course with a red wave that he felt pressing against him.

Reve did not speak; he knew it would do him no good. This thing held him in place, and never would it let him escape. He could do nothing but listen to what it had to tell him, because it always told him exactly what he needed to know. This fact did not make him despise this horrible entity; this scourge that has plagued his life since that horrible day when he was so close to death, so close to freedom.

He owed his life to this creature, not only did it keep him from dying in the desert, but it also forewarned him of Ketarhr’s death. Somehow it knew, it always knew.

“What is it now?” Reve said at length.

“The plague that has struck these mortals was indeed the work of a shadowed creature… however, there is more that you are missing. The piece of a structure that you are building, the most solid piece that you have not begun to grasp is directly in front of you. Bring the pieces together, mortal, and you will find that there is no demon that distinguishes you short-lived fools.

Whether you be healer or blood-letter could never be foretold by such a creature. This creature has sought the aide of another, one of your own. Seek you the treacherous puppet, there you shall find the means of uncovering the beast.”

“And this’ll save our planet?” Reve asked, but then he began to feel weak. After a moment, he began to feel sick, and the voice began to guffaw, the tremors he felt from the laugh was horrendous. Soon he saw that his arms were bone-skinny, as were his hands. He felt old, and tired.

“Your planet is not your concern, foolish mortal. The notion that I would bind my soul to an insect such as you for the sole purpose of saving your pitiful dimension is ridiculous. Everything shall fall into the abyss, and more sickness shall spread, this you cannot stop by remaining in such a place. This is only the beginning…”

Reve cringed, he tightened his muscles, and they began to take shape once again. He grunted, and began to press harder.

“You fight me…” The voice said. “Very good, even in the face of impossibility you have proven most proficient. These are my only remaining words, gunman. Seek you the red fire door…”

In an instant, a blazing hand emerged from the darkness, and pierced it with light. The enormous hand reached down to Reve’s wrist, and brought it to his hip, where he felt the hilt of his revolver.

In an instant, Reve drew his pistol, and brought it straight up into a man’s face, jabbing the barrel directly into the man’s lips as he leaned over Reve’s bed. It was still nighttime, and Krol was not in the room for some reason.

The man cringed and grunted in pain as the gun was pushed harder against him. As Reve came to full consciousness, he saw that there were three more men behind the one in front of him. He held a wooden board in his hand, it was brought up as if to come down on him. Reve’s keen Mauforaum eyes saw very well in the dark, and he instantly noticed a rapier in another man’s hand, and a long knife in the other’s. The other man was not in full view, but he did not take any chances, he knew he was brandishing a weapon and was fully comfortable with this man being in the way of any gunfire.

“Howdy boys…” Reve finally said. “Here to fix m’leaky roof?” He pushed even harder, bringing the man back more, and pulling back the hammer on his gun.

“W-w-we’re here with a message fir ye…” The man behind him obviously practiced saying it, but it was not coming out as he had hoped.

“Well, then why don’cha say it and get out of my sight. Afore ya do I’d like to thank ye… talkin’ to you boys is ten time better than what I was doin’…”

There was a pause… and when the tension was at its absolute peak, the man wielding the sword did one flinch, and Reve brought around his left wing, and smacked the crook of it into the man’s face. With that done he brought out his other pistol and smacked it against the first man’s shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon.

The knife man brought in his blade, jabbing straight for Reve’s abs, but the ebon gunman fell backwards to the other side of the bed, dodging the attack. As he landed on his back, he kicked the bed as hard as he could, hitting home as the bed knob struck the man’s pelvis, causing him to drop and curl into the fetal position. As Reve stood, he couldn’t see the fourth man, but then his back exploded with pain. The man was to the side of him, wielding a skinny wooden club. Reve grunted and turned to see the man wind up for another swing at him, but was stopped cold. The Mauforaum concentrated on the man’s bat and pointed his gun at it. It was then Reve who wound up, and swung his arm, controlling the man’s stick and smacking it against his face, knocking out more than one tooth. The use of his innate psychic ability temporarily had him dazed.

It was too long, though; the man behind him with the wooden board brought his weapon around and hit it against the back of the gunman’s head. He slumped forward, catching his fall with both guns still in his hands. Even in his daze, Reve remembered where the man was standing, and fired his gun. The bullet passed into the man’s shoe, and blew off his big toe.
As the man screamed at the pain in his foot, the door to Reve’s room flew open, and a very angry black-furred Rhino-like beast charged in. His snout first met with the rapier man, plowing into his back and propelling him straight into the night stand. His gut hit the edge of the stand, and his head cracked the window, knocking him out cold. The one with the knife stood in front of Krol, his eyes very wide, because Mr. Fora’s description of the Ratoul’an’s size was under-shot a by long way. He backed up toward the cracked window, planning to escape from there, but the dark beast poised down and shot straight forward, ramming his head straight into the man’s chest and bashing him directly through it, shards cutting his back something fierce.

Krol made sure that Reve was fine. When the Mauforaum waved him away, Krol turned his eye toward the man with a missing toe.

“The hell’s going on here?” Chadum shouted from the doorway, carrying his rifle. The lights in the hall were on, and there were many people outside of their rooms, awoken by the racket.

“These two bastards brought us he—“ The toeless man was cut short as Krol’s human-like fist came up and drove into his gut, causing him to cough a large breath out, and then slump to the ground.
Chadum didn’t need to hear anything else. He knew these boys, they did Mr. Fora’s dirty work. He had heard about Reve’s little scuffle with him, and had laughed quite a bit.

“Alright boys, get up, we’re gonna have us a talk.” Chadum said, grabbing the toeless man’s arm and hoisting him up to his feet. “Jeki! Slemdon!” He called to his boys down the hall. “Get your asses in here and help me carry these sons of bitches!”

He looked over at Reve, who still sat beside his bed, his hand still clutched the back of his boiling head, but he looked fine otherwise.

“I suppose we asked for that.” Krol said as he sat beside Reve, and Reve couldn’t disagree.

“But I think we need to pay our li’l friend a visit… I ain’t gettin’ back to sleep anytime soon.” He reloaded the shot in his gun, and got up. Krol couldn’t disagree.

[Rinji]

Catalyst Core Part 1.9

Ketarhr

What was his name? What happened? Why did his head feel as if it would split in two pieces? There were three suns shining down hot on him, and the sand was cooking him bad, but moving his arms caused him splitting pain, it felt as if he had lifted weights the previous morning, and someone stuck needles in his legs.

His blonde hair swept against the dune he was lying on, and finally he was able to lift it, looking at the rest of his body. Eyes widening, he saw a body that was very unfamiliar. His muscles were tight, and his shirt was completely torn to shreds; what was a white shirt was now brown strips of cloth that hung on his shoulder and across his chest. His pants were in better condition, only the shins down were naked, the rest of it had inch-wide holes. When he saw this, he had a very peculiar thought.

'Werewolves' pants never tear completely.' He gave a slight snicker, but his gut hurt bad. He made the mistake of flexing his pectoral muscles, and they burned a horrible blare of pain and he cried out. Soon, though, he moved both of his arms slightly, and the pain dulled down quite a bit. He bent them inward and they stung hard, but he merely grunted as he held them tighter. Then he bent them freely, the pain was a small echo now.

It wasn't long before he finally got to his feet, and turned around to see a very small hut behind him. It was a brown, dull-tinted color, the roof didn't sit quite right on the top, and the windows had been knocked out ages ago, all of the edges collecting dust and browning bad. It was a way point, a small house where travelers could go in for a meal or a bed for a small price. Whoever had been there was long gone now.

He walked around the back, still not entirely sure how he had come to this plane, and why he could not remember a single thing about what had happened before. However, all of those thoughts were wiped away in an instant, as he saw a gigantic, black-metal head sticking out from under the sand. He froze for a moment, the eyes of the metal head were red, but they were not shining. There was a skeletal, toothy grin on the metal head's face, but it made no sounds, and no movements. Then he looked beside it, and there were tons of scrap metal, bullet holes, and bent sides smashed to pieces by shovels. The shovels were broken, and bent, lying in the midst of the wreckage.

As he turned back toward the house, he was taken by surprise once again to see a giant hole ripped through it. The boards all inside the house, shelves, chairs, beds, all of them were covered in debris and wreckage.

'Who on Earth would… Earth?' Then he took the time to think about the word "earth." Earth: Sand, soil, dirt and the like. On Earth? He shook his head hard, feeling a very strange pressure in his brain as he tried to elaborate his thoughts on any place by that name. He saw blips and flashes in his mind, but the pressure began to hit harder, and he clenched his eyes shut and instinctively held out his hand.

He gave a great cry, and he heard a loud crash in front of him. He opened his eyes to see that a large chunk of the house had blown straight off of it. Soon, the main beam of the wall gave way, and then dominoed with the other beam, making it snap straight in half, the rest of the house following suit. The entire house toppled over, all of the wood was mildewed to the very middle, and broke very easily.

The man took a few steps back as the dust kicked up near him, but he did not care about that. He felt the pressure in his brain once again, this time he looked at his hand and clenched it, feeling it travel up his arm. Then he looked at the metal giant lying in pieces beside the hut. He lifted his hand and opened it wide and he released, the head beginning to move. At first it startled him, and he dropped it. But he concentrated harder, and was able to lift the metal clear from the sand.

Soon, his mind widened, and he looked at the other pieces. As he held the head piece in midair, he used his other hand to begin collecting the other pieces of the gigantic metal golem. As he attached the body back to the neck, he had a flash of knowledge. He knew the core was there… the core.

With the flick of his wrist, he accessed the power source, and the eyes lit up. He laughed, a grin that lightened his face and he continued. Then he had the same thought… the core.

As he held the incomplete machine in front of him, his eyes went dull, and he could feel someone wanting to talk to him. For some reason, he anxiously listened. He had no idea who it was, but he did not question him either.

"It is time… Adam." With that, his eyes gained focus, and with the smallest effort, he collected the rest of the pieces: screws, bolts, circuits, all of it. He let out another stream of laughter as he could see the metal beast taking shape, and he could not wait for everyone to see.

Adam… yes… Adam would show them the way.

The Catalyst Core Part 2

It was the Pit

His house was black, a pitch black that not even a Mauforaum could see in. He wasn't him anymore, he was another. Every window was sealed now, every crevice that the house had was stuffed with cloth. Every picture was gone, and all of the animals were dead. He saw nothing in that room, but nor could anything see him. Yet he waited, he waited for them to come. He knew they would figure it out sooner or later, and he was ready for them. His deal had granted him something far greater than he could have imagined, and he would show them his new gift.

He even fed on the people's souls along with the demon. For this deal, he was already going to be a soldier in hell, why not enjoy the taste… the scent of their blood, the beautiful sensation. But there was more.

Mr. Fora propped the chair up against the door's beautiful crystal knob, the oak chair was strong, and very well crafted, and it had kept his ex-wife from kicking down the door on a few occasions. He pulled his handkerchief from his jacket and wiped it against his forehead. He had to be careful, even the slightest mistake in this case could be fatal to him, or worse, he could receive another terrible, disgraceful strike to his ego, as well as his cheek, which was still purple. He pressed his silken bag full of ice against it. It was not at all easy to make the ice, but his family was quite well taken care of in that business, they had invested in the one thing that they could really profit from in a desert; water.

The Fora family also had quite a reputation in dealings with arms as well, and not always to the most favorable of people. The technology they were able to develop through the Ketonn Hraal empire was quite formidable, especially compared to these damned fools that wield pistols and rifles. Such drivel. He had three pairs of pistols, all of them worth their weight in gold or even rubies. Two of them were at his waist, he had never taken the time to learn how to shoot with them, but he was taking no chances tonight. He was not a fool, and once his boys ran those two misfit barbarians out of town, he could leave this rotten place.

He crept backward from the door, keeping an eye behind him, just in case. No one was home in that house. All of the servants were taken by the fever, but he did not really give a damn about them. He was never one to make a mess, and he was a fine chef. It was only now that he wished he had not sent all four of his remaining scoundrels. He once had many paid scoundrels to do his beatings and even on some occasions, his terminations. He turned around into his living room, with the fine bear skin rug draped under a very large leather chair.

Then there was a drop on the floor, and he jumped, his hand going down to his gun, tugging on it, but not making it come out of the holster. He fidgeted, then snapped the holster open, pulling the fine silver-colored revolver out and pulling back the hammer. The cat large orange cat, Mixt, jumped down from the shelf. He looked up at Fora with his large, reflective eyes. The cat walked up to the pistol and began to sniff at it with some curiosity. Fora unarmed the pistol, and then turned around as he put it back into his holster.

An even bigger pistol swung around, and gave Fora a very swift strike in the head. He instantly dropped his gun as part of his body went numb, he fell to the side, and hit the soft bear skin rug, and he twitched giving a great moan as his head kept spinning. He rolled onto his back, and there was the black angel. The gunman spread his wings, his large .45 pointed straight in between the dazed man's eyes.

For a moment, Fora completely forgot what was happening. Nothing particularly made sense to him, but soon the clouds cleared up, and he realized that he had made a very bad mistake. Two violet eyes stood out in the darkness, the rest was a shadow. Only a small glint of the sun could be seen on the pistol's barrel. Fora's eyes went down to his pistol on the ground.

"One more look, there, mister shiny guns. One more is all I need, then I'll burn you down hell, west, then crooked." Reve said, his finger twitching very slightly on his trigger, Fora's breath drawing in as he really thought he had pulled. "Let's talk there, Mr. shiny guns, since you look so comft'erble." He lit another smoke, flicking the first ash on Fora's rug. "Lets talk about friends."

This made Fora's eyebrow raise, "Friends?"

"Yeah, friends. Ya know, like my good friend, Krol."

Then, as if on cue, Krol walked in on three legs, his front right leg holding a large pack of mutton. "He has a good freezer."

"We been wonderin' how you've been livin' so good all this time. An' we're kinda wonderin' why I smell a big fat lie anytime I come near ya." He drew in some smoke. "Now why is that?" He took one more step toward the panicking man. Mr. Fora began to back up, hitting his head on a fine oak table behind his sofa. He let out a pained grunt.

"My family has been rich for generations, we have our own water generator, and our food stock is meant for four years for four people!"

Reve narrowed his brow, then looked over at Krol, who was already beginning to cook the meat with his own enflamed breath. He stopped for a moment, and looked at Reve, nodding. "I could live here for two months." He said, beginning to munch on the meat.

"Oh, Mr. Fora, I'm thinkin' you wouldn't mind too badly if we shared some of your wealth with the town, now would ya'." And before Fora could say anything. "That sure is neighborly of ya' there, sir." Reve turned around, walking toward the door, not seeing what he was looking for in him.

"You bastards!" Mr. Fora delved for his gun.

"Reve!" Krol shouted, but quick as Reve was on his draw, as soon as he turned around, he saw something very strange. Mr. Fora stayed there, he was caught right in the midst of his action, and he began to lift off of the ground, unmoving. Then his mouth opened, and something black began to seep inside. Soon his eyes began to fill with darkness, and soon they looked like voids of nothingness. Everything on him began to pale, and soon he was sheet-white, and his body mass reduced down to his bones, his clothes falling off as they did not fit his skeleton, and he fell to the floor completely dry.

As he did, both Krol and Reve stood there, facing two green, glowing eyes. Even Reve's keen Mauforaum eyes could not see the shadow that loomed over the skin and bones that once was a complete asshole.

It took shape soon, though, and its maw opened, unleashing a very loud roar that pushed pressure toward both of them, and even blew Reve backward into the door he entered from, he hit it hard, and grabbed hold of the knob to keep his balance. Then he pointed his gun, but as he did, he saw that the beast was directly in front of him. Its maw poked very near Reve's nose, and those two horrid eyes glared directly into Reve's violets, as if he saw something very interesting.

"What in hell fire…" Reve said, pulling the hammers back on both pistols.

[Rinji]

The Catalyst Core Part 2.2

It was the Pit

Reve's hand went to his gun, but instead of a draw, he focused wholly on the beast in front of him. The demon stopped for a moment, then was thrown back. As Reve took his telekinetic energy off of it, he did not falter to draw his gun and shoot three times. The beast hit the wall flat against its back, and three chunks flew off from its head, torso, and arm. Reve approached the thing, but in an instant, it flew into its tube-like shadow form, and thrust itself, striking Reve in the chest and making him stumble back through the kitchen doorway, the door opening and then swinging back and forth. Reve dashed forward quickly and then kicked the doorway just as he saw the beast try to open it.

He knocked the beast back, and it was met with Krol, who blew a harsh gust of flames straight into it from his bestial maw. It was taken by a fraction of the flames, but it quickly took flight once again, avoiding the brunt of the flames. As it came back to form, its arm lashed out like a whip, and then swung around onto Krol's arm. With one yank, Krol was taken off of his feet and swung straight into the wall, bashing a very large picture of Rogeir Fora Sr. and making it fall into a crumpled mess onto the floor.

Krol shook off the pain from his cheek, but the thing did not waste any time in pinning Krol to the wall, and breaking a hole through it farther. Krol struggled for a moment, then he felt the shadow try and creep into his eyelids. Before he could, Krol grasped onto the demon's claw, and forced it off from him with great strength. Then he used his other human-like claw to reach into his satchel and pulled out one set of his silver knuckles. He thrust one shot at the beast, the strange Ratoul'an markings on it forming a seal that dealt with just such a creature. Its strike was fierce, and the beast screeched in pain as the knuckles left a smoke trail where it burned its shadowy flesh. Krol swung once again, but this time, the thing ducked under him, and charged him head-on, catching him by surprise, and ramming into his snout. Krol was dazed for a moment, but then comforting shots rang out through the house.

Reve aimed very carefully, easily seeing the burned damage that Krol had left on the demon. The first bullet struck the knuckle impact point, and irritated its pain harder. The next one only just missing it, striking its green eye. As the eye was blotted out, its roar of pain echoed through the house, and all of the surrounding area for a mile.

Injured, and very low on power, the demon instantly seeped into a crack on the floor. Reve just missing the shadowy strip it formed into with one bullet.

"Shit-fire…" Reve cursed, spitting at the one shot he missed.

Krol rubbed his chin, "It is not a simple foe, that's for sure." Then he turned toward one of the bigger parts of the beast that came off from his knuckles. He went to the pieces, and examined them closely. He sniffed the air around them, then snorted the bad scent out of his nose, cringing. Then he put his hand on it, and began to concentrate.

His ability to see the memories of others was very limited, he only caught glimpses and small sounds that were familiar to the mind. However, with the mind of a beast, there was no telling what he could see…

Especially if it was a small image of a man's eyes being put out in black, then blood. Then the image of a black hand coming down onto a horse, and splitting it apart, the horrible shrieks of pain from the horse made Krol cringe and grunt, but he went on, his will to learn much stronger than his disgust. There was a voice of a man. "May I?" He said as he approached the beast from the side. Then the next sight made Krol's stomach churn completely. The man held a severed arm in his hand. His mouth was covered in blood, as were his hands and most of his shirt. He was an animal of a man, but there was no mistaking who he was. Krol saw him… though he was not entirely surprised, it made him rage inside even more. It was Chadum.

However, Chadum was not in his small hut that night. Both Reve and Krol spent the rest of the night searching for him, but none of his men had seen him. Instead of explaining what happened to Mr. Fora, both Reve and Krol showed the deputies the scene. Both the travelers were taken quite aback by their reactions. There were no suspicions of murder, and none of them really asked how Mr. Fora was turned into a pile of himself. All three of them began to rejoice. They opened the mansion's freezer, finding loads of meat, as well as a very well stalked kitchen, they had a whole stock of water for the town, and there was enough gold and items to keep the people somewhat happy for a long while.

However, both of them knew that as long as those monsters ran free, these people would only continue to die. Krol tore down Chadum's boards from his window so the morning's sun could shine into his house. There wasn't much of anything in that place. Reve opened the metal oven's little door and winced at the smell from inside of it. He compared it to cow pies and piss ants both mixed into one.

"Hot damn, Krol. The hell has this guy been cookin'?" Reve closed the door to it.

"I sincerely doubt you want to know, Reve. I've seen what this guy has been eating." He tried his very best to stop the image from reappearing in his mind. "There has to be some kind of token we can get from this place. If he is a demon familiar, he would have some sort of relic that we could use, or something along those lines."

"You sure about that, Krol?" Then Reve passed up something, he turned to look at the small, broken down bed that stood on three legs and a big tree-limb. As he approached it, he put his boot up on the edge of it and pushed it, when he heard something else bump against it. "Well paint my ass…"

Krol looked over to Reve as the Mauforaum lifted the side of the bed from under it, and flipped it completely over, revealing an old metal chest. The lock on the front of it made Krol believe that he had something more than just clothes in it.

Reve pulled out one of his guns, holding it by the barrel, and hammering the handle against the lock twice before it fell off of its rusty arm and hit the ground. Reve pulled out the lock portion of it, and then opened it slowly.

Krol had been traveling with Reve for quite some time, perhaps a year, probably more, but the Ratoul'an had never seen Reve's eyes light up like they did. Then Reve drew in a gasp, which seriously alarmed Krol.

Horrible images went through Krol's head in that one second. A severed head, a dead body bent and hacked into pieces so it would fit in the small chest, or even Chadum himself, who will pop out at any moment and strangle Reve for disturbing his gruesome, vampiric slumber.

Then Krol actually looked inside of the chest, and his eyes widened as well. There were boxes, upon stacks of boxes filled with forty-five caliber rounds, as well as rifle shots and shot gun shells.

"Well what'dya know… all these years I never knew when I was born, now I know I got a birthday…" Reve could not hide his grin as he picked up one full pack of ammunition and admired their beautiful brass shine as he opened it.

The Catalyst Core Part 2.3

It was the Pit

What was this urge that filled him? His bones ached, and his hands shook from a great yearning, one that drove him farther through the black dunes of this accursed place. Something burned inside of his mind. The vision of a large crystal, one that towered over any structure he had ever seen, structures he could not place. The crystal was a glimmering spectacle, and its luster was unlike any other that existed. However, a large crack ran down the middle of it, and for some reason, he knew that the crack would only grow, and soon enough it would be gone. That crack, it was flesh, and it ran with sweet nectar that filled his sinuses, and made his craving harder.

Adam walked those dunes, his new servant close at his back. The clanking machine did not speak, would not speak. Its inner workings were rusted, and all of the moving parts grinded irregardless of its condition. It worked because he wanted it to work. It just walked with its eternal grin in its skeletal, black metal face.

As he saw a town over the horizon, Adam's blood boiled, and he found the sudden urge to see someone, it didn't matter who it was. He had to see someone now, and their heart needed to be filled with blood, or else the fun would be for naught.

Teron waved his hand at his co-worker, signaling him to go ahead and turn the open sign to the closed side. He had been open for several hours, and there was not a soul. He'd given Ralon enough work; the shop was completely spotless from roof to floor. They had even polished and dusted the wood finish on his countertop, something they had put off for so long. More and more people were leaving the village, going off to seek refuge from the epidemic that was said to be spreading through Ketarhr.

"Alright, Ralon, you did some good work today, but we'd better go ahead and get home." Teron scratched his ebon cheek and sighed, leaning back in his chair, but feeling the desk catching onto his wing, and he grunted, flicking the feather off of it and bringing his wings closer to his back.

"You're not still thinking about closing the shop, are you?" Ralon pulled up a chair and sat in front of Teron's desk. "Someone has to come out of their house sometime."

Teron put a toothpick in his mouth, and chuckled. "Doesn't mean they'll want to buy hardware." He gave a thought, and then looked over at the young Mauforaum, seeing that there was sincere worry in his eyes. "We'll see, Ralon. Now go on. I'm about to head that way myself."

Ralon leaned his head on the back of the chair, and sighed, knowing that there were few, if not any jobs left in this town. Businesses were closing at a terrible rate, the threat of infection scared enough people to leave, and stupidly go to the bigger cities, thinking they'd be better protected. Ralon picked up his chair as he got to his feet and dragged it back to the table set in the middle of the room. He turned toward the door, merely glancing at the old-timer sitting behind his desk.

"See you tomorrow, bright and early." The old-timer smiled, and waved.

This did little to brighten Ralon's spirits; he merely gave a wave back and walked out the door.

Teron leaned forward in his chair, putting his hands over his ebon face. Too many reasons to close the store, and not nearly enough to keep it open, other than a hope. He sighed, thinking about all of the blood and sweat that went into building the place. All of those people that unexpectedly offered a helping hand, without them, it would have never come to be. He sighed once again, then he moved toward the small, locked cabinet beside his desk. He got the key from the pocket on the front of his worn out, red vest and unlocked it. He pulled out a large bottle of fine brandy. Then he reached farther back into the cabinet and pulled out a crystal glass. He had been saving it for a rainy day, though it hadn't rained since their lush plains withered and died.

Then the door closed once again and he paused, beginning to put the bottle and glass back in the cabinet.

"Did you forget something Ra—" He was cut short by a sight he had not seen in quite some time, a human stood in front of his desk. The human wore a very unsettling grin on his face, and the look in his eyes reminded Teron of the scared eyes of a wooden doll. Though his stomach churned, he managed a smile. "Well, hello," Teron chuckled, trying to hide the nervous side of it. "I didn't hear you come in."

The blond human simply continued to smile. The eerie silence seemed to expand as time went on, and soon Teron began to wish he'd went for the brandy sooner. It soon became very hot in that room, and the elder Mauforaum became somewhat antsy.

"C-can I help you with anything?"

"Why yes, you can, friend." Teron was almost startled to hear the blonde man speak. However, silence ensued once again. This time it was broken by the stranger, as he gave a chuckle. "I was looking for something… huge!" He held his hands together and expanded the length between them as he spoke. "I want it to shine as radiant as the sun itself, but never blind anyone! I want it to give me life, pleasure, and gratification! I want it to be destruction, creation, life, death, power, weakness, evil, good, poverty, riches, and God all rolled into one!" Adam spoke with great enthusiasm in his words, as if such a thing existed in a hardware store.

"Well…" Teron said, somewhat bemused and terrified at the same time. "I'm sorry to say, but we've closed for the day. Perhaps if you return tomorrow—" It was then he began to feel very weak, and the light-headedness almost made him pass completely out. He was short on breath, and his hand went to a horrible ache in his chest. He panted for air, and stared with wide eyes at the human.

"Yes… beyond your black skin, there is a heart, isn't there? Have you ever seen a heart before? It is perhaps one of the more complicated organs in the human- or whatever you are- body. There are four parts to it… do you know what they're called?"

Teron tried to get up from his desk, but it was no use, he fell to his knees, one of his hands slamming on the ground, and the other still holding his chest. He grunted, even tried a whine or two, but it was no use, his vision was fading, and the pain became even greater. Then, to his terror, he looked at the human to see that his hand was held up in a gripping position. Teron knew the power of telekinesis, as did many Mauforaums, but he had never seen any of them that were powerful enough to reach inside the body.

"Ventricles, you old sagging fart!" Adam shouted very loud, in a high pitched, mocking voice. "They are chambers that hold the blood with no oxygen, which is blue, and the blood with oxygen, which is red." He said, drawing a big laugh from him. "Old fart… where do I get this? Now, my question for you is… what would happen… if I…" Then with a snap of his finger, Teron felt the entire side of his body go completely numb, and his vision began to fade as he tried to scream in agony, but soon it all began to fade. "…just so happened to unplug one of these ventricles from their blood vessels? Hmm?"

"Teron!" He heard a voice shout, and he quickly turned around to see a very young Mauforaum maiden. Though he was human, he found himself somewhat attracted to this strange being. She wore a silken red robe, a strange one with strange symbols on it. He figured it must have been their scripture, but then his eyes went straight down to her breasts, figuring she must have been of the right age for him. After that, something more interesting caught his eye, a sword was at her hip, and an immensely strange one at that.

"Why, hello, there." He said, turning all the way around to him.

"You bastard! Who are you?" He shouted, her hand going straight to her sword at her side, pulling it out only and inch, and then it stopping completely. She looked down at her hand, to see it shaking against some sort of pressure. She turned back to him to see that he was directly in front of her now, face to face. His beautiful blue eyes looked deep into her angry green ones. She tried to fight his telekinesis with her own, but she felt a wall against her, and no matter how hard she concentrated, she knew it would do nothing. She stopped trying at that point, trying not to tire herself out, but then he twitched both of his eyebrows up. In an instant, she was sent straight back into the wall. Her side hit the tool shelf, and she went down hard.

Lain heard the shelf shake above her, and then a horrible pain exploded in her hand, as a hammer fell directly on it. She grunted, but then her sight darted toward the human walking toward her. Without a moment to lose, Lain stood on both of her hands, and twirled herself around in a flash, swiping a skillful kick straight across the human's chin, knocking his face to the side. As he was distracted, she finished the twirl with a straight forward kick from her other leg.

Adam was knocked back hard, his lumbar hitting the desk. Before he could react, she drew her sword. The bottom of the blade close to the hilt was wide, but it curved and slendered up to a point. On the sides of the blade, there was weaved a black, strong metal that was made into wicker patterns that decorated the very center of it, and the rest of it was a lustrous, silver-like metal. She narrowed her wing-span against her back and darted forward at a speed that surprised Adam. He ducked directly underneath her blade as she swiped it across at him. As she sliced it down at him, he dodged to the side and then swung a punch at her, which was very quickly parried by her elbow, cracking his knuckles hard. Though it hurt, he grinned all the wider, causing her to grunt in disgust.

Lain swung her sword at him once again, but she was once again caught in the midst of her action. She couldn't move a muscle at all, sweat beading down her face as she looked at him, then looked at her old friend lying dead behind the counter in front of them.

"Such a strong woman, just my type." Adam said, then snapped his fingers, sending her back at the same shelf. This time she hit it directly on her back and cried out in pain. As she hit the ground on her side, boxes fell from the shelf, hitting the ground near her and causing nails to fly out and pelt her, but none of them lodged themselves. Then two tin cans fell as well, these two filled with screws of all shapes and sizes. She slowly began to get to her feet, picking up her ceremonial Mauforaum sword and wielding it in front of her.

She couldn't win, she knew this. He was toying with her, she knew that he could kill her just as he killed poor Teron. Then she eyed a large glass vase behind Adam, sitting on the shelf behind the counter. The vase use to hold the flowers she bought for Teron and Ralon after they helped her fix storm damage on her Danara's (Mother) house.

"You've been fun, little one. However, I would like to play a new game." This time he lifted one finger. Instantly, her arms her forced to her back, and she was held in check. Then, to her terror, the front of her silken robe began to open. She scowled at him, biting her lip so hard it hurt, the pain was sobering, and allowed her to concentrate as her telekinesis reached farther than she was use to. Then she closed her eyes as her mind pulled the vase from the shelf, and struck the back of Adam's head in a shatter.

Her arms were freed as his concentration was broke. Without a moment to lose, she sheathed her sword and grabbed onto a beam on the ceiling and kicked open the top hatch. Her wings spanned to their fullest and she very quickly took flight.

As Adam noticed she was gone, she had already flown to far out of range. With a shaking hand, he wiped off the back of his head, and looked at the blood. He brought the hand to his mouth and began to run his tongue up his palm, and his middle finger, looking out the hole that she escaped from.

A price had to be paid, yes, she broke a very, very important rule. This rule was written in stone, and very firm in his mind. There were to be no survivors, none of them would be allowed to escape his sight. No one was to escape, no one!

[Rinji]

The Catalyst Core Part 2.4

It was the Pit

"No, no." Ana took her strands of hair away from Avri, and undid the last braid she put, then did two more braids herself, "Right one goes middle, then left one goes middle." Then carefully handed it back to Avri, who continued more carefully.

Across the room, Reve sat, leaned against the wall next to an open window. His guns hung from the corner of the bed nearest him. He gazed into the streets of that empty town. Every once in a while someone would pass by the window, but those who did very seldom looked into the window. Those who did seemed to be only interested in the girl's safety, because despite a tip of his hat, or even a "good morning", the people merely eyed him; at best a fake smile was managed.

Reve finally sighed after the first hour had passed. Occasionally he'd look in at the girls, but for the most part he thought that the town's people were doing a hell of a job doing his babysitting for him. When Deina asked them to take this job, he did feel compelled to do it, but the effect it had on the people was the exact opposite of his expectation. He seriously needed a smoke, but smoking around children just didn't sit well with him. He sighed, having opened the window for nothing.

"Mr. Reve!" Ana walked over to him, putting both hands on his hip and grabbing onto his pants. "Have you ever shot anyone?"

Reve's eyes somewhat widened at the question, and he turned, looking at the girl.

"Why?" Reve asked.

Ana face drooped some and she leaned over and hung her head down, then stood up straight again. "Oh come on! What happened?" She asked, jumping up and down some. Her sister Avri walked slowly, taking each step with care. She stood somewhat behind her sister and gazed at Reve as well.

Then the door swung open, and a black beast walked into the room. He took the satchel off of his back and placed it in the middle of the floor. "Your beer, my lord." Krol reached into the sack and tossed it over to him. With the flick of his wrist, Reve grabbed hold of the bottle and looked at it, sighing with relief at his timing; the girls ran over to Krol and grabbed hold of him.

"Krol! Krol!" They shouted, climbing on top of him and getting on his back, Avri sat side-ways on Krol, and Ana sat with legs on either side of him, sitting closer to his neck.

"Well, hello." He used his hind leg to shut the door and he began to trot his way into the room, making a horse-snorting sound from his snout. They laughed, Ana ruffling Krol's head hair.

"Now whinny! Come on! Come on!"

Reve narrowed his brow, and blinked as he watched the big guy. He flicked the top of the beer off with the tip of his thumb, catching it with his other hand.

"Alright, welp, since you got things now, I'm guessin' you can go ahead and put them to bed; Redec's down."

"Where do you think the Krol-Steed is going?" He said, and looked on ahead at the beds.

"Awww! No! I wanna play horsey!" Avri said, swinging her legs a little bit.

"Nope, this mighty beast is heading for the bed, girls. We have to get up tomorrow so that we can take you back to Miss Deina."

With sighs of disappointment, both of them climbed down from his back, and then lifted up onto the mattress.

Reve looked back out the window, downing a generous portion of the lager, and then stood up. He put his bottle on the table and stretched, his wings spanning out completely and popping. He grunted, one of them feeling somewhat stiff. He moved them around, but then felt eyes on him. He turned to see the girls staring at him with bemused, curious smiles on their faces.

Krol turned the lantern to the very dullest of blue glowing.

"Alright, girls. Good night." Krol said as he pulled the blanket up more on them.

"Good night." Ana said, followed by Avri.

Krol walked over to the satchel, picking it back up and then placing it on the small table, pulling out a tin can, and then another one.

"What're those?" Reve whispered.

"I believe they're either beans or corn."

"Oh, hell Krol." Reve spoke especially quiet. "Did you wanna to put them critters through that too? Save'em for tomorrow."

Krol thought for a moment, considering Reve's suggestion and ultimately finding it sensible. He didn't want to take that chance.

Avri made out a few words they were saying, but her eyes drooped. Then she closed them, turning on her side and drifted some.

But then the air went stale, and a very low rumble began to happen in Reve's demon mark, as it did Krol's tattoos that were marked all over his black-furred torso. Both of their pupils wound to needle-point size and Reve got up from his chair, picking up his belt and quickly lacing it across his hips.

"We can't fight here, Krol…" Reve was very careful, and made sure the girls did not hear him. "Not with them."

"Clear your mind, Reve… this is no local presence, it is possession…"

Avri walked as silent as a grass snake slithered. She was not taking those foot steps by herself, and she made sure to stay low below the bed. Even when she approached the door, it swung open without a sound. She ambled with abandon toward the long deserts. She began to run then, with graceful strides, she was very fast, and it wasn't until the door slammed shut that either of them knew it was opened.

Reve pulled both of his pistols out, and pointed both toward the door. Ana sat up in bed instantly with a startled shriek. Krol eyed the bed, and his eye widened to show all of his corna. "Avri!"

Ana gasped deep as she noticed her sister was gone, "Avri?" She shouted, sliding out of bed and running toward the door.

"Ana! Git back'ere child!" Reve shouted after her, making her stop, and she began to sob. Reve darted after her and swept her up in his arms. "Come'on child, I'm gonna find'er." He said. Then he looked at her face, seeing he did little to comfort it. He looked at her as he opened the door. "I promise." Reve said, this actually made her look up at him as he began to run down the street, knocking on Deina's door with his snakeskin boot. At length, she opened the door in her robe.

"Reve? Krol?" She looked at both of them as they approached her doorstep.

"Here, take'er, get inside, lock all the doors, and get any gun ye can find. Stay in here and don't open the door for no one." Reve said as plainly as he could. "We're goin' for Avri." He finished, then tipped his hat, and turned, running down the street with Krol close behind.

Reve paced himself, carefully watching where her footprints were in the darkness. His eyes were keen, but the footprints were very light, and almost looked like bird tracks from a distance.

"She ran pretty damn fast, Krol. These tracks ain't easy to follow!" Reve said, his voice getting urgent. "That son of a bitch…" He said under his breath.

"Easy, Reve." Krol said, though the image of him ripping into Chadum's chest with his bare claws was quite entertaining at that moment. "On my back, Reve, you're slowing me."

Reve stepped to the side instantly, jumping up and onto Krol's back. They were far out of the city then. Krol charged at his maximum speed, though he was not especially fast, he did not tire easily. His powerful limbs pumped harder and faster as he concentrated. A thought occurred to him then: there was no way Avri could have ran this far, and both of them lost sight of her tracks, but Krol did not lose her scent. That meant the accursed beast already had her. However, she was still alive, he knew it. Then the image of another, more sobering thought entered his mind. Avri's unmoving body began to go at the very front of his mind. Then his eyes narrowed, and he kicked it into over drive, and involuntary bursts of flame began to ignite from his neck and head. Reve blinked, and then waved the flames away from him as they got near.

"Krol! Hot damn!" Reve shouted, taking off his hat and waving it away from him.

"Sorry…" Krol said under his breath, turning off the flames. It was then that he saw what he had hoped to find. Up ahead, there were rocks, large ones that ranged from thirteen feet to over ninety. However, the towns people never came near the place.

"Well, looks like we hit the big one, Krol. Definitely something in them high rocks." Reve shouted, not really caring if they heard him or saw them coming. They charged, then Reve expanded his wings, but kept them level with the wind. Then he jumped off of Krol, leaving his satchel around Krol's torso so he had no real extra weight. Then he soared, his wings flapping to take him at a higher altitude, but he kept Krol in plain sight, but then looked at the mountains and eyed a cave as they began to near it.

"There you are, ya bastard…" Reve looked forward to drawing his pistols, and looking the demon in the eyes with his own Demon Eyes.

The Catalyst Core Part 2.5

It was the Pit

"Drop yer weapons, boy." Chadum said with a hand on one of his own pistols.

Reve put his pistols back in their holsters as his wings folded behind him once again. Krol came up behind him, breathing hard from his long run, but also looking Chadum straight in the eyes, the horrible images that he saw from the item sight came back to him then, and he began to focus on what was to come. There was no way he could let such a corrupted soul go on living.

"Seems you got what you wanted after all. Some fine metal you got there, Sheriff… oh did I say sheriff?" Reve put on a fake smile, which made Chadum give a deep chuckle. "I meant asshole." Reve suddenly frowned at the Demon-infected human, who suddenly stopped laughing and scowled at the Mauforaum.

"They're a gift from my friend." Chadum suddenly smiled, his fangs somewhat larger than usual. "Along with a few other surprises I didn't realize were part of the deal."

"Like the hunger for innocent blood?" Krol said with a hard tone to his voice, and he gave a growl.

"Oh that was a plus, I hafta admit. No, what I was talkin' about some other, more interestin' talents. You care to test'em?" Chadum held his hands close to his newly-acquired pistols.

"Where's the girl?" Reve said before Chadum could go any further. "I swear if you hurt her I'll burn your face like the devil's ass grease." Reve's eyes became sharp, and for a moment, Chadum could have sworn that they turned a flash of red.

Though he was taken somewhat aback by his threat, he didn't falter. "She's fine. We're treatin' her good." He pointed his thumb back toward the cave, and two green eyes appeared within the darkness. Then, as the demon materialized into sight, there she was, her back propped against the side of the cave, her face as placid as a doll. Her eyes opened wide, unblinking, and there was no movement from her in the slightest.

"She's just bait anyway. Yer the ones we wanted. With the help of my friend here, we gotcha here. Once we're done with you, we'll finish with her." The look of lust on Chadum's face made Reve's eyes darken all the more. There was no more time for talking.

His blood began to boil, and his fingers all popped their joints as he made them get to their heightened best. At this point, a fly better hope it doesn't get in his way, else he would have two targets for one bullet.

Less than one tick before Reve's rhythm set him off, the Shadow demon made itself into its tube form, blasting straight for the Mauforaum. Though the gunman was ready to squeeze off a few rounds into him, Krol interfered.

The Ratoul'an beast dived forward as he charged in. He swiped his fist across the demon's face, his silver knuckles armed.

The creature let out a snarl of pain as smoke swept across his cheek, and his large, green orbs, newly formed, glared at the Ratoul'an with a horrid lust for his essence. However, Krol did not take it as well as Reve did, he lit his entire body aflame, a brilliant fire-engulfed beast that lit up the entire cave, and even heated Reve's brow as he stood back so that the tip of his hat would be spared a sear.

Then the illuminated Ratoul'an dove for the beast, propelled by shear will and muscle power. The Shadow beast responded in kind, transforming into the shadow tube that soared at the beast head-on. At the very last second before collision, the horrible demon reformed into his bestial stance, and sliced his claw across the Ratoul'an's snout, drawing blood. Krol, fueled by the pain, responded with a globe of fire emitting from his mouth, and he fired it faster than a bullet, blasting the demon straight through its chest and causing it to crash to the ground.

Just as the enflamed Ratoul'an approached the seemingly immobile demon, the thing rose from its place with both claws aimed for Krol's neck. With heightened speed the beast grasped its claws by the wrists, his muscles flexing all over his powerful arms as the points were mere inches from his throat. With a deep breath, his grip tightened, and the fire blared from his hands. This caused the demon to howl in pain as he was forced to detach his arms, turning his hand to ashes. It got back up on its four legs as the shadows reformed on him.

Reve lit a smoke as he stared down the treacherous human in front of him. He flicked the lighter shut and put it back into his pocket. His thumb turning the lighter back up to its highest emission level before he took it out of his pocket and held both of his hands down close to his guns.

"Are you really ready to die for these pitiful huma-" Before Chadum could even finish it, Reve gave out a warning growl as he drew both of his guns and fired in the blink of an eye. One bullet hit Chadum in the side of his head as he attempted to dodge it, and the other hit his shoulder straight through. Chadum went limp for a moment, then he looked back up at Reve.

"Ouch…" Chadum said with some sarcasm. Reve wasn't surprised, he knew that he would feel the pain soon, when his demon infection takes more form over him to heal the bullet hole. Just as Chadum drew his pistols, Reve rode the wind with expanded wings and jumped straight for him. Reve extended his leg and kicked the human's guns, causing them to click together and fire off to the side. With the swipe of his arm, he pistol-whipped the ex-sheriff, and then shot him inside of his hip, out through his femur.

Chadum fell to the ground and then aimed both of his pistols at Reve, but the Mauforaum was inches away, blowing off the fingers he used to grip the pistols, and they fell from his hand. Chadum gave a very serious face then, obviously displeased by this. He let out a sinister growl, and made a gripping motion at Reve with his stubbed fingers. Shadow-like hands came out from nowhere, and grasped the Mauforaum by the throat.

Reve struggled, having to drop his pistols, and then pushed his hand straight at the human. Using his own telekinetic powers, he punched Chadum in the nose. He was released from the grip, going back to his feet. As the human regained his composure, Reve ducked down and grabbed his pistols. Just as they both got up straight, they pointed their weapons at each other, and stared each other in the face. A bead of sweat rolled down Reve's nose, and he could see the hysteria in Chadum's eyes.

However, before either of them could make their move, both of them looked off to the side. Two large beasts stampeded in battle toward them. Krol held onto the demon as he attempted to run him down into a ditch or a rock.

Both gunmen glanced at each other, and then dove straight out of the way as the sands flew in all directions with the on-coming battle.


The Catalyst Core Part 2.6

It was the Pit

An instant went by, and then there was a large combustion. The smoke cleared and Reve stood with his gun aimed straight. Chadum looked at him with a confused expression; it was as if he could not feel his head. Then he fell as the hole in the middle of his forehead seeped out very thick, half-clotted chunks of blood tissue. It was not long before he began to convulse.

"Ya feel it yet?" Reve said with a very stern look of apathy. After lowering his gun, he raised it on impulse and shot the bastard in the chest. As Chadum began to convulse once again, Reve drilled two more lead pills through his sternum.

Then Chadum began to cry out in horrible pain.

"There we go. Now you feel it, and it ain't my bullets neither!" Reve began to take steps toward the man as he coiled into the fetal position. "It's that demon infection. You ain't got it as bad, but you feel it growin' now don't ya?"

With no words to say, Chadum began to grow grotesque, his veins began to turn black, and the blood that seeped from his forehead began to seep through with more fluidity. With his eyes opened, he looked upon Reve with the blackest corneas, and the brightest blue irises. Then he began to scream as it grew into his brain.

"Yeah! Feel the burn you son of a bitch!" Reve lifted his other pistol and popped three more into Chadum's face, causing him to plop onto the ground once more, this time his convulsing stopped.

Reve put away both of his guns, then he held his hands up, beginning to concentrate, and expand his telekinetic powers to reach for Chadum's neck. He began to squeeze, but then felt a clench, it was as if something grabbed his mind's arms and it began to pull him back. Reve could not hold it for long, before he saw two shadow hands emit from Chadum's bullet wounds. As Reve began to feel his head ache, the black arms raced toward him, and grasped onto his torso. The demon's infection was salved much faster than he anticipated, and he cursed. He knew that he was taking a risk in making it grow.

Chadum's eyes shot open once again, and he grinned, many of his teeth missing, along with part of his cheek.

"My turn…" With that he let out a strained growl as he thrust his fist forward, his shadow stretching and bashing Reve in the chest, causing him to roll backward. With that done, his new fingers began to emerge from the stubbed ones. He looked at them as they slid out, black and pointed in the fingernails, more like claws. He chuckled and clenched them together. Then he began to walk toward Reve, his face already grown over with black skin spots over the wounds. "I really gotta thank you. You saved me some time, my friend told me this would take weeks." He looked at his hand and then pointed it at Reve, but the Mauforaum was already up, and jumped straight for Chadum, his snakeskin boot swiping across the infected human's face.

As his boots hit the ground, he drew one of his weapons, but Chadum's hand shot up, and grasped his wrist. The next shot to only graze his right shoulder. With that he pulled Reve forward and knocked his chin into his knee, causing the Mauforaum to spit blood as he hit the ground.

However, as Chadum began to lift Reve up by his shirt collar, he did not seem concerned about the horrid human's power engulfing him, nor did he care if he was close to his death. Instead his eyes shifted to the left. There he saw Krol's battle in progress, but his eyes widened and there seemed to be a shift of red as he glared into the black beasts' fight.

Krol shifted to the side, bashing his silver knuckles into the creature's snout, causing it great pain and leaving a mark that the beast would never be rid of for as long as he lived. It depleted the creature's power further, but he lashed back out and stretched his claw at Krol's maw. The Ratoul'an slid to the side, but the claw sliced into his arm causing him to growl as the pain seared hard with a horrible after-burn effect that no other wound could produce.

As the demon brought back his claw, Krol took his opportunity and spun around as fast as he could, mule-kicking the beast with his hind claws, slicing it across the face, and also harming its eye. It screeched in pain, and caused Krol to cringe hard.

Then the demon began to grow clearly angry, and actually began to grow few inches in girth. As it prepared its next attack, Krol was already lit up in his eyes to a stunning amount, and his concentration never seemed clearer. He clenched one double-thumbed claw and began to power it up as bright as a lightning bolt. With the swoop of his arm he sent a very slender beam of concentrated fire at the creature, it tried to leap to the side, but its larger size caused it more difficulty than it anticipated. The beam cut across its shoulder, through its side and seared hard!

It fell to the ground, still smoking from the extreme heat that passed through it. It laid there, motionless and still simmering somewhat. Krol could not possibly make anything more than a puff of flames from his snout at that point. His energy was drained, but he stood strong. He approached the creature carefully, and then prepared his claws to dig out the demon's eyes.

Just as the Ratoul'an approached him, the creature lifted itself up and breathed a horrible belch of green steam into his face. Krol had smelled many stenches in his life-time, and he had to take the blame for some of them, but he was taken quite aback by this terrible odor. He tried to keep his eyes on the demon, but his eyes could not stay open, as a horrible head ache began to turn into a migraine that ate at his brain. Then… there was something else that crept into the orifices of his face. Then there was a hollow, terrible feeling that filled his every body. A shadow that loomed over his brow, and silenced his every thought.

Darkness then. A terrible silence that could not be broken. He could not find his way back down the hall, and he could feel himself getting closer. There was an edge he stood on. No matter how he stepped back, he had to fall off. There he went deeper into the mouth that engulfed him. There was something coming. A terrible sickness that he could not feel yet, but he sensed it. He had to go deeper, until he found it.

It was only a speck at first. A light that he knew was not sacred. It was the other. He fell more, and it grew. He did not want to see, he could not stand it. The more he sensed it, the more he felt it. It engulfs him then and there.

It was the Pit. The glowing of green in the far reaches of the dark. It was the silence. The more he tried to go back, the more it urged him toward it. There was no light. It was a glow, a green, no other green was like it. It boiled, there it simmered in its chaotic hunger. He had to look then, it came for him, and it grasped him with every boiling limb.

As he dropped to the side of it, he was allowed to crawl away. It did not calm, nay it gurgled. It belched its horrid commands at the ones who would claim the soul. That soul. It was his, but it was soon to be theirs. Before long, the gurgling in the Pit took shapes; the shapes of claws. So many claws began to emerge, the spawns soon to connect with them. It was death, the most horrible wait. The worst of it all.

"Krol!" Reve shouted as he witnessed his friend fall limp to the ground, the shadow creature grinning, though it could very slightly move its hind legs without a horrible wince.

Chadum laughed as he turned to see his friend step away from the sickly ebon beast in the black sand.

"I suppose that about does it. After we have the girl my friend will be feeling better." Then he looked back toward Reve, who was actually grasping onto the shadow limbs that held him. As Chadum attempted to clench harder, he began to lose them more.

Reve finally dropped down, his snakeskin boots hitting the sand hard, and digging him in to the top of his heels. His eyes scowled out from under his hat, and Chadum saw the deep, hard color of red they turned into. Reve's growl then became inhuman, and his hands began to shake and then clench together.

As the shaking became harder, his left hand began to glow, and the patterns of the demon seal took on a red flared glow.

"NOXIOOOUUUUSSS!" Reve blared a horrific voice into the air and called the name of the one he needed. His hand began to engulf itself into a red flame that crept up his arm, and then began to engulf his entire body. The only part of him that was not engulfed were his eyes, which transformed into more blood-shot, scarlet glowing orbs. They stared at the two in front of him, and the newly formed being stood before them, an entity that neither of them had seen the likes of before.

"Insolence!" A very loud, bestial voice said to them. "There is no mercy for those who betray the order of time!"

Both Chadum and the beast stood, though they were not sure what stood before them, their arrogance told them that they had no problem. Before the shining beast could take his first step toward them, the demon spawned human unleashed a very large shadow hand that sliced through the air with great speed. Noxious simply reached out his hand and touched the on-coming attack, causing it to turn into ash and fall to the sands, seemingly identical to it. As the beast walked, uninterrupted toward them, Chadum furrowed his brow. Then he held his arms into a cross in front of his chest, and concentrated the shadow into a large being around him, growing to over eight feet tall, huge and brutish. The shadow giant swiped his claw down at Reve's embodiment, but without even making a move, its hand shattered against his body, not even affecting his trudge. He simply lifted his arm up in the air and flared his hand, blasting the giant out of existence.

Chadum growled in frustration. Then he clenched his new claw-like hands and rushed with greater speed toward the beast, lashing out with a growl. Noxious shot his hand forward, catching the human in mid air, his entire palm on his face. Chadum could do nothing but scream as the demon's red fire began to sear off his skin, already workings his way to the skull.

Then Noxious stopped and glared at the shadow beast.

"Ixizieth… My memory is a servant with ever-bearing fruit. So it is true then. The tyrant has returned to this plain, and though you fought him along-side me in the Negaverse, you are now his pig!" He growled as he clenched the human's deteriorated head until he felt the very back of his skull, then he discarded the lifeless, useless spawn.

Ixizieth limped, up slowly, now recognizing the voice of his old comrade.

"You were my shadow and now you are my prey." He began to step toward him once again, causing the beast to shake. "Yes, horrified, as it should be. You shall earn your way back to my side, but spend that time within your PIT!" With long, claw-like fingers, he grasped his hands into the beast's eye sockets and instantly began to melt them both, turning the liquid a horrible red. The beast felt nothing, the heat and the pain did not reach him until he was already numb. With no effort, the red-fire beast split the evil being completely in half, each side turning to ash at his fingers. "Farewell… my brother."

The Catalyst Core Part 3

The Desert Snow

There he stood on the dunes of that damned desert. His visage illuminated to the point of absolute surrealism. The red glowed all around him as he glared at the ground at the two he had laid to rest. His red, bloodshot eyes glared at those two, then at the fallen Ratoul'an down the way. As he saw the black-furred beast begin to show signs of movement, his eyes even opening slightly, the red-fire demon's sight went back across the desert. To the place where he felt the power the strongest. His eyes flared open as he saw the image, and recognized the power immediately. There was no mistaking the most horrible demon in a man's form.

"Adam…" He said, and began to dissipate his flame from the mortal he engulfed.

Adam snapped out of his momentary trance with a gleam in his eyes. He sat in a very large and empty beer hall. All of the tables were either broken or standing alone, the chairs all toppled over and chopped in half, laying on the floor. The only one with a patron was the front one closest to the bar. Adam wiped his chin and placed his thirteenth beer mug on the top, half-empty.

Did he hear what he thought he heard? Did a voice just say his name? Who would want to say his name right at this moment? All of the Mauforaum patrons were either dead or ran out of town. It had only taken a few days and twenty or thirty dead bodies to scare the rest of them away. With the exception of a few of the more burly of the residents, this town was dry of warm bodies. He savored every kill, and he drank all he could, there didn't seem to be enough. This place was already turning into a ghost town.

Oh, but then he almost forgot. There was another one; someone that could interest Adam. He caught the name of a Mauforaum killer that found no foe too great. The only thing he knew about this one was that he was said to be a monster, one that could not be controlled.

"Perhaps it is time…" Adam said to himself, and drank the rest of his beer. He kicked off of the table hard enough to push his chair back and topple the table over. Then he got to his feet and looked toward the door with a smile. The past few days had been fun for him, but none of them as much fun as the lovely red-robed lady he faced earlier that week. He sadly did not see her again, but did not despair, he knew he would.

He pushed the door open and unsurprisingly saw a hole blast through the door that he did not push open. A shot rang out very soon after the hole was made. With a keen sense, Adam measured it to be eighty yards in front of him, curving eastward. With his eyes closed, he pointed two fingers up and concentrated. Then pointed straight for the area, and fired. Only a slight sound was emitted from his finger, but wood and boards went flying off of a distant house, along with a winged man's body crashing into the building next to the one he was hiding in.

Adam continued, knowing that he was being watched very closely from all around by scheming, low-life Mauforaums. Though he despised them, he did not kill them right away, he let them make the first move. What was his hurry? Then his attention turned back toward his newly discovered friend. He was close. He could feel a horrible, deep hatred in the air. As he approached it, he saw a house that seemed to be lit.

As he approached, he knew this was not an actual house, it was a small prison. A prison for their especially nasty inhabitants. He neared the place and the agony of past tortures engulfed his senses and it felt a little more like home. He grinned at the sensation, and continued up to the door, deciding to be polite. He knocked. Adam waited for a moment, he stood and began to feel the wind begin to become stronger. Then finally the sliding peek hole opened, with two eyes on the other side.

"Who's th--- you!"

Adam instantly shot two fingers of his right hand into the peek hole, jabbing them into the eye-sockets of the poor human on the other side. With a twirl, Adam kicked the door into splinters and sent the screaming man into a wall, hitting his head hard against the solid brick surface of a mantle, ending his agony.

To Adam's surprise and delight, there were many more humans, and some Mauforaums sitting and standing all in the room. All of them got out their rifles and swords, some of them wielding little more than wooden clubs.

Adam said nothing. He merely grinned at his new hosts and bowed respectfully. Then he strolled on in, closing the door behind him and dusting off his boots. None of them blinked as he walked right toward them, all of their guns pointed straight at him. Some of them were shaking, and getting quite antsy, knowing the people he has killed over the past few days, the buildings destroyed.

Then they all looked at each other in confusion as he even added a little skip to his step. Once it became too much for one of them, he lurched forward with his club swinging directly at the sinister bastard's head.

Adam's hand went up, and stopped the bat inches from his right temple. He pointed one finger up and the bat completely shattered in the man's hand. In an instant Adam's hand swung around and caught the man in the head, and with a roll of his arm, all of the men cringed and winced as they heard his bones completely grind apart. He dropped him with his head completely turned around, and then began to walk, much more casual now.

Then he looked to the side and smiled at one of the men, a big smile but lips closed. He opened the door to the hallway of the prison cells. Just as he walked inside, the men closed the door. As Adam walked farther, he grinned. He heard them barricading the door with a chair, and then whispering to get more. Adam had bigger things in mind than those idiots. He looked in the dull, brown hallway of the asylum. All of the doors were metal, with little slots at the top to pass in a tray, and a hole to stick a rifle through.

And there he was… the one he wanted. There was no mistaking it. He opened the slot to the chamber, and yes, there was indeed a Humanoid figure, curled up in a corner, a black rag over his face. His wings were not there, however. They were simply stubs of bone, carved down into sharp tips that were so conveniently covered with padding so that he could not do damage with them.

"How delightful…" Adam said, not even seeming to draw the Mauforaum's attention. He simply sat there, arms crossed over his chest. With no time to lose, Adam opened the door, just by pointing at it. Then he casually walked in. "I am hiring… And your resume is quite impressive." Adam stepped toward him more, it was not until he was five feet away from him that he turned his head toward the human.

Adam smiled even bigger, and then lifted his hand, making the padding over his sharpened stubby wings pull away. Detro turned his head toward one of them, then bent them both up and down a few times, he turned toward Adam once again.

"Come, let's get your toys." Adam grinned. "I'm dying to see them." He couldn't help but chuckle and then turn around to exit.

They stood silent, all of them keeping their eyes on the door that now had a toppled-over gun shelf, a desk, and three chairs covering it. They heard nothing inside, and that is exactly what worried them.

"You think he went out one of the windows?" A Mauforaum asked no one in particular.

"No, they're barred tight as a drum, no way he's getting out that way. His only hope is that door there." A man said, his gun seemed the more steady of the group.

Then there was Hyro, who began to take very timid steps backward toward the front door.

"Hyro, what in the thousand hells are you doing?" One of them said, not taking his eyes off of the barricade.

"We can't kill'em. He's gone through way more than all of us to get here… And he still has that machine!" Just as he said that, he turned and began to run straight for the door.

"Hyro! Get back here!" One of the men shouted, but then, in a flash, there was combustion. All of the wood from the shelf, the desk, and the chairs flew in splinters and chunks. They struck the men, some of them falling to the ground with a large piece sticking out of their body, screaming in pain. The ones who still stood composed themselves, but as the first gun pointed at the new hole, a black figure bolted through.

The closest Mauforaum to the hole stood there as the black figure disappeared once again into the rising dust of the pitch-black room. Then the Mauforaum dropped his shotgun, and his arms hung beside him.

"Redec?" One of the men said, but all of them gawked as Redec's head fell from his shoulders. Before he could even fall, Detro reappeared, landing behind one of the other ebon-skinned patrons and swiping his arm down in front, striking the gun. The blade that stuck out from his gloved hand, near his wrist, cut the barrel of the gun off, clean.

All guns turned on the Mauforaum who dropped his broken gun.

"NO!" He shouted, but then a blade that stuck out from Detro's elbow penetrated his back, going through his chest. The assassin's legs hopped up, and just as his feet were flat against the wall, he jumped forward. The two men still holding weapons followed him with their guns, but could not get a good shot. As soon as Detro's head came into clear view, both of his sharpened wing-stubs jabbed directly into their chests close to their necks. He quickly dropped the one he was holding, then spun around, throwing both the men off of his wings. One of the men hit the wall, the other hit the last Mauforaum standing, causing him to blast a hole into the ceiling as he was knocked off of his feet.

In an instant, Detro's face was directly in front of his. With the Mauforaum's keen eyes in the dark, he could see directly through the black loom that veiled his face, the last thing he saw were two completely round, unblinking orbs staring back at him. Then there was nothing. Detro's blade made a very large incision into his gut, all the way up to his chest.

The bloody black warrior stood in the midst of the corpses and then shot his gaze back to the hole as he heard the first clap.

Adam applauded, the grin on his face was that of complete satisfaction.

"The rumors did not exaggerate one single bit, did they?" He walked toward Detro in such a casual way that made the assassin take a timid stance as he approached. "You…" His hand slid across Detro's arm, feeling every scar, and running across the cloth that tied the blades to his arms. "…are beautiful."

"I could not ask for a more perfect specimen." Adam said, then his hand went up the Mauforaum's bare back, as he wore nothing save for the blades and black pants that blended perfectly with his skin. Then his hand slid up a blade that could very well have cut off any normal human fingers. "Come…"

Adam quickly turned and held both of his arms out at either side. As he did this, the whole front of the small building was completely pulled off as the large mechanical beast outside took a few steps back. "There is so much to SEE!"

[Rinji]

The Catalyst Core Part 3.2

The Desert Snow

The night was as pitch black as it could get with so many moons in the sky to go with the stars. They stood in an almost perfectly straight formation in the sky, and against his image, they seemed dim. Noxious looked at them through Reve's eyes, he was still glowing his surrealistic red as he illuminated everything around him.

In Krol's faded vision, he could see Reve's lustrous visage as it wielded every ounce of its power in front of him and turned toward the outer dunes. In the west, he felt his destination, and it was quite far. However, there was no mistaking it.

"Adam…" He said, then turned to Krol as his flames exited out of existence, leaving only the skeletal form of Reve behind, his wing feathers completely singed to dust, and his hat only lasting for a few more seconds. Then all of his bones fell to the ground in pieces.

There was a horrible jolt from Krol as he awoke. It was warm, and there was a comforting orange glow on the walls of the wooden tavern. He heard conversing, and much laughter through it, and even saw Reve among them. He saw that it was more crowded than usual, many of the people he had not seen there before.

Reve and Krol had returned to the town, one that was already up with the merry-making because many of the ill patients in all of the medical wards awoke to find that they were in perfect health once again. When Reve returned the little girl to Deina, the two were renowned as heroes through out the town. Soon enough, all of the ones afflicted with Pit Fever awoke, much healthier than before, so all of the people began to celebrate. The fires roared with freshly killed pig, and their ale cabinets were empty.

Krol got up from the bench he had passed out on. His head was somewhat heavy, but otherwise fine. Then there was Reve, still holding his liquor, and still telling jokes to the patrons of the bar. Even the bartender listened in.

Krol placed his claw onto Reve's shoulder, drawing his attention.

"Oh, hey Krol, feelin' better, ol' buddy?" Reve said, his head a little distanced and his eyes somewhat hazed, but he didn't look too hammered.

"Yeah, come on Reve-"

"Mr. Reve!" A man's voice said from the front of the bar, drawing everyone's attention, including the travelers'. "Mr. Reve, both of you, come with me."

It took a moment to place him, but as they began to follow the man, it came to him. He was the one who asked them to take care of the little girls. Reve recalled Deina telling him he was the barber.

As he was led outside of the tavern, he heard a woman demanding that she see them. Reve opened the door and walked out, and he heard the woman call to him. She was somewhat of an older middle-aged woman, one in a dirty white cloth gown. The woman came to Reve and embraced him, tears running down her narrow cheeks.

"Oh, thank you. Thank you!" She cried on his shoulder. Reve put his hands on her back, but was somewhat dumbfounded by the sudden attachment.

Then he saw Deina coming up behind the weeping woman, both of the little girls beside her. Both of them smiled and began to run to both of them.

"Mr. Krol!"

"Mr. Reve!" Both Avri and Ana clung to Reve and Krol. Ana climbing up onto Krol's back.

"Oh God bless you, bringin' my girl back." Lady Magne laid kisses on Reve's cheek and chin and Avri clung to his leg with her arms and legs.

Reve really couldn't express his discomfort, because he understood how Lady Magne felt. However, he wished he could at least move somewhere else.

As if someone up there had heard his request, there was a crash into the sand as a very dark figure landed in the black sands.

It was just barely dawn, and still rather hard for the humans to see. Still not trusting the dark, many of them reached for any nearby weapon they could use, but also knew that Reve had both of his pistol within reach.

"Hold it, boys." Reve said, his keen Mauforaum eyes having no trouble recognizing his own kind. It was a female Mauforaum, and a very lovely one at that. He approached her, the others moving out of his way as he walked. She was out of breath, her wings twitching from the ache of flapping far too much. She was flying fast, and far away from something.

As she sat up straight, he could see all of the tears that had run down her ebon cheeks. Her lovely green eyes stared back at him, having never seen one of her own kind that dressed in such a manner.

"Ma'am?" Reve said, removing his hat from his head and holding it to his chest. As she saw his unusual sandy blond hair, her breaths actually seemed to come more evenly.

"Are you human? Or…" Her first words toward him surprised him.

"No, no I'm one of Danara's children." This seemed to ease her mind.

"Then please," She said in Mauforaum speak. "Please help us, there's a man in Deinoforaum! He's destroying everything!"

This drew somewhat of a wide-eyed look from Reve, he said nothing at first. He placed his hat back on his head and seemed to tip it over his eyes more than usual. For a moment, everyone murmured to themselves, then they fell silent as the still over-took them in that instant.

Even Krol looked at Reve, wondering exactly how he would react to such news from the place of his supposed birth. He began to grow uncomfortable, because Reve was not making a move, nor did he give any reaction at all.

Then Lain became somewhat impatient with his silence, and she stepped toward him. "Please!" She half-whispered to him.

To everyone's surprise, Reve turned around the other way and began to walk, signaling for Krol to follow.

"I'll get back to ya." Was all that she got from him as he began to tread back toward the tavern where they were staying.

Lain stood in the middle of the group of people, awe struck. She couldn't believe someone of their own race would simply walk away when their country was in such dire need. "Fine! I'll get someone else to come with me!" She shouted toward him, but this also drew no reaction. Even the townsfolk dipped their heads somewhat, as none of them was quite sure of that.

"What was that about?" Krol said as Reve turned on the lantern in their room.

"What the hell do you think, Krol?" Reve almost lashed out at him. "I just busted my ass tryin' to do some good for this here town, and all the sudden, flapping out of nowhere, some gal wants me to kick up my boots and go do it again?"

The Mauforaum wasted no time in lighting a smoke for himself, and sitting in a wooden chair, taking a long drag off of it.

"I am not going to disagree with you there, Reve. After such a fight, even I don't know if I'm ready to go ahead against the next one." Krol made himself comfortable on the bed, facing Reve while he leaned back in his chair, and blew smoke toward the large wooden beam close to the ceiling.

"Those people don't know what it's like, Krol. They may know something about it, but not like this. That bastard inside of me, he made me call out his name. I had no other choice. The pain was exactly like it was before." Reve said, looking down at his hand with the symbol on it. "Only this time it was all over me…" He drew in another lungful. "…I never want to do it again." He exhaled a good cloud, then looked up at Krol who got down off of his bed.

"No one is forcing you to do anything, Reve. You and I both know that we don't have anything to prove to anyone." He picked up a flask from his satchel with his double-thumbed hand and placed it on the table that Reve sat beside.

This drew a smile from Reve. "Oh, so it's that way is it?" Reve said, getting up from his chair and retrieving his metal cup from the counter on the other side of the room. He sat back down and placed it on the table, and Krol poured him a good quantity of the stuff.

"Take it easy Reve, remember what happened last time." This drew laughter from the both of them. This was rock-gut stuff, brewed by the Ratoul'ans themselves. Given their greater size and build, it did not even compare with human whiskey. Reve only had a vague memory of the giant puddle of vomit he had created when he tried to beat Krol in a drinking game.

Reve tapped his cup against Krol's flask, and downed one large swallow. He cringed as it burned down his gullet. With an excess of fumes engulfing his mouth, he exhaled. "Hot damn!" Reve couldn't help saying. Instantly, his head began to deepen from its sober state.

"So…" Krol didn't want to change the subject back, but he was honestly curious. He took a large swig of the flask and sighed. Then he began to fill Reve's glass again. "If you don't want to go to Deinoforaum, did you want to continue our search for the oracles?"

Reve had completely forgotten to tell Krol about his dream. But he shook his head and took another drink of the rotten stuff. As he shook off the horrid taste, he banged the cup against the table. "I didn't say I wasn't goin' to." This deepened his thought in its entirety. He began to remember what the oracle said. He sat there for a moment, then he shook his cup once again.

"Take it easy, Reve." Krol said, pouring more into his glass. "Then what?"

"Well, you're part of this too, buddy, I ain't going nowhere without ya." He said then he looked at his cup, not sure if he should drink again just yet. "What do ya think?"

"I honestly would like to cleanse all of this world of all of its evil. Since I know I can't do that, I say we do the next best thing."

Reve sighed, thinking that he was bound to face the man doing this sooner or later. "Alright, so we kill the som'bitch." Reve concluded. "What about the girl?"

"What about her?" Krol said, giving Reve an odd look of curiosity.

"What?" Reve said, giving Krol a slight scowl back.

"She looks like one you'd be att-"

"No, that ain't what I mean at all. We can't take'er with us. As long as I got this damn thing on my hand we're walking cacti, and anyone who gets near us is gonna get hurt."

"You saw the way she was dressed, did you not? She's an In…" Krol looked to the side, trying to think.

"Inroluse." Reve said, slurring the word as he was now quite comfortably intoxicated. "Yeah, she might be pretty damn good with her sword there, but you know what kinda crap we been up against. Inroluse might be the warrior women of Mauforaums, but if she comes with us, she won't have a-"

"Reve…" Krol interrupted. "I would like to see you stop her."

Then there was quiet. Krol looked back down at his almost empty flask, then he looked back up at Reve, who was in a drunken train of thought, one that he was actively responding to with grunts, murmurs, and shaking his head.

"Well…" Reve said, looking back toward the door. Then he sighed. "Shit."

The Catalyst Core Part 3.3

The Desert Snow

There he sat again, naked once more, and in the same non-descript blackness that he always sat in. His disgust for this place was only heightened, but as always. The only thing Reve could do was listen.

"Mortal… You have done well. The transformation you experienced was only the beginning of my power, but you shall see for yourself that indulging me will only bring you more fruit to reap as you please. However, as I breathed the air of your plane, I stumbled upon knowledge of the one you now seek."

"You got a smoke in this damned place?" Reve asked, thoughtless of interrupting Noxious. The beast merely ignored him.

"He is Adam, the seed. He is the Dark One's son, the one who shall bring about his father's throne of blood. His power shall rip your existence, and bend it to his own. Adam was never born, but he exists never the less."

"You're babblin' again, demon. Just tell me what I gotta know so I can kill'em." Reve began to cringe, then. He felt a horrible pain in his chest, as if something were trying to come out of it.

"My so-called babbling is the only reason you live to see the next day, insolent mortal. Do not comfort yourself with the fact that I cannot end your life without ending my own. Death would bring me to the shadows, for there I was birthed. Interrupt me once again, mortal, and your sleep shall be brimmed with pain until the end."

"Whatever… Demon." Reve produced a smoke out of thin air anyway, and then lit it just by looking at it. This caused the demon to laugh.

"You continue to amuse me." Then Noxious continued. "Fear this Seed, mortal, for his power only continues to grow beyond that of this plane's reckoning. In the eons past, he has never shown his face in the light of his father's conquest, which can only mean that he is the variable that will bring about the difference between victory and defeat."

"So you're telling me even you can't beat'em?" Reve dragged again on his cigarette.

"That is not the question. For you see, your transformation was of use only once."

Then Reve coughed, spitting into the depths of the unknown as he cleared his throat.

"Hold up, Noxious. Your tellin' me this - Kril Sino guy can conquer demons, destroy worlds, wipe out armies, and even best you in damning an entire existence, and I'm supposed to take him on with my buddy'n me?"

"When you face the bastard tyrant down upon his bloody throne, you shall have all that you need. First, you must kill the seed, only then can you kill the tyrant. That is all, Mortal."

------------

Lain sunk deeper into the bath tub. Her hair was fixed into a ponytail, and she sighed as she immersed her wings in the steaming water. If anything, she was grateful for the room they gave her. Since she had no money, they told her that she may stay there for one night, but that was as far as their kindness went. Klume was hardly over the horizon, and Redec was not due for another two hours, so she had time to enjoy their hospitality before their charity ran out. After that, she saw no alternative but to die with honor, by her own blade. No one would help her, no one cared enough to do anything about the problems of the Mauforaum people. All of her race would probably die before her anyway, and she felt that there was no point in being the only one left.

Until then, however, her wings twitched with pleasure as the hot water soothed her. She closed her eyes, able to erase all of those thoughts. Death was not a fear of hers, but it would be the beginning of another journey. She was ready for the transition, and she was willing to choose when that alternative life began. Lain made herself at one with the water, knowing when it rippled with her movement even when her eyes were closed.

Then a movement outside her door brought her conscious mind to an alert state. Without even opening her eyes, her hand slid close to the side of the tub, where her Inroluse Blade was propped up against the edge. The clerk at the front was telling someone that they couldn't go in there, but in an odd moment, he was interrupted, and she heard a clatter as something hit the ground. She couldn't place the sound, but it was not a body, it sounded more like a tool belt hitting wood; or even a gunbelt.

Lain finally opened her eyes to see the door to her room open, and it was Reve. His belt was wrapped up into a ball and dropped to the side as he entered the room and closed the door. Then he stripped off the rest of his clothing, and to her surprise, he was covered in scars. He remained silent as he approached the tub, and she examined them further, wordless as well. The one that really stood out was a large, spattered scar that was on the left of his chest, one that reached the center of it and then ended. She was certain that it was a shrapnel wound, more than likely from a very close explosion.

He stepped into the tub and sat opposite to her. Then, he spoke.

"Fine, we'll help ya." Reve took off his hat and placed it on the floor near the tub. "But I gotta few conditions that ain't up for negotiation." He said as he looked up at her, and that's when she saw it, his beautiful, violet eyes. Her heart fluttered some, she hid her joy quite well. However, then she nodded with a grim expression as she assumed one of his conditions. Though she rejected this from one of the humans that attempted to place his hands on her, she saw no other choice in this matter. The sat up closer to him, exposing her body to him and reaching out for his shoulders.

Out of all of the surprises she found in him, the greatest came then: He took both of her wrists in his hands and pushed her away.

"No." Reve said, causing her heart to sink. "That ain't what I mean."

Her mouth opened, almost saying something but then closing it, unable to say anything at all.

"Don't get me wrong, you're perty and all. But I got my reasons."

She sat back once again, and lowered her eyes. Words could not express her embarrassment at that moment.

Reve sighed then, and got to his knees and reached into his jacket pocket, taking out one of his rolled smokes, along it his lighter. He lit it and looked at her once again.

"We ain't hired fighters, and we ain't in it for the glory either. I ain't tryin' to get famous and I ain't gonna draw my gun unless I think it's time to shoot. I know I can't stop ya from comin' with us, but I gotta ask you to stay here."

"No." She finally spoke, suddenly casting a nasty look his way. His eyebrows raised and he took another drag from his smoke.

"Yeah, I figured. Now that we got that straight, I gotta warn ya that me and Krol got a really nasty bunch gunnin' for us. I don't mean normal people eith—"

"Don't!" She ejaculated, holding up her index finger to stop him. "Don't even! I know the stakes, and I know all about the haunting this world has in its bosom. Do NOT treat me like an ignorant Ulonta!" The sudden switch to their native tongue confused him at first, but then he remembered it basically meant "simpleton."

He smiled then, taking one last drag off of his smoke, and then dipped his finger into the water and placed it on the burning end, putting it out and flicking it somewhere in the room. Then he motioned her over to him.

She was hesitant at first, but she complied and moved a little closer to Reve. He put an arm around her shoulder and held her closer to him. With her tension gone, she placed her head on his shoulder, and wrapped her arms around him, her arms passing under the tickling feathers of his ebon wings.

"I ain't got nothin' to give you, not now I don't. I got somethin' inside'a me that I'd rather not chance in passing onto ya." They stayed there, in that moment, and both of them felt a very comforting warmth grow between them.

Reve hated to see her get involved with his mess of a life, but he knew that she had a mess of her own. Now he was going to deal with it.

---------

With Redec high in the sky, all three of them left that town. Everyone there waved them goodbye as they stood and watched them begin to journey back to where they had come from.

"Reve! Krol!" Both of them stopped, and looked back toward Deina, who stood in front of everyone there. Her face was a mask of sadness, and soon her tears became apparent as they streamed down her face. She could no longer speak through the crying, so she simply mouthed the word "please."

Krol nodded to her, and Reve tipped his hat. With no more time to lose, they stepped closer toward the shadow that awaited them in the west.

The Catalyst Core Part 3.4

The Desert Snow

They could not beat him, so in turn, the last remaining bandits in the city joined him. Adam only accepted the very strongest of them. The rest were discarded in either a fight to the death, or a simple wave of Adam's hand. To their dismay, however, Adam stood above them and ordered the destruction of many of their buildings and houses. All of them were in a certain area of the city. One huge rectangular part of it was cut from it, and one by one they began to dismantle the structures. Each man hammered away and cleared the area of rubble.

None of the bandits, Mauforaum or human, were pleased by any of this. They noticed that Adam did not even lift a finger to help them, nor did he use his giant death machine any longer. He simply sat atop one of the buildings of the city that was not being demolished, and he grinned, sipping wine and staring at them along with his new Mauforaum companion and the black-metal giant.

Though there were only twenty-four of them, they made good time, taking down the rooftops first, then working on the bases. They were seldom able to rest, and their food supply was becoming low. Adam did not seem to care about any of this. Any of them that tried to protest was simply laid to the ground, quite dead. All of this would have been much more acceptable, if it were not for Adam's obnoxious habit of preaching his random dreams.

"Can't you see it, Detro?" He sat cross-legged atop of a white chapel that stood just outside of the destruction zone. "A huge castle in the name of my father! Blood and bones shall cover its every crevice, and his symbol will be etched into the broad side of it with the organs of my choosing. They shall be the organs of my favorite parts of the human body, their blood shall coat his throne, and the skull of my choosing shall sit atop it, like eyes that watch over his wondrous deeds for this plane of existence! The mote shall be filled with the marvelous green of the Pit itself, and the beasts that live inside it shall supply it with the flesh and muscles for the feast that shall paint the walls with fresh fluids. All shall look upon this castle, this magnificent palace of the grim!" And on, and on, and on he droned to Detro. The Mauforaum, as always, said nothing. He simply faced toward the working men as they hammered away at the planks and panels that held the houses together. His face still covered by a simple, black cloth that kept his expression blank.

However, as a breeze passed by him, Detro turned around, and faced toward the South. This halted Adam's talk, and made him face the same way. Detro walked up the incline of the roof, and gazed not with his eyes, but his senses. The microscopic edges of his blades made slashing sounds as the winds caressed them. The bands that held them to his body tightened as he bent his elbows and knees, and slid down the shingles, landing on the ground. He stood tall then, as the figure finally became visible to the naked eye.

Adam's grin never left his face as he stood up from his position. His pure white outfit made him look like a shining entity as Klume and Redec still shined in the sky, reflecting off of his layered vest and pristine undershirt.

The figure became clear then, it was an Aerdian. Much like their Ketonn Hraal cousin, the Aerians were covered in a fine fur, all accept for their faces. The Aerdian moved closer toward the other edge of Adam's position in the town, the fur that covered his body was purely white, his clothing, which only consisted of very baggy silk long pants, were also a shining white that made him very visible in the black dunes of Ketarhr.

Adam brought himself down gently from the roof, landing beside Detro, and causing the robotic giant to take a few steps to stay close to its master.

The Aerdian's face was a very milky peach color, which made his face very noticeable in comparison with his hair, and it wore a mask of absolute stern concentration. He did not slow from the sight of the maniac, nor did he even seem to notice the skull-faced robot that stood before him. His sky-blue eyes seemed to cut straight through all of that, and focus on the mission he was sent to do. The Ketonn Hraal government was finally tired of the destructive stories they had heard from the Mauforaums that sought refuge in their walls, and so they sent their response.

When the Aerdian was close enough, he stopped, and never took his eyes off of the human that stood before him.

"Oh, well what is this? Do you wish to join my wonderful fami—"

"Silence, you foul wretch!" The Aerdian had an inhuman growl to his voice. "From Deinoforaum, to the coasts of the human lands, from Sin Desonus and Oph, I have heard of your horrid deeds! No more!" He proclaimed, holding up a resentful fist toward Adam, who seemed entertained by his tenacity.

"Very well…" Adam looked at both of his underlings that stood at his sides. He hummed a slight tune as he decided. "Well you need to have fun too, don't you?" He said to his large metal friend. "Kill him." He said with a very large grin, pointing toward the newcomer. The bot's eyes shined even brighter as he stood up tall, and began to walk toward the pure-white Aerdian who simply stood where he was and looked up at the death machine without a hint of fear in his eyes. "When you feel the crushing sting of my friend's hammer, there won't be another care in the world!" Adam laughed as his death machine neared the lone warrior.

"You underestimate me, you fool." He gritted his teeth then, and he bulged out with all of his muscles and began to get bigger. His fur grew stripes and his maw became huge with razor sharp fangs that came down to his lower jaw. As his transformation was complete, he came up to the black machine's waist, and his giant muscles twitched as they finished their new form. He took the form of a bestial cat creature that had not been seen in over seven thousand years.

The white-striped beast puffed out his chest as the deadly metal giant lifted his hand for an attack, and with a great roar, he blasted ripples through the air that knocked it back three feet, causing it to barely miss as its arm batted down, slamming into the black sand. With not a moment to lose, the giant cat shot forward, slammed its palm straight into the black-metal skull and dug its claws straight through the metal. With one great thrust, it sent the giant robot into the ground on its back. Before the slow-moving machine could get back to its feet, he grasped both hands onto its leg and spun it around once to gain momentum, then let it go. The skull-headed bot crashed through one house, bringing it down around it in a thundering collapse.

The muscular cat beast gave out a great roar of ecstasy as it jumped a large distance into the rubble pile that was once a house, and slammed both of his feet into the robot's black metal chest, causing it to cave in a few inches. Then its arm came up from the debris, and shot a metal-spiked ball straight into the monster's side, causing it to slam into the building next to it and crash through the wall and the window. As the machine brought the spiked ball back to its palm, the beast looked to its arm to see that blood poured out of it, but it was not for caring, because the death machine came back to its feet.

Adam's grin was of both bemusement and awe as the two titans battled before him. He drank his wine and sat comfortably in his spot, thinking this was better than a wrestling program on the tele… on the what? His hand stopped suddenly and began to shake with the wine glass in it. Detro couldn't help but notice Adam's completely blank look. His mouth hung open and his head began to feel that pressure again. Images came back to him as he thought on it more, and sand began to lift from the ground, small particles at first but then large patches of sand followed soon. He suddenly snapped out of it, and then looked on at the fight as if nothing had happened at all.

Before the machine even took its first step into the decimated house, the beast's powerful fist knocked straight into its shin, knocking it forward. Before its head landed on him, he jumped, twirled, and kicked it straight into its skull face. The collision blasted through four more houses before it finally stopped. It lied on its back for a few seconds as the bestial creature walked toward it, shoulders back and chest puffed out as he approached his victim in supposed triumph.

As he was in range, however, the machine's fist flew up, and hammered into the ground, creating a massive fissure. The beast lost his footing, and fell very fast into the hole it created, but caught himself on either side of the opening. The black machine shot the ball-and-chain from his palm once again, nearly hitting the creature as he pushed his powerful arms down, launching himself high into the air. The machine calculated this in less than a second, and pulled up, retracting the chain just enough to make it slam into the creature's back.

A horrible pain burst inside of him, and he fell to the ground, his back pouring with blood as the ball's spikes were lodged deep into him, even poking his spinal cord.

This drew a long string of guffawing from Adam as he applauded.

"Bravo! That, my large, metal friend, was brilliant!" Adam finally drank the remainder of his wine and tossed the glass to the side as he stood. "Bring him to me." Adam commanded it.

The machine retracted his chain all the way back to its palm, and held the heavy beast with both of his hands. Just as it rose to do its master's bidding, the beast drew in one final breath, and slammed his left claws directly into its eye socket. Blinded, the machine dropped the monster's corpse as he reverted back to his pure white, normal form.

Adam's continual grin finally faded as the machine stumbled backward, its sensor hanging out from its original position.

"How shameful." He looked down at the bloody, broken body as it lied in the black sands. "Repair yourself you worthless piece of dumps… dumpster…" Adam heard a ringing in his ear, and suddenly it became louder. It became so loud that he could not hear himself scream as he clenched both hands onto the sides of his head. Images kept running through his head. A green lady standing tall, raised her hand, yellow machines on wheels going down the streets, they flashed by so fast he couldn't even recognize them. Then they suddenly stopped as a tall man in a trench coat waved one down. As he got into the thing, all of the images disappeared.

One of the bandits saw his chance, and ran for Adam with a hammer in his hand. Before Detro could even make a move to slice the human, Adam let it all go. An enormous wave of power surged through the air all around him. Windows broke. Beams snapped in half. The human that was near him even had the skin and tendons ripped from his arms. Detro was just out of range of the full impact, but even he was knocked through an already shattering window.

Adam gasped, and began to pant as he came back to his senses. He had an enormous headache, and the screams from the boney-armed man did not help it at all. With a simple flick of his wrist, the man's head was spun completely around.

"Shut the hell up!"

The Catalyst Core Part 3.5

The Desert Snow

Reve's eyes crept open as he lied near the fire they had made. It was dark, not even close to Siem's rising by his reckoning. At first it smelled like rotten eggs, but then he remembered who he had been traveling with. He took off his hat and waved it in front of his face with his eyes closed.

"Oh… sorry." Krol said, looking up from the fire.

"Hot damn, Krol." He whispered, looking across from the fire at the lady who was very soundly asleep on the other side. "Sure glad she's a heavy sleeper."

Krol chuckled some and then took a drink from his large cantine. "If we were having some of your desert jerky, it wouldn't matter how soundly she slept."

"Don't remind me." He sat up, laughing under his breath along with Krol. "Well damn, ol'buddy. From what I gather, we'll have our work cut out for us in this round." Reve looked over at the Ratoul'an who sat next to him, not needing to sleep for four straight days.

"Oh? So you've heard of this man?" Krol said, looking at him as he put his hat back on his head.

"Yeah, let's just say I got sources." Reve looked deep into the fire, throwing a twig into it. "Said they call him Adam," He paused for a moment, "Adam, the Seed."

"Well, now that we have another companion with telekinetic capacities, I suppose the both of you could go against—" He stopped as he saw Reve looking downward. "What is it?"

Reve sighed, and looked over at him, his violet eyes reflected the fire. "I gotta show you somethin'. When I do, she can't know about it." Reve whispered even quieter. Then he raised up two fingers together, and sat there looking at Krol.

The Ratoul'an stared at his fingers for a moment, then he raised his eyebrows. "Is there a scar on th—" He stopped talking and then looked up into the black of the night to see one very large boulder coming toward them. At first he thought someone or something was coming up behind Reve to crush him. Then he saw that there was no one around it. It rotated slowly, and began to orbit Reve somewhat.

"What…" Krol stared, his eyes widening as the shear size of it became apparent. He knew that it weighed much more than him. "Aren't you feeling…"

"Nope. For some reason I ain't feelin' no repercussions. I don't feel drained one bit." Reve set the boulder down behind him without even looking at it. Then he sat back on it. "I been doin' it like this ever since I had that asshole take control o'er me."

"That's amazing!" Krol said. Then Reve shushed him with a finger to his mouth. Both of them looked over at Lain to see her not even stir a little bit. Reve might have thought she was feigning sleep, but he could tell by the way she was breathing that she was indeed asleep.

"She already knows I'm a weirdo, I don' need to convince her more." Reve took out a small paper, then got out his pouch, starting to tap the contents on the middle, and roll it into a cigarette. He did all of this without even the slightest effort. Then he licked the edge of the paper to seal it.

"Reve, I've been meaning to ask you. What exactly is that stuff? We haven't been crossing a whole lot of plants around these parts, yet you seem to have an abundance of it." Krol smelled the strange smoke as Reve lit it.

"Well, strange you should ask, 'cause I really don't know. This stuff started to grow around the time when the whole planet started to go to hell. I know it never grew here before, cause I never seen any other plant like it while I's with the caravan. I asked a few people I knew would know, but they d'nt."

"You started smoking it when you didn't know what it was?"

"Yup." Reve said, not even seeing any weight in the question. "Hell, Krol, when I took that long walk through the desert, I d'nt care what the hell came for me. A vulture could have picked my bones clean and I wouldn't give a shee'it. I guess a part'a me kinda hoped that it would kill me." He blew out another cloud of smoke.

"That's no excuse, Reve." Both of them were somewhat surprised to hear Lain speak. She got up from her blanket that she draped over the sand. "If you have a chance to live, you should never just freely endanger your life." She turned her tired green eyes over to him, and then stretched. Her wings twitched some, and her arms popped. Then, without even touching the ground with her hands, she got to her feet. "Excuse me." She said, then walked out the other way, seeing a good place to squat.

"Huh… sounds like somethin' my Pa told me." Reve said, drawing Krol's attention once again. "I don't remember how he said it, but it was somethin' along the lines of 'Every single soul is rare, as rare as the Desert Snow. Doesn't matter where we are, doesn't matter where we go. The Desert Snowflakes ain't that far, flying free like a shooting star.' Or somethin' like that." Reve dragged once more on his smoke, then held it out to Krol.

The Ratoul'an took it with his double-thumbed claw, and then held it dead-center in his palm. He gazed at it, the cherry at the end of it still burning in the middle of his hand. Then he winked at it, causing it to burn up in a dancing flame. As the smoldering began to stop, he tossed it in the middle of their campfire.

Lain stood behind the boulder Reve sat next to, and looked at them both.

"It's time to get going." Both Reve and Lain said in synch. Then Reve clapped his knee, "Ha!"

Both Reve and Krol burst out laughing, "I called it right away!" They kept laughing as they got to their feet. Then Reve looked over at her, his keen Mauforaum eyes could see clearly in the dark, and he could see that she found humor in it, but she could not laugh. Her mind was too exhausted from all of the turmoil she had seen, and laughter was the farthest thing from her mind.

The Mauforuam opened his arms. "I'm sorry." She darted into them and put her head onto his chest, only being a few inches shorter than him. Her hands held onto his shoulders as she silently cried.

"It's okay." Lain whispered.

[Rinji]

The Catalyst Core Part 4

The Underlying

The dismantling was done. An entire square mile had been cleared out from the city, and all of the debris was cleared out, leaving nothing but a plain of sand. Adam stood on the building nearest to it, and his grin was wider than ever. It was almost time, and he knew it. He knew that soon his father's fortress would arise and bring about a wave that would conquer this realm and every single soul in it.

He turned to the large black-metal humanoid beside the house. It pushed its loosened sensor back into its socket and popped a welder out of its middle finger on its left hand. Where did this machine come from in the first place? Adam had often wondered this question, but did not dwell on it, for it was not important. His newest friend was asleep. After five whole days of being awake, Detro had finally gone into a very dark, and dirty corner of an unheated furnace and slept while bunched up in a very tight space. Adam had to laugh when he saw him do this, but he left him to his will.

After seeing what happened to the first man that tried to go against him, none of the men made any moves against the tyrant's son. Their work was done now, and they got as far away from Adam as they could without making any sudden attempts of escape. They were petrified at the idea of escape, though they desired it more than anything.

"What an absolutely perfect morning, don't you agree?" Adam said as he stood up from the roof, knowing that the machine would not answer him. "Everything is in place now, however, there is a piece missing, isn't there? What has my father planned for his entrance in this realm? It was quite magnificent, his entrance into the Negaverse. He brought upon a slug, a giant slug that ravaged all of the countries of a single planet. One that belched horribly melting acid from its maw, and left behind a slime with a stench that could easily suffocate any living creature. The fools fought it as hard as they possibly could, and finally brought its life to a halt. However, my father's fortress was inside of its belly. It opened then, and the bloody throne was there for all to see. Only then did the REAL fun begin!" Adam let out a good laugh. "I wonder what kind of a creature he will bring to this realm?" There was silence then. The bandits sat a hundred yards away from him, in the shade of a nearby tavern, eating their beans and drinking what was left of the beer.

Then Adam felt it once again. Just like when he first entered this plane, he felt a pressure in his brow, and there it was again, but it was not disheartening. On the contrary, it pleased him more than anything, because it was the presence of true power. He felt the presence that could rival even his own, and it was a glorious feeling. However, then he saw something fly by him that he did not expect. It was a black cowboy hat. It flew upon the wind, lazily swaying from side to side above all of the buildings. Adam followed it with his eyes as it spiraled around in the air, and landed upon the sand in the middle of an empty pathway between the remaining buildings in Deinoforaum.

He jumped down off of his building, and walked toward it, not entirely knowing what to think. Then there was a large blast that went through one of the distant buildings behind the one that stood before him. Then the next one, coming closer toward him, boards and glass flying as a force demolished them, then finally through the building before him. He held up his own shield and allowed the force to pass through it like rain on a roof. It was a terrible power, but Adam stood firm against it, and his grin only widened, showing his perfect, white teeth.

As the pieces of the building rested, and the dust cleared from the holes, his grin began to dissipate, for there stood a Mauforaum. Words could not express Adam's disappointment. Though he looked quite different from the ones he had met, he was getting quite tired of seeing them all together.

"Another one? Why is this world so full of scum like you? Why can't I find a decent piece for my trophy collection? I'm getting tired of seeing your kind rise against me, then break into pieces at the flick of my wrist!" Adam shouted as he saw the Mauforaum take something out of his jacket pocket and then put it between his lips.

Reve lit the smoke and then put away his lighter. Then took a nice long puff, holding it in his lungs as he looked at Adam from the hole he created in the building.

"Funny…" Reve spoke in an accent that surprised Adam. "I's thinkin' the same thing."

Adam furrowed his brow, and then felt a twitch of anger as the strange-looking creature began to walk casually toward him. He looked over at his death machine, and nodded him toward Reve.

The robot wasted no time in getting to his feet, his broken eye socket now with a crude, dull gray in its repair job, but at least the sensor worked now. It began to take gigantic steps toward the gunman who stood there, not even seeming to notice the gargantuan creature barreling through the side of a house as it got within ten yards of him. It unraveled its ball-and-chain from its hand, and brought it down at Reve. The Mauforaum finally bent down in an instant, lifting up both of his hands, catching the chain, and even lifting the robot itself with his mind. Reve did one simple punch in midair, and sent the bot flying into the distance. The death machine flew clear across town, missing the very edge of a building and hitting the black sand with an enormous clatter, kicking up dust that could be seen for an entire mile.

Reve blew smoke as he turned back to Adam, his sandy blonde hair swaying with the oncoming gust of wind and dust.

Anger boiled and brimmed inside the tyrant's son as he saw him sit there and continue to smoke, provoking him to do something else. He had no idea what to think of this new face, other than his hair being blonde, to Adam he looked just the same as the rest of that pitiful race. Then he saw it; as the Mauforaum brought his hand up to his smoke, he saw the seal on the back of his hand. Instantly he understood and this brought a grin to Adam's face.

"So… you are the carrier. You are Demon-Eye Reve." Before Adam could emit a string of laughter, Reve's eye twitched, and in an instant he felt a horrible pressure collide with his entire body. This pressure was not unlike a hammer as it rammed him straight back, not even giving him enough time to set up his own defense against it. He flew, his nose was broken and his entire body writhed in pain as he crashed through a door, and hit the floor hard.

"Oh, pard'n my rudeness, n'such. But I don't take kindly to that name." Reve said, stubbing his smoke onto a nearby loose board of a demolished house.

The anger was over-flowing now, as Adam rose from the floor. His body shivered, he could not control it. He closed his arms and then shot them out at either side of him, destroying the entire house around him and shooting its pieces all around him. All of the debris that would have hit Reve was stopped in midair, and then dropped to the ground as the Mauforaum looked at it.

Adam's teeth ground in his mouth, and he unleashed a horrible scream of furious rage. He would take no more time with this insolent fool. He would crush him with his bare hands, and set an example for anyone else who dared to cross his path.

Those who slaved for Adam looked toward the oncoming battle with awe and amazement. The thought of escape crossed their mind, but then they saw the absolute fury that came from their tormentor and they found themselves engrossed in this new warrior that stood in his path. He was far unlike the Aerdian, with whom they secretly dug a grave with a nameless stone. They watched, and found themselves kindling a new flame of hope.

The Catalyst Core Part 4.2

The Underlying

The Death Machine lay on his back shortly after his ascending from the middle of the city. He got up from his small crater and restarted his main program, loading up his memory files, and reconfiguring his location. As he came up with the schematics of the area, he saw where his master and the new life form stood. He wasted no time in starting to run toward the two, but then his sensors picked up a new heat source; two of them actually, but then another one was picked up on his radar, coming at him fast. He turned just in time to get a glimpse of a large flaming wagon hurdling at him from the sky. He had no time to lift his arms to block it, and it collided with him, smashing him into a house.

The Death Machine collapsed the house around him, and then sat up, his sensors closing in on the heat source. It held out its hand and fired its ball-and-chain straight through the house that the source was located.

Krol managed to dodge the ball and chain to the side, and then clamp his claw onto the chain, both of his thumbs gripping onto it with an iron-tight hold. As the Death Machine retracted the chain, Krol went with it, coming directly at the large black-metal giant. As he released his grasp on the chain, he caused a stream of fire to travel directly at it. Unable to react in any way, other than continuing the retraction, the machine was engulfed in a huge, raging ball of flame.

The Ratoul'an howled with abandon, but was taken by surprise as the Machine stepped straight out of the ball as the fire dissipated. Just by the steam emitting from it, he knew that it was red-hot, but it did not seem to be phased or slowed in the least. Instead it charged straight for Krol, and he saw no way around it. He quickly used his pyrokinesis to extinguish the heat, and when the Death Machine collided with him, he held strong, only sliding back on his hind claws a few inches. However, the giant machine calculated his strength already, it merely protruded its arm plates, making them pop out and smack the Ratoul'an in the chest.

Krol did a hard roll back and hit his head on a house, cursing. The Death Machine held up his newly opened arms, revealing a collection of round, spiked blades underneath the arm plate. He made both of the blades spin, and then pick up speed. Krol got to his feet as their rotation became impossible to follow because of how fast they were going. Without a moment to lose, he smashed his hand into the threshold of the house, and using his immense strength he ripped the door completely off as the machine let the first blade fly. He put the door up just in time to catch the first blade on the wooden door, it penetrated the middle of it halfway, coming only inches from Krol's snout.

"Damn." Krol breathed, and then instantly lit the door aflame, and shot it straight at him, twirling it as fast as he could. As the machine targeted the flying firewood, Krol shoved his right hand into his pocket, and pulled out his silver knuckles. The next spinning blade destroyed the door in midair, but the Ratoul'an went around it. Just before the machine could ready another spiraling blade, the silver knuckles plowed into the machine's chest, sending it a few steps back. Krol lunged his knuckles up under the arm that held the next sharp disc, causing the arm to misfire and slice off the arm plate completely. Shards and sparks went everywhere as large pieces of metal flew from the arm. But the Ratoul'an did not relent, he punched his knuckles into the chest once again.

This time, the chest plate gave way, already having been weakened by the giant cat beast it had battled the day before. There it was, the inner workings were exposed and there was its core, a shining metal piece that lit red from the inside. Going to emergency security mode, the machine's upper body completely did a three-sixty turn and swung its arm into Krol's maw, sending him on a hard roll to the side. The Ratoul'an spit blood, but got to his feet as he stopped rolling.

The machine emitted a siren, a very loud one that made Krol cringe. Then it emitted steam from its arms and legs, small pieces of metal popping out of its joints. Once the small modifications were complete, it began to charge straight for the quadruped. It moved with surprising speed now, but Krol stayed right where he was, he shook the dizziness from his head and hunched over in pain. Just as the machine was in range, it swung its ball-and-chain out from its hand and brought it straight down.

"Ahir-def!" Krol insulted the machine in his native tongue, and concentrated his eyes on one single place in the chain, burning it and causing it to snap in two. Then Krol launched his hind and fore claws straight off the ground with a blast of fire. The Ratoul'an flew a short distance, going straight over the machine's head, and catching the chain in midair. As he landed behind the metal giant, he gave it one second to turn around, then he used the momentum of the chain to swing the ball, and smash it directly into its chest.

The machine's core was shattered, and it convulsed, unable to get any power.

"WARNING: MODEL 890-DESTROYER UNIT POWER SOURCE DAMAGED, EMERGENCY AUXILERY CORE ACTIVATED!"

"Ah, shit." Krol dipped his head down, beginning to absolutely hate this machine.

"WARNING: AUXILERY CORE DAMAGED, BEG-" It was interrupted by a huge burst of flame from the black beast. He blew fire into it as hard as he possibly could, and then he concentrated his efforts, making the wave of flame turn into a small stream of pure heat. "WARNING: OVERrrrrRRRRrrrrrr" The machine's siren was halted, and it finally gave way, falling onto its back as it overheated a terrible amount.

The flame died down, and the pile of useless black metal stayed there, smoldering hot with an orange tinge. Krol lurched over some, and panted. His power was pretty low, and the hits he took were not pansy shots either. As he turned around, he heard a small beeping sound. He turned back to the machine, and he heard the beeping sound getting faster. He wasn't sure what it was, but he backed away from it. Then the beep turned into one continuous tone, and the metal pile combusted. The explosion was expected, so Krol focused what little energy he had left, and halted the flames from coming toward him. The flames bent around him, and he was able to hold it for the bulk of the explosion. However, the impact was far too much for him to handle and he was pushed back, crashing into the front of a building and shattering the wooden frame as he hit it.

No matter how he fought it, darkness crept into his sight and the only thing he could see was the tavern. That tavern that he remembered so well. That was the place they met. It was very soon after he graduation from the academy. The world was beginning to worsen at that point, and there were many Ratoul'an in the land that were winding up dead from mysterious causes. His plans were very simple that day, he would just have a shot, maybe even a beer to go along with it, then he would go ahead home to a family that treated him like an outsider.

None of his family shared his powers. All of them had great telekinetic abilities and telepathy that could over-come him in the blink of an eye. He could emit fire, and was scolded hard if he were to ever use it on one of his brothers or sisters. All of that went away when he was there that day. Right whenever he opened that tavern door, there he was, sitting at the bar, fiddling with his stack of silver coins, trying to figure out what he was going to order. Mauforaums were seldom seen in this area, especially ones with two six-shooter pistols and a black cowboy hat.

Krol almost found his appearance amusing. He walked in, his knuckles popping on the hard, wood floor. The old, grayish brown Ratoul'an bartender was growing impatient with Reve's order, so he turned to Krol.

"A shot and a beer, please." Krol said and the barkeep nodded.

"Same for me." Reve said, sliding two silvers across the bar, paying for his and Krol's drink.

"You don't need to do that." Krol looked at Reve a little closer as he sat in the stool next to him.

"Oh, I know I don't. But I gotta thank ye for givin' me the idea. A shot an'a beer sounds good." Reve turned his head to Krol, and the Ratoul'an saw them, those two deep violet eyes. Once he saw them, he couldn't take his eyes off of them, they were so strange and surrealistic that they almost didn't look real.

"Somethin' caught your eye, friend?" Reve said as he downed his first shot. The Mauforaum cringed at the strength of it, and then drank a few swallows of his beer. "Hot damn! You boys can't cook snakes worth a shit, but y'whiskey's tougher than nails."

This drew laughter from Krol, and he downed his shot, and drank his beer as well.

"That accent," Krol said, still laughing. "It isn't a Mauforuam accent, is it?" Krol drank another few swallows of beer.

"Nope, that it ain't." Reve downed more of his beer. "Wasn't raised by'em." He sighed, then looked back over at Krol.

"What brings you away from Deinoforaum, if you don't mind my asking."

Reve paused, then turned over to him with a slight look of annoyance. "Hell no, I don' mind you askin', but I didn' come from no Deinoforaum. Like I said, I's not raised by Mauforaums, I's raised by humans." This brought a surprised look from Krol, he almost asked if he got his blond hair from his human side, but he did not want to sound rude. "They's nomads, they moved 'round from the deserts, to the plains, and all around country-sides. Since y'asked so nicely what brings me 'round these parts, I'll tell you I think this world's goin' to all one thousand hells at the same time."

This statement almost surprised Krol, but in truth it didn't. He, too, could feel something was terribly wrong with this world. Anytime he tried to bring it up to his siblings, they laughed at him, or tried to change the subject. It was not their place in the world to think of such things. The only thing that mattered to their people was their people, not the world's.

Reve downed another shot and cringed harder, shaking his head and knocking the shot glass against the bar. He let out a shout of vigor and gave back the shot glass for the tender to reload.

"Damn, I oughtta come by these parts more often. The hooch here's top notch." Reve belched, accidentally aiming for Krol, who shook his head.

Before Reve could apologize, the Ratoul'an worked up one himself, and gave a very long, guttural belch at Reve. The Mauforaum gave exasperation and waved his hand in his face. This drew a great laughter from both of them, and they ordered another round, taking to a table.

Though some of their conversations were joking, and full of humor, they began to discuss the horrible events that were taking place in Ketarhr: The blackening of the sand, the unneeded violence from many of the cities, and the disappearances of people, namely the children.

If anyone asked him then, he couldn't tell them why he followed Reve. Maybe it had something to do with his unsupportive family, or maybe it was because Reve was the most astute Mauforaum he had ever known. One thing he did know was that he didn't regret it for one day after that. Even when the creatures became meaner and uglier as they went on, he decided to walk along side him.

They found a friend and a comrade in each other, and when everything in this entire world was going to hell, that is exactly what they needed.

The Catalyst Core Part 4.3

The Underlying

Her eyes reflected the stars as they showed through the tears that arose. She was seven years old, her wings were not yet ready to carry her on the winds but they were close. The night sky did not keep her from seeing the bloody figure that stood before her. His blades wielded on all of his body as his lifeless orbs gazed at her unblinking. Six Inroluse sisters lay at his feet, dead and sliced to bloody shambles. She stood, shaking with her sister's blade held out in front of her. She could do nothing for them, she could only watch as he wiped their blood clean from the metal points that were strapped to his limbs.

Detro did not kill children, so he turned and walked away; but she was still there. Lain stood there in that grassy knoll. In her mind she stood there for ages. She pushed herself every single day, swinging her sword until her arms had no feeling. She killed her body more and more, only to have it reborn and stronger than she ever was. All for that single moment, she killed her body further and further.

All for that single moment. As Detro arose to the roof to see what was causing all of the ruckus, her stern jade eyes gazed at him from the rooftop next to him. The wind blew through them, and that is when Detro felt her presence. He turned his head toward her, seeing her in that lovely red Inroluse robe, the sword already in her hand and held behind her back in a passive stance.

"Detro… Bastard son of Danara." Lain spoke to him with words that he had killed for. "Your fight is with me!" She flipped her sword around in her hand and swiped it through the air. Her hand motioned him toward her with two fingers. "Come!"

Detro poised himself, the wind caressing his blades, making a metal slicing sound over the tiny, sharpened tips. In the blink of an eye, he thrust his legs from the edge of the structure and sliced directly for her neck. However, as the wind blew toward her, she spread her wing span and was pushed far back from the oncoming blade. Just as he lunged for her once again, she spun and caught both his arm weapons with her one sword. Before he could swing his leg blade at her, she twirled, swiping her elbow directly into his face. He was knocked backward, sliding on his back to the edge of the wooden rooftop.

Her legs moved with grace and speed as she sliced it low. Just as it was about to gash his under chin, he looked straight up, it shaving off a sliver of ebon skin. He kipped up and flipped through the air, catching his knee blade on her shoulder, drawing blood. Without any mind paid to her wounded shoulder, she swung her entire body around as he came down. Her Inroluse sword slashed his back hard, so hard, in fact, that it even cut through the metal guard blade that covered the line down his back.

He growled in anger, and quickly turned around in a fighting stance, but she was gone. There was a slight flapping sound in the air, and as he realized what she had done, it was too late, she jabbed the point of her blade straight through his back, so that it stuck out from his gut.

"Bastard, meet Death, he is happy to see you." She whispered in his ear, then grabbed the rag on his face and tore it off. His eyes had no lids because he never wanted to blink. His mouth had no tongue because he did not want to make a sound, and his face showed no emotion because he did not want to show weakness. All of that went away as her blade twisted in his chest, tearing veins from his heart and carving his ribcage into pieces. She finally pulled her sword from his back. Before his body could hit the ground, she sliced three times, and then sheathed her sword. She turned and walked away as he fell to pieces. His limbs and head fell from the roof top, and she looked on.

"There… it's your turn, Reve." Lain saw the fire ignite from one of the few remaining buildings in their region of the city. She did not interfere, she stood, and waited.

Their powers battled between them, the pressure that pushed together collided with equal strength, so that neither of them could attack using their telekinesis. Adam and Reve faced each other down in the middle of the building debris. Adam scowled at him, daring him to make the next move.

Reve took that dare, and in the blink of an eye, both of his pistols were drawn. Three shots from both guns were fired, and Adam rolled to the side, his hands pushing off of the ground as they struck the pieces of wood that lay all over the battlefield. Without a moment to lose, he cast three nails straight at Reve with his mind. The Mauforaum did not blink his violet eyes as he fired down all three nails out of midair with his Eagle Wing .45. Both of them strafed to the side.

As Adam ran down the alleyway beside a house, Reve ran down the other side. Every single window that made Adam appear, Reve fired his pistol through them. Glass flew through both sides of the house, and one shard caught Adam in the brow, and drew blood.

"Bastard!" Adam shouted, he flexed every lobe in his brain, and thrust the entire house into Reve on the other side. Without a moment to lose, Reve spread his wing span, and used the force from his mind to dart straight into the air as the house crashed into the debris beside it. The Mauforaum wasted no time as he reloaded one of his guns. However, a two-by-four came up like a bullet from the air. Before Reve could dodge it, it lunged into his under-chest, and knocked him out of the air.

Reve's back hit a structure hard on the roof. He cringed, his eyes closed, but just as he opened them, there Adam was, flying up through the air above him, his mind holding him far up. Adam fell straight down at Reve, blasting his mind for the Mauforaum before he could come up with a good defense. The wooden surface gave way as the enormous pressure struck it and Reve hit the floor inside hard.

Adam landed on the edge of the hole he made in the ceiling, and Reve was waiting for him, firing off four shots in the blink of an eye. He managed to veer three off course with his mind, but the last one lunged into his side.

"Damn you!" Adam screamed, as he pressurized the wound and drew out the bullet with his power.

"Too late, asshole." Reve clenched his fist, and the bookshelf behind him shot straight up, hard-backs flying out of it as it bashes through the hole, knocking Adam off of the roof. The human landed on the top of another structure. Reve flew to the edge of his roof and looked down at the one Adam landed on. Before Adam could get back to his feet, Reve enhanced his vision inside of the structure, and aimed directly for a crate marked "dynamite." One bullet was all it took, the entire building blew sky high. Reve expanded his wings, flapping back along with the combustion, then stood as he saw Adam was not able to avoid the blast. The Mauforaum holstered both of his guns, but before he fully turned, he saw something that made him do a double-take. His eyes widened, and his mouth gawked as the burned, deformed figure emerged from the flames.

He had no face anymore. Half of it was burned to the tendons and the reticular dermis. He was beyond rage now, the only reason he survived was from his powers bending the flames away from him when he needed to the most. His lower body was left unharmed but half of his upper torso and his entire jaw was nothing but muscle tissue, the only reason it did not bleed was because the flames cauterized it. His hair was no longer blond, but a mass of black and filthy strands that fell out from the slightest move he made.

"Do not worry about me, you piece of shit, once I have killed you, I will wear your flesh instead." Adam said, as Reve could see the tendons and muscle harden before his eyes as the human-like creature cringed, and allowed the demon spirit engulf him further.

[Rinji]

The Catalyst Core Part 4.4

The Underlying

Adam's burned eye glared at Reve. The black veins that pulsed through it were quite visible, and matched the blackened tendons that covered most of his face. All of his muscle tissue pulsed with a new energy, and hardened to the point of armor, even stronger than his skin. His hair fell out with every movement, catching a breeze and then floating away, tumbling on the black sand.

Reve could see that Adam meant every word that he said, but for some reason he was not worried. The two of them faced each other down, measuring each other out once again. Adam clenched his deformed fist, all of the visible muscles tensing up as the power flowed and began to rip through the air around him.

The Mauforaum quickly punched the air, his telekinesis blasting straight through the distance between them, it struck Adam hard. However, it did little more than push his heels back a few inches, and he showed no pain from the attack. Reve's eye twitched, not entirely sure what to think of this new form that Adam took.

"You pitiful mortal, did you sincerely think you could win against the son of the ruler of this entire universe?" Adam lifted his blackened hand, a red blaze of power emitting from it and bashing Reve straight in the chest, bashing him through the structure he was in before, and knocking him through the wall on the other side. He felt a large splinter jab into his side, drawing blood, and he was almost instantly out of breath.

To his surprise, Adam's grip did not relinquish. The demonic human pulled him straight back, knocking his head against the edge of the hole he had made, and bashing his shoulder through the next one, ripping the skin hard and returning Reve before Adam. Just as Reve was about to go into the human, he pulled his gun from its holster and shot three bullets in an instant. One hit the black side of Adam's face, and bounced off, the other grazed his ear, and the last one struck his collar bone, causing him to drop the Mauforaum.

"Imbecile!" Adam lashed his demonic hand across the air, slicing a hard rip against Reve's chest, drawing much blood and knocking him skidding across the sand. The Mauforaum coughed up saliva mixed with blood, then spit the remainder from his mouth as he slowly got up. His muscles ached, and his mind was beginning to tire from all of the power he exerted. To his dismay, the human only seemed to grow in power.

"Yes… This is the last of it, you pitiful creature. You have done well with all things considered, but now you know that it was all for naught. Though I cannot stand the sight of you, I have grown to like you." Adam clenched his fist and the Mauforaum felt a horrible clawed hand engulf his body and squeeze with unbearable pressure. "Now… I will give you this one and only chance. Join me, Demon-Eye Reve, let Noxious serve my lord and master as we conquer this world. For all shall plummet into death as he sends his creature that brings destruction to this universe."

This caused Reve to laugh. His laughter was hard, and his eyes mocking Adam as he looked at him. "You still don' get it, do ya? You're the creature, Adam."

Adam's eyes flared open, and he glared at Reve. His anger subsided for a moment, and he looked to the left, his mind turning in thought.

"Noxious tol' me all about ya. He gave me some good information, it seems. 'Cause he said if all seemed hopeless, and you couldn't be stopped by force alone, he told me that I could say just three little words. Ones that wouldn' make sense t'me but ye'd get the picture."

Adam's eyes shot to Reve, and before he could do anything, they were spoken.

"New York City…" The Mauforaum said, and he was instantly dropped to the ground. Reve merely watched, and instantly began to reload his pistols while the demonic human began to convulse, and his mind went erratic and uncontrollable.

Adam's mind blared, for a moment he could hear nothing but a piercing high pitched howl that drilled into his mind and killed his thoughts. Then the images came back. There was an airliner, but before that there was a taxi. Who was that man that got into the taxi? He wore a trench coat. As the man got into the car he motioned for Adam to come in with him.

"NO!" Adam shouted as his mind pulsed painfully, "NO IT CAN'T BEEEEE!"

'Come on in, son! We're going to be late for the plane!' The man said to him. His father! It couldn't be! His father was the most powerful demon lord in existence, but that wasn't right!

"NOOOO!" His mind let out a huge combustion that blasted the ground all around him, along with the Mauforaum who shot his pistol at the exact same moment, but it veered off too far to the side and missed Adam's head. Reve slid to the pile of rubble that was once a structure and lied there, his muscles were shot, and his mind was exhausted. He could barely move without a current of pain shooting through him, hard.

"YOOOOUUUU BASTAAAAARD!" Adam shrieked into the air as the pulse of power blasted off the black shell around part of his body, blood spurted out of the cracks in his exposed inner flesh. His hair was gone, taken out by the blasts, and his body began to crack in its flesh, blood gushing out of each fissure. More openings began to expose themselves, but soon he gained partial control.

Adam concentrated, knowing that this was the end for him. He was not the son of Kriel Sin, he was a pawn, a monster that was given power for one single purpose. He looked to the burning pile of rubble that destroyed his flesh, and he reached up toward the sky, calling for it to come to his hand. The fire began to flow through the air and gather above the broken demon's head.

Reve could barely keep his eyes open to see all of this occurring. When he was finally able to focus them, the mass of fire above Adam's head had grown to the size of a huge horse pasture. It burned like Redec itself, and it was almost complete.

The Mauforaum had to put everything into his one arm so that he could aim it just right. His eye strained hard, and turned red as he allowed the one inside of him to be his sight. He had only one chance, and when he saw that his gun was just in the right position, he fired once. In the next instant, he fired off two more.

The first bullet struck home, streaming across the distance between them and passing straight through Adam's exposed wrist. The human looked up at the hole in his arm, and glared in horror as another one struck directly beside it, his hand was only hanging on by a thin sliver of flesh now, and it could do nothing to hold the large ball of flame anymore.

"NOOOOOOOOOO—" Adam shrieked as the ball of flame fell to the side. It struck him on the head first, and engulfed his entire body. His figure became pieces in an instant, and the flames waved over the area around him, turning the sands into shards of glass as he melted into them.

Reve's arm dropped to the ground, and he closed his eyes. As he did this, he heard a deep, horrific laughter from the one that dwelled inside of him. As this laughter occurred, he felt strength inside of him once again. His muscles pulsed with energy, and twitched as they came back to life. His wound still bled, but the pain was somehow invigorating. He rose to his feet then, and looked at the flames that were now dying down. He couldn't help but notice that Adam died in the very center of the land he had cleared. He shrugged this knowledge off and walked toward the place to confirm the bastard child's death.

There he was, only half of his face remained, even the visible portion of his skull was blown half-way to hell, as it should be. But then he flinched as he saw the broken head move and gurgle some. Adam's only remaining eye opened, glaring at the Mauforaum gunman and it sneered.

"How's the ground taste, you son of a bitch?" Reve lifted his gun once more, and blasted a shot straight into his eye. The head shot back, and it seemed to convulse, then what remained of its throat began to work, he could even see part of the trachea and the esophagus moving. As its very last movement, the demon's tongue stuck out, and Reve could see something on the very tip of it, covered in blue and green goop.

As Reve bent over and retrieved it, he heard a voice that brought him great comfort.

"Reve!" Krol shouted, trotting faster toward him. Reve slid the object into his jacket pocket and turned to Krol with a smile on his face. "Reve, what happened?" He said, then turned to see the human's partial head begin to emit steam, along with what remained of the rest of his body. He stepped back along with Reve as the body began to sink down into the black sands, leaving a hole.

"Looks like our friend really was a seed…" Reve said, picking his second-to-last smoke from his pocket and lit it as he put it to his lips. Krol looked at him as he dragged a good puff of smoke from it. "An' I just planted'em."

The Catalyst Core Part 4.5
The Underlying

"And I just planted him." Krol thought to himself as he lied on a large towel in the middle of an empty room. The house was one of the last ones remaining in the city that wasn't covered in holes and run down into a waste. The Ratoul'an couldn't help but think of that very thing that Reve said over and over again, he saw that creature sink into the ground but he couldn't explain it when there was nothing there but a horrible, sick omen. A seed, a seed for what?

Before he could think anymore on the subject, Reve walked back into the room, holding a pitcher of hot water. Krol winced at the current situation, not especially ready to see what Reve was planning, but neither of them said anything as Reve dampened a cloth and began to wring it out.

"Well, looks like the tin can did a little number on ya'." Reve said as he began to uncover the fur in the bad areas. He saw one cut that was especially deep right above his hip, and could even see some of the metal sticking out. "Hot damn, Krol, was he dancin' on ya?"

Krol merely grunted, knowing he didn't need to really say anything. He cringed as Reve began to wipe off the blood, he was careful not to directly touch the wounds, but he wasn't especially careful either. The Ratoul'an body was very well built, even when they have taken enough damage to kill a human, they can still remain mobile, for the most part. Krol had obtained enough to kill a small child.

"You need somethin' to bite on while I'm-" Reve was interrupted.

"Just pull the damn things out, Reve, get it over with." Krol said with a great amount of annoyance.

Reve held out both of his hands, one with the wash cloth. Then he pulled out a small bottle of whiskey from his jacket pocket. "Good thing about a city like this: everything's in stock." He opened the bottle, took a quick swig, then poured it over the collective wounds. Krol's reaction was more controlled than Reve expected, all he did was the "oh" sound and then leaned his ox-like head down onto the towel that was draped over the floor.

The Mauforaum held the bottle down to his head and jiggle it a little before his bestial friend grabbed it and drank the last of it in three gulps. Just as he finished, he cursed aloud as Reve pulled the first piece of shrapnel from Krol's side. He started saying all of the words Reve knew in the Ratoul'an language, none of them nice things.

"Reve..." Krol strained to say in between jabbing pains.

"Yeah, buddy?" Reve put the cloth against a newly opened wound as blood seeped out of it. He only had a few more to go.

"Have you ever seen a desert snow?" Krol did not look at him as he asked this, he merely got his hand on his large flask and started drinking the real alcohol as Reve continued his work.

"Desert snow." Reve repeated with a puzzled look on his face. "Well, Krol, I'm not exactly sure what brought this on."

"You mentioned it before, that night with Lain." Krol cursed once again as Reve removed one of the bigger pieces of metal from his hide and put the bloody rag over it.

"Oh, right, with m'dad." Reve brought his knife out as he looked at one of the deeper pieces of metal. "Well, no, I ain't seen snow here, but I 'seen some crazy stuff aside from the snow. You ever hear of lightning striking in one place twice?" He asked as he began to dig the knife down the side of the wound, and he could hear Krol's teeth grinding together.

"No!" Krol said between his locked jaw, swells of pain pulsed through his bloody gash as Reve began to dig it out with the tip of his knife.

"Well, man, I can't tell ya how many low-lives I've met in my life, but I sure as hellfire can tell ya that sometimes they get what's comin' to'em." Reve finally slid the piece of iron out of Krol and the beast plopped his head down on the towel and began to heave for breath. "Some sons of bitches were shootin' up a town on the outskirts of it. A thunder storm started and the drunken bastards started shootin' holes in the windows and causin' a fuss, even took a guy in the leg with'eir random shots. I shot some of'em, and worked my way into the town while they come lookin' fer me."

Another quake of pain came through Krol as Reve took out another of the bigger pieces that was lunged very near his back-side.

"S'alright buddy, just hang tough, almost done." Reve held pressure with his cloth. "Anyways, they found me, and I's outta ammo in one gun, and the other jammed. I hadn't cleaned'em in days, and 'fore long they cornered me. Just two of'em now. The thunder storm was kickin' shit and they didn' even notice it, but they should'a. Right before they shot, one of'em been struck. His head burst and the rest of'em was burned to a crisp. The dumb son of a bitch forgot about me, and went down to the other, and just like I said, two times in one place. The guy was burned down by another one."

Reve was somewhat interrupted by their lady friend entering the room, she held two pots. As she walked up to Reve, she held them both out toward him.

"See which one is hot." She said. Reve put his hand on one of them and took off his hand.

"It's cold." Reve said, and she held him the other one. Reve dipped his cloth into the warm water and rung it out. "Thank ya, darlin'."

"So what were you saying? Both of them were killed by lightning striking the same place?" Lain said near him and filled a small cup with the cold water, and she handed him one, then went on to fill one up for Krol.

"Yeah, it's an old story that I 'member." Reve said as he wrapped up Krol with the last of the torn cloth he could find. It was a crude job, but it would have to do. "You alright, buddy?" Reve said, but then looked up at Krol, and he was contently snoring. "Well, hot damn." Reve said in a quiet tone, then he chuckled as he tied off the last bandage, causing Krol to make a sound, but he did not wake.

"Guess I'm better at them stories than I thought." He whispered as he got up and approached Lain, who set Krol's water beside him so that he would have something for when he came back to consciousness. Lain turned toward Reve in that dark room. The last sun, Redec was already half way down the horizon, and the shadows from the wood on the doors worked their way up toward the ceiling. The Mauforaum eyes could see very clearly, though. Once again she met with Reve's gazing purple eyes, and she paused. She finally came closer to him and slid her hands onto his, her fingers working their way up his arm as he met her in a close embrace.

"I don't think we should leave him right now." Lain whispered to him, and Reve nodded. Both of them knew that changed nothing at that moment, the Ratoul'an was in a deep sleep right now, healing his wounds with deep thoughts. Lain came very close to him, pulling his arms around her and lying her head on his chest. "Reve... I"

"I know, and right now I think I could keep you here for a long time... couple of days probably. Right here in m'arms." This drew a smile from Lain, an expression she had almost forgotten. She looked up at the gunslinger, their faces much closer, so that she could see every bristle of Reve's Irises. She looked beyond the violet, and with no great effort she saw the black of his pupils; there she found warmth. The moment passed them by, and before she knew it their lips were touching, the art of kissing no stranger to either of them, they indulged in it. With a sweeping hand, she removed his hat, letting it drop to the floor. Her fingers swept over his blond locks, stopping at the back of his neck and holding onto it. She pressed herself into the kiss then, wrapping both arms around the back of his neck and breaking the kiss as her cheek rolled onto his. She lost herself in his arms then, he held her so tight that they shared a single source of heat.

"Don't let me go." She said in a small voice. In the very heat of the moment, she drew in a deep breath. "Please." She whispered.

"No." Reve whispered close to her ear.

Then, at length, she worked her way up from his grasp as it loosened and he looked back down to her. Without another word to be said, she undid his gunbelt.

The Catalyst Core part 4.6
The Underlying

Reve opened his eyes and saw Siem high up in the sky, making its first run. It has never been clarified if Ketarhr orbited the three suns or not. The prospect of orbitting three suns at the same time sounded like it would take much longer than what the years were considered here. Siem gave off a more green sky in the mornings, followed by brown with Klume, and finally giving it a deep dark red tint when Redec shined later in the day.

Reve enjoyed the first sun best, the green reminded him of when there was actually some vegetation around Deinoforaum. It really use to be green, but in the matter of two years the desert came in and killed almost every living plant that Ketarhr had.

Reve looked around to see that both he and Lain were on the roof of the house, he barely remembered them both going up with a blanket and spending the rest of the night looking at the millions of stars that flooded Ketarhr's night. He got up and crawled to a large hole in the roof, and looked down to see Krol was awake, but not getting up. The Ratoul'an was almost always the first one out of sleep and usually cooking or tending to a fire.

"Hey." Reve said, retrieving his pants and beginning to dress. "How ya feelin' buddy?"

"Well..." Krol said while he began to make his first moves to rise to his feet. "You know those days when you fell into a pit of glass and rolled around in it for an hour?"

Reve paused, not sure if he should really answer, then said "No..."

"I feel a little worse than that." Krol said as he finally got to his feet and began to move toward the front door. Then he paused, his ears going up to listen closer. Before long, even Reve heard it, then he looked off into the distance. There it was, a wave of what looked like little toy soldiers, only in full motion. As they came closer, they noticed it was the Ketonn Hraal. All of them with different colors of fur on their faces and black, metal helmets covering up the rest of their heads. Many came in transports that were years ahead of any other technology on that planet. The Ketonn Hraal were the last full civilization still thriving because it seemed as if they were planning for something like this to happen some day. The rest of their armored suits were a shining white plate, and their weapons were hooked into their cybernetic gauntlets that hooked into their helmets. They were nothing more than a small barrel on top of their metal gloves, and two cords that hooked into two sources of power.

Reve looked over at Lain, who was already mostly dressed, wrapping her sash over the middle of her robe, and then putting her sword on the hook.

"So the Ketonn Hraal government made a move after all." Lain jumped off of the ledge and flapped her wings once, moving herself carefully down to the ground, beside where Krol was already standing and limping some.

The battalion marched on beside their huge machines and shuttles that traveled on eight wheels, even the soldier transports possessed two large machine guns on the front.

The army came closer to the city, but it was the small carts that the scouts moved on that caught their attention. The two of them moved ahead of the army. Each one had one driver, and a man that sat in a higher chair, holding a submachine gun. The man in the higher seat did not hold up his weapon, but began to wave at the three that stood in front of the house.

"Lion 2, this is Tiger Cub, we have survivors." The driver said as he came to a stop in front of the house. The top scout came off of the seat and ran toward them.

"Elite Guard! 4th Batallion and 6th armored division! What is your situation?" The black-furred Ketonn Hraal held his weapon at his side and his eyes shifted all over the city, as if he were expecting the very worst.

"We-" Reve started to say but then another group of people began shouting, and whooping. A group of Mauforaums and Humans came out of one of the houses and ran across the sandy field.

"Hold it where you are!" The black-furred guard held up his gun and even the other three scouts pointed their machine guns toward them. "Hands on your head!"

"Wait!" The bandits stopped and held up their hands. "You don't understand! He's dead!"

"Who's dead?" The scout shouted.

"Adam! He's dead! That guy!" He pointed at Reve. "He beat him!"

The scout turned to Reve, but then came back quickly to the bandit. "Where is Savage Tooth, the White Tiger?"

This gave pause to the subject. All of the bandits looked at each other. "He..." One of the Mauforaums said. "He didn't make it."

The soldiers looked at them, and began to lower their weapons. "Where is he now?" The scout looked back to see the army was already unloading their equipment and another transport was driving to the site where the group was gathered.

"We buried him." A human pointed off into the city. "He's under a stone, I can show you."

"Commander Yuri! Attention!" A man shouted as he walked off of the transport, and behind him a very large, intimidating Keton Hraal stepped off. His armor was red, instead of white, and he had a very detailed star on the left part of his breastplate. The elite guards around him all stood at attention. The ones with regular machine guns and the elite soldiers with the special gauntlets all stood stiff as an ironing board as Yuri walked across the site.

"Page!" Yuri shouted, and the scout stood even taller.

"Sir!" The scout shouted.

"Dismissed!" The scout said nothing more, saluting the commander and signalling for the rest of the scouts back to their little scooters. Then the commander walked tall toward the bandits, standing a good two feet taller than them. "Now, which one of you talked to my scouts?"

"Th-that would be me." One of the humans lifted his hand a little. Then he paused and added. "Sir."

"Alright, you're going to be questioned shortly, now who cancelled out the threat?" The Commander said, his brown fur on his face was very thick, and it almost looked like he had a Ketonn Hraal beard. None of the men spoke, they all simply pointed at the three standing behind the commander. He turned, and surveyed the three, not sure what to think. Three strangers were able to do what one of their most skilled, well-trained warriors could not do.

"Well, I suppose metals are in order, but that's not the problem right now." The commander put his hands behind his back and walked. "The problem is that I've just spent enough money on getting my army out here to face a critical threat, and now there is no critical threat."

"I beg'n yer pardon, Commander." The large Ketonn Hraal turned back to Reve, who spoke in a very odd, casual way. "But what we cleared out was the critters. The real biggin's not even showed up." Reve tipped his hat back a small bit and looked up at the very large, high ranking soldier.

"Well, that's all fine and well, of course." The commander stood up straight, looming a shadow over Reve. "But unless I have hard evidence of this, I will have to pack up my command branches and head back to head quarters, explaining to them why we sent over two thousand troops and twenty heavy artillery into a wild goose cha--"

"Commander, sir!" A much shorter Ketonn Hraal approached the Commander from behind and saluted.

"What is it, Soldier?" The Commander gave him the signal to go at ease.

"You need to take a look at this, sir. You are not going to believe it." The guard motioned, "In the systems operating tent."

"Get these people suitable rest areas and full medical physicals." The Commander ordered before he walked off to the first tent that they set up in a matter of five minutes.

"Sir!" The soldier turned toward the others and motioned them to follow him. As they began to move, though, there began a tremor. At first it was just a slight quake, but soon it began to rumble the sand into movement all around them, and all of them could feel the tanks and artillery beginning to shake.

A hole appeared under one of the groups of soldiers, and hot sand began to shoot up into them, and completely blind them as they fell into it, but they did not go far. Soldiers around them began to catch them, and pull them out as the shooting sand increased in size and propulsion.

"Commander! Some of the tanks have been dug too deep into the ground! We can't move the-AAHH!" An entire sheet rock underneath the sand gave way under that soldier and an empty transport. The soldier was immediately buried in sand, and before long was directly under the flipped vehicle, where he would be crushed to death.

It went on for a total of two minutes and forty-five seconds, then stopped. The dust began to clear and many of the soldiers began to stand up. However, the first one to speak was the commander.

"Check for injuries! You men, I don't care how much it takes, get those vehicles mobile!" He demanded, and enforced immediate action from the white-armored elite guards. Before he did anything else, Commander Yuri pointed at Reve. "You, you're coming with me."

They stood inside, Yuri stood directly behind Reve almost as if he were looking over his shoulder, but he did not need to do that, the screen was up on the wall and they both could see a graph, and inside the graph there was a bright blue radar reading, one that took up most of the middle, and seemed to be pulsing, every once in a while it would increase in size by mere meters, but with as big as it was getting, those meters very soon got to kilometers.

"Explain this." Yuri said in a calm, controlled voice. There they paused, looking at the pulsing, gigantic organism that was so close to the planet's surface that it needed only to grow a few meters more, as there was a part that branched off toward the crust, and with each pulse it was beginning to sharpen, and poke harder to the surface.

Reve drew in a deep breath. "Mind if I smoke in here?" He said, reaching into his coat pocket.

"How kind of you to ask, Mr. Reve." He said, looking down at him. "Yes, in fact I mind very much if you smoke in this tent. Now explain this thing in the ground, nothing so large could have existed without us knowing about it. Now what is it?" His voice was growing a little more stern, his patience already growing thin.

"That spot's in the middle of that big square over yonder, yeah?" Reve pulled up his gunbelt a little, wanting to be at least semi-formal for the suit of red armor standing behind him.

"Affirmative." One of the operators said, turning a knob on the bottom of his control panel, and the image of the shape came to a vertical point of view. It was like a gigantic beating heart, one that sharpened its top almost every minute that went by.

"Well, y'know that ol'boy, Adam? He also called himself 'The Seed.' That there's what he left behind."

Once he mentioned that, the terminology 'Seed' clarified many of his questions. It immediately looked like a seed in shape and function. One that grew in a very strange pattern, but a seed none the less.

"What bastard of a plant are you farming, farmer?"

[Rinji]

The Catalyst Core Part 4.7
The Underlying

Krol was moved to a medical bay, given one of the beds, and was bandaged up properly, and given many antibiotics and painkillers. They mentioned that even though many of the major wounds were sufficiently cleaned, they still needed stitches. The doctors did not consider him grievously wounded for a creature of his stature, but he was still damaged to the point of slight immobility for a week or two.

Lain was brought to an extra living quarters. It was a small room with three bathrooms that ten other soldiers shared. She sat in the very middle, large towel underneath her and a cup of absolutely pure water set on the very corner of the towel. Her eyes were closed and her legs were set crisscross. She let herself go, she concentrated on exiting her spirit from her body, and drawing in the energy around her. She then let her voice crawl out of her chest, and emit a message through all of the channels that remained unknown to any manufactured technology.

The water rippled as she drew in a deep breath, and she became a beacon. In that moment she was powerful, more than she thought possible. Her message soared through the realm of the spirits, and her spirit shined with luster similar to that of a star.

This all came crashing down as the entire living quarters convulsed forward in a sudden jolt. The water beside her was spilled and she shrieked and fell on her face. She cursed in her native tongue, then prayed for Danara to forgive her.

"Lain?" Reve said, walking through her door, apparently bathed with his clothed washed.

"Yeah." Lain got up from her sitting position, taking notice to the wasted, sacred water. "What was that?"

"Well I think they're movin' all of the-" Reve gave a startled yelp as the entire mobile residence was moved on wheels. A long string of carts were pulled by an enormous machine, and as it moved over the cracked and broken lands, it took sharp dives. Reve fell forward and slid on his stomach as the cart descended the rocks. Lain grabbed onto a desk that was nailed to the floor of the cart. As it came to a sudden halt, Reve fell forward into Lain, both of them ending up under the desk.

Reve rolled out from under the desk and flexed the wing on his back. "Damn, I lost a few feathers."

Lain got up and pulled the window shades up, seeing that there were many vehicles that seemed to have rolled off unexpected. She saw the larger, black tank rolled up on the dune beside them, and several other transports almost crashing into each other, a few of them were still in some motion.

Then she saw several soldiers running and catching the vehicles. Many of them were cursing and saying that they did, in fact, set the brakes on the machine.

Krol enjoyed the silence as he lay on his side in a medical bed. The room was big enough for four patients but he was the only one there. He stayed there, quietly watching the machine beside his bed, one that obviously monitored his condition so that none of the doctors had to stay at his side, a fact that he was very grateful for. Though he understood its purpose, he had no idea what any of the Ketonn Hraal words said, nor did he really care, the colors of the shifting pulse meters and the diagnosis text was enough to keep him entertained while he was on enough drugs to kill a full-grown human.

The only thing that worried him was that he may not be battle-ready when the time came. He wasn't sure how grievous his wounds were, but he knew that it was bad enough to hinder his movements, especially when it came to running. The doctors told him that he would be up and about in a week or so, but by then the world could be ended or saved. Either way, he concentrated on healing as best he could, but there were several moments when he felt like he was floating above the bed, hovering side to side and dozing off into his own little half-conscious world. While he did enjoy these moments, he tried to get a grip and concentrate on what he needed to do next.

Soon he came back to semi-consciousness, and saw that the lines on the machine had risen. This gave him some hope, assuming that this meant that his condition had improved. In an instant, though, he was jarred and slid to the top edge of the bed. His head hung off of the edge as the entire medical vehicle came to a sudden halt before it even gained momentum.

Krol cursed in his native tongue, his heart racing in his chest and his consciousness was fully instated. Then there was yet another jerking movement from the vehicle as it suddenly gunned forward. He was pushed off of the bed this time, the I.V. toppling over while it was still connected to his arm. He hit his head on the floor and the bed came down on top of him. This did not hurt him a great deal, not only was he tougher than that, but the painkillers were quite good and helped with the situation. Once he tried to get up, though, he found that his limbs acted as if they were separate from his body, and were very hard to control.

Before long, though, the doctor and his three nurses rushed into the room. All of them proved quite strong as they all lifted him up from the floor, along with his bed, and put him back on his side.

"Nima! Check his blood pressure, and get me a cardiac needle," The doctor ordered the nurses, telling them to replace his I.V. and get him stablized as the vehicle continued to move. "Damnit, moving the entire medical bay when we have a patient, and not even informing us!"

"It's been happening all over the campsite. It's been reported that there were not even drivers in the vehicles when any of this occured, Doctor." Nurse Nima stated as she held up a cardiac needle toward the doctor, but not too close to him as she didn't want to stick him while the vehicle continued over the unstable terrain.

"What? No drivers? That's prepostrous!" The doctor shouted, but as he did, the vehicle came to a halt, and all of them took evasive action, holding the bed in place, along with the new I.V.

The crust was so close, the time was closing in. The blood boiled in his veins, the blood that remained, that is. All around him, the shards stood perfectly still, shining with power and filled with the elements that would cause the world to become a negation of itself. The preparations were complete and now it was only a matter of waiting.

He had waited for eons, and through enormous amounts of planning, and searching, it had become a reality. They could see him now, only because he wanted them to. The void was taking shape, and the mortals would see that their hope was little more than gone. His gigantic claw of a hand reached up, red scales and hardening skin entangled it as he scratched his razor sharp claw against the side of his head. Only tiny strings of white remained on his head, and the scalp was spotted a dark brown.

His only good eye was the smaller orb, it stayed as human as it possibly could, considering the other was a large, gaping orb of bloody veins. He could not see the present with this eye, no, but it could see far more. He sat on a throne that pulsed along with his domain, and squirted with running blood. The blood of this planet ran through his creation that engulfed him. Not a single drop went to waste when the population was slaughtered in the face of his hunger.

Soon.

The Catalyst Core Part 4.8

The Underlying

Commander Yuri felt the sweat pouring down his face as he sat in his office, waiting for his medication to take effect. His back was giving him absolute hell because of the sudden jolts he felt when his main quarters ran threw his back out completely and it was already in very bad shape. He dabbed his handkerchief across his face while he sat at his desk. The doctors had rushed to his office to check on him after the incident, and he protested that he had been fine, even going so far as to throw them out of his office so that he could get his work done. He did not do this to look strong for himself, but to look strong for his soldiers, who were already losing morale because of the strange happenings as of late. He could not show any weakness in this time of dire need.

He looked over to his his secretary standing at the door. She was a very light blondish brown in her fur around her face. The patterns in her hair were rather uncommon in the Ketonn Hraal, but they were not completely unheard of. She did not show any great concern, but she still wanted to show her support.

"Some water, Miss Mona," He stated. She nodded, and as she was about to get it, he stopped her, "Wait, tell Second Commander Truit I want him in my quarters."

"Yessir." She quickly went to the water system and called for him over her headset that she kept up to her ear at all times.

Yuri leaned back somewhat, and cringed hard as his spine felt as if it were lit aflame by that very movement, but he could feel the numbing sensation as the pills began to take effect. His size was quite rare for the Ketonn Hraal, but his giantism came with a great price. Though he was very physically strong, in his younger days he carried a very large sword, one that weighed over a hundred pounds. Swinging that weapon which sat behind his desk in a showcase did horrible things to his back, and as he grew older it became much worse.

Mona walked back into the room with a large cup of water, setting it on his desk. "Truit is on his way, Commander. Will there be anything... else?" She leaned, putting one hand on his desk. Yuri looked at her, and she seemed very willing to help him in any way.

"Not presently, Miss Mona." Yuri brushed his hand over hers. "Thank you."

She nodded once again, and turned. She wore her red military suit, much like his only built for a woman, and she swayed her hips as she walked out of the office. For Ketonn Hraal standards, or any other race's standards, she was very desirable, shaped very well with toned muscles that she kept through her military training. As she opened the office door, she was somewhat startled to see Commander Truit already standing outside.

"Commander Truit to see you sir." She walked out and allowed Truit in.

"Sir?" He stood in front of his desk in a somewhat straight stance.

"Yes, this is very important. What I'm going to tell you is hard for me, but it must be done." He slowly got to his feet, his back popping a few times. He endured it with a very slight grunt and stood up, a foot and a half taller than Truit. "I'm afraid I will not be able to fight alongside of you this time, old friend."

This came as no surprise to Truit, he looked almost relieved, in fact. "Yessir, you can count on me. I will continue to lead the troops in combat under your supervision. I will take first division in with Hilan."

"Very well, but there is one more thing. I want you to take the Mauforaum with your squadron."

"The one with the hat, sir?" Now Hilan seemed puzzled.

Yuri nodded. "He has an insight that I believe will be key to this operation. Also, if what he says is true, we will need every single asset at our disposal when the time comes."

This brought Truit to an uncomfortable state, he was hoping that Adam would be the end of it, but part of him knew that it wasn't. The fissures that were happening were not natural in any way, and the sudden movements of all of the vehicles brought all of them clear of the flat zone where all of the deconstruction occurred. Whatever it is that moved the vehicles wanted that zone empty, and he knew it wasn't coincidence.

"Are all personel put on full alert?" Yuri asked.

"Absolutely, we have doubled our normal night watch, and all tank gunners are ordered to keep engines running on their lowest power points, ready to start up on a moment's notice." Truit said, Yuri nodding the entire time.

"Then report to your post, and inform me the very moment you see activi--" Yuri was interrupted by yet another tremor, this time it was hard hitting. Pens and pictures all began to drop to the floor, and it even caused Yuri's teeth to chatter. "Go!" He commanded, causing Truit to dash out of his office, and hurry to the outside. Yuri was far behind him though, cringing hard as his back began to grind with every shake. He held onto the threshold as he walked past in at a brisk pace. The quake kept going as he scurried down the hallway and exited his mobile quarters.

More of their vehicles began to sink into the sand as a giant geyser spouted sand from the very center of the clearing. Yuri saw this, and hurried to the radar systems tent, trying his best to keep his balance, and having a damn hard time of it.

"Report! What's happening?" Yuri shouted as the shaking continued. All of the soldiers in the tent were either watching the screens or holding in place. When he saw it, it answered his question.

"It's breaching, sir!" The soldier shouted, and there it was, from the spewing sand there came a tall, sharp, black pole. It was a microscopic tip on the end, and it widened on the way down. First it came to three feet tall, then as the quaking calmed down to a halt, it reached six feet tall. The silence was louder than the noise at that point, and Commander Yuri worked his very best to stop the shaking in his head so that he could examine the tall, black spike that erected in the center of the clearing. Even if it weren't night, the spike would be completely pitch black. It was not made of iron, or any material that they had ever seen, and he was sure if anyone touched the tip, it would either impale the limb touching it or draw blood with a single prick.

"Thousand hells..." Yuri said to himself. Then he saw the Mauforaums exiting their quarters to view the phenomenon that stood in the center of all things. This was the first sign of things to come, every single one of them knew that it was going to get much bigger, and quickly. The question was, when would the thing mobilize its forces, and what in the thousands of hells was it? The only hope that Yuri got from all of this was Reve did not seem worried in the least. In fact he saw him smoking one of the military-issued cigarettes that came with his living quarters. He stood there in a somber stare, almost as if he were anxious for the thing to come.

The Catalyst Core Part 4.9
The Underlying

The men stood their ground in a half-mile radius of the black stem that stood in the very center of the circle. Though there were those seasoned enough to hold their ground, there were plenty that were one shake away from running for the hills. Some leaned against the heavy artillery, their weapons propped against their shoulders, some sat in circles around fires. It was especially cold that night, and the wind was not helping.

Roice walked around the camp, a simple foot soldier in the Ketonn Hraal forces, carrying a large metal platter that held many mugs of coffee. As he passed them around the infantry, he couldn't help but over-hear talks of death and failure.

"Roice! Hey Roice!" One of the men shouted. "Bring some of that over here, would you?" Foot Soldier Kin said with a wave of his hand. "Bunch of crap, this is," He said in a quiet voice to the ones around the fire with him. Kin took one of the coffees, as did the others. "Anytime the outsiders have a problem, we're always the crutch. If these damn Mauforaums could take care of their own shit, we wouldn't have to bust our balls in coming out here. Now look at us, morale's low, the rations are getting down to twenty five percent, and I got a bad feeling. A feeling like we're living on borrowed time."

"Aw, come on Kin," Roice said as he grabbed the last mug of coffee and joined the circle as they scooted over. "It ain't so bad."

"Says the one with the grenade launcher." Kin sipped his coffee. "You have something that don't exactly qualify you for close-combat. The rest of us with sub machine guns got to get right in their faces and pop off rounds." Just as he finished talking, they all heard a chuckle from behind Roice. All of them turned around and looked at the Mauforaum.

"On subject of that rat bastard that started this, I do believe the Mauforaums did take care of him. An' if you shoot as good as you whine, ya'll make it." Reve waved his match in the air to put it out and took a long drag off of his military-issue cigarette.

"Well, if it isn't the Mauforaum who turned down being in First Division. The hell is wrong with you? Don't you know any of us would give our ears to be in First Division? Commander Yuri doesn't give just anybody that priviledge. What is it, then? First Division not good enough for you?"

"I got a more important job in this one, and no, I don't think I'm too good for it. S'just somethin' else I gotta do." Reve turned his gaze over to the black pole that stuck out of the ground, and he sneered.

"Well, all in all I don't blame you." Roice said, drawing the other men's attention. "I'd be scared too if all I had was a few pop guns." This drew laughter from the rest of the circle. "You may as well bring a knife to the fight."

This cracked a smile from Reve, and he walked over toward their fire circle. All of them watched him closely as he went a few paces behind Roice and placed his cigarette standing up in the black sand. Then he began to walk away from the camp, climbing up a dune that was around twenty or thirty yards away, and none of them could see him, as his black complexion hid him very well in those cold, dark surroundings.

"I think he has some issues he needs to work out." Kin said, the rest of the circle nodding and going back to sipping their coffee. "So how much coffee do we have le-" He was suddenly interrupted by the sudden combustion of a pistol, and the bullet wizzing by. All of them turned to see the cigarette was no longer there, the only thing they could see was the bullet hole that was left. All of them stood up, and looked at it, dumbfounded. It was then that another combustion happened, in a split second, the mug Kin was holding completely shattered. Coffee and pieces of the mug showered down to the ground.

"Holy shit!" Roice said, not entirely sure what to make of this. All of the camp circles looked over as the Mauforaum lit another cigarette on the dune, clamping his lighter shut.

Kin trudged over toward Reve, a mixture of surprise and awe in his eyes as he approached him.

"Do that again..."

"And you're sure of this?" Yuri said, Lain sitting in front of his desk.

"I am an Inroluse, a blade daughter of Danara. I will fight and die if absolutely needed, and I see this as being absolutely needed." Lain said, being sure to show him the utmost respect.

"I am sure that you are more than qualified in combat, but your weapon is that of no range, and I cannot have you getting in the way of gunfire." Just as he said that, a shot rang out in the desert. Before Yuri could even react, Lain was already up and out the door. Yuri hurried to his feet as fast as he could, struggling with the horrible pain in his back as he made his way outside. As both Lain and Yuri stood there, they saw Reve firing his pistol, pin pointing objects. The rest of the army was gathered around him, watching the awesome spectical as he shot bottles and cans from a great distance, each time he got a great shot, the army cheered.

Hilan, the third commanding officer exited the command quarters behind Yuri and saw this. He began to walk in a brisk pace toward them, ready to break up these games.

"Hilan!" Yuri called to him, drawing his attention.

"Sir, we can't afford any distractions like this." Hilan said, drawing Yuri's hand up to silence him.

"This is a distraction we need," Yuri pointed to his men, all of them smiling, even the tankers sat in the openings of their vehicles and watched. "Only moments ago, their spirits were ready to break into pieces. Now look at them."

Hilan looked back at them and saw that it was true. So many voices he heard in their group, complaining that none of them would live through this one, but now none of that seemed to matter. Hilan stood down and watched as the Mauforaum put on his show.

As Reve began to reload both of his pistols, turned and glanced at Lain with the other commanding officers. He smiled and holstered both of his guns.

"Sorry boys, show's over, I gotta save some bullets." He said, knowing that he wasn't even close to being out, but he also didn't know how much he would need when the time came. The men began to disperse, somewhat disappointed, but also invigorated. Each one of them wanted to live up to that sort of skill, so each one of them began to check their weapons for accuracy, and make sure that they were ready.

Reve walked up to Lain, who was smiling. They embraced each other, and Reve's eyes shot to Yuri, who showed no real expression as he returned to his office along with Hilan.

"Come on, I got something for ya." Reve said, walking out toward the dunes behind the commanding office. They strode hand-in-hand and finally stopped as they reached a dune tall enough to cover them. They sat in the cold desert sands, and Reve held both of her hands.

"Lain, I ain't gonna be with ya when the fighting gets heated." Reve said, looking her in the eyes.

"What do you mean?" Lain tilted her head, somewhat puzzled.

"There's somethin I gotta do, and if it ain't done, we're all gonna die," Reve said. "but even if I'm not there, I'll still be watchin' ya. I'll protect ya, one way or another." He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a diamond ring. Lain's breath drew in a breath as she whispered a praise to Danara. Reve held it up to her, and she easily slid her finger into it, a perfect fit.

"Where did you get this?" Lain asked him, her cheeks were hot and her heart fluttered as she gazed into the small diamonds lined up in two rows over the golden band, their luster bloomed in the moonlight as she moved it around, letting the light fill each individual stone.

"Well..." Reve started, remembering the hole-woman that came to unlife right in front of him, trying to take him and Krol down along with her undead companion.

"Oh, I don't care! Au redi su." She pronounced her love for him in their native tongue, and embraced him, pressing her lips to his in a nice, deep kiss. Her fingers running through his sandy blonde hair. They stayed like that for a good length of time.

"Au redi su dai." Reve whispered into her ear. She smiled as she nuzzled her cheek into his shoulder.

"Do we have time?" Lain said, looking up at him with a warmth in her eyes that could not be cooled without his touch. But he was not looking back at her, his hands loosened around her as his violet eyes looked off toward the camp. "Reve?" Lain said, seeing something was wrong. "What is it?"

Her answer came when she looked back, and her heart caught into her throat as she felt the ground move. The tremors were not nearly as bad as before, but there it was. The roof began to ascend, a black turret that held the most hideous features of architecture either of them had ever seen. It lifted from the ground, and both of them could hear the troops powering up their tanks, yelling at each other to their battle stations. There was no time now.

Reve felt the demon mark on his hand began to tingle, and he knew that the beast that slept inside of him was wide awake, and bolstered with anticipation. Reve fixed his hat tightly onto his head, and looked back at Lain, who nodded to him.

There was, indeed, no more time.

The Catalyst Core Part 4.10
The Underlying

There it was, the roof turret was in full sight now, and the structure was climbing. Its very form was disheartening, as the black, metal statues held the images of horrid figures ravaging the innocent, the helpless. Its jagged, hard edges were etched into the shape of a morbid citadel that was unlike anything the soldiers, nor Reve, had ever seen. It was already gigantic, and yet the base was still nowhere in sight, but it grew and erected at a terrible pace. The faces of cold, metal terror lined each tier as they became visible, blood drizzling from all visible features they portrayed. The men looked in horror as they gaped at the very essence that it revealed to them, and the more mentally fragile of them began to doubt their decision to stand and fight.

Reve stood among them, his violet eyes merely staring at the desert sand that laid under it, each time it widened in form, he winced, but the demon inside of him boiled with anticipation. He calmly, reached for a cigarette, but then drew his hand away from it, looking over at Lain, whose eyes were at their very widest.

"I love you." He said in an instant, and then met her welcome arms with an embrace, and a very hard kiss on the lips. She gave a slight whimper from this, not from pain, but the prospect that they may only meet again in the breast of their Goddess, the Danara. As quickly as they kissed, Reve drew away, locking himself down hard, and going into the very mind of the hunter. He took the cigarette from his pocket, and with a large amount of gusto, he lit the end of it. As he put his light back into his pocket, both of his hands reached down and clicked back the hammers of his Eagle Wing .45's.

"Men! Meeeeen!" Truit spoke, startling Reve slightly. He turned his gaze over to Truit, who stood tall in front of the infantry. "Our deaths will be for nothing! Our loved ones and our people will be nothing! Our entire world that we have taken from will be shit! If we back down today, we will prove to our foes that we were the worms and maggots that they see us to be! Raise your weapons, men! Now! Raise them at your enemy and show them that we do not stand on paper floors! No! Show them that our foothold is stronger than the very metal that built that abomination that stands there! If we cannot kill them, then we will gnaw at them until their very bones ache, and tomorrow morning, if they live they will remember the strength we showed, and they will remember us! MAKE THEM REMEMBER... US!" There came a great "Ho!" raised from all of the Ketonn Hraal. With a great howl Truit, held up his arm and shouted at the very top of his lungs. "REMEMBER US!"

Reve was intrigued beyond what he thought was capable of himself. He pulled both of his pistols from their holsters and expanded his wings as he looked forward. His very image glowed with great, inner luster as he began to stride slowly toward the brutal, towering structure that continued to erect, now reaching almost half a mile straight up.

Finally, after almost ten minutes of lengthening, there came a doorway, a large, rectangular gape that was etched into the side of the structure. Whenever it came into view, the structure still did not stop growing. However, as it reached ten feet under the opening, the citadel came to a stop. The silence was much more tense, and much louder than the rumbling noise that occured. At length, it became too eerie, and the beads of sweat that ran down their faces forced many of them to grow beyond the point of antsy.

It happened then, the doorway lit aflame. A raging fire burned its very brightest and belched out of the hole. Not long after that, there came an image that none of them expected. It was a very small, child-like figure. She shined with a beautiful light that covered her gorgeous, naked form. Her curly, blond hair dangled as she gracefully stepped out from the citadel and stood before over a thousand gun barrels and long-ranged artillery.

The small woman smiled at them, her eyes squinted and somber as she gazed at all of the Ketonn Hraal. With no warning at all, she began to sing. None of them understood the language, all of them continued to point their weapons toward her. However, soon the very act of remaining focused was a difficult feat. Her voice was sweet, and her melody was beyond beautiful as she lifted her arms and began to sing louder. Many of the men began to lower their guns, and some of them even dropped on bending knees, finding it hard to breathe.

Even Reve, who stood but ten feet away from her was losing his grip on his pistols, going so far as to letting them dangle from the trigger guards as his head began to droop.

Of all of the Ketonn Hraal forces, it was a random, seemingly nameless sniper specialist who shocked himself into a sober mindset. The rifle he propped up onto the Hraal Tank seemed to aim itself in that moment, and his finger pulled back the trigger. A gigantic combustion rang out, causing many of the men to shout, and pop back into their proper positions. The bullet shredded through the air, and buried itself between the little woman's eyes. Glimmering blood splattered the citadel, and her singing was brought to a sudden halt. She stood there, her eyes hazed over in a drunken stooper and her head waved back and forth, bobbing as blood trickled down the center of her face. In an instant, her face widened and grew to twice its size. Her mouth was filled with horrid, jagged teeth covered in black. Her pupils were gone, leaving horrid white eyes that gazed deep into the night, and she screeched at a tone that made every single soldier cringe and grind their teeth hard.

From her gaping maw, there came a gigantic wave of bat-like creatures that began swooping and screeching and dove around the soldiers. They were larger than bats, and their mouths were lined with teeth not unlike the siren's. All at once, the soldiers began to fire. Rows of flashes came from their guns, and began to splatter the bats.

As many as they hit in the first wave of shots, it did not stop some of them from latching onto a handful of the soldiers' heads, spewing blood from their necks. Some of the neighboring soldiers were forced to shoot the bats that in turn shot their already dying comrades, but some of them completed their meal and left the soldiers with only their lifeless bodies that fell to the ground.

Reve did not waste one single shot, his shots rang out the loudest of them all, and caused the bats to lose a smattering of blood along with their lives. His Demon Eyes grew even more red as he took aim at the faster among the bats, but he shot straight and true, even taking some of their heads from their smaller bodies.

Lain had no trouble at all in swirling her magnificent sword around herself, taking two or three at a time in one swoop of her blade. She made sure to sever their bodies, and not to merely wound them. She jumped from her position and cut her way straight through any of their ranks that formed around her. As she spread her wings and soared among them, Lain killed any of them that neared her, on all sides of her.

At length, their numbers began to dwindle, and then dissipate. Their collective blood felt as if it were on fire, the battle pumped pure adrenaline straight into their blood stream. There was no word for what they felt in that brief amount of time, but soon all of them cringed.

The citadel began to ascend once again, and all of them were forced to wait in dreadful anticipation. They all knew that the next wave of horror would cut a gape much deeper into their ranks, and their sanity.

[Rinji]

The Catalyst Core Part 4.11
The Underlying

The citadel widened in diameter, even going so far as to catch the hollowed skin of the dead siren that laid on the ground in front of it as it rose even higher. No words could describe the Ketonn Hraals' thoughts as they saw its top was over a mile high now. More turrets and horrific sculptures showed themselves, but none so horrific than the skeletal, infantile figures that lined the next threshold. It was much larger this time, and as it came into full view slower. There it stood as the erection came to a halt. Every single weapon came to an iron-clad aim, waiting for the very right moment, and this time, they did not plan to wait for it to sing.

This door burst into flames of green. It was a horrible, sickening green that only one Ratoul'an had seen and lived to tell about. It roared even bigger than the last flame, and once again, none of the soldiers were ready for what came out. A statue dragged itself out of the flames. The statue was that of a monster. Its tendons showed all over its body, and its claws were much larger than most of the soldiers' torsos. It stood at eight feet tall, with some change, and it had no eyes. It only had a jaw that had all of its muscles exposed. Its figure was roughly humanoid, though it had no external head, its jaw was located nearer to its chest.

No matter what it was, Hilan did not feel like waiting.

"Tanker!" Hilan shouted to the artillery man behind him. "Bring that son of a bitch down!"

With not a moment passing, the tank let out a blast that smashed directly into the statue's chest, kicking up sand and dust everywhere, and clouded their vision. To no one's real surprise, the statue still stood as the debris dissipated. Before Truit could order the infantry to fire, the statue began to crack at the maw. Before long, the middle of it shattered. The thing inside of it roared with vigor, and it struggled to be released from its prison. However, the pieces that broke from it took on new forms. As they landed on the ground, the grew legs and arms. Miniature versions of that creature came into view, and as they rose from the sand, they struck out, impaling many troops in the front lines before the gunfire started.

They were fast, though, and only a few of them were struck by their bullets. They scurried through the ranks, slicing down any of the troops that they could reach before they were riddled with bullets and fell over dead. One ran straight toward Hilan, who stood, staring it down through his helmet with no visible fear in his eyes.

As it neared him, he made one swift step to the side, and activated his arm device, which was linked straight to his helmet. Before the creature could turn toward him, he fired off his device, and an amplified telekinetic bolt jutted out from the nozzle, and stabbed the creature straight through the jaw.

Before all of them were killed, the statue's arm came free, and even bigger pieces of it broke off, growing more of its smaller minions. They plowed through yet another group of the Ketonn Hraal ranks, but as they reached the elite, their numbers were sliced to pieces as they powered up their gauntlets, and released a volley of telekinetic blades.

Reve shot down any of them that stood in his way as he trudged toward the beast that remained in its statue prison, it was beginning to break free as the main torso cracked, and more shards began to form. Reve hurried his trudge, and fired off three rounds, catching the giant beast in its horrid maw. It was merely angered by the Mauforaum as its limbs struggled to be released.

The creature gazed upon Reve with no eyes, and began to feel his power as Noxious began to power up. Fear began to curdle inside of it, a red demon was a force to be reckoned with, even to its own kind. Before it could break anymore of its bonds, Reve's hand glowed a sinister red as he holstered his gun. In an instant, the Mauforaum lunged at it, and rammed his fist directly through its torso, the red fire burning a hole that went out the other end of him, and the creature cried in pain.

The next shards that fell to the ground were still, and did not transform. In the next moment, a fifty caliber shell was fired and driven through the creature's chest, above his mouth, and soon the entire statue fell to pieces with no extra forces to aide it. The monster was loose, but it could only limp as bullet after bullet was driven into its body by their greatest marksmen. It fell to one knee as it finally got to Reve, and looked upon him in awe.

Then a voice spoke in his head, a raspy voice that was very hard to understand.

"You would do this," it said. "After I, your brother, bent my every will to give you the souls of the wicked, and the weak at your choosing. You would do this, when I called you Master. Why, in my years of service, would you choose the prey over the predator. Why..."

Reve said nothing, but at length, he heard the voice that made him cringe, the voice of the one who caused him so much pain, but gave him so much power.

"Better safe than sorry, my brother. Now die, and remember me fondly, Yiezterek." Noxious's voice gave no pity, only promises. Then Reve felt compelled to raise his fist at the being, and a red flame emitted from his hand. Before long, the red began to surface upon Yiezterek's face, and engulfed his body in a terrible scream that could be heard for miles.

The bullets stopped, and all mouths gaped as they saw their ally doing this. Lain's eyes widened a great deal as she saw her love bring the creature to his knees in just a few simple moves. It was beyond belief. Soon, the creature burned to cinders, and its silouette was splayed into the already blackened sand, and the smell caused more than a few soldiers to vomit.

The second wave was dead, but the casualties were more than they had hoped. Before the citadel began to move, many soldiers were taken to the medical bay, and the soldiers began to reload, and prepare for what was to come. The ground shook once again, and all of them faced the middle, every single one of them were ready this time, fear was only a secondary emotion at that point. They stood firm, and kept their willpower at the very top.

Then the next opening was seen, and the creature inside of Reve struck home, exilerated beyond any belief. The doorway burst into a red flame, and the Mauforaum began to move that very instant.

"Reve!" Lain shouted to him. He could not stop though, he could only look back her way, and tip his hat. There was no stopping this time. Many more soldiers shouted out his name, the loudest being Truit. He approached the Red Fire Door, and his shadow splayed out behind him, and switched around on the ground as the fire cracked and burned its horrid burn. There he walked in front of a citadel that was beginning to reach beyond measure, and he finally stopped five paces in front of it.

The being that exited the citadel stood at nine feet tall. He had no physical shape, he burned his entire form with no solid element to his being. Black, horrid eyes stared down at the Mauforaum as he took one single step toward him, his burning claws sank into the sand, almost instantly turning it to liquid glass. All of the soldiers began to shout Reve's name, telling him to run, but the two forms confronted each other, neither of them without fear.

Reve lifted his fist toward the red fire demon, and showed a burning seal that marked his passage, and even his eyes flashed a dark color of red as he glared at the demon to stand aside. The demon did this without question, taking two side steps, and allowed him safe passage through the doorway.

Reve hesitated for a moment, but the force inside of him urged him through. As he took four more steps toward the citadel, he turned toward his brothers in arms, and lifted his hand to them, waving goodbye. The very next instant, the fire burst out harder, and caught the Mauforaum inside. Reve was gone.

Chapter 24:- The Underlying
The Catalyst Core Part 4.12
The Underlying

There were so many stairs. They crossed all around the walls, the ceiling, the floors, but the path was clear to him. As if he had been there before, Reve walked down the stairs. He paid no attention to the amazing sights all around him. Galaxies were just beginning to form, and function like a normal place, a place where planets could grow, and then the life was sucked from it, feeding only the one who caused it to happen. No new life was born, and the stars disappeared. Soon, constellations gathered in the enormous lobbies of the Catalyst Core. It was an astounding place, the walls did not hold torches, but crystals. They illuminated the path, but the stars gave their luster to the stairs on the ceiling.

As he passed down into the next gigantic lobby, he found himself walking across starry space, and a blue sun burning right next to him. Rings circled the newborn star, and soon it would be ready to be processed into energy. The Catalyst Core was now a factory, harvesting the multiverses for power. So much greed was in this place, it was rank with the stuff.

"So what's the plan now?" Reve said, lighting a cigarette, even in the depths of space.

"Keep walking, mortal, you have come farther than any other soul has ever come, save for me. I once faced the Dark One, he had just destroyed his first of the multiverse's dimensions. I stormed his keep, and destroyed many of his former minions."

"So why ain't I goin' at it with them?" Reve asked, blowing smoke.

"All of his army is in preparation for combat, this is the Demon Lord's final push against the Universe, it shall not be won. His tower seems to go on forever, because it shall go on forever. Even when the base is found, the minions shall not stop. This entire dimension shall be overrun in only a matter of weeks."

"Well ain't you the damn basket of hope." Reve said, tossing his cigarette into the cold void of nothingness that surrounded him. In that place he witnessed things that no one else will ever see for another eon, and yet it did not even phase him, only vaguely amuse him, as he saw stars shooting in circles, and planets being born. Above him he saw the true face of a star, and was not blinded by the light.

"What the hell is this place?" Reve said, almost sounding like he was not impressed in the least.

"It is everything. It is the bright center of the multiverse. It is the beginning, it is the answer, it is the question, and it is destiny. Every creature, every being you believe to be real is real, every belief you have that is truly your belief is real, for in this reality, there is enough power to produce them into the reality that exists, if only you could find the door to them. Those chosen beings that could ever lay eyes upon what you see here are very few in number, feel honored, mortal, for this is the Catalyst Core."

There came a pause in their conversation, Reve kept stepping, taking out his box of cigarettes to see there were only two left. "Sorry I asked." He said as he lit one and took a drag. The one in the box, plus one of his own rolled smokes was all that he had, he almost kicked himself for leaving the other box in the night stand.

"Are your guns ready, Reve?" He was startled to hear the demon call him his name. In all of his years with Noxious, he had never once spoken to him in such a way.

"Ready as they'll ever be." But just then his guns weren't ready for what his eyes were about to see. The tunnel ended, and his breath caught into his chest as he laid eyes on the beautiful spectacle.

The entire room was lit with little starlights, and all of them rotated among the ceiling that must have spanned countless miles straight up, and the room was as far as the eye could see, but it was all just a single room to hold the largest crystal that stood roughly ninety-three million miles straight up, it glowed a radiant blue, and green. However, Reve could see the scars that were being left on it, the red areas that began to gnaw at it like a cancer.

"Behold, Mauforaum, in your tongue, you would call this marvelous gem 'The Battery.' Its power is greater than any being can conceive."

Reve kept this in mind as he walked toward the center of the multiverses, but he kept his eyes upon the beauty that it convayed. Practically no other beings would ever see its image, and Reve finally began to feel very priviledged in his discoveries.

As his eyes focused on the destination, he was troubled to see another being in the room with him. It stood near the base of the Battery, it was an eye that wasn't much bigger than an apple. It stared at him, it had bad bloodshots on its cornea, and it was red in its irises. As Reve neared the base, he stood in front of it, and got into his hunter instincts, his hand ready to draw in the blink of an eye.

But the eye didn't seem to blink, it continued to leer at him, the only movement it made was to look at his feet, and then work his way up to Reve's face.

"I wanna see Krel Sim"

"Kriel Sin!" Noxious corrected.

"Kriel Sin..." Reve winced at Noxious's tone.

The eye understood, turned around, floating toward the crystal, going around it to the other side. As Reve followed, his mind turn toward his friends and allies that still faught in his home dimension, he had to hurry, or more of them would die. He could only hope that they could hold out until he got back, if he ever got back.

Chapter 25:- The Underlying
The Catalyst Core Part 4.13
The Underlying

"Krol..." A very small voice whispered in Krol's ear, rousing him from his sleep slightly. "Krol, listen to me." The voice whispered again, a little louder this time.

Krol stirred in his slumber and became half-awake, the pain-killers and medicines making him feel as if he wasn't really there in the first place. "What is it?" Krol asked, then opened his eye, and in the light above his medical bed, he saw a blue butterfly. His eye widened more as it flapped above him, right in front of his eye. "What are you?" He said, gazing at the beautiful bug as it floated in midair, and sparkled a light in front of him that he would never be able to describe for the rest of his life.

"It is time. We've all been saving up for this, and now it's your turn to do your part. "Grab hold of me, for I am the one that was sent. You know who sent me, I heard the cry of the sword woman. She called out for some form of hope, but you are the one who will take it." It flickered in front of him, and glowed an even deeper blue, almost lighting up the entire room.

"Now, Krol, grab hold of me. We have much to do." He said again, and Krol reached out with his double-thumbed claw. The thing began to shine a brilliant color as it stood in his palm. Krol looked in awe as it began to work, and the entire world began to shine the same color.

The soldiers plugged over thirty-thousand bullets, plus five tank shells into it, and yet it trampled entire groups of soldiers, vaporizing them in its red fire almost instantly. It approached a heavy tank. Over seven tons of metal was ripped into shreds with a single swing of its arm, it roared at a terrible pitch as it rampaged. Then it saw some of the extremely heavy artillery stationed just about fifty yards behind it.

The Ketonn Hraal gathered around their machine, activating it with the touch of a button. As it turned on, it lit up like a beacon, red and green lights flashing around it in the pitch black of night. The red-fire demon, standing several feet tall gazed at it, and then began to stampede toward it.

"Power it!" The Kinetic Commander shouted, grabbing onto one of the prongs, and concentrating a great amount of his energy into the machine. Five more of them grabbed their prongs, and shut their eyes, they began to sweat very quickly, and the demon was a mere twenty meters away.

"Fire!" He shouted, and a fierce blast emitted from the machine, an envisible force that ripped through the air and directly impaling the red-glowing giant, and throwing him twenty yards backward. The soldiers swung their arms in the air, shouting in their valor. However, they stopped their celebration as the beast began to move. Then they cursed aloud when the part that they severed off of it came back anew. It rose to its feet, and stood once again.

It roared in a terrible rage as its flames blazed even bigger, giving it greater size than before. However, those flames flickered violently as it cried out in pain. Great bursts of steam emitted from its back as a splash of water directly hit it. It was no ordinary water, though. Lain stood fifteen meters in front of the beast, holding the bottle in her left hand, and her sword in her other. The demon stood once again, gazing at the ebon-skinned warrior before her, and it felt the most singular bit of fear inside its gigantic cockles.

With a great swing of its arm, a blazing fist came rumbling after her, stretching out the distance very quickly, but Lain was faster as she swung the water over her sword and bent all the way down. With a great twirl of her entire body, she sliced her sword directly across the great beast's arm, severing it completely. The part that was cut shriveled into ashes. The beast howled in pain as his stub of an arm began to blacken, and prevented him from regenerating it. It looked upon the Inroluse, and backed away one step. Without a single moment to lose, Lain flapped her wings, jetting herself across the short distance, going directly at the personification of evil. With a lightning fast swipe of her blade, and the mist of absolutely pure water, a great force completely severed the demon's head. It fell cleanly to the ground, and the body was reduced to black rubble.

With a great roar, the Ketonn Hraal cheered, they held their fists in the air, each and every single one of them gaining more and more respect for the entire Mauforaum race.

Lain simply cursed at the amount of water she was forced to use, and sheathed her sword. Then there came a great quake in the ground began to unbalance her. All of the soldiers looked back at the building as it began to rise again. This time the hole came open almost immediately, Only this time there was no fire, no warning.

A vast horde of strange-looking creatures began hopping through the void, and if there was a person from Earth that existed in Ketarhr, they would compare them to the praying mantis, only a hundred times bigger. Their pincers were more shaped into sabers than claws, and they came out in droves in the hundreds, and they very quickly entered in the thousands. Lain looked in terror as they began to pile up in front of her, she readied her sword, and then found herself praying for Reve's safe return.

Chapter 26:- The Underlying
The Catalyst Core Part 4.14
The Underlying

"Come in, Rogue Leader!" Yuri shouted through communications. "Rogue Leader!" He repeated. "What is happening? I'm getting several different readings on the radar! What is going on out there?" Yuri could only get static at that point.

Mona stood at the doorway of his office, all of the lights were turned off, save for a few of the desk lights. Her arms were crossed on her chest as she looked at Yuri's obvious stress. He wanted to be there, he craved for a chance to pick up his blade and strike down a known enemy. He never looked more alive than when he was meeting someone in melee or even hand-to-hand combat. In his youth, he was the prime elite soldier, never meeting a greater adversary than himself.

She walked slowly toward him and placed his hand on his shoulder. His enormous hand engulfed hers, and held it tight. He felt powerless, and weak sitting in that office, he sat up straight and looked at her, they were on the same physical level when he was sitting down.

"Don't worry, Commander, we've come from hell before." Mona said, somber toned. She slid down into his lap and ran her hand down his chest, leaning on him for comfort. All of the windows and doors were locked down completely, and there was no way in or out without communications. She buried her head into his chest and got as close as they could. She felt warm inside his gigantic arms, inside his grasp. Though they had been in love since she first got out of academy, they felt it best that they not get married, concentrating on their careers was their best option. She took the job of his secretary when they were moved to a different station, simply to reassure that they would stay close together.

At length, they kissed, her hands running all up and down his furry cheek and neck. That was when they heard it, something knocked hard against the outside wall. Both of their eyes darted over toward where the ruckus was heard. She hopped down off of him when the knocking began again. Then it turned into hacking.

"Something's breaking through!" He shouted, and stood up from his seat. Her eyes went wide as something struck through the wall, it was a claw-like pincer, and it pulled itself free, then struck again, opening the hole up further. Soon the giant insect-like creature tore a gigantic hole through, and began to work its way inside. Before it could, Mona jumped up into the air, directly at the thing, and chopped her hand flat toward it, her telekinetic powers slicing through the air, and darting a hole straight into the insect's head, laying it low. Then another creature burst through the hole, making it much bigger. As it jumped toward Mona, she twirled around, and kicked to the side, caught it beyond its pincers and into its head. Her heel crushed a single point in its cranium and smashed it against the wall, killing it almost instantly.

She jumped away as another set of pincers came at her, more creatures storming the office.

"Yuri! Go! I'll hold them off!" Her hand sliced once again, this time cutting the a creature directly in half. When she didn't hear his reply she turned around, and did not see him there. As she turned back around, and one of the vile creatures was already slicing directly at her head. Before it could touch her, it was jolted to the side by a giant blade, along with two more behind it.

Commander Yuri stood tall, his eyes glaring at the adversaries that stood before him. He urged them to come, angling his blade in the position he knew all too well. As the first wave came toward him, he sliced into their ranks with one swoop, cutting many of their pincers and heads off.

Then he felt one come in from the side and dig its razor sharp claw into his arm, stabbing it deep. Yuri roared in pain, but then swung the blade around, taking it completely in half. As another approached him from the air, leaping in on him, he wielded his blade up, and caught the beast in the face, slicing its head in half. Then it struck him. The pain creaked in the lower region of his spine, and he cried out in horrible pain.

"Yuri!" Mona cried out for him, but it was already too late, one of them stabbed him through the back, its pincer sticking out his chest. Blood spurting from his wound, he still did not give in. He stabbed his sword back from his side and took the giant bug down with a giant gash in its thorax.

Mona stabbed her way through them to get to Yuri, when she got to him, he had already been pierced five times. She took his hand, but he was falling, already having a blank look in his eyes.

"Yuri! No! Please, no!" At this point, there was no helping him. She turned, to the giant insects that crept toward them, tears filling her eyes, her teeth gritting to the point of grinding together. She didn't care at that point, she merely held onto her love's hand, and waited for the killing blow to strike.

But as it was about to come, an explosion happened down the hallway. All attention was drawn away from the Ketonn Hraal as a giant wall of fire began to engulf all of the demon spawns that invaded the hallways. It blasted its way into the office and began to fill the entire room, immolating the monstrous mantises. Mona looked in awe as it approached her. She shut her eyes tight as it came within inches of burning her. However, the heat stopped, and all she could feel was the warmth. It engulfed her, and for some strange reason she felt safe.

The flame left, then, and pulled out of the room, only leaving a few burn marks and countless piles of dust. She was left sitting there, her beloved Commander lying beside her. She wept.

Lain aimed for their necks. They came in droves but they left in dozens of pieces once they neared that woman. She faught like the tiger, and sliced like a dragon, her legs worked their magic, one single kick knocking them back, and the edge of her blade severing their heads from their necks with ease. However, she couldn't keep this up forever, she was already feeling tired, though her body did not show it yet. She still moved with ease over them and her blade diced whatever it aimed for.

The army was having a little more difficulty, though, as a few bullets did not harm them, but it would almost end up taking the entire clip to bring them down. They were doing their work, but their numbers were beginning to dwindle. The elites were getting weary, and no amount of yelling or hits over the head could wake them up completely anymore. Not to mention the lack of ammunition.

Lain began to work around the men, ducking under their fire and slicing the legs out from under the spawns. When she got them down, she severed their heads. While she crawled, she rested a little bit in between strikes. She moved silently, but then felt a vibration on the ground that she did not recognize. She placed her ear against the sand, and heard very clearly now, it sounded like a horrible, rumbling fire.

Then right above her, a beam of light shined down at the horrid creatures, and began to burn them completely apart. More and more beams of light worked their way across the battlefield, evenly aiming for the creatures, and burning them in an instant. All of these arms of flame emitted from a center figure that crossed its way from the sick bay, down the command post, and now out on the battlefield. It was Krol, blessed the strength of the avatar, he burned a strange blue flame that enveloped him, his eyes glowing a bright white as all of the arms of flame worked their way, slicing down the demon ranks.

With a giant roar of valor, Krol struck down the very last one standing. The armies, including Lain, gazed at this most unique spectacle. Krol reeled up and roared once again, causing the armies to cheer, but then look at the tower as it reached its base. It came to a very sudden halt and all of them readied their weapons, and began to move their wounded back. Rested troops began to move to the front lines, and the last of the ammunition was in their guns. Many troops pulled out their long-bladed knives and waited with harsh anxiety.

However, none was so harsh as Krol's. The godly spirit inside of him raged on with great power, and the blue fire on his back began to erupt. With a sudden burst of speed, Krol rushed straight for the tower itself. With a horrible roar, he blasted a great beam of flames straight for the opening, just as a horrible black shadow erupted from its opening. The flame burned through much of the shadow, killing much of its potency as it finally came through the doorway. It sludged its way onto the ground, standing up straight in front of the Godly Ratoul'an. Krol let loose his greatest roar yet, one that cut straight into the shadow and caused it to go straight back. It grew a horrid white-masked face as it faced Krol. However, that face turned to a face of sheer terror as it witnessed the Ratoul'an's charge. His claws dug into the ground and jolted him straight toward the creature, letting loose an attack that would cause the tower's gate to open again as the shadow died almost instantly.

Reve was finally led into that room; the end of his trail. The lights set around him were that of constellations, and big enormous formations of the most beautiful galaxies. All of this was formed all across the room, save for the floor. The ground pulsed with red and mixed fluids. This decoration was no doubt his doing. Reve came to think that a decorator would rule the multiverse, and a bad one at that. He didn't like that idea one bit.

Then he saw the odd-looking man sitting behind a desk made completely out of flesh-leather. Reve couldn't help but notice that this guy's eye was around the size of a very large bulb of broccoli leaves. He saw his hand holding up a pipe to his mouth, and one fang was sticking down to his chin. He wore a purple cloak, and a pink flame lingered out of his pipe as the bulbous eye leered at Reve, and seemed to know exactly what he was.

"Hello, Reve." Kriel Sin spoke with a grin on his face, as if he were a guest in his house. "I have waited an eternity for this. Come in, have a seat. Would you like something to drink?"