The Heroes II The Eternal Night

Chapter III-A Dark Encounter

The village lay beyond their sight now as they walked in the direction of a large forest. Neotasha had said this forest was the home of Adsmeria and that it was at least a two month travel. It seemed impossible to Garen to be able to see this forest now and for it to take so long to reach it. Maybe it wasn't so hard to think about, with the way the planet is shifting time around on them, it may be possible that Neotasha has a good idea of what is going on with the planet better than they do, but knowing their past luck, there'll be something to stop their progress and it will take much longer to reach the forest than Neotasha's projected time. The Dark Forest was nothing compared to the sight that was in front of them now. It was like looking at a green ocean full of random pinks, blues and yellows; they couldn't see the end of it. The trees reached to unthinkable heights, even from this distance, it was easy to tell that the trees stood taller than any Garen has ever seen and could possisbly be centuries older than any. It was also a much more beautiful forest than the Dark Forest was (the Forest of Beauty to Becky and Neotasha), and it was called Adsmeria Forest, after the capitol city, the elves then decided to name the next most beautiful forest the Forest of Beauty. Garen had to wonder how it looked from the inside but could not come up with an image that seemed fitting for it, he then started looking from one end of the forest to the next, looking for a possible beginning or end to it but none was in his sight.


"Don't waste you time," Neotasha said. "They say this forest stretches from one side of the world to the next and beyond its everlasting drop into nothingness."


"Is that even possible?" asked Garen.


"Probably not," replied Cody. "People have a way of stretching the truth a bit." He glanced back at Neotasha quickly and then continued to walk on.


"He is right," Neotasha said, "but I don't know what he's so sour about."


"He's usually like that and we just lost a Lighthouse, so that certainly hasn't improved his mood at all," said Garen.


"Only one, we still have six to go," Neotasha grinned as he followed Cody's path.


Garen looked back at Becky and Ax and seeing their looks decided to turn around and follow Cody and Neotasha with the other two right behind him. The trail in front of them looked long and they could see dark, almost black, clouds waiting for them ahead.








Only four days rested behind them, but it seemed so much longer. Not one village or camp had been in their eyesight and the long days of walking were tiring them down, plus the lack of food and water had them all on edge. Garen fell onto his backside, laying down and stretched the limbs of his body, when he looked up he saw Cody glaring down at him.


"What?"


"Why the hell are you laying down?" Cody snapped at him.


"We're all tired, Cody, and we need to rest. We've been walking for four days, now with no rest," Garen shot back.


"We have no time for rest!" Cody's voice was rising. "We have to keep moving or lose another Lighthouse."


Garen stood up against Cody's towering figure, starring up at his deep gray eyes, Neotasha came up and stepped calmy bewtween them, pushing a larger space between them.


"Garen is right," said Neotasha, glancing over at Cody. "We need to rest, wander out and find some source of replenishment. Becky and I can go out with our bows and find some meat, Garen can look around for some fruits and water, while Ax can chop us some wood for a fire. And you, Cody, will go off somewhere, blow off some steam, or-"


Cody grabbed onto Neotasha's face with both his hands, forcing him to look toward the large forest. "You see that?" Cody asked quietly, pointing at the clouds in the distance. Those aren't just normal storm clouds."


"Yeah, what are they then?"


"Those are the clouds of the Dark Lord, he's back. And he's coming at us as we go in his direction and there will be no way of avoiding the bastard. He will see where we're going and cut us off, he will sense us running and catch up with us, we will try to sneak attack him and he will kill us."


"And that's the perfect reason to get food and rest," said Garen. "Getting the rest now is important and it's a lot better than trying to fight him as weak and tired as we are now."


Cody looked down at Garen with a grimmace and turned to walk away, his finger tips sparkling with Rainbow Fire. Garen heard something drop behind him and when he turned around, he saw a few large rocks rolling around behind him. He started to run after Cody, but Neotasha pushed him back, holding him back from Cody's rage.


"He was getting a little angry, Garen," Neotasha was saying as he placed his hands on Garen's chest to push him back. "You must understand that when he feels the presence of the Dark Lord his sould becomes a little darker."


"Dark enough to try and kill me with a handful of rocks?"


"Yes."


"And why is that?"


"Cody is the first know person to have ever kick out the soul of the Dark Lord, but..not entirely."


"What does that mean, exactly?" asked Becky. "For us, I mean."


Neotasha looked over at Becky with sadness in his eyes, "It means if he's not strong enough to fight..we may lose him."








Cody walked off from the group to keep himself from hurting Garen or Neotasha, he wasn't worried about Ax or Becky, he wouldn't touch them. They didn't understand his reasons; the Dark Lord gets stronger each time one of his hosts are killed. He maybe stronger now then when Cody kick the spirit out, leaving himself weak and almost defensless. It's been a struggle to bring his strength up to what it is now, and still, his powers are..unstable.


He looked around and could see nothing but rocks and small mountains no larger than a giant, it soon turned into a field of lush green grass that finally led into the forest that lay so far away from them now, where the trees grew larger than any castle made by man. Such a strange landscape to him, been all around the world and he's never seen something quite like it, but yet, it seemed to be the perfect type of landscape for him.


He decided to sit on one of the rocks scattered around the area and held up one of his arms, twirling his hand back and forth. The smaller rocks at his feet started shifting slightly, a few coming off the ground. As he swayed his hand more, he started to raise them up, the rocks following his movements as if on a puppet string. The rocks then started moving in circles, forming a funnel shaped like a small tornado. Then, the rocks collapsed around him, small dust clouds puffing up from where they hit. Cody just sat there, his gray eyes, turning a light black, staring deeply at the ground, his fists starting to clench tightly together as the slight noise of grinding teeth escaped his mouth.


The ground around him started to tremble slightly and all the rocks around him began floating into the air, floating around him as his hair started to flow around with the wind. He need to be stronger, if he can't beat Kyle at his best, how will he ever kill the Dark Lord. His power is too unstable to kill any one of them or to protect the Lighthouses. But then there was meeting Kyle and that deal...


"There has got to be a way to grow stronger and control it," Cody said to himself.


He heard something move behind him and the wind circling him instantly dies, the rocks crashing down around him. He stood up ad spun around to face whomever was behind him, ready to shoot a stream of Rainbow Fire, but then he saw Neotasha's face and felt the Fire degrade in his hand; he wasn't sure which happened first.


"You're weak, Cody, and you can't hide it from me," Neotasha said softly.


"I am not weak," Cody growled back.


"No matter how powerful you may be, you're stil weak if you can't control that power."


"And what made you so wise lately?"


Neotasha chuckled at this. "I'm an elf, Cody, I've been on this planet for a few hundred years now."


"How old are you, really?"


"That is something you can all learn at a later time, when I decide to tell the rest of my story; now do you want help in controling those powers?'


"Damn it, Neotasha! Don't talk to me like I'm new at Fire of Color. Don't talk to me like I'm Garen."


"Look, when you kicked the Dark Lord out of your soul, he wasn't the only one who was weakend," Neotasha said, with Cody settling down. "He left your powers unstable, but we can build them back and the Dark Lord won't stand a chance, even if he does get stronger with each dead host."


"Neotasha, we have to find a way to kill the Dark Lord before his powers are fully restored," Cody said looking at the ground.


"Yes I know."


"No, you don't get it, none of you do!" he was looking straight at Neotasha now. "If we don't stop him now, we'll never be able to. He'll be stronger than Kye."


"How is that even possible?"


Cody was studying Neotasha's face carefully, a frieghtened look on his face. "I was that powerful. The combination of my power with the Dark Lord's spirit made an unstoppable being. If he reaches that same strength, I'm afraid this world is gone."








Garen could feel the strange power surges coming from Cody's direction. He had no idea what was going on, but if Neotasha was right about him not being able to control his powers then they all would have to try and train him the best they could. It worried him too, if the Dark Lord could do something like that to Cody, the person who is suppose to be stronger than anyone he knows, what will the Dark Lord do to the rest of them? Kill them like he did Max, or torture us like he's doing to Cody right now?


He turned toward the dark clouds in the distance that was waiting for their entry and already he could feel the chills run up his spine, but it was quickly replace by quickened anger at what that beast did to Max. Garen could feel the warm tears forming in his eyes and quickly wiped them away before they could fall. This time the Dark Lord won't get away with his soul intack, this time he will make sure to destroy every last bit of the creature as he could without any help from Cody.


Garen decided to look away from the dark mass of clouds in front of him and, instead, looked toward the slight bit of trees where he was suppose to be collecting water and some kind of fruits and started walking that way, attempting to brush away the thoughts of Max's death, he could not afford to be weak right now.


"You are so much easier to sneak up on then Cody, you know that?" the voice behind him caused him to jump back and turn on Neotasha.


"What's wrong with you? You can't be sneaking up on us like that," Garen said angrily.


"It keeps you aware of your surroundings, something that is very vital at this point," Neotasha said.


"How is he?" he asked looking back at the clouds.


"Weak, angry and scared. The Dark Lord took a lot from him when he left Cody's body, but not only that, his thought to be only true friend has betrayed his trust and went over to the wrong side."


"He was my friend too," Garen said weakly.


"Yes, but they knew each other before you could remember. Kyle is a little older than what he played in Kio and Cody is just as old, Kyle was there to bring him in when he ran from his home and was there for him when he turned into the Dark Lord."


"Kyle was there for that?"


"He tried, and I'm pretty sure he did help a bit to get the Dark Lord out of his soul. So we must be patient with him and I will be working to get his strength up."


"Could you train me agian?" Garen looked at him with pleading eyes. "I realized on that Lighthouse that none of us are strong enough to face them and I need to be stronger, I need my old Fire of Color master back." A smile came across his face as he said this.


"Of course, Garen, but don't expect it to be as easy as in Kio, this training will be much more difficult." Neotasha said causily, then started walking away. "Oh, and we will be putting that shield and sword to great use, I didn't make them for you to let them rust." Then he was gone, leaving Garen standing there with his mouth slightly open in surprise.








He was sitting on a log with his axe laying on a pile of chopped trees, this was an easy task for him to do, but he wanted to try something else. Ax enjoyed the company of the humans and elves, but it wasn't the same as his actually family, but he doesn't want to think about them, think about the people who cast him away from his tribe for being too small. He couldn't understand how he came out to be so small, either, it's not like runt giants are a common thing to come across, except for Ax. He was resting his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together and was holding his head up by his thumbs, great now he's sitting like the humans too, there's no way the giants will let him back with that poster. He sat up straight, a smile coming across his face as his eyes closed.


"You no sneak on Ax, elf," he said softly. "Me no gullible like human."


Neotasha dropped out of a tree above Ax and touched the ground without a sound, a grin on his face, "You know, we do have names..giant."


Ax gave a chuckle, "Me know this."


"I never knew you were much of the observant type."


"Giant naturally observant, me don't know why, not many things hurt giants, unless giant is runt like Ax."


"You're not a runt to us, mate," Neotasha said standing even with the sitting Ax. "You're actually quite very large."


"You just run around cheering people up"


"Pretty much, in a way."


"You do good job with Ax."


"I know I do," he patted Ax on the shoulder and started walking off. "You can take those logs, or trees, back to the camp and begin the fire I suppose, or you can stay out here a little longer." And Neotasha was gone again.


Ax sat there, looking at were Neotasha just was and then looked at the tree where he jumped to and watched him disapear. Neotasha would be fast to human eyes, but Ax can keep up with his movements quite well. "Suppose, me make fire."








Not even hunting, just sitting in a tree thinking of what was ahead of them, and what lie behind them, Max. It's not right for the Dark Lord to have taken him and now he'll pay for it. Becky looked around the area, wondering if everyone else had troubles completely their assigned tasks, it was almost impossible for her to. At least three or four bucks have come across her vision already plus a couple of rabbits and a numerous amount of squirrels, or maybe they were the same ones just coming back. Adsmeria is there destination now, she hasn't been there for a little over a year now, it will be nice to be back. She reached over and grabbed her shoulder and started moving her arm around, wincing as a sharp pain shot through her arm, not fully healed until Adsmeria, great.


It's time to hunt, enough sitting around and thinking about the past. Becky got her bow out and knocked an arrow, then leaped from one tree to another to catch up with the last buck she saw, but there was already an arrow stuck in its broad side, through and through the heart. She lept down from the tree and walked up to her already shot target and began looking around the trees, then she looked in front of her across the deer to watch Neotasha come into view, kneeling over and pulling his arrow out of the buck.


"Sorry if I took your game, Becky, you seemed a bit..occupied," Neotasha said not looking up at her.


"What have you been doing, Neotasha?" she asked. "Wandering between us and talking to us all about what?"


"Just things that are important to each individual that I shouldn't address in front of the whole group."


"And let me guess, you have something to tell me?" She looked down at him with a smile, then it slowly faded away as she saw the somber look on his face. He stood up and grasped onto her hands gently, a painful look in his eyes.


"You're dying, Becky."


She turned around, pulling her hands away from his, tears beginning to flood her eyes. "I know this already. Do you think we can make it home before the poison takes its toll on me."


"Maybe, possibly not. How long have you been gone?"


"Only a year or more, not near as long as you." She turned back around to face him. "That's why I left to begin with, Neotasha, to bring you back home, people are scared and worried about you and not to mention how much everyone misses you."


"I know, but I had things to take care of and still do, Garen still needs my training and Cody needs help more than ever."


Becky just stood there, not saying anything, staring at him with unreadable eyes. "You will go back when it's all done, won't you? You're brother hasn't really been the same."


"And what about your sister? Has she been the same since you've up and left to come find me?"


"Heather can handle herself. Neota is a little more to worry about, you know how unstable he is."


"I know, I'm going to bring this food back, maybe you can get some smaller game." Neotasha lifted the buck effortlessly over his shoulder and ran off toward the camp, leaving Becky there to think about the things forced upon her.


The only reason she left was to bring Neotasha back to Adsmeria, but then she was attacked by those people and rescued by Garen and Max. Now she's wrapped up with this whole Lighthouse business with no Max left to comfort her. Becky turned on her heel and started walking back toward the camp, leaving her thoughts behind so they would no longer affect her, she needs to be as happy and clear minded as possible, she's going to die soon anyway, might as well make the best of what she's got left.











Cody's eyes opened with a start as the cool wind blew over him. He was camped out further away from the group like usual and he did feel much better after last nights meal and refill of water, the sleep was wonderful too. The cool wind wasn't what woke him, though, it was the feeling that came with the wind, a chilling feel that went up and down the spine, the feel of darkness. He sat up quickly and looked over to see Neotasha already awake, motioning for him to lay back down and holding his finger to his lips, telling him to be quite. He was close enough to wake the others without making too much noise and soon they were all laying there with the wind blowing through their bones. Cody knew he was close, possibly on top of them now and he understood what Neotasha's strategy was. To keep quiet and pretend they were still asleep, that way the Dark Lord would try and catch them by surprise, but then surprise him back.


He could feel something creeping over his body like fingers trying to find their way into his heart, and the feeling felt familiar to him. The Dark Lord was targetting him, to take his body back, but does that mean there's no host body with him now? Cody clenched his fist together and opened his hand, a blast of Rainbow Fire exploding outward, the sound of a harsh scream coming from right above him as the Dark Lord's spirit shot away. Cody stood up, the others following his movement and got ready for whatever the Dark Lord had. A thin line of a black mist shot at him and he moved his head away from it just in time to get a small cut on his cheek. Neotasha waved his arms out and the black cloud around them slowly dispersed, and as soon as it was gone, the Dark Lord's figure came shooting down at Cody, causing him to fall to the ground on his back.


The sound of Becky's angry screams filled the air as she charged at the Dark Lord with her dual swords out, her eyes turning into a deep black, hiding any sign of her pupils. Her arms came down in a fierce and wild fashion, her form wasn't as perfect as it always has been. The Dark Lord quickly drew out two black swords from somewhere in his body and started to parry her attacks. The Dark Lord lifted his left hand up as he parried Becky's dual swords and with his right, he started to bring it quickly down at her side until he met Garen's emerald sword in a shower of sparks and black mist. A deep growl came out of the Dark Lord's throat as he looked down at Garen with displeasure, then a smile spread across his narrow lips.


"Two oppenents, eh?" he hissed. "I may enjoy this."


He crossed his two swords together and threw down to his side, throwing a dark mist out that blew Becky and Garen back and by the time he was ready to charge, Neotasha and Cody were swinging their swords down on him. He lift his arms up to defend himself against his new attackers and jumped back only to get thrown to the ground by Ax, who was now on top of him, his giant axe driven into the Dark Lord's shoulder. He pulled the axe out of his shoulder and threw Ax off of him then jumped to his feet to look at the five people in front of him all in an attacking position. The smile that had formed on his face before was now a grimmace as he peered at his opponents twirling the swords in his hands in a circle, trying to decide who to attack first. The ground around his feet turned into a deep cloud and he began to sink into it until the ground had fully engulfed him. No one lowered their guard, ready for a sneak attack, but none came. They stood there for close to twenty minutes and there was no sign of the Dark Lord anywhere, he left.


"Well, that was unexpectedly easy," Garen said, sheathing his sword.


"That's because the Dark Lord doesn't fight groups, he does one on one fights where he'll have the upper hand," said Cody.


Neotasha sheathed his sword and was staring off in the distance, leaning his head over towards Becky and said softly, "Has that city always been there?"


"No," Becky said sounding confused, "I didn't even see it last night, it's almost as if.."


"It was built over night," said Cody finishing Becky's sentence for her.