Grover sat meditating in the house of shadows. One of the most unlikeliest places that he thought he would be at this time. Not quite surprisingly, it had been a year since their adventures with the members of the guild and the Ore organization. He smiled gently because, at least, that was something to smile about now—because those were terrible days. Days in which they lived for months on the brink of the end of all humanity, only one step away from one wrong move. Beside him, Shambala was levitating. It seemed as though both of them were communicating through telepathic means without even saying any words. Not too far away from them, Vladimir and Krystal had just finished dueling that morning, and while Vladimir had stopped to clean the perspiration from his face, Krystal, who had won the match, was feeling a bit more excited and was walking away with a smile on his face.On Krystal’s side, it seems like after everything, their lives went back to normal. But, of course, he knows th
Krystal Shadows hated storms. They were cold and murky, typically accompanied by frightful or depressing air.He was clothed in a crisp blue shirt and a long black coat that emphasized his tall figure. His dark navy trousers were tucked into coal-black leather boots—an ensemble typically reserved for commanders readying to charge into battle.But he was no army commander; he was an assassin on the run.He was running through the dark alleys of the megacity, dodging and weaving through the narrow thoroughfares as he tried to shake off his hunters. He could hear the sound of their steps echoing behind him, getting nearer and nearer with each passing second. He knows that he cannot ever overrun them, but he is not going to make it easy for them, either.As he turns a corner, he sees a group of ninjas waiting for him. They are dressed in black and apply a variety of deadly munitions. Krystal stops in his tracks, his heart pounding in his casket. He takes a deep breath, trying to undergir
""Many years ago, the world faced what has gone down in history as the most chaotic days in human existence.War ravaged, countries fell, destruction followed by every nook and cranny, all seemed lost, and people had already given up on life itself until...""A silhouette of a man in his thirties could be seen raising a longsword high in the sky before charging towards demonic-looking creatures."A hero appeared and brought an end to the chaos. Sadly, that wasn't until most of the population of the world at that time was destroyed.""He stood atop a pile of creatures as he shouted his battle cry."His final words before he vanished were""When the six authorities have bonded, Ragnarok will rise once again.""He was the first artifact user."The man disappeared.A woman was revealed to be reading from a book titled "Last Days of the Old Era" before closing it and placing it back on a shelf amidst other books.She seemed to be in a library.She was clad in red armor like a knight and ha
"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!"Grover was panicking and sobbing while the walls kept closing in on him."I know I was a petty thief, but I never thought I'd face an end like this.".Meanwhile,Krystal appeared at the end of the portal."Huh, the portal didn't work!"It looks like the crypt would only allow Grover to pass through.Krystal clenched his fists at the thought of Grover not coming out of the portal. Self-guilt is a terrible feeling."If I hadn't taken his damn hat, he would be here right now.""You've got that right, you bastard!"A familiar voice shifted the current atmosphere."Grover!"Krystal jumped on his feet excitedly at the sight of his teammate coming out of the portal.He quickly rushed towards his partner and gave him a bear hug while sobbing."There you little demon spawn; I, the great Grover Star, have successfully raided a crypt all on my own.".He declared, recalling how he escaped from his previous predicament.A few moments earlier, Grover was being squished by the moving
In a dark and eerie room, three silhouettes could be seen. One of them seemed to be addressing the other two, who were on their knees. "Your brother has been spotted in Ernia; you know what to do.". "Yes father" The larger of the two spoke first, followed by the other."What if he chooses to resist?""You could take away his artifact."A devious smile could be seen on their faces as they vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving the man alone with his thoughts.'It's time you embraced your birthright, Seth'.He spoke in a cold, dark voice that had absolutely no emotion in it. "Let the hunt begin!"Vladmir shouted and charged towards Krystal with a hard knuckle, only to be met with a foot to the face. "He got him!". Grover, who was still trapped inside the spherical mass of electricity, was cheering on his partner. Krystal quickly retreated from his feet, seeing that it didn't even daze his opponent, and readied another attack, not letting the momentum go by."Shadow Bind!". He
It was now four days after the battle between Krystal and Vladmir. News spread far and wide across Ernia about the Brave, who defeated one of the strongest district commanders.In an isolated area not far from Hondah, an army officer was being addressed by a man. He was tall and skinny, had silver hair, and was clad in violet armor with a cape around his back. He was pacing about with his hands positioned behind him. "Soldiers, join our armies to become heroes the same way the legends of old did.""They are born to rescue, to enter hell, and to conquer on behalf of the light!!""Let the children born of the hero's heart be the champions of the weary; let them take their strength and lift the broken, for they are the ones who would lay down life and limb to do what is right!!""So take up your arms and follow me as we go to battle against the accursed artifact users!" RAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAll the soldiers raised their weapons in unison and let out their war cry. "All hail Harijoh!"
On the fields right outside Hondah, an army of hundreds was marching in unison. The person heading this party was Yusaku Ona."Hand me another cannon.". He took the cannon and, with movements like a pitcher, threw the cannon over the walls of Honda, and a huge explosion could be heard.This went on a couple of times. As for the conditions, on the other hand, "There are over 200 of them; I don't sense any artifacts from them."He had deployed his shadow to spy on the marching army."What now!" The one who spoke next was Grover; he was panicking, evident from how he was aggressively pulling his hair. "What else? We fight.''" "H-hold on!" Grover interjected."I didn't sign up for war; this is his problem."He was pointing at Vladmir. "Grover..." WHACK! Krystal slapped him, shocking everyone around them. "He is our guildmate now, and we don't abandon our friends!" He exclaimed furiously. Grover had a puzzled look on his face as he held the spot where he was slapped. "You can e
"We can actually win this!"Krystal had his hands folded as he watched the general plop in confusion.In front of him were the countless soldiers and Kira, who were trapped by their own shadow.He dubbed this technique "Shadow Realm Prison."The inside of the shadow itself was a whole different dimension; that was why Yusaku Ona could not sense his army even after using seismic sense, an advanced Anima technique in which the user could feel the presence of everything and everyone within the radius of their Anima's aura.In this case, Yusaku Ona's seismic sense could reach well over one kilometer."We don't have much time; Grover should wrap this up."Krystal was feeling the backlash of the hundreds of soldiers trying to use their aura to escape."If it goes on like this, they'll escape in less than five minutes.".Five minutes—that was the time Grover had to deliver a finishing blow to the agitated general.'Here goes nothing.'He channeled his anima and was now mimicking a familiar m
Grover sat meditating in the house of shadows. One of the most unlikeliest places that he thought he would be at this time. Not quite surprisingly, it had been a year since their adventures with the members of the guild and the Ore organization. He smiled gently because, at least, that was something to smile about now—because those were terrible days. Days in which they lived for months on the brink of the end of all humanity, only one step away from one wrong move. Beside him, Shambala was levitating. It seemed as though both of them were communicating through telepathic means without even saying any words. Not too far away from them, Vladimir and Krystal had just finished dueling that morning, and while Vladimir had stopped to clean the perspiration from his face, Krystal, who had won the match, was feeling a bit more excited and was walking away with a smile on his face.On Krystal’s side, it seems like after everything, their lives went back to normal. But, of course, he knows th
Krystal, in getting out of his stance, quickly lunged at the man, whom he quickly identified as a member of the organization. He remembered the horrible things this particular individual had done to him in the past few hours and was not only going to pay back, but was also going to take the opportunity to punish him for his offenses against mankind.The man quickly realized that he was in a dire situation with three of them facing him, but being a typical member of the organization, it did not even occur to him that there was any other way out of this. He was possessed by the kind of pride that could not ask for mercy. He braced himself for battle and began to fight ceaselessly, even as they attacked him mercilessly on every side.Several times in the short period, they would look at each other’s faces and, without saying a word, deploy the strategy on how to teach this fellow lesson. All he knew was that he bore the brunt of this skill technique, but he did not know how they arrived,
As Grover and Vladimir fought with the guard, Krystal simply looked on without saying anything. Grover realized that, at that point, he was unstable and also very vulnerable. It could easily be tilted in any direction if he stayed in that trance, so even as he fought, he thought of the scheme to get them out of this situation.“Krystal! Krystal, we’re here.” He yelled, but there was no response.Seeing this, they immediately continued to fight with the man once again while they kept trying to use physics on Krystal so he would awaken.Krystal remained where he was standing and didn’t quite pay attention to them, but the man they were fighting with did not like the idea that they were trying to wake Krystal up. The man was annoyed with the way things were going. It was his fault, but there was nothing he was going to be able to do about it. He had caused it. In that moment, he thought of a number of things. The first of which was the reason why he did not call for backup as soon as he
Grover lay on his side, thinking about how he had probably broken a few ribs and how tired he felt. This fight had gone on seemingly forever. He knew they could not give up. But he had to admit that he was getting tired. He looked to Vladimir, who was unmoving with his face in the dust, and did not like the silence, which was only interrupted by the heavy breathing of the guard. If there was any consolation in this situation, it was the fact that the heavy breathing was an indication that the guard himself found them a worthy challenge and was also tired.Just as they finished fighting, as they lay in the dust, they heard a mighty sound as the wall behind them cracked. Grover mustered all his energy in time to see what had made that sound, and he noticed Vladimir also tried to do that, regardless of how tired he was. Not knowing what was beyond the wall, he did not like it that the man behind it had been fighting. He was excited about whoever was coming behind it and looked at it with
Grover and Vladimir had been fighting the security person they had seen by the gate to the cave, and it looked like he was getting the better of them. In fact, he had begun gloating, teasing, and making fun of them about how weak they were despite being two and coming against him as a single person.Just as he thought that he had defeated the two, a loud yell came from deep inside the structure. When Grover heard it, it took a minute to sink in, and he then became excited because he would know this voice. Anyway, this was Krystal’s voice. Krystal was yelling that he was not going to agree to be used.“ Arggg!!! Leave me alone! I will win! I have already won! I will always win.“ He kept shouting these over and over again, warding off whatever entity it was that he was fighting, saying that he wouldn’t give up and he'd keep fighting. The more they listened to the exchange, the more they realized that he wasn’t fighting with someone outside of himself but with something on his inside. It
Grover and Vladimir have been deployed by Shambala to go find Krystal and his father, rescue them, and bring them to safety while he and the rest of the guild had a face-off with the members of the organization at the gate. Aside from the unfortunate fellow who had seen them attempting to escape and had paid for it dealing with his life, no other person had seen or been accosted so far because of the chaos they had left at the gate. Grover did not think that they would intentionally make such a stupid decision as to drain the entire facility of its fighting force to only one location to fight an enemy.He thought that the decision to concentrate their entire fighting force in one location was born out of the mindset that they had never been attacked here and, with the exception of the members of the guild, might never have even been discovered at this location. Grover also thought of how it was such a good feeling. Nobody was lunging at him to take his life or were trying to fight wit
As soon as Grover noticed that the portal and the gates had started shutting them in, he quickly shouted, “Fight for the freedom of the five continents, oh ye men! This is a fight for the earth!”This charge, as innocuous as it sounded, was just the right encouragement that his comrades needed as they warded off their enemies with physical strength and artifact strength. They fought as though recharged by an invisible force.While he was fighting, Shambala found a way to distance his mind from the fight and then his thoughts. And as he did so, he realized something. That one, when the bell was rung earlier, had a code to it. One strike alone would have been a major indication that the barrier had been reached. Two strikes would have been a call for reinforcement, being that the intruders would be too strong. Three strikes were a summons for every possible fighting person in the structure to come out and join the reinforcement. And if that was the situation, it means that every single
Open, open, mother of horror, and let the children come in. Kin or foe, you shall decide. For to kin your cleave and on foe you will feast. These words reverberated in Grover’s mind as he heard the crack of the opening of the Gates of Doom, and indeed, as they opened, he understood why they were known as the gates of hell. The others have been clearly amazed that the poem he heard in the atmosphere turned out to be the key, and as Shambala said the words, the gate opened. However, before they could jubilate, some figures flew out of the building, looking at them angrily; they did not look like they were pleased to see them.Obviously, since no one knew the location of the gates of doom, it was understandable that they had not had guests in a long time. Not like a place called the Gates of Doom would have many visitors at any rate. In Vladimir’s mind, as he looked at these figures, he quickly realized that this was where the battle was to begin. He only hoped that their fate did not e
Following the suggestion by one of them, they fired at the barrier until a building started to reveal itself in bits as they hit it. And as they persisted, the whole building was shown to be a gate. At some point, no matter how hard they hit, the building wouldn’t budge but continued to reflect their energy against them. It’s only made him get tired faster.Shambala had come to the front of the company and was able, after some time, to interpret the inscription on the door. He voiced out the words in the old tongue and then translated them into their language as “the gates of doom." As if the literal meaning of the words was not terrifying enough, the horror on his face as he said those words made a chill run down the spines of his men. Some of them, who had invariably been to close the door, moved further away from it.Of course, they knew that they had no choice but to go in knowing that Krystal was in there, and they would not leave without him. Seeing these things only made them he