The wind rushed through Kain’s golden hair as he stood peering off the summit of Mount Ordeals. Closing his eyes, Kain could practically feel his surroundings.
"After all, isn’t that what a dragoon is supposed to do?" he asked himself. And then something changed…moved…a little. Spinning while bringing the Holy Lance to a defensive position. Kain eyed every inch of the mountain within thirty paces…nothing. Forty paces…nothing, fifty…the same. "Must have been my imagination." He thought.
Then something inside him screamed up, and looking up he saw a figure dropping, his lance aimed for Kain’s head.
"Shit!" Kain yelled, diving out of the way of the inbound attack. When the man, landed his lance caused rocks to splinter and a hole the size of the lance to erupt where Kain had been standing a moment earlier.
Kain looked to his hands to find that when he had dodged the assault, that he had flung the lance further than he had anticipated, leaving it lying a good thirty paces to his right.
A moment of panic cluttered Kain’s thoughts but when he re-organized them he remembered something he had been training with during his long stay here on Ordeals. Reaching to his left side, Kain found what he was looking for, the hilt of a sword.
Unbuckling the sheathe, Kain drew the sword and held it to his right side, only using his right arm, grinning the entire time.
"Humph," the dragoon, or at least that’s what Kain presumed him to be, snorted. "The son of a master dragoon reduced to a cowardly sword bearer."
Kain’s grin quickly evaporated after hearing this, and then it turned to a scowl. Then Kain lifted the sword with both hands over his shoulder, and then flung it as hard as he possibly could at the dark-armored figure. But to Kain’s misfortune, the sword caused no damage, because with a flick of his wrist and lance, the dragoon sent the projectile soaring off the cliff.
However, Kain had bought all the time he needed. He now had the Holy Lance in his possession again. It wasn’t what he’d hoped to use the sword for, but this stranger had angered him, and besides that he didn’t look to be much of a pushover.
"Well? What are you waiting for Kain?" the man said.
"How do you know my name?" was his reply.
"You know me Kain, or at least you did." He said as he pulled his jet-black helmet off his head, revealing jet-black hair, and a stern, muscled face.
Kain stood paralyzed, "That face…no, it couldn’t be…could it?" The man laughed as he put him helmet on again, and continued to do so, mocking Kain.
"Well, shall we?" he asked. Kain didn’t reply, but jumped into the sky, while the man just followed Kain with his eyes. Then he grinned wickedly and jumped in pursuit of Kain.
Close to the apex of his jump, Kain looked down behind him, and unsurprisingly he saw the other man not far behind. Quickly maneuvering his body so that he was upside down, which quickly changed his momentum so that he was now plummeting towards the other man.
Spear leading the way, cutting through air and increasing Kain’s speed, Kain flew towards the man and the ground faster than he had ever tried before.
Kain’s opponent however, did not notice that Kain had begun his attack so soon, and by the time he did, it was too late. Kain was already there, slamming into the man and sending him flying towards the ground.
The man hit with a sickening thud, and rang as hit armor was bent and torn by the rocky mountainside. Meanwhile, the impact had slowed Kain down just enough that he was able to wrench himself free of the force holding him upside down and crumpled to the ground unconscious.
* * * * *
"Is he coming to….?" A gentle voice asked as Kain slowly struggled to open his eyes. His vision was exceptionally blurred, but he could see what looked to be two figures.
"I’m not sure to tell the truth," said another.
"Oh, no…he’s…" And then Kain’s world was again consumed by darkness.
‘You know me Kain, or at least you once did.’ Kain heard again and again accompanied by the face that was so familiar, yet so…distant. "Was it? No, it couldn’t have been.
But then again, you couldn’t be controlled could you Kain?
"Who said that!?…No one. Maybe I HAVE gone crazy."
Not yet I’m afraid…
"RRrr, who are you!"
Not now, you are needed elsewhere…
"Ohh my head." Kain groaned as he propped himself up on his right elbow.
"Careful!" a voice commanded. "You’re too weak to move very much. You’ve slept for days, yet you look exhausted still." Then Kain looked to his left to see a slender, young girl, garbed in light blue robes, and hair red as blood, shiny as the scales of a red dragon.
"Who…when…" Kain stammered.
"We found you on the summit, unconscious." Another voice stated. This one was different though, deeper, and more mature. "Who we are can be explained later, after we get some food into you, and you rest a bit more." Kain shifted his view to his right, where a man dressed in the same robes stood, except this man’s hood was covering his face.
"Come Eziekial, there’s no need to hide behind that hood." The girl said.
"Humph," Eziekial snorted "How do we know he’s the one, he could be an imposter, like all the rest."
"Even if he is, we wouldn’t have the time to find another."
The man peered towards the sky and then looked at Kain and the girl again. "I guess you are right, Pearl." He said as he pulled back his hood. Long hair dark as the darkest of nights came from the hood.
The man irately pulled the hair from in front of his face, revealing a stern, yet seemingly gentle face. One that had been through so much, yet he only looked to be eighteen years of age.
"That’s better. Oh Kain! How terribly rude of us! My name is Pearl, and this here is my brother Eziekial."
"Well, sort of." Eziekial muttered. Pearl looked at Eziekial with astonishment written on her face.
"No…not now…" she stammered.
"Yes, now." He said darkly, "There are a few things that you should know about us, Kain, and about our cause." Pearl looked at Eziekial and opened her mouth to protest, but Eziekial, annoyed, waved his hand, and nothing came out of the girl’s mouth.
"Anyway, as I was saying, we are brother and sister and yet, we aren’t. To understand this, you must understand some things about our people as a group. You see, we are what are called blue or neutral mages." Kain opened his mouth to reply, but Eziekial paid no heed to Kain and continued,
"There are no neutral mages in this dimension, and for what reason I don’t know. This world is completely different than the others I have encountered. Most the others do have small differences, but nothing like this…but I have gotten off track.
You see, I come from a dimension parallel to yours, and Pearl here comes from another, ‘So how can you be related?’ you ask…" then Eziekial smirked and laughed. "Don’t be alarmed Kain, I can read minds, and in the world of thought, you practically screamed that out, anyway, to answer your question each of us, in our dimension, had a twin of the opposite sex. I with one named Pearl, and she with one named Eziekial, so in turn we are related, but we come from different time streams."
"So why aren’t there two pairs of you?" Kain asked. Eziekial’s face darkened for a moment then softened again and he replied,
"Because each of our siblings was killed in our search for the right you."
"What do you mean- ‘the right me?’ "
"Can’t you see? If theirs multiples of me, and multiple Pearls, than wouldn’t it be logical that there are more than one of you?"
"Oh I had never thought…"
"I didn’t think so," Eziekial interrupted. "Anyway, as I was saying, our siblings perished looking for you and yet fate has a sick sense of humor in that we found each other in our search.
Soon after we found each other, we made our way into this world, this…strange world where we found out that the Lunarian Zemus had been destroyed by Cecil, and his friends…including you.
After more investigating, we found out that Cecil had been appointed to the throne of Baron, and that his best friend had not been at the coronation, driven by shame to a place where he could purify himself, become a Master Dragoon like his father."
"When we found you here on the mountain, you were asleep, and then your health began to decline, and after days of our taking care of you, you awoke." Pearl said. Eziekial looked up with a dark grin on his face,
"What took you so long?" he asked.
"It’s hard to concentrate on a spell when someone’s constantly badgering you in your mind." She smiled a smile that much reminded Kain of Rosa’s radiant smile when they were children. He’d had less and less time to enjoy that as they grew up and he entered the ranks of the dragoons, and then it vanished once he and Cecil had graduated to top ranked officers, two of Baron’s most elite, and at times, most dark warriors.
Now, you need to rest more, and by the time you wake again, I’ll have found something on this waste of a mountain to eat, and you’ll be ready to hear some more of the things we have to tell.
Kain began to protest, but then he heard a soothing voice begin to sing,
Angels come and sing their songs,
Telling tales of rights and wrongs.
Learning from another day,
Will help the chosen one some day.
But for now, sleep my child,
Burning desires must go mild.
The mind wills,
And the body stills,
As sleep takes the moments feeling.
Pearl caught Kain’s head as he fell asleep and set it down on the makeshift pillow they had used for the previous days. Then she looked up to her brother and asked, "Do you think it’s him?"
"I know it’s him. The question is, is he strong enough?" he replied as he pulled the hood back over his face, and drew the gleaming scythe he used as his weapon and headed down the mountain.
* * * * *
Kain awoke alone, and there was no blankets, no makeshift pillow, nothing. "Maybe it was a dream." He thought.
You don’t really believe that, do you Kain?
"No, you’re right I don’t…wait a second! Who are you? What do you want?"
My identity isn’t important, just that I am here. And as to what I want, I want balance, I want someone to bring balance…
"And that someone’s me, isn’t it?"
I’m afraid so, but before you can bring balance, you yourself must be balanced.
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
One of your inner selfs must prevail, in one way or another, so here…now…that battle begins…
"And so we meet again, Kain," a dark voice said from behind Kain. Swiveling on his heel, Kain turned to see the dark dragoon, his ‘dark self’, in front of him, but this time he looked different.
"Must have something to do with the giant gash and numerous dents in his armor." Kain mused.
"The end of you draws near!" he howled as he charged Kain. Kain stood in place, confident because of his enemy’s indicipline.
Right before his dark self was in striking distance, Kain jumped, and while in mid-air jabbed at the dark self with the butt end of his lance sending his enemy plunging head first into the ground.
The dark dragoon picked himself and his weapon up and then turned to Kain and said, "You cannot win Kain, give up and I will give you a swift painless death."
"Ha, from what I’ve seen so far, you’re going to be an easy opponent." Kain’s opposition smirked,
"So be it." Then the dark dragoon brought his lance up to a fighting position. Taking slow, calculated steps, he advanced on Kain ready to do battle.
Likewise, Kain advanced and then thrust his lance at the chest of the dark dragoon, but it was easily deflected. The deflection sent Kain stumbling off balance, and then he fell to the ground.
Seeing an opportunity, the dark dragoon thrust his lance at Kain’s heart. The only thing that saved Kain was the Dragon armor that he received on his excursion to the moon…but if this was a dream, how was it he had everything that he owned in the real world.
Shrugging the thought off, Kain brought himself to his feet, and flipped out of the way of another of the dark dragoon’s attacks. Expecting more attacks, Kain kept his retreat up for a few more steps, and when his opponent didn’t pursue, he stopped and turned to see what his foe was up to.
When Kain faced the dark dragoon, his opponent smirked. "Not as easy as you thought it would be, he Kain?" Then the dark dragoon too to the air using the age-old dragoon skill.
Kain looked up to see the dark dragoon still climbing in elevation. Using the small amount of time he had, Kain ran to where his weapon lay and picked it up. After doing this, he turned and dove under a small overhang, to attempt to shield himself from the incoming attack.
Kain knew when the dark dragoon finished his attack because the ground above him thundered with the force. Hearing the cracking of rock as it burst apart, Kain looked up to see a mound of rubble falling towards him, and then there was darkness.
* * * * *
"Huh? What happened? Now I remember…where is he!? Come out and fight, fiend!"
Oh do knock it off will you? If you’ve noticed, we aren’t even ON Ordeals.
Looking around, Kain noticed that the voice was right, they weren’t on Mt. Ordeals, in fact it didn’t even look like they were on the Earth at all. All Kain could see was the stars and darkness.
It’s because we’re in space.
"Huh? Oh, the view…but what am I standing on if we’re in space…"
I wouldn’t do that….
Ignoring the voice Kain looked down at his feet seeing nothing but more darkness and more stars. Instantly Kain felt the burning taste of bile in his throat as terror streaked through his body.
I told you not to do that…oh well now maybe you will trust me now. Now, as I was saying, we are in space, but I may not tell you any more. You must use your own eyes, your own mind…
Just then, a whirling red vortex formed. It was only as big as Kain’s fist, but seemed to be slowly gaining size. Then it quickly gained size, and at the same time moved towards the planet’s surface.
Kain felt a tingling sensation, and when he looked around, he saw that he was on Earth, outside of the new Damcyan castle. Something then drew Kain’s attention up to the sky, and he saw the vortex from space closing in on the ground.
"Three weeks." Kain thought. "Three weeks until that thing…" Suddenly the vortex was on the ground, and was expanding. Then hideously deformed black creatures emerged from the vortex. They were every size and shape, ranging from being almost human, to hideous ogres.
"It’s his army. The keeper’s army…and thirteen. Thirteen? What’s that supposed to mean? Hey! Where’d you go!? Why don’t you answer me?" All of a sudden all was black, and Kain could feel a tremendous amount of pressure on his back.
* * * * *
"Humph, a pushover, indeed." A voice snorted.
"Unghh…" Kain grunted as he pushed some of the rock that had fallen on him in his battle with his dark self. "That must mean I’m back at Ordeals…well sort of."
"Not done yet eh?" the dark dragoon taunted. "Oh well, more fun for me." Just then, Kain saw the dark form charging him.
Frantically Kain searched the rubble for his lance but to no avail. Too late, the dark dragoon was already in striking distance. As the dark lance struck downwards at him, Kain rolled to his left and kicked with his legs.
The impact from his kick lifted the dark dragoon off his feet and sent him and his weapon flying. Hearing the clatter of his enemy’s weapon in one direction and the slam of his armored foe in another, Kain scrambled to his feet and after the dark lance.
Kain could hear a quiet moan as he picked up the weapon, and when he turned around, the dark dragoon was only on his knees. Kain lifted the lance and brought the butt end of it down in the middle of the dark dragoon’s back.
The dark dragoon smashed against the ground, pinned between the hard rock layer of the mountain and between his own weapon. Kain put even more pressure on the lance and at the same time twisted it, crushing the dark dragoon beneath it.
Kain let up, and the dark dragoon rolled to his back. Kain flipped the lance so that the blade pointed towards his enemy and raised it about two feet from the dark dragoon’s neck.
"Yes…" the dark dragoon hissed. "Kill me….."
"No, because in killing you, you would win, we’re through here." Kain replied with a scowl. Turning, Kain dropped the weapon and began walking towards the base of the mountain, but before he could go more than fifty feet, he collapsed and claimed him once more.