Kilroos (Rise of the Guardians)

Mahlo glanced over to Edon at his scoff. He allowed a smirk to form on his face in response, "Don't worry," His voice was smooth once again, "I won't." He watched the old bastard step inside, and Mahlo turned back to the night sky for a little while. He glanced up to the stars, his voice becoming expressionless once more. It was at this point, contemplating in the night breeze, that Mahlo realized that Edon wasn't trying to be mean--He was only trying to help. He knew what it was like to lose someone. It was something that him and the old man had in common.

After a few minutes, he turned on his heels and walked inside, too. He went into his room, shedding his shirt and folding it on the dresser top before sliding into bed with Quinn again. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tighter than before. He closed his eyes; Maybe Edon wasn't such an asshole after all.

The group had finally left to go into their own rooms. Cassie didn't bother lighting a lantern. Instead she laid on her bed flinging her headdress against the wall. Esti stood in the doorway watching Cassie break down. Cassie instantly grabbed Zayne's pillow and started hugging it crying into it to muffle her tears. Esti looked down as Cassie was expressing what the small girl felt. Pulling out the little rose from inside her little dress she held it softly and let salty droplets form in her eyes. Letting her small and thin arm wipe off the condensation she let out a strained whimper unable to hold her emotions. Walking back out of the room, she shut the door behind her to let Cassie vent out all of the hysterical tears she had held the rose tighter and tighter. Walking out onto the patio, Poru was playing her Lyre down in the town to a few of the villagers out at night, which alone was already not a lot. Esti plopped her butt on the wooden floor and began to cry. Veins rose up on her left temple of her head as one eye was golden and the other iris was simply black. Esti forced the pain into her gut as she thought about her brother and not being able to help. Ren wouldn't let her help. Tears hit the small rose as she sat in the dark hearing Edon and Mahlo at the other house.

Xerxes and Julius were in there room and Xerxes noticed how fast the small king had fallen asleep and Xerxes had an impulse every night to do what he always did. Standing, he walked over to Julius and pulled the covers over the kings shoulder. Looking down at him he placed the books on the floor neatly. They would re-read them together and dissect everything word for word. Xerxes got undressed and finally laid down and went to sleep. Roy walked in with Sasha and sat in their room and he smiled. "What is your plan when we are done with this journey Sasha?" His voice was soft and his head was low. "You can't run from your city because of your parents. I am your father now Sasha, and your mentor. If you won't listen to me, what am I?" Quinn walked into her room with Mahlo and got undressed before setting the books down to read tomorrow. Quinn was nervous and even blushed as she looked at Mahlo unable to do certain things such as being next to him. She was knocked completely out, and didn't wake up even when he left the bed, which was unusual for her.

A fluid voice cooed from the shadows, “Poor child…”

Estrella would hear the words address her, but would be unable to locate the source. The voice allowed a silence to pass before speaking once more, “What calamity could possibly make such a pretty little girl cry?”

A tall, lithe figure emerged from the darkness. He was enrobed in a crimson tailcoat, laced with gold coloring, left open to reveal the casual clothes beneath it. Black button gloves covered his hands, and his similarly colored hair ran all the way down to his shoulders. However, his face was the most recognizable of his features. His eyes were surrounded by black paint; bright blue irises looked upon the little girl. A painted smile stretched across his face. Yes, it was him. The clown. The magician from the outskirts of Jycer. How could she forget? Kehl was the one that had gifted her that lovely rose.

“You needn’t clutter such a beautiful face with tears, Ms. Esti.” Kehl walked to her with silent footsteps and a wide smile, “Turn the heartache affable… salvation reflects on something as simple as a grin. Life’s a dream if you go through it smiling.”

The clown’s expression melted into a dramatic pout, “But these people don’t make you smile… do they?” With a quick wave of his hand, an entire bouquet of roses appeared in his grasp; all equalled the beauty of Esti’s. He winked, a smirk crossing his features, “I bet’cha I can.”

Kehl snapped with his free hand. A cloud of glitter poofed from his other sleeve. It gently fell around the two. The clown took the Esti’s small hand in his own, lifting her to her feet. “Leave behind all this hurt and melancholy. It’ll all fade to black, come with me and don’t come back.”

Esti stayed quiet as she heard a man speak to her. Looking up only slightly she still stayed sitting on the ground, that is until he offered her his hand. Taking it she stood and looked up at him. Her golden eye bleeding slightly as she made a pain filled face. The man's words were very true and she knew it. He kept calling her things she had never even heard before and while he was calling her such things, her eye had slowly turned into a black iris just as the other. The man had waved his hand in the air, and magically made a bigger and more astonishing bouquet of flowers appear in his hands. Dropping her single rose she looked at the large arrangement of flowers holding her hands out. He couldn't have been so right, and she honestly believed she'd live a much happier life with him. "...and don't come back..." She smiled widely and took the flowers. "Okay... Let's go then..."

The clown gently brushed the blood away from the girl’s golden eye. He noted the color change, but he didn’t acknowledge it. Kehl had saved the day. His grin widened as she dropped the rose. It was perfect. A perfect game. How smart he was to had thought of it. All he had to do was wait for the wielders to follow, he’d wait like a child before Christmas.

The man with the painted smile ushered Estrella into the darkness and, eventually, out of Jycer.

Sasha got ibaide along with Roy. She threw herself onto the bed huging a pillow, she listened to Roy's words...and her expression went kind of sad. She covered her face with the pillow and answered "You think my parents will allow you to 'be' my dad?" she laughed sarcastically, "no... if they could put me in a cage and throw food at it 3 times a day they'd do it. I... I don't want this journey to end. Why go back to high clouds?, things are NOT working correctly there. Someone's got to do something about that." she kneeled on the bed still huging the pillow "I feel ashamed just by living in there!, people starving to death?, children getting their arms cut off because they stole an aple?, that's not a 'LIFE', Roy...." she tightened her pillow and her look went somber, "That's just... not dying...".

She sighed deeply. "For the first time in my life, I feel alive. And I don't want to replace that...".

The dark elf had finally been able to get sleep, which was odd. She had not been able to get a well nights rest for the past 4 days and knew she deserved this. Q snuggled her pillow and had one hell of a dreamless night. Just the way she liked it. The presence of Ren was now exiting her thoughts and even gave her some relief from her anxiety. Mahlo getting out and in bed didn’t even disturb her which really said a lot. Quinn was the one to wake even at the drop of a hair or the first ray of the sun. Quinn woke up before the sun today and stretched looking over at Mahlo. It was still unusual for her to be next to him, let alone in a bed this large. She felt very safe and calm in this city, more than she did in the fortress, and she still couldn’t shake why she felt this way, maybe it was because Zayne was gone and their ticking time bomb was eviscerated from her mind. Something lurked, back in her mind… what he did to her only one night ago. “Hmm…” She got out of bed and walked out and into the main room towards the bathroom. Q never put down any of her weapons and instantly grabbed one as she heard footsteps out on the front porch. Fast feet. Running? No… they were pacing. Q trotted over to the window and peered outside. Someone was walking back and forth in front of the door and as soon as Q looked at them they turned to her and vanished instantly. “Huh?” Q opened the door and there on the ground was Lynn lying face down and in a pool of her own blood. “Ho-… LYNN!” Q kneeled down in the blood and felt Lynn’s neck to make sure she had a pulse. The young teen did have a pulse and Q slowly flipped her onto her back and placed her head in her lap. “Mahlo! Julius, Xerxes!” Poru was nowhere to be found at least by the two homes.

In the main room of the home Quinn stepped out of, stood a tall woman with white long hair that draped along the ground. “Not here. She’s not here, he’s not here, where is the failure…” The woman whispered. The most distinct feature of the woman was antlers that seemed recently cut and were growing at a substantial pace that no human being would be able to keep up with, trimming wise. Quinn held Lynn and pulled her inside looking at the woman. “Who are you!? How did you come in?! Were you the one that took Lynn?! What did you do?!” The woman turned revealing a skull tattoo on her face and her piercing green eyes looking at Quinn’s silver. “You opened the door. I came in. I am not the one you seek for the desecration of that young girl. I am looking for Cassandra…” Q stood holding Lynn in her arms. “I won’t tell you where Cassie is until you tell me who you are!” The woman vanished and appeared in her face. “I’m Zayne’s mama. Tell me… where she is…” Quinn narrowed her eyes. “She’s in the other building next door.” Lissette hissed. “LIAR! There was NO ONE in that building other than a small girl and a blonde elf!” Quinn was now very concerned.


Roy sighed looking at her. “I understand that Sasha you’ve already said that to me plenty of times, it doesn’t make things easier for me to tell you that I must return to that city. You might not care about what happens to your parents once you leave them for good, but I care about mine. This bracelet on my wrist is not only my weapon but a tracking device given to every soldier that works for the city. I cannot remove it and it will more than likely rip my skin off if I even try to… If you truly don’t want to go back, I can’t stop you. You can leave. If I leave, more than likely my parents will be put to work and turned to slaves, as will your parents once the wielder abandons the city. You can’t run from them forever Sasha. This is where I will be putting my foot down, as your mentor. Anyways… I’d…” Roy trailed off not really being the one to be angry for long, let alone scold. “I’d like to just get some sleep… Read our books in the morning. Just… forget I even asked.” Roy sat on his bed and removed his robe before laying down to go to sleep. He laid there for a while with his eyes closed but not exactly sleeping, eventually when he felt it was time, he fell into a good slumber.

In the morning there was an opening of a door and the front door even slammed. The sun wasn’t even up yet and Roy grumbled hearing it, and sat up gripping his wrist cuff. “What… was that… Sasha. Wake up.” Roy got up and walked into the main room looking at the door cracked open. “Cassie?” Roy moved out of his room and summoned his bow before moving through the front door. Looking outside he noticed something scraping across the ground. White. Ash? No… it was snow… “What the…” Roy grabbed the lantern from inside the building and shined it down on the patio. The sun was starting to rise and there was bare footprints that seemed to circle around something near him. A rose. “Wasn’t that the one Estrella got from that clown?” A giggle was heard. “Ding ding ding! Correct!” Roy looked up and noticed Sugar High sitting on the railing. “You’re pretty smart for a blondie!” Roy stood and pulled back the bow string and summoned an arrow releasing it towards her head. The arrow hit her square between her eyes and she tilted her head. “Mister Kehl sends his regards.” The arrow vanished as if it didn’t even hurt her. Falling backwards off the railing, she was gone.

The large man had a hard time getting to sleep, there was a gut feeling brewing deep in him that made him not want to sleep. All he could think about was Julius and his mother. The soft little breaths of his king made him happy knowing he was somewhat safe, however Xerxes knew they weren’t safe anywhere at this point. The champions were playing with the wielders and wrapping them around their fingers. “Something is very strange. I feel like a bull lining up for slaughter…” Xerxes spoke to himself unable to really sleep, however he eventually fell asleep laying on his back with his arms crossed.

It was only a matter of time for shit to hit the fan for this tired group. Xerxes awoke to Quinn screaming out to them. Getting up he didn’t even bother getting his armor on and ran out towards where Quinn was. She was in the doorway with Lynn in her arms. “Lynn!” Xerxes noticed the white haired woman standing in the room with them as well. “Is she the one that took her?!” Liss turned again and narrowed her eyes. “No!” Xerxes moved back towards the door and listened to her speak to Quinn about who she was and what she wanted. “So you’re her. The shifter…” Liss crossed her arms as her eyes became cold looking back at Xerxes. “And you’re the man that served me griffon at a restaurant in the mountains. I know. I don’t forget a face.” Xerxes shook his head and moved over to Quinn taking Lynn in his arms. “Is she okay?” Q nodded. “She has a pulse.” Lynn wheezed inhaling air sharply and finally opened her deep blue eyes mumbling something. Xerxes took her and ran into the King’s room placing her on Xerxes’ bed. “No, no! You need to rest… please don’t speak, close your eyes." Xerxes tried to hush her. “They…” Lynn forced the words out. Xerxes was heavily nervous of the girl as her appearance was that of a mutilated corpse. “They have… Sophia… S… Sirius…”

The quiet had finally set in with the clear seas priestess. Her eyes could no longer produce tears and her body was run numb. The fact that Esti was with Cassie made her remember that the small girl was supposed to come stay in her room. “What did Zayne want…” Cassie sat up and gasped slightly. “Es..Estrella?” Cassie ran out of her room and out of the building. Slipping on the patio she shivered extremely cold… “What…” She stood up and looked down at the flower on the ground. “That rose…” Cassie whimpered and instantly placed her hands to her head. “No… He took her… THAT MAN!” Cassie instantly bit the side of her pointer finger whimpering softly. “No… Lissette will surely kill me. I can’t. I won’t let her down. Not twice… I need to get Esti back.” Cassie left her headdress in her room and simply started running following the only slight footprints in the snow leading out of Jycer.

The boy woke up as soon as he heard his name, but was still drowzy. As he heard Xerxes get up to respond, he simply fell back to sleep himself, sure that his mentor could handle the problem. However when the man came rushing back in, Julius popped his head off his pillow and rubbed his eyes as he asked, "What's the matter Xerxes?" He blinked to focus on the figure lying in the bed and quickly swung his legs off as he rushed over. "Lynn? You found Lynn? Is she okay?" Her eyes were open and she was breathing heavily so he felt like he could relax a bit, but he saw the look of grievance on the knight captain's face. "Xerxes what's wrong? Are you okay? Look Lynn will be okay. We'll have Sasha come and heal her." The young king felt that his words weren't reaching Xerxes, the man was focusing on something much more severe. Something terrible had happened.

Mahlo's slumber had been compromised the moment Quinn got out of their bed. He rolled over and felt the warm emptiness of the bed, and suddenly he had begun to stir, rising to a half-sleeping state. When he heard footsteps on the hard wood and the shrill call for his name however, he burst upright. He brought his hand to the dresser top next to him, grasping the scythe and looking back and forth, his eyes alert to his surroundings. That was Quinn calling him.

He rushed out from the room with pajama wear--A baggy shirt and a loose pair of pants, and noticed two things. The first thing he noticed was the horned lady pacing back and forth recklessly and staring at them. The large horns clued him in on the fact that he was a Zayne relative, which, at this point, he brushed off. They seemed to always show up. His main focus was on Lynn, who had created a pool of crimson on the floor as she struggled to stay awake. His eyes narrowed at the sound of her voice--Sirius had Sophia. 

He looked around and did a quick head count of the people surrounding him, "We have to grab the guys from the other house, make sure they're okay."

Sasha stood in silent, not wanting to take the conversation any further she covered herself with blankets even her head. "No one understands..." she thought before falling asleep. In the morning, she heard Roy waking up, and telling her to wake up. But when she uncovered herself and saw where he was, Roy was already walking out of the door. "Roy?... wha-". Sasha stood up and followed him, she saw him lighting up a sort of lantern and despite her claling his name he didn't turn. As if he was focused on someting else.

Sasha noticed that he went outside and followed, she saw him in the distance. To her surprise he pulled out his bow, that's when Sasha got worried. She rushed outside until she reached him. Only to see sugar high vanishing in the air. She looked at Roy and said "The others!, these guys are probably messing up with everyone, we need to regroup!" she said as she pulled his hand towards the house were the dark swamps were. Hoping for the best.... tho a weird feeling got to her, something really bad is happening.

Xerxes had his veins pop out from his rather tanned temple and his hand ran over his now chin stubble. “That’s not the worst part Julius! That man! He has my wife! YOUR mother! He’s mocking me. That frail little man is MOCKING ME.” Xerxes refused to hit the wall he oh so desired to destroy. His face coiled into pain and metric tons of anguish. “He’s mocking me because he knows we can’t do anything to stop him.” Xerxes instantly looked up at the ceiling as Lynn wheezed shaking slightly. Her armor was dinged and at a disarrayed. Bolts were missing and her mouth was bloody. Her smell was that of rusting copper and her spine was twisted as she tried to get up. Xerxes turned and pressed his hand on her shoulder and scolded her for even attempting to do something so ridiculous. “You need to rest Lynn until Sasha comes in and heals you. Lynn spit blood on the floor. “Like hell I’ll need her help.” Xerxes got mad again. “What is it with you?! She is only here to help and you won’t even accept that?!” Lynn growled as she choked on blood. “I have pride!” Xerxes restrained himself again from wanting to knock the child right off the bed her pathetic small body was resting on. “PRIDE IS A HERO’S WAY OF COWERING.”

“They are fine swamp child.” Lissette turned to him with words with that of a black widow. “I was over there only moments ago.” Quinn seemed unamused with how she was speaking to Mahlo. “You can call him Mr. Carnavo. Not ‘Swamp Child’. At that moment Roy and Sasha had come into the building like a herd of buffalo. Q turned to look at them and backed up a bit as Roy seemed to turn around ensuring that Poru was indeed missing. “Poru is gone too.” Lissette’s levitated or ‘blow in the wind’ that wasn’t even there. The woman was a powerful enchantress and the more they stood there the more her horns grew. “Ah yes, the high elf and the small coloring book.” Roy narrowed his eyes and disregarded what she said about them. “Cassie is gone. So is Esti.” A cold whisper was heard stopping Roy from speaking anymore. “Estrella.” Lissette spoke much quieter and if you listened hard enough you could hear the mother’s heartstrings rip apart. “My baby…” Roy seemed to have trailed off from what he was going to say and eventually picked up a rose that the small girl had been holding. “A man named Kehl has her.” Lissette had a low gut feeling as if someone was pulling all of her entrails out. Speaking in her whispery cold voice she stared at the rose. “Kehl…”

The silence that followed the mother’s voice was deafening, taking the voices from everyone in that building. Q was the first to speak. “We need to see if these books have any answers for us. We can no longer risk running into this blindly. We are dwindling. The champions aren’t fighting us, but these two men, Kehl and Sirius, are sucker punching us from the sidelines.” Liss was standing perfectly still before taking the rose from Roy slowly. Smelling the flower as Q spoke more. “Gannon said something about Dead Man’s Pass and Rainbow Cove. What did we learn from our travels about these two places? If at all? Do we even have a map anymore?! Does Edon know how to get to these places?” Q stopped. Is Edon even awake?”

"There's nothing prideful about bleeding on a bed anyways." Julius walked over to the door. "I'll go get Sasha, wait here." He left and made his way to the front door. Standing at the doorway was everyone already, as well as someone new. She stood tall, and her horns even taller. A relative of Zayne's... fantastic... He swallowed a grimace and approached carefully. He bowed in her direction. "Hello madam, sorry to interrupt." He looked up and looked at Roy and Sasha. "But I require Sasha's assistance immediately. The situation with Lynn is dire." He glanced over at the faces of everyone. "Did... something else happen?" He was getting slightly tired of the flood of bad news, but he wasn't one to appreciate being behind on information. It may also explain why Zayne's mother was here. She could also be there because of the fact Zayne had disappeared the way he did. Did anyone tell her? He glanced over to the horns that kept growing and gulped.

Lynn looked away from Julius and coughed softly as he left. Liss turned to Julius emerging from his room and her emotions seemed to change. He looked relatively close to a younger version of her son. The eyes though. Not him. Quinn was about to answer for the now silent woman until she spoke up for herself. “My son is dead. That fortune teller was supposed to take care of him. My daughter left the seas and found her way to Zayne somehow. I knew it because Valkyrie was speaking of her. I just came from the Champion’s retreat and let me tell you, I can sense when my children are in distress, and I don’t tend to stay still well. Done it for almost 25 years. Not going to do it again.” Liss shifted her feet around to make sure she was fully facing Julius. “You’re the Mist Mountain’s King.” Liss bowed. “Nice to finally meet you your highness.” Roy watched this unfold and blinked hearing about Lynn. “Lynn is here? Is she okay?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlpbzr46z_E

Mahlo winced at the term 'Swamp Child'. It was something Rubio always called him, along with a few other derogatory terms when he was drunk and pissed. However, he placed a hand on Quinn's shoulder, softly directing her to stop. Lissette was a mother in distress--Even if she was Zayne's mother, he still felt sympathy for the woman. She had lost a son and now--

Her daughter was gone. 

Estrella was gone?

Mahlo leaned against the wall, running a hand through his hair. The whispers of a mother fallen from grace could be heard, echoing across the walls. He stared down at his hands, clenching them into fists. A man named Kehl had taken her. And suddenly, Mahlo couldn't help but remember the make up riddled man who had looked at him like a predator waiting to strike, "The clown." 

He stood there for a long time, taking comfort in the embrace of silence. Esti had her problems, but she was still a little girl. She was still innocent, she--She still called him Papa Mahlo. He was supposed to protect her. 

He heard Quinn talk, but most of it didn't register with him until the last couple of sentences. His face contorted into a vicious snarl, "When's the last time we've known anything?" He said coldly, turning to the rest of the group, "Hm? I'll wait--WHY DID WE EVEN COME HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?" 

He threw his arms out in exasperation, "Following some random bitch in a hood because Skyline got blown up?! Our presence nearly tore it to shreds, we should have just stayed outta there!" 

Mahlo did what Xerxes had wanted to do--He slammed his fist against the wall, making a small hole within it as dust flew in the light that flooded from the window, "We don't know WHERE WE'RE GOING! We have a clown, a crazy psycho and some champions that all want us either dead or captured, and we don't even know their fucking PLANS!" 

He had a piece of the drywall in his hand, crushing it as he gritted his teeth, "And because of our incompetence, we have blood on our hands. Lynn is a bloody mess. Gannon and Zayne are dead. Esti and Cassie are gone..." He shook his head, going silent as he leaned back against the wall, next to the hole he had made.

"No she's not okay. As I said, I need Sasha's assistance immediately." He looked back at Zayne's mother, bowing again. "It's a shame Zayne did not inherit your manners, madam. I might have liked him more." He flinched slightly, his joke might be a bit hard to take. He sucked his teeth and he did not come back up from his bow as he apologized. "I'm sorry, I meant no disrespect to your fallen son." He heard Mahlo's explosion and looked back up. "I however... cannot leave. Lynn came back with dreadful news. Sirius has Sophia... he has my mother." The young king covered his face and heaved. "Mahlo, I can't stop you from leaving but I need your help." He put his hand down and looked at the Dark Swamp wielder in the eyes. "Please Mahlo. I will go as far as beg on my hands and knees. I hate being toyed with fate too, but it seems like my fate isn't mine to control. So please help me take my mother back from this sick psycho."

Sasha saw Julius going towards her. The frown on her face told her he didn't have good news. In the second he spoke up about Lynn, the girl felt a relief knowing tht she was alive but that she definitely needed her assistance.

Without wasting any other second, she took Julius' hand and said "Take me to her immediately" she started by pulling him with her outside the house and then she'd follow his lead towards Lynn. It feels like it's gonna be a long day for them, even worse... it felt like this was just starting. Whatever the champions are planning, Sasha's getting tired of feeling like a mouse inside a maze.

SIDE NOTE: 3 NEW ENDINGS AVE BEEN UNLOCKED
The mother of four turned to Mahlo as he began to completely lose his mind and scream to the heavens about his existence. The demon priestess narrowed her eyes at the swamp child. “My son went on this mission because a Passive Mountain Hermit requested aid. Cassandra was to aid my son on his trip, mostly because of the demon in his head. Each person from my tribe has an alter ego. His happened to be a woman named Victoria. Valkyrie has one. Erik has one. Zayne had one, and Estrella…” Liss stammered a moment. “She is able to harbor up to four souls, three if you count her alter ego. The longer they are in her mind, the longer the two souls bind.” Turning slightly she sighed. “Your group came because someone requested aid for all five of you. I was captured for a small amount of time before fury overtook my body. I don’t remember where I came from, but I remember what I saw. I saw 5 altars. 2 babies, and the weapon from my son’s city. I knew he was dead. Victoria had consumed his mind and in turn he took her with him, creating a paradox, ending his own life. I might be old, but playing damsel is not my thing. I needed to get Estrella. Whom of which is now gone…” Liss cracked a black nail painted finger and glared at Mahlo and spoke lowly to make sure her point came across him. “All of you will eventually come to the champions at will. A baby has no will other than in its beholder, hence why they are so easy to kidnap, but Zenith spoke to Kilroos himself. Kilroos requires conflict, which includes his own disciples. There is a fight Kilroos is lusting for, one that can change the fate of this entire planet. I saw stained glass. That is until I was knocked unconscious by some man made out of mercury. He was upset that his fumes and poison did no damage to me.” She placed her hand on Mahlo and that upset Quinn, however she didn’t retort. “I am here to help you, but this battle is inevitable. We need to prepare. They are psyching you out by keeping you awake at night. I’m also aware of someone holding my other daughter hostage. Who is he?”

Mahlo stared from Julius to Lissette as both of them spoke to him. He cringed at their words--He didn't want to help anyone else, he wanted to help himself first. He hadn't slept well in days, and it was clearly visual from the bags under his green eyes and the tired expression on his face. He exhaled softly, taking deep breaths as he listened to Liss talk to him about the champions. Of course they had an end game; They knew more about the situation, and they were smarter. The battle was inevitable, that was true, but knowing about it helped their chances even more. He wondered how she knew about the sleepless nights. 

He stared at Liss for a while, crossing his arms and clearing his throat, "He's a crazed psychopath," He sighed, "He wants to eliminate the champions and rule Kilroos. Whether or not it effects us seems to be irrelevant to him...All he wants is chaos." 

"And I wouldn't really say your daughter is being held hostage either," Mahlo glanced into her eyes now, into the very irises that were ripe with sadness and anxiety, "By the looks of it, she wanted to be with him. She chose to stay by his side."

Mahlo leaned into Quinn, as if using her for a support, both physically and mentally, "I'm not going anywhere--We just need to look through those books," He stood on his own accord, looking back into his room and walking toward it. Sleep would have to wait until he did his research, "We find the man who took Estrella, and hopefully along the way we find Sirius. Only then can we safely go for the champions."

Quinn looked over at Sasha, Roy, and Julius move towards the king’s room. Quinn turned to Mahlo as Liss had gone quiet, only for a minute. Liss had not let go of Mahlo's shoulder and gripped it as if pleading for him to stay for one more moment. “Her demon never let her light shine through. She was only a toddler when her demon presented himself to me and Marcus. He does not have an alias, but considering Valkyrie was a very scared child she was not mentally prepared for him and what he did to her. He tormented her mind daily, and she hated every moment of her life. She complained day after day until Marcus had bumped into her. After that small bump, she was never the same. She wanted her father to hit her, she would purposely slip and fall. Late at night, when she purposely broke her arm, she woke up and began to let out blood curdling screams. Then they suddenly stopped. He silenced her and made her like the pain. Zayne was able to fight back and ended his life. Zayne saw the light in her, however she never saw it in herself. It was a battle only her and her demon could fight out, and she lost.” Liss began to cry. “That psychopath is going to empower her demon. He’s going to make my girls little light dim until she is surrounded by darkness.” Quinn felt horrible for Lissette’s family. She only had one son left and she was unable to get her others back. She was in a similar situation the others were in. “Let’s… go into our room. Come with us. Let’s read some books…” Liss looked at the door now as it was closed by Roy before going to Julius’ room. “Sure.” Quinn led her and Mahlo into their room unloading the books from her bag.

Mahlo was suddenly stopped by a gripping hand on his shoulder. He turned suddenly with glaring eyes, until he realized that it was still Lisette. He exhaled softly--He had been dealing with the champions so much, he had expected it was them, trying to attack when their numbers were lower and they were vulnerable. He listened to her story, the frown on his face deepening as he looked away from her and over to Quinn. 

"We can help her," He replied, nodding slowly, "But first, we need to get Julius' mother back--Maybe rough him up a bit, and we'll get enough of an upper hand to try and get Valkyrie back." He shrugged his shoulders, "Maybe when she sees you, her tune will change." 

Mahlo really felt bad for the woman. Even though he held a hatred for Zayne for the things he did, he began to understand the reasoning for why he committed such questionable actions. Mahlo had begun to know better than anybody that a battle with your inner demons will make you concoct terrible things. If he had an actual demon inside of him, it would make Zayne act on it. 

And Estrella. Kehl had Estrella, and she had to be saved too. 

"We need to find Kehl," Mahlo said, "Esti is a little girl. I think she needs to be our first priority, and then we deal with Sirius." 

He glanced to Quinn, who had begun walking to the room. Mahlo nodded, following alongside Lissette and glancing between the absolute pile of books, "Well..." He scoffed, "Let's get started, I guess."

Quinn had about 5 books on the swamps and splayed them onto the bed pointing to the rather large book with no title on it this book also had a waterlogged lock that smelled well… like a swamp. Quinn came over and pulled a rather small blade out and cut the lock open. Despite the outside of the book being completely soaked, everything inside was pristine and dry. “Interesting.” Q sat down on the ground and opened a much smaller book. Lissette seemed to stare at the books and frowned. She had no idea how to read. “Uhm… Do you have a picture book?” Q turned to her. “No? These books pertain to history and…” Q’s eyes widened as Liss looked disappointed in herself. “Uh… On second thought… Go see if Lynn needs some help…” Liss sighed and turned leaving Mahlo’s room. Quinn sighed as well and leaned against the bed. “Let me know what you find.”

The moment Mahlo opens the book a pungent smell of lavender and then the smell of swamp water mixed in. The swamp smell wasn’t so overbearing… but it smelled familiar to him. The book sounded as if it exhaled as he opened it and the pages seemed to be pulsing under his fingers. The ink on the pages were worn despite the paper being perfect. As the pulse came more apparent the ink was more visible. The words came across the paper reading in a very hard to read script: (from this point on it will be all of the lettering in center format in the book.)


Date: 4th Cycle (Mahlo is the 3376th)
Boss in direct: Lillian S. Costanzo (The first female Mob Boss)
Name: Ren F. Costanzo
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Height: 6’3”
Eye color: Hazel
Hair Color: Black
Children: “I bet I do, somewhere.”
Reasoning behind conviction: Mass Genocide of more than 1,500 persons, Arson, Rape, Battery of the 3rd degree, Illegal destruction of forest/swamp land, Mass Genocide of the Traveling Story (more than likely to be extinct), Disruption of the peace (The list travels on for a while).
Sentence: Death by Sorcerer


Date: 5th Cycle
Boss in direct: Unvi J. Terros
Name: Yenvich E. Lyle
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Height: 5’9”
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown
Children: No
Reasoning behind conviction: I DIDN’T MEAN… Mass murder of the Costanzo family
Sentence: Death by Hydra

Mahlo glanced through the book, not very interested until he came across a name--Ren. His eyes widened for a moment before he stared at it, "Look at this, Quinn," He spoke in awe, "Ren...Convicted of Mass genocide, arson, and a bunch of other shit."

He looked up to her, "His mother sentenced him to death--And then there's this Torres guy that killed the rest of his family!"

Mahlo, now thoroughly interested, turned the pages to look for more interesting content.

"No! Stop! Sasha what's wrong with you?" Julius pulled himself out of Sasha's hold and began marching back into the house. "Lynn's in my room." He walked back to his room, dragging Sasha back with him. Once they were in the room he stood next to Xerxes. "Did she say anything more?"

"O-Okay!" Sasha followed Julius to his room. And there she was, her friend was wounded but alive. She felt a huge relief to know that she was still breathing. "It'll be just a moment"she said as she steped closer to her and placed her hands near her body, soon a pinkish aura appeared on sasha's head and in Lynn's body. She was slowly healing up.

Quinn jumped hearing Mahlo almost instantly find something in his book. “Already?” She seemed pretty interested as she got up and looked at the book from the floor. “Ren was also the first one convicted… Or his actions were so great that they made this book dedicated to suspects.” She continued to read. “He was the one to destroy all of the Traveling… He’s the reason there is practically only 3 left… their home is destroyed… Torres? You mean Terros?” She smiled a bit trying not to get bent up about this Ren man completely demolishing her guardians. “Ren isn’t human though.” She pointed to the race. “Does this mean this sorcerer was the one to turn Ren into what he is now? Ren could have been the one to murder his family and the Sorcerer was blamed. Terros was the boss during the time of conviction. Lyle was the sorcerer. Terros convicted Lyle to death by the hydra. Seems like they wanted to give him a more gruesome death… Ren’s mother wanted to give him a painless death…”

“Look at this.” Quinn decided to change the subject and pick up her book showing it to him. “You picked out some nice books Mahlo. It says here in the book that the creation of the Dark Swamps and High Clouds was not by a whore and 7 men. It was by a dark monster named Decipi and a small entity named Percipitur.” Quinn went back to reading a moment. “The monster and the small girl like entity were not corrupted by hatred until Kilroos found them. Decipi was the first one to become the Hydra and went to hunt down Perci. Perci didn’t want this to be true and while she was running, tried to capture Deci in the paralyzed forest, but sadly she was the one caught by Deci and was beginning to corrupt. In a desperate act of trying to save herself, she split into two beings. The Paralyzed Spirit and Petra, Petra being the corrupted one. Petra and Deci fought day after day until the Paralyzed Spirit broke the land into two, breaking the Clouds and Swamps apart from each other. The spirit kept guard of the Clouds by making the forest the only place to enter and exit the city by land. Petra however… she became solemn in the dark forest and only became happy when she saw the spirit. Deci is far too corrupted and lives in a massive cave like structure with the top missing, letting him eat by having suspects thrown deep into the cave. Their legs break upon impact unable to run… that is if they survive the fall.” Quinn stopped reading. “That much we already know… I’ll get back to reading some more…”

In Mahlo’s book there was the exhaling again and it began to speak to him, and only him. “Young Wielder.” The voice was deep and heavily masculine as the book seemed to pulse more. The moment Mahlo flipped the page there was no more ink visible. “I believe you are not of requirements to read these pages, however you did open the cursed leather, so instead of showing you the blood of suspects I will tell you a brief history of the Royal Concordat relating to a majority of the criminals in this literature. The entire Elven race was completely cut from this world after the Unknown war.” The pages flipped rapidly to the middle and an illustration began to show. Several people fighting in a large area with the sun dimmed by the smoke billowing into the air. “The Quirelan Queen and the Passive Aggressive mountains had great influence on this war concerning the gold and treasure buried deep into the Elven fortress. The hermits of the mountains had claimed that the Elves be saved and tried to support the small blossoming race. Unvi was a general in the Elvish armies and asked the 5 cities to bring themselves together to help fight a war he knew well he alone would not win. The Queen of Quirela always had a wyvern to ride and was subjected to lose her wyverns to the mountains capturing some of them to use as their own. Three Traveling left the swamps to aid in the war as well along with other creatures by the 5. Unvi Terros eventually lost the war to brand new cannons of the Quirelan Queen. Several elves were caught running out of the city and convicted of treachery by stealing gold that wasn’t theirs. Univ eventually left to let his city fall, but didn’t leave until his leader placed a curse on the place. Only elves can enter their domain. Unvi and the rest of the elves rode the traveling back to their homes only to find it desicrated. Univ vowed to keep the place safe for as long as he lived, which was very short when a chain of racist gangs killed him, leaving his several children and wife alone. The children of Terros were branded by the gangs in order for them to be unable to hide their ears. The back of the shoulder, enough to be viewed when stripped naked, and hung above the Hydra’s pit. They say the rest of the elf race retreated to High Clouds.” The voice stopped there. Pages continued to flip and flip and flip close to the back and one last suspect came up on the paper.

Date: 3376th Cycle
Name: Q (Signs of struggle were seen with several dots and scrapes in the paper and ink)
Gender: Female
Race: Night Elf
Age: 8
Height: 4’3”
Weight: 70lbs
Mother: N/A
Father: N/A
Eye Color: Silver
Hair Color: White
Current Status: Banished from High Clouds due to thievery
Children: No (Puberty not yet induced)
Reasoning behind conviction: Mass homicide of several packs of humans she claims to be racist
Sentence: Life time conviction to caring of the new Wielder

Xerxes was relieved to finally see Sasha come in and instantly get to work on Lynn. Xerxes looked at Julius as he asked if she said anything else. Xerxes sighed “Not anything positive, that’s for sure.” Xerxes sat down as Lynn had blood dripping from her nose and onto the floor staring at Xerxes, away from Sasha. Xerxes crossed his bare arms and glared the teenager down. “You better thank Sasha for coming to you aid, Miss Lynn.” Lynn rolled her eyes as the woman from out in the common room finally came into Julius’ room. “I heard you could use my assistance. I uh… I can’t read books, but I can heal.” Liss looked at Sasha already healing Lynn. Xerxes shook his head. “Sasha has it. Thank you though.” Liss sighed and rubbed her arm before her antlers became tall enough to reach the high ceiling. “I will heal the blue and pink haired girl while she heals the injured cripple." Lynn’s eyes opened wide as she sat up. “DON’T CALL ME CRI—“ She then coughed up blood and groaned pissed off. “Never mind…” Laying back down, she groaned longer as Liss placed her hands on Sasha’s shoulders. A warm feeling was felt as Liss looked away. “They have my husband’s feather. That item could literally heal anything. I gave him my warbler feather for his angelic one which has many healing properties…” Xerxes seemed excited to hear this. “Do you know who has it?” Liss sighed again. “My daughter Valkyrie.” Xerxes nodded. “When we find Sirius, we can get the feather.” Liss held back her anger towards the man. “Yes… sure… hopefully.”