CHAPTER TWO: Resurrection
SYNOPSIS: Regulus unearths his brother, and the Naia Swordsman faces his own shadow.

Dawn came for Regulus. As the recharging device automatically started the android back up, his neural processes imitated that of a human waking up, complete with grogginess emulation, and the uncontrollable urge for the day's first mug of coffee. Using his built in synthesizer, he was able to make a mug just appear in his hand, with fresh Colombian brew with 2 creams and 4 sugars. He drinks of it greedily, and banishes the mug once he had chugged his fill (the mug would never run out,) and wandered outside to collect his brother's chassis from the coffin he'd buried underground nearly 3 months ago. It's hard work, digging a grave by yourself. It's even harder work un-digging that grave. It would take Regulus nearly the entire day to get the work done by himself, manually, as using magick at this point could collapse the hole even further than it is now and might destroy the body.

ELSEWHERE, ON TAERA
TEMPLE OF LIFE, MAIN HALL, THE ALTAR ROOM

"I.." wheeze "finally" pant "made it here. All I have to do now is figure out the puzzle mechanism for getting these altars to align themselves properly and I can finally see if what I've gone through hell for was worth it or not.." the Naia swordsman began his laborious task of seeking out switches hidden cleverly among the stone walls and floor, pressure switches and switches that required the manipulation of light through mirrors.

It would take the young man nearly four hours to complete his work. Seeing that his work was correct, he reached within his backpack and withdrew the sevel medals of virtue he had killed and bled to obtain.

Courage, Strength, Wisdom, Chaos, Logic, Life, and Death.

The medals were placed in their respective hollows upon the altars, and he stepped back. Seven beams of light blasted forth from the altars to form a unicursal heptagram, and the statues of knights around the temple would lower thair swords in salute, each crossing their blades over the other perfectly along each point in the outer vertexes of that geometric shape. A ring of light would appear before the young Naia, and with no hesitation he stepped through it and faded from this realm.

AnimA, PLANET RHYDIN, THE HAYASHI FOREST

Regulus made it out of the forest, carrying his brother in his arms like a sack of potatoes. He would continue to hike towards Death Village, and shortly beyond that, an obscure spot that not even the Death Clan knew about to rendezvous with his uncle Kajen. Along the way he would be assaulted by bandits, rogue swordsmen, and monsters. Many times he would have to stop and fight them off pick his brother back up and continue his trek. By the time he'd made it back to the village, he'd amassed quite a bit of gil and enough loot he could trade to the villagers for other things. Here he would rest for a while and try to clean his brother up the best he can, because when Kajen would see his son in this state, he was sure to go batshit.

"I pray to whatever god exists that he or she take mercy on my artificial soul for the slayings I committed this day to retrieve my kin. I feel terrible for having to kill again." He bowed his head and sighed. A metal brush is taken to his brother's disengaged armor, the young man himself left in his black body suit.

BACK ON TAERA, THE HOLY REALM

He stood within a monochrome grey world, where time seemed to stand absolutely still. He would look into the sky, only to see the city of Astra hanging above him, also stopped in time. "..Weird." He continued forth, his blade and shield drawn, ready to combat whatever it is he must to bring his quest to a head. Several hallways later, he comes to a massive room with stained glass windows, and a lone knight sitting upon a throne in front of a sword stuck within a pedestal. That armor looked rather heavy, and within the knight's hands was a massive sword..

"I see. This must be the final challenge." unknowingly, he stepped forward and activated a pressure switch; within the helmet of this massive knight glowing red eyes flared to life, and it stood, wrecking it's throne in a rage. It spoke.

"Who are you, to intrude upon this holy realm? Who dares come to claim that which I guard, the Sword of Darkness's Bane? Who has finally come to claim Halcyon?"
The Naia stood his ground, and pointed his simple sword at the knight and spoke clearly.
"My name? My name is Yejix Zabiru. I have toiled through the world, seeking the keys to this place, and now that I am here, it has become clear as dawn to me -- I was not dreaming, the Goddess Mihaele actually came to me, and ordered me to seek this blade out so I may liberate this world from the clutches of Lurekon. If you are to stand in my way, I will end your breath as I have the other seven that have tried to end mine."

The knight's form faded, morphed and melted into a shadowy copy of the one who had spoken his name with authority. It let out a cruel laugh and withdrew it's sword and shield and matched Yejix's stance.
"Well met then, boy. Make your words of bravery true and end me.. or do you not have the courage to kill yourself and live? En Guarde!"

They charged each other, roaring like proud lions. Blades met with showers of sparks as the first blow of the duel to the death began with a deadlock, until Yejix would prove a fact known among his fellow FIREBIRDs; He fights dirty. The Shade received a vicious headbutt, followed by a vicious right cross with the hilt of his sword, sending it reeling and bleeding dark ichor. Yejix would not let up on his assault, striking wildly at the shade, who was hard pressed to parry or block with it's shield. Seeing an opening, the shade counterattacked with a pinpoint stab, impaling Yejix within his right heart, a blow fatal to many a weaker man.

No words were said. Yejix ripped himself from the sword and gained distance, rings of blood red light rising up and pushing away from his body, his hands fly forward as he intones words of doom; "Dark Holy!" The entire room went pitch black as the screams of the dead filled the room, and pale wisps of light convalesced towards the shade, and exploded upward like a geyser of white light tinged with black, the screams of the damned roaring through the great hall. Scathed beyond measure, the Shade fell to it's knees, finding itself envenomed and blind. In a rage it relied on it's sense of hearing to strike down Yejix once more, following it with a casting of Firaga, scorching the young hero-in-training terribly.

Yejix rose from the ground, taking ragged breaths. Sweet Eris, that thing not only matched my strength and speed, but also my magickal power?! He grimaced and rings of darkest black formed around him. the Naia covered his hands in his own blood from his stab wound, and began to weave a complex set of mudras, meditative hand positions used by monks and holy men in their prayers. Ice blue eyes snapped open and he let out a roar, thrusting his bloodied hands at the incoming Shade and intoned the words that would later fill men with dread in the future.

"Graviton Flare." The room darkened once more as waves of gravitational energy sucked in towards the shade, crushing him infinitely as more and more light poured from the sky above sucking towards the black hole he'd made. Yejix's hands trembled as he continued to keep control over his ultimate magick, and torrents of sweat poured from his brow. It was as if the skies above had opened like a floodgate and were bombarding his mortal enemy with rockets of cosmic energy. Multiple explosions rocked the hall as screams of anguish and terror emitted from the Shade, as a final pain would come -- It seemed as if the sun itself were descending upon him, and it finally exploded with the force of a nuclear bomb, blasting the shadowy copy into bits and pieces.

Gore, blood, guts. Wounded, Yejix advanced forward, only to be attacked a final time by the creature's very soul. It collided with his body, with a death shriek. Yejix fell forward to his hands and knees as he was being possessed by this dark force, as if struggling to prevent him from claiming what was rightfully his. No! No he will not submit!

"I WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY THE LIKES OF YOU, FOUL THING! I AM YEJIX ZABIRU, HE CHOSEN BY MEN! HE WHO WILL DELIVER THIS WORLD FROM EVIL'S GRASP! I WILL NOT SUBMIT TO YOUR DARK WILL!" He let out a roar of fury and plunged his own hand into his chest. Calling upon his years of study in the psychic arts, he attempted to extract the soul from himself, but was only able to remove 70% of it. He crushed what he had managed to remove that did not bond with him, and slowly got up.

Advancing towards the sword, he grasped it in both hands, and took a shaky breath. He yanked hard, removing the sacred blade from it's slumber, only to hear rumbling..the temple was collapsing! He turned around and ran for it as fast as he possibly could, and reached the ring of light with only milliseconds to spare, as a massive chunk of granite would have smashed him into a pancake. He nearly fell over as he emerged in the Realm of Mortals once more... only to turn around at the worst possible moment. A massive explosion of time magick ripped through the young swordsman, stealing him from this world.. and threw him into a new one.

This is Air RhyDin, your captain The Nexus speaking. Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times and in the case of crash landings, don't fall on your neck. We do not grab people out of nowhere for no reason, Yejix Zabiru. Oh no. Your story's just begun.. there is a tribe of men on the far side of the Yasuo Mountains that need a hero, and you're fresh out of school, son. This is your fate, Child of Taera. When you prove yourself ready here, only then will we ever let you go back home to save your people..and that could be an eternity from now, heh heh heh!

Yejix would crash land only meters from where the Grand General of the Death Clan stood, as Regulus had left only a few minutes ago. He would look up to see the remnants of a battle, and a massive meteor stuck in the ground...

End Chapter Two

CHAPTER FOUR: Proving Grounds: Ruby vs Yejix
SYNOPSIS: Yejix proves his worth to the Death Clan, after having noticed a terrible lack of mages.

Yejix stood and observed the more magickally inclined soldiers of the clan attempt to impress him with their spellcasting and abilities. Admittedly, only 50% of those in the exhibition were able to get him to actually clap and grin, those being: Ruby, Ultima, some guy in an orange kimono, an undead creature who called himself Trent, and some new guy to the clan who called himself Bahamut.

?Not bad boys. Not bad at all. In fact I'm actually impressed at the amount of skill that you all show despite this being some boondock planet,? said the Naia, grinning ferally as he did so. However it was Ruby Death who broke the silence and pointed a finger at Yejix accusingly. ?You're all talk. There was one among us, an ally, who was able to do magickal combat far beyond anything we've seen or felt. He was clad in red and white armor with gold details and had a strange cannon in his right arm and wielded a blade of light,? he snarled.

As soon as he heard this, he recoiled. His mind went into an absolute panic.
Kajiku. My youngest boy is here? Knowing him, then Gaika could not be far behind.. those two are inseparable. Yejix looked to Ruby Death and grinned an infuriating grin, and then began to laugh psychotically.

?There is only one person I know who wears such garb, and he is always followed by a man in similar armor with a masked helmet.. my sons!? When they all heard this, Ultima stepped backwards from Yejix, looking upon him with reverence, if not mixed with fear. ?Thou.. Thou made the mechanical men? The men of iron who command raw magicks..? He gasped out in a questionable voice.

?Yes. You may know them as Mach and Regulus, but to me they will always be my little boys Kajiku and Gaika. ?Mach,? as you call him was designed as a Weapons and Tactics unit, while ?Regulus? was designed with a prototype device I invented called the Ether Circuit. A piece of machinery that grants soulless metal golems the power of magick as living men possess.? He explained in a way that they would understand. He then cracked his knuckles.

?I think you're full of shit.? A demon in a black trench coat spoke up, the one named Slade. ?No man has ever been able to grant the power of magick to a machine, not even a god. I think you installed Materia on those robots.? Yejix then quirked an eyebrow and succinctly said, ?What in the name of Eris is Materia??

Slade would shake his head and walk away, as Ultima looked upon the Naia with an appraising look and that ever-present smug grin that Yejix wanted to slap off his face, he thought it made him look like a douche. ?If what thou say is true, then thou would not be afraid to prove your words.? Yejix shut his eyes, and breathed out deeply, and grabbed the left side of his vest with his right arm and yanked it and his black beater shirt off like one would remove a cloak and hurled them afar. Before them they saw that his blue-tinged skin was riddled with monstrous amounts of scars, tribal tattoos, and that he had -gills- on his back. His upper torso was barely covered thanks to that fishnet shirt he always wore under everything.

?Oh, I'll do more than that, ketrisa.. We're gonna do things my way. Back where I am from it is a custom for all new FIREBIRD agents to face the entire Unit in natural combat and prove to them all that they have what it takes to be in the elite of the elites. You're all going to come at me, with your weapons and your magick, and I will use nothing but my body and my own magick.? He narrowed his eyes while he spoke with a deathly serious tone.

?That hardly seems fair to you, Yejix.? Ruby eyed him as if the newcomer was insane. ?You're small, you look about as weak as a traditional mage. We're huge and burly and have weapons and you want to fight us unarmed?? Yejix watched him carefully, his arms up in a taekwondo-styled guard.

?Alright. You don't wanna believe me? Come get a piece. You get one free shot.? He stuck his jaw out tauntingly. ?Or are you too much of a pussy to hit a geek?? As soon as Yejix said that, Ruby span around on one foot and threw his full weight into a vicious haymaker straight into the offered jaw, only for a sickening crack to resound into the air and Ruby cradling his limp, shattered hand in awe. A simple casting of Regen would repair the damaged skeletal structure. This however proved to be Ruby's undoing as while he was distracted with his spellweaving, the Naia suddenly span around on his left foot and uppercutted the Muspellheimian with his right heel, rocketing the man 10 feet into the sky. A six fingered hand thrusted forward, and gravity suddenly took a severe minus pull of 20G and slammed the former Grand General into the dirt, making a huge crater.

Only a single word was said among them all, and it came from the orange-garbed man with a katana.

?Holy Shit.?

The rest of them backed off as Ruby rose from the crater shaking a bit from the immense waves of absolute pain that was wracking his body. He withdrew his weapon from his soul, a wicked looking double-sided sword/spear combination that gave off ruby colored flames. In a flash of red, Ruby was upon the Naia, attacking him vehemently for his rather sucker-punch like attack. All Yejix could do was evade the strikes as best as he could, gathering a fair amount of slashes along his body.

?What kind of knight are you, attacking while one's back is turned! Dishonorable!? Ruby screamed in fury. At that moment the Ruby Glaive came down on Yejix in a wild slash, only for it to be caught on some strange red blade made of.. bone? Yejix's eyes were shut as he did it, and when he opened them, a look of no-nonsense was in them. ?What the fires of Muspellheim are you...?? Ultima would whisper from the crowd; Yejix's strange weapon was coming out of his arm, and was indeed some sort of bone weapon.

A moment of notoriety would be made this day; as Yejix deployed the sting in his opposite arm he was defending with, Ruby would gather his special flames to blast the Naia to kingdom come, only to fall for what would be forever known as The Yejix Special.

?Hey, yanno what nobody ever expects in a fight?? He growled out, keeping a steady deadlock with ruby, he suddenly slammed his head into Ruby's own, knocking him to the ground hard enough to snap his neck. ?The Headbutt.? The smaller man would leap upon Ruby and pummel him with his fists of fury. A greaved boot shoved Yejix off of his victim and far enough away that he could finish his spell charge he thrust his hand out and bellowed ?RUBY FLARE!?

A marbled sized orb of ruby energy flew at Yejix like a bullet and exploded into a maelstrom of fire so impossibly hot that it should have destroyed the atmosphere. Golds and Reds swirled around the Naia, as Yejix kept a guard up, silently casting a shielding spell that nobody on this planet had ever heard of-- Shellga. Dark red energy would form a icosahedral barrier around him and fend off the intense heat and flames that were being sustained by it's caster, while he formulated a plan.

This guy has balls. I'll give him that. But I'm done fucking around here.. He seems to employ fire a lot, so let's see how he deals with THIS.

With a roar of power he broke his shield and blasted the Ruby Flare away from himself, steaming from all the water that had been boiled out of him, but left him in a weakened condition. Rings of black light emitted from his body as a fell, chill wind swirled around himself and gathered into his palms the earth beneath him went grey from the deadly cold snap as a second light-show occurred, that of white light. Raw aether would suck in towards his sphere of absolute zero-cold energy and only a single word would be spoken.

?Blizzaka.?

BOOM! It was so fast and sudden that nobody had time to blink. For at least a mile, starting with Ruby and far behind him, was nothing but a straight line arcing out wide into a frozen wasteland. Ice so thick that you could feasibly build a city on it if it were in the ocean. Ruby would be left in a massive encasement of clear blue ice that was emitting a frosty vapor cold enough to make anyone near him retreat for fear of becoming a human Popsicle.

?I could kill him if I wanted to. One punch. One Punch would shatter this ice into a fine dust with him along with it. Now does anybody here still want a piece of me, or am I on the team?? Casually, he flung some sort of red herb at Ruby's deep-frozen body which melted the ice and revived him from the death state he was in. Ultima stared at Yejix in fear and reverence.

?Welcome aboard, Mr. Zabiru.?

END OF CHAPTER FOUR