Chapter 11: The Search
Krex was walking down a dark road. He was not even paying attention to some of the shadows looking at him passing by, he was in is thoughts trying to get to his next objective, the next Target to take down, until he will find the one responsible for breaking the seal and releasing this dark plague on the world once again, not knowing how dangerous can they be or how much destruction they can bring. The guardians are fighting in many corners of the world but their awakening is slow and many have yet to wake up and take action against this threat. The phoenix was thinking about who could possibly open such seal and bring back those monsters but one thing is sure: he will find him and destroy it once and for all!
A young dark child was wondering the road looking around, Krex stopped in his tracks and started to watch the young one's movements. The little child approached Krex, which was ready to fight, but just pulled his pants "Excuse me sir, where is the dark city? I lost myself after the battle that happened..." Krex was quite perplexed but indicated the way back of him. The child nodded "Thank you sir" and slowly started to walk the opposite direction from where Krex was going. Krex could not understand what happened exactly, it's the first time a shadow tries to approach him without trying to attack and being polite. In the great war in the past there was never a moment where such thing could happen.
After a while some shadows approached the dark child and smirked, starting to push the child around. Krex was looking at them silently but could not get back on his tracks, he was trying to understand what was happening, but then, the word of the queen came to mind "But the tension between the warriors of darkness and us, children of darkness, was getting worse and they started to look at us like the enemy because of our wishes and intentions." and began to understand that those shadows were warriors while the dark child was not. His powers started to gather and he charged the shadows who were attacking the dark child and immediately destroyed one in a single blow while the others retreated a little "What do you want guardian? We didn't bothered you, why are you meddling with our business? Those child of darkness scum aren't your concern. They, as us, are shadows and enemy to you guardians! Why do you defend this little one now?" Flame simply snorted shortly "None of your business creature! Now come and have some fun with me or begone and leave the child alone...or else..." The shadows were looking at Flame but none decided to attack, they saw his power and knew it was a suicidal act so they decided to leave. "Thank you sir, you saved me!" The child smiled gently, his red eyes were a little intimidating and his ruffled dark red hair was a little stained by the dust of the place "Come kid, let me take you back to your city" And so Flame decided to turn back into the dark city and take the child in a safe place while making sure none were following or disturbing the journey.
Once arrived, a couple of shadows in a form equal to those of adults in the human world, came running toward the child and embraced him while thanking Flame with all their heart. Flame was quite astonished, shadows were not like that! They were heartless creatures, assassins, and they could not feel pity or anything at all! It was irrational for them to thank him, to have feelings, to have anything at all if not darkness and thirst for destruction. Flame was, after a long time, confused and didn't knew how to react, but then, the young queen came beside him and smiled gently "Thank you for your help Flame, it was you that took the young lost child home..." Flame took the queen violently from the throat and started to talk with anger "WHY!? Tell me...did you hypnotize me? Why are you so similar to humans? You were formless and the few forms you usually took were simply for war! I never saw a shadow with feelings! What is this trick you are using huh? TELL ME!" The queen started to have problems breathing and many shadows started to surround Flame but he released the queen after noticing the situation. The queen, with a hand sign, dispersed the guards and caught up her breath "I know your confusion Phoenix, please calm down, let me explain..hopefully you will understand better. We shadows are formless in origin and that form can be used in combat but, by itself, its quite useless. For us to be stronger we must take a form of some sort so that we can use our strength and powers...the better the form, the better the power. A giant shadow with hands and legs is usually very strong and agile and is capable of many things. We child of darkness decided to take the aspect and uses of your world, the human world to be exact, and make it our own so that we could see how it was your life and, maybe one day, become like your race. This human aspect also allows for the best use of our potential so many of the dark warriors are now using this form to better fight or organize their army after the defeats they suffered in the past. We don't know who informed the warriors of strategy of such high quality and effectiveness nor who gave them the ideas they have...but even if many hate to take human form, the most powerful ones understood the potential of it and started to use it to max their potential. We wanted to emulate the humans, so we started to organize ourselves as a human society....we shadows grow, or get stronger, with time and training, and in our case, even grow up with time since we choose a different way of life. In the great war few guardians knew about the "civilization" behind the shadows, we had houses and families too although they were quite different from yours and were only just forming at the end of the war. We have 'kids' so to speak too, but we function differently, we child of darkness try to emulate humans so we began to use the idea of 'parenting' to learn from it..." Flame was silently listening and nodded a pair of times "I see....ehm....sorry about before" Flame was a little red with embarrassment but rapidly regain his composure and looked away.
The queen smiled once again "It's all right, I can understand your confusion, especially for a veteran of war like you, that fought countless battles against many monsters that knew nothing but destruction..." Flame sighed and nodded once again "Yeah...kinda" Then he started to walk away from the queen, returning to his path "Don't you want to rest a little here in our city Phoenix?" the queen asked very gently but flame shook his head "No, I have a mission to complete...I cannot rest until I complete it and put an end to this nightmare....farewell. And call me Flame from now on" that said he started to get farther and farther from the city, following his path, while the queen nod and let him go with a smile.
Walking and walking, Flame could not find much about the dark warriors he was searching, most of the landscapes were destroyed or in utter chaos, many cities were darkened and half destroyed and nobody could be seen in the deserted roads.
A building made out of darkness became clear in the distance while he was walking. Building up pace, he started to rush toward it and reach its entrance. The dark giant door was shut and nobody seemed to greet him. Once again he summoned his immense power to break-open the door which could not handle the huge discharge outbreak released by Flame and was utterly slammed away and destroyed in an instant. A dark figure was sitting on a dark chair inside and was looking at him with a little smirk. His appearances seemed human, he had dark blonde hair, ice blue eyes and was wearing a black coat with a dark red shirt under it, combined with a pair of dark blue jeans. The human shaped figure stood up and smiled amused "The great and famous Flame, also known as the Phoenix, finally reached me...what a delight moment it is!" the figure smiled amused while flame took a fighting position "You are the one who caused all this destruction?" the young figure laughed back at him "I had my part on it, we took back a tenth of this little planet hm? This land of destruction is ours now, very brave of you to come here alone an try to fight us, but aren't you a little overconfident? Can you really defeat all of us?" Flame snorted annoyed "I don't care to destroy all of you, as per now...I care to find the one who dared to release this things back on earth and destroy him!" The young man once again laughed "Well congratulations, you found him! I released those little pawns. Your little seal was pathetic! It didn't took me long to lift it" Flame was surprised there for a little "You.....are a guardian? Only them could lift that seal that easily....and only a mighty one could do so..." The young man nodded amused "Exac
tly Krex, I am a guardian and I released the dark ones..." Flame was starting to get enraged while his body began to release a powerful aura with flames starting to swirl around him "WHY? WHY A DEFENDER OF EARTH WOULD DO SUCH A THING?! ANSWER ME!" again the man laughed at Flame, amused by his reaction "Because it's fun and I am having quite a good time commanding those stupid things to reach whatever goal and things I want to do ahahaha!" Flame rushed the young man without even thinking and started attacking him with mighty power, every punch he launched against him released so much power that the wall behind it started to shake under the huge pressure.
The young man started to dodge without any problems his attacks "Pathetic, you can't even hit me..." Flame then jumped back "Who are you?" "Does it matter Flame? Why should I tell you my name?" Flame smiled a little "To know what should I write on your tomb once I finished with you, you little garbage!" The young man smirked and nodded "Well I know your name so....sure. My name is Xin and I am a guardian of the Dragon tribe..." Flame was looking at him astonished "The Dragon tribe retreated a long time ago! How come you are one of the Dragon tribe?" Xin smiled "They returned, and my little black companion had a liking to me so he gave me his powers, simple as that" Flame started to think while scanning the young man "You are a Black dragon guardian....a dark guardian...." Xin smiled once again "Call me what you want, but I command those little stupid things and I will reign over those foolish humans, and you...well you'll die today!" Flame shook his head "Poor little pawn, you don't even know what plague you released on the world, you think you can control something like the darkness? Your foolish acts will be your doom, now begone! EMBODY!" A huge pillar of flame surrounded Krex and 2 huge wings, made of pure fire, started to rise outside the flame pillar, a high pitched screech was released while Krex came out of the pillar. His appearance changed drastically, he had flaming wings, powerful and long nails, his head was that of a human-bird with a huge peck, hid body was full of flaming feathers and his appearance resembled those of a human-like bird, more on the bird side though. Xin laughed "You look like a giant parrot, let me now introduce you to my power! EMBODY!" darkness started to engulf Xin, slowly he came out of it, his body was full of dark scales, 2 horns on his head, his nails became dragon claws, his back had dark wings on it and his eyes were dragon-like filled with darkness and he was spitting fire out of his mouth while he growled toward the Phoenix.
The 2, in a blink of an eye, started to attack each other. Their speed was unmatched and every blow seemed to put a huge pressure on the building itself, even if made by darkness. They started to rush onto each other, exchanging lethal blows, and with every exchange, the building started to shake more and more...until walls and ceiling started to collapse but only another single of their blows were enough to push away every bit of the building falling. The Phoenix had the upper hand, once he read his opponents movements he started to change strategy and started to land a few hits on the enemy but, even with his brutal and huge power, Xin seemed almost untouched by his attacks "Tsk, fool bird, my armor is made of Dragon skin! You cannot hurt me that easily!" Flame smiled shortly "Flaming bird:Thousand seasons!" In a single instant phoenix became a flaming bird and started to move so fast that in a single second Xin took about 500 hits, each powerful enough to take down an entire mountain. After 2 seconds Flame landed behind his opponent with his eyes closed and sighed "Sorry kid, you ain't a match for me" Xin fell on his knees and his transformation was undone, falling on the ground shortly after.
Xin smiled "Heh, nice move....." After a while he raised his head and smiled toward Flame "Welcome to your demise...DARK EMBODY!" A large amount of darkness engulfed Xin and a huge energy source could be felt into the air, Flame was speechless, few had survived the thousand seasons, but his opponent's power was rising fast. A Dark figure exited the darkness, Xin was full of darkness power, his eyes were made of pure darkness, his claws were glowing with a dark and red energy, his wings were bigger and made of a pure dark matter while, his body, seemed almost untouched even after all those hits "My turn now" a huge and powerful energy blast was release from his wings, directed toward Flame, but he was ready and using his own powers, blocked that attack but not without feeling its effect. The previous attack, and this huge blow, drained his stamina a little and left him panting while Xin laughed "Already tired old man? I've just begun to have fun" Flame was in quite a difficult situation, but he was too focused on the battle to notice that someone else was watching that fight, some dark figures were watching from a distance while the fight went on.
"Tsk, seems that you sold yourself to darkness kid, that never turns out to be a good choice" Xin laughed once again amused "Jealous of my powers perhaps? I am stronger than you old bird, better start saying your prayers cause you can't win this fight!" Again a powerful beam was launched against the Phoenix who seemed not to care and, with his powers, he blocked once again the attack. "Poor fool, you lost your head for the power the darkness offered, but in the process...you lost your ability to grow as a guardian and develop to your full potential. Even if black, your primal beast will never be able to develop his true potential. Only true guardians can reach the top form and a few surpass it too" Xin shook his head "Ahhh I see that you started to blabber again about those stupid rules and traditions. With this darkness, my primal beast grows bigger by the second and can release all his powers, even YOU can't beat me, that should be enough of a proof!" That said Xin rushed against Flame but he blocked his punch and started to push him back with his power "Tsk, you know nothing kiddo!" Flame started to lock his hand with Xin's and started to push him but Xin opposed resistance and started to push back, they ended up using their powers to best the opponent. A huge energy was released from the 2 and the surrounding was trembling, the earth itself under their feet was shaking with the huge amount of power and energy those 2 were releasing. Xin Screamed in the air and pushed Flame with mighty force and made him fly quite a good way back "I am ending this!" Xin started to charge for a powerful attack but Flame, which started to fly using his wings, shook his head "Let me show the true power of a guardian, you little greenhorn... SACRED EMBODY!" A huge pillar of light engulfed Flame and, in an instant, a giant Phoenix came out of it. The mighty bird, bigger than any plane or even shuttle ever existed, started to screech in the air with might and pride. His giant wings were flapping and a gusts of wind made everything fly away from underneath it.
Xin was surprised by the new form of Flame "Grrr....I WILL OBLITERATE YOU DAMN BIRD!" Xin continued to charge all his dark powers into his next attack but the phoenix shook his head looking at him. Even while under a huge sea of flames, created by the phoenix, a dark shield was resisting and in it Xin who was laughing hysterically "DIE!!!" A huge beam was shot toward the huge phoenix but the bird opened his beak and a monstrous amount of power was formed, creating a huge ball of flaming energy that released under the form of a beam, flying fast toward the dark energy that was incoming from Xin. The 2 beams collided and, for an instant, a huge light covered the whole area, even kilometers away from the battle. Everything was obliterated away, leaving a huge crater where those 2 were fighting. The power released left nothing but a little ground under Xin's feet, which resisted thanks to his powers. But Xin's energy seemed to grew weaker as well, the phoenix was too powerful and it didn't took long for his flaming energy to obliterated the dark one. After the beam collide was over, Flame was standing in front of the defeated and unconscious Xin, his body was scratched and in a bad shape "Finally, I can complete my mission..." His fist was raised up in the air, ready to finish him for good, but a darkness started to swallow Xin which took Flame by surprise and stopped his attack "What the..." Xin disappeared into the darkness, and nothing was left there if not the destroyed surroundings.
"Should we attack the Phoenix?" A voice asked far away from the conflict "No, for now we will leave it at that, we saw the extent of his power, it's enough. Heal that boy, we might need him in future...but for now leave the phoenix in his own little worl
d." The 2 figures that were looking at the fight disappeared in thin air. Flame looked around in search of enemy or other presences but could find none "DAMN IT!" He punched the ground where Xin was lying but nothing happened "I failed again...." After that he looked around at the destruction the battle caused. Krex sighed and started to concentrate "Mother earth, energy filling the nature, give me your blessing and power. Maker give me your divine help and might, help my powers to restore what was lost...embody...." a huge amount of energy was released from Flame's body, but unlike the one that destroyed the surrounding, this energy started to cure and renew the surroundings. New plants began to born from the ground, the earth was recomposing itself where was destroyed, plants and life began once again to grow where none could before. The huge amount of power kept flowing into the earth itself and Flame kept concentrating for a long while. After his powers allowed the earth to cure the destruction caused by the fight, Flame fell on the ground panting heavily "Damn, I used too much energy during the fight and the restoration ritual....ngh..." Flame could see a figure in the distance, but he was too weak to hang on more and so faded into a deep slumber and everything turned black for him while he started to take his long rest to recover his powers.