The Final Mystery

[Saint]

The demolibri is a book with everything in it... Everything but Das Geheimnis.

Tanner is a demon hunter, and he's one of the very best.  Countless monsters have fallen before him and his extensive arsenal of weaponry.  His secret is a book passed down to him from his father: a conclusive guide to everything- both holy and unholy -that exists.  The guide has served him for fourteen years, through thousands of battles, so imagine his surprise when a routine damsel-in-distress call reveals the only monster among millions that isn't in his book.

The hunt is on for this new creature- the one he names 'Das Geheimnis'; The Mystery.  And there's more than just his reputation and the life of a girl at stake.

Prologue - The Bird.
Chapter 1 - The Big Entrance.  -  Emmie's Corner
Chapter 2 - Squall Walker.  -  Emmie's Corner
Chapter 3 - The Twins.  -  Emmie's Corner

[NicTei]

Two weeks!?   I can't wait that long!!

*runs off grumbling to continue work on Deathless*



P.S.  Yes, I did just blatantly, shamelessly plug in your thread.  I'm so evil.

[Angel]

Hmm I like it!

Your logic on the time traveling seems sound enough and should be alright. Actually seems to me to make it simpler to understand.

[Saint]

Hi, Emmie here!  This is Emmie's corner, where after each chapter, I get to tell you about the world of Taaro.  Did you know, for instance, that it's about four times the surface area of your Earth, and there are ten continents, with us taking demon-hunting jobs on all of them throughout the course of the story!  Stay tuned, because in the next chapter, Tanner shows us what he can really do, Squall's life is hanging on the line, and I die!

[Saint]

Off-Topic:

Got the idea for that 'Emmie's Corner' from an anime.  Thoughts on it please; does it stay or does it go?

[Saint]

Right then folks!  All important outstanding work completed, so this is next on the pile.  Expect a chapter within two or three days.

[NicTei]

[Saint]

Chapter 2 – Squall Walker.

Tanner

“Squall!?” Tanner called as the Krawatte walked towards them.  They never ran; only ever walked.

Emmie jumped out from the tree she was hiding behind and rushed to the limp body.  As she did so, the Krawatte looked at her in brief puzzlement for a few seconds, and then continued walking.  Cursing heavily, Tanner sprang from his tree and shot between where Squall and Emmie were and where the Krawatte was.

“What the hell do we do?” he called to Emmie.  “I can’t fight this thing alone.”

“You’ve taken on Krawattes before,” she pointed out in a rush, more focused on Squall.

“Not this damn big, I haven’t!  This is a two man job, but we have to fix Squall up.”

“Keep it subdued then!” she shouted.  Tanner looked back to see her hand on Squall’s neck, searching for a pulse.  “He’s alive, but barely.”

“Can you fix him?”

“No.  I need supplies from back home.”

And there, their conversation was cut short as the Krawatte struck out at Tanner with its long claws.  Tanner had to dodge to the side and parry with his sword to prevent it from heading towards Emmie and Squall.  If he could draw it away, then maybe they had a chance, at least.  This bigger Krawatte seemed to be slower, but from what he could tell, this was its only disadvantage; everything else about it was just as bad as- if not worse than-a regular Krawatte.

“How long has he got?” Tanner called as he swung the sword at the creature, who just slammed his right hand on top of the weapon, diverting it.

“Four minutes.  Forty with what magic I can use here, without tools.”

Bad.  Very bad.  It was half an hour drive back to Emmie’s place, and there was no way she could keep up the magic to sustain him while in a car anyway.  On top of that, there was the matter of killing this beast; Krawattes were a monster race who fought to the death, and Tanner wouldn’t be allowed to leave that easily.  Plus, even if he managed to leave it now, it’d easily find its way back to that house from there, and this time, the old man and his family were in.

The Krawatte swung another hefty punch, with the claws missing Tanner by a hairline as he stepped quickly back.  Swinging his sword in retaliation, he only met the same destination as the last strike: the claws, batting it down.

“Tanner, can’t you teleport us?” she called, hands on Squalls chest as she ran through spells to try and save him.

“I can only do one of you,” he called back as he tried to swing again.  This time it wasn’t blocked, but the Krawatte sidestepped it and pushed a hand forwards that Tanner had to adapt his strike to intercept, and it still knocked him off balance from sheer force.  “And even then I won’t be able to bring you back.”

“Damnit!” she shouted, punching the ground beneath her.  “Just keep that thing away from us,” and she went back to healing Squall.

Taking two steps back in a hope to draw the creature away from where Emmie was working, he thanked the Krawattes’ inbuilt inability to abandon a fight; it slashed downwards in a strike that, even though Tanner was now three steps away, only very slightly avoided cleaving him dead in half.  Giving a quick retaliation strike to the chest, Tanner grunted forwards, but the Krawatte just batted it out of the way again.

The jumbo-Krawatte seemed to have the same strategy as the regular ones: strike, avoid, strike, avoid, strike, avoid.  Normally, Tanner could overpower them, but this one towered over him, and he was used to fighting Krawattes up to about half of his torso.  He had to change his strategy if he was even going to survive this fight, let alone win.

As the Krawatte struck again, swinging for Tanner’s right side, Tanner brought his sword up to parry the strike, but got down to one knee instead of moving to the side.  At this height his head came level with the Krawatte’s knee, and as the strike hit the sword, it knocked it out of Tanner’s hands, as it didn’t have his body weight to hold it.  Letting it fly off, he reached into the inside pocket of his trench coat, pulling out one of the two small blades he kept on his person at all times.

The Krawatte kicked out, and only just barely missed Tanner as he dived into a roll.  Pulling around quickly to face Tanner, who was still on his knees, he lunged his claws down with a bark, and this time Tanner wasn’t so lucky; they caught his free arm and he cried out, but simultaneously he slammed the knife into the Krawatte’s leg.  The full five inches of blade pierced the creature’s flesh, but with legs like small tree-trunks, he didn’t suspect it did much damage.

He tried to twist the handle, but before he could even move his hand, he had a face full of Krawatte knee, and felt at least four teeth shudder from the force of the blow.  Pain swam across the length of his face, and then he caught the yellow-white flash of claw out of the corner of his eye as the creature struck out at him.  By some immense luck, though, the knee strike had actually knocked him out of the path of the slash.  A second slash and he wasn’t so lucky, however, this one carving into his trench coat sleeve and slicing open the flesh at the top of his arm, about half an inch deep.

The effort he put into biting his lip in order to quell his screams actually sent a warm trickle of thick-tasting blood into his mouth, and he instantly regretted that.  Being a demon hunter, he experienced the taste of his own blood a lot, and there was no taste he resented more in the world; it meant he was losing.

The beast stamped his feet onto where Tanner was lying, but he managed to roll over just in time- crushing his injured arm as he did so and wincing in pain.  Just as the Krawatte was about to stamp again, Tanner rolled once more, but this time felt his back catch against something where he landed.  When he reached around to see what it was, however, he got a sharp surprise.  The thing was a wire, suspended about half a foot from the ground, and it sent a strange buzz through his body.  Seconds later, the ground beneath him caved in, and his heart stopped for a fraction of a second.  Time didn’t slow down when he fell, though he’d have much liked it to; the landing wouldn’t have hurt so much.

He guessed he’d fell about twelve feet, and when he looked up, he could see the Krawatte peering over the edge of the hole with the faintest glimmer of a grin on its face, were it possible through the canine features.  It leaned down over the hole and reached down slowly, testing the length of its claws in a very un-Krawatte-like intelligence.  The claws, much to Tanner’s delight, just about reached his head, so by lying down- which he did -the Krawatte was short about a forearm’s length.

Good, so he was alive, but now what?  He was stuck twice his height underground, with an oversized wolf consumed with bloodlust and pride standing guard and occasionally slashing out, futile.  His arm was cut open and bleeding heavily, and his friends were a short distance away, one of them doomed to death anyway unless he could think of some way to get them all out.

There were spells that could send one person somewhere else, but they used an immense amount of his magic.  That was a big problem with his specialty; it involved bending space and time to his bidding, and anything that defied the laws of physics took a lot out of him.

Time.  That may be an option.  He could send all of them to another point in time, but it’d have to be in the same space.  And with that sudden realisation, he started forming a plan; one that might work if he could only get out of the hole.  The Krawatte was still swiping above him, and he’d be dead for certain if he even considered standing up.

He’d been in a situation like this once before: back to the wall with little weaponry and a creature twice his size on the offensive.  That time, Squall had managed to grab the creature’s attention long enough for him to sneak Tanner a sword (He always carried three on his person) and they fought it from both sides and overpowered it quickly.  This time, however, he didn’t have Squall to save his sorry backside.

And as he thought that, the Krawatte seemed to give up.  He stopped slashing aimlessly and- from what Tanner could see at his angle –walked away from the hole.  Trusting his instincts, though, he knew the Krawatte wasn’t backing down, and he stayed lying where he was.  Just as he suspected, it was back at the other side of the hole seconds later.

It leaned down to slash, but this time, Tanner felt something falling into the hole with it- water.  It was raining?  The rain, however, didn’t last long before Tanner could hear what sounded like a full-blown storm up there.  The Krawatte hadn’t tried another strike, and as impossible as the hope seemed, water was Squall’s specialty magic.  If there was any time it was safe to get out of the hole, this was it, so he clenched his fists- the left one with considerable pain -closed his eyes, and focused magic on his palms.

When he opened his eyes, he was on the ground just next to the pitfall, and directly in front of him was what looked like the outline of a Krawatte in water.  He recognised Squall’s spell and looked around hopefully, but his friend was still unconscious, just out of the range of the fight.  He shook his head to clear his thoughts, deciding to contemplate this when he had time to waste; this spell wasn’t going to kill it.

He reached into his trenchcoat with his right arm and withdrew the second small knife he kept, rushing around to the back of the water-Krawatte.  As he’d expected, the knife was still embedded in the leg, somehow suspended in the water, and he withdrew it, making sure to twist and remove it at an awkward angle.  Then he set to work, stabbing the water, carving trails all around it, the lines the blades made quickly reforming with one another as the water flowed around the Krawatte form.  Once he’d traced cuts over most of the body and legs, he jumped as high as his legs would allow, just managing to gouge a hole through the watery neck.

He stepped back, hand finally rushing to tend to his injured arm, as the water flow began to slow, the muddy brown fur of the Krawatte began to show, morphing from water back into beast.  The Krawatte still didn’t move, a lifeless tint in the eyes when they finally came through, and as the last of the water left the monster, it hunched forwards, fur dampening again, but this time it wasn’t water.  It was thicker, stickier, and clung to the fur and the Krawatte fell face first into the dirt and bled out amazingly quickly.

Without even checking to make sure it was dead- nothing could have survived that –he ran back over to where Emma and Squall were, with the fore leaning over the latter in a panic.

“No good!” she cursed, “I’ve been doing my best to keep everything working, but his life is draining, and there’s nothing I can do about that.”

“How long does he have?” Tanner asked quickly.

“Twenty minutes.”

“Without you maintaining his vitals?”

“…thirty seconds.”

Tanner swore and put his head into his hands.

“I have an idea, but you need to leave him for a few seconds.  How quick can you get him back in maintenance?”

There was a long pause which consisted of Emmie sighing and frowning.

“Twenty, but he’ll be dead if we don’t try anyway.  Just do it,” she said shakily.

“When I pull my hands apart.  Any later and your magic will screw up for about six hours.  Earlier and… well…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, and instead set about the spell.  He reached into yet another inside pocket in his trench coat and pulled out a near-empty leather pouch, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand but not too small to put his fingers in and extract the two little cone-shaped rocks from inside.  The one disadvantage of his specialty magic was that it was costly.  Not even magic could bend time on its own.

Filtering magic into one rock with his right palm- the left had completely stopped responding by now –softened the hard shell, and he squeezed, wincing as the point of the cone dug into him before the rock turned to dust, which he then scattered over Squall and Emmie.

He had to use his working arm to lift up his left, interlocking his fingers with the second stone between his palms.  Then he focused forward.  Six hours was where he needed, but the pain in his arm made it hard to think.  If it distracted him, there was no telling where they’d end out.

Tanner pumped magic into the rock from both palms, and as he did so a circular patch of the ground began to glow around the three of them.  The circle raised ever so slightly, just so as none of them were touching the ground, then the world around the three of them blackened completely for about a quarter second.  When the world came back into light, though, it was no different.

He’d over-shot the projection, going twenty-four hours instead of six, by the look of it.  Not too much of a problem, it just meant there was ever so slightly more of a chance that someone had taken the materials Emmie needed.  Yet sure enough, right next to where Emmie was sitting were three vials of coloured liquid- one light blue, one deep red, one filthy brown –and a metal wand.

As Emmie rushed to grab the red vial, Tanner collapsed to the floor, grabbing onto his injured arm.  When he hit the floor, he thought he saw a fourth vial, with a black liquid and a label with a weird sliver symbol on it, but he blinked and there was nothing there.  Concluding that he’d lost more blood than he’d thought, he laid his head back in the dirt.

Squall

Strawberries.  Sweet sugar-laced strawberries like the kind his mom had prepared when he picked them from his back garden as a boy.  Squall could feel them running along his tongue and down into throat like a liquid.  As he went to lick the sugar off his lips, though, he found that there was none- it was a liquid.

And as the initial pleasure of a homely taste wore off, Squall felt flowers of pain blossom all over his body, and the memories of his fight came back to him like a child’s screaming fit breaking a quiet day.  He’d been fighting the Krawatte, leading it towards the watertraps he’d set, then taken a hit too many… and Tanner and Emmie had come.

Tanner and Emmie!  He opened his eyes and shot upright so fast that he struck something hard and knocked himself right back down again, his nose now in pain, but not quite as much as the rest of his body.  Looking over to what he’d struck, he saw Emmie leaning back, nursing her cheek.  Squall looked around in a panic for a sight of the Krawatte, but there was nothing, just Tanner lying back, eyes open, and Emmie now leaning back over him with a metal stick in her hand.

“Don’t move, idiot!” she cursed him.  A drop of blood fell from her nose onto his bare torso.  His shirt had been pretty badly torn up in the fight, and he presumed Emmie had removed it to work on him.  His trousers were still on, though they were just as torn as his shirt had been.

“What’s going on?  Where’s my Krawatte?”

“Dea- Wait, your Krawatte?”

“Dead?  How?”

“Tanner fought it and killed it after it hit a watertrap,” she said quickly, “What do you mean your Krawatte?”

Squall sighed, relieved.

“The job I took yesterday was a big monster.  I tried some morphing magic on a Krawatte, but I’m out of practise and… well, it killed the monster easily and fled and I’ve been working since then to track it down and kill it.”

“Boys,” Emmie said, rolling her eyes exaggeratedly.  “Can’t kill it, make something bigger.  Now shutup and don’t move; you took a lot of damage and I’m only scratching the surface with my healing.”

Squall got a feeling that there was something Emmie wasn’t telling him, but he did as told, keeping his mouth shut as she took the metal stick and poured a drop of brownish liquid into it.  It rolled down it like only a fluid could and fell off the end to land in one of his many cuts- and burned him like hell.  Squall had to suck a deep breath of air through his teeth to stop himself from swearing.

“Good g- what the damn was that?!”

“It was your cut healing.”

She moved the stick over and dripped another bit of the liquid along it and into a cut, which stung just as much if not more, and this time he bit the side of his mouth lightly.

“Oh, stop acting like a baby.  It’s dilute phoenix tears, mixed with garfell tree root.  Amazing healing capabilities, but when the root touches your blood, it stings.”

“Then why put it i- ahhh!” Squall couldn’t help crying out as she dropped the mixture into another cut.

“You have any idea how hard it is to get phoenix tears?  They’re only sold diluted, and they don’t have anywhere near as much strength if normal water mixes in with them.  The root brings them back up to the strength they’re supposed to have.  Plus your being quarter deity doesn’t help.”

Squall flinched more than any tree root or cut could make him.  He hated mention of his heritage.  In Taaro, there were many demigods, and while they didn’t have as much power as the gods themselves, they did have dominion over something.  Squall’s father was one of the fourteen demigods of the sea, and he was the worst person Squall had ever encountered.

“Sorry,” Emmie muttered.  “It’s just harder to heal you with medicine designed for full-fledged huma- I’m just gonna shutup now,” she stopped herself as Squall’s expression darkened.

Lifting his head up slightly to look down at his body by way of distraction, Squall finally took in how bad a beating he’d taken from that Krawatte.  There were six big cut marks- which weren’t bleeding, presumably due to Emmie’s magic –three lining his torso horizontally, one vertically, one running down his left leg, and one down his right arm.  Littered in between these regularly were masses of smaller, shallower cuts from attacks he hadn’t quite managed to block, and from chasing the Krawatte through the forest.

After ten minutes of awkward silence, broken only by an occasional flinch on Squall’s part, the majority of these smaller cuts were sealed up.  Then she focused her attention on the big six.  For these, she picked the bottle with the blue liquid.  Instead of using it on Squall, however, she turned to Tanner.

“Did you take any damage?”

Tanner sat up.

“He got my arm.  Left.  I can’t move it.”

Emmie tossed him the vial of blue liquid.

“Drink all of that.  It’ll heal the muscle from the inside,” she lied.  Squall could spot a lie in anyone he’d known for more than an hour like a car in a bike race.  He debated mentioning something, but he trusted that Emmie had a reason for deceiving him.  Tanner obviously didn’t notice a thing though; he’d always been the ‘do first, think later’ person.  Once he’d downed the liquid, Emmie shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Tanner.”

“What frrrrr,” he said, starting to slur at the end.  He went to stand up fully, but his arm didn’t support his weight and he fell and hit the floor, immobile.  Squall looked over curiously as Emmie moved over, still apologising fervently, and dripped some of the brown liquid over her wand and into the wound.

“So what’s all that about?” Squall asked, loudly, already starting to feel guilty for not saying something to Tanner.

“It’s a stunning solution, so he can’t stop me,” Emmie explained as she gave Tanner’s body a quick check over for other big wounds before coming back over.

“Stop you?  Why would he stop you?”

Emmie looked very guilty and disheartened at that question.  She raised the wand over Squall’s body and began muttering an incantation before Squall interrupted her.

“Tell me what you’re going to do,” he demanded, grabbing out at the wand.  He didn’t reach it, but she moved it away, breaking whatever spell she was about to do.  Squall wasn’t going to let her do anything to him that Tanner would disapprove of.  Not because he didn’t trust Emmie, but because Emmie trusted Tanner.  This was something big.

Emmie went to move the wand back, but Squall batted it away again.

“Okay, fine!” she snapped.  “You want to know what I’m doing?  I’m killing myself.”

Squall couldn’t even speak.

“Exactly.  When Tanner was fighting, I was stopping the blood in your body from flowing out of your cuts, I was maintaining your heart rate, keeping your organs working, and most importantly, I was keeping your life force inside you.  About ten minutes in, your life force gave in.  You died for about thirty seconds.  There’s nothing I can do to put your life force back in your body.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“I used pact magic.”

Squall felt a rush of emotions.  Part of him wanted to hit her as hard as he could manage for being so stupid, part of him felt cold all of a sudden; he has supposed to be dead.  And yet, the biggest part of him acknowledged what Emmie was about to do for him.

“You’re an idiot.  You should have let me die.”

“I know.  But I didn’t.  I made a pact with Executioner.  He’s taking a week of my life in exchange for whatever’s left of yours.  Once I offer myself, any of your fatal wounds will seal up, but not the small ones; that’s why I healed those first.”

“You can’t do this, Emmie!  He’ll play torture with you for that week.  You’ll come back having experienced things like no-one ever has before.”

“I’ll have no memory of it; that was part of the deal.”

“Don’t-”

“Damint Squall, shutup!” she snapped.  “I don’t have a choice.  The deal’s been made.  If I don’t kill myself, he’ll just take us both, permanently.  It was a week of my life or all of yours, and I don’t think I’d be the same without both of my friends by my side.”

He sighed.  He’d never realised how passionate Emmie was about him before now.  A tear rolled slowly down her cheek, and Squall’s heart wrenched.  He put his hand on top of hers and she sniffed in, wiping it away.

“Hurry up, before I change my mind,” he said, already regretting it.

Emmie nodded.

She took her wand again and lifted it over Squall, but hesitated.

“Squall, he knows you’re a tetragod.  You know how badly the gods hate each other, and he’ll probably take this chance to try his best to kill you in the next week, while the deal’s still in his favour.  After the weeks up, you should be alright, but… watch your back alright?”

Squall nodded.  He’d already realised that, but he didn’t say so.  He just lay back and watched Emmie as she chanted slowly, moving over each of his gashes with her wand.  She circled each of them twice as she repeated the incantation which he couldn’t make out.  When she was done with this, they began to shrink very slowly, sealing up and closing together with far less pain than the tree root had caused.  Compared to that, this was a pinprick.

Once all the pain had finally stopped, he felt strange; he’d gotten so used to the feel of air rushing past his blood that it almost hurt now that it wasn’t.  Then Emmie collapsed.

Squall caught her- which wasn’t hard seeing as she fell on top of him –and stood up, holding her in his arms as he did so.  Her face was distorted.  She was dead, but not like the peaceful rest; already suffering for it.

Squall carried her over to where Tanner was, who had a look of intense fury on his face.  His arms were twitching, as were his legs, and Squall guessed the stunning potion was wearing off.  He lay Emmie’s body down next to Tanner just as his arms moved up.  Squall stepped back as Tanner rushed to his feet, fist clenched tightly, then threw his full force into a punch aimed at Squall’s face.

It connected, and Squall was back on the floor again, with Tanner standing over him.  In all the time Squall had known Tanner, he’d never seen him cry.  Definitely not as badly as he was then.

“Why didn’t you stop her?!” he screamed.  Squall didn’t even know the answer himself.

Tanner rushed back over to Emmie’s body, trying futily to shake her awake, and all Squall could think of was what Executioner would be doing to her.

[Saint]

Right, DP.  What happens next?  Does Executioner come after Squall?  Do Tanner and Squall go on another job while Emma's healing?  Do Tanner and Squall do something else?

Also, any types of monsters you'd like to see?

[BlackCat]

Stheno (Greek: ??????, English translation: "forceful"), in Greek mythology, was the eldest of the Gorgons, vicious female monsters with brass hands, sharp fangs and "hair" made of living venomous snakes. The daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, she was born in the caverns beneath Mount Olympus. She and her sister Euryale were immortal while the third sister, Medusa, was mortal. Of the three Gorgons, she was known to be the most independent and ferocious, having killed more men than both of her sisters combined. In Roman mythology she became this way by standing with her sister, Medusa, when Medusa was cursed by Athena. Medusa was cursed by Athena for meeting at Athena's temple with the sea god, Poseidon, and was changed into a terrible monster.

Oooh now I know about lighting thief's history...

[Angel]

Ah that was goooood.

One of them could just continually watch over her while feeling all tormented inside and Executioner comes to gloat/taunt maybe.

How about a minotaur?

[Saint]

I like minotaur, but that and a water tetragod would make it a bit too Percy Jackson for my liking.  I love the Executioner idea, though, and it shall be incorporated as such.  Are there any other bull-like creatures I can fuse with a human to make a shiny new creature for the demolibri?

[Angel]

What about a fire breathing chicken? Flying mule? Yes, a mule, not a horse, horses are overrated in that respect.  The Gorgons are pretty good. Medusa has some serious issues. She fears noone will look past her snake hair and soul destroying eyes to the goodness within. Erm, Sphinx, hydra, man eating toad.

Anything like that?

[Saint]

Awesome; I can rip a few of those off.  Thanks for the bestiary, Angel. =)

[Angel]

No problem. Anytime.

[Saint]

Hi, Emmie here!  Time for another episode of Emmie's corner! xD  Today, I'm going to tell you about the gods of Taaro.  There are six big gods: The one I dealt with was Executioner, God of Life and Death, and the one Squall gets his powers from is Tyder, God of the oceans, and then there's the god of the sky, god of the land, god of the elements, god of magic, and god of emotion. There are a few more out there, but I can't think of them off the top of my head, sorry!  Join us in the next chapter, where I'm bed-ridden, Squall meets some very strange twins, and Tanner is given an offer most people will kill for...

[Saint]

Right, from now on, I;ve decided to keep one of my stories inside the actual Story Street at a time, and this has thus been moved.

Also, what are your thoughts on the Emmie's Corner?  Interesting insight or pointless spoilers?

[NicTei]

I think that the part about the gods of Taaro was an interesting insight, but the whole 'join us in the next chapter for...' was more of a pointless spoiler.  I enjoy spoilers, but I also like not knowing what's going to happen in the next chapter.

If you just chopped the Corner down into an interesting snippet of information about the story that we wouldn't have likely received just by reading the chapter, such as the history of an artifact encountered or a more detailed explanation of a creature, it would work better.  In my opinion, anyways, which really doesn't count for much.

[Saint]

Thanks.  I think I see what you're saying about the spoilers, but that's why I kept them very brief.  I might lengthen the information and spoilerbox the spoilers.

Any thoughts on the chap itself?

[Chinaren]

Also, what are your thoughts on the Emmie's Corner?  Interesting insight or pointless spoilers?

I quite like the concept, at a high level anyway.  I think it's a good opportunity to let the reader know something about the world, but I'd keep it to stuff that's not directly related to the story, thus avoiding spoilers.  The background about the gods is about the right kind of thing.

Actually, the 'spoilers' here are more teasers, which are also okay in my book, in a limited number anyway.

Naturally these are simply my opinions and may be disagreed with. 

[Angel]

I like the bits about the world, that's really interesting. I'm not too sure of the teasery bits though.

[NicTei]

[BlackCat]

Nice!!! I've readthe story so far and have enjoyed it! Please continue! I've replied to this thread haven't I? I've asked for the deamon, any sort of deamon, I was looking for the deamons that they call themself starting with an M, but I believe they are part of the god of war's creatures and pandora's side.

[Kensei-Teichou]

I like the idea for Emmie's corner. But I agree with Angel on this. I'm not sure about the teasery bits either. It's a good idea though, to let people know about the world.


Plus:

What about a fire breathing chicken?

I would so look forward to that O_O

[Saint]

As it's been a long while since I posted anything, I'll give you a teaser.


At the bottom of the stairs, Squall turned around sharply and headed for a door directly underneath them; his bathroom.  He wanted to run the tap and soak his hands in the sink; it always managed to clear his mind.  Before he reached the room, though, there was a knock at the front door behind him.

“It’s open,” he called to Tanner as he stepped into the bathroom, but them made a very sharp u-turn when he realised Tanner already knew this.  Through the glass, he could see two figures that looked vaguely humanoid- one dark blue skinned, one a deep crimson.  The figures each had thick dinosaur-esque tails, waving demonically behind them, stretching to just above their heads.  They wore no clothing, but didn’t have any of the compromising human features one would cover.  The red one had a shapely, curvaceous body, so Squall presumed it was female, while the blue one was more muscular.  Other than that, all features of the two were unmistakably human.

Squall moved his hand cautiously to the small leather pouch fitted deep inside the pocket of his jeans, which always held a 3-inch-bladed combat knife.  He curled his fingers relaxedly around the handle, leaving the hand in his pocket, and to anyone unsuspecting, it’d look as if his hands were just there out of laziness.

“I said it’s open,” he called again, as calmly as he could muster, as if the demonic figures outside his door were something he saw daily.  Technically, he’d seen weirder in his profession- he just normally went to find it, not the other way around.

[Saint]

Update:  five pages into the next chapter finally.  Progress is slow, but existent.

[Chinaren]

Update:  five pages into the next chapter finally.  Progress is slow, but existent.

I know the feeling Saint.  Keep hammering.

[Saint]

Chapter 3 – The Twins.

Corey

Three days.  Sitting on her bed, Corey began to finally realise her predicament. Her bright blonde hair swept down her body, the slightly darkened tips hanging just over the top of her dress.  She twisted a strand of it between her fingers, which were lightly but naturally tanned.  A pearly tooth sank itself into her lip in a failed attempt to stop the tear that was building in her eye from sliding along her nose.  The salty taste fell onto her smooth bottom lip, and she pressed it against the top one.

Even though she was alone, she brushed her hand over her eyes and sucked in the rest of the tears.  The last thing she wanted was to seem weak, especially to herself.  She just needed something to take her mind off her problems.  Not alcohol; she’d made that mistake before and paid the price.   No, she needed to forget, but she needed her mind working.  The clock on her table showed it to be 11:41.  She was alone in the house, but that was one of the problems.  Her path had driven her away from everyone.

She stood up slowly and walked over to her drawers, where she pulled out a pair of fleecy pyjamas- baby pink and lilac –and her most luxurious underwear.  After moving into the en-suite bathroom, she dropped them on the shelf and began to run hot water into the bath before pouring in the bath crème.  While it was filling up, she shed her clothes and slipped in.  The water was barely high enough to cover her feet, but the gradual sensation of the bubbles rising around her was something she’d enjoyed for as long as she could remember.

Lying back against the cold wall of the bath, with her legs stretching to the opposite end gave her an even weirder feeling while the bubbly water level rose to pass over her body.  When at last the water level hit just below her neck, she reached for the tap and cut off the flow, then she just sat there in complete silence.  She didn’t even close her eyes to think; she just existed for a good five minutes.

Her hands slowly began to stretch out in front of her, reaching for the soft bubbles and pulling them towards her for a loose embrace.  She rubbed them along her shoulders and neck, wrapping her arms around herself as she did so, the perfect image of loneliness.  There was a dull feeling in her core, like she had no purpose left in life.  In effect, she hadn’t.

Why had she had to be so stupid?  She cursed herself inaudibly and reached for the shampoo and the fancy bath gels her mother had got her for her 22nd birthday a few weeks before from the shelf above the bathtub.  There was no way she could wash her troubles off, but she could at least try and get rid of the dirt- the wear and tear of everyday life.

As she washed, she couldn’t help thinking of her mom.  What would she say?  Would she take her in open arms or would she stand there stunned?  In fact, would she even be able to tell her mom?  She wasn’t sure about anything anymore.

When her hands passed over her chest, just like every other time they did so, she flinched internally.  Running from her right hip to the base of the left side of her ribcage was a scar from a long time back.  Right at the start of her pushing everyone away.

Unable to hold the memory, Corey closed her eyes and submerged her head in the water.  For the most part of a minute, she stayed there in her tranquillity, but when the back of her throat tickled, she had to come back up for air.  The first thing she became aware of was a ringing passing through the bathroom door from her bedroom.  Just as she was about to get up, it stopped.

“Fine,” she mumbled to herself, “If it’s that important, they’ll call again.”

Sure enough, a few seconds later it began to ring again, so she sighed heftily and stood, stepping out of the bath and grabbing a towel from the rack.  Once it was wrapped around her, she walked through the door and picked up the phone from the side.

“Who is it?” she sighed.

“Perry.”

Without a second’s hesitation, she put the phone back down.  It rang again, but she ignored it.

‘I’d suggest you use the phone,’ came his voice in her head, ‘unless you want me to see what I can find in this little head of yours.’

She hated that about him, with a passion.  His forte was mind magic, and he’d promised not to use it on her again when he’d stumbled on something in her head that she didn’t even realise was there herself.  Corey picked up the phone; if he was threatening that, then this was serious.

“What do you want?” she snapped.  “Make it quick, and if it’s a job, then the answer’s no.”

“I’m only the messenger here, Cor.”

“Don’t call me that.  Now hurry up and tell me what they want so I can tell you where to stick it and get back to what I was doing.”

“And what were you doing?”  Corey could practically hear his eyebrows raising.  Pervert.

“Poker.  Get on with it.”

“I know that’s a lie, Cor.”

“Peregrine!  Back on subject!” she barked down the phone.  The only thing keeping her from slamming it down again was that he’d just talk to her through her head if she did.

“Sorry.  Listen, Cor, it’s a job, but hear it out.”

“I don’t work for them anymore,” she said coldly, staring maliciously at the spot where his eyes would be if he were talking to her in person.

“Corey, stop being so damned persistent.  This job could save your life.”

“Save my life?” she challenged. “Save my life?!  Do you know what they did to me, Perry?  They made me perform pact magic.  Nothing can save my life!”

“Pact magic?”  There was a long silence.  “No, they didn’t tell me that.  But they guaranteed me that if you take up this job then they’ll give you your life back.”

“Whether they guarantee it or not, Perry, it’s not gonna happen.  Not even the gods themselves can break a contract.”

“That’s the point, Cor.  This job is the last step before their plan's put into motion.  Then they can do anything.  Grant anything.”

“It’s not going to happen.  Find some other pawn.”

“Okay then, Plan B.  If you won’t go to save your life, then at least do it to satisfy yourself.”

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning the Corey I know is bursting inside to prove herself.  To test herself.”

He was right.  Corey hated being a failure.  And of course, now he’d said that, the thought had already been planted in her head (though she wasn’t sure if that hadn’t been pushed along by his magic).

“The job is four days.  I know you want to do it.”

“I have three days left.  I swear to the gods, Perry, I hate the skin off of you.  I’ll do it.  But you’re coming with me.  And you’re going to be with me on my last day.”

Squall

Sitting beside his bed, looking down on the body encased in sheets as if it would make a slight difference to her, Squall felt stupid.  He’d tried to be a show-off; tame nature to his advantage, and it had just backfired terribly.  The worst thing about the situation was that it wasn’t him it had backfired on.  Emmie was the one paying the due for this mistake.

Tanner had driven them to Squall’s house once the spell had worn off and they’d returned to the present time, as it was the closest.  They laid her on his bed, and Squall felt marginally better being able to offer it to her, even though it made absolutely no difference.  It was just unthinkable to leave her on the floor, or even just on a sofa, after the sacrifice she’d made for him.

His mouth twisted into a woeful frown, and he stroked Emmie’s cold face gently, secretly hoping for some reaction.  Nothing came.  With nothing left to do there but sulk and hope, he dragged his feet across the rough carpeted floor towards the door.  On exiting his room, he was greeted by a vast flood of natural light, as the door led onto a balcony which ran along the entrance hall of his house, and the roof, door, and front wall of the house (yet for some reason, none of the other walls) were composed entirely of glass.

Slipping along the balcony towards the staircase, with squidgy carpet filtering between his toes and overly-baggy jeans creeping under his heels, he looked up at the clouded yet bright sky.  It felt as if the god were trying to tell him something- and being a tetragod, that was actually a passable idea.  He looked at the clouds, trying to decipher any message they may want to give, but gave up when his weight dropped onto the stairs.  Who was he kidding?  The only god likely to send him a message was Tyde, and not only did he not have a good view of the sea from his house, but he’d never received so much as a birthday card from his holy grandfather.

It was all wishful thinking.  Maybe a god could give Emmie her life back without all this suffering.  No, that wasn’t going to happen.  It couldn’t; once a pact was made, it had to be adhered by both sides to every exact detail.  Executioner had restored his life.  Emmie had to suffer now.  There it was again.  Squall had been the one to benefit from this bargain.  Why was it Emmie who paid his price?

At the bottom of the stairs, Squall turned around sharply and headed for a door directly underneath them; his bathroom.  He wanted to run the tap and soak his hands in the sink; it always managed to clear his mind.  Before he reached the room, though, there was a knock at the front door behind him.

“It’s open,” he called to Tanner as he stepped into the bathroom, but them made a very sharp u-turn when he realised Tanner already knew this.  Through the glass, he could see two figures that looked vaguely humanoid- one dark blue skinned, one a deep crimson.  The figures each had thick dinosaur-esque tails waving demonically behind them, stretching to just above their heads.  Thick fleshy spikes sprung from their heads; the red one's were long and flowed down her back, while blue one's were shorter and stuck out behind him.  They wore no clothing, but didn’t have any of the compromising human features one would cover.  The red one had a shapely, curvaceous body, so Squall presumed it was female, while the blue one was more muscular.  Other than that, all features of the two were unmistakably human.

Squall moved his hand cautiously to the small leather pouch fitted deep inside the pocket of his jeans, which always held a 3-inch-bladed combat knife.  He curled his fingers relaxedly around the handle, leaving the hand in his pocket, and to anyone unsuspecting, it’d look as if his hands were just there out of laziness.

“I said it’s open,” he called again, as calmly as he could muster, as if the demonic figures outside his door were something he saw daily.  Technically, he’d seen weirder in his profession- he just normally went to find it, not the other way around.

“We aren’t permitted entrance unless the owner opens the door for us,” he heard, as if they were standing beside him and not behind thick glass strong enough to support a house.

“Sorta like vampires?”

They seemed to take some offence at this, as they didn’t respond again.  Squall slid over to the door, opening it with his free hand, then returning it quickly to his pocket to keep up the illusion.  Without the glass separating them, Squall could see them in far more detail.  They were very humanistic features up close, aside from the fact that they both appeared to have scales lining their bodies in place of skin.

“Squall Walker, tetragod under Tyde, god of oceans,” said the blue-skinned one.  Its voice contrasted its appearance greatly; a sly, feminine, snakelike voice of the sort you’d expect the lead witch to hold in a low-budget, clichéd fantasy film.  “I am Tyler, Demigod under Executioner, god of life.”

“And I am Taylor” said the other, with a similarly clichéd voice- this one reminding him of an army general in the same fantasy film.  “We are here under Executioner’s command.  We mean you no harm, so relax your grip on that puny knife of yours.”

So that hadn’t fooled them at all.

“It is good that you’re on edge,” hissed Tyler, “Death lurks everywhere and takes the weak.  But as demigods of death, did you really think we couldn’t identify something that had ended so many lives?”

Slightly doubtful, he took his hand out of his pocket, though the knife was still readily available for use.

“You're not getting Emmie.  He has her soul, her body is no part of the contract.”

“Fool.  If we wanted her body, we wouldn't wait for your permission; you've already let us in,” barked Taylor.  “Now stop being presumptuous and listen!”  There was an unmistakable tone of authority in her (his?  Squall decided on 'her' for now, at least) voice.  “We're not here for her, we're here for you, Squall Walker.”

“Our father did not know you were a tetragod at the time of the contract,” sang Tyler, “and we all know the pact would have different resolutions if he did.”

“You can't cha-” Squall began.

“We know,” Taylor cut in.  “We can't change the contract once it has been enforced.  Executioner has another way around this.”

“Another contract,” Tyler continued, “Can be arranged between yourself and Executioner.”

“And why would I want to do that?” Squall asked, not really wanting an answer.

Taylor floated gently over to him, and went to put her hand on his shoulder, but Squall shrugged out of the way.  For a brief moment, Taylor stared at him with all the ferocious intensity of a hunter, but it passed within a second, fading to a grey, undetermined emotion.

“Because Executioner is the god of life and death.”

“He can grant you aaaanything you want,” Tyler purred.

“So?” Squall asked, even though he knew exactly what their point was.

“He can bring her back, Squall.”

His mother.  She'd died four years earlier.  He'd been in the house when she fell down the stairs, but he couldn't do anything.  A shrill memory of her calling out for him passed across his mind, followed by that long series of thuds, then finally him finding her motionless on the floor at the bottom.  There was no worse memory than the blank yet petrified look on her face as he ran his fingers over her soft neck in frantic search for a pulse that wasn't there.

“I don't want her back,” he lied.  “You're gonna have to find a bigger weakness than that to exploit.”

“You want her back, Squall,” Taylor growled.

“Not for the cost.”  It wasn't that he didn't want his mother back.  No-one in their right mind wouldn't want a loved one alive again.  But one thing Squall had always held high about himself was his ability to keep his thoughts in line.  Where this would knock anyone else off course, he saw the problems straight away.

“Executioner doesn't want your life,” Tyler hummed.  “Just your status.  Surrender your tetragod abilities and we can sort something out.”

“That's not what I meant,” Squall stated, knowing he'd be punching himself in the head repeatedly later for it, “I've heard of the other two Executioner's given life to again.  They don't die, do they?  He can't bring them back to life, so he makes them immortal; impossible that they died in the first place, right?”

“And the problem there is?” Taylor asked, “You won't lose her again.”

Squall turned away.  He didn't want to think about it.  It was true, though; he wouldn't lose her again.  If he knew his mom, though, then she'd hate him for it.  She'd be the one who had to keep living while everyone around her didn't.  He'd seen her after his gran- her mom -had died.  And after her friend Stacy died.  She didn't cope with death at all.  Eternal life would crush her like a leaf under a bulldozer.

“There's no use acting.  I want her back, but I won't do it.  You want my abilities, think of something else, 'cause if you mention that again in my house, you'll have my knife pressed against your throat, whether you're demigods or not.”

“Oh, this one has bite,” Tyler grinned, showcasing a full set of carnivorous-looking fangs.  “But you’re out of your depth, kid.  Not only do we have at least twice the power of you, but Life and Death is a far greater force than simply ocean.”

“Why does he want me?” Squall challenged, letting the comment slide off.  “Is he trying to eliminate the tetragods and start a war?”

“Silly child,” laughed Taylor.  “The gods do not want war; it’s a strictly human endeavour.  They each have their dominion and they each have their subjects.  Those lower know their place, and those higher need no more.”

“Then does he want my power to become stronger?” Squall tried.

“Now what would a god who can create and end life want with a diluted ability to move water.  You’re far below his depth, Squall, and if you ever think you can be of help to him, then the three quarters of you that’s human is getting too corruptive,” Tyler spat.

“Why, then?!”

“Ha!  He just doesn’t like you, and he’s bored,” Taylor said cheerily.

Before this had a chance to sink in, both demigods turned with motions Squall couldn’t make out, and his head shot to the door, where Tanner was standing, sword brandished and fighting stance engaged.  He ran toward the two, ready to slash his sword directly into Taylor’s neck, but it never even came close to making contact.

Tyler moved himself in the way perfectly.  As the sword fell, he punched the fist Tanner had clenched around it.  From a mixture of surprise and pain, the sword fell, but Squall watched as Tanner regained his composure instantly and used the motion of Tyler’s punch to spin around and aim a backfist for his chest.  Tyler skipped back a step.  Tanner kept the motion going, this time bringing his leg out in a spinning heel.

Tyler pressed both of his hands down on top of the leg when it reached him.  It was thrown back down to the floor, so Tanner bounced it back up into a swift side kick.  Tyler apparently wasn’t expecting this.  He went to block it, but the kick connected, and for a second, the scene froze.  Tanner’s leg seemed fixed to the spot it had struck for an eternity.

“Tyler!” growled Taylor.  “We don’t need to do this.”

Squall must have missed something, because Tanner pulled his foot away without another strike, and Tyler stepped back.

“He struck me,” Tyler said dazedly, as if he still didn’t quite believe it.

“You’re not getting our Emmie,” Tanner growled, still tense.  “I’ll kill you both if I have to.”

Tyler didn’t make a joke about it, like when Squall had made the same threat.

“We’re not here for her, as we’ve explained to your friend here,” he said, indicating to Squall.  Tanner looked over for compliance, and Squall shook his head.  Usually, it indicated ‘no’, but between them, it meant ‘yes’.  Tanner’s body instantly relaxed.  From his deadly straight posture, he slumped about an inch, his fists unfurled, and his expression became indifferent.  It was like he’d just switched into an entirely different person.

“What’s your name?” Tyler asked Tanner.

“Saosin,” he replied.  Tanner never gave his forename to anyone he didn’t know.

“Our business is done here, Saosin, but we’ll be back.”

“Hey,” Squall called, “We’re not done.  Why does Executioner want my powers?”

“He doesn’t like you; we explained that already.  He thinks born tetragods are lazy and unneeded.”

Squall raised an eyebrow.

“Born tetragods?”

“There is more than one way to create a tetragod,” he said definitively.  “Come on Taylor, he’s declined the offer, let’s report back to Executioner.”

“Wait,” Squall stopped them, “You failed the god of death.  Won’t he be angry at you?  Punish you for your insolence?”

Taylor laughed.  “You need to stop watching fantasy movies, kid.”  And they both disappeared.

[Kensei-Teichou]

It's good Keep it coming :3

[Chinaren]

That's a well written chapter there Saint!

[NicTei]

KILL THEM SQUALL!!!  *ahem*  At any rate, I enjoyed this one; please post them a little faster.

On an offnote, I 'd at the googletags for this thread.  'become secret mystery shopper' and 'half life 2 system requirements.'  What.  The.  Deuce.