The Next World

The four of began to talk through the forest. I looked over at Kage who was holding on to Daius' hand. I looked over at Riku who looked away quickly.





He was feeling guilty and I was feeling angry. I figured it was within out rights. I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it though. Some things would have to be put behind us if we wanted to live





We walked for hours until we came to a wooded area. Kage looked around and said "Sora, you and Riku should build a fire while Dai and I go hunting us down some lunch."





I gave him a nod and waited until they gone. I was about to open my mouth but Riku beat me to it. "You're mad." He said.





"I have every right to be. You fucked up last night." I said looking at him in the eyes.





In his eyes I saw uncertainty and fear. He was afraid of something but I wasn't sure what.





"What are you so scared of?" I asked him, beginning to get mad.





He just kept looking in my eyes. He wasn't saying anything. I felt my anger growing.





I smacked him across the face and glared at him "Fucking say something." I said.





"He doesn't mean anywhere close as much to me as you do. He's just a friend that I haven't known for even a week. You know I love you. I was drunk last night and you know that." Riku said so quietly I almost missed it.







I laughed. "You were drunk so that makes it okay to make out with someone else? I suppose you can excuse anything with being drunk can't you?"





"It's not like Sora. I was never that drunk before. I didn't know I would be so fogged over. I know it messed you up too. You didn't have as much as we did so you weren't as drunk. We were hardly even on each other for a half a minute before I pushed him off because I realized what was wrong with it." Riku said with a pleading tone in his voice.





"What was wrong with it? Pick what you say carefully." I asked and warned.





"Because he wasn't the one I love. He wasn't you." Riku said softly.





I felt my anger slowly melting away. I looked in his eyes and said "If you ever make out with anyone who isn't me and I find out about it you're never touching me again. Not only that but never get drunk again."





He looked in my eyes and said "I promise. If I were in my right mind it wouldn't have happened." I could tell he was being honest so I decided to forgive him.





I heard an unfamiliar laughter from somewhere. I looked over and saw a tall man in a green hooded cloak. He pulled the cloak off and I saw his face.





He had blood red eyes that made me sick to my stomach. His hair was long and as white as snow. His features were delicate and almost feminine but at the same time held a great deal of malice and gave me a sense of uncertainty.







"Forgive me but I find a reassurance of love to be one of those most beautiful things one can behold in this world but yet I'm fully certain the two of you are out for more then that. I would almost think with those swords on your hips that you boys are out for blood." The white haired man said.





"A few of our friends are out hunting. We're supposed to be building a fire but I can do that in a short time so we decided to talk for a bit." I said to the stranger.





"I know full well what you're able to do Sora." The man said.





I looked at him in surprise. "How do you know my name?"





"Perhaps it would help if I told you mine? I'm Reikila, the elvin swordsmen and sword smith whose blades hang from your hips." He said with a surprisingly friendly smile on his face.





"You don't seem evil to me." I said to him.





"Good and evil are words based on opinion. I see myself as quite a good being and I view you as being quite evil. You're here to destroy this world with its wonderful order. I suppose we should wait for our friends to get here before we begin any form of violence though." Reikila said looking me in the eyes.





I wanted to look away from those bloody looking eyes of his but at the same time I didn't want him to see how afraid of him I was. He just smiled at me and pulled out a small dagger. I drew my sword and kept my eyes on his.





"I doubt you've ever spilled blood before?" Reikila asked me.





I shook my head and watched as he brought the dagger up to his mouth with the sharp side towards him. His tongue slowly slid up the blade and I watched as there was a thin trail of blood left along that blade where he had licked.





I watched as he then put the dagger away and spit a bit of blood on his hand. He held his bloody hand out to me and said "I have blood in my veins. If you want to kill me you have to get over that fact."





I looked at him, almost frozen in fear. "You're sick." I said.





He simply smiled at me and said "That is, once more, based on opinion. I think I'm quite well. I'm simply trying to preserve the wonderful order of justice. The strong survive and the weak are cleansed from the gene pool. It's quite the lovely world. I must be leaving now but we will meet again. I'm sure of that since one of us is fated to slay the other."





I looked at him, hardly able to move, as he walked over to me. He placed his blood covered hand on my cheek and ran it across leaving a train of it down my face. "Remember I live as you do Sora. You view what you must to do as an evil act and I view it as enhancing the purity of this world. You will die by my hand unless you are stronger then I and can overcome your false sense of right and wrong.” He said, looking me in the eyes with that smile still on his face.





I pushed him away and said "All of a sudden killing you doesn't seem to be such an evil thing. I'm tempted to do it right now."





"You over come your fears quite easily I see. You may be fun to play with after all." Reikila said.





"Where's Ansem you sick bastard?" Riku asked.





"You shall know when the time is right. I'm just here to see Sora for myself. He's quite the sickening creature I think. So full of fear and he has a warped sense of wrong and right." Reikila said.





"Don't insult me." I said as I readied sunlight to strike.





"So you wish for us to have our fight now?" Reikila asked.





I gave a nod.





"The time we fight is not this one Sora but soon you'll get your chance to kill me." Reikila said as he walked away.



I looked at Riku and shook my head. "How can anyone be that creepy?" I asked him.





Riku let out a sigh and said "You can't be scared of him Sora. Your fear will be the death of you in a fight."





I gave a nod and looked at him. "I know but you have to admit he's a sicko."





"Who's a sicko and where’s the fire Sora?" Kage's voice asked.





I looked and saw that he was standing behind me with seven fish on a stringer.





I laid down some logs and used magic to light them. When the fire was lit Kage smiled and put a stick through each fish and sat them down to cook.





"Who's the sicko?" Kage asked me once he had put the stick in the ground so the fish would be cooked by the fire.





"We met the elf." Riku said as he eyed the fish.





"You met the elf and you survived Sora? You're lucky. Hardly anyone survives an encounter with an elf that has the intention of killing them. When they start a fight they don't end it until death. How badly did he cut your face?" Kage said.





"He didn't move to attack me. He cut his tongue on a dagger, spit it in to his hand, and ran it down my face." I said.





"Typical elfin terror tactics. They either move in for the kill right away or they scare you shitless for the time they decide to kill you. I just kill them on sight though." Kage said bitterly.





"You kill an elf on sight?" Riku asked him.





"Yes I do. The elves are bitter enemies of the human race. They enjoy killing humans, especially children and warriors. I'm both so every elf I see I kill because I know they would do the same to me." Kage said.





"I would wipe that blood off of your face Sora." Daius said.





I gave a nod and went to wipe it off but it stung my fingers like salt in a cut. I let out a slight hiss of pain before I spit on my hand and went back to rubbing it. Soon I got it off and I looked at Daius.





"Why did it sting?" I asked him.





"He must have had some sort of toxin on the blade. Things are poisonous to humans aren't to elves and the same is true with them and us." He said.





"What was his name?" Kage asked.





"He introduced himself as Reikila." Riku said.





"Shit. Not him." Kage said looking at me.





"You know him?" I asked him as he pulled the fish from the ground and distributed two of them for each of us while keeping three for him.





Kage gave a nod and said "He's the only enemy I haven't been able to kill and he said I was the same for him. Our paths have crossed three times before this one. He's one of the best swordsmen I've ever fought." before he took a bit out of his fish.





I let out a sigh and ate my fish thinking of how if Kage had trouble with him I was as good as dead. I beat Kage but that was only because I was able to trick him. I doubted this elf would fall for such a trick.





We had all finished eating and left our camp ground. Daius looked at them and said "I know were they are. It's hard for me to see but I saw it. Someone or something is doing quite well at hiding things from me."





Kage looked at him and said "I think they want to find us as much as we want to find them."





Daius gave a nod but his facial expression quickly changed to one of panic. He threw Kage to the ground and a flying blue object struck him in the stomach. He fell to the ground next to Kage who looked at him with surprise and fear.







He was bleeding from his stomach were the knife had went though his armor. Kage pulled the knife out, pulled up the shirt, and pulled the seemingly useless chain mail away. Kage looked at the wound and his face went white.





"I knew this was going to happen but I didn't want to tell you." Daius said as he looked in to Kage's eyes.





"It's okay. You'll be fine." Kage said. His voice sounded flat and shocked.





Daius laughed weakly and said "We both know that's a lie."





Kage began to cry. He looked at Daius and said "You can't die. Everyone I love dies. You have to live. You have to!"





Daius gave a shook his head and said "Sorry but I can't. Just make it stop hurting."





Kage gave a nod and reached in to his pouch. He pulled out a syringe and looked at Daius who gave him a weak nod.





"I love you so much Dai." Kage as he brought Daius' arm in to his lap.





Daius tried to speak but all he managed to do was cough up blood on Kage who stuck then needle in to his vein and pushed the plunger down. I watched as the syringe was emptied in to Daius body.





Kage sat there holding on to Daius bleeding and dying body with his finger on his throat. He sat there for close to a minute before he stood up and pulled out the shorter of his twin swords in to his right hand in a backhanded hold.





He eyed his armored wrist and said "I don't know if I'll cut my life away or join you when this is over. I had hoped to spend the time until this word ended with Dai but there’s no reason for me to stay or live anymore."





"As cold as this is going to sound you need to forget about it for now. We have something we need to do." Riku said.





Kage sheathed his sword and said "I'll gladly send this world to its end if it means nobody ever has to go through what I just did. Let's go."





"You're just going to leave his body there?" I asked Kage in surprise.





"What else am I supposed to do with it?" Kage asked.





"Where we're from we burn or cremate our dead." Riku said.





"If they're warriors it's the highest honor for them to be left in the forest so that in their death they can help to carry on another life."





I heard a sickening laugher and looked up in to the tree. I saw Zoul standing there on a branch.





"It seems you're always by the code even after the life of the one love has ended in your arms. You're so cold Kage. I'm surprised you can love at all really." He said.





"You're one to talk. You just ended the life of one of your own people." Kage said drawing out the twilight and his shorter sword.





Zoul jumped down with his broadsword in hand. He went to swing at Kage who jumped to the side and slashed him deeply in the leg. Kage slashed out several times but Zoul blocked most of them.





The older warrior swung out and got Kage on his right leg cutting away the armor and leaving a wound. The two of them stepped away from each other and Zoul smiled. "We're both injured now. This can still go either way." he said.





"No. You're wrong." Kage said as he raised twilight above his head and brought it down over where his leg was wounded. I watched as the cut healed.





"I have a magical weapon and Daius showed me how to use its magic. You've seen one trick and this one will be the end of you." Kage said.





He jumped in to the air and landed in his shadow. I watched in surprise as the shadow swallowed him in to the ground. He came up less then a second later from Zoul's shadow and sliced the older mans head off. Blood from the decapitation covered Kage who didn't as much as flinch. He just swung twilight over the body and it was swallowed up by a shadow.





Kage turned around to look at Riku and me. He was covered in blood and had a pained look on his face. It was as if everything he's ever done hit him at once. He dropped to the ground and began crying.





"My father, my uncle, and my best friend since childhood I've come to love, and hundreds of faceless strangers. I've killed them all and I deserve to be saved?" he asked looking at Riku and me.





"That's up to you. In the end you get to decide if you want to be saved or not at least from this world but I think when the end does come for you God will take mercy on you. You've done what you had to do to survive when you knew nothing else and still felt remorse for your actions." Riku said.





Kage looked at him and said "I would rather find that out sooner or later. I'll help the two of you cut open the rift to your world but I'm not going to follow you through it. We're going to find Ansem, find Reikila, you two are going to do what you must here, and go back home."





I looked at Riku and he gave me a nod. "Then the hunt continues." Kage said grimly as we began to continue our trek through the forest.