Protheus no Himitsu (Chapters 2/7 added)

Merci · December 27, 2010

の秘密

(Protheus no Himitsu)

This time, I wasn't all that bored when I made this.

[spoiler=Chapter 1: Secret of Love]
Arrel heaved a sigh of relief. He finally destroyed the final level of the Tao King’s monster. The duel was now in his favor. The secrets will not be discovered. For a moment there, I thought that all was hopeless, He thought. Lucky I believed in my deck to carry me through! But to his surprise, the Tao King just sighed before raising his voice.

“Fool!” The Tao King said. “Do you know what you just did?! You have forced me to summon the true last form of the servant you just destroyed!”

Arrel looked up in surprise. The true last form? He thought. There’s another level? But he said The Merciless Reaper was the final level. . . Did he lie about that? If there was another form, then Arrel wouldn’t be able to win whatsoever. I sacrificed most of my Deck. I sacrificed all of my monsters. My deck believed in me, but its strength just wasn’t enough. . . 

“You would have lived had you been finished off by any of the monsters I have summoned since now!” The Tao King continued. “But still you continued to persist! You have forced me to use the powers of the Infinity upon you! Any other person would have said you were lucky to survive this far, but I say you’re unlucky! The Infinity shall kill you! Idiot, I never wanted you dead!”

Arrel collapsed to his knees. Tears ran down his face. He was supposed to guard the secrets, even if it meant his life. He owed the man that much. The man, he had given Arrel a life and a future. He may have only been using him, but Arrel was very grateful for it either way. He was meant to guard the secrets, and he had told himself to give his own life to guard them. And this person, whoever he was, was about to steal them.

“A king is supposed to forgive their subjects. . . . .” the Tao King began. "But I am afraid you've left me with no other choice!"

His blank gray mask seemed transparent for a moment, and Arrel thought he could see pity in his face. Arrel didn’t want pity. He wanted satisfaction. He wanted to guard the secrets until the end of eternity. He just wanted-

“In the stream of Infinity," the Tao King began to chant. "You swam across it and became an abomination of nature, possessing the ability to start over with unlimited possibilities! Come now, Thirteen, The Assassin Infinity!”

The ghost-like supposed final form of the monster that Arrel had tried so hard to completely defeat reappeared, but then it suddenly turned into its second form, before finally its original form, a man with pink hair that reached down to his neck wearing a black coat and wielding a weird scythe. The body under the coat then became a bit more muscular, and the blade of the scythe turned a glowing red. Monstrous devil-like wings then sprouted out of the man’s back, completing the transformation. The man was looking down at the time, but when it looked up straight at Arrel, it revealed that its sclera had turned black. (ATK 5000)

Arrel LP: 300
Tao King LP: 1500

“My turn,” The Tao King then said. “Draw!” The Tao King drew a card from his deck before continuing. “Now, The Assassin Infinity. Attack him directly and finish this duel! Oh and try to give him the least painful death possible with that scythe of yours.”

Was he joking? The Assassin Infinity flew forward, flapping its rotten wings, before swinging his scythe at Arrel’s neck. Arrel ducked and The Assassin Infinity flew past him. He heaved a sigh of relief, got up, and turned.

“Honestly,” The Tao King said. “I tried to give you a quick death. Do you know what happens when you dodge his attack? You’re making him angry like that. I’d say you’re stupid but I didn’t tell you about the quick death thing before, now, did I? Sorry.”

As soon as Arrel had turned, the Assassin Infinity suddenly shot several spears at him, which stabbed into multiple parts of his body. Blood trickled down, and Arrel collapsed to the floor. The spears had gone through his body. The pain was overwhelming. He doubted that any form of medical attention could help him now. It was hopeless, all hopeless. Protheus Maximus, I'm so sorry. . . He thought to himself as a puddle of blood expanded from where he lay. His vision was then replaced by an utter, permanent darkness.

-----------------
 
“Why can’t you ever show mercy, Dusk?” The Tao King asked the Assassin Infinity, stepping over the corpse of the Guardian called Arrel.

As it walked, its wings, scythe and abnormal muscles began shrink and faded. When it was halfway from Arrel to The Tao King, it looked like its original form, only without the scythe. But as it continued walking, its entire body began shrinking and its clothes seemed to fuse with its skin. The fused skin then slowly turned into a pale white, and its facial features also seemed to fade away. By the time it had reached the Tao King, it was no longer human. Its muscles were completely gone, it was boneless, and it had no hands or feet. Its face was a complete blank. It looked like a small animated suit stuffed with fat.

I only do what I am told, Master Minerva, the Dusk replied, via telepathy. The Tao King got annoyed when it mentioned his former name.

“I believe I have already told you, Dusk, that my name is not Minerva,” he affirmed, trying to control himself from raising his voice. "Don't you dare ever call me by that ever again."

He looked at his left hand as he was reminded by certain past events. Instead of a normal left hand, there was a naked robotic replacement. One could see all the joint replacements that allowed the hand to move out and about in a radius equal to a normal human hand. The ones who had manufactured it had wanted to place a thick skin over it to make it appear more normal, but the Tao King had made the decision that he wanted the hand robotics to be visible. He wanted to be able to see all its mechanics, all its unlikeliness to an organic hand, just he could be reminded of that one little girl who had sliced his former hand with nothing more than a mere trading card.

Now then, let us see what my old man had in store for me.

The Tao King walked forward, and the Dusk followed behind him, walking like a puppet controlled by a beginner puppeteer. He would finally learn all the secrets of the that old fool of his, the secrets that he had been kept from for years and years.
 
The Tao King wore a blank gray mask with no holes. It blocked his sight, blinding him, but he wore it only so that he could train his sensing skills. It had been a very, very long time since he had last taken the mask off. He also wore a white coat, a cowboy-esque black hat, and a crystal device on his right arm. He didn't know what to expect within, but he guessed that people rarely ever came here at all. Excellent.

He continued on until he was at the edge of the entrance, before he raised his hand, and knocked. At that moment, he heard a sound and sensed the entrance, whatever it was, opening up. When he sensed that the door was finally finished opening, he walked in to what appeared to be a very large stone corridor. He sensed patterns on the walls that radiated a lot of power from them. Whatever the patterns were, he decided not the disturb them. As he walked, he sensed the Dusk walking more slowly as it followed him.
 
Thirteen, which was the name of the Dusk, had seen that Minerva, as he had come to know his master, had knocked on a stone wall. He didn’t doubt for a second that something would happen, and the stone wall opened up, revealing a corridor. Minerva calmly walked in, followed by Thirteen. Within that corridor, there was a red mat that went all the way across, and a wall that was so completely covered by thousands and thousands of portraits that it almost appeared like the walls were made of them.
 
Some of the portrait pictures were photos of art, some were paintings, some were illutrations, and there was even an occassional mosaic every now and then. They were all of the same person, an onyx-eyed man with black and silver hair. The clothes of this man in particular varied greatly, from old knight armor in one picture to a black robe in another. Even his skin varied, going from tan to pale here and there. Some of the pictures were black and white, one of which was a painting of the very same man kneeling down within a desert, patting a Celtic girl with long blonde hair, wearing ragged clothes that were fit only for a slave. The man's head was turned against the painting, but the girl tried her best to smile politely at the artist.

Thirteen could see that they were already halfway through the corridor after a few minutes of walking through. He continued to look at the pictures as he walked. Every picture seemed to contained the man in at least one form or another. Thirteen noted that whenever he was alone in the portrait, he had a quiet and calculating look on his face, but whenever he was with someone else he occassionally held a fake smile or just turned his face away from the picture. Unknown though he may be, he must've been extremely vain to have so many pictures of himself cast and created. It was actually rather ridiculous.
 
One portrait in particular caught Thirteen's attention. It registered into his mind that the man was not in it. Instead, it was a painting of a woman with long black hair and a sad, serene look in her eyes that stared right back at the Dusk. She wore a purple robe, and gently held a serpentine flute to her mouth, as if she was about to play a sad tune about her life story. The Dusk silently wondered who she was and what might she have done to have gained a portrait all to herself in a corridor full of just one man.
 
This same woman, after another dozen portraits, reappeared in another one, in fact the biggest one in the corridor. It covered up an entire section from the ceiling to the floor. The portrait was a photo, a photo that appeared to have perfectly captured the moment. The colors and shadows possessed incredible clarity, and there was not a single evident blur at all. It was just that, a photo sharpened to perfection. When Thirteen looked at ths photo, suddenly the previous portrait made sense. The woman wore a white wedding gown, and she was standing within the arms of the same man continuously portrayed. He wore a black suit. They appeared to be standing on water, ripples formed from where they stood. Their lips were against each other.
 
The Tao King then stopped. They had come to the end of the corridor, a thick concrete wall. He speculated as he took a step forward, developing multiple theories at once about what might be awaiting them beyond it. He thrust his hand forward against the wall, and immediately the wall began to retract, creating a space for him and his servant to pass through. For a moment, he stood there, inanimate. This was it, at long last. And then he entered.
 
Inside, there was only a small room, but the walls were made of gold. Yet, despite this impressive display, the room contained nothing more than a simple, ancient scroll of papyrus rolled up in the middle. The Tao King felt insulted. He had gone through a lot just to find this one location, and all it contained was just one simple scroll. Infuriating. But he decided to read its contents anyway, since after all it was what he came for. He walked up to the scroll, and then opened it.

The next thing he knew, he was floating. He could sense his surroundings, but for some reason he couldn't sense himself. He looked up ahead. There was a huge lake with mist all around it, which was odd since the area outside of the lake was untouched by this mist. The next moment, his sensing ability distorted for a moment, and then he found himself standing on top of the lake. The mist evaporated around him, giving him full sight of the lake. He sensed two other figures close by, also standing on the lake, one male and one female. They were standing next to each other, staring into each other's eyes. Love. It was disgusting.

“Are you still going to hand over the Hydra Flute?” The male whispered into his partner's ear. The Tao King recognized that voice straight away. It was a voice he would never ever forget. It was his old man, his accursed old man, Protheus Maximus.

Protheus was wearing a black suit, while the female wore a white wedding gown. The female had long black hair, braided. Her eyes were a shining clear blue like the ocean, a contrast to Protheus's corrupted dark eyes. She seemed to look familiar . . . but the Tao King couldn't recognize her, she didn't look like anybody he had ever known in his entire life. Just who was she exactly?

“You’re wearing a suit, I see,” she replied, noting his appearance. She smiled. “A change to that worn costume for once.”

“I’m only wearing it for the occasion. Now, my question, Athena?”

The woman wagged her finger at Protheus, as if he were a child requesting a motorcycle to his mother. “Sorry, but you still can’t have the flute," she said. "I’m going to keep it right here with me!”

“Ahem,” A third voice said, echoing throughout the lake like the shadows of sound following after one another.

The two people then turned towards someone that wasn’t there, and they both bowed their heads and apologized. The Tao King was momentarily confused. Where had that voice come from? But then he sensed a third presence suddenly materialize, standing in front of the couple. He too was wearing a suit, only a gray one. He had long gray hair and dark tanned skin. His eyes were red like blood and his sclera was as black as space. This third presence radiated a kind of aura, a kind of sensation that threatened to bring out all the despair, misery and hopelessness within a person and break them. But the Tao King stood tall and resisted this unreal aura.
 
"Do you, Protheus Maximus, take this Athena Clearstream to be your partner in eternity and sharing your path; equal in love, a mirror for your true self, swearing to honor and endure, through times of light and of darkness, until matter do you part?" The presence asked. Apparently, this was supposed to be a wedding. A strange wedding at that.
 
“Do I?" Protheus asked jokingly, and Athena shot him an annoyed glance. He shrugged, smiling for a moment, before answering. “I do."
 
The presence then turned to the soon-to-be wife. The Tao King couldn't help but wonder what this was supposed to mean. Protheus was never so laidback before as far as he could tell.
 
"And do you, Athena Clearstream, choose this Protheus Maximus to be your partner in life, to support and respect him in his successes as well as his failures, to support him through order and through chaos, to nurture him when he needs it least or when he needs it most, and to cope with him for as long as you possibly can within eternity together?"
 
"Do I?" Athena asked, mocking Protheus. This time, Protheus gave her an annoyed look. She giggled a bit, before clearing her throat. "Yes, I do."
 
"Then by the power and authority I possess over existence, I now pronounce you-"
 
All of a sudden, an invisible force yanked on the Tao King's feet and dragged him into the lake, not giving him any chance to resist. He fazed through the lake, with not a single spash, but he had already long ago figured out that he wasn't actually there. He was just an audience after all. Within the lake, it was pitch-black, but he could sense his surroundings. What caught his attention the most was a large creature that lurked nearby, and it was slowly starting to head in his direction.

It had a serpentine body, but halfway through its body it split into three different long necks. Each part looked like the neck and head of a Plesiosaurus, only with lime-green scales. The heads also possessed sharp fangs and empty eyesockets with an ominous purple light instead of eyes, as well as fins near the mouth, a yellow belly, and a rather sharp back.

What sort of monster is that? The Tao King thought to himself.
 
He had never quite seen anything like it. As he watched, the lake monster approached even closer to him. The Tao King, of course, wasn’t afraid of it. If he had actually been there, he was quite sure he was powerful enough to combat it. The lake monster darted towards him, as it had just spotted its prey. As it approached even closer, his confidence began to die down as he realized something. It was further away than he imagined, he had miscalculated its colossal size. But when it finally got to him, at which point he realized that it was the same size as a whale. For a second, he was afraid that it would crunch him effortlessly, but no, it just passed through him. All of this had happened in the past, it was just a materialization. He was just the audience, just watching it, and he couldn't do anything to change these events.
 
The next thing the Tao King sensed was a structure, a man-made structure. It was a castle in reverse, inside the lake. Curious, he approached it, expecting to see something similar to Atlantis, but instead from close up the reversed castle actually looked quite recent and advanced. The castle was made of a black alloy, not stone. The castle was huge, and yet its fate depened upon a single sharp point that extended from it towards the deepest end of the lake, stabbing into it. That point has to be extremely powerful to keep an entire castle stable, even when underwater, he noted. Then he continued onward into the castle

Inside the castle, everything looked pretty much normal, although the floors got smaller when one went too many floors down. There were many rooms, but most of them were empty with white walls. What they were meant to fill, the Tao King didn’t know. As he searched across the castle, he then discovered the room of his old man, Protheus Maximus. He was sitting in the middle of an empty room, only this one had its walls painted gray. The Tao King approached him cautiously, and all of a sudden his father turned to him. He was shocked.

“Is there a problem, Master?” The fool asked to where the Tao King was standing.

As a matter of fact, yes, a voice replied, in a way not unlike the Dusk’s method.

The voice resembled that of the third presence from earlier. The Tao Kiing took another cautious step towards his father, and the scenery changed instantaneously. The sudden change of scenery gave the Tao King a bit of a headache as his brain tried to compare the images of the room and this new darker unnatural place. The Tao King knew that this was a place to be feared. It was the Shadow Realm. Everything was completely black, but the Tao King was able to sense two entities within it.

His old man was still sitting in the middle of whatever they were in. Actually, he was wearing his old clothes again. He now wore a grey ragged and damaged armored jacket, a black jumpsuit inside, a black sword that ended in a cross to his back, and two tough red gauntlets. The Tao King had come to know him wearing a white undamaged version of it all. The outfit must have been repaired in later years. But the outfit was unimportant. What caught his attention was the something else, some kind of massive creature.

It had the body of a black spider, only it had twelve legs instead of eight, all covered in sharp blood-covered spikes, and possessed a scorpion tail with a sharp point. It also had the neck and head of a dragon, with three menacing horns coming out from the forehead and cheeks, all pointing forward. It might've just been a creature of the Shadow Realm, but a creature of that magnitude was simply unlikely at all. Its size was gigantic, colossal even, and even its very eye was at least twice as large as Protheus. The Tao King just couldn’t suppress his fear. The monster radiated fear itself.
 
Even so, his father, sitting down in front of the monster, was not afraid. The Tao King could sense no fear from him. The monster and Protheus held a conversation together. The Tao King quickly pieced together that this monster was the Master, the Master. The Master that Protheus had always referred to, this mysterious 'Master' that had the ability to give unlimited power and immortality to anyone it chose, and yet was incapable of touching the multiverse at all. They talked about the marriage from earlier, about his new wife, about requests Protheus had made, and suspicions the Master had begun to have about him. Most of it didn't make much sense to him at all. Finally, the conversation began to come to a close.

“It has been three thousand years, three thousand years, since you selected me as your herald, and I have destroyed very few universes," Protheus pointed out. "You can’t honestly expect me to destroy the entire multiverse, when there are still thousands of universes still out there!”

I do expect you to do it, Maximus. You are entropy. You are immortal and you shall exist for eternity, hammering at the multiverse until there is nothing left. It is your DUTY, Maximus, your DESTINY. You shall be the entropy of the multiverse. That is my plan, and I expect you to enact it. Patience is the key, after ALL.

Somehow, the Tao King could sense that the Master truly meant all of that. It was an impossible request, an impossible, unneccessary, time-consuming request that didn't even achieve anything. His father sighed and got up, before walking out. After that, slowly but surely, the scenery faded away.
 
 
He found himself back in the golden room, and suddenly collapsed to his knees, exhausted. He felt drained of energy, a rare occurance for him. Even though he was immortal, he tried to take in deep breaths. He looked down at his hand and realized that he was still holding the scroll. He wrapped it open, but it had only one letter on it, ‘愛‘ (Ai).

Is there a problem, Master Minerva? The Dusk asked him via a form of telepathy from behind.

From the Dusk's actions, the Tao King quickly figured out that he had experienced all of that in merely a second. After what he had just witnessed, it didn't seem so surprising. The Tao King realized that the aura radiated from the Master had absorbed his energy, despite the fact that he was the audience. Hopefully, though, there shouldn’t be any consequences to this.

“There is no problem.” The Tao King coldly reassured. “And stop calling me Minerva for once. I appreciate the Master part, Dusk, but I don’t the Minerva part.”

He got up, still reflecting on the vision. It occurred to him that this 'Athena Clearstream' character might actually be his mother, and when it crossed his mind he felt a momentary sadness in his heart. [i]What happened to her? What . . . .what happened to my mother?[/i]

[font=courier][i]Have you found what you were looking for?[/i][/font]

The Tao King grinned, although the Dusk was not to know that since he wore a blank gray mask.

“Yes," he replied, his tone lightening. "As a matter of fact, I think I have.”

[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Chapter 2: Secret of Rivalry]
“Hello there!”

Isamy just couldn't resist saying that. The man instantly reacted and turned, reaching for his knife. He never made it. Isamy summoned a shadow to bind his entire arm before pulling it forcefully towards his back. The same happened with his other arm. He seemed to struggle but he couldn’t break free from the shadows holding him. He opened his mouth, but another shadow fell over it and kept it shut. His legs were bounded by more shadows. Only his eyes weren’t bound.

“Let’s see here,” She continued. “Boring man protecting an awesome secret of Protheus Maximus. Not somebody I want to spare. To the Shadow Realm with you, then!”

The man seemed to hear this and then used all of his strength to try and break free from the shadows. Isamy decided to give him some credit, however, and made the shadows retreat from his body. He instantly reached for his knife. He grabbed it and held it covering his face. He then took another knife from his other side, and held it covering his below.

“Witch,” He began. “You are not taking the secret of that man anytime soon. I made a promise.”

The man’s knives seemed to be special. They were made of ordinary iron, but they were enhanced by Protheus Maximus, Isamy could tell, so that they could withstand even the sharpest or heaviest blade. With them, Thane seemed to feel confident. They cut through even the shadows. Isamy looked at his knives, then back at him.

They were both standing in a stone cave, lit up with candles all the way down, as the floor was basically a very small slope down and down. The entrance was too far to be seen. Isamy herself looked about seventeen, had light skin and long greenish blue hair, purple eyes with black sclera, and two heavy purple wristbands, along with two purple bracelets worn above the elbows. She also wore a long bell-sleeved black robe that reached all the way down to her feet, and her feet were barefoot. Her right hand was holding a staff that was made of some kind of black metal, proof that she was a witch.

“Then you shall suffer,” She replied, and they dueled.

The man was the first one to make a move. He ran towards her and struck with his knives. Isamy blocked them with her staff. It looked like it was of the same metal Protheus’s sword was. She spun it around like a shield, thrusting it forward every now and then. Whenever she did that, shadows came from it. They were hard to see with the candles about, but the man, by sheer luck, always noticed them at the last second and cut through them. He attacked with his right knife when he found an opening at Isamy’s neck, but she noticed this and raised her staff into the air. Shadows shot up and caught his right hand. He wretched free of it as he attacked with his other knife at the waist. She blocked it by thrusting her own free hand into it.

“You sacrifice a hand like this?” The man asked.

He wretched free of the broken hand and the shadows and retreated. He looked as his left knife, but saw only a dust-colored type of blood, one that has been dried up for a long time and yet still persisted to be liquid. He looked at Isamy again, she was simply grinning as she stretched her stabbed hand, which looked inhuman as the mess in it the man had made with his knife suddenly repaired itself. The flesh, bone, and skin stretched and began to reattach together until her hand looked like it had never been stabbed at all.

“Witchcraft,” He muttered to himself.

“Not witchcraft, it’s. . .” Isamy thought for a moment, but didn’t come up with any answer. “Alright, I give, maybe it is witchcraft, but I won’t die if you burn me at the stake or something like that. I’m immortal. I’m entropy.”

And Isamy threw her staff at man. Instead of dodging it, he decided to just knock it aside, a sad mistake. When it came towards his heart, where it was surprisingly accurate at, he tried to use his knives to knock it aside from the side with them. It didn’t work. His knives were knocked away and the staff hit where his heart was, broke through the skin and flesh and bone and then his heart. He had only a millisecond to realize that the staff was thrown with the strength of a giant before the staff hit the ground behind him, cracking it. Isamy then clicked her fingers, and Thane collapsed to the ground like a lifeless doll. His soul had been sent to the Shadow Realm for a long time.

Isamy, as that was her name, simply sighed. She had almost gotten carried away. She wanted to send him to the Shadow Realm, but nearly killed him. Luckily, he was sent to the Shadow Realm at the last moment, only that was very unfair, since once he escaped and woke up, he would die and goes to his own afterlife. But it was funny. Thane had no idea he was participating in a Shadow Game.

She looked forward. The cave was long. Twenty miles long, one hundred meters deep, temperature increase with every meter down, due to the fact that there was running lava beneath the cave, something Isamy knew was a defense mechanism. She then began to walk; there was a long walk down, a very long walk at that. She estimated that it would take at least two hours on foot. She could run, which would speed up the time by a third, but she wanted the moment to last. Satisfaction is not possible unless one has been denied it for a long time, after all.

She walked on and on, well aware of the heat, but she couldn’t die from it. With a defense mechanism like this, unless they used some sort of machine or suit with super air-conditioning, they would need to be immortal to reach the secret, which Isamy was. Otherwise, they would die from heatstroke as they continue down. If someone attempted to cut the lava flow below, chances are that it would rise and fill up the entire cave, creating it inaccessible. A very smart defense mechanism, only it was natural, although the cave itself wasn’t.

It was a long way down. After about an hour, the heat was very high. No life-forms other than the most extreme extremophiles could survive here. There was obviously more lava below the cave ground as Isamy went on. After another half hour had passed, she realized that this amount of heat wasn’t possible unless she was very close to the planet’s core. Had Protheus put an extending magic in the cave? If so, then no wonder her feet felt a lot of more. Gravity was very, very powerful here. The magic made it seem as though she was only descending a hundred meters, where in fact she was pretty much walking from one country to another on foot, only the cave made the trip faster.

As Isamy had estimated, after yet another half hour had passed, she had arrived to a black door. The trip down was the ultimate defense mechanism, defending whatever lied beyond a simple wooden black door. It was a wonder the door didn’t burn up from the heat. It was a wonder the cave kept itself together. None of that mattered. It was time to find out the secret of Protheus, and then she would find out everything she has to know about him, hopefully. She was well aware of flames flickering on her clothes.

In the room was a wrapped up paper of papyrus in the very middle. The room itself was more fascinating. The room was circular, like the inside of a dome. The walls and roof were marble white, and there was a single painting that was painted on the floor itself, covering all of it. The room wasn’t that big, only as big as what a lounge is. The floor painting was that of Protheus Maximus, with tan skin and wearing his old black outfit, with a fist in his face and his own right fist in the face of someone else.

This someone else had long black hair. His face was indistinguishable what with the fist of Protheus in his face, but he was wearing a red jacket with white shoulder plates over it on both of his shoulders. He had light skin and wore black jeans and shoes. A black bat-like wing with a spike coming out from the end of the bone seemed to appear behind his left shoulder, he didn’t have another wing though. Instead of a left hand were black claws fit for a dragon. They were clenched, as if he were ready to punch the face of Protheus with it, despite the fact that he already has his human fist in it.

Isamy walked up to the wrapped up paper of papyrus. It was very small, only about as big as her own petite hand. It didn’t look like it could hold the secret of Protheus but it was well worth a shot. She didn’t come all this way just to look at a picture of Protheus and some other person, possibly a former equal, punching each other like little children. She already knew the result, though. Protheus won; since this other person was never mentioned again while Protheus went on to create even more havoc in the multiverse. She opened the rolled-up papyrus. And then her feet were pulled into the picture.

She was standing in the rain, but didn’t feel it. She saw Protheus and the other person, both actually there, fighting each other with all their strength. For a second, Isamy thought that she was transported into the past and should hide so as to not break the space-time continuum but since she couldn’t feel the rain, and wasn’t getting wet a that, it wasn’t hard to figure out that what she was witnessing was just a vision, although it was in color. Usually, her visions were black and white, but this one had to be a special one for it to be in color. She moved her eyes around to check the surroundings, although she didn’t take any steps.

She was standing inside a crater, along with the two fighting people. There was no sign of the black sword that used to belong to Protheus, so it was probably still being forged. It did take two thousand years to forge it, after all. The two people were just punching each other, one at a time. Each time one punched the other, a crack appeared in the ground below them, and after enough punches have been delivered, the crater would deepen. Every now and then, one of them would deliver a killer punch that would extend the entire crater. It was the only reason the crater wasn’t flooding, since the water would always be forced out.

Isamy wondered if she was really stronger than that. She knew, and a part of Protheus himself told her, that she was stronger than him, and always has been, but looking at this match now, she wasn’t so sure. None of the two people were ever knocked down to their feet or pushed away by one’s punch. Their faces proved that they felt the pain, but they simply kept on fighting each other. Isamy wondered who the person fighting with Protheus was. Who could be so strong as to withstand punches like that, and deliver equal? Protheus had never said anything about this person. Nobody had.

“Give up?!”

The other man delivered another punch with his human hand. Isamy then realized that he wasn’t using his claw-hand at all.

[color=gray]“You are persistent, insect!” Protheus declared. [color=gray]“Go to the Shadow Realm where you belong! Suffer for all eternity!”[/color]

He punched the other man. Somehow, Isamy found it difficult to imagine Protheus saying that. Sure, Protheus was pure evil, but he had never ever said anything like this. Isamy had never known Protheus to be cruel like this. She had come to know him as a calculating and evil and yet joke around every now and then. This Protheus seemed different, as if hate for something was all that drove him. Protheus launched his strongest punch yet.

“Like hell, no!” The other man said.

The other man also launched his strongest, and they both reached each others’ faces. The force from the impacts extended the crater so much, it looked like as if the meteor that had wiped out the dinosaurs had returned for a second round. The crater stretched twelve kilometers long, Isamy estimated. How deep, she couldn’t estimate what with all the noise of the rain and punching. When she looked at the two combaters again, they were locked in the same position as in the painting earlier, fists in both faces.

They were in that position for a few seconds before suddenly they were sent flying away from each other, as if invisible forces were trying to separate them from their battle. They both were launched approximately six kilometers from each other, assuming that they were in the absolute middle of the crater, and both hit the ends of the crater, which simply extended it even more. In a flash of light, the two rushed back at each other at the speed of light and hit each other again. The battle was getting boring since it was all they did; punching each other.

[color=gray]"SURRENDER, COCKROACH!"[/color] Protheus screamed out, his fist starting to become enveloped in black flames.

Protheus punched the other man again in the face. The other man then replied with a punch from his claw-hand. Protheus grinned and retreated. He thrust his hand forward at the other man and an ionized black flame shot from it. Meanwhile, an ionized red flame came from the fist of the other man. The two flames connected, and ate at each other. Imagine a flame eating another flame like paper, but the other flame was also eating the first flame the same way, making it a never-ending process. That’s what it was like.

What happened afterwards, Isamy couldn’t piece it out, but then an invisible hand held onto her arm and pulled her elsewhere. The next thing she knew, it she was standing in what looked like a stadium.

It was a very huge stadium. In the middle of the stadium was a ring course fit for racing motorcycles. She was part of the audience. There was a large monitor that had two names on it, with two pictures. Protheus and Rey, who looked like the man from earlier, only without his draconic apperance. More human. It looked as if they were playing a card game. Protheus was on a tall black motorcycle, with lightning decorations while Rey was on a more normal white version without any decorations. Suddenly, time warped around her and the next thing she knew, the tournament had caught fire.

The audience was scrambling away, trying to escape from the burning flames. Rey was going to stop but changed his mind when he almost got hit by a chunk of the flaming roof which just fell. He continued driving before seeing an area which he could use to escape. He drove on, and accelerated to the maximum, but then everything around him went pitch black, and he felt like he was thrown into the sky, and could feel the wind. He turned and could see a red light coming from Protheus's motorcycle.

"Protheus, what's happening?!" Rey demanded.

[color=gray]"We were playing in a Shadow Game, and both of us have lost."[/color] Protheus explained. [color=gray]"We should be sent to the Shadow Realm, only I don't think this dimension. . . has a Shadow Realm. . ."[/color]

"So where are we?!"

[color=gray]"We're nowhere, you idiot! The momentum of our Duel Runners are the only things keeping us alive, and soon the momentum will end and we will both fall into oblivion!"[/color]

The ominous light coming from Protheus's Duel Runner was the only thing which allowed them to see. The momentum of Protheus's Duel Runner finished quickly and he was about to fall into oblivion when Rey decided to grab his hand, and both were surprised at this. Rey held on with both hands tightly. The momentum of Rey's Duel Runner slowed down dramatically and his Duel Runner fell down a bit.

[color=gray]"It's hopeless, insect!"[/color] Protheus said, though it was slightly muffled by the wind. [color=gray]"I don't know why you saved me, but this fate is inevitable! Soon, the momentum of your Duel Runner will end as well! Its momentum at the moment is surprising for an ordinary Duel Runner!"[/color]

"Well," Rey said as he finally sensed his own Duel Runner slowing tipping over and its speed getting slower. "At least it makes a difference."

[color=gray]"What a joke!"[/color] Protheus snorted.

The momentum then ended and the Duel Runner, along with Rey and Protheus, plunged into oblivion. By then, both had accepted their fates.

The vision faded away and then Isamy was standing in pitch-black darkness again, and yet the humanoid form of the Master appeared in front of her, and she could see him, or rather it, clearly. She hesitated and took a step back for a moment but then reassured herself that it was just a vision. But then she realized she had just moved her feet. She had just taken a step back. She was in control. She looked around, but there was no one else. The Master was standing there, watching [i]her[/i], and not anyone else.

[b][font=georgia,serif]Hm, I have been revived somehow,[/font][/b] it said to her via a form of telepathy. Now, the fear began rushing all around her bones. [font=georgia,serif]My form is now strong enough to speak. But not enough to do much else. [b]You are not Protheus. So he failed, did he? I see you have seen a vision of Protheus. He was never trustworthy, letting a madman go to the past and stopping my birth, thus erasing me from existence.[/b][/font]

Isamy was confused, since they had already met when she had gained her powers and learned her goal. It transcended the time-space continuum just so he could personally talk to her. But here it didn’t know at all who she was. The madman, though. Isamy knew him. Half the multiverse knew about him.

“That madman was. . .” Isamy replied, but her voice faltered for a moment.

An invisible hand then grabbed onto her arm, and yanked her back. The Master seemed to actually be surprised, but Isamy didn’t see it long. The vision faded as her arm was continued to be yanked back. It was getting annoying. She resisted for once, and the yanking stopped. The vision faded completely and then suddenly, Isamy’s feet touched the ground and she was back in the room. The papyrus swayed in front of her until it hit the ground. On it was the katakana for rival, ‘ライバル‘ (Raibaru). For a moment, she stood there, trying to gather back the sudden reappearance of the Master. But it was supposed to be gone. What had revived it? But then she sensed someone else come in, and she forgot all about the last part of the vision, which wasn’t actually a vision at all.

“You!” They said simultaneously.

“Didn’t I already kill you, ‘your majesty’?” She asked mockingly.

The Tao King, as that was his alias these days, opened his sleeve, revealing his robotic hand. Isamy didn’t expect to meet him here but it was all fine, except for the fact that he lived, even though he lost his hand, which was near satisfactory. Isamy would have preferred it if it was his head, though. He was Minerva in a way, after all, and Minerva had to be killed since he had a right to the heir.

“You missed, witch.” He mocked. “I don’t know how you found this place, but things are now different. The next secret, I shall ha-“ His mask turned towards the open papyrus paper with the Japanese symbol for flame. “You stole the second secret from me."

“Why thank you,” Isamy said, but then noticed something odd about what he told her. “The 'second' secret? There is only one secret, brother.”

She could tell he twitched when she called him brother, he always did. In actuality, they weren't siblings. The Tao King was their old man's biological son, while she was only an adopted daughter. But she had always had the better opinion from him than he had. Isamy and the Tao King were very different, but the main point was that the Tao King hated his fate, while Isamy loved hers. She loved to be entropy.

“You are wrong, witch; there are seven hidden secrets, ALL with guardians.”

Isamy found this information very interesting, and yet also very annoying. After so long, she had finally found the holding place of the secret, where she learned that Protheus once had an equal before that mechanical woman, only to find out there are six more secrets she did not know, and one she would never find out. But she got over the annoyingness quickly. She could amuse herself over this after all.

“If there are seven, then let’s make a race then,” she began. “The one who finds the more secrets wins. The prize is the other’s life!”

“You treat this like a game, witch.” The Tao King replied, but under that mask, Isamy could sense that he was grinning. “And yet I suppose the offer is tempting to kill the one who humiliated me. I accept your challenge.”

[/spoiler]

Hellequin · December 27, 2010

Pretty interesting, not to mention probably one of the better written pieces on this website. I'm defiantly going to check back for more.

Vector Nightmare · December 27, 2010

This is actually quite good. I'll leave my compliments at that, and point out the flaws I noticed.

• The amount of exposition given. It was too much, for the first chapter. A large part of it seemed like a giant info-dump, with a disturbing amount of "as-you-know" parts. Try spacing the exposition out. You shouldn't be in a hurry to tell us your story - let your story tell itself.

• A lot of this is somewhat oddly written. "It shot at Arrel faster than light and cut off his left leg first. At a speed faster than light, that hurts a lot." I trust that you have personal experience with how, exactly, having your leg severed at the speed of light is more painful than having it severed at regular speed? From what I can extrapolate from... logic, it should feel about the same, it might even hurt a bit less since you'd be stunned at something actually [i]moving faster than light[/i]. And I won't even start with the physics involved and how a human-sized entity moving faster than light could cause... nah, I won't even start.

• The repetition of the word 'fool' and other similar epithets makes me think this is actually not your real story, but a version dubbed by 4Kids.

• "With you, I can do my quest, now our quest, of destroying this entire multiverse, because it is stupid." Splendid reasoning, mr. Big Bad. Splendid reasoning.

Some weaknesses aside and the occasional typo / syntax error, this is fine thus far. A little fast-paced, but good. Just pay attention to some points, and you should be fine.

Also, "that girl who had sliced his hand with an accurately-thrown card". Looks like people finally started making good use out of those trading cards.

Merci · December 28, 2010

I am happy, so I'm going to sing the 'Still Alive' song! I'll sing it later. Either way, I [b]am[/b] happy. Finally. When I posted this fanfic, I assumed that no one would read it, as almost all of my other fanfics suffered. Even the only one I managed to finish didn't get much attention.

Anyway, as to your first point, Saber, I, it's, erm, er, my mind said, 'Remember, you must do accurate descriptions!' It never noticed that this was just the first Chapter.

As to your second point, um, actually, the Assassin Infinity used his scythe to cut off the leg, and the scythe was implied to be burning hot. I assumed that 'Faster than lightspeed + Burning hot scythe = Mega-high temperatures.' Maybe I was wrong.

As to your third point, that's because of, well, I'm not actually sure. I just like keeping names hidden, I guess.

And your fourth, well, it was implied that the Master was insane after all.

And as to your final sentences. . . I lol'ed.

Either way, I thank both of you for commenting. Thanks!

I wonder when Chapter 2 would be up, though? There's a different protagonist in it, and I'm having a hard time coming up with descriptions and locations.

Merci · December 29, 2010

Chapter 2 is up. It might not be as good as Chapter 1, though.

Premier Alexander Romanov · January 4, 2011

So when does the person who keeps throwing wrenches into Protheus' gears show up?

Merci · January 5, 2011

Not sure, actually. Probably in Chapter 5 or 6.

Premier Alexander Romanov · January 5, 2011

Alright. You gonna PM me some more?

Supreme Gamesmaster · January 8, 2011

Well, well. This is far better than I'd thought it would be. Not too shabby.

Not much advice, per se -- this sort of fiction isn't really my style, so I can't say much. But keep up the good work. This is high-quality stuff.

Merci · January 8, 2011

Holy-

. . . .

'Thanks!' times ∞.

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Protheus no Himitsu (Chapters 2/7 added)

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