~Notes~
Boy, there are a lot of names to keep track of at the moment. Hope I didn’t forget to mention someone when I should have. =x

Episode 33 The Dead Smith and the Flames of Hell

“Uncle!” Arai cries in awkward surprise. “What are you doing here?”

“I told you not to call me ‘Uncle’ anymore!” the old man barks as he arrives at the door, flashes and bolts of both lightning and fire illuminating the sky behind him, “You are to call me Azuma!”

“Azuma?!” Ryuu cries, astounded.

“Azuma?” Ivy questions, “Why does that name sound familiar…?”

“Azuma,” Arai answers her, “he was the one we looked for when we wanted to make Kunai a new weapon. Unfortunately, it turned out that he was dead and Lord Kimura was impersonating him at the time.”

“That’s right,” Ryuu growls, “what on earth are you doing here, Azuma?”

“I had heard,” Azuma answers in a hoarse howl, “that he was here.” Azuma nods his head in the direction of Kunai, who remains kneeling on the floor, panting heavily as successive rounds of aching pain pounds inside his head.

Kunai barely glances up at the shuffle of feet nearby him. Nonchalantly, Azuma asks, “What’s wrong with him?”

“Head…ache…” Kunai whispers through gritted teeth, frustrated at the irrationally unfazed reaction of Azuma. “Get out of the way!”

Laughing to himself, Azuma grabs Kunai’s right arm in a vice-like grip. He brings the faded material which Myou had been built with up to his eyes, examining the seal printed on it. “So this…was created by Lord Kimura himself. Heh, just as I thought…”

Ryuu glances questioningly at Arai, as he rejoins the rest of the group standing in the middle of the hall. Answering Ryuu’s inquiring look, Arai replies, “I’ve been staying with Azuma ever since I entered the Underworld. Every now and then Yttrius stays with us too. Azuma may not seem like a very cheery guy, but he’s much nicer than he looks.”

“I see,” Ryuu replies distractedly, his eyes roving across the bent figure of Azuma. “Why is he so interested in Kunai’s weapon?”

Arai shrugs, glancing slightly at Ryuu as he does so. “I told Azuma all about our adventures one day and when I got to the part about Kunai getting a new weapon from Lord Kimura, he grew incredibly interested in that fact, and started questioning me all about it.”

“The…pain…” Kunai gasps, as Azuma keeps his unrelenting grip on Kunai. Finally he lets go, and Kunai sinks to the floor, his breathing ragged.

“Do you want me to stop the pain?” Azuma whispers to Kunai.

Kunai nods, taking the opportunity to grasp his forehead with both hands, rolling about on the floor. Ivy looks on worriedly as Kunai does so, struggling with the pain inside his head.

“What’s giving him all these headaches, Azuma?” Ivy inquires anxiously, looking sadly down at Kunai. However, Azuma merely shakes his head, uttering no reply.

Meanwhile, Odin continues to watch contemptuously as Ragnarok continues to burn, its flames rising from the plain of Idavoll far below. His ancient fists clench as he watches the smoke rising further and further into the sky, painting the sky into a black canvas of malice.

“They must be put to a stop,” Odin growls under his breath, watching the ever-growing flames. Odin suddenly turns to all the others in the hall, nodding his head gravely. “I take back what I have previously said of those beings you call Soul Eaters being incapable of freeing Lilith. I see now that I was wrong. Please put a stop to this treachery.”

Ryuu nods, unsheathing his sword as he does so. “Don’t worry. We’ll stop them right away. They won’t get away with freeing Lilith. We’ll make sure to put a stop to it!”

Down, far below on the plain known as Idavoll, flames scour the black land as Ragnarok continues to burn to the ground, releasing with it the terrible cry of a menacing beast, larger than the tower of Yggdrasil itself.

The souls of the sinners sent to work on the plain tremble, running amok as they seek to save themselves, screaming as Lilith breaks loose from her bonds, spewing black flames high into the sky.

Ryuu, Ayame, Lily, Ivy, Arai, Yttrius, Dances with Balrog, Grendel the Really Old, Athena Pierce, and the Dark Lord gather together on the plain far below Asgard, panting heavily after having run the entire distance.

“Why do they run?” Ayame questions, watching the souls run for their lives on the ground far below. She stands atop the crest of a hill overlooking the plain, watching even as Ragnarok is burnt to the ground.

“They run because as punishment for their sins they can still feel pain,” Arai mutters, in an uncharacteristically sad tone. “Compared to the those living in Asgard, who don’t get tired, hungry, or feel pain, the sinners down here are really unfortunate indeed.”

“Is that Lilith?” Ivy whispers, trembling slightly as sparks flare in the air. She points at a huge, gigantic outline standing with folded wings in the glare of the fire.

“Yeah,” Yttrius mutters gravely.

“We have to stop them,” Ryuu snarls immediately, drawing his sword. The hideous flames licking across the valley floor flicker bright and dim on the cool metal of Ryuu’s blade. “We can’t let them escape into the Rift World.”

As if responding to Ryuu’s challenge, the flames of the fire scourging Ragnarok suddenly surges in a heated explosion, rising high into the air in one decisive uproar.

Hurtling out of the flames comes a black, monstrous creature, though highly dwarfed in size by the immense proportions of Lilith. Riding on top of this new monster is a figure draped all in black, his face obscured by a Blue Bamboo Hat.

“Th-that’s—!” Arai gasps, upon sight of the creature.

“It’s a Triplicate!” Ivy finishes for him, watching as the Paradox lets loose a high-pitched shriek, its very cry causing whirlwinds of dust to leap into the air. It begins circling overhead, spurred on by its rider.

“And that’s Ezekiel riding on top of it,” Ryuu murmurs, his hand furiously gripping the hilt of his sword. “To think that they’ve even brought back beasts that we’ve already defeated…”

At these words, two other monsters similar in size to the monstrous Triplicate appear, one spouting fire from its nostrils and the other with great pangs of wind under its wings.

“The second and third Triplicates!” Ivy cries, jumping back in surprise.

“Indeed,” Dances with Balrog mutters hoarsely under his breath.

“Come down here!” Ryuu bellows to the heavens above, where the Soul Eaters sit upon their flying steeds against a blood red sky. “Come down and fight us, you cowards!”

However, at Ryuu’s taunt, the Soul Eaters leap off the three Triplicates, and disappear into thin air. Meanwhile, the three Paradoxes continue to circle overhead menacingly.

Ryuu clenches his teeth, seething at the way the Soul Eaters are ignoring him. He brandishes his sword, and attempts to chase after the Soul Eaters, but the Dark Lord grabs his shoulder, holding him back. “What?” Ryuu snaps, glancing over his shoulder at him.

“You mustn’t go,” the Dark Lord murmurs simply.

“Why not?!” Ryuu cries in outrage. “If they go now, Lilith is going to be freed!”

“And what will you do when you reach those flames plaguing Ragnarok?” the Dark Lord replies. “Will you be able to stop such a monstrous force from ripping through the portal into the Rift World? You will only succeed in killing yourself, with no chance at all of stopping Lilith. It’d be a waste of your own life.”

“He’s right, Ryuu,” Athena Pierce adds. “Unfortunately, though.”

Ryuu utters a slight growl of discontent, but nods, agreeing to hold back from the chase. “At any rate,” Grendel says aloud, “we must now focus on the task at hand—subduing these Paradoxes.”

“We’re gonna fight all three Triplicates at once?” Ivy asks in surprise.

“It shouldn’t be a problem,” Arai grins happily, as he breaks open a new batch of cookies, “since we’ve got an all-star cast of willing fighters.” He gestures at the crowd gathered before them, composing of Dances with Balrog, Grendel, Athena Pierce, the Dark Lord, Ryuu, Yttrius, Ayame, Lily, Ivy, and himself.

Grendel suddenly notices a mass of cookie crumbs on his robes. “What the—?! Arai!”

“Let’s go!” Arai interrupts, cheering happily.

In a flash, Dances with Balrog whips out a Gaea, and with incredible acrobatic ability, leaps onto the back of the wind Triplicate, slashing at its scaly back, and ruthlessly chipping away its silver armor.

Athena Pierce pulls out a Dark Arund, and fires several streams of golden arrows into the sky, piercing through the skin of the fire Triplicate, causing it to roar maniacally.

The Dark Lord forms a shuriken, and hurls it at the dark Triplicate, nailing it directly through its large, ugly snout. The Triplicate rears in the sky, shrieking in pain.

Lastly, Grendel pounds his oaken staff into the ground, thus summoning with a flourish three Tauromacis. With a commanding wave of his hand, Grendel sends the three Tauromacis off, each one taking on one of the Triplicates.

“Ice Strike!” Arai cries, as several large blocks of ice form and crystallize around the fire Triplicate, weighing it down and forcing it onto the ground.

“Finish it off!” Athena Pierce cries, before firing another round of blistering arrows into the Triplicate’s eyes, shattering its head. With one final blow, the Triplicate dissipates into the air, becoming nothing more than shards of dark glass.

A large crack like breaking glass sounds, as Dances with Balrog rips apart both of the third Triplicate’s wings, sending it crashing onto the ground. “Take it out, Ryuu, Ayame!” Dances with Balrog shouts.

Ryuu and Ayame rush at it, throwing the full force of their weapons upon the subdued beast and watching as it shrieks one final moan of pain, and dissolves into thin air.

“Last one!” the Dark Lord mutters, sending another shuriken flying directly through the head of the remaining Triplicate. With a flick of his staff, Grendel blasts the Triplicate with several piercing chunks of ice, evaporating it.

Lily watches in astonishment as the crowd breaks into a loud celebratory cheer, patting each other on the back and giving each other high-fives. “These people…they’re amazingly powerful!” she cries, awed.

“Of course!” Ivy replies next to her, smiling. “That’s exactly what you’d expect from the Four of Victoria Island!”

“Is…Kunai this powerful?” Lily asks, slightly abashed at her question.

“Kunai…is strong…” Ivy mutters, rather unsure of her answer.

The crimson sky is suddenly torn open, as claps of thunder shatter the calm, blood red clouds hanging in the skies over the Castle of Kyreim.

As the sky is ripped open, a monstrous leviathan forces its way through the opening, and with a roar, beckons forth its own gigantic children, darkening the sky with black clouds of swirling, seething menace.

As citizens pour out of their homes built of stone to look in wonder at the blackened sky and whisper murmurings of fear to each other, a solitary, cloaked figure watches as the sky grows ever darker, and the foul beast is released from within.

“What…is that?”

As the victorious group returns triumphant to Gladsheim, they meet Azuma standing by himself at the darkened entrance into the hall. His cloak is clasped tightly about him, and a grave expression is on his scarred face.

“Azuma?” Arai says inquiringly as he sees the grim look on his face. “Is there something wrong?”

Ryuu pushes to the front of the crowd, glancing briefly from Arai’s face to Azuma’s. “Where’s Kunai? And what’s with that look on your face, old geezer?”

Otis pops his head out of Ryuu’s jacket, punching the air vigorously. “Yeah, old gorilla! What’s with that look?!”

“Your friend is going to be fine,” Azuma replies in a low growl.

“Then where is he?” Ryuu asks, rather aggressively.

“More importantly,” Yttrius says, joining Ryuu and Arai at the head of the group, “have you figured out what was causing Kunai’s headaches in the first place?”

“Before I tell you that,” Azuma mutters, “I have a proposition to make.”

“Hm?” Ryuu looks questioningly at Azuma. “What kind of proposition?”

Next Time: Episode 34 Departure

Otis: Yo! Just what exactly is this ‘proposition’ the old geezer gorilla is gonna make?

Ryuu: More importantly, we need to get to the Rift World and stop the progress of Lilith before it’s too late!

Arai: Plus, a certain cookie pops its way into the next chapter! See you next time!

Episode 34 Departure coming soon!