The Nostalgia
~Frostweaver
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Gamefreak.
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You foolish child You still believe in those simple words spoken to you?
Even your own sister, Reality, agreed with me, and what else do you have against me now? You spend and waste all of your time, still sitting beside the wretched gate to wait. Learn to accept facts already, girl, and admit your defeat against me.
Who is He chasing after now? Who is He dancing and enjoying His life with? Who does He treasure the most?
Me, and not You
Give up and accept what Reality said as the truth, little girl. Go home, back to play by yourself at your Fathers feet to stay out of my way. This game is too tough for you.
You will never win.
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Chapter 2: Demon Hunters
The never-ending blizzard raged on, and the Demon Hunter Band finally reached a suspicious little cavern in this pile of ice and rocks. This was probably the Demons lair Reedan signaled a stop, and at the puppeteers commands, the band ceased all signs of movement. The bands leader surveyed the area, and decided that it would be best to lure the Demons out instead of fighting them within the cavern. Who knew what monstrosity waited down in the Demons lair, and who would want to take a step into hell so soon?
How would they force out the Demons though? How many of them would there be? Was it going to be six, or six dozens? And the worst that dreaded Seinim the most was just how to defeat what could be a whole herd of Demons? One small babyish one took the life of one of them already. How could he possibly survive against the leader of the Demons? To this thought, Seinim could do nothing but shuddered like everyone else, and not because of the cold.
It was later decided that they would take a short break here until the leaders of the band can figure out a way to lure the Demons out of the lair. Many people took this time to take care of their weapons, as they would be the only reliable objects for their life very soon. Swords were sharpened on rocks, and staffs were being cleaned. Some also took the time to do some warm up in preparation for the upcoming battle against the evil beasts. Seinim and Peri sat on a small rock nearby after brushing off all the snow covering it as they waited for further commands.
You think well win? asked the fourteen-year old boy as he looked up at Peri who was a year older. Peri continued to stare out at the entrance to the Demons lair; delicate hands firmly resting on her blue dress slitted on the side for easier movements, also part of the standard uniform for a female warrior of the Band. Peri shrugged her shoulders, implying that she didnt know the answer.
You think youll win? asked Seinim again. This time, Peri stood up on the rock, looking over the rest of the Youth Group who was resting around nearby.
Guaranteed.
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The Bands attention was assembled again, as they lined up back in their position, preparing for battle once the Demons come out of their hiding place. Once that the Band was all prepared, a few Youth Group members held out a few stick as Reedan took out a precious and rare artifact. Seinim could see the small artifacts rectangular shape, and it fascinated him. What was this artifact suppose to do, just barely bigger than Seinims thumb? Reedans gloved hand gave a small flick at what seemed to be a trigger at one end of the small rectangular box, and immediately a small flame was born. Seinim fixed his eyes on the strange artifact like everyone else. How he wished to be the torchbearers as they could see the artifact up close!
Quickly and light the torches up. Its magical energies are limited. Commanded Reedan as the torchbearers woke up from their trance, and threw the lit up torches into the cave. They were going to force the creatures out with its smoke.
So thats what a Mystic Flare looks like Ive always wanted one of those, mumbled Peri under her breathe quietly, and only Seinim could hear the quiet whisper. The innocent boy blinked at her, confused at what she was saying. Peri caught a glimpse of his perplexed look, and proceeded onward.
Mystic Flare is one of those artifacts from the Precedents. With a click on the device, a small fire will be lit up, burning on magical powers some sort of a fuel. Brave explorers who dared to enter the realm of the Precedents manage to dig up a few of these rare artifacts at times explained Peri knowledgably. Seinim was greatly surprised as his eyes grew in size. How did Reedan get a hold on one of the rare artifacts of the Precedents?
The Precedents Our ancestors their world sounds so wonderful with so many magical devices. I remember our teacher once told me of a rumor how the Precedents got magical silver orbs that if you turn them a certain way, it will control the coolness of water. Those Water Orbs would be so nice to have here in White Dessert. Imagine, having hot water all year long daydreamed Seinim as he thought about the wonderful lifestyle of the Precedents. They lived in towers that reached the heavens, with magical powers beyond his imagination.
But they were wiped out by these fowl Demons. Peri just had to remind him of this ancient horror.
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A thunderous roar came out from the cave, and the sound of a stampede could be heard. The Demon Hunters braced themselves for an upcoming assault. From the hellhole, a dozen or so petit Demons rushed out of the cave; the same dark pinkish type with a small poisonous horn that murdered the guard earlier in the night. However, they did not charge immediately to the Demon Hunters surprises, but instead lining up in some sort of a formation of their own. Reedan was slightly shocked at the intelligence of these Demons. He had always considered them to be mindless savages, but it seemed like he was just slightly wrong. He should have known unless the Demons were equally cunning and intelligent, how else could they wipe out the Precedents? However, he would outsmart the Demons regardless of how intelligent these Demons could be.
More Demons rushed out of the cave. A larger type of Demons came out and positioned themselves in front of the smaller ones, as if protecting them. Although they were of a similar body build and color, these ones got a much larger, sharper horn pointed directly at the Demon Hunters. These ones were much bigger, and much more fierce looking; not like tiny babies but experienced warriors. The Youth Group of the Demon Hunters was positioned in the back, and even with this arrangement Seinim was shaking in fear by the horned Demon warriors. Peri just seemed to be more excited than before.
As if these new forces were not enough to secure the entrance to hell, one final Demon stepped out of the rock cavern into the snow battlefield. Step by step, the Demon dragged its darkish purple, scaled heavy body up to the most front part of the Demons battle formation. It stood on two feet unlike all the others on all fours. Its powerful tail whipped the snowy plain once, and created a dent in the earth, demonstrating its almighty power to the Demon Hunters in order to strike fear into their hearts (which succeeded with unbelievable outstanding effect on Seinim.) It stretched its two arms wide into the air, as its powerful horn on its forehead glowed once. In response, the rest of the Demons roared in unison. No doubt that this was the Demon King. Reedan scanned the Demonic forces, and decided that their best chance of winning was to abuse the fact that the Demons were outnumbered, and he would have to destroy the leader first- the Demon King.
Lifting his prized partisan and waved it directly at the Demon King, the Band understood their leaders command, and gave a battle roar in return as well. Not showing any fear from the intimidation, the Demon King pointed his sharp poisonous horn at Reedan, and stomped the ground once. It seemed like the Demons are taking a similar strategy as well. Reedan could not deny the fact that he must give some credit to the Demons about their intelligence, but he knew deep inside that he would come out victorious.
The Demon King gathered a brownish aura around his scale-armored body, and stomp the ground with all his might. At his will, the earth split itself into two halves, and a few Demon Hunters were swallowed up by the earth immediately, crushed to a quick painful death as the fissure closed itself soon after. The demonic power broke down the will of some Demon Hunters (but Seinims was broken before the battle began,) but the humans disregarded it and charged against their foes. Swords soon locked in combat with poisonous horns, and staffs parrying the body blows from the savage Demons.
The dance of death had begun.
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As the Demon Hunters engaged in battle with the Demons, Seinim did what he excelled at best, and hid behind a rock to just watch the battle from afar. It was just disgusting to see human blood being spilled on to the white snow, and strange (most likely unholy) liquid oozed out of the Demons bodies, defiling the white snow to a mix of red and purple.
Seinim hoped that he would never have to slay a Demon like so. It was just sickening.
Yet life never worked out for Seinim in his favor too much, as a few meters away from him stood one of the middle sized Demons, glaring at him angrily. It let out a battle roar, announcing to him that a death match would soon begin. The Demon dug its short legs into the snow, bracing itself, waiting for Seinim to make the first move, and counterattack afterwards. Seinim held both ends of his staff in his two hands, and leaned back too into a defensive stance, also on the defensive. The two eyed each other, waiting for the opponent to strike first.
Seeing how the boy wasnt going to attack first, the Demons taunted him by growling at him. It demonstrated a few thrusting motion with its horns to tell the boy to attack, but Seinim just backed up even more. Now that the distance between them grew farther apart, the Demon decided to take the initiative and launch a far distance attack at Seinim. Its horn charged up demonic energy until it glows at a light blue color, ready to launch an Ice Beam that would freeze anything it hit. Even at this moment however, Seinim remained in his passive battling style and continued to withdraw carefully. The Demon seemed to be shocked for a moment as it blinked at him.
And now it was Seinims turn to be surprised, as the Demon discharged the energy without launching the attack before heading off to battle the others. Seinim relaxed as the Demon dashed off away from him, and just looked out into the endless White Dessert.
Wonder why the Demon didnt attack him?
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In another part of the battlefield, it was Reedan along with a few other Demon Hunters against the Demon King himself. The King swung his heavy tail along with his two forearms around to try to hit Reedans hunters, but they would either dodge it or parry the attack with their shields and swords. Sensing how normal physical attacks were not working very well, the King decided to tap into its secret power once more.
Reedan noticed how the King suddenly stopped battling the other Hunters but decided to endure the attacks using its scaled armor. A brown colored aura surrounded the Kings body again.
Out! Out! screamed Reedan as his men leaped to the side before another fissure hungrily opened up from the ground. The men quickly surrounded the King again and kept hacking their swords on the Kings armor. Reedan also joined the battle once more to assist the others in destroying the wretched Demons. The King gave out a growl in order to resist the damages done by the Hunters. The other Demons rushed forward to help, but the reinforcements were blocked away by the overwhelming amount of Hunters in comparison to the Demons.
The Demon King refused to give in, and its gigantic tail glowed into a white color before whipping it back and forth, smashing two Hunters in the rips. The two terrible cracking sound was terribly loud before two more dead bodies lie on the snow. Regardless, the Hunters continued to surround the King, showing no fear or sympathy due to the two dead allies. Reedan rushed forward once more, and thrust his partisan at a weak point in the thick armor. The Demon roared in pain before its horns quickly flashing in bright orange, and launched a devastating destructive beam of energy at Reedan to take the Demon Hunters leader down along with himself.
The men standing in front of Reedan were disintegrated into nothing immediately, and lucky for Reedan that these men weakened the destructive attack. Yet the demonic beam attack was still enough to blast Reedan back into the far end of the battlefield, rolling on the floor helplessly. The King soon collapsed on to the floor too, forearms holding him up as he panted to try to regain his energy.
Another sound of a stampede could be heard deep inside the cave, as a group of similar looking Demons rushed out to aide the battle, only that these reinforcements were blue in color, generally bigger in size as well except that their horns are much smaller as well, almost like a pin. They hissed dangerously as they warned the Hunters to retreat.
A Demon that was similar looking to the Demon King appeared. With another scale armored body but a much smaller horn as well just like all the other bluish Demons, it roared once as it stood in front of the injured Demon King. It seemed to be the Queen of the Demons, now fighting in place of her lord.
With he himself heavily damaged from the final beam attack, Reedan decided that it would be foolish to continue the battle with the Queens new reinforcements. He whistled once, and the Demon Hunter Band would withdraw.
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Seinim was more than glad when he heard Reedans whistle to retreat. Every Hunter fled for their lives, running towards the bases direction hoping that they would not be chased down and be killed by the Demons. Seinim ran too and was at the front of the crowd. He looked back, and didnt notice any Demons giving chase, and in the far corners of his eyes, he saw the Queen holding the injured Demon King up to help him retreat slowly into the cavern again. The younger ones fully retreated into the cave already, along with carrying some of their injured comrades back to the cave.
And furthermore he saw a whole swarm of blue locusts trampling on top of each other in order run forward; some were even killed by their kin.
Yet regardless of where he looked, Seinim just couldnt see Peri and her flow of shoulder length black hair anywhere. Could it be that that Peri was now one of the corpses lying back there in the snow? He couldnt resist but to start running back against the flow of the locust swarm in order to find her.
Further away, he saw a young lady in a blue dress also running in the opposite direction of the Demon Hunters, with a sword that she picked up from one of the dead bodies firmly in her hand.
Peri! Run now! Run! shouted Seinim as he waved his hands around to try to grab Peris attention, yet it failed soon enough. Peri continued to run towards the Demons.
I couldnt miss this chance! she screamed as she jumped up and threw the sword expertly with careful aim at the injured Demon King like a dart. Not expecting a sneak attack, the Kings lowered defense gave in and the King gave a frightening cry as it collapsed on to the floor; the sword stuck on his back. Seeing her great success, Peri continued to give pursuit now using her own cutlass to try to score the finishing touch. She jumped with her cutlass reaching as far as she could to deliver the final blow on the injured King.
Seinim gasped in horror as he tried to reach Peri to drag him back, yet the others around him were trying to drag him back to the Bands camp, saying shes beyond help just run for your own lives. He ignored it all, and tried his best to reach Peris side.
The Queen rushed forward and slammed into Peri against her sharp cutlass with her side, forcing Peris assault back regardless of how dangerous it was to run into her weapon like so. The Queen delivered a quick consecutive barrage of punches against Peri until she dropped her weapon in pain. Seinim could do nothing but kept trying to run to the scene. But even if he did so, deep down he felt that he would be helpless against the Demon Queen anyway. Yet, there was this Something. Something inside him told him that this was the right thing to do, and he must reach Peri to the best of his ability.
While Peri was still recovering from the earlier blows and trying to keep herself standing on her feet, the Queen focused her energy, and then with a roar as her short hand turned white, and punched Peri right in the chest again. Peri was blew back on to the snow, and after coughing out a few spat of saliva mixed with blood, lost her consciousness.
Peri! screamed Seinim as he rushed to her, kneeling near the fainted girl. He shook her holding her shoulders, and Peri just choked even more. Her dark blue outer uniform covered her black shirt underneath from her own blood, which landed on her left shoulder and her chest. Some parts of the outer jacket was torn apart too from the earlier blows from the Demon Queen and sliding across the surface for a short distance after the punch attack. Seinim held on his staff tightly, standing protectively in front of the girl.
Instead of attacking which would be enough to win the mismatch, the queen called out a few other bluish petit demons from the cave. They hissed at him as their whiskered flickered slightly, buck teeth visible, and together with the Queen the five of them surrounded Seinim. The boy panicked, as he was being outnumbered and outmatched in skill as well. He couldnt call for help either as the rest of the Band retreated already. He looked down at the girl, whose expressions had turned even paler than before, yet even in this time there was a scent of strange beauty about her look. Seinim had to remain strong!
As the four smaller demons slowly approach the two youths closer and closer, Seinim was forced to strike as he swung his staff out using his right hand at two of the demons. To his dismay, they got on their hind legs and leaped up into the air to evade the attack. Seinim tried to whip his staff for a second blow, but he felt something forcing itself into his leg through the leather boots. Immediately, his leg felt numb, paralyzed, and the poor boy was forced to remain an awkward balance using his staff and only one leg. Seinim looked back to see one of the small Demons ramming the poison pin deep into his veins. He shooed the Demon off with a weak punch, and Seinims vision started to blur. He tried to keep his focus on the powerful Demon Queen who was still being idle, and on Peri on the floor. Regardless of how hard he tried, he was starting to see fake images and delusions. The deadly venom circulated through his system quickly. His other limbs gave in soon enough, and he collapsed to the floor along with Peri.
The Demon Queen took a few slow steps and stood in front of the boy who was now helpless from the Poison Sting. She let out a low growl, as he struggled to remain conscious
Must stay up Peri
His eyes felt heavy. His body screamed at him that it needed to rest, and it wanted a good sleep. His eyelids were trying to shut themselves against his own will, as Seinim now battled against himself. The five Demons around him gave out a low growl in a similar fashion using a certain rhythm, and now Seinims ears grew dead as well.
Seinim gathered his strength out of frustration to clutch his fist, holding on to the snow firmly. He felt so frustrated and angry why was he so useless and helpless, that he couldnt even lead Peri to safety?
Must stay up! Must stay up! he grunted; yet he couldnt hear it anymore. Soon enough, he lost his last vision as his sight turned black.
And there, along with Peri surrounded by the evil Demons, Seinim couldnt withstand the torture anymore, and collapsed.
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