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A Hero Tale {Complete}

*Krrrzzzzt! Bzzzt!*

"This is Mikey. The city's been fully evacuated just as planned... But we've lost contact with the order buster, along with everyone else! What the hell happened?" Mikey waited for a response as Jeff dashed through the air. The tower of chaos appeared over the horizon very quickly due to Jeff's astonishing speed.

Defiance

Dannisus didn't think for a moment that this little creature was harmless. She behaved in a childish and aggressive manner with very little regard for anyone else. She spoke explicitly, 'I don't like you, or you, or you,' and it was not endearing. This entire exchange gave him plenty of reasons to doubt her, many of which also signaled danger for those nearby. When Fauve spoke, he half expected a full scale battle to erupt as a result of her crude, dismissive tone. Corc's words rose similar worries. But despite the rocky reception, there was no fight to follow. It seemed unlikely that anyone would make such an ill-conceived choice at this point, barring any prideful outlashes from any less stable persons. His ears twisted towards the spot that the girl gestured towards when they spoke of the map. There was no doubt that this group he'd gotten wrapped up in would investigate further, but who knew what the skull-sitting creature would do once they turned their backs to her? And what exactly was she talking about, earlier?

The Resurgence. Dannisus hadn't heard anything about it, whatever it was. But from the presentation, he could easily discern two things. This little creature was dangerous, and she was a liar. Of course, he could have been wrong. Maybe she was just an idiot. It wouldn't be the first time he'd come across a childish entity that spoke without thinking. Maybe this resurgence was nothing. She could have been screwing with them. Regardless of whether or not she spoke truths, the encounter was beginning to feel more and more like a trap as time went by. This girl had shown very little hospitality thus far, so why would she be willing to guide them? Dannisus pulled his head up and searched the trees ahead of him. Without delay, he left Devlin and the others to their interactions with the witch-like sprite and began bounding through the trees as quietly as he could manage, towards the location on the map. He knew these forests better than anyone, after all. Unlike the troupe behind him, he wouldn't bother meddling with anything outside of the designated location. They would likely be fine without him, anyways. In the worst case scenario, only a few of them would die if pitted against a single magical girl, unless she was hiding a great deal of her mana. If that were the case though, he wouldn't want to be near her anyways.

They seemed... Competent enough.

Defiance

The gentle glow that swept through his body didn't phase him as much as it should have.

Dannisus was crouched quietly on a sturdy branch encompassed by layers upon layers of foliage. His perch was several meters above the clearing that Devlin and Ren traipsed into, and offered him a significant vantage of the land beneath him. Even so, despite the harmless pulse of magical energy, he hadn't the slightest idea what was going on. While peering through the leaves with both eyes narrowed to mere slits, he kept himself totally concealed. The little... Whatever it was, had been summoned by Devlin's earlier vocalization. Dannisus reeled back slowly and cocked his head to one side.

At first it didn't bother him, but the scent of mana creeping out of his pores was beginning to pluck at his patience. It was hard to put a finger on it at first, impossible even. But when the rest of the group approached, it became quite clear that they'd fallen victim to the same enchantment that struck him. It began to worry him. The nature of the magic was alien, and he didn't have enough time, or the tools, to investigate while perched in a goddamn tree. A small puff of air escaped his nose with a little hiss. The day wasn't going to get any better at this rate.

His ears perked up as the conversation beneath him continued, which pulled his eyes back towards Devlin and Ren's little situation. The girl they had summoned was more peculiar than the magic she'd conjured to mark them. The skull in which she took refuge didn't bring much clarity either, but her words were far from welcoming. Dannisus began taking deep breaths through his nose to survey the immediate area, while keeping his eyes fixated on the little witch. Carefully, one of his hands began to feel through his pack as he singled out the scents that didn't belong.

There was more magic at play here than the harmless enchantment that plagued him and his temporary allies. He could smell it vividly within the forest. It stuck out like a sore thumb... Or rather, a filthy hand, reaching all five if its grimy fingers into his forest with a handful of trouble. He turned his head slightly, keeping the sharp-toothed little witch rested nicely in the corner of his vision. What the hell were these smells? They shifted their odors and changed in intensity at random intervals that he couldn't place to a pattern of any sort. He squashed a mana orb between his fingers. An enchantment flooded his left claw giving it a feint glow - an enchantment that sealed Mana flow on contact for 30 seconds - in preparation for the worst. He wasn't about to investigate five unfamiliar mana sources on his own. If this little witch proved a significant threat however, he'd make a point of disabling her before she could cause a ruckus. Part of him considered a swift retreat, but how far would he get with this beacon of mana on his person? Not very.

'Myah...'

Defiance

Dannisus nodded when Jack mentioned his name, but he toned out the rest of his statement, as well as everything else going on around him. His ears were more focused on the chiming in the distance, as well as Devlin's eager call. He could barely make out anything that she was saying, or doing, but it was clear that she'd beckoned from an unknown presence. His nose twitched as he offered jack an insincere nod. He caught part of it while his focus was elsewhere. Something about safety in numbers? They all seemed keen on the idea, but Dannisus was still concerning himself with a personal escape route. Suddenly, he drew his short sword with his right hand and plucked a mana sphere from his pack with the left.

"Do whatever you feel necessary. I'll be watching-" He said, to nobody in particular. The sword in his hand morphed quickly into two entities, both wrapping around his fingers and forming little joints at each knuckle. they took on the uncanny appearance of makeshift claws, similar to the structure of his female kin's. He might have lacked his own set of deadly nails, but his magical artifact made climbing an easy feat to accomplish. Looking to Lui for a moment, Dannisus nodded again before leaping onto a nearby tree. He scaled its length quickly, like it came naturally to him. It kind of did. Before reaching the top he called back down to the people that made up the rear of their group.

"If you hear my tongue- Myti tongue, consider it a warning." Not long after, he darted into the canopies above them, and disappeared as nothing more than a subtle fluttering of leaves and branches. For a humanoid, the Myti was very good at masking his presence.

Now he had more time to think on his own. Duress wouldn't have a shred of impact on his judgement while he was up in the trees. Was this really the right call?

'Of course it isn't'

A Hero Tale {Complete}

~ Chapter 207 ~

_{Where The Hell!?}

Jeff's barrage was starting to whiff. Rajaka's endless cries of annoyance, as well as the sound of tearing flesh, were cut short by a whooshing. The accompanying blackness masked where his body laid, and it quickly became obvious that his overwhelming Ki had disappeared.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

---

~ End Of Chapter 206 ~

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Oh shut up," Yzeira scoffed, "Your voice is a bane on this world. Your stupidity knows no bounds. You care for nearly everything and everyone you come across that demonstrates even the slightest amount of kindness or light or whatever you want to call it!" Yzeira's pose grew more aggressive, and his smile fades quickly. "Stupid! A kind heart! A power gained not from hard work, but sheer luck! The support of your idiotic friends! No plans! No thought at all! Mortality! The list goes on! Who are you to speak of control when you've lost control of almost every situation you've been in? You slip by on sheer luck. Sheer luck." He tapped his temple, and one of his eyes began to twitch slightly. "You are my opposite, in every conceivable way. Where I am constantly dancing at the precipice of perfections, you teeter callously on a pillar of uncertainty and angst." Suddenly he rose one hand and began amassing a giant sphere of energy. There was no delay to the magic, despite its overwhelming power. It possessed more than enough energy to outright erase the golden hero before him. Something changed inside of Yzeira for that moment, and not to Jenso's immediate advantage.

"I'm tired- Overtired of your voice. Die!"

Yzeira launched the sphere towards Jenso from the middle of the tower. It grew slightly in mass, and dug a slightly path as it roared across the ground, on its way to destroy Jenso once and for all...

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Yzeira glared at Jenso. Suddenly his hair's reddish highlight grew more prominent until streaks of pure crimson ran through it. The curling features of his smile shined through his mask. It was the first time he'd shown any measure of joy in a very long time.

"Ha... Hahaha..." He laughed to himself quietly. "It's strange. It's absolutely astonishing, actually. I remember an influx of sadness and rage overtaking my reason when Ada was slain. I remember it clearly. I was frustrated, I felt it clench my heart without restraint, so tightly that I lost sight of myself for the briefest of moments. But this?" He looked at his hands again, conjuring a small amount of energy around both of them. "I feel it... I feel some measure of intense pleasure that I'd thought impossible for millennia!" He looked back to Jenso, and his posture changed completely. He was relaxed, rather than stiff. "This is... This is funny!" He glared at Jenso and pointed at him, uncharacteristically laughing at the boy's anger. "You are funny! A funny little jester, here to entertain me, is it not so?" He took a step back and widened his stance. "So what if he's dead? Do you think I care?! So what? So what!? If I'm to blame for his decisions, so what?? What does any of it matter?" He pointed back to Jenso, still stifling gentle spurts of laughter. "Hah! I can't help but laugh! You are poised before me, on the verge of death, and you makes such outrageous claims so thoughtlessly! It's your fault. You only have yourself to blame. Please, little boy! Do go on!" He took another step back and clutched his stomach, his voice erupting into an uproarious cackle.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Even worse, you still believe that tunneling idiot Luke to be your father!" Yzeira's mask clung tightly to his smile and creased with his face's vibrant expression. He pointed to himself with his right index finger and narrowed his eyes. "You were there. You saw it happen. I killed him before your eyes!" He paused and huffed, "So what?!"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Yzeira took a step forward, right onto Jenso's calf, and bore his entire weight onto the man's leg, slowly crushing it.

"I am in total control, of everything," Yzeira assured him pushing harder into Jenso's leg with the bottom of his boot. "I do not exist at the expense of others, nor do I expect anyone to depend on my power. Ada died because she was weak. Your father died because, he too, was weak. And you are dying, right now, because you are weak." Yzeira pulled his leg back and tapped it on the ground next to Jenso, creating a small shock wave and launched him several feet away, into a tumble. He followed after slowly, taking his dear time in beating the man to death. "Do not worry yourself with my intentions. Do not assume you hold any right to know anything. Do not..." Yzeira stopped hard on his right foot and his body went still. His usually narrow eyes were wider than ever before as he felt something inside himself break like glass. But just as quickly as his expression had gone vacant, his face returned to normal. He did not approach Jenso right away.

"It appears that one of your comrades was successful after all." He paused and looked down at his right hand, tracing its lines carefully with his eyes. Single strands of his tangerine hair turned crimson for moments at a time. "Nexus..." He looked to Jenso again, but said nothing more.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"It's good to see acceptance. I'd thought your stubbornness to be otherworldly." Yzeira's bodies placed their hands together and reconnected. He began walking forwards, approaching Jenso slowly. The orb in the air above them slowly faded out, and the orbs surrounding his body returned to him. "Perhaps this was for the best, after all. You would have, no doubt, ended up just like that rest of those miserable failures. It's a shame in the end, really. I was getting so close with Nexus and Shaidra." He stopped, standing over Jenso. His body silhouetted the storm above them menacingly as he glared down at Jenso without a hint of remorse in his stance. "After I learned that your soul had survived the void, that Nexus was able to find you in infinite darkness, there was hope... There is hope. Rejoice, golden boy. You may have been a failure, but your existence is testament to my eventual success." He looked down at Jenso.

"Whether it was under my command or not, you have served me well."