[/)eathKiller]

Aiming his weapon into the darkness Kai called out "Who Goes There! ...I sound so stupid when i say that..."

The silence replied with only a gust of wind... the armored figure stood and aimed his weapon into the darkness. he began pivoting his view around, looking for the slightest sign of an approach. Suddenly he heard a voice speak up from right behind him.

"Ë tû..."

Kai immediatley turned around and aimed into the darkness... nothing was there.

The wind gusted again and the voice called out again from behind him.

"Cohatah..."

Pivoting around again lead him to see nothing...

"Cohatah... Nani tedutedutedu"
A voice called from behind him once again, and echoed off of the walls of the canyon below. Kai turned and looked around in the darkness, the crakling of the flames in the campfire sputtered and split as the silence became almost eerie.

Kai turned and in the corner of his eye he saw something red standing in the grass, it had the shape of a human body but it seemed to glow, he quickly turned and aimed his rifle... seeing nothing... he lowered his weapon and then saw something out of the corner of his eye again, he turned toward the canyon and aimed his rifle his site met with an object and he felt his hand automatically remove the trigger-safe he was about to let the flint spark when suddenly the dark clouds above parted and two overlying moons shot in light which sliced through the clouds and struck the ground. it passed over the ground slowly, dancing almost as the clouds in the sky moved. Finally they poured into the canyon and lit it up around the surface some light dove deep into the darkness and lit nothing for the eye to see, miles down it went.

Kai held perfectly still, a single moonbeam scattered and struck what he was aiming at, and he couldn't belive his eyes. He'd seen things fly before, birds, limbs, heck even the books back at the library, but this was a man, suspended in the air, with dark blue eyes glowing and a darkned face, the moon light passed over,, the clouds reconnected and the darkness returned, but the figure was still suspended and still well lit. With the rifle pointed right at him.

Those eyes, glowing in an inhuman fasion, peircing his thoughts his mind, he could feel their gaze upon him, but didn't know how to react... finally Kai let his trigger fly and he was kicked back by the explosion cast out of his cannon, he landed on his feet after flying back a few yards and watched the orange ball of light pass throguh the air, dip to one side, get caught in the wind, strike a tree and split it in two. The Two halves of the tree gave way from their roots and then fell to each side. The individual was still sitting, glowing, hovering, there... His faceless expression unchanged... Kai began to sweat beads...

"who is this guy" he thought to himself... "What is he?"

And upon thinking that the figure was gone... just dissapeared from the air... he took a few steps forward to the edge of the canyon... he looked around from side to side and then down...

then he heard a voice call out "BA-KA!!!"

He didn't even have time to turn around, an icy cold hand gripped the back of Kai's kneck and he felt his body behing held up by it, he was lifted off of his feet and he nearly dropped his rifle, it caught a harness on his hand, he tried to scramble for freedom but there was no way, he then was pressed forward and he felt the prescence of land beneath his feet leave him. Trying to look down, kai realized that he was being held over the edge of the canyon... he turned back and screamed at the sight of two inhuman eyes staring at him...

"The guilty must be punished..."

"WAIT! WAIT NO!! PLEASE! NOOO!!" Kai tried begging for his life but suddenly felt the icy grip let go... he began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach as the world around him started jetting upward he fell into darkness not letting out a scream...

The red-haired figure stood at the top, the wind gusting in his hair, his faceless expression turned to a smile, his solid blue eyes gave way to red pupils which carefully examined the darnkess of the crevice, suddenly Kai's spear jetted upward from the crevice and struck the ground next to where he was standing, it shot out spikes from it which made it untouchable by any hands... the red haired figure stared in the same expression as a bizare clicking sound like that of a turning gear emminated from the inside of the abyss. Suddenly the brown haired, Dark armored, warrior started to lift out of the darkness, almost magically, holding onto his weapon which was connected to a chain he had latched to a type of retracting device, upon reaching the edge of the crevice he leapt onto the land and pulled himself up, he turned and stared wide-eyed at the pale figure before him, who was now only smiling.

"What are you? A phantom?!?"

"Just an observer..."

"I'd say what you did there was more than observation!!"

"Oh really? did I do anything to you?"

"YES! you threw me off of the edge of a cliff!"

"And you helped yourself up, so no harm done..."

The figure began to turn but Kai was angry now, he wasn't going to just let this one slide... he breathed heavily and let out an angry ghasp of air which caught the figure's attention...

"You are angry? I... I'm sorry"

"WHY DID YOU DO THAT!! TELL ME!!!"

"You are the hero sent from the east to stop the armies of the west..."

"... how did you know that..."

"I've been observing... as is what I like to do, I rarley try to get invoulved in things like this... but you are going to be battling people who are far stronger than me"

The darkness parted immediatley, the clouds seemed to just run away, the figure let himself drop to the ground, he had been hovering just 2 inches above it this entire time, the red aura about him disaperated and his eyes grew dark, black with red pupils...

"Your eyes... the whites are..."

"They are eyes which few men have seen..."

"Why do I deserve such an honor?"

"you don't... but you'll have to do..."

The red haired figure began rubbing his hands together, he walked up tot he fire and held out his pale, cold, hands. they had markings on the backs of them, and after brushing his red hair back, further markings were exposed on the figures forehead and cheeks...

"What are you?" Kai asked as he examined the strange person warming himself by the fire...

"I'm fate... I am of Masakari Kushari Kai blood, we are conquerers, or should I say they are, we seek to know everything in the universe and be everything, we hope to one day achieve perfection and enter a higher plain of existance, heaven on earth if you will..."

"How are you NOT like them then?"

"I am differint, I am not ruthless, I have a certain afinity for your kind, they are quite interesting, imperfection has its own special qualities, I keep myself at this level so that I can... what's your word? Mingle... ah yes... so that I can MINGLE with you and understand you better..."

"what's going on then? I'm... im very lost!" (as if you weren't too)

"Well my people have become consumed by their newest power, they aren't behaving quite like themselvs they wanted to test it out on a dead world but we figured this place was so lifeless we may as well test out our own weapons here... you're people are currnetly at war with mine, they cannot win..."

"So you're a masakari-kai..."

"PLEASE just call me by my name..."

"well i don't know it..."

"...tell me... what do you belive in?"

"I... um I belive in Iron!"

"...Why iron?"

"because it is there, it exists, because I can see it, shape it, mold it, and because it makes me stronger I belive that Iron is..."

"hah... I see why we tested our weapons on you..."

"That's not funny..."

"ah but it is! just because you can't see something doesn't mean it can't make you stronger, or that you can't belive in it... I belive many things, about how the universe was formed, how we exist, I belive that we have a deep inner energy, a soul, a mind, it can be tapped into and used... just like-"

"well I don't have any proof of such things so if you're trying to convert me you may as well not try! i have no need for them..."

"you said you wanted to learn spells..."

"how did you know that? I-... I just saw some people doing them and I figured that they would be handy..."

"AH so because you saw other people casting spells you assumed that they exist... what if i told you that power came from THEM and not the scrolls they memorized..."

"...what?"

"well that's how it works you know... magic... heh... so primative..."

"listen buddy-"

"no YOU listen you little whipper snapper, i have a lineage that dates back to 80000 bc, My Genes have been left unchanged since that date and though the record of time has been lost many times in the past I will tell you that I have alot more experience in this matter...so if you want to learn spells then you must FIRST realize your own potential..."

"...my potential?"

"Each and every one of us has 100% of their mind to understand, but most people only use a mere 6% of their potential... You,, my freind, use even less. All you need to do is what you're told. Go out and stop an army from attacking Llacefran, a tiny continant on the middle of a tiny world in the middle of a tiny galaxy located in the center of ABSOLUTLY NOWHERE. Universe..."

"...wha? I'm not an astronamor..."

"Well neither am I... But i've been up there..."

"you've what?"

The red haired figure took the arm of the knight and pointed his chain-mail ridden limp up to a dim star in the sky. "Centai Alpha, Homeworld, my family originated there, suprisingly we've only ever had one child and have been forced to breed with people of other stars, here was no exception, my mother met a fine young warrior who was elven, and yet I have no elven blood in me...

"...why should I care about any of this..."

"because in this time blood matters alot, whether it's spilled or if it determines the shape of your ears. Face it, these are times of great blood now. Llacefran has spilt none and yet it is planned to spill the most, the attacks on your people have ended we have deemed our processes effective, all people who disapeared will be returned in a few weeks, our top necromancers are working on seeing htat through, but llacefran, hah they require no reviving after they are cleared out..."

"Why are you... Oh i get it, YOU'RE the force to destroy Llacefran aren't you!!!" The dark night aimed his rifle at the red haired figure...

"Your weapons will prove useless in any fight against me... perhaps not my number, but me in particular, yes..."

"DAMN YOU!" The sound of thunder erupted and Kai was thrown back he landed but then tripped and fell onto his back he bent up and saw the burning metal sphere suspended in the air right in front of the red haired figure's face. He brushed it aside and started walking forward, the ground he stepped on began to crater and implode...

"You have much to learn, my freind... Know this... I am not here to spill blood, as I said, I have sympathy, But I have come to stop my own, if you should want to stop them, know that you will be on my side... until we meet again..."

The red haired figure began to burn up into oxygen, dissapearing in red flame before Kai's very eyes...

"OH and one last thing: The Name's Shinokorosha..."

The flames completley consumed the figure and he was gone...

Kai let his hands drop to his sides... he wasn't quite sure of everything that happened to night, but whatever had happened, he either had a new freind... or a new enemy...