Dragonnaires 1 Finished!

And finally! I finished the first part of my Dragonnaire series of stories! It has been a long and tiring journey…. (CLICK HERE TO READ)

Since it started out as a short story meant for people who could not read english all that well, and subsequently changed into a longer story with more rubbish shoved in it, it became a whole mess that even I cannot see if everything is correct or not.

BUT I AM TOO LAZY TO CHANGE EVERYTHING NOW.

Everything in the second story onwards will be made proper, so the first story is like… a brief introduction into the World of the story, I guess?

My Dragonnaire stories are becoming more and more like a love letter to all of the games, movies, light novels and anime I watched. It is crammed with so many links to the stuff I read and watched that it is losing its own originality. I guess that makes it original then?

Well, now that it is finished, I will be posting the whole story on some other website (probably fiction press)… and then continue with the second part of the Dragonnaire story.

I already have basic plots down for the third part, and some ideas brewing for the fourth. The original ideas for the fourth have been pushed back to probably the fifth or sixth.

I was also thinking of doing some rough illustrations, but I’m too lazy to do that right now. Sigh, my very first original story to actually finish… Not really finish, but at least it is finished… technically.

Story time!

Well, after writing my own original stories for so long, I decided to post them on this blog under pages. I’m still exploring the different aspects of this website so things may come slowly to me.

As for what stories I’m going to post up, it will be Dragonnaires 1 and 2, as well as what I can put up of Three Cradles.

To be honest, Three Cradles isn’t ready to be put up so I probably will only put it up after some tweaking…. or maybe a whole lot of tweaking. Main focus for now is Dragonnaires. I’m also planning on putting up some drawings if I can get them done!

Now, these stories were originally meant to be mere writings that I did for a request of some guy who wanted to introduce light-novel styled English stories to Japan. Now, I was enthusiastic about this idea, and went off to write multiple stories, which resulted in me not able to submit a single story in time for the deadline. In the first place, I hate deadlines.

And so I was thinking, rather than let them collect dust in my harddrive, why not upload them? I will upload them to fictionpress soon, after I fix some stuff with the paragraphing and stuff. Transferring texts isn’t that that straight forward, apparently.

As for Dragonnaire… hmm, what can I say about it? It started out as my cursed story, since the original idea that I had for this story (about 15 years ago) constantly sent my laptops into an early grave via harddrive failures. 3 times, if I recall correctly.

Since the first story was meant to be submitted for this Japanese light novel thing, the words used are simpler. For the second story, I was beginning to change the way people talk to become a little bit… fancy? I don’t know how to put it. But the second story is darker with… almost no humour… what? I think the second story needs a little tweaking… or maybe not.

Writing style is, obviously, following the Japanese light-novel style of writing. I actually choose to write this way since it is easier for me, as evident within all of my fanficion writings as well. I had tried writing a story normally, it was a little too odd for me to continue using, so I will stick to this Japanese light-novel style of writing.

Dragonnaires: A cursed story to be a large series?

I was thinking of a few things as I continue to write this story. For one, changing the title from Dragonaire to Dragonnaire. More closely to associate with the original term “Legonnaire”.

Second change, changing the main protagonist’s name from “Skye” to “Deryke”. Dunno, Skye seems a little… too weak as a main character’s name for me. And the name is moving it closer to the term ‘Dragons’.

I was looking through some weird ideas I had and was sorting through what to use and what I should chuck aside. For one, people in those sort of fantasy medieval times do not actually have surnames. Usually just their names with the place they were born placed behind or their profession. The world was not as populated back then. But I guess I can still change it in my story.

So maybe…. first names are given to them by whoever raised them. Second name (not surname) are given to those who sought a ‘Drane Sayer’. Drane is the common language of Draagterra. Drane Sayers are like… mystics? They bestow second names upon those whom they see fit, or those who can afford them. I guess this is to say that second names are sometimes seen as a way to distinguish those with wealth and those without. But Drane Sayers also travel the lands often and bestow many people with second names even without coin. In the end second names are not as important. Any further additional names are more ceremonial than anything. Those who are part of the Dragoon and Dragonnaire order will be bestowed a second name in the event they do not have one.

Well, mainly this is me being lazy as hell to change what I had written. Second names function similarly to family names, but they do not get passed down through the family. So a family of five may have 5 different second names. It is possible for people of the same blood to have the same second name, due to the ‘connection’ they hold to one another that the Drane Sayer ‘sees’.

Another thing to address is the manner of which the Order and the rest of the Kingdoms operate. The Order is made up of two main groups, the Dragonnaires and the Dragoons. The Dragoons were once Dragon hunters (something illegal and vile in Draagterra) who used ‘Resonance’ to boost their own abilities (resonance being the connection they can establish with Dragons). However a group of these Dragon hunters betrayed their own kind and joined up with the Dragonnaires, hunting the rest down. With that the Dragoon order came to be. Resonance comes in 3 levels.

The first is synchronising with a Dragon Soul (can be a Dragon, or a Dragonnaire but Fangs, personal Dragoons to Wings of the Dragonnaire Order, have strong resonance with their own Wings), in which they own physical abilities are boosted beyond normal limits. They can become as strong as Dragons. The second would be producing an ephemeral figure of a dragon behind them. So a physical manifestation of the resonance that takes the form of a Dragon around the Dragoon. Only Fangs should have this abilities, but several other high ranking Dragoons have it as well. The third and last would be fusion, in which the physical manifestation of that resonance no longer becomes ephemeral and solidifies into a physical and solid armour that the Dragoon wears. Almost no one, not even Fangs, can do this well, and is only speculated to exist.

The Dragoons and the Dragonnaires were envisioned to be pure fantasy based, so their armour and weapons are not really practical in a real world sense. However, the seven Kingdoms are more based around practicality and reality (besides the mixed fantasy races and the dragons).

The Red Kingdom is the largest and has the most numerous in terms of military strength due to the previous King’s military doctrine. Since his passing, his daughter had taken over and turned the Red Kingdom into a defensive one, which earned the respect from her people for the stoppage of war, but also earned the ire of those in the militaristic nobles, who want to further their expansion. They have become a more peaceful nation that strives to be more open to new ideas and accept in the dradrian races (though many still do not like them).

The Blue Kingdom is the kingdom of magic, the main homeland of the dwarves and the mines of magic crystals and minerals. The kingdom of blue is mainly characterised as being antagonistic to the Red Kingdom due to them being neighbouring kingdoms, as well as their strong affinity for magic (dwarves have their own brand of magic). The blue kingdom is quite protective of its magical mines and study of magic, and be seen as stingy or arrogant because of that.

The Green Kingdom is the kingdom of spirits and nature, homeland to the large clan of elves and located in the midst of the largest forest on the continent. They are somewhat Oriental Asian in design mixed in with naturalistic themes. They are attuned with nature and normally keep to themselves, with the thick forest they reside in being a natural protection from invasion. The current ruler is a relative to the Green Wing of the Dragonnaire Order.

The Yellow Kingdom is located on the mountain ranges, where a large number of flying races reside. This Kingdom enjoys a natural defensive structure of the mountains, but their offensive strategy focuses around speed rather than strength. The yellow Kingdom often attacks the Kingdom of Brown but in recent years has seen an internal struggle between the Queen regent, and the crown prince. Although being divided, they are still able to repel invading forces from the Brown Kingdom.

The Brown Kingdom is located on the edge of a desert by an Ocean. Holding onto a large naval fleet and being well versed in desert warfare, the Brown Kingdom is also a Kingdom that seeks knowledge no matter what shape or form. Prosperous in trade, and home to some of the best schools and scholars on the continent, the Brown Kingdom accepts all people who seeks knowledge, but detests those who seek to invade and will retaliate with full force (such as in the case of the Yellow Kingdom). Because of their trade and schools, the Brown Kingdom is home to many gnomes and gremlins, who love to tinker with machines.

The White Kingdom is the Kingdom of the white marble, a well sought after material for its strength and beauty. The White Kingdom is extremely religious (religion in Draagterra is mainly worshiping the Ancient Dragons, and the first few humans who were chosen by the Ancient ones to rule), and mimics the real life religious European area. They are very conservative and believes in purity of the races. So they hate the Dradrian races.As the White Kingdom is in the middle of the cloudless snow plains, it has an interesting mix of weather. The snow doesn’t melt even if the Sun is shining constantly. The White Kingdom has knights that specialise in healing magic and they have extremely strong defense in their armour (due to the white marble material they incorporate into their armour).

The Black Kingdom is the Kingdom of the ever night. While it isn’t always night, this Kingdom has longer nights than others, and is home to many rare herbs that flourish in the night. Located in a rather remote area, the Black Kingdom suffered during the first Dark war as the armies of the other Kingdoms could not reach them quickly enough to lend aid. Its remote area also made the miasma that remained after the war harder to dissipate. The Black Kingdom was an unusual Kingdom, since the people from there are known to exude a presence that made people trust them to a certain extent. The Black Kingdom is also home to an elite group of fighters known as ‘Dragon Blood’. The Dragon Blood are chosen by their blood, hence their name, but not in the same sense as how people would think. In the same sense as the Dragoons are chosen, the Dragon Blood are chosen by how well their blood reacts to certain herbs that the Black Kingdom rears, that boosts their strength. Since its downfall, the Black Kingdom has seen an influx of Dradrian refugees who ran away from prosecution of other kingdoms.

Dradrian races are references to the humanoid races who look human, but bear some characteristics of the different races (not like those who are different races but have minimal humnoid features, like standing on 2 legs and stuff). Dradrian is the term used for the humanoids who have some dragon features, like dragon wings, tail and horns (but other than that look human). Dradrians are respected, but the other dradrian races (Varmdradrian, Avaridradrian, Aiyledradrian etc.) are not, and considered unwanted, despite having the term ‘dradrian’ in their race name. Aiyle (elves) and Gwevalka (dwarves) are part of the ‘Delvas’ group together with humans, as they all look similar to one another. Aiyledradrian are basically half elves but still are looked down with disgust by other races.

The Order is special in that it does not hold any discrimination towards any race or Kingdom. They are meant to be a neutral organisation but there are still certain resentments at times.

The plan for this story has spiralled out of proportions in my head. It started out with just the first story about Deryke and his abilities as the twin souled. But then I started to write the second story, which details the Dragoon knight Theresea Langly, who is tasked with guarding Deryke. While Theresea was meant to be the Fang of the previous Black Wing, the previous Black Wing died in the first dark war without her able to fulfill her duty and now she has been tasked to guard the new black Wing, Deryke?

The second story is about Deryke trying to understand what is going on in the Black Kingdom after the war (he is tipped off by A Dragoon Lord that things might be dangerous for the entire Kingdom). Though the story is about Deryke’s journey, the main character is Theresea, and also Cync, a young girl Deryke and Theresea will meet in the Black Kingdom. Cync would be taken in to be a Dragoon and will be Deryke’s first Fang by the end of the second story. While Theresea will not be Deryke’s fang by the end of the second story, she is meant to be Deryke’s fang by the 4th story.

The third story would be focusing on a squire of the Red Kingdom and his aspirations to be a Dragon Knight. Together with his childhood friend, he will train hard to be accepted into the elite group of the Kingdom. But the Red Kingdom is still having conflicts with the Blue Kingdom and the internal strife between the pacifist and war factions make life in the army hard. The Dragon Knight would then be attached to guard the princess (she is not yet named Queen due to certain problems). While he is a guard, he gets to meet Deryke, Theresea and a Dragon Blood member from the Black Kingdom (by the end of the second story, Deryke would be ruling regent of Black Kingdom). Soon the red Kingdom is sent spiraling into chaos with the warring faction suddenly starting a coup. The Dragon Knight would need to flee with the princess. They seek a legendary Dragon Knight who was banished due to a taboo (she managed to drink from the Life River when it isn’t suppose to be possible). The legendary dragon knight (who is immortal and unaging due to that taboo), helps them get back the princess to safety and manages to chase out the warring faction from the main capital. Supposedly the Dragon knight is meant to die at the end of this story and the main character is revealled to be actually the immortal knight.

The fourth story would delve into the Black Blade, a group that appears throughout the previous stories that seems to be manipulating events behind the scenes, though will focus on the Freemen of Draagterra. In this story, I had planned to make Theresea finally become Deryke’s fang… but in way I don’t think I want to actually write it. I was thinking the ceremony of becoming a fang was to drink a drop of blood from the Dragonnaire. No, Deryke is not meant to die (he is central to the whole series), but Theresea is? To hold back the Black Blade while Deryke escapes, Theresea is suppose to exchange blood with Deryke through a kiss (?) thus establishing a fang pact between them in an unusual way. Theresea would sacrifice herself (though using the entirety of the resonance power in full form) and be able to hold the Black Blade long enough and be powerful enough to deal with a large number of Black Blade members, so much that the Black Blade higher ranking numbers comment that if Theresea was not injured prior, they may all died.

The whole series is meant to be written such that each sequel will be seeing the world of Draagterra through the eyes of a new character. The new character’s position would be talked about in the previous story (eg. in the first story, Dragoons were briefly talked about, in the second story, Dragon Knights are talked about etc.), and the main characters from the previous stories will appear in the later stories (I was thinking that Theresea should stay dead, but I drew her design and liked it a little too much… maybe bring her back somehow? Or just don’t kill her off?)

This series is meant to look at 7 different stories, since it has the 7 Kingdoms…. but  I am slightly unsure if I want to write that many… I have basic plans for story 3 and 4. I am almost done with the first story (though I really really want to rewrite it), and currently focusing on the second story. The first story was meant to be submitted to a light novel writing competition that was easily accessible to Japanese people wanting to learn English, so the language, grammar and vocabulary used were suppose to be extremely simple… but since the competition is over without me submitting it, I have been wanting to change the format of the story to match the second story, which uses a lot more complex words and grammar style. Still… I am lazy to rewrite the first story… maybe just publish it as it is?

Blood soaked Sakura (Cuz I want to marry Kasumi)

I had been tossing about an idea of writing a Ninja Gaiden fic that is centred around Kasumi. As most people who have played the game up till its most recent installment (Razor Edge), will know that Kasumi from the Dead or Alive series made her first debut in the series as a playable character. Verdict?

AWESOMENESS

There is nothing better than getting Kasumi to slice her way through hordes of enemies and rain of blood. Nothing quite says perfection and girl power in a single scene like that.

Kasumi also appears in the Dynasty/ Samurai Warrior mix, Orochi warriors 3 Ultimate… or something like that. Musou Orochi 2 Ultimate in Japanese.In that game, she is so good. I mean it. The way she takes out enemies with her category being ‘speed’ is immensely good. While her speed is actually slightly lower than other speed characters, her attack and defence makes up for that. And come on, using a super combination of Kasumi/ Ayane/ Jeanne is like a dream come true. LEGENDARY.

For those who are not acquainted with any of the rubbish I had just spouted above, here is a short summary.

Dead or Alive is a fighting simulator that is more famous for having a whole range of over-sexualised women in its line-up. Also, gravity-defying boobs that have minds of their own. The most recent release did make the boobs less prominent and more obedient to the laws of physics (slightly). The main character (supposedly) and mascot of the game series is Kasumi, a runaway kunoichi who wanted to take revenge on her uncle for injuring her brother (she is quite a bro-con), but running away from the village meant she had to be hunted by her own people for the rest of her life. Luckily, she is one hell of a badass kunoichi and luck is probably her strongest stat. Anyway, yada yada captured, yada yada, cloned, yada yada evil corporation, yada yada wants to find brother, yada yada fight some stuff. Anyway, by the end of the last game released, Kasumi is more or less allowed to return to the village (or something along those lines… basically her brother Hayate and her half-sister Ayane have forgiven her), but she is determined to stop the evil corporation from mass-producing her clone to field an army so she will stay away from the village until done so.

What does this have to do with Ninja Gaiden? Quite a fair bit. Ninja Gaiden’s main character, Hayabusa Ryu, is supposedly good friends with Hayate. When Hayate was forced to order the village to hunt down Kasumi, he secretly asked Hayate to keep Kasumi safe as much as possible. Well, Ryu does have his hands full with saving the World and shit from evil demons and the like, but hey, protecting a goddess like Kasumi is well-worth it. Ryu goes quite far to honour that promise that he actually enters the DoA tornaments. Ayane, Kasumi’s half sister, also appears in Ninja Gaiden to lend aid to Ryu. It is not really known why, but the Hajinmon sect of the Mugen Tenshin clan seem to have a very good working relationship with the Hayabusa clan, particularly in the exterminating of demons department.

On a side, Ayane does appear quite a fair bit herself, with her latest appearance being, out of all games she could appear in, Fatal Frame 5, also known as Zero: Nuregarasu no Miko. She appears in a side mission to save a girl who disappeared in the mountains where multiple disappearance cases occurred. Kozukata Yuuri in that game is very pretty, and a rather decisive, strong character. That is a first in the series.

Ayane is quite well known to be rather impatient and smart-mouthed in the beginning, but recent games had shown her to mature greatly. She used to harbour emotions of anger and envy for her half sister but at the end of the 5th DoA game, Ayane had put all of those aside and now accepts Kasumi. Ayane in Fatal Frame showed the same change as she told the girl that she rescued (who also had an older half sister) that the bonds of family will surely be stronger than whatever turmoils may plague her life. The main reason Ayane risked so much to save the girl is probably because she saw herself in that girl. But what Ayane said at the end showed that Ayane still loves Kasumi, no matter what.

Going back to the end of DoA 5, Kasumi and her two siblings are more or less on good terms again but Kasumi decides that she cannot return to the village until she destroys all of her clones and kill Donovan, the president of the DOATEC company and MIST (basically evil). Using this ending, and while waiting for the next DoA to come out, I had some time to mule over ideas on what to write.

There are a few things to note about Kasumi before we throw her into a story of blood, gore, and violence… as if she hasn’t really been in one or two. Anyway, the big-wigs at Tecmo and Team Ninja are not too keen in getting Kasumi her own Ninja Gaiden story because of “her soft character is not suitable for a Ninja Gaiden game”… first off, bullshit. If it was Kasumi before? Maybe, but now? No reason not to make one. Kasumi has matured greatly and is no longer naive in her thinking. Also, in Razor’s Edge (as well as in Orochi), Kasumi’s choice of weapon is her wakizashi. The problem with that? Wakizashi’s are normally short blades. The blades that Kasumi uses are not that short. If anything, she would be using either a full length Katana, or an O-wakizashi.

So onto a plot for the story. KASUMI GAIDEN… or something. The main idea is to avoid interferring with what could go on with the story in DoA 6…. if ever. One thing about the ending of DoA 5 is showing a clone of Kasumi shedding a tear. Also, the clone that believed she was Kasumi brought about a new possibility. The main focus of the story would be Kasumi chasing after a clone.

The story would begin similar to Razor’s Edge. Kasumi is contacted by a mysterious organisation (calling themselves, the ‘Watchers’). The man who represents the organisation to Kasumi, calling himself Knight, shows Kasumi a video of fiends attacking a building in the UK. The video later shows a clone of Kasumi, seemingly either having control over the fiends, or able to avoid their detection. Using this as bait, the Watchers managed to get Kasumi on their side to chase down the clone and the fiends.

In the UK, Kasumi tracks down the fiends, who are being brought into the World by a group of masked figures. These masked figures have hired the services of varous Private Military Companys (PMCs) and Kasumi fights her way to reach the portal in which the masked people opened. Kasumi manages to close the portal, but not before a giant fiend gets through. Kasumi fights the fiend, but her wakizashi proves to be rather ineffective against the fiend. A cloaked person appears and manages to weaken the fiend enough to allow Kasumi to finish it off. Before Kasumi can stop the cloaked person, that person disappears in a manner similar to Kasumi’s method, leaving a few petals of a sakura flower.

The Watchers then track the masked people to Russia. Kasumi is sent there with several armed squads but before they can reach the city at the base of the mountain where the intel pointed them to, the PMCs fire on them. Kasumi is forced to separate and she tries to find another way into the city. Kasumi then meets Ayane, who was sent by Ryu. Ayane explained that Kasumi’s wakizashi is weak after years of not being treated, and offers to take it to Muramasa, handing Kasumi a shinobi-gata ‘Ku-ten’ to use instead. With her new weapon, Kasumi heads into the Russian city.

Once inside, Kasumi finds the fiends and PMCs have effectively taken over the village, however the two are not necessary on the same side as some fiends are seen attacking the PMCs, who fight back. Using the distraction, Kasumi slips deeper into the city to find the masked people. Along the way, Kasumi finds that survivors of the ‘Black Spider Clan’, enemies of Ryu, were in the city and were behind the fiends attacking the PMCs. Informing Watchers of this, the Watchers deduced that there is currently a struggle for power, with the Black Spider Clan and the masked men not on the same side. Kasumi sees a group of Black Spider Ninja fighting against some unknown ninjas, using the fiends against the unknown ninjas. Kasumi decides to intervene and kills the Black Spider Ninjas who were controlling the fiends. The unknown ninjas revealled themselves to be remnants of the Shadow Ninja clan after its disbandment. They had taken it upon themselves to end the Black Spider clan as the last act of duty. The leader of the group, calling himself ‘Kamui’, tells Kasumi that the masked men are members of a mystic cult who seem to worship the fiends, and that they seemed to be ‘taking orders from someone else’. Kamui gifts Kasumi with a black yumi (Japanese long bow), telling her that it has been gifted with the blessings of a sacred spring and will be able to kill fiends easily.

Kasumi and the Shadow Ninjas part ways, and Kasumi makes her to deeper into the city where the number of fiends drastically increase. Kasumi fights her way into the city hall where the masked mystics had opened another portal. Killing the mystic who kept the portal open, Kasumi is suddenly attacked by a cloaked person, appearing to be the same as the one she met before. Kasumi and the cloaked person fight until they are interrupted by the appearance of fiends that are out of control due to the closing of the portal and the death of the one who opened it. The cloaked person vanishes like before, leaving Kasumi to fight her way out of the city hall. Exiting the hall, Kasumi sees that a large out of control fiend is heading for her, and Kasumi is forced to fight it. Using the black bow, Kasumi manages to take out several ‘orbs’ that surround the fiend before the Shadow Ninja appear and help to weaken the fiend enough to let Kasumi finish it off.

The Shadow Ninja decides it would be best to follow Kasumi since they are after the same thing. The Watchers take back the town and tell Kasumi that they have found another portal open in Australia. As they head to Australia, Kasumi ponders about the cloaked person. While at first helping her, the second time seemed to be aggressive towards Kasumi. Arriving in Australia, Kasumi is once again contacted by Ayane, who seemed to be untrusting of the Watchers, and telling Kasumi of her worries about the Watchers. Ayane told Kasumi that Ryu faced a similar problem once before, but Kasumi reassures Ayane that she will be careful. Ayane tells Kasumi that her Wakizashi is still being prepared, but Hayate had seen fit to lend Kasumi a mugen tenshin anti-demon weapon, an odachi ‘Tenken’. With her new weapon, Kasumi heads to find the next portal.

The next portal is opened in Sydney and fiends are already pouring out. The armed forces of the Watchers engage the PMCs while Kasumi and the Shadow Ninja group deal with the fiends. Kasumi gets to the portal and faces off with a giant machine that the PMCs brought to guard the portal. Kasumi realises that the machine is protected by a electric barrier and she cannot get past. That is when the cloaked person appears once more, and throws a spear at the machine. The spear manages to get through the barrier and stabs the machine, causing a short circuit and disabling the barrier. This allows Kasumi to defeat the machine but the cloaked figure disappears once more. Kasumi takes the spear, seeing as how it contained some magical properties. Kasumi tries to close the portal but finds that it cannot be closed from her end as the mystic who opened it ran inside. Kasumi braves the portal and ends up in the Fiend’s World.

Kasumi finds herself fighting against a large Greater Fiend, who claims to serve a master who is planning to bring all of Earth into hell. Kasumi fights against the greater Fiend, with Kamui and Ayane appearing to help out. As the trio escape to the portal, they are attacked by the cloaked figure once more, with Kasumi being forced out of another portal than the other two. Kasumi now finds herself in Venice… for reasons. Ayane and Kamui find themselves not too far away, in Nuremberg. Ayane and Kamui are now facing off against a large number of PMCs in order to get to a ‘conduit’ that interferes with the portals (it basically allows the mystics to open many portals without actually being there). Defeating the PMCs and reaching the conduit, Ayane spots the cloaked figure and chases after, leaving Kamui to deal with a powerful mystic who empowers a giant walker that can fly (cuz reasons). Kamui uses his own yumi and shoots down the mystic, before taking out the walker. While he wonders where Ayane went, he destroys the conduit and is contacted by the Watchers, who just managed to find them and inform him that Kasumi is in Venice. Kamui decides it would be best to head to Kasumi as Ayane seemed to be somewhat distracted.

For Kasumi, in venice, she fights the fiends once more as a second Greater Fiend seemed to have managed to get himself onto Earth and was taking over the city. Kasumi fights her way through the city to face the fiend, along the way she finds a hidden treasure under the city in the water. Two long arm blades (handles closer to one end protruding out perpendicular and longer part of the blade travels up the fore arm). With her new weapons, Kasumi fights the greater fiend and manages to send it back to hell. Just before Kasumi can close the portal, the cloaked figure appears again and forces Kasumi to fight. After a long battle, Kasumi manages to cut away at the hood of the cloak, revealling the mysterious person to be Kasumi’s clone. The clone seems angry at Kasumi and goes into a rage, trying to kill Kasumi but Kamui arrives in time and the clone runs away. Kasumi closes the portal but wonders why this clone seemed to hate her in particular, unlike previous clones. Kamui then expresses surprise at the knowledge that the cloaked figure was here, since Ayane was chasing the same figure but in the opposite direction.

Ayane, chasing the cloaked figure, manages to corner the cloaked person in a tight streets, but just before she can force the cloaked figure to reveal the face, fiends appear. Ayane is forced to fight the fiends, who seem intent on chasing down the cloaked figure. The cloaked figure kills some fiends with a long double sword weapon before disappearing, leaving Ayane to find the portal that opened. Ayane finds the portal, guarded by more PMCs, and fights a greater fiend that appears. The cloaked figure reappears and helps Ayane weaken the fiend, before being knocked away by the fiend. Ayane finishes off the fiend and goes to find the cloaked figure, whose cloak is slightly torn. The figure manages to run away, but not before Ayane catches a glimpse of the figure’s face, Kasumi’s clone. With no new clues, Ayane goes to regroup with the rest.

The Watchers show intel that they have found the headquarters of the mystics, a two part super structure, one being a super airbourne carrier, the other being a large sea based carrier. The two ends are connected by magic and do not leave the same coordinates as one another. Using the two carriers, the mystics plan to open up a large enough portal to bring the Archfiend into the World. It is also shown that the clone that Kasumi met is the mastermind of the entire thing, helping the mystics get the artifacts needed to open portals. But it seems that the clone’s plan is to draw out Kasumi, with destruction of the World being a secondary objective. Ayane questions how does Watcher know all of this and at this point, Watcher reveals that the organisation Watcher was created by DOATEC, under Helena’s order to find anything related to MIST and to deal with it. Watcher works separately from DOATEC but answers to Helena as well. Ayane knew that something was weird about Watcher but she trusts Helena slightly.

The plan was to attack both the sea carrier and the air carrier at the same time. The ninja will attack the air carrier while the army of the Watchers will hit the sea carrier. Before they go, Ayane brings Kasumi her Wakizashi, Mugettou, which is now enhanced and slightly longer. The plan goes into action and the shinobi attack the air carrier. As Kasumi and the others fight through the carrier, they find that each carrier is actually powered by a greater fiend, and that both greater fiends were halves of one larger greater fiend. Kasumi and the group face the greater fiend but are suddenly caught in a trap set by Kasumi’s clone, who activated a paralyzing electric field. The clone is about to kill Kasumi when… another clone appears. This clone is the one that Ayane tracked down in Germany. Using the longer double sword weapon, the second clone manages to fend off the first clone and destroys the field generator, allowing Kasumi and the others to move. The second clone tells Kasumi and the others to deal with the greater fiend while she deals with the first clone. After Kasumi kills the greater fiend, the air carrier begins to lose control and plummet to the sea below. The first clone jumps through a portal to escape, but the second clone rushes into follow, leaving her double sword weapon behind. Kasumi takes it and together with Ayane and the others, escape from the hull of the air carrier, jumping off and diving straight for the sea carrier, where the battle was still on-going.

Kasumi and the others push all the way to the hull of the carrier, where the second half of the greater fiend was. The greater fiend fought hard, and then burst through the hull out into the open, summoning the corpse of its other half to fuse together. While the greater fiend was fused together again, because one half was dead, it was not as strong. Kasumi and the other manage to kill the new greater fiend and end the fiend threat. However Kasumi still had to deal with the clones, and a portal opened up to hell. Kasumi took it and entered the realm of the archfiend. Kasumi saw the two clones fighting, with the one who helped Kasumi many times being beaten back. Kasumi intervened and fought against the crazy clone. The crazy clone said that when it realised it was a clone, and that everything it knew was a lie, it felt that to ‘be’ the ‘real Kasumi’, she had to kill the ‘original’. The second clone said that though she was shaken, she believed that killing was not the way. Both clones came from the same MIST facility, allowed to escape by a ‘certain’ research (Lisa). However although both clones were different from the Alpha series in that they had their own distinct personalities, they still had some of Alpha’s violent nature. That violent nature made the first one crazy, while the second clone managed to calm herself and control it, but she still suffered from a weak mental constitution.

Kasumi and the second clone worked together to push back the crazy clone, before the archfiend appears and reveals that it was behind the cause of the first clone’s craze, fusing together with the clone. Kasumi and the second clone fight against the archfiend and manages to free the first clone from the archfiend, ending its life. With the archfiend’s world crumbling, the first clone opens a portal (because the archfiend had been manipulating her all this while, she had the power to open portals thoughout the story), and pushes the second clone and Kasumi through, saying that she chose to die on her own volition and free will (also that while she lived, the archfiend might try to come back). She throws a memory stick to Kasumi, telling her that inside contained the details of the facility they came from, and to finish what she started, before closing the portal.

The second clone, while showing restraint on her mental capabilities, showed fear of what Kasumi was to do. However Kasumi decided that the clone showed too much a distinct personality that Kasumi could not really call her a clone. The clone reveals her number, Alpha 398, which prompts Kasumi to call her ‘Sakura’ (3= San, 9=Kyu, 8=Hachi). Kasumi tells Sakura that she should try to live a normal life. The Watchers tell Kasumi that they will take care of Sakura, and that should she require any help, they will oblige. Kasumi tells them that it is her path and hers alone to take. Kamui and the Shadow Ninja clan disappear, vowing to complete their mission no matter what. Ayane returns to the Mugen Tenshin village, contemplating on whether she should be telling Hayate of Sakura’s existence or not, but decides not to.

Epiloge would be Sakura attending a normal high school in Japan, talking with classmaters, before stopping and looking out of the window to a single Sakura blossom tree, where a certain kunoichi stood on its branch, smiling, before disappearing. Sakura merely smiles, before turning back and continuing her conversation with her classmates.

And this would be the basic outline of the story. Why so many weapons? Keeping in line with the Ninja Gaiden game, of course.

Angel Beats! A regret of my own, part 2

I actually cannot believe I have enough of these to make a part 2

1) Kurogane Kou, at one point, was suppose to disappear at the end of What We Die For, therefore leaving the entire focus of the second story to Katsuragi Rei

2) Kusanagi Yamato’s name is based off the Kusanagi no Tsurugi of Japanese mythology, and Yamato, the name of ancient Japan. Kusanagi is a blade wielded by Susanoo to kill Orochi. Yamato was meant to fight a serpent creature, but that was too outlandish to be placed in the story proper.

3) Yamato’s character and personality design is based off a character in Lucky star by the same name.

4) Yamato’s unique weapon was a weapon design that I had come up a few times while writing my previous fics. The main idea came from dynasty warriors.

5) Kusanagi Yamato was actually not suppose to become such a prominent character, but halfway through, I developed her to become a love interest.

6) The characters I initially drew were meant to be the central characters, with Yuuko actually joining the Guardians. However I realised that Yuuko, being a division leader, could not leave her post, and even if she did, there was no one who could replace her.

7) The many Key characters were mainly suppose to be cameo appearances, but after some time, Fujibayashi Kyou and Sakagami Tomoyo ended up becoming too prominent to ignore.

8) Unlike my other epic fics, What We Die For and What We Live For were never heavily revised to the point of me deleting the entire file and writing it from scratch. They were both written without much revisions. Which would explain the rather horrible writing.

9) The fight against the Angel at the top of the tower was meant to be longer, taking up one entire chapter, but I found that writing such obnoxious lines to be tedious and irritating.

10) At one point, I toyed with the idea of Kurogane Kou being the one to climb the tower and fight the division leaders. At the top, Kou would then face Rei who regained his position as the EX Angel.

11) I had written about five original songs for Kou to sing, but I had lost the papers that had the lyrics on them after awhile, and had no choice but to refer to songs already out there. The original songs were found after the story had ended.

12) I was actually suffering from depression in the middle of What We Die For, and once again in the middle of What We Live For. The first episode was despair from failing my course in Undergrad. The second episode was during my military enlisment as the extreme change of environment took a heavy toll on my mentality, and I was ‘randomly’ picked on by the sergeants to ‘show an example’ to the rest of the soldiers. Unfortunately the sergeants did not know they were all using me as an example and so I sort of snapped (they found out after and lightened up to me. They are really nice people in reality). I managed to write five chapters in the hospital where I spent a week recovering from depression.

13) The Guardians, despite being the ‘Strongest’ fighters, were meant to take centre point in What We Live For, rather than looking through the eyes of another recruit.

14) I was quite close to giving up on writing a couple of times, as with all of my stories that run too long. Only by reading my story several times did I resolve myself to finish it.

15) The relationship between Taeno Yuki and Ein Shrewerz were not explored properly and it would be best described ‘more than friends’. For the most part, Ein is like Yuki’s confidante, and Yuki would see Ein as a big brother. However their actions would hint more than simply that. It can also be said that the two harbour feelings for one another but both had, at some point, came to an mutual understanding not to pursue it any further.

16) The SSS were not suppose to be an international force, but rather only consist of the original SSS. However to offset the imbalance of power, the original SSS numbers were deemed insufficient.

17) The final Angel is actually the same NPC whom Nakamura Yuri faced at the end of the anime series although during the planning phase he was Fudou Akira who had turned into an NPC.

18) I had planned to write each division as a separate story, but decided not to almost immediately

19) I had drawn the emblems and distinct uniforms of each division, also including Kusanagi’s own squad of Guard 1.

20) Speaking of Guard 1, Yamato’s highly specialised squad was a last minute addition to the story. I was thinking of letting Yamato go down to Guild on her own as she was technically a Guardian and therefore held the ability to fight on her own.

21) The recruits were merely fodder and they were suppose to be merely mentioned. However during writing I found it interesting to look from the perspective of new recruits and show fear within people who only recently joined the SSS2

22) The reason behind the swelling numbers of the SSS2 is explained during the battle of Pride, with Yuki fighting Yuri. That it was Yuki’s pride and scorn for the living that influenced the World of the Living and therefore caused more youths to suffer and die, leading them into the Afterlife. The original reason I had envisioned was that the Afterlife was a collection of youths from the past, present and future, as well as from parallel Worlds.

23) The parallel Worlds theory as stated a few times in the story (the Arisato twins, Kyou and Tomoyo) is actually the theory of Kotomi from Clannad.

24) I had actually lost the original designs for several characters that others gave me, and sort of winged it.

25) Both stories are filled with references to games, mythology, history and (obviously) anime.

26) When writing action sequences, I actually attempt to perform such feats myself to get a better picture to write with. I actually bought practice swords, model guns, and some makeshift weapons to increase the image. The number of times I hit things in my room cannot be counted.

27) Operation Switch, the infamous cross-dressing operation, came to me when I saw a fan-made drawing of the male characters in drag.

28) Three more Operations were planned but after Operation Switch, I forgot them totally.

29) Writing each chapter on a ‘rush’ requires two 2 litre bottles of Sprite.

30) When my uncle died, I stopped writing completely. His passing was too sudden as I had just seen and talked to him just a month prior. He was so active, lively and joking as always that I would have never imagined his passing. I remember his proud look when I came home in my military uniform (I was the only person in my family and my extended family on my mother’s side to actually excel and do well in the military). I did mention that he was like a father figure to me while I was studying in Canada, and I was probably the closet to him within my family besides my mother. I wanted to write out a eulogy to say during his wake, but I just could not write. I was completely stunned throughout the entire funeral and could not think straight. I forced myself to continue writing after remembering that my uncle was one of the few people who encouraged me to continue writing.

Suikoden, an ambition too wide to swallow

I had worked on Suikoden fics for a long time, with the first one being a very ambitious project that aimed to incorporate various Suikoden games and mash them into one.

There was one problem, and that was the scale of it. It was impossible to write such a tale when you are mixing in so many prominent characters that differ so much that it made it near impossible to shape them into the same story.

I then decided to split it and focus on the Suikoden game that got me hooked on the series, Suikoden 3. While I cannot say the game was the best of all suikoden games due to my lack of experience with any suikoden game before the third installment, however the story had captivated me nonetheless and it was THE suikoden story for me.

I had also decided that I had to split my story into different portions as I tend to write better for short stories, with my long stories (or epic fics) coming only once in a while.

The first story, titled “The Path We Chose”, starts 5 years after the game of Suikoden 3.

Hugo had been appointed at Chief of his Karayan clan while Chris remained as the ‘captain’ of the Zexen Knights, but not for long.

Hugo visits Brass Castle once every four months in order to strengthen the friendship between the Grasslands and the Zexens, and also using the chance to learn more of the Zexen customs as Lucia believes that to be a good chief, one must be exposed to various cultures.

While Chris would teach Hugo of Zexen customs, in return Hugo would tell Chris stories of her father, Jimba, also known as Wyatt Lightfellow. Hugo would also gift Chris with knowledge of the Grassland clans.

It would be during these meetings that Hugo and Chris would grow closer.

Right before the annual meeting at Budehuc Castle (in which the leaders of the different groups would meet, as well as giving the True Rune bearers a chance to meet), Chris is promoted by the new Zexen council to ‘Commander’ and was told to station herself at Vinay, but Chris stubbornly refuses to move her station. Chris believes that the new council wants to use her popularity to boost their own standings in the capital.

Hugo visits Brass Castle a week before the annual meeting and planned to travel with Chris to the Budehuc for the meeting.

However at Brass Castle Chris begins to notice Hugo’s unusual behaviour, which was due to Hugo’s rune starting to go berserk like it did during the war. The rune feeds on his emotions and in return adds to his own emotions. It also showed him images of his past, of Lulu’s death and of the atrocities of war.

Chris worries for Hugo but the flame champion brushes her worries off.

With the annual meeting at Budehuc, it is shown at the Castle had been greatly expanded and the number of inhabitants increased. Budehuc, in itself, became a prominent symbol and a rich town due to its location between Zexen and the Grasslands.

Hugo accidentally loses control over his rune and burns a hole in the forest, and he understands that he cannot control his rune any longer. Hugo decides that he has to leave during the night, mainly to avoid the chance of hurting Chris, however Chris discovers this and manages to stop and console him.

However Hugo’s nightmares continue and during one night he almost kills Chris in his mad state.

Hugo decides that enough is enough and leaves for the Sindar ruins, believing that he can only bring pain to others. Chris finds out what Hugo had done and went after him.

Within the Sindar Ruins, Hugo relives the deaths of his comrades as well as being shown the ashen future, but unbeknowst to him, it is actually Lazlo (the protagonist from Suikoden 4) who is hiding within the shadows and influencing Hugo’s rune to go berserk.

Chris arrives at the ruins and sees Hugo fighting hallucinations that only he can see. In his frenzy, Hugo sees Chris as Lulu and tries to attack her.

The two fight and Hugo almost kills Chris before he realises that he is only seeing illusions, and that it was Chris who stood before him. Chris, believing this to be her atonement for murdering Lulu, was more than accepting of the idea of Hugo killing her.

Hugo regains his sanity for a short moment and forces his Rune to burn himself while pleading Chris to end his life as his Rune was on the verge of exploding.

Chris, wanting to save him, jumped into the flames without care for herself, using his Rune to attempt to douse the flame but it too goes berserk due to Lazlo’s interference again.

Seeing their determination, Lazlo releases his grip over their runes and allows Chris to douse the flames.

Lazlo reveals himself to the pair and reveals to them the reason for his interference.

Hugo cannot forgive himself for forgetting his vow of revenge, which was made worse by falling in love with Chris

Chris cannot forgive herself for killing Lulu, and was afraid of loving Hugo due to her past and her status.

The revelations surprised the two of them, and Lazlo tells them that for them to move on and forgive themselves was to work together.

Lazlo decides to train the pair on how to better use their Runes, while making a remark that the reason Jimba doted on Hugo was because he saw a future husband for Chris.

After a while, the pair head back out of the ruins while Lazlo remained in the ruins (he sensed the eventual return of the True Wind Rune).

Upon returning to Brass castle, Borus makes a remark about Hugo and Chris stands up to defend Hugo, deciding then and there to marry Hugo.

The wedding is then held at Budehuc in a mixture style between Zexen and Karayan, as well as symbolising the union between the two sides.

Three Cradles, philosophy and politcs in their natural habitat

The second of the stories that I wrote up for the Light Novel Project, but failed to submit, was titled “Three Cradles”

I was quite troubled over what to call it and it was called: “three sides” while I was writing it. I settled with “Three Cradles” after writing half way.

The story of ‘Three Cradles’ talks about a continent that is split into three groups. The idea behind each group are the three different types of armies, and was initially meant to be much different. It was planned to have magic against technology, but then I threw in one more side.

In Three Cradles, the three sides are all vying for control over the continent and over the central piece of land only known as the “Cradle”, a place where no one knows what is within but everyone simply knows that whoever controls the Cradle will control immense power and will have their desires fulfilled.

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The first group is the oldest, known as the “Church”, but I later changed them to become the “Holy Kingdom”. Acting like a medieval army, they consist of armoured Knights who use swords, spears, lances, shields and arrows. They are the oldest and largest of the three groups and each Knight has an impressive defensive power based off their ‘faith’ that decreases the damage inflicted upon them by the other two groups.

The Church is ruled by a King, but it is the Archbishop of the Cathedral who rules behind the shadows. The Archbishop is backed by the Five Cardinals, each representing the Five tiers of Angelic Hosts in terms of rank from lowest to highest: Principality, Powers, Virtues, Dominion, and Throne.

The armies of the Church are divided into ranks: Militia, Footmen, Man-at-arms, Knight, Executioner and Bishop. Those who excelled in their service would be drafted into one of two groups. The Templars, who serve the King loyally, and the Inquisitors, who serve the Archbishop ruthlessly. There are also Lords, who hold sway over politcal decisions. There are also ‘Saints’, and ‘Valkyries’, but only strict circumstances do they appear, and they are usually not known to anyone, even themselves.

Those who have enough skill are able to use “Verses”, which are religious chants in order to invoke powerful ‘spell-like’ abilities. The longer the verse, the more powerful, is the normal idea.

It is also possible for the Church to summon their ‘Angelic Hosts’, but such an occurrence is rare at best.

The Kingdom is split between the power of the King and the Archbishop and those who support either.

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The Second power is a splinter of the Church, the Mages.

The Mages are, like their name implies, magic users.

Ruled by a Mages Council, the Mages are more ‘nature-tuned’, and their weapons and clothes reflect the fantasy World of magic with cloaks, wooden staff and summoning magic.

The Mages are split into different groups based off their power and forte. The Mages have the most number of groups as diverse as their powers.

There are the basic elements, which every Mage is capable of using, then there are ‘Runes’, ‘Summoners’, ‘Star-Casters’, ‘Magic Knights’, ‘Feng-Sui’, ‘Internals’, ‘Daemon’, and so on.

The Mages are ranked according to power, starting with ‘Apprentice’, ‘Adept’, ‘Wizard’, ‘Mage’, ‘Magus’.

The Council is comprised of the greatest Magus of each school and decide the fate of the Mages.

The Mages are the smallest group amongst the three and their defences are the weakest (except for the Magic Knights). However they are the strongest in attacks and have the ability to heal on the field using healing magic.

Their most powerful abilities are the ‘Avatar’, which is the pinnacle physical manifestation of each school of magic.

The different schools of magic do not agree with one another often, leading to the Mages rarely attacking the other two groups.

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The last of the three groups is known as the ‘Corporation’.

They are based off modern armies with several sci-fi elements such as Walkers and VTOL fighters. Soldiers of the Corporation are also able to deploy energy shields using devices.

The Corporation force is ranked like a regular army and use divisions like a normal army.

The Corporation is splintered into two groups of opposing ideology. Academy, which seeks to understand and progress their nation through knowledge and advancements in technology. Company, which seeks to mass produce things that work and push for promising technology at any cost.

Academy has a ‘Military School’, which trains specialised soldiers such as ‘Special Leadership Class’, and the famed ‘Agents’.

Company employs ‘Mercenaries’ as well as produces the secret ‘Genetic Child Program’, which produces genetically altered super soldiers in the form of children (also called Deus Ex Machina by the Church).

Academy does not condone anything that Company does, while Company sees Academy as being cowards for being too cautious.

The Corporation does not have anything to match the secret powers of the Church and the Mages, however their abilities in strategies and overall balance makes them a formidable force. Among the three groups, the Corporation are also the best at adapting their technology and strategies for the situation that is required. The Genetic Child Program is also feared by some Church members as the Corporation being able to physically create fighters equal to their ‘Valkyrie’ type of fighters, but the Genetic Children are not that powerful.

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The story follows a student of Academy’s Special Leadership Class, Alex Pendragon, who is sent out to a border town that is attacked by the Church.

Alex falls into a giant hole in the ground and finds an large maze like network of tunnels and caverns. He finds an unconscious woman who is unlike anyone he knows to be from the Church of a Mage.

He is soon attacked by giant insects who inhabit the tunnels and is joined by a female Church Knight. Despite their differences, the two join up to fight the insects and soon emerge victorious.

The two took the unconscious woman and tried to find their way out of the tunnels, before meeting a Mage, who was also trapped in the tunnels and fighting large animals.

They joined up and defeated the creatures. The Knight is Sephiria Solomon D’arc, and the Mage is Myrddin Alavane.

The trio soon made their way deeper and find themselves in a large cavern with a giant temple like structure.

They are soon attacked by Inquisitors from the Church, who kidnapped both the unconscious woman and Sephiria, whom they call ‘saint’. The inquisitors were chased away by a Genetic Child, who appeared to be following Alex and the unconscious woman, who is revealed to be a person from the Cradle.

Alex and Myrddin decided that they had to rescue both the ‘Cradler’ and Sephiria as whatever the inquisitors had planned was definitely not good for anyone, and enlisted the help of the Genetic Child, called Alcestis.

Together, they set off for the Holy Kingdom, using killed Inquisitor’s clothes as disguises. Sneaking into the Holy Kingdom, they are immeidately found by a woman (who is a cardinal), and are surprised that the woman also wishes to stop the inquisitors, who were under orders of the Cardinal of Powers. The group team up with members of the Church who are against the plans of the Cardinal.

The Cardinal of Powers is revealed to planning to use Sephiria and the Cradler ‘Eve’ to summon an Angel and increase his own power in the Church to become the next Archbishop. Alex and Myrddin stop the ritual, although Sephiria has the spirit of a power Arch Angel within her already.

The trio escape, fighting the Cardinal of Powers’ forces and finally made it back underground back to the Cradle. The trio realise that the power of the Cradle does not grant power like they believed, but it was the source of all lives and that misusing the Cradle will result in the loss of all life on the continent.

The trio decide to call upon those they trust and form their own group, preventing the corrupted sides of each nation to take advantage of the Cradle for their own uses.

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Sequels will look at the two other nations and how they work.

The first sequel would look at the Mages nation, and will somehow result in an accident which transforms Myrddin into a girl.

It will also result in the Church attacking the Mages and the Mages, due to their inability to come to the same conclusion, are sent into disarray. Myrddin and Alex have to help the Mages rally together to fight back.

The second sequel will look at the Corporation, and reveal that Alex is actually a clone from Company who defected to Academy and was part of the Genetic Child Program’s first few experimental stages. This would look at how the Corporation is divided to the point where war between the two sides become inevitable.

There would be a third sequel which would eventually end the war, but that has no outline yet. Therefore not able to be written out at this point.

Dragonaires, the cursed story reborn

I was tasked with writing a short story for a rather interesting project aimed to allow Japanese readers more choices for English light novels. The goal was to produce easy to read stories and immediately my mind came up with five stories. Unfortunately I was so engrossed in writing them that I failed to meet the dateline.

Of the five stories, only three had some solid plots, one of which was based off my infamous ‘cursed’ story, the story of Dragons.

Named Dragonaires, it is not in anyway related to the pokemon of the same English name.

The name Dragonaires is a mix of the creature ‘Dragons’ and ‘Legionnaires’ of ancient Rome.

Taking place on a floating continent named Dracoterra, a land inhabited by humans, elves, dwarves and many other creatures of fantasy origins. Also inhabiting the land are dragons.

There exist seven different colours of Dragons, and the Dragons chose humans to build the seven nations that govern Dracoterra. The reason for the Dragons choosing humans is due to certain humans having the ability house Dragon souls, which are the closest to the Dragons themselves. Those humans who have the ability to house Dragon souls are called “Dragonaires”, and are able to transform into Dragons, as well as tap into the power of Dragons at will.

The seven great Dragons who helped found the seven Kingdoms are called ‘Ancients’, and rule the kingdoms alongside their chosen human Kings. Each Kingdom follows the colour of the Ancient which co-rules the kingdom, as well as taking on the name of the Ancient. The seven Kingdoms are Red – Alexasdra; Blue – Morianne; Green – Sylvian; Yellow – Hexarash; Brown – Gouralish; White – Tiamat; Black – Bahamut.

The story starts explaining that the seven Ancients suddenly disappeared, throwing the seven kingdoms into disarray and without the ancients to guide them, the human kings wage war against one another in an attempt for more power and land.

That was when a dark and ancient enemy reappears. Called the ‘dark ones’, these are deformed creatures were once wyrvens, the natural enemies of Dragons. The dark ones attacked the Kingdom of Black and nearly reduced it to ruins if it weren’t for the Dragonaires, who rallied the other nations to fight the threat. The ‘dark ones’ were eventually pushed back and disappeared, however the Dragonaires knew that they will return and created their base in Castle Dracoravine, and passed a law between the nations to never conquer all of another nation and to reduce deaths in order to prevent the loss of possible war assets.

The story follows Skye Verias, a young man from Kingdom of Red who is involved with the Dark Ones and is rescued by Dragonaire Shivylie, leader of the White Dragonaire flight.

Skye Verias is brought to castle Dracoravine and it is discovered that he has not one but two dragon souls. Humans can only house one more soul in them, much less two dragon souls. Not only that, but Skye holds a black Dragon soul.

It is revealed that the ones leading the dark ones during each attack is, in fact, an ancient, twisted and deformed by the same darkness that consumed and deformed the wyrvens. And that the Dragon souls within the Dragonaires are in fact fragments of the ancients before they disappeared. The ancient who attacked the Kingdom of Black was Bahamut and with his death, all Dragonaires of the black flight died due to holding onto the soul of the ancient.

The fact that Skye holds two souls and one being a black soul, is impossible. Dragonaires hold the soul of the ancient who governed the land they were born in. Skye was born in the Kingdom of Red and so he holds onto a red dragon soul.

The leaders of the Flights, called Wings, try to understand Skye’s unique ability but are unable to determine it as a new ‘dark storm’ approaches and attacks the Kingdom of White. Shivylie, hearing that it is the ancient White, tiamat, who is leading this attack, she decides to attack with her flight first in order to reduce the damage.

When the rest of the nations and the dragonaires reach the kingdom of white, the battle is already on the way.

Skye fights his way to find Shivylie, who is battling the mad ancient white, and taps into his red dragon power, using his ‘soul weapon’ and fight the white ancient together with Shivylie.

Using the power of his red dragon soul, Skye manages to push the ancient white back and is told by both of his dragon souls that there is a way to save Shivylie after the ancient white is killed, and that it was to split his own soul with Shivylie.

It was revealed by his black dragon soul that the reason why Skye has two souls is that his father was a black Dragonaire, was unsure whether Skye would inherit a black soul, and therefore die, or a red soul following his mother. Skye’s father then split his soul with Skye but was killed in battle. His father’s splitting of souls made Skye inherit his father’s black dragon soul when his father died.

Skye split his soul with Shivylie and used his black dragon soul to kill off the white ancient.

The split was successful and Shivylie gained some of Skye’s black dragon soul power as a result.

And so ends the first story of Dragonaires.

A second story would follow Skye as he aims to rebuild the Kingdom of Black as its new King. Both he and Shivylie are granted permission to act for the sake of their Kingdoms (as long as it does not include waging war). Shivylie aims to help the Kingdom of White and since she shares souls with Skye, they are able to sense what each other are thinking and doing.

Skye, as the new king of Black and the new Black Wing, starts the long process. He meets several people who would become part of his own personal group. One of which is a Dragoon.

Dragoons are explored more in the second story. Dragoons are specially selected warriors who fight side by side the Dragonaires, but do not hold Dragon Souls. They do, however, hold special connections to Dragons and the Dragonaires. They are different from ‘Dragon Knights’ of the various kingdoms, human knights who ride dragons into battle.

The third story will look into Dragon Knights and how Skye must choose a new group of Dragon Knights for the Kingdom of Black. This story will include the first female Elf Dragon Knight, who is also part of a group of powerful fighters native to the Kingdom of Black.

Following stories will look away from Skye and focus on the other characters essential to the story.

Zelda, a step too far part 4

Following Sync’s unlocking of the water medallion, Sync now senses that the kingdom was starting to be engulfed in the same darkness as her mark.

Not knowing what caused the sudden change, Sync heads to Hyrule Castle, only to find it being corrupted and people falling ill like Zelda.

Impa informs Sync that the castle became inaccessible due to the darkness.

Sync needs the other medallions to be unlocked in order to brave the darkness, and so she heads to Kakariko village.

In Kakariko village, Impa introduces Sync to the Shieka clan, who are planning fight back the darkness, but cannot do so until Sync finishes her trials.

The same darkness appears and engulfs the clan, as well as Sync, Dragging them all into the inverse temple.

Sync faces the darkness once more as with the shadow trial.

Sync soon finds various traps that attempts to throw her off and increase her fear of not knowing what lies ahead.

Braving her fears, Sync steps forward and faces against her shadow, who attempts to force Sync back into the darkness.

Sync defeats her shadow and the sage Impa unlocks the shadow medallion.

Telling Sync that Ganon’s revival cannot be stopped, Impa informs Sync that Sync’s decision will decide the future.

With Kakariko village freed, Sync heads to the desert to find the inverse spirit temple.

Upon reaching the temple, Sync finds that the temple seemingly had five copies.

Unsure of where to go, Sync and her companions split up to face a temple each.

Sync’s fear of being alone is compounded within the inverse temple with ghosts of her brother Link taunting her.

At the end, Sync finds the temples converge and regroups with her companions to face her shadow.

Her shadow is accompanied by a shadow link and Sync is forced to fight them both alone as her companions had to face other guardians.

Sync faces the duo and becomes victories.

Sage Nabooru unlocks the spirit medallion and tells Sync that her trial is not yet complete for there exist two more temples, but both within Hyrule castle.

With this knowledge, Sync heads back to Hyrule castle.

The castle is now overrun with undead and creatures from the dark realm.

Sync fights her way to the temple of light, underneath the palace, where the Master sword rests.

Sync, not being the chosen hero, is unable to pull the master sword (rather is rejected out right by it).

The master sword inadvertently opens the way to the inverse temple of light and Sync enters.

The inverse temple of light pits Sync with the fear of the ‘inevitable end’, death.

Sync nearly breaks down but is guided by Zelda’s magic.

Sync finds the final boss, a giant figure shaped like one of the three Goddesses.

Defeating the false Goddess, Sync meets Rauru, the sage of Light, who grants Sync the medallion of Light, which allows Sync to control the darkness that had spread out.

The medallion is unable to stop the darkness from escaping, but is able to divert and delay it.

Using this, Sync makes her way up to Hyrule castle where she finds Zelda, bed stricken with sickness, and a heavily armed man.

The man is revealed to the be baron of the North, who is threatening to attack Hyrule after he was granted powers by Ganon from the dark realm.

The baron almost kills Zelda but Sync rushes in to defend the princess.

The baron fights Sync but is defeated and runs away to summon Ganon.

Zelda uses her power to open up the gateway to the last temple, the True temple of Time

The Temple of Time is slowly being corrupted by the darkness, and places Sync in the trial of ‘Lost Time and Being Forgotten’. A fear of past regrets, of wanting to go back to redo the past, as well as the fear of not being recognised for what she had done and be forgotten forever in history, just as all Links had been.

This is the part which the sage Impa told Sync would affect the future.

A) Should Sync conquer her fear and face the final boss, the temple’s final enemy would be Ganon, who manages to escape from the dark realm and enter this Temple of Time.

Sync fights Ganon and uses the power of her medallions, which react and converts her mark temporarily into the triforce of courage.

Having conquered her fears, Sync had obtained the ‘mark of courage’, and defeated Ganon, sealing him back in the dark realm.

Sync knows that Ganon will return, as she was the one who undid the seals in the first place, but Ganon’s revival will not happen for a long time.

Sync returns to Hyrule and sets off to find a way to cut off her connection with the dark mark, but Zelda assures Sync that the dark mark is forever dormant and that one does not need to be a hero to have courage.

B) Should Sync fail the temple trial, the final boss would be Link himself.

Link was revealed to have never died and that he had been hiding in the shadows, guiding Sync.

Link tells Sync that Ganon is set loose in Hyrule, and that there is nothing to stop him, however there is one thing that Sync must do, and that is to protect Zelda.

Link warns Sync that the Goddesses will flood Hyrule and that she must get as many people as she can to the safety of the mountains.

Sync is sent back to Hyrule in the middle of the war against Ganon and sets off to find Zelda.

Sync is able to convince Zelda to escape, while Zelda’s father, the King, stays behind to seal Hyrule and Ganon and his forces.

Sync guides the people up the mountains just as Hyrule began to flood.

Sync blames herself for her failure to protect Hyrule, despite Zelda’s insistence that Sync was not wrong.

Sync carves and boat and leaves the people as soon as the storm dies, searching for answers and perhaps find her brother one day.

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And so ends the story outline of my Zelda fic.

Yamato

So this is Kusanagi Yamato for my story… She is waaayy to sexy compared to Kou. So I’m going to re-draw Kou. Can’t have the secondary main character looking better than my overall main character.