Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Slayers For the Future: The Prophecy of Inverse ❯ Vendettas and Vagrants ( Chapter 19 )

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of "The Slayers,' or any of these songs.

Chapter 19

Vendettas and Vagrants

(Note: This is a partial songfic, with two different songs, that I do not own either, for separate memories, one from the metal band Gamma Ray entitled "It's a Sin" to depict Hiero Vendetta's opinion of his life on Terrian, how hopeless his fate was to change. The other song is "I am the Wind" from the Playstation game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to depict Hiero's destiny and curse that prevents him from keeping love and making friends because he must always be moving on.)

"You sure he's not dead? His face is still blue….OW!" Justin asked, getting bopped on the head by an irate Lina.

"Because he's still breathing and has a pulse….he hasn't eaten or had anything to drink for a solid week since….he did all that weird stuff in the Lost City. Quit being to eager to bury someone who humiliated your kingdom. Go bother someone with your justice speeches, other than us. Beat it!" Lina growled, shoving Justin away. Justin looked ready to say something, but the look Lina was giving him made him conveniently forget it.

'She could stare a Mazuko into hysterics right now.' Zelgadis thought, keeping himself on the opposite side of Hiero's bed. Their son had been asleep, slowly turning blue in the face, for a week. No spell or action got him to wake up, not even the most powerful clerics available stayed in the hotel room for very long.

They were all afraid of him thanks to Justin's big mouth. The young Saillune prince had wasted no time in telling all of Stylis Acres that Hiero has resurrected the legendary evil Shabranigdo and contain him inside his own body. That made people think the Demon King could burst out of the sleeping man's body at any time. It made everyone so very frightened to stay near where Hiero lay that they left town. Even the innkeeper himself was gone, leaving only a few weeks worth of food behind for the group.

Zel sighed at that thought the moonlight from the window pouring on his back. He really wondered when his son would wake up. If it wasn't soon, they'd have to take off after another week with the remaining food to get to Sakura Village. Hopefully, moving Hiero that distance in his current condition wouldn't be harmful.

Then a thought came to him, somewhere in the back recesses of his mind that kept playing back Hiero's battle with Shabranigdo, all he was doing and what Lina had told him. "Telepathy….why didn't he tell us about that? We wouldn't have hated him for it. Val, did he tell you anything about this?" Zelgadis said thoughtfully, rubbing his stone chin.

Val shook his head rapidly. "Nope, never."

"You're a big fat unjust liar, Val. He told you all about his telepathic abilities in Dynast Grausherra's fairy infested shrine. I can't believe you'd lie for Grausherra's priest! Oops…." Justin said angrily, pointing an accusing finger at Val until he actually began to process what he'd just said," Oh, I'm dead."

"You got that right!" Val snarled and tackled Justin. Zelgadis just balked at the information, not the fight ensuing on the floor. Filia was trying to break it up, but the two men were rolling around and kicking so much, she was never close enough for long.

"Dynast's priest???" Lina said aloud, Zelgadis finding her staring right at Hiero and holding him up a bit by his hair. A split second later she was trying to strangle him.

Zelgadis just stared for a moment until Hiero's eyes started twitching, the he rushed at Lina to pry her off of him.

"Lina….? Don't kill him….we won't learn anything if you kill him! LINA?!" he tried, managing to get one hand off his son's neck, but Lina was doing a good job of choking him with one hand.

"No, he has to wake up sometime. I'll strangle him awake! How dare he join the Dynast after all we did to prevent him from taking up black magic and hating Mazuko! How dare he!!"

"N….gag….choice! ACK!" Hiero choked out, his eyes wide open now and terribly bug-eyes. His face was slowly starting to turn purple with his hands so numbed from sleep that his fingers slapped at Lina's hand all rubbery-like.

"Lina's he's up. HE'S UP!! Stop!!!!" Zelgadis yelled, finally succeeding in getting Lina off and sending her twirl and tripping off into Filia as she was knocked away from Val and Justin once again.

"Ow….what did I do now?" Hiero gagged, shaking his fingers as they still had no feeling in them. "Plenty, priest of the Dynast!" Justin growled, socking Val in the nose. Zelgadis took note of Hiero shocked, yet angry expression. "You told on me behind my back, you little justice freak??! I'm going to beat you senseless….!!" Hiero began, but Zelgadis took this moment to soundly punch his son in the gut.

Hiero grabbed his stomach at that, but didn't go flying like most people would. "Ah….guess the last secret in this world is out. OW! Not the ears!!" Hiero whined, Zelgadis yanking on both ears as Hiero looked up at him.

"How long, Hiero?" Zelgadis asked crisply.

Hiero stopped showing that he was in pain and stared dead into his father's eyes. "Maybe 500 years or so….I forget really, I try anyway. Why?"

Not expecting the truth, Zelgadis was stunned, letting his jaw drop at the frank reply. Before he could speak again, Hiero continued. "But you're wondering why I'd do it, why I am not aging or dying from seemingly perilous wounds, and how the hell I absorbed Shabby with just my hands, as well as who that handsome blonde guy was. Have I covered all your thoughts yet?"

It was said so seriously, Zelgadis just nodded and let go of his ears. "I can't tell you everything with just my voice and mind like this. I have to use the powers Delphine gave me a long time ago. Can you all gather close around the bed so I can get you all in this….it'll be easier this way." Hiero went on.

"Why should we? You've lied too much already." Lina snapped, the only one who was keeping her distance from Hiero and looked really pissed off. Hiero tilted his head to the side, gazing gently at her. "On the astral plane….that will be where the truth lies, mother. You are curious about what I really am as much as everyone else. This isn't about the Dynast, this isn't about Shabranigdo or anything of your world. Its about mine….and who I really am. You do want know, I can hear those thoughts trying to hide from me." he said softly.

"Maybe I am….but what do we get out of it?" Lina spat, taking a slight step forward. "You can understand me," he began, but when she rolled her eyes, he grinned," And you can fire all the spells you want at me and take all my treasure maps when I'm done showing you all everything."

Zelgadis smirked as Lina raced to the bed to be across from him, her greed factor at an all time high. 'Treasure or food, either one will get her to do pretty much anything but…well, sleep with someone she hates. Ah, Lina-itoshii, such a wonder. It's a wonder I didn't let her strangle Hiero. She's right….too many lies and too much deception.' Zel thought.

"Now all of you join hands and I'll complete the circle. This might feel weird, I'm not sure, haven't used this spell in years." Hiero said, smiling as they did as he asked. He completed the circle, clasping his mother and father's hands and slowly shut his eyes.

"Rage of winter, breath of the forest, vengeful flames, and essence of the gods, open the gate to the future past. Let what's been be known in the sphere of time and memory. Reveal the sacred chamber of memories to us." He chanted quietly.

After that, all Zelgadis could see was whiteness, then it became a spiraling twilight.

~ Chamber of Memory ~

The group awoke in a large cavern, one that looked like it was made of water. Every wall was perfectly cerulean and flowing gently up on some walls and down on others.

Hiero was hovering above them in what looked like a perfect, and human-sized sapphire. He looked like he was sleeping standing up. "Hiero! Hey, answer your mother now!" Lina shouted at him, but he made no move to answer her, or any move at all. Another voice answered her instead.

"He can hear you, he just can't oblige right now." Said a familiar masculine voice. The group turned to see the same blond youth from the Shabranigdo battle.

"Dolphin, right?" Justin said cheerfully. The young man's face soured, then he shocked Justin with a bolt of lightening. "Delphine, you ignorant fool. God of Terrian and son to the creator of that world, Moriun. Try and use that thing you call a brain and remember that." The blonde said, his ivory robes billowing gentle about his frail looking frame.

"Delphine, the god within Hiero. That's what you said before. What's that supposed to mean anyway? Hiero's our son….and there's no Delphine here or on

L-sama's other worlds." Lina challenged, to which Delphine smiled, making the group uneasy.

He is your son…..because I made it so. I sent him here after our world passed on. The night you and Zelgadis, heh, heh, consummated your love in that secluded grove, I sent Hiero's soul and life into your womb. I made sure he was born here, since I found this world so perfect for him looking the way he does." Delphine said softly, gesturing with one hand at Hiero.

"You got me pregnant with Hiero? I don't believe it! You explain yourself or you'll be sucking a Dragu Slave!" Lina yelled. Delphine looked unaffected.

"Your powers don't work here because this isn't your mind, its Hiero's and mine. I am trapped inside his body as the Dragon overlord Void, Shabranigdo. Only our powers word, not yours. That's why I can shock the annoying royal brat as much as I want, because Hiero has no qualms about it. Sadly for me, he's in charge now." Delphine chuckled.

"Ugh….this place is stupid. I thought this was the chamber of memories, not a brain." Filia hissed, turning her nose up at the young looking god. "Like we care. My beautiful disciple brought you into the chamber of memories, which actually is the brain, so don't be so picky. Hiero brought you here for the truth, which he's never told anyone in all his 50,000 years of life. Do want to see it or not, we have a life to get back to." Delphine said haughtily.

"50,000??" the group said in unison.

Delphine smiled. "I see your interest have been captured at last. Now, just so you know, you'll be reliving the memories of Hiero Vendetta, the cursed sapphire of the world of Terrian. You can't affect anything, but you will be hearing all of Hiero's thoughts and see everything that happens to him. Just shut and enjoy his life, if you can." Delphine chuckled.

When the group nodded, Delphine became a bright light once more and shot into Hiero. Everything faded away in an instant.

Special Note: This section is very long, and must be put into different categories and sections, or one of the two to fully comprehend each memory of Hiero Vendetta's creation and life. Some parts are shorter than other, just so you know. Take heed, many parts are very abusive, depressing, sick, humorous, odd, and of course its all about Hiero.

The Life Of Hiero Valan Vendetta

Vanity of Vendetta

*Hiero's Creation*

Ravi Tavine the cleric sat quietly in the extravagant mansion of the lovely duchess, Narcissa Marianne Vendetta, looking around at the wonderfully stitched tapestries and marble floors and walls. Narcissa had been the only child born of the proud and rich family of Vendetta and her parents had left her the entire estate, their lands, and crops that made them millions in gold every year in their will. Luckily for Narcissa, her parents died during an attack by the local thieves' guild, the Dark Wolves.

Narcissa was one person people rarely saw in public, as she was extremely vain and felt being outside would damage her perfect looks. Almost every corner of every room in the mansion had a mirror for Narcissa to admire herself. The fact that she had personally summoned Ravi to her home was almost every man's dream, even those of the cloth. She never brought people in for punishment, only rewards or jobs, and if she had a job for him, the local sect would greatly appreciate a generous donation from her.

"Ravi Tavine, of the Delphine Temple, I am glad you arrived ahead of schedule, but I never do anything early. I delight in my schedules, next time be here a few minutes before I told you to be here, not an hour early. It upsets me." a golden voice said from atop the staircase.

Ravi looked up to see her, perfect blonde hair flowing with the expensive silk dress she wore, both littered with many rare jewels. Her eyes were like two perfect sapphires gleaming down on him as she walked down the fine white marble steps, keeping them on him the entire time until she was standing in front of him. She smiled, looking like an angel from heaven. He finally remembered himself and stood up to bow to her, but she waved it off.

"Yes, my lady, it will never happen again. But, why did you summon me, if I may ask?" Ravi asked politely, bowing his head slightly as Narcissa admired her young face in the mirror lovingly.

Just as suddenly she whipped around to face him with," I want to have a baby."

Ravi balked and choked when she said that, backing up slightly. "MY LADY! I am a priest, I am not permitted to do such a thing." He exclaimed. Her expression soured and then she shook her head.

"Not from you, you old dolt. I've already found the perfect father for my child….and he's agreed for a handsome sum to give me a child with his perfect blood, Archmage Byron of the Suluran tribe, the most powerful mage in all the seven kingdoms. Lucky for me he loves money than he loves his dignity. His school of magic will be very well off, as will your church if you perform your famous combination method upon me when we create the child." Narcissa told him crossly.

"How did you know about that spell!? It is only known to high ranking clerics and bishops to create mages to guard the Crystal Gates to stop invasions from other worlds. You would want me to use that on your child?! Why?" Ravi said, appalled at her request.

"Your own Bishop told me….after my bodyguards persuaded him and a few altar boys that they would be better off whole that dismembered. They told me I can create the perfect being through this spell and it's been performed on women before that had trouble baring children. I want someone as perfect, brilliant, and beloved as me to be created from me to let the name Vendetta live on. You will do this….or you'll disappear. I can make it happen, they'll never find you because you will be in so many little bloody pieces, they'll never put you together ever again! I want this done tomorrow night or else, cleric!!" Narcissa hissed, snapping her fingers.

Five large armored men came out of nowhere and surrounded the cleric and Lady Narcissa brandishing swords and hatchets. Ravi gulped as he looked them over, then looked at the haughty and triumphant expression on Narcissa's face.

"A….all right, my lady. You….sigh….you win. I will do it for you." He said, his tone vacant.

"Excellent! Guards, take him back tot he sect and help him gather all the things he needs for the spell. I will wait here for Byron to arrive. By tomorrow, the Vendetta's will make perfection history," She began, then pulled a piece of parchment from the folds of her beautiful dress," And take this, this is all that is needed for the spell. Make sure he doesn't try to mess it up. I can always get another priest to perform this. Kill him if he tries anything funny….and get the bishop to replace him. Understood?!"

The tallest guard nodded. "Yes, your gracefulness. Come on men, the Duchess has given us an order. Let's go." He said, grabbing the cleric by the collar and tugging him towards the large fine cedar doors that led outside.

As they left, Ravi felt a small sense of dread crawl up his spine. 'She's mad with vanity….she's utterly mad!' his mind screamed as he was pulled into the darkened streets.

~ The Next Night ~

Ravi felt particularly sick being forced to do the spell of perfect creation in Narcissa's bedroom with her about to make love to Archamage Byron, dressed in emerald green robes with long brown hair flowing down his back, chestnut brown eyes nervously scanning the room. The Archmage didn't look real pleased he had an audience and had pulled Ravi aside to tell him if he ever told anyone he did this he'd have him excommunicated. Archmages had more pull than the rich, more than common mages.

They could make it happen if they used their magic properly to deface those that got in their way. To be truthful, mages on Terrian were a pack of greedy savages, most of them anyway. Magic was just another way to get rich and impress the extremely rich. The artistic sense and power wasn't what drew people to magic, it was the money and it made Ravi sick to death.

"It's all set up, my lady….and sir. You may….cough….begin while I chant." Ravi said, a rich surge of horrendous bile filing up his throat at the thought of what was about to occur with him present.

He tried to blot the rustling of clothes being taken off and the creak of the bed, then he concentrated hard on the spell when the moans began.

'Delphine, let your holy mother Moriun forgive me for this great sin, but I can't prevent this. I will throw myself upon the mercy of my sect when this is complete and take their judgement with honor. I swear, but please, punish Narcissa for her great sin against you. Punish her forever, I beg of you.' He prayed within his mind.

With that done, he went around the table he'd set all the ingredient and fresh blood inscriptions carved upon the silver and gold runes and made sure he was looking at Narcissa and Byron loving each other. After taking a deep breath, he began the spell.

"By the holy mother, Moriun, and perfect son of the golden sun, Delphine, I must use the power within this world to use all creation to create perfection. The light of the guardians is needed to create life, and I take all magic into one soul. I will begin." He said quietly, the items all glowing a gentle blue.

"Now by heaven, hell, and the astral plane, join together magic of the world! Merge magic of the fairies, dragons, unholy creatures, holy spirits, inhumans, the elementals of earth, air, fire and water, and the magic of the elves, and humans to create perfect life for the glory of Terrian!!" Ravi boomed, the light becoming brighter with ever word until all of the items became the light, shooting off the table to be above the lovers.

With a flash and a pair of pained screams, the light shot through Byron's back and into Narcissa's womb, glowing for a short moment before vanishing into her smooth skin.

"Perfect….I can almost feel the life growing inside me." Narcissa said, rubbing her stomach as Byron got off of her and dressed. "Where's the gold you promised me?" Byron asked in a bored tone as he got his robes on.

Narcissa just smiled and clapped her hands. Two guards came in, and they looked to their employer as if she were still clothed. "Yes, Duchess?" the one on the right said.

"Take Byron to the vaults and give him the million in gold I promised him. Then you give the same amount to Ravi's sect. He'll be staying with us for a while." Narcissa smiled at the guard, slowly pulling the covers over her body. The guard nodded and led Byron out of the room. Ravi just looked terribly shocked, his eyes and body quivering dangerously.

"WHAT?!" Ravi yelped, but Narcissa was ignoring him. "My other guard will lead you to your new quarters. You will be the one to help me birth this baby….others would want this pregnancy ended because of how it was done. Only you will be allowed to let this baby be born….then you can leave. For now, get comfortable. Take him away and be sure to put him in a room without windows. And lock his door. Nothing is to go wrong in my perfect plans. Soon, I'll have a perfect legacy for my family."

~ 9 Months Later ~

"I can see the head, Lady Narcissa. Push harder. Harder! It's almost out!" Ravi urged a groaning and pained Narcissa at the food of her bed. The young and very pregnant duchess was screaming as she pushed for the tenth time in three hours.

She'd gone into labor during a poetry reading in her study, resulting in her punching several of her attendants and poets out cold as the pain struck her. It took all of her guards to restrain her and get her to one of the servant's rooms while one of the conscious attendants went to fetch Ravi.

Now the baby was coming, whether anyone was prepared or not. With the push Narcissa forced out with her teeth gnashing together loudly and face turning red, the entire head and up torso of the baby came out. "One more, as hard as you can, it's almost here." Ravi coaxed. Narcissa complied with a screaming push, forcing the rest of the little baby out of her body.

He quickly cut the umbilical cord with a dagger, tying the remains on the bay into his bellybutton. It was a boy, squirming and gasping, not crying. Ravi spanked it anyway, making it cry and squirm hard. "It's a baby boy, duchess. Your attendants can clean him up while I heal your wounds." Ravi said. Narcissa nodded, still recovering from the pain. Ravi swiftly handed the baby boy off to a pair of female attendants, pointing them towards the basin of warm water and cloths he'd had them prepare and set on the servant's desk while Narcissa was in labor. Narcissa had the finest blankets brought in to wrap her baby in, set right beside the basin of water.

He cast a few healing spells on Narcissa's split womanhood, restoring it to it's former state, but Ravi was still wary of how Narcissa would react to the stretch marks on her once smooth and perfect body. 'Best wait until she tells me I can go, then take my punishment and live this place. The kingdom of Riusa is not the only place that has churches and temples. Perhaps they will overlook my sin in this boy.' He thought, slowly backing away from the duchess and her guards to go attend t the baby.

The attendants were not near the wrapped up and cooing baby, rather staring from a few feet away, cowering as he got closer. "Don't….father, its his eyes. His hair….he's, he's a freak." One of them whispered.

Ravi had seen the baby first, male and bluish purple covered in discharge and blood, like all babies, healthy ones anyway. He hadn't seen any alarming features on the child at that point, which made him wonder what was scaring the attendants. He slowly stepped up to the desk and peered at the baby.

His heart felt weak at the sight of a much cleaner baby, able to see his hair and small eyes staring up at him happily, reaching for him with playful and tiny fingers. His eyes were like that of a demon, but as pure blue as sapphires, the irises missing. What little hair the baby had was as blue as his eyes. 'Blue hair….Moriun in heaven, what have I done? I've created a freak of nature with the most sacred of guardian spells. Forgive me.' he thought, his mind racing with all the punishments he'd receive if he was ever revealed as the creator of this baby.

"Let me see my….son. Priest Ravi, NOW!" Narcissa commanded, though he voice was weak from the labor. Ravi took a deep breath before picking the baby up, trying to avoid looking at its cooing form for as long as he could manage. He gently put the baby in its mother's arms, noting her surprising loving look towards the odd child. It giggled at her and put one small fist against her cheek, then gurgled.

"Hmm, not what I had expected….but a boy will never rival my beauty as a girl would. He's perfect, Ravi. You have done well." Narcissa smiled, kissing her baby's forehead.

"Then I suspect I can take my leave of this place." Ravi replied, backing away. "Yes, and this will remain between us. When I deem the time to be right, my son will join the ranks of mages. He can be male in perfection while I am female perfection. My guards will take you back to your sect. Do not return here ever again or your life is void," Narcissa sighed, waving him off," Now leave me, all of you. I wish to be alone with my son, Hiero, as in 'i' before the 'ero.' Let us have the night together."

Ravi was dragged out without much effort, the people in the room leaving mother and son alone. When the door was shut tightly, the sounds of footsteps slowly silenced, Narcissa smiled more deeply at her gurgling son. "Hiero Valan Vendetta, your middle name from my late father. You will be a great and powerful made, making our family even richer than before. Yes, my little Hiero. You'll be the envy of the entire kingdom, I promise you that, my sweet." She said in a sweet baby voice, getting the baby to giggle and clasp at her fine blonde hair.

10 Years Later

Freak of Nature:

*Hiero's Childhood*

"Freak!! Go back to the circus, Hiero Vendetta!" a tall red-headed boy yelled, punching Hiero square in the jaw. He fell backwards upon contact, tears and blood staining his pale cheeks.

"You have no right to treat me like this! My mother says I'm a perfect angel with a sacred name! Take it back, Brunus! Argh!" Hiero cried, fighting back pained tears as a little girl kicked him in the gut and spit on him.

"Yeah, Selphie! Show the freak we're better than he is. He's a weak little abomination! That hair, those demon eyes, a freak through and through," Brunus taunted as the girl kicked Hiero again," Worthless, all you have going for you is your last name. You bring nothing but shame to the Vendetta's. Your mother is the devil's whore. Hah, hah, hah!! Freak! Freak!"

"Yeah, little blue-haired creature….you're not like any of us. We're all normal and you're a weak little ugly monster!" Selphie scoffed, grinning wildly.

Hiero growled at them, but instead of getting up, he thrust his body at Brunus and bit his exposed ankle, the white pant leg staining with boy's youths' blood.

Brunus screamed and fell over, giving Hiero the perfect chance to punch the boy's face repeatedly. Selphie tried to yank him off, but Hiero scratched at her hands a few times and kicked back in her own stomach to force her away from the object of his rage.

He had been punching the pleading and crying bully for a good 10 minutes before adults showed up and dragged the two boys apart. They yelled at Hiero for 'starting' the fight by acting smart in school, or in reality, being smarter than the other rich kids. He'd replied haughtily that it was a stupid thing to be accused of, for the point of school was to be smart.

Brunus and Selphie had been two of the many children he'd humiliated in the local educational contests to gain awards for great intelligence. He'd won second place to another young man who had openly spit at him, but Hiero had gotten more questions right and much faster than the other kid had.

Brunus and Selphie got nothing, so they were very bitter, like all the other losers, but those two had more guts to attack Hiero from behind on his way home. Their parents were also very close to his mother, so they had no fear of repercussions. Hiero's mother never punished anyone for harming or belittling Hiero. He had ruined her beautiful body when he was born and to make matters worse, many men and women commented in front Narcissa on how strangely beautiful Hiero was. Some had even been stupid enough to say he was more beautiful than Narcissa was, though they didn't live very long or come out the same after saying it.

Hiero had never thought much about it. He wasn't really judgmental on looks, he looked towards the inside rather than the outside. He thought he was a decent person and that his mother was a goddess. He loved her more than anything on Terrian, even his own life. She never called him a freak. He was her little angel.

Hiero just let the woman carrying by his britches carry him home, not even tending to his bloodied lip. His white clothing, much like what a prince would wear to a ball, embroidered with gold thread. The shirt under his white jacket was a light blue, each button made from priceless silver. Most children of very rich families wore them, the boys anyway.

His heart leapt with delight when he saw his mother's mansion coming into view, making him squirm and start to slap at the woman's hands. "Stop it, you little monster. Your mother can deal with you….as if she ever would, the stupid slut." The woman muttered. Hiero became enraged by her words and bit her hand. She dropped him, screaming out in pain. As she did so, Hiero promptly kicked her hard in the shin before running off to the mansion. "My mother's a goddess and you're the whore. You're lucky you haven't seen what I am truly capable of. Not just swordplay, I can do more than all of you weak fools combined. I'll show you. I swear it! You'll all praise me someday!" he cried out, tears streaming freshly down his face.

~

Hiero ran up for his mother's room, despite words from their servants that he should get cleaned up. He fought his way past them and even resorted to stomping their feet to reach his mother's chambers. When he did, she was in the middle of a bath, the large golden tub set in the corner of her chambers filled to the brim with water and bubbles, her hair being hand washed by three females servants. "Mama!" he cried, and got the most appalled look from her.

"Hiero, what did you do to your new clothes? Those cost a lot of money!" she scolded. Hiero looked at himself shamefully, his hands littered with scars and dried blood, just like his chin, his clothes stained all over with his blood.

He looked back up at her sadly. "I'm sorry, Mama, but Brunus and Selphie jumped me after the contest today and beat me up. They called me a freak and a monster again and you a whore. Mama, they won't stop bothering me, no one will. Why do I have to look like this….they'd leave me alone if I looked like them. Mama, why?" Hiero whimpered, clasping his tiny hands together.

"Hiero, you're very beautiful, even for a boy. You'll always be my little angel and that's all that counts. Those other children are inbred trash, not perfect like us. You don't need their love, just mine and the love of money. That's all. How many times must I tell you that." Narcissa told him, then gestured to one of the servants washing her hair.

"I know, Mama, but no one respects me. What good is the money or power if I don't have respect. I'll always be a freak to them, Mama. You're the only one who understands." Hiero sniffled, looking curiously at the attendant that took him by the arm.

"I always will, little sapphire angel. Now let Sylvia take you for your bath and clean your clothes. Then you and your magic tutor can have your final lessons. They will all soon respect you once they see Archmage Byron has chosen you as his protégé. Those bratty children will be green with envy of your genius, my son. Now go get cleaned up. No child of mine will have any sort of filth on him in front of such powerful people." She sniffed.

Hiero just nodded and let the woman lead him to his own room, sulking all the way. 'Maybe Archmage Byron will tell me more about the dark arts. If not, I'll have to use a different strategy than innocent curiosity. He's always watching me, so it'll be difficult. I want to be left alone, this is the only way to gain their respect, by being the best at everything, lousy snobs.' He thought.

~ The Mansion's Library ~

"Now, what element is within the Tsu Rushspell, Hiero?" Byron asked, a little gray showing in his long once fully brown hair, his green robes about him in perfect grace.

"Water, we've been through this already. I've already learned all the elemental, physical, and mentality spells, can't we learn some new stuff on your last day here? How can I be your protégé when all I know are three elements of the art of magic?" Hiero said, a little too angrily. Byron noticed this, and the tears filling the boy's eyes.

"You had another scuffle, huh boy? I hate to keep telling you this, but no matter how powerful you are….those children won't look past appearances. You're different, you know that, but special, something they have no hope of attaining. Its jealousy, pure and simple. I will not teach you the devastation magic of the demons and dragons until you learn to control your anger. Those spells stay safely in my bag until that day. Hopefully you'll see it my way someday. Now back to your lesson. The element of Sep Cama?" Byron said gently to the tearful child.

"Hallucination, white magic." Hiero said in a rather bored tone.

"And Spiro Gush?" Byron asked.

"Fire, elemental magic. Are we done yet?" Hiero said quickly, still sulking.

"Stop being obstinate. You have to go over this with me to be eligible for the blessing at Delphine's temple next month. The great son of our goddess only visits the temple once a year to bless this city, you know. I'm just trying to spend as much time with you as I can on my last evening here." Byron told him, patting his sapphire hair. Hiero just looked up at him curiously. "Why? You're just my teacher." The child put out.

Byron twitched inwardly, sorrow secretly overtaking his own heart. Narcissa had paid him a handsome amount of money for providing young and beautiful Narcissa with a child, but that was all she asked of him, then. Two years later she'd called upon him again to tutor their son, but had happily informed him that she told Hiero that his father was dead. Byron hadn't cared much at the start about that, but being treated by his own son like a total stranger, nothing more than his magic tutor grew to be rather heartbreaking after the years passed. Now Hiero was ten, almost a teenager, and was as vulnerable and emotional as he had been when he met him.

Every afternoon Hiero came home with bruises or spit and blood on his body, crying to his uncaring mother about bullies beating him up over his hair and eyes. Byron had been more caring in the matter as Narcissa was deeply resentful of her son's beauty and was more concerned with keeping her now aging body beautiful. Mirrors were what she looked at when Hiero tried to get her attention. She'd appease the boy with words of small praise like angel or beautiful, then have a servant take him out of her sight. He never dared tell Hiero she was lying, lest shatter the boy's only real companion he thought he had. Hiero loved his mother more than anything, but it was a blind love, something only a child could give, to be so trusting and yet so foolish just so someone would love them.

He felt bad for Hiero and voiced it to Narcissa, who brushed him off and said," Let him get over it." Byron stayed as Hiero's tutor longer because of her belittling words to make sure Hiero wouldn't use his teachings out of anger, the worst thing for a mage to have while casting. Many innocent people had been killed by vengeful mages, which was why only Byron chose those worthy to wield magic in the kingdom, but Narcissa's money made him foolish and greedy. His greed had blinded him to the fact that Hiero, better than anyone, would become very bitter as time went on.

Byron deeply regretted Narcissa spoiling, or at least trying to spoil Hiero. She got him whatever he asked for, even a rare demon sword that was up for auction by some traveling mages from the elfin kingdom of Galah. It was about the size Hiero was now as a ten-year-old, but the boy had mastered strength spells rather quickly, as he did the other magic Byron had taught him. In no time, Hiero was challenging even the knights of the royal family to sparring matches to get stronger and faster than all those gifted with swords. He had beaten all of them when he had been so bold as to challenge the king himself. He beat the man, but had been reprimanded b y everyone in school about being such a hot shot and braggart.

No one believed Hiero had beaten any of the knights or even the king because those men wouldn't admit they'd been defeated by a five-year old boy. Byron knew he wouldn't have acted any differently. Hiero's skill in magic was growing just as rapidly as Hiero's appetite for power and respect, not getting any of the respect he actually deserved because of his odd appearance. Byron couldn't figure out how anyone could give birth to child with blue hair and blue demon eyes when both parents were normal, but then there was the spell of the guardians Priest Ravi had used on them during Hiero's creation.

Not that Byron cared, but he hadn't seen or heard from Ravi after Hiero's birth. The man had been excommunicated, from what he'd heard, and left the kingdom to atone for his sin. 'We are all guilty of cursing this child with a damned future. The poor child….what he goes through everyday makes me wish I had refused Narcissa's deals. Too late for regrets, I suppose in the afterlife, I will be justly punished for these sins, as will that witch he calls his mother.' He thought, staring thoughtfully with a smile at the boy.

"I just like you, Hiero. You're my best student. You learned these magic spells faster than most of my previous students. No, that's not it….Hiero, I need to tell you something, this being my last day." Byron said softly.

~

Hiero looked on curiously. "Hiero, I'm…." he began but a loud knocking at the door interrupted him," Damn….not now."

"Sep Cama…." He cast quietly, waving his small hand at the distracted Byron. He had been eager to hear what he wanted to say, but this was his chance. He could blame it on fatigue or that the guards got rough with him, mother's idea. He wouldn't be coming back, so this was Hiero's last chance to get what he wanted.

As soon as Byron passed out, Hiero dumped out his bag to let books and scrolls come tumbling out of it. "Lovely….the art of demons, dragons and other inhumans. Ah, and this one has fairy magic, and this for elves…..but I can only read so fast….Ah, I have it. A cover is a cover, and he can't come back in to claim them. Gotta work fast," Hiero told himself, another knock erupting," Just a minute, one more spell please."

"Yes, Master Hiero. One minute, then Byron has to go back to the School of Magic. Other people need his teachings." A manly voice let out gruffly.

Hiero caught his breath and started yanking the leather covers off of the books he wanted, then went to the books on the walls, grabbing the thickest ones. He tore their covers off and stuffed the innards of the books on myths and politics within the magic entitled covers. 'No time for stitching, this will have to do until he leaves.' Hiero though, stuffing the false magic books back inside the bag and tucked the real pages of magic under his tutor's plush chair. After looking over the scrolls for a while, he found nothing useful, except one.

"Emeras Bakuha? That summons the power of the prince of darkness, Vermin. This will be great to keep." Hiero giggled, shoving that under the chair as well before running for the door to bang on it. "We're done, but Byron fainted. Come in, quickly." Hiero cried out, not expecting to get the door in the face so quickly as the door whipped inward. He flew back a few feet, a bright red mark on his cheek from the hit. The guard ignored him and went to Byron.

"This makes it easier to send him on his way. Poor man, this is a must be killing him to leave his….star pupil. Ah well, you can see him each year at the temple when Delphine blesses our great kingdom. Go to your room, Hiero. My men and I will send Archmage Byron on his way." The burly guard told him, and Hiero nodded rapidly.

"Yes, sir. You can count on it. Make sure you tell him you just roughed him up. If it ever got out that such a mage fainted he would be a laughing stock. Mother wouldn't want that." Hiero said.

"As you wish, Master Hiero. Good Night." The guard said, hoisting Byron over his shoulder and grabbing up his bag of books before leaving. Hiero waited until he couldn't hear anymore footsteps, then gabbed up all the books and scroll. He ran for his bedroom as quickly as possible, plans to make his dreams come true already forming in his little head.

'I'll put my demon sword to good use now. I know what I have to do to make them respect me. They respect the god Delphine and mother goddess Moriun so much, if I were to beat one of them, I'd be respected for all times. Yeah….! That's just what I'll do. I'll learn all the magic of hell and make them all sorry they ever called me a freak. I will.' Hiero thought, a pleased smile taking over his lips.

Cursed Battle With Delphine

Hiero had waited a long and seemingly endless month to go to the temple, earlier than anyone else. He'd been taught that the great god Delphine came to the temple at precisely midnight and waited for the human of the kingdom to pay tribute at dawn. He wasn't very sure what Delphine did other than provide holy protection on the temple. No one told the 'freak' what Delphine was for other than blessings.

Hiero didn't care either way, what matter was that Delphine would arrive in five short minutes and Hiero would be his first sight, and most definitely his last sight. He simply found a large altar to hide behind and waited, would wait to take down Delphine.

The last thing Hiero had done before leaving the house was having tea with his mother. She'd been a bit withdrawn, but that was nothing new. He assumed it was her longing to be with his father again, whom she'd said died in a fire.

"Mother, are you upset about something?" he'd asked politely, not wanting to bring up his father again, knowing how it pained her. She had given him a quick and gentle smile as she set down her tea, the warmth radiating from her angelic face. "No, Hiero, I am sorry you were not invited to Delphine's blessing at the temple. That sod Byron broke his promises to you. I am just very sorry you were left out….over their jealousy." She'd said quietly, getting up from her chair slowly to walk to his. He looked up with wide, patient eyes, his mouth opened slightly like a baby bird. She kissed him on the forehead softly, smiling again at him.

"They're all jealous of you. Someday, they will learn the error of their ways. You'll see, my precious angel," she'd smiled, touching his cheek gently as she back towards the door," Now, if you will excuse your mother, I must get my beauty sleep. I love you, little Hiero."

She had blown him a kiss, making Hiero smile. "I love you too, Mama. Always," Hiero had said, watching her leave," And you'll be right as of tomorrow. I'll make them all sorry."

He did so love his mother, she was the only one who accepted him, other than Archmage Byron. Hiero was looking forward to making her right tonight, very soon.

As the last minute counted down, Hiero pulled out his demon sword he'd so begged his mother to buy him, among other things. He had come prepared with Byron's forbidden spells locked in his head, his demon sword, and of course, his smarts. He also had a small, enchanted dagger, but it was just in case. A god wouldn't even expect anyone to take him on, let alone a small child.

Hiero swiftly started to dismantle the fine stone altar with his sword, casting fire and earth spells to decimate other portions as well. 'This will get his attention.' He thought.

Hiero got his wish a few seconds later as the temple filled with a bright, blinding light. The small sapphire-haired boy just looked away until the light died away. When he looked back, he saw a young man with blonde hair, bangs hiding his eyes from view. He was dressed in pure white robes. He wasn't glowing or anything, but Hiero knew who it was, God Delphine. He looked distressed rather than angry, looking around at his desecrated temple.

He slowly found Hiero after a few minutes of looking around, smirking slightly as Hiero took a few steps forward. It left only a foot between them, but Delphine didn't seem alarmed. "Why did you do this, Hiero Vendetta? I didn't make you look like that….though I must say you're rather cute." Delphine said, his voice sounding as if it was everywhere.

Hiero shook it off, his sword held low, but his eyes were looking dead at where he suspected Delphine's eyes were. "I've come to fight you. It's the only way to gain the respect of this stupid city." Hiero proclaimed.

Delphine chuckled a bit and ignored Hiero, lifting his arms up gently. They began to glow and soon let out a divine light. "I don't have time for whining little boys. I'm sorry if everyone detests you, but you blame your wicked mother for that. She's the reason you're so different. I have to repair the damage you've done or ack!" Delphine had been saying very obstinately, his focus not totally on the young boy challenging him. He never saw Hiero's blade coming and even if he had, he never would have expected it to hurt. He was a god after all, Hiero knew such a small boy wouldn't be taken seriously by anyone in a fair fight.

Hiero impaled Delphine swiftly with his blade once through the chest, the demonic energy from the blade poisoning Delphine's holy body the longer it remained inside. Hiero didn't smile, his expression was hard and of total seriousness. "I said I wanted to fight. It's nothing personal, but if I defeat you, no one will hurt my mother or me. How dare you call my mother wicked!? Your mother did this to me, she made me this….freak that everyone calls me. Well, I won't be a freak anymore, no way. They'll all fear me so bad, no one will dare utter those hurtful words again. HAH!" Hiero cried, yanking the sword out fast to spin around and catch a shocked Delphine in the back, golden blood splashing across Hiero's face.

Delphine cried out, falling onto to his undamaged side covered in his godly blood, the poison of the demon sword filling his body with ungodly pain. "Stop this now! My mother will rage if you kill me….stop this, Hiero! You don't need to do this." Delphine said hoarsely, but Hiero shook his head, taking the sword out again. He didn't strike, there was no need. All he had to do now was wait a few minutes for Delphine to bleed out, then he'd take his head, to end the pain.

Yet, when he saw the pain and sorrow on Delphine's face, he wanted to end it sooner. He didn't like this, but this seemed to be the only way out. Gods were respected, they had power, if Hiero destroyed that power, the pain would stop coming after him. "I'll end it now, Delphine, you're suffering. I thought this would be quicker," Hiero said, touching Delphine's hand to squeeze it," The pain's going to stop now."

Delphine cried out again, but this time Hiero cried out with him. His hand hurt, it felt like it was being burned off. "OWWW!! What's going on, it hurts! IT hurts!!! BURNS!! STOP IT!" Hiero cried out, trying to get his hand free of Delphine's as hard as Delphine was trying to free his own hand, but to no avail. It was like their hands were melding together.

Hiero kept pulling, trying to shove Delphine away with his other hand, but that hand went ablaze with pain the second he touched the god's face. "Ah no!! What's going on?! Arghhhhh!!" Hiero wailed, light of every color filling the temple.

"You….you're creation, all of those elements of magic….they….I don't believe it, you're absorbing me! No! Magic absorbers were all destroyed 5,000 years ago….arghh, Ravi, you fool cleric, you recreated the cursed race! I can't stop this, Hiero….you won't be able to let go! You can't until….we merge!" Delphine gasped, already up to his shoulder on Hiero's one hand, his mouth half there on the other.

"MERGE?! What are you talking….ab….AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" Hiero screamed, his little eyes scrunching up tight as the screams just kept flying out of his throat as Delphine got sucked further into Hiero full spread palms. Everything seemed like a bright nightmare, the pain more than Hiero could stand until after what seemed like an eternity, he passed out.

~

Hiero woke up to a bucket of ice water being dumped on his small body, his limbs feeling heavy and his body weak. He didn't see the temple anymore, all he saw was a leaky roof of wood and barred window to his left. He sat up slowly, still a little dazed from the battle with Delphine. 'Did it even happen? I can't remember what happened….I touched him, and the pain started….then….then….then I can't remember what happened after that. Where on Terrian am I?' he thought, his sapphire eyes scanning his surroundings a little more carefully.

He was lying on a floor littered with wet hay, a small blanket with a hole in it was in the right hand corner and a barred door was behind him. The rest of the room was darkened, and very hard to see through. "Jail? They put me in jail? We have no such jail like that in Riusa." He whispered.

"You're in Galah, freak. There's no such thing as Riusa anymore. Don't you know that?" said a gruff voice. Hiero looked right at it with frightened eyes, seeing a tall elfin man stepping out of the darkness. "What? What did you say? My city….is….gone? But….how?" Hiero whimpered, tears streaming down his face.

The elf in black, his long dark hair and emerald eyes all seeming to mock Hiero, shrugged. "No one knows. About a month ago travelers saw the entire kingdom explode in a ball of light. By the time they got there with some of Galah's soldiers, everything was gone no buildings, no water, no crops, and other than you, not a single soul left intact. They found you in the center of the city just lying there unconscious with golden slime all over you. You wouldn't wake up, so no one objected to selling you to the royal family."

"Selling me? As a slave?" Hiero yelped, the man smiling at that. "Slave is a filthy word, servant is better. You'll be serving the king's daughter, Ula, for the rest of your miserable human life. You shouldn't have taken a nap for so long. We were starting to think we'd been cheated out of our money for a while there. You just refused to wake up." The man said, stepping close to grab Hiero up by his britches.

"A month is gone….my city, my mother….My mother is dead. I….I didn't mean to….I never wanted….I never dreamed. No. NO!" Hiero began to weep, but the man just sighed.

"Whatever. Time to get you in the proper attire. No more need for this place….unless you misbehave. Whatever you do, don't call the princess spoiled, ever. She'll send you back here faster than you can blink….if you're lucky. The last servant boy got fed to the bug bears in the pit below this castle. That's a little private advice, freak."

"My name is Hiero, jerk. Hiero Vendetta….I, ah who cares anymore. Who cares….I ruined everything being so stupid….so vain. Mother…forgive me, please. I didn't mean to. I didn't….Mama." He cried, his voice slowly losing volume as the man took him out of the cell and to a stairwell.

~ 15 Years Later ~

Princess Ula sat in the courtyard of the palace in her new emerald colored gown, sipping fine and expensive tea on a white marble bench. She looked with a pleased smile at the roses, so perfectly tended by her favorite servant, at least she had to say that to keep him around. He was checking the gardens again at her request, since she'd found a few flaws in a patch of them, bug infestation. He may have had a way with plants and animals, but with people he had a forked tongue, swearing up a storm if anyone made comments about him. He took her insults better, probably because he knew the consequences or rather he didn't really care to bother.

He was a mystery, even for a human, and weird looking. Hair like brilliant sapphires and eyes as blue but like that of a demon. He showed that he had been willing to serve her, more out of atonement for something he didn't care to discuss. Occasionally she heard him ask forgiveness from Moriun and his mother, so she assumed he did something to offend or hurt them. She didn't care, he was pretty harmless and small when they got him from the slave traders.

'And very pretty. I thought it was little girl before he actually spoke. Very quiet for child, normally human children are livelier. Hiero Vendetta, the name the guard said he told him to replace 'freak,' was like a little blue angel with the eyes of the devil, but he was very intelligent, and that's why she wanted to keep him. He saved her a lot of time and money in hiring spies to check out possible suitors and those she was having peace and money conferences with. To have the exotic human slave around was better than listening to stuffy advisors with no spines. Hiero was young and agile, perfect for crawling into small places and hiding in rooms to find out what she desired. Picking locks was also a great talent, so he could get into any room anywhere in the kingdom, but he never left the palace. There had been a servant uprising, but he didn't participate, even as capable as he was of doing it and not getting caught.

"Your highness, it is handled." Hiero said, snapping her back to reality. She found him staring rather blandly, as always, at her, dressed in his blue leggings and tunic, not the customary color for royal slaves, but it suited his wild looks.

His hair was wilder, not because of the color, but due to the bangs that hung slightly below the level of his chin, a dark headband of cheap leather seen across his forehead to keep it from getting in his face. She could see both eyes, staring so patiently, yet uncaring, as if he wanted to die but had not the gall to say it. She just smiled at him and stood, handing him her tea. "Good work, servant. Now, follow me to the great hall, father is bestowing knighthood on the next generation of elfin warriors." She said happily. He just raised an eyebrow and pursed his lips slightly.

"Why must I go, your highness? I already spied on the next generation for you so they could be chosen for this day. Aside from that, servants aren't allowed at the proceedings or the reception party unless they are serving food….unless that's what I am to do." He said quietly, putting his arms behind his back.

She giggled, sweeping her long raven-black hair over her right shoulder and batted her green eyes at him. "You're so dull, always following orders. You know I said I was sorry for all those times you got disciplined for talking back to my family and I, and several guests, I might add. Don't make me regret stopping those beatings by sending you back down to the dungeons. You will come, or face the consequences." She said sweetly.

Hiero frowned, then nodded in defeat. "Yes, your highness. As you wish." He said, his tone a bit harsh. She didn't care, and grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back into the palace.

~ The Great Hall ~

'By Moriun, I hate this. What I wouldn't give to strangle the jackass that put me here. Hah, Ula did me favors by saving me? Stupid, high-riding bitch sister of hers, Averis, she's the one I really hate. She made Ula feel guilty about letting her discipline me when her tantrums went too far. She's gotten better, but her sister hasn't. That sneak brat is always trying to get me in trouble because I'm human and Ula actually likes me, I taught Ula manners and prowess in speech. I don't fight my discipline….why should I? I'm worse than Averis, I murdered my entire race and I can't remember how it happened. This is my punishment…..it has to be. My magic has refused to work since that day….so I guess my fate is sealed. At least I'll die from old age eventually. This family can't keep annoying me forever, but at this rate, I might kill myself.' He thought with rancidity, his arms crossed over his chest at the reception party, foods and drinks of the best elfin quality.

And he wasn't allowed to touch a scrap, even if he said he was starving he wouldn't get even a crumb of dirty bread. Servants ate servant food, stuff that kept them strong enough to walk and talk, but not much else. He growled inwardly when Ula and a male friend of hers were chatting up a storm and daintily suckling on some grapes and cheeses. She occasionally snuck him some food, in recent years anyway, but it was usually leftover scraps from the wash room. He had to give her a smile for the effort. It was more than anyone else had done for him.

He was very hungry, since all he'd been given was bread and meat for breakfast, which was what he got every damn day with a wooden cup of warm water. It was a disgusting meal to what he was used to when he had a life in Riusa, but that kingdom was dead, because he was such an ambitious fool. 'I deserve this….but it really is a bother. Atonement is such a pain….nah, this is nothing compared to everything Ula used to do to me. Letting her royal brat girlfriends grope me as a child and pull my hair and smack me, all those men she had whip me for acting smart, and insulting me in public, showing me off like I'm her own private freak show. Glad I got her to grow out of that, shame Averis never learned.' He thought, a grim smile crossing his lips,' They wouldn't be so high and mighty if I had my magic….no, magic got me into this mess. That's why it was taken away, because I sealed my fate with Delphine's death.'

His thoughts were interrupted, rudely, with a slap and something warm sloshing across his face. Not that it was nice, it was some of the fancy soup the guests were eating. As much as he could lick off his lips, he was still very annoyed and looked in the direction it had been flung from.

It was Averis, Ula's little brat of a sister and one of her competitors for possible suitors. He had not been given to her as she already had a mess of male servants spilling her rotten, and she had refused to let a freak be one of her servants. He didn't like her, more than anything he despised her and her temper tantrums. On numerous occasions she had him chained to the dungeons walls to be whipped, dunked, beaten, and nearly castrated, if he hadn't been able to make Ula less like her.

True, he had spied on all the suitors for Ula, not Averis, to weed out the back-stabbers and weaklings. However, Averis had asked him to tell her first of what he found, so she could get the better man and not Ula, to which Hiero refused and called her a spoiled slut. He later denied it to the king himself and said he was with Ula, the lie Ula let him use whenever he was doing jobs for her.

'Revenge never tasted so good….no one can punish me for this, even if my clothes smell like beef. It's something.' He thought, then got punched from the right again. It was one of the new knights, with a grinning Averis beside him. "What is it, your worship? Servant abuse with a deadly bowl of soup not good enough?" He replied crossly, getting another punch. 'Idiot, you're pissing me off.' He thought, snapping his sore face right back in the knight's direction.

"He called me a slut again! Everyone, the slave called me a slut!" she whined, faking tears and hurt in her green eyes. She looked a little like Ula, but her dark hair was in a short braid and she was a bit underdeveloped, but she was still young yet, a teenager for an elf, but a lousy brat all in all.

Hiero thought about this for a few minutes, all eyes on him, even Ula who looked a bit frightened. Her male friend was looking angrily at him. Hiero smiled at Ula, then looked back at the knight.

"If the shoe fits." He said so seriously, the knight balked a moment.

Then he decked Hiero, or at least tried to. Hiero stepped out of the way and let him crush his hand on the wall behind him. "Hmm, maybe you're not as good as I thought. You let a little spoiled brat tart like that drag you around by your balls less than 10 minutes after you get knighted. Pitiful." Hiero smirked, dodging another anger filled punch. Ula looked funny, like she was trying not to giggle. 'Don't laugh or your father will think Averis is more fit to rule than you.' He thought, backing up from each punch obstinately, smiling a little too smugly, towards one of table of food.

"Take back those words, you freak slave." The knight roared, taking out his sword. Hiero put his hand to his heart. "Now I have a right to fight you, jackass, you just called Princess Ula freak out loud. Tsk, bad form. If I am going to die, I'll die fighting, not begging like a common slave. Come on, hit me with your best shot." Hiero taunted, everyone whispering to each other.

The knight screamed as he charged Hiero, but his anger blinded him as much as Hiero had hoped and he did a split, making his body more like a bump on the tiles and tripping the knight right into the food. 'I guess all that extra crap the knights do here came in handy. I'm glad Ula brought me to training sessions to watch these dopes….Hell, I said I'd go down fighting. Least they'll kill me once they stop me. I can't take that bratty Averis anymore….she's picked on me one time too many. The atonement is over!'

It's just beginning…little Hiero.

The voice came so suddenly, so loud in his mind, Hiero stopped short for second. He was stuck in place. "Who said that?" he said curiously, seconds before the hilt of a sword ran him through. 'Oh well, one of life's mysteries….bit the dust.' Was his last fleeting thought before death and its dark embrace took him.

~

Hiero was drifting in what he thought was the journey to hell, because it hurt like it. Still, he soon found he was just floating in empty darkness, no sound, no molten seas, or demons born to torment him for his sins anywhere in sight. "Alone in the dark for eternity. How annoying. I can't even see my mother one last time before I get fully damned to hell." He sighed, his own voice bouncing around the darkness.

You wish….People like you don't deserve an easy way out. You were right. You sealed your fate when you tried to kill me.

"Who said that? What's happening?" Hiero asked, suddenly feeling himself get lowered to a floor. No sooner did he ask did Delphine appear, smiling smugly.

"You!? You're dead….then I really am dead. And I'm stuck with you in the dark. Great." Hiero grumbled, but Delphine shook his head. "Not even close, I won't let you die, my beautiful little disciple," Delphine chuckled, getting closer to where Hiero was, looking him over," Though the clothes just aren't you. We'll work on that when you wake up."

"I got impaled, stupid, I'm dead and so are you. Quit bothering me, give me some peace already. I've suffered enough for what I did." Hiero snapped, but Delphine quickly tackled and pinned Hiero to the unseen floor.

"You have not yet begun to suffer for your sin again my mother. You don't recall what I said before Riusa was blown apart. It was destroyed by us….when we merged, magic absorber." Delphine said pleasantly.

"Merge….merge? Yes….I remember that, but I didn't understand. Are you saying I sucked you into my body that night and it blew everything away??" Hiero gasped. Delphine nodded, still holding Hiero down with frightening strength. "You're as sharp as ever, pretty boy. We merged and the reaction of such a unique power being absorbed, namely my god-powers, had a devastating side effect on all life in Riusa. So you were right all these years, you killed everyone in that city, strangers, innocents, your parents….heh, that mother of yours, she never told you the truth, that Byron was your real father. I guess that explains to you why he looked so strangely at you." Delphine replied.

"Why are you doing this? Why won't you leave me alone? I suffered with the guilt of what I did already….stop it!" Hiero yelled, thrusting himself upwards and forcing Delphine off his body. The god looked a little stunned, his smile briefly leaving his face.

"Hmm, you're already developing your abilities faster than most absorbers….your mind has grown powerful even in only a little over a decade. Most full breed absorbers aren't this powerful to fight the mind of a god. Even the most powerful half-breeds can never hope for this kind of mental power….perhaps it won't be so bad sharing a body with you to perform my will." Delphine said, wonder filling his voice.

In flash, he was knelling beside Hiero, staring at him with a gentle smile. "What makes you think I'll do anything for you?" Hiero growled. "My mother….if you don't do as I say, she'll slay innocent people in horrible ways if I don't get what I want. I'm her only son, pretty boy, and that makes me her favorite. If I'm unhappy, she'll know and she'll punish you by punishing someone else, to death."

"You murderous bastard!" Hiero raged, but the smirk on Delphine's lips suddenly bothered him. "Look who's talking, you murdered all of Riusa by being such an ambitious crybaby. Hah, you were so hated, yet you were better than all of them combined….but you know what, it's not completely your fault. That shrew of a mother is mostly to blame for not guiding you properly, for coddling you with lies. You were never beautiful to her, you were a baneful abomination!" Delphine taunted, vanishing as Hiero swung at him.

"Stop it!" Hiero said, struggling for control, but he refused to look Delphine in the eye anymore.

"She even lied to you about your own father then tortured the man by having him tutor you. Yes, Archmage Byron was your true father….and you can't call me a liar, I'm a god, I know everything. True, I misjudged a child with such strange ambitions, but I knew what your mother did to make the perfect heir. You were perfect all right, the perfect ruination of your mother's beauty. She despised you and dumped you on your father without ever telling you what he was to you. I guess that explains a lot to you. Not that it matters, you killed them all because of their lies. Isn't that sweet, little Hiero?" Delphine snickered, appearing a few feet away, but Hiero kept his eyes aimed at the unseen floor, white-hot tears staining it. "Why me? I didn't mean for that to happen. Why are you torturing me? I didn't mean to." Hiero said, choking out sobs.

"You have no idea what you're in for. Torture as you know it will be a sweet dream compared to what you will go through. Let's discuss it before you join the living again," Delphine sighed, appearing in front of Hiero to yank him up to eye-level by his hair," Number one, since you killed an eternal being you will be forever, with no hope of death. I would have been just fine if you'd stopped stabbing me, but no, you had to touch me with your hands. This is to ensure you're suffering will be forever, everyone will grow old and die around you. You will also have no friends, no love, and definitely no freedom from the curse, ever. If you try, the loves and innocents will suffer. After the pain you caused your people and my mother, this is justice for her. You'll suffer an eternity of torment, no hope of peace….and you'll do as I say or other will pay."

"No….no! This isn't fair, I didn't mean to. How can you be so cruel? I had no idea what I am, I still don't. Ow….cough….I can't breath!" Hiero gasped, grabbing his throat.

"Ah, you're coming back to life….oh, did you know they bury the servants under the floors of the dungeons? Less costly…how poor Ula wept for you, but think of it this way. Ula will now be queen since Averis egged on a once promising knight to murder someone in public. Isn't that nice? If you don't want to die over and over again from suffocation, I suggest you employ one of those lovely demon spells you learned as a lad….like Echo Pike….or the Emeras Bakuha….your choice, whatever you think of in the three minutes of air you have left. Wakey-wakey, pretty one." Delphine urged before fading from Hiero's view.

He blinked a moment after that and found he was in darkness, but stale one that smelled of wet soil and rotting flesh. He lifted his hands up, or at least tried, he was confined in a rotting wooden box, near as his finger could tell from where there were wedged tightly to his body. He couldn't move and the air was getting thinner the longer he tried to process where he was.

'Buried alive….Delphine said three minutes before suffocation and waste a minute….a spell, yes, a spell. But my magic doesn't work….but he said cast a spell, maybe he gave it back so he could use me. He was setting me up for my death all this time….why that dirty….gag, no time to be pissed. Time to blow this joint sky high."

Hiero closed his eyes slowly and began a chant. "Vermin, prince of darkness, ride across the astral plane, bear curses of destruction sworn beyond the grave. Children of the darkness, all bore but to deceive! By the ancient code of evil, grant but one reprieve. Darkest forces and your demon's black order, gather your powers within me, offering to unleash pure sin and hate unto the living! Echo Pyre!"#

The darkness of Vermin, the son of Satan himself, infected Hiero with his ungodly powers in an instant, purple lightening and black mist surrounding the young man's body. "Let's blow it all straight to hell." Hiero said, his voice booming and evil as he let loose the powers of hell, the dark energy blowing out his grave and most of the dungeon with it.

~

Princess Ula was weeping in her garden when the mighty and majestic castle of Galah suddenly lost a portion of its lower sections to a large mass of black and purple energy. She'd been so hurt by Hiero's death, she had fled the party early to mourn him by their favorite spot, the rose garden he tended for her, the only task he ever seemed to care much about.

Knowing most of her family was inside, as well as the man that ran Hiero through, she tried to rush for it, but the left side of the castle crumbled into the river beside it, narrowly missing the city of Galah by inches. She still ran to it, seeing people bloodied and battered running and climbing out of the ruins. After a while, she saw her family, as banged up and crying as they were, emerge alive. Averis was even all right, though she was limping rather badly, the knight that had slain Hiero helping her along.

Ula was about to ask her if she was all right when both Averis and the knight fell apart, an ash stained figure rushing into them to knock the knight away. "I came to tell you, no hard feelings….Oops, guess there were some." Said a strangely velvety and familiar voice.

'Hiero.' She thought in total shock when the sapphire hair came into view as the figure dusted his ash littered hair off. His devilish blue eyes regarded the man wickedly, seconds before he forced a fireball spell into the man's face at close range, blasting it right off. "Plenty of hard feelings for making Ula cry." Hiero said, staring at the headless body as if lost in thought.

"He's alive….I don't….believe it, no normal man could be impaled and come back to life!" Averis gasped, backing up on heels and hands.

Soon everyone was whispering, all frightened and hateful

"He's not human!"

"He's a demon!"

"Monster!

"Freak!"

Averis finally got to her feet, staggering away from Hiero as he pinned her down with his eyes. "You demon spawn! You….you….you Safaia Oni!*"

~

Hiero'd had enough after Averis' miserable attempts at forming insults. He'd had enough of all of them.

"Shove it, you stuffed shirts. I may be all those things you said, maybe more, but if you keep bothering me, I won't be able to leave you in one piece. NOW SHUT UP!" Hiero snarled, silencing everyone, except one small voice.

"Hiero Vendetta….it's a miracle." Said a soft, tender voice.

He looked at the person who'd spoken, princess Ula, the woman he'd served for 15 years. She looked terrible, her make-up all smeared, tears making her emerald eyes puffy and red, and her little nose was red too.

He stepped up to her, looking at her rather gentle, but with no smiles or hateful glares on his face. "Poor mistress Ula. You cried for me," he said quietly," Good, then you'll make a wonderful queen. Being as judgmental as your bratty sister would be a crime. Never change, emerald eyes, never. Try and remember what I taught you….be fair."

"Yes….I will, but won't you stay? I can make father forgive you. I promise. Oh." She was babbling, until he put a finger to her lips. "No, I can't stay. I have to atone for my sins, whether I like it or not. I can't be with you to do it. I'll only ruin your life too. Just remember me….I have a lot of things to do, like hunting down the bastards that not only sold me into slavery, but took MY demon sword. No one messes with me and gets away with it. Farewell, Ula." He told her, quickly capturing her ruby lips in a deep kiss.

He felt her fall limp in his arms and smiled in the kiss. 'I don't love her. This is just to make this a little easier to leave. Besides, I've always wanted to kiss a princess.' He thought, then got a headache.

Stop fooling around with her tongue and get going. You have eternity to catch up with. Get moving, lovely disciple or Ula suffers.

'Fine, fine, you spoil sport.' He thought quickly stopping the kiss and lowering Ula to the ground. He looked at the stunned crowd of elves behind him and smiled. "So long, assholes. Aero Leva!" Hiero shouted, the levitation spell taking hold about him and flying him away from Galah, for now.

Notes: #- I give credit to the metal band Manowar, since I used lyrics from "Demon's Whip" to make that Echo Pyre possible.

*- Safaia Oni means Sapphire Demon.

500 Years Later

Mages, Mages, Mages:

* Merinos the Necromancer and Charmin the Mage of the Elements *

The dead were walking the streets of Veridia, human and dwarf kingdom of the coast, devouring those not smart or fast enough to reach their boarded up homes, the males mostly. Females who were that unlucky as to be outside when the sun set were dragged off into the night, kicking and screaming as the living corpses limped and moaned throughout the once tranquil city.

Hiero just watched it with minimal interest, but his heart weighed heavy at the sight of available and very pretty females being carried off to their impending doom. "Why are we here again….and still not doing anything. I've been sitting on this rock for two days watching the same damn thing. Zombies rise at sunset, eat the men and children and make off with the women. Not typical zombie behavior, but….I bet you'll tell me why eventually….like sometime this year!" Hiero said aloud, who would look insane to onlookers if anyone saw him at all.

"You're so impatient. You always have to attack things head on and not think about the consequences. Its shame I can't seal your magic up again, but then you'd be pretty worthless to me then. Yes, yes, I'll tell you on the way. Just go follow those women carrying zombies." Delphine said casually inside Hiero's mind, giving Hiero a mental jolt to get him moving.

Hiero swore under his breath, but it wasn't as if it did any good. Delphine was with him for good, so every insult was heard. That was some small perk for Hiero's eternal life. That and the fact he never lost a battle, his superior power and intellect made dead sure of that, but he never got to be praised. He was hated and was forced to show his eyes and hair for that to happen. He had refused once to comply with this and still felt guilty about the results. The first place he got to all covered up was a schoolhouse and it had been obliterate in the blink of an eye, children burned alive screaming. Delphine told him if he refused again, his mother would punish the next people he saw even slower than the children. Hiero had raged about the senseless slaughter, but finally obeyed, not willing to see anymore people die for him.

Hiero got off his rock perch and slowly climbed down the hillside. 'The second they see or smell me….they'll stop going to where they are going….so, time for the art of illusions and a simple levitation spell, just to be safe. Being eaten alive is not a way I want to go, not even once.' He thought.

He struck a dignified pose a good distance from the thin line of zombies and screaming girls and said quietly," Aero Leva." In moments, he was floating the same distance above the zombies as he was away from them. 'Now for illusion.' He thought, putting his hands to his face gently.

"Illusion Seal, Invisibility." He whispered, his form fading away from all sight, even before they could even see him. Hiero floated his invisible form after the trail of zombies, opening his mind up slightly to listen to Delphine be the haughty know-it-all he was.

"Ok, boss god, tell me why we're here and what those girls are being carted off for. Not some sicko zombie orgy or something, I hope." Hiero said quietly, getting another mental jolt.

"All you think about is sex, pretty boy. I guess you're due for another wife….it has been 200 years since your last arranged marriage, but that's not the issue here. Two mages of great power and immoral personalities are." Delphine chided.

"Mages….oh goodie, let me guess, I have to absorb them for the greater good of this stinking mud ball Terrian. What do think I am, a sponge? All I ever do is absorb magic things. I'll never forgive you for that pack of sugary fairies you made me absorb. I still say they gave me cavities, yuck. Why couldn't I just fall on my sword right then….it would have been less torturous." Hiero griped.

"Oh please, you not yet begun to be tortured yet. They were just a little tidbit of things to come. Now listen up. The mages are Merinos Bravados and Charmin Whistleflair. Merinos is the black mage, a necromancer bringing all these wastes of rotting flesh back to life to terrorize the kingdom, purely for his amusement, but his friend, if you can call the little upstart that, is a blue mage of the elements. He is having Merinos get his zombies to bring those women back to power up some very dangerous elemental spells, ones you cast naturally. He's draining their life energy out for this purpose, he's a bit of a chauvinist and thinks women don't resist as well as men do. Go figure." Delphine sighed, chuckling a bit.

Hiero sneered. "Women weak? Hmmph, I happen to know a lot of strong women, my daughters and so on included, but why send me in to absorb these loser with no vision. They're not even smart enough to make some kind of profit from this, all they care about is power. How sickening. What a waste of magic."

Delphine laughed musically in his head. "I thought you'd like to absorb some new forms and spells for your next marriage….that and one of your granddaughters, Faye, was one of charming Charmin's victims a few days before we arrived. How's that for incentive?" Delphine replied.

Hiero's face twisted angrily. He didn't recall much about his granddaughters or even know which one Delphine said was dead, but he had loved his children more than he loved the women Delphine said he had to marry to continue his line on properly without soiling the chosen lines to survive Terrian. They had been his little treasures, as limited as his time had been with them, thanks to Delphine. He loved them all equally, even the bad ones.

"Hiero? Are you even listening?" Delphine exasperated mentally. "Quit flapping those other worldly gums of yours and let me concentrate. I have damsels to save from two worthless screw heads." Hiero hissed under his breath, following the zombie trail faster than before.

~ Wystam Cemetery ~

Merinos, dressed in black mage robes, sat atop the most fancy looking mausoleum in the cemetery, containing the once proud rulers of Viridia lay in eternal rest. He was rather pleased with the current rate of slaughter, but his zombies were starting to look worse than when they were risen from their worm infested graves. Not many of them were fresh to begin with and those that had recently died were already falling apart. Zombies had no intelligence and only once source of motivation, to eat living flesh. Making more zombies came from biting a victim and losing them or devouring them down to the bone, and skeleton would be what merinos was stuck with.

Still, for being thrown out of the magic academy for practicing black magic and maybe accidentally blowing up a few classrooms was an outrage. He did say he was sorry, but the head mages didn't want to listen. 'Now they will listen, once my undead friends reach the academy, then the palace and dine on magical, mystical meat. A little royal dessert never hurt anyone, but the dessert. Hahahahahahaaa!" he cackled, nearly falling off his perch in doing so.

"Dammit, you old fool. Stop goofing off and get down here. I nearly got eaten last night by your rancid pals. They are almost here, so you'd better keep them away from me. I still don't have enough magic for my devastation spells. We've been at this for a week and maybe I've gotten ten lives at best." Charmin yelled up at him, his long blonde hair blowing gracefully in the wind with his blue mage robes. His wild hazel eyes flashed angrily at merinos, but he wasn't scared.

Merinos didn't like being called old, but he had two streaks of gray hair on the sides of his short brown hair, so to Charmin, that was considered old. The young blonde mage was in the same boat as merinos, but it was Charmin's big mouth and weak powers that got him into trouble. Charmin had begged to become a mage, but his spells were very low level and when they got to better levels, the aim was always off. Freezing a high mage in a pillar of ice during his testing session cost one mage his life and Charmin his ambition. He met with Merinos on account they were both kicked out on the same day. It was an uneasy alliance, but they both wanted vengeance, and they wanted it now.

"Yes, Charmin….I'm coming. And please do stop the old fool cracks. I'm 32, you weak little brat." Merinos sniffed, climbing down the mausoleum slowly.

A few moments later, moaning and screams filled the air of the cemetery. Merinos smiled at the sight of his rotting army, blood caked all over their bodies. He took no delight in the fact the women they were carrying were still alive, but Charmin would handle that. The zombies had another good ten women, all bruised from their struggled and stained with blood and decayed flesh, but that never mattered. They were alive, and that's all Charmin ever required. 'Though he'd get his damn spells done fast if he'd get some men to drain too. That would quicken the pace and we can destroy the next city. I want the whole world to suffer for my pain.' Merinos thought watching with little interest as the zombies stopped before him and eyed Charmin hungrily.

"Zombies, drop the women and go back to Viridia. You have more delicious meals waiting for you. Go now!" Merinos ordered, the zombies complying by dropping the women hard on the cemetery grounds and turning back towards the kingdom. Their retreat was slow, but that was to expect of the dead. They'd fall apart if they tried to go any faster.

"Excellent, ten new souls to add to my power. Open wide ladies, give me all you've got." Charmin giggled hysterically, speaking in an ancient tongue towards them.

It was a fairly simple yet forbidden spell, derived from the ancient and extinct race of magic absorbers that Moriun had the crusaders of old wipe out. Though most of them could absorb magical beings with once touch, it was a rather painful process so the spell was created to drain the life, not the entire being, of a victim to cut down on the physical and metal pains. It didn't drain just magic, but life as well. That was when Moriun passed judgement on them, thinking they would misuse their infinite abilities to challenge her.

'Hmm, I'm glad I taught the little upstart that. One he gains enough energy, I'll drain him and turn this all of Terrian in the World of the Dead. Every kingdom will be a veritable Necropolis!' he thought wickedly, smiling softly as the first female died from the drain.

Then things went rather wrong. Charmin was about to start on the next cowering female when his head snapped backwards sharply, sending him sailing back hard into the royal mausoleum. Merinos was at a loss for words, simply stuck staring at the spot Charmin had been. The stunned red-headed female he'd been trying to drain, her light blue eyes shimmering with wonder

"That's no way to treat a lady, loser." Said a velvety male voice, coming from nowhere and everywhere," Illusion, fade."

A body came into view, one that was topped with sapphire blue and enveloped in a dark brown sheen. Then, he saw a young man with two swords strapped to his back, hair like pure sapphires cradled about his head with many bangs. He was wearing brown clothing, much like a thief would wear, and a simple tunic kept up by a single black belt and pants. His knee high leather boots had silver clasps on them to keep them tight to the young man's slender legs. He was very trim and slender all around, very handsome indeed when he looked at Merinos, his eyes closed and one bang swishing gently across them before falling back into place.

He was wearing some kind of black mouth mask, covering some of his nose, and his mouth down to the nape of his neck. Merinos looked a little longer, finding it was just a long stretch of black cloth that was securely tied in the back of his head, the ends of the cloth blowing behind him in the wind, making the youth look more ominous. Then his opened his eyes, showing Merinos his sapphire blue demon eyes and the anger within them.

He'd heard legends from elves about a young slave that came back to life after insulting an elfin princess, destroying part of palace and killing a good helping of guests and knights. A slave with sapphire blue hair and eyes like the prince of darkness himself. Merinos never thought the legend had been true, just something to frighten rube travelers. Still, seeing the legendary Safaia Oni of Galah in person, he was at a bit of a loss for words, except two.

"Safaia Oni…." He mumbled, and the young man sneered under the mask, near as Merinos could tell. "I don't like that name….but at least you've heard of me, that makes this all the more fun. Guess where you are going, corpse lover?" the young man's velvety voice told him, sounding a bit bored.

Merinos suddenly remembered his zombies weren't far off. 'I'll be the most feared mage in creation if I kill the Safaia Oni. Yes!' Merinos thought, raising his hands high. "Zombies, come back to your master. Devour the Safaia Oni for me!!" he yelled, the slow paced zombies slowly turning around a few feet from the cemetery gates.

The young man started laughing. "Oh, you slay me. It took them nearly ten minutes to get that far….Feros Bak!" he laughed, sending a fireball at the necromancer.

~

Hiero smiled under his mask as the fireball caught the distracted necromancer in the left arm, blasting it off. 'Stupid, when you're being all omnipotent, don't ever take the time to gloat unless you're opponent is a bloody mess. Amateur.' Hiero thought, throwing another one at it to catch him in the chest.

Merinos fell backwards, the bloody stump on his left shoulder squirting out floods of fresh blood. "Need a hand? Heh, heh. That's a good one," Hiero chuckled, striding past Merinos to pick up the severed arm," Funny thing about mages….you need to be all together for spells to really work. So( sadly, your zombies will soon be out of control….until you die, then they'll all topple like sack of rotting meat. Least I don't have to clean that up, now then, time to die." Hiero told the man, smirking at the bleeding necromancer managed to get up.

"I may be missing….gack….my arm, but I still have enough power left in me to deal with you. Acid Sphere!" Merinos yelled, sending a ball of emerald green acid flying at Hiero. Hiero simply leapt out of the way, getting part of his right arm burned. It was better than having a hole melted through your body, he had to admit. Someone was screaming too, but it wasn't him or Merinos, it was Charmin. Hiero casually looked over his shoulder to find that Charmin had been hit by the spell, half of his body covered in the corrosive liquid. 'Gotta work fast or my target turns into a bubbling blood puddle.' He thought, whirling around swiftly and raising his hands towards merinos, who was trying to stop the bleeding from his missing arm.

"Freeze Snap! Encircle!" Hiero cried out, frozen tendrils of blue leaping from his palms, freezing Merinos under a sheen of frost and ice. "Don't go anywhere, I'll play with you in a few seconds. I have to talk to Mr. Soup over here for a minute." Hiero told the frozen necromancer with a smile.

Charmin was groaning now, half of his face melted away and some of his ribs were showing. Hiero just knelt in front of him and touch his only intact and acid free hand. "Time to join me in hell, kid." Hiero said, his voice straining as absorbed Charmin inside his body. It hurt, but not as much as larger and more powerful beings. He knew he could improve Charmin's powers if he taught this new form for a few good decades. It would add to his already lovely magic arsenal. 'If he paid more attention to his spells instead of just expecting them to work with just the words. Your mind had to be on the spell itself, not impressing people.

When Charmin was fully absorbed, Hiero felt a bit dizzy, but he managed to get back to Merinos. The zombies were still several feet away, but they were all standing perfectly still, as if he'd frozen them with the spell as well. Another thing that he noticed were that, with the exception of the charmed red-head, all the women the zombies brought had fled.

'Great, now I can't get a reward for this. I haven't eaten much but old bread for two days. Ah well, there's always thievery. That always pay off with a good meal.' He thought with a sighed, grabbing at Merinos frozen face, absorbing him in a few minutes.

When he was done, all of the zombies and skeletons fell over where they stood, never to rise again. The pretty woman, however, was still not moving. 'That spell should have ended the moment I absorbed Charmin, perhaps she's stricken with fear. Her last rational thought was being groped by a dead guy eating her boyfriend, or worse.' He thought, kneeling on front of her slowly, staring into her light blue eyes quivering. She didn't even know he was there. "Poor thing…." Hiero said.

"Kiss her." Delphine piped up, startling Hiero.

"I beg your pardon?!" Hiero yelped. "You heard me, kiss her. This is your new wife, as promised. She just watched her brothers get eaten alive trying to protect her, she is all alone….and the children she bares will really come in handy in the future. Well, either you kiss her and marry her as Charmin or well, mother will have to show you why I'm in charge yet again." Delphine said snidely.

Hiero looked at the girl, cocking his head to the side. "She's kind of cute….what the hell. She needs someone to lean on….I'll just have to take her elsewhere, Charmin isn't exactly popular around here," Hiero sighed, taking the girls face in his hands," Phase Charmin! Overtake me!"

Hiero's form melded with Charmin's, his body and voice sounding and looking like the formerly weak mage had, but with Hiero in control. "Wake up, beautiful. Time to meet the man of your dreams so I can live on in my nightmare." Hiero sighed in Charmin's voice, planting his lips firmly on the woman's quivering mouth. After a while, she was kissing him back, holding onto his waist before thrusting her head against his blue robes to sob. "Shh, it will be all right. I stopped him….Merinos will never bother you again. He won't bother anyone innocent ever again. I swear it, little ruby belle." He soothed, rubbing her red tresses gently before kissing the top of her head.

100 Years Later

*Vendetta and Dorsa, the Dying Mage*

"I said all hands on deck! Leave Dick alone!" Hiero shouted at the crew, scaring the life out of everyone that started beating on Richard Antoine Verusa, the soldier he who knew where Dorsa, the elder mage of the kingdom of Tyros lived. He didn't like having to protect a guy who could protect himself, but he wasn't very likable, always talking trash and bragging, two things Hiero admired about him, but he was also very dense. Essentially, he was a dick to everyone, which earned him his proper nickname, Dick, a lot shorter and more fitting than his true name.

Hiero could have cared less about helping him, but he was steering the ship to Tyros quite well through the rainstorm. Having him beaten down at the wheel would wind up killing not only himself, but also his only clue to where the mage Dorsa was, since Delphine was being a brat and not telling him anything. Hiero was still using Charmin's form, long after his wife Claire had passed away and given him a family of five strong-willed boys. They were all fine and excelling in knighthood, and he was deeply glad that Dick wasn't one of them.

Before the beating on Dick had begun, Hiero thought he could see the port of Tyros a few minutes ago and had told him. Dick commended him, but then promptly took the credit for Hiero's discovery. So he felt it was perfectly fair to take advantage yet again of the crews hatred for Dick. He only regretted it when the boat started to lean off course.

Now the ship was steady, Dick getting them into port with a few nasty bumps against one of the docks, but nothing that would sinks the ship. No sooner did they lower the anchor and tie up to the docks did the crew race off the ship with Hiero's money, which had taken a lot of stealing to create, but he knew it wasn't going to last. Money never did for him. Crews and ships were expensive as was food and water for the journey. As soon as Hiero get the right amount of money, he had to spend it on all of that to get to Tyros, to absorb the elderly mage Dorsa McTaggert.

He pushed the thoughts of regret away as Dick slapped him in the bag then put his arm around his neck, lugging him off good-naturedly down to the docks. "Charmin, stick with me and you'll be famous. No need to get all huffy about a little misunderstanding, but why you want to go see some old crone mystic who's been retired longer than you've been alive is beyond me." Dick told him, and Hiero yanked out of his grasped as they hit the docks. He shook his head at him. "Just remind me where Dorsa is. I'll meet you back in the Town Square by tomorrow, you owe me a lot of money, and you're going to start paying it off by buying me lunch and dinner for the rest of your life. Also, its none of your business why I am going to see wrinkly Dorsa. I just want to see her." Hiero groaned, shoving Dick away when he tried to reach for him.

"Whoa, you're stronger than ya look, Charmin. Fine, I'm a man of my word. Meals are on me, up until I'm broke. Then we do it the old fashioned way, hunting, if you're man enough for it," Dick teased, lopsided grin crossing his features, then pointed a little ways off to Hiero's left," Dorsa is straight that way, in the Miliene Woods. Turn right when you reach a river and eventually you'll see her house on the other side if you keep walking in that direction. Hope you're a good swimmer….that water was rough for me even eight years ago when I went to see her about my future. I wish you luck, though, cause you'll need it."

Hiero just shrugged. "Fine by me, just don't follow me. You'd better be at the Town Square or I'll hunt you down. I haven't eaten a cooked meal since we got on that ship. All I got was raw fish….that's lowly and disgusting to eat on a rocking ship." Hiero let out, his annoyance very apparent. Dick just grinned. "Well, was nice knowing ya if ya don't make it. But if you survive this, well, you can eat till you burst tomorrow." Dick chuckled, slapping Hiero on the back before he could move, sending him sprawling across the dock.

Hiero got up after Dick walked away. "Idiot, you've got a bet. You're going to regret those words. I'm starved." He chuckled, running off into town.

~ Miliene Woods ~

Dorsa McTaggert coughed in her bed, wishing she hadn't sent her nurse away. She was very sick now and very lonely, with no to care for her while she was dying. She knew the end was near, her body wrinkled and wracked by the pain of aged organs. Her nurse had been rather nice to her, but Dorsa, in her old age, had had one too many fits and bopped the girl's head too many times with her cane. When she told her never to return, she hadn't thought the girl had taken her seriously. When days became weeks, Dorsa knew she was truly alone.

'Oh graceful mother of creation, oh dear Moriun, free me from this pain. Why won't death come for me? What is he waiting for? I am old and tired and every day is filled with pain. Bring me sweet release.' She prayed silently, hugging her quilts over her body tighter.

"Dorsa McTaggert? May I come in?" said a very velvety and masculine voice, so charming and perfect Dorsa felt like a maiden. Then she remembered reality and sighed. "Come in, traveler, and tell me your name. I will not harm you with my magic." She said, her voice worn and gritty.

She nearly had a heart attack as a masked young man with sapphire hair and slit eyes entered her home, walking up casually to her prone form. She tried to speak, but her words failed her.

He chuckled a little, probably smiling under the mouth mask. "The Safaia Oni, yes that's me. Pleased to meet you, and just so you know, I mean you no harm. I have come to end the pain you're going through." He said, his voice entrancing her again.

He was rather handsome, looking down at her so gentle with his angelic face, as if he admired her. "To kill me, like you have killed so many before." She stated dryly, but he shook his head and sat on the edge of her bed, looking right into her aged brown eyes. He pushed away a strand of gray hair that was covering one of her eyes and smiled.

"No, this is an act of mercy by the will of god Delphine and goddess Moriun. I also don't like to see innocent people suffer, but you won't die for another good month, all alone. Neither of us want that, now do we? I can help your legacy live on forever within me, and you can be at peace at long last. You'll always be with me, never to be lonely again." He told her, not really touching her skin, in fact keeping at least an inch between his fingers and her face.

She was silent for a while, staring at him, then convulsing as another wave of coughing fits hit her. The young man looked alarmed, then his eyes were full of pain, a few tears running down his angelic face. "Let me end your suffering, Dorsa, you don't have to be alone or feel pain ever again. I'll make sure of that. I can do anything for you if you let me hold you, to give you peace." He soothed out, reaching his creamy hands out to her.

"You swear on all that is sacred that you peak the truth?" she asked, knowing it didn't mater to the Safaia Oni one way or another, but it made her feel a little better. He nodded. "I swear on that and the lives of your children's children's children." He said, not touching her still.

When she smiled at him, He lifted her up into a sitting position and hugged her, one hand on the back of her neck. "This will hurt a little, but it's brief. I want this to be a sweet release for you, pretty Dorsa, for now you will be with me, for all times. Pain will never tough you again." He told her, pecking her on the cheek, his lips remaining their soft as a rose petal. Dorsa only felt a pinching from where his hands and lips were, but it was short lived.

Soon, Dorsa thought no more, death taking her in the painless bliss of darkness, with the Safaia Oni's last words ringing in her mind, his final tears that dropped on her shoulder as she passed on. "I will always be with you."

9,400 Years Later

Saving a Chosen Line:

*Undead Crisis for the Children*

(Songfic starts here and ends at Love Found and Lost)

"You want me to what??" Hiero yelped, still hiding in the woods as screams ripped through the night air. His sapphire bangs were blowing about wildly in the harsh winds, their scent pungent with fresh blood and sinew.

"How many times must I say it? You are to die in your true form at the hands of the Vampyre clan before the chosen line, Veda and Colwin Umberson. The rest will be revealed you to in time. A painful death too, defending these wee raven-haired twin children." Delphine sighed inwardly, jolting Hiero's mind again.

"What if are there a ton of little kids there with raven hair, of he of the long wind?!" Hiero grated, his patience wearing thin. Delphine grumbled in Hiero's mind.

"Their names are Veda and Colwin, female and male, about eight years old, both with hazel eyes and pendants of holy symbols about their necks made of wood, not silver. The leader of the clan is their father, Reinhart Umberson, he'll be wearing red armor with a pentagram on the chest plate. He's the one you have to kill and be killed by, this will free the other people he's infected with the vampyre curse. After that, well, wait until you wake up. Above all, protect the twins and kill their father. If not, well, others can pay for your mistakes. Like the half-breeds." Delphine explained.

Hiero sighed and shook his head heavily. "Yeah, since you put it that way, murderer. You're becoming a lot worse than me….having you Mommy kill innocent people when you throw a tantrum. You're such a pain in the ass, you and your mother. Never once did you try and save those innocent half-breeds and their psychic gifts, you just sent disgusting humans to exterminate them and had me grab the choice ones for yourself. Even when I saved those I wasn't meant to, your mother made others suffer. I despise you." Hiero told the god, then started walking in the direction of the village of screams.

"I know. Get over it, we're together forever, so shut up and do your job." Delphine sneered.

~

It was a sea of bloody chaos when Hiero arrived in the seemingly torture chamber of a town. Vampyres littered the streets ripping the throats of helpless and even some fighting villagers right out, shreds of bloody flesh hanging from their gory fangs. He didn't see Reinhart anywhere around, but he doubted it would take much effort to find someone dressed in such flashy and tasteless armor. All the other vampyres he had seen were wearing black, their white face's only color being the red of their eyes and the blood staining their lips.

Hiero just walked past a few of them before he was actually noticed, his ears alert to the licking of lips and sharp sniffs at the air. He stopped and turned around, staring into the red eyes of a vampyre only a foot in front of him. "May I help you, undead one?" Hiero said casually, catching the vampyre off guard. It was short lived, the vampyre smiling at Hiero playfully. "Oh, the Safaia Oni is here to grace us. The one with eternal blood….you'd make us all happy if you'd give up to us right now and be our eternal meal."

"What? I'm not good enough to be fed on by your gaudy leader, but I have to get stuck with being sucked dry by lackeys? What is the world of villainy coming too. How Reinhart would be royally pissed off if he found out you had a taste of my blood before him. Tsk, tsk." Hiero scolded, swiftly pulling out his other sword and shoving it through the vampyre's heart. He gagged at Hiero, the wound burning and sizzling around the blade.

"Yes, legend has it that I carry a demon sword, but I'm not a moron. It was only a matter of time before I fought something ungodly like you. Getting a blessed sword from a great cleric, for all the screaming he did when I had to behead him, Delphine's design really, was worth the bothersome time I thought I wasted on it. Don't get all choked up about it." Hiero sighed, yanking the sword out to let the vampyre's body fall dead to the ground.

He looked up at the crowd of vampyres forming around him. "Now, if everyone is through with stupid demands, how about letting me meet Reinhart already. My patience is starting to dwindle here, and when I get impatient, I get stab-happy. Hmm, so what's your answer?" he asked in a bored tone, lifting his blade again.

The vampyres discussed it amongst themselves for a good five minutes before agreeing to lead Hiero to their leader.

~

Hiero saw Reinhart, an axe on his back, towering above two dark-haired children. He had just grabbed up the male child by his hair, baring his fangs to rip the child's throat apart. 'Do or somebody dies….what a life. Why me?' he thought angrily, stepping forward as a few words left his lips. "Phase Delphine, overtake me! OWWWW!!" Hiero spouted, Delphine's form taking over Hiero's body completely, their minds in conflict for control.

"Had to cheat, didn't you? I like it.' Delphine's voice uttered, counter by Hiero's.

"I aim to please, time to rip out that holy light, enough to kill the low level vampyres, not big stuff over there. I can take his tasteless ass down like that." Hiero replied heatedly.

"We shall see. By the power of the mother of creation, let the blessed light rejoice!" Delphine shouted, divine beams of light whipping out of his entire body, vaporizing the vampyres that had brought Hiero to the leader, and only singing Reinhart enough to make him drop the boy he was going to devour. The children he'd been taunted ran away from him and to Hiero, hiding behind him. 'That them?' Hiero asked mentally.

"Yes….now perform your part and you'll be rewarded….eventually." Delphine replied aloud. Hiero nodded and spoke in Delphine's voice," Phase Delphine, leave me!"

Soon Hiero was his sapphire-haired self again, his blessed sword in hand as Reinhart sent a feral growl at him, his fangs still in sight. "You cost me some fine dining. My bloodline is so sweet and now I have to wait until I kill you to get it. You're dead." Reinhart yelled, pulling out the black axe strapped to his back.

'Oh, now that's going to hurt. What a jerk, he's their father and he wants to eat them. Sick family.' Hiero thought, charging the large vampyre. "You're their damn father….How can you even think of eating them? Why the hell did you give them up for this abomination you've become?!" Hiero shouted, lifting his blade to block Reinhart's axe as it tried to ram through his face.

"You're one to talk, Safaia Oni, the one who has murdered more than even we damned creatures. I was once a cleric, bound by Moriun's mundane teachings. The high priests all know about you for she told them what you did, murdered your own people and Moriun's own son, all for power and to be loved. I did the same thing….I wanted love, but Moriun's justice had taken my wife from me. I abolished her from my heart and became what you see now, so as you can see, we are very much alike in our lives. We both crave the same things and killed to get it.

When I look back upon my life

It's always with a sense of shame

I've always been the one to blame.

For everything I long to do,

No matter where or when or who

There's one thing in common too

Hiero's face was filled with rage at Reinhart's words. "No! I never wanted their deaths, I didn't give up on life and my own life because I wasn't loved by all. I made a stupid mistake….I didn't mean to hurt my people. I didn't know….but you did know the consequences of the path you chose. I had no choice in the matter, we are nothing alike, you bastard!" Hiero shouted, wildly slashing at Reinhart, catching him a few time and singing his undead skin with his blessed blade.

It's a….

It's a….

It's a…….

It's a sin!

It's a sin!

"Argh, have I hit a nerve, little Safaia Oni? Hmm, Argh, brainless little upstart! Say what you will, but you are just as bad as me, you just won't admit it. You're an immoral creature with no spine to break free from the chains that bind him. You are truly weak, unlike me. Muwahahaaaaa!!" Reinhart cackled smashing his axe into Hiero's side as his rage filled attacks kept coming.

Hiero cried out as the axe hit, but he didn't stop fighting, using the last bit of his strength that wasn't wracked by excruciating pain to plow his holy sword right through Reinhart's heart and out his back.

"I may be an upstart, but I'll be fine in half an hour. You won't. Gag on that for eternity, asshole. Argh!" Hiero rasped, not delighting in his victory so much as he'd wanted to. The fact that his kidneys, bladder, rib cage, and part of his stomach had been chopped into made it less joyous.

Reinhart just let out a choked breath, then from where the blade had struck, the armor and his body turned into ashes, blowing away as the next gust of wind hit him. Hiero collapsed to the ground, weakly pulling at the axe still fastened in his side, but his fingers were already starting to numb. "Oh joy….what a way to die….upon winning. Guh, arghhh!" he sighed is a raspy voice gagging up blood before he lost consciousness to living death.

~

Hiero woke up, feeling fresh, new, and healed on a soft surface, the smell of fresh honeysuckle and the chirping of birds greeting his senses.

"He's waking up. Colwin, come here, quick! He's waking up at last!" cried a happy little girl. Hiero turned his head towards it, still lying on his back as where he was proved to be rather comfortable. It was the girl from the village, her shoulder length, raven-black hair blowing gently in the morning breeze over her cute little sky blue dress. Her hazel eyes regarded him happily, an angelic smile on her rosy little lips.

"You hungry, sir? You must be. You've been asleep all night. We were going to bury you, but your wound started to heal up, so we brought you into the inn." She said, very perky sounding, very innocent.

He didn't harp on that and kept his eyes on her. "You're not afraid of me? Don't you know who I am?" he asked quietly. She smiled still. "Dad called you the Safaia Oni before you killed him, but he told us that tale before….before he got a sickness in his heart, that made him all mean. That made him kill everybody. I don't think you're a scary person. You saved me and my brother." She said, her voice sounding a bit sad at the mention of her father.

"Sorry, but there was no way back for him. I had to destroy him, to save you and your brother Colwin." Hiero replied, without remorse. Veda didn't seem to mind, she just crawled up on the bed he had been laid on and hugged him tightly about his neck. To say he was surprised wasn't really accurate, he was about ready to have a heart attack.

"You're a cute man. Hee, hee." She giggled, kissing his cheek.

"Veda! Stop getting your cooties on the guy." Said a little boy's voice, Colwin, Hiero suspected and as he looked towards the voice he found he was right. There stood a boy about Veda's height, but he was wearing a simple brown shirt and pants with a little white rope acting as a belt. He wore black shoes and his own hazel eyes regarded Hiero with pride, holding Hiero's black mouth mask cloth in his right hand. Veda got off of him as soon as Colwin spoke and went to her brother. Hiero found the strength to sit up at that point and looked at the twins.

"Your father's vampyres killed everyone?" he asked getting nods from both children. "We searched the town, no one was left. If they weren't killed, they ran away. There's nobody left, that's why we still have full pouches of money, even in this inn. There's plenty of food in the market too….but, it'll last a month at best. Then we're on our own." Colwin stated, sounding very mature for his age.

Hiero just looked them over, recalling what Delphine had said before. They were twins and wore wooden crossed around their necks, both had raven-black hair and hazel eyes, but he had said nothing beyond that. Then Hiero's mind processed Colwin's words, making him remember all the lonely years he'd had without his mother and father around, the suffering of being a small child sold into slavery. 'Not this time….not these kids.' He thought, his face filled with determination.

Everything I've ever done, everything I'll ever do

Every place I've ever been, every where I'm going to….

It's a sin!!

"No it won't….you're not going to stay here." He said, making both of the children's eyes widen. "Where will we go then? Our father was our only relative." Veda whimpered.

Hiero offered both of them a shy smile and stood up steadily before speaking again. "I'll take care of you. I am to protect you from harm, so being your guardian seems like the best way to keep you from getting hurt. Though you probably are both very strong willed and capable of taking care of yourselves, little kids don't have many rights when they lack an adult to make sure no one tries to kidnap them, or worse. What do you say, Veda? Colwin?" Hiero replied.

Veda and Colwin looked a little stunned at first, looking at each other for a brief moment in silence. When they looked back at him, their small mouths curled into grins. "Can you teach me how to wield a sword?" Colwin asked timidly.

"Sure….it'd be a pleasure to see you grow up to be a warrior. If you so desire that." Hiero assured the boy, making Colwin smile even wider and clasp his tiny hands together with joy. Veda just looked up at him. "Can you teach me to be skilled in shamanism like my Mommy was?" she asked innocently, her little eyes pleading to him. He felt like crying, it was just so cute, not too much and not too little, just plain adorable.

He picked her up and kissed her lightly on the cheek. "Anything you wish, little princess. Anything at all, for the both of you." He assured her.

"Tell us your real name then. It can't be Safaia Oni. We were told that was an insulting title the kingdom of Galah gave you." Veda said quietly, curiosity filling her eyes. He looked down at Colwin, who nodded, looking a bit hopeful.

"Since I'll be watching you for a while, what could it hurt. Its Hiero, Hiero Vendetta, last Riusan people." He told them, taking the mouth mask cloth out of Colwin's grasp gently.

"That's a neat name," Colwin grinned," So when do we leave this place?"

"As soon as we have enough supplies to get out of here. I know of an abandoned cottage in the Miliene Woods a few days travel from here. We can go there. Are there any horses and wagons left from the vampyre's attack?" Hiero replied.

"Yes, animal blood never suits a vampyre's tastes, Hiero." Colwin replied. Hie was positively beaming at him. "Then let's go get a horse and wagon all ready and get all the food, water, and blankets one can hold. I use that cottage whenever I can, so I keep it protected and well stocked. But, if you have any clothing or family things you want to bring, we can load them up to. You're never seeing this town again." He told them, setting Veda down.

"Yes, all right. Just follow us. We know the way better than you do. Come on." Veda giggled, tugging on Hiero's tunic to get him to follow them out of the room. Hiero just shook his head with a slight smile, then tied his mouth mask back on. After that, the two children led him out of the inn room.

12 Years Later

*The Shaman and the Warrior*

~ Miliene Woods ~

Hiero chased after Colwin, his blessed sword raised for the kill. He swung down at the young man, getting blocked at the last second and thrust back. In seconds, he felt Colwin's blade at his throat.

Hiero simple smiled and clapped. "Good recovery, Colwin. You'll be eligible for knighthood by next this fall." He told the grinning young man. Colwin started to lift his blade up, looking ready to say something. Hiero did a sweep at the young warrior's legs and knocked him over. Soon, Hiero had Colwin's blade and had it held extra close to his throat. "But, never let your guard down. The enemy won't training with you, he'll try his best to kill you. Kill first, be proud later, got that kid?" Hiero chided knowingly, getting a slow nod from the stunned youth.

After that, Hiero took the blade away and helped Colwin to his feet. He was dressed exactly like Hiero, except his tunic and pants were maroon with black trim. His hair was also longer and kept in a neat ponytail and the armor he wore was not the best, but strong enough to take a few spells and hits in the chest. He still had his wooden cross on, to remember the good man that had once been his father, as did his sister Veda.

Colwin was well rounded in the art of swords and acrobatics, not as nimble as Hiero, but it was enough to keep any normal human alive for a long time. As a child, Colwin was pretty strong and determined, but originally it had been for faithful teaching in Moriun, when his father had been normal.

Colwin blamed the church for his father's problems, not being considerate enough after their mother died from pneumonia a year after they were born to leave their father to his mourning. Instead, Moriun was more important, their mother wasn't a believer and that's why she died, and more such lies that labeled their angel of a mother as a sinner. Hiero had no love for any religion, since religion incarnate was stuck in his mind in the form of Delphine. Moriun, to him, was an unloving bitch with a spoiled brat son. She killed for Delphine whenever anything didn't go his way, be they innocent or evil.

It wasn't something he wanted to tell Colwin or Veda, since their father had been sort of correct about him. He had killed many people, babies destined to be tyrants or mages of evil and even good mages were to die, ones that Delphine wanted Hiero to absorb just to bully him. 'I've killed them all, the good, the evil, the strong, the helpless, the innocent, and the insane….And not once could I stop myself, lest other be punished if I didn't take that one life. Then one life turned into thousands of lost souls swimming inside me. If I told the twins this, gah. What would Veda….No, don't even think about it. Don't.' he thought. He felt someone pinch his arm a few seconds later.

Its true they taught me how to be,

So you had thought and wouldn't leave.

They didn't quite succeed….

Oh no!

He looked up, seeing Colwin staring at him with great concern. "What?" He asked.

Colwin just took a step back and shrugged. "You went in a daze for a couple minutes, frowning. You're usually thinking about something when you do that. Veda says you do a lot around her. You feeling all right?" the dark-haired youth asked.

Hiero put up a false smile and waved his assumption off. "Nah, I just need to take a break. Veda's probably already got dinner on the table," Hiero chuckled," She's going to really let you have it, it was your turn to cook today, kid."

"Stop calling me a kid, Hiero. I'm 20 years old, just cause you're taller than the both of us doesn't make us kids." Colwin scowled, making Hiero laugh.

"Colwin, everyone but Moriun is a kid to me. I'm over 10,000 years old….remember?" Hiero shot back.

"You always use that as an excuse. Like it makes you perfect or something." Colwin sighed. Hiero made a noise in his throat, the laughter dying from his lips. "Never call me that. I am anything but perfect. Let's just get the hell home so Veda doesn't tan both our hides for being late again." Hiero grumbled, stalking off from where a stunned Colwin stood.

"That was weird. Ah well, hey Hiero! Wait for me!" Colwin called, putting his sword back in his scabbard rather crudely as he ran after Hiero's retreating form.

~ Cottage of the Late Mage Dorsa ~

"Hey….I was starting to worry. I was ready to do a location spell if you two didn't get here before sundown. What happened this time?" Veda asked, her long black hair whirling gracefully with her body and blue dress as she turned. The two men looked at her sheepishly.

"I lost track of time….our last sparring match went on a little long than planned because someone decided kicking me in the groin was funny." Colwin rasped, but chuckling. Hiero just looked away with an innocent smile, then looked back at Veda as if he had just noticed her. "He went a little far with the taunting I told him to use. So slay me." Hiero chirped, moving away from Colwin to sit at the kitchen table.

"What did you say, Collie?" Veda scolded, lifting a wooden spoon from out of the pot she had cooking on the fire. Colwin made a mock defensive pose, unable to resist smiling. "I insulted his mother's virtue. How was I to know he'd take it so badly? The guy is little blue bundle of secrets. He never tells me anything about the past except when it has to do with swords." Colwin replied, ducking and rolling nimbly past his twin sister as she tried to smack him atop the head with the stew laced spoon.

"I told you to insult your opponent, not their family….but you didn't exactly take advantage of all my wide and wild thrusts and parries to take me down as you should have." Hiero chided playfully, wagging his finger at him. Colwin just guffawed and sat down at the table.

As Veda served them and herself, she just shook her head at them like a mother would, but that's not how she felt to them. Colwin was her brother, her only living relative who had risked his young life to save hers. She'd gotten them caught when their father came to eat them, by crying and tripping too much as they tried to flee, wasting a lot of Colwin's time and energy to help her back up. He almost died for her, if it hadn't been for Hiero.

She was very glad that Hiero had so much knowledge in his young looking body, enough to teach the both of them to be a shaman and warrior. He'd always had time for them, but then again, he never ever told them what was on his mind unless it was a joke or kind words. He never spoke of his past and when they asked him about it, he'd change the subject or say he was too tired. They knew not to poke and prod at him for information, he just wasn't very comfortable about the past, so they all left it at that.

'At least he doesn't wear his mouth mask around us. It took him years to finally get him to realize we adored him and he didn't need to hide behind that. He had nothing to prove to us, he still doesn't.' she thought fondly, smiling at him as she started to spoon stew into his bowl.

But deep down, Veda felt something else for their guardian, a man that hadn't aged a day since he'd taken them under his wing. It pulsed in her heart and spread through her body like warm silk running over her body whenever he spoke or looked at her, like he was looking at her now. He was beautiful to her, perfect. She could stare at him all day just to lose herself in the endless blue depths of his eyes.

"Veda." He said, his voice of liquid velvet caressing her mind in many ways. "Yes, Hiero?" she said dreamily.

"My bowl is overflowing." He said. It took her a moment to process this, her horrified eyes seeing his bowl was dribbling out broth, vegetables, and meat all around it. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Hiero. I'll clean it up." She stammered, but he gently gripped the hem of her dressed and shook his head.

"No, I should have warned you a little sooner. I'm hungry, but not that hungry. Eh heh, heh. I'll clean it up, you just serve yourself. You shouldn't worry your pretty self up over something this trivial." He chuckled, rather nervously though. He was blushing too, but she didn't voice it and simply went to her bowl and filled it up. Hiero had gotten up and grabbed some dirty rags off the laundry pile, sopping and scooping up the spillage.

She smiled. 'He never seems to be bothered by anything. He's so kind. Ahhhh.' She thought, smiling as Hiero finally sat down and ate his stew.

~

"Ok, fess up. What happened at dinnertime? You were practically drooling all over him and gawking like a big-eyed puppy dog. What is up with you, sister?" Colwin whispered to Veda that night. He'd barged in on her when she was getting ready to go to sleep, dressed in a pair of pajama pants, his hair out of the ponytail so it looked rather wild. Veda was in her nightgown, his long raven-black hair in a neat braid, tears staining her eyes and cheeks in thinking about Hiero.

Colwin wasn't leaving either, his body propped up against the door and holding the knob tightly. 'Can I tell him….would Colwin hate me for what I feel? Would Hiero hate me for telling him first? Oh Moriun, why must you make life so difficult.' She thought, sitting down on her bed slowly as she wiped at her eyes.

"You can't tell him. Please, Colwin, don't tell Hiero what I'm going to tell you this night, I beg of you. He might hate me for feeling this way….how wicked he'll think me." she said softly, pushing her tears back as hard as she could.

"What? Tell me, Veda, I'm your brother. You can trust me." Colwin said, not moving from his spot.

"Ok….," she began, taking a deep breath before blurting it all out," I've fallen in love with Hiero. I love him with all my heart and soul and I want to marry him."

IT had all been said so fast, she wondered if her brother had heard her right, so she looked at him. He had heard her, he was positively dumbstruck, his jaw had dropped and his hazel eyes looked ready to fall out of his head. Colwin had also lost his grip on the door, as if all his strength had been drained away.

"You're in love with our guardian? Veda….how? Why our guardian?" he balked. Veda just turned her head away from him and started to weep softly. "I didn't do it on purpose, it just happened. I've loved him ever since we met him, but it grew once I matured. All I know is that I can't live without him and every time I see him my body becomes an inferno of emotions. I'm sorry, but that's the way I feel." Veda said quietly, her tears becoming loud sobs.

Soon Colwin was beside her and hugging her tightly, rubbing her back to sooth her pain. "Its ok, don't cry please. But Veda, you can't tell him about this either. You don't know if he feels the same way, and you'll both be wracked with guilt if he doesn't feel anything more than fatherly love for you. Please, for both your sakes, don't tell him about these feelings. Wait a while."

"Wait? For how long?" she sobbed against him. "Let me keep my eye on him, drop little hints about how pretty you are. You know, to see if he does feel the same way. But….if not….promise me you'll come to me so we can work it out. Just don't get your hopes up, he's a mystery even if he raised us up. He might have secrets you don't want to hear." Colwin said quietly.

"You sound like him, he always says some secrets aren't worth knowing, especially about him. I suppose you're right, but these are my feelings. Let me deal with them on my own. I'm a big girl and shaman to boot," she sniffled, pulling away as she slowly regained her composure," A shaman but be strong in both body and spirit. Yes….but thank you for the offer, brother. I won't forget this."

Colwin gave her a genuine smile, brushing away some of the leftover tears that were on her cheeks. "No problem, bright eyes. Just keep focused….and let me be your little love spy. Heh….who knows….you might get your wish, someday." He said pleasantly.

She bowed her head shyly, thinking of Hiero, and smiled. "Yeah, maybe you're right."

~ Meanwhile ~

Hiero was dreaming again. Normally his dreams troubled him, always ready to tell him of things to come, but ever since he took the twins in, he'd had no dream visions. He'd slept peacefully ever since then. It never surprised him after he spent time making a shaman out of perky little Veda and warrior out of stiff little Colwin. It had been a pleasure really, watching them grow stronger with each passing day.

It seemed so far away, like the time passed by in seconds, not years. Now Colwin was an agile and strong up and coming knight, keen and well mannered, but still just as serious as ever. Then there was Veda.

His dream swirled at the thought of her, the meadow he was dreaming of laying in smelling ripe of rose petals. Veda had liked him from the start, given him a cute little hug and kiss even when she could see his eyes and odd hair. He'd brushed it off as an innocent's point of view. Perhaps he was a wonder to her, like a fairy or dryad would be to any common traveler. She tagged along with him and during the occasional thunderstorm, she'd run into his room crying and asking for him to make it stop.

He'd, honestly and sincerely, let her stay and even hummed her a lullaby or two to make her feel better. She stopped doing that when she hit thirteen, but it had been terribly cute and very kind of her to go to him for help.

Then she became a young woman, a very beautiful one. He found himself staring at her sometimes, watching her not only practicing her spiritual spells of the shaman, but watching her cooking, brushing her hair, and even doing nothing at all. He'd watched her sleeping once under a weeping willow tree, her hair blowing ever so slightly in the gentle breeze, her creamy cheese slightly flushed from the nice dreams she was having. Veda giggled in her sleep, making him hide, as if he was guilty of something.

She settled back into sleep and curled up against the tree like a gorgeous kitten, then he processed what he was thinking to his own personal horror. He was in love with Veda, madly head over heels in love with the young female he was supposed to be guiding, not desiring. He hated himself for it and tried avoiding her as much as possible, still teaching her magic, but avoiding her the rest of the time.

That only made him want to see her more, then after her 18th birthday, he started to dream about her. She loved him in his dreams, voicing it and kissing him like he secretly hoped she would someday, but damning himself all the while knowing it was a terrible thing to want from someone who trusted him to care for her and her brother. He was their guardian, he wasn't supposed to fall in love with her.

For everything I long to do.

No matter where or when or who,

There's one thing in common too.

It's a….

It's a….

It's a ……..

It's a sin!!

It's a sin!!

Two years of loving dreams was getting to him, driving him crazy with desires he dared not show Veda, but his courage was working its way up in his system, and it scared him. What would she think of him if she ever found out that he loved her more than just a friend, but romantically.

'She'd kill me if she found out I've been dreaming about kissing her for two years. Hell, Colwin would lacerate me….I'd get over that, but life without Veda…..I can't imagine that and keep from sobbing. I'm such a traitor to their trust, damn my stupid heart! Damn it all to hell! Oh no….not again, make the dreams stop.' He thought, though his dream form looked rather pleased, holding the dream Veda in his arms. Soon, Hiero could see from his dream form's perspective, Veda's shining face smiling at him, leaning in to kiss him.

"I love you, Hiero Vendetta. I always will." She said breathlessly, and kissed him deeply. Hiero let it happen, too starved of the sensation of a woman's lips on his, her arm body touching his and her honeyed scent driving his senses wild.

Then her lips felt very warm and wet, and soon his were very wet, the wetness sliding down his chin slowly. He reached up to wipe it off, then stopped dead when his fingers met with a warm, sticky substance. He forced his eyes open and stared at his fingers, his heart almost stopping at the sight of the blood that coated them. Hiero yanked his body back and grabbed Veda's arms tightly. Her head was hung low, but he could see the blood staining the front of her pretty blue dress. "Veda!?" he cried out, then Veda whipped her head up, smiling at him with a bloody face, her eyes now golden, demonic slits.

"I'll love you forever, Hiero, till death. Ah ahahahahaaa!" she laughed, vomiting a river of blood all over him.

~

"NOOOOO!!" Hiero screamed, sitting up swiftly from his sweat soaked sheet, his bare chest heaving madly as he gripped his heart. It was just a dream, but Hiero had learned dreams were also Delphine's way of tormenting Hiero with things to come. 'Is Veda going to die….because of me? I can't save her or something? By Moriun, her laugh….she sounded like a banshee….I….I have to protect her. I must….but from what? Myself or something else? No….it's me….I can't let her be hurt because of me.' he thought wildly, starting to giggle uncontrollably.

He snapped right there, babbling to himself about the possibilities of how Veda would be killed. Suddenly he reached a conclusion about the dream, reaching for his things to mill through them for his prized dagger he'd stolen from a proud young thief. It was about the size of a man's hand and as thin as two fingers set together. He giggled with a wild look in his eyes. "Only way I can't cause her death, is if I'm already dead. I haven't tried suicide, I've been too scared. Hee, hee. Yes, that's what I'll do, kill myself and then she won't die….yes, perfect answer, then I can be with mother and father in hell, yeah, right where Moriun put them. Yeah, wonderful." He giggled, lying back on his bed slowly before placing the dagger above his heart.

"This is for love….Veda. Forgive me, please." He said quietly, then rammed the dagger through his still beating heart. His hands fell away from the dagger as it went through, killing him instantly.

A few minutes later, Veda and Colwin came in, rather sleepy looking and yawning as they came in his room. They'd been worried about Hiero's screaming., but had been too groggy to move any faster than a snail's pace. Colwin was the first one to enter and it took him a minute or two to put the room into focus. His eyes widened slightly at the sight of Hiero laying there, eyes wide open and shirtless, then he let out a guttural yell when he saw the sapphire-haired man was soaked with blood and had a dagger sticking out of his chest.

Veda noticed it right after he did and screamed out, mournfully," Hiero!!"

"No Veda, he'll be fine….he can't die, remember? Just calm down and let me get this thing out of him. He heard a small 'yes' mixed with a small gasp, then got to Hiero's bleeding body. 'This is in all the way….and he doesn't have a window. Did he do this himself? Why would he want to die….? Never mind that, we can talk about this later, without Veda having to hear it.' He thought, yanking the dagger out of their guardian's chest.

In seconds, Hiero's wound healed, his chest starting to rise and fall again once the wound closed up. Hiero blinked a moment, taking in a small breath before blinking again. He looked up dumbly at Colwin, who looked back with concern. Hiero just groaned, and yanked the covers over his body, getting his shed blood all over himself. "Ah damn…." He mumbled.

Colwin grimaced at the response. "What happened? We heard you screaming." He said. Hiero groaned again and stuck his arm out trying to wave them out of his room. "I couldn't sleep so I was playing with my knife….I got a little too bold and threw it too high and sort'a….missed the last catch. That's why I screamed….you can go back to bed now, I'm fine."

"But you're covered in blood. At least let us help you clean up and get some new sheets." Veda spouted out, yanking Hiero's sheets away. Colwin wanted to start laughing when he saw her reaction to seeing Hiero alive and shirtless., part of his sleeping pants hanging slightly below his slender hips. What he hadn't expected was to see Hiero blushing and nervously snatching back the sheets.

"I'll be fine. I can sleep by the willow tree, I've done it before. And I'll clean off in the river, I swear. Don't go to any trouble, Veda, please. I'm fine, go back to bed." Hiero said in a panic, backing away as far on his bed as he could.

Veda just went on blushing all the way out of Hiero's room, then ran down the hallway. Hiero let out a deep breath as he sank into the bed a bit, hanging his head low. "You sure you're all right?" Colwin asked, trying to see whether or not Hiero was still blushing. Hiero wouldn't lift his head, but said," Just fine. Go back to your room, I'll be ok. Just need to get my bearings, coming back to life hurts." Hiero told him.

As Colwin left, shutting the door tightly, he heard a soft sobbing erupt from behind it, Hiero cursing himself for his sinful existence. Colwin listened to it for a while until they ceased, replaced by soft breathing. He peek in quietly, satisfied when he saw Hiero sleeping on his bed again. Sleeping in one's own blood stained sheets wasn't a great thing, but at least he had calmed down.

'What are you hiding….? What is it? I know you did that to yourself, but not by accident. Why would you, of all people, try to kill yourself? Why won't you tell us, we're you're friends….Oh Hiero, what's going on with you?' he thought, walking quietly back to his room, hoping that Hiero would tell him what was wrong. He hoped with all his heart that their guardian would trust them. After all, what was life worth without trust?

*Love, Found and Lost*

"Colo Lit!!" Veda shouted, blasting out an arrow of bright and colorful light beams into the eyes of her opponent, Hiero Vendetta. She didn't like having to cause him pain, but the woods weren't exactly plentiful with monsters. They normally came out during the summer and fall seasons to gorge on fresh meat.

Hiero never seemed to mind her hurting him for the good of her own powers, but was less adamant about Colwin's training. True enough, Colwin was a very strong and quick young man, ideal for the royal guard, but Hiero was just paying way too much attention to her, like he was protecting her from something.

Veda had seen signs that he was not always focused on the battle at hand, his eyes wandering past Veda, above her, to her sides, and even behind himself. His eyes had snapped in so many directions on numerous occasions, she was deathly worried they'd just rattle out of his head one day. Hiero was just a nervous wreck, hiding something from her and Colwin as always she gathered. 'Why won't you let us help you? I….we love you so much, Hiero.' She thought, chanting another spell as Hiero rubbed his eyes.

"Sorry about this, but….Lito Basa!" she called out, raising her hand to the sky. Out of the clear blue sky, a mess of dark cloud appeared and sent dozen of lightening bolts into Hiero's form. He let out a scream, then collapsed, swords and all, onto the scorched earth. When the sky cleared, she rushed over to his burnt body, lifting him as best she could into her lap. The folds of her lovely blue dress got a little sooty, but she didn't care. All she wanted was to see Hiero wake up again, like he always did.

"He won't mind if I give his healing powers a bit of a boost, would he? No, of course not," she thought, placing both hands on Hiero's charred chest," By the guiding light of Moriun, bestow your infinite love on this soul. Bless this soul with the greater healing of your eternal heart."

Hiero moaned as the chant took effect, golden light dripping across his form slowly. The char started to leave him, but most of his clothes were pretty much ruined and torn. Veda found that out when she tried to dust off his shirt and it just fell apart into tiny pieces of roasted fabric. He stirred slightly, but didn't awaken when this happened, so she sighed in relief and began to dust the char off of his skin, skin so pale it was like silken ivory. It was soft to the touch, little sparks of affection leaping from her fingers at each portion she cleaned.

'He's so handsome….so exotic….You're fooling yourself, Veda. How could he love someone as plain as you are?' she thought, her hand laid lightly over his slow heartbeats as he started to stir again, his eyes fluttering open.

~

Hiero felt warm all over, especially on his chest. There was something petal-soft laying there, rubbing gentle over his heart. 'She packs a wallop….good girl….but who's holding me? Moriun, don't let it be her, no, no, no!' his mind screamed as he struggled to open his eyes.

When his vision returned, his eyes lifted to the woman who held him close, the blue tresses of her dress caressing his bare back. 'Veda….please no….no, you can't be doing this, you're driving me crazy with love. No!' he thought, not knowing whether to moan or cry. "Hiero, welcome back. Sorry I burned you so bad, but you always say to be aggressive." She said, her honeyed voice putting him in an emotional frenzy in his mind.

He quickly got his composure and squirmed out of her embrace, backing away from her as if she was a rabid berserker. "I'm fine….Don't trouble yourself, Veda. I…." Hiero started, but he was lost the moment he looked in her eyes, the concern and pure innocent trust he saw there making his heart break into a million pieces. 'I can't do this….I can't.' he thought, and without a word he ran away.

~ Tyros' Fire Maiden Tavern ~

Colwin had been making a fine roast chicken when Veda exploded into the cottage wailing at the top of her lungs. Hiero's name came out of her mouth before she vanished into her room and slammed the door. He had tried to get in, but each time he attempted it, he got books and breakables thrown at him. Colwin finally decided to find Hiero and see what was wrong. He knew well enough that Hiero went to Tyros often to drink whenever he was upset, so he had to assume that either Veda confessed her feelings and been rejected, making Hiero feel bad and guilty, or Hiero was upset in front of her and scared her.

It was a stretch, but better than nothing. It had always proven itself in the past to be a good choice, like it had today, but seeing Hiero drunker than hell in his Charmin form was a shock to the system. Usually Hiero would just be staring at a couple of glasses of cheap wine before Colwin arrived, then Colwin would tell him to come back and He'd drink one and leave the rest. He'd fall asleep halfway home and Colwin would have to carry him.

That was not the case now. Hiero's Charmin form was sucking down a bottle of vodka, one of many surrounding him at the counter. At least three of them were empty and five more were sitting there full and ready to open. As Hiero downed the bottle he was holding, he slammed it next to the other empties and popped the next vodka bottle open. He took a swig before Colwin sat down next to him. Colwin saw he had a dopey, yet sad smile on his face when he stopped drinking. Hiero just looked over at him, totally smashed with alcohol, his eyes opening and closing randomly and looking cross-eyed a couple times.

"Hiya, Collie. What's shakin'….other than my drink?" Hiero said in mock seriousness, before starting to giggle to himself before brink the bottle back to his lips. Colwin just groaned. "I'm fine, but Veda came home crying. She won't even talk to me….what happened at her lesson, Hiero?" he asked, snatching the bottle away from him. Hiero just pouted, then smiled, opening the next bottle.

"Veda is so beautiful….isn't she?" Hiero bubbled after downing the next bottle.

This caught Colwin by surprise. "Yes, she is. Why do ask?" Colwin said carefully, so as not to lose the subject. Hiero grinned stupidly, trying drunkenly to grab the next bottle, but his hand sent it and the other bottles crashing to the floor. "Nnn, I paid for it anyway….hiccup….Yeah, she's a buxom, precious, lovely, sweet, and wonderful woman….Yes, yes, she is. She deserves better than a sinner like me. Hee, hee, by Moriun….she's so beautiful and sweet to me….Ahhh. Hiccup!" Hiero blubbered out, falling off his chair and flat on his rump. He just laughed and sat there with an ever increasingly stupid grin on his face.

"You think that why? Why would you say she deserves better than….you….By the goddess, you're in love with my sister!" Colwin gasped, getting a very honest nod from Hiero, right before he passed out on the floor.

~ Miliene Woods ~

"Blehhh!! I'm never going to drink again…..Oh, here comes some more, huahhhh!!!!" Hiero muttered, back his true body, shirtless and char stained as he vomited generously into the bushes. Colwin just watched him, feeling somewhat ad for him, but insanely overjoyed that his sister's wish had come true. It wasn't as if he'd expected such an old young looking guy to fall in love with one of those he was protecting, yet to know his sister had a chance to be happy made him very happy indeed.

"So, you're in love with Veda. That's great." Colwin said cheerfully, grimacing as Hiero responded by vomiting again and again until all her could toss out of his body was bile. When he was done, he staggered away from the bush, holding his head with all his might.

"Oh….this is going to hurt forever! Damn drink!" Hiero muttered, then looked up very pained at Colwin," What's so great about me being a traitor to both of your trusts?"

Colwin was taken aback by the harsh response. "Hey, why would we think that? You're in love, not a child molester or a murderer. How can you say such things?"

Hiero teetered when he tried to respond and fell to his knees. Colwin got to his side quickly and helped him up, easily deflecting Hiero's alcohol dulled swatting.

"I betrayed your trust by falling in love with Veda….I am not supposed to ever, EVER be in love. My sins forbid it….besides, how could she love an asshole freak like me?! Let go!" Hiero shouted, struggling against his young charge.

"How could you betray us when Veda feels the same way!! Neither of us blames you for your past or anything, you gave us a new lease on life, especially Veda. Hiero, listen to me dammit, Veda in love with you too!" Colwin yelled directly into Hiero's ears, not intending to, but with how monstrously that Hiero was struggling he couldn't really help it.

Hiero was dazed in the face for moment, from the confession or the ringing his ears were going through, Colwin wasn't sure. "She loves me? You're not just saying that, are you?" Hiero said in a whispery voice, sounding as if he was daring to hope. Colwin nodded.

"And I made her cry….because I was afraid of hurting her with my feelings. Dammit….I hurt her in trying not to. Now what do I do?" Hiero mumbled, falling a little limp against Colwin's body.

"Why don't we go home first….so you can get off you alcohol buzz and tell her how you feel tomorrow. Trust me, she'll be overjoyed to hear it. Just do it sober," Colwin chuckled, lifting Hiero's slender body into his arms," I'm really getting sick of carrying you around after you get smashed. Next time drag yourself home, I should be carrying damsels, not your drunk ass."

He said it jokingly enough to elicit a smile from Hiero's lips. "Yeah, no more alcohol….tasting it with stomach fluids isn't exactly wonderful either….my hero." Hiero said with a slight laugh, playfully hugging Colwin. The young warrior made a mock balk, but laughed afterwards. "Oh stop, or I'll drop you right now."

Hiero gave off a sheepish grin. "Such a stick in the mud….oh, not so fast, or you'll be wearing what I have left in my gut….Colwin. Happy?"

"Heh, it beats being called kid, old man." Colwin mused, plodding himself and his guardian back towards the cottage.

~ Next Day ~

"What did you want to talk to me about, Hiero?" Veda asked quietly, sitting gracefully against the willow tree by the river.

Hiero was sitting next to her, but looking at his hands, which he was wringing nervously. "It's a little about my behavior yesterday. Colwin told me you were very upset….and a few other things, but, I really want apologize to you for upsetting you so much. I know you were only trying to help me. But, I owe you an explanation." He told her quietly, still not able to look at her. He'd never felt so nervous and vulnerable in all his life.

"It's ok….I guess I overreacted a little. You are always…a bit skittish after you come back to life. Perhaps my….Hiero, hey, Hiero, what's wrong? You look very pale…..and you're sweating. Something vexes thee?" she asked politely.

He started a little, but took a few quick breaths to calm his rapid heartbeats down. Hiero took his chance to look into her hazel depths, his own sapphire blues quivering slightly and he gulped. 'Yes, what vexes me is that I'm 10,000 flippin' years old and I can't even say I love you without acting like a love struck teenager. Hell, I don't even deserve her, I never loved anything in my life except my mother….and she….she made me what I am. I just didn't know any better than to seek the truth, all I wanted was power and respect, not love.' He thought, biting down on his lip to fight the memories away.

"Yes….for a while, I've had something very important on my mind, something I thought would drive us all apart if I moved on it, but it's driving me crazy to hide it any longer. It….scares me too. I've….kind of fallen in love." He said, tumbling over each word.

Veda looked very sad when he finished. "Oh, how nice for you. Who is the lucky woman?" she asked sorrowfully as she looked away. Hiero nearly bit his tongue when he saw that and quickly grabbed her hands in his. "No….it's nobody from town….or a newcomer, Veda….It's a….well, it's a….Damn Moriun, this is hard." Hiero tried, but his words were failing him. Her eyes looked so innocent and hurt, it was breaking his heart.

"What's so hard? Who is this woman you love?" she asked, curiosity dripping from her words. Hiero decided shutting his eyes might help, if he couldn't see her, he wouldn't be so flabbergasted with his speech. He shut them tightly, taking a couple deep breaths before he managed to calm down. "You." He said," I love you, Veda."

He waited a moment, not opening his eyes even when he heard what he thought was gasp. Hiero went on waiting, his face ready to burst from being held to tightly shut. Then came the warmth on his lips. He stiffened a bit, but then relaxed slowly, opening his eyes cautiously, Veda's pretty face close to his. He kissed her back with all the passion he'd felt and kept buried.

Everything I've ever done, everything I'll ever do,

Every place I've ever been, every where I'm going to….

It's a sin!

He felt himself get pushed gently back into the grass, the kiss deepening as he let her slim tongue inside his mouth, a kiss of love, something he'd never had the joy of having. He'd been married many times, but Delphine chose them all for him. He grew to like them, but it was never love. He was just doing as he was told and used other forms to help him look like he was aging gracefully with them. Veda was the first real woman he'd gazed upon and fallen for by his own doing, not the god that was his bane.

'This is really nice….and Delphine hasn't made a peep all these years. Maybe he's finally gone….Veda and I can be together. Oh…..yes.' he thought happily, kissing his beloved back hungrily.

When the kiss ended, Veda buried her face against his chest, sighing contently. "I love you too…. I'll love you forever, Hiero, till death." She said, his eyes snapping open at her words.

'Like in my dream….I've got to protect her. I will. I swear it. I won't let her be hurt ever again.' He thought, clutching her tightly against his chest and kissing the top of her head. "So will I….my love." He whispered to her, letting the warm afternoon breeze blow over their embraced bodies, his heart beating proudly with every second.

~

Supper was the best it had ever been that night. Colwin had been good enough to cook again for the three of them, smiling all over at the sight of his sister and guardian being so happy. Hiero delighted in feeling this way, so much in fact he barely touched his mutton. He was too busy gazing appreciatively at Veda, who was blushing bright red all through the meal. Colwin just grinned all night through mouthfuls of food.

He was so happy, he never noticed Veda went outside to rinse the dishes off, stuck in his little fantasy future world all through the meal. Colwin broke the spell by bopping the sapphire-haired man lightly with his knuckles.

"Ow! What was that for?" Hiero griped. Colwin just gave off a sheepish grin. "You were stuck in dreamland all through supper. You're dinner's ice cold right now, Romeo." Colwin teased, gesturing at Hiero's untouched plate. Hiero looked at it a moment, then to where Veda had been sitting. "Where did Veda go?" he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Outside to wash the dishes….Why?" Colwin said, but he never got the chance to do much else as a scream and a splash sounded outside. Hiero rushed out of the house with Colwin in tow to see what was wrong.

Hiero felt like he'd been stabbed in the heart. Veda was a ways downstream, tangled in some branches on the other side of the river. She was hanging face down in the water, blood leaking out of her head. He was surprised by this and grabbed Colwin quickly, casting a levitation spell to get the to her for healing.

When he got a closer look at her, her saw half of the back of her head was missing and partially burned, like she'd been shot with a fireball at close range. It puzzled and hurt him to see this, but he did not feel the presence of another mage in the area. He pulled her out of the branches, his eyes filling up with tears rapidly as some of her blood spilled across his chest.

"WHO DID THIS?! VEDA!? No, don't leave me, VEDA!" he growled, hot tears pouring from his eyes, his rage growing dangerously. Colwin was hysterical at the sight of his sister dead. "By Moriun, Veda! No, no little sister, not you! You never deserved such an end. No please Moriun, no!" he wept, falling on his hands and knees as he was overtaken by painful sobbing.

"I warned you not to disobey me. Now look what my mother had to waste her powers for? Some stupid girl you had to go be an asshole and fall in love with. Don't you know that you're mine, my beautiful disciple? No act of kindness will be rewarded to the likes of you!" the all too familiar voice of Delphine uttered inside Hiero's head.

Father, forgive me.

I try not to do it.

Turned over a new leaf

And saw right through it.

Hiero sobbed hard, holding Veda's corpse closer to him, not caring about the raw stench of cooked blood and sinew. He rubbed her hair and kissed her lifeless cheek

'Delphine!! How could you, she was innocent! Dammit you lousy holier than art though bastard!! Veda, why Veda, why not me?!' Hiero mentally demanded, still sobbing.

"I told you no love or friends, and look what you've done. You've fallen in love with this innocent young woman. Yes, but the innocents always pay, don't they? Always for the sin of sinner, and that's you!? I warned you, so this is all your fault. Her death is on your head, for all times!" Delphine said matter-of factly.

'Not her….I'll do anything, just let her live, Delphine! I don't care, I'll do anything for you, just let her live. She deserves it much more than me, and you know that. I beg you, don't let her die like this. I'll leave, I'll do whatever it takes to protect them, just name it. I swear, I'll do it.' Hiero thought back.

Delphine was silent for a moment, then let out a malicious chuckle. "All right….but you must leave as soon as she's back. Make her forget you and you are to never see them alive again or my mother will kill the both of them for keeps. If you thought a lightening bolt to the brain as bad….oh, you haven't seen my mother truly pissed off just yet. Screw me again and she'll show no mercy. Just turn into me and I will restore her. The rest is up to you, if you value their lives."

Hiero just nodded. 'Then what?' he asked mentally. Delphine chuckled again. "We're going to go down in history as the man who wipes out the entire race known as the demi-humans, the goblins and the orc races to be precise. They don't pay enough tribute to mother and myself." Delphine replied pleasantly.

Whatever you taught me,

I didn't believe it.

Father, you fought me

Cause I didn't care

and I still don't understand!!!!!

'Genocide!? You're insane!? I won't….' Hiero began, but Delphine cut him off. "You will or she'll never breathe another day. She'll swim in the fires of hell for all eternity if you don't do as I say. Is that perfectly clear!?" Delphine snapped.

Hiero nodded again, sighing heavily as he laid Veda's body down face first. "I….will always love you, Veda. I….Argh, Phase Delphine, overtake me! AHHHHH!!" Hiero said quietly, transforming into the god Delphine instantly. He didn't bother to look at Colwin, who was heaving a little quieter. He simply laid his hands on Veda's back and concentrated. "Veda Umberson, child of the light. I restore you to your former glory. Let the power of new life flow through thy soul." He said, his voice echoing on each word as tendrils of white light began to seep into the corpse's body.

The missing portions of her brain and skull began to regenerate, slowly, but it was better than nothing. Soon, her skin came back and the hair that had once been there. The spell was complete, but Hiero couldn't help but feel sad.

"Hiero, you saved her! This is great!" Colwin crowed, but Hiero didn't share in his happiness. "For you….you have your sister back, but I must leave you both. I've put you both in a lot of danger. I have to leave you now….but first, I have to ensure I keep my promise to Veda," Hiero said," Phase Delphine, leave me!"

Hiero was himself again, but still looked just as sad as he place his hands on the back of Veda's head. "For you, I sacrifice millions….and you must be made to hate me for all times. Yet, I will keep my promise to you, lovely Veda, you will never be hurt again," he told her quietly, then put the powers of his mind to murder her memories," You will forget the name and man known as Hiero Vendetta and the Safaia Oni. You've never seen or met him, but you know to hate him. I take the memories of me from you. They never happened."

"They never happened. The Safaia Oni is evil incarnate. I do not know him." She repeated in a trance-like state.

A cool tears slipped from Hiero's eye as she said it, biting back his sorrow as he spoke to her one last time," Now sleep until the morning comes."

With that, Veda fell instantly asleep, breathing peacefully on the grass. Hiero stood after that, facing Colwin solemnly. "Why Hiero? I thought you loved my sister." Colwin asked.

So I look back upon my life

Forever with a sense of shame

I've always been the one to blame.

For everything I long to do,

No matter where or when or who,

There's one thing in common too.

It's a….

It's a….

It's a……..

IT'S A SIN!!!!

IT'S A SIN!!!!

"Delphine is still with me, he had his mother kill your sister to punish me. I….I didn't tell you about my curse other than being unable to die. It also says that I can have no friends without Delphine's choosing them, and I can never ever have true love of my own design. My love for your sister was pure and from the depths of my heart, true as anything, so it was forbidden. She died because of me….and the only reason she lives is because I begged Delphine for it. I must leave you forever….never to return as long as you both live or Moriun will kill you and torment you for eternity in the afterlife. I can't let that happen." Hiero explained, then cast levitation on both Colwin and Veda to send them back near the cottage.

Everything I've ever done, everything I'll ever do

Every place I've ever been, everywhere I'm going to….

IT'S A SIN!!!!

It's a….

It's a….

It's a sin!

It's a sin!

"But Hiero….!" Colwin tried, but Hiero shook his head and turned away. "I can't stay. You'll be a great knight without me and your sister will excel as a shaman. Protect her precious heart for me….it is all I ask, Colwin. Farewell." Hiero replied, taking off into the woods before Colwin could utter another word.

It's a sin!

It's a sin!

It's a sin!

Sin! Sin! Sin! Sin!

SIN….

19,988 Years Later

Dragon Country:

*Red Rya to Blue Saffron*

A horrendous thunderstorm raged about the continent of the dragon race, the smell of brimstone and volcanic ash pungent in the dark air. The coast was a beautiful, perfect beach littered with pretty shells and fine white sand.

Hiero saw it from miles away an hour ago in his small boat, his form soaked to the bone with cold, stinging rain and his boat on the verge of sinking from all the rain it was collecting. By the time his craft was several feet from the crashing surf, his boat gave up on him and went down. He was also whisked in the wrong direction and lost sight of the beach. He grumbled the entire swim to icy shores he'd been swept to by the storm, praying no dragons were hunting for food right now.

One thing he didn't want was to be eaten. Being digested, so he gathered, was done slowly with stomach acid and he was not eager to swim in dragons stomach acid anytime soon. Being crapped out of a dragon to regenerate later had to be the worst way to go.

When he finally reached the slippery, snowy shore, he made a mad dash towards the catacombs of snow covered pine trees. He could barely see through the rain turned snow that blocked his sights of where the mountains of the Onyx dragons were. He knew where he was, he'd studied every map he could find on the terrain of the dragon continent. Still, his boat hadn't and the weather wasn't about to give him an easy night, so he'd wound up on the northwestern side of the place instead of the southeastern portion, the one closest to where the Onyx and Ruby Dragons resided.

By Delphine's nagging he'd been told that the Ruby and Black Dragons, along with a handful of other dragons races except the Pearl Dragons had birthed many thousands of years ago, through a deal with Satan, the ruler of hell, and the prince of darkness, Vermin, a great dragon king. It was the largest dragon egg ever birthed out of an Onyx female, so big that it had to be cut out of her. The female died during the process, but the egg survived to hatch 100 years later.

It was too large to be a cute hatchling, or anything close to cuteness. The evil band of dragons involved with its creation named it Void, raising it to be merciless to those dragons that opposed it and to keep the humans off of their continent, believing they would steal their great treasures and wisdom if even one human set foot on their lands.

Millennia passed on and soon Void grew as big as the mighty mountains that the Onyx dragons resided within. He had superior intellect and loved to kill things he deemed inferior, namely creatures that were human-sized in nature. Void never left the continent, but his followers did and would steal humans, elves, dwarves, livestock, and many other creatures to keep Void strong. He also abused the other dragon races and the weaker wyverns that had quickly surrendered to his followers, lest they would die slowly in Void's stomach.

Hiero was here to infiltrate the dragon continent and eventually, after a lot of spying, stealing, and magical destruction, to kill Void through absorption. Hiero knew that would hurt since Void was enormous, able to breathe plasma breath whenever he pleased. One breath could vaporize an army of dragons or turn a mountain into an aunt hill. 'And lucky, lucky, I have to destroy him….How the hell do destroy something that's 500 flipping feet tall? Foul language….bastard god. It's never enough. Destroy all the goblins and orcs so your past charges can live. Go visit the queen of fairies and wipe out the troll infestation and absorb a few freaky fairies, Hiero. Oh, now Hiero, kill two warriors during a war on different sides and frame the kings for their deaths," he thought angrily, slipping for a moment on a patch of snow covered ice," Damn him, it never ends….all I ever do is kill, kill, get killed, get killed, and get even more killed. 30,000 damn years old and I'm still doing the same old impossible crap. Hell, I'm near the Sapphire and Pearl Dragon grounds….Pearls are rather neutral on violent tendencies, but sapphires spit out frozen breath and can be as testy as the rest of them. I'll be lucky to just be blessed to death by a Pearly.'

He got into the forest without a single roar or large hovering shadows circling him. He hadn't been seen, so that as a blessing all its own. The faster he went, the better his chances were of reaching the mountain summit to find Void's little cult army. He could absorb many of the traitor dragons to better his chances, but still, even if he phased into one of them, it would be like trying to slay an elephant with a roach. It just wasn't going to happen. He needed to figure Void out and play on his weaknesses, if he actually had any.

'This is going to be another humiliating and bothersome quest. I'm going to get killed a dozen nasty ways by every damn dragon on this continent. I just know it.' He thought.

Just as he was feeling good about his progress, a loud roar was heard. He stopped the moment he heard it, looking around wildly with his hands ready to throw dozens of spells at whatever was stupid enough to move. The roar came again, or rather a roaring voice. "HELP ME!!!! HELP!!!!"

'Big surprise, even dragons have problems. Might as well go see what's going on….just keep on screaming….or whatever. I don't care.' He thought, running in the direction of the roaring.

After a few minutes, her found where it was coming from, right outside a large cavern made of ice and stone were three dragons, all the same size, but two in particular were ganging up on one, a Ruby dragon. The others were of different races, an Onyx Dragon and an odd looking one with some red, sizzling slime dribbling down it's back. It never touched the ground and seemed to rustle like wings on the thing's back. 'Magma dragon….their wings are made of the shit and they throw it up at their victims. Heh…what's so special about that red dragon anyway? Hmm, maybe treasure.' He thought wickedly.

Then the Onyx dragon perked his head up and started to sniff the air. The moment it shot its head around, Hiero knew he'd been made. 'Damn good sense of smell too….jerk. Like I was going to interfere.' He thought coldly, staring right back at the Onyx's dragon's pure white eyes.

"Human….boy…..Lunch….time." it hissed out, advancing one step. The Magma dragon seemed more interested in the red dragon than a little human snack. 'Lovely….time to show him why I'm the Safaia Oni, whether I like it or not.' He mused, stepped out in full view, the cloth ends of his mask blowing dramatically in the wind.

"Stupid lizard…. Rigas Pike!" he called out, aiming his hands at the Onyx dragon as it began to open its mouth. Hiero dared not move or he'd risk disturbing the spell, even as the dragon's mouth filled with dark energy, crackling in his gaping throat, Hiero stayed put.

The dragon never got to let out one breath at him as the ground erupted around its body in a tight circle, molten lava shooting out of the shape. The dragon's form was hidden and roaring madly within the cylinder of great and deadly heat, then Hiero brought his hands together slowly. The cylinder slowly collapsed inward on the now shrieking dragon. When the lava was nothing more than a thin line, it fell back into the earth, the cracked healing themselves. The Onyx dragon was completely obliterate, cooked alive within the spell, just as Hiero had hoped.

The Magma dragon took interest in Hiero when he found his partner was dead. He reared his head back quickly and let loose a powerful gush of lava vomit from his mouth. Hiero dove forward and landed a few feet in front of the still vomiting creature. "So you wanna play rough, hot stuff? So be it…. Tsu Rush!" Hiero shouted, slamming both hands against the ground between himself and the Magma dragon.

It stopped vomiting to look down at Hiero, getting ready to vomit on him at close range. Hiero would wake up if he didn't pull this off, but either way, he was getting burns on his face and fingers from being too close to the walking, roaring volcano. The dragon's mouth didn't open in time to stop Hiero's spell, a geyser of water shooting up from below its claw and sent it shooting into the air.

Hiero waited a moment, then heard a violent screeching, a brownish and reddish shape plummeting to where he was standing. He skittered back nimbly, his body bouncing off the ground when the Magma dragon hit. It was still alive, but most of it and its wings were solid rock now. 'Might as well get something out of this. Magma dragons may not be the smartest of the races, but they are deadly enough.' He thought, crawling over slowly to the moaning creature to lay his hands on the solidified parts.

Hiero felt a white hot pain hit his fingers, working its way slowly up his arms and into his brain the longer he held onto the dragon. The Magma dragon groaned a little, but it didn't struggle against him. The absorption was more painful than absorbing mages. Dragons were a lot bigger than normal human and elfin mages were, the more he had to absorb, the more pain he felt. If a magical creature was too big, which Delphine had pleasantly told him after commanding him to locate and absorb Void, he'd be out cold for weeks adjusting to the powers and the stress it would put on his body.

The Magma dragon wasn't huge, even for an adult. Dragons were no bigger than oak and pine trees, but it was big enough to hurt. Hiero was never fond of any kind of pain his ability gave off. He simple closed his eyes and bit his lip all the way through it.

The pain soon subsided, making Hiero a little light headed as he stood up. He took a few breaths before opening his eyes, choking on another break as two large and fully blue eyes stared back at him. He'd nearly forgotten about the Ruby dragon he'd stopped the other dragons from killing, but here she was, face to very big face, her blood-red scales glimmering as she moved her head about.

She was sniffing at him too, grinning with her fangs. 'I save her….and she wants to eat me. Some luck.' He thought, getting ready to cast as spell on her so he could be on his way, but she shocked him by licking his hand.

Then she tackled him, embracing him so tightly that he heard his ribs break one by one. "Oh, you saved Rya. You saved Rya. Thanks you, handsome human….Oh, I adore thee. I will never leave your side, my champion." She let out in her feminine, yet booming voice. Her head was nuzzling at him too, done with such force she broke his arms and put a hole in his chest. 'Deadly….affection….oh….crap.' he thought, dying in the overly joyous dragon's arms.

~

Rya went on hugging the handsome little human man that had saved her from being captured and fed to Void. He'd made her so happy that she couldn't help but hug him like crazy. She was anxiously waiting to hear him speak to her, but he didn't. Then she felt something warm dripping down her front scales, then onto her muscular legs. She stopped hugging the man and let go, her mind filling with horror when he just fell to the ground in a bloody heap.

"Oh by the mountains! I've killed my savior! Oh no!" she wailed. In a panic, she quickly spread out her wings and flew off, too ashamed to stay any longer.

"Oh, forgive me. I only wanted to show him how happy I was. I didn't mean to crush him….Argh, that's the fourth fleshy small creature I've killed this year. Oh, mother will be furious!" she wailed, disappearing into the snow filled sky.

~

Hiero woke up to find he was covered in snow, the blood on his clothing frozen right off. He stood and looked around frantically as he dusted himself off. 'That nut….didn't know her own strength. I better lay low fast before she comes back. She might reconsider fleeing from where she pulverized my innards and try and eat or bury me!" he thought, scanning the skies with nervous eyes, then let them settle on the cave Rya had been covering in front of," No telling how far it goes. Still, the maps say there are Hot Springs in most of the caves in this area. Who am I to argue….it's better than freezing my ass off out here.'

Hiero ran inside the cave, his journey inside cold for a half-hour or so, but there was little heat radiating from further inside the cave. 'Just have to keep going, and soon I can have a hot bath and warm place to spend the night. Beats being cold and wet and hugged to death by some crazy dragon lady.' He mused, starting to run faster, eager to be where the wonderful warmth was.

~

The cave soon lost the glossy icicles the further Hiero trudged on. His hair was going limp from the comforting heat and the frost that had covered his body was now just making his clothes rather wet. 'Doesn't matter….I can have a hot bath in a few minutes once I reach the spring and the heat will steam my clothing dry. Yeah….a break for once, at least until I figure out how long it will take me to get out of here and to Onyx Dragon territory.' He thought, smiling at the thought of a hot bath.

Hiero felt a dip in the path, his foot falling through dead air. His first reaction was to stop and step over it, which prove to be a bad idea when he started to plummet with his reaching foot. He'd just walked over a small cliff. 'Dummy….can't even watch where you're going. I'm damn old, so maybe I'm going senile….nah….I'm too vicious for that. Dummy.' He scolded himself as he landed face first in a large patch of brown twigs.

Hiero spit some bits and pieces of the branches out of his mouth and laid his hand on one of the warm boulders that were around him. 'Boulders aren't warm….and they don't feel like gooseflesh.' He thought, turning his sapphire eyes towards what he was touching.

"A DRAGON EGG! EEP! Oh no," he yelped, looking about the rest of the spot where he'd landed," Oh hell, I'm in a damn dragon nest!! Uh-oh….and they're hatching. Shit!"

He wanted to get out as soon as possible, but baby dragons might be very hungry when they woke up from their incubation. The eggs made cracking noise all together, the tops of each one starting to ooze out the egg yolk. He could see small blue head trying to force their way out. Even if he got out of the nest, he'd have to hope their mother wasn't around or he'd get eaten.

Hiero was soon covered in baby dragon yolk, the reddish fluid swirled with yellow decorating his entire form as he tried to climb out of the nest. It was so slippery, even on the branches that made up the net, Hiero couldn't get his footing and crashing hard with his back into the nearest egg. He wiped off his face, the yolk all over him now, and gaped up at the baby Sapphire dragon that was just taking its first breath. It was cute, but Hiero would have preferred seeing it from a distance, like in a crystal ball, not in the thing's lap.

He dared not moved, a fleeting hope that the baby would not see him, but that a pitiful hope and Hiero knew it. The baby dragon looked at him with fully green eyes, blinking them all too preciously at Hiero. Hiero was expecting the baby to start thinking food, and bite-bite time would commence. Instead, the baby made a throaty chirp and licked him, then nuzzled against his chest.

"Stupid beast thinks you're his brother….all that gunk on you is scent recognition between brothers and sisters of these creatures. Welcome to the family, little pretty one." Delphine laughed in his head.

'Lousy mama's boy, you son of a bitch! His mother isn't going to buy this….and if the father stuck around….I just knew it, I'm going to get eaten.' Hiero thought crossly, but started giggling when the four other baby dragons started to lick and nuzzle him. It tickled like crazy, trying to stay mad with this kind of treatment was hard.

"Not yet….have a little faith in me, pretty one. Enjoy you're new family….I'll be in touch." Delphine chuckled, his voice fading back into the recesses of Hiero's mind.

Hiero was ready to send a string of curses with him when the entire cave started to shake. 'What now?' he thought, the babies perking up with him to search for the source of the noise. As the booming noises and shaking got louder and rougher, a large sapphire dragon stuck its head out of the even larger hole that Hiero had fallen out of. Its eyes were a milky green, the rest it's sparkling blue body slinking out of the hole. Hiero and babies craned their necks up at the same time, the larger dragon as tall as the cave and nearly as wide as the dark passageway had been.

The babies started making those cute throaty chirps at it, scuttling to the nest's edge as they got louder. Hiero went up with them, grimacing as the larger dragon brought its head down close to where they all were. 'Well, do or die, what's dignity, after all?' he thought, and started imitating the noise the babies were making, lifting his arms up to his chest to beg like a puppy would. The babies saw this and started imitating him, the ones closest to him licking his face.

"I thought I only had five little onesssss….not sssssix. Oh well, damn my eyesssssight." The dragon's feminine yet booming voice uttered, sniffing at all of the babies. As she finished, she started to sniff at them again, stopping at Hiero. He stopped making the baby noises and just stared right back at the female dragon. "My….what a sssssskinny baby. Hmm, perhapssssss I didn't ssssssee your egg. Hmm, but you are cute." She replied evenly, licking him from his stomach all the way up to his grimacing face. The force of her large, slobbery tongue sent him flat on his back.

He lifted himself up on his elbows, drool and yolk dribbling down his body. "Oh, puke." He gagged, but the mother didn't seem to care, or hear. 'She must have bad vision, far-sighted or something. Who cares, she's not going to eat me!' Hiero thought as happily as he could, but the sticky crap all over his slender form was starting to feel gross.

~

The next day his 'brothers' nipped Hiero in the butt. He yelped and scuttled out of the distance of their mouths, ramming into his 'sisters.' They made their throat noises at him and licked his face up. 'At least she gave us baths in the Hot Springs yesterday. They've already imprinted on me as their brother and to the mother as her child.' He thought.

Still, being bitten awake, if it was a habit, was going to be annoying. He'd sleep closer to his sisters if that was the case. Talking to them seemed to work, their brains were larger than human even at birth, so they understood more than human or elf newborns did. "Bad Talyn! No fair getting Bran and Panek to play jokes on me." he scolded. The male dragons just made a sort of throaty chuckle, closing their eyes cutely at him as they did so. He shook his head, taking off his mouth mask and stuffing it in one of his pockets. "Brats….my bully brothers." He grimaced, giggling with them. His sisters gave him a few licks, nuzzling him against gently.

He kissed both of their scaly cheeks, getting similar, but feminine giggles from them. "Good morning to you too, Zazu, Prussi. At least you don't tease your baby brother," He told them, getting more licks," Stop, it tickles. MOM!"

As insane as it was, the mother dragon, Saffron had taken Hiero in believing he was one of her babies. She was very old and Delphine informed Hiero in his sleep that she was on her last pregnancy for a reason, she was nearly blind and getting senile. It was a small blessing, but Hiero didn't care. He was going insane over his eternal life and loneliness, this was as good as it got. The fact he was speaking to the other babies

Saffron came back through the hole carrying shreds of bloody meat in her mouth. She simply leaned down to where the babies were and shook it over them. The babies all lined up at the edge of the nest and made their throaty chirps extra loud.

Hiero shrugged and went with them and copied their actions. No sooner did he crawl beside Bran and Prussi did he get a mouthful of dead meat in his mouth, raw dead meat. He could almost imagine how many shades of green he was turning.

He just kept it in his mouth until Saffron was gone, then spat it out. He had plenty of rations to keep him from going hungry. His brothers took advantage of his distaste of a raw meal and ripped his portion to shred as he went on spitting out the raw, bloody taste.

'This is gross….I'll have to sneak out every few weeks to get some meat of my own to cook. Dragon drool takes the fun out of cooking the meat I'd get from Saffron.' He thought, reaching into his belt pouches to withdraw some dried rations. The other dragons looked at him expectantly.

"No, this is Hiero's food. Mom gives you dead meat, I get bread and cheese….for now. Stop staring or I'm telling." He said curtly. His sisters backed off, but his brothers were surrounding him, bobbing their heads softly as they aimed their sights on him. Hiero stuffed what he had in his hands in his mouth and chewed extra hard, but his brothers didn't see this as a problem. They tackled him, play fighting, but with three baby dragons on a basic humanoid wasn't exactly even.

He swallowed his food just barely as his brothers tried prying it out of his mouth. He swatted and nipped back at them, rolling around. "No fair, MOM! They're picking on me! Mom!" he yelled, laughing all the way. His sisters came to his aid as the play fight turned in swirls of sapphire scales and Hiero's dark clothing. They were all laughing, Prussi and Zazu head butting their dragon brothers. Hiero nipped and swatted at Bran, the only one his sisters couldn't seem to get away from him.

He heard the booming again, but the head he was expecting to see shoot out never game. A larger one decked with blue spike and silver horn came through instead. 'Daddy's home…I'm dead.' he thought, trying his best to stop Bran from moving towards the male dragon's head. Bran was a little stronger and the babies all nimbly went to edge of the nest below the father's large head. Hiero crawled in behind them, keeping his eyes dead set on the father's looming head. It looked at babies for a moment, then seemed to notice Hiero behind them, begging and chirping as the normal dragon babies were.

His eyes were pure green, not a cloudy portion in them, and his scales looked brighter than Saffron's. 'Man, Mom married young….but what can you expect. He's bigger than her….the cad.' He thought, not moving, but he'd stopping making noises once the dragon father got his snout in Hiero's face. He took a hard sniff at him, making Hiero face slam into the dragon's snout.

"Name….yoursssself." the dragon boomed, nearly blowing Hiero's eardrums apart. "Hiero…." He replied evenly, trying to remain as still as possible.

"I am Klausssss, but you are not dragon….you are human." He said. Hiero shook his head with a sneer. "Not a human. I am different….I saved my brothers and sisters." Hiero spat.

If Klaus was shocked, he didn't show it. He just made a slight grunt in his enormous throat. "How issss that?" Klaus asked.

"An Onyx and Magma dragon came here attacking a Ruby dragon, they would have surely found these eggs before they could hatch and destroyed the them if I didn't destroy those dragons. I only wanted to be warm….I was not going to hurt the babies. I came to help." He said simply. Klaus' eyes widened slightly. "Prophecy then." Klaus said.

Now it was Hiero's turn to be startled. "What prophecy….?"

"I know who you are, the Ssssssafaia Oni the humansssss and elvesssss fear ssssso much. Pitiful creaturesssss….they do not know you are benefiting them in many waysssss. Assss the prophecy ordainsssss that you will for usssss," Klaus hissed out, nudging at Hiero's chest gently," Our prophetsss sssaid that the Ssssafaia Oni would end the murderoussss tyranny of Void, the chosssssen tribe to be the onesss to obliterate hissss followersssss traitoroussss actionssss. It pleassessss me to find that the Ssssapphire dragonsss have been the chosssssen race."

Hiero smirked at the explanation, but he wasn't about to say no to a dragon's face when he could easily get his head bitten off or frozen by Klaus' breath. "I was sent here to destroy Void, that much is true….Daddy."

Klaus gave off a very toothy grin, many of his teeth about the size of Hiero's body. "Don't get sssmart. Just don't break your 'mother'sssss' heart….Hiero." the dragon male replied curtly.

"I'll try….for my siblings and mother….not for you, Daddykins." Hiero smiled, leaning again Prussi gently. She nuzzled him right back, Zazu cuddling in his lap.

"Hmmph….well, sssssince you are here….I might asssss well teach you some of the artsssss of the dragon magesssss. In the battlesssss to come….they might be better sssssuited to you than the wimpy human magic you seem to be sssskilled in." Klaus replied with a booming chuckled. Hiero smiled widely. "Asss you wish." He teased.

Klaus simply sighed and pulled his head back into the passageway, leaving the babies with Hiero as another play-fight ensued.

4,000 Years Later

*Sapphire Dragon Tribe and Electra*

"MINE! Bran, for the last damn time, give me back my meat!" Hiero shouted right in his larger brother's eardrum. A thousand years was considered teenage years for a dragon, which meant a lot of growing. Hiero was still the same size, but regardless of that, he was trying to topple the eldest brother dragon over by screaming into his ear hole and smacking at his eye. Bran loved to tease his runt of a brother, not because he looked different, but because it got him out of serious mode. That and it was fun to watch his small brother try and beat the living daylights out him. He was half the size of their parents now, as were his other siblings, all but Hiero.

Their father said he was stunted, a runt, and wouldn't get any bigger than his current size. Bran looked out for Hiero ever since Talyn and Panek died, which they all felt guilty over. The two male dragons had gotten curious one night where their parents would sleep all night and left the cave. By morning, the rest of them panicked and Hiero left the nest one his own. Their mother brought him back cold and injured, along with the remains of the Talyn and Panek. Klaus had witnessed it all since he went with Hiero to find the babies, who had already been devoured by an Onyx dragon, the cannibal race. Hiero had looked terrible when Klaus brought him back, but surprisingly he healed up by the next morning, with Prussi and Zazu watching over him. Then more bad luck befell their family, when Prussi got seriously ill after eating some stray mushrooms in the cave.

Hiero had tried to get them out of her mouth and cure the poison, but he was still a novice at healing anything. She died in his arms while Bran and Zazu watched on tearfully. He let go after a whole and beat his small fists against the walls of the cave. He did help bury her outside beside her dead brothers, but never shed a tear. Hiero only looked angry the whole time and all the way back. He nuzzled against the both of them, begging them not to do anything foolish and leave him too.

As adorable and tearful the request had been, Hiero always got mad whenever he was being hounded for his small size. On top of that, he tried kicking his brother in the shins, smacking and stepping on his tail whenever he felt he was being babied. And being called a runt really set him off, he went into full scale magic tantrums. He never struck his family members, only trees and boulders, and at times, whatever they were hunting before Hiero got incensed.

Hiero was ok for a little runt, but what a dirty mouth he had and such a wild temper. He even liked having shouting matches with their father about politics and magic, of all things. Their father never complained about it, he told their mother that he welcomed the challenges little Hiero presented. For a runt, he said Hiero would one day do great things for all dragons and the sapphire dragons would follow him to hell and back just to be there.

Bran didn't understand yet, but that was not the issue. He'd been thinking so hard that Hiero had ripped most of the meat from his fangs. Hiero was eating it on the far side of the cavern with their sisters, glaring at Bran, as if to dare him to try and take his food away again.

'Always runs to the female….well, she doesn't play with him like we used to. She hunts with him and shares the same sleeping space. Just like mom, that Zazu just loves him like a little baby.' Bran thought, bobbing his head a bit at Hiero. His brother shoved the rest of the raw meat in his mouth, his blood caked hands raised for a spell.

Bran bobbed his head again and moved closer, watching Hiero gently swallow his food, his hands starting to glow. "You want a mouthful of the Hala Vortex, you just take another step. I dare you, big brother." Hiero let out.

Hala Vortex was a special dragon spell, so Bran stopped to consider his options. It created a dragon of pure dark energy from hell itself, set out to devour living targets or paralyze them, if the caster was skilled enough to command it that way. Hiero was very good at dragon magic, he'd learned it in a span of 456 years. 'He wouldn't though. Dad would turn him into a slime pile.' Bran thought. He took another step and felt a little cold as Hiero's eyes twitched madly. "Hala Vortex! Encircle!" Hiero called, the darkness dragon slinking out of the floor upward to solidify before Bran.

"All right, I give. Call it off, Hiero!" Bran roared.

"Do I get first dibs on the everything when we go to join the rest of the tribe or not?" Hiero asked, amused by the power he had over his brother. "Why you little," Bran started, but the darkness dragon took a step forward with a hungry gurgle," All right, I agree. Everything you sssssee you get firsssst dibssss on….I ssssswear on our mother'sssss very life! Call it off, you brat!"

"I'm in charge of you for a week too." Hiero added. "What?! Ah, ok, ok, a week. Just sssstop it!" Bran growled.

Hiero simply smiled and gave off a loud clap. "Dispel!….Goodie, I'm the god, I'm the god….Yeehah!" Hiero crooned, getting a double lick on each cheek from his smiling sister. He lifted off the ground when they did it, falling flat on his rump when they stopped.

"Hiero'ssss the king dragon! Hiero'ssss the king dragon!" his sister chanted happily, sticking her forked tongue out at their stunned brother.

"Maybe, but only for a week. I'm the king no matter what, kidsssss." Klaus voice boomed from the passageway.

~

Hiero turned with mild interest to the large dragon's head and smiled. "Hi Dad. Is it time to go rejoin the tribe now?" Hiero asked pleasantly.

Klaus nodded. "Your mother isssss already there, she just had to tell the ressst of the tribe about you all. We'll be flying to Korthosssss Mountain, where the Sssssapphire dragonsssss have resssssided ssssince the beginning of time, only to leave to hatch young onessss. This will be your lasssst time here….Korthosssss will be your new home."

Hiero shrugged and climb on the back of Zazu's back. "I don't have any wings….so this will have to do. Ok, Zazu?" he asked his sister, getting a grin and lick," Is Korthos warm?"

"Yes, asssss warm asssss thissss place is and full of fresh meat. Oh, and Hiero, don't sassssssss any of the elderssss. Your appearance as well assss your wordssss might be looked upon as different for a moment, but do not take offenssssse to anything they say. You are a part of the tribe….they will accept you for who you are once I explain thingssss. Just trussssst me on that, they will accept ussss all." Klaus replied, pulling his head back through the passage.

"I'll believe it when I see it." Hiero mumbled, getting a good grip on his sister's neck as she started to move towards the passageway, rustling her wings that were screaming for flight.

~ Korthos Mountain ~

Hiero held tightly onto Zazu's neck as his family entered the mountain home of the Sapphire tribe, his eyes curious. He'd never seen anything of the dragon culture besides the family that adopted him into their unit. The entire mountain was full of large catacombs just teeming with Sapphire dragons, young and old, battled scarred and pure. There was a large indent in the center of the place filled with freshly killed meat. 'Hmm, good thing I got used to bugbear tar-tar. It's not like my body couldn't heal the stomach diseases the stuff gave me and grow immune….it just took a couple months before my body adjusted. It's not too different from training your body to become immune to poison….just tastes funnier.' He thought, eyeing a group of dragon adolescents that were eyeing the pit of food.

No one seemed to notice Hiero, and he was a little thankful for it. The last thing he needed was to get on the bad side of the entire tribe. Klaus was fine to bother, but it was all in good humor. Most of these dragons were much older than Klaus and Saffron combined. Telling any joke or taunting them would not be a wise move in front of such stale old buzzards.

He felt his body jerk suddenly and found that his brother and sisters had stopped, Klaus and Saffron the only ones still moving. They were approaching a grizzled old sapphire dragon whose scales had lost the luster his brothers and sisters all had. Saffron and Klaus bowed before the dragon, then his siblings did. Hiero merely shrugged and bowed his head.

"What'sssss that human doing in here?" the grizzled dragon uttered, getting every dragons' attention at once. Hiero just kept his head bowed as if the word human was a foreign concept.

"What human?" Saffron asked. 'Good old senile, blind mom.' Hiero thought, suppressing a smile.

"The one on your daughter'sssss neck that'sssss bowing to me….Klaussss! Explain why there isssss a dirty human in here….a male one at that!" the grizzled dragon roared.

Hiero looked up slightly, Klaus looking back at him, Zazu and Bran. "Children, go mingle with your little brother. Make sure he doesn't losssse hissss temper here. Sssssaffron, go see your brothersssss….they should be in the ssssame cavern. I need to ssssspeak to the elder alone." Klaus replied.

Hiero held on again as he sister moved to nod and turn, the rest of the dragons staring curiously at him. He stared back a moment, and opened his mouth, baring his teeth. They weren't littered with fangs, just his little canines that all human beings were born with. The dragons bobbed their heads and sniffed at him curiously, but made no movie to speak or attack. He let his grip soften on his sister's neck and let his eyes wander back towards the meat. 'I guess 10 slabs of dead meat a day can grow into an addictive habit. That bloody pit is getting hard to resist when it's all you can smell.' He thought hungrily.

"Hiero….do you want to walk on your own? Your clawsssss keep tickling my neck." Zazu bellowed. Hiero patted her neck with a smile. "Sure, sis, I'm a big boy. And I get first dibs on meeting the tribe. I'll just make it harder for you cause I'm the runt." Hiero sighed, feigning hurt.

Zazu made a gurgling sound. "That may have been cute when we were hatchlingsssss, but it doessssssn't work now. You can ssssstay beside me, but I can't have a decent conversation with potential matesssss if you're making me giggle." She chuckled.

"Ok, sis. Far be it from me to ruin your chances at getting laid, big sister. No need get all hissssssy." Hiero teased, gladly slipping off of her back. He watched her go off towards a group of males then followed Bran to more gender rich groups.

Reaching a few groups caught Hiero by surprise, though he was stared at, he heard no dragons whispering the words 'freak' and 'demon.' Though he couldn't be sure, he thought he heard 'cute' and 'exotic.' Hiero thought better about asking who said it, brushing it off as him hearing things.

"I thought you wanted first dibssssss. Change your mind, Hiero?" Bran asked him suddenly. "I meant for food….mainly. You always hogged everything Mom brought to us, glutton. When I feel like talking to the others, I will. Don't be such a bother." Hiero chided, kicking Bran a good one in his thick chin.

Bran just let out a hearty chuckle and clasped his clawed hands gently on Hiero's back. "Brat….If that's how you're going to be, then I'm going to have to make you mingle." Bran said, lifting Hiero's up by his cloak.

Hiero kicked and punched at the air trying to rip free, but that only made his dragon brother toss him in the air a bit to wrap his claws about his waist. Hiero kept struggling, it wasn't going to do any good, but Hiero wasn't going to be dragged into Bran's plans quietly.

Bran brought him up to a group of young dragons, one female in the middle of four larger males. Two of them were crooning and trying to impress her and the others were just talking. The crooners stopped what they were doing when they saw Bran and Hiero standing right in front female. Sapphire dragons generally looked alike except in gender. Males had spikes jutting from their heads and female did not, occasionally getting a horn or two. Dragons knew each other by scent, being confused about who hey were conversing with was never a problem. Hiero had yet to hone his senses and rather felt he didn't need to. Telepathy always came in handy when he had to tell his brothers and sisters apart as babies.

This female was most definitely not his big sister, her green eyes rather curious as she peered am. "Hello, fellow dragonsssss. I am Bran of High dragon Klausssss. This issss my baby brother Hiero." Bran said pleasantly, presenting his brother by dropping him in front of the female. She looked at him, giving a cautious sniff. He felt a bit impish as she nudged at him in different spots and sniffed her back. "Electra of High Dragon Arik." She said, smiling fully with her fangs.

Hiero smiled back. "Hiero of High Dragon Klaus." She angled her head to the side slightly. "You're different, but cute. Very cute…little ssssssapphire sssspikes come out of your head. Pretty eyesssss too." She said gently. Hiero shrugged, blushing slightly.

"Thank you. So are yours, like liquid emeralds in a sea of sapphires. Very lovely, from an aesthetic point of view, Miss Electra…." Hiero said, then stopped himself. The other male dragons were hissing at him.

Hiero crouched a little and hissed back, using his fingers to swipe at them at a distance. Electra chuckled again and Bran had fallen over laughing. 'Oh big help he is. The time I need him to defend me he goes goofy. Perfect.' He thought crossly, hissing again as one of the males advanced. It probably didn't matter that he looked human. They thought he was invading their territory, namely Electra.

"Back off, runt. We're running thissssss part of the mountain. Electra isssss mine." The male said, growling low in his huge throat. The others nodded, grumbling that Electra was theirs too. Bran went on laughing, his emerald eyes full of tears.

Hiero's defense came from Electra, who snapped at the males and roared. The males backed up, wary and angry, their startled eyes on Electra's every movement. "You do not own me….I choossssse a mate on my own, filthy pervertsssss. I want the beautiful small one." She hissed out, lifting a stunned Hiero up by his cape.

"Choose a mate? Wait! Urk!" Hiero tried, by his cape was choking back his words. Electra carried him off to the other side of the mountain home and entered an empty cavern. Hiero's face was starting to match his hair when she finally let him drop to onto a bundle of soft hay, one of many that littered Electra's cavern. "I know I can't mate with you….but to be clossssse would not harm you, pretty one." Electra uttered softly, nudging him with her snout.

"That tickles, Electra." Hiero giggled, the feel of her soft scales against the back of his neck making him giggle the more they touched. "Lovely little dragon-boy. You are human, yet you call the dragons of Klaus and saffron your family. Why do you do this? You like dragons?" Electra asked, her fork tongue flitting on the back of his neck. 'Kind'a feel neat….tickles though.' He thought, giggling again as he turned to face her.

She was looking very closely at him, her tongue still flitting, tickling his face now. "I like dragons very much, but I am not human. I don't know what I am….I am called the Safaia Oni, though. Since I bet that grizzly dragon elder will be telling everyone else that soon, might as well let you know early so you can despise me now." Hiero stated matter-of-factly between giggles. She was touching his face and flittering her tongue a little more rapidly.

"The Safaia Oni….the cursed man with the sapphire hair and eyes of a demon….you are that man. How very interesting….purrrr…." she rumbled out sweetly, stepping towards him slowly. He stayed stock still and stared at Electra, his mouth opening slightly. 'She's pretty for a dragon….hmm, all dragons are majestic, sadly Void has made many of them as miserable humans. What a degrading species humans are, at least dragons are out to kill each other for money and power every damn day. They at least have morals, save for the Onyx and Magmas.' He thought pleasantly, his eyes widening as Electra's tongue flitted against his lips.

"You're a little more handsome than I thought you'd be. We all expected something like the prince of darkness." She said softly.

"Eh, heh, I bet. I've met Vermin, he's not exactly disgusting looking, but he's no prince…and mmmph!" Hiero was babbling stupidly, then everything got muffled when Electra kissed him, the points of her forked tongue running along his and the sides of his mouth. 'Ok, this is new. Not half bad….but….ah who cares, she's not trying to beat me to a pulp like Rya did.'

After several minutes, he started patting on Electra's face. She pulled back, smiling innocently as her fangs would permit. "Thank you….I think I've breathed in enough," Hiero sighed, placing his hands on both sides of Electra's face," Kiss again."

Hiero kissed her fully on her dragon lips, with only his lips. 'If she likes me this much, who am I to deny a female my affection? Besides, I'm immortal, I'll survive this. This is kind of fun.' He mused, smiling to himself as he felt Electra's tail wrap gentle about his waist.

~ Night ~

A roar woke Hiero up from his comfortable slumber. He'd the rest of his first day with Electra, but went back to his family to eat the feast. The elder dragon had explained to everyone that Hiero was the child of prophecy, the Safaia Oni that would destroy Void's tyrannical rule. The other dragons had already accepted him into the tribe before the meal, more or less as the runt, not a freak. He had, however, slept with his family.

'My dragon sibs never roar like that in their sleep….that sounds pained, like when Prussi….was dying….' He thought vaguely, his eyes widening up as the smell of blood and sound or the tearing of flesh reached him. Hiero sat up, his first instinct to wake up Klaus and Saffron, but they weren't there. Only Zazu and Bran were with him, fast asleep.

Hiero crawled out of their cavern, keeping his ears alert for the source of the tearing and pained roars were coming from. He saw nothing above him and nothing outside on the ground level. At first, this was all he saw before he heard a cracking sound, wet and fresh, from the feeding pit. Two tails swiveled up, one black, another green. 'Invaders….time to foil their plans of whatever they are doing here. No one invades MY territory.' He thought, lifting his hands up high. "Colo Lit! Wake up everyone!! Invaders! Invaders!!!!!" Hiero yelled, the colorful blinding light filling the mountain home in seconds. Sapphire dragons rushed quickly out of every cavern, but Hiero didn't wait for them. He rushed for the pit shouting for everyone to wake up.

Two heads perked up, blood stained and slick with torn flesh. It was an Onyx and Ruby dragon standing over the dying bodies of two Sapphire dragons, one's who's mental imprints made Hiero's heart shatter. "Mother! Father!! You damn bastards!! Void bastards!!" Hiero growled.

The Onyx dragon hissed at him, leaving behind the dying dragons to approach Hiero. "The Sssssafaia Oni….you have chosen the weak dragonssss of the ice….heh, they taste grizzly. I'll put an end to the prophecy that caussssessss Void so much distressssss. We had hoped for jussssst a quick meal….but to find you here, that will make our return even better!" it hissed. Hiero refused to move, smiling at the drooling black behemoth as it charged.

Hiero was ready to cast a spell, but something shot under his legs and lifted him up in the air. "No Hiero!! Argh!" Electra shouted. "Electra, don't! I can take him. Moriun, NO!" Hiero yelped, hearing a sickening crunch as the Onyx dragon drove his fangs into Electra's throat. She collapsed and Hiero rolled off into the pit beside his father. His hand made contact unintentionally and the pain of absorption set in. "Ah no! Not now! Not my father!! Stop it! Oh Moriun, stop this, I don't want this!!!! NO!!" Hiero screamed as he absorbed his dying father into his body.

It was going to leave him vulnerable for a few minutes, and Hiero was sure he'd be ripped apart by the Ruby dragon that had stayed with the bodies. He felt a dull surprise work through him as the other Sapphire dragons rushed to his aid, driving both traitor dragons back.

They were back at the entrance by the time Klaus was inside Hiero's body, the pain in his body nothing compared to the pain in his heart. "That tears it. No survivors….I'm through waiting. I'm going to destroy all that Void has!!" Hiero yelled, his eyes gracing across Electra's bloodied and weakened body before setting on the cowering intruders.

He rushed out of the pit and stood a ways away from them, gesturing to the Sapphire dragons to back off. "You will never win, runt. You're just a pathetic ant to ussss. Void will dine on you all when we tell Void about thisssss!" the Ruby dragon growled.

"Who's going to tell him? Not you. We're going to get all those against Void to wage war on your leader. It will be me who devours your order, not you!" Hiero said in a dangerously malicious tone, extending his arms to either side of his body," Kotengo Rosuto Ikkai, Ryokushoku Kirai, Shuushuu Yaku Jibun. Mugen Naimen Kihaku, Houshutsu Kutsuu Inai Namami! Emeras Bakuha!*"

As the chant proceeded, a large bubble of emerald green liquid formed near both of Hiero's hands, splitting off into smaller, seemingly living bubbles. When there were thousands of tiny green bubbles writhing about Hiero, he thrust his hands towards the invader dragons. The bubbles shot all at once at them, slapping on their scales and sizzling on contact, spreading their corrosive embrace across their bodies.

For ten agonizing minutes of shrieking, the two dragons were melted into piles of blood and flesh swirled slime, bone and all. The acid bubbles had spared them nothing, not stopping their corroding feeding for a moment, showing off the melting of muscle, organs and bone for the entranced Sapphire tribe.

Hiero paid no attention to it once the spell had done its job, rushing back to Electra. He could no longer feel Saffron's mental voice, it had been silence long before he'd begun the spell. Electra's was still there, but faint. He didn't dare touch her, afraid he'd make her hate him by absorbing her inside.

"Electra….why? Did you forget I can't die….you didn't have to…. Oh! No, don't touch me." he said as she reached up towards his face, backing up a little, but she shook her head gently. "I wanted to be a part of you when I grew old and weak, to be with you alwayssss. I only wanted to help you just now….if you died now, you wouldn't ressssssurect in time to stop those bassssstardsssss. Pleassssse Hiero, let my lasssst ssssenssssation be of your perfect innocent face. Pleasssse, grant me thissss." She said in a whispery voice.

"Electra….don't…." he said, his heart breaking all over again piece by piece. "Pleasssse, don't let me die in vain. I….love you, Hiero of High Dragon Klaussss. Our ssssavior." She whispered, blood leaking from her jaws.

"Oh Electra, I love you….too. Forgive me…." he choked out, kissing her gently, letting his shaking hands claps her claws as tightly as her could. It was so tight, he made his own hands bleed as he absorbed her.

When it was done, Hiero stood up, his face deadly serious and cold. "What now, Hiero?" he heard a dragon ask. He didn't let anything betray his stony exterior, turning about slowly to face the entire tribe. "Now we get revenge for all those that died by Void's rule. We give my mother a funeral and honor my father and Electra for their noble sacrifices. After that, we must prepare for the future battle against Void's forces." Hiero said simply.

"The time of prophecy approaches then." It was the dragon elder's voice, and it wasn't a question. Hiero nodded, narrowing his eyes on the elder. "Yes, many will die and many more will suffer beyond the death of Void….How, I don't know, but it won't happen yet. We have a millennia to prepare for death….Void's death, and avenging the death's of lovely Electra and my parents. Above all, no mercy, my fellow tribe dragons, none what so ever."

Note: *Translated from my poor Japanese, this is a necromancy spell, acid based: Dead languages and lost time, green water of hate, gather up about me. Infinite venom inside my soul, release agony within living flesh! Emeras Blast!!

1,000 Years Later

The War of Dragons:

*Vendetta vs. Void*

Hiero stood atop Legion Mountain, the only inactive volcano amongst many active ones. His new sapphire cloak blew wildly in the wind, the only way he could honor his mother in battle. They had skinned her before burying her body and made him a cloak to bring a part of her into battle. He had been as bit repulsed by the gesture, but accepted it a few days later, wanting a part of his dragon mother with him when he went after Void, for the happy years she'd given him.

Many Sapphire dragons surrounded this area, all ready with claws and their variety of killer breath. It had taken a long time, but Hiero managed to get the few Ruby and Magma dragons against Void collected into the dragon army, and getting the other races to join had been a little easier. All but the holy Pearl dragons were there. The other races were eager to stop Void from giving dragons a worse name than they already had in the world. Void was sending numerous of the traitors to their races into humanoid territory, carrying off livestock and people for Void's sick appetites, called it self-defense and revenge against those humans that would rob and destroy them.

Hiero liked the variety he had, the attacks each race was capable of. The Ruby dragon race could breathe deadly fire, Magma's with their lava vomit, and the Sapphires with their frozen breath. The Golden dragons let streams of light energy flee from their flawless jaws, the Silver shattering the hardest hide with their banshee screams, and the Emerald dragons with poison breath and acidic drool. Then came the brilliant Amethyst dragons calling forth purple lightening from their throats, and the last race of Crystal dragons controlling the very earth with their calls.

It would seem like enough to a normal human, but not to Hiero. He knew he had to be the one to strike the killing blow with his blessed blade in Void's dark, still beating heart. How he had to do it was already in his mind, as much as he hated the idea. 'It will end this pointless slaughter….Void is waiting beyond within the largest volcano. This attack will force him and his imbeciles to fight….then he is as good as dead.' Hiero thought, staring at the volcano in question that was raging miles away.

"Brother Hiero, the dragons are ready to move. I told them the plan….they were a bit skeptical, but they know you've been with us through thick and thin and you know what you're doing. But I have to know, are you sure about this?" Bran asked him from behind. Hiero had known he was coming, he'd kept a telepathic eye on him when he sent him down to talk to the rest of the dragons.

"Dead sure. But you are the main part of the plan. When I say our mother's name, no matter how you hear it, be it out loud or in your mind, you come to Void's back. I'll be waiting there for you. It will be my last chance this day to do away with the demon dragon Void. When you drop me off the first time, you get away as fast as you can and wait until I say her name. Is that perfectly clear, big brother?" Hiero said, not caring what Bran said. If he had to, he'd make Bran do it by controlling his mind. He didn't care, he wanted Void dead right now.

"I understand. Climb on my back, Brother Hiero. Let the battle begin." Bran said, lowering his head to Hiero. He climbed up onto his brother dragon's back and felt a little light as Bran flew off the cliff.

"Mateo Ryn!!" Hiero yelled, summoning a hailstorm of large, flaming hot meteors from the dark skies above. They sailed right into the active volcano, blowing many portions of it apart, dead dragon parts flying out of it with each impact.

Then he came, the demon dragon Void. He was even larger than Hiero had thought. The thing towered well over the actual size of the mountain Hiero had been on. 'Maybe 600 or so feet, maybe more. Well, size matters very little, unless you count his brain. If he's as dumb as I hope, he won't be able to resist the bait.' Hiero mused, pinching his brother's neck a bit. "Go above Void and drop me, as planned. Then go back to Legion Mountain and wait for my call. GO!" Hiero commanded. Bran roared in response and flew higher, racing through the skies towards the shrill sound reverberating from an angry Void.

Hiero looked down a moment, seeing seas of sparkling colors swarming towards an army of blacks, reds, dots of purple and many greens. The armies looked evenly matched, but Hiero could hear the pain and despair of battle screaming from their minds. 'No one is left innocent from war, even those who stand by and do nothing. What evil it is for anyone to be so uncaring. Well, whether I get out of this without dying a few times or not, well, ah hell. Do or die….Do, because I can't die. Time for Void to suffer for starting this." He mused, his eyes lighting up as Void's gargantuan head blocked everything from view. He was looking at the battle, not at Hiero and Bran.

'Good. Time to go down in dragon history.' He thought, pulling out his blessed blade. "This is where I get off, brother. Just follow my orders as they've been given to you, nothing more." Hiero said, giving his brother one final pat before leaping off of his back, raising his blade as his tumbled down.

~

Hiero's blade crashed through Void's left eye, green blood shooting all over Hiero and dribbled down Void's head. Hiero yanked his sword out and tried going for the other eye, but he never made it. Void plucked him off of his head, roaring in pain, with his claw.

Hiero put his sword away at that moment, keeping very still as Void raised him to his good eye. "Safaia Oni….so this is how you greet me. Stupidly as a snack. I thought I'd get more of a fight from you, but sadly, you are typically human, rushing head on into a critical battle. Foolish one, do you think that blessed toothpick will kill me. You'll never be able to make me bleed enough with that." Void said, his voice surprising low and human toned. 'Perhaps he thinks I'm weak and wants me to hear my own dying screams. Oh, be stupid, Void. I dare you.' He thought, casting a evil smile at Void.

"Shove it, asshole. I'm going to kill you.' Hiero grinned, flipping up both middle fingers at Void's eye before jabbing them into it. Void roared again, letting out numerous curses of his own as he whipped Hiero towards his drooling jaws.

"No you won't. You're are just a little delight for my taste buds….to put an end to the prophecy of my demise. Without you, it is false." Void grumbled, tossing Hiero inside his gaping rot smelling mouth.

~

Hiero curled up as he went down Void's throat, yanking out his demon sword as he plummeted. He held his breath as the stench of rot and half-digested meals wafted through his sense, his eyes stinging terrible from the horrible odor of Void's stomach. Hiero waited until he could see the wide entrance of the stomach cavity before sticking the demon sword into the fleshy tunnel above it.

He hung there looking down the dark pit of the stomach, taking a cautious breath before grabbing onto the flesh he'd stabbed. 'I knew sooner or later I'd get eaten, but hell, he'll never notice such a prick in his body so small in somewhere not as vital as say, his heart. Time for operation indigestion to come into play.' He thought, ripping and opening for himself into the rest of Void's body. With a quick levitation spell, he was through it and far from any part that could send him to the horrible pain of a slow digested fate.

~

Bran waited high atop Legion Mountain, the other Sapphire dragons encircling Void at a good distance. He was starting to breathe his demonic energy from his mouth, wiping out a mile of dragons, whether they were faithful to him or not, at a time.

Bran growled in disgust at the evil dragon, wishing he could tear his head off with his bare claws, but Hiero was against it. It was either his plan or he'd do it by himself, which Bran and Zazu were highly against. His plan seemed suicidal, the be swallow by Void and leave the Sapphire dragons to surround the area Void was in and lay low with Bran and Zazu and others their age on Legion Mountain.

Hiero hadn't been as cheery or fun loving after Electra and their parents were killed. He grew cold, but at times they found him crying his eyes out over their graves. Zazu was a great comfort to him. Still, Bran overheard him once telling her that she should just forget him, that he was cursed to be alone for all times because he was a stupid child. Neither of them understood it, but it was said with such sorrow, Bran understood he was in great mental pain.

'Come on….don't be dead, Hiero. Give me the signal….scream it out, please. Be alive!' his mind raced, then he saw Void preparing to let out a another stream of dark energy. Bran perked up as Void seemed to choke on the attack, never quite falling through. Void began gripped at every part of his body at a rapid rate, howling in pain. As Bran narrowed his eyes, he could see green fluids leaking out of the demon dragon's scale, some muscles and bones exposed.

'Saffron. Now Bran, NOW!' Hiero's voice screamed within Bran's mind, making him stand alert with wings spread.

He opened his mouth as he flew off the mountain, firing a stream of ice breath through the night sky, the signal to other sapphire dragon's to go for Void, for the final assault.

As Bran got closer to the pained Void, he found that the demon dragon was not even fighting off the other Sapphire dragons that were blasting and tail whacking his chest as Hiero had instructed. He could see the demon dragon's large heart beating madly behind the crystal clear ice that were once his scales and muscles. The ice was cracking with each tail slap a dragon gave off in passing on quick wings, but not enough to damage the heart. The heart was pure evil and could only be destroyed by pure good, Hiero's holy blade.

'Enough to weaken him is what Hiero said. I wonder why….tearing his heart out would be perfect….perhaps he means to do that.' Bran thought deeply, his body whizzing past Void's thick neck to where his spine was. He hovered over it, looking for his little brother, but saw now trace of him.

Bran started circling frantically, thinking the worst. 'Where is he? He said he'd be here….oh gods, please let him be here!' he prayed silently, now trying to keep his eyes on Void's back as well as his head. He didn't need Void to see him now or both he and Hiero were dead meat.

Then came a slicing sound, flesh being parted suddenly. He looked about frantically, finding there was s small silver blade sticking out of the middle of Void's back. It moved swiftly, parting the flesh perfectly before pulling back in. Bran's heart leapt with joy when he saw Hiero push his way out of the bleeding wound, his demon sword in hand. Bran quickly flew down and let his little, blood drenched brother leap on his back.

Bran looked back a moment as they flew upwards, Hiero putting his demon sword away and taking the holy sword out. "I never want to do that again. It reeks in there….," he was saying, then paused a moment to touch his forehead," Ah, the heart is exposed, the others are already out of distance. Go up until you can't breath then dive, big brother! Time for the prophecy to be fulfilled, for all that have died for that monster!"

Bran nodded and obeyed, flying higher and higher until his lungs began to hurt from the thin air. He dove back down towards Void's chest like shining blue arrow, Hiero holding on with one hand to Bran's neck. Void was still being effected by whatever Hiero did inside him, swatting around and firing in random directions. Bran avoided them easily, nearly getting his head blown off as he passed Void's.

"Now flee!" Hiero yelled, but his voice was fading. Bran looked back in time to see that Hiero had leapt off his back, blade poised for a definite strike. His little brother was plummeting for Void's exposed heart.

"This is for my family and Electra! Give vermin my regards!" Hiero yelled, slamming his holy blade right through Void's bloody and beating heart. Void went crazy and started to reach for Hiero. "No! For our parentsssss, I won't let you be hurt! I will not fly away!" Bran roared, turning around and blasting Void in the face with his icy breath.

Just like the wind,

I've always been

Drifting high up in a sky

That never ends.

Void saw Bran now, the rage apparent in his only good eye and the wild drooling and gnashing his jaws were performing. Bran tried to avoid it, but he couldn't. Void's claws went after him, despite Hiero holding onto Void's scales and still hacking away at Void's heart. Each time Void tried to go after Hiero, Bran hit him with his ice breath or tried tearing into Void's tainted flesh.

Void let out a loud roar, screeching to hell itself as a dark light began to appear on his chest. Bran chanced it and looked down, discovering it was Hiero that was glowing. His sword was gone, probably fallen back down to the ground, but his hands were firmly placed on Void's teetering form. Void was still able to move his claws and went for Hiero one last time, his left claw frozen in pain while the right one kept coming.

Bran dove, firing his ice breath at the claw at full force all the way until he rammed into it. The claw was stunned for a brief second after impact before it reeled back and dug into Bran's chest, the fingers flexing with the last bit of energy they possessed to shred his body.

Through thick and thin

I always win

'Cause I will fight both life and death

To save a friend

"For you, brother. I will alwayssss be proud to have had you asssss my little brother." was his final whisper before his life was torn apart.

~ Two Weeks Later ~

The first thing Hiero was aware of was how stiff and confined he felt, and very cold. He moved his fingers first then wiggled his toes. He could feel them well enough. He was also very tired. Absorbing such a large creature was a strain. He was deeply happy that Void wasn't a devil dragon or Satan himself, he'd have had two nasty voices in his head to deal with for all of eternity. Still, it hurt like hell.

Hiero opened his heavy eyelids slowly, letting out a small yawn with a stretch. The stretch was interrupted by something hard, his vision filled with the sight of some kind of crystal substance. As his eyes got more adjusted to the light, he looked about his body to find he was in a crystal coffin. There was air in the coffin, but very little. He started to push at the lid, but it was too heavy, so kicking was implemented. Hiero hated being confined in such a small space, it reminded him of the time he was buried alive in Galah.

Hiero went on banging on the coffin sides and the lid, straining to see outside of the coffin. For crystal it was rather milky looking. He could only see slight shapes of different colors near the coffin. One moved closer, a blue one as best he could tell. He banged and kicked harder, shouted for help. His air would run out if he went on shouting, but it wasn't like the shape was far away.

The coffin lid slid open and Hiero wasted no time sitting up and taking a deep breath. "Hiero! You're alive!" said a shocked and overjoyed voice, one he knew very well.

He looked at the precious female dragon that smiled down at him affectionately. "Zazu! Sister!!" he cried, leaping out of the coffin to hug her tightly around her neck. She returned the sentiment, licking his face madly. It was a brief bit of happiness until he heard roars and screams mixed with explosions. "How long have I been sleeping, Zazu? Where's Bran?" he asked.

Zazu looked sad then, telling him what he hoped she wasn't to tell all the more painful. "Bran died….Void tore him apart. Bran wasssss trying to defend you. Hiero, you were vulnerable to attack. He died….and we buried him, but you, we just couldn't. You were still breathing. The elderssss agreed to put you in thisssss coffin to be guarded by thossssse who cannot fight while the war goessss on. The young onessss, the ancient, and the hatchlingsssss….Hiero, two long weeksssss have passed since you and Void fought. His followerssss believe he's still out there. They refuse to ssssstop." Zazu told him, tears streaming down her sapphire cheeks.

I face my destiny

Everyday I live.

And the best of me

Is all I have to give.

Hiero shook his head and slipped out of her embrace and walked towards the large cavern's exit. "Then I will make them stop, even if I have to kill every last traitor from here to the woods where I was kept with you all. For our brothers and sister, our father and mother….I will make them stop this absurdity now!" Hiero growled, running out of the cavern.

~

Hiero ran out into battle, racing past dragons of all races to where Void had been absorbed. The place was not far off and simply teeming with blood and death. Hiero just growled deeper in his throat, sick to death of all the war he could have stopped so easily if not for Delphine's meddling.

"This war is over, you sorry ass bastards! And why, because I said so!Phase Void, overtake me!!!!" his body rippling with dark lightening and power, his form hidden by an ever growing black cloud. All of the dragons stopped fighting, the wounded and dying looking up to the darkness rising. He could almost feel their fear as he let out a roar with Void's body.

When the transformation was complete, all the dragons looked like colorful ants to him. He had to lean his massive head down to get eye to eye with all of the dragons as they backed away. "The war is over, Void's soul is mine as is his body! You either stop fighting and declare peace or I will wipe every single one of you out!! IS THAT UNDERSTOOD!!!!"

Every dragon nodded, all bowing to Void's form, even long after Hiero had left the spot, the traitors remained to cower there for the fear of Void taking revenge on them all for failing him.

~

Hiero looked on the funeral procession for the dragons that died in the Void War, the tearful dragons weeping for the dead loudly. All he could do was watch, he didn't want them to see him. It was the last thing he needed, to see Zazu again, those tearful emerald eyes begging for him to stay.

He'd told her in a note that he couldn't stay or she would be affected by his curse with death. No one could love or be with him, he had to keep moving, it was the only way to save lives. The tribe had wanted to honor him, but he declined and left without another word. He'd left them with cynical words of wisdom. "I am cursed for all time, Sapphire dragons, you are not. Delphine thinks of you all as his favorite and most interesting race. But I am not a favorite, I am not perfect, I am a freak and demon. I will be the Safaia Oni for all times. I fi were all of you, I'd forget about me. We will never meet again." He said quietly before walking out of the mountain home.

Just like the sun,

Echo-(Just like the sun)

When my day's done,

Sometimes I don't like

The person I've become.

He walked all the way back to the warm southern shores, the dragons of those areas cowering as he passed by. 'Hate and fear are a good things….it will keep any of them from following me, from letting their lives be ruined as Electra's and Zazu's parents' were. Yet, they loved me, they took me in and all accepted me even when my task was done. They wanted me to stay….how I would have liked that. But, that's suicide. Delphine and his bitch mother would see to that.' He thought harshly, pulling his sapphire scale hood over his head to block the glare of the afternoon sun.

He sighed as the beach came into view, the one he'd seen long ago before being thrown off course. It was the same, perfectly flawless and pure white. As he stepped on it, he could feel its warm softness envelop his boots. He smiled briefly at it, then looked out at the endless blue see, his cloak blowing in the wind.

Is the enemy within

Or a thousand men?

Should I walk the path of my worst or better half?

I was so glad I had.

He lifted his face back up towards the sea, the sapphire waves topped with pearly white caps beckoning him forward, to keep going. He had a lot to do, things to plan, people to kill, other to absorb. Hiero knew what he was doing, he was giving in. he had nothing left in his heart to care, only to do. Electra, Veda, Saffron, Klaus, and Bran, they were all gone because of him. Veda went on living, but her memories of him had been taken away by his own hand, so she would not suffer the heartache he was. All that was left was anger, the hatred of evil plaguing the weak for their own selfish desires.

Suddenly, Hiero felt himself looking back at the Dragon continent, spying some flying forms far in the distances of blues, purples, and greens. 'No….don't look anymore, it'll just cause more pain. I'm through with trying to care. Whatever I care about always gets taken away. No more Delphine, you'll get no more sassing from me. You'll just get a dead soul, cold and blank. Only the memories will guide me….the pain that I've caused.' He thought mildly, looking back towards the sea with a sigh.

There's someone testing me

Everyday I live.

Well, the best of me

Is all I have to give.

He sat himself down in the sand, feeling the gentle licking of the surf at his boots, the warm breeze caressing his pale cheeks. "It would be nice to stop, yes, but I can never ever stop. I must do something. As wicked as I am truly am for my sins, there are worse things out their plaguing this world. I can't sit idly by and I won't. If I must protect this world until the end of time, I will….but my wishes….Delphine. I know you can hear me, so listen good, this is the last bit of emotion you'll ever hear from me. My wishes are to finally have a family that won't leave me behind, but I know you're too cruel a god to even do that, not that I deserve it. If I had any other wish, it would be for death. Death would be a great comfort." He said aloud, swiftly casting levitation as the tears threatened to burst from his eyes, his body rushing through the calm winds as he headed back for human lands.

15,524 Years Later

The End of Days:

*Holy War Gone to Hell*

The great Crystal Gate of the humanoid continent was the last one Hiero had to attend to. Hell had burst open days earlier, slicing through heaven to let startled angels fall into battle. Heaven and hell were locked in their bloody war, the end of the world was at hand.

Hiero didn't care, he'd been looking forward to his curse ending. Death would come when Moriun and Satan killed each other, the world couldn't survive with out both of them. It had been in his dreams for centuries, the war of the faithful and faithless, one no human, demi-human, or dragon would survive. Hiero had taken care of many of the races years earlier. The dragons were on some other world. They all trusted him, even if it wasn't his form he used.

Hiero had promised them that 'he' would never return, he never said which form wouldn't come back. Being in Charmin's form was very useful in keeping the promise and by using the name and the cloak of his true form as the reason he was there, the dragons were more than willing to listen. They were probably all happy after passing through their Crystal Gate, the way to find other worlds and treasures, better worlds than Terrian.

The Demi-humans that he hadn't been made to wipe out had gone through theirs before he arrived, their own prophets babbling that they'd be the first to be attacked by hell. He didn't know where they ended up, but Delphine had happily informed him that it was just what they deserved. Hiero didn't know what to think about that comment, but shrugged it off and moved on to the fairy and dwarf kingdoms.

Now all he had left were the humans and elves of his home continent, even those from Galah. It had been rather simple this time, no one blubbering about their homes or things, or even about what he was. Delphine instructed that Hiero had to remain in his true form the entire time he was herding these people into the Crystal Gate Temple. He took his time in getting the people gathered together, finishing the night before hell was able to open its gates into Terrian.

The last batch was filing into the temple while Hiero just stood on the outside of the door, his sapphire scale cloak limp and unmoving and his hood pulled over his head. Only his mouth and the tip of his nose were visible. His arms were crossed over his normal, brown attire, standing perfectly still as the last of the people on Terrian went into the glowing temple. He'd been rather cruel about it, he'd let all the peasants go first, then the people with no magical talent, just normal everyday jobs. The mages and soldiers were next, gone by the time Hell unleashed it's first assault on Moriun's heavens.

The rich and royalty went last. Hiero never liked their type, what he once was, so vain and stupid over all of their money, thinking they were better than everyone else was. He hated them, but he hated himself more.

'See, we're nearly done, sad sack. Aren't you going to say anything or did you forget how to talk?" Delphine piped up in his head, making him reach for it.

Hiero smirked slightly, but it was short lived. 'I'm going to die as soon as I take a few last magical beings down with me….then it can end. The vision of Terrian's destruction will come. There is nothing more to say than that.' He thought back, not noticing someone had filed out of the line to hide beside the temple.

I can't pretend.

Echo- (I can't pretend)

I am the wind.

Echo- (I am the wind)

And I don't know if I

Will pass this way again.

Hiero sighed as it took another half-hour for the moaning stragglers to get stuff inside the temple. He shuts the doors firmly and locked them in, pocketing the key safely within his cloak. "The Crystal Gate will activate by the time I am through with my errands. There's nothing more to do here." Hiero said to himself, turning around and making a mad dash for the battling angels and demons that had taken up what had once been Galah and Faus, the last of the great elfin and human kingdoms to be evacuated.

The figure Hiero had not seen get out of line was out of her hiding place, her golden hair and crystal blue eyes staring after him fondly. "My love, my Sapphire dream. I'm coming to be with you, darling." She yelled, but Hiero didn't hear her, nor did he hear her running after him.

~ The Former Kingdom of Galah ~

Hiero had both of his swords out when he arrived, holy in the right hand and demon in the left. The carnage was unbelievable, worse than the Void War. Those that had not been chosen to be sent to another world for safety were victims of the demons of hell. Some were crucified to walls, nailed in with metal spikes, while others were hung by their toes from the gallows. Some were impaled through the gut by metal pikes that were also jammed in the ground, the slowly dying people twitching madly and bleeding down the pike.

The rooftops were littered with entrails that had been baked by hellfire. The sun had not shone down from the heavens since hell freed all of its minions. The entire place smelled of rot and decay, a true city of the dead and dying. Other than those that were suffering, there were corpses of demons and angels all over the ground being stepped on and hacked at by those that went on fighting each other. Holy versus darkness, heaven and hell colliding at once in bloody rage.

Hiero just walked up to a few battling angels and demons, hitting them with the swords that would poison and kill them within minutes. He didn't care where he was going, he just followed Delphine's orders to go to the center of the city, where Moriun and Satan were embraced in battle.

He absorbed a few angels and even more demons as he went along with cold grace, stepping on the dead and dying with his uncaring pace. His sapphire demon eyes just looked at what was in front of him, be it holy or evil, he would kill it and take it into his body. That was all he had to do, so it was all he did.

As he went on, he saw a black devil with red horns and spikes jutting out of his head and back, just floating about a litter of demons that were winning against a handful of mutilated angels. "Go take him….he likes you anyway, maybe more than me. Vermin always liked the chaos you produced wherever you went. You were really the only human who could fight off his influence when you summoned his power." Delphine ordered and Hiero nodded. "Phase Delphine, overtake me!" Hiero shouted, transforming into Delphine in an instant. He floated his body up towards the terribly distracted and amused Vermin, prince of darkness.

Vermin wasn't like that for long. He went upright in mid-air as Hiero got closer to him and turned about fully to greet him with a sneer. "Delphine….hmm, that means my favorite little hell spawn has arrived. It's been a long time, Hiero Vendetta, too long. Come to partake in the festivities." Vermin said pleasantly.

Hiero shook his head. "No, I've come to kill you." He said, sending a burst of holy energy into vermin's chest a second later. Vermin grunted, bleeding from the hole the holy powers made, but went on grinning. "That wasn't very nice….I thought we were friends, little sapphire. Delphine castrate you mentally already?" Vermin asked, getting another blast of holy energy shot into him near his lean gut.

"I've seen more than anyone like me should see. It's nothing to concern yourself with, so start fighting me. I am very eager to die soon." Hiero uttered, then raised his hands to the dark clouds above, filling them with blessed energy.

Vermin growled through his smile and rushed at Hiero, his body alive with dark tendrils. "Father of death, evil incarnate. I beckon thee, abolish the light!" Vermin hissed out, his body bathed in darkness. 'Shadow form….please, he can't do better than that. He thinks I'm an idiot.' He thought, teleporting out of the Phantom Vermin's path. It followed him around while Vermin shot out his own tendrils of darkness at Hiero. They slashed at him on few occasions, but it was nothing an immortal couldn't heal from. Hiero got tired of playing with him after a few more tendrils hit and the shadow form took a chunk out of his back

Hiero teleported behind Vermin and gave him a slight kick in the rear, the raised his arms above him head. Vermin whipped around with claws bared and grabbed Hiero in a rough embrace. He dug his claws into Hiero's Delphine form, the wounds bleeding a mix of red and gold. "Now what are you going to do….little Hiero?" Vermin snickered.

Hiero let his head drop a bit, muttering something under his breath. "What? Speak up!" Vermin roared.

Hiero lifted his head up, his mouth a thin, serious line. "By the power of the mother of creation, bring light to darkness, abolish this pain. Bring the holy breath of the mother to the hearts of the bane! Moriun Anoint!" Hiero uttered, his raised hands grabbing onto Vermin's head as holy power enveloped them both.

When the light of the goddess left them, Vermin was a disfigured mess, screaming at he top of his lungs as his weakened state made him Hiero's next absorption. "I do as I am told. You are no match for anything holy, unlike your father, prince. You are mine now until this world is gone, and you will go with me." Hiero said simply, the pain unfelt by him after so many lives being touched by his curse.

All things must end,

Good-bye my friend.

Think of me when you see

The sun or feel the wind.

Vermin vanished into Hiero's body and he could almost hear the anguish of Satan himself when it was done. The demons below were writhing and screaming for him to die, but none dared go near him. When Hiero floated down to the ground, angels and demons alike fled from the area to fight elsewhere, scared to death that Hiero would do the same to them.

"Phase Delphine, leave me." Hiero replied evenly, sighing gently. His quest was done, all he had to do was stand to stay where he was and wait for the world to end. He didn't feel much about it, Hiero just knew he had to wait.

"Die, foul creatures of the abyss! Mateo Ryn!!!!" shouted a female voice, followed by numerous explosions. "Looks like you missed one." Delphine snickered.

Hiero dreaded turning towards the female's shouting, but turned anyway, his anger rising when he saw who it was. "Princess Ayanna….that idiot came out here?? Ah no, she's one of the chosen line, I won't get to die if she's not in the Crystal Gate Temple in," he growled, thinking on how much time he'd spent killing the angels, demons, and Vermin," Five minutes! Dammit!"

He ran over to the mage princess, hitting the demons around her with powerful spells to reach her. When he got to her, he quickly lifted her off the ground and threw her over his shoulder. He went on running, despite her protests. "Now I have to waste my magic to save your ass. I don't care why you came, but you're going back! Teleport, Crystal Gate Temple!!" Hiero shouted, his body and Ayanna's phasing out of the battle.

~

"But Hiero….I love you!" Ayanna complained as unbarred the temple doors furiously. He had dropped her roughly on the ground to do it, his mouth twisted with anger. 'Love, what a useless thing for me to even have directed at me. Love only gets you hurt, depending on others is for the weak! Love, all it gave me was pain!' he thought rancidly, grabbing her tightly by her wrist the drag her into the glowing temple doorway.

"I don't love you, so shut up. You're going to the new world and I'm staying here for my reward, death." He growled at her, his hood falling off to reveal his wild, sapphire hair.

He could hear her whimpering and sniffling, but it had no affect on him. He kept yanking her forth. When he reached the room where the portal still lay opened. "Time for your destiny to begin, and mine to end. Be well, my princess, find love in someone who can return it. Sorry, but it can never be me," he told her, pushing her towards the glowing portal.

"No, come with me. We can be happy together, I swear. Stay with me, love." She begged, but his face was emotionless. "I can't go where you are going. I was born for this….born to live a cursed life. You'll never see me ever again. Be thankful for that, now get in the portal!" he yelled, showing her forward.

I am the wind….

I am the sun,

And one day

We'll all be one.

"NO! Come with me!!" she screamed, grabbing onto his wrist as the portal caught her, dragging the both of them in. Hiero eyes widened as they were pulled through, pulling himself up by Ayanna's grip. She looked happy, thinking he was going to kiss her. Instead, he bit her hand, making her let go. "I HATE! You ruined everything!!" he shouted at her as she disappeared from sight, leaving him trapped between the worlds.

*Chamber of Memories*

Zelgadis roused first, his sapphire slit eyes blinking a little as he could finally feel his body again. Crystal tears were all around him, but he wasn't about to hide them. 'What a terrible life….no one could stay sane with such things running rampant ion their body.' He thought, lolling his head around to see how the others were faring. Val was huddled near one of the water walls of the, looking rather sullen.

Filia just standing quietly below where Hiero crystal prison was, a look of calm admiration on her face. Justin woke up a few seconds after he stopped looking at Filia and started bawling. 'Just like his grandmother, a crybaby. Then again, that life would make the stoniest heart break….' He thought, trying to tune out Justin's crying to focus on Lina, who was the last to wake up from the memories.

He went to her, helping her up as he tried to see what she was feeling, but all he saw was a blank expression. "Lina….Say something." He asked quietly, giving her a gentle shake.

She looked up at him, her wide-ruby eyes never blinking once. "How could they do that? Those damn holier than though art bastards, how could they shun him when he was born so special. All that power and all they could do was hate him for it. What kind of a world was that hellhole?" she asked, her voice more puzzled than angry.

"It was Terrian, Mrs. Greywords. A world where magic is passed down by only the Archmage to those who pay the most money for schooling. Those who learned on their own were considered evil and burned or hung. Half-breeds were considered freaks and people like Hiero, well, he was one of a kind, anything the Terrians didn't understand, they feared and sought to destroy." Delphine said suddenly, appearing beside them.

Lina tried to punch him, but he vanished and went beside Filia. "Not nice, but I should expect nothing less from Hiero's new mother, I'm glad I chose you. He was made for you. You made him stop his little 'I wanna die' crap. You all gave him back the humanity he thought he's lost." Delphine said pleasantly.

"You picked me to give birth to him?" Lina gasped. Delphine nodded with a smile. "I had my doubts, but you raised him, again, better than his own mother did. When I showed him what his future parents looked like, he was actually excited for once. He thought you were very pretty, Lina, and he liked how his father looked, someone who'd understand him better than Terrian did. I believe flaming goddess and handsome rogue were his exact words," Delphine replied evenly, looking up at Hiero," He also asked for a normal life, but I couldn't give him that, I can never make him fully happy. He should have reconsidered attacking me all those millennia ago. His response to that was for me to be punished, he didn't care where he went, just for me to get it over with. So I did, and you know what happened after that."

"You drove him insane….you punished him endlessly. It's all your fault he was like that because of his mother and yours never giving him a second chance. All you did was torture him!" Lina yelled, preparing to throw a fireball at him.

Delphine wagged his finger at her. "Maybe so, but I kind of take my own death rather seriously. And I wouldn't cast magic in here, lest you destroy his mind, then you can have a drooling idiot for a son for all of eternity," Delphine smiled, still looking at Hiero," He will always be my beautiful disciple, my pretty sapphire. He is isn't he, so angelic and captivating you can't help but go on staring. He was worth all the agony of being inside, Hiero Vendetta was a treasure and amusing to be with. Up until the end….ah well, it's all in the past, and Hiero's servitude to me has ended. I can rest, unlike him." Delphine smirked, looking back at the Lina.

"Yes, he is very precious….at least, this helps us understand why he acts like he does. I guess."

"Do you hate him now that you know his dirty secrets? Hmm? The fact that he isn't really your true son, that he's killed so many, and done so much here to please me for the little time I can remain a dominant force in his mind? Can you still love this child of darkness, cursed throughout time?" he said quietly, his smugness apparent in each word.

Lina looked up at Hiero and Zelgadis looked with her. Val as soon beside him with Filia, and Justin, still crying, managed to crawl up beside Lina. "He's my son, no matter what you say. He's done things, but so have I. I'm no hero, Delphine, I just do what I have to do to survive, just like he did, so others could survive your bitch mother's wrath. So shove your bullshit right back up you ass, I love him. Yes, I love Hiero, my son!" Lina said proudly, raising her fist towards Delphine.

"I love him too. Yes, he was someone else's son first, but he's my son now. He was right, I do understand what he was going through, the pain of the loneliness curses like you cause, but I had Lina and our friends to accept me, something you never gave him the simple comfort of. If I turned him away over this, I'd be no better than you, condemning him for the past he couldn't help. Maybe I couldn't forgive Rezo for what he did to me, but he wasn't in control of himself then. If I can forgive the man that cursed me, I forgive the man you cursed." Zelgadis said evenly, remaining perfectly calm.

Filia was the next to speak, but she looked down a bit, putting her hand to her chest. "I don't like most of the things he did, but he had no choice and couldn't end his life to prevent it from continuing. He had it coming when he attacked you, but you made things worse by bullying him like that. I hate bullies! We may not be the same of blood and he was a bit of prankster, but he never tried to harm me as he did others for your goals. You are more of a demon than he'll ever be. I accept him." She spat.

Justin came next. "He is a villain and he stole from my kingdom, yet you made him do worse to satisfy your needs. I forgive him for that, but I won't forgive him for everything he's done to me. He has not proved himself to be anything more than a trickster here. I will….tolerate the villain for now, though." Justin said tearfully, trying to look brave about it.

Delphine smirked. "Like I'd expect a stubborn little do-gooder to say anything less nauseating. No wonder we dislike you. You're so….simple minded in your quest for justice, so simply stupid," Delphine sighed, then settled his eyes on Val," And what about you….Val, the one my pretty one called his first friend. Can you possibly forgive him after all you've seen?"

I am the wind….

I am the sun,

And one day

We'll all be one.

Val was silent for a long time before he looked up at Hiero's floating form. He grit his teeth and looked dead at Delphine. "I do….maybe he did some really terrible things, like I did when I was Valgaav, but he had no choice, you never gave him that. He made terrible mistakes like all of us have, but he didn't lose his humanity as easily as most people would. He is my friend, nothing you say will change that. You can bite my ass for all I care, burn in the hell you put him through. He lost a lot more from the day he challenged you….and you know it." Val said angrily.

Delphine floated up beside Hiero's crystal prison, grinning ear to ear as he phased through it into Hiero's body. "Then my job is done. Time for me to finally rest….and time for him….to live." He said, joining with Hiero in a spiral of blinding blue light.

~

Everyone gasped as they were whisked out of Hiero's mind, but Hiero fell over on his face with a pained moaned. Zel and Lina lifted him up patting his tired body as he gagged on his own breath. "Ow….my stomach….Gods, I'm hungry! That drained the hell out of me!" he groaned, his face nearly as blue as his hair.

Hiero didn't expect to get water put to his mouth, he was just voicing a complaint to himself. He drank it anyway, his body had been without food and water for two weeks and with his accelerated appetite, it was worse waking up here than after he got Void. 'Don't think about it, drink, and then raid what little food this town has left. Then raid the next town….and the next….gods, my stomach is eating my internal organs about now.' He thought, groaning a little. Having just water in his stomach was good, he was very thirsty, but it was also making him feel sick.

"You ok?" Val asked, his face a little concerned, but also held some pity. Hiero offered a weak smile. "Just my pride hurts….Oh….and my stomach….uh, did you all really mean what you said back there, about caring for me after you saw all that?" he asked, collapsing against his father as hunger pains hit him again. Everyone nodded at him, especially Justin as he started bawling again.

"Oh, you horrible villain. What a tragic life you led, I will everything in my power to repair your tortured soul to one of justice." He wept. Hiero grimaced at that, but kept his eyes on Val.

Val just gave him a genuine smile. "I meant every word….it'll take some time to work it all out, which I'm hoping you help me with. It was your life, Hiero, but if our friendship ever meant anything to you, you'll talk with me about it. I'll listen….you know, friends to the end and all that," Val said, then got an impish smile," Or I'll have to kick it out of you like when we were teenagers."

Hiero smiled broadly. "Yeah, you got it…Oh….I really could use some food now, I think my spleen is being digested. Ich!" Hiero grumbled.

"Damn, Lina, he had to have your bottomless pit stomach. We're going to have to pack for the journey home before he tears into the food this town has left." Zel teased, getting a sour look from Lina.

"Mom, Dad….no fighting, I need to eat….this really hurts. Just leave me where there's just a little bit of food and you go for the heavy stuff is before I sniff it out. Ok?" Hiero groaned, eager to avoid wasting more time with a dirty look fight.

"Ah….ok, but save me some. All that memory traveling gave me an appetite." Lina said heartily, giggling slightly. Zel rolled his eyes, but smiling. "Fine Mom, now can we eat?" Hiero asked.

"Yeah, time to get ready to be ravenous." Lina chirped, spiriting her son out of his father's grasp and out the door. Hiero held onto her for dear life as she raced him out of the inn. Despite his hunger, he couldn't help but smile at his new mother.

I am the wind….

I am the sun,

And one day

We'll all be one.

'Ah Delphine, punish me in whatever way with this guilt of the past. Forever if you want to, but you'll never ever hurt them. I won't let you. I won't, even if I have to live a thousand lives like before, I'll guard them even if they hate me deep down. I'll still love them no matter what.' He thought gently, his eyes lighting up as the smell of long awaited food reached him.

"Ah, chow time!" He uttered, a sudden feat of strength hitting him making him burst out of his mother's grasp and dive hungrily at the table of food.

To Be Continued….