Left Behind

Has it been days or has it been months? No... It may be even years. When Kies woke up, the first thing that he noticed was how dark the skies were. Was it night or was it just cloudy? He got up from his bed and planted both his feet on the wooden floor... But instead of finding wood underneath like he thought he would, he instead found something soft and mushy. It was dirt. The wood had rotted away and become one with the soil. A good amount of time definitely passed.

Kies stepped foot outside the door and looked at the sky. It wasn't night. The sun was still out and yet the sky was dark. The ground was also musky with the scent of recent rain but yet everything is dry. There were clouds everywhere and unlike the normal white fluffy clouds he was used to seeing all the time, these were storm clouds. Could they be signaling something? Like for say... an omen?

Kies walked the path to the demon village only to find that it was empty. Weird... What happened here? Kies inspected the huts one by one and found that they had nothing left in them. Kies then went to the castle and saw that it was practically destroyed. He ducked his head and went under the broken door and looked around the hallway. There were no animal skulls lining the walls anymore.

But for the first time in years, Kies saw people. Well, not living people. There were a couple of skeletons lying on the dusty floor. He went over to one of them and saw that there were horns on its skull. It belonged to a demon. Something happened here...

Maybe the throne room may tell him something... Kies stepped around the debris littering the floor and went directly to the throne room. It wasn't very hard to find it since it was a straight walk down the halls. In fact, there were no other doors or rooms here other than the throne room. Kies found it rather weird now that the entire building was dedicated to a single room.

Whatever. That wasn't important. Kies went into the throne throng and found that it was totally wrecked just like the outside. Everything was in pieces and on the floor. The only thing that was left still standing was the throne. Miraculously, it had somehow survived the destruction that befell the entire place and everything else around it. As Kies walked up to the throne, he found a folded piece of paper lying in the center of the chair.

Kies picked it up and unfolded it. He expected it to be blank but found that it wasn't and that there was writing on it. The note was written in a language that he couldn't read, but it looked like it was written in Demonic. Kies remembered seeing some of the characters and symbols on the paper before.

"Arc," Kies called for Arc to translate the letter to him. A few seconds passed and there was no response. Confused, Kies called for Arc again. Maybe it didn't hear him the first time. Once again, there was no response. "What?"

Kies bent his arm and brought the bracelet up to his face. There was little light in the room and it was hard to see, but he saw that the bracelet was in perfect condition, at least on the outside. Maybe the insides had rusted from being inactive for a long time or something.

Kies tinkered with it for a bit and found that there was no way for him to access the inside of the bracelet without breaking it. Unable to figure out what was wrong with the bracelet, Kies brushed the problem aside and put the letter in his pocket.

Whatever happened here, there is only one way to find out. Kies walked all the way back to his hut and grabbed whatever looked useful and left the place. It was a shame. He even rebuilt the place a little and now it was in an even worse condition than when he had found it. But this wasn't the time to be feeling sentimental. He already left his home once before. Though this didn't feel as comfortable, he considered the small hut his second home. This was going to be his second time leaving his home.

Kies tidied up the insides to respect the hut for taking care of him throughout all this time even though he didn't know how much time had really passed. After he finished that, he left the forest and went in a random direction that was away from the village.

Traveling nonstop for almost four days and three nights, Kies finds himself back at the giant crater where the broken tower was. The place where he met Arc and Tonahl. Kies peered down into the hole and found that nothing had changed. There were a bunch of black structures everywhere whose purpose was unknown to him.

The first time, he needed Ammine's help to descend down into the crater, but he didn't anymore. Kies jumped down into the crater, floating down gracefully almost as if his body was as light as a feather. He had coated his body in a layer of wind to help him glide down.

After making it to the bottom, Kies heads directly to the black tower in the middle of the place. Upon making it in, he finds that the elevator is at the bottom floor still and floats down once again. Kies places his hand against the cold smooth stone and the place glows. A door opens and inside are a bunch of things that he cannot explain.

"Arc," Kies called out its name again. But just like the previous two attempts, he is met with empty silence. Did something happen? Kies walked into the room and turned his head from side to side, trying to figure out which one of the devices could potentially activate Arc.

Kies searched the room for hours but found nothing. It looked like that Arc was gone.

Kies sits down for a moment to take in everything. The demons disappeared from the village, Arc was gone as well, and he didn't know how much time passed since he absorbed that fragment. From the looks of things, it was likely a very, very long time. Likely years or maybe even decades. The war between the demons and humans might have ended already.

Kies gets up from his seat and accidentally flips a switch next to him on a table. The room tumbled and Kies put his barriers up in preparation for the entire place falling down on top of him but that didn't happen. Next to him, the wall falls down to reveal a room deeper inside the archive. Kies feels a strong pull from the room and walks into it.

The first thing that he sees when he enters is a single black cube in the center of the room that was sprouting from the ground. Other than that, the rest of the room was no different from the previous room. Everything was pitch black and was illuminated by a string of lights branching throughout the floor.

Kies goes to the box and puts his hand on it. It lights up and opens to reveal a massive sword that looks like it might take two people to carry. It was entirely black and made of the same material as the building and everything.

Kies tried to pick up the double-sided sword and found himself lifting it up effortlessly with one hand. The thing was a lot lighter than it looked. Kies clicked a button on the hilt of the sword and it split into half and became a double-sided sword with a blade on both ends of the hilt. Kies slashed the weapon to test it and found his body moving around on its own. He took on a bunch of sword forms that he never learned before. His body instinctively knew how to wield them. Kies joined the sword back and they snapped together in an instant.

Kies never knew that he needed a weapon until now. This sword fit him perfectly. It was like it was made for him... or maybe it actually was. He has never had any training with the sword before and yet he knew how to wield it like a master. It was scary to think about why this was it. The only problem he had about it was its size. Kies didn't know how he would be able to carry this around.

As if the sword could read his thoughts, the entire shrunk and transformed into a glove. Kies looked at the glove and put it on. The moment he put it on, a bunch of memories flooded to his head, and like magic, he instantly knew how to use it. With a flick of his wrist, the sword appeared from out of nowhere on his hand. With another flick, the sword disappeared again.

Kies looks back into the box to see if there is anything else in it and finds that there is indeed still something in there. He reaches in and pulls out the object and it expands into a silver cloak. Without thinking or questioning it, Kies puts on the cloak and finds that it is a perfect fit. The cloak gave him a strange feeling. It was like a feeling of home, or maybe it was the feeling of safety. Whatever it was, once Kies put it on, he didn't want to take it off.

Taking both the cloak and sword, Kies left the now empty room and left the archive as well. He uses the winds to propel himself up and out of the basement of the tower. Glancing back at the broken tower, he knows what his next course of action is.

Kies did not care for the war or his past anymore. He is going to find the rest of the fragments and absorb them. Only then will he have the power to change anything in this world. Upon taking in the Stormcaller's first fragment, he also inherited their will. To stop conflict and bring the world to peace... That is now his responsibility.

-End of Part One-

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