Chapter 4 - Demos, Sword of Shadows
#4 of Country of the Forgotten
Chapter 4 - Demos, Sword of Shadows
"What are you doing here Vanessa?" asked Redrigal.
"What do you mean? I'm here to lecture like you were lecturing him (points to Leo) about the time guardians," replied Vanessa.
"What can you lecture about then? How beautiful you are?" laughed Redrigal.
"No, a much more important matter on hand. It's about the never ending cycle," stated Vanessa with a hard voice.
"How is that much more important?" questioned Redrigal with a hint of not listening to the answer.
"It's about the time guardian that you omitted during your lecture," said Gilbert.
"You were listening?!" exclaimed Redrigal.
"Of course he was listening. These two are connected if you forgot," said Vanessa glaring at Redrigal with suspicion.
"I didn't forget," said Redrigal quickly trying to defend his honor.
"He forgot," sneered Gilbert as he walked to pick the sleeping lion up.
Vanessa turned back to Ruben and eyed him with scornful intent but decided to wait until they, Vanessa and Ruben, were alone some where so she could scream at the top of her lungs. Redrigal turned around and walked back into the building to console with the people that the danger has passed passed. Esmeralda looked at Ruben with hard eyes before turning to see Gilbert lift Leo into his arms since he is the unconscious "damsel in distress" in this situation.
"Let's go into a more secluded area where we can talk. How about on top of that sky scraper?" asked Vanessa pointing to a sky scraper not far away from the tavern.
"That works," said Gilbert as he started to sprint towards the building.
"Hey! No fair!" shouted Vanessa hopping onto Ruben's harness and soaring into the sky.
Vanessa passed Gilbert quickly turning around only to stick her tongue out at him.
"You're not playing fair!" shouted Gilbert as he made the effort to move faster before he was lifted right off the ground by Esmeralda.
Esmeralda placed Gilbert at the base of her neck and ensured that Leo didn't fall out of Gilbert's hold in the process. After he is settled, she sprang up into the sky and expanded her wings to catch a wind current before flapping with all her might. Getting into the air was easy but catching up to Ruben wasn't, mostly because of his size and how far away he is.
"This will get bumpy, hang on tight," warned Esmeralda as she began to flap her two great wings harder.
"What am I supposed to hold on toooooooo?!!!!" shouted Gilbert as Esmeralda picked up speed and shot past Ruben in only 10 seconds.
"No way! She perfected sling!" shouted Vanessa in amazement.
Esmeralda is flying so fast that the targeted sky scraper approached quickly. Gilbert saw the approaching building and started to scream in terror of crashing into the building then having it collapse on them. A few inches before Esmeralda collided with the building, she quickly redirected her flight and soared close to the building towards the sky, claws almost scrapping against the stone.
"Slow down!" screamed Gilbert as they shot up into the open space.
Esmeralda didn't need to be told to slow down as she made a few loops before stopping above the roof of the sky scraper. Gilbert was breathless and Leo is still sleeping after all of that screaming. Ruben floated next to Esmeralda and Vanessa hopped off onto the roof. Gilbert didn't move until after Esmeralda lifted him off of her back and placed him onto the roof before flying around several buildings to keep her amused.
"You're not really a fearless rider," laughed Vanessa.
"Fearless rider?! I thought I was going to die!" exclaimed Gilbert before he placed Leo down.
"Of course you were, every one would if they were moving as fast as Esmeralda," teased Vanessa as she sat down on the ground.
"Next time I'm going the old fashion, walking and running," said Gilbert trying to himself down.
"If you're going to do that, then it would have taken you ages to get here. I'm sure by then I would be a really old woman," laughed Vanessa as she fell onto her back.
"Stop laughing already!" shouted Gilbert.
"I can't help myself, you're just too funny," said Vanessa between laughs.
"She is trying her hardest to stop," said Ruben before he flew off to join Esmeralda in her flying.
"Well she's not trying hard enough!" shouted Gilbert to Ruben's tail as his image shrank and met with Esmeralda's.
"You are being very inconsiderate of people," said a voice in his mind.
"Leo?" said Gilbert in shock.
"No you complete imbecile. It is your sword," said the voice as Gilbert's sword flew up the buildings side and stopped in front of Gilbert's face, hilt towards the sky.
"I knew that," said Gilbert in a stern voice.
"I'm sure you did because your head is full of rocks," insulted the sword.
"Rock?!" shouted Vanessa as she went back to laughing.
"I'm not that dense!" fumed Gilbert.
"Of course you are," said the sword.
"Demos can you please shut up?" said a voice that no one expected to hear.
"I don't think I can," replied Demos.
Everyone turned their heads towards Leo but they couldn't believe that it was his voice yet it sounded like it. Leo still slept peacefully and Vanessa only stopped laughing to see who spoke before she remembered "rocks" and started laughing all over again.
"Wait...how is it that she can hear you?" asked Gilbert.
"It's because Demos is projecting to all of us. He has the ability to project his voice but chooses not to," said the unexpected voice again.
Gilbert snapped his head back at Leo but still found no proof that it came from him.
"What he said is true," confirmed Demos.
"Who said it?" demanded Gilbert.
"I cannot say. I don't have eyes," said Demos.
"You worthless piece of junk," said Gilbert.
Something hit Gilbert in the back of his head and it hurt quite a lot for him to bend forward and swear out loud. He quickly turned around and saw that no one besides the still sleeping Leo and the still laughing Vanessa. On the ground at the base of his feet is a marble, not the stone marble but the balls used in a game of marbles.
"Where did this come from?" thought Gilbert as he bent down to pick up the marble.
"Don't pick it up," said Leo.
Gilbert ignored the voice thinking it is the mysterious voice. He got close to picking up the marble until ice, the size of sewing needles, passed between his fingers and the marble catching by surprise. This made Gilbert lift his head and look directly at Leo's face who is wide awake and staring at the marble.
"Come," said Leo and the marble rolled towards Leo as he continued to look at the marble.
When the marble was only 5 inches away, Leo said "shatter" and the marble broke into dust that blew into the wind. There is nothing left behind of the marble that Gilbert saw. Few seconds later, many small explosions shattered the silent air far from the building. The smoke could be seen though only about a mile away.
"What the hell was that?" said Gilbert shocked.
Vanessa finally stopped laughing again and turned her attention towards the smoke cloud.
"Did something bad just happen?" asked Vanessa completely mystified.
"Fucking Lloyd just won't give up," murmured Leo.
"You know Lloyd?!" exclaimed Vanessa turning to Leo.
Gilbert, being completely uncaring about other people's listening attempted to leave the building but Demos kept him on the roof and prodded him back to the group until he sat down and stayed where he was sitting. Demos landed itself softly next to Leo as he looked at Gilbert no different than he would look at strangers, eyes with distrust.
"I know Lloyd," said Leo returning his attention to Vanessa and losing the distrust in his eyes at the same time.
"How do you know him?" asked Vanessa.
"I don't know but I guess you could say we are sharing the same views. His thoughts float around in my mind here and there but it is never always there. During the sleep, his thoughts formed into a face that began to talk to me. Tell me that my efforts were worthless and there's no use trying to save people I don't know. His speech told me quite different. Although he did well to hide his intentions, it wasn't enough for him to hide his personality from echoing out of every word but it is quite confusing," replied Leo.
"Wow, you don't really know Lloyd that well then. Aside from his torture anyways," said Vanessa.
"What do you mean?" asked Gilbert attempting to take interest in the conversation but is failing miserably.
"Lloyd is the dark time master, the person who made the never ending cycle known as Cyclo. The only problem about that is that he used to be a time guardian just like me but changed," said Vanessa with sorrow.
"Why don't you retell your story then?" asked Leo.
"It is too difficult for me to tell you," replied Vanessa sinking down into depression.
"You don't have to then, we can talk about Demos instead until you're ready to tell us," said Leo.
"Why do we need to talk about Demos?" asked Gilbert annoyed.
"Because I have no clue how you even got him in the first place," snapped Leo.
"Oh, right," said Gilbert. "There's not much to say I'm afraid. Demos just came to me on its own and chose me as its wielder."
"I am a man you dim wit," said Demos.
"Let's let Demos talk about himself then to make it easier for you," said Leo.
Demos floated to the center of the triangle, hilt up, and stayed there for a few minutes in silence.
"Everything begins at one point in time such as myself. I am Demos, the sword of Shadows, inhabited by Demos Deville, my creator. This is ages ago, after the ancients have been established and a few worlds have been created. There are others such as myself but of different elements that you, how should I say this, life forms consider important to an essential world," began Demos.
"Do you mean the elemental essence?" questioned Leo.
"Yes, those essences are vital to any living world. The swords are made to harness the different elements that is known, usually the main elements like water and fire. There are six main elements in total though aside from the two greater elements followed by the four legendary portions. We are made through water, fire, earth, air, lightening, and ice. Through combinations, the greater elements, light and dark, are made. The four legendary though are not made through elements but through sacrifice. The four are time, space, destiny, and fate. The last two are the most rarest out of the four," replied Demos.
"What about the purpose? Why don't you tell them that?" asked Gilbert plainly.
"The purpose of the swords is to create peace and harmony through out the worlds since our owners must be trained to be able to cross different dimensions. A problem occurred though and that is where Lloyd fits in. Ever since he began Cyclo, I, along with the other swords, have been lost within time and now I am the only one left of my kind," stated Demos.
"Lloyd is causing quite a lot of problems for everyone," said Vanessa looking into the sky.
"Especially for us," said Gilbert meekly.
"Us? How so?" questioned Leo.
"You'll know everything about me when it gets to my turn," said Gilbert.
"I'm not done yet," said Demos.
"We know that but...," began Leo turning towards Vanessa.
"Let him continue, it wouldn't matter because everything after Lloyd is connected," said Vanessa.
Demos took this as a sign to continue and began to speak again. "The beginning of Cyclo isn't bad but it became worse quickly when he picked one of us at random and destroyed her using the power of given to him by the flame. We didn't know who would go next but it appeared that every millennium or so one of us would disappear forever and never be known of ever again. This year is to be my last if I hadn't found that dim wit," said Demos.
"That dim wit, or so you say, allowed me to survive," said Leo quietly.
"Survive?" asked Vanessa.
"That's another story that any time guardian can look at, right?" responded Leo.
"Not quite. We can examine your history to our free will but one memory has a lock on it. That is the only thing we are not allowed to see based on the lock," replied Vanessa.
"Then I guess that is a story for another time then," said Leo.
"I think I should tell you about Lloyd now. His relationship with the time guardians, myself, and his drastic change. It will better understand Demos's last bit about the disappearing swords," said Vanessa.
Now Gilbert, who became oblivious to the discussion about Demos and the other swords, tuned in Vanessa thinking that what she was going to spew out will be full of blood and gore. Leo on the other hand thought differently by looking at Vanessa's eyes and saw the pain she is trying to over come just by retelling her story. Demos continued to float in the middle as Esmeralda and Ruben continued to fly around the buildings, chasing each other.
"It all began around the time of the ice age for you guys but for me, it is the age of prosper and rebirth in my world," began Vanessa.