A Heart's Will

[Kon]

Yes, some of you could know me, some couldn't, but meh, that's not what I posted this for. This will be the sequel for my fanfic "Sweet Revenge". Note that you must either be 14+ years old or ask your parents if you may read it, although I'm sure you won't ask your parents if you're younger than 14. (Animaple, you're owned :D )

Another thing important to announce in the beginning: I will take character registrations until the 15th of October. Any applications after that date will be ignored without a comment.

And the last thing, yes, I know you want to read it, but, I will not update this too frequently. More like, every second~third day. I want to lift my writing up to the next level.
Chapter 1: A New Life

It was a warm night. The half moon shined down on me leaving a small amount of light. The stars helped lighting the night up. The grass was warm and dry. Nature's smells were flying into my nose. Some feet away, there was a green tree. I looked up to the stars again, like I did almost every night. Time has passed since Kon died, and so did many things change. I lived in Henesys now, in an apartment together with Ben, Mil, Ivan and Ani. They weren't here, although they knew I was here. I didn't want to be disturbed.
Why I am lying here every night, you ask? That is because I feel his presence here. At clear night, when the stars shine above us, I have this feeling that Kon is still next to me, watching over me and listening to any single word I say. Yes, I know, that may sound weird, but every time I lie outside here, I think that I can get him back somehow.
Maybe I am just hoping. Who doesn't long for hope? Hope can help you. It pushes sadness away. It gives you the power to do things.

A squirrel ran around the tree, collecting nuts for the winter. He was doing it a little early though. It was the middle of summer now. I laid down on the grass and looked up into the moon. It's great that there are things that never change. No matter how many people pass away, the moon and the stars will always shine. They won't be affected by whatever we do.
I felt some hope come up in me again. Since Kon died, Ani doubled her effort put into reviving people. She always says that she can't do fast enough, but I don't believe her. She's overworking herself.

The four job teachers have heard about us having fought Kaiza and we're basically out of work. They decided to give us money, saying they'd know it isn't enough to give money for taking away that danger from Maple. But they gave us time to relax. We didn't use it too much anyway, because Kaiza was dead, but his monsters attacking Maple still didn't fade away.
Kaiza's monsters were still attacking our economy, while the normal fiends stopped attacking mankind. In exchange, we helped them by protecting them. Maybe not everyone was doing like that, who knows. There could still be some bullies killing monsters for easy training.

I heard grunts and turned around on the grass. Sherry, Ani's pet pig, was running towards me. Ever since she was living with us, I think Sherry likes me. Which pig wouldn't like me after me giving it food and cuddles? Anyway, why was Sherry running around here? I stood up, having a stretch and looked around. If Sherry was running around outside, Ani wasn't far away. I patted Sherry on the back, who grunted happily and then ran back towards out house. I turned towards there, too, and walked back.
Maybe something would happen. I was sick of nothing happening. It was getting really boring.
As I expected, Ani was on the way to me. She was wearing her Maple Kandayo, but that had nothing to do with monsters. She liked wearing it. "It's very comfortable." she always tells people asking her,. Ani smiled at me, obviously she had something to say. "What's up?" I asked. "I have recently found something that could bring Kon back. Come with me." she said and ran back towards our house. I kept up easily, although Ani's assassin-based skills really improved. But that was sadly nothing against me. Yesterday, the Dark Lord approved me as a Hermit, with that I got a new skillbook and, unnecessary to say, I have mastered an assassin's skills.
Sherry had trouble keeping up with us after we overtook her, so I took her up into my arms and ran behind Ani. We were reaching the Henesys Town Gate. Over here, there were already paths made out of stone for people coming from other cities - when you live in Henesys, you get used to Nature and it's paths quickly.

Finally, we arrived at our apartment, yes, let's call it apartment, although it's looks had much of a hut. I walked in and saw Ivan studying his new Ranger skills. We all were training because of lack of other things to do, so we all were on pretty much the same level. Ivan, like always, was mastering all his skills as early as possible. I just looked at some which seemed interesting and mastered them. I also acknowledged some things that were very interesting, for example, if your Shadow Partner takes a form of another human, that means true love. Heh, before the thing that happened in the castle, I would have expected every single thing but that. And I also saw that there was no skill or something called Soul Star. I wonder what it was, when I used it back then, in the castle.

Mil was violently eating a steak. She just returned from her daily training as a Dragon Knight. She's gotten a lot stronger. Maybe too strong, because the amount of training was proportional to the amount of food she was eating.
I almost forgot what we came for and followed Ani down to the basement, where she built up all the things necessary for her advanced alchemy. There were test-tubes lying around, a purple liquid in one of them, and Ani didn't experiment on snails anymore. Now, she does on hellrats. The weakest type of Kaiza's demons. Ani took out a book of her huge bookshelf.

"Ika, you remember me studying life and death for a long time in order to revive someone else, don't you? Well, I read through this book and threw it away, because my brother died from a disease. Not in a fight, so it didn't help me. Ah, just read this." Ani said and threw a book towards me.

Ossyrian Legends and their source

Legends about Power: Page 1-30
Legends about Heroes: Page 31-64
Legends about Life and Death: Page 65-66
Stories: Page 66-135

I flipped to page 65 and read it.

Legends about Life and Death

Life and Death, that was a valued thing in the life of the ancient Ossyrians. But sadly, there was only one Legend about Life and Death that could be examinated by us, in lack of others. In Ossyria, they say that a person that dies in battle gets it's soul transferred into another body and it's memories are sealed in a crystal. Some versions of this Legend also say that you can revive those people by finding the soul, unsealing the memories and finally leading the person to it's old body. If the legends are true, the body of the person will not fade away or be destroyed. Sadly, we couldn't find anything out about that.

I just stood there, with the book in hands. Trying that would be like playing roulette and betting on a single number. That legend looked like it would be drawn out of the air. It couldn't be true. But... why did I always feel his presence after all?
"Ani... I'd like to think about everything a little. I'll go out again." I said, sniffing. "Does that mean that you think the odds are too low for the story being true?" Ani asked, but I ran away.

Some minutes later, I was sitting on a branch of the tree near which I have been lying before. The stars were shining brightly. The moon was still shining. Nothing could change that. I looked up. Knowing that he couldn't hear me, I still spoke out loud. "Do you think that story is true? Do you think I can revive you?"

Suddenly, a young kid appeared in front of me and I almost fell of the tree.



"Who're you talking to?" he asked, but I was rather occupied with jumping to another branch because I didn't want to fall down. "Uhm? How long have you been sitting up there?" I asked. "Long enough." he hung down a tree and laughed. "Who're you trying to revive?" he asked.
"Sorry if I'm rude, but I don't think it's your business." I responded. The kid jumped onto my branch faster than I thought and sat down next to me.
"Come on, tell me. What bad could I do?" he begged. He sure was a stubborn little kid. "Okay, a friend of mine died. He was unlucky, tripped and fell down a cliff." I said, hoping that he'd believe it.

"You don't think I would take that and go away, do you?" he laughed. He was a happy little guy. The smile he had from the beginning didn't fade away, but I could smell that he ate something today. Yes, it was a rather unenjoyable smell. "You ate fish." I said.
"Yes, I know that. Is fish forbidden or something?" he asked, with a curious look on his face. "No, it isn't. Haven't your parents told you?" I asked.
"I don't remember my parents." His smile faded away. "I don't have a home nor do I remember any relatives." He smiled again. "But that doesn't have anything to do with what I asked you? You're clever, you almost distracted me. Now tell me, who are you going to revive."

Obviously I couldn't get him off without the truth. "I guess you see the monsters around Maple, don't you?"
"What is Maple?" he asked.
"Uhm... Maple is our world, didn't you... anyway. They attack everything around us. And there was a demon from who those monsters came. My... my fiance died from battling that demon. I want to get him back."

The boy's smile widened. "Heh, if I can help you with anything, just tell me. My name is... well." He tried to think of something. "You know, people usually don't talk to me because I'm someone who doesn't have a home. So I don't have a name."
"Ah, then what about if I give you a name." His smile widened again. "You know, there's a story about a legendary thief who was living on the streets, too. I'll call you with his name." His smile got even bigger, if that's possible. I could actually fit my whole foot into his mouth now. "You're Scapa from now on. Oh, I'm Ika."

The night was getting cold as we were still sitting on the tree. "Ika, why are you always here every night?" Scapa asked. "I don't know. It makes me feel like my fiance, Kon, would be near. Although I know that isn't true. I wish it would be." Scapa's mouth opened again. He was smiling. Damn, he was always smiling, my mouth would hurt if I smiled that often. "Are you serious? I feel that kind of thing too! I feel like there would be people near me, but I couldn't see them!"

I looked at him and his big smile again. He was about eight years old. "Where are you going to sleep tonight, Scapa?" I asked. "I don't know, but you're in Henesys, so I think I will be near there. Maybe I will find some kind of comfortable meadow to sleep on."
"You know what? Just come to my place. We have a huge house. I'll make some place for you."

He just smiled at me again. He was sure a happy guy.

End of Chapter 1

[Gloomy]

You have improved a whole lot :3
Really nice.

[jhtv]

Holy shiznuts this is good.

I have a character:

Name: Zephyr
Job: Crusader
Lvl: 100x
Good/Bad: Unknown motives (giving you a choice here [plot twist with him?])
Description: Extremely stealthy even for a warrior. Smart. Mysterious.
Picture: (someone tell me how to post it >_>)

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

Holy shiznuts this is good.

I have a character:

Name: Zephyr
Job: Crusader
Lvl: 100x
Good/Bad: Unknown motives (giving you a choice here [plot twist with him?])
Description: Extremely stealthy even for a warrior. Smart. Mysterious.
Picture: (someone tell me how to post it >_>)

QFT.

Did you get the name from one of the characters in my prequel?

[Eluamous]

Really nice, keep on going!

I have a character to use:

Name: Ayin
Job: Chief Bandit
Level: ???
Side: Good. However, he isn't very active, and is usually seen resting on trees.
Description: Wise, strong, but has bandages all over his body. Reason is unknown. Also, uses a sword instead of a dagger.
Picture:



Hope you like it.

[Kon]

Holy shiznuts this is good.

I have a character:

Name: Zephyr
Job: Crusader
Lvl: 100x
Good/Bad: Unknown motives (giving you a choice here [plot twist with him?])
Description: Extremely stealthy even for a warrior. Smart. Mysterious.
Picture: (someone tell me how to post it >_>)

www.maplesim.com
Go online version or download it, then make your char.

[Kon]

Chapter 2: Immortal Evil

The icy mountains of El Nath. The cold wind kept blowing, carrying snow everywhere. On a smaller hill, there was a ruin made of black stone. Everybody who would go there would immediately see that a battle has taken place there. Some places of the ruin weren't destroyed, some were a little and one place was fully destroyed. The main part of the battle had been fought there, as stones were lying around and the floor was full of them.
A hand raised out of the stones, then another one and finally, a head.
"Heh, I knew waiting in this kid's body could do something. Thanks, Kon. This body is much better than my old one." he said.

His eyes were deeply blue and his hair was made from a unusual deep red. His clothes were old and worn off from the sitting under the rocks for six months.



Somewhere else...

I woke up in my bed as slowly my memories of yesterday returned. I heard some voices from down there, so I got up, dressed and looked in a mirror.



Hmm. I still couldn't get used to my new haircut. But I had the old one for too long, and I once changed it in Ludibrium, but it was just a cheap overcoloring and it faded away too quickly. I liked my new hair though. I walked down and saw Ivan and Scapa sitting at the table. Scapa smiled again and Ivan seemed to be telling him some interesting stories.

"Hi, you two. Where's Ben?" I asked.
"Ooooh, ooh, you mean the strong warrior? He went out for training, he showed me how strong he is and easily lifted me up!" Scapa smiled.
"Yes, Ben and Mil went out for training again. Ani didn't wake up yet." Ivan said. "Oh, oh, so the other warrior, the woman, her name is Mil? And who is Ani? Come on, tell me, tell me, tell me!" Scapa begged.

My stomach growled. "Ika, you can eat something with us. I already prepared fried eggs." Ivan said and Scapa, what should he do, he smiled. I had to laugh. "Why are you laughing, Ika?" he asked.
"It's nothing." I laughed and prepared some tea. Ani always drank tea when she woke up, and she surely would wake up soon. There were some frying noises and Ivan stood up and went into the kitchen, where I was making a cup of tea. He walked in and took the pan off the cooker. He took out some plates and put the eggs on them. Then he looked at me. "Ika, I heard of the thing that Ani found out. I think I should throw my two cents worth in. I think you should at least try it out, I mean, what bad could happen?"
"You're probably right, but I don't want to hang after the past. If I live in the past, I can't see the future." I said.
He turned his head to me again. "Ika, damn, I see you every day. You're still thinking about Kon. And you won't be able to live in the future if you can't be with him. It's obvious." he stated. I just took my tea and went back into the living room, where Scapa was jumping around with his chair. "Who is Ani? Who is Ani? Who is Ani?" he laughed.

The door leading to Ani's room opened and she went out. "I'm an Alchemist. You need a tranquilizer? You woke me up." she stuttered, sleepy. She was still in her pajama. "Saaawwrry!!" Scapa laughed. I gave Ani the cup with tea and went back into the kitchen, making another one for me. Scapa jumped off his chair and ran after me.

"Ika, Ika, Ika, I have something to say! I had a weird dream today!" he called unpatiently. I took the cup, sat down on the floor and pointed him to come and sit down near her. "What did you dream about, Scapa?" I asked as his smile faded away, a questioning look on his face. "Let me recall it. I remember that we two were walking around in the plains around here, and then we found some kind of stone gate... I don't remember what happened then. But I remember that there was some kind of gem later... Ika, that gem was really beautiful. It was as blue like... uhm..." Scapa looked around the kitchen, searching for something as blue as the gem in his dream. He looked at me again. "Sorry, I don't re... as blue as your eyes!" he laughed. I took a sip from my cup and smiled. "Wanna go and search for the Gem? I don't have anything to do anyway."

After a tasty plate of fried eggs, I went out with Scapa. We walked around the plains. The sun shined brightly and Scapa was sweating. Of course he did, because he was wearing a sweater that Ivan usually wore.
"Take that sweater off. It's hot." I said, but he denied. "It's better to wear this comfortable thing than not to be hot. It's really great to wear it. I live Ivan." And with those words, Scapa's legendary smile returned.

I looked down on my Golden Scarab. I could have to use it. Then I had an idea. "Scapa, would you like to see what my fiance looked like?"
"OF COURSE!!!"
"Okay, then stay back."

I walked some feet away from him, then formed various handsigns. "Shadow Partner." I said as the golden wheel appeared around me, letting my shadow shoot out as it took the form of Kon.



He gasped as he saw Kon as my shadow partner.
"That's great!" he - try to find out - smiled.
We walked on as he suddenly called "Wait!". He looked around and spotted a tree near a bush and a bench. He turned around, looked at me and opened his mouth.

"I'd like some... Chocolate Chip Cookies..." he complained.
"I'll make you some when we're at home. But now, we wanted to find the gem, didn't we?" I explained as he pointed to the right. A stone gate leading underground. "That's what you saw in your dreams?" I asked and he nodded, so we walked up and opened the gate. There was a huge hall and a podium in the middle. Above the podium, there was a small hole leading outside, letting light shine on the podium. I walked towards the podium, hypnotized. On the podium, there was a black thing holding a beautiful blue gem. I tried to take the gem, but something blocked me. "Scapa? Try taking this gem out of the holder." I said and he smiled and ran towards me. He touched the gem as it suddenly shattered into several pieces. "What the..." Scapa whispered...
There was a blue light instead of the gem now. The light flew around near Ika, then it flew straight into Scapa who fainted.

End of Chapter 2

Damn, after reading this again, I think the writing in this chapter wasn't too good.

[XxKiraYamatoxX]

There was a blue light instead of the gem now. The light flew around near Ika, then it flew straight into Scapa who fainted.

Correction.

[blackthief96]

Name: Wilson
Job: Assassin
Level: 40
Good/Bad: Good(finally made my decision)
Description/Abilities: Sneak attack master, a young assassin that was expelled from Orbis for the destruction he caused at cloud park, lives in Kerning City but is often seen in El Nath.
Personality: normal attitude: emotionless, bad temper and doesn't like jokes, combat attitude: "bring it on", a little too serious sometimes and will fight anyone
Skills: Lucky 7, Avenger(only when angered seriously), Dark Sight, Drain and Haste

[Kon]

Your registration has been noticed and saved.
JHTV, please get a picture. If you won't get one, you won't be in the fanfic until I get one.

Kira, thanks for pointing the flied->flew out. I edited it.

Chapter 3: Attack!

After another hour, Scapa's eyes slowly opened. He blinked, got up and looked around. "Where am I?" I didn't answer, I just sat on the floor, looking at my feet. He would remember it soon enough. Scapa looked around until he spotted me. "Ika?" he asked. I just looked at him.

I was a little depressed. Sometimes, when I was just waiting for something, that sadness overwhelmed me. I didn't say anything. I just looked around. Scapa stood up and went near me. "What happened?"
I just turned around and leaned my head on the cold stone wall. Tears moved into my eyes and I sniffed. "But Ika... what did I do?"
"It has nothing to do with you." I said. "Just go back and tell the others not to wait for me. I won't eat lunch with you today."

Scapa first looked like he wouldn't want to, but then he stood up and went out of the little sanctuary. I just sat there and leaned against the wall. I couldn't hold the tears now.

///

After my little training with Ben, we walked back towards Henesys. We were hungry. Ben was really a good rival for me. On the way, I noticed a way going underground. I never noticed the way before. I tapped Ben on the shoulder and pointed on the stone doors. "Ben, have you ever seen those before?" I asked. "No, I haven't seen it yet... let's go in and look."

We walked in there, but as I wanted to push the doors open, I readied my Eclipse. Maybe there was something that would attack us. I kicked the door open, prepared for a battle, but all I heard was someone crying. I lowered my Eclipse and walked in to see Ika sitting on the floor.

///

My eyes slowly opened as I woke up like I'd have been unconscious. I tried to remember what happened and why I was lying here, but I couldn't remember anything. The last thing I remembered was Ika closing my eyes... but how come that I didn't die? The Cursayer stabbed through my heart! I lifted my head and saw myself on a grassy plain. I stood up and looked around. This was weird. I was on a rather small island. Palms grew on the island, but I could see the sea around the island, so it must be on the middle of the sea.
I suddenly had an idea. I moved my hands to whisper position.

"Ika?"

No answer. Well, what should I do? I walked around a little and eventually noticed that I couldn't see anything but the sea. The palms held coconuts. I took one and tried to open it, but I couldn't do anything, it was too heavy. I would need a knife. Maybe... "Lincyoan." Nothing happened. This was really strange. Usually, when I said Lincyoan, the Harpish word for Cursayer, it flew straight towards my hand. I ended up trying to break it with magic. I never thought about how magic worked, now that I needed it the most. I looked at the coconut and closed my eyes, trying to imagine it opening. Nothing happened again, maybe I had to do it heavier. I imagined one splattering around the island. But suddenly, something dripped into my eyes. I opened them and saw the crushed coconut in my hands, it's milk all around the floor and my body. It worked! Maybe if I imagined another coconut flying into my hand, it would happen. I tried it out and it flew directly into it. Was I that great of a magician or was it just because of this world? I wish I knew where I was... suddenly a little boy showed up in front of me.

"Hey, you, what are you doing in my dream!" he shouted. So this was a dream world? "Why are you talking to someone you don't know?" I asked, but he suddenly opened his eyes wide. "Why am I dreaming of Ika's fiance? Hey, you tell me." he smiled. He had a wide smile. "What the... you know... Ika... where is she?!" I asked, but he just smiled again. "You're in my dreams, but it seems that you're a real person. People made from my dreams usually can't do anything. They can't move nor talk. They just stand around. Whatever, I don't know how to get you out of here - I'll show you the Ika of my dreams."

Suddenly a girl appeared in front of me. It was Ika. She had different hair, but it was her. I immediately recognized her from her deep blue eyes, the eyes I loved... I fell down on my knees as tears moved into my eyes. "Oh, someone's trying to wake me up. Energically. See you, maybe I'll go sleep later and we can meet again.

///

Ani tried to wake up Scapa, who was lying on the floor, sleeping. He must have fell asleep and crushed into the floor. He suddenly stood up as if nothing had happened and looked around. "Where's Ika?" he asked. "That's why I am trying to wake you up instead of carrying you into your bed. I want to know what happened to her. Mil and Ben found her in some kind of sanctuary and she is still crying. Something must have happened."
"I don't know anything, I fell unconscious!! But wait, where is she?" Scapa asked. Ani pointed outside. "You know where she is. At her place." she said and Scapa ran off. On one side, he was frightened, it could be his fault that she was crying, but on the other side, he wanted to tell her what he dreamed about. In Scapa's dreams, he was always lying on the sand at the island beach. Where it was warm and the sun shined. And if there were people, they just stood around, not like what happened this time.

He eventually found her, sitting at the tree. She was crying and seemed to be talking with someone. "Come on! Why can't he just leave me alone? I KNOW he's near me! Why do I have to feel this pain!" she cried. "Be honest, Ika. If he would hear it, wouldn't he be hurt? I'm sure he feels the same." another voice said. It was Ivan's voice. I walked up to both of them and sat down on the tree branch. "Hey, you two! You will never believe what I just dreamed!" Scapa called happily, trying to cheer Ika up, but Ivan looked at him. "Can you tell us later? I don't think we want to know it."
"But Ika, your fiance is alive!"

She instantly turned her head towards him. "That's nothing you should joke about."
"I'm not joking!" Scapa explained why he knew that it had to be true. Suddenly, a shadow shot out of the bushes near them.



"You should be prepared for a battle or flee. Someone is currently aiming for you." the stranger said. "Who're you?!" Ivan shouted out, but the warrior turned around. "My name lost it's meaning a long time ago. But call me Zephyr. That means, if we will meet again. Maybe we will. If you succeed."

He disappeared and Ivan suggested going home. "Better go and be safe than stay and not being sure about safety."

End of Chapter Three