How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Aim For The Head.

Very nice work sir do keep it up :D

Day 24 - Dawn:

In addition to Cid, we are now also escorting "Her Holiness Tzee Xicu" through Sarutabaruta. Our progress was slowed due to the fact that the Yagudo refuse to let Xicu walk by herself and constantly move in an armored guard formation.

On the plus, however, we are leading the entirety of Castle Oztroja with us. Every single Yagudo, warrior or not, walks behind us.

We are leading an army of great potential. It is a shame, truly, that our fortune won't hold up with the other beastmen: I hear that the Quadavs have almost been fully exterminated and that the Orcs are fully aligned with the demons.

Either way, who cares?

I don't; I just keep slicing away. Dasva has deemed it useless to teach me more magic. Most of the others just stay away from me now.

Conversation is diminishing, but I don't quite mind. It gives me more time to think.

Two things:

1) This makes me smile on the inside, probably more than it should, I'm loving all the violence.

2)Sectumsempra I can't stop staring at you avatar for some reason, it is very interesting...

I'm glad I found this thread and even if I never post again know that I'm checking back for updates more often than I care to mention. Keep up the good work!

Just started reading this and me likes !!!!.

And to get back to your question, I think that this should be a long one, but it would also be fun to see it through the eyes of others once you finish.

And I can't also wait to find out what happened to windy.

Day 24 - Night:

We arrived at the Federation of Windurst to find out that the Tarutaru and Mithra had only lost one part of their city in the fight with The Plagued, and that was by their own choice.

The walls around their city provided them with an extreme tactical advantage: they were able to safely band together and send meteors falling from the sky.

The downside of this is that Sarutabaruta was turned even more barren and is totally unusable now. It resembles the mountain range of Meriphataud more than ever. I suppose that everything has a cost.

They would have destroyed us, too, had Xicu herself not sent up a magical flare into the sky that took on the symbol of the the wolf, Fenrir.

My group, Xicu, and her closest guards were taken into the city, being carefully watched by a battalion of Windurst's greatest hundred black mages, ready to decimate us instantly if need be. We were taken into the Cloisters of the Star Sibyl, the entirety of the Mithran Guard baring their bows--and claws, and teeth mind you--at us. I recognized some of the people from my time spent studying in the city.

The Star Sibyl bid us entrance into her most guarded chamber and asked us, quite simply, what an army of Yagudo and a team of humans were doing.

Cid spoke up first and explained what The Turned were.

Xicu went to speak next and explained that the Yagudo were as much prey as the Tarutaru.

Alyria went to speak next, but the Sibyl cut her off and looked directly at me.

Her voice had an eerie sadness to it as she asked "You, too, have been infected by this plague, haven't you?"

I heard Alyria's gun instantly *** and every weapon turned to me. I said nothing as every piece of clothing was ripped off of me, bar none, by Xicu's guards. I said nothing, and simply stood their apathetically as my entire body was put up for show in front of everyone.

There were no cut marks, no bites, I was virtually unscathed for all that I've been through; only bruises from the battle inside Delkfutt and burns from the fighting with the demons.

Hesitantly, I was allowed to put my clothes back on.

"I can see the damage," the Sibyl continued, in that same strange and sad voice, "I remember your spirit as it used to be; tell me, what infected your soul?"

I could say nothing. It was, shockingly, Xicu who answered for me.
"The same as Karaha-Baruha, kyahyahyah, his soul has turned. Paid a tribute, something forever broken, kyahyahyah!

"Gone," I said simply. "Not broken."

It was with that that I spun around on my heel and let the adults talk about whatever unimportants that they had to. The necessary path was glaringly simple in my eyes: kill Turned, save those not Turned.

"Not broken," I whispered as I walked away. I wasn't sure if it was a prayer.

Hm I feel an update coming on later today.

MOAR!

This is getting more interesting every time you update it :D

need moooore ; ; omg i can't believe i just found this story now! i love it!!!! <3333 ; ;

Day 25 - 3:25am:
I don't really feel like sleeping anymore. It's not like we'll be leaving Windurst anytime soon, anyways. I'm just laying here in the same bed I used to sleep in while studying at the academy, thinking.

I saw myself in the mirror after I was able to shower for the first time since I was in Jeuno. My body is definitely changing. By trade, I am--I was, I guess--a chef; we're a bit pudgy by nature 'cause all we do is make food, taste food, and sell food. There's always food around.

Always tons of sweets, to top it off. Meg loved my cinna cookies.

Some time, a few minutes after midnight, the Star Sibyl entered my room and asked me if it was true.

I simply looked at her and asked "Which part?"

I was expecting her to ask me if it was true that I destroyed Meg. Instead, she asked, "That she tried to kill you."

I turned away from her and the first thing I saw was myself in the mirror. I found my hand placing itself on its reflection as I sighed.

"She had no idea who I was," I said. I don't know if I was trying to convince myself or the Sibyl. "She wanted to kill me, bite me, claw at me; she wanted to eat me. When I found her, she was chewing on a taru that she killed."

The Sibyl placed her hand over her mouth and gasped ever slightly.

"This plague is an awful thing," she said.

I turned and glared a dagger at her, a person I was supposed to have utmost respect for. "What would you know? You've been staying high and guarded in your precious little tower while people like me have to kill everyone we held dear, or die. I watched Jeuno fall. I watched an empire deny us refuge. What do you know?"

My words hurt her, I could tell.

"It's true..." she admitted.

There was a knock on the door, sparing her from having to continue. I opened the door to find no one there.

However, Rumaha was suddenly behind me. He is a crafty one, that ninja.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but the War Warlocks have made their decision: Windurst shall stay, not flee to the towers, and Xicu's forces must go. However, as a gesture of good will, they are allowed ten days to make plans and resupply."

The Sibyl nodded, and Rum placed a hand on my shoulder. "There's someone here I must bring you to see. An old acquaintance of mine. Come before morning," he said, and with that he was gone, a slip of paper suddenly in my hand.

I looked at the Sibyl, whom had sat at my desk and buried her face in her hands.

"Oh, what could be done?"

I simply shrugged.

"Keep fighting back. Kill them all. Kill their leaders. Kill their young."

It seemed like a plan at the time.

She left a bit after that, thanking me for letting her come in.

Alyria peered into my room two times, and each time I threw a book at the door and told her that if she wanted to come in, she damn well better.

Stikle's creatures walked in at one point, but I think that's 'cause I had a fireplace going and it was chilly out. They're still asleep, and I guess I better get going. I've got till morning to go to the part of town described on the paper Rum gave to me.

kewl :D

I have never posted before, and probably never will again, but I wanted to say that this is quite awesome, and thank you for writing it. I am looking forward to reading more.

<3 this! Nice story, keep going :)

Yay, feedback! I love feedback!

Edit: time to start tossing in more characters.

Zombie stories are awesome, even more so when its based in XI and you really visualize everything :D

BTW, Sectum, is your avatar a Genbu breathing the sky out? o_o

I love it..I keep checking back for updates, makes my work day just that much better. Keep up the good work man...

**Rumaha that sneaky ninja ***..lol

You'd be surprised by the number of us reading but not saying anything! Keep at it. We all love it!

Holy ***so much awesomeness. :O Keep it up good man!

i thought this topic was about sex >.>

HA!

I *** love turtles.

Thanks for the support, gonna start writing a bit more in a few.

Cute XD

That's an awesome picture XD

Day 27:

The first trial had been darkness; or so I had been told later on. Fortunately for me, I had taken my scimitars: you never know when a Turned may show up, or a demon invasion.

The more I walked the darker it became outside, as though the fog of war itself was rolling in. That should have been the first clue that it would be a rather long day.

I recalled the area that Rumaha had described and navigated through there out of memory and habit. You see, Windurst has a few secrets. One of these is a hidden island.

If you jump off the boards that surround the cooking guild and wade through the water for some time it gets quite deep and you have to actually swim between the trees that surround the area. I'm a fairly quick swimmer, having spent a lot of my time in the lakes and ocean around Windurst on my time off, and so it takes me around fifteen minutes of swimming to go where I was headed.

Such is where I went: to a small, hidden island of sorts in the middle of all this water. If I had to guess I'd say you could probably fit a small house on the island.

I used to go there to think in my free time. Sometimes I'd take a few friends and we would catch a few fish.

It was really dark around the island but I found it just the same. I pulled myself to shore and dried myself with a spell.

I couldn't see more than a few feet but I was definitely able to hear the soft pitter patter as rain began to fall.

And then all of a sudden I heard another person breathing nearby.

I turned to the breathing and found that there was a katana only a few hairs away from my head.

I should have been scared, but I don't think I cared at the time.

"Hello to you, too," I simply said.

The katana lowered. "You swim too loud."

It was a female voice that had an almost childish quality to it.

"I was sent to find someone, and if my swimming made you show yourself so quickly, I'd say it doesn't really matter."

She giggled.

"He was right, you really don't care about anything," the voice said. The figure approached.

All I could tell was that it was a rather svelte girl some two inches shorter than myself dressed in the entirely black, trademarked garbs of a ninja.

I stood still as she walked around me and inspected me as though I were a piece of furniture she was considering buying.

"I'm Marzbarz, an old friend of Rumaha," she explained. When she was in front of me once more she held out her hand.

We shook hands and I felt a slight change in how tight she gripped my hands. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt her suddenly try and pull me to the ground at the exact moment I mouthed a stunning spell.

I let go of her hand and smirked. "Try something like that again and I'll kill you, too," I said. I felt oddly calm and satisfied at the thought of slaughtering her.

And that was what scared me most.

Her eyes were glancing from side to side nervously, waiting for me to release her from the spell.

I took the scimitars off my back and released the spell.

"God, you don't have to be so mean about it, I was only testing you!" she whined, stretching slightly. "I could have sworn he said you weren't a fighter, but you've got some hot blood."

I gripped my scimitars a bit tighter. She was a nutter.

"So why did he want us to meet?" I asked.

She gave a childish shrug. "Dunno!" she said.

With that there was a crashing sound as if someone had done a cannonball out of the water and Rumaha came tumbling next to us.

"Because something happened that night in Jeuno, and she's the only person I know that can confirm my suspicions," he said.

I paused before looking at him dead in the eyes and simply said, "Cannonballing out of the water? Really, Rum?"

"I noticed it first after you killed the Arch Demon General; you, a kid who had almost no formal training, was suddenly able to perform a quadrastrike."

I raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "I'm not sure what you mean by that, I was just--"

"--just killing to feed the empty gap in your soul," Marz finished.

I turned back to her. "Not exactly what I was going to say, but yes, I suppose that fits," I said.

Marz came awfully close to me and tantalizingly whispered, "You feel angry, tormented, don't you? Like a whipped beast trapped in a cage," as she stared me directly in the eyes.

I bit my lip again and nodded.

She jumped backwards four feet or so and she and Rumaha were standing side by side. "Then show use your anger!" she taunted, before they both rushed at me, katanas drawn.

I had just enough time to feel a smirk grace my face and I felt the same bloodlust overtake me that had come over me in Jeuno.

We gonna whoop yo asssssss!

Blade: Ku --> Sectum

{Elvaan} {Ninja} {Warp} {Full Attack!} {Blade: Ku} [Sectumsempra]

Hey, story's great as usual, Sectumsempra. Very interesting character development and I can't wait to see where it leads.

I was wondering, and feel free to be blunt, how would you feel about someone writing a story based on this one, like within the same universe? I've got a couple of ideas of my own and when I get the free time here, I wouldn't mind taking a crack at the ol' zombie genre.

awesome, he used Quadrastrike Oo a demon ability against a demon... awesomeness :P

Glad to see your writing again ^_^ and storys just as great as when you first started!

Day 27 - Continued:

All I remember was that one moment we began fighting and the next moment I can recall the sun was shining brightly and Rumaha was prying me off of Marz, my scimitar just about to slice her neck off.

"Damnit Sectum, snap out of it!" he was shouting.

I felt like every part of my body was beating. My line of sight was receding slightly with each heartbeat for a few moments as I stopped struggling and Rumaha dragged me away.

I closed my eyes and when I opened them the entire landscape was the same foggy setting as when we had started, albeit a tad bit brighter. Rumaha was pulling Marz up to her feet and whispering rapidly.

"--don't think he knew--" was all I was able to hear Rumaha say, Marz nodding in agreement.

After a few moments of privately conversing, they bother turned to me. I noticed that Rumaha had taken my scimitars away. It was probably a good idea.

"Shall you explain or shall I?" Rumaha asked her.

"I wanna! I wanna!" Marz said, strangely excited for a woman I just tried to decapitate.

Rumaha nodded, and she began.

"You know of the Eastern Empire, Aht Urghan, right?" she asked. I nodded, and she continued. "Over yonder, there's a group of people willing to split their souls and throw parts of them away, and in return they take the souls of slain enemies inside of them."

It sounded an awful lot like the demons and the Turned, to be honest.

"These people, The Immortals, are the personal guard for the Empress. The years and years of bloody struggle in the East have made people willing to shatter their souls to attain this power, as well as their ferocious loyalty to The Empress."

"Where do I fall into this?" I asked, stroking my nonexistant beard.

Marz flashed a sort of crazy smile. "You broke your own soul and did the exact same thing that the Immortals do, with absolutely no guidance or idea about it. I can tell in the way that the anger runs through you, and the way that you immediately adapt to the fighting styles of an enemy you've defeated; you didn't even have to kill Rumaha to suddenly start fighting on his level. Yet, you're not aware of it, and I bet if you tried, you'd have no clue how to even properly toss a shuriken at me unless--"

"Unless I was pushed past the edge again. Like how I can't remember anything about the fight that just happened."

She nodded ecstatically. "Exactly!"

I sat and thought about this for a few minutes. "Can I learn to control this?" I asked.

"Dunno, but we gotta try; imagine how powerful you'd be with proper training if you did this to yourself!" she said. She was reminding me almost of Alyria with her love of all things powerful.

I thought back to Lower Jeuno, the body of a friend that I stumbled over and tore.

"Let's do it."