King of Darkness: Chapter 7.

"You're telling me, that you're the soul within my blade?" Althir asked in confusion and disbelief.

"That's exactly it, and in order to obtain the full power of me, you must learn my name." The old man said.

"Your name? What do you mean, you can't just tell me it." Althir said in sarcasm.

"If I could, and would. There would be no point in this training." The old man said in annoyance.

"What training? What are you talking about?" Althir asked.
The old man waved his hand out in the open. Althir's sword disappears, and then reappears in the old man's hand. An earthquake shakes the ground beneath them. Swords burst from the ground.
"Take one." The old man demanded.
Althir reaches for the closest sword and pulls it out.
"Good, now fight a weakness of your own." The old man explained, while bringing up a creature. The creature had a humanoid body, but it no face, no hair, other than the basic functioning body-parts of a human-being, it had no detail to it, yet. Soon the creature took form. The creature took the form of Marala. It grabbed a sword of its own.

"What are you trying to do?" Althir asked.

"You must detach yourself from emotion when fighting your final fight. And thus, you must learn to kill your love." The old man said in the most serious way possible.

"You're insane!" Althir shouted.

"I am sorry, but this is how it must be. Crude but effective, and worst of all, true." The old man in sore tone.

"I won't fight her!" Althir shouted, pointing his blade at the old man.

"Then she will fight you." The old said, waving his hand, ordering her to fight him now.

Marala lunges at Althir attempting to stab him through the heart.
Althir parries.
"I won't do this! Make her stop! I can't kill her." Althir demanded, Althir falls to his knees, refusing to even attack. Marala points her blade at him.
The old man snaps his fingers, Marala freezes in place.

"You must do this, there it no other way." The old man said.

"Everything is false, reality is an illusion." Althir murmured.

"HA! You believe that?" The old man laughed. "Maybe in other world you are an assassin, but here you are a De'Alselah."

"What does that even mean?" Althir asked.

"It means you are more than were lead to believe." The old man explained. "You must overcome your weakness, now strike!" The old man snaps his fingers again and jumps out of the way.
Marala moves as if she was always about to kill him.
Althir grabs his blade and slices open her throat. A tear flows down his eye. He looks at the creature, it moves it's mouth, but no words were heard.
"What did try to say?" Althir asked.

"Those words are from the future, something will happen. For now, you should worry about the present." The old man summoned two more of the creatures, they took the forms of Damakos and Natiana.

"Lets make it quick." Althir said, putting his sword on the shoulder.


***


Damakos and Natiana travel to The Kingdom, they walk upon a hillside in the distance; only to find a horrifying site. They look at each other for a moment, and then they run towards the city. The Kingdom had a bloody-red looming over it. With a thunderstorm  hitting the buildings.


***


"That was easy enough, now, am I done?" Althir asked pulling out another sword.

"Not yet," The old man said, jumping down in front of Althir. "You must fight, and kill me." The old man said, readying his blade.

"Really?" Althir asked.

"Yes really, and you better kill me. Or else I..." The old man lowers his hood revealing his face. Suddenly his age disappears, he regains youth. Soon, he looks exactly like Althir. "Will kill you. And I am not joking here." He lunges at Althir with an incredible speed.
Althir manages to dodge it, but just barley. A gaping wound opens up in his forearm. He shouts in pain.

"You can do better than that." The old man taunts. "In order to win in this fight, you must be better than yourself."

"You already are better me!" Althir shouts, hold his wound.

"That is where you are wrong, this is just the power you don't use." The old man explained.

Althir throws his sword at him.
The old man parries it. He looks to see Althir has disappeared.

"HA! Very clever, in all my time, not a single person has done that. You Althir, might just be the greatest person I have ever fought." The old man said, walking around looking for Althir.

(I can't beat him like a warrior, but I can beat him like rouge.)

The old man walks around while looking for Althir. He lands on a tripwire. Two sword from the sky try and impale him. The old man jumps backwards avoiding them. He lands on a floor trap, one that would make him fall into pit of more swords that would impale him. The old man does the splits, wide enough to not fall into the pit of blades. The old man springs another trap, two swords fly out of the rocks, attempting to cut the old man in half. He does blocks the first sword, the second dis arms him.
Althir runs up and puts his sword to his throat.

"What are you waiting for? KILL ME!" The old man demanded.

"Why? You already lost." Althir said.

The old man laughs, waving his hands to make the world reconstruct itself. "You pass."

"By not listening to you?" Althir asked.

"Basically." The old man said, bringing up his hood, his face disappears.

"So, why did you look like me?" Althir asked.

"Every persons most difficult enemy, is themselves. If you can overcome yourself; you can kill anything." The old man said.

"So what's your real form?" Althir asked.

"I don't have one anymore, if I did, I don't remember it. Anyways it's time for you to go, but before that I give you a gift." The old man held out his hands. "This Katana, it can split into two, making it a dual Katana. One is the Blade, the other is the Heart."

"You never told me your name." Althir said.

"No need, you already..." The old man put his hand on Althir's chest, he could hear the last few words, he could've sword the old man said 'have it'.


***


Althir opens up his eyes, he sees The Kingdom in flames, people fighting people dying. He sees Dyna.

"Where the hell have you been!"? Dyna demanded.

"It's a long story, what the hell is happening?" Althir asked.

"Something we've been dealing with for the past few months." Dyna said, arming her bow.

"Amazing there are any buildings left." Althir said, bringing out his sword.

"It wasn't this bad until last week." Dyna explained.

"HERE HE COMES AGAIN!" A solider shouted as Orkus appears.
Orkus makes a flow over lava hit the ground, Althir jumps onto a building, once the lava disappeared he jumped down. The lava killed everyone but Dyna, Natiana, and Damakos. Althir looks to see Marala on the ground. He rushes to her.

"No." He said, almost crying.

"If only I... had a second chance." Marala said before dying.
Althir puts her on the ground lightly, and then readies for the battle before him.