Demonic Revenge
The Beginning
By: Malaca

Earth from afar, once reaching high into the heavens only to shrivel once more. The sky had erupted in fiery pits of despair, leaving the strong to survive challenging the world of the unknown. History trashed, life pulled back to a snails pace; the world struggled to make its own glory again. The sky is clear now, after hundreds of years had passed since the Great War had taken it's toll on the human population, dragging it down to the primitive style of life. The life where everyone was a warrior, trained to defend themselves and their friends. Only the innocents, and fools do not arm themselves. This is where the story begins. This is where the story had left off.

Terri pulled the last stone out of the way, and then stood up to admire her work. The path was clear now for her and her horse. She smiled wiping a strand of her fire and ice curls out of her face leaving a brown smudge along her cheekbone. The young teenager no older than sixteen orbits, checked her twin sai's to make sure they were still in their sheaths that crossed her back. The haltered leather shirt rubbed against her sweaty neck, and Terri paused to rub a crick out of her spine before whistling to her mount. The large bay stallion glanced down from his higher position on top on the hill, his mouth full of clover. He snorted once before slowly making his way towards his mistress.

A soft rustle to Terri's right startled her out of her waiting. She froze, listening for any sign of life. The rustle quickly died out leaving Terri confused, posed tightly with one hand upon her right sai. Then with quickness of a cat, she leapt forward and caught the intruder around the waist, holding one of the deadly swords posed at the threat's throat. The young man choked briefly, trying to pry himself away from her grasp. Terri leaned her mouth closer to his ear whispering with a deadly vengeance.

"Why are you watching me, stranger?"

"Terri, it's me! Let me go already!"

Terri's eyes widened at the sound of the voice. She pushed the intruder forward with enough force to make him stumble.

"Kenji, what are you doing scaring me like that?"

Kenji chuckled low in his throat, "Sorry Terri. I didn't expect you to jump on me like that."

"Well, what do you expect me to do? You know there are bandits everywhere! Geez Kenji, I could've killed you!" Terri yelled at her friend as she pushed the sai back into its sheath.

Kenji came forward and captured her around the waist, then whispered in her ear, "That's the fun of it!"

Terri pushed herself away as her mount came to her side. She mounted up with a smooth motion, and then reached down to capture Kenji's hand. Kenji pushed her hand away with a grin.

"The guys are waiting for us about a hundred paces to the North," he told her with a motion of his hand in that direction.

Terri nodded and followed him through the narrow trail that cut towards the forest. A thought came to her mind abrubtly.

"Why are you guys so far down in the Strata territory? Is the clan moving?"

Kenji shook his head, "No, Adalai wanted to find some kind of historic document over here, so we volunteered to locate it."

Terri raised her eyebrow, "Historic document? You mean papers survived the Great War?"

"Yeah, I guess," Kenji shrugged.

They entered the clearing in a few minutes. She smiled at the sight of her friends. Ransom looked up along with Chase. Chase laughed and waved them over as he pushed the stubborn lock of white hair out of his face. The bang fell back into his face with out a struggle. Cristale noticed his predicament, and giggled softly. She pulled a blue leather strip out of her pack and handed it to him. Chase took it and used it to pull back the stubborn bang. It held for a few seconds before it fell down again. Terri rolled her eyes before speaking.

"Are you guys done over here?"

Ransom came up and slapped her knee, "Of course, just waiting for you."

"Yeah, I'm ready to go back and see why Adalai put us through this," Cristale commented as she stood up, brushing the dirt from her butt.

Malca was helped up by Chase, "I don't understand what the fuss is all about. It's only some ancient documents that we can't even read."

"Correction, you can't read. I can read it just fine," Chase answered.

Kenji laughed as Cristale pushed the soiled document into Chase's face, "Okay wise guy, then what language is it in?"

Chase answered simply, "English."

"English? That ancient language that the American's spoke?" asked Malca

After a brief moment she said again in deep thought, "Did I pronounce that word right?"

"Yes, that language," answered Chase.

Ransom, who was suddenly serious asked, "Can you read it?"

Chase was quiet for many minutes as he puzzled over the ancient document. His friends watched intently, their eyes becoming fuzzy and uncertain as the minutes became longer. Malca and Kenji got frustrated after the first fifteen minutes went by. They left to retrieve the group's mounts. Ransom watched his best friend's face, trying to figure out what the different facial expressions that crossed it meant. Cristale leaned against Terri's mount, and Terri herself shifted her weight once or twice to get more comfortable. Suddenly Chase's eyes widened.

"Oh, my gosh!" he crowed.

Ransom darted forward, "What is it?"

Chase didn't answer for several short seconds before looking up into their eyes, "It's the telling of the life in the world before the Great War!"

Their mouths dropped low, stretching the impossible length to touch the ground. Chase stood motionless before running to his mount as Malca and Kenji walked over. Leaping on swiftly, he pulled his filly around and took off at a gallop. The friends that had heard what was so important were not to far behind Chase. Kenji and Malca soon stood by themselves. Malca looked over at Kenji and shrugged.

"You suppose we miss something?"

Kenji had an expression of deep thought on his face before answering, "Perhaps. Should we follow them?"

Malca shrugged again, "Why not?"

At this they both nodded and followed their desperate friends at a more reasonable pace.

"Adalai, Adalai!" Chase shouted as he entered the edge of their large camp.

Two guards stepped in his way as he jumped off his mount at her tent.

"Out of my way, I must see Adalai!"

"Not now child. Empress Adalai is resting," the larger of the two guards answered with a rolling voice vaguely threatening.

Chase ignored them, and desperately tried to get by. Both guards pushed him back once more. The shorter guard stood posed over him to strike.

"RAYNE, CYRUS! STOP THIS INSTANT, AND LET HIM AND HIS FRIENDS THROUGH!" a commanding voice sounded from the large tent.

Rayne winced before stepping aside. Chase picked himself off the ground with help from Ransom and Kenji. They quickly moved around the two snarling body guards to enter the domain of their leader. She was the last of the great warriors descended from the Great War.

Pushing aside the great flap of leather covering the entrance, they immediately bowed at her majesty's feet. Adalai smiled kindly.

"Do not bow to me. I have something to tell you all."

Chase looked up surprised, "You knew of the document?"

"Yes, Chase. I knew of the document and only sent you their so you would question me about the War," Adalai answered shortly, motioning them to sit down in the chairs at the table in the center of the tent.

Cristale widened her eyes, "That's the table of the Empire isn't it? The place where only the great warriors may sit."

Terri spoke up, "Empress, we are unworthy."

The empress smiled, "You are most worthy of all the young ones."

In reality Adalai had the appearance of an eighteen year old girl. Short in stature, she did not seem like the type to be a warrior. The muscles in her body spoke otherwise. The group of friends knew how much power she possessed. It was even rumored that she could control the very stars themselves. They did not doubt it.

"Sit, please."

They group sat down and looked to Adalai who was at the head of the table. Adalai looked at each of them and secretly was amazed at the power in the group. It was incredibly strong for ones so young and with out any training. Almost as strong as her own aura. The Empress sighed before starting her story.

"As you have been told, I am the decedent of the original Empress that lived during the war. She was the strongest fighter human known, but even she knew that man was not able to handle the technology they possessed. In the end this was their downfall. Of course it had many useful purposes. Such things Medicine men had under their control. They had a magical object that could see the bones of a human without cutting them open. They had things called shots that battled infection and diseases. They had buildings that touched the sky and allowed them to talk to God. Metal buildings that gleamed in the sun light, and had fireflies for lights. And the strange thing was, you didn't have to fight. They had people and weapons that would fight for them. It was YOUR choice to battle. Their weapons were strange as well. They glowed like starfire, and lit up the sky like a meteor shower. Humans had no equals. Their were no demons, half breeds, outworlders, nothing."

At this everyone turned to the half breed, Chase. He blushed.

"It's not my fault I'm half demon!" he protested, his two different colored eyes glowed brown and blue.

Ransom hit him over the back, "We know, and we still love ya' comrade."

Terri rolled her eyes, and Cristale giggled, "Why are you telling us this, Adalai?"

Adalai was silent for several minutes before answering, "You know of the thing called radiology and how it changed us humans."

The table was silent with deadly recognition. Adalai nodded at their recognition and continued.

"They invented this radiology and nuclear bombs. These weapons were dangerous, but they ignored it thinking they had it under control. When the outworlders and demons attacked, they attacked the storage facilities for these weapons, causing them to blow up and change human GNA forever. Ki and aura's that were present in just a selected few were installed instantly into every human on the planet. Most resources were destroyed, and eventually the Outworlders and the demons that wished to leave did. Peace was at hand, when we could fix the damage and learn to live reasonably. Now five hundred years later, we are still picking up the pieces."

Ransom listened carefully, making his comment perfect, "But, why tell us?"

"Because after a while the ki's and aura's were breed out. Only a few still have them, and with the demons on the move again, we need all of those ki's to fight."

Malca caught on, "Your saying that we..."

"Are some of the ki's that remain. You are decedents of the true ki fighters, not the ones that got it from the explosion."

Adalai paused to let the information to sink in, "We need you to fight alongside us. Will you?"

Hers green eyes pleaded. The group of friends looked around uncertain. Slowly each nodded, filled with the new sense of responsibility.

Adalai smiled, "Good, we start training tomorrow. Pray to your God that a second Great War will not result in this skirmish."

She left then to let them realize their own destinies. They alone stood in the way of the demon army. An army large enough to destroy the entire human population. They, only teenagers new to the world, were destined to save it from a second bloodshed of the races.

Kenji smiled, looking at his companions, "Well, this is going to be fun!"

Terri dropped backwards out of her chair, and Cristale giggled. Ransom and Chase did their special handshakes before starting to dance around and on the table. But, hey what did you expect? For them to be suddenly serious? RIGHT! They still were only teenagers.