Done By: Rena Chan
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Home Page: Star Ocean 2 Archive

Guardians had fought against an evil that was powerful enough to enslave the Universe. After a long battle, the Guardians had won and trapped the evil. But they had been left almost powerless. The last of their power had been sealed away in Runes, so that when the evil had awaken once more, the evil can be combated. The first signs of their awakening, monsters grow stronger, so that they can serve the evil. No ordinary mortal can destroy the evil, the evil which is known as the Dark Lords. Only the Guardians can combat them. But they were left almost powerless during the last battle, only through a mortal, their power can be channelled and summoned. When the time comes, Destiny will summon thee to battle the Dark Lords.

Chapter 2 - To locate the Nedians

"How in Expel did this happen?" Westa and Mayor Regis were pacing up and down outside of Claude's room, hoping that he's going to be all right. Ever since Claude and Rena got married, they had their own house built in Arlia. Ashton was trying to calm a still crying Aelia and Justin just sat at his place quietly.

Meanwhile in the room, Dias was trying to heal Claude. He repeatedly cast Fairy Heal but not to much avail. His pulse was still very faint. Aelia, unable to restrain herself, came barging into the room suddenly. "Daddy! Daddy! Please wake up!"

Ashton looked at Dias with eyes that clearly was trying to say, "How is it going?"

Dias shook his head. "It's not looking too good."

"There must be something you can do!" Ashton cried. "Poor Aelia here is crying her heart out and you say that you can't do anything much! You haven't even told us how this happened!"

"Ashton, look, I'm trying to save Claude here and you're yelling at me?" Dias snapped back, clearly frustrated. "The only reason this is happening is because of the Destined One! Happy now?"

"You want the two kids to lose their father?" Ashton continued retorting.

"Damn it Ashton. I know how it feels like to lose someone close to you! I'm sure you know that!" Dias yelled back.

"Why are you two fighting?" Aelia asked. "Is daddy going to leave us?"

Dias signed and looked at Aelia. "We still have one more chance. Otherwise, there is nothing much I can do."

"What are you trying to say?" Ashton asked.

"Look. The only reason all this is happening is because of me, okay?" Dias replied. "Just stop asking me anymore questions!"

"Big Brother Dias…" Aelia sniffed.

"Don't worry Aelia. Don't give up hope. He will be alright. I promise that he will be all right."

Aelia nodded at Dias. She grasped Claude's hand tightly and whispered into his ear, "Daddy, you will come back to us. I believe in you."

Dias smiled. "Aelia's a lot like her mother." Then he placed both of his hands over Claude's body and a soothing white light appeared. "Holy light from heaven, light of angels which heals. By the power which I possess, I call upon thy angels, shower your compassion and deliver my loved ones!"

While this is going on, Westa had went downstairs to open the door as someone was knocking it. The visitor was none other than Celine Jules as she came up to see what was happening.

"Hi Ashton darling," Celine greeted. "What happened?"

"It's Claude," Ashton replied. "He's been seriously injured in a battle."

"How did this happen?" Celine asked.

"Ask Dias," Ashton replied. "He's the only one who knows exactly what is happening."

"But he's healing Claude now, right?" Celine continued.

"I intend to ask questions myself later," Ashton replied.

"Come on Claude, you can't die on me, you must heal for the sake of your family. You made a promise to me when you and Rena got married," Dias thought as if he was trying to talk to Claude telekinetically. "Come on, Claude, if my ultimate healing spell does not even work, then you're just simply giving up. ANGEL WHISPER!" And as if an angel had really appeared, powerful healing light rained onto Claude. Dias then tried feeling for a pulse on Claude. It was becoming faster and almost to its normal beating. Dias heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Claude."

Dias stood up, wearing an expression as if a terrible load had been lifted of his shoulders. Aelia looked intently into Dias' eyes. "He's going to be fine. We'd better let him rest."

"Really? He's going to be fine?" Aelia asked. Dias nodded as he began to walk out of the room.

"Dias…" Ashton started.

Dias lifted his hand in front of Ashton's face as if to tell him to wait. "I know what you want, but I really need to be alone right now. We'll all talk when Claude wakes up."

"Heh, heh. Finally, we have captured all three Nedians."

"Yes my lord."

"This planet will be mine even before any of the other Dark Lords awaken. Happy days."

"Eeek!" Rena yelled as someone chained her to the wall.

"Rena, you're captured too?"

Rena turned after hearing someone calling her name. "Noel! Chisato! How come you're here too?"

"Beats me," Chisato replied. "This guy is being so vague I'm not even sure what he's talking about. I think he's a bit crazy on the head."

"He's saying something about one of the last surviving Nedians being the Destined One," Noel offered. "We told him we don't know who it is, but we only know of the prophecy."

"Prophecy of the Destined One?" Rena replied. "Dias told me all about it this morning."

"Dias knows the prophecy?" Noel asked.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Chisato reminded him. "He was also on Nede when we discovered it."

"If none of us is the Destined One," Rena summarised. "Who is it?"

"Even if one of us is," Noel replied. "We wouldn't tell him otherwise he will have Expel in his grasp. He's one of the Dark Lords."

"Good Lord…"

"Damn it," Dias cursed as he punched a tree on the trunk very hard. "If that Dark Lord ever lay a finger on any of the three of them, I'm going to send him away back to the abyss forever."

"Calm down Dias. You're letting your anger get the better of your judgement," Omni said, in an attemp to calm a frustrated Dias.

"Calm down? CALM DOWN? All that is happening now is because of the Destined One! Because of me!" Dias yelled back at the Guardian of Destiny.

"Dias, take this," Tria said handing him a disk. "We Guardians believe that this will help locate your captured friends."

"In case you didn't know, I'm not exactly a computer expert," Dias replied, taking the disk.

"Yes. But you're good enough to at least figure things out for yourself, right?" Tria commented.

"……"

"This disk contains information on all the Dark Lords we have battled," Omni explained. "We had Dan Dairam to compile our battles with the Dark Lords and this had helped us to defeat them. Keep this safe. Knowing your opponents will help you in the long run."

"Thanks," Dias replied. "I guess I should go and take a look at it."

"It seems that none of you will tell me who the Destined One is."

"Even if we knew, we wouldn't even tell you," Chisato spat back.

"Always the one to talk back, hmm? No matter. The Destined One will reveal him/herself sooner or later."

"Then he/she is going to send you back to where you came from," Noel snapped.

"Good, good. At least I know that there are still some fighting spirit left in you."

"Claude, please be alright and find us," Rena said softly.

"Do you get the feeling we're being kept in the dark?" Ashton asked Celine.

"Don't worry Ashton darling," Celine replied. "Dias said that we can talk after Claude wakes up right?"

"Yes but, what he said got me concerned," Ashton replied. "He told me that it was because of him that all this happened. I still can't find the meaning of those words. And he mentioned something about the Destined One."

"The Destined One?" Celine repeated. "There's something awfully familiar about that word…"

"Uhhhh…"

"Look! Daddy is waking up!" Aelia exclaimed.

"Aelia, you're alright," was the first thing he said. "Where is your brother?"

"Don't worry daddy," Aelia replied. "He's sleeping in his room. Grandma is taking care of him."

"Good. Go to your Grandma now," Claude said. "Daddy is going to try and figure out how to rescue your mother."

"Yes daddy," Aelia obeyed and went over to her room.

"What is happening?" Claude asked the two friends who are currently in the room.

"The Mayor was concerned about you, but he had something important to do," Ashton said.

"I'm not surprised," Celine replied. "Claude is staying here in Arlia now."

"We have to find and rescue Rena!" Claude exclaimed, suddenly remembering about his wife.

"But how?" Ashton asked. "We do not know where she is."

Claude looked a bit lost. "What are we going to do now then?"

"I think we'd better go and find Dias," Ashton replied. "He seems to have all the answers."

"This servant is called a Shadow Raider," Dias read as he stared at the contents that was in the disk and was slowly reading from the monitor screen. "He's a deadly monster that can defeat most opponents with ease. Many Dark Lords like to use this monster as a servant, and it is one of the strongest of the mid level monsters of type darkness. It is the favourite monster of Crial."

"Hmm, Crial eh?" Dias repeated. "This has got to be the name of the Dark Lord that has captured Rena, Noel and Chisato. Let's see…" After waiting for a while, information on Crial appeared. "Crial, Elemental Dark Lord. Commands the four main elements of nature. His existance upsets the balance of these four elements."

Dias raised the portable palmtop computer that was given to him by Opera and Ernest as a present. "All of the information in this disk has been copied into the memory of this palmtop. At least I can access all the information at anytime." And this highly advanced palmtop even has a name and can even talk.

"All information in the disk has been copied."

"Thanks, Nicolle," Dias replied in response to the task completed.

"You're welcome. It is my job after all."

There was a knock on the door of Dias' house. Looking out of the window of his room, he saw that it was Claude, Ashton and Celine. They had came to look for him. He quickly shut down his PC, slipped his handheld computer into his pouch, and went downstairs. Having reached the door, he opened it.

"Dias, it's about time you explained to us what is going on," Ashton replied.

"Remember hearing of the prophecy of the Destined One?" Dias asked.

"So there was where I heard that word!" Celine exclaimed, remembering it. "No wonder it sounds so familiar."

"Does it have anything to do with Rena being captured?" Claude asked.

Dias nodded. "Yes. Not only Rena, but Noel and Chisato has also been captured by the same person."

"Why?" Claude continued asking.

"Because this Dark Lord thinks that one of the three Nedians is the Destined One," Dias explained.

"How are we going to find them?" Celine asked.

"There might be a way," Dias answered. "Let's go down to the beach outside of Arlia."

"Hey! How come you know that Noel and Chisato was captured?" Ashton asked, getting suspicious.

"Let's not worry about that now, Ashton," Claude answered. "We got to find where they are and rescue them."

The four arrived at the beach outside of Arlia. The tide was low at this time of the day and the beach was calm. Dias paused at a spot and turned to Claude. "Do you have a map of Expel?"

"Well yes," Claude replied as he pulled out the map from the pocket and handed it over to Dias. "What are you going to do with it?"

"I'm going to try to use a white magic to locate them," Dias replied.

"You mean the scan spell?" Celine asked. "But I thought that spell is not perfect. I couldn't really use it to find magical items."

"I've been studying it," Dias said as he lay the map on the sand and sat down. "You have to know what kind of power wave you're looking for to use it to its full potential."

"Don't tell me you tried to use that spell to look for treasure," Ashton said, glaring at Celine.

"Err, what? Me use it to look for treasure?" Celine was a bit shaken by it.

"Even with the little magic I know, I don't use it for my own purposes," Ashton replied. still glaring at Celine, tapping his foot. "Even Gyoro and Ururun are agreeing with me."

"Now you two don't go starting the 'self-centered quarrel'," Claude spoke. "Let's let Dias concentrate, okay?"

Dias had lay the map down properly and took out 4 Runes. They were the Earth, Fire, Wind and Water Runes. "The information in the disk said that Crial is the Elemental Dark Lord. His very existance tips the balance of the four main elements of nature, which is Earth, Fire, Wind and Water. By using Gurdijeff, Moa Gault, Fengalon and Stoldark's power combined with the scan spell, I should be able to locate the area where the balance has been tipped."

The other three stared at the four Runes as Dias placed them hovering just above the four corners of the map.

"Those four Runes look weird," Claude commented.

"There are symbols carved on them," Ashton observed. "What do they stand for?"

"Earth, Fire, Wind and Water," Celine replied. "What is he trying to do? And those Runes…"

"Whatever he's trying to do, we can only hope that it works," Claude replied.

Dias clasped both hands together, closed his eyes and concentrated. "Gurdijeff, Moa Gault, Fengalon, Stoldark, the four Guardians of the elements of nature, by the power which I possess, I bid thee, grant me your powers so that I may locate the unbalanced power of nature." The four Runes started glowing at the same time. Then as if by some will, light engulfed the map for an instant and the four Runes stopped emitting light. Dias opened his eyes then looked at the map. "They're here," he said as he pointed on a continent on the map.

"The Continet of El?" Ashton said as he looked at the spot Dias is pointing at.

"Figures," Celine replied. "While effort was given to restore the Continents of Cross and Lacour the past 7 years, but no effort was being put to restore El. I'm just glad that the last survivors from El managed to survive safely."

"Claude, here," Dias said as he passed the map which Claude had loan him back. Then he put all four Runes back into his pouch. "How are we going to get there?"

"No ships go there anymore…" Ashton replied. "The only option we have left is the Synard…"

"But we can't really have people thinking that there is a Dragon flying around in the sky and think that it is a danger sign or anything…" Celine commented.

"We don't have much time to consider an alternative route," Claude reminded them. "Who knows what this person whose got our three Nedian friends is going to do with them…"

"We can fly over the Cave of Trials over the sea to El," Dias said, disturbing the trio who were still deciding what to do.

"Oh yeah, the Cave of Trials! No one goes to the seas around there because of the strong monsters," Claude replied, slapping his fists together. "Whoa!" Claude cried as he got a shock from something landing near them. "Oh, it's just the Synard."

"Sorry about taking the initiative," Dias apologised.

"No harm done," Claude replied as he got on.

"Alright Synard," Dias whispered to her ear. "Fly over the island where the Cave of Trials is located and head on over to the Continent of El. Make sure you stay on the vast sea." And the Synard took off.

Very soon, our four friends had reached the beach surrounding El. The Synard had taken off after the four of them had gotten off. Claude pointed towards a building which caught the attention of the four of them. "Do you think they're there?"

"Most likely," Ashton replied. "Why not we make ourselves unannounced?"

"It's always good to have the element of surprise, isn't it?" Celine replied.

"I'd doubt we'd have the element of surprise," Dias thought to himself. "Crial probably can sense us already."

"Ah, what's this?" Crial said, noticing the four intruders that were in his place of dwelling. Then he turned towards the three captured Nedians. "It seems that four of your friends have come to rescue you all. Although how they defeated a Shadow Raider and how they found you all remains a mystery."

"Who cares," Rena snapped, struggling to free herself. "Claude will beat the crap out of you."

"Rena, you're still you're old self," Noel replied. "Always Claude can beat anything attitude."

"Oh yeah? Dias is here too. Together they're unstoppable!" Rena continued.

"In case you still haven't noticed Rena," Noel said with an ironic tone in his voice. "Only a Guardian can truly defeat a Dark Lord. In other words, only the appearance of the Destined One, can we all be saved."

"I'm afraid this Nedian guy is right," Crial mocked. "I'll just capture them all and try to lure the Destined One out. Of course, if it's one of you, it will not escape my eye. Let's go and welcome them, shall we?"

"This is way too quiet, darlings," Celine said, expressing her anxienty.

"As long as nothing pops out," Ashton replied. "We still have the element of surprise, right?"

"Ha, ha!" A voice laughed. "You call this a surprise? You mortals lack skill on that!"

"Crial…" Dias muttered under his breath.

"Where is Rena?" Claude demanded.

"Don't worry. I didn't harm them," Crial replied. "To show you that I'm telling the truth, here they are." Three Shadow Raiders appeared and were holding the three Nedians.

"Claude!" Rena cried. "All of you must get out of here! You cannot beat this guy!"

"What do you mean?" Claude said as he tried to approach Rena unnoticed. "We beaten the Ten Wise Men! I'm sure we can beat him to rescue the three of you!"

"Hey, Noel and Chisato ARE captured," Ashton thought to himself. "How did Dias know?"

Celine prepared a spell just in case things start to act up. Dias grabbed Claude and restrained him. "Dias, what are you doing?" Claude replied in reaction to it. "Let me go!"

"Claude, you do not know what you're dealing with," Dias said in a low voice. "A Dark Lord is twice more powerful than the Ten Wise Men."

"What? A Dark Lord? What is that?" Claude exclaimed.

"Claude," Noel started. "Do you remember the prophecy of the Destined One? The one you heard on Nede?"

"This guy has something to do with it?" Claude asked.

"Yes," Chisato replied. "He thinks one among the three of us is the Destined One."

"Who else but a Nedian can be the Destined One?" Crial replied. "Nedians have the most latent power within them, especially this one." Crial pointed to Rena. "And since I'm extremely happy today, I'll crush this one right before your eyes!"

"Ahhh! Claude! Help me! It hurts!" Rena cried.

"Rena!" Claude yelled.

Suddenly, a movement so swift like the wind had eliminated the Shadow Raider that was holding Rena. Rena fell and landed near the approaching Claude. "Claude!"

"Rena, I'm so glad you're all right," Claude said, hugging her.

The similar thing happened with Noel and Chisato and they were free. Both of them went over to their companions' sides. And the mysterious creature that saved the three Nedians stopped. It was a White Tiger with long claws standing on only two of it's feet.

"Holy! What is that?" Chisato pointed out.

"So, Fengalon, it's you," Crial said.

"After so long, we meet again, Crial," Fengalon replied.

"So, among one of you is the Destined One," Crial said happily. "I guessed right, didn't I?"

"No, you didn't Crial," Dias replied, stepping beside Fengalon. "I am the one you're truly looking for." And he revealed the Wind Rune which he is holding and had summoned Fengalon unnoticed.

"What? It is not one of the Nedians?" Crial replied, wearing a slightly worried expression.

"Dias? It's you?" The rest of his companions were clearly shocked too.

"If it weren't for the Holy Sword Farewell, could my true power have been awaken?" Dias asked. "Whenever I think about it, it probably would have been different. But things have been pre-decided, And no matter how we fight against it, things always seem to come back to the same result, no matter what."

"Destiny is certainly a cruel mistress, isn't it?"

Dias turned at the sound of that familiar voice. "Omni!"

"It is time for us to witness your true power of magic," Another voice said.

"Tria, you're here too?" Dias asked.

"Tria?" Ashton repeated.

"I am the God of Creation Expellians worship. But I am not a God for I am a Guardian," Tria replied.

"What are you two doing here?" Dias asked.

"We are always with you to guide you Dias," Omni replied. "But we are the strongest of all the Guardians also known as the Guardian Lords. We are here to witness whether you're ready to use our power for our full power has not yet recovered. For only with our full power, you are only able to defeat the most powerful Dark Lord."

"Ha, ha," Crial laughed. "He will awaken even before the both of you recover your full power!"

"Enough babbling," Fengalon said, readying for battle. "Let's just beat him and put an end to him!"

"Fengalon…" Dias muttered. "Let's not rush into things."

"Dias, let's beat this guy!" Rena cried, approaching him.

"Yeah, you're our comadrade in arms," Ashton continued. "We're going to help you."

"Everyone…" And everyone got ready to battle Crial, the first of the Dark Lords.

CHAPTER NOTES: To explain a few things; You noticed that there is the existance of computers in this chapter, right? Well, Expel has developed a little, with useful stuff being implemented with the aid of the Earth Federation. Of course, Expellians are still not very developed. But it's tough writing a story without the existance of technology. And please, readers! Have some imagination! For it is imagination and creavity which had lead to the appearence of Fan Fiction in the first place.