6. The Second Crystalite Sphere
By: Inuki **Ookami**

"It turns out the Terrace was created by the same darkness that this Zenaden guy was created from. There were two
darknesses. The first formed all other evil creatures, the little part left created a dark being, it's by-product was that it
created Terrace by mistake. Terrace couldn't be controlled, so he became a god-demon. The other darkness' body died,
and then became Zenaden, and apparently his twin brother, Zeticen. The book said so. It says that Zenaden was
originally son of a woman from the Poison Guild. Zeticen was similar, but his evil kicked in earlier. He ran from home,
but turned out to only be half as strong and cruel as Zenaden. Zenaden killed everyone in the poison guild after stealing
the Poison Marble on day, and killed his mother just as she was going to sleep. I think we're going to have a ton more
trouble than what we're in for." sighed Inuki in a tired fashion.

Meanwhile, around a darkened tower lightning flashed. Thunder rumbled and rolled as night made the sky darker
than this eternal darkness that was called day. Wicked banshee-like screeches lined the halls of a massive castle, and
the guard in the tower infront of the castle sat under-cover while the rain smashed against the roof of the tower like an
angry lion, trying to claw it's way into the castle. The guard jumped suddenly, he could have sworn that he heard a
rumble. There it was again. A strange procession lay infront of him, as he looked out of the large round hole in the
wall, that was used as a window. Slowly a horse, black as night rode closer and closer, through the muddy paths, the
rain poured down, and lightning crashed behind the nearby mountains. Strange green goblin creatures stood on either
side of the horse, dragging it closer and closer to the tower. It snorted, and neighed, refusing to go on, but it was
dragged further and further along. Behind the horse were half a dozen more horses, they drove a strange, old wooden
carrage. At the top of the carriage was a driver dressed in black, from head to toe. The driver wore a strange hood, and
held a long, curvy black whip. He held the horses with a old brown rope, and whipped them, to keep them going.
Further back, riding along was a strange figure, that might have made a man go crazy with one single look. The hideous
monster that lay within was impossible to see from outside. Only a shadow was shown, due to the fact that the figure
held a candle that lit the interior up with an overwhelming brightness. This glow was the only light in the entire world
that was Zenaden's domain. And in an instant, anyone who saw this figure that struck fear into mortal's eyes knew that
this was Zenaden.

"He's here!" cried the guard, and suddenly figures ran through the rain towards the gate in anxiety. Slowly the gates
opened, and the horses entered, galloping past the gate-keeper. Slowly the horse drove up the mud paths, and stopped
infront of the manor. There, in the light of the moon that forever hung in the sky like a person, hanged for their sins to
the mortal realm, screaming in pain, until at last their hour will come, when they will be blotted out, into the black
nothingness that is our universe. Slowly, with a creak, the wheels halted, and the door opened. And out stepped
Zenaden, in a royal flourish of his cloak.

"What do you mean there are trouble-makers? They want to take my marbles? Well, banish them from this world!
Send them back to where they came from!" growled an angry Zenaden, who sat at his desk.
"Yes Sir." mumbled his royal advisor, who then vanished out the door. Zenaden sighed, and went back to his work.
"Let's see, that's five marbles from that country, and three from that island and-" and he trailed off into the ever-lasting
night. Meanwhile his servant went immediately to work, and soon the wicked deed was done.

Meanwhile, a long distance off, a little North of the Shape-Shifter Guild, Inuki and Scorpion continued trudging up
a grassy hill. Soon they came to a gate. A strange creature sat infront of them. It's body was of a lion, but it had the
wings of a bird and the beak of a bird. Slowly it opened it's beak, and it spoke.
"I hath but one simple, unsolved riddle to tell,
So I shalt say it quick, and word it well,
But be warned that should thou fail to answer it right,
Then I shall make thou my main courses tonight." the two stared at it in surprise.
"Do you think you could repeat that, for some of us who don't understand the language of geeks?" scoffed Inuki.
"I think it wants us to answer a riddle, before it'll let us pass." said Scorpion bluntly, who was not one to mock griffins.
"I have two red stones for eyes,
And am actually rather small in size.
I am ancient, hundreds of years old,
Yet my body is made of brand new gold." Inuki and Scorpion stood puzzled. Then Inuki pulled out the tiny gold
scorpion.
"Correct mortals. But how? Nobody has ever guess the answer to my riddle, nor has anyone been able to solve my
riddle, but now you have found my precious scorpion toy! Thank-you, oh so much!" the griffin sat delighted.

"Toy?" Scorpion and Inuki questioned the griffin in surprise, they thought it was a very valuable treasure. The
griffin nodded, and put a taloned paw towards the scorpion. It flipped it over, and with amazing speed flipped a small
hidden lever on the back. A small hole opened, and a tiny key popped out. Scorpion took the key, and popped it into
the bottom of the toy scorpion, and wound it up slowly. Suddenly the scorpion's ruby eyes blinked a glowing red, and
then it stepped forward, two feet at a time. Slowly it moved towards the griffin who was delighted that it's toy had come
back to it. And so, it allowed the two passage, but suddenly as they said good-bye, and began to walk out of the
griffin's site, when they faded slowly, and the completely away, due to Zenaden's teleportation machine. And so
Scorpion was sent back to the land before the portal to the forest, but Inuki was lost in a strange new world.

He was sitting on a chess board, he was a pawn. The pieces around him were white, with a blue tint on them,
infront of him sat the black pieces. They sparkled a dim red. Slowly the chess pieces slid forward on the black side,
slowly the white pieces slid forward, and he was being dragged along. But he didn't want to go! He would be crushed,
he slid further and further forward, and the black pieces advanced towards him and the white pieces. And suddenly a
huge black pawn rose into the air above him, and came flying down at him. Bit by bit, closer, and closer, until
everything was black from it's shadow. And then there was darkness, at the climax of the impact. Inuki slowly opened
his eyes and moaned. He was back in the room from where Maverick had defeated Terrace.

Slowly he looked around. The room was destroyed from the earlier fight. It had been days though, yet nothing was
fixed. It had been days, in the world of the marbles, yet, for some strange, unknown reason, nothing seemed to have
changed in the room. In fact, the torch was still lit in one corner from the fight. Slowly Inuki walked towards the torch,
put his hand on the strange statue infront of him , and tried to rip the torch from the tiny statue's hands, but it didn't
work. It wouldn't come loose. He tugged on the statue's arms, and suddenly they pulled forward. Somewhere, from
within the deep regions of the creepy old building a loud creaking noise started. It got louder, and louder, and suddenly
the corner flipped over twice, as he jumped out on the other side he found himself unable to escape. He was in some
kind of a room. It was almost completely pitch black except for the one crack of light that came from the wall behind
him. There was a thin liquid on the ground. It was some kind of dirty water, it reached up to his boots, but not past
them. The whole room had something strange and creepy to it.

Far off he could hear a strange dripping sound. That must have been the source of the water. How it got so high,
Inuki had no idea. Slowly Inuki walked along the strange, short room. It was large, but the roof was extremely low.
Inuki had to duck down to move, even if he was over 6'8 by now. Slowly he trudged through the strange room. As he
walked through the door he found himself in a cave, carved through the ground. He walked through the rocky tunnel,
and found himself inside a cavern. As he walked down the tunnel he saw a strange sight through one of the halls in the
tunnel. The whole area below him was a huge mass of crystals that shone white, with a hint of light blue, pink, and
neon green. He began to run down the tunnel, trying to get towards the crystals. It had to be crystalite. He had never
seen anything like it. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He ran down the tunnel, and soon reached the
massive amounts of crystals. They grew from the ground in holes, they grew from the walls. There were pick-axes
everywhere, and the crystals were being mined by hundreds of humans. Each one had a shirt on that read "S.W." Inuki
began to wonder. Perhaps Zenaden owned S.W.? Whatever that was, anyways. It was some kind of a secret mining
cave.

Zenaden was truly evil, more evil than himself, but what was going on? Why was he mining crystalite? What was
he hoping to achieve? How much did he know about the marbles? He obviously knew quite a bit, if he had lived in a
guild all his life as a child. Was he trying to make marbles himself? Would it work- was it possible? Even if it was,
there were still alot more marbles out there. Suddenly a loud bell rang, the workers left, it was their lunch time. Inuki
ran down to the mine, where the workers had been. As he ran up to the wall he began using the axe to rip a chunk of
the crystalite off. He soon had a small piece, and dropped the pick-axe. He studied it carefully. It didn't look right.
Something was different about it and the crystalite sphere he had gotten at the farmer's house. Suddenly he looked
carefully down the mine. At the end was another room. He walked slowly past all the crystalite chunks, and soon found
himself in the room. It was small room, most of the room was taken up by a huge furnace which sat infront of him. He
saw a strange device, which looked like two metal spoons with a hinge inbetween the two. He put the chunk of
crystalite into the spoons, closed them, and pushed them into the furnace, wondering if that would make it into a
crystalite sphere. He waited a moment, until the spoons began steaming. Slowly he pulled out the spoons, and opened
the device. Inside was a small crystalite sphere. It had worked! Inuki put a finger gingerly upon the marble. It was
solid, and warm. Slowly it cooled down. He decided that Zenaden's evil had to be stopped. So he planted an explosive
from his bag down on the ground. Suddenly he saw a flight of stairs from the opposite direction he had entered from, it
was in the corner, and hard to see since the room was dark on that side of the room. He headed up the stairs, and soon
found himself at a door. He opened it, and was back outside. He saw Scorpion, and headed towards him. The two
swore never to talk about what they had seen or done in the world of the Magic Marbles. The two parted, and didn't see
each other for almost a year, and that's when they saw each other again. It was all Zenaden's fault. It was all S.W.'s
fault.

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