World Of Lysandus #7:

Insidious

I stared at her with my mouth gaping wide in disbelief. She couldn't have said that. You ruined everything Lysandus. Her words bounced back from the edge of the bubble she had created. I was to blame for all of this. I felt guilty, without knowing exactly why. I suddenly felt extremely nervous, and I started sweating out my sanity along with my rational thought.

"Yes, Lysandus, you are to blame, but you couldn't have prevented it. The Gallows saw this coming as well. Like I said, when your father was killed, his ashes and the ashes of the gems or..... Gifts, sank into the sand. He was safe from Adradiggi under the sand, and he protected the few gems he had. Within the crystals under the sand he held the gems, waiting for his only son to come and finally defeat Adradiggi. After preventing Mantellan from destroying your world, you were given the gem with his soul in it. You, unfortunately, were unable to protect that gem, and Mantellan got a hold of all of the gems. When he left this world with them, he awakened an ancient evil named Insidious. Now we are all doomed."

"Insidious? Is he more powerful than Evil Lysandus or Mantellan?" I asked as the sweat on my forehead streamed down my face. I was shaking from head to toe in fear. There would be no hope for us if what she was saying was true.

"He is more powerful," she paused a second and then continued , "than both of them combined. He has the ability to make dimensional-wormholes (much like the gateways) at will. He is like a big ball of oozy tar, and he sucks planets dry of all the nutrients and then kills all of its inhabitants. After he is done, he goes to another planet through the gateways. An entire warrior race called the Chibbies were wiped off of this planet, along with several other species when the evil tar sucked all of the water from the planet. Before the whole race completely died off however, they sealed away the evil with the power of the Gallow's Gifts. In order to do it though, they had to sacrifice their bravest and most skilled warrior. While the evil force fought the warrior the people sealed them both away together using the gems. The only way for him to be released from his prison was for the Gifts to leave this planet."

I thought about what she had said. My mind was swimming with ideas and possibilities. In none of them did I see this as a good situation, or even something I could get myself out of. "Wait, you said there was a gateway back to our home world, right?"

"Yes Lysandus, there was a gateway from Fahlls to Aspimiria, but it was destroyed. Leaving it there would have allowed our invaders to track us all down. What were you thinking of doing, running back home and hiding for a while so the bad people can fight their fight and kill each other? Oh, I bet the winner would probably be pretty beat up then, and it would be easy to kill him and be a great hero huh? Wake up Lysandus, you are a fighter, not a pussy. You have your father's genes in your blood, but if you still don't believe me let me ask you a question. Do you remember any kind of fight in which you lost?"

"Well.... I didn't beat Evil Lysandus, Mantellan's been kicking my ass, and now there's some gooey blob after me." Adradiggi, she added to the end. I fell back and moaned. This was too much, why the fuck did I have to be the hero? Then I remembered something. "Wait, It's four against four. As long as I don't have to fight Mantellan.... or any of the other ones for that matter."

"Lysandus, you will be in charge of getting those gems back. Us three can figure out the rest."

I stared at her in awe. "WHAT? That's the biggest part of it all. How about you guys figure that part out, give me the gems, and then I'll kill them. Does that sound good?"

"Lysandus shut the fuck up." Orsidium ordered. I had forgotten they were still there while listening to her story. "We all know that you are a worthy fighter. I've seen it myself, and even she said it's in your genes."

I still didn't like this idea of me doing all the work. Then I remembered how much I had been dying for the chance to destroy Evil ever since I saw him for the first time. I remembered how the fight against Mantellan had worked out so perfectly. "Maybe we should just wing it, and whatever happens, happens... If I'm supposed to die, I will." Then I remembered what happened after the first time I beat Mantellan. He had created an evil clone of me and released an ancient evil almost with one attack. Not to mention he had collected all the gems and destroyed Debussy. I thought about giving up, the odds were stacked against me this time. Then I remembered what she had said about my father. He was a fighter, and a great one at that. I had to get my revenge, even if I had never met him, he was counting on me. Rage built up inside of me and a sudden burst of revenge traveled through me. I was in the mood to kill now, but not in the way Evil Lysandus would have liked.

As if called by my thoughts, a doorway appeared behind where we were standing. The door swung open and Evil Lysandus walked out. As he walked out, the colors from Aspimiria shot out of the gateway and poured onto the world below and all around us. No longer was the sound regulated to the bubble. His eyes were blazing with fire and he held the gems in his hands like they were his life. It seemed as though he had lost complete control of his actions, and that meant he had absolute power. His glance traveled around and settled on me. His demon grin stretched across his whole face and blood began to drip like drool. He started to walk slowly over to me and then stopped. His grin fell from his face and he tilted his head up to the sky as if listening. Then in an instant he was gone.

I turned around and looked into Alesandra's eyes. I saw the shock and amazement in her soul. Even she hadn't expected this to happen. Her face turned cold and she stared at me with a nervous serious face. "It seems your father was right. You did kill Adradiggi, you did get revenge. But now the real question comes, will you be able to kill yourself?"