Ronin Warriors: The Second War
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“Hariel the Emperor?”

Sai and Mia had just missed Hariel at the volcano. They actually were in the right volcano, but they were about five minutes too late. . .

Hariel awoke in a dark “dungeon” of sorts, but not quite the Dynasty’s style. He noticed that, for the first time in almost 550 years, he had a physical body again, and that he was dressed in normal (by his standards) clothes. He studied the room carefully, looking for ways to escape when he thought the time was right. He was in an iron cell in the center of a dimly-lit room, which appeared to be of modern (by our standards) masonry construction. There were two doors, both steel, and both with iron doors identical to that of Hariel’s cell covering them.

A figure walked into the room, closed the doors behind him, and stood about two yards from the cell. He looked at Hariel, hoping that he didn’t have any hidden powers. He announced, “I am Sekhel, brother of Lord Badamon. I know you may find this hard to believe, Lord Hariel, but I am your faithful servant.”

He walked over to the cell and unlocked it, then stepped back to his former distance. He knelt down and held up a small orb in his right hand, a brilliant silver bracelet in his left. “My Lord, please let me place these objects on your wrist where they belong.”

Hariel stood up, walked out of the cage, and took a fighting stance. “Sekhel, if that is your true name, I demand to know what has happened and what is happening here, and I demand to know this right now!”

The servant stood, his head bent down, facing the floor, his expression becoming more and more fear-stricken by the moment. He started to talk. “Lord Hariel, do you not remember? You are the Emperor of the only realm Talpa has not been able to touch so far. This realm is called Sola, and it has been without its Emperor for over 600 years. You are that Emperor, my Lord, and it is your destiny to use this realm to help the Ronin Warriors and Talpa’s former Dark Warlords kill Lial, the Princess of the Dynasty. You may use any resources you wish. We here in Sola, your faithful servants, have labored for the past five and a half hours to create this bracelet for you, to hold your kanji orb that we have granted new, more spectacular powers. Please, accept these gifts!” He placed the orb in the small clasp on the bracelet and held the unit out for Hariel to inspect. The orb itself appeared unchanged, so Hariel took it, reluctantly.

As soon as Hariel touched it, it disappeared momentarily, then reappeared on his right wrist. Immediately, Hariel could feel the increased power coursing through his veins and his subarmor appeared. Instead of the dull dark bluish color it normally was, the subarmor was now pure white, with gold plating where the Armor of Inferno’s plating rested, and silver accents around all the joints.

“Sekhel, what is this power that I feel?”

“Master, it is your new power of Light. We have enhanced the powers of your Inferno Armor so much that it has transformed. It is now the Armor of Light. It has many new attacks, which you should be able to master without a problem.”

Hariel looked in amazement as his new armor sprang to life, seemingly at telepathic command. The armor looked very similar to the Armor of Inferno, with a few minor differences. The armor itself was silver in color with a gold border on each piece. His swords were different, too. They were more elegant in design, the hilts encrusted in rubies, the gold area more extravagant, and the blades traced in gold along the edges.

“Yes, Sekhel, I am starting to remember. The dimensional travel made me forget my true place. To think I spent fifty years protecting the mortal realm from evil that my soldiers could have fought! Well, since we do have an obligation to help the Ronin Warriors, gather the best of the soldiers. We are going to the Ronins’ world to help them protect it from the Dynasty!”

Mia and Sai arrived at her house about ten that night. Mia pulled Ryo off to the side as Sai went upstairs.

“Ryo, I hope you don’t mind, but I agreed when Sai asked if he could stay here with us.”

“No problem, Mia. In fact, he asked me the same thing while you were at the coffee shop. He said that he had to tell you a lie to get you to stay at the shop, but that he’d smooth things over on the way back. I told him I didn’t mind as long as it was fine with you.”

“How did the two of you talk?”

“He called on a pay phone. He said that he told you that he lived in a slum so that he could slip away to talk to me. He said the reason he needed to stay with us is that the friends he was living with are moving away and he knows he needs to stay here to help us fight.”

“Oh, I didn’t know.”

“Neither did I, until he called.”

“Well, I’d better go help Sai unpack and get settled. I love you, Ryo.” She kissed Ryo lightly on the lips and left for the upstairs bedroom she was going to give Sai.

After getting Sai settled in, Mia went back down to the dining room. She immediately noticed a meal on the table for the ten people already sitting at the table, with two open places--one for Mia and the other for Sai. Mia took her place next to Ryo, and Sai took the other place about ten minutes later, after taking a shower. The eleven people carried on a conversation, trying to figure out where Hariel disappeared to and who or what was behind the previous attack.

“Well, I don’t know who set up that attack, but whoever it is is seriously powerful to be able to control such a strong armor,” Ryo remarked.

“Yes, she is, Ryo. She is Talpa’s daughter, Lial. She is even more powerful than Talpa was, and if we don’t make a final, deciding stand here, all the realms are doomed.”

Ryo and the others’ heads snapped toward the deep voice that entered the room. It was Hariel, leaning against the door frame that led to the hallway outside the room. Everyone looked, stunned, trying to figure out who it was.

“What? You don’t recognize the voice? I am Emperor Hariel, commander of the new Armor of Light.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Ryo asked.

“I am Hariel, the man you eleven summoned back from the spirit realm. Lord Sekhel here summoned me back to my true realm, Sola, where I am the Emperor. We have come back with soldiers to help in the war against Lial.”

Lord Sekhel cut Hariel off. “Excuse the interruption, Lord, but I feel the presence of Dynasty soldiers in this realm. There are many of them in the mortal city known as New York. We must hurry, Lord, as there is very little time before the city falls.”

The nine warriors seated at the table looked at each other, coming to a mutual agreement. Ryo then said, “All right, it’s settled. Hariel, how do we get there?”

“Sekhel will take care of it, but first, I need you all to step outside into the field behind the house. We have a gift for all of you.”

All did as Hariel asked, and when told to do so, they formed a large circle. All nine transformed into their subarmor, with Mia and Yuli sitting on the back porch.

Ryo screamed, “Circle of Light, Tao chi! Armor of Wildfire!”

“Armor of Halo!”

“Armor of Strata!”

“Armor of Cruelty!”

“Armor of Hardrock!”

“Armor of Venom!”

“Armor of Corruption!”

“Armor of Torrent!”

“Armor of Illusion!”

All nine armors appeared before the warriors, turned so that their backs faced the warriors, and started to energize. That was the signal that it was time for the nine warriors to leave the circle, so they jumped out, rolled, turned, and watched as the circle formed. Each armor shot forth energy at all the others, forming a white, intertangling energy web. All twelve people present could see the armors becoming more powerful, as all the armors formed capes and developed more spikes, larger plates, etc. Kale’s armor’s cape turned to a more metallic fabric, and two daggers formed, complete with sheaths, one at each side of the armor.

Suddenly, the circle and the armors disappeared, and each warrior’s subarmor glowed with the insurgence of power. As each warrior looked him/herself over, Kayura noticed that she had lost her subarmor, and that her armor that Talpa gave her was back, only more powerful and guided by a spirit, truth.

Hariel then spoke up. “Anubis has returned in his Armor of Cruelty. His powers are fully restored and amplified. If each of you look at your wrists, you will notice that your kanji orbs are now embedded in a bracelet. This signifies your new power. Only the thirteen people present right now can ever see these bracelets. This is our gift. Now, armor up! We have a war to fight!”

Notes from the author:

I know this has got to be aggrivating since I made no reference to Anubis' reincarnation....I've remedied that in chapter four, but it's no way near being able to be published...still got a lot of fine-tuning to do.....This is my longest chapter so far, and I hope you haven't gotten too bored with the fact that it goes basically nowhere so far. Just stay tuned...there's more to come, especially where Anubis, Kayura, Sekhmet, Sage, and Lial are concerned.....

Oh, yeah...the recognizeable characters (Hariel included) are not mine, but the other characters and the storyline are.....if you wish to use any elements of this story, YOU MUST ASK PERMISSION!

Hey, if anyone knows where I can find a decent frames tutorial (how to make a web page with frames), let me know ([email protected] or ICQ 61821525). I also need to learn how to use buttons and drop-down menus.

Thanks for using your time to read this chapter. Hope you guys (and gals) want more.

John