Hey guys I'm back after a long haitus. I've already graduated but I'm currently review for my board exam. I had to squeze writing this in between my 8 am - 5 pm review schedule. Since one of you commented that you wanted me to update this i made extra efforts to finish chapter 28. I also changed the name of the chapter. Three more chapters and the 1st circle will be finished and the real deal would begin. By deal I mean the adventure. I am going to focus on this fic since its my only fic now that has commentors. Comment below your fave moments for this chap and request appearances of your fave hey say shi dae pairs if you want. I had to not show my fave funny duo Jin and Yuya because I had to focus on the others. Happy reading! This chapter is for passionatelover who motivated me to write this update. <3<3<3 =D

Chapter 28

Women and Men

                Chaos, that word may sound simple in context but the amount of devastation it brought was incalculable. There she was standing atop a tower looking down as the world was plunged into darkness.

              In the pitch black night the screams of the people echoed like a broken record. Nothing could end the anguish and torment that the people were experiencing. They wailed in pain as the night torched them alive with an unknown force, ghastly growls emerged from the shadows as if unseen beasts hidden in the dark were devouring humans.

              She could no longer distinguish her location was she still at the top of the tower or has she gone down to the streets. Harsh winds push against her making her realize that she was airborne. She tried to feel her hands and move her legs but she was paralyzed. Then suddenly her vision becomes clear and she sees the whole of Celeria in ruins. The earth had opened up and out from the bottomless pits rose creatures she had never heard of, evil looking beast roamed the land and ate anything that moved.

              Blood gushed down the streets of the cities like a river rushing out to the sea. Countless disemboweled bodies littered the pathways until it was unbearable to even look at it. Blood was splattered in the walls and on the houses. She could barely walk through the piles and piles of dead flesh.

              Was this the future?! She refused to believe it.

              Rain suddenly fell and flooding occured. She was trapped in a horde of dead people carried by the flood waters, she was struggling to stay afloat. She pulled herself up on top of a body which seemed to be stable. She puked from the devastating smell of rotting flesh and blood. All around her were carcasses of human remains some of which appear to be fresh while others were rotting. She tried to get up as she realized that the bodies around her were infested with worms. She pushed herself up by using a decent looking corpse as leverage but the skin of the dead body suddenly peeled off showing rotting flesh and causing her to slip and fall face down a corpse whose stomach appeared to have been partially eaten by something.

              She screamed from the shock and from disgust as clotting dark blood smears her face. She hurriedly tries to stand but freezes in place when she sees that the corpse she had landed on was her own. She stared wide eyed at the face which she sure was hers and looks around her in horror as she realizes that the bodies surrounding her were the corpses of her own staff, with her ladies in waiting rotting away and her guards festering with worms. She shivers from the whole scene slowly losing her sanity and looks down at the body she was stepping on.

              Her screams were masked by the howls of the wind and the torrents of rain that fell. It soaked through her garment and unto the corpses of her parents beneath her...

              She opened her eyes to the pitch blackness of the space around her. In her mind she was screaming not again. She did not want to be in that corpse filled city, she did not want to see the destruction that was once El Hazard. Not wanting to see where she was, she shut her eyes shut but the sudden movement near her made her open them. She found herself staring at the gray colored sky and the harsh sunlight poking through the clouds as it was carried by strong winds. The place where she was hot and dry. Even though winds were passing by it the temperature was scorching. It made her question whether she may have landed near a volcano or something. Her skin felt dry but the sound of movement beside her quickly made her sit up. She was on a mountain overlooking a ruin of some sort and beside her was a woman weeping whilst clutching a garment of some sort. She tried to stand and take in more of her location.

              The mountain she was at was bone dry, the earth around its was so cracked it started to look like a rock. Dust swirled around the place and in place of trees there were only dead skeletons of wood that she was sure were once trunks and branches. There was not another life form in sight besides the woman weeping beside her. She called out to her but no matter how much she tried to get the woman's attention it would not look at her. She was becoming frustrated so she walked over to the woman despite having difficulty due to her dirt caked dress. As soon as her hand came in contact with the woman's shoulder she regretted it.

              Visions of such magnitude came rushing to her and she fell to the ground writhing and screaming in pain. She saw the ruins of a once glorious city which she could not determine burn down in flames of incredible power. Smoke filled the air and it rose up to the heavens. Her eyes burned as her lungs were filled with horrid smoke. She saw the people running for their lives but the flames were too strong and spread faster than the wind. As she saw their pain she also felt it. The flames engulfed her body and all she could do was scream as she was burned alive, her skin peeling off and her muscles and fat disintegrating into nothing but human mush. It was unbearable dying there in the fire. Her pain seemed to grow stronger with each dying person she witnesses. All she could do was scream and when her voice had faltered all she could do was pray. She prayed for the flames to end. She prayed for the people to be saved, but nothing happened. The fire continued to burn and kill everything that had life.

              Her vision ended but the pain remained and she lay in the ground paralyzed by it. The woman whom she recognized was wearing a dark fabric was looking at her now and was grinning.

              “How does it feel to see what I see and feel what I feel?” she asked in a cold and manic voice. She could only look at her with tortured eyes.

              “Stand up child of Wisdom we have only just begun. Stand up!” the woman told her harshly pulling her up from the ground.

              Her vision becomes clouded and all she could hear was the violent gusts of winds covering her.

              She gulps in water and realizes that she was in the sea.

              She tries to swim forcing herself up the turbulent waters. Her head barely rises up the massive waves. Her legs were failing her. The current was too strong and she was being pulled down by it. She looses consciousness. Her head hits something hard and she feels pain near her eyebrow. She gets a large dose of much needed oxygen and wakes up near a rocky shore. She scrambles to get away from the water and into the rocks. She was profusely bleeding from a head injury but she still managed to get herself to safety.

              Despite her state she managed to walk towards a fishing village on wobbly legs. She sees people gathered together and rushes to them in hopes of getting safety. But no one could hear or see her. The crowds were gathering by the sides of the road and she could see glimpses of men in armor. She tries to look at the flags carried by the soldiers but she could not recognize any of them. She feels someone grab her and the scenery changes. She spots the woman in black becoking her to follow while grinning in a crazy morbid way at her. Every cell in her body was telling her not to follow but it seemed that the woman was pulling her with an unknown force.

              She sees kings and queens gathered around a massive arena of some sort. The arena was deep and wide with a large altar like structure at the center. The kings and queens were at the top of the bleachers with their own canopies covering their booths. People of different race and stature flanked the sides of each respective monarch. Military, civilian and aristocrat alike sat on their respective seats and were cheering madly at the people below.

              “Fools.” She heard the woman say. “They know nothing about their impending end.”

Her gaze travels back to the crowds below where a ceremonial dance seemed to be happening. The dance looked vaguely familiar and foreign at the same time. The injury from her head suddenly ached and she feels the ground shake.

              “Look!” the woman told her and she stared right through the high ceiling and into the cloudless night. She saw the sun turning red and a dark massive object moving through the sky. It moved like a snake. Then like a viper devouring its prey, it covered the sun plunging the whole land into unspeakable darkness. Fear covered her body and she began to shake violently. The people inside the arena cheered totally ignorant of the darkness. She fell to the ground shivering from the terror that came over her. The ground suddenly shook. The shaking grew stronger by the second and then the floor of the arena split open swallowing the altar. The roof soon caved in and screams erupted not just inside the arena but also outside in the city.

              Balls of fire came down from the sky and soon everything was in flames. The terror she felt was soon replaced by the unbearable pain which mirrored the suffering of the people. Without much notice she was plunged once more into the torture she had experienced earlier only this time it was so much more. The woman in black stood beside her laughing hysterically while yelling at her to endure the pain.

              “Endure it child of wisdom !Endure it and be strong!!! Endure it if you want to save your world!” before she disappeared into the smoke she shouted one more time.

              “Find the girl and end it all!!”

              It was the last thing she hears before blacking out once more.

El Hazard, Winaris

              Queen Taehee was clutching her daughter by the shoulders and was shaking her violently in hopes of bring her back to her consciousness. The princess had suddenly out while they were in the midst of their afternoon meal. She dropped into the grown lifeless and after a few minutes began screaming in anguish over some unknown pain. The words she mumbled were incoherent and her voice did not sound like hers at all. They had called all the masters of knowledge in the palace but no one could bring Seohyun back from her visions.

              The princess continued to wail and shout in pain until her lips turned pale and all the color drained from her lips. Everyone was at loss for words. But when a large wound suddenly appeared in the princess's head Taehee had lost it and began shaking her daughter in hopes of waking her. The king had to pull her away while they tried to restrain Seohyun who was now hurting herself from trying to claw something away from her body.

              This episode lasted for almost three hours with the king and queen looking at their daughter in absolute despair. Then as mysterious as it started the princess's manic attack stopped they all rushed to her side. She managed to clutch her father's had before loosing consciousness from exhaustion and pain. The queen could only shake in fear knowing that what she had dreaded had finally started. And she had no idea how to stop it.

Verona, Salmaria

              The queen watched in the shadows as the corona reginae casually played a game of chess with the young prisoner. Rage boiled in her heart as she watched the two interacting. Her handmaids also looked on with both disdain and perplexity. How was this prisoner able to withstand or even turn Princess Sunny into such a state of mind when they were all frightened by her? Why was he able to capture her attention like this that she would disregard the rules of the land for him?

              Knowing exactly what her handmaids were thinking she dismissed them. The queen wanted solitude. She wanted her time alone so she could think clearly and plan her next move without gossiping women at her rear. Sometimes she would wonder whether Soonkyu was indeed right at questioning her choice of retinue. Almost all of her ladies-in-waiting were horrible gossips who not only ignite her fury at men but also drive her becoming a war freak.

              As soon as they left she began to examine herself. Was her actions towards the prisoner justifiable? Naturally she screamed yes but she halted looking at the scene of the quiet pair in a game of wits. Was she really right? Had she even glanced at the whole scene of the war with logic? Had she examined each detail of the war and asked why and how? No she had not. She had instead listened to her visors and delved into the war just because she wanted to get even with men. Or more specifically she just wanted to punish men a lesson for not being a woman.

              Now as she realized it she had in fact acted harshly. Looking at the small frail boy made her realized she had not even once asked herself what a young unaccompanied prince like him was doing in the war. If Wyndox had betrayed their treaty to Celaria they would have sent an entire army to support their prince. He was obviously powerful and a powerful elemental master was a precious gem to the kingdom. Why then had they let him go to war unescorted? With a powerful wind master like the prince they could easily defeat other nations. So what was the reason behind Wyndox's irrational action?

              The queen's gaze traveled back to the duo and saw something she thought she would never see again. And that was a sight of the Corona Reginae smiling again.

              This was wrong he thought. He was a prisoner and this action could not only endanger the princess but I could also cost her life. So why then could he not bring himself to pull away from her? To stop before its too late. They were doing something so taboo in Salmaria that he knew it would be catastrophic if others found out. But all logical sense seemed to have flown out the door and he could not bring himself to stop.

              He felt the princess's arms circling around his neck as she pulled him deeper into a kiss. The princess's dragged him into an empty room and before he knew it they were suddenly entangled in a passionate lip lock. He found himself unable to control himself and pins her to wall. His arms wrapped around her waist and pulled their bodies closer. His mischievous kiss was only meant to tease the gorgeous girl but how it ended up into this he did not know.

              They pulled away after becoming breathless but their eyes never left each other. When they had taken in enough oxygen they resumed what they were doing. But reality was clearing his mind from lust and he manages to pull away.

              “Your majesty this is wrong. I... we can't.” he told her stuttering but she merely gazed up at him with clouded eyes.

              “Why is it wrong. You said so yourself in Wyndox women were for men. Am I not attractive enough for you?” She asked coyly.

              “No! You are beyond breathtaking. But you are a Salmarian and... I don't want to put you in danger.” He began to reason. Thinking of the laws that they were breaking. But the princess merely looked at him with a hint of seduction and affection. She traced her finger around his jaw as he tried to think. His mind was becoming blank due to her closeness. He was breathing in the scent of lemons and roses and it was making him high. His mind suddenly started function when he heard her say.

              “Chinen just shut up and kiss me.” but to him it sounded more like a command and he couldn't bring himself to go against it.

              What was left of his rationality was disintegrating more and more as he kissed her and the last of his self control was caving in. Oh he knew he wanted the princess. He had admired her beauty the first time he set eyes on her. He craved to be within her presence every waking day. But that ache grew and grew until it became a delirious obsession. His lips trav