1-Xena
Xena opened her eyes. She was in some kind of land of darkness. Shadows covered everything and Xena could feel a dark power emanating from them. It was extremely odd. Sounds of pain came from behind her, she turned around. “Mum!” Her mum was lying on the floor before her. She was covered in blood. Behind her was a man sat on his throne. By his side were what appeared to be two guards. The guards were humanoid creatures but appeared to be made of pure darkness. The man himself was tall and towering; he had a crimson red hood over his head and wore white robes. He looked directly at Xena.
“Greetings mortal, I am Azbar. Now may I ask, who exactly is giving you vision of this and why?”
“Ummm... I don’t know.”
“That is a shame. Maybe someone was hoping your mother would explain the gem, which she won’t since I’m about to kill her so could you maybe leave.”
“I...I don’t know how,” She then looked over to her mum. She didn’t understand why any of this was happening; she didn’t even know what was happening. Her mother used her remaining energy to speak,”With sacrifice... co...mes power, with sacr...”
 Violently a spear of pure darkness impaled straight through her chest causing the small energy in her to vanish. Her life was now gone. The figure stood up and pulled the spear from the corpse.”Shhhh. We don’t want your daughter to learn how to use that gem after all if she did, I’d have to go ahead and hunt her down. Then she would be dead, just like you.”
“Wha..What gem?”
“When she dies, a gem called Vissi is passed from her to you. It is very powerful and I can’t stop you from inheriting it as I have no clue what magic is used to transfer it, but if you don’t understand it then you are no threat to me and who knows maybe the gem will be what kills you.”
Her mind now wandered away from the gem as a sudden realisation hit her. Her mother had just been murdered before her. Melancholy filled her and like small droplets fell from her eyes like rain. She ran over to the corpse but couldn’t feel it. This was just a vision. She couldn’t physically interact with anything. She lay there crying for an amount of time she couldn’t remember. It felt like an eternity.






2-Xena
Xena awoke from her “dream” the next morning. She didn’t feel too bad about her mum dying since she had already grieved so long and felt it was best to ignore the pain than to deal with it. On her chest she felt a small cold object. As she picked it up, she realised it was the gem, it was Vissi. When her hand touched it, she felt an odd warmth fill her. A cold whisper seemed to also emanate from it. It was ruby red. It was a weird gem but she put it in her pocket anyway. She then prepared to visit Usfaris. He knew a lot of things and hopefully could explain this. She looked in the mirror. Her skin was a pale white like normal and she was now wearing a dark red, off the shoulders, v-neck dress that went down to her knees. It was very comfortable. Her hair was long and black like her eyes.
Leaving her home, she went down a street and at the end was a school. She entered the school, which was mostly empty today, and waited for Usfaris to arrive. After about an hour Usfaris arrived. He had many wrinkles and walked around with his walking stick. “Greetings Xena, what a pleasant surprise. How come you’re visiting me?”
“Well, something has happened.” She then explained the dream and the gem to him; she also showed him the gem. He simply sat there and listened, occasionally nodding to show he was acknowledging what was being said. “I’ve been expecting this to happen recently.”He stated now standing and pacing the room.”I do not understand Vissi, but I know it has great power and can enhance dark magic, which I believe you are already good at. It may be the only way to stop Azbar, lord of darkness, I am not sure. Growing up you were told many fairytales right?”
“Yep I was”
“Some were made up, others derive from a true event, an event from the times of the gods. There were many of them and they used to directly influence our day to day lives but one day they discovered other dimensions. They learnt that portals could be opened to travel to other dimensions.
 When Azbar learnt this he immediately wished to visit other dimensions to conquer them. The gods disagreed. They didn’t want to visit the other dimensions whether for peace or war. So the one portal in the whole of Lablos only opens to certain people in certain situation, or people with tremendous power that can force it open. The portal is in the Lands of darkness. The portal opens occasionally releasing creatures of evil into our world however recently it has been happening more. Most likely the rising of Azbar. Anyway back to the story.
 The gods wished to remove Azbar and his power so they had a large battle of which Azbar was severely weakened and then the gods formed together to create a brand new dimension and imprisoned him in there. Azbar was once a normal god like the others but once imprisoned he was announced a monster not a god. This prison contained nothing but darkness. After that battle, the gods were majorly weakened so they began to influence our lives less and less until now. Now their influence has stopped altogether. Due to his time surrounded in darkness, Azbar now is proficient in manipulating it hence being the lord of darkness. Do you understand that?”
“I think so although that is a lot to take in.”
“I apologise for not telling you sooner, but now you must go to the portal and visit Azbar’s dimension”
“The one I dreamt of?”
“Yes that place. When there, you must stop him however the portal is largely influenced by him so only three people will be able to be transported before the portal is forced shut. Do you know of anyone to take with you?”
“Not really, my Mum was the best fighter I knew.”
“Luckily for you then, I have two people in mind. Meet me in the pub tomorrow, 3 o’clock in the afternoon. I’ll tell them everything.”
“Which pub, the Calyspi or the Dune dreamer?”
“The Calyspi of course. Till tomorrow.”
He then walked out the room slowly with his walking stick in his pocket for some reason. Now she just had to wait until tomorrow.

3-Xena
Slowly Xena opened the door of the Calyspi, the pub was as lively as ever and the Picturo Projectors weren’t even displaying an Arena battle. The place went hectic whenever a battle was on; everyone would be betting, yelling and getting drunk at the same time. Today it was a little saner. She looked over to a table on the side and saw Usfaris with two other people.
She grabbed a beer and strolled other to them. There was a medium height girl with a huge grin, she seemed quite mischievous. She had black hair with red tips and red eyes. Next to her was a boy who was around an average height. He had white hair and green eyes. Observantly, Xena sat down next to Usfaris, across the table to the two people.
“Hi, I’m Xena”
“I’m Zelis; we’ve been talking about you.” The girl replied.
“And I’m Ruk” the boy looked at Xena.
“Well now you’re all together, get to know each other then start your journey, goodbye.” Usfaris got up, finished his cider and left.
“Umm... This is awkward. How about we introduce our amazements of combat with each other?” Zelis said trying to break the silence.
“Well, I specialise in Blood and Dark magic, and I have Vissi which I’m sure you were told about.”Xena responded.
“I’m a trickster. Illusions, agility, traps, pranks, crazy ideas and optimism are all my type a things. Oh and I have psychic abilities, I can get into people’s minds and stuff.” Zelis said.
“Well I can weaponise anything from the air to a tree to a sword. But how about we have an actual duel in the arena, show each other our abilities.”
“Great idea lets go!” Zelis exclaimed before dragging me out the pub, she didn’t even let me finish my beer.

4-Zelis
Energetically, Zelis bounced around as the announcer began to countdown, she loved fights. They were so much fun! She was against Ruk first match, and then the winner would fight Xena.
“Fight” the announcers booming voice echoed across the stadium. Not many people were watching, but a few were. Ruk immediately picked up a pebble and threw it at Zelis. She jumped over it, leaving it to explode behind her. Zelis turned into 10 different illusions of her and slowly began to walk towards Ruk. Violently, Ruk crouched down holding the floor causing it to shake. The illusions all tripped over and dissipated while Zelis was left off balanced. Ruk then tried to form a tornado from the air. Elegantly, Zelis pulled two metallic daggers from the air and threw them both. Both of the sharp blades smashed into his chest leaving blood dripping out. Then, Zelis vanished.
 Ruk was left bleeding completely unaware of where Zelis had gone. Suddenly, she appeared in front of Ruk and she pulled out the blades and morphed them together forming a short sword. Ruk went to punch her but Zelis read his mind and countered it. She grabbed his hand mid swing and twisted it around until she heard a snap. Then she let go. He backed away whilst lying on the floor and Zelis lunged onto him with the sword. It cut though his throat leaving blood everywhere.
“Victory for Zelis” The voice announced. Ruk’s body was then healed using his psyche (an energy force that once someone learns to use can be used to heal wounds). The skin melded back together and all his wounds were healed. “Well done Zelis!”
“Thanks, guess I’ll be fighting Xena now then won’t I.”
“Yep, I don’t like these duels sometimes as there’s not much to weaponise”
“What’s that? All I hear is, “I lost but it totally wasn’t my fault, it was the duels fault.””
“Yeah, Yeah.”Ruk replied before walking off into the crowd. Xena blinked (a close range teleport) into the arena. The announcer’s loud voice once again echoed through the arena.
“Now it is time for a battle between Zelis and Xena, however before this begins it shows here, Xena has never been in a battle here so I have to give you the psyche talk or else we could get sued “The announcer’s voice began speaking really quickly.”Psyche is an energy force bounded to your soul. It can be used to heal wounds and a few people know how to weaponise it. If you put a miniscule amount of your psyche into your attacks then when your foe heals said wound it will not drain any of their psyche as you attacked without the intent of harm. It is a weird system ask the gods why they made it like this. You may not use psyche mid battle or you will be sanctioned. If you attack with intention of harm you will be held responsible for any damage done. There we go all done, now it is time to FIGHT!”
Zelis pulled out her two daggers but this time she morphed them together into a bow. She shot an arrow directly at Xena’s leg. It pierced the skin and stuck in. Xena created an orb of darkness and threw it at Zelis. Zelis slid beneath it and sprinted towards Xena. Xena threw another two orbs but Zelis kept dodging them. Zelis then got up close and pulled the arrow out of her leg before kicking her. However, the kick missed as Xena blinked away. Now, Xena made a small cut on her hand. She used the blood, now flowing out the cut, to form a cheetah made of pure blood. Zelis created an illusory lion to distract the cheetah before disappearing.
She reappeared behind Xena and kicked her in the back of the leg causing her to crumple onto the floor. Xena tried to possess Zelis but she only managed to make her punch herself which briefly shocked her. Zelis then morphed her bow into a short sword and lunged onto Xena. At the last moment, the cheetah grabbed Zelis out of the air in its teeth. When the cheetah and Zelis hit the floor, the cheetah turned into a pool of blood before becoming a snake that wrapped up Zelis using itself. Xena then channelled a beam of darkness directly at Zelis that ended in an explosion.
“Victory for Xena!” The announcer once again yelled.
Xena helped Zelis back up, “That was so much fun!” Zelis yelled energetically.
“Yeah you nearly won as well.”
“You only won because your kitty misbehaved.”
“She behaved by saving me.”
“Well it was still fun.”
“I’m gonna go pack some stuff tell Ruk to meet just out the city.”
“Sure, see ya soon” Xena left in a hurry. Zelis approached Ruk who was waiting outside the stadium.
“Xena said we should pack some stuff then leave first thing”
“That’s a bit soon isn’t it”
“Well... I guess the sooner we act the less power Azbar has by the time we fight him”
“Sure”
“Meet just out the city, ok?”
“Yep, see you later.” Ruk then walked down a tight street into the distance and Zelis headed towards the meeting place. She didn’t have anything to pack.
5-Zelis
Zelis waited upon a tree top. She could see so much of the forest from up there. The trees waved through the air, their vibrant emerald leaves shining in the moonlight. Whistling wind violently brought a glacial chill through the night. Darkness was everywhere yet still the moon shone high and bright. Its radiance almost seemed to dispel the gloom. Below, grass grew and flowers bloomed. It was so beautiful, yet if they failed: it would all be gone. Destroyed. Obliterated. The radiance would fall and death would ascend. Fear would be distilled upon all, hope would be culled and despair would rule superior. No matter how fun the chaos could be, the aftermath wasn’t worth it.
“Zelis, Zelis, where are you?” Xena and Ruk had both arrived simultaneously and she hadn’t even noticed. She jumped out the tree in front of the two.
“Here I am.”
“So umm.... now we’re together where are we going?” Ruk seemed anxious.
“We need to go south” Xena stated
“Train will be the fastest way.” Zelis replied
“Didn’t they shut down because people preferred using their own mounts to get around and didn’t use them?” Xena said
“Well that’s the public view. What actually happened is gangs took over and the government couldn’t take it back so they tried to cover it up.” Zelis responded, clearly knowing a lot about the gangs.
“How do we get in if the gangs control them?”
“I know the few entrances that remain to the underground and if we aren’t allowed on the train we beat everyone up.”
“Beat everyone up?”
“Yeah what could go wrong?”
“Everything”
“Exactly”
“Wait, what?”
“If your plan is perfect and it seems nothing can go wrong, then everything will go wrong. So reverse psychology.”
“Great, well I don’t have any better ideas so Ruk you okay with this?”
“Do I even have a choice?”
“Nope, let’s go.” Zelis playfully commanded, “Just follow me.” The trio then began heading deeper into the forest. They walked on a small rough dirt path. The trees grew thicker blotting out the moon above them and the grass began to grow wilder. They approached a small settlement. It was horrid and dirty. It seemed extremely uncivilised. Most of the buildings were just small wooden huts. Zelis lead them into a hut and they went down a ladder made of entwined vines. At the end of the ladder, was the train station.
6-Xena
“Is this it?”Xena queried
“Yep, since it is now maintained by criminals it isn’t as good as before, but it still functions effectively. Come on, the next train just arrived” Zelis once again led them into the train. Before the first carriage, a man dressed in white stood.
“You’re not on the list” The man’s deep voice grumbled. He had a hand on his knife.
Zelis stood up to him. “Do I look like I care about your list?”
“Do I look like I care about you lot?”
“So no matter what, we can’t get on?”
“You’re finally understanding, now get lost.” Zelis punched him in the gut. He stumbled away. “You will, regret that.” He swung his knife at Zelis, but anticipating the strike she managed to disarm him by twisting his wrist causing him to lose grasp on his weapon. He then punched her chest. She elegantly responded with a spinning kick to the face. The man crumpled onto the floor now unconscious. Zelis then tossed him out the train and the trio went to their seats at the back of the train.
“That was eventful” Ruk directed at Zelis.
“Well, we might be targeted by a certain gang for assault now but we are trying to kill a lord of darkness, I don’t think the gang will be too much trouble.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“By the way, I’ve linked our minds together so we can communicate by sorta just thinking to each other. It’s hard to explain but you will get use to it.”
“That’s quite useful, why didn’t you tell us this earlier?”
“Forgot, anyway make sure to look out the window, we need to know our stop.”
“Where is our stop?” Xena asked.
“Carskoff, on the outskirts of Lubricana.”
“Near the borders of the lands, of darkness?”
“Yep. You can sleep if you want.” Xena liked that idea. They hadn’t slept yet and it was nearly morning, she had been in such a rush to leave. Out the window, there was a sign saying “the main station of Veskana” but after that there was nothing but darkness. Of course the journey to the lands of darkness would be mostly in darkness. Xena closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
As she opened her eyes, she was not in the train, perhaps it was a dream. She stood in an odd reality where there was just one white glowing floor beneath her and everything else was just darkness. She turned around and saw a silhouette. There was a humanoid shape made of pure darkness. The only other thing on it was a red gem in its forehead.
“Greetings,” the wispy voice echoed “I am Vissi.”
“But you’re just a gem.” Xena tried to suppress her shock.
“I am more than a gem, I am a great being. That gem is but a prison for me.”
“So why were you imprisoned then, Vissi?”
“Perhaps in time you shall learn, but not now.”
“Why are you in my dreams then?”
“To explain...”
“What?”
“Me”
“Go on then.”
“Your mothers last words were with sacrifice comes power yet she never sacrificed for any power. That is why she failed. You will reach a time when you must make a sacrifice or else you will fail. When the time comes heed this advice.”
“What was my Mum doing when she was ... murdered?”
“The same as you are going to, Usfaris sent her and now he sends you. One after another.” Spite began to grow within Xena. He was so calm around this matter even though he had orchestrated the death, and now he had told Xena to go. He clearly didn’t care about anyone. Then she remembered it she wouldn’t see Usfaris for a while now so there was no point getting angry at him. She should keep that rage locked away until after the quest, when she next sees Usfaris.
“Why?”
“I do not know, but I will gladly help you on your quest to kill Azbar”
“Ummm..... Thanks I guess, can you tell me about this sacrifice?”
“You will understand when the time comes, you will not die as your mother did. I can sense it. You are very different from her”
“How can you help?”
“You can use the gem as a weapon. I can also project an astral form of myself out of the gem to assist you but only briefly. Then gem prevents most of my power getting out.”
“And if I sacrifice some of my power it can make you stronger meaning you can help me much more effectively?”
“Perhaps, but you must discover that for yourself”
“Zelis can read minds, can’t she just read yours?”
“Nope, I’m afraid the gems imprisonment is a two way thing it weakens things trying to get in from the outside as well.”
“Well this has been a useful conversation hasn’t it?” Xena sarcastically stared at Vissi
“Partially. Goodbye now.”
“No, I’m not done talking to you”
“You must awake, you can sleep no longer.”
Then darkness engulfed Xena and then there was a bright yellow light shining around her. Then her eyes opened, she was awake. But the sight she opened to was not the sight she fell asleep to. Zelis was stood over her. They were still in the carriage but there was a loud sound. Zelis now noticed she had woken up and explained the situation.
“So that guard happens to be one of a gang leaders favourite guards, so now the whole gang sorta hates us. Not exactly sure which gang but they’ve diverted the cart somewhere. We need to get to the front of the train and redirect it.”
“Great” Xena sarcastically stated, getting up from the seat. The trio began running down the train, they had to get past an entire train of thugs and goons. After going through the door of their carriage into the next the ceiling collapsed with a loud boom. From the rubble a medium thin man stood. He had a sheathed katana and a sniper on his back. He wore a green helmet and green armour. The armour was light and therefore let him stay agile while blocking a few hits.
“There’s a high price on your heads, but don’t worry. I’ll be taking from you” He pulled out a gun but Xena created a shield from dark magic blocking the first few shots.
“You two go ahead, I’ll deal with him.”
“Not gonna complain with that.” Zelis replied before running into the next carriage with Ruk. She was always so positive and joyful, even in the middle of this chaos.
“I’ll be after them later, but first you get to die.” The assassin pulled apart the sniper. He then ended up with two pistols. The initial volley took Xena by surprise. The bullets sunk into her skin and it felt like acid was burning through her. When he stopped to reload, Xena blinked forward and tried to grab the guns from his hands. However, the assassin rolled away from her and unsheathed his sword, it glowed black. Xena summoned two swords made of dark energy and unleashed a flurry of strikes at him. The first strike impaled his chest; the other grazed his knee, the rest missed due to him dodging to the left. Blood flowed out his chest like jam flows out a doughnut. Xena saw this and took advantage. The blood began to turn white and black, the thickness began to vary. Then it came together to form a snow leopard with a sharp tail.
 The assassin began to charge at me with his katana but my leopard blocked his path. He swung the katana but the creature evaded it and impaled its tail through his chest. He sliced the tail off but the blood just flowed back to the creature reforming the tail. The creature pounced onto the assassin but he rolled away and started to charge at Xena with his katana. Painfully, the strike went through her leg leaving a deep gash. Xena returned with 4 slashes. Each one painfully inflicting the chest, the first one broke the armour but the rest cut through the flesh. The leopard then pounced upon him mauling him to death. Body parts were flung across the room. Crimsons stains were left everywhere. That assassin had really failed. The leopard turned to a pile of blood. Xena then drained the blood away, consuming it. This healed her wounds. The gash in her leg had only been reduced to a cut so she used her psyche to heal the rest of it. Now she just had to catch up with the others.
7-Ruk
As Ruk and Zelis ran through the carts there were many thugs easily disposed off. There were about 3 in each carriage and they were all taken down in an array of ways from kicks to punches. As they reached the carriage before the controls, a huge brute stood in the way. Zelis looked to Ruk and Ruk nodded. Zelis vanished and headed towards the control panel in the next room, leaving Ruk to deal with this monster. The massive thug had red skin and huge muscles. He clearly had taken some type of super drug. The thug charged at Ruk but due to his lumbering weight, he was easily dodged. Ruk ripped a rectangular light out the ceiling. The light then turned heavier and denser. The tip, away from Ruk’s hand, turned on but burned much warmer than normal. It had become a weapon.
 The brute turned around to a light in his face. Ruk continued whacking him for a few more times but the brute charged again. Ruk slid between his legs and pressed the hot tip into his back. It burned viciously through the skin. The thug yelled, “That actually hurt, I am definitely crushing you now. There is a bigger reward if I keep you alive but after this... after this I will squash you like the insignificant ant you are.” He grabbed the light and snapped it in half before punching Ruk in the arm. Ruk plummeted backwards into the wall and fell to the floor. The brute stood over his frail body. He smashed his foot into Ruk’s eye, causing it to squish. Desperately, Ruk used the air to push him away. Now weak and missing an eye, Ruk stood up and grabbed a pebble from the floor. He threw the pebble at the brute, and used the air to guide the throw. It went straight in his mouth. The thug swallowed the stone and yelled “Do you not think I can eat a mere stone, I could eat you!”
“Eating it wasn’t the part meant to kill you.” Ruk replied, a weak smile stretched upon his face. The brutes face displayed shock before he clenched his stomach. He yelled out in pain for about ten seconds before a loud explosive imploded him. Blood flowed out his mouth, and a large hole was left in his chest. He was defeated, dead. Ruk used his psyche to heal himself, but he couldn’t do anything about his eye. Still weak, he entered the control room where Zelis had gone.