CHAPTER III

         Out of nowhere comes a girl. She is tall with shoulder length blond hair, blue eyes fairly tanned skin. She is dressed in a red robe and is carrying a staff. She comes running toward the golden knight.
        "Trevarius stop`" shouts the girl.
        The girl reaches Trevarius, the golden knight, and knocks the sword out of his hands.
        "Trevarius, what are you doing?" the girl asks. "Don’t you know who this is?" she adds.
        "Of course I do. This is another troublemaker, that wishes to invade our kingdom and destroy our land." Trevarius remarks.
        "No, this is not a troublemaker. This is Lucavi, Prince Lucavi of Graydon." The girl answers.
        "Forgive me Prince Lucavi. It is just that there has been a serious growth of evil and this town has been attacked twice already. I have to be careful not to let anything happen to this kingdom or anyone that lives inside of it." Trevarius explains.
        "I know what you mean. My kingdom was almost completely destroyed a few days ago. The head of the army told me that someone is trying to revive Diablos." Lucavi describes.
        "I am sorry. Excuse me, where are my manners. Lucavi, this lovely lady here is Melanie, high priestess of Draconia." Trevarius introduces.
        "Pleased to meet you both." Lucavi greets. "Travelling with me, I have Britney, Solduvius and Chantelle. "
        "You see, we are journeying to find the Elvenbane." Britney says.
        "The Elvenabne? But I thought that it was lost for centuries now. No one who has searched for it has been able to find it." Melanie replies.
        "That is true but we know the location. The location of the Elvenbane has been a Royaume family secret for generations. Before we left, my father filled me in on its whereabouts. It is located in the Dark Mountains of the North." Lucavi illustrates.
        "You see, we stopped here on our journey because we heard that Trevarius was a skilled warrior." Chantelle explains. "We were wondering if you and Melanie would like to joins us on our journey.
        "Of course we will. Anything to save the world from another time of chaos and destruction." Trevarius replies.
        "Why don’t you all rest here for tonight and we can set out tomorrow morning." Melanie questions.
        "Sure. That would be great." Britney agrees.
        "Come, follow me. I will show you to your rooms." Trevarius directs.
        "Lucavi, are you sure that we can trust this guy. I mean, I have a bad feeling about him." Solduvius whispers to Lucavi.
        "Don’t worry. I mean, my father wouldn’t have told us to come here if it wasn’t safe." Lucavi answers.
        "If you say so." Solduvius replies.
        Trevarius leads them to the castle. The castle is huge. It has about four levels and a basement. It has loads of bedrooms, a huge dining hall and a nice armory. He gave everyone a tour of the castle then brought them to their rooms.
        "Here are your rooms. We will have dinner soon, so relax until then" Trevarius explains.
        Trevarius leaves everyone to settle down until dinner. A couple of hours later, dinner is served. When everyone got to the dining hall, they were amazed. In front of them was a magnificent feast with enough food to feed a village. The feast contained everything from lamb to ham and from apple pie to fruit salad.
        "Wow, this is some meal. You didn’t have to go through so much trouble Trevarius." Chantelle exclaims.
        "Nonsense. You are my guests and I also must apologize for our earlier incident." explains Trevarius.
        "Well then, let’s eat." Lucavi intervenes.
        Suddenly, in the middle of dinner, Trevarius gets up, as if to leave.
        "I am terribly sorry my friends. I forgot that there is something that I must tend to. You all continue eating. I will be back shortly." Trevarius explains apologetically.
        Trevarius exits the room and leaves down a long corridor.
        "What the hell is that guy up to? I have to go see if my suspicions are correct." Solduvius thinks to himself. "But how?"
        While reaching over for the lamb, Solduvius accidentally knocks over his wine, soaking his clothes.
        "Damn, how clumsy of me. Now I must go change. Excuse me." Says Solduvius.
        Solduvius leaves through the same hallway as Trevarius. He follows Trevarius down a set of winding stairs to the basement of the caste. Trevarius enters a room. A few seconds later, he heard Trevarius talking to someone but he can’t see who he is talking to.
        "I have some valuable information. The ascendant of Vesuvius is here and has divulged the location of the Elvenbane to me. " Trevarius explains to the unidentifiable character.
        "Excellent. So you know what you must now do with them." The voice demands.
        "Of course Mallus. I shall destroy them. They are not going to expect a thing." Trevarius answers.
        After that, a bright light appears and Solduvius no longer can hear the voice.
        "No way. I thought there was something with Trevarius but I didn’t think it was this serious." Whispers Solduvius.
        Then Trevarius comes back into Solduvius’ visual range. He sees Trevarius raising a sword into the air.
        "But first, I must take care of you." Trevarius says.
        Solduvius see an exact twin of Trevarius tied up on the ground, about to be on the receiving end of the blade. Solduvius kicks the door of the room wide open and shouts.
        "Trevarius, I had a weird feeling about you from the moment I laid my eyes on you. Now that I know everything about you, there is nothing that you can do." Solduvius shouts from the shadows.
        "Who’s the? Step forward and revel yourself." Trevarius demands.
        Solduvius steps out from the shadows. He thrusts his hands forward and a gust of wind knocks the sword out of Trevarius’ hands.
        "You have made a big mistake coming down here Solduvius. Now you will pay." Snarls Trevarius.
        "Trevarius begins to charge at Solduvius but Solduvius begins to chant a spell.
        "Saturn, I beg you, for humanity’s sake. Give me the power, a massive earthquake." Solduvius chants.
        The castle begins to shake violently. Trevarius flies into the air and into the opposite corner of the room. Solduvius runs over to Trevarius on that is tied up, unties his ropes and runs upstairs. Meanwhile, back in the dining hall, things are a bit chaotic. Food is flying all over the place, tables are turned over and everyone is wondering what is going on. The castle ceases its shaking. All of a sudden Solduvius comes running back upstairs and into the dining hall with Trevarius.
        "What the hell is going on here. Solduvius, where were you all this time?" Lucavi asks in an angry tone.
        "Allow me to explain." Trevarius interjects. "You see, a few days ago, our castle was invaded by a bunch of demons commanded by a creature that called himself ‘Fortissimus’."
        "Fortissimus? As in the minion of Diablos?" Lucavi asks.
        "That is correct. Fortissimus and myself battled throughout the castle but he eventually cornered me. Instead of killing me, he took my form upon himself. He tied me up and locked me in the basement." Trevarius continues.
        Suddenly, the other Trevarius appears and shows his true form. The form of Fortissimus. Fortissimus is about 6 feet tall with dark green, scaly skin and horns on his back. He walks toward the heroes in a hunched over manner and speaks.
        "That’s right. And now that you are all here, I shall destroy you and nothing will stand in the way of my master’s resurrection."
        "As long as there is a breath in my body, I will not lay down my sword. I will make sure that you and all your creatures are destroyed and that Diablos never rises." Lucavi interrupts.
        "Well, you seem confident enough. Here, why don’t you try your luck out with my knights. KNIGHTS, COME TO ME. DISPOSE OF THESE HUMANS." Fortissimus commands.
        A ring of flames surrounds Fortissimus and a group of about 10 undead knights appear. Lucavi goes after Fortissimus while Chantelle, Solduvius and the others goes after the knights. Lucavi and Fortissimus square it off.
        "So, you are the ascendant of Vesuvius eh? Well, let’s see how good you can fight." taunts Fortissimus.
        Lucavi performs a tackle attack on Fortissimus but Fortissimus quickly counters Lucavi with a flip throw. Meanwhile, Solduvius and the others have their hands full battling the knights. Solduvius manages to take out some of the knights with a Holy attack. Britney gets thrown into some against the wall and knocks down one of the tapestries hanging on the wall. She is hurt. Melanie quickly chants.
        "Father almighty, my soul is still pure. Give me the power to heal Britney with Cure."
        A white light surrounds Britney and her wounds are healed. As she is getting up, she sees a scroll lying on the ground. She picks up the scroll and unrolls it. There is some writing on the scroll but it is in an ancient language that she cannot understand. Then, Britney can hear a voice in her head.
        "Britney, think back to your teachings. Focus and the words will become clear." the voice whispers.
        "Right, I can do this. Here we go." Britney exclaims. Britney closes her eyes and focus on all of her teachings. When she opens her eyes and the words are now clear to her. On top of the scroll reads "Ancient Text of Vulcan, Fire God" Britney begins to chant.
        "Controller of fire, I command thee, arise. Unleash your power to stop this demise. Show these low demons your strength and your power. Burn them to ashes with your fiery power."
        A heat wave suddenly comes into the castle and the wind begins to howl. Then out from the ground comes a huge beast with great horns and a crown of flames. The beast rushes toward the knights and crashes into them. Then he rises into the air and comes crashing through the ground exploding into an inferno of flames. This left only a couple of the knights left. Trevarius looks towards Lucavi and sees that he is not fairing too well. He runs toward Lucavi to help him. Trevarius jumps toward the wall and bounces of, flipping over Fortissimus, and slashing him in the back. As Trevarius lands, Lucavi quickly performs a Charging Tackle, knocking Fortissimus to the ground. Another voice is heard, now by both Trevarius and Lucavi.
        "Lucavi, Trevarius. Join your power together and attack this foe with your combined powers." says the soothing voice.
        "Trevarius, are you ready?" Lucavi asks.
        "Yeah. Let’s do it." Trevarius replies.
        Trevarius and Lucavi stand facing each other. Both of them focus their powers. Their bodies begin to glow. Trevarius jumps up, onto an upper balcony while Lucavi remains on the ground.
        "Take this Fortissimus. Combination Attack Hell’s Dual Slash of Death." Lucavi and Trevarius shout in unison.
        Lucavi dashes toward Fortissimus, slashing him in the chest, then slashing him into the air. Then when Fortissimus reaches Trevarius, Trevarius slashes him horizontally across the chest than jumps up and slashes Fortissimus to the ground. Then both Lucavi and Trevarius run at Fortissimus, both slashing him at the same time. Fortissimus, seriously injured, gets up and growls.
        "That was good. Next time I wont let you guys off the hook. Until then." says Fortissimus.
        Then Fortissimus there is a bright flash and teleports away. Everyone gathers up their stuff and begins to clean up the dining hall.
        "So that is one of Diablos’ minions? He is pretty strong." Trevarius illustrates.
        "Yeah. I hope the others aren’t as strong as him." Lucavi adds.
        "Well if we want to get an early start tomorrow, we should get some rest." Chantelle suggests.
        "I agree. We have all had a long and tiring day. It would be wise to rest up now, considering we need to stop Diablos’ resurrection as soon as possible." Melanie says agreeably.
        "I shall get my servants to prepare everything for tomorrow. Don’t worry, everything will be taken care of. Everyone just get some rest." instructs Trevarius.
        "Alright. Goodnight everyone. I’ll see you in the morning." Solduvius concludes.
        Everyone goes upstairs to their rooms and gets to sleep while Trevarius and his servants get everything ready for their journey tomorrow.