Strength

Casper tried to adjust to his new settings, but it was difficult. When he left his world, it was summer and bright. Where he was now was dark, dank, and just plain creepy. It was a forest, but like no forest he's ever seen. The trees were dead, and there was blood everywhere. The sky looked like a sun never existed. There was a story told to young children about how the old witch on chicken legs would come to eat them if they didn't behave. Of course Casper never believed in all those stories, but considering this forest, he wouldn't be surprised if the witch herself busted through the trees with a kid's leg in her hand and covered in blood.

Heit and that guy, Phear, had left him behind to find his own way because they went to round up other people. Apparently, he wasn't the only one dragged into this world. Anyways, this would be a good time for Marisa to pop up. Casper looked around. He could sense her presence, but where was she? He finally spotted her glow in a clearing. She was kneeling next to a tree. He walked up to her. "Marisa?"

"This was the place." Marisa said, although he wasn't sure if she was talking to him. Her hands were at chest level, trembling, and she couldn't stop staring at them. Tears were silently falling off her face. "This was the place that I..."

Casper could feel her connect her mind to him. He could see her and a younger girl fighting. Marisa didn't look much different, maybe more naive, but she looked determined to win. The memory skipped ahead to Marisa dumping blood onto the younger girl and stabbing her. He saw Marisa beat the girl to death as a last resort and then take the heart out and bury it. He realized that this was the place that Marisa had buried the heart of her opponent.

"After that fight, I didn't want to go on. The next round had us trying to keep our partner alive, so I was able to convince my partner to help me. No one died then, so Phear changed it to a free for all battle. But it was too late, we had all banded together to fight. But sometimes I wonder if all of this was worth it."

Marisa looked so lost into her memories that Casper decided to leave her behind. She could always catch up later. He soon reached another clearing, this time more populated, with the oddest people ever been together.

On a stump was Heit. She was talking to the croud. Her body was flickering between her grey haired human form and her Phear Realm form, but her Phear Realm form was more prominant. "Ahem 'Welcome, everyone, to my tournament. It is so nice to have you all here! The first round is one of the most crucial, for we get to see what you are all actually capable of! Now, for this round you shall be paired up with another contestant and you two will be fighting against each other. You two will fight to the death. Only rule is: Make sure Reyn has something to bring back to me!'" quoted Heit as she stood in front of the contestants.

Jumping off from the stump she stood upon, Heit went to all of the contestants and handed them a pill. As she did so, she gave an explanation, "Take these pills with some sort of food, which Sahn and Naid will provide for you as soon as you enter the forest. Once these are taken, a temporary mark will appear on the back of your hand. This mark will have the initials of your opponent." After giving the last contestant their pill, Heit stood back up upon the stump. "Side-effects include Dizzyness, Gradual Blindness, Overheating, and Fatigue. Now, without further a-due, may the round begin!"

Casper stared at the pill, unsure about eating the pill. It looked dirty and unsanitary. He could see that other people were debating silently whether to take it or not, but one by one, they all left into the trees. Wanting to get as far from the other contestants as possible in hopes of avoiding a battle, he went a different direction. As he walked deeper, he found a hollowed out tree he decided to call home away from home. This tournament looked like it would take more than a day and it's a good idea to have a place hidden away to rest, heal, and recharge. After making a makeshift bed and door, he pulled a dead bush out and covered the entrance.

"Well, hiya!" Casper whirled around, arm changed to a sword. A being with two heads stood behind him, one smiling, one frowning. Now and then, Casper caught a glimpse of two different boys, but it was faint. "Whoa, whoa! Just came bearing food." Casper relaxed, his arm reverting back to normal.

"I knew he'd attack. It was only a matter of time." The one on the right said.

"No matter, Naid! It was only a fluke!" The one on the right piped up cheerfully. Casper took a closer look.

Casper's heard of children being born joined at some part of their body. The adults and elders called them the 'blessed' ones because, if they survived, dual magic is a lot more powerful and they have a telepathic connection that can be extended to others temporarily. Other than that, there isn't much known about blessed ones. These two (or one? How do you classify a being like this?) didn't look too different from what Casper's heard about blessed ones. They were joined at the hip, but only had one pair of legs while blessed ones normally had all their body parts and they looked darker, more shady, despite their bright shades of orange, blue, yellow, and red. The two each had a tattoo on his face with a sun and a moon respectively. A giant jacket, half black and blue checkered and half orange polka-dotted, hid the rest of their body, where they were joined. "I'm guessing you're Sahn and Naid?" Casper asked carefully.

"Yuppers! Here!" Casper caught a brown package tied with string. He opened it and found some meat. Wait, their hands are tied, how did they throw it at him? He looked up, but Sahna and Naid was gone. Shrugging, he quickly ate the meat. He took out the pill and, trying to suppress his gag reflex, swallowed it. Suddenly his right hand burned and then cooled just as immediately. He took off his glove and saw the initials N.S. carved into his hand. "How is this useful if we don't know our opponent's name?"

"You ask them?" Marisa popped up. Her eyes were a little bloodshot and there were traces of sadness in her eyes, but other than that she looked recovered.

"Oh, there you are, Marisa." Casper looked up at the ghost girl. He quickly updated her about the events that transpired after he left her on the supposed grave. "I'm just about to cast a tracking spell. Two of them, actually." He first went to his little hidey tree. "Securum Pathus." A path of light shot from his pendant to the tree. It glowed for a few seconds before fading. Luckily for him, it was a basic spell, so it had the same affect on him as if  he had walked a few steps and if he focused, the beam of light will point him back to the tree. "There, now we can return to recharge. Now to track my opponent."

"Um, Casper, don't think you need to do that."

"Why not?"

"Because your opponent is only a few yards away and he's looking for someone with your initials."

--

"Is that him?" Casper whispered. He and Marisa were hiding behind trees, luckily for him. That spell must have taken more of a toll than he had expected because he could barely stand on his feet, so he leaned against the tree. They watched a boy go through the trees slowly. He was rubbing his eyes and now and then he bumped into something.

"Yeah. Wonder whats wrong with him, he seemed to be ok when I last saw him."  Blindness. Casper realised that he was being affected by the aftereffects of the pill. This is a good time to attack.

"Casper, wait-" Casper leaped out, his arm turned into a sledgehammer, and tackled the boy. They fell hard. Casper saw surprise register in his eyes, but not much else. Is he N.S.?
"Get off!" Suddenly, he was shoved off. Loosing his breath for a second, he quickly got up, but fatigue hit him hard, causing him to sway a little.

"Are you N.S.?" He asked, grounding himself.

The boy looked up in shock. "Yeah. Nick Silanus."

Casper wordlessly took off his glove and revealed the initials, then put the glove back on. Nick stared. He raised his hand and Casper saw a C.

With a yell, Casper changed his arm to a sword and pinned Nick against the tree. "I'm Casper." Nick suddenly kicked him, causing him to stumble back, nearly losing his balance in fatigue. It was going to be hard to battle with the fatigue.

Luckily for him, Nick seemed in just as bad of a place as he was. Now Nick's eyes are completely blank and he was swiveling his head to try to see something.

He's blind and I'm weakened. How can I use this to my advantage? Well, Nick can't see where Casper is, so he has the element of surprise. Casper quickly went in for the kill. A twig snapped under his feet. Suddenly Nick whipped out his gun and shot towards him. Luckily Marisa was able to put up a shield in time to block the shot. He can hear me! I'm going to have to find out how else to kill him off. He contemplated creating a long javelin from his arm and stab him from where he is, but the ache in his arm from trying quickly crossed that idea out.

"Are you able to use your magic?" Marisa asked, mentally.

Not fatally, that's a higher leveled  magic. But using magic is a good idea for distractions. Casper scanned the area. Spying the tree to Nick's left, he started to prepare a spell. "Thordra!" A lightning bolt hit the tree, making a loud, crackling sound. Unfortunately, Nick heard Casper say the incantation and lunged forward with a dagger. Casper dodged it, only to snap the twig again, letting Nick know where he was.

Casper turned and ran, hoping to lose Nick in the run, but he left a path of the sounds of snapped twigs and dead leaves, allowing Nick to track him down. Nick was fast, really fast, and Casper was practically dead from fatigue. He quickly ducked behind a tree, stopping all sounds. Nick also stopped and stood still, trying to track any sounds. Casper quickly balled up his hat and breathed heavily into it to muffle any sounds.

He suddenly became aware of a burning feeling in his chest. At first he disregarded it and thought of it as him out of breath, but soon it spread and he realised that he was starting to heat up. Great, just what I need, another fun symptom. He suddenly got  an idea.

--

NIck stood in complete silence. He became aware of all the sounds in the woods. The rustling of  dead leaves in the trees. Distant yelling and fighting, but that was too far for it to be Casper. But other than that, there were no sounds. Wait. There's some whispering to the left. He creeped closer. That's Casper's voice. Nick drew his gun before he suddenly became aware of a burning sensation. He also realised that he could see again. He was in front of a dead tree and he could see that Casper was facing him, his eye blank.

Before he could react, Casper shouted, "Pyronia Max!" The burning feeling suddenly escalated to painful levels. Shocked, he dropped his weapons. He looked at his arms and saw that his arms were on fire, as were his legs. His skin was slowly being roasted and he could feel himself slowly numbing as the fire burned away at his nerve endings. The acrid smell of burnt skin filled the air. He howled in pain.

"Aquator Min! Vinera!" Nick suddenly felt water splash on him, an immense relief, and a tightening at his chest as his arms are pressed to his side. He looked up. Casper's eyes were still blank, but it was clear that his eyes were clearing up. Nick saw that he was tied up by vines.

"Why did you stop? I could have died and it would have been over." Nick croaked.

"I didn't want to watch you die in pain." Casper said. Burning was a very painful way of dying and Pyronia did not give off smoke to smother the victim to have them die in a less painful style nor does it ultimately kill to prolong the pain.

"Ok then. I lost. Even if you drop dead right there, I can't fight in this condition." Nick laughed. "I'm curious though, what exactly did you do?"

"Exchandition. It's a spell that exchanges statuses between two people. I made you overheat while I received your blindness and then I used the overheat to make it easier for my fire spell to have you catch on fire. I was originally planning on letting burn but..." Casper trailed off.

"It became too much for me and Casper." Marisa popped up.

Nick's eyes widened."Is that a ghost?"

Casper stared at him in shock. "You can see Marisa?"

Nick only nodded, but then shook his head. "Stop stalling. Just finish me off."

Casper gulped. "R-right." He turned his arm into a sword. He aimed at Nick's heart, but his arm trembled.

Marisa rested her hand on his shoulder. "Can I make it easier for you?" She swooped to Nick's side. She brushed  away a stray hair from his face. "I can take Nick's soul to the afterlife. I can open the door between the living and the dead. His body would become a hollow shell. He would have a peaceful death." She turned to Casper. "But you have to kill the husk. It could still move and talk. It might act  on Nick's will to kill you and it will not rest, not matter the conditions." Casper only nodded. Marisa started to concentrate.

Nick turned his head to Casper. "Her name is Jazmine. She has orange hair and she's really talkative, but she was like a mother to me. Save her." His eyes were pleading Casper to respond.

"I-I will." Casper nodded.

"The portal is done, we have to go." Marisa said.

"You know, we could have been great friends if it was on different terms." Casper suddenly said.

Nick stared, but he nodded. "Who knows how it could have been." He closed his eyes, at peace. "I'm ready."

Marisa sank her hands deep into his head and pulled out a small light. It flickered, but glowed. "Casper, remember finish it off fast. And..." She sudden;y looked uncomfortable. "For my own sake, please take the heart out and hide it somewhere. Don't let anyone find it." She turned and disappeared into the afterlife with the light. Nick's body sagged forward, the vines disappearing. His eyes turned black and all color was gone.

"Wha-?" Casper stared in shock. Did she ask for the heart?

The husk attacked when Casper least expected it, taking the gun and shooting it. Luckily for him, it hit his right arm, not doing too much damage.

"Damnit!" Casper didn't kill it in time! Now it's going to be harder. He changed his arm into a battleaxe. Now that Nick's soul was gone, he could go full out. He struck the husk with the battleaxe, slicing off the right arm. The husk simply switched the gun to its left hand, not even paying attention to the blood staining the fabric and continued to shoot.

"Marisa's right. This is going to hard."  Time to change tactics. He changed his arm to a circular saw and lunged at the right leg, sawing it off. The husk fell, but it continued shooting at him. He kept blocking the shots with the saw. "Can't get close to it." He had an idea.

"Pyronia Max!" The husk exploded into flames. The husk kept flailing, but the gun and dagger was melted to the point of being a puddle. While Pyronia was not effective against living creatures, it did wonders against items.

Casper dowsed the husk to be able to approach it. He turned his arm to a sword and stuck it through the head. The skull shattered against the force and grey matter began to ooze. He pulled it out out and shuddered at the bits of grey matter stuck to the blade. He quickly changed it to a surgical blade and quickly got to work cutting the heart out. Once the task was done, Casper dug a hole in the ground and put the heart in it. He then filled the hole again. Suddenly feeling exhausted from all that had happened, he stumbled to the nearest tree and shut his eyes.

--

"..ster...OI!" Was that all a dream? He's really at home and this was all a nightmare? Yeah! That's really a kid outside his window trying to get Casper to play with him! There's no Phear or Heit! No killing, no tournament, and Rosella is in the room next to him right now, studying! Casper stirred and opened his eyes.

Frankly, he was wrong. He didn't see his room, or the sun. What he did see was a little girl sitting on his lap, staring at him. He knocked his head against the tree in shock and fell to the right. Seeing the bits of brain, now dried, stuck on his arm, turned back in his sleep, made him jump to his feet, dropping the girl.

"Well, that was rude!" The girl's face looked delighted, like she had fun scaring him awake. Out of nowhere, she pulled out a rainbow lollypop and started to lick.

"Sorry, little girl. Isn't it dangerous for you to be out in this forest?" Casper apologized.

She stomped her legs. "No no no! I'm a YEAR older than you, don't you get it?!" Casper blinked. What was this girl's problem? "Anyways it's your fault for sleeping on Constance! Now she's got an ugly yellow color!"

"Excuse me?" Casper looked around, but he didn't see anyone else, but Nick's old body. Seeing it so mangled thanks to him made him queezy. He decided to distract himself and focused on the girl. She looked goth, with a rose adorned eyepatch and black, grey, and white clothes.

"The tree! The tree!" She looked at Casper like it was the most obvious thing ever and walked up to the tree. "BOO!" The tree changed from yellow to purple. Then she hugged the tree. "Sorry, but purple looks way better than yellow. Don't worry, we'll have a tea party later!" The tree turned an even darker hue of purple, as if it was the last thing it wanted. She suddenly clapped her hands. "Right. Job!" She skipped to Nick's corpse and started to drag it away. "You know, I'm not even going to ask about the heart. I'm busy, busy!" She soon disappeared into the dark.

"Who was that chick?"

"That's Reyn." Marisa popped up. "Phear's retriever. She takes the bodies."

"What does she do to them? Force them into tea parties?" Casper asked in disbelief.

Marisa shook her head. "I have no clue."

"She acted like she knew me. But I'm pretty sure I'd remember a girl like her."

"She probably thought that you were me." Catching Casper's shock, Marisa started to wave her arms. "What I mean is that... umm... you look a lot like me and the minimal differences probbably don't register to Phearlets."

"You call genders MINIMAL?!" Casper shouted.

"Eheheh..." Marisa laughed nervously.

"How's Nick?" Casper suddenly asked.

"He adjusted well. There was a moment while you were fighting his husk that he felt all the pain it endured, but in the end he finally settled."

Casper's eyes darkened. "So I caused him pain anyways."

Marisa embraced Casper as much as a nonsubstantial ghost could. "What matters is that he's finally at peace." She broke off. "Where is his heart?" Casper pointed to the partial grave. "Can you do the tracking spell?"

"Why?"

"There might be a time when you want to come back. I know I did before with..." Both of them knew what Marisa was talking about so they kept quiet. He performed the spell again. "Say... you know, there was a creek close by your hidey tree. Wanna go wash up?"

Casper sighed. This is really happening, isn't it? "Ok, sure."

--

"Wow, your hidey-tree really is spacious for, well, a tree."

"Yeah." Casper said distractedly.

"Bet you can fit a lot of people here." No reply. "Maybe about six-ish people. Maybe even-"

"Marisa!" Casper shot up. His eyes were flaring in anger. "I am not going to mass everyone together to fight against Phear. We are going to go through this tournament, kill the least people, rescue everyone, and bring them home. You all died when you defeated Phear, I don't see why we should!" Truthfully, he wanted to band everyone together, to storm the castle, to defeat Phear. But he also wanted to go home. He wanted to rescue Rosella and Jazmine, everyone. And that wish won out. An uncomfortable silence settled. Casper turned to leave.

"You won't be able to." Marisa said soflty.

Casper spun around. "What did you say?"

"Phear does something to the refugees. It changes them to something like Reyn. It'll be impossible."

"It is NOT impossible!" Casper yelled. "Have you even tried?!" He immediately regretted saying that. Marisa's eyes grew wide, then soft. Tears started to spill out. She removed her hat to cover  her face, then she disappeared to who knows where. Casper ran his hand through his hair and put his hat back on. He left the tree and hid the entrance, hoping that Marisa would return during that time. She didn't. Luckily, she had pointed the way to the river, so he started walking.