The Tale of how I met the Executioner.

Before their departure I saw Velacia blackmailing some poor guy into watching over The Salty Hound, an action which I couldn't exactly explain my feelings over.

"So what's the plan?" Torrikkusatu asked in a excited voice as he rubbed his hands together anxiously.

"I haven't gotten to that yet. All I know is that she can't stay." I concurred.

"And you can tell she's not already dead because if she was you'd be forced back home." Torrikkusatu said, though it sounded more like a question.

"Yeah that about sums it up."

Slowly I noticed a gathering of people heading into the second bailey.

"Did you hear? Cross is gonna execute another demon. How does he find them?" A pedestrian said.

Upon hearing that me and Torrikkusatu seemed to both understand what that could've meant.

There was a hoard of people we had to push through, many of them were not exactly wanting to move. Before we even made it to the other side the crowd roared in excitement.

Finally we made it to the other side even if we angered about half the castle we saw a large wooden stand very obviously where executions were done, a bloodied chopping block was prepare along with a basket.

"Wow this is a lot of people." A man with identical features with the psychologist said with a wide smile on his face. "When me and Lothrin started this we never thought we'd get so popular, but evidently we were far from the only one's who were scorned by the vile demonkind. But I'm not here to give a speech, I'm here to kill a demon!" As he shouted a large two-handed execution sword appeared in his hand decorated with words I couldn't read from my distance on it. "And so by giving you death, I free from my subjects your pestilent life."

A cart was brought out with a man wearing tattered clothing and a execution hood, I was relieved when he removed his hood as it proved it wasn't Makono but at the same time I recognized the person up there as Fyr the person who helped Makono.

"Are you relieved Tokuma Jiroki? Don't worry your girlfriend is fine, I have a special treatment in plan for her." The executioners voice echoed in my head. "Just like you,"

The crowd began roaring "CRANN! CRANN! CRANN!"

Crann took his blade from his shoulder and grabbed it with both hands.

He spread his legs and held the sword over his head, Fyr struggled in place but his binds were too tight.

Soon Crann's blade fell and swiftly decapitated Fyr the blood sprayed on a 'Lucky' few of observers.

"Well at least it isn't Makono." Torrikkusatu said optimistically.

"We have to free her." I whispered in response.

Crann took a few bows before leaving the stand.

"The demon brat isn't in the jail by the way, she's held up in the palace that's where all our special guests go. Good luck getting her out before she's dead... Or worse."

Crann casually walked away with a smile it wasn't until he left my line of sight I began speaking with Torrikkusatu again. "We need to split up, can you search the jails?"

Torrikkusatu nodded with a confused look. "That was the plan wasn't it? Where are you going?"

"The palace."

Torrikkusatu didn't attempt to hide his confusion but he didn't bother to ask as he knew we were in a time sensitive situation.

Me and Torrikkusatu split up , luckily the palace was massive so finding it wasn't difficult.

I was soon met with a another gate house separating me from the third bailey where the palace was.

Fortunately for me however the guards were still closing it after Crann used it on his way back so I was abled to use vanish and sneak inside.

The third bailey had only a few houses, five to be exact. Each were extravagant and huge but none compared to the palace. It appeared to be made of polished marble with golden strains embedded in the marble, it had several stained windows depicting who could only be Lothrin due to his obvious similarities with Lux such as golden blond hair, a muscular structure, and a annoyingly well built face.

I put the creepy stained windows to the side and ran to the palace only to be met with an invisible wall.

"The hell?" I said as I placed my hand against the wall.

"Whoops.". Crann's voice taunted. "I forgot about that, however will you get in? And before your precious demon whore starts sleeping the big sleep?"

I slammed my hand against the wall only to be launched back by a invisible force. "You damn coward!"

"How ironic a man who is to scared to even leave the safety of his invisibility spell should say that. A person who snuck behind our lines with a false name and title, you'd dare call me a coward? How pathetic."

"Don't fall for it." A familiar creepy voice said as I felt a hand getting placed on my shoulder.

I was surprised to see Cut standing behind me.

I reached for my dirk immediately. "What do you want?"

Cut stumbled back then waved his hand through the invisible wall. "I can help, Fry may have been a traitor but he was still one of us, I won't let Crann get away with killing him. I couldn't care less about your little girlfriend. But the executioner will pay for what he did." Cut explained , I wanted to protest, to deny his help, but I was desperate.

"Fine, let's go."

Cut lifted the invisible wall like a mime allowing me to pass through without difficultly.

I walked down a polished, whitewashed, stone path leading to the giant doors of the palace, on my left and right were plots of gorgeous flowers being tended to by the gleeful servants. As I got closer to the doors I noticed my vanish disappearing.

"Oh yeah, there's kinda a anti-magic wall around the palace, hope you don't mind?" Cut said with a chuckle. "It's a conditional spell, Lothrin and his trusted Generals like moi can cast magic no problem, but guests are powerless. Hope you don't get cold feet."

I knew that would mean a substantial setback but complaining wouldn't help, I began searching the palace.

Most of what I'd explored was rooms larger then any house I'd ever been in, and those were for the servants.

As I turned around a corner the unthinkable happened.

"Are you Eldin Cross?" Lothrin said as he stared me down with curious eyes.

Immediately I put on my fanboy face and kneeled on the ground. "Oh my Lord I'm so-"

"Don't play me for a fool, I saw the look in your eyes when you first saw me, your afraid. Why would you be afraid though? Your not at all supposed to be here for sure but that's not it. You could be scared for your life, but if you were afraid of me you shouldn't be joining my army. So tell me Cross," Lothrin said as he crouched to meet me at my eyes as he was actually that big. "What is it that you fear?"

I stuttered an answer before calming down. "I've heard about you son assembling a resistance, I fear that the rumors are true, that your flesh and blood would betray you, if he's as powerful as you then we could be in trouble." I said as convincing as I could.

Lothrin placed his enormous hand over my head. "Don't worry, he's just confused I'm sure he'll listen to reason once I beat it into him."

I nervously chuckled as I slipped by and continued searching for Makono.

"I forgot to ask what he was doing." Lothrin said as he watched me run off. "Though he would probably only lie about that too."

"That was closer then I'd like." I said exhausted and relieved that I made it out of that situation alive.

I saw a door with various locks on it yet none were actually locked and the door was actually slightly open. As I reached for the handle I heard hurried footsteps.

"I've found her, loverboy." Cut shouted hastily. "Oh you don't want to open that door, that's my room."

I was intrigued but I couldn't waste anymore time, I shut the door and turned to Cut so he could lead me to Makono.

He led me through various halls that he would've had no time to completely explore, it was as though he randomly picked doors and went down them. Or he knew where he was going.

Eventually we found Crann sitting on a stool in a dark barlike room with his blades tip on the ground and his hands around it's handle as though he was waiting for us.

"Took you long enough, if I wanted to I could've killed that brat. Lucky for you guys it's like I said, I've got plans for the two of you." Crann sneared as he lifted his sword over his shoulder.

"What the hell Cut! I thought you said you found her." I shouted in anger, I felt my fist heat up with white flames.

"Wow your flames are even hotter then Gurak's royal flames. Oops pretend I didn't say that. What I meant is that Crann is the key to finding your girlfriend. The palace is covered in hidden doors and such even I don't know where all of them are, chances are he's hiding her in one of them."

I wasn't gonna let what he said about Gurak's flames go unnoticed but I didn't have the time to ask.

"Listen to your friend Tokuma, he's right. Beat me and I'll lead you right to her no questions asked. If you lose however, I'll kill her in front of you."

I growled as I placed my hand on my sword and shifted my body to a more defensive position extending my left foot forward pointing at Crann while pivoting my right foot horizontally.

*********

"Damnit, damnit, damnit, damnit..." Torrikkusatu chanted as he ran through the prison at break neck speeds abandoning all hope of stealth.. "Where is she!? I want an excuse to go to the palace damnit! How else am I gonna fight against Lothrin and his five generals! Unless, don't tell me that little edge-lord did this on purpose. He knew all the strong guys were at the castle, he just wants to hog all the fun! Eldin Cross! You bastard!"

Soon Torrikkusatu was swarmed with guards, blocking the exit.

He cracked his knuckles and grinned. "You know what, Maybe the little turd ain't that bad after all."

********

"Somehow she made it before us." Musashi said gazing at Castle Lothrin in awe.

"I guess were gonna have to storm the castle!" Graxia cheered.

"Don't get too excited this won't be easy. Luckily you guys have me to show you around." Miyamoto smugly said.

********

Lux sat in his office reading an invisible letter as Luna stood by impatiently. "This is bad, I knew this would happen."

"Don't keep us in suspense!" Usagi roared.

"Yes ma'am! The Organization has Makono. We can't let them kill her. We have to begin our assault and stop that from happening no matter what." Lux hastily answered.

********

Makono hung from her arms bound in chains in a dark room littered with rusted torturing instruments. Her body had already suffered through a lot, shallow cuts were professionally placed on her side cutting into her dress, her stomach had been beaten by a wooden bat leaving it bruised and battered, across her face were various webs of cuts.

"Ah the one who got away. You should've died with the rest of your people you selfish coward." A hooded man said.

"Crann. I should've known. You should know this won't end well, I have friends now and they won't let you get away with this."

" Oh? Like Tokuma Jiroki? He's a little occupied at this moment. You see I'm not just a mind reader, I can also make exact duplicates of whoever I want. Myself included." Crann showed Makono through a mirror his clone and who he was fighting. "As long as I have more or the same power as whoever I clone it will even duplicate it's victims powers your friends gonna die, and your gonna watch it happen."