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The clouds that had once darkened the skies had completely dissipated and the sun had once again illuminated the sky as it had done for so long. The plane of Ethereal lay in ruins under the sun's gaze with the exception of one building which was left standing. Although it's foundations were stable, the marbled building itself had sustained quite a bit of damage, clearly the subject of indirect attacks. Inside the building, the five goddesses sat inside the main room in a circular formation while Kinohki lay resting in another room.

By now, Pronima was back in her usual armor and sighed dejectedly, staring at the floor in an embarassed manner. As the meeting progressed, Nymia was the first to speak.

"So tell me again, what was that power I saw over the horizon while waiting at the Revival Spring?"

Masamune dropped her head lightly, as if saddened as she spoke.

"It was Kin..."

Nymia arched an eyebrow in skepticism as she replied.

"So you're telling me that display back there was not you fighting him or sparring, but rather him going berserk? Did he attack any of you?"

Muramasa spoke in for her sister, a somewhat annoyed tone in her voice. "First off, don't talk such rot. Kin wouldn't attack us for no reason. He attacked Pronima with a valid reason. I don't blame him for that at all. Infact I would've done the exact same thing in his shoes.

What you saw over the horizon was what we've deemed an Energy Releasage. Asura warned us of those yet we refused to believe her. Kin's energy is rising exponentially. That's apparent now. It seems that his body can't hold it for very long without having to let some of it out. Doing this, he has a chance that he may be destroyed by that energy being released. The resulting blast has enough power behind it to destroy an entire plain, or so Asura claims. She's rarely wrong about these things as well. That's what scares me."

Nymia nodded in an understanding manner.

"So, what shall we do then..?"

Pronima suddenly slammed her fist in the ground as she growled. "We kill the little s**t."

The other four just blinked in disbelief for a few moments before Crystania spoke.

"We can't kill him. We may have created him, but what right do we have to take his life? Especially since he's going to die anyways. Have you taken the time to actually look at his face? He knows it. He tries to hide it behind that false smile and in all honesty, it sickens me. I couldn't just kill him.."

Masamune nodded in agreement with Crystania. "I'm also far too attatched to him to just kill him. You three may be colder than us two, but still. I agree with Crysa. What right do we have to take what little life he has left? It's not only morally wrong but just evil as well..."

Muramasa sighed dejectedly. "I agree with you and Crysa, sister. However, we must think on a larger scale. Yes it is very cold to bring an early demise to him. I understand this. But if we don't, there's that chance that we'll all die, and Ethereal will be destroyed. I love my home so I can't just sit idly by while it suffers in an uncertain peril."

Nymia was the next to speak. "I agree with Muramasa. We have no choice Masamune, I'm sorry for that. I'm not as cold as you like to believe. I see how it's wrong on so many levels as well, but some sacrifices must be made for the greater good. Pronima simply wants revenge. I can tell that already, but as wrong as her ambitions are, the end result may be the best solution."

Pronima just clenched her fists silently, her normally beautiful face horrendously twisted with rage. "..."

Crystania spoke up. "Let's not forget. Remember what happened when we attacked him last time? We got beaten...Badly. We have even taken up teaching him and we all know how quickly he learns. He's probably by now, one hundred times stronger than what we fought back then. We witnessed that with Pronima. His abilities to actually harness a Runic Cannon are devastating. That ability is supposed to kill the Celestial, yet he's still alive. Does anyone else not see a massive problem with that plan?"

Muramasa clenched her fist and lightly smacked the palm of her opened left hand with it, indicating she had an idea.

"I've got it. We'll keep him for a while longer. During that time, we wait for the next releasage to happen, that's when he's weakened most. At that time, we'll strike. All in favor?"

Nymia and Pronima nodded lightly.

Masamune and Crystania both sighed dejectedly in unison as Masamune spoke sadly. "Three against two..I see how it is." She then stood up and walked towards the door to where Kinohki lay. Stopping just infront of it she turned and looked at the other four. Crystania stood up and angrily ran off to another room to be alone.

Masamune donned an angry face, narrowing her eyes in the utmost seriousness. "I will not have any part of this plan. You three are on your own." With that she walked in and sat down next to Kinohki, a few tears rolling down her face as the plan was decided. She then leaned forward and lay her head on his chest lightly, whispering.

"I know you can hear me..You're the one that takes care of those two aren't you..?" She chuckled lightly. "I have good faith in you. Protect this one for me. Help him to live a long life. In the coming weeks I'll show him an escape route. You learn it well too because he is horrible with directions. He'll need your guidance and you know quite a bit about the Sentient plane as well. That is his best option of retreat. The others are planning to assassinate him in the coming weeks after he has another releasage. You've plenty of time to prepare him, however they're going to act as if nothing happened so don't be fooled. Also, don't let him know until the night you escape. I don't want him going berserk on them. They're just misguided and scared, so please.. Please..Take care of him for me."

With that, Masamune let out a few more tears and fell asleep on the young Celestial's chest.

The young Celestial took a few days to recover from the energy surge. As Masamune said, the other goddesses were acting normal as if they had never had the meeting in the first place. As usual, the time began to pass quickly, Kin being rotated between the goddesses for his daily training. However, losing his ability to shadow phase, the young Celestial faced a larger problem with Pronima. Oddly enough though, he just accepted the punishments from her, never once fighting back. Instead, he would close his eyes or stare at the wall quietly and every night he would watch the door with a fearful gaze.

Over time, the goddesses began growing scared, somewhat impatient as no releasage had happened in several weeks. In the main room, they would meet each night as Kin slept, debating on the course of action. Fearing the worst may be soon, Masamune woke Kinohki in the middle of the night and took him out of the building heading east.

Showing him around the marbled path and across a few rope bridges over some large chasms, she brought him to a large temple. The temple was massive, it's stone structure was black as night, composed completely of obsidian. The doors were very large reddish in color, held shut with a large silver metal bar which acted as a lock and spanned the entirety of both doors and was held by two J shaped hooks on each side of the door. Clearly, the metal bar had to be lifted or either cut to open the doors.

Masamune nodded lightly as she spoke. "I can only show you this once. If I risk more than that, the others will catch on to me. Just remember this. Follow the path of the rising moon and strike down the silver guardian. Once inside, remember this. The Air feeds the Flames which is extenguished by the Water. You'll know what to do when the time comes." With that she took the young Celestial back to their home. "Make sure you lock your door tomorrow night." After saying that Masamune walked upstairs quietly.

The next day passed as Kinohki stayed in his room all day. Soon the night fell and the moon began to rise in the eastern sky. Laying down, Kinohki stared at the ceiling puzzled. After a moment, a voice seemed to ring in his mind.

"Dude...That's some heavy stuff. I never knew Masamune was able to be so cryptic. She's kind of creepy, but wow...She's still one hot momma. right bro?"

Kinohki chuckled lightly as he just seemed to whisper inaudibly to himself.

"It's you again. How come you've been so quiet lately?"

The voice seemed to think for a moment to reply.

"Well bro, you may not know this, but there are three little hotties out there that plan on assassinating you. The initial plan was to wait for you to have a releasage. Masamune sweetie wanted me to keep you in the dark as to prevent any ruckus. She wanted you to realize they're not bad people, they're just scared so she didn't want you going all berserker on them and killing them."

Kinohki nodded lightly.

"I see. So we use the door as a lock, fake a body under the blankets using pillows and sneak out right?"

The voice laughed. "And here I always called you a simple minded imbecile. Totally impressive dude, bout time you figured out what was going on, and remaining calm too. Totally gnarly bro. So any case, Masamune and Crysta were on our side. I've told you several times of your current situation, you're well aware by now of your life and it's possibilities."

Kinohki nodded silently as the voice continued to speak. "Right bro. They thought it would be wrong to just up and kill you when you're doomed anyways. So anyways, we need to get going whlie we can."

He stood up silently and set some pillows under the blankets, covering them up to look like a body was there. With that he mumbled lightly. "Thanks Shade...I'd be lost without you.." At that moment, the latch to the door turned lightly, making a clicking sound which echoed through the room. However when attempting to slide the door opened, it wouldn't budge due to the lock. Instead it simply made a loud sound as it were being forced opened.

Shade picked up the sound immediately. "s**t! They've found us bro, book it for the window."

Kinohki ran to the window immediately and flung it open just as the door was ripped off the hinges by Pronima. Muramasa was standing next to her yet Nymia wasn't with them. The moment the window opened, Nymia jumped through it and struck Kinohki in the head with a heel sending him flying across the room and rolling into the wall.

Kinohki stood up and wiped off his forehead as Nymia just laughed lightly.
"The old out the window trick? Do you think we're that gullable Kinohki? You really are a child.."

Shade continued to offer advice in the young Celestial's mind. "Remember bro, don't kill them. Rough them up a bit if you have to but get out the window Asap. Remember, follow the rising moon." (Said as in the military term A-Sap.)

"Right." Kinohki agreed and charged Nymia quickly. At the moment she brought her staff down at Kinohki's head, he dodged it to the left and grabbed it with both hands. Flinging her around, he let go of the staff and lobbed her into the other two. Jumping out the window he bolted to the east, following the rising moon in the night sky. He soon came to the temple and looked around quickly.

"What do I do here Shade?"

Shade let out a simple sigh. "Damn dude, come on. Use that head of yours, don't you remember the riddles at all? I mean come on. You have two options. You can either cut through the Silver Guardian, which means cut through it, or you can raise it and open the doors."

Kinohki extended his crystalline right hand and withdrew the silver bladed, mirror finished sword, the Masamune. Quickly he sliced through the silver bar and kicked them out of the way. "We don't have time to lift it off, hope I made the right decision Shade." He then closed the door behind him.

In the darkness, two sapphire blue eyes glowed brightly. Masamune stepped out of the shade of a nearby tree, a small grin on her face as she spoke.

"I knew you'd make that decision.." With that she placed both hands palm out infront of the doors as both of the silver bars raised. She placed them back on the J shaped hooks and connected them as they fused together, as if never cut in the first place. "There, that should buy you some time. Live long Kin." With that she bolted off into the cover of the shade and into the night silently.

Behind the doors stood a very long hallway composed of what looked to be a marble building, the same construction as the other buildings that frequented the plane. However the floor here was different. It seemed to be transparent, invisible almost. As he took a step, a light pulse of energy seemed to spread outward from his foot, like a small ripple in a pond. Below the floor one could see a giant glowing crystal, which seemed to power the floor. On the marbled walls were lantern like structures containing white crystals which illuminated the hallway. Cautiously, he began to walk down the hallway, each step giving the same small energy ripple and causing a small ringing sound. Apparently the crystals on the wall were activated by this pulsing energy and sound.

Shade growled a bit annoyedly. "Bro, not to be mean or anything, but this is no time to be gawking at the scenery. Go down the hallway."

"Right..Right, sorry Shade.." Kinohki suddenly bolted off down the hallway. Upon reaching the end, he ran into a massive room with the same invisible floor and an even bigger crystal supporting it. Directly in the center of the room was a large archway with a large transparent pedestal. Like the rest of the other transparent objects, it had a crystal floating in the middle of it to provide power. However there were three slots in it, one containing a brilliant red ruby. Looking closer, the ruby glowed fiercly, inside the middle of it was a small flame.

The next slot contained a beautiful sapphire like gem which glowed in a tranquil manner. Looking closer at it, one would notice a simple bubble of water which seemed to distort itself in various shapes, eventually returning to it's bubble shape.

The final slot contained a elegant emerald which radiated greatly. Within the center of the emerald was a small whirlwind which blew violently.

Upon looking at the pedestal, the young Celestial thought for a moment.

"Shade?"

Shade aws silent for a moment as well. "Damn...I'm stumped bro. Maybe you have to activate them in a certain order...Touch them maybe? Let me think...Masamune sweetie said that the Air fed the Flames which was extinguished by the Water. So...Emerald is the wind, ruby is the fire and sapphire the water...Try touching them in that order and see what happens."

Kinohki hesitantly reached out and touched the emerald. Upon contact, it let out a beam to a matching emerald which was embedded in the top of the large archway.
Next he reached out and touched the ruby, again the ruby let out a matching beam of light to another ruby embedded in top of the archway. Finally he touched the sapphire, the same result.

Once the three beams hit the arch, another large pedestal raised infront of the archway, which apparently was a portal. This pedestal was white, marbled and had a keypad on it with strange markings. In the archway, a picture of another realm appeared, lush with green grass, forests and houses made of wood dotted the view of the horizon through it.

"What's this keypad?"

Shade thought for a moment. "I don't know bro, in all honesty leave it alone and go through the portal. It may be for setting coordinates. I don't have much experience with portals."

Kinohki ran past the pedestal, his arm however grazed some of keys on the mysterious keypad which beeped loudly. The picture suddenly changed to a large rock which contained a cavern in the middle of the ocean, but it was too late to stop as he had already jumped through. Landing on the rock on the other side, he looked around carefully, trying to find the way back. After a moment, a woman with pale blue skin wearing a matching dress walked out of the cavern. The dress clung closely to her skin, showing all her curves very well a small fang hung down over the corner of her lips. Long golden hair fell down her back combed straight, yet matted down near the end together in a seemingly sharp point. Looking down, she viewed Kinohki through two red eyes as her face suddenly gave a puzzled look.

"Where did you come from? We don't get many visitors out here on this rock..."

He shrugged and stood up, dusting himself off and looking eye to eye at the young woman. "I jumped through a portal to escape some people...Who...or rather what are you..?"

The woman just chuckled lightly. "My name is Silenia. I'm a Siren."

Next Chapter: The Journey Begins.