Double's Story

Double appeared before this little pow-wow.

"The time nears," she said.

"Ah yes..." chuckles Shu. "Your attack on Haven. I'm going to be honest, Double, I do not personally desire such an assault to happen, for I am quite fine with what that country is up to. But then, I do enjoy getting more guests down here, and perhaps I'll even cause some... additional damage once it is over."

"Looks like you demonic beings are planning something. An invasion perhaps?" Grimm seems interested.

"An assault, yes." replies Shu before turning to Double. "By the way, dear Double, I have a request... do not cause too much devastation. I want Haven still in somewhat good condition after you're done."

"Very well," Double replied.

"Excellent." says Shu before turning back to Grimm. "Now, Grimm, do you wish to join this attack, or go back to Dream Valley? I certainly can't keep a grade-A evil like yourself down here!"

"Bring me back to Dream Valley, Shu." Grimm decided, "I still got unfinished business to do. Dream Valley doesn't deserve happiness if you want my personal opinion anyway. Send me back to the surface! There's cleanliness to destroy."

"I agree entirely!" exclaims Shu. "Bon voyage, my friend!"

Shu snaps his fingers, and teleports Grimm back to somewhere in Dream Valley.

Leilanie leaves the training facility and takes a break from it. She encounters Roger Dee's corpse laying on the ground. It's rotting like hell, and it smells like crap. Leilanie facepalms in front of his corpse.

"You just couldn't stop thinking about getting that fucking drink, could you?" Leilanie groaned, "You're lucky that I'm in a good mood. If you would at least stop whining about Coca Cola all the time, maybe you would have a better life without it."

"Mine was worse."

"How is that any tr---" Leilanie heard a familiar voice, "That voice..."

Leilanie turns her head towards a familiar swordsman. Karasz is curling himself into a ball, and is feeling more rejected and depressed from his own life. Leilanie is shocked that Karasz is also killed, but she does not know how.

"Karasz! How-- Oh jeez, don't tell me they got you too!"

"L-Leilanie...?" Karasz looks up to her and... looks away from her. "Don't look at me... I'm a failure... I blew it..."

"Huh?!" Leilanie heard Karasz's depressing tone, "What's gotten into you?"

"The whole world would be better off without me... I'm just a waste of flesh, bones, and blood..."

"HAHAHAHA!" laughs Shu, suddenly teleporting in front of Karasz and Leilanie. "This is delightful! Thurston, did I not say that we'd be seeing some of those heroes that rescued von Koopa again? And now, here are two of them already! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"SHUT UP!!!"

She wants to defend Karasz's self-esteem.

"Listen, Shu, I accepted your offer by taking Haven down due to its corrupted status, but I did not want my boyfriend to be ridiculed! Demons like you have no compassion for the unfortunate. Oh wait! They never do!"

"I failed! They have the right to do this. I'm a fucking monster..." Karasz mopes again and covers his face, "I don't deserve to live anymore... I might as well be dead like this... idiot next to me."

"WHAT?!!" Leilanie screamed at Karasz, "You rather follow the footsteps of a loser like him?"

"I tried to help Unitas, but all I got was insults and ridiculed. I was framed!! I WAS ABUSED FOR TOO DAMN LONG!!!" Karasz turned from his depression into rage, "IF UNITAS DON'T APPRECIATE MY EFFORTS, THEN I RATHER LET THE THE PLANET BURN IN THE--"

Leilanie slaps Karasz's face really hard to snap him out of it.

"Is that all you think about? Respect? You're so selfish, Karasz!" Leilanie sighed, "All you care about is yourself. You wanted to be the hero that you always dreamed of, but all that fame is really getting into your head."

"But... my sister is still kid--"

"Fuck your sister... well that didn't turn out right..." Leilanie groaned, "But seriously, forget about your sister! I think your top priority is to kick the living shit out of Haven. Hellborne is getting sick of their shit."

"Attack on Haven...?" Karasz looks at Leilanie, "A-Are you sure...?"

"Why, did they already lock you up in there? ...Judging by your depression, I think they did."

"...Y-Yeah.... They... treated me like I'm a.... No.. I brought this upon myself!"

"Urggh..." Leilanie groaned, "Karasz, are you really that selfish and mopey?"

"Shut up... I might.. might well be the... next butt monkey... I suffered long enough."

"HMM?!!!!" All of a sudden, Roger Dee's corpse seems to move. Is he coming a zombie, or is he trying to revive himself?

Thurston joins Shu in his laughter.

"Oh, yes!" said Thurston. "No respect for the unfortunate at all! ... Says the foul-mouthed assassin who killed 200 farmers and didn't even hesitate when asked to indiscriminately murder people of Haven."

It's then that Thurston hears Karasz' rage.

"Well, if you want the world to burn," said Thurston. "Who better to turn to then the lord of hellfire?"

Thurston, with a flourish and jazz hands, indicates Shu.

"Hmm... yes..." says Shu, suddenly grabbing Karasz by the throat and inspecting him. "I could mould you into one of my hell knights, Zaritoni--given the state your mind is already in, it wouldn't take too much work."

"Wait a minute!! You mean to tell me that they're actually farmers and not bandits?!" Leilanie is shocked to hear that it was all lie, "Fucking hell... How--"

"NNRGGHH!!!" Karasz struggled and gagged. "Just.. end--"

"Karasz!" Leilanie took out her kunai and aimed at Shu's head, "Let go of him, you son of a bitch! I never agreed to let you hurt him!"

"YOU STOLE MY ROLE!!!" Roger suddenly comes up and tackles Karasz out of Shu's hands and bashes him with a sweeper, "YOU THINK YOU GOT PROBLEMS?! MINE WAS WORSE!! I HAVEN'T GOT A FREAKIN' COLA IN YEARS!!!! AND I AM NOT LETTING YOU TAKE THE TOP PRIORITY OF BEING A PITIFUL BUTT MONKEY LIKE MYSELF!!!"

"Urk.." Karasz coughed blood, "Just... kill my soul.... end it all... my existence must--"

"SHUT UP, YOU STUPID FRIEND OF ALEXANDER VON IDIOT TURTLE BRAIN BACKSTABBING GOODKADOFKAP:K#L:KMG!L:!#$"!@:$#!!! Roger bashes Karasz repeatedly until... something coughs him out... Purple gas? "LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE BEING THE SECONDARY BUTT MONKEY, YOU STUPID BIG SHOT SON OF A BITCH!! YOU SNIVELING LITTLE HUNKY DORY PALOOKA! YOU---!!! YOU!!!!..... Why do you have purple gas coming out of your mouth?"

Karasz can not answer to Roger's raging question as he is now unconscious. Just as Leilanie is about to beat Roger up, a mysterious purple gas is forming into a demon. He laughed maniacally at Karasz as he no longer need to possess a swordsman. "I did it... I killed him."

Shu watches this entire scene with a large amount of glee.

"I did this for the dark lord, Thanatos... This so-called "chosen warrior" of the Ztar Crusaders is inadequate to be one of the saviors of Unitas." The gas, known as the Spirit of Despair, commented on Karasz, "Do you honestly believe that he was gullible enough to help those who are in need, but reject him like he is a wanted criminal? Heh heh.... pathetic... I will give credit to Majestic who transform this carefree human being into a revenge hungry lunatic. And I did this too... I manipulated his emotions and force him to fight his allies. Now my job here is finished. The swordsman deserves death just what the dark lord wishes him to have. Enjoy your afterlife in Hell!!"

The Spirit of Despair flies up to the skies and never returns to Hellborne again. Leilanie did not know about the sudden turn of events. Karasz twitches and slowly gets up from the ground, feeling dizzy after being controlled. Roger Dee is speechless. Did he actually snap Karasz back to his normal self?

"...I... uh...." Roger scratched his head.

"Karasz! Are you.. okay? Please don't tell me you're still selfish...."

"...I need a moment... I don't feel so good..." Karasz coughed, "God... what happened to me?"

"Your soul is mine, Zaritoni, that's all you need to know." remarks Shu. "Nothing else matters anymore. By the way, wench, this was already explained to you--those Sockonians you killed were both bandits and farmers. Oh, and dear Leilanie, this is for daring to point a weapon at me."

Shu then suddenly thrusts his claws straight through Leilanie's stomach. While this naturally doesn't kill her, it does hurt. A lot.

For some reason, Leilanie smirked at Shu and explodes into cloudy vapor. It has been revealed that Shu attacked the ninja log. Karasz growls at Shu while shaking his fist in front of him.

"You think you can have me and Leilanie be your little chew toys?! Well, I'm not gonna let you keep me in th--" Then he finds out that his sword is gone, "My sword!!"

Then a smoke bomb comes out of nowhere and evaporates the entire area. As the smoke clears out, Karasz and Roger Dee are not there anymore!

....

Unfortunately, they can't leave Hellborne. They're at the exit gate, but the barrier will not let them leave. Roger is having a seizure, while Karasz and Leilanie are dismayed that they will not leave Hellborne for a long time. Not now, but not yet.

"Oooh no you don't!" The Thug Leader appears behind the three, "You think you can escape Hellborne so easily? Satan let you off the hook for too long! But now since Shu is in charge, the rules have been changed! You forgot that you got to help us fight Haven first."

"Not when your leader tries to torture us for his fun!" Leilanie growled.

"Oh really? If you really want to get out of here, there are a couple of solutions you have to try. One will be simple but frustrating; Thurston will be happy to make a deal for you three. The other? You must help them take over Haven. If you really want your freedoms back, you'll have to earn it... But that's for Shu to decide."

Double appeared next to Leilanie.

"Do not forget - you are still under contract for this battle," Double reminded her. "If we must use this man as leverage to get your priorities straight..."

"Okay, fine... But Karasz needs to join too."

"Join-- what?!" Karasz blinks, "Why? Why would I want to join Hellborne?"

"Look, if you really want to leave, you must help them. Think about it, you hate Haven because they treat you like a criminal, right?" Leilanie is persuading Karasz to fight back, "I think this is the best way to bring pay back."

"....You know what... you're right!" Karasz is pretty angry about it, "I had enough of their draconian antics. If they think they can push me around and accuse me as a sick sex offender, then how about I should show them what I can really do... which has nothing to do with terrible crimes in general."

"Can I help too...?" Roger asked.

"....Okay. But don't whine about colas, okay?" Leilanie accepted him.

"Oh, I'm sure you three won't be disappointed." The Thug Leader is assuring them, "But if he catch you running away from the battle, Shu will have no choice but to keep you three permanently."