Paladins Pride

Two Friends...

Cowritten with ChaosDancer12 and part of the Sins of Mara series

It would be Autumn soon, the air had a crispness to it, and the leaves were less vibrant.

Cross leaned against the ancient Oak tree, it's hard bark pressing against his spine, through his clothes. It was getting late.. The Sun was an hour or so past noon. A soft sigh escaped him, it looked like Epic was either running late, or duties had kept him from coming.

"Cross!" He suddenly heard, as an unmarked Skeleton appeared, running towards him, panting. "Sorry for being late... The old Elder needed an extra hand with the town's records today."

Cross shifted, and he grinned, his sword tapping against his leg as he did so. "You really need to escape that Elder faster, I swear that he has no life."

Epic chuckled, as he stopped moving, when he got to the old Oak Tree. "I know, but the Town is so small that I can't really get out of his requests for help, without causing problems. I have nowhere else to go, and the Town respects the fact that I don't want to fight. No offense to your King, but I'm not a fighter, and I don't want to be one... Besides, harvest season is coming, so it will be all hands on deck soon."

"Not everyone is meant to fight." Cross said, fondly. "But.. I was told to ask you something, when we next met."

"What is it?" Epic asked him. "It must be important if you were told to ask me about it."

"People are spotting.. doubles of people, and I don't mean the usual Sans issue. We saw Ink causing issues, but the thing is, Ink was twenty feet away from the issues, with enough witnesses to prove that he was there." Cross told him. "And they're asking unsettling questions."

"Well, we haven't seen anything off... We're so out of the way, it makes it almost impossible for us to get involved with the politics, and everything else that comes with the mess between the Moon, your home, and the Sun..." Epic frowned. "But... Things have been feeling off lately, to me... It could be something to do with the large amount of Magic that I have... I may have run away from being forced to be a member of the church, back in my homeland, but the connection that you build with the Magic around you, is still a part of me, and right now, it doesn't feel right..."

"The thing is.. the questions that they are asking, are linked to a very disturbing Myth. A myth that the Boss said, that he found proof of being real." Cross said, making a face, he doubted that Epic would have heard the local stories, myths, and legends...

Epic frowned. "I don't know the local stories, myths, and legends here... I haven't had enough time to learn about them, and I don't really want to, not after the hell that I went through to memorize the ones of my old homeland...

But, depending on what myth, story, or legend it is, I might have heard a version of it."

"Let's.. sit down, while I tell you the story of the myth." Cross said, leading him to a nearby park bench.

Epic sat down on the park bench, next to Cross.

"Long ago, there was a Gem, it was beautiful and pure. But it was also powerful, it had too much power." Cross said, with his mind going back to the book that his cursed father, had forced him to memorize. It was only due to him remembering those books, that had they been able to verify the Myth.

"It was called the Gem of Souls, the world star, the gem of the Multiverses..." He took a sip of water from a canteen, that he had pulled out from a pocket in his cape.

Epic frowned. This Myth sounded familiar... But he couldn't place where he had heard about it, for the first time. "I do know about the Multiverses, that was one of the first legends that I was forced to memorize... But the other parts of that Myth are not ringing the bells in my head..."