The Tale of the Twilight Warriors, Another tale.

The land of broken Reality

Shadow and Gabriel where whisked away into another reality, the only thing they could see was a whirling silver mist almost like an undercurrent blow them dragging them violently down into a whirling realm of nothingness.

They fell from the portal as if spat out by a great beast collapsing onto the floor in a large stone room. As it seemed the area they had exited from completely vanished, the portal was gone and only two arced pillars remained. In front of the two, rest an alter, an alter with a hand and a curved dagger pressed through the hand into the stone. The man was nearly dead, yet he still had something to say.

"It seems, our last  hope has arrived.." 

As he said this, the light faded from his eyes.

"What's even going on here.." Gabriel grunted as he regained his composure, "I have no idea" Shadow replied.

"Yes... what is going on here" An almost wispy voice protruded from the ground.

Not only a voice, but a rather skeletal almost ancient appearing face as well, as did his head.

"err" Shadow jumped up, Gabriel was just staring at the awkward creature in the ground.

"What is this..?" it said, almost redundantly 

"well we where going to ask you too, there's been a lot of confusing things as of late and I've no idea what's real and what's not" Gabriel stared at him.

"Oh yes.. what is real, what is reality" he said whimsically as his hand came from almost no where to pat Gabriels shoulder.

"At least tell us where we are" Shadow chuckled at Gabriels alarming reaction to the ghostly figures touch.

"Why, this is the hall of broken reality!"

"Well rather the land ah ah hah" He replied.

"um?" Gabriel looked at Shadow.

"I'm not so sure" Shadow replied.

"He sacrificed himself on the alter to summon your path, unfortunately there isn't a path from here" the creature laughed again.

"hm?" Gabriel looked down as the creatures hands wrapped around his and Shadows legs, more than two hands, tens, twenties, hands just pulling them downwards almost as if gravity was crushing them.

"Stop" Gabriel grunted.

"Release us" Shadow bellowed.

"Now, why would I do that when you can't tell the difference between what's real and what's fake!" the creature chuckled.

"Oh oh oh oh I know we'll play a game gwahahaa" It bellowed again, releasing the two warriors.

"It's like hide and seek, only if I catch you, you die!" He laughed, and vanished.

"How are we even supposed to win?!" Shadow shouted.

"Better get going, I'm not waiting too long, I'll give you a two minute head start, but remember this is my world" he laughed once again.

Gabriel grabbed the ceremonial dagger and they rushed down the stairs, it seemed like the staircase lasted forever and it only led to a seemingly endless twist and turn of hallways, the walls all looked the same, brownish looking stone almost too bland to notice a difference in.

After many twists and turns they finally reached a dead end only to hear him cry out "Ready or not, here I come" 

Within an instant the air seemed to go from stagnant to a near tearing force in the hallways, "You can't hide forever" he giggled.

Shadow and Gabriel looked at each other and sprinted full on ahead towards a four way. "Gabriel, the dagger?" Shadow requested the dagger and cut his hand, dragging it across the wall a bit to mark their path.

They rushed down the hallway again to a almost circular turn back into another four way, they did so two times before Gabriel pointed something out.

"It's just repeating now, Shadow stop you're losing a lot of blood" Gabriel demanded.

"Look at the walls, the spots where I marked, some of the blood doesn't appear on the wall." Shadow chuckled, he pushed through a fake wall in the turn and they ended up in a centered room.

In the room, only rest an alter and a suit of armor.

"Congratulations, it seems you found me" the voice was familiar but it seemed to have lost its pep.

"Not many people ever have, and you certainly wont be the last, so let's get this over with" his voice was cold.

The hands returned exploding from the walls and the ground, eyes appeared along side them, the phantasmal face was within the armors helm, his body took full control of everything around them, the ground cut in rings spun violently almost as if it where on a turn table.

The only thing that remained stationary was the alter, Shadow and Gabriel being without their regular gear had no idea how to counter this and took the blows of a thousand hands at once all while being watched as they spun around in a cycle of chaos.

"Shadow.. the alter" Gabriel looked at Shadow, he had the dagger.

Shadow stumbled forward struggling to move against the circular momentum that spun them violently around, along side struggling to deal with the phantasmal blows, as he approached the alter the armor moved and swung a large black sword almost perfectly left to right and up and down, the arc on the sword was perfect.

Shadow recognized the almost mechanical movement, no one could swing that perfectly, he dodged up and left stabbing the dagger through the arm piece on the phantasm into the hole where the dagger was meant to lay sleeping.

The arms vanished, the room stopped spinning, Gabriel and Shadow collapsed in the confusion laying down staring at the world around them morphing violently.

"It seems you've won, the rest of the tower is yours to adventure through brave warriors, it seems you may just be the last bit of hope this realm has..." the phantasmal voice echoed.

They where back at the alter and the man lay to rest, the dagger was deep inside the alter yet the man was gone, the area was back to what it once was yet.. the stone was an almost carved and perfectly grey, the entire area was altered.

"Before I return to slumber, behind the arc of the portal lies a chest.. the materials in there may help you.."

"hmmmmmmmmmmmm.. thanks.." Gabriel said, ready to vomit.

"yea.." Shadow was in and out due to the blood loss.

Inside the chests, an odd ore lay to rest, it was rather shiny not bland.

"That metal is rare... a metal with no name.." the mans voice resonated throughout the hall.

"Use it well, maybe in another life I'll see you again.. good bye." The voice sounded.. almost peaceful.

Shadow and Gabriel headed down the stairs slowly and painfully hating every step.

"What is this place, that was miserable!" Gabriel growled.

"You know as much as I do, it really was a terrible experience" Shadow retorted.

"I swear, I get to kill the next thing!" Gabriel chuckled.

"Yeah, I think you'd do it better, at this point at least" Shadow laughed.

"Oh, you're losing a lot of blood" Gabriel looked at Shadow.

"You're the one with the potions" Shadow laughed.

Gabriel reminded Shadow of their experiences at the tower.

"No I know, I was kidding" Shadow chuckled.

They managed to make it to the bottom of the stairs, and at the bottom a large door with a red eye reside over it.

They opened it and inside lay a long hallway, a crimson light lay at the edge of their view, they blindly walked forward wondering when their journey would being, or had it already started the path towards the end? Things didn't necessarily look good, but they traveled onward.