EDIH

4: A Tale of Six Trillion Years and a Night

Bey City, Japan, Earth

Rikku's screams made Tyson, Rin, Aya, Hilary, Eden, Hikaru, Shun, Nami and Riku scream as well. Tyson fell to his knees, feeling pain course through his body. He covered his ears and closed his eyes before he began to see-.

First Elder was standing alone in a glowing room. She was wearing a white dress and wore no shoes, something that seemed painful to Tyson because the ground was littered with spikes. She walked towards the platform in the form of tree, wincing whenever her feet were impaled by the spikes.

"Successor of Yggdrasil, where are you?" She sang, kneeling down and placing her hands together in a praying motion, "Can you not see what we do? Oh, tree of life, please keep living. Take my life to live a little longer, until the successor appears bearing Irregular and restores life and stability, death and instability. With my life in the line, I will feed this dying tree until the successor appears."

The roots of the tree stump wrapped themselves around her ankles and wrists. First only winced before the roots wrapped around her neck and squeezed. She let out a small whimper and whispered something they could not hear-.

Tyson opened his eyes and found himself on the ground of the training grounds. He looked to see everyone was in a similar position and Riku had even fallen out of his wheelchair. Hilary rubbed her head, "Did anyone else see that girl?"

"It wasn't just any girl," Tyson answered, eyes wide as he got to his knees, "That was First Elder."

"First Elder? That was First Elder?" Kaori asked as she helped Nami get up. Rin had already gotten on his two feet and was already on his way to help Riku get back on his wheelchair when he stopped, looking up at the ceiling, "Anyone mind helping her down?"

They all looked up to see Rikku was on the ceiling, her eyes a dull white. She was speaking but they couldn't hear what she was saying. She screamed again before dropping to the ground.

"Rikku!"

Tyson turned slightly to see Ritsu running to the aid of Rikku. He cradled her limp form before looking at all of them, "What happened to her? What happened to my little sister?"

Tyson barely registered the fact that Rikku and Ritsu were siblings - it should've been obvious because they both had the same hair color and similar facial features - before Rin answered him, his tone of voice professional, "Ritsu, tamer of Frey, your sister has been identified as the personification of the apocalypse, Ragnarok. You know what will happen if you're not around to stop her next time, correct?"

"Rin, you're insane!" Ritsu yelled, cradling his sister's head closer to his body, "My sister is not Ragnarok. There must be a mistake."

Rin frowned, "Ritsu, be reasonable. The only reason you and Rikku came out of the Underground was because I believed you two would be Irregular or Ragnarok. You are certainly neither, Ritsu Yamamoto, but your sister has just shown that she is Ragnarok."

"Rin, please, she's just a kid." Ritsu whispered.

"What the hell is going on?" Aya said as she stood in front of the arguing males, "What the hell are Irregular and Ragnarok? Can either of you speak our actual language?"

"An explanation would be in order." Tyson said. He looked around to see that everyone was agreeing with him except for Riku. He was silent, looking at his hands and his legs.

Rin sighed, running a hand through his hair, "As I told Riku, I had a vision. It was a message from Third Elder and she seemed to be in pain. She told me about finding people known as Yggdrasil's successor, Irregular, Ragnarok, The Witch of Darkness, The Broken Halves of the Same Soul, Heart of Erebus and the Child of the Universe. I began to investigate all of them with Katsu Kurumada and the one I was close to cracking was the being known as Ragnarok."