Daren and his friends were reunited in front of the gates of Emerald Dawn. After their reunion they decided to leave the city and move to the kingdom of the south in order to obtain a power strong enough to defeat the goddess. When Daren made that suggestion the group looked at him confused wondering what he meant.
"It was only a little bit... But when Marceus and i combined our power, we managed to leave a wound on her..."
Gustav was surprised to hear that.
"You two? You wounded a god?"
"It happened right after she turned you into a statue... We rushed at her at full strenght and managed to leave a small scar on her hand..."
Lilith pondered for a bit.
"You think... You think it's because of your curse?"
Daren looked at her in agreement. It seems like she had the same theory as him.
"The reason why i was rejected... The reason why she didn't want his partner to be someone who beared a curse... Do you guys remmeber what she said?"
"She said if people heard that someone with a curse became a hero, more people would try to become cursed as well..."
"Correct... She rejected me because that idea terrifies her... Divine powers and cursed powers are opposite to each other... One comes from the gods and another comes from monsters..."
Gustav seemed to have figured out as well.
"So a curse is the only thing that can harm a god... Then her plan to rid the world of evil..."
"Evil to her probably means my power, the power of curses... She was using Marceus to clean the world of the one thing that can hurt her kind..."
Ria looked confused.
"If that's the case... Why didn't she kill you... Or us who were helping you?"
"Who knows... Maybe she wanted to save me for last...?"
Lilith wondered about that.
"Maybe she can't...? What if she wasn't trying to lock us...? What if she was trying to kill all of us right there? But for some reason she wasn't able to...?"
Auren joined the conversation as well.
"You think we have some kind of defense against her power...?"
Gustav stared at Daren.
"Yes... We have him! We spent the whole day with someoene whose powers come from cursed energy... Maybe Daren's ability acted as a shield for us..."
Daren wasn't convinced yet.
"Maybe... We don't have enough information to assume anything yet... All we know is that if we want to end her, we need the power of curses on our side."
Ria looked scared for a moment.
"The power of curses...? You want all of us to get cursed...?"
"... Yes."
"!!" x 4
Gustav looked worried for a moment but quickly started to show a resolved expression.
"... Then... How do we do this?"
"I want to return to my hometown... I know it's been two-hundred years... But i want to try to find clues on how i got this curse, i've had him ever since i was a baby... If i do i might figure it out a way to share with you..."
Auren started to imagine a baby Daren in his lion form and suddenly started to shiver. Ria dropped her fear and begun to look excited.
"Then... We all can turn into giant black lions as well?? That would be so cool!!!"
"'Cool' huh...? I'm not so sure... I never tried to investigate my onw curse that much... But it migth be a start... What do you all think?"
Gustav nodded. Auren as well. Ria looked as if she wanted to go as soon as possible. Lilith looked a bit worried but aggred too. Daren accepeted these answers.
"Then it's settled... Tomorow we leave to the kingdom of the south."
Ria made an apologetic face.
"Ugh... I wish i could help by just teleporting us there... But i never visited that kingdom..."
"It's ok... Walking there will help us familiarize with the current world. We might find something usefull on our travel."
Daren answered trying to ease her concern.
"We will be travelling as soon as the sun goes down two days from now... I want to be able to use my power to keep us safe in case we run into some sort of danger."
Gustav seemed to agree.
"Good thinking... We have no idea what kind of new monsters appeared during the last centuries... It might be good to try and forget everything we think we knew so far and start from scratch..."
Gustav pulled Daren to the side and whispered something into his ear.
"You are basically our leader now Daren... There will be times when you might feel a little preassure but please try to bear it... The group needs a goal to focus on right now!"
"... I understand... I won't fail you!"
"Will you be ok?"
"I will! Leave it to me."
The former candidates and candidates assistants took another day to preapare for their travel gathering supplies and information from the citizens. They finally decided to cross the gates and start their journey towards a new destination.
As they kept walking, each one would gaze around trying to spot any differences beetwen the current world and the world they were familiar with. Everything felt similar, and at the same time, not the same. There were trees, but not their trees, there were people, but not their people, everything reminded them of their original enviroment, but that was it, just a reminder, something that awakened a memory of what used to be, but not actually being it. Ria tried to start conversation.
"Any of you wonder if that's how he felt...?"
Auren looked at her confused.
"He...?"
"Marceus... He was from another world right? Was this how he felt all these years living with us...? Just looking at things and being constantly reminded of the place he came from?"
Daren and Lilith pondered the question. Lilith tried to answer.
"It was like that at first... But as he kept finding more candidates he slowly started to accept this place as his new home... At least, that's what it felt like when we were fighting together..."
Daren agreed.
"Same here... I could tell that he was never truly unhappy while being with us..."
Ria raised another question.
"Then, we will be alright then?"
"Of course we- Ugh!!!"
"Ah!!"
Daren begun to talk in an attmept to confirm Ria's question but suddnely he and Lilith started to act strange.
"Lilith... Can you feel it??"
"Yes!! But how is this possible??"
The remaining three stared at them confused. Gustav tried to ask them what was wrong.
"Daren? Lilith? What happend?"
"We can feel Marceus's energy!!"
The three widened their eyes after hearing Lilith's answer.
"Marceus?? He's alive?? Where?? How??"
Daren pointed his finger back at the direction they were coming from, the city of Emerald Dawn. The group stared at the city in the far away distance wondering how was that possible. Could it be that they were wrong about everything and that Marceus had somehow managed to convince the goddess to release them? Could he have escaped from her and was still alive? Was he searching for them? Daren started to think about all that and turned to Ria.
"Ria open a scar! Open a scar right now!!"
"R- Right!!"
Ria removed her glove and created a wind-scar that connected their position with Emerald Dawn. Daren transformed into his black lion form for the first time in two centuries and jumped inside the scar with tremendous speed. The scar dropped him right in front of what used to be the city gates but now were completely destroyed.
"What happened here??"
The rest of the group arrived from the scar and became stunned as well. Daren looked around and started to notice signs of a battle occurring as the ground was filled with holes and rubble. He could also see signs of magic having been performed as he found a few pieces of rock shapped in unnatural ways.
Daren rushed inside of the city and started to climb a building. He continued to run from rooftop to rooftop trying to find the source of the energy.
He stopped when noticing a crowd surrouding a young lady who seemed terrified. It looked like she was about to be attacked but somehow her punches were sending the crowd flying.
Not understanding what was happening Daren took another look at her and noticed she was carrying a silver knife, the same kind Marceus used when they first met, that was the source of the energy he and Lilith were feeling. He realized that the girl stopped fightning back and after following her line of sight he caught glimpse of a second girl being held against the ground.
A man carrying a sword started to raise his blade looking like he was about to cut her down. Before he could do so, he realized that the girl on the ground wasn't scared at all, she was acctually focused, staring at something. It took a moment for Daren to realize that the girl was staring at him. Both of their eyes were meeting each other.
The man holding the sword realized Daren's presence as well and begun to panic.
"Wha- Hey!! What is that!!??"
As if they were of one mind, the whole crowd started to stare at Daren. The lion monster wasn't sure of what was happening or what he should do. He was hoping to find Marceus but all he found was one of his old kinfes. Should he just leave them? Should he try and help the girls? Do they even need his help since they had the power of the knifes? But should he try and ask them where did they get those knifes? If they had his knifes, could it be that they were working for the goddess?
Daren's brain was filled with question and indecision but all was resolved when he noticed the girl laying on the ground starting to move her lips. She was too far away for him to listen and her head was upside down, but Daren knew excatly what she was saying, the same word he had heard countless times from many inocents who were stuck in similar dangerous situations.
"Please..."
Every single indecision inside of Daren had completely vanished. He released a massive roar and jumped towards the crowd and started to fight the men who were attacking the two girls.
Some of them ran away scared but a few tried to fight back. They pushed their swords towards Daren's skin but that only ended up breaking the blades after colliding with his strong rock-like body.
Daren would use his massive hands to grab the men by their heads and thrown them around like they were baseballs. Some of them started to use bows and arrows and tried to hit him form a distance but Daren grabbed the arrows with his teeth and cushed them like candy.
The figure of the monstrous black lion dancing in the moonlight while demolishing his opponents was engraved in the mind of the two girls as they observed the confrontation.
The girl who was standing up tried to grab the short-haired girl who was on the ground. They tried to run away but the girl who was being carried told her to wait for some reason.
"Ashley, stop!! He won't hurt us!"
"Wh- What are you talkin about!! Did you hit your heard when you fell down!!?? Look at him!!"
"I am looking! He is helping us!"
"Helping... Us...??"
Daren after finishing clearing out the crowd of men who where harassing the two ladies started to approach them. The girl known as Ashley was terrified at the sight of this massive muscular beast with eyes filled with a blood-red color. The girl she was carrying however, looked rather calm and relaxed, as if Daren's horrifying beastly face was the best thing she had seen in weeks.
Daren took a look at the silver knife that had fell on the ground and picked it up. He stared at the knife and then proceeded to stare at the two girls.
"... Who are you...?"
The girl being carried started to smile and answered his question with a relieved face.
"This is Ashley, and I'm Evlin... I'm Marceus's friend!"