The streets of Hydlaa grew dark as the Azure Sun dimmed. Malkari walked down these darkened roads, looking around at everyone passing him and commenting his mask as they ran by. He did not care anymore...not about life, not about the promise, not about Noriin's death...
Upon finding out Anarkia was simply toying with him, her true love being Xeonart, he began to wear a strange mask crafted by a blacksmith who tossed it aside after realizing it was more for decoration than protection...Malkari found it on the ground, staring into the empty eyes of the mask, realizing that these empty eyes were the same as his...he no longer had any hope. Despite Nixe's promise, he did not want to simply be something his father was proud of, he only wished to die and stop living in this death that is life. So much suffering in his short time being alive, and without his father's courage to blindly cloud his thoughts from this suffering to keep him going and protect those that need it, he did not wish to live in it any longer. Xeonart...the man that started his new troubles after Raskah had been executed, had not been seen lately. He gave Malkari false hope, telling him that he could fill his void by destroying...that he would be good at it and enjoy it. It took losing the anti-existance's thoughts to make him realize what he was doing. It was not that he was being controlled, which is what everyone thought of him, but it was because the entity had pushed his father's essence out of him upon giving Malkari his power...to even control that power, he needed to hate...he needed to be fierce. Malkari did have these thoughts, but by asking to keep his personality, the thoughts only corrupted him instead of making him go on a rampage as the entity did when it had a physical body. He was able to fall in love with Anarkia even though he had these thoughts, as she was such a cute and nice Enkidukai, but despite that, she lead to him becoming as he is now.
His clothes were dyed black, and he started to wear the mask he found on the ground. It symbolized a demon's face, having a tear of blood running down below the eye of the mask, and having spikes pertruding around where the mask fit over his cheeks and ran along-side his nose. Over his nose, the upper-jaw of the mask sat, the teeth of that jaw coming down in front of his nose. There was no lower-jaw, leaving much of his face still visible, along with one of the markings that was the start to his suffering.
No thoughts ran through his head now except those of suicide. He did not care for his past problems anymore, only those with what he had done to the citizens of Hydlaa, and how Anarkia broke his heart. Malkari walked to the tavern, meeting a strange Dwarf upon arriving. He called himself Vithos Noctema, and he was quite old, nearly twice as old as a normal Dwarf lives. Malkari could faintly recognize him from the battle where he lost the anti-existance, he was there trying to heal Noriin as Velh was holding off Goleus...he did not do much for her, but she was able to push her body in front of Velh's to protect him from being hit by the magic blast Goleus sent at him when he was unconscious.
"I haven't seen you since the battle..." The Dwarf said to Malkari as he stared into the fire. Malkari looked at the Dwarf, then back at the fire, not acknowledging that he was speaking to him. "Being sour in youth helps no one. I hope you learn that lesson eventually."
Malkari laughed, "Sour in youth...what would you know?"
"I am 170 years old..." The Dwarf responded, Malkari being slightly surprised at him. "So naturally I know many things about life." He casted a strange magic that summoned a small creature into the tavern. "...Noriin is fine, despite the battle."
"That's good to hear...I suppose." Malkari responded, not really caring much, and wondering how she could be fine when he clearly saw her life end.
"Sprites can enter the Death Realm...I plan to use them to show her the way out..." He looked at Malkari, realizing that he was sort of half-asleep as he was speaking. "How have you fared? You weren't in the greatest condition when I arrived." Malkari gave an irritated response to the question, but at the same time told him of Anarkia and how he was now heartbroken because of what happened...he sat up now, looking at the Dwarf clearly. "I know that feeling...you are Malkari, are you not?" He nodded, not sure what else to say to his comment. "Every living being faces this predicament at least once in their life..."
"I've faced it my entire life..." Malkari said with an angered voice.
"What you need to do is realize that sometimes all you need is yourrself, and with the backing of one who loves you you can do anything..." Vithos said to him.
"There be no one anymore who really cares what may happen to me..." Malkari replied, disregarding Nixe.
The Dwarf told Malkari a story of his past, how his clans fought and how he was forced to hide with his master until it all passed over. He told the story to show Malkari that all hate passes away with time, but he did not understand that Malkari did not really care much about everyone hating him, which he told Vithos of earlier. Vithos said that he would support Malkari to the end, thinking that he was good-hearted despite his cold exterior. Malkari told him of Xeonart taking him in and giving him reason to live, then being defeated in that battle having what Xeonart wanted from him cast out of his body...and then asking for it being destroyed, not even knowing why he wished it...perhaps because as its thoughts left his body, looking at it made him think of his father having to fight it and it causing so much suffering. Turning away from the path Xeonart had left for her, his love Anarkia no longer did return his feeling for her, if she ever did to begin with, because of betraying him. He tried to show Anarkia what suffering Xeonart brought to people, showing her Velh's tears from losing Noriin, and Anumesa being used against her will to serve him. She did not care, and still disregarded his love with a sorrowful goodbye.
Vithos listened, but went back to the time of the fight. He said he tried to help everyone out where he could, but he was very old and could not do much else but try to use his powers to heal...
"What makes you want to live this long...or actually, how are you still alive?" Malkari asked him. Vithos told him that his own apprentice killed him, and he was forced to wander the Death Realm for many years before escaping...upon doing that, he lost something precious to him. Being allowed to resurface, he looked desperately in life for what he'd lost, not really even remembering what it was, but he knew it was enough reason to keep living and not have to wander the Death Realm anymore...Malkari told him that his only real reason to live now was simply because Nixe wanted him to...which was the answer to his problems, as Vithos said. He explained his plan in more detail on how to get Noriin out of the Death Realm, knowing that it took someone who really cared about the person, Velh in this instance, to help her through, along with the strength and knowledge of how to escape. She may lose something upon leaving, as Vithos did, but that was a price to pay. Malkari had enough of the talk, and decided to walk outside. Being stopped by Vithos before he left, Vithos summoned one of the sprites from earlier and crushed it into a strange stone, giving it to Malkari and telling him that it would be a way for them to keep contact, and also had some other strange attributes that he would discover later...he took it, and attached it to his belt by a string, walking outside into the Plaza now.
Meeting Nixe around Hydlaa, she took him to a secluded place where she was going to test Malkari, and see how well he was with a blade now that the entity had left his body. She questioned the mask, but let it slide as they fought. As time passed, Nixe was only really pushing him back with her shield and evading his attacks. A few times he was able to overpower her and cut her slightly, but other than that it was a one-sided fight. She said he had natural talent, and with a little training he could make his father proud. Malkari forced a smile, but did not really care much for what she'd said. As she left to get some sleep, Malkari returned to the tavern, seeing Vithos and some other people there practicing some strange rituals. Trying to avoid them, he sat by the fireplace and looked into it, hoping he wouldn't really be noticed. Instead, the exact opposite happened...
"That's him!" One of them said, pointing at Malkari. Vithos told the man that it was not him, but another that was responible. Malkari simply looked at the man questionably, wondering what was going on. "He was involved!" The man said again, dropping his hand and staring at Malkari with a fierce look in his eyes.
"The hell are you talking about...?" Malkari said, annoyed by whatever was going on. Vithos walked up to Malkari, telling him that he knew he wasn't the one responsible, or he would have started something with him about it when they first met. He simply asked the man responsible for Noriin's death's name. Malkari casually replied, "Goleus", then told everyone that Goleus had already been slain...so they would not get the chance for revenge. The man who was pointing fingers earlier still wished to fight Malkari, but Vithos had him back off. He then asked if he knew exactly what killed Noriin...Malkari could not describe it any better than what Vithos already knew, though.
Vithos turned back to them after speaking with Malkari, "Now I believe that we should make preperations for me to extract Noriin..." he said. With that, they left, Vithos turning back to Malkari one last time telling him to remember the stone he was given...Malkari looked at it on his belt and gave a slight nod, still wondering what was going on...
