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Alex and D quickly teleported about a mile away from Arkurus' home. They then quickly began their run to the swordsman's home. Actually, Alex ran, while Arkurus just sat on his back.

"Really, Master?" Alex sighed.

"Be quiet, you should be. Nearing your enemy's home, we are," D joked as he rode on Alex's back, already seeing Arkurus' home.

I wonder what awaits us inside.... Alex thought.

----------------

Hoods could feel their emotions and closed the portal once the two were gone. "I see you girls are confused and sad," he said. "I can explain, at least some of your questions, and maybe even show you a bit of Alex's life before you, if you would like. If not, I could read some books...or just give you girls a moment by yourselves..."

They would find entry easy enough, since the front door was still partially open. Once inside, however, Alex would discover that his reception was far from warm. The doors slammed shut as soon as they entered, Battle golems surrounding them from every side. At the top of the stairs was Arkurus, fully dressed in his enchanted elven armor, his sword drawn, though he leaned on it for now. "Welcome back master Alex. Have you returned to steal more from me master Alex? Perhaps I should offer you my collection of moon elves and wood elves as well master Alex. That way you can just skip the sneaking around part and take your pick of the litter. I hope this pleases you master Alex." Clearly Arkurus was more than a little angry, though his face was placid as he spoke. "And who is this? Have you decide to invite friends now? Are they also invited to take my slaves without my permission? To betray trust and deals?" The golems silently watched, though they could spring into action at any moment.

-------

"Please!" Sarah said before she knew she was saying it. All but Melody turned to look at her and she blushed. "I mean...um...Im curious..." She added with a small blush, and no one said otherwise.

"My, oh, my...You truly have upset this one," D chuckled as looked at one of the battle golem. "I was considering adding these little beasties to my home, but I found them too creepy," he whispered to his student.

"Master, be serious," Alex growled.

"Of course. What was his name again? Areaken?"

"Arkurus."

"Apologizes, Lord Arkurus!" D yelled. He took a step forward and went down on his knees, and Alex followed. "I will not lie to you! At times like this, lies are idiotic and will only worsen the situation for all of us. My name is Lucifer Iblis, but my friends call me D. I would like us to be friends, Master Arkurus, so please, call me D. I am the man who taught Alex the way of magic, and the closest thing he has to a father. Let me first off say, I apologize for my apprentice's foolish and idiotic action. He will be punished, to the utmost degree for such an action!"

At this moment, Arkurus may have noticed Alex quivered a bit, as though he truly was afraid of the idea of punishment, and who knows? Maybe, whatever D planned, truly was something worth fearing.

"He should not have left your home without your permission, especially not with one of your lovely slaves! He should not have attempted to tamper with her mind, and as stated earlier he will be punished!"

Again, Alex shook with fear.

"But...in my apprentice's defense, he only wished to save the young elf Zane! Now, I will not dare try to pry into your life, so I will not ask about the male elf's condition. I am only here to talk to you, and to negotiate the freedom of the elf called Zane, and the forgiveness of young Alexander here. What say you, Lord Arkurus? Are you willing to talk? Or shall we raise our fists like barbarians and slaughter one another until we are all dead?"

-----------------

D nodded and floated over, so the girls could better hear him. Suddenly the white library began to alter and change, and the books all disappeared. The girls were suddenly in a snowy, white, forest, and the moon was shining down on them, in the dark sky. They all stood before a large, wooden house, but they could feel the heat coming from it. Suddenly, fire burst out through the windows and chimney, and screams could be heard.

"Whether it was just some random murder, a planned attack, or even an act of D, Alex's house had caught fire," Hoods narrated. "His mother had been away, shopping in the nearby city, only to find smoke in the direction of her home. Worried, she dropped her rations and ran home, only to find it engulfed in flame. She ran inside, and found her husband within, under pieces of wood."

Hoods suddenly floated in, right through the wall. This was all an illusion, and the girls realized all they could do in this world was watch and listen. "Follow me, to continue the story."

They soon found two beings inside. One, was a a beautiful woman. Her long, red hair was beautiful, and the girls could see she was suprisingly muscular, though not in a way to make her appear ugly. She was just the right amount of muscular, that kept her amazingly beautiful.

Beneath her, was a man, he was mostly covered by pieces of hot wood, and the girls could see that the pieces of hot, burning wood had cut both his clothes and his skin. The man, had short blue hair, and was more lean, and less muscular. He groaned in pain as he forced his neck to look at his wife. His body was injured, and the girls would see a hole above him and realize the fire must have caused the roof to break down, thus crushing him under wood.

"S-save Junior..." he begged. "Forget about me...I...I'll just slow you down," he whispered. The wife did not listen, and tried to save him, but he yelled at her. "GO! I...I can't walk. I already know I'm going to die...Just go," he begged, coughing, and the wife had just finished moving a large piece of wood and found a piece of 2x4 had stabbed the father's leg. "GO!" he begged.

The wife had no choice. She kissed his lips, whispering one last I love you, before running off. Hoods led the girls back out, right as the mother herself ran out, holding an unconscious child in her hands. As the girls watched her run off, they could hear one last burst of fire from within the house, ending the life of Alex's father.

"We could stop here, if you want. It only goes downhill from here," Hoods sighed.

((How ironic...Now I'M the one writing the long posts!))

(Your going to have to write allot more long posts to make it ironic, otherwise its just an occurrence)

"Silence! I care not who you are, I care not why you have come." Arkurus said coldly. "Firstly, it is not Alex's place to decide if Zane is saved or not. He is, by law, my slave. I have captured him, I own him, and I will do with him as I please. You and your apprentice have no say in it. Secondly, I was not referring to Melody. Tiff has been stolen from me, as well as one of my prized sun elves! And you dare to distort her thoughts?! Tell me, is Melody dead or simply brainwashed? No, dont tell me, it matters not, she is dead either way. You will return Tiff to me, I will leave with her and all of MY slaves, and you shall remain with whatever is left. This is as it shall be. I will not compromise, I will not bend, and I will not alter this arrangement. Your only other option, is death." As the feared mage hunter spoke, he disappeared and suddenly reappeared behind D, his back to the former master of magic, his sword only inches from his throat. It was then that he spoke the last two words, and awaited a response.

---------

The girls said nothing, but it was clear they were interested as much as they were frightened. "Wait, please, is there some place I can go." Lillia said, not wanting Neko to see anymore. The pure little angel should not be subjected to anymore than she already had been.

"Of course," Hoods said, and a hole in the illusion appeared. "My apologizes," he said, and it seemed he bowed before her, but being an orb that was hard to tell. Once Lillia walked through it, she would be back in the white area of the library, books floating by. "Call me, if you need me," Hoods said.

Once she was gone, D continued with the story. The girls suddenly changed areas, now in the middle of the snowy forest, with Alex's mother holding the six year old child in her arms. The cold was especially hard tonight, and the girls saw the mother weaken. Her steps slowed, her body shook, and her body was freezing.

Yet, though it all, her baby seemed unaffected. He did not even shiver. His chest rose up and down as they walked, the only real sign that he was still alive. He did not move other than that, nor did he open his eyes, not even when his mother fell to the ground, on her knees. Hoods fast forwarded the flashback by a few minutes, and they found Alex's mother dead, frozen into ice. Yet the baby in her arms, was still alive and warm.

It was almost beautiful in a way. Alex's mother was almost like an ice statue, a beautiful ice statue, holding her baby.

Then the girls heard foosteps, and would find D, looking exactly the same as he was now, walking over. He gently took Alex out of the frozen mother's hands and looked him in his closed eyes.

"You are coming with me, boy," he said, his voice with no emotion.

"That was how Alex lost his parents, and met D," Hoods explained.

---------------

"I WILL NOT ABANDON TIFF!" Alex roared.

D sighed as he felt the blade near his throat, and said, "Lord Arkurus, please, be reasonable. I did not come here wanting to fight. I only came here to negotiate," the old man said. Suddenly though he vanished and appeared at the spot Arkurus was, his hands glowing red. "This does not mean I will not fight back though, if threaten. Now please, Arkurus...Can we not negotiate this? Come to a deal where both you and Alex is happy?" he pleaded, the glow around his hands gone.

Arkurus vanished once more and reappeared behind his golems. "Why? I have done nothing but be reasonable, I have allowed so much to happen, and now you want to take more from me? Tiff is MINE, not yours. I will train her and care for her as I see fit, and that is my place. Zane is also MINE, not yours, and I will treat him as I wish to. You have not right to steal anymore from me. Saying that you came here to speak is a fools attempt at deceit, one does not go fetch his master for negotiations, he does so for battle. You came here expecting a fight, because you came here knowing that your demands had no grounding in reason. So now you will fight me, and attempt to force me from what is mine. I suppose if you managed to defeat me then you would spare me no offense and kill me outright to take what I have fought for my entire life. No sir, I say nay. Go back from wherever it is you came and bring back my two slaves, and then I shall leave you in peace. All I want is what is rightfully mine. Do not deny me again, this is your last warning."

The Golems braced, weapons drawn and ready, all glowing with runes and runic magic. The fight would not be an easy one, and with battle golems AND Arkurus on the field, the odds were sharply tipped in favor of the swordsman. If D had a case to make, he would have to make it in the next few seconds, or face battle against a well armed, well equipped opponent on his terms in his land.

"We will give you back Melody, but there must be something else I can give you in exchange for Tiff and Zane! I can supply you with spells, protection, there are very few things I can not accomplish. Compared to my idiotic apprentice, I am a god. There must be something you want? Some mystic item? Some spell or question answered?" D offered. "Just allow my student Tiff and Zane, and nothing else. I will personally, make sure he pays for insulting you great one! Please. I detest violence, and do not want to resort to it. I can give you almost anything, as long as you give my student Tiff and Zane and leave him and his girls be...." he said, and went down on one knee, as did Alex, though the young boy was ready to fight.

Tiff was in tears, as was Sarah, though less than Tiff, while Melody simply kept her eyes closed and her hands over her ears. "But...why didnt Alex freeze?" Sarah asked, and Tiff looked up to show that she two was curious.

-------

"Absolutely not. Tiff and Zane are all I desire, they are not up for bargaining." Arkurus said, making it crystal clear that he would not give either of them up. "There is nothing you can offer me, sorcerer, I will not surrender what remains of their line to you, or anyone else! She is mine!" And if D could not offer any other deal, then the Golems would rush forward and begin their assault while Arkurus disappeared from sight.

"Because D would not allow it. He has powers far beyond anything Alex has. He could bring down a meteor from space, slow time to a crawl, shape the Earth with his mind, and more. He is the most powerful Master of Magic I have ever met," Hoods said. This raised some questions. How old was Hoods? How many Master of Magics have there been?

Whether the girls asked him these questions or not, he would continue the story. The girls suddenly found themselves, their young Master, and D in a dungeon.

"W-who are you?" the six year old, Alex asked.

"..."

"W-where am I?"

"..."

"Why aren't you saying anything!?" the boy cried. "Where's my mommy and daddy? I want my mommy and daddy!" he whimpered. He continued to cry, pleading for his mother and father, before he was silenced by D delivering a kick to the boy's cheek, sending him into the wall.

"Be quiet."

"W-why did you-AHH!" Alex screamed as D placed his foot on the boy, pushing down on the child, crushing him. "STOP! IT HURTS!" he begged.

"Does it? Don't worry. I'm sure you'll get used to it soon enough," D replied, smiling as he gave the boy a kick in the ribs, before turning to the door. "You'll be sleeping here tonight. If you need to pee or poop, do it in the corner. If you get hungry, eat a few bugs or rats running around here. If not, they might just eat you. In fact, I'm counting on it," laughed the older man as the door closed behind him, leaving the boy to drown in his own tears.

"Alex was only six when he began training. D would have gotten to him sooner, if I did not convince the boy to experience a few years of joy with his parents. I wonder if such an act only caused more pain?" Hoods sighed. "To the rest of the world, Alex was only gone for about ten years. In D's dungeon, he was locked away for about a hundred years. This stuff...The pain in the beginning. This is the easy part," the blue orb sighed as the world began to fast forward itself.

The girls watched as the world was put on fast forward. As the world moved around them, they could spy parts of it, and saw their 'Master' being beaten into the ground, devouring the rats and bugs, being stabbed, bruised, D cleaning the dungeon of Alex and the animals' feces every month or so, and Alex being thrown against the wall. By the end of the first year, Alex awoke to see his parents hung up corpses.

"All of this had only one point. To push Alex to his limit. The Master of Magic, all of them, from beginning to last, all had one important trait. This trait, was how they found their future student. You'll soon see what the trait is," Hoods explained, letting the girls watch as the years passed by, their Master being beaten and tortured.

------------------

Alex's hands flared to life with a bright fire as Arkurus left, already throwing fireballs at the golems as they attacked. As for D, the old man sighed and dodged a golem, and teleported out of the way of another. "A shame. I was hoping for a less violent measure," the older man sighed as he dodged another golem, and appeared beside Alex, who continued to throw balls of fire at the beasts.

"B-But why? Why is the necessary? Why is D so powerful?" Sarah asked as Tiff fell to her knees in horror. "I...I dont want to see anymore..." She sobbed softly, unable to take the horrible montage of pain and sorrow. She had thought her training had been rough, but D outdid them all in pain...and yet he hadnt broken? Lillia had not gone through such pain, she had even been born into and yet not suffered as much, and she was broken like a twig. Tiff was once a proud defiant dark elf, and now she was Alex's slave, broken into loving him for all intent and purposes, and yet she had not suffered so much. All of these questions burned within Sarah, who watched on in horror and interest as her master's training was revealed.

--------

The golems were Arkurus anti magic golems, and were surrounded in "dead zone" which siphoned and destroyed all magic within them. Still, they themselves were not in dead zone, thus their animation, so theoretically the shields were imperfect, though still very effective. Alex's magically sustained fireballs snuffed out of existence before they even struck the golems, dying in the dead zones, and the golems charged on, surprisingly fast and full of tricks, like their shields. Arkurus was nowhere to be found.