Prologue II: The Enclave

The fake Setsuna sighed. "You talk to much. Let's go." He then grabbed Arcturius and dragged him into the fortress so that they didn't spend the next two weeks talking about nothing.

Elucidia and Mara shrugged and followed along with the real Setsuna.

Inside the main hall of the castle, there was a large, round table made of marble. Around it sat more than ninety people of different races. "The Roman finally joins us," somebody mutters. "Shut up, Ix," a wispy Seraph hissed.

A lima bean creature wearing a purple vest walked up to Riku. "Unregistered species. Please have a seat at the table and be prepared to represent your race." The purple vest did the same to Serak, and ignored Setsuna. It turned to Almira, "Welcome, your species leader is over there." It pointed at Almira's tribe leader, who waved at her.

A man in red and gold robes sat at the head seat, his hood drawn to conceal his whole face. "If everyone would have a seat," the man's smooth voice said, "we can get this underway."

Riky walked over to an empty seat next to the seraph, "So... representative of a race... thats nice."

Oberon walked over and leaned in a corner and stayed quite.

Almira strutted to her place with as much dignity as possible. Then pricked her ears up, waiting to begin.

Setsuna noticed many eyes gathered on him as he took his spot on a table. "Pleased to meet you. I am Setsuna Almeizar of the Chronologians."

Serak grunted. "My race is not important."

The man in the cloak stood suddenly. "Greetings. I am the Keeper of Peace, Akahiba Ozymandias." He kept his hood drawn down, "I summoned you all here to speak to you early, because you all represent one of the known races in our universe." He laughed cooly, "Tonight will begin a festival of sorts, celebrating diversity and unity."

A murmer fell over the table. A few Aldstadt elves glared at Arcturius. Ozymandias held a gloved hand up. Silence fell. "This animosity is what we need to get rid of. I want us to break barriers here. No more borders!"

"And how do you propose we do that?" Oberon said speaking up from his corner. "Look around you, all these races and each one has a grudge against another that has been grinded into their very being. Some dating back centuries."

"As much as i hate to agree, he is right. My race was built to be mercenaries of war. If i had not destroyed that facility their is no telling how many of my kind there could have been." Riku added.

"The Amānipāus are a peaceful race." Almira said, finally finding her voice. Her tone had edge to it. "We have no quarrel with any party, but having no borders means many reckless people on our protected grounds. And that is unacceptable."

The murmering between races was silenced when someone filled the hall with laughter. An angry Ix, broke the stunned silence by slamming his fist down onto the table. "And who are you to laugh at us?!" Setsuna shrugged. "Just the person who helped create your civilizations. Compared to all that I have seen through the various universes I haved lived through, your little racial squabbles are absolutely pathetic."

Ozymandias laughed. "Yeah. You might have a point, there. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to try and make peace happen. " He walked over to the wall at his back and summoned a holo terminal. "Do the thing," he said in a low voice. He drifted wordlessly to his seat and moments later, muffled engines could be heard through the walls of the castle, en masse.

Riku recognized the clanking of machines and could almost feel them moving.

"What is happening?" Oberon asked the cloked figure.

Almira gave a slight growl.

Setsuna grinned. "So this is the part where you betray and trap, and or kill us right? I have been through this enough times to see the signs....or maybe you really are showing something amazing....not likely though. I mean your name IS Ozymandias. I have never meant one of you that was a good person."

Ozymandias shook his head. "Killing you wouldn't bring peace. Only chaos. No." He paused. "I have confiscated every ship on this planet, and now you may only leave if you band together once again." He stood. "To defeat me." Ozymandias was gone. The dignitaries burst into a clamour.

Suddenly Serak was in the middle of all of them. His aura fully exploded outward. "Here is the simple fact of what is about to happen. Any of you who dare to try to start a fight with another over a pathetic racial squabbling will instantly be silenced permanently by myself. And I can sense right now that none of you have the power to stop me. Is this fact clear?"

Elucidia thought for a moment before standing up and walking over to where he was. Of course everyone recognized one of the seven legendary heroes. "To be honest I have no problem with this. Work together or be gotten rid of for the good of all."

Riku quickly registered all the dignitaries and cataloged the races, "There, i believe if we can work together using each races best quality we can escape."

Oberon laughed, "Escape? You think that man braught us here to see us leave? He only wants to slaugh..." Oberon was cut off by a fit of coughing that ended with him coughing up blood, "Damn." He turned from the others and pulled out a small capsule wich he then swallowed, "pay you no mind simply a case of strep throught."

Almira, strangely enough, looked excited. "Ha! This is the day every one of my kind has trained for! We can do this quickly!

Arcturius's eyebrows could knit a sweater. "Your people can build spaceships from primitive supplies," he asked Almira.

"Can anyone here teleport," Arcturius asked the dignitaries.

A seraph held up an amulet he had. "I think we can all get home if we hold hands!"

The Ix snatched it from his hand and pressed the big button, cackling until he realized he was still standing here.

"So, we can't leave by those means," Arc muttered. "Can anyone breathe in space?"

A couple of hands shot up, but the same Seraph pulled up a hologram of the sky outside. "He's turned our ships against us. There's a full orbital blockade."

An Aldstadt elf shouted from the other side of the table, "Yeah, but we didn't exactly bring warships, did we?"

The Ix and the Seraph pointed at each other. Several other representatives from various races coughed loudly.

The elf sighed.

"No choice but to fight then." Riku said.

"This should be fun." Oberon muttered.

Almira gave Arc a look that could kill. "No, Wise One. I meant my people have been trained to fight since we could hold a blade." She rolled her eyes. "Are we trying to escape or fight this guy?"

Setsuna laughed. "Hoenstly I don't care what is going to happen either way. Nothing here will possibly affect me. Either you will all die and I live out my days in the universe here until the next one is born, or you kill him and I get set free. I win either way."

Arcturius looked at Serak with disdain. He shook his head and nodded at Almira. "Alright! No choice. We fight this g--"

Ozymandias reappeared, "Oh. One last thing! I stocked this planet with a bunch of monsters and stuff. For my entertainment. Have fun!"

"Shit." riku replied.

Oberon shrugged.

Almira shrugged. "Well, we should start.....whatever it is we need to start."

Serak matched Artik's gaze. "Do we have a problem here Arcturius? If so we should settle it now before moving on shouldn't we."

Setsuna sighed and stood up. "Well then. I bid you all farewell. I'm leaving." The illusion suddenly disappeared in a burst of energy. Making it seem to all present that he literally did teleport away.