Cera & Jericho: The Dark Chimera

"Under World?"

Cera was completely lost by Jessira's statement.

"Regardless, if you are another candidate that can hack my dimension gate then you're undoubtedly a dangerous individual."

A devastating explosion sent water and sand spraying through the air. The moment Jesshira finished speaking Cera had sensed his intent to kill. Jesshira's attack was powerful but she had moved by pure instinct which not only saved her from the blast but Jericho as well.

"Your speed is impressive girl, but no one escapes my gravity sphere."

"You don't need to attack us, we're not here to fight I'm only trying to find my brother."

"If that's true then why would you follow me through my dimension gate?"

"I have no idea why that happened…"

"Hmmm…Well you're not attacking back, if you were an enemy you'd likely be on the offense by now...could it really be an accident?"

Jesshira seemed to ponder for a moment, his hostility was wavering now that Cera's intentions didn't seem malicious.

A moment of silence passed but then from above a monstrous creature had leapt over Cera and Jericho and proceeded to launch at Jesshira. It was an enormous dog with three heads, it's growl was so intense that it sent shivers down her spine.

"You have no right to use your powers here Dark Chimera!"

A squad of black cloaked warriors rushed at Jesshira, to combat their numbers he had put his hand to the ground and raised up several mummified zombie-like soldiers and soon the area became an all out war zone.

Swords clashed as the cloaked warriors in front ran into the zombies, meanwhile Jesshira quickly drew back. The three headed dog was ravaging it's way towards Jesshira while tearing zombies to pieces with its teeth and claws. The hatred was undeniable, Cera and Jericho watched as the blood drained from their faces at the horrible display of power.

Jesshira had stumbled his way back up the sandy slope, the beast dog was just on his heels. A huge ball of gravity formed in the air growing denser every second until it had pinned the three headed dog to the floor. Jesshira stood at the top of the hill while some sort of golden gateway appeared behind him, he opened one side up but before he could step through his back was set a blaze.

The beast dog had sent him a final gift, breathing out a ball of fire at Jesshira in the last possible instant. Though despite the direct hit, Jesshira was wearing plated body armor so the fire most likely did little damage before he disappeared into the gateway.

"What…the actual hell…did I just witness?"

Jericho muttered under his breath, he'd seen a lot of strange things on Neodeka but he was still unprepared for all of this.

After the battle the black cloaked people had regrouped, they were whispering to each other until one of them looked over at Cera and Jericho. The giant dog had waltzed up happily with it's tongues hanging out, slobber spewing all over the ground.

Cera's heart fell to her stomach as the dog waddled her way, it looked at her with it's dazzling eyes before licking her face. The dog seemed pleasantly excited as it's tail began wagging, though Cera was gagging on the putrid smell of it's saliva now covering her. It did just chew up a bunch of zombies and lord only knows what else after all.

"Sorry about him, it seems Cerberus has taken a liking to you. Are the two of you okay?"

"Um…yeah, I guess…but, more importantly what exactly was all that about?"

"It's a long story…By the way my name's Jean and these are my companions, we're with the Looming Shadow."

"That man…Jesshira, where did he go?"

"Unfortunately, he has the ability to travel from the Under World to the next realm which makes it a pain to deal with him…basically he can come and go whenever he wants."

"He just attacked us out of nowhere, he thought I was a 'candidate' or something."

"Candidate? What is your name?"

"I'm Cera Shadows and this weird guy here is Jericho."

"Shadows?! As in Celia and Mark Shadows?"

"Yeah…that's my mom and dad, how do you know their names?"

"I'm sorry, but would you mind coming with us? We have a lot to talk about…"

Cera and Jericho followed Jean and his mysterious group of hooded soldiers back to their village. Cera was extremely curious how they could possibly know her parents, Jericho was highly suspicious of the situation, but he knew his best bet was to stick with Cera.

There was a wooden fence at the front, just beyond that were several houses braced up by huge wooden pillars. The houses were highly advanced when compared to the camp sites that Cera and Jericho were used to. It was a well populated town with houses to the left and right, the center was opened to stretch out as a sort of main road and there were lots of people out and about. The only unusual thing was that far beyond the houses there was a huge castle that reached high into the violet sky.

"Man…I got a serious case of swamp ass dude, what was in that water back there?"

Jericho was complaining as they trudged along while dripping from head to toe.

"Ewwww, keep that to yourself. Actually, can you just go away?"

Cera's face contorted into pure disgust.

"It's okay, we have a hot spring and we'll lay out some fresh clothes for the two of you."

Jean had stopped out front of what could only be the guest house, the others had already gone their own direction once they had gotten back to the village.

"Omg, can I stay here forever?"

Jericho had stars in his eyes, the sights of this town were so pleasant when compared to Neodeka. It seemed like the most normal established neighborhood you could possibly imagine to exist in the Under World.