Damien's Key Chapter 1: Gate of the Heart

Groan...

Damien slowly wakes up and yawns, "What a weird dream..."

   It's not a dream...

"Huh!?" Damien got up and looked around, looking very startled. "Who said-"

When he saw his surroundings he paused in surprise and shock, He is standing in the middle of a giant circle-shaped cathedral like platform but the platform itself... was in the middle of nothing but pitch black darkness.

"Wh- Where am I?", Damien said, while looking around, his feet make a sound of well.. clawed feet on tiles.

  Your "Gate of Heart.."

"My gate of...", Damien looks around once more till... something tells him to look down. What he saw was in.. or should he say "on" the floor was a huge picture of himself sleeping while fire clung to his body and surrounding that image... are portraits of Damien's Friends but-

"Why are their pictures...black?"

Even though he could  make out the pictures of his friends.. they are the ones that are pitch black on the platform.

  So much to do..

"Huh?" Damien looked behind himself.. only to see the pitch black darkness, "Whose there?"

But he saw no one.

  So little time...

"Show yourself!" Damien shouted, he reached for his dagger but.. it wasn't there.

"What the- Where did my weapon go?!"

  Do not be alarmed..  Take your time..

"Doing what!?", Damien exclaimed, starting to get anxious and alarmed.

  Don't be afraid... and look around...

"huh?" as Damien look around the area.

  Even though remembering has set your path...
        ...the door is still shut.

  Now, Step forward.
        Can you do it?

Damien was unsure to trust this strange voice echoing in his head but he walked to the middle of the floor.
"Step Forward", Damien repeated, "Easy enough"

  A power you have worked hard to obtain...
   ...was scattered.. however.. A new power was awakened in it's place.

Three stone tablets arise from the floor before Damien. On one stone, lies a shield of red and black. On another, a wand of blue and green and on the last stone.. a sword.

  This power is still sleeping... but by giving it form..
       ...It will give you strength.

"A sword, a shield.. and a wand" Damien said as he points at each of the three stones, "Are you asking.. me to choose between a warrior, a guardian or a mage?"

  ..Choose well.. is what I would normally say.

"Huh?"

The three objects floated off their place on their stones and flew above Damien, circling over his head.

  Just as your soul..
    your heart has a different option to awaken the power..

The sword shined brightly...

  The power of the warrior.
  Invincible courage.
  A sword of terrible destruction.

Next shone the wand...

  The power of the mystic.
  Inner strength.
  A wand of wander and ruin.

The finally the shield...

  The power of the guardian.
  Kindness to aid friends.
  A shield to repel all.

The three objects continue to glow and spin together so bright and so fast that Damien had to shield his eyes. Then a mighty flash shone and came to a sudden stop.

"W-What happened?" Damien looked up and his jaw dropped in wonder. Because floating softly down to him was none other then his sword! 
"My Weapon!" Damien reached out to take hold of it as it softly landed in his open hands.

  The Power of the Vanguard.
   One who shows the way.
  A soul's guide to infinite paths...

  ....Is this the power you seek?

Damien nodded, "Yes." As Damien said that his weapon disappeared in a blazing yet soft orb of light that sunk into his chest.

  Your Path is set once more.

And at that the stones crumpled away.

"W-What the-!?" All around Damien the floor began to break apart till Damien was once again falling into the darkness. He kept on falling till he ended up floating softly to his feet on a new floor, this time the image was of Koopa Wolf Castle and of the neighboring Pear Kingdom, but KW Castle was all black and in contrast Pear Kingdom was all White.

Damien whistled, "I have to get the number of the guy that makes these floors..."

  Funny..

Damien's weapon appeared in his hand,

  You've gained the power to fight.

"Oh yeah!", Damien said swinging his weapon, oddly he felt like he was inexperienced with his sword despite being so familiar with it. Even so he was swinging the sword back and forth with skill that he felt like he had.. in a sense of a word, forgotten.

 Alright! You seem to know what you're doing.. Use this power to protect others as well as yourself..

"Of cours- huh?", Damien looks to the left of the floor and sees this.. odd small pitch black creature with yellow eyes pop out from it.

  As you know...
    There are times you have to fight...

A second one emerges from the ground, then a third. They all look at him.

  Keep your light burning strong.

"Bring it!", said Damien getting into a swordsmen like stance, It seem despite his odd feeling with his weapon he remembers the hard lessons he had with his friend Darrow. He leaped and slammed his sword down on one of the creatures, as he did he thought they seemed oddly familiar and somehow wondered if his sword would even harm them at all. However, the blade made solid contact with the creature and took it out.

"Aight! Who else wants-" Damien looked and saw that the rest of the black creatures had disappeared, "-some..?"
Damien walked to the center of the floor, unknown to him a black creature had moved behind him-

  Behind you!

Quickly turning around, Damien slashed the creature as soon as it leaped at him and disappeared in a puff of gray smoke. The creature didn't leave, they were planning a sneak attack! One by one more creatures emerged from the shadows to attack Damien. He defends and strikes back at each and every one. Soon however, the remaining creatures turned into a dark black puddle on the floor.

"W-What the..." The puddles grew larger and larger to the point it engulfs the entire floor and pulls Damien slowly into it, with him struggling in vain as he is fully engulfed.


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

Damien wiggles and squirming on the floor of a new tile floor before waking up with a gasp, "Jesus!" he yells, clinging to the spot where his heart is in chest as he gets up and look around the floor for anymore of those strange creatures. Instead he sees the floor is designed with all the symbols of elements he knew, symbols for Time, Ice, Fire, Thunder, etc gleamed as mythical lines of runes seem to circle around the floor and would sometimes overlap. Damien knew these symbols and mystical line of rune text, he didn't undergo training in magic for nothing. These were very ancient texts, he knows these well because when Damien casts magic these very same rune texts circled around him.. Just as Damien was wandering around the room he spots a door.

"A Door?" Damien rushed over to it, "Maybe it's a way out!" 

He tugs at the door's handle but-
"It wont open.." Damien sighed after his tenth failed attempt to open the door. He turned around about to sigh but gasps instead as he spots a chest appearing just where he was lying down a few minutes ago. He walked to the chest excited but wary thinking it could be another trick, getting an idea, he taps the chest with his weapon. It opens emitting a light but besides that there wasn't anything in there.

"Well.. It was a good light show at least" Damien sighed disappointed and started to turn around-

Only to to shield his eyes has the door itself begun to shoot open, emitting a light so bright Damien could hardly see as he was suddenly compelled to walk through it. When the light faded he found himself in a forest like plains.. the same one he first awoke in.

  Hold it....
    The door can't open just yet...

Suddenly three of his friends: Garga, Blue, and Tau appeared before Damien. As much as Damien wanted to go to them and find a way to escape or get answers.. he know these were projections. Images of his friends.

  Tell me more about yourself...


Blue, the blue shelled koopa then walked towards Damien, just like the real Blue, this one was equally as nervous.

"Blue.." Damien started to say.

"W- Wh- What are you afraid of?" Blue asks.

"...." Damien stared at Blue, abit surprised he'd ask him that. After awhile of staring he said, "I-I guess being alone.."

"Oh is that all?" Blue replies.

"What was that!?" Damien started to look annoyed, Image-Blue chuckled and walked back to his place; allowing the Image-Garga, the projection of his real Minotaur friend take his place in front of Damien.


"What do you want from life?" He asks bluntly.

"uhh..." Damien started abit intimated by the minotaur, then says, "Probably see new things and people.."

"Is that so? Hmm.." Garga snorts as he folds his arms.

OK for mere images they sure act like their real-life selves, Damien remarked to himself in his head as Garga moved back in his place. Finally, the last of the images, an image of his pal Tau the boxing lion walks up to Damien and, true to his real life self, places a hand on Damien's shoulder and asks him,

"What's most important to you?"

"My Friends! You know that much" Damien remarks with a chuckling smile.

"Don't I know it!"

Damien and Image-Tau share a laughing moment together. Damien hears static. then-

   Afraid of being alone....

Image-Blue disappears.

  To see new things and places...

Image-Garga disappears.

  and-

Image-Tau with a smile, disappears.

  Your friends are what's most important to you...

"Sounds about right.." Damien was sad to see his friends go away, even if they were just projections.

  Now.. Let your door op-

Suddenly the voice was cut off, the peaceful forest like plains turned from it's peaceful natural green to a dull pitch gray-scale. 
"What..what in the world!?" Damien knew this wasn't supposed to happen. Not by a long shot. especially as the area slowly  melted and blended together before Damien's eyes, a bad feeling aches in his heart as part of the blended field begun to crack and shatter into pieces. A gap laid where the spacial area had broken apart, then it becomes a mighty vacuum of wind. Damien was helpless as he was sucked in, free falling before crashing into another floor. This one symbolizes a lion, dragon and bull face each other and baring their horns and fangs, however the floor looked unstable, as if it was going to break abit at any moment. He grasps his chest area in pain as he got up. The pain in his chest came not from his crashing to the floor but from something else. something sinister.

Something in the same area as him.

The floor shakes violently, the shaken and in pain Damien is forced to kneel down, hold on to the cracking floor for balance as huge dark purple claw raises up from the misty black emptiness and grabs hold of the floor, lifting up the rest of it's heavy body. The body in question is a beast yet humanoid type as if was once an offspring of a Greek god, it's hands were that of a beast's claws, it's feet were that of snarled and burnt 3 toed claws and it's head was shrouded in darkness but 2 horns stuck out the side of it's head as it's pale yellow eyes stared down at Damien. As Damien looked at the creature he can see a spark of white within the huge shadow creature's barrel like chest, looking at it made him want to fight the creature. To get the piece in it's chest. Damien rushed at the monster, weapon in hand and mind set on taking it down. The Black and massive beast lifted its huge and heavy clawed hand and swiped at attacking beast boy who had to roll under it to get closer and evade the beast' strike. He leaped but was not high enough to reach the head or chest, so his slash only hurt the creature's abs and legs as he fell back down to the ground. The creature bellowed and stomped down on the floor where Damien landed, fortunately for Damien he had rolled out of the way. Unfortunately the shock-wave had sent him flying over the edge of the floor, causing him to slam his weapon onto the edge to stop himself from plummeting into the black abyss. Grunting, He swung and hung there desperately hanging on for dear life before using his strength to pull and flip himself back onto the crumbled and cracked platform.

The creature was waiting. As if it knew he would have survived.

He thinks I'm his plaything till it's time to kill me.., Damien realized. Well then. Here I come!

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

Damien lied there panting, tired and bruised as the monster that was so gleefully trying to kill him staggered towards him. He had lost track of time of how long he had been fighting this freak of darkness but he was on the end of his strength and so was the creature. All Damien could do was lie there as the Beast he struggled against staggered, stumbled and to Damien's horror-

-fell on him, disappearing into a wavy blob of darkness.

The force of the impact was too much for the platform however and the unstable tile that held Damien from falling once again into the abyss had shattered. As the white speck of light raced into Damien's chest, the boy himself now once again falls into the depth of darkness.