...if it really is something worth it...

"Big bro! Big bro!" yelled a young adult, a teenager soon to be 18, that looked to be enjoying something. He was wearing some sort of white shirt and a boxer. He was running towards a room where another fella was lying in a singles-bed. "Come on! Wake up! It's Christmas!" said the teen as he shook the fella from one side to another.

"...ugh..." moaned the teen's brother. "What do you want.... *Emil*?"

"Rhoenir,* it's Christmas,!"* he replied.

"Emil....." said Rhoenir as he looked at his alarm clock, "It's 6 am in the morning. I barely got any sleep from yesterday's work. I could appreciate some more sleep."

"Hey, I don't want to trouble you with your sleep, but it's FREAKING SNOWING ALREADY." pointed Emil as he pulled the curtains, allowing all the light to enter. Rhoe was unamused by this. "Plus, I made a promise to Rose this year to join her with her family. So I wanna spend some time with you before going with her since you said you weren't joining us, but just in case, I'm asking you one more time, are you-"

"No."

"You didn't even hear me!" complained Emil.

"I know that. I also know what were you going to ask me. Both of us knew the answer. Again, no, I'm not going." said Rhoe as he got up from bed, "Those fancy places doesn't suit me anyways." Emil knew Rhoe his entire life and this was another lie of his to cover the real intention. He wasn't planning on giving up that easy.

"Now, we both know that's not true." Rhoe twitched a bit upon hearing this. He figured that Emil was aware of the real reason.

"Come on! It's time to move on! Live a life! Not staying home all alone!"

Rhoe was tired of all those meetings, since they reminded him a lot of his parents. But if Emil was begging for him to go, he didn't have that much of a reason not to go. Finally, he spoke. "Okay, you win. I'll go."

"Oh no sir! You are not getting of the hook-.... what?"

"I said I'll go. You finally got me this time. Congrats." said Rhoe as he remained next his bed, smiling.

"......"

"Uh... Emil?"

"YES!" shouted Emil as he went and hugged his brother tightly. Rhoe had some troubles breathing, so Emil let go of his brother, "I'll tell Rose you are coming! Oh man, this is so exciting! The brothers together in Christmas one more time!". He yelled as he took off and left the room.

Rhoe was worried Emil's high pitched voice woke up any neighbor near by. He didn't want to begin Christmas with a complain from some neighbor, he had enough troubles trying to calm him down. Suddenly, Emil popped up in the corner of the door.

"Rhoe! Remember what we planned to do this Christmas." he reminded Rhoe.

"....I don't know wat are talking about." he replied honestly.

"Oh come on, Rhoe!, you know what I want to do!" said Emil excited by his yet to be known idea. Rhoe actually took some moments to shake the classic dream aftermath effect. Thinking more clearly, he thought what Emil had just said moments ago. With a very slow working morning brain in action, Rhoe finally remembered what he meant.

"Oh no. I'm not doing that!" he answered.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" insisted Emil.

"NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE, SO. MUCH. NOPE!"

"Please..." he pledged ashe turned his stare into a puppy eyes look. Rhoe could swear this was gonna be the end of him. Rhoe heavily sighed and looked at Emil.

"FINE. But just this once. Never again." he said.

"Deal." Rhoe and Emil shook hands and continued with the agreement.

Rhoe and his brother showed up at the party that was held in Rose's house, who was Emil's girlfriend. They were greeted by all sorts of people. Many were overjoyed to hear that Rhoe finally decided to tag along, since he isn't much of a sociable guy. Rhoe actually started to feel happy for having arrived at such lievly party. The brothers were having a good time and Rhoe decided to head to the balcony after having a nice time with Rose's family.

Rhoe was staring into the deep blue ceiling of stars hanging above, thinking of what could happen in the future. He was in deep thought, until Emil showed behind him.

"Sup, big bro! Having a good time I assume?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's a nice place. I must say, you have a good eye for women Emil." he flattered, while patting the back of his younger brother.

"Hehe, thanks..." Emil spotted some people setting some fireworks, which gave Emil a good idea."Hey."

"What?" he replied.

"The thing."

"The thing?" asked Rhoe.

"Yes, the thing." confirmed Emil.

"What thing?"

"The *THING.*"

"Oh, *THE THING.*"

"That's right."

He sighed, knowing what was coming next. "I hate you, you know that?"

"You can't hate me, I'm just too cool for that."

Rhoe laughed a bit after hearing his brother say that. He was a bit proud of Emil for having grown into a normal, yet fine person. All those years of dedication finally paid off. Rhoe's smile suddenly dissapeared after he remembered the thing."Still, I don't want to, but I can't fight back what I agree."

"So? We are doing it?" asked Emil with a bright in his eyes.

Yes, yes we are."

"AWESOME!"

"... I have to stop spoiling him rotten. This is just childish." he thought.

Rhoe stood nearby Emil as he got into a battle pose, with both hands on to the left of his back. With a firework ready to be launched, Emil waited for the perfect opportunity to do his plan all along.

The firework got launched and the chance came. With all his might, Emil used both to press against Rhoe like some sort attack. When it hit, the firework exploted in the right moment. Emil felt his destiny was finally done. Kinda reminds me of an anime. It was something like this:

Rhoe was actually thrown back with force, causing to bounce a little in the landing. He didn't get hurt for it caused him a few small, insignificant bruises. He got up and brushed off. Rhoe walked towards Emil to speak with him.

"Happy?"

"Our fight will be remembered throughout generations!", Emil stroke a victory pose in front of him, just to mock him. Rhoe couldn't help himself, but laugh at this. Emil's actitude always managed to bring a smile Rhoe everytime he did something out of the ordinary. He was grateful that his brother grew just like their parents wished for.

"Hahaha! Yeah, big bro. Thanks for keeping your word." thanked Emil.

"Hehe, no problem.", Rhoe smiled, but soon that smiled turned upside down, which caused Emil to worry about this.

"Big bro?". He didn't answer back. Emil knew this was another depressing thought coming from his brother. Sighing to this, he went to his aid.

"Rhoe, listen to me,", Rhoe turned to see his brother, "I don't know what are you thinking, but whatever it is, either you tell me or forget about it."

Rhoe looked away a few seconds, staring into the stars. He returned to see his brother and spoke.

"I was just thinking what would happen if you were... gone, you know? I wouldn't know what to do..."

Emil sighed at his brother, for his mind was always focusing on protecting him from really bad troubles. He pushed Rhoe with a little strength to catch his attention. "Big bro. I know this is sudden, but promise me something."

Rhoe didn't like the sound of that, but decided to listen. "If something were ever going to happen to me, causing me to pass away,", these words pierced Rhoe's heart, "I want you to move on and live a happy life, despite of the situation you may or not be. Promise?"

Rhoe didn't answer back inmediately. He felt this promise was going to be really hard to keep if it was ever going to happen, but he didn't want to let down his brother for it.

"Well?" persisted Emil with his hand extended.

".....Okay. I promise." Rhoe shook Emil's hand to seal the deal. (Hey, a rhyme!)

"Good." said Emil puffing out his chest, "I'm counting on you bro!"

"You are not dead yet, moron." said Rhoe unamused by his last sentence.

"Yeah, yeah. Sorry about that." Emil turned his back to Rhoe as he started to head inside again. "Don't stay there too long, unless you want to take a date with one fo the stars!" joked Emil as he dissapeared from sight.

"Sure thing! It's not my fault if the stars flirt on me!" replied Rhoe. He could hear Emil's laughter from the balcony. Rhoe smiled once again and leaned on the balcony's edge, looking at the stars.

"I promise, Emil. I won't give up."

.................................................................................................................................................... I'm sorry.

"I'm sorry, Emil. Looks like I'm not going to keep our promise in the end..." murmured Rhoe as he was getting up from a pool of his own blood. He was gravely injured, panting from his spot. He was holding his sword in his hand firmly and staring at what seemed to be a rather considerable damaged Nebra, who was looking at him with such fierce determination and anger. Rhoe felt a little overwhelmed by her stare and continued to keep looking at her despite that.

"You miserable freak! Now you have made me really angry!" yelled Nebra, as she panted heaviyl trying to catch air. Despite being the queen of Darkness, it doesn't mean she doesn't need oxygen. Geez, she is alive for crying out loud, well, almost alive. You get the point.

"...guh... You think I'm... done for?" he replied, ignoring the heat of the moment, "If I could take care of both the sisters... that easily... I can take you anyday!"

As a matter of fact, the sisters were nowhere to be seen. The scenario wasn't the entrance to the house anymore. It was a big hallway that somehow managed to fit in the house, despite the size. Dark logos were found in the hanging carpets located in the balcony of the hallway's second floor. The first floor was grim and slightly colorless. The darkness even sucked the life out of an inanimated object, imagine if it obtained control of the whole world.

"I highly doubt that. Look at yourself," said Tenebrarum as she pointed to him, making him look at himself as a chain reaction, "You barely can walk towards me, how, do tell, are you planning on fighting me?". She had a point, Rhoe's will was capable of a lot of things, but his body said otherwise. He kept thinking what was the best course of action despite his condition. Nothing. Not a single idea came to his mind in the heat of the moment. Nebra, on the other hand, began to approach Rhoe with a deviously smile pasted on her face.

"Darn it, this doesn't look good..." he thought, "If we don't do something, we are goners!"

I have to agree with you. We threw our best at her and yet she is standing like nothing!

"Don;t be fooled. Look." thought Rhoe while Nebra was approaching, "She may have more energy than us, but she is still damaged, it can be seen by the way she walks"

Hmph, you got a point. But that won't help. She is far more powerful than us. We knew that in the very beggining and yet we faced her. If only we had some sort of distraction or something...

Rhoe suddenly remembered something that might their ticket out of there, "Yo, Umbra!"

What, did something happened kid?

"I know a way to get ourselves a break, but it's risky. You in?" he asked in a thought.

.....Anything is better than where we are.

With Umbra's approval, Rhoe nodded slightly and looked at Nebra, who was closer than before.

"Remember when I told you Aeris and I used an illusion against Applejack and Pinkie?"

... Yes, I think you did. Why?

"Think you can do the same? After all, you and Nebra somehow share something in common."

And that is?

"You two are from the element of darkness, which can cause a connection between two beings of the same element, right? That is what Aeris told me" said Rhoe in the thought as he recalled something similar before he was separated from Aeris.

Hmph, I see where are you going with this. I don't know if it still works, but there's no other option. However, I need direct contact if I plan to create an illusion. That is the tricky part. Any bright ideas, Sir Moron?

"Only one. Get ready, for I will tell you when to act. Wish me luck!" thought Rhoe as prayed for his plan to work.

Pfft. Yeah, yeah. Just do it.

Rhoe prepared himself as Nebra slowly approached, ready for the final strike. Rhoe knew exactly what to do, but the variable for success was Nebra's intelligence. Hopefully she would fall right into the act.

"Okay, here goes nothing!" were his last thoughts as he gathered strength and got up from his knees. He pulled his sword in the air and prepared himself to swing at her.

Nebra was taken back to see his opponent to have such energy after a severe beating. She was ready to counter the swing, but out of nowhere, Rhoe dropped his sword behind him and started twitching. Nebra took a couple of seconds to realize Rhoe's will was being broken again. She couldn't help but laugh at him when she saw this.

"Pathetic! Really pathetic! I can't believe you fell to the darkness's power again!" she said between her laughter. Her laughter died down and saw our hero fall down to his knees again, looking up to the ceiling with a blank expression his face, almost like if he was slowly dying inside, which he was. She approached to him faster and looked directly into his face.

"How unfortunate. I was hoping you would be more of a challenge. Although, you managed to overcome all of my tests which is pretty impressive for a human", she grabbed her shoulders, closed her eyes and started to spin slowly around her spot, "I longed for us to rule together. After seeing such a poweful man, I wanted you to be mine, mine only. It's a shame it won't happen... so, before I finsh this.... I want to give you a something..."

Nebra moved her arm and grabbed Rhoe's chin.

"I.... guess this will do as a farewell gift...", she got closer and closer to Rhoe, looking at his lips with temption, "Good bye... Rhoe..."

Her lips met his and and she closed her eyes to enjoy her parting gift before ending the life of the one she thought could have ruled with her, but something felt off. Without further notice, Rhoe inmediately recovered strengths, pulling Nebra as he gave the kiss back. Nebra was shocked, but didn't mind as he got up and both started to submit themselves into a passionate kiss.

It has been a while since Nebra felt such a nice feeling. Both continued for a couple of minutes until Rhoe suddenly broke the moment and the silence.

"Nebra, I never saw the real beauty of darkness. I always thought it consumed everything, but after this experience, I was clearly wrong." said Rhoe as he looked into Nebra's eyes with passion. She was shocked to see such thing before her eyes, before she submitted to her desires.

"I'm so glad you finally saw it... I was afraid I would never encounter such powerful man before you. Oh, Rhoe...", after she said, both went into another deep kiss, poruing their into it like there was no tomorrow. After they separated, Nebra showed a small grin on her face. thinking of something.

"Rhoe?"

"Yes, Nebra?" he answered back.

"...Wanna take this upstairs?"

He was surprised by this, but smiled at her as a response. "Sure, anything for you..."

Nebra and Rhoe walked towards the broken wall and everything faded...

"Wow, it worked.... It really worked!" said Rhoe as he sat, trying to relax, barely standing up.

Of course it worked, moron.

"I thought it wouldn't do the trick. Thank God I was proven wrong... but," said Rhoe as he was relaxing in his spot, "... did you really had to give her such a dirty illusion!?"

Hehehe, yeah I did. What? You didn't really think I was going to give her a puppy dream, did you?

As what really happened, soon after Rhoe recieved Nebra's kiss, he ordered Umbra to use his illusion spell since she was in direct contact with him. She inmediately fell to the floor and started twitching on the ground. It wasn;t long before she started to let out moans and moved her arms around her body, rubbing her own skin.

Nebra also said a few things like: 'Take me', 'Don't stop...' or even REhoe's name out loud, to what it seemed to be a pleasure voice, Rhoe couldn't help it, but to feel a little uneasy being around her.

"No, but anything besides THAT would have been okay!" he complained, "I mean, she is talking about me in her erotic illusiion!"

Lucky bastard.

"...Yeah, I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that..." said Rhoe as he looked the gap in the wall the fight caused earlier, "But how long do we have before she wakes up from the illusion?"

Judging by her moans and.... sound effects apparently, I say we have at least a 5 minutes break.

Nebra suddenly started shake violently and scream pleasure sounds.

...... Make it 3 minutes.

"Ooookay.... got any ideas where to hide? You are the expert anyways" he said.

Hiding won't work here. She is connected to the whole place. She'll make use of her tracking abilities and find us eventually. I say we look for something that might give a boost or something.

"Okay, you are the boss!"

I AM the Boss.

"Yeah.... no one cares," said Rhoe in an annoying tone as he entered the main room where he met Nebra and the sisters. "There has to be something that we can use to defend ourselves or end this if possible!".

Rhoe thought that he could end right what he had planned to do in the beggining, but he didn't the enough strength to lift his blade. He cursed at his weakness and dragged the blade across the room, moving towards a couple of bodies.

Rhoe looked where the sisters, Celestia and Luna, were looking to the floor, motionless. Rhoe shivered at the single thought of both sisters having been killed by him, which is pretty impresive for such bullshit, but still. He made sure he used enough power to knock them out or at least to hold them back, but his insanity was unpredictable and may have overdone it, if possible. He shook his head, trying to forget about it and focused to look for something that might help them out.

Rhoe found himself in the wine-cellar room, where he arrived in the first place. Looking around for something useful, he managed to spot a bottle that contained a red liquid inside. He knew anything would help, so decided to drink it, ignoring what dangers could it contain. After he drank the bottle, his body suddenly felt lighter than before. The bottle had some energy inside, which was transmitted to Rhoe after he drank it.

"Hell yeah! I feel better!" he yelled.

Nice to know.

"Hey, you don't sound too excited as I do... is there something I should know about Nebra?"

Ugh.... I guess it's unavoidable in the end.... Yes, there is something about Nebra.

"What is that? Please don't tell me it's bad news..." pleaded Rhoe.

Then I'm letting you down. It is bad news. You see, whenever an entity of the same element places a another element of his/her own under a spell, the spell automatically heals the reciever as for it is the same aura. In other words, she is slowly healing.

"WH-WHA-WHAT!? ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" he yelled.

I am serious. But since it was our only chance to escape from her grasp, I say it was necessary.

Rhoe was still processing what his rude companion just explained to him. He was afraid to face her head on with all of her strength back. As they previously recalled, Nebra was more powerful than Rhoe, just by a considerable difference. This completely changed the way thing were supposed to happen by the looks of Rhoe, and it wasn't going to be pretty. He took a deep breath and relaxed before starting to panic.

"So, that means we are facing a full energized Nebra I assume" said Rhoe in his thoughts.

As much as I want to think the opposite, yes. We are facing a fully recovered Nebra. Hope you are ready, moron.

"Might as well do so. Umbra!"

What?

"Prepare my 'hidden' self, it's going to get a whole lot messy in a few minutes," ordered Rhoe to Umbra as it agreed to his request, smiling since he was going to witness a lot of destruction. Rhoe couldn't help himself, but to feel curious of how long did they have before she wakes up.

"Umbra, how long do we have?"

..... 20 seconds... tops.

"Okay, then. We better take this outside, I don't want to any collateral damage to the sisters" thought Rhoe as took another potion and put it away in his bag. He ran towards the main door and opened it. What he saw was a carefully guarded garden outside, with an open space in the middle of it. The skies were darker than before and a yami aura could be seen from afar. The longer the battle took, the more grim the place looked.

"This is going to be it. This time, one of us will fall!" he said as he moved towards the garden.

Back inside the house, a black haired woman was getting up from the floor. She groaned as she grabbed her forehead and rubbed it slowly.

"Ugh... what happened? Why am I on the floor?", she looked to where she was sitting and was shocked to see that Rhoe wasn't there, "Huh!? Where is he!? Why, what, when, how!? B-but... Oh. I see. Pretty clever, Rhoe, as expected from the man who had beaten all of my challenges"

She got up from the floor and felt her body was a lot lighter than before, which caused her to smile maniatically,"An illusion spell, huh. I knew it too good to be true. Him? Falling into the dark path? Yeah, right... Well~, at least I recovered"

Nebra closed her eyes and focused on her mind.

"Now let's see... Where is he?", she used her tracking abilities and tracked an entity outside in the garden, "Oh, so that is where you are. You wanna take this outside? Fine, you won't stand a chance against me anyways"

Nebra ran to the broken wall in the room and lead herself to the main door where she found it wide opne, almost like an invitation. She showed a small grin and proceeded to walk outside. The first thing she saw was a young, brownish haired man with a sword in hand, looking at her hand with a piercing stare. She was amused by this.

"So, the little cub decided to man up. How lovely~" said Tenebrarum as she approached to where Rhoe was standing, "I have to say, you got me back there. I never you would have a card up your sleeve. Quite clever, if I must say so". Rhoe didn't answer, he continued to look at her with determination, not budging from his place.

"Oh? You are not talking back? Isn't that quite the feature?"

He remained silent as well, breathing slowly with his green pearl eyes fixed on her.

"You know, it's boring if I'm the only doing the talk" she pointed out.

"Why are you doing this?" finally said Rhoe, breaking his silence. Nebra was surprised by his sudden voice, but smiled soon after.

"What do you mean?"

"Why do you want to conquer this place? I've heard darkness has it's own realm, so why bother coming here?" said Rhoe in a serious tone. Nebra simply shook her head and laughed a bit at him. He was unamused by this.

"Why shouldn't we? It's simple. We want to reign not only a small fragment of the world, oh no, we want all of it!"

"We?"

"Why, didn't I showed you my companion? Of course I didn't, you don't have the power to notice them as I do", Rhoe didn't know whether he should be scared or intrigued to know that Nebra wasn't alone. He prepared for whatever she had as a companion.

"Oh, Sirea~!", a purple companion appeared behind her, a little shy about her opponents, "Come on out! Our 'opponents' want to see you..."

"Umm... Hi...." said Sirea with a tremblimg voice, shaking a bit.

"Wow, it doesn't look evil at all!" stated Rhoe lifting an eyebrow for this surprise.

Wait for it...

Nebra performed a dark magic from her spot, as she grabbed Sirea and threw her up in the air. When she fell to the ground, she had a demonic form, almost like a dark beast that had a resemble of a Nightshadow, only that it had sharper fangs and red crimson aura around it. The eyes were violet and the tail had some blue marine runes graveo in it. The beast, who was once Sirea, now was letting out a growl towards Rhoe.

"Oooookkaaaayyyy... I take that back, it might take my head off if I'm not careful" confessed Rhoe who drew his sword and pointed it towards Sirea, "Bring it, you fiend!"

Sirea inmediately lunged towards Rhoe in a rush, aiming for his head. Luckily for Rhoe, he managed to dodge the attack due to his previous experience with Nightshadows. The beast used its claws to stop the motion and stare at the human. It tried to do another similar attack, which was counter with a slash to the hip. Rhoe thought it did some effect, only to see that beast remained unaffected by it. He went into another charge, and performed multiples hits to Sirea, only to see how each one just went through it. He was scared to see this and jumped back to dodge another claw attack from Nebra's companion.

Sirea didn't waste another second, for it jumped in the air and let out a howl that affected Rhoe's hearing. The screech caused huge amounts of pain to Rhoe as he covered his ears to reduce the pain. His orientation was distorted and began to see two beasts at the same time. In a desperate attempt, he swung his blade towards the beast only to vanish within air. He felt a pair of claws on his back, slicing his skin swiftly. He cried out and forced his view to focus on the back that attacked him from behind.

He turned around, but Sirea wasn't there anymore. Instead, he saw another figure there. Later, a blast of dark matter was launched towards him, which managed to hit him and caused Rhoe to fly at least 6 meters away, rolling on his way . If he hadn't drank the potion back there, he would have been dead by now.

Recovering from the assault by Nebra and Sirea, he used Lucidus to get back into his feet. Rhoe shook both his head and body and patted his clothes to clean the blood. He looked up and spotted both Nebra and Sirea, slowly approaching him. He showed a serious expression and  took a good grip on Lucidus. He was about to throw himself intoa charge, but he was interrupted by something.

Rhoe! Wait a moment!

"What!? I'm busy!" he thought as he replied to his partner in a upset mood.

Don't attack them, it won't do any good!

"Then how else am I supposed to fight back!?"

Fuse me with the sword!

"Huh? How do I do that? And why?" he asked.

Sirea is an elemental entity, just like me. It can't be hurt by normal weapons, making her almost invincible.

"Your point is?"

If I become one with the sword, 'Lucidus' will be capable of damaging her.

"Why didn't you tell me this before!?"

I believed Aeris told you before.

"NO, IT DIDN'T TELL ME THAT!"

Well, tough luck. Now let's do some beatin'!

"Got it!" he agreed. Rhoe positioned Lucidus behind him and ran towards both Nebra and Sirea. Sirea reacted and also charged towards Rhoe. The distance became smaller and smaller as the warriors ran into each other. The beast howled, trying to disorientate Rhoe once again, but this time, he was prepared for it, for he slided on his knees, resisting the pain in his hearing and swung the sword. Sirea let out a cry and rolled onto the floor. Rhoe used to eyes to focus only to what he saw in front of him. This caused the disorientation to vanish slowly.

The beast got into its feet again and looked at Rhoe with madness. It was damaged by the looks of it.

"It worked!" he yelled.

Now it's a fair fight!

"You betcha! Now to finish this!" he stated. Rhoe got back into his feet and looked at where Nebra was stading in a split of a second. He was completely confused to the fact that Nebra wasn't helping her ally. He ignored why and focused on Sirea, who was growling at our hero. He went into another charge, keeping a steady pace. Sirea did the same.

By the time he got closer to Sirea, instead of swinging his sword towards the being, he ducked, dodging the attack from the beast.

Using the opportunity, he placed the sword upwards and hack it towards the beast's head, slowly it down. Amounts of dark blood fell into Rhoe's face, leaving a blood-stained face on him. Sirea started to slow down as it began to lose blood. Rhoe didn't hesitate and pulled the sword out of Sirea's skull. It yelled out in pain and Rhoe used the moment to finish the beast.

He took a good grip of Lucidus and performed several slashes to every direction to where Sirea was positioned. Slash after slash, he lost count of how many swings he performed. For his final attack, he stopped, leaving the beast almost motionless.

He grabbed the sword's grip backwards and swung the blade like knife to Sirea's head, slicing it off easily after countless hits. The beast's head fell to the ground and rolled a few feet. Soon after the beasts' body fell to the ground, leaving a pool of blood as evidence for Rhoe's victory.

Rhoe continued to pant heavily and relax his body after defeating the beast. He sighed and stared into the lifeless body, thinking of what he did. He may have transformed into a murderer, but he knew anyways that it had to happen sooner or later. Still, the bitterness of his victory left a disgusting flavor on his tongue. It may have been Sirea's blood that did that, but it didn't matter.

He returned to his normal breathing pace and finally managed to relax.

Once he got into a more pacific status, he thought why didn't Nebra help her partner, if she knew it was in trouble? This left a very confusing question on his mind, only to be interrupted by the laughter of his enemy. He looked back and saw Nebra laughing to her heart's content. He was unamused by this and began to worry.

"HAHAHAHAHA! I can't believe you just did that! It's so priceless!" said the laughing lady, trying to hold her composure, "Haven't you noticed what you just did?"

Rhoe shook his head in disbelief. This only caused for Nebra to burst into a bigger laughter.

"I can't believe.... you just fell.... right into it! This is hilarious!" said Nebra between laughs. Rhoe began to worry even more after hearing what Tenebrarum just said. He grinned his teeth, preparing himself for what she had planned from the very beggining. It was going to be much worse than he predicted.

Nebra's laughter started to die, and she kept smiling as she looked directly into Rhoe's eyes, confident of herself, "You can't see, can you?" He simply answered 'No'. She snickered a bit after hearing that, "Of course you can't. After all, I already said before that you don't possess my abilities to detect spirit or beings outside your area".

"What are you trying to say?" asked a really confused Rhoe, with a worried expression.

"Hmph, I thought you would at least see the coincidence in the name. I guess I was wrong," she suddenly snorted and crossed her arms, looking to the dark sky, "In the end, you really are simply a human. Nothing big...". This caused Rhoe to fill with anger after hearing under estimation about humans.

"WHAT'S YOUR POINT!?" he yelled.

"If you insist".

Nebra pointed towards the dead body of her ally, Sirea. Rhoe looked at it with confusion and returned his gaze back to Nebra, who was suddenly just a few inches away from him. He was surpirsed by this, but didn't budge.

"Let me refresh your memory just a bit. Does the name 'Aeris' makes you think of someone?". Rhoe knew she was just playing around with him, which caused him to get more upset.

"Of course I do. What does that have to do with Sirea, the partner you left to die by...... my hands?" he asked still keeping the deep stare to Nebra.

"What would you get if I.... spelled backwards Aeris?"

"You would get...... Sirea.... oh....", Rhoe placed the pieces together and figured out the message Nebra was trying to give him.

Sirea--->Aeris

"Finally caught up, eh?" mocked the queen of darkness as she backed away a bit from Rhoe, whose stare went into the dead body of Sirea.

"You.... you didn't....." stuttered Rhoe as he began to shake a little.

"OH, YOU BET I DID!" answered Tenebrarum in glory.

Rhoe dropped his blade, Lucidus, and he got to his knees and held on to the body, "I... I can't believe it.... Aeris is...."

"Dead. YOU killed AERIS, Rhoe."

"you.... You.... YOU!!!", Rhoe grabbed his blade and pointed towards her, "You made me do this!"

"Dont' look at me like if I did something. In the end, what I did was simply to change Aeris, nothing else. On the hand, the real murder is none other than you", these words struck him like an arrow and paralized him in the process, "I gotta say, you put up a good fight against one of my best monsters. Quite exciting..."

Rhoe fell to the his knees once again looked at the floor. He killed off the one who saved him and the only companion that joined with him after his brother encounter. Truly, he felt completely alone in the world. Nebra didn't bother to look at him. She simply walked to where he was and stood in front of him.

"It's my time to finish this. If you plan to give up, then I'll gladly end with your life" said Nebra with a grin on her face. The only response he got was the next one.

"Do it. I have nothing else to do in this world..."

"As you wish,", Nebra pulled a dark magic attack and aimed towards Rhoe's head, "Farewell... hero".

Everything faded into a black screen. Nothing could be heard or seen.

A wanderless spirit was traveling through a black abyss, lonely and sorrowing. It could be seen from far that it was Rhoe, giving up and submitting to his death.

"I have failed to protect this world and everyone around it. I am truly a failure..." whispered Rhoe, "I'm sorry, everyone...."

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"ARE YOU GOING TO GIVE UP JUST LIKE THAT!?"

Rhoe suddenly snapped out of his misery and heard a voice nearby. Yet, he couldn't find it.

"Don't give up! You can do it!"

Rhoe kept looking everywhere, trying to find the source of the remote voice.

"You have something worth in this world, and you know it!!!"

A group of flaming spirits surrounded Rhoe in a blink of an eye. He was startled by this and beagn to look around to see they were everywhere.

"Wha-? WHo... who are you?" he asked. A glowing light popped up in the room and blinded Rhoe. After he managed to see what was in front of him, he spotted a whole group of people. HIs friends.

"Don't give up! You can do it!" cheered a green dragon.

"You can count on us! We will always have your back!" said a rainbow maned pony.

"Whenever things apppear to lose hope, try to always remain strong." said a very tall pony with floating mane.

"Don't worry about your problems! Laugh at them instead!" said a pink pony with a cheerful voice.

"Remembah! We hav' yer back, sugarcube!" said a country pony with a yellow mane.

"Please Rhoe, get up again. For us..." said a lavender pony, looking at Rhoe with hope.

"Guys! But... how?" asked a really confused Rhoe as he looked around, hearing all the cheering from everyone from Ponyville.

"Don't worry about details, just don't lose hope, Rhoe" said a familiar voice, who revealed to be Aeris.

"Aeris! You.... I'm so sorry!" he said, almost at the verge of crying, "I didn't meant to kill you! I didn't know!"

"It's okay. It's not your fault. You did what you had to do..." explained the spirit.

"..Uh.... sorry....*sniff*...."

"Bro...." said an even familiar voice above Rhoe, "We aare all here for you..."

Rhoe looked above and noticed his little borther, Emil, glding and landing in front of him, "E..Emil...?"

"Remember what we promised back at Rose's party?", he nodded, "I think it's time to keep our word, don't we?"

"But... how? She is far more powerful than me! I don't stand a chance!"

"That is what you think. You have something she doesn't possess that gives you the advantage"

"And.... what is that?"

"Us. You have a group of people that care about you as much as you do about them," he grabbed Rhoe's shoulder firmly and smiled, "That is what gives you the advantage. Use it at your advantage, and defeat her with it! Restore life back to this place and save the world! Just like an hero would do! Just like you would do! Rhoe! You are a hero! To all of us! Prove that good always beats evil! Show the world what you are capable of and save the day!"

Emil's speech brought Rhoe into a deep crying, a happy crying. What Rhoe experienced in that moment caused him to feel complete. Like if he finall accomplished that mission in life. After having been holding back all those tears back then, he finally let it all out. He hugged his brother with might and cried even more. He cried happy tears in that moment, pure and happy tears.

After some minutes passed, he released his brother and and clean his face from all the tears he dropped. Rhoe smiled like he had never smiled before and laughed. Everyone smiled and laughed as well. The laughter died down and everything remained quiet for a few moments. Rhoe showed a restored confidence back at in his face.

"Okay, I'll fight back. I won't give up. I will do anything to restore life back to this place! I mean it!" expressed Rhoe as he placed his fist on his chest.

"Good to know. It's time for me to go, big bro" said Emil as he started to glide once again. Rhoe was shocked and grabbed Emil's hand before he left.

"You are going!? Why!?" he asked in a yell.

"My time here has finally ended. I'm going ahead, to rejoin with Mom and Dad again" he explained.

"Please, don't go! What if I'm in trouble again?"

"I wouldn't worry about that. Look," he pointed to the group that surrounded Rhoe, "You have a lot of people that care about you. I'm sure you will do just fine".

"So, Rhoe," he looked back at his older brother, "I'll tell Mom and Dad that you turned out to be a great man. Don't give up and keep our promise, okay?"

Rhoe nodded and was about to cry again, "Okay Emil, I'll keep our promise. Take care...."

" See you soon, we will be waiting for you here... Farewell Rhoe...."

"Goodbye.... Emil..." he said before everything began to change shape. He could hear a low voice nearby, growing stronger and stronger with as the seconds went by.

...r....rh...

"Ugh... who is that?" thought Rhoe as he started to return back to the real world.

Rh......Rho....

"Wait, I know that voice..."

Rhoe.... Rhoe! RHOEEE!!!

"Farewell, Rhoe...." said Nebra before pulling out the lasts strike. She launched her arm to finish him, only to be interrupted by a restrain arm holding her back. She was shocked by this and saw his prey's arm stopping her from performing the last attack. Rhoe lifted his head and looked at Nebra with a mischievous smile.

"Guess who is back?" said Rhoe as he got up. Nebra was trying to free herself from Rhoe's grasp, but her strength wasn't enough to escape. For the first time in a long time, she felt fear once again. Fear from a human.

"This time, you will experience what fear truly feels like!"