Why hello there!

Welcome to 2nd Generation's first side story! If you're coming from the other story, welcome! If you're not, please go and read that first. Or don't, it is pretty long.

Enjoy!

"...This is it." Neptu said, coming to a stop.

"This...Is it?" Elizabeth asked. Neptu nodded.

The group stood in front of abandoned ruins. Buildings were destroyed and still falling apart, but nature seemed to have taken most of it back. Moss and plants grew through the concrete ground, and vines were snaking around what remained of buildings still standing.

"Yep, I'm home." Neptu replied, staring out at the empty ruins.

"About god damn time…." grumbled Tristan behind him. "At least we...Wait, why's it all destroyed?"

"Yeah," Abigail agreed. "I'd have figured they'd have rebuilt, but it seems not." Neptu agreed, but he had no answer. He'd assumed they would as well, but what he saw didn't strike him as rebuilt.

That being said, the group proceeded. Silence was their only greeting at the gate, and this made Neptu's chest hurt.

"It's so quiet," Gin said. "It must be completely abandoned by now."

"Looks to be," Quinn replied. "I don't hear anything, nor is there anything going on." Neptu sighed and looked back at his weary comrades.

"Let's check it out," he said. "...For old times sake."

"Well well well… look whose back…" The man with spiky white hair and light blue eyes said. He was staked out in the forest near Avalon, watching. He was dressed in a white and gold tunic with white trousers and brown combat boots. His eyes shone gold and he smirked.

"The boy is back. I think you should welcome him." he said to his companion who was dressed in a green tunic which had leaves around its neck side. He had green finger less gloves on too match, and black combat boots.

"I'll be sure to…" He replied lowly, slinking away.

"This used to be the village center. Traders would set up all around the fountain, which used to sit right around there. I loved to come here on free days when my dad didn't train me into the ground." Neptu said as they wandered around the village center. They couldn't find anything that should've stated that anyone lived in the village anymore.

"Well it's not very lively now that's for sure." Quinn said as he scanned one of the buildings. Elizabeth looked over at Neptu, worry seeping into her. She was worried he'd refuse to let go of his birthplace. He had a bad track record of forgive and forget until recently. Even then, she had hoped this journey would've been more productive.

It had been a couple weeks since they had departed from Magnolia, and left the Hunters behind. Elizabeth had hoped more would be here to greet them. But as with most things, that didn't seem to be the case. As they walked through the village a raven flew by and landed ahead of them, staring at them.

"At least the birds still come around," Gin said from Elizabeth's right. "Not everyone's abandoned this place."

"Do birds usually have bright green eyes?" Tristan asked, sounding alarmed. As soon as Tristan said that, the birds eyes glowed, and a magic circle appeared around it.

"Do birds know magic?" Quinn asked, everyone tensing.

"If they do they're way smarter than I thought," Abigail replied. Elizabeth agreed with this, but Neptu seemed a bit irritated.

"Stand down, I know what it is." He said, approaching the glow. When he reached it the bird had disappeared, and a man in a green tunic had replaced it.

"You have some nerve showing your face around here…." The man growled at them. After this, he reared back and punched Neptu in the face, sending him skidding backwards into a destroyed wall.

Elizabeth rushed the man with the others, but he dodged all of them with little issue. Turning to prepare an attack, Elizabeth found she had trouble moving. Making a face, she looked down at her feet. They had become entangled with roots, just like the others. The strange man snapped his fingers, and before Elizabeth knew what was happening she's been flung into a wall and held their by the plant roots.

"Don't try to move kids," the man said. "This is between him and me. Those roots will drain your magic the more you move, so be nice and stay put." With that he clapped his hands. His nails grew, his canines grew and his face grew feral. Growling, he rushed Neptu as he stood up.

Neptu saw the incoming mage and dodged his punch, countering with his own flaming fist to the mage's chest. A little explosion occurred when he punched him so the mage flew back then rolled around to snuff out the flames. He clapped his hands again, his nails shrunk, but his feral state stayed. Elizabeth could only watch as he rushed Neptu again head on. The Devil Slayer tried to slow him down with several little fireballs, but the incoming mage just brushed them off and punched him in the chest. It looked like a train hit him. Elizabeth winced as the powerful blow sent Neptu flying backwards and through a wall. Probably two.

"Damn that still hurts like fuck," she heard him groan as he struggled to his feet.

"Watch out!" Elizabeth shouted as their attacker came back for another rush at Neptu. Neptu watched him with a steely expression, before inhaling.

"Fire Devil's Rage!" He shouted, a torrent of purple flames erupting from his mouth and engulfing the man. Elizabeth heard an angry roar from this before the man slid out of the flames and rolled backwards, coming to a stop. He stood slowly and sent an orb of lightning flying towards Neptu, who countered with a fireball. The two attacks exploded together and created a smokescreen, which blinded Elizabeth.

"Anyone know what the hell is happening?" Quinn demanded.

"Not a clue," Gin replied. As the smoke cleared, Elizabeth could see both of them men still standing, but now the enemy had reverted to a more human looking state. Despite this he still had canine like teeth shining as he grinned at Neptu.

"It's been a long time little brother." The man said. Neptu sighed.

"Yes it has been, Dharen." Neptu replied, approaching the man. After staring at each other for a second or two, the man laughed and snapped his fingers. This made the roots holding Elizabeth and the others up disappear, dropping them to the ground.

"Can someone tell us what the hell is happening?" Elizabeth asked, fairly annoyed and confused by the attack.

"Of course blondie." The man replied, his tone not cheering her up any. "We've been watching you since you entered the village. Nobody comes here without a reason. This place's been dead for twelve years now and people avoid it as much as possible since they believe it to be cursed." Neptu seemed to perk up a bit at this.

"Watching?" he asked. So he's here too?"

"Yeah. Who else would've spotted you than a clairvoyance mage from that distance? Hyperion was thrilled." Elizabeth's question had only given her more questions, but now it seemed they were getting ignored as the two chatted.

"Neptu, man, can you clear this up? This is confusing." Tristan asked, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah, sorry." Neptu said, gesturing to the man next to him. "This is Dharen. He's a Druid. And a...old friend of mine."

"Hey," Dharen greeted. Elizabeth observed him quietly. A Druid, was he? Elizabeth head heard of those kinds of mages. Wizards who used nature as their magic.

"Dharen, these are my friends." Neptu said, now introducing them. "The black haired guy is Tristan, the blonde guy is Quinn, the brunette is Abigail and the blonde girl is Elizabeth, they are The Cross. The kid with white hair is Gin." Dharen nodded, then sniffed the air. He turned to Neptu with a serious expression.

"Gin huh?" He asked. "Is he a demon or something? he reeks." Gin laughed weakly at this.

"That may or may not be accurate," he said. Dharen turned and watched Gin quietly, and Elizabeth tensed. Over the past week or so she'd learned that Gin was quite a nice kid, and if Dharen decided to attack she'd have to defend him. Not something she had ever pictured herself doing but hey, times were changing.

She felt rather confused when Dharen burst out laughing.

"Oh the irony!" He shouted. "The fearless Devil Slayer who said that he'd hunt down every demon who walked the earth is now accompanied by one?! This is too good!" Elizabeth didn't know how to react to this man. Most people would attack or run after hearing that, yet he just laughed?

"Uh, are you okay?" Gin asked. Dharen stopped laughing and looked at him.

"Don't worry kid, I'm not going to rip you a new one." He said. This barely reassured Elizabeth. "We told Neptu over here before he left that not everything is black and white. I can tell that you are not a bad person from first glace. Yeah you may reek like evil, but not everything is as it seems."

"Yeah, yeah..." Neptu muttered. Dharen laughed.

"By the looks of it that view got beaten into your thick skull!" He roared, laughing again. "Glad it happened." Neptu made a face at this, but at this Elizabeth sensed a presence behind them. Turning, she spotted a white robed man with white hair and blue eyes approaching them.

"Good to see you little brother," The man said. "Your company seems a little tense, though."

"Wonder why..." Tristan muttered.

"It's been a while, Hyperion." Neptu greeted. Hyperion just stared at Neptu at this, but Neptu just looked confused. After a few more seconds, Neptu seemed to get the point of the stare,

"Guys this is Hyperion." He said, looking towards Elizabeth and the others. "When we were kids we called each other brothers but we are not blood related. Hyperion this is Tristan, Gin, Quinn, Abigail, Elizabeth." Neptu pointed to each of them in turn, and Hyperion nodded at them.

"Good too meet you all," he said.

"You too," Quinn said, arms crossed.

"I'm impressed you all can stand Neptu!" Dharen shouted with a laugh. "He must be such a pain in the ass."

"Actually that's usually Quinn," Abigail said in a deadpan, making Quinn choke.

"Hey!" he shouted indignantly. Elizabeth smiled as Dharen laughed again and Hyperion smiled. They seemed they were okay guys, even if they didn't know how to introduce themselves like normal people.

"Hey, Dharen. Hyperion." Neptu speaking up made everyone look towards him. "What the hell is going on here? Where are the townsfolk? Where are they living? Where's...Where's my sister?" Dharen and Hyperion looked at each other and nodded.

"The townsfolk didn't want to live here after the attack," Hyperion said. "They were scared he'd come back, so we went to the other side of the Forest of Trickery. We built a new home there. We called it New Avalon."

"Why take all the time to rebuilt elsewhere?" Tristan asked. "Doesn't make much sense to me."

"I just said, people were scared." Hyperion said to him. He then looked over at Neptu. "And sometimes it's better to leave the past in the past. Although judging by the company you keep I doubt you believe that." Neptu narrowed his eyes at Hyperion.

"I came here to settle the past," he said. "I'm done holding on to our disagreements, the anger, the hate. Now, where is my sister? Do you know?" Hyperion just watched Neptu for a moment before he nodded.

"Zynna's at the mansion." Neptu's eyes widened at this.

"You guys rebuilt the mansion?" He asked weakly. Despite the look on his face, Elizabeth saw hope in his eyes. Dharen nodded.

"Zynna wanted too." He explained. "Said it meant a lot to her." So the people had moved to another location, and Neptu's sister was also nearby. That made Elizabeth smile a little. At least they were still around. Their journey had not been for nothing.

"Wait, did you say mansion?" Gin asked. Neptu turned to him.

"I suppose I haven't told you," he said. "I used to be, well, rich." Gin seemed a little stunned at this, but didn't say anything. "We used to live on a mansion not far from here, in the Forest of Trickery. My Great-Grandfather planted wards and spells all over the forest to protect the wildlife, and us." At this, He reached into his shirt and pulled out a necklace. Elizabeth had seen it before. He kept it with him at all times. The small object resembled a fox head, and it glowed as Neptu played around with it.

"Is that a family heirloom or something?" Quinn asked. Neptu nodded, smiling weakly as he played with it.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be a fox head, as there's a ton of them in the forest." He explained. "So it's a symbol of my bloodline, and of the Forest. My father gave it too me years ago." Elizabeth smiled a little bit. Neptu very rarely talked about his past like this, so it was nice to see him opening up a little bit.

"Speaking of your father, we made a tomb for them as well." Dharen said. "Well, Zynna did." Neptu looked up at this.

"What about the family mausoleum?" He asked.

"Destroyed with the original mansion." Hyperion said. "You left in such a haste perhaps you didn't notice." Neptu flinched at this, and looked down at the ground.

"Right..." He mumbled. Elizabeth frowned.

"How about we actually go to New Avalon?" She asked. "I'd rather not hang around in this creepy place." Dharen nodded at this.

"Yeah, perhaps we should go now." With this, he turned towards the forest. "Come, brother. It's time for you to come home." Neptu nodded in his direction.

"Yeah, I suppose it is."

Better keep going, chapter two awaits you!