Chapter One: Light

Land of Lycia, Dread Isle, Dragon's Gate...

On the island of Valor, better known as the Dread Isle, lay an ancient temple. Within this temple was housed the Dragon's Gate, the portal through which dragons had fled the world after the Scouring. After a thousand years of quiet, the portal had finally been reopened. The culprit stood before the altar, a tall man with long, flowing black robes. A nasty scar covered the left side of his face, and his eye completely exposed and blind. Normally he wore a turban to conceal this wound, but he had just recently discarded it. He appeared to be approaching his elder years, but those who knew him would know that he should have looked much older. For this man had lived for centuries, and his knowledge and power were vast and unrelenting.

He was Nergal.

Nergal observed the glowing portal with his one good eye, his gaze sharp and cruel. It would not be long. A few more minutes, and he would be able to call forth a dragon. Oh, the quintessence he would harvest from that beast...

The sounds of clashing blades and colliding spells snapped Nergal out of his reverie, and the dark druid scowled in displeasure. From the sounds of it, the morphs of Marquess Laus and the high-ranking members of the Black Fang he had summoned to block passage to the Gate were being overrun by Eliwood and his friends.

A wave of bitter disappointment washed over the ancient wizard. Those morphs had been some of his best creations yet. They were stronger than their (formerly) living counterparts, and had been given the most powerful weapons ever to be seen in the land. And they were still losing.

How is this possible?! Nergal thought to himself as his gaze turned towards the battle. I throw my most powerful warriors at them, and STILL they come. Why can't they just DIE?!

A few moments later the battle died down as the twin brothers Linus and Lloyd fell for the second (and last) time, smiles on their faces as their souls were at last freed from Nergal's machinations. The two morphs guarding Nergal, a sage and a druid, turned towards the approaching enemy and readied for combat. The druid drew a Berserk Staff from his robes and prepared to cast it on the wyvern lord Heath. An incoming arrow sent by the sniper Louise stopped this action cold. The druid emitted a gurgling croak as he vainly tried to claw the arrow out of his throat, collapsing seconds later. The sage prepared to cast Fimbulvetr, but his attack was cut short by the Ostian general Oswin's well-placed spear thrust, goring the morph through the stomach and dropping him.

Nergal watched as his enemies approached, noticing his last morphs rushing to his aid out of the corner of his eye. A group of druids faced Eliwood's group from the front, while a trio of generals emerged from a hidden door behind them. Without a moment's hesitation, Eliwood and his allies brazenly met their advance. The wyvern lord Vaida's silver lance caught one of the generals in the neck, the dead morph collapsing in a heap. The warrior Dorcas shattered the second one's spear with his newly-acquired Basilikos axe, a parting gift from Brendan Reed's fallen spirit, before finishing the general off with a chop down the middle between the neck and shoulder. The last one had more time to prepare, and was able to deflect the hero Harken's blade away from it. Unfortunately for the morph, the fellow hero Raven chopped into it from behind with his silver axe, felling the warrior.

Meanwhile, the sages Pent, Nino, and Erk, the bishops Renaud and Serra, and the druid Canas all worked together to overcome the morph druids. Even as they fell, more morphs came to protect their creator, throwing themselves recklessly at the determined enemy. Nergal observed the heated battle, knowing deep down that he was losing. His morphs simply weren't strong enough to contend with these battle-hardened, relentless, and very angry warriors.

Even as he considered his options, one of Eliwood's warriors broke away from the battle and confronted the evil wizard. She was barely sixteen, with green hair and a face full of child-like innocence. But thoughts of revenge had changed her into an accomplished sage, powerful enough to rival even Pent. Nergal sneered at his opponent.

"Nergal!" Nino yelled.

Nergal snickered. "Ah...I remember you, child. You were the mewling whelp I entrusted to Sonia after we eliminated the rest of your family."

Nino's lovely face was contorted with rage and hatred as tears crept down her cheeks. "Nergal...twice you took my family away from me...my parents...and then the Black Fang...you murdered them all, blackheart!"

"Stupid, naïve child!" Nergal shot back. "Weren't not many of them cut down by your so-called "friends" themselves? Or have you chosen to forget?"

"You warped the Black Fang! You twisted our ideals, our agendas, and you murdered anyone who got in your way! You destroyed the Black Fang and everything they stood for! I won't let it go unpunished!"

Nergal laughed. "You think you can beat me, little whelp?! How amusing a thought! Perhaps I should have let Sonia kill you when she had the chance."

"Enough, you villain!" Nino shouted, raising her arms up to cast a spell. "Excalibur!"

"Ereshkigal!" Nergal countered, casting his hands up.

Mighty anima magic and eldritch darkness collided in a showering display of light and color. Nergal was caught off-guard by the ferocity of her attack, despite his dark magic having an advantage over her anima. Attempting to deflect, the energies of both spells inexplicably ricocheted into the glowing portal.

The effect was immediate.

The Gate began pulsating chaotically, churning and changing colors. The ground trembled beneath the warriors' feet, eliciting a moment of pause from the battle to observe what was happening. Nergal whipped his head around and stared in horror at the out-of-control portal before glaring at an astonished Nino. "What have you done, girl?!" he roared.

A light wind started picking up at their feet, blowing directly into the portal. The wind slowly started to blow faster, and Eliwood immediately realized what was happening. "It's trying to suck us all in! We gotta get out of its range!" he yelled to his troops.

The few remaining morphs attempted to bar their escape, but were quickly cut down. Nino was torn. Her friends were escaping, but Nergal was not yet dead. If she could just finish him quickly enough...

"You miserable cur!" Nergal hissed, fighting against the undulating portal's pull while simultaneously bringing his magic to bear. "Ereshkigaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"

The vacuum intensified tremendously as Nergal attempted his spell. Unable to overcome the vortex, the wicked sorcerer was carried by the howling winds into the portal, his scream of rage cutting off abruptly as he vanished. Nino attempted to resist the pull herself, grabbing onto a pillar for support. She felt her legs leave the ground as the vortex attempted to swallow her as well. The winds were picking up still. She could feel her grip slipping.

The assassin Jaffar soon turned back from his comrades when he realized Nino was not among them. "Nino! Nino!" he yelled, running back towards the portal.

Eliwood caught sight of him and yelled, "Jaffar, wait! The portal, it's-!"

A tremor rocked the temple's foundations, cracks spider-webbing across the ceiling and walls. "We have to get out of here!" Lady Lyndis cried.

Jaffar ignored them, catching sight of Nino hanging on for dear life. "Nino!" Jaffar yelled.

Nino looked up at him, her grip slipping further and further. Her eyes were wide with fear. "Jaffar! Help me!" she cried.

"Hold on, Nino! I-gaaahhh!"

Before Jaffar could speak further, the vortex's pull caught him as well, just as Nino lost her grip on the pillar. The two of them were sucked into the portal as well. Eliwood saw from a relatively safe distance away, and his heart sank. Before he could do anything else, though, his friend Hector grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him off with the rest of the troops as debris flew towards the portal.

Boulders and pillars bombarded the Dragon's Gate, some making it through, others crashing against the boundaries and forming a blockage. After several moments, the portal then imploded, forever severing the connection between worlds.

XXXXXX

Nergal found himself lying on his back, his body aching all over. Growling in frustration, the dark druid sat upright and took in his surroundings. He was in a dense forest, and wherever it was, it was nighttime. Nergal groaned as he got to his feet, noticing his discarded turban had not fallen far away from him. The sorcerer went over and set the turban back neatly on his head, hiding his unsightly wound.

With that out of the way, Nergal started to notice specific details about his surroundings. Even though it was nightfall, Nergal's keen eye could see that the plants were more...exotic. The colors were more vibrant. These plants were somewhat different from the ones he was familiar with. And then it suddenly hit him.

He had no idea where he was.

"The Gate..." he whispered to himself, glancing heavenward.

Above the tree line, he could still see the swirling vortex pulsating. "What happened?" he mused to himself.

As if in answer, the portal flashed twice, and two familiar figures came flying out of it, landing in another part of the forest a short distance away. Nergal's visible eye narrowed. Jaffar. Nino. So they're here too.

XXXXXX

The trees managed to soften their fall, but it was still a rough landing. Nino and Jaffar tumbled to the ground, ending up tangled over each other. As her head cleared, she noticed the position they were in and blushed. "Oh, uh...sorry, Jaffar."

Nino scrambled to her feet and brushed off her cloak as Jaffar adjusted his headband and retrieved his knives. "Where are we?" Nino asked, looking around. "Are we still on the Dread Isle?"

Another question haunted Jaffar's mind as his eyes darted suspiciously around the surrounding woods. Where is Nergal?

"Ereshkigal!"

Jaffar tackled Nino to the ground just before a dark magic spell flew over their heads. Leaping into battle positions, they saw Nergal emerge from the shrubbery, his eye ablaze with murderous intent. "Get behind me, Nino!" Jaffar ordered.

"No! I'm fighting too!" Nino answered as Nergal cast his hands up again.

"Worthless fools!" Nergal raged. "You die now! You die painfully! And your quintessence will be mine! Ereshkigal!"

"Excalibur!" Nino yelled, weaving her arms in a pattern as runes of light appeared.

Once again their magic clashed, setting the forest scene alight in dazzling displays of color and magic. Jaffar strafed out of the way of their magical duel and attempted to sneak around Nergal to strike him down from behind.

"I see you there, Jaffar!" Nergal snapped, turning his head. "Elfire!"

Jaffar narrowly avoided being cooked alive as a pillar of flames rose up where his body had been milliseconds before. "Thunder!" Nino cried.

Though this spell was faster than Nergal could counter, it possessed far less power than Excalibur, thus only making the dark druid stumble just a little. His attention was successfully diverted from Jaffar, though. "Ereshkigal!" Nergal cried again, attempting to overpower Nino through sheer force of magical will.

It wasn't easy though, as Nergal also had to keep an eye on Jaffar to keep him from utilizing his assassination skills. Nergal was no doubt confident in his power, but the more quintessence he used, the more susceptible to damage he would become, and Jaffar was very good with his knives.

Thus this stalemate continued for several minutes, neither party noticing as the portal collapsed in on itself above them. As Nergal tried to recover his breath, though, he noticed a change come over both his enemies. Both their eyes widened in shock and slight fear as they looked at something behind the dark sorcerer. Nergal felt its presence too and whirled around.

A monster loomed over Nergal, baring its teeth in hunger. It was an impressive creature, a body of an elephant-sized lion, the wings of a dragon, and the tail of a scorpion. The manticore growled fiercely at Nergal, who regarded the beast with a look of wariness and confusion.

Hoping the situation would resolve itself, Nino and Jaffar made a break for it, disappearing into the woods and leaving Nergal alone with the ravenous manticore. Though he was immensely irritated that his enemies had escaped him, Nergal allowed himself a grim smile. "Let's see how much quintessence you have, beast."

XXXXXX

Nino and Jaffar ran blindly through the woods, putting as much distance between themselves and Nergal as they could. They did not stop running for a good half-hour. It was miraculous that they did not stumble across any other dangerous beasts. Once they felt they could go no further, they finally stopped on a dirt path. Jaffar leaned against a tree for support as he panted heavily, Nino gasping as she bent over in exhaustion. "I think...we lost him," she wheezed between breaths.

"But for how long?" Jaffar answered, catching his breath more quickly than Nino.

After they had mostly recovered, Nino said, "I think we should find a way out of these woods."

Jaffar said nothing, simply glancing down the dirt path they had stumbled across. "Maybe this will lead somewhere," Nino suggested. "Let's go, Jaffar!"

As the two former Black Fang members followed the path, a cloaked, four-legged figure observed them with a look of puzzlement. "Hmm, what manner of beings grace my sight, that talk like ponies yet walk upright?" the figure spoke to itself in a heavily-accented, yet distinctly-female voice. "Perhaps a visit to Ponyville is due, it would be best if Twilight knew."

XXXXXX

The manticore had been no match for Nergal's power, the wizard slaying it in moments. With a satisfied smirk, he absorbed the beast's quintessence, its body fading into nothingness as he felt great power wash over his. Yes, these creatures had a healthy supply of quintessence. Who knew what else stalked these woods? Nergal aimed to find out.

And claim the quintessence of whatever he found.