If one had taken a time machine and gone back in time to meet a young Christian Ddraig and informed him that he would have a fun afternoon with Pyrrha Ulster of all people, he would have first laughed in their face before striking them in the face and yet here he was.

After taking care of the thugs in the alleyway, they proceeded to go about town and just explore. They passed through the streets, the docks, the grand library, it's museum and they even ate at a low restaurant which might not serve best meals but it was hearty and satisfying.

Finally they arrived at a district within the city filled with multiple bars which were all nearly overflowing with people who he assumed were men and women that would soon be boarding the warships in the dock and sent to fight their treasonous fellows down south. They were drinking and making merriment as if these were their last days amongst the living. Chris could see some who had set up dancing areas with bands that sang so furiously that beads of sweat wetted their heads.

Chris and Pyrrha had only planned to observe the gathering and understand the general mood of the men and women of Hephatan. Unfortunately the beer was on the house and whislt possing as fellow drafts, they would look strange if they refused to join in the drunken merriment that had taken everyone.

The two of them tried to lessen how much alcohol they consumed, regardless of how disgusting he found it. It helped them mingle in and the more hours that they spent from one group to another taught Chris that the people were generally not enthusiastic about fighting their brethren, and some even had conspiracies that the attack a week ago had been orchestrated by Avalon or even the High Council's government.

After three hours of this and finally feeling the alcohol taking affect on his brain, Chris was ready to call it quits and to return home. But when he went to get Pyrrha, he realised much to his horror that she was more intoxicated than he was and the giggling elf dragged him to the dance floor.

He tried to argue against her, but Pyrrha was adamant and she had already began dancing in an enthralling rythmic dance. He reluctantly joined her and soon lost himself to the joy and heat which was shared by every man and woman dancing around them.

More alcohol was drunk and closer did the two come together as they danced faster and faster. Their laughter and energy was at an all time high when Pyrrha leaned forward and locked her lips with his own. It was not a simple pecking of lips, but rather a deep aggressive kiss which drew a few cheers of encouragement and congratulations from the other patrons of the bar.

Chris paid them no mind as he focused entirely on the person infront of him. He was caught off guard by kiss and he was unsure of what to think, but then something within his heart broke free and he returned her kiss with one of his own.

Oh how his younger self would have committed suicide if he was shown the lust filled tongue exploration which his future self wholeheartedly shared with the bane of his childhood. And this was the last thing that Chris's alcohol infused mind remembered, either he had instantly fallen unconscious there and then or he was so drunk that some parts of his memories afterwards had sunk deep into his subconscious.

Now he awoke upon a bed of snow, unsure of how he gotten there and wondering where here truly was. He only had to look at the crater not a few meters away for him and within it was an obsidian crystal the size of a full grown man. It was the source of his nightmares for the past few days and Chris was at an end with it.

He slowly rose to his feet and looking around he could see a blizzard around himself and the crater with the silent observers hidden within it. Over the past few days he wondered if they were prisoners or his tormentors in this dark place. He wrapped his arms around himself and he quickly rubbed his body to heat himself up from the stinging blizzard winds which beat his flesh.

He looked into the crater and at the crystal. His ears were assaulted by a myriad of voices from the crystal, which regardless of how much he tried to discern and understand the utterances from a thousand voices, he could not understand them.

"How long do I have to be in this deplorable place." he thought in annoyance. Though the more he thought about, he knew that one part of him was both anticipating returning and both dreading it. What he had done with Pyrrha was so unbelievable and yet also very exciting.

Even as he froze under this supernatural cold, he felt the phantom touch of the elfs lips upon his own. He brought his trembling right fingers and carresed his lip as a smile danced upon his facial expression. His musings came to a halt as a strong bright light invaded his senses and blinded him for the briefest of a second and when it went away he found himself at the base of a great white wall in a familiar environment.

During his time in the Shade he had shared a vision with Hamanymu and Ursa which brought them to this city of pure white marble with a intricately carved wall and even more extravagant marvels to be spotted protruding from the other side. He looked up to the city walls were a familiar figure stood, even fifty metres into the sky, they shone in a way that made so clear and yet obscure in certain ways.

The figure was clad in an armor that almost seemed to burn with a golden blaze beneath the rays of the sun. When Chris had seen them with Ursa and Hamanymu, they had turned their back to him and thus he could not see their face and yet, even as they faced him, he could not make up any features of their face.

"Hello, who are you?!" he called out hoping for an actual proper answer this time.

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"It is starting again." the figure responded in a male voice. "The shadows are on the move."

"What Shadows?"

"In you it lives, the primordial majesty and yet it does not. You must see." the figure then extended his arm and pointed away from the city.

Chris sighed and rubbed his face, he hated dealing with cryptic people and he knew that there was no getting a straight answer from the figure. He simply turned from the city following the direction within which the figure pointed and much to his suprise he saw a door not too far from him. He walked towards it and after some contemplation, he twisted it's window open and he walked through, walking into a apocalypse.

XXXXXXX

Chris had spent five years trapped on the earth, so he had a pretty good idea what one of its famous cities looked like and he recognised when he emerged through door into the grey apocalyptic remains of Cairo. But some innate sense brimming within him told him that this was not the earth that he had known.

Obviously that earth had had destroyed under a tide of dark energy, but this Cairo of long since damaged modern ruins and skies that were perpetually trapped in twilight was another universe. Perhaps one of the few that had survived the Multiversal collapse which split dates in half.

"What was worth saving in a place like this?" he thought as he wandered around the corpse of a city which was scattered with human skeletons. "Does Anything Even Live Here?"

His question was answered by a low gutteral growl which made the hairs on his neck stand straight and sent his right hand instantly for Lucius-Aurora, but the blade was not there, leaving him only to summon blades of ice but his magic did not obey him. He cursed in frustration and reached down to pick up a piece of rusted steel off the ground to defend himself, but when his fingers brushed the steel, they phased through it.

Chris was taken aback in suprise, he had never experienced anything like this before and considering how magical Avalon was, this was saying something. He tried to pick up the metal and yet again his fingers phased through it, leaving him to think.

"Am I even visible?" he contemplated his current intangibility.

His answer came when he raised his head just in time to see a creature that was no man walk right through him. But it was more than just one creature, it was hundreds upon hundreds, all seeming to be spawned from the very shadows and now giving life to Cairo. None paid him no mind and they continued south wards in a semi organised manner.

These creatures looked like humans of various races but their skin colour was a corpse pale, almost a light blue as if all oxygen had been ripped from their blood, though black blood vessels were extremely visible under their flesh like a spidersweb. Their eyes were black soulless orbs and their teeth were shark like fangs. Chris didn't need to guess the manner of this beast for he knew it was the Night Terror called Vampire.

The only member of that deplorable species that could convert mortals through intricate blood rituals. It made him wonder if this entire hord of monsters was that brood originally born from the realm of Shadow or if they had once been humans and a Night Terror had stolen that humanity from them.

The hord was led by female vampire with black of hair, angular facial features so sharp that someone could cut bread with it and her clothes looked like the type of over designed runway dredge which only a fashion model would put on. The head vampire halted and the hord followed her example.

"Gofreyn. Show yourself, interloper." she snarled showing off her row of teeth and a great shadow came to life ahead of her. Put of it emerged a Dullahan donned in a purple armour, with a crown upon its head and a half burned away face....oh, he knew this monster, this elder terror had almost killed him in battle, even after he burned away half of its face. Looking at this ancient monster, Chris felt his limbs weaken as his heart beat hard like a warhammer.

"Am I afraid?" he asked himself as the Dullahan walked through him and at that moment his breath halted for a second. "Get ahold of yourself, get ahold of yourself, you damn fool!"

"Catherine the red, it has been a long time." the Dullahan stated with a half grin. "Why the last time we met was what.... ten thousand years ago."

The vampire snarled and her followers acted in kind like a pack of dogs. The Dullahan didn't seem bothered by this, infact it kept a supremely smug air around it. This Catherine the red took a step forward as she snapped. "Leave Gofreyn, I will not ask you this again. This universe is not your territory."

"And neither is it yours, at least not anymore. Tell me, how have you been enjoying Sophie's new little neighbours." the Dullahan said before chuckling, though to Chris it sounded like a mirthless laugh. "Quite the irony the cosmic irony that she would fuse your little kingdom with another little human anthill."

"They don't matter." Catherine hissed back.

"They do not, is that why their fortresses in southern Africa and most of Europe still stand, all whilst the little natives who you took this world from grumble and get funny ideas."

"Out of all the surviving twenty universes, ware you even here?" Catherine demanded.

"Because he is on the move, do not deny it, you can feel it as well." the Dullahan took a more aggressive tone all of a sudden. "I can feel it in my bones, rippling through reality, the masters voice."

"An echo, nothing more, nothing less." Catherine hissed.

"Was an echo which spoke to you in your slumber?" the Dullahan asked and Catherine looked taken aback his question. "Many have heard him, but few have responded. The Night Princes would rather sit in Anakhan and play at being kings without a master, but heed my words, Catherine. He is coming back. So where would you rather be standing proud at his side or on your knees at his feet as judgment is passed?"

Catherine seemed to have no biting remark for Gofreyn and she stood in silence, contemplating his words carefully. She opened her mouth to respond but halted when a vast shadow was cast over the land. All looked upwards and saw a group of floating castles.

"So this are your new Sophia appointed neighbours." Gofreyn said whilst Catherine let out a loud inhuman roar that rattled every window nearby.

From the castles came thousands of men and women upon flying brooms, carpets and even carriages. They were dressed in red robes and around their hands swirled magical threads denoting them as wizards and by Leza did they unleash their magical might in force. Great winds tore into the vampires, jets of flames scorched the damaged streets, spikes of ice and earth immerged from the earth and impaled some vampires.

Catherine acted fast and she'd her human form for a large batlike creature before taking off for the wizards in the sky. Some tried to shoot her out of the air, but they were unsuccessful as she easily rammed into them and lacking cores which enhanced the people's of Jord physically, these baseline humans were instantly killed.

Gofreyn drew his great sword to join the fight, but just before he did, he turned to Chris's direction and for the first time, the Prince of Avalon knew that someone was looking at him. "She will prove worthy of us, my king."

Chris once again felt his heart stop in suprise. He tried to take a step back, but his legs were stuck and looking down he realised that his legs were within a pull of black purple sludge. He tried to fight against it, but he sunk slowly and slowly within it until he sunk into a cold embrace and out.

XXXXXXX

Chris instantly awoke and he scrambled onto his feet before stumbling off the bed and onto the ground. He groaned in pain as he clutched onto his head which seemed to burn with a sharp pain. Chris realised that he was in a bedroom, but this wasn't the bedroom in the building, this was his room on the ship. The door to the bedroom was swang open and in came Ishtar tailed by Ursa and Hamanymu, all of them looking worried as they saw Chris laying upon the ground.

"What happened, how did I get here?" he asked as Hamanymu and Ursa helped him off the ground and back onto the bed.

Ishtar cast him an amused smile as she gestured towards his two friends. "They brought you here. You and Pyrrha Ulster were both rather intoxicated might I say and also rather handsy with eachother."

Chris felt his face heat up as he remembered his last memory with Pyrrha and the phantom memory of her lips graced his lips. "We... We didn't..."

Hamanymu stepped forward and clapsed his hand upon Chris's shoulder, his face brimming with pride as he said. "Yes, my son. You are now a man who has gone to the second of bases. You make me so proud."

Chris felt sick as he looked from Ursa's annoyance, Hamanymu's brimming pride and Ishtar's amused laughter. This was a nightmare come true, it was as if the Ancient Ones themselves were mocking him.

"And as far where you are. On the Viper, I hope that you're one day sleep was enough because we are approaching the southern island soon."