As both of them head into the dense forest. Glowing mushrooms and strange animals fill their way. Not long, they end up hearing a loud roar that shook the forest, similar to that of a bear. Lutin looks at Art while pointing into the direction of the roar and says.
"Should we check it out?"
Art takes a moment to stare to where Lutin is pointing to. He then starts walking their without saying a word. They get their and see a small glade, it's flowers withering away, animal carcasses tossed around and torn apart. In the middle, stands a large man. His body almost the size of a bear, covered in barbaric armor. As he is eating away at the dead animal, he hears Art and turns around. He then let's out a powerful roar. As Art and Lutin have unexpectedly ran into.
[Sylvorra's blessing, Sir Akura]
Akura charges at Art and sends him flying to a tree breaking it apart. Art grabs the fallen tree and swings it at Akura. The tree breaks into pieces and Art rushes to Him. He uppercuts Akura, sending him backwards. Akura gets up and uses his bear-claw gauntlets to hit Art multiple times. Art starts hitting him back as the two of them keep trading hits. Akura the bites Art's left shoulder and starts swinging him around. As Akura's jaw crushes Art's shoulder, Art is able to land on his feet and grabs Akura's head with his left hand, he then starts punching him with his right and sends him back with a powerful punch. Akura gets on his feet and let's out a loud roar, as Art stands before him, he then let's out a roar too. As the two of them get back to fighting. The two of them keep hitting each other. Eventually Art manages to push Akura back and changes shiftnir into a spear. He gets on top of Akura and stabs him, causing the spear to pierce right through him and into the ground. As Akura struggles to get out, Art jumps down near his head and puts him in a chokehold. Akura keeps struggling and hitting Art, after a few seconds of struggling. Art uses his strength and breaks Akura's neck. As Akura's body falls to the ground, he slowly fades away, leaving nothing but his soul behind. Art takes a few seconds to breathe and realize what he has done. Lutin gets close to Akura's soul and takes out Artorais's soul. He grabs both of them and says "if the armor really has ties to souls, then it should absorb these two" he gets close to Art and puts the souls in front of him. The souls start to move slowly and are absorbed by the armor. The armor lets out a strange glow and then it fades away. Art feels a little uneasy, but decides to ignore it and focus on their mission. He yells out "Seroph!!" As Seroph appears near him. Art tells him to fly up and scan the area for a shrine. Seroph sees a shrine a bit faraway from them. He flies down and tells them about the shrine he saw. Seroph disappears into the mist and Art call for Eira. He gets on her with Lutin and the head out. As they are riding to the shrine. Lutin drops a question.
"Isn't it weird?, that there's regular elves but not dark ones"
Art says.
"Maybe the dark elves got wiped out"
Lutins comes to a realization and says.
"Maybe...an icon of hatred took them out. After all, there's no way an entire race can be taken out like that. Do you think the dark elves in Svartalfheim are also gone?"
Art stays silent and doesn't answer. They eventually reach the shrine. As they start walking around, they see an old man, covered completely in a dirty and ragged old dark cloak. The old man is standing in front of the creature of balance's statue. The old man turns around and sees Art. He says.
"Are you lost, son?"
Art quickly answers and says "yes". The old man walks up to Art and says "follow me, son".
Art and Lutin follow him into a cave, the cave is decorated in similar to that of a house. The old man tells Art to sit down and offers him some tea. Art refuses and asks the old man about the shrine. The old man says.
"This shrine was built long ago, it was made to honor the being that protected these lands"
Art stays silent as he listen to the old man speaking about how magnificent and kind the being was. Art gets up while looking down on the old man and says "stop hiding, i know it's you". The old man pauses and lets out a monstrous laugh. His cloak rips and tears as he transform into his true form. The down half of his body is that of a goat. His three faced head looks down on Art, and a large staff held in his right hand, as what stands before them is.
[The creature of balance]
The cave melts away and now they stand under the night sky in a desert.
The creature yells out "MISTAKE!!". He launches towards Art and trys to hit him with his staff, but Art dodges out of the way and turns Shiftnir into sword. He strikes back causing the creature to falter. The creature then starts doing strange hand signs with his hand, multiple magic circles appear and start shooting at Art. Art dodges and keeps the pressure, hitting the creature whenever the chance presents itself. The creature trys to ram at Art with his horns, but Art grabs the two of them and crushes the creature with his knee. The creature falls back and then slams his staff into the sand causing it to disappear. He gets off of his knees and as he lets out a roar. His face morphs into a bulls face. As the world around them shifts into a chaotic world, fire and darkness floods the world. The creature starts charging around trying to hit Art. Art keeps dodging and getting hit every once in a while. Art then keeps hitting the creature and dodging away. Then suddenly the creature rams his horns into Art's chest. Art grabs his and hits him in the face with his knee. Ripping the creature's horns and knocking him back. Art takes out the horns and lets out a dragon roar. The creature falls back and raises his hands while scared. His face then shifts into a monkey and his upper body shifts into a monkey's upper body. He quickly calls back his staff and disappears, he then changes the world around them into a peaceful world, with luscious forests and beautiful rivers flow through the calm land. Art and Lutin both start looking around. Art then lets out a powerful dragon roar, shattering the world around the and sending back into the desert. The creature falls out and Art quickly turns to him, he then quickly gets to the creature and stabs him in his shoulders with his horns. The creature starts screaming in pain and changes back into a goat, Art jumps trys to strike him down, but the creature blocks with his staff. Only for Art to overpower him and break the staff in half. He then knocks the creature onto the ground and changes Shiftnir into a battle axe, he then slices down the creature's head, putting an end to him. The world goes back to normal and now they are standing in front of the statue. Lutin starts celebrating, but Art walks up to the statue. He stares at it for a few seconds amd then suddenly starts punching it breaking it off bit by bit. Lutin says "what're you doing?!". As the statue is barely hanging on, Art grabs one side of it with both hands and slams it into the ground. Everything goes silent, but suddenly another creature of balance runs at Art and is completely blinded by rage. Art throws his soul sword at the creature's neck. Art then runs up to his head and slams him down. He then uses Shiftnir again and cuts his head down. Lutin is left completely shocked and says "what was that?". Art says "do you know what a scale is?" Lutin nods, Art then says " the two plates on one needs to be the same weight so it can be balanced, And for the creature of balance..."
As he stares at Lutin waiting for him to realize. Lutin gasps and says "ohhhh!, now it makes sense. There were two of them to keep balance, if there was only one it wouldn't work"
Art nods and says sarcastically "there's are geinus". The forest turns back to normal and Art grabs the creature's head. He then tells Lutin they're done and need to head back. Both of them leaving the ruined shrine and heading back to the lively kingdom.
END OF CHAPTER