It'd been too long since he visited his father.  It'd been maybe two years since the time he last saw him alive.  Two years he witnessed his death.  It was time to visit.  It was time to pay his respects.

It was a dark, gloomy night.  The air thick with humidity and heat, despite it being late.  Hiro walked through the graveyard, remembering the way towards the place where the gravestone marked his father's resting place.  He wore his crimson armor, covered with a phoenix cloak, made of brilliantly colored feathers.  His phoenix blade was covered by the cloak.  He approached the gravestone where his father rested.

"'Here lies Sabishii Kouen, Beloved Father and Husband, Hero of Another Realm, Never Forgotten.'  There's so much more I wanted to put there, but it just wouldn't fit.  All the feelings I had for you, I wanted to put on that stone, so the world would know, all the things I wanted to tell you, all my admiration, my hopes and dreams.  It just . . . wouldn't fit."  Hiro fought off the tears in his eyes.  "It's been two years.  Two years since I lost you.  Two years since the realms lost a great hero, my father.  Gods, I feel like I messed up, I couldn't live up to your reputation, even though this world never got to see what you could do.  DaeLuin died, and most of the people who knew you died with it."  Hiro felt tears trickling down his cheeks.  "I'm so sorry, I failed you.  I couldn't defeat those two Gods we were fighting.  They separated us, picked us apart.  I don't know what I could have done to save you."

Suddenly, a tremor ruptured through the moist soil.  Hiro was knocked off his feet by the force of the quake.  The ground split through the musty soil where the grave was.  Tremendous flames erupted up out of the ground, filling the air with the scent of ash and brimstone.  Flames continued to spread across the ground, erupting out everywhere.  Shrieks filled the air, a piercing cry of a phoenix could be heard, filled with anger and rage.

"You let me die!  My failure of a son let me DIE!"  HIro's eyes widened in shock as he beheld his father's visage climbing out of the grave.  He was tall, taller than Hiro, with brown and red hair, his eyes glowed with sapphire flames, filled with absolute fury  He wore a similar set of armor that Hiro was wearing, and had a sheathed blade at his side.  "My son failed me.  YOU FAILED ME.  You dismal failure of a child!  Walking around with a man's armor, with a man's sword, playing hero, when he should be home sucking his momma's teet!  It should have been ME to survive!  You should have saved me!  You should have been stronger!  You should have been braver!  You should have risked your life more to save your darling father!  But you didn't!  You let me die!"  Hiro was in tears.

"Father?!  W-what?!  What's going on?!  I-I'm sorry I failed you!  Please forgive me!"  The appearance of his father grew larger, larger than life, towering over Hiro, looming over him.  Lightning and flames surged around the fallen Phoenix Knight, a searing wind blew across the graveyard, engulfed in flames.  The nearby lake bubbled over with steam, while the ground continued to quake.

"You're going to make amends, right here and right now, son.  You let me die in front of the Gods, but now, YOU are going to die.  I'm going to end your story, like my story ended.  Tragically, painfully, in a blaze of hellfire and violence!  Fire and brimstone!"  Sabishii reached to his sheath, and unveiled his weapon, a large blazing sword, a sight of which brought back memories, the "Sacred Grounds," Temenos.  The holy elemental blade of his father.  It was made of a special adaman alloy from the heart of a fallen star.  It was near unbreakable, and able to take on the elemental energy of whatever it was exposed to.  Right now, it was bathed in the most powerful hellfire imaginable.  This was his father's strength.  The strength of his father at his prime.  The strength of Sabishii Kouen, Phoenix Knight, Avatar of Fire, and Master of the Elements.  This was the peak of his strength.

"Will you face me?  Or will you die face down in the mud?  Will you accept your fate like a man, or will you beg and weep for forgiveness as I strike you down?"  Hiro looked through his tear stained eyes at his hands.  They were shaking.  His hands were actually shaking.  He didn't know what to do.  This was literally the last thing he expected tonight.  As a crimson moon stared down at him, would Hiro meet his end here?

Cedric walked around the dark cemetery, searching for a certain grave that held a certain artifact. It was late and Cedric was tired. so he decided to continue the search the following night once again, for it was the time no one dared walk into the graveyard. As the cloaked Cedric walked toward the direction of the exit gate, he heard the regretful words of a young man, Cedric resented graveyards solely for this reason. He ignored the crestfallen visitor and continued walking, the exhaustion nearly made Cedric pass out right before reaching the gate, but flames burst from cracks in the ground, this jolted him awake, the heat of the fire stung, Cedric held his arms over his face, attempting to block the scorching hellfire from burning him. Once he regained composure,

He heard the same masculine voice, and a louder, older voice speaking to one another..

The voices grew louder and louder as he ran in the direction of the voices, and what he saw was two men, one was older but they clearly shared a similar appearance, the older man ranted on and on, and the younger man looked unstable, shocked. This didn't feel right, the older man claimed to be the father, but something felt strange, familiar, chaotic..

The flames, the crimson red moon, the despair-filled atmosphere, no wizard, mage nor necromancer had the power to do this, this was possibly the doing of a Deity.

Cedric heard another, deeper voice in his head laughing. he stopped dead in his tracks. "Don't you wish you had the strength to fight back?" the voice questioned Cedric. "The 'deities', they meddle with the lives of mortals and never look back on the destruction and agony their brash actions cause, don't you wish you could fight back and punish them?" The mysterious voice carried on. "That's right.. they have been oblivious to what their actions cause, never caring what happened after!" Cedric replied. "Very well, I see potential in you, the determination, turn it into rage, the urge to fight back, and release it!" The voice demanded. He obliged, blue flames engulfed Cedric and a large armored figure on a horse stood above Cedric. "Vequaniel!" Cedric called out, commanding the dark elemental to lunge at the nightmare.

He spoke to the young man, "Come here to mourn? I'll take a guess and say it didn't go peacefully" he said quite playfully, nearly insulting, his face remained hidden in the shadows, but his eyes that burned a red flame were clearly visible. As the armored figure clashed with the crimson armored nightmare, a flash of blue erupted, leaving the area completely illuminated, but too bright that it was nearly blinding. As the light died down, Cedric had noticed that the armored figure (supposedly named 'Vequaniel')'s lance clashed with the nightmare's glowing blade.

"If it felt like you had failed him, think back, could you have done anything to stop it? Don't feel like you were obligated to defeat the Gods." He said aloud to the young warrior.

"Stop thinking about it, and instead prevent someone else close to you from sharing the same fate." his face remained in the shadows, keeping his identity hidden.

"Redeem yourself, admitting your failure and mourning about it won't solve a thing."

"Now, will you make peace with your fears? The elemental I've summoned will not hold out for long." Cedric said, turning to look at the elemental and the nightmare clashing swords and lances.

Hiro dropped his gaze, unable to look at the face of his father, the towering figure posed to destroy him.  He could not face his end like this.  However two figures appeared, a dark figure in armor, riding a mighty steed, and a cloaked, male figure.  Hiro looked up, the armored figure struck at his father with a lance, struggling with the Phoenix Knight.  The Phoenix Knight growled, swiping his sword at him, only to be held back by the lance of the dark elemental.  Hiro could feel the darkness coming from the black knight, why hadn't his father unleashed holy light and flames to destroy it to end the fight?  Could his father not summon holy energy now?

The mysterious cloaked figure spoke to Hiro, he spoke reason to him, comforting encouraging words.

"Yeah, I wanted to mourn my father's loss, and this happened."  Hiro sighed.  "No one was trying to do anything against the great evil those two deities were doing.  Someone had to do something.  But father paid the price for it."  He couldn't have defeated even one God, it wasn't possible to defeat one using their full power, unless it was by another God.  It was folly to attempt to confront them.  However, despite that, evil Deities, Xunatar and Dalanesca, still meddled in the lives of mortals.  Something had to be done to at least help the people in the crossfire.  Was this whole thing another trick?  Was someone messing with his father's memory and visage?

"You're right, you're absolutely right.  I may have made mistakes, I'm not perfect, and neither was my father.  No one is, not even the Gods.  No one can stop this but me.  Because it's my father's memory come back to haunt me.  My REAL father wouldn't be trying to kill me.  He was a kind, and righteous man.  This is a false memory."  Hiro stood straight and tall.  The nightmare of Sabishii seemed irritated by the interference by the black knight, blasting it aside with a massive fiery sweep of his blade, like one would wipe away blood off a sword.  Hiro drew his sword, the mighty Phoenix Blade, Wildfire, covered by powerful flames, and charged into combat, striking back against the false Phoenix Knight.  Shockwaves and flames erupted from the clash of their fiery swords.  Hiro and Sabishii clashed again and again, striking their blades in a blur of movement, sparks and flames sent flying by the strength of magicked steel against magicked steel.  Neither warrior seemed to be able to overcome the other in a test of swordplay.

"You can't seem to stop me, 'Father,' but I can't seem to get over you yet.  But I'll surpass this memory of you!  I'll creep forward, and go beyond you!"  Hiro put some distance between them, leaping backwards.  He raised his blade upwards, then swung downwards, unleashing a powerful blast of blinding flame and smoke at the fake Sabishii.  The flame struck him, but did nothing to damage him, just a minor inconvenience.

"Too weak.  You think mortal flames like this could even hope to hurt me?  ME, who managed to achieve Godhood in our home world, then mastered the elements?"  The fake Sabishii swept his blade Temenos to the side, causing the flames to gather around the blade and intensify, burning with a dark crimson color, as if turning into molten rock.  Raising his blade above his head, he slammed it downwards into the ground, causing a huge fiery shockwave to erupt across the ground, spreading across the earth, upending graves, shattering stone, and sending fiery debris everywhere.  It cut through the smoke remaining from Hiro's last attack, releasing more smoke, steam, ash, and other gasses into the air, obscuring the battlefield.  Hiro appeared above the battlefield gripping two swords.  One was his Phoenix Blade, Wildfire, the second was a blue, cold, crystalline Sapphire Blade, Snowsquall, enveloped in a freezing aura.  Hiro flung himself down toward the ground with a blast of flame from his legs, swinging both swords together at the false Phoenix Knight.  The two opposing blades struck his father's blade Temenos, sending flames and ice flying through the air.

"You may have mastered the elements, fire, water, air, and earth, but you can't use them all at the same time, and I don't see you using holy light, because you're a fake, an evil fake!  Here, I have a sword of fire, and a sword of ice!  WIldfire and Snowsquall will break through your defenses and defeat you!  I'll surpass you!"  Hiro swung the two blades in a deadly dance, striking his false father's sword as he struggled to keep up with the flames and ice flying from each sword.  He struck one spot, sending flame flying, which was being absorbed by the elementally charged blade Temenos, but then shortly it was followed up by a freezing slash of cold, striking the same spot of the sword.  The sword could absorb any element, but when countered by two opposing elements in quick succession, repeatedly, it couldn't keep up.  Temenos's blade started to freeze, then thaw, then freeze again.  A lightning flash barrage of blows that Hiro's opponent was blocking with his sword was starting to overwhelm him and his weapon.

An explosion of energy erupted from the sword as one last barrage of sword blows shattered the once thought unbreakable adamantine blade, Temenos.  Of course it had a weakness.  Nothing was unbreakable.  Nothing was perfect.  Metal was sent flying through the air and dissolved into metal dust as it hit the ground.  Hiro releasing one final series of blows as he charged forward, pressing on the attack to finish his opponent.  Hiro struck with the Phoenix Blade, then followed up with a swing from the Sapphire Blade slicing through the Nightmare opponent.  The Nightmare stood there, black ooze spraying through the air from the wounds he sustained.

"Well done.  My son, I leave everything to you.  Make me proud."  Hiro heard the voice of his Father, loving and proud as an eruption of blinding light filled the battleground.

Graves were righted, the ground was replaced where it was.  Everything returned to normal, the moon started to descend across the horizon, and the sun started to rise.  Hiro swung his blades in a flourish, before sheathing Wildfire, and dropping Snowsquall, letting the blade he summoned dissipate into the air.  He drew a deep breath, then released it.

It was over.  The nightmare was gone.  He turned toward the mysterious man who aided him, wherever he was in the graveyard.

"Thank you for your aid, I wouldn't have regained the courage to fight without your help," Hiro said with a warm smile.

{Sorry for the long wait, had to get the motivation to post, and had two other people who said they wanted to post too, and they never did}