The Crossing Destinies [OPEN Sonic the Hedgehog FF]

New Path (3/4) - R

Soon after the bandage was put back, they headed to the train station, where they awaited the train that would take them to Rosemary City. A place full of tall buildings, industrial areas, and one of the most beautiful historical centers. Once there, Shadow bought the tickets while Sonic was waiting, looking around.

This train station was smaller than the previous one as it had just three rails, but there was quite a number of people. It wasn't surprising since Green Hill Village was a popular place to visit even during early autumn. After it, they had to wait for the train to arrive, and that made the boy quite uneasy. He disliked waiting, but this wasn't the time for him to be bratty about it.

Shadow tried to distract him by telling him some stories from their town until the train arrived. A lot of people walked out, but not many got on. In the corridor, the lad was walking first, looking for an empty cabin. They had to move through three wagons to find such place. The ebony hedgehog was glad Sonic understood his situation, figuring out it would be better to be alone.

Once they sat down, facing each other, the train started to move, and a few minutes after it, the conductor came checking their tickets. Once the man was gone, the priest started to explain about demons,

"I'm sure you know about the First Creation, so I'll be brief. In the beginning, existed two beings – Solis, the Essence of the Light, and Mensis, the Essence of the Darkness. Together they created the world and every living creature. They made wind, water, fire, and earth as well."

The boy nodded. This was a story he had already heard, but it was nice to listen to it again. The creation of the world was always an interesting topic, and he had seen a lot of pictures portraying both Essences.

The black priest continued, "Once everything was created, they walked the world, seeing how everything went. But after some time, they realized their traveling was causing problems to every living creature. As they were together, it was eternal dusk on half of the world and deep darkness on the other. They pondered about it and after a long talk, they had found the solution.

Solis and Mensis decided the best answer was to go separate ways. Solis took the form of a sun, and Mensis of the moon, thus creating a day and night as we know it. They circled the world, changing the time for rest, and for work in the balance. But nothing could last forever, after a time, Mensis got tired of seeing the dark world below him. He chased Solis to switch places, but it made his friend only run faster, shortening the days each round they finished.

Mensis in his anger started to swallow every light. Solis had no choice, but to seal his friend in the center of their creation. It is said, during their fight, Solis shed tears, which transformed into stars, and with the remains of his power, he created a new moon. Since that time, Solis walked the world alone, bringing the light. But it was too much for him, so that's why the winter has shorter days, and it snows. It means Solis is taking longer naps to gain energy for spring and summer."

The priest made a pause for the boy to digest it all since he noticed the lad was thinking. After a while, the youngster said, "That was still quite long."

The priest made wavy smile. "I do admit, I haven't shortened it that much, but back to the main topic. After the sealing, Mensis promised to take a revenge. In the center of the world, where the immortal flame burns, he created many twisted creatures that are known as demons. However, it took hundreds of years before the demons got through small cracks in the seal.

The people were terrified of them, but many stood up to oppose them, and those people later established The Order and continued to expand to protect innocent lives. Demons collect souls or energy that comes from negative emotions such as anger, jealousy, hatred, fear, and others. They are, as well, capable of twisting positive emotions or intensifying the negative ones."

"What they are doing with it?" Sonic asked as he never heard about this. He slightly scratched behind his left ear emphasizing his curiosity.

"No one knows for sure, but it's speculated they are gathering it to break the seal to free Mensis and ultimately take over the world, destroying everything. Even demons need food, so I think they may eat it as well."

The boy shivered, his own experience with a demon was scary enough.

"The first step in repelling a demon is to wear a cross." Shadow reached into his inner pocket, where he was keeping spare crosses, he was bringing in a case someone might need one. He stepped forward, putting it around the boy's neck who checked it before hiding it under the T-shirt.

The priest sat back and continued, "This one is ordinary, so it can keep only weak ones away. For stronger demons, you will need chanting and clear mind. Not letting negative emotion control your heart, will increase the effectiveness of your defense as well."

Sonic carefully listened and tried to memorize the priest's words.