Tales from the Duchy of Crest

[Hakuro de Killer]

WARNING: This story contains descriptive violence and mentions of blood. Not recommended to be read by anyone under the age of thirteen.

I tried to capture the very soul and meaning of what I believe goes on in the streets of the Duchy of Crest and put it into words while telling the story through the eyes of my Original Character, the Dark Gentleman Hakuro de Killer.

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Chapter I: The Dark Gentleman

This story is based in the World of Lavato as far as we know. Currently, all is revealed about the Solar Kingdom, but very little has been told about the Duchy of Crest. Therefore, this story will tell about Crest through my eyes and memories, the eyes of Hakuro de Killer, the Dark Gentleman.

It was an average day in the Duchy of Crest. The skies were always dark and took upon a purplish hue. The streets were always dark and eerie, even at noon. Probably because of the essence of Lawtia covering the land. There were several people wandering around, dressed in ragged clothing and keeping to themselves. Mixed into these peasants were several high-class looking people dressed in black. Some looked like Knights, some looked like nobles, but all of them wore black or some form of dark clothing. A man in his early twenties walked out of one of the middle-class housing structures near the outskirts of town and walked towards the center of the dark city. The man wore a sharp-looking tuxedo and slacks and also sported a monacle and cane. The man appeared to limp slightly as he walked down the litter-filled streets. He saw several unsavory characters in his trek to the center of the castle town. A group of goblin-esque characters writing graffiti on the walls to his left, a woman in her late sixties getting mugged in broad daylight, or what qualifies for daylight in this land. The man kept walking as if it was business as usual.

Slowly, a group of three thugs began following behind him ever so casually, each one brandishing a dagger or pistol of some kind. The man, unphased, continued walking at the same pace. Shortly, three more thugs approximately fifty yards away walked out in front of him and slowly converged on the young man. The young man stopped walking and addressed the thug in the middle in front of him, "Please let me pass, sir. I will be very late for my meeting otherwise." The thugs all chuckled a little as the thug addressed steps forward, "Jes' who do ye think ye are? Ye think we're jes' gonna let ye pass? I dun' think so! I think ye jes' might be missin' that meetin' o' yers, kid."

The thugs slowly converged closer and closer on the young man and, all of a sudden, charged quickly at him. Seeing them all pick up speed, the man undid a hidden lock on his cane and pulled the handle out of it, revealing a blade about five feet long extend out of the cane, attached to the handle. "Tsk tsk, gentlemen. If you had complied, you all would have lived to see tomorrow and I would have been on time for my meeting. Annoying trash like you should have moved to Folrart and turned to Refess. Now you'll all die." With swift motions, the young man swung the cane sword very swiftly at the thug on the left, slicing at his torso. He then pivoted in a circular motion, slashing at all of the thugs except the one in the center. When he made his way back to face that same thug who threatened him, he began to sheathe his sword as he spoke, "Return to Lavato and seek your punishment..." All six thugs were confused as he sheathed the sword as they were not only unharmed, but the man they were attacking was putting away his weapon. As he was about to click his cane-sword back into place, he continued, "Crescent Moon Shockwave!"

The cane sword clicked. Almost at the same time, a light purple beam of energy appeared in a crescent shape in the precise area that the man slashed while pivoting. The purple shockwave then rapidly expanded almost instantly, slicing the five thugs surrounding him from all sides but his front through the torso, blood spilled everywhere. Simultaneously, the lower bodies of all five thugs fell to their knees, then to the ground and the buildings in the vicinity suffered minor damage, though at least three onlooking peasants were also cut down in the process. With this, the thug before him fell to his knees and pleaded, "Please spare me, I-I'll trav'l to Folrart right now if ye let me live!" The young man smirked a little, "Lawtia despises weaklings and traitors. It's twice the sin to be both at the same time..." The young man unsheathed his cane-sword again and held his sword over the man's head. The thug screamed as he saw his life flashing in front of him before all he could see was the neverending darkness of death.

The young man's cane-sword was covered in blood, "Tch. What a worthless piece of garbage. Hardly worth my efforts," he muttered to himself as he reached for a handkerchief in the left pocket of his overcoat. He wiped off his cane sword in a way that most of the blood clinging to the blade fell to the ground. The young man then sheathed his sword back into his cane, locked it, and resumed walking as if nothing ever happened, leaving five bodies cut in half and their leader decapitated, in the middle of the street in the middle of the day... and no one thought twice about stopping him. This was the society all those who live in Lawtia must live through if they wish to survive. The weak die while the strong prosper. The young man made his way to the center of town with no more trouble and arrived at the gates of a very large, obsidian castle. There were a pair of guards at the gothic-looking gateway who stopped the young man at the entrance, "State your name and business at Crest Castle!" The young man nodded and responded, "I am the Dark Gentleman Hakuro de Killer, I believe her excellency Duchess Eskatia is expecting me."

Checking a scroll with a list of names on it, one of the guards nodded and opened the gate while the other resumed position. Hakuro continued walking as the guards continued opening doors for him without question of identity. He finally made it to the throne room. It was a dark room filled with candles lit with green flame and the symbols of Lawtia everywhere. At the end of the long hallway-esque throne room resided two very famous individuals in the Duchy of Crest: The Duchess Eskatia and her master of war, as it was, the Chaos Lady Annarose herself.

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Depending on how the story goes with others, I may continue the story when I get bored again. Please tell me what you think of the story!

[Thespi]

Interesting.... I'm glad your character lives there, and not mine!

You were very brave to start the fanfiction for the game... I hope others feel free to write soon as well.

[Hakuro de Killer]

Interesting.... I'm glad your character lives there, and not mine!

You were very brave to start the fanfiction for the game... I hope others feel free to write soon as well.

Well my fanfiction spawned from a number of things. First off, there's no US released information on the Duchy of Crest, so I thought I would write a fanfiction with my interpretation of what Crest's Castle Town would look like as well as the kind of people who wander the streets. The other thing that this fanfiction spawned from was the lack of any kind of roleplaying or anything on the forums and in-game, so I decided to think of a character based loosely off of a number of different characters I have heard of in the past and went with it.

In my head, I based Crest off of various lands such as Grand Kingdom from the Blue Dragon franchise (the overall atmosphere and darkness of the surrounding area), Lindblum from Final Fantasy IX (the sheer size of the castle town and diversity of those who walk the streets) and the slums of various other towns and kingdoms that I have seen before (the personality of the people and the overall closer look at the castle town's society and architecture).

I based Hakuro off of many different people, both good and evil. I based Hakuro's style of combat loosely off of Marine Captain T-Bone and Brook the Gentleman Skeleton, both from One Piece, his appearance being a mix between the White Magical Hat from Yu-Gi-Oh! and Shelly de Killer from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All, and his dislike of weakness and betrayers from the stereotypical villain persona. His general personality and his last name is also based on Shelly de Killer from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All.

I do hope that more people read the lore and write fanfiction like this. That way, I won't be alone in this, now will I?

[lupos]

YEA! We've arrived. Real fan fiction, and in just over a week from launch. Kudos to you sir.

If this keeps up we may need a whole extra subforum.

[Hakuro de Killer]

Thanks to all of the comments, especially from the staff. I wasn't expecting the Staff to like the Fanfiction, but it's great that you guys do!

Anyway, here's the next chapter:

Chapter II: The Killing Machine and the Mad Priest.

Hakuro walked up to the throne of Eskatia ever so casually and knelt before her. He spoke ever so casually, "I am terribly sorry to be tardy, some filth decided to impede my path on my way here. Anyway, you wished to see me, my lady?" Eskatia nodded with a smirk, "I don't doubt it..." Eskatia snaps her fingers and a dark entity seeps in through the walls. It speaks in a screechy voice that would put nails to a chalkboard to shame, "You called for me, my lady?" Eskatia nodded, "Yes, it seems Hakuro ran into a roadblock on his way to the castle. I need you to... 'take out the garbage', as it were."

The dark entity nodded, "Yes, my lady. It will be done... vwee hee hee..." The dark entity merged with a shadow behind Eskatia's throne and vanished. Annarose giggled a little, "Shades are good little pawns, wouldn't you say so, LeBeau?" Suddenly LeBeau walks out from behind a tapestry near Annarose. Hakuro stands up quickly and prepares to draw his cane-sword at LeBeau. At seeing this, LeBeau starts running at Hakuro ready to throw a punch with his augmented left arm. Before they connect, Eskatia shouts at them, "Enough, you two! You are in the presence of the Duchess of Crest! How dare you start combat before me without my permission!?"

Hakuro faced Eskatia and knelt again, "But my lady, this man is LeBeau the Killing Machine! He is famous for laying entire villages to waste just because of a few awkward stares! This man cannot be allowed near you because of his reckless behavior!" Eskatia nodded to Annarose as the brilliant strategist labeled the Chaos Lady stood up from her chair and walked toward LeBeau. "The Crest Research and Development as developed a cybernetic collar to put around LeBeau's neck to allow me to... 'control' his power." With this said, Hakuro then nodded, "I see. I apologize for my actions, my lady."

Eskatia then addressed Hakuro, "Rise, Hakuro. My most loyal assassin needs not kneel before me." Hakuro, hearing this, rises back to his feet, "So, my lady. Why have you called me here before you this afternoon?" Eskatia smirks a bit, "You and LeBeau are to head to the Wizard Kingdom of Regus and bring me the head of a noble there by the name of Jeremiah D'Orange. He is attempting to rally the Falkow forces to unleash a surprise attack against General Dical's flank with knowledge given to him by a spy who infiltrated Dical's unit. Your mission is to kill this man. However, he is under heavy guard in the eastern district of Regus. You know what that means."

Hakuro groaned a little, "Vordore..." Not knowing what Hakuro meant, LeBeau asks Hakuro, "Who's Vordore? Some kinda warrior for hire?" Hakuro looked at LeBeau and responded, "Vordore is the strategist of the entire Regus army. He and his personal guard of the most powerful wizards in all of Regus all reside in the east district in a virtually impenetrable stronghold. Not only that, but Vordore has knowledge of a powerful spell that allows all of his allies share the strength of the ancients, amplifying their powers dramatically."

LeBeau cocked his head, "That's an interesting power. But I'm strong enough to take them all down without your help!" Hakuro scoffed, "If her majesty and the Chaos Lady thought you could do it on your own, why was there need to contact me as well? You need my help as much as I need your help, trash!" LeBeau got rather angry at this, "Who are you calling trash!? I bet even a shade could kill you with little effort, you whelp!" Hakuro and LeBeau started to fight again, when Eskatia butted in again, "Enough! If I knew we would need someone to separate you two form your babbling, I would have sent for someone to go with you as a third-"

Annarose interrupted, "Sorry for interrupting, your majesty, but I knew this would happen and took the liberty of adding a third person to go with these two. He is a Mad Priest named Lloyd. Please treat him with the utmost courtesy as he is a dear friend of mine and a powerful ally."

Hakuro and LeBeau stopped fighting, faced Annarose with irate faces, and nodded. They both knew that going against the Chaos lady meant to be signing a warrant to their own fate worse than death, even more so than the Duchess herself. They both left the great hall and headed out of the Castle where, sure enough, the Mad Priest was waiting for him. He looked like all Mad Priests, Angel Wings that looked like they were dipped in blood, cryptic tattoos on his face, slicked back hair, and that black coat. They both walked over to him as he seemed lost in thought, "Are you the Mad Priest called Lloyd?"

The man looked up to see Hakuro and LeBeau. He nearly doubled over in surprise. "Err... y-yes! Sorry about that! I was thinking about the inner workings of one of my random devices. I doubt you want to hear about it, but here goes. It generates alpha waves to transmogrify-" LeBeau grabbed him by his left wing and started dragging him, "Yeah yeah, I don't want to hear about it. Let's get going..." Hakuro couldn't help but chuckle a bit at Lloyd's reaction to this, as he seemed quite flustered, "A-AAH! LET ME GO, YOU BRUTE! AAAAHHHH!!" LeBeau just groaned a little and kept dragging him by his wings as Hakuro just walked behind them both casually as they made their way towards the gate out of Crest Castle Town, causing a large scene and attracting the attention of all of the locals, though they all knew of LeBeau and Hakuro's reputations and just avoided them.

Now they were all headed towards the Wizard Kingdom of Regus for their first mission together, but first they would head to General Dical's regiment to get information. Until next time, fellow Iczers!

[Sarkath]

All I can say is, great written. I do really come into it right in the beginning and even forget that I am actually reading, more like watching an interesting anime show.

Since I am no writer, I can't really give you any constructive advices, except for a lot of praise.
I find it of high quality, your story, and entertaining. Many thumbs up.

Keep it up, and be proud. Hakuro!

[Hakuro de Killer]

All I can say is, great written. I do really come into it right in the beginning and even forget that I am actually reading, more like watching an interesting anime show.

Since I am no writer, I can't really give you any constructive advices, except for a lot of praise.
I find it of high quality, your story, and entertaining. Many thumbs up.

Keep it up, and be proud. Hakuro!

That's how I tried to write it. I pictured this being an anime show and, while having it in my mind's eye, I jotted down a detailed description of the events, the area it takes place in, etc. and just flesh it out, make sure it is grammatically correct, etc.

Thanks for the positive feedback!

[tdkgunghoul]

LeBeau's a baddass. Sweet!

[Kyrie]

LeBeau's a baddass. Sweet!

With a title like "Killing Machine" how could he not be?

I just hope some Gowen people appear soon. Elena would be perfect as a recurring antagonist!