The Altar 5

Within a few seconds, Pegasus and Shita arrived at the site of where Kyba's had specified. Pegasus set Shita down onto the ground. She wobbled a bit but still stood up well enough.

"Stay here. I promise I will explain everything later," said Pegasus.

He did not give her time to reply and dived head first into the ocean. Pegasus was fully immersed into the ocean. He closed his eyes and searched for Seto's presence. A weak presence made his body vibrate softly. Immediately, Pegasus assumed a torpedo shape and darted in the direction of the detected presence.

It was not long before he saw bare pillars of stone with a dome of red in the center. The smell of blood was thick even through the ocean. There was no other life in site. There was only blood.

Pegasus approached the dome slowly. He spun a small ball of concentrated web cautiously and let it float next to the dome. The ball touched the dome and was instantly shot away. The ball almost grazed Pegasus's cheek.

Great, I can't even touch it thought Pegasus. 

Next he launched, simultaneously, multiple cone-shaped web darts at the dome, while moving away from the line of fire to avoid a possible rebound. The darts were also shot away.

The dome pulsed.

What was that?

Just then a small pouch began to form out of the dome. The pouch separated and dispersed revealing Kyba's body.

Kyba's limp body floated away from the dome. Pegasus quickly fired strings of web and pulled Kyba's away from the dome. He saw Kyba's abdominal wound and sealed it up with some web.

They headed for the surface.

The Altar 4

Pegasus no longer felt Kyba's presence along side him. He knew that he had to hurry. But, the cars were not moving! Shita was beside him. Many thoughts ran through his mind as he tried to find a fast way to get to the lagoon without revealing his secret. At the same time he felt Shita's discomfort and worry for her sister. It was time to gamble. He had always felt a special aura from Shita. Perhaps she could handle it.

He had no choice. The only way there was, at this point, was if he hopped there.

"Shita, I about to do something that might scare you. But... its the only way to get to your sister is to do what I am doing to do," stated Pegasus.
"Ha?" questioned Shita.

Pegasus did not give Shita a chance to gather her thoughts. He swiftly got out of the car with Shita and spun a web of invisibility.

The strands one by one wrapped around their bodies. Round and round they went in all directions. These strands kept encompassing the two until they were part of their subject's skin. Once covered both Pegasus and Shita were quite invisible to the outside world.

Shita felt nothing and saw nothing but faint pulses of light starting to surround her feet. It was as if they were strings of pulsating lights wrapping around her. Almost immediately, the light came up to her face and passed her eyes. She blinked as if something was in her eye, but there was nothing.  Of course she wanted to think about what had just happened to her, but immediately Pegasus carried her and started hopping great distances. At first her heart made a leap, but she adjusted quickly due to her great love of roller coaster thrill rides.

The Altar 3

The foundation beneath them shook with an unknown rage. Even so, there seemed to be an eerie silence forming a blanket around The Altar. The was no obvious life visible other than the Crystal, Kyba, and the dark mermaid.

The stone pillars started to fall one by one. They seem to randomly slam upon The Altar's base foundation while nearly missing the stone table.

Amidst this chaos Kyba tried to shield himself and the girl from the falling pillars. But in the end it seemed that as long as they were both on top of the stone table, they were safe. There was no shield around the table. For some reason, there was no threat to the table's surrounding circumference.

Now sitting on the blood stained stone table, Kyba cradled the girl in his arms while still putting pressure upon her wound. Yet, the blood continued to flow without fail. Kyba tried release his wings so that he could shoot them both out of the water, but in the end all of his efforts were futile. A mysterious force of some kind seemed to counteract all his efforts.

"Wait, where is the black mermaid," Kyba thought to himself.

Admist the chaos occurring around them Kyba could not sense nor could he find the mermaid. Kyba calmed down and closed his eyes. He allowed all that was happening to him to fade away. There were no falling pillars, no shaking, and no chaos. Then, he focused his thoughts on his third eldest brother, Pegasus.

"Pegasus! Help! I'm trapped," thought Kyba telepathically.

"Where are you," asked Pegasus calmly.

"I'm about several hundred feet near the lagoon. I'm underwater, no time..."

Just then, Kyba felt a sharp pain in abdomen. He looked to his abdomen and found an ice-like object sticking out. Around the outer end of the ice object was the delicate, pale hand of the girl he was holding in his arms. The girl that he was protecting had stabbed a sharp piece of ice into his abdomen. For a second, Kyba was confused, but he immediately pushed the pain to the back of his mind. Kyba quickly looked into the girl's eyes. Her eyes were blank and lifeless. He knew immediately that her body was being controlled.

"Ah hahaha," cackled the black mermaid.
"What did you do," cried Kyba furiously.
"If I can't get her blood then your blood will have to do. I will be the ultimate one! The power! The power!"
"What.... "

Kyba could barely hold his composure. His surroundings began to wobble. He felt repetitive pulses radiate throughout his entire body, especially his head. He constantly made great efforts to take deep breaths. Everything was blurry and foggy. All he heard were the deep breaths he was taking.

Pegasus... please I can't . . .

Darkness draped across his vision.

The Altar 2

The Altar 2

Boom! Boom! More water bombs hit the duo as they proceeded into the surrounding grounds of The Altar. Surprisingly, the duo was able to safely reach The Altar. But, it was then that Crystal had a bad feeling.

“Um… Mr. Mermaid, what is this place?” asked Crystal as her whole body emanated fear.

“It is The Altar,” barked the mermaid.

“The Altar?”

The mermaid gave Crystal a sly smiled. His eyes filled with joy. He kept on looking at Crystal and smiling.

Then he said, “The Altar is the center of mermaid holy ground. It controls the power and influence of Atlantis.”

“That’s pretty cool. So, what does that have to do with me?”

Crystal took a step backwards, preparing to run. It was then that the mermaid’s smile changed into a dark smirk.

“That is because you are The-Chosen-One, the one to stain the holy and bring darkness. But don’t worry, I will take that power from you. A mere human such as you has no use for such great power.”

Crystal immediately turned around and ran. But, boom, she ran into an invisible wall.

“Ah ha ha ha HAA! Do you think that I brought you all this way just to let you escape? Hmph! You are the sacrifice and The Altar will be painted with your dark blood!”

The mermaid called to the ocean water and captured Crystal. Crystal was thrown onto a stone table. She tried to get off, but the mermaid wrapped his scaly hand tightly around her neck. He slammed her down back onto the table. This time Crystal’s head slammed against the table and created an instant strike of pain that resonated throughout Crystal’s entire body. The pain numbed all of her senses except for her eye sight.

The mermaid chanted a spell of the ancients. It was a spell to call upon the fire from the gates of hell. This was the fire that destroyed the eastern, the western, and the southern mermaid empires. Only Atlantis, the northern mermaid empire was left. Now under this black mermaid’s spell the holiest altar in all of mermaid land was about to be stained.

Without any thought, the black mermaid called to the ocean water telepathically. Using the ocean water, the mermaid commanded it to circle and clamp on tight around Kyba's neck. First, the mermaid saw a small ring of water circling Kyba's neck. The thin ring picked up speed, but the ring broke apart in the next instance. Surpised, the mermaid forgot to push against Kyba's palm, the one that was immobilizing his fist. Kyba took advantage of the mermaid's weak moment and immediately binded the mermaid with an energy chain he created telepathically.

"That was quite boring," Kyba thought to himself.

Kyba shifted his focus from the struggling and immobile mermaid to the girl that laying on top of the roughly rounded stone table, which was several steps away from him. Oddly enough, even though they were underwater, the blood that stained the stone table and the foundation of The Altar remained unmoved. Kyba curiously gave himself a little cut to observe what would happen. The blood from his minor wound merely diffused rather quickly with the ocean water.

"This is quite interesting. I've seen blood sacrifices but nothing like this," said Kyba to himself.

"Please... help," cried Crystal with all that was left of her strength.

Kyba blinked a few times in wonder. With the amount of blood that he had already witnessed, Kyba thought that there was no way that the girl on the table could be alive. Thus, he immediately rushed towards her. He soon saw that the girl was very much alive. She was taking multiple forced shallowed breaths, as if trying to desperately to gasp for air. Her medium frame was stained with blood, especially the middle of her chest. Kyba immediately put pressure upon her chest with his left hand.

The stone pillars around The Altar started to crumble and fall....

The Altar

Corals, in all colors of the rainbow, laid around the The Altar filled with life. Clown fish, angel fish, and also parrot fish thrived here. Life here was not limited to fish. There was much more. Great boulders of stone dominated the terrain but were covered with corals of all sorts. Sharks, eels, and sometimes even whales came to this holy ground to pay their respects. There was no war, no fighting, and no hate. This was a holy area of truce. It was a place for peace. It was a place meant for peace.

"...What," Crystal stated in wonder.

" Well it is what it is," replied the mermaid, "quickly now, we must go."

"To where?"

With no further explanation, the mermaid then proceeded to the The Altar. But, it was also then that the attack was implemented.

*Boom!*

"Aaah! What was that!"

"We are being attacked; we must hurry. There is no time to explain."

*Boom Boom!*

The ocean shook as the water bombs failed to reach their targets. Corals of different shapes and sizes were obliterated within an instant. The fish... where were the fish?

"This constant bombing is driving me insane. I'm practically running out of breath! Where's a bomb shelter when you need one!"

"Crystal! There is no time for this! We have nearly reached The Altar. We will be safe there. Hurry!"

Hand in hand, the mermaid dragged Crystal onto an awaited nightmare.

....

*Beep Beep* Uh... Hi this is Crystal. Please leave a message.*

Bam!

Shita slammed the phone back onto the kitchen wall. Crystal had been gone for an entire day without notice. Shita paced around the refrigerator quickly and opened it once again. Finally worn out, she stomped out of the kitchen and flung herself right onto the couch.

"Why in the world is she not picking up the damn phone! Dammit," whinned Shita.

She had already waited for Crystal for several hours and time was not passing by any slower. In the midst of Shita's frustration, she was saved by her cellphone.

“Hello,” grunted Shita.

“Hello,” replied Pegasus’s cheerful voice, “What’s bothering you? You sound annoyed. Is this a bad time?”

Ba Dum… Ba Dum

“Uhh… nno… of course, I mean… this is … well … there is something bothering me.”

“I’m all ears.”

“It’s about my sister. I haven’t seen or heard from her in the last few hours. I’ve called and called so many times…I’m sorry I’m rambling. I’m just worried.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. My little Kyba is always running around without notice. But, he always comes back. Your sister will too. She must be unavailable for some reason. Did she forget her cell phone?”

“No, I don’t think so. Crystal is the responsible type. She’s the one that picks up after me. I mean that I can lazy sometimes, well that’s not what I am trying to say…”

“It’s alright. Hey why don’t we go look for her? After all, I did call you because I had some time on my hands.”

Shita stared blankly into space. After a brief moment, it finally hit her. Under the strangest circumstance, she was going out with her dream guy, Pegasus.

“Uh… I mean, thank you very much.”

“Alright, I’ll pick you up in about twenty-minutes?”

“Yeah, that would be great!”

Half excited and half worried Shita dashed upstairs to find the perfect outfit.

He gently caressed her pale white skin. There was no trace of color anywhere. Her skin was so pale. It was as white as snow. He thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, or, perhaps, it was because of his hot, watery, and blurred vision. Once again, he quickly and roughly rubbed his eyes. Then he realized that he had never really actually looked at her this closely. How many years had she been by his side? This time, with a firmer hand, he cradled her cheek with his cupped hand. Not only was her skin colored a ghostly white, but it was also ice cold. It was so freezing cold that his hand seemed to be stuck to her cheek. Perhaps she was trying to take some of the life he had in his hands. He would let her take it. He would give all of his never-ending immortal life to her. Take it! His watery eyes furiously searched for life. And once again, there was no trace of color anywhere. There was no trace, no trace at all, nor was there any life in what was left of his already crushed heart.