The Unknown Assailant

The Secrets had watched the Shadow of Death, though Death had to leave right after some of the heroes started dying. Darkness would soon leave as well, finding his influence strong enough to fuel more of the fires of battle to continue to rage on. It was simply put, all a mess. When Misery sacrificed herself, it was hard hit for the Absolutes, none of the fundamental, original Seven knew how it was living in the Emotional Realm, but if they had to guess, much of the realm was probably still in an uproar.

All Seven sat in their meeting room, discussing a rather interesting predicament from their own end of things.

“I’ve felt… Strange energies…” Darkness slowly stated, “Almagest gave off this same energy a while back… During The Shadow of Death…”

“It was pinpointed on Thyria… Castle Mandala gives off that same energy.” Order added, “Though if I went for a visit, Ixarath would probably kick me out. But I know what it is…”

Chaos who was silent till now began to blab, “You’re so smart, Order! You’re amazing!!” Chaos gushed happiness.

“Chaos, shut up.” Death ordered.

“And you…” Chaos dramatically pointed, “You- You- Mean person!”

Everyone was silent for a few moments, before Order spoke up, “Go easy on him, Chaos.”

“Well, can we continue to speak of this? What is this meeting about?” Luck inquired.

“I shall give a tiny explanation, hoping that all of you can understand what this has to do with the relation to the Shadow of Death.” Life answered, “This strange presence has been in our… Sector for a while now. For a good deal of time, I thought that Kaede was the one that had this strange energy emitting from him.”

“Then who is it coming from? That is, if it is not Kaede?” Luck questioned, hoping for a simple answer in all of this.

“Death and I were searching, taking our time working on it and we did find out what is creating these… Disturbances…”

“That’d be?” Light spoke out loud the question every other Secret desired.

"Kaede, in his quest to make immortality, destroyed seven souls, we’ve yet to find who, but we know that these souls were shattered and pieced together to create a new being.” Death answered, “We’re unsure what was able to take these very souls and pretty much stitch them together, but it has created a new entity.”

Life finished, “It was prevalent during the Shadow of Death, though I doubt anyone paid any heed to it.”

“That’s because they’re unaware of the danger I pose… My dear Secrets…” A voice rang out in the meeting room, a few moments later, a masked individual appeared in a vortex of spatial energy. It wore a black cloak and the mask adorned on it’s face was pure white with a question mark upon it, two holes created for eyes that shined purple and green.

The Masked Man floated in the middle of the circle the Secret’s chairs created, “I’d have thought you’d pick up on me soon enough, but of course, Abstracts and Concepts are weak. They are merely forced to be what they are, unable to truly live out an existence, meandering in their own two-dimensional plane.”

“Oh- My- Various Gods!!” Chaos pointed at the figure, “It’s- It’s a- a THING!!”

“My point exactly, Chaos. Can you be Orderly? Can you ever calm down? No… Just as with you, Order, can you ever be exciting or exuberant? No,” The Masked Man stated, his green and purple eyes gazing at the Secrets, one by one.

“What are you getting at?” Death questioned, “Are you-”

“What am I getting at? You question me… Yet you know, hm, oh so little about your opposite… Death, can you truly grasp Life? Truly FEEL it?” The Masked Man questioned, raising its arm and pointing upward, revealing a severely pale hand, “The answer is no. No Abstract or Concept can truly grasp their opposite. It is impossible, if it were to be true, you probably would have seen the obvious enjoyment Misery had when the Absolute practically skipped in elation, carrying a basket full of flowers as it was devoured by The Omega.”

“Why are you here?” Light politely asked, hoping for a clear answer from this mysterious being.

“I could answer so much for you, yet you would understand so little. The only ones who perhaps have even a semblance of what I am to reveal would be the orange and yellow one.”

“I like pie.” Chaos input.

Order scoffed, “You seriously believe that?”

“You spoke of what is at Castle Mandala… You know what is there, within Rysiloth…” The Masked Man’s eyes glinted, “I know that you know.”

“What? What does he speak of?” Life spoke up, voice quivering slightly in trepidation.

“The Unknown.” The Masked Man decided to answer, “You know of it, all of you do, but you can barely grasp an understanding of what it is…”

It was indeed true, each of the Secrets have heard of the name, of what it was, but they had no idea what it embodied or what secrets it contained. The most known being that came to mind was Almagest, who actually tore down a long line all the way to Nebula, Life was sure of that.

“The Unknown is where it is… There is no way that it’s getting free.” Order stated, “Any one of the Balance-Keepers could send it back.”

“Please, you think Ixarath can, maybe even Ithe? Ha… They’ll both be dead in due time. Either by my hand, or another’s… The Council of Balance believes that it holds back the Unknown? No, it is the Unknown that holds back itself. We as a group, us Avatars, are mere fragments of True Power.”

“What have you been doing, what is your goal?” Death ground out.

“Simply to release the Unknown, but to do that… I may need a bit of fire-power on my hand… This Castle will do nicely.” The Masked Man stated, “I know you won’t leave this place quietly, will you?”

“There’s no way we’re leaving this place unattended. The Absolutes may think we’re worthless, but we’re far from that. You are leaving now!” Luck ordered.

“I figured. You could say I’m taking a risk… Of course, I’m above all of you… Abstracts and Concepts were made weak to me through the Unknown… I shall break every one of you.” The Masked Man shot forth to Luck, who jumped into the air at the last second. The Masked Man stepped atop the chair, turning to the other Secrets, who all appeared ready to fight.

“Seven against one, it’s not your lucky day…” Luck hissed.

“It’s going to be six soon… Then the numbers will slowly dwindle, my dear Secrets… Then the Absolutes may take your place… Unlike you Seven, heh, they can do their job..."