Hikari: Rise Of The Weapons Master

While Zack and Emma were had entered the game, Jonathan had started traveling to meet the other dukes.

The king of Eizenburgh kingdom didn't bring anyone with him except Pearl. Jonathan trusted her as well as his own capabilities.

If anyone dared to attack him, they would have to face the wrath of his flames.

"So, how long will it take us to go and meet Hark?" Pearl asked as she and Jonathan were standing on the roof of the palace.

A smile appeared on his face as he looked at the four rings that adorned his fingers. The one on his ring finger was a flame orange ring that was given to him by his wife on their wedding day.

Looking at the ring, Jonathan felt his heart ache once again. He shook his head slightly before looking at the remaining three rings. All of them were black with different jewels embedded in them.

One red, one blue and one white. All three given to him by the dukes of the kingdom which allowed him to directly jump between their palaces and secret places.

'Now only two out of the four ring givers are alive,' With a heavy heart, Jonathan touched the ring with the white jewel before placing his right hand on Pearl's shoulder.

A white glow surrounded their bodies as the two vanished.

Pearl felt her stomach churn as she barely held down what she had eaten earlier. Jonathan didn't look the least bit worried as they appeared on top of another palace's roof.

It was none other than Hark's palace which Zack and the Phoenix had destroyed a little. That damaged portion had soon been recovered and the entire place looked completely new.

Hark immediately appeared on top of the palace as he stared at Jonathan and Pearl.

The duke's black hair were shining brightly under the setting sun as he looked up at Jonathan. He knew why the king was there since he too was connected with the other dukes' life forces.

"You are here because of Ezio?" Hark asked in a low tone as Jonathan nodded. He then gestured for the duke to stood up.

Hark turned around and guided the duo through his mansion. Even though most people called his place a palace, he loved to think of it as a mansion instead.

He didn't use half of the things inside it anyways.

Hark lead Jonathan and Pearl through a set of hallways before they ended in front of a completely sealed black door.

"Pearl, can you please stand outside?" Jonathan asked politely as the young girl nodded and proceeded to stand beside the door.

Hark and Jonathan then entered the room and closed the door behind them. The room was completely sealed and was embedded with formations and runes so no one could hear anything that happened inside.

"He is not dead," Hark suddenly spoke before Jonathan could say anything. "Ezio is still alive."

"You know it as well as I do Hark. The connection between him and us was shattered and I saw the entire thing with my own eyes. He clearly died and his body was burned down."

Jonathan wondered why Hark was saying that Ezio was still alive despite what had happened. The duke of the southern region took a deep breath before deciding to ask Jonathan something.

"What was the thing that Ezio always told us?"

"Do not fear the dark, but welcome its embrace." Jonathan quoted as Hark nodded.

"I always wondered why Ezio said that when I realized something. All of us dukes share something."

"The dark element?"

"Yes but not that. Ezio is an assassin, a being completely mastered in the arts of curses. Akuma can harness the dark element to literally leech the life of another person. I…" Hark' voice suddenly trailed off as he heard a chuckle inside his mind.

'You have an 'evil' and 'good' personality.'

"My point is, only the version of Ezio we know died. He is still alive, but not in the way we had expected."

The only reason Hark was feeling that confident was because of his other half. After Ezio had died, he had felt the duke's life force slowly fading away.

However, his other half could still feel that Ezio was alive. Hark knew that his other half would not joke about such things so he decided to trust him and tell Jonathan that Ezio was still alive.

"Hark, is there something you are not telling me about?" Jonathan asked while narrowing his eyes as the duke of the kingdom shook his head in dismay.

"I can't tell you how I know this or else…" Hark's voice trailed off once again as the humorless chuckle was heard once again.

'Just so you didn't forget, anyone who knows of our existence will meet the same fate as the Henson family. That girl outside is a Henson too and if she were to know that you are responsible for the death of your family, Jonathan will lose trust in you.'

'I didn't know that telling someone about my two sides would unleash such a horror!' Hark protested as he heard his other half sigh.

'We already changed our identity and name once. I am not interested in doing that again and also, we will have to leave this kingdom.

'I am not interested in doing that either and I know that…'

'Good, then make sure that you don't tell him anything.'

'I know…'

As soon as the internal conflict was done, Hark was about to say something to Jonathan when he felt that something was wrong. His eyes immediately looked at Jonathan's face

The king's eyes were unfocused and made him look as though he was staring at the ceiling. If Hark didn't know better, he would have thought that the king was having a seizure.

Hark then immediately started sweating as a wild possibility appeared inside his mind. Though he didn't want to believe it, he knew that there was only one way such a thing could happen to Jonathan.

He suddenly felt something inside him started to vanish. The feeling was similar to having being punched in the gut or kicked in the balls. However, Hark had experienced the same feeling some time ago so he could control it.

Hark continued to stare at the king of the kingdom whose eyes were still unfocused. If his theory was correct, than Jonathan was probably looking over a certain person.

A certain person who would soon be dead.

A few minutes later, Jonathan's eyes suddenly got back into focus. Both he and Hark raised their hands to their chest as they felt some sort of contraction around it.

The next second, they felt the contraction vanishing completely and felt their bodies becoming a bit lighter. It was similar to having a burden lifted off someone's shoulder.

"He hanged himself and he had two black lines running across the right side of his face…" Jonathan mumbled as he remembered the scene he had just seen.

He had been looking inside a room which looked ancient. He had a feeling that a room hadn't been used for a long time. In the middle of the room, a man had been standing on top of a chair with his hands above his head.

Above his head, a rope was hanging and he binded the rope to his neck. The next second, he had kicked the chair away before pointing his right hand towards him.

Orange flames appeared from his hand and hit his body as it slowly burned his clothes. The next moment, his body had burned while hanging from the ceiling.

A duke had hanged himself to the ceiling with two black lines running across the side of his face just like Ezio's. And similar to him, he had burned his body.

"I think you were right Hark. Akuma and Ezio are dead yet not dead at the same time…"