Roads of Fortune

Roads of Fortune: Quest for the Zodiac Crystals is a novel written by Grifter Timber Wolf the series is done in a serialized format of 25 stories, written in the end of 2006 to early 2007 and is a direct sequel to Wolves of Fortune.

Grifter and Painless Wolf are separated from each other and their friends Shard and Taiho, falling to a world called Limbros, which is a dimension that lies between Earth and the Heavens. Grifter uncovers that in order to defeat Abysno, who has again risen, he must defeat his generals and gather all six Guardians together with the powers of the Zodiac before they destroy Limbros and Earth at the same time.

Synopsis
Two Guardians; Painless and Grifter Wolf must find new guardians and attain the powers of the Zodiac in order to fend off the evil of Abysno, and a new enemy Inmo, whose five generals threaten to destroy the world of Limbros and the Earth itself by summoning a being of omnipotence named Oblivion.

Spoilers
Sent to an island paradise after defeating Shroud and Abysno, the Guardians Grifter, Painless, Taiho and Shard live a short peace before their lives again erupt into chaos. A mighty black cloud descends upon the island, and they find that its none other than a resurrected Abysno who is the brunt of the attack. In order to defend Painless and Grifter, Shard and Taiho use their powers to hold the enemy at bay while the wolves make their escape. Succeeding in their escape, Abysno quickly takes Taiho and Shard's powers, seemingly destroying them in the process. His rage causing the two remaining Guardians to be separated in the portal back to Earth. This destroys Grifter's Eye of Neptune, which he used to open the portal and he is deposited on another world named Limbros.

Grifter wakens to find a young girl named Claire who speaks with him moments before he sees an old woman named Zelda. Claire mysteriously vanishes and Zelda unsure what he had seen. Zelda tells Grifter of troubles plaguing their world, that the elements have begun to fail on them, winds not blowing, the waters becoming poisoned. Zelda also speaks of a prophecy that six Guardians will rise up and overcome the darkness; Using the power of the Zodiac, the Guardians would be able to restore the world to its proper form, or both Limbros and the Earth would suffer the same fates of destruction. Meanwhile Abysno, searching for the two Guardians he lost finds a dark soul, a demon named Kage; former King of the northern lands and resurrects him to do his bidding. Kage is sent to the village that Grifter is in, unbeknownst to the demon, Grifter is speaking with a wizard in regard to his journey. Kage arrives and Grifter confronts him using his powers, but they prove to be in affective when Kage turns the wizard into a demon using Dominos as his attack method. Zelda comes to him bearing a crystal of the zodiac and Grifter attains his first power: The power of Cancer which can reflect within hearts or objects to turn them to their proper forms. As he departs the village, heading to the south toward another major city, he bids his new found friends farewell.

During his journey, Grifter encounters a lion who can attain human form (the opposite of how the Guardians transform) when they meet one of their new enemies, Korche, and finds that he's been stealing human souls for a hidden purpose. Roar teams up with Grifter and gains the silver scepter, and the powers of Air that come with it. Together they defeat several enemies, even attaining the doubling power of Gemini for the lion, before discovering Painless, who had been enshrouded with darkness since Grifter and he separated. Using his powers, Grifter is able to undo the darkness the world's feelings had clouded Painless' mind with and the black wolf is given the Virgo crystal as a gift from a local tribe. While trying to find the Pisces crystal, Grifter and the others fell into a cave, and separated to find the exit. The wolves found miners deep underground being affected by mind control while they are attacked by cockroaches, meanwhile, Roar meets and old friend named Simmone who attempts to distract him by casting a spell over him. Each defeat their challenges and reunite to destroy an enormous bug monster, however Kage makes his way off with the Pisces crystal. They find their way to a technological city and Grifter makes his way in. Finding a handsome man in the hundreds of people, their introduction is cut short by an attack of some sort of a virus infecting the technology. Grifter discovers his old enemy Toxic has returned, and, using a black diamond, transforms Sky's uncle into an evil robot. Using the powers of fire, Sky teams up with Grifter and they make short work of the malfunctioning mechanics. Toxic escapes and the base team is whole once more. Toxic then joins Inmo in their efforts to destroy the world.