Disastrous Ascent

The Disastrous Ascent was a series of events that occured on the western side of New Voldrania shortly after the Near Nether War in 95 AE.
==Prelude==
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Zel, one of Varrenholm's Unknown Soldiers.
6 days I've been in Akarv, but still I find nothing. I was recently dispatched here in search of a former spy we had legally installed in Jados. Apparently, the guy wasn't a fan of his job or something, and ran. Jex had recently worked on following his trail, which led him here. I guess they sent me instead of... anyone else because I DON'T stand out with my mask off. Also I grew up in Akarv, so I knew my way around better than anyone else. Whatever the case, I figured out pretty quickly that if he was hiding anywhere in Akarv, it would be in Norokar City. As such, I have been searching all over the city for the past few days, looking for some sort of lead. Unfortunately, the locals haven't been taking my questioning very well, so I've had to beat up more than a few ruffians. I hope I find a lead soon.. because I don't think I can take much more of this trash heap.
On the night of my 7th day, I found myself sitting by myself at a table in some bar. While I was compiling the notes I had taken, I felt an extremely cold presence out of nowhere. Immediately, I felt someone sit down on the bench across the table from me.
"Good day sir," said an extremely deep voice, one that made me shiver, "Might you be friends with Vor?"
I slowly looked up, noticing that this figure was wearing a black cloak, as well as black gloves. When my eyes met his... I saw them. Black Sclera, red eyes, a lightning bolt shaped scar over his right eye, cold precence, long jet black hair. He fit the description I had been given perfectly.
It was Tethris.
It was at this point that I realized everyone else that had been in the bar just a second before were now all gone.
"Vor?" I asked, "That name sounds familiar."
"Oh come now," he replied, "No need to waddle into that Unknown Soldier secrecy of yours. I know who you are."
If he already knew I was an Unknown Soldier, then why did he bother asking me? I had been told that his personality was a bit... wrong for a nether spirit, but this seemed different.
He gave me a quick wink, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, Zel. I know you're a wanted man around here. Wouldn't want you getting in trouble."
I... Thought Meq was kidding when he said Tethris acted like he was friends with us. Guess I was wrong.
Oh well, the cats out of the bag, might as well roll with it and see what I can gain from this conversation.
"Yeah," I said, "I'm friends with Vor, why do you ask?"
He started laughing and clapping, "Why, because any friend of Vor is a friend of mine! Come, lets have a drink to toast our new friendship!"
Immediately, 2 mugs full of ale floated over and landed on the table in front of us. Ok... I guess we're doing this now.
He grabbed the handle of his mug and held it up, "To Democracy!"
I held my mug up as well, and started drinking. I managed to get a good sniff before I drank, and could tell that it wasn't poisoned or tainted. Thankfully, I have an incredibly high alcohol tolerance, so this wouldn't affect me at all.
He finished downing his mug, and let out a big gasp, "As the people around here say, anyway."
"Now that thats out of the way," He said, "Might I ask, what brought you back to the homefront?"
"Nothing special," I said, "Just looking for somebody."
I didn't want to give too much away to this guy, but I didn't want to potentially make him mad by staying silent. Also he seemed to have a way of reading my mind, so lying would be pointless.
"Sounds fun," He replied.
"I guess," I said, "Now your turn, why are you here?"
"Oh you know," He said, "Just eyeing out the place, deciding on whether I like it or not."
I had heard of him appearing all over the world and doing just that, so I guess I'm not that surprised.
"Gotta say though," He said, "Out of all the places I've visited, this one is by far the worst."
"Oh?" I asked, "What makes you say that?"
"These people are all so.... wrong." He replied, "And the place reeks of glowstone whenever the wind blows."
He put his mug back down on the table, "I might have to start with this place."
Start? This sounds bad, I need to remember everything he says.
"Start with this place?" I asked, "Start what?"
He gave me a cheerful smile and started laughing again. "As much as I want to tell you, I won't. I don't want to ruin the surprise."
"Thankfully," He said, "You won't have to wait long to find out."
He then pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to me. I took the paper, and saw that there were coordinates written on it.
"Those coordinates, on September 21st." He said, "Thats where I will be ascending."
Ascending? What does he mean?
"It will be a wonderful occasion," He said, "One that will surely go down in history. So bring all of your friends! Let them all witness this joyous event!"
He stood up from the table. "Unfortunately, thats all the time I have for tonight." He said, "But hopefully I'll see you there!"
With this, he vanished.
I looked back at the paper. September 21st, at the coordinates that would be somewhere in Stormvale. Forget about the secret agent, I need to report this now.
"Hey you." said a mysterious voice.
I snapped back into reality, and looked at the man now standing next to me. While I was turning, I noticed that the bar was suddenly full again.
"You're sitting at my table, get out."
I decided not to argue, and left the bar. As soon as I got outside, I slipped into an alley and teleported back to base.
==Part 1, Calm Before the Storm==
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Fleet Admiral Chrayn, head of the Varren Navy.
September 2nd, 95. We've been out here for a good week now, waiting for help to arrive. Its been slow, but forces from all over New Voldrania have answered our call for help, and are gathering here.
Truth be told, I'm a little surprised. I wasn't expecting much outside help to show up, but we've gotten more than I could have hoped for. For starters, we had our own fleet; 30 armoured Varren ships, equipped with glowstone-infused cannonballs and our own triple-barreled rotary cannons. I had heard that all of the Unknown Soldiers had come as well, but I haven't seen any of them. Then again, I don't exactly know what to look for.
From Akarv, we got just a few ships; but the men on board are armed with those special glowstone exploding arrows that Akarv developed. They even sent 2 former SANA agents, which I honestly never would have expected.
From our friends in Scavoran, we got a large ship loaded with 200 nurses. I was expecting some of their well trained assassins to show up, but I had heard their leader was recently killed. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers. What worries me is the person they sent to represent them. Their god damn nation leader, Amorette VI. I pray to the All-Knower that she makes it out; I don't know how I would live with the guilt of inviting an allied nation leader to their death.
Moving on though, from Llysos we got a contingent from a group calling themselves "The Outland Expeditionary Unit." Don't know what to expect, as I've never heard of them before. What I'm really looking forward to is the 2 submarines they sent. Apparently, theyre equipped with glowstone rockets that can fire underwater. To make things better, they sent Ignatius Thalla, who was on the ANRT strike team, to lead them. I haven't seen him yet though, which is surprising.
We even got help from Zaescaes, which doesn't even have their own official military. Rather than bodies, they sent us funding; enough to pay off the ﷼10,000,000 bounty on Tethris' head. We promised that the reward would go to whoever lands the killing blow, so it was nice of Zaescaes to take that bill for us.
The thing that surprises me the most is what was sent from Ralkeis. I never thought in a million years that the nation who worships the nether would EVER send help to kill one of its strongest denizens. Much to my surprise, however, they sent a mercenary, hired by Skink himself. I wasn't sure what to think of just 1 mercenary, but apparently this one has a history. Something about him helping storm the Akarvian Hospital? Whatever the case, I hope he does well.
Of all the forces that have been sent, the one that has me the most excited is the one sent from the North. From Skylyn, we've got 3 of the Dravii guards; and I've heard nothing but amazing things about them. From Krolesk, we got some warriors from the Warrior's Guild. From Ardenvol, we got a few mages and even High Priests directly under their Archon. Hell, even the sword Sphleek showed up.
With all of these, we had assembled quite the fleet. Almost reminded me of ANRT, though a bit smaller. If we had to get all of this just to deal with 1 creature, I shiver thinking about what hes capable of.
Enough contemplating though, the leaders are starting to gather.
We have 1 day before the deadline, so I called each of the group's leaders here for a strategy meeting. As the last of them takes their seats, I look around at who I'm working with. Sitting to my right is a man calling himself "The Captain," and apparently hes in charge of the Unknown Soldiers. To his right is the Akarvian Soldier Henry Khan. To Henry's right are the leaders of the 3 Dravii guards, Wilhelm Dravicus of the Second Guard; Zyro Drako of the Ninth Guard, and the seat of the 42nd Guard leader was empty. Odd...
Anyways, to the right of the empty seat is Amorette VI, leader of Scavoran. To her right is a man calling himself Xathos Quxatpos, and hes leading the Arden forces. Next to him is the seat assigned to Ignatius Thalla, but he too is absent. Finally, to my left, and next to the empty Llysian seat, is a myserious man calling himself Uriel Sol. He isn't participating in the fighting, but is just here to observe apparently. Also hes a Void Lurker. So yeah, not sure how I feel about that thing sitting next to me.
But enough oberving, I stand up.
"Is everyone thats coming here?" I asked, "Where are Thalla and the 42nd Dravii Guard Leader?"
"Doesn't sound like they're coming, sir." Said one of the Varren soldiers standing by the door.
I let out a long sigh, "So be it, let us begin."
With that, the strategy meeting commenced.
==Part 2, Disaster Arrives==
===Part 1===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Zel.
Today is the day. All of the forces that are coming are here, and we've begun moving towards the target location. I have to say, I wasn't expecting Stormvale to be quite THIS bad. Its like sailing straight into a hurricane. Though I suppose, thats exactly what it is. At least we didn't have to leave anyone behind, these waters arent kind to weaker built ships. And don't even get me started on the temperature. This rain is as cold as ice, and theres just so much of it smacking me in the... everywhere. I really should have gotten some heavier gear...
What worries me the most is the wind. Its really strong here, as expected for the middle of a hurricane. Theres no way I can shoot my arrows straight with this much resistance. If only I had practiced out here before... Oh well, whats done is done. I hope everyone else can deal with these conditions, because if not, we're screwed. This place is made of almost nothing but lightning. We're practically walking into a death trap here. Gotta say, Tethris knows how to pick the right place to compliment his strengths.
"Look alive men!" Shouts the officer of the boat I'm on, "We're almost at the target location!"
I looked forward, and sure enough, I could see an island in the distance. It wasn't a particularly large island, pretty standard sized for this region. But for whatever reason, Tethris told me to meet him here. Hell, he didn't even have the coordinates land right on the island, but just off the coast of it. As we got close to the island, all of the ships gathered, and began to form a circle around the target location. I guess that strategy meeting the leaders held yesterday actually accomplished something. I expected them to just yell at each other about whos tactics are better, and end up having each group do their own thing. Good to see I was wrong.
We waited in this formation for a few minutes, but nothing was happening. Suddenly, there was a loud thunder crash, and a large lightning bolt hit the water in the middle of the circle. For some reason, though, the bolt just kept coming down and striking that one spot. After a few seconds, the bolt suddenly vanished, and I could make out a dark figure standing on top of the water in the spot the bolt had just struck.
"Thank you all for coming!" A familiar voice. I would never forget that voice, not for the rest of my life.
Tethris was here.
"Wow," He said, "This is a much bigger turnout than I expected. I should have ordered more pizza!"
The hell is he talking about? Ordering pizza? I must have misheard him. This storm was so loud, it wouldn't surprise me if I was.
"Ok," he said, "YOU need to chill!"
With this, a strange blue light shot out of him and started flying up into the sky. As soon as the light hit the clouds, they suddenly began to vanish. After a few seconds, there was a massive circle of clear skies above us, which stretched all the way out to the island. I covered my eyes as sunlight began to shine down on me. The sound of the storm was quiet, and far in the distance.
"Ahh, thats MUCH better!" He yelled.
I could now see him clearly. He was standing in the dead center of our ship circle, and was wearing exactly the same thing he was wearing at our last meeting. The only real difference was a strange object that he was holding in his hand. I have really good eyesight, but I couldn't tell what it was from this far away. It almost looked like an organ of some sort... a heart perhaps?
"Now, as I was saying," He began, "I wan't to thank you all for coming to my ascension cere-."
He was suddenly cut off by the sounds of several people screaming "FIRE!" and the sounds of cannons firing. A massive barrage of cannonballs, arrows, and what looked like rockets coming out of the water began to fly at him. In the brief moment before they all struck him, I could see the dumbfounded look on his face. All of the explosions seemed to go off at once, and a massive golden cloud began to form in the space where he was just standing. God damn, I don't think I've EVER seen so much glowstone go off in one place. There was no way a normal spirit could have survived that. However... Tethris was no normal spirit. I kept my guard up, just to be safe, as I looked around for any signs of him.
"Well, that was rude."
I began looking around in the general area that I had heard that voice. It was definitely his, and he didn't sound hurt in any way. Suddenly, the large glowstone cloud was blown away, and spread out enough that I could clearly see. He wasn't standing in the spot he was before, but I looked up and saw him. He was about 60 meters in the air, directly above the spot he had just been standing.
"I was just about to start my epic ascension speech," He said, "but you just had to go and make all that noise with your cannons and your-."
Once again, he was given no quarter, and another volley of cannonfire, waterborn rockets, and arrows began to fly straight towards him. Once again, a massive explosion caused a massive glowstone cloud to form in the space he had just been floating in. I started looking around again, knowing he had dodged that one too.
"Seriously?!" He shouted, though his voice sounded muffled, "We're REALLY doing this now-.... hold on."
He sounded close, but his voice was muffled, as if he was talking through a wall.
"Oh my GOD what is HAPPENING RIGHT NOW?!" He shouted, "WHERE THE FUCK AM I?! I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING!"
Suddenly, I started to hear a banging sound behind me. I turned to look, but couldn't see where it was coming from. After a few seconds, the wooden floor in front of me snapped up, and I could see his head sticking out of the ground.
"Ahh, theres the light." He said. Suddenly, his attention turned to me.
"I don't think I like these friends of yours, Zel." He said, "They seem a bit rude."
He started struggling, as if he were trying to get un-stuck. I noticed one of the crewmen rotating a cannon to face Tethris. Wait, was he about to shoot a cannonball at his own damn ship? The cannon suddenly fired, and I could see Tethris jump a bit. However, just before the cannonball hit him, his head seemed to flicker for half a second, and suddenly it was gone. The cannonball hit the deck, right where he had been less than a second ago. Thankfully, it didn't do much damage to the ship. So he was using some sort of teleportation do avoid our attacks? I guess thats one way to do it. Guess that means we just have to hit him with a sneak attack.
First things first, we needed to find out where he had popped up again. I began to survay the area. After a few seconds, I spotted him. He was on top of one of the Akarvian ships, and was....... what the hell is he doing? He was standing on the toes of one foot, leaning forward with the other leg sticking out, and.... spinning? Its almost like something a balerina would do. Suddenly, he lost his footing, and fell flat on his face.
...I am finding it more and more difficult to take this thing seriously. Was this guy really the biggest threat the world has faced since the Nether War? I found my disappointment rising with every second.
The Akarvians seemed to notice him too, and a sudden arrow barrage began to fly towards him. Still flat on his face, he began to flicker again, and disappeared.
"Alright, I can't do this anymore." He said.
"All of you, go away!"
With that, the entire world seemed to flicker around me. After a second or so, the flickering stopped, but nothing seemed to have happened. However, I began to look around, and noticed that everyone was gone. I started to get flashbacks of our meeting in Norokar, he had done this exact thing.
"Now for the real party!" He shouted, but I couldn't tell from where. "Lets have it on that island over there."
I looked over towards the island, and could see him standing there. I shot a teleport arrow to the shore, and teleported to it. I started looking around, and noticed a few things. For starters, this island was a LOT flatter than I had imagined, and the water wasn't moving for some reason. I also noticed that the storm in the distance had vanished, and it was all cloudless skies as far as my eyes could see. I began to hear splashing behind me, and risked a glance backwards. I saw a figure emerge from the water, who I quickly identified as Tov. Others began to appear on the island from various places, including Vor, Jex, Meq, Lux, and Haw. So all 7 of us were here, and it looked like we were it. So he had made everyone vanish except for us, but why just us? I got the feeling we we're about to find out...
We all began to approach him, and a large, friendly smile spread across his face.
"Sorry about that," He said to me, "but those friends of yours were a bit too rude for my liking."
I said nothing, and continued to stare him down.
He raised an eyebrow, "Sorry, did that offend you?" He asked, "I didn't mean any offense towards you, or your choice in friends. It's just they kept interrupting me, and I didn't appreciate that."
Once again, I said nothing.
"Okay, okay." He said, "Let me make it up to you. I know you guys are all soldiers, so how about a tussel?"
A tussel? Who even uses that word anymore? Ah, it didn't matter, he was asking us to fight him?
He seemed to notice something I didn't, because his grin returned. "I can tell by your demeaner that you think its a good idea. So, lets do that!"
He slipped the strange organ thing he was holding into his robe, and started to take a stance. However, it was obvious that he didn't know combat stances, so he just looked like an idiot.
The 7 of us looked back and forth at each other, as if we were all thinking the same thing. This guy was giving us a window to attack, and we should take it.
We all readied our weapons, and began to charge.
===Part 2===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Vor, the ace of Varrenholm's Unknown Soldiers.
Horrible combat stance, lack of attention, weaponless. Under normal circumstances, I would avoid a foe who meets any of these criteria. However, these are not normal circumstances. I met Tethris with a quick slash, one that most people wouldn't see coming. I was surprised to find my blow blocked, but I couldn't see what he had blocked with. I jumped backwards, and saw the end of a sword sticking out of his hand. Hold on, this was no ordinary sword. Through the vision of my artificial eye, I could see black energy oozing out of the blade.
"The Hell?" I said, "Guards up everyone, thats a glassed sword."
His attention turned to me, and his eyebrow rose.
"You can tell?" He asked, "Wow, and I thought I had hidden it pretty well."
He smiled, and held his arm out with his palm down. Immediately, the blade extended out of his hand to its full length. He grabbed the hilt, and swung it in a wide arc, ending with the blade at his side. Or at least, thats what I suspect he had tried to do. His stance and form were still terrible, so he just madly swung his sword sideways before pointing it down. The blade at his side was no longer oozing black energy, but I could still see traces of it all along the blade. That was definitely a glass glyph forged sword, but where did he get it?
A few arrows flew past me, and Tethris casually avoided them.
"Oh come on," He sighed, "Is this seriously all you've got? I had heard stories of your group's combat prowess, and I was hoping for at LEAST an interesting fight. But if this is all you have..."
Suddenly, his expression changed to serious, and he held his sword up to block. I saw something fly past me and hit his sword with a loud clang. It was traveling so fast that I couldn’t tell what it was, but I looked up and saw it. In the air above Tethris was one of my throwing knives, which was flying up at a pretty incredible speed. Who had thrown that? And when did they get one of my knives? I got my answer pretty quickly, as Meq suddenly appeared in the air where the knife had just been.
I hadn’t noticed it before, but Meq was wearing a different set of combat equipment than usual. Instead of a robe, it was more of a loose shirt with regular pants. Also his legs were on fire. Wait… Why were his legs on fire?
He came down on Tethris, hard, while doing a powerful backleg kick. He met Tethris’s head, and I could see the air ripple from the impact. However, Tethris seemed relatively unfazed, even though his head was starting to catch on fire. Suddenly, there was a blast of wind, and Meq was shot back towards me.
First a glassed sword, now a sudden single direction blast of wind. Both of these unexplained phenomenon had 1 thing In common. There were traces of black energy left behind.
"Hes using glyph magic!" I shouted.
"Say WHAT?" Meq yelled back, "Are you sure?"
"Positive," I said back, "Black energy is pretty easy to distinguish."
So on top of all the abilities we know this guy has, and the ones we DON’T know, he can also use the magic we all use.
Terrific.
“Wow,” Tethris said, “You’ve gotten really good at knowing stuff about me, haven’t you Vor?”
Before I could answer, I was interrupted by a hissing noise, followed by a loud explosion like noise. Suddenly, I saw a massive metal brute shoot past me. It didn’t take me long to realize that it was Tov, and there was a powerful column of flames shooting out of each of his feet. His trademark thruster raid boots, strong enough to make a man of his size fly. He was approaching Tethris at high speed, and was readying his right fist for a punch. I had seen him use that technique before, it smashed through several layers of steel. However, Tethris was completely unfazed, and simple stood there, unflinchingly. Right before Tov connected, Tethris vanished. This was different from his teleporting from before, however, as there was no visual effect around his body as he teleported. No, this one was closer to teleport glyphs.
“Good job, you figured it out.”
I turned around, and saw Tethris standing a few inches away from me.
There were traces of black gate energy in the air around him. So, it HAD been a teleport glyph, but where was the receiver? I got my answer pretty quickly, as he vanished again, this time appearing right next to Zel.
Zel showed very little reaction, and lunged at him with his knife. I was impressed, Zel’s speed seemed to have gotten higher since I last saw him fight. I didn’t even see him draw his knife. However, Tethris seemed prepared, and vanished again. This time, he appeared right in front of Jex. Jex had also gotten faster, as he lunged at Tethris with a dagger in each hand. Tethris once again vanished, but this time I couldn’t tell where he had gone. I did notice that Jex was also wearing different combat gear than usual.
Normally, he wouldn’t wear anything over his stealth suit, since it was just more material to convert to shadow. However, now he was wearing a long leather jacket. I couldn’t see how that would add any protection, and it would probably limit his movements a bit. I don’t know, maybe he thinks it looks cool or something.
I’m getting distracted, I need to focus. Where had he appeared this time. I looked around, but couldn’t see any sign of him. Then I felt it.
“Tov!” I shouted, “Hes below us!”
Tov nodded, and looked down towards the ground. He held both of his hands open, palms facing each other. A small white sphere appeared between his hands, with white light pouring out of his open palms into the orb. A crash glyph, how appropriate. After about 10 seconds, the orb began to glow, and Tov grabbed it with his right hand. With a loud grunt, he punched the ground, which shattered under his fist. The sight of solid… shards of… dirt… was accompanied by a bright white glow, and a loud screeching noise. Suddenly, the ground exploded under Tov’s fist, creating a massive crater. Shards of dirt began to fly in all directions… hold up, dirt doesn’t MAKE shards. The crater was also much, MUCH bigger than normal, having at least a 50 foot diameter, and was at least 10 feet deep. That’s more than double the size of the craters I’ve seen him make with that same technique. Did he get stronger? Or was it this ground…
I picked up one of the shards of dirt off the ground and began to examine it. Wait, what is this stuff? It looks exactly like dirt, but it’s completely solid, like a rock. I squeezed my palm, and the shard broke apart like dry clay. So it looks like dirt, has the behavior of stone, but with the durability of dry clay. This isn’t normal. It was at this point that I remembered the water. I looked back at the water, and noticed that it was completely still. Even though the storm above us had been broken, the ocean is NEVER still. But sure enough, the ocean here was completely still. Out of curiosity, I walked over to the beach, and collected some water in my hand. The waters of Stormvale are usually extremely cold, but this water was slightly warm. I took a small taste, expecting salt water. But no, this was totally pure, ordinary water.
I turned back to the crater. “Alright Tethris, where the hell did you take us?” I asked.
Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. After all, this place DID look identical to the spot we had just been right before he appeared. Suddenly, Tethris appeared in the air, directly above the center of the crater.
“Tell you what, Vor.” He said, “Why don’t we play a little game?”
“A game?” I ask, “What sort of game?”
“A game of knowledge.” He said. “If you can guess where we are, I’ll stand still for a whole 20 seconds.”
He was underestimating us? I will say though, that does seem like a good deal though…
Think Vor think, where could we be? Weird ground material, still water, pure water where it should be salt water, what else? Oh, theres no wind. Even when we were standing in the middle of the broken storm cloud, there was still wind blowing past us. Oh! The storm clouds, they were still visible in the distance before. But now they were gone. Suddenly, I got an idea.
I held out my hand, and a few seconds later, one of my backup knives appeared in my hands. So we’re still in the Overworld, because I can access my reverse teleport storage back at base.  Where does that mean we are?
“Are you seriously still thinking about it?” He asked impatiently, “Cmon I don’t got all day.”
I put my brain into overdrive, thinking of any possible solution. Was this one of his abilities? Probably. Was it a nether spirit ability? Probably not. What could it be then… wait a minute, KEEPER! Keepers have the power to create shard dimensions of their own. This could be something like that, but how… Mahkrokin! Tethris had devoured a lot of his essence back during the Near Nether War.
“Well?” Tethris said impatiently. “I’m waiting!”
I take a deep breath, clench my fists, and look up at him.
“You brought us all to a shard dimension of your own creation.”
Everyone looked at me curiously, even Tethris. He beckoned me to go on.
“You probably got that ability from devouring so much of Mahkrokin’s essence, but even then it wasn’t enough for the FULL ability. You can’t make a completely separate shard dimension, just an isolated shard. This dimension probably mirrors the appearance of the dimension youre in, but builds everything out of the most basic type of matter. That’s why the dirt was different and the water was pure.”
He began to smile, and started to clap. “You never cease to amaze! You’re exactly right on all accounts, Vor.”
He suddenly dropped down to the ground. “And as promised, I will stand perfectly still for the next 20 seconds. Go.”
===Part 3===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Vor.
20 seconds, I can’t waste a single one. My senses go into overdrive, and I can feel time around me slow down. Hes approximately 150 feet away from me, straight ahead. At my best speed, it would take me approximately 12 seconds to reach him, which would only leave around 7 seconds to strike. I could also throw one of my teleport knives, which, on average, would take about 5 seconds to reach him. No, that won’t work; casting a teleport takes 12 seconds, and I haven’t started one. Think… what could I do in 7 seconds? My best course of action would have to be a quick decapitation. I don’t care if this guy is occupying a host, or he just created his own body; decapitation is a sure kill. Performing a decapitation would only take me about 4 seconds, leaving 3 seconds for error. Alright, that’s what I’ll do.
My senses calm, and I can feel time flowing at normal speed around me. I’m charging at him at top speed, preparing to strike. However, before I could get there, Tov shot past me again. Tov can do a lot of damage in a single strike, bet lets hope its enough to kill. If not, lets hope hes out of my way in time, and Tethris hasn’t moved too far back. As I watch, I notice Tov do a sudden flip, and lands on his hands with his legs tucked into his chest. Somehow, he had maintained all of the velocity he picked up from blasting forward, and used all of that velocity in an upward kick against Tethris’ chin. Tethris was launched into the air, straight up; traveling at an incredible speed. I look above him, and notice Meq already in the air. His legs are, once again, on fire, and he starts to spin at high speeds. Right as Tethris got within range, Meq slammed the top of his head with another backleg kick, launching him back towards the ground.
However, this was not the end, as multiple pitch black spikes appeared out of the ground right below him, and they shot straight through his body has he hit the ground. The spikes pushed upwards, sending him back into the air, though this time at a much lower altitude. Suddenly, Zel was next to him, and plunged one of his arrows right into his chest. Zel kicked Tethris away, pushing him in my direction, right as the arrow exploded inside of his body.
14 seconds have passed, and I’m about 3 seconds away from reaching him. An attack from 5 sides, all while staying on my own schedule, which I never shared with the rest of them. Since when was our teamwork like this? It matters not, I jump towards Tethris, both blades at the ready. His neck is exposed, and at just the right angle. I slice both of my blades, and feel myself fly past him. I turn around to see his headless body slide across the ground. It is done.
I let out a sigh of relief, and sheath my swords.
“Twenty.”
Wait what? Who said that? I hear a shuffling noise, and look back at his body. Hes… getting up? But how? We cut off his head!
He turns to me, and I can see his head is clearly gone. Instead, where the stump of his neck should have been, there was only a red mist. The mist began to rise up, and his head began to slowly re-materialize. After a few seconds, his head had completely regrown, and he started to grin at me.
“Too bad.” He said, “Though I gotta say, I was NOT expecting teamwork like that. You really would have done a number on me, had I been inside of a host.”
So I was right, he WASN’T inside of a host. He had materialized a body using his own power. That would explain a lot, he probably doesn’t have his body set up the same way we do. Hell, he might not even suffer damage from direct attacks.
Then… how do we win?
“What the hell…” Zel mumbled, “You… you knew all along that we couldn’t beat you.”
Tethris looked at him, dumbfounded. “Well DUH you can’t beat me, I’m practically a GOD.”
“Hold up.” He said, “Were… were you guys really trying to kill me just there?”
“Wha…” Zel said, “WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK?! YES WE WERE TRYING TO KILL YOU!”
“But…” Tethris said, “But why would you want to do that? Aren’t we friends?”
“NO!” Zel shouted back, “We’re not friends, we never have been, and we never WILL be.”
Tethris started to frown, and almost looked… sad.
“You,” Zel said, “Are one of the greatest threats our nation, no, our WORLD has ever faced, and we ALL came here to put you down.”
Zel shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t know WHERE you got the idea that we were friends. We’re not. We’re ENEMIES.”
Tethris lowered his head, low enough that his hair covered his eyes.
“You disappoint me, Rhea.”
Tethris slowly looked up, and it was clear something had changed. His eyes were glowing slightly, red veins started glowing inside of his disturbing black sclera, and his expression changed to that of a psychopath.
“And here I thought,” He said, “That I had finally found some humans who WEREN’T afraid of me, or hated me, or wanted to kill me, or considered me a freak.”
“But I guess I was wrong, and now you’ve made me mad.”
He pointed a finger at us. “If you hadn’t been stringing me along all this time, I would have let you all leave here, but now…”
He began to float up into the air. “Now I’m going to have to make all of you suffer.”
He stopped rising at around the 50 foot mark, and he started to lean back while buffing his chest out. What is he doing? It almost looks like hes taking a deep breath. Then I saw it.
Black energy, a kind I didn’t recognize, began to build up around his neck. Is he using a glyph I’ve never seen before? This can’t be good.
Suddenly, he pushed his head forward, with his mouth open. It almost looked like he was shouting, but there was no noise coming from his mouth.
That’s when I heard it.
Screaming, the sound of a thousand voices screaming at the top of their lungs, but multiplied by a thousand. It hurts, it hurts so much. Can’t…. think…. Straight…
Can’t…. keep…. Standing….
What…. To…. Do?
I manage to punch myself in the face. I need to snap out of it and think. What can I do to deal with this? The noise is so loud that I can’t even stand up, and the only movements I seem to be able to do is pushing my hands against my ears. But even that doesn’t help, its still so loud. What the hell kind of glyph is this? I haven’t heard of a glyph that uses sound.
I peek over, and see Meq standing perfectly still. He was staring up at Tethris, as if nothing was happening. How is he dealing with this? Whats his secret?
I notice that hes holding one of his hands up to Tethris, palm open. A small black cloud appears in front of his palm… Annihilation glyph energy? Suddenly, flames start snaking around his arm, and collected inside of the black cloud. The cloud is drowned out by a ball of flames, which suddenly turn pitch black. An incinerate raid? So he had learned to do a complicated raid like that by himself, impressive. Suddenly, a burst of wind shoots out of his palm, forcing the fireball forwards while pushing Meq backwards. Did he just use a thruster raid to accelerate a fireball? Nice trick.
I watch the black fireball fly towards Tethris, expecting him to dodge it. That’s when I notice, his eyes. His eyes are closed. He probably doesn’t know the fireball is coming. Sure enough, it smacks him dead in the face, and his entire head ignites. The sound suddenly shuts off, and all I can hear is ringing. I look back up at Tethris, and notice him flailing in the air, with his cloak now also on fire. His entire body is enveloped in those black flames, capable of burning through anything.
Even if his body was just a manifestation, something like that would have to do SOMETHING to him, right? Suddenly, a column of water shoots out of the ocean, and splashes him. The flames immediately extinguish, but I can see the lasting damage. Most of his cloak had been burned, but I couldn’t tell what was under it from this distance. He was holding his face, and he seemed to be taking deep breaths.
The ringing stopped, and I could hear again.
“Kill you…” He mumbled. “Kill you… Kill you! Kill you!! KILL YOU!!”
He held out his arm, and something appeared in his hand. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it looked like a black ball. Suddenly, the ball started floating straight up. What the hell was that?
“Oh shit…” Meq mumbles behind me.
“What is that thing?” I ask.
“TOV,” Meq shouts, “GRAB JEX. JEX, TENDRIL GRAB EVERYONE ELSE!”
What the hell is he talking about? What is that sphere?
Suddenly I feel it. Weightlessness. I feel so light, almost like I’m flying away. I look down, and notice that I am. Not just me, bits of the ground were breaking off and started floating up. Were we getting sucked in to that thing he threw? Wait… is this one of those Genesis Glyph things Meq made a little while ago?
Suddenly, I feel something wrap around my ankle, and I suddenly stop. I look down at my foot, and notice a black rope wrapped around my right ankle. I follow the rope, and notice that its coming out of Jex’s feet. Jex is currently upside down, being held tightly by Tov, who was still somehow standing on the ground. I guess he’s too heavy for this force to pick up. I notice a bunch of other black tendrils sticking out of Jex’s feet, and follow them to find each one tied to someone elses ankle.
The pull suddenly intensifies, and I can feel the strain of the tendril on my leg. Jex was holding 5 people in place with his shadow, meaning he had to split it into 5 pieces, and fight back against this gravity with each. Theres no way he was having an easy time with this. I can’t see his face under his mask, but Im sure he was struggling to hold on.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Meq fumbling with something. He was also being held by one of Jex’s shadow tendrils, and he was fiddling with one of his gauntlets. Im used to seeing the large metal gauntlets on each of his arms, but his right gauntlet was different. For starters, it was on the outside of his sleeve, rather than the inside. Wait, he had been wearing both of his usual gauntlets earlier, so when did he get this one? The gauntlet was black, and I could tell with my artificial eye that it was bade out of black quartz and black diamond. Wait, is that some sort of large glyph?
He finishes fumbling with it, and a small black ball appears in his hand; its identical to the one Tethris had just thrown up.
“When the gravity stops!” He shouts, but I can barely hear him, “Run to that hole behind Tov and jump in as fast as you can!”
When it stops? I have no idea what hes planning, but I decide to go with it. I watched as the black ball he create was caught by the gravitational pull, and eventually sank into the large cluster of rocks that was forming in the air.
As soon as the ball connected, the gravity immediately stopped, and I dropped back to the ground.  When I landed, I immediately began to sprint towards the hole Meq had mentioned, taking in my surroundings as I did. The large mass of stone that had been collecting around the black sphere was now spinning like a vortex, and a large black mass was pulsing in the center. I saw Tethris looking at it closely, but he couldn’t seem to figure out what Meq had done.
I dove into the hole, which ended up being a lot deeper than I imagined. Everyone else gathered in the hole, and Meq pulled out a small box. He opened the box to reveal that it was filled with glyph chips; barrier glyph chips.
“Take as many as you can use,” he said, “and roid up the barrier Im about to make.”
However, instead of making a barrier, he pulled out a stack of seismic glyphs, and began to latch onto the rocks around the top of the hole. He pulled a large slab of stone out of the wall, and covered the top of the hole. It suddenly got really dark in our hole, but a sudden bright light lit up the room. The light was coming from a stack of barrier glyphs in Meq’s hands, and a black transparent bubble appeared around the group.
I held up the 2 glyph chips I had taken, and started feeding energy to the barrier. The others down here did the same, to the point that the barrier was barely transparent. We held this position for a few seconds, in total silence. This silence was broken by an extremely sudden, very loud noise that I can’t even describe.
Almost immediately following the loud noise was the sound of stone being ground apart, and the stone cover over our cave was suddenly pulled away. An extremely high amount of force struck the barrier on all sides, and it took everything we had just to keep it from breaking. The force passed almost immediately, and was followed by an incredible silence.
Meq dropped the barrier, and I began to look at what had changed. The island which we had been standing on minutes before was gone. In its place was a massive crater, with walls at least 100 feet tall. Some water was leaking in over the top of walls, which meant that we… were 100 feet below sea level. What the hell happened? And what was that?
“Meq…” I said, “Think you could fill us in on WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!”
Meq quickly turned to me, and even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew it was one of shock.
“Did you seriously just show emotions, Vor?” He asked. “Nevermind, not important. What I just did was…”
I held my hand up. “Now that I think about it, fill us in later. He’s still out there, find him.”
I couldn’t see where Tethris had gone, but I could still feel his cold presence.  That blast may have been powerful enough to decimate an island, but it wasn’t enough to kill him.
Suddenly, the cold presence got much… MUCH colder. Where was he? What happened.
That’s when I saw him. He was crawling towards the edge of the crater wall, all the way up top.  He suddenly hit the edge, and tumbled all the way down to the bottom of the crater. But something was wrong. He looked different.
His hair had originally been jet black, but now it was dark grey, and it looked a lot longer. Before, it just hung a few inches off the back of his head, but now it was all the way down his back. His cloak was gone, likely burned by the black flames and blown away by the blast. The skin on his arms and back was… different. It had been a slightly pale complexion before, pretty similar to a Restinian. But now it was pitch black, the same colour as his eyes.
He managed to push his head up, and looked straight at me. His face was, like his skin, now pitch black. The lightning bolt shaped scar over his left eye was still there, only now it was a light grey colour. Additionally, there were dark red burn marks all over the ride side of his face, likely from the black fire. That’s when he opened his eyes. They were still bright red, and glowing slightly. But his black sclera were now a dark red, almost scarlet.
What the hell happened to him?
“You…” He muttered. “You die….”
He managed to push himself up to a sitting position, but seemed completely out of breath. There were still some pieces of fabric left on his chest, but I could see a very distinct yellow glow at around the spot his heart would be. It seemed to be flashing… like a heartbeat.
“You hurt me…” He muttered, “So now you will all die.”
Part 3, Disaster Strikes
===Part 1===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Vor
I redrew my swords, and took up a stance. I’m not sure what he just did, but something about him had seriously changed. The air was much colder, and just standing was making my whole body numb. It was as if static was filling the air.
He managed to push himself to his feet with a bit of difficulty, and glared at us while hunched over. Not only had his appearance changed, but he had gotten taller. He was already pretty tall before, somewhere around 8 feet, but now he was closer to 12 feet. Had he intentionally changed his appearance to intimidate us? No, this was different.
There it was again, that yellow flash under the fabric on his chest. It was a bright flash, bright enough that I would have seen it with his cloak on. Did he just put something there? Is THAT what had given him this new appearance? If so, what could it have been…
I remember! When he first showed up, he had been holding something in his hand. I couldn’t get a clear look at what it was, but there was some sort of energy surrounding it. It was clear that this yellow glow was energy based too, but I couldn’t tell what kind it was with that fabric in the way. If we could just get rid of that…
As if reading my mind; or maybe just throwing a pre-emptive strike, Meq shot forward with his legs once again ablaze. Seriously, what kind of combat style is that? It does NOT sound good for one’s health. Anyway, Meq flew forward and threw a kick at him. However, Tethris just slid to the side to avoid it. I mean he slid, no part of his body moved an inch, he just kind of shifted to the side. Even though Meq had missed, the wind following his strike was enough to blow the fabric away. I got a good look at his chest.
That yellow glow was just over his left pectoral, in the exact spot a human heart would be. It looked like a spherical mass partially sticking out of his chest, with bright orange vein like patterns shooting out of it. Yes, there is indeed energy resonating inside of it, and it seems familiar…
No… no way. It…. It’s identical to the energy that was oozing out of Mahkrokin’s corpse. Does that mean… what he had just put in his chest was…
“You put the Heart of Mahkrokin in your own chest?” I asked, “How crazy are-“
I was interrupted by him suddenly raising his hand up to face me. Yellow cracks began to break out on his palm, and lighting began to crackle under them. I realized what was going on pretty quickly, and moved to the side as a high powered blast of lightning shot past me. The lightning hit the crater wall behind me, and blasted a very large hole. Water began to pour in from the hole in the wall, and our crater slowly began flooding.
“No more talk.” He said in a drab, extremely aggravated voice. “Human die.”
Human die? Had his intelligence dropped or something? I shake my head. Not important right now, focus on his movements.
For now, he seems to be standing perfectly still. It almost looks like hes waiting for one of us to do something. I take this opportunity to start planning my next move.
My old tactic of distracting him with my knowledge of his techniques no longer works, he seems to be able to use glyph magic to a significantly higher degree than before, and crack patterns appear on his body whenever he’s trying to use a glyph. Honestly, I’m not entirely sure what to think at this point. I figured he was just carrying a bunch of glyphs around or something but now… now it’s like he’s holding black energy inside of his body, warping it with other energies inside of his body, and then releasing it through his skin. If that’s the case, just how much energy does he have stored up? And how many glyphs is he capable of using at once?
My typical inquisitive nature has me thinking of less important questions as well. How is he able to even hold black energy in his body? How can he move it around with him when he’s in spirit form? Can he still go spirit form? Has this new power up of his given him new powers, or taken some old ones away?
I need to push these out of my mind for now, they can wait. Focus on him.
It’s been about a minute since he shot that bolt at me, but he hasn’t moved since then. His arm is still stretched out, but the yellow cracks on his palm are gone. The only part of him that’s moved is his eyes. They’ve been going back and forth between us, almost like he was planning who to hit first.
In an instant, he was gone. In that same instant, I hear the sound of metal bending to my left, and I turn to look. About 20 feet to my left, I see him. Standing there, with his hand planted in Haw’s chest. The sound I had heard was his hand smashing through Haw’s chest armour. How had he gotten there so fast? And how was he able to strike with such extreme speed?
Suddenly, the air is filled with a hissing sound. Following the hissing was the sound of metal once again breaking. That’s when I see it, metal shards shooting out of Haw’s back, mixed in with a very destabilized air. I look at Tethris’s hand, and see white cracks stretching out to the back of his hand. Did he just hit Haw with a point blank force glyph so hard it just went right through his body? It seems so.
Other parts of Haw’s armour suddenly starts breaking, including his helmet. Under his helmet, his mask had also suffered from some pretty extreme tearing, and I could just see his face. The look of pure shock, followed by a lot of blood vomiting. Something like that would kill most people, lets hope Haw manages.
The disrupted air shooting out of Haw’s back suddenly stops, and Haw collapses to the ground. Tethris looks down on him, as the ends of his arms begin to turn yellow. Does he plan to finish him off?
I begin rushing towards him, hoping that I can intercept in time. As I run, I see black tendrils wrap around Tethris’s body, and suddenly tighten. This time it was Jex, trying to tie Tethris up with his shadow. Jex suddenly appears behind Tethris, with all 12 of his daggers floating in a circle behind him, aimed at Tethris’s back. This looks like a sure hit.
Naturally, it was not.
The tendrils wrapped around Tethris suddenly snapped, breaking apart into multiple pieces. Jex suddenly collapses, screaming out in pain as his daggers drop to the ground. Tethris takes the opportunity to grab Jex’s head and throw him a bit in front of him. As Jex floated in the air in front of him, Tethris clenched his fist as red cracks began to break out on his hand. His hand caught on fire, and he started to throw a punch towards Jex. Shortly before contact, the punch is intercepted by… Haw’s blade!
Haw was suddenly between the two, keeping Tethris’s fist in check with his sword. However, a weakened Haw blocking a high powered mid-air punch was not enough, and he was suddenly thrown backwards. He crashed into Jex, and the two toppled pretty far back.
Tethris raised his hand towards them, and yellow cracks once again appeared on his hand. However, he suddenly changes direction, and fires a bolt of lightning straight towards me. I’m pretty close to him this time, about 20 feet, so I won’t have time to avoid this strike. Lets hope I can block it!
I hold my swords in front of me, and brace myself for impact. However, a large mass appears in front of me, and the lightning hits that. Tov had jumped in front of me and taken the hit. The impact pushed him back a few feet, but he seemed almost completely unfazed. I shouldn’t be surprised, his armour is only metal on the outside, so its highly resistant to lightning. Apparently its also durable enough to take that hit directly without any real damage. Tov begins charging towards Tethris, with one of his diamond greatswords in each hand. I run up next to Tov, and we charge side by side. Tethris suddenly teleports about 30 feet back, and dark grey cracks appear on one of his hands.
He holds one hand out in Tov’s direction, and the cracks flash. However, it doesn’t seem like they did anything. A second later, he flips his hand up, ending with his index and middle fingers facing up. Tov suddenly shoots into the air, but it was pretty clear he didn’t do it himself. Tethris flips his hand down, with the same two fingers now facing down. Tov is quickly thrown into the ground, creating a small crater.
Must be a magnetic glyph, luckily my armour is made out of a non-magnetic metal. I reach Tethris, and begin to swing both swords at his right elbow. However, he suddenly disappears, but instantly reappears behind me. I look around me as I turn to face him, and notice them. Small collections of black gate energy were scattered all over the area around me, including in the spot Tethris had just appeared. So he had set hundreds of teleport glyphs all around me? Maybe hes no longer able to dodge, so hes resorting to teleporting.
I notice a few of the clouds of energy light up, one by one. I look around, and take note of the order that they light up. 9, 10, 11.
“TWELVE!” I shout.
I do a quick spinning swing with both swords, aimed at the empty spot directly behind me. However instead of hitting an empty spot, my blades meet a glassed sword in Tethris’s hand. Without even reacting, I spin towards the empty spot to my right. Once again, my blades meet Tethris’s. Now to my left. Behind me. To the right. Slightly to the left. Over and over, my blades meet Tethris’s, but he continues to teleport.
After the 12th strike, he suddenly stopped, and began to stare me down.
“You have good eye.” He said, “But not enough.”
Suddenly, all of the pockets around me began to light up one by one. 50….60…90…100… Just how many glyphs can he use? I figured the limit was 6, since that’s how many Meq can use. But it looks like Tethris can use several hundred glyphs simultaneously. Maybe more. Whats worse, theyre lightning up so fast that my eye can’t keep up with the order.
I count to 12, and Tethris once again teleports. I’m anticipating what angle he might come from, but he… isn’t striking. A few times a second, I briefly see him in a random spot in the air, but he suddenly vanishes. Is he teleporting from glyph to glyph multiple times a second? Can a body even handle that many teleports that fast? I suppose his body is different, so I’m not that surprised that he can.
Which angle will he strike from? All he’s doing now is confusing me. Is that his plan? Suddenly, I feel myself getting pulled into the air. I’m not sure whats happening, but Im flying at a 40 degree angle up at a pretty high speed. I look in the direction Im flying, and notice him in the distance. He’s taken up a combat stance, and looks like hes going to swing at me as I fly past. I won’t give him the chance. I also take a stance, as much as I can while getting pulled towards him.
20 feet… 10 feet… I prepare myself as I approach. I swing both swords at him, but I can already tell that both will miss. Meanwhile, he swings at me, and I’m almost certain hes going to hit. Next thing I know, I’ve shot past him, and… he missed. How did he miss? At that angle, theres no way someone like him would miss. Oh well, I’m not going to complain. I see myself approaching the ground at high speed, and prepare to land. I hit the ground… and tumble.
How did I fail that landing? I had made harder landings before. I guess I need to practice more when this is all over. I tumble for a good 20 feet, and land on my back. I look up at him, and see that hes holding something with his other hand. I look more closely… but I can’t tell what it is. It… almost looks like a piece of armour.
He suddenly holds the object up for me to see. Its very clearly a piece of armour, more specifically a leg. But wait… that armour looks awfully familiar… No…
It looks exactly like MY armour.
I slowly look down towards my legs, my heart racing. I see my left leg, its normal, its all good. I turn my gaze to my right leg…
My right leg is gone.
===Part 2===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Vor, obviously.
Everything below the knee, including the knee itself, is gone. All that’s left is a collecting pool of blood. And that’s when the pain hit.
It was excruciating, worse than any pain I had ever felt. I could no longer hear anything; it was all drowned out by ringing. I felt like I was screaming, but I couldn’t tell. After a few seconds, the pain suddenly subsided. My hearing returned, and everything seemed to go back to normal.
I looked back down at my leg, and saw that the wound had closed. It must be the kysteric.
I look over, and see Zel charging towards Tethris. He started yelling, and began to unload arrows with no real rhyme or reason. Tethris easily avoided the arrows with little movement, and punched Zel back when he got close enough. This behavior wasn’t like Zel at all, was he angry? Angry that I had lost my leg?
Even though he was getting knocked back over and over again, Zel continued to charge at Tethris. Why won’t he stop? He’s just wasting energy. I peer to my right, and figure it out.
To my right, Meq has gotten into a strange position: a handstand with his legs hunched into his chest. In front of him, I see Lux jump up on top of his feet, before Meq launches her into the air.
She sails over Tethris’s head, and knocks multiple arrows; arrows oozing black lava energy. She lets the arrows fly, and they explode into a large fountain of lava. Zel suddenly teleports next to me, and the lava fountain rains down on Tethris. I can see his figure wrapped in lava, and he falls on his back.
However, after a few seconds, his figure, still completely soaked in lava, starts to rise back up. Meq suddenly appears above him, and rains down a blast of water. The water hits Tethris, and the lava solidifies into obsidian.
His figure is still clearly visible, though now it looks like a crude, somewhat gelatinous obsidian statue. Something like that probably wont hold him for long, so we need to take action before he gets out. I start to get up, but realize pretty quickly that I can’t with just one leg. Zel puts his hand on my chest.
“You’ve done your part Vor.” He said, “Now let your children handle the rest.”
My children? I thought only Zel and Paxec referred to themselves as my children, but the rest do too?
My attention returns to the obsidian statue, which has begun to glow red. So, hes already trying to melt the obsidian? They need to act fast. As if reading my mind, Tov is suddenly there, charging towards Tethris with one hand already charged with a crash glyph. He jumps over the lava, and his fist lands on Tethris’s chest. A white glow follows the punch, and the statue suddenly shatters. Tethris is launched backwards a few feet, but he regains his footing and slides.
His eyes rise to meet Tov’s.
“Had it..” He mutters. “Had it… Had it! Had it!! IVE HAD IT WITH YOU HUMANS!”
He starts floating up, and stops at the same spot he had released that genesis glyph. Dark orange cracks began to form on his arms, shoulders, neck, and the sides of his face.
“I refuse to play this stupid game anymore!” He shouts, “I’m ending this!”
Storm clouds form in the sky above him with the colour quickly turning dark orange. So, he was going to hit us with a burning sky… This isn’t good. Most of us were too injured to defend, and something of this caliber would be difficult to defend against. Wait… energy is still oozing out of those cracks. The colour of the sky continues to grow darker, until it starts to look like it’s made of fire. The storm clouds begin to swirl, and I can see a LOT of red lightning crackling in it.
Yellow cracks appear on Tethris’s arms, chest, and face. He holds both hands up, and more lightning begins to crackle.
Suddenly, Meq and Lux are at my side, and they begin to put up a barrier around us. I pull out the 2 barrier glyph chips I had taken earlier, and feed whats left of their energy into the barrier. I look out to see how the others are managing. Tov was on one knee, with his fist planted in the ground. His armour looked… bigger, as if he had put on more. Lets hope its enough to handle this.
WAIT, JEX AND HAW! I look over to where they had landed, and notice Jex wrapping himself around Haw. Suddenly, the 2 sink into the ground. So, Jex still had enough left in him to take them both into his shadow eh? Please be enough…
“Enjoy your last moments humans!” Tethris shouts, “Because the God of Disaster is raining judgement!”
Wow, that was terrible. He should really work on his one liners. Not important, I brace myself for impact. He swings both of his arms down, and a massive column of red lightning drops down on us. I cant see anything outside of the barrier with the sheer force of the lightning striking. For now, the barrier seems to be holding, but I’m noticing cracks forming all around. This won’t be enough. Is this it?
I accept my fate, and close my eyes. I get the feeling even my kysteric wont keep me alive after this. There probably wont be anything left to bury. The barrier shatters, and I can feel myself getting launched backwards. Suddenly, I feel the impact of an incredibly durable surface behind me. Wait, what did I hit? And how was I alive?
I open my eyes, and see…. Ships. Varren ships, Akarvian ships, and Dravii’n ships. Hold on, whats happening?
“What the hell was that?” I hear an unfamiliar voice yell. “Holy shit, are you alright?”
I start to look around, and get an idea of where I am. I had crashed into the side of a ship, hard enough to leave a me-shaped crater. A rope suddenly dangles in front of me, and I grab on. I feel myself getting pulled up, and suddenly I’m on the deck of a ship.
“Where the hell did you come from?” The voice asks, “And who are you?”
I look up at the figure, and notice a Varren navyman’s uniform. Hold on, whats happening?
“Vor?” A familiar voice asks, “Where the hell have you been?”
I look over, and notice The Captain walking towards me.
“Holy shit!” He yells, “What the hell happened to your leg?”
I suddenly start to understand what was happening. I had been blasted out of Tethris’s shard dimension. How I ended up above sea level, I don’t know, nor do I really care.
“Not important.” I say back, “But get everyone ready, hes coming back.”
I don’t know what happened to the others, but it was only a matter of time before Tethris came back here.
“Eyes up men!” Another familiar voice shouts, “The threat is coming back!”
I peer over to where the voice was coming from, and notice Fleet Admiral Chrayn standing on the deck. He started walking towards me.
“I won’t ask for unnecessary details,” he said, “But tell us the important stuff.”
I explain everything, from the heart to Tethris’s new power up.
Chrayn shakes his head. “If what you say is true, then we’re gonna need a bigger fleet.”
“Screw the fleets,” I said, “We’re going to need a ke-“
I was interrupted by a sudden loud noise. I can’t really describe it, but I look towards where it came from. Tethris was floating in the air, in the same spot he had originally appeared.
And he looked angry.
==Part 4, Disaster Rises==
===Part 1===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Vor
Tethris’s eyes began to dart wildly at everyone around him. While his sanity hadn’t really been… altogether there before, now it was practically non-existent.
“I can still sense you Vor!” He shouted, “Quit hiding, daddy wants to play.”
Wait, he was only talking to me? Does that mean… everyone else is…
“Don’t give him time to think!” Chrayn shouts behind me, “All forces, fire!”
The air is once again filled with the sound of cannon fire, as a barrage of cannonballs, arrows, and rockets are launched straight at Tethris.
His attention suddenly focuses in on Chrayn. Even from this distance, I could see the insane look on his face.
White cracks begin forming all over his body, from head to toe. He curled up for a few seconds, but let out a loud grunt as he pushed his arms and legs back out. Following the burst was a large sphere of air, which was rapidly expanding. The arrows, cannonballs, and rockets exploded right after hitting the sphere, leaving a large yellow cloud behind.
“Stop getting in my way humans!” He shouted, “This is between me and the runt!”
Suddenly, the cloud began to dissipate, leaving nothing behind. From what I could tell, he hadn’t been affected in the slightest, though he did look angrier. He began to look around again, presumably looking for me. I drug myself over to a stack of crates, and threw myself behind them. While it felt cowardly, there was absolutely no way I was going to be able to fight him with only 1 leg.
“Where are you… Where are you?!” He began to yell, getting louder with each repetition.
What to do… what to do? Next thing I know, Chrayn is standing over me.
“I’m looking to you for ideas, Vor.” He said, “You know more about him than we do.”
I keep thinking of ideas, but nothing I can come up with seems viable. Our anti-nether spirit weapons don’t seem like they’ll work anymore, direct combat is out of the question, and it’s not like we have any super weapons handy. I think all we can do at this point is wait, and maybe a keeper will show up or something. No, that won’t work. Knowing the Overworld keepers, that will never happen.
I look back up at Chrayn, who also seems lost in thought. Suddenly, his eyes shoot open, as if he just got an idea.
“Hold on.” He said, “You said he bonded with a keeper heart, right?”
“Yeah,” I said, “He shoved it in his chest.”
A smile crept along Chrayn’s face. “If that’s true, then we MIGHT just have something to deal with that.”
He looks over and a nearby officer.
“Lieutenant!” He shouts, “Take your squad and bring everything inside of storage dock 9!”
The lieutenant salutes, and runs off.
“What do you have up your sleeve Chrayn?” I ask, “Some sort of super weapon?”
“Super weapon?” He asks, “Hah, if only. No, its no super weapon, but it MIGHT just give us an advantage here.”
As if on cue, the Lieutenant and a few of his men show up, carrying a large contraption and a few boxes.
“Good work Leutenant.” Chrayn says, “Now set it up!”
“Yes sir!” All of the soldiers shout in unison.
They begin to unload the boxes, which are full of what appear to be tanks. I get a quick peek with my artificial eye, and see that they’re all filled with the energy inside of Lapis Lazuli. All of the tanks are hooked up to the central contraption with large tubes, and what appears to be a power cell is attached to the bottom. After a few minutes, the men turn back to us and salute.
“Excellent work!” Chrayn yells, “We’ll take it from here, return to your posts."
“Sir!” They all shout.
Chrayn walks over to the contraption, and begins to inspect it.
“Lapis energy?” I ask, “Just what is this thing?”
“I introduce to you,” he says, “A prototype anti-keeper weapon, currently unnamed.”
Anti-Keeper weapon? Well that would certainly explain the Lapis… Wait, since when did we have anti-keeper tech?
Chrayn flips open a panel on the side, and fiddles around with it. I can’t see what hes doing, but I assume he’s turning the thing on. Almost immediately, the whole thing lights up. I take a good look at the contraption, but can’t tell what it’s supposed to be.
The base is a small pyramid like structure, with tubes from the tanks connected to the sides, and a central pillar sticking out of the top. On top of the pillar is a large metal sphere, with what appears to be holes on the top. It doesn’t look like anything special, certainly not anything that could combat a keeper.
Shortly after lighting up, the sphere on top begins to fold open, revealing the top half to be hollow. The sphere begins to spin, and Lapis energy started pouring out of the sphere. The energy rose up into the air, and began to spread around.
Ah, I think I get it. This isn’t a keeper killing weapon, it just disperses Lapis energy over a large area. Keepers are naturally weakened by Lapis in large quantities, so this object is meant to weaken them enough that we can challenge them with our current weaponry. Smart, but it still left me with some questions. Questions that aren’t important right now, I’ll ask Chrayn later.
“Hold on.” I say, “This thing is built for keepers. Tethris isn’t a keeper. Do you really think just having a keeper heart inside of him will open him up to this tools effect?”
“I honestly can’t say.” He replies, “But its all I’ve got right now. If it helps, awesome. If not, well, we might be in trouble.”
Well that’s… reassuring. I risk a gaze above the crates, trying to find Tethris. He hasn’t moved from his spot, still just looking around. However, his body movements while turning are a bit more intense. So he’s running out of patience. We don’t have much time left then…
Suddenly, he stops moving completely. I can see that the lapis cloud has begun to reach him, but not its not thick enough around him to have much of an effect. Nonetheless, he appears to be affected by it.
After a few seconds of sitting still, he begins to curl up in a ball, and starts shaking.
“Myre…” He mumbles. Even though it was a mumble, I could still hear it from here, somehow.
“Myre….” He says, much louder than the first time.
Why is he saying Myre? I don’t remember reading on the roster that Myre was here. And how would Tethris even know Myre? None of this makes any sense…
“Myre!” He yells. Hold on, his voice is different. It doesn’t sound anything like it did before, but it still seems familiar somehow…
“MYYYREEEEEE!!!!” He screams, and lets out a shockwave of air around him. The lapis cloud is blown away, and several ships begin to rock back and forth.
With the cloud gone, I can now see there is something very different with him. He was originally wrapped in a red mist when viewed with my artificial eye, but now that mist was gone. I couldn’t see any traces of nether spirit essence around him anymore, in fact I couldn’t see any energy of any kind. Just what did that lapis do to him?
His gaze suddenly turns and meets mine. Shit! He spotted me!
“You!” He screams, pointing a finger at me, “You were there! You were with Myre!”
I was what? Hold on, the only time I’ve ever been with Myre was during… the assault on the Void Devourer’s fortress. Was this a different personality? Someone else that had been at the fortress? Maybe a random nether spirit that had watched from the sidelines. That would make sense, Myre was the one that had dealt the killing blow on the Devourer. If this was a spirit that had served the Devourer, then they would likely want revenge.
“Tell me where he is!” He shouts, “Tell me tell me tell me tell me TELL MEEEEE!”
The boxes behind me are suddenly ripped away, and I can feel myself getting pulled towards him. I look up, and see light purple cracks on his outstretched hand, with black gravity energy oozing out of them. So even with a different personality, he can still use all of his powers? Wait, what am I thinking? Hes pulling me in!
Suddenly, Im no longer flying towards him, but moving to the side. I felt someone shove me, and looked over. The Captain was next to me, with his arms stretched out. He smiled at me, and was suddenly gone. I looked back, and saw that he was now getting pulled towards Tethris. Why did he do that? Why did he save a soldier who can no longer fight?
Tethris’s glare intensified. “You weren’t there. I don’t need you.”
He clenched his other fist, and what appeared to be white lightning bolts began to crackle between his fingers. I didn’t recognize them, and I don’t know what type of energy that is. He tucked his fist in towards his chest, and readied himself. Right as The Captain got in range, he smashed his fist into his chest.
“Captain!” I shouted, unable to move.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. It was as if he had done nothing more than punch him in the chest.
Then the air was filled with the sound of glass cracking. All around The Captain, massive crack patterns appeared in the air. It almost looked like a wall of glass had appeared between them, and Tethris had cracked it. However, there was no glass. It was almost like he had cracked the very air. What did he just do?
Suddenly, The Captain exploded into a cloud of red mist. His body had been completely obliterated.
===Part 2===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Vor
What just happened? What the hell just happened!? First everyone seemingly gets obliterated now this? That’s it, no more sitting around. I need a leg, badly.
“What the fuck was that?” Chrayn asks, “Did that son of a bitch just break the air or something?”
I ignore him, and start looking around for anything I can use as a temporary leg. Tethris cut just above the knee, so my maneuverability will be severely limited no matter what I find, so anything sturdy will work. There are a few wooden beams lying around here… no too thin. Maybe a piece of scrap metal? I’m not seeing any. What the hell can I use…
Wait a minute! Regret! My offhand sword, it’s short enough that it just might work! I lay my right leg out, and set Regret next to the stump of my left leg. With the hilt pushing up against the stump, its only slightly too long. But if I move it back a little… there! If I can just bury the handle up to the crossguard, it should be just long enough to act as a substitute leg! Alright, this is going to hurt, but I’ll fight through it.
I pull my torn up mask off, wrap it into a ball, and stick it in my mouth. I brace myself, holding Regret up. I shove the hilt into my leg, hard enough to pierce the flesh, and pain erupts through my body. I try to let out a scream, but the ball of fabric in my mouth is holding it back. After a few seconds, the pain subsides, and the wound in my leg closes up around the hilt. Alright, its in there. Though, I don’t think a closed wound will be enough to hold it in place.
I pull the mask out of my mouth, tear it up a bit, and tie it around the stump of my leg. There, that should help it hold.
“Hold up.” Chrayn says, “Vor, what the fuck are you doing?”
I continue to ignore him, and look for something to hold onto. I find a nearby crate, drag myself over to it, and attempt to stand. I manage to stand on my right leg, and put weight onto my new left leg. Pain once again erupts through my body, but I quickly adjust. I don’t think I could ever get used to standing like this, but it will have to do for now.
I look back up at Tethris, having completely diverted my attention away. He hasn’t moved, and appears to be catching his breath. I guess whatever that technique was, it must have really drained him. If only I had some sort of ranged combat, I could take this opportunity to…
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” A familiar voice screams.
I look around, trying to find the bearer of that voice. And then I see him, a robed figure, flying towards Tethris at high speed… with large black wings. I only know of one person who has any sort of wings. So, Meq made it out after all.
Meq reaches Tethris, and swings a high powered kick towards Tethris’s chest. However, Tethris appears to have recovered enough to block, and easily blocks the blow. Meq wasn’t done, however, as his wings suddenly changed shape into what appeared to be spears; all of which lunged at Tethris. He didn’t even try to block this time, though it doesn’t appear that he needed to. The spears bounced harmlessly off of his skin, as if it were made of metal.
Even then, Meq wasn’t done. He held his left arm out, and what appeared to be black fire appeared in his palm. He slapped his waist, and suddenly his legs were covered in black flames. Tethris started scowling, as if he were in pain. He pushed his arm towards Meq, who was suddenly launched back. I heard the sound of him crashing into one of the ships, but I couldn’t tell which.
Tethris’ attention suddenly turned back on me.
“Tell me…” He muttered, “Myre….”
He started leaning forward, and suddenly he was standing on the railing of the ship I was on.
“Gotta find him…” He muttered, “Gotta kill him…”
Now that he was up close, I could hear his voice more clearly. I thought I had recognized it before, but this now I can confirm it.
He had the same voice as the Void Devourer.
But something was wrong. His personality wasn’t even close to the Void Devourer’s. Was it just a fragment of the Devourer he ate? That would make the most sense… I’ll have to think about this later.
“Where is he?” He asked, “Why won’t you tell me?”
Suddenly, there was a large metal fist planted in his cheek. His face lit up, and suddenly he was gone. The sound of something bit hitting the water followed his disappearance. I look over at the new figure, and recognize him instantly. It was Tov.
So Tov had also survived, good. He looked worse for wear though. Most of his armour was gone, with only one of his gauntlets and one of his shoes remaining. The clothing he wore under his armour was badly torn, and his mask was in tatters in his hair. From what little I could see, his skin had been horribly burned, but not to a life threatening degree. All that mattered was that he too had survived, and made it back here.
He suddenly turned his gaze to me.
“I won’t ask.” He said, “Let’s go.”
A man of few words, as always. I start walking towards him, but I’m having trouble adjusting to walking on this sword. I think to myself “take your time, give yourself the chance to adjust,” but I know that time isn’t something I have. I push myself, and manage to make it next to Tov.
It was clear that Tov wasn’t willing to wait, and suddenly I’m wrapped under his elbow.
“Hold on.” He said.
Not sure what I’m supposed to hold on to, since he’s constricting me arms. The next thing I know, I’m on top of the ship. I take this opportunity to look around for Tethris, as well as any of the other Unknown Soldiers. The first thing I spot is the Akarvian ship Meq had crashed into. He had left a pretty sizable hole in the deck, but I could see him standing on the deck. He appeared to be talking to someone… wait is that Ulles? Wait a minute, shit! Ulles is here too! If Tethris is after me because I was with Myre, he would go after Ulles too! Hold on, is anyone else from the ANRT strike team here?
My train of thought is interrupted by a sudden explosion in the water. One of the Llysian submarines had surfaced, and appeared to be upside down. Standing on top of it was Tethris.
“He who strikes from the shadows,” He says, in yet another different voice, “Shall find the light no longer welcomes them.”
What the hell is he mumbling now? I don’t recognize this voice at all, but it seems he got his nether spirit aura back, to a degree. Did his personality change again? Whoever this was, he seemed to be a really bad poet.
“Even though I march through the valley of the shadow of death,” he says, “I will fear no evil.”
His gaze suddenly turns to me.
“My cup runneth over.” He mutters, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me,”
Suddenly, hes inches in front of me.
“all the days of my life.”
Tov suddenly drops me, and swings his still armoured fist at Tethris. I can see white light emanating from his fist. Wait, when had he charged a crash glyph? He was holding me with that arm!
Tethris raises his hand to meet Tov’s fist, but the white glow suddenly grows brighter and lets out a screech. After a few seconds, the light fades, accompanied by loud crashing noise. I was expecting Tethris to get launched backwards, but he didn’t move. Instead, blood suddenly shoots out of Tov’s arm in multiple spots. He lets out a muffled scream, and collapses to his knees. Tethris places his hand on Tov’s forehead.
“In vain you rise early and stay up late.” He says, “Toiling for food to eat. For he grants sleep to those he loves.”
Tov is suddenly launched backwards, far enough that I couldn’t see the water break where he hit.
“The righteous perish,” he says, “and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.”
His gaze turns to me.
“Those who walk uprightly enter into peace;” he says, “They find rest as they lie in death.”
What the hell is he even talking about? It sounds like hes quoting a book or something. Not important.
I push myself to my feet, and ready myself. I’m so used to fighting with two swords, that I hold my left hand up as if has a blade in hand. This is going to be disorienting, but I can’t back down now.
However, I’m interrupted by the sound of cannon fire. I look down, and see that multiple ships had fired right at my position. I see a glowstone infused cannonball coming straight at me, and prepare myself to jump overboard. However, just before reaching me, something hit the cannonball, causing it to explode. Both Tethris and I are launched sideways into the air from the impact, and suddenly I’m falling. I look down, and quickly calculate that the fall would probably kill me. Wait, I’m kysteric. In that case, it probably won’t kill me. Will probably hurt like a bitch though. I brace myself for impact, but I’m greeted by a soft landing. I look down, and notice that I had landed in a box of pillows.
I look around, and see the faces of multiple soldiers around me. Why there was a box of pillows on deck, I don’t know. But it looked like they had moved it so that I would land in it. Well that’s convenient.
One of the soldiers offers me an arm, which I take. He pulls me out of the box and onto my feet. Well, foot and blade. I nod to the soldier, but turn my attention back to Tethris. He was once again standing on the ship’s railing, and staring right at me. His expression was back to what it had been when he was holding my severed leg.
“What did you do?” He asks, “What did you do to my head?”
===Part 3===
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Vor
What is he talking about? What did “I” do? Does he think I’m the one responsible for his personality swaps?
He suddenly taps his cheek. “It hurts a lot right here, what did you do?”
Hold on, does he not remember? Maybe… Maybe he doesn’t have any memories of events while other personalities are active. Never mind that, what the hell am I supposed to say?
His expression slowly degrades to that of anger; more so the longer I stand silently.
“Stop it.” He mumbled.
Stop what? I can barely keep up with his first question, what the hell does he want me to stop?
“Stop looking at me with that eye!” He yells. “It reeks of that piece of shit that almost killed me!”
What? Wait, is he talking about Silifis? I assume by eye he means my artificial one. Meq and I have suspected ever since Ockthain Krivos’s lab was uncovered that my eye might be one of the original Gazer Lens that had been turned into keeper relics by Silifis. If Tethris claims this eye reeks of Silifis…
“I SAID STOP LOOKING AT ME!” He suddenly screams, and snaps his fingers.
I can see some sort of energy oozing out of the fingers he had just snapped, but I can’t tell what kind it is. Wait… it almost looks like a bunch of dif-
My thought is cut off by the sudden appearance of literal cracks in my vision and incredible pain in my right eye. I fall to my knee and cup my hand over my eye, which causes the pain to go away. I let go of my eye, and try to open it, but everything I see is grey, and constantly moving in weird patterns. The pain returns, and once again I find myself cupping my eye.
I open up my ordinary left eye, and see that everything is… normal. What the hell did he do to my eye?
Most of the soldiers around me took this opportunity to draw their weapons and charge. However, Tethris simply waves his hand, causing all of them to get launched back.
“You humans confuse me.” He mumbled, “I have made it abundantly clear that you can’t beat me. I can see by the looks on your faces that you have realized this. So why, I ask, do you continue to resist? What do you have to gain from attacking me in vain?”
“Because we would rather die fighting you than die like dogs.”
I didn’t recognize this voice, who had said it. Suddenly, Tethris tensed up, and flew straight up as a wave of air cut through the spot he had just been standing. I follow the path of the wave to the source, and see Haw standing there, his blade drawn. Wait, had Haw said that?
“Listen to me!” Haw yells. I realize now that I had never once heard Haw speak, and I was genuinely surprised by the power in his voice. “You can either strike this beast with everything you have! Or you can die in shame!”
Haw suddenly sheathes his sword, and takes up one of his Vexian combat stances. “I, for one, choose to die doing what I can to bring this beast down. Those who aren’t afraid to do the same, strike now! Strike with everything you have!”
This speech is followed with enthusiastic screams from all around me. The screams died down quickly, and were followed with a barrage of everything. There were cannonballs, arrows, rockets, fireballs, what looked like bottles, and even people flying through the air towards Tethris.
“Oh come on.” Tethris yells, “Just give it up already!”
He holds out his hand, and a solid black bubble of… I can no longer tell what material it is without my artificial eye. A bubble of some black material formed around him, and easily absorbed the impact from the barrage. However, in the distance, I could see Meq in the air, with his wings spread wide. He appeared to be holding someone, and suddenly the figure fell. In midair, falling down below Meq, was Haw, who was firmly gripping his still sheathed blade. From this distance, I couldn’t tell, but it almost looked like the scabbard was shaking.
Haw suddenly drew the blade at incredibly high speed and swung it outwards, releasing a wave of air. So, that’s how he had done it. Meq held out one of his hands, and shot a fireball in the direction of the wave. Just before the wave struck the sphere, the fireball hit it, which caused the wave to burst into flames and fly significantly faster. The wave struck the sphere, but still there was no effect. Just what was this sphere made out of?
“Are you done?!” Tethris screamed, but it sounded like there was nothing blocking his voice. “Because I’m coming out of here, and when I’m out, I’m going to be SO FREAKING NETTLED!
As if on cue, the bottom of the sphere suddenly shattered… wait… so did the top? Suddenly, something big hits the deck of my ship not 10 feet away from me, and I’m knocked onto my back. I look up to see Tethris lying on his back, partially broken into the ship’s deck. There appears to be someone standing over him, but with all of the smoke I can’t tell.
“Damnit,” Tethris mumbled, “Who the hell-“
He opens his eyes, and his expression quickly changes to one of pure shock.
“No, it can’t be-,” he mutters, “What are you-“
The figure suddenly pushes him further into the deck of the ship, causing Tethris to grunt loudly. The impact pushed the smoke away, and I finally got a look at this new figure.
He looked human, from what I could tell, but he was pretty tall. I would say somewhere around 8 feet, but he still looked tiny on top of the 15 foot tall Tethris. His skin was somewhat pale, and his long jet black hair hung partially down his back. His eyes are… wait a minute. Now that I think about it, this figure…
He looks EXACTLY like Tethris did during our first meeting, but his eyes were different. Instead of red eyes with black sclera, his eyes were green with blue sclera. Who the hell is this guy?
“Please… don’t” Tethris muttered, “I’m… sorry.”
Wait, what the hell is going on? Does Tethris know this guy?
“You have gone too far this time, Calamity.” The figure said. His voice was deep, but somewhat soothing. The exact opposite of Tethris’s shrill voice. Wait, did he just call him Calamity?
“Brother… please...” Tethris muttered.
Hold on… BROTHER!? Tethris had mentioned having a brother that he hoped to surpass. So this is the being he was talking about?
Suddenly, a strange dark grey material began to slowly spread out of the being’s hand and encased Tethris.
“May you rest now,” The being mumbled, “and return to a state of equilibrium.”
After a few seconds, Tethris’s body was completely encased in this dark grey material. The figure grunted, and pushed down on Tethris’s chest, causing the ground around his body to also become encased.
With this, the figure simply vanished.
==Epilogue==
This part of the story is told from the perspective of Ron Seigfried
Its been just over a month since the battle with Tethris, and so far things have been progressing smoothly. We managed to dig the giant stone tablet containing Tethris out of the deck of the ship, and have buried it in a secure location. We felt it appropriate to bury it deep underground on the island of Myvatel. What better place to be his final resting spot than the place he first destroyed in this war?
At least, we hope it will be his final resting place. He was only encased in a strange stone, we don’t know if hes actually dead or not. We don’t even know if hes capable of breaking himself out, or if someone else can break him out. These thoughts terrify most of us, but all we can do is hope. Hope that he never wakes up.
As for the attack force, we suffered relatively little casualties. A few Akarvian ships took minor damage, with one having that massive hole in the deck Meq made when he crash landed on it. The Llysian sub that Tethris flipped over wasn’t too terribly damaged, and was able to be quickly repaired enough to sail home. Other than that, there were no real noteworthy casualties. Well… aside from The Captain. He was the only recorded fatality.
We Unknown Soldiers, on the other hand, have had a significantly more interesting time. A few of us were given titles by our allies. Titles, isn’t really the right word for it. Perhaps… Epithets. Yes, that will work. Several of us were given new epithets, including myself. Meq was nicknamed “The Firewalker” by those that saw him with his flaming legs. Haw was named “The Last Samurai” by someone who was moved by his speech. Tov was given another epithet, this one being “The Western Titan.”
As for me, a few people began to call me “The Blade of the West.” I’m not sure how I feel about this new title, but it doesn’t really suit me too well. Its also been made abundantly clear that the “great Vor, star of the Varren military,” will have to retire. I don’t really have much of a choice in the matter, I can’t really fight without my leg.
Speaking of that, I managed to get a real prosthesis leg, this one being made of metal. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any joints, so I need a crutch to walk. Oh well, it’s better than having a sword shoved in my leg. I also got an eye patch, since my artificial eye broke. Since its Trikash tech, we don’t understand it enough to fix it, so I had it taken out.
Oh, I also remembered everything right after they took the eye out. Everything about who I was before I became Vor.
But here I am, babbling to myself again. Honestly, I don’t even know why Im writing this down. I’ve never been one to write in a journal. Who knows, maybe Ill get into this.
Well, enough of this shit. This is Captain Ron “Vor” Seigfried, signing out.
==Aftermath==
Tethris's body was placed in a special prison made of glowstone, lapis, and black quartz; and was buried at the bottom of the world beneath the island of Myvatel.
Considering how Tethris was killed by an outside source, Zaescaes decided to divide the reward money up amongst the nations that helped.
While several vessels had taken damage, the only known fatality was The Captain.
With a sudden vacancy as The Captain, now-retired Unknown Soldier Vor stepped forward to take the position.
Shortly after being ejected from Tethris's shard dimension, Unknown Soldier Jex began to vomit massive quantities of blood. He was sent to Dalverad in hopes of the other shade mages there having a solution.
Ulles still refuses to meet Tabarinth Savegaze for tea.
Category:New Voldrania Category:Story