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Herocraft Fan Fiction: Requiem of Heroes

strongholdx

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Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Requiem of Heroes
Table of Contents​

Please
DO NOT POST
Instead Post here

(Chapters in Blue are released, Chapters in Yellow are in being tweaked, Chapters in Red are in progress)​

Chapter 0- Forward
Chapter 1- The Emperor and the Veteran
Chapter 2- The Thief and the Sailor
Chapter 3- The Architects and the Traveler
Chapter 4- The Sniper and the Painter
Chapter 5- Blockades
Chapter 6- Return of Rane
Chapter 7- Bloodliners
Chapter 8- Come and Go
Chapter 9- Tombs and Tunnels
Chapter 10- The Ballad of Cecil Firedrake
Chapter 11- Hellish Discovery
Chapter 12- Answers
Chapter 13- Hunting Parties
Chapter 14- Airships
Chapter 15- Identities Revealed
Chapter 16- The Traveler, the Sniper, the Thief and the Bezerker
Chapter 17- Proctors
Chapter 18- Debriefing
Chapter 19- Stronghold's Legacy
Chapter 20- Stronghold's Requiem
Chapter 21 - Dagith's Requiem
Chapter 22 - Raetec's Discovery
Chapter 23 - Assassins
Chapter 24 - Kristinza's Demise
Chapter 25 - Revelations
Chapter 26 - Return of the Dragon King!
Chapter 27 - Growing pains
Chapter 28 - Flight
Chapter 29 - New Hope, Best Hope, Last Hope, No hope
Chapter 30 - Kings and Queens
Chapter 31 - For Whom the Bell Tolls
Chapter 32 - Dogs of War
Chapter 33 - Counter attack!
Chapter 34 - TBA
Chapter 35 - TBA
Chapter 36 - TBA
Chapter 37 - TBA
Chapter 38 - TBA
Chapter 39 - TBA
Chapter 40 - TBA

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Requiem of Heroes by strongholdx is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license are available by speaking with him directly


-Forward-

This story takes place in the world of Sanctum that we all know and love. It’s set in the future about 10 years from present day the map wipe and 4 years after ‘The Uprising’ which will be explained later. Since then, wars have been fought, lives have been lost, relationships forged, and cities burned. In no way does this story reflect what I may think of a person; it’s FICTIONAL. If you have a problem with something I’ve put down here, that’s too bad. It sounds harsh, but hey if you don’t like it don’t read it!

Things to note: The first few chapters are meant to develop the story and introduce characters, not so much their names but their personalities. This story is geared more toward showing a scene without much technology, computers haven’t been invented (Stuff like that). When the word ‘Navy’ is used, it refers to a fleet of airships unless mentioned otherwise. If you’d like to read a bit more about ‘heroes’ visit Stronghold’s Tomb of Fallen Heroes in Neverast where I’ve described many of them.

‘The Uprising’ mentioned earlier was a series of events where the hero Dagith-Narr the demon master came back from where he resided in the nether and broke a group of highly dangerous criminals out of jail. Dagith killed many and with the help of his newly escaped minions and his demons, only the actions of quick thinking citizens saved most of the world from total annihilation. Thanks for reading, I ask that you DO NOT POST until the story has come to a complete stop, and I hope you enjoy “Requiem of Heroes”

Chapter 1: The Emperor and the Veteran

Txlibra sighed; he was tired, hadn’t showered yet today, and hadn’t eaten for a while. He wasn’t in the best mood to say the least, but knew that none of that was important in comparison to what responsibilities lay before him. Only hours earlier Raetec had almost knocked down his door from pounding on it. Breathing heavily, blood pouring down the side of his face, and his leg in a makeshift splint, Raetec shoved a small note folded in four into Libra’s hand. He whipped around and limped off into the haze of the pouring rains.

Libra had called out to him, but there was no response. Raetec hadn’t even said a word to him. It was incredibly odd, normally he would have sent a courier to give Libra the message, and even if Raetec had decided that whatever was on the note was so important that it had to be delivered in person, he could have handled himself in a fight. Raetec was obviously injured badly but for whatever reason, didn’t stop to rest, it must have been urgent. Libra looked down at the small folded note in his hand; it was speckled with blood and read one word: Kainzo.
Libra had found the nearest courier and had him run to Sanctum to deliver Kain a code black message. Code black required immediate attention; they were only used on rare occasions and if they were used circumstances that didn’t require one, punishments were harsh. It was clear however, that such a message was required.

Now, almost six hours later, Libra was sitting in one of the many Travelers Rest Stops scattered around the world of Sanctum. They had been built long ago by someone of unknown origin for the purpose of sheltering people during the night. Kain used them as secret meeting places where kings and nobles could speak in private with him. It was midnight, the moon at its peak, the rain poured in buckets outside the windows, and two lonely torches danced light across the walls as Libra waited. The door opened and a dark figure cloaked in shadow entered the room.

A flash of lightning illuminated the area outside and inside the house as Kainzo sat down across from Libra. The Emperor of Sanctum was an impressive man, muscles rippled from his arms and chest, his black eyes seemed to pierce the soul, and his voice cut through the sound of the rain.

“Chief.” Libra said acknowledging the Emperor’s presence.

“A code black message eh? It must be important.” Kain said as shook off his cloak

“It is, you heard about Raetec I assume?” Libra said his normally lucid voice blending in with the rain patting against the roof

“His whereabouts are unknown,” Kain said as he shifted his weight in his seat, “Brutal and Doreagarde are out looking for him. Now what is so important you need to tell me now, in the middle of the night?”

Libra slid the note, still folded, across the table and watched as Kain picked it up, unfolded it, and scanned it. It took almost four minutes before Kain was finished, all the while, his expression did not change. When he was done, he cocked an eyebrow.

“This…Is impossible...” Kain scanned the note again.

“What is it?” asked Libra

Kain slid the note to Libra; it was a typical Oracle report. The Oracle was an all-seeing-eye that monitored the actions of citizens, there was nothing unusual about this particular one except the third line which read: #### entered Otoh Gunga. The name of whoever entered Otoh Gunga was blacked out. Neither Kain nor Libra had seen this kind of report line. It referred to someone who didn’t exist or someone that the Oracle couldn’t identify. The thing that made it even odder was that the Oracle would have alerted Kain of such an error so it could be fixed. It had not wardned him, thus telling both of them that the Oracle did not find this type of line out of the ordinary.

“You had no idea?” Libra asked as lightning flashed outside

“Nope, I was never told,” Kain said shifting his eyes about the room, “I’ll bet Raetec knows.”

“Too bad we don’t know where he is.”

“Brutal and Dore will find him, don’t worry” Kain stood up, grabbed his cloak and was out the door. He was a busy man.

Libra sighed again, the questions poured down like the rain, no answers were provided. The tired veteran laid his head against the table. He was exhausted; within moments he had drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep.
 
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strongholdx

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Location
Earth
Chapter 2: The Thief and the Sailor

Carmeops chuckled to himself with glee, another town, all for the taking. He stood on a cliff overlooking a small town. He waited till the rain had cooled him off, and then leaped. With a splash he hit the pond at the bottom in an expert diving form. He climbed out of the water and crept toward the walls without his feet making a sound in the mud.

The cunning rogue clutched a dagger in his hand ready to use it, he didn’t enjoy killing but he didn’t mind it. He loved to steal things, and breaking a few necks wouldn’t stop him. He came to the town gate, it was closed and there was a guard standing by. The guard was fat and out of shape, the gate was not going to be a problem.

Carmeops threw a knife into the guard’s neck, blood sprayed as he fell clutching the knife that blocked his screams from echoing out in the night. Carm unsheathed his sword and jammed it into the gate; he twisted and pulled up. The gate shook, and with a little effort began to slowly open. Carm scrambled under the opening. He was in.

Cackling he moved to the nearest house. This one was too easy; the sound of moving water told him that there was an open underwater entrance. A pond next to the house was the only water around; he slid in and swam down. Sure enough there was a small door that he squeezed through and fell out onto the floor.

He was in a small, dark room; there was light emitting from a doorway. Carm slowly opened the door to discover a flight of stairs. He moved without a sound up to the next floor where he could see where the light was coming from. Someone was reading late at night from the light of their fireplace. They were sitting in a high backed chair and were faced away from him; Carm crept toward the person ready to knock them unconscious. When he reached the chair his hand shot around the chair aiming for his victim’s jugular vein. Instead, his hand met wool.

There was a sharp whoosh of air and something hard landed on him and pushed him to the ground. In moments the building was swarming with people, more exactly, police. Carm scrambled to get up but was beat back down to the ground, in moments his vision went black.

* * * *​

“Patsfan! Open up!” the voice rang clearly through the night despite thunder clashing in the heavens above and the rapid pounding of the door.

Patsfan groaned and rolled out of bed. He put on a shirt and stumbled around his dark room. Eventually he found a candle and lit it. The knocking on his door continued. Patsfan opened his door, he wasn’t happy. It was past midnight and he should be sleeping, not answering his damn door. General Ruethian stood outside wrapped in a dark blue cloak that made him shimmer against the night background. They stood there in a moment of silence.

“Can I help you?” asked Patsfan

“Skyport, now.” The General said as he turned away and began walking.
Patsfan grabbed his coat and followed Ruethian down the streets. There was an unusual amount of people awake, something must have happened. They reached the gate, it was open. Patsfan’s suspicions were confirmed, something happened, something important.

“What’s going on Rue?” Asked Patsfan as the wind picked up and began to howl.

“We got him. Knew the bastard was coming, we set him up, and we got him.” Ruethian yelled over the roaring winds

“Who?”

“Carmeops”

Both men trudged up the mountain to the Skydock where the Seagate navy was docked outside of Fiore. When they reached the top they jumped aboard the SAS Legionnaire. They entered Ruethian’s cabin and without a word climbed down into the brig. Carmeops sat in the second cell on the right with his arms crossed. He was scarred, bruised, and bleeding; he had defiantly put up a fight.

Patsfan frowned, “Why isn’t he dead? This man has a 15,000c bounty on his head.”

“Well,” said Ruethian flexing his arm, “I figured we could use him”

“Use him? How so?”

“Remember that thingamajig Hyperblock gave you.”

“The collar?” Patsfan asked raising an eyebrow

“Yeah, the thing that zaps people with the remote…you know.” Ruethian replied

“Yeah I got it, you want to use it on HIM? It’s experimental”

“If he dies, we get the money, if he lives, we get his service. It’s a win-win

Patsfan frowned again. Hyperblock was an old inventor in Sanctum; Hyper had given Patsfan a collar that was designed to control a person through pain. By wrapping it around their neck and pressing a button on the remote that was included with the collar, two diamond receptacles would send signals to Redstone wiring that would deliver a nasty shock to the wearer. Problem was that the collar was experimental and highly susceptible to random explosions.

“Has he said anything yet?” asked Patsfan

“Not a word,” replied Ruethian, “He wouldn’t even walk; we had to drag him here, literally.”

Patsfan turned his attention to Carmeops “Hi there”

Carmeops stared at Pastfan with an inferno of hatred burning in his eyes. He said nothing.

“I suppose we could just starve him for a bit, it would make him more willing to do our dirty work.”

Ruethian laughed, “Will you get the collar?”

“Sure, why not.” Sighed Patsfan as he climbed back up the ladder to Rue’s cabin.

Rue followed, leaving Carmeops in the loneliness of the ship’s brig. The thief was already planning his escape, it would be tough, but he’d do it, he always did.
 

strongholdx

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Location
Earth
Chapter 3: The Architects and the Traveler

Bearcat scratched his head as he watched Kamicosmic scramble across the scaffolding lining IFF: Gladimus. The half built airship was massive; it cast a shadow almost three fourths the size of the city of Sanctum.​

Currently Bearcat and Kami were trying to fix a splinter in the hull. A bolt of lightning had struck the hull the night before and put a nasty crack in it. The problem was that the crack was on an almost inaccessible part of the hull, so Kami, being the more acrobatic, was making a death defying spectacle by crawling up the Gladimus from the underside.

Bearcat, who was the stouter one, stared in horror as Kami slipped and fell, grabbed a hand hold and continued to climb calmly with ease. Kami reached the hull without another incident and began to patch the ship with wood by removing the damaged planks and replacing them with new ones. Bearcat turned his attention to his furnace. It wasn’t a normal furnace, in fact, it was about eight times bigger than a normal one, and it was used for making iron docking clamps.

The expert smith removed the deformed, molten, iron clamp from the furnace with a pair of giant tongs. Then, he began pounding away to form the rest of the clamp; it would be his last one today. After a few minutes he finished the clamp, Kami had returned and was inside the ship adding onto the hull’s interior. Bearcat wiped his brow; the sun was high in the sky and had dried up most of the water from the previous night’s storm.

With a snap and a pop Kainzo was standing in front of Bearcat who almost jumped out of his skin.

“Holy shit Kain, you almost scared me to death!”

Kain chuckled and patted Bearcat on the back, “Sorry, but it’s important. Have you seen or heard from Raetec recently?”

“Raetec…nope, last I talked with him was about a month ago, why what’s he been up to?” Bearcat replied

“Well, he’s needed in an investigation, and we have no idea where he is.” Kainzo said looking past the Gladimus scanning the forests below,” I’m trying to find the people who spoke with him last, right now it’s just Txlibra.”

Bearcat shrugged, “Sorry, I haven’t seen him.”

Kain nodded and gestured toward the massive airship behind them, “When’s this thing going to be operational?”

“About three weeks, maybe less. If we have any more lightning strikes, it’ll be much, much longer”

Kain nodded and without another moment was gone. Bearcat sighed and prepared to get back to work, and then something caught his eye. Far below in the forests underneath the Gladimus, there was something red sparkling and flashing in the shadow of the mountain. The light danced in its place for several minutes and then went out. The stout little smith shrugged and turned back to his work.

* * * *​

Had Kain arrived only a few minutes earlier, he would have seen that dancing red light and things would have gone differently. While Kain was up on the cliffs by the Gladimus, a lone wanderer named Xatxil was trudging through the forests below , he was trying to make it to Artemis by sundown, and he was falling behind schedule.

The slender man jumped into a steady trot as he made his way through the forest. Suddenly he heard the crunch of dry leaves, it had rained the night before, and that noise only meant one thing. ‘SSSSssss’ Xatxil broke into a full spring as the Creeper plodded behind him hissing and crunching its way along. Trees blurred in his vision as Xat ran for his life, creepers were dangerous, and with nothing to protect himself, he could only run.
Then everything was quiet, the creeper was far behind and Xat was lost. Another rustle from the underbrush, Xat prepared to run. Instead of a creeper, a dog emerged; it looked at him with big eyes. Chuckling, the traveler threw the dog a bone from his knapsack, which the dog grabbed and happily gnawed on. Grateful the dog rubbed up against his leg and wagged its tail. Xatxil continued on with the dog trotting behind him, happy with his new found friend.

After a few minutes Xat found his original trail and continued on, but this time he felt another presence nearby. Telling his dog to sit, he scrambled up the nearest tree and waited. After a few minutes a man came stumbling along, he was leaning over clutching his stomach, limping, and pathetically trying to jog. He looked like he could barely stay conscious, judging that he probably needed help, Xatxil slid down the tree and approached the man.

‘Hey, you all right?” He called

The man, suddenly alerted of his presence, whipped out his sword and stood swaying back and forth, fire burning in his eyes, “Stay away from me you…you son of…you’re gonna, no, you’re one of them…I don’t even. How are, who?”

Xatxil recognized the man’s face, and how he was way out here was beyond him, “Raetec, it’s me Xatxil, remember me? I stayed with you for three months while studying Redstone circuits, remember?”

Raetec shook his sword, “No, you can’t trick me, you’re a…uh…NO, NO YOU’RE NOT!!”

Xatxil opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Raetec collapsed. Xat ran over and flipped Raetec on his back. He smelled like he hadn’t showed for days (He hadn’t), he had dried blood all over his head, his leg was swollen and clearly broken. All together Raetec looked like a mess, a big, bloody mess. Xat lightly slapped him with the back of his hand until, he woke back up. This time Raetec had lost the fire in his eyes and looked around dumbly, his mouth opened and closed several times.

Xat dragged the still barely conscious moderator to the nearest tree and propped him up against it. Then he scaled the tree with ease and brought out an emergency flare from his backpack. He lit it and set it in the heights of the tree as is began to sparkle and dance in its red light. Sliding back down, Xatxil took a loaf of bread and gave it to Raetec who greedily wolfed it down; then the exhausted moderator took the bucket of water offered to him and drank deeply till his thirst was quenched.

Next, Xatxil took out a blanket from his knapsack and gave it to Raetec, who curled up into a ball with it and fell asleep within seconds. Xatxil sat back against the tree with his new found canine friend and waited for someone to come by.

It didn’t take long, Brutal and Doreagarde were on the scene in about a half hour. When they came into view, Xatxil stood and waved, then showed that he was unarmed. Dore jogged over to Raetec and began checking his pulse. Brutal came over to Xatxil.

“Did you set that emergency flare?” Brutal asked, his deep voice cutting the silence

“Sure did, I found Raetec almost crazy from blood loss and starvation” Xat responded

“Thanks for setting it, we may not have found him, did he say anything to you?”

“He seemed to think I was someone else, I think he was hallucinating.”

Brutal nodded in thanks and moved over to Dore who was prepping Reatec for medical transportation. In a puff of smoke they were gone. The dog, which had been patiently waiting the entire time, barked then got up and moved over to where Raetec had been sitting lying in the grass was a key made of diamond. Petting the dog, Xatxil picked the key up and continued on his path toward Artemis.

A pair of eyes watched him from the underbrush; they didn’t see what the traveler had picked up but they knew he had something. The eyes followed Xatxil out of sight, a choice had to be made, follow the man with the dog or continue after Raetec, one of them had the key. The eyes made their decision and moved on its path.






Chapter 4: The sniper and the Painter

Steamed waited without moving, looking down his scope. He was a sniper, it’s what he did. Fact was, he was the only sniper, and he was good at it. He sat atop Spawn Tower in Sanctum waiting for his prey; his prey that he knew would soon be dead. Steamed had been hired to contract kill a rouge informant codename Shade. He had a nasty habit of giving false Intel, today would be Shade’s last day alive.

Killing in Sanctum wall illegal and would land Steamed in a lot of trouble, if he was caught. Being caught wasn’t part of the plan, and Steamed always had a plan. Shade came into view, he was walking through an alleyway on the way to a deal, and it was a bad angle. If Shade were killed before the deal, someone would notice him missing and probably panic, if he were to die after the deal; there would be less of a chance of someone drawing attention to the body. Steam kept waiting.

Through the scope, Shade stopped at a lamp post and dropped off a small briefcase, then continued walking, the deal was done. Shade quickly disappeared into an alleyway and started moving away from the briefcase. Moving right toward Steamed. One trigger pull later shade was on the ground, blood pooling from the hole in his head, the job was done and Steam was gone.

Only minutes later the sniper was back at home cleaning his rifle. It had taken a lot of iron and a lot more Redstone to come up with it. The exact specifications were too confusing for Steam to get a grasp on, but all he knew was that it was a totally suppressed weapon that could kill a man from up to 600 yards away by firing small metal balls.

Steamed mused over the death of Shade, it was too easy, and he had been paid too much, something didn’t seem right about it. He shrugged and put down the rifle. Pulling out an iron bar, he inserted it into a furnace, waited until it was soft and molten, and molded it into several of the deadly iron balls for his rifle. There was a knock on his door, he removed the bar and walked back to his rifle, there was another knock; Steamed set down the bullets and opened the door.

Apherdite was smiling, she didn’t even need to say anything for Steam had whipped around and taken off up the stairs and out the upstairs window into the alleyway behind the house. Aph sighed and leaped…over the house. She landed in front of the running sniper who breezed past her and ran out into the open streets. The chase was on, Steam running like a horse through crowds and past houses with Apherdite close behind. Steamed managed to duck into a house located in the crowded Market District.

Aph scanned the area, the sniper was somewhere, and close too, she could practically smell him. The crowd flowed around her like a river as she identified each face around her. Suddenly, a movement, on the roofs, the sniper wasn’t away yet, she jumped again.

Steamed’s legs burned as he leaped from house to house, he was going to be safe any moment. The roof he was on shook and he was thrown off balance as his pursuer landed with tremendous force. He stood back up right as the roof collapsed and sent both of them plummeting into the structure below. Momentarily stunned, Steamed gasped for air as the empress swung at him, he dodged it and took off, flinging himself out a window into the next house.

The terrified sniper jumped over the stair guardrail down to the first floor. In moments he was back on the street, back in the crowds. Steam pushed through the crowd Aph hard on his heels. In a sudden scream of anger his pursuer jumped in the air one last time, and Steamed knew he was doomed. Apherdite’s shadow descended on him like a hawk, and with terrifyingly loud ‘thud’ slammed him into the ground.

“Steamed you’re under arrest for murder inside Sanctum rings and attempting to evade Sanctum police” The empress yelled as she bound his hands. However, Steamed was unconscious before he had hit the ground…

* * * *​
Xatxil hummed to himself as he walked with his canine friend into Artemis. He had taken time to examine the key he had recovered, it was made of pure diamond and had a leather lanyard attached to it as if it were to be hung from something. The key had been intricately carved with some sort of design, perhaps an ancient language, or holy design; either way the traveler could not tell, though he knew someone who might.

The key twirled on Xat’s finger as he made his way through Artemis’s winding streets to a destination he knew well. The houses began to get smaller and less congested as he made his way to the city’s outskirts opposite from where he entered. Outside a humble, yet masterly crafted, house sat Shenorai, she was painting like always. His presence unknown, Xatxil tiptoed up behind his old friend.

“Boo”

Shenorai didn’t move, “Are you dumb as you are loud?” She joked
Xat slapped his forehead in anger and stomped his foot, “Every time!”

Shen giggled as she put down her paintbrush and embraced Xatxil in a hug, “How are you?” She asked

“I’m good, tired like always, and hungry,” Xat started, “A little groggy, did I mention I’m hungry, you know what I could go for right now? A taco, and speaking of tacos-“

Shen punched him in the arm “You sir, need to talk less and think more.”

Xat laughed “Hey I got something for you to look at,” he pulled out the key and held it in front of Shenorai, “See this? I have no idea what it is or what it does, I was hoping you might.”

“Well,” Said Shen, “It probably unlocks or opens something…”

“Really?” Said Xat sarcastically “I hadn’t noticed, now that you mention it, it kinda looks like a key. Yeah! A key.”

“Oh shut up,” Shen punched him in the arm again, “bring it inside and we can look at it closer”

The two moved into the house, it was crafted from pine wood and showed signs of masterful skill, time, and effort put into it. Xat found himself in a kitchen like area, Shen had already sat down and was looking over the key with a magnify glass.

“This is incredible, I’ve never seen designs of this size so well done, this can be naturally formed, but it’s surely not man made.” The artist said in amazement

“Do you know what those designs mean? What it does?” Xat questioned

“I can’t tell you what it opens, but I’m sure I can find out what these designs mean, they look similar to an old written dialect used by guilds about 130 years ago.” Shen put the key down and moved over to a bookshelf nearby.

Xat picked up the key as Shen paged through books, for the first time he noticed something about the key, it glowed. It was darker in the house than outside, and the key was giving off a dim light that was rather pleasing to the eye. Xat found himself staring at the key for no real reason.

“Oh wow,” Said Shen as she moved back over to the table, “It looks like this language was known as ‘Deamon Speak’ referring to demons, now extinct, tamed by Dagith-Narr the legendary hero.”

“Interesting…” Said Xat

“That’s not the half of it,” Said Shen, “This is the only dialect used by the bloodline cult, who we both know, were lead by HolyRane. Better yet, before he was imprisoned he said he had a treasure hidden somewhere in the world that would grant whoever found it infinite power. No one has found it.”

“You think this could be it?”

“I doubt it, but there’s only one way to find out…”
 

strongholdx

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Location
Earth
Chapter 5: Blockades

“This can’t be good.” said Ruethian as he watched the ORE navy sail into view from the deck of the Legionnaire.

“What are they doing here?” asked Patsfan who was standing next to him

A sailor ran up to both of them, “Sir! ORE forces spotted on the ground and in the air!”

Ruethain groaned as looked over the rails, sure enough ORE soldiers were marching for Fiore.

The general spat of the side and turned to the sailor, “Send out the word to arm cannons and prepare the engines. This could get ugly.” The sailor ran off, Rue turned to Patsfan, “Put double guards on Carmeops, if they get a whiff of him, things WILL get ugly.”
Rue moved up to the wheel room, disengaged the docking clamps and pulled away from the docks. He steered the flagship toward the fleet looming on the horizon. Minutes passed as the ships grew larger until he could see men moving on the docks. He handed the wheel off to a navigator and instructed him to line up next to ORE’s flagship. Then he moved down onto the decks and waited till the ships were side by side.

Once both ships came to a complete stop, Ruethian yelled, “Permission to come aboard?”

“Name, rank and affiliation” yelled a voice from the other ship

“General Ruethian of the Seagate Navy”

There was a pause, “come aboard” A gangplank slid out of the ORE ship to the legionnaire, Rue walked across. On the other side, Alexdaparrot was waiting for him.

“General Ruethian, what a surprise to find you so out of the way.”

“We’re on a private contract.” Ruethian responded

Alex laughed, “Well plan for an extended visit, by order of Greekcrackshot, no one leaves or enters the area around Fiore without my permission. That includes ships.”

“Surely we can come to a compromise,” said Ruethian, “We are in no way affiliated with KOE.”

“Sorry general, dock your ship and wait until we’re finished here”
“How long will that be?”

Alex thought for a second, “Not sure, days, weeks, months, it all depends on whether Fiore is willing to cooperate.”

Rue groaned “I’m sure they won’t, but what did they do to get ORE’s foot up their ass?”

“I’m not at liberty to discuss that information. Now please go back to port and dock your ship.”

Rue nodded and moved back onto his ship. He maneuvered it through the ORE fleet with ease and back to the docks. When the docking clamps took hold of the ship, he called a meeting with his captains. Minutes later nine captains were sitting in the briefing room of the battleship SAS Punishment.

“Gentlemen, we have a problem,” Rue addressed his captains, “We have high value cargo on board and an ORE blockade refusing to let us out.”

“Isn’t that against the Seagate/ORE treaty?” asked a captain

“No,” said Rue, “The treaty says that if we are in the premises of a blockaded city we have to comply with ORE. However they cannot board our ships. They can arrest our men if they cause trouble within the city streets as well.”

“Should we cancel shore leave?” someone asked

“It’s already been canceled,” said Patsfan, “We want to avoid any conflict.”

“Our only problem,” Rue explained, “is that if they have reason to believe that we have illegal cargo, or are attempting to aid the blockaded city, they may confiscate said cargo. And I know that if they find out we have Carmeops on board, they’ll come up with some bullshit reason to take him off our hands.”

A captain perked up, “Should we make a break for it?”

“I’m considering it, but that could go badly if we’re not prepared.” Said Rue.

“I vote no.” said Patsfan

A bustle of conversation started amongst the captains as they argued amongst themselves on what actions they should take. Rue pounded on the table with his fist.

“We’re not going to run; we will however deny them access to our ships. End of discussion. You are all dismissed.”

The captains mumbled amongst themselves as they got and left the table, Patsfan stayed behind, “are you sure that’s the right decision?”

“No, but it’ll have to do”

“Alright, I’m going back to the SAS Sackaney, give me a shout if you need me.” Patsfan said as he ducked out the door

Rue stayed in his seat drumming on the table with his fingers, things would be calm for a little while, but he knew things would go bad, they always did. Human history had always been blood, shed in wars that fell into three categories: over government, religion, and recourses. Rue had fought many wars, lost some of them and won the others, he wasn’t new to battle but he didn’t like it; he fought so that one day, whether it be in his lifetime or not, there would be no wars, no fighting, and everyone could be happy

The more he thought about it the less it seemed possible. He decided to forget it for the moment, thinking about something never got it done, doing something would though, and that’s just what he planned to do.
 

strongholdx

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Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 6: Return of Rane

There was almost no light; the cell was dark, damp, and unwelcoming. Steamed hated jail cells. He vaguely remembered being dragged through the streets and a lot of blurred speaking; now he was sitting in a cell with a nasty headache. Visions swam through his head, the empress running after him, the crosshair on Shade’s head, and his finger on the trigger. Steam faded in and out of consciousness for what seemed like days, but they felt like minutes, he couldn’t tell.

Then he was awake, lying on the small cot in the corner of the cell; he was gasping for breath. Still no light, no hope, Steam punched the wall, it hurt. The cell was made of bedrock, and he knew all too well where it was: 2 kilometers underground. Realizing that there would be no escape, a single tear rolled down from the sniper’s eye and dripped onto the floor.

The sun was beginning to set as Xat and Shen reached Sanctum, they had traveled with haste via mine cart to the capital city where the Cells of Banishment were. The cells were a place where criminals were held. They were held there till they died, as punishment for their crimes. They reached the gates of the compound, there were guards everywhere. Shen approached a guard manning the gate controls.

“I need to speak with the warden.”

“And just who do you think you are little missy?” asked the guard.

“Shenorai of Newerth now let me in.” She replied, she didn’t seem to like the guard

“Hmmm, Newerth, I think I’ll have to check and see if the Warden is busy, now just wait here.” The guard said. He didn’t move

“Well?” asked Shen

“Well what?” he said

“Aren’t you going to go get him?”

“Oh yeah, I’ll get him. Sometime, not sure when it’ll be but-“

“Rat, what the hell are you doing?” boomed a voice, interrupting the wise crack guard

“Uhhh, letting them through, sir, sorry sir.” The guard stuttered as he opened the gate

Xat and Shen walked through the gate into the compound containing the Cells of Banishment. Inside the ground was dirt, the buildings grey, and guards were everywhere. The warden stood waiting for them.

“We’ve been expecting you” He said

“You have?” Asked Xatxil

“Not you,” said the warden, “her.” He motioned to Shenorai

“Me?” Shen asked

“Yes you,” The warden replied, “to bail out Steamed I assume.”

“Steamed is here?” Shenorai said in astonishment

“Yes mama, he was arrested by Apherdite earlier today.”

“I came here to speak with HolyRane-“ Shen started. Every guard in the compound tensed at the sound of the name, “I guess I’ve gotta talk with Steam too then.”

“Scuse me mama,” The warden almost stuttered, “Rane? He’s under maximum lockdown since the uprising.”

“So?” Asked Xatxil and Sehn simultaneously

“Didn’t you see what he did out there?” The warden questioned, “We don’t know that his powers are gone yet.”

“Powers?” What powers?” Asked Xatxil

“He had a nasty habit of being able to shoot lightning from his hands; he burnt down an orphanage with it.”

“I think we can handle it” Shen said confidently

“Alright,” Said the warden, “follow me.”

The three walked through the compound to the central building, it was long, almost a kilometer, and its only entrance was two lonely doors at the front of building. Guards opened the doors and the three stepped inside. The interior was no different from the exterior, grey walls, bleak, dirty, and sad.

The warden stepped into the only room in the building, a small control room, “Go the end of the hallway, I’ll bring up the cell” he said

Shen and Xat walked down the corridor as the warden pulled the lever, hidden gears began to shift and turn, movements could be heard behind the walls, and the wall at the end of the hallway began to move away revealing bars of bedrock, the world’s hardest material. The sound of gears continued as a cell was raised up to ground level behind the bars. There was a single figure sitting on the bed on the far side of the room, he was looking at the ground.

“Xatxil I presume.” Said Rane

The traveler said nothing, Shenorai did, “Rane, what is this?” she held up the key

Without looking at her, Rane replied, “It’s a key.”

“No shit, what does it do?” Xatxil said

“How should I know?” Rane asked

“These inscriptions Rane, they’re Deamon speak, Bloodline used them remember?” Shen said

“Ah good,” Rane still hadn’t taken his eyes off the ground, “I knew someone would figure it out.”

“Figure what out?” asked Xatxil

Rane chuckled and looked at them; his face was a twisted mess of scars and burns, one eye was white, totally blind, now the two could tell he was truly insane. Last time Rane had been seen publicly he didn’t look like this, these wounds had been self inflicted. He got off the bed and hobbled over to the bars.

“That my friend is for me to know, and you to find out!” With a maniacal laugh Rane seemed to fade out of existence till the cell was empty, leaving Shen and Xat stunned.

The warden ran up behind them, he wasn’t happy. He looked blankly at the cell, “DagothAgahnim!!!”

With a flash Dagoth was standing in front of them, he donned black robes that covered all parts of his body except two raven-like wings that gave him an awesome presence of sheer power, “What?” His voice hissed

“This cell! That’s what!” Cried the warden

“It’s been empty for almost four days, what about it?”

“You mean Rane has been gone for four fricken days?” The warden was yelling now

“Rane was in here? That’s not good, put this compound on lockdown, no one gets in or our without Kainzo or my permissions”
Dagoth sprinted down the hallway and out the door, he jumped and spread his wings. He caught an updraft and flew out of sight.

“NEO!” Screamed the warden

Neo_Exdeath was standing behind them before the word had been finished; he was reminiscent of Dagoth with the only exception being that his wings were skeletal. He never spoke, instead Xatxil felt the thoughts seeping through his mind, “What is it warden?”

“I need this place locked dow-“

“Done” Said Neo as the gates outside slammed and a strange humming filled the air, “anything else?”

“Neo,” Said Shen, “Me Xat and Steamed need out of here.”

“Steamed? I don’t see him.” The deathly figure’s thoughts leaked into their minds

“He’s in a cell somewhere, I’m bailing him out.” Shen explained

“That’s 2000c, and he’ll be on probation for a year.”

“Done,” Shen said bringing the money from a small pouch, “Where can I pick him up?”

“Follow me” The winged figure thought and began to walk down the hallway toward the doors.
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 7: Bloodliners

GreyP felt the presence before he saw it, and it was close. Grey hefted his axe as he climbed the nearest tree. At 7 feet tall and 285 lbs, Grey was hard to hide, but he knew how to do it, and he did it well. He wrapped his wolf skin cloak around his muscled body and waited.

He had lost his target earlier in the day – even wounded, Raetec had been hard to track, and now he didn’t even know who had the key, if the traveler took it, he might have sold it; even worse, if Raetec had it, he could have given it to Kainzo. A figure appeared through the foliage, he was alone, easy prey. Grey jumped down from the tree landing in front of his victim with his axe at the ready.

“Grey?” asked Rane

“Rane? What are you doing here? How did you escape?” questioned Grey, surprise evident in his voice

“You’re the last person I expected to see out here,” said Rane. Grey noted his words were slightly slurred.

“Same here, how did you get out?” Grey asked again

“That’s not important right now; I need a place to hide!” Rane said checking over his shoulder, his bad eye rolling into the back of his head.

“That won’t be a problem,” said Grey, “I’m employed to Otoh Gunga now, they’ll harbor you.”

“Alright, let’s get out of here. Lead the way.”

Grey took off at a trot in the direction of Otoh Gunga. It would take a good portion of the day, but that didn’t really bother him. He was glad to have his old leader back, but the circumstances of his return were odd. Rane would have done something lavish and extravagant, not stumble through the forest looking for shelter. Something wasn’t right, he couldn’t put his finger on it but Rane seemed different, aside from the scars and one blind eye, he seemed sane, almost.

The road to Otoh Gunga was a long one, secluded by trees and foliage, it gave a forbidding appearance. Few ever went down it, at least not those who knew where it went. There was no sign giving directions, no signs of recent travel, in fact the path was almost indistinguishable from the rest of the landscape, and purposely so. Grey lead Rane down the path with haste, time was of essence; Kain had almost certainly discovered his escape by now. Soon, the city came into view. Hidden away in a small valley, the gears of evil churned. The grass had been burnt away in all except the fields where slaves toiled day in and day out. Small huts surrounded the city’s walls of cascading water. Inside the water glass tunnels snaked around each other weaving in and out, the city was literally twisted.

“I could get used to this place.” Rane said with a smile
Grey laughed as the gates opened for them, Weynard was waiting for them.

“Grey,” he said, “Who’s your friend.”

Rane moved from behind Grey and was face to face with Weynard

“Master?” asked the leader of Otoh Gunga

“It’s me” Rane smirked

“Grey, you will be rewarded, report to the main hall.” Weynard said

Grey nodded and moved off. Something was defiantly not right; Rane and Weynard had never met before. Even if they had, Rane certainly wasn’t his master. As he trotted up the stairs to the main hall, he noticed Rane point at him as he was speaking to Weynard. Grey decided it would benefit him to watch his back for a while.

* * * *​
Jorict fidgeted, something didn’t feel right. He was sweating, but it wasn’t too hot out, his vision was swimming and his heart pounding like crazy, maybe he was sick. He walked over to his parole officer who was watching him sweep streets for community service.

“Sir I think I’m sick. I feel like I’m going to pass out.”
The officer looked at him, “You don’t look too good, go home and get some rest, I don’t want to drag your unconscious body back to the jail.”

“Thank you sir.” Jorict replied with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. He began the walk back to his house.

In the seven years since the Bloodline war and the arrest of HolyRane, Jorict had spent five of them sweeping streets and two of them rotting in a prison cell. The time he was in jail, he was miserable, when he was out doing community service, he was happy. Jorict enjoyed making up for his past mistakes, even under the watchful eye of the law, he knew he was doing something good for a change. He reached his house and walked inside.

Exhausted, he made his way to his bedroom closing the door behind him. He flopped down on his bed.

“Good to see you again Jorict.” said HolyRane

The contents of Joric’s stomach emptied onto the floor as he stood up. He backed up against the far wall, “How they hell did you get out of jail, and what are you doing in my house?”

“Come back and join me,” Rane mused, “You were my best man; don’t tell me you’ve changed. Sweeping streets and picking up trash, that’s no way for a man to live.”

“No no no no no no no, I won’t do it, go away,” Jorict mumbled through, “I’m almost off of parole and you’re going to mess it all up you-“

“Mess it up?” Rane interrupted, “No, I’ll fix this miserable excuse you call a life.”

“No, leave my house, or I-“

Rane interrupted again “You’ll do what? Your parole doesn’t allow you weapons, come on Jorict, come help me rule the world again.”

“You never ruled it to begin with!” Jorict countered

“Have it your way.” Rane said, he moved like lightning and struck Jorict in the jaw knocking him out. Throwing the limp body over his shoulder Rane disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

* * * *​

“Where am I?” asked Jorict. He flet like he was floating, he couldn’t see anything, and he couldn’t feel his arms or legs.

“Is this Limbo? Am I dead” he asked to no one in particular

“All in good time” said the most beautiful voice he had ever heard

“What? Who are you? Where am I?” he yelled

“That is not important,” Said the voice “remember, be strong, you will have to go through more pain than you can imagine to come out of this alive.”

“Huh? Who are y-” there was a sudden rushing noise

Jorict woke up and instantly regretted it. He ached all over; his jaw was almost certainly broken and he was drained of energy. His vision swam as he saw two figures appear over his body which was either on the floor or on a table of some sort. They’re blurred voices were indistinguishable; Jorict couldn’t tell what they were saying. Then there was a sudden pain from everywhere in his body. He could hear himself screaming, visions of things that could not be described flashed through his head, and then blackness.
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 8: Come and Go

The wind shifted, it had been steady all day heading to the south, now it was flowing to the west. Ruethian knew shit was about to go down, the wind could always tell you that. He scanned the horizon as the sun set; the ORE navy was still in position around Fiore. Nothing was out of the ordinary; it certainly felt that way though.

The wind stopped

Then it came to him, there was no noise. No hum of the ship’s engine, no rustle of the trees, no dogs barking from the city, no marines talking on the docks, nothing, total and utter silence. Rue hated silence. He scanned the horizon again, something was wrong. Then, footsteps, Patsfan walked aboard.

“You look like a coiled spring. You feel it too I guess.”

“Shhhh,” said Rue, “Do you hear that?”

“I don’t hear anything, just…” Patsfan trailed off; there was an extremely faint rumbling that filled the air “What do you think that is?”

“Get every captain to be ready to start their engines on my mark; all men should report to battle stations, I don’t like this” Rue said as he looked over the horizon again.

Without warning dots started to appear on the horizon, one by one, nearly one hundred ships came into view. They were rapidly growing in size.

“NEON ships on the horizon! Start engines we’re going to ge-” Rue stopped shouting as the Gladimus came into view it was huge almost as big as a city. “We’re going to get the hell out of here!”

Ship engines roared to life as the Newerth Order Navy moved toward Fiore, the Gladimus leading the way. The ORE ships turned to face the advancing NEON ships. There was a brief lull before the ORE ships began to move forward.

The Legionnaire broke from its docking clamps and floated out into the open air, the other Seagate ships followed suit.

“Follow my lead!” shouted Rue, “Do not engage ships unless necessary.”
The ORE navy didn’t seem to take notice to the Seagate fleet slowly leaving the port as the two armies advanced on each other. The eerie silence continued, and then there was cannon fire. Several things happened at once: The two armies began a firefight over Fiore; the Seagate Navy poured on the coals began to move around the fight, three ORE ships broke off to peruse the Seagate fleet, and a cell inside the Legionnaire’s brig that had been left unguarded broke open.

“Three cruisers hard on our tail!” Yelled a crewman as he scrambled for his battle station.

The three ships were rapidly closing in on the Seagate navy, which was trying to maintain formation.

Ruethian shouted to the other captains, “Evasive action!”

The Navy split up, momentarily confusing the three ORE cruisers; this gave Rue time to look at the battle that was ensuing over Fiore. The NEO navy was tearing apart ORE’s fleet. Pieces were raining down on the city as the huge ship at the head of NEO was eating through ships like a hot knife through butter.

“Full speed ahead!” yelled Rue

One of the ORE cruisers came up alongside the Legionnaire, its cannons at the ready. Before the cruiser could fire, the flagship’s own cannons blew holes in the side of the ORE ship. No fire was returned. Another volley from the Legionnaire. At his point the cruiser began to lose altitude and plummet toward the ground. Rue looked around as the other cruisers were dispatched. They were safe.

* * * *​
Carmeops couldn’t believe his eyes. His cell door had opened, just like that. He hadn’t tried, no one unlocked it, it had just opened. With a grin, he snuck out the door and into the halls of the ship. He moved down the hallway without a noise, no one noticed him; they were all concentrating on something. The ship began to roll slightly, it caught Carm off guard and he fell to the floor. He got back up as the ship rolled in the opposite direction.

Carm decided that they were no longer docked in port but moving away from Fiore. He had to escape from a ship that was almost half a mile high. Of course Carm had been in worse situations, he just couldn’t think of any right now. Reaching the staircase leading up to the ship and down to the cargo hold, he made a snap decision.

The deck above him would be crawling with marines, so the cargo hold would be the prime place to go. He took the stairs two at a time as the ship began to make a sudden dive, lowering its altitude. Once inside the hold Carm looked for cargo doors, places where they loaded and unloaded cargo onto ships, he would have to jump.

Carm found a door and opened it. Wind rushed, the Legionnaire was now just above the trees, and this meant a shorter jump for the thief. Suddenly voices could be heard coming down the stairs, in moments he would be exposed! The ship passed over a small lake. He took the chance and leaped out the doors plummeting toward earth.

With a colossal splash Carm hit the water, it felt like concrete. For a short moment he blacked out, he came too as he was being pulled underwater by a strange currents. Carm struggled to swim to shore but he couldn’t muster the energy, the fall had knocked the wind out of him. The thief was dragged under into the black murky depths.

* * * *​
“What do you mean ‘he jumped’!?” Shouted Rue at the terrified crewman

“Sir, I found him in the cargo hold sir, he was leaning out one of the loading doors, he, er, he just jumped.”

“Just like that? He jumped?” Yelled Rue

“Y-y-yes s-sir”

Rue slammed his fist against the wall “Get back to work” he hissed

Patsfan entered Rue’s cabin as the crewman fled, “Carmeops is gone?” he asked in disbelief

“The son of a bitch jumped! JUMPED! No one jumps from a goddamn airship without a parachute!”

Patsfan swore, “You mean he-”

“Yes” sighed Rue, “He just jumped. Just like that.”

Patsfan swore again, “I didn’t even get a chance to get the collar on him.”

The general slumped in his chair, his head in his hands, “We were so close damn it, so close. Two years of tracking this guy and he just jumps.”

Patsfan sat on the floor, he was speechless.

The ships had stopped when they heard Carmeops had jumped from the Legionnaire. All the ships had tied together and they were all busy collaborating. At first panic had ensued, people basically freaked out, then after all the hysteria, the crews began to try to figure out where they went wrong. Try was the key word, because they hadn’t even begun to get any of the answers when the NEO navy appeared on the horizon for a second time.
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 9: Tombs and Tunnels

Applelove sighed and sat down, she pulled her knees to her chest and thought. This was her favorite thing to do, think, and she was doing it in the most secluded place she could, The Tomb of Fallen Heroes. Built 11 years ago by the late Strongholdx, the tomb paid homage to heroes that had once walked the land. No one ever came down to the tomb anymore; fact was, no one ever came to Neverast. In the middle of their third economic recession and at the end of their fifth war in the past decade, Neverast was a ghost town, it had left Apple miserable, exhausted, grim, and most of all lonesome.

She watched lava cascade down the walls and dust settle onto the floor, the place was dead quiet. She thought back to 4 years ago when Dagith-Narr’s demons had overrun the walls and slaughtered countless citizens. Towns all across sanctum had felt the wrath of the demon hoards, many well know people had died, many lesser know people perished too.

Getting up, Apple climbed up the ladder out of the tomb, it brought back to many memories. She walked out onto the streets of Neverast, no sign of life, just a brutally cold wind that swept through the streets. The overcast skies offered no comfort as the ruined queen trudged down the roads back to the underground. Even Exdeath was gone from his usual perch on the watch tower, the place was dead.

Apple stopped, turned around and began heading for the walls, there was nothing below ground for her, she was sick of it. She climbed to the top of the walls and sat on one of the ramparts looking out over the frozen lakes and fields of snow. The abandon KOP HQ stood outside as a monument to idleness, its walls as dead as Neverast’s.

“It’s just one of those days.” Said a deep voice

Apple grunted

Lax sat down on the rampart next to her, “Why so blue?”

Apple grunted again

“Come on, cheer up, things will get better. They always do.”

Apple didn’t take his advice; she kept looking off into the distance. They sat in silence for a while. Lax spoke again.

“I suppose I should tell you you’re wanted in Sanctum, Neo sent me to get you.”

Apple swung around, got off the rampart and descended the walls, she walked toward the gates, and Lax opened them for her. The lonely queen sauntered into the snowy haze, Lax watched her go. He felt sad for her, she had never been the same since Brutal had left, and the death of Malamute hadn’t help either. Neverast was dying but didn’t quite know how to give up; it was like watching a wounded animal suffer. Lax wanted to put it out of its misery but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Snow started falling again accenting the loneliness of the city.

* * * *​
“How’d he get out?” asked Kain as he inspected the empty cell

“No one knows sir,” thought Neo, “the official report says that he’s been gone for four days, he used an illusion spell to prevent us from finding out.”

“And the two that were here when it happened, you let them go?” Kain asked

“I did, neither of them have been in this compound before, they couldn’t have done it. I do however see the error of my actions, I will correct it immediately.” Neo’s thoughts echoed in Kain’s head.

“Don’t bother,” said the emperor, “Get Dagoth to find them and bring them in, use of force it authorized.”

Neo nodded and sent a mental message to Dagoth who acknowledged it and began his search for Xatxil, Shenorai, and Steamed. Neo turned to Kain who was again inspecting the cell.

“One can get far in four days, especially Rane, he’s a crafty bastard. A petty criminal, but he’s crafty.”

Neo didn’t comment, he just watched. Kain kept talking, “What I want to know is how in the hell he got out; you don’t have a lot of options in a cell of bedrock two kilometers underground.”

“A spell perhaps?” Neo suggested

“No. He didn’t have anything. He was put in here empty handed and he most likely left empty handed, like I said, he’s crafty.”

“He used a spell to conjure an illusion”

Kain mused over the thought, “Damn it! Find out how he did that too.”
Neo shrugged “Once the kings and queens arrive, I’ll notify them and
organize a search party.”

Kain nodded “Get to work”

* * * *​
Xatxil woke up, he didn’t remember falling asleep. This was never good. He was lying in a clearing of a forest; Steamed was next to him clutching his rifle, he was unconscious. Xat stood up; he ached all over, and couldn’t remember anything after they had walked out of the Cells of Banishment with Steam at their side. He spun around; Shenorai was nowhere to be seen, and something was itching at him (This turned out to be a bug crawling on his neck).

On a nearby tree there were scratch marks, a sign of struggle, the grass in the clearing was ruffled as if someone had rolled on it, another sign. Xat looked at his hand, he had been holding something but didn’t notice it till now, it was a beautifully crafted dagger which he had never seen before; it was sheathed in a hard leather case. Searching himself Xat found that the only other thing wrong with him was a bruise on his leg and a scratch next to it.

Steamed groaned and rolled over, his eyes opened, “What in God’s name happened?”

Xat shrugged, “Beats me, I just woke up.”

Steam stood up and dusted himself off, “Oh, I ache all over. Where’s Shen?”

“No clue, she was gone when I woke up.”

“How about that key thing? Got that?” Steam asked

“Nope, Shen had it last.”

The two sat in silence trying to gather their thoughts, a nearby hawk screeched. Xat began to think out loud “I find a key with deamonic inscriptions, Shen and I show it to Rane, he escapes, we pick you up,” he gestured to Steam, “and then we both wake up and Shen is gone. Not sure, but I think we’re boned.”

The hawk called again, Steam laughed, “Yeah this could be bad for us. What should we do?”

Xat shrugged, “Find Shenorai I guess”

There was a rustle of branches and the sound of a hawk screeching, where there was once nothing, DagothAgahnim was perched on a branch in front of both of them, “Return to the Cells of Banishment immediately.” He said

“Uh why?” asked Steam

“Return to the Cells of Banishment immediately.” Dagoth repeated

“Dagoth,” Said Xat, “Why should we? We have no business there, I mean-“

“Return to the Cells of Banishment immediately.” Dagoth repeated again

“I don’t think you understand-” Steam began

“The use of deadly force has been authorized!” Dagoth shouted

“Now you’re threatening us?” asked Xat

Dagoth lunged at Steam who jumped out of the way. Xat took off grabbing Steam’s arm. The two fled through the forest as Dagoth shot into the air. Fighting him was impossible, they had to run. Without warning balls of fire began smashing down nearby as the two ran for their lives. The sound of beating wings filled the air as their pursuer dived down and tried to pick Xat up. Barely avoiding the deathly grip of Dagoth, Xat frantically began to look for a hiding spot. They wouldn’t last long, even with the cover of the trees.

Spotting something glimmering through the foliage, Xat and Steam B-lined it. Dagoth dived again and the two jumped out of the way. More fireballs followed shortly thereafter. The object Xat had spotted was a mine cart sitting on a track. Without hesitation the two runners jumped in and pushed off. The cart followed its track down a hill and into a cave where it stopped. Dagoth would be here in moments, they had to find an escape. The cave seemed to be an abandoned mine, there were more tracks leading further down. Xat and Steam each grabbed a cart and shot down into the depths of the mine as Dagoth entered the cave. The winged figure smiled under his hood. The creepers would get them.

* * * *​

“Where does this lead?” yelled Steam as the two carts sped down the tracks.

“How should I know, I just hope Dagoth isn’t following!” Xat replied
They were picking up speed as the tracks began to steepen. They began taking rapid turns and twists trough the pitch black tunnels. Xat was starting to get sick, he looked back to call out to Steam but the second cart was nowhere to be seen.

“Steam!” Xat yelled, there was no reply

With a whoosh of air the cart was moving across the ground of a huge cavern, in the dim light Xat could see Steam and his cart moving along an elevated track.

“Hey!” he called

Steam waved, “Your cart took a left, and mine went right!”

“Just sit tight, we have to find a way out!” Xat called as he entered another mine shaft.

This time the ride was like a roller coaster, ups and downs, sharp turns, and deep drops. It was terrifying. With another blast of air the cart was flying through the air across a gap that extended out of sight in each direction. Xat could hear Steam screaming as he too crossed the gap. After what felt like days, the cart slammed into another track and took off again down into the depths of the earth.

After a long cart ride, and feeling like crapping his pants, the carts made one last jump and splashed in to a pool of water at the bottom of the gap that Xat had jumped over. There was a faint noise that grew louder and louder until Steam’s cart hit the water creating a huge splash.

Gasping for air, Steam rose to the surface, “What the hell was that?”

“I…uh, I don’t even know where to begin,” Said Xat as he floated on his back

Steam dragged himself out of the water onto a dry spot of land; he took off his shirt and began to ring the water out of it. Even in the dim light scars could be seen running down his torso. Xat assumed it was from some traumatic experience.

“Well, we need to find a way out of here.” said Xat as he too dragged himself out of the water.

“Yeah…I just found one, but you won’t like it.” Said Steamed

“What is it?” questioned Xat as he moved to where his companion was standing

In the little light available to them, there was a tunnel blocked by a sign that read: DO NOT ENTER! CREEPER DEN AHEAD

“Aw shit…” said Xat as he looked for another way out, there were none

Steam hefted his rifle and loaded a bullet, “Let’s do this” he said
 

strongholdx

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Location
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Chapter 10: The Ballad of Cecil Firedrake

A shot echoed through the long hallway as Steam took down another creeper. Movement had been slow, as he was the only one with a weapon, Xatxil had picked rocks to throw, but they both knew it was basically useless. They had been moving forward for about fifteen minutes making maddeningly slow progress.

“Why,” asked Xat, “do I never have a sword when I need one? All I have is this little dagger.”

“Dunno,” said Steam as another shot went off, “You should carry a sword more.”

“We have to get out of here; we can’t hold these things off forever.”

Steam shrugged, “I’m almost out of bullets and we’re heading INTO the den, it’s only going to get worse.” Another shot ripped through the hallway and another creeper went down.

“How many bullets did you say you have left?”

Steam counted his ammo, “One”

“Shall we run for our lives then?” asked Xat

“Let’s!” replied Steamed

Both of them took off at a full sprint down the long mineshaft, for a while they ran in silence but shortly thereafter the sound of hissing filled the air. Steam looked behind him; they were being perused by countless green monsters.

“RUN!” he yelled to Xat as if it weren’t obvious.

Xat’s legs burned as a dim light appeared at the far end of the shaft, “Look!” He yelled

The two made for the light; it got closer and closer as the hissing got louder and louder. They reached the light and what they saw made them gasp in fear. Inside a giant cavern of almost inconceivable size was a mother creeper. It stood a towering 50 feet tall and its eyes glowed of a type of evil that not even sunlight could cleanse. Several torches danced along the walls as hundreds of creepers rushed Xat and Steam.

Xat grabbed his companion and made a break for a small opening in the wall. They hit it and squeezed through as creepers began to crowd around the entrance hissing with anger. The two entered a small room that was inaccessible by the green horrors.

“What in Fuck’s sake was that?” Steam asked hysterically

“Mother creeper,” gasped Xat, “We’re dead; we should get it over with and just go out there and die.”

“What?” yelled Steam

“There are only four mother creepers in known existence, they never leave their dens and they spawn the little ones.”

“D-d-do they explode” stuttered Steam

“Oh yeah, how do you think the Caverns of Neverast were made?”

“Son of a bitch, what are we going to do?”

“Unless that,” Xatxil said pointing to an iron door across the room, “gives us an answer, methinks suicide sounds good.”

“Where did that come from?” asked Steam “I swore it wasn’t there a few seconds ago.”

“I just started not caring, if it leads us out of here, who cares how long it was here?”

The sniper tried the door, it was locked. He loaded his last bullet into the rifle, aimed the door’s handle and pulled the trigger.

When the bullet hit the door, several things happened, the door swung open, the room was filled with a red light and the sound of singing filled the air. They both entered the room. It was a simple round room with a pedestal in the center. Floating slightly above the pedestal was a red orb that was radiating red light that glimmered and shone on the walls.

“Five bucks says it kills us both.” Steam said with suspicion.

“I want to touch it.” Xat said, referring to the orb

“It’s your funeral.” Replied the sniper

Xat reached out and touched it, nothing happened, “Its cold, really cold.”

“Well, I wouldn’t-” Steam was cut off

The light intensified until it was blinding, and then darkness.

The singing had stopped, it was dead quiet

“Xat are you there?” Steam questioned in the darkness

There was no reply, then without warning the red light was back, but the orb was gone, Xatxil was standing in the same position, mouth open wide.

“Xat, you’re literally glowing.” Steam said

“Wow, this feels funny, what just happened?” asked Xat, he sounded energized

“Don’t ask me – I think you just ate it or something.”

“So we have no way out, this red thing is now gone and I glow in the dark, this is the worst day of my life.” Sighed the traveler

“What do we do now?”

“Like I said before, suicide” shrugged Xat

“You can’t be serious.”

“Watch me” Xat moved out the door and began to fit himself through the small crevice. Steam watched in horror as the traveler disappeared and the hissing began again. The hissing went on and on, but no explosions followed.

“Uh, Steam, you may want to see this!” called Xat

The sniper carefully climbed out of the room to a sight that he couldn’t believe, the creepers were making a ring around Xatxil, unwilling to enter the light radiating from his body.

“What is…I don’t even…” Steam was speechless

“Stay in the light, I’m not going to ask what the hell is going on, let’s just get out of here”

Steam nodded as Xat began moving toward the center of the room, the creepers formed a circle around them, still not entering the light. They were still hissing, but instead of anger it was a mesmerized, hypnotic noise. The mother creeper even moved out of the way.

“Over there” said Steamed pointing to a shaft across from the one they had come in from.

They hit the shaft and without a word began to run for their lives. Both of them were past asking questions, getting out was their only goal. This time daylight could be seen at the end of the mine shaft. They exited the cave in a full sprint and fell to the ground exhausted – both happy to be alive as the sun began to set letting darkness envelope then land.
 

strongholdx

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Location
Earth
Chapter 11: Hellish Discovery

“Well chief,” said Libra to Kain, “I can’t say how he got out – there’s no evidence of a breach. He must not have left the cell by physical means.”

Kain had been inspecting the cell for hours with no luck – Rane had literally vanished from the cell. He scratched his arm, “So you don’t have even the slightest clue as to how he got out?”

“Sir,” Libra replied crossing his arms, “bedrock is unbreakable, it just can’t be done. You can’t do it, I can’t do it, Brutal can’t do it, no one can, not even Rane. It’s just not feasible; he had to have used magic.”

“Warden!” Kain called

Footsteps could be heard down the hallway behind them, “Sir?” asked the warden.

“How do you feed your prisoners?”

“Sir, we drop bread down a shaft three times a day and water down five times a day. The shafts we use are made of bedrock, and can only be entered at the top and exited through the bottom. To climb into one you’d have to impale yourself with a very large spike.”

“How big is this shaft?” asked Libra tilting his head

“No bigger than a duck sir”

The veteran chuckled “Heehee, a duck.”

“So what you’re saying,” asked Kain, “Is that it’s not physically possible to fit a human inside?”

“Yes sir.” Replied the warden

“How about the prisoners themselves do you ever see them?” questioned Kain

“No sir, they’re down there until the end of their sentence.”

“Chief, I have an idea.” Libra stated

Kain raised an eyebrow

“Let’s go down there.”

“Why would we do that? The cell is no different up here than it is down there.”

Libra rubbed his chin, “or is it?”

“Fine, Warden, lower us down.”

The warden nodded as the two climbed into the cell. The door slammed and they began the long descent into the depth of the earth. They rode in total darkness and silence until the cell came to a stop. Kain’s hands ignited into flames illuminating the room.

Libra laughed, “That never gets old!”

They looked around the cell, “See Libra? It’s the same as up there.”

“You know, I got this feeling, put your fancy flames away.” The lights went out

Libra brought out a redstone torch and ignited it. What they saw was disturbing. All over the walls were inscriptions and pictures drawn in what seemed to be blood. On the far end of the cell the wall glowed purple.

“Sweet mother of god,” exclaimed Kain, “He made a herogate.”

Libra opened his mouth, no sound came out. He closed it.

Kain kept talking, “It’s perfectly stable, no risk of explosion, it’s not even irradiating the area – this defiantly took years.”

“Chief? Where does it lead?”

“No idea – it doesn’t have a nexus signature nor the nether…it’s somewhere else.”

“Should we go through?”

“I think we have to, get ready.”

Libra unsheathed his sword, “I’m always ready.”

The two stepped through the gate into a world worse than hell.

* * * *

The first thing both Kain and Libra noticed was that there was no herogate behind them. Wherever they were they were stuck there until they could find a way out. The next thing they noticed was that they were in a wide open field full of tall red grass, the sky was black with clouds of red, it was unusually hot, and both of them felt drained of energy.

“This cannot be good chief.” Libra said as he looked around

“No, it’s not good, neither is that,” Kain said pointing to a huge creature lumbering toward them, it was a muscled red mass of scales and skin, it had a ram’s horns atop its head and small wings spouting from its back.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” asked Libra as he readied his sword

“Libra, we’re sitting in the demon realm.”

“Could this day get any better?” The veteran asked himself as the demon came closer

Kain began a spell; a ball of water began to form in his hand. With a flick of his wrist the water shot through the air and smashed into the demon. The lumbering mass began to run at them as Kain cast another spell, this time lightning shot down from the sky and the demon exploded into a brilliant flare of blood and gore.

“We need to get out of here, now.” Kain said as he began to jog across the field.

“Yeah well that’s going to be a problem – we got fliers!” shouted Libra

Kain stretched his hand out and watched as lightning struck the group of flying demons that had begun to close in on them. They fell to the ground like rocks.

“I can’t keep this up all day; these lightning bolts take a lot.”

“Where are we going?” the veteran yelled to the emperor as they ran across the field

“I don’t know, but we can’t stay here!”

Another lumbering demon appeared on the horizon. Kain yelled to Libra “Can you take this one?”
Without a word Libra ran ahead of Kain right at the huge angry animal. It swung at him but Libra rolled out of the way slashing its legs. The claws of the demons hand shot out to grab Libra who ducked out of the way impaling the hand with the sword, swung it around and stabbed the sword into the ground. Then the fighter ran up the demon’s arm, unsheathed a dagger and stabbed it in the neck. With one final blow Libra carved out one of its eyes as it fell to the ground screaming in pain.

“You didn’t kill it.” Kain yelled over the howling demon’s screams.

Libra, who was retrieving his sword, replied “It’s the most effective way of killing these sons of bitches; he’ll die in an hour.”

“Let’s go!” Yelled Kain as more demons appeared farther behind them, and more began to fill the skies.
As they ran the howls of demons began to fill the air. The clouds above them were beginning to thicken and thunder could be heard in the distance. Hills began to rise up in front of them – a glowing herogate could be seen.

“Let’s get thought that damn gate chief!” yelled Libra

They began to ascend the hills, but to their disappointment demons were crawling all over the area the gate was in. With a massive wave of his hands Kainzo cast a massive spell that sent lightning down striking demons left and right causing them to fall over, burst into flames, or explode. Grabbing Libra, the emperor leaped through the gate into another nightmare.

* * * *

They were standing in a room filled with demons; they all turned and looked at them blankly. That was all the time Kain needed to get one last spell ready. Lava spewed from his hands covering the beasts; screams sounded out from all around them as the demons burned to death in a fiery pit of liquid hell.
A few moments later the lava began to disappear leaving countless burning corpses lying in the room. The stench of burning flesh filled the air causing Libra to puke.

“Aw chief, that’s degusting,” he wiped his mouth, “I mean nasty, oh the humanity.”

“Libra, I can assure you that those things are the least of our problems.” Kain said as he looked around…
 

strongholdx

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Location
Earth
Chapter 12: Answers

Coincidentally at the same time Libra was puking, so was Raetec, but this was about the fifth time he’d done it in the last hour. Raetec simply rolled over in his bed, oblivious to the vomit on it.

“Aw that’s just disgusting,” Brutal said from his chair next to the door, “Why am I here watching him puke his guts out instead of beating the shit out of Rane?”

Dore shrugged, “He’s puking because it gets the poison out of his system – you’re here in case we’re attacked.”

“Dore, we’re in the center of Lapis Tower – we’re not getting attacked.” Brutal sighed

“Hey, I’m just the medic – I don’t make the rules.”

Brutal cracked his neck, “I need a beer.”

“When don’t you?” Dore chuckled

“Psht that’s easy – when I’ve got a hooker in my arm.”

Dore laughed “Don’t you usually have a beer in the other?”

Raetec puked again

Brutal thought for a second, “Shut up.”

Raetec moaned and rolled over

“Hey,” Said Dore, “I think he’s coming to.”

They both stood up from where they had been sitting and moved over to the bedside, Raetec’s eyes were barely open, but he was conscious.

“I…I. The key…It can’t fall” He coughed blood

“Hey big guy,” Dore said kneeling down, “How you feeling?”

“No, get the key!” Raetec coughed again, “If they get it…The Oracle!”

“What about it?” asked Brutal

“Time, it’s in time!” Raetec’s eyes were fluttering

“Time? What about time?” asked Dore, but it was too late, the Raetec passed out again
There was a long pause as Brutal began to pace the room – none of what Raetec had just said made any sense. “Let’s go over the facts again…” He said

“We’ve done this three times…” Dore said, irritation evident in his voice

“Let’s do it again, we’ve missed something I’m sure. So, Raetec gives TxLibra a note addressed to Kain – why did he give it to Libra?”

“We don’t have the information to answer that, maybe Libra was the only person he could trust.”

“But why..?” Asked Brutal to himself, “Alright, so our man goes missing, we find him a few days later, er, Xatxil finds him and sets a flare, we respond to it and take Raetec back here.”

“Right” said Dore

“We give him a physical and find out he’s been beaten and poisoned, at the same time Xatxil, and Shenorai, bail Steamed out of jail and Rane’s escape is discovered. That sounds suspicious to me…”

“You could be right,” Said Dore, “That does seem odd that the guys who ‘finds’ Raetec also discovers Rane is missing.”

Brutal continued, “He’s ordered to return to the Cells of Banishment and he refuses, he’s last seen riding into a creeper den with Steam. I think I’ve figured it out.”

“What?” asked Dore

“Steam is Rane, look at the facts. Rane is discovered to be gone almost right after Steam is jailed – then Steam is bailed out. If Rane were to have taken Steam’s identity and somehow switched cells, he would have been bailed out by Xatxil.”

“But Rane has been gone for four days.” Dore countered

“A simple spell could change that – he might have only been gone for minutes.”

“Wow, that’s amazing, it’s also entirely feasible.”

Brutal rubbed his chin, “I think Kain needs to hear this.”

Raetec spat blood and opened his eyes again, “NO!”

Brutal and Dore looked at him – he was breathing heavily and looked like he was in a world of pain.

“That’s wrong, you have to listen!”

“What is it?” asked Brutal

“Days ago, I was at the Oracle, it was raining.”

“The day you went missing” Dore said

“Yes, the Oracle, it was struck,” He coughed, “by lightning. Something happened – the date on the Oracle changed, the machine traveled forward in time.” The injured man groaned

“Is that even possible?” Asked Brutal

Raetec kept talking, his voice was weak, “and then without warning it changed back – the report was blacked out because it hadn’t happened yet. I took the report and was going to give it to Kainzo.” He coughed again, “When I left the room, GreyP was waiting for me, he stabbed me with some sort of…dagger. I think it was poisoned, I fought him off. But in the fight…he…he…he had a key hanging from his neck…I was able to snatch if from him. Then he chased me for nearly a day before I found Libra, I gave him the report and kept running…but I kept the key.”

“Raetec, what does they key do?” Dore asked

“No clue, it looked important. Grey chased me for a long time – it’s all a little fuzzy, but last thing I remember was being carried away by you two, I dropped the key in the clearing.”

“Do you think we should go get it? Do you think it’s that important?” The medic questioned

“There’s no we,” Said Raetec, he puked onto the floor, after a minute he spoke again, “I can’t go anywhere, I don’t know what the key does, but I don’t think Grey would have chased me so far had I not taken it…Find Kain, he might know something…” He passed out again

There was a pause, Brutal spoke, “Well that answers SOME questions but opens a whole new can of worms.”

“I’ll stay here and flush the poison from his system,” Said Dore, “You have to find Kain, if you have time, I think we should look into this key thing, it might be important.”

Brutal nodded and with a flash was gone.

* * * *

Xatxil breathed heavily, he was sprawled out on the ground, next to him was Steam, he too was gasping for breath. They had sat there for several minutes trying to figure out what was going on. Xat was still glowing, Steam was out of bullets, they were tired, hungry, and now on the lamb.

“This…” Said Steam, “This is…I don’t…It’s just…Awww I don’t even know.”

Xat barely managed a laugh, his sides hurt

“You two all right?” asked a voice

Both companions sprang to their feet ready for a fight. Several feet away, sitting on a tree stump was the largest man either of them had ever seen. He had to weigh at least 400 pounds, and at least 350 of it had to be muscles. He had a military haircut, two swords at his waist and two more sheathed on his back.
“Who are you?” asked Steam

“My name is Chambers, and you are?”

“Steamed, you can call me Steam, this is Xatxil.”

Chambers brightened up, “Oh hey, I remember you two. You got attacked in the forest!”

“We were?” asked Xatxil

“Yeah,” said the big man, still sitting, “That group of baddies, they attacked you. Remember?”

“Uh the last thing I remember is waking up in a forest clearing” Steam replied

“A group of masked guys jumped you from the trees; they carried off your friend. They left you two for dead or something.”

“You saw this?” asked Xat

“Sure, I was on the road and watched it happen, I would have stepped in but there were way too many. Afterward I was going to go see if you were all right but Dagoth stopped by and told me to leave, I don’t want to mess with him, and so I left.”

“These guys carried off Shen?” asked Xatxil

“Yeah, she’s probably dead by now. I recognized their masks, some sort of sacrificial cult. Bodies show up in the forest every now and then”

“Shit, did she have a key with her?”

“She tossed it to you if I remember correctly.” Chambers rubbed his chin

“But I don’t have it.”

“Well I can’t help you there, and why are you glowing?”

“Fuck…I don’t know I just am.”

“Well, I hope you don’t mind if I join you, I’ve got nowhere to go, you two look like you promise adventure.”

“Do we?” asked Steam

“Dude, he’s glowing.” Chambers pointed to Xatxil

“Oh.”

“What are we going to do Steam?” asked Xat

“Well,” interrupted Chambers, “There’s a Traveler’s Rest Stop up ahead, it’s getting dark, and we should get to shelter before things go bump in the night.”

“Right,” Said Steam, “we can talk there.”

The three moved down the road toward their shelter for the night.
 

strongholdx

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Location
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Chapter 13: Hunting Parties

Neo_Exdeath circled the meeting table, his steps making no sound. Sitting at the table were two people, Applelove and Gabizou. The queen of Neverast was staring daggers at the representative from KRS, who interestingly was completely ignoring her. Instead he was musing with a nearby plant as he used his unique magiks to make it grown and wither over and over again.

There was the sound of rushed footsteps outside the door of the meeting room as Xanipher walked in, she was donned in her usual outfit which looked both elegant and deadly; she nodded to Exdeath, sat down, and began waiting for the meeting to start. Moments later Domitus and Greekcrackshot entered. As he sat down, Greek removed his black, wide brimmed hat.

“Kings and Queens,” Neo’s thoughts echoed, “Our old friend HolyRane has escaped.”

Domitus rubbed his beard, “So what?”

“It’s not the escape that has us worried, it’s the circumstances.” The winged figure replied

“And they are?” asked Apple twirling her blonde hair, still staring at Gabi.

Neo_Exdeath explained the happening of the last few days to the kings and queens: how Xatxil, Steam and Shen were on the run, that a Herogate had been formed in Rane’s cell, and that the criminal had been missing for four days prior. When he was finished they sat in silence.

“Odd indeed.” muttered Greek, he was known for publicly hating Rane

“That is…concerning” Gabizou said, this caused Applelove to roll her eyes

Neo’s thoughts entered their minds once again, “Kain went through the gate hours ago, I have not been able to detect his presence; this is also a matter of concern.

“I vote we get some hunting parties together,” Said Xanipher, “If Rane can make a stable herogate in a cell with no materials, there is no telling what he can do with the materials to make one.”

“Agreed,” Said Domitus, “KOE will have scouts out before sundown.”

The other Kings and Queens made remarks of approval, stood up and left. Only Gabizou and Neo remained.

“Exdeath, would you mind if I took a look at the nature of the herogate?”

“The nature?”

“See, I practice a long lost magic that is, well some say it is, forbidden. It helps me analyze things precisely, along with having effective battle spells. I’m sure I could provide some insight on where this gate leads, and exactly how it was created.”

“Go right ahead, I’ll lead you there.”

* * * *

The Cells of Banishment were still in Maximum Lockdown when they arrived. Neo had to teleport Gabi inside; otherwise there would be no way in. when they got the cell, the magician’s eye lit up as he began to study the empty chamber. Muttering to himself, he went over every square inch. After approximately two hours, he turned back to Neo who had waited patiently without moving.

“This it incredibly interesting, and most disturbing.”

Neo cocked his head

“See, you must understand the multi dimensional rift and plane postulation, well, more of a statement.”

Neo didn’t move

“Ok, we humans, us, everything we know exist on one plane of existence; we’ll call it Earth Plane, just for the sake of saying. In each direction there are nine circles of Heaven and Hell, the former being above and the latter below. As being from one dimension, we can travel to one above or below us without any problem, for example, the first plane of hell is what we know as the Nether. One from Earth Plane can exist in the Nether through the help of Herogates, and vice versa. Similarly we could travel to the Skylands just like we do the Nether. They are the first circles of Heaven and hell. Are you following me?”

Exdeath nodded

“This is where it gets interesting,” Gabi stated, “If we were to travel another level up or down we encounter something called dimensional degradation. Two planes away you’d feel weak and a little disorientated. Creatures from that plane would be harder to fight as you would be weaker and they stronger. Going up or down three planes makes it worse; you’d have about four hours to live before you are completely wiped from existence. Four planes up or down gives you about nine minutes give or take a few, and it is impossible go up or down five from your home plane. Still following?”

Neo nodded again

“This gate shows signs of second dimension degradation. Meaning it leads to the second plane of either heaven or hell, however the deamonic inscriptions lead me to believe that it ends up in the second plane of hell, a place we know as the Deamon Realm.”

There was a long pause, “Gabizou, you do good work, we need to shut down this gate however, will Kain be able to make it out?”

“I sense a sister gate on the other end, one he is more than capable of programming, I’m sure we can close it.”

With a rush of energy, a blue sparkling ball of flame shot from Neo’s hand into the herogate. After a shot pause the purple energy within the gate began to fade until it was no more.

“Go get your KRS parties ready, this could get bad.” Neo said as he whisked Gabi outside of the Cells of Banishment.

* * * *

There was blackness and the sound of running water. That was it. Carmeops felt funny, really funny. With a sudden realization the thief figured out he wasn’t breathing. Deciding that it was in his best interest to do so he sucked in a mouthful of cold air. It was cold, damp, soggy air, but it tasted sweet to be alive.

Carm was on his back, floating in the water of a pitch black cave. He was moving along with the currents, he would have tried to swim but the jump had left him mostly paralyzed. Without warning he was falling, it was only a short waterfall but it scared him shitless. He was no longer following a current, he was in standing water.

There was a faint noise that grew louder and louder with each passing moment. There were two colossal splashes as a pair of minecarts slammed into the water, the noise as it turned out was Steam and Xat screaming for their lives.

The two got up and looked around, said some stuff that Carm couldn’t understand with his ears under the water. They were so close that if he were able he could have touched one of them. Somehow the lake he had landed in must have dragged the thief into these caverns, now instead of being stuck in a cell he was stuck with two idiots in a dark cave.

The two men left and it was quiet again. Carm for the first time attempted to move. He accomplished moving his arms causing him to sink to the bottom of the shallow pool. He rolled over and pushed off the ground with what little strength he had. Making it back to the surface he dragged himself to the small tunnel the two guys had entered. Carm was now exhausted, his muscles ached and his bones felt like they were on fire, but the pain meant he was alive.

There was a sound nearby that caused Carm’s hair to rise, it was the sound of crunching leaves. Out of the darkness came two eyes that pierced the soul. Now completely motivated, Carm forgot his pain and made a mad dash for the tunnel. The creeper was hard on his tail hissing like mad. To his surprise, Carm found that there were even more creepers ahead of him, they had just begun to turn and go after him. Taking a chance the thief dashed into the only side tunnel he could see, it began to slant upward and curve to the left.

The Creepers were almost upon him when he came to an opening that lead into a huge cavern, this mineshaft was about two stories above the ground, but in a desperate attempt to live Carm leaped with whatever strength he could muster… and landed right atop the head of one of the few famed Mother Creepers.

For some reason the cavern was filled with a red light, and the huge beast didn’t react to the thief standing atop her. Needing no more encouragement, Carm jumped to the other side and ran until he exited the cave. He collapsed, virtually no more energy to spend – and with that the infamous thief slept like a baby.
 

strongholdx

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Chapter 14: Airships

Aph tapped her fingers against her desk thinking to herself. Brutal stood before her, silent and unmoving, waiting for his answer. The room they were in was Aph’s sanctum office, a small, but beautiful hovel guilded with mahogany and ash. It was where the Empress hid away when she needed time alone.

“Brutal…you DO realize Steam is part of your crew too right?” She said after a minute

“I do, that however is insignificant, if my theory is correct he needs to die, and soon.”

Aph picked up a pencil and began twirling it in her hands, “You come in here asking to mobilize your proctors on a hunch. Steam is one of you’re proctors, fugitive he may be, but I won’t allow you to kill him on the chance that you might be right.”

Brutal sighed, “We won’t kill him, just apprehend him.”

“And if he uses some otherworldly powers?”

“We kill him”

“Fine,” Aph said with a sigh, “get your crew together and report to me ASAP.”

A grin spread across Brutal’s face as he raced out of the office to call his team together.

* * * *

“BATTLESTATIONS!” roared Ruethian as he scrambled for the ships wheel as the Newerth navy bore down on them. Crew members ran back and forth trying to reach their ready positions.

“All ships set a course for the south to-” Rue was cut off as another fleet appeared over the horizon to the south

“Belay that, make way for the wester-” another fleet appeared to the west

They were up against a tall mountain on the east, and had three fleets of ships making their way towards them. Gasps of horror arose from the crews of the nine Seagate ships as the gravity of the situation set in.

“General,” shouted Patsfan, “KOE cruisers to the west, and KRS drop ships to our south, this may be a good time to get the fuck out of here!”

“Patsfan, we have no where to go.”

“Well we had better be somewhere else and soon!”

Minutes passed as each fleet grew closer and got bigger. It seemed like it was the end for them all, there was nothing that could save them, then like divine intervention, the Newerth fleet began to turn and was headed away, then the KRS ships, and finally the KOE ships all began to turn and head back the opposite direction. There was a stunned silence aboard all the Seagate ships.

“What in god’s name was that?” asked Patsfan, “All that build up and they just leave?”

Rue shook his head

“Sir!” Yelled a crewman, “One more ship spotted on the horizon, its coming toward us.”

The general peered out into the sky; with the fading light it was almost impossible to see the SAS. Punishment making way to the position they were anchored to. The tenth ship in the Seagate fleet had finally arrived.
The viper class frigate pulled up alongside Ruethian’s ship and began shot out a gangplank, and Punisher entered the scene.

The big man looked around like he were buying a new home, no one said anything while he did, after a full three minutes he sucked in a huge breath of air and said in a voice just a bit too loud, “God, I hate airships.”
The entire corps of marines laughed at his running gag. Whenever he was asked why he joined the navy he always replied with “I hate airships” it had become a bit of a tradition to say it whenever he stepped on board. Fact was not many of the people in the navy knew if he actually hated airships.

Embracing Punisher in a handshake, Ruethian’s face lit up with an ear to ear grin, “it’s good to have you back Pun.”

“Yessir, once I got this lug of junk in the air I came as fast as I could. God, I hate airships.”

“What news from Seagate?”

Punisher scratched his chin, “Those fleets of ships you saw, they were all called back to their respective kingdoms, something about Rane and his jolly group of butt buddies.”

Rue groaned, “I thought we got rid of that bastard, lets head back to Seagate and see what we can do to help out.”

Patsfan chimed in “Wait wait wait, we need to find Carmeops.”

Rue laughed, “No one jumps from an airships without a parachute…and survives. If he lived, he is either going to die soon or is very very lucky. If he’s alive then I give up, lets go home. Besides who knows when command is going to send us on another bullshit mission.”

The entire marine corps chuckled and muttered amongst themselves, they needed some R&R, plus everything Rue had said was true, there was no telling what they would have to do next or when it would happen. They would have to take the time they got while they still had it. The ten Seagate ships departed and flew off into the south as the suns last rays retracted from the skyline.

* * * *

Jorict awoke again; he was sitting in a chair in a large, crowded meeting room. He was saying something but he couldn’t make it out. He felt himself moving, but it wasn’t him moving, someone else was moving his body. It was possibly the oddest sensation he had ever encountered. His blurred vision began to clear and he saw clearly where he was. HolyRane was sitting across from him. Wasting no time, he leaped across the table and grabbed his former boss’s neck and began throttling it.

Without warning there was a sudden force on his head and he was taken to the ground. Jorict stood back up, he tried to move but couldn’t. he heard himself say “I’m sorry master, he’s awake.”
Rubbing his neck Rane smiled, “Hello Jorict, how do you like your new friend. Get used to him because you’ll have to share for the time being.”

“What?” Jorict tried to ask, but no noise came out. Suddenly he was in control of his body again. He leaped toward Rane trying to break his neck. This time the criminal struck back with inhuman strength that sent Jorict reeling.

Other members at the table had now stood up and were advancing on him; standing back up and lashing out he caught one of the men in the chest with his leg. Then he punched another one in the jaw. They group began to pile on and overpower him.

With one last burst of energy Jorict yelled, “You’ll never take me alive!”

The last thing he heard before he was knocked unconscious was Rane’s voice saying, “Don’t worry, you won’t be for much longer.”
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 15: Identities revealed

Libra sucked in his breath and patted his stomach, “Ok chief, I’m good.”

Kain nodded and motioned for the veteran to follow. They moved across the room of charred burning demon corpses into another much smaller chamber very much like the last. There was a series of metal rungs along the wall leading upward. Without a word, both Kainzo and Libra began to climb.

Within several moments of beginning their ascent, the air around them began to cool rapidly until frost began forming on the rungs. At one point Libra’s hand slipped but he was able to grab a hold of another one. After almost six minutes of climbing they hit a trap door. Kain motioned for silence and cracked the door open; he then continued up ward after giving the thumbs up to Libra.

Now off of the ladder, they were in another small room that looked to be a sort of dressing room, a mirror on the far wall, a clothes rack next to it and various other appliances scattered about the room. There was a wooden door on the opposite end of the room from the trap door. Crouching, they both moved to it.

“Chief, where are we?”

Kain closed his eyes, “Otoh Gunga” he replied after a moment, he was visibly tired from his excessive use of magic.

“Alright chief, I’ll take point on this one, you just watch my back.”

“Thanks TxLibra” Kain smiled

Unsheathing his sword, Libra slowly opened the door, checked his corners and exited into a drab stone hallway. The only way to proceed was to the right, a path that curved off to the left. Being as quiet as possible the two crept down the hallway like mice. After a short walk they reached an open door through it was the main hall of the building they were in, it was deserted.

“Where in God’s name is everyone?” Whispered Libra

Kain closed his eyes a second time, “There seems to be some gathering in the area outside of this castle, I detect a lot of movement.”

Libra nodded and entered the main hall; they were on the second floor. He snuck around looking for signs of life, there were none? The massive dining table on the first floor had piles of food, still steaming with deliciousness, chairs were overturned, doors left open. It looked as if everyone had just got up and left. Libra motioned to Kain to follow as he snuck down the stairs to the large oak doors.

“Ready?” Asked Libra

“Ready as I’ll ever get” Kain replied as he crouched on the opposite side of the door

They pushed the door open…

* * * *

GreyP watched the situation unfold before his very eyes, what he saw, he didn’t like. Otoh Gunga was a series of glass tubes under suspended water; essentially it was a small lake floating above ground with the city inside. Around it were several small castles where local barons lived with their vassals.

Rane had called a gathering outside the city; it was for ‘a big announcement’. About a hundred people were milling around waiting for Rane to speak. He was standing at the edge of the cascading water, he raised his arms and everyone fell silent, somewhere magical amplifiers boosted his voice.

“My brothers! Today we reveal our true purpose. For too long have our tainted enemies looked down upon us! Today we rise above them and take what is ours!”

Everyone in the crowd cheered except Grey, he was horrified

Rane continued “Today I will don my true self, but first let me show you why we are all here! Behold! The Acrra-Maj.” The last two words were spoken in demon tongue.

The water behind him stopped and fell away along with the metal tubes which shattered as they fell, the entire city was destroyed in a matter of seconds. Once the water had drained away a massive crater was revealed, it housed a meteor about the size of a large house. It was Acrra-Maj the unholy comet, brother of Vlauderung.

Legend had it that two gods raced across the sky to end their sibling rivalry, one Vlauderung the good, the other Acrra-Maj the trickster. For ages the two comets raced across the sky in perfect unison until Acrra-Maj pushed his brother from the sky where he crashed into the planet. The meteor that was Vlauderung was found by Brutalacerate, there he used the alien metals within to create a massive and powerful sword which he named Vlauderung the Justicar. This sword was said to hold god like powers that allowed the wielder to become invincible in combat, it was also said that should the metals of Accra-Maj be forged, the wielder would be able to defeat Vlauderung, or at least have a fair fight.

It all made sense to Grey. Rane wanted revenge, with the meteor he’d be one step closer. At one time Rane had had an aspiring goal, now he was just fucking crazy. Not knowing what to do, Grey just watched.

“Today,” Rane’s voice boomed over the crowd, “We rise!”

* * * *

Libra watched in horror as the water fell away revealing the meteor, both Kainzo and himself knew what it was, they didn’t need Rane to tell them. “What do we do Chief?”

“This ends now” Said Kain in a determined voice, his exhaustion forgotten

With a mighty leap the emperor shot out the door, and into the air, he sailed over the crowd and right to where Rane was standing. With an awesome earth splitting crack the impacted into the ground sending Rane flying into the crater.

“HolyRane, you’re under arrest, come with me or face death!”

Rane was lying face down about half way to the bottom of the crater, he rolled over, “Come get me.”

Kainzo leaped again smashing into the ground, Rane rolled to the side and jumped to his feet. Kain shot his fist out in a left hook. Rane dodged right and sent a punishing kick aimed for the emperor’s chest. Kain caught Rane’s leg and threw him even further down the pit.

The criminal tumbled into a summersault as he bounced down the crater and slammed into the meteor, with a groan he got up and regained his composure. He looked up to see Kain walking down toward him; a sword erupted from Kainzo’s hand, seemingly coming from nowhere. The black robed figure shouted as he descended toward his opponent.

“One last chance Rane, you know how this will end!”

“Fool!” Hissed Rane, “You still honestly believe I’m that babbling idiot Rane? I am something much worse!”

What happened next made Kain stop in his tracks and caused the crowd to go into an uproar. HolyRane’s good eye rolled into the back of his head and he fell dead. Standing in his place was a demon, standing roughly nine feet tall, muscles rippling from his skin, and a human like completion. Dagoih-Nar made Kain’s skin crawl.

“The fuck?” Asked Kainzo, “You…you’re dead.”

“Foolish little mortal, I can never die!” yelled the Dagith as he leaped forward.

* * * *
The crowd was beginning to panic now, and Libra was wondering what he should be doing. Then the uproar died down, Libra looked over and watched as crowd members began to fall away and be replaced by demons. Scared shitless, Libra closed the door and ran back up the stairs looking for something to help Kain with.

Then it occurred to him that this castle probably had cannons somewhere on the roof, so he bound up the nearest flight of stairs. The third floor was relatively empty; ignoring it Libra found another stairway and flew up it. At the top there was a wood door, it was locked, wasting no time he kicked it off its hinges and made his way to the roof.

The sun beat down on the veteran as he looked over the edge of the castle, Kain and a demon were fighting in the pit while the other demons were beginning to move down toward them, and where Rane went was a mystery. Grabbing a cannonball he loaded it into one of the nearby cannons, set down a wick and using a nearby piece of flint on his sword he lit a small flare. The ball hit hard and true…fifteen feet from the crowd of demons.

The crowd turned to see Libra waving from the rooftops, “Come get me you scum sucking sons of bitches! Your mothers are all flea infested whores, your fathers are useless blood sucking parasites and you don’t have the balls to take me on!”

Some of the words Libra used seemed to piss the crowd off as they forgot totally about Kain and began charging back up the crater toward the castle. The demon Kain was fighting yelled out to them “You fools forget him, help me!”

The crowd, now at the top of the crater turned around to go back and help as another cannon ball slammed into the mass of demons. They turned back toward Libra and charged the castle. Libra had time to let loose three more cannon balls before the entire crowd had gotten inside and began making their way up the stairs toward the old fighter.

Spinning the cannon around to face the door, Libra readied another cannon ball. The door opened and he let it fly. It slammed into the demon coming up the stairs but didn’t stop the others; they streamed out onto the rooftop with blood in their eyes.

* * * *

Kain caught Dagith’s punch stepped behind him, grabbed his neck with his free hand and brought him to the ground, then with as much force as he could muster kicked the demon in the head. With another mighty leap he shot out of the crater onto the roof of the castle.

The structural supports of the building must have been weak for as soon as Kainzo hit the roof the top floor began to collapse. As the demons struggled to kill Libra, the emperor grabbed him and yelled to him.

“Tell Aph Dagith is back!”

With that Libra found himself on the ground of Kainzo’s office in Sanctum city.

“What the? Naw chief, you didn’t…did you?” Libra got up from the floor and looked around, the room was empty.

“Chief…?” Libra waited for a response, “Shit!” He knew what had happened and he didn’t like it; his long time friend had teleported Libra to safety. The old veteran sat down and slumped in Kain’s chair, his head in his hands.

Almost a full half hour had passed before he mustered the energy to move again. When he took his hands away from his face it was streaked with tears flowing from red eyes…
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 16: The Traveler, the Sniper, the Thief and the Bezerker

Xatxil opened the door the humble hut on the side of the road and checked his corners, it was empty. He motioned for Steamed and Chambers to follow.

The huge mountain of a man entered after Xatxil and flopped down on one of the four beds in the room, “Balls, I’m tired.”

Steamed shut the door, “You had said you knew something about Shen?”

“Oh yeah,” Replied Chambers, “She was kidnapped, more or less, you three were walking along the forest path and you were jumped by six or seven guys. You were easily overpowered; your girly friend was dragged off screaming while you two were knocked unconscious. Not sure why they didn’t kill you, but I’m not one to argue with a good thing.”

“A good thing?” Asked Xatxil, “Our friend just got kidnapped from us, and you did nothing about it!”

“Well, you are still alive; I’d say that counts as ‘good’. As for me not doing anything, there were more than a half dozen, do you really think I, one man, could have taken them?” Chambers deep voice sent a sorrow feeling through the two fugitives’ minds, “Look, I’m sorry it happened, and I wish I could have done something but I couldn’t

There was a long pause as they all reflected on the events of the past two days. Finally chambers got up from the bed and opened the cupboard on the wall. He took out some dried meats and preserved goods. Each Travelers rest stop had a stock of food and beds for everyone to use, luckily this one had recently been restocked.

Chambers set the foods on the table and said, “You two look exhausted, eat something and get some rest, I’ll take watch for the night.” He stepped out the door and left the two weary travelers to their food which they fell on like dogs.

Neither of them knew weather the big man was a blessing or an omen but he seemed genuinely interested in helping them so neither of them complained, but both of them knew, somewhere there was something more to him than met the eye…

* * * *

Carmeops woke up from a rather uncomfortable sleep to find, to his horror, that there was a man eating wolf nudging his body. Terrified the thief laid waiting for the dog to move on, but it didn’t, it kept poking him with its nose or pawing his shoulder whining. After a long moment the thief suddenly rolled to his left, back towards the mine shaft exit and jumped to his feet.

The wolf barked and sat down, its tongue hanging from its mouth in a slobbery mess of happiness. What Carmeops had mistaken for a wolf was actually a friendly dog, a very hungry looking one to boot. The thief smiled and patted the dog on the head; it followed him as he limped away from the cave entrance.

Situated near the crest of a small, wooded hill, the mine shaft was well hidden and from the looks, in the middle of nowhere. Exhausted and in pain, the wanted man made his way from tree to tree, leaning on each one for support. In the fading light a light was shining brightly from what looked to be a small cottage. With the dog by his side, Carmeops stumbled toward the cabin with as much haste as he could, but as he neared it, his vision began to swim and fade in and out of focus, the last thing he saw before falling to the ground were two bright eyes peering from the darkness.

* * * *

Chambers watched Carm fall to the ground, dog by his side. Curious he made his way to the fallen man; the dog was sitting next to him. Patting the pup on the head he scooped the thief up with one arm and turned toward the rest stop. It was unusually quiet, no wind, no rustle of leaves, nothing, something wasn’t right. The big man froze; the only immediate sound was the panting of the dog, now standing, next to him.

Then it was there, from the forest a zombie came running, its arms flailing as it eyed its next prey. Dropping the man, Chambers ran toward the zombie and rolled around it right as they met, the monster now between Carm and himself. The zombie stumbled and continued to give chase to Chambers. With no weapon to defend him, Chambers made a B-line toward the nearest tree branch.

The first one he reached was more of a log rather than a branch, however, that didn’t stop him. Using his incredible strength to lift the fallen tree he swung it with as much force as he could muster as the zombie closed in on him. The result was satisfying, an explosion of blood and gore shot from behind the log as the top half of the creature was taken clean off ending its blood craze. Smiling, Chambers dropped the bloody log and walked back to the fallen man, picked him up once more and walked back to the rest stop. Upon entering he found both Xatxil and Steamed passed out on their beds, he laid the unconscious man on the fourth bed and returned to the outdoors where he waited the remainder of the night watching for danger.

* * * *

Dreams had never been a comfortable thing for the infamous thief of Sanctum. As a child he had nightmares that seemed all too real, a few even haunted him to this day. However, this one was far more vivid than the others, it was different in some way, he couldn’t quite figure out how, but he knew it was. It felt as if he were trying to remember a dream after he had woken up, it was on the tip of his tongue but he couldn’t quite figure it out.

A voice interrupted his thoughts, “Hmm, Can you understand me?”

Carmeops cringed and then replied “Etiam Sed Mi Laedit Aures”

“Aha, a foreigner, interesting.” Replied the voice “You’ll have to put up with me because I’m very rusty, my apologies.”

“Quid ego Hic?” Carmeops asked

“You’re here because you’re so exhausted you fell into a form of purgatory. You’ll be waking shortly. Unfortunately you’ll have no recollection of our conversation.”

Carm shrugged as a bright light enveloped him, accompanied by a deafening sound. He was awake.
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 17: Proctors

Brutalacerate paced in front of his men, all stood in a long line waiting for his orders. They were all proctors, an elite group of Special Forces agents dedicated to the protection of Sanctum, both city and planet. They had been waiting for nearly twenty five minutes while brutal walked up and down the line, closely inspecting each man. Finally the big man spoke.

“Do any of you know why I called you here?” It was rhetorical, no one answered. “We have a situation on our hands, just hours ago the Oracle reported the largest deamon activity we’ve seen in the last four years since the uprising. This is of some major concern. So we’re going to go check it out.”

The line of Proctors remained silent and unmoving in the courtyard of Spawn Tower.

Brutal continued, “You’re to break up into groups of three, one lookout, and two roamers. You will comb assigned areas; you’ll be in meadow, glens, cities, towns, forests, mountains, and every other landscape between here and the wilderness. Do I make myself clear?”

The proctors replied in one booming voice “Yes sir!”

“Good I want every square inch of ground covered, any and all deamons dead and all positions with deamon activity reported to me within the next twenty four hours. GO!”

The proctors broke their formation and met up with their groups and were off to gear up. Before anyone could leave the courtyard Brutal shouted one last announcement “OrangeAngel, Jmoney, you’re both with me, we’re taking Neverast!”

The two proctors turned back toward their commanding officer and met up with him, Orange was the first to speak, ‘Neverast sir? They wouldn’t set up in a city; it’s the first place we’d look.”

“Which is exactly,” said Brutal, “why we’re going to look there first.”

Jmoney stifled a laugh while Orange just stood there, feeling stupid. “Gear up;” said their boss, “We’re moving out in twenty five minutes.”

* * * *

The three neared Neverast as the snow fell softly around them and crunched beneath their boots. Orange was donned in his typical ranger gear, Jmoney under his black cloak and Brutal in a conjured set of very shiny armor. The walls, covered in snow, were devoid of life and gave no answer as an empty shout echoed for the gates to open. After a brief moment of waiting, Brutal took a huge, superhuman leap and landed gracefully atop the wall. Flipping the gate switch, he watched as the two proctors entered, Orange was twirling an arrow twixt his fingers and while Jmoney bore no weapons in the open, there was surly a dagger neath his cloak.

Jumping down, brutal made silent hand signals to both agents. Orange was to take position on the Neverast watch tower and keep an eye on the other two from above. Jmoney was to stick with Brutal and follow his lead.

The proctor ranger dashed through the empty streets of the cold, deserted capital of the Noble Republic of Aegis until he reached the watch tower. By the time he reached the base of the tower, which was slightly elevated above the rooftops, both Brutal and Jay were out of sight. Making haste, he climbed the stairs two at a time until he reached a mechanical lift which took him the rest of the way up. As he began to set up his post a voice whispered in his ear.

“Orange, can you hear me? Come in, over.”

Orange spoke “I can hear you, what’s up?”

“It’s Brutal, magic com link has been established. Jay and I are headed north towards what looks like a library.”

The magic com links were direct communication channels from one person to another over a distance. It was emitted from a magic user, Brutalacerate happened to be one of the most prominent users of them. He valued the ability to communicate in battle over even the most powerful weapons.

“I’ve got you, in sight.” said Orange, “Visible streets are clear, you can proceed as required. Don’t move down the street to your left, it’s blind to me for the first 100 meters.”

“Alright, got it, we’re going to clear the library, watch the entrance.” replied Brutal as they neared the doors of the massive building that dominated the Neverast skyline.

Orange watched as the two entered the building. There was total silence as the ranger scanned the streets for baddies, there were none. Convinced there were no deamons, he began to lessen the frequency of his sweeps. Neverast was a waste of time.

After several long minutes Brutal spoke in his ear again, “All clear, moving to the town hall.”

“Hang on,” replied Orange, “I can’t see over there, let me reposition.”

“Negative,” replied Brutal, “Maintain position, cover our backs.”

“Sir, I can’t be your eyes if I can’t see you, I need to move.”

“I said negative, stay where you are!”

“Sir- I-“ Orange was cut off by Jmoney

“Contact! We’ve been engaged!”

A mighty roar echoed through the city, the clang of steel on steel followed shortly after. Orange swore and swung his bow to his left and repositioned his sights on the farther side of the bridge. Brutal as going toe to toe with three massive deamons. Jmoney was also in the fray swinging his daggers like lightning as each deamon tried to deliver punishing swings of their massive claws. Orange began to let arrows fly, several even struck his targets. An impressive feat for the range he was at.

Brutal yelled over the com, “Orange, what the hell are you doing? Watch our backs, we’ve got this!”

There was another deafening roar of the deamons that echoed across the city. The sound of swords crashing against each other grew louder. Now, Orange had lost sight of the fight and moved to another corner of the tower. Another deamon had come from behind and took the two by surprise.

“Fuck’s sake Orange,” Yelled Brutal, “I told you to watch our backs, get your ass down here!” As the two Proctors fought for their lives Orange made his way down the tower, a lump in his throat. Sprinting through the streets, the ranger made his way to where the fight was taking place, when he arrived, a bloody scene greeted him. Three of the four deamons were dead, their guts spilling out onto the street. Brutal was going hand to hand with the last one. Orange knocked, drew, and fired an arrow that struck the deamon in the neck causing it to scream in pain. This gave Brutal time to spin behind its back grab its chin and gruesomely snap its neck.

Letting the deamon drop to the ground, Brutal approached Orange, “Don’t ever disobey orders like that again, if I tell you not to change viewing position then don’t change your damn position. Had Jmoney not saved my ass, we both coulda been dead! Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good, there is definite deamon activity here, let’s move to the town hall, they came from that direction.”

The three proctors moved stealthily through the empty streets. Now, with deamon activity confirmed, they were all on guard. Their footsteps echoed from building to building as the town hall loomed closer and closer. Moving around the ever flaming stone goblet, they approached the main gate of the town hall, it was open, no something typical for the city.

“This dun look good yo, could get ugly.” Muttered Jmoney

“Yeah,” Said Orange, “Neverast never leaves gates open.”

“Open or not, we’re coming in!” Said Brutal unsheathing his sword and moving down the stairs leading to the city’s underground.

The hall was a mess, broken glass and trash littered the floors. Puddles of water were scattered throughout the room. Without words the three moved from the main room to search every room on the first basement floor, there were no signs of life. Moving down to the second level the air became very cold and foggy. The only room of interest was the meeting room; it looked like it had been ripped apart, almost as if someone was looking for something. Books were scattered around the floor, chairs overturned, there were even a few holes in the wall. Whatever was going on was probably not good.

Brutal signaled for the other two to halt, “Last floor is the Training Academy, don’t let your guard down, the place is huge.”

Jay and Orange nodded as they followed their boss down the flight of stairs to the next floor. There was a door at the bottom of the stairs that read: “WARNING: AUTHORIZED PERSONEL ONLY! CLOSED UNTILL FURTHER NOTICE”.

Ignoring the sign they slowly opened the door, what they saw amazed them. They were standing on an observation deck of a huge room, nearly the entire size of the city. It spread out for miles of artificial landscape including deserts, forests, plains and lakes. It was a monument to the building power of man, and it was all underground.

“Um boss?” Asked Jmoney, “I don’t think we have the manpower for a job this big.”

“We won’t need more men, look.” Said Orange

He was referring to an encampment near what they believed to be the center of the room. There were massive red figures lumbering around, making fortifications.

Brutal smiled, “Bingo, this’ll be fun.”

“Boss,” Jmoney whispered, “There are about twelve of them, that we can see mind you, and there are three of us, that’s four or more per person. I dun give a damn how powerful you are, I can’t take four deamons.

“Deamons,” Began Brutal, “Are aligned with the element of fire, they really really don’t like water, and I mean not at all. Conveniently, and for reasons I have ceased to try to understand, Applelove built this right under Lake Andy.”

Orange replied, “You mean to tell me this thing is under Neverast’s reservoir?”

“Hell yeah, magic powers, ACTIVATE!” said Brutal raising his hands. Almost at the command the room began to shake and crack. Crevices began to appear in the ceiling and walls. The Deamons looked around nervously as pieces of stone began to shower upon them. Then, in a colossal, climactic explosion, millions of gallons of water began to pour through the roof of the room. With the force of hundreds of avalanches, the colossal wave smashed into the deamon encampment decimating the entire area.

Both Jmoney and Orange watched in amazement as the deamons being washed away screamed as they turned into piles of a disgusting red goop. Apparently Brutal was right, they didn’t like water. After minutes of waiting the entire water body that was Lake Andy had emptied into the Training academy. However the room was so big that the water was only just above waist deep. However their work was not done. Standing amidst the soggy ruins of the demaon fortification was a creature neither Jay nor Orange had seen before.

Surrounded in a magical barrier keeping the water away, and clad in charcoal colored armor, it screamed at them, a high pitched ear shattering bellow. It stood nearly 7 feet tall and was as skinny as a stick; it was also holding a staff.

Brutal’s eyes widened, “Shaman!” he shouted “Jump!”

Neither proctor moved, they just stood there, dumbstruck. Wasting no time Brutal simply shoved them off the balcony into the ice cold water many feet below. Just in time too, for a bolt of lightning emanating from the shaman’s staff hit the spot Jmoney had been standing only a second ago.

* * * *

OrangeAngel was never a heights guy, he was fine with being in tall places but what he really had fears of was falling. That was exactly what he was doing now, falling. He yelled out just before he hit the water with a giant splash. Every bone in his body ached, as he surfaced and tried to figure out where he was in relation to the shaman. Only his reflexes saved his life as he jumped out of the way of an arrow. Now the shaman’s staff had morphed into a bow and he was letting arrows fly at both Brutal and Orange. Jmoney was nowhere to be seen.

Orange plunged under the water once more as a salvo of arrows came streaming by. Up above Brutal let loose a lighting bolt of his own which was deflected by the tall deamon. Orange scrambled for his bow and knocked an arrow. Without aiming he let it fly, it missed horribly. He tried to knock another arrow but had to move as the shaman shot a spiral of fire at the ranger. Brutal added some aid by sending several short bursts of water spheres that changed the focus of the shaman’s concentration.

With the shaman distracted, Jmoney took his time to strike. He had swum up behind the armored monster and was poised to attack. He jumped and latched himself to the deamon’s back. He then plunged his dagger into the shaman’s jugular vein. Screaming, the hideous creature struck Jmoney with his claws as he threw the rouge from his back.

Silently thanking his friend, Orange rose from the watery depths, arrow knocked and drawn. With water cascading from his brow, the archer lined up the perfect shot. The shaman was turning back toward him, unaware of his presence, he let the arrow fly.

It hit true, striking the shaman through the eye hole of his helmet causing him to drop his staff and clutch his head in pain. Right on cue Brutal made a huge leap from the balcony and smashed into the shaman, destroying his barrier. Not taking any chances the huge leader of the Proctor Special Forces held the head of the deamon under the water and let his lungs fill. It wasn’t until the body began to melt that he let it go.

Orange was already making his way through the water to Jmoney, who was floating face up in the water.

“Jay?” He shouted

There was no reply

“Make sure he’s alright!” Shouted Brutal from behind him, he too was making his way to Jmoney

Orange made it to the fallen proctor, his eyes were open, “That…hurt…a lot.” He muttered

“You alright buddy?” asked Orange as he helped Jay keep afloat.

“Think I might have a few broken ribs,” he wheezed, “but I think I’ll live.”

Brutal showed up, “Let’s get you back to base big guy. Good work, both of you.”

Orange helped Jmoney float to the lift back to the balcony as Brutal spoke into the magic com link “All units, Deamon activity confirmed in Neverast, I repeat, deamon activity confirmed in Neverast. Complete your searches and report all findings to me back in Sanctum. When you return, await further orders, the deamons are back!”
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 18: Debriefing

“Docking clamps coming out!” Shouted the crewman

The clamps that held ships in place on the Seagate Airdock reached out and secured themselves on the Legionnaire with a loud mechanical ‘clunk’. They were home. After 2 weeks of tracking Carmeops, Ruethian couldn’t say he was happy with the outcome. For the last 2 years he had been tracking the infamous thief, and every time there was a lead the bastard slipped through his fingers. This time it was just too damned close, only the turbulence of the battle above Fiore had caused the door to open, had that not happened the thief would be rotting in federal prison, or employed under Seagate with help of the collar.

Now, Rue was more concerned with the aftermath, he was about to report to Matt, the mayor of Seagate. After the death of Strongholdx in the ‘Battle of Sanctum’ Matt had been named mayor, as addressed in Stronghold’s will. Matt was a fine leader, but he demanded perfection, and perfection was not always a guarantee. And for the last two years of report of failure – perfection was a long ways away. In other words Rue was about to get bitched at.

“General!” Matt saluted as he approached the ship “What news do you bring me?”

The expression on Rue’s face told the mayor all he needed to know, “Sir,” said Ruethain saluting in turn, “We had him in the brig on the way back from Fiore, where we captured him.”

“’Had’, general? I don’t understand.”

“Sir, he was in our custody, after taking fire from ORE ships, the door in the brig was broken open and he escaped.”

“Escaped!?” asked Matt, his temper rising, “You had better give an explanation on how the hell he escaped a moving ship!”

“He jumped.”

“He jumped?”

“He jumped.” Was Rue’s reply

“He jumped?” asked the mayor, “just like that?”

“Just like that.” Confirmed Rue

“Parachute?”

“Nope, he just jumped.”

“He jumped…? Just like that? No one jumps from a goddamn airship without a parachute!!”

“I said the exact same thing sir; whether he is alive or not, we may never know. Shortly after, we discovered a small fuel leak; we could not continue the search.”

“Damn it Ruethian, you have the worst luck. Give me a full report by tomorrow, but first we have an even more important matter to address.”

Rue cocked an eyebrow, “Aye sir, what is it?”

“Can’t discuss it here, confidential information; meet me in my office once you have everything tidied up here.” Matt saluted again and marched off toward the lift down to the city.

Patsfan handing the helm of his ship, jumped aboard the dock. “What’s next?”

“No fucking idea, first thing on my list is a nap.”

Patsfan chuckled, “Well, I’ll take care of the fleet for a bit, you get some rest you old dog.”

Thanking his friend, the aging general began to walk down the mountain that held the airdock. He preferred stairs, it kept him in shape. Rue’s life so far had been a long one; he grew up with Punisher in the old city of Zion, after being totally destroyed in the Bloodline wars they both moved to Seagate were they were inducted into the military. Rue showed the ability of a master tactician as well as a skillful pilot. He climbed the ladder to the top and made quite a living. Life in the navy was interesting, full of adventure, fights, and drinking, lots and lots of drinking.

And then there was Patsfan – a loyal resident of Seagate who was the most patriotic person he had ever met. The second in command of the navy was vigilant, loyal, and friendly, almost everything you could ask for in a friend. Even though Rue flew alongside great people, and worked for a great city – he felt underappreciated. Rue shrugged off the feeling as he approached the gate of the city; it had been dubbed the ‘Sea Gate’.

Ruethian made his way down the bustling streets of his town, past the industrial district, through the residential district and into the tower district. This was his home – as well as the home of the four Seagate towers: Oasis, Guardian, Crusader, and Punisher. Obviously Punisher lived in the latter of the four, Ruethian lived in Guardian, Corwnz lived in Crusader and Malandrops lived in Oasis – they were all once residents of Zion. As he moved toward his home, he was met by a group of miners.

“Heyo! It’s the big bad general! What be up big guy?” Said one, Mac

“Mac, Trevor, David, how are you?”

“We’re not bad,” Said Trevor the second miner, “We’re going to go back into the mines, ran into a creeper den – we had some marines clearing it our all morning.”

“That sucks - David, how are you?” Ruethain joked.

There was no reply – David never spoke, ever. Since his arrival in Seagate no one had ever recorded him speak, or even have a change of facial expression. Instead, David shrugged. The other miners laughed and continued on their way. Ruethian entered his home.

Long ago Guardian Tower had been his pride and joy, now it was a dusty old reminder of things past, it held no hope for him. Lava poured down the sides of his house giving him light as he hung up his coat. It a long Sea Captain’s coat that kept him warm but breathed during the summer and kept him refreshed. Shuffling toward his bed, he flopped down and closed his eyes for a brief moment. Once he opened them, it was morning.

“Balls.” Said Rue as he got out of bed, he should have gone to visit Matt the night before and would undoubtedly pay for it this morning. He changed clothes, grabbed his coat and exited his tower. The town was still sleepy on the foggy morning, not much was happening yet, the sun wasn’t even up. As he made his way down the docks Rue’s footsteps thudded in the damp morning air. Making a right out of the tower district he entered the Center District, it consisted of the bank, the Town Hall and the huge, magical floating compass made of Glowstone.

Briskly walking into the Town Hall, Rue found Matt’s office and knocked.

“Enter.” Came matt’s voice

Rue opened the door and walked in, closing it behind him. “Sir.” He said

“Took a nap I see.” Matt’s voice had little emotion, but he certainly wasn’t happy

“You wanted to see me?”

“Yes, it’s about Newerth.”

“What about them?” Asked Rue

“We lost all communication with them yesterday morning – we sent a runner at noon, he hasn’t returned. So I went over there myself, they’re locked up tight, gates closed, no one in sight.”

“Any signs of a fight?”

“Nope, looks like a ghost town.”

Rue cocked an eyebrow, “Sir, Newerth is just around the corner, and you can practically see the city from the Tower district.”

“That is exactly what concerns me,” Said Matt, “If something bad happened to them – we’re right in the vicinity for something bad to happen to us.”

“Understandable, what do you want me to do about it?”

“Take the Kristinza and fly over there, find out what the hell happened, put men on the ground if you need to. Then return to me and give a situation report as soon as humanly possible.”

“Sir!” Rue saluted, tuned on his heel and walked out the door. He was headed for the Airdock once again – he had another mission to complete. This one however, he had a bad feeling about…
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 19: Stronghold’s Legacy

Steamed was the first to wake up, Xat was in the bed across from him, still out cold. There was another man lying on the third bed, he looked just as exhausted as Xatxil did – who he was, was a mystery to Steam. Chambers was still outside by the looks of it; he pushed his rifle to the side, swung his legs over the side of the bed, and got up. Steam groaned as muscles all over his body ached.

Moving to the door, the sniper almost tripped over a dog curled up next to it, it too was sleeping soundly. ‘What did I miss?’ thought Steam.

The lanky sharpshooter walked out into the fresh morning air. In the light he could see his surroundings much more clearly than the night before. The rest stop was off of a dirt road; on the other side was a vast lake. To the left there was a forest that the dirt path wound out of, to the right were hills leading into higher mountains. There was a dense fog over the lake, but where he was, the air was crisp, clear and sweet. Out in front of the hut, Chambers was crouched over a fire pit; it had meat roasting over it on a spit.

“Morning.” Said Steam

Chambers yawned, “Hey, see your new visitor?”

“Yeah, what’s his deal?”

“No idea, he came stumbling out of the forest with a dog by his side. When I got to him, he was knocked silly.”
“Weird, I suppose we’ll find out who he is when he wakes up.”

“Yeah,” said chambers taking the spit off the roaster, “Lucky you, you get first pick of vittles.”

“You take first,” Steam politely refused, “You’ve been up all night; you’re undoubtedly in need of nutrition more than I.”

Before the sentence was done, the huge man had already bitten into one chunk of meat, swallowed it down and was working on a second. He ravenously tore at the food, almost like he had been starving. He, without a word, handed one to Steam who lightly bit into it savoring the taste, it was good to have warm food. Hell, it was good to have food in general.

As Chambers gnawed at his meal he asked, “So what’s your story?”

“Steamed, specialist first class, Sanctum Proctor corps. Part time contract killer. I guess the last part caught up with me.”

“Illegal kill I assume?”

“Yeah, in Sanctum”

“Damn,” Said Chambers, “That sucks. What about your friend?”

“Xatxil? He came with Shen to bail me out of jail. I had never met him before, but she spoke of him once in a while. Seems like they were friends once.”

“Hmmm, who was this Shen character?”

“Shenorai, she was an artist and somewhat of a historian.”

“Reminds me of Aqu-“ Chambers coughed, “er, an old friend.”

Steam shrugged and continued to eat his meal.

* * * *​

Carmeops was awake. The only thing he could remember from the night before was a dog and a really really big creeper. He was lying on a bed in a small wooden hut. Without even looking he could hear the breathing of a man and an animal of some sort. He soon found that there was another man, still sleeping, and a dog, also sleeping, near the door. Most importantly the man was clutching a beautiful dagger made of some blue metallic substance – soon, decided the thief, it would be his.

He got out of bed and instantly collapsed, he was still exhausted. The noise of him hitting the ground woke both the dog and the man in the other bed.

The man’s eyes opened, “What the..? Who the hell are you?”

“Nemo iam redire ad lectum” Said Carmeops smoothly

“Don’t just spew gibberish,” Said the man, “Give me a name or this is going into your face.” He held up the dagger

“Namdeus non nocuerunt mihi, nolo mori” his tone changing from sly to fearful

“Make sense man or I’m going to put you down like a dog.”

“Quomodo dicitis…not to die I want… no death please bring to me.”

“What the deuce?” Said the man shaking the dagger

“Forgive me…for speak the language of your poorly I do.”

The man paused, “I think I get it- what’s your name?”

Carmeops thought fast, this was one of the tightest situations he had ever been in. He was a wanted man with thousands of coins on his head; surely he couldn’t just give his name away. So he made on up, “Victor” he replied.

“Alright Victor, why don’t you step outside, while I follow you eh?” said the man

Carmeops again, began to think fast as he got up and made his way to the door. He turned the handle and opened it; he then held it open for the man, who stepped out, still pointing the dagger at Carm. With lightning like action, Carm slammed the door in the man’s face, knocking him back. And without a second thought he fled down the dirt path toward the main road.

He didn’t make it very far, for when he slammed the door in Xatxil’s face, Steamed was already in a full sprint. Flinging himself at the thief, he broadsided him, throwing him to the ground. Carm was barely able to get a yell out before he hit the hard packed dirt below him. Steamed promptly flipped him over and put his hands behind his back, and then reached for his nonexistent handcuffs.

He swore and kept pressure on the thief’s back. As a proctor, Steam was trained to recognize criminals, he knew Carmeops without seeing his face. He had instinctively tackled him and went to handcuff him. However, his handcuffs were back in Sanctum, where he had first fled from Apherdite.

“Agh,” the thief spat, “Get me manus tua!”

“Xatxil, are you all right?” Steam yelled, ignoring Carmeops

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, bastard got me good.” The traveler got up holding his nose, blood seeping from it.

By now, Chambers had made his way over to Steamed; he picked up Carmeops and held him, hands behind his back. Steam, thanking the big man, ran over to help Xatxil.

“Alright little man,” Said Chambers, his deep voice projecting clearly, “I take you in, kill of a zombie so you can live, and give you a place to stay, this isn’t a very good way to say thank you.”

“Aye, non valent quindecim milia denariorum.” spat the thief

“O rem? Itaque omni modo per ordinem fiant in vobis!” Replied Chambers

“You speak that garbage?” asked Xatxil, tending to his bleeding nose.

“Yeah, it’s an old dialect; I’m surprised this little fucker speaks it. Anyhow, he says he’s got a lot of money on his head.”

“Fifteen thousand to be exact.” Replied Steam, “That, is Carmeops, the infamous robber-thief of Sanctum.”

“Damn,” said Xatxil, “Live or dead to get the money?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Steam said back, “We’re wanted fugitives, so is he, we can’t turn him in without turning ourselves in.”

Chambers looked at Carmeops, “Lorem homunculus faciam tibi negotium. Si quis non dixerit ubi simus, nos non vidimus, ubi tu nemini dixeris.” Then he looked at Xatxil, “I told him that I’d make him a deal, if he keeps quiet about us, we’ll do the same for him.”

The sniper and the traveler nodded

Carmeops looked around – the dagger in Xatxil’s hand could be worth a fortune, he could pay off all his debts with it. He came up with another lie. “Quid faciam tibi sociare. Ceterum profugi non sumus? Nos omnes fines communes, et non est salutem in numeris, EH?”

Chambers translated, “He says, ‘Tell you what, I will join you. After all, we are fugitives are we not? We all have common goals, and there is safety in numbers, eh?’ I think you two could use a guy like him.”

“It’s possible.” Said Xatxil thoughtfully

“No,” Refused Steam, “He’ll take what little we have and flee before tomorrow, I guarantee it!”

“Or if he’s not fibbing, he can steal other people’s shit for us, eh?” Xatxil countered, rubbing his chin.

“No, no, no, I refuse! He’s going to rob out right!”

“Chambers, what do you think?”

“Do what you want; I’m not wanted by the law.” Replied the giant

“Well, we seem to be at a tie as far as votes go, we’re going to need an opinion form a third party.” Xatxil said, shrugging.

“I think you could use him, he’s defiantly got skill if he’s wanted for more than a small town.”

“Are you two stupid?” Asked Steam, borderline yelling, “He’s lying!”

“Alright, then,” Xatxil said, his tone turned hostile, “Then you’re welcome to leave, nothing is preventing you from getting up and going on your own path. Have fun fending for yourself!”

Steam took a deep breath, “Sorry, I just don’t trust him. After all, I was a proctor just yesterday.”

“Yeah, it’s understandable.” Said Xatxil, this time comfortingly, “Alright Chambers, let him go.”

The big guy nodded and released the thief, who brushed the dirt off his clothes and looked blankly at the other three. There was an awkward silence.

“Sooooooo…What do we do now?” asked Xatxil

“Well,” Steam started, “We need to find that damn key, there was defiantly something important about it, after all, why would Raetec have been carrying it in the first place?”

“Kay?” asked Carmeops.

The two fugitives filled the thief in on what had happened in the past day, what had happened with Raetec, how they had to flee from DagothAgahnim,a nd how they had ended up where they were now. Carmeops simply nodded, it was an impressive feat. It was also at that point that Carmeops decided that the two men he had seen in the tunnels were in fact the two standing before him.

Carmeops’s lack of fascination suppressed both Xatxil and Steam, however, Chambers’s eyes widened, something about the story obviously intrigued him. He inquired, “Now, I don’t want to bud in, but I really have nowhere to go, would you three mind if I join up with you? I can handle myself in a fight, I might come in handy.”

Steam shrugged, “The more the merrier I guess…”

Xatxil smiled, “You’ve been kind to us so far, you can tag along. Just keep in mind that we’re all wanted by the authorities, you could be arrested for assisting criminals.”

Chambers shrugged, “I’ve spent my fair time in jail. I’ll be ok.”

“Alright,” Steam said, “We may not want to stay in one spot to long, we have to move, it’s already late morning. Anyone know of a place to stay?”

Chambers spoke up, “I know of a spot, it’s not much, poor living conditions, but its out of the way, I can show you the way.”

“By all means,” Said the sharpshooter, “Let’s go.”

The four set off down the road being led only by the words of a man whom they had just met.

* * * *​

Raetec threw up again. Dore stood over him, weaving his healing magic over the dying man who sputtered and coughed; vomit leaking from his mouth when suddenly his eyes opened.

“What the hell? Where am I?”

Dore knelt by him and held up his hand, two fingers sticking up, “How many fingers?”

“Two.”

“Good, name?”

“Raetec.”

“Good, city?”

“Dore, why are you asking me these questions?”

“Standard medical procedure, you seem fine now, the poison seems to have dissipated.”

“Poison?” asked Raetec, “Last thing I remember I was jumped by some big guy at the Oracle and he plunged a dagger into my shoulder. Why am I covered in puke?”

“You disappeared for a few days, gave a note to TheTXlibra and ran off; you were found by a roamer yesterday. You were really fucked up.”

Raetec’s eyes widened, “Oh shit, now I remember, I need to talk to Kainzo right now, it’s of utmost importance!” he tried to get out of bed, but fell to the floor, wincing in pain.

Dore helped him back onto the cot and explained everything that had had happened, Kain and Libra’s disappearance, the Deamon activity confirmation from Brutal, HolyRane’s escape, and so on. Raetec was dumbfounded.

“Damn, I wanted to prevent this!”

“You knew?” asked Dore, in complete awe

“Yeah, let me explain…”

* * * *​

The four were now deep in the mountains. Chambers had led them through many winding paths that were, for the most part, hidden. They wound up mountains, across bridges and up to a cliff face. The sun was right above their head as they all stopped. It was a flat cliff that they were up against, on either side of them was a steep drop down, the only way to go was back.

“Lost we be?” asked Carmeops

“Nah,” replied Chambers, “Convincing isn’t it?”

“Is what convincing?” asked Steam, “there is nothing here.”

“That’s what they want you to think,” Chambers replied as he dug his hands into the cliff face. With a huge grunt of effort a circular stone door began to roll aside revealing a passageway into the cliff.

“Holy balls,” exclaimed Xatxil, “A secret passage!”

“Yeah,” Chambers replied, almost happily, “I’ve been living here for a while now, come on in, and I’ll close it up behind us. The other three slid by the big man into the passage, it was cool and dark, a little damp too. Chambers slid the doors closed; it emitted a loud grinding noise as is slid back into position. They were left in complete darkness, but then a red light began emitting from Xatxil’s body.

“You can glow?” asked Chambers in disbelief

“Not up until recently.” He replied

“Damn, you found it?”

Steam interjected, “Found what?”

The big man rubbed his chin in the red light, “Follow me and I’ll explain.”

They made their way down the passage which led to a flight of stairs that curved up and to the left. The four climbed the stairs up to another door; it had a small hole in it. Chambers took a key from his pocket and inserted the key. He turned it with what seemed like a lot of effort and swung the door open.

They entered into a massive room hollowed into the mountain. Lit by torches, the room was rimmed in ebony steel and ash wood; hundreds of bookcases were spread through the room, all of them jammed with tomes. The floor was made of hard oak wood cut into tiles. For a moment, one could forget they were inside of a mountain.

“This… must have taken ages to make.” Muttered Steam

“Grand say I it is,” Said Carmeops

“Welcome to Stronghold’s Library.” Said Chambers as he led them through the cases toward the front of the room, “This was created by Strongholdx years ago, as far as I know, he was the only one who knew where it was. I found it one day while I was lost amongst these mountains – I’ve been trying to uncover its secrets ever since.”

“Secrets?” asked Carmeops, obviously intrigued.

“Yeah, follow me.” Chambers led them to a lift that operated on a pulley system. They boarded it and it brought them to a second floor, but kept going and made its way to a third. It was a small room, well lit. The only thing in it was a staircase that led outside.

After they had hit the top of the stairs they found themselves near the peak of the mountain. They could see for miles, Sanctum towered in the distance, Fiore to their Northeast, and they could barely see Newerth to the south. There was a small path that lead to the peak of the mountain, they ascended to the top.

The wind howled as they stood before a small cave entrance blocked by a set of doors. The doors were carved with ornate symbols of some long dead language. The four stared in awe at them. They seemed to give off some otherworldly aura.

Chambers pushed the doors open and led the three others into a crypt. There was a coffin in the center of the room; at its foot was a chest. Two torches cast lonely shadows amongst the chamber.

“What is this?” asked Xatxil, totally captivated

“This is the tomb of the great hero, Lance.”

“Hero?!” asked Carmeops

“Etiam homunculus heros.” Replied Chambers, then he spoke to Xatxil, “Hero means demigod in the language Carmeops speaks, however Lance was not a god.”

“What was he?” asked Steam, not just as interested as the other two

“He was a being of great power, a Hero. Ones you may know of are Kainzo our emperor, Al-Aloun the desert archer, and Raptor the swords master.”

“Yeah, I know Kain, but the other two don’t ring a bell.” Xatxil replied

“Heroes are beings of immense power, they cannot be killed by mortal beings, and they may only be slain by other heroes. Time does not wither them away, wounds do not hinder them, and they often possess great magical or physical strength. By some great power, whenever one dies, the area they fall in becomes their tomb, here it seems, Lance died upon this mountain.”

“Fascinating! What does this tomb have to do with the library?” Steam asked, wide eyed

“Stronghold was a master of lore, history, and things past. He found nearly every tomb and took their most powerful objects, leaving the rest for other to find.”

“Most powerful weapons? The chest over there looks untouched; the lock is still even on it.” Steam said, puzzled

“I did not say weapons; in each tomb the hero’s gear is stored in a chest by the foot of the coffin. That is for anyone who stumbles upon the tomb, they may wield that hero’s power. I can see you are a smart man, but Stronghold was something wiser, he took something more powerful from the tombs than the weapons of armor.”

“And that is?” Xatxil asked

“The knowledge.”

The other three echoed him, “Knowledge?”

“Yes, look closely at the walls, what do you see?”

At first none of them could see anything, but as their eyes adjusted to the dim light they could see on the walls were thousands of characters carved into the cave. They were of what seemed to be the same dead language on the doors.

“What they be?” asked Carmeops, raising an eyebrow

“They tell the story of Lance, each tomb has something like this, their life storied inscribed on the walls. Stronghold found each one, decoded each story and recorded them here in the library below us, for years now I have been reading and attempting to understand what they tell me. It is much harder than it sounds.”

“Was Stronghold a hero?” asked Steam

“That will never be known, he was slain by Dagith-Narr in the battle for Sanctum in the Uprising.”

“I didn’t know that.” asked Xatxil

“Yes,” said Chambers closing his eyes, “let me tell you how it happened…”
 

strongholdx

Moderator
Legacy Supporter 6
Joined
Mar 4, 2011
Location
Earth
Chapter 20: Stronghold’s Requiem

Smoke filled the air as Sanctum continued it slow decent into ashes. In the past weeks, deamons had captured almost half of Sanctum and the surrounding cities. The war raged across the planet – monster versus man – so far, it had completely destroyed more than one city; Chronus, Silverwyn, Neverast, and Victoria all lie in ruins. Skyforge was nearly destroyed, it’s fleet stationed outside of Fiore, now KOE’s last hope. Newerth was barely holding its own while town like Mines of Moria hadn’t been heard from since the start of the invasion.

Nearly the entire Sanctum Central Army was dead or dying and the Proctors could not protect even Sanctum. The situation was grim, and had been getting worse in the past weeks. The Coalition of Aligned Forces, a group created by the mayors of all the remaining towns, had decided that the best course of action was to take Sanctum, and rally forces there. However, this would involve releasing control of most of the remaining cities controlled by humans, it was a risky gambit.

At the moment, Strongholdx looked over the city from the house of a long dead patron. He crawled his way along the roof to get a better look at enemy territory. Smoke from a nearby house masked his scent and hid him from view, but it wrecked havoc on his lungs. Deamons patrolled the streets, some had armor, others had weapons, some even had both, but they all looked as bloodthirsty as they did the day that they breached the great obsidian walls. Looking from side to side, he spotted a deamon patrol moving down the road. Strong emitted a loud piercing noise from his mouth, a perfect imitation of a Silver Talon Hawk. The deamon patrol gave it none of their attention, but it gave vital information to the attack force nearby. As they passed, they spoke in low tones in the hissing, slurred, grunt of their language. Once they had passed around the next corner, Strong gave another two hawk cries and soldiers emerged from houses nearby. Grabbing an ornament on the house’s roof that hung off the side, he used it to swing down to the second story window, and then he slid down a broken drain pipe to the ground, meeting up with the squad’s commander.

Symbolite, the leader of the small strike group crouched down next to the house with Strong; he drew a map in the dirt. “Alright, here are their main encampments, we’re here, and we’ve been ordered to take this position.” He drew a path, so they’d evade two of the three major encampments.

“Will patrols be a problem?” asked the mayor

“Not if we’re stealthy, they change routes every day, there’s no way to predict their movement.” He replied

“Damn, I can make a distraction if you’d like, I’d just need one of your soldiers, and we can bug one of the smaller camps.”

“Won’t be necessary,” Replied Symbolite, “we don’t need any more casualties, now let’s get out of here before the next patrol rounds that corner!”

The commander signaled for everyone to continue moving, they quietly hurried through the city under the blood red sky. It wasn’t before long that he held up his hand, four fingers; it was the order to hide. Soldiers quickly disappeared from sight. Strong and Sybolite crouched behind the bar of a destroyed restaurant. A soldier cam running around the corner from one of the houses, he bore a KRS insignia.

“Soldier!” Whispered Symbolite loudly

The running man stopped; “huh?” he was clearly frightened.

“Get over here!” Symbolite waved his hand from behind the bar.

“Gods, am I glad to see a friendly face!” he said jogging over

“Name and rank?” asked Strong

“Algebraic, first class scout, the buggers almost got me back there. The rest of my squad is dead.”

“Alright,” Said Symbolite, and then giving the Hawk call, he signaled the rest of the men to emerge, “We’ll get you an escort back to base.”

“No need sir,” he replied, I can fight still, I’ll help you do whatever you need.”

Thankful, the commander quickly explained their mission, and then they were off again. As they traveled through the ruined streets Strong was finally able to see how the deamons lived. They were an almost feral race, they seemed to have no care of the order or neatness of things, in fact they didn’t even show an interest in shelter, or even a place to sleep. Whatever they did they seemed to do wherever they happened to be.

Piles of feces littered the streets, and claw marks were slashed across most every building front in the area, the place was a mess. The sky was inked a dark, bloody, red from the fires that plagued the city, even Sanctum tower was still ablaze, leaning to one side, close to collapse. Shells of buildings stood as a shadowy reminder of what the town used to be, gardens lay upturned, light posts destroyed, and roads dug up.

Lightning flashed in the distance as the wind shifted causing the fires from the Sanctum Tower to blow toward them. It was very soon after that ashes began to fall around them like snow as they moved though the streets. This gave the city an almost serene feel, even though fighting could be heard from the distance, and their doom could lie around any corner – it still felt peaceful as the little embers fell from the sky. A cool breeze swept through the streets, and it wasn’t long before little droplets of water began to come from the sky. Both Strong and Symbolite knew that it wouldn’t be long before what were a few light drops became a raging thunderstorm.

They wove through the streets, around forts, houses, and all sorts of buildings that once, served a purpose in Sanctum. At one point they almost ran into a patrol coming from the opposite direction, it was only their captain’s quick thinking and reflexes that saved them.

Before they saw it, they knew it was there. It gave off a magical aura that made the skin shiver, it glowed with a strange purple light, it was the Arcanium. This was the encampment they were ordered to attack. If they could not take it, they were to do as much damage as possible before retreating. Of course, in Sanctum, there was no retreating, if you couldn’t take the position you were attacking, it was because they had killed you. This was a do or die assignment.

The Arcanium was little more than a shell of its former self, it still gave off the same arcane glow, and the cold feel, but it had been gutted long ago, its books burned and walls smashed. Now, in its place, wooden beams held the building, makeshift walls protected the courtyard as deamons walked the parameter.

The strike force was cut in half, two squads, Delta one and Delta two. They gathered around the corner as Symbolite explained the plan of attack, “I’ll take Delta one, Strong, you take Delta two. We have to bypass their defenses, they’re thankfully rather light, Delta one, will storm their courtyard and focus the blunt of the attack on the ground floor. Stronghold, did you see the staircase up to the walls?”

“I did, there are two and they’re lightly defended.”

“Good, take Delta two up onto the walls, eliminate any resistance there and make your way to the second floor. There should be a bypass door up near the walls, from there make clear the second floor and secure it, then help out with any fighters on the ground.”

“Where do I go?” asked Algebraic

“Delta one.” Replied Symbolite

“Sounds good, anything else we need to know?”

“Yeas, one thing,” The captain’s voice was deeply concentrated, “Should we need to retreat, the signal is three hawk calls. Should that happen, you’re on your own.”

The strike force broke up into their assigned groups and waited for the signal. One shrieking call of the Silver Talon Hawk called the groups to action. The group of around 50 men flooded around the corner, completely overtaking the first two deamons, who were unlucky enough to be standing nearby. The group took out another four deamons before the alarm was sounded. Thankfully, the quick actions of the strike force pried open the gates of the walls before they could be locked.

Here, they split up, each group to their own path. Stronghold hacked and slashed up the stairs using his longsword. One deamon went down after another as they tried to get close to the swordsman. Large and small, strong and fast, each one went down with every stroke, a schelhowe* here, a zwerkhowe* there, even the occasional krumphowe* to cripple his opponent. For the most part things went well for Delta two up on the walls, it was lightly defended, with mostly archers; their bows were useless at close range.

However, Delta one was a different story. They held their own under the powerful onslaught on enemies streaming from the building, but they could not fight there forever, it would be a great tactical advantage, and possibly a deciding factor in the battle, to have Delta two inside the building.

Fighting fiercely, Stronghold watched as four of his men went down under the razor sharp claws of deamon legionaries, armored beasts that were amongst the most formidable foe they had faced so far. He cut, hacked, and stabbed his way toward them with grim determination and perseverance. One took a swing at Strong, who quickly rolled to avoid. Rolling around the back of the legionnaire, he stuck his sword into its undefended back. Stronghold’s admantium sword cut through the steel like paper, causing the deamon to cry out in pain. The mayor ducked as the armored fighter swung behind him in a frantic attempt to get the sword, now deep in his belly, out. With a quick flick of his wrist, the sword was removed and the legionnaire fell to the ground.

Quickly pulling the same maneuver on the other legionnaire, he found the walls void of demons. Throwing a quick fist pump for their small but important victory, he made a full out sprint for the bypass door, his men behind him. With a mighty kick the door flew inward and crashed the ground. Men streamed into the building, clearing the second floor.

Down below, Delta one had advanced to the entrance of the Arcanium – but they were still being severely punished by the enemy forces. Strong had to clear the second floor fast or the tide of the battle would change quickly. Knowing this battle was a double edged sword; Stronghold kicked down doors and cleared each room with amazing proficiency, his men joining in behind him.

There was a shout from below, “Dagith-Narr!”

Stronghold was able to look over the railing of the second floor to see Dagith-Narr, the leader of the invasion emerge from one of the rooms below. He was roughly human who stood roughly seven feet tall, he wore long flowing robes over his iron clad armor and he carried a massive Greatsword. The most interesting thing about him was the stubs that protruded from his head, like horns. His skin was a tint of red, almost like he was half way between deamon and human. He stood at the back of the room commanded the deamons yelling and grunting in their nasty language.

The death of their leader would be a great victory for the humans; in fact it may tip the tide of the invasion. Strong watched as me moved about the building decimating the members of Delta one with his expert swordsmanship. Strong waited for Dagith to approach the area underneath the rails as the battle ebbed and flowed around the room. Removing his dagger from its sheath, Strong waited for the right moment.

By now, there were few deamons left in the Arcanium. But, Delta one was succumbing to the powerful strikes of Dagith’s sword, their numbers were nearly halved, at current, Sybolite and Algebraic were barely holding off the hard fell strikes of the leader of the deamon hoard. A slash from Symbolite made Dagith step backwards, it was the perfect distance from the rails, Strong took this chance and leaped off the railing, dagger in hand.

Dagith was, however, no regular human his peak reflexes shot his sword upward was Stronghold leaped from the rail. The mayor was impaled on Dagith’s sword, sliding down it, an expression of terror etched in his face, blood seeping from the gaping hole in his stomach.

Dagith laughed manically as he looked up, into the eyes of the dying man. However, Stronghold was not out completely, he plunged his dagger into the brachial vein on Dagith’s shoulder. Which caused him to scream.

The mayor smiled weakly and said, “You have sixty seconds to live, bitch.”

Dagith dropped the sword, Stronghold with it as Symbolite ran him though with his own sword. However, he wasn’t out for the count, the deamon leader kicked Symbolite in the chest sending him flying across the room. This however gave Algebraic time to pick a nearby pipe, and in a baseball like swing, bring it up under Dagith’s neck, snapping his head backwards.

The tall man fell backwards, eyes still open, his face an expression of surprise as his neck snapped backward, breaking his spine. His body slammed to the ground with a sickening thud, by then Symbolite was already kneeling next to Strongholdx, in a pool of his own blood.

“MEDIC!” the strike force commander screamed as he put pressure on the wound

“Symb-“ Stronghold coughed, spitting up blood.

“Don’t talk, Save your strength. MEDIC!”

“Symbolite…tell them…”

“Shhh, don’t talk. I NEED A MEDIC NOW GOD DAMN IT!!” Screamed the commander

“Try…Triu…” Stronghold muttered, his eyes closing

Men were rushing in; med packs in hand ready to address the wounds of the fallen mayor, but by the time they got to him, he was already dead. Symbolite swore as he got up from where Stronghold lie. Blood was all over the floor, falling between the cracks of the Arcanium, and spreading out until it met the blood of Dagith where the two bloods began to separate like oil and water.

Up above, the ashes from Sanctum tower fell coating the city in a bleak grey mass of sorrow

*Sword strokes designed to decapitate, gut, and cripple respectively
 

strongholdx

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Chapter 21: Dagith’s Requiem

Jorict felt his body moving; he was running, yelling something. He had so far deduced that there was some sort of entity, perhaps spirit, possessing his body. They often fought for control of the body. While Jorict took pride in depriving the visitor of sleep and shouting out obscenities when he could, it was not a winning battle; the intervals at which he needed to rest and which the entity controlled his body were lengthening. Coincidentally, he was too tired to fight back at the moment, the crowd had dropped their human forms and were now huge deamons prancing around, back and forth trying to kill the two men. One looked like Kain, the other he did not recognize. The only other person in the crowd was GreyP. While he seemed as bloodthirsty as the rest, he lacked the luster, the rage that the others had earlier, it was very strange. Looking up, he watched a black flash slam into castle behind him causing it to start collapsing, and just as fast as the flash had come, it was shooting back over the landscape.

* * * *​

Kain leaped with all the might he had left, he shot away from the collapsed buildings, over the hoard, over grassy plains, even over a small mountain. The air ruffled his hair as he shot though the lower atmosphere. With an amazing ground shaking collision, he slammed into the ground making a crater the size of a small house. He limped out of the crater and found himself in an open field covered in snow; everywhere he looked it was white.

The emperor began limping in the direction his leap had taken him. Not knowing, or caring which direction he was headed, he needed a place to sleep, a safe place too. By now, the sun was already under the horizon, he had no way to tell where he was headed.

While the white fluff fell around him, his blurred mind began to wander, Rane was dead, and Dagith-Narr was back, and by the looks of it, even more powerful than before. To make matters even worse, he didn’t have the energy to teleport himself, when he sent Libra to his Sanctum office he had meant to take both of them, however only one had been sent due to his extreme weakness.

It wasn’t long before there was a loud whistling noise that came from behind the injured emperor – knowing what it was, he began to limp faster. Behind him, Dagith-Narr slammed into the ground, further widening the crater.

“Kaaainzo!” he called with glee

The exhausted emperor did not reply

“Come back, Kainzo, I won’t hurt you!” The deamon’s voice bordered on insanity.

Much faster than his opponent, Dagith made a wide quick stride and caught up with Kain in a matter of moments. He reached out to grab him but when he did he felt nothing but air. Kain was already gone.

He had used whatever last bit of energy he had left to use a bunch of short range, line of sight teleports. At first he was further along in the field, then in a white, snowy forest, but before he could admire the scenery he was atop a mountain jumping from peak to peak, within moments he was back down in a different valley, then another wide stretch of plains. He had probably traveled a good ten miles but now he had nothing more. He stumbled forward until he found a solid object amongst the cold snow. Kain fell to the ground, his knees sinking into the wet ground.

It was a church of some sort. It was well lit and seemed to be empty, void of inhabitants. Kain nearly crawled down the aisle to the alter where he lie, unable to move. It was not long before he heard the maniacal chuckling of his deamon counterpart. Kain could not see him, as he lie face down before the alter, but Dagith was leaning against the entrance chucking to himself.

“Kain, Kain, Kain, why do you try so hard?” He began to make his way to the fallen man
“I mean, you just don’t give up, run here, run there, run run everywhere! Come on Kainzo get real!” He flipped Kain over onto his back.
Kain spat, it was all the energy he had left.
“You! You don’t understand why I’m like this don’t you? Haha, that’s a surprise,” Jis voice turned to a brief, bitter, sarcastic tone. “let me help you see the light!” He touched Kain’s forehead with the tip of his finger.
There was a sharp blinding light as Kain faded into unconsciousness.

* * * *​

What happened next was interesting, Kain felt himself floating, he had no appendages, or even a body at all, he was simply there. He found he could not talk nor breathe, as, for some reason, he needed to do neither. He was inside what seemed to be a humble wooden hut; there was a group of women gathered around another woman who was giving birth to a child. None of them seemed to take any notice to them.

Finally, finally after minutes of labor, the child emerged, the woman said in an old tongue that Kain had not heard for many years, “We shall call him Ravinos!”

A voice boomed in Kain’s head, “This is me” It was Dagith’s voice, “I was born in a small village almost two hundred years before you began your reign in Sanctum. At the time, the world was untamed, wild, and unexplored.”

The vision shifted to the planet of Sanctum, it was lush and green with blue flowing seas. A blood red tide of sorts that seeped from the sides of the planet began to grow and cover the planet until nearly half the planet was filled. Then a Blue tide, from the opposite direction filled the remaining half.

Dagith’s voice boomed again, “The red and blue you see represents the forces of two great heroes of old. One, the red, led by Cecil Firedrake, the hero of fire! The other, the blue, was led by Aquiris, the pure one. She was the hero of healing; she also brought this plight upon me!”

Kain tried to speak, but he had no mouth, he could only listen to Dagith and watched while the vision began to change again. There was a man shaking hands with a woman, the two heroes he presumed. Cecil was donned in a fiery red armor with no helmet; his armored hand shook that of a frail, lank woman robed in flowing silks that seemed more like an entity within itself. While Cecil looked kind and warming, Aquiris looked cruel in vicious, however extremely beautiful.

“They warred for many years,” announced Dagith, “and after a time, they made peace. They formed the UHF, the United Heroic Forces, together, they could not be stopped. Then, they set their sights on world domination, or domination of what little of the world they had not yet conquered.”

The vision once again shifted, to a small village scene nestled lightly in the mountains. There were pine trees as far as the eyes could see along the rugged terrain that expanded into the horizon. A group of children played in the center square, adults walked about and spoke, men worked in the forest, wives cooked outside. To say the least, it was a very peaceful sight.

“This,” Dagith voice said, now more cold than before, “Was my village, where we lived, worked, and played.” The vision zoomed in on a young boy, probably no older than ten, playing in the dirt with the others.
“This is me, I had no idea what was about to befall my village. See, before this, I had realized that I was different from other kids. Wounds healed faster, I rarely got sick, I was faster, stronger, and smarter. But at the time it meant nothing to me, up until this moment!”

As if on cue, dozens of armored horsemen rode into town, charging and yelling at the top of their lungs, without warning the peaceful serene village was shattered into a shrieking mess. Horses trampled civilians, riders killed man, woman and child alike as they set fire to the huts and killed the inhabitants. Some men tried to fight back but were quickly killed, their inferior weapons up against a superior force. Within minutes, there was no one left alive.

Then, down the same path the riders had come from came Aquiris and Cecil both riding together. Aquiris turned to Cecil and smiled, “Cecil, burn what’s left of their pitiful existence!”

The hero of fire cocked an eyebrow, his lucid voice echoed around them in the mountain air, “Should I? They had no quarrel with us; they would not have stood in our way. Are you sure what we’re doing is right?”
Aquiris chuckled, “Ask stupid questions in your own time, burn them!”

She went about healing her men and what little wounds they had while Cecil went about burning the remains of the village, fire emanating from his hands in an amazing spectacle. The vision shifted to show Dagith, or Ravinos as he had been called, sitting in the burning husk of a hut, tear streaming from his eyes as he watched the remains of his parents and family burn into oblivion.

“Here, I saw the true destruction power of man. I was mortified and filled with hate – how could someone be so cruel to kill innocent villagers and burn their corpses? I was furious.”

The vision shifted as Ravinos ran off into the forests of the mountainside. Now, as the scene changed, he was older by almost fifteen years, he was sitting in a library pouring over a pile of books on one subject or another.
“They built cities, monuments to their vanity in a world that they claimed for themselves. Monsters! At the moment I fled, I vowed revenge to those I had lost, to those I had seen die at the hands of my own race! I could not let such action go unpunished! Do you see now Kainzo?! You call me the monster” he chuckled, “I was searching for justice!” Dagith’s voice bordered on insanity, he was clearly angry, but he wasn’t right in the head.
The vision continued as he dug into each book with a fury only like a vengeful spirit.

The deamon continued, “I studied, I waited and I watched. I obtained every whisper of information on the two heroes that I could. I studied their castles, their training, their defenses, EVERYTHING!”

“I found the most vital bit that I could hope for, while the pure one wanted death to all those who opposed them, the hero of fire wanted diplomatic actions. In this respect, they fought. A force united, a force divided”
Once again the vision shifted, this time it was Ravinos with a group of men, it was the middle of the night. They were hiding in the shadows of the massive walls of an even bigger castle. Kain assumed it was the keep of the two heroes.

“After gathering allies, those with a common interest, those who wanted to destroy these merciless scums. We gathered and stormed their castle, killed their men and finally, after hours of fighting, we were victorious! I had, with my own two hands, killed two heroes; I had finally gained my revenge! But as you can imagine, that didn’t last long.”

The vision swam through a montage of Ravinos and his men fighting soldiers, to them breaking in doors, and finally to them facing off against Cecil and Aquiris in the main throne room of the keep. But then, a vision of his men turning on him; they had attempted to kill him.

“I was turned on by my own men, I slaughtered them all, I had to. It was now that I realized that humans were scum, which needed to be destroyed. To this day, no human has showed me kindness. From then on, I wanted to kill them all. I still do.”

Kain waited for what was to happen next, for Dagith seemed to be done with his narration. But to his surprise, the vision continued. Ravinos, now scorned, searched the keep hiding away in a secret room within the throne room that he had found, what seemed like moments before more men arrived.

Dagith spoke on, “I hid within the keep of the heroes, and I found their hidden library. Here they had discovered the first of the objects you call Herogates. They had gotten them working and were planning on utilizing them. Their first try to connect gates brought them to the deamon realm; I figured I could use this to my advantage.”
The vision went through a montage again, this time it was Ravinos studying once again, but he had seemed to stop ageing. While the vision went on, Dagith spoke once more, “For one hundred and forty years I worked, failed attempt after failed attempt. I was determined to find a way to this realm, to bring this deamon scourge upon the earth and destroy the beings that had scorned me!”

Kain began to panic as he realized the true intentions of his enemy. They didn’t need more space, they didn’t need land, or food, or anything. This war was not out of need. It was genocide.

The scene around Kainzo changed once more. Another montage, this time however it was Ravinos trying over and over to get a crude replica of a Herogate working. After several nasty explosions, he began to throw fits of rage, smashing chairs and overturning tables sending all of their contents onto the floor. The vision continued for what seemed like years until finally he succeeded in opening the gate.

“I entered the realm for the first time, and was weakened immensely, nearly unable to walk. I had to traverse multiple times before I could stand it for more than a few hours.” As Dagith’s voice spoke, the vision matched his words, “When I encountered my first deamon, it attempted to kill me, so I defended myself. After a long battle I emerged victorious but needed to return to my world in order to heal. Your body does not function there as it does here.”

Kain was not thrilled to see where this was going.

“I encountered many deamons, all tried to consume me, to devour me. That is how they live, consuming living beings and stealing their life force. I was able to get the best of all on comers, destroying them all! As my strength increased and my tolerance for that plane of existence did too, I grew stronger. Soon I found that deamons were not the feral creatures we all thought they were. They have civilizations, cities, art, and culture, something that no one expected. At the head of it all was their king, Dagith-Narr-Kreeah-shraha.”

This caused Kain to wonder how Dagith and the king had the same names; surely it couldn’t be a coincidence.

“If you haven’t already figured out,” Said Dagith, as if answering Kain’s question, “My name is Ravinos. Dagith-Narr simply means ‘Deamon king’ in the native language of the peoples of the realm; the king was ‘Deamon King Kreeah-shraha’.” There was a pause in Dagith’s speaking, as well as the vision which was currently him fighting a massive deamon, one of the likes Kain had never seen, or hoped to see.

The vision shuddered and changed, this time it amazed Kain even more than anything he had seen before. It was Ravinos, sword in hand, standing in a towering red palace. Before him was a deamon of great power, presumably the king. He stood nearly two storied high, and was about as wide as a large building. He had black leather wings coming from his back and rams horns spewing from his skull.

“Kreeah invited me to his palace. He had heard of the human who roamed the lands slaying all who came his way, and he wanted to see me for himself. Instead of challenging me, he saw me as someone with great strength, a valuable token to be used to his advantage. He invited me to join him as ‘Gracha Dagith-Trjaha’ or, the Great Deamon Tamer. Needless to say, I accepted. Finally, I was amongst the people of this realm as one. Here, I felt as I belonged, they treated me with reverence and respect!”

Kain’s panic rose to a fever pitch as things became clearer to him. Not only was Dagith on a mad spree for revenge, but he was, presumably by his title, the king of deamons, and to top it all off, he was totally insane from scars made long ago. Silently, Kain swore that if he ever got out of this, he would wipe Dagith, or Ravinos, or whoever out of existence.

The vision began to change again to a scene of gruesome carnage. Ravinos stood upon Kreeah’s body ripping the guts out, a wicked smile of insanity plastered on his face

“I tried to persuade our great king to launch an invasion on the humans, but he did not see them as any sort of threat, he had greater concerns…So I killed him. Ripped out his insides and draped the main hall of his palace with them. Then I took all he had left, his title, I was Dagith-narr-Ravinos. I had absolute power. A human, the leader of all deamons. Who would have ever thought?”

The vision began to swim and change again. This time, Ravinos was standing inside some sort of marshaling yard before an even bigger deamon, he had to be at least four stories tall, perhaps the size of Sanctum Tower.

“I asked Kreeah’s former General of Deamonic Forces, Gra, to join me in an invasion of sheer force against the humans. He, hating the thought of humans eagerly agreed to join me, and thus we set out on the first invasion.

The vision went black.

“I’m sure you know how that ended, I died, the first time my body had actually been killed. But ha! I was a hero; heroes can only truly die when killed by another hero. I awoke in a body that was unfamiliar; I was in a dark, damp cell. I was HolyRane. At that moment, he died and I was reborn. I worked tirelessly to create the required materials for a Herogate. Out of nothing, I was able to traverse between the deamon realm and yours. When you defeated my armies, you thought you had won didn’t you? Well Kainzo, you were sorrowfully mistaken. It is not you who have won, it is I!”

Kain awoke; Dagith was standing over him, a massive sword in hand, raised above his head. The emperor’s eyes widened as the deamon king plunged the sword downward.
 
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