wintersoldier
Snowdrops
LG
Lord Zee
Timemaster
Damycles
Izurich
Villamvihar
FunnierPrezThe Tricity Quest
The Caves Of Memory
Lost Souls In The Dark - Part Two
The roar of battle echoed down in the dark.
Far beneath the eastern rim of the land of origins, in Tricity’s demon infested mines, Heroes fought to reclaim what had been stolen. Not just the riches of the earth, but the very souls of the miners who had once extracted that harvest.
They also fought for their lives.
Having discovered the terrible truth after being baited by false cries made by enslaved souls, Jaxx, hero of ages, and his allies Seam the duel wielding avine and Lilly the betentacled goblin, had sought to slaughter more of those terrible beasts. Yet they were in enemy territory, and though the bodies were piled high around them, yet more beasts still came.
“Running low on bolts” Lilly called out as she fumbled one of her few remaining shots into her crossbow, and then immediately spent it to take out the singular pulsating eye of some half seen horror bearing down on them. Its screeches briefly drowned out any talk till Seam gutted it with his knife, after which he added “and I’m low on everything, my limbs are burning here” through labored breaths.
One, two, three, four and with a dodge to the side, six. Jaxx's movements started out fast, dropping smaller demons one by one. No fear in his eyes, only burning determination to kill every single of them.
Yet determination meant nothing against overwhelming numbers. Numerous cuts and bruises started to appear on the hero's body and even Heropentia started to look like it'll break soon.
Jaxx's metal arm was covered in guts and what not from where he used it to deliver a blow to a demon.
Sweating heavily, he echoed the words of the others. “Keep those bolts only for kill shots! Seam, breathe, keep close to me. If they separate us, we're dead. ” he shouted, approaching Seam as much as he could.
Both offered affirmations, Seam pulling back towards him, Lilly switching to focusing on housing her tendrils to fight despite the burn injuries they had suffered. Even with that, it was clear that the two jr heroes were getting close to the ends of their ropes, unable to keep up with Jaxx’s stamina and experience.
While Jaxx was clearly better at fighting than the other two, he too started to slow down and if the assault would continue for a few more minutes, they’d certainly be overwhelmed.
“Back down. Step-by-step. We can’t take them. Better to return later with more people, we definitely didn’t expect this here. ” he said between labored breaths as he cut another demon that got too close.
With a roar, he jumped towards the demon and lifted it up with his sword before throwing it at one that was approaching Seam from the side.
“MOVE!”
The two did not need to be told twice. Seam leapt back and flapped his wings while doing so to pivot around and start moving, while Lilly switched from channeling a goblin warrior past life to that of a miner it could guide her footing. The man who had lived his whole life in this tunnel had no worry of getting lost in the winding branching network they had come through, and so sped them right towards the way they had come in, only to notice something strange.
Cracks and seams in the wall, loose rubble, the tell tale glint of dust in the air. He remembered these from a failed strike breaking attempt. He’d made those same cracks during it. For a brief moment, the goblin thought they could use this, and then as they approached, a shape in the dark moved, a quiet crack resounded through the tunnels, and another terrible truth revealed itself.
“Seam, watch out!” Lilly’s voice shouted at the speedy avian, before she lept, grabbed him, and hurled him back right as the trap the outer beats had concocted with stolen knowledge came crashing down. Right on top of her. There was a brief sight of green fresh rupturing and red blood spraying before the torch she had been carrying was crushed, along with her body, and the lights went out.
“L-lilly!” Seam cried in anguish, reaching futility towards where she had even as the tunnel continued to collapse towards him.
Or so it would’ve happened, if not for Jaxx’s new gift. Time slowed. The rocks seemed to move in slow motion, Lily’s face in pain…and then he came. In a flash, for everyone else, and in a sprint for him, Jaxx ran towards Lily and just at the last moment pulled her from under the massive rock…only for the time slow ability to end and for the group to fall downwards into the darkness.
They all reached the bottom with a loud THUD. Moments passed, with Seam waking up first. What he saw made his feathers stand up. Glittering seams of tin ore reflected the light of their torch, casting a silvery light upon the vile shapes of demons. Many demons. Luck was on the group’s side this time, as the demons didn’t expect them to survive the fall, nor that they’d reach the nests.
Our heroes were surely done for and then it happened.
CELESTIAL EMPOWERMENT!
As it was written in the Khodex of Creation at the end of every heroic arc, for a continuous 24-hour period, the cosmic forces align to infuse the hero or heroes participating in the arc with unparalleled abilities and insights. During this time, not only are heroes enhanced, but all challenges and adversaries they face are similarly amplified. The 24-hour window becomes a crucible of intensified heroism, where heroes must confront formidable challenges on an unprecedented scale, reinforcing the significance of heroes in the fabric of the universe.
Raw, divine power coursed through Seam, Lily and Jaxx. Their injuries healed instantaneously, fatigue gone as if it was never there, their very senses seemed to be turned up to 1000. Minuscule movements of the creatures could be seen with clarity and the darkness of the cave seemed to fade.
Confusion, either from still being alive or from the empowerment itself might have squandered the first moments they had, had their senses not picked up something very important: there were shapes other than Demons in the cave. Pinned to the ground were 3 bodies, a pair of goblins and a hulking aardvark beast blood who they had last seen running off after a phantom cry for help, all three who had been in even more dire straits then. Rejuvenated as well, they found strength to fight back with tooth and claw, but it would not be enough.
The sight of others in trouble was more than enough to prevent any thoughts of how, or why, and instead pushed the heroes towards one simple act: they rushed in.
As the power coursed through his veins, Jaxx stood up and gave a grin to Lily and Seam before slowing down time to an almost halt, such was his power under the empowerment.
In a blur, he cut through the demons who didn't have time to understand that they died. All that they saw and the others, was a flash, an after image of Jaxx cutting demons one by one.
With a few more sword swipes, the demons pinning the goblins were dead, a frozen confusion on their faces. Stopping the effect, Jaxx didn't realize how much distance he actually traveled.
“Oooh, I like this. Come on, demons of incompetence! Charge me! I wanna bathe in your blood! ” shouted Jaxx as he pointed Heropentia at the incoming demons, on his face a massive grin. It was obvious to anyone that he enjoyed this.
The first one to die after his proclamation was not by his hands, but by Seam’s, as the avian plunged down from heights his flightless wings should not have carried him, directly on top of the beast still attempting to salvage the aardvark-kin. Blades plunged into its back, weakening enough that his fellow beastman could haul it off of himself, and join his two goblin companions on their feet.
It also left Lilly on her lonesome, or at least, so it seemed. Yet as beasts tore towards her, their own flesh seemed to betray them, convulsing, rupturing. Or rather, their stolen souls fought for freedom, empowered by Lilly’s grasp on the cycle, talent and divine blood both.
Yet even as some of the souls rebelled, others were wielded, the formerly mostly animalistic beasts coordinating, those attacking pulling away from Lilly to preserve their stolen souls, while others where now wise enough to not give Jaxx what he wanted, and instead attempted to hurl rocks and stones at him. Given their size and often multiple limbs, this resulted in quite the hail that the other heroes scrambled to avoid, Seam launching himself up, while the hulking aardvark-kin put himself between the shower and his goblin companions.
With a roar at Seam in thanks, Jaxx waited for the demons to charge yet they were smarter than Jaxx gave them credit. ‘Alas, it wasn’t the first time Jaxx dealt with ranged attackers. Not quite as big as these were or vicious but enough to give him an idea.
Using his metal arm to shield a part of his body and Heropentia to block anything that came towards his head, Jaxx made himself as small of a target he could and charged the demons which started to focus on him now that he was getting closer. A few stones hit their mark, striking Jaxx in his fleshy arm and one on the stomach which already started to bruise a bit but ‘thus he reached the demons.
One tried to run but was cut down almost straight away and the others, now with an enemy in melee range and not wanting to strike their own allies, stopped their ranged assault, focusing more on defense than attacking. It didn’t stop, of course, the few on the sides that were still far enough from Jaxx to continue their stone throwing towards the group but it was way weaker than before.
It dropped off further when Seam swooped down onto another Beast, slashing with both blades before leaping off to strike at another. Others ended up on the receiving end of ranged attacks meanwhile, Lilly perfectly placing her last remaining blots into vitals of beasts, each one laced with her venom thanks to a bout of inspiration from one of her oldest lives, while the two other goblins darted out from their protector’s cover when the hail slowed to grab their own stones to toss.
The group did more than well defeating the demons and it was obvious as bodies were laid on the ground everywhere. Noticing the thinning numbers, under the rules of the empowerment, the evil side was about to get their own boost. Suddenly the demons seemed to pull away and retreat, giving the group a much needed break from the fighting.
“RUN you bastards! RUN!” shouted Jaxx as he cut another demon that lagged a bit behind.
And so the bastards ran…for a bit. Stopping at a reasonable distance from the group, the demons started circling one of them, a bigger specimen onto which they proceeded to vomit some kind of eldritch slime before they pounced upon it. Flesh started to meld together and the screams started. Ethereal screams came from every soul caught by the demons as they got absorbed into one singular being. One tightly bounded mass of souls in one massive creature.
The mass of flesh had faces all over its dark and slimy body and over 30 limbs each ending in razor sharp blades. An almost constant scream came from within it. It no longer had legs but instead it dragged itself using the long sharp limbs. Underneath it, one could clearly see faces of goblins, beastkin and everything else they’ve caught, in anguish and pain. Standing at about 10 meters tall, the demon barely had space in the cave.
With a roar that would send chills in the spines of everyone around, it started dragging slowly to the group as a few of the limbs sprang out to impale or otherwise eviscerate the group.
The weaponless rescued trio fell back from this, while Jaxx’s charged forwards into the fray. Seam leapt up onto one of the limbs attempting to impale him, talons digging into flesh as he ran up it, while Lilly ducked and weaved, and then struck out with her own barrage of limbs, venom tipped tendrils spearing into multiple enemy limbs around her.
While Lily's tendrils necrotising the demon's limbs would've elicited some sort of reply from the usual demons, this one didn't seem to care as it simply severed its own limbs to stop the spread and then grew replacements
As Seam climbed up, it seemed that the faces he'd step on tried to bite him as smaller limbs grew from the spaces in between them like spikes.
Jaxx’s charge didn't seem to do much to the demon either, as each limb would regrow or change directions mid-air whenever he'd dodge. Using his time slow, Jaxx ran around the demon and tried cutting it apart piece by piece but somehow the demon, while affected by the time slow, wasn't as slow as the others were and it still managed to protect itself even as it spilled dark liquid from its body.
Even the return of the other three heroes did little to dent it, the goblins with their war hammers and shields, and the aardvark-kin with a two handed maul fairing little better than the cutting and stabbing heroes where.
Eventually the demon roared once more and hundreds of small spikes appeared all over its body, making Jaxx retreat.
“Does anyone have a plan? This thing doesn't seem to care that we're cutting it apart. ” shouted Jaxx to the others.
“Kinda a one trick roller here!” Seam called out in reply as he landed next to them Jaxx, having backed up upon seeing the senior hero’s own retreat.
“Maybe if a get load of venom into iz body? But am out of bolts, an not fast enough to get close!” Lilly called back before she lept to the side to avoid being skewered.
“We might as well try. Put venom on Heropentia, coat it in it. I can get close enough, just keep it busy. ” said Jaxx as he dodged again and got close to Lily, who promptly dragged her tendril fangs over it, giving it a slick sheen of deadly neurotoxin.
Jaxx activated the time slow again, this time feeling less powerful than before, with the demon’s limbs still moving fast enough to cause Jaxx to dodge or cut them as he ran towards it. Circling the demon, he started slashing it and on one occasion stabbed it deep in one of the faces..and THAT pissed it off.
In comparison to the limbs, the face didn’t regenerate like. Massive spikes appeared once more as the demon roared in pain before moving its bladed limbs like a chainsaw, at a speed that seemed too fast even for the time slow.
Jumping backwards, but not before getting a fresh new cut on his chest, Jaxx pulled Lily away at the last minute before she was cut down.
The chainsaw of limbs and blades swept after them, only for the aardvark's maul to crash into it with excessive force, disrupting the unnatural formation enough that they could get away. Several limbs twisted off out of the collapsing arrangement of blades, but Seam was there in a flash, thrusting and parrying to protect the big guy from a death by a thousand cuts
“Thank ya” Lilly gasped as she steadied her feet after the time sped pull, before looking over the damage he’d done and saying “Now we just gotta do summon with dat”
The other two goblin ladies were already on it, it seemed, having together grabbed one of the demon’s severed blades and then working together in perfect harmony to hurl it like a javelin at their foe, spearing an envenomed face with the beast’s own weaponry.
The demon parried the javelin almost immediately, yet it still managed to hit one of the faces which caused it to roar in pain once more. Again, multiple limbs appeared out of it, hurling themselves towards the group…exactly the same way as the javelins were thrown, the demon was learning.
“Aaadvark, on me. Let's keep it busy! Seam, collect all the bladed limbs we cut off, cut them to size, give them to Lily. Lily, target the faces. Shoot them all!” shouted Jaxx, before running in the path of the javelins and defecting them with Heropentia, earning him yet another cut. Big a target as he was, the Aaadvark took more, yet stubbornly refused to fall as he followed the legend’s lead.
The rest had a difficult plan to put into motion while under fire, but they made it work, mostly thanks to the twins and their shields which offered just enough protection for them to whistle and envenom the improvised crossbow bolts before returning them back to sender.
It took a bit to get going, but once it did Jaxx and the aardvark had the covering fire they needed to get in close, with claws spearing into their foe, crippling arms or whole sections of its body. Yet Lilly only had so much venom, and though the amalgamated beast was crippled by the time she was spent, it still raged on.
Jaxx followed up with his own assault, cutting limbs and faces. Deflecting the now poorly coordinated limbs, Jaxx prepared himself to leap and stab the last remaining face. Yet just as he was about to leap to deliver the final blow, the ground shook. The walls shook. The ceiling shook.
Everything shook. Stones began to fall, the entrance to the cavern they were in collapsed, and then so too did the floor as a distant god casually remodeled the underground.
“What the f-”
And then the ground fell away beneath them, and down they went through the darkness. The concept of time seemed to disappear as they kept falling but that didn’t stop the demon from trying to skewer them, even blind as it was but with its strength almost all drained up, Seam, using his wings, flapped them once or twice and with a shout stabbed the demon…killing it. Once and for all. A massive scream of pain followed as the creature died and the souls, now free from their torment, illuminated the surroundings for a few moments, enough for the group to see the river below them, before disappearing.
“Everyone! Brace for impact! Hug the demon, it’ll soften the blow!” shouted Jaxx and he plunged Heropentia deep in the demon’s body, a hand extended towards Lily for her to hold on.
She reached out a hand, and then when that fell short, a tendril, and was pulled close. Behind, Seam swopped to and fro, grabbing both of the other goblins and then swooping them all to the beast, talons digging into it til they got a grip alongside the aardvark.
A few more moments passed and with a loud BOOM, the demon’s body crashed into the water, splashing gore, slime being expelled in every direction…and then our heroes fell unconscious from the shockwave.
About half an hour later, the group slowly started waking up. Standing upon the demon’s body, it was obvious they were being carried downstream, where was anyone’s guess. Yet in the distance, they could see lights. Very bright lights and a blue ceiling above, hundreds of meters above.
“Everyone alright? Alive and hopefully well? ” said Jaxx with a rough voice.
He got a groaning chorus of confirmations, at least for the alive part. The wellness was debatable, given both bruises from the fall and injuries from the battle. Lilly immediately set about helping with those, digging out a thankfully still intact container of R’kava along with the metal paint brush she’d used to attach Jaxx’s new arm, which she used to stem the worst of the bleeding they were suffering.
Seam meanwhile asked the obvious question, namely: “Where in Galbar are we?”
Looking around, Jaxx didn’t recognise anything. In fact, for once, this was a whole new experience for him. Jaxx had never been underground before. A few caves and small tunnels but never in the actual underground part of Galbar.
“I have no clue but if there’s something that I can tell you for sure, Seam…is that innocents are that way. ” he replied to Seam as he pointed in the direction they were drifting in, towards the lights and whatever else was there.
What came after was a very, very slow drift downstream. Hours, maybe even days passed as they drifted and drifted. Going off the demon proved to be a very bad idea as some very long worm-fish made themselves at home chomping bits off the demon and they didn’t seem the type to discriminate in what they call lunch.
Eventually arriving in what seemed a massive river, the group would notice the structures now that they were closer but still far in the distance. Sadly, slowly, but surely, Jaxx’s mind was shattering. The ringing, first a small afterthought became like a church bell going on and on. First it stopped Jaxx from sleeping and as it continued, it seemed that he was on edge at every moment. Everything set him off, even the smallest grumble would have him twitch and pull Heropentia out.
“WE NEED TO GET OFF THIS PLACE! ” he roared in obvious pain.
His twitchyness was causing everyone to give him a wide berth as was possible on the dwindling mass of flesh, while Lilly was privately attempting concoct some kind of sedative combining venom and R’kava as one final attempt to stave off what the Mother had told her was to be Jaxx’s fate should he be unable to answer the call for too long.
Luckily, someone heard them. Far in the distance, the group could see shapes on the water. Very fast moving shapes…and then, they all had a feeling like they were being watched. A bright yellow light soon enveloped them and the demon’s corpse and poof they were gone.
With another poof they appeared on the shore of the sea they would later find out was named the Obsidian Sea. The lights in the distance they once saw were now closer and before them a massive city stood. Voices in many languages could be heard from afar and a group of what seemed to be shining goblins was running towards them, all clad in armor with 4 gemstones engraved in them.
Behind the goblins guards, the group could clearly see many-many more goblins walking around dressed up in what seemed to be leather from different beasts or even clothes made out of diamond. Many buildings could be seen rising up into the “sky” and some even seemed to go down, clearly towards different levels of the cave.
While behind our group, large shark-like creatures with wings were gliding just above the water. On top of these creatures, a goblin stood on what seemed to be a saddle. Smaller buildings and towers could be seen surrounding the shoreline.
“Who. Where. What?” Lilly stammered, while Seam just cried out “land!” as he fell to his knees, too relieved to be on solid ground again to worry about those questions. It fell to them, the aardvark (who’s name Jaxx’s trio had learned was Desmond only after fighting a life of battle alongside him, Pim and Pam) to give a wave and a call of “Hello there!” to the approaching goblins.
All that Jaxx did was fall on his knees, Heropentia at his side for a few seconds before he started walking towards the goblins. His face blank, as if he wasn’t in control of his own body anymore. He just knew he needed to walk forward. The goblins quickly surrounded the group, pointing large pikes towards them and shouting different variations of “Stop and don’t move” in different languages.
Not that it stopped Jaxx, he kept walking and walking…until a pike poked him in the chest. Only for him to slow time down and in a blur appear behind the goblins, still walking forward…then he stopped.
In fact, all the goblins stopped. Lily, Pim and Pam. In their minds they heard a female voice, beautiful and calm telling them to “Stop. Contain the others. Come.” In a flash, Jaxx had Heropentia in his hands and pointed at Desmond’s neck, two words coming out of his mouth as if forced “Don’t. Move.”
“Wha- uh huh?” Desmond replied, incredibly confused, and even more so when his two companions flanked him from either side, hammers raised and ready to take out the towering beastman’s knees if need be “you two? What is this”
Seam for one was in no position to offer answers, as the other beast man did have the time to rise before he was ensnared by lilly’s tendrils, his own knife pressed to his throat preventing him from uttering even a word.
The voice came again, only heard by the goblins of the group “My name is Maxima. I rule here. Trespassers. Come to me by my order. Listen to my command. ” said the voice and suddenly they knew where to go.
Not that the guards were going to let them go anywhere else.
