Necrophage

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Fotia knelt against the ground, raising her shield in a futile attempt to stop the exploding spores. Parts of her armor puckered inward and punctured. Fumes escaped through the holes. Her helmet as well had a massive chunk blown out of it. Despite clearly missing part of her head she rose back up, stumbling from an unstable leg. Red energy oozed out of the opening in her head. "Were you not my enemy this would be much more entertaining." She rigidly pulled back her sword, ready to swing again. "There is too much at stake, I need you to die. Even if it has to be at my hands."

A mist opened on the opposite end of the chamber, where Zelriane was just moments before. The mist billowed across the floor, obscuring the floor up to knee-high. A larger figure came out. He was clad in fish-scale styled mail with a massive bladed bow and a mask with a beard motif that swirled like waves. "Boreas, help your sister." He pulled back near the bow where a bowstring should have been. Wind acted in its place, pulling back the bow and conjuring a swirling mimicry of an arrow. Fotia swung her blade as Boreas shot. The synced attacks combined in a spray of billowing fire. "What would you do if Yzeira died and left you alone?"

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Zios' voice echoed, changing direction every few seconds. "Peace? Love? You misunderstand me." One of the corners caught between the pillars lit up with red as a shape burned through. As it moved the clank of plate on plate could be heard. It or she as it seemed to appear was clad in narrow armor that glowed like metal under heat. She had the motif of a feminine face with beams light like the sun spreading around the helmet. Her eyes gleamed red with no visible pupil. The way she moved lacked personality. She seemed more puppet than person. Another being like Atlas it seemed. She raised her shield which bore a similarly shaped sun on the front and drew a burning sword from her side. "Tragedy breeds change. Which creates things I could never dream of. No. Chaos is necessary. Tests of passion and strength are certain in such conditions."

The burning female knight poised to charge, ignoring the spores around her as she strode forward. Whatever they were, whatever their effect was would become evident in a moment. "Annihilation I cannot however condone. Your Order puts a bad rap on chaos." The knight bent her knees in preparation. "Fotia, end this devoted fool." She swept the blade in an arc, sending a wave of fire across the room in Zelriane's direction.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Threads of energy whipped out from the wall behind Zios and wrapped around him like a wing as they slammed into the side of the attack, forcing the stars to the floor. As the energy conflicted and fizzled across the ground Zios floated back towards the wall of squirming power. "Phase one." He announced, drifting into the wall and vanishing like a drop of water against a still pond. Zios's disembodied voice rang out from the other side of the arena. "Incarceration."

Four ripples occurred from the principle directions. Three-sided pillars erupted from each, launching out near Zelriane and jutting at awkward angles. The pillars were made of some kind of hardened stone and the edges and points ended in razor-like protrusions.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Zios glided up into the air, avoiding the attack to his arm. The Order member was slightly slower than before, or was Zios quicker? Zelriane had gained an aura and perhaps some physical strength in the process. He was trading his strengths around and mixing things up. Zios couldn't help but feel curiosity for how many techniques the Order member had. "Power is all it ever comes down to isn't it? So be it." Ribbons of silver energy cascaded from Zios to the edges of the room forming a large circle. The ribbons weaved in and out of each other like the fibers of a basket as they lined the walls and cut off exits.

"Tartarus."

The room had become nearly blindingly bright with silver strands lining the arena. "What would you and your Order know of fulfillment? Of enlightenment? Put in a position of power you all squander it, searching for that which you cannot find and destroying everything made by others in the process." He raised his hand into the air and slowly clenched his fist. The room hummed in response. "Despicable."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

"Chaos is the disease. Order will be brought to bear!" Zios lifted his arm at Zelriane with his flat palm facing him. An intricate circle projected in front of it with three sigils lining the outside. The energy gathered there was palpable, making the entire room feel like it had become statically charged.

"Neo Ultima!"

A sudden beam, nearly four feet in diameter of mixed silver and black energy, erupted out of the circle.

A Hero Tale {Complete}

The guardian shook his head. "Me, me, me. You act like you understand what I am better than myself." He brushed his arm over the nub on his left shoulder and blew air sharply from his nose. "This one is a disgraceful mess..." He muttered, indicating his missing appendage, as if the situation at hand was only of meager importance. "Man, would-be god, murdered god, martyr, hero. Creator? Maybe. Would it even matter to you? Your belittling will happen all the same. You are a condescending alien after all."

Oz flexed his arm out. Dust that had settled throughout the room rushed to his outstretched grip and melded into a black, woven cloak. He flipped it over his shoulder and it wrapped itself back around his midsection, leaving his functional arm bare while covering the mar on his left side. "The way you address me I would presume you think me the same individual of a few minutes ago." He stood straight and stepped back with his right foot, allowing his left shoulder to point at Zelriane. "Let me correct you. I am not a dead god. I am not a human. I am Zios." An aura of silver energy fulminated around him. "Our world is sick. I plan to heal it and you are part of the disease."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz stabilized himself, rising to one knee. He looked up from the ground to Zelriane with unfocused and glazed over eyes without immediately responding. He no longer shook or showed any expression of pain. The light around him grew strained and blurred. With his excellent eyes Zelriane could perceive the strange shadow that hung over him for the few seconds as Oz responded. His voice rang out as two individuals speaking in unison, one following behind the other just barely enough to distinguish them apart. "What kind of monster indeed?"

The guardian rose to his feet and wobbled with the threat of falling. Steadying himself, he pushed his arm against his neck and stretched. "Hopefully a monster frightening enough to stop your master." Shimmering silver energy danced across Oz's skin. Oz looked at Zelriane straight in the face. The usually kind eyes turned pitch black... And he smiled an unsettling and uncharacteristic grin. He snapped his hand into the expanse between them and clenched his fist tight enough to crack his knuckles. The guardian's hair floated freely around his head as he moved, dragging behind him like he were in free fall. Multiple strands of hair visibly changed to the color black, leaving his hair a mixed variation of blonde and black. He drew in a deep breath and let it out all at once.

The twin voices had finally become one as he continued. "Oho, it is so good to be alive!" He drew in another deep breath like a man who had been drowning moments ago. "Do you know how it feels to die?" His earlier enthusiasm slowed to pace. "Religion has turned death into poetry. A glorious new leg of a grand journey. If only it were that glamorous." As he glanced at the speedster, lights popped into existence within his blackened eyes, swirling slowly into that familiar set of galactic orbs. "Pain isn't the bad part. Pain tells us we are still alive. That we yet feel. The terror is what comes after. Oz examined himself, starting first by looking at his abs before he scanned over his singular arm. "When the claws come and the teeth gnash. When the cold embrace of a soul eating monster finds you. Truth. That's what sets in. The cold nothing after. Something few deserve and most surrender to." The veins across Oz's body began to pulse silver every few seconds.

"I fought it. After you enter the cold dark I hope you do too."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz answered swiftly and with determination. "If we can succeed the rest will be irrelevant. Life IS change, learning, adapting and doing new things. To remain unchanged, stagnating and rotting would mean death even if I were still walking. Everything can change a human life. It is perhaps one of our greatest strengths." He paused and glanced briefly away before he slowly finished. "And weaknesses.."

The guardian beamed back at Geode with renewed fire in his eyes and a smile. "Up until now I have had to respond to every threat and event with adaptations of my own. Always barely finishing or barely behind." He raised his fist swiftly into the distance between them in a salute-like gesture. "Now I have the chance to choose change that could put us ahead of our enemies. A change better for both of us. Oz opened his hand and gestured to his bruised body and missing arm. "I've been beaten and maimed. And you?" Then he gestured toward the apparition that could barely hold its form together after all this time. "I rest my case."

"My point is, I can take the chances. I can make the sacrifice. It's what I do. And it will be worth it!" He let out a short laugh. "How hard can it be? We're already half-way there."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Childish? Geode wasn't wrong. "While I agree toughing it out may work in the end there's something else that has been bugging me." Oz chose his words carefully. His reason screamed that Geode shouldn't be trusted. The apparition had proven it time and again. His heart, that Geode spoke so emphatically about told him to. To make the offer and learn. Foolish behavior shouldn't be the quality of the defender of the world. Nor should hesitance.

"You did fail in possessing me. I couldn't let you stop me so close to our victory, to guarantee my friend's defeat. I would have rather dropped into the sea than let that happen." The choice of words was funny with their imagined location, as Oz hovered casually over the sandy floor. "We've partly fused haven't we? You and I share some memories, faculties and abilities. What would happen if we went all the way and neither of us dominated? If everything became one? Your knowledge and experience with my heart and drive." The thought frightened him but it also meant they would be closer to victory over the Order.

"You underestimated us and confessed you'd rather be a stooge to Yzeira. Another grunt rotting in his tower. Why stoop so low after having done so much? You were so desperate and sought any escape. I'm a fool who needs wisdom. You're a hollow that needs heart. Together we'd make a more perfect being." That was what he had held back. He knew it might have been dangerous, that such a thing could lead to all the heroes losing. Yet the biggest risk was doing nothing different and falling short. "Together we'd win and annihilate them from our world."

A Hero Tale {Complete}

Oz rubbed at the back of his head and frowned. "You've been alive for millenia. I haven't had that kind of time to build a tolerance. I've looked into poisons and venoms trying to find a suitable substitution to build myself up to fighting Zel. You could say it was a bit of an obsession." Oz sighed. "I'm still just a man. Not even an old one at that. I haven't had the time to build that kind of tolerance or I would have. Oz replied. He closed his eyes and brought his hand to his face, thumb on his cheek and two fingers on his brow as he thought.

His eyes shot open wide. It dawned on him but he hated the thought, hesitating and then looking to change the subject. It would be clear to Geode that he was fixated on something and trying to hide it. Oz was after all a terrible liar. "What else did you have to say? What's most important?"