Now let's get down to business,
Continuity wise, this is a Silent Mobius - Ultima crossover. I will try to make it in such way as knowledge of all things ultima won't be needed, but I will add clarifications at the end of each chapter, regarding mostly items and events that might require so. For Silent Mobius I'll be using the TV series mostly, as i only have up to side six (of a rather disgustingly mauled spanish version... don't ask, you don't want to know) but I might be tempted to add a few tidbits from the sides as they provide a bit more of insight. As for ultima this is just after Ultima 7 part 2, serpent isle. My only real regret with this arrangement is that I won't be able to include a Shade blade with Arcadion still residing within.
As said before this is also the first thing I post here on fanfiction net, so I'd appreciate constructive critics, I know I need them.
Thank you very much. **** Prelude: from the pan to a fire?
Tired, angry and frustrated, in all her career as adventurer Danna Lorentz had never been in a situation like this before. The Avatar of the eight virtues had finally been bested and captured
.
She had failed, and countless innocents would pay for it.
Still clad in full battle gear, as if it might do her any good, it added insult to injury, a reminder of her failed duty, and the consequences it would carry.
Truth was that she had been woefully under prepared for that spell, a spell that not only had been able to breach her defenses, but those of the serpent armor as well. And now so close, and yet so far.
Her Blackrock sword, the "Shade Blade", that sword she had finished forging in the Isle of Fire not so long ago, a weapon second only to the Mystics and her best bet to deal against the red titan rested undisturbed in its sheath on Danna´s back, well within striking distance of The Guardian and yet unable to do so, not as if it would do any good. It infuriated her beyond all possibility, but not more that the simple fact that she was literally in her enemy's hands.
Sight, she had been, and was, to tired and to driven on Sunrise Island to expect something like that. Somehow the Guardian had been expecting her, that shouldn't had been so surprising at all… yeah Batlin had been a pawn as well in a far larger game that had little to do with another attempt of The Guardian against the worlds of former Sosaria, her capture.
And right now the red bastard was... gloating, which was the good thing, considering she was on the red titan's rather massive right hand. Said arm was, right now, leaving the void thru some sort of strange gate, that materialized in a twiglighted sky far above an ocean that seemed to stretch in al directions perturbed only by a single solitary island, all while the guardian continued to mock her. If only the bind spell would not be, oh yeah, she'd shove the blackrock sword up a place the sun didn't shine. That is if the guardian had such place, if not she settled with killing him.
"See, my poor pathetic human, your failure was truly unavoidable, and soon every world you have walked upon will specially suffer for it. I will make sure of that"
"It won't happen, you know as well as I do that in the end I will stop you"
That was answered by the guardian's trademark laughter. He knew very well that those where desperation words, defiance to the last, and so did Danna, she was right now at his mercy, to say she was doomed was probably an understatement.
"It is so unbecoming of you, Avatar, to be such a sore looser"
On the other hand the red titan was happy, he had originally thought of dropping his nemesis onto the world of Pagan, or the little hell hole that remained after his conquest of Pagan; true it had been one of his least imaginative's, well… not really if you considered the way he had played those Zealan fools but it had been a very poor victory considering the few spoils that remained, thank to those damned druids, but payback had been oh so sweet; he'd really enjoy to watch Danna lose that damned spiritual superiority of hers, and Pagan was the ideal place for it, but this mocking session was far to good to stop it just yet. And to think he might have missed such a good chance.
"I don't recall you being fair at all, Guardian" she retorted in a friendly tone with a smirk not that it was too visible inside her helmet.
The Guardian looked at his captive and was about to renew his verbal offensive, but it was when the ethereal wave hit him.
Within the void itself the shock from the wave was considerably stronger than it would have been elsewhere, to the point that it had broken his concentration, for a moment or so. But it was quite obvious that something was wrong, those things weren't common, actually they where very rare and signaled an event, one rich in the magical area of the spectrum. It would have disturbed any being that felt it. Especially if you were as tuned to the ether, or interested in the business of the multiverse as the Red Titan was.
The Guardian being an insanely powerful entity, is regardless a careless spellcaster, at his power levels, that, is not much of a problem, however on certain situations it is a considerable weakness. That is probably why when his concentration fell his binding spell over the Avatar weakened so dramatically. On most it would have not being much of a difference, however on one trained on the mystic arts, it was a godsend gift
In a single movement she had the both unwieldy and powerful blackrock sword soundly in her hands in a ready to strike stance and was already rushing up the rather monstrous looking arms of the red titan.
By the time the Guardian had noticed it, Danna was nearly at the gate, the bitch must have casted one of her time alteration spells and he did not had the time to play with her.
For once the red titan cursed his idiocy and overconfidence, and now his plans would suffer some serious modification.
That was probably why when the Avatar managed to cross the odd gate, she did not found the remainder of the guardian body. She was just greeted by an indiscriptible mélange of colors and sensations.
There was no particular up or down, but it would be unfit to say she floated, she was just there. It was what britannians called the void, the source of magic, and the space between realities. Other peoples had other names, but describing it was very difficult, if not impossible as human senses where unsuitable for that particular medium. Oh yes there where places of the void that had a facsimile of "normality" that humans senses could function more or less properly. Places with up and down or at least a feel of gravity and so on. Some were natural occurrences within the void, others, well, several civilizations had built structures into the void for one reason or the other, most being simply that they could.
"I'm afraid I have no more time to play with you Danna, I have to attend business... elsewhere..." the incorporeous voice of the Guardian calmly stated "but don't worry, once I'm threw will pick up exactly when we left."
"Sweet dreams" he added as an afterthought before his strident laughter reached Danan's ears.
This was another trap, it was the void, but it felt different, according to what her senses could pick up.
While it was true that most of the human senses could not properly function there, those trained in the mystical arts, like Danna, had greater chances of making sense of their surrounding, counting on the ether, perhaps best described as the echo of the void on the worlds, it was also the "element" that controlled and shaped magic in those worlds, around them as a seeing eye dog of sorts.
No, this was a cage within the void, much like the one that had held the Time Lord imprisoned within the Shrine of spirituality.
While it was similar to it was quite different as well, there probably wasn't a generator maintaining it, those things took time and blackrock to be built, but there was no need for one, she did not had the power of the Time Lord at her command. The trap, also, seemed hastily created, she could very well feel the ether still fluctuating around her, but then again the power she possessed was nothing compared to that of the Time Lord and hastily or not, maintained by a generator or not, it seemed enough to contain her escape attempts. At least till the Guardian returned.
But she still had some leverage at her disposal in the form of the Shade Blade and its ether bending properties. If she could use it properly she could disrupt the ether waves that maintained the spell enough as to collapse the prison. It would be like shoving a wrench to the cogs, only a bit more spectacular
True... this was the void, and that meant that all bets were off… there were no guarantees that things would work as in a "world" but for The Guardian to have enacted the spell on the first place meant that it could be possible, he perhaps had created a sphere or effect around it, so if she could tap to the ether within that sphere…
With the Shade Blade still in hand, she slowly probed the area looking for the walls of her prison.
It took Danna a while to find one of the walls... she felt the fluctuations stronger here, and there where even some physical manifestation of the wall. To be honest this part of the mystic arts was not Danna's strong point, she was a battlemage first and foremost, her paladin training insured that, but proper motivation had always been a key factor in her life.
That one area felt to be the source of one of the fluxes... it was the weak link she was looking for, and the arcane energies that seemed to shoot out of it only proved that fact. Well it was going to hurt a lot but she had no alternative.
The idea was good, at least in theory, but on any case, she had run out of options long ago; and perhaps it would work out as she hoped. She'd had to time the second spell perfectly as the sphere was likely going to dissipate once the barrier was down for good.
After all hope is the last thing one loses.
Danna concentrated onto it long before shoving the sword onto the flux with all her might. One chance, that's all she had, but that was all she needed
As the blade meet the wall the visual effects increased, Danna was feeling the wall loose integrity, but much to her surprise the spell gave way on that point, but it did not collapse.
She had only made the hole bigger, that meant she'd had more time to cast the second spell. The cage shunned almost all the ethereal waves that existed within the sphere limiting the casting of magic to the most elemental of circles... she was familiar with that, after all that was the same situation she had faced during the blackrock gem crisis
But, now, with the hole, it meaned she'd be able to cast spells of the higher circles, and that was what she had hopped to obtain. With further help from the Blackrock sword. While the ether bending capacities of the blade's where best used to amplify the offensive spells or to disrupt ether rich direct application spells, but generally not already occurring effects, it was possible to use it as a focus for area effect spells such as a blink.
But it was hard and complicated, concentration had to be kept at all times or else, and even a slight mistake in the casting could be her end, especially where she was now, or even more considering that blink was not intended to cross dimensions but to travel within a particular world… still the principle should work, and being where she was now meant that the spell could theoretically work.
Bottom line, she had no other choice, and regarding if the spell would work or not… well there was only one way for her to find out
And it then she casted the blink spell.
Danna had gambled the ether from the sphere plus the properties of the blackrock in her sword might have been enough to strengthen the spell so it could send her back to Britannia, the targeted destination of said spell, but the raw energy of the void, and its effect on the sphere, and its ether, coupled with the blackrock sword and the different laws of nature that applied within the sphere twisted the spell in an rather impredicible way.
Not that Danna would have noticed, or that it would have done her any good if she had
And she was gone.
****
It was quite evident something had gone wrong the moment Danna saw the darkened alley that surrounded her.
The alleyway, or what looked like one, a dark, damp and dirty place, flanked by weathered gray walls that rose high onto the night sky, a clouded yet bright night sky that dyed the clouds in a strange shade of red, a sky she had not seen in years.
A sky she had resigned to think she'd never see again, the night sky of a city
Was perhaps this... earth? Could it really be home?
But the ether felt s bit off… perhaps it was her exposure to the void… she had felt something similar during the blackrock gem trap… it had been nearly a year of that, well over three years since she had crossed the red moongate the Time Lord had created to bring her back once more to a needy Britannia.
With a chill Danna remembered the Guardian's promise after she had shattered blackrock gate he had intended to use to cross to Britannia, and the others that followed along the years, most where just taunts… but he hadn't… hadn't he?
Luckily her inner debate was quickly cut short by a scream. Definitely human, probably female and without a doubt not too far away.
With out doubting it too much Danna broke onto a fast jog towards its source, with the blackrock sword in a tight grip and ready to taste a foe's blood. As much unwise as it would seem to go looking for trouble after her recent experiences, Danna was not one to let a cry for help go unanswered. It should be noted that it was the reason she generally got into so many problems, but it went with the territory, besides, she really needed some sort of stress relief, and in a city what worse than a mugger or a robber one could find?
Almost immediately she spotted a woman running through the alley towards her.
Her clothes torn and bloodied, her hair, a blond mess dyed crimson red by blood... the woman's or somebody else's here and there. Her face was pale in fright, with an appropriate expression filling the woman's face.
Apparently she had noticed Danna... and was running desperately towards her, or desperately running away from something, probably the latter, who on their right minds would run towards a sword wielding knight?
But she didn't got even close to Danna.
The woman tried to stop on her tracks, but instead she lost footing and felt over her feet. Not far where the woman had been frozen by her own panic, the reason for it showed itself, it just… seemed to crawl out of the wall. Crawl wasn't the word, it was as if it was leaving the wall, but at the same time moving through the wall, as if exiting an illusory wall, or if as leaving a liquid.
As the thing moved out of the wall, Danna got a better glimpse of it… vaguely humanoid, perhaps two and a half, three meters in height.
It was an abomination the likes the Avatar had only seen in her dreams. Its skin was gray and rubberish? It possessed two massive arms, the left one was almost human, but ended in a trio of rather sharp looking claws, the other was far too large for a human and completely out of proportion, it seemed to easily reach the floor though it was somewhat thin, it retained a somewhat humanoid proportion till the elbow joint, or equivalent, where it divided into the two strips, that seemed to be composed of segmented cylinders or the like, like an insect's leg. It was perhaps too short to be a whip and its constitution didn't make it look flexible enough.
The thing stood over two large legs, but where angled in the opposite direction, like those of a lizardmen, except for its feet that looked actually avian, talons and all.
There were probably no words to describe the body, it seemed as if the skin twisted itself over it, like a patchwork, Danna could clearly see the folds of the skin, gray and red, red and gray. Not red, crimson. She did not had a very good look at the things face, but it seemed slightly elongated, it reminded her that of a wolf, but it had no eyes that she could discern, and it had a small host of spikes or horns coming out of the rear of it.
Perhaps the creature did not saw her, or it did not consider her an opponent of care. It just advanced toward the dazed woman, showing the broad of its back to the avatar as it readied its massive clawed arm.
There was no doubt in Danna's action as she stopped on her tracks and trained her left arm toward the abomination. She was risking too much here, there where no guarantees that the ether would react how it should. But she had no other way to reach the woman in time to save her. With her open palm aimed towards the abomination she casted the spell
"Ort Grav!"Luckily for Danna the ether reacted as it should have, or at least the way she had expected it to behave. As a rather impressive shaft of lightning left her left hand in a one way trip towards the gray abomination.
It was not lightning, it simply did not had the same properties, it was just arcane energies that took its shape and though it delivered less damage than a real lightning, it was however far more focused.
The crackling shaft of arcane energy hit dead on the twisted abomination's back. The creature seemed to howl in pain, but was left still standing. The thing almost immediately turned towards the source of the aggression. This was what Danna had wanted. While it would have been nice to fry the thing with just one lightning, she wasn't really counting on it, especially considering how weakened her little escape had left her.
"Hey you, Ugly!" she taunted, "Why don't you try to fight one who can fight back?"
"One such as yourself?" in spite of the creature lack of apparent mouth, it seemed to speak back at her in a rather amused tone.
Before Danna could retort, the creature directed a spell towards her. She barely had the time to cover herself, if barely before the force wave of the spell reached her.
The strength of the blast was considerable, with out the serpent armor she would have probably have been crushed like an orange, with it she had barely managed to remain standing, somewhat.
But by then the creature was almost over her.
The thing had used its spell to cover its charge, not an altogether unusual tactic, now she was on the defensive against a thing at least twice her size and mass. Not a good thing.
The Avatar barely dodged the twin whips, both extremities while still whip like they weren't obviously as flexible as the real thing, but they were flexible enough, and quickly parried the claws with her blackrock sword, but received a kick from the thing's legs on her chest as reward.
While the blow was mostly absorbed by the serpent armor, she was still sent falling backwards, which was for the best, considering that if she'd been downed closer to that thing its advantage in size and mass would have ended the battle, and her life, prematurely.
The creature, not wasting any time, sent its clawed arm against the fallen form of the armored knight. It was time to end this.
However its arm met the cement instead the soft body of the strangely dressed human. The human, instead of being crushed under the weight of the creature, was crouched a bit to the left of it, holding the dark gray blade with both hands.
And inside her helmet Danna was grinning like a madman, as she had noticed that the woman had finally left the alley 'and the kid gloves could came off' her mind gleefully added
"Flam Hur"And everything seemed to turn aflame.
In such a narrow space the jet of flame had not being able to spread properly amongst the relatively narrow alley and bounced back from the walls concentrating in the gap and of course the creature, sending it some few meters away from the concentrated blast alone.
And of course the magical flames keep eating the thing away
But she knew that thing was still alive, even though if it should have been dead, it was still burning in several places, its skin seemed mostly charred and its two whip like appendages, or their charred remains hanged dead from the creature's elbow not reaching even half its length. Its other arm had fared far better, relatively specking, but the battle wasn't over.
The thing had fared far better than Danna had expected, it seemed it had been able to enact a barrier of some sort that had been able to kept the damage down.
She had to end this and fast. Her mana was almost depleted, and she was pushing herself far beyond her limit. Still the only spell she could think that could deal the killing blow was not very likely to pass the creature's magical defense, unless properly amplified and delivered.
That meant doing something potentially stupid, if she could pull it off.
Hoping it would not have enough time to react, she charged towards the abomination, taking the thing by surprise and barely dodging its clawed arm.
Now, she was all to close to the creature, and had the initiative, in a quick movement she thrusted the Shade blade deep onto the thing's innards. If it worked she lived, if not, well, it wouldn't matter to her anymore.
And before the monstrosity could retaliate, two barely audible words left her mouth
"In Corp"For less than a second the blade glew a bright purple, before the creature itself started glowing the same color, bathing the alley in a blinding purple light.
A massive energy discharge followed, in a manner very unlikely to what that spell caused, probably due to the creature's nature, still she didn't complained as long as it worked.
And then the creature was simply no more. Still, Danna kept the same stance she had held before; her sword still tight on her grip, unmoving, probably still half dazed, half in shock but very much alive.
It was over… once more. She was beyond exhaustion, and mana depletion, her body ached all over and she was certain she had pulled a muscle or two.
Danna returned the Blade to its sheath on her back. And leaned heavily against one of the alley's partially melted walls. Barely holding herself. No mana, no energy, she was feeling so very tired and so very heavy.
The woman she had saved… well hopefully she had reached safety, Danna thought to no one in particular, that woman was dressed in a fashion similar to that of Earth, it was a very likely possibility…
At least she had saved that woman, hopefully….
But the clothing that woman had… it was… yeah… this could be earth… but if it was…
It was then when a bright light nearly blinded her. Out of reflex, Danna raised her shield arm to try to block the extra bright light.
"It is a searchlight, a searchlight." She muttered like a mantra.
The beam soon moved across the alleyway passing by the partially melted walls and stopping over the black spot that had once been the abomination
In spite of Danna's own curiosity regarding the alley and the "resting place" of the monstrosity, it also gave her the chance to have a better look at the source of the searchlight, now that it was no longer trained towards her.
There it was some sort of sleek, arrow shaped craft hovering high above and she was sure that it wasn't floating by magical means. Hopefully this was another world, yeah, perhaps, it seemed far too advanced for her own earth.
By then the sound of sirens was filling the night, approaching by the moment. Damn this was going to be hard to explain.
"Err… excuse me"
Danna turned towards the source of the voice, still heavily leaning against the wall of the alley but trying to put a bit of a defensive stance into it, to find a small group of women in a rather strange uniform.
She tried to give a step towards them, but her equilibrium failed her and went crashing down to the floor below.
But it felt so good to be able to relax
***
Rally Cheyenne sighted
It had been a very long week, and from the look of it, thing s weren't going to get any simpler.
That woman, she had been a puzzle when she was just a Jane Doe.
No one, not even ranking members of magic guilds carried that amount of magic items on themselves, true, nobody would carry a full set of armor these days, magic or otherwise, but the items were many and the enchantments were from moderately to strong.
The sheer skill needed for the creation of such items spoke of powerful backers and that brought her mind to where that woman fitted in the scene.
That was not Nemesis style, and the form of the magic was to a point incompatible.
That meant a third party. At the very least.
It hadn't been a good week to be in Rally's shoes but that had been before the report on the woman's ID came in.
And it was all but impossible, but it was.
Sometimes, logic seemed to present itself in the most skewered ways, this was definitely not Rally's top, but it was certainly far higher than average.
Of course, answers would have to wait, at least till Dianna Lorentz regained consciousness.
Till that time, the guards would remain, if they were there to safekeep miss Lorentz or to confine them, well, that was still up for debate.
****
Well, that's that. I am currently working on chapter one, been having some tough time with finals and their ilk, but free time is in the horizont and while I do not promise a deadline (sorry I am allergic to those) I am confident it won't be very long before I update this again.