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Nexus-Advent-Legacy
Authors note: Special thanks to Blackninja8ball for doing most of the writing while I helped him out with some of the minor details. Anyway's on with the story!
Chapter One: Fateful Embarking
Epilogue-Our story begins far away from earth , on a distant planet called Edron. There in the land of Ur a dark plot was brewing. A being held to be most powerful, though defeated since days past, gained a host and a following of subjects and through them the being called Shadowmere hoped to once again walk amidst the land of the living. To accomplish his dark scheme he commanded his host Dikarn, through his soul stone, to gather the strongmen of evil on Edron and unite them for his vision of darkness. Can Shimmeringstar stop this new evil from the ancient past? What challenges will he face in the process? Find out in the first archive of a the Nexus Advent Legacy...
Planet Edron; a greenish blue planet residing in the cafe expresso galaxy, forty six thousand light years away from earth.
As Mel'feir layed himself down to sleep, his mind drifted to days gone by and memories of yester year, back to when Ahern, the king, was still alive...
At the king's right, Mel'feir stood with a dark green mantle draped over his shoulder, and Talis the second guardsmen was on the other side of the throne wearing a ebony brown mantle.
"I'm afraid I have some bad news sire." Mason the king's ambassador said as he kneeled, wearing a blue tunic over a white robe with a gold belt around his waist.
"What is your report?" Ahern asked of him.
"Your kingdom is lost!" Mason said, suddenly snapping his fingers. Six assassins who were with him came out of the shadow cloak and began dispatching the royal guardsmen. Outside, warning trumpets were sounded and Mel'feir knew the castle was being seiged.
"Get the king out of here! I'll try and hold them off!" Mel'feir told Talis.
"I'm afraid I can't do that." Talis said as he drew out his serpentine bladed ether glaive schiavona, and put it to the king's throat.
"Talis?! What the hell are you doing?!" Ahern and Mel'feir shouted in unison.
"Everyone relax and nobody try anything funny or the king dies!" Talis yelled loudly.
"Traitor! How could you betray us?!" Mel'feir shouted with anger.
"Shut up! Dikarn was right about you! You wouldn't see a good opportunity even if it was standing right in front of you." Talis replied. Just then, the chamber doors blew open, exploding into singed splinters of wood, and Dikarn walked in with staff in hand, followed by a small regiment of mercenaries.
"Brother! How good is it to see you..." Dikarn shouted sarcastically with a grin looking up to Mel'feir.
"Dikarn?!" What are you doing here?! What do you want?!" Mel'feir said nonamused from the top of the stairs.
"I want the sum of you to kneel before me and beg for your lives." Dikarn said with a wicked laugh. The king's guardsmen looked at eachother and stood their ground. "No? Very well... Kill them!" Dikarn commanded his forces. From the throne room balcony over looking the carnage below, Mel'feir gripped the banister tightly, digging his white ivory white nails into the wood, feeling rather helpless to long as Talis held the king hostage.
"Your men are fools" Talis commented blandly to Ahern, "had they surrendered, there's a chance Dikarn would have let them live."
"We are all fools..." Ahern replied, "Especially me for trusting you!" Suddenly the king grabbed Talis's arm and wrist, pivoting, touching his head under Talis's armpit and forced the blade to cut through Talis's body, hewn through his mid section. The last thing Talis saw before his vision faded , was his blood flowing out next to his hand, then he died. Mel'feir seized the moment and leaped over the railing, somersaulting down into the frey below. Upon his descent, he kicked off a body and flipped backwards, while drawing his sword, two curved ninja-to-gatana's.
"Get out of here! I'll meet with you later!" He told Ahern. As Dikarn's forces closed in, Mel'feir dropped low and bounded forward swinging his blades to the sides, cutting men on both ends, then he collided with the swordsmen in front of him, driving his blade into the man with a sharp blow and angled with gatana's across his chest as he slashed. Two lines of red trailed across the body in a x pattern, then his arms and torso collapsed into a bloody heap on the floor. Mel'feir quickly rolled to the side using the momentum to come up and strike a nearby assailant with a body blow, followed by a duo slash across the man's chest. As an adjacent attacker engaged him from behind, Mel'feir stepped out and back, clear from the line of attack and sunk low as he slashed with both swords, cutting off the man's legs. Two more more opponent's attacked him, charging in. Mel'feir pivoted while blocking and sliced off the archer's head, then he pivoted back the other way, blocking the oncoming slash and dispatched the man with a stabbing thrust up to the hilt. Mel'feir lifted the body and then flung it off his blade, as the remaining attackers circled around, somewhat hesitant to engage him.
"What are you doing!!? Get him!!!" Dikarn roared angrily.
"Are you mad?! This is suicide!" One of the men said looking horrified.
"You are all useless!!" Dikarn growled. Five concentric shimmering bluish violet orbs materialized at his fingertips and shot forth with ethereal tails impacting on the one man with a small explosion of blue energy which left his body dinged as he slumped to the knees and collapsed onto the floor. Mel'feir sheathed one of his swords and brought his palm up, gathering particles of energy into the form of a white orb. He threw the ball of light at the floor and after a bright flash, he was gone. Dikarn was enraged. The outline of his hand coalesced with an aura of fire, then he directed his palm toward the men who disobeyed him. "The lot of you refused an order... From me! Me! Dikarn! Nobody defies Dikarn!" He ranted, then he sent an explosive flaming orb into the collection of men, reducing them to gibes of meat and ash.
Suddenly, Mel'feir awoke from the dream detailing the memorable events that had occurred so many years before, long since he found and raised Magus who became like his son and trained from his youth. Mel'feir wiped the sweat from his brow and looked over at Magus who was sound asleep and snored loudly, laying beside the faintly glowing embers of the expired fire between them. Mel'feir stood and draped his mantle over the shoulder stump where his left arm used to be, and hobbled away from the camp over to a large oak tree which grew a mere stone's throw away from the nearby cliff ledge. Facing eastward. Mel'feir slumped down, resting his back against his dark drow shin. Around his neck the bare metal of his square shaped locket felt cold as the east wind blew upon him.
Grasping the locket, Mel'feir ran his thumb along the notch until the mechanism clicked and the locket sprang open. He looked there upon with a sad smile, tracing his thumb over the picture within and then snapped it shut. Many times he had looked at that picture, remembering what it stood for. Now deep in thought with his eyes closed, his mind flashed back to the first time he stumbled upon the ancient ruins beneath Ahern's former castle on the day Dikarn had seiged it. The tunnels had seemed forlorn and abandoned with traces of imagery dating back to a forgotten time, and rendered engraving's of beings held to be mere myth and legend. Captivated, his hand traced along the wall, detailing the archaic lore of Edron's history. The guardians as they were termed, had long since been the protectors and overseers of the people. They were reputed to have been powerful and nearly immortal, though the only suggestion of their existence, were now dust laden relics of store statues carved into the tunnel with emblonic symbols engraved on their chests.
During his brief stay on earth, Mel'feir had encountered what he supposed were the descendants of the ancient caring guardians, their ancestors having perhaps traveled through the same ancient transporter hub he found beneath the castle grounds.
Now Mel'feir sat in repose, trying to think of any other way to end the madness his brother was determined to bring, beside the one option that seemed more prevalent.
As dawn approached and the first rays of light began to spill across the land, Magus stirred and noticed Mel'feir's silhouette against the tree, overshadowed by the orange glow of the rising sun. Magus approached and came to stand beside him.
"What are you doing up so early?" Magus asked while looking out toward the horizon. Mel'feir sighed heavily. "After all these years, my evil brother is still persistent, I can sense that he has the device running again, and I have to stop him!"
"I don't sense anything..." Magus said handedly.
"Of course not...it takes years to develop a keen sense of the finer things" Mel'feir replied,"Anway...the last time I faced Dikarn I almost died, so I want you to stay here and wait, If I'm not back by tomorrow, go to the place where your parents are buried and dig where the fallen pines cross, instructions are buried there."
"Let me come with you, I can help." Magus said. Mel'feir looked down with deep thought and stroked his chin for a moment.
"Fine...grab your gear and let's be off, we have little time to waste."He said.
"Yes. I won't let you down!" Magus told him but as he turned, Mel'feir struck the base of his neck with a chop and Magus's body pitched forward and fell with a muffled thump onto the ground. Mel'feir kneeled down and turned Magus over and gently touched his face.
"Sorry Magus, but I fear this is a one way trip for me, be ye strong to help others, never forget the teaching you have received, for it will aid you well, when you need it most, truly you have made me proud and given me joy, goodbye...my son." Mel'feir said briefly, then stood and walked away back to the camp, picking up his battle worn ninja-to. He had fashioned it to himself, since losing his arm. The saya was wrapped with drab white laced snugly around the handle and fastened in a knot niched at the base of an oval-shaped flat bottom marble pommel, and the black oxidized square tsuba was fit so the corners ran cross-wise out from the center. The crest fitting above the hilt had a silver hue while the blade itself lay sheathed in a black steel scabbard was accented with an anodized finish along the edge of the temper line. Mel'feir swung the bandelier donned sheath over the shoulder, angled to the right, then pulled his mantle hood forward and departed, setting out toward the castle grounds.
Meanwhile on earth around that time; Joaquin/a.k.a Shimmering Star was at the tail end of his vacation with Aqua and Lonesomeheart bear, they walked briskly through a crowd with Shimmeringstar eating a delicious triple fudge sunday, Aqua was eating a large cone dipped in strawberry topping while Lonesomeheart ate a chocolate ice cream carrot cake at the San Diego theme park in California. Shimmeringstar was wearing brown shorts and a greenish blue t-shirt with dolphins on it, and with black sneakers while the other two bears wore turquoise dolphin shirts when all of a sudden they heard a loud boom coming to his right about eighteen meters away near the food court. As the collective people in the immediate vicinity became quited and looked accordingly in the same direction, terrible cries in the distance could be heard. Closing his eyes and pushing his senses outward, Joaquin felt the familiar signature of one filled with evil, but this energy felt different from Noheart's, or any others he had faced in the former villain's alliance that he used to be apart of so long ago. Joaquin took off running toward the epicenter pushing his way past the oncoming stampede of terrified people running in the opposite direction. The two caring guardians followed him but lost him in the retreating crowd of people running for their lives. Several more booms rang out in between the sounds of gunfire, that followed after the initial explosion. As Joaquin came upon the grounds where the food courts were, he found them destroyed with bodies laying here and there, including the security personnel; that had just moments ago rushed in and fired their weapons. Standing in the middle of the calamity was a dark robed figure with ashen black shin and long locks of white hair flowing out of his hood. He held a scepter staff in his hand and was retrieving a pair of golden arms bones from a three by three crater he'd blown in the cement.
"Such a fool you are Mel'feir, to think I would not succeed in retreiving these!" Dikarn said to himself. Having noticed Joaquin, Dikarn looked him up and down and smiled. Then he turned and began to walk away. Anger welled up in Joaquin like a long lost memory.
"You will not walk away from me!" He shouted, charging toward Dikarn. Dikarn couldn't turn fast enough, Joaquin tackled tackled him to the ground, knocking the staff and bones out of his hands in the process. As the two tumbled around, Joaquin clinched his fist and struck Dikarn across the face, then he rolled over and flipped back onto his feet drawing his saber. As Dikarn stood he saw the two energy blades of two different colors of Aqua and hot pink extend out of the handle with a vibrant hum. Dikarn wiped his lip and looked at his hand, rubbing the blood between his fingers, then he looked at Joaquin and laughed, before summoning his staff and the bones back into his hands. The faint outline of a circular portal appeared beside him, then fluxed alive with energy, and Dikarn stepped in."Hey old man, were not finished here!" Joaquin shouted as he made a mad dash for the closing portal barely making it inside with a lunging dive. It was just then that Lonesomeheart and Aqua bear had saw Shimmeringstar entering the portal before it had disappeared. "Shimmeringstar!" Both of the bears said in unison as they both ran up to the portal to investigate. Aqua looked at his girlfriend Lonesomeheart and said,"Trueheart's going to have our heads on a silver platter!" Aqua said. "I know! Trueheart said for us too look after him and we lost him! On the last day of his vacation too! Why did this have to happen now!" Shouted Lonesomeheart as they continued to investigate the situation.
However, Shimmeringstar came out the other side slamming face first into the rocked wall of a dusty underground cavern. "Ow! #%$-ing wall!" Joaquin griped as he held his throbbing and bleeding forehead trying to steady himself as he stumbled forward, down the cavern, trying to ignore the blistering pain. The light from his saber illuminated the cavern walls and ahead of him down the tunnel he could see the top of Dikarn's staff emitting a faint shimmering glow. "Hey idiot with no brain! Are you deaf? I'm talking to you! Are you afraid of me?" Joaquin shouted down the tunnel. Dikarn turned around, irked, his eyes crackling with green ether.
"What do I have to do to be rid of this pest?!" He snarled. He kneeled down and layed his staff on the floor and traced his finger in a circle, and began etching runic characters within the circle before laying his hand over it. Energy fluxed from his hand and coalesced upon the circle, running up along the wall and joining at the ceiling with a reddish glow. "That should slow him down." Dikarn said picking up his staff before turning and continuing on his way. When Joaquin came to the barrier ward, he attempted to slice through with his saber but found it bouncing off as if he'd struck another saber. His aura exploding to life, Joaquin cupped his hands by his side after taking a step back. Joaquin saw this as the perfect opportunity to test his new technique, an improvement on the older Ka-shi-ka-kay-ha technique which he worked during his vacation training with the two caring guardians.
"Ssuu...moa...mmii...hhaa..!!!!!" The vocal scream echoed down the tunnel along with the energy blast that ripped through the barrier and shot toward Dikarn at high speed.
"What the #$% is that?!?" Dikarn blurted as he turned and saw the bright wave of energy coming toward him. Putting forth his staff, the energy collided with his own protective barrier but in effect Dikarn was knocked back from the sheer force of the explosion. As he pushed himself back up with his staff, he realized the force had knocked him back to the end of the cavern where the rift translocator hub was located. Dikarn called forth a shadow wright and sent it down the tunnel as he grumbled and began firing up the machine, Joaquin made quick work of the wright and was in hot pursuit coming down the tunnel toward Dikarn."Don't you ever give up?!" Dikarn griped, turning with his hand extended, preparing to unleash an attack. Joaquin had his saber ready and saw Dikarn's hand as an open target. Without hesitation he sliced Dikarn's forearm off and drove a kick into his chest, knocking him to the ground.
"You will answer for the lives of the people you've slain!" Joaquin said sternly, placing his foot on Dikarn's chest, with the saber blade inches away from his face. Dikarn still grimacing in agonizing pain, slowly began to laugh.
"Maybe so, but not today and not to you!" He said clutching his staff which crackled with energy. The top piece shimmered bright, emitting a pulse of ether knocking Joaquin back and pinning him against the wall. Then helical spirals of dark orange energy swirled around Dikarn's elbow where the limb had been severed and Joaquin saw his arm regenerating, grafting muscle tissue and sinew around the bone until it was whole again. Meanwhile, the translocator hub had charged up and hummed to life opening a powerful rift into a portal. "Fortunately for you I have more important matters to attend to!" Dikarn said as he summoned the golden arm bones into his hand and stepped towards the portal.
"You will not get away this!" Joaquin told Dikarn with undertones of anger seething in his words.
"Accept your losses while you are still ahead human! Trifle with me again and it will be the last time you follow me!" Dikarn said as he stepped through the portal. Freed from the spell pinning him against the wall, Joaquin made a split decision to enter the portal and jumped in just before it closed.