Rise of the Champions - Chapter Ninety-Seven- Complete

Author: Milady Dragon

Author's note: And so, this is the end of this particular story. I don't know when the next one will start posting, although it is started. Thank you all for reading along and commenting! I hope it's been an enjoyable ride!


He stood at the window high in his tower, looking out over the ocean that surrounded the island he and his clan had lived on for generations untold.

Once again, he had felt the call of one of the Stones of Infinity, and yet the awareness of it had faded, as they always did. Over the millennia, the members of the clan had always been able to sense when one of the Stones was in use. Generations would go by and none would ever experience the heady sensation of a Stone at work, and then one would be discovered and come to life for a short while.

The Stones had been a creation of the first Wizard of his clan. That Wizard had been mighty, and yet he would not have had the power to bring into being such amazing Artifacts if not for the unique spell he had used to enchant them. It had been a deal, of sorts; in order to create the Stones, his ancestor had called all the magic within their clan to his aid…magic from past, present, and future, depleting their family line even as he was responsible for creating the most powerful Artifacts the world had ever seen, each with the power over a specific universal element and, when brought together, could do anything their wielder so wished.

Space.

Time.

Power.

Soul.

Mind.

Reality.

They had been lost in ages past, and even the ancient records did not say how that had occurred. Various tales said that the Stones had been stolen, or had left on their own, having gained enough sentience in their creation to give them their own version of free will. In the end, it did not matter; his clan had long sought the Stones, to return them to the clan.

Or to use them in the way he saw fit.

Only a handful of days ago, the Reality Stone had awakened. He had been able to feel the power of it, connected as his family was to all of the Stones of Infinity, and he had yearned for it so strongly it was as if it had called to both his heart and his soul, like a soulmate that was a vast distance away.

At the same time, the Space Stone had also awakened, but before he could act, both had faded away once more.

Oh, there had been times over the years when he'd believed he'd felt the pull of the one of the Stones. Most recently, it had been the Space Stone, yet that had only been a blip and had winked back to sleep almost immediately. Prior to that, he had sensed the Mind Stone for a short time, eleven years previously, but whoever had utilized it had only used very little of its vast power. He had been about to leave the island, to go in search of it, but its presence had faded by the time he had been able to find a ship to take him to the Western Lands.

The meticulous records kept by his ancestors had written many instances when the Stones had become active for a short while. His great-grandfather had sensed the Soul Stone, over one hundred years ago, just before magic had come back into the world. And, three hundred years before that, the Space Stone had become activated for such a long time that the head of the clan at the time had managed to take ship to the Western Lands and track it as far as the mountains before it went to sleep once again.

To have come that close, to finding one of their family's Artifacts…it had broken the leader beyond repair, and he had lived out his days in madness.

Thus was the price the clan had paid in order to create the ultimate of Artifacts.

And, someday, he would be the one to bring their Artifacts home.

Thanos, of the Clan Thanos, swore it upon his very life and soul.

He would find his family's legacy and fulfil his destiny.

Fin