Yeeeey! I've finally retaken my writing skills back up and running. Not to mention I've got my hard drive back after having it sliced and diced (reformatted). It took me a LONG while before I found the spot where they put my fics, hehe.
You know, it's kind of a piss off when the server changes some part of their site's coding. I mean, first it's the … symbol that gets screwed up, now it's the dash lines I use in between POV's.
By the way, after this fic, I'm gonna write maybe a few spin-offs from the characters. Maybe I'll start with Kevin's adverntures in Neifelheim. (What? You think I'd let that S.O.B. die that easy? HA! YOU WISH!)
And oh yeah, before I got back on this fic, I managed to write a chapter for Meshido's story during my vacation . Please heck it out. The title is Perseverance, just post a review or two if you want me to add more chapters to it.
RAGNAROK ONLINE FANFIC
Version 2
TRANSGRESSIONS OF FATEBy: RAGNAR (that really is my name)
Chapter 31: Lords of HatredThe land shook.
Geffen's tower swayed from the quake. Men and women screamed as they poured out of the city's eastern gate. Behind the mob of terrified people, there was a continuous spray of blood, interrupted only at slight intervals. The sky rained fire, ice, and lightning slamming against the ground, throwing dirt all over the air. Gouts of flame shot out of the ground, incinerating anything that came close.
Sei'Gash and Kieria stood in the heart of it all. The carnage the pain… they both reveled in it and savored every second of humanity's terror.
Kieria's Executioner cleaved a man from the shoulder to his gut. She wrenched the enormous blade free and with one smooth motion, beheaded the next five fools who tried to get near them with their swords.
Sei'Gash, with his sword-breaker katar, trapped a Mage's head between the pincers and with a flick of his wrist, cut off the upper portion of the man's head. Brains and blood fell to the ground and further stained his already bloody blades.
Just as soon as Sei'Gash pivoted on his heel to stab a man with the side-blades, pain lanced through the demon's body. He gasped, an action he wasn't used to doing and it was not from the pain, but it was a reaction of the frail human body he was occupying. It wouldn't be long before he will need to find a new one.
"Master, is all well?" Kieria asked as they went back to back when they found themselves surrounded by no fewer than ten Knights and two Priests. The annoying bolts of magic kept falling from the sky. The magics being hurled at them couldn't harm them, but the dust and dirt obscured their vision, which was a great annoyance.
"All is well, Kieria. But it would seem I would soon require a new host." Sei'Gash yanked out his blade from the body of a dead Knight, tearing out the man's shredded heart along with parts of his chain mail.
Kieria smiled… a mere twitch of her lips. Sei'Gash's release of Raidi to her required she must do a few… favors for him. She didn't mind having to serve the Master… but there seemed to be something… different about him. She just couldn't seem to put a finger into it though.
With a slash from below, Kieria impaled the next Knight with the scythe part of her Executioner. Twisting the wide blade, the Knight's body tore apart from the steel's sudden movement. She then slashed sideways and her blade cleaved through another Knight's shield, split through the shaft of his spear, and rammed through his skull.
It wasn't very long, really. It only took half an hour for the two of them to dispose of both Priests and those Knights – half that if they even put a fraction of effort into it – a few seconds if they took it seriously. Strange though, Kieria never thought of the Wizards as the kind to strike without being seen.
The sky darkened with gathering storm clouds and Kieria sighed. Here comes another round of those accursed Thunder Bolts . . . at the rate the Wizards are casting their magic, there probably wouldn't be much of Geffen left for the two of them to… terrorize.
Lightning fell in wild abandon, destroying everything they hit. The bolts that came close to them ripped the ground apart with a deafening roar but they never even touched the two demons.
"It is high time that we dispose of these pests." Sei'Gash sneered and proceeded for the Wizard's Tower.
Kieria sighed inwardly, there are times when she finds herself quite weary of this kind of activity. She only wanted Raidi, even if not by his own choice.
-Change of POV-
Freya strolled through the Sanctuary's grove. The leaves burned a rich orange as autumn settles upon the place. The fragrance of the flowers gave comfort to her as she sat next to the base of a small tree, the light passing through the little shade danced on her face.
Suddenly, pain shot through her spine. Visions danced before her eyes. Visions of terror, suffering.
Torture.
Around her, screams echoes as flames engulfed the very land. Blood flowed in rivers before her, as countless many died violent deaths. Beyond the horizon, she heard thunder roll in the darkness. Dark shadowed creatures emerged from the earth consuming every light in the world as they spilled out from the dark abyss from where they came from.
Freya tried to turn away from it, tried to close her eyes from the sight – from the vision. But even though she felt her eyelids tightly shut, the vision was still there . . . in front of her eyes, inside her mind, burning away the precious little of what was left of her sanity.
Freya.
The voice called from everywhere and nowhere.
"What?" she answered involuntarily.
Freya!
The voice cried out . . . more urgently this time.
"I'm here!"
Vision winked out. The pain winked out. Everything turned into a blank white. Everywhere she looked it was as if there was no up and no down, only plain white – everywhere.
"Welcome back, Freya." She remembered that voice.
The child walked out from what could have been a corner, but Freya wasn't sure. She still wore those odd clothes. She still had those strange eyes.
"Deyin." Freya said with recognition.
The child smiled. It was a mysterious, if not disturbing image of only the mouth moving but the rest of her did not. Even the skin next to the lips never creased as Deyin smiled.
"Why are we here, Deyin?" Freya asked.
The smile disappeared instantly . . . it was replaced by an emotionless face of a porcelain doll. "I have come for you, Freya Storm-Crow."
"What do you mean?"
Without a word, Deyin lifted her fist towards Freya. The air crackled with magic and the child's eyes blazed with threat. "I came for you, Child of Skuld."
The title Deyin gave her left her rooted on where she stood. That Deyin would want to kill her stunned her.
Without thought, without effort, Freya cast out both her hands. Fire surrounded her. It blazed with merciless fury, it coursed through her veins. The fire melded with her magic and ready to be used.
Lightning shot out from Deyin's outstretched fist. To Freya, the spell sped towards her with excruciating slowness. The pain of the magic within her reached a point where she the thought she should have exploded.
Their magic met against each other and a deafening explosion rocked Freya to the core. The shockwave from the blast knocked her to a floor she could only feel but not see. Her arms bled from a dozen cuts when she held them out to shield her face.
Even before her focus returned, a huge column of solid fire roared from above to crush her. Without thinking, Freya waved her hand in a slashing motion, casting a blade of air through the flame. With the same hand, she hurled her own Fire Bolts towards the child.
Deyin countered by creating a curved wall of ice that sent Freya's own fire back to her.
Racked with terror and desperation, Freya focused all her power into her outcast fists. Time slowed. Heat gathered in tremendous amounts inside her, it tore inside her, begging – demanding – screaming to be released. To her senses, every detail became clear. She felt every single drop of sweat on her skin. She smelled every singed hair, every inch of burnt clothing and skin. She saw every droplet of flame coming towards her and every wave of energy beginning to swirl in front of her.
"STOP THIS, DEYIN!"
A solid column of flame shot out from her fists. The Fire Bolts, puny in comparison to her flame, melted away from the sheer force and heat. The pain inflicted by the spell made her feel her skin peeling off her body. The ecstasy of being able to use such power made her cling to it even more.
She was afraid to keep on casting it. Yet she was terrified to let go.
It was torture.
It was rapture.
It was . . .
She could no longer describe it. The sensation was mind numbing.
Finally, it ended. Almost nothing was left of the strange place where she once stood. Instead, there was a huge gaping hole in the air in front of her, as if the whole world was a cube made of paper and some powerful hand ripped it apart in one side. Beyond the hole, there was nothing. There was nothing but the screaming silence of oblivion.
"Well done, Freya Storm-Crow, you have passed my first test."
A whip of lighting came to life in her hand. Freya quickly pivoted on heels with her magical weapon already slicing through the air. Deyin will not have a chance to survive.
"Enough!" Deyin held out her hands, and to Freya's shock, all the magic within her winked away in an instant.
The sudden lack of her power left Freya staggering. She tripped on something unseen and fell down to the unseen floor.
"Why Deyin? Why?" Freya gasped.
"It was a test, Freya," she felt the child's footsteps come closer to her, "a test to see if you magically prepared for the power set aside for you."
"What power?"
"The power over destiny. The power set aside by the Fates themselves for your use."
"Why?"
"It is for you to decide. It is for the Fates to decide. It is for the world to decide."
"What does that mean?"
Freya flopped down on her back, gasping for more air. Air that her magic the flames deprived her. She saw Deyin's face looking down at her.
Deyin wore that strange smile on her face, "You decide."
"What should I decide?"
Freya suddenly found herself back in the grove, sitting on that same rock she chose to rest on. The chirping birds, the falling leaves, the rays of the setting sun piercing through the tree she was under . . . it was as if a battle was not just fought at that very hour.
Deyin's voice rang from every side, "You have passed the Test of Power, Freya," right in front of Freya, a portal opened, "but now, it is time to see if you truly are worthy of your destiny."
"What if I don't want to go?"
"You will."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I am."
The portal called to her with a song as tantalizing as the power she had just wielded in that place so close to a dream. "Then . . . I will go."
And she let herself fall inside the pillar of light.