Before you read this chapter, I want to apologize. School ended, I had no idea of the passage of time, and before I knew it, two months had passed. So… I hope you enjoy this, since the last chapter of this was the last thing I wrote that was more than two sentences.
The Emperor's group was resting. They had been running for two days straight, so that they wouldn't be caught by Alex. They had defeated them, which bought them some time, but they knew Alex was persistent.
"Now that we have a break, would you mind explaining your quest?" Meric asked the Emperor.
"Ugh, I hate explaining this, even if I've only done it twice already."
"Well then how am I supposed to know what I'm fighting for?"
"Just read this." The Emperor said, handing Meric a folder.
"What's that?" Apok asked, jumping from a tree above.
"I'll tell you if you explain why you were in that tree."
"Oh, I was just getting some food." Apok showed some birds to the Emperor.
"Why can't we just go take some from a town?" Serego asked, walking over.
"We don't want to draw attention to ourselves. We've been running for two days, the last thing we want to do would be to let Alex know where we were." Apok blandly stated, preparing to cook the birds.
"Anyway, the folder is what I call the 'Sol File'. I wrote it toward the end of my reign, based off of legends and history on the subject of lost Adepts."
"Why didn't you show me or Apok this?" Serego asked.
"I went and picked it up from my palace after you joined. I didn't see a point in having you read it; even if it had some stuff I hadn't told you in it."
"Whatever."
Meric looked through the folder until he found something particularly interesting.
Legend of the Lost Age
Notes: This was pieced together from legends found in different parts of Weyard, so it seems like more than a legend. And it seems kind of weird since I rewrote it.
Approximately 2000 years ago, Alchemy was rampant. Everyone had it, and no one used manual labor. Well, not everyone had Alchemy, but those who didn't have it were separated from the rest of the world and supposedly didn't exist. Wars involving Alchemy were common, and would ruin parts of the world. The Suahalla Desert was once a thriving land, but a war fought over it reduced it to a desert. A group of twelve mighty sages felt that this problem would eventually lead to the destruction of Weyard, and they began to think.
Three years passed with the Sages isolating themselves, until they came up with the idea of the lighthouses. Their original purpose was to limit the amount of Psyenergy able to be used, but knowledge of that procedure has been lost to the ages. But this was flawed in essence as the sages couldn't control the lighthouses. The power they gave off would fluctuate randomly, and the strength of Alchemy was inconsistent. They realized that this method of stopping wars was flawed, and they began to try and find a way to control the flow of energy from the lighthouses.
Another year passed, and they came up with a new, perfected item to control the energy from the lighthouses. They called it the Golden Sun. They flawed lighthouses each emitted a sphere of Psyenergy which would have a fluctuating level of power which couldn't be controlled. The Golden Sun took all the energy from the four lighthouses and emitted it all in one sphere which could be controlled by one person. It was eventually decided that the leader of the sages, William Oen, would take the Golden Sun and retreat into the Sages Sanctum in Mount Alche, and be sure to stop wars. The Sun's power would keep William alive and it would also let him have the ability to see if there was a war going on in the world.
But there were people who felt that no one person should control all Alchemy, and an Adept by the name of Kopa Amsatsu founded a band of rebels known as the Sol Adepts. They spent most of their time trying to figure out how they could refill Alchemy to its original point, but they dabbled in other experiments. But any time that wasn't spent on research was spent fighting against those loyal to William. In time they figured out how to give one person the powers of several elements, but this led to a horrible rift in the rebels, based on why they joined.
There were some who felt that Alchemy should not be toyed with, which led them to be against multi-element adepts, and those who felt that there should just not be any one ruler of Alchemy, but didn't mind having more power for various people. They grudgingly stayed together, but only until they had a way to restore alchemy. Fortunately, they didn't need to wait long. They found a way to separate a piece of the elemental stars which they could use to restore Alchemy to themselves. They could not, however, simply remove the stars, because that would just eliminate Alchemy without the lighthouses to concentrate the power.
They built micro-lighthouses, small altars that can store a tiny fraction of a star and release its energy to a few thousand people. They had their most agile soldiers sneak into each lighthouse and break off two tiny pieces of the stars, barely bigger than a grain of sand, and put them in the micro-lighthouses. There would be a micro-lighthouse of the proper element for the separatists, and a single micro-lighthouse for the true Sol Adepts, with all four pieces fused into a micro-Sun. They agreed to make their own civilizations in different places, and forget about William's rule.
Notes: I felt a flaw in the Stars from when I first held them before I fled Sol Sanctum. This must be why.
A new rift came in the rebels, though. Of the true Sol Adepts, there was a group led by Kopa's right hand man, Nenyex Alene, who felt that they could not abandon the world simply because some of the people didn't realize the problem. They created their own micro-lighthouse and stole half of the micro-Sun, and named themselves the Luna Adepts. The Sol Adepts disappeared, but the Luna Adepts remained to fight William.
In time, power corrupted William to the point where he hoarded Alchemy for himself. He shut off the release of energy, and became the only Adept in the world. Over time, people trained to fight physically, and some of the newly trained warriors along with a group of Luna Adepts would band together and launch a full strike on the Sage's Sanctum in a vain attempt to reclaim Alchemy.
Over the years, the strikes became less and less common, until an attack over fifty years later, led by Nenyex himself, who was now the most powerful Adept alive aside from William himself, seemed to yield some sort of result. After a battle Nenyex struggled to get to the nearest village, and once he did, all he said was "It's over." before dying.
The next strike was launched by remaining members of the Luna Adepts, but they all returned alive, carrying a few stone tablets. The inscription upon them read:
Legacy of the Wise One
I am the Wise One.
God of Alchemy.
Humanity was given a great gift,
But they abused it.
In an attempt to stop the abuse,
A new evil claimed the full gift.
The final war of Alchemy was
Fought between this man and
All those who stood for justice.
But they could never win.
I stepped in.
I ended the war.
Alchemy is gone.
I sealed the stars away.
But those who are loyal
Shall build a village.
They will seal the Sanctum,
And name it for those who
Fought for Alchemy.
The Sanctum shall be Sol,
But the true power shall
Lie in Luna.
Never release the stars,
Or humanity shall
Repeat the follies
Of the past.
My word is law.
I am the Wise One.
I am the god of Alchemy.
The Luna Adepts obeyed the tablets, and in time saw the Wise One. He would help them establish the village, which would be named Vale. Somehow, other enclosed Adept villages were created, and Vale became home to only Adepts of Venus and Mars. There was also Lemuria, which truly sprung out of nowhere, Prox, which was settled in the northern wastes, and Anemos, which was a traveling tribe, named for the city which rose into the air.
Centuries passed, and there were true Luna Adepts which were still revered, led by the reincarnated Nenyex. But then… they returned. A group of Sol Adepts appeared from nowhere, and started a new war with the Luna Adepts for reasons lost to the flow of time. Their war ravaged the land, as these full adepts had powers beyond imagining. Their war was worse than any war in the Lost Age, but then it ended. No one knows why, but all the Sol Adepts and all the Luna Adepts but one disappeared. The last Luna Adept gave a message to Vale, and then disappeared. His message warned: They will return.
Notes: There seem to be some holes in this legend, but it makes sense. I assume Mount Alche is actually Mount Aleph, and then it could all have actually happened.
Meric skimmed through the file, and saw a lot of notes that he didn't understand, but on the last page, he saw a final report.
Weyard is in jeopardy. The Sol and Luna adepts fought thousands of years ago, but then left to prepare to fight again. Last time they were too equal and were just destroying Weyard, so they stopped. This time they won't stop until one side is dead or Weyard is destroyed. The only hope for stopping them is to obtain more power, which you can get from the lost kingdoms. They were the separatists from the Sol Adepts, and you can obtain pure, unbridled elemental power by meditating upon their micro-lighthouse.
The passages to the Lost Kingdoms can only be opened by a strong flux of elemental power. In my research it can only be done by two people. Either two Luna or Sol Adepts, or two incarnations of the proper element. I have yet to discover what the Incarnations truly are, aside from reincarnations of the heroes who broke the seal.
On the locations of the lost kingdoms, I found these legends.
Kterox, Kingdom of Mars. Legend: Plunge from the Lighthouse, into the Abyss, clinging to life, the true land lies. From my analysis, it sounds like you would need to jump from the top of the lighthouse off Gaia Falls, and then you will see the entrance, but that makes no sense since the lighthouse would not have been so close to Gaia Falls when the legend was written.
Old Lemuria, Kingdom of Mercury, I verified. There is just a ruined doorway deep in the ruins which leads there. I didn't bother to write down the legend.
Anemos, Kingdom of Jupiter: The risen land gate lies beyond the soldier, felled he will be before the gate is used.
Venta, Kingdom of Earth: The Desert Gate and the Skeletal Wind mark the path which will lead to the promised land, the channel leading down.
I must find the Incarnations and use them to gain more power, so I can hold back the Sol and Luna Adepts who will wage war upon this land. I will not have them destroy my empire!
Meric closed the file, and then looked up at the Emperor. "That was… Enlightening."
"Hm?" The Emperor stopped eating a bird. "Oh. You're done. So you know what we're doing now?"
"Yeah."
"Then here, have something to eat."
"Wait. Who are you, really?"
"What do you mean? I am the Emperor, returned from the void into which he was cast over two hundred years ago."
"Then who is the one who calls himself Alex?"
"That's an interesting story. But if I ever disappear mysteriously, serve him."
"…Although you two are rivals?"
"We are after the same goal, but for different reasons."
"How do your reasons differ?"
"I wish to rebuild my empire, with no threats, but he simply wishes to restore peace to Weyard."
"Comparing your reasons to the history of the Golden Empire, you seem more like Alex."
"Then believe I truly am he."
"Alright." Meric began to eat.
---
Alex's group had gathered in his palace.
"Everyone, I have decided our next move."
"What is it?" Kunos asked, leaning against a wall.
"We will head to Anemos. But first, we will meet up with Dokke and inform him to guard the gate to Old Lemuria at all costs. Unless they follow us into Anemos. But they can't follow us unless they know the way to the gate, and there's only one other person and one document that know- Oh, shit."
"What?"
"The Sol File. I wrote it towards the end of my reign. It has all my information about the Incarnations and our opponents. I looked for it when I returned and couldn't find it. I assumed it was taken by pillagers over the centuries, but it all makes sense now. That's how he knows what I'm trying to do, about the Incarnations, about everything."
"Do you have the location of the gate to Anemos written down?"
"I never wrote the real location. I have the legend in there, and I know where it is, but he would have to decipher the legend to find it."
"Where is it?"
"I won't say. For all I know, I'm wrong about the file and someone here is a spy."
"Who do you think would be a spy?"
"Xeynen has fought too valiantly; Myteri is pure of heart, but Ielix…"
"Hey!" Ielix cut in. "What about Kunos? And what makes you suspect me?"
"Kunos can't be a spy. When she first showed up, before I trusted more, I read her mind. There was no memory of a cloaked figure, or an old man, or an 'Emperor'. And you, well, you met with the Emperor before we met."
"I'm not a damn spy!"
"Then why are you being so defensive?"
"If I was a spy, then you wouldn't be able to get into Anemos anyway. So you can trust me, or fail your mission."
"You've got me there. But if you really aren't a spy, then you wouldn't object to a mind read."
"Fine, whatever, if that's what it'll take for your trust."
"If you are that willing, then I guess I don't need to."
"Ugh, whatever, I'll just go get Dokke." Alex warped out.
---
"Dokke." Alex said, warping into the royal chambers.
"Gah! Don't do that!" Dokke jumped, startled.
"We require council with you." Alex grabbed Dokke and warped right out.
A few minutes passed, and a guard walked in. "My liege, we have- Shit. Guards! Rally your forces! Prepare Neo Eclipse! We have a king to find!"
---
"Welcome, Dokke." Kunos said, shaking his hand.
"Who are these three?"
"Allow me to introduce Xeynen, Incarnation of Felix, Ielix, Incarnation of Ivan, and Myteri, introduction of Sheba." Alex said, gesturing to each of them in turn.
"When did you figure out who we were Incarnations of?" Ielix asked.
"I thought it was obvious…"
"Why have you called me here?" Dokke asked.
"As you can see, we acquired both Jupiter Incarnations. But we are not the only ones hunting down the Incarnations."
"Who else is?"
"Someone who calls himself the 'Emperor'. He acquired a file with all my information on the Incarnations. He currently possesses the other Venus Incarnation, a Mars Incarnation, and a Mercury adept."
"So… why did you call me here?"
"We are heading to Anemos, but we are worried about Old Lemuria, since they have a Mercury Incarnation, and we don't know where the other one is."
"What about the Mars Kingdom? And how does this involve me?"
"The Proxian elders have one of the Mars Adepts with them. We need you to guard the entrance to Old Lemuria. Here." Alex handed Dokke a slip of paper. "That has directions to the gate. Guard it well, so that they can't enter Old Lemuria while we're gone."
"Alright. But why did you take me here? Weren't you worried about my guards?"
"I knew I forgot something." CRASH! "There they are." An army of Lemurian soldiers flooded into Alex's Palace through a hole they opened in the ceiling, and then came their siege weapon… Neo Eclipse. "I'm not running this time. I'm fighting."
"I'll fight with you." Kunos said, leaping to Alex's side.
"I would rather not have you fight… but you aren't an Incarnation, and I need all the help I can get. Xeynen?"
"Yeah?"
"Take this." Alex tosses him an envelope. "If I don't return, give that to Kunos. If neither of us return, open that. All Incarnations, run. You ready to fight, Kunos?"
"Yeah. Let's go." Alex and Kunos leapt at the soldiers, striking them down with ease.
"Pull out, Lemurians! You lost to me once, you'll lose to me again!"
"Ugh… He's right." The captain of the Lemurian Guard grunted. "They're massacring us. Pull back, let Neo Eclipse slaughter them."
"I've been looking forward to this fight for a while." Alex said, watching the soldiers flee. Once they were all gone, he lunged at Neo Eclipse, to no avail. His sword didn't even scratch Neo Eclipse's armor.
"Your blade couldn't hurt him, what about… THIS!" Kunos said, launching a beam of concentrated Mars Psyenergy at Neo Eclipse. Somehow, he redirected be beam and absorbed it into his claw, reversing it at Alex. He warped out of the way, but the beam tore through his palace. Kunos and Alex fought Neo Eclipse in an infinite stalemate, in a battle that lasted several hours.
"We can't win…" Alex panted.
"I… I have one… one last move…"
"What is it?"
"Luna… Blast… Ultimate Psyenergy move…"
"Why didn't you use it before?"
"It has serious repercussions… on the user…"
"Like…?"
"Death…"
"Then how do you know you can do it?"
"Last time I tried… I was at full strength… and I can make it more or less powerful… But to kill him… It will need… all… my strength…"
"No! Don't!"
"I have to…"
"NO!"
Kunos flew close to Neo Eclipse, but when Alex tried to stop her, a shield was keeping him from doing anything.
"Luna…"
"NO! NO! DON'T!"
"BLAST!" An enormous wave of silver energy flew out of Kunos's hand, completely engulfing Neo Eclipse.
"NO NO NO!" Neo Eclipse's charred ashes fell to the ground, followed by Kunos's body, completely devoid of energy. "NO!" Alex dove towards her body, catching it and pumping it full of healing Psyenergy.
Another hour passed, with Alex constantly pumping Psyenergy into her. The rest of the Incarnations came out and circled them, with Xeynen using his own Psyenergy on Kunos to help. Eventually, Alex gave up.
"No… no… no… I'm out of power… but you can't die… no…"
"Alex…" Xeynen said, putting his hand on Alex's shoulder.
"It's over… Xeynen, do you still have that envelope I gave you?"
"Yeah, here." Xeynen took it out, and Alex immediately incinerated it. "What the hell!"
"The mission is over! I give up! Goodbye!" Alex flew off, crying.
"Well this is just great." Xeynen said, looking at the ground.
"It's about to get worse." Ielix said, pointing to the doorway where Apok, Serego, and Meric were standing.
A/N: After two months, a chapter twice as long as usual. At first I meant to put the Sol File in a later chapter, but the second half of this was too short, so I added that. And it seems to me like kind of a clichéd death, but meh. I'd like to skip to the end of the story, but then no one but me would know what's going on.
FloraJupiterVixen- Thanks. Uh… not much else to say, but thanks.
ShadeXH- I can't find anything particularly wrong with the section, but yeah, there is a flaw. I blame Jade Empire. And that's also my excuse for the lack of Psyenergy. Even if I've barely played since then. And… I'm rambling.
Hopefully it won't be another two months before chapter nine. Especially with this cliffhanger.