The Infinite Chronicles
Act 8: Resurgence
How do you feel about Ontos being called Zhen instead? Let me know in pms or something.
Chapter 25
"We should leave something here you think?" Jess asked. "His sword has already disappeared, I'm not sure we can.." I said. Zhen responded by somehow grabbing some bright blue light from somewhere and started weaving it into the shape of a sword. One minute later, an exact replica of Corvin's sword was handed to me by Zhen.
We stood there, astounded. "Well?" he asked "Didn't you want to leave a memorial?". "Y-Yeah," I took and drove it into the ground. Surprisingly, the blade sank easily into the hard metal of the compound. I ripped a piece of a dark grey cloth and wrote some symbols on it before carefully wrapping it around the sword.
We moved on, slicing robots occasionally and taking breaks frequently. During our stops, we would spar with each other to keep our skills sharp. "Why are there so many damn robots in one building?" I complained. "The defense system, I thought someone would try and break into here, didn't occur to me that we would be the ones walking here," Avalon admitted.
We finally reached the end point. A massive door that was at least as tall as a mountain. Avalon stepped forward and faced all of us. "Beyond this door lies our final challenge, be warned, this will be the hardest challenge yet, if you want to run away now, it is understandable, are you ready?" he asked.
"Yeah! I won't let people like Silverius cause mass grief anymore!" Jess cheered. "So am I, I will stand by all of you, even to the ends of the world," Ace said while WIldcard just gave a thumbs up and grinned slightly. "Steve want to help friends! Even if it means impossible, Steve know that friend and Grace will be there!" Steve said. "I made a promise to heal the world, and I will fulfill this duty," Elanis stated.
"In a world of greed and violence, is anyone ever truly ready?" I asked. Jess pulled out her notebook and wrote what I just said. Avalon grinned "No, no one ever is.". He changed to Zhen, who activated a terminal somehow and unlocked the door.
A wall as tall as a mountain made from some metal raised itself. What we saw next was unbelievable. An Artifice so massive, it probably could cut a titan in half. It was mostly black and gold and had a massive green cross shaped core crystal in its room was being held in a large circular room that would probably take at least a day to circle around. The ceiling was a massive dome of glass that showed the sea above us. In front of it was Silverius, who was grinning like a madman.
"Well I see you finally made it!" he laughed. "Corvin is dead because of you dumbass," I growled, tightening the grip on my sword. He tilted his head sideways "Really? I would say that he killed himself.". "He was misled by your lies Silverius, now come quietly and we don't have to fight," Zhen reasoned. "Heh, trying to talk yourself out of a fight? That's very unlike you Zhen," he spat the last word. "Don't think that I forgot what happened, the world of pain you made me live, Corvin was right to die," Silverius sneered. "A tragic tale don't you think? He wanted to die, yet he couldn't, something gave him the strength to carry on all these years, his revenge on you, and mankind," he continued. "You should be dead, but you're not, so care to explain how you came back?" he asked. I had an answer this time. "Because of my will to not fail," I answered.
"Please Silverius, we can exist without fighting, Corvin saw our reason, a-and.." Zhen tried to say. "And what?" Silverius' tone now was a really dangerous one, like the one your mother had. "A-And it's not what Ruby would have wanted," Zhen managed to say. Silverius' eyes narrowed and he didn't say anything for a minute. "You, do not dare ever to use THAT NAME AGAIN!" Silverius yelled at him. An invisible force exploded from him, knocking us down. "Do you know how painful it was to be combined and to be one? How your head hurts with every decision you make? But no, we couldn't die, we had immortality but it turned out to be a curse from you," he continued. "But enough talking, it's time" he regained his composure and he was absorbed into the core crystal.
"What is that thing!?" I yelled as it started to activate. "That," Zhen said grimly, "is Omega, the Artifice I used to defeat the Dragon.". "Is it beatable?" Ace readied his bow. "I estimate a 30% chance of victory," Atlas said as he used his full size. Zhen glared at him, but said nothing.
"Alright, then we go down swinging, let's go!" I rallied them. A cheer went from our side, but died quickly in the massive room that we were in. Atlas flew above us, launching beams able to destroy titans and mountain-devastating missiles, but they didn't seem to leave any noticeable damage on the massive Artifice. We ran forward, with Zhen's ability to warp reality, I could easily move faster and climb it. I struck its skin in multiple places, but I was probably only giving it scratches in it's paint.
Ace fired multiple shots at it, disrupting its ability to lock on missiles on the rest of the group who were fighting on foot. Surprisingly, Elanis could fly. She helped me in flying around it and slightly damaging Omega. Omega responded by firing lasers at Atlas, Elanis and me. We could dodge them easily, but Atlas, being significantly larger and slower, had to deploy his shields.
Steve, Jess and Ace weren't looking so good. They had received some serious burn marks from the lasers. I felt anger rise in my chest. The sword grew brighter and I was doing a LOT more damage. "The sword matches your will, but remember restraint," Zhen said as I passed him the sword. "Infinity Edge!" he roared, raising the sword before moving faster than I could see, leaving behind him a trail of exposed machinery in his wake.
The sword conveniently fell back into my hands, at this point the blade was as long as a tree. I gave a few more strikes and then suddenly, I could hear something. "Let's get this done! So we can move on!" a male voice yelled. "For the future!" I heard a girl say. Deciding to wonder what I heard to be thought about for later, I decided to keep on fighting. Suddenly,Omega shut down. Silverius fell out of the crystal and landed on his chest.
"W-What happened?" I asked Zhen. "The Conduit," he said grimly, "It's no longer tethered, which means that the Architect is dead.". Silverius got up and dusted himself, "That is not a good sign at atll," he said. Zhen nodded, "That means that She will be awake," he said. "Who?" I asked.
"Me, child," a voice said behind us. It was a voice that just sounded really cold and uncaring. We turned around to face a woman, but something was horribly wrong. She had horns that were connected to her forehead and the sides of her face. But most interestingly, her body was mostly red and she had brown or blood red colored scales on parts of her body. Her eyes were like molten iron and she had a scaly dragon tail.
"You," Zhen's voice became so scary I almost jumped out of my skin. "You shouldn't be here," he said. He was threatening her, but I could feel that he was pale and shaking inside his armor. "Oh please, I've been asleep for a thousand years, about time I wake up, and for the first order of business, I'm going to get rid of a useless puppet," she said. She pointed a finger up, which had unnaturally long nails and from the ground, a spike punctured Silverius in the chest, before two smaller ones punctured his arms, shattering his core crystals.
"No!" I screamed, trying to get him off. I didn't know why I was acting like this, he was my enemy after all, but one part of me thought that even he didn't deserve this. "Heh, don't bother kid, I was already destined to die at the start, and so are all people. But even I learned something, you still have time, time to do what you have to do before you reach the day, so, please do something with yours yeah?" he laughed as he started disintegrating. "I promise," I said with tearful eyes. "And you, bitch," he stared at the dragon lady "Go fuck yourself for manipulating me, I'll meet see you again in Hell," he spat. And with that, he was gone.
"What a useless tool, I suppose you have to do everything yourself," she said, obviously disgusted. "How dare you! Treating him like some useless sock! I could kill you where I stand!" Ace challenged. She just raised an eye, "I'm not quite sure who you're dealing with, I am Alexandria, the Dragon Mother, and since the Conduit is no longer tethered, I will wake in about three months and destroy everything here, ta da!" she disappeared in a puddle of seawater.
None of us said anything. "Is she, is she really serious?" I asked Zhen. "Unfortunately so, she aims to annihilate all life, so that she can swim in peace, rather selfish woman," he replied. "We must go on, the elevator that leads to the Surface is right ahead." Zhen said. After another hour of walking silently, we made it. A slot for the three Cubes of Life was on the side of the wall. We inserted them, and the elevator opened and we shot to the top.
We finally reached it, and I was not prepared to see what was above. "N-No, it can't be like this," Jess stutered. In front of us was a barren wasteland, the grass was a disgusting yellow and there was nothing else growing, except a tree that I had seen in the vision of the surface. Zhen didn't say anything, like he already knew. "You already knew, did you," I turned around. "That was not the reason we came up here, look," he pointed at something. "Oh my dragon.." Elanis gasped. The fog in front of us dispersed to reveal a massive stone structure with symbols on it. "It's a giant stone ring," Jess frowned. "That's not just any stone ring my friends, that is a gateway," Zhen explained. "So, it can take us to a different world?" I asked. He nodded, "Alexandria was bound to destroy the surface, so I made the Surface a decoy, the gateway would take us to a different world, one that we don't have to live in fear.".
"We have to warn the other kingdoms," he continued. He turned to Atlas "I presume you have already directed the ship up here?". Atlas nodded. Moments later, we all had a nice warm bath and a cup of hot chocolate in our hands, except for Elanis, who for some reason disliked chocolate, so she had a coffee. Why would anyone trade something nice and sweet for something watery and bitter, I don't know. "We must direct each kingdom's titan to the gateway, if we want everyone to leave," Avalon said. "There's one place we have to go back to, and it's on the top of my priority list," Elanis said. "Where?" I asked.
"Home."
Plot twist! Silverius is not the only challenge! Our heroes have a deadline to save everyone before an angry dragon wakes and annihilates the world. Elanis must return to her roots, can she reclaim the throne? Enter, Act 9, Final Hope.
