The Infinite Chronicles

Finale

Act 9: Final Hope

Chapter 28

"We should move quickly, and from what I predict, Alexandria will raise her children to stop us," Avalon said. We were planning our next move in the main meeting room of the palace. "You should take some men with you," Elanis suggested. "We'll take a team of thirty men, ten drivers and twenty soldiers," he said. Now, we were making our way to the Surface. I was sitting in the transport unlike my friends because I was the highest ranking officer among them.

"Alright, we'll be docking soon, prepare your weapons and we have to fight our way to the Gateway. I can't promise you a way home, but I can promise you that we will succeed, are you with me?" I stood in front as we approached the area where we were planning to land. They all cheered and we stood in front of the doors. When it opened, I was not ready. Hordes of smaller dragons were swarming on the ground. "Quick! Ready the fortifications!" I yelled. Our transport unfolded to become a sort of small fortress and we charged in. Five of my team stood back in the fortress, firing rounds at the serpents.

We clashed against the many sea serpents, steel against claws, swords against fangs. Atlas flew above us, raining hell down from above. I cut through the serpents easily with Avalon's sword. It felt, the first ten minutes, we were gaining ground. A cry came from the left flank, several dragons ripped through their ranks, causing a weakness in our formation, we had no choice but to retreat back to the fortress.

"We're going to die here!" one of them cried hysterically as we bunkered down in the heavily fortified fortress. "We're not going to die here, calm down," I tried to think of a solution. Even the thick metal walls wouldn't stop them for long. "Can you become Zhen?" I asked Avalon. "With pleasure," he glowed gold, turning into him. "Alright, listen up," I stood up. I saw twenty five men, all terrified and shaken. "I will not die like this, cowering, hiding and waiting for our time, no, I say if we die, we go down swinging! Now who's with me!" I yelled. They slowly picked themselves up and cheered. We burst down the walls and charged.

"Charge!" I yelled. We advanced much quicker. My friends joined in the carnage. "Banzai!" Jess jumped in with glee. Ace's arrows ripped through the legions of serpents. "We need to climb that hill!" Avalon yelled over the roars of the dragons. We advanced towards the hill, cutting down any that stood in our way. "You will never reach the hill!" a voice I knew too well roared. Standing in our path, were all nine Dragon Aspects. They were easily thirty feet each. We ran at them, determined to let nothing stand in our way.

I jumped right towards Fear's snout and gave him a nice nose piercing. He roared in pain and shook me off. I saw Ace dealing with Pseta and Diafthora, Jess fighting Interitus, Steve tussling with Cupiditas and a dragon dripping in blood and had weapons sticking out of him, possibly Caedus and Atlas fought Mors in the sky. I didn't even know he could fly.

I ducked under when he swung his tail, sending some of his minions flying into the sea. My blade easily cut through his scales. I fought down the fearful vibes he sent out, I was more focused on making him a fillet, whereas my body was screaming RUN YOU IDIOT!. "You will never get past us, Mother sends her best to finish you!" he slammed his talons against my sword. Surprisingly, the blade didn't go through. I looked up and saw him opening his mouth. Zhen tackled me as black flames incinerated the grass where I was standing.

"Time to shut this idiot up," Zhen helped me up. "Agreed," I gave him the blade. He pointed the edge at Fovos. The blade began glowing gold, "Eclipse Beam'' he uttered. A small, round rift appeared at the edge of the sword, and out of it, a large golden shot out of it. Fovos didn't even stand a chance, he just got annihilated. Ace did manage to pepper Pseta with holes from his arrows and an axe was sticking out of Diafthora. She staggered with the blade in her head, before collapsing and falling off the cliff. Interitus had multiple slices all over his body and both Cupiditas and Caedas were reduced to ashes. A golden light exploded above us and the ashes of Mors rained down gently from above.

"That takes care of that," Ace dusted off his finger. "He rotted my knives," Jess complained. Zhen did the light show once again and handed two knives to her. "That should suffice for the moment," he said. "Never ceases to amaze me," she looked at the knives. After kicking a few more dragons out of our way, we finally made it. "You are dismissed, bring back the bodies of the slain for a burial," I said to my crew. They saluted smartly and started picking their way down the dragon carcass filed landscape. We watch them pick up some dead bodies and return to the fortress.

"Now, what do we do?" I asked Zhen. He held out his hand and a stone pedestal popped out of nowhere. It unfolded to reveal a sort of control panel. Zhen punched in a bunch of buttons and the writings on the Gateway started to glow purple. "Yes!" Zhen punched the air. "Atlas, send the message to Elanis, we are good to go," I said. He nodded. "Now, what do we do?" Jess asked this time. "We wait until the portal has fully activated," Zhen sat down on the dry barren ground. The portal was indeed activating, a purple sheet of color was slowly filing in the once empty hole. It started to rain as well. "Don't you all feel that we've been pretty lucky so far? Like were the favorites of a story?" Jess asked randomly. "Yeah! And you're depicted as the annoying one!" Ace remarked. She gave him a slap on the head while the rest of us laughed.

We saw the titans slowly pull up to the gate. "Everything is going according to plan," Elanis reported. Erimos was the first to vanish in the light. We cheered as the second titan went through. "There's not enough time," Zhen muttered behind me. "I WAKE," a voice so loud it shook the entire island. "No..." I realized what was happening. The vision I saw when I fought Fovos was happening. A being so massive it blocked out the sun emerged from under the waves. It had scales the size of buildings and razor sharp teeth and claws the size of mountains. It opened its eyes. Two miniature suns boiling with hate stared at the gateway.

"We really gotta go," Jess snapped me out of my shocked state and we ran for our ship. We all began to get on, except for Zhen. "C'mon, we gotta go!" I yelled at him, the rain soaking my hair. I walked towards him and tried pulling him along. He wrapped me in a hug, "We made it this far, so I want to thank you all," he said. Then, he whispered in my ear, "Sorry kid, I wish we had more time". Before I could do anything, kicked out my legs, causing me to fall. He caught me before I landed flat on my face and threw me towards the ship, where Atlas caught me. "Lemme go!" I tried breaking free from him, but Atlas held me tight.

Behind Zhen, Omega appeared. "Sorry kid, I have to do this, I'll hold her off, giving you all enough time to escape." he began flying slowly toward the cockpit. "Keep her safe Atlas, that is my final order," he looked at him, Atlas nodded sadly. "No! Don't do this, please..." I started crying. "I'll fix what I did wrong," he said. It didn't occur to me, he was actually pretty scared to do this. "And when will we meet again?" I wiped the tears out of my eyes, but they just kept coming. "That's the most painful thing, I don't know,"he said. "Goodbye, Hazel," he got absorbed into the cockpit.

The ship started moving, and we all manned our respective situations. I looked back and saw Omega turning on headlights to distract Alexandria. The rain splashed against our windows, making it hard to see. By some luck, we made it to the Gateway without hitting a rock of some sort. Alexandria roared in pain. We looked back to see flashes of lights and the bursts of explosions all over her body. Omega was huge, but Alexandria was in a league of her own. It was like watching a heavily armed fly take down a heavily armored elephant. "Stay safe..." I muttered as we went through the Gateway.

I read the power level of Omega, and I knew I couldn't hold up for long. The sensor indicated that everyone had made it through the Gateway, so I prepared my final surprise. The artifice began glowing in a bright white light. I closed my eyes and accepted my fate. An explosion so great that even Alexandria would be heavily wounded.

"We're approaching our destination," Atlas said. We had been sailing in the weird void of teleportation to the other side for an hour at this point. I spent most of the time hiding in my room, crying. I couldn't believe he was gone, not like this. The others were all waiting in the mess hall, also unsure what to do. I still had Zhen's sword, and the crystal embedded in my chest. I had a sudden thought. I tidied myself up and I went to go find Atlas. The ship was silent, and it was rather strange. "Hey Atlas, how am I not dead?" I asked. He quickly straightened himself and wiped something from his eye. He was crying.

I didn't realise he, as a robot, could feel emotions. "Ah, Mistress Hazel, I'm terribly sorry you had to see me like this," he turned around. "You can feel?" I was shocked. "Zhen wanted to think I was more than a tool, so he upgraded me," he said. "So, to answer your question, when you were first dying, Avalon removed some of their core crystal and implanted it in you, enough to keep you alive and share your pain, but not quite enough to be a 'soul link'," he explained.

I wandered over to the mess hall, where everyone was seated, but not quite saying anything. I took the head of the table. "What do we do now?" Jess said quietly. "We wait, from there, we see wherever we get spat out from this gateway," Ace said. "He was a good friend," I muttered. Immediately, the mood dropped. Jess cried a little and we all sat in a mournful silence. I wonder, if there was any chance that he survived or at least had a plan….

"We have arrived," Atlas announced, breaking the silence. We headed upstairs to see the swirling pinkish tunnel we sailed down. Suddenly, a rift opened and we went through it. We were not prepared to see the other side. Shining blue waters surrounded a large, lush, green island with mountains big enough to house all of Echaos and still have plenty of room left over. A large blue clear sky hung above us with a bright sun shone from above. It was…. magnificent. The titans had arrived before us, heading toward the island. They didn't seem to be stopping. Birds flew out of the forest and started chirping, as if announcing our arrival.

The titans plowed into the land in a loose semicircle, and it looked like they split themselves in half. Their giant backs opened and unraveled, forming more land in the process. From here, we could see the Imperium Palace, the Erimos Castle and the buildings of Regeum. In the end, it formed one massive landmass, yet it was only a third of the island. "I wish he were here to see it," I muttered.

"Hazel! Your chest!" Grace exclaimed. I looked down. Through my armor and clothing, the core crystal in my chest was glowing gold. I opened part of my shirt to see the glowing pieces started flying out of it, forming two of the other half of the crystal. From those crystals, it started forming bodies. On the left, black and purple, on the right, white and grey. Infinite and Avalon. I tackled both of them in a hug, tears streaming from my eyes. "You're back!" I wrapped them closer.

"Wow, I didn't know you were an emotional one," Infinite said. I flipped them over, they landed on their backs, hard. "That's for saying that," I gave Infinite a kick, "That's for dying," I gave another to Avalon ,"And that's for being sneaky," I said. They both got up groaning. "Yeah yeah, sorry for that," Avalon apologised. I gave them both another hug. Ace shook their hands, Jess gave them a friendly kiss and they ruffled Steve's hair. "So, how exactly is friends alive? Steve thought both blew up!" he said. "We left enough data in Hazel's crystal, but honestly? There was only a thirty percent of it succeeding," Infinite shrugged.

Atlas stood nervously behind us all, Avalon noticed this. "Hey, come over here Atlas!" he proceeded to pull Atlas over. He bowed, "I am relieved both of you are alive.". "Silly as always," Infinite joked. "I prefer formal." Atlas grinned. After a series of questions, we did finally land on a beach. "Did you know they could do that?" Jess pointed at the titans. "I did put this in their genetic code," Infinite said. "You sure you're not an Oracle or something?" Atlas teased. "No one can see the future, we can only make use of the time given to us, except, her..." Avalon stated. "Who's 'her'?" I asked. He waved me off "Nothing of your concern,". Jess snorted, "You begin to sound like Corvin,".

"Then he's not wrong," he smiled. Finally, after much blood,sweat and tears, we have a new stable home. May all those who fell during the fight for this world rest in peace.

Epilogue

Hazel was asleep in her bed in their shared cabin. The door opened silently. Infinite looks up from his project by the candlelight to see Avalon walk in. Avalon sees the pile of papers and the ink bottle and the feather he is holding. "What are you doing?" he asked. "Writing a book, I think I'll call it The Infinite Chronicles," he wrote down the first words with the feathers. "I don't see why you bother with feathers, pens exist for a reason," he grumbled, taking a seat next to him. "I like to do it old style, seems fitting," Infinite replied.

Avalon leaned in and frowned at his work. "It can't be a chronicle if there is only one story," he commented. "Oh, I will add it sometime in the future, until our time is up," he continues writing. "We can die?" Avalon asked, concerned. "Everyone will have their time, even us," Infinite looks up at his notes. "She's here, isn't she?" Avalon asked. Infinite looked up. "Yes….. yes she is," he said gravely, "And I believe, that they are also stirring, since the Conduit is no longer keeping them at bay," he looks at the window.

The cabin rumbles slightly and they both look out of the tall window behind them that overlooks the land below. "The winds of change," Infinite mutters,"There's no denying it.". Avalon looks at the bay below nervously, "Or it could be those new monsters we recently discovered.". "Perhaps..." Infinite grabs his pipe, lights it and sits down on another chair. "Whatever the case, we still have time, time to prepare, and I know for a fact that she will still have a part to play," he gestured towards the sleeping Hazel. "It's late, we should go to bed," Avalon pulled him out of the chair.