Let me tell you something.
I'm going to go through this ENTIRE GOD DAMN SERIES.
And this time, I'm going to finish it.
No more cutting off midway through book two to do random irrelevant side stuff, just you reading this, as a result of me writing and uploading it.
Four part plan is this:
One, rework the storyline.
Two, start the character development immediately.
Three, feel-proof shields for me. Which leads me onto number four, feels. For throwing at you!
Let's get going!
The whole island was falling apart.
Obsidian towers toppled and fell, crushing actually very few civilians, as they weren't stupid and either ran to the side or teleported out of the way. It didn't keep them alive for long though. The Third invader, with a wave of her arm, launched wave after wave of energy fireballs, incinerating crowd after crowd.
It was a slaughter.
As she laughed maniacally, she felt a sharp pain in her side. Upon looking down, she saw a spear. It was embedded in her abdomen, piercing her armor and stretching up, all the way through her right lung.
She never even had time to scream as she fell into the jaws of death.
Upon retrieving his spear, an Enderlord who will as yet remain unnamed picked up the body of the fallen villain, and hurled it, along with the staff she held, towards the planet as hard as he could. Maybe, just maybe, something-
He never finished the thought, as his mind was assimilated by the Second invader. His mask resembled a nightmarish smile, filled with sharklike teeth, but still bearing some resemblance to human. His eyes glowed an unearthly green. This ethereal shade began to emanate from the eyes of the newly-possessed warrior. There was no more Lord. There was only Kronos.
The Collective turned to advance on the Council building.
Remember those "INFO" chapters before? Yeah, those will now be integrated into the story in between perspective changes. Sort of like a loading screen.
The dragon was slain.
There was no way around saying that, especially with his majestic black blood spilled across the too-bright stones of the council. The body was beaten to such a pulp, that it was barely recognisable, save for the blackened blood, a few errant scales, and the head which now sat in the hand of the First invader. His mask resembled the face of a wolf, but more monstrous, almost demonic. Fitting, for the man known and feared as the Chaos Demon.
The Third was dead. That much he knew. The Second had become stronger. And the Fourth had vanished from his side. Five to Seven were no more. He had seen to that himself.
He didn't know much, but he knew when a situation was hopeless.
Which is why he was so confused about why these little people hadn't run away yet.
Not that he'd let them. He'd kill them anyway for being cowards. But at least it would be better sport.
Most species had given up by this point. He'd killed the big creature in charge, and then they'd all cower in fear, bowing down to him, which was quickly followed by him killing all of them. As you can tell, Malladus was not the sharpest knife in the shed, as he was so often told. He never bothered to correct anyone. He much preferred to tear them open instead.
He didn't like words.
One of the bigger ones was telling the small one to run away. That wouldn't do at all.
"That's enough out of you."
Before they even had time to react, he was in front of him, and tore his head from his shoulders. It was a swift, clean motion, which actually resulted in a lot more mess that he'd know how to admit.
Another one down.
Easy.
Why were they here anyway?
Oh yeah. Mr Yellow over there had dragged them all across the universe for absolutely no reason. Prick.
Why did anyone even listen to him? He wasn't exactly the strongest. That was him. Not the smartest either, Kronos held that title. Magical power went to number Three, Hyperiate. Archery was the game of Five, Six was healing, and Seven was… a wildcard.
Four had nothing special.
But of course, while pursuing this incredibly slow train of thought, he had failed to realise that his spine had been torn out of his body. Now he no longer felt anything. But he did notice with what was left of his brain that there was suddenly a lot of smoke.
As unfelt flames slowly consumed what was now left of his body, he felt a dark presence nearby.
Malladus could recognise darkness when he felt it. He didn't know where it was coming from, but he didn't like it.
And that was his final thought before his immortal soul split from his body for good, a raging phantom in search of its new host.
That's not the last we'll be seeing of him, I can assure you.
But it will be a long time until then. Surprisingly, getting killed takes a lot out of you.
The name "Ender" was not his birth name. His birth name was "Vharion". The "En-" titles are assigned to Lords only.
They were down to two. But the home team was now down to only three.
Before anyone was able to react, Palacen had jumped forth, killing the taller one, the Second, in a single swing of his great-axe.
It was too easy.
All at once, the Possessed had leapt from the shadows, a sure blow from his spear targeted straight for his vitals. Palacen had no way to dodge in time, so he simply braced himself until he felt a warm liquid splatter across his face.
The final, unnamed Enderlord had jumped in the way, taking the blow for him.
There was no way he could survive with that.
But with a wave of his arms, the Third Enderlord triggered his own special power.
Self-destruction.
If he was going down, damn sure he was going to take every piece of the Collective down with him.
A hoarse laugh echoed through the area.
"Do you really think this makes a difference? I am immortal! I am ETERNAL! I AM-"
Their bodies were disintegrated in a loud flash and a puff of light.
Palacen remained unscathed.
He stood to fight the final one.
"…"
"At last…"
"There's my target."
His motives were noted immediately.
Ender remembered the instructions he had been given.
Get to the escape pods.
Flee to the planet below.
And before he knew how he had gotten there, there he was.
For but a second, he could have sworn that he felt a pair of hands on his shoulders, as if guiding him. But when he looked behind, there was nobody there.
A ghost.
Gone like the wind.
Residents of the End have two main languages: English, which is spoken by a majority of the mainland as well, and Endorian, which is an ancient language spoken by almost nobody.
The intruder showed no mercy.
As Palacen raised his axe, he only heard a single sentence.
"You fool. You're only delaying the inevitable.
The child of prophecy has been decreed to be the one who shall lay waste to my realm.
But of course, it shall not be.
Now die."
And that was the last thing he heard before the Invader's blade flashed through the air, arcing towards him, through him, splitting his axe in half along the handle, and, in a flash, draining his body of all its vital fluids.
"Too simple."
He looked to the side.
"Of course. Go down there, my pawn."
For he had sighted a small escape pod, flying hard and fast towards the mainland.
But only for a second, curiously enough, as it immediately vanished out of sight.
"…"
"Follow."
"…Yes, sir."
Sonake Akemada flashed across to the mainland in less than an instant.
Enderfolk, if pure in species, dissolve in water at a fast rate. Hybrids, depending on their Percent, will burn before dissolution. Both processes are extremely painful, and the victim will remain conscious during all of it.
The pod was hurtling towards the planet faster than Ender's eyes could see. One minute the pod's shielded viewports were surrounded by the pale stone of the End, rapidly deteriorating without the Dragon's life-force to contain it, or the civilians' missions of retrieval to reconstruct it. The next he was hurtling through space, dropping from orbit with the momentum of an elephant dropped from the tallest mountain on Terra.
It was almost exhilarating, in a way. He was hurtling off, alone, having just witnessed his race murdered in front of him, on some grand adventure that he had no idea how far it would take him.
Impact. Before he knew what was happening, there was a warning flashing on the screen:
Danger: Water surrounding pod. Do not evacuate.
Crap.
He hadn't experienced water first hand, but he knew it was dangerous.
But the pod was sinking. All of the viewports were coated in blue, bright light from the Sun filtering through the new, dense medium, slowly darkening to black.
Ender had only one option.
He opened the pod hatch.
Almost immediately, crystal blue water flooded in. Upon contact, Ender felt a flash of burning pain through his mind. His flesh was beginning to melt.
Looking through the rapidly-closing hole, he could see that the mainland was not incredibly far.
He could swim that.
Possibly.
Jumping on top of the pod, he decided to simply chance it.
He leapt into the water.
Instantly, his body was on fire, his skin dissolving into the water, his nerve endings being split and unmade one at a time. It was torture. He could feel every cell, every molecule of his body struggling to continue its motion.
He could no longer keep his eyes closed. His arms were losing their strength.
His fingers brushed the sand.
Finally, with what little energy he had left, he climbed up and onto the beach. Off the beach, onto the fresh green grass of the world below.
There was a rustle in a tree. He couldn't hear it.
The pod had sunk in its entirety. The water was
He was deaf. He was blind. He couldn't feel anything.
But his brain worked, even in its diminished state of being.
He was alive.
Ender passed out on the grass.
From a tree, a pair of magenta eyes regarded the corpse with sorrow and pain. In the darkness beneath the leaves, tears fell in rivulets down her face.
She had only just found him again.
She wasn't going to lose him so fast.
Well that's finally done.
Gotta tell ya, it took me way longer than I thought it would to write this. It would probably have been faster if I didn't have exams to revise for. At the time of writing this, I only have two left to go.
It also would have gone faster if I didn't spend half the time I could have spent writing looking at the concept that humans are space Australians.
Jesus crap, it's been an eventful year. For you, not for me. I've been doing jack shit. All day, err'day. Merry early Christmas ya filthy animals.
Ender OUT!