December 27, 2018
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Dust II: Elysian Kingdom
Chapter 13 — Don't Let Go
Deep in the center of the Alcaeus Prison, occupying a vast room, was a device of calculated and intricate design; thin tubes attaching to its base from the walls and ceiling, gauges and buttons littering the front surface, and most notably, several glass capsules rising out from the top. Suspended inside two of these containers were the unmistakable Blade of Ahrah, as well as another weapon of similar appearance. This one, however, had an elongated handle the length of a polearm and its blade was shaped like that of a scimitar; Ahrah had identified this weapon as the Blade of Baelrah. Although, like with Evah, he had no way to communicate with it in its current dormant state.
Just then, the doors to the room creaked open and a tall figure emerged, holding a caged Nimbat and followed by two armored guards; it was the warden. As he drew closer to the device where Ahrah was held, he began to speak.
"You two watch the door, I'll get started with this puny thing." The guards followed his directions, and Fidget pouted at his comment through the bars, as she was still silenced. The warden then brought the cage over to the massive device and pressed one of the buttons, causing one of the glass capsules to rise in the air, after which he placed the cage underneath and closed the container back over it. The Nimbat maintained her frustrated expression as he moved away from her to analyze the control panel. "Now that I have his blade and the Nimbat, everything should progress much faster."
The warden pushed three sliding knobs upwards on the machine, causing the glass to minimally vibrate, initiating some kind of process. Fidget gradually felt the effects of the device; she didn't experience any outstanding pain, but rather a sort of weakening energy. She could hardly stay afloat for any longer, so she resorted to descending to the floor of the cage as her eyelids grew heavy. "..Dust.. Hurry.." To her right, she could vaguely make out Ahrah and his fellow Elysian blade emanating strong yet strained auras, one bright and one dark, respectively. No doubt this reaction was due to the device's machinations.
"That's more like it," the warden observed. Fidget's eyes shut completely as he continued and slowly faded from her hearing. "Soon, that pathetic Dust won't even be a memory.."
Moments later outside of the room, soldiers keeping guard came into view of the Sen-Mithrarin's eyes as he peeked out from beyond the corner of the prison hallway, his temporary sidekick right behind him. Dust analyzed them briefly, then retracted his head to quietly converse with Corbin.
"There has to be something important inside that room there.. two guards out in front, yet oddly unarmed. They must really not be expecting anyone to be much of a threat."
"But they didn't expect us!" the boy responded enthusiastically.
Dust smiled. "Exactly. I think a simple distraction should work.. Hand me some of the rope we found earlier." Corbin reached into his backpack and gave Dust part of a coil of thick rope they took off a hook in one of the hallways on their trek through the prison, holding onto the remaining length for himself.
"Alright, here's what we'll do; you run across here to catch the attention of the guards, and when they come over to see what's up, I'll ambush the one closest to me and try to knock him into the other. Find any opportunity to tie either of their arms behind their back, and threaten them with your dagger if necessary. Then we'll go from there."
Corbin nodded confidently. "Got it!" Dust nodded back as they both stood up to prepare themselves. He peeked around the corner once more, then turned back and gave Corbin a thumbs up, signaling him to begin the plan. The boy dashed further down the corridor past the intersecting hallway as fast as he could, catching the attention of the guards just as Dust thought.
"What was that?"
"Did one of the prisoners get loose?!"
Both soldiers hustled over and swerved to the right to intercept Corbin, but Dust instantly lunged out from the opposite side with all his strength gathered into an aerial kick, launching the first guard into the other and knocking them both to the ground. Dust and Corbin then immediately jumped on each of the guards, quickly tying their hands behind their backs during their disoriented state. Corbin kept his dagger at the ready just in case.
The soldiers regained their composure, briefly struggling after realizing what had happened. "Ngh, damn you..! How did you escape?!"
"I had a little outside help from my partner here," Dust responded slyly, pressing harder on the guard's bound hands with his foot. "Now we'll be asking the questions; what's inside that room?"
"Hmph, like we'd tell you brats.. But since you sound so prepared, why don't you just barge right in? I'm sure that'd work out great for you," he ended sarcastically.
Dust got a little snarkier. "Oh, is that a challenge? Guess we're done here. C'mon Corbin, let's find a place to keep these guys busy for awhile."
The boy followed Dust's command as they both began dragging their captives to a nearby room. The soldiers protested as their struggling became troublesome, prompting the heroes to add more bindings to their arms and legs. Eventually, they dropped the guards off into an empty cell and locked the door, leaving them to be discovered long after the heroes were gone.
Back down the hall, Dust and Corbin stood in front of the large double doors leading to the unknown room the guards were stationed at.
"I'm not expecting whatever's in here to be an easy time," Dust began, "so I want you to stand guard and peek in every so often to make sure everything's alright. I'll take a look around and deal with whatever's waiting."
Corbin had a concerned look on his face. "Okay, just be careful.."
"Don't worry, stay confident," he reassured, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder, then back on the door's handle. Dust needed confidence in himself too; he knew that the warden himself, or perhaps something even worse, may very well be waiting just beyond the steel wall. He took in a deep breath and slowly started to budge one of the doors open.
The prison's trademark red lights instantly filled Dust's vision, as he began to make out a dark figure on the other side of the spacious room, standing in front of a large, foreign mechanism partially shrouded in darkness. The creature slightly swiveled his head back towards the entrance at the sound of the opening door.
"Didn't I order you to wait outsi-"
He cut himself off as he locked eyes with the intruder through his helmet, realizing just who was standing in front of him, his men nowhere to be seen. "..What the hell are you doing here?! Where are my guards?!"
Dust felt a torrent of anger swelling up inside his soul at the mere sound of hearing him speak. Blatantly ignoring his questions, Dust walked forward and retorted, "So you're the warden, huh. I hope you're prepared to fight, because I want answers."
"Hah..! How can you have the audacity to ask if I'm ready to fight, when I'm the one who has your weapon!" He slammed a button on the machine behind him and bright lights illuminated each of the glass chambers, revealing their contents.
"Ahrah! Fidget! What are you doing with them?!"
The warden returned to his previous façade. "Nothing you need to know, for now."
Dust gritted his teeth, thoughts racing about how to approach the situation. "Just who are you?! How did you become involved with the Blades of Elysium?"
"Heh, is that what you call them?" he responded with a smirk on his face. "My master preferred 'filthy heathen weapons'."
Rage began to build inside of Dust's heart yet again. "And who is this 'master'? Answer me!"
"I thought you wanted to FIGHT!" the warden declared as he instantly swung back into a roundhouse kick, shattering the glass tube which housed the spear-like Blade of Elysium, Baelrah. He grabbed it and pole vaulted off the floor high above Dust's head, spinning the weapon around in mid-air to point it downwards as he descended, a flurry of dancing flames and shadowy aura following the blade's movements. Dust jumped back just as his foe hit the floor with the edge of his blade, but the warden quickly pivoted it upwards, nearly slashing his body right up the middle.
"Ugh, dealing with fire now," Dust thought as he hastily dashed sideways out of the weapon's area of effect, immediately trying to figure out if he could secure an opening to get to the device and release Ahrah and Fidget; he wouldn't stand a chance against another Blade wielder without one of them, preferably both. The glass tubes were apparently thin enough to crack with little effort, but Fidget wouldn't be able to do anything unless Dust could also unlock the cage she was trapped in.
"Came up too short.." the warden mumbled to himself as he got up from his landing. "How 'bout you stand still this time!" He lunged forward with his spear pointed right at Dust, who bounced back slightly to the side to dodge the attack. The warden continued running towards him while constantly stabbing and releasing bursts of embers, but Dust reacted each time with a backward jump to alternating sides of the strikes, making his foe become increasingly frustrated and sloppy in his attack pattern. This gave Dust an opening to duck underneath the blade and low kick across the warden's legs, which caused him to fall.
With this chance, he sprinted over to the machine in the back of the room and flung one of his legs at both glass capsules containing Fidget's cage and his own trustworthy Blade of Elysium, Ahrah. He grabbed the weapon as the glass shards cleared, taking a classic stance back towards the warden, who was just recovering. Fidget appeared physically unharmed, but was still unconscious from the device's effects. "Are you alright?"
Ahrah's voice was hoarse but came through. "..I believe so. Thank you, my friend."
Dust smiled at the sentient blade's response, then returned his attention to the enemy. "Ready to talk yet?"
The warden grunted as he stood back up, clenching his teeth in anger. "You want answers? Fine! My name is Toru, and I despise everything about you."
"Despise me?" Dust began, remaining cautious. "I've never even met you before, how could you feel that way?"
"Pff, you don't even know.." Toru let out in disbelief under his breath, turning to walk slowly towards Dust as he continued. "Five years ago, you murdered my idol, my hero, the man who single-handedly made me what I am today.. The great General Gaius!"
Everyone present was shocked to hear the name that filled the room; even Corbin gasped from behind the entrance's closed door.
Dust's entire being was overcome with tension. "..Gaius was your hero? His army slaughtered countless Moonbloods AND Warmbloods; is that truly a man worth idolizing? I even tried to save him in the end, but he accepted defeat and fell to his death willingly-"
"Silence!" Toru interjected. "How DARE you lie right to my face and deny what I KNOW is the truth! My master told me everything, and I would never believe anything that some.. Moonblood-tainted Cassius tells me!"
"Y-You knew Cassius?"
The warden rolled his eyes. "Oh I knew him alright.. That damn assassin was Gaius' favorite from the beginning. Even though he put me in charge of this prison, I was still jealous of how much trust he had in Cassius.. And thanks to you, I could never get that close to him!" he screamed as he pole vaulted into the air once again, dispersing flames across the floor. Dust held Ahrah sideways in front of his face as the warden dived down, the blades clashing in midair. Toru's weight almost immediately overpowered his defense, causing Dust to fall straight to the ground under the pressure, yet still maintaining his weapon's position. The warden gained his footing as Baelrah's edge slid off of Ahrah's and pierced down into the iron floor, missing his target's body by mere inches. Dust then hastily swung Ahrah into Toru's side along with the most powerful gust of wind he could conjure, sending him flying across the room into the wall.
Catching his breath, Dust stood up and walked to the ground level, cautiously watching his foe struggle to regain composure from the attack. "Toru.. You can choose to end this senseless fight right now. It's possible your memories have been altered by the corruption of that spear. If you give it to me, I can cleanse it, and you won't be a slave any longer."
"What.." he began, coughing loudly, "..nonsense are you going on about now? I was personally given this weapon by my master; to wield it was my decision!"
Dust retorted instantly. "And just how did your master acquire that blade?"
"Like hell I'd tell you!" the warden yelled as he jumped back up at Dust, continuing their rapid-fire showdown.
Outside the battle-filled room, Corbin had been listening to Dust and Toru's conversations the whole time, quickly looking in at random intervals just as Dust instructed, in order to analyze the area. Once he saw that Dust had freed Ahrah while Fidget still remained trapped in her cage, he realized he should try to sneak in and free the Nimbat when an opportunity arose. He did notice that there were a few platforms suspended high against the side walls of the room, with a few air vents littered along them; if he could find an access point somewhere in the hallway, he could make his stealthy entrance and jump down to where Fidget was being held.
The boy jumped past the open door and quietly continued down the hall, keeping his guard up for any soldiers that might detect him. Luckily, it didn't seem like the warden had called for any backup. Corbin began looking on the ceiling and walls for any similar vents, but didn't see any immediately. Further down, he stopped at a locked room with no light coming through the door's small glass window. Trying all the keys on the stolen ring from before, the lock eventually released, and he stepped inside.
Pure darkness greeted the young warrior, relying on only hearing and touch to decipher his surroundings. He felt the floor in front of him with his bare feet as he walked, cautiously covering ground to avoid any possible traps. Concentrating one of his ears, he picked up a faint breeze coming from the left side of the room. He moved towards it, feeling the ridges of a small air vent on the wall a bit above his head. Using the dagger he kept on hand, he pried off the vent cover and lifted himself up into the opening that was just wide enough to fit through. The boy shuffled down the shaft, heading for the slightest glimmer of light he could see in any direction.
Eventually, he saw the unmistakable red glow shine into the vent, which he followed until he came up to another cover. Dust's fight with Toru was visible through its thin openings, yet this time from a bird's eye view; Corbin knew he had reached the high platforms he saw before. The boy took out his dagger again to carefully and quietly remove the cover, and crawled out onto the iron footing. He made his way along the platform to the back of the room, which was when Dust caught sight of him in the corner of his eye. Realizing what his partner was trying to do, Dust continued engaging Toru while carefully watching his position, making sure the warden didn't notice the boy's presence.
Keeping on track, Corbin hanged down from the edge of the platform, and dropped to the floor without a sound. He dashed behind the mysterious device at the back of the room to remain hidden as he crawled over to the other side. Grabbing Fidget's cage off the top of the device, the boy jumbled through the keys trying to find the correct one to set her free.
Fidget then began to wake up at last. She tried to react to the sight of Corbin, but forgot she couldn't speak. The boy noticed her noiseless movement and realized her condition. "Ohh, they must've had you silenced," he whispered, before reaching into his bag for a carefully-preserved lump of deadly delight, to which the Nimbat made a disgruntled face. "C'mon Fidget, do it for Dust!"
Hearing that Dust was in need of her help, she was overcome with determination and started munching on the repulsive snack, but not without small bursts of disgust. Corbin held in his laughter as he finally found the correct key that matched the cage's lock. Immediately after he opened the door, Fidget triumphantly flew up and over the machine to join the battle.
"Alright, who wants a piece of ME?!"
Both Dust and Toru looked over while still locked in combat, their respective Blades of Elysium pressed against one another. "Fidget! You're alright!" Dust said with a smile of relief.
The warden was not as thrilled. "Damnit.. how?!"
"Guess you underestimated us," Dust answered slyly. "This is your last chance to surrender."
"..Are you kidding? It's been too long since I've felt this rush!"
Pushing his blade off of Dust's, Toru backflipped towards the middle of the room while releasing groups of cascading flames, causing the heroes to quickly dodge back and forth to avoid getting burned. In the openings, Fidget started using her magical bullets against the warden, but they seemed to glance off his armor with little to no effect. "Hey, what gives?"
"It's okay Fidget, keep going! I want him as distracted as possible," he advised the Nimbat. Fidget complied, keeping her distance as Dust dived forward to meet Toru while holding Ahrah back to deliver a heavy swing-around strike. The warden guarded with Baelrah's long handle, which was surprisingly tough as Ahrah slammed into it, barely causing any knockback. He then lifted his weapon upwards, bringing Ahrah and Dust's arms along with it, giving Toru an opening to kick into his abdomen and send him away once again. Dust recovered by making a last-minute landing then swinging Ahrah back down and around towards his foe. However, Toru anticipated the blow and jumped up high into the air yet again, rendering the attack useless. As he came down, Dust held up Ahrah to parry the strike, then immediately thrust downwards to his side just as Baelrah's blade made contact, sending Toru skidding across the ground in a huge blast of wind.
Dust glared over at his fallen enemy with no concern. "Give it up, Toru. This is going to keep ending the same way." The warden didn't respond. Dust cautiously approached him while Fidget stayed back to be safe. As he drew closer, he noticed that Toru's helmet had fallen off, revealing a sizable burn scar trailing from his neck, under his chin, up his right cheek, and covering part of his closed eye. Was it from an injury in battle? A training accident? Despite not knowing the cause, for the first time since meeting him, Dust actually felt a slight hint of sympathy.
"Ngh," Toru grunted as he began recovering. Dust instantly brought his guard back up, holding Ahrah forward firmly. He opened his eyes, which gradually widened when he realized that Dust had seen his face, shattering both his honor and pride. "Get out of my sight!"
The warden swung Baelrah haphazardly from the floor, sending a huge plume of flame right at Dust, who hastily slashed in succession to disperse it with Ahrah's wind. In that instant, Toru bounced back up and drove his spear forward, clashing with Dust's own blade once more, his hands noticeably shaking.
"Dust!" Fidget shouted from across the room, starting to fly over to him.
"No, Fidget! Stay back!" he warned her, still concentrating all his strength to keep Toru's erratic force at bay. "That weapon isn't yours to wield! Stand down before this gets any worse!"
"I'd rather DIE than let you take this blade willingly!"
In a culminating display of will, Toru front-flipped high over Dust's head, spinning Baelrah downwards like a windmill, just as Dust does with Ahrah, to release countless groups of searing flames in a maelstrom all around his foe. Dust swung his blade in a panic, but he didn't appear to be the direct target of the attack. Instead, as the embers hit the floor, they instantly caught onto trails of oil, which Toru must've discreetly laid down throughout the fight, creating towering walls of fire like a forest ablaze. Before he knew it, Toru came down feet first to knock him onto the ground, pressing hard on the side of Dust's head with one foot and partially on his sword-wielding hand with the other, while Baelrah's blade came within inches of his neck. At that moment as the flames burned around them, Sen-Mithrarin felt utterly defeated.
"Who the hell do you think you are? Playing some kind of god of justice, wavering between Warmblood and Moonblood.. You're a freak," Toru let out with a grin as he leaned forward. Dust could only grit his teeth and weakly grab Toru's ankle to move his foot from his face, but it didn't budge. "Man, it feels so good watching you suffer. I'd love to just stab you right here and end this, but my master would have my head if he couldn't get rid you personally."
Dust could feel his consciousness slipping, when he heard a familiar voice roar over the noise. "Get away from him NOW!"
The Nimbat girl dive-bombed from above the opening in the ring of fire, barraging Toru's head directly with her magic projectiles. Finally vulnerable, the warden yelled in agony as he was hit and thrown off balance by the bullets, giving Dust just enough leverage to free his right arm and conjure a gale to knock Toru off of him. He quickly got up and spun Ahrah around multiple times, creating a miniature typhoon that spread out and quelled the majority of the flames, launching his foe away as well.
Dust dashed over to try to recover Baelrah, but Toru remained persistent in his strategies; he thrust the end of his spear against the floor as he skid across it from the wind's force, transitioning into a backflip and landing on the wall, then pushed himself off of it right at Dust, weapon pointed straight forward. This move caught the hero off guard, and even when he started to slow down and bring Ahrah in front of him as he noticed what was happening, Baelrah's blade screeched down Ahrah's edge and sliced up into Dust's body between his chest and shoulder. The warrior's face froze and eyes widened as immediate pain overtook him, his heart rate dropping dramatically. He couldn't even muster a scream from the shock of being hit, as if no injury he'd incurred his whole life felt as horrible as this one. Toru stood there staring him down, breathing heavily from his actions.
"I might not be allowed to kill you.. but I'll take what I can get."
Corbin peeked out from behind the device, looking on in disbelief at his hero's dire state. Both Fidget and Ahrah's voices rang throughout the room at nearly the same time. "DUST!" A shaken Fidget zoomed towards her longtime friend, tears beginning to form in her eyes as she watched him fall backwards to the ground, his wound dripping blood.
Toru dashed out of the way, expecting more bullets from the girl, but she was too fixated on Dust. Satisfied with the outcome of the fight, the warden turned his attention to the other intruder. Corbin gasped when Toru jumped up toward him, frozen in place from fear. He weakly held up his dagger to defend, but it was an empty threat against Toru's own weapon, which came forward close to the young boy's neck, causing him to press against the back wall. The warden spoke as minimally as possible. "You're coming with me."
Everything became numb to all of Dust's senses. His body felt colder, his vision grew hazy, and his hearing trailed off with shouts of distress and urgency, from both Corbin calling out to him as he was taken away by Toru, as well as Fidget begging him to hang on for dear life. The rushing sound of roaring footsteps came into the room soon after, and he faintly made out a new voice kneeling close to him, one that he hadn't heard for a long time.
"Pursue th.. man imm..ately, and ..on't let h.. get away! I'll ta.. care of Dus..!"
He briefly heard both the newcomer and the Nimbat nervously converse, before completely blacking out from the physical toll that his body had taken.
[At last, one of my favorite chapters in this entire fanfic is done :D Toru is probably my favorite out of all the OCs I've created for this, and even though he's a villain I hope you guys like him as much I do haha. The fight scenes were really fun to write in this chapter, and is partially why it took so long because I wanted everything to be PERFECT. Also, please listen to "Don't Let Go" by Giorgio Moroder (featuring Mikky Ekko); I had it planned as the title for this chapter ever since I heard it in 2015 and I think it fits really well. Hopefully you guys are still checking in on me because I will never let this fanfic truly go on hiatus~ Happy New Year, everyone; pray for me to get the next one done sooner :P]
