Into the Darkness, Return to the Light
Prologue
Upon the slopes of Mt. Reyes exists the quaint, but technologically advanced, town of Brehlas. the townsfolk were exiled by the elders of the city of Faranna, a city which is a farming community and didn't think that the city needed any technology beyond what they already had. The elders of Faranna taught the citizens on how to farm. If there was anyone that dabbled in building any technological terrors, as the elders called them, thinking that the technologically advanced devices would destroy their way of life, the elders exiled those that built, or was known to start, anything dealing with technology. Yet that was in Brehlas's past.Brehlas is a small town with a population of about ten thousand people living within it's steel walls. The steel walls were about thirty feet tall and was made of a titanium based material as to ward off the most destructive intruders. Their leader was a stern faced man that stood six feet tall. He almost always had a serious look upon his face, though he wasn't unruly or power hungry, like most others in Brehlas's past. The townsfolk elected him their leader only a few years back, due to his good judgement in completing the ion particle cannon project that their previous leader neglected to finish. The ion particle cannons were essential to protecting the town from intruders. The man usually wore a dirty, greasy pair of overalls, as he assisted in the maintenance of the ion particle cannons that served as the main defense of their town. He walked into his home. He placed a two way radio upon his desk and heard a voice from the radio.
"Occard, did you find a focusing crystal?" a voice called from the radio.
Occard, as the man was known, responded a bit harshly " I just returned home. Can you please give me a moment to look?"
Occard put the two way radio down nd turned it off. A door slammed from the second floor of the house. A girl of seventeen ran down the stairs to greet Occard.
" I'm glad you make it back." The girl said and hugged him.
Occard hugged her in return and promptly said., "I have to go look for a large focusing crystal."
"I understand," Said the girl.,"If you need any help, I'll be glad to help you."
Occard smiled. He was happy to have her as his daughter. He rummaged through the pile of seemingly endless scrap in the garage. After a while, there was a great crash as metal fell. The girl stopped what she was doing and ran to the garage to see what was the matter.
"Is everything ok?" She asked, worried.
"I'm fine," Occard said, "I cannot seem to find any focusing crystals. Will you do me a big favor?"
"I will be happy to do it." His daughter said with a big smile upon her face.
"I need you to go to the dark cave on the other side of the mountain and get me a large focusing crystal." He handed her a folded sheet of paper. "I need one with that length or larger. I'm grateful you will do this. You will need the hoversled."
The girl was worried. She has driven the hoversled around town to do menial chores, but never something this important.
"I won't let you down, Father." She said.
Occard smiled and handed her the keys to the hoversled. She went upstairs to get changed into something warmer, for the temperature outside of the town was at least negative ten degrees. As she got to the bottom of the stairs, she yelled towards Occard.
"I may be home late, so don't worry about me."
Occard never worried about his daughter, for she always did as she said. She started the hoversled and started for the main gate. It usually was open, but there were talks of the storm outside threatening the city's defenses if it stayed open, so it was opened in extreme emergencies. The hoversled approached the gate and the girl explained the situation and the gate sentry opened the gates without hesitation. The girl wondered what the cave would be like, for she never been to the dark cave. About an hour later she arrived to the cave's entrance and to her surprise, the cave wasn't dark at all, yet it glowed with the reflected light of the gemstones within, all except for one, which glowed with a strange black light. Forgetting why she was there, she approached the black gem formation. It was like a gem the scientists from her town discovered, yet within their own walls. The black gemstone had one distinct feature that stood out. There was a red symbol upon it. The girl heard footsteps, and jerked her head to see if there was another that followed her. The footsteps vanished as soon as they were heard. She turned back to the gemstone. The symbol was glowing a dark red as the black gemstone's black light became brighter. She peered into the crystal as she saw another city. The city was full of people, seeming unaware that she was looking at them. The image faded and she saw things familiar to her. She saw herself, though younger, an overhead view of Brehlas, and even the town people that she recognized. Then she saw what seemed to be a pair of dark green eyes that stared at her. She stumbled backwards, shivering, as if an even colder feeling were upon her. She felt something pull at her heart as a voice echoed throughout the cave.
"Tori, cilde lerven senhd ua bresos." (Tori, your heart will be mine)
The voice didn't sound human. Tori panicked as she heard the voice say something different.
"Grah camah detill, daetul heartless kraetis." (Come unto me, my heartless minions)
Hundreds of black shadow-like creatures emerged in the darkest part of the cave. Tori bolted out of the cave and frantically tried to start the hoversled. She heard the crystal shatter and the black creatures flowed out of the cave mouth. Tori finally got the hoversled started as the black creatures were a few inches from the hoversled. She raced towards Brehlas with all haste. As she sped up, more and more of the creatures were forming to her left and right. She pushed the hoversled to it's limits and after a few minutes, it overheated and abruptly stopped. Tori flew out of the driver's seat and onto the hood of the vehicle. Not more than a mile and a half away from Brehlas, she raced faster than she had ever ran in her life. She saw the protective walls and ran faster. She banged upon the wall and yelled until somebody heard her.One of the guards patrolling the walls heard her. He sent own a rope and hauled Tori up. After she was upon the wall, the guard noticed the group of black creatures and proceeded to raise the alarm. After a few minutes, Tori finally got down from the wall and ran towards her house. After a few minutes, she reached the house, went inside, and slammed the door. Occard looked at her unhappily.
"What happened?" Occard asked in a calm voice.
Tori blurted out her answer, between deep breaths. "Black crystal...Green eyes...other city..." She sat down nd tried to catch her breath. Occard's expression changed as he noticed that she was clearly frightened. Tori finally caught her breath and tried to explain what happened.
"I was in the cave and there was this black crystal, like the one the scientists found. It was different from the one that they found, it had a red mark on it." Tori stopped to catch her breath,"I saw another city, but not like ours or Faranna. There were oddly dressed people. There were these green eyes that looked at me through the crystal. I heard something like Grah camah detill and these black creatures emerged from the shadows and tried to attack me."
At that moment Occard heard the sound of the alarm and went outside. He saw nothing wrong with the city, but the town's guard were racing towards the main gates. Tori was looking at this, unaware of the outcome of the unusual battle she knew would commence. Occard was issuing orders as the guard obeyed his every word.
"Powr up the ion particle cannons, issue the energy rifles!"
With much haste they did as they were ordered and within a few minutes the guard were ready to do battle with their unknown foes.
Back at the house, Tori was preparing a modified energy rifle that she was working on. It had a longer barrel than the ones the guard used and had a more powerful shot, but used fewer shots. She rushed out of the house and saw the main gates opening and rushed to see what was going on. She reached the gates as the guard was advancing upon the opposing force of black shadow creatures. There were hundreds more than the Brehlas guard.
They'll be slaughtered, thought Tori, in horror at what mental image formed within her mind.
She raced to find Occard. She searched diligently for him, but after a few minutes of looking, found that the entire guard were firing upon the black creatures. Their energy shots were having no effect on the creatures and it seemed like the creatures were spirits, the way the energy shots passed through them. The guard couldn't believe that they couldn't bring down this new enemy and turned to Occard for any ideas. Occard pointed to the ion particle cannons and the guard's moral boosted. Tori saw Occard and ran towards him.
"How much longer will it take to power up the ion particle cannons?" Asked Occard as Tori approached him.
"Will take...few ...ten..." Static followed the transmission as the charge of Occard's two way radio failed.
He saw Tori approach to him.
"Why are you here?" Ocard questioned in a stern voice," You might have been killed. I have no idea what these things can do, and you rush to the battlefield!"
"I'm sorry, but I thought you could use this." Tori said and handed Occard her energy rifle.
He took it wordlessly and pointed towards the house and Tori started to the house. Moments later, Tori found that she couldn't move. She looked down and found that two of the shadow creatures were holding her legs, preventing her from leaving the battlefield.
The same voice that Tori heard in the cave echoed over the battlefield.
"Kias jiindor lervens! Werorx detill jiindor prexors!" (Take their hearts! Bring me their memories!)
The black creatures began advancing upon the guard and many of the guard panicked and ran for the town. Many shot at the advancing creatures, forgetting the shots were ineffective against their pursuers. Tori saw something that was forever etched in her mind. One of the black creatures stuck it's hand within one of the guard's body and extracted his heart. Thinking that this may happen, Tori tried to remove the black creatures from her legs, to no avail. Moments later Tori looked up and saw the dark green eyes she had saw within the black crystal. They seemed to be looking directly at her. As one of the guard ran by, Tori heard his two way radio.
"The ion particle cannons are online, I repeat, the ion particle cannons are online!"
The guard ran towards Occard and told him the ion particle cannons were ready to be fired.
Occard gave one of his rare smiles and took the two radio from the guard.
"Fire upon point 1-7-5-3." Occard said.
The ion particle cannons made a loud humming as they charged and creaked as they all, save the one on the southwest wall, locked onto the pair of green eyes. The cannons fired and the creature put up a barrier and absorbed the energy from the cannons. Tori got a good look at the creature. It was humanoid. It seemed to stand about four and a half feet tall. It's arms were average length to it's body, it's three fingered hands that had fingers that are one foot long each with three joints. It's feet had three toes, two protruding from the front and one from the rear, similar to a bird's foot. It's head was mouthless, with a dorsal fin-like crest upon it and two appendages on the back of it's head that were about 1 foot at their base and narrowed as the appendages lowered to the middle of it's back. The creature was as dark as a moonless night. After the flash of light subsided, the creature began towards Tori and it took no time for it to reach her. She screamed as it approached her. Occard heard this and ran between the creature and it's intended quarry, Tori. The creature stared at Occard for what seemed like an eon, bit in reality was only a few minutes.
"Wos lerven!" The creature ordered. (His heart!)
The shadow creatures released Tori and brought Occard to the ground and extracted his heart. Tori tried to scream, but made no sound. The creature then extracted a ball from Occard's head and Tori recognised it as one of his memories of herself. Unable to so anything, Tori sat there and cried quietly as the rage and anger welled up inside her. After a few minutes, her anger peaked and she ran towards the creature and at that moment a strange weapon appeared in Tori's hand. It has the shape of a key, yet had the feel of a sword. She slashed wildly at the black shadow creatures to reach the larger green eyed creature. It proceeded to create a portal, then promptly went through. Tori saw the portal closing and she too went into the portal, awaiting the unknown that was on it's other side.