V. Quickening
Darkness complete and utter darkness. Ryan couldn´t even see the shape of his surroundings, and he had his eyes open. Or at least, he fell like he had. Idly, for just a moment, he wondered if he was looking into the dark he was made of. Then, with a start, he remembered. He had followed that strange tune, until he passed out, so he had to be dreaming. He closed his eyes, breathing heavily. Was he hearing footsteps approaching or was it just the hammering of his own heart? He licked his cold lips, open his eyes again and saw, right in front of him, the world changing, slowly being surrounded by fog and taking a form again, like a puzzle. Sometime while he stared at it, he became aware of the ground under his feet. He dragged himself to his knees, and finally stood up.
This place... what the hell was this place? He couldn´ have be still dreaming, everything fell to real for that, but just a minute ago he had be in the palace of the Albion Royal Family, going after Wardes and now he was here. The fact´s just didn´t add up. Then again, in this strange new world the facts didn´t matter. That tune had some kind of enchantment to make him follow it in the middle of battle, so that the magic of it could do something like this was not impossible. In fact, it was the only reasonable answer. He scoffed. This was reasonable, now. His life was really fucked up. Always had been.
"Yes." Ryan heard. It took him a moment to realize it was not his own voice. His hand went to his sword, and he turned and turned, looking for the source of the voice. "But that is how it will be, always, for Undead."
"Who are you? What do you what with me?" Casually dropping terms like that, it made him fell uneasy. Either that thing was reading his mind or it was not for this world.
"Both." The same voice ringed, in the deeps of the fog. "But don´t worry, I am not your enemy. In fact, I am the only person you can trust."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes." And a man appeared between the fog, right in front of him. Ryan quickly unsheathed his sword. "Don´t be so hasty. We have much to talk about."
"Answer my questions, then."
"Oh, I was going to do that." He laughed. "In the Age Of Ancients the world was an unformed, shrouded by fog. It was a land of gray crags, Archtrees and Everlasting Dragons. But then, there was Fire..."
"I already know this." Ryan said. "Get to the point."
"And with Fire, came disparity." The other continued. He frowned, but didn´t make another move. Maybe there was a good reason."Heat and cold, light and dark and, of course, life and death. Then, from the dark, they came and found the Souls Of Lords within the flame. Nito, the First of The Dead. The Witch Of Izalith and her daughters of chaos. Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight and his faithful knights. And..."
The man snapped his fingers, and an image formed in the fog. A human, what looked like a human, kneeling and taking something burning between his hands. His heart almost stopped. The man on the image, the furtive pigmy, and the one standing before him were similar. Too similar.
"...The Furtive Pigmy, so easily forgotten." The image shifted to a knight, facing down a roaring dragon. "With the strength of Lords, they challenged the dragons. Well, the rest of them, anyway, because I was long gone."
"You are the Furtive Pigmy?" He muttered, even though he already knew the answer.
"The Dark Soul is special. From it, humanity, my descendants, were born, each one with a piece of it. What I wanted the most was that, one day, one of my descendants would use the power of The Dark Soul, the strongest of The Lord Souls, to kill all gods and rule over humanity as the Dark Lord, the one who would guide them and give them safety. An Age for humanity. Such a beautiful thing would be worth any sacrifice. But, one day, The Dark Soul took me for my world and into this one. It was much like it, at the beginning, only filled with all sorts of creatures instead of Everlasting Dragons. I created humanity, once again." Uh. So that was why the darksign was spreading. "I took on a new name, Brimir, and together, we killed and killed and killed, for the sake of our pace. Even Elves, strange creatures similar to humanity, who hated us deeply. Through they were strong, ridiculously strong, I discovered the true depths of The Dark Soul, what is now called Void Magic, and so we managed to drive them to the brink of extinction. I searched for a way home, but couldn´t find it and, in time, I realized my children needed something more to dealt with this world. So, I split The Dark Soul into four big pieces, the keys of Void Magic, to be passed down between the descendants who had more of my blood. That killed me."
"Killed...? Then, what are you?"
"Yeah, that´s right. I am not really the Furtive Pigmy, but nothing more that a residual image created because of the power of The Dark Soul. Still, I may as well be him, so don´t hesitate to ask me questions."
"Why did you bring me here?" Ryan asked, staring intently at the Furtive Pigmy. Or Brimir. Or whatever.
"Oh, don´t look at me like that. I planned on it, of course, but that it happened now was pure chance. I couldn´t even be sure you where the right one, The Dark Lord, until you entered this system." He extended his arms. "You see, we split this world into four kingdoms. Albion, Germania, Romalia and Tristania. To each of those four, I gave them one item to safe guard created by the power of The Dark Soul. The item of Albion is a music box."
"So..."
"Yes. The tune of that music box, stolen by that man named Wardes, was what brought you here. As for why, is because there was a possibility you would enter this world, and if that happen you would need my help." The Furtive Pigmy turned towards him. "But still, our time together is limited, so let me ask you a question this time. What do you intend to do?"
Ryan held his stare for a few seconds, then looked away and bit his lip so hard he drew blood. After a few moments of thinking, it didn´t become any cleared that it was before.
"I don´t know." He said.
"With the darksign spreading, the four kingdoms will be soon be at war. Trustfully, even if it hadn´t happened, war would have broken out anyway. So, make a choice. You have to do it."
"I... All I ever wanted was to life. So, like always, the only path left for me is battle. To change this world, and rule above everybody else. Be the Dark Lord I was supposed to be."
"Uh. You do me proud, after all." He clapped, once. "Let me tell you something good. We did build a lot of bonfires here, but fewer that those back in our world. Obviously. One of those bonfires is right there, in the royal palace of Albion. Just get the music box, and you will be able to unlock the secret door behind the throne. When resting near that bonfire, you should be able to know how many are there in each kingdom. That will be useful in making your way to the top, even if you can´t get the exact localizations."
Ryan slowly nodded.
"Good. Then, my child, face forward with pride. The children of here got poisoned by the power of magic, and have lost their ways. But if its you, who had already changed another world, this corrupt one can also be changed." He raised a hand, and snapped his fingers.
Then, there was light.
Ryan conscious returned slowly. His tiredness faded like a mist, and that made way to pain everywhere, from his head down to the soles of his foots. He didn´t think he could be capable of moving. He didn´t want to move. Even his fingers hurt. There was a sharp hiss, and a scream of pure terror, close by. He lifted his head, and saw Wardes right in front of him, the music box in one hand and his wand on the other, watching one of the Albionese soldiers fall to the ground, a bleeding line running from his shoulder down to his chest. He dragged himself to his feet. Just then, he noticed it. There was an amulet hunk across his neck, with a strange design. His hand moved to remove it, but he put it back down again. It had appeared after his meeting with the Pygmy, so it was not wise to get it off. He may need it. He heard Wardes sneer, and looked up at him.
"What the hell happened to you? Did you think now was the perfect time to take a nap or what?"
"It doesn´t matter." Ryan said, and extended a hand. "Give me the music box."
Wardes eyes narrowed, and his grip on his wand tightened.
"What do you want with it?"
"Is important, now that the curse of the undead is spreading. Give it to me."
"No."
"Give it to me, or I kill you." Wind blew against him, and even though he fought to stay upright, he was sweep off his feet and hit the other wall, which cave in for the force of the impact. His sword went tumbling out of his grip. He was dimly aware of a deep gash on the side of his face, and the blood running down. Supporting himself with one hand on the wall, he stood up and unsheathed his sword as Wardes advanced. He split off, again and again, and when it was over seven Wardes were standing before him, wands held high. Ryan turned around, and broke into a run down the nearest hallway, wishing to put some distance between them.
"I don´t know was gotten into you, and I don´t care." One of the clones said-maybe the real one. "Truthfully, this is for the best. I hated you since we first meet, even before you humiliated me. There is no way I would be a comrade to someone like you. I kill you... Cromwell will be disappointed, of course, but no matter how useful you could be now you are just a nuisance to Reconquista, so he will understand. But first,first, I will make you suffer."
Ryan went right and, when he reached the half way point, he stopped in his tracks, turned around, raised a hand and waited. He heard the approaching footsteps and, one second before he saw one of the clones turning the corner, he unleashed the Combustion Pyromancy, sending a blast of fire from his fingertips that burned the clone to a crisp. He approached it, and when he turned the he didn´t see anybody. He involuntarily muttered a low confused noise under his breath, then, quickly turned around and slashed apart the lance of wind coming from him with his sword. All the remaining Wardes´s were there, on the other side of the hallway. He barely dodged another lance of wind, frantically thinking about what do, and dived around the next corner. Several lances of wind cut through the air where he had be naught but a moment before. Ryan pressed his hand against the wall, still holding on to his sword.
"Let me tell you something. This spell is not merely to create doubles, but Ubiquitous Wind. Each of them has the power of the original." One Wardes said. Ryan would almost felt his satisfied smile. "Last time, you caught me by surprise. I couldn´t even cast a single spell. But now, I am on the top. And I will give you the pain that you deserve! Every last drop!"
Stupid. He was really an arrogant fool, wasting words in battle, but Ryan couldn´t deny he had the power to back up his arrogance. Six. God knows if he could create more and more and more, but for now, it was six. Simple enough. And, besides, no matter how many how many times he could clone himself, everything will be over the instant the real Wardes falls. He stood up, and stepped out to meet them.
"Oh? So you finally step out to your dead. You stupid little pup, now you will get was coming to you, by the Founder, you will." One Wardes sneered, raising his wand to the skies. It began to crackle with electricity. The other ones followed after him. Ryan didn´t move, but held the Great Lighting Spear miracle at the ready. A little more. Just a little more. "Lighting Cloud!"
Now. He launched the spell, aiming for the big mass of lighting all the Wardes´s had released together. It cut through it cleanly, but it didn´t manage to stop it, just slowed it down a little while it reformed, though greatly reduced in size. Ryan watched, eyes wide, then tried to move away. He couldn´t. He had only had a single moment of hesitation yet, he couldn´t. The mass of lighting hit his body. His back arched, his vision went white and he felt himself crackling with electricity. He felt his flesh peeling, burning with a disgusting smell. His heart stopped.
Ryan slowly opened his eyes, once more, listening to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. The darksign was shining, once again, but his light slowly faded completely. When he raised his head, he saw Wardes advancing towards him, the real Wardes, with a crazed expression with the two copies just behind him, pointed their wands at him. Somewhat unsurprised, he noticed the amulet was there and also undamaged.
He though about cutting him apart right there, cutting them all apart, and only then did he realize that he had loss his sword. It became increasingly hard to keep his eyes open. He raised a shaky hand, and tried to launch a Pyromancy, but Wardes muttered an incantation quickly and an air lance cut his throat cleanly, nearly severing his head from his body and killing him.
When Ryan´s conscious returned, he was staring at the blank ceiling, breathing heavily, his head firmly attached to his neck and the light of the darksign just fading out. The three Wardeses were surrounding him, looking down at him. It was faint, but he could hear one of them already chanting, probably the real one. Damn. He didn´t have much time. He put one hand on the ground, and unleashed the Firestorm Pyromancy.
Pillars of flame shot out from the ground around them. It burned him a little bit, but it set the three others on fire, their wands too, and cut off that incantation. Two of them disappeared like mist, and one remained, the real Wardes, his skin peeling, showing the meat and bone beneath his body, screaming in pure horror and pain. His eyes were wide, too wide, and glazed over. The burning Wardes stumbled towards, nearly falling with every step. Ryan tried, and did stand up, but when he took a step back from Wardes, he lost his balance and fell down again. So, he reached him, put his scorching hands around his throat and pressed, still howling like a dying beast. He gasped for air, and his hands went to Wardes ones, trying to pry them off, without caring that he was only going to get himself burned. They didn´t budge. The room grew darker. All sounds, even Wardes screams, began to fade. Then...
(And the Red Dead held sway over them all.)
Wardes went limp. Ryan took a long, deep breath as his went away from his throat, stumbled back and fell down, dead. He almost fell himself, but he managed to hold himself up with one hand on the wall. His conscious wavered, like it would float away from him in any second. He approached his corpse, and raised the sword above his head, waited for his resurrection. He saw the darksign being slowly carved in Wardes neck. When his body shook once, he drove the sword down, decapitating him cleanly. The darksign burned. His head reconnected to his neck, and, when Wardes breathed again, Ryan decapitated him once more. This repeated itself until Wardes went Hollow, and he put him down from the last time.
Ryan looked away, panting heavily. He could still heard the sounds of battle, but they were faint, like everything was happening in the other side of the castle and not in just a few meters of distance. He moved, a bit unsteadily, retracing his steps and picked up the fallen music box. Then, he headed back to the dining room.
Ryan opened the door. The dining room was even more of a mess since he left. All the tables were all turned around, corpses that looked centuries old littered the ground and the smell of decayed flesh was almost palpable. The fighting was nothing but a mad scramble. They didn´t even notice that he had gone inside, not even when he slipped next to the throne, rise the hand holding the music box and opened the lid. When the tune started playing, he tensed despite himself. Nothing happened, of course. He felt like a real idiot. For a moment, he wondered if he had broke it or something, then, the ground gave a brief sake and a piece of wall behind the throne disappeared, creating a long corridor with just a few flickers of light at the end. On the center of that room, there was an unlit bonfire. He ran for it, holding tightly on to his sword. Nobody followed him. He reached the bonfire, put his hand on it and lighted it. Observing the crackling of the flames, he almost dozed off. This was it, uh. It had be so long since he had felt this peaceful.
Ryan shook his head. There was no time to be lost in his though, like an idiot. He reached inside himself, and feed Humanity to the flame. He saw his flesh growing back and, in no more that a few seconds, it was like he had never died at all. Ah. No matter how many times he did this, the process was still a bi disorienting. He closed his eyes, breathing deeply, opened them again and saw it. Five. Five bonfires for each kingdom, and ten more in the lands of the elves. Good enough. He went back from where he came, sword held high. He looked around the dining room one last time, and leaped into battle.
Over. It was over. They had made the Albionese soldiers go hollow, killed them from the last time and, under his orders, gathered them up and burned them. Reconquista had conquered Albion´s royal palace, and it was only a matter of time before all of the kingdom felt under their control. And for there on, the world. Ryan smiled. Things had gone out of hand for a little while, but now everything was on track again. He would continue to use Cromwell for now, but someday he take control. It wouldn´t be hard, either. When that arrogant bastard called him for missions, he had only be protected by Sheffield, and he was definitively faster that her. And with her master, she would become harmless. After that, Reconquista would bow down to him... or he would make them. This bonfire was close enough, and he had more that enough Humanity to dealt with them all without much of a risk.
As he had killed Wardes, some other soldier had to fire the signal. They waited at the entrance, and saw a carriage approaching whose horses were riding on their own. Uh. More strange magic, he supposed. The carriage stopped, and from it came down Sheffield and Cromwell just after her. As he was approaching, his smile was almost fixed, but when he took a good look at the situation he turned serious. He looked right at him.
"What happened, Undead?" His eyes narrowed. "And why do you look like you never died at all?"
"The curse is spreading. As for how I am like this, I really don´t know. The music box did something to me. I loss conscious and, when I woke up, I was like this."
"Uh." Cromwell muttered. Ryan couldn´t tell if he believe him or not. Well, it didn´t really matter, at this point. He looked around. "I don´t see Wardes."
"He is dead. Completely dead."
"Why? If the curse has spread to all the soldiers which were killed here, shouldn´t Wardes had be resurrected?"
"Oh, he was resurrected, alright but his soul has burn out, turning him into a Hollow, a mad beast seeking only to kill and kill humans to fill the gaps in their soul, because of dying to many times or losing the will to go on or maybe even something else. Even back on my homeland, nobody was really sure."
"I see." He looked away from him, and advance towards the doors of the palace, followed by Sheffield. The soldiers let them plenty of space to pass through. "Come with me, Undead. The rest of you know what you have to do, so don´t disappoint me."
Ryan followed them, without saying a word, wondering what Cromwell wanted to say away from his own soldiers. He leaded them into the dining room and, when he stepped inside, he heard Sheffield close the door behind the. He unsheathed his sword, and ran towards Cromwell. He heard the snap of fingers, and a barrier crackling with electricity appeared just in front of him. He hit it. There was pain, burning pain and his vision briefly went white. Then, he was throw back, against the ground, and he somehow managed to hold on to the sword.
"Fool. Don´t lie so blatantly. I am not old enough to believe such bullshit. Wardes doesn´t really matter to me. He is not irreplaceable, like you. However, is clear you need to be a taught a lesson. I am the one in control here." Cromwell said, and raised a hand. A great blue ring shone upon one of his fingers. "Undead, kill yourself."
