Author's Note: I'm Really sorry about the lack of updates guys, I had thought that I had posted Chapter 27, then found out several days later that I didn't. Then my computer decided that it didn't want to stay powered on for more than five minutes at a time. I fixed that bug for now so now I should be able to continue unhindered.
WARNING! This chapter got really dark, way darker than I intended so if that kind of thing doesn't appeal to you here is your warning to avoid it.
Chapter 28: The Betrayer
The gravity seemed to be back to normal, Chibi picked himself up off the floor after that disorienting event. Grougal seemed awfully confused, but Chibi understood that a threat to world had been averted, he wasn't sure how he knew this, he just did. Grougal huffed and began flying down the hallway.
"Grougal Wait!" Chibi yelled following his little brother.
Rip smiled as the last Deum Tenebrea fell to one of the god's blades, Sacrier if he recalled correctly. He raised his hand, his hammer returning to him from his last blow.
"Gods of the Krosmoz!" He uttered in a booming voice uncharacteristic of his smaller form "To me!"
The nearby gods did listen, even the raging Eliatrope managed to arrive, The Great Dragon working to calm her nerves. The Azure Godess was angry, Kain had slipped her grasp again and Jack had not allowed her to follow. You may view him with disdain he had said But my fight with him is eons old, I must end it, no other.
"Lady ELiatrope?" Rip said presently turning his attention to the mother of the gods
"Yes?" she bit out trying to sound as calm as possible.
"You can transport many individuals through your portals yes?" Rip asked, Eliatrope nodded. "And you can move those people great distances?" he asked
"Define a great distance." Eliatrope said.
"From the Valorous to the planet's surface." Rip said
"Yes," Eliatrope responded "But why?"
"Achron has forced Seraphin to the surface of your world." Rip said "And Kain has followed, trying to destroy the planet by ramming one of his ships into it."
"He did what?!" Goultard yelled.
"Fortunately he has failed in that endeavor," Rip continued "The ship he used was too small to destroy the planet, but it has caused considerable damage, The ocean levels have risen."
"Ogrest's Chaos all over again" Feca said
"You gods should gather your siblings and meet me planetside," Rip said "I don't care what Jack thinks, we aren't letting that bastard win this time even if that means I have to get in the ripper's way."
The gods all agreed and went off to find their siblings within the gilded fleet.
"As for you two." Rip said "There are people of your world still trapped on the Valorous, one of them I believe is your child, the white haired eliatrope."
"Chibi!" Eliatrpe uttered in surprise "I forgot he was here!"
"Yes," rip said "You will need to teleport them planetside so that they can aid in the battle with kain. Several of the mortals are about to engage him, heedless of Jack's warnings."
"Then we must go now my dear." The dragon said placing a hand on Eliatrope's shoulder "We must see to our children."
"Yes," Elitrope answered "of course.
Damn that fall was something! It had been a long time since he'd had to manually pilot a ship into a planet. He had to have been out for several minutes, long enough for jack to catch up. Damn immortal! If he'd just minded his own damn business all those years ago. Kain moved to find that his body was stiff and sore and still not a hundred percent healed. He must've done some serious damage.
His armor would protect him for now, but he needed to get out of the ship and see what his work had wrought. He stood up, everyone else on the bridge was dead and bleeding out around him, he paid them no mind, they signed up for this after all. He moved towards the hatch and forced it open.
Upon reaching the outside world his mood soured further, apparently he had not taken a very heavy ship, the planet seemed to be in one piece still and supporting life. Though it appeared he had permanently scarred it's surface digging up a whole canyon through a rocky patch of land.
As he inspected his handiwork he heard the sound of another hatch somewhere nearby opening. Had someone else survived? Of course, this was a vessel with an immortal captain, a captain that had decided to have some fun and fight with interlopers on his own rather than man the bridge apparently.
He was surprised to see several local individuals emerge from the ship instead, it looked like that powerful blue goddess's son and a band of mortal fighters, though the orange haired one might be a diety, he wasn't sure.
No sooner than he had done this mental check of his new enemies another group appeared, eleven individuals, clearly diety status. Before he had any chance to scope them out he felt the presence of his long hated foe nearby as well. Jack the Ripper was angry and out for revenge and Kain could feel his bloodlust from here. Just like old times the thought with small smile.
Kain twirled quickly and pulled his blade, he was glad he did, for it clashed with none other than bone render; anything less that his Primordial blade would have been insufficient. Jack quickly separated and swung his feet under Kain's, but the Aetherian dodged the blow, rising to the air above.
"All of you stay out of this battle!" Jack said angrily "You will only get yourselves killed!"
"Now wait just a minute – " Percedal began before a hand came down on his shoulder, he looked up to his master Goultard standing there.
"This is battle we should not interfere with." Goultard said sternly "Unless we are given no choice."
"But master Goultard." Percedal objected.
"This is Jack's battle, and he wants it to himself," Goultard said "A choice he has the right to make."
Percedal pouted a bit "That's not very Iop." He complained
"It is actually quite Iop," Goultard said "You should know that, your previous self made it that way."
"I don't care!" Percedal said angrily "I don't want to be the Iop God."
"Deal with it." Another voice said approaching Percedal with barrel in hand Pandawa bore down on the smaller Humanoid "You have a family don't you, a wife and kids, if you won't be the Iop god and defend this world, who will?"
"You coming?" Kain's voice echoed down towards Jack, who had listened to the conversation to ensure none of them would follow into battle. The immortal rose to meet his foe as Percedal looked at Goultard for support.
"Don't look at me," Goultard said "Your arm came back of it's own accord, The powers of the iop god are yours now, I can no longer use them."
"But…" Percedal's rebuttal stuck in his throat as he realized the implications of this, he only wanted to live a peaceful life with Evangelyne and the kids, he didn't want all of this.
"Very well," Percedal said "I will defend this world."
Padawa smiled "That is what I wanted to hear," He said joyfully "welcome back brother!" Pandawa embraced the Iop happily and though a little uncomfortable Percedal returned it.
While the joyous renunion commenced below, Jack had a different sort of renuinion above.
"Today we end this Kain." Jack said solemnly
"Indeed we shall!" Kain replied.
The Aetherian hefted his blade, a two handed sword that matched his heavy armor and charged. Jack was nimble and easily dodged most of the blows trying, with great difficulty, to find an opening into which to stab his knife. Kain was ancient however and very powerful and experienced, even more so than he. Jack had known all the time, running was ruse to make the local fighters believe he was a coward, he had seen Kain's power up close and personal many times. And the Aetherian knew his own like the back of his hand, leaving no openings for Jack to exploit.
The Aetherian twisted, attacking again with his large sword in one hand while his other summoned dark energy to it. Jack swooped over the blade and bounced the energy blast off the surface of Bone Render but Kain was swifter than he thought. The aetherian caught the Red haired immortal off guard with a blast of dark energy wich forced him back to the ground.
Kain allowed himself to fall knee first into the immortal, Jack felt several ribs crack, one pierced a lung and his stomach nearly burst from the pressure applied to it. While he was sunned and in pain he watched as Kain got up and grabbed him by the arm throwing him into a large oak tree nearby. Another blast of dark energy poured forth from his hand this one did more than slam into Jack, it bound him, wrapping itself around the tree and continuing the pressure on the wounds to keep them from regenerating quickly.
Kain laughed "Whatever happened to that strong willed killer I used to know?" Kain said "The who's day was not complete until he wrought a holocaust upon the world."
"That was a long time ago Kain." Jack replied
"Yes," kain said almost nostalgically "Yes it was, then you had to go an turn that perfect heart of darkness into a weakling who protects the light."
"Protection requires a strength you'll never know!" Jack spat at the Aetherian.
Kain's face turned dark, very dark, for the first time since the god's had seen him the man seemed to be possessed of an unbridled rage churning within him. In one moment he was standing several meters away from Jack and in the next he was upon the immortal his hand grasping the red haired warriors face in a harsh grip.
"After all you did for us!" Kain said "You don't get to play the saint, you sanctimonious bastard! Now watch as I destroy all you hoped to protect little weakling of the light."
Kain turned from his captive and jack called out "Run, Run for you lives!"
Again the aetherian was next to jack in one moment, and in the next he was air's breadth away from Pandawa, his fist already embedded in the god's belly. He pushed his arm out and twisted it, forcing Pandawa to fly back spinning into the side of the ship causing a dent in it's hull.
"As if they could." Kain said darkly, he looked around as Feca and Eniripsa rushed to Pandawa's side to protect their brother from another volley. "Who's next."
"Master?" Percedal asked excitedly.
"It appears we have no choice," Goultard replied summoning his blade from within his arm. "We shall be you next opponents."
Kain smiled "Opponents, No, you'll just be my prey." Percedal saw nothing yet again as kain seemed to simply appear next to goultard, but his master had anticipated the blow and blocked it.
"I've seen that trick enough today," Goultard said bored "Why don't you try another."
Percedal jumped at the oppoetunity hefting Rubilax and slamming him into the aetherian's armor to make him grow. Using the sword he struck at the dark being's head, but missed as Kain moved quickly out of his way and tried again to strike at Goultard. Again Goultard blocked the blow, this time adding one of his own that struck the Aetherian's chest plate and cracked it.
"I guess I'll have to fight seriously after all." Kain said disappointed.
Eliatrope had managed to gather all the Brotherhood members on the Valorous Her dear dragon was going looking for Chibi and Grougaloragran in another part of the ship, he should be back any minute She thought.
"So you're like the one who made everything?" A little voice said from beside her. Eliatrope looked down to see a blonde haired boy looking up quizzically at her.
"Yes little one," Eliatrope said "My lover and I shaped all the krozmos from top to bottom."
"I didn't think you really existed is all." Flopin said "Of all the gods and goddesses, you two are the only ones no one has ever seen."
"Well you see me now don't you?" Eliatrope said "You are among the first from your world to see me."
"That's really cool!" Flopin said
"It's only natural you know," Eliatrope replied "I am your grandmother after all."
Flopin seemed to think that over for a moment and come to some conclusion. He nodded his head once and walked away, back towards his sister.
It was at this time that The Dragon returned carrying Chibi in his arms, The ever stubborn Grougal following with a defeated look on his face.
"That's everyone yes?" The Dragon said.
"Yes, Eliatrope replied "We should be ready to go."
"Hold up." A woman said from the control area of the observation deck. A red haired woman approached Eliatrope for a moment and curtsied then moved on to the little blonde haired boy from before, Percedal's son Flopin.
"Here." She said handing him a dagger of some sort.
"This is the knife that I used earlier." He said surprised
"Yes," The woman said "I think it will be better kept in your hands, you've proven quite resilient and resourceful, don't let your friends down."
Flopin carefully took the knife, as before he noticed how heavy it was compared to a normal knife of it's make, he also noticed a faint glow coming from it, something he hadn't noticed before.
"Right." Flopin said "I'll take good care of it."
"It's name is Ribbon Dancer." The woman said "It is the brightest glowing Primordial blade that we know of right now."
"Okay," Flopin said "I won't disappoint you Rosaline."
"I'm sure you won't." Rosaline replied. "Now get going."
Flopin nodded and joined ELiatrope and the others as the former opened a portal to the world below. They stepped through the portal into the plains of Astrub only to find the geography was much different from the last time they had visited. A massive rut had destroyed almost all plant life on the west side of the city, to it's north was a massive crater still smoking from the impact of the two aetherian's that had created it. At the end of the ravine was a dark ship from Achron's fleet, Cleophee and Lucian were there surrounded by the gods who mostly watched as Goultard and PErcedal did battle with a one of Achron's minions.
"Kain." Eliatrope said darkly "I still owe him plenty of hurt." Her face contorted into an ugly snarl until the dragon's hand rested on her shoulder.
"You're power is creation dear," He said calmly "You have wrought enough destruction today, do not push your limit."
"But-" she was cut of as The Dragon placed a finger over her mouth "I will join the battle, leave this one to me."
Eliatrope made a huffing noise and crossed her arms in mock anger at her lover. "Fine" she said.
Kain was angry now, since when did these mortals become so tough, what was up with this damn Universe? None of the others they had come across had spawned so many gifted mortals and deities before, it was circus show of freaks. He would be glad to gone when it was all over.
He sensed the presence of more entities nearby and briefly noticed a large winged being approaching him, deciding that it definitely wasn't friendly he twisted his body and grabbed the former God's arm throwing him into its path. The two collided only offering his=m a brief reprieve until the new god continued his assault.
Percedal was upset by that last move, a dirtly trick by this cowardly armored jerk. It was time someone taught him a painful lesson he would not soon forget. Slashing at him with Rubilax he only managed to grace his paulrons ans the aetherian ducked and moved under him for another blow. The traded several sword blows before separating.
"His sword is really hard." Rubilax said "I'm not sure how much more of it I can take, It hurts pretty bad."
"Alright Rubi." Percedal said "I'll try to stick to his armor from now on."
Goultard and the great dragon had recovered now and came after the aetherian in force but with his speed he was able to keep all of them at bay at once.
Flopin approached Lucian and Cleo who watched the battle from below.
"Aunt Cleo!" he said quickly followed by his sister who had remained right behind him.
Cleophee turned to see the two adorable children of her sister's and opened her arms in a hug.
"What's happening?" Flopin asked with a little concern in his voice.
"That dark one up there," Elely interjected "He is really angry, he keeps a cool lid on it though, like he's fighting for revenge."
"He did say something like that to jack earlier." Cleo said
"Yeah," Lucian agreed "He made it sound like he and Jack were once friends."
Flopin looked up at the battle he instantly recognized the odd hue of the man above them, the same hue of the man who had attacked them on the bridge, the one Rasaline couldn't defeat.
"Aunt Cleo!" He said quickly "How far can you throw a knife?"
"Pretty far," She said, then smirked "Farther than your mother."
"Good," Flopin said "Take this."
He handed her some odd heavy glowing dagger. "What's this?" she asked.
"I had to fight one of those guys on the ship." Flopin said "like the dark one up there, you have to kill them with a certain kind of metal, otherwise the don't die."
"And this is a knife made of that metal?" Cleo said "Wait a minute, back up, you fought an Aetherian? Like Seraphin and this guy?"
"Is that what their called?" Flopin asked "Well Rosaline did most of the fighting, but I struck the killing blow."
"Okay, my nephew has officially stolen my thunder…" Cleo said with a bit of disappointment "I'm not that old yet am I?" she asked.
Lucian laughed, he wasn't sure why but the exchange seemed funny to him.
"That's not important!" Flopin said, oddly sincere, "You have to hit that guy up there with this dagger!"
"Okay," Cleo said "I'll give it a shot."
She reached her arm back and poised herself to throw grabbing the knife by it's tip. Flopin watched as her eyes darted to and fro concentrating, homing in on her rapidly moving target. After a few moments Goultard and Percedal forced him into a blade lock and that was her chance.
The knife flew and FLopin learned why it was called Ribbon dancer ad a ribbon of light followed it straight to it's destination. Kain noticed the glowing blade a half a moment to late as it struck his armor sinking into it as though it was made of paly-doh and striking his side slicing into his tendons and muscles. He screamed in pain and threw the two iops off of him slamming an orb of dark energy into Goultard in an angry attempt to knock him out.
The next moments moved into slow motion for Lucian as the aetherian spotted Cleo and realized by her stance that she had thrown the knife. In an instant he was before her towering over her like a black giant. His arm swooped down and grabbed her by the neck pulling her to eye level.
"Follish mettleing mortal!" he yelled in unbridled rage "I'll show you what stupidity get's in my world!"
Lucian's mind went numb as he watched Kain's hand visibly tense around her neck. She grabbed his arm trying hard to break free. He couldn't move he couldn't think, all he could imagine in that moment was losing her, was this what it felt like to love someone? To lose that someone? It seemed he would never know.
He forced his body to move, knowing he had to do something and summoned his portals, overlapping them and summoning a large blue beam to head towards the dark aetherian.
Kain barely noticed the pitiful energy as it washed over him "Too late little boy." The dark giant said as Cleo's eyes bulged and rolled back into her head.
A blade came screaming by Lucian's head followed by a rapidly extending chain, without warning it embedded itself in kain's elbow, between the plates of his armor. The aetherian's hand immediately released it's captive and cleo dropped to the ground with a soft thump.
Kain pulled the blade from his arm and threw it spitefully back at goultard who side stepped and caught the handle with a smile. Rushing the dark aetherian. Kain raised his hand over his head and summoned a great tower shield as the The Great Dragon slammed into it with a mighty force. Percedal rushed from the side and was blocked by the mighty aetherian's claymore while he spat energy from his mouth to stop Goultard.
None of this mattered to Lucian, all he could think of was the girl lying before him as he desperately tried to call her back to his side. "Cleo, Please don't go!" he said "Come back, please, come back" When there was no response Lucian lifted his head to the sky and unleashed a blood curdling scream unto the heavens a scream filled with all the pain he felt.
Kain briefly turned to see the boy and laughed "Aw, the little boy wasn't fast enough to save his girlfriend," he taunted darkly "What a pity."
"The world would would truly be better without you in it." Goultard responded.
"Maybe it would," Kain replied "Maybe it wouldn't. You won't live enough to find out."
As they battled at near light speeds a hole continued to develop in Lucian's heart a terribly deep ravine that gave birth to a sickening poison darkness within. He didn't notice the crying forms of Elely and Flopin as the crowded around their fallen aunt tears streaming from their eyes. When next his eyes reached the sky they held nothing but pure rage.
Kain threw his shield into the dragon who morphed to his real form and easily caught it in his massive hand, allowing it to fall to the world below before morphing back to his more humanoid form. Kain slashed with his claymore and grazed Goultard's chest forcing the iop back, opening his pupil to a gut wrenching slam from it's pommel. He unleashed a torrent of black energy upon the great dragon as the latter iop fell away, forcing the great diety to the ground. He smiled at his work glad to see how far beneath him such lowly beings were.
His happiness did not last however as a burning energy slammed into his back, it had not completely receded when it reappeared breacking his chestplate and searing the flesh beneath. Again and again it slammed into hism at lightning speeds, faster than he could regenerate or react breaking his armor searing his skin and flesh, searing wounds that did not heal.
He twisted his arm and called his tower shield to him, predicting the next strike he blocked it bouncing it off the shield and into the open air. It was the little brat from outside the ship, the one who had tried to stop him from crushing the life out of that blonde meddler. Only now the hooded cloak that had coveren him was gone, light blue markings were visible all over his chest and arms, spikes of blue energy ran down his back like a wild beast with claws on his arms and hands to match. On his head was a pair of draconic wings made of some lucid, semi-solid energy. He didn't get much time to gawk before the boy slammed into his chest again, this time his claws dug into his now exposed shoulders.
"You killed her!" he said in a disturbingly distorted voice "You killed her, and now I'll kill you!"
Twisting his body Kain forced his arm under the intruder and threw him off "I kill a lot of people kid," he said "Get used to it."
The boy wasted no time in rebounding and slamming into his side, pushing the primordial knife further into his flesh, Kain saw stars before his eyes as he grunted in pain and twisted pulling the kife from his side and staring.
"Ribbon dancer," he said "That red haired bitched knife." He stared at it for a few minutes while he bounced another blow off of his shield.
"Here, have a present," He said "From me to you!" he threw the knife at the boy with intent to kill, no one could prevent a death when brought by a primordial weapon, no one, not even this power maddened child.
Lucian saw the blade, he half didn't care, he thought that perhaps he could join his beloved beyond this world. But his body did not allow it, reacting on it's own it twisted and caught the knife. The aetherian's eyes opened in awe for a brief moment before he slammed into him, driving the knife through his stomach and slamming him into the ground, creating a small crater.
The dark tendril's that held jack in place fell and the immortal rushed to the crater that the boy had just created. Lucian wasn't it, that was the boy's name. what he saw when he arrived was disturbing, the boy had reverted to his former self, a blonde haired child with wings above his head. he was stabbing a knife repeatedly into Kain's belly screaming "Giver her back!" over and over.
Jack rushed up and grabbed his arm, which weakly dropped the knife on his enemie's exposed flesh.
"It's over," Jack said "He won't be hurting anyone anymore."
A cough issued forth from kain's mouth "You're so naïve Jack," he said "as long as you're around I will remain, in one form or another… Traitor." Kain's body disintegrated becoming atoms too small for them to see and flying away on the wind.
Lucian was numb, he felt his body being moved, carried out of the pit, but his eyes were glassed over, he saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing. It's as though his heart ceased to exist, all the feelings he had learned he had were gone, a blank slate once again, well, not completely blank, the pain of loss still resided there, his only companion in the dark.
He felt himself get laid down on the ground, briefly heard sobs nearby, then someone speaking. Then he heard coughing, and another voice, a voice he recognized. A voice that pierced through the darkness and called him bome.
"Lucian!" Cleo's voice broke into his mind like a ray of light, he blinked and stared his eyes seeing what they hadn't before. :Lucian are you okay?"
"Cleo?" he asked staring, seeing, but not believing "But, you died." He said "I wantched him kill you."
Cleo hugged him tightly "No Lucian," she said "He just knocked me out, Goultard stopped him before he could kill me."
"You're welcome by the way." A strong voice said from behind him, Lucian turned to see Goultard standing there with his pupil Percedal among the gods.
Feeling rushed back into Lucian's heart, the darkness banished, though a hint of it remained. "What did I do!" he said worriedly "I killed him, But that wasn't enough for me, I kept… I kept…" Lucian began to cry as the realization of what he had done kicked in.
"He isn't dead." Jack said spitefully "When an aetherian dies a body remains behind, his body is gone. He will continue to haunt me, betrayal made flesh."
"What?" Cleo said
"After all that work," The great dragon said angrily "He isn't dead?"
"You should be proud." Jack said "The boy managed to destroy several organs with a primordial blade, he lives, but he will never know his true strength again."
The sound of a sonic boom rushed over the landscape and The group turned to see Yugo thrown through a forest of trees and rocks by Achron's hand.
"YUGO!" Amalia cried rushing towards the battle. A bolt of yellow lighting stopped her in her tracks at his blocker her way, the yellow energy formed into a humanoid shape eventually revealing Rip van Winkle.
The blonde boy shook his head. "Don't get involved, That fight is far beyond you." he turned his head momentarily to see Yugo getting up and Adamai landing near him. "Your friend should not have picked this fight."
"What are you saying?" Amalia answered Eliatrope steppin in behind her.
"You have no right!" The blue goddess yelled.
Rip stared them both down with darkened eyes "That being out there is Achron." He said calmly "in all likelihood your friend will die here."
"What?" Amalia said, "then we must help."
Mjolnir flew from Rip's hand and grazed amilia's temple knocking her hout before slamming full force into Eliatrope's head and forcing her to the ground as well. "I am sorry," Rip said "One day you will understand."
The god's looked ready to fight, but the Great Dragon stepped in their way. "No my children, this is Yugo's and Adamai's battle, we will not interfere."
God this chapter took so loooooooong! It was so hard, I've spent so much time imagining the fight between Yugo and Achron that I completely forgot that this stuff had happen for awhile, then it hit me last second "I should probably wrap that up" so here it is. Now on to the final battle a two chapter finale.