The end of Arc 1: Awakening

There wasn't much Laurence could remember, just faint scenes.

And those faint scenes he could barely decipher, those scenes held many mixed emotions. Grief, sadness, anger, he couldn't tell, yet the emotions felt rooted down deep. He hadn't felt many strong emotions since he woke up, everything just appeared as either an annoyance or something that existed. However, this memory, these scenes, they were burning away in strong emotions that he couldn't even tell what they were and why. Although, there was one singular emotion standing still in the back of his mind. Calm, yet always there. He didn't understand why it was there, yet it existed, seething into his mind and slowly corrupting.

Wrath.

From what he could find, the first scenes were peaceful. He was standing in a large crowd. People were cheering. Cheering to what? He didn't know. The crowd was surrounded by stony slated cliffs, a grotto he was at. Atop the cliffs were bushels of tropical foliage, and exotic and colorful flowers bloomed from the grass he stood on. He remembered staring at a massive hill of sorts, constructed out of thousands of scorched bones and bramble. Carved pillars protruded out the sides of the hill, made out of a strange orange material. At the peak was a monument of sorts, made out of the same stuff and holding an ashtray. He couldn't depict what it was. Wings? Whatever. That didn't matter.

A large stone terrace stood strongly in front, and two sets of stairs on each side arced to it. Then, three or four figures marched up the stairways, kneeling on the terrace. A sudden feeling of relief and happiness shocked through him. He didn't remember smiling, yet he felt worth existing. Complete. In the middle of the terrace kneeled her. Who was her? Why does she seem important? He couldn't remember. The more he tried, the more he sunk into the spiraling abyss of thought. She was coated in ceremonial robes. Yes. That was what he was attending. A ceremony.

He remembered kneeling too. The entire crowd did. The figures on top of the bone hill raised out a gleaming golden flame from a decorated coffer, then placed it over the ashtray. Molter flames emanated from the cracks of the monument which quickly spread to the hill, creating majestic rings of fire around the terrace. Soon the entire hill blazed in blistering flames, the auric energy drawn to her. Who was her? What were they doing again?

no.

Overwhelming dread took over him and clenched him down like thousands of arms. He doesn't want to think about it. There was nothing he could do. Nothing. He doesn't know why, but the thought digs itself into his soul, not even knowing what it is. The more he refused to think, the stronger it came back. The more he tried, the more he fell into the spiraling abyss of absolute agony. The more he tried, the more the wounds festered until he was nothing but rot. The more he tried, the more it beckoned for him.

He couldn't. He couldn't. He was trapped. Trapped by a clouded mind too disheveled to know the true meaning. Trapped by his own memories, ones he couldn't even decipher. Trapped inside a nightmare, longing for release. Trapped and all alone. Alone. The chisel slowly hammered over his skull, engraving the thought. There was no other way. He couldn't help it. He couldn't do anything. Nothing. Not a single spark of opportunity was seen. There was no changing of their destiny. There was no saving his destiny. You cannot save fate. There's nothing that can be done. Nothing. This was his fate.

Kade, Liam, Taph, & Vulcan looked in paralyzed horror.

Like a hung corpse, Laurence dangled on the Destroyer, its mandible impaled through his stomach. He dangled motionless, without any life, still. His limbs were mangled and twisted, blood trickling down in slow, calculated drops. His tentacles flopped flaccid, wrinkled, and desaturated. His intestines twirled around the metal mandibles, curling in a twist.

"I-is he...dead?" Liam asked

Nobody answered, too shocked to move. With still no motion, he hung there, only seen by the occasional flicker of the serpent's indigo lights. With him completely drenched in oil his abhorrent body lay with an uncanny demeanor, only looking like a shadow in the darkness. The Destroyer sat still as well, surrounding its head with its segments for Laurence to wake back up.

They waited for several moments; still no movement. A few seconds later a relieving twitch of the fingers, which was followed by no response. They waited, and waited until a single blink of mana sparked across one of the tentacles. They struggled to move up, shaking and jittering with every second. Yet they toughened and stabbed themselves into Laurence's back.

the tentacles pumped all the mana into him, veins flowing in energy. He woke back up in a spasm and choked out a drastic amount of blood. Then, he slid his guts out the mandible and slammed down onto the soil ground. Even rupturing his intestines somehow couldn't keep him down, his limbs barely able to function. Laurence slowly snapped his neck to Kade and spoke.

"KADE...give me that...blade..." He said while coughing up more blood.

Kade, still on his knees, sent the blade in heavenly light, tossing the Grand Guardian with all his might. The blade hit the ground near Laurence with a large thud. He trod over to the blade and gripped the hilt with both hands still shaking. He raised the blade up to his head and sent it down on his knee.

(*CRACK*)

The blade splintered into halves, the metal shattering sending a ringing noise across everybody. Laurence held onto the two pieces, tiny glimmers of enigmatic cosmic cinders floating out the between the halves. The glimmers grew into mystical, mercurial fumes, wafting sharply up and fading quickly away. Laurence tilted his head under, unhinging his jaw. With a large gasp, he swallowed the fumes into his mouth. A moment after his veins glowed brighter than ever, his limbs untwisting, cuts sealing themselves back up. Dropping the sword fragments onto the ground, his tentacles reformed, the man let out a chuckle before diving back right to it, the ground behind him uprooting from the force.

"What just happened?" Asked Vulcan,

...mana extraction...Thought Kade, How can he do that with no complex alchemy?"

The Destroyer shook back awake and opened its mandibles. Laurence snapped his right arm back into place and sent his bare fist right down the armor. Arcs of eldritch purple energy coiled in sizzling beams of electricity, spreading onto the Destroyer on contact. Its hallowed armor was torn instantly, the sheer impact landing a puncturing shockwave that sent all its other segments to crack as bright bolts of energy raged in blazing fury across the ruins. The serpent was knocked down to the wall, and its circuits shed away sparks. The Destroyer snapped open its lens and swung the laser wall across his tentacles, decimating towers into rubble and scorching smoky black lines across the ceiling stone.

Laurence pulled his tentacles into the blindspots of the wall and anchored them onto one of the lenses. Piercing a tentacle down onto the glass like a pike, he hopped from each and every lens, stabbing them apart. The laser wall slowly disassembled as he pried apart the metal bracings, Oil splattering across his face and seeping into his eyes. The Destroyer wailed a deafening cacophony of conjured screams, relentlessly slamming its body onto the ground. Laurence cackled in a raspy voice and singed his fingernails into the circuits and began ripping. Soon enough half of what was half of The Destroyer's body was reduced to tangled wires and torn cables.

"ʰᵉʰᵉ...ʰᵉ...even if you destroy this...you will achieve nothing..." The Destroyer said defeatedly, "This body serves nothing but an engine for our eventual conquest...

"you cannot escape. This is your Fate."

Laurence shook and slipped down to one knee, hand pounding the dirt. A small whimper came out, which led to a strange combination of laughter and sorrowful crying. He slowly lifted himself up, wiping away bloodstained tears. Laurence spoke.

"Huh...that's funny...now...tell me...WHY WOULD I CARE?!"

Laurence lifted up both arms, bubbling and cracking. The flesh of his wrists was magically crushed into sanguine paste and from the torn remains hatched fresh batches of tentacles, dripping in warm ichor. The tentacles weaved together, twisting and squirming and squeezing into one. They melded into two vast, muscular ropes, the ends flattened into clubs armed with hundreds of hooked thorns on the underside. The new tentacles stalked in menacing, rapier movements, hastily lunging to The Destroyer's mandibles.

The tentacles constricted around the mandible and reeled Laurence up onto its head. He pulled and strangled the metal, slowly cracking from the pressure. The furious, hellish screeching of the steel slowly bending out of shape wreathed the air in obnoxious noise. Laurence tightened his muscle tendons and stretched apart his arms with all his might. The mandibles ripped off, their metal rims snapping off and hitting the ground in huge thuds. The Destroyer hollered, its screams jittering with digital pitches through every bellow.

The ropes shot up and clung onto the cavern ceiling, swinging him up and back onto The Destroyer. Laurence tangled the ropes around its neck, knotting the two into a relentless strangle. He hunched back and let the serpent slam into the wall, causing slates of stone to tumble out at bullet speed. Laurence squirmed to set free his body from between the metal and wall, squeezing himself out of the jagged hallowed armor. His hands on the metal suddenly felt surprisingly warm, then hot, then sizzling. The armor erupted into magmatic temperatures, steam billowing out the crevices throughout each segment. He kicked his legs up front to block the heat, while the back of his hands and cheek were ironed into charred black.

The Destroyer lifted itself back, dropping Laurence dozens of feet down. The fall snapped a bone on his forearm but magically worked just fine. When he raised his head to face the serpent he realized it was blighted into molten shades of red and orange, and a thick cloud of steam wreathed around its head.

"You have much fight in you yet...tell us, Knight, what drives you to keep going? We have shattered your entire body, yet you still insist to fight." The Destroyer asked,

"You think I know? And you think I give a shit?" He responded, "I don't understand any of this, I just want this mess gone."

The Destroyer rattled in frustration and cranked its huge mouth wide open. The world-consuming hole was honed with several layers of serrated teeth. Within its throat spinning jagged cogs coughed out golden-weaved cinders. Its mouth began to expand larger and larger, more rows of teeth snapping out and into place. The metal plating that fitted its cranium shifted apart, revealing the inner workings inside its head as steam burst out. From tail to eyes the solemn indigo lights blazed into raging red.

Wraithly tesla bolts coils and spun across its body in fractal spires. From its mouth regurgitated three galactic orbs tenfolds the size of him. Six cosmic rings of pure, unfiltered mana circulated each orb as they lit up the entire cavern in wraithly, ravaging gradients of red and pink. Beams of apocalyptic thunderstruck energy spliced any remaining buildings into crumbled ashes and scorned the ground into desolate, charred remnants.

Kade nabbed the group and frantically slid out of the way, running from up slagged hills to sliding down rocky cliffs, escaping every strike of energy that touched every single atom. Laurence stomped down onto the ground, facing headstrong towards the incoming storm. He swung out a tentacle-rope and twisted it into a helix before whipping it into one of the orbs. The rope sizzled and spasmed while it tore through the orb but nevertheless combusted it with waves of overwhelming heat. The heat pounded across his body like hurdles of punches and kicks, ripping his remaining skin away. The sheer power of the waves pelted his body right toward the group. Taph summoned her scythe and caught Laurence from midair with the arched blade. She lowered the scythe and dropped Laurence onto the ground.

Blood vomited from his mouth and splattered down in blotches of red. Laurence immediately went and bolted but was pulled back by Kade, still holding his wound.

"That thing is too damn tough, you'd run out of mana by the time it flatlines." He explained, "You won't get anywhere when it's in such a defensive guard."

"Ahh...I see...Its armor is strong but inside it just wires and cables." Laurence responded, sounding exasperated but acting extremely energetic, "I guess there's only one way..."

"And what's that?"

"I'll just have to tear it apart inside out."

Before Kade could say anything Laurence has already leeched on top of The Destroyer. The ropes tangled around the rims of its lower jaw and pried it open. There, he softly fell into the serpent's mouth.

"This isn't good," Said Taph, "The blueprints told within that mouth leads to not inside the serpent, but a gateway to an artificial pocket-void, where it deposits all the rubble it was excavated."

"Can he get out?"

"Most certainly, yes. However, the void compresses its materials every five minutes into filaments. Judging by how he's treating this fight, he won't come out, so the only way to slaughter the machine is for him to destroy the reactor in the center of the void before the deadline. If he destroys the reactor, the void collapses and the machine is mangled into scraps by the rubble."

He really is insane. Thought Kade.

Laurence felt like he was falling down into an endless hole. Barbed metal rings ground across his skin as deadlights began to sparkle the dark the fall became. His cultist cape suddenly slid off his neck and shredded through the metal. The rapid howling of the wind raging across him strangely came to a calm stop. He couldn't tell if he stopped falling or not, the darkness shadowed everything.

A glistening light was caught at the side of his eye. He turned his head to face it. It shined an incandescent orange, like a lone star in an empty night sky. Tiny bits were felt bristling across his skin. He raised a hand and a small mound of fine gravel built up on it. Then, a wrenching impact hit his chest like a punch, knocking him out of place. The orange light faintly illuminated large stones and boulders hurdling toward him. He floated up to dodge the incoming rubble as more gravel blew into his eyes and mouth. Pressure raised up and slowly creaked into his bones.

"I-I...need to get...get to that light..."

He began jumping onto the rubble, slowly coming closer to the light. From one boulder to another, right foot to left, more stones flew at his head and shoulders, knocking him back a step. He ducked when a rock pelted on his head, and jumped when one was sent to his knees. Coming even closer, the pressure made him lose footing and squirm into himself, the rocks breaking apart along. The light beckoned him and shined bigger and brighter. Soon enough the pressure was strong enough that gashes over his hands hatched right open and spilled more blood. He tried pulling out his legs, yet they were forced tucked close.

He began crawling from each rubble with only his arms, which he also began to struggle with. Coming closer than ever, the light revealed itself as a metal-plated reactor, orange electricity spinning around it. He fatiguingly raised a wrist to shoot a rope.

*(SCRUNCH)*

The wrist completely crumpled into gore, bisecting the hand along with it. He screamed in agony and raised another hand; that one combusting into firm goop. The pressure had already gone so strong he couldn't move any limbs. The devastating torment let him do nothing but scream. The boulder he laid on slowly dragged him back away from the reactor. His scream reverbs through the vast void and reviles right back at him. All the agony was suddenly soothed by a strange migraine, as blood trickled down from his forehead to his eyes. A singular tentacle ripped through his head and forced away the pressure, breaking through the reactor.

His vision distorted into an amalgamated mess. The rubble began to jitter from one place to another, spinning into different shapes and folding into different dimensions. His body parts disappeared and reappeared and lost sides and gained textures befor-

(*𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐌*)

Laurence was suddenly sent back to the cavern. Shot out so high he hit the ceiling and took a good look at his work. The entire head and neck of The Destroyer imploded into scrap as a mountain's worth of gravel and rubble fractured out the wound and flowed down like a raging tsunami. The entire ruins were completely devoured by the wall of sand. Kade and the group quickly climbed on top of the exit cliff of the tunnels before everything below them was decimated into nothing but mounds. Laurence fell as the sand buried him on top of the remains of The Destroyer.

Soon enough, Laurence undug himself and lurched on top of the tallest mound. With his remaining fingers ripped the tentacle from his forehead, the other arm gripping the shattered eye of the serpent. Blood streamed down the gravel and mixed with the oil, creating a dark red shade that tainted every part of his body. He dropped the visor, and with one leg, smashed the lens apart. Arcing his back, he laughed. Laughed until every crevice of the cavern heard his sadistic cachinnations. Laughed until his voice gave out and he dropped to the floor.

So there he stood. He stared into oblivion, screamed into oblivion, with not a single response. He was truly alone. Alone. Nobody can help him. He's gone too far. Too far gone. All he could do is follow what life brings him. All he could do is slowly sink into the eternal despair of a world that gifts no meaning. He can't do anything. Nothing. His fate is sealed.

He is alone.

Every single life he's met, every single encounter he has experienced, what do they serve? Nothing. He destined no goal. He felt himself crumbling as each part of part teetered at the brink of sanity, eventually releasing himself into the void. Here there is truly nothing for him. Everybody that helped him on this mission, the duel he just had and the glorious conquest, what do they serve? He was doing nothing but following orders, as always. He festered his mind to find a single reason why he does such things that serve no meaning. Why does he risk his life every single day for not a single reward, for literally nothing? Nothing.

He felt like vomiting. As he slowly descends, he screams. Screams for something. Anything. A single response to WHY. Then. A Voice. A Voice spoke. Spoke.

Ẏ̸̢̟̓O̴͕̲͒U̷̠̓ ̷̣́B̸̈ͅE̴͕͝͝L̷̥͂͒I̷̛̥̬͛Ẽ̶̬͑V̷̯͊Ȩ̵͝ ̸̠̑Y̵͉̅̕O̶͆͜Ų̵̘́R̷͚̽ ̷͕̝̋̊Ẻ̵̱̚X̶̩̲̆I̶̲̐͒S̸̡̹͛͊T̴͖͙͛̀Ȇ̷͓́Ń̸̺̓C̶̡̓ͅE̵̹͐ ̵̘̱̓͑Ś̶̜̈́Ȩ̶̇̀R̶̡̮͊V̸̟̘̚E̴̖̔S̵͙̻̿ ̷̤͐̓N̷̪͉̿O̶͙͌̔ ̶̢͋͋M̷͙̤̈́E̸̢̚Ả̸̹̓N̷̡͓͒Ǐ̷̩͓N̴̝͂͛Ḡ̴̮̘̑? Y̵̙̓́͜Ọ̴̊Ų̴͛ ̸̗͈̃̇B̸͖̅͝E̶̡̞̎̈Ḽ̷͚͆͑Ï̸͈͝E̴̢̛͓̽V̶̾ͅĔ̶͓̩̅ ̵̙̲̈́̓Y̷̼̪̏Ö̸͖̱́̆U̶̪͉͘ ̶̄͜S̷̢̿̈́E̵̡̬̔Ȩ̵̏̓N̷̜͋̓ ̵͈̉PAIN?̸̹̒ M̴͈̜̋O̵̲͒R̵̭̭̉O̴͉͂N̷͖̪͂İ̷̼͆C̶̠̅͂.

I̷̧̱͊F̶̙̉̚ ̷̟̰́Y̷̛͖̆O̷͉͑̋Ú̶͓̿ ̷̫͆T̷͔̆̆͜R̶̬͑Ụ̵͌̀ͅL̸̟̺̀Y̸̙͋ ̷̯͂T̸͔̥͂̕H̶̙̻͗Ḯ̷̭̪̚N̴̈́̑ͅḰ̸̫ ̶̭̌̋Y̵̢͖̌O̶̢͑U̷̢̽̓R̸̳͇̊ ̸͓̱̾Å̸̙͊G̶̝̒͂O̵͖̜͝N̸͎͋Y̷̬̦̔ ̸͇̈̑Í̷̮͜S̴̹͛ ̷͚̭͂̈T̵̼̯͗͘H̵͔͋̂Í̶̻̯S̶͕͚̋̄ ̷̙͊̊Ṣ̶̺͂͝Ṭ̶̇ͅR̸͈̘̀̉O̵̳͌N̸̙̑̓G̶̡̘̈́̑ , T̵͕̈͜Ḧ̸̻́́E̷̞̺͂N̵̉ͅ ̴̝̅C̵͎̈̍O̴̜̳̕N̵̳͕͘͝S̷̗̕Ȗ̷̱Ḿ̴̹̠͘E̷̥̮̓̋ ̷̛̣̈́Ȋ̷͍̣̓T̷̬͐.

Consume. CONSUME. He understood it. CONSUME YOUR HATRED. CONSUME YOUR DESPAIR. CONSUME YOUR AGONY. CONSUME YOUR LONGING. CONSUME YOUR INSANITY. CONSUME YOUR EMPTINESS. CONSUME YOUR TORMENT. CONSUME YOUR OVERWHELMING DESPAIR. CONSUME YOUR SEALED FATE. And use it to fuel your wrath.