Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Realm of Dreams
Flying around Merlin flew till she stopped and hid behind a gem seeing the massive Indolentor holding a gem in his hand.
Looking closely, she saw it was Connor in the enemy's hand. Arranging the gems of the ten heroes the Indolentor arranged them before placing Connor in the center of the labyrinth he created.
"Now then," the Indolentor spoke moving his hands above the ten gems where chains came out of the gems and into his chest making his red eye lose their glow.
Hearing his ragged breathing Merlin cautiously flew over waving a hand to see the enemy had put himself into a slumber too, looking back to the gems below she watched images of the Sin of Sloth reflected in the gems.
"He's in their dreams! I got to get in there!" Merlin growled flying and examining each gem closely, "he's connected each one so he can freely travel between each hero, which means if I get in and free one hero we can turn this nightmare against him!"
Flying over Connor's gem she looked back at Neo gem, hesitating between who to help first, "Neo would want me to focus on the mission, Connor first!"
With a nod, Merlin touched Connor's crystal before slipping through.
Falling Merlinn grunted when she slammed against the ground, "Ow, so that pain? That's an unpleasant sensation."
Slowly pushing herself off the ground she wondered what she landed on before noticing bodies covering the ground and she herself was now covered in blood.
Quickly getting up Merlin looked at the blood on her hands and tried to wipe it off, "gotta find Connor!"
Looking around Merlin noticed she was in some kind of destroyed sewer, upon a closer look she noticed wanted posters, could this have been the old Bowerstone Resistance base? Hearing thunder Merlin looked up to the broken roof to see red filling the sky.
Holding out her hand Merlin watched what she thought was rain land in her hand but realized it was raining blood.
"You couldn't save a single one of them," Merlin heard a woman's voice echo.
Walking over the bodies Merlin stopped in horror when she saw Neo's body, "Sir?!"
About to kneel down Merling stopped remembering this was not real, 'no Merlin, that's not Neo, this is all illusions.'
Carefully stepping over the bodies she saw more bodies of the other heroes till she looked up to see Connor standing in the distance with his head down and an unfamiliar brown-haired woman.
"You are not the hero Albion needs! You are not worthy of the weapons you wield!" the woman spoke.
"I-I tried Taylor! I just wanted to save everyone!" Connor replied falling to his knees.
"Hand over the sword Connor, you are not worthy! Our ancestors would be disappointed in you," Taylor spoke.
Summoning his sword Merlin's eyes widened and began to rush towards the two, "CONNOR DON'T!"
Hearing Merlin's voice Connor looked over to see Merlin running towards them, "Merlin?"
"That's not your sister Connor! None of this is real!" Merlin spoke about to get closer but the fake Taylor lifted a hand and a force of wind slammed into Merlin's chest and sent her flying back and smashed against a wall.
"NGHH!" Merling grunted smashing against the ground.
"STAY OUT OF THIS!" Taylor spoke in a deep demonic voice.
"Wait..." Connor spoke pulling his sword away from the fake Taylor's reach, "I remember...you're not Taylor! You're not my sister!"
Swing his sword at the fake she dodged and jumped in the air flipping and landing a few feet away from Connor, "Merlin how are you here?"
"Ooof that really hurt," Merlin groaned getting off the ground and joining Connor's side, "honestly I don't know either, I just recalled what Hal said about his AI and thought maybe I could enter a sleeping body so I can help all of you."
"Glad you did," Connor smiled before narrowing his eyes at the imposter, "release my friends NOW!"
The imposter's frown slowly turned into a smirk before a twisted laughter began to escape her lips, "HahahahaHAHAHAHA foolish boy! Who do you think pulls the strings in this realm?"
Watching the imposter, she walked around a pole where she transformed coming out the other end into a strange floating hooded creature with a mask similar to the Indolentor. She had two large fangs but this new enemy had multiple arms and appeared to have two sets of glowing eyes and spider-like limbs sticking out of its back.
"That isn't the target! Who are you?!" Merlin glared.
"The Faithful," the creature hissed tilting its head just as the world around them began to shift.
"Careful sir! It's up to something!" Merlin warned.
Keeping his eye on the enemy Connor could see from the corner of his eyes the nightmare of the Bowerstone Resistance transforms into a wasteland on floating pieces of land with sand flowing and falling into the dark abyss.
"My word," Merlin spoke looking around before gasping to see the Indolentor standing massive in the distance watching them closely, "he does not attack?"
"Let us see your mantle hero!" The Faithful smirked flying at Connor.
"Heads up!" Connor yelled blocking the creature's claws with his sword.
"RAAAAAAH!" Merlin yelled kicking the creature across the jaw and sending it stumbling back, "WHOA! I always wanted to do that!"
"Hahaha! A mere tickle!" the Faithful chuckled with a murderous smirk.
"Physical attacks won't work on these things!" Connor growled, "If they're anything like Pride was I think we know how to kill these things!"
"Light," Merlin whispered narrowing her eyes, "what do you need me to do?"
"Merlin, you must find the others! Wake them up from their nightmares!" Connor ordered.
"What about you?" Merlin asked almost falling over when the floating island they stood on shook.
"I'll be fine! Now go!" Connor yelled seeing a crystal appear leading to another nightmare.
"Affirmative! Leave it to me!" Merlin spoke jumping through the portal.
Charging again the Faithful slashed its claws at Connor who dodged and blocked its claws before slamming his knee into its gut and forming a Light Spell in his free hand, "LIGHT!"
Slamming the palm of his hand into the Faithful face it screeched in pain when the Light spell burned away its Corruption and made it fade away.
"Hmph!" Connor growled glaring in the Indolentor direction, 'Why is he just watching?'
With its head resting in his hand the Indolentor slowly lifted his free hand and pointed a claw making the island Connor stood on shake.
"Whoa!" Connor yelled skidding back as the island began to slowly flip over.
Stabbing his sword Connor tried to hang on before his sword slipped out of the ground and Connor fell into a crystal gateway that formed behind him.
"Keep dreaming hero," the Indolentor spoke returning his attention to strands of light, "I already have what I need here, let's see where your ancestors hid what we seek."
Falling from the sky Connor yelled falling into a tree line where he hit every branch before hitting the ground hard, "NGHHH! Ow ow ow!"
Groaning Connor looked around spotting a village ahead and heard laughter, "Who dream is this?"
Walking around Connor noticed a large lake at the edge of the town looking around he noticed many white-haired people, 'is this Muddypuddle? Is this Ash's home?'
"What a freak!" Connor heard a teen voice speak.
"He's so weird!" another said making Connor look around till he spotted a group all whispering and then spotted Ash in a childlike form sitting on a nearby bench.
"I heard from his cousin she caught him wearing one of her dresses," one girl said.
"Wants to be a girl so bad! So gross," the other said as Connor could see the child crying and could see an aura of darkness around them.
"Please stop!" Ash spoke covering her ears and closing her eyes, "Please!"
"Ashley!" Connor yelled trying to run to her but was grabbed by a Faithful who threw him into a wall while the disguised Faithful continued their torment of his friend.
"I'm sorry!" Ash cried the negative aura around her creating a new Faithful.
'So that's what they're doing!' Connor glared narrowing his eyes at his enemy, 'using our worst fears, memories, nightmares to feed off the negative emotion to create more of themselves!'
Summoning his sword Connor glared, "Get the bloody hell out of my way!"
The world around them then shifted to a memory where a woman threw a young Ash into a dark closet and locked the door, "Stay in there you little freak!"
"No! Please don't leave me in here again Aunt Bea PLEASE!" Ash cried.
"Disgusting! Wearing women's clothes! You are a boy! Start acting like it Aruthur!" the Aunt yelled smirking and feeding off the negative energy that began to seep out from behind the door.
"Ash..." Connor spoke slowly connecting the puzzle, "You were sent to live with abusive family members after your parents died...you hid this pain all this time?"
Narrowing his eyes he formed a Light spell, "HEY! BITCH! Her name is Ashely!" Connor yelled his voice reaching the girl behind the door.
"C-Connor?" Ash whispered seeing a light forming behind the cracks of the doors.
"She has been and ALWAYS will be a girl! How dare you torment her with these awful memories! I will not allow any of you to get away with this! LIGHT MAXIMA" Connor yelled casting the spell while behind the door Ash heard the screech of the Faithful followed by fighting till all went silent.
With the door slowly opening Ash shielded her eyes her child appearance fading into her adult form where she looked up to see Connor smiling down at her, "Hey Ash, need a hand?"
"Connor? D-id you... see?" Ash asked seeing him smile and hold out his hand.
"We all have things we wanna forget, so when you're ready, when you wanna talk, I'll be here for you, no one will ever make you cry ever again for being who you really are, our friends and I will never turn our backs on you, we accept you, Ashley Silverheart," Connor smiled seeing tears pour down Ash eyes, a sob escaping her lips before she took Connor hand and was pulled into a hug.
"Thank you, Connor," Ash cried hugging Connor tightly who hugged her back rubbing her back gently.
"Shhhhhh there's no need to thank me, that's what friends are for," Connor smiled noticing Ash's body was starting to fade, "Ash? ASHLEY?!"
"Connor?" Ash spoke till she disappeared completely with the world around them turning into another floating island.
"Bastard!" Connor growled glaring at the Indolentor in the distance he noticed the being was studying a strand of light intensely, "huh? What is that?"
"Finished already? Dive back into the dreams," the Indolentor spoke making another gate appear behind Connor and then sent a powerful gust of wind to knock him inside.
"GAAAAH!" Connor grunted hitting a hard stone floor groaning he rolled over and looked around his eyes widening to see crystal prisons with each of his remaining friends trapped.
"Hold on guys!" Connor called out running over looking to one gem to see Merlin helping pull Seth from his nightmares.
"Connor?" Ash called out appearing in the room, "What happened?! Where are we?!"
"Sloth put us into some kind of dream prison," Connor spoke seeing Seth appear in the room.
"Connor! Ash! What the bloody hell is going on?!" Seth demanded looking around, "where's Merlin?"
"She's freeing the others," Connor spoke touching one gem to see Merlin fighting through Jaya's nightmare.
"We will help her get the others, Connor you need to go find Sloth, he's searching for something," Seth warned touching Kyler's gem and diving in.
"He right, all this is a distraction, whatever that demon is after must do with you Connor," Ash warned diving into Mika's nightmare.
Turning Connor looked around spotting the Indolentor stills studying the thread of light.
Running Connor realized the gravity in this realm was very different and jumped between islands racing to get closer to the Sin of Sloth.
Noticing Connor approaching the Indolentor chuckled, "Not going to aid your friends?"
"They'll be here soon enough!" Connor growled landing on a flat island and summoned his sword, "It's time we end this!"
"Couldn't agree more, however, I have a job to finish," the Indolentor spoke moving the thread then smirked behind his mask, "I found it."
"What?" Connor asked seeing the large enemy slowly turning his head to Connor.
"You can have this back boy," flicking the strand, it floated back to Connor who then noticed once it was close enough it was the memories of Zane, Sparrow, and Adam.
"Are these memories?" Connor gasped watching the memories flow into his heart, "What did you do?!"
"I investigated your bloodline boy, memories of the dearly beloved, memories of ancestors long departed and forgotten, reside here, in the Vail of Dreams, mortals like you can never hope to access the vast library of memories, I, on the other hand, can see them all," the Indolentor spoke slowly rising from his throne.
Snapping his fingers, a Faithful appeared on his shoulder and crawled to his hand, "Tell my brother Wrath, Avo's Lamentation lies hidden under Bowerstone Castle."
"No!" Connor gasped watching the creature vanish and the Indolentor turned to him.
"Now then, that only leaves Avo's Tear, I'll be taking it off your hands now," the Indolentor spoke holding out his clawed hand.
"You'll have to take it from my cold dead hands bastard!" Connor growled.
"I was hoping you'd say that," the Indolentor smirked slashing his claws and making the island Connor stood on crumble.
"Shit!" Connor growled holding onto a spinning boulder before being thrown off and slammed onto a fallen obelisk.
Looking ahead the Indolentor appeared in in front of the tip of the obelisk Connor stood on lifting his arms to make many more massive obelisk floats in the air around him.
At the Sanctuary Gabriel studied the map table, "this is unusual."
"What is?" Ginjer asked climbing onto the map table.
"They've located Avo's Tear as planned but it seems our enemies have located its sister blade, I may have to make my own moves to ensure it's safe."
"What the plan then?" Ginjer asked.
"We need to make sure it gets into Zain's hands," Gabriel spoke this name confusing the gnome.
"Who the bloody hell is Zain?" Ginjer asked.
"He's the one I mentioned before, the 'spare' hero I've already sent him on his path when Connor began his journey, both have been growing these past few months," Gabriel explained.
"So that's why you would vanish during the journey, you were checking in and monitoring the other hero," Ginjer spoke.
"Indeed, two heroes, their paths will cross soon," Gabriel spoke looking at the map, "it's time I make sure Avo's Lamentation ends up in the right hands."
A.N. Hey guys! Time for a friendly reminder. Since this has to be said because SOME of the Fable community are being so horrible about the recent Fable teaser. There is no room for Transphobia in this community! If someone says they're a He/ She / or They, respect their pronouns! Don't go making videos saying an Actress is a biological man! That is vile!
The game is not even out yet and people are cyberbullying that poor actress! That behavior is disgusting! If she says she is a girl SHE IS A GIRL.
Fable 2 was one of the very first games I played where you could have a romantic relationship with the same sex. Why shouldn't trans heroes be allowed?
Fable should be a community to allows anyone to be a hero (or a villain if they want that route) no matter their age, gender, or sexuality.