New Map - The Phoenix (Part 3 of the Prompt from r7)
Thursday, July 24th, 2014 10:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clashofdemonesense posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
mindcrackloveUmmmm.... Not sure where this came from, but it's a thing...
Sorry for having it be all weird and not explaining some stuff, but it's a prompt (granted it's one that I expanded upon a WHOLE bunch) and it's a fan fic, so it's not supposed to make sense! Right? Right? Crap, have I been doing this wrong the whole time? But really, hope you like the final part of the adventure in the universe of not explaining every detail because... That would make it like 6000 words (and it's already almost 4000)!
A/N: Sorry for being so bad at a intro / title thing. I need to ramble and be stupid somewhere :D
- Pause
Another day, another missed challenge, I thought. The voice had been noticeably absent from our day-to-day lives for over two days now. Aurey had been gone nearly three, Vechs had been unconscious for the last one and a half, and Z still wasn’t talking with anyone. Seth dying had really hit him hard. I was just one more incident away from going after Etho to kill the voice, but as it was, I was too worried about causing anyone else pain to rebel. I walked into mine and Guude’s room to see him facing the washbasin in the far corner of the room dunking his face repeatedly into the water.
“Guude? You okay?” I asked, not sure how worried I should be for his sanity. He looked up suddenly, spinning to face me, eyes wide in fear. But when he saw me, he relaxed.
“Damn guy. I thought… I… Geez. Just don’t sneak up on me like that!” Guude looked like he had been beaten in a prison. His eyes glanced this way and that like he was waiting for the inevitable, and his hair and clothing were all messy and dirty. I knew he had gone out for a walk earlier and I assumed that was where the leaves and dirt was from.
“Please come back to me Guude,” I whispered to him as I walked out of the room, knowing he couldn’t hear me, but I had no other means of helping him than hoping for something. Anything that could help save his mind of his wonderful friend.
- Etho
“Blame! You’re going to stop this right now!” I shouted into the pitch-black room before me and my friends, who I had brought with me to face this foe that was threatening us as a group.
A laugh came from the room, and a single beam of light shone down onto our foe. BTC sat in a throne that looked to be made of bones, with Aureylian standing to his right, a long, curved dagger in her hand. She was smiling in a way that seemed foreign to her innocent face. Her lips were twisted upwards in a sneer, and her eyes shone with anger and hatred unlike her normal mood of happiness and unending joy.
“Aurey. Can you deal with those two over there? I want to have Etho all to myself when I show him how misguided his plan was,” BTC asked to Aurey, who nodded evilly and headed over to Baj and Jeff. She grinned, showing them her teeth, which appeared to have been sharpened to points on some, and she lunged at Baj, who attempted to defend her attacks, and Jeff went over to help him. For now, they looked to be fine facing her, but I knew they couldn’t hold out against BTC’s hold on Aurey’s mind driving her on to slay them. I walked calmly over to BTC, which betrayed my emotions, which told me to run over and stab BTC into oblivion.
“So,” I started. “Will you free my friends’ minds?” BTC made a show of trying to think about his answer before outright saying it.
“Ummmm… No. But I will let you die here at my hands and become my minion if you would prefer that.”
“Not a chance. Besides, I’m not going to die here. I’m going to die naturally with Nebris at my side, so I have a long life ahead of me. You’re going be the next one to die here, BTC!” I yelled out as I ran at him with my obsidian and amethyst knives. He drew a sword that appeared to be made of bone from out of nowhere, but I still ran onward. I had a perfect plan, even though it might kill me if I made any mistake, no matter how small. I ran in, ducking under BTC’s slash with only half an inch of space between it and my hair. I lunged upwards, putting two forefingers to BTC’s throat and causing him to lose his ability to breathe. He staggered away from me, trying to get far enough away to recover and catch his breath. I felt something come over me, and I looked down to see flames dripping from the knives in my hands, illuminating them. BTC looked over to them, eyes wide in fear.
“Fire Aspect! Damn it. Well two can play at that game Etho. Enjoy the swim!” BTC shouted to me, having backed up multiple meters in the time when I had been looking at my weapons. I looked to him for a single moment before I felt myself fall, and splash into a large pool of ice-cold water. And it was cold! I began to shiver almost immediately, and hoped that I could do something about the current situation. And then I felt a weight on my feet, and saw boots suddenly appear on them. I began to drift down to the bottom of the pool, and tried to swim upwards, expecting a large amount of resistance, but feeling little I made an even greater effort and pulled myself up onto the edge of the pool of water BTC had made in the middle of his shadow room. I heard him laughing but had to cough up some water I had swallowed, alerting him to my presence. He spun around, not expecting me to get out so quickly.
“How are you creating all of this equipment with enchantments? And getting Depth Strider enchant first try? Ugh. I’ll just kill you now and get this over with.” I stood up and glared at him, and began to imagine a better place to fight for our freedom.
“Actually BTC, I’m going to get it over with.” And I released my design out into the room, which molded to fit my design. We now stood in the middle of a room in a large tower near cloud level, both of our outlines being lit up from behind by large ornate gaps in the walls.
“You’re not supposed to be able to do this in my specially designed room! Damn it Etho. Killing you and taking all of your knowledge will be great, but for now I need you to DIE!”
We engaged in battle once again. My knives slashed at him with thin trails of flame following behind them, his bone sword whirling around with a dark aura around it.
We slashed, ducked, dodged and parried each other perfectly, evenly matched in our flowing dance of death. My more acrobatic fighting style with smaller weapons kept BTC on his toes to try and break through my defense of putting both knives together and trapping his blade between my two. But his curved blade made it difficult to time a lunge because of it’s build that allowed it to have the majority of the blade past mine, but the tip still in range to stab out quickly at me should I try.
BTC kept trying to goad me into attacking him recklessly, poking and prodding at my pride and my actions.
“Come on Etho. Can’t you fight? Come at me! Slay me like I know you want to! What would Nebris say if he saw you being so cowardly? Would he want to be with a pussy like you? I don’t think so. But it’s not like you’ll ever see him again when he can understand you. You’ll be long dead by that time. You’ll never get to see him again in fact.” He continued to taunt me, but his last sentence struck me, snapping the chord in my body telling me to hold back since he was a Mindcracker. When it broke, sensations rushed all over me, filling me with strength and awareness, letting me see all of the miniscule movements BTC was making. His weight was shifted to parry and attack I would make and lunge after me, allowing him to take the upper hand in the battle quite easily. I weighed my options, deciding upon taking the bait, but shifting the attack to go beneath him as he lunged.
I rushed him, and he smirked at me, expecting to be able to end it there. He parried upward to counter my heavy, unguarded attack from above, but I only made it appear that way. In reality, I was bringing my second dagger upwards towards his chest from below in a wide slashing movement that allowed me to twist away from his counter-attack that was aimed for my neck. He looked shocked by my knowledge of his moves, and then it hit him. Literally. He now stood in front of me, staring down at the large gash in his chest as if he couldn’t believe it was there. He looked up to me, then fell onto the ground. I sighed in relief, that it was all over. But as I was about to go to find Nebris, Seth, Aurey and the others, I felt a chill creep up my spine, and a moment later, a searing pain in my chest. I looked down to see BTC’s bone blade shoved through my heart, and had only a moment to register BTC’s presence behind me before I fell. Fell into the dark pit of his shadow room, now converted back to it’s endless blackness now that I had no power left to manipulate it’s appearance. BTC’s cruel and unforgiving laugh was the last thing I heard before it all went black.
- ???
It seemed like all was lost. My only hope, Etho, was killed by the evil one and now the rest would fall to his mind-controlling powers granted to him by the greatest evil known to their world, the master of the one known as BTC.
“What would you have us do, milady?” One of my servants asked. I looked to see the youngest of them, one who was born a majestic creature, the legendary Phoenix, which sparked an idea in my head.
“You need to come with me. We will save that land yet!” I announced to all in my realm, which brought about a round of cheering by all. I grabbed the hand of the young one, and rushed to my private quarters, where I knew he would come. All of their subdued minds came here. And there he was, floating in the center of the room.
“Etho, come to me my child,” I said once I saw he was there. He looked over to me, and gasped in amazement, as all his allies who had “perished” in that world of lies and shadows had.
“Is this heaven?” he asked me, so I smiled and shook my head, as I had done for his friends before him.
“No. You have unfinished business in the world where you were trapped. You must stop the evil one from enslaving the minds and wills of your friends. Please come here, so I may begin the process of your revival.”
“Revival?” he asked, but came over anyway.
“It matters not the details, but you must return to that place and defeat the one you call BTC. He is the spawn of the greatest evil your world has ever known. Now, I will bless you with a gift. You will be given the power of the Phoenix, legendary bird of fire with the ability to survive even death itself. Rise now, Warrior of the Phoenix, and slay the minion of the evil one. Save your friends and your world from destruction and enslavement.”
Etho became cloaked in a bright light, and my servant behind me, now understanding his role in all of this, opened his heart up to the new warrior and let his power sink into him. Etho became filled with power and light, spilling over with holy fire. He shone like a star and like that, he flashed out of my realm, back to his mortal one to face off against a great evil.
Know this Etho, I thought to him, putting my words in his mind. You have your friends, and they will fight for and with you, and don’t let anyone or anything tell you otherwise. No defeat the evil one!
- BTC
It was good to know that the only person stopping me from taking over the entire world was now out of my way. He wouldn’t be able to hinder me any longer. I walked over to his now cold body, blood beginning to congeal on the floor beside his still form. I touched his forehead to begin the memory transfer, to gain all of his abilities, but I felt something coming to the forefront of his mind, lighting up the blank thoughts he had thought before his death. Something powerful, looking for fire. I delved deeper, and before I could retreat, I felt a grasp on my mind. I fell backwards and looked up after recovering from the hand of light on my skin. I then knew true fear. Etho stood before me, radiating a great light.
“Hello BTC. Having fun?” he asked. I got up and filled myself with dark magic to combat his bright and luminous power.
“You’re supposed to be dead, Etho! How can you be here?”
- Etho
I heard a chorus start up from above me and knew I was getting support from the woman who had done this, helped me come back here to fight for my friends lives.
“Well BTC, I’m not giving in to your dark ways. You are a burden to the world and I am going to kill you to set my friends free from this madness you created!”
“That’s good. Because I don’t want you to be easy to take down a second time. I’ll enjoy clipping your wings and tearing off each feather. One by one,” he said menacingly. I looked at him and smiled confidently, vowing I wouldn’t let my friends down again.
“Oh and I’m bringing your friends here to watch you die by my hands, watch their hope trickle away as you become more and more battered and worn.” He snapped his fingers and all of the Mindcrackers in this terrible realm were instantly nearby, looking confusedly at me then BTC. I looked over and caught Nebris’ gaze, and his eyes began to tear up. I gave him a comforting nod. The others were busy throwing insults and scorn BTC’s way, all but two. Vechs and Aurey stood by the wayside, arm in arm just glaring at BTC. Vechs looked like he was fully capable of tearing BTC to piece at that moment, so I knew it had to be done, for my friends’ sakes.
“Let’s go!” I cried out, raising up a shimmering golden blade. BTC stood there sneering at my friends and I.
I lunged at him, this time trying a more offensive tactic than my previous approach. He had harder time trying to block the straight, long blade with his curved one than my daggers. His reach was no longer an advantage, for as soon as he began to get far enough away to swing his sword fully, I was there slashing and stabbing at his unprotected chest. He began to bleed black ooze and became more predictable and slow, making it easier to take him down. I finally slashed out his legs from beneath him, and stood down from my assault, asking him a question.
“Do you surrender BTC?”
He spit at my boots and looked me in the eyes.
“Of course not. What did you think I would do, defect to your side and let the darkness in my soul destroy me when I am judged? No thanks Etho. Just kill me here.” He looked eager to die, awaiting him reunion with the dark master he served. I grabbed at his shirt and pulled him close to me then threw him to the floor.
I began to sing along with the angelic voices around me, performing an act to save the person my friends and I had once called a friend and ally.
BTC began to rise off the floor after the first verse of angel song, becoming surrounded by a ring of white and black spinning around him.
BTC began to emit light from all over his body and I began to perform a few motions to signal that the ritual was nearly over, and sung the final verse.
“Hey young blood -
Doesn't it feel - like our time is running out?
I'm gonna change you like a remix -
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix!”
BTC was shining so brightly that he appeared to be like a sun. He finally shone to the point where the light outshone the darkness of the room, and cracks began to appear all over. A booming voice that sounded like evil incarnate shouted out right before everyone was transported out of the shadow realm where we were being kept.
“NOOOOOO!”
--
Etho?” came a tentative voice that was usually more smug than it sounded now. I let a smile play across my lips and felt a slight peck on my cheek.
“I’m sorry that I worried you Etho. And thank you for rescuing me. I wish I could have fought BTC harder…” he trailed off, looking to another person in a bed. It was BTC, surrounded by nearly everyone else in our group, and their voices made it sound like they were extremely unhappy.
“Shall we go help him?” I asked Nebris. He looked shocked that I would say something like that.
“Etho, he tried to kill you, killed you, and tried to kill all of us, and killed a part of me, Seth, and hurt Aurey beyond anything I have ever seen. Why would you help him?”
“Well, I think the power of light has helped out our friend here, so let’s go over and check on him.” Nebris just shook his head, not knowing how to respond to my words. It seems like I was the only who really knew what had happened to BTC, even though Baj, Jeff, Avidya, Doc, Pyro, Aurey, Vechs, and everyone else was there watching the fight.
I pushed my way to the front of the group, where Baj, Guude, and Doc stood next to BTC, Doc and Baj holding BTC back.
“I already said I’m sorry! I can’t fix it, I know. But I had no control over my actions there. When I was in the End, I found a gem and I picked it up, which made it fuse to me and made me do all of those things. I don’t even know how I got you all there in the first place!” No one was really listening, they were all just arguing about what to do with him. I sighed, not really knowing where to start woth all of my friends who were out for BTC’s blood.
“Guys,” I said in a moderate tone. No one seemed to hear me. I spoke up again, this time pushing the limits of my voice.
“Guys!” It got their attention.
“What is it, guy? We’re busy deciding what to do to BTC for trapping us in that shitty world.” That was Guude. He had his arms crossed and emanated hatred in BTC direction. I knew he had been worried for everyone, being our leader and all. So I got to it quickly.
“Okay. I need to say this to you before you go any further with your plans. BTC did not intentionally try to hurt us. He was be-“ Vechs cut me off.
“Oh really Etho? He infiltrated my mind, made me break Aurey’s heart, and made her love him against her will. How is that not intentional?” Other shouts and murmurs came from all areas of the group. I caught the eye of Seth, and he nodded for me to go on. At least he seemed to grasp the issue at hand.
“BTC had no control over his actions. He was being controlled by a dark force, as he was trying to tell you. Why else would he be trying to fix this and not trying to enslave everyone here right now?” No one had a counter to that. I went on with the tale, telling everyone everything that had happened, including my transformation into a hybrid human-phoenix and my meeting with the holy woman in the cloud kingdom.
Once my tale was finally done, Baj was the first to speak up.
“Well, I’ll go talk to my girlfriend and ask her to confirm everything. She should know all about this, seeing as she was watching it happen.” All eyes in the room turned to Baj.
“Your girlfriend, Baj? Okay, one, since how long have you had a girlfriend, and two, how would she know what happened?” Guude asked Baj, who just smiled, looking off toward the open window on the far side of the meeting hall.
“I am titled Lord Baj as you know, so I was contacted by this wonderful girl, who was the leader of a kingdom. We hit it off once we met and I’ve been in contact with her every day up until you all fell into your weird coma things, so I’d assume she was helping all of you.” He looked out the window again, to see a light flash in the sky. He smiled and spoke to the group before him.
“And because BTC didn’t know what the bloody hell he was doing, we’ll let him off with a warning.” Seth and I cheered, but everyone else remained unconvinced. Baj led them off, leaving just Seth and I standing there with Nebris at my side and Zisteau at his.
“Always the most rational Seth,” I complimented my good friend. He just blushed slightly and nodded at me. He then looked over to Nebris and motioned to him to go over and talk with him. I overheard a few of his words as he was walking off.
“I want to help you deal with being killed by BTC. I know that must’ve been difficult for you to take, but you need to trust in Etho and Baj’s judgement. It’s for the best.”
I smiled, knowing my Nebsy was in good hands. Zisteau looked at me strangely before coming over and patting me on the back.
“Welcome to the club of half-humans! We hope you enjoy your stay!” he announced overly loud. I just smiled, knowing that all of this would take a while to get over.
But it was on its way. I could see all of my friends beginning to heal, even if it was going to be a process. And I would help. Because it’s not like I’m going to be dying soon. I have plenty of time to help them get over it.
After all, what use is having fire if not to light up the world around you?
---
Hey! Don't read any lower if you don't want to know who Baj's girlfriend is! But you already read it, so who cares!
It's Blue! Who would've guessed? Everyone? Oh... Okay... ;_;
Sorry for having it be all weird and not explaining some stuff, but it's a prompt (granted it's one that I expanded upon a WHOLE bunch) and it's a fan fic, so it's not supposed to make sense! Right? Right? Crap, have I been doing this wrong the whole time? But really, hope you like the final part of the adventure in the universe of not explaining every detail because... That would make it like 6000 words (and it's already almost 4000)!
A/N: Sorry for being so bad at a intro / title thing. I need to ramble and be stupid somewhere :D
- Pause
Another day, another missed challenge, I thought. The voice had been noticeably absent from our day-to-day lives for over two days now. Aurey had been gone nearly three, Vechs had been unconscious for the last one and a half, and Z still wasn’t talking with anyone. Seth dying had really hit him hard. I was just one more incident away from going after Etho to kill the voice, but as it was, I was too worried about causing anyone else pain to rebel. I walked into mine and Guude’s room to see him facing the washbasin in the far corner of the room dunking his face repeatedly into the water.
“Guude? You okay?” I asked, not sure how worried I should be for his sanity. He looked up suddenly, spinning to face me, eyes wide in fear. But when he saw me, he relaxed.
“Damn guy. I thought… I… Geez. Just don’t sneak up on me like that!” Guude looked like he had been beaten in a prison. His eyes glanced this way and that like he was waiting for the inevitable, and his hair and clothing were all messy and dirty. I knew he had gone out for a walk earlier and I assumed that was where the leaves and dirt was from.
“Please come back to me Guude,” I whispered to him as I walked out of the room, knowing he couldn’t hear me, but I had no other means of helping him than hoping for something. Anything that could help save his mind of his wonderful friend.
- Etho
“Blame! You’re going to stop this right now!” I shouted into the pitch-black room before me and my friends, who I had brought with me to face this foe that was threatening us as a group.
A laugh came from the room, and a single beam of light shone down onto our foe. BTC sat in a throne that looked to be made of bones, with Aureylian standing to his right, a long, curved dagger in her hand. She was smiling in a way that seemed foreign to her innocent face. Her lips were twisted upwards in a sneer, and her eyes shone with anger and hatred unlike her normal mood of happiness and unending joy.
“Aurey. Can you deal with those two over there? I want to have Etho all to myself when I show him how misguided his plan was,” BTC asked to Aurey, who nodded evilly and headed over to Baj and Jeff. She grinned, showing them her teeth, which appeared to have been sharpened to points on some, and she lunged at Baj, who attempted to defend her attacks, and Jeff went over to help him. For now, they looked to be fine facing her, but I knew they couldn’t hold out against BTC’s hold on Aurey’s mind driving her on to slay them. I walked calmly over to BTC, which betrayed my emotions, which told me to run over and stab BTC into oblivion.
“So,” I started. “Will you free my friends’ minds?” BTC made a show of trying to think about his answer before outright saying it.
“Ummmm… No. But I will let you die here at my hands and become my minion if you would prefer that.”
“Not a chance. Besides, I’m not going to die here. I’m going to die naturally with Nebris at my side, so I have a long life ahead of me. You’re going be the next one to die here, BTC!” I yelled out as I ran at him with my obsidian and amethyst knives. He drew a sword that appeared to be made of bone from out of nowhere, but I still ran onward. I had a perfect plan, even though it might kill me if I made any mistake, no matter how small. I ran in, ducking under BTC’s slash with only half an inch of space between it and my hair. I lunged upwards, putting two forefingers to BTC’s throat and causing him to lose his ability to breathe. He staggered away from me, trying to get far enough away to recover and catch his breath. I felt something come over me, and I looked down to see flames dripping from the knives in my hands, illuminating them. BTC looked over to them, eyes wide in fear.
“Fire Aspect! Damn it. Well two can play at that game Etho. Enjoy the swim!” BTC shouted to me, having backed up multiple meters in the time when I had been looking at my weapons. I looked to him for a single moment before I felt myself fall, and splash into a large pool of ice-cold water. And it was cold! I began to shiver almost immediately, and hoped that I could do something about the current situation. And then I felt a weight on my feet, and saw boots suddenly appear on them. I began to drift down to the bottom of the pool, and tried to swim upwards, expecting a large amount of resistance, but feeling little I made an even greater effort and pulled myself up onto the edge of the pool of water BTC had made in the middle of his shadow room. I heard him laughing but had to cough up some water I had swallowed, alerting him to my presence. He spun around, not expecting me to get out so quickly.
“How are you creating all of this equipment with enchantments? And getting Depth Strider enchant first try? Ugh. I’ll just kill you now and get this over with.” I stood up and glared at him, and began to imagine a better place to fight for our freedom.
“Actually BTC, I’m going to get it over with.” And I released my design out into the room, which molded to fit my design. We now stood in the middle of a room in a large tower near cloud level, both of our outlines being lit up from behind by large ornate gaps in the walls.
“You’re not supposed to be able to do this in my specially designed room! Damn it Etho. Killing you and taking all of your knowledge will be great, but for now I need you to DIE!”
We engaged in battle once again. My knives slashed at him with thin trails of flame following behind them, his bone sword whirling around with a dark aura around it.
We slashed, ducked, dodged and parried each other perfectly, evenly matched in our flowing dance of death. My more acrobatic fighting style with smaller weapons kept BTC on his toes to try and break through my defense of putting both knives together and trapping his blade between my two. But his curved blade made it difficult to time a lunge because of it’s build that allowed it to have the majority of the blade past mine, but the tip still in range to stab out quickly at me should I try.
BTC kept trying to goad me into attacking him recklessly, poking and prodding at my pride and my actions.
“Come on Etho. Can’t you fight? Come at me! Slay me like I know you want to! What would Nebris say if he saw you being so cowardly? Would he want to be with a pussy like you? I don’t think so. But it’s not like you’ll ever see him again when he can understand you. You’ll be long dead by that time. You’ll never get to see him again in fact.” He continued to taunt me, but his last sentence struck me, snapping the chord in my body telling me to hold back since he was a Mindcracker. When it broke, sensations rushed all over me, filling me with strength and awareness, letting me see all of the miniscule movements BTC was making. His weight was shifted to parry and attack I would make and lunge after me, allowing him to take the upper hand in the battle quite easily. I weighed my options, deciding upon taking the bait, but shifting the attack to go beneath him as he lunged.
I rushed him, and he smirked at me, expecting to be able to end it there. He parried upward to counter my heavy, unguarded attack from above, but I only made it appear that way. In reality, I was bringing my second dagger upwards towards his chest from below in a wide slashing movement that allowed me to twist away from his counter-attack that was aimed for my neck. He looked shocked by my knowledge of his moves, and then it hit him. Literally. He now stood in front of me, staring down at the large gash in his chest as if he couldn’t believe it was there. He looked up to me, then fell onto the ground. I sighed in relief, that it was all over. But as I was about to go to find Nebris, Seth, Aurey and the others, I felt a chill creep up my spine, and a moment later, a searing pain in my chest. I looked down to see BTC’s bone blade shoved through my heart, and had only a moment to register BTC’s presence behind me before I fell. Fell into the dark pit of his shadow room, now converted back to it’s endless blackness now that I had no power left to manipulate it’s appearance. BTC’s cruel and unforgiving laugh was the last thing I heard before it all went black.
- ???
It seemed like all was lost. My only hope, Etho, was killed by the evil one and now the rest would fall to his mind-controlling powers granted to him by the greatest evil known to their world, the master of the one known as BTC.
“What would you have us do, milady?” One of my servants asked. I looked to see the youngest of them, one who was born a majestic creature, the legendary Phoenix, which sparked an idea in my head.
“You need to come with me. We will save that land yet!” I announced to all in my realm, which brought about a round of cheering by all. I grabbed the hand of the young one, and rushed to my private quarters, where I knew he would come. All of their subdued minds came here. And there he was, floating in the center of the room.
“Etho, come to me my child,” I said once I saw he was there. He looked over to me, and gasped in amazement, as all his allies who had “perished” in that world of lies and shadows had.
“Is this heaven?” he asked me, so I smiled and shook my head, as I had done for his friends before him.
“No. You have unfinished business in the world where you were trapped. You must stop the evil one from enslaving the minds and wills of your friends. Please come here, so I may begin the process of your revival.”
“Revival?” he asked, but came over anyway.
“It matters not the details, but you must return to that place and defeat the one you call BTC. He is the spawn of the greatest evil your world has ever known. Now, I will bless you with a gift. You will be given the power of the Phoenix, legendary bird of fire with the ability to survive even death itself. Rise now, Warrior of the Phoenix, and slay the minion of the evil one. Save your friends and your world from destruction and enslavement.”
Etho became cloaked in a bright light, and my servant behind me, now understanding his role in all of this, opened his heart up to the new warrior and let his power sink into him. Etho became filled with power and light, spilling over with holy fire. He shone like a star and like that, he flashed out of my realm, back to his mortal one to face off against a great evil.
Know this Etho, I thought to him, putting my words in his mind. You have your friends, and they will fight for and with you, and don’t let anyone or anything tell you otherwise. No defeat the evil one!
- BTC
It was good to know that the only person stopping me from taking over the entire world was now out of my way. He wouldn’t be able to hinder me any longer. I walked over to his now cold body, blood beginning to congeal on the floor beside his still form. I touched his forehead to begin the memory transfer, to gain all of his abilities, but I felt something coming to the forefront of his mind, lighting up the blank thoughts he had thought before his death. Something powerful, looking for fire. I delved deeper, and before I could retreat, I felt a grasp on my mind. I fell backwards and looked up after recovering from the hand of light on my skin. I then knew true fear. Etho stood before me, radiating a great light.
“Hello BTC. Having fun?” he asked. I got up and filled myself with dark magic to combat his bright and luminous power.
“You’re supposed to be dead, Etho! How can you be here?”
- Etho
I heard a chorus start up from above me and knew I was getting support from the woman who had done this, helped me come back here to fight for my friends lives.
“Well BTC, I’m not giving in to your dark ways. You are a burden to the world and I am going to kill you to set my friends free from this madness you created!”
“That’s good. Because I don’t want you to be easy to take down a second time. I’ll enjoy clipping your wings and tearing off each feather. One by one,” he said menacingly. I looked at him and smiled confidently, vowing I wouldn’t let my friends down again.
“Oh and I’m bringing your friends here to watch you die by my hands, watch their hope trickle away as you become more and more battered and worn.” He snapped his fingers and all of the Mindcrackers in this terrible realm were instantly nearby, looking confusedly at me then BTC. I looked over and caught Nebris’ gaze, and his eyes began to tear up. I gave him a comforting nod. The others were busy throwing insults and scorn BTC’s way, all but two. Vechs and Aurey stood by the wayside, arm in arm just glaring at BTC. Vechs looked like he was fully capable of tearing BTC to piece at that moment, so I knew it had to be done, for my friends’ sakes.
“Let’s go!” I cried out, raising up a shimmering golden blade. BTC stood there sneering at my friends and I.
I lunged at him, this time trying a more offensive tactic than my previous approach. He had harder time trying to block the straight, long blade with his curved one than my daggers. His reach was no longer an advantage, for as soon as he began to get far enough away to swing his sword fully, I was there slashing and stabbing at his unprotected chest. He began to bleed black ooze and became more predictable and slow, making it easier to take him down. I finally slashed out his legs from beneath him, and stood down from my assault, asking him a question.
“Do you surrender BTC?”
He spit at my boots and looked me in the eyes.
“Of course not. What did you think I would do, defect to your side and let the darkness in my soul destroy me when I am judged? No thanks Etho. Just kill me here.” He looked eager to die, awaiting him reunion with the dark master he served. I grabbed at his shirt and pulled him close to me then threw him to the floor.
I began to sing along with the angelic voices around me, performing an act to save the person my friends and I had once called a friend and ally.
BTC began to rise off the floor after the first verse of angel song, becoming surrounded by a ring of white and black spinning around him.
BTC began to emit light from all over his body and I began to perform a few motions to signal that the ritual was nearly over, and sung the final verse.
“Hey young blood -
Doesn't it feel - like our time is running out?
I'm gonna change you like a remix -
Then I'll raise you like a phoenix!”
BTC was shining so brightly that he appeared to be like a sun. He finally shone to the point where the light outshone the darkness of the room, and cracks began to appear all over. A booming voice that sounded like evil incarnate shouted out right before everyone was transported out of the shadow realm where we were being kept.
“NOOOOOO!”
--
Etho?” came a tentative voice that was usually more smug than it sounded now. I let a smile play across my lips and felt a slight peck on my cheek.
“I’m sorry that I worried you Etho. And thank you for rescuing me. I wish I could have fought BTC harder…” he trailed off, looking to another person in a bed. It was BTC, surrounded by nearly everyone else in our group, and their voices made it sound like they were extremely unhappy.
“Shall we go help him?” I asked Nebris. He looked shocked that I would say something like that.
“Etho, he tried to kill you, killed you, and tried to kill all of us, and killed a part of me, Seth, and hurt Aurey beyond anything I have ever seen. Why would you help him?”
“Well, I think the power of light has helped out our friend here, so let’s go over and check on him.” Nebris just shook his head, not knowing how to respond to my words. It seems like I was the only who really knew what had happened to BTC, even though Baj, Jeff, Avidya, Doc, Pyro, Aurey, Vechs, and everyone else was there watching the fight.
I pushed my way to the front of the group, where Baj, Guude, and Doc stood next to BTC, Doc and Baj holding BTC back.
“I already said I’m sorry! I can’t fix it, I know. But I had no control over my actions there. When I was in the End, I found a gem and I picked it up, which made it fuse to me and made me do all of those things. I don’t even know how I got you all there in the first place!” No one was really listening, they were all just arguing about what to do with him. I sighed, not really knowing where to start woth all of my friends who were out for BTC’s blood.
“Guys,” I said in a moderate tone. No one seemed to hear me. I spoke up again, this time pushing the limits of my voice.
“Guys!” It got their attention.
“What is it, guy? We’re busy deciding what to do to BTC for trapping us in that shitty world.” That was Guude. He had his arms crossed and emanated hatred in BTC direction. I knew he had been worried for everyone, being our leader and all. So I got to it quickly.
“Okay. I need to say this to you before you go any further with your plans. BTC did not intentionally try to hurt us. He was be-“ Vechs cut me off.
“Oh really Etho? He infiltrated my mind, made me break Aurey’s heart, and made her love him against her will. How is that not intentional?” Other shouts and murmurs came from all areas of the group. I caught the eye of Seth, and he nodded for me to go on. At least he seemed to grasp the issue at hand.
“BTC had no control over his actions. He was being controlled by a dark force, as he was trying to tell you. Why else would he be trying to fix this and not trying to enslave everyone here right now?” No one had a counter to that. I went on with the tale, telling everyone everything that had happened, including my transformation into a hybrid human-phoenix and my meeting with the holy woman in the cloud kingdom.
Once my tale was finally done, Baj was the first to speak up.
“Well, I’ll go talk to my girlfriend and ask her to confirm everything. She should know all about this, seeing as she was watching it happen.” All eyes in the room turned to Baj.
“Your girlfriend, Baj? Okay, one, since how long have you had a girlfriend, and two, how would she know what happened?” Guude asked Baj, who just smiled, looking off toward the open window on the far side of the meeting hall.
“I am titled Lord Baj as you know, so I was contacted by this wonderful girl, who was the leader of a kingdom. We hit it off once we met and I’ve been in contact with her every day up until you all fell into your weird coma things, so I’d assume she was helping all of you.” He looked out the window again, to see a light flash in the sky. He smiled and spoke to the group before him.
“And because BTC didn’t know what the bloody hell he was doing, we’ll let him off with a warning.” Seth and I cheered, but everyone else remained unconvinced. Baj led them off, leaving just Seth and I standing there with Nebris at my side and Zisteau at his.
“Always the most rational Seth,” I complimented my good friend. He just blushed slightly and nodded at me. He then looked over to Nebris and motioned to him to go over and talk with him. I overheard a few of his words as he was walking off.
“I want to help you deal with being killed by BTC. I know that must’ve been difficult for you to take, but you need to trust in Etho and Baj’s judgement. It’s for the best.”
I smiled, knowing my Nebsy was in good hands. Zisteau looked at me strangely before coming over and patting me on the back.
“Welcome to the club of half-humans! We hope you enjoy your stay!” he announced overly loud. I just smiled, knowing that all of this would take a while to get over.
But it was on its way. I could see all of my friends beginning to heal, even if it was going to be a process. And I would help. Because it’s not like I’m going to be dying soon. I have plenty of time to help them get over it.
After all, what use is having fire if not to light up the world around you?
---
Hey! Don't read any lower if you don't want to know who Baj's girlfriend is! But you already read it, so who cares!
It's Blue! Who would've guessed? Everyone? Oh... Okay... ;_;
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Date: Friday, July 25th, 2014 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, July 25th, 2014 11:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, July 25th, 2014 11:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, July 26th, 2014 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, July 26th, 2014 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, July 26th, 2014 03:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, July 27th, 2014 07:27 am (UTC)Well done, my friend, well done!
(Round of applause)