Haze & Chaos - Reunion B Part 6
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With her armor ready to go, Morrigan clenched her fists to make sure it was nice and secure and headed downstairs to the lobby. It seemed like they were going to head right out the door, meaning that she was not going to get to eat breakfast–which was unfortunate due to Morrigan being a morning person. Entering the lobby she was greeted by the sight of Will, Vlastimir, and Ekaterina talking to Milan and Yale. Will smiled when she entered, and she noticed he was eating something–he handed her what looked like a candy bar at first glance. “What’s this, Boyo?”
“An army-grade energy bar–your best friend on missions.”
Morrigan inspected the shiny brown packaging and nodded. “Oh, okay–and cran-raspberry too?”
“Cranberry is your favorite, isn’t it?”
She smiled, patted his shoulder, and gave it a light shake. “Thanks, Boyo.”
“Don’t go hog wild on those–they’re calorie dense,” Vlastimir pointed out.
Will laughed as he finished his chocolate-flavored bar. “For non-combat missions you want to bring snacks along, but I usually end up bringing candy bars.”
“He was enjoying one right before he got captured by Eloise,” Yale added. “You’re lucky we picked up your stuff after that so it didn’t get left in the past.”
That made Milan think for a second. “Well It couldn’t have been all that bad considering The Unlight is non-linear. How many times has Blood-Wraith bought some kind of media before he should’ve actually had it?”
Yale nodded to that one. “True, but let’s not push it–Remember the dressing down Schawrazes and Beorhtric got from Ealdhelm?”
“...ha, speaking of that,” Faustus said to Liss and Akaya as he walked in with them and Mira, followed by Aelia and Victor. “Will was acting so weird that day. Looking back on it I guess it was a mix of pride and paranoia.” He then shot Will an unamused look.
Liss-Zael laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, I’ve heard about that in regards to Will here. Weatherman, you realize meteorologists have entire teams, right?”
It took Will a second to figure out the meaning of that analogy, but then it hit him. “Hey–I… I…” He went silent with a groan.
Akaya then realized it was the perfect timing for something he had heard about from the higher ups of The League. “I remember… Oh, who was it now?” he started to say. “Who… Oh yes–The Eating God. He grew anxiety-ridden over the current conflict and ended up gorging himself to the point where he nearly had to reincarnate–but thankfully came to his senses at the last minute and went to The Doctor God for help…” He stopped when he noticed everyone was giving him disturbed looks.
Will inhaled deeply. “Okay–is that supposed to make me feel better or give me existential dread?”
“Smooth, Akaya,” Liss-Zael chided as he tapped him upside the head, knocking his hat off. “Aelia, what happened to Famine? We could use some firepower for this mission.”
“Oh, well…” She was starting to feel bad. “Well, I know how she makes you and Akaya nervous, so I… I sent her out on some errands.”
Akaya dusted off his hat and felt his mouth sink, feeling bad for the poor lass. “I… I know we have our anxieties surrounding her–dang it, now I feel awful…”
“First time?” Faustus cheekily snuck in, getting whacked by Mira in the back of the head. This warranted some chuckles, despite Faustus still feeling the need to yank Akaya’s chain.
Liss-Zael sighed as he took a moment to think things over, also feeling bad. “You know what? We can make it work. Send Famine our way if Yale comes back without us.”
Will counted on his fingers real quickly. “Well if we get split up we’ll at least have even teams.”
“To be fair we are having Famine keep her ears open,” Victor added. “Sounds like there was some action between Perkele and the delinquent trio last night…”
Yale gave a big grin. “Guilty as charged.” This elicited some more chuckles.
“Alright, let’s get moving,” Liss-Zael said as he snapped his fingers and opened up a portal of freezing fire in place of the front door. “Careful, the portal is a little… shaky,” he said with a light cackle.
After a quick walk through a dark corridor that roasted the group while making it feel like they were out in the middle of winter naked, they found themselves in front of The Lost Fire Temple. The first impression of the gigantic, foreboding structure was that it was wrong. It clearly did not belong to Ertheval, and it even felt like Threrth himself was warning the group to be cautious–why he kept it around was anyone’s guess. The temple itself had cube-based architecture that paradoxically invoked the idea of raging fire. The runes and carvings were of impossible origin, but the group could still comprehend the reverence of a god of The Lost Era who reveled in the flame of madness that refused to be doused as the eons wore on, even far into The Void Era. For some reason Haze felt compelled to enter, dragging Will up the stone stairs.
“Whoa, Haze–What’s the matter?” Will asked.
“Something’s calling out to me…” and then they bumped into an invisible barrier that felt like clear rubber. “OKAY THEN…”
“Hey, Yale? Barrier?”
Yale’s eyes went wide as he realized something grave. “HOW DID THAT CLOWN GET PAST MY BARRIER!?” he cried as he buzzed around looking for an entry point like a panicked wasp.
“Well that’s not good…” Akaya noted. “Liss? Could you take care of this?”
“Alright–step back, kids,” he said as he approached the barrier.
“Hold on, Liss,” Haze said as he held out Will’s hand. “I want to try something…”
Will watched as crimson flame shot forth from Haze’s mouth and began to burn the barrier to cinders. Nothing about the flame looked right, and he could hear laughing in his ears, like that of a madman who had lost his mind over life’s turmoil, and it felt like he was going to start screaming himself. He stopped the flame and yanked his hand back and yelled “HAZE–WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” The others tried to go to Will, but he waved them back.
“Huh? What do you mean, Will? That was just fire…”
“JUST FIRE?!”
Liss-Zael went and gently grabbed Will’s shoulders. His grip felt like death, but soothing at the same time. “Easy, Will–doesn’t Haze have abilities you haven’t learned yet?”
“Yeah, but that felt like… like something else–something wrong…”
Morrigan went to the two and indicated for Liss-Zael to hand him off to her. “Don’t worry, Will, I’m here–Haze, refrain from using that until we figure out what it is.”
Haze groaned. “Guys, it’s just something I can do…”
“Well we’re bound to find something out inside,” Vlastimir assured them as he began to head in.
Ekaterina followed him, but noticed Faustus and Mira standing at the base of the stairs, looking nervous. “What’s the matter, guys?”
Faustus stuck his hand over the stone, causing it to turn into a raging fire with the sound of a blow torch. “Sorry, Sport, but something’s not right with that place–I think you’re going to have to go on ahead without us.”
“Thoughts, Liss?” Akaya inquired.
He had some ideas, but that would have required tearing through Victor’s notes. “You two sure you can’t truck it out?”
Mira stuck her hand forward and it turned into a solid block of ice, making her a little woozy. “I don't think we’ll be of any help to you guys… Um, how about we stand guard out here and make sure no one barges their way in?”
Liss-Zael gave it a quick thought, hummed, and nodded. “Alright then–you two watch our flank. Yale, stick with Will and Morrigan.”
“Yes sir,” he said as he flew over to Will as they all resumed heading in.
Once they vanished from sight, Mira had a concern pop into her head in regards to Yale’s barrier having been torn down. “Faustus, you don’t think Ripsaw and the others went in after Perkele, do you?”
The gears in Faustus’ head could be seen turning as he thought about Allon and Abelone. “Jeez, I hope they didn’t take their devils in with them… that would be pretty bad now, wouldn’t it?” He could not help but cackle a little given all the nonsense Ripsaw had put Will and him through back at the academy.
There was a horrid, yet awe-inspiring aura all throughout the stone temple that told the story of a civilization from The Lost Era that once tried to burn The Lost Era itself, but fell victim to their own hubris and became the very thing they claimed to be fighting against. In fact, the carvings and reliefs openly warned denizens of The Void Era to reject any of the forsaken with utmost prejudice–not out of fear, but out of sheer anger and indignation. The tales told of how the transgressors screamed their lungs out to the high heavens–ripping and tearing their vocal cords asunder–that The Lost Era needed to be taken back to the primordial beginning, and that they were the victors who lived to the tale! Sure, their word had survived, but those who were sensible and just wanted to exist as-is had no qualms about punching such troublemakers down as hard as they could. If the sane and logical were the villains, then they would happily play the part of the villain. And the scary part of all of it? The warriors who had fought back against the madness were waiting in the walls themselves to resume the fight…
None of this could ever be discerned through interpreting the carvings all around the group in the dank, musty halls of the temple–rather, it needed to be felt. Haze in particular felt ashamed for some reason, despite having nothing to do with The Lost Era. There was a growing urge inside of him to find out what the power was, so he began moving Will along faster. The group expected to have been terrified beyond all rational thought of the temple, but in actuality it was like they had been welcomed in. It was a strange nuance of The Lost Era, but part of it may have also been Will himself, given his ties to Animus–the bounty hunter who had hailed from The Lost Era. Perhaps Will was his Void Era counterpart, and the two had managed to coexist, much like Teunis and The Highway Knight. The group could have sworn they saw a carving that depicted Animus shooting a flaming man with some kind of cannon-like firearm after all. As the group entered a particularly large chamber with several balconies, they spotted a familiar trio taking a breather…
“And there’s the Weatherman…” Ripsaw grunted, the group looking a little tired.
“Jeez, what happened to you guys?” Will asked out of legitimate concern, which was slightly lost on the three given their attitudes.
“Perkele happened last night…” Anker answered with frustration as he straightened out his coat.
“You punks better have thumped his ass on the way in here,” Esteri added, her hair a little frazzled.
Liss-Zael stared at them with an unamused look. “And that’s our problem?” Ripsaw growled and began to walk towards the group, only to be interrupted midway through his stomping.
“MY MY–how did you handy dandies get in here so quickly?” Perkele asked as he lounged on a balcony parapet up against the wall, catching everyone’s attention. Notably the platform he was waiting on had a strange pedestal with a glowing, crystalline cube floating above it. He then glanced over to Will. “Was it… It was Haze, wasn’t it, Mr. Ford?”
Will grunted and shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it…”
“Hm, pity–as it seems like quite the ability for your arsenal…”
“What the hell are you even blabbering about, clown?!” Ripsaw barked as he looked up.
“SHHH–quiet, child–Daddy’s speaking right now,” Perkele jeered.
Akaya cleared his throat and chuckled. “Given our last encounter, I’d say you were pretty eager to get a hold of that fragment. Why roll out the welcome rug just for us, if I may ask?”
Perkele hopped off of the parapet and began pressing several spots on the pink and red cube, with it making echoing beeping sounds as he did. “A very good point, Akaya–My master is eager, but I would like a little… insurance.”
The entire room began to tremble as ancient stones grinded and shook, the ancient dust and moss being disturbed as everything began shifting. Stone cubes of varying sizes were moving all over the place with a steady pace–guided by an invisible force that permeated the entire temple. It was not a trap, rather it was just how the temple functioned. Everyone scrambled to get out of the way or get to stable ground. Will, Morrigan, and Yale stuck together once they found stable footing. Akaya, Vlastimir, and Ekaterina got caught on the opposite side. Perkele looked quite satisfied as his opponents were divided up, and cracked his knuckles, preparing for the next part of his plan. The only one he had not been able to account for was Liss-Zael, but it was likely that he had ended up separated from everyone else regardless… There was a creeping sense of dread he could not shake for some reason, however.
“Alright then, time to go get that fragment…” Perkele started to say as he pushed some buttons on the cube to open up the path he needed… and then the bad he had feeling intensified.
Rising up from a crackling and sizzling puddle of sickly orange blood was Liss-Zael, but his demeanor was terrifying to the point that it would kill any normal man with a mere fraction of a glimpse. “Did you forget what kind of demon I am?” he growled in a rumbling voice so low that calling it ‘demonic’ was being charitable.
Perkele prepared to snap his fingers to cast a spell, as he refused to turn around and behold the monstrosity behind him. “Oh crackers…” he complained…
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
Master Post - Patreon
With her armor ready to go, Morrigan clenched her fists to make sure it was nice and secure and headed downstairs to the lobby. It seemed like they were going to head right out the door, meaning that she was not going to get to eat breakfast–which was unfortunate due to Morrigan being a morning person. Entering the lobby she was greeted by the sight of Will, Vlastimir, and Ekaterina talking to Milan and Yale. Will smiled when she entered, and she noticed he was eating something–he handed her what looked like a candy bar at first glance. “What’s this, Boyo?”
“An army-grade energy bar–your best friend on missions.”
Morrigan inspected the shiny brown packaging and nodded. “Oh, okay–and cran-raspberry too?”
“Cranberry is your favorite, isn’t it?”
She smiled, patted his shoulder, and gave it a light shake. “Thanks, Boyo.”
“Don’t go hog wild on those–they’re calorie dense,” Vlastimir pointed out.
Will laughed as he finished his chocolate-flavored bar. “For non-combat missions you want to bring snacks along, but I usually end up bringing candy bars.”
“He was enjoying one right before he got captured by Eloise,” Yale added. “You’re lucky we picked up your stuff after that so it didn’t get left in the past.”
That made Milan think for a second. “Well It couldn’t have been all that bad considering The Unlight is non-linear. How many times has Blood-Wraith bought some kind of media before he should’ve actually had it?”
Yale nodded to that one. “True, but let’s not push it–Remember the dressing down Schawrazes and Beorhtric got from Ealdhelm?”
“...ha, speaking of that,” Faustus said to Liss and Akaya as he walked in with them and Mira, followed by Aelia and Victor. “Will was acting so weird that day. Looking back on it I guess it was a mix of pride and paranoia.” He then shot Will an unamused look.
Liss-Zael laughed and shook his head. “Yeah, I’ve heard about that in regards to Will here. Weatherman, you realize meteorologists have entire teams, right?”
It took Will a second to figure out the meaning of that analogy, but then it hit him. “Hey–I… I…” He went silent with a groan.
Akaya then realized it was the perfect timing for something he had heard about from the higher ups of The League. “I remember… Oh, who was it now?” he started to say. “Who… Oh yes–The Eating God. He grew anxiety-ridden over the current conflict and ended up gorging himself to the point where he nearly had to reincarnate–but thankfully came to his senses at the last minute and went to The Doctor God for help…” He stopped when he noticed everyone was giving him disturbed looks.
Will inhaled deeply. “Okay–is that supposed to make me feel better or give me existential dread?”
“Smooth, Akaya,” Liss-Zael chided as he tapped him upside the head, knocking his hat off. “Aelia, what happened to Famine? We could use some firepower for this mission.”
“Oh, well…” She was starting to feel bad. “Well, I know how she makes you and Akaya nervous, so I… I sent her out on some errands.”
Akaya dusted off his hat and felt his mouth sink, feeling bad for the poor lass. “I… I know we have our anxieties surrounding her–dang it, now I feel awful…”
“First time?” Faustus cheekily snuck in, getting whacked by Mira in the back of the head. This warranted some chuckles, despite Faustus still feeling the need to yank Akaya’s chain.
Liss-Zael sighed as he took a moment to think things over, also feeling bad. “You know what? We can make it work. Send Famine our way if Yale comes back without us.”
Will counted on his fingers real quickly. “Well if we get split up we’ll at least have even teams.”
“To be fair we are having Famine keep her ears open,” Victor added. “Sounds like there was some action between Perkele and the delinquent trio last night…”
Yale gave a big grin. “Guilty as charged.” This elicited some more chuckles.
“Alright, let’s get moving,” Liss-Zael said as he snapped his fingers and opened up a portal of freezing fire in place of the front door. “Careful, the portal is a little… shaky,” he said with a light cackle.
After a quick walk through a dark corridor that roasted the group while making it feel like they were out in the middle of winter naked, they found themselves in front of The Lost Fire Temple. The first impression of the gigantic, foreboding structure was that it was wrong. It clearly did not belong to Ertheval, and it even felt like Threrth himself was warning the group to be cautious–why he kept it around was anyone’s guess. The temple itself had cube-based architecture that paradoxically invoked the idea of raging fire. The runes and carvings were of impossible origin, but the group could still comprehend the reverence of a god of The Lost Era who reveled in the flame of madness that refused to be doused as the eons wore on, even far into The Void Era. For some reason Haze felt compelled to enter, dragging Will up the stone stairs.
“Whoa, Haze–What’s the matter?” Will asked.
“Something’s calling out to me…” and then they bumped into an invisible barrier that felt like clear rubber. “OKAY THEN…”
“Hey, Yale? Barrier?”
Yale’s eyes went wide as he realized something grave. “HOW DID THAT CLOWN GET PAST MY BARRIER!?” he cried as he buzzed around looking for an entry point like a panicked wasp.
“Well that’s not good…” Akaya noted. “Liss? Could you take care of this?”
“Alright–step back, kids,” he said as he approached the barrier.
“Hold on, Liss,” Haze said as he held out Will’s hand. “I want to try something…”
Will watched as crimson flame shot forth from Haze’s mouth and began to burn the barrier to cinders. Nothing about the flame looked right, and he could hear laughing in his ears, like that of a madman who had lost his mind over life’s turmoil, and it felt like he was going to start screaming himself. He stopped the flame and yanked his hand back and yelled “HAZE–WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” The others tried to go to Will, but he waved them back.
“Huh? What do you mean, Will? That was just fire…”
“JUST FIRE?!”
Liss-Zael went and gently grabbed Will’s shoulders. His grip felt like death, but soothing at the same time. “Easy, Will–doesn’t Haze have abilities you haven’t learned yet?”
“Yeah, but that felt like… like something else–something wrong…”
Morrigan went to the two and indicated for Liss-Zael to hand him off to her. “Don’t worry, Will, I’m here–Haze, refrain from using that until we figure out what it is.”
Haze groaned. “Guys, it’s just something I can do…”
“Well we’re bound to find something out inside,” Vlastimir assured them as he began to head in.
Ekaterina followed him, but noticed Faustus and Mira standing at the base of the stairs, looking nervous. “What’s the matter, guys?”
Faustus stuck his hand over the stone, causing it to turn into a raging fire with the sound of a blow torch. “Sorry, Sport, but something’s not right with that place–I think you’re going to have to go on ahead without us.”
“Thoughts, Liss?” Akaya inquired.
He had some ideas, but that would have required tearing through Victor’s notes. “You two sure you can’t truck it out?”
Mira stuck her hand forward and it turned into a solid block of ice, making her a little woozy. “I don't think we’ll be of any help to you guys… Um, how about we stand guard out here and make sure no one barges their way in?”
Liss-Zael gave it a quick thought, hummed, and nodded. “Alright then–you two watch our flank. Yale, stick with Will and Morrigan.”
“Yes sir,” he said as he flew over to Will as they all resumed heading in.
Once they vanished from sight, Mira had a concern pop into her head in regards to Yale’s barrier having been torn down. “Faustus, you don’t think Ripsaw and the others went in after Perkele, do you?”
The gears in Faustus’ head could be seen turning as he thought about Allon and Abelone. “Jeez, I hope they didn’t take their devils in with them… that would be pretty bad now, wouldn’t it?” He could not help but cackle a little given all the nonsense Ripsaw had put Will and him through back at the academy.
There was a horrid, yet awe-inspiring aura all throughout the stone temple that told the story of a civilization from The Lost Era that once tried to burn The Lost Era itself, but fell victim to their own hubris and became the very thing they claimed to be fighting against. In fact, the carvings and reliefs openly warned denizens of The Void Era to reject any of the forsaken with utmost prejudice–not out of fear, but out of sheer anger and indignation. The tales told of how the transgressors screamed their lungs out to the high heavens–ripping and tearing their vocal cords asunder–that The Lost Era needed to be taken back to the primordial beginning, and that they were the victors who lived to the tale! Sure, their word had survived, but those who were sensible and just wanted to exist as-is had no qualms about punching such troublemakers down as hard as they could. If the sane and logical were the villains, then they would happily play the part of the villain. And the scary part of all of it? The warriors who had fought back against the madness were waiting in the walls themselves to resume the fight…
None of this could ever be discerned through interpreting the carvings all around the group in the dank, musty halls of the temple–rather, it needed to be felt. Haze in particular felt ashamed for some reason, despite having nothing to do with The Lost Era. There was a growing urge inside of him to find out what the power was, so he began moving Will along faster. The group expected to have been terrified beyond all rational thought of the temple, but in actuality it was like they had been welcomed in. It was a strange nuance of The Lost Era, but part of it may have also been Will himself, given his ties to Animus–the bounty hunter who had hailed from The Lost Era. Perhaps Will was his Void Era counterpart, and the two had managed to coexist, much like Teunis and The Highway Knight. The group could have sworn they saw a carving that depicted Animus shooting a flaming man with some kind of cannon-like firearm after all. As the group entered a particularly large chamber with several balconies, they spotted a familiar trio taking a breather…
“And there’s the Weatherman…” Ripsaw grunted, the group looking a little tired.
“Jeez, what happened to you guys?” Will asked out of legitimate concern, which was slightly lost on the three given their attitudes.
“Perkele happened last night…” Anker answered with frustration as he straightened out his coat.
“You punks better have thumped his ass on the way in here,” Esteri added, her hair a little frazzled.
Liss-Zael stared at them with an unamused look. “And that’s our problem?” Ripsaw growled and began to walk towards the group, only to be interrupted midway through his stomping.
“MY MY–how did you handy dandies get in here so quickly?” Perkele asked as he lounged on a balcony parapet up against the wall, catching everyone’s attention. Notably the platform he was waiting on had a strange pedestal with a glowing, crystalline cube floating above it. He then glanced over to Will. “Was it… It was Haze, wasn’t it, Mr. Ford?”
Will grunted and shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it…”
“Hm, pity–as it seems like quite the ability for your arsenal…”
“What the hell are you even blabbering about, clown?!” Ripsaw barked as he looked up.
“SHHH–quiet, child–Daddy’s speaking right now,” Perkele jeered.
Akaya cleared his throat and chuckled. “Given our last encounter, I’d say you were pretty eager to get a hold of that fragment. Why roll out the welcome rug just for us, if I may ask?”
Perkele hopped off of the parapet and began pressing several spots on the pink and red cube, with it making echoing beeping sounds as he did. “A very good point, Akaya–My master is eager, but I would like a little… insurance.”
The entire room began to tremble as ancient stones grinded and shook, the ancient dust and moss being disturbed as everything began shifting. Stone cubes of varying sizes were moving all over the place with a steady pace–guided by an invisible force that permeated the entire temple. It was not a trap, rather it was just how the temple functioned. Everyone scrambled to get out of the way or get to stable ground. Will, Morrigan, and Yale stuck together once they found stable footing. Akaya, Vlastimir, and Ekaterina got caught on the opposite side. Perkele looked quite satisfied as his opponents were divided up, and cracked his knuckles, preparing for the next part of his plan. The only one he had not been able to account for was Liss-Zael, but it was likely that he had ended up separated from everyone else regardless… There was a creeping sense of dread he could not shake for some reason, however.
“Alright then, time to go get that fragment…” Perkele started to say as he pushed some buttons on the cube to open up the path he needed… and then the bad he had feeling intensified.
Rising up from a crackling and sizzling puddle of sickly orange blood was Liss-Zael, but his demeanor was terrifying to the point that it would kill any normal man with a mere fraction of a glimpse. “Did you forget what kind of demon I am?” he growled in a rumbling voice so low that calling it ‘demonic’ was being charitable.
Perkele prepared to snap his fingers to cast a spell, as he refused to turn around and behold the monstrosity behind him. “Oh crackers…” he complained…
Next:
ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)
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