Dark Age Legends

[Drannic_Lord01]

"Being patient, are we? How nice..." Valiko poured more of his power into the orb above his head as it grew larger and larger. Black zaps of lightning could be seen going around the orb.

"Why don't I just hurry this up then? HYAAA!!!"

- Blood cannon 33% charged -

------------

[Xorlak]

Valos' blows removed the remaining bits of flesh from the dragon and the monster released him, reeling slightly in the air.  But still the ice did not harm the moving bones.  The gigantic skeleton flapped his wings a few times and roared.  It was his turn-- Vraigus opened with a mad flurry of blade-edged swipes from his skeletal claws, each slashing downward with the force of a guillotine.  The final strike was eclipsed by a bite from a huge maw of pointed teeth...

----

Draven kept flying over the ocean until he was a good deal away from the mainland, the blasts of shadow endlessly coming.  Suddenly he saw glimmers of light overhead...

Stars?

The clouds... he had flown out far enough that he had escaped the clouds...  This area was not Retan's yet... could he still draw energy from that infernal tower, so far away now?  Sneering, Draven spun around to meet the Dark Emperor face-to-face.

This is where the final battle would begin...

Retan stopped, and they both stared at each other for a moment, standing on thin air a few hundred feet above the roaring black waves.

"If you believe that making your stand under the starlight will give you the advantage, then you are sorely mistaken," the Dark Emperor spoke in this eloquent deep tones, "by fleeing from me, you have in fact followed me exactly into my snare."

Draven breathed heavily for a moment, his aura dim.  Then he smirked.  He removed a small bottle from his cape and drunk the liquid.  Immediately the elixir refreshed him, and he crushed the glass in his gloved hand as his renewed muscles bulged.

"We'll see who has who."

He threw his arms to his sides, as a thunderous explosion engulfed him.  Like the sun, he painted the sea and sky red, a tremendous blast of heat surging from the inferno he wrapped himself in...

[Dude Man]

Valos flew at rapid speed side to side avoiding the oncoming claws. It was a bit of a good thing he didn't have that big sword weighing him down right now, since he didn't have the blackstrap for it anymore. He then flipped backwards barely avoiding the giant maw snapping down at him. He was gaining a bit of confidence in himself almost feeling a bit stupid for having doubt.

"Is that all you have, dragon?" Valos sneered, as he slowly floated backwards.

His ice gauntlets then melted as they were replaced with flames, he then flew forward, roaring and he smashed his fiery fists into the exposed bone on Vragius' skull.

[Empty Space]

Xivilai ventured off the path he had been following, and shadow stepped into the shadow of a tree a few feet away.
Walking was too slow.  Besides, shadow stepping was fun.  Always a slight feeling of disorientation.  

I need to find a boat to get off this island

Xivilai picked a random direction and started walking.  
Anywhere was better than where he was now.

[Trent]

Anti was tapping his feet. He wanted to show off his ridiculous power by taking that hit full on, but at the same time... He was getting impatient. Retan was getting away. He was very tempted to just take off. But he still wanted to show off his strength. A conflict of interest was raging inside him.

--- --- ---

"What the crap is that?" Tsu's eyes widened upon feeling Valiko's energy building.
"I bet that bastard intends to be all cocky and take that attack head on," said Xenai.
"Not surprising," said Aura.

The three increased speed...

[Dude Man]

The area was dark and foggy, completely void of sound and life. The remains of the buildings had decreased after the years. The logs used to make the houses had begun to rot, and there wasn’t a blade of grass left.

In the middle square of the dead village there was a dark hair woman, wearing dull coloured clothing, she had black and white armour next to her, as well as a jester hat. She sat on the ground cross legged, not even making a sound.

Duilin's words of advice were helping a bit. But she still felt very sad, but she didn't need to kill anymore.

---

A pack of wolves were running through an open field, they didn't look like they were hunting, but it looked like they were going somewhere...

[Mikado]

In all the darkness something in the ground began to shine. It was a warm shine, and just looking at it would make one more happy, and he would wish for it to continue forever. The light was coming closer to the woman who was alone in a death village.

The light shined brighter each second, and when it was close enough, she saw that it was a golden kitty running alone in the night. Once it saw the woman it stopped to shine, looked at her and sat, making a silent "myuu~". That moment the kitty poofed, and in its place 6 more kitties were sitting.

They began to walk around, and play, apparently ignoring the aura of the place they arrived. This continued for a while, when all of them made noise similar to "myuu~" and also they poofed away.

This time in front of the woman a weird symbol appeared. It was black, but it wasn't depressing black. It was special.. but it was hard to describe what it was.

Then out of nowhere, a huge impact. Something fell on the sign. It was a enourmous impact, nothing normal could survive such a thing. When the clouds of sand wear off, a small girl was sitting there in a small hole, where just a few moments ago a sign and 7 kitties were.

"Meeeeh~!" The child yawned, rubbing her head. "That.. hurt.. nee.." She looked really young, she had crimson hair, black cat ears and a tail. She had purple eyes, and was wearing maid-battle clothing.

She stood up, gaining energy from nowhere, and happily yelled in the nothingness; "Prepare yourself what-who-where-ever world! Because Puco has came!"

Laughing hard, she turned enthusiastically and noticed the woman.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!"  She screamed, after finding out that someone stood behind her all the time.
She fell on the ground, and hid her face behind her small hands.
"Who are you, neee!?"

[Ted Der]

Akran was waiting for this moment; the exact moment when Kronos would ask where to go now.  And he while he was conversing with this powerful necromancer, Akran formed a question in his mind, and possibly a destination.

Akran, relieved that Kronos decided to travel with him, said “The Spinel is embedded into a sword. If you want the power of the Majeuri, you must either take the sword, or take out the Spinel. I don’t know the whereabouts of this sword, but it’s most likely still hidden by Kraaz. The sword is not very long, it is quite light, and it has this funny little red and black symbol - I think there’s some gray too actually - on the hilt of the handle.”

Akran scratched his ear, thinking back to when he last saw it. “Yeah. I think that’s it. The Spinel is embedded on the blade near the guard too. Am I any help?  I was thinking about traveling back to the place where I was born,” Akran flinched at the idea, but continued. “It might be a good place to start. Or if you know where the sword came from, that might be a good destination as well.”

[Xorlak]

Renard folded his arms and idly flicked his tail as he watched Duilin charge the orb.  Hmmm... it didn't seem to be working...  He hadn't actually seen it done before, so he didn't really know how it worked...

After a moment though, a point of light burst forth from between the two pillars.  As if invisible doors were opening, the light spread until it engulfed the entirety of the distance between the pillars.  It was too bright to see anything beyond the portal.

"You did it!"  He suddenly covered his muzzle and embarrassedly looked behind him, hoping that little outburst didn't attract any reptilian guards.   Seeing that the coast was still clear, he turned back to the portal. "We must hurry."

He walked up to the edge of the light, fixated by it.  Home was right beyond there...  And he knew this was the last time he'd ever see it.  He had to get his people out before it was too late...

He took one step forward...

--and was nearly knocked on his tail by the gust of wind that blasted from the light.

Eleven sliver and black blurs burst from the portal, zipping though the air and stopping in the exact center of the room, hovering some fifteen feet in the air.  Renard gasped when he saw the Velken in the center of the circle...

He looked similar to Lord Virmir in that he wore the same black coat and had two blades strapped to his back.  His were of different design, though.  The fur around his eyes was darker too, and his ears were nearly black.

"Sir Iaido Rikarl?"

Rikarl pointed to Duilin, a snarl upon his muzzle.

"Demon."

In a flash, Duilin had five swords pointed inches from his face, each of the five black-clad Velkens with a cold impassive stare in their eyes.  Above, five more hovered in a circle, multicolored energy crackling upon their extended claws.

"WAIT!"  Renard screamed.

Rikarl, floating above the smaller Velken's head, looked down at him.  "You!  Identify yourself."

"Galry Renard, Battle Mage, training under Lord Virmir!"

Rikarl's ears perked. "... Renard?  I... I didn't recognize you.  Did you brainwash this demon?"

"No!  He saved my life!  And he's not a demon!"

The Velken squad leader turned and waved a claw.  Immediately the ten Velkens lowered their weapons and flew to the other side of the room.  "Apologies, sir.  I'm sure you know what it is we're up against..."

"How..."  Renard looked at all the other Velkens.  Faces he had not seen in over a year...  He trained along side some of them. "How did you know the gate was opening?"

Rikarl landed next to Renard, a smile upon his muzzle.  "Lord Virmir and Lady Urocy have been exchanging letters.  They've been trading information right under the Dark Emperor's nose via the use of a secret code.  Virmir said he was sending someone to open the gate and get everyone out."

Renard's mouth dropped. "But... I came here against his orders!  I told him I was collecting herbs to save Helix!"

Rikarl ruffled the fur atop Renard's head.  "Of course you did!  You came to get the priestess, right?"

Renard just stood there blinking for a moment.

"CLEAR!" Rikarl shouted at the gate.  Some more figures began to emerge from the light.

Renard's ears perked. "You mean you have everyone ready to evacuate?"

"All 237 of us."  He looked up at the silver foxes floating above. "Velmont, Garan, Jeele! Head count!"

An ensemble of "Yes, sir!" rang out over head.

Renard looked down at the floor.  237... Fifteen more had died in the past year and a half...

Rikarl noted Renard's reaction to the number.  "The air... it's not very good..." he said in a somber tone, his ear falling.

Renard shook his head.  "It's not much better on this side... But at least there's some untainted places left... for now."

[Dude Man]

Duilin took half a step backwards when the Velkens pointed their swords at him; he remained mostly silent, as he was pretty surprised with what he did.

"Wow, so you guys are all ready set to go?" Duilin asked seeing the crowd of Velkens. "This is pretty remarkable. You guys are a lot more...well human then I expected. Well, excuse my use of the word 'human' as it must seem a little odd for me using it." Duilin snickered a bit. "But it's a compliment, trust me."

Duilin looked at Renard.

"But anyways, I don't want to sound to demanding here. But we need to get to Tjed as quick as possible."

"Which is kind of going to be a little irritating seeing how I just got back from here." He added mumbling. "But you think there would be a way to get there really fast? Like I was able to get to North Point via a ship and that took us like several hours. I'm worried that maybe Virmir and the others might have...well." Duilin stopped himself.

"Well anyways. Are we ready to go now?" Duilin asked, he then remembered something. "I can wait a bit if you want to find your sister."

//I'll update others later.\

[ElderScrollinIt]

"Sorry... I'll... I'll try my best, Lord Virmir!" Ko'ji straightened up a bit and gave a small bow to the High General. She then joined the rest of the Velkens, though she could not help but give the watchers a small glance every now-and-then. It was unnerving to know that there were beings out there that she could not see before... disturbing, to know that they were once watching you from the darkness...

--- ---

"What the hell's that racket!? You! Find out what's behind us, now!" The prisoner didn't like the idea of being ordered around, but he still had quite a debt to pay Arata for freeing him. He walked back a few steps to see down the hallway a bit more easily.

"What the hell...?"

"What? What is is!?"

"Soldiers. Not ordinary ones, either. Big, furry-lookin guys with swords and really good armor."

"Damn! Let's get the hell out of here before they-"

"YOU THERE!!!"

"Shit..."

[D. Ein]

"While my annoyance for this vapid waste of perfectly good flesh was great, I easily contained it. After all, the first art any monarch learns is acting. Being able to tell someone with a straight face that you accept their proposal (several hours before crushing them) is not only entertaining, but also quite helpful. The sword Akran described is certainly interesting, but the unfortunate thing is that he has next to no idea where to look for it.

-"My friend, I am not being rude - merely inquisitive. Is it really not so painfully obvious that I did not know of the Spinel before you told me of it? How would I, of all people, know where it is? Do you think I would have asked you if I knew where it was? In fact, if I were to possess that knowledge, we would not be having this conversation. I'd probably be watching your corpse dancing like some puppet. Actually, if I had the Spinel, I would not have come here wasting time like I am now in the first place. I'd be busy bending the Continent to my will."

Speaking of bending things to one's will, I should probably check up on the Mists sometime. Meh, I'll do that later.

-"In any case, since it seems that I need to restate everything for your feeble brain to comprehend, no, I certainly do not know of the Spinel's whereabouts. However, your birthplace does, in fact, sound like a good place to start looking."

[Ted Der]

Akran shook his head… Why doesn’t Kronos listen to what I’m saying?

“Okay, calm down. All I’m asking is if you might know where the sword came from.”

Then Akran realized his mistake. Oh great. I’m an idiot.

“Okay, sorry. I realize that I forgot to tell you something. The Spinel wasn’t always in the sword. It used to be on a golden staff that was planted into the ground on Majeuri Island. When Kraaz stole it, he hid it. The only piece of information that I know is that the sword Kraaz embedded the Spinel into had a symbol on its hilt. Like I said, the symbol was black, red, and grey. I remember seeing that symbol before… maybe on a flag? Anyway, if you don’t know what any of that means, then let’s go to Majeuri Island. There is bound to be something there that’ll help us find the Spinel.”

Akran shifted in his seat. His face flushed and he scratched his neck. “Uhhh, yeah. So, do you have any idea where we are? Where is this ship go--”

BANG!

Akran was suddenly thrown from the chair as the ship violently shook. The lamp on the ceiling fell down and smashed on the floor boards.

“What the hell is going on? Is it more pirates?”

[Dude Man]

"I could ask you the same question, young one." The depressed woman snapped, looking rather annoyed with being disturbed.

She got up and looked at the strange girl who literately came from nowhere.

"Now leave me before I make you."

---

The mysterious pack of wolves continued moving onward. A strong wind blew and several black rags fluttered through the wind...

[Xorlak]

Vincent rolled his eyes as the man prattled off. "Yes, yes, yes.  The design is structurally sound, and the shielding triple-ly reinforced.  It needs to be in order to suffer the harsh climates above our world.  Weapons will consist of standard cannon-fare, though.  It is pointless to over-equip something with short-range weaponry that no one will ever be able to reach, especially when the resources and space can be better spent on other things..  I would expect the military to protect it as we launch it and during its ascent.  After that, it will be beyond the reach of anything of this world."

He pointed two fingers at the table, which melded together into a sort of knife with a curved edge, elongating slightly.  "The projecting mirror has 50 degrees of movement on both axis, and and can turn quite quickly during the ten seconds we have..."  He jammed the blade into the wooden table, and drew it towards him, creating a long gash.  "Like a surgeon's scalpel, it will cut a deep scar across the planet, several miles long..."

----

Virmir landed alongside Riuki, in front of the other Velkens.  Bryce stepped forward and bowed slightly.  "Right this way."

The group made their way into the dark corridors of the castle, passing the much larger Lizard Men that patrolled the halls.  Of course, it was the lizards that stepped out of their way.  After descending a flight of stairs, they entered an empty dungeon with a large chamber branching off a moldy stone hallway to the side.

"Here."  The Blade Knight Bryce said, waving his hand into the dark room, gulping. "We can instruct our mages to cast their poison gas spells, then exit via the vents at the top." He pointed to the holes in the ceiling.  His voice cracked slightly, though it was evident he was desperately fighting to remain collected and calm.  "And close the vents as they leave..."

Everyone, the two mages in the group especially, was looking rather blanched, despite the fur covering their faces.  They nervously stood there shifting their weight, flicking their ears and tails.  This was the most heinous thing they had ever been commanded to do... eliminate an entire city of defenseless civilians...  But it was an order from the Dark Emperor Retan, and one they could never disobey...

Virmir sighed, looking over the dismal chamber.  But still he held that detached coldness in his eyes.  After a long moment, he finally spoke.  "Then let's begin."