Author's Note: My first time writing a story. I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts and suggestions. I wrote this at around 9pm and finished at 4am, so my imagination was all over the place.
My idea for the protagonist is that he is the master of one aspect, but weak in other aspects. I also want to follow his re-integration into a strange world that he used to call home. In some ways he's just like a soldier who's returned from deployment. After spending so long fighting, he'll find it difficult to change the way he thinks.
Regardless, I hate writing prologues. I either write them too long or too short. This took up roughly 6 pages, so I clearly overdid it. I'll reflect on it for next time.
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Centuries ago, as humans reached the pinnacle of the industrial era, creatures known as the Vormun invaded the world. Hideous creatures sprouting numerous tentacles and eyes, one look would turn a weak man insane.
Unlike humans whom relied heavily on technology, the Vormun utilised strange magic turning the laws of physics completely on their heads. Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Darkness, Light, the magic the Vormun used allowed them to control such elements with ease.
Despite fronting a fierce resistance, humans were no match for the sheer power the Vormun possessed. As such, hundreds of towns and villages were razed by these monstrosities.
However, throughout all this, a sliver of hope emerged. The so called “cursed children”, children born and mutated with the ability to use magic like the Vormun.
But why cursed? Simply put, they were a hated existence. A child possessing the power of humanities enemy, it was a natural turn. Many people had seen their friends and family crushed by earth or burned alive with fire, to now see these children with the same power. It made them sick.
The majority of cursed children possessed standard abilities corresponding with the elements. However, some possessed rare magic such as space, flight, detection. As such, the world’s government issued a decree. That all cursed children should be declared and handed over directly to the military for use against the Vormun.
The military trained these children vigorously, until they could finally enter the battlefield as a new special unit, codenamed “Reapers”.
Despite their young ages, they possessed incredible strength and control over their abilities. Allowing them to easy sweep entire cities full of Vormun. Leaving nothing but corpses in their path.
Years passed and despite the intense fighting put forth by the reapers, it seemed as if the Vormun were endless. However, the reapers were not. Slowly, but surely. Their numbers decreased, leaving less than ten remaining.
Becoming desperate, the government made a final move. The remaining reapers would drop deep into the Vormun’s territory and make their way to the Queen. There, a space magic specialist would open a portal to the Vormun’s world using the unique signature left behind by the defeated Vormun. The portal would then suck up anything possessing the Vormun’s homeworld signature, including the queen.
It was risky, however there was no longer any time. There were other cursed children, however they were far too young to enter the battlefield and waiting for them to grow up would simply take too long.
Because of this, a few days later, the remaining reapers were dropped deep into Vormun territory.
They were initially greeted with fierce resistance, the fighting lasted for days, but they kept pushing forward. Without realising it, the number of reapers was decreasing slowly. Until, only two remained. The space magic specialist, Will. With blonde hair, blue eyes and a short build, he appeared younger than he actually was and Lucan. A young boy with white hair and red eyes, resting a large farming scythe on his shoulders.
“Lucan, everyone else is...” - Will
“I know” - Lucan
“This is impossible! How can we even get close to the Queen!? We’ve been fighting for 6 days straight and only just reached the outskirts of her nest!” - Will
“Calm down, Will” - Lucan
Despite his words and calm demeanor, the boy called Lucan also felt this crusade was hopeless. To have lost 8 reapers before the main fight had started was a serious disadvantage.
“There’s no turning back for us.....but you already knew that” - Will
Showing a gloomy expression, Will crouched down and held his knees to his chest. The reapers were literally “dropped” into the centre of Vormun territory by plane and so the only way back would be to fight non-stop until reaching the border.
An impossible feat.
“It’ll be ok. We just have to get close to the Queen and then you activate the portal. Once the Vormun are sucked into it, we can just walk out” - Lucan
Lucan said with a smile. However, he knew reality was not so kind, such a simple solution would never go smoothly.
”......yes” - Will
With a quiet voice, Will replied. It was clear he was still unsure of Lucan’s words. He also knew it probably wouldn’t be so easy, but all he could do was accept his fate.
“Let’s go. We shouldn’t delay any further” - Lucan
Saying so, Lucan began walking towards the entrance of the nest, which led underground.
”.....yes” - Will
Replying uneasily, Will rose to his feet, following closely behind Lucan.
They transversed the nest for hours following each winding road to it’s destination. Whenever a Vormun appeared, it was quickly dispatched with Lucan’s scythe.
Although the nest could be described as a labyrinth, it was fairly easy to navigate. They could tell they were closer to the Queen as the veins attached to the wall began to glow a stronger shade of red. Eventually, they were met with a door, it’s throbbing motion made it seem alive.
“Something's wrong...” - Lucan
Lucan grimaced, they had met some resistance, but otherwise the nest defences were far too weak.
”....!” - Will
Will grew instantly pale at Lucan’s words. As a space magic specialist, he was not as versed in combat as Lucan and could not pick up on these things, so relied heavily on Lucan’s guidance.
“It’s most likely a trap....Listen Will, we don’t have time to deal with this. We’ll trigger their trap first, you just need to focus on setting up the portal. I’ll handle the enemies somehow” - Lucan
”.....understood” - Will
Despite his fear, Will gave a reply. The idea of walking into an enemy's trap was not appealing, but he trusted Lucan to protect him, he had no other choice but to do so.
“Ready....3....2....1...Go!” - Lucan
As he said so, Lucan ran straight for the door. Although flustered for a moment, Will caught up and followed closely.
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Seemingly sensing their arrival, the door opened itself.
As the boys ran through, what greeted them chilled them to the bone. A two storey tall Vormun with more than twenty eyes, numerous black spikes lined it’s body. Attached to its rear was a long tube that was slowly laying black eggs.
The Queen.
Seeing them arrive, the Queen raised her head back and opened her mouth.
“GHAAAAAAA!!!”
An ear splitting noise filled the air, immobilising the 2 boys. What followed was the sounds of chittering as hundreds of Vormun began to rush towards the Queen’s chambers.
The first to wake from his stupor was Lucan.
“Will snap out of it! You have to do it now!” - Lucan
Slapping Will strongly across his cheek, Lucan prepared his scythe towards the approaching enemies.
“Ah...yes!” - Will
Quickly understanding the situation, Will ran behind Lucan and began preparing the portal. It would require a considerable amount of time as Will had to search numerous worlds for the one with the correct signature
“Now it’s my turn...” - Lucan
Lucan muttered to himself, as a dark miasma began to form around his body, encompassing his scythe. The ground around Lucan slowly began to decay. This was the basis of Lucans power. Death magic. Magic that drew power from manipulating death.
As the first Vormun entered the chamber, Lucan stamped hard on the ground, propelling himself forwards. With one slash, 4 Vormun instantly died.
With the first set of enemies defeated, he quickly aimed his hand towards the tunnel they were emerging from, spreading out his Miasma, engulfing tens of Vormun, slowly turning them to dust.
Seeing enemies coming from behind Will, Lucun quickly leapt backwards. The strength of his jump further increased by his magic infused cells. Before landing, he rotated the scythe in his hands vertically, creating a spinning blade of death that gouged the earth as it ripped apart the Vormun.
“Scouts” - Lucan
Lucan showed an unpleasant expression. The enemies were weak, meaning the big ones were coming now.
“Will, how long?” - Lucan
“Ah...I don’t know!.....” - Will
A cold sweat had appeared on Will’s forehead. It was considerably difficult to process such a large amount of data so quickly.
“I se--” - Lucan
Cutting off his words, the ground began to shake causing him to lose balance momentarily.
”.....City Killer” - Lucan
Showing a shocked expression for the first time, what appeared in front of Lucan was a type of Vormun known as a “City Killer”. It’s extremely high defence, coupled with his huge destructive ability meant it could wipe out a large city within an hour.
”.......no......” - Will
Seeing the new arrival, Will’s eyes lost their light as he fell into despair.
“Oi!...Your job is to build the portal, leave the big guy to me!” - Lucan
Showing a confident smile, Lucan readied his scythe. His miasma would have barely any effect against this type of Vormun. So another type of attack would be necessary.
“Well, I could try that.....” - Lucan
Muttering to himself again, Lucan raised his hand. Slowly, lights began to float above the fallen corpses of the Vormun, collecting in Lucan’s hand. This was another ability of death magic, the ability to manipulate souls. Souls could be used in many ways, either for attacking or enhancement. Lucan chose the latter, considering he could not risk the one off attack not working.
Sensing danger from Lucun, the city killer began charging its main beam weapon inside its mouth.
“Almost...” - Lucan
A few seconds later the city killer’s main beam weapon had finished charging and was shot immediately, seeing that, Lucan grabbed the ball of light and slammed it into his chest.
Instantly, he shot forward slicing his scythe downwards. Despite having the power to destroy large cities with ease, the city killer’s beam was divided into two neatly by Lucan’s scythe.
As soon as Lucan landed, the city killer tried to charge another beam.
“Like I’d let you” - Lucan
Charging forwards again, Lucan leapt into the air, slamming his foot into the city killer’s head.
At this point the enhancement was showing it’s colours as the city killer was thrown sideways, with a shock wave spreading out from the impact zone.
However, the city killer seemed to take no damage from the attack and swung his claws towards Lucan who was still in the air.
Using his Scythe to throw his weight off balance, Lucan attempted to dodge, but failed. The full force of the city killer collided with his side, flinging him into the wall of the Queen’s chambers with incredible force.
“GAH!” - Lucan
Although initially stuck in the wall due to the power behind the throw, Lucan’s body eventually unstuck itself. Causing him to fall, landing hard on the ground.
Blood was dripping out of his mouth as the collision had caused severe damage to his internal organs.
”Haa....Haa.....A rookie mistake...” - Lucan
Ridiculing himself through bated breath, Lucan tried to stand up. His enhancement had lessened the impact somewhat, but otherwise the damage was significant.
Looking at the corridor where the scouts had come from, Lucan could hear heavy footsteps.
“Infantry” - Lucan
In his current state he could not last long against infantry. Looking back at the city killer charging it’s beam weapon once more aiming at him, he could only laugh.
“Hah....how unfair” - Lucan
At 5 years old, Lucan had been taken from his family and forced into the military. Through years of hellish training he cultivated his ability to become a superb soldier, eventually joining the reapers at age 7. After fighting with the reapers for almost half a decade, he would lose his life at only 11. Having never had a real childhood.
“If there’s truly a God in this world....agh...I hope I get the opportunity to tell you...hah...what a terrible job you’ve done” - Lucan
Smiling at his own hopelessness, Lucan accepted death.
However, as he closed his eyes waiting for the end, something strange happened.
“I did it!” - Will
With the shout from Will, Lucan opened his eyes. Since only the only enemy that was hostile was the city killer, and the city killer was occupied with Lucan, it allowed Will to work in relative peace.
Next to Will was a large black portal with the consistency of water. Almost immediately, the eggs surrounding the Queen were sucked up by it. Seeing that, the city killer forcefully cancelled it’s attack, as it to, like the eggs, was slowly dragged towards the portal.
After a short while, the portal began to increase in strength, the infantry that had just arrived at the tunnel were instantly sucked into it one by one. Gradually increasing the size of the portal.
Eventually, the city killer could no longer resist and was also sucked in.
“Lucan! The Queen!” - Will
At Will’s words, Lucan looked towards the Queen. Despite the incredible strength of the portal, she seemed to have resisted by firing her black spikes out creating a tethered rope to her main body.
”.....Damn” - Lucan
Lucan knew the portal was strong, however it had reached it’s limit and would most likely not grow strong enough to pull her off the walls. Seeing no other choice, Lucan resolved himself.
Condensing his leaking miasma into his scythe, he forced his broken body to leap straight into the Queen.
Before reaching the Queen, he swung his scythe towards the rope-like substance holding her in place. A black curved blade flung out of the scythe, immediately severing the majority of the ropes.
But that still wouldn’t be enough, using the last of his strength. Lucan collided with the Queen. The force of which, combined with the pull of the portal catapulted her towards the awaiting portal.....along with Lucan.
The last words Lucan remembers hearing was the desperate shout of Will, before the portal closed behind him.
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On that day, a massive blow was dealt to the Vormun. Although the portal could not suck in all the Vormun, it sucked in the Queen as well as the eggs, preventing further births, which was the main objective.
With no Queen to increase their numbers, the Vormun were easily wiped out shortly thereafter. The space magic specialist Will was hailed as a hero and the reapers who fell in battle were honoured for their sacrifices.
Despite the Vormun being annihilated, magic was still prevalent within the world and so rather than rebuild the world as before, leaving it weak towards any future attacks. It was decided that the new world would focus on cultivating the remaining magic.
Will tried desperately to find a way to bring back Lucan, however it was decided that he most likely died after dragging the Queen into the portal and if he didn’t, he would die shortly after in a world surrounded by enemies whilst heavily wounded.
Giving up and with a heavy heart. Will accepted Lucan’s death, leaving on his gravestone a mysterious metal box engraved with the phrase “Novam Vitam”
“I give up, to stop them hassling me, I’ll accept your death. In which case, this box might come in handy” - Will
Staring at Lucan’s gravestone Will showed a rare mischievous smile. After paying his respects, he turned around and began to walk away.
And thus with the fall of the Vormun and the loss of the reapers, ended an era that would later be known as “The Arrival”.