Author: As to make up for the previously rushed fuck up, this chapter will be extra long with a pleasant surprise at the end. :) Enjoy.
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The group immediately set out for DarkGlade, any time wasted is time the Void spent digging towards them. With his theory confirmed William thoroughly explained everything during their dragon carriage ride "As you've just seen.." he takes a couple steady breaths due to having to run to the carriage to not waste any precious time "Rifts can be opened within minutes, with that confirmed it also tells us that portals are the same and that the voidlings have not been digging all this time but only amassing numbers waiting for the right amount before starting to dig. The first few rifts are assassination attempts while the later portals are the first signs of invasion, which will occur around the assassinations to further destroy our moral. They intend on taking out the stronger ones by using the dangers Rifts hold to either swarm them or force sacrifice.
What the void doesn't understand is that we have a way of closing rifts without needing a sacrifice anymore" He raises a yellow crystal the size of his fist, a black aura and a purple aura seem to be at war around it. "This....Blackhand and his mages made these crystals to house my original mana, utilising it as a cataclyst for the spell inscribed on the outside of it." he points at the lines of runes on the crystal "What this does is open another Rift within the original one, forcing them to collapse on each other, as for how Birse managed to accomplish such a spell...He never told me" he glances at Xaria before continuing "What's important now is that enough of these crystals have been made to temporarily close most rifts and portals that will open around the world, and like water in a bucket the voidlings will flow out of the remaining holes. Towards us."
Grakt sighs "And how are we to deal with such a force? Our numbers and power surely overwhelm any of the standing armies at the other regions but we still lack numbers compared to the void. It will turn into a war of attrition that they will win."
Wyrran nods "Even if we were to use ranged combat to minimise our losses we will be overwhelmed by their numbers."
William crosses his arms "Now...I thought the greater minds of this world could comprehend...but I guess I was mistaken..." he mocks
Xaria suddenly springs up standing, unable to control herself "Then please explain oh "greater mind" " she glares down at William, obvious anger in her eyes. Kesa moves to try and hold the Abbysal to only be shrugged away by the ever reddening and angry demon.
William raises his arms in a surrendering gesture "Please excuse me, I simply teasing. As for how, well...Firstly you are wrong about two things. First is that their numbers will not overwhelm us, the area a rift or even a portal takes is too large to accommodate too many which limits how fast they can travel, also I have noticed that there is a couple moments between each amount of voidlings, they don't flow out like a river but in waves. This can mean many things but right now it only means that it further slows down their arrival into the battlefield, their numbers could be limitless but an army flowing through a ravine fighting a platoon within that ravine.... the larger force will not have the space to stretch out its full power. Making it an even battle which will be determined by individual strength and not numbers, our strength. The second thing you are wrong about...Ranged combat will prove much more advantageous than you think it will. Have none of you ever noticed?" he looks around the carriage at each individual "The voidlings have no ranged fighters." A series of annoyed or confused looks flow through the group.
"Of course we fucking noticed! But as long ears said it won't matter if they keep on coming!" Xaria lets out one final burst before she sits back down pouting.
William sighs "It means their only way of dealing with aerial targets is by using their own. Back in my world the ability to fly has been thoroughly researched and implemented in military combat and has far changed our battlefields. Not the beastial melee that most of you races utilise in midair combat, but ranged combat within flight. The Drakeling riders have implemented this tactic minimally, obviously due to diminished accuracy which in turn slows down the rate of fire as to not waste ammo. But what if accuracy is no longer a requirement?" another series of confused expressions are sent his way. "Well...to be more specific what if you only needed to choose a direction....Downward. My kind calls it aerial bombardment, aerial units simply fly over the enemy and drop explosive material on top of them." with his explanation ended, the carriage's quiet is only broken by single words..."Maniacs..."..."Monsters..."..."Warmongers..."..."Massacre..."
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Nearing the hollow mountain is a single drake pulled carriage, containing names that echoed through the ranks of the thousands of soldiers marching around the mountain and into the makeshift camps outside its walls. Soldiers of all races gathered their gear and formed ranks as the carriage landed, whispers flowing from soldier to soldier along with doubts as well as curiosity. The soldiers lined up forming platoons which in turn formed an army of over thirty thousand, all awaiting the members of the loosely named "Hero's Guild" to exit the carriage. Each race roared at the appearance of their hero, one by one they exited and moved down the massive army to line up with their men. Once almost the whole group had exited, the soldiers who had clear sight of the carriage stared in confusion and curiosity at Loke's figure that awaited outside the carriage, they had been told of the human taking command of their ranks but have never seen one before to form any thoughts.
William prepared himself to face the men and women waiting outside for his entrance, he never was a people person. He sighs and scowls at himself for not preparing himself beforehand for this crowd. The barely adult human steps out and down the carriage steps, his grey armour summoned with its purple runes glowing menacingly. His grey eye's blue aura flowed behind his movement like an after image while his purple eye's aura lashed out eagerly at every direction. He felt anxious and nervous at the glorious sight that presented itself in front of him. Men and women of every race lined up as far as his eyes could see to his right, forest opening where the camp resided was completely hidden behind them. They had landed at the left end of the army, he walked with Loke to reach the other side. He took note of every kind of soldier he had at his disposal while ticking and taking notes on the crystal screen he carried with him. The alliances graced him with twelve thousand melee combatants, five thousand mages and rangers along with eight thousand aerial riders. Along with the remaining five thousand or so mercenaries they numbered in the thirty thousand or more, amazingly still being outnumbered by what the void has to offer.
William walked down the army's ranks, glancing at many of them. He took mental note of their expressions, empty gazes as if awaiting death. But he had other plans for them, nobody would die senselessly today. William may not be a sun tzu, but he knew his strategy well. He also knew well that, these men did not see him as a commander but as a foreigner. The others had asked him to give a speech, even going as far as giving him a speech enhancement crystal for his voice to reach the whole army...But he was no grand leader. In the end ge resigned to at least saying something. Half way down he stops as Loke takes the screen crystal from his hands, he grabs hold of the white crystal in his pocket as he feels the magic taking effect.
He starts to speak "Races of all kind..Dwarves...Elves...Drakons...Giants" every name followed by roars and cheers of the respective race"Faes, Werebeasts, Orcs, Mers, Aracnids, Demons and Avians." he momentarily stops, gathering his thoughts. "For millennia has the void spread fear and anguish, corrupting your lands... endangering your kingdoms...But today is far worse...If we do not stop them here, the void will do far worse. They will trample your homes....Massacre your families...Turn your friends against you....But today you will defy that future. You rise and stand against their insatiable hunger, make no mistake there will be death within the valley behind you today. But the corpses that will lay rotting tomorrow will not be yours." Finished and content with his speech he turns to continue walking, followed by cheers that shake the air around him.
On their way down the ranks they see Karl, Seyl and Jax lined up with the mercenaries. With the other commanders following after him, after they spoke with their subordinates, the leaders walk beyond the breaking ranks of the army as everyone heads back into camp to continue preparations. As he walked down with the others towards the main tent, he noticed the other mercenaries around the camp. Unlike his previous beliefs of them having lowered moral at the loss of their commanding officer, the mercenaries were bursting with energy as blood lust engulfed their expressions. Revenge is a powerful motivator. Once at the officer's tent, everyone settled down around the table where a map of the mountain and the forest around it was sprawled on top of it.
William started giving out orders to each leader, joining them into divisions."Elin, Xaria, Weiss and Jax will lead the air. Kyla, Ryle, Seyl,Yorick, and Kesa will lead the ranged division, line up the mountain tops surrounding the valley. Grakt, Isaac and Karl's division are in charge of loading the ammunition under Kalus's division who will supply. You all know the plan, give out the details to your subordinates then meet me down at DarkGlade. Waste no time, we must be ahead of them or this plan will fail. Dismissed." William turns as everybody else with a series of nods, scatters out the tent and around the camp. A makeshift sketch of paths all along the mountain lined the map behind them. William headed away from camp and towards the mountain, stopping at the start of its climb. Behind him large amounts of movement could be seen as everyone moved into their positions, mages and archers climbing the mountain side heading for the top, warriors carrying heavy machinery over to the dragons, drakes, wyverns, gryphons and pegasi.
"Erza.." he whispers as name. Erza's form flickers in shadow next to him until she is fully there.
He turns to her "Have you found "him"?" he asks with a quizzical expression.
"It was not easy mind you...For him to actually become one...it was far fetched...But yes, he awaits your contact." she frowns and looks up at the mountain. "He was surprised to hear from you so soon."
William's expression grows into a smile "Let's go." at his command Erza's form shifts in shadow again, it grows to its full size gaining many's attention. She soars into the sky and then down towards the fort.
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William waited on top of the black dragon for what seemed like hours, but was actually just a couple minutes. Loke had joined him after obtaining contact with the other kingdoms, bringing him news that the void already started it's invasion of the cities. William foresaw this, the void's hunger overruled it's patience. As the others also joined him via air born mounts, he felt a familiar presence occurring around him.
He looks around "Good, we're all here. Because here they come as well." with these words everyone grasped their weapons and called fort their magic. Every combatant within the fort's dead streets called upon their power or that of their contracted spirits. The pressure they all amassed itself was impressive, but what followed would leave a sane man laughing maniacally. The air around them seemed to shift as it bent and swirled on itself, reality itself seemingly move and join the tens of whirlpools. Portals opened all around the fort but none within, confirming what Birse had told him. Rifts leave the area they open at too unstable...which William used to his advantage. As waves of voidlings started falling from the portals onto the valley around the fort, William called fort his newest addition. With a mocking posture and a smile worthy of a madman he spoke out loud.
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"I name you beast! I name you formless! I name you wolf! I name you Lycan! I name you Behemoth!" He opens his arms as red smoke escapes his palms and merges to make a form.
"Seriously...Best you could think of? Behemoth?" the being of red smoke scowls at William's sense of naming, having a humanoid shape but still made of smoke.
"Shouldn't have gone and died on us, now stop wasting time." William mocks the red form from atop Erza, before getting down and landing next to the others.
The red being sighs and turns to look at the rest "Guess it can't be helped..." his form flickers for a moment before expanding in an explosion of red which is then engulfed by grey as a being large enough to compete with Erza's devourer size appears.
"W..W...K...William! What's the meaning of this?...We...We saw him!...He..." Seyl tries to mouth a sentence but can barely form words as tears gush down her face.
"He did... " William sighs "I'm sorry I did not tell you three before but I had to be sure first." he turns to look at Seyl, Karl and Jax. "He is just a spirit now, I contracted with him. Kurt is dead and his spirit here, is what remained."
"Alright you shits, stop balling your eyes out and form up." the Lyan growls at the three cry babies "I may be dead...which was not a vacation by the way...You will not diminish our reputation! Get a hold of yourselves! Straighten up!" Kurt turns to look up at the sky filled with winged beasts, raining hell down on the voidlings as explosives. Above the mountain tops more hell was being brought down on the portals as arrows and bursts of magic of all elemental alignments. When ever air born voidlings would appear platoons of Faes and Avians would skillfully fly down to eliminate the threat, to then rejoin the bombardment.
Suddenly the waves started getting larger and larger, flooding the valley with bodies. Soon voidlings started trying to climb the valley walls to reach the ranged division, only to be shot down by archers or the air division. The voidlings then turned to the ravines that snaked out of the valley onto the outside, they clawed and bashed at the gates that kept them inside. William foresaw this as well, squads of mages had been set aside for this. As the void flooded the gates to the ravines with more numbers and larger creatures such as drakes and dragons, the mages begun. The earth on each side of the gates shook as the mountain seemed to close on itself, earth mages cast their speciality onto the mountain sides to close the ravines completely. Some voidlings were pushed back from the gate but most were squashed by the flowing earth, the valley was now completely closed.
"Well...we got their full attention now...are you all ready?" William turned to look at everyone moving forward, towards the wave of monsters heading their way.
Yorick sighs "One day...boy...One day.."
Kalus lets out a roaring laugh "Hahahahahah!! Bring it on!!"
"It's a good day to die." Karl ends the conversation as the wave of beasts engulfs their position.
With no where else to go, the void focused on the meal in the middle of the valley. A meal they would regret following its scent. A black mass of a dragon soared the sky above the fort, cascading black flames onto the legions of grey and green. A massive grey wolf trashes around the city streets, clawing away hundreds at a time. Weiss, Yorick and Seyl travel from roof to roof raining arrow after arrow. Grakt lead a charge through the wave of monsters followed by Karl, Jax, Isaac and Wyrran while Elin, Kyla, Ryle and Kesa headed with Xaria to the opposite side with their own charge. Kalus was no where to be seen except for his loud laughter followed by the sound of steam pistols and explosives.
William took in the battlefield around him, they needed to hold out as much as possible. Their single goal was to massacre as many voidlings as they possibly could while the portals to the main cities where forcefully closed by Birse's mages. The sudden increase in void numbers shows that Birse was successful, now it was their turn. He relaxed his grey eye's aura, allowing his purple eye to take over. He had done this several times in private within the past days, but this time he wouldn't stop half way. He had long decided he would not allow the atlantians to mock him by using the power they gave him, he wanted to abandon their beliefs completely. Time seemed to stop around him, the purple aura growing to engulf his whole body. His grey eye glowed a bright blue, trying to fight off the purple aura but was ineffective in doing so as that power was never natural to William's body to begin with. His true mana now started to take over, as time is resumed with a blast of blue energy forming a massive shockwave with him at the middle of it. The shockwave burst forth in every direction killing hundreds of voidlings along its path, the other "heros" dared not get close to William.
He stood there for a moment, eyes closed. The very ground shaking around him as purple tendrils grew from his aura and lashed out at literally everything. His real alignment had been unlocked the moment he dispersed the unnatural mana the atlantians implemented into him. Chaotic energy flowed through his whole body as it shook the ground around him and increased the air pressure. When ever a voidling passed within his range it was torn apart by the chaotic ethereal tentacle like aura. But he wasn't left standing for long, as a roar shattered any and all sound within the valley.
As three portals merged and started to collapse on each other, a single looming giant walked out of them. The portals shrunk into nothingness behind it. The being was the same race as Erza, but wasn't limited by no contract and was much larger in size. William recognised the being almost immediately "This must be the final boss..." he glared at the dragon, knowing full well what it was. "Erza, Behemoth to me. Everyone we'll deal with this one, continue to shave off their numbers" as he rushed forward towards the dragon, Erza and Kurt also darted towards it.
"Come to me mortals! Sate my hunger!I am Xer the Elder Dragon of light! Face my wrath!" The elder dragon roared in anticipation, its white scales gleamed in the sunlight almost blinding. It's wings spanned so high they rose above the mountain tops and scattered many of the ranged division behind it. It's eyes though, were as green as the aura it permeated. The void's alignment of corruption flowed from its body, threatening to kill you with fear alone. As it roared grey smoke exited from between its fangs and flowed onto the battle field, seemingly enhancing any voidling it touched.
Behemoth was the first to attack leaping off the mountain side he bared his fangs down onto Xer's hide, his claws also digging into its back as electricity passed through the lycan's body and into the dragon, slowing down its movements. Erza closely followed by engulfing the elder's head in black flames, as it shrieked in agony and releasing its own grey breath. Erza rolled midair to the side as the grey flames burned the air she once hovered in, she gaped open both jaws as another wave of black flames burst at Xer's neck. William did not initially join the fight but watched as he charged up his attack, he had one chance and if it failed Xer would devour them all. All around him he gathered his mana turning his aura even more chaotic and frenzied, he couldn't miss and it would take every ounce of his power. Xer grew tired of the two spirits , she rose on her hind legs and crushed Behemoth into the mountain side as a wail of pain filled the canyon. Leaving the lycan to recover behind her Xer moved to grab Erza with her jaws, Erza swiftly dodged to the side only to be smashed down by a massive white tail.
Xer loomed over Erza's grounded body, opening her mouth and baring her fangs as grey smoke exited. Before she could breath, Behemoth leaped onto her neck digging his fangs in and forcing her to the ground with him. Erza rose up and turned to face her elder, hovering into the sky again and not to be one to waste an opportunity she breath black flames again onto Xer's back. Behemoth barely dodging the black flames by a hair's breath. But Xer did not fall she rose back up and through the flames, adding her own that devoured the black with grey. Erza was hit head on as she plummeted to the ground crashing into Behemoth on the way. Xer barred her fangs at the two as she moved forward to end them, but she stopped in mid step. Xer turned to glare at William, sensing his intentions. But it was already too late.
"Imbecile! You wish to turn this whole world into a battlefield?!" Xer snarls at William's direction, leaping towards him.
William grimaces "You already did...And no...That is not my intention..." he was standing next to a portal while he spoke, entering it after he was done.
Reality seemed to spin around him as he unleashed his magic, his chaotic aura ripping the portal apart from within. As the tendrils ripped open the whirling mana, more holes started to form within the tunnel. As he lost consciousness, through the new tunnels he could see their end. Other worlds...Some made of fire...some made of water...others bursting with nature...as well as the original tunnel ending in a wasteland of disfiguration. Xer entered the portal chasing after William as she forcefully expanded it to allow her large form to enter, only to be sent spiralling into a completely different tunnel. She roared in anger and frustration as she neared a world of fire...multiple other roars muting her own....
William could not stop now...He could only look back at the massacre happening at the entrance...Heroes...Beasts...Fighting a single enemy....Two figures appeared next to him...A woman with red eyes and pitch black hair...a man with grey hair, a grey ageing beard and bloodshot ember eyes...The three spiralled down the tunnel, unable to see its destination as it formed.
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In the end, the void's invasion was successfully stopped. The massacre that happened at DarkGlade weakened the void's mass legions enough to allow the other races to fully retaliate. The only five to return from within the DarkGlade valley alive were Loke RuneWalker, Kalus Highsung, Seyl Reijin ,Jax Meister and Weiss Tundra, five who would lead the remaining army of thirty thousand into the void and continue the massacre from the void's back lines.
They searched for their leader, some were even sent through the portal he entered only to arrive at other random worlds never before seen. In the end the portal was closed as it posed too much a threat, but soon after rifts cracked open around the valley to each of the worlds the portal tunnelled to. Each rift stabilised over time becoming unsealable. Weeks of morn passed as the alliances rebuilt their broken walls and named their heroes, at the same time focusing their mages to fully research portals. Years passed as this world was finally named ; Etyria, the races finally making peace with the fact of being abandoned by their gods.
But our story doesn't end here dear curious souls, as one might say; The end of an age is only the beginning of another...
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Author: And there you have it....Yeap....Seriously speaking....well writing....I am very proud of this "ending" as I am after all a lover of mystery. What happened to William? How did the world progress after the invasion was halted? Where did the atlantians go? All these juicy questions... I plan to answer them, but not in this story. No this story has indeed ended, but as any other author as I end this story I start another. After much pondering I simply couldn't abandon the world I created in my mind, much of which I have not even written about as the story progressed around a meagre part of this world. Not to mention the *cough* elemental worlds *cough*....
In the end I came to a decision. My next story will continue on using this world I've built and take you around it, with new characters and some old. No the next story will not be a direct sequel, you can start reading it and completely ignore this one. It will simply use the setting of this world and its systems.
Thank you for reading and please remember to rate.
~ The Sly Wolf