EPILOGUE
“Sir, did you feel that?” Freil, the first advisor of the Lumen Cabal asked Shurai after bursting into his chambers. “I’ve never felt energy like that in my life! I’ve never been in the presence of a false Sun, but I imagine it would radiate power in the same way.” Freil finally stopped to catch his breath only to have his heart rate quicken as Shurai spoke.
“The Suns in the sky are not false. On my homeworld, it is told that each of those lights in the sky are the remnants of those who lost their lives pursuing their paths. That they are the very monument of those whom the Eternals deem worthy. I have visited many such Suns and have solidified my belief in the old tales.” Shurai said matter-of-factly.
“But I felt it too, and it was not a Sun. No, it was something completely different. Know this Freil, if you experience the same sensation again at a different time, there is no use running, as the Deathless is already upon you.” Shurai hung his head. “The fact that we felt it now is a bad omen. Be vigilant, but stay the course, for we have almost achieved our goal.”
Shurai began slowly letting the ambient myst in his chamber soak into his skin and sluggishly integrate into his domain. “The moment my energy stores are filled, we will execute our plans and all the lowly domains will be mine!”
Freil only half listened to the leader of the Lumen Cabal, his body shook too much to properly understand what he was saying. “Sir,” Freil said in a hushed tone. Shurai grunted, awaiting the question.
“I felt that energy twice, sir.” Freil stammered. “Surely you felt it too?”
Shurai looked out of his window into the night sky. “No Freil, it seems I didn’t get a second warning.”
—
“Report Nave!” A thundering voice rang out in the small room particularly designed for the Grand Occulancer. “And what is the news regarding the Dry Seed project?”
Nave, the Grand Occulancer paled at the voice and swiftly bowed to his unseen master. “I have just finished parsing the details of the elevated energy levels that struck the Academy. The two pulses of Deathless energy historically are meant as a warning, but events going against that have been known to exist. My conclusion is that we are safe for now, but should cease any activity that could be seen as disdainful towards the Deathless. As we do not know which Deathless we have earned ire, I suggest we temporarily pause all projects until further notice.” Nave wheezed out in one breath so as to not upset.
“Interesting.” The booming voice said. “I’ve only felt a single pulse, I wonder what that means for me.”
Nave blanched and bowed further. “Lord Zalfyds, sir. To get a two-pulse warning is meant to be the end of days for those who experience it, but to only feel one; I’m afraid the Lord did not receive a warning, but a notice.” At the silence that fell upon the room, Nave decided to answer the unasked question. “Death, sir. A notice of death.
“Very interesting.” The voice carried in a quieter tone. “Instruct those working on the Dry Seed project to cease, and the other projects to keep churning. The Dry Seed project is the only one that would spike the attention of a Deathless so we must take precautions. But know this Nave, The Niteweld Academy will not shut down and the Noxsis will stand tall through this adversity. I have survived a Deathless before, and will do so again!”
Nave ran to a large lens lying in the center of his room and closed his eyes as he transferred his thoughts into it, and thus to the rest of the staff.
—
Kalex awoke from his slumber soon after entering it. With the constitution of his body requiring little to no sleep, sleeping for as little as a few minutes was all he needed to feel fully restored. Opening his eyes, he noticed that his surroundings had changed. When his eyes first closed, the room he was in was breaking apart, and now the room and the home it was attached to was nowhere to be seen.
Kalex fully opened his eyes to a vast open wasteland with every shred of myst missing from everything, except for a small set of arches off in the distance. As he sent his presence sight over to investigate them more thoroughly, one of them filled with something akin to a sheet of purple-tinted water. Knowing that he had purged the world of its myst, Kalex looked on in wonder, prompting Lex to appear beside him.
“Curious. Very curious. Mr. Wounder, perhaps you’re losing your touch.” Lex said with a smile that split his face. Before Kalex could retort, the surface in the center of the archway began to vibrate and before the shock could fully hit him, a familiar figure stepped through.
Kalex rose to his feet as he turned his full focus on the figure. In a movement that was mind-numbingly fast, he was face to face with the owner of his original world. With his physical and presence sight, he could tell that she did not teleport like he could, but physically moved the distance so rapidly that anyone else would think she had moved places instantly.
“You’ve really done a number on this place.” Wren huffed as she looked around the once beautiful planet of which Gret was the sole resident. “Luckily, you didn’t take the energy that runs the gate. Speaking of, let’s get out of this place and meet up with the others. They’re never going to believe what happened.” Wren winked and turned toward the archway. “Also, I hope you have something to give as a gift to Gret for destroying the planet he bought!” Feminine laughter boomed as Kalex moved to follow the woman.
Walking in step with Wren, Kalex decided to pull up her status to attempt to get an idea of how powerful she was. A small gust of freezing air swept through Kalex’s brain at the thought. Not heeding the warning, Kalex peered into the crystalline pane in front of him and fell over the moment he processed the information.
Name: Wren Xiafelt
Level: ERROR
Race: Fallen (Planet Unknown)
Rank: Not Enough Information
Maturity: Not Enough Information
Path: Not Enough Information
Vitality: Not Enough Information
Myst: Not Enough Information
Strength: Not Enough Information
Wisdom: Not Enough Information
Agility: Not Enough Information
Charisma: Not Enough Information
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Luck: Not Enough Information
Skills:
Not Enough Information
Slowly awaking to the sound of Lex’s voice, Kalex opened his eyes. “I’d like to advise against attempting to look into her status again for the foreseeable future. I have not gathered enough information on the denizens of these higher worlds to give a proper approximation of their strength.”
Kalex nodded as he sat up. “Why did it hurt so bad?” Kalex mumbled and shook his head to clear the fog that had enveloped his consciousness. “You’re a special case Mr. Wounder. I allow you to see the status of beings that are much more powerful than you, whereas others would just get a blank window. A large reason for that is the power that is exuded when trying to peek into someone’s information. When you looked into the All-Mother’s status, you took a smidgen of her power directly to your brain.”
Kalex looked up at Wren. With only a small amount of her power able to cause him to black out, his whole body chilled at the thought of seeing her at her full power. Instead of the image Kalex had conjured in his head, he looked over at Wren poking the dried-up husk of a plant and giggling when it turned into a powder that began drifting in the wind. Noticing his attention, Wren looked over at Kalex with a look that promised a scolding. “Lex told me what happened.” She said in an even tone. “Control yourself a little bit and don’t try to look into every new person’s information. Now come on, even though gate travel is almost instantaneous, while you’re inside the gate, it feels like a few hours and you can rest then.
Stepping through the gate felt like walking through incredibly dense water but without any resistance that regular water would have. It led to a very small room with only two doors on opposite walls. “Do we just walk through the door? Also, where are we going exactly?” Kalex said while looking at the walls that seemed to be melting.
“Once the pathway opens to the next gate, we can walk through, but as I said, It takes some time for that to happen. We have three gates to go through before we get to our destination. We will be residing with Rigel for a time while Lyla prepares to enter the Academy. Rigel said that she shows promise and not enrolling her would be a travesty.”
“What about me? We just reunited and she is the only family that I have. I’d hate to have to go our separate ways so soon.”
Wren laughed softly for a moment before pinning him in place with a look. “Kalex, if I’m understanding Lex correctly, The small burst of my presence that you felt would have outright destroyed the internal pathways of someone of Lyla’s power and caused irreversible harm to someone like Gretex.”
Wren took a faraway look as Kalex processed what Wren had just told him. Was he really strong enough to survive something that even Gretex would struggle to weather? He had been getting intermittent updates about Lyla’s status and knew that she had vaulted herself to a level that exceeded all others on Enternia, but had he really exceeded so far beyond that?
After a few minutes, Kalex heard Wren’s breath catch. “Kalex, I don’t know what trouble you’ve found, but the information on your quest is concerning. It’s leading to the opposite of what I had wanted for you. During your time on Diat, you always vied for a comfortable life full of learning and creating. With the power you now hold, that would be an easy prospect on the world we’re headed to, but it seems someone else has other plans.”
Kalex was shocked out of his reverie and reached for the rock in his pocket for a semblance of comfort before pulling up his status.
Name: Kalex Wounder
Level: 174
Race: Human (Enternia), Beer (Diat)
Rank: Elder Dreadnaught
Maturity: 4,846,418/10,240,000
Path: Shifting Wanderer (Paragon)
-Innate sense of safety (Passive) (Novice)
-Perception shift (Adept)
-Translocation; Tied to level and Core strength (Master)
-Myst Guide (Paragon)
Vitality: 126*/126*
Myst: 3995*/3995*
Strength: 7*
Wisdom: 4*
Agility: 96*
Charisma: 2*
Luck: 500,177
Skills:
-Mystwalk: Move yourself anywhere you can touch with your myst. The cost of myst and other resources vary by distance. Limits change with every new rank acquired.
-Martial Eye: When in combat, use presence sight to act as your eyes, every action around you will be seen within the distance the presence sight is cast. Low initial myst cost but will increase by duration active and distance perceived.
-Mystlord: Your control over myst is absolute whether bodily or external. Create myst analogs of elements and mold them to your will. Convert unaspected myst to your own. Intake Aspected myst and transform it into your own. The loss will lessen with every new Rank attained.
Quests:
Fractured Balance:
* Attend the Academy Integration on Karthis and break the harmony.
Questions that he knew had no answers flew through Kalex’s mind. Wren stayed silent as she saw his internal struggle and turned to Lex’s avatar with concern. Lex only nodded to communicate that Kalex was alright.
The door to leave the gate opened before Kalex gained his bearings. Wren could only smile to evoke a sense of calm in the tumultuous storm that she knew was raging in Kalex’s mind. “The door has opened and we have a few more gates to travel through. On the bright side, to follow your quest, you’ll have to go through the integration to the Academy so you’ll have plenty of time to catch up with Lyla. She also made a friend while on Rigel’s world who you may be familiar with. As she will be going through integration as well, I’ll let Lyla fill you in.” Wren finished by gently guiding Kalex through the gate.
Kalex only said a few words during the remaining trip to the world called Karthis. He lost his voice as the city they entered reminded him of Grangardd, with tall buildings made of metal and mixed stone and people of all shapes and sizes milling around the busy streets.
“Try not to use your presence sight at full capacity here. There are measures in place that alert the forces protecting this world and we do not want that kind of attention.” Wren said as she began walking down the path leading from the glowing archway.
The amount of people and the general hustle and bustle of the city was overwhelming. Kalex followed Wren as she easily made her way through the crowds. After what seemed like only a few minutes of walking, they arrived at their destination. A small triangular home that was tucked away from the main thoroughfares came into view with a woman sitting on the stone steps leading up to the front door. Noticing the two walking up to the home, Lyla jumped up and ran over.
With speed, Lyla barreled into Kalex enveloping him in a hug. Kalex embraced her in kind, letting tears that he’d held back until this point, flow down his cheek. Letting go, Lyla similarly greeted Wren before finally speaking.
“I hope this is a good replacement for your cave,” Lyla said while pointing a thumb at the residence with a playful smile. “Ekk told me you’re going to be attending the Academy with me and Scy! There is so much I want to tell you but let’s head inside and find something to eat first!”
The door cracked open as they walked to the front door. Kalex heard the voice before he saw who it was. “Lyla, are you going to stay out here all day? We still need to go over our equipment and prepare for our familiar!” Scyris said as she came into view. Stopping as if frozen, she looked over to the newcomer.
Kalex felt his blood boil as he saw who stood in the doorway. Scyris Everblade. He thought she had been taken care of when she was whisked away from Enternia. He knew she was behind Lyla being taken in the first place and she had tried to destroy both Kalex and Lex.
An opaque blue shield instantly formed around Lyla, with an accompanying one appearing around Wren. Seeing Scyris broke the semblance of control that Kalex was clinging to with the stress of recent events.
His presence erupted out of him, enveloping the planet in the blink of an eye as his ion blade appeared in his hand. He willed himself to teleport into blades reach of Scyris but felt interference. Another attempt proved fruitless and was followed by a loud klaxon. Kalex only heard the blaring alarm for a second before his consciousness was taken from him.
Wren, Gret, Rigel, Lyla, and Scyris looked over to a sleeping Kalex an hour after they had brought him into Rigel's home to recuperate. The alarms were a warning, and if Wren had not interfered, the situation would have been a lot worse. With Kalex sleeping and preparations needing to be made, all but Lyla stood up to leave the room. Before leaving, Gret turned to Rigel, handing him a metallic square. “You were right, a handful indeed.”