*Act 5, Scene 1*
"Hail, friend, for so thou art." Ryan addresses Gladius as he descends from the sky.
"What? What did he say?" Gladius beckons
Dwayne shrugs and pulls out a pack of smokes.
"Um. Yeah, I'm Ryan, this is Dwayne. We've come to invite you on a quest to destroy The Capital City!" Ryan prépares a speech, but he's stopped by Gladius
"I'm already on that quest. I assume you two already know about Capital City's plan to steal Gemtech from the Hexlands, which they're going to use to wage war on the Green lands leaving Africa nearly defenseless since they're still recovering from what they did before?" He asks
Ryan is speechless
Dwayne is speechless
"Right, so I've already prepared an Aarokacran militia to distract Capital Cities forces, a Kenku assassin squad to infiltrate their base, and I've warned Hexlands about the plan." Gladius describes
Ryan thinks for a moment and something flashes in his mind, he digs through his bag and pulls out the depleted Gem from Metroglade "Wait do you mean gems like this?" Ryan asks
"Hm, no, the gimmick with Gemtech is that the gems act as an infinite battery of sorts, so the fact this is empty..." Gladius informs Ryan
They stop, something sinks in his chest...
"Then this is an imitation, but it was being used as if it was the real thing, which can only mean one thing," Ryan says
They both say at the same time "Capital City already has Gemtech"
As soon as the realization is made a streak of black lighting shoots into the sky from the East. From The Capital City erupts a storm of ominous purple clouds and black lightning.
It's worse than Gladius thought. Capital City didn't want to just control the three continents, but Destroy the World as we know it in a new apocalypse of Nightmares and Creatures of Darkness.
Gladius ignites a runic paper which summons a projection of his father Atticus Jones.
"Father, the attack has begun. Rally our troops, tonight we will have to fight for Everything." Gladius formally called
*Act 5, Scene 2*
Our party swiftly makes their way down the mountain thanks to Dwayne's robotic legs.
As they pass East Main village they see a rift summoned to which nightmarish monsters breach into our world.
Gladius looks horrified, but Dwayne doesn't stop skating.
"We can't stop now, if we're going to save everyone we have to stop the darkness at its source" Ryan bolsters Gladius' resolve.
Upon reaching the massive gates of Capital City several cursed guards, half blended with nightmarish dark flesh stop the party from breaching the City.
Dwayne doesn't stop, instead getting faster, before leaping 12 feet into the air. It's not high enough! But he grabs the other two and flings them over the wall.
Ryan, out of instinct, activates his emergency parachute, a small pocket parachute that catches Ryan in the air, Gladius grasps and successfully grabs Ryan's hand. They fall faster, but Ryan has enough time to see Dwayne land a series of slashes on the mutant guards.
When Ryan looks around as they land he sees the interior of a castle courtyard, but twisted and cursed. Every flower wilted, every tree sprouting thorns. Dark magic vines break through the stone and marble.
The entire City has been blended with this darkness.
"How are we going to get to the king from here?" Gladius asks Ryan
"You're asking me?" Ryan questions
Gladius nods with a reassuring smile.
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Ryan scans the courtyard with his robotic eye.
"I've identified the cleanest path to the throne room" Even still the cleanest path contains several threats, dark creatures lurk behind every corner waiting to ambush.
"If that's what we're up against, I have something that might help, but we won't have a lot of time to make use of it," Gladius tells Ryan.
"So you have a secret weapon or an invisibility potion?" Ryan asked
Without answering Gladius revealed his Enchanted grass armor. From an adventure to Mira, he was given the ability to conjure a grand illusion with it. The grass chest plate unveiled a cascade of fireflies which paraded in all directions leaving behind a trail of mist from which manifested a great forest. The entire land was covered in foliage and forest critters ran around everywhere.
Nightmare creatures jump from their hiding places to chase all the forest critters.
"Now's our chance" Gladius grabs Ryan's hand and sprints across the illusory forest.
Gladius leaps from bush to bush, and Ryan barely holds on for dear life.
The illusion fades as they reach the king's tower. It's still 15 stories tall, several nightmare creatures detect the two and chase after them.
Ryan places an electronic device on the door. They take cover and an explosion knocks the entryway open.
Gladius molds the earth behind them to wall off the creatures.
Inside the tower is but a single man.
A hulking Minotaur many times larger than either of our heroes.
"General Feros" Gladius accosts
It appears these two have some history.
"You have to get to the king" something calls to Ryan.
Gladius starts the fight by charging at the bull, he thrusts his sword at General Feros who dodged with more grace than a man his size should possess. The sword, however, extends into a metal whip that curves against General Feros, lashing his body.
Ryan takes advantage of this opening and attempts to tumble past the Minotaur.
General Feros doesn't let him pass, grabbing the scrawny human and pinning him against the wall.
Before Gladius can make his next attack, the Minotaur throws his battle axe spiraling at Gladius.
He's caught off guard! Gladius is impaled by the axe. It cuts through his grass armor and heavily damages his body.
Ryan pulls out his revolver, Malice, and unloads all 6 bullets point blank to the Minotaur's face. Every bullet lands, hit after hit blows the Minotaur away leaving him dazed.
Ryan quickly changes plan and sprints to the next room and up the stairs.
Gladius is left to fight Feros.
*Act 5, Scene 3*
Ryan climbs the tower suspiciously quickly, there are no soldiers, no guards. But when Ryan breaches the king's chambers he arrives just in time to see the King of Capital City opening a dark rift in space.
"You're out of time" something speaks to Ryan.
No, Ryan thought. He bolts forward and dives through the portal before it closes.
In a moment Ryan is shown infinity through the wormhole, infinite space, and endless time, it's hard for him to focus. But something speaks to Ryan, he feels that something for the first time, grabs his arm, and leads him to the light.
Ryan is spat out to the other side. He's at the bottom of a black pit. He can barely see the sky from here, but there's only one way to go. Deeper into the caves.
... it feels like a long walk through the shadowy caverns. Without any light source, Ryan relies solely on his robot eye for night vision.
As he walks through the darkness, he hears the sharp and unmistakable sound of a charge detonating.
He instinctively tumbles forward as an explosive goes off behind him. He hears two more charges when he recovers, immediately dodging forward again. And yet again more charges go off. He scrambles to escape, barely outrunning the flames. Ryan is sent forward by the explosive force.
On his knees, he looks up to see the red lasers of 2 automatic turrets trained on his face. Ryan goes pale, waiting for death. But he hears instead a condescending laugh.
"Hahaha, you think with your tiny mind, that you can stop me? You don't even know what you're stopping!" The King steps down to Ryan slowly and stands him up.
"This world, it's so... chaotic. What we need is order, and order requires control. I can take control of Gaia, with this." The king reveals to Ryan the Capital's secret weapon.
An ancient space dragon named Void, not bound in chains or arcane shackles. But simply asleep.
"The dragon, Void, has been asleep for a thousand years. We have learned to harness its dreams to power our city using a powerful dream catcher we... borrowed... from the Dream Lands. But we learned that nightmares are far stronger than dreams. I need not explain more, but all you should know is by inducing nightmares we can harvest more power." The King monologues.
"But why steal Gemtech if you have all this power?" Ryan asked.
"You've seen the strength of the rifts yourself, our batteries were too weak to contain this power. With our new Gemtech Dreamcatcher, we can contain infinite power and unleash it when we see fit. And you need not fight me, join me instead, and together nothing can stop us." The King beckons.
Ryan thought, but only about the quickest way to dispatch the king.
"You're right! This world, it's too disorganized too organic, it needs someone to guide it into place." Ryan steps up close to the king and gets on one knee to bow. He pulls out his pistol and shoots his shot quickly. But the gun jams, for Ryan, has no ammo.
Damnit, Ryan didn't plan for that.
A red flash erupts from the chamber of Malice, followed by a cloud of smoke.
Ryan changes his plan and punches the king with his gun hand. Obscured by the smoke, the turrets fail to fire. An awkward fistfight follows. Ryan punches the king again with his offhand, before the king uppercuts Ryan, knocking him on his ass. Ryan kicks the king's leg, who falls over and crawls further up the stairs.
*Act 5, Scene 4*
They both get to their feet.
"Enough of this!" The king grabs the gem dream catcher and summons a rift from which falls Dwayne's limbless head and torso.
"DWAYNE!!!" Ryan screams out
"Oh that's not all" The King widens the rift and from it descends General Feros half cursed with dark shadow flesh he's holding Gladius Jones by the hair, he's beaten and bloodied, but to nearly the same degree is Cursed General Feros.
"You... cheated. There's no way you beat him" Ryan protests.
"And yet here he lies" Cursed General Feros tosses Gladius to the ground in front of Ryan
Though his jaw is clearly shattered a muffled word is spoken.
"Malice"
*Act 5, Scene 5*
Ryan zooms forward
"FIRE AT WILL" commands the King
Ryan slides at top speed and vaults over General Feros who fails to catch him.
The turrets following Ryan riddle General Feros with bullets blending his brains to mush.
The King backs up against the dragon
He starts pounding on the dragon's scales
"Wake you beast! Wake I speak!" He chants
Ryan wastes nothing, he pulls his revolver to the King's eye exploding his face instantly, he aims at the King's neck then chest, then his torso, then his pelvis. Ryan obliterated the King. But in a moment the turrets turn to Ryan.
He leaps over the dragon, several bullets impale the drake. Void awakens.
Swiping both turrets with its tail creating a rift that eats General Feros' body, it nearly consumes the other two before it vanishes. Void notices Ryan and stares intensely.
Ryan, terrified, fails to react.
Void opens his mouth and produces a black hole pulling Ryan into his mouth.
Ryan can't do anything to stop Void.
But in an instant, the gift he was given from the mountain camp activates. A bubble of pink magic protects Ryan from Void.
Lodged in Void's mouth Ryan thinks fast, he sets as many explosives as he has time to plant.
The gem bubble cracks as Void's teeth rip through each atom, but before Void's jaws clamp down Ryan detonates every explosive.
The room is light with fire and shrapnel, but only for a moment as the entire explosion is pulled backward into Void's black hole.
Ryan is nowhere to be found.
Void breaks through the ground, absorbing all matter in its way. The space dragon breaches the atmosphere into space.
*Act 5, Scene 6*
Aarokacran soldiers descend into the black pits, they rescue Gladius Jones and recover Dwayne's parts. They search for days but give up on finding Ryan, nothing is left of him.
Gladius makes a full recovery and is reunited with his elven family in East Main Village.
Dwayne was kept alive by his life support systems. He was given a new body and rebuilt with more bionic parts, he even regained a bit of humanity. Enough to regret not getting to tell Ryan how he felt before it was too late.
Ryan was lost.