Chapter 58 - The Prophecy

Mayry

She shook her head as right before her eyes her… boyfriend? Split into two versions of himself and then started giving her and his copy orders. If anyone else had tried telling her to keep away from the action, she’d be more likely to throw a fireball at them than actually do as they said. With Mason, she didn’t really mind. He was a bit of an idiot at times, but when it came down to it, he was better at this kind of thing, and her sticking to ranged attacks was probably the right choice for this fight.

She rolled her eyes as both Masons ran off into battle. She noticed that the one she thought was the original shouted something, but Mayry had developed something she called the Mason filter. As the name implied, it filtered out most of the strange things he said, especially the earth references he knew she wouldn’t understand but still insisted on using.

She couldn’t endlessly use her Elemental Family Magic so she watched the battle unfold and waited for the perfect moments to attack. She watched as the original Mason’s energy attacks killed a Kethul and knocked two others to the ground. There. She launched a fire ball and incinerated them before they could regain their footing.

Three Kethul broke away from the main ground and edged their way around, trying to get behind her. Just before they got close enough to attack, she conjured a spray of water, drenched them in it and froze the water solid trapping them in a block of ice.

Turning back to the main fight, she saw Mason screwing with one of the Kethul’s minds. His victim was shooting a red crackling energy into one of the other Kethul. It looked painful but didn’t appear to be lethal. An ice spike piercing it through its heart put it out of its misery instantly

After confirming the kill, she looked around for her next target. The Mason clone suddenly flickered into existence and stumbled. She frowned. He was moving too slowly. It looked like he was in trouble. She spotted a Kethul with a hand outstretched toward him. She took aim and was about to shoot another ice spike at him to distrupt its ability, when something suddenly felt off.

She heard a noise behind her but before she could react, an excruciating pain exploded from her stomach and start to spread outwards. Her insides felt like they were being shredded. The pain was too much, her vision blurred, and she heard someone scream. Her legs gave out under her, and the scream was suddenly cut off. Had she been the one screaming? The pain spread until she could feel it everywhere, it was too much… too much….

The last thing she saw before she succumbed to the darkness was Mason fall to the floor and evaporate into nothing.

Mason

Everything slowed. To him, it seemed like Mayry fell to the floor in slow motion. A pool of blood was forming from under her. He glanced over at where he had last seen his clone, and watched as he suddenly evaporated into nothingness.

Memories came rushing back to him all at once, as did his full strength. He made to move towards his fallen, unmoving girlfriend. A health potion would fix it. Everything was going to be fine. She was going to be fine.

He felt his danger sense ring vibrate. He spun and saw that the remaining Kethul had all emerged on him. No. He needed to get to Mayry. He didn’t have time for this!

Something tried to stab him. Between his Basilisk armour and his Resilience stat, Mason barely felt anything.

He felt a heaviness, that he now knew was a gravity ability, pulling down on him. His strength allowed him to move mostly unhindered, but it was too much of a distraction. He needed to get to Mayry NOW.

He blacked out.

****

Slowly, he regained awareness and only half registered the carnage around him. He sprinted over to where Mayry lay. Franticly he felt for a pulse. Even with his enhanced senses, he felt nothing.

Panicking, a health potion appeared in his hand without conscious thought. He uncorked it and poured the liquid down her throat. For the longest moment of Mason’s life, Nothing happened. He started to give up hope when he felt a presence next to him—the Kethul Leader. “You did well, come with me—“ Mason stood and looked at him. He flinched back and stopped speaking.

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His vision darkened. His awareness once more starting to slip away he heard a faint, ThumpThump ThumpThump coming from Mayry. Forgetting all about the the single remaining Kethul, he hoped against all hope that he wasn’t imagining it. He knelt back down and pressed his hand to her chest.

She opened her eyes and whispered something so faint that Mason couldn’t hear. He kept his hand on her chest, as if to reassure himself that her heart would scontinue to beat, lowered his to her mouth. Coughing slightly, she said weakly, “Not now, Mason, we’re in public.” She placed her hand on his and let out a coughing wheeze of a laugh.

He didn’t understand and thought maybe she had someone how damaged her brain, until he realised his hand was on her breast. He let out his own little laugh as he began to sob.

******

Kethul Leader

He watched the battle begin, his curiosity piqued. He tried to split his attention between the three of them but found his time watching the woman to be a waste. His real interest lay with the two identical men.

The fight went on, and he so, as almost a dozen of his group fell in the first few minutes. No less than he expected from the chosen of the Lord.

His most promising Kethul had been gifted with the ability of teleportation; he knew if anyone had a chance of doing some real damage, it was him. Moments after he had the thought he was proved to be correct. The Kethul had appeared behind the woman and stabbed her with his enchanted dagger. Almost at the same instant, he watched as one of the men turned to dust.

By his count, it was now one versus 14. Maybe these hadn't been their Lord chosen after all. How could they have made the mistake? They wore his skin. They had needed this test, but it had been mostly a formality.

The man stared at his most likely dead companion and stepped towards her. One of the remaining Kethul tried to stab the man, but he barely reacted. He must have accepted his death.

His head dipped for a single moment before his demeanour changed. Where he had been tense and stiff, grieving for his loss, he was now relaxed and loose, with a wide grin on his face.

In one fluid movement, he punched out at the nearest Kethul. His arm moved through the Kethul’s chest as if it weren’t there. The man swung his dagger through the air, seemingly at nothing. The teleporting Kethul appeared in the dagger’s path and was headless before he knew he was even in danger.

What was happening? He had never experienced this level of power, which seemed to be radiating off the man in waves. It was terrifying. It pained him to admit, but he had never even witnessed his lord wield power like this.

The man's eyes had turned black. He moved with such incredible speed that it was difficult to comprehend what was happening.

The man raised his hand, and a whip made of pure blue energy formed in his hand. The few remaining Kethul fell as the whip moved like lightning, striking them down one by one.

Once not a single Kethul remained, the man's head dipped again, and his previous demeanour returned. He ran over to his fallen ally and poured a potion into her mouth.

Terrified, the Kethul leader cautiously walked over; he had to fulfil his duty, regardless of his fears.

He would relay the prophecy and leave as soon as he could: “You did well, come with me s—“. The man’s head shot up, the look on his face terrifying him to the bone. The man’s eyes started to darken.

In a moment of panic, he took a step back, duty be damned. He was saved when the man knelt back down.

The Kethul leader had abandoned human emotions long ago, but a massive wave of relief filled him when he saw the woman was alive. He needed to survive this, long enough to report back to The Order, the power of this man possessed was insane.

Mason

“Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you”, Mason growled.

"T..th..the prophecy,’ The Kethul leader stuttered. He had looked into Mason’s eyes and gazed upon a void that contained everything and nothing. It tore away at the mysterious cult leader’s facade and left behind a whimpering, stuttering mess.

“I don't give a flying fuck about the prophecy, you threaten to send your cult into Trilil to slaughter people, and then they almost kill her. Me killing you would make the world a better place.” Mason hated bullies, and this man’s whole cult was full of them; he was seriously considering killing the man and being done with it.

“You… you… you need to listen,” The man begged, ”I have to tell you. Kill me afterwards if you must, but what I have to tell you might save the world.”

Mason rolled his eyes at the cliche but decided he might as well hear the prophecy; he could always kill the man later. “Fine.”

“Okay, hit me with this prophecy. I’m warning you, if it sounds made up, I will still kill you.”

“I assure you, this prophecy was spoken and confirmed by our seers. We travelled a long way to find you, our Lord’s chosen; you must find the one the prophecy speaks of.”

Clearing his throat, he recited,

“Both the Greater and the minor, asleep now, but not much longer.

A man from beyond can stop their rise; if he fails, a loved one dies.

While they’re weak, he can fight, before they regain their full might.

Fail again; all hope will fade, darkness eternal, the worlds ablaze.”

As Mason listened, his mind was in overdrive as he processed the words. Despite his scepticism, he couldn't dismiss it outright, especially not when so many things in the prophecy made sense to him.

When he had finished reciting the prophecy, Mason asked to hear it again. This time, he focused on memorizing it word for word. When it was finished for the second time, he asked, “Do you know what any of it means?”

“As far as we can tell, the heretic divinities are returning, soon. A traveller from another world will be able to stop it… we don’t know much more than that. That’s why we needed to find you, so you can find this traveller and ensure that he does his part! That’s why our lord chose you!”

Mason had had enough, Mayry’s near death had put him foul mood and hearing the prophecy, hadn’t helped. “Oh, for fuck sake, I’m so sick of this our ‘lord crap’; we weren’t chosen! The basilisk appeared and we killed it! Okay? And It’s a damn snake, not a G…”

“MASON!” Mayry yelled, stopping him from finishing his sentence.

He really needed to calm down; he had almost made everything worse. “Sorry.” Turning back to the Kethul, he continued. “My point still stands, it’s a damn snake. It tried to kill us, and we killed it first.”

The Kethul stared at him with empty eyes. His mouth moved a few times, but nothing audible came out until a faint, “You lie. You are heretics of the order. YOU LIE!” Drawing a sword, he attacked Mason wildly.

Unflinching, Mason used his hand to redirect the blade and punched the man in the face, his head snapping back with a loud crack.

“I don’t enjoy killing people, but I have to admit, that one felt good.”