Vareed, Spaxal system, Neutral Regions

Day 148, year 16033 post-Uplift

No, not in that way!

The bahnua Paragon thought while focusing on the game of Three Aspects against one of his friends, which was probably going to end soon. His name was Ahof Caruil, an average-sized human, and, like previously mentioned, he was of the bahnua race. He had beige skin on around 60% of his body, which turned into a dark brown below the arms, on the torso and between the legs. Two pairs of bright-green eyes, with white sclera (one pair being smaller than the other), accompanied a small round nose, with four nostrils and a wide mouth which went a bit around the lateral sides of the head. The eyes seemed curious and felt like they were always searching for something to explore. As any other member of his race, the ears were a combination of tiny extensions and holes which provided the average bahnua with extremely good hearing. Compared to the other three members of the group, he had reddish hair, which was cut relatively short, but it was continuously messy.

His thoughts started to wander again, looking at the cards, waiting for his opponent to finish his turn. Since all conscious races made by the Creator had two pairs of limbs, structured in the same way, they all considered themselves as humans. Of course, there were various subtypes of this broad species, which had physical differences, manifested usually in the shape of the head, number of eyes, nostrils, ears or other various aspects.

For Ahof, that was not of importance right now and he was trying to push the thought away, although he was always curious why there were ‘only’ 1024 subtypes of humans… The deck of cards in the digital board game they were playing had the same number of card-types, one for each race. He liked the game, and never had a chance to play it as a kid, so every time one of his comrades would be willing, he tried his skill against them. And now, since they took this position and had some time to kill, until the Revelation happened, they decided to give it a shot.

From worse to worse, he immediately thought as his opponent played another card on the ‘battlefield’.

Opposite to him was Hiruk Ordasd, a strong-willed, big-hearted, unavru man, who was the oldest in the group. His skin was covered in tiny, mauve scales and he had a trapezoidal head, with three eyes, which appeared strangely suspicious when looking at them. One of the eyes was larger, sitting beneath the other, smaller ones. His athletic arms and legs ended in three large digits, which were adequate for climbing and maintaining a higher stability when walking. Seen as the main caretaker of the team, he tried continuously to defeat Ahof at his ‘own’ game, but as of yet was currently unable to do so. Since, based on his calculations, the strategy of hitting hard and fast, like he usually did in real-life combat, was potentially about to cost him his homeworld in-game. He finalized his actions though, and Ahof replied quickly with another unexpected move.

‘How can you play so well?’ Hiruk asked after the bahnua ended his turn.

‘It’s like with anything. Practice. And some bits of passion and inspiration,’ he smiled, a bit too wide for Hiruk’s liking. ‘Your turn.’

After a quick look at the board, the unavru, came to the same conclusion as Ahof did a bit earlier. Whatever he would do, the game would be over next turn.

‘Ahh. By the Creator! Why doesn’t this work?’

‘I don’t know why you bother,’ another voice chimed in, into the conversation. It was Joxal Daref, an eletrex man of many talents, who was currently reading a digital book, sitting in the opposite corner of the watchtower.

‘He always beats you when you use that tactic. And you only use that tactic,’ he said, keeping his eyes in the hologram which sprung from the Interface which was implanted in his left forearm.

The eletrex were a semi-aquatic race, with water-breathing capabilities. He had wide, yellow eyes, light-blue skin and a relatively long, oblate nose. His four fingers on the hands and feet were slightly webbed, a feature that could be seen below the back of his jawline, where two tiny, fin-like extremities complemented his face. On the top of his head, three cartilaginous scalp-crests grew in a curved shape, forming half a hook at the endings. His height and build was not too extreme on one side or the other, being nor too tall and slim or too wide and stocky.

‘One day I will win! You have to believe, after all,’ Hiruk tried to explain.

‘Only in the good things, right?’ Ahof added.

‘That’s my point, how do you know if that’s a good tactic? Stubbornness is not a quality, after all.’ Joxal intervened again.

‘Well, I–’

The door which led into the top of the watchtower slid open, interrupting him. It was Lozeam Lert, the fourth member of their group. His skin was a combination of cream and light-yellow, with the colors forming different patterns, following the shape of the muscles. The average member of this race had a stocky build, but Lozeam was a bit more slender than most azpdegs. They also had two - elongated on the horizontal - light-orange eyes with black pupils. They were presented with a tiny nose and some scanty facial hair (only the men), which Lozeam showed no sign of letting grow lately. Small, bony protuberances formed all across the body, especially in the skull, shoulders, elbows and spine. The thick skin meant they were well-adapted to a dry environment and, like with any other azpdeg, the chest and upper part of the legs were more pronounced and bulkier.

He seemed a bit bored at a first glance, having with him the Communicator, which was given to them at the start of the mission. Communicators were part of a larger array of devices called Divine Instruments, which had different sizes and abilities. The Communicators were sphere shaped, a bit larger than the average human head and glowed in a beautiful, serene white light. They were used to contact individuals which were separated by the vastness of space but currently, this one was currently just floating next to Lozeam, following him.

‘Hey guys,’ he eventually muttered, going absent-mindedlly towards his backpack which was next to Joxal, on the other side of the room.

‘Hey, hey!’ Ahof excitedly replied. ‘Care for a game of Three Aspects?’

‘Not right now. I just received a message that another Revelation happened.’

‘Where did it happen?’ Hiruk asked, as Lozeam passed by him.

‘On the planet Loerit, in the Golden Empire.’

A moment of silence. Lozeam did not seem in a talkative mood.

‘How many are left?’ Ahof asked as well.

‘Not many…’ the azpdeg went by Joxal and grabbed his backpack, pulling out a bottle of water.

Joxal looked at him for a bit, feeling the sadness in his voice, and then returned his glance towards the others.

‘There’s only one left, if my calculations are correct,’ the eletrex added.

Lozeam finished half the bottle in the few seconds it took Joxal’s sentence to reach its end and then continued.

‘Yup… 1 out of 1024. And to think I hoped ‘til a moment ago that we would continue on our search with the others…’

The remaining three Paragons gave him curious looks. Then, Hiruk began to speak, in a more serious tone that he would have liked.

‘We did what the Creator wanted us to do. Following the instructions of the Message to the letter. If our search did not bring us closer to where we wanted to go, that doesn’t mean we did this for nothing.’

‘It sure feels that way sometimes…’ Lozeam added, putting the Communicator in stand-by mode.

Another moment of silence. Then, it was Joxal’s turn to speak.

‘You know it’s not, though.’

The azpdeg turned towards him with a tired look on his face, then shrugged.

‘I suppose. But when thousands of other teams received rescue missions, protection missions, even exploration missions, and we’ve been stuck here for the past 40 days, watching grass grow… It’s frustrating. I mean, why hold this observation tower, which no one wants and has been abandoned for the past hundred–’

A thunder, then not even a second after a powerful beam of darkened energy shone on the outside, turning all their heads in that direction. Ahof and Hiruk sprung up on their feet immediately, whereas Joxal more carefully closed the book on his Interface. Then, all three went towards the oblique windows to try and spot what was happening. Lozeam was more shocked than he would have hoped, but eventually he also moved to see what was going on.

‘Dark One…’ Ahof whispered, not even himself believing what he was seeing.

‘How can this be? How can they survive if their… Look out!’ Joxal eventually screamed as another beam of darkened energy lashed out from the clouds, but this time in their direction.

The four Paragons, even with their enhanced reflexes, barely had time to duck below the windows, which were immediately shattered by the beam. When they looked up, they saw him - a large figure, blacker than the darkest night, with eyes shining a deep red. His head was adorned with four sharp horns, but not sharper than the claws and the edges of his reptilian wings. His body was covered in… nothing, being more grotesque than they even imagined a Dark One could be.

They slowly got up, ready to hit hard and mercilessly. The fiend turned around towards them, smiling through a sharp set of teeth.

‘Welcome to your new world!’ he snarled at them, gesticulating wide with both arms. ‘Now, who is the first who wants to swear his allegiance to our new lord?’

The Paragons looked around for a moment, then…

They struck. Almost at the same time, with near-perfect precision and coordination.

The fiend did not have time to react properly, being blasted by four beams of pure light coming from the Paragons’ hands.

‘Help me, brothers!’ he screamed in agony, being pushed into the wall.

From outside, the two other Dark Ones reached the opening left by the shattered windows immediately. The Paragons heard their landing on the edge of the frames, but as they tried to blast away with their other hands towards them, the Dark Ones also attacked. With unparalleled viciousness they lunged towards Hiruk and Joxal, who were between the other two. The Paragons had to stop firing in the first Dark One and tried to free themselves as they were grabbed and taken away to separate sides in the large room. The first fiend, although hurt, propelled himself with his feet against the wall and pushed himself out the window, forcing Ahof and Lozeam to protect themselves telekinetically from the force of his wings. The two Initiates immediately readjusted and started floating through the air, following him.

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In the tower, the other two were exchanging blows with the Dark Ones who flew in from outside, Joxal being pushed in some consoles and Hiruk on the floor.

‘Come one, little one!’ the one holding Joxal snarled. ‘Stop struggling. Let me give you a kiss!’ as he was trying to bite him.

‘Begone, disgusting fiend!’ Joxal retorted.

And as he kept on blocking his claws with his own hands, he tried to focus the light out of them but it was erratic and too weak.

‘You must realize that you are doomed!’ the Dark One screeched towards him again.

‘I. Think. Not.’

And as he finalized the word, he let the light burst through his eyes and mouth, striking the demon in his smug face and pushing him through the air to the opposite side of the room.

Joxal, however, was immediately affected by the amount of energy from that surge, feeling his vision fading in and out and holding to the console to dear life, in order to be able to stand. He managed to see Hiruk exchanging blows with the other Dark One, this time one his feet.

While Joxal managed to push the devil away, on the other side of the room, Hiruk was struggling with the other one who was also trying to bite him. He kept on dodging away from his maw, and eventually, when the demon stopped to readjust, he blocked his attacks with a telekinetic shield, which the demon did not like, throwing Hiruk to the side in the wall. That gave him just enough time to get up and start fighting properly. That’s what Joxal managed to see.

While this transpired the demon who was thrown through the air by the eletrex, tried gaining the necessary balance in his body to be able to stand. He had deep burns across his face, neck and a bit of his chest, but was still able to fight. He pushed himself on his feet and in the end, by holding on to a console he managed to keep upright. Joxal was still catching his breath, and as the demon glanced towards his brethren and then towards the eletrex, it seemed that he finally was able to recover enough to strike again. Hiruk noticed this and as he tried to focus the light out of his left hand to shoot him, he was immediately struck by the other one, who slashed his arm.

‘Joxal, watch ou–’

‘Focus on me, little one! Focus one meee!’ the Dark One in front of him yelled, desperately.

The beam of light from Hiruk hit the other one, giving Joxal more time to readjust. His vision was still a blur, but he felt the lightheadedness starting to fade. As he heard the warning from Hiruk, he decided to let go of his physical senses and be one with the Creator. He let it be and, in a second, he felt the demon lunging towards him again. That’s when he moved out of the way, just in time to let the foul creature hit his head in the old consoles in there. Now, it was Joxal’s time to strike.

He lifted both his arms in an instant and let the most powerful beam of light of his lifetime fly from them. Doubled by the telekinetic power he was also enforcing on to him through the same arms, the Dark One stood no chance. When Joxal opened his eyes, he only saw a burned, large body on the floor, with a hole in his chest. He looked around, immediately. Hiruk was still fighting the other one. He tried lifting his arms again, but he felt exhausted. His eyes became heavy and then, darkness…

Hiruk noticed the extremely powerful attack Joxal managed to use on the other one. The one in front of him, however, was much faster since he did not sustain any heavy injuries. He tried overpowering him, but it seemed that even though he was a bit stronger than him, the fiend was too slippery for his liking. He thought that maybe he could tire him out, but when he saw Joxal fall to the ground, he decided to change tactics.

He risked more, leaving more of an opening in his enhanced strikes. Which cost him somewhat, since the demon, although took a few hits and was beginning to tremble, also managed to slash him two more times over the torso. Now, he succeeded in pushing him towards the windows, and when the devil tried kicking him with his hooves to get some more needed distance between them, Hiruk managed to grab his leg. With tremendous telekinetic force he struck with his arm, making the devil scream in pain, as the leg was now broken. He then let it go, teleported to the side, and ripped the metal bar which was once in between the windows with his telekinesis. The demon was still holding the leg, and as he was unfocused, Hiruk pushed the metal object through his back, where he thought the heart would be. As the metal bar exited through the front, the demon spat black blood and tried turning towards him, but Hiruk had other plans. He spun and then… He kicked his head so hard that his neck snapped to the right. With that the Dark One was no more in his physical form, which fell on to the floor, lifeless. Then Hiruk went quickly over to Joxal, to check on his vitals.

In the meantime, on the outside of the tower, the other two Paragons were finishing the fight against the last remaining demon. They first had to land outside, in the small clearing surrounding the tower, while the demon was focusing on gathering in an orb between his hands. Not even one second after their feet touched the ground, the fiend up above released the ball of energy and as it crashed into the grass, it transformed into an explosion, engulfing Ahof and Lozeam. The fiend smirked, maliciously. He was expecting them to survive, however, but not to remain as strong as before. He was annoyed, to say the least, when he saw both the bahnua and the azpdeg standing properly, unscathed, with shining auras surrounding them.

He snarled and sent two beams of crackling, dark energy from his hands towards them. The two, almost simultaneously blocked the beams of energy with their own Soul Powers and they teleported after a few seconds of keeping up the appearance of struggling. They fired back immediately and, as the fiend focused on dodging their strikes, he tried shooting back from the air, but it was difficult against two moving targets; since both Paragons fired and teleported from time to time to keep him guessing.

Sadly for the Dark One, as he tried to turn in midair, he did not manage to calculate the trajectory of one of Lozeam’s blasts, which hit him right in one of his wings. He was then, almost in an instant, blasted by Ahof as well in the lateral side of the torso and began to plummet to the ground. As he fell, Lozeam sent a message to Ahof and they both teleported near the place where they estimated he would land. Just half a second before he hit the ground, they let loose of their powers in a combined telekinetic wave that crashed into the trees nearby, taking the fiend with it.

Now, he was lying on the deep-green grass, next to a deciduous tree, apparently unconscious. The Paragons approached, calmly, and caught him in a telekinetic bubble, which restrained his movement. He was woken up by a telekinetic slap from Ahof, who then shrugged after Lozeam gave him a curious look. Seeing that his powers are weakened and he could not escape the grasp of the two Paragons he started cursing them. After a few seconds of unbelievable threats and swears, as he stopped to catch his breath, Ahof spoke, followed by Lozeam.

‘Why are you here? Why now?’

‘And just as important: how are you here? You’re not supposed to be able to take material form. Not after the Demonic Source was destroyed.’

The Dark One smiled, devilishly.

‘Eh, wouldn’t you like to know?’

‘We’ve fought and lost trillions against your kind in the Third Great War,’ Ahof almost shouted, ‘if you’d like to keep your head, I’d suggest you answer properly.’

However intense, he knew that the threat was as empty as the void of space. Since Dark Ones resided outside of the Universe, in Void Space, as spirits and had no physicality unless they chose to. Or, like Lozeam said, used to do that before the energy source, which was their god, was destroyed thousands of years ago during the war.

‘You cannot hope to threaten me with violence. I’ll just go back to where I came from,’ and he laughed again.

It was a dry laugh, but intense as well. The two Paragons looked at one another in a questioning manner, trying to communicate telepathically in order to decide what to do with him. That’s when he started speaking again.

‘Look. You needn’t worry. You’re not going to experience this Universe for long in this form.’

The two Paragons gave him long looks, squinting a bit.

‘What do you mean?’

‘He is coming. The Reckoning will happen soon and your puny Creator won’t be able to stop him.’

‘Who…’ Lozeam tried to speak, but immediately realized who the devil was talking about.

‘You know who.’

A moment of silence.

‘The Supreme Dark One. The Interloper…’ Lozeam almost whispered

The demon showed his teeth in the widest smile he performed so far.

‘And with him the End is near,’ the fiend continued.

Another moment of silence, in which the disgust on their faces was certain and clear. After a few more seconds, Ahof managed to speak again.

‘Lies… They’re all lies…’

‘The Supreme Dark One was killed with the Demonic Source,’ Lozeam tried to explain, ‘since they could not exist without one another. He’s gone. He’s never returning’

‘Sure,’ the demon retorted. ‘And this is just a bad dream of yours. I’m not really here, am I?’

Another pause, another moment of silence.

‘Now, jokes aside. His power is greater than you’d have thought. And he will return.’

‘No. That’s not…’ and the Ahof went silent.

The demon gave him a smug look and then cackled.

‘Enjoy these little victories. They are your last…’

And with that, he began mumbling something in a language the Paragons did not speak. As he did so, the Initiates were caught a bit off-guard, but steeled themselves. They focused to understand him, to feel the words and their hidden meaning and soon got a clear message - sacrifice. One for a bad cause, of course, a false one, but it still meant what they thought it meant.

Ahof tried saying something, while Lozeam wanted to block his mouth but it was too late. With a simple, finalizing word - Zomutox - the eyes of the fiend began shining in a black shade and as it did so, Lozeam transmitted mentally a simple word as well to Ahof - ‘Push!’.

The Paragons pushed the fiend away in the forest, through the trees, trying to put as much distance between them and– The body exploded. Not even a second passed and dark energy lashed out towards them, propelling them backwards, and forcing them to use the energy shields they had in their arsenal of abilities.

After being thrown half the clearing, they managed to eventually get up and readjust a bit.

‘Well, that was fun,’ Ahof was the first one to speak.

Lozeam did not reply, but was just staring towards the sky.

‘How can this be? Dark Ones? Again?’ Ahof continued slightly more intensely than before.

Lozeam scratched one of his skull crests and kept silent for a bit more.

‘I’m sure you know just as much as I do. But do you have any theories?’ Ahof insisted.

‘I… I don’t know....’

That’s when they heard Hiruk calling their names. They looked upwards to see him and Joxal - who seemed to have recovered somewhat - floating telekinetically towards them. When they reached the other two Paragons, the eletrex was the one to speak.

‘Well, that was unexpected… I take it the smoldering crater in the forest was created by the Dark One?’

‘Indeed,’ Ahof replied. ‘He probably thought of taking us to the Beyond if he would have died anyway.’

‘By the Creator…’ Hiruk started, ‘I never thought I’d see Dark Ones in my lifetime.’

‘Probably none of us did,’ Ahof continued.

And when he was about to continue, that’s when they felt it. The peace and love of the Creator, changing them, shifting the unruly pieces of their souls in place. They felt as if their whole world was being torn down, every fear, insecurity or angst was annihilated and as the walls of negativity and malevolence were broken, a bright light manifested itself above them, like a sudden surge of energy in the form of an ovoid. That’s when the Being began to ‘speak’.

The present which you all wish for will be here soon. You are now free from your mask. I give you the gift of being whole again.

All four of them looked up at the ovoid. The Being exuded a white light, purer than a sunny summer day’s cloud. Then, the Being spoke again.

Who you were until now was just a small fraction of who you really are. If you accept my gifts you will become even truer Beacons of the Word and Champions of Light.

They began to feel it, and soon after the Being offered them the choice of accessing their own conscience, they accepted. First, it was Lozeam who connected himself to the Being, followed by Hiruk, Joxal and Ahof.

Please accept my gifts of light and love. They will allow you to regain what you’ve decided to disconnect from, to hide yourselves from the people of this galaxy.

Four beams of pure, diaphanous energy began to be manifested by the Being towards the four. Feelings and unknown aspects of their soul were being unlocked; and so, they truly felt one with the Creator. They felt reinvigorated, renewed, themselves. For the first time in their lives, they knew who they were and what they had to do.

You’ll be the light between the shadows; the hope in the desert of despair; the love in the deep ocean of hate; the will in the valley of doubts. You will climb through the years of flesh into eternal life and live eternity in the withering body. You will be yourselves with the Creator by your sides.

A blinding light formed out of a sudden, encompassing each and every one of the four, in body, intellect, and spirit, and then in a blink of an eye, they were gone, leaving the watchtower lonelier than before.