Waking in the morning, Zycor sat up in his bed, nursing his head. He opened his eyes and saw Novos Lying next to him, sound asleep. Zycor softly chuckled and gently pet Novos. He slipped out of bed and stretched his arms. He felt a lot better after having been allowed to tell someone exactly how he felt. Someone who was able to relate to his pain.
With a clap of his hands, Novos jumped into the air, landing on the bed and bouncing onto the floor. Zycor looked over and asked, “Oops, Sorry Novos!”
Novos poked his head up above the bed and gave a huff, quickly retreating back behind the bed. “Oh come on buddy, I apologized. Besides, today is the day my gauntlets are supposed to be done!”
Zycor was only met with a puff of smoke from the opposite side of the bed. “Tell ya what,” He began, “we are going to have a big dinner tonight, I promise to treat you to something good.”
Novos swiftly plopped his head onto the bed, staring at Zycor, his eyes narrowed. Zycor rolled his eyes and chuckled, “What, you heard me say I promised. You know I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Novos hopped on the bed and approached Zycor, growing smaller. He jumped on Zycor’s shoulder then draped himself around Zycor’s neck, his tail slightly wagging. Zycor chuckled, giving Novos a pet on the head and left the room. He was greeted by Baz, Mylon and Aisha who were waiting for him.
“About time ya woke up sleeping beauty!” Baz chortled.
Mylon hit him on the head, scolding, “Keep the jokes to yourself until after we have woken up properly.”
“Make me, magic for brains!”
“Gladly…”
Baz and Mylon stared daggers at each other, both ready to start a brawl. Aisha stepped between the two of them trying to diffuse the situation, “Yes yes, you are both very big, strong guys, now can we go? I think Zy’s growing impatient.”
The two of them looked over at Zycor who was fidgeting a bit, excited about his new weapons. They looked back at each other and began to laugh. The party left to head towards Pon’s shop. While Aisha, Baz and Mylon bantered and bickered, Zycor was lost in his own thoughts.
“Are you going to tell them?” Zweicor inquired.
“I am going to wait for us all to be together. Then I will let them know.” Zycor thought in response, a tinge of unease in his tone.
Finally making it to Pons place, Lizali waved out front with a smile on her face, “Guys, over here! They look awesome!”
Zycor put his thoughts on hold as he picked up the pace, eager to see his new weapons. Turning the corner into the doorway, his eyes widened. Pon, with a massive grin, stood behind the two gauntlets resting on the table. “Feast your eyes on my masterpiece!” He began, beside himself with pride, “I doubt I will ever make something better than these. Then again, I doubt I will ever get my hands on a material better than that Unobtainium. I fused magnecite with the Unobtainium to make larger ingots, incorporating the properties of both materials. The sleek silver finish may look plain, but once you put them on and supply them with magic power, that silver begins to shimmer with the multi-colored look of the Unobtainium! Of course, I made sure to use that same alloy with the blades. That material made it super easy to configure everything too! I was even able to hide all of the fragile components of the mechanisms within the gauntlet, so no exposed parts to be exploited.”
Zycor walked to the counter and picked one of the gauntlets up and asked, “Can I still make them smaller?”
“Of course! The properties of Unobtanium seem to mimic much of what is put into it, so it should mimic the properties of the magnecite.” Pon explained.
Zycor passed some mana into the gauntlets to shrink them. As he did, a spark was felt and it felt like time stopped. The world around him went black, leaving him in a void. He began to frantically look around, eventually seeing someone, something in the distance. Focusing on it, he saw that it was a humanoid figure bound in chains and unable to move. Despite it being restrained, Zycor still felt something sinister and dangerous coming from it. “What is that?” Zycor asked aloud.
The chained beings' head lifted up and its eyes slowly opened. It looked at Zycor and its smile tore straight through to its ears as its mouth began to open. “Zycor! Drop the gauntlet, now!”
The chains began to rattle and the being began to try and wrestle itself free. Zycor dropped the gauntlet, staggering backwards. His heart beating out of his chest, Zycor took deep breaths as he stared at the gauntlet.
“The hell was that!?” Zweicor cried, surprise and terror in his voice
“I don’t know! But it felt like something was drawing it to us… or us to him?” Zycor responded, equally as shaken and baffled.
“This has X written all over it.”
“You think he could do something like this?”
“I mean, he was able to beat mom.”
“...”
“Sorry.”
Mylon grabbed Zycor’s shoulders and shook him, “Hey, Zy! You ok?!”
Snapping out of his daze Zycor looked around the room, everyone with expressions of concern and worry on their faces. Composing himself the best he could, Zycor replied, “Y-yeah, I’m good. Just thought I saw something.”
He reached down cautiously and picked the gauntlet up, but that feeling didn’t return. Taking a deep breath, he poured some mana into it to try and shrink it one more time and it worked without issue. Assuming it was just his nerves getting the better of him, he swept the thought to the back of his mind. Although, he was unable to shake the feeling that something was coming, something far more dangerous than anything he had encountered so far.
Silently, he walked over and retrieved the other gauntlet. “Thanks, Mr. Pon, they feel and look great. I truly appreciate the time and effort you put into making these. But please excuse me.” Zycor hurriedly thanked.
Zycor turned and exited the shop with a determined look on his face. Pon raised an eyebrow, “Did somethin’ happen with the lad?”
Everyone save from Nalea shook their head no, While the latter’s eyes softened momentarily. Her expression quickly returned to normal and she quickly and quietly vanished from the shop as well, following Zycor.
“Headed to Lathal?” Zweicor asked.
Zycor responded, explaining, “Yeah. I don’t know whether that vision was fake or a premonition, but I have a bad feeling. He had mentioned something about a powerful magic locked away. Maybe if I ask him, I can get some information about it.”
He soon arrived at Lathal’s residence and Zycor knocked on the door. When Lathal answered it, he was clearly hungover and in a grouchy mood, “Huh? Kid? The hell are you doing here so early? What are you doing here at all? Our training ended because you were leaving, right?”
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“Mr. Lathal, I remember you had mentioned briefly about a magic you learned about with incredible power. Could you teach it to me?”
Holding his head as he thought, Lathal recalled the conversation Zycor was referring to, “Ah, apologies kid, I never got my hands on it. It’s only a rumor among those who study the pre-age of war era.”
Observing the concern and worry in Zycor’s body language, Lathal let out a sigh, “Oh boy. Come inside kid, I’ll tell you what I know, though it’s not much.”
Zycor nodded confidently and entered his abode. They both took a seat, Lathal with some medicine for the hangover, “Alright, first things first, take what I am about to tell you with a grain of salt. Again, this is mere conjecture between pre-age of war scholars I happened to be privy to listening in on. Are you aware of the massive city that lies in the middle of the continent?”
Zycor thought for a moment, “I think my friend Aisha told me about it, Tavilla or something right?”
“‘Torvalla’ actually. That city is protected by a magical barrier devised from technology and magic that our current society could never hope to replicate. This is most likely due to it being the culmination of both the elf's magic and the human’s technology and knowledge. The city is in pristine condition, free of any corruption. However, there are horrors that surround the city, almost like they are guarding it. After many years of research and discussion, the general consensus among those scholars is that contained within the city are powerful, lost magics. And according to the very few, illegal to own documents, there is a magic meant for emergency use only. The ancient documents are written in a very complex script that is still being deciphered, but due to the scarcity and hard to acquire nature of the texts, building a complete translation proves to be difficult. But from what they were able to decipher, the magic's purpose is to ‘stop the end’ whatever that means. I heard them talk about there being more information in one of Itzal’s dungeons. There’s one not too far from here you could delve into if you really wanted to. However, it has been about fifty years since the last Itzal dungeon was cleared. Those things are vicious, even put me into a few situations where I was nearly killed.”
Zycor was about to respond dismissively about the claims as well, but then stopped when he thought of Mr. X and the creature in his vision that bore the same feeling as the former. Zycor asked hastily, “So what, are the so-called ‘horrors’ the only thing keeping people out?”
Lathal could see that Zycor was thinking he could dash past the horrors and make it to the city. He sighed as he asked, “Were you listening kid? There are the horrors and a barrier. That barrier is the main problem. The horrors cannot enter the city, sure, but neither can anyone else. And you can’t clear out the horrors and then try to test things on the barrier. Those abominations regenerate and come back regardless of how you kill them.”
As Zycor’s mind raced, he fixed onto one point Lathal made, “You said ‘most’ people, right? That implies there are some people who can.”
Lathal shook his head, “That is true, but it’s just a rumor, legend, a myth if you will. Supposedly the bloodline of the first hero is still around and the descendents of that person should be able to gain entry. But, to my knowledge, the people thought to be his descendants were killed off some years ago. Apparently, after saving their nation from many catastrophes and traveling the world quelling the wars of many demi-human tribes to prevent them from wreaking havoc, they were given the title of ‘heroes.’ And after that, they settled down in a remote village of no notable worth or mention. I guess someone was not too keen on letting them live, and they were killed along with their family. But man, the stories I heard about the heroes, I heard they trained regularly by fighting the horrors around Torvalla.”
Lathal stood up to bring his now empty cup to his sink and began to wash it, “But hey, if you're lucky, maybe the rumors floating around about one of their kids getting away is true and you’ll find him. You could probably make him help ya if you really wanted.”
Zycor, his eyes wide, sat stunned. He stammered, “E-excuse me… D-do you know the n-names of those heroes?”
Lathal looked back puzzled, “You don’t? I thought for certain everyone knew. Their names were Mira and Barlo.”
Zycor stood up slowly, extraordinarily unnerved. As he shambled out of the house, Zycor said, “Thanks for the info, Mr. Lathal.”
The door quickly shut behind him while Lathal responded, “No prob… lem. Huh, that seemed to rattle him a bit. I suppose it was all pretty shocking though.”
“Hey… Zy.”
Zycor, bubbling anger in his voice, responded aloud, “What.”
“We’re gonna kill every Velathrian we see, agreed?”
“No exceptions.”
“Then you know we have to leave her behind.”
“I am aware, Zwei. I am headed to take care of it now.”
Zycor saw his friends standing outside Pon’s shop talking and arguing. As he approached, he had a serious expression on his face. “Hey Zy, where’d you run off too?” Mylon inquired.
“Yeah, you sort of left us hanging.” Aisha chimed in.
Zycor walked past them and explained, “I was gathering information about something I need to end Mr. X. I have it now, so we are leaving.”
Baz and Mylon looked at each other, feeling something was off as they began to follow. Aisha caught up and matched Zycor’s pace asking, “Hey, why are you so serious?”
Lizali did the same, “Yeah, this isn’t like you. You should be smiling more!”
With the wagon in view, Zycor stopped suddenly, putting his arm out to stop Lizali. When everyone else had passed, he slightly pushed her back a bit and, his back turned to her, said, “Lizali, you are going to stay here. I can’t have you coming with us.”
Everyone stopped in shock. Lizali, stunned, chuckled as she asked, “W-what do you mean, Zy? Would I be intruding?”
Zycor grit his teeth as he forced the words he disagreed with out, “Yes, you would be. I’m sorry to say, but having you with us would be nothing but a hindrance.”
“Hey, Zycor, what the hell are you saying!?” Aisha shouted.
“Zycor, calm down and talk to us. What’s going on?” Mylon asked, just as shocked.
Baz looked at Zycor and sighed, “Zycor, I am going to wait in the wagon. You do what you have to.”
“Z-Zy, why would you say that? A-and why are you using my full name?” Lizali questioned, shaken and hurt to her core.
“Lizali, I have come to realize something crucial. I care for you immensely. More than words can describe. More than I had even realized myself. This was made evident when you told me to spare those Velathrian knights. I place an immense amount of trust in you and your words, which is probably why I had listened to you.” Zycor began to explain, his head drooping down slightly.
“And that is why I have to come with you!”
“That’s why you can’t come with me!” Zycor shouted, his voice pained, “That boy you remember, he isn’t here. I am not him anymore. If you came with us, the memory of that boy would be forever lost, replaced with the monster I have become. My mission, what I have to do, I can’t have you coming along only to make me second guess myself.”
Zycor paused, tears falling to the ground, “If you come with us, you might die, and I couldn’t handle that. I need you to preserve the memory of that innocent boy, so when I come back, I may be able to revive him.”
Mylon, understanding, put his hand on Aisha’s shoulder, “We need to head to the wagon.”
Aisha tried to struggle, “N-no, Mylon! We have to stop this! We-.”
Mylon put his hand over her mouth and took her to the wagon by force. With Lizali and Zycor alone now, the former asked, “Zy, you can’t…”
“Lizali, please… Stay here.” Zycor said, tears continuing to fall, “I have to kill these people, or else it will never end. I can’t have you getting in the way of that and having that decision end up with someone getting hurt…” Zycor turned to look at Lizali, “I can’t have that person be you.”
Both of them remained silent as Lizali began to cry. Zycor turned around and began to head towards the wagon, “Good-bye Lizali. Please, even if I don’t return, live a long and happy life.”
As Zycor passed the threshold of the village, Lizali grit her teeth and, tears streaming down her face yelled, “Do you really think I was going to accept that!?”
She pulled on a cord on her backpack and a rod popped out. She caught it and put mana into it as it began to glow. She then threw it above Zycor. It exploded above his head. He stopped and looked back at her, his eyes now resolute and dead, his heart locked away until the mission was complete.
Lizali smiled as tears rolled down her face, “If you want to leave me behind, then you will have to prove you are right! That I don’t have what it takes to take care of myself! Fight me!”
Zycor’s eye color shifted from green to gray as he extended his finger towards Lizali. Aisha cried, “Zycor, what are you doing?! Stop!”
Ignoring her pleas, Zweicor, now in control, somberly uttered, “Converge.” As lightning swirled around his pointer finger a blast of lightning erupted forth, ripping through the air and striking Lizali’s backpack, obliterating it.
As it crumbled off her back, Lizali fell to her knees as Zweicor looked coldly at her, “I’m sorry, Liz. This is reality, cruel and unforgiving.”
He turns to resume walking towards the wagon, his eyes reverting to Zycor’s evergreen color. He boards the wagon, Baz driving, and they set off. As the wagon trails up the winding road out of the cavern, Lizali watches on, tears streaming down her face. She reaches out towards it, a vision of the happy young boy she remembered flashing in her mind, “Please… don’t go.”