The wizard’s steps echoed in the stairway as he ascended to the surface and prepared to tell his companions of the good news, to share the power with them.
Behind him, the blue crystals that faintly illuminated the accursed temple slowly went out one by one, as their millennial watch finally came to an end.
The darkness approached and began to envelop the wizard. As it did, he brought his staff upwards and proclaimed the magic that was rightfully his.
“Parhon, light,” he said as he conjured in his head the element of light and enhanced it with the power of his will.
A great, bright light shone from the orb atop his brass staff and illuminated the stairs that led to the surface.
The wizard glanced towards his staff. As he looked at the glowing orb, he could not help but let out a smile as he saw his power finally being manifested. As his soul and confidence was renewed by the shining light, the light itself shone even stronger, a perfect mirror of his determination.
As the wizard emerged from the depths of the earth, he noticed the sun had already vanished. Night had arrived, but something was off. Back on the surface, he did not see his companions. Didn't see any hint of a campfire or any light or signal in the dark of the night. Perhaps most concerning of all, he couldn't see the sky either.
There were no stars, no moon or light source anywhere around him. Only a dark and empty reality stretched out to the unknowable infinity of space. Alone, the wizard remained the only source of light. Even that light flickered as fear took hold of the wizard.
“Griff! Fi!” Thalon called out to the empty ruins as he began running towards the shapeless darkness. “Eren! Cila! Anyone?” His echo was engulfed by the void.
Thalon stopped as he stood by the edge of the ruins and where the stone ended. To his shock he saw that the world did too. There was no dirt, no mud, no accursed unending Silent Plain that stretched to the horizon. As the wizard finally became aware of his surroundings, he realized where he was.
The temple ruins floated ever so precariously in an empty dark void. Below him, darkness beckoned him to jump. The light of his staff flickered and he wondered what had happened. Who had done this? And where were his companions?
He had no time to gather his will, however. Behind him, an unknown force pushed him. As he lost his grip, the wizard tripped and fell into the dark void below.
He held tightly to his staff. As he tried to scream, he realized he had no voice. He focused his mind, tried to call to parhon and the element of air, but nothing came. He had no voice and he had no power. As he tried to focus on parhon itself, on his soul to save him, it was too late. The wizard forcefully met the sand below him. As another crater was formed by the wizard, he realized that he had survived. He had no broken bones, no ruptured muscles or body failure. But as he stood up and saw where he was, he wished he had died right there and then.
The ruins of the temple above were gone. All around him, the Null Desert welcomed him to its infinite despair. The pitch-black sky above contrasted the shifting, ocean-like white dunes below.
The sands began to shift and roll, and the wizard felt the floor taken from underneath him. He was set adrift in the vast and endless Null Desert as the dunes carried him against his will to parts unknown.
He held his staff. He tried to call out, tried to use his parhon, but his voice was still gone and as he screamed to the heavens to use his magic, nothing came out. No sound raised itself to the black, empty sky. No grain of sand, no passing wind even dared to make a noise against the true horror and emptiness of the desert.
Then, the shifting abruptly stopped and the wizard began to slide down the great white dune. When he stopped, it brought him no relief, only more suffering as his shoulder was pierced by the tip of a black spike sprouting out from the sand. His blood spilled against the white sand and dripped into the black spike.
As the blood met the black spike, the entire desert stood to attention and reeled in fear as the lord of the domain revealed himself.
The wizard was pushed back against the sand. As he continued to hold on to his bleeding shoulder, he watched in horror as the spike erupted from the sand and thrust itself to the heavens. The black stone spike gave way to a familiar stone menhir. As it towered itself to the empty heavens, Thalon saw the rock of his nightmares become a reality.
Runes and symbols on the black masonry began to glow a foreboding red. The wizard grabbed his staff and tried to lift himself. He tried to run away from the black brick, but the sands fought against him and tried to keep him down.
He began to scurry away. He gathered his strength and climbed away from the white pit where the cursed stone emerged from. As he fought against the moving sands, a familiar voice broke through the absolute silence and spoke to him.
“Thalon . . . I found you at last,” the voice called out as the wizard turned his head and faced fear. Horror set itself in the wizard's eyes as he quickly averted his gaze from the misshapen haze emerging from the pillar behind him. Images of brutality, despair, and terror flooded his soul.
His mind was clouded by his worst fears and nightmares and his parhon struggled to keep him alive. An ancient instinct took over his body as he was bombarded with the void-borne images. His parhon permeated his body. Against the will of the lord of horror and fear and the desert itself, the wizard leaped and climbed out of the white dune.
In the distance, the wizard saw something out of place reveal itself. A village of white sand brick stood against the shapeless white desert.
The wizard ran towards it. As his blood continued to drip down to the white sand below him, the desert and the wind pushed against him, trying to bring him back to their lord. Nialasach's haze continued to grow and slowly began to engulf the entire desert.
The wizard arrived in the odd village in the realm of the god of fear and horror. To Thalon’s shock, he saw the profile of humans in it, going about their work and chores.
He ran to the center of the village. As he continued to bleed on their shifting floors, the mute wizard reached for the villagers, signaling for help.
As the villagers turned towards him, Thalon saw that their heads were nothing but an empty canvas of flesh and skin. He fell to the floor at the grotesque sight.
The faceless villagers ignored him as they continued on their routes and chores. The wizard stood up. Without a voice, he screamed at them. He touched them and tried to move them, but it was useless.
He kept bleeding. No matter what he tried to say or do, he made no sound and they did not acknowledge him. The wizard despaired in silent agony as the faceless strangers moved on with their lives, oblivious to the suffering before them.
“Thalon.” A familiar voice cried out from deep in the desert.
The wizard followed it. As he left the village and entered the Null Desert again, he saw Griff and his companions calling for him from atop a flowing white dune.
A great smile set itself upon the wizard. He ran to it and the winds and sand helped him to it. He tried to call out, but again, his voice was gone.
He reached the top of the dune. As he approached his friends, they greeted and held him.
“Thalon, are you alright?” Griff called out as he grabbed him.
“We were so worried,” Cila cried as she approached the wizard.
“He's hurt! Let me take care of it,” Fiona said as she approached the wizard to inspect his wound.
The wizard tried to talk, tried to make a sound, anything, but it was useless.
As he was held by his companions, he felt as his strength slowly returned. In his heart and soul, the parhon began to reinvigorate him as his hope was renewed.
The monk held him. With a soft and reassuring tone, he said, ”Don't worry. We'll help you.”
Suddenly, a sharp feeling of pain coursed and through the wizard's entire body. He looked to his side to see Fiona stabbing him in his wound.
“We'll purify you of that heresy yet,” Griff called out as Thalon noticed their pale skin.
“You got a little bug in you, Pointy Hat. Don't worry, I'll take it out!” Fiona cried out as she dug into the wizard's shoulder. Mute screams flowed within him.
“It'll all be over soon, Master Thalon.” Eren held the wizard in place as he struggled.
“Should have killed me when you had the chance, weakling,” Cila hissed as she brought her dagger forward and began to wave it above Thalon's body.
The wizard struggled as his companions tore at his wound and his soul. The wind violently blasted the group and as they were washed by the violent winds and sands, Thalon saw as their flesh was torn apart. In their place, their carcasses revealed the lord of horror and fear.
The wizard fell onto the floor of the white dune and saw. Above him, from a miasma of darkness, Nialasach the god of horror and fear, revealed himself to him.
He stood tall over Thalon, dwarfing the monolith of blackstone farther into the Null Desert.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
He was covered in a cloak of pure darkness that meshed with the sky and seemed to extend over the entire firmament. His head was filled with holes and his flesh putrid. From it, two dark empty sockets stared back at the helpless wizard.
He spoke up, his voice echoing through the empty desert, as his neck unnaturally extended itself and his head began to circle Thalon.
“Thought you could escape from me?”
Thalon struggled as he smelled decaying flesh all around him. “You made a mess at the palace. No words of defiance? What's the matter? Cat's got your tongue?” the lord of horror and fear said as an ear-piercing sting broke through the wizard’s ears.
“No matter, words only get in the way of our work.” Black tendrils of mist began to lift Thalon high up, toward the lord of horror as Nialasach reeled his head back.
“I wasn't sure back then, but now I know. Yes, you will make a fine servant of fear and horror,” the god said. In his mist-like hands, the wizard mouthed a few silent words.
“What was that?” the god mocked. He moved his tendrils to give the wizard his voice again.
With a damaged and raspy tone, the wizard said. “I serve the truth and the kin.”
“The truth? The truth!” the lord of horror repeated in a mocking tone. “My poor, poor child. There is nothing more frightening in this world than the truth. He got to you, didn't he? That jumped-up pilgrim, Sigurd, got to you first. I can smell the book stench from you.”
The wizard held the staff in his hand. As the god noticed it he said, “He told you about it, didn't he?. It won't be enough. You think that was the entire truth? Oh my child, there is so much you don't know.” The lord closed his mist hand and violently threw the wizard against the desert sand. As the wizard met the sand, he continued to hold onto his key as he looked upwards to the dark sky and stained the sand next to him with his blood.
“You want the truth?! You will have it! Open your eyes, child!” the lord of horror said as his arms extended forth and he forcefully kept the wizard's eyes opened. He made him stare towards the sky and he revealed the truth to him. The god opened his mouth and let out a high-pitched cry that echoed through the desert. The empty black sky changed and Thalon saw the stars reveal themselves again.
“You think your quest is just? You think you matter in the plans of the gods and those above. You, Thalon, are nothing but a pebble among the grains of sand in this endless desert.”
Thalon felt the sand below him begin to engulf him. Slowly, he began to sink.
“Whether you die, whether you live, whether you succeed, whether you fail. It does not matter. In the end, everything dies . . . even the stars.
As Thalon began to sink, the stars slowly disappeared, some in great explosions while others simply petered out and disappeared into nothingness. Soon enough, the starry sky was gone and the darkness of the null desert returned.
As sand covered his head, he heard as the god said, “Everything returns to the void. Everything must one day end. That is the truth and there's nothing you can do about it.”
The sand covered the wizard. All around him was darkness and as he slowly fell to the abyss below, he felt his life slowly drain away.
It wouldn't be long until the air was drained from him. Was this all that was meant to happen? He had freed the kin. Had his adventure come to an end? The thoughts stirred within. He thought back to his friends and wondered what had happened to them, what Lord Nialasach had done to them. The thought moved him, but as he thought on it, he thought back to the lord of fear's words.
“Everything ends? Perhaps. Everything returns to the Void? It could be. Where do the gods’ souls go when they die?” The last thoughts of his conscious mind raced in his head. He wondered at the meaning of it all and lamented not being able to find out. But then, something awoke him again. He thought back to what Fiona had told him when they buried the legionary. “Everything dies? No . . . everything is reborn.”
He thought back to the kin, thought back to the elemental sacrifices who died and were reborn as the elements that promised him freedom and salvation. He thought back to his studies, to when he was a young child and the memory played yet again in his mind.
“But even the stars fall,” the young child Thalon said as he recoiled from being reprimanded by his monk teacher. The man looked at him with a frustrated and angry glare, but he relented and tried to reason with the child as he said.
“Yes, Thalon, the stars fall. But as they do, another will appear to take its place. Look at the sky, it is always the same. So yes, Thalon. The gods may one day fall. They may one day fail to protect us and care for us, but when they do, something else will rise and save us from the evils of the world. For reality will always find balance.”
The words reverberated within the wizard’s soul. They energized and electrified him and in the shapeless vast darkness all around him, the wizard did not find nothing.
He felt as his soul was born anew. The words, experiences, truth, everything up until this point drove him forward. In that black abyss, the simple gesture and small will, the minuscule ember of hope in the diminished flickering staff, shone bright and blinded everything below it.
He took hold of his own soul and destiny. He focused his mind, called to the word of power, and said slightly under his breath, ”Parhon, light … fire.”
The small light from the staff exploded in a violent combustion of hope. The dark abyss was expelled as the entire dune was blown away above him. Sand and wind swayed in shock and the lord of fear turned around and the wizard defying him and the rules of his reality.
Thalon stood atop a circle of light as bright flame emanated from his staff. Although he barely remained up, he raised his wounded arm and defiantly fixed his hat as the lord of fear stared in horror.
The god brought his hands forward and prepared to claw and at the wizard. His fingers elongated themselves and turned to giant blades of steel, and he screamed. “You insolent child! Didn't you hear? Everything must one day die!”
As he approached the wizard, Thalon remained motionless. He looked up from under his hat, he merely said, “And today that's you.”
The god leaped and brought his claws forward and as he hovered in the air and prepared to land on the wizard and forever extinguish the hope of the kin, Under his breath, the wizard let out, “Parhon, earth. Parhon, fire. Parhon.” He held the staff close and to the god’s shock, a barrage of fiery rocks began to fire down on him. As they showered the lord of fear in bruises, he screamed and let out a grunt of pain to the heavens, the first one in eons.
As the rocks continued to pummel the god of horror, the wizard closed his eyes and saw the elements speaking to him. He listened to his soul and arranged them as his body required. He moved his hands in the air and said under his breath, “Parhon, life. Parhon, air. Parhon.”
Suddenly, the wizard was engulfed in a cloud with a shining bright green aura. Above, the meteor shower ended. The lord of fear rose up too and he held his own arm now. The cloud dissipated and he saw that the wizard's wounds had completely healed up.
The wizard rotated and stretched his arm to signal it was in place as he smiled at the god of horror. “Now I'm ready.”
The lord of horror flinched and stepped back as the wizard smiled at him. As Thalon began walking, he said with a devious smile, ”Afraid, Lord Neil?”
The god continued to step back as he began to realize the true power of the kin that Thalon held. “Stay back!” he cried out as he brought his hands forward and began to summon works of cursed black stone masonry that littered his domain.
Towers, temples, houses of brick. The god summoned every dwelling available and began to throw them at the wizard. But it was useless. As the wizard kept walking he simply said, “Parhon.” A great forcefield circled the wizard in a bubble. With a flick of his staff the wizard parried and diverted the various large buildings being thrown at him.
“Where are my friends, Niel?” The wizard said as he continued to slowly approach the lord of fear.
The god ran out of throwables and vanished into himself as he created a cloud of mist.
The wizard was left alone as he eyed his surroundings, looking for any hint of the god. Then suddenly, from behind him, he was taken by surprise as the mist suddenly materialized and enveloped him.
“Got you now!” The lord of horror cried out as he contorted his body around the wizard and slowly began to absorb his essence.
The wizard pushed and fought against him and under his breath he cried out, “Parhon, fire. Parhon!” The wizard's entire body took the properties of flame again and as the god felt his hot touch he dropped him into the white dunes below.
The god of horror reeled and tried to heal from the heat. As he did, the wizard stood back up, grabbed his staff, and ran toward the god as he said under his breath, ”Parhon, air. Parhon, earth. Parhon, fire. Parhon!” The wizard screamed to the black heavens as he leaped into the air. His fist became engulfed in a flaming gauntlet of rock and fire and as the god looked to face the wizard, he was struck right in the face by the wizard's gauntlet.
The entire null desert shook as its god fell and rolled over in the white dunes. He tried to recompose himself and as he stood up, on the opposite side of the dune, the wizard began to slide down the white sands.
“Enough of this!” the god angrily cried out as he brought his hands forward and began to maneuver and control the desert. As the sands shifted and began to be taken from under Thalon's feet, the god yelled to him, “Insolent mortal, die already!”
He began to lose his footing as the black abyss below revealed itself again. He tried to keep up, used his magic to solidify the sand below him, but it was no use. The sand quickly vanished as the desert was engulfed back into Nialasach’s body. As Thalon began to fall to the darkness below, a thought emerged and he tried one last solution.
“Parhon, darkness.” Suddenly, his descent stopped and to the shock of the god now floating in the abyss with Thalon, the wizard controlled the very darkness around him.
“No,” the lord said. “It can't be.”
The wizard freely moved about in the dark abyss. As he coalesced and gathered the darkness around his staff, he said, ”Return to the void!”
“No!” The lord of horror and fear cried out as the wizard gathered his power and prepared to strike at him.
“Parhon, dark. Parhon, light. Parhon!” The wizard's staff gathered and merged light and darkness together, and as his soul’s power coalesced them into one, a simple thought echoed and directed the key.
“Banish him.”
With the power of the light, darkness, and his soul, the staff hit the lord of horror and fear, and against his will, the god Nialasach was banished from the mortal plane, never to return.
As the god left the mortal realm, the world changed. With one of the Obscured Gods banished, throughout the world the kin felt as the dark of the night became less frightful. In forest and wild places, animals, insects, and travelers began to dwell to where they never would have before. The world felt less chaotic and more orderly and in every kin's soul, a feeling of courage rose.
Around him, Thalon saw that as the god was banished, so was the darkness of the abyss and the remnants of the Null Desert. The wizard felt himself falling back down to the world of Vaelia as he saw the Silent Plain below and the ruins of Hopefield. He had no fear this time and a feeling of happiness permeated his entire being. He closed his eyes and gently said under his breath, ”Parhon.”
Suddenly, his descent halted and the wizard gently landed back on the ruins of Hopefield.
There, by the entrance to the underground temple, his companions camped out under the starry sky. All of them were knocked unconscious by the former god of horror and fear.
The wizard grinned as he saw his companions in good health. He gently approached them and began to wake them one by one.
“Pointy Hat?” Fiona said, rubbing her eyes.
“Master Thalon, what happened?” Eren cried out.
“Thal, you are alright!” Cila yelled as she jumped to hug her savior.
“Thalon? What are you holding?” the monk asked as he noticed the staff in the wizard's hand.
Before he could answer, as Thalon hugged back Cila, Fiona said, “What happened to us? Feel like I was stuck in a nightmare.” The rest of the party nodded in agreement.
As he sat back down with his friends, Thalon smiled and said in a warm voice, “A lot has happened. It may take a while to explain.”
“That's alright, we aren't going anywhere,” Griff said with a smile.
The wizard looked upwards to the stars in the sky and said, ”Alright, let's see then.”
The rising sun shone brightly above. The party finished packing their camping supplies and as they stood at the edge of the Hopefield ruins, they gathered together, looking onward to the vast distance.
The party stood behind the wizard, staring at the rising sun and as he stood by his side, the monk sighed.
The wizard looked over to him and asked, ”Still upset, Griff?”
“About missing meeting Lord Sigurd? Of course I am! I'm not gonna miss any other opportunities though, I guarantee you that. Now, for sure, you won't get rid of me.”
The wizard nodded in agreement and said, “I wouldn't have it any other way.”
“It's been quite a hike so far, Pointy Hat. I like it though,” the fernian said with a smile as she sat at the edge and wondered what other wondrous places they would see in their trip.
“Wherever we go now, people are gonna start noticing who we are. They might hunt us down even,” the ranger called out as she held her spear and dagger close to her heart.
“Afraid, Cila?” Thalon asked out with a playful smile.
“Never!” she said in a determined tone. “Even if they send all the legions towards us, we got you, Thal.”
Lastly, from the back, the Guardian called out. “Well, where to next then, Master Thalon?”
The wizard looked to the distance, towards the horizon and the vast possibilities of the world of Vaelia. As he fixed his hat, he said, “To wherever the kin need us, and where gods refuse to let go. Onwards, my friends!”
“For the truth!
“For the world!”
“For the kin!”
“For life!”
With the last rallying cry, the party stepped forward into the vast plains. Blessed by the world and its elements, the adventure of Thalon, the first wizard continued.