Kira stepped out of the magnetically hovering limousine and casually walked through the security doors. The guards looked at the display confirming her DNA match and authorization to enter the building after hours.
“Good evening, Miss Lexon.” The Delta Force looking guard with a well trimmed beard smiled graciously at her.
She walked by smiling back tipping her specially designed glasses. “Thanks you, Wallen. I’ll be in my suite all night. If Helena drops by please let her up.”
“You can count on it Ma’am.”
Kira’s high heels tapped along the marble floor as she made her way through the lobby and into the spacious elevator. She breathed happily as she gets a headstart on the testing of the Polaris Engine.
“Top floor.” The elevator console accepted her voice command quickly sending her up.
The major conglomerate corporation known as Immersion currently holds fifty-two percent of the world’s wealth at its disposal. Kira made it possible due to advancements in pharmaceuticals and innovative inventions led by her and a handful of co-workers.
Kira was the first woman to hold the highest position in society as a scientist and multi trillionaire. She was highly admired for her outstanding beauty and charisma, not to mention her voluptuous body.
Upon stepping out of the elevator she entered the open living area. Her living room and open kitchen concept was lavishly decorated with smoothly finished wood flooring, plush blue spidersilk furniture. The glass railed staircase lined with gold filament led upstairs to multiple bedrooms. A separate staircase gave access to her personal laboratory below.
She quickly went downstairs passed the sliding glass doors and stood before the Polaris Engine. Touching a control panel, the tomb like metallic capsule was opened. The aim for the machine was to focus on mental instabilities which physical remedies couldn’t fix. In addition Kira’s hope was that the system utilized the part of the brain that creates dreams, allowing a user to enter a virtual reality world. She rechecked the control panel and without hesitation got in the machine.
The machine started humming as the lid closed down on top of her. The internal lights allowed her to view an interior display counting down as she fell asleep.
The Polaris Engine sent Kira into a safe spot within her dream world. Upon waking up, the first word that came to her mind was “breathtaking”.
Kira was surrounded by lush grasslands with beautiful flowers she's never before seen. Stunned for a moment, she realized her reading glasses were gone while her other physical belongings were still intact. She thought about why her glasses disappeared and not her clothing; verifying the difference between the material of the clothing and glasses.
The glasses she wore were made of metal and glass, while the clothes were one hundred percent cotton with natural dye based colors.
She wore a white shirt revealing slight cleavage with a stylish open sweatshirt and the latest fashionable pull on jeans, both dyed in black. As for the shoes she decided to wear something comfortable and had on a pair of leather gladiators; thus her complete outfit allowed freedom of movement. The overall distinction she reached was that it’s possible, only biophysical matter or materials that once used to be living can enter the dream world.
Discarding this as a small error in the prototype, Kira adjusted to the environment by moving around. She felt a sudden tremor coming from a massive forest in the distance.
Appearing from within the depths of the forest was a pack of wild antelope creatures about double the size of Earth’s giant eland counterpart. While viewing what seemed to be an attempt of running for their lives it happened...
"GGGRRRRUUAAAAAA!!!"
Her heart abruptly froze in fear as her body stiffened.
The next few moments can only be described as one out of a National Geographic television show, where predators catch prey in the most horrific and graphic fashion. A monster well over the size of a full grown T-Rex appeared, looking as if it belonged to the scorpion family. It instantly impaled an antelope with its stinger, catching three others with its pincers. Kira almost vomited as the pincers forcibly dismembered the bodies at the points of pressure. The monster without pause, placed its stinger into its mouth to eat the impaled one. Looking closer, she realized the monster was shaded dark green and brown as if for natural camouflage within the forest and had in front, unlike a scorpion, the head of a flattened stretched out bull without horns.
'This can't be real… Wait…. calm down, this is just a dream, remember...'
However, contrary to those thoughts, she unknowingly tried to take cover and hide herself. The mix breed scorpion monster looked up as if it sensed other prey, looking directly toward her path.
‘AAAAIIIIIEEEEE,’ Kira bolted in the opposite direction as a means for survival. After running long enough to break out drenched in sweat, she halted; glancing backward for the hundredth time hoping for her heart to stop pounding.
‘Am I safe? What kind of crazy monster was that...What did I just witness?’
A continuous barrage of questions kept filling her head, but the truth was simple. The monster deemed it not worthwhile to engage in chase as the distance was too far for such small game.
Kira suddenly feeling slightly relieved, started to view her surroundings once again. By using the sun to get a general feel for directions, she noted the direction she came from was west. The south contained nothing but grasslands as far as one could see. Her only hope for reaching some semblance of civilization dwelled in either the north or east. Not long after engrossed observations of the land, she spotted some smoke arising in the north.
'Aha...There must be people in that direction.' Kira then trudged along in that direction after a short break. Finally in view of a fairly small village, Kira felt her anxiety leaving her and realized she was famished. On that thought she heard a sudden shout.
"Who goes there!.. State your business."
Two guards approached with spears drawn and shields at the ready. The guards lowered their weapons once they realized the outsider was a defenseless women.
"Uh, Hello I'm lost and looking for food..."
Hearing such a straightforward reply one of the guards almost started to laugh.
"You're an outsider; what's with those clothes I've never seen anything like them before."
"You don’t have any supplies… Why would you go traveling in such conditions?"
Upon hearing all the questions she started to reply. "I came from the east and these clothes are...." *Phooomff*
"Miss! Hey are you alright.....Hey!"
‘That’s the last thing I remember, except...’ Kira thought as she awoke in a room with vanilla white curtains around her. ‘Looks like a nurse’s office or hospital room. Did something go wrong?....Am I back in the real world?'
'All I remember is....pain....dirt....then darkness...'
'Hmm that's strange I'm still inside then...'
"So you're awake, Ah don’t worry you're fine now. I'm the doctor in this village my name is Ted." A nurse entered with a tray covered by a wooden dome top.
"Here's some food; you seemed to have passed out due to exhaustion."
Kira greedily accepted the meal. Forgetting all about table manners, Kira thanked and introduced herself with a mouth full of food.
"No worries, also to apologize for the previous behavior of the guards. We're just not accustomed to outsiders around here."
‘Huh, why is he apologizing to me.’
‘Did the guards drop me while they brought me here?... I don’t feel any extra bumps anywhere...’
Pausing for a moment, Kira inspected the man in his mid-thirties holding a hint of laughter with a smile on his face. "Where exactly is here if you mind me asking?"
"Ah, Yes, This little village is named Ilnor and currently contains roughly one-hundred fifty citizens."
"You're welcome to stay for as long as you need… However some information about your previous whereabouts will have to be known."
'Will it be alright to say I'm here due to the Polaris Engine and that this is only the effects of the machine utilizing my mind to create a dream world?'
Second guessing herself Kira decided to lie and go with a more reasonable approach, as if this were some sort of role playing game.
"Of course, I'm an inventor in search of knowledge hence my travels… However I ran into somewhat of an ordeal before coming here. Running for my life I mistakenly left behind my supplies and wandered here in hopes of finding food and shelter."
[Intentionally leaving out the scorpion monster to not raise any more questions and leaving it to Ted, to guess what from.]
"Ah yes that's understandable, although I'm quite surprised you were able to get here unscathed without any help or directions… Oh you also said you're an inventor, is that something similar to craftsmanship?"
Kira pondered the time period she was in and agreed, thus leading to the invitation to visit the head craftsman of Ilnor.
"If you don't mind since you're heading there, could you do me a favor and give this to the man named Ralph inside the store?" Ted took the opportunity to free up his to-do-list by having it pushed onto Kira.
Ted displayed an ornamental piece that could easily represent a rare artifact. The raindrop shaped object had a massive green gem the size of a baseball encased in the center, with a silver-like exterior frame. Obtaining what ought to be a small fortune she stared at Ted with bewildered eyes ready to ask about it, when he replied with a.
“I trust you... However I'm not able to be your guide at this moment being stuck here, so you'll have to do with some directions. Just ask for Ralph and say it's on behalf of Ted. He’ll be sure to welcome you with open arms. "
"Oh if you say so, ...Yes that's perfectly fine with me.” Kira extended both hands to receive the artifact.
Kira frustratingly roamed around outside observing the close-knit community.
'All these buildings look the same, you’d think they would at least put up a single sign or clue as to what’s what, jeez.'
In every direction she observed the repetition of brown wooden houses and the only difference being one or two floors...
'If only these directions were correct, I've been wandering in circles for a while now.'
Kira looked down at the paper with the hand written instructions on how to reach the craftsmanship center.
- Go left when you exit from here.
- Walk until you see Aunt Bell’s store then go left.
- When you pass the fountain you’re almost there.
- It's the brown building to your right.
Kira was about to start screaming at the top of her lungs while pulling her hair out because of this never before felt frustration. ‘Come on now, you're a person with the highest IQ in the world, a simple sheet of directions should be no issues even if you have to view it as a complex word puzzle.’
Off to the side, a man watched this woman act as a dog trying to catch their tail, while occasionally looking down at a small sheet of paper.
‘This is too painful to watch anymore.’
“Miss, Hello, may you require assistance of some sorts?”
Currently in deep thought trying to apply several mathematical formulas to find the answer; mumbling under her breathe, Kira completely ignored the offered help.
“Umm...Miss…” The man said as he gave a small nudge on her shoulder.
“EEEIIPP!!” Kira shouted and jumped slightly from the abrupt scare as the man backed away.
“You scared me half to death...Is there something you need Sir?”
“No, well I thought you might need some help seeing as you're a chicken with it’s hea...Ahem…”
Clearing his throat, a sudden pain struck his chest. A breathtaking vision of your one and only true love appearing in front of you.
'A pure beauty!'
"Are you ok? Earth to Mr. Stranger."
Seeing his wide opened mouth in front of Kira, the man gathered what little composure he could muster up.
"Huh, oh I thought you needed some help so I came over… For introductions sake my name is Kellan... and what might thou beauty before me be called."
'This guy named Kellan seems really weird… however he’s really nice looking almost like a reincarnation of a Ken doll without the sparkly teeth.'
"My name is Kira."
"What a splendid name! Well, is the thing you needed help with this so called Earth?"
“Not quite it’s the place I came from. I’m a traveler, but since you brought that up what might this planet be called?”
“Hah uuh?...”
After a slight pause, Kellan decided to answer the question no matter how absurd it may be, just to be able to talk to his dream girl for a second longer.
"We are currently on Hulea."
'I can definitely take advantage of this guy.' Kira thought as she inwardly snickered.
Kira ran up to his side and held onto his arm, visually portraying them as a couple on a date, then handed him the directions from Ted.
"If you don't mind, would you lead me to the craftsmanship building where Ralph resides?” Kira asked with a seductive smile.
Kellan barely able to focus, took a glance at the paper and erupted with laughter.
"What's with-haha-these directions--phew... Ah one second please let me catch my breath."
'So it's finally happened Ted eh.. To be given the seal proves it.'
Kira separated her arm and stepped back a bit.
'I knew it that doctor made me go on a goose chase, just wait til I see him again.'
Before being able to contemplate a worthy enough revenge, Kellan continued with a bright expression and urged her to follow him.
'Wait we’re back at the clinic center...'
"You see if we follow the instructions from here the first thing to do is to turn left as you exit. We walk along the side of the clinics building towards the back and then this building behind it is Aunt Bell's store. Then you turn right at the fountain and it's the brown building."
"Um, so why did we stop in front of Aunt Bell’s store then?"
Looking over at Kellan she saw him pointing at a small bird’s perch fountain. A small post for birds to clean themselves with, and then moving his hand and head to look at the brown building, right across Aunt Bell’s store....
"Are you kidding me..."
'Death… I'm killing him next time I see him, that is the proper amount of revenge.'
"So yea, here you are Kira. Would you like me to show you in?"
Kira still in a fit of rage asked "Will I get lost if I enter? If so then maybe yes."
"No you will not I guarantee that but just to be on the safe side I'll assist with the introductions and finding the right Ralph."
"Wait, What?.. The right Ralph? What are there three Ralphs or something??"
"Actually five to be precise but good guess."
"I give up."
Kellan walked over to Kira who stood in a defeated stance and put his arm around her shoulders, as if he finally found a companion or partner in crime towards the injustices of the so called Ted!
" 'It's ok' I understand.” Kept being repeated as they slowly entered the building.
<>
"So you see we all took the same names as a family tradition of being craftsmen, The saying "Ralph fixes all." Is actually literal…”
'I'm actually speechless for once in my life, this guy is as big as Santa Claus. He has the beard and everything except for the color being light brown instead.'
"I'm quite interested in the trade of a craftsmen myself so I thought it wise to visit, as well as by request of Ted to hand over this ummm raindrop artifact?"
Ralph responded quickly after noticing a slight cringe from the mention of Ted’s name by Kira, as he stared at both Kira and the seal then to Kellan.
"Oh, yes thank you very much this artifact is a very special heirloom in our village."
After receiving the seal he turned to Kellan and gave it to him. Kellan accepted the seal and looked slightly away to avoid eye contact with Kira. Ralph continued as if nothing happened.
"So you want to learn our trade; very well. Let's see what you got!"
Pushing Kira further along into his workshop, only quaint protests could be heard "But, but.... really...."
Kellan can only continue thinking 'My comrade...also quite a stunning beauty'.
The next few days can be considered Ralph's boot camp for how craftsman do what they do, ranging anywhere from simple repairs of armor and weapons, to designing blueprints for future creations. Kira easily picked up on these skills due to her former knowledge as a lead scientist and inventor, which allowed her to reproduce and repair anything Ralph handed in her direction.
"Wow, you’re a natural Kira, maybe even better than me! Aw heck, you need a challenge more worthy of your aptitude." Ralph Senior stated.
On her face a small blush appeared. 'For some reason it feels as if my dear departed father is giving me the praise.’
"Next up is what I would call a magical artifact. You can just call it a magical device...." Ralph mischievously declared.
"Is there even a difference in what you just said and did I hear magic?!"
Ignoring the first part, Ralph stated the fact that magic exists.
“What rock did you crawl out from under?”
"Hahaha...Of course there's magic I thought you meant internet."
"You say some strange things dear, it's as if you're from some other world.... hah-." With continuous laughter and pats on her back. Ralph turned his attention to the mirror-like device the shape of an oval, no more than two hands width across.
About to seriously start interrogating Ralph, Kira's attention got thrown to the magical device. The next thing she saw was the mug of the infamous Ted.
"That Bas- , I mean why is Ted being shown..."
"Ssshh, Watch, watch this."
Through the mirror without any audio was Ted enjoying an afternoon meal alone at a high table and getting up to grab a cup of water to drink, then moving back to his chair about to sit.
Chanting could be heard followed by Ralph's next words, "Chair heed thy command, slide."
At that notion Kira’s directed attention was completely absorbed by watching the chair move as Ted sat down. This scene can only be viewed, as a successful prank something kids would think up at school.
'That's what you get Ted!' Ralph and Kira both looked at each other realizing they thought the same thing and started bursting into laughter.
A few seconds later, Kira looked at the mirror again and was suddenly spooked by Ted seeming to be staring right at them through the mirror.
"Ummm. Ralph, Hey!"
"Oh crap!-"
With no sense of hitting an off switch, the mirror instantly turned off as it turned back into its mirror-like state.
"Wow that was incredible. How did you do that?"
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Mulling over a response that Ralph could give he was able to reach a solution.
“I have created this nifty device here, it allows me to see and affect what is shown through the mirror to a certain extent. There are certain powers and abilities people are able to obtain and with hard work. Eventually you will also be able to do what I did and most likely at an even greater scale… So would you like to learn?”
“Why wouldn't I!, That’s so amazing.”
‘I still can't believe magic exists in this dream I can’t wait to use it!’
“Hoho, ambitious one aren’t you,... Alright get ready I'll teach you everything I know!"
<>
In the training grounds located directly outside the village a small group of guards were being taught through sparring.
“Stop!...That’s all wrong, instead of dodging here you should push forward with your sword and take to the offensive.”
With constant interruptions and side comments, Kellan was instructing the guards of Ilnor on the basics of combat. While not complaining as much as he used to, Kellan proudly watched over his so called disciples that had gradually been improving.
“Ok everyone, let us end it here for today. Keep it up and remember, power is achieved through hard work and vigilance. Dismissed!”
Kellan immediately departed without the chance to hear any questions and headed towards a certain building.
‘Finally I get to see my beloved!’ With an expression bordering perversion he entered Ralph’s shop. Upon entering the door a sudden flash of light was seen.
*Booom!*
Kellan was sent flying, back out the door and onto the dirt ground a few meters back, by a ball of energy that struck him right above his stomach. On the ground laying flat on his back, Kellan oozed in and out of conscious. With a hazed sight, he could only describe what he saw as an angel coming down to retrieve and lead his soul into the afterlife.
“I’m so sorry!” Kira frantically checked and asked, “Are you alright, Kellan?!”
Muttering was heard with attempts of Kellan trying to speak.
“O’ beautiful angel with deep purple eyes… Why do you have long black… silky hair?... I expected a shade of blonde or white.”
“Huh, what nonsense are you spouting. Here get up.” Kira offered her hand.
Kellan got up with a “Whoa” sound and recuperated.
“Was that some kind of welcome trap I mistakenly walked into?”
“You know I can tell Ralph to ease up on you, if you just ask me to.” Kellan said with a wry smile.
“What, no I was currently working on a new device when the energy being gathered got out of hand and forcefully erupted during transfer.”
“Device...Energy?...What has Ralph got you making now, geez.” Kira only sighed and continued further explanation.
“I am currently on my own in making devices. After a few successful creations with Ralph’s supervision he gave me a look of disdain while mumbling something about many decades and instant success then left me on my own after that.”
‘Old man you really let yourself get jealous haha-.’... “So you seem to have a gift for craftsmanship, what is it you were attempting to create?”
“Ah, yes well the thing is prior to arriving at this village I lost my pair of reading glasses. So... I’ve been trying to recreate a pair through what Ralph has taught me.”
“As for the magical power to imbue the object with, Ralph has lent me several magical stones since I don’t understand how magic works.”
“If you were successful on the other creations without any mishaps why did this suddenly occur.”
Kira shuddered at his retort, giving the explanation with a hand gesture.
Pointing at the raindrop artifact she said, “Well, I sort of ran out of magical stones and couldn't find any of the Ralph’s so… I then saw this thing laying around…”
It wouldn't be too much to say that her scientific curiosity won her over in the heat of the moment. Kellan abruptly grabbed both her shoulders as if in fright and almost began to speak. With a brief moment of silence he let go.
‘What’s wrong with him did I do something wrong?... Well I know the artifact is technically not mine and I shouldn’t of tried to use it...’
After realizing her error and momentarily thinking about it Kira responded to what just occurred with “I’m sorry I shouldn’t have used the artifact without permission.”
“Hmm, no it's okay I am the one that left it here.”
“Since it came to this I might as well let you know what that artifact really is… There’s an ancient legend that long ago, as far as stories can be told, there was a great war. Now this war wasn’t the typical type between humans, but was one between Dragons and elite powerful beings armed with abilities to combat the dragons. We don’t know where they came from, but we call them Destroyers. They fought against the tyranny of the dragons in an attempt to save human civilization. During this all out war a certain power sealed all of them, both the Dragons and Destroyers into a time stasis that froze them. And here we come to this little object which is to be known as one of the few seals used to contain that power. If and I emphasize the “IF” part, these seals happen to be released the past will revert and what happened then will be brought here to the present time.”
Curtly finishing the story as if giving a one minute sermon he stared at Kira with his hand holding the seal and placed it into hers.
“And now this belongs to you. Take good care of it and if you do decide to use the power within just beware of what I said and try not to completely consume it in its entirety.”
“Wait, Why would you give such a precious object to me then. Wouldn’t you want to make sure it’s kept hidden and not just laying around on some dusty desktop?” Kira replied as if given a huge burden.
Kellan turned his head towards the window and acted similar to watchdogs that sensed something. Kira while being ignored yelled “Hey I’m talking to you, don’t just brush me off like that!”
“Stay here!” Kellan replied.
“I’m not finished talking… Hey, answer my questions!”
Having the door slammed shut on her, Kira gave off an ‘unbelievable’ stance and waited inside for a moment.
Reaching the middle of the dirt street outside, Kellan stared directly at one of the entrances of the village near the end of the road and inhaled deeply, then with all his might let out a ferocious yell…
“At arms everyone! Gather all the guards… Prepare for BATTLE!”
Upon hearing this the village like clockwork got into action and flocked around Kellan. First to arrive were a few of the guardsmen, then the Ralph brothers along with several other villagers in the near vicinity.
“Holy...Owww” Kira stumbled from the sheer magnitude of the voice.
‘To be even separated by a door it’s as if he was at whisper length… What in the world is going on outside?’
To her curiosity and agitation, she headed outside not heeding Kellan’s words one bit.
When she got outside, Kira saw villagers gathered around Kellan in a type of battle formation with the guardsmen in the front to protect everyone else, some armed with spears and others with swords drawn. Looking at the other villagers, in their hands were a large variety of weapons ranging from bows to staffs and even some with large two-handed wielding war weapons. She ran over to Kellan to find out what was going on, who in the formation was positioned slightly in front of the middle. With a growing fear steadily rising on her face she was spotted by Kellan who saw her attempt to reach him.
“Don’t come near or better yet go back into the house, it’s not safe - ” were the words that Kellan was trying to convey until his attention was grabbed to the front, where two large shadows the shape of hellhounds approximately four meters long and three meters tall, started running full speed into his group. In the back was another shadow but with a different figure, one of a sorcerer holding a large staff.
“Brace yourselves!” Kellan commanded the archers and magicians to open fire.
With the approaching imminent threat a barrage of magic projectiles and arrows were fired at the shadow hellhounds. An assortment of lightning bolts, fireballs, frost beams along with magical and non-imbued iron arrows were en route. Kira in profound amazement stared at this display of power which compared to a firework show, except with deadly arrows mixed in. Watching this amazing volley and expecting anything on the other side be turned to dust shocked Kira greatly.
‘Why is everything going through them...Uh-oh it isn’t working!’
At a closer look the hellhounds were simply phasing through, or in a sense letting the barrage pass through them as if they were never there. From Kellan’s perspective he noticed that they were simply avoiding certain shots by dispersing and reforming themselves while not bothering for others.
‘I see it's the lightning and certain arrows they are avoiding...as well as favoring the fireballs for some reason.’ Kellan figured out the shadows had certain weaknesses a moment too late.
*CLANK* A loud clash into iron hardened shields occurred.
The hellhounds rammed right into the front line and the guards met them with their shields, however three out of the current twenty in the front line were forcibly thrown back. The hellhounds spewed out a breath of fire on the remaining guards.
“Ahhh, Help!” with slight variations could be heard from many of the guards. To make matters worse the lone shadow sorcerer in the back had already finished incantations and out from his staff created a firestorm directed at the villagers.
Readying for the impact by literally hoping for the best, Ted appeared from the side and shouted.
“Ralph stop dilly dallying and get the forcefields up.”
Knowing the brothers were in position he started incantations.
“Healing spirits heed thy call grant ‘Mass Revitalization’!”
Occurring at the same time, Ted’s wide spread healing magic helped the injured guardsmen and a force field was erected around the whole group.
“Psssh Psssh Pssh” Sounds of the firestorm were heard colliding with the barrier. The force field was maintained by five stakes that were planted in the ground around the perimeter of the group, by the Ralph brothers. However at the front, the firestorm was currently striking the hellhounds. The fire merged with the hellhounds and increased their size to that of a bodybuilder on steroids.
“Everyone back into formation! Focus only on using lightning and magic arrows. Also, do not use fire magic at all costs!” Kellan helped the previously injured guards up and took point in front of everyone, stating the hellhounds weaknesses, whereas Ted found his way over to Kira who was in the middle.
Kira met Ted half way and as if knowing what she was about to say said, "I apologize for not telling you earlier, but I knew everything about you all along..." Kira questioned him as Ted shouted, "Ralph! Take care of her, I need to tend to the injured."
"Don't just interrupt me like always. I want answers this time. How can I believe you?" Thinking it's only proper to give an answer he said two words that left Kira speechless, "Polaris Engine".
Ralph grabbed the side of Kira's arm and pulled her behind him while leaning in to talk.
"Listen here, I know this is a lot to take in but you're going to have to trust us, as well as the reason for giving you the seal. We believe you will be able to find an answer as for what to do with the seals, and that it would be safest with you."
"Just remember to trust no one when it comes to the seal. To protect it, and to not completely use all the power that dwells within it."
Ralph used a magical device, typically known as an item box and pulled out a mysterious cube the size of one’s palm, small enough to hold in his grasp and showed Kira. "Also as an instructor-student parting gift, I hand to you an unknown magical device that even with my current abilities, have not been able to understand."
Kira stared at the current items, in her right hand was the seal and left, the cube given by Ralph.
'This is all happening to fast...something must have went wrong with the machine...a simple error I need to fix later...Yes, of course!'
Factoring this all as an error that created a surreal nightmare she decided to avoid the current predicament.
The powered up hellhounds aimed at the guards with a leap, one of them jumped on a guard crushing him instantly, while the other swiped its claws, creating a bloodbath out of two other guards and aimed to charge at another with a death bite. Kellan saw this and intervened the charge, by blocking the attack with his sword finding its way lodged between the beasts only physical part at the time, it's sharp fangs. Knowing its coming ahead of time, Kellan immediately shifted his weight to push back the beast and avoided the fire breath. With one of the hellhounds being distracted by Kellan, the other was freely causing chaos throughout the formation with two near instant deaths and twelve injured, by either dismembered limbs or burns. It wasn’t that the support was slow, but that the hellhounds were extremely fast especially after the buff. Finally the free hellhound was showered down by lightning magic and magic arrows as instructed by Kellan. Under constant barrage the monster attempted to dodge to the side, only to be forced back into the center, by the Ralph brothers minus the one with Kira. They held onto devices that looked like iron wands and created barriers to impede the hellhounds movements. As if noticing one final blow would destroy the beast, Ted casted the only offensive spell he knew...
"Holy Destruction, Incinerate all evil!"
What could be viewed as a top tier holy magic, worked like a charm against the shadow beasts, dealing the necessary final blow that eliminated one of them. At the same time Kellan was holding his own in combat and activated a set of sword skills equaling into a combination attack.
"Full strike, Devastating blow, Quintuple slash, Energy blast!"
The last part Energy blast exploded on impact by emitting large quantities of magic onto the focal point of his blade, allowing it to hit the hellhound with terrifying strength.
The two shadow hellhounds almost simultaneously disappeared as if they were candles that fizzled out.
The shadow sorcerer watched as the hellhounds were defeated and automatically retreated, similar to dispersing as smoke from a thrown smoke bomb.
Without catching a breath, Ted knowing it's not safe anymore, signaled for a group to lead Kira to safety, while the rest of the villagers run and seek a safe haven.
At a moment's notice Ralph ran into his shop with Kira in tow. He gathered the essentials as Kira questioned, "Why are we running, didn't we win?"
Multi-tasking, Ralph replied, “If Ted says to leave then we must go no ifs ands or buts.”
Retrieving all that's necessary Ralph headed for the door and looked back at Kira expecting her to be right behind him only to be disappointed, by the look of a stubborn child not wanting to move from their spot.
"Look, we must go. Ted must have deemed this area already compromised and not-..."
"PSHBOOOOSSHMMM--" A sudden sound like a nuke went off, created a shockwave powerful enough to collapse the entire building. Kira miraculously survived between two beams, that prevented her from being crushed, to get away with only minor cuts and bruises. Getting up Kira frantically searched for Ralph.
"Ralph!... Ralph can you hear me!?" A few more seconds with no response she spotted a bloody corpse crushed from the waist down resembling Ralph. In the next brief moments, she veered off course to the so called outside of a half washed away building.
What she saw and comprehended reached her neck breaking limit.
Out in the open, in the center of the village the ground was depressed by a large amount as if a miniature crater was formed. As far as the village outskirts, collapsed and burning buildings gave off a nauseating stench of dead flesh. From the center of the crater, there stood a two story sized fire elemental. With a frame of a warlord accustomed to mass murder, it wielded a large two-handed magical axe in one hand and wore a metal breastplate giving it humanistic shape. Surrounded by a sea of bodies, there remained a few survivors; two of the Ralph brothers, Ted, several magicians, and archers mainly due to the force fields in place. The entirety of the guardsmen and front line were obliterated however with the sacrifice of the other two Ralph brothers. Kellan who was separated from the others was able to survive with a last second force field. Staring up at this undeniable force, it suddenly lifted the magical axe as a yell could be heard, "Watch out!"
Without realizing what just occurred the magical battle axe was thrown and during flight, expanded enough to cut every remaining member left standing in half. Kellan stood off to the side trembling in fear and watched, as the axe continued past his friends slicing several buildings along with them in half, then instantly a new axe was formed within the elementals grip.
Kira screamed in terror at this nightmare scene brought forth from the depths of hell.
'Oh my god, everyone’s dead in an instant! This can’t be real! It must be a serious, serious malfunction.' Kira cried herself into a nervous breakdown.
The possibility of retreat disappeared after the sight of Kira's helplessness. Kellan approached the fire elemental grabbing its attention.
'No, no don't… get away!' Attempting to say this out loud the words escaped her. Kira focused on the scene as if to engrave it into her mind… Kellan throughout all his fear activated his skill [Final Slash] by accumulating all his energy into one strike, as a last attempt to survive. His sword turned into a bright blue immense shade of aura and with a lunge propelled the energy beam directly at the evil monstrosity.
"Pwisswwst"
The sound of rushing water extinguishing flames were heard, when Kira only saw smoke arising from the elemental eventually encircling Kellan. 'Did he do it...did he win?'
In an upheaval of emotions she almost released an expression of relief, until through the smoke Kellan was seen with his chest impaled by a makeshift spike, with the free hand of the fire elemental.
With the newly formed axe a similar scene unfolds and the axe is thrown towards Kira "AAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEHHHHH!"...
Awoken drenched in sweat, still inside the machine, constant whimpers were heard as Kira was safe and sound back in the real world.
Author's Note: Okay, just edited this chapter some. If you find any errors please let me know because i did not proofread it. Feedback of any kind is very welcomed. Thanks all for reading enjoy.