Epilogue - Dark Storm

Thunder shook the heavens, and brilliant blue lightning lit up the sky, revealing pitch black clouds that conjured forth razor sharp winds and blankets of bone chilling rain. Gideon held his hand up against the winds as he pushed deeper into the heart of the storm, fighting to not get swept away by the buffeting winds. As he pushed in deeper, the violent storm gradually gave way to a gentle rain before stopping completely.

Dead bodies littered every inch of the wet ground.

Power radiated from every single corpse. Orcs, elves, dwarves, gnomes, dragons, beastkin of every variety. An entire myriad of powerful warriors lay dead on the field before him. Gideon glanced back and forth across the battlefield graveyard, inspecting the gear and equipment still strapped to the corpses. He was on one of the upper floors. A floor he didn’t recognize. How high? He had no idea, but judging by the gear, he was somewhere in the upper sector.

Gideon glanced up at the sky. It was overflowing with swirling galaxies and shining stars. It was enough to leave even him speechless. It was majestic. Heavenly. Gideon found himself disoriented by the unseen power among the stars.

As Gideon pushed through the fields of death, he came to a gradual stop, sensing a presence that felt wholly out of place. It wasn’t a threatening feeling, nor was it inviting. It was simply a force of nature that could neither be ignored, nor found. Gideon scowled as he scanned the horizons in defiance, his eyes landing on a lone figure staring up towards the heavens. This new challengers boots were black, and his trousers blue, of a make he had never seen before. His shirt was shifting, a compilation of absurd exotic colors covered in flowers blooming and collapsing in an explosion of color that lacked any tact for the battlefield.

Jack.

Gideon started walking faster towards the man. What was he doing here? Where even is here? Gideon’s mind raced for answers as he approached.

Jack reached into his front pocket and pulled out a small container. From that container he withdrew a cigarillo and placed it into his mouth. He reached back behind his shirt where he removed a black flintlock gun of a make Gideon couldn’t identify. Jack held the flintlock up to his cigarillo and pulled the trigger.

A tiny flame shot out the top, which he used to light his smoke. He tucked the weapon back into his waistline, took a long pull, and then began to cough violently, spitting out the cigarillo on the ground as he wretched.

“I hate these things,” Jack spit several times, wiping at his mouth.

“Then why smoke them?” Gideon found himself asking.

“Because it’s either smoking or drinking, and she hates it when I drink,” Jack said, a rueful smile on his face.

“Jack, she isn’t alive anymore…”

Gideon found himself wearing a sad smile at that. He didn’t know why though. The words had come to him unbidden, yet he knew them to be true. Jack turned his head to look at Gideon, and the dragon met his gaze.

Jack’s eyes were filled with a deep, powerful sadness. Like they had seen too much. Like they had done too much. They were gray and lifeless, void of joy. Gideon felt his heart begin to sink the longer he stared into his eyes.

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This man was broken…

Jack flashed him a smile, and that broken man was gone as quick as he came. His smile was radiant, filled with pure joy and happiness. Gideon found himself smiling in return, immediately forgetting about the man he had seen moments before.

Gideon continued to stare at the smile, mesmerized by it. Trapped by it. Gideon soon found he couldn’t stop smiling. Then he started to laugh. It was a deep laughter that rang out through the heavens. All the while he kept staring at Jack and his happy face.

Something was wrong.

The joy was too much. It was unbearable, unnatural. He was too happy. Gideon tried to pull away from the man’s smile, but he couldn’t. The world started spinning and a manic laughter that he wasn’t sure was even his rang through his ears and assaulted his mental defenses. Gideon was going insane.

Then Jack looked away.

Gideon panted heavily and looked around frantically. Everything was still the same. The world had returned to normal. There was no more laughing. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

What the hell just happened.

“They won’t come out to play,” Jack groaned, kicking at the dirt, an annoyed look on his face.

“Who?”

“I think I’m going to knock on the door. See if anyone’s home.” He gave Gideon a cocksure grin.

Jack began to lazily spin his index finger in the air, a tiny black orb forming at the tip. He looked up and casually pointed his finger at the sky.

A bolt of lightning as black as the abyss shot out from the tip of his finger, ripping through the night sky like it was paper. Gideon watched as it slammed into the star lit skies above, shattering the heavens like it was nothing more than a flimsy pane of glass. Fragments of reality fell away as the stars rained down on them both.

“What are you doing?” Gideon asked, unable to pull his gaze away from the shattering reality.

“I told you Gideon…” Jack started.

Gideon watched as beings of power shot out of the cracked sky, celestial radiance pouring from their bodies. His heart began to pound as he watched the guardians of the heavens, gods and demigods and all of their creations taking defense against the would-be intruder.

“Jack,” Gideon stammered, turning to him. His eyes went wide in horror and disbelief as he stared at the man.

Jack wore a manic, bloodthirsty smile of such intensity that it brought Gideon to his knees. Tendrils of shadows crawled up from the ground and clung to Jack’s body, solidifying into a single suit of jet black armor.

“...I told you Gideon,” Jack said again, the words strained by an unspoken rage. “I’m killing everyone.”

The violent storm returned as quickly as it had dissipated before. Razor sharp wind cut at Gideon’s skin. Rain crashed down in a violent ice storm. Powerful bolts of pitch black lightning struck at the world with reckless abandon, shattering reality wherever they made purchase

Jack stood there amongst it all, radiating madness and rage as he stood in defiance against the pantheon of gods. Gideon stumbled back as Jack took to the skies transforming into a titanic bolt of black lightning. Gideon watched as Jack turned into a dragon of pure darkness. He strained his eyes against the dark storm of power that raged in the skies, the dragon shaped bolt of lightning ripping through the heavens.

It whipped back and forth with reckless abandon, twisting and turning in a thousand directions at once, wrapping up its prey and devouring them with fangs of hatred.

Gideon soon realized that he had been mistaken. Jack was no dragon.

A centipede of pure black lightning was bringing the heavens to their knees.

Death was all he could think of as he watched the massacre unfold. Death had come to the Tower. Death had come to claim them all…

…

Gideon shot up out of his bed, panting heavily and drenched in sweat. His heart was pounding so hard it shook his entire body. He pulled his status page and scanned through it nervously.

Nothing had changed. His curse had not returned. It remained broken. He was no longer cursed. It was just a dream.

“It was just a dream… It was just a dream” Gideon said, this time aloud, repeating the words until they carried truth.

It was just a dream.