While the process of building a new hand for Envy had begun on the higher floors of Victoria Magika's Magician's Manor, the lower floor had also started an endearing process. The dark and dingy room that Thomas had been imprisoned in, was actually a room with brilliant ornaments lying about in orderly fashion. He had found himself held in a storage room, where several ventures into the adventurous past of Victoria Magika laughed in the face of his muddled mind. In his bewildered eyes, the voices he was tainted with had found a face to taunt at him. On his right, the striking fangs of a foul monster found a set of lips that cursed away at Thomas. Similarly, on his other side, Thomas was startled by the ghastly feathers of a stuffed bird that called at him as if it were human. Despite these strange antiques, Thomas was more concerned about the fatigue and ambition that infused into his skull. He was seeking an exit. An exit for fatigue, in the form of some medicine that would help him, and an exit for ambition because he wanted to help Victoria face the threat of Envy.
An exit. It was all he desired. So, when a single light began to glow, Thomas hungrily hurried over to the allure that charmed his eyes with a glimmer of intimate pink. Almost bursting in containment, it was a chained box that sparkled with such beauty, Thomas' mind had mended in its presence. Upon boldly unravelling the majestical artefact, Thomas had expected some stronger effect to rejuvenate his pained body, but instead, his mind travelled far and beyond to a foreign land - a place completely different to the dusty room his body had remained in. Wherever he arrived, his consciousness was the only thing to join him as his body was nothing more than a ghostly essence. A figure of fiction. Fiction, in a world of what?
He had arrived upon a bright, sunny pathway deep within the fineness of a well-established forest. There was a particular pleasure about this forest that seemed almost unreal to his eyes. The area had been occupied by a couple ahead of him, who had reciprocated the weather, as they merrily strode through the pathways - which had seemed almost a gentle gift from the heavenly clouds. The trees fluttered with a breeze like that of an angel's wings, and they sang whistles of wistful melody. Gliding so graciously, birds drifted from tree to tree, carrying the aroma of fresh fruit in their peaceful chirps. There were apples on the trees, but not the venomous kind. These were safe, secure and seemingly sumptuous as a man from ahead had sliced one into pieces, eating it with honour and respect. He had treated a mere apple, with such heroism? Almost fooled, Thomas was alert of such a strange act, quickly waking from the breaths of beauty that surrounded him.
"Where am I? This is not Astrea. And the voices are gone. My pains are no more!" He exclaimed with a cheerful uproar.
His excitement had only been reserved to himself, as the couple ahead of him were completely oblivious to it. In an effort to gain understanding, he followed the couple for some time, paying close attention to the incredibly precise scenery, until they stopped suddenly. A snake of a tower stumbled ahead of them, and it completely collapsed the heavenly skyline. With its single doorway, the building seemed simple at first, until Thomas gazed upon the monumental size of the dark and demeaning tower.
"Why is it, this feels so terribly incorrect? Something so evil, would not ruin something so perfect." Thomas thought aloud, again receiving no reply, although the journey had not been entirely mute.
"My sweet darling, hold on tight to me." The man ahead of Thomas said as he clutched the woman beside him dearly.
"We've come so far to see her. Elizabeth, my daughter, I am here now. We are here now." The woman said with a playful smile.
"We are still not done, my love. The Dragon of Wrath must be slain, in order to progress." The man said as he barrelled the door of the tower down with his foot.
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The two quickly entered, and immediately found cover behind some well-placed debris. The scene had played out within seconds, as Thomas had only managed to catch up. The speed at which the couple entered, planned an attack on a dragon that was not even visible yet, and proceeded to move onwards, had all felt like an unnatural recall of events. A dragon the colour of a dark abyss soon did come trailing down to the couple ahead of Thomas, and its incredible size overwhelmed them. Screeching with its wings sailing downwards in hunger and anger, the dragon provided a flood of boiling hot air which bathed the room entirely. Soon the struggling act of breathing had pandered the couple to separate slightly. Thomas could not do anything to help the events that were unfolding in front of him, as all he could do was spectate from an angle that stuck behind the couple.
"Come now darling, this shall be easy work for me, the greatest swordsman to ever walk the lands!" The man proclaimed, as he lifted his sword out with such confidence, it finely cut the tension in half.
"That sword...the magic it leaks is...gah!" Thomas became faltered, as his mind profoundly refused a thought that sparked inside him.
The sword was truly strange. It was a shade of purple that seemed otherworldly, and its energy drew from an orb that was finely implanted into the handle of the sword. The instant sight of this blade put a blinding idea into the back of Thomas' mind, but he could not cling to it at all. Something had been refusing that right. Still, some things had seemingly made sense to him in some way, but they only barely did.
"It is true. Wrath has a fearsome dragon, but nobody has been allowed to fight it." He said with thought.
"Let's finish this quickly, grab its tail now. I will so very easily cut it off with my sword." The man ahead of Thomas said so valiantly.
"We shouldn't underestimate its strength darling." Said his lover in reply.
"Yes, they shouldn't. Where even am I? This is so terribly inaccurate." Thought Thomas.
The couple continued to cast a wonderful array of attacks at the magnificent beast, easily wearing its mobility down until a crushing crusade across its back came raining down. The man had run along the scales of the beast, drilling his fierce sword through the whole body. A painful cry released, and then the entire sequence came to a chilling conclusion. A freeze-frame of time. The whole world that had been around Thomas suddenly paused and it discontinued any movement.
Slight shock overcame him, but then curiosity charmed him, as he slowly moved towards the member of the couple ahead of him who was closest. A hearty girl with a cloak of tattered remains, her body had taken a formidable amount of punishment to have reached this exact moment in time. Her face had, up until now, been completely concealed. Thomas quickly became appalled by fear when he ran to her with a sense of desperation. For every step closer he took, a blasted wave of punishing images began to cast away at his eyes until finally, he laid down his eyes on the jewel before him.
"Victoria...Magika!" He said with astound.
It had indeed been her, but she appeared vastly different. Younger to the eyes, a much smoother complexion cleansed her, and her eyes were so vividly clean from sorrow, that they were like two pure gems of sapphire. She had been frozen with a smile of such beauty, it stumbled Thomas backwards in flustered fashion. His eyes eclipsed in shock, and he vigorously ran towards the man of the couple. The confident man, with a courageous scent to him, who was he? Who else could it be, other than...
"Me...my...myself?" Thomas sprung himself in horror, as he darted towards the nonchalant hero ahead of him.
Certainly enough, it was a younger depiction of him. A boy with no experience, no heroism, but pure confidence. The two were frozen, staring at each other for a solid moment, like a mirror image of each other. So much smaller, so much brighter and so much more energetic. The boy in front of his eyes stood with purpose and meaning in his life.
"You fool. Now I remember. This isn't what happened that day. Absolutely not!" Thomas yelled loudly, and in doing so, the environment around him shattered like glass as he punished the false reality with a bolt of newfound energy in him - his lightning strength having returned to him.