by Jack Crosby
Yet he was just standing there, smiling. Maybe one percent of his HP bar was gone, maybe. “What a neat trick,” he mocked.
I didn't say anything as his turn came. In his arrogance, he skipped a chance to attack. “Why don't you summon your pet, I'm sure she is itching for a chance.”
I'd made the decision at the start of the battle that this was my battle. No, Zara was off limits. Instead: Echo of Bahamut
The shadow dragon moved into position. He unleashed his attack but this time, Victor didn't even pretend to be hit. He held up his hand: Reflect
The attack harmlessly flew back into the void. “Boy, you've gotten stronger but I've become a God King!”
Backhand slap
His attack took away most of my HP bar. It was a basic attack and it leveled me. Zara's voice entered my mind, Use me! I'm begging you!
I wasn't going to last but it felt like a trap. I didn't want to summon Tiamat but what choice did I have? Going against my better judgment: Tiamat's Revenge
“You can't even use Blackest Night!”
I ignored the taunt as the devil dragon, Tiamat, flew into view. Victor only smiled as she roared back, about to attack with all her fire and fury.
Stolen summon
Victor raised the sapphire and the three stones I'd previously obtained were ripped from me. All four gathered in his palm; he lifted the Dark Star up and placed them in the hilt. The battle ended with a simple: Slash
As I fell to the ground, Victor waved his hand, blowing the roof off the Star Temple. “Watch as I destroy another kingdom. The world will tremble!”
Blackest Night
****
I was back on the Frozen Continent. Odin, Alex, and Alyssa were all staring at me. “Where have you been?” Alex asked.
“I failed.”
Off, by the horizon, the full might of Tiamat had been let loose once again. My three companions didn't say anything as the Blackest Night ripped Gibraltar from existence.
“How did this happen?”
“Alex, we are fighting a losing battle.”
There was no path for victory. God King Victor was invincible.
End Disc 2
**Cut Scene**
Airship Dauntless
We had been flying for three weeks after rescuing Dante and Alyssa. Once Rico and I told him about Rex, he became inconsolable. Alyssa, having witnessed her home of Gibraltar destroyed, joined the rest of the shocked crew. No one had foreseen Victor decimating Alfheim the way he had. Up here, in the safety of the airship, we were above Victor's influence.
That wouldn't last long. We would be landing soon outside my home, what was left of it. The remnants of the Nagano Nation would be the safest place to go.
“He's still locked in his room, Kira,” Rico reported.
He had told us the story from the Star Temple. Victor had found four power stones that granted him complete power of the remaining summons. Alexander and Odin, unwilling to yield, sacrifices their souls to Dante. The Skylonian prince was granted their powers but at a terrible price.
“How much longer can we give him to grieve? If we are to defeat Victor, we need him,” I vented.
“I'm not sure, but we are about to land.”
****
There was a soft knock on my door. “Dante, most of the crew has dispersed. It's just the bearcat, Kira, me, and you.”
We had landed a few hours ago. I couldn't even move. Ever since Odin and Alex sacrificed themselves to me, the burden of everything collapsed on my body.
I had failed.
We could not win.
I ignored Alyssa and eventually silence returned to me. I was good waiting for the inevitable to take place; Victor ruining Alfheim.
“Dante!”
Rico was banging on the small round window that was on the port side of my room. I opened it and let the bearcat in. I had missed Rico.
He was panting heavily. “I need you, buddy! I was out hunting and some big old ugly monster tried to eat me!”
As much as I was fine sitting here, waiting to die, Rico was my friend. “Okay, I'll go with you.”
::Equipped Star Blade - max stats 10%::
::Equipped lunar set - defense plus 42 points::
::Rico joined the party::
**Entered Nagano Wasteland**
“That's some fancy equipment, Dante,” Rico purred.
“Not fancy enough.”
We mowed down two random groups of enemies. It seemed this area had been taken over by wild animals. Feral wolves, bugbears, and terror owls kept attacking us.
Drakken uprising
As the terror owl fell to the ground, we reaped in the gold and experience. Both Rico and I leveled up to twenty-six. He gained a new skill, Jaws of death.
We were nearing the spot Rico had been attacked. “Whatever it was, it lived in that hollow. It doesn't seem to be out here, at the moment.”
**Exit Nagano Wasteland**
**Enter Monument Hollow**
“Wait!”
Two women joined us ready for battle, Kira and Alyssa. “What's wrong, Kira?”
“This is Monument Hollow, one of the most sacred places in my homeland,” she explained. “Why are you two going in?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Something attacked Rico from here. We were going to investigate.”
“Not without me.”
“Nor I,” Alyssa added.
I was surprised to see these two together. Oh well. “The more the merrier,” I relented.
::Kira and Alyssa joined the party::
With the full party, I decided it would be worth my while to do a Scan on everyone to see where they were. It'd been sometime since we were all together. Had anything changed?
Kira - Level 26
Skills: Sweep kick, Uppercut, Raging headbutt, Knuckle crush, Superior healing, and First aid
Regular attack: One-two punch
Rico - Level 26
Skills: Cat scratch, Tail whip, Hissing roar, Jaws of death, Eye poke, Cat burglar, and Bearcat power
Regular attack: Paws
Alyssa - Level 28
Skills: Exploding sword, Decapitation, Grab n stab, Steely blade, and Razor's edge
Regular attack: Backhand
It didn't take long after I did the scan for us to encounter our first fight.
“No! The Storm Riders have taken over the hollow!”
Kira was obviously upset. Three mounted bandits on six-legged demon horses stood across from us. They looked like they meant business.
“Who are the Storm Riders?” I asked.
“We are the law around here, welp,” one of them called out.
“They are robbers, murderers, and rapists,” Kira retorted.
The lead rider attacked first: Bucking stomp
Horse hooves surrounded me as they beat on my armor. It was more annoying than anything.
As soon as the rider relented, “I believe in us, Dante!”
It was Kira. In all my wallowing, I'd forgotten just how close the two of us were before it all happened. I'd been such a jerk! She had witnessed Rex's death and tried to console me and I pushed her away. Rex…
I reached out and grabbed her hand. Our spirit gauges were full and ready to go: Spirit of the Skylonian
A spectral figure joined the battlefield. He turned towards me and saluted. “Rex?”
I think he smiled. Then, with speed and skill no mortal could possess, the spectral swordsman cut down the Storm Riders where they stood. As quickly as the fight started, it was over.
After collecting our gold and experience, both Rico and Alyssa were in awe. “Rex is still with us,” the bearcat cried.
“I've heard of warriors becoming more powerful in death, but to see it!”
The idea of Rex still being with me actually brought me out of my slump. I still had no interest in ever seeing Victor again and figured death would eventually catch up to us.
But if Rex was still fighting, I'd fight, too.
We fought our way through the hollow, expecting to find the monster Rico told me about. Storm Rider after Storm Rider were encountered, but no monster. When we made it to the bottom, we stopped outside a dilapidated keep.
“Why haven't we encountered the monster yet? This is weird,” I wondered aloud.
They didn't think I saw their suspicious looks to each other, but I did. “What's going on?”
No one wanted to answer. Finally, “We needed you to find your passion again. We didn't know how else to get you out of your room,” Kira said.
“I see.”
“And Kira said if there was any place that held answers, it'd be this old keep,” Rico added.
“I just never expected the Storm Riders to desecrate sacred land,” she fumed.
“Let us clear them out.”
Alyssa seemed eager for more fighting. Hell, they all did. For me, my interest was piqued with what could possibly be in this old keep that would be worth attempting to get. “Can you expand upon anything, Kira?”
“Nagano Nation legend tells us that Alfheim died through cycles. When one cycle ends and the next begins, those who wish to survive were to come here and learn The Truth. After what Victor has done to the world, I believe we are at the end of one cycle and about to begin the next.”
I'd never heard of such a thing. “You think our world is about to end?”
“Don't all of you?”
None of us said anything, we just followed Kira into the keep. Inside, it was dark and desolate. That didn't last long as a bright ring of fire engulfed the room, trapping us in a fiery prison. A very large figure jumped into the circle with us.
Storm Riders can out of the shadows along the perimeter. “We have guests,” the large warrior in the ring with us announced.
Easily a foot and a half taller than me, our opponent was covered in scars and tattoos. His exposed top half also revealed a great deal of muscle. He wore a skull on his head and carried a battle axe that would make anyone question their life expectancy. His legs were covered with dark pants and heavy boots covered in spikes. Whoever this was, he meant business.
“Boss Bigby,” Kira spat.
“You heard of me,” Bigby laughed. “Then you know death is upon you.”
Maker above! I was tired of these assholes and their God complexes. Victor, that dumb Shadow Lord before he got killed by the aforementioned Gibraltar douche, and now this Bigby. No, I was done. It was time one of these jerks learned we were tired of being pushed around.
“It's you who's about to die, Buggy.”
He didn't appreciate my humor. “Your snark ensures your death with be painful.”
The minute the talking stopped and the fighting began, Bigby came after me: Heavy blade
As expected, he was powerful. The blow took a chunk of HP with it, but at his attack, he got to see how slow his speed was. We would all get a turn before Bigby could do anything again.
Claw of the dragon
Raging headbutt
Bearcat power
Exploding sword
The last two attacks were in conjunction and did give damage. Bigby was big, strong, and slow with HP for days. He could easily survive our attacks and deal major damage of his own. Which is exactly what he did again: Storm fall
Lighting blasted the party, putting me in critical and the rest just under half with their health. A war of attrition was something we weren't going to win. We needed a better strategy.
A risky strategy.
Instead of using a potion, I went in the attack: Blessed revelations
It was the skill Alex sacrificed himself to gift me. It all happened so fast after I returned from the Star Temple that I didn't even have time to process the loss of my friend. Alex had kept me safe on the Frozen Continent and we had bonded. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I used this skill for the first time. Bigby was about to learn some hard truths about us.
A golden, holy light raced by me, twirling around as it honed in on its target. It collided with Bigby, pushing him backwards. It didn't kill him, but it did the trick, slowing him down.
“Your puny skills can't kill me.”
I didn't give him the satisfaction of a response. All I needed to see was that the spirit gauge began to fill up. Hopefully they others would pick up on it.
Being in critical status, mine would fill up quickly. But if all four of us could…
Kira got a wicked look in her eyes: Knuckle crush
Both Alyssa and Rico picked up on the subtle hints; no potions for them, just more skills.
Grab n stab
Cat burglar
Rico was able to nab a nice item, a throwable incendiary device. With the plan in full force, the was no turning back. Bigby narrowed his eyes, unsure what we were up to.
Instead of doing the smart thing and finishing me off, he went after Kira: Power chop
Bigby was confused and it showed. The strike did major damage to Kira, bringing her to critical with me. With two of us in critical states, the spirit bars would continue to fill. But we would need support. Alyssa and Rico were up to the task. Each used a potion as the situation called for, bringing at least one person out of critical. Bigby, for all of his bluster, didn’t have any other skills except Stormfall that could hit the entire group. He also didn’t use it very much. There were a few hairy points in the battle; we just kept whittling down his health and getting the entire team into full spirit status.
With Bigby at about forty-five percent HP, Rico finished his off his gauge. It was time to unleash the devastation. I had no idea what would be in store, but as Alyssa selected the attack, we all joined hands as Bigby looked on with concern growing.
Final Ending
The world around us opened up, illuminating every star that could be seen in the sky. Each star shined brightly, converging its energy towards a singular point. As more and more of the energy gathered, the larger the point became until it was an enormous sphere of celestial power. It split in half, exposing a dark core that felt very, very cold. The core shot upwards before reversing course and coming back down towards Bigby like a comet. The bright tale behind it was the best indicator of its path until it slammed into the ground where Bigby stood.
To say it felt as if the entire world of Alfheim shook would be an understatement. None of the four of us could believe the sheer magnitude of the attack we just unleashed. As the dust cleared, it was very much a given that Bigby was dead.
He was.
What we didn’t expect was that our attack would wipe the entire Storm Rider group off the planet. Their dead bodies were the only sign that moments earlier, this old keep had been full of hostile life. As the experience began to pile up and the gold in our pockets increased, none of us spoke. Could what we have accomplished together be enough to kill even Victor?
Whatever just happened, each of us jumped three levels from it.
“Not so fast, Skylonian.”
Considering everyone was no longer amongst the living, a random voice scared the crap out of me. “Who’s there?” Rico cried.
From the charred husk of Bigby arose a figure that felt very familiar to me. Steam followed his appearance upward from a black crystal that was laying shattered on the ground. I’d felt his presence before – this was the Shadow Lord.
“You’re dead,” I said blandly.
“You’re observant,” he shot back.
“Dante, you know this guy?” the bearcat asked as he jumped on to my back.
“Know would be a strong word. We’d only met once, briefly. The last time I’d come across him, he’d just died at the hands of Victor in the Star Temple. I was there for his death, but even that seems to have been incomplete,” I explained.
Most of my story was lost on them because I’d kept the events between Tiamat and myself private. The obvious change in my battle class hadn’t been lost on them, but I kind of said that was a side effect of my fight with Odin. Without the one-eyed warrior to dispute the claim, they all took it in
stride. With the Shadow Lord back in my life, I was somewhat worried what he would reveal and how it would affect the dynamic of the team.
As he formed into something more solid, his red eyes narrowed in on me. “I was killed by one of your own. Look what he did to me! I’m no longer of this world but not a part of the next.”
“I’m not sure what you want me to do about it.”
“Are you not Prince Dante? Have you not suffered enough at his hands? I want you to kill him or is that no longer the goal?”
His probing questions hit a bit close to home. “He’s too powerful. Look at you, that’s proof enough.”
The Shadow Lord flew around the room, his irritation sweeping over me. “A failure… I can’t believe Tiamat would waste her efforts with a failure.”
“What’s he talking about?” Kira asked.
Crap. “The short version, Tiamat’s been helping me, but had a memory block in place so when we were finished with our objectives, I’d forget. Not until the debacle at the Star Temple did the memory black finally go away,” I assured her.
They all looked stunned. Of course they were. I just summed up a major, life changing moment in like twenty some odd words. “Tiamat is just as much a victim of Victor as we all are. He has power, the power to command summons to do what he wants. She was just another puppet; a tool to bring Skylonus to cinder.”
Kira’s eyes narrowed at my attempt at storytelling. “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
“Hey guys, working with the devil dragon to bring Victor down… yeah, that’s not going over well. Besides, it’s over. Victor’s won and who cares anymore?”
Kira’s hands grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me back. “I care, Dante! You’re not the only one who has lost their home, their family! If you’re not willing to fight, so be it. I’m going after Victor and saving this world, with or without you.”
::Kira left the party::
I looked over to Alyssa who shared the same disgust as Kira.