by Zac Atie
“...Yes. I would not say my life was a waste. I don’t know how the world works, or why I was chosen to play the role of Sebastian Slater, but it was worth it. However this universe works, I thank whatever gods involved, whether it be of religion or nature, for giving me this chance to live. I would do it again, gladly, for even the hard times in life mean something.” Bastion said. Illuminos paused. Bastion thought that was it. He thought his life would simply end, and he’d die on a happy note, going to wherever souls go at the end of life. He considered praying to whatever god for mercy in the afterlife, but he decided against it. He thought that if he, who he considered to be good, was brought before a god, and that god was just, his judgement would be fair. So he closed his eyes... and waited for the end.
“You’re much like your father.” Illuminos said. Bastion’s eyes opened. “He also held life dear. So dear that he’d end up dying for the woman he loved, much like you intend to.”
“What?” Bastion asked, looking at the statue.
“You are no ordinary boy, Bastion. You know this. Through you, I shalt not be sentenced to this life of entrapment, and life will prosper. Through you... Life itself will be saved. Saved from Calamity.” Illuminos said. “What are you talking about?” Bastion asked. All of a sudden, from in front of where he was sitting, a figure rose from the water. A woman... She was not moving, but slowly floating up from the water, motionless, eyes dead. Bastion got up, looking at the woman. Her black hair was in her face, but as the water dried out and it came apart, he could recognise who it was. “Yula?” Bastion asked.
“You have the potential to be ever so powerful. I bestow onto you, my strength. Thy body be healed, and rise. Rise and unleash this power I grant you.” Illuminos said. The figure slammed her hand into her fist, and presented a ball of fiery sludge in the palm of her hand. He recognised this. It was the attack she was trying to use on Bastion. “Who are you? What is this!?” Bastion asked. Images flashed into his head, about Yula. She was with a Cazrian with a golden insignia above his left eye, welded into his skin, it seemed, but the skin seems undamaged. The Cazrian has a sanctum symbol on his right cheek, like Torrig. Flashes of her practicing the technique, how it’s formed, how it’s used. It was so hard to do. The technique took forever to perfect. It was so high level that Yula doubted herself many times, becoming depressed and crying when she was alone, but in the end, she never gave up. Bastion had stolen these memories from her. The flashes of memory were painful, and left his mind blank for a few moments. “Stop! What are you doing?” Bastion asked.
“Saving your life...” Illuminos said. “And the lives of many others.” Then sounds of cheering began to reappear. “Wait. Wait!” Bastion called, but the pain of his body began to re-emerge. He groans in pain, and all of a sudden, he’s laying on the ground, cheek against the gridded floor. The floors are coming down, and it looks like everyone thinks the match is over. Bastion feels magic flow into him... it feels foreign, but it’s definitely needed. He begins gets to his knees and heals himself, while Dante was speaking motivationally. By the time he was done healing, Dante had spotted him. The guards had taken the shields down and the cheering had stopped, but gasps of shock erupted as they began to notice Bastion again. Bastion looked around, in a wounded condition. He wasn’t full of life and ready to go, but he was hardly going to limp. He was sore, and running around was something that he didn’t have in him. So... the fact that Illuminos had lent him this power was useless in his opinion. But no. Out of nowhere, he stood up. Or rather, his body did. He had no control. “Wha!?” Bastion shrieked. Bastion began to created the fiery sludge, and upon seeing it through hollow sight, Dante shouted, “No!” But too late, Bastion had finished the spell, and launched it at the crowd, using up all his magic energy again. The sludge exploded and covered about a dozen people. They screamed, fled, and panicked. “Kill them!” Dante shouted. “Hurry!” The guards hesitated, and when they actually began to move into action, the infected lashed out. They were crazy, and they were spreading the infection all over the place. What was this spell? Tartarus? It certainly looked like it, but it seemed a lot more volatile. Perhaps a more violent form of it? Magi fell under the weight of the infection, and the magi had no choice but to fight back. It was chaos. Some ran, of course, but many were caught and surrounded, forcing them to attack their friends and family. Bastion was sick to his stomach at the spectacle, at what he had done... but then it hit him. He’s alive. Veronica’s alive. They can run, get the hell out of here! After having such a close call with death, he decided to let his human, not magical, instincts take him, and use the chance he has to get the hell out of there.
Dante’s chants and speeches echoed throughout the small room that Veronica had been situated in. It was after the fight. She had been watching with hollow sight... watching as Bastion’s Aura slowly faded after he was slammed against the barrier by Dante. Tears had streamed down her face, for the first time in years. She had been up against the wall, curled up into a ball, thinking of how this was exactly like the time that her mother was taken away to be killed. She had lost another person that was important to her. Another person that understood and was there for her. Dragged off to be violently killed by a family member. Humans had always said that history had a funny way of repeating itself... Now, Veronica had learned that first-hand. She was frozen. She wondered what to do. She didn’t really care for her life anymore, no matter how much Bastion would say to her how important it was. How important it was to her mother and him both. Important enough that they both died for her sake. Then, she thought... If history had a way of repeating itself, then perhaps she should continue the cycle, exactly like last time. Wait for a chance to get this magic resistant leash off her neck, then possess the guards. Make them cut down their emperor. Be done with her family line, and wander off to be the hateful, cynical girl she was before she met Bastion. She was confused. What awaited her? Then, she jumped in fright. Screams of the dying and the bloodthirsty filled the room. She looked in hollowsight, and her whole body jolted as she saw a familiar Aura smashing through the doors of the coliseum. Bastion barges through the door, forgetting that he was still all banged up, despite being healed, and locked eyes with Veronica. “Bastion!!” Veronica screamed. Bastion ran up to the door, forgetting that he didn’t have the keys, and used even more of his mana to smash the lock off with his hands, cutting his hand in the process due to his messed up magic. “Ow, Damnit!” Bastion yelled. “Hey, Veronica, you alright?”. He was trying to remain calm, but it was impossible with Veronica being unusually in the opposite. She grabbed him and hugged him tight. “I was scared...” She whimpers. “I saw you die...”
“I'm sorry...” Bastion said. She stays like this, ignoring the cries of pain in the background. She shut herself off from the world. She was at peace. Bastion was too, and he forgot all about the terror he had unleashed until a loud explosion Then he snaps out of it. He grabs Veronica by her arms. “We need to go. Now. Come on, get your shit together.” Bastion says, and drags her to the door.
Bastion ran towards the northern door of the middle room, where the tunnel was, to find It was completely destroyed. “Damnit...” Bastion moaned. “Seems they don’t want us to leave this way in case we escaped.”
“What’s going on out there?” Veronica asked.
“I don’t have a damned clue.” Bastion lied.
“But...” Veronica began.
“Get a guard uniform on. Put the helmet on too. We need to get out of here.” Bastion said. They put the uniform over their clothes, making them stuffy and hot as hell, but probably saving their lives from half of the danger out there. The Blue Magi would recognise the prince-slayers right away, especially since one wears a steam punkish outfit and the other was just seen being beaten up moments ago. They left and went out into the arena. It was worse than they had left it. Most of the fighting had left into the main caverns, though some of the carnage had erupted onto the Arena. He saw mad, rabid men smashing the skulls of themselves, and the
ir enemies together, laughing manically. They had gone insane. Bastion was determined to help, but Veronica regained herself from her emotional breakdown back in the cells, and knew what had to be done. “We can’t help them. Let’s go.” Veronica said.
“I...” Bastion said. Veronica grabbed him, and dragged him past all the fighting in the coliseum area, and left through the door. Veronica knocked a few infected aside with Aero blasts, but Bastion had memories of the infected being friendly to the caster. “Don't bother attacking them.” Bastion said.
“What? Why?” Veronica asked.
“They’re no threat to us... I did this...” Bastion said.
“What?” Veronica asked. As she asked this, Bastion jumped into action. It seemed a Blue Magi noticed the two, and attacked. Bastion erected a shield, though it was weak. The rock dented the shield, and it came apart, and Bastion fell backwards from the force. “Bastion!” Veronica yelled. The Blue Magi were preparing another attack, when two infected ran from behind Veronica and towards the magi. The attacks were redirected on them, but they were swarmed from the infected closest to them, screaming as they brutishly smashed the Magi’s head in. “My god...” Veronica said. What she had seen had validated Bastion’s words. They protected them. Bastion got up and dragged Veronica towards the elevator. After a while, they reached a barrier, where they were let through. “Are you okay!? Any survivors!?” A highly equipped guard asked. He looked like one of the emperor’s guards. “There are some in the Arena!” Veronica said, learning from Bastion. The guard grabbed some men and headed out into the Caverns. Bastion and Veronica got on the elevator and ascended to the surface. Thankful to have escaped the madness.
Veronica was shocked by what she saw. What happened? Why did those monsters attack those men? “Bastion... What happened?” Veronica asked. Bastion was a little bothered to talk about it. He didn’t know who, or what, Illuminos was. He had been there for as long as he could remember, but only bothered talking to him during his time at the Red Magi settlement, Korreal. He thought he was harmless, only there to help, but if he was the magic, then how did he impart that knowledge onto him? He started to doubt what he had initially thought. “I... Remembered things... Visions from another person...” Bastion said.
“What do you mean? How?” Veronica asked.
“I was in my Magic Pool... Unconscious. I felt life slipping from me. She appeared. I saw her practice that horrible magic.” Bastion said. “I remembered her practice, remembered how it was formed...”
“And... You used it?” Veronica asked.
“Are you disgusted with me?” Bastion asked. “I am.” After all that talk with Illuminos about morals and being proud of the life he has led, he ended up spreading some sick form of Tartarus. That bothered him. “You’re forgetting I’m a Warlock.” Veronica said.
“Right... Right, but you were forced into it...” Bastion said.
“I don’t know how this happened, but it sounds like you were too. I’ve never heard of this happening before... but...” Veronica trailed off in thought.
“But what?” Bastion asked.
“I do know that it’s possible to steal memories. It usually messes up somebody’s mind, though, and they have to be very weak. It usually kills them.” Veronica said. “It’s another form of Necromancy. Domini who have evolved their affinity with mind reading could sometimes steal memories from people. I’ve heard of one Cazrian who even was able to steal memories from the dead, although that was in very ancient Cazrian history.” Veronica said. “Perhaps your distant relative was a Cazrian, or a Domini, though it’s not likely.”
“...Or is it?” Bastion asked. He remembered his human life. He used to wonder why his teeth was so sharp. He used to mess up his toothbrush... or why his skin was so smooth. Could this be affects of mixed breeding? His heart pounded. How long did this go back? Then again, Sanctum are here, aren’t they? They must have a portal somewhere. Was his father or mother among Sanctum? Simply thinking about it made him sick. But, he was reaching the top. There’s no time to be sick. He had to leave the Village.
There was a commotion in the village. He didn’t know what it was, perhaps the commotion down below, but there was a massive uproar here. Guards were trying to shush the villagers. Bastion and Veronica hid, behind some houses, out of sight, even if they were in their guard uniforms... because Dante McAllister was at the centre of the commotion. Along with another man. They moved in closer to see what was going on. What they found... shocked them to the core. There were two groups of people bunched together. One in the village near the tents, and the others near the gate and wall. One group near the tents were the Blue Magi, who looked as if they were dismayed from what had happened, and didn’t want these visitors here. On the other side were people who were not human. Or Magi. They had white skin, long tentacles that replaced their hair, big eyes, all different colours, sharp teeth, and tails. They had hoods and masks that had been taken off. Round their waists were Arcanas. “What the fuck are those things?” Bastion asked, disturbed by what he was seeing.
“Those... are Domini...” Veronica said, eyes wide. “I’ve seen them before in pictures... My mother showed me them...”
“Domini!?” Bastion gasped. “What are they doing here? They haven’t come to invade earth, have they??”
“No, I highly doubt it. They couldn’t with this many Domini, and if there were a lot more where they came from, Cazria would... surely realise it... This is most unexpected. Just what ARE they doing here? Sanctum surely wouldn’t let them through their portal, wherever it’s situated.” Veronica said. The two cut out the chatter when the crowd’s noise begins to die down, and Dante and a man close to him can be heard clearly. With all the frantic movement gone, Bastion can see the other man clearly. He has half a metal, theatre-like mask covering his jaw. On the metal mask was a illustration of a smiley face, with two vampire-like teeth jutting out of the mouth. The rest of his face did not match his smile. His eyes were dull, and he looked like the simple emotion of looking happy was something he had no knowledge of. His hair was black, and long. He had horns on his metopic ridge, and of course, point elven-like ears. He wore what looked like a lab coat that was padded and modified for combat. Perhaps it was simply the style difference from... wherever he came from. “I’ve heard many stories about you... Dante the Dire Eagle.” The man says. His voice was that of a dead man. Like he was putting a bare minimum effort into what he was saying. The mask that covered his mouth had a voice-changing effect. It sounded like he was talking through a gas mask. A very high-tech, clear gas mask.
“It seems those stories must be exaggerated. You’re far less impressive than I had thought you’d be.” The man said. “Why are you here, Ivorian?” Dante said.
“So you know me. I'm impressed. Perhaps your intelligence is better than I had anticipated.” Ivorian said. “Better than your listening skills.” Dante retorted. Ivorian paused.
“Bastion and Veronica. I came for their heads... But from what I understand, you neglected to kill them. Why?” Ivorian said, “Can you not follow instructions?”
“I’ve told Draynar that I want nothing to do with him or his ilk.” Dante said.
“It does not matter that you are defiant.” Ivorian said, “You were given an order by your superior, even if you do not count yourself among his army, he is superior.”
“I am a free leader of a free faction. The Blue Magi are family, and we stand alone.” Dante said. The Magi behind him murmur in agreement, wanting to cheer for their Emperor’s statement, but did not want to disturb the conversation. “I will not be lectured on superiority by a fool who is only looking to have his head patted by the Equilibrium before Sheol’s faction.” Ivorian’s eyes widened for a split second, then reverted back to it’s normal look. “You surprise me. How do you know of them?” Ivorian said. He notices that most of the Blue Magi are confused. This is something Dante alone knows about. Bastion finds it hard to follow. What is the equilibrium? And Sheol was broug
ht up again, the leader of Sanctum. Does that mean that Ivorian is not part of Sanctum? If not, who is he? “I have seen a long path. A path that is not set in stone, but is a possibility. I know there are better paths, but there certainly are worse.” Dante says. “I would stake my life on making the path I see a reality.” Ivorian paused.
“A path. And you know of Sheol’s faction and the Equilibrium. Trigoma did not even know of the equilibrium. Which means...?” Ivorian said, folding his left arm and tapping his mask with his index finger of his right hand. “I see. That’s how you know. Impressive indeed. I apologise for my insults. You’re far more powerful that I had estimated.”
“I suppose they don’t call you the Philosophic Scientist for nothing.” Dante said. “So you understand?”
“Yes. I would rather keep you alive, on second thought. But the boy and the Omega child must die.” Ivorian said. “They’re both great hindrances to our plans. Do not resist, Dante. It could get bloody. You know how Domini are.” The Domini behind them chuckle lowly. Their mere laughter sends chills down Bastion’s spine.
“I'm sorry.” Dante said. “I cannot let you win. Neither the Godslayer’s legion, or Sheol’s faction.”
“Very well.” Ivorian said. “Your brain would be most useful, I suppose...” The Magi begin to get defensive, readying for a battle. The Domini grab the hilts of their Arcana.
Ivorian’s eyes scan the crowd, and then, they reach Bastion’s. They’re at a sizable distance, but Bastion was close enough to see that Ivorian was gazing deep into Bastion’s eyes. It was a cold, unsettling glare, and although he was not human, he felt a lot more bothered by Ivorian than he was with the Domini. “Yes...” He said. “Indeed you are a threat. It’s so frustrating... So close, but so far away.” He was talking to Bastion, but nobody but Bastion and Dante knew it. For some reason, as soon as Ivorian’s eyes locked onto Bastion, Ivorian’s voice became clear as day. “The plans I have in store for you. Simple death will not suffice... Oh no. I want to see you cry. I want to see you explode with emotions, rage, sorrow, anger. And I have all the catalysts for that delicious remedy, dear Zaxxarius. You’ll see. Very soon, it will be the beginning... of your end.” He looks back at Dante. His voice left Bastion’s head. “If my predictions are correct, you have no doubt prepared for this encounter. This will be a battle indeed. But not now. Not yet. We’ll see who is superior. My 25 Domini, or the National Peak District.” Dante took off his Blindfold. Bastion could not see his eyes from where he was watching, but the Domini gasped at the sight. Ivorian simply glared, and Bastion could feel Dante’s returning glare back at him. The two held the glare for an age, until Ivorian broke it. “Move out.” He hisses, and Domini began to march out. Ivorian left with them. Even Ivorian’s walk was unsettling, as he never moved his arms. The Domini left, and headed off into the distance, preparing for the battle to come. Dante put his blindfold back on, and turned, barking orders. “Prepare yourselves! A battle approaches, but fear not! We will be victorious! We have trained for this day, have we not!?” Dante yelled. The Magi cheered, and went off to prepare for battle. Everybody, except children, prepared for battle. It was amazing. Bastion felt bad for killing so many off in the caverns, but the caverns held around a thousand Magi. There were still many here, and even the women were fighting too. For if there was one thing he had learned from his time among Magi, it’s that women can kick some ass.