Two days later, the general stands in front of a large squadron of troops, he starts to address the masses, “We’ve gained intelligence about the layout of the Black Sun Empire, from our friendly little priest over there. He was kind enough to tell us its headquarters is stationed within the area formerly known as the Arctic, guarded by the snowy mountains. We have been made aware of a pass that will let us traverse our way through the mountains. As we move through their territory, we will split up into smaller groups that can let us move undetected. We will regroup at the edge of the mountains and plan our assault on their headquarters”.

Alcaeus, Kayde, Drakthar, Jorge, and Xander find that the general and the Cult of Chaos priest are both in their group.

“Sounds like you let a lot slip,” Kayde comments in a joking way to the priest.

“You try enduring torture,” the priest shoots back not amused by Kayde’s japes.

“You boys need some heavier clothes for where we are going, head over to the armory and have them lend you some furs,” the general suggests, given they are heading into a freezing cold environment.

After getting properly outfitted for the journey their squad gets underway, crossing the frozen tundra towards the mountains in the Arctic. Aside from destroyed cities, mind-numbing cold, and roaming hordes of distortions, that they are easily able to avoid, they find little resistance in making their way to the edge of the tall snowy mountains in the West, the same range that stand in between them and the Black Sun Empire.

The luck of their group doesn’t extend to the others; only half make it to the edge of the mountains. They wait two weeks for them, hoping for more to back them up when the fighting starts, but after the first three days, no more squads ever arrive.

“I know not all of us made it here today. That just means that we must carry on for the ones who didn’t,” the general begins to speak to everyone who is left.

“We are going to head through the pass and storm the old castle they are using as their base. We will take back what was once ours right here and now. As we go off to this final battle I want all of you to remember what you are fighting for on that battlefield. I hope that when you are out there you will know that you aren’t just fighting for yourselves, but the fate of our entire world as well,” the general caps off his address. The troops have fire in their eyes, receptive to the type of motivation the general is employing.

Before they march on in the general has one last decision for the group to make.

“You five have a choice to make. We heard from this guy,” he points at the priest, “that there is a back entrance down at the base of the mountains. You guys can either take him back there with you or join us at the front and take these bastards head-on”.

Alcaeus is the first to speak up, “I’m very fond of the backdoor actually”.

No one laughs at his crude joke so he adds, “If you know what I mean”.

“We know what you meant,” Xander points out no one thought it was funny.

“I’m with Alcaeus if you want my opinion,” Kayde adds knowing he wouldn’t be as good in a full-on fight.

“I’m with them lads, don’t want a fight in this cold,” Jorge agrees with Kayde and Alcaeus.

“It would seem that we are outvoted,” Drakthar observes, wanting to fight.

“Actually I am with them on this one, you may go with the other soldiers, but I hope you will head through the back with us,” Xander admits hesitantly.

“I will. I am not going to abandon the ones that I’ve come this far with,” Drakthar regretfully complies.

“Then I wish the five of you luck. I hope he doesn’t give you all any trouble,” the general roughly throws the tied up Cult of Chaos priest over to them.

He gets back on his feet and comments, “Such an inconsiderate swine”.

“Yeah, yeah, come on let’s get on with this,” Kayde grabs the rope and leads them towards the tunnel the general told them about.

They pass by the edge of a frozen lake, it’s surface sparkles in the sun that reflects off of it. Next to it is a set of barely visible stone doors, half-buried by the snow. Drakthar, Xander, and Alcaeus start to dig it out while Kayde watches the priest and Jorge drinks.

Once the doors are almost cleared of snow the priest starts to smile.

“What are you so happy about?” Kayde notices his expression.

“This place doesn’t lead to the same place as the one your Sacrosanct friends are headed to,” the priest can’t help but explain.

“So? I don’t want to end up on a battlefield anyway,” Alcaeus overheard what the priest said as he finished clearing snow.

“If it doesn’t lead to the castle where does it lead to?” Kayde asks curiously, wanting to know what they are walking into.

“What would be the fun in me telling you that?” The priests grins over his newfound bargaining chip.

“So we are leaving him out here tied to a tree to freeze right guys?” Xander gets up.

“It would seem that way,” Drakthar helps him and together they open the doors.

“You had a nice life didn’t ya lad?” Jorge spits the cork of a new bottle of whiskey out of his mouth.

The priest starts to backtrack, “Hold on guys. You can’t seriously leave me out here to die”.

“We don’t know you that well, it’s not like we are friends or anything,” Kayde finds a good sturdy tree a few hundred feet away and starts to walk towards it.

“Okay hold on, it’s a laboratory. Well, more of a prison if you ask me, they were setting it up for that Scientist you guys were after two years ago. It could have changed though, I don’t know what could be back there now,” the priest explains frantically, not wanting to die out in the cold.

“Interesting, I like that answer. You know what I hope it hasn’t changed. I’d very much like to pay the Scientist a visit,” Kayde is now the one smiling.

They look through the doors and see a tunnel, it is narrow, the only way to fit through it is in a single file. The priest leads in the front with Kayde right behind him. Alcaeus, Drakthar, Xander then Jorge follow behind them.

The tunnel is dark and quiet, Xander lights a torch so they can find their way. The dim light reflects off of the jagged ceiling. Both Drakthar and Xander have to duck, too tall to walk through it normally. After walking for a couple of minutes in silence they feel a faint breeze blowing around their hair, while it makes its way through the tunnel.

Suddenly the wind becomes more intense. The sound of the wind cutting through the tunnel mixes with maniacal laughter coming from the priest. Xander’s torch goes out, the last thing Kayde sees is a haunting smirk on the priest’s face before the rope he is holding goes limp.

The wind dies down and Xander relights the torch. The rope Kayde was leading the priest with has been severed.

“Where did he go?” Kayde starts to search the walls for some kind of secret passage. All he finds is hard stone, cold against his hands.

They look both directions but do not see the faintest sign of the priest.

“He’s gone, what the fuck? How could he just disappear like that?” Alcaeus looks around, shocked by this development.

“Nothing to do but head forward, we are wasting time talking here, he is probably running ahead of us right now to warn whoever is at the end of this tunnel,” Drakthar urges them forward, assuming the priest ran forward.

After half an hour of jogging attempting to catch up the priest, Xander looks back to see if Jorge is keeping up, but he is gone.

“Guys,” he halts, getting the other’s attention. They all look back to see what he already has. Jorge is not there.

“Did he fall behind?” Alcaeus asks thinking that has to be the reason.

“No, I turned back to look at him a few seconds ago, we would still be able to see him if he stopped in that time frame,” Xander explains knowing something is off.

“First the priest now Jorge, what do we want to do?” Drakthar asks the others.

“I don’t see any other option than continuing on,” Kayde reasons, he has come this far; he isn’t going to turn back now.

They press on even with the loss of their drunken friend. A few moments later the tunnel goes dark.

“Dammit kid, don’t let the torch go out so suddenly!” Alcaeus yells, mad that the darkness scared him. His complaining goes unanswered.

“Kid?” He asks again after a torch isn’t illuminated and he doesn’t hear Xander’s normal retort.

Kayde feels around in his bag for one and lights it, revealing only Alcaeus and Drakthar behind him.

“He’s gone,” Alcaeus realizes, once he sees Xander is not there.

Drakthar starts to furiously search the walls, “There must be something leading to somewhere, people don’t just go missing in the middle of a tunnel”. Kayde and Alcaeus help him search, but they find nothing.

“We need to keep moving, I know Xander was like a brother to you, but we have come so far. We can find him after we find the Scientist and figure everything out,” Kayde insists wanting them to continue.

Drakthar takes a second to think it over, “Fine, sitting around here isn’t going to accomplish anything anyway”.

They continue without any other plans. This time when they turn back to see if everyone is still there, Drakthar is missing.

“Kayde, I don’t want to sound like a pussy, but I’m getting chills man. I think we should consider going back and leaving them,” Alcaeus suggests out of fear.

“You can, I’m not stopping,” Kayde responds without the usual chipper tone in his voice.

Alcaeus follows behind Kayde, not wanting to be in these tunnels at any point alone. Kayde’s determination to find the Scientist blinds him, taking him a full minute to realize Alcaeus is missing. He only does so when he sees the shadow of a figure ahead of him in the tunnel. He sprints forward eagerly thinking it could be any of his friends or the Cult of Chaos priest. Instead, he finds what looks like a cyborg standing confidently in the middle of the tunnel. His face is very much like Kayde’s, the eyes and mouth are the only things that are human. As he looks into the things eyes, he realizes they are the exact same as his own.

“Hello big brother,” the thing takes a step forward.

“Sorry, I don’t remember having any family,” Kayde never loses his wit even in this unnerving situation.

“Let me correct myself, I’m the new you. Except... I don’t have any of your flaws,” the thing continues.

“What did you do to my comrades?” Kayde asks, not wanting to play this thing's game any longer.

It starts to laugh, “You see Kayde, my stealth far surpasses your own. I snatched your little friends right from under your nose. We have something special planned for them. You see Kayde a good friend of ours finally came back to us after two years. We thought he was dead, but actually, he was with you guys gathering vital information on you”.

“The Cult of Chaos priest,” Kayde figures it could only have been him.

The thing smiles and continues, “Yes, him. He came back and told us about all of your friends’ weaknesses. The fire mage and his love of alcohol…” It pauses, confused as it watches Kayde pull out a chair from his bag of holding and sit down in it.

“What are you doing?” It asks him.

Kayde settles a little more into his seat and then explains, “You’re doing that thing that bad guys do, the monologue thing. In my experience that takes a while, so I thought I would take a seat if I was going to have to listen much longer”.

The thing is insulted but continues where it left off anyway, “As I was saying. We discovered all of your friends’ weaknesses: the fire mage and his love of alcohol, the young runaway priest and his grief over a woman, the warrior and his propensity to challenge those much stronger than he is, and the bounty hunter who can’t help himself when it comes to gold. You see Kayde, I prepared something special for all of them. I’m sure they are all suffering from those very same weaknesses right now”.

Meanwhile, in a different section of the underground, Jorge wakes up in an empty room about ten wide with a single door. In the middle of the room sits a bottle of whiskey. He reaches to his sides and realizes the bag he filled with alcohol from the airship isn’t there. He uncaps the whiskey in the center of the room and starts to drink it. He notices something is off about the taste, but who knows how long he has been knocked out, he needs his drink.

Further down, Xander wakes up in a room with the exact same layout as Jorge’s. He looks up and realizes he is not alone. A person is standing at the edge of the room clad in a purple robe, with the hood up blocking their face. He can tell by the way the robe falls on her, that the person wearing it is a woman.

“I do not think I have seen a female Cult of Chaos priest before,” he comments as he rises to his feet.

In another area of the underground, Drakthar awakens to see a heavily armored gentleman across from him, the man’s frame almost as large as his own.

“My name is Frederick and I’m the strongest in all of the Black Sun Empire, prepare to die,” the man tells Drakthar as he draws his sword. Drakthar smiles and brandishes his battle-axe, more than willing to participate in this contest.

Lastly, Alcaeus wakes up in a pile of gold. He quickly starts to fill his bag not even stopping to question how he ended up there. Across from him, the gold starts to shift ominously revealing a giant golem made of gold.

Back in the tunnel, the thing starts to describe his plans for each of Kayde’s comrades, “Jorge, your drunk mage, will be greeted with a bottle of whiskey filled with poison. The heartbroken priest, Xander, will be met by a woman who is as fair as she is deadly. The headstrong Drakthar will have to face the strongest warrior in all of the Black Sun Empire. Finally, the greedy Alcaeus will be done in by the thing he loves most, a giant golem made out of gold”.

It begins to laugh in Kayde’s face, very amused by his own machinations.

“I think you might have miscalculated on some of those,” Kayde interrupts his cackling.

The things stops to question, “Whatever do you mean?”

“You might in fact kill Jorge with your poison, or catch Xander off guard with your woman, but you underestimated both Drakthar and Alcaeus. I think the two of them will clear the trials you set before them without any problems,” Kayde sounds confident.

“Do you not understand their flaws as humans? They will fail because of those faults, they cannot succeed,” the thing insists.

“You know you don’t understand humans that well. Sure maybe they can be silly and focus too much on certain things that can lead to weakness, but what you neglect to see about them is that at the drop of the hat they can turn those weaknesses into their greatest strengths,” Kayde lectures it.

“Now I know there is something malfunctioning inside you. Too bad a tune-up won’t be in order,” the thing states as it and Kayde both go invisible.

Back in Drakthar’s room, the battle rages on. The two warriors have been evenly trading blows, but it is becoming more and more apparent to Drakthar that Frederick is faster than he is.

The point is really emphasized when Frederick swings, hitting Drakthar’s armor around his stomach, it doesn’t pierce his armor, but it pushes him down to the floor.

“You are in fact a mighty warrior, but you are no match for me,” Frederick declares standing over him.

Drakthar knowing what Frederick is saying is partially true, takes something out of his pocket and swallows it.

Frederick notices and asks him, “What did you just eat?”

Drakthar doesn’t answer instead he rises, his eyes bloodshot from the stym he just took. He was not able to retain his sanity upon taking it, but in this situation, it hardly matters.

“What are you?” Frederick asks in fear looking at the veins popping out Drakthar’s head as he transforms into a rabid beast. He goes directly at Frederick swinging his axe with more speed and strength than Frederick could ever expect. The axe rips directly through his armor, severing Frederick’s sword hand. The sound of metal hitting the floor is only drowned out by the painful grunts of the man who just lost his hand.

The enraged Drakthar doesn’t stop with just an arm. He brings his axe down on Frederick’s head, splitting it in two. As Frederick’s body falls to the ground lifeless, Drakthar continues to sever his extremities, not able to determine his opponent is dead in his current state.

Frederick’s corpse continues to be mutilated; blood spilling out, creating a pool in the center of the room. Drakthar finally regains his senses, stopping and witnessing his handiwork.

He sees the dead Black Sun Empire soldier before him; “I guess failing to control myself while taking the stym worked out this time”. He tries to open the door in his room and notices it is locked. He carefully searches Frederick’s cut-up remains and finds a key.

While Drakthar was fighting Frederick, Alcaeus notices the giant golden golem across from him, “Holy shit. Oh, I’m going to capture you, baby. You’re going to sell for a shit ton”.

The golem slowly walks towards Alcaeus. Dodging it should be easy, but Alcaeus slips on some loose gold on the ground, allowing an opening for the golem to hit him square in the back. He quickly gets up intent on not slipping again.

Alcaeus begins to judge his surroundings. The entire room is filled with gold and jewels lying on the floor. The only other thing in the room is a lavish chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Alcaeus starts to think about what he can do to get out of this situation while he dodges the golem’s attacks. He bides his time for what feels like hours to him, but in actuality, it is only ten minutes.

Alcaeus finally finds his opening when the golem slams its arm into the ground, causing the gold around it to splash as if it were water in the ocean. He jumps on top of the arm and begins to climb the golem. He scales it and grabs onto the chandelier overhead. The golem’s arms are too short to reach him.

Alcaeus steadies himself with his legs and grabs his bag of holding. He opens it wide and holds it so the opening is facing the ground. He lets himself drop from the chandelier onto the golem, sliding it inside his bag of holding. He closes it up as quickly as he can.

“Hell yeah, I knew I was going to get you. I’m going to be loaded after this,” he laughs to himself as he takes every last piece of gold and jewel in the room. He finds a key at the bottom of the gold.

In Xander’s room, he is standing across from a woman, her face obscured by the hooded robe she is wearing. She walks directly up to him, for some reason Xander drops his guard. He can’t seem to move, despite wanting to, believing this is some sort of trap. To his surprise, the woman embraces him.

Xander is hit by a feeling of familiarity, he has felt the same warmth from this woman before. His surprise grows when she kisses him. He feels the tears on her face while their mouths intertwine. He realizes who he is kissing causing his own eyes to well up.

Xander’s head move back from the kiss and he pulls down the hood of the woman before him. Gwendolyn’s crying smiling face is right there in front of him. He can’t resist kissing her again, but for longer this time knowing exactly who she is.

“Didn’t expect to see me here did you?” Gwendolyn chuckles as she wipes away her tears of joy.

Xander’s crying only gets worse when he admits to her, “I thought I had lost you”. She takes him in her arms once again gripping his back as hard as she can as if she was trying to make sure she would never lose him again.

“Wait, hold on, how are you in Cult of Chaos robes?” Xander thinks to ask, once his emotions start to calm down.

Gwendolyn explains what happened to her, “After the battle at the tower the Silent Brotherhood was wiped out. I was able to find a uniform off one of the dead soldiers and put it on. I blended in with them here for the last two years waiting for a chance. Now that you are here I think this is finally my chance to do something”.

“That must have been really tough to go through all that, I’m sorry I couldn’t find you when I was on the roof of the tower,” Xander apologizes.

“What do you mean?” Gwendolyn asks him confused.

Xander explains what happened to him and the others and how they were sent forward two years in time when they went through the portal.

“I knew something was off, it doesn’t make sense for you to look like you haven’t aged a day in two years,” Gwendolyn points out, while studying his boyish face.

“I was in a tunnel with the others… what is going on? Why was I brought to this room with you?” Xander starts to come back into their current situation.

Gwendolyn’s face starts to get flushed when she thinks about why she is in the room with him specifically; “The higher-ups had a plan for you guys. An old priest had returned and told us all of your weaknesses. The thing in charge wanted to embarrass all of you by making you fight against your greatest weaknesses and... well, according to the priest your greatest weakness was the grief you felt over me. So they sent me in here to take advantage of you and kill you, but they didn’t know exactly who I was. They just sent me in because I was the only woman there at the time”.

“Lucky for me I guess… wait doesn’t that mean that everyone else is in real danger?” Xander realizes, he suddenly feels a sense of urgency.

“Yes, they are,” Gwendolyn grabs the key to the room out of her pocket and goes to the door.

“You know where they are right?” Xander asks as he follows behind Gwendolyn.

“I do,” she assures him as she jogs confidently ahead of him through the labyrinth of hallways.

They reach a door and Gwendolyn unlocks it with her key. Inside they see Jorge sitting there with an empty bottle.

“Tell me you didn’t just drink that whiskey laced with poison,” Gwendolyn already knows it is too late seeing the bottle.

“Aye, I did, but don’t worry about me lass, I have ingested poison on many occasion. This isn’t the first time someone has tried to kill me with my love of drink,” Jorge assures her, knowing the poison won’t be the end of him.

“If you are good then follow us, we are going to go help the others,” Xander tells the perpetually inebriated man sitting in front of him. Jorge wobbles his way to his feet and they both follow Gwendolyn to help their next friend.

Back in the tunnel, Kayde and the thing begin to fight while invisible.

The thing starts to taunt Kayde, “How are you supposed to win if I’m everything you are and more?” Kayde focuses on how the sound echoes in the tunnel. He determines the location of the voice and swipes at it with the knife made of the sand dragon’s claw.

All the knife cuts through is air. Kayde feels something collide with his head causing him to go to the floor.

The thing begins to boast, “It looks like you’re smart enough to know where I was standing, but I gave away my location on purpose to lure you out. I guess being an older model really is not working for you”.

Kayde attempts to stand back up, but he is pushed back down to the ground. He sees restraints appear from the floor and tighten around his arms and legs. Above him, a wall of flames starts to slowly descend.

The thing turns off its invisibility and appears in front of him, “Sorry Kayde, but it looks like it’s to the scrap heap for you. Don’t worry, I’m sure your friends will be joining you soon”.

Kayde closes his eyes listening to the thing’s laughter. The heat from the flames intensifies, as it gets closer to him. Kayde takes a deep breath accepting his fate. His life wasn’t particularly long, but it was fulfilling enough. It was much more than someone like him could have asked for, and for that, he will always be grateful.

Kayde waits to be burned by the flames. He finds it odd that they haven’t finished him off by now. In fact, it isn’t that hot anymore. The sound of screaming causes Kayde to open his eyes. He sits up to realize he isn’t in the restraints, the thing is. The fire is burning it, the smell of singed flesh and hot metal fill the tunnel. He looks back and sees Alcaeus, Jorge, Drakthar, Xander, and Gwendolyn standing behind him.

“You didn’t think we were going to just let you die did you?” Alcaeus extends a hand to help him up.

Kayde gets to his feet and responds, “Nope, I had faith the whole time, I heard about what they had planned for each of you and knew you could each deal with it, although I am surprised to see Gwendolyn here”.

“I have been hiding amongst them for a while now, but now that you guys are here that ends,” Gwendolyn explains to the others how she has hidden among the Black Sun Empire for all this time.

Now reunited, they continue down the tunnel and find themselves in an abandoned laboratory. Scattered all around the room is odd-looking machinery, with a desk right in the middle. Xander approaches the desk and finds a journal. It must be from the Scientist. He opens it and begins to read.

I finally replicated what my grandfather had invented, or so I thought. I spent months in those sewers developing what I thought could take me back in time once again, but I was wrong. It was not complete; I attempted to use it when some bounty hunters in the sewers found me out, I was shocked to see him alongside them. Either way, I had to pull the lever, I had no other choice, but the machine backfired. It created an earthquake and these creatures came and wreaked havoc on the city. The Cult of Chaos saw these things and started to worship them. I was aghast; I never thought it would turn out like this. I had created what I had sworn to prevent, the Black Sun Empire. When they stuck me here, I got back to working on my grandfather’s invention; I was able to complete it as I am writing this journal. I realized the missing component and the reason for the creatures’ creation, but I do not have enough time to explain. They found out I’m not working on what I am supposed to, they will come for me any day now. In order to use the machine to go back in time, a body must be willingly sacrificed as a conduit to absorb the energy it takes to power it.

“That’s it? There isn’t anything else?” Alcaeus asks, having heard Xander read it aloud.

“It stops there, I think he probably was found out,” Xander puts down the journal.

“None of us have to die, we can head back out and join the Sacrosanct military in their fight in the front,” Drakthar suggests, considering it the best option.

“No, they have already died. They were routed easily even before you all were captured,” Gwendolyn informs them, having overheard that information earlier.

“There goes the largest army left in the world,” Jorge throws up his arms, wishing he had a bottle of something to fall back on right now.

“So then who wants to sacrifice themselves?” Drakthar asks having been told it is the only option to prevent this horrid future.

Jorge speaks up immediately, “Not me lads, I have too many women waiting for me two years back”.

“I can…”

“No, Xander this isn’t what you were meant to do,” Kayde interrupts Xander’s offer.

Kayde goes on, “I will sacrifice myself”.

“Hold on, can we talk about this? This is ridiculous, we should just fight them. None of us have to die here,” Drakthar suggests, not wanting to believe that this is their only option.

Gwendolyn’s tone gets solemn, “I don’t want to believe it either, but I’ve seen their might and brutality first hand, and it is not something that only six people can handle. Even if everyone left in the world were to form up against them… I think we would still lose”.

“It will be me, it is only right that it ends this way,” Kayde reiterates, not wanting any of the others to die in his place.

“Why? What are you talking about?” Xander asks for everyone, not understanding what Kayde means.

Kayde explains who he truly is, “I was created by the very same scientist that wrote this journal. The assassin he referenced creating before is me. Since I’m his creation and he is the one that caused this mess, I should be the one to pay for his mistakes. I enjoyed every moment of my life, but I had a feeling that it would all come crashing down at one point. I wish that you all live on and fix my master’s mistakes”.

Kayde’s plea isn’t met with any questions, they understand why he feels like he needs to do this. A single tear makes its way down Drakthar’s face as Jorge, Xander, and Gwendolyn don’t hold up as well. They gather around Kayde and start to hug him; heart-broken over the friend they are about to lose.

Suddenly their ears all start to ring, the sound of a gunshot coming from the corner. They break their embrace to see Alcaeus’s body on the ground; the pistol he used to shoot his head is still in his lifeless hand. In one last act of defiance towards Xander, he pulled down his pants, displaying his length to them, but more specifically Gwendolyn.

Drakthar starts to burst out in laughter, “Oh come on guys he would have wanted us to laugh”.

Kayde doesn’t find it funny at all, he begins to scream, “No!… it wasn’t supposed to happen like this. I was supposed to be the one to die!”

“No Kayde, let’s live on together. Alcaeus gave up his life so we can fix everything that went wrong. Let’s not waste it,” Xander tries to pull him together, moving over to the lever on the machine. The others put their hands on the lever as well and they all pull it together.

Kayde grabs at his head, it aches like never before. He sees the others with him, passed out in a street of what could only be Melusarej.

“Guys wake up!” He rouses them awake.

“What is it now lad?” Jorge wakes up grumpily. When they make it to their feet Kayde notices out of the corner of his eye the Scientist enter an alley across the way. He looks at Xander and they both know what they must do.