《Overture of an Odyssey》A0 - The End (?)
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"Hah!" With the final battle cry along with a the final swing, in this intense battle for a tomorrow, the last foe is finally slain.
The Warden of this ruin finally crumbles to fragments before us at long last.
A strong foe with a lot of strong followers, Sentinels.
They were numbered over twenty but with our polished and prepared strength and under the leadership of my beloved, we have finally took all of them down. Although it had taken us almost more than an hour.
Our salvation, the light of the surface, is finally in sight.
How long have we waited for this....
Personally, I have waited for thousands of years, if we're including the time I spent in my imprisonment.
I flex my feather wings and shrug off the afterglow of such heated battle.
"Angie, you alright?" My beloved asked me without a smile nor any affection. It almost seemed like my love for him is unrequited.
But I knew better. "With you here, even the dark is bright." I replied with a gentle smile.
My name is actually Senna but since I am a half angel, my beloved has been calling me Angie. It was an insult at first but it became an affectionate name since.
My beloved returned a wry grin but the affection in it does not loose to mine. The little girl he's holding in his arms look at me with belligerent eyes. She even tighten her arms around my beloved's neck.
The girl's name is Kiralhirin, Kirin for short, is actually a young child Spirit of Nature. She may look ten to twelves years old but she is much older than my beloved but she isn't older than me. Regrettable.
My beloved sighs at the two of us. "Just stop with it already." He said while patting Kirin. Kirin closes her eyes and enjoys it in glee.
My beloved may seem insensitive to moods and situation but in truth, he's just not the type who sugar coat things. And he reacts oddly to the weirdest times and situation.
"Yeesh. Save that for later, can you?" Nilin said as she looks away with a pout, who is also a Spirit of Nature. As far as I know, Nilin and Kirin are practically family.
An Oni clad with an aura of shadowy flames, standing beside Nilin, gently brushes her head while saying "There, there." Nilin is enjoying it but she's not showing. Her cramp face of withstanding the pleasure is kinda cute. Her reaction to affections is just like my beloved.
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Despite such a long amount of duration we all have spent together, I still can't get over the fact that the Oni has a face the echoes the appearance of my beloved. The truly notable difference between the two persons in question is that the Oni has shot and unkempt black hair wheares my beloved had none. I think a shaved head brings out the masculinity in a man.
"Forgive my imprudence, Lord Creator but I suggest we keep moving. This ruin is full of the unexpected. We can't brave the possible risk that exist even now." Said Djin Sol, a three meter tall steel Golem created by my beloved. I am told that Djin Sol means Steel Soul in Helix. A fitting name.
"Whew, that was hard. Indara thought we would have loose. Indara was really afraid just now." Remarked Indara, the two meter long greatsword in Djin Sol's hand. Indara is a Mondra, a race of living sentient weapons. As far as I know, he should be the tenth Mondra? Despite being a weapon of legends, Indara is only four days old. The creator is obviously my beloved, the one who forged Indara to life.
"Hey, Tinhead is right." The one who agreed with Djin Sol is a Colossus named Engrande. A Colossus, an extincted race of five meter tall giants that specializes in a legacy Arcane Art called Shura. According to Engrande himself, his race is extincted long since before the emergence of this ruin.
And for our last two members of this little party, one is a Juggernaut and the other one is a Shadow Goblin, they are out of their breaths from taking out most of the Sentinels.
They have come a long way. To thing they were so weak when I met them. And once again, it's all thanks to my beloved.
Actually, they are not the last members. There is one more member and just as I am mentioning her, she came slithering out of the Shadow Goblin’s sleeves. She use to be so small but now she’s at least the size of an adult cobra.
With the Warden and all of its Sentinels gone, the path before us is unsealed and revealed. The way out of this ruined city, this dungeon, at long last.
"Let's go." My beloved said and lead the way.
The Oni walks beside him. "This is it huh?"
"Yeah. After so long, we finally get the break we deserve. We might be looking at retirement after this."
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The Oni laughs at my beloved words. By no means the Oni was ridiculing his words. "Do you think it would be a bad joke like last time?"
"I hope not." A grin appears on my beloved’s face with a faint grimace. "It better not be."
“Scary.” Kirin said as she pokes at his cheek. Please stop doing such shameless thing in front of me, you damn little wretched witch.
Kirin noticed my glare and responded with her tongue flapping at me.
Normally, this means war but since now it’s a special occasion. I’ll let it slide. I’m the older one here after all. What’s more, it’s good to see Kirin’s troubled face when she realized her actions didn’t provoke me.
Take that, you sly witch.
As we all cross the bridge that is needed to get to the newly opened path, the whole place trembled. What follows after the quake is an uninviting intuition. I can feel an enormous surge of energy across the room. The energy isn't just strong, it's crippling on not just our physicality but our mentality too. Like it could get inside your mind and dominate it, making you do its bidding or follow its will.
What the hell? What is this? It's unsettling... Arh....!
My beloved notice my discomposure and pulled me into his embrace. The ache and conflict in my is gone just like that. The warmth of my beloved has dispelled the darkness away.
Are you perhaps a Saint after all, my beloved?
Kirin was not happy to be embraced together with me but it’s rare for my beloved to embrace me on his own so I’ll overlook Kirin this time.
I expected his gentle and blank gaze upon me but he was exchanging glances with the Oni. If this was any other situation, I might have gotten angry (jealous) by now but the looks they gave to each other is not meant to be casual nor a simple banter. Something is coming and that something is big enough to cause great discomfort to my beloved.
"It’s familiar...." The Oni said.
"Is the murderer itself, the murderer of our friends." My beloved said it in a way as if he had swallowed something sour.
When the Juggernaut and the Shadow Goblin heard those words, they let out some resentful aura.
"It survived...." said the Oni.
"Course it did. Otherwise the previous civilization wouldn't have so much trouble with it." My beloved responded so.
He had told me before, his tragic past. His friends were killed by a powerful entity born and came from another dimension.
As I tried to remember the name of such dreadful person who will do such a thing to my beloved..,
.... the cracks appeared all over the room like veins. Energy of dark purple leaks out from the fissure. The energy gathers in the center of the room. It is using the broken pieces of the fallen Warden and Sentinels to give its formless self a body.
"Fucking hell...."
My beloved muttered such unrefined words but I understand why.
Immediately, everyone of us are on our guard again.
"Papa, what's that?" Indara asked. He calls my beloved Papa since he created him but I wish Indara would call me m...ma....mama.... Ah~..... no~. That won't do. It's still too early~.
"Angie." My beloved snaps me out of it as I'm having such delusions. "All of you, be careful. This pain in the neck here is one tough son of a bitch."
“Lord Creator, I advise retreat. The advice may be ill but this entity before us is more so. Forgive my imprudence.”
“Noted.” My beloved answered. “But I ain’t running.” He said and let go of me and Kirin. He let go of us.... as in both literal and metaphorical sense. It’s like he’s not looking at us anymore.
His eyes are filled with sorrow after a long time. When I first met him, his eyes are full of it but it faded after spending time with all of us. Now, it came back.
Soon after the sorrows, unchained fury surfaced on him. Dark energy begins enshrouding him, becoming a veil that turn my beloved into a very ugly beast.
After forming its body from the fallen ruin’s guardian’s parts, the entity points at my beloved as if challenging him to a fight.
At that moment, I remember the name of the entity who killed my beloved’s friend, yes, the entity’s name is...
"Aedrox." My beloved sneers at it. "I was hoping that zealot would have done the impossible of ending you."
“Harbinger!” The entity born of the Void replied the greeting. The space that surrounds it begin to show cracks.
And this marks the beginning of the end of my beloved’s story and journey in this dungeon.
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The Nomad
A [participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] for 2020. A child born in one era and raised in another searches for his past. Along the way he must deal with the shackles placed upon his mind, a wise-cracking ship AI, and more bureaucratic paperwork then any one soul can shake three sticks at. This story began life as a one-off short, but this version has been a) expanded into a full work and b) a complete re-write of the orgional. You can find the origonal version here in my short-story anthology. Cover by gej302!
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