“When I put in that request, I honestly didn’t expect you to accept it.” I say, as the round hooded figure sits there on the table. He’s short, and under his hood is a mask decorated to look like a skull… “I’ll… Be in need of your services, you see.” I say, as he folds his arms.

“I’m going to need someone dispensable. And you being technically immortal, that makes you my best bet.” I continue, as he nods in acknowledgement. “At the moment, I have to obtain my own power. Once that is complete, I’ll call upon you again.” I say, as I practice my crystalizing…

“Anything else?” He asks, surprising me while I distracted myself by forming scales with my crystals… His voice is weird, it’s echoey, whispery, yet wavy and strained, otherwise unaltered in its weird consistency… “Is that everything, or is there anything else I should know about?”

“Right…” I say, as he climbs down and walks up to me. His arms and legs are stubby, and his belly has an odd symbol on it. “There’s lots of stuff you could do, before the second phase of my plans kick into action. The first thing you can help with, is distract an old friend of mine, as I work through the first phase. After that, I should be too powerful for him to deal with me anymore.”

He folds his arms and leans on his leg. “Fair enough. Give me a name, and it’ll be done. Keep me updated.” He says, and I click my crystalized fingers. “Oliver. It’s an odd name, so tracking him down shouldn’t be too hard.” I say, and he nods again, saluting before his body suddenly glows-

He disappears with a trail of lightning, passing right into the wall, surprising me before I could offer to portal us out, but with our task complete, I head out myself anyways.

-√Z2-

I stare at the child… Then at Oliver, and at the kid again… “You made this thing?” I ask, for what I believe is the fifth time now… “Yes, Slade. How many times are you going to ask me that?” Oliver asks me, chuckling as the gears in my brain refuse to turn, as though the circumstances of this thing’s creation were a monkey wrench upon my cognizance…

“You’re SURE it’s yours?” I ask, JUST in case. “His name is Fullbrim, Slade. And yes, Colvara and I made it. Together. While you were busy tearing apart that city.” He says, making me laugh. “Yeah, kind of went ham there. Get it?” I ask, and he shifts onto his hip and palms his forehead.

“It’s funny because I’m part pig. Made of ham and stuff.” I explain, since he doesn’t seem to have gotten the joke- “Yes, I got that part. Slade, you’re the strongest guy I know. But some day you’re going to get yourself killed.” He says, as I fold my arms.

“This isn’t going to change anything. Killing Templars, wiping cities off the map because you think they deserve it… I can’t stop you, but please… At least promise me you won’t overexert yourself…” He says, kneeling down as I lean and look away.

“I’m okay, Oliver. I HAVE to do this. Nothing will change, not unless someone like I step in. You know this as well as I do.” I tell him, as Fullbrim crawls over to me and stands up. He’s already almost as tall as I am…

“Slade…” Oliver says, as I continue to stare at this child… “Oliver, why am I short?” I ask, surprising him- “I don’t know? It’s how you were born, I guess.” He says, as I pick up little fullbrim, raising him to eye level. “How old is he again?” I ask. “Seven.” Oliver says, as the kid reaches for me-

“Seriously? He’ll be taller than YOU at this rate.” I say, making him laugh, as Fullbrim grasps towards me… “Brother-” Fullbrim says, making Oliver laugh even harder, as I consider punting this brat for his insolence… “Uncle! At worst! Stupid!” I shout, and he screams at me-

“What-” I say, dropping him as I back away, while Oliver recovers in an instant and consoles his child… “Is… Is it OKAY?...” I ask, a little nervous, unsure of what to say, how to act… “Yeah, please don’t shout at my kid anymore. Okay?” He asks, setting Fullbrim back on the floor again.

Colvara finally walks in, and looks down at Fullbrim and I, then giggles to herself. “Aw… He’s like your little brother, Slade…” She says, reminding me why I yelled at this brat… “I am fully capable of hurting you.” I say, pointing at her while she continues to laugh at me.

I flick the window up, and grab onto the sill, pulling myself through the window. “I’m off.” I say, surprising them as I pull it back down, and jump over to the edge of the plateau. I kick off the ground with real strength, feeling the surroundings shake around me as I shoot into and through the sky.

…

As I fall I land in a forest, crashing through trees, boulders, and even large hills as they give way for my nigh impervious body. I climb out, pulling dirt and rock under me like a zombie from its grave. I guess I’m technically NOT impervious by any stretch of the word…

But I haven’t really met anyone I couldn’t snap like a pretzel. I shake a little, my clothes whipping into the air and sending the dust and debris clinging to my clothes in random directions. Now… Looking around…

I’m surrounded by dense woods, so I decide to start making my way to the closest civilization, greeting and conversing with travelers and adventurers as they pass by, getting directions here and there until I finally DO find the closest civilization.

I look around for the closest place with a map, until I notice a store selling monitors… They’re currently flicked on and broadcasting… It’s Skall, the old bounty hunter. He’s holding a familiar looking stone orb… It’s Ling’s orb. I admit it took me a while, but I just realized Ling is a dungeon core…

But why?... What did LING of all people do? He’s innocent… He never wanted to hurt anyone… “You know… You mutants really love your figureheads. You should have stayed down, boy.” Skall says, as everyone stops and stares at the broadcast…

“You hold on to that false sense of hope, that things will somehow get better, if you keep acting out against your oppressors.” He continues, the jaw of his emotionless skull gyrating back and forth as though it’s laughing at him…

“You all know what you really are. You were never meant to be anything more than experiments, furthering science for the ones who were actually born in this world the way we were all meant to be.” He says, as the dust settles and the ruined city crumbles around him…

“You don’t have a future. None of you do. Even the ancients know that you’re not meant to exist.” He says, as I look at the ground, the Ancient itself beneath my feet… “Ling, right? I don’t know what you did… And I don’t even have to care…” He says, as the crowd grows, people mutter their opinions between themselves, others quietly observing with distasteful looks…

“So I’ve decided to make you an example. An example to all mutants just how much the world hates you. Just by the nature of your existence, I’ve been paid to lock you away forever.” He says, as he turns to look at the camera…

He stares for almost a minute, everyone watching closely as we wait…

“Give up. It’s not worth it. You will never be free.”

And just like that, the monitors shut off just after Skall physically cracks Ling’s core… I continue to stare, remembering all the friends I lost, the children I couldn’t save, everything I wasn’t good enough to stop, because I lacked the power to control my mana…

I look at my fist.. It’s small, more so than the average man. But with it, I can strike with more force than most gods. But that’s all it can do. I can’t teleport to where Ling is, I wouldn’t even be able to find him fast enough if I tried.

And on the off chance I did, Skall would definitely kill me. He’s one of the only men on the planet I’m certain could kill me if he really tried. I’m useless… I jump away, landing on the building behind me. I’ve decided to run off before anyone can bother me. I don’t want people trying to ask what I think of this.

I’ve considered getting guns, bows, some form of ranged force… It doesn’t work without being able to enhance it to some extent, let alone ENCHANT. But I’ve lived like this for over two thousand years. I’ve done things I’m not proud of. ANYONE as old as I am have.

I’m used to it. But that doesn’t mean I like it. I’m two thousand years old, and I’ve achieved nothing. I can physically lift the three ancients, and throw them hard enough to make them orbit the planet. Yet I can’t even defeat ONE measly world power.

Oliver believed in me… He gave me everything he had, risked his life time and again to protect ME. Yet all I’ve got are peanuts to show for it…

“Have you heard of Genesis~ Haven?” Someone asks, and I walk over to the edge of the roof, looking down- “The genetics facility? Running all those experiments?” Another man asks. He’s a large Elephant-Demihuman. “Yes~… That one…” His buddy says, a snake demihuman.

I ball my fist… Another research facility, experimenting and tormenting my kind… “Although, that wouldn’t be quite… Accurate, if I am correct.” He says, and I sit down up here, deciding to listen in. “What’s up, then?” His buddy asks, raising a massive eyebrow.

“Well, they’re supposedly… Trying to bring these~ extinct species~ back to life.” He says, as the area begins to glow a bright golden hue-

You might say it was completely out of left field, what happened to me on THIS day. But I had looked up to see a large creature looking down at me, bright shades of white fading and mixing into deep blues, with bright shades of yellow accentuating parts of it that stick out.

It stares me down with the accuracy of an eagle, yet the rigid stance of a falcon, while its owl-like head portrays a more informative yet authoritative disposition… Its two giant wings, made of three bending segments with each point armed with talon-like graspers.

The wings rest upon the ground like two blankets draped over its body… The body itself is large and feathery, the whites and blues portraying a winter look, while the yellows accentuate a golden symbol upon its body…

The actual talons on the feat rest easily against the roof of the building, but they look powerful. Lastly the tail, a large plume of feathers, with another tail below THAT one that swings around against the ground, armed with a hook of its own, for whatever purpose that may serve…

I had never seen a creature like this before, but it almost captivated me… It bends forward, reaching its giant head toward me, as I take a step back and it stops just short of me… “They are wrong. Do not fall to despair, for we have come to accept your kind.” It says, speaking through its beak…

“I have chosen him to guide them. So prepare for his arrival, for I have chosen you to protect him.” He says to me, as his eyelids adjust, and his eyes focus, almost making me lose balance… “What… But who- What even are you?…” I ask, making him jerk back in surprise.

He eyes me down again, before like a snake his head guides the rest of his body to the left, disappearing from the front as though he was veiling himself behind some sort of invisible curtain… I look down to see a single whie and blue feather resting on the ground, sparkling with a golden trim at the very edge.

I reach down to pick it up, allowing it to suck away all my attention, as though it were somehow speaking to me… Yet I felt nothing, but a need to cling to this feather… As I came to realize who it belonged to.

-√Z-

“Play nice.”

I feel myself roll into my new cage, I can hear the shield door slam shut, along with this stuffy oppressive feeling, as my body is finally given a chance to regenerate… Or so I thought, but I’m once again picked up, but this time by a hard, mechanical surface. It must be a machine of some sort…

I hear chuckling, then laughing… “FRESH MEAT, BOYS!” He says, but no response, yet I can only assume I’m in one of the prisons… “Hahaha… We couldn’t hurt’cha if we wanted to.” He says, laughing and coughing as the sound of sparks from burst wires tell me more.

“You must have fucked up BAHAHAHAD~, buddy… The warden doesn’t throw just ANYONE in…” He says, as I feel some mass finally break the surface… “He doesn’t even want to throw us a lovely lady!!!” He screams, laughing his head off at his own debased joke-

He coughs again, and I feel smoke press against my core, as I test turning it, yet my sight is still down… “I’m dying… Functions are failing… I couldn’t even tell ya’ a good joke if I wanted…” He says, chuckling to himself, as an energy jolts through his arm, and I feel myself raise into the air…

“But now I’ve got you… Someone forced to listen to me, for as long as I have left…” He says, as something of a choke and sob breaks through his jestful front. “I wasn’t even given a chance… I don’t want to die…” He says, his arm jolting again, lowering me…

“I only…” He begins, his voice slowing down- “Wish to…” He continues- But wait, already?… “Entertain…” He finishes, and I feel his arm hit the ground. On this day, I learned how the world worked, that I could never be myself.

My core, securely clamped within the grip of a metal cage…

-√Z2-

I dart through the woods, kicking off trees and destroying them since they’re the only things I can get a good enough grip on- I spot Oliver and stop, staring at him for only a moment before he turns around… “Slade… It’s Ling… He was-” He says, but I cut him off.

“Captured. I saw. I wish I could have been there to do something…” I say, as I stare at the sword against my hip… “Bring me to the prison, Oliver.” I say, as he stares down at me with concern… “I can’t… Let you risk yourself like that, Slade…” He says, and I slam my foot into the ground with frustration, feeling the dirt explode away.

“I can crack planets, Oliver! I’ll tear it apart if I have to!” I shout, but he folds his arms. “No. I’ll get him out of there myself. Just go home and wait, Slade.” He says, and I lunge toward him, surprising him as we plow through trees!

I huff, then slowly turn my head to stare at him- “Oliver… Don’t make me force the information out of YOU, of all people…” I say, but he suddenly disappears, morphing into a black wave that spreads in all directions…

I wait for a moment, feeling the brush of the breeze, leaves, bugs, all creatures disturb the wind, and I can decode these disturbances… I feel a sudden disturbance, a sharp breeze pressing against my skin-

In the next moment I slam Oliver’s sword into the floor, careful not to break it with my own, as I slide it up the dull edge and toward his face, stopping just short of his nose! “Admit it! I’M the strongest, Oliver! Just let me do this, you fool!” I scream, my roar knocking him to the floor…

“I’m the only one of us who CAN…” I say, as I lower my sword to my hip… “Slade… Please… I can’t lose you too… I can’t lose anyone, ever again…” He says, as I stare at him, then sigh. “So be it.” I say, twirling and sheathing my sword.

“Really?” He asks, almost elated- “No.” I say, kicking off the ground again, but many times harder, disrupting the area and feeling the wind pelt my face once more, as I soar through the air, completely out of Oliver’s reach…

I know how strong I am. I don’t like to flaunt it, but I can’t let them throw their lives away when I could just DEAL with the problem FOR them. As I soar, I wait almost minutes in the air as my trajectory takes me god-knows-where. I hope I don’t land in the ocean again…

Days go by after landing, as I search and investigate restlessly, leads taking me to all kinds of places, meeting many more people, fighting even more, for like a second each. They kind of realized I may be out of their league.

Days turn to weeks, and weeks turn to months as Oliver continues to try and convince me that I don’t have to do this myself. After all this time, I came to realize that it wasn’t really that I wanted to save Ling, as much as I wanted to prove Skall wrong.

Months turn to years, as I begin to lose track of time… How old would Fullbrim be by now?... Realization creeping upon me like vines curling around my limbs, making me realize that I never had any control in the first place. I know now what I’m here for…

With my next step, I’ve finally arrived at the garden… Skall’s Garden, the beautiful oasis of serenity before the hellish labyrinth… That’s what I would have loved to tell myself, if the smell of blood itself didn’t permeate the air…

I walk down the path, staring at the soul-blooms, before my eyes finally come upon Skall, who’s leaning against a pillar, his boney fingers pinching the stem of a soul-bloom… “Pretty, isn’t it?... You must have come a long way, boy…” He says, chuckling himself as I reach for my sword…

“I never intended to build myself a garden, it kind of happened over time…” He says, the wind brushing against his coat, revealing one of his guns… “They kept coming, one after the other, falling before me just as fast.” He says, as I look at his hand again…

“After a while… The garden BECAME the deterrent… Do you know what a soul-bloom is?” He asks, releasing the flower as he turns to look at me… The flower falls apart into nothingness, while his Skull sparkles like it was made of a fine white powder…

Just as I motion to nod, a bullet hits my head, knocking me over- “Huh. Most people don’t survive THAT.” He says, walking up to me and kneeling next to me as I rub my head… I deflect a bullet, and the cave shakes as the bullet slams against the wall.

All things considered, I don’t think it even hurt me… I look up again at the pillar in reaction to his sudden burst of laughter… “Man! You’ve got no idea how hard it is to find someone who can take a hit like you!” He says, before sitting down.

“I’ll make ya’ a deal. If you manage to last long enough, I’ll let you off with a warning. How’s three years sound?” He asks, and I shake my head. “I’ll do ten if you let me in.” I say, and he grabs his forehead, laughing his head off…

“You got yourself a deal!” He shouts, jumping down from the pillar… I wait for him to make a move, and the fight begins with a bullet from the second gun.

The first year must have been the toughest, as my body did NOT want to acclimate and refuel me with my mana. To be clear, my body CAN use its mana, but I can’t consciously control it. The next year wasn’t much easier, but Skall was already beginning to show signs of exhaustion…

The third year had hit me like a train, Skall somehow started fighting even better… He was faster, stronger, harder… But that came at a cost to his creativity in how he liked to attack me. Ultimately making it easier.

The fourth year, he decided to drop the guns, since he considered it unfair, so we clashed swords, until the fifth year when he got bored and picked up his guns again. Upon the sixth year, I found myself beginning to slow down too… I never thought I had the stamina to fight for a thousandth as long as I have…

In the seventh, he did something I had never thought possible… He put away his guns again, and challenged me not to a fight, but games and challenges of my other skill… He proceeded to thoroughly crush me as he would come to learn of my crippling defect…

Before the eighth year, he warned me I could leave, I could give up and he really WOULD drop this… I would no longer have to endure… But I knew I couldn’t give up, it wasn’t my choice… He huffs, and I would feel a sudden presence enveloping me…

“When I agreed to let you through, I didn’t actually think you’d make it even three years… I’m finished with my games now. If you don’t scurry on home, I WILL be forced to put you down.” He told me, and to be honest, my body yearned for this relief… But I already had my answer.

I was wrong about the first year… As though he threw me through reality itself, all my senses betrayed me for the next three years. I couldn’t even tell if I was alive… But I fought on, and finally, as my body burned and shivered, as pain beyond comprehension began to seep into every corner of my mind…

It ceased, and I fell to the ground, catching myself as my senses returned to me, reorienting me from those three years of hell… “That was the first day, Slade. Each will be worse than the last, give up and go home. I can’t let you in.” He says, as I stand up, preparing to make myself into a martyr if I have to…

“Just let me in…” I tell him, and I wait what feels like ages for a response… “That’s your final answer? You’re aware that you literally stand ZERO chance against me, right?” He asks, and I nod, making him sigh…

“Why do I do this shit…” He says, as he places his head in his hand again… “You already won, I was lying. Just go already.” He says, and a strange feeling comes over me… Is this what people call joy?... “Oh, but I only said I’M gonna’ let you in. Good luck getting past the guards.” He says, and I fall to my knees…

My face hits the floor, and the sweet release of rest takes me…

-√Z-

I sit here for days on end, waiting, HOPING the crack in my eye will somehow fix itself like the rest of my body already has… And just as my hope begins to wane, my sight returns to me, allowing me to finally look at my surroundings…

I look to the right, at my friend who had held me for the first couple of days, before my body broke me out of his grasp… I realize now that he was protecting me… Hoping I would fix him when I would be well again… I was too late to help him…

I look around, it’s a large hallway full of people walking around and talking to each other… I look at my now naked form, and silently appreciate that I don’t actually have anything to hide.

I watch for almost an hour now, as everyone does all kinds of random things, confusing me as to what could drive them to waste all of their time like this… I step forward, the sound of my foot alerting everyone to my presence-

I nervously raise my hand, and wave it at them, as they continue to stare at me… “The hell is that?” One of them asks, as though I’m some sort of strange exhibit… “It looks like that thing Hydrox over there was holding, before he died.” One of them says, pointing at my friend…

They knew he was here, they could have helped him… “Why?...” I ask, surprising them with the fact that I can even talk… “Why didn’t you help him?” I ask, but nothing… They continue to stare, until one of them stands up…

“Listen, pal. What he got was a mercy, nobody ever gets out.” He says, walking toward me as I continue to stare… “I’m not getting out, and YOU’RE not getting out. You’re going to die here when your time is up too.” She says, but I shake my head…

“There has to be a way… I can’t die here…” I say, but she places her hand on my gelatinous shoulder… “All you have is us, now. None of us want to die here, and thanks to the ichor field, most of us only have a few hundred years…” She says, pointing up at a distant star that radiates a yellow hue upon everything it touches…

I sit down, and she follows… “I don’t even know what I did wrong… Why did he take me away?...” I ask, and she sighs. “Either you did something to get his attention, or someone paid him enough to keep you locked up forever…” She says, as everyone returns to what they were doing…

“All we know is you’re stuck here with us now. And that’s all it’ll be for the rest of our miserable lives…” She says, as tears fall from her eyes… “I’m Ling… Do you have a name?” I ask, and she looks at me. “Vulocia. I was thrown in here because of a falling out with my friends…” She says, surprising me…

“They paid him off, and he took me away… They wanted me out of their way… They even promised me we were even… Don’t hold onto friendships, Ling, they won’t save you…” She says, before standing up and walking away.

“You know enough about me. Now please let me die alone.” She says, walking off as I follow closely, but someone stops me- “Hey.” I say, looking at him, just as he shakes his head. “Let her be, man. Don’t make her suffering any worse than it already is.” He says, as I stare at him, and I stop as I realize what he means…

“Is it really this hopeless?” I ask, and he nods. “Yeah. Just try and accommodate for everyone else, and they will for you. If you’re confused, just come find me.” He says, before walking away too, leaving me alone…

That is how I stayed, for almost thirty years I had decided to sit here and wait for my mind to shut off, cutting away all sensory contact with my body…

But suddenly, it was another day like any other, when the giant door suddenly bursts open, Slade on the other side running through, before stopping in front of me… Everyone climbed out of their cells to witness, awestruck as Slade walked up to me…

“Slade?...” I asked, and he nodded… “I’m here to break you out, Ling.” He says, and I stand up again, then look at everyone behind me. “My friends, though…” I say, as I remember the very chains that keep us here- “Slade, the ichor field! It’ll drain your mana! You shouldn’t have come here!” I say, surprising him as he looks up.

He grins, then chuckles. “Sounds like a job made specifically for me.” He says, surprising me before bending by his knees, and suddenly shooting into the sky as everyone runs over to me… “Are… Are we really breaking out?” One of them asks, and I nod.

“Yes. Slade will deal with the ichor field, then I’ll tear open a portal.” I say, as the oppressive yellow drains from the area, and I feel my mana already returning to me… “Share your mana with me, the portals are costly!” I shout, and they run over, firing mana waves at me as I absorb it all…

And finally, I tear open portals, letting everyone out with my now super charged mana-

I guess you might have called me lucky I hadn’t died today… As my core fell from my body, I watched myself roll against the floor, into the hands of Vulocia… “Maybe I was wrong, Ling…” She says, as an energy flows into me, my body suddenly bursting with reformed mass!

“Once you get out, promise me you’ll kill Starcaller for me. And Serif too, the damn pig…” She says, as waves and waves of warriors come rushing in, tearing her apart as her body regenerates even faster…

“I’ll make you pay for this! FORE EVERYTHING!!!” She screams, as she falls to her knees, and her hands slam into the ground, making the ground suddenly burst with all things nature, as though they had been waiting under the surface all this time…

Slade lands behind me, as I watch the greenery continue to shoot with ferocious intensity… “Let’s get out of here, she sacrificed herself for you.” He says, and I nod, following him through, as bullets and all manners of attacks already begin to burst from Vulotia’s forest…

And with that, I decide to jump through and into the portal as fast as I can, following Slade directly to freedom!

-√Z2-

“So this is what that flower day thing is all about?” I ask, walking around as I stare at the tall conscious flowers, watching as they enjoy being themselves… “Yeah. I’m glad you finally get to see it, man.” Fullbrim says, as I look at him again…

“Man… You’ve already grown up so fast… Time flew by so fast…” I say, as I rub my forehead, that hell still managing to somehow stick to me… “Well, I’m glad I’ve got you here, finally. Oliver used to tell me all the time how incredible you are. Now I finally get to see it.” He says, his praise I find surprisingly welcome…

“You should come meet Alton, he’s got the greatest ability I’ve ever seen!” He says, surprising me with some guy I’ve never heard of… “Psychic, right?” I ask, and he nods, running super slowly as I lightly jog next to him.

End of Chapter: 14√Z2 “Breakdown.”

Thank you for reading.

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