Benjamin Vryce

Pain struck Benjamin like a hammer. If he hadn’t been seated in Ice’s saddle he would have fallen to the ground. The red queen, on the other hand, wasn’t seated. She dropped from the air like a stone, impacting the ground with a crunch of broken wings. She hadn’t retracted them, and upon hitting the ground they crumpled in like tissue paper under her own weight.

The red queen was screaming, but Benjamin couldn’t hear it over the sounds of his own pain filled cries. He had been sucked into his void space, and was forced to watch as the red queen’s pattern slowly unraveled. Each carefully crafted line of code that made up who she was, the ancient monarch of a people who predated human history, was being destroyed.

Benjamin reached franticly for the pattern, trying desperately to save what he could. The energy was a form of essence, he could tell that much, but it was just ever so slightly different than what he was used to, and he couldn’t bend it to his will. The queen was more then half dissolved at this point, the energy now starting to eat into Benjamin’s soul.

At the first contact between his being and the strange energy, the aged copper acorn shuddered. The strange pattern wrapped around its core, suddenly came alive and began to devour the new type of essence with abandon. It was too late for the red queen though, Benjamin worked through the pain to pull what was left of her from his soul, before it or the strange essence could hurt him further.

Blinking his eyes rapidly, Benjamin came back to reality. The red queen had vanished from sight, the blue king was buzzing angrily, and Jade along with the ogres had engaged the gargoyles in combat. The rest of the team stared at him worriedly. There wasn’t time for that, they had to defeat that woman and close the rift.

“I’m fine, we need to end this now, get her!” he shouted, pain still tinging his tone.

The blue king was the first to react to his command, and the fastest of the team. He shot at the noble demon woman like an arrow fired from a bow. In Benjamin’s mind the acorn, that had shuddered before like an egg was beginning to hatch. He wasn’t as excited by that now as he had been before however, the energy that had activated it had cost him dearly.

Looking back up he was just in time to see the demonic woman cast another bolt of that raw energy at the blue king, a second band of energy on her rod winking out. he wanted to shout a warning, but it was far to late. The bolt impacted the blue king, just as it had the red queen, and he began to dissolve.

Benjamin had more experience with the new essence now, and franticly attempted to strip it away from the blue king’s pattern. The blue king was his most effective unit, without him tipping the spear, they would have faltered long ago. He pulled some of the strange essence away, pushing it towards the acorn. The apple sized metallic seed was sealed to him however, whatever was happening inside was blocking his attempts.

Without any other ideas, Benjamin attempted to cycle the new essence through his own core. It was like trying to mix oil and water, the two energies just weren’t compatible. They slid away from each other, the new energy following around with the spinning of his core. That gave him an idea, and desperately he began to spin and compress the new essence.

He pushed it into his core, compressing it down harder and faster. Spinning the essence, he already held even faster. Before long, the two energies circled each other, not quite touching but now forming a near equal circle. It looked a lot like the depictions of Ying and Yang, only the colors more closely represented starlight, and the blackness found between stars.

At the center where the two energies didn’t quite meet, a new solid core was forming. The liquid essence of both types was finally blending together as it changed into the solid core, which comprised the center of his soul. Once those energies solidified together the oil and water effect of the liquid essence frayed ever so slightly at the seams, blending in the middle but remaining two distinct essences.

Benjamin looked at his new core, he was in to much pain and in to great a hurry to contemplate what it meant now. Instead, he simply tried to funnel as much essence of both types in as he could, while he continued to try to free the blue king’s pattern of the corrupting essence.

He came so close, but in the end, it wasn’t to be. With a burst of released energy what was left of his oldest and most powerful soldier vanished from existence. Benjamin couldn’t handle the amount of essence that the monarch’s death had generated, not with his core newly stabilized. He knew exactly what to do with it though.

With a rage filled glare at the demon, Benjamin wove the newly acquired energy into the rift. It wasn’t an easy process, but he had momentum on his side, as well as a vast amount of essence to burn. He poured all his hopes, anger, and pain into closing the wound in reality. The essences wove around one another, braiding together like the separate sections of the hive towers.

Together they pierced the hole in reality, feeding off one another as they began to stitch the tear. Indeed, it was almost like he was sewing the tear in the fabric of reality closed. With each additional braided line of intertwined essence, the tear became smaller and smaller, until at last it vanished. Just like his doomed monarchs had.

The seal around the aged copper acorn shattered at the same time the demon woman let out a shriek of rage. Benjamin’s mind was flooded with new information, he wasn’t ready to deal with. His vision blanked out momentarily while he absorbed what he could. The terrified voice that screamed his name, snapped him back to himself. He looked up, not wanting to see what caused his Grace to scream like that, but not being able to do anything else.

There was a third bolt of the new essence headed straight for Benjamin and Ice. He had missed the demon firing it when is vision blanked. The incoming ball of death didn’t scare him nearly as bad, however, as the sight of Grace and Honor’s full-on sprint to intercept its path to him. He could see it all, he knew what was about to happen, but there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop it. Before he could so much as scream her name, the goblin girl he loved and her fearless and loyal wolf mount leapt in front of the new essence and were consumed by it.

“Grace, NO!” he screamed, reaching out with his newly acquired senses. Trying desperately to stop what he knew had to happen.

It was too late, the pattern that made up their forms and tethered it to reality was already beginning to fray. He tore at it franticly, funneling everything away from them. Both the new essence and the essence that their joining produced. The acorn sucked it all in greedily, as it settled down and began to harden into the shape, he knew it would take.

With a sudden burst of inspiration, he grabbed the patterns of the brave wolf and the loving goblin. He had to unwind them the rest of the way from his soul, a task that had been beyond him only days ago. He was working with the deadline of Grace’s life however, so he made it work. Having freed them, he drew them into the acorns slowly setting pattern.

Then, his muse still gripping him in its frantic embrace, he pulled Stomper away too. Sending him after his clan mate. Followed directly afterwards, by the five goblin patterns from his lower back case. He was like a musician, making the patterns dance to his tune and follow his guiding will. The process was time critical however, like trying to slip an extra apple into an already setting pie crust. What he was attempting was possible but one wrong move would crack the shell wide open, and unlike a pie, he was working with lives.

His mental grasp shifted to Ice, but the wolf dug her spiritual fangs into his soul. She understood what was happening to an extent, and she refused to go along. After a brief tug, he let her pattern go, but not before fixing the small error he had made while absorbing her. It was as clear to his new eyes as a red ink blotch on a white page had been before.

It was done. The aged copper acorn had hardened, Grace and all the rest were now safely held inside. Benjamin opened his eyes, from the blink that began when Grace was hit. The entire sequence of events had happened in the literal blink of an eye. It had still felt like an agonized eternity to Benjamin however, who shifted his pain filled eyes to the demon.

His gaze hardened to rage in that instant. From one breath to the next, Benjamin flooded his and Ice’s entire beings with essence from his new combined core. He felt both of their shared pain as the itching of changing flesh overtook them. He had experienced this before however, twice. He leapt from Ice, who had fallen during her adjustment. Heading straight for the demonic bitch who had stolen nearly everything from him, in the span of a dozen heartbeats.

She saw him coming in time to dodge to the side, one of her gargoyle body guards flying low to intercept him. He didn’t mind, he tore into the giant rock monster with rage fueled intensity. The now six-inch claws burying themselves into the monster’s chest, while his foot claws raked the stone beast like a hunting cat. He heard Jade’s scream, dimly as though from a great distance. He turned his head enough to look down at her, never stopping his demolition of the stone obstacle between him and his prey.

She seemed ok, from what his first look told him as his hands carved deep grooves into the gargoyles neck. Then he saw what she was looking at, Tik was dissolving in front of her. The massive slab of grey meat covered with metal full plate, had stepped in front of his mistress to intercept the hit aimed at her. The sacrifice was so reminiscent of what Grace and Honor had done, a spike of pure rage lanced through Benjamin.

He was falling. He looked down and to his dazed surprise, had ripped the head clean off the gargoyle. What surprised him even more than that however, was the small egg-shaped object he found imbedded at the base of its bolder sized skull. Plucking the faintly glowing pattern from the gargoyle’s skull, Benjamin called down as he fell.

“Jade!” his voice boomed out from his changed throat. He needed to get her attention; he didn’t know if she would be able to unravel Tik’s pattern from her mind, or if what he planned would help her, or compound the problem.

She looked up at him with unfocused eyes, as he landed near her. She didn’t respond with words but he knew she could hear him. Reaching her he put the pattern into her trembling hands.

“Absorb it, Jade!” he commanded, his new transformation causing his words to stick in his now oddly shaped mouth.

The pattern he had placed into her hands gradually began to glow, and then faded away. She had pulled it into herself, he just hoped that the other worldly essence would react to the new pattern and merge with her soul. Instead of tearing it apart, like the ogre’s pattern. The rest was up to her now, he had done what he could.

He turned around, scanning the battlefield. Tok was still hurling javelins and rocks at one of the gargoyles, and ice had finally pulled herself together. She was even bigger now, reminiscent of the hellhounds in terms of musculature. She had leapt into the air and was currently dragging the last gargoyle towards the ground.

The demon noble had her rod pointed at the she wolf, readying another blast. He let out a roar loud enough to shake dust free of the walls and leapt at her again. Benjamin’s pain and loss addled mind passed again on the thought of Grace’s sacrifice, as his newly enhanced legs propelled him through the air. He collided with the demon before she had the chance to blast downwards at Ice.

She wasn’t caught completely off guard however, and her jagged edged obsidian blade punched through his ice patterned carapace cuirass, into his chest and out the backside. He paid it not a second of his attention, instead knocking the rod from her surprised grip and dragging her to the ground under his added weight. They impacted with a crash, chunks of her stonelike armor fracturing away on contact. Webs spreading out across the Hive produced floor as well.

What followed wasn’t a battle exactly, it was reminiscent of the fight he had with Ice, upon their first meeting so long ago. Except here both he and his opponent had the ability to heal almost instantly. they ripped and tore at one another, gouging away at the armor the other wore. Sinking fangs into flesh and gripping internal organs in curled fingers dug deeply into chest cavities.

They were nearly an even match; Benjamin was losing the ability to focus and repair himself as she did. Both of their cuts lasted longer and longer before closing, and with a look of triumph on her face she pulled a surprise stash of essence from a ring on her finger, and her wounds began to heal faster then his again. She had held back until she knew he didn’t have anything left, so that she could take him out permanently.

Unfortunately for her, Benjamin held ownership of the aged copper acorn and what it now contained. He pulled on the combined power of everything inside the pattern he had forced into being. With the surge of energy it provided him, he bashed his fists into her face. He hit her again, and again. Not stopping until the fractured edge of her pattern poked through from the base of her skull.

Digging the damaged pattern from her head, he put it into his carapace case. It was now empty except for the damaged goblin pattern, and now the damaged demon noble’s pattern. Looking around, he saw that the battle was nearly at an end. Ice had ripped her gargoyle to pieces, and a new gargoyle was assisting Tok in dismantling the final brute.

Casting his eyes to the air around him, Benjamin discovered that the autumn hive had routed the remainder of the imps and hellhounds. The damned man sized preying mantis bugs were now closing in on what was left of Benjamin’s party.