|
1412. -> When Light Casts a Shadow.. (5/19/2012 23:21:25)
|
When Light Casts a Shadow...
Because I was so excited for the Doomwood story, I decided to create a short side story for it.
Be sure to tell me what you think! Commentary
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Walking from the Guardian Tower to Battleon, Ventus relaxed his arms and hung them behind his head, as he talked to his Dragon through his dragon amulet.
"I really shouldn't have watched that Zombie Movie. Scared the heck out of me, why does Aldon even have them anyway?" Ventus said.
"He's basically a librarian with access to every book and movie. I'm surprised he lets you look at them though. You should be studying some battle strategies or monster types." The Dragon said.
Ventus smirked and stopped with a strut. "I WAS studying Monster Types, Zombies are monsters aren't they?" Ventus said. "I know now when someone screams DON'T GO IN THERE not to go in. And avoid darkly lit hallways and rooms. See, I'm an expert." Ventus could sense Oblivion angry. "Anyway, there isn't a war or monster we can't handle.
We'll find a way, that's what all heroes do." Ventus said trying to cover for what he said earlier. But apparently only upsetting his dragon more.
Ventus stopped and looked around, a purple mist had come over them. "What's happening Oblivion?" Ventus asked truly nervous, his platinum naval suit clanking as he turned
around in awe of the mist.
"Do you really think I can see outside, tell me." Oblivion said back, but as Ventus tried to talk to his dragon, no words came out, and before he knew it...
he was back at that day. The day that plunged the world into Chaos.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
An AQW Doomwood story..
Ventus saw everything again, skeletons rampaging throughout swordhaven, paladins and knights gathering them to stop them, fires, explosions, everything relived once more.
He was in complete disbelief, and then remembered. "Aldon, he must be playing a prank on me. Maybe I am rubbing off on him." He said and then looked up at the sky and yelled.
"Hey Aldon! I'll go through this game of yours but afterwards you're going to pay!" Ventus said as a paladin approached him.
"What are you doing? We need help right now Soldier!" The Paladin said pushing Ventus to the central point of swordhaven.
Hordes of skeletons decimated houses and lands, and Brave Heroes came to meet them. Some destroying many in seconds with a spell, others chopping them off piece by piece
with an axe or sword. And then, there was Artix, yelling his battle cry and going from undead to undead in a solid swift motion, leaving bones behind him.
"Artix!" Ventus said. "Ready to have an undead race? See who can kill more undead first?" Ventus said. "My skills have improved since we last met." He said bragging.
"No time, these people are in danger." Artix said as he came at an undead with a lengthy jump and attacked the skull of an undead, leaving his Axe deep in the ground with
each side of the skull broken in half and facing the opposite of the other. Artix unloosened it from the ground leaving gravel behind.
"Its just a game" Ventus said. "This isn't real, It can't be right?" Ventus said. "We've already been through this!" Ventus said certain.
Artix didn't listen, but instead chopped up the next undead nearby.
"He's been programmed, I know it." Ventus whispered to his amulet hanging his arms behind his shoulders again. He could hear footsteps, and when he turned around to see, he saw an undead that quickly bit his arm and pushed Ventus to the ground. Ventus's once laid back face turned into rage as he kicked the undead and got back on his feet. Breathing hard Ventus admitted. "Even Aldon, can't simulate pain." Ventus said as he unsheathed the sword and sliced its torso, leaving its parts to fly onto the ground.
"We're back in time." Ventus said and then immediately sheathed his sword. "Which means, we have the chance to stop what happened before! We can stop the rise of chaos!" Ventus said and looked up at the sky. "Aldon, was this you?" Ventus muttered.
"Can't be" Oblivion said. "Aldon can do many things, and even told you that he would work on a way to change time. But, he told me that he really couldn't. This isn't Aldon's work, but someone else's." Oblivion said.
Ventus felt his heart sink. "Well, I can't stop the other tragedies, but I can stop this one! I'm going to tell them whats coming. We can all fight back and end him!" Ventus said running to the Castle. Step after Step, the pain began to sink in. He'll have to live with what happened. Had Aldon just lied not to hurt my feelings? "I'll never be able to bring back my friends or even Lady Celestia!?" ran through his mind as he finally approached the castle.
"Gun Mode" Ventus demanded. The Dragon Amulet latched onto Ventus's pistol and he shot the closed gate open with a lightbomb. He could feel Oblivion's mana surging away.
'I'll use each blast carefully'. Ventus jumped, leaping towards the hole in the closed gate and entered, landing on the carpet floor. He regained his balance and ran up the stairs, finally seeing the fight between Sepulchure and Alteon. Sepulchure and Alteon's swords clashed, with each strike the trembling sound of their swords were heard.
"Stop!" Ventus said. "Sepulchure, Alteon. A power that NEITHER of you can handle is coming. Its the power of pure chaos." Ventus said in the dark, quite silence.
"Chaos doesn't exist" Alteon reminded Ventus. "Chaos doesn't exist!? Oh no, these guys are still living in the past." Ventus ran and looked out the window, looking back and
forth for Drakath. But instead he saw Sepulchure's dragon, just as it was that other day. Ventus concentrated his eyes on Gravelyn, he wanted to tell her what was happening
but couldn't. "Ventus, she's evil, you're 'good', do you really think she would know what to do." Ventus said to himself. "She wouldn't," Oblivion said.
He could almost feel Oblivion beside him looking up at Gravelyn too. Her red hair swaying by the wind on the dragon, her eyes beginning to focus on Ventus too.
But, she looked as if she had something to tell him as well. "Do you think she was affected by the time?" Ventus said. "Most likely, she doesn't even remember you. You're probably just some meatbag waiting to get turned into her minion." Oblivion said which made Ventus immediately look down.
"Its the way of lore Ventus, Evil is Evil and Good is Good. They never mix. Even when we had the alliance, she was just waiting to strike you down
when Chaos was over." Oblivion continued. Ventus immediately thought it was true. Chaos had forged a bond between them. A bond in which she played the role of an
'actor', they weren't really friends, everything was an alliance... Ventus's anger skyrocketed. He gripped his gun, charging Oblivion's dragon fire to come out of it. Turning
back at Sepulchure, but before he knew it, Sepulchure had already tried to lunge at him. Ventus dodged the first lunge, but Sepulchure attacked again, pushing Ventus onto the
floor. Sepulchure finally attacked with his sword, a straight swing in which Ventus tried to reflect with his sword. Their swords clashed, and the friction of the metal could be heard
all throughout the room.
"I've had enough of you interrupting this battle! I've been waiting to kill you anyway," Sepulchure said bringing his sword in more. "Dream On!" Ventus said trying to regain
balance of the attack but instead Sepulchure won the battle and Ventus's sword went spiraling out of his hands. He finally saw how ruthless the Shadowscythe was, he finally saw it.
"They don't regret who they kill, they don't care. They don't care about anything but themselves. "And..I fell for it." Alteon jumped in front of Ventus in a flash, and suddenly Ventus was holding Alteon in his arms. Sepulchure laughed, having won the battle, and Ventus just grinded his teeth. Knowing that Sepulchure was way out of his league,
even with his dragon. "And Now, The Realm of Darkness shall finally be open!" Sepulchure claimed!
Nothing happened. The room stay quiet, just as it was before. "He's, He's not the Champion of Light?" Sepulchure said. Ventus thought. He knew some champions, but they had died, "who did the title go to?" Ventus thought. Before he could fully think it through Death appeared before him. "Ventus, how are you?" Death said. "Um, sort of going through a deja vu moment. But anyway, any results on my father?" Ventus said. Death shook his head no, and Ventus was even more sad. Oblivion finally said "Quit thinking about yourself here! This is why you aren't a hero. This. is. exactly. why. you. aren't a. knight." Oblivion said. "Your father was a true hero and could set aside his feelings
to save lives, you however stand next to the man who just killed your king and instead ask about your father?" Oblivion screamed.
Ventus tried ignoring Oblivion's screams and insults, and tried covering up his feelings. Finally looking back up at death. "Why are you here?" Ventus said.
"I'm here to deliver King Alteon's soul to the grave personally. Since he is a king." Death said. "I'll even be delivering your soul soon Sepulchure." Death said.
It came to Ventus. "Sepulchure CAN die. If Death will be delivering his soul. Maybe...'if I push Sepulchure through the portal'." Ventus thought. Ventus got ready for
Death to open his portal, and then... "No, I won't." Sepulchure said. "What do you plan on doing? Killing Death?" Death asked with a hint of sarcasm.
And then, there was that evil grin.. Sepulchure shot a blast at Death and..he was dead. He. Killed. Death. Suddenly, Alteon came from out of his arms, turning green.
Death turned green, and the previously fallen knights, they were back up. Ventus wanted to cry, wanted to scream for his life. He heard "If I can't find the Champion of light,
then I'll just go by Process of Elimination."
"Run Ventus! Get out of there!" He heard Gravelyn scream. "She...she cares." Ventus thought and came to the window. "Don't worry, I'm coming to you." Ventus whispered back, knowing that even though she couldn't hear him say it, it steeled him a bit, it braced him. He shot out of the window and used his dragon amulet to summon Oblivion and fly to the Shadowscythe Dragon. But, as he rode on to the Dragon, he could feel a blast come at him from behind. Looking behind him, he tried to swerve to avoid it but ending up crashing at the forest.
Ventus didn't want to get up, his body could and but he just didn't have the moral energy to. His friends, dead. His King, dead. His father, missing from the world and the grave!
What was there left to fight for?... Why even fight? The Zombies will get everyone eventually. That's how it happened in that movie. He thought he could hear Oblivion urging him to get up but ignored it. He just closed his eyes and pretended to be dead where he lay.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
He found himself being nursed back to health along with a few other warriors. He was in a bed with moglins using their healing spells. Ventus tried telling them to stop,
but they continued saying "You're going to need all your energy to take down these monsters." and continued healing. "You coward, you've got all these people fearing for you"
he said himself muttering under his breath. "When you've just been playing dead." he said again muttering holding his head down.
Rolith held his hammer in the air, this is another War. A war that will put you on edge. A war that will make you fight the people you once used to call your friends, allies, and maybe even you're family." Rolith said. "But we must fight on so that the others may survive, fight for them! Fight so we can then find a cure to aid them!" Rolith yelled with inspiration.
Ventus put his hand on his head, "What happened to me. What have I become. I want to be...the person I was before this War, before anything changed me." Ventus said.
He looked for Oblivion, and he went back into his pistol form. he thought... "He was formed into a pistol before we flew. He Couldn't speak...so what was..." Ventus looked
around himself. "Did I just imagine it?" Ventus said. "Had to be one of Sepulchure's tricks." Ventus thought. "No doubt" he said now certain of it.
Ventus finally got up and a moglin came running to him. "We've found your sword, it was shot at your dragon along with a blast." The moglins said. "Ah, so my dragon must be healing his wounds with his own mana...Hey, do you moglins mind helping him. He really needs to save all the mana he has for this battle. You'd be doing a really important job."
Ventus said trying to persuade them into doing it. It worked like a charm and the moglins looked for the dragon. Ventus took out his pistol and gave it to him, and directed them to point their healing magic on the red crystal and took his sword, sheathing it.
"I'm going to do a little work of my own here." Ventus said.
Ventus walked to the forest and finally came upon the point he was looking for. Right below the Shadowscythe Dragon. He yelled for Gravelyn to come, but to no response. He sat on broken tree limb, waiting for an answer, and finally Gravelyn jumped down. "So what's the plan for this? I mean, you're father is leading this thing." Ventus said.
Gravelyn nodded, "We can't have everyone turning into zombies. We need to get Death back in control." Gravelyn said.
Ventus was suddenly reminded of something. "Gravelyn, maybe we can fight your father for the right to rule the Dark Plane. You can be the ruler, and maybe come up with a way to stop the zombie madness?" Ventus said.
Gravelyn shook her head no. "He's my father, I would never raise my blade against him. And if you did." Gravelyn took out a knife and pointed it right at Ventus's kneck. "I'll end you myself." She said sheathing the knife. Ventus was puzzled a bit but smirked none the less. "Well, whats the plan then Shadow Queen." Ventus said.
"The plan is for you to fight off the zombies. Kill as many as you can, and stay alive." Gravelyn said. "Maybe I can persuade my father out of doing this." Gravelyn said turning her back at Ventus. Ventus put his hand on Gravelyn's shoulder, accidentally on the spiky point of it, and tried not to scream. "I-I need to ask you something." Ventus said.
Gravelyn turned back, "What?" she said. "Is-is this all just a trick, are we friends or not? I need an answer." Ventus said. "We're not, this is an alliance between good and evil.
As long as you remain on that side, we're not friends, just..an alliance." Gravelyn said.
"Then, why aren't you fighting for the Zombie Team? You even yelled at me to get out of there." Ventus said. "Maybe I just don't want a Zombie Minion. Anyway, we can talk about our friendship after this War can't we?" Gravelyn said. "Right, feelings aside," he unsheathed his blade and held in salute. "Lives, first." Ventus said as he did his final salute to the normal King Alteon and braced himself for the Zombie Apocalypse. Gravelyn went back to her ship, and Ventus went back into the camp that they set up.
Finally reaching the camp, Ventus was excited to hear that the moglins were able to restore some of the Dragon's Mana and heal him. Ventus grabbed his amulet gun and put it in his pocket. "We're going to take back Swordhaven" Ventus said hoping that Oblivion heard him. He ran off into the flames and decimation of the kingdom he once knew.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reaching the Kingdom, Ventus saw many zombies, he sliced at them with his sword, aiming for the torso, but also trying to avoid some fights. "Just the ones when I don't have a choice" Ventus said as he ran toward the Swordhaven gate. However, a whole horde was standing in front of the gate. And beyond that horde, Sepulchure.
He had finally come face to face with the man to blame for all of this, he wanted revenge, he wanted to show him how the people he turned into zombies felt. He gripped his gun again and aimed it in the direction, shooting Oblivion's fire out of it. The zombies were incinerated, but Sepulchure wasn't hit, the fire didn't reach that far. Ventus kept shooting, and the flames of Swordhaven grew more, explosions came every few minutes. Ventus could feel his Dragon running out of the necessary mana just to stay in Gun Form.
Sepulchure still wasn't hit, and walked toward Ventus.
"So, you learned a new trick with your dragon and think you can beat me? You are more pathetic than I thought you were." Sepulchure said. Ventus held his hand in the air, and as his light bomb charged, Sepulchure interrupted and flashed near Ventus, his hand around Ventus's throat choking him. Ventus put his gun to Sepulchure's chest in a last ditch effort to fight back, and shot a light bomb at him, point blank in what he believed to be his heart. The final Light Bomb unleashed upon the gate and lasted for minutes, setting off many explosions and growing many fires in Swordhaven. Ventus, covered in his own blood, and in a pool of green blood, tried to get up, tried to stand and couldn't.
Sepulchure, however, was walking toward him, his sword dragging on the ground. "W-What are you!" Ventus said. Sepulchure hung his sword above Ventus and his sword dived to Ventus's chest, Ventus rolled on the ground, still trying to resist death. Grabbing his pistol, trying to unleash another blast, clicking the trigger for anything, but nothing.
He had used it all up, all the mana, everything. The fear of going cold came over Ventus, the fear that he was too young to die, he wanted to at least say goodbye to the people
that made his life good and worthwhile. But before he knew it, flames separated Sepulchure and himself. He could see Sepulchure standing behind the flame, but he could also feel light headiness and wondered if the vision was true or not. Finally, he took off all the health potions he had, all 3 of them and guzzled them down. And then the mana potions, 2 of them. He finally was able to get up.
"Alright you Dragon, I want you to show him true Oblivion." Ventus said, blood dripping from his hair. "Use your life force, turn it into a force of energy" Ventus demanded.
He held the gun in the air as it charged and he put his own life force and mana into the charge. Sepulchure watched in the fire, seemingly amused. Ventus finished charging and
pointed it at Sepulchure, the barrel of the gun generating steam as Ventus aimed it. He pushed the trigger, and flame in the shape of a Dragon Head came out, engulfing everything in Sepulchure's direction. The flames grew and blazed, and Sepulchure's armor became harder to see, but Ventus knew he was still alive. All he was really doing, was slowing Sepulchure down, preventing his intervention in the war. Even if it costed his life. he charged the final blast, and shot it deep within the flames, King Alteon's castle was on fire. He had cut off the path to King Alteon's castle, and smugly thought he had trapped Sepulchure in there.
Finally, he took a rest and laid on one of the houses near the fire. Thinking that he had come through for everyone, and brought them a little time. Time to think. Time was something there wasn't a lot of, and in a huge chess battle with lives on the line, you start to love time. The flames crept closer to Ventus, but he didn't care, he didn't try to get up because he knew he couldn't. He not only gave his own life force, he gave his dragon's life force, he even used up all the potions. It was useless. He closed his eyes,
and prayed to anyone who was listening, that he would be safe once he opened his eyes.
Happy DoomWood, and I hope you enjoyed my short story.
|
|
|
|
