The Obsidian Tale
~ Mirror Lands – Initial battleship ~
“Felix, where are you going?!” Lydia
asked him.
“My father is here somewhere. He’s
on this ship!”
“How do you know that?”
“Something in my mind is telling me,
Lydia. This ‘something’ is telling me that he is in danger.”
Although very ambiguous of him, he
felt a connected presence through Magnus. Felix jumped over a bunch of fallen
soldiers while making his way through mutated beasts – arachnoids to be exact.
Lydia tried to follow along. She
squealed at the eight-legged freaks, smacking them a few times in the head with
her flail. The monster cried as it fainted.
She paused awkwardly. “Um… I’m
sorry.” She suddenly became serious. “I still have to find Felix!”
~ Lament – southernmost port – rocky roads ~
“Ready, aim, fire!” Gunther called
out with his microphone. It sent loud waves of echoes across the ocean of about
150 battleships in a horizontal line, each ready to send explosives from their
own ship onto the grounds of the Mirror Lands. Even oceanic beasts were
affected by Obsidian chemical energy. Sharks flew from underwater and they
stood up, extending their tails like webbed feet. Some managed to enter
Taujiko, but soldiers and Avians of Rhadessia joined together to protect the
village.
Meanwhile, the rocky roads of Lament
was still in its own stalagmite. Hazel, Viola, Leo, and Forrest jumped off the
plank that connected the Crescent and Gunther’s airships.
“Get ready, everyone!” Hazel
commanded. She grabbed onto her bow, heading into combat. Forrest grabbed onto
his cubed bazooka along with his BB gun on his other hand. Leo readied his brass
knuckles while Viola spun her lance before striking the nearest monster.
In front of them were plenty of
soldiers struggling against parasitical monsters. Their razor feelers were
deadly enough to stab through each soldier by the stomach. Forrest closed his
eyes, shivering.
“Would you like to stand back now?”
Leo asked him.
“N-No… I have to help. After what
Magnus did to Jess, I can’t just sit around and be scared of these kind of
things!”
“That’s my boy!” Leo laughed.
Viola yawned. “Terrible parenting.”
Hazel shot a volley of arrows
against a bunch of spiders that were about to claw through several soldiers
from the Lennox army. The Winstel army had the least amount of ammunition, but
they were quite strong without them. They had lances just like Viola, and their
battle skills were almost on par with her. She was able to protect them and
vice versa.
Forrest freely shot a bunch of
mutated beasts from the wild by shifting between ice and enhanced fire ammo.
Leo’s battles were particularly different as he had to fight up close, but his
movements were as stealthy as floating paper. No monster could stab through his
body due to his speed.
Warren was off to the side of the
stalagmite island. He controlled the ship and smashed several beasts back into
the ocean before they were able to sprout up.
The oceanic war spread through
several miles across the center of the world map with no claims about any tower
yet. So far, Rina was the only one who ran directly into the ocean through one
of the ships that rode underwater. [End music]
~ Mirror Lands – underwater submarine ~
The kitchen was quiet. You couldn’t
hear much of what was going on up above besides a few rumblings.
“Why make a kitchen in a battleship
if it’s just going to be destroyed?” she said angrily. “At this rate, you could
barely tell apart one room from another.” [Music 1.5]
She then heard a footstep behind her
from across the hallway. Rina turned around and took a peek into the hall but
there was nobody. Another sound was heard back into the kitchen, but through an
open door from the right side.
“Tch!” She noticed a foot
disappearing into the next room.
Following the footsteps, she said out
loud. “I know you’re there and I know who you are!”
Passing the dining room and then
towards a lounge, she grabbed her knives, staring above a bookcase with one of
the ceilings swung open. “I got you!” She yelled, waiting for the mysterious
figure to appear.
After a sheer silence, a long rapier
ran across her neck. “I got you.”
Without turning around, Rina
clenched her teeth as she said to him, “Clyde, I knew it.” [End music]
“What brings you on this
submarine?~”
“What does it look like, fool?”
“Are you not scared of monsters
attacking this ship? You could die in an instant I you’re stuck down here,” he
said in a teasing manner.
“They won’t attack as long as one of
Magnus’ main idiots is in here. You, for example.”
“Heh, clever.”
“Now back off.”
“I don’t want to. I could just kill
you here and now for getting in my master’s way.”
“Everyone’s ‘master’ should be their
own conscience. You choose your own destiny.”
“What did you say?” [Music 55.1]
“I don’t have time to argue.” Her
hands were in front of her thighs which Clyde could not see from his angle.
This whole time, she was making hand movements that helped her form ice from
her hands.
Clyde quickly tried to slice her
neck. While his rapier swung towards her neck in a split second, she grabbed
onto the cutting edge with her own iced hands which quickly froze the weapon.
Clyde jumped away, stabbing the ground so that the ice could shatter. Luckily,
they were not on the lowest floor.
Rina felt her neck, slightly grazed
from the rapier weapon.
“You’re smarter than I thought,”
Clyde said with a smirk.
“What are you even doing on this
ship?”
“So I can take you out.”
“Excuse me? Are you still about that
pervertedness of yours?”
“Not ‘take you out’ on a date! I
meant to kill you off!”
“Oh. In that case, you’re just
wasting your time. I’m much stronger than before and I’ll just take you down
and find that tower!”
“Don’t you mean you’ll take me out?”
She became frustrated. “That’s it.”
She created an electric shock that exploded out of her hands. Clyde jumped away
and the shock burnt a nearby couch in an instant. He retaliated by throwing his
rapier onto the ground in front of Rina.
In confusion, Rina stared at the
weapon, wondering why he would aim so terribly. Suddenly, she could hear a
beeping noise. She created a wind aura to protect her and the rapier weapon
made a small explosion, emitting chemical energy.
“What the hell?!”
Clyde laughed. “With chemical
energy, my battle skills can do anything!” The rapier flew back into his grip
like a boomerang. “It’s like dancing with my weapon.”
“Just like what Bailey was doing
with her own swords before she was set free,” Rina claimed. She then created a
fireball.
“Are you going to throw that at me?
You know, that’s just going to mess the submarine up. Before you know it, this
ship will just sink like the rest of the sunken ship down below.”
Rina went ahead and threw the
largest fireball possible while her other hand was still focusing on the wind
aura. Thanks to her holy magic, she could focus on two elements at once and not feel tired yet.
Clyde sliced the fireball and it
struck both the bottom and upper floors.
“Reckless move,” Clyde chuckled.
Rina quickly froze the ceiling and
the wooden floor below her.
“Ah, I see. That little brain of
yours always has some kind of trick,” he smiled.
“I already told you, I’m much
stronger than before! Strength doesn’t always have to be about power, but more
about the knowledge you have against others. Protecting the people I care about
is all that matters.” She remembered the time when she recklessly shot a
fireball at Mrs. Wolfram’s garden, then towards Jess after trying to get the
first shard, and then towards the large bear that lived in the cavern between
Saradeli and Kyrie.
“So you no longer have the will to
destroy places and people for your own well-being? That’s no fun.” He ran
towards her with his rapier weapon.
Rina was being constantly pushed
back as she was barely able to deflect with her knives. The wind aura
disappeared since she had to use two hands to guard, but she was able to move
into another room before the chemical energy got to her.
“And why are you here to take me
down?” Rina asked. “You should be protecting that tower of yours, if I were
you!”
“Why protect it when no one is
attacking it?” he questioned her. [End music]
Rina became shocked, still trying to
guard herself. “What?!” [Music 55.2]
“Nobody is even near it. This ‘tower
of lightning’ that you claim is nowhere near here. It’s in the center of the
world, if you even know where that is.”
Rina tried to kick him while guarding.
“Shut up! We are at the center of the
world, idiot! It should be right below Lament!”
“Aw, poor you, confused about your
own heritage. Do you go by the world map’s center? Do you really trust a
man-made map like what dumb humans spark up?”
Rina became silent.
“That’s right. We humans draw maps
based on what’s easier for us. They don’t know where the center of the world
is. And as for your heritage, I am disappointed that you forgot about Lament –
the floating city that moves from place to place.”
Rina gasped, remembering the story
that Lament is constantly moving. It does not lie in this ‘center’ of the
world. It just conveniently floated above the ‘center’ of the map.
“Are you saying that we’re…”
“Yeah. You’re all wasting your time
in this war!”
Rina pushed him forward and he
jumped back. She shouted at him, “Then where are these monsters coming from?!”
“Underwater.”
“I KNOW THAT! But-“ She froze. “No…”
“HAHA! Do you get it now, Rina
Nora?! These monsters aren’t sprouting directly below the Mirror Lands like you
thought. They’re emerging from the center
of the world and then swimming quickly ALL across the ocean from below!”
Rina clenched her fists. “That
explains why the monster count kept going up when listed on the machine…! You
mean the entire world is in danger,
not just the vicinities of the seven towers?”
“That’s absolutely correct, my sweet
Rina. While you’re down here looking for nothing,
everyone on Rhadessia is suffering the wrath of mutated beasts. As the beasts
slowly take over, you puny humans have no chance on reaching the towers. When
the towers become intact for too long, they will eventually emit chemical
Obsidian energy. You know what that means right?”
Rina took a step back. “That
everyone in the world will fall victim to mutation.”
After some silence, Rina quickly
turned around and ran upstairs to the next room.
“You’re not getting away from me
this time, Rina! I will make you mine!” He had his rapier weapon ready. “Die by
my hands!” [End music]
~ Lament – southernmost port – rocky roads ~
Over an hour has passed and the
remaining group was nowhere near clearing the Mirror Lands nor any other island
nearby. Monsters constantly appeared. A couple rumblings from the past hour
became heavier, but that was not of their concern for the time being. [Music 24.1]
Don't Mess with the Shoes!
A large beanstalk plant rose from
underwater and it used its vine to grab onto Viola’s lance. She easily sliced
it away from her; however, several other vines caught her by surprise. Multiple
vines grabbed onto her lance. Viola tried to push her lance closer to her and
away from the plant, but it only tossed her across the field.
Meanwhile Leo was busy wrestling
with a mutated mountain lion that had three heads and five arms. One eye was
almost gouged out and its teeth were bathed in blood.
Hazel created another volley of
arrows against a golem but it only bounced back. She was not the best at
dodging as she only focused on attacking and standing in one place with her bow
and arrows. One of the arrows returned but grazed her by the arm.
Forrest was slightly shaking. He saw
two mutated humans crawling after him at an unimaginable pace. Forrest shot the
crawling men with his BB gun but they were still going. A few bullets shot
through one of the men who was already decayed brown. He howled like a zombie
and Forrest wanted to cry from this nightmare of a battlefield.
He closed his eyes and this time he
had his cubed bazooka in his hand. After one blast, he regret having to shoot a
bunch of humans, but he constantly reminded himself that they were no longer
human. One of them was still moving.
Forrest fell to the ground.
“Th-These are not… human! They’re not human! How could they survive after that
blast?!” The mutated man continued to crawl with his bottom half gone missing.
Forrest screamed. “Help! No!!” Everybody else was either out cold or they could
barely survive on their own. The zombie-like soldier grabbed onto his right leg
which knocked him down to the ground.
Forrest turned to his side, trying
to shake his way off. There was a leftover sword from one of the fallen Winstel
soldiers next to him. He grabbed onto the sword and then he began stabbing the
monster’s head constantly. Stab after stab, he kept yelling things like, “Die!”
and “Take that!”
The monster finally stopped moving
and Forrest threw the sword away, crying very loudly. [End music]
~ Mirror Lands – Initial battleship ~
Felix arrived at a familiar hallway
from when he first entered it back at the Village of Saradeli before his
adventures began. The battle outside was still heard, but none of the noises
mattered at this point. Felix was too far into the ship to worry about what was
happening outside. Lydia followed from behind. [Music 39.1]
“Felix?”
“This hall…” he said, staring at an
empty space. He imagined soldiers walking around happily before all of this
happened. “They were only fighting for what they thought was right. It didn’t
matter which sides they were on. They were all betrayed by Magnus.”
Lydia felt her chest. It felt heavy
from second-hand guilt.
Felix stopped by one of the bedrooms.
Both the front door and the bathroom door were open. “I used to be such a
trickster. I fooled a bunch of naked soldiers back then, and then I hid atop
the vents.” He sighed. “What happened to me? I feel like I was the only one who
didn’t grow. Instead, I worsened.”
Lydia was about to grab his
shoulder. “Felix, it doesn’t-“
“I’m no hero. You all kept claiming
I was your leader just because I was the first one in the group besides you and
Rina who had issues against the Gammel army. You thought I fought through
reasoning rather than violence, but look where that got us.” He turned around.
“I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen that many plays. How many of them
represented a hero who succeeded? How many of them were brave enough to fight
against evil and win?”
Lydia frowned. “They’re just
fairytales, myths, and unrealistic, Felix. Even though almost all of them
succeeded, they never happened. Even the blue beast from my favorite play… The
writer of that play was the epitome of the blue beast.”
“What do you mean?”
“That blue beast may have succeeded…
but the writer only did this, in place of his own failure. He wrote this play,
imagining what would have happened if he did succeed. Before the writer died…
he revealed that he fought a criminal with violence, and he accidentally shot
his wife in the process. He put this in his final letter, and all this time
before that, he lied about his wife simply going missing.”
Felix said nothing.
“Not everyone succeeds, Felix. The
blue beast might have had a happy ending, but it’s unrealistic. Therefore, I
believe you are a true hero. A hero doesn’t need to act on violence. You always
find alternative ways to stop an enemy without hurting them. It’s not fear of
fighting them. It’s fear of hurting more people in the process.”
Felix turned and faced Lydia. “Maybe
you’re right. Nobody else dear to us will die. We will continue to fight with
reasoning.”
Lydia nodded. “That is a brave
option, Felix. I believe in you most.” She gave him a tight hug. “Please, don’t
stop being you.” Her voice trembled with tears going down her eyes. “Be the
Felix that we always loved!”
He slowly hugged her back. “I
promise, Lydia. We’ll stop Magnus together!” [End music]
~ Lament – southernmost port – rocky roads ~
Forrest wiped his tears, knowing he
had to fight onward regardless of what he was going through. Hazel was still
standing. Leo’s clothes were slightly torn and Viola was completely out cold
for once. Warren was still nowhere in sight.
Her eyes widened and Clyde was right
behind her, his rapier weapon struck through her body. He raised her off the
ground, smiling.
Rise of the Innocent Bunnies
Hazel kneeled down to check up on
Leo while Forrest stood nearby. “Wh-What do we do? There are still lots of
them!” he panicked.
“Settle down. I must tend to his
wounds. Stick around here!”
Forrest watched as a whole bunch of
battleships were sinking. Some were sinking for no reason, apparently.
“Um, Hazel? Something doesn’t feel
right.”
“Keep calm! His wounds won’t get any
better with constant panicking.”
“But…!” [Music 26.3]
Hazel finally turned around. Her
eyes widened after seeing a dark shadow grow larger from the waters. She stood
up slowly, not believing what she was seeing.
Forrest fell on his back. “It’s…
It’s coming this way!”
The three of them were by the edge
of the Mirror Lands. The large shadow burst out of the waters and a large
octopus monster appeared.
Forrest shrieked as he pointed at
it. “Eek! That’s the tentacle octopus thingy we saw on the screen!”
Hazel stared closer at its face. “It
has Professor Igor’s face?!”
Leo coughed. “It’s only a mutated
clone, a much failed project in comparison to Garnett.”
“How do you know that??” Forrest
asked him.
Leo still spoke while he was
bleeding, “Remember Professor Talbot’s screen at Lament? Professor Igor and the
octopus monster were two separate units on the hierarchy. In that case,
Professor Igor must have cloned himself by using chemical Obsidian energy.”
“Whatever it is, it’s heading this
way!” Hazel grabbed onto Forrest while Leo forcefully tried to stand up to run.
One of the eight tentacles lashed
against the edge of the land, causing it to shatter. The other tentacles broke
a bunch of battleships, one including Gunther’s ship.
“I am okay!” Gunther shouted through
the microphone. “It seems Lieutenant Floir and Lieutenant Lionel are absent
from the battle on the Gammel end of the battlefield!”
“They are here too?” Hazel thought
to herself. “Where are they?!”
Forrest cried. “This monster is
probably four times bigger than that bear thing back at Kyrie!!”
Hazel stopped running. She turned
around to aim for the giant octopus. “It might seem impossible, but we have no
other choice but to fight it!”
“What?!” Forrest yelped.
“We got this!” Hazel commanded.
“Let’s go!”
~ Mirror Lands – underwater submarine ~
Rina casted a wind aura around her
which irritated Clyde since it would be impossible for him to reach her.
However, Clyde knew of a way to work around it.
“So, Rina, how strong is that wind
aura of yours?”
“What’s the point? You can’t even
break through it.”
“Wind aura is only as good as how
physically strong you are, no?”
Rina became silent.
“Fine,” he chuckled. Several more
holographic rapier weapons appeared around him. Most of them flew towards her,
slashing away at her wind aura.
Rina clenched her fists, holding on
as best as she could. “You… can’t stop me!”
“Oh? I can’t? If I were you, I’d
watch every premise.”
“Wha-“ She looked upward and the
remaining rapier weapons struck the ceiling in a circular pattern. It began to
fall towards her. She rolled away and then she stood up.
“That was too slo-“ She paused again
after finding out that he had vanished while she was dodging the fallen
ceiling. Before she could cast another wind aura for protection, a sword
stabbed through her back. [End music]
Her eyes widened and Clyde was right
behind her, his rapier weapon struck through her body. He raised her off the
ground, smiling.
“It looks like you needed a little
more training, magician.”
Blood ran down Rina’s mouth. She
coughed, and she could barely say anything.
“Does it hurt?”
Her fingers were barely mobile and
it was difficult for her to cast magic at this point. Her eyesight was fading.
“Dad, mom, Faris… Lydia… Felix… I’m
sorry…”
“It was nice knowing you, Rina. Rest
in hell.”
[Ending 5 music]
~~~
The Battle of Lament has finally begun, but the main protagonists are already struggling to keep organized. Most have scattered across the battlefield, with Felix and Lydia separating from the rest of the group, along with Rina in her own mission. As expected, it seems the giant octopus monster has made an appearance! This will be a tough one now. Next time on The Obsidian Tale, will Rina survive the literal backstab?!
~~~
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