The Obsidian Tale
~ Zozna – eastern trial – Knowledge of Truth ~
Hazel pressed the green button after
finding out that the machine was harmless. “Let’s find out.”
The screen continued to broadcast
the next scene.
“Sir,
you have an important message from the president,” a woman appeared in a
business attire. She handed him a letter.
“Ah,
thank you very much.” He pressed the screensaver button which showed the whole
city of Zozna.
There
were several buildings that were over twenty stories high, and blimps floated
throughout the city. The sky was pink at dusk and there were noises of cars
honking at one another.
“Zozna
seems to be doing swell today,” the agent said to him.
“Of
course it is. As vice president of the Peace Corps., I demand that this city
stays as one with our neighboring land of Lumious.”
Forrest continued to
look at the map. “That means they’re near the Lumious place, right?”
“At the time, yes. Our current map
shows that these two areas have completely separated.”
“Wait, pause right there!” Rina
pointed at the corner of the screensaver. “It’s their version of the world
map.”
Hazel pressed one of the buttons and the video showed Waltzer handing the letter back to the female agent. Wait, that
makes no sense.
Warren sighed. “Hazel, you pressed
the rewind button so it looks like he gave the letter back to her.”
“Oh. Um…” She awkwardly ignored him
as she pressed the pause button this time.
Warren took her place as he zoomed
into the corner of the screensaver. It was blurry, but they could clearly see
Zozna attached to the Merridian Laboratory.
“That would make sense,” Viola said.
“The Merridian Laboratory is known for their high-standard technology. We’ve
experienced it before, have we not?”
“You do have a point.” Hazel pressed
the play button. “So how did these islands separate in such a short amount of
time?”
“Isn’t a thousand years enough
time??” Forrest asked them.
Rina rolled her eyes. “You need to
go to school, kid,” she joked. “It takes several hundreds and thousands of
years for the process of Pangaea to work. One thousand years of separation off
the map is a bit too sudden.”
Waltzer
was silent as he was reading the letter from the president, and then he
laughed. “Hah! I knew it. He wants to monopolize my inventions and force
everyone to buy from me. I love it.” He then said to Magnus while grabbing a syringe,
“You hear that, kid? My inventions will be a big hit!”
“I-Inventions??
What does that mean?”
Magnus
held onto Magnus’ shoulder and the young boy knew that he was going to get
stabbed with a syringe, so he began to fight back.
“No!
Go away! Give me back my mommy and daddy!”
Magnus
punched the little boy on the face and the young child fell on his back.
“STAY
STILL, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!” [End music]
Lydia covered Forrest’s
eyes. “This is horrible! I can’t watch anymore.”
“So you block out Forrest’s eyes instead,”
Viola blatantly stated. [Music 37.2]
Hazel paused the video, but she said
nothing about it.
“What does this all mean?” Felix
asked the group.
Hazel clenched her teeth. “I had no
idea Waltzer was this bad even from
twenty years ago. Having to watch him abuse a child like this… it burns my
eyes, especially when I have been taking care of the orphanage.”
Rina grabbed her knives. “Let’s just
destroy this damn machine. I bet Magnus faked this scene just so we can feel
sorry for him. This is all just an illusion.”
Leo disagreed with her. “No. It’s
can’t be. There have been several old books about this sort of myth, but the
names were never mentioned. These books… they mentioned child abuse which
erupted into an evil force. It all makes sense now, as I have always thought
they were fairytales.”
“Where did you read these?” Hazel
questioned him.
“Remember when I said my father and
Magnus used to be closest friends back in the day? Magnus arrived with a bunch
of old books received from the Merridian Laboratory. Those books had pages
dipped in dark yellow and the publication dates were around R-659, only two
years after this video was created.”
“Then why? Why is he showing us
something so horrible?” Lydia shivered.
“Was that Magnus guy… a super young
boy when all this happened?” Forrest asked.
“Precisely,” Hazel said as she
continued the video.
“Stop
it! Please stop! That hurts!”
Punch
after punch, the camera tipped over from their fight and the screen became
blurry. There was a blurred out head falling close to the screen and blood was
pouring from the mouth. Then, the syringe was seen stabbing into the boy’s
neck.
“With
this ability, you will be immortal! You are our first child test subject. With
a weakened heart, you will be under my command.”
The
boy continued to cry, his tears mixed in with the blood while the female agent
only stood there, watching the entire thing.
“And,
if you were to be killed, your soul will still exist and transplant to another
fallen body that is still fresh and intact. You will never die! At this rate,
you’ll have all the time you need to look for your parents.”
“Really…?”
The boy said slowly, still trying to speak through all the blood. “I-“ [End music]
Suddenly,
the screen changed and the scientist was recording another video on the year
R-658, one year after. [Music 63.2]
“Here
are several tapings of the boy destroying an entire nation at Taujiko,
president. Also, he was able to eradicate what was left of the tribe at the
Zweiland Mountains. However, I have created fragmented copies of the syringe so
that civilians can use it on their child to control their behavior. It’s not
enough for them to destroy an entire city like Magnus can. Therefore, I believe
the profits for this invention will skyrocket. I have activated another device
in which I can seal away any type of chemical energy. I’m going to be very-“
He
was suddenly stabbed in the back by Magnus. The young little boy had one arm
remain throughout his battles in the past year and one of his eyes was sliced
off.
“I’m
never going to find my mommy and daddy, aren’t I? They’re already dead because
you forced me to kill them in the wars.” His voice sounded as if more than five
voices were speaking at once. The dark aura around him filled half the room and
up to the ceiling.
Waltzer
clenched onto his stomach. “Ergh… you bastard. You’re supposed to obey my orders!”
“My
heart is no longer weak. It now knows what it wants.” His aura broke through
the ceiling and he flew off.
Waltzer
was left on his own. He activated the machine that could help seal away Magnus’
power. While doing so, Waltzer had another syringe in his hand for his next
experiments, but he knew what he had to do if he was on the verge of dying.
“This is the only other exact copy of Magnus’ chemical energy. I will have to
use it on myself if I want… to continue the projects!” He then stabbed himself
on the arm with the syringe as he fainted.
Text began pouring
across the video screen, explaining that over the course of several years, the
forest northeast had been burnt down, turning into a desert wasteland. A
thousand years later, it had become the Opel Plains with the creation of the
Grandine Hillage. A small village east of Kyrie separated and was obliterated.
Today, it is now just a grassland, and its island was separated enough to
create a basin for the new Lake City Prima. During the course of Magnus’
powers, the Winstel continent which was once a tropical island, turned into a
snow continent with the exception of Amitt since its latitude was higher than
the rest of the northwestern continent.
R-659…
Waltzer lured Magnus into returning to the facility room. In doing so, Magnus
fell into a trap where he lost his other arm and a leg.
Leo gasped. “Wuh?!” He
suddenly ran to the corner of the room to throw up. Lydia and Forrest hugged
each other, forcing themselves to look away.
“It’s
all your fault! All your fault! You humans are the worst, testing such
abilities on defenseless children!” His eyes whitened and his last remaining
leg turned into a sharp blade that mutated from the chemical energy. He began
stabbing about twenty of the scientists, killing them all within thirty
seconds. Even after they had died, Magnus still stabbed them in the heart for
another two minutes. Only Waltzer was spared, and he was hiding in the corner,
the same corner Leo threw up on.
“Please,
stop this at once! I was only experimenting for the president!”
“It’s
not fair. People never gave me the chance to live as a normal human being. Do
you think you’re forgiven for what you have done to me? Now, you’re begging for
your life like a little pig. All humans should die. No one can change me now.”
“If
you do not stop, I will have to emit the self-destruction system. All it takes
is…” He took out a small device. “to press this little button, and a bomb will
explode the entire Merridian Laboratory. It’s strong enough to break apart and
island.”
At
the time, Zozna and the Merridian Laboratory were interconnected. The president
of Rhadessia had the laboratory in their control, and the closest civilians
they could target was Zozna.
“If
you kill me now, I will just come back with the same soul, but in a new vessel.
You’ll see, someday I will get my revenge.” He stabbed Waltzer in the stomach
with the remaining leg he had.
“ARGH!”
Waltzer yelled. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll also be returning, as I have injected
myself, and created a frozen device in which my soul will be preserved and
sealed away. I will constantly come back and kill you!”
“Then
we shall hope the next generations will find my vessel first!” As Magnus was
about to strike again, Waltzer pressed the self-destruct system on the machine
and the screen suddenly shut off. [End music]
Rina shook her head
after being mesmerized. “H-Hey! That’s the end of it?” She stomped her foot. “I
still think this is all fake. Shouldn’t the camera have exploded with his
self-destruction?”
Leo shook his head. “These scenes…
They’re all just fragments that sprouted from Magnus’ memory.”
“Twenty years ago, Professor Igor
found both Waltzer and Magnus’ preserved souls, but Magnus decided to be the
smart one and wait it out. He hid in the shadows while Waltzer was the first to
react against Rhadessia.” Hazel explained.
Felix felt his head in confusion.
“Hazel, you and Warren said that Waltzer tried to destroy the entire world, but
from that video… only Magnus wanted to. What changed him?”
“Waltzer started out a noble man in
a new, modern vessel twenty years ago. He tried to talk about his inventions
from a thousand years ago, and everybody thought he was crazy. In the end, he
was tired of people thinking he was some lunatic, so he decided to create a lot
of poisonous antics and blamed it on the civilians of each town. Then, people
began to blame each other, not knowing Waltzer was behind all of it. The only
few people who knew about Waltzer’s doing, was ours.”
Felix sighed. “So that’s why our
village was untrusted for several years… he created the mess.”
Forrest frowned. “Wow… it feels like
Magnus isn’t the bad guy after all.”
“Yeah…” Lydia said in a depressed
tone. “He’s only taking revenge because he never got the chance to live as a
normal human being. After seeing what he went through with all those gory
experiments, I kind of feel bad for him.”
Viola nodded. “Of course. You didn’t
think a guy like Magnus would try and destroy Rhadessia for no reason, would
you?”
“And at the same time, Zozna has
been growing rapidly,” Hazel added. “He’s not just doing it for revenge. He’s
using all of the energy to recreate his hometown. He’s trying to ‘restore
balance’ in his own eyes.”
“And…” Felix said slowly, “That’s
exactly what I wanted for my own village. Taking his freedom away again would be hypocritical of me.”
Leo took several steps away from the
corner after throwing up. “Did Waltzer just die here?” He asked hysterically.
Warren headed towards the door. “The
video finished. What do you all think?”
Felix grinned. “I think it’s best
that we should have a talk with him. Maybe he’ll understand. Maybe he can live
alongside with us.” [Music 34.5]
Rina stopped them all. “Wait, wait,
wait. Hold on a minute. Do you all
hear yourselves?! You want a worldwide serial killer to live alongside with us?
How are you people having second-thoughts even after seeing what kind of
‘revenge’ he pulled on us? Every one of us are involved in this situation. I
lost Faris through a pointless war with Magnus. Lydia’s heritage went through a
genocide with the orders of Magnus from the Gammel army seven years ago.
Felix’s father was killed by Magnus’ very own hands, and even Jess was killed
in this mess. I haven’t been there for every death, but he laughed and shrugged
off all their deaths!”
They knew Rina was extremely serious
and angry once they heard her actually say Felix’s name.
Hazel decided to agree. “Rina may
have a point here. Magnus tried to kill me at the battleship, and he
manipulated the entire village of Shiu Jo, my own heritage.”
“Him claiming to be my ‘uncle’ after
killing my father for the throne… that’s also unforgivable.”
“It was Magnus himself who had exiled
me from the Gammel army because I went against his orders of starting a
pointless war months ago. Because of this, I almost lost hope of living another
future.”
Viola was not herself this time. She
was frightened as she said in a mumbling voice, “This whole time, I’ve been
following Magnus’ orders as one of the Gammel lieutenants. I knew he was
terrible, but I followed him because he was the only man who accepted me into
his life after my parents had fallen. I now realize that he only picked me because
my heart was weak and easily manipulating.”
Rina opened her arms. “You see now?
He wanted to show us what he had been through so that we could leave him alone
and walk away from the situation. Magnus is the hugest manipulator, and we
shouldn’t forget that. You can’t trust someone like him if he decides to live
alongside with us. I understand it sucks that he couldn’t grow up happy, but
when thinking about numbers here… it’s the whole world at stake right now.
There are tons of good and innocent people who will lose the chance to grow up
happy, just because we want to trust one guy?”
Felix turned to Hazel, “If we do
stop him, how would he be killed for good? What happened to Waltzer?”
Hazel and Warren said nothing. [End music]
“What is it? You’re hiding something
from us!”
Hazel was almost sent into tears.
“Do you remember the story about our two allies, Luna and Orlando?”
Forrest jumped. “Oh yeah! The heroes
buried at the Grandine Hillage.”
“They have died by sacrificing
themselves for Waltzer,” Warren stated.
The rest of the group became silent.
“When you mean sacrifice…” Felix
said slowly.
“Luna vowed that it was her destiny
to be used as the final vessel against Waltzer. As you saw from the video, both
Waltzer and Magnus were sealed by the frozen device, and that’s when Professor
Igor came in to revive them. In order for these sealed souls to disappear
completely, one must be used as a human vessel and be killed in it at the same
time. In the past, Waltzer had used Luna’s body but Orlando had to stab her. While
their battle began, Luna’s controlled body fought back and she cut through
Orlando at the same time.”
Warren sighed. “That is when… they
both fell together.”
“Hold on a minute!” Rina shouted.
“Doesn’t that mean we’ll have to sacrifice somebody just to stop Magnus?”
Lydia’s voice trembled. “There has
to be another way!”
Felix turned to Rina, “I swear to
you, I can persuade him!”
“No!” She yelled.
“Why won’t you trust me on this? If
we can talk it over, he’ll understand. Every human has the capability to feel,
don’t they?!”
“He’s NOT a human being!”
Everyone was silent again.
Rina rolled her eyes. “You know
what? I thought you were smarter than this. Let’s just go to the next portal.
We’ll talk to him first, but if he shows signs of betrayal, I’m going to strike
back.”
As she headed onto the next door,
the group hastily followed without a plan this time…
Villain-Turned-Good
Rina's Guard is Down!
~ Zozna – post-eastern trial ~
The moment they entered the doorway,
they were no longer in the facility room. They were back on dry land with the
purple skies overflowing above them. They could hear nothing but the rumbling
of Zozna’s island. And one more thing…
In front of them was a large
airship-like figure. Professor Igor’s upper half of his body was attached to
it. [Music 63.3]
“Felix! How dare you defy our
bonds?!” Professor Igor’s voice was almost like Magnus’ from the video.
Felix walked in front of the group
and then he removed his necklace. “This does not signify how close we are! Only
the heart can answer your question.”
“The heart, you say? The heart has
done nothing but get trashed around by those who use you, over and over!”
“Only a weak heart gets trampled
over if you let it. The ones who are truly strong can withstand against
another’s control. I learned that the hard way. But with me, you can learn to
withstand against Magnus the easy way. Listen to me, professor!”
“If you want to test how important
the heart is, then why don’t you fight me? If you lose, then that heart of
yours has done nothing but give you false hope!”
“I didn’t come to fight!” Felix
refused.
“Then you are a coward!”
“That has nothing to do with being a
coward. I just want to save as many lives as I can. I can’t stand idly by and
watch people die one by one!”
“Hah! Then you’ll watch as everyone
else dies by my hand if you try to fight with words.”
Professor Igor took out a blunt
sword as large as a door, and his other hand had a bunch of knives in between
each finger. At the same time, the airship’s body below him opened as many
cannons as possible and a few tentacles came out of half the cannons. The rest
of them were waiting for a perfect moment to shoot cannonballs.
“Wh-What the hell is that?!” Rina
began trembling, pretending she wasn’t afraid.
Viola, Warren, and Hazel took out
their designated weapons.
Leo said to Rina, “This is no time
to be scared, not even you, Rina!”
Forrest closed his eyes. “I’m not
scared, I’m not scared!”
Lydia said to Felix, “He’s not going
to listen, Felix. We have to fight him or else he’ll kill us!”
Felix’s eyes were closed, and then
he opened them with anger. “You leave me no choice!”
Three tentacles went for Hazel, but
she spun while running forward, avoiding every single one of the tentacles. She
countered with a volley of arrows, puncturing into each tentacle. Viola
supported her by slicing off the tentacles that were trying to catch Hazel.
Hazel nodded. “Thanks!”
Leo jumped upward after a cannon
shot at him. After jumping away from three more cannonballs, he managed to jump
onto the fourth ball and reach the deck, halfway near Professor Igor’s upper
body.
Warren seemed to be having fun,
whacking the cannonballs away as if he was playing baseball.
Felix and Lydia were joined
together, protecting one another. Felix slashed at the remaining tentacles with
his crescent blade while Lydia hammered some of the cannonballs with her flail.
Forrest ran in front of Rina. “You
ready?!”
“Whenever you are, pipsqueak!”
Forrest used his cubed bazooka as he
aimed right into one of the cannons. The cannon tried to retaliate by shooting
a cannonball, but Rina used her ice powers to freeze it, making it fall to the
ground from the heavy weight. Forrest’s gunfire continued to fly past the ball
as it made its way into the cannon. With a second’s pause, the cannon suddenly
exploded.
“Boom! One down!” Forrest shouted as
he gave Rina a high-five.
Igor threw four knives towards Leo,
and Leo unbuttoned his coat. He used his coat to take all of the hits, then he
went ahead and ran up the staircase leading closer to the central mast. Well,
about five feet of the mast was a
part of Igor’s lower half of his body. Igor grabbed another set of knives from
his pocket, also readying his heavy blade in case Leo got too close.
Meanwhile, the rest of the group
cleared the bottom floor of the airship. There were no more tentacles and the
rest of the cannons have been exploded to bits.
When Leo got very close, Professor
Igor tried to slap him away with his blunt sword. “You cannot get near as long
as I have these weapons!” He threw the next set of knives at Leo, but he used
the rest of his coat to take the hit. Now, his coat was completely torn
asunder, so the third set of knives would be dangerous for him.
Hazel took a step back. “My arrows
cannot reach that far.”
Forrest nodded. “My gun can’t
either!”
Leo turned to Felix and Warren, and
they gave him a signal. “Do it!”
“What are you planning? Nobody else
can reach me. You’re going to die right here!” He raised his heavy blade.
Felix ran towards Warren who was
near the cannon. He then jumped onto Warren’s hammer, then Warren tossed him
upwards.
“OFF YOU GO!!!!”
Felix was flying towards Leo. This
time, Leo took a step back and he cupped both of his hands for Felix land on
them.
Again, Felix was tossed by Leo’s
palms. At quick haste before Igor could slash him away, Felix used his crescent
blade to stab through Igor’s body.
“AAAAAARGH!!!!!!” [End music]
Felix stayed still, hoping to keep
the blade in the professor’s body until he became weak.
The professor calmed down this time,
smiling. “Urgh… Felix…” He began breathing heavily. “You’ve… surpassed the man
who taught you to stay strong.”
Felix thought about all of the
moments he had with the professor when they were both in limbo state.
“I’ve learned a lot from you,
professor.”
“You might think you can persuade
people with words, but Magnus is different. You have… to stop him.”
Felix was about to cry, but he
refrained from doing so. “It’s still worth a try! But, I will keep your advice
as an open option.”
“Good… Go, get that man… who used my
body for evil.”
Felix released the blade, watching
as the entire airship was disintegrating.
“Goodbye, Professor Igor…”
[Ending 5 music]
~~~
Having learned the history of Magnus and finally defeating Professor Igor's true form, the only thing the group has to worry about how is Clyde. Before doing so, the group of 8 test themselves to see if their heart is in the right place - meaning they would have to pass the trial of illusions. What do these illusions contain? We shall see on the next episode, coming next on The Obsidian Tale!
~~~
<- Go to Episode 62 - Trials of Zozna
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