Ch 30: Shattering the Seal of Tears

A surprise attack by Altera Veritas' serpent anomalies leads to Grey and the others rescuing a SF division. Everyone heads to the lake in time to find Alastor and Douglas breaking a seal.

            Quickly getting to his feet, Alexander said, “Amy, please remain here with Schmitt and his family. If anything happens, protect them with your barrier. Everyone else, we’re going to go check this out!” As Grey rushed out with the others, Amy said, “Grey… Be careful!” With a grin and a thumbs up, Grey made his way out the door. The group rushed down the street towards the square, and along the way they heard a loud crashing noise, and screaming civilians began running past them from the direction of the square. Looking back at a fleeing villager, Grey said, “It sure as hell looks like something’s going on!” Looking over at Mythra, Alexander said to her, “Did you sense anything strange about that man Amy bumped into before?” With a sigh, Mythra shrugged her shoulders and replied, “I wasn’t really paying attention. Do you think he’s behind this?” With a confused look, Grey said, “That guy before? He acted a little strange now that you mention it, but he didn’t strike me as a bad guy…” Reaching the square, they quickly spotted the cause of the commotion. Rampaging through the square were two enormous black serpents. Staring at them, Grey formed his swords and exclaimed, “What the hell?! It’s more of those snake things from the Ruins of Nosus!” Forming her Elementum Orbis, Mythra said, “Those are definitely anomalies! Are they with Altera Veritas?!” Noticing their arrival as he drew his staff, Scott said, “Look, the Special Forces patrols!” Rushing onto the scene was a brigade of Special Forces troops, headed by Lieutenant Colonel Catherine Walker. Lieutenant Colonel Walker raised a hand as though to summon something upward, and from the ground burst thorny vines which quickly wrapped up around one of the serpents. As it struggled against its binds, Lieutenant Colonel Walker said, “Fifth Division, open fire!” The soldiers bearing the gun-like EDE weapons leveled them at the serpent and opened fire, while the rest of the soldiers capable of using energy attacks without a device gathered EDE and launched their attacks at it. As explosions riddled its body, the serpent roared as it squirmed against its binds. As the smoke cleared, it was apparent the serpent’s scales were too tough for the energy attacks to deal any damage. Breaking free, the serpent lunged at Lieutenant Colonel Walker.

            Jumping aside, Lieutenant Colonel Walker barely escaped certain death, yet the serpent quickly rose to strike again. Leaping into the air at the serpent, Grey chanted, “Ego Voco Vos, Ignis Acies!” His swords becoming white hot blades that crackled with fire, he landed atop the serpent’s head and drove his burning blades into it. With a shrill cry of pain, the creature slumped and fell to the ground as the Special Forces soldiers scrambled out of the way. Staring at Grey in surprise, Lieutenant Colonel Walker exclaimed, “You?! What in the world are you doing here?!” Drawing his swords from the serpents head and jumping off onto the ground, Grey muttered, “You’re welcome…” Suddenly, Lieutenant Colonel Walker shouted, “Behind you!” Grey’s eyes went wide and he quickly leaped aside as the second serpent swept its tail down with smashing power into the ground where he had been. As Grey got up, Lieutenant Colonel Walker smirked and said, “You’re welcome.” Shooting her a grin, Grey said, “Touché.” As the others rushed over to help Grey, Alexander shouted, “Distract its attention so Grey and I can get onto it!” Putting away his staff, Scott brought out his bow and began firing lightning arrows, and as Richter formed his pistol both rained their attacks down on the beast’s thick scales. Up in the air on her broom, Mythra fired a blast from her Elementum Orbis as well. Leaping up onto the serpent as it turned towards the others, Grey managed to get on its head, but then it noticed him and quickly threw him off. Raising an armored fist, Serius leveled it at the serpent as it turned towards Grey. Small holes formed in the armor on his arm as it began to vibrate, and as a sonic shockwave burst from the holes, he used telekinesis to focus it all at the serpent as the others continued their barrage. Alexander and Grey both leaped up, Alexander chanting, “Ego Voco Vos, Ignis Acies!” Grey landed upon the back of the serpent, and cut a long gash in its back, and Alexander landed firmly upon the head and quickly drove his blade deep into the beast’s brain. The serpent toppled to the ground, to the cheers of the Special Forces soldiers.

            Standing down by the edge of Silen Lake, Alastor muttered, “You were correct. They are here.” Standing beside him, Douglas smirked and replied, “Yep, I never forget a face. Moment I saw em, I recognized em from the pictures you showed us.” Turning as Giselle and a pair of humanoid anomalies arrived through a large dark vortex with a woman with brown hair and brown eyes dressed in plain clothes in tow, Alastor said, “Let’s begin. It won’t be long before Mr. Greyson and his friends arrive.” Nodding, Giselle said, “Yes sir.” Then she turned and grabbed hold of the woman’s arm, who shrieked. Pulling the woman close, Giselle said to her, “If you want to remain unharmed, do as my lord desires.” As Giselle thrust her in front of Alastor, he said, “Now Sage of Tears, release your powers so I can destroy this seal.” Stricken with fear, the woman closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate. Alastor smiled faintly and said, “Good.” Raising a hand up between himself and the woman, he chanted, “Exite, Et Hoc Mille In Locis Lacrimis Sigillum. Quae Et Liberari Debeat, Omnes Obliget Tenebrae Super Versa. Nos Aeternam Liberari A Voto, Incohent Novam Vitam.” Suddenly the ground began to shake, and over the surface of almost the entire lake, a grand blue rune circle appeared. The various runes spun back and forth within the rune circle, giving the appearance of the turning dials of a combination lock. At last the runes stopped and the rune circle seemed to crystallize. Then it quickly began to crack, and as it finally shattered, the center of the lake began to bubble. As the waters churned, a black cloud suddenly spewed forth into the air. Swirling and twisting in the air, the cloud crackled with dark energy. Raising his hand high into the air, Alastor seemed to summon the dark cloud to him, and it swirled downward into his hand and was absorbed into his body. As the last of the cloud was absorbed, Alastor clenched his hand into a fist and lowered it down in front of him, and for a moment he stared at it. Without looking at her, he addressed the brown haired woman as he said, “You’re free to go woman. Leave.” The woman ran away as fast as she could, going up the docks towards the village. Alastor took a deep breath and exhaled, and then he turned to look up at the village docks, where Grey and the others were quickly making their way down to him. With a faint smile, Alastor called out, “It’s been awhile, Mr. Greyson…”

            Charging down the docks toward Alastor, Grey shouted, “Finally decided to show your face again you b*****d?! Wanna pick up where we left off before?!” Grey charged at Alastor, and behind him Alexander shouted, “Grey wait!” Grey didn’t listen, his mind filled with thoughts of how Alastor had turned him against his friends. Leaping at Alastor, he shouted, “You’re gonna pay!” Standing to the side of Alastor, Douglas chuckled and raised a hand, summoning up the waters of the lake and willing it to shoot towards Grey as a powerful waterspout. Striking Grey in midair, the waterspout carried Grey up in the air with it. Watching in horror as the almost snakelike waterspout curved down and slammed Grey into the ground a ways back up the dock, Scott and Mythra yelled, “Grey!” With a frustrated expression, Alexander rushed to Grey’s side with the others as he thought, “Why does he have to be so reckless?! He’ll do no one any good if he gets himself killed!” Reaching Grey, they saw he had been knocked unconscious by the blow. As Grey’s swords evaporated, Alexander looked away from him and laid his eyes upon Alastor. Walking slowly to face his brother, Alexander called out to him, “Is it true?! Are you really carrying out this madness of your own free will?! Answer me!” Staring back at him with an emotionless expression, Alastor replied, “Does it matter? The time for brotherly sentiment is over Alexander. The Alastor Bastille you knew was too weak to grasp The Second Truth. You were correct before. He is dead now, as you will be soon enough…”

Turning away, Alastor opened a dark vortex and said, “Giselle, come. I’ll leave this in your hands Douglas.” As Giselle and Alastor walked through the vortex and disappeared, Douglas laughed and said to Alexander, “Whoo boy, for a guy who always seems like a totally blank slate, it sure was pretty clear there that he ain’t too happy with you Mr. Big Brother…” Glaring at Douglas, Alexander said, “Who are you really Douglas? A Revenant of Altera Veritas I assume?” With a big grin, Douglas adjusted his shades and said, “Yep, I’m Douglas Mitchell, the Revenant of the Black River! I was brought up in the streets of a backwater town under the rule of the Navis Cartel, over on the good ol’ continent of Berhal. Though I spose the accent speaks for itself! I been working as a hired gun for good while now, and this gig with Alastor pays pretty damn well. I gotta say though, it’s a shame. You all struck me as some pretty fun folks, specially that girl who was with ya. Yeah it’s a real shame that I gotta fight you all and drag her back to Altera Veritas with me.” Out of his pants pocket, Douglas pulled what seemed to be the hilt of a sword, which looked somewhat high tech, with buttons on its handle. Pressing a button, Douglas channeled EDE into the weapon, and two long bladelike ice spikes shot out where the blade would be, effectively making the contraption a double bladed sword. Twirling it in his hand, he said, “Oh well, business is business… Now then, who wants to go first?”

            Forming his sword, Alexander began chanting, “Mordaces Serpens Frigore Gelida…” As he chanted, Scott, Richter, and Serius were coming down to back him up, while Mythra tended to Grey. Richter saw Douglas raising his dual bladed ice sword, and as the villain moved his finger over a button and leveled the point at Alexander, Richter realized what was about to happen. Leaping forth he pushed Alexander to the ground, shouting, “GET DOWN!” Firing one of the blades of his ice sword like a projectile, it hit Richter between the chest and shoulder, blood seeping through his uniform as he gasped in pain and fell back. Serius caught hold of Richter as he fell, and a horrified Scott exclaimed, “JACK!” With an agonized expression, Richter muttered, “Just… a scratch…” Rising to one knee, Alexander looked back at Richter and said, “I’m sorry, I was careless…” As the blade he’d fired from his sword reformed, Douglas lunged forward and swung down his weapon at Alexander while he was distracted. Yet with a clang it met Scott’s staff, and Scott grappled with him as he shouted, “I won’t let you hurt any more of my friends!” Looking back at him with a smirk, Douglas said, “Big words kid! Let’s see if ya got what it takes to back it up!” Leaping back and high into the air, Douglas came to rest upon the edge of the lake’s surface as though it were solid ground, and he called out, “My affinity controls the offensive power of the twin element, water and ice, and I’m afraid with all this water around here, you guys really don’t stand much of a chance! You’re in my element now!” Turning to Alexander and Serius, Scott said, “Get Jack and Grey somewhere safe! I can take him!” Surprised, Alexander quickly said, “By yourself?! No Scott, I know what Mythra said, but you’re not-” Scott interrupted him, shouting, “Get them out of here while you have the chance!”

            Listening to them arguing, Douglas laughed and called out, “Ya know kid, you’ve got the qualities of a real man! But I’m afraid I ain’t letting any of ya get away that easy!” Summoning up two waterspouts like the one before, Douglas was about to send them forth when he suddenly noticed someone was missing. Quickly calling the water up over himself as he detected the incoming attack, Douglas froze it into a shield of ice to block the explosive bombardment of elemental energy from Mythra, who had flown up high on her broom and fired seven elemental beams from her Elementum Orbis. Staring up at her as the chunks of his destroyed ice shield rained down around him, Douglas muttered, “That was a close one…” Commanding multiple waterspouts to rise up and pursue her, he then pushed a button on his sword and the grip of the sword turned ninety degrees, making his two bladed ice sword into a two barreled ice spike gun. Taking aim, Douglas quickly began firing ice spikes up at her, and as Mythra swerved and dodged away from the waterspouts and projectiles, he exclaimed, “Heh, this is better than skeet shootin!” As she continued avoiding his fire, Mythra thought, “Normally against a water user, attacking with lightning would be a good choice, but this guy seems like a professional. It won’t be that easy. It would have saved time to simply use the water to block, yet he used ice to avoid conducting the electricity of my lightning beam. He’s avoiding any dangerous contact with the water directly as well.” Raising a hand, Mythra created a shield of dark hexagons and used it to block more incoming blades, then willed her blue crystal to fire beams of freezing energy at the waterspouts and the rest to fire at Douglas. Striking the waterspouts the beams froze the water under Douglas’ control and the twisted towers of ice sank into the lake, and chasing Douglas across the lake as they exchanged fire at one another, Mythra thought in frustration, “D****t, I just can’t hit this slime ball! C’mon Mythra, think! You don’t have your old grimoire, but there’s gotta be a spell you can remember, one that… AHA! ” Flying high up, Mythra called her crystals before her, lined up as though to form a crystal rainbow. As her violet eye glowed, she shouted, “Let’s see you dodge this! Ultimate Barrage!” Before each of the seven crystals a large rune circle appeared, and from each one formed thousands of small star shaped bolts of elemental energy, speeding down upon the lake like seven colored rain. 

With no chance to evade this massive attack, Douglas remained unfazed, and lifting a hand he said, “Leave the shooting to the professional lil lady!” From out of the lake rose thousands of droplets of water, and shooting forth like a reverse rainstorm, they quickly charged up towards Mythra’s stars. Reaching each other in the air, as the droplets met the stars, a chain of thousands of explosions lit up the sky above the lake. Then rising on a waterspout up through the explosions, his EDE weapon retracted back into a sword, Douglas struck out at Mythra with the ice blades. Unable to fire at him in such close range, Mythra created a purple arcane rune circle with her hand and summoned her spellblade, a weapon with a purple crystal blade and a sliver hilt studded with purple crystals. Clashing again and again in the air, as they locked blades, Douglas grinned and said, “Not too shabby for someone who prefers the long range approach! You’re my kinda girl, Ms. Spellweaver!” With an irritated look, Mythra raised her free hand and formed a light green rune circle. Moving away upon his waterspout as she fired wind blades at him, Douglas deflected them with his weapon as he laughed and said, “Was it something I said?” He reformed his sword into a gun again, but Mythra sailed quickly down and fired ice beams from her blue crystal at the waterspout he was riding on. Seeing this, Douglas simply stepped off the waterspout as it froze and began to collapse, and fell down to land in the water with a splash. Seeing her chance, Mythra called her Elementum Orbis before her and shouted, “Ultimate Element: Thunder Hammer!” Spreading out in a circle, as the crystals of Elementum Orbis all turned yellow and a great yellow rune circle formed, a massive hammer shaped bolt of lightning shot down towards the water. Yet suddenly the water froze over, creating a layer of ice over the lake’s entire surface, proving unnaturally hard as Mythra’s hammer of lightning was stopped in its tracks by it, exploding upon the ice in a blinding flash. As the blast died down the ice began to crack, and as a hole formed in it Douglas leaped out. Looking up at Mythra with a smug grin, Douglas shouted, “Not that bad for someone who hasn’t fought in a thousand years lil’ lady!” Then returning fire with his ice spike gun, he added, “Better step it up though, or you ain’t gonna beat me!”

            Watching as Mythra struggled against Douglas, Scott said, “I’m going to go help her, just get everyone else outta here!” Frustrated that they were still arguing about this, Alexander sighed and said, “Scott, there is no reason to have you go. I can handle this while you and Serius get them out of here. Serius has healing abilities as well you know.” With a determined look, Scott said, “It’ll go twice as fast if you heal as well! Have some faith in me already! Did I spend all that time training for nothing?!” Taken aback, after a moment Alexander smiled reluctantly and said, “It seems Grey is not the only stubborn one. Be careful, Tabatha would have my head if anything happened to you…” As Alexander and Serius began making their way to where Grey and Richter laid, Scott rushed over to the frozen lake to assist Mythra, forming his bow. Hefting Richter into his arms, Serius said, “Are you sure that was wise? You could have gone while we tended to these two.” With a slight laugh, Alexander said, “No. As hard as it is for me to let him face such danger alone, Scott’s right. He’s not a child anymore. He’s one of our comrades, and with his lightning based abilities, his decision on who should go is not without merit. We’ll come back as soon as we can to help him, but for now we must get these two to safety. Grey’s concussion is severe, but I worry more about the strange symptoms Richter is showing…” Richter indeed showed alarming symptoms, breathing heavily while his entire body had broken out in a cold sweat. Alexander could only wonder about what caused them, but he had a hunch it was serious.

            Dodging as Scott began to fire lightning arrows at him from his bow, Douglas moved across the frozen lake like he was on ice skates, bobbing and weaving away from the arrows as they split apart into multiple arrows. Chuckling as he easily evaded the barrage, Douglas said, “So you’re the Thunderfury Energist! Considering your specialty is lightning, I reckon I oughta take you out first!” As Douglas fired ice blades at him, Scott began avoiding them, strafing around Douglas. Yet as he was about to return fire as well, he slipped upon the icy surface of the lake, and as he fell Douglas laughed and said, “Watch your step!” He aimed his gun to fire at Scott while he was down, but Mythra fired another round from her Elementum Orbis saying, “Oh no you don’t!” Quickly skating aside, Douglas aimed through the icy debris blown into the air by the blast and fired back. Caught off guard, Mythra was hit in the left shoulder by an ice spike.

            Watching Mythra fall from her broom to crash hard into the ice, Scott called out in concern, “Mythra!” With Mythra neutralized, Douglas turned back to Scott and said, “Well, you’re all alone now kid. Still feel like takin’ me on? Frankly, given the situation I wouldn’t mind lettin a small fish like yourself go if it meant I could go hunt down the big catch before they get away…” Glaring at Douglas, Scott got up and took aim with his bow at the villain, saying, “You son of a b***h!” Raising his shades to stare at him with his green eyes, Douglas laughed quietly and said, “Ya got real potential kid. If only we’d met under different circumstances…” Douglas reverted his gun back to the two bladed ice sword and swiftly skated across the ice at Scott, dodging more of Scott’s arrows and then bringing the sword down at him in a jumping slash. Blocking with his bow, Scott pushed him away, and as Douglas backed off Scott took aim and to fire another lightning arrow. Yet as he drew back the string, his bow cracked from the strain of blocking Douglas’ attack. Letting it evaporate, Scott drew out his battle staff as Douglas quickly closed the gap again and struck again. Struggling to maintain his footing on the slippery ice, Scott blocked again and again as Douglas sliced and slashed at him. Locking blades with Scott, Douglas mocked him, saying, “Come on! Ya all talk kiddo?! Where’s that fighting spirit now?!” Scott’s anger flaring, he shoved Douglas back, and spinning his staff upon the ice he raised his hand at Douglas. Gathering EDE Scott fired lightning bolts from his hand at him. Skating away as he swerved aside from the bolts of lightning, Douglas once again converted his sword to a gun and aiming it at Scott he fired ice spikes, saying, “I’m getting bored here kid! Lightning projectiles all ya got up your sleeve?” Quickly deflecting the ice spikes with his staff, Scott converted his staff to its whip-like form. Lashing out as he channeled EDE into the whip, Scott hit his mark, as Douglas was not expecting a long range weapon attack. However his target was not Douglas. Having charged the whip so that it would have an electro-magnetic quality, Scott had aimed for the metal handle of Douglas’ weapon. As it latched on magnetically, Scott pulled back his whip and pulled Douglas’ weapon from his hand. Smirking as he discarded it, Scott said, “That different enough for you Douglas?!”

Reviews

[Ryan Henderson]

Just one spelling error:

Flying high up, Myhra called her crystals before her, lined up as though to form a crystal rainbow.

Mythra is spelt wrong.

OH MY GOD THIS CHAPTER IS SO AWESOME!!! I love Douglas's character! He is cocky and he can keep the wise cracks going while he fights. It seems that he likes Mythra. (Although really, who wouldn't?) I liked the twist of how the characters met Douglas earlier in the book. I wondered what the purpose of adding the little run in with Douglas. Now I know that you were foreshadowing this awesome battle. Great job with that!

I also love how you have more dialogue in battles. I was wondering if I should have done that in my "Book One: A Hero's Journey" and it seems like a good idea. I may go back and edit that in later. I love the fight scenes in your book as well. Detailed and full of wise cracks from both the heroes and the villains! Awesome job and keep writing!

[KeithKVH]

Thank you for the review! Ugh, yes that's quite the error thank you. Damn keyboard is the only reason I can think of for that.

Douglas is quite a cool character, at this point I can't reveal much about him without traversing a minefield of spoilers. I will say he wasn't seriously coming onto Mythra, just saying she is a strong woman and he likes that. Appearance wise she's a bit young for him. xD

Dialogue in battles is actually something I find important. Whether it's in or out of battle, everything is a part of the story. Just like in real life, battles occur between people for reasons, and those people can reason with each other, argue, communicate with allies, taunt enemies, etc. in battle just as well as out of battle. It really depends on the character how much they talk, but I'll rarely have an overly silent battle unless I feel it's called for.

[Ryan Henderson]

In my stories there is some jeering between heroes and villains and a bit of strategizing with the characters but there is not as much dialogue as you have in this book. I was wondering if it would be a good call to make more battle dialogue and seeing it in action makes me think I should. This is a very useful tip, thanks so much!