Chrono Trigger: Twins of Destiny Chapter 24
Lavoid Slave!
By Mox Jet
Tristan flipped his hands to the inside of his trench coat, at least giving the impression that he would be drawing his guns. He locked stares with Darius, who stood with his hands at his sides, not even taking up a defensive position. His confidence was overwhelming; Tristan could feel it without having to read his Lifestream.
Overt egotism is only useful as a mind game, Tristan said to himself, repeating what he had told Tyrion just a few hours earlier. And someone who’s been around this long has to know that. Still…he’s guarding some of his energy signature. Why could that be?
Could he fight someone with a Planeswalker’s abilities? Could he even keep up? Those imprisoned behind the glass looked on eager to see how the fight would work out. Tristan took a moment to judge the space he would be fighting in. There wasn’t a lot of room for flying about, but depending on Darius’ speed, that either gave him an advantage or a disadvantage. The metal computer devices would sure hurt, too, if someone happened to be thrown into them…
“I’m sorry if this disrupts you plans, but you see, I just can’t let you kill my friends like that,” Tristan said. “Surly you weren’t expecting me to just run and hide forever after getting away from you, were you?” he jibed.
“You have some skill, I’ll hand you that,” Darius said. “But you’ll need more than skill to best thousands of years of experience, you fool. I don’t care what kind of techniques you know; you’ll soon meet your doom.”
“Oh, shut your goddamned hole and let’s fight already,” Tristan said, getting impatient. Before he had finished his sentence, though, he had rocketed towards Darius, a glow surrounding him that quickly intensified from a dull red, scaling up the spectrum until he exploded with white light.
A little 120 Point Tech Degree ought to even this out a bit… Tristan thought to himself, hoping he was right. As the white light sparked out, his hands jumped out of his jacket without the added weight of guns. On them, though, two small device had appeared over the knuckles. Sparkers, they were called. They channeled his lightning magic through his fists, creating electrical surges with each connected strike. In movements faster than any of the onlookers had ever seen, Tristan wound up and lashed out with his right fist, missing as Darius swayed right. Tristan then tried to catch him off guard, striking in an uppercut with his left, next spinning into a backfist with his right. Bending backwards, Darius dodged the uppercut and blocked the second attack with his right forearm. Tristan countered and spun his right arm around the block, trying to lock his opponent up, but after a few moments of exchanging thrusts and parries, Darius let out a barrier that pushed him temporarily away.
“You’re not bad,” Darius admitted. “But what weakling has to hide behind energy that isn’t his?” Tristan shook off the prod at his use of Force Tech, coming at him again with another flurry of five punches from alternating hands. Each was dodged with ease, though, as Darius moved to the left and right, finally bending over backwards to avoid the final blow. Throwing himself backwards, he caught the ground with his hands and flipped his left foot up in a kick, but Tristan batted it aside and spun around, catching it in his right armpit. Tristan then continued to spin and fired his left leg at Darius’ awkwardly suspended form, catching him in the crotch for the first successful blow of the fight. Darius cringed as Tristan fired three more kicks to the same spot before the blue haired man was able to push off the ground in a spin that freed his captured leg and propelled him off to the side.
“I see you lack a certain sense of honor,” Darius said as he landed on one leg and shuffled forward, coming at Tristan for the first time. He fainted with his left, then swung round with a right hook, but Tristan was not to be had: He deftly blocked downward and let rip a blow with a force of a rocket, slamming into Darius’s face and sending him staggering back.
“There’s no honor in untimely death,” Tristan said, lunging forward with a sidekick towards Darius’s chest. The Planeswalker avoided the attack, grabbing Tristan’s foot and spinning him into a clockwise tumble. As Tristan hit the floor, Darius brought his heel down in an axe kick to the sternum, but the Watcher rolled out the way, forcing himself into a horizontal spin and sweeping Darius’ legs out from under him. Falling backwards, Darius recovered into a backflip, but Tristan continued his spin as he rose up, slamming Darius in the side with a roundhouse kick. The Planeswalker was sent flying to the side, finally recovering to cartwheel into a roundoff.
Tristan didn’t let up, rushing in again and swinging his right fist at Darius’ stomach in hopes of catching him before recovery, but his attack was caught as he quickly found his elbow and wrist being pushed in a position that they didn’t want to bend. Reacting, he flipped the rest of his body over to untwist his arm, splitting his legs at the top of his flip and catching an unsuspecting Darius in the jaw. Before recovering to the ground, his hands shot into his coat and came out again in a flash with the two .35’s blazing. Tristan landed on the floor as the two clips were unloaded towards Darius’ head, but they seemed to pass right through the blue haired man, not affecting him.
“What the?” Tristan asked out loud, cocking his head to the side.
“So we move on from strict hand to hand?” Darius asked with a devious grin. He shook his head. “Tisk, tisk,” he said, cracking his knuckles. “This is what I’ve been waiting for!” Black energy flared up around Darius as he drew back an ebony encased fist. Tristan, threw his emptied guns aside, still in slight shock from having his bullets missing and not sure how the hell he could have planeshifted so fast.
Fucking Planeswalkers! Tristan cursed as Darius slammed him in the face with the first blow. It burned his skin and hurt his bone, the energy of the Black Wings finally manifesting themselves in Darius. Tristan was thrown backwards, but Darius wasn’t about to let up. He flew forward, ramming his knee into Tristan’s stomach, then clasping his hands together and slamming them down over Tristan’s exposed back, sending him into the floor with a crash.
The Planeswalker leapt into the air and came crashing down with a blow that would have decapitated the Watcher if he hadn’t rolled out of the way. Tristan tried to flip himself up and recover, but Darius was too fast, drilling Tristan in the side with what felt like several hundred roundhouse kicks in the span of a few seconds. The observers in the cell moaned in agony, having witnessed the sudden turnaround in the fight.
Darius backed off for a moment, letting Tristan clutch his side in pain. Looking darkly at Darius, Tristan let out a growl, charging him and swinging with a mighty left hook. Darius couldn’t help but smirk, blocking the punch simply and countering with a front kick that caught Tristan in the chest and sent him backwards into one of the metal cabinets that lined the walls. Tristan rose up again and rushed in, attacking with a hopeless flurry of punches and kicks which were all dodged seemingly effortlessly. The white glow around him slowly died off as he lost control of the energies. He knew that half of the ribs on his right side were broken and his passive healing abilities weren’t working fast enough. By the look in his eye, Darius knew this too.
Tristan summoned up a final burst of energy, rushing the Planeswalker with every ounce of strength that he had and started to swing away. Darius dodged the first few blows, finally catching the Watcher’s arm with his left hand and bringing his right palm across in sweep to Tristan’s elbow, snapping the tendons and ligaments there like twigs. Tristan’ cried out in pain as Darius extended his hand and blasted him backwards again with a discharge of black energy. Tristan hit the wall with a smack and fell to the floor. Tristan Tenser the Great had been defeated.
Darius walked up to his fallen victim, shaking his head.
“You deal with powers you don’t understand,” Darius said, holding out his right hand a few inches from Tristan’s face and beginning to gather power for the killing blast. “And you had no position to warrant your intervention. Why do you throw your life away? For these boys? What use could they possibly be to you?”
“As one who doesn’t comprehend the Lavoids, you could never understand,” Tristan said weakly, coughing up blood. “As one that is allied to them, you could never comprehend the lives that they take and the scale that they take them on. As one who is ignorant to his own fate, you could never understand the folly of your actions in relation to the rest of the galaxy. As one so blind to the future, you could never grasp the depth of what my allies and I do…”
“You speak with great disrespect towards someone who now holds your life in his hands,” Darius said, shaking his head. “But no matter. Your miserable little existence is over now. May your trip to the next life be-”
“Postponed,” Darius was cut off by the introduction of a new voice. His glance shot to his right where something he hadn’t seen coming was standing in front of the cell. A man, about five foot eleven and garbed in all black, stood there, one hand on a sword at his hip and the other running through thick and spiky blue hair that ran down to his waist in a ponytail. A thin scar ran across his right cheek.
“More of you?!” Darius shouted. “No matter!” he said, temporarily ignoring Jack and firing off a blast of Chaos energy at Tristan’s face. In a flash, though, Jack snapped the hand had been in his hair forward, extending two fingers and deftly latching on to the energy that Darius had released. Twisting his wrist sharply, he sent it flying off to the left. Darius looked first to Jack, shocked, then back to Tristan, who was grinning like an idiot.
“Who’s laughing now?” Tristan said, chuckling, then coughing up more blood.
“Gargh!” Darius screamed, extending both his hands and beginning to fire off more chaos energy at a rapid pace. Jack began grabbing each shot, though, and deflecting it away from his fallen friend. When Darius seemed to tire of the repetitive incident, he grunted loudly and kicked at Tristan’s fallen form, but before he knew what had happened, Jack had magically grabbed the attacking leg, swung it up into the air and sent it flying into the far wall, Darius with it. Slowly Jack began to walk forward, he raised his left hand and the scabbard floated up to meet it. Waving his other hand towards the wall, the sheath flew off the blade and he spun it over a few times in his hand. He paused as he reached the point where Tristan lay.
“You did good,” he said solemnly, his head lowered. “I’ll take it from here.”
“He’s strong,” Tristan said, his voice not more than a whisper. Jack nodded.
“I know,” he said. He looked at his fallen friend. “Get out of here,” he tossed him a small box like device. “It’ll get you back to the Weatherlight,” he said. Tristan nodded, pressing a green button on the device and disappearing with a blur. Jack turned his attention to the people behind the cell.
“Who are you?” Alaria asked. Jack let out a tender smile. Tyrion and Teclis suddenly didn’t need to be told.
“He’s one of us….” Teclis told her. “He’s…an ally.”
“What?” Alaria asked. “How can you be sure?” Tyrion put a hand on her shoulder, nodding in agreement with Teclis
“We just…can,” he said. Teclis nodded again.
“So we just sit here and let this guy handle it?” Lina asked, somewhat perturbed. Teclis and Tyrion both nodded, suddenly encompassed with an overwhelming feeling that things were going to be okay. They both gave Jack a nod that you would give a friend of many years, the understanding between the three Planeswalkers creating a kind of contact that they all knew and accepted. Jack McKlane was here, the understanding said, and he would try to make things better. This understanding in place, Jack turned back to Darius, who was just getting up.
“We have a problem, Darius,” Jack said calmly. “As that was a very good friend of mine that you just nearly killed.” He smiled. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to kick your ass for that.”
“And who are you to make such threats?!” Darius demanded, inwardly worried after Jack’s display of flawless control over Darius’s energies.
“I am The One of Lavos Born,” Jack said, spinning the Dreamblade skillfully. “I am the blue haired male and I am the prophecy fulfilled. I am Lathain of Zeal and I will be your executioner.”
“Another Planeswalker, of course,” Darius said, gazing at black clad man with interest. “Well, this should be interesting indeed.”
“I hope to make it not so interesting,” Jack said, still spinning the Dreamblade. “Nay, I say your defeat will be anything but interesting for you, you poor deluded fool.” Jack shook his head. He looked at Darius darkly. “You really thought Geminus could give you Chaos?” he asked. “You really thought that a Class B was capable of allowing you Contact?”
“What?” Darius asked, taken aback.
“Your arrangement with Geminus,” Jack said, shaking his head, then grinning. “I’m afraid you’ve been had, friend. Your Lavoid has played you to perfection, allowing you to work for him in exchange for something he can’t even give you! Oh, how I do give Geminus that much credit: he’s quite the negotiator. But you, oh how pathetic you must feel, knowing you’ve been duped!”
“What are you talking about?!” Darius demanded. “What do you mean he’s unable to give me Contact? And how the bloody hells do you know about that?”
“I know more than you could possibly imagine,” Jack said, a fire in his eyes beginning to shine. “My knowledge is limited only by that of the Eternals, while yours has been clouded by a Lavoid that has been using you for years.”
“You’re full of unprecedented bull shit,” Darius said. “What makes you think that Geminus would be unable to help me seek Contact?”
“Because Contact is not something shared, nor is it something gained,” Jack said. “Contact hasn’t been made since the creation of the first Lavoids millennia ago, and Contact will never occur again as long as she’s concerned. That Lavoid, Pyriorias, sought with all her will to not allow a pure Contact by any of her inferiors, and you thought that your Geminus, a mere Class B had the ability to help you get it? You’ve been horribly tricked, brother.”
“I don’t believe it!” Darius said, shaking his head furiously. “You’re lying.” Jack raised the Dreamblade and pointed it as Darius.
“And you are guilty of aiding and abiding a Lavoid, committing treason against your race, your planet, and all of humanity. I am here to carry out your sentence: Death.”
“No Chaos…?” Darius repeated, shaking his head. “Damn him!” he cursed, energies flaring up around him. “It’s not good enough that I fail you, but that you use me as well?!” he asked. He started to cackle, then looked at Jack. “If what you say is true, then I’ve been duped. But yet…you…” he let out an maniacal laugh. “Then I can take it out on you…you will be a challenge…another Planeswalker.” Energy again pulsed up around him and he laughed again. “I’ll show Geminus who the weakling is…I’ll show him by killing you!!” Jacks own body flared up in a stream of Black power, his gaze never leaving the now crazed eyes of Darius. The older Planeswalker rushed him and the Dreamblade came out to fight.
“Don’t fail me now, Doreen,” Jack said to the blade. As he finished his sentence, Darius crashed down upon him and the exchange of blows began. Darius fought with anger on his side, coming with a flurry of punches which Jack began to dodge and bat aside with the flat of his blade. After a few seconds of interchange, Jack swayed right and brought his left foot up at Darius’ gut. Arching his midsection in by bending his body like a bow, Darius dodged the blow, though Jack was quick to latch around his exposed neck and spin him in a horizontal circle, sending him into a bunch of computers with an electrical explosion.
Jack bolted after him, ramming his shoulder into Darius’ chest and blasting him through the wall and into the next room. Rolling, backwards, Darius kicked Jack off of him and up into the air. Hovering for a split second, Jack came down with a swipe of his blade, missing a dodging Darius and cutting deep into the floor. He quickly turned and looked right to see Darius’ next attack coming, but he was slowed as he tried to pull his weapon from the floor. Darius kicked him across the face, then spun around and swept his legs out from under him. Jack then fell to the ground, his sword still embedded in the floor.
Reacting, he sprung up, launching both of his feet forward and connecting with Darius’ midsection, sending him back. As Jack came back upright, he quickly formed some of the Winds into his hand and prepared for a spell. Drawing one hand back shooting the other forward, a small blue ball formed in the outstretched hand.
“Bram Blazer!” he shouted, and the blue ball streaked forward, forming a beam that ripped through the air before striking Darius in the chest. The attack from the astral plane tore at his spirit, causing him great pain, but his natural magic resistance prevented it from tearing through his body as well. He was thrown back but magically recovered into a hover.
Jack waited for nothing, charging forward. As he flew past his sword, he grabbed it out of the ground and flipped over mid-flight, slicing downward with aim to cleave Darius in half. Darius brought up an energy encased forearm to block the blow as he fell backwards, recovering into a backflip and quickly launching another assault.
Jack shifted sideways and preen parried the oncoming attack. He brought his blade around and attacked at Darius’ exposed back, but the Planeswalker also spun around and blocked the blade away. They struggled over control for a moment and then jumped away from each other.
“Sword with sword, then, perhaps?” Darius asked, clenching his right first and making a blade of black energy to appear. Jack didn’t respond, but the energy around him flared up again as he drew the Dreamblade back into a fighting position. He shuffled forward a few steps, then kicked off and careened through the air, blade drawn back. His weapon came down in an overhead smash met by Darius’ own weapon. Jack recoiled, swiped to the midsection, and then around and into a horizontal strike to the head. Blocking the first attack, Darius swayed back from the second one, taking his own weapon and lunging low at an overcommitted Jack. Almost not managing, he parried down, spinning in a circle with his right leg into the air, catching Darius in the face with his foot. He came out of the spin and took the blade forward, swiping up and out. The tip of the blade tasted blood as it dug into Darius’ shoulder, causing him to stagger back and grab the wound.
“You’re fast,” Darius said. “Much faster than your comrade.” He spoke to distract Jack while the wound quickly healed, but Jack would have none of it. He charged in again with a thrust that was barely dodged and then a quick swipe at the neck which was parried. Jack doubled back his strike, spinning his blade around and over his head, then cutting down again in a flank chop. Darius stumbled back again, barely parrying the blow, and before he knew what had happened, Jack had flipped his own body parallel to the ground and was smashing him in the face with the instep of his right foot, spinning over and then hitting him again with his left foot. Darius was sent spinning to the ground, but quickly rebounded into a fighting stance. Jack also came out the air spinning, landing in a stance that mirrored Darius’. He grinned, and then charged again.
Jack’s sword swung forward, but long before it was within range. As he swung it, though, a wreath of fire encompassed the blade and sparked forward as he moved.
“Bamu Rod!” he shouted as the tongue of flame shot forward towards Darius’s face. Reacting quickly, he brought his blade up to defend as the whip latched around the weapon. On the other end, Jack tugged back sharply, pulling Darius forward. The two Planeswalkers dug their feet into the ground and began to fight a tug-o-war for control, the bright red flame of the Bamu Rod connecting the ever growing auras of brilliant blue-black light that surrounded them.
For twenty seconds or so they struggled, neither gaining on the other until Jack finally let go of his sword and let it go flying towards Darius’ as he continued to pull. Caught by surprise, Darius barely formed a shield to block the oncoming blade and didn’t see as Jack catapulted himself through the air until he tackled into his chest, sending the two of them flying towards the outside wall and breaking through it with an crash. Not having to time to risk on casting a levitation spell, the two Planeswalkers battled as they fell from the eighty second story of the Palace, air whipping past them with the force of a tornado.
As they fell, Jack grabbed his sword out the air and they began to clash blades again. Blow by blow, Jack struck down at Darius, but Darius swung his black blade with skill, deflecting the blows. The building rushed passed them as they continued to exchange attacks. Looking to the right, Darius saw the form of the palace speeding by them. With his free hand, he extended it and magically latched on to some of the superstructure of the building, tearing it away from the rest of its kind and into a mass of bent metal that nearly impaled Jack through the side. Only by quickly shifting his weight out of the way did Jack dodge, though the movement had brought him out of sword range.
They began to exchange spells as Jack drifted further and further to the right. Lightning coursed from Darius’ hands as barrage of Mono Volts and Digu Volts flew upward into a stream of Fireballs and Rune Flares that streaked downwards. Both combatants were firing spells as their speed increased and the floor came up faster to meet them. Perhaps it was that Darius could not see the floor coming, but Jack prepared a spell that would hopefully cause him some pain.
Reaching out to the quickly approaching ground, Jack held off from casting spells for a moment and began to chant as he gathered a pool of Earth Winds around the area where Darius would impact the ground.
“Infinite Earth, submit to my will…” he muttered. Then, shooting out his hand: “Dug Haut!!” he screamed. Darius’ eyes went wide, only then realizing that the floor was upon them. Although he couldn’t see it, he knew that the ground below him was welling up with power, beginning to shift and bend to the will of the Planeswalker above him.
In a flash, the ground below bellowed upwards into three great spikes of granite. The amount of magic that Jack needed to affect the ground from the air was tremendous, but it was enough to be effective. Jack followed up with a Ray Wing to slow his fall while Darius crashed into the rocks below, his midsection completely torn open by one of the larger spikes. The body slide down a few feet until the force of the fall could not tear it open anymore. Jack hovered lightly for a moment, exhaling loudly.
“Damn…” he said, looking up and then beginning to move in that direction. His speed increased until he finally reached the hole in the building that he had come out of, lightly landing on the edge and walking towards the cell that was still in tact. Seeing that he was not being followed by Darius, the prisoners began to rejoice.
“Holy shit, he did it!” Lina shouted.
“Dear God, he actually beat him,” Grev said. “What power!”
“Are you okay?” Tyrion asked him. Jack nodded, scratching his head.
“A little beat up but-” he was cut off by a rocking explosion from the hole that he has just come through. There, in the space that was previously empty, hung a form of energy that pulsated with such intense brightness that one could not look directly at it. A violent laugh came from the center.
“A Son of Geminus cannot be defeated so easily!” a voice shouted from amidst the flame. “If you wish to slay me, you will need more powerful tricks than that!” Jack shook his head.
“No way…” he said. “How’d he survive that?” Jack, still caught in shock, was unable to respond as Darius charged at him with the speed of a hurricane, slamming him to the floor with a blow from his fist. Darius swiftly kicked him in the stomach as he went down, then spun around a let another kick rip at Jack’s head. The Planeswalker was sent spinning, but Darius didn’t let up. He swiftly snapped Jack to his feet with a bit of magic and then wound up and kicked him again, this time in the ribs. Only the extreme density and strength of his Planeswalker bones saved Jack from having half of his ribcage demolished in the attack. Darius grinned, drawing back his fist and punching Jack in the stomach with such force that it sent him through the nearest wall and back out of the building.
“You shouldn’t have underestimated me!” Darius shouted, firing a wide energy blast out of the newly opened entry to the room. “It will be your death!”
“You speak a might too confidently for someone who was outsmarted a few moments ago,” Jack said, wheezing a bit as he deflecting the blast. He quickly flew back into the room shaking his head. “Normally, this is the part where the hero gives the bad guy a chance to walk away peacefully right?” he asked. He swung the sword around his head and drew it back, ready to fight. “I hope you weren’t expecting such clichéd antics.”
He charged his, swinging down, blocked by Darius’ blade of black energy. They struggled for power as the blades met.
“And your supposed to be some kind of hero then?” Darius asked over the roar of the contacting energies.
“No,” Jack said, struggling for control of the blades. “Because a hero would give you a chance to repent. As far as I'm concernred, all you did was simply get in my way hurt my friends in the process. You’d wouldn’t be so lucky as to have me be a ‘hero.’” He pushed off hard, separating them, then snapped his free hand out to summon up a burst of wind that knocked Darius back.
“Why must you get in my way, though!” Darius screamed, rushing at him again and cutting violently despite the wind. “Why must you disrupt my plans!?” He made a deep lunge, forcing Jack to back up to take the parry.
“Because you work in concert with the Lavoids,” Jack said, reposting quickly to the cheek and remising as Darius hopped back. “And as I said, you have therefore committed treason against all who live.”
“Who are you to judge?” Darius asked, blocking the next few attacks. “Who are you to know what I’ve been through? To live your life knowing you were a failure? To seek the opportunity to rise to true power! Who are you to question my motives?!” He finally took the offensive away from Jack, blocking and shooting off a fireball that exploded in Jack’s midsection, sending him back.
“I am ally to life,” Jack said, recovering and gathering the Winds to his command. Taking momentary advantage of the distance between him, he focused a rapidly sucked a great deal of energy into the room as he spread his arms wide. He then extended his free hand and turned his palm up with two fingers facing skyward.
“Mega Brand!” he shouted as the floor began to ripple and then tare upwards in an explosion that split through the ceiling and whatever floors were above them, creating a new sunroof for what was left of the room they fought in. Darius was caught amongst the violent explosion, throwing up a magic barrier as dust and debris rocketed up past him. Through the dust, though, he didn’t see Jack coming, attacking with a strong, two handed lunge and catching Darius in the stomach. He looked up and took a hand off of the Dreamblade, firing off another stream of energy and knocking Darius back.
“And enemy to the Lavoids. That,” Jack said. “Is enough.” As the dust cleared, Jack looked across the room to see Darius clutching his wound, but amazingly not bleeding.
His resistance to attacks is incredible, Jack thought. His body heals as soon as I pull my weapon out.
“You’ll have to do better than that!” Darius said, rushing forward and slashing Jack across the midsection. Jack parried, but was thrown back up against the glass wall with the consecutive blows that followed. Those in the cell winced, almost able to feel the force of the attacks.
“Lina!” Alaria said. “Tell him to use the Crystain blade!” The psychic nodded, opening up a channel.
<Jack, use the blade that’s up against the cabinets on the far wall> she told him. <It’s made of Crystain and should bypass his physical defenses!> Jack took what little time he had and gave the girl a wink a nod, kicking off the ground and to the left as he dodged. Darius didn’t realize where he was going as he sprinted across the ground towards where the Crystain blade was sitting.
“Running away?” Darius asked, gathering energy into his hand and filling the room with an iridescent web of electricity. Jack threw up a reactionary barrier as he finally dove and latched on to the handle of the blade. He stood up and snapped his hand with the sheathed weapon out to the right, sending the sheath flying to the far wall. Jack held up the Dreamblade and the Crystain blade in front of him, grinning.
“A blade of the Nisai Ryu?!” Darius asked, cursing. How could I have been so foolish as to not check their weapons?!, he wondered.
“Foolish or not, you deluded fool,” Jack said, drawing the blades into a fighting stance. “You’re still going to die!” For the first time in the fight, he let out a battle cry, charging across the floor as Darius formed a Black Wing blade in each hand, holding them up in an X to block Jack’s oncoming frenzy. The blades clashed and Chaos rushed into the room.
The two men stood there, fighting for domination, their individually energies pulsing as they sucked as much as they could into the room. The floor and roof around them began to be eaten away as the power grew. Those in the cell had moved as far away from them as possible, but where worried that they might be destroyed simply by the energy outflow. The room became the scene out of a child’s nightmare: two blue haired demons battled with the powers of hell for control over the other.
“Their power is incredible!” Teclis yelled about the growing roar of the energy. “I’ve never seen anything like it! You could cast ten Dragon Slaves with the amount of power they’ve pulled into the room!” As it spread and tore through the cell wall, Teclis threw up a defense barrier with all of the energy he could muster.
“Let’s just hope they don’t kill us with it,” Lina mumbled, using her psychic powers to amplify the magical barrier. Tyrion, Alaria and Grev all began to summon up Lifesteam and tried to reinforce the blockade amidst the growing masses of energy.
“We end this…” Jack said, pulling his blades apart and blasting Darius back as he gained control over the energies in the room. Darius was knocked back and Jack rushed, swinging the two blades in a whirlwind of destruction. The combatants movements began to become odd as Jack started to phase out of the physical plane, snapping back right before contacting Darius, then phasing out again. The older Planeswalker had been much less practiced in planeshifting and quickly found himself being driven back as he fended off Jack’s furious attacks.
“How...are…you…doing this?!” Darius demanded, pausing as he deflected Jack’s oncoming attacks, each one by a slightly smaller margin.
<You never learned the true extent of your powers> Jack spoke to him from the astral plane. <And hence…> he paused his speech, snapping back into the physical plane directly behind Darius, impaling him with the Crystain blade through the back and severing his spinal chord.
“You die,” Jack said, pulling the sword out and hoping that the attack from the astral plane would work. Sure enough, Darius spun around with a look of shock as his body refused to heal. He shook his head, not comprehending the damage that had been done. He stumbled forward, trying to reach out at Jack.
“I am…the son of Geminus…” he said in disbelief, clutching the opening where the sword had pierced through his front. “This is not possible!”
“This sword attacks your astral body,” Jack explained, breathing heavily. “No matter how good your physical regeneration is, you can’t live without your astral body.” Darius gasped for air.
“I can’t…die…” he said. “How did you…?”
“All Planeswalkers have the same Lavoids factor, Darius,” Jack said, lowering his weapons. “And the class of the parent has no affect on the strength of the child.” He shook his head. “Be freed of your crimes, Darius. Pass back to the planet…”
“…no…” he managed to say, falling to his knees, then on to his face. Then, like a wisp of smoke on a spring breeze, his lifeforce drifted away and the Lifestream Adepts in the room saw it rise out of his body and meander downwards towards the planet, back where it belonged. The energies of Chaos began to dissipate and those in the corner of the room let down their barrier. Jack held out his hands and allowed both swords to float in the air as he magically brought their scabbards towards him and sheathed the blades. He reattached the Dreamblade to his hip and walked through the destroyed cell wall and towards Alaria with the Crystain blade held out.
“I believe this is yours,” he said, handing it to her. She couldn’t find words, taking it in a mix of shock and confusion.
“Is it…over?” Tyrion asked.
“Not yet,” Jack said, shaking his head. He pointed to the timer on the computer by their beds. It read 00:00:00 and a large green OK flashed below the numbers. “I think your daddy’s going to be coming up to pay us a visit soon…”
“Geminus is going to surface?” Grev asked.
“If their genes were cleared for recombination, he’ll likely return the planet to ash and return their DNA to the Lifestream. I fear our next battle lies with him.” He turned to Teclis. “When the time comes, I need for you to follow my instructions, okay?” Teclis nodded. “Good,” Jack said. “Now, let us get out of here and find a better vantage point.”
The group took flight out of the building and Jack helped them all descend safely to the ground below on the outskirts of the city. As they came up to the edge of the city, they found there was a large glass wall that blocked off the superstructure of Renektent. Jack didn’t give much thought before waving his hand and making the glass shatter, attracting a lot of attention in the process.
“This way,” he said, climbing out onto the outcroppings of metal. As the proceeded outward, the wind began to pick up, no longer blocked off by the wall. Nearing the edge, the could see down on to the clouds and, in some places, to the planet surface.
“I don’t know where he will come,” Jack said, turning to Teclis. “But when he does, I’m going to summon an extremely large quantity of energy…one which I’m not even sure I can control. I need your help in channeling it. Can you do this?”
“Yes…or at least…I think,” Teclis said. Alaria put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a nod. Confidence returned to the youth. He stood up straight. “Yes,” he reaffirmed. “I can handle it.”
“Good,” Jack said. He looked up. “We should probably get to the ground. This city might not be savable; it will likely be the first target.” He turned to Grev. “As I promised, of course,” Grev couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You did think of everything, didn’t you?” he asked.
“Well, it’s not all my doing. I have some help up there.” He pointed up. “She’s better at seeing these things than I am.” Jack laughed to spite himself. As he said this, the sky above them began to grow dark. Tyrion and Teclis dropped to the ground as if knocked over by a heavy wind, clutching themselves and shivering.
“Jack?" Tyrion asked, his voice pained. “How does the sky get dark above the Clouds?”
“Shit,” Jack said. “It’s already started. It’s the Lavoid Energy. You can feel it, can’t you? It’s so thick that it’s actually disrupting how light flows into the atmosphere. Don’t worry…you get used to it after awhile.” Jack took off over the edge of the city and looked down, his Planeswalker eyes peering through the clouds at the Winds that were swelling below Renektent. Splotches of red began to form and spindle outwards on the ground below. Jack turned back to the others.
“Don’t rush it, but follow me.” He then turned back to the red spindles, took a deep breath and dove down towards the clouds, black energy sparking up after him as he propelled himself towards the surfacing Lavoids. The group decided what the best way to go would be. Teclis looked to Alaria.
“You don’t have to come,” he said. “But Tyrion and I…” he looked to his brother.
“We have to see,” Tyrion said, finishing his sentence.
“I want to see, too,” Alaria said. “I want to see what the Nisai Ryu have been hiding from me all this time.”
“And there’s no way I’m missing out on anything like this,” Lina said, cutting in. “So don’t you guys even try to stop me.”
“I don’t think I could if I wanted to,” Tyrion said to her with a grin. He looked back to Teclis. “Together then?” he asked.
“Let’s do it,” he said, nodding. He and Tyrion both extended their arms and enveloped the group in a bubble of energy. Together, they flew everyone off the edge of the platform and began to lower them towards the ground. Before long, Jack was long out of their range of sighr, dropping down at an increasing pace. Teclis and Tyrion also increased the rate that they moved the party, accelerating downwards.
As they descended, the heat around them grew, a redness beginning to envelop the bubble that they were in. The air began to waver as they met the rising thermals and the ground below them began to crack as magma flowed up through the crust. Disruptions in the surface streaked outwards in an intricate web of trenches and gullies that came into focus the farther the group dropped. The air became tarnished with a black ash that would have made breathing hard if not for their protective barrier. The smell of sulfur made it to their noses, causing Lina to pinch hers shut.
A few more seconds and the Lavoid itself began to come into view. It was a horrible looking thing. A giant shell with large bony spikes protruding out of even larger spikes that were swept slightly backwards. It looked organic, but in another sense, also slightly mechanical. As much as they tried, there was nothing to really describe aura that the Lavoid resonated. It was one of death and one of uncaring arrogance. For a being that was supposedly damaged, it exuded a power that scared them. The fact that the air and sky were being warped simply by his moving around was frightening.
As they came closer, they saw Jack standing in front of the beast. He stood with his sword at his side, staring into a five pronged pod that opened to reveal the Lavoid’s sickening green eye. They could see that he was talking to it and as they landed behind him they could hear the end of what he was saying.
“-and so Geminus, of the Pyriorias Line, for treachery against the Multiverse, I have come to destroy you!”
“You insolent fool,” a voice echoed in the air. It had no discernable source, but rather, it seemed to come from everywhere at once, almost as if the Lavoid was simply vibrating all the air around him to produce the desired sounds. “You can hold your threats against me no longer! With Darius now dead, his traits have been reabsorbed into my gene pool. You shall soon face the consequences of killing him before dealing with me!”
“You speak mightily, Lavoid,” Jack said, raising his sword and pointing at the eye. “But if you truly trust your skill, then show your face and save me the trouble of eating through that feeble armor of yours!”
“Feeble?!” the Lavoid bellowed. There was an alien growl that came from the inside. In a few moments, the giant eye seemed to suck inward, the green iris warping to create a hole the size of a man. Out of the hole, an emaciated humanoid with blue skin and long tendrils of flesh instead of hair stepped out onto the ground. Jack turned around quickly to Teclis.
“Be ready,” he said as the energy around them began to swell. Teclis let out a nod, extending his hands and beginning to focus. Jack himself seemed to become a source of some incredible power that caused those behind him to momentarily cringe. A dark blue miasma of energy welled up around him as he began to channel Chaos directly from outside of the Multiverse.
“Prepare to understand the magnitude of your folly!” the Lavoid said, noticing the energy flowing form Jack but not showing any signs of fear. “For I am Geminus, and I am descended from the Queen of all Lavoids. And who are you? The son of a mere Class C?! And you intend to stand against me?!”
“I stand against all of your kind,” Jack said, concentrating more on the energy that he was bringing into the physical plane. As it grew, he could sense when Teclis latched on to it, trying to ease Jack’s struggle over its power. A dark wind began to blow across the red and black plane as the energy intensified. It wasn’t even long before Teclis was wincing at the incredible energy that was becoming apparent.
“And what is this?” Geminus asked, acknowledging the existence of the energy Jack had introduced to the battle. “A summation of Lavoid Energy? You wish to kill me with my own energy? I had assumed you were more learned.”
“And so you shall understand you own folly…” Jack said, grabbing his sword with both hands. The weapon itself became enveloped with a black energy that snaked its way around the red blade towards the tip. He closed his eyes, also beginning to struggle with the energy. Behind him, Tyrion began to understand what was happening.
“I can help, too!” he told Teclis, holding out his hands and grasping on to the Chaos. He too tried to move it towards the focal point: Jack’s blade. Teclis managed to let out a grin as Tyrion successfully helped to focus the energy, acknowledging that it was working. The energy started to cry aloud and the sky continued to grow dark. Storm clouds began to swell up and swirl around the area. Thunder roared and lightning scorched the cracked, lava engulfed ground. Between the powers of Chaos and the powers of Nature, the noise was becoming deafening.
“And now you must answer one question!” Jack yelled above the din, the sword pulsing with more energy than he had ever commanded before. “Do you believe in a God, Geminus?! Because if you do…you’re about to meet him!” He screamed. A black tornado seemed to engulf Jack as he began to chant. The storm seemed to temporarily want to focus on him and numerous bolts of lightning coursed towards his body and the center of the energies.
“Darkness beyond twilight, deeper than the deepest night, Lord of all Creation and Master of all things, grant me thy power and thy strength so that we may walk the path of destruction and annihilate the fools that stand in our path!!”
“Here it comes!” Teclis screamed, feeling the energy spiral nearly out of control. Jack leapt in the air and drew back the his sword.
“Such power…” Geminus said, his eyes going wide. “This cannot be just Lavoid Energy!” He stumbled backwards towards his shell, beginning to feel a desire to retreat. Such desires would not be fulfilled, though. There would be no retreat. Enemies of Lathain of Zeal were met with no mercy. Bringing the sword down and slamming it into the ground, he let out a cry.
“LAVOID SLAVE!!!” he screamed at the top of his lungs as the blade dug into the earth and the energy was released. The black power streaked from the Dreamblade and away from him, tearing across the ground in a series of black and blue arcs that streaked towards Geminus, shooting of sparks of brilliant blue and white light as they went. The sky itself seemed to collapse onto the earth, all of the energy in the area being intensely disrupted as the Chaos ripped across the plane. Geminus could do nothing but look on as the energy careened into him like a three hundred ton truck, blasting him back into his shell and tearing through his body like paper. He was quickly engulfed in the black energy and let out a fearsome cry, his body convulsing with pain. For ten solid seconds, the energy continued to flow from the blade into the Lavoid and for ten solid seconds the being let out a cry that no other species could ever hope to reproduce. For ten seconds Jack delivered the most intense blast of energy that had been summoned into the physical plane in the Second Age and for ten seconds that energy proved that he had finally created a tool for taking on all but the strongest opponents: the Lavoids Slave.
As the spell finished resolving and the energy was gone, the dark clouds in the sky began to part and blue light began to show through. The magma around them stopped its flow and the earth began to settle in its movements. The wind ceased, all but that which blew to clear the air, and the smell of ash and death began to depart. With the Dreamblade still in his hands, Jack looked longingly on what was left of the Lavoid: nothing but the very base of the shell and some other charred remains. Breathing heavily and smiling to spite himself, he fell to the ground with a thud. The others rushed to his side.
“Jack, are you okay?” Tyrion asked, rushing down and kneeling beside him. Jack looked up to him with the grin of a small child.
“I did it,” he said, grinning. “I actually did it.”
“You bet your ass you did,” Lina said. “That guy is burnt to a crisp. I don’t think he’ll be bothering anyone around here any time soon.”
“I can’t believe it actually worked,” Jack said, beginning to laugh.
“Are you going to be okay?” Teclis asked him.
“Oh yeah,” he said, nodding. “I just spend a little too much energy is all. I guess I’m going to have to get better at casting those.” He laughed again.
“You’re going to have to use it again?” Tyrion asked. Jack nodded wearily.
“Without a doubt,” Jack said. “There are many other Lavoids out there that need that spell in order to be defeated.” He looked up to Tyrion and Teclis. “And hopefully, I’ll be able to teach you to cast is as well.” He let out a smile. “But first…I think I’m gonna take a nap.” Still smiling, he closed his eyes and fell quietly asleep, exhausted beyond the point of reason.
“Well?” Grev asked. “What now?”
“Now we wait,” Tyrion said. “And we see what he wants. We owe him our lives, and it may take some time to repay that.”
“And besides, I think he wanted to talk to us,” Teclis said. Almost as he said this, a great noise came from above and a craft about the size one story house lowered itself towards the ground. It was colored white and on the side, the words Lavoid Exterminatorum Adeptus were engraved, accompanied by a crest with three swords crossing behind a shield. A minor wind was swept up as the craft touched down, and within moments, a door opened up and a blonde girl in a long white coat stepped out. She was followed by a shorter girl with red hair that was similarly dressed. They stepped out on to the ground and began to walk towards the young Planeswalkers.
Those around Jack rose up to greet them, unsure of what to expect. Lavoid Exterminatorum Adeptus? Surely these people were allies of Jack.
“Hi!” the blonde girl said excitedly, walking up the group with a gait that seemed to have some military influence. “I see Jack’s little trick worked,” she said, smiling, as she made it too them. She turned to the shorter girl. “Rayith, we should get him back up to the Weatherlight.”
“Right, Sarah,” the shorter girl said. Sarah turned back towards the others.
“Umm…I guess I’ll introduce myself,” she said, somewhat awkwardly. “I’m Sarah, and this is Rayith. I’m afraid this one here belongs to me. He’s quite the trouble maker, isn’t he?” she joked.
“On, he’s done quite a good job,” Grev said. “We were extremely fortunate to have had his help. I know none of us could have managed to do what he just did.”
“Well, actually, he does this kind of thing all the time to a greater or lesser extent,” Sarah said.
“He’s kind of a bad ass, isn’t he?” Rayith asked, chuckling.
“I’ll say,” Lina agreed, putting her hands on her hips. “But…what happens now?” Sarah laughed.
“Well, now I invite you aboard our ship and hopefully we can make this whole thing make more sense,” Sarah said. “Does that sound okay with you all?” Some of them laughed as well.
"Good, because I'm as confused as all hell!" Lina said.
"Me too, for the most part," Alaria agreed.
“I’m too tired to argue, or even begin to pose the ‘can I trust you?’ question” Tyrion said. “And I think I could definitely use more explanation.”
“And me as well,” Teclis said. “About all of this and about…well, about me.”
“Then please,” Sarah said, waving them on. “Follow me.” Turning, she led them back to the ship. Once they were safely inside, the ship lifted off and headed into orbit, leaving the devastated plane and the Lavoid’s remains behind and heading into the future of the LEA.
.
“The creation of the Lavoid Slave was probably the most important event in the history of the LEA. No other spell of device had as big an impact on the War.” –Teclis Spelman, with regard to the Celes Incident