Chapter 2
Admiral Haris watched as the light of engine drives intensified. He laid his hand on the shoulder of one of the engineers. “Is the warp drive going to blow on us, or are we set?” he asked lightheartedly. The engineer nodded. “Krystallite patterns nominal, brithyte(2) conduits holding. We’re good to go, Admiral.” Haris looked thoughtfully at the core. It was a perfect sphere of brithyte with patterns of krystallite interlaced within. When activated by an electromagnetic field, the brithyte would heat up exponentially, causing the krystallite to slowly release its internal energy. For a faster burn, they would simply increase the power of the field. If they went too fast, they would risk vaporizing the krystallite, so they had a large amount of monitoring equipment to prevent that from happening. They would be stranded lightcycles away from Isum if it did.
Haris strode back to the bridge. He walked to his seat and sat down. “Set heading to the coordinates of the last scout ship,” He ordered. His ship swung around to the correct heading. On the viewscreen, the entire fleet followed his orientation. He lifted his hand vertically, and pointed into the depths of space, now an empty black void. “Engage,” he said simply.
“Where have I seen someone do that before?” an officer muttered to himself.
Haris watched the screen as space seemed to stretch. He knew that the warp drives must be active, even though he couldn’t feel any acceleration due to the velocity negation system. The view was bland, as all the stars had stopped shining. He didn’t know why, but he did know something.
He had to stop it.

One week later…
They had been traveling for… well… one week. They could tell, even if they didn’t have navigation equipment, that they were getting closer. Space somehow became darker, and even fewer stars shone. Sometimes they had trouble getting through solar systems, if the star was a neutron star. They kept getting caught in the gravitational pull. In fact, neutron stars became much too common for this region of space. It was almost if something was collapsing the stars purposely. Well, it’s not like they didn’t have an explanation for that. They expected to reach the coordinates in a few days. Nobody was looking forward to it, but they also knew that this was something they had to do.
They were about a lightcycle into the Omega quadrant. The admiral’s ship was currently passing through a nebula. Because of that, admiral Haris had many spirited discussions with the scientists onboard.
Scientist: Sir, I would recommend going around the nebula. We’re farther out than any known scientific expedition, and I can’t get any readings inside of it!
Haris: Well, it’s either this or an asteroid field. Take your pick.
Scientist: …Sir, I would strongly recommend going through the nebula.
They expected to be within visual range of the home planet once they came through the nebula. For the time being, they couldn’t see anything through the dense particle cloud. Haris watched the green and blue haze as they waited to pass through it. “Sir, coming through the nebula in thirty seconds,” an officer reported. Haris didn’t know what to expect. Nobody in the fleet did. “Twenty.” However, he had faith in his soldiers. “Ten.” He knew that if they couldn’t take the unexpected, nobody could. “Coming through the nebula now, sir.” Haris stood up. He looked closely at the viewscreen. “Increase magnification by fifty.” The view zoomed in. Haris froze. Waves upon waves of frigates, fighters, cruisers, cargo ships, even multiple designs that he didn’t recognize orbited the black planet like a swarm. “No,” he whispered. “No, no, no, no,” he muttered. “How are we going to defeat that many?” he asked himself. “Permission to speak freely, sir?” an officer asked. “Of course,” Haris said absentmindedly. “We’re not,” the officer said. Haris faced the officer. “Normally I would reprimand you, and say that there’s always a way, but…” he turned back to the viewscreen. “There are so many…” he said. “Rough estimation… fifty thousand, maybe a hundred thousand ships,” said the tactical officer. “And our fleet?” Haris asked. He knew the answer of course; he just wanted to confirm that his memory was right. “Only about five thousand.” Haris walked back to his chair and sat down. “Inform the fleet… we have no choice but to retreat.” An explosion jolted Haris out of his thoughts, and almost out of his chair. “What was that?” he demanded. “Some kind of long-range cannon of unknown design, took down half our forward shields in one shot!” the tactical officer replied. Haris was stunned. Their energy shields were the most advanced of the whole fleet. They had to do a complete overhaul of the power generators to fuel them, and something just took them down to half power in one shot? He looked to the viewscreen. The swarm had been agitated. The entirety of the fifty thousand ships was now coming directly towards the Admiral’s. “We might not have a chance to run,” Haris realized. He turned from the viewscreen. “Tell the fleet to engage the warp drives! We need to get out of here no-“
A blinding flash of light cut him off. A violent jerk almost knocked him off his feet. He braced himself on his chair and turned back towards the viewscreen. It was gone. “What happened?” he asked. “Sir… one of the enemy ships detonated.” Haris was puzzled. “Can you give me a reason?” The officer shrugged. “No, sir. But even if these ships have an oxygen atmosphere, the light from an explosion isn’t enough for…” he gestured towards the viewscreen. Haris rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Sir! The shields… they’re back online,” an engineer reported. Haris was surprised. “This soon? How did you fix it?” he asked. “Well… we didn’t. That’s the strange part.” Just after the engineer finished speaking, another flash stung the admiral’s eyes. He held his arm in front of his face until it ended. “What happened this time?” he asked. “Three more exploded. I can’t explain it,” the tactical officer admitted. Haris stood up slowly. He walked over to the tactical officer and laid his hand on his shoulder. “About our weapon systems… they’re still online, right?” he asked thoughtfully.
The tactical officer smiled.
Haris’ ship fired a large red beam towards an oncoming ship. Unfortunately, it seemed to have no effect. A few more ships came through the nebula, and they fired on it as well. After multiple salvos, they were finally able to destroy it. Haris paced back and forth. “Our weapons are basically useless to us. Whatever their shields are made of, it’s beyond our own design.” Another light flashed. “That’s five more, sir,” the tactical officer reported. There was another flash, but this one stayed lit. It seemed to come closer to the ship. Eventually, it engulfed the entire thing. “Sir!” an engineer said. “Something is hacking in to our systems! Attempting to override.” Haris turned around. “Wait. It’s the light, I’m sure of it. Let it in, it might be trying to help.” As soon as he said the words, he knew they were true. He was getting a vibe from the creature, a sort of emotional connection. The engineer shrugged. “Lowering firewalls.” The engineer watched the system closely. “It’s rewriting our entire software… I’ve never seen a pattern like this before,” he mused. “Try firing the beam again,” he instructed. Haris turned to the tactical officer. “You heard the man.”
This time, the beam was a pure silver color. It carved through the attacking force like a hot knife through butter.
Haris watched as the front line was incinerated. “Amazing,” he whispered. He turned around. “Order the fleet to attack.” He turned back to the viewscreen. “We’re taking this planet.”

They fought off wave after wave of attackers. Fortunately, the light creature surrounded the entire fleet, shielding them from enemy fire. After a while, the enemy seemed to retreat. Some of the soldiers thought that they had won. Haris knew better. It was a strategic withdrawal, and he knew that they would be back. After a few minutes of waiting, the planet’s moon started to be seen around the side of the planet. However, there was only one problem.
The planet didn’t have a moon.
In fact, it was a giant dreadnaught with rows and rows of lasers, cannons, and other weapons Haris didn’t recognize. It was the size of a small moon. On the forward stern, it had six huge cannons in a pentagonal shape with one in the middle. Each had a dim light shining from the inside. One red, one light blue, one gray, one purple, one yellow. “Is help us…” Haris whispered. The light creature seemed amused at this. It seemed to condense back to the admiral’s ship. Seeming to jump at this opportunity, the dreadnaught fired. The red cannon shot a huge red-orange laser that almost destroyed six or seven ships. The blue seemed to fire a freezing ray that would incase vessels in blocks of ice. When they attempted to fire back, the gray one seemed to project a shield that deflected their lasers. Haris was grim. “Tell the fleet to keep their distance. The light says…” he paused for a second as he listened.
“It says this is between us and it.”

(1)Brithyte is a somewhat common material on Isum. It does not react to any other known substance, being comparable to the noble gases. However, it responds to certain magnetic fields. It has a very strange resonance level, and when hit by a mag field, it heats up exponentially. Apparently, a scientist was working in his lab, experimenting on different materials. He was exposing them to radiation, heat, cold, magnetics, and other effects. He had just finished the magnetics section of his experiments when he realized that his analyzer was completely fried. He pried it open, and he saw that all of the brithyte wiring had melted. He was quite surprised, and decided to bump brithyte up to first in line for experimentation. Many uses for brithyte’s strange properties have been found since then.

(2)Back in that time period, Is was believed to be the deity of light and good. As a complete contrast to Is, Um (pronounced OOM) was the god of darkness and evil. More on that in later chapters.

Chapter 3
The Admiral’s ship was evading desperately. With each shot, the dreadnaught was getting closer and closer to hitting them. Every now and then, when they could catch a break, they would fire the silver beam at the dreadnaught. Unfortunately, it seemed to have about as much effect as their regular lasers against a standard Hade ship. It was a classic case of a miniscule pest versus a colossus, or in Earth terms, a bee stinging a bear. Eventually, the dreadnaught just stopped trying. It held position for about fifteen seconds, and then loosed a pulse that temporarily disabled the smaller ship’s electronic systems.
“Report!” Admiral Haris called. “A massive EMP burst just took down our mainframe, sir! Even with the light helping us, it should take around thirty seconds to come back online!” an officer reported. Haris saw the dreadnaught swinging around to face them, the stern cannons looking all the more menacing from their vantage point. Something was happening in the center. Miniscule particles were being drawn into the huge barrel. Haris could only speculate as to what was going on, but from everything he’d seen so far, probably not anything good. An engineer was peering closely at a monitor. “Strange… particles are being altered on the atomic level; changed into some kind of element I’ve never seen before. I wonder if they’re… oh no…” the engineer’s voice dropped. “What? What is it?” Haris demanded. The engineer gestured frantically. “Evasive maneuvers! They trying to-“the engineer was cut off by a massive jolt that almost knocked the entire bridge crew off their feet. “What happened?” Haris asked. The engineer straightened his glasses. “The particles the dreadnaught was collecting were being altered into some sort of micro-organism. How, I don’t know. But that’s not the important part. Unless these readings are faulty, that organism is now infiltrating our hull plating, and absorbing the alloys into itself.” Haris was stunned. “You mean these things are going to EAT my ship if we don’t stop them?” he asked incredulously. The engineer sighed. “I suppose, if you wanted to be frank about it, that’s probably the most sensible explanation… anyway, I believe the vitalux creature is trying to slow the organisms’ progress-“Haris gestured for the engineer to stop. “Wait, wait, wait. What? VITALUX creature?” he asked. The engineer sighed again. “It’s the scientific classification for that life form outside! Vita means life, and lux means light. Do you want me to elaborate further, or can I go on explaining the situation?” he asked impatiently. Haris made the by-all-means gesture. The engineer looked at his monitor again and shook his head. “Apparently, the vitalux can only slow its progress, not stop it. It’s only a matter of time until it overtakes the ship entirely.” Haris paced in front of his chair, trying desperately to think of an idea. “Sir! The dreadnaught it attempting to fire again!” the tactical officer called. “Evasive maneuvers,” Haris said without thinking. After a few seconds, the ship hadn’t budged. “What’s taking so long?” Haris demanded. “The engines aren’t responding!” the officer said, frustrated. Haris looked on, helpless as the dreadnaught charged its main cannon.
The smaller ship reeled backward as the dreadnaught fired.
Haris lowered his arm from his eyes. He looked around, and saw the crew doing the same. He was still alive? He looked at the viewscreen and saw the giant red-orange beam shooting into space, but it wasn’t hitting them. “Sir, we were propelled out of our position just in time to avoid the shot. Maybe it was the vitalux trying to help us,” the tactical officer reported. “Please stop calling it that,” Haris muttered. He turned around. “That’s it. I’m sick and tired of playing cat and mouse with this thing,” he snapped. One of the engineers scratched his head. “Sir, what’s a… mouse? Or a cat?” he asked. Haris stopped midrant. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and waited a few seconds before answering. “You know what? I have no idea. Anyway! As I said, I’m tired of playing games with this thing.” As he said it, he got the feeling that the vitalux (if that’s what we’re going to call it for now) shared his feelings. It retreated from the ships mainframe. It flowed out from the ceiling right in front of where Haris was standing, and morphed itself into some sort of pedestal shape. On the flat top surface was an imprint of a hand. Haris could tell what it wanted him to do, even without the empathic link. The engineer was rapidly tapping buttons on his monitor. “The hull won’t maintain its integrity much longer, admiral!” he called. Haris laid his hand on the light structure. Immediately, he was flooded by a rush of emotions, thoughts, ideas, and thousands of years’ worth of knowledge and memories. He and the creature were now in full synchronicity with each other. It was the strangest experience to see both his view from the bridge and the creature’s view from outside the hull. He could see a wave of light purging the black slime-looking organisms that were eating into the external alloys. Maybe this symbiosis was making the vitalux stronger somehow. Whatever the light was doing, the hull was now a blinding white color. This seemed to confuse the dreadnaught, as it fired and missed multiple times before the smaller ship even moved. Haris was about to order evasive maneuvers to avoid a lucky shot, but before he spoke, the ship began moving on its own. He was about to order a full stop to make sure the engines weren’t malfunctioning, but again the ship stopped without his command. A slow smile spread across his face as he realized what was going on. He was in full neural contact with the ship’s systems; he needed only to think about firing at the dreadnaught for the ship to actually do it. “Well. So this is what integration with a humin feels like.” The voice was deep, confident, and friendly. Naturally, Haris nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard it. “Oh, don’t be scared. The last two life forms to do this nearly had cardiac attacks,” the voice grumbled. “Wha-“Haris began. “Am I? I’ve heard that question all too often. I suppose you could call me the vitalux, though I really don’t like that one. I prefer Jesis, second-in-command to Is himself,” the voice said. Haris was dumbfounded. “You don’t mean…”he began again. “That’s exactly who I mean. THE Jesis. Oh, and by the way, I can read your thoughts, if you haven’t figured that out already,” the voice said. Strangely, Jesis didn’t sound boastful despite its claims. Haris realized that he didn’t have the time for this. “Ahem. So, Jesis, there’s this small matter of the dreadnaught…” Haris could tell that Jesis was dismissive. “Oh, right. That. All you have to do is it just me or is it trying to shoot us?” the voice suddenly became alarmed. Haris saw the red cannon charging. He immediately activated the starboard thrusters, and the ship did a sideways barrel roll to dodge the shot. Jesis activated the stern lasers, and the red cannon took direct damage to its barrel. The red light flickered weakly before dying. Haris raised his eyebrow. “How did you penetrate its shields?” he asked. “Easy,” Jesis answered. “They have to lower their frontal shields for at least a few milliseconds to fire it.” Haris was confused. “What’s a millisecond?” he asked. Jesis was, again, dismissive. “Different species. Time measurement. About 0.01 micro-cycles watch out he’s firing again!” Jesis said. The entity had a peculiar talent in combining different sentences together seamlessly. This time, they had apparently angered the dreadnaught. It was charging the massive cannon in the middle, but it wasn’t drawing in particles to fire. “Hmm… it’s using a different firing mode this time. If we position ourselves correctly, we should be able to fire directly into the main barrel. That is, if we time it just right.” Haris was skeptical. “And if we time it wrong?” he asked. “We all die,” Jesis said without hesitation. Haris swallowed hard, and maneuvered the ship directly into the dreadnaught’s line of fire. “I’ll fire the weapons,” Haris declared. Jesis seemed uncertain. “Are you sure? I have reflexes much superior to yours. No offense.” Haris nodded firmly. “I’m sure,” he said. Jesis accepted this turn of events. “Okay. It’s firing in about a hundred microcycles. Ninety… eighty… seventy… sixty… fifty... forty… thirty… twenty…” As he spoke, Haris was mentally preparing himself. “Ten… Fire now!” Jesis exclaimed. Haris fired the entire ship’s arsenal directly into the larger ship’s forward cannon array. The dreadnaught lurched backward as if in pain. After a few seconds, Jesis couldn’t stand it anymore. “Did we win?” he asked. Haris watched the dreadnaught, looking for any signs of activity. “I think we-“Haris was cut off by the colossus swinging around to face them again. Jesis and Haris both jumped out of their skin. Well, that is if Jesis even HAD skin. They immediately dodged out of the way… but the dreadnaught wasn’t doing anything. It was just sitting there. Haris was scrutinizing it, waiting for it to move. A flash of red-orange jolted Haris out of his concentration. Tiny detonations were running up and down the other ship’s hull like firecrackers. It began breaking apart. Jesis metaphysically nudged Haris. “You, ah, might want to get out of the way for this one…” he warned. A massive explosion hit the other ship like a punch. “Ah! Too late,” Jesis said. The forward end of the dreadnaught was flung away from the back end by the shockwave. All the external lights on the forward end flickered and died. “There’s one thing left to do with this wreck,” Jesis said contemptuously. “You’d better leave this to me.” Jesis left the admiral’s ship and sped over to the wreckage. Haris took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was back on his own bridge again. He looked around, and was puzzled by the crew’s reaction. They were all blinking repeatedly and rubbing their eyes. He looked up to the viewscreen and saw Jesis coming back to the ship. He sped directly through the wall and almost hit Haris in the face. Haris flinched, and made a mental note to remember the being’s metaphysical abilities. “I have to go now. But before I do, take these,” Jesis said. Haris could see five small spheres in Jesis’… hands? Extremities, at least. Haris took them after a gesture from Jesis. He looked at them for a second, and then his eyes widened in recognition. “These aren’t...” he asked in awe. “The five and only,” Jesis confirmed. One red, one blue, one grey, one gold, and one dark purple. He knew what they were. They were the goal of this entire mission, the main protection of their entire race.
And they rested in Haris’ palm.
In the spur of the moment, he tried to call on them, but he could feel them resisting. He had a realization that he voiced aloud.
“I may have been the one to retrieve them… but I’m not the one to wield them.” He looked up at Jesis. “That power falls to a true Descendant.” Even though Jesis didn’t have a head per se, he could feel his approval. Haris turned to the viewscreen. “Set a course for the Alpha quadrant.” His voice dropped to a whisper.
“We’re going home.”

The commander grabbed the creature’s foreleg, dropping his weapon. He threw the creature to the ground, and heard the sickening crunch of its skeleton on the hard packed gravel. Nevertheless, the creature rose, hissing and growling on its broken limbs. The commander drew his plasma cutter and watched black blood sizzle on the stones as the creature drew itself up yet again. What could have done this to it? The commander wondered to himself. The enichad had been altered in some way. It was more aggressive, tougher, and seemed to feel no pain. In fact, the entire creature was black. Even its eyes had not escaped whatever cruel experiment had made it that way. It pounced like lightning, and its razor-sharp limb made contact with the commander’s eyepiece, ripping it off. The commander cried out in pain. He fell to the ground, holding the left side of his face. He felt warm blood beneath his glove.

Chapter 4
Tarichis walked in step with some of his comrades, occasionally cursing the bulky armored boots they had to wear. Well, all the rest of his armor was heavy, but at least it didn’t impede his movement. Turns out there were some sensor anomalies on the southern continent, and it was just his luck for his squad to draw the short straw.
He was certain that game was rigged.
He didn’t take the time to look at the distant mountain range or the wildlife in the forest around him. He just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. The leader held up a hand. “This is the location. Split up and search the area.” The gold star on the back of the leader’s hand glinted in the sunlight. Somebody else would’ve had some sort of envious moment, and make a stupid resolution of ‘I’m gonna be like him someday!’ or something similar. Not Tarichis; his squad mates could vouch for that.
He was looking around for… well, he wasn’t quite sure yet. A sensor anomaly wasn’t known for being specific. Tarichis was holding out his scanner, searching for something, anything to stave off boredom. He wasn’t that impatient, but you get stuck out in the sun for an hour wearing heavy armor and see how you feel. He frowned. He was getting some high EM activity to the south… he took a step in that direction and watched as the readings spiked. He started walking.
He brushed aside a giant leaf, took a look at what was behind it, and quickly backed up. He put his back to a nearby tree, and slowly looked around it. Four, five, six, seven enichads. But… they didn’t exactly look right. All of them were a mottled black color. Weren’t they supposed to be brown and green? And… whoa… Tarichis’ eyes widened. A narek? But this was the southern continent! How did it manage to travel all the way down here? He scrutinized the tank-like animal. The narek had small back legs, but absolutely massive forelegs, as if they were overcompensating. The creature had wickedly sharp fangs and two giant tusks. Nareks were notorious for being difficult to kill. But, like the enichads, it was a darker shade of black. Nareks were well known (and valued) for their tan hides. Was it just another breed? Tarichis was jolted out of his thoughts as it stopped moving. It sniffed the air a few times. Tarichis stayed as still as he could. The narek looked in his direction. His blood froze. The narich made a deep growling sound in its throat. It took a step towards him. By chance, a slower enichad bumped into its leg by accident. It quickly dodged around him, and hurried to catch up with the others. The narek saw how far behind he was, looked suspiciously in Tarichis’ direction, and started down the path again. Its fist-like forelegs made huge imprints in the dirt. Once it was out of earshot. Tarichis slid down the side of the tree in relief. He looked absentmindedly at the way they were going. If they kept their current path, they would be heading due north... Tarichis jumped up in alarm.
Straight in the direction of his squad.
He sprinted forward, ignoring the thin branches that whipped at his face. He kept running. He figured that he should be able to get to his squad before the strange band of creatures did. He burst out into a clearing and stopped dead in his tracks. He got there too late. Many of his squadmates were on the ground with their armor blackened and corroded. He pulled out his rifle and started shooting, and he managed to take down two or three of the enichads before he caught the narek’s attention.
The hulk rushed him, its massive fists cracking the ground beneath them as it charged. Tarichis emptied an entire clip into the creature’s head, and it only made it angrier. It grabbed him with its hand (if it can be called that) and slammed him into the ground. Tarichis was pretty sure all of his ribs had been broken when the creature grabbed him for the first time, not to mention being completely crushed a couple seconds later. He gasped for air, and managed to reach to his belt. He drew his plasma cutter, switched it on, and speared the creature’s arm. The narek released him with a roar of pain. He dropped to the ground (very painfully), and rolled to narrowly avoid being flattened by the narek’s foreleg. In response, the narek put both of its limbs on either side of Tarichis. It reared up on its hind legs, attempting to crush him. Thinking quickly, Tarichis switched his grip on the cutter and hurled it with all his strength. The narek looked puzzled for a second at the silver hilt protruding from its chest before toppling over backwards. Tarichis took a deep breath, and immediately regretted it. He managed to get to his knees. The squad leader rushed over to him, and asked him something. He was pretty sure the leader was asking him if he was okay. He started to nod, but then he saw an enichad over the leader’s shoulder start to get up. Tarichis tried to tell him, but he couldn’t breathe. The enichad leapt forward, attempting to spear the leader in the back with its razor-sharp limb. On instinct, Tarichis put his hand to the ground and shoved the leader out of the way with his shoulder. A microcycle later, he felt a searing pain in his forehead. He passed out.
In his subconscious, he heard a snapping sound. “Hey. Hey, wake up.” He groaned, and wished that it would just go away. “Tarichis, you need to wake up.” He tried to roll over, but something held him still. He heard a familiar voice. “Here, let me try.” He heard a faint shuffling sound. “Tarichis, I ORDER you to wake up!” With that, his eyes snapped open. Well, his right eye at least. He was in a pure white room, and he had to squint for a couple seconds before his eye adjusted to the brightness. He saw the squad leader standing over him. “Follows commands to the letter,” the leader said, grinning. He stepped back, and someone, presumably a doctor, came up to him. “I want you to listen carefully. When you were hit, the area just above your left eye was sliced open. It ended up exposing your raw optical nerve. Now, we could repair it and everything would be normal again, but we’ve been working on an experimental optical device. It can be used as a scanner, a telescope, and it can even link up with certain satellites to give you an aerial feed directly to your occipital lobe. We haven’t been given a chance to attempt it… that is, until now.” The doctor straightened up. “You have two options. Which will it be?” Tarichis took a minute or two to consider the idea. After a while, he chuckled lightly. “No pain, no gain… go for it.”

Chapter 5
Tarichis wiped the blood from his cheek. He stood up, lunged forward, and sliced the enichad in two with his plasma cutter before it had the chance to dodge. He walked over to the device and carefully fitted it back into place. It made a couple whirring sounds and a high-pitched whine before coming back online. He looked to the rest of his squad, and saw that they had destroyed the crawler force… at a cost. A couple of soldiers lay on the ground, their armor charred and blackened. Tarichis grimaced. Things like that happened many times throughout the war… he had even been one of the first to see it. He held the back of his forearm in front of his chest, and punched a code into a small datapad on the outside of his arm guard. A few seconds later, LINKUP SUCCESSFUL flashed into his vision. The desolate battlefield morphed into a sky view of a flat plain-like area. He switched the scan to thermal. Multiple hotspots of activity appeared, with a rough black square shape in the center of it. He disconnected from the satellite, and looked in that direction. A huge monolith seemed to be touching the storm clouds around it. The monolith was surrounded by a high wall with mortar turrets, and they were the source of the plasma mortars.
Tarichis heard heavy static on his radio as he received a communication. “Aegis command… all assault teams… too many… risk… too great… abort… mission… fall back, repeat, fall-“The communication was terminated. He looked back to his squad. He knew that they heard it as well. He looked around, found his weapon, and managed to fix the jam without too much trouble. As he reloaded, he talked to the squad. “Jamis, Radis, you two carry the wounded. I want you all to get out of here as quickly as you can. I’ll stay behind and help to cover the retreat.” Radis stepped forward. “And what about you?” he asked grimly.
Tuk-clank!
“I can take care of myself.”
Tarichis lost track of time after defeating wave after wave of crawlers, not to mention five or six nareks. It was taking a heavy toll on him. He had multiple cuts, bruises, and he was pretty sure he had a broken rib or two. He had just emptied his last clip when the enemies seemed to retreat. He watched, puzzled at their reaction. That’s when he read thermal activity near the walls of the enemy fortress.
Tarichis ran out from behind a crashed aircraft just as it was detonated by a mortar. As he looked around some scattered debris, he couldn’t believe his eyes. An undamaged, unmanned EXMAV (1) was sitting just a few strides from where he was. He immediately sprinted over to it and lifted the cockpit hatch. He looked up and cursed. There was a mortar streaking directly towards him. He was torn between risking death by taking the EXMAV or playing it safe by running. He was just about to jump into the cockpit when a voice echoed inside his mind. You don’t need it. Run. He hesitated for a moment, only to see he had no choice. The mortar was seconds away from hitting him. He jumped off, only to realize that his arm was caught on something. He looked up as he was hanging off the side. His gun was wedged in between two armor plates. Turns out the armor wasn’t completely undamaged, and some semi-melted metal had solidified around the barrel. He tried to yank it free, but it wouldn’t budge. He looked frantically at the rapidly falling mortar, and let go. He hit the ground running and dove onto the gravel as the EXMAV exploded. He looked crestfallen back at the hull, now charred beyond recognition. As I said, you don’t need it. Tarichis spun around, searching for the source of the voice. All of a sudden, he saw a burning white light blaze to life behind him. He turned around again, and the light slowly dimmed. It was some sort of… entity. He scrutinized it, trying to understand it. Thermal readings were normal, no irregular radiation levels, so… what was it? I am many things, Tarichis. Tarichis took a step backward. Do not be afraid. The entity seemed to grimace. I’m seriously getting tired of saying that every time. Anyway, I suppose I should introduce myself. Time outside slowed to a crawl. Tarichis could see the mortars in the distance hanging in the air. I… am Is. I am one who came to Isum eight millennia ago to ‘plant’ your race here. I have many names, God and such like- Tarichis chuckled. “God? What kind of a name is God?” The entity we now know to be Is seemed to grimace again. Different species. Long story. Tarichis stopped him again. “Wait; let’s just assume that I believe what you’re saying. You are… what, eight thousand years old? How can anyone live for that long?” Is seemed puzzled, but then seemed to nod in understanding. You are coming from a reference point where everything dies eventually. And, while that might happen someday to me, I do not age. You see, my body is not physical like yours. “So why are you telling me this?” Tarichis asked. I am telling you this because your ancestors, Tarichis, were the ones sent to this world eight millennia ago. You are…
The Last Descendant.

(1)Exoskeletal Mechanized Assault Vehicles, or EXMAVs, are bipedal machines used mainly for assaulting heavily fortified locations. EXMAVs are heavily armored and have a veritable arsenal of missiles, plasma turrets, and gatling lasers. The pilot sits in the cockpit where the EXMAV interfaces with his nervous system, so when the pilot’s brain sends an electrical signal, the EXMAV moves. Other, more utilitarian uses have been found for it as well. It’s very effective at handling heavy or dangerous materials, and is used for construction purposes as well as biohazard zones. The cockpit has heavy shielding, and has monitors displaying the area in a 360 degree radius. Early prototypes simply had glass windows, but in combat they turned out to be somewhat… fragile.

Tarichis was speechless. He struggled to find a reply to what Is had said. After a minute, he managed to gasp out a clear sentence. “But… but my bloodline was lost nearly ten generations ago. How can I be the last…” he couldn’t seem to speak it. Is seemed grave. Just because it was forgotten does not mean it does not exist. Your bloodline may be lost, but it is not destroyed. Your ancestors were thriving here when the stars still shone. Tarichis laughed mirthlessly. “Stars? You’re kidding. Stars are a myth, a legend from an ancient time. We’ve explored half of this galaxy and we haven’t seen any huge ‘burning spheres of gas’ in space.” Is quickly countered his claim. Then what is the giant burning sphere of gas in the middle of your solar system? Tarichis was dismissive. “It’s an anomaly. A planet might’ve collided with another, setting their atmospheres on fire and sending their molten cores out into space. “There should be thousands of records from just a few millennia ago about stars! Surely there is SOME mention of… Tarichis looked at him blankly. Is seemed shocked. I had no idea the depths of the Hade penetration into the databanks… and the minds… of your people. Is looked up at the evening sky. Night was approaching fast, but the sky was still completely dark. Fear is the Hades’ most powerful weapon. Seeing the stars would give your people hope… but they even deny you that small pleasure. Is looked back at Tarichis. Tarichis got a mischievous vibe from Is. However, maybe I can help to remedy that situation.
The sky, the fortress, and the land around them slowly faded to black. Tarichis looked around in fearful confusion. Do not be afr- great, I said it again, Is lamented. Look to the sky, Tarichis, and maybe now you’ll believe me. Tarichis did as Is asked. He didn’t see anything, and he was about to ask Is what was going to happen when it did.
A small point of light appeared, like a tiny candle at the end of a long, dark hallway. Another appeared right next to it, and they seemed to connect with a thin beam of light. Another appeared off to the right, and yet another to the left, until they began blazing to life around the entire sky. Tarichis slowly turned in a circle, gazing at the complex network of intricate patterns above him. “Wow… so this is what stars look like,” he whispered in awe. Is stayed silent. Tarichis watched a comet shoot past. Off in the distance, one of the stars seemed to flicker. Tarichis looked at it. It flickered multiple times… before burning out. Tarichis felt dread creeping up on him. Another star began flickering. Then another, and another, and more until the network began breaking apart. Tarichis took a step forward and reached his hand towards a star that was rapidly being surrounded by darkness. To his surprise, it floated towards his outstretched palm and hovered there, a tiny spot of light in an abyss full of black. He cupped his hands around it and watched it flare up… before it started to flicker. A moment later, it too burned out. Tarichis looked back up at the now barren sky. “That’s what happened to the entire universe?” he asked, the words sounding hollow as he spoke them. Well... not all of it. Even the Hades have a limit. They were unable to go into one spiral arm of this galaxy, and the stars there burn as bright as ever. Is seemed to shrug. It’s too far away, though. Even with warp capability, it would take centuries to get there. Now that you know the extent of the Hades’ power, I have something to give you. Is stretched out a limb (Tarichis assumed that it was an arm, though he couldn’t really tell) with a small gold orb on it. The Hades captured the others yet again, but this one managed to escape. I believe you know what I’m talking about. Tarichis knew. “The five elementals. You’re saying that this is…” Yes. However, I would rather that he introduced himself to you. As Is spoke, the orb began slowly morphing into a different shape. The round sides became a vertical oval before contracting into a miniature figure. The figure had blazing golden armor, along with a sword and shield. Tarichis could not see its face, as it had a helmet with intricate designs formed into the metal. It was about six inches tall. Is dropped his hand, but the figure remained floating in space. It sheathed its sword and knelt before Tarichis. “I am Lumenis. My sword is yours to command, Descendant.” Lumenis had strong voice. Tarichis sized up Lumenis for a few seconds before answering. “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the gesture, but… wouldn’t your sword be more useful if it was a little bigger? No offense,” Tarichis quickly added. The figure stood. “None taken,” said Lumenis. Is chuckled. Lumenis may seem small to you, Tarichis, but this is not his true form. He has to be this size for his form to become physical. “You see, my body is normally made of energy like Is and the ones that serve him,” Lumenis offered. “If it is to become matter, like yours, it must condense to a smaller scale. However, in this form I would not be much use for combat anyway. That’s where you come in. I can project myself onto you, giving you my abilities and me your physical form. That way, we can both work in tandem. I become you, and you become me. You receive extremely fast reflexes, added strength and endurance, my armor and weapons (which exceed your own by a substantial amount, I might add), and most importantly, my ability to use magic.” Tarichis held up his hands. “Slow down for a cycle. Magic?” he asked incredulously. Lumenis shrugged. “That’s what we call it, anyway. In reality, I can manipulate energy patterns to my will. My specific area of expertise is in light, obviously. I can use ambient light to heal your wounds, or condense it to form a short burst to blind enemies. I have been dormant for a few millennia now, and I’m afraid my abilities are a little rusty at the moment. As you use them, I should be able to unlock more of my former powers.” Tarichis put his hand on his forehead and waited silently before answering. “This is a lot to take in,” he finally said. Is snapped his metaphysical fingers, and Tarichis’ headache disappeared. You’re a Descendant. You’ll manage. “That makes me feel a whole lot better… So wait, am I the last Descendant in existence?” he asked. Is hesitated. Well, there is ONE more… but she was captured by the Hades cycles ago. Even if we knew where to find her, it would be too dangerous to rescue her. Listen, Tarichis, I need to tell you something important… you know those strange markings on your chest? Tarichis became suspicious. “How do you know about those?” he demanded. All true Descendants have them. They’re black, almost like scorch marks, but they’re in the shape of a pentagon with five circles drawn inside it. Tarichis shrugged. “You nailed it.” You see, each of those circles represents where an Elemental should go. When you accept Lumenis, the top left circle will glow gold. Your next objective would be to find the wind elemental. Wind is the bottom right, and that will glow gray. You get the picture. “And where would I find the wind elemental?” Oh, right in that fortress over there. The Hades constructed three bases in the southern hemisphere, and this is one of them. One contains the fire elemental, another one holds the ice, and this one holds the wind. They keep them constrained, as they are unable to destroy them. A greater power than them prevents that. I’m sure that Lumenis will guide you to the others. Now, you will need to accept Lumenis into your physical body. “Doesn’t sound too hard,” Tarichis said, shrugging. If you knew what the acceptance was, you wouldn’t be so nonchalant about it, Is warned. It requires great pain to accept an Elemental, as energy and matter do not mix easily. For a normal being, it would be impossible. However, you are a Descendant. Tarichis nodded. “That’s why regular Humins couldn’t use them,” he said. Ah, now you are beginning to see. If you have no further objections… Tarichis shook his head. All right. Prepare yourself. Lumenis drifted over to Tarichis. Lumenis hesitated. “Sorry about this,” he apologized, and laid his hand on his forehead.
Tarichis experienced pain like he never had before. A searing, blazing light was burning his eyes, so much so that he thought he would go blind. He felt as if his entire body was being disintegrated by it. The pain began to converge near his chest. He bit his lip until he tasted blood not to cry out. He felt as if his chest was being covered in molten metal, and he could not stand it any longer. He cried out from sheer agony.
And then, it was over. Tarichis fell to the ground, his skin steaming. After a while of enjoying sweet relief, he slowly pushed himself to his feet. Is had been watching him closely. Well done. You survived. Tarichis was too tired to be incredulous. “What… do you mean… survived?” he asked, panting heavily. Well, I mean, I wasn’t 100% sure that you were going to live…
Tarichis punched Is in the stomach.
Oof! That was uncalled for. But it’s a good sign; you’re already able to make contact with metaphysical beings. You’ve progressed faster than I thought. Oh, and one more thing… Is seemed uncomfortable. This may be a little hard to take in right now, and I’m not sure how to tell you this, Tarichis, but… that’s not your real name. Tarichis shot him a sharp glance. “It’s not?” he asked incredulously. Is seemed to shrug again. I know it’s strange, but… you weren’t born Tarichis. Your parents… your REAL parents… named you something different. Tarichis was blown away. He knew that his parents had died when he was very young, but he didn’t know that Tarichis wasn’t his real name. “So then… what is my name?” he asked. Is seemed to wink at him, and in that instant he was back in the barren field with flaming debris. Just before he disappeared, Tarichis heard Is’ voice echoing through his mind.
Good luck… Aeronis.

Chapter 7
Aeronis trudged through the gravel on autopilot, still trying to sort through everything. He created a mental checklist. 1. His name wasn’t really Tarichis. 2. He was the last living Descendant (sort of). 3. He was expected to retrieve the wind, fire, and ice elementals from three different Hade strongholds around the southern hemisphere. He glanced up, and saw an energy mortar soaring towards him. “Hey, Lumenis. Want to try that projection thing you were talking about?” he asked, seemingly to thin air. “My pleasure,” Lumenis answered. His physical form materialized in front of Aeronis, and he placed his hand on Aeronis’ chest. A blinding flash of light made Aeronis blink for a few seconds before he realized he was wearing Lumenis’ golden armor. How does it feel? Lumenis asked. His voice echoed through Aeronis’ mind. In response, Aeronis punched the energy mortar at the last second. It detonated and coated him with black fire, but his shining armor was unscathed. He clenched his fist.” Like I could throw a Narek ten lightcycles,” he answered. Good; you might have to. Now reach out your hand. Aeronis did as Lumenis asked, but his hand seemed to hit something invisible. You feel that? “I feel it.” Try pulling it. Aeronis put both hands around the invisible object. It was about an inch in diameter, from what he could feel. He heaved with all his strength, and he felt it give way. He fell backwards onto the gravel. When he opened his eyes, his hands were clenched around the hilt of a blazing gold sword. He pulled himself to his feet and inspected it. It was just the right length and perfectly balanced. He swung it experimentally, and it flashed and sparked with energy. Sorry if it’s a little difficult to draw right now, but it tends to stick if left in there for too long. It should be easier in the future. “So what about your shield?” Hmm, I forgot about that. Hold your arm out. A slight humming sound grew in volume. Little globes of light formed around Aeronis’ left arm before condensing to form a large shield in a rough teardrop shape. He hefted it, and to his surprise it was actually quite light. It seemed to be attached to his arm plate. I have another trick to show you; clench your fist. Aeronis did so. Much to his surprise, a golden light field about twice as big as the shield materialized an inch in front of it. You can use this if you need a little more protection, but don’t use it constantly. It drains your energy over time. “What, will I collapse from exhaustion if I use it for too long?” Yes. First you’ll feel tired, then your muscles will ache, then you’ll fall to the ground, and finally your body will be incinerated. “Wait, wha-“Don’t ask. I hate to distract you, but you’ll probably want to do something about that fortress now. Aeronis looked up at the huge walls with turrets, mortars, and battlements lined with enemies.
“Shouldn’t be too hard.”
Aeronis jammed the sword into a crack between black bricks. He fueled his energy into the sword, and he felt it start to charge. A deep resonating sound in the air slowly gained pitch. He waited for a few seconds longer, and then released the energy. The explosion blew a chunk of whatever-the-material-was into smithereens, resulting in a seven-foot-high hole in the wall. Aeronis leapt through and looked around. He a swarm of enichads and a few nareks sprinting across the battlements to get to him. It looked kind of strange to him, seeing what he would normally consider animals manning a structure like the one he was in. He ran to a door at the end of the courtyard, slipped inside, and slammed it behind him. It must’ve had some sort of automatic locking mechanism, as he could feel the booming sounds of a narek hammering on it from outside. He figured that it should buy him some time. He walked down into a long, pitch black corridor; however, his armor lit the hallway with a soft radiance. He saw a dark red light source from a passage to his left. He whispered to Lumenis. “Disengage this projection thing; they’ll see us coming too easily.” His armor flickered a couple times before dying completely. He crept as quietly as he could towards the red light. “Duranum would be much better for this, I can assure you…” Lumenis whispered. Aeronis stopped. “Who’s Duranum?” he whispered back. “He’s the shadow Elemental; he’s quite adept at using stealth,” Lumenis answered. Aeronis started forward again. He came to the opening and stole a glance down the passage. He gasped at what he saw. It was a huminoid! “What the…” he started. The huminoid whirled around at the sound of Aeronis’ voice, hefting a ranged weapon of some sort. Fortunately, Aeronis had already ducked behind the wall. The Hade strode over to the opening and glanced around the other hallway. Aeronis held his breath, waiting for the Hade to notice him. From this close, he couldn’t help staring at the thing’s blazing red eyes. They seemed to create their own illumination. It seemed satisfied that the hallway was empty; it turned around and walked back to its post. Aeronis quietly stole into the corridor. He saw now that the dark red light was being cast by some sort of torch set into the wall. With painstaking slowness, he snuck up directly behind the Hade. He stood up straight, and put his hands behind his own head. Lumenis seemed to get the cue. Aeronis grabbed the invisible hilt of the sword, pulled it free and sliced it into the back of the Hade in one deft movement. The Hade crumpled to the ground, dead. Aeronis let out the breath he didn’t even realize he was holding, and rolled the body over. Its skin was black (no surprise there), but even in death his eyes were still a blazing red color. Even the part outside the iris was no exception. “Lumenis, do you have any idea what this is?” Aeronis asked. Lumenis’ small form materialized above it. He scrutinized the body. He shook his head sadly. “I hate to break this to you, Aeronis, but it looks to me like a Humin.” Aeronis took a step back. “Did… did the Hades do this to him?” he asked in horror. Lumenis shook his head. “No, at least not from what I can tell. It’s not an actual Humin; it’s just their twisted idea of one. From my experience, the Hades choose three different species from each planet to assault it. A small, quick one; that would be an enichad. A large, tough one; that would be a narek. And finally, a balanced, inventive, and intelligent one.” Lumenis looked at Aeronis. “A humin,” he said gravely. “They ‘manufacture’ them, for lack of a better term, with their boundless reserves of void energy. That’s why these copies,” Lumenis gestured to the Hade, “aren’t perfect.” Aeronis relaxed. One thing still puzzled him, however. “Why do something as complicated as that? They could easily just bombard the planet with Void energy from space; it would kill everything on the surface within cycles.” Lumenis shook his head again. “Who knows? I find that if I think about it for too long, I start to consider the horrible things they’ve done to other life forms on other planets.” Lumenis shuddered. “You should be glad you haven’t seen what I’ve seen,” he advised. “But if I had to come up with a reason, it might be that they need the planet to be intact. For what purpose, I don’t know; maybe to set up a base of operations on it later. You should’ve seen what they did to… great, I’m thinking about it again. Let’s just continue on; it’ll take my mind off things.”
Aeronis sprinted through the corridors, dispatching any Hade soldiers that he encountered. As he came up to a group of three, he sliced one across the chest, he speared the other through the stomach, and hurled his sword to strike the last one right between the eyes. He put his foot on its chest, and pulled his sword free. Thankfully, these creatures didn’t seem to bleed, otherwise the sight would be a little… repulsive.
As he dashed past an unlit hallway, he didn’t even see the black blade that pierced the back of his heart.

Chapter 8
Aeronis fell to his knees, time slowing to a crawl. He opened his mouth and closed it a couple times, but he couldn’t seem to take in a breath. His vision was blurred around the edges, and he heard a loud ringing sound in his ears. He turned his head and saw the soldier with the black-steeled knife standing behind him. With a burst of frenzied energy, he somehow managed to slice the enemy in the leg. His arm felt strangely weak, and the sword fell from his grasp. The Hade fell to his knees as well, his injured leg unable to support him. Aeronis raised his shield just in time to block a swipe from the other blade. Acting on instinct, Aeronis thrust his empty hand forward. A blinding flash of light emanated from his palm, and the Hade was violently thrown backward into the wall. Aeronis flinched as he heard the creature’s spine break. He felt a dull tingling pain in his chest, and vainly fought the darkness clouding his mind before falling to the ground, unconscious.
Aeronis’ eyes snapped open. He sat up swiftly, much to the dismay of Lumenis, who was standing on his chest. Lumenis was propelled backward before managing to right himself in midair. “Oof! What was that for? I’m not done repairing your heart yet!” he said reprovingly. Aeronis glanced quickly around. He was still in the hallway that he was in previously. “How long was I out?” he demanded. Lumenis shrugged. “Thirty minicycles at the most,” he said dismissively. Aeronis was busy feeling around his chest area, and breathed a sigh of relief when he found that his heart was beating. He looked at Lumenis. “Wait, you said…” he started. Lumenis nodded. “As long as I have ambient light, I can fix any injury you might have.” He hesitated. “Well… MOST injuries. I was hard-pressed to keep this one from killing you, mostly because of that,” he said with distaste. He pointed at the black-steel knife that the Hade was carrying. Aeronis stood, walked over to it, and inspected the double-edged weapon. He tried to pick it up, but quickly dropped it when it scorched his hand. He turned to Lumenis. “What’s it made of?” he asked. If Aeronis could see Lumenis’ face, he was sure that he would be scowling. “Voidsteel. There’s no other possibility. It’s the only substance that can penetrate energy-based armor, and unfortunately, the Hades use it for everything; their projectiles, their explosives… even their melee weapons,” he said. He gestured to the blade. “The hilt burned your fingers. The blade would’ve destroyed your hand,” he said grimly. Aeronis scrutinized the weapon. He felt like his eyes were being drawn to it, and he could swear that he saw the blade jerk slightly; after a few moments, he started to hear a soft whispering sound coming from all around him. Lumenis bashed him in the nose with his shield. Aeronis doubled over, holding his face. “Stop looking at it or you’ll go insane,” Lumenis chastised. “Was that really necessary...? You know what, forget it. Just fuse with me already,” Aeronis grumbled. After Lumenis projected onto him, Aeronis continued through the fortress. He held a conversation with Lumenis about things that confused him. “So, Is mentioned another Descendant…” he said as he bashed a Hade with his shield. Lumenis stayed quiet as Aeronis ran it though with the sword. “I think it would be best to forget about what he said. I’m not even sure she could stay sane being exposed to void energy for that long… that is, if she’s still alive,” Lumenis advised. Aeronis switched his grip on the sword before stabbing a Hade sneaking up behind him. “What was her name?” he asked, curious. Lumenis mentally shrugged. “I don’t remember. It was a long time ago.” Aeronis pondered this as he backstabbed another through the chest. He pulled his sword out and walked into a large chamber with huge, ornate columns on either side. He probably would’ve been in awe if he was in different circumstances. There was one figure standing in the room with his back to Aeronis. Lumenis seemed to recognize him and mentally shoved Aeronis behind a pillar. “Stay quiet or you’re dead! Why does HE have to be here right now?” Lumenis muttered angrily. Aeronis took a quick look at the figure before ducking back behind the pillar. “You recognize him?” he asked. “Recognize him? I’d know his face anywhere. It’s-“Lumenis was cut off by the column exploding and showering them with small rocks. Aeronis couldn’t see anything through the dust cloud, but he heard a deep, insane laugh that chilled him to the bone. A figure stepped out of the dust. The silhouette had a cloak around what looked like plate armor; the hood was up, so Aeronis couldn’t see his face. He was about as tall and had a similar build as Aeronis; however, he could tell that the figure was nothing like him at all when it spoke. “So. One managed to survive.” The figure let out a base chuckle. “However, after all this time, I believe you’ve done enough surviving.” The figure said it like he was urging Aeronis to rest from a difficult project, not like a death threat. He spoke slowly, but this only added to the fear that his words invoked in Aeronis. He didn’t even know why he was so frightened; that was the strange part. Lumenis spoke up. “Dûm, why did you release the Hades? Even you wouldn’t be that insane! It’s not too late to stop them.” Dûm seemed to be amused by this. “Don’t you understand? The Dûm you used to know is dead.” Dûm lifted his arm and inspected it. “This host has been weakened because of the mind annex, but it still should be enough to eliminate you, Descendant.” Dûm spat out the last word in contempt. Inside his mind, Aeronis could feel Lumenis’ emotions shifting between horror and rage. “You… ANNEXED his mind? Who do you think you are? Only a massive amount of Void energy could do something like that, and the only two who have reserves like that are the Hades and…” Lumenis stopped in horrified realization. Dûm smiled coldly. “Now, you begin to understand.” Aeronis decided to voice his thoughts when he was pretty sure that Lumenis was hyperventilating. “What? What are you two talking about? Lumenis, you KNOW this guy? …And what does ‘annex’ even mean, anyway?” he demanded angrily. Dûm chuckled again. That was really starting to get on Aeronis’ nerves. “Oh, how naïve you lesser beings can be.” Dûm’s stopped laughing and shrugged. “I suppose it won’t make a difference when I kill you, so it would be a waste of my time to tell you the whole story,” Dûm said apathetically. He drew a massive two-handed spear off his back that Aeronis hadn’t noticed while they were talking. Dûm turned it upside down and slammed the tip into the ground. A massive crack started to spiderweb across the floor. Aeronis barely had time to leap out of the way before a giant fissure opened up where he was a second ago. Aeronis managed to catch a glimpse down it before the sides slammed back together on their own. He was almost stabbed by Dûm’s spear when he stopped to process the fact that he hadn’t been able to see the bottom. He blocked a thrust and countered with a diagonal slash. Dûm dodged backward. Aeronis went on the offensive, striking at Dûm multiple times before managing to slice his hand. Dûm cursed in pain, and launched a barrage of slashes. Aeronis hadn’t noticed it, but Dûm’s spear had a serrated edge along the pole. It was basically a one-sided greatsword with a sharp point. Aeronis tried to block the attacks with his shield, but quickly learned that was a bad idea. His arm went numb from blocking all the heavy, powerful strokes. Dûm quickly drove him into a corner, and Aeronis went on the defensive. Dûm hammered on the shield relentlessly. After a few seconds, Dûm turned the point so it was facing Aeronis, and drove it directly into his shield. Aeronis heard a shattering sound before crying out from pain. He could see the serrated black edge penetrating through the shield… and right through his forearm. Dûm was grinning madly, and he wrenched his spear free (very painfully) from Aeronis’ arm. He fell to his knees, getting black spots in his vision from the pain. Through his tunnel vision, he saw Dûm lifting his spear, a triumphant sneer on his face. A part of Aeronis was angry. Angry that he was going to die before he could even have two Elementals. Angry at himself for allowing this to happen. Angry at Lumenis for not doing something to stop it. Angry that this mind-annexed being was about to kill him. Angry that he didn’t even know what ‘annexed’ meant. Angry that he would die before he had the chance to stop the Hades from massacring every single life form on Isum. As he watched Dûm’s spear rise, his anger turned to rage. Rage at whoever was behind this whole thing. Rage at himself for giving this sneering, overconfident jerk the satisfaction of killing him. He still held onto his sword, gripping it until his fingers turned white. Dûm stabbed downward with the speartip.

The tip shattered.

Dûm took a step back in confusion. Aeronis slowly rose to one knee, and then to his feet. He didn’t see the columns. He didn’t see the red light sources. He didn’t see the black-bricked room. He only saw his enemy. Dûm was infuriated. He lifted his pointless (literally) spear and slashed downward at Aeronis. To Dûm’s horror, Aeronis stopped the serrated edge with his bare hand; he showed with no sign of pain. Aeronis’ eyes were a pure blazing white; and his armor matched them exactly. His normally black hair glowed silver, and seemed to be stirred by a continuous breeze even though they were inside. Aeronis tightened his grip around the razor edge, and the whole thing split in two with an ear-splitting crack. Dûm started backing away, his face a mix of bewilderment, terror, and anger. “What… what ARE you?” he demanded, his voice shaking slightly. An almost arrogant smile spread across Aeronis’ face.

“Your worst nightmare.”

Chapter 9
“You aren't that weakling of a Descendant; he couldn't destroy an insect if he tried,” Dûm said in bold contempt, trying to stall for time. “You may call him weak, but you would be wise to be wary of him. He is inexperienced, yes… but you know who I am, and you also know I do not choose my hosts lightly. This one has potential never before seen in a Descendant,” the entity inhabiting Aeronis warned. “What are you talking about? I’ve never…” Dûm’s eyes widened in horrified realization. “So that’s what that feels like,” he muttered. “It… it can’t be you! How is that possible? You left all those megacycles ago… you left with HIM,” Dûm said. His eyes blazed with hatred as he spat out the last word. The entity inhabiting Aeronis let out a chuckle. “You must’ve been mistaken, then. He left me here to guard this world… against you, in case you would try something like this. Well, bad news. I’m not going to let you escape, no matter the cost,” the entity said, his calm expression betraying the fierce determination behind it. Dûm laughed, albeit with a slight shakiness. “Oh? And what if that cost falls upon this world… or upon this Descendant you seem to care so much about?” he asked contemptuously. The entity’s eyes smoldered with rage for a second, but then he let out a laugh. “Oh, no. I've fallen for that ploy one too many times… and besides, you’re too afraid of losing your one foothold here in this realm. How long did it take you to gain that foothold, I wonder? A thousand megacycles? Two thousand? Eight thousand?” In a flash, the entity dashed forward and seized Dûm by the throat, crushing his windpipe. “I wonder how you would react if you suddenly lost it in a pointless confrontation with Aer’s champion warrior? I’m curious to know how long it would take you to recover from that.” it said in mock concern. Dûm’s figure melted into shadows in its hand, and reappeared a few feet in front of the entity; he was on one knee, holding his throat and coughing. “If you’re so eager to know, it was eight thousand, two hundred, and seventy-four megacycles to be exact,” he said with a hint of anger in his now-hoarse voice. “You’ve been planning this incursion for a while now, haven’t you?” the entity said in surprise. Dûm stood up, a spiteful smile on his face. “Oh, you have no idea. I spent hundreds of those megacycles gathering the energy to produce the greatest prison for each of the Elementals,” he said with a mad light in his eyes. The entity crossed its arms. “They were instrumental in your capture, weren’t they? Then I can expect by greatest you mean torturous,” it said. Dûm shrugged. “It all depends on how you look at it. The fire Elemental? He’s trapped in a block of ice. The ice elemental is stuck in Isum’s core with only lava to keep her company. I tried to convince the shadow to join me, but the argumentative little thing said he wasn’t a fool. I had to imprison him next to the sun; no doubt he’ll do anything to escape after being exposed to that much light for a few megacycles. I had such a great idea for the light Elemental, too. It’s really a shame that he escaped. The wind is probably somewhere between us and the ice Elemental; I’m sure she’ll cooperate after being buried in the earth for a while,” Dûm said casually. The entity took a step back. “You… you’re insane,” it whispered in horror. Dûm smiled coldly. “Maybe I am. But the power that the Void gives me is well worth any cost. Now I can wreak my vengeance on my brother Is… and on you, cousin.” The entity slammed his fist on the floor, and a wave of silver energy drove Dûm straight through a column and smashed him into the wall before slamming him into the wall before he slid to the ground. Dûm grunted in pain, wiped the blood off his lips, and gave a piercing whistle. A deep rumbling sound could be heard from the lower levels. “Did I mention the excellent jail-keepers?” Dûm shouted over the now deafening roar. A second later, the entity leapt backward to see a huge gap in the floor appear after it collapsed. A massive hand reached upward out of the gap, and grabbed onto the edge. The hand was transparent, and the entity could see gray lines swirling in a circular pattern inside it. Around its wrist was some kind of shackle; it was obviously constructed from voidsteel. The entity could sense the malice and confliction emanating from it. The metal had deep gouges in it, as if the monstrosity had attempted to break free at some point. The other hand loomed out of the black and took hold of a column. The pillar cracked and groaned, but held for just long enough to allow the giant to pull itself out. It was an awesome (yet also terrifying) sight. The form didn’t seem to have a recognizable head, but its torso was massive. Where its legs would normally be, there was a maelstrom of gray wind. Somehow the thing let out an ear-splitting roar and thrust its hand forward. The entity was propelled backwards by a hurricane-speed gust of wind, smashing through the wall in the process. It was thrown out into the courtyard, rolling head over heels on the gravel before coming to a stop.
Aeronis could see everything that was happening, but he felt incredibly drowsy. He didn’t have the energy to move his limbs, so he could assume that something else had taken control of his body. He mentally struggled, but to no avail. He could see himself getting to his feet, but all of a sudden his mental acuity snapped back to normal. He almost fell to one knee before catching himself. A strange voice echoed through his mind. “I need you conscious for this part, so try to pay attention. When Dûm tried to kill you, I seized control of your body temporarily. It was the only way for you to survive.” Aeronis rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, sure. Next time, give me a warning before you do that? “He asked irritably. “It’s bad enough with that wind monster hurling you halfway across Isum.” The entity seemed surprised. “What, you saw that? How were you conscious? I had taken control of your mi-“the entity was cut off by the entire top floor of the fortress exploding into a thousand pieces. The colossus was standing directly in the middle. “Let’s talk about this another time. We have to deal with this wind demon first.” The entity said. Aeronis took a step back nervously. “Wait… a wind demon? You didn’t mention anything about a-“The creature we now know to be a wind demon leapt from the building and landed with a thunderous crunch, throwing much of the gravel into the air. It opened its palm and thrust it forward, and a blast of wind nearly split the fortress wall; not to mention Aeronis’ eardrums from the sound it made. Aeronis was thrown backward and instinctively reached for Lumenis’ sword, but his hand met only empty air. He leapt to his feet. The demon started lobbing veritable whirlwinds at them. Aeronis was evading them while ranting furiously: “Great! A (whoosh)-ing wind demon! How the (whoaar) did they manage to get hold of a (whooff)-ing thing like that?!” Some of what he said was drowned out by the projectiles…

Thankfully.

“We have to destroy the wrist shackles! Those are the only things holding it in this plane!” the entity mentally shouted over the deafening sound. Aeronis ran forward at full sprint, dive-rolled to the left to avoid a tempest projectile, and was caught up in a violent wind storm spawned by the demon. He was thrown from the courtyard over the top of the wall, and crash-landed onto the ground with a dull clank. After a few seconds he stirred fitfully and raised himself on one elbow. He touched his forehead, looked at his hand, and had a brief sight of bright red before he felt himself being crushed against the ground. He was lifted into the air by the behemoth, and saw he was being held in the demon’s fist through his blurry vision. He vainly fought to stay conscious as the wind demon tightened his grip. He struggled weakly to break free before succumbing to the black fog clouding his mind.

Chapter 10

Aeronis’ eyes snapped open, blazing white. With a strength born of desperation, he wrenched his left arm free of the thing’s grasp. He caught hold of the edge of the voidsteel shackle and closed his eyes. A thin trail of light started working its way along the surface, spiderwebbing across the entire thing; when they were covering the entire exterior, the lines pulsed once. He removed his hand, and clenched his fist firmly. The shackle split into pieces along the lines with a thunderous crack and a flash of light, dissolving into black smoke as they fell to the ground. Aeronis was thrown into the air as a massive distortion in space opened above him. He could see one of the creature’s limbs was being drawn into the portal, but the remaining shackle was weighing the other hand down. Aeronis crashed into the ground with a clank, but his armor (now also silver) had taken most of the damage. He groaned, pulled himself to his feet, and looked up. The shackle seemed to hold the other limb of the creature to the ground like it had a will of its own. The entity residing in Aeronis spoke. “Hold out your arm.” Aeronis obeyed. On instinct, he looked up to the sky. He saw a glimmer of something high above him, and he heard a soft whistle. As the whistle became louder, he could see the sun reflecting off some kind of pointed metal object. There was some kind of warping effect around it, almost like air was being dragged along the edge of the metal. The object was spinning rapidly, and the whistling sound was getting louder as it fell further. With an ear-splitting crack, it landed centimeters from Aeronis’ outstretched hand, launching gravel into the air and burying itself into the ground. Aeronis flinched. He stared at the object, puzzled. Was it some kind of metallic meteor? Time around him seemed to slow as he walked over to it. No, it was far too refined… he couldn’t tell what it was. Time seemed to move in slow motion around him as he touched what looked like… a hilt. “A sword?” he whispered. The entity remained quiet. He grasped it with his hand. Something didn’t quite feel right about this, but he couldn’t pin down exactly what it was. He tugged on it, yanked on it, and then tried to wrench it free from the ground; it refused to budge. “Let me do this,” the entity said. Aeronis identified a strange phenomenon; ever since this entity had appeared to him, he immediately trusted it. It had taken over his mind, had a confusing conversation with… he didn’t really know who, and had released this wind demon, yet he still felt calm around it. That might be good, and it might be bad, but he felt for the time being that it would be better to side with it. He relinquished control of his mind to the entity. Aeronis’ eyes again blazed a pure white, and the entity took hold of the hilt. Aeronis could feel a massive surge of energy coming from the entity before it drew the sword cleanly from the ground like it was nothing. The entity let go of Aeronis’ mind. Aeronis was too awed by the weapon to acknowledge what the entity’s accomplishment. It was a huge claymore, almost as long as his body, but it was in the shape of a tuning fork. It would have been a normal blade shape, but it was separated into two parts with about an inch between them. The two sides seemed to resonate in different tones, but they created a certain harmony like nothing Aeronis had ever heard or felt before. There was something about them that nagged at him, however. The tones seemed… muted. Almost like they were dormant, or waiting for something. He swung it experimentally. The two notes changed, but they were always in sync with each other, like they were creating some kind of melody. He looked up. As he did so, time began to return to normal speed. The wind demon was still struggling with the last shackle. Aeronis sprinted towards it. The blade seemed light as a feather, but the air around it rippled and swirled in strange patterns. He had no time to study it, so he kept running. As he reached the colossus, he leapt into the air. The sword created a sudden wind drag, and it propelled him into a midair forward roll. As he flew over the shackle, he heard a sharp shearing sound. The blade seemed to sing as it cut through the shackle easily, dissolving it into black smoke as it did so; he landed lightly on the ground. We take a second to admire this freeze-frame.

Aeronis has both feet on the ground, supporting himself with one hand on the ground in front of him; he is bent over forward. His other arm is thrown back, holding the sword behind him. His eyes and armor are a blazing silver color, and the sword is glinting in the sunlight, air rippling around its edge. The wind demon is behind him, and the black smoke that was previously voidsteel is being burned away by the sun’s rays after coming out from behind a cloud. The colossus is disappearing into the spacial distortion, which is glowing gray with a slight green tinge. A shadow falls across Aeronis’ face as the fortress collapses behind him, leaving above it a dark cloud hanging in the air; it is being dispersed by a light breeze from the north.

Aeronis stood up, and looked over his shoulder. “You know, that sight would make a very good picture,” he murmured. “Now that you mention it, I quite agree with you,” the entity answered. As Aeronis was admiring the sight, something shot out from the debris that was formerly the fortress. It soared high above the spatial distortion that was now closing, and came hurtling down out of the sky landing right next to Aeronis. He flinched. The object looked like a translucent gray-green orb with swirling air currents inside. “Listen closely; I have something I need to tell you,” the entity advised. “I can’t stay for much longer. Manifesting myself in this plane for this long has already drained most of my energy.” Aeronis was puzzled. “What do you mean by manifesting?” he asked. “It would take too long to explain fully. In simple terms, I reside in your subconscious and can be called upon in times of great stress or need… I am the last remnant of the One before he left this realm, never to return.” Aeronis sensed a great sadness in the entity’s words. However, that didn’t quell his rising annoyance. “What do you mean by the One? Who annexed Dûm’s mind in the first place? Who IS Dûm, anyway? And didn’t Dûm mention something about someone leaving also?” he demanded. “What did you hear of our conversation?” the entity asked. Aeronis thought about it for a second. “Well, I heard a good deal about a ring, and a dark lord, and something about the end of the world…” he began. “Not funny,” the entity said. “I beg to differ,” Aeronis answered with a chuckle. “You know, if someone hadn’t seen those movies, they wouldn’t know what we were talking about in the first place,” the entity chastised. Aeronis snorted. “What are you saying? You think someone is watching us and listening to our conversations? Who would be enough of a stalker to do something like that?”


Both Aeronis and the entity turn and look at you.


“…What are we looking at?” Aeronis asked. “I have no idea,” the entity answered. Aeronis shook his head. “Anyway, you talked about the thing possessing Dûm gaining a foothold in this realm, and what would happen if he lost it in a pointless fight with… what did you say? Air’s champion warrior?” The entity huffed. “It’s AER. A-E-R, not A-I-R. You’re talking about the creator of the omniverse here.” Aeronis was confused. “I am?” he asked. The entity was about to explain, but seemed to falter. “My time in this plane is limited. I cannot stay much longer,” the entity warned. “I’m sure Lumenis will be able to explain it to you. Oh, and that thing next to your foot… that’s the wind Elemental.” Aeronis took a step back. “What’s his name?” he asked. The entity coughed. “I would rather that SHE explain it to you… The wind Elemental’s female,” it corrected. The entity’s voice seemed to echo as if it were coming from a great distance. “I will see you again, but it will be many dececycles until then,” the entity said. “Hold on for a milicycle! I don’t even know your name yet,” Aeronis said. He heard a last faint echo from the entity before its voice disappeared completely.


“Call me Nexis.”