3.1.7.7. The Ravaging of the Sun - Part 1
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| Vyr the Metal Fire Dragon Reference: Yu-Gi-Oh! Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon http://yugiohblog.com/2012/06/duelist-pack-joey-wheeler.html/yu-gi-oh-red-eyes-darkness-metal-dragon |
The Ravaging of the Sun
Where am I?
I don’t feel a thing. I’m dead, aren’t I?
It’s all dark. Is this a portal to the afterworld?
My body still feels solid. Or is this my soul?
My wounds still hurt… maybe I’m not dead after all.
Or maybe my soul shares the wounds in my body.
I’m just drifting here, don’t know where to go.
Eh? There are lights there.
I’ll let myself float; maybe I’ll swim there… ah. It’s no use.
Just float and enjoy the moment.
There’s no need to rush judgment.
It’s Robert’s thoughts. He just finds himself floating in darkness, in the middle of nowhere. Now he is wondering whether the lights in front of him is the place for the final judgment, or is it heaven. The mystery in his mind gets more confusing as the lights become clearer and clearer, and sparkling like stars.
What… is that… is that… the universe?
Robert goes into the strangest, most amazing room he ever sees in his life. It’s a miniature model of the universe, with all the stars and planets scattering there like floating dust. The largest thing of all in this room is the sun, the Corona. Robert surveys around, there are at least ten planets there, the largest planets in the room that move very-very slowly, rotating the sun. Robert observes them one by one.
Ah, I think this is Terra Eternia.
The planet Earth is named Terra Eternia that means Enia’s world and planet, the most eternal of all the things inside. Robert recalls a few things the Late Old Duke has taught him about Astronomy. The nearest planet to the sun is Trevus (Planet Mercury in our dimension, modern times). And then Planet Marvella (Venus – Andreas Marvellini was named after this planet), Eternia (Earth or Gaea), Aesis (Mars), Geine (Jupiter), Vazar (Saturn), Zebula (Uranus), Caeleth (Neptune), Xegvis (Pluto), and the smallest and farthest planet of the ten, Nixon.
Robert tries to reach and touch the miniature planet Caeleth, the nearest planet from where he’s falling, but his hand penetrates inside it as it is a holographic illusion. And he keeps going down slowly until he steps on an invisible floor, with the rest of the universe reflected below it. It’s indeed a vast dome, much more spacious than the guardian rooms and slightly larger than the ice chamber and the engine room.
The sun itself is placed exactly in the middle of the Spacedome – as Robert calls it – and it’s a single largest thing in the entire room, abnormally much larger in scale proportion between the planets and the actual sun. Robert feels rather hot in this dome, so he throws a crossbow bolt into it just to find out whether the sun is solid and can emit heat like its real counterpart.
The bolt burns and dissolves into ash as it goes into the mini-sun.
So this sun is real after all. Maybe if I…
Robert’s chain of thoughts is broken by a sudden yell from above.
‘Robert! Oh, Robert, thank Vadis you’re alive!’
Robert looks up. It’s Carolyn! She agreed with me at last! I must admit she’s truly amazing. I’m glad I chose her as my partner from the start. Now she’s more than I expected her to be. But I hope Chris is all right. His potential is developing too; it’s a waste if his life ends in this mission.
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| Borg the Monster Earth Bear Reference: Chris Ayers Character Design http://www.chrisayersdesign.com/gallery_creatures_01.html |
Before Robert can go deeper in his thoughts, Carol lands on the floor and instantly flings herself to Robert and embraces him gladly, like a lover sees her beloved whom she thought was dead but in fact is still pretty much alive. Robert is shocked to see Carol’s burst of feelings. He just stands there, don’t know what to do. His face remains serious and emotionless as ever, and Robert doesn’t hug Carol back. His mind flies to his one and only love, Princess Eloise of Lore – his forbidden love.
Suddenly a voice comes from nearby, ‘… We must find Rob and Carol!’
Hearing that voice, Carolyn is zapped and she immediately pushes Robert away. Anger comes into her face, and she slaps Robert on his left cheek.
Robert is confused, saying, ‘What’s that for?’
‘You didn’t push me away when I hugged you! If Iris and Andre saw us…’
‘Listen, Carol…’
‘You pervert! Taking advantage of a girl’s feelings!’
‘Hey, hey, what are you fighting about?’ says Andreas, trying to end their fight.
‘IT’S NOT YOUR BUSINESS!!!!’ Robert and Carolyn snap on Andreas altogether.
Andreas whistles, waving his left hand like a fan in front of his beard, talking to Iris.
‘Whew! They’re cohesive, aren’t they?’
‘Oh, yeah,’ says Iris. ‘That’s what happened when two people are closely connected for a long time. They influence each other!’
‘Something’s going on between these two.’
‘Yup. Better leave them in their own world.’
‘YOU FOOL! HOW DARE YOU MAKE FUN OF PEOPLE IN THIS… THIS… SPACE! NOW GET A GRIP AND FIND A WAY FOR US SO WE CAN GET OUT OF THIS PLACE!’ Now that’s Carol’s REAL angry shouts. Chiel who actually just arrives there is puzzled by its master’s behavior.
Soon afterwards Robert and his friends look above and see lots of people floating down into this room – like snow falling in winter or leaves falling from their trees in autumn. Then they quietly land on the floor, one by one, and almost all of them are amazed by the miniature of universe in this room.
Then we can see the champions of Vadis and Adair, approaching the center of the room one by one. Bragl Dar’gum the Relentless; Kyflynn the Windwalker with his partners Agustina Vyrakova and Desmond Edmundsen; Don Hernan y Parvaez; The elf guides including Orlevant and Ney’varÃth, Sheena Mekh’ta with the two rogues Baxter and Ellephar; Prince Alexis Deveraux; and lastly, Nikanomikos Paliades followed by his assistant, Eidos Crydias. Viscount Adler von Bachmann is not around. Maybe he hasn’t jump into the fake sacrificial pit yet. But at least almost all champions are here now, and the miniature sun glows even brighter, emitting more heat throughout the Dome of Universe.
‘Here we are at last,’ says Paliades. ‘The final stage. According to my grandfather, the Kraal’shazaris sealed here. The Great Archmage Azrael led the sealing ritual, assisted by two great Archmages of Light, Carolyn, The Elf Queen of Thyrine and Nikanomikos Theripides, my great-grandfather. Azrael almost drained all his life force performing this ritual, and he died a year after. Carolyn and Theripides then worked together, making additional guardians and traps, combining technology and magic at the highest level. And so, we are yet to meet the final guardian, now we are so close to Kraal’shazar.’
And Paliades is right. About a minute after he said that, the sun glows most fiercely, and suddenly shoots fire to five directions. The lines of fire kill and burn the hunters that stand in their ways, and only a few can barely avoid it, and hit the wall of the Dome of the Universe. There are large things that look like runes, glowing on the sections of the wall which were hit by the fire.
Orlevant shouts, ‘The Five Glyphs of Enia! Vyr, Jokul, Eshmyr, Borg, and Voltar!’ (Fire, water or ice, wind, earth, and lightning). As he says that, the glyphs blink five times, slide upwards and disappear, leaving blank, dark holes like doorways on the wall.
Before the hunters can find out the purpose of this reaction, all of a sudden five gigantic, monstrous beasts come out from the doorways, charging at the hunters and butchering them savagely. Vyr is a red dragon, representing fire. Jokul is an ocean-blue crocodile, representing water. Eshmyr is a green pegasus (winged horse) with two pairs of fairy-like wings, representing wind. Borg is a brown bear, representing earth; and Voltar is a violet phoenix, representing lightning. Each beast has flickers of each element it represents on its body: Vyr is covered with fire, Jokul has crystal-like scales, Eshmyr is covered with a windy green aura around its body, Borg has stone skin like a golem, and Voltar has flickers and sparks of lightning around its body.
Being a shrewd tactician, Hernan immediately splits the hunters and champions into groups according to their elemental mastery by shouting,
‘Don’t panic! Use strategy! Listen to me! Water masters, Agustina, Ney and I attack the dragon! Robert, Carol and Sheena, fire masters, attack the crocodile! Attack anything your element is most effective against! Go, go, go!’
The champions readily understand Hernan’s strategy, take a moment to think, select their targets and attack at once. Vyr and Jokul are handled according to Hernan’s instructions, and they can fight evenly with the monsters with their combined strengths.
Dar’gum, Paliades and Eidos attack Voltar; Alexis and Desmond attack Eshmyr; and Kyflynn, Iris and Orlevant attack Borg. Andreas, on the other hand, stands in a (relatively) safer place with the healers to give assistance whenever possible. It’s not a test, a puzzle or a trap anymore. It’s an all-out fight to the death now.
The beasts are surely tougher opponents than any other guardians they faced until now. Jokul, for instance, slithers around with its bulky body, big jaws, big, sharp teeth but little feet. But its movement is a great deal quicker than normal crocodiles that it creates a Tidal Wave effect along its passing, trampling and devouring the hunters mercilessly. It catches a frogman hunter between its jaws, snaps the victim’s body into two pieces and swallows them whole. Robert, Carolyn and Sheena are having a tough time defending themselves, thinking hard to find a chance to hit the monster without being swallowed by it.
Just then Carolyn readies her Fireblast spell and aims to the crocodile, saying, ‘Rob, Sheena! Move out!’ And as soon as Rob and Sheena are out of the line of fire, Carolyn shoots.
‘Pyroagnios!’
The fire blast finds its target on the crocodile’s back. It damages some of its crystallite scales a bit, but the crocodile is practically unhurt. Robert is in his wit’s end now.
Darn! This croc is tougher than the golems! Even Fireblast only mark a scratch! What must I do now?
Robert turns around. His face suddenly turns more determined.
Aha! Akh’mal is here. I can ask him to cast Fire Wall to inhibit its movement and hurt it if possible, then I and Sheena will hit the croc with the best skills we have!
The bearded, old minotaur shaman and the minotaur champion look at Robert meaningfully, as though they share the same strategy with Robert. Robert looks back at them and nods. Fargothum then moves to Akh’mal’s side, ready with his giant club to guard him. Akh’mal, on the other hand, aims carefully towards Jokul the giant crocodile and shouts,
‘An Vyr’me Prdaj!’
NAVIGATION: (ref code may08 pg 319 - pg 320 start)
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