FanFic: Legacy of the Ancients

[Caecilius]

Legacy of the Ancients



Prologue

It seemed like the explosion on Ragol had only been yesterday. Chaos reigned through Pioneer 2 as the thought of death consumed the population. Yet the cause of the explosion remained unknown to all but one.
One that, if it gains enough power, could obliterate the universe.
Only one other, commonly experiencing premonitions of a myriad possible futures, houses the power to defeat this "one" and uncover the truth...


Chapter 1

Hundreds of visions, mostly indistinct, assailed Kaelis' eyes. Among the visions, only four could be identified clearly.
A frozen wasteland overlooking the cosmos.
A channel of toxic waste flooding a mining tunnel.
A golden inferno laced with black arcs of lightning.
A titanic duel with a midnight-blue giant wreathed in emerald fire.
One last vision greeted Kaelis: a crackling blue corona of power expanding to consume him.
Kaelis was blasted from his feet in an explosion of light, smashing hard into his apartment wall. Standing up drunkenly, the FOmar tried vainly to make sense of the visions he had seen, sighing as he met with no success. He felt as though something had stirred within his soul, but what it was he could not say.
Kaelis turned away from the glowing blue sphere in the centre of his room and flopped onto his sleepcouch. Surely there had to be an easier way to find out why the explosion happened.
He closed his eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.


When Kaelis awoke he found his BEE humming ominously.
"Kaelis here, who just woke me up?"
"Hmm, did I wake ya? Sorry mate," the answering voice came. Kaelis was relieved to hear Moerk's cheerful voice from the BEE's speaker.
"Nothing ever dents your spirit, does it Moerk?" Kaelis laughed. He had personally built that RAcast at the age of fourteen, and the two had been friends since then.
"Damn right. Oh yeah, the Principal said he wanted to see you. Sounds important, he 'assigned both of us to the same mission'. I won't spoil it for you."
No sooner had Kaelis deactivated his BEE than he straightened his black robes and headed for the nearest warp-transporter.


Upon his arrival he saw Moerk's familiar black form standing next to Principal Tyrell's desk. The RAcast's colour matched that of Kaelis' robes.
"Ah, Kaelis. Glad you made it," began the Principal as Kaelis approached.
"Spare me the details, sir," Kaelis replied. His silver hair shone in the office's lights.
"Very well. I want you to investigate the area around the Central Dome, and report your findings. My daughter Rico was lost down there too, so please check if she's stil alive. Ask my secretary Irene if you need any further details," the Principal gestured towards the green-clad Human to his left.
"I'll pass on that one, sir," Kaelis responded hurriedly as he left the office, Moerk casually jogging behind him.
"I don't need to remind you that another Hunter is already on Ragol, working on the same mission," the Principal stated as Kaelis left.
Kaelis' mind buzzed at the idea of interfering with another Hunter's business. Who was this other Hunter and why had Kaelis been assigned to the same mission as them?

[Caecilius]

Chapter 2


Kaelis entered the warp-transport chamber, only to find that the transporter wasn't working.
"Well, unless I can hire a dropship we're pretty stuffed," he sighed.
"That may not be a problem. Remember last week I actually bought one?" Moerk replied casually.
A feral gleam touched Kaelis' eyes as he saw sense in his companion's words...


Two deafening explosions resonated through the Forest of Sorrow as a Bartle was blown to pieces. Mephet'ran lowered her Inferno Bazooka and smiled as she surveyed the carnage she had caused.
At least three Bartles had died in the clearing, and a further four Gulgus lay dead against a tree, their innards open to the forest floor. The head of a Tollaw was perched precariously on a rock as if placed there by some twisted joker, and its body hung from the treetops. The rotting corpse flopped silently to the ground.
The HUcaseal was impressed. She thought she had been ripped off when she bought the gun, but now she saw the true value behind the extortionate price.
Overall, fifty thousand Meseta well spent.


"Are you absolutely sure you can fly this thing?" moaned Moerk.
"Relax, I've piloted bigger stuff than this before. Remember that time I got my hands behind a Hive-class freighter?"
"You crashed that thing into your own warehouse and killed eight people!" wailed Moerk. "The only reason we survived was because you put the shields up!"
"Nevertheless, we're on descent now. Brace for landing! I'm landing near the Central Dome!"
"Don't press that, that's the accelerator..."


"I told you not to press that," complained Moerk.
"Quit whining Moerk. The good news is, we landed and neither of us suffered injury." Kaelis was suddenly distracted by yellow lights flashing through the viewscreen. He ran out to look.
"Don't tell me we hit something again," Moerk whined.
"Hmm... A pillar with runic script on.... Can I translate this?" Kaelis wondered. "Two ancient powers reside within the spirits of two warriors, one driven by greed for destruction and the other for the greater good of existence..." No sooner had Kaelis spoken those words than the pillar sank into the podium on which it stood. A red lance of light shone through the forest canopy.
"What is this thing, a key?" queried Kaelis.
"No time to think now," Moerk snarled as he darted through into a clearing.


Mephet'ran cursed loudly as a Barble brought its axe-like claw upon her head. She dodged the clumsy blow and delivered a lethal hammerblow to the Barble's knee. Bone shattered under the impact and Mephet'ran drew her Bloody Art daggers to finish the fallen beast. Her gold-plated casing shimmered in the sunlight as the two daggers plunged into the beast's ribcage, spearing its heart and impaling its lungs.
Mephet'ran atacked again and again until the monster's body was a mass of pulped gristle.
"That'll teach him," she chuckled as she leapt up onto the rocky cliff wall and made a beeline for the Central Dome.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 3


Kaelis was dimly aware of a screeching dark blur flying overhead at an incredible speed as he cut a Gulgus to ribbons with his Soul Banish.
"What the hell was that thing?" he cried in alarm.
"No idea, but from the shimmering metal plates on it I'd say it was either an Android or a Verdihawk," replied Moerk casually. His Guilty Light tore great gashes in a Barble's armoured hide.
"You've lost me. What are you on about?"
"One of these." Moerk aimed his weapon skywards and fired. The Ice charge on his shot impacted on a man-sized bird and sent it crashing to the floor in front of Kaelis, who looked at it with apparent disbelief.
"I see," he finally declared. Shining metallic feathers covered the bird's entire body, and a blue crest graced its head. Suddenly the ice broke and the Verdihawk flew off in shock at being frozen. As if on cue a mighty Hildelt leapt down and bowled the pair from their feet.


Mephet'ran scaled the sheer metal wall with her Bloody Art daggers. After overestimating a jump she had found herself flying headfirst into the side of the Central Dome, and had been forced to clamber to the top using her daggers. She hauled herself onto the platform and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Nearly there... Only a few more monsters to kill," she laughed. "Then I'll be fighting the Sil Dragon, and the first bit of my mission will be complete." She collapsed with exhaustion and flopped over onto her back into a stasis-mode.


Moerk blasted a gaping crater in the Hildelt's body. Howling in agony, it hammered its gargantuan fist into Moerk's weapon, smashing the gun to pieces like a hammer breaks glass. Moerk screamed in rage and barrelled into the Hildelt with all his might, feeling ribs crack under the blow. The monster lashed out again, this time hitting the RAcast squarely in the chest. Moerk felt an unfamiliar sensation, but recognised it as pain. He hurled himself into the Hildelt again, breaking its right shoulder and immobilising its entire right side. The monster sagged to its knees, drawing one last breath into its electricity organ as shards of bone slid into its heart. A bolt of lightning surged from the Hildelt's mouth and hit Moerk with piercing force, the Gizonde magic easily short-circuiting the massive Android. Both combatants slumped to the floor, one dead and the other alive.


When Moerk awoke he found Kaelis staring down at him and the Hildelt's carcass draped across his legs. Fragments of metal protruded horribly from Moerk's caved-in chest, and a brief electric pulse flashed before his eyes.
"Uhhhh... where am I?" he asked dumbly.
"Where I left you, maybe?" Kaelis growled, annoyed at his RAcast's stupidity. "I did some scouting while you recovered, and it looks like there's a trail of monster blood leading from here to the Central Dome's main door."
"If this damn thing wasn't squashing my legs I'd be up and following this trail," retorted Moerk. He shifted his legs so that he could slide out from under the Hildelt.
"Shall we go?" Kaelis offered, already following the trail. Moerk followed suit, now weaponless and injured. Moerk felt waves of pain washing through his system as he followed the FOmar.


Mephet'ran woke up dismayed. She could see bloody footprints, looking like those of a RAcast, leading away from her and towards the large red warp-transporter in the distance.
As her eyes returned to their normal focus she could see a battle being fought up ahead. That RAcast and a FOmar against five Tollaws?
No wonder she could hear constant crashes as the RAcast was knocked to the floor time after time.
Drawing her Inferno Bazooka she took careful aim and fired. A Tollaw burst apart in a flood of red ichor and insect body parts. She could see the RAcast turning and being struck down yet again. Slipping back into the shadows before being seen, she fired once more before darting forwards in a gold and black blur. Leaping over the door into the next area, she continued running and slid to a halt in the red warp-transporter. Hiding in the shadows, she prepared to spring forward as the two idiots blundered into her reach...

[Sagasu]

Cool http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif, keep writing please.

[Caecilius]

Been away for a few days... sorry about that. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif


Chapter 4


Mephet'ran never got the chance to attack.
The black-clad FOmar with the silver hair and the dark grey RAcast ran through the now-open door and straight into the warp-transporter, teleporting the three of them to an icy arena.


"Where are we now?" Moerk asked.
"Not under the Central Dome, that's a dead certainty," replied Kaelis as the earth shook. Moerk was knocked over and wedged between two loose chunks of ice which immediately fused into one, trapping Moerk in a frozen prison. Kaelis had to ram the blade of his Soul Banish into the ground to stop himself from sliding. He could see a black blur darting into the shadows, leaving him to fight alone.


With a mighty roar the Sil Dragon bolted forward at a speed that belied its vast bulk, its foot narrowly missing Moerk by less than a metre. Kaelis attempted a Foie spell but the thing was just too fast, the fiery lance melting the back wall of the arena. The Sil Dragon retaliated with its own attack, an icy cloud flooding from its open maw and chilling Kaelis to the core of his soul. Suddenly the beast howled in pain, and Kaelis was horrified to see a Bloody Art rammed into its leg. Almost immediately another Bloody Art flew through the air and bit a hand's-breadth into the Dragon's head, destroying its left eye. Kaelis aimed another Foie spell, and this time his aim was true. The potent fire magic burned the monster's flesh and set its left horn ablaze. The Sil Dragon unleashed its breath again, this time in a desperate bid to quench the flames ravaging its head. Yet the monster would feel greater pain than that...


Mephet'ran fired her Inferno Bazooka like a madwoman, each shell flying out of the gun's barrel like lightning. Three bolts impacted on an unknown object, and one round even clipped the Sil Dragon's knee. Roaring in intense agony, the beast spread its wings and took to the air. It spiralled in midair and burrowed into the ground, pulping whatever the unknown object had been. It drove straight into the FOmar, vainly casting a Gifoie spell to protect himself. The FOmar was bowled to the floor, then Mephet'ran was also knocked down as the Dragon drilled into her. The Dragon suddenly curved into the centre of the arena in an inward spiral motion, thankfully missing both the FOmar and Mephet'ran. Rising up out of the floor, the Sil Dragon performed a midair somersault before the FOmar's Rafoie incinerated it in a lethal nuclear firestorm. Mephet'ran made a quick escape through the warp-transporter that had just blazed into life, leaving the FOmar to reap the rewards.
If there even were any.


Kaelis had seen the stream of smoke and fire erupting from the shadows, obliterating Moerk's body before the Sil Dragon pulverised the RAcast's head. Not one shard of Moerk's body remained unburied by the ice or annihilated entirely.
As scraps of burning Dragon meat floated from the sky, Kaelis vowed to avenge his friend's death, come what may.


"Destroyed, you say?" Tyrell was equally horrified by Moerk's death. "We have no idea why the Dragon attacked you, let alone eradicated your RAcast, nor do we know the cause of the explosion! Continue investigating please. Try checking Vulcan's Caves to the south."
Kaelis closed his BEE and returned solemnly to his dropship, still wondering about the identity of that black shadow...

[Caecilius]

In a way, by posting a few chapters at once I kinda make up for being absent for three days.


Chapter 5


Acrid black smoke fountained from the volcano's crater as Kaelis crashed his dropship yet again and short-circuited the energy shields. He had made it safely into the fiery mountain, but where from there?
A minor tremor loosened the dropship from its rocky perch and Kaelis was forced to hang on as the heavy craft toppled and split in two upon landing.
"Well, at least I got here," he chuckled as he scrambled out of the hissing wreckage. To his surprise a hollow tunnel led from the opposite wall and into the very heart of the volcano.
"Damn this!" a voice cried up from below. Kaelis drew his Soul Banish and set off down the tunnel.


Mephet'ran hammered her crackling fist into the giant boulder, the only solid part of the swamp she stood in. An electric impulse crackled from her main processor and activated the twin Photon blades within her claw. The boulder shattered as the Silence Claw sliced through its core, and as if on cue, the volcano nearby spat a choking blast of smoke and flame. Mortal men would have suffocated and burned to death, but to a HUcaseal wearing an Electro Frame the pyroclastic surge was irrelevant. As the heat from the volcano's noxious breath flashed the swamp water to steam and burned the plant life, Mephet'ran leapt through the hole left by the boulder.


No sooner had Kaelis entered the tunnel than a mighty explosion rocked the volcano. Plumes of smoke drifted up from the volcano's lethal furnace, and a jet of fire shot up through the open crater. A smaller jet cascaded along the tunnel, but it lost its momentum before it hit Kaelis, who was running as fast as he could along the dark tunnel. The same voice that had called out before spoke again.
"There's just no end to these damned tremors!"
Kaelis tried to understand what the voice meant before he reached the bottom of the tunnel. A RAmar dressed in a sky-blue uniform lay on his front in a round chamber. Kaelis tried to speak, but the RAmar pressed his hand to the floor as the ground beneath him began to bulge ominously. A blue glow formed between the RAmar's hand and the rocky floor, and tendrils of ice snaked out from where the RAmar had touched the ground. He sprang off the bulging floor and landed in a crouch, a Crush Bullet aimed at Kaelis' heart.


Landing with a splash in the lagoon, Mephet'ran gazed up at the hole she had created. Small streams of superheated vapour poured through the gap in the rock, and larger, fist-sized rocks rained down into the dark water. Mephet'ran leapt onto the obscure pathway beside the lagoon, not knowing that she stood in the only part of the cave that contained water.
"Well, that wasn't so bad," she sighed. She reactivated her Electro Frame, and crackling violet bolts of lightning danced across her gold-plated casing. She strode up to what looked like a blocked tunnel entrance and pressed her right fist onto the rock that obstructed her path. Again the searing blue Photon lances stabbed out and the rock detonated into tiny fragments. Through the passage she could vaguely make out an ancient monolith, and she bolted towards it.


Kaelis cast his Barta spell at the same time that the blue RAmar fired five bullets from his Crush Bullet. An icy spear leapt from Kaelis' palm and repelled the Photon bullets. The RAmar fired again, leaping backwards as he did so. Photons sprayed from the heavy weapon and generated a tremendous recoil, sending the RAmar hurtling into the cavern wall. The bulge the RAmar had stopped earlier burst into life, and a giant HUcast emerged from a fiery pit in the floor. Wreathed in hellfire, the HUcast's dark blue body glowed as it barrelled into the RAmar and executed a precise hammerblow with its flaming fists. The RAmar doubled up in pain as the HUcast punched him squarely in the chest. The burning Android struck again, tearing open the RAmar's chest and killing him instantly as the extreme heat roasted his internal organs. The RAmar's lifeblood pooled around him, and the Photon crystal within the Crush Bullet spluttered and faded. The flames around the HUcast burned fiercely as blood splashed the HUcast's surface.


The column glowed with arcane energy as Mephet'ran delivered a solid kick to a depression in its pedestal. Dormant runes sprang into life as a shaft of blue light extended from the top of the column.
"What the hell is this thing?" Mephet'ran gasped as the column shook and sank into the pedestal, blue light still piercing the air and illuminating the cavern with an eerie glow. Mephet'ran stood for a while deciphering the meaning of the runes, constantly flicking through her vid-log to find a suitable meaning.
"The two rival spirit-daemons on the verge of manifestation cannot defeat their enemy unaided..."
As if in reply to her statement the shaft of light flared white before returning to its original blue state.
"But I don't understand this at all..."
Little did she know the answer was about to stare her in the face.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 6


The orange fires flashed green as the HUcast turned to face Kaelis. It descended into a crouch, and the flames around it burned fiercely. Suddenly it rose rapidly from its crouch and pushed out with both arms, and a green wave of heat radiated from the HUcast's massive body. The wave missed Kaelis by mere inches, but it passed through a fallen rock blocking the next passage and consumed it in green hellfire. Kaelis stumbled back as he saw the HUcast in all its daemonic glory...


The two lethal blue blades sliced through the Nano Dragon's exposed underbelly, sending it crashing into the lake. Mephet'ran smiled grimly as she watched the water fountain as the Nano Dragon's heavy carcass fell into the lake's dark depths. She turned and beheaded a Melqueek with one fatal blow. This is getting too easy, Mephet'ran thought. Too easy for a warrior of my skill.
A violet sphere crackling with deadly energies flashed past her eyes and she span to face this new threat. An Ob Lily cackled horribly as the sphere stole the life force from a nearby Vulmer.
"Megid!" Mephet'ran spat as she deactivated her claw and unslung her Inferno Bazooka. A heavy shell tore through the Ob Lily's head section in a wash of flickering purple energy and green blood.


The thing Kaelis had thought to be a HUcast was in fact something entirely different altogether.
A giant Android standing over three metres tall loomed over the FOmar. Its eyes blazed with green fire, the same green fire that had been expelled from its body mere moments before. A single glowing rune, an eight-pointed saw blade, burned brightly in the centre of its chest. Its entire body was a dark shade of metallic blue, and it held a shimmering silver halberd, much like a Gae Bolg, in both hands. What was most disturbing of all was the pair of scythe-blades protruding like wings from its back, beating with a deliberate slowness as the gargantuan monster raised its giant weapon, the blade aimed at Kaelis' head.
A green flame ignited along the length of the blade, and Kaelis had to move before his fate was sealed.


Ducking through a low doorway, Mephet'ran came across another hole in the ground. Icy vapour snaked its way through the opening of the passage, and Mephet'ran was almost possessed of a desire to leap down, but an unknown power swayed her will, and she bolted for the opposite end of the tunnel system. Upon reaching the end, a small chamber with an opening in the ceiling, she could hear the sound of an earthquake loosening rocks.
But how could it be an earthquake when she could not feel it?
Mephet'ran leapt up through the hole and saw an eerie green glow through the doorway...


Kaelis dropped to the floor as the creature's blade ripped a terrible gouge in the volcano's natural rock. A stream of magma oozed from the gash in the wall as the metal monster spread its bladed wings and flew into the air. Altering its angle to dive down onto Kaelis, it readied its weapon to cut Kaelis' head from his shoulders. Kaelis rolled out of the monster's path and began charging a Gibarta spell.
He was distracted by another flying blur darting through the now-unblocked passage near him, striking the giant in the head. Its weapon fell and bit into the stony floor, and the daemonic flames rent the ground in two. Another stream of magma joined the first and divided the chamber into two halves.
Kaelis saw the midnight-blue giant fade into nothingness as it hit the ground hard. The blur that had struck the monster landed next to Kaelis in the form of a gold-plated HUcaseal, holding his Soul Banish no less!
"You might be interested in this," she hissed as she handed over the scythe. "And this came off that thing's neck. It isn't mine."
As quickly as the HUcaseal had appeared, she bolted back through the passage to an unknown fate.
Kaelis was left alone to read the object the HUcaseal had given him. It was a dog-tag, and it bore one word only:
KARNAK.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 7


Mephet'ran leapt down the hole she didn't enter before.
Immediately she felt a bitter chill as she landed in a tunnel of ice, completely empty save for the solemnly throbbing machinery running along the length of the walls. Mephet'ran swiftly made her way into the chamber at the other end of the tunnel and gasped as she saw the scale of the room.
The machinery spiralled up to a single glowing point at the top of the chamber, and she could see minerals being extracted from the glistening blue soil. But she could also see fouler things gracing the giant chamber...


Three Vulmers led by a Govulmer crashed to the floor in front of her, and she leapt backwards to avoid them as they landed heavily. One keeled over as its legs broke upon landing. Mephet'ran ducked and weaved to escape their frenzied blows, delivering some attacks of her own with her Silence Claw. The two standing Vulmers were cut to ribbons, the injured one was beheaded, and the Govulmer reeled as the blue claw scored across its chest. It howled in pain and gripped Mephet'ran in a bearhug. But the creature had not considered the HUcaseal's Electro Frame as it grappled with the Android. The Govulmer slumped to the floor, its heart stopped by the heavy electric shocks. More monsters crawled down the walls and forced Mephet'ran backwards into the tunnel.


A Crimson Assassin and two Pofuilly Slimes were the first to die, the Assassin being hurled through the air and breaking its exoskeleton as it struck the low ceiling. The Slimes were boiled by Mephet'ran's Electro Frame as they tried to attack at close range, and a pair of fried pink brains sank slowly to the ground. A Pan Arms burrowed through the earth and emerged just underneath Mephet'ran, scrambling its way towards her before emitting a deadly electromagnetic spray from its blue energy vent. The powerful attack disabled the HUcaseal's lower body and forced her to the floor. She screamed in pain as electric shocks coursed through her metal body. Through sheer force of will she increased the power output on her Silence Claw and sheared off the Pan Arms' arms with an elongated Photon blade. She altered the angle of her wrist and cut the Pan Arms in two.
Seconds later she blacked out.


When Mephet'ran awoke she was alone in the tunnel. The Pan Arms had vanished, but the arms were still on the ground in front of her, albeit in a different form. She picked up the orange arm, and she saw a switch. Pressing it, she witnessed the claw open and a yellow blade extended from the open claw.
"A Pan-Arms Blade? But how did those arms turn into weapons?" she wondered. Picking up the blue arm, she deactivated the orange arm and pocketed both.
"Might come in useful some time," she laughed as she re-entered the mining chamber. She peered down through a gap in the floor and saw a flowing green river beneath the mining tower. A giant worm seemed to be swimming in the channel, and four barbed antennae trailed behind it. Mephet'ran could hardly believe her eyes when she saw the FOmar she saved earlier vainly swinging at it with his glowing scythe from the relative safety of an access deck.
She was so engrossed in watching the FOmar fighting the worm that she failed to notice a Mil Lily materialise behind her.


The Mil Lily screeched to indicate its presence before spitting a foul blast of Megid at Mephet'ran. At the same time the FOmar channelled three Megids through his Soul Banish, striking the worm dead-centre in the tail. Mephet'ran saw no more of the fight as the Mil Lily's Megid overloaded her vision systems. Flailing blindly with her Silence Claw, she actually managed to defend herself against another Megid from the Mil Lily. Her vision cleared and she could see the Mil Lily leering over her, preparing to launch another Megid. With a single fluid movement Mephet'ran cut the Mil Lily's stem with her claw. It seemed to shrivel away, save for the patterned head section which degenerated into a harmless flower. Mephet'ran suddenly felt a heavy tremor shake the ground, and she could see a fiery orange glow descending from the top of the room, near the summit of the mining tower. A river of fire flowed down from a gaping fissure in the wall, and she could tell that the volcano above her had suffered collateral damage from the gashes caused by the giant metal behemoth she had fought before. Without thinking Mephet'ran cut a sizable gouge in the floor and dropped through into the channel...

[Caecilius]

Chapter 8


Kaelis could not believe his eyes as he saw the gold HUcaseal fall through a glowing orange hole in the ceiling and land effortlessly on the back of the giant worm-like creature. He slammed his hand down onto the deck release switch as he saw tendrils of black smoke seep through the hole. He floated along the channel standing on a moving metal platform, closely followed by the worm. He quickly scanned the monster with his nav-system's identifier function. The screen showed two results: Dal Ra Lie AKA Beta772, and Mephet'ran the HUcaseal. He closed his nav-system and began the incantation for Gibarta.


Mephet'ran saw a blue sphere growing in the FOmar's hand. She leapt onto the FOmar's platform to avoid a storm of icicles that struck the worm in the head. The carapace armour protecting the head shattered, and the FOmar cast another Gibarta, this time more highly concentrated. Three giant icicles formed above the FOmar's head, and he swung his arm forward as if throwing a javelin. The icicles removed more of the beast's armour, and it howled in pain as it swam alongside the platform and latched itself onto the side. Mephet'ran leapt back onto the head and stabbed into the creature's neck with her Silence Claw. It let out a hideous cry and released itself from the platform, seeming to draw away back down the channel. Mephet'ran returned to the platform just as another earthquake resonated through the channel. She raised her head to see the worm crawling along the ceiling, bringing down rocks as it passed.


Kaelis evaded the rock fall, but the HUcaseal was not quite so lucky. Four huge boulders smashed onto her head, and he managed to stop a fifth from breaking her legs with a well-timed Foie.
"Thanks, Force," she called through a dented vox-emitter.
No sooner had she said those words than the Dal Ra Lie rose up behind the platform. It reared up and gathered energy into its spine-studded mouth.
"Watch out!" he cried, knocking Mephet'ran to the floor just as the worm spat a searing beam of incandescent energy. The platform crumbled away where the lethal ray had struck it, and the Dal Ra Lie began to fire again. The HUcaseal drew her Inferno Bazooka to destroy the monster, but Kaelis had other plans.
"Oh no you don't, Mephet'ran," he snarled as he released a deadly Rabarta attack, cutting the Dal Ra Lie in half. It fired its laser fruitlessly at the cavern wall as it landed on the raft once again.
"How do you..." began Mephet'ran.
"No time! This thing is dead!" roared Kaelis as he raised his Soul Banish. "This ends here, Dal Ra Lie!" he shouted as his scythe fell.
Seconds later, the Dal Ra Lie's head was reduced to a steaming ruin of flesh and blood.


"How the hell do you know my name?" spat Mephet'ran. If she had any doubts about the FOmar they multiplied tenfold.
"Let's just say I have a very reliable identification device within my nav-system," he replied casually.
"Wait a second... You aren't that Kaelis, are you?" Mephet'ran cast him a stern look.
"That happens to be my name. In the ancient texts it means Nightshade. Yours, I believe, means Deception."
"Trust me, I couldn't decieve anyone if I tried." Mephet'ran got up painfully as soon as the platform docked with another access deck. A panel above the gate opposite her read: NO MAN'S MINES.
"Looks fun," Kaelis laughed.
"You can go in there. I don't want my circuits scrambled by mining Androids," Mephet'ran retorted stubbornly.
"Whoever asked you to come with me?" asked a bemused Kaelis.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 9


No Man's Mines was a dark place, devoid of all life.
Were it not for Kaelis' intrusion it would have stayed that way.
However, there were fouler things than Kaelis in the deep places of the world...


"Whoa. This looks recent and ancient at the same time," declared Kaelis. "Looks like no living thing's been down here in ages."
"Does it now?" replied a malicious voice behind him, each word sounding like a dust storm. Kaelis span around in fright, clutching his Soul Banish. Behind him it looked empty, but the voice spoke again.
"On the contrary, little human. I have been here for longer than you have been alive." Kaelis looked up to see three green fires blazing down at him.
"It can't be..." he whispered.
"I may have failed to kill you in the volcano, but this time nobody can save you," the giant machine boomed.
Kaelis spat back at the behemoth leering down at him. "I don't need anybody to save me now, beast. I know who you are."
"So who am I then? You are not as clever as you believe."
Kaelis glared at the monster. "You failed before but you still came back, isn't that right Karnak?"
At the sound of his name Karnak flinched.
"Once I am finished with you there will be nothing for you to remember!" he roared, leaping down from the alcove in the wall.
This time Kaelis was ready for him.


Mephet'ran hammered the platform release and found herself floating against the flow of the toxic river.
"Must be a guided track," she mused.
No sooner had she unlatched herself from the access deck than a green explosion billowed from the gate where Kaelis had gone.
"Don't tell me that thing's returned," she groaned as she leapt into the channel. Toxic waste washed over her, but the poisons could not penetrate her system. Upon reaching the gate the flames had disappeared, although a green glow still radiated from the tunnel.
She wondered to herself if Kaelis had already defeated the monster, but she bolted along the tunnel regardless.


Kaelis slashed across Karnak's head with his scythe and cracked one of the beast's eyes. Karnak howled in fury and raised his burning weapon. A wave of green fire radiated from the heavy halberd as it was swung, and Kaelis dropped to the floor to evade the deadly attack. Flames lashed against the walls and along the entrance tunnel, but the damage was mostly superficial; evidently the tungsteel walls had been designed to resist such attacks. Kaelis crouched back, ready to spring forward and knock Karnak over. Karnak extended his blade-like wings and launched two spinning bolts of energy straight at Kaelis, who raised his Soul Banish to deflect the lethal projectiles. Time seemed to slow as the Soul Banish shimmered, then shook as the twin bolts smashed into the ancient weapon. It flew out of Kaelis' hands and landed with a crash in the entrance tunnel.


Mephet'ran stopped as she saw something shining on the floor.
"That stupid Force dropped his weapon again," she sighed as she retrieved the Soul Banish. Tendrils of electricity leapt from her Electro Frame and bonded with the Soul Banish, and she saw that two curved darts had become embedded in the weapon's handle. Mephet'ran carefully eased each dart out of the weapon. The dents in the Soul Banish seemed to repair themselves as the darts were removed.
"I seriously do not understand this," she sighed as she watched the Soul Banish heal itself.


"Alright Karnak, you asked for it," bellowed Kaelis, leaping forward and grabbing Karnak by the knees, forcing him to the ground. Karnak grunted in pain as he smashed his head on the plaspex floor, and black fluid oozed out of the cracks in his head. A similar fluid, this time red, dripped from the monster's ruined face. Kaelis drew back in horror as he saw the red liquid. Karnak dropped his halberd and raised his hands to his head. A sharp click and a slow hissing noise emanated from Karnak as he appeared to be removing his own head. Kaelis turned white as he saw Karnak's true form.
"Oh my god..." he gasped as Karnak cast his head aside and raised himself from the floor.
The thing Kaelis had once thought to be a giant HUcast was in fact an armoured humanoid sporting battle scars, close-cut black hair and two fiery green eyes. Karnak's voice resonated through the back of Kaelis' mind as he snarled, "You shall pay with your life..."
Karnak's form became hazy and indistinct, and he vanished from all sight.

[Robo47]

http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_eek.gif wow.

[Caecilius]

Was that sarcasm or a compliment?

---------

Chapter 10


Mephet'ran finally caught up with Kaelis in a wide circular room filled with violet light. The FOmar blasted a Gillchich into oblivion with his Zonde. Fifty lightning bolts leapt from the cable-studded roof to strike the machine down. Calling over to him, Mephet'ran hurled the Soul Banish as hard as she could. It pierced the chest of the next Gillchich and ripped the main power line.
"Don't lose it next time, you hear?" she shouted. The Gillchich exploded unceremoniously as Kaelis wrenched the weapon from its chest. Mephet'ran turned away when she was struck in the back by an invisible enemy. She turned on her infrared vision and saw the hulking form of a Sinow Blue extend its dagger-like blades to strike her down. She delivered a solid kick to the machine's head and disabled the camouflage generator. Flicking off the infrared, she drew her Pan-Arms' Blades and plunged them into the Sinow Blue's midsection, twisting the blades to tear the monster's vital cables.
By the time she had finished every wire in the Sinow Blue's body was broken.
Violet light met her face again as the Sinow Blue seemed to vanish.


Kaelis darted through the luminous passage brimming with neon lights and electrical equipment of all descriptions - even weapons. He couldn't quite identify some of the weapons, though they were all guns of some sort. One even fired real Photon bullets when he tested it out.
"This thing's real? But then so are the others," he mused as he pocketed the hissing Lockgun and grabbed a long-barrelled rifle. Peering through the scope on the weapon, he could actually make out part of another room, this one bristling with Gillchichs. Knowing that he was in fact looking through a sniper's portal, Kaelis squeezed the trigger on the rifle.
He was subsequently knocked off his feet by the powerful recoil.
When he looked again, he saw that he had punched a sizable crater in the midsection of a Gillchich.
"Never knew how much fun being a sniper is," he chuckled grimly as he aligned the gun with the antigrav generator on the next Gillchich. It floated slowly to the ground, jerking uncontrollably as electric shocks racked its body.
A blue blur clouded his vision and Kaelis backed away from the rifle. Mephet'ran was glaring at Kaelis between the tungsteel slabs of the sniper's portal, her Silence Claw activated.
"Watch where you aim that thing," she hissed before withdrawing to dismantle more machines.
Kaelis looked again at the rifle, now sawn in two by Mephet'ran's attack.


More rifles lined the corridor as Kaelis passed. Assorted Photon crystals ignited as he brushed his hand lightly against the rifle grips, and his skin was lit up by various red and yellow lights. Some of the rifles were standard Photon weapons, but one caught his eye in particular:
"An A-35? I thought those things went redundant fifteen years ago," he declared.
"They did," snarled a sinister voice behind him. "Only they were remodelled into what you call Anti Android rifles."
"Not you again..." groaned Kaelis as he turned to face the owner of the voice.
"I'm sorry. I doubt we've even met," laughed a green-clad RAmar, his voice cold and brooding.
"Who are you?" inquired Kaelis.
"Thief, murderer, traitor, scum."
"I don't quite understand..."
"Or am I your worst nightmare!?" spat the RAmar as his skin flowed and distorted before Kaelis' eyes.
Within a heartbeat the RAmar was no more.
In his place stood a monstrous Del-D, eyes glowing like yellow diamonds in the spluttering light of the corridor.


Mephet'ran saw the light fade before flickering back into life. This area was riddled with blast craters and bullet holes, and Mephet'ran looked back over her shoulder to check if she'd accidentally stepped into a parallel universe.
Sure enough, the insistent violet glow flooded the room behind her.
However, this area seemed somehow older and even decaying.
Mephet'ran saw a Gillchich lumber towards her, but she didn't even need to raise her claw as the Gillchich suddenly fell to pieces before her. Older models, the Dubchics, lurched ponderously across the floor before one simply detonated as smoke flooded from its head.
Mephet'ran drove her claw into the next, and a revolving bronze sphere emitting streaks of golden Photon energy hovered down in front of her.
As soon as she ripped the sphere to pieces with her claw, the remaining Dubchichs shut themselves down in unison.

[Sagasu]

I think it was a comment about the rate at which at these are being produced http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif Keep up the good work

[Caecilius]

One or two chapters a day is a good rate to work with.

---------

Chapter 11


Without a second thought Kaelis wrenched the nearest rifle from the sniper's pintle and flicked the firing speed switch to full-auto. Aiming at the Del-D, he pulled the trigger and held it until the Photon crystals ran dry.
All that remained of the Del-D was a single smoking arm and a head with eight holes punched through it.
Kaelis smiled grimly and put the blade of his Soul Banish through the steaming gun.
"Maybe I should have become a RAmar," he laughed coldly, the pitch slightly too high. He stalked into the next part of the corridor and left the hissing Del-D's head on the ground to decompose.
"Ohhhhh sssshhhhoooouuuuld yooooouuuuuuu?" the Del-D's head spluttered as if underwater. "Yoooouuuuu caaannoooottt essscaaaape yoouuurrrr faaaate..."
With a wet thud the head burst apart in a wash of black blood. A sinister laugh echoed around the chamber, but noone was there to listen or even care.


Mephet'ran strolled along a winding path in the shape of an S. All around her the sharp clash of metal on metal resonated as various Gillchichs and Dubchichs suffered from power failures.
"Was this an old part of the mine or a damaged part?" she mused as she examined several craters in the floor. Some were still warm.
"Only one way to find out," she growled, drawing and firing her Inferno Bazooka. A shell flew into the wall, but the heavy impact failed to even chip the lousy paintwork. Confused, she fired again and again, but with no immediate success. Finally she gave up after ejecting a spent ammo clip, one that had been nearly full before opening fire. Suddenly a bright swirl of light swam around where Mephet'ran's shells had struck, emitting a low groan before fading.
When Mephet'ran looked again, she saw an armoured giant standing behind a hole in the wall.


Kaelis continued along the sniper's corridor, noticing for the first time the apparent age in the mine's structure.
Or was it a military complex?
He didn't have time to think, for a new threat floated down from the dark ceiling: Canabins. The small egg-shaped disks buzzed and flew around him like mechanical insects, stopping now and then to train targeters on Kaelis before he cut them apart with wide sweeps of his Soul Banish. One actually got lucky and evaded the scythe, striking Kaelis in the back with a whipcord of electricity. Anger burning in his eyes, Kaelis turned his own Gizonde on the Canabin, the potent thunder magic overloading much of the Canabin's power drive. The machine fell to the floor spitting sparks and the odd cloud of blue smoke. Kaelis turned to see the leader of the Canabins, a Canune, bearing down on him from the opposite door. He looked around as the Canune darted across the room too fast for even a Force's eyes to see. A red light flashed, dazzling Kaelis, and he reeled clutching his head in pain, knowing that his end was near.
Fortunately for Kaelis, that end would not come today...


"Not you..." spat Mephet'ran, her eyes glowing white in fear.
"This time, robot, you have not caught me unaware of your presence," Karnak snarled. He stepped out of the wall and seemed to float eerily in midair, wings spread wide. Two whip-like tendrils snaked down from each wingtip, searching for prey. One lashed backwards through the hole, and another crash could be heard along the sniper's corridor. Mephet'ran raised her Inferno Bazooka, ready to fire, but the foul tendrils snatched the gun from her hands.
"You shall not be needing this any more," Karnak leered as he crushed the gun with one hand. Explosions flooded from Karnak's hand, but the lethal effects were mostly swallowed by the dark gauntlet.
"Did you really think you could defeat me with that?" he laughed, the sound like stone smashing into human flesh. "You are easily fooled."
"That's what you think," retorted Mephet'ran, raising her Silence Claw. She twisted a dial to extend her blade reach. Two searing blue lances bit into Karnak's armour, but Karnak raised a single burning palm and destroyed the Silence Claw with a jet of green fire.
"You are defenceless," he roared in triumph. "Nothing can save you now!"


The red glare faded as suddenly as it appeared, and Kaelis opened his eyes to see the Canune in pieces on the floor. Then he heard it:
"You are defenceless. Nothing can save you now!"
Kaelis easily identified the voice as Karnak's, and he searched the room looking for the one thing to kill this tyrant.
His gaze rested on a battered-looking sword resting in the remains of a Canabin.
"A DB's Sword? What year was it made...?" he breathed. "AUW 3073... only thirty years ago. That'll do," he grinned as he lifted the weapon. Testing it for weight and balance, he smiled as he pictured the arc it would take as he threw it, the arc that would remove Karnak's head. Kaelis crept out to see Karnak gloating in midair, suspended by newly-formed wings that radiated an ancient malice. Kaelis hurled the sword with all his might, the blade lodging squarely in Karnak's spine between the wings. Karnak howled in sudden pain as he span to look at this new threat...



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Caecilius on 2004-01-05 05:19 ]</font>

[Caecilius]

By the way, thanks for the positive feedback Sarunakai. It gets even better further on, trust me.

-------------


Chapter 12


"This ends here, Karnak," Kaelis spat.
"Wrong, Force. He's mine." Mephet'ran's voice pierced the silence like a lance.
"You are both wrong," Karnak bellowed. Shimmering veils of light materialised between the tendrils on each wing, and a great muscular tail burst out of the midnight-blue armour. The tail took on its own dark tone as Karnak's eyes burned with unholy fire. Kaelis' gaze could somehow detect Karnak's spirit through the thick mental barrier projected by the monster. Agony flowed through him as Karnak's gaze seared Kaelis' soul to the core.
A sudden flash of light blinded both Kaelis and Mephet'ran. When they recovered they found themselves in different locations. Kaelis found himself standing on the head of a Baranz, while Mephet'ran wound up in a room full of screens.


Kaelis felt a sharp vibration beneath his feet as the Baranz burst into life, trundling along the seemingly destroyed passageway. It stopped abruptly and launched a hail of missiles from its shoulder guns. He dropped as the missiles streaked overhead and slammed into the back wall. He grinned as he saw a great tear in the wall. Meltdowns weren't the deadliest missile grade (that space was left for Hellfires and Sunbursts) but against a solid, heavy-armoured surface like a plasmacrete wall they had succeeded in doing what an Inferno Bazooka couldn't possibly do.
Careful to avoid further missiles, Kaelis pressed the underside of his Soul Banish into the Baranz's head section, the single sharpened spike on the base easily piercing the thick armour plating. Kaelis closed his eyes momentarily and focussed.
Lightning poured from every orifice in the Baranz's body as the powerful Razonde magic short-circuited the automatic guidance system.
An access hatch opened in the Baranz's rear and Kaelis' eyes lit up as he crawled inside, taking control of the Baranz himself...


The incessant drone of the active screens in the Monitor Room reached its limit. Mephet'ran drove her armoured boot into the nearest screen, shattering it and reducing the level of the noise. A hazy image flashed onto the screen opposite Mephet'ran, and five blue-panelled pillars rose from holes in the ground. Another pillar, this time glowing red, shot out of its hole and began speaking to Mephet'ran in the distorted language of the Vol Opt techno-virus. The blue pillars also spoke, communicating in the Calus virus tongue. Confused, Mephet'ran grabbed the red pillar and viciously hammered her knee into the central panel.
Her efforts were rewarded with a sharp shot of Gizonde to the groin.
The pillar's central panel had been ruined, but the pillar itself was still active. Coronas of electricity shielded the pillars from further attack. The hazy image flashed onto the screen again, but this time a pale orange glow appeared with it...


The Baranz's sensors registered a lone HUcaseal behind a solid wall. The sensors also showed six pillars with leering blue faces.
"That must be Mephet'ran then," Kaelis mused. "Give me Meltdown missiles, Unit Sigma-09," he rapped out into the vox-unit. Taking control of the launch mechanisms himself, Kaelis aimed for the exposed machinery in front of him and fired. A fiery orange glow radiated from the point where the missiles struck. Part of the wall sagged away as the intense heat melted the solid plasmacrete. He opened the top hatch and peered into the open room.
"Clear the area Mephet'ran! I'm gonna blow that thing sky-high!" he yelled. "Get in here and let's cause some damage!"
Mephet'ran appeared next to him before he even finished his sentence.
"Damage it is!" she laughed as she dropped into the head section.


The Hellfire missile tore the heart out of the Monitor Room. A great crater lay in the heart of the room, containing another brown stone column.
This one, while being firmly set into the ground, was completely inactive.
A giant machine, far bigger than the Baranz, drifted into the centre of the still-burning room. Kaelis fired another missile, impacting on a beetle-shaped support pod on the machine's flank. Flaming wreckage lashed both the machine and the Baranz, and warning symbols flashed on the viewscreen as a particularly large shard of metal struck the Baranz's drive system, rendering it immobile.
"Sigma-09, give me Sunburst missiles," Kaelis barked into the vox. A solid clunk resonated as the missile magazines changed. Suddenly a crackling blue sphere trapped the Baranz in an electric cage.


"Trap beams!" cried Mephet'ran. Twelve laser cannons opened on the giant machine's "face" and annihilated the Baranz's nullifier shields.
"Quickly, before that thing fires again!" hissed Mephet'ran.
"Is that thing saying "Burn in hell"?" asked Kaelis, glancing at the sensor screen.
"It's talking in an enhanced version of the Vol Opt technovirus," replied Mephet'ran. "My scanners register that as the main Vol Opt computer. Since it's using a smoother language I'd have to say it's been updated."
"Well, that's one more piece of... Oh shit."
Kaelis found himself staring down the multiple barrels of Vol Opt's own missile launcher. He hammered the trigger.
The Sunburst misile flew from the right shoulder gun.
An instant later Vol Opt released its own missile, this one a Shrapnel. It detonated on the left shoulder gun at the very instant Kaelis' Sunburst missile incinerated Vol Opt in a storm of black lightning and golden flames.
The Baranz, on the other hand, survived the Shrapnel missile.
As the smoke cleared, Kaelis could see glowing runes on the column, now protruding from the ground. A shaft of green light stretched up to the heavens above, and to Kaelis' pained eyes, the final part of the prophecy seemed to be falling into place. A spark of life flared within Kaelis' spirit as an ancient being, old as the stars, awoke within him. Kaelis felt mentally sick as a new power ravaged his already tormented mind. Through his considerable mental pain, Kaelis read the text on the monolith.
"Only two, the mechanical golden warrior and the black-clad sorcerer with the alabaster skin, can defeat the Avatar of Dark Falz and banish the Lord of Morgoth for all eternity, lest the cosmos be destroyed."
"That's obviously referring to us," Mephet'ran added. "Although I can't imagine you without that tan." Kaelis felt those words hit him like a slap as he saw his tanned skin tone.
The scene changed once again in a swirling haze of energy. Kaelis and Mephet'ran were sitting on a fallen slab of stone looking at an ancient ruin oozing a dark malevolence.
"We're not gonna kill this Avatar just by sitting here, Meph," grunted Kaelis as he stood up painfully, clasping his Soul Banish firmly and striding towards the future of life itself...

[Sagasu]

Np, so have you already pre-written this? I can't imagine putting these things out this fast and them being as good as they are.

Or it could be that you have lots and lots of talent and have even more time http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[Caecilius]

Nope, my Internet service won't let me type my chapters on the spur of the moment. I put the prototype chapters onto disk and lick them into shape before posting. Thanks for all the support btw.

---------

Chapter 13


The ruin was empty to even Kaelis' wraithsight and Mephet'ran's infrared vision.
Yet there was a single being alive other than the two Hunters.
"Going somewhere?" Karnak's voice echoed around the chamber.
"Show your face Karnak! This isn't the time for hide-and-seek," Kaelis bellowed.
"You are so clueless. I'm right here," Karnak sighed. Kaelis did a double-take as he saw Karnak looming in front of him. He suddenly saw Karnak spin to deliver a precise stroke behind him, and a Merlan fell hissing to the floor.
Kaelis swung his scythe while Karnak's back was turned - and suddenly Karnak wasn't there.
A sharp object struck him in the back and Kaelis howled in pain. Karnak was sliding his halberd between Kaelis' shoulders with impeccable accuracy. Agony seemed to burn Kaelis to the core of his soul.
The pain stopped suddenly as Mephet'ran kicked Karnak in the head. Black blood splattered onto the dusty ground. Kaelis fell to the ground face-first, blacking out before he hit the floor.


When he awoke Mephet'ran was standing over him holding an aerosol can.
"Stay there while the synth-flesh dries," she ordered. "That wasn't even the real Karnak. He had wings when we saw him last time, and that halberd wasn't even burning. It wasn't even proper metal!" She picked up a glittering weapon with her left hand - a Brionac, made of pure Photon crystals.
"So what was he then?" Kaelis moaned, needles of pain shooting through his body.
"A Del-D, possibly? Didn't you say you saw one mimic a RAmar in No Man's Mines?"
"Well, yes but..."
"And didn't you say it imitated the voice of a RAmar as well?"
"Wait a second... You're telling me that was a Del-D?"
"Don't you get it? Don't trust anybody if they have a smooth tail!"
Kaelis couldn't think of a reply. Mephet'ran vanished into the darkness, returning moments later with a red-armoured HUmar and a Del-D. Both were held tightly in Mephet'ran's iron grip, and the Del-D had a pentagram draped around it to stop it from escaping.
"Now watch." Mephet'ran tore the pentagram apart, and the Del-D immediately took on the form of a young FOnewearl.
"See what's different between the real Hunter and the Del-D?" Mephet'ran explained. "This FOnewearl has a smooth black tail on her, meaning that she is the Del-D." Mephet'ran subsequently chopped the Del-D into tiny pieces using the Brionac, the only weapon she had left aside from her Pan Arms' Blades.
"You can go now mate," she added, facing the HUmar who had turned a rather sickening shade of green.


Having immolated another Del-D with his Foie, Kaelis contacted Mephet'ran on his BEE. "Just fried another mimic. How's it going your side?"
"Four Arlans dead, and another without its arms," came the reply.
"I take it you're using that Brionac?"
"Kaelis, listen. Even if I had no weapons at all I'd be mopping the floor with these things." Mephet'ran had a point; her skill in combat was unrivalled, with or without weapons. "But yes, I'm using that Brionac."
"Ok. Kaelis out." He cut the comm-channel, then cut the head from a Delsaber with his Soul Banish. The monster disintegrated before the head touched the ground. Kaelis span to block the frenzied slice of a Merlan's blood-red talons, countering with a sharp Gibarta to the monster's groin.


Mephet'ran found the next area of the ruins first, it seemed, for a sea of Claws formed a barrier between her and the warp-transporter.
"No way around it," she sighed. The Brionac burst into life once again, cutting a bloody passage through the Claws, making vain attempts to bite Mephet'ran's arm off. One attracted the attention of the Electro Frame's energies, vanishing in a bubble of violet lightning bolts. Mephet'ran activated her BEE with a single mind-impulse.
"Kaelis, this is Mephet'ran. You should be near me if you're in a chamber with a crater and a waterfall."
"I'm there. Kaelis out."



Kaelis peered down the crater. It looked like the remains of a vast plasma explosion, but that just wasn't possible.
There would be more material missing.
Beneath him he could see machinery, and the "crater" actually had walls with cables leading up into the darkness.
And that waterfall was green...
Kaelis glanced up to see an Indi Belra launch its left arm overhead. Kaelis had to dodge to avoid the right arm and nearly fell into the crater.
"Alright, you asked for it," hissed Kaelis, leaping onto the Belra's immense body. Presing his palm against the Belra's face, Kaelis gathered all his rage into a single blast of energy.
Mere seconds later, the Belra - or what was left of it - crashed to the floor. A single smoking arm remained intact, but the majority of the Belra had been vaporised by Kaelis' deadly Foie.
"Don't mess," spat Kaelis as he ran into the next chamber, where Mephet'ran was waiting for him.
Except Mephet'ran had already vanished through the warp-transporter.Chapter 13


The ruin was empty to even Kaelis' wraithsight and Mephet'ran's infrared vision.
Yet there was a single being alive other than the two Hunters.
"Going somewhere?" Karnak's voice echoed around the chamber.
"Show your face Karnak! This isn't the time for hide-and-seek," Kaelis bellowed.
"You are so clueless. I'm right here," Karnak sighed. Kaelis did a double-take as he saw Karnak looming in front of him. He suddenly saw Karnak spin to deliver a precise stroke behind him, and a Merlan fell hissing to the floor.
Kaelis swung his scythe while Karnak's back was turned - and suddenly Karnak wasn't there.
A sharp object struck him in the back and Kaelis howled in pain. Karnak was sliding his halberd between Kaelis' shoulders with impeccable accuracy. Agony seemed to burn Kaelis to the core of his soul.
The pain stopped suddenly as Mephet'ran kicked Karnak in the head. Black blood splattered onto the dusty ground. Kaelis fell to the ground face-first, blacking out before he hit the floor.


When he awoke Mephet'ran was standing over him holding an aerosol can.
"Stay there while the synth-flesh dries," she ordered. "That wasn't even the real Karnak. He had wings when we saw him last time, and that halberd wasn't even burning. It wasn't even proper metal!" She picked up a glittering weapon with her left hand - a Brionac, made of pure Photon crystals.
"So what was he then?" Kaelis moaned, needles of pain shooting through his body.
"A Del-D, possibly? Didn't you say you saw one mimic a RAmar in No Man's Mines?"
"Well, yes but..."
"And didn't you say it imitated the voice of a RAmar as well?"
"Wait a second... You're telling me that was a Del-D?"
"Don't you get it? Don't trust anybody if they have a smooth tail!"
Kaelis couldn't think of a reply. Mephet'ran vanished into the darkness, returning moments later with a red-armoured HUmar and a Del-D. Both were held tightly in Mephet'ran's iron grip, and the Del-D had a pentagram draped around it to stop it from escaping.
"Now watch." Mephet'ran tore the pentagram apart, and the Del-D immediately took on the form of a young FOnewearl.
"See what's different between the real Hunter and the Del-D?" Mephet'ran explained. "This FOnewearl has a smooth black tail on her, meaning that she is the Del-D." Mephet'ran subsequently chopped the Del-D into tiny pieces using the Brionac, the only weapon she had left aside from her Pan Arms' Blades.
"You can go now mate," she added, facing the HUmar who had turned a rather sickening shade of green.


Having immolated another Del-D with his Foie, Kaelis contacted Mephet'ran on his BEE. "Just fried another mimic. How's it going your side?"
"Four Arlans dead, and another without its arms," came the reply.
"I take it you're using that Brionac?"
"Kaelis, listen. Even if I had no weapons at all I'd be mopping the floor with these things." Mephet'ran had a point; her skill in combat was unrivalled, with or without weapons. "But yes, I'm using that Brionac."
"Ok. Kaelis out." He cut the comm-channel, then cut the head from a Delsaber with his Soul Banish. The monster disintegrated before the head touched the ground. Kaelis span to block the frenzied slice of a Merlan's blood-red talons, countering with a sharp Gibarta to the monster's groin.


Mephet'ran found the next area of the ruins first, it seemed, for a sea of Claws formed a barrier between her and the warp-transporter.
"No way around it," she sighed. The Brionac burst into life once again, cutting a bloody passage through the Claws, making vain attempts to bite Mephet'ran's arm off. One attracted the attention of the Electro Frame's energies, vanishing in a bubble of violet lightning bolts. Mephet'ran activated her BEE with a single mind-impulse.
"Kaelis, this is Mephet'ran. You should be near me if you're in a chamber with a crater and a waterfall."
"I'm there. Kaelis out."



Kaelis peered down the crater. It looked like the remains of a vast plasma explosion, but that just wasn't possible.
There would be more material missing.
Beneath him he could see machinery, and the "crater" actually had walls with cables leading up into the darkness.
And that waterfall was green...
Kaelis glanced up to see an Indi Belra launch its left arm overhead. Kaelis had to dodge to avoid the right arm and nearly fell into the crater.
"Alright, you asked for it," hissed Kaelis, leaping onto the Belra's immense body. Presing his palm against the Belra's face, Kaelis gathered all his rage into a single blast of energy.
Mere seconds later, the Belra - or what was left of it - crashed to the floor. A single smoking arm remained intact, but the majority of the Belra had been vaporised by Kaelis' deadly Foie.
"Don't mess," spat Kaelis as he ran into the next chamber, where Mephet'ran was waiting for him.
Except Mephet'ran had already vanished through the warp-transporter.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 14


"What the hell IS this thing??" Mephet'ran was dumbstruck at the machinery humming beneath her. Through the grating of the floor she could see a twisting column shining with power. Two small hemispheres rotated by the next door, and snaking bolts of electricity connected the two hemispheres to another two hemispheres by her door.
"An engine deck?" Mephet'ran leapt up in shock; she hadn't been expecting Kaelis to come up behind her.
"Wh-what!?"
"An engine deck. I worked out that the "crater" we found earlier was in fact a destroyed elevator shaft. This is no ruin."
"What is it then?" Mephet'ran was not in the mood for jokes. Suddenly the electricity bolts linking the hemispheres flared and multiplied. The entire ruin seemed to be rising, with Karnak and Mephet'ran inside it.
"This is a spacecraft. A gigantic spacecraft. Not too dissimilar from Pioneers 1 and 2, in fact," Kaelis declared.
"So we're on a spaceship... piloted by who?"
"That's for us to work out." Kaelis stormed through the corridor and into a colossal maintenance chamber.


Quadrupedal metallic structures lined the passages through the chamber. A single green crystal shone in the centre of each. Almost in perfect unison the structures became midnight-blue, like Karnak's armour, and the green crystals floated up into the air. Gathering energy, the crystals burned like Karnak's halberd, and Kaelis wondered for a moment if those structures had formed Karnak's armour and halberd.
He couldn't think for long, for the glowing crystals suddenly spat deadly lasers, one of which carried a red glow.
Backflipping to avoid the lasers, Kaelis pressed himself against the wall while in midair. Pushing forward as if swimming, he flew through the air -
And landed next to the red-crystalled structure.
The Soul Banish landed in the depression within the structure a second later. Bright purple blood spurted as the "structure" collapsed to the ground.
The others also collapsed in crumpled heaps.
"Maybe I hit the central intelligence node for those things?" mused Kaelis. Mephet'ran called across to him. "Those things are called Dark Gunners. You knocked out the leader, or Death Gunner. They're practically useless now!"
"May as well use that to our advantage," replied Kaelis, kicking one Dark Gunner into the machinery of the engine system. The rest were subsequently atomised by whipcords of green lightning arcing up from the engine.


The electric onslaught converged in the central area of the chamber walkway, and a familiar face materialised within the storm.
"This ends here, Karnak," Mephet'ran snarled.
"Leave now or this spaceship will obliterate both Pioneers 1 and 2," Karnak threatened.
"Like she said, this ends here!" Kaelis readied his Soul Banish.
"It ends here for you," growled Karnak. Raising his right arm, he forged a glowing viewscreen from thin air, showing the ruined Pioneer 1.
With a single gesture from his left hand, Karnak seemed to incinerate Pioneer 1 in a green firestorm.
"That is the power my master gifted me with," Karnak gloated. His wings shimmered, still crackling with green energy, and his tail thrashed the ground impatiently.
"And that is the power you're going to give up soon," Kaelis roared. Thousands of light arrows bombarded Karnak before immolating him in a golden inferno.
When the fires vanished, Karnak had dropped to one knee, grunting in pain. He lifted his head and hissed, "You will die here..."
"Not if you die first," retorted Kaelis. Karnak subsequently disappeared in a cloud of energy.


"My scanners show a working elevator to the bridge," Mephet'ran shouted, running forwards and through the opposite door marked ELEVATORS.
"My navigator also shows some kind of centaur in that room too," yelled Kaelis, but Mephet'ran had already vanished.
Mephet'ran realised the magnitude of her error as three orange blasts of plasma energy whistled past her head, melting the wall slightly. She could vaguely make out a centaur-like form looming over her - a Dark Bringer of Vayenir.
"Holy shit!" she swore as the Dark Bringer swung its sword arm down on her left shoulder, forcing her to wield her Brionac one-handed.
Unable to activate the Photon blade, Mephet'ran brought the solid crystalline head of the Brionac crashing onto the Dark Bringer's head, shattering its skull and mashing its feeble excuse for a brain. It fell to its four knees and died unceremoniously.
"A Dark Bringer? Let me do some, uhh, surgery," offered Kaelis. Taking a small dagger from his belt, he removed the Dark Bringer's right arm just below the shoulder.
"I'll need a few minutes to do this," Kaelis warned, drawing a small pack of engineering equipment from his belt, "so be quiet."
"So that's where those Pan Arms' Blades..."
"Quiet!"


"There we go. One finished Bringer's Rifle," Kaelis grinned. "I made you a weapon, now there's one for me too."
"Uh, Kaelis? The future of life is at stake and you're worried about a Bringer's Rifle?" Mephet'ran couldn't comprehend Kaelis' actions at all.
"Trust me. I can use this."
"Let's hope you can," Mephet'ran remarked doubtfully as she stepped into the elevator shaft.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 15


Kaelis felt sick just looking at the passage to the bridge.
"This place looks like the beating heart of disease itself," he moaned before violently vomiting. As he watched he saw vile tentacles sucking up the vomit from the floor, drawing it into large pus-filled organs oozing evil gases. The sight made him want to vomit again.
"How disgusting..." Mephet'ran remarked as she saw the foul organs lining the corridor. Even the floor was crusted with bleeding arteries and veins, forming a red glaze across an otherwise grey floor.
"Give me that," she barked, grabbing the Bringer's Rifle Kaelis was too repulsed to do anything with. Pulling the trigger five times in quick succession, she blasted holes in the largest organs. Each bolt sent a shower of pus and energy flying as each organ burst.
"Now I can see why you wanted that thing," she grinned at Kaelis, struggling to keep himself from vomiting once more.


After encountering a considerably grotesque Indi Belra dribbling excessive streams of mucus, Kaelis had reached the point where his nauseation was about to consume him. Only his supreme force of will kept him going. Mephet'ran, however, seemed unfazed by the obscenity of the bridge corridor.
"Over here, I found a calmer room," she called. Kaelis staggered over to where she was pointing before vomiting freely again.
"Now this looks like the inside of a plague god," he complained as his stomach expelled a steady stream of green liquid.
"At least this place -" Mephet'ran gestred around the small room "- isn't as bad as before. All we need to worry about is... oh for crying out loud, not ANOTHER damn monolith!"
Kaelis crawled up to the man-sized monolith, encased in what looked like a giant glass blade. He read the runic script aloud:
"Three fighters. Two banishments. One death. No survivors."
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Mephet'ran skeptically.
"It means," explained Kaelis, "that Karnak's fate is no doubt intertwined with ours."


Entering the bridge, a large square room with a pyramid-like structure extending to the ceiling, Kaelis and Mephet'ran saw the most bizarre sight.
A red-clad Human girl lay bound tightly to an altar, screaming in pain, and a glowing red disc glared down from the top of the pyramid like a great eye. Looking out of the disc was none other than Karnak.
"Get down here now, monster!" roared Kaelis.
"Ah, I am no longer just Karnak. I am the Avatar of the Lord of Morgoth, and you are but a pitiful Human with an Android by your side."
"Guess again," retorted Kaelis, in a voice that was somehow not his own, but part of his subconscious. Kaelis himself was surprised at his own words, but he knew the ancient creature awoken within his soul at No Man's Mines had awakened fully. Pain surged through him again as the immense power generated by the ancient spirit took complete control of Kaelis' body.
"What are you talking about...?" Karnak was equally stunned by this change of tone, failing to detect the change ripping through Kaelis' mind.
Kaelis' subconscious spoke again. "Not one of you realised my power concealed in this frail Human body. I am beyond your power, Falz, for I am the one that sealed you away the first time." The voice resonated in the back of Karnak's mind as he suddenly realised his grim peril.



"Not you... Not Atranox?" Karnak spluttered in shock.
"You know this to be true. My occupation within this shell has reached its limits," Kaelis boomed, his eyes blazing with black fire.
"Once I have merged this girl's soul with my own I will destroy you!" bellowed Karnak, drifting down from his vantage-point within the "eye" and striking the girl with his burning halberd. Golden energy flowed from the girl's body and into Karnak's armour plating. The veils of light on Karnak's wings shimmered vigorously, and suddenly Karnak vanished from view, taking the altar and the girl with him. A voice, easily recognisable as Karnak's, echoed around the bridge.
"You fool, Atranox. The soul of Red Ring Rico completed the ritual..."
Laughing madly, Karnak's voice faded into the darkness before disappearing.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 16


Mephet'ran felt somehow left behind in this catastrophe of old and powerful spirit-daemons. Kaelis and Karnak had been elevated to a higher spiritual plane, leaving Mephet'ran stuck in mortality.
She suddenly saw Karnak's halberd discarded on the ground. She felt power flood through her as the weapon remoulded to fit Mephet'ran's own desires, transforming into a vast katana not unlike the legendary J-Sword wielded by the fabled Master Hunter of ages past. The blade was wreathed in jade fire and felt weightless in Mephet'ran's hands.
"Time to cause some damage," she grinned, brandishing the newly-reformed weapon and watching the violet streaks of lightning from her Electro Frame dance across her body.
She found a warp-transporter within the command section of the bridge. Stopping to vox Pioneer 2, she prepared herself for an unknown future.
"See that giant spaceship rising from the planet's surface? I need you to annihilate it with your torpedos, ASAP!" she barked into her BEE.
"We'll do our best, Mephet'ran!" came the sharp reply from Principal Tyrell. "And about my daughter..."
"I don't give a rat's ass about your daughter, just blow this damn thing up and to hell with the consequences!" There was only anger in Mephet'ran's voice; so determined was she to kill Karnak and avenge the deaths caused on his account. "Karnak's bloody ass, man, I watched her die, now just bomb the living hell out of this thing!"


Leering faces stared up at Karnak and Kaelis as the gravity of their bound essences drained all focus. Karnak stood upright upon the altar where Rico had died, and Kaelis glared menacingly at him.
"You're gonna pay for those you killed," Kaelis promised.
"This does not concern the dead," Karnak replied, gesturing at the faces embedded in the floor. "Only us."
Kaelis' entire body grew at an alarming rate, his Soul Banish melting into nothingness as its energy was leeched by Atranox's vengeful spirit. As if in response Karnak formed a new body for himself as Falz, over ten times as big as a man. Three dragon heads replaced Karnak's legs, and two structures like immense Bringer's Rifles took the place of his arms. Kaelis, however, stayed vaguely humanoid, his right arm also resembling a giant Bringer's Rifle - Kaelis' own. Kaelis' skin turned white, and slender tendrils of black smoke wreathed the floor beneath him. He seemed to hover eerily in midair, his black shroud billowing to reveal what looked like a skeleton wreathed in barely-contained energy, giving him a sinister, cold glow.
Amidst the confusion of daemonic energy nobody noticed Mephet'ran teleport into the fray and pole-vault onto Falz's vaguely humanoid head with her new sword. As the last of the changing energies drained away, Atranox stood tall facing Falz in a combat-stance, ready to banish Falz for all eternity.


Mephet'ran plunged the burning sword into Falz's head, the lethal fire lashing at Karnak's new form. A scream of pain erupted from the three dragon heads, and Mephet'ran withdrew her blade to strike again. Suddenly Falz began to move, and Mephet'ran tumbled to the floor. Atranox raised his arm and struck Falz with a burning lance of violet light. Falz raised both arms and sent his own violet spears into the heavens, falling down to earth like rain. Mephet'ran escaped the deadly shower, and whatever hit Atranox had very little effect. Atranox released another blazing spear of light, this time severing one of the dragon heads and reducing another to a hissing ruin. The remaining head spat a series of spiked crystal-like creatures - Mephet'ran identified them as Darvants. Mephet'ran casually destroyed every Darvant with a single slash of her sword. Atranox incinerated the final dragon head with two glowing beams, and the cauterised stumps withered away to leave a steaming red ball beneath Falz's main body, held in place by three taloned protrusions.
One searing laser later and Falz crashed to the ground, apparently stunned.
Mephet'ran decapitated the monster with her flaming sword two seconds later.

[Caecilius]

Chapter 17


As Falz's rolling head vanished, Karnak burst free from his altered form and hung suspended in the air for a few seconds.
"Grab hold of me, Mephet'ran," hissed Kaelis through Atranox's voice.
Immediately the ground disintegrated, and Mephet'ran leapt onto Atranox's shoulders holding her flaming sword aloft.
Karnak's body seemed to grow like Kaelis' had, albeit in a more sinister way. Karnak's legs vanished completely, and a ridged bony crest erupted from his collarbone. A depression formed in the centre of Karnak's chest, large enough to fit a standing Human inside, and Karnak's head merged with his body just above the crest. Each arm reformed from a Bringer's Rifle into a giant blade, and spiked plates grew from the shoulders. A twisted structure appeared where Karnak's head would have been, and two small spheres of light hung from horns on the structure. Karnak's new form dwarfed Mephet'ran easily and stood taller than Atranox, who had drawn back into a protective position. Falz's skin shone moentarily before returning to the same midnight-blue shade taken on by Karnak's old armour.
The only parts of Karnak unaffected by the mutation were his wings, although they had grown to immense proportions during the metamorphosis of Karnak's body.


"You die here, Falz," Atranox hissed.
"Falz?" Mephet'ran queried.
"His name," whispered Atranox - although the sound shook the base of Mephet'ran's mechanical mind.
"Or is it YOU who shall die, Atranox?" roared Falz, enraged with the destruction of his previous body.
As if in answer Atranox unleashed a powerful shot from his arm, allowing the recoil to carry him backwards before using the burst of speed to flip into a nosedive. Falz cried out in pain as Atranox's shot scored a gash across his armoured shoulder.
Mephet'ran hung on for dear life as Atranox plummeted into the darkness before changing direction, coming at Falz from below. Quicker than a bullet, Atranox barreled into Falz, knocking the giant off-balance. Falz's skin shone again and he flew upwards as well, stopping to gather energy into his maw-like chest crater.


With a strong flash of blue light Falz released a storm of plasma bolts from his chest crater, each bolt scorching Atranox's shroud but causing no major damage (although Mephet'ran was shaken violently by the repeated impacts). Falz raised one giant arm and bombarded Atranox with white rays of light. Atranox reeled as the light continued to assail his body, finally creating a golden inferno around him. Pain wracked Atranox for a brief second before the Grants magic vanished as soon as it appeared. Atranox retaliated with another incandescent lance of energy, but the shot rebounded from Falz's glistening carapace like light from a mirror.
"Idiot! You can't hit him when he's shining! Didn't you notice the amount of energy he built up didn't affect him?" spat Mephet'ran. Atranox would have hit his head in stupidity, but he had more pressing matters at hand.
"How can you tell it would have affected him if he wasn't shining then?" Atranox retorted. "You can't tell that!"
"I saw the energy reflect from him like your shot did, rather than go straight through. Don't tell me you didn't notice!" argued Mephet'ran. "Maybe you need to open your eyes a bit more!"



Taking advantage of Mephet'ran bickering with Atranox, Falz lowered his protection and channelled twin streaks of lightning through his blades. Falz deliberately aimed away from Atranox, and sent his discharge hurtling into the heavens. Peals of lightning fell all around, some striking the earth a hundred miles away, others crashing into the mountains far below.
In effect Falz had just whipped up a storm.
Chunks of stone flew into the sky as they were knocked loose and propelled upwards by the force of the lightning. One particularly large piece of rock shot up from the closest mountain beneath Atranox and hammered into his chest with a force that would kill a man, but Atranox shrugged off the impact easily. Noticing Falz had dropped his guard, Atranox fired another blazing pulse of light straight into Falz's chest crater. Falz screeched in agony and, with one mighty beat of his wings, raised himself to Atranox's altitude. Falz clasped both his blades around Mephet'ran, and a replica of the HUcaseal stood in Falz's chest crater, immobile like a statue.


Unknowing and uncaring that Mephet'ran's "soul" had just been leeched, Atranox cast his Foie spell through his humanoid left arm. As the fireball lashed at Falz, Mephet'ran let out a cry of pain.
"Can't you see what's in his chest? It's me! When you hit him with that Foie I got hit too!" she snarled.
"So what do you expect me to do, stop attacking?"
"Exactly!"
A feral gleam touched Falz's eyes as he realised he had the upper hand.
Atranox cast another spell, this time a Grants. Golden hellfire wrapped Falz's body, but this time the flames continued to burn. As Mephet'ran clutched Atranox's shoulder, spasming in pain, Falz's eyes flashed and the golden fire around him turned green.
Atranox suddenly felt like a brick had fallen in his nonexistent stomach. He had finally made sense of four of Kaelis' visions.
Now all that remained was the final vision, the blue explosion.



Rising painfully to her feet, Mephet'ran struggled to speak.
"T... take me... to F... Falz's... body..."
Puzzled by Mephet'ran's order but not wishing to disappoint, Atranox plucked Mephet'ran from his shoulder and set her down on Falz's head. Mephet'ran spoke again, clearer this time.
"I... I've always hated those... who wished to... to destroy others... to suit their own goals. I destroyed others too once, but... that had been for... for the greater good of the Pioneer Project, and... above all, those I knew and trusted."
She smiled inwardly as she realised what she had to do.
"This shall be the last thing I destroy!" she bellowed, holding her sword above her head like an executioner's axe. The green fire upon the blade matched that around Falz's body.
"Falz! Meet your ultimate destiny!" she screamed, plunging the blade deep into Falz's corrupt form. The combined efforts of the green fires attacking each other generated an immense blue corona of energy, expanding by the second and fuelled by Falz's own energy.
When the explosion cleared Falz had gone.
Mephet'ran fell, broken and defeated, to her death upon the mountains below.

[Caecilius]

Sorry I posted this a bit late, I was busy...

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Chapter 18


Atranox now understood the final prophecy.
Three fighters... that had been Falz, Mephet'ran and himself.
Two banishments... this was Falz, and also the corrupt daemon-weapon wielded by both Karnak and Mephet'ran.
One death... that was obviously Mephet'ran, lying in a mangled heap of machinery on the mountainside.
So what was his fate? To continue living as a star-daemon, or to return to being within Kaelis?
As if to answer that question, Atranox felt his spirit leaving him. His enemy had been banished for eternity, and his purpose in life had been fulfilled.
He smiled and closed his eyes as life slipped away.



Epilogue


The Sunburst torpedo struck the giant spacecraft in the centre of the propulsion drive, the mass-explosive warhead starting a chain-reaction through the entire spacecraft by first destroying the engines, then the fission reactor behind the engines in a nuclear detonation of catastrophic proprtions. Nothing remained of that spacecraft, the torpedo annihilating its target completely.


When the exploration team found the body of a gold-plated HUcaseal at the summit of Tor Elysia, the Mountain of Heaven's Point, they were stunned upon reading the text on her dog-tag.
MEPHET'RAN.
It was eventually decided that Mephet'ran's vid-log and weapons were to be recovered and analysed by the research department on Pioneer.
The rest of her body was left on the mountain to decay and rust.
Soon the passage of time obscured even that.

--------------

So there you have it, part one finished. Hopefully there'll be more once my vast mountain of homework disappears...