Prologue[]
Gathered in the Academy, a young man stood above the crowds of people. With an ominous yet friendly smile, he said, "I called you all here for a reason."
"Have fun." "What the-" a young wizard said, only to be drowned out by many others, and he collapsed on the floor.
Only the scent of an intoxicating gas lingered in the air, leaving even the strongest of wizards to be writhing in pain, unable to move.
"Well, well," The young man said, "This isn't my fault, I just happened to find this and tested it out. What a pity."
He pulled his hood over, and sat in a corner.
Chapter 1: Awakenings[]
Leilani awoke, looking around frantically. “W-where am I?” She stuttered. "My guess is as good as yours." Startled, Leilani turned around, and was relieved to see just a few other wizards. "Hi. I'm Zane Battleblade. Who might you be?" Asked one of them. “Well, hello, I’m Leilani Wishdreamer. Isn’t this place odd? Should we look for other people?” Leilani asked. She stood up, and began to look around. They peered around, only to find miles and miles of dark labyrinth, twisting and turning, surrounded by walls of chromium that was impossible to penetrate.
Rose woke up with a cry and started to strangle Alvin as Zane tried -and failed- to explain what was going on. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME? WHAT IS THIS PLACE? WHERE IS MY CLASS?" Rose yelled as Alvin tried to croak out an answer. Zane pulled the little girl away from the boy she was strangling as he gasped for breath. "Can ANYONE explain what is happening here?" Zane shouted, exasperated, but to no avail. Rose gave Alvin one last suspicious glance, and swiftly kicked him as she started to beat him up like a training dummy. Alvin screamed in agony. “This looks like a prison,” Leilani remarked. "Might as well blame the kidnapper over there," Rose snapped, glaring at Alvin.
A student in shackles sits in the corner, with a smirk on his face. This trap wouldn't be enough...as long as he could use his magic.
Rose looked over at everyone in the room. Alvin was still wincing on the floor from her last blow (it was pretty hard), Zane was confused, and Leilani was investigating.
The student slips through the floor like a phantom and reappears, stretching his wrists and looking around.
Zane, managing to catch a glimpse at the figure and asked him if he could help them, but he just phases back into the floor. Zane looked up and saw a door. Seriously? A door? How is that supposed to help us? He thought. Then, it hit me. A door means an exit! He walked over to the door and rattled the handle. It was locked. So, he put on my strong fire relic and my eyes glowed orange as he used combustion and blew apart the door. "I hope the owner of this building has insurance," Zane said, half jokingly as they exited the room only to walk into another room without any doors except the one they just walked in from.
Beyond the confines of the room, magic was suppressed... this student knew he wouldn't be able to phase out- they'd have to find a solution. The phantom-student reappears and looks at Zane, waiting for a request.
Rose phased through the wall only to discover that she wasn't home. She saw nothing but death around me. This must've been the Land of Shadow. The deadliest place in the magic realm, but how did she get here? Rose phased back in and put Alvin in a headlock "You have a lot of explaining to do."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Zane exclaimed, "STOP FIGHTING!"
The voidmagic was a substrand of shadow magic- dangerous yet empowering the voidmagic. Apparently suppresion only lasts so long around a byproduct of the suppresion's source.., The next room was relatively normal to get past- the phantom student phased through the walls and scouted around, careful not to go over the brink of insanity due to his power side-effect.
Leilani stared. “Erm...hello?”
The phantom student walked back into the room out of a wall.
"Hi. ...Does anyone know how we got here...?"
Chapter 2: Investigation[]
Alvin tried to free himself but Rose only squeezed harder. "I'm not going anywhere until I get answers" Rose growled. Rose glanced at the phantom student and he flinched back afraid of what she would do if she got any closer.
Rose glared the phantom student, and he just stared right back, intimidating, cautious of what Rose would do if he got any closer.
“Well, I think that we’ve been put into a prison. Maybe this was the town guardians request. He can speak, after all.” Leilani said.
"I'm not being held prisoner, even if it means killing this boy." Rose say through gritted teeth. Alvin flinched just at the thought of it. "LET GO OF ME YOU LITTLE MIDGET!" he screamed as the headlock slowly turned into a choke-hold.
The phantom-student sees the supposed kidnapper being pinned by another girl. He sighed, and phased into the ground. Suddenly, a mound of bent floor pushed both of them toward the second room, causing both to tumble and accidentally tangle like a weird pretzel in a... questionable way...
“Is ANYBODY gonna ask me who the Town Guardian is? ANYBODY?” Leilani urged, and slightly chuckling at the fact of what the phantom had done.
Rose untangled herself, sent a shock spell at the phantom, and kicked Alvin in the nuts as he groaned in agony once more. She phased back through the wall and into the prison world which was now swarming with phantom guards.
“Tch. Nobody ever cares what I have to say,” Leilani muttered.
Rose returned to the cell where everyone was as she left them. She, once again, put Alvin in a choke hold, furious.
“Woah woah woah woah WOAH. Why is he in a chokehold?” Leilani said, pointing at Alvin.
"You know what? I'm tired of being stuck in this room," Zane grumbled. He started poking around the walls and eventually heard a click. To everyone's dismay, the ceiling slowly lowered on us. "Anyone have an idea on how to stop this thing?" He frantically asked, searching for anything that would help.
"Earth Magic would do the trick" Rose mumbled while inspecting the dirt walls. She punched the ground and four stone pillars shot up and held the ceiling in place. Alvin dropped to the floor gasping for air, much too traumatized to say anything.
"Wow," Zane stated, "I did not see that coming..."
"You're welcome" Rose said, brushing my knuckles off, and wearing a smug grin.
"Now how do we get out of here?" Zane asked. Then, he noticed something. Alvin was gone. "Wait-where's Alvin?" Zane asked.
Rose pointed to the corner where Alvin WAS after being strangled and kicked. A bit shocked, Rose just looked away in embarrassment.
“SHOOT! WHAT DID YOU DO?” Leilani shrieked. She scampered around, looking for a pause button or something.
A single piece of rock falls to the ground.
Suddenly, the pillars Rose created slowly cracked. The pillars break; as pieces of rocks are sent flying all over the room and one hits a hidden button, causing the floor to disappear underneath.
"I don't suppose anyone has any flying pets handy?" Zane yelled as they hurtled towards the ground. "And where is Alvin?" he yelled.
“Why would I know?” Leilani responded, wind billowing in her face.
Zane looked through his backpack, searching for anything that would allow them to fly. Then he found it. A pet orb containing an Embershed! He opened it and Embershed popped out. "Embershed, can you fly us gently to the bottom?" Zane asked. Embershed responded with a grunt and allowed him to sit on his back. "Grab on!" Zane yelled.
"I'll be following you... don't do anything stupid." The phantom-student phased back into the floor and waited for the Embershed to start flying so he could follow in the void.
Everyone promptly grabbed onto Embershed's legs as he lowered them gently on the ground.
Leilani hopped off the Embershed. It then started to melt. “What the-“ Leilani said.
The phaser popped out of the ground, noticing the... melting pet... "Huh?"
“I have so many questions,” Leilani muttered.
"Wha-EMBERSHED?!" Zane cried.
Then, something fell out of Zane's bag. "Wait...that's Embershed's orb! And Embershed is still in the orb!" He exclaimed. Then the melting Embershed seeped into the floor.
Unexpectedly, Leilani had a hallucination. A girl...in chains, with marks all over her. A chill went down her spine. The world was dark, spinning.
Chapter 3: The Girl in Chains[]
Leilani noticed a extremely chained up girl. She walked over to her. Leilani had a hallucination when she looked at her. A chill down her spine. She'd seen this girl...but when? Where? Leilani shivered.
The girl stared at Lelani with suspicious eyes, which frightened Lelani, and then, the girl blinked with calm expression.
Zane reached into his bag and pulled out a Chill & Char Gladius. He walked over to the girl and cut the chains.
The phaser saw the other person in front of him... strange. Somewhere in a different dimension, they'd crossed paths... but it was only a faint memory.
“Do you think we can...trust her?” Leilani asked, turning to the others. They all shrugged.
“Can you tell us your name?” Leilani asked the girl.
Before the girl could even muster a single word, Rose screamed, “WHERE IS THAT SNIVELING JERK? WHERE IS HE?” I yelled. Zane jumped at how loud and furious Rose was.
The girl chuckled a bit at Rose's behavior, and turned to face Leilani.
"Thank you for saving me. My name...is Amy. Amy Lokuramech. And I owe you."
Rose put Zane in a headlock hissing, “Where... is... that... BOY???”
“Stop.” Leilani said calmly.
The phaser sighed and decided to raise the floor in the void- 4 walls made of floor surrounded Rose to cut her off from killing... everyone, really.
Zane rubbed his throat. "Thanks," He sighed.
Amy revealed the chains, which had engraved ominous burns all over her body, which startled everyone. She then walked away to a hallway, to which Lelani and Zane followed along. The phaser decided to wait in the room.
"Are you coming?" Zane asked the phantom. "Also, could you free Rose?"
"I'll be staying here... i'll catch up when I feel like it." He phased in and out of the ground, the floor no longer encasing the strangehold move personified.
Amy, Zane, and Leilani head into a torture room, as the two were in shock. Amy broke free from the chains and the chains soon were levitating around her.
Furious, Rose broke free from the walls and smashed open the wall only to reveal three enormous guards waiting outside. To Rose’s advantage, the guards were made out of stone which made them quite slow. Rose hurled out of the prison and sprinted towards the entrance only to be grabbed by one of the faster ones. “Ozymandias will want to see you.”
Chapter 4: Ozymandias[]
The guards clutched Rose, and they escorted her to the Master Tower. There, she faced a tall man, curling his handlebar mustache with his finger.
”ROSE IS GONE!” Leilani screeched.
Rose was actually quite calm, in fact she wanted to see the "Mastermind". The guards carried her up to an extremely large room that only had, like, a chair and some pillars in it. She spotted a cloaked thing sitting in the chair, Alvin at his side.
The thing pulled down it’s headdress. He revealed himself to be a dark-skinned man with brown eyes and a black mustache. He blinked. “Why have you brought one of my prisoners here, guards?” He asked. “King Ozymandias, she knows too much.” A guard said. “Well, then I guess it’s time for a execution.” He said. “Lock her up for now,” He instructed, too happy to get rid of her. The other guard threw Rose into a cell.
A few minutes later, Rose was startled by a blurry figure knocking the guards out, one by one. The figure punched the metal cell and it broke. The girl revealed herself and said to follow her, and Rose did. Ozymandias noticed, and cast a spell on the figure, which launched her away. He threw Rose back into the cell, and used a spell to fix the door. It locked itself.
Zane fired a couple of Fireballs at Ozymandias only for him to dodge them with ease. Then Zane was levitated into the air. Ozymandins held up his hand, then crushed it into a fist. Zane gasped. The force of the spell felt like hands was crushing at his throat, and dragging him down. "Help?" he gagged.
“Pathetic Wizard. You think you can beat the King of Nightstalker?” Ozymandias said. He threw Zane against the wall, as he heard footsteps coming towards the room. The sheer banging on the door, coming from the prisoner, annoyed him.
"Hey! I'm not done yet!" Zane exclaimed, using Forest's Hurricane, which started tossing random objects at Ozymandias.
Ozymandias evaded the attack and used a special that knocked Zane through multiple rooms. Zane almost fell out of the tower itself, if he hadn't cast Overgrowth and grabbed onto the vines. Ozymandias was about to take Zane to a cell when he got struck by a sword. He fell down, paralyzed.
Zane and Rose look up to the sword. It was Amy.
"Hey, let's go, before this torturer wakes up." Amy broke the cell doors as Rose and Zane followed her out of the prison room.
While exiting the prison room, Zane asked Amy how she got that sword. Amy replied with, "While you were fighting Ozymandias, it gave me time to retrieve my sword in the master room, and come back to do a sneak attack on him."
"And, has anyone seen Leilani?" Zane asked. "Also, we need a plan. Maybe free the other wizards trapped there?" He pondered.
Rose was focused on nothing else but Alvin, the traitorous idiot who put her classmates in danger. Ozymandias seemed to notice this and a wicked grin spread across his face. "Ah, so you know." he chuckled. "Know what?" Rose asked, still focused on Alvin's weaknesses. "What that boy did to you in your past lives. He shot you without remorse. He left you, his daughter behind. In the end he caused your death both times, so why not return the favor?" He snapped. A silver dagger appeared in Rose's hands and as soon as that happened, Rose was hurtling across the room at Alvin, dagger in hand. She slammed Alvin into the wall and put the dagger at his throat.
But instead of killing him, she remembered. Everything that happened while he was her dad. He killed her to save her friends. He left to save his tribe. Then memories of Alvin airplane-ing her across the room, Her little 5 year old self nestled into Alvin watching the stars, playing catch, everything a dad would do for their daughter. Emotions welled up inside Rose and she dropped the dagger. For as soon as she did so, she was on the wall dagger to her throat... and holding the dagger was Alvin.
Chapter 5: Confrontation[]
Leilani rushed into the room. Ozymandias hardly noticed her. “What in the name of god is going on?” She shrieked.
Rose looked over at Leilani who was shrieking like a chicken. Rose just kicked Alvin, and the dagger was hers again. She threw him across the room and double-ax kicked him in the head.
Leilani caught sight of Ozymandias and asked, “Whose that guy? He’s quite tall.”
Ozymandias’ head whipped around and he ran over to Leilani. He seemed to lean over her. “I am Ozymandias (the Great), King of Nightstalker! A 20 year old king who has a pretty crappy love-life!” He announced, proudly. Leilani stared at him, looking confused and concerned.
Rose smirked at Ozymandias' odd attempt to impress Leilani. Zane was shooting spells around the room, sniping guards left an right, and Alvin was most likely now dead. Rose twirled the dagger around in her hand and flew at Ozymanias at full speed. Ozymandias dodged it with clear ease. Leilani looked amazed. She knew this was the bad guy, but he was a bit too....enchanting? He didn’t know how to charm a girl, though. Ozymandias then quickly whipped out a light yellow scythe. He didn’t know what to do with it-yet.
While Ozymandias hesitated, Zane slipped on his Strong Ice Relic and tried to use Chill Out to freeze Ozymandias. It didn't go so well. It took Zane a moment to realize he was the one who was frozen and Ozymandias was fine. Why do I suck at using Ice Spells? he thought.
Rose melted the ice off of Zane using Wildfire (he was drenched) and successfully kicked Ozymadipos in the nuts. "DO SOMETHING USEFUL WOULD YOU?!" Rose yelled at Leilani who fainted pathetically.
"Thanks," Zane said, water dripping off his clothes. "I'm gonna free the other wizards," Zane said pointing to the cells behind him. He dashed over and used Volcannon to melt the locks. "Ready to take down Ozymandias?" I asked them. They just shuffled around uncomfortably. "Well, I've gotta help Rose, so feel free to join in when you are ready," Zane stated plainly.
Rose took one good look at Ozymandias and realized that she forgot about her claws. She extended them and dove for Ozymandias, missed his chest, and stabbed him in the throat instead. Ozymandias screamed in pain. Blood rushed out of his throat and oozed across the floor.
Ozymandias seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke. Leilani woke up. “D-did we defeat him...? Are we free..?” Leilani shuddered as she saw a purple cloud of smoke form into a dark Ozymandias. “AHHH!” She screamed. She ran off.
"Oh great," Zane irritably stated. "Now we have to defeat a ghost."
"Uhhhhh why is there smoke spinning around my neck? Can someone help? Zane? Leilani? HELLO?" Rose tried to say but soon she realized that she was just an... illusion.
"Rose?" Zane asked, "Where are you?" Without knowing, he walked right through Rose.
Then, the Dark Ozymandias appeared. "What did you do to Rose?" Zane growled. It smiled, seemingly mute. Immediately, cuts appeared on Zane, and blood spurted out.
"ARGH!" Zane screeched, falling to the ground, writhing in pain.
The shadow filled the room with a dark fog, blocking everyone’s view. It then cast a group spell, a mixture of Static Shock and Volcannon, hit them all. The wizards who were trapped in the room dashed out, leaving an unconscious Zane on the ground.
Rose tried to scream but there was nothing she could do.
"Now you know how it feels to be evil." Ozymandias said, grinning. What had Rose done to be evil? She tried everything I knew. Even strangling herself didn't work. Leilani wasn't doing anything and Zane was well... unconscious. Was this the end? Rose couldn't predict the future from here. Now all she could do is live it. The shadow smiled. But it was shocked when Leilani sliced it in half.
"Ow...what happened...AND WHY ARE THERE TWO SHADOWS?!" Zane exclaimed, rubbing his bloody head. Then, he had an idea. "Wait...IT'S A SHADOW! THAT MEANS ASTRAL SPELLS ARE POWERFUL AGAINST IT!" he exclaimed.
"ZANE, CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Rose screamed, waving frantically.
Zane tied a bandage on his forehead to limit the blood loss. He heard a faint whisper. Zane focus! He thought, shaking his head.
"ZANE IT'S ME! AIM FOR HIS MUSTACHE, I KNOW THIS SOUNDS WEIRD BUT THAT IS WHERE HE KEEPS HIS POWERS. IF YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED, WHENEVER HE'S WEAK HE RUBS HIS MUSTACHE AND IT'S LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED." Rose cried.
"Do you hear that?" Zane asked Leilani.
The phaser appeared in the room. Each platform and foothold that could be seen were raised, and spikes apppeared where there weren't. The enemy was stuck in the lower part with the spikes, and each prisoner was on a platform. This was the handiwork of the phaser and void magic.
"Hmm... I wonder if you're invincible to anything else. Let's test that..."
The phaser then disappeared again.
Leilani nodded. “But isn’t he gone now? Can we be free?”
"Not until... until we can remove his power. No idea when or how he's gonna reform... but if he's good, he'll keep using shadow magic to tie himself together like a puppet tied on a string."
“S-something doesn’t feel right. I-it’s like something-no, someone-is coming....” Leilani stuttered.
Amy heard footsteps from a mile away. "Hide!" She whispered to the two as she pushed them to a nearby pillar.
"... Everyone, get in the center of the room. I'm trapping the rest of the room, don't fall in.."
As the phaser said this, the other platforms fell and everyone was thrown via void magic to the center platform, which did not turn into spikes and other such deathtraps. A Flyger leaped out of nowhere, hissing. One of its wings were severely injured, but its other was fine. It duplicated itself, and each one of them lunged at one of us.
"Dammit..." The phaser used a Star Cluster tinged purple to push one of the dupes into the trapped floor.
The Flyger’s were stabbed, and they all died. But then a Solarasis flew in the room, avoiding the spikes. It flew over, and scythed everyone with its talons.
The phaser was able to get into the void at the last second... the others? Not as lucky. He then popped up again and just smacked the bird with his staff, trying to disorient it and stop its flight.
Amy dodged the Solaris and sliced it with her motherboard sword, resulting with a dead Solarasis.
"Alright... now what?" The phaser created a small makeshift spear using the floorspikes in the void and jammed the holes in the room, making anything that couldn't phase or break in become impaled. However, this was taking a toll on him... He fell on a knee, panting with the effort. The dark feeling of the facility seemed to shatter, like a window. It finally happened. Everyone had survived...and won over the evil.
"Hah... good." The phaser's many morphings of the room's dimensions reset, and he almost collapsed. "Go and see if there's an exit. I'll... meet up later."
“Well, that feeling is gone. Y’know, that dark feeling. So that means we must’ve won.” Leilani said. A large creak could be heard throughout the facility.
"What the...hell just happened?" The phaser was still on the floor.
“A exit!” Leilani cheered. She grabbed her friends hands, and ran to the location of the creak. A large hexagon-shaped door was open. “A-are we ready?” Leilani asked her friends.
"...I'm ready to get the hell out of here and trace some Shadow Magic... a trace might still remain of that mad king. It is Shadow Magic... unpredictable as always..."
“Well, then let’s go.” Leilani said.
Epilogue[]
Deep in The Subvoid...
Ozymandias blinked as he floated in a mid-void. His scythe was nowhere to be seen. But somehow, Ozymandias ripped through the void. His eyes glimmered.
"This is a new beginning,” He cackled.
References[]
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