‘’Looming darkness in the streets of New Asonia’’

We quietly roam the streets, blending in with the native people of the city. A tense atmosphere hangs in the misty streets, as people, deprived from any energy, gloom around. The mist is not as thick as outside the city, but still dense, making it hard to see into the distance. ‘Evander…this mist… What do you think caused this?’

‘I only know one person who could have the potential to bring something like this, but not only is he a good person by heart, he isn’t specialised in Manipulation Magic, nor has the magic item that can bring such powers,’ Evander says as I notice his skin had gotten paler.

‘Are you feeling okay, Evander. You look like you’ve aged at least a good thirty years.’ I reach out to his face, but he calmly puts my hand down.

‘Speak for yourself. You look sicker than most of the people here.’

‘I do?!’ I look at my hands. They do look a lot paler than before, but I feel just fine, unlike Evander who looks like he’s struggling to keep himself standing straight. ‘I guess I look horrible, but my energy levels are as normal as they can get!’

‘I see...that’s good, because I’m definitely napping after today,’ he says with a blank expression.

‘Don’t worry, that’s why I’m here!’ I flex my arm muscle as a show of dependence, which only seems to please Evander.

‘Yes, yes. You are good enough to be my servant.’ I punch his side for his trouble. ‘Ouch.’ He keeps on smiling though, with his weak eyes twinkling for some reason. ‘Anyway, we have to get to the bottom of this.’

‘You said something about a person who could do this. Who is it?’

‘A man named Jenar, a former pupil of mine, but he’s a kind-hearted man. He became the governor of New Asonia, but I have no idea why he would do this.’

‘Maybe he didn’t…’ Evander looks surprised at me as I remember the events of Perinia Village. The Guardian…that got possessed by Abyss. ‘Jenar could’ve been possessed or something by Abyss. They are everywhere I noticed lately, so I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar has happened.’

Evander rubs his beard. ‘I guess that would be plausible… Okay, let’s act on your hunch then.’

I feel something lift me up in my heart. ‘I won’t let you down!’ I nearly shout in an upbeat voice. I’m just glad that he has so much trust in me now, to just blindly go with my assumptions.

‘Calm down, will you?’ he tells me whispering as I finally notice some people are looking in my direction with strange, tired looks before they return to their business. ‘We don’t know who could be on the enemy’s side. Let’s try to play it cool.’ I silently nod.

‘So, where do you think Jenar would be?’

‘Where do you think?’ Evander says as he points towards the glaringly large tower in the middle of the city.

‘Obviously there. That tower just screams ‘’My evil lair is located at the highest floor of this tower, filled with traps, traps and I guess more traps’’.’

‘It really does, but we got to start somewhere, am I right?’ Evander says, shrugging his shoulders.

‘Got a point there…’ We set our destination for the tower…

…………………

………..

…….

‘I’m sorry, Lord Jenar has denied any access near the tower. If you have any business, please address your problem at city hall,’ the guard says with the most monotone voice you’ll ever hear.

‘Geh...we’ve been hit with the standard procedure… Evander, what now?!’ I panic unnecessarily.

He drags me away from the guard back into the crowd and lowers his voice to the point only I can barely hear him. It probably also has to do with the fact that he looks sicklier every passing moment. ‘We have to create a distraction. I’ll-‘

‘No, you won’t. You look like you’re dying just by breathing. You should rest and have some faith in me.’ He already trusted my hunch; I want to do just for him. I want to make him proud.

‘Brandr, I-‘

‘Hush…believe in me a little bit.’

‘Alright, I will hide somewhere and rest, but you do you plan to get through?’

‘I’ll…think of something along the way.’ I’ve been hanging so much around you Evander; I am sure I’ll be able to figure something out with inspiration alone…is what I never could say to his face. I’d be too embarrassed. ‘You just take a rest.’ I help him to an alleyway and let him sit on a small box. ‘Just rest here.’

‘Don’t worry to much about me. I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can.’ I nod at his words as I see him close his eyes. I need to quickly get rid of this mist in order to cure everyone…

…………..

…...

…

I hide in the alleys and move through small crowds as I scout the area around the tower. I halt at a certain point, as I hear a passing conversation. ‘We’re looking for two persons. A young boy with amber hair, accompanied by an elder, with a grew-brown beard accompanying him.’ Crap, they already started their search. I don’t have anything to cover my hair, so I’ll have to move quickly. Suddenly, some guards start heading my way slowly. Did I already draw suspicion? I pick up the pace, and start heading in a nearby alley, and dash as fast as possible. I try to shake the off, and when I look back, I can’t see them anymore.

‘Did I lose them?’ Due the mist, my sight is bad, so I almost fail to notice someone in front of me. The moment I notice him, I jump backwards, and dash the other way, zigzagging through the streets and alleys. I don’t know who that was, but I can’t take any risks right now. I have no idea where I am anyway, or how far I am from the tower, but I probably widened the distance. I get back on the streets and move through more small crowds. I successfully escaped them, but when I get to the tower, I notice that the guards are much harder to pass then before. Did they increase the guard amount of the tower? ‘Looks like we’re back on track, but I need to find an opening…’ I think for a moment. What would Evander do. ‘Either something reckless of overcautious.’ I look around, until an idea pops in my head.

It takes a while, but I successfully climb up one of the roofs. Quite sure they wouldn’t bother too much with the roofs since no one in this town has the energy to even properly walk around. I get a little bit exciting. I’ve never jumped roof to roof before, so if I fall, I probably will die. ‘Begone, bad thoughts…’ It’s all or nothing. I take a head start and jump across the roof. I make it properly, which gives me the confidence to jump on another, and another and so on. I keep my momentum like this, and when I’m about to be spotted, I quickly hide by lying down. ‘So far, so good.’ I keep my momentum up like this, until I arrive a few roofs away from the square where the tower is. It’s in complete lockdown. Every entrance point has some guards stationed making sure that people don’t get in. ‘Okay, what can I do…’ I get down off the roof, thinking about my next move until I suddenly see a lot of movement from the crowd towards the square, followed by an explosion coming from the other side. The townspeople panic and start running around like headless chickens. My gut feeling says that this is my only chance, as I quickly slip into the crowd that overload the guards and flee into the square. I slide through the distressed folks of people and make my way down a door unguarded due to the panic that is happening as I slip inside the building and barricade the door.

‘Infiltration complete…’ My mind goes towards the explosion. I can bet that Evander saw me and gave me an opening to work with. ‘Thank you…old friend…’ I must get back to him alive so we can continue our journey. Without him, I’d be hopeless after all. I look around the large interior of this round tower, that is stuffed with filled bookcases, furniture, a fireplace and small models of animal skeletons. The air is dry, with absolute silence falling on my shoulder, sending shivers down my spine. The feeling of a ghost just popping up is increases to alarming levels. ‘Calm down, Brandr…it’s okay…there is no ghost here…’ I notice a stairway going up. ‘Jenar is probably on the highest floor…’ I fearfully step on the stairs leading up the tower…

…………………………………

‘W-W-Why did he…build it…so large…’ After a while of constantly running upstairs, I start to reach my true limits. I can’t walk like this, it’s too long. That Jenar probably has amazing leg muscles, if he walks them constantly. ‘I need to watch out for his kicks…’ They’ll probably hurt like hell. I just have to keep on walking upstairs. The clock house stairs echo my footsteps as I try to climb the stairs as fast possible (that means very slowly). The walls are full of books, writing equipment, and a lot of other things that probably to do with magic. ‘This guy takes his studies serious… Does he ever go out?’ Which each level I climb, I notice the books and mannequins and models get weirder and weirder. The titles of the books start getting more demonic, while I see a lot of tools used by doctors and models turning from animals to human ones, from the ones with only bones to real-life looking ones with what looks like skin. I dare not to touch a single one of these, so I keep on walking, until at some point, it starts to get a little misty. It isn’t regular mist…it’s purple. ‘What in the world…’ I hold my breath, but after trying to breathe it, it feels safe. At least it isn’t poisonous, but what is this guy doing…?’ The chills in my body only get more severe with each passing moment… Until I reach the highest floor…

The place is round like the tower, but the aura is extremely sinister. At the end of the room is a single man chanting something with a staff in his hand, giving off a purplish glow, the same colour as the mist that has engulfed this tower. I can almost taste the danger that radiates from that staff. It seems like my hunch was correct… Suddenly, Jenar turns around, while his eyes glow completely purple.

‘You!’

‘Kyah!’

‘I’ve been expecting you…Hero of IIlluminia…’

‘…how does everyone know I-‘

‘Your exploits are well known in the Abyss…putting the Guardian’s corpse of Perinia to the sword, and ‘’saving’’ the small town. You truly are a noble person.’

‘Perinia…Guardian…corpse?! What do you-!’

‘Silence, brat!’ Words of power echo though the room, succumbing me to my knees. With just the utter of a single word, he put me down. His words still ring in my ears. Something about a Guardian corpse. What does he mean? I must force it out of him.

‘Don’t worry, Jenar. I’ll destroy that staff…and save you…’

‘Save him? You really don’t know anything, brat!’ Jenar waves his staff in a wide arc, and wind just blasts me to the back of the room. ‘Don’t think I am done yet. Al Vire Dok!’ A small black ball forms into his hand, as he flicks it towards me. I quickly grab my Arc and rush forward, blocking the ball with my sword.

‘Don’t underestimate me! Radiate, Arc!’ The greatsword lights up slightly, but nothing more. A candlelight at best. ‘Wha-! Radiate!’ I focus even more and try to build all my energy into my sword, which barely reacts. ‘Why on earth…’

‘Haven’t you noticed, you brat. That there is no magic in this room? You are thicker than I thought. How in the world were you able to defeat that Guardian rip-off?’

‘Don’t think you can beat me that easily!’ I smack the ball upwards by leaning backwards and lifting my sword up.

‘Good, it seems you’ve got some fight left in you. It wouldn’t be fun if you didn’t!’ He makes three other balls out of his staff and launches them to me.

‘Didn’t I just say…I’m not that easily to beat?!’ I dodge all three of them by a hair’s breadth, and charge towards him. ‘Royal sword play, two hands!’ I step into him, and thrust my sword upwards, following by a swing downwards, while jumping back, all after each other. He blocks all my attacks with his staff, proving its resilience, so I jump to my left, and then back to my right, closing the distance between us. ‘Block this!’ I feint a swing to his left, but spin around, and attack his right. He blocks it, but I let go of my sword and with a flawlessly preformed grapple, I throw him to the ground, and grab my sword in mid-air, and thrust it down. As expected, he blocks with his staff, but that was according to plan. I place my foot under his staff and kick it up with all my might. It flies in front of me, and I hit it away from him, and put my sword by Jenar’s neck. ‘Game over…Abyss…’ I win, since he doesn’t have a host to fight with anymore, but for some reason, he laughs.

‘Don’t think you have defeated me with just that. I can do much more, even with this body.’ I suddenly feel a push in my stomach, and in seconds I get blown against the ceiling.

‘Gah!’ The impact goes through my entire body and fall face-down to the ground. He casually grabs the staff, pointing it towards me.

‘It seems like the entire fiasco in Perinia was just a misunderstanding. To think a little brat like you could defeat a spirit like that…’ Jenar points the staff at my face, as another purplish light grows between my eyes.

‘What the hell have you been talking about? Guardian corpse? Rip-off? What do you mean with that?!’ I shout, and the purple ball of light starts fading away, as he grabs my collar and pulls me up with one arm. The strength in Jenar’s body is unreal, for him to do something like that.

‘You really didn’t realise? You must be stupider than I thought.’ He swings my body effortlessly and throws me against the wall. I spit out blood, my body limp from the pain. ‘That your stop in Perinia was a part of out trap. We wanted you to stay in Perinia and fight that Guardian. You fell right into our trap.’ My body slips to the ground, every muscle in my body screaming in pain.

‘W-wait…what? But…’ I rummage through my head, trying to tie his words with my experience. ‘He called me…the Guardian came into my dreams and cried for help. Help to vanquish the Abyss out of him. I saved the village because I did so!’

‘Yes, indeed. You headed the call of a dead Guardian in order to help a inside-agent of ours to take a big step in our ritual to summon your demise.’

‘Dead…Guardian? I-…’

‘The great general killed that Guardian long ago, and we simply used its corpse to stage the play! The great ritual was going to be complete, and we would rule these lands! That damned Abysmal Guardian was becoming uncontrollable though, and we needed it to be put down, but luckily, you came along and destroyed it, so we could use it’s dead heart to steal the souls we needed…’

I slowly get back on my feet, using my sword as a walking stick. ‘R-ritual? Souls? What did you do in Perinia?’

A wide, evil grin forms onto the face of Jenar. ‘We killed everyone…’

My mind goes dark for a moment. The cold shivers shooting through my spine, my muscles trembling, my mind shattering, as the memories of the village pop into my head. Inna…Dyer…Adam… It was short, but I did care about them. They helped me get stronger. To save their village…all for nothing…because of me…? ‘Aah…hah….’

‘Everything was done in order to finish the ritual, so we may bring back the great 3rd General of Abyss, the King of Golems…

Juren-Kulei.’ Jenar starts laughing maniacally, but his words fall onto deaf ears…

………………..

……….

*thumb…thumb* the beating of a broken heart. Voices that were never heard. Brandr was lost in his own darkness, blaming himself, cursing himself for the deaths of hundreds, including close ones. He thought that if he didn’t arrive, nothing would’ve happened. That it was his fault. Once again, rather than saving anyone, he was the reason people died… His heart…couldn’t take it…

Jenar failed to notice that a change began to occur in the young man. A dark force was engulfing the young Hero, who already started losing his mind to his negativity. If Brandr was the Hero, and Abyss feeds on negative emotions, the two forces combined would bring havoc and destruction.

‘You need it, don’t you?’ A familiar voice spoke to Brandr.

‘……………….’ He didn’t respond. He couldn’t respond.

‘Don’t worry, Ill make sure to get revenge for you, and take over your body as a payment!!’

‘Aahhh...hahh...HAAAAAAA!!!’ And with a single scream, his heart collapsed…’