//------------------------------// // Depths of Mosel // Story: The Eternal Sphere // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// The group, now missing Sophia, Lyra and Thanatas, proceeded through the ruins defending two royals, King Arzei and Queen Romeria, as well as the elderly Count Woltar. With the enemies being easy to deal with, since they had superior numbers, Fayt found time to worry about Sophia. Arzei mentioned that the monsters beneath the ruins were very strong. “Hey!” Cliff said, getting Fayt’s attention. “You’re worried about Sophia?” “Well, yeah,” Fayt admitted. “The king did say the monsters beneath the ruins were really tough.” Cliff shook his head in disappointment, “Kid, you worry too much. From what I’ve seen from Sophia, she can handle her own against most opponents. She also has two of the strongest members of our group with her. They’ll be fine.” As Fayt thought about that, he suddenly felt a little foolish for doubting his childhood friend. “You’re right, It’s hard to imagine her losing at this point.” Cliff smiled, “Attaboy, let’s get back to Peterny and relax for a bit while we wait for ‘em.” Fayt nodded. As if following instinct, Sophia wandered to the floor door on the east side of the room. When she pointed at the door, Thanatas pulled out her sword and channeled a strange blue energy before she stuck her sword on the door. The energy raced all over the door for a moment before it shattered, revealing a staircase leading downward. The scent of moisture erupted from the unsealed door and greeted the trio’s senses. This told them that the area below was likely flooded. Avoiding the debris from the door, the trio carefully walked down the stairs. It wasn’t long before they entered an area with no lighting, save for a number of strange spheres that appeared to be emitting an eerie green light. One of those orbs was emitting a rainbow-colored light. The orbs also appeared to behave erratically, as if they were alive. The trio had a feeling that the orbs were likely hostile. With the area as dark as it was, and with the only lighting coming from hostile monsters, Lyra and Sophia generated their own light while Thanatas was able to see well in the dark on her own. Before them stood a number of stone platforms connected by stone walkways. The cavernous interior was filled with water up to the platforms. As the group explored the area, they mainly encountered some aquaregia that glowed green like the green-colored spheres. Their attack patterns were about the same, but they were noticeably stronger than the ones encountered on the way to Mosel. The mermaids’ attacks were still too slow to hit Lyra and Sophia while Thanatas parried the icy blades wielded by the creatures. One tried to freeze the undead knight with their Ice Needles spells and Ice Coffin ability, but she shrugged them off as if the cold never bothered her, to the mermaids’ surprise. After clearing the area of hostile aquaregias who seemed determined to try their luck, the trio spent some time exploring the area and found that the only way forward relied on riding an aquatic-type hauler beast. Thankfully, the beast wasn’t hostile and was willing to ferry them wherever they needed to go. With nothing else to do but wait for the hauler to reach its destination, the three talked among themselves. “Hey, Thanatas…” Sophia began. “How come those creatures didn’t affect you when they tried to freeze you? I know you’re undead, but there has to be more than that.” Thanatas chuckled. “You’re right, there is a trick that I can use to avoid freezing. I don’t simply have runes on my blade only. I also have runes inscribed on my body to keep it chilled and to allow me to thrive in the coldest of environments. They also keep me from burning up in hot environments. I am a walking corpse after all, and I’d prefer not to smell myself rotting.” “I see…” Sophia mused before she asked another question, “Do you even remember when you were alive?” “My past will remain a mystery for you for a while yet, at least unless you decide to rejoin the family.” “Dangling a mystery in front of me to tempt me into joining?” Sophia huffed. Thanatas shrugged. “Not like knowing about me changes anything. We tend to keep our personal information between ourselves in case someone outside the family actually finds a way to exploit us. Not likely, but you never know.” Sophia rolled her eyes, “Whatever…” Since she wasn’t getting anything else from her undead companion, she figured that now would be a good time to confront Lyra about something. “So Lyra, what were you mentally discussing with Twilight about?” Lyra tilted her head in confusion, “What do you mean?” “I’ve read your mental conversations since a few days ago. Every now and then I’ve heard you mentioning things like ‘players’ and ‘puzzle dungeons’ and I even heard Twilight mention something about a secret project.” Lyra tensed when she heard Sophia’s explanation. She nibbled on her thumb as she tried to think straight amid the panic swirling in her mind. “Damn, we got careless. I knew that you would start tapping into our mental conversations at some point, though I had hoped to notice some signs that you were learning something you shouldn’t. I will admit that you have an impressive poker face.” “So what was that about?” Lyra took a deep breath in order to calm herself. After a few moments, she managed to clear the haze of panic from her mind. “Since you’re not actually a denizen of this universe, I might be able to tell you. Just please don’t tell anyone, including your friends. I figured that Thanatas isn’t from this universe either, so I hope you won’t go blabbing.” “I might, or I might not. Since this is Sophia’s adventure, I’ll leave the matter up to her to decide,” Thanatas said playfully. Lyra hesitated for a moment, then proceeded to explain the true nature of the universe they were in and the fact that it was created by Twilight in order to experiment with Xel’naga universe making since the prior records were destroyed by a rogue Xel’naga. She also recounted some of her tales of living with the Protoss and how she became an honored hero to them. “I see,” Thanatas mused. “Your universe is a cross of the Equestrian world that exists in the same universe as the Koprulu sector. Apparently, alicorns count as Xel’naga here. Based on what you told me, you also likely encountered Amon, that rogue Xel’naga you mentioned.” “How did you know?” Lyra asked. “I’m part of a family of multiverse travelers who have powers that seem based on some of the universes that we have experienced. Gerald’s powers were based on factors from the Koprulu sector, but he was unable to harness that power properly so it got passed down to his daughter, then Sophia. “So we are knowledgeable of the events of the Koprulu sector, though the version we know is one without your involvement in their affairs.” “So what are your powers based on?” Sophia asked. “A certain point of time on a world called Azeroth.” Thanatas explained. “The time period involved two factions who hated each other, facing down an army of undead led by a maniac who wanted to end all life in the world. My powers are based on that maniac which gave me dominion over the dead. Though I have had my creative moments in improving on that.” “Like what?” “Like my frost runes and developing a resistance to holy energy. That’s why the holy energies of the chapel in the castle only made me uncomfortable at best. I also have this really fun transformation that I can do. If I find a good enough reason to show it, I will. Then I also have a PhD in chemistry and pathology, which means I know how to create some deadly diseases, as well as ways to treat or cure them.” The tour of the caverns came to an abrupt end when the hauler reached a place where they could disembark. From their new position, they could see the stairs that they came down from to get into the cavern. More importantly, they also spotted the silhouette of an enemy who appeared to be shaped like the mudman from Duggus Forest. Some illumination revealed that the creature was made of water. The water elemental began its attack by launching fists of water at the trio who had to dodge them and move in. The elemental reformed its hands and tried to slam them down on Sophia and Lyra who separated to avoid them. It then launched another fist at Thanatas who blocked it by manifesting large skeletal wings from her back. An icy blue energy filled the gaps between each bone to fully block the elemental’s attack, pushing the undead knight back a couple of inches. Unfortunately for the elemental, since it was susceptible to electricity, it was a bad match for Sophia and Lyra who unleashed Psionic Storms upon it which caused it to writhe in agony. While the elemental tried to counterattack by launching fists at Sophia and Lyra, the attacks were blocked when the sound of an impact was heard nearby before a solid wall of bones erupted in front of them and blocked the punches. This gave the two templars a chance to finish the elemental off by zapping it until it stopped moving. When the elemental was nothing but a lifeless puddle, tremors shook the cavern while the hauler beast swam away as quickly as it could. This was followed by the water level in the caverns lowering until the entire area was drained. With the water drained, the caverns became fully accessible to exploration. Unfortunately, the aquatic denizens of the caverns, particularly fish and sharks, were very upset that the water was gone. The aquatic creatures possessed the ability to float over the stone surface and just looking at the creatures from the platform they were on, they could tell that they were enraged. As they walked down the ramp and began exploring the bottom of the cavern, the fish took notice of the intruders. The large fish in the area used what liquid they had in their bodies to shoot at the trio from far away. However, the distinct lack of lighting in the cave also negatively affected their accuracy so they often missed their shots entirely. The sharks hunted down their prey with ferocity. Whenever one would spot the trio, it would charge at them at rapid speed to try and get a taste of flesh. Their fates, however, would lead them to becoming filets by their blades. Sophia had a clever idea. Using her Shadow Walk ability, she snuck up on one of the large fish and wrapped her arms around its body. She then proceeded to aim the fish’s face at the other aquatic creatures in the area and squeezed her makeshift weapon, forcing it to shoot powerful shots of water from its mouth. The shots punched through the flesh of the other fish and sharks and sometimes left holes that went all the way through their bodies. “Turning a fish into a makeshift gun? Impressive.” Lyra complimented. The trio continued exploring the cavern floor, clearing it of fish and sharks. They also had to deal with the green orbs that seemed to pulse with energy. They also had to open new paths along the way by slashing pillars. Eventually, the trio came across a sealed stone door. With no obvious way to open it, they had to look around for clues. Sophia knew that the shard she was looking for was somewhere beyond the door. They quickly noticed a small prism crystal in the ground. However, there was no obvious way to know how it worked or if the crystal had anything to do with the door. Sophia had to really think about this puzzle. She looked around the room and gazed at all the green orbs flying around along with the single rainbow orb that floated among them. “Odd, why is that thing colored differently than all of the others in the room,” Sophia wondered. She glanced at the crystal then at the rainbow creature and hummed as she developed her hypothesis. “Worth a shot…” “You have an idea?” Lyra asked. “Maybe, but it would mean luring that rainbow-colored orb to the prism crystal here.” “I’ll get him,” Thanatas said before she pointed the tip of her sword at the rainbow creature. A black bolt of energy rushed out of the blade and wrapped around the creature nearly instantly. The energy then yanked the creature to their position and over the prism crystal. A rotating magic circle appeared around the crystal briefly then disappeared. The door that would lead them further into the ruins opened for them. Before they could proceed further, however, the spherical creature suddenly transformed into a giant, transparent, three-headed, floating lizard that rapidly shifted between the different colors of the rainbow. The beast roared in challenge. The tentacles that composed the monster’s lower body lit up at the tips with electricity. It then attempted to flail around with the tentacles, intending to shock them. The trio managed to back away while Lyra followed up by slashing off two of its tentacles, receiving a slight shock for her efforts. The missing limbs vanished while two more instantly regrew from where Lyra severed them. “This thing has fast recovery. Even hydras don’t regenerate that fast,” Lyra said with a mix of awe and frustration. “Any weaknesses?” Sophia asked. Lyra performed a quick scan of the monster. “It seems to be weak to earth based spells and attacks.” The monster’s tentacles lit up again, along with its left and right mouths. It was planning to unleash a lot of electricity into the area. Sophia countered with a quick Earth Glaive where a pair of rocky spires stabbed the creature who roared in pain. As the beast tried to recover, Sophia followed up with a Crush spell which dropped the massive weight on the monster. Bunnies fled from the area. Sophia wouldn’t let up with the spells as she showered the area around the monster briefly with an Acid Rain symbol which reduced its pain tolerance before she summoned a giant rock above the monster which quickly broke up and showered stone on it. While the creature was being pelted by rocks, Sophia jumped between the falling rocks and used her blades to slash the monster’s three heads off before blasting the body with psionic energy. The light monster shattered into crystal shards. Thanatas whistled, impressed by Sophia’s ruthlessness. “Not bad!” Nothing else was said as the trio proceeded through the door and deeper into the ruins. Beyond the door, the appearance of the new area closely resembled the ruins above in terms of architecture. The monsters that dwelled in the area were also different. In the next room, they encountered some form of bipedal black-colored spirit that floated around and emitted purple flames as well as more of those odd living spheres, except these emitted yellow light. Lyra handled the spirit with her superior speed while Thanatas handled the spheres by revealing her bone wings again and slammed the tips into the ground. A series of bone spikes erupted from the ground beneath the creatures and impaled them. The next room housed a very large and very rotund demon. It had brown fur over most of its body with its head and shoulders having white fur. Its horns, six wings and its claws were all scarlet. Its horns were at least half the length of its giant arms with its tail being longer. Fighting the demon proved to be a small challenge as they had to avoid its deadly breath that could either poison or outright kill, as Thanatas warned. Lyra jumped up on the demon’s back and grabbed its horns while forcing it to move in the direction she wanted, which was into a wall. Lyra jumped off before the impact. With the demon stunned, Sophia took the opportunity to viciously attack the beast by cutting off its tail, which resulted in the beast roaring in pain. Lyra jumped back onto its back and sliced off its horns before she grabbed them and forced them into its back. With its soul’s tether to its body weakening, Thanatas pointed her sword at the demon and launched a number of hollow spirits which assaulted the weakened demon’s soul. With its soul adequately weakened, she forced the demon’s soul from its body and into her sword. Once the demon vanished, the trio continued their exploration. Sophia could feel the shard on the same level that they were on so it was a matter of looking around. As they explored, they found more fire spirits and large demons. “So you said that we are in an experimental universe, but what does that entail? Are Fayt and the others artificial beings as well?” “I can’t give you the full details because only Twilight knows them and the things I do know are more or less general knowledge among the player base,” Lyra explained. “But to answer your question, yes they are and I think that if you told them that, they might have a bit of an existential crisis.” “Yeah, anyone would…” Sophia mused. “I wonder how Fayt would have turned out if I wasn’t around?” “Probably a little more willing to take charge but still whiny at the beginning,” Lyra guessed. “I’m sure you don’t know this, but from what Twilight told me, your arrival in this universe also resulted in the death of the Esteeds’ birth daughter. Somehow, your foster parents are convinced that you are their birth daughter.” “How do you know?” Sophia asked. “Because Twilight detected the rift that brought you into this universe and somehow the original Sophia’s data got erased. I have a feeling that your grandfather hacked the Esteeds somehow.” “It’s possible,” Thanatas said. “Gerald does have a knack for hacking into systems.” Lyra narrowed her eyes at Thanatas. “Wait, if Gerald can hack into our systems, is he the one messing with the Eternal Sphere?” Thanatas waved her hand dismissively, “Nah, doing something malicious that could have a negative effect on those we have to protect to preserve the universe’s timeline is not the way the family does things. The only thing he’d be guilty of is hacking the Esteeds.” “So why leave me with them in the first place?” Sophia demanded. “That you will have to find out for yourself. I’m sure Gerald left that explanation on one of the shards somewhere.” The conversation left Sophia frustrated with a number of unanswered questions. She looked at the bracelet on her wrist and suddenly felt more eager to have it removed. She knew that her grandfather intended to test her skills somehow, so she would have to wait until she found one of the other two shards to get her answers. The trio was sure that they were moving in a sort of spiral pattern as they explored the ruins, if their sense of direction told them anything. They had a feeling that their destination was in the center of the ruins. They soon entered a room that had three beings who looked ready to fight them. One was a yellow aquaregia, another was a blue fire spirit and the third was a bouncing child wearing a brown outfit and a brown cap with a large golden feather sticking out of it. He also wielded what looked like a pair of wings in the form of a bow. “Hail to the…” the child shouted at first but quickly drifted off. “Wait, is that Lyra?!” “Lyra? You mean Templar Master Lyra?” the fire spirit asked in shock. “That can’t be…” the aquaregia denied. “I know for a fact that Lyra isn’t an employee of Sphere, so how can she be here with level two access?” “I take it that you three are players?” Lyra asked. “Yeah, we were leveling around here to get ready for the new arena season,” the child explained. “We need to get really strong if we’re going to take on the champions, Diamond Crown and Solar Point. “I really am living in an MMO, arent I?” Sophia mentally asked Lyra. “Yep, we even have a whole town that hosts some features of the Eternal Sphere,” Lyra said. “Hey, uh, I know this is sudden, but…” the boy said awkwardly. “Could we have a duel with you three? We wanna see how far we’ve come.” Lyra raised an eyebrow, her scan of the trio revealed that they were tough, but not nearly as tough as herself or her companions. She decided to humor them anyway. “Alright, but I hope you three can keep up.” “Cool. Alright guys, let’s get’em!” The child charged at Lyra while the aquaregia attacked Sophia and the fire spirit attacked Thanatas. The aquaregia attempted a downward slash on Sophia who blocked it with an energy blade. As the two clashed, the mermaid’s eyes widened before she floated back a fair distance. “Wait, that energy blade! Are you one of Master Lyra’s apprentices?!” “Yeah, so what?” Sophia answered. “Oh, buck me!” she cursed. In her panic, the aquaregia began to strike at Sophia out of desperation, recklessly slashing at her with her weapon while trying to freeze her with her Ice Coffin ability. In her recklessness, she failed to notice that she was fighting a psionically generated image while the real Sophia snuck around, grabbed the mermaid by the tail and threw her over her shoulder to slam her into the floor. Looking in horror at the orb of psionic energy pointed at her the aquaregia screamed, “I give up!” The fire spirit fared worse than the aquaregia. When he tried to unleash a few magically conjured meteors at Thanatas, she unleashed a sphere of ice from her mouth that exploded over a wide area, freezing everything caught in the blast, including the meteors and the spirit. Thanatas batted the meteors aside where they impacted on the walls. The spirit cried out his surrender. The child unleashed a tornado around himself in an attempt to hurt Lyra. He moved around and tried to catch everyone he could while maintaining the twister in a desperate bid for victory. Eventually, he exhausted himself and was forced to stop channeling the winds. As he gathered his breath, a pair of energy blades appeared around his neck with the mare in front of him giving him a look that dared him to make another move. To his disappointment, Lyra looked unharmed. “Okay, okay…we surrender!” The boy cried out. “Wow you guys are good. You should really go to Gemity sometime and try out the arena. I bet you guys could take down the champs if you wanted.” “We’ll think about it,” Lyra offered. With that, the trio proceeded to the next room with the spirit trio going elsewhere to level up some more. The next room featured a four by four series of statue pedestals. As they entered, from left to right in the back row, a black thief statue, a black warrior statue, and a black symbologist statue appeared. “This is a runic chess board,” Lyra said. “I can handle this part.” As Lyra played her game, Sophia saw the Ihan Crystal shard that she was looking for sitting on the left throne of two thrones in the back of the room. She quickly walked around the chess board and approached the throne to collect the shard so they could leave the place behind. What Sophia wasn’t expecting was for the shard to activate on its own and hurl her consciousness from her body on the spot. The next thing Sophia knew, she found herself on the floor of what appeared, from the interior design, to be a Federation ship. More specifically, it appeared to be the lounge of the transport ship Helre. Some small part of her had to wonder if she dreamed up her adventures on Elicoor, but she banished those thoughts as she found herself alone in the lounge. Her grandfather mentioned in the last vision that he intended to test her. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was part of his test or when the test would actually begin. The door to the lounge opened and Gerald strode inside. As the door closed behind him, he took a deep breath. “I apologize for abruptly sending you into this memory. I assure you that this is the only one of the set that will do that to you. I needed the crystal activated right away as I figured at this point that your days on Elicoor II are coming to an end soon. I need you to view all seven of these shards before you leave the planet. “As I told you in the previous memory, I intend to test your ability to lead others to victory in battle. This ship was manifested from your memories and shall serve as our waiting room between matches. “The matches shall be simulations where I shall lead my own forces against yours in multiple scenarios. I shall give no quarter to you, nor shall I expect any mercy from you. We shall pit armies of humans, Protoss and Zerg against one another and I will try to stack the odds against you, yet you must prevail if you wish to inherit my forces.” “How do you know that I want your forces,” Sophia asked. Gerald chuckled, “Do not deny your desires, my granddaughter. The Zerg part of your heritage would see me as a pack leader to be disposed of and my pack to be integrated into your own. That is the way of the Zerg. I know that the Protoss side of your heritage is practically shuddering in anticipation of a challenge while your humanity is making sure to keep the other two sides in check to make sure you don’t come at me recklessly.” Sophia could only growl at that. The worst part of it was that he was right about her desires. She wanted to crush him and his forces and make them her own. “Alright, so when do we begin?” she asked. “Right now.” The scenery from the ship disappeared and she found herself standing on a metal platform hovering in the middle of space. At first, she was afraid that she was going to asphyxiate until she realized that she was still experiencing the world in the shard. Gerald chuckled, “You were probably thinking why I would send us to an orbital platform devoid of atmosphere. The suits worn by my human soldiers allow them air to breathe and systems to recycle the exhaled air and convert it to oxygen again. Zerg have the ability to survive in the vacuum of space while Protoss use their psionic power and plasma shields to survive the void. Since this is only a memory, you have no need to breathe. “One other thing, worry not about your allies outside the memory. The time discrepancy between this memory and the world outside is such that by the time the memory finishes, your allies will have just finished the last bit of exploration in the ruins. “Now then, use what you have learned of the three races. Recognize their strengths, their weaknesses, and how to use them to your advantage and defeat me.” The memory progressed for what felt like a very long time. She was given the seeds of armies in the form of either human, Zerg or Protoss forces. She was given scenarios where her decisions would mean the difference between victory or defeat. Gerald had outsmarted her and claimed victory many times, sometimes from the jaws of defeat. However, Sophia learned from her mistakes. She learned from her defeats. She learned what she could have done better, even in times that she emerged victorious. As time went on, even when it felt like she was in the shard for years, she knew that mere seconds had gone by in reality. At first her record of victories and defeats were skewed greatly in Gerald’s favor, but time had allowed her to study her foe and her own resources. There were times where she was given nothing and had to survive her grandfather’s forces hunting her until either reinforcements arrived or she utilized her own stealth techniques to defeat the enemy. She was thankful for those times in between matches where she could rest her mind before the next scenario. She was glad to be able to taste her favorite drink of choice, raspberry mint tea, as a means to relax and calm her mind. Soon, after what felt like a decade had passed, her record showed in her favor. She began to emerge victorious far more often than she was defeated and those losses became fewer and far in between until Gerald, a master strategist in his own right, became frustrated that his granddaughter could outwit him at every turn, almost as if she had learned everything he could teach her and that she had surpassed him in strategy and tactics. As one last scenario, Gerald had allowed Sophia to command three bases, one of each race, and have her emerge victorious against a large number of enemy bases in one area. To many this would seem unfair, but Sophia had mastered the strengths and weaknesses of the three factions and had learned to bring them together to cover each other’s weaknesses. One by one, Gerald’s bases fell as his offensives were broken up through weak points that Sophia had learned to identify. She stole Gerald’s resources and used them against him. Despite having Zerg genes within him, Gerald had discovered the limitations of his ability to adapt to his enemy while his granddaughter showed no signs of reaching such limits. And he couldn’t have been more proud. With the last base fallen, the two returned to the Helre. Gerald approached Sophia and smiled as he bowed gracefully to her. “Congratulations, you have surpassed your old man in tactical prowess. Whatever you may choose to do with your life going forward, know that you have my support. The next shard will be the one that will answer your questions of why you were sent to live with the Esteeds. Look forward to it. The next thing Sophia knew, she was suddenly back in the Ruins of Mosel. She was very disoriented after experiencing the memory in the shard for what felt like a decade. She looked around to find a reflective surface to look at to remind her that she had not aged one bit. “What’s with you?” Thanatas asked. “You were staring off into space for a few minutes and when you came to, you acted like you had no idea where you were.” Sophia glared at Thanatas. “You try compressing a decade of military experience into a few minutes and see how you feel after that,” she snapped. “Wow, that’s the most efficient form of teaching I’ve ever heard. Anyway, while you were getting schooled, Lyra opened a set of stairs where that chessboard used to be and we found a treasure room. There’s some gold and jewels in there, but Lyra said that the treasure wouldn’t be useful to us. Though we did find another of those weird books with a few words in it. It had the number ‘four’ on the spine.” “What’s it say?” “shall likeness first second the” Sophia raised an eyebrow. “That makes no sense.” Thanatas shrugged, “Agreed. Anyway, looks like we’ve gone as far as we can get here so it’s time to head back. Sophia nodded while Lyra joined them seconds later with the book. The two templars braced themselves for another ride through the sensory void as Thanatas created another bone cage around them and they sank into the ground.