The Eternal Sphere

by Xarmar13

Training Facility

While some members of the group wanted to explore the war-torn town of Arias and see the extent of the damage inflicted upon it and the villagers by Airyglyph, Nel insisted on checking in with her superiors located in the large mansion in the center of the town.

On the way, they couldn’t help but empathize with the villagers who mourned the loss of their homes, businesses and loved ones. While most of the houses and businesses still stood, it was the destroyed ones that stood out. They also overheard more than a few of the villagers discussing plans to leave town for safer havens.

Nel led the group into the small mansion which was guarded by a person wearing a gray robe, like the one Lyra saw in Kirlsa.

Everyone was led down the hall and to a room on the right. At the end of the hall, Lyra noticed a fountain statue. The plaque on the statue depicted Irisa, Goddess of the Moon.

Lyra smirked, “A Sun God and a Moon Goddess, if the two were real, I wonder how a meeting between them and Celestia and Luna would go.” Twilight did her best not to giggle out loud.

Inside the next room, the group overheard a conversation from a pair of runologists who wore the gray robes seen earlier. The runologists mentioned that the runological weapons were scheduled to arrive in three days.

Aside from the runologists, the group noticed another woman who had long gray hair tied with purple ribbons. She wore an outfit similar to Nel’s, except that her’s came with a long skirt. The woman appeared to be the field commander since the runologists appeared to be answering to her. She appeared to be satisfied with the arrival time of the weapons and dismissed the runologists.

“You’re looking well,” Nel said.

The commander turned to face the group. “Nel! When did you return?”

Nel smiled, “Just now, Clair.”

The two walked up to each other before Clair started checking Nel for injuries.

“I’m fine Clair, really.”

“I can’t help but worry about you. You’re too reckless, you know.”

“That’s the line of work I’m in. It can’t be helped.”

Clair shook her head and dropped the matter. “Are these the ones?”

Nel introduced everyone to Clair who introduced herself as Clair Lasbard.

“I do apologize for pushing our problems onto you, but please understand our situation. But this is a matter that can be handled tomorrow. Your trek through the mountains must have been exhausting and I’m sure you need your rest.”

“That’s right,” Nel agreed. “He may look fine now, but Fayt isn’t used to traveling. I witnessed that as we reached Kirlsa.”

“C’mon Nel, it was just one wave of fatigue,” Fayt complained. “It’s not like I wasn’t roughed up by their dungeon master earlier that day either.”

“I was too and you don’t see me falling to my knees in exhaustion,” Cliff bragged which earned him a glare from Fayt.

“I have prepared some guest rooms on the second floor, feel free to use them,” Clair offered.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” Twilight said and briefly bowed.

Clair ordered Nel to stay behind while the others headed upstairs to inspect their new rooms. The mansion appeared to have a number of bookshelves, to Twilight’s joy. The rugs had decorated patterns and the blankets on the beds were the same way. Some of the rooms had chess board tables for entertainment.

Since there wasn’t much to see in the village but the past destruction and people likely thinking that life would be better in another town, everyone decided to turn in early. Fayt and Cliff took one room, Twilight and Lyra took another while Sophia and Peppita slept in a third room.

That night, Nel walked into Fayt and Cliff’s room. She took a moment to look at the two sleeping forms in front of her before she bowed to them and walked out.

Unknown to Nel, Cliff wasn’t asleep.

Nel walked down the hallway to the stairs to the lower floor. A voice from behind her startled her into her combat stance. “I wouldn’t advise this course of action alone.” Lyra said as she leaned against a wall while Nel took a moment to regain her composure.

“What do you mean?” Nel asked, trying to act oblivious.

“It doesn’t take a genius to know that you plan to storm an enemy stronghold alone with next to no chance of success.”

Nel sighed in resignation, “I know. I know that Fayt will raise a fuss about me being gone, and will likely try to follow me there. We can’t allow him to fall into enemy hands so please, try to convince him to go to Aquios.”

Lyra frowned, “I won’t let you leave alone.”

“Don’t try to stop me,” Nel threatened with an edge in her tone.

“Which is why only me and Sophia will go with you. Twilight will make sure Fayt doesn’t get any idiotic ideas.” Lyra smirked, “Besides, Sophia needs experience with different kinds of missions if she is going to be a Templar like myself.”

Nel raised an eyebrow, “Aren’t there better ways to train your apprentice than a potential suicide mission?”

“I’ve learned by this point that she’s not normal and regular methods of training aren’t going to be effective with her. Best way is a trial by fire and what better way than to assault an enemy stronghold.”

Nel had to think for a few minutes. She knew that her ill-fated mission to rescue Tynave and Farleen from the Kirlsa Training Facility, which was also the headquarters of the Black Brigade, would most likely get her killed. Her chances were already low and would be nearly abysmal if she encountered Lieutenant Shelby or zero if Albel the Wicked was there.

She also knew that if the mission failed, she would not only be responsible for the deaths of herself and her subordinates, but also the two who would accompany her.

Yet, for some reason, she had a strange feeling that everything would be alright if those two accompanied her. “What is this feeling? Is it guidance from Apris?” she thought. She decided to trust this feeling.

“Very well, pack light. We must cross the wilderness back to Kirlsa with due haste. We leave as soon as possible.”

Lyra nodded and headed to Sophia’s room. The girl in question emerged from her room before Lyra got there. She appeared to be ready for travel. Lyra and Nel raised an eyebrow.

“What, I overheard your conversation and figured it was only a matter of time until Lyra wore Nel down,” Sophia defended.

Lyra chuckled softly while Nel smiled as she shook her head.

“You three headin’ out together?” whispered a deep masculine voice.

Nel’s eyes widened in surprise, “Cliff? I-”

“Save it,” Cliff interrupted. “I know you three are going to go cause a ruckus somewhere in enemy territory to rescue Tynave and Farleen. Don’t worry, I’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone. As much as I want to get in on the action, I have my own mission to complete. I’ll make sure the kid doesn’t go after you. Besides, with Lyra with you, I have a hunch that the enemy is in some serious trouble.”

“Thank you for your understanding,” Nel bowed.

Nel, Lyra and Sophia walked down the stairs and out of the mansion.

“We came in from the northern gate to get here from the mountain path, we’re taking the south gate to get to Kirlsa. Let’s move.”

The trio headed out of the southern gate and into the arid wilderness.

The opposition on the way to Kirlsa was similar to what was encountered on the mountain path. The blue wolves were roaming around with thieves alongside them. There were Bogles roaming the area as well and Noblemen were wandering around for people to annoy.

With the party down to three, they had to be more careful of the opponents they challenged. This was no problem for the templar and her trainee.

Using a little trickery, Lyra hid herself and Sophia before the apprentice launched a Fire Bolt at some thieves and struck some Bogles with Lightning Blasts while they weren’t looking. This tricked the Bogles and thieves to fight each other while the group walked away.

When they neared Kirlsa, they noticed a few lum riders of the Storm Brigade patrolling the area. Since they didn’t need any potential scouts reporting their location to the Black Brigade, Lyra cloaked the party with her Shadow Walk and walked past the riders and into Kirlsa.

While they walked through Kirlsa, Sophia thought about how Lyra used the Shadow Walk and how she could use her psychic powers to repeat what her master did. Since Lyra claimed to use the power of the void to conceal herself and since the void was emptiness, she concentrated on trying to grab that nothingness with her power. While that didn’t work, she noticed the shadows around her shifting. She decided to experiment with the shadows by tugging one toward her. The shadow moved at her command and part of it wrapped around her hand. A brief look of shock appeared on Sophia’s face as her hand turned transparent.

Lyra noticed Sophia’s experimentation and smiled as she noticed that her apprentice had begun learning how to Shadow Walk.

The party walked out of the south entrance of Kirlsa and into more arid wilderness.

---

The mysterious woman in intimidating armor had entered Kirlsa not too long ago. The few townsfolk walking the streets at night quickly took notice of her and gave her a wide berth. Their survival instincts told the folks to avoid the woman at all costs.

It was when she reached the eastern part of town that she sensed someone using the shadows to sneak around. She called upon a shadowy apparition and linked her vision to the ghost.

That was when she noticed three individuals leaving town through the south gate. One among them was her target.

“Looks like I found you,” she muttered. She began heading toward the south gate only to stop after a step. “But…who says that the hunt has to end so soon.”

She knew she could find her target again at any time. While she was on a mission, she had plenty of time to accomplish that. Since there was no timeframe for her mission, she had time to fool around and see the sights.

For now, she was hungry. Instead of pursuing her target, she decided to check out the local graveyard to see if there were bodies there that didn’t vanish when killed.

---

Looking around the area, the wildlife appeared to be composed of territorial wasps and mushroom people. Nel called them Shriekers because of the loud scream they make. They also noticed Black Brigade patrols in the area.

Wanting to conserve her energies for the return trip, Lyra disengaged her Shadow Walk and proposed to just barrel through the patrols.

While Nel considered Lyra to be a little crazier than she expected, Sophia got the first killing blow when she thrust one of her wrist blades into a wasp. She had to carefully remove the impaled remains of the insect from her blade as she didn’t want to test her body to find out if she could resist poisons or not.

One of the black-armored heavy infantry recognized Nel and yelled out to his comrades to come help him.

At the same time, a group of Shriekers began moving in against both parties. The black knights raised their swords against the creatures but quickly retreated when they were too slow to avoid the screams of the Shriekers, damaging their fragile minds.

Thankfully, the trio had much better mental fortitude than the knights. Nel unleashed an ominous wave of shadowy energy at the knights which damaged their armor and fractured their psyche.

Sophia employed a ‘kill it with fire’ strategy against the Shriekers as she used a more advanced fire symbol which summoned a giant made of fire which swept the battlefield with its massive blade and set the area in front of her ablaze. The Shriekers were incinerated, the Efreet spell had done its work.

The remaining Airyglyph troops had been thrown into confusion as Lyra disappeared and reappeared all around them. Her movements were unpredictable and left the troops with many openings that she exploited by slipping her blades underneath their helmets and stabbing their throats. The troops huddled together to try and counter the pony no matter where she appeared. However, that was part of Lyra’s plan as the next moment for them was pure agony as they were fried from inside their armors when a Psionic Storm enveloped the area.

“It’s always surprising how strong you two are,” Nel commented.

Lyra smirked, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

Nel led the party through the wilderness and into a large facility that Lyra and Sophia guessed was the Kirlsa Training Facility where Tynave and Farleen were being held.

It was a moment after the party stepped into the facility when they were greeted by a welcoming party of three Black Brigade soldiers. In a three on three fight, the knights were wiped out in seconds.

“Let’s look around and see if there are any enemies,” Lyra said, partly mockingly.

Growling was heard from their right before the trio spotted a pair of red wolves.

“Look out everyone, their breath attacks have been known to turn people to stone,” Nel warned.

With that information, the trio remained cautious as they fought the wolves and avoided being in front of them whenever they released a stream of colors from their mouths.

The wolves were stabbed and slashed from the side where they were vulnerable before they vanished.

The group investigated the hallway they were in and found a doorway to their east that was locked. There was no door blocking them from the west so that was the only route they could take.

It soon became frustrating for the three as hallways led to more hallways which led to cluttered rooms. It was at the point where the facility felt more like a labyrinth.

Surprisingly, there were not many enemies around.

Eventually, their exploration brought them to the other side of the door that was locked from the entrance. When the door opened, they suspected that the door was designed to open from this side only, which seemed like an annoyance.

A second door was in the next room, but that one was locked and appeared to need a key to open.

A few more minutes of backtracking and exploring soon brought them to a set of stairs that went up to the next floor…

Lyra breathed a sigh of relief. “Finally, glad to get away from that floor.”

…Only to wind up on the second floor which was even more confusing and maze-like than the first floor.

Lyra’s left eye twitched uncontrollably.

The second floor was in shambles. There were broken pillars all over the place. Walls were shattered or made from more rubble. Bloodstains and bodies were present in many of the rooms. Worse, the entire floor appeared to be occupied by monsters. Of those encountered were more frogmen, skeletons, and a race of lizardmen. The party had to take caution when they encountered the lizardmen because they knew the Ice Needles symbol. If they were careless, they could end up frozen.

One lizardman tried to cast his spell on Sophia while another tried to attack her from behind. She countered this by stabbing the wrist of the lizardman behind her who released his grip on his buckler before she grabbed it and shielded herself from the spell. Lyra dismembered the caster while Sophia bashed the wounded lizardman with his own shield and stabbed him in the throat.

Nel started hurling numerous Fire Bolts at her enemies when she learned that most of the monsters on that floor were vulnerable to fire-based attacks. Sophia joined in on the pyromania.

After what felt like an hour of searching, the group finally came across the stairs to the next floor.

“Please don’t be another complicated maze…” Lyra whined.

The next floor featured a number of prison cells and torture implements. The bloodstains on the floor and walls indicated not only that they have been used a lot but also the fact that there is no maintenance staff in the facility.

“Seems like the Black Brigade are a bunch of barbarians if they can’t keep their own facility looking presentable,” Sophia commented. “If I were their captain, I wouldn’t stand for this. I’d at least halve all of their rations until the place was spotless.”

“I think the entire brigade needs to remember what discipline means,” Lyra added.

The most annoying part of the floor was the existence of yet another type of nobleman and they were just as annoying as the other variations. There were also giant wandering suits of armor carrying massive warhammers.

More than once, Sophia decided to dispose of the noblemen by tricking the armors into flattening the annoyances with their hammers. The armors weren’t very tough and were torn apart by the trio’s blades.

Eventually, their exploration brought them to a kitchen. The only occupants were an elderly woman and a young girl who appeared to be around Fayt’s age.

“Who are you? What do you want here?” the elderly matron demanded.

“We’re just looking for a way to the top floor,” Lyra answered.

The young lady saw the colorful pony and secretly began to fantasize strange things about her. Lyra deeply regretted looking into her mind and had to actively keep her psychic abilities from reading minds. She then considered a dose of brain bleach when the adventure was over.

Sophia snapped her fingers in front of the girl’s face to get her attention.

“O-oh, yes, you need to get to the top floor? Take this key, It’ll get you to the elevator on the first floor.” The girl handed Sophia a key.

The elderly woman grumbled as the trio left the kitchen.

With the key in hand and no other way back to the first floor, the trio had to backtrack all the way back to the door, much to Lyra’s distress.

Back at the locked door, Sophia used the key and opened the door. Inside the next room was an elevator which would take them to the top floor of the facility.

The group entered the elevator and pressed the button for the fourth floor and the elevator began to ascend.

The elevator stopped about thirty seconds later and the party continued down a hallway until they saw an outdoor arena beyond the hallway. There were four pillars at the corners of the arena and on the far end hung the two individuals that Nel was looking for.

“Tynave! Farleen!” Nel shouted.

The two agents of Aquaria were badly beaten and bruised as they hung from torture racks.

“Nel, this isn’t the time to be worried about them,” Lyra informed. “There are enemies hiding nearby.”

Nel nodded before looking around. It was easy to deduce that the enemy was behind the pillars.

Lyra attacked one of the pillars with a Psionic Storm which fried the soldiers behind it.

Seeing their cover blown, the other knights emerged from the pillars. Sophia lured the knights into one spot before she incinerated them with an Efreet spell.

With the soldiers dealt with, Nel quickly moved to free her subordinates from the torture rack they were attached to.

“You three faced great danger to save us. You shouldn’t have come,” Tynave said.

“Thank you so much,” Farleen added.

The sound of armor clanking alerted the group that the reunion had to be cut short.

The trio turned around to face the enemy reinforcements. One of them appeared to be a larger man who wore a chainmail coif unlike the others. He also carried an axe and a morningstar. Unlike the other soldiers, this one’s armor was outlined in orange. Lyra figured that he was probably a high-ranking officer in the Black Brigade.

“Hmph, I had expected you to be here with the two escapees, but all I see are a few rats and a freakish lum,” the man mocked.

“Why does everyone call me a lum?” Lyra thought.

“Kind of rude of you not to introduce yourself,” Sophia said.

“I am Shelby, Lieutenant of the Black Brigade. Once I find out where you’re hiding the prisoners, I’ll even be called captain.”

“Ambitious, huh? Not fond of your current captain?”

“Albel is nothing more than a child who does as he pleases. He is unfit to lead the Black Brigade. When I am promoted to captain, Albel can rot in a ditch for all I care.”

“I think you need to learn some proper discipline yourself,” Sophia taunted. “You can’t even take care of your own headquarters. It’s as trashy as you are.”

“I’ll have your head for that!” Shelby roared. He charged at Sophia while the other soldiers faced Nel.

Nel quickly disposed of her foes by blinding them in a cloud of poison before attaching her blades to each other and sending them spinning into the cloud where her Flying Guillotine attack tore through the guards. The poison finished off the survivors.

Sophia handled Shelby by herself. Shelby swiped at the girl with his axe and mace which were expertly dodged with a backstep. Sophia noticed a button on Shelby’s mace which he moved his thumb toward. She had a suspicion on what it would do so next time he swiped with his mace, she sidestepped which allowed the spiked ball of the mace to harmlessly fly past her. As she suspected, the ball was attached to a chain.

When Shelby pursued Sophia around the arena, she noticed that his movements were slow. When he tried to breathe some strange ice breath at her, she always remained out of range.

Feeling like she had seen the extent of his abilities, Sophia created an orb with her psychic energy and threw it at him. He tried to knock it away with his arm, only for it to spread cracks of light through his armor which spread all over until it shattered, leaving Shelby in his underwear.

His surprise was capitalized as Sophia moved behind Shelby and crossed her blades on his neck before she decapitated him. The lieutenant vanished a few moments later.

“That takes care of that,” Lyra said.

“Hmph, worm food,” came a voice from above.

Everyone looked up at the ramparts to see the dangerous man Lyra saw earlier at Airyglyph Castle with the spiked hair looking down at them.

“So this is what Shelby was up to. Pathetic. To lose to the likes of you? Now he’s food for the maggots.”

“Albel Nox…” Nel uttered with a tense tone in her voice.

“Who’s that? Lyra asked.

“He’s the best swordsman in Airyglyph and the captain of the Black Brigade. Also known as Albel the Wicked.”

“Ha…” Albel mocked. “I wash my hands of Shelby’s mess. You are free to go.”

“Hmm…I don’t think so,” Lyra said. Albel looked back.

“Lyra, what are you doing?” Nel asked.

“Why don’t you come down and prove you have the bite to back that bark,” she taunted. “All I see is a bratty child who needs a spanking.”

Albel frowned. He turned around and let Lyra know that she had his full attention. “If you want to die so badly, I’m happy to oblige.”

“Try me then. You, me, one on one. No soldiers, no allies.”

Albel jumped into the arena while Lyra took her spot at the opposite end. Sophia, Nel, Tynave and Farleen moved away from the center of the arena to avoid the imminent battle.

“I will put you back in the dirt where you belong, maggot!” Albel declared.

Albel began his attack by moving toward Lyra in a serpentine pattern. Lyra timed her movements with his and moved to Albel’s right side. He quickly swung his katana to where Lyra moved which was parried by one of her wrist blades. Lyra followed up by kicking Albel in the side which knocked him away.

Albel closed the gap again and slashed the air vertically with his katana which created a sharpened wave of air pressure. Lyra sidestepped the wave and charged toward him. Albel swiped with his clawed left hand and while he expected to make the pony bleed for her reckless charge, he only swiped at an afterimage.

Before his mind registered what happened, Albel received a slash to his back. He stumbled forward and grunted in pain. He turned around and directed a shockwave with his sword to the ground and caused spikes of sharpened air pressure to erupt in front of him. He then unleashed a blast of energy behind him from his metal hand. This knocked back Lyra a little.

“I’ll show you how worthless your cheap parlor tricks are,” Albel growled.

“And yet, I’m still the only one who has inflicted damage so far,” Lyra countered.

Albel had a feeling that his opponent wasn’t fighting seriously. If the creature in front of him was merely messing with him, he likely couldn’t afford to hold back. He studied the movements of the creature, trying to find openings. The problem was that his opponent looked far too relaxed. She moved in a leisurely manner. His instincts told him that if she could move fast enough to create an afterimage, she would react nearly instantly the moment he made a move.

Still, they couldn’t hold the stalemate forever.

Albel charged at Lyra with his serpentine pattern again. This time readying his claws to fight along with his katana. As he figured, Lyra quickly reacted and moved away from his attack. Not wanting an attack from behind, Albel created a wall with his aura. Lyra backed away, not wanting to be hit by the small raging maelstrom he created.

“Hmm…I can see that you aren’t an amateur, unlike your brigade,” Lyra noticed. “Too bad you never took the time to teach them how to fight better.”

“As if those worms would be capable of learning which end of the sword to point in front of them,” Albel said.

Lyra shrugged, “Doesn’t say a lot about your kingdom if at least a third of the army are a bunch of weaklings and their captain is too lazy to bother with them.”

Albel roared, unleashing the wrath of his aura at Lyra. The aura took the form of dragon heads that raced for the mare. Lyra skillfully dodged them then delivered a few light cuts on Albel’s body while he was recovering from the failed attack. He fell to one knee, using his sword to hold him up.

Albel grunted in pain. “Ugh, you still toy with me. Why won’t you fight me seriously?”

Lyra tilted her head. “Why would I? I see no reason for overkill. Anyway, if you’re done showing your prowess off, then we’re done here. I have injured to return home and some engineers to escort around.”

“You dare leave our duel incomplete? I am not finished yet!!” Albel growled. He got back to his feet and assumed his combat stance.

Lyra frowned. With near instantaneous movements, she was quickly in front of Albel before she delivered a hard punch to his gut before grabbing his head and slamming his chin on her knee. She then roundhouse kicked Albel into a wall where he stuck to it.

“Yeah, you’re finished,” Lyra declared. She turned back to the entrance to the arena and walked away.

Nel, Tynave and Farleen stood near the entrance with their jaws hanging open. Tynave was the first to recover from the shock. “Did we really just witness Albel getting thrashed?”

“Wow, she’s really strong,” Farleen added.

“I’m suddenly curious about how a fight between her and Adray would go,” Nel muttered.

“You think she could handle a fight against the legendary Adray, Lady Nel?” Tynave asked.

Nel merely shrugged as she carried Tynave out of the arena with Sophia carrying Farleen.

Author's Note:

I couldn't stand where, in the canon, Albel taunted the heroes and then left them be as if he were doing them a favor. He was just asking for a curbstomping from Lyra.

Comments

[Black--Soul]

The young lady saw the colorful pony and secretly began to fantasize strange things about her. Lyra deeply regretted looking into her mind and had to actively keep her psychic abilities from reading minds. She then considered a dose of brain bleach when the adventure was over.

LOL that normaly Lyra towards humans in other storys i read

[Black--Soul]

Damn fine chapter! Well written combat 👏

[Black--Soul]

So did Lyra ever used brain bleach?

“So this is what Shelby was up to. Pathetic. To lose to the likes of you? Now he’s food for the maggots.”

Do dead get teleported to the Graveyard?
Otherwise i doubt it...

Very wasteful that the equipment of the dead vanish with the dead bodys...
In Skyrim at least half my money is from looting the dead. As a Kajit i like to liberate everything I can get my paws on from adults...