The Eternal Sphere

by Xarmar13

War and Death

During the night at the Aquios inn. Mirage was enjoying a book while she was looking after the sickly young lady.

She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the girl who looked like she wouldn’t survive until tomorrow night. If the battle were to conclude quickly, she might have a chance to see her childhood friend one last time before she succumbed to her disease.

She couldn’t think about that right now though, she had her mission to see through and worrying about the girl whose fate was sealed wouldn’t accomplish anything.

That was when she remembered something that was somewhat important that she forgot to tell her fellow off-worlders. “Hmm…with all the commotion, I forgot to tell them that I managed to contact Quark,” she muttered. “Knowing Maria, she will probably get here ahead of the fleet. Though I hope she tries to use some subtlety when she has to interact with the Elicoorians…”

Mirage paused, thinking about what she just said. She then facepalmed, “Who am I kidding, that girl can be as reckless as Fayt.”

She said nothing more and returned to her book.

---

The sun had risen in the frantic town of Arias. Once everyone had finished their morning routine, they exited the mansion to prepare to battle an army of conquest-driven soldiers.

As they looked around the village, they discovered a number of runological weapons were placed all over the village while making sure not to block the main streets. Dion was busy doing the final inspections of the weapons before they were deployed.

Dion wore the runologists’ uniform and the only noticeable features were his green hair and glasses.

“Hey Dion, how are the weapons?” Fayt asked.

“Thanks to your suggestions, we have greatly improved the weapon all around: firepower, rate of fire, and number of rounds. I still regret that we were unable to complete the Thunder Arrow in time,” Dion lamented. “But with the weapons we already have, I feel that we stand a fighting chance against Airyglyph.”

“Make sure the marksmen can aim these things,” Sophia said. “The soldiers will be counting on these weapons to hit their targets and provide adequate support.”

Dion nodded. “Right, leave it to me.” He paused before he mumbled, “I’m looking forward to seeing my childhood friend in Airyglyph once the war is over.”

“We will tell him after the war is over. He needs to focus right now,” Sophia mentally told Fayt. He quickly turned his head to her with wide eyes. “I’ve been learning how to use psychic powers, Fayt. Is it really surprising that I would learn telepathy?”

Dion looked curiously at Fayt, “Is something wrong?”

Fayt turned his head back to Dion. “Oh, uh, no, just thought I saw something on Sophia’s head,” he lied hastily.

Dion shrugged and returned to work.

The moment was nearly upon the soldiers of Aquaria, so the group rallied with Clair at the southwest gate that led into the arid wilderness where the deciding battle would take place.

Once the group and the commanding officers were around Clair, she began. “Are the preparations complete? What we do here will determine victory or defeat. If we do not defend this position, they’ll take the royal city in one fell swoop. We must stop them here.” She paused for a moment before she nodded in determination. “Let’s do it.” She took one last look at her troops before she ordered them to move out.

Soon, the two armies faced each other, the tension high between both sides. Airyglyph and Aquaria eagerly waited for the other to make the first move. This tense moment lasted five minutes.

Naturally, Airyglyph was the first to begin their charge with Aquaria moving in response. It was only a minute of charging forward later that the two armies finally met in combat and battle was joined.

The Black Brigade took the brunt of Aquaria’s infantry while the Storm Brigade moved to flank them. However, the charge was disrupted when the runologists fired spells that forced them to break formation. The infantry took advantage of the disruption and used their spears to trip up some of the lums and fight their riders on equal footing. The Storm Brigade still had partial success though as they tore through some of Aquaria’s infantry.

As expected, the Dragon Brigade acted as aerial support and flew around the battlefield to assist where needed. Their dragons’ fire breath incinerated many soldiers, Aquarian and Glyphian alike.

The dragon riders did not have free rein over the battlefield though as blasts from the runological weapons picked off the dragons one by one. The Dragon Brigade countered this by charging straight for the cannons and blasted fire on some of them. The shooters fled from the cannons when the dragon riders got close but the cannons did sustain damage.

Sophia observed the battlefield and analyzed the movements of both forces. She could tell that the two armies were even at this point, but that would slowly shift in Airyglyph’s favor in time. Aquaria was still outnumbered and the weapons may not be enough to turn the tide.

That was where they came in.

With Airyglyph distracted by their own battles, the group was able to move about the battlefield with minimal resistance. There were still some Glyphian soldiers who attempted to engage them but were easily overpowered. The few troops that were available to fight them were simply not tough enough to handle a group of seasoned fighters.

Adray brought relief to the Aquarian troops around him by cutting down knight after knight with his sword. Cliff’s fists smashed through their armor as if it were made of glass. Nel’s and Peppita’s icy daggers caused a number of knights to become frozen which allowed the Aquarian soldiers to smash their brittle bodies.

The dragon riders fared no better as their ill-fated approach to the group ended with psionic blasts and volleys of missiles that were fired from Roger’s helmet. Nobody in the group questioned the child’s arsenal at this point.

The group cut a swath through the enemy forces as they made their way to the entrance to Kirlsa where the command center was located. It wasn’t long before they came face to face with the very cause of the war.

Duke Vox was a middle aged man who wore his black armor with gold lining and his red cape draped over his body. He had short gray hair with a mustache that nearly extended to his beard along with a soul patch.

“So, you’re the girl I’ve been hearing about, the one who defeated Albel…” Vox noted.

“And you’re the megalomaniac who continues to instigate the war,” Sophia shot back.

“It’s Aquaria’s own fault for not improving on their military when they had the chance. They chose to put their faith into a non-existent deity instead of relying on their own strength. Aquaria will pay the price for their weakness. I will crush their pathetic nation and force them to submit to my authority.”

“Don’t you mean your king’s authority?” Sophia asked.

Vox scoffed, “My nephew is too soft to lead our people. If it weren’t for the fact that he is the legitimate ruler of the throne, I would have claimed it for myself a long time ago.” Vox smirked, “I suppose that it is to my good fortune that he is so easily manipulated. He sees me as his voice of wisdom.

“Before I slaughter you all one by one, I do have to thank you girl, because you defeated Albel, I had a reasonable excuse to have him charged with treason. Once I am finished here, I can personally end his wretched life myself. Woltar can do nothing to stop me, so I will deal with him at my leisure.”

“Sounds like the makings of a coup,” Sophia figured.

Vox laughed, “Very clever of you to figure that out, girl. Too bad for you that secret dies with you and your friends.”

One of Vox’s subordinates handed him his lance as he boarded his dragon. As he took to the air, however, Twilight grabbed Vox in her magic and pulled him back to the ground.

What the group wasn’t expecting though was an animated skeletal frame of a dragon swooping down and grabbing Vox’s dragon by the neck and flying off.

Nobody had time to process what they just saw before Vox got back to his feet and one of his soldiers exchanged his lance for his broadsword.

“I’ll handle this one,” Adray declared. Everyone looked at him in confusion. “I never got to fight Glou so Vox will be the next best thing.”

“If you wish to die first Adray, then I will be happy to oblige.” Vox charged forward at Adray who had his katana drawn. The two clashed blades repeatedly, neither side giving in to the other. Adray kept his fight fair by avoiding the use of his runology.

Everyone watched as the two swordsmen clashed blades for a time. Of course, this also left Vox unable to give new orders to his troops and when Aquaria changed tactics, courtesy of advice from Sophia, Airyglyph wasn’t sure what to do and with their command indisposed, they had to fend for themselves.

While they appeared evenly matched at first, Adray’s experience soon gave him the upper hand and he began landing attacks on Vox while avoiding counterattacks.

Vox jumped back to reset his stance for another clash. “You put up an admirable fight, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

That was when the sky darkened over the battlefield.

The soldiers who weren’t distracted with their own fights looked up to see a massive flying red object hovering over the battlefield.

Sophia noticed the object and her eyes widened in horror. Her instincts told her that they needed to get out of there fast. She pulled Adray back to the group with her telekinesis before she yelled for everyone to run away.

As they ran, Vox looked at the fleeing group in confusion. He looked up to see what the girl saw but he was too late to react to what came next as a ball of red light fell from the sky and created a massive explosion as it landed. Being near the point of impact, Vox was vaporized in the blast.

With the blast avoided, the group looked up at the large red object. “The Dragon Brigade?” Nel guessed. “No…what is that?”

Everyone who knew the true identity of the object glared at it. “It’s the Vendeeni,” Sophia said.

“What is that?” Nel asked.

“It would take too long to reasonably explain them so I will tell you on the way back to the rear.”

“Still don’t have a reason to fire Azure?” Lyra asked.

“No, I need proof that she ordered this,” Twilight explained. “While this is a blatant violation of the UP3, I need to know that these Vendeeni aren’t some rogue element before I take action.”

As they ran back to Arias, the Vendeeni battleship rained death on the poor soldiers indiscriminately. On the way, Sophia tried her best to tell the Elicoorians about the Vendeeni and how they came from beyond this world. To Nel, it seemed like utter nonsense, but she also had no reason to doubt her. Though if what she said was true, this did raise a very important question.

“How do you know about these Vendeeni? If you know that they are not of this world, then does that mean…?”

“That we are also not from this world,” Sophia admitted.

“So you lied to us?!”

“There are rules and regulations against interacting with worlds with inferior levels of technology. The only reason we interacted with this world in the first place was because the Vendeeni forced us here.”

“So why are they after you?”

“Because they want Fayt for his latent Symbological power,” Twilight explained. “Before you ask, Symbology and Runology are terms that can be used interchangeably.”

“What is it about my power that is so valuable that they would kill so many people for it?” Fayt demanded.

“Fayt…” Sophia began, but Fayt wouldn’t have any of that.

“No Sophia, I have waited long enough,” He shouted. “I want answers! Why is my power worth the lives of countless innocent people? Why would they assault Hyda and destroy the Helre over me? What the hell is so dangerous about this power that they would start a war over me?!”

As Fayt’s emotional outburst continued, Twilight and Lyra could sense a spike in Fayt’s magical output. It had already risen to the point that it was at during their encounter with Norton on Vanguard III and it was still growing. Cliff tried to calm Fayt down, but Twilight pulled him back to her before she had everyone group around her.

“I don’t think we can stop what’s coming now. We need to get to a safe distance,” Twilight shouted. “I don’t know how much of the area will be affected, but I’m not taking any chances.” She teleported herself and the entire group back to Arias.

Fayt had nearly lost awareness of the area around him as his emotions boiled. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the sight of a blast from the Vendeeni ship hitting the area near Dion’s position.

After teleporting everyone to safety, Twilight, Lyra and Sophia teleported to a distant hill that overlooked Fayt’s position. They saw him glow with a mysterious light before turning blue. A massive circle appeared on the ground, one that Twilight recognized immediately.

“I don’t know how, but somehow, Robert Leingod learned how to create imitations of some of the administrative symbols,” Twilight mentally told Lyra.

“Which one is this one?”

“In the Eternal Sphere, it’s known as Destruction. To us, it’s known as Deletion. It’s similar to the power I used to destroy that Vendeeni battleship from a few days ago.”

Sophia had finally learned how to tap into the mental conversations between Twilight and Lyra, but didn’t say anything about it for the time being. She didn’t want them to know that she was aware yet in order to gain some information that might be useful later.

As the light show progressed, Fayt manifested a mass of light that took the form of a winged human being who wore a white version of Twilight’s company uniform. The angelic being raised her hands into the air and a series of circles formed with a blinding light in the center of it between the angel’s hands. The light was fired at the battleship, leaving more circles to form along its vector.

When the light hit, the ship turned black with light racing along it. Space warped around the ship and transformed the structure itself into a large ring of matter before the light instantly vanished, and the ship with it. The remnants of the light turned into glowing feathers that faded away as Fayt collapsed on the ground.

---

The ominous woman in terrifying armor arrived to view the aftermath of the battle. Surveying the corpses all over the place, she sighed as battlefields meant that she had a duty to perform.

She raised her sword into the air and summoned a number of tall beings who were completely concealed in black robes and carrying scythes. These beings were those that she would never use for battle or for anything related to mortal affairs. These servants had one purpose only: to ferry the souls of the dead beyond the veil.

While she considered gathering the corpses on the battlefield as material for later, the time for fooling around had passed and it was about time to get her main mission over with. It was time to introduce herself to her target.

She saw people from both armies moving around the battlefield, collecting the bodies of the fallen.

There was one of the fallen in particular who was barely clinging to life, but his time was very short. He would not survive until nightfall. She could sense some strong regrets within his soul, regrets that would make ferrying him to the afterlife a real hassle.

With her reapers, who were invisible to mortal eyes, working on the latest scene of carnage, the woman shifted into a spiritual form and followed the people carrying the person. The mortals may have their magic, but that magic didn’t cross spiritual barriers so she was invisible to most people in that form.

At the same time, she noticed her target and her friends were carrying that blue-haired boy with them. The results of that light show vexed her a little because whatever happened obliterated the battleship from the sky, crew and all, including their souls.

She followed the people with caution. She knew her target would be able to see her so she made sure to avoid getting too close.

She followed them for hours as they left the village, across land that was too lively for her taste, through a lively town and beyond a meadow until they arrived at a city atop a lake.

The city felt holy and made her a little uncomfortable. She could withstand holy energies, but it still felt like the equivalent of a mortal being in an area with an oppressive atmosphere.

On the way to the castle at the end of the street, the woman sensed another soul on the verge of becoming severed from their mortal shell at the nearby inn. She sensed a bond of fate that connected the dying man with whoever was at the inn. She figured that she would look into that shortly.

When the injured man was placed on his bed, the woman got a good look at him with an analysis spell. It appeared that he suffered severe internal damage from a powerful blow. He had numerous broken bones and some of his skin had been vaporized, leading him to slowly bleed out. Such injuries can be fatal to most mortals, especially with the planet’s current technology, but it was nothing she hadn’t healed before.

The woman then went to the inn where her search brought her to a young girl about the injured man’s age. She suffered from a terminal disease that was pretty weak in effectiveness but fatal in the absence of modern medicine. She appeared to be in the final stages of the disease. It was still treatable at this stage with her abilities, though the patient would be experiencing months of recovery time.

With her analysis complete, the woman returned to the castle, still in her invisible spectral form. She looked through the doors in the east wing and soon found who she was looking for.

She noticed her target sitting on a bed next to the unconscious blue-haired boy alongside a red-haired woman and a muscular blonde man.

Just as she thought, her target sensed her presence and her head suddenly raised before she looked in her direction.

“Who are you?” Sophia demanded. “What are you doing here?”

The woman smiled and fully phased into the room before returning to a corporeal form. The other two who were still conscious turned their attention to the woman. Both adopted a guarded stance. “We meet at last, dear cousin. How has your adventure been so far?”

Sophia looked at the woman in confusion. “Cousin? I don’t remember ever having a cousin like you.”

“I am your grandfather’s sister’s granddaughter. So yes, cousins. My name is Thanatas.”

Thanatas. That name sounded familiar to Sophia. She remembered back to the first memory from the crystal and remembered her grandfather mentioning someone names Thanatas. Apparently, he held her in low regard.

“Okay, so we got a name. What are you doing here?” Cliff asked.

“You are trespassing in the sacred palace of Aquaria. That action is punishable by death,” Nel added.

Thanatas suddenly burst out laughing for half a minute. When she got her laughter under control, she replied with a fanged smirk, “I’m afraid that is quite impossible. After all, killing a goddess of death would be a monumental task.”

“You dare to call yourself a goddess in this sacred place? Blasphemy!” Nel roared.

Thanatas maintained her smirk, “Believe what you want, young lady, you still cannot kill me. Also, I wouldn’t try it here if I were you. Unless you want your superiors to put you on cleaning duty for a few months.”

“You think that will stop me?”

“No, but I’m sure you would like to see a better ending for that dying runologist in the west wing. Dion, I think his name was.”

“Huh? Dion?” Fayt mumbled as he slowly returned to consciousness. His mind was still foggy from his recent experience. “Who are you? How do you know about Dion?”

“I know the names of every individual just by reading their souls. A pleasure to make your acquaintances, Fayt Leingod, Cliff Fittir, Nel Zelpher.”

“This chick is so many kinds of creepy,” Cliff said.

“I have that effect on everyone,” Thanatas said cheerfully. “It’s my personal charm.”

Sophia sighed, “Yes, I remember my grandfather mentioning you. He called you a witch and that you don’t respect life. Given that you represent death, it’s pretty obvious that you wouldn’t.”

Thanatas shrugged, “That’s not what the family complains about though. They hold corpses in higher regard than they should when it’s the souls of the departed that must be revered. To me, once the soul departs, the corpse is either food or material for scientific pursuits.”

“I can see why Gerald would call you a witch, but I think necromancer would be a better term for that. I get this feeling that I know what you use corpses for in your scientific pursuits, though for whatever reason, I don’t feel disgusted by that.”

“Heh, you’re the first to not have that reaction.”

“As much as I would like this disturbingly morbid conversation to continue,” Cliff began with sarcasm. “You mentioned Dion. Have you seen him?”

“Yes, and he’s not going to last much longer without my help.”

The fog finally cleared from Fayt’s mind as he looked at Thanatas in surprise. “Dion’s in danger? Can you help him? Please, you have to help him! And Ameena too!”

“Okay, one, you are in no position to be making demands of me. Two, shut up you whiny brat! Three, no really, shut up!” Sophia giggled at that. “Four, I can help them, but they have to consent to something first. Their lives are about to end and they may decide to make a deal with death. And five, if you have any survival instincts in that head of yours, Fayt Leingod, then I would listen to two and three.

“Now then, Nel Zelpher, please take me to Dion’s room while you, Cliff Fittir, will head to the inn and explain to the diseased girl there that she is about to be moved.”

“Just do as she says,” Sophia said. “Any protest at this point is just going to waste Dion and Ameena’s dwindling time.”

“Right,” Cliff said, then left the room. Nel led Thanatas down the hall.

When Thanatas was brought to the room, after a brief explanation from Nel to the staff, she formed a zone of black mist next to Dion’s bed. Two hunched over and deformed zombies exited from the mist with a stretcher.

“Take this one to the sanitized operating room,” Thanatas ordered. “Have the surgeons prepped ASAP.”

With grunting sounds, the zombies carefully placed Dion on the stretcher and gently carried him into the black void. Thanatas followed them.

Nel and Dion’s doctor were left alone in the room, stunned by what they just witnessed.

“Lady Nel, I’m confused about what I just witnessed,” Dion’s doctor said.

“As am I.”

---

In a certain room at the inn, Cliff gave Mirage a brief explanation about what was about to happen. Mirage was wondering if Cliff had found something on the planet that made him behave strangely.

Her doubts were answered as a black void appeared in the room and Thanatas emerged from it. She was followed by another pair of malformed zombies carrying a stretcher.

“Same room as the other one,” she ordered. Ameena was awoken to a horrific surprise by what she saw. She considered giving the girl a sedative, but given her condition, she might end up killing her.

With a snap of her fingers, another undead creature emerged from the void. This one wore a lab coat. She handed it a note. “Head to Putricide’s lab and hand him the note. Have him deliver the syringe to me immediately.”

The creature saluted and returned to the black hole, followed by the carriers of Ameena’s stretcher and Thanatas herself.

Cliff and Mirage looked at the scene with shocked looks as the black void disappeared.

“I have no idea what I was just looking at,” Cliff said.

“I think it best if we pretend that we were both intoxicated,” Mirage offered.

---

Dion awoke with a pained groan. Everything hurt and he wasn’t sure, but he was starting to feel a little cold. In his delirious state, he didn’t pay attention to the white room he was in.

“Dion? Is that you?” came a voice he hadn’t heard in years.

“Ameena?” He couldn’t get any more words out as his mind was too focused on the pain.

“I’d save the conversation for later if I were either of you,” said a voice that neither recognized.

Ameena looked in the direction the voice came from and gasped. “Who are you?”

“Time is short for you two, so I will keep it brief, I am either your savior or the witness to your final moments.” She took out two orbs filled with sand. “In these orbs are the time of three Airyglyph soldiers who should have died of natural causes decades into the future, but were squandered when they attacked me.

“My offer requires consent from both of you. I can heal his injuries and cure your disease, even at this stage. You two will be able to have a future together and create a legacy for yourselves. In exchange, you two will serve me in your afterlives once the extra time runs out. You two will pay off the debt you would owe me if you accept this deal.”

“W-what does serving you entail?” Ameena asked.

“I can assure you that it would be nothing either of you couldn’t handle. I may be evil, but I am fair to my servants.”

Ameena thought for a moment. She didn’t have much time for thinking though as she could feel the icy chill of death creeping up on her. “Dion, what do you think?”

Dion groaned, “I regret never being able to see you after so many years. For us to be reunited on death’s door seems like the perfect ending to a tragic story. But if it means that I can spend the rest of my days with you Ameena, then I would desire our fates to be altered. I would endure an eternity of servitude if it is with you.”

Ameena blushed a little but her weakened body couldn’t produce a stronger reaction. With a determined and hopeful look, she nodded, “Alright, we’ll accept your terms.”

Thanatas smiled as she clanged her gauntlets together. “Excellent!” She looked to her left. “Putricide, bring me the syringe.”

“Yes, my queen.” The rotted doctor walked up to Thanatas with a metal tray in his hands. In the tray was a syringe with an amber-colored liquid inside along with a jar of cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol. She grabbed the syringe and a cotton swab and doused it in rubbing alcohol. She moved Ameena’s hair aside before rubbing the alcohol on the right side of her neck where she soon injected her with the needle.

She then took one of the sand-filled orbs and crushed it over Ameena's head, showering her in sand.

The medicine began to circulate throughout her body but some side effects of the medicine began to kick in. Ameena felt sleepy all of a sudden and couldn’t stop herself from falling back to sleep.

“Take the girl to the recovery room and bring the surgeon team in,” Thanatas ordered. “It’s time to get started.”

Thanatas exchanged her gauntlets for latex gloves and put on a surgeon’s mask, then moved over to a series of canisters before placing a breathing apparatus over a nervous Dion’s nose and mouth as she turned a valve on a canister. Dion breathed in a strange-smelling gas and quickly found it difficult to stay awake. He was unable to see the wicked smile of the surgeon behind her mask, but he could still see a hint of madness in her eyes.

His last moment of consciousness was the wicked laughter of the mad doctor before him.

Thanatas’ laughter died down to a chuckle. “If I can’t kill him, I can at least have some fun traumatizing him.”

Author's Note:

For this chapter we learn more about the mysterious woman and her relation to Sophia. Thanatas is like the Scourge from Warcraft with medical practitioner mixed in. Putting it simply, she's a mad scientist who rules the dead.

Comments

[Black--Soul]

Damn... Very unexpected chapter content. Guess that Necromancer is more or less the nessesary evil?

I'm found of Necromancy if done right...

With Vox gone i guess Peace can be archived?

Good chapter. I guess this is where the fun begins?
I must say that im fairly surprised how mutch i share with Thanatas even with some key differences.

Damn fine work Xarmar13

[Black--Soul]

So mutch potencial.

Everything has a price, they are willing to pay even with whats probably coming towards them...
Harsh fates...