[Fiction] Puppeteer's Relics

[Kon]

Chapter 37

A cliff.
The splashing sounds of the water crashing against the rocks.
The sun shined, giving the wet rocks a shimmering glow.
The eastern part of the continent, in the grassy plains.

Zack stood on top of the cliffs, gazing at the huge ocean, wondering if anything was out there.
It was the second day after the fight in Elia's castle. In town, they had heard that the crowning ceremony was due tomorrow. Lily would become the new queen, therefore the land would be called the Lilian Kingdom.
The ocean reminded Zack of his past, and so he silently stood and stared. He used to be like these waves, crashing into any excitement he could find, stealing for a living... in fact, they were still living off the money he had gotten by selling the things he stole.
He wondered if any of his old friends would have offered him help on the journey. He couldn't think of many, but decided to stop by in Natra if he ever had the time to. One of his old friends there might be in for it...

"I've been thinking whether to visit my uncle's house." Laura muttered.
"Hmm?"
"It's just... being back around my home makes me wonder how my life would look right now if I hadn't gone with you back then. I've gained many things... I've also lost many things."
"You lost something?"
"I haven't really noticed it, but lately I can't hear the nature anymore the way I used to. Remember how I used to hear the trees talk? I... can't do it anymore."
"Maybe the trees don't talk anymore. Things are changing around our world."
"I don't think so..."

Suddenly a scream sounded through the area. Zack put his hand on the hilt of his sword, Laura unclipped her bow and put her fingers on the string as they looked around. Where did that come from? Another scream filled the area and Zack pulled out his sword, running for where the scream came from. His right arm holding the sword was stretched out behind him and he held his left arm in front of him. Laura was running right next to him as they saw a strange scene. It appeared as if two monsters were fighting each other... but one of these monsters resembled a female human. She had long, red hair, long claws came out of each of her fingers and she had black lines all over her body.
She was lightly dressed in a t-shirt and jeans.

Was this a monster or a human?

Laura moved her eyes to Zack, and he nodded. No matter what it was, it was being attacked by a blue, pretty big dragon. Laura stretched her fingers, slowly grabbing the bowstring as the blue crystal in her bow started to emit a light, blue glow. As she pulled the bowstring back, the tip of her fingers was covered in solid, dark, blue ice and an ice arrow materialized on the bow. She aimed it at the head of the dragon, which had to dodge the shot, letting go of the advantage it had towards the... other monster.

Zack stepped in front of it.
"Who are you?" it screeched.
"Stay back."

[Kon]

Chapter 38

"Any idea on how we're going to fight this thing?" Zack asked. The question was meant towards Laura, but the monster behind Zack replied. "It's got solid scales at the front. You'll have to get a hit to the back."
She had a weird screechy voice, but Zack had other things to worry about. Since he was in the monster's point of view, he charged towards the monster and slammed his sword against the scales. Solid protection indeed, so he jumped up and tried to attack the monster in mid-air, charging at the eyeballs. The monster pulled its throat back, trying to land a bite on Zack. It opened its mouth and quickly moved towards him, but he stabbed the sword into the upper part inside his mouth, hanging on to the sword. Suddenly Zack heard a gurgling sound and pulled his legs up to the inner part of the mouth to bounce off onto the ground just in time as a spiral of fire shot out of the dragon's mouth.

Laura had used the opportunity to slash at the tail a few times, but she had to back off due to it shaking her off. Zack was angry at her poor attempt to attack. Fighting monsters was different than fighting people, since you had to rely on your brute strength for monsters. As the monster slowly turned around to Laura, Zack took the opportunity and started rushing towards it. He raised the sword above his head, holding it with both hands and rammed it into the lower part of the dragon's body. Then he pulled up with all his strength. The exhaustion made him scream to keep the strength up as he took off the ground, jumping up and halfing the monster's back. In mid air, he whirled around once and sliced its head off.

As he landed, he went into his knees. Laura ran up to him to see if he was okay, but he shook her off.
"Seriously, Laura... don't poke around with that sword..." he sighed.
Then his eyes turned towards the monster he had just saved.

"It is my turn to explain, I suppose?" It asked with a screechy voice.
"Indeed." Zack replied.
"Well... I'm a Lobonoid. You could call me half monster, half human, but that term doesn't apply to all of my kind in particular. We're commonly called halfblood, and I'm halved with a special type of monster. But I've lived in our world pretty peacefully... up until lately. There seems to be something going on here, since some of us have gone crazy and started to attack each other... just like this one here did."

"What kind of monster did you come from?" Laura asked.
"You should rather ask me what kind of monster I was about to become. Seems like the outside world doesn't know much about us. Especially since it's only the halfbloods that can communicate with you. I was about to become kind of a werewolf-mother, just that I would be in the wolf-form constantly."
"How do these things happen?" Zack asked.
"What do you mean?"
"How do you become a monster...?"
"People who do bad things come to hell. That's what you humans think, right? Well, that's about right. You could call the place hell. And every human who arrives slowly starts turning into a monster. Some stay in that underworld, some restless leave and haunt their homes. They lose all their human aspects and are led by their instinct. Strong personalities in particular are sometimes able to maintain their humanity and conscience. I don't know about the others, but I don't remember my life as a human."
"Would you like to hear what's going on here?" Laura asked. Zack instantly looked at her, questioning the offer. "Listen, Zack, she apparently knows a lot that can help us and it would be a nice way for me to recap everything. It can't be bad, can it?"
"Indeed. Sorry for my attitude." he replied. He turned her eyes to her. "Do you have a name?" he asked.
She looked down at herself. "I can't remember the name I was given. If I had to choose one... I don't even know what would fit to me. Call me Red."

[Kon]

Chapter 39

It was a calm evening in the Lilian castle. The crowning ceremony had taken place earlier and Lily was now the righteous queen of the southern kingdom. She was in the throne room with Sofia and Jane.

"Jane Mosley, I still have questions."
"Go ahead and ask."
"You're not part of my army, nor are you part of anyone who I know would send me help. Who do you work for and why did you come to the castle with such timing?"
"Oh, well. This is secret information, but I can't keep it from a queen, can I? I'm working for a group called 'the Erasus'. We're interested in gathering all Puppeteer's Relics. We believe that the Puppeteer has not used the third wish and that if we gather all the relics we can use it. The person who was manipulating your mother used to be our leader - Nergal. He left a few weeks ago and when I realized that he might be connected to what Elia was doing, I immediately came here, especially since the Puppeteer's glove was taken away from our safes.
The glove has the power to manipulate people's thoughts. The weaker a person is mentally, the more influence the user will take. Nergal, probably thinking that Elia is weak, got here to try and use her for his plan.
Honestly, I can't tell what his plans were, but I believe he wanted to force every holder of a relic to pass it on to him. Now that Nergal is gone, I'm leading the Erasus. In general, war is not in our interest, and if this place was without a leader people would start wreaking havoc.
Elia's next goal will be Etruria in Flaris. I've got people there covering the third treasure crystal. Zack and Laura have shown great influence in the events so far, and I've made sure they're going there as well. Your move as a queen, majesty, I'm not going to force a decision, but who knows what will happen if Elia gets a hold of the last crystal."
"Hmm. Thank you, dismissed."

///

It was slowly getting colder and the winds were increasing in strength around Zack, Laura and Red. They were getting closer to Flaris. Zack wondered who the "old friend" was that Jane had mentioned towards Laura. Who was she anyway? She seemed so different ever since Zack first saw her. Or was that girl from back then just a facade?
Laura had talked about their journey all day long, and eventually Red had shown interest into the Puppeteer's ring. She wondered why Laura wasn't able to use it, yet, Red couldn't see anything special about the ring when she put it on her own finger.
Slowly, the sun was going down, and they were thinking about finding a place to sleep. They had bought a coat for Red earlier and she was able to cover herself up, at least resembling a human.
Another thing that Red had been curious about was the change of Zack's attitude during the fight against Sofia.

Red talked a lot about a monster's ethnicity, repeating over and over that her life was belong to Zack and Laura now because they had saved her. She definitely linked the recent savage monsters with Elia's battles. The immense power that the treasure crystals could release made the monsters go insane.
Zack looked at the moon that was visible in the yet bright sky. "By tomorrow, we'll have arrived." he muttered.

[Kon]

Chapter 40

Etruria was a rather small city for being the capital of the northern part of the continent, Flaris. It was leaded by a council of eight wise men appointed by the citizens of Flaris. It had not passed unnoticed that Gurfe had been attacked and therefore there were special precautions made to protect the third treasure crystal from any intruders.

Three arch magicians had been sent into the temple of the crystal and released its power. The rumors said that the crystal had taken a body and used its own strength to protect itself. Additionally, a Flarisian mercenary organisation had sent two fighters to help protect the crystal.
The city itself was built in a symbiotic way with the nature. Many homes were treehouses or built on roots.
Zack, Laura and Red entered the city without making too much noise. It was pretty small, and they tried to avoid asking around for the crystal's location so they wouldn't seem too suspicious, but it didn't take long to find out that there was a temple where the treasure crystal had been released. The rumors were being spread everywhere, especially since people were searching for a reason why Gurfe had been destroyed. Yet, nobody blamed the southern continent. Seemed like news spread fast since Elia had disappeared from the castle.

"So... we're here now, what will we do?" Laura slowly asked. The topic had been a taboo up until now. Zack closed his eyes.
"The way I'm seeing this we have two ways to ensure Elia doesn't get the crystal. Either we help the city to defend the temple or we raid the temple, take the crystal and disappear. There's advantages and disadvantages to both." he replied.
Red looked at him. "Indeed... either we have the help of a whole city like this to defend it, but then Elia would know exactly where to attack - or we take it away from here, but then it's up to the three of us to defend it alone, probably even in a weakened state if the rumors are true."

Zack looked around the grassy way they stood on. They were surrounded by treehouses and he didn't see a soldier anywhere. "They easily rushed and defeated Gurfe, Elia has the second crystal now, I honestly doubt that Etruria can defend itself." Laura explained.
"We've travelled the last few days, I think we should at least take a break before we head off and overrush things."

Laura went around asking people for an Inn or any other place to sleep, and soon, they were lead to a sympathetic little place. The owner even agreed to let them have three rooms for the cost of one, so they took the opportunity to rest with a bit of distance between each other to think things through. Zack wondered mainly about what would happen inside the temple if he ever got that far. He was convinced that leaving the crystal here would make next to no sense.
Red wasn't thinking that much about the situation. She wondered more about how she had gotten involved into the whole situation. Was it sheer randomness? Was there a string of fate that bound her with these people for any reason?
Laura was looking at the Puppeteer's Ring on her hand. She wanted to finally figure out how the ring worked. If she could use it in a battle, it would be a great advantage... She tried many combinations: Imagining she was in a different place, closing her eyes, putting energy on the ring... how the hell did this work? She tried it on and on for about half an hour, then she suddenly found herself lying in the middle of the room. When did this happen? Had she not been sitting on the bed earlier?
... it somehow had worked. But how? Why didn't she pay more attention to what she was doing!? Angry at herself, she continued to search. She was certain that eventually she would find a solution for the ring.

[Kon]

Chapter 41

The sun mercilessly shined upon what looked like a pyramid with a round top, the temple of the treasure crystal. Two people were standing right in front of the entrance.

One of them was a pretty tall male with black shaggy hair. He was wearing black trousers with flames sticking up at the very bottom, and a black long-sleeved shirt with a skeleton head laughing at whoever looked at it. A two-handed sword was clipped to his belt. He had deep gray eyes and a little scar above the left brow, his face seemed to say that he had already been in a lot of fights. Yet, he seemed to emit a gentle aura, the same that applied to his companion, a pretty young-looking child in a black robe. He had bright, blue eyes and a rejuvenating smile, even when his bald head made him look older than he actually was. He held a little wand in his hand and emitted an aura of psychical strength.

Zack was standing near the entrance. He chatted with Red and Laura so it would seem less suspicious that they were so close to the temple, but he was interested into the older guard. Apparently these two were the mercenaries, but this guy seemed awfully familiar. A childhood friend...
"Leonard Arthur Zeon Edward Richard... Who are you looking at?" the smaller person asked and Zack smiled. It was definitely that guy.

Leonard Arthur Zeon Edward Richard, commonly called Leo, was a descendant from the southern royal family. His part of royalty left the castle due to arguments with the rest of the family and soon was lynched. He met Zack in the desert when both of them were young and when Zack was a teenager and left the desert, he went with Leo.

Zack turned around and smiled. "Leo, when the hell did you find yourself a proper job?" he laughed.
"So it's really you, Zack? Heh... yeah, it's not like me to have a normal job, but times are different nowadays."
"Who're you?" Zack asked with a smile, turning to the little boy. "I'm Last." he replied with a smile. "What makes you work with someone like Leo?" Zack joked, but it seemed to enrage Last. "Leonard Arthur Zeon Edward Richard is a great person! Don't insult him!"

Zack looked at the two girls behind him and decided to introduce them while thinking carefully about his next step. Meeting Leo here could be an advantage or disadvantage... what were his orders?
"So you're basically standing here waiting for someone to attack the crystal?"
"Yeah, Zack."
"You know what Elia did to Gurfe?"
"I heard it."
"It was a single attack. She has doubled strength. Do you really think that you can withstand that power?"
"Zack, my orders are clear. I've been warned that Elia might have relics that can try to irritate me. You're my buddy, but I can't let you get in."

Zack wanted to turn around, but suddenly Laura grabbed his arm. What was she doing? Suddenly a white light surrounded him for a split second as he suddenly stood inside the temple, and before he could even realize what he was doing, Laura yelled a word in shekar language, creating a blue, watery barrier in front of the entrance. Now they were in the temple, alone.
"Hmm. Well... that saves us a lot of trouble." Zack smiled.
"Yeah, but it might get dark if we go on. Take me out of the fights this time, Zack, it's hard enough for me to keep the barrier up and light every room we enter."

Indeed... When Zack looked around, there was no source of light, yet, everything was illuminated. So this was Laura's real magic powers... he smiled when he realized that she had actually figured out the Puppeteer's Ring. That certainly wasn't her own magic.

[gutterball930]

I likez ^^ Moar moar

[Kon]

Chapter 42

Heartsbeats, pounding loudly through the halls of the Temple.
Was the last treasure crystal really ahead?
Were the rumors true?
Would they have to fight?

Zack's hand was resting on the hilt of his sword, ready to pull on any occasion, and Red was right next to him with her claws ready to unleash fury on any possible attacker. They slowly moved through a room covered with dust, a few skeleton bones were scattered here and there. It gave Laura the chills.
Yet, she worried about other things. They were in this temple for around two minutes now and had passed a few rooms, prepared for battle, but nobody was attacking the magic barrier she had set up in front of the castle. Wasn't anybody going to stop them? Or... did they think it's not necessary? Laura gulped.

They left the current room they were in to set foot into a round, big room. There was a tiny pillar in the middle, shaped like a hook at the top. The very front of the hook looked like a dragon's mouth, spouting flames at anyone who enters the room. A chain was attached to a little hole in the middle of the flames, and the chain carried a tiny, yellow crystal. Zack knelt down and looked at the crystal. It seemed pretty... ordinary, for a crystal holding such power. Suddenly behind them a rumpling noise sounded and all three of them spun around, seeing the door they came through close instantly.

Zack took two steps back. "A trap...?" he whispered. The crystal started shaking crazily as if there was an earthquake, followed by a blinding light coming from it. When Zack regained his vision, he had just enough time to pull up his sword and slash at something black that chased for him. A metallic sound went through the room as the black shade went back and slowly changed to a humanoid form. Yet, it was all dark with two bright, shining yellow eyes.

It slowly swung one of its arms at Zack again. This time, he quickly turned his sword so that he could hold the hilt with the right hand and the tip of the blade with his left hand, blocking the attack of the shade completely.
Right in that moment, Red jumped at the shade, trying to land a claw somewhere near the eyes, but the shade simply swung an arm, ramming her against the opposite wall. Zack tried to swing his sword right at the arm that just had attacked Red, but the thing just whirled around, thereby taking the arm away from Zack's attack and ramming it straight against his cheek.
Zack was thrown away, but he quickly regained his breath and used the momentum the attack gave him to bounce off the wall and use the monster's own strength against it.

Laura took a step back, trying to stay out of the fight, as Red stood up again. She seemed to be injured, but nonetheless charged at the monster again. Just as she was about to reach it, it disassembled into two. One of them countered Red's attack by slamming its foot into Red's chest, sending her flying back again, while the other kept Zack from interfering by slamming attacks that he had to block. After a second they both merged again without leaving anyone a chance to react. Red slowly got up again, but her back was already severely wounded. Laura quickly ran up to her.

"Red... I can heal that, stand still..."
"Don't do that!" she yelled. "You saw that I can't do anything against that thing! Leave your energy for Zack..."

Laura's heart was pounding. What if Zack couldn't defeat this thing as well? They were trapped in here!
When Zack saw that Red didn't go to the fight anymore, he gave her a quick look and nodded to her. She nodded back, kneeling on the ground. The defeat felt humiliating to her, but she had to give up so Zack wouldn't have a hard time fighting the monster and looking out for her at the same time.

The monster's eyes glared at Zack constantly as he stood there in the Wolf's stance, the sword turned to his back, waiting for his enemy to attack. After a short while, suddenly the monsters arm shot at Zack. He ducked under it, jumping over the second arm that immediately shot at him and sliced his sword through its right arm, landing behind it and stabbing the sword right at its back.
An inhuman shriek came from it as it turned its arm to Zack, shooting a yellow beam at Zack, who was completely caught in surprise. He couldn't do anything but receive the shot right at his chest. It threw him away as he screamed in pain - it felt as if his body was burning - but he tried to keep control over his body. If he would let go of the sword now, he'd be done for. He let his body crash into the wall and the pain increased.

The monster charged right after him, but when it saw his face expression, it stopped for a moment.
Why on earth... would Zack be smiling?! Red looked at him, realizing that this was what Laura had told her about the fight against Sofia. Zack's lust for battle.

He ran right at the monster, slashing his sword twice against it. The monster blocked with its claws, trying to kick him away, but Zack slid to the side and tried to swing his sword at the thing's hip. The monster took a step back, dodging the sword, and charged at him while his arms were still occupied. It almost managed to land a hit, but Zack had ducked under it, stabbing right towards the eyes. The monster did a backflip, doding the sword and kicking Zack up into the air. Zack crashed against the room's ceiling and as he fell down again he saw the monster jumping towards him, leaving him no time to defend himself as he was kicked towards another wall in the room.

Zack landed on the wall, then on the floor, almost losing consciousness. Blood was running out of his mouth as his vision blurred, but he saw the shade moving towards him and pulled his sword up, blocking one claw, yet, the blow made him lose control of his hands and he let go off the sword, being defenseless for the second claw which scratched a deep wound at the right side of his throat down to the shoulder. He tried to dodge, which ended up with him on the receiving side of another kick, throwing his limp, wounded body face-down right next to Red and Laura.

Red quickly knelt next to him, turning his face up. "Are you alright?"
The shade's eyes seemed to become wider as it slowly walked up to them. Laura saw it and decided to fight. She pulled out her sword. Red looked at her. "How long do you think you can handle it?"
"... Zack is a lot stronger than me, and you probably are as well."
"I'll need five seconds."
"Do what you think is right."

The shade's eyes tightened again as it slowly walked towards Laura. A second light appeared in the shade's face, showing a sinister grin.
Zack's vision was blurry, but he could see Red staring right at his eyes. "Zack, can you hear me?"
"Yes..."
"Zack... excuse me if this might hurt a little, or if this is against your will... I won't be gone, I will still be alive, you will know what I mean soon."
"Wha-?"

The shade had arrived next to Laura, the arm was ready to stab her, and Laura knew she probably wouldn't be able to dodge or block, but she was ready to take the attack.

Suddenly Red blinked and her eyes turned black. She grabbed Zack's arm, ramming it through her chest, and suddenly a white light emitted the room.
The claw that was supposed to stab Laura had stopped in mid air. A hand was holding the wrist. Who was that? Laura's eyes turned to see... what? Who?

The face was definitely Zack's... His iris had turned yellow, the hair had grown longer and turned to a dark shade of red. The wound on his throat and shoulder had stopped bleeding, but emitted an agressive, painful red glow. The shade wanted to use its second arm, but Zack threw it towards a wall. It wasn't even flying for a second. Zack walked to his sword, picking it up from the ground. Then he knocked some dust off his shirt and his hand pulled his hat to the right position.

The shadow's grin disappeared as Zack then slowly started walking towards it. Not knowing what to do, it reacted agressively by charging towards Zack. But... what was this? Somehow... at the point where it was supposed to hit Zack, Zack appeared behind it, walking on. A shriek showed that Zack had made a hit on it, nonetheless, he walked slowly to Laura, looking straight into her eyes.
"Laura, it's still me. Don't be scared."

She was too frozen to react, and couldn't grasp anything other than Red being gone and Zack changed so much. Had they merged? What happened?
The shade started shrieking and charged towards Zack again. He stabbed the sword at its chest, taking it out and appearing near his side, slashing it through the face of the monster, taking the momentum to whirl around and give it another hit straight down from the shoulders through the whole body, jumping back and landing right in front of it. He swung his sword down, then swinging it right at the monster. Blue energy started collecting at the tip of the blade, creating a beam of pure energy that caused the monster to split in half and the shade to disappear.
Zack sheathed his sword, looking at the broken pillar in the middle. He saw the yellow crystal and took it off its chain, sitting down on the floor.

"It's over, Laura. The thing's gone."
"Zack... what happened?"
"I feel... strength. I feel ferocity inside of me. I think that... Red fused with me. She told me not to worry about her."



At the gates of Etruria, a strange woman with blonde hair and a cloak that covered her whole body arrived.

[Kon]

Chapter 43

Zack waved his head, looking around the room. His vision was unnormally clear, but something in his mind seemed to be terribly different from before. He moved his head up to the ceiling, trying to reflect about what just happened.
His way of perception seemed to be... a lot different. His body also seemed to have gone through a change - the first thing he had felt was that all the pain he had felt before had disappeared.
The left side of his throat and his left shoulder felt cold. He saw scars where just a few minutes ago blood has been spurting out. How had this wound healed so fast...? Or was it healed at all?

Another thing that felt out of place was the presence he felt in the back of his mind. He closed his eyes and concentrated, only to see red images of blood. He couldn't clearly make out anything other than unclear, blurry shades of red, screams, and one time he could see a drop of blood dripping from a mouth full of sabreteeth. The images that would usually be terrifying to him didn't even have any effect on him right now. He tried to break through the images, and in the end he was in a black void with a red, huge monstrous face right in front of him.
Yet, it seemed to have its eyes closed. Zack decided to think about it later, but it seemed like Red had become a part of him... somehow at least. He looked at Laura. "It's weird. I can't really explain why, but I have the feeling Red lives inside me now."

Laura looked at him, her fear seemed to partly have gone away. "She somehow saved our lives... didn't she?"
"I guess so. That thing would have killed us. But... we have the crystal now." Zack lifted the crystal and looked at it. It didn't seem like anything special to him, so he handed it to Laura. She took it, looked at it, but thought the same.
"Is this... a fake?"
"If yes, brilliant plan... setting up guards at the outside of this temple, using this brilliant guarding mechanism, trapping us inside of here. A normal person who would somehow get a hold of the crystal wouldn't get out of here since it's a fake, therefore you couldn't call up on its powers. It might be also just that we're not able to, similar to the ring you recently discovered. But say... can't you get us out of here with the ring?"
"I haven't tried going through walls... might be dangerous, especially if I miscalculate the distance and teleport us into the wall."
"Then we'll just crush it."
"If that's an option?"

Zack walked up to the closed stone door and put his ear on the stone, trying to hear whether something was going on outside. However, everything seemed clean, so Zack rammed his knee into the stone, making it crack all over, then he took a step back and kicked the stone. The cracks widened and slowly the stone crumbled down, leaving room for Zack and Laura to go through.

//incomplete...

[RavenBlade]

only problem i've found is the plot going far too fast.
still does well though.


edit:
p.s. celldweller much?