Without further adue, I present my longest story to date: "The End of the World: Made Easy"
Prologue to the End of the World
“Rain… again?...” I looked up to the clouds as they started unleashing their payloads onto my squad. We had enough trouble as is with the constant threat posed by our enemies, but rain? We really didn’t need something like that right now, especially since there was enough fresh water to go around with none of us being thirsty. Also, rain plus socks really, really, suck. I found this out when we first got to this remote island in the middle of nowhere. It looked like a nice island from the ship we were on, but as soon as we spent a day here we realized that this was no pleasure island or anything, but something you tell your children about to scare them into not doing something. This island was one of the many areas where they came through. I’m not too sure on the whole science behind it (since it’s barely science to begin with), but our enemies seem to be able to phase into our dimension at certain locations in the world and from those locations they send out their forces.
Since we got here we have only been in a few fire-fights with no injuries or anything so that was something. I mean considering what we are up against, the fact that we haven’t lost at least one person is almost unbelievable, but I’m not gonna jinx it more than I already have. Our Arcanotech weapons have been holding up well despite all the stress we have been putting them through and we have only needed to do some minor maintenance on them since we got here. These things are tough and very damn reliable, which is great considering we are not getting any back up if things get hairy here. They can’t afford to send anyone else to help us what with everything else going on. So like I said, we are on our own out here with only everyone else in the squad to back you up.
Looking down from the skies I see my fellow squad mates looking out for anything out of the ordinary while trying to get some rest. These were some of the best people the organization had ever seen, and I was a part of them since I had trained with them since the beginning. I guess that also makes me pretty damn good at what I do too, but I’m not gonna let that get to my head or anything. We have lost some very important people to us since we started training and since we were inducted into the organization and we were gonna lose a lot more if we didn’t strike back soon. That was the whole reason we came to this island. It was a staging ground for some of the air-type creatures which were always harassing our birds and even taking a few of them down. We needed to get rid of this place if we ever wanted to regain air-superiority again. It was only a few weeks after they arrived that we lost control of the sky’s to their unending hoard of monsters and we haven’t risked putting anything else expensive up in the sky without a damn good reason. Which is why we are not gonna get any back up if things go south, they can’t afford to waste anything more than what they already have.
I still couldn’t believe what these things actually were and how they personally related to me. It was a strange connection born from where I was born and from the history between our enemies and our protectors, the Beings of Light. Though that was not actually their real name, the soldiers who knew about them or had seen them in action could only describe them as such. I haven’t seen them personally but I hear that they are extremely efficient at dealing with the void creatures. I guess that’s because of how long they have been at war with each other. When we were first inducted as recruits into the organization we were told the true history behind everything that had happened which stretched impossibly long back to before our Universe had even existed.
What we were told is that the Universe has always existed and will always exist, it’s just a fact of reality. We were also told that even though the Universe will always exist that it doesn’t mean it can’t die eventually. What this means is that the Universe is a cycle of birth, life, and finally death with birth following closely after it. The Universe had gone through many of these cycles before and in each and every one there had been intelligent life-forms which had thrived in their own way. Sometimes these life-forms can overcome the death of the Universe by ascending to a higher plane of existence, like the Beings of Light did. Others took another path, one in which they lost their sanity to survive in a place of non-existence. The ones which lost their sanity were now trying to break into our reality and take over, by killing any living thing that presents itself in front of them.
There was a lot more to this story, but I really wasn’t paying as much attention as I should have. I was much more interested in learning how I can fight these things which we were eventually taught. Modern, conventional weapons were barely usable against the Void beings so we instead use weapons created through applications of Arcanotech. Our weapons are in a sense the physical representation of our will to fight given form. Though many people call them weapons or what-not, they are more like tools in which we can use to fight. By using a machine called a “Arcanoforge” our tools are created and once that is done we started training with them. The training to use the tools was incredibly difficult and many people had to drop out before they could actually get their real tool. The thing we trained with was a toned down version of what we would eventually be given since at the beginning of our training we didn’t know how to control every aspect of the magics which existed inside these weapons.
Deep in thought, I neglect to notice the low rumbling that had started. Luckily for the squad, my second in command had noticed it. “Will! Damn it Will why are you spacing out?!” I noticed the rumbling and then realized the worst case scenario was happening. When fighting our way through the island sometimes the enemies would escape and we would lose sight of them. What they then did was go back to wherever they were based and reported to whatever intelligence that controls them that there were intruders on the island. This intelligence would realize what we were after and didn’t want to take any chances, so with a single command the entire enemy force on the island were heading directly for us.
“Damn it… Everyone get ready. This is going to get a whole lot more difficult in a few minutes.” I was terrible at inspiring my teammates but I think they got what I was trying to say. We all took up a defensive position while one of our teammates looked for a place that we could hide in for a bit. She started on her spell-weaving and all the time she was doing this we were waiting for the hoard to appear from the tree line in front of us. “Found a place!” she said happily,” give me some time to get the transport spell ready. I’ll need only like 2 minutes and then we will be out of here.” “Two minutes?” I thought to myself, we really didn’t have two minutes. The creatures were getting closer and would appear any second from now and begin their attack. We set up some defensive spells, but our defensive magic was not going to last long with thousands of enemies ramming into it.
Then we see them. They appeared right where we thought they would which was at least one good thing. We waited till they got into our kill zone before opening up and sending a volley of magical energy spiraling towards the mindless beasts. Though we can all shoot energy balls from our weapons, each and everyone one is different and only a few members of the squad excelled in this kind of fighting. Me on the other hand really only used range spells when using my final spell which was way too damn dangerous. Instead, me and 2 others charged into the coming hoard. I rushed forward with my magically enhanced muscles and leaped into the middle of a large group of void creatures. I was surrounded with no way out and with no one around to help, just like I wanted it. The thing was, I wasn’t very good at controlling myself during battle and when people saw me fight they would later tell me I looked like a Berserker. I found that funny, but true. I never liked others fighting around me because I could never go all out without accidently killing them. In a situation where there wasn’t anyone around to get hurt I was able to go crazy, and I loved every second of it.
I swung my strange weapon around in wide arcs, killing those who would try to overwhelm me. My weapon was like a combination of a Mace, Spear, and an Axe which I used to smash, behead, and stab all any enemy which I came across. Out of all the tools that I have seen, nothing came close to the destructive power my weapon exhibited. I was great, the feel of battle, and getting lost in all of its glory. To be honest with myself, I enjoyed the hell out of killing the Void beings. Something inside me just craved it, to see the blood of my enemies flying after each and every swing of my weapon.
I wondered how much time had passed since I had flung myself into the middle of this group. It seemed like hours ago my squad mate began to conjure our way out of here. That’s when I heard over the comm “Will, get your ass back here. We are leaving with or without you so if you don’t want to be the Void Creatures food, get back here.” Ouch… My second in command never went easy on me. I guess it’s because we are childhood friends and have known each other forever. I decided that becoming the Void Creatures food was not in my best interests so I activated the spell sigils which I had placed on my legs. Suddenly I felt incredibly light, almost as if gravity didn’t have any hold over me anymore. I then pushed off from the ground, almost rocketing up 50 or so feet. The use of spell sigils to enhance our fighting abilities was incredible and saved my ass on more than one occasion.
I landed almost gracefully at the defensive line we had. Everyone was standing in the circle made of light which surround the one who had casted it. I was about to run over to them when I heard a large crash behind me. I knew what it was before I even turned around and realized that we really needed to get out of there fast. It was one of the behemoth-class Void Creatures which were known to be able to destroy entire buildings with ease. This one was barreling right towards us and I knew that we wouldn’t be able to teleport out of there before the thing was right on top of us. While still in the circle I activated the artillery mode of my weapon. I think everyone knew what I was about to do so they backed as far away from me while still standing in the circle. To use my most powerful spells I had to transform my weapon into something that could withstand the kind of magical energy which I was about to pour into it. If I didn’t then the weapon would crack under the strain and more likely than not I would be killed instantly.
A handle appeared near the center of the staff which I would use to stabilize the attack. I pointed my weapon towards the charging enemy and began to gather as much magical energy which I could into the stone in the middle of the front of my weapon. I concentrated, clearing my mind of anything but what I needed to do. I had only used this attack a few times in the past because it was really a last resort. My weapon then started to glow a bright white at the tip. I had finally gathered enough energy, and just in time too since the behemoth was right on top of us. To fire the weapon I had to use a special phrase which would unlock the firing mechanism behind the attack. It was a silly thing to do in my opinion, but it did make the whole firing of my attack spell that much cooler.
Compressing the power that had gathered in the tip of my weapon, I spoke the phrase. “Reality breaker… full charge… FIRE!!!”
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