Lore/Story Lost - Endgame - Part 6

Authors: @xKindredKinesis (lead), @Captain Undead (also lead but I don't know what his current name is), @Lev (Inactive), @XavierEXE, @SkellySniper (me), and @Zuikaku_.

If you haven't read the rest yet, you should probably start at part one. It's not required to have read the rest of the story.



Sol ran over to Will, a panicked expression on her face. “You all right? I can see if somebody has anything to help,” she asked.

“Hehehe~ did somebody get scratched up by the Ice Queen?” Akyro said in a teasing voice.

"Alright, we managed to clear out the passage somewhat. Come on, let's go... What the hell happened to him?" Aeon came rushing out from the city, rallied everyone to leave this place. He was shocked to see a gaping hole in William's shoulder, yet no blood was spilled, the intense cold having cauterized his wound.


"Will got hit by an ice fragment." Sol replied. What she didn’t know was the severity of the wound. The ice lance had cut off a few of his main nerves. Will's right hand was completely paralyzed.


"Alright, scoot over. Let the adults do their work." Akyro came over to Will, sat down and inspect the wound. "Ooh. I can see what's on the other side. It’s impressive that you haven’t bled to death yet." Akyro said, much to Will’s annoyance. He winced as she placed both hands on the wounded area. A lime green aura emanated from her hands, as Syla begun to lend her healing power to cure the wound. Soon, the flesh grew back, along with the nerves. Will could feel his hand again, despite the numbness. He got up onto his feet, helped by Sol. Everyone began to march out of Troms.


Everyone reached Ragni at last. The desolated city was still as abandoned as before, except with significantly less corrupted monsters around. While the warrior in silver was recovering from his injury, bandaging himself using what he could, the others had gotten off their feet. Dante and Azul were conversing with each other, talking about the two Corrupted Aspects they had just fought against. Psoralea had gone ahead to scope out the Emerald Trail, in case of any ambushes set ahead. Aeon however, had taken cover behind one of the houses. Still dazed after the mighty battle, he muttered a few words under his breath.

“The only thing that could possibly make things worse… is if that woman had seen what happened… whew, dodged a fireball that time... ”


Suddenly, the bladesinger felt a dark presence, as Akyro came over and started to chuckle as he slowly turned around, hearing that familiar childish yet creepy voice again.

“Oh, I saw EVERYTHING~! You tried to pull the same thing you did that last time, heheheheh, and that look of dread on your face~! Hah, PRICELESS~!”

“... I’m done. I swear, I would’ve gladly killed myself if my dagger was still in shape... ”

While Aeon and Akyro were talking, Will approached. His right hand was fully bandaged, and rested neatly between his chest and stomach. He pulled from his pocket, a leather bag. He threw the bag at Aeon's feet.

"There. A little present for helping me back there. I believe I owe you one." Will said. Aeon opened the bag, and was amazed by what he saw inside it. From the ice lance's fragment, it formed a blade made of ice. The handle was wider, with a darker shade of blue than the transparent blade.


“Wow… what is this?” Aeon spoke in awe, picking up the dagger and started his own inspection. The blade was cold to the simplest of touches. It felt like cold fire to his fingers, and yet the handle was warm, as if it was nothing but an ordinary dagger.

“It’s a dagger... you seem like you’d know how to use one.”

“No, I mean, what material made this?”

"Haven’t the faintest idea. You kids seemed tired. Maybe you should go get some rest. I’ll make you guys some breakfast once dawn arrives."

Aeon stood up, turned around and looked at Will as he walked away. .


"Almost like an exact replica of the other Will~ heehe... " Akyro laughed quietly, before wandered off herself. That night, they took shelter within the ruins of Ragni. At the crack of dawn, the team took a swift break to recover their energy, along with a nice breakfast of bacon and bread. After they had all finished their meal, Psoralea, Sol, and Akyro, along with Aeon, Dante and Azul followed Will marched on to the last city that wasn't completely decimated by the corrupted. On the way, Aeon showed the two his new weapon.


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The group followed the trodden dirt trail under the thick foliage of Nivla Woods. Each of them had a direction covered, ready to alarm the rest of the group upon any minor movement detected. Psoralea walked lightly in the center, her crimson bow readied to unleash her arrows at any monster foolish enough to reveal themselves. Behind her walked the Warrior in Silver. His azure blade sheathed behind his back. The dim rays of sunlight gleamed in his dark eyes; lazily opened yet sharply observing his surroundings. His right shoulder bandaged, still numb from the wound inflicted from the previous battle. It would be a little while until he regained full use of his hand.

“Keep your eyes on the trees to your left.” William spoke softly to the redhead walking before him, his voice rugged. When Psoralea looked over, she couldn’t see anything, but even she had an uneasy feeling that something was watching them from the treelines.

“Sol, you said you knew William, right?” Aeon whispered to Sol walking beside him. “Who is he exactly?”
“I can’t really tell… I met him in Almuj when it was still in one piece. The locals knew nothing of him.” Sol replied back, her eyes averted to Aeon for a quick moment.

“Hmm… That’s strange. No one knows who he is? “

“Nope! He is a weird guy though, I’ll give you that.”

“How come?”

“When I first met him, he was drinking water from the river in Almuj.”

“But… Isn’t the river where they…”

“I know, right? And that’s not all. When I approached him, he was cooking the water too, cooking it under a metal sheet and drinking the water dripping from it.”
“... The man who saved us from Death’s door just yesterday, is also okay with drinking water from waste-infested trenches… I think otherworldly is an understatement.” Aeon’s mind rambled. He couldn’t bring himself to believe what his friend had just said, but she was very convincing. “... Perhaps, maybe that’s how they do things, where he came from?”

At this thought, Aeon retched, pausing to kneel on the ground while clutching his stomach.

“Um… you alright there?”

“... Ugh… don’t mind me…just a little nauseous, is all...”

“Guys… focus on the task. You’re falling behind.” Psoralea spoke in a quiet, yet serious tone.


The path shortly ends at a large tree fallen over and blocked the path. Will chose this as their stopping point. There, they took a small rest. Throughout the whole time, Aeon eyed William with a questioning expression in his eyes.

“Aeon... Is there something bother you? You seem to.... Be paying a lot of attention to Will.” Sol said, approaching the bladesinger. Aeon jumped slightly, then let out a small sigh. “Oh, it's nothing, Sol... It's just... I'm at a lost for words.” He replied.
“Huh?! How come?"
“You know... Like you tell me... The man standing there... He saved us all. Without him, we would be as good as minced meat... and yet…”
“He drink sewage water?”
“Exactly! How can a man like him be doing something like that so...obliviously like that?!”

“Well… to make you feel any better, William is much more than what he seems to be.”

“How come?” Aeon questioned, shifting his questioning eyes to Sol. The girl sat there for a short moment, reminisced back to the time she spent in Nesaak.

“Well, I got lost in a snowstorm near Nesaak trying to follow him, that’s when I hear talking near the small cave leads to Lusco. I had decided to rush toward that area, thinking that I would found Will talking to another survivor; but… this time, it wasn’t any survivor, but it’s the corrupted girl that fought with all of you guys to fend off the other two monsters.”

“Hmm… I suppose it was shortly after we all got… don’t mind that, carry on.”
“Well, that girl do most of the talking. William isn’t a really talkative person. The whole time, his facial expression rarely change. They talked for a while, then the corrupted girl…”
“Her name is Akyro.” Aeon interrupted his companion’s story.
“Thanks, I’ll take note of that.” Sol smiled, before continued on. “They talked for a while, then Akyro made her first move, rushing toward Will. It was so fast, I could rarely keep up with where she was, and neither was William. He took a punch to the gut, and backed up, keeping himself balanced on the ground. I could tell it hurt, even when he wore all those armor plates. After that, Akyro rushed at Will again, throwing the second punch. But this time, Will actually blocked the attack. It was so fast, all I could see was Will jerking his sword up slightly, and pushed Akyro’s hand aside! He even managed to give her back a swift kick to the... adornments.”
“He blocked her attack?”

“Surprising, wasn’t it?! I could barely see anything in the fray, and with only a few move, he has already pushed her back. They fought for another few minutes. Metal clashing sounds echoed the snow valley. Neither of them backed down or retreat. It wasn’t until Will managed to grab Akyro by the waist. He hoisted her up from the ground completely, and threw her over his head, driving Akyro head first onto the ground. It was crazy!”


“That didn’t seem like a one sided fight?” Aeon asked, remembering what Akyro said about her fight with William.

“Oh no, the fight wasn’t that one sided. Akyro had the upperhand most of the fight, but William handled himself quite well. If anything, it was pretty even.”

“That’s not what Akyro…. Why do I even trust her in the first place…”

“Well, the fights didn’t end there. Soon after Will got back up onto his foot, Akyro just sprung up from the ground. I could clearly see a smirk in her face. I think she wanted to have some fun.”

“So what happened next? Aeon questioned, his curiosity aroused.

“After that, Will took his weird fighting stance thing, and stood there waiting for Akyro to come. She did, lightning speed too. It was too fast for me to see anything. However, I did hear a hard metal clang, and shortly after, another one. William just stood there and deflected every strike.”

“I could see the pattern.”

“That is… until Will landed a hit back to Akyro. After that, the girl when nuts. She nearly ripped him in half in a single punch. William didn't end there. He nearly got Akyro for good too, if it weren't for those chains she used.”

“So even he doesn't stand a chance when Akyro is pissed off.”


While the two kid were still discussing Sol’s little story of the fight between Akyro and Will, Psoralea was looking over the small hand drawn map that she had made during her time scouting around. Since much of the landscape had changed drastically since the Spread of the Corruption; the old maps of the land had become unreliable. Many main roads and path had become too infected to tread. She was deciding on the best way to get to Nemract. As I see it, we have two options. We could save some time by cutting through Ancient Nemract and making a dash to Nemract, or we could take the longer route through the Spider Den’s entrance, backtrack to Maltic and follow the trail along the beach shore. Ancient Nemract will be crawling with undead monsters, probably even more than most other places consider the condition of the area even before the Fall. We might not be able to put up much of a fight, so soon after the battle with Kuraia and Menin. The longer route, however, cuts through a dense forest. While the wildlife wouldn’t pose much of a thread, the trees and such would make navigating a living hell. Thinking for a moment, Psoralea decided not to take the risk and lead the group into a battleground in their current condition.


“Everyone, gather up!” she exclaimed. “We’ll have to backtrack to Maltic. The town has been abandoned for a while now, so it should be void of any hostiles. We cut through there, and we can make our way to Nemract through the beach shore.”

“Urgh… more walking?!” Azul groaned in frustration. They had been walking for half the day. Hearing that they’d need to turn around was frustrating, to say the least.

“Only way to get there now. Unless you want to cross a heavily corrupted zone.” Psoralea confirmed, packing up her equipment. There were a short silence, but ultimately, Azul quietly agreed with the plan, although she clearly wasn’t happy about it. The trip was a rather peaceful one. Besides the watchful eyes of the forest, the group didn’t encounter anything hostile on the way.