Lore/Story A Journey Beyond: The Story, Ch4

Hello again, sorry for the wait on chapter 4, It was the longest one so far and I did more research on the quest, but anyways here you go!

Ch1: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-journey-beyond-the-story-ch1.277805/
Ch2: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-journey-beyond-the-story-ch2.277834/
Ch3: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-journey-beyond-the-story-ch3.277890/

Spoiler: A Journey Beyond: The Story, Ch4

A Journey Beyond:
Chapter 4:

I woke at daybreak to a grook cawing outside the inn. Aledar got up soon after. He looked refreshed and ready to continue on our mission. We washed up, put on our armor, grabbed a few pints of Nemract Whiskey and saddled our horses. “Elphaba and Lucio should be at the outpost by now, right?” I asked. Aledar nodded, responding, “Yeah, they have access to a private airship run by a guy named Calo. You know him?” I remembered that guy in Cinfras who takes me back and forth across the ocean for free. “Yeah, I know him.” Aledar tilted his head forwards. “Good, good… Anyways, they are probably on their way back from Gavel right now with a fresh batch of Light dust. You got the Dark pearl, right?” I reached into my pocket, closing my fingers around a smooth, cold sphere. “Yes, right here.”

Aledar and I rode on for another few minutes before coming within sight of where Dren was. He was outside his shop, forging a long spear with runic inscriptions on the handle. He waved at us as we passed, but it was clear he was hard at work. I dismounted with Aledar and stored my horse away into its magic saddle. Together we walked over to Dren and quietly observed his work. He was amazing, like a Corkus Mech; perfectly coordinated and undeterred by all. He hammered the point into a sharp triangle, picked up the weapon, and slid it onto a tub of Gylia fish oil. “So, did you get the Darkness object boys?” he asked without turning around. I pulled the pearl out and glanced at it. It was like a crystal ball; solid, but mist swirled like a storm inside. Mesmerizing… Tearing my eyes away from it, I looked up and replied, “Yes, a Corruption Pearl, fresh from a Dernic Progeny deep in the Roots.” Dren turned and stuck his hand out. Upon placing the pearl in his open palm, he lifted it to the light and turned it. His examinations made no scene to me, but he obviously knew what he was doing.

After a minute or so of careful overlooking of the relic, Dren handed it back and nodded, satisfied. “Yess… this will do very well. Good work! Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to return to my spears.” Without another word, he spun around and pulled the weapon out of the tub. Aledar and I walked away and sat in a small cart by the village. I found a nice crate of soft whetstones and decided to sharpen my dagger a little. Aledar looked lost in thought, so I didn’t disturb him. Eventually he snapped back to the real world and looked over. I remembered long, long ago, when I first saw Aledar in that horse cart in the Outskirts, the only part of Fruma I remember. He was so much more, more… Simple, not the dark, mysterious warlock sitting before me. The first whetstone wore out, so I reached into the box and pulled out another. Aledar leaned forward and peered into the container. “Oh, mind if I…” he prompted. Confused, I simply answered, “Sure.” I’ve never seen Aledar wield a weapon on this entire journey. Well of course, runic magic is far more powerful, and after casting a bunch of spells, you wouldn’t even have the strength to use one, but whatever. I watched as he pulled 3 or 4 whetstones out of the box, and I was about to ask what he was going to sharpen, before a flash of light and a dagger appeared out of nowhere.

My jaw dropped. I’ve heard of this dagger. It looked plain enough, but I knew this was one of the rarest things I will ever see in my life. Nullification, a dagger doing all and protecting from all elemental attacks. I felt my blood rush to my head from the sheer power and aura of this thing. “From where- since-” I stuttered. “Oh this thing? I, uhh, found it in a chest deep in a cave around Molten Heights. I use a compaction spell to keep it safe from thieves, but even as a Mythic dagger, it still needs sharpening.” He began casually running the stones along the short blade. I watched in amazement for a minute before finally coming to my scenes and exiting the cart. I decided to take a short walk through the woods around the Black Road, and I was about to start off before I saw a pair of figures on horses riding towards me in the distance. They came closer, and closer… one had an olive skin tone, and the other was darker… “Lucio, Elphaba!” I shouted. Aledar jumped out of the cart, his dagger gone, stowed away magically, but that didn’t matter. The 2 warriors climbed off of their horses and ran towards us. Lucio reached into his pocket, bringing out a small vial of glowing powder, so bright it hurt to look at it. “Hey, we got it!” he called. He met in a small group and exchanged stories. Aledar explained what happened, and when he finished, Elphaba jumped in to tell us her story. Apparently it took so long because when they met the Gavel fairies, they roped them into some kind of meeting/battle thing, where they had to go to the Light Realm and smash some random corruption seeds, eating up some of their time. After receiving a vial of light dust as a reward, they rode all the way back to Cinfras and were trying to find Calo, but he was in Detlas at the time. They were forced to buy Llevigar teleportation scrolls and go to a secret Fast Travel network run by Mage Island wizards and some kind of magic school, and then they finally got into Nemract and rode all the way here from there.

Once we finished our tales, we went to talk to Dren about purifying ourselves from Darkness. He was just finishing up his spear, wrapping a bit of glimmering cloth around the top of the handle and pinning the leather handle. He placed the thing on a rack so the leather could harden and turned towards us. “Hello everyone! I see you are ready to be purified. Come along now!” He led us into his shop again and stationed us in a square formation. Dren stood in the middle and beckoned for the pearl. I took out the Darkness item as Lucio stuck out the vial of Light dust. Dren grabbed both and raised the pearl above his head. My vision went dark, like a shadow was passing overhead. I felt like air was being sucked out of me, as if I was a vent of some sorts. I saw the others seemed to be experiencing the same thing, but from their eyes and mouths, shadows were trickling out like liquids. I assumed the same was happening to me, but just as quickly as it started, the sucking sensation stopped. The shadows collected above our heads individually, forming symbols of Darkness. Dren, keeping the pearl above his head, crushed the Light dust vial, glass and all, and blew it at each of us. The Darkness above us flickered, brightening, cracking, before turning into a simple star; the symbol of Light. The pearl in Dren’s hand dissolved into smoke, blowing away in the draft through the doors.

I felt… lighter. Literally. Like I could bounce around as if I was an Olux Swamp Frog. I felt great, like all sadness and anger was gone from the world. Elphaba had a small grin on her lips, but Lucio was a whole different story. Stretched across his entire face was the biggest smile I had ever seen. He looked like someone who just got a box of Liquid Emeralds, a visit from his entire family, and they had all brought gifts. I grinned and shook my head. “I’m guessing it worked?” said Aledar. Even he looked different. His eyes were whiter, even the corners of his mouth twitched. “Woah... lets do that AGAIN!!” exclaimed Lucio. We all laughed at him as the Light symbols above us dissolved into white powder. “C’mon people, we should get a move on. Things to do, dark rear-ends to kick!” joked Elphaba. “Can Darkness affect us again? Can it? CAN IT?!” Begged Lucio, throwing himself into Dren’s arms with a stupid grin. “I have never seen anyone this excited to be attacked by the element of evil, but no, the residual Light force keeps Darkness at bay for a few years.” Lucio burst into celebration, “YIPPEE, can’t wait to get infected and purified again, let's go!” He ran out of the store, cheering all the while like a crazy child. Dren chuckled and patted Aledar’s shoulder. “Better catch up and make sure he doesn’t get too excited, heh.” He nodded and walked out with Elphaba. “Thank you Dren. I’ll be sure to visit later!” He smiled and nodded. “And you’re welcome. Go ahead now, meet up with your friends. See you later I hope!”

I left the shop and smiled at the world. Everything seemed brighter and happier; the vicious mooshrooms grazing in the woods, Yahya’s fans throwing mushrooms at each other, even the sun seemed brighter and higher. “C’mon guys, let's go show Dern who’s boss!” I took out my magic saddle, but before I could summon my horse, Elphaba intervened. “I’ve been practicing Precision Teleportation spells, can I try one?” I was in the mood to agree, so of course I said yes. “Go ahead, you guys good with that?” Lucio nodded, but Aledar looked wary. “Elphaba, Precision Teleportation spells are very complex, are you sure?” Elphaba hesitated, but nodded. “I’ve gotten better. Lemme try, just once!” She closed her eyes and whispered. Barely 3 seconds passed before the world went black, like a teleportation scroll does. I floated in empty space for a half of a second before everything rushed back at us. Noise, color, light, like a river flood. Sure enough, we had landed right in front of the collapsed archway. Aledar raised an eyebrow. “I’m impressed,” he remarked. Elphaba smiled and turned towards the stone.

Lucio stepped up to them without hesitation and began to chant. “Lucio, wait.” commanded Aledar. He paused, alert. “You remember what happened last time you caused huge explosions and charged in like a maniac?” Lucio twitched his nose. “Maybe.” Elphaba sighed and said, “We should just open a small entrance so the monster can’t escape, then we can fight it in there to enter the Expanse." Lucio agreed and resumed chanting. This spell seemed smaller, more delicate. A fireball burst into life before him, slowly crawling towards the wall. With a light impact, the explosion blasted a small hole in the rubble, opening to a dark room with a gasping roar shaking the mountain.

"Let's get ‘em!” charged Lucio, sprinting into the cave, hands ablaze with magic fire. Elphaba followed, ready to fight. Aledar summoned Nullification, displaying his supreme ability as an assassin. The blade twirled and spun with such speed it was simply a rainbow disc of death. I whipped out my Infused Hive Dagger and ran in after Elphaba and Lucio, Aledar behind me. We fought hard, overcoming the beast while blasting and slashing at its now vulnerable smoky-black skin. While my blade bounced off the Black Geist like it was made of obsidian, I saw little chips fly off and scatter like gravel. The monster was weakening, slowing down and failing. It got lower and lower to the ground, and opened its maw to let out on more deafening shreik, but not before another one of Lucio’s fireballs finished it off.

We looked at each other, ecstatic. Converging, we congratulated one enough and put away our weapons, ready for anything. “That was nothing! We keep this up, we'll get through this whole thing yawning from boredom.” claimed Lucio. We chuckled at his antics, but they quickly died down when we saw what lay beyond the unblocked passage. A massive cavern, bigger than the Thanos Bazaar but not evenhalf as nice. Old large-scale mining equipment was set up everywhere; drills, cranes, even some Corkus D15-S Mobile Diggers lay rusting away. This place clearly had been abandoned for quite some time, and that aura… the presence of Darkness was here again, but it wasn’t as powerful. I felt it pressing onto my eardrums, but at the same time, I didn’t. The Light magic was at work, protecting us from the ever growing power of Darkness.

“I’m not sure everything will be that easy…” I muttered. Lucio shook his head and laughed. “C’mon man, look at this! They won’t stand a chance.” He turned and cast a spell, blasting the stones behind us to dust and opening the now mostly destroyed arch back up. He cast another spell, and that fixed the arch, rock and emeralds sticking together and fixating themselves to the wall. Elphaba laid a hand on Lucio’s shoulder. “Thing500’s right. What lays ahead requires more than strength of muscle or spell, but of mind. You have to stay focused and remain on target. Don’t let Darkness affect you.” Lucio’s expression fell. “Alright, I understand,” he said. And without another word we turned and walked in unison into the Silent Expanse.

To be continued...

And you know the deal: chapter 5 coming soon, and again, thanks to all the people who want to and have helped in this project, it means a lot.

 

Aledar's long lost sibling

Great chapter as always, you seem to so easily paint the image of what's happening through mere text.
Good job, I look forward to #5 :)

 

oh sorry about the typo lmao I fixed it thanks for pointing it out

thanks! I know I've said it before but still, it means a lot to have people say things like that