Lore/Story A Journey Beyond: The Story, Ch5

Hey everyone, sorry for the long wait on ch5 I had collage work and was working on an out-of-server wynnpack (see wynnpack spoiler for more info) anyways I present you... A journey beyond: chapter 5!!

Spoiler: Other Chapters

Chapter 1: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-journey-beyond-the-story-ch1.277805/
Chapter 2: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-journey-beyond-the-story-ch2.277834/
Chapter 3: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-journey-beyond-the-story-ch3.277890/
Chapter 4: https://forums.wynncraft.com/threads/a-journey-beyond-the-story-ch4.278032/

Spoiler: A Journey Beyond: The Story, Chapter 5

A Journey Beyond:
Chapter 5:

Elphaba stepped over a rusted old pickaxe laying on the floor, abandoned for what looked like decades. Rotting handle, pitted head, looked like it couldn’t even take 1 swing. “So… when was this place last occupied?” asked Lucio. “The miners breached the mountain maybe 150 years ago… strange, it looks like they were only here yesterday…” A flash of movement behind me. I glance back, ready to fight. There was nothing, just a clean, strong pickaxe someone had left on the floor. Wait a minute… “Thing500?” called Elphaba. They had walked ahead. I reluctantly turned around to them and started walking. “C’mon boys we need to stick together,” she said. “Anyways, Aledar, what do our documents say?” inquired Lucio. Aledar pulled a piece of parchment out of his robe and unfolded it.

“We should be coming up on a bridge soon which will take us to the open area of the Expanse.” He answered. That sounded about right from the way our path was going, but up ahead something was wrong… We kept walking before suddenly a skittering and snapping noise echoed from far away in the mines. Elphaba lit her hand with a Runic spell, ready to kill… some bugs? A group of strange insects crawled out from the shadows and started circling and bumping us, but their main focus was Elphaba. She grunted and muttered a spell, blasting the bugs off her body. “Anyways, we should be getting to the bridge soon, right?” she continued. By this time we had walked up to a steep cliff with the remains of wooden and iron supports. “Yes, we should have passed it by now… what?” Aledar was confused. He peered over the side of the cliff. It swept down into an Abyss, with no sign of construction other than the posts on either side of us. We turned to each other and started discussing what to do.

“First of all, I didn’t destroy the bridge this time, ok?” Lucio said. Elphaba gave him a look and started debating what to do. “That bridge is nothing but a few rotted posts and a hunk of metal on the floor. We have to find a way around, or this mission was a failure!” she enforced. I looked around. “We could go… that-” before I could finish, Elphaba let out a shuddering cough. She sounded seriously sick, or at least hurt significantly. “You ok?” asked Aledar. She doubled over, gagging from either pain or disgust. “Uhhmm, we might want to stand back.” I stuttered. Lucio stepped away and Aledar raised his hands. Suddenly, Elphaba’s stomach exploded. A sizable hole appeared, but it was shaky, like a ghost in the light. One of those bugs from earlier crawled out, holding a dark-brown slimy… thing in it’s pincers. Elphaba let out an agonizing scream. “MY LIVER!! IT'S GOT MY LIVER!” she yelled. Stumbling after it, she displayed her inhuman speed, sprinting after the thieving insect.

She didn’t seem fazed at all by the fact there was a sizable hole in her stomach now, but then I realized it wasn’t there anymore. Aledar and Lucio saw the same problem, eyes widening in alarm. “Elphaba, no! iIt’s an illusion! Don’t-” We rounded the corner she turned, and… there was nothing. Not an insect, not a distraught Elphaba, not even any residual magic energy in the air. “ELPHABA!” called Lucio. He had lost his previous bouncy personality, now he was pale and sweaty, pupils dilated so wide his eyes were just white with a black circle. “Maybe we should, uhm, go back, err…” he stuttered. “No. Elphaba is a very skilled warrior and runic mage, she can fight until we find her.” He turned and walked back to where the bridge was. I shrugged at Lucio and followed Aledar. “So, no Elphaba, which means no fancy teleportation spells. How do we cross?” I asked. Aledar's eyes twitched and he looked around at the open area we were in. “Over there. We’ll have to go around to the right.” he pointed to a ruined path ascending up to an area open to… was that the sky? “Do you think that was actually an illusion? Back there?” mumbled Lucio. “I hope so.” responded Aledar. Without another word, he marched up the trail and motioned for us to follow.

Lucio and I continued behind Aledar, quietly making our way forward. When we reached the top of the stairs, the first thing I thought was “We’re being watched.” An ancient city, strangely resembling Time Valley. Massive arches and tall buildings… Yes, this was the same architecture. Random, things peered at us from the shadows. They were the first intelligent beings I have seen so far, but they didn’t seem all that angry, sort of just… silent. And up ahead… “Oh thank Yahya, a human!” I said. She was standing still, not even blinking or breathing by the looks of things. “Oh, no… is she hurt? HEY YOU! ARE YOU OK?” called Lucio. He jogged up to her, but just before he could even touch the body, Aledar called, “NO, STOP, IT'S ANOTHER TRAP!!” Too late, Lucio laid his finger on the miner’s wrist for a pulse, and beams of Darkness shot up and around them, like beams of light, but… dark.

Lucio became frozen like the miner, but he could still speak. “AHHH, no, why can’t I move?!” he called in a panic. He started to make another noise again, before he was completely overridden by a jumble of screaming and yelling and talking and crying pouring out of the miner’s body. I could only catch snippets of what they were saying, but they were talking so fast it was like someone was reciting the entirety of Ragni’s Secret Library in the span of 1 sentence. Something including, “You’ll be safe,” and “Do you understand?!” Lucio strained to break free, but the Obsessor kept talking, shouting and calling. “LISTEN!” It was talking louder now, and faster. The words were just a blur now. Lucio managed to utter some kind of spell, and light shot out from him, withering the freezing magic laid upon him.

I started forward to help Lucio when he escapes, but before the spell was even halfway done, it just stopped. The light shut off and the Obsessor screamed and spoke even louder and faster than ever before, almost like just a long continuous string of noise at this point. Single words were all I caught: “Safe,” a snatch of “come,” a bit of “together.” I grasped my dagger. “Aledar, we have to stop the Obsessor! It’s gonna take Lucio away!” Lucio looked calm now. A little confused, but other than that he looked as if he was completely normal. The Obsessor’s word became understandable again. “YES, YOU AGREE!” It shrieked. “COME, YOU’LL BE SAFE!!” it beckoned. “Lucio, NO!” cried Aledar, but it was too late. Lucio and the Obsessor disappeared in a flash of Dark. Nothing was left again. No noise, energy, nothing. “Come, we must get past this section of the Silent Expanse. It’s too dangerous!” We ran through the ruins until we saw another path, this one looked like it should lead to the next sections of this region. “Lets go!” I called.

Aledar and I bolted down the slope until we slowed down to a cautious walk in a massive tunnel. It reminded me of the Passage between Troms and Ragni, just way bigger and older. Pure black spikes jutter out of the walls every now and then. They looked like Corruption, but they were thinner, and far, far darker. Pure black with purple mist orbiting them. “What is happening here? First Elphaba, next Lucio. We haven’t even gotten 100 feet yet!” I complained. Aledar looked around at the tunnel, eyeing the spikes with caution. “The element of Darkness is an unpredictable thing, it can seep into your mind and takes control of you, like the Corruption. Darkness however doesn’t turn you into a mindless monster, you do the bidding of an entity we are seeking. It is rumored it lies at the end of the Expanse, watching over everything in Wynn. Only 1 man, the legendary Bob, has ever come to this land and encountered the thing.” I nodded in understanding. Up ahead, I saw another person but this one had a life force, I could sense it. They held a pickaxe in their hands and were trudging towards us, eyes down. “Who is that?” I asked. Aledar looked down and his eyes widened. “A human! This isn’t an illusion either, I can feel it.” We walked up to the miner, He looked up when we drew close and jumped in surprise. “Others! Please, you have to help us! The miners are trapped and I left to find a way out! Please!!” He sounded desperate and tired. "Calm down sir, we’ll protect you." The miner looked up. “No, you have no idea what is up ahead. For years, I- I’ve-” He stuttered to a halt and broke down sobbing in Aledar’s arms. “I- I- just want- I just want to go home!” he choked out. I raised my eyebrow at Aledar. He opened his mouth to reassure the miner, but then a low growl echoed through the tunnel.

“What was that?” said Aledar. I looked around, but there was nothing to see but walls and mist. Suddenly something huge, thick, slimy, and black descended upon Aledar and the Miner, swallowing them in one gulp, and rising back to the ceiling. It was a huge Worm or some kind, long with a massive mouth lined with hundreds of teeth. Dozens of eyes surrounded it’s maw, but they all closed one by one, ready for a nice nap after eating my last companion and a miner.

To be continued...

Spoiler: WynnPack: More Info

Thanks to anyone who found my wynnpack interesting, it takes a lot of time to work on it and I would really, really like some feedback on it. If you want, I can give out the indev version of the pack out for results or even use if anyone wants, if u like that msg me over the forums and we can go in-depth over the pack.

 

missing quotation mark

Amazing, the lead up from the previous chapters made me actually sad when Elphaba and Lucio died, whereas in the game I was just like "well there go some people I've never heard of before, too bad"

 

lol thanks for the complement and error

 

I love it, great work on all these stories!

 

thank you!!