Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

Interlude - What They Fear

Erdania

Erdania released her Evolved Form and returned to her usual size. They had won a hard battle, but they were all alive, and their foe was dead. The monsters were running away, but she didnt pay them any heed. She looked around and found Selia sitting on the ground with Ryun next to her. She paused, but then walked over to them and sat down next to them.

We did it, she sighed.

Ryun just grunted, but Selia spoke. Yes, we did.

It had been a long road, they had lost so much. But here, now, they were victorious. After losing their Sect, being forced to run and seek shelter on the Frontier. Their group, the League had been left to deal with what the Cabal shouldve. So much death, and in the end, nothing that they planned mattered at all. They wanted to help others grow more, to allow more freedom, to help everyone be better. The Cabal had never been their enemies, not really. They just disagreed on the way to accomplish the same goal. They wanted to fight and tear down those who kept others from power, while the Cabal tried to mitigate their influence.

Now, Erdania truly knew why they had been doing that. Only one Dome had caused all of this, and though they had won, there were a lot more domes out there with who knew what manner of horrors lurking within them. They needed powerful people, that was a fact. And this The Unchained, Kaeliss Couldwrought, had achieved what he had set out to do. He weakened them all, he revealed to the world everyones true nature. She had heard whispers, even in their Sect, from those who had little power. Everyone saw that for those above them, the deaths of innocents, of those who were weaker, meant nothing.

The support for his side only grew in the chaos that had consumed the core. It was as if a madness had stricken all of them. Or at least many. There was no sense in what they were doing, in the wars that they were fighting. Just senseless destruction.

She looked around the courtyard at the others. Tired and injured, but triumphant none the less. This was a moment, the point where things could start to change. A Dome was defeated, and the world would know. The time for change was now.

Five years was a short time, at least Erdania had thought so, before. Now it was as if it had been an eternity. They had returned to Ryuns sect. A sect that she, Selia, and their people were a part of now. They spent their days building it up. Expanding, creating something that will last.

The core had settled, the wars slowed, though some still fought. Her dream of them being something more, abated. They had settled into a slow paced and simpler life. Of the old members of the League, each was occupied with their own projects and needs. The Dome had broken them all, shattered any semblance of unity of purpose. And that was fine.

Erdania spent her days training, becoming stronger, learning about the people in her new Sect. Fixing problems.

She finished a training session with the sects warriors and walked back to their palace, looking for her partners. She tried so hard to be better. To gain more and more strength, to catch up to others, to be powerful enough that she could protect everyone.

She found them in the garden, heard laughter. She saw them together, just talking, holding hands. And she turned away, hurriedly running away. It wasnt that she felt left out, she didnt, not really. But she knew that she could never share what the two of them did. Their bond was deep. True, she shared something with Ryun that Selia didnt, just how the two of them had something that he didnt. But, there was always that same fear she had been fighting since she had been a child, whispering in her mind.

She left the city, so fast that in less than an hour she had almost made it out of the territory, running at speeds that few could follow, trying to get away before

Ryun dropped down from above ahead of her, floating to the ground as if it was gently reaching up to catch him instead of trying to squash him like it did everything else. He had such freedom, and yet he didnt understand. He never could know what seeing him so free meant to her. A part of why she was attracted to him, why she came to love him over the years, was that freedom.

I shouldnt have bothered. There is no running away from you, Erdania sighed and walked over to a tree, then leaned on it and let herself drop to sit on the roots below.

There was nothing that Ryun didnt see in their city, in their entire territory. His sense had only gotten stronger over the years, and there was no privacy for anyone in the territory from him. If she wanted just a moment to be alone, without anyone seeing, she would need to travel an entire territory away from him. And still she wouldnt be confident that he couldnt see her.

Why did you run? Did we do something?

She chuckled at his question. Both of them were the same. Always ready to make sure that there were no hidden resentments, that they hadnt done something to upset her. It wouldve been adorable, if it wasnt so annoying. Seeing them talking with their minds, witnessing the moments when they finished conversations spoken in their minds out-loud. She wasnt threatened by it, the two of them were not the problem. It was always her.

Its nothing, Erdania said. How could she give voice to what she felt? She had spent centuries trying to ignore that little voice. She had believed that she had squashed it, but recently something had made it come back. And she didnt know what.

Dani, Ryun whispered, now kneeling in front of her, his hand on her knee. You can tell me anything.

She shrugged, opened her mouth to give another deflection, but he squeezed her knee.

Look at me, he said, and she met his eyes. Two pits of endless void. Something is bothering you, something is making you feel afraid. Tell me what it is, what do you fear?

She tried to look away, but it was as if the entire world around her was pushing on her, making her want to speak. Finally, she stopped fighting it.

The two of you, others even. You all have a purpose, something to do and strive for. All I do is fight. I I am afraid, you are right. I am afraid that one day you, both of you, will wake up and see that I am worthless.

She heard it then as she voiced the fears. The voices of the masters in that dark place where she grew up, the only place that she had ever known as a child. Everything she had ever done since seeing the sun had been to try and prove them wrong. To be worth something.

Ah, you fear being worthless, Ryun whispered. The world shook, as if it was giving its last breath. And then darkness swallowed her.

Vryull

The fight was over, they had won.

As the others dropped down to rest, he looked at the corpse of the Dome Leader. It was a mangled mess. But there was enough that he could see what it had been. And he remembered. He knew that this was a monster that came from the stories of the human Iterations. There were few records of what the Dome Leader had been, and fewer still of those who remembered the stories. But Vryull could now see what they had spoken about, the similarity with the cthul.

He had abandoned his people a long time ago, but he did remember the teachings and the theories. Some cthul believed that human and cthul Iterations were the same, just as skreen and kreacan ones were. That the similarities in their stories came from that. Though from what was recorded in the early years, and with every following Iterations, suggested that no cthul had ever found the humans world.

And there were records of the cthuls great and mortal enemies. Great devourers among the stars, that had eaten entire worlds. That the cthul grand fleets fought against in every Iteration. Monsters that were similar to what humans described. What Hastur had been. Deceivers and destroyers.

Too many coincidences. Too many he shook his head, pushing the thoughts away. No, he had left that life. He did not follow the creed of the purebloods. He did not believe in their It couldnt be true. He had forsaken the Machine for the power of the Void, abandoned and cursed by all who had been part of his old life. No one would ever know what Vryull had seen, none of the Pure. Just to contemplate on the implications was sin enough for them to send the Herald after him. No, he could not.

He turned away, rejoining the others, pushing the great monsters and the Machine God out of his thoughts.

Six years had passed since the defeat of the Dome Leader. The world had settled. And Vryull had too. He had accepted Ryuns invitation, and had come to visit his sect. He hadnt left since then. It was dangerous.

The core had settled, no more great wars, but it had changed too. Factions had emerged from hiding. Great powers that hadnt cared to involve themselves before were now known by all. And Vryull had taken great pains to remain under the notice of great powers. Now, that choice was more important than ever before.

He turned his attention back to Ryun, watching as he cracked another Void Crystal and let the void in the air. It sizzled, crackled, devoured the air, but only for a moment. Ryun made it bow to his will, made it stop. Isolated it from other Essence and let it stay there suspended in between them. A hole of the darkest black, a void in space itself. Vryull leaned forward, studying it, trying to grasp what he was seeing. They had already agreed that it was the space, the world itself around them that was pushing down on the Void, trying to fill it. To close the gap. The world would succeed, there was not enough Void Essence to overcome the existence of all the Essences around it. Void did not play well with other elemental Essences, even laws. Concepts were a bit better, but in the end, Void was Void.

He had learned so much over these last few years. Advanced his knowledge further than he had ever dreamed of before. His understanding of the Void soared. A Classer and Cultivator, working together, sharing their knowledge. Ah if only the rest of the world was He shook his head.

The Void finally succumbed to the world, and dissipated.

Another? Vryull asked.

Ryun tilted his head. Weve done this thousands of times, and it had been hundreds since we learned anything new.

Progress is not always quick, we mightve missed something, Vryull responded.

Ryun glanced away, then turned back and locked his eyes on Vryulls.

Why are you still here Vryull? Ryun asked, taking Vryull aback.

What do you mean?

Ryun gave him a smile. Weve gotten to know each other pretty well over the years Vryull. I can tell. You are hiding here. I dont mind, I like having you here my friend. But You are powerful enough to be known as a High Ranker. One of the strongest. Yet you avoid anything that might get you noticed. You are here, at the Frontier, with me. What is it that makes you so afraid?

Vryull grimaced and looked away. The world around him felt as if it was suffocating him. Memories of the past threatening to bubble out. He had kept that part of his life private for a reason. And he had never thought that it would ever be an issue. Why would it? It was an infinite world. From what he knew there never shouldve been an opportunity for them to interact. The core tenets of the Machine God were precise. He had kept a low profile despite the even lower risk. And yet the war in the core changed everything. Something changed back home. They had left their territories against their previous plans.

Slowly, Vryull started to explain. You heard rumors from the core, I assume?

Ryun tilted his head. Some, he said.

Vryull nodded. The ones about the Herald of the Machine?

Ryun blinked, then nodded slowly.

Vryull sighed. Cthul are very unified, across all Iterations. The ones that you see everywhere are outcasts, the impure, as the purebloods would say. I was born a pureblood, that means that I know my line back to the old world, that my ancestors were all from a single Iteration, pure. The others they are children of different Iterations, of different races, and therefore impure. It is not often that someone who is pureblood leaves, and fewer still survive for long. The core of the cthul races guards their secrets zealously. I will not divulge them now. But there is a reason why I dont advertise my presence. I have chosen my pursuit of the Void and a Class that the pure would not approve of. If I had been born impure, it wouldve been different. I am afraid of what they would do if they ever found me. If they ever catch wind of me I would not wish to bring my problems down on your head.

Ah, Ryun said. Running from your past.

The world relaxed, and then darkness consumed him.