Chapter 10 The Random Order of Things
The Nexus is beautiful...
They step out of the portal onto what they assume is the entirety of the physical existance of the Nexus... a floating island... a small one at that. The island is just flat, and covered with dirt... nothing special... but the actual Nexus...
All around the island, where the sea and sky should be, there are billions of swirling colours... millions more colours than the human eye has ever seen before... each colour is a part of a dimension... not a portal... and actual part of the place that exists within the Nexus.
Saphir and brad notice a swirl of pure white, and each guesses, correctly, that it is part of the Plain of Equality, where they fought and killed the Children of Jove... Arrowny spots a swirl of black with tiny specks of light, and knows without a doubt that it is the void dimension where he spent the last three years...
The colours are distracting, and it almost hurts their eyes to look at them... but they fight through the distraction... and see the demon lord, Minion, standing at the far end of the island.
The Warriors watch as Minion chants, waving his hands at the complex swirl... and they watch in horror as three distinct dimensions flow through the mess, growing larger and larger as they approach Minion.
From just beyond the boundray of each of these dimensions... a demonic face gazes back through the Nexus at the Dragoon Warriors... a robed wizard, face hidden behind a hood, with long bony fingers waving before it... a sadistic looking demon, covered in black scales, with an intelligent gleam in its eyes... and a powerful looking demon with a crown of horns adorning its head...
These are Xavier... Black... and the Emporer...
Minion stops chanting... and turns to face the Warriors...
�You... are too late. It is just a matter of time before the Four are reunited... and we will bring ruin to this world. And... I doubt you can stop us... even if you had your full number. Did the Knights prove too much for the technomage?�
Arrowny just shakes his head...
�Look... we've all had enough of the 'witty banter' portion of the big fight... can we just skip it and get to the 'sword stabby bad man' part?�
Minion shrugs...
�I don't see why not!�
The three Warriors rush forward, and meet up with the charging Minion in the very center of the island.
Brad uses his running start to leap high, and swing wide, striking Minion in the head with his new axe... sparks fly as the blade strikes stony skin. The demon stumbles to the side, and catches a few well placed kicks from Arrowny. Saphir slashes at Minion's knees, bringing the demon to the ground, and alowing all three of the Warriors to beat on him.
Saphir slashes Minion across the chest... Brad crushes one of the demon's arms... and Arrowny stabs it through the soft stomach skin with Sky Render...
As they pull their weapons free and step back, they each look a little confused. Saphir turns to the others...
�Um... I was expecting... more?�
Brad nods...
�Yeah... I mean... he's supposed to be some big demon lord, right?�
Arrowny is about to say something, but is knocked far back by a massive uppercut from Minion... the demon stands, and glairs at the other Warriors...
�I AM a big demon lord! It will take more than that to kill me!�
Saphir tries to attack, but Minion throws him to the ground beside Arrowny. Brad steps forward, spins around, and catches the demon in the head with the flat of his axe. Minion stumbles back, and Brad presses the attack, swinging from side to side, smashing his axe across the head of the demon. Sparks fly each time metal colides with rocky skin, and Minion's head is violently thrown from one side to the other...
Saphir and Arrowny get to their feat, and yell out to Brad.
�Brad! Duck!�
... so Brad ducks, jumping almost painfully face first to the dirt.
Arrowny stretches out his hand, pointing toward Minion.
�This better work...�
Saphir aims the blade of the Glaive at the demon lord.
�It probably will.�
Blasts of pure magic shoot forth from the Glaive, while at the same time, fire, ice, and lightning elemental spells errupt from Arronwy's hand. The distructive and powerful magics fly across the small island, and strike Minion in the chest in rapid succession. Magical energy, fireballs, blasts of cold, and lightning bolts blast away at the rocky exterior of the demon. A hail of pebbles falls from Minion, covering Brad with bits of rock and sand.
Saphir and Arrowny stop their magical assault... Minion stagers back, and drops to one knee right in front of where Brad is lying on the ground.
The demon cannot believe it... he is in more pain than ever before... there are great chips knocked from his skin, and thick black blood is oozing from the wounds.
Brad sees all this, smiles, and jumps to his feat, swinging wide as he rises, and taking Minion's head from his body in one clean stroke. The damage from the magic attacks was enough to weaken the demon's skin to the point that Brad's axe could cut through.
The Warriors gather at the far end of the island... Brad smiles...
�Well... that was more like it.�
Then, they all get knocked to the ground.
Minion's body explodes with force enough to send them all down. The light around the island dims, and the great spirit of the demon Lord Minion, released from its body, forms around them.
The spirit is massive, and looks like some of those old Christian engravings of Satan... big curved horns, massive claws... the true depiction of 'demonic'.
From just beyond the island, each in their own little dimensions, the other members of the Four laugh, and yell... and scream as their own bodies explode, and each of their demonic spirits emerge from the multi coloured swirl of infinite dimensions.
Xavier exists as a cloud of pure magic... Black as an ever changing, shapeless mass of eyes and toothy mouths... and the Emporer as a tall, slightly humanoid figure, half hidden by intense shadows. These three spirits float free of their dimensional prisons, and enter the Nexus.
They glide over the island to come to a rest beside the spirit of Minion...
The Dragoon Warriors look on as the demonic spirits meld into one being... seemingly forged of shadow and magic... a human... only black like a void, and with magic crackling all through its transparent body...
... the new creature floats to the ground... and turns toward the Warriors...
�We are the Four...�
The creature's voice is distant, almost a whisper, and it sounds as though thousands of voices are speaking in thousands of languages, and each speaker wishes nothing more than to bring horrible death upon all life they encounter...
Brad shakes his head...
�Just once... ONCE... I would like to fight a bad guy that does NOT turn into some super version of himself just when we think we've won. That'd be really great... you know?�
Saphir and Ryan agree as they each ready their weapons to once again jump into the fight.
Just as Brad and Saphir rush forward, attacking the Four creature, Arrowny stops in his tracks, feeling a slight virbrating from his jacket pocket.
Saphir attacks with his CRUSADER enhanced force waves, trying to knock the Four back, and Brad slashes out, but his axe just passes through the body of the creature.
Ryan reaches into his pocket, and pulls out the small black, and now vibrating, cube that Justin built. It looks the same as ever, except there is a message written in bright red letters on a small LCD screen on one face... it says 'TURN TO YOUR LEFT'.
The creature sends a bolt of magic at Brad, who finds a new use for his new axe. Seems that the metal the weapon is made of reflects magic... and Brad, holding the axe like a shiled, sends the bolt right back at the creature, which connects, and causes actual damage.
Arrowny looks back at the little screen on the little cube, and sees that the message now reads 'NO, TURN LEFT, IDIOT!'. Ryan is slightly embarrassed when he realizes that he did, in fact, turn to the right, so he imediatly jumps around so he is facing the right direction. He looks up, and sees Brad and Saphir engaged in a grand battle against their foe.
The new and powerful magic in the Glaive allows Saphir to harm the creature with the weapon. The Warrior uses this to force the Four back to the edge of the island as Brad reflects its own spells back... they have the situation under control.
The message on the cube says 'THROW ME!'... Ryan is very confused by this... but when the bright red 'NOW!' pops up, he reaches back, and tosses the cube with all his strength.
The cube flies through the air, and bounces off the staff end of Saphir's Glaive as he swings at the Four creature. The cube then strikes Brad in the side of the head, knocking him back just as the Four attacks with what would have surely been a death dealing spell had the Warrior not been knocked out of its path. Finally, the tiny black cube bounces harmlessly on the ground to the edge of the island... and falls over the side into the swirl of infinite dimensions.
There is an explosion from the Nexus. Brad and Saphir are thrown off their feet as the swirls twist and turn faster and faster, until the island is surrounded by a whirlpool of dimensions. All the colours are passing by so quickly that the entire background of the Nexus looks to be nothing but a light shade of grey, with random spots of other, brighter colours popping up every now and then.
After the initial blast that knocked the Warriors back, the whirlpool, like the very vacume of space, begins to draw all forms of matter from within the Nexus. Dust and rocks from the island are pulled from the ground and obliterated within the swirling mass... and the Four creature is standing right at the very edge of the island... directly in front of the whirlpool...
... but it does not get sucked in.
The creature stands with its feet firmly on the island... it does not even give the slightest appearance of being affected by the forces which are ripping the very land around it to shreds.
Arrowny casts a quick glance to check on Brad and Saphir... they're alright... but the fall was hard, and they're having trouble standing during the enviromental melt down within the Nexus...
He switches his gaze to fix on the Four creature... just standing there... on the edge of what looks to be a portal through which, if it were to fall, it would be lost to the world of man forever...
... if it were to fall... or if it were pushed...
�Damn it...�
Arrowny slams Sky Render point first into the ground. The sword stands up in the dirt, swaying heavily towards the whilrpool behind the creature.
With one last look at his friends, Arrowny takes off in a full speed charge of the creature.
Brad and Saphir scream at him to stop as the runs full force into the creature, in a style much like a professional football player. He knocks the creature off of the edge of the island, and into the whirlpool... AND... he manages to come to a screaching hault just before going over himself.
The Warriors watch as the creature falls into the whirlpool... and they listen as it screams when it is torn into an infinite number of pieces. Each tiny bit of the creature is pulled into a different dimension.
Arrowny turns to the others... and smiles.
Then a random bolt of lightning from one of the dimensions swriling behind him strikes the island, and the part on which Arrowny is standing falls away. Ryan manages to grab hold of the ground as he falls toward the void... and ends up digging in to the dirt and earth of the island by just the very tips of his fingers. He is being pulled into the whirlpool... and he doesn't have the strength to hold on much longer.
Brad and Saphir jump to their feet, grab their weapons, and rush forward.
Ryan's grip on the island gives way... and he falls toward the swirl of dimensions. Brad and Saphir reach the end of the island just as Ryan lets go...
Saphir jumps off of the island, reaching out to Arrowny with one hand, and holding the Glaive back toward Brad with the other. Brad slams his axe hard into the ground, and holds on to it with one hand as he reaches out and takes hold of the Glaive just below the blade.
Brad lets the force of Saphir's jumping pull him to the edge of the island, but he keeps his grip on the axe tight... it is enough to keep his feet steady.
Saphir reaches out, and grabs hold of Arrowny's arm just before he gets beyond reach...
Brad pulls hard... and even with one hand on his axe, he manages enough strength to pull Saphir up to the island edge. Together, they pull Arrowny up, and drag him off to the far side of the island, where Sky Render is, and where the pull of the whirlpool hasn't yet reached.
Brad smacks Arrowny across the back of the head...
�MORON! Don't ever do that again! I'm not bringing you back a second time!�
They all share a laugh at this... then they realize that they don't have a way out of the nexus anymore, because Arrowny threw the little cube over the side of the island.
Brad hits him again...
... then they spend the next few minutes looking for a way back home...
* * * * * *
They got out somehow...
... actually, it wasn't that hard. After a few minutes, the whirlpool of dimensions died down, and the doorway to their own world opened up at the edge of the island right beside where they were standing.
They just steped through.
Then, they imediatly Warped to the location of the former camp of the Knights of Human Purity. They spend an hour looking around for any sign of Justin... but they find nothing but dust and dirt in the clearing.
When they meet up in the middle of the 'camp', Brad just shrugs...
�Well... we know he got threw this... he saved our collective asses after all... new axe... new Card... little cube thingy...�
Saphir nods in aggrement...
�Yeah. He must have had that thing programmed to cause the whirlpool in the Nexus, so that we could scatter the essence of the Four over the infinite dimensions... and then it opened up the door back to our dimension...
... he saved us... and the world.�
Arrowny yawns, and wipes his eyes...
�Guys... it's been a long night. We saved the world... again... let's just go home and sleep. We'll figure out what happened to Justin in the morning.�
They agree... and after a quick �FUah-haneayn FEaen-bae� from Saphir, and a small flash of light, they find themselves in the living room of their house... but they're not along...
... there is a girl... about their age... floating about a foot above the floor... long brown hair and empty, evil looking eyes.
Energy is crackling around her body... blue and orange strands of electricty... pure power...
She gazes at the Dragoon Warriors... they stare in confusion at her... she smiles...
�... Ryan...�
Saphir and Brad look over at Arrowny, and are shocked to see that all of the colour has drained from his face... and he looks scared...
... he mutters one word... just barely above a whisper...
�... Frail...�
The girl screams...
... and the entire house explodes.