At breakneck speeds, Larek raced down the rough-hewn tunnel that his family and the Avatar of Dominion had disappeared down some time ago. While it spiraled upwards, for quite a way and seemed to go on forever, it was less than a minute before Larek encountered a blank wall blocking his way out. It only took a half-second to evaluate the energy hovering around a certain point on the wall, which appeared to be powered by a long-lasting spell that seemed familiar to him, as if it was a precursor to Fusions. However, there was no formation nor permanence to it, so in his opinion, it wasn’t worth contemplating.
Regardless of what he thought of it, he touched that spot and the wall split open, and he slipped through it before it closed behind him. The Divine Fusionist found himself in a very opulent room, with white marble floors and walls, as well golden ceiling tiles above his head. While he wasn’t necessarily familiar with luxury, he could tell immediately that no expense had been spared in the construction of what had to be the Enclave. There were a few old, wooden barrels in the corner, which told him that even in what appeared to be a storage room, the wealth on display was almost ridiculous.
When he raced out of the room, following his senses as they expanded, pinpointing the Divine Spirit of his quarry, he found even more disturbing opulence in the hallway in which he found himself, with plush carpet containing deep colors, gold and marble statues depicting what appeared to be Gergasi, and massive, framed artwork decorating the walls.
There were also what appeared to be trophies of different monster parts displayed in alcoves with plaques under them, describing what they were, but he didn’t stop to read any of them. Instead, he took off down the hallway and up a set of stairs while taking them 8 at a time, emerging in a brightly lit area that showcased even more art and statues. Larek had to push off a Pattern construct he created in front of him to avoid running into a young woman in an extremely plain dress, wielding a broom like a shield in front of her, and staring at him with abject fright in her eyes. He didn’t know if she was being controlled by the Grand One or not, but if she had been, then she should have been free by that point. He didn’t have time to check, however, as he needed to get to the Avatar of Dominion before anything happened to his family.
He narrowly avoided three other servant-type individuals in his run through the Enclave, but now that he knew that they were present, he wasn’t as surprised when they seemed to be randomly placed around the hallways, cleaning and dusting with extreme nervousness in their movements.
The sensation of the Avatar of Dominion’s Divine Spirit called to him like a siren’s song, but rather than making him want to obey, he was focused more on it as a means to locate his target. In fact, ever since he’d completed the Fusion at the Breach, he hadn’t felt even the slightest inclination to obey the Grand One in anything.
Finally, he came to a stop as his journey took him up another set of stairs, where he emerged in a grand hallway that was nearly twice as wide as the ones before, and which was even more opulent than anything he’d seen to that point. At the end of the hallway was a set of enormous double doors, and standing in front of them was an older man, a Human from the Kingdom, dressed impeccably in a suit that was well-made and seemed out of place in comparison to what he’d seen some of the other servants wearing.
The differences between the two groups didn’t stop there, however, as the old man was on his knees, tears dropping from his eyes as he was bent over and sobbing, the agony obvious within him shaking his entire body. Larek approached cautiously, as he had already determined that the Grand One was behind the doors, and he heard the old man whispering.
“…why did they do that? I thought I loved the Grand One like my own child, but now I know it was all a lie…”
There were a few mumbles that he couldn’t make out clearly, but then the old man suddenly stopped and looked up as Larek approached.
“Who are you?”
The Divine Fusionist didn’t hesitate to answer. “One who is going to put a stop to the Grand One.”
The man nodded briefly, before saying, “Good.” He then picked himself up off the floor, wiped at his eyes, and then strode past the Fusionist without looking back.
As for Larek, he paused at the abrupt change in demeanor displayed by the older man, before he continued toward the doorway. Just outside of the entrance to the room beyond, he looked at the doors and tried to see if there was anything similar to what he’d seen down below with the stone doorway that had opened when he touched a certain spot, as he didn’t want to inadvertently trigger something that might kill him. However, a thorough inspection showed nothing of the sort, so he pushed both doors open quickly, preparing to jump out of the way if the Avatar of Dominion decided to attack him immediately.
He needn’t have worried, however, as what greeted him was probably the last thing that he expected. Compared to the hallway leading toward what appeared to be an enormous bedroom, the space he entered was fairly austere. That wasn’t to say that the materials used in the furniture and the few decorations that existed were necessarily cheap, but there wasn’t the same sort of opulent display as in the rest of the Enclave.
To his left, his heart leapt in his chest at the sight of his family, still frozen in stasis, near the wall next to a relatively decent-sized bed, and they didn’t appear to have been harmed – at least as far as he could tell. The fact that they were still caught by the Stasis spell even after his Fusion brought forth the freedom of everyone else throughout the world was a little worrying, but he would figure out a remedy as soon as he could.
To the right of the entrance was a large work desk filled with papers, though most of them had been strewn apart as if whoever had been sitting there had thrown a fit, and more than one ink jar appeared to have been knocked over, staining the desk and even spilling onto the floor. Next to the desk was a large wooden wardrobe, which he sensed was created from the wood from the Rushwood forest, though its doors were closed and he was unable to see inside.
But what was unexpected was in the middle of the room. Larek had pictured barging into the Enclave, hunting down the Grand One, and then having a battle of epic proportions as he used his halberd with his Multi-Purpose Arsenal on it to strike at the powerful Avatar of Dominion before he was forced to retreat and dig into his Void Pocket sack for a Fusion that might just win the fight – all while somehow protecting his family from collateral damage, saving their lives in a daring showdown.
What he hadn’t been expecting was to find his opponent lying face down in the middle of the bedroom, their limbs positioned in such a way that it appeared as though they had simply fallen down unconscious, without even an attempt to catch themselves.
With his halberd held out defensively, Larek cautiously approached, wary of a trap, but the closer he came to the Grand One on the floor, the more he realized that it was just a body. The Divine Spirit that he’d tracked to the room was steadily fading, still strong enough to infuse what appeared to be a corpse on the floor, as if it had possessed the powerful energy for so long that even in death it took a long time for it to fade away.
Kicking the body over, he discovered that – unlike the ambiguous gender that the Avatar of Dominion possessed – the deceased body he saw was definitely a female Gergasi, and it wasn’t one that he had seen before. Not that he knew about any of them other than the ones that had attacked him, but it certainly wasn’t the Avatar of Dominion…
…or at least it wasn’t the Avatar anymore. The woman was wearing the same golden robes as the Grand One had, and they had very similar features, but it was as if something had suddenly changed her back.
It was when he was pondering this that he sensed something slam into him from behind, but it wasn’t anything physical. Instead, an overwhelming presence invaded his body and his mind, and he was reminded of the Umbral Demons down below the Lowenthal Desert where the Drekkin were located. It felt almost exactly the same as the possession that Umbral Demons visited upon their victims – though it was a million times more intense. Comparing the strength of the entity attempting to take over his body now to the Umbral Demons was like comparing Larek’s strength to that of a newborn baby – it wasn’t really even fair to try comparing them.
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Yet, even though the Divine Fusionist immediately used his internal pattern to fight off the possession, just like he’d done to the Umbral Demons, he discovered that it wasn’t even necessary. First, it was unnecessary because it did almost nothing to get rid of the entity, which he now somehow recognized as the Avatar of Dominion, as the power behind the possessor was so great that it was a losing battle to begin with. But more importantly, he could also feel that the entity was within grasping distance of taking him over completely, but something was preventing it from fully completing the connection…
…and he knew exactly what it was: the Freedom Fusion he’d created at the Breach. He could only assume that this entity had lived so many thousands of years and had seen so many worlds because they didn’t have a body of their own, and they required a host to start controlling the rest of the population. As the Avatar of Dominion continued to ineffectually attempt to control the Divine Fusionist, he mentally put together what must have happened once the Gergasi accidentally opened up the Breach into the Avatar’s world. Their mistake allowed the Avatar to jump from the other world to this one, taking over one of the Gergasi and establishing themselves as the leader, before setting out to conquer the world. That didn’t work out the way they expected, of course, but it eventually led to the events of the last few decades, when Larek was born and things started to take a downward turn.
Then the Divine Fusionist had fashioned a Freedom Fusion using the very Breach that let it into the world, and it forced the entity out of the host it had been using, killing the Gergasi in the process – and now it was looking for an equally powerful host to continue its exploitation of the world. Unfortunately, even with all the power it seemed to possess, the reality of this world had been fundamentally changed, and there was no longer any chance that it could possess someone… because everyone was instilled with a freedom that couldn’t be overwritten unless they broke his Fusion.
Clicking his tongue, Larek said out loud, “What a shame. The Grand One isn’t so grand anymore, are you?”
If the Avatar of Dominion heard him, it didn’t seem to react, as it continued to try to possess him without cessation. It was like a mindless beast continually charging into an impenetrable wall, knowing that their victim was behind it, but not understanding that they had no chance to break through to get to them.
Looking around the room for something, he thought he found it a moment later as he saw a large stone column in the corner with a very simple piece of what appeared to be crystal displayed upon it, with the clear, cut crystal approximately the size of both of his fists put together, and it was intricately carved to look like a squirrel for some reason. Walking up to it, he pointed his staff at the crystal squirrel and used Shape Material, quickly turning the animal shape into a round sphere, which he then shaped the stone column below to hold it steady and in a place like a cage.
Then, using his Pattern Cohesion, he started overlaying a Fusion formation over the crystal, covering the entire thing in a repetitious string of sections that would all do the same two Effects.
Strengthen and Contain.
The Strengthen Effect was obvious, as he wanted the crystal to be so durable that nothing – not even Larek at his strongest – could break it. The latter Effect, Contain, was designed to contain what he put inside the crystal, which just so happened to be the annoying Avatar of Dominion, who hadn’t stopped its attempts to control Larek whatsoever. As much as he would like to think that he could destroy such an entity, it was currently too powerful for him to figure out how to do that successfully at the moment, so his thought was to contain it before it could start causing havoc out in the world if it got tired of messing with Larek. He wouldn’t put it past the Avatar to find a way around his Freedom Fusion at some point, especially if it tried controlling someone with much less inner strength than the Divine Fusionist.
Capturing and containing it seemed like the best solution for now.
After some experimentation, and while he held the Fusion formation in place over the crystal containment sphere, Larek discovered that an application of Primal Essence covering his ability to manipulate energy allowed him to gradually surround and then “pick up” the entity inside of him. It wasn’t quite the same as lifting out a physical presence, of course, but the Primal Essence allowed him to surround its spiritual presence and pluck it out of his body, though it certainly fought him every step of the way. He even lost control of it at one point shortly after he forced it out, and it zipped right back into him and got to work attempting to control him. It took three more tries to keep it contained enough in his Primal Essence bubble, where he was able to hold it all together inside of the containment crystal; and while his mind strained to keep everything from falling apart, he reached inside of his body again and tapped into his own Divine Spirit, sending it into the Fusion formation.
When it *clicked* into place, Larek sighed in relief as he let the Primal Essence bubble go. The crystal began to glow a sickly yellow color as the Avatar manifested into existence, and he sensed it attempting to free itself – but it was immediately repelled by the exterior of the crystal, which held the Divine Spirit-infused formation keeping it contained. Evaluating the strength of the Fusion, Larek could tell that it wasn’t nearly as powerful as the one he’d created at the Breach, but that was only to be expected, since he only had half of the powerful materials that made it so strong. Apparently, Dimensional Fabric was extremely potent, and when combined with Divine Spirit, there wasn’t much that couldn’t be achieved. Of course, to test that theory would require something like making a hole in the world again, which wasn’t something he wanted to mess with.
Though, I wonder if the Apertures use the same sort of technique to enter our world? I might have to see if that’s the case at some point in the future.
Lost in his thoughts as he stared at the trapped and contained Avatar of Dominion, Larek suddenly remembered why he was there in the first place. Whipping around, he saw that his family was still where they had been when he walked in, and they were still completely frozen in place. Walking up to them, he took a closer look at whatever this Stasis spell was keeping them that way; it took nearly 10 minutes to untangle the threads of energy keeping them in suspended animation, but when he finally traced each component of the spell, he was able to figure out how it worked. In fact, he even had a thought of how he could potentially apply the Effect he was observing to a Fusion, perhaps one that could be applied to storage so that it would keep food from spoiling so fast.
Pushing away those errant thoughts, which were becoming more prevalent as he felt that most of the imminent danger had finally passed, he reached out with his ability to manipulate energy and plucked at a few connected energy strands before snapping them all at the same time.
“…what are we supposed to do, then? They’ll simply kill us if—” his father started saying, as if carrying on a conversation that likely started years ago. He suddenly stopped as he seemed to sense that something was wrong, and he turned toward Larek – which caused his brother and sister to do the same. Before they could say anything, his mother slowly turned around, and the Divine Fusionist let the tears flow as he said, “Hi, Mom.”
“Larek! My son!”
It was hours later, after his tear-filled reunion with his family, when he felt Nedira and the rest of his friends finally track him down, and he waited for them to make their way through the now-empty Enclave. The last of the servants had left more than an hour before, most of them having departed when the old man he’d seen outside of the doorway took them away, but the others didn’t last much longer before they fled.
Rushing to him as soon as she entered the bedroom, Nedira flung herself at Larek, and he spun her around at least a dozen times before he put her down. Facing his family, he said, “I know that you’ve technically met in that mental space we were forced into, but I’d like to—for real—introduce you to my betrothed, Nedira.”
He couldn’t keep the tears from flooding his eyes once again when he saw his mother giving the woman he loved the biggest hug she could with her fragile health. That’s something I’m planning on fixing as soon as possible, he resolved.
“We’re going to have the biggest wedding we can afford… actually, we don’t really have much money left after the Rushwood started expanding out of control. Do… do you have any money, Larek?” his mother asked tentatively, but everyone not in his family just chuckled at her question.
“Don’t worry, Larek won’t have any problem putting together the biggest wedding this Kingdom – or any Kingdom or Empire in the entire world – has ever seen before.”
The Divine Fusionist thought that was pretty accurate, as there wasn’t much he couldn’t get done with the aid of a Fusion or two… or a few thousand. But he shook his head as his mother and his betrothed appeared to want to start making specific plans.
“We’ve got something else to do before we can get married.” Larek looked to the east, where he could sense the Clockwork Calamity still expanding. Now that he couldn’t use the Breach in the way he had originally planned, which was to divert all of the Primal Essence in the Calamity through the tear in the world, he had to come up with another plan.
However, compared to dealing with the Diregate, surviving the ambush by an impossibly powerful Demon Queen and dozens of Gergasi, mostly sealing the Breach, and creating a Fusion that affected the world over, and then trapping the Avatar of Dominion inside of a containment crystal, he didn’t think that dealing with the rapid expansion of a Calamity with an overloading energy problem would be that big of a deal.
It was amazing how much had changed in just the last few days, with his evolution to the Avatar of Fusions, to learning how to manipulate all types of energy until it was as natural as breathing, and then to rid the world of the Gergasi – and the entity controlling them. Who would’ve thought, when he left his family to go pick up their new tool Fusions in the village of Rushwood, that it would come to this?
Larek definitely hadn’t… but he was certainly looking forward to what the future had in store for not only himself, but his loved ones.
