Cypher’s Dream World - Sen

I watched Master and Lady Cypher walk ahead of me and Ohies back towards the center of this town. Lady Cypher’s eyes were completely bloodshot as if she was crying. What were Master and Cypher talking about while we were away? Where are we going?

“Hey Lady Sen, do you know what is going on?” Ohies asked me quietly.

“No,” I whispered back to him, “but it seems pretty important.”

Master and Cypher stopped right in the dead center of the town and began drawing a circle on the ground around us.

“Alrighty! We gotta jump through the magical portal as we did a long time ago,” Master said cheerfully with a laugh.

“We are going back?!” My eyes widened in shock.

“Yup!”

“I am afraid so,” Lady Cypher said quietly.

“Is this really what we have to do?” Ohies asked.

“Look, we gotta!” Master said as he looked at Cypher “It’s for the good of the world, and all that! We gotta be their knights in shining armor! Well, we’re not really knights, so we’ll be their mages in kinda dirty robes!”

“Indeed,” Lady Cypher said as she clapped her hands, creating a portal for us to walk through.

Master and I went first through the portal. My body felt lighter than usual as I passed through but it was as though something was constricting me like a gooey substance. I hate it when Cypher uses the gooey portals instead of the normal ones.

Aereth

I pushed through all the sticky substances and practically fell out of the portal on the other end. Ohies and Lady Cypher came after us, picking off the leftover stickiness that had stuck onto them.

“Whoa,” Ohies looked up at the city around us, different than we all knew.

“I think it is very much safe to say that the Aereth we knew is gone…”

“Well the current state of Aereth pretty much confirms that Elaine is dead,” Cypher says with tears in her eyes, “She would have never allowed all this… destruction.”

“Well, it’s Elaine we’re talking about. Do you honestly think she cared about anything other than her dumb student? What was his name? Michael? Mitch? Meelo? Mica? Mark? Martin? Micajah? Micky-Yaya? Martini, shaken not stirred?” Master joked at the mere mention of Elaine, “As long as her student was ok she would have allowed this.”

The kingdom was in shambles, fire erupting left and right. The ground itself had red sparks in all directions as a leftover residue of a fire. As we progressed through the capital, we saw exactly how damaged the nation had become. Buildings were dilapidated, people were tending to injured or crying over the assumed millions that were dead. Master and Lady Cypher wore hoods over their faces to prevent the few people that did survive from recognizing them. The capital used to be a bustling city, it was big on trade and was actually one of the few places that had diversity in races. Everyone was happy, everyone felt safe, but now no one looked safe or happy.

“Master?” I asked as I saw more and more collapsed bodies under the rubble. “What happened?”

“To be honest, I don’t know,” he said, turning to me nervously, “Well, I suppose we just gotta go to explore everywhere before we make assumptions! Hooray for adventures!”

“Are you taking this seriously, Sir Dokyeom?” Ohies spoke to Dokyeom like he was cracking jokes at a funeral (which he kind of was).

“Well of course darling, but what is done is done. We can’t change the past,” Dokyeom responded while patting Ohies head.

“Very true. I am thinking that this is the aftermath of earth-shattering commotion that I felt last time.”

“Yeah,” Ohies nodded as he looked at the ruins around us, “This is terrible.”

“No kidding…” I responded. Turning to one of the locals, a small girl in tattered clothing. “What happened?”

“T-there was some great calamity… our hero died… our hero and his mage friend… they battled in the great fields north of this town. You can go see for yourself the outcome of the battle.”

“Your ‘hero’?” Cypher said as she crouched down next to the lady.

“Yes, Sir Milo and Lady Elaine” the young girl winced in pain as she recalled the events “The lad was such a kind-hearted spirit… the king himself had so much faith in him saving this land…”

“What happened to the king may we ask?” Master chipped in, “Sen darling please heal her.”

“Of course Master” I flew over to the young girl and immediately activated my healing spells.

“Thank you, dears. To answer your question the king is dead.”

“Dead?” Master took a step backward.

“I am afraid so, and the princess went missing soon after. Were you people close with the king?” The lady asked, looking at all of us.

“You could say that,” Lady Cypher said, “Well we won’t press you further for details, we should probably be going.”

“Oh no, it’s quite alright. I like talking to you people,” she stood up bowing at Lady Cypher, “find me anytime, and I’ll tell you anything you need.”

“Thanks again.”

“We should probably go check out the battlefield,” Ohies said as he looked around the capital once more.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

We began walking through the crumbling capital. We took our time to take in the sights and the few people around us. I could tell Lady Cypher and Master were having a hard time accepting the outcome of Aereth. Lady Cypher especially was seeming to choke back tears. Master… This must be pretty hard for you.

After a couple of hours of walking, we managed to exit the capital. To get to wherever the supposed battlefield was we would need to begin our trek down the side of a mountain.

“Oh boy.” Master said as he mentally prepared for the walk “I am not ready for this. Well, it’s more like I don’t want to be ready.”

“Oh quit whining, Dokyeom,” Lady Cypher said while hitting Master on the head.

“Hey, that hurts!” Maser said while raising his arms in a defensive position.

“Master let just go,” I mumbled quietly.

“You’re siding with her too?” Master said in disbelief.

“Sir Dokyeom, the sooner we get to the battlefield the better,” Ohies said as he walked ahead of us. After a scoff, Master nodded.

“You guys are mean,” he mumbled under his breath.

The mountain wasn't too large so the climb was no big deal… for most of us, anyway. Master complained the entire way down, which was to be expected. As we got closer to the bottom we saw the battlefield and were all left speechless, even Master. There was a crater probably thousands of kilometers deep, and blood was spilled everywhere. No one in this area survived, there were so many corpses. Ohies started gagging from all the death, but we kept walking closer and closer.

“Elaine definitely died here…” Lady Cypher said as she looked around.

“No kidding” Master said in shock, “I can’t recognize anyone here, they are all too… disfigured and messed up”

“Yeah…” She kicked one of the helmets of a soldier that was there, “I don’t think I would have survived this massacre.”

“Me neither…” Master was poking at random limbs that were laying on the ground.

“This really makes you wonder what that other portal that you saw was,” Ohies said looking towards Lady Cypher.

“I know” Lady Cypher paused then looked at Master “Should I go check out that other world?”

“I think that would be best, to be completely honest darling,” Master looked as though he had seen a ghost.

“I think I should head out now then,” Cypher said then turning to Ohies. “Ohies, stay with Dokyeom.”

“Yes Master,” Ohies nodded while backing towards Master Dokyeom.

“We are invincible! Nothing in this world can stop us!” Dokyeom said cheerfully as he patted Ohies back.

Lady Cypher drew a circle on the ground quickly then activated the portal, Ohies and Master watching intently. A portal appeared before us and Lady Cypher smiled and waved goodbye. She paused for a moment then her eyes widened as she made eye contact with me and her smile faded. Lady Cypher began shouting words at me but for some reason, I couldn’t understand what she was saying.

I felt a hand wrap around my neck like in my dream. I couldn’t scream or even talk because whoever had grabbed hold of me placed a spell to prevent me from struggling.

“Perish, little one,” a hooded figure said as he tightened his grip around my neck. I felt something impale me then leave me. Darkness came over me and before I lost consciousness, the last thing I heard before darkness consumed me was Master shouting my name. I felt the spell began to wear off and I could respond to Masters call. I opened my eyes slightly to see the hooded figure creating a spell so powerful it could kill everyone here. I began casting a spell of my own, I must save them! My body collapsed towards the ground as I used up every bit of energy to cast.

Aereth - Dokyeom

“Sen!” I shouted as I ran towards her collapsed body.

“Oh Sen, please be ok,” I heard Cyph whimper in front of the portal.

“Master…. it’s ok, it’s not your fault,” Sen said towards me weakly with her eyes closed “Make sure everyone is safe. Don’t let this man kill our family...”

“Yes, of course, I’ll do that,” I said through rapidly appearing tears, “Just please-please don’t go yet.”

“There is no happy ending to this Master… You know that” she whispered “I can’t make it, but you can. You, Master, are going to be a hero”

“How can I be a hero if I can’t even save you?!” I yelled, the tears falling down my face. “I need you Sen! I need you, so don’t you dare leave me!”

“Just you wait… you are going to achieve great things… Just… Don’t forget me, please. It’s not your fault,” She smiled as her head rested in my arms.

I put my hand on her neck to feel for a pulse. “Ohies…. Make sure - make sure Cypher gets through that portal…”

“...Yes, Sir Dokyeom,” he said quietly as tears fell down his face.

“Well, it seems your worthless student is gone,” the hooded figure standing beside Sen chuckled towards me.

“No, she is still alive. I can still save her!” I activated my healing magic to its maximum potential trying to make sure she stayed at least somewhat conscious long enough for us to get to a proper healer.

I could feel my rage building up as tears threatened to spill over, How did I not see this coming? How did he sneak up on us? I jumped up holding Sen in one arm and with my free hand slapped him to raise his senses to the max in an instant.

“You're just as pathetic! You think a slap to the face is enough to defeat me?”

“Who are you?!” I screamed back.

“I’m no one of importance, just a piece of something bigger,” he said, “The Black Barrage.”

I looked over at Ohies who had to physically push Cyph through the portal and forcibly closed it on her to prevent her from coming back.

I gave Sen one last tight embrace and then unleashed my powers towards the hooded man. I couldn't see anything; I fell to the ground, the earth shaking below me. It was as if all my energy was being taken from me. I could sense Ohies in the same boat as me and attempted to crawl over to him but to no avail. I couldn’t move. Then darkness surrounded me.

“Master… live!”