Curse

I had landed inside of my hangar and quickly made my way over toward Mara's personal quarters when Uldren and his group of lackeys stepped out from behind a corner with nasty sneers on their faces. I walked passed them and attempted to not cause a ruckus, but they had other plans.

A hand found its way onto my shoulder. I stopped and said "I'd advise you to get your blood soaked hand away from me before you lose it..." in a cold voice. The man behind me snickered and said "Heh, what the hell will you do to m-" The man was soon wailing in pain as he clutched his disfigured hand with tears streaming down his cheeks.

I turned and look Uldren in the eyes and said "I recommend you mind your own business and get lost. Maybe then you'll live an extra year or two..." Uldren smirked and said "Or what, you'll kill me and incur my sister's wrath? You have no good options available, you vile monster." Uldren laughed loudly as he strut down the hall and left his lackeys to tend to the man I had injured.

I spun and continued down the hall until I reached Mara's room. I knocked twice and heard her eagerly say "You may enter!" from the other side. I opened the door and saw Mara at her desk quickly jotting things down. Mara set her quill to the side and got up from her chair and brushed her lap off before asking "So, what brings you here? Feeling lonely?" in a hopeful and playful voice.

She must've seen the serious look I had on my face, as she calmed down relatively quickly and gestured for me to speak. I moved to a nearby chair and sat down before saying "I found a Hive structure unlike any other on the planet Jupiter. There were three Duskbreaker Wizards on the Tangled Shore and they had summoned a small horde of Hive, but Caarjin and I managed to fend them off and wipe them out."

Mara had a thoughtful expression on her face as she digested the information. Her brows furrowed as she sat back down in her chair and leaned her chin into her palm before asking "What did it look like? The Hive structure." I nodded my head and said "It was unlike anything I had ever seen before with its large, green-orange spires. There was even a functioning society there like you would see in the Last City on Earth..."

Mara's eyes widened as she said "A Hive society!" in an incredulous voice. She shot up from her chair and pressed a button on the side of her desk. A deep, elderly voice came from the other side and asked "What is it child?" in a soft and kind voice. Mara went on and told the man what I had told her before demanding a meeting with the Council.

Mara apologized for having to leave so abruptly before speeding off toward the meeting hall. I took the extra downtime to visualize everything I had seen on Jupiter. After committing the details to memory, I walked toward the elevator in the hallway before making my way down to the ground floor of the palace.

I walked outside and jumped from building to building before stopping at a rather large, Japanese styled house not too far away from the palace. I knocked at the front door and an Awoken woman poked her head out to see who it was. After realizing it was me, she let me inside with a happy smile on her face.

She led me to the dining room where Caarjin was stuffing his face. He choked at my sudden appearance before asking "Seph? I thought I told you NOT to let this guy into our house..." Seph, Caarjin's fiancée, laughed in a pleased manner before responding "Oh well! It makes me happy to see that you have finally made a friend, so of course I would like to see you around him more often!"

After convincing Caarjin to follow me outside, I told him what I had found on Jupiter as we skipped stones in his little backyard pond. "WHAT!" Caarjin yelled out before furiously rubbing his temples. I rubbed the back of my head and said "I'm sorry man, but I reaaally need you help with this! I can't just start raising hell in a massive Hive fortress all by myself!"

Caarjin let out a tired groan as he fell to the ground with his arms splayed out. I shook my head at the man's antics before standing up and offering a hand to help him up. Caarjin took my hand with an enthused smile as he hopped up and mused "Heh, maybe I can test out a new trick I had learned..." as he absentmindedly walked toward his ship.

Seph was standing on the porch and cleared her throat, alerting Caarjin to her presence. He whipped around and held his arms out as he walked toward her and said "Ah, don't think I forgot about you!" It was rather amusing accompanying this man because, even though he joked around about dating other women or even ogled them, he actually genuinely loved Seph and wanted nothing more than to settle down with her and enjoy the family life.

I gave Seph a quick hug and promised to keep Caarjin safe before opening a portal, which was somewhat similar to Wraith's, and stepping through to my ship's cockpit. I fired up the engines and followed Caarjin toward the area where we could safely boost out toward Jupiter. We neared the area and took off at lightspeed, reaching Jupiter in less than a few minutes.

I took the lead and guided Caarjin to the spot I had landed in previously. We touched ground and hopped out of our ships before moving into a position to better see the large Hive city. Caarjin clicked his tongue and muttered "What have you gotten me into this time...?" in a low voice.

I kept my hand on Sol's handle as I created a portal to the top of the large building in the middle of the city. I stepped through and had to quickly grab hold on to the side of the main buildings spire. I grabbed Caarjin as soon as he came through the portal and helped him find a safe perch before apologizing for my mistake.

We began to scale down the building, aiming for an open balcony at the highest floor of the palace-like structure. I heard Caarjin chuckle nervously before saying "Yep, I'm definitely afraid of heights!" I chuckled as well and responded "Don't look down, or else you might piss yourself!" in a rather amused voice.

We both had the bad habit of joking around in dangerous situations, but we felt like the current atmosphere needed a little lightening more than ever. We continued to climb down the spire until we had touched down on the roof of the palace. We began to quickly sneak over to the edge of the roof before jumping down onto the balcony and drawing our blades.

We appeared to have landed in a Throne Room with a large throne decorated with all kinds of grey and black bones. We carefully crouched through the room and scoured the place, looking for anything that could aid us in our mission. The place was completely empty besides the large throne that overlooked the Hive city.

We kept out guards up as we walked over toward two large, black doors at the back of the room. We opened the doors quietly and saw a long corridor with hundreds of doors bathed in a strange green light. The ceiling was taller than the Throne Room's, giving it a strangely grand feeling. We began to check every single room, more often than not finding nothing more than useless junk.

We had to dodge a random party of Hive when we got halfway down the corridor, barely concealing ourselves in the nick of time. We continued our way down the hall and soon reached a large fountain with a statue depicting a Knight stabbing a Human with its sword. Caarjin scoffed at the statue before turning left, but he ran into a wall that wasn't there before.

"Agh, damnit! Stupid wall..." Caarjin cursed as he held his bloody nose. I held back my laughter as I looked to our right to find that another wall had appeared when it wasn't there before. I was more curious than afraid, however. I ran my hand down the wall's black surface, feeling it's spiky texture grate against my armored gloves.

I furrowed my brows as I thought about what could possibly have caused these walls to appear, then it hit me. I turned toward Caarjin and he noticed my gaze as we both looked down the hall to see a veritable wave of Thralls and Acolytes charging toward us. We cursed our rotten luck as we braced ourselves for battle.

I shot out a large line of black fire, incinerating the first hundred Hive, but they kept charging toward us with crazed looks in their eyes. Caarjin and I cut through the Thralls while using the Acolytes' projectiles to our advantage. We dodged, weaved, and spun our way to the back of the Thralls and watched as the Acolytes fired upon us, only to miss every shot and hit their comrades.

I watched Caarjin weave a beautiful dance of death as he skillfully cut through the Acolytes' ranks. In terms of skill, Caarjin could beat me a hundred times, but one could only do so much against someone who utilizes Darkness and the Light. I spun in a circle, causing a wall of flames to burst forth and kill anything in my path, before jumping over the Acolytes and engaging the Knights who just entered the Hall.

We had fought the Hive many times by now, so Caarjin and I would always use the same strategy to emerge victorious, however, we overlooked one, small detail. There was something controlling these Hive, something much stronger than anything we had ever faced before...

---

The beating of wings filled the air as a loud, bellowing roar struck fear into the Citizens of Kaz Narzek, a city of Hive that was hellbent on living peacefully under the Osmium King's guidance. The sky darkened and a large, black scaled Dragon dove out from the clouds and released another roar.

The Dragon's crimson wings beat furiously as the spikes on its body stood on end, its six, glowing red eyes fixated on the Palace at the center of the city. A white skinned Dragon broke through the clouds as a bronze skinned and a red skinned Dragon followed closely, these three much smaller than the previous one, but still very powerful in their own rights.

The three smaller Dragons seemed to be carrying people on their backs as they divebombed with toward the Palace. Domenth released a powerful breath of fire, melting the side of the Palace before he crashed into it and landed on top of a cluster of Hive.

His three children soon flew inside and let Wraith, Sigbrand, and Sigwulf hop off of their backs before transforming into their preferred forms. Domenth looked at Wraith and said "Go, little robot, find your friend while we hold off the reinforcements!" Wraith nodded his head before taking off down the hall where countless Acolytes and Knights were being tossed around like ragdolls.

The four Ahamkaras turned to face the Wizards and Shriekers slowly advancing toward the breach they had made. Domenth transformed into his Human form and popped his neck loudly before saying "Go, my children...show me what you can do..." The other three leapt out of the breach and began to tear the Wizards to pieces as Domenth wiped the Shriekers out, making sure that none of their Void charges broke free.

Wraith conjured his Void bow and wiped out a large amount of Acolytes with a single arrow as he advanced toward the sounds of battle, however, when he reached Lucifer, he saw the man struggling to free himself from a large Knight sporting crimson wings on its back.

A large Wizard floated next to Lucifer and sneered before saying "Now, watch as the future of your world crumbles!" in a raspy voice. The Wizard began to chant ominous words as a green ball slowly floated toward Lucifer's head, causing him to yell out in pain when it made contact with his skin.

---

I heard the familiar voice of the Ahamkara, Domenth, as well as Wraith's robotic voice screaming my name, but I felt nothing but an endless sea of pain as I spiraled deeper into a deep, dark pit. I continued to fall deeper and deeper into that black pit of pain, wishing that it would end already, when a light began to consume my vision.

I found myself in a different room than what I remembered as I walked down a long hallway, however, I wasn't the one actually walking...I was more of a spectator...