Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends

The Whispers

Everything went according to plan.

They found the Dome Leader, Hastur the King in Yellow, sitting on his throne. In the center of his city, no guards to protect him. They attacked immediately, unleashed everything that they had on him, not allowing the being to even speak. And they were winning.

Ryun was in his Evolved Form, a giant wolf running on the steps he was creating above in the air, as the ground shook and the city toppled around them. The air he passed through sizzled as it touched him, crackling and creating a violet and black mist around him, the Void that made his body devouring all Essence on contact. The being shrouded in a yellow robe was below him—a curiosity, the robe was not made of any Essence that Ryun understood, but he could see its color as bright yellow sticking against the backdrop of other Essence around it—Hastur jumped to the side, evading a blast of blue fire and a hundred silver spears. His robe was in tatters, letting them all see glimpses of a whirling madness beneath. Long tendrils reached out of the robe’s sleeves, slipped beneath the hem, and they smashed around, trying to hit someone, anyone.

There was no chance.

Eratemus’ undead warriors ran after Hastur, sacrificing themselves to slow him down. The battle was a blur even to Ryun’s senses, and he could barely see anything from the amount of powers being used, but he could sense the center, and there was where he focused his attack. He opened his mouth, and a {Void Beam} lanced out, hitting the core of the action.

A beam of another type of energy joined his from the air as Eratemus pointed his sword-staff and fired a beam of his own from atop his griffin. They were winning.

He sensed Erdania, in her Evolved Form, towering as she reached and picked up a building covered in a black substance growing over it, only to then throw it at Hastur. Tendrils reached out of the yellow robe and grabbed it, squeezed and shattered it into smaller chunks that rained down on the courtyard and the figures below.

Undead warriors were buried beneath the rubble, and others forced to evade. One dashed forward, never stopping. The world bent around her, it trembled, any debris coming near her was split, cut into pieces, smaller and smaller until it was only dust that reached the ground. She stopped in front of the tattered figure in the yellow robe and then drew her sword.

The world split, the tendrils reaching for her parted down the center.

Hastur escaped, one arm completely gone. The Dome Leader was retreating.

Ryun jumped down, leaping from steps as he pushed himself faster than he had ever moved before. Reducing the forces that impacted his body to gain speed. With his [Inevitable Step] he reached Hastur, and released his {Staggered End}.

The Dome Leader jumped, but not fast enough. His attack hit him, sending the monster back, injuring it greatly. A pillar of the void came down from above, hitting Hastur. A monstrous scream filled the air, making Ryun’s senses go haywire for a moment.

Silver spears hit Hastur, impaling him. A black armored figure appeared next to him, swung his blade and a wave hit Hastur. The robe decayed and tendrils shriveled. A shadow jumped on his back, two daggers stabbing into the exposed flesh. The Dome Leader thrashed, trying to find a footing, to turn the tide. A lance of blue fire speared through him and then a ravzor—Maleatus—appeared next to it. A moment later Hastur was gone, and Ryun raised his head to the sky where the ravzor sent him.

Everyone used everything that they had, and the sky was filled with power. Their attacks met and the world shook from the detonation. The sky exploded then split apart. The combined power of them all, different powers, interacting in different ways. Everything mingled into one terrifying display of might and power. It was more than anything that Ryun had ever witnessed before. Powerful enough to level entire cities, more, to destroy entire territories. To kill millions in an instant. Ryun closed his eyes against the onslaught of Essence. Even his sense was overwhelmed. But quickly enough, the space settled, and his senses told him that they had won. The Dome Leader was dead.

He jumped, landing on the steps he shaped in the air high enough that he was above the city, and looked out over the walls. The monster hordes that had been charging toward them trying to get inside the city in an attempt to swarm them as they fought were now running away. An unorganized horde that was disappearing in the distance. Their leader dead, and the others were right. Without the Dome Leader, the monsters were mindlessly running, he even saw some fighting each other.

Ryun released his Evolved Form and dropped to the ground, the others gathered. They were all tired, some injured and in the process of being healed by Gentle Touch. But, they all had the same expression on their faces. They had won.

Selia and Erdania approached him, and he met their eyes.

“We did it,” Selia said with a smile on her tired face. He felt her surprise through the bond, her emotions slightly muffled, but he didn’t remember a time when he had been as tired as he was now.

“Yes,” Ryun said. “We did.”

It almost seemed unreal, standing in his home, looking over his people. The return trip had taken a long time, and if he was being honest, often he could barely even remember it.

They had been received as heroes in the Empire. Granted rewards and wealth beyond anything that any of them could’ve ever dreamed of. They had spent months there, enjoying themselves, basking in their victory. Even Ryun had allowed himself to indulge. He had spoken with Zacharia again, had managed to get more than a few words exchanged. Perhaps there was hope for them too.

Most of his time though, he spent with Erdania and Selia. Together they helped the Empire clean up the rest of the dome monsters. They ventured beyond their Wall, hunting them, spending weeks out in the wild, all alone. They reclaimed cities, and saved the few people that had somehow managed to survive behind enemy lines. It was… good.

And when the time came for them to return, Nayra came back with them. Ryun had kept his word, all that he had said he would do, he had done. It felt like an… an ending of sorts. A time to return home and be something else. He didn’t know how to explain it, often he struggled to understand it himself.

He stood with Selia watching as Erdania trained with the sect warriors on the field below. A few hills over were filled with livestock, they had breeders now, something that Anrosh had brought in while he was away. Shepherds were walking around, guiding the livestock away from the fighting. A flash of color caught Ryun’s eyes. One of the shepherds wore a yellow robe, to his eyes at least, and Ryun wondered what Essence it was made out of. It reminded him of—

“Hey,” Selia’s voice interrupted him.

“Yes,” Ryun turned to look at her.

“You looked as if you were somewhere else,” she smiled. “Just wanted to make sure that you are paying attention.”

Ryun turned his head back, but saw no sign of… “Yeah, I am watching.”

“She is doing good, isn’t she?” Selia asked.

Ryun glanced at Erdania, then nodded. “Yes, she is.”

She had been training their warriors in a different style of fighting than they were used to. The sect was growing, and with that growth came new dangers. Other sects wanted what they had, other factions. The chaos in the core had only grown worse, and wars were spilling into the frontier. And Ryun knew that the other Domes were out there as well. They had to be strong enough to survive it all.

“What are you thinking about?” Selia’s voice came again.

Ryun blinked. “That we need to get stronger, that they,” he gestured with his hand. “Need to be stronger.”

“They will, don’t worry,” she told him.

Ryun frowned, it had been a long time since they had returned here from the Empire. They had lived together, all three of them. Gotten a lot closer, but… something was nagging at him, in the back of his head. Constantly. Almost like he was hearing someone whispering in his ear.

She reached over, pulled him close and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Everything will be alright.”

The tone of her voice, the way her body moved, her expression, it all told him one thing. But inside of his mind, their bond… her emotions were different. He had noticed it before too, but ever since the fight it had been… muffled. They had spent every moment since they left the Empire together, and so, for the first time since before they fought with Hastur, Ryun reached out through their bond.

“Selia?” He sent.

The woman next to him didn’t react.

A voice came a few seconds after, barely audible. “Ryun?”

It was Selia’s voice, only it was… faint, as if coming from somewhere far away.

The woman next to him moved, she took a step back and turned to face him. Ryun met her eyes, he tried to speak through the bond again, but something was there now, actively pushing against him. It felt… almost like what he had felt like when he tried to speak with Ereclaw in the Ethereal.

The woman in front of him titled her head, and Ryun became aware that everyone in the range of his sense had frozen, was just standing there, not doing anything. He didn’t move, didn’t react.

“Again,” a voice said from his side. “This is the third time.” His sense didn’t pick up anything, but he turned all the same.

A yellow shrouded person stood there, a wooden mask covering its face. The two holes showed glowing eyes through them, staring at him.

Hastur, the King in Yellow.

“We didn’t win,” Ryun whispered.

“You are not like the other one, yet you figure it out too. How?” The voice wasn’t talking to him, he was pretty sure. It was… a curiosity to it more than anything else. “Oh, is it because of this? What is that inside your head?” The voice whispered, it came from everywhere at once, and he felt as if he was focused on by something far larger than him. As if a weight was placed on top of his entire body, almost smothering him.

Ryun closed his eyes, tried to think. It had been months, a year maybe, he had lived through everything since their fight. He was certain about that. Or at least, he had memory of it all. When did this happen? Had Hastur survived their fight? Had he followed him here and got inside his head? Was he sleeping in his bed, next to Erdania and Selia.

He tried to think. He had spoken with them, with everyone else that had been there, he had met new people. His awakened object, Bright Star, he spoke with him too. Now… it was silent. When?

He reached for the Eternal Hunter again, pushing with all of his might. Trying to reach Selia, the woman in front of him didn’t react.

“There it is again,” the voice whispered. “I’ve never encountered this before; I don’t know what it is. I am not supposed to not know.”

Ryun opened his eyes and looked at Hastur. He didn’t speak, he couldn’t give it anything more. How long had it been here, listening? How much had Ryun said not realizing.

“It doesn’t matter,” Hastur said. “I can just take it from your head.”

For the first time in a long time, Ryun felt panic. He closed his eyes and forced his mind, his will. He might be inside an illusion, or trapped inside his own mind, but willpower transcended everything. He tried to reach for his skills, for anything, and found it was all blocked from him. Everything around him was an illusion, it was all fake, his skills included.

“Don’t struggle,” Hastur said. “I don’t want to damage you more than necessary. I have no need for broken tools.”

Ryun felt a power eclipsing his own crawl into his head, into his mind. Ryun turned his willpower to one thing that he knew was real, to his Eternal Hunter perk. The piece of the Twin Aspects of True Death, a being that had lived a time beyond counting, in a reality that no longer existed. The one thing that made him different than anybody else in the Infinite Realm, aside from the holder of the other part.

Hastur tried to draw from his mind, and Ryun felt him touch the Twin Aspect of True Death, and then recoil.

“That is… ancient, powerful. What is it?”

Ryun stayed silent. Hastur wanted something from him, Ryun didn’t know at what point he came under the Dome Leader’s spell, but if he wanted Ryun dead, he would be. But Ryun wasn’t going to let him learn anything from his mind.

The yellow shrouded being tilted its head. “That is… annoying. Ultimately insignificant, even if you have alerted the other one this time. I only need to start again, you will forget, and in time I will learn all that there is about you. Enough to know all your fears. Enough to know how to break you.”

The world around Ryun started to disappear, everything turning to black. And then it was only him inside his own mind. Perhaps the sensation was supposed to make him feel uncomfortable, claustrophobic, but it didn’t. Ryun had done this to himself every time he entered the Void.

And then, after a time, perhaps a few minutes or a couple of years, he couldn’t tell, a presence drew near.

It blazed with terrible light, an alien might that made existence incomprehensible. It spoke, words in a language that he didn’t understand, couldn’t understand. The tones stabbed inside his head, and there was nothing but the pain. He could feel himself forgetting, and he knew that soon it would all start again.

With the last of his willpower he pushed through the Eternal Hunter, sent a thought to Selia, it was all that he could manage.

“We didn’t win.”