“These are the lands of our ancestors; these are the lands of our dead. In this endless stream of space and time, when all has turned to dust and bone, may we meet again in a million years — a reunion witnessed by the stars.”
The night sky stretched over the dense forest in a veil of endless darkness. It was a cloudy night; the stars and the moons were all but pale pinpricks of light in the sky, fighting to pierce through the thick clouds that adorned the sky.
A light wind danced through the foliage, prompting them to whisper secrets into the pitch black of the night. Ants the size of fists crawled over thick tree roots, spitting venom that swiftly paralyzed their unfortunate prey. Strange beasts skittered and slithered in the dark — in the distance, a creature’s alarmed cry could be heard before it was swiftly cut off by its hunter’s jaws.
These were lands deep within the Deadwood Wastes. Lands rife with monsters, mutated beasts and bloodthirsty plants; lands where predators could swiftly become prey. Lands untouched by the zerg.
Well. Until tonight, anyway.
Luciel dove to the side with a grunt. A pincer twice the size of his head stabbed into the tree trunk where his head had been, reducing the wood to splinters. Whirling around, he propelled himself off the tree trunk and lunged at the massive beast looming before him — a giant scorpion, with menacing pincers and a deadly tail that glinted ominously in the night.
His sword stabbed into the monster’s side, plunging beneath the seam of its carapace and spilling black ichor. The scorpion gave an angered cry, sending chills down his spine.
He dodged out of the way just as the monster’s stinger plunged into the dirt right where he had been standing. If he had been a second slower, he would have become zerg kebab.
Luciel stared silently at the hissing monster as he kept a safe distance, mind whirling at top speed. His amethyst eyes, glowing strangely in the dark, flickered around his surroundings in an effort to find an advantage — anything that could turn the odds in his favor.
The scorpion advanced with a furious hiss. Slowly, Luciel backed up, until his back hit the trunk of a colossal, ancient tree. He stared straight at the beast, eyes reflecting its looming form. He stayed still, unmoving, barely breathing, heart thumping–
And then the scorpion’s stinger struck with an unforgiving speed and when it was only inches from his face he dove, rolling to his feet just as the beast released an enraged cry. Its stinger had embedded deep into the ancient trunk, and it was trying to pull it out without much success.
Seizing the opening created by the beast’s distraction, Luciel took a running leap and vaulted onto the beast’s back, driving his sword straight into the base of its tail. The beast screamed in pain, thrashing in an effort to shake the zerg off his back — but Luciel stayed stubbornly stuck to it, nimbly balancing like a cat, driving his sword in deeper and deeper.
With a terrible crunch, the tail separated from the scorpion’s body with a flood of black ichor, and the beast’s knees buckled as it whirled around with a hiss, bucking back and throwing Luciel off its back.
Luciel landed on his feet and immediately lunged back at the beast, giving it no time to retaliate — he slashed once, twice, three times, over and over again, swinging his sword in elegant yet vicious strokes until his sword stabbed straight through the middle of the beast’s eyes and it fell to the ground with a final hiss, black ichor flowing from its dying body.
It was over.
Luciel brushed his long, black hair back from his face and took a deep breath.
“...Where the hell am I?”
The forest didn’t answer him. Strange hisses and chitters and growls echoed in the darkness beyond, hinting at the presence of creatures beyond his understanding. But he could hear himself. It was somewhat comforting, hearing a zerg’s voice — even if that voice was his own.
Brows still furrowed, Luciel watched the scorpion closely, checking to see if it was truly dead. Once he was satisfied, he ventured closer and cut off its stinger with a swing of his sword, gingerly picking it up and depositing it into his pack, which was lying under a tree nearby.
And then, glancing back at the monster’s corpse, he turned and left the clearing.
Not long after he left, a swarm of giant ants descended on the corpse, clicking excitedly to each other as they tore the beast’s body apart.
Luciel was supposed to be dead.
He remembered it clearly, even as he crept silently through the forest, his feet barely making a sound. He remembered how it had felt, the life draining out of him — how his comrades had fallen to the ground with empty eyes, one by one.
He remembered the scent of blood. He remembered the screams.
He had died.
And then he had woken up in this forest, alone and disoriented. He’d barely had enough time to get his bearings before the giant scorpion attacked him, forcing him into a fight.
Now he was trudging through this strange forest, with no real direction in mind. His only hope was that he would somehow find his comrades, somewhere within this dense forest. He had no idea how he’d ended up here, but if he was here, then chances were that his comrades had also followed him here —
Right?
Luciel pursed his lips, ignoring the fierce surge of doubt that niggled at the back of his mind, and stopped before a towering tree. He looked up, inspecting it with keen eyes, then with a running leap, caught hold of one of its low hanging branches and clambered on. The branch bent slightly at his weight, but held on.
With nimble movements he climbed the tree, his long, dark hair swinging behind him. Not for the first time, Luciel wished that he had a hair tie with him — his hair kept getting in the way, but he was reluctant to cut it off. He could only grumble inwardly to himself. His comrade, Soren, often nagged at him to cut his hair. If he saw him now, that guy would definitely laugh at him.
A pang shot through his heart once again at the thought of his comrades — where are they, where are they, they have to be here — but he ruthlessly pushed it down. He continued to climb to the very top of the tree, face set in determination.
Once he got to the top of the tree, Luciel looked down at the view that spread out before him — and his eyes dulled.
He had no idea where he was, ah ah ah ah!
A carpet of colossal, ancient trees spread out before him as far as the eye could see. If he squinted, he could make out a cluster of mountains looming in the distance. Far above his head hung a dark, cloudy sky, little pinpricks of starlight peeking out here and there. Luciel searched the sky until his eyes latched onto the two moons, Erlis and Hivel, half hidden behind a thick cloud.
Ah, so there were the moons.
If the moons were there, that meant that that direction was… the west.
Which meant that this place was…
Damn.
He had no idea.
Luciel clung silently to the top of the tree, his face akin to that of a dead fish. He crouched there, alone and unloved, as the wind continued to blow into his face as if mocking him.
A piece of his hair got into his mouth. Luciel expressionlessly spat it out.
You see, Luciel had a rather embarrassing secret.
…Alright, so it wasn’t a secret at all — he’d exposed himself long ago. It was something that his comrades often gave him shit for, something that they gleefully held over his head even as he threatened to throw them off the infamous cliffs of Thranen.
Luciel Gunnhildr, famed captain and wildcard of the Eclipsian Guard… was utter shit at navigation.
Perhaps a more skilled character would be able to tell their rough location just by the positions of the stars and the moons. Perhaps they would even be able to recognize some faintly familiar landmarks, like those mountains over there.
Unfortunately, Luciel was utter. Trash. At navigating. Throw him into a fight? Sure, he’d do his best. Give him a map and an army? Alright, he could come up with quite the strategy. But kick him into the wilderness with not even a map and tell him to find his way out?
He was about as useful as a candle in a burning house, bah.
It was something that his comrades had delighted in teasing him about. Some of his more well-meaning comrades, like Soren and Julian, had attempted to improve his admittedly abysmal navigation skills, but all of them had ended up waving the white flag after the third time he’d accidentally ventured into a monster’s nest.
Luciel could only sigh that everyone had to have a weakness, ah. If he knew navigation on top of his top notch combat, strategy, and soothing skills, he would be too powerful.
(Soren had expressionlessly knocked him on the head and told him to shut it. Sometimes Luciel wondered why he was his best friend.).
Luciel crouched on top of the tree and contemplated life.
He still had to find his comrades — he couldn’t stay up here forever. But where should he start?
It was then that he heard it.
A rumbling noise, one that seemed to shake him to his very bones. Luciel’s eyes searched the sky, looking for the source of the sound, and–
A hole tore open in the sky.
Luciel nearly fell out of the tree.
Now, Luciel had seen Anomalies before — he had fought the monsters that had flooded from their depths. He was quite familiar with these gods-accursed things. But this was a massive tear; one that seemed to split apart the very sky itself. It was enormous, larger than anything he had ever seen before.
Luciel’s scalp went numb, and he tensed, hand instinctively going towards his sword. What kind of beast would emerge from such an Anomaly…?
He was answered not even a second later.
A… structure, ship, machine — he had never seen anything like this before — emerged from the tear. It was quite large, yet everything about it was inexplicably sleek; all uniform lines, gleaming monochrome, and metal that shone with a cool sheen. It appeared — impossibly — to be flying in the air, and a small part at the back of Luciel’s stunned mind couldn’t help but think of how Julian, his machine-loving friend, would quite literally kill him to see… whatever this thing was.
Yet this thing seemed to be in trouble; its rear was pluming with rather ominous dark smoke, and the tell-tale flicker of flames glowed even from far away.
Luciel barely had time to process this when yet another thing emerged from the tear. It had a similar shape to the odd ship — except for its size. It was practically gargantuan in size, easily dwarfing the other ship in its shadow. Smoke also plumed from its rear, flames flickering from its back.
Luciel blinked.
And blinked again.
He was wondering if this was all some convoluted dream after all, despite the fact that his bruises from his encounter with the scorpion still stung quite a lot, thank you very much, when he saw that the ships weren’t stopping in their path at all — in fact, they seemed to be gathering more and more speed, descending down to the ground with an alarming speed.
They appeared to be… falling.
Luciel blinked. Hey, were they about to hit his tree?
He only had time to wrap his arms tightly around the trunk beside him before the strange ships hit the ground with a bone-rattling crash, skidding on the ground and knocking down trees left and right, leaving a trail of destruction behind their wake.
Alarmed cries and growls from the forest beasts sounded out into the night, and a flock of pale white birds swiftly rose from the forest, flying off with indignant squawks.
His tree, thankfully, had narrowly escaped becoming splinters.
‘Narrowly’ as in, Luciel could have very well reached out to touch the strange ship’s walls while it skidded past his perch.
Luciel: …Very good, he had almost died again. :)
Author's Note: Thank you so much for clicking on my story! All feedback is appreciated~
