Jack walked to the top of his dark tower. Centered in the middle, there beneath him stretched out in every direction was his beloved, every-growing city, Libast. The dark obsidian stone of the tower stood out in contrast to the city as a monumental symbol for his authority, power, dominance, and all that he stood for. As long as that tower stood, so did his dreams of bringing true balance to the world.
Jack stood motionless taking in every inch of the city, the prize jewel of his growing kingdom. Removed from himself, he watched the swarms of bug-like creatures fill the sky in steady, ceaseless streams from the open portal above his city. He couldn't help but be in awe as the creatures fell from the sky with their joints bending in unnatural ways. Green rain fell from the hoards above, splatter painting the city beneath them as each bug-like creature was slain. Unable to feel at the moment, Jack assessed that what the creatures lacked in strength and battle adept ability they made up for by their sheer numbers.
The hoards were so thick that the clear blue sky could hardly be seen by anyone from Libast. Jack watched as Anak was launching spells left and right. He noted to himself that it was about time that that silly bag of bones was finally tapping into his potential, he was beginning to think Anak would never learn to discover the potential within himself. Jack's eyes glazed the horizon again. Still he stood motionless at the top of the tower, thinking, unable to feel. He wondered why he couldn't sense where Violet was in all this mess. His eyes caught sight of Stein. He was in one of his machines using his science to blast many of the creatures away in fifties at a time. The sight of this would normally have amused Jack. Stein and his beloved science and all the antics that came with it were typical sources of amusement for Jack, though a smirk is all that would have been seen from the outside. Not today though. He stood there, expressionless, removed from himself, watching as the blasts made no dent in their swarming numbers.
Jack was trapped inside his own head. He knew he had to help his people and somewhere he craved to, but all he could think atop his tower was, "I'm just a puppet… why am I here?" Those thoughts began to echo louder and louder as he watched the battle unfold.
Jack watched as streams of bug-like creatures kept pouring into Libast from the portal with no signs of slowing down. A black beam flashed from the portal and in a crash like lightning, a man impacted the ground. Immediately, he began running towards the obsidian tower. The man had to be at least ten feet tall with pale skin, he was wielding a long cleaver, and dressed in nothing but worn cloth along his waist. But it was as if nothing that was going on around Jack truly resonated, he was still stuck in his own mind. "How can a mere puppet help anyone here… were all doomed..". Jack wasn't the only one who noticed him though, The trog king did as well even amongst the chaos of war around him.
"A trog… here?" Jack said to himself.
Jack watched as the long slender man darting toward the tower was intercepted by the trog king. In one hand, he was wielding one of the best-looking tridents Jack had ever seen, the other he held tightly clenched into a fist. Jack's interest in the trog king rose.
"Wait, why did he intercept? Why is he fighting with Libast?"
Hardly missing a step, the man met the trog king's trident with his cleaver and sliced straight through it as if it were butter. Without hesitation, the man swung again meeting the trog king's chest, blue blood littered the floor as the king dropped to his knees. He brought his clenched hand to his chest and touched his heart. As he fainted forward into a puddle of his own blood, his hand dropped beside him. There, rolling from the unconscious trog king's hand, was Violets dark green gem.
"…Violet…"
The pieces fell into place.
Jack's body began moving on its own.
Enraged, he lept down from the top level of the tower, his eyes a burning red. The man stopped in his tracks and looked up to meet Jack's gaze as he dropped from the tower. His own expression lifeless. His eyes were dull, expressionless, and indifferent as if he were not standing in the midst of a raging battle pumped with the adrenaline of blood freshly drawn from his own hand. Jack landed. The shock his body absorbed from the decent sent an inferno of pain shooting through his body radiating from the wounds that were still fresh on his back. Jack bit back a grimace as it threatened to consume his face entirely. The man showed the first signs he was sentient as he smirked at Jack's pain. He began speaking a language Jack had never heard.
"What do you want?" Jack yelled out.
"It seems Gerard failed at containing you." The man groaned out.
"Gerard?" Jack barely had time to ask as the man was hurling toward him swinging in every direction.
Jack had no time to think, only to dodge each advance on instinct. Each attack was precise, with intent to kill. It was as if the man's stamina was unlimited. After darting around, Jack's breathing became heavier, his wounds reopened, and pain coursed through his body. There wasn't time to counter between the man's attacks. "Where was this man from?" Jack noticed that his skin was leathery as if he had been born in fire but not immune to it. He was tall but not very muscular. Where did this energy come from?
The onslaught continued for a few more moments until a slight chill began running through the wind. The sudden change in temperature made the man stop for a moment to assess the situation. Jack used the time to gain some distance as he was barely surviving due to his clouded mind.
A stalagmite appeared erupting from the ground made entirely of ice. A figure appeared from inside the ice. The ice shattered leaving Eva beside him.
"Eva what're you doing here?" Jack said.
"You looked like you needed help dear." Eva replied.
"Well, you're not wrong." Jack reluctantly replied.
As Eva's eyes met the dark lifeless eyes of the slender man she asked, "what do you want here?"
"I want one thing, to bring calamity." He said heading toward the two.
She brought up wall after wall of ice. It slowed the man down, but only for a moment. He hurled towards Jack who braced for the impact. The man gripped him by the throat and slammed him to the ground.
"Jack!" Eva yelled out as gasps of air left Jack on impact.
The impact momentarily clouded his vision, but as he was gaining it back he could see tears falling down her cheek.
"Don't cry for a puppet." The words barely escaped his lips before he began coughing up blood.
"A puppet? Is that why you've acted so strange?!" Eva's voice rose in her concerned frustration.
"You're you! That's all that matters, that's all that ever mattered! Everyone here is here for you!" She was screaming now.
"Look at the mess I've caused for you though." He replied.
The man, as if he were unaware of the conversation happening around him, raised his cleaver to strike and end it. But as he lifted the blade, chains gripped his body and flung him hundreds of yards away.
"We'd endure worse a thousand times over for you, master, regardless of what you are." Anak said hovering over.
"Alright, alright, alright, if a man here is pleading, I'll have my century mid-life crisis another time." Jack said, brushing off his jacket. His smirk had returned.
Eva noticed when he stood the dark red stains on his back beginning to drip from his black jacket. "Why's your back bleeding like that, he never hit you there?" She questioned.
"Umm I fell off Steins dumb machine." He replied grinning.
"I'll question you later about it then." Eva said, scowling at him.
"You shouldn't squish your face like that, wrinkles will catch up to you in no time that way." Jack laughed.
Jack leaped into the air with the first signs of life in his eyes since returning to Libast. The wind began to shift. Jack drew all of his strength in these moments; it's as if the world itself was granting him strength. Jack was then engulfed in a red and black ball of swelling energy. He let the energy course through the entirety of his body, as he felt a killers calm pass through him.
"I am Jack, king of Libast. I shall bring balance to this world, or bring it to its knees."
He shattered the ball around him and emerged transformed. Dark scales covered his body, his arms were fuller and equipped with deadly claws, the broken horn on his head was now restored in a dark black raging fire, and the massive wings on his back resembled that of a gargoyle.
Jack looked at the swarms of bug creatures flying into his world. With his body covered in dark flames, his wings began to flap, and he headed straight towards the portal. He slashed every one of them that were in his path with his new claws, their green blood spewed everywhere, instantly catching fire and burning up in his flames.
As he reached the portal, the slender man shot up blade first. Jack easily dodged the blade and gripped the man by the neck. "Time to return the favor." Jack said tossing him into the portal and following close behind.
Glancing around, he immediately knew this wasn't his world around him. Barren waste lay as far as the eye could see with the bug like creatures swarming towards the open portal. Crashing into the surface, the slender man looked as if nothing happened and was perfectly okay. Jack noticed how cold it was here despite the flames wrapping his body. Fog clouded his vision from the air escaping his body.
"Cold?" The man said, hissing.
Grinning, Jack just leaped at his opponent who braced for the attack. Jack's massive, scaled, hand drew steam from the cold blade and parried his blows.
"Let me warm you up." Jack whispered to the man.
Right after Jack uttered the words, flames rose up from the ground. It was met with the sounds of sizzling mixed with screams of anguish. Amidst the chaos, Jack took advantage of it and swiped at the man's chest. Dark green blood spewed out from the wound, followed by a screech. The man went berserk, angling his body in unnatural positions. He dashed at Jack much quicker than he had moved thus far and much quicker than Jack anticipated. The man's palm was as large as Jack's head. As it met Jack's temple, he was sent flying towards one of the taller rocks laying around.
Jack dashed much faster than he's ever moved before striking the man before he was even aware Jack was there. Jack's large, scaled hand went clean through the man as gore began to drip down on him.
"Goodnight stranger." Jack said the man gasped for air.
The man's eyes glossed over. "We'll never stop hunting you so long as your existence continues." He said, and using the last bit of his strength, he snarled and lunged toward Jack.
Unprepared, the man's razor-sharp teeth sank right into Jack's shoulder. Moments later the man fell to the floor and his cleaver went clanking down to the floor.
A sigh of relief left Jack as he looked up at the portal. It was closing and there were only a few seconds left to reach it. Jack instinctively knew he could reach it if he acted quickly. He launched into the air, making a straight line for the portal. In half a second, the bug-like creatures turned their attention away from going through the portal an began coming straight for him.
"Why're these dumb things headed toward me?" Jack thought. The bugs flew toward the blood that was now steadily streaming from his shoulders. "My blood!" Jack yelled as they turned toward him now and began blocking his path home.
Jack began leaping from their heads and using his newfound sharp claws as a scythe, cutting through any unfortunate enough to get in front of him.
Just as he reached the black portal in the sky, a man with wings as dark as his own blocked his path and easily parried his blow.
"At last I meet the fake demon lord." The man said, sneering at him.
"It took me quite a few months to build the strength to make a portal this size. I can't let you leave, You'll be mincemeat soon enough, no need to get upset." He continued.
Jack, ignoring him completely, was trying to find the best way out given his final remaining seconds. He made one last attempt to leave and was blocked again. Grimacing, Jack looked up and accepted his fate. He was just happy his friends, no… his family would be safe. Finally looking at the man, he noticed he did kind of look like Jack.
"Who're you anyway?" Jack asked, trying to buy time so this man doesn't go into his world.
"All you need to know…" he began but was interrupted by Golden chains that shot out from the portal and wrapped around Jack. Tugging on him with all his might, Anak let out a yell that could be heard echoing inside their own world.
The man was caught off guard as Jack swung past him grinning with his arms crossed. Enraged, the man chased after him toward the portal. He was too late. Jack winked grinned and winked at him as he disappeared into the darkness and the portal closed around him.
As Jack got through to the other side of the portal, he turned and thanked Anak with a nod and faint smirk before losing all consciousness. The chains disappeared and untethering him from Anak who was hovering in the air to pull Jack through. Jack's limp body hurled towards the ground leaving a crater on impact. The dust had yet to begin settling when the remaining horde of bug creatures turned towards the smell of Jack's blood. The final swarms were met with the steel forged from the depths of Libast.
After they had destroyed the last of the invading forces, they had quite the mess to clean up. The forest surrounding Libast was covered in green gore. It was even splattered up the dark tower. Gar instructed the goblins to clean the lands. Immediately after he gave instructions, goblins in cute maid outfits (courtesy of Gwen who thought they were cute in the outfits) swarmed the area cleaning up bug parts across the land.
Jack was moved with the utmost care back to his chambers escorted by Jinx at his side. Her face turned sour due to the wounds he suffered during the fight. Regardless of her horror, she cleaned them and tended to him while he remained asleep, taking particularly good care of his bite wound on his shoulder.
Unable to be confined to the infirmary, the trog king was familiarizing himself with the caverns and the tower's layout. An entourage of trog attendants and goblins dressed in adorable nurse outfits followed closely at his side. Anak began studying his grimoire now that he had time to finally rest from the near constant battling he'd been enduring. Insisting they were fine, the orcs led patrols around the lands surrounding Libast. Their patrol pattern was old and familiar to them as they had marched it under Violet's design and orders before setting off. With no threat in the area, their marching served as a feeble attempt to distract themselves from the looming sadness around them. Stein had retreated deep into his lab and began tinkering away, only asking to be disturbed if Jack were to wake up.
A sense of deep mourning and sadness settled over Libast like a thick fog. Days passed, and Libast was still, quiet, and almost serene. Pillars of smoke rose up from the ground silhouetted against the sky each night as the goblin patrols stopped to make camp. They feasted on the bug limbs around the fire as a nice reward for their winning.
Finally, Jack awoke.