The deserts of the Seven Sands, a place I never wish to tread again. The sands are coarse irritating and just get everywhere but are pack or protagonists have desired to use Glassand...build it up. Fools don't know it's foul forgotten past and the forces that keep it that way. But alas they have chosen this path. I personally would have gone for Farengar or Blackwind and personally used some magic to fix my way to the top then go for the mutant… oh yes the False Heroes yes they are now heading through the aftermath of another's story. Not that you would care. Toward the last remnants of supposed society. Now where to start. This place is strange.. yes I have to explain the area, hush now I'll give you the cliff notes, so there are reasons the seven sands are uninhabited for the most part.. But fine I guess you can wait.
We find our Heroes walking through the harsh sands, the ever flowing rays of the sun beaming hot light that scorched the likes of lesser men. Bee trudged through the sands, enjoying the refreshing feeling of boiling between his toes, almost like home in the Demons mind as he looked back to his fellow companions. Huffing out as they were standing under one of Kyu's wings, their soft magic absorbed the light as they continued trudging through the desserts as Mathis began to speak.
"Next...bolder of rock we…. See… we are resting for a while."
Mathis managed to wheeze out as he pulled out a flask of water, chucking and passing the drink to Kyu,
"Thank you Jericho, I really need this."
Kyu said, wobbling forward and using his wing as counter wate. Even Bee looked back confused as Mathis looked Kyu over,
"Kyu buddy, how many horns does Bee have? Also remember it's willa...oh Daedul...FUCK SAKE! Now you got my saying my own damm name wrong!"
Elias looked at the now angered Wood elf, kicking up sand and the still woozy angel and spoke,
''We are only ten minutes from the entrance to the shortcut...Remember? It's a cave so…''
Mathis regained his composure, cleaned his overcoat with his still wrapped hands and turned to the goliath with them now placed on his ribs,
''Well then...Lead the way and please...Quickly.''
Elias smiled and nodded walking past the prince and slapping his back almost sending the dazed elf to the floor before Bee laughed and shouted,
''Ya both being a bunch of babies! There is a nice chilly breeze so enjoy the sand!''
Elias walked past the demon who moved to follow him as the other two looked at each other drained and nodded before following slowly behind.
What felt like hours but was actually minutes passed as Mathis and Kyu seemed to be on there last legs, every step taking half a minute and there eyes barely open, walking into the giant who the had not noticed,
''You two are fucked if you plan on living in this...Don't worry, we are here.''
The two's eyes opened as they saw a large opening crevasse, dried vegetation and dead flower beds lined the cobbled path down as Bee looked down it before shivering,
''Well that is a cold breeze! I'd rather walk up here than have to go down there…''
As he spoke he saw a blur of black and white pass either side of him, the two trailers jumped against the wall and sighed in happiness, a big smile on both faces as Bee looked on disgusted,
''You two are actually pathetic!''
Elias stood next to the demon as he shouted down,
''Well they should be fine now...I should tell you about the curse of the sands...People who are seen as the ancient sands as a true warrior are never seen again once they enter the Desert's Labyrinth...Still up for it? I've taken this way back for two decades and been fine so you should to!''
Mathis and Kyu did not seem to care but Bee shivered again making Elias tap him on the back as he stepped forward into the cave as they all started to make a temporary camp as the two were too tired to move. Bee set up their beds out of the dead vegetation and flowers while Elias pulled out some large chunks of meat with a strong shell on there outside, placing them down on a leaf before he spoke,
''Well since the demon is off looking for more bedding for you I will make sure there are no more Blade Scorpions in here...If there are then we get more meat so don't worry. If the demon comes back before me then tell him not to cook the meat till I get back got it? I should pass him actually so don't worry, I'll be ten minutes so get some rest we should be safe here.''
The goliath grabbed his huge sword, placed it on his back and strapped it in before he walked further and further into the darkness before he was no longer visible. The two laid down and closed their eyes, both almost instantaneously sleeping before shadowy figures circled them until there were too many of them to see the two anymore.
Bee walked through the pathways seeing a dense collection of brittle vines and dead leaves interlacing on the walls, pulling his bag open with one hand he began crushing the vegetation down as he continued on the path further before he felt a presence, sticking backwards hitting nothing but the cave wall leaving a sizable crack,
"That was weird… oh. MATHIS COME OUT WITH YOUR PARLOR TRICKS! YOU HAD ME RUN AROUND FOR NOTHING YOU ROYAL ASSHOLE!"
Bees voices echoing all around him, reverberating off the cave walls creating a small tremor as he leaned against the cracked wall, huffing out as he collected the last of the vines into his back as a legion of shadowy hands started dragging his head into the wall. Bee grabbed his hammer, smashing it against the hands to no effect as it phased through them, his torso and limbs were grabbed and pulled violently into the crack until the demon was gone, inside the crack looked black as night as the sound of loud footsteps could be heard.
Elias was moving with a brisk pace as he spoke to himself,
''Why am I doing this? The demon would have been able to handle...Any..OH FU-''
His thought was interrupted by a cracking vibration being sent from the wall and the faint sounds of the demon screaming something, the goliath gripped his blade hard as began to run towards the sound, the jagged walls changing shape as he ran until his peripheral visions saw a large crack in the wall making him stop, inspecting the large fresh crack with small embers littering the ground still slightly lit making the goliath stare into the crack and sigh,
''What in the infinite hell's is going on? This crack wasn't here last time...OI DEMO-''
His screams interrupted by a large cloaked arm wrap around his mouth, another arm extended with a dark green hand grabbing his neck and beginning to choke away, Elias reached with one hand trying to release the vice around him to no avail, he tried to move the arm back down to his sword to swing it with both hands until a dead vine came and coiled around the arm pulling him also into the crack, the sounds of struggling slowly faded out as the giant man was engulfed.
Nothing could be seen but blurred voices started to wake the princes mind, slowly starting to open his eyes and seeing tall black figures in the blinding shine of what he assumed were sconces before he tried to move his arms to no avail, only hearing the sound of rattling chains and realising his body could not move, now hearing faded laughter and footsteps walking towards him as he saw the ends of a dark robe and boots. He felt a hand grab the scruff of his back, being lifted up to the tall robed man's face as he realizes it is a Dark Orc, hair shaven and one eye completely gone in a empty socket as the other was one solid colour all through of a emerald green, leaning in to Mathis's pointy ear before speaking in a grizzled but high voice,
''Well the first one woke up eh? Taking you to the doors ready I think.''
Mathis tried to move his limbs again only to look like a shaking cocoon as the chains rattling echoed more than before making the Orc laugh,
''Struggle all you want boy, you ain't going nowhere with those Reserve draining chains on so play nice before I take one of those pretty eyes.''
Mathis made a face of disgust as he was put over the Orc's shoulder looking back at the rest of his crew all out cold in chains also as after thirty steeps he was thrown back onto the groundnut the light emanating was now a pale white flowing from three large doors bigger than any he had ever seen all with a very primal engraving on all three of different aspects of life, One with a child that only stretched ten feet up, one had a adult that stood thirty feet in the door and the final one had a hunched old man standing twenty feet tall.
Mathis noticed the glow was coming from the engravings making him stare like a new-born child before the Orc sat down with his legs crossed and starred with him before he spoke,
''Beautiful is it not? You will be a source to open its power with your friends...You won't survive but it will be enough to bring back the great one.''
He looked back at the two other men,
''Oi grab the other two and tie the demon up so he won't move!''
Mathis turned to see them dragging Kyu and Elias, slamming them onto the ground and making the two start to wake up, trying to adjust their eyes and move to no avail before Kyu noticed Mathis,
''Seirei...Where are we?''
"Buddy I don't know. Let's just keep our eyes open okay? I think I've got this"
Mathis whispered to Kyu while trying to see what their people wanted to do to them and what were these doors' purpose then their capturs began to speak.
"Oi oi the event is about to begin. Ready the gauntlet and prepare to push them through! For the great one!"
He spoke confidently as Mathis saw the two Orcs that dragged them in, picking up a stone chalice, bringing it just a couple feet away from the door. It's hard base slamming against the floor as the two then drew daggers from their holsters, slicing deeply into their palms. Mathis saw the stones edges lights up leading a trail of crimson red to the doors, reaching up over them in between the lining of the symbols then lighting up golden blue runes around the doors before the dark green Orc began to speak, again a sickly dark aura enveloping him as he began an incantation,
"IT HAS BEGAN…. The Lord of our dark cries his demand for power and he will have it. We demand it in return THEIR SOULS WILL BE YOURS FOR ETERNITY"
He said as the dark aura that was flowing from his form lead into his palms, forming into a flame as he stuck his hand over the stone gauntlets then crushing it, the flame raring though his skin as the green aura had melded his flesh with the flame as the orc forced his burning hand into the blood, the doors light up. The orc grinned happily as he raced his useless stump out as he gestured at the doors,
"THIS SACRIFICE WILL BRING POWER TO THE GREAT ONE. MEN THROW THEM IN."
He screamed as the arches began to vibrate violently, ripping open a jagged tear as the large orcs lifted the hero's one by one, first Kyu then Mathis and finally they rolled Elias. Sending the False Hero's inside into an endless catacomb of a deep eternal night devoid of all concepts and colours.
Bee was starting to phase back into life but found himself stuck and feeling groggy, he woke up trying to move but he felt the weight of chains around his chest forcing down on him. Frantically he pushed as hard as he could, the chains collided and rubbed with a large pillar like stalagmite that almost reached the caves roof as he forced his legs down on the ground as hard as he could to force his body upwards, the chains rubbed against the stone as the demon used more and more of his strength. Bee managed to stand looking around the room he saw no one but as eyes glanced over to his hammers laid down on the floor around ten feet away from him. Realising he had no other options left, the demon leaned as far forward as possible, breathing out as he went on the tips of his toes, gradually sliding the chains upwards as he used them as support before he slowly shuffled his body upwards. The chains loosened around the demon as he ascended slowly up the stalagmite, getting around seven feet in the air looking like a caterpillar crawling up a tree before the chains lessened enough for the demon to slip out and start crashing to the ground along with the chains, creating a sound like that of heavy metal Armor being dropped.
Bee pushed himself off the ground, rubbed his hands on his cloths, grabbed the chain and wrapped it around his torso like plate and walked to his hammers picking them up and tying one to either of his sides then raising Otto's to his shoulder and letting it rest as he sighed but seconds later jumped at the sound that could make even a demon's hot blood curdle. Screams of unholy terror and pain came from below along with a vibration almost making the rocks start to dance until ten feet in front of the dwarf a hole was made with a loud explosion, making the sounds of anguish louder and clearer. Bee looked through the rising dust to see what looked like a humanoid trying to climb the hole with his arm stretching out before Bee grabbed the Warhammer tight and spoke as he walked towards the person.
''What you done with my crew? Speak now ya fucking…''
His face widened as he now saw the humanoid was actually a Orc, his skin seeming to dry and wither as he stretched his arm out and it snapped off, no blood, only dust came from the severed arm, his eyes becoming smaller by the second as the life left them and the limp husk fell back into the hole but did not make the sound of landing for ten seconds and when it came it was loud as the dwarf moved to look over the hole he was amazed with what he saw, that husk made it up two hundred feet in that state but was now nothing but reddish murky brown paste but was surrounded by two other corpses, now shrivelled and sunk, one missing half a arm. Bee jumped into the hole shouting loud,
''I'm coming guys!"
He yelled as he descended down using his hammers to scrape against the sides as he went deeper into the pits, sparks and dust erupting for the hammers heads. After a twenty second descent he landed on the ground, his feet planting as he knees bent in before Bee rolled, managing to mitigate the damage from the drop, looking down to the bodies. He dropped his hammers to his sides, placed a hand of one of the cloaked body's removing it and he saw the body of an Orc quickly going to the other body. It was the same. Sighing in relief after seeing his friends here not dead as the husks of the three Orcs around him the replacing the work he did was for nothing he collected his hammers before beginning to stare at the colossal archways, Ancient and bright he growled in frustration before sitting down near the side of the door with the child engraved into it by the old runes that laced the arch and squinting, producing a flame in his palm before speaking slow.
''Past...Sorrow...Redemption? This makes no sense...Maybe the middle door will have something more helpful.''
He stood once more and moved to the right side of the arch in the middle door before speaking again,
''Present…Gratitude...Possibility...Is there even a point with the third one?...Fine.''
He trudged along before reading the right sided runes on the far right door with the elder engraved into it,
''Future...Pride...Grasp? That makes no sense!! He span around before sitting on the floor and leaning back on the door itself before he looked to his right,
''Maybe I can find something on the other sides runes...They ain't lit but fuck it.''
He stood once more and moved to the far right doors left side with a bland face that lit up when he read,
''M-M-...Mathis?...Tysol?!...DEATH?!''
He looked at the door and then looked at the other two,
''No...No!''
He ran to the central door where the same was shown,
''Elias...Sto...DEATH?! WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!''
He sprinted to the final door where his panicked face too a look of confusion as he read,
''Kyuuwin...Kurama...Glee?''
His face of confusion was broken by the sound of stone separating and a blinding light from his right, he blocked his eyes with his arm and looked towards the furthest door and saw a shadow start to fall from the top as the light faded and the stoned engraving closed. Bee sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him before he bounced forward, arms extended as he caught the shadow and rolled trying to clutch into his chest what he caught. As the rolling stopped he looked to see Mathis, A bright white line stretching from the crown of his head and going down the middle of his visible torso before his eyes slowly flickered open and closed, the white starting to fade as he regained his composure and was looking around confused before he spoke soft,
''Oi...Bumble Bee...Why are you cuddling me?''
The demon smiled as he threw the prince up, making him roll with his foot to the middle door as he screamed,
''Well shut up!! You got out right? Get Kyu and the big guy out!''
Mathis stopped himself from rolling as he stood, still dazed as he rocked to his feet and brushed the dirt and dust of his cloths before looking at Bee,
''I cannot...They need to do it by themselves...Or do you fancy becoming one of those dried out husks?''
Mathis gestured to the remains of their captors before Bee sat once more and looked at the prince who was stretching his left arm behind his head as usual, only interrupted by the question asked by the demon,
''So...It said death...Ya see yours? Ours?''
Mathis had a bland and confused before staring at the sky,
''Who knows...Mayb-''
''Kyu had the same thing written on his.''
The princes eyes widened as this was spoke, his lips opened to move before the light signed from both doors at once before Bee stood up and ran to the far right door,
''I'll catch Birdie! You get the big guy!''
Mathis was blinded and confused until a large shadow blocked out the light, he looked up to see Elias falling before he waved his hand and a aura of jet back appeared before he spoke,
''Make the winds guide him true. Land at my feet with the gale's sweet kiss!''
The black turned to nothing as a fierce wind took the cavern and made its way up, making the goliath stop for a second before gliding down like a piece of parchment knocked off a desk. Bee used the winds created to jump high before seeing the shadow appear in front of him, he grabbed the torso as he started to land, feeling the winds make him slow and looking to Mathis who had his second hand stretched out to them. As they landed they set up a small camp and began to wait for their comrades to awaken.
Ah...the demon doors of destinies. Not it's proper title but one that's appropriate. I wonder what they saw, unfortunately that's not my domain so I can not divulge such Divine divinations to my dismay. So let us find a new topic, yes? The sands of this land are rich in metals though they will never see use. Hmm? What? Not interesting? Well maybe I can work out a deal of sorts. In the words of one of are False Heroes...courage makes currency or some crap like that