|
Home About Me Computer Games Music Online Journal Stories Links Sign Guestbook View Guestbook E-mail me! |
Doom's Agenda "Chrissy!" Vince shouted at the top of lungs. The Dark Fiend of the Doom stood several yards behind Chrissy. He had just hit her with an ether spear, and now, she had a hole in her chest right next to her heart. Blood spilled from both the wound and from her mouth. She fell forward and hit the ground. "Chrissy!" Vince yelled again. He tried to run over to Chrissy, but something blocked him. The barrier was nearly invisible, created by pressing together so many layers of reality that nothing could pass through it. The Doom Fiend waved a hand, and the air around Chrissy's body blurred. Piece by piece, the ether tore her body apart, and all her flesh, bone, and blood dissolved until there was nothing left except a gray orb of energy. The Doom Fiend waved his hand again, and the orb flew to him and entered his body. The Dark Fiend body gave him no tears, so Vince cried inside his soul. Twice, Chrissy had come to him in love, and twice, Vince had rejected her. Now, when he finally had Chrissy back, when he had finally freed her, she had to die. Why? He could see Tina's death replaying itself in his mind again. Tina had died by his hands. Stephanie wouldn't talk to him anymore. And now, Chrissy was dead. The Dark Fiend was taking away the things he cared about, one by one. "You," Vince said, addressing the Dark Fiend of the Doom. "You goddamn mother-fucking son of bitch! Why did you kill her?" "I gave her some of my energy," the Doom Fiend replied. "My energy would then act as a catalyst, allowing her own Dark Fiend energy to mature." "Mature?" Vince asked. "You mean upgraded?" "Yes," the Doom Fiend said. "What you call an 'upgrade' is actually what happens when you fight as a Dark Fiend for such a long time that your Dark Fiend energy matures. As a side effect, your manifest image changes, and you can use the Dark Fiend much more efficiently." "Still, why did you kill her?" Vince asked, still enraged. "So I could take her matured Dark Fiend energy," the Doom Fiend explained. "She's too weak to be a good ally anyway, but her Dark Fiend energy is precisely what I need. In fact, that's the very same reason I called you here." "You called me here?" Vince asked, confused. "Yes," the Doom Fiend answered. "After the Ice Fiend become the Arctic Fiend, I amplified her energy so that you could detect her. Since I met you already, I knew your magical energy signature, so once you arrived in Rheasville, it was child's play to lead you here. When you arrived, the Arctic Fiend was of no further use to me, but since you were here, I decided to let you play for a while. Of course, I didn't forget what I came here for. You saw me reclaim her Dark Fiend energy. Soon, I'll reclaim yours." "And you'll kill me, too?" Vince said. "And then you'll take my energy and use it to kill more people. Damn you! Who do you think you are? What makes you think you have the right to go around killing people like that?" The Doom Fiend laughed. "Because the world owes me," he said. "My name is Zhu-Yuan Zheng. I grew up in China, but when I was only a child, your country declared war on mine. They came and destroyed everything--our homes, our friends, our family. My father, mother, and I fled to your country, where we hoped we would be safe. However, when we arrived, we were ignored and stepped on. In the end, my parents could only get a job in manual labor, even though they were more than qualified for high-tech jobs. They were treated like slaves. They worked for sixteen hours a day under the worst conditions you could imagine, and they were paid practically nothing. "One day, my father was killed in an accident on the job. Then, the other workers, many of them Chinese refugees like us, raped my mother. We had wondered why there weren't any other women working there, but we were betrayed by our own kind, and my mother died that day of shock. "Do you see what I had to go through? After my parents died, I was all alone, a child on the streets, forced to beg and steal to survive. Most days, I starved. One day, I caught stealing and thrown into an orphanage, but that didn't help the situation at all. The other children picked on me because I was different, because I was Chinese, and I still starved. They never fed us more than a bowl of shit a day, and I had to resort to stealing to get more food, and every time they caught me, they'd beat me until I cried. "It was like that for more than ten years. Then, one day, I chose not to cry. I was far too old for that already. They just kept beating me and beating me, trying to break me, but I refused to submit to them. They just kept beating me and beating me. Each time the staff came down, I hated them a bit more. It lasted a few hours. The more they beat me, the more I wanted to kill them. I wanted to hurt them, to make the break them. I to make them feel the pain and suffering I had felt since I was a child. "Then, I became the creature you see before you. The orphanage was destroyed. All the people who worked there are dead. All the children are dead, even the little three-year-old girls, I killed them, too." "And what was the point of that sick story?" Vince asked. "Simple," the Doom Fiend replied. "In this world, there is only pain and suffering. No hope. No joy. Just misery. If I destroy everything and everyone, there will be no more suffering--no more people to deal out suffering, no more people to feel suffering. In non-existence, there is happiness." "That's not true!" Vince shouted. "There may be pain and suffering in this world, but there are good things, too. Things like love, friendship, family, they make the pain and suffering worth it." "Such a naive fool!" the Doom Fiend retorted. "Love, friendship, and family are the greatest causes of suffering. Tell me, why did your father kick you out of the house? Why won't Stephanie talk to you anymore? Why have you left your friends behind?" "What? How do you know all this?" Vince asked, shocked. "You wear your heart on your sleeve," the Doom Fiend answered, "and you leave the door to your mind open." "You don't understand," Vince said. "You don't understand what happiness is." "I understand more than you, you weak, stubborn little fool," the Doom Fiend said. "I see there is no convincing you, not that I ever wanted to. I think I'll take what I came for now, and while I'm at it, I'll end your suffering!" Before Vince could react, the air shimmered around him, and the ethereal hand picked him up. Three ethereal spears tore through his body. Vince screamed in pain. Blood poured from his Dark Fiend body. Fragments of his red armor fell to the ground. "What? Not dead yet?" the Doom Fiend asked. "No one's ever survived one spear, let alone three." "I won't let you kill me!" Vince shouted. "Not now! I have too much to live for!" He filled the room with a great warcry. Then, his body burst into flames. These flames kept growing until they filled the entire pocket of reality that the Doom Fiend had set aside for him. Then, at Vince's will, the flames grew stronger, brighter, hotter, until he was encased in a white-hot glowing fireball. Suddenly, the immense fireball exploded, shattering reality around him. Vince fell the floor amidst the flames. "What? No one's every broken out of that before," the Doom Fiend thought. He reached out to grab Vince with the ethereal hand again, but Vince gave a loud battlecry and threw a series of orange, burning-hot fireballs. There were so many of them, and he threw them faster than he should have with his injuries. None of them hit the Doom Fiend. With his grip over reality, all the fireballs bent away from him, but as they collided with walls, floors, and other objects, they set off cataclysmic explosions. "His will to live, his hatred toward me, his love for the Arctic Fiend, they're empowering him with the strength to fight," the Doom Fiend observed. "Amazing!" The Doom Fiend grabbed and brought over the Inferno Fiend with the ethereal hand. As soon as Vince came close, he hit him with another ethereal spear. Vince roared in pain as the ether spear tore through him. The force of the attack threw him all the way to the other side of the room, but Vince stood right back up. The Doom Fiend reached out with the ethereal hand again, but Vince blocked it with a barrier of flame so thick and strong that the orange flames were blinding. Then, Vince threw all this fire energy against the wall, knocking down the entire side of the building. He sprinted to his hovercraft, started the engine, and flew away. However, as the hovercraft shot away, the Doom Fiend threw an ether spear at it. The twisted reality hit the engine, blowing it apart. Vince lost control of the hovercraft. It twisted and turned sideways before crash-landing in the snowy mountains that surrounded Rheasville. With the last of his strength, Vince radioed for help. Then, his strength gone, he lost consciousness. An hour later, Mindy arrived in her own hovercraft, picked up Vince, and took him back to Gehenna. Someone tapped on the glass. Vince was floating in a Bio-Repair tube, a glass tube filled with heavily oxygenated water and saturated with nutrients and nanomachines designed to repair damaged flesh. The whole thing was wired to a computer. Vince was vaguely aware that he had been floating there for about half a week. Brian Mandragon tapped on the tube. Someone at the control panel pressed a few buttons, and the tube drained out, leaving Vince standing on metal. "I have a mission for you," Brian said. "A fighting mission. As you know, we have been collecting the Veiliij Artifacts. So far the Mercenary Camps have been stealing them for us. However, Alliatus recently became aware of our actions, so they took the last four Veiliij Artifacts and locked them away in a vault in a Temple of Light. Now, to send a Mercenary Camp against Alliatus would be suicide. Not only would they fail the mission, but Alliatus would also hunt them down in retaliation. Thus, I need you to go with a team of sorcerers to steal the last four Artifacts from the Alliatus vault." Vince climbed from the empty Bio-Repair tube, now wearing fresh, clean clothes. "Vince, these are the people you will be working with," Brian said, pointing to four people standing behind him. "You've already met Aea. In fact, you recruited her." "Hi, Vince," Aea said with a wave. "Hi, Aea," Vince replied. Brian showed him a sorcerer with long, yellow hair, a black shirt and black pants, and a royal red cloak. His face was unshaven and reflected his nonchalant attitude. "This is Koumilon," Brian said. "He's actually one of our most skilled sorcerers. He's currently studying ethereal magic." Brian then showed him to a sorcerer who wore a long, dark brown trenchcoat with a matching hat. His trenchcoat was full of bottles and vials of colored liquids. "This is Vypith," Brian said. "He specializes in Alchemy and knows how to make the right potion for any situation. And this is Mindy--" "Hello, Mindy," Vince said. "Hello, Vince," Mindy replied. "You've met already?" Brian asked. "Yeah, we have," Vince replied. "Mindy, are you going on this mission?" "Yeah," Mindy answered. "Why? "But you're, like, ten years old," Vince said. "Aren't you a little young?" "No," Mindy replied simply. "Why?" "Never mind," Vince answered. Thus, Mindy led Vince, Aea, Koumilon, and Vypith to her hovercraft. She apparently knew the way already, as she flew the hovercraft all the way to the Temple without a map. They landed on the street in front of the Temple, and the five of them approached it together. The two Paladins guarding the front entrance didn't seem to be paying much attention. However, as the band of sorcerers approached, they took notice. "Hey, the Dark Fiend of Fire!" a Paladin shouted. "Halt!" At this point, Mindy pulled two pistols out of her pocket and fired several times at one of the Paladins. Koumilon cast an ice spell, freezing the other Paladin, then followed with a lightning spell, shattering the Paladin into pieces. Quickly, Vince and the band ran inside. They had apparently alerted the Temple personnel to their presence. Paladins and Mystics drew their swords while Priests prepared their spells for battle. The door opened in the central column, and more Alliatus personnel arrived from the Inner Sanctum. As the battle began, Vince covered his body with magma. His skin became black hide, and the magma cooled to form the Inferno Fiend's armor. Paladins, Mystics, and Priests were swarming all around them, outnumbering them immensely, but somehow the warriors from the Quantum Saviors fought valiantly and survived. Mindy was especially impressive. Though only ten years old, she fired her pistols with the experience of a military sharpshooter. Her guns were apparently infused with Zeromega technology, as any spell cast on her was instead absorbed by her weapons, and she readily shot down anyone who came close enough to use a sword. In short, she was virtually untouchable. In the first minute, she had already made well over twenty kills. Aea had summoned three large gorillas to fight for her, except these gorillas were blood red and had long, sharp claws. They stayed near her and cut down any Alliatus enemy who came close and protected her from projectiles. However, they weren't as efficient a defense as Mindy's gun skills. One Mystic was able to dodge a gorilla and nail Aea with a few Holy Shots before he was taken down. Koumilon displayed his skills calmly and coolly, as if the battle were unimportant. He had set up a magical shield to defend himself and now cast spells so fast his hands were like a blur. He quickly and steadily took down foes one by one with fireballs, freezing blasts, lightning bolts, and other elemental spells. Vypith was also an interesting sight. At the beginning of the battle, he had thrown a potion, which filled the room with smoke and haze. Then, with exploding potions, he knocked down groups of attackers, and with poisonous darts, he killed them in a single hit. However, he wasn't as skilled as the others. Thus, he stayed with Aea most of the time so that her clawed gorillas could protect him as well. Seeing as most of the Temple's defenses were being distracted by his allies, Vince made a beeline toward the central column. The door had closed, but Vince remembered. Setting his gauntlets on fire and shouting a warcry, Vince smashed the doors open and ran down the stairs. However, a Paladin stood at the bottom, blocking him. A Paladin then came down from above, cutting off his retreat, and the two of them closed in on him. Vince punched the Paladin below him, knocking him back to the bottom of the stairs, but the Paladin simply got back up and charged again. The Paladin above him struck, but Vince blocked the attack with his gauntlets. Then, with a flaming kick, he knocked the other Paladin down so that he fell down the stairs. He dropped his sword, but Vince caught it. However, the other Paladin caught his friend, and they both charged at the Inferno Fiend. Vince lit the sword he had on fire and held it up, ready to fight. These two Paladins weren't very skilled. He could probably kill them both in two quick swings. No! He couldn't kill. Tina appeared in his mind again, and she was unhappy, frowning. He couldn't kill. He didn't want to kill. Still, the Paladins below him were quickly closing in on him, and he had to act fast. He had no choice. He cut down one Paladin, and Tina fell off the roof in his mind. He slashed the other Paladin, and Tina fell to the street in his imagination. Vince dropped the sword and fell to his knees. He didn't want to see Tina die any more, but he couldn't get the image out of his head. "Aea and Vypith have been wounded," he heard Mindy say above him. "I'll take them to the hovercraft," he heard Koumilon reply. "You go into the Inner Sanctum with Vince. Remember your mission." That's right, Vince remembered his mission. He had to go get the Veiliij Artifacts, even if that meant killing everyone in the Temple. As Mindy came down the stairs behind him, Vince rushed into the Inner Sanctum and, one by one, tore apart each and every Paladin, Mystic, and Priest he saw. Every time he killed another one, Tina appeared in his mind again, frowning down upon him. Eventually, Mindy led him to one of the back rooms of the Inner Sanctum, and inside was a vault. Smashing the vault open, Vince grabbed the last four Veiliij Artifacts, and they took the hovercraft back to Gehenna. After Vince handed the Artifacts to Brian, however, he didn't wait to hear his congratulations on their mission. Instead, Vince ran down the halls and into his room. He could still see Tina, falling endlessly, and this vision brought him agony, shock, trauma, and fear. "I don't want to fight anymore," Vince said, closing his eyes tightly and clutching his head with his hands. "I don't want to kill anymore." |