Chapter 3: The Next Domino Falls

Chapter 3: The Next Domino Falls
Anyway, about nine days into his leadership role, Douglas came to Alexander for the first time to report that something strange had happened in the land of fire. A new portal had just opened and closed, dumping some sort of being out in the lava pits. That being reduced the entire region to cold rock before leaving to the Grasslands, which now appear as a giant scar on the map as it had completely burned away. Whatever it is, it’s coming for you. Alexander was flabbergasted at the news that something was coming for him, but then it strangely occurred to him that it may not be. Douglas considered it, but also wants to keep his eyes on the prize and this being that is pure destruction incarnate that is now burning a path toward their very location; we need to build up a counterattack on the basis that whatever it is will come here. Douglas headed to the door as he started to realize it might be Rickya coming back to this plane to seek revenge.
To the unlucky hundreds that were vaporized by this monster out in the Badlands, the last thing they saw was a 6’2 man stand before them then the next instant, they were gone. The man chuckling as he destroyed life after life as if he were merely setting junk paper on fire to save space; however, in his mind, beyond the insane cackling, he was boiling on how a certain person had been a thorn in his side for too long and had to be dealt with.
Douglas was furiously trying to think of something to combat a massive flaming destructive force without the captive Bouldergeist; the Knights would be just walking furnaces waiting to be lit. Douglas would need to build something big to stop whatever it was…and fast. Douglas picked up his toolbox and began to conjure building supplies seemingly from the ether. He knew what he wanted, and that was going to be either a frost or water cannon enough to stop him at 200 miles. His fabrication process was long enough for the destructive force to make it one and a half regions away from the city before he had it set up and ready to aim. Within the next twenty minutes, the force was in range and the frost cannon were ready to fire, as it did by Douglas Rodriguez. The shot traveled fast and far outside of the city and over the horizon and the blast was seen clear three hundred miles away from the site. Douglas informed Alexander that it had been a hit and wanted to take him out to see the damage. Alexander cautiously agreed to go, hoping not to be seen as a scaredy-cat in front of his political mentor.
When the pair got to the blast zone via rocket pack, they saw that a small crater had formed and everything nearby and inside had been flash frozen and extremely brittle, all the foliage except for trees and saplings had been crushed underfoot into a fine, misty powder that coated the pair’s footwear. The center of the crater held what they were looking for: an icy monolith containing the destructive force that tore its way through half the country. However, slight cracks were becoming apparent to the on looking two and then before they knew it a huge chunk of frozen water came crashing down between them as they looked up and saw that a giant gash had formed and cut that piece out of the monolith that encased the force.
The realization hit them too little too late as the monolith shattered under the power of the destructive force now meeting eye to eye with the leaders of New Thalia. The force relit and asked Douglas to introduce him to his new little friend over there. Douglas’s mind raced as he started formulating questions as to how this fiend knows him and then how the force knows Sir Santos without his usual getup on as he reminds himself of the new foe used to be that straight-shooting righteous wizard that he hated purely as a stretch from Sir Cantos. So…Sir Santos…what are you calling yourself nowadays? Alexander informed him briefly of what had changed in everyone’s life and that led directly to the question of why Sir Cantos wasn’t fighting him and then that brief explanation. As it turned out, this force was another of Sir Cantos’ long-time rivals. The force decided about ten minutes later that enough was enough and this conversation about back stories and explanations was getting tedious. He started his only explanation that he was ready to give to his foes.
As I floated in that god-forsaken fire dimension with the craziness of Rickya Varius through a circumstance of Sir Cantos sacrificing me for no reason; I spent most of my time plotting various revenge schemes and grumbling about how that stupid idiot could let this happen, but then these strange beings came from a whole new dimension with their poisonous appearances and deadly weapons. They came for me from a land called Phyrexia, wanting to claim me as their own and use me as an extension of their power to invade my dimension. I cursed and spat at them and they came at me in force of a group of five spiked brutes hauling unnecessarily spiked and poisoned swords that were the very definition of overkill, basically I killed them long-range while backing up as Rickya just floated elsewhere. The horde was spent packing and I returned to working on a plan that actually appeared to have a decent chance of success.
I trained constantly when I finished that plan for the maneuver that was going to require stealth and all of my strength to accomplish and when I had trained up to that day, I trained for another two weeks before I was sure that I was up for the task. That’s the day I confronted Rickya Varius, incarnation of fire and we had ourselves a glorious and terrifying bought with him launching extremely devastating blows at me while I was trying to get up close and use some assassin techniques to get him off his game while I processed his life force down and down until finally I was ready to deal my last blow and end the fight. I planned to end it with my enchiridion assault, an attack that I kept secret for a moment such as now and I am damned glad that I did because it caught him completely off guard since it didn’t fit with that battle strategy.
Before he knew what I was talking about, I slashed at him several times with my shadow claws that ripped him down to his soul; his body no longer had to worry about a thing since I took my reward. I absorbed his soul into my own being and that started the transformation. My body surged with newfound powers and abilities that I could only start to comprehend and to start using what I learned would take another long period of time. I had become the incarnate of fiery vengeance that allowed me to step into this dimension and hunt Sir Cantos down, however since he has apparently lost his authority and you are his next of kin, Mr. Wolcott, you will now have to face Shadowfire.
The pair stood ready to battle this newfound foe, they both pulled out small daggers and prepared for their first move. Shadowfire, the being that burned red-purple flames menacingly, lobbed a fireball at the pair, it exploded on impact with the ground and burned them slightly. Alexander moved quickly as he got behind Shadowfire and stabbed him in the back, making him grunt in a pained tone as he grabbed Alexander and through him over back to Douglas. Douglas launched a small barrage of kunai blades that struck the foe in his shoulder and instantly vaporized, dealing minimal damage and giving Shadowfire a fair chuckle. Shadowfire conjured a pillar of fire aiming at Douglas, burning his body painfully. He felt the extreme pain of that attack and still shook it off to face his opponent. Alexander started to realize this is not even going to be a difficult fight, it’s going to be near-impossible and that’s when he decided to pull his ace in the hole, out of his pocket came a small remote that he pressed with a daring gleam in his eye. Five seconds later, another giant blast of frost hit Shadowfire creating another monolith of ice in front of the pair. Douglas kicked it into shatters as their foe fell to the ground with a pained look as he struggled to stand and face his enemies as the sudden temperature difference caused him great damage.
He pulled himself together just to release a large flame burst that engulfed the pair and defined the arena as it blackened the ground to a pure dark color and suffered Alexander and Douglas extraneous pain, like their muscles were boiling from the outside and they were just on the verge of unconsciousness as the attack ended and they regained their battle attitudes, preparing for another assault on the colossal power in front of them. Douglas ran behind Shadowfire and slashed him in his knees, bringing him down slightly so that Alexander could slash his face with poisoned daggers. He saw what he could only describe as dripping arcane coming from where he slashed as a small pool of white energy formed below him.
Shadowfire stood up and with a chuckle he used wraith speed to grab Alexander and slam him into the ground, then slashed with large shadow-clad claws against his chest, leaving him with moderately sized gashes that could be handled for now, but before he was done Shadowfire pressed a sigil of fire into his body burning him intensely and letting Alexander scream in agony as his ribs started to fracture under the severe weight of this seal being pressed into him. Douglas came up behind Shadowfire and took a metal staff around the foe’s neck and picked him up just to throw him over and into the floor, he then went over to Alexander to pick him up. When Alexander was rested against a nearby petrified tree, Douglas turned back to look at the new incarnate of fire with his head buried harshly in the blackened earth, but then his lower body started to flail as he was sure that the monster realized what had just happened to him, but then he started to spin rapidly around and around, breaking the ground above his head, flipped over and raised himself slightly into the sky.
The incarnate transformed into a more recognizable form of Rick the Firestorm, he saw his arms outstretched as the area around the two began to glow harshly with an orange light as something was being etched into the earth around them. Douglas realized that another seal was being drawn from Shadowfire and that he had to get them out of there. However, as he left the seal, the final scrawling stage was finished and that involved suddenly launching the range out tremendously and then a terrible firestorm had engulfed the battlefield that brought even the great warrior Douglas Rodriguez to his knees in wretched agony as the stages of flame began to surround his body, first he felt his senses diminish as his external nerves began being vaporized, then his body’s liquid started to boil as the heat increased internally, then his brain was brought to the point of unconsciousness as the overload of pain overwhelmed him.
His muscles began to weaken under the burden of this heavy fire damage. His last look was downward as he saw Alexander struggle for what he saw, a small metal box that started shooting electricity out of its confines knowing that the circuitry can’t handle this level of flammable intensity and as he fainted, he saw him press the button and launch another barrage at Shadowfire.
The blast arrived ten seconds later to Shadowfire’s cackling, the lord had again been flash frozen, but he suddenly realized something was terribly wrong since he saw that the bolt didn’t hit him and dissipate, it kept coming and coming at him until the monolith of ice that was supposed to be created became a colossus dedicated to ice and everyone in a 2,000 foot range of that battle was now frozen in an incredibly hostile ice floe. Shadowfire had been defeated yet again, he knew this true and he knew that he would be back yet again, not knowing how or when just that he’ll return to kill the newfound heroes.
The ice surrounding the heroes was shattered two weeks later by some of the local New Thalians who wanted to thank their heroes that saved them from yet another catastrophe and gave the proper praise to the new king: Alexander Wolcott as they dragged him back to town to give him the best medical care they could find from the finest church doctor: Dr. Donson. He revived Alexander within three days with a miraculous recovery thanks to a battalion of the town’s clerics that were summoned to help their king and savior. Douglas was luckier and sustained less damage and was upright and walking within seven hours of hospitalization.
However lucky, there had not been without consequences for saving the city, he awoke to find his left foot had been replaced with a metal bar that had been bent to serve as a great prosthetic. He examined his new limb and admiring the expert craftsmanship and the time taken to reinforce it with a couple skins of steel over the iron itself, it would serve the king of New Thalia well and he sat up ready to thank his doctor and his blacksmith for saving his life and creating his new leg, thankful that he didn’t have to go to the lengths of his father for walking.
Dr. Donson still recommended that until his king got used to the new leg that he takes this cane that the villagers got together and bought for their savior. He told Alexander that they took all of their most skilled adventurers known and had fabricators lined up from the untouched regions come and collaborate on this cane. The tip of the cane had been equipped with a sixty foot steel grappling chain and claws. The top of the cane separated from the rest for a longsword, the hilt of the blade twisted. When twisted the blade turned from its steel self to one a little darker, a blade made of pure sharpened saronite. The hilt also had a lid on the bottom of it that held some epic poison.
When the sword was returned to its cane scabbard, he pulled off the handle and realized that through a few levers pulled, it transformed into a bow and could be folded over to form a crossbow. He reset the handle and realized something else about it, he swung it once and out came a steel extension from the handle that gave him a quarterstaff that was light and rigid enough to beat some face. He then kept examining the cane and saw that he could unravel the leather covering of the cane and it instantly bounced out into a rocket pack just like Douglas had stolen from Barabbas. He found a small red reset button just under the left wing of his rocket pack and saw it bounce inward and become his cane again.
One of the villagers hit the back of the handle and out popped this small rounded piece of metal along with a smaller similar piece and held up his cane and realized that the cane was also a working rifle. The last thing he saw was the runes that were imprinted on the leather of his new cane and was told that it amplified arcane power. He was completely impressed with every one of the collaborators on this cane and began to stand with his new limb and started hobbling around, when he staggered to the door, the villagers cheered for their king. He gave them a smile and a wave as he headed down the hallway. He talked his impression of the cane over with Douglas who came with him at Alexander’s walking pace. He told him that he couldn’t possibly have a better weapon than what he was holding right now and he called it the Hero’s Cane. Once he was out of the hospital, Alexander vowed to spend his training time incorporating the Hero’s Cane into his fighting style. Specifically working on transition attacks between his sword and crossbow, when I was in the training hall watching him slash apart wooden effigies and then shooting sandbags with the crossbow.

Meanwhile, back in the forest where Hydran and Cassandra have returned from their lunch run, nabbing six rabbits and two elk on their journey. Cassandra started to get strange visions that caused her migraines off and on, luckily it’s a rare occurrence, the more common is just a mild headache from the messages she receives. Hydran knew about these visions since she could see it in her daughter’s face. She used to receive visions too when she worked as a druid and sometimes a travelling fortune teller to get enough coin for some food and a place.
However, these messages felt dark and somewhat cruel to Cassandra, they often tried to get her to go off on a journey for something that it wouldn’t speak about. A dark place she knew would be waiting for her if she succumbed to these visions. Hydran tried to help her by revealing her visionary past, but nothing helped, it seemed that, although she didn’t want to admit it, her lovely elven daughter was going to be sucked back into the world that Sir Cantos had left for her. After a couple days and another migraine wracked her beautiful body, Hydran had a serious talk with her daughter about the visions probably getting worse, she said that maybe it’d be a good idea to go back to New Thalia and see what Alexander would have to say about this. The last time they saw that man, he said that he would be glad to have Cassandra in his life and hopefully she would come to their side with all this unpredictability. Cassandra decided to head out on a journey to New Thalia…on her own. She took her bow and quiver along with a small pack full of mild poisons and small daggers, also three meals’ rations in case she couldn’t hunt what she required. Cassandra began the long walk out of the Anti-Forest back to the portal. While she was making her way through that forest, she caught and cut up three elks, then prepared the meat and figured she might have enough to make it to New Thalia without having to hunt for more food. She jumped across the portal without a scratch since Sir Foofy purified the portal for his second return to the Anti-World.
She appeared in another forest, but this appears to have been decimated by battle and lumberjacks looking for building supplies, there was barely any foliage that wasn’t cut down and the large crater where the Dark Wizard’s castle once stood as a solemn reminder of the power of evil. She headed out toward New Thalia by crossing through the Cryogenic Falls, the region capitalized by Cryosis, a city she heard of and never wanted to visit, it’s been hit by natural disasters and crime bosses, an unlucky place in a harsh land. When she crossed the frozen field, needing to eat two and a half elks to maintain her body heat along the trek, she finally made it to the Grass Fields, perfect stalking ground for small animals, if need be and by the time she made it across half the region, it looked like need-be would have to be accomplished. She killed three squirrels and then saw a large shadow behind her as she was skinning her catch and saw some tauren, large muscular men who stood on two hooves and had large fists, their face looking like their relatives of bovine, their dress making them look tribal. She hoped that she wouldn’t have to deal with these locals, so she addressed them in a nice way to where the tauren responded that she couldn’t hunt on their lands; they need all available foodstuffs because of the Scarring. The Scarring turned out to be the event that happened a couple weeks ago where a powerful force burned through six regions before stopping at the Plainlands by Alexander Wolcott and Douglas Rodriguez and the panic of the event caused the economy to plummet and with no one borrowing money at reasonable rates, no one could afford food from other countries and it appears that the tauren have been gathering every local animal into their coffers so that they could survive through this depression. Cassandra tried to argue her way into getting enough food to make it to New Thalia in Palisadia. The tauren agree and take her squirrels in exchange for two antelopes, and then gives her a firm warning to not be caught hunting anymore or they will punish her for interfering with emergency protocol.
She thanks the tauren, not wanting to create a problem for the local race as she headed to her destination. She was glad to make it to the border with an antelope left, knowing that she had enough food to make it through the last leg of her journey. She arrived at the town gate ninety minutes later as she met with a heightened security held by three heavily armed guards. The guards started asking her questions and signing some papers, a paper that claimed that she would not use the bow for evil purposes; another that stated an oath to not commit crimes within the town walls; and lastly, one that stated that she was not to harm a list of people: leaders of the town, the doctor that saved Alexander or any of his staff and the invited fabricators all stood out along with not attacking the local prison. Cassandra went through the process smoothly and was allowed inside with a smile.
Her first stop was going to be a local restaurant to get something that wasn’t animal meat, hopefully getting a couple drinks as well. She went to the first place she saw; a bar called the Bootstrap. She walked up to the barkeep and asked for a drink, trying to barter the antelope meat that she didn’t need anymore. The barkeep quickly agreed, stating that it’s impossible to purchase foreign foods right now and he could easily afford trading some of the local delicacies for something outside state lines. She had a grog and port along with some garden greens and a meat sandwich. She thanked her waiter and left the building to go find the pair that she travelled to see in the first place.
She went to the capitol building to find Douglas sitting in the leader’s chair and asked if he had inherited the leadership of the town from Sir Cantos’ passing. He laughed and said no, Alexander is now the hero of New Thalia, defeating Shadowfire and saving the city from utter vaporization. He now went down to business asking why she was here now. She regaled him with her tale of the visions and they told her to head out to the Kristy Vastro Soticon, the land beyond the land of death. No one’s returned from that land to tell the tale, some say that it doesn’t exist, some tell that it does exist and the collective leaders had conspired to make sure it didn’t, some say that only the insane wander out to that land and I say that the land exists, but it’s impossible to transcend into something so evil. What on this earth could want someone to go to that place. She had no idea what the voice wanted her to do there; just to travel to that land. I’d assume, if I ever did succumb to his visions, that I’d see whoever it is there. She asked if there was anything from recent times that could relate to why I’ve been receiving these visions for the past three months. That fact hit Douglas like a ton of bricks since he related Sir Cantos’ death to these new visions from Cassandra, contacting someone that could likely receive these visions is always a decent bet on an elf and an elf that he knew, but that’s impossible for a dead man. Even though, Sir Cantos was good at getting out of death. Maybe her visions are relating to the Canstaff trying to find a new host. Douglas told her what his guesses for her visions might be and she seemed desperate to learn more about the Canstaff particularly. He told the elf girl what the Canstaff was capable of and why it should never be found, by anyone, ever. It must’ve landed in the Kristy Vastro Soticon.

However, in a land extremely far away from New Thalia, a man climbs out of the dark foliage shadow near the glade of the Master Sword. He comes into the clearing where Link is praying on his knees, only seeing the strange man after he comes past the Pedestal of Time. The man wrenches the Master Sword loose, but it’s still stuck in the pedestal, gives Link a devious smirk and bashes his skull into the ground, creating visceral splatter on the nearby trees and bushes along with the death of a great hero. The man steps directly into the light, letting Dark Link get a crystal clear look at the villain who is now wielding the Master War Hammer.
The man was wearing a slightly tattered dark gray duster. He had a tarnished blonde color as if it were seemingly mixed in with various sands; he had a simple wooden cane with a flat handle since he didn’t have a left leg. On his back was an empty, leather scabbard and he had a simple black eye patch over his left eye. His face was that of a hardcore adventurer, with scars and wrinkles that accentuated his fighter ability and perseverance, along with the fact that he had only ONE LEG! The man pulled out a silver pocket watch from his low, left duster pocket. The man chuckled as if the brutal murder didn’t even faze him. He said “It looks like its nigh time…You’d best not follow me stranger.” Dark Link was surprised by this comment as he had made no noise or mark that would tell anyone of his presence…and he’s been spying like that for three days…and wearing his characteristic black cloak. Dark Link however skittered out of the dark midnight forest quickly. The man looked off to the east, determined to get to his destination.

Cassandra asked if there was any way they could retrieve the Canstaff from the Kristy Vastro Soticon. Douglas just swayed his head and said that a mission of that nature would be dangerous for the personnel and not worth the risk. The existence of the Kristy Vastro Soticon being controversial is already a massive understatement and there have been only legends describing crossovers from that disputed region, so I could not fathom how something that originated in that region could come to this plane. It would be best to forget that the Canstaff even existed. Just then, Alexander entered his office. He questioned about what was being discussed without him and Douglas gave him the quick version of what has been said. Alexander expressed his sorrow for his “sister’s” affliction as he sat down at his desk, and also agreed that going after the Canstaff is an impossibly suicidal mission for the ones involved, hopefully no one will find that accursed object.
Cassandra was inflicted by a new vision after what they had discussed; she fell to the floor hard after fainting instantly. The vision’s existence had knocked her into a mental realm where she saw an eye flitting in a heavy, dark mist. “They’re wrong, Cass. The Canstaff is not to be trifled with, especially in the land beyond the land of death. You must go to the Kristy Vastro Soticon and retrieve the artifact, by yourself if you have to. Don’t tell anyone this Cassandra, but I will be travelling to New Thalia to meet you in your time of need. I am Tristan, explorer and adventurer extraordinaire; I have a lengthy resume of my accomplishments and things that I have slain. I, however, am growing old, but I am the only one who has crossed into that plane and back. I know it exists and I also know that the things that reside in that accursed place should not be given power. The Canstaff will come back into existence and it will not be pretty, so be on your toes. See you later, Cass.” Cassandra, the elf awoke in a hospital bed to Dr. Donson, Alexander and Douglas sitting in the corner half-asleep.
Predictably, Cassandra wants to know where she is. She is sitting in one of the finest medical facilities in Palisadia, headed by Dr. Donson himself on his beck and call for the king and any of his friends. The doctor said that she has not sustained any prolonged mental injuries from her magical incident and no physical from the fall to the floor. Everyone is dying to know what her vision was about, she reported that the Canstaff is radiating newfound energy and is projecting that into her vision, making them more influential, actually giving me a good reason to go and retrieve it from the Kristy Vastro Soticon. The doctor doesn’t know what she’s talking about and Alexander cools his fears of her being delusional by telling him to go outside, they’ll take care of whatever is ailing her. Unfortunately, Cassandra, we can not handle the danger that poses itself in that region, even if the Canstaff had wound up in the hands of someone with the crossover ability. Besides, we just got a new case from outside our country that we need to go deal with.
Cassandra agrees to go with them just on this one mission. The others are excited that she has somewhat turned from her past perception that we are not suited to what she does, Cassandra Petalia officially joins your party…temporarily, pledging her bow to your safety for the time being. The group starts walking to their destination, a prison town called Revile Isle, known for their expertly manufactured stone prisons and quarries, mostly all of the residents are quarry workers, they do a damn good job too as they discuss where they’re going on the ferry. Alexander asks Douglas why they are going to a place like this; I don’t get taken out of my city for just anything and with my injury, it better be extremely important for me to be here. Douglas groans and says if you were going to be this complaining, why didn’t you just stay and head the bureaucracy? He responds with saying that he hates that more. So why are we going to Revile Isle? Well it seems that the Colored Furnace appeared in their rock quarry. Is there more than one of those things or is it the same one and just appearing all over the damned place, that thing is so fricking annoying.
So, is this a retrieval mission? No, it seems that the quarry workers loved it so much, they decided to add to it with a bunch of boulders after work and guess where those boulders came from. I don’t know, where? Well it seems that after Rickya defeated Boulderstrasza, he was weakened to the point where he flew over this and crashed when he ran out of strength, he died on impact and his corpse was lost amongst the pit. So the workers stole the Colored Furnace from their worksite and then stacked it with other boulders from the stone dragon that was defeated by the incarnation of fire. So what happened? Well apparently there shrine came to life and took off, they fear that this structure is going to cause major damage to theirs and others’ cities. The beast seems to be able to blast some sort of energy that disintegrates anything it comes in contact with.
That is some serious weaponry carried by a man-created monstrosity, but that is the power of the Colored Furnace. When they reach the island, some of the buildings and earth has strange holes like that described by Douglas’s report of the beast. The group sets out to try and locate the beast based on the pattern of destruction, they reach the northwestern corner of the island when they see something bizarre: some of the creature’s blasts have hit the ocean, and left permanent holes in the water that are completely dry. The ocean refuses to fill in those gaps. They start walking along a series of sandbars toward another small island named Maelland. Seeing large gashes in the ocean that seem to flow correctly, not causing any issues with the rippling of the ocean, making it appear even stranger, but that’s when the reach the island, following the trail.
The group climbs over another ridge and on the other side they see a tan stone beast breathing black crap at the island. It seems as though there is no rhyme or reason for his attacks, as it continues to walk and blast randomly at anything in its wake. Alexander throws a rock at the beast attempting to attract its attention and turn it around to see them. The creature turns around to face whoever threw that rock at it. It didn’t really have a face; it appeared to only have a mouth with small slits above that to allow it to have rudimentary vision so it could find its way about. This could be the reason it had to blast randomly since it has a limited visual ability. The most remarkable thing about this creature was the Colored Furnace that was burning in its abdomen and its glowing symbols. The beast’s eyes changed from a light blue to orange as it started to walk quickly toward Alexander, and then leaped up the ridge landing right behind Alexander turning to face him in battle.
The stone beast that had just landed right behind Alexander began to speak in a strange combination of whirring sounds, clicks and beeps. Alexander had no idea what the creature was trying to tell him, so he readied his weapons for the initial battle. The beast through his giant stone test at the assassin, he deftly dodged the attack by rolling to the right. He then jumped up behind the beast and slashed him in the back with his daggers. The beast took a knee after the attack, obviously feeling the pain of his assassin’s blade. Alexander jumped up in the air above the beanies aiming for its neck, however before he could strike, and the beast turned around and fired some of that black goop on our hero. The black goop started to burn, not only burn through his skin, but also burn through his armor; however, only being cloth armor didn’t really provide him with protection anyway.
Alexander wasn’t worried about his armor, and as much as he started worrying about his own safety once he realized this beast’s power, what the beast was capable of doing. He needed to stop the beast at all costs before it could destroy or burn through anything else again. While he was determining the best course of action, the monster’s massive foot smashed into his body knocking him 10 feet backwards. While he was recuperating from the attack, Alexander charged at the beast, jumped and began stabbing it in the colored furnace. Afterward, it started leaking arcane energy everywhere as the beast turned and turned in writing pain and splattering energy all over the battlefield, scratch that; the energy started to pull into neon light blue colored pools as he climbed up the enemy’s body while it was still wracked with pain and slashing wounds. Alexander got to the point where he could literally stare into the beast’s eyes. He ended the monstrosity with a single stab to the neck. The earthen monstrosity fell backwards and landed with a “thunk.” All the boulders that made of the monsters composition fell into random piles about where he fell onto the ground and did.
However, the Colored Furnace floated in the air from where the monster was standing and slowly descended until it touched the ground softly. The ruins on the Colored Furnace began to activate and glow from an unknown source. The center of the furnace started below even brighter then the rooms around it. A three foot hologram started to project over the center of the colored furnace, the man being shown was clad in ancient armor technology that hasn’t been seen since the invention of plate armor. the man standing before them was extremely old, he had in arcane-like sense of immortality got it seemed like a spell some sort was purposely get into this man to keep him alive for a specific purpose to the spellings user. The man started to speak, and before anything was understood, the way back the man spoke to any person I would’ve heard the message is as if this is going to be the man’s last message and the message would’ve been delivered to some sort of prophetic hero who knew exactly who it was not be as he did give a name since he started his message with “dear hero.”

The message continued until he got to the vital information, all there then just the attributes of what he was and how he was talking. “Yeah you do not know who I am, but I am here to deliver important information to you now that you have found this recording. I am a local guard at the city of Halcya Space and I was in charge of a deadly secret that had to be destroyed, however before I got to the destined place of destruction, that’s when the sky was sundered by a planet. A large spatial object came into our atmosphere; the object rain down a large purple flood that invaded our world. I knew that I had to escape with the prophecy rocks, so I hid in a cave for 500 years, carving out rune-inscribed receptacles of the extremely powerful artifacts I had been charged to protect, which I have called the Colored Furnaces. Somehow, these things that I have been charged with protecting have been keeping me alive. However, my time on this world I feel is coming to an end. I knew that if I recorded this message it would somehow get out to the prophecy heroes from the avian mural, at least I was my hope was.

If the prophetic heroes have found this message, the Colored Furnaces have come into existence in your world and inside each one is a dangerously powerful Crystal Skull that gives the artifacts their power, the Sludge will be looking for them. If the Sludge were able to retrieve these Furnaces, it wouldn’t be a long time before they used their power to control the universe. I was successful in my attempts to hide them in the cave that I’ve been hiding in. You are now charged with locating the Colored Furnaces before the enemies of your world can find them. The first clue of the first crystal skull will be inscribed on this Colored Furnace, do not let down your universe for if the evil gets these artifacts, there will be untold destruction. A universe sundered apart by greed, avarice, tyranny and corruption. The last clue will tell you where to destroy these crystal skulls as it was my mission that I was not able to complete. Thank you heroes of the prophecy I wish you well.”

Alexander and his group read the runes inscribed on this Colored Furnace from the earth beast. When translated, it read: “Look inside.” Cassandra stuck her arm in the middle hole of this Furnace, wriggled it around inside and flung her arm out gripping a medium sized object, about the size of a large orange. When she brought it down to eye level so all could see, they were looking at a literal crystal skull with two glowing, blue crystals. The crystal eyes started to glow intensely and unleash an instant, blue burst from itself before becoming animate and levitate above Cassandra’s hands.
“Hello heroes of the mural, I am the fifth Crystal Skull of the seven crystal Skulls and I am here to deliver a riddled location of the next Colored Furnace: Buried under the ground of an ancient church, a gathering area of the Chigracil civilization, the Sand-Fork Forest and finally, Douglas’s short-lived ranch. There you shall find the first Crystal Skull stuck inside the Colored Furnace of Reincarnation. Good luck, heroes.”

“Ugh, that’s the first Colored Furnace located and now with that one, that leaves five unaccounted for. Hmm? That Furnace should still be located in Douglas’s laboratory in Duskton since Sir Foofy never really took an interest in the artifact after Shadow Cantos had been created.”
“It appears as though we have a plan to set out to a sector of terrible abominations.”
“Yes, it does brother, let’s get out there and get this damned artifact!”