Yvvaros: The Clash of Worlds (25 page)

“Who are you?” called Luke. “Why are you here?”

The figure didn’t answer. Luke took another step closer.

Is this it? Should I attack now, and try to get an advantage?

The air felt thick, almost like fog, or smoke. Luke’s temples were pounding. He took a careful step forward. Finally, the figure turned, and Luke got a look at who it was.

The Head Arbiter was standing in the center of the cavern, spear in hand, steely eyes boring into Luke. He made no move to attack.

What? How could he have beaten us here?

Luke acted. He feinted forward, trying to get the Arbiter to move, to defend and reveal an opening. The Head Arbiter stood like a statue, not even flinching as Luke’s sword came within a hair’s breadth of its golden helm.

MIRROR IMAGE 3

HOLY REGENERATION 2

CONJURE SWORD 3

In in the enclosed space of the cavern, Luke’s combat abilities were amplified in utility. There wasn’t anywhere for the Head Arbiter to maneuver. He could hang back and use his conjured swords to do the fighting.

Why isn’t he attacking?

Luke stood for a moment, watching the Head Arbiter. He took a deep breath readying himself.

PIERCE ATTACK 3

Luke charged forward, extinguishing his sword as he speared it toward the Head Arbiter’s breast plate. In an instant, the figure in front of him shifted.

The Head Arbiter was gone. There was no armor to deflect Luke’s attack. His sword pierced through cloth and flesh, and a familiar gasp rang out hauntingly as Tess fell forward onto his blade.

“…What?” Luke stared open mouthed as the woman he loved collapsed into him, burying her face against his shoulder as she’d done so many times before. “No…”

“…Luke.” Tess locked eyes with him and smiled. “Sorry…”

“Tess!” Luke cradled her as he fell to his knees. He was afraid to pull his sword out, but the sight of it impaled through her chest made him sick to his stomach.

Tears streamed down his face as he stared at her eyes, her face, and her lips. He ran his hand across her cheek and bit his tongue hard enough to make it bleed.

“I knew…” whispered Tess. “I’m sorry.”

Luke squeezed her head against his chest as his body shook with silent sobs.

I killed her…

“No, please…” Luke looked around the dark cavern. “Don’t do this! Don’t take her from me! Please!”

The only answer was the endless echoing of his own voice. Luke wanted to pull his headset off and smash it. He wanted to go back in time and impale himself. But more than anything, he wanted to cry. And he did.

“This is the fate that awaits all life. There is no order. The balance has not been restored.”

Something in front of Luke began to shine with blinding light. He tried to keep his eyes on Tess’s soft, limp body, but a powerful force compelled his gaze upward.

The woman that Luke had seen at the other Elemental Wells was in front of him. The light was coming from within her body, and she reached a hand out toward him.

“No,” he whispered. “I can’t leave her.”

She did this. She’s the one who killed Tess!

Luke pulled his conjured swords to him, not wanting to disturb the blade that had ended Tess’s life. With a wave of her hand, the women dispelled them.

“You don’t have any choice,” said the woman. “You must continue forward.”

The light intensified, it filled the room and hurt Luke’s eyes. He felt his body vibrating with energy, and then the ground gave out beneath him.

Luke wasn’t in the cavern anymore. He was standing inside a large building that he recognized immediately. The walls curled up into a geodesic dome, studded with brilliant stained glassed windows. The floor was filled with row after row of long, wooden benches.

This is… the Temple of Rygon?

Something about it seemed off, and it only took Luke a second to realize what it was. A huge crucifix hung on the wall directly behind the main podium in the back of the room. Luke took a step forward, searching the room for clues as to why he was there.

“Hello?” he called. “What… is this?”

A woman appeared in front of him, facing away. She looked strangely familiar, and wore the same simple cotton outfit that all players in Yvvaros started out in.

“Why…?” asked Luke. “Why have you brought me here?”

The woman turned around slowly and smiled at him. Luke’s eyes went wide when he saw her face.

“…Mom?” Luke shook his head. “How…?”

She said nothing, and reached out her hand for Luke to take. He stared at it, feeling his confusion shift into deep, chest wracking remorse.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“I need your help, Luke.”

“You’re dead… because of me.” Luke scrunched his eyes closed and hit his palms against his head. “Tess is dead because of me.”

“You’re the only one that can restore balance to Yvvaros. I can show you the way.”

“Why?” Luke gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists. “I don’t care about Yvvaros! I did this all for her!”

“You couldn’t stop her,” said the woman. “She made her own choices and chose her own path. Just like I did.”

“You’re not really her…” Luke shook his head and let out a grief stricken sigh. “You can’t really be her.”

The woman smiled. Despite himself, Luke suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to take the hand that she’d offered him.

The second he touched it, the room was again bathed with a blinding bright light and he was somewhere new.

Luke was somewhere that he’d almost forgotten about. He stood just outside his house in the real world. It was nighttime, and the moons and stars hung in the sky overhead.

Wait… the moons?

Luke did a double take as he examined the celestial tapestry more closely. The Earth’s moon was clearly visible, but on either side of it were Yvvaros’s azure blue moon, and the smaller red rock that orbited along with it. The two larger moons were almost the same size, and the red rock hung above them like a third eye.

He was expecting something to happen, or someone to appear. The night was silent, however, and the street was empty. Luke slowly started walking down it, doing his best to keep his breathing steady as his mind fought against the scene.

This is just a hallucination. The cave is testing me.

“Where are you?” yelled Luke. “Come out and show yourself?”

He began taking a closer look at the street and realized that it wasn’t the neighborhood that he remembered. The houses were worn down. The paint on the outside was chipped, and all of the lawns were overgrown. Even the concrete was cracked and weathered, with pockets of weeds growing where they could.

“I know this isn’t real!” screamed Luke. “If this is your test, than I’ve already passed it.”

There was no response. Luke looked around again. The street lights were out, but the moon and stars gave enough light to let him see clearly. He walked down the street and toward the park.

There’s nobody here… What is this supposed to be a test of?

The park was overgrown. Trees and vegetation sprouted from the ground, turning the space into a small sector of reclaimed wilderness. The chain link fence that ran along one side was rusted and broken open in places.

“This is a waste of time! Bring me back already!”

Luke began running through the town. The houses on either side of the street became even more run down and destroyed, as though every step was taking him further forward in time. It was like something out of a nightmare.

He slowed to a walk as he passed Ben’s house. It was nothing more than a crumbling foundation. Strangely, grass no longer grew in the uncovered patches of Earth. Luke continued on toward his school, the scenery growing more unnerving with every step he took.

The road, which at this point was little more than an outline of crumbling rock and dust, stopped abruptly. Luke shook his head at what he saw as he looked toward where his high school had once stood.

The ground was covered in a hexagonally patterned layer of metal, or rather, circuitry. The edges of each hexagon glowed orange, emitting heat. Luke looked behind him and realized that the houses and buildings he’d walked by were no more. The dreamscape had shifted as he passed.

“What… is this?” Luke turned in a circle. There was nothing on the horizon, nothing but the strange mechanical layering beneath his feet. As far as he could see, the ground was flat, carpeted with the glowing hexagons. Not an inch of earth was left exposed.

He bent down and touched the metal. It was perfectly smooth, and hummed with activity as though it were alive.

Is this the future? How… can this be?

“Please, let me go back!” Luke was shouting, and he didn’t know why. “I don’t understand! Tell me, what is it I’m supposed to be seeing?”

“IN THE BEGINNING, GOD CREATED THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH”

The voice that echoed in response to his question was loud enough to shake the inside of his bones. He fell to his knees as once more a painfully bright light washed over him. Wearily, Luke resigned himself to his fate.

CHAPTER 27

Luke was lying on his back, surrounded by darkness. It took him a moment to realize that he was back in the cavern. As he pulled himself to his feet, a glowing rune circle appeared in the center of the cave. He walked over and stepped into it, not giving himself time to consider the full extent of what had just happened.

In an instant, he was back in the realm of the Universal Truth. The same woman that he’d seen in his vision stood a short distance away. Her body was emanating the familiar white light, but this time, Luke couldn’t make out the details of her face.

I don’t know who she is, but I know who she isn’t. It’s just not possible…

“Welcome, hero,” said the woman. “You have once again entered my realm, the realm of the Universal Truth.”

“Why…” Luke shook his head and stared at her, squinting his eyes against the light. “Is your goal to torture me? To break me down? To drive me insane?”

“My goal is to prepare you,” said the woman. “You are much more important than you know.”

Luke gritted his teeth as he recalled what happened to Tess.

“Was it you?” The question came out in a quiet voice and it took all of his remaining strength to speak. “Did you set it up, force me to…”

I killed her.

“You must restore balance to Yvvaros,” said the woman. “Sacrifice is inevitable. Do not dismay.”

Luke leaned forward, setting his hands on his knees and staring blankly at the ground. He didn’t say anything, not at first. The woman waited patiently, letting the silence hang on the air.

“I don’t care…” he muttered. “I don’t care about any of that anymore…”

“There’s more going on here than you can see, Luke,” said the woman. “You must keep moving forward. This is but another test of your spirit.”

A test… I’m through. I won’t.

“I don’t want this!” Luke punched the ground and screamed into the darkness. “I never wanted this. She was why I did it. There’s no point…”

“You have claimed the Elemental Well,” said the woman. “The gifts of Makorin are yours.”

LEVEL 21 ATTAINED

Luke closed his eyes, knowing what came next. He was back in the cave. A new sword lay in front of him, and next to it was a yellow, baseball sized crystal.

“Well, that was impressive, I have to say.”

A figure walked into the cavern. Luke slowly turned his head, and saw an Arbiter walking toward him from the entranceway holding a torch in his hand.

“You…” Luke stood to his feet and gripped the new weapon in front of him. “You monster! I’ll make you suffer!”

“Whoa, whoa, take it easy!” The Arbiter held up a hand, and with the other it pulled off its helm. Kaoru’s hair was shorter than it had been the last time Luke had seen him, but there was no mistaking the man for anyone else.

“Silverstrike told me where you were headed,” he said. “I ‘defected’ from the Arbiters when I heard what happened at Carthac Island.”

Luke didn’t say anything.

“Hey…” said Kaoru, stepping closer. “Are you okay?”

Luke slowly pulled himself to his feet.

“Yeah…” he said. “I’m fine.”

“You did it.” Kaoru clapped him on the shoulder with a metal gloved hand. “This is why you came here. Whatever it took, its part of the plan.”

Luke picked the crystal up off the ground and handed it to Kaoru.

“It wasn’t worth it.” Luke felt his eyes blinking quickly and automatically. “It wasn’t worth it at-”

“Luke?”

Tess walked into the cavern. She paused when she saw him, and then quickly ran over. Luke stared at her blankly as she pulled him into a hug.

“Tess…” he said. “You’re… alive?”

“Yeah, of course.” Tess pulled back slightly and gave him a quick peck on the lips. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Luke grinned and felt a dozen emotions melt away at once.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” said Kaoru. “This cave air is a bit too stale for me.”

Luke held Tess’s hand as the three of them walked out of the cave. He felt a bit silly doing it, but it was hard to stop himself.

“What’s gotten into you?” she asked. “Did you have to fight something down here?  The barrier must have dropped when you killed it.”

“Yeah, something like that,” said Luke. He smiled.

Luke was surprised by how much time had gone by while he’d been down in the caves. The sun was setting in Yvvaros. The entire desert shone with a vibrant orange light. He finally paid attention to the flashing icon in the corner of his screen, dropping his attribute points into his main combat stats.

“I discovered a lot while I was undercover,” said Kaoru. “Defeating the Arbiters isn’t going to be easy. There are more of them than I was expecting.”

“We’ll find a way,” said Luke. “We have Makorin. Silverstrike has done what he could to take care of the alliances. We’ll be okay.”