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This article, The Omega Arrives, is property of Leengard Ustan. |
Trouble has begun to brew in the country of Iceberg, word spreads quickly of who is responsible on and few wish to face the threat of The Omega. The vilians have shown themselves early, but who will be the heroes of this story? The lone shadow? The Siblings? Or will it be those who actively search for revenge?
The Twelve Arrive[]
A blonde man arrives at the crest of a large hill over looking a small town nestled in the foothill of the northern mountains in the country of Iceberg.
"What an eye sore." he growled, licking his lips. "There's no destruction, fire or screams of terror."
"Then why don't you change that my bloodthirsty beast?" a man with white hair said, stepping up next to him.
"Gladly." the blonde man said, the ever present chesire cat grin grew wider, and he took off down the hill. Six dangerously sharp blades glinted evily in the fading light of the setting sun.
"Where was it you sent our poisonous snake, again?" a tall and tan woman asked, standing slightly behind the white haired man.
"She's making sure than no one can enter this little town from the only road leading here." he replied, gesturing to the dark line that cut across the ground, as the sounds of screams cut abruptly and, likley, bloodily short. The screams were followed by the sound of men calling orders and the sound of weapons clashing. Specks of black began scurrying away from the town down the road. "Or leave."
"Wouldn't word of our arrival guarantee that no one would try to come here?" a brown and black clad young woman asked.
"What are you, stupid?" a man with pale grey hair spat. "If people knew we were here, then the Magic Council would start sending mages here to try and stop us."
"No need to be mean to the poor girl now." a man in golden armor said. "Her question is valid."
"That's right," the white haired man added. "On the one hand, if our presence is known, people will avoid what's left of this town. On the other, the Council will start sending in Rune Knights and the legal guilds would be notified."
He smiled as buildings began bursting into flames and more and more screaming filled the air.
"No," he said. "It suites our plans better for no one to know we're here...yet."
"Aw, did you start the fun without us?" a man with three scars on his face whined as he walked up with four others.
"Don't worry," the white haired man replied. "There'll be plenty of bloodshed before we're done with this country."
Cards and Keys[]
"Well, here we are in Iceberg, Nii-kun." a girl in a red jacket said as she looked at a road sign, she was answered with a slight grunt from her brother. He glanced up at the sign briefly and then continued down the road in the direction the sign pointed. "W-wait up, Nii-kun!"
She caught up with him and they continued in silence until they reached a small town that looked like it got a lot of business from travelers. It was a decently sizeable town surrounded by rolling plains in every direction, the northern mountains barely visible on the horizon. The two walked into the town, people didn't pay any attention to them and confirmed that the town saw visitors all the time. They entered the building marked as an Inn/Resturante/Tavern and recieved the same greetings they met when they arrived.
"Hello, strangers," the man behind the counter said. "What can I do for you?"
"We'd like to see your menu." the girl replied, her golden eyes flashing excitedly at the thought of eating something that wasn't growing on the side of the road.
"Here you go." the man behind the counter handed her two menus.
"What's the matter boy? Can't you talk?" a voice slurred to their left. They looked towards the direction of the voice and the man behind the counter sighed.
"Don't go starting fights with people who just showed up, Joe." the man behind the counter said.
"Shut it, Jim." Joe spat. Joe was a tall man, heavily built in the middle, broad shoulders, dissheveled black hair and glazed over, bloodshot dark eyes and clearly had about as much sense about him as the stool he was standing up from. "I asked you a question, boy! Don't you talk?"
"He can talk just fine, you drunken baboon." the girl retorted, suddenly the room became deafeningly silent. "Just sit back down and leave us alone."
The others in the building began murmuring and shaking their heads at the girl. No one, other than her brother, noticed her pull a silver key out of her pocket or that he had placed some cards back into his pocket.
"I'm not talking to you, girly." Joe growled, about to shove her aside. Suddenly the was a blade at the man's throat and Joe froze, swallowing hard and didn't dare to move another inch.
"This guy giving you problems, Caley-sama?" an angry voice asked. Joe managed to look over his shoulder enough to see two piercing red eyes under a gold/bronze helmet and the thick muscular arm holding the razor sharp blade at his throat.
"A little bit, Hercules-kun." Caley, the girl with white hair and golden eyes, replied. "Would you be so kind as to throw him out, please?"
"Gladly." Hercules replied, the sword disappeared from Joe's throat, but before he could relax, an iron grip took him from the back of his shirt and hurled him through the wall next to the door. "Anything else?"
"No, that should be all for now." Caley replied, Hercules nodded and faded away. The room was quiet for a while, and after someone glanced out the hole and could see that Joe was too drunk, and too unconscious, to come back in and cause more problems, went back to the normal noise level it was at before.
"Was that really necessary?" Caley's brother asked, though Caley seemed to be the only one who heard him.
"Of course it was, Thane nii-kun." Caley replied. "He would've started a fight otherwise."
"Then what was that?" Thane asked.
"A preemptive attack." Caley replied nonchalantly and started looking through the menu. Thane sighed quietly and started browsing the menu as well.
Another Shadow in Iceberg[]
On a desolate road, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, in the country of Iceberg, a lone man trudged against the cold wind that was blowing down from the north and biting through the leather jacket he wore. His jacket whipped and flapped behind him in the wind making the only other noise to be heard for miles. He seemed unaware of the shadowy figures following behind him, or the cold glinting steel from the weapons they possessed.
There were roughly five men following the lone figure, each carrying daggers and a couple of them carrying rope. Their intent was obvious, from their weapons and from the way they were following the black clad man ahead of them. The five shadowy figures were almost upon their prey, a few more paces and they'd strike.
"Now!" the leader of the group shouted and they all lunged at him, daggers aimed at his back, legs and arms. Suddenly the man spun to face them and before the five men knew what had happened they were all on the other side of him, disarmed and laying flat out and in pain. The leader looked up and saw the man they had been stalking looking back at them over his shoulder and what looked like a look of contempt at them for attacking him.
"F-forgive us..." the leader began to beg, but before he got any further lightning started crackling around the man they had been following and he was standing over the leader.
"Good night, thieves." was all the man said before he brought his lightning clad fist down on the leader's face. A loud crack was heard as the lightning jumped from the mage's fist to the thief leader's head followed by the dull thud of a fist connecting with someone's skull.
Again the lone man was trudging against the icy northern wind, his leather jacket whipping and flapping in the wind. Behind him, in the middle of the road, lay five bodies. The bodies were burning, the flames fed by the wind as it sucked away any warmth the fire may have provided, there were no screams, no thrashing movements, from the bodies as they burned brightly in the cold wind and the lone man never looked back.
At Home in the Destruction[]
The small town, that once was so peacefully resting in the foot hills of the northern mountains of Iceberg, now lay in ruin. Buildings, still burning and crumbling, groaned as if in pain at what had become of the town.
"Ah..." the blonde man who had caused all the destruction sighed as he found a comfortable place to sit in the rubble. "This is more like it."
"Lion certainly loves violence." the scarred man smirked, though he glared at the blonde, obviously still upset he didn't get to destroy the town himself..
"Just like a certain wild Boar." the armored man replied.
"And all other stupid men." the tall tan woman added.
"That's not really fair, Hippolyta." the black and brown clad woman said. "Bull doesn't go out of his way to fight like Lion and Boar do."
Hippolyta, the tall tan woman, simply shrugged an apology towards Bull, the armored man, and walked away to speak with the white haired man. There was a yawn from Lion as he prepared to do what he usually did when he wasn't killing or traveling, and that was sleep.
"Lion, you can't sleep yet." the white haired man called. Lion opened an eye and glared a bit, but he didn't complain, he stood up and waited for his orders. "You need to go and fetch our dear Hydra first, you know her poison will kill the rest of us."
"Right, right..." Lion muttered as he headed for the entrance to the town so he could meet Hydra half way to town so that her poison wouldn't infect everything else.
"He really is rather tame for you isn't he, Cerberus?" a man with green hair and glasses asked the white haired man.
"Of course he is, Diomedes." Cerberus replied. "He'd be dead if I hadn't found him."
Diomedes shrugged a bit, he couldn't care less what would've become if the violent blonde if it wasn't for their leader, all Diomedes cared about was having his share of the killing when the time for it came.
"So what is our next move, Cerberus?" Hippolyta asked.
"I'll tell you once Lion gets back with Hydra." Cerberus replied. "No point in repeating myself."
Back on the Road[]
After paying extra to compensate for the repairs that would be needed to fix the hole in the wall Thane and Caley were back on the road traveling through Iceberg. They didn't see anyone else for several kilometers. Then they began to see people and carts hauling produce and other goods towards another town and with the people came gossip and rumors.
"Did you hear?" one man whispered, though he wasn't nearly as quiet as he thought he was.
"Hear what?" the woman next to him asked.
"That a town to the north was completely wiped out in a single day, by a single man." the man replied.
"Who could've done that?" the woman asked.
"It was Lion, of The Dodekathlon, appearently they just showed up and Lion charged in and killed almost everyone in the town." the man answered. "Some tried to escape, but they just began dropping dead. They say it was the poison of Hydra."
"But if everyone was killed," the woman began. "How'd you hear about it?"
"One person managed to get out." the man replied. "they told everyone they could find what happened before succumbing to Hydra's poison."
"Did you hear that, Nii-kun?" Caley asked as the people who were talking passed them, hurrying towards the town. "The Dodekathlon! Do you think the Magic Council will do something about it? Or one of the Legal Guilds?"
Thane shrugged in reply. He was worrying that Caley might suggest that they should do something about the twelve dangerous dark mages that had appearently settled in some northern town of the country.
"We should so get rid of them if the Council and Legal Guilds won't do something about it!" Caley said excitedly.
"No..." Thane muttered. "We couldn't possibly beat any of them. Two of them killed all but one person on their own in a single day."
Caley, conveniently, didn't hear Thane's opposition to her plans.
"We'll need at least one more person to help us." Caley continued. "That way we each get four to take on."
"Three? Against twelve? That's a terrible idea Caley." Thane said. Caley, again, didn't hear him.
"There's gotta be some powerful mage we could find and have help us take on those villians!"
"She's gonna get the both of us killed..." Thane sighed defeatedly. Once again, Caley ignored her brother.
The Shadow in the Bar[]
The lone man reached a town, his shadow cast on the ground before him. No one seemed to notice this man as he silently passed through the crowd and headed, with an apparently single minded goal, to the town's bar. His shadow was in the bar before he was as he pushed open the door and entered, the bar had gone silent when the door opened. After a few minutes of drunken men measuring the newest stranger up, deciding in their heads if he was a danger or if they could defeat him in a fight, he took a few steps into the building and the usual slurred noises of the bar returned. The man went straight towards the back of the bar, and sat down in a seat with his back to the wall and sitting mostly in the shadows. After ordering, and receiving, a drink it seemed as if everyone in the room had forgotten he was even there. Listening to everyone talking around him, his eyes scanning the room and doing his own measuring of fighting potential and threat levels, he heard about the attack on the northern town. He frowned and marked that town off of his mental list of places to look for information in. Then he heard something that made him frown even more.
"I hear that some girl and her brother are looking for mages to go with them and confront The Dodekathlon." a man said, he was barely understandable the mug in his hand clearly wasn't the first one he'd had today. "Can you believe that, Billy?"
"Those two must be suicidal." Billy replied, just as coherently. "Or they're much stronger than they look."
"Doubt it!" the first man replied. "The little girl seems to be a Celestial Wizard, but she's only got two Silver Keys!"
"And the boy?" Billy asked.
"He carries cards, I've heard, but no one seems to know what his cards are." the first man said. "And I've heard, as a matter of fact, that one of The Dodekathlon is a Wave user, those two wouldn't stand a chance against him!"
"They really are suicidal!" Billy exclaimed, shaking his head as if disappointed in these two kids he's never met. The two drunken men obviously hadn't noticed that their voices were raised unnecesarrily, and that the rest of the bar had gone silent listening to their conversation.
"I know! You'd think kids these days would know better than to mess with dangerous Dark Guilds on their own!" the first man cried. He slammed his now empty mug on the table and the two seemed to have realized, for the first time, that everyone was listening to them. "What're you all staring at? Go back to your beers! And speaking of beers...Marleen! Bring me another!"
The Seekers of Vengeance[]
"WHAT?" a voice rang across the open area behind a massive pyramid.
"You heard me." replied a young man in glasses. "The man responsible for the death of Geb's wife is in the north."
"You'd better not be lying to us, Thoth." a man with a sword said.
"Why would I lie to you, Sobek, or to you, Serket?" Thoth replied, speaking to both of the guild's Aces. "I want that bastard to pay for what he did as much as you two."
"And in all fairness," a redhead cut in. "Thoth's informants have always been right before."
An armed girl, standing a little behind the redhead, nodded in agreement.
"But, we all know that our dear Guild Master won't approve of ANYONE trying to get vengeance on that man." the green haired man put in.
"And how many of our comrades have already gone out to try and get revenge, only to be killed?" the redhead added.
Suddenly the mood became somber and subdued. The six mages all stood there in silence for a while. Then Serket just screamed in frustration and rage.
"They were fools!" she roared. "They charged off on their own to take on someone that our Guild Master and Sobek, the guild's other ace, barely got away from alive! They ran off to certain death, and death greeted them eagerly!"
"So what makes you think we'd fair any better?" the armed girl demaned, speaking up for the first time all day.
"We're the six most powerful mages in House of Life!" Serket spat back. "We can take that monster! We will succeed where the others have failed."
"Stop fighting you two!" Sobek ordered, the two girls were about to attack each other. "Our enemy is in the north, not each other."
"He's right, Bastet, you need to calm down." the redhead said to the armed girl.
"Right, Ra..." Bastet replied. Serket, however, just grumbled angrily to herself and turned her back on the assembled group.
"Regardless of what you lot decide on," Serket spat over her shoulder, as she stormed away. "I'm going north, to kill him."
Cast & Notes[]
Protagonists:
The Siblings: Thane Dullahan & Caley Dullahan
House of Life (Guild): Serket, Sobek, Thoth, Ra, Bastet, Set
Antagonists:
The Dodekathlon: Lion, Hydra, Hind, Boar, Augeas, Stymphalos, Bull, Diomedes, Hippolyta, Geryon, Hesperides & Cerberus
Unknown Alliance:
The Shadow: Tamashi Kui
Notes & Trivia:
Omega = 24th & final Greek letter; usually associated with the end
The Dodekathlon = the name of the group and its members all reference Hercules' Twelve Labors
House of Life = all names are the same as Egyptian gods and goddesses
Dullahan = the Irish equivalent of the Grim Reaper
Story Continued in Head North, to Omega