The Cycle (King's Raid/ Goddess of Victory NIKKE)

[Stimpak Medic]

Prologue: Leaving the Past

Cold. Dark. Quiet.

It's so cold here.

It's so quiet at the end of all things. Frey, are you here with me? Or am I alone again?

I don't think I want to be alone.

I don't think I can be alone. Not after everything that's happened.

I have taken Lea's power, and her life. No, I am now her. What she was. I am now destruction. She was just the form it took. Now I am it's next form. I have failed.

I thought that I could break the cycle, that by destroying destruction itself, I could break this horrible chain.

How awfully foolish and naive I've been.

Frey, can you hear me? Can you see me?

Lua, can you see me? Can you stop me?

Brother, can you see what I've become?

My friends, my father..

Am I truly alone?

Everything is so far away from here.

Everything is so small from here, wherever here is.

I could press my finger down, and snuff out creation from here.

Is this what it feels to be outside of the cycle? What if... What if I say no? Will another destruction arise? Will that destruction be better than me?

Frey, Brother, What would you do if you were me?

I'm beginning to forget you. This is not something I wish for. I don't want to forget, yet everything is so small. So tiny. So insignificant. It's hard to remember even who I was. Is this what becoming a concept is?

I'm so confused.

No. I can't let this happen. I don't want to forget you, Brother, Frey, Father, friends.

I know what I must do. I must leave. I must leave to somewhere else.

I hear a tiny voice. It is infinitesimal, fragile, and ephemeral. Even a simple breath would blow it out like a candle in a hurricane.

Something about that voice causes me to pause.

"Don't leave me. Don't go." I can hear it. It is full of fear, terror, and abject misery.

"Frey" I say, my voice diminished as to not crumble the creation far below.

I can hear the tiny voice fill with relief and love.

Wait. Frey loved me? I thought she was close. There was no woman closer to me than Frey, but such love, I knew not how she felt for me.

My foolishness truly knew no bounds.

"I'm sorry Frey, that I could not give you what you wanted, but it's too late. I must go." I responded, taking a pause.

"I loved you too. I just never knew how to say it." I finished, and sorrow filled my heart.

"Noooo!" The tiny voice of Frey wailed from below. Down there in that tiny speck that was creation. That pitiful speck down below.

I resolved one thing.

I couldn't just let her go.

So many had died. My brother. My father. My friends. My kingdom.

I couldn't leave her to die as well.

The fight with the Goddess of Destruction Lea had taken the lives of millions of people, dragons, demons, spirits, and many more. Yet the result was no different. Now I had become the abstraction that was destruction.

I could not destroy destruction as much as I could destroy the concept of morning. I could destroy every star in the universe, and I would still be no closer to eradicating the morning.

"Frey, come with me. If you do we can leave this doomed creation. We can finally become one." I say. I feel my individuality and uniqueness fading. A human like me was never meant to have this much existence and power thrown upon him.

It was akin to a waterskin trying to fit the entire ocean within it. The waterskin would be destroyed long before it could begin to hold the water inside. And so, I reached down into the tiny speck that was creation, picking out the tiny existence that was Frey with the most gentle of grasp, and placed her in the void outside of creation, along with myself.

I didn't have much time left.

Tearing off a sufficiently tiny part of my vast existence, I placed some of my consciousness into it, and we jumped into the unknown.

With our tiny existences in harmony, none knew where or when we would end up, but it was assuredly better than the creation that had caused us so much pain. Of that I believed.

Then, with an overwhelming weight on their shoulders, all went white.

 

[Stimpak Medic]

Chapter One: No Matter Who Sees Us

I don't know exactly when I came to. It could have been after hours, days, perhaps even weeks. What I am certain of, was the strange room I found myself and Frey in. I must confess that I have never been in such a room before.

I can sense the life energy of many humans around me. I can feel that vague pressure that being underground produces. It is very faint. I can hear Frey moan slightly next to me as she wakes up. Her staff is missing, perhaps taken by our captors, whoever they may be.

There are no physical restraints, nor spiritual, nor even less so magical, that bind us.

I sit on a large, blue, cushioned seat, whilst Frey awakens on hers. The room is made of metal, with one large mirror on the far end.

She blinks, brushing her white hair from her purple eyes.

There's a faint buzzing from the light on the ceiling. It occasionally flickers, and it's white light dulls for a moment.

A voice speaks from somewhere in the room. There's a grainy sound to it, and it is quite loud. Frey's head jolts around as she looks for the source of the sound. It is not magical, so it must be some form of technology.

"Hello. Can you understand me?" The sound comes through a small, round, black box on the far ceiling corner of the room.

One of the perks of the power of the Goddess Lea is the ability to comprehend languages you hear and translate them in your mind. learning the whole language in minutes. I must hear more for it to be complete.

Frey gets up from her chair and walks to the large metal table in the middle of our rectangular room.

On it, there are a variety of foods. Small pastries, crackers, some fruit, and two bottles of water.

She raises her right hand over them and casts a small spell, but it fizzles out. She can no longer use the purification spells of Lua after turning to the darkness. She turns her head to me.

"Should we try it?" She asks.

The voice comes out of the black box again.

"Hello. Can you understand what I'm saying? If so, wave with your right hand." The voice says, it seems like a female's voice.

I stand up, raising my right hand. Perhaps we will try to speak with these people before planning an escape...Or a slaughter.

"I'm relieved. You can eat the food. They're not poisoned." The lady says, and I nod to Frey.

She waves her hand over the foods again, and her black, clawed hand glows with a pinkish magical pulse. A small neutral divination spell.

"Are there any poisons or drugs in these?" She asks, and I can feel her power directed to me, and my true self far above in the realm of the Goddess Lea. Well, now my realm.

A moment later, she picks up a small biscuit. It's flaky, but looks edible at least.

The woman speaks through the box again.

"Who are you?" She asks, and finally, the translation power of Lea completes its job. We both now understand the language of English enough to have simple conversations.

I look at the strange black box and speak.

"I am Kasel, and this is my companion, Frey. We are travelers a long way from home. From a world very far away." I say, and Frey nods.

The woman stays silent for a moment, and we can hear her speaking vaguely, before her voice becomes clear again.

"When you say a world very far away, are you speaking in riddles, or are you speaking in the literal sense?" She asks, as if to confirm something.

"From a different planet, if that is what you ask. Now, I would like to know if we are being held prisoner here or if we can leave. There is much to do." Frey responds. She's always been to the point with our situations. Even more so after she joined me in the dark.

"We'll have to hold you for a while while we figure out what to do with you. Just sit tight for now." The lady said, but this would not do.

"Frey, take my hand and come with me," I say, and Frey quickly walks over and takes my left hand in hers.

"Wait! Stop, what are you doing?" The woman shouts over the box, but it's too late.

Part of the wall slides up with a hiss, and several people enter the room with rifles, shouting.

Pink energy pulses from me as Frey and I disappear from the room, finding ourselves on the street of a busy underground city. She is without her staff for the time being, but we can retrieve it later. For now, we must get the lay of the land.

Several people walking down the street stare at us, and given our demonic appearances, It makes sense. The power of Lea, or well, the power of destruction, naturally corrupts and changes your very being, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

It makes one want to kill, to not hold back. To just do what you have the will and power to do.

Thankfully, this body is capable of resisting the worst part. However, Frey does not have it so easily. She had fallen to stay with me, even if the dark was not for her.

"The end is not the end," Frey murmured, looking around her. Everything was starting to sink in. We were in a strange land in a strange world, us two alone. Again.

Memories from when I had destroyed the Kingdom flashed through my mind.

The power of Lea is sweet, sickly, and ravenous. The more you use it, the more you crave it. It's addictive. Even the name, it rolls off the tongue so sweetly. L..it tickles my mind. E.. teases your heart...A. It washes over your inhibitions.

A forbidden power. Dangerous, yet beautiful even now, long past her death.

I close my eyes.

"Yes, Frey, the end is not the end."

She grips my hand tightly, pressing up against me. Her soft words tickled my ear.

"Why do we have to run? We could erase this whole city if they dare harm us." She offers. We both have the strength to...But no. I don't want to fall back to that darkness. Not after everything that happened. I don't think that I could come back from that.

"Patience Frey. We know not what awaits us here." I say, looking around and above us.

These buildings are strange, and there are many sounds. Strange metal carriages speed by from time to time.

There are no magics in the air, no spirits in the sky.

This place is...

"Alone." Both Frey and I say, our voices intertwining. Her soft femininity. My sharp, masculine voice complements hers. A harmony between us. A dark harmony only we can achieve. Demon Lord and fallen angel, sharing love and life.

We look at each other. Our purple eyes meet, and she walks around, pressing her head against my chest. She rests her head there for several seconds, just taking in the soft rise and fall of my chest.

"Together...Forever." She whispers, and I hold her close, my hands holding her delicate, soft back.

"Forever. No matter where the road takes us." I say, and we stay in that tight hug for many minutes. We care not for who sees us; we will not fall nor fade.