(C1A1): Multiple Surprises
Champions of Theros
Arc One: Transplanetary
Chapter 1: Multiple Surprises
Ω
I am awoken by a furious knock upon the door.
"You must wake up with haste, Stalemate: We have no time to lose!" An adult voice calls out, which I recognize as my teacher, Karithe.
I groan and sit up in my simple bed, then open my eyes to see that it is indeed the middle of the night. Figures it would only be three days of being in this 'school' before something comes up.
I stand up and get my bearings. The square-shaped inside of the cabin isn't complicated, though I wouldn't want to be running into a table now would I?
My name, as clearly stated, is Stalemate. More specifically, it is my nickname. I never cared for my normal name, Stalemate describes me better, with me being a trickster and all. You know, I don't think I even remember my normal name...
I tread over to my drawer of clothing, and pick out a casual turquoise shirt and leggings, then don my favorite blue cape. What can I say? I love the blue shades. I then pick up my simple silver staff, with a diamond inserted at the top. I never did learn to cast with my hands alone, I heard it is very hard to master, but quite worth it. I will probably learn it someday.
After I am satisfied with the supplies I have for the 'affair' my teacher is having, I step outside of my simple wooden cabin into the fresh, and cold, for that matter, night air. I shiver, and head down the path leading to the center of the courtyard.
The school is in the middle of the woods, as indicated by the trees just barely reaching their leaves over the granite walls of the courtyard. It is no normal school, however, as it is fit to house it's students as well as educate them. A mere four students, including me, go here. We also have two guests for the time being. At one end of the courtyard is the gate to the outside, the Azjen Woods, or so they are named. I swear, people come up with the craziest names. The planet is named Theros, this continent is named Kreir'Ahg, and my teacher is named Karrathius A'Stath? Crazily overcomplicated. I am fine with just Stalemate, thank you very much.
To the right of the gate is The Tower, which Karithe lives in. Only Nez'Gar (And the other gods, I suppose) knows why he would need a tower just to live in. The courtyard is of circular shape, with three major buildings on three choice sides and the gate on the fourth, think a plus formation, which is what the path is. Starting at the gate it goes clockwise in the building order: Gate, cabin, cabin, The Tower, two more cabins, The Kitchen and Dining area, more cabins, The library, and then two more cabins before going back to the gate once again. It is a simple but effective design.
I follow the cobbled path to the center area, which has a well. To the right of the well is Karithe, speaking to the five others.
I hadn't really gotten a good look at our little 'group' in the three days that I was here, other than Karithe, I mean. I only can really match a name to each one and that is it.
Karithe, who is at the front of the group and talking, stands at a rather tall height with perfect posture. It is difficult to see what is under the ridiculously huge gilded and runed cape he wears. A hood obscures all of his face but his golden, glowing eyes. All of the powerful people seem to have glowing eyes for some reason. Maybe life just thinks they look cool. He wields a wooden staff with so many runes on it one may as well call it the celestial alphabet, and it has a lime-colored gem socketed at the top only described by Karithe as a 'Tear of the Gods' some sort of gift they give to their loyal servants or whatever. His voice is deep but not unnaturally so.
I walk up and join the group to listen to Karithe.
"You should hurry more next time, Stalemate. This is urgent," Karithe regards me and I join the group.
I roll my eyes. "Don't wake me up in the middle of the night, and I might actually care about what you say."
"You should watch yourself, Stalemate. I am your teacher now, I recommend you show me some respect," Karithe replies.
"Sorry," I state. What a stick in the mud...
"Now, I have gathered you here because this tower is to become under attack soon. I felt the magical presence of Reavers nearby, many of them. They are all converging on this building," Karithe explains, "We must ready ourselves. By my guess, they will arrive in an hour."
"Reavers? In Azjen? I thought they stayed in The Mad God's Grove," One of Karithe's older students, named Jei'Abar, asks.
Jei'Abar is literally a flaming skeleton. He looks cool, but he doesn't act it. He apparently used to be Karithe's student, then he was slain by another student whom ran away shortly after. He was since revived and resumed his studies. I still have no clue why he wears steel armor, I guess to protect his poor old skeleton bones from being broken? He also wields a wand tipped with a chaos flame.
"Yes, they left the grove for a purpose, and that purpose is involved with this school," Karithe replies, before resuming his speech.
"I will need each of you to help prepare the school for attack," Karithe starts, before pointing to individual students to assign roles.
"Garroth," Karithe points to an orc bearing red, leather armor, a shield, and a staff fashioned with a golden end to be a dragon skull, "I need you to watch for the reavers and tell us if they arrive. When they do, show no mercy, and do your fire studies proud."
Garroth nods. "Yes, Karrathius."
"Jei'Abar, I need you to go into the tower and unlock the rune barracks. Do not be alarmed when spectral golems pour out, they will help us fight," Karithe commands.
Jei'Abar turns and walks toward the tower.
"Volshjir," Karithe turns to a huge naga whom wields a bronze trident, and a backpack full of strange items such as a bow, a steel rod, a rope, and other random junk. What would he need with those?
Volshjir looks to him, and Karithe continues. "I require you to follow me, we are going to prepare some special defences. The rest of you, watch the gate, and prepare for a large battle. This isn't your casual town plunder, Stalemate, so don't underestimate the Reavers."
Ah, the good times when I was a mercenary. That's how I got into this school, oddly enough. I was assigned to a contract to retrieve a book known as 'The Book of Celestials' for Karrathius, and I assume he did it to lure me to join him. I'm not complaining though, he is a world-famous teacher of almost every wing of the magic types, so I could theoretically learn any and every magic I wanted to. Speaking of that mission, our two guests were my two colleagues: Janil and Gardus. Janil is an ancient elf, or so is dubbed by us Theran speakers. Their language is so stupid, I mean, seriously, the only vowel they have is I. She wears dark clothing, and is a self-dubbed assassin, though she seems more like a berserker to me. She also has something wrong with her brain, as she is certainly not normal. I don't even want to go into detail currently.
The second one is named Gardus, whom is rather mysterious to all of us. He bears a hood and appears to have no face similar to Karithe, but he has dark purple glowing eyes instead of golden. He practices shadow arts, which comes in handy, as he is skilled at stealth missions. He also wields two large swords, and is armored with a mix of leather and steel.
The three of us head to the gate and open it slightly to head outside. There is a small zone of cobbled ground, then it is all forest. This sure is an isolated location...
What seems to be a lifetime passes before the semi-deep voice of Garroth is heard through the silence.
"I see them, be ready!" He exclaims, heading down from the top of the wall to join us.
Karithe, Volshjir, and Jei'Abar arrive shortly after with about a dozen spectral golems in tow.
"Glad we arrived in time," Karithe states, before preparing a golden spell in his palm.
I barely see anything until the last moment when something rushes out of the bushes.
It is insect-like, with an appearance similar to a hound, but with claws extending from it's back, and many eyes on its 'face'. It has no mouth, strangely. It is about the height of a wolf, no larger. It became a few, which became a small army of them quickly, as hundreds of these hounds seem to rush at us.
Karithe's spell unleashes itself, blasting a beam right down the middle of their lines. Multiple trees are taken down with it.
I wasted no time in gawking at his raw power when I am suddenly attacked by a hound of my own.
It strikes at me, I block with my staff and teleport away, leaving an afterimage of me.
It quickly fools the hound, with the hound striking and swiping furiously and fruitlessly into the illusion, before it is struck by a swift ball of acid.
The reaver hound bites the dust, but another swarm charges at me. I raise my staff to protect myself, but a blast of chaotic fire kills them. I look back to see Jei'Abar.
I feel like a nod of appreciation is in order, so I do so, then I turn back to the battle.
Wait, something is flying at- "OW, my shoulder!" I exclaim.
I look down and see a spine which has embedded itself in my shoulder, acid drips from it, burning skin.
I use my handy acid magic to negate the effects and form said acid into a ball, then launch it back at the reavers.
Damn this hurts... Gotta pull it out soon or it will wear and tear at me.
I blast another reaver with acid, a few more spines fly out and out comes another insect, which, unlike the dog-reaver things, is taller than I am. It is much akin to a serpent, but it it has clear rows of spines along it's sides.
I duck as a few more spines fly at me, then I shoot a bolt of acid back.
It hits it's lower region, making it curl in pain.
Not a killing blow, but at least it wont shoot any more spines for a while...
"Fall back, we need to funnel them in through the gate!" I hear Karithe command. I happily turn tail and run back into the tower. We close the gate, and lock it. We then get on top of the walls and cast our magic downwards.
Many reavers die, but they keep coming... Why are there so many? They seem limitless.
Suddenly, the reavers back off as a huge reaver charges through.
"Reaver Beast! It's going to break the gate, get ready!" Karithe blasts it with a beam.
The beam hits the creature, but it seems unfazed. It stomps the ground much akin to that of a bull about to charge.
If it can take Karithe's magic, it must be tough as shadesteel. It also represents its strength when it barrels into the gate and snaps it into multiple little pieces.
We jump down from the wall, and face the beast. Strange, the reavers aren't joining it. Maybe they think the beast can win on its own?
Another oddity occurs when the beast itself backs off, just watching.
"Hey, what gives? I was just about to have fun killing you stupid bug-things!" Janil whines childishly.
Karithe's eyes 'widen'. "One of their leaders are coming."
Immediately a blinding light envelopes the area, which we all shade our eyes to. When it fades, we look back to see a demonic thing with wings, four arms, and a demon-like face as well. It's mouth bears sharp teeth, and it drips a yellow liquid. The fact that the cobbled roach is steaming with it's touch suggests that is some hardcore acid.
"Hello, Karrathius," The creature's voice is deep, and filled with venom as it mentions my teacher's name.
"Phazir, what do you want?" Karithe remarks to the demon.
Phazir? Isn't that the one reaver that can teleport anywhere it wants at any time?
"Yes, little elf, I am that reaver," Phazir replies to Stalemate's thoughts.
"Correction, I am a half-elf," I state as a matter-of-fact.
Phazir lifts its dark spear from behind it's back, it is easily viewable as evil, since the runes glow dark green amongst the black and maroon spear. I wouldn't want to be stabbed by that...
"It matters not to me," Phazir says, before turning to Karithe, "I have not come to kill you yet, Karrathius."
"Oh?" Karithe inquires.
Phazir scoffs. "Your precious students are beginning to annoy Kalceras, he sent us to 'deal with' them."
Karithe stands in front of us. "And you think I wont fight?"
Phazir raises his spear toward Karithe. "You would be smart if you didn't."
"Well, I suppose I am not 'smart', then," Karithe states, before charging a spell.
Phazir roars, before charging Karithe with his spear aimed for his head.
Karithe blasts his holy beam forward, but Phazir isn't there. Karithe is swiftly kicked from his left, and knocked to the side.
"Weak and foolish," Phazir insults toward Karithe, before turning to us, and thrusting forward with his spear.
The rest of the students shy away, but I have a different plan.
I am suddenly behind Phazir, and I leave an after-image.
"Your petty tricks don't fool me," He responds, before turning around.
"I didn't intend to fool you, I just bought time," I respond, and Phazir is promptly blasted in the face by Karithe's magic.
Suck it, Phazir!
"Ha! A nice trick. You have decent coordination. Though futile, decent none-the-less," Phazir says whilst standing up. Karithe runs beween him and us again, charging a different spell, this one looking fiery AND holy. Wait, Phazir disappeared again.
A spear handle is brought over my head and holds me back. I am at the mercy of the demon now...
"You wouldn't hurt your student would you?" Phazir asks Karithe, who turns around and douses his spell.
Phazir smiles with a devilish grin, before he teleports himself and I to another student, then us two to the rest of the group before he looks to Karithe. We are all grouped with him.
"Say goodbye to your students Karithe, this is when you last see them alive," He exclaims, before I am blinding by a, well, blinding light.
Argh, my eyes! They burn so bad, like, looking directly at the suns bad.
"What? This isn't Octavarius!" Phazir exclaims, I feel his spear leave, and a short-distance teleport is heard as well.
I rub out my eyes and see a grand city of... Glass? Many tall towers and streets and- What in the name of Nez'Gar is this? I see a colorful pony... Multiple colorful ponies screaming and running away. What the heck?
Contemplate pastel ponies later, we still have to fight one of Kalceras's right hands.
"Pah! Whatever, you are separated from your precious teacher, so you are at MY mercy now," Phazir stalks forward, his spear at the ready to impale one of us with ease.
I prepare an acid bolt, while my other allies all take defensive, or in the case of Janil, offensive stances.
Something flies out of the sky and into Phazir with great force, forcing the demon-reaver into a stumble before he rights himself. We all glance at his attacker: A gray colored pony, wait, he has wings, a pegasus? Regardless, it is armored in standard steel armor. It speaks something in an incomprehensible language, before more guards come out of the blue and swarm Phazir.
Oh how the tables have turned. I shoot my acid bolt, but it slides off as if it were water.
Phazir himself is occupied by the guards. He immediately impales the pegasus on his spear, and throws his corpse at the others, leaving a trail of blood and intestines in it's wake. He then teleports all around the group of guards, slicing and dicing with his spear until he has successful dissected some six ponies. So much for the upper hand.
Two fire bolts, from their respective Jei'Abar and Garroth, burn Phazir's back.
"Argh! Enough of that!" Phazir exclaims, before teleporting to Garroth. He grabs his neck and lifts him off the ground.
A fire burns in his eyes. "You pathetic mongrels would do best to know your place, now die!"
He raises his spear.
A bang is heard.
A large bullet hole tears through Phazir's back.
I look back to see Janil, holding a smoking flintlock pistol up.
Phazir roars with the fury of a feral beast, before turning and trying to stab Janil onto his spear.
She skillfully dodges, and runs up his spear before kicking into a backflip in the air off of Phazir's face.
She throws three knives into his chest, all the while smiling with glee. I wish I could help too, but I only know acid and illusion.
Phazir grabs Janil out of the air, yellow blood dripping onto the ground.
"I have had enough of you!" He them takes her by the arm, and flings her into the glass buildings, hard. Windows shatter as her helpless body flies into what seems to be a lobby.
He turns to us, before another, larger group of about thirty guards arrive, and surround Phazir. They once again speak their strange language, before they all swarm Phazir at the same time.
They would have sandwiched him if not for his teleport. He teleports away to who knows where, leaving us with the guards.
They then charge at us, but we raise our hands in the air, hopefully this signals surrender to them...
Well, it worked, but now I am stuck in a prison wagon with handcuffs on me. I still don't get where we are. I have never heard of sentient ponies on Theros.
"Well, this is dumb." Janil points out, flinching from the heavy pain of cuts and a few broken bones. Some unicorn ponies came and mended her pain a bit, though I doubt they understood elven anatomy.
"It is better than dying. Trust me, I would know," Jei'Abar replies plainly.
"Well, let's hope these ponies aren't as cruel as the other countries of Theros," I say. I don't plan on having to endure torture today.
Gardus looks to us, and speaks in an unnaturally deep voice. "They are taking us to their 'Princess Celestia', for what reason I do not know."
"You understand them?" I ask.
"They speak old celestial, the language of the gods back in the days of the Phatan'Era," Gardus replies. Wow, that's a long time ago. The Phatan'Era were the first sentient beings ever made by the gods.
"Why would they speak a language that is hundreds of thousands of years old?" Garroth inquires.
"I do not know," Gardus replies, before turning his head away again.
Suddenly, the urge to sleep takes me over. Being awoken in the middle of the night is finally taking its toll now that the adrenaline of battle is over. I feel my eyes droop, and the sensation of sleep takes me over.
Ω
I am abruptly, and rudely, I might add, awoken by one of the pony guards, whom is shaking me awake. This one isn't like the other gray guards; This is a white stallion, wearing golden armor and ornate trinkets, all masterfully crafted. Not sure how much defense gold armor would give, though, unless it is heavily enchanted, or just gilded.
He motions for me to join my comrades in the courtyard of the castle. Makes sense, princesses use castles.
He takes off my handcuffs which didn't seem to fit my wrists quite right. I then walk into the center of the field. There were over two dozen golden guards both flying in the sky and on the ground, most watching us, and a few tending to castle defenses.
The stallion behind me lightly pushes me, signalling for us to move.
We all trudge our way through massive, magnificent doorways and into halls of grandeur. This would be an amazing place to live, so much brighter and cheerful than war-ridden Theros.
We head through the marble castle and into a throne room where we are greeted by a regal looking unicorn-pegasus pony. The crown she wears and the throne she sits upon are clear indication of her status.
We all bow to the princess, before she stands up, and signals for us to stand also.
"Welcome, people from Theros. As princess of Equestria, I welcome you. I sincerely hope your trip wasn't too harsh," The princess speaks in fluent Theran.
"Hello, your majesty. I didn't know you speak Theran, why don't any of the other ponies know it?" I ask, walking forward a bit. I was abruptly blocked by a spear, preventing me from moving any further. I look to the guard, he is a really large unicorn, and his golden armor seemed greater than the others. He must be a higher rank of sorts.
"Can you please ask this person to stop giving me the stink-eye?" I ask, to which the princess nods.
She speaks in that 'Old Celestial' again, and the guard sighs and lowers his spear.
"Now, although you are all welcome with open arms as visitors, your entrance concerns my loyal subjects. We have reports of a being from Tartarus appearing with you all. Do you know who or what this being is?" Princess Celestia inquires calmly.
I nod. "Its name is Phazir, a creature known as a reaver, or so my teacher told me. It serves some being named Kalceras. It has the power to teleport anywhere it wants to, across worlds, across dimensions, anywhere."
Celestia's brow furrows somewhat at the mention of Kalceras. I ignore it, who am I to quarrel with people's opinions on Kalceras?
"Well, I suppose we must keep an eye out for this 'Phazir'," Princess Celestia replies, before speaking to the rest of the ponies, ordering them. She then gestures to a pony whom doesn't look like a guard or royalty. Just a normal maroon-colored pony with orange hair- err, mane, with yellow at the tips. I can't help but notice he has a mark on his flank of an open book with a magnifying glass looking at the text.
He walks up to us, and speaks in Theran. "I will be the one to take you to your temporary rooms. Welcome to Equestria, I suppose."
Strange, why would this princess let a bunch of foreigners stay in the castle? I'm not complaining, but really?
"My name is Psion Blaze, by the way. It is nice to meet you all," He states with a light smile.
"Well met, Psion. Can I ask why you all seem to trust us immediately?" I reply to Psion.
Psion nods. "You were all clearly fighting that demon, and as you said, the demon served Kalceras, the dark god. The princess decided that you all are to not only be trusted, but to be treated as allies."
"I suppose that makes sense. I hope we can get back to Theros soon, however," I say.
"You can't go back yourself?" Psion asks.
"No, we cannot. We are merely students of Karithe, we can't do long-distance teleports," Garroth replies.
Psion appears to think something over, before shaking it off before stopping at a hallway with lots of doors in it.
"These are your rooms, distribute them as you like, we have plenty of them to spare," He states, prompting us to go and get comfortable.
I enter a room, and close the door behind me. It is a large room, with a door leading to what can be assumed is a bathroom on the far right. It is a simple square shape, with a beautiful, made queen-sized bed with multiple bookshelves and ornate decor enveloping the whole room in an atmosphere of prosperity. I think I might like it here.
I sit down at the desk, and notice stacks of paper just sitting there, waiting to be used. I grab one and start to write.
"Equestria From the Eyes of a Theran, part one. I recently arrived here after a surprise attack from a powerful reaver, and I must say, these ponies are extremely welcoming..."
Ω
"No, we cannot. We are merely students of Karithe, we can't do long-distance teleports," The green one replies.
Karithe... I know that name. I think I've heard it somewhere. Well, I suppose it is time to do research after this.
I shake off my thoughts for now, and lead them to their guest rooms.
"These are your rooms, distribute them as you like, we have plenty to spare," I state, before watching them all enter separate rooms. I then turn and trot back through the castle toward the royal library.
Ah, the royal library is such a familiar place now. I have been reading there ever since I was asked by the princess herself to come and serve her as both a private investigator and a translator. I loved to study books, and I have a knack for seeing both fine details and ones that would normally by hidden. This is useful for many educational purposes, such as learning languages. I can fluently speak more than a dozen languages, with my current study being the Taurus language.
I enter the deeper wings, and start to scour the books for anypony named Karithe.
"Karithe, Karithe, Karithe..." I repeat to myself while I scour the shelves.
Hmm, there is no books with Karithe in its name. I don't have time to scour the actual texts today, so I suppose I will do it some other time. I might ask the princess too...
I stop looking for a moment, then contemplate while I regain memory of my work schedule... Ah, yes, the missing servant of the Blueblood family. Poor thing probably just ran away. I still have to look into it, though.
I sigh, then head out to my next mission.
