Echoes of the Fallen by Samuel Rockmore
Prologue
Fred was a basic cultist, lurking in a secret room of the cult fortress, taking weapon inventory. His cult had attempted to ransom the Light Aegis, which infuriated the Chaos Queen, Pyra. He didn’t think much of it, because if you ransom somebody’s friend, it’s no wonder they’d be angry.
Suddenly, he heard something crash through the roof. He heard fighting, and stayed in the basement until it was over. He opened the basement door, and realised that the basement had been torn off of the rest of the building.
He took an escape pod back to the base, only to realise that it didn’t exist anymore. All there was, was bits of rubble and corpses, floating in the bleak void of space. All he saw was the back end of a ship, and the Chaos Queen. That moment, he had sworn revenge on Pyra, and would not stop pursuing her.
Chapter 1
One Year Later
It was one year after she had attacked that cult base. She had taken over the Realm of the Core, the neighboring realm, and was sick of fighting, so she decided to take a vacation on Planet AL-56. Halfway through the journey to Planet AL-56, a cultist snuck in. Pyra fell asleep in her chair; this was the perfect time to strike.
Fred’s Perspective
I managed to sneak onto the Chaos Queen’s ship. It’s a huge, spacious vessel. Lots of gold, rubies, and even the illusive McDonald’s Playplace. Floating around in space for an entire year was miserable, but now I can take my revenge! I wander this labyrinth of a ship, and eventually reach the cockpit.
The Chaos Queen was not how I pictured her, she has neck-length, pinkish-red hair, and is about five foot eight. She’s asleep in her chair, with the autopilot running; Now is the perfect time to strike. I raise my knife above her heart; when I’m about to stab, she wakes up. She wrestles the knife out of my hand and swipes at my throat. I manage to narrowly block it, but now my arm is bleeding. She then counters with a blast of fire magic, knocking me into the wall. She grabs her sword, which looks like you could hit somebody once with it and break all their bones. The sword also has these three protruding crystals on one side; they shoot lasers.
I do believe that trying to fight her was a mistake. She swings her sword at me, but I narrowly dodge, and her sword is stuck in the wall. I run to the other side of the cockpit and grab my knife. There was no use trying to run out of the room, because, as this fight proved, she is much faster than expected. She unlodges her sword from the wall, and is back to swinging it at my head. I know that I won’t last long fighting her, so I have to get away. How, though?
I decide to swipe at her leg with my knife, which slows her down a bit. She tries to hit me with her sword, but misses, and hits the main terminal. I take my chance and run, but before she can catch me, an asteroid crashes into the centre of the ship, and the two halves crash on a nearby planet.
Chapter 2
Pyra’s Perspective
I wake up in the broken cockpit. All my weapons are gone, and so is that moron that crashed my ship. This planet doesn’t like the one I was going for. It’s very swampy, and I hear rain. It’s dim under the canopy of the trees. Smoke rises in the distance, presumably from the other half of my ship. I have the stuff to rebuild the ship, except for metal; I have to ransack my own ship. This is going to be a pain. This planet is very small, about the size of Rhode Island. If I’m fast, I can reach the other half of my ship in about two days. I grab a bag of stuff from my ship and venture on.
Fred’s Perspective
I wake up, face in the mud. Smoke rises from the distance, presumably from the other half of the ship. My knife is nowhere to be found, meaning I have to make weapons to kill the Chaos Queen.
I find a stick and a sharp looking rock; so I make a spear. Unfortunately, all the food was in the cockpit, so I’ll have to hunt to get food. Something glitters in the distance. It’s so alluring . . . I have to go get it! I end up running into the forest and find a sapphire dagger. As I’m about to pick it up, some guy darts past, stealing the dagger before I can grasp it in my hand. His footprints led to a large building, and I know this’ll be difficult.
Chapter 3
Pyra’s Perspective
I’ve been venturing in the woods, searching for anything useful for taking down that moron. A yellow crystal lights up in the distance, and I immediately recognize it. The only jewel in the Omniverse of Chaos that looks like that is Fignes Crystal; an ultra-rare crystal used to power weapons made by Fignes himself. That’s definitely my sword. I run over there.
When I’m just about to grab my sword, some guy comes out of nowhere and grabs it. The mud is slowing him down, so I catch up to him. I try to yank my sword out of his hand, but he’s holding on so violently that instead of tearing the sword from his hand, I ended up tearing off the whole arm. The guy screams in agony, so I take my sword, and put him out of his misery. I point my sword to the sky, and it erupts in flame. That’ll serve as a warning for anyone else who tries to mess with me.
As I continue on, I almost trip over a metal rod. When I look up, it turns out to be a broken cell tower. It’s not in ruins, just the wires are cut. Luckily, the stuff I grabbed from my ship will come in handy. I get to work on fixing the wires.
Fred’s Perspective
I sneak into the building, and realize what this is. A thieves guild. They almost definitely have a ship here. I run through the building, fighting anyone who stops me. I wind up on the prison level, and I’m fighting the warden. I take a jab for his throat with my spear, but he grabs and snaps it, and throws me down the spiral staircase into the basement. I catch a glimpse of an elevator to my right, and I take the elevator to the building’s top floor. There’s a ship here!
Chapter 4
Pyra’s Perspective
The cell tower is now working, so I contact my Omniverse. If they see a ship rising from this planet, they’ll shoot it down. I’ll take an escape pod, while that moron is trapped in a flaming ship.
I keep going and find a building. A sign hangs outside an entrance,“Totally not a thieves guild.” It’s a thieves guild.
I go in, since they might have a ship. I run up the stairs, lighting every floor on fire. When I reach the top floor, I see that moron trying to unlock the ship. If my trick works, I shouldn’t have to fight him. I approach the ship, but that moron grabs a sword. He tries to jump and go for the throat, but I bat him down. I blast him with fire magic but he takes a swipe at my foot. I try to bash him in the heart with my sword, but narrowly miss, shattering every bone in his arm. He tries for a revenge hit, but the swords collide, causing his sword to shatter.
“Look, I don’t wanna fight, just get on the stupid ship.” He fell for it, and now we’re blasting off.
Fred’s Perspective
While the Chaos Queen thinks that we’ve truced, I’m still ready to take her down. I look out at space. Despite the fact that I was trapped there for a year, it’s still beautiful. Wait, are those warships? When Pyra escapes in an escape pod, I realize what’s happened. She’s now standing on the balcony of the biggest ship, giving the command to open fire. Lasers burn through the ship. Various bits are pulled into a black hole. I realize, even if I escape the ship, I’m still in a predicament because of the extreme black hole gravity. No piece of the ship is any bigger than an onion now. The black hole yanks me in and I realize that I’ll never be able to leave.