Victor felt the coldness of the place that he had once protected and knew that something terrible had happened since they were last here, just two days ago. Victor and the two other Beings waited on the outskirts of the deserted town, waiting and watching.

If the place were indeed normal it would have a black beam of negative-energy shooting out of the top of it up into space connecting with the castle of Valthera, and then to the other towers of A’vah, but there was no connection. He waited nonetheless. Waiting for the signal, when up in the pitch-black sky, a vessel flew over top of the tower. The vessel was close to five-miles long and two-miles wide with a sharp front with angled wings it’s blue jets plumed out the pack just like two tulips, pushing it forward.

It was a Hawk class frigate, one that could level a city if it were unprotected, but that was near impossible, it’s seer size was mostly to house the energy output of the engines within it, there were only three Hawk frigates in use. It’s main ability to kill was from it’s thousand Falcon class fighters known as Birds-of-Osprey.

The pilots of such craft were usually Vatheran Elite, that were very full of themselves; The Hawk frigate was what worried Victor the most at this time though. It meant that Admiral Vrander C’eza had returned from his adventure to the planet of Lu-tn-atw.

Which would make it all the more harder to make a truce with the Vatheran.

Vrander was not an ally to any non-Vatheran species, the Great Beings were actually a different race of people than the Vatheran. They appeared the same but they were in fact not, the Beings were half-human, usually descended from a poor Vatheran without a clan and a human. Victor, along with his siblings Leon Valentine [Eon Genesis], Sis’traini’dei and Dante however were descendants of an Aeon, Shouse—daughter of the Mad-god King Leoshire.

However, it was unknown how these Lutnatwe had gotten to their planet. The Vatheran scoured the world and came across the Mirror of Insanity. After much sacrifice and determination they found another world, that was far richer than their own but much worse. For the people on this world fought with each other constantly killing their own, slaughtering the defenseless who had no military training.

The Vatheran explorers who visited this world looked at the stars in the heavens, recorded it with their helmets, later finding the world orbiting around a sun over three-hundred thousand times its mass. It was in an amazing system with twelve planets orbiting around the sun of theirs. They had no idea what a gift they had, and it was amazing…

The Universe had smiled upon these beings and given them such a planet, whereas the Vatheran had a solar system with several moons and two planets that were beautiful in their own right.

The humans, namely the first that had somehow found a way into this other realm where they could not understand what was happening. Victor’s father, Setain Valentine was a human and his mother, Shouse was a proverbial goddess, and somehow that difference never got in the way…

His father was a kind but brutal man. He was shallow and never allowed anyone past a certain barrier. Yet even still he looked after his children but as most humans went, their life spans were nil, and so he died at the respectable age of two-hundred and thirty five, with the help of Xerxes…

Victor never liked the world of Valthera; there was just something about it that revolted him—he was born after the Junixeven War, so the only thing he ever knew was the gray and ashy flavor of the air. He had seen the world of Lutnatwe once and he had wanted to go back ever since. The blue skies and radiant gardens, whereas here it was nothing but endless twilight.

The echoes of the world had ensnared him and ever since then, he had wanted to go back, his father had known how.

He had told him stories of such things, of how to get back to their world, something about a mirror and the gruesome challenges that the Mirror commanded you to do, and if you did not do them, the Mirror would unleash his hidden monsters upon them.

The challenge was always different for everyone and his father’s challenge was to look at himself in the Mirror, and watch himself be devoured by one of the creatures now known as Kre’vator’ai [Kreeper]; without going insane or hysterical.

It had caused terrible affects on his father, but he had passed through the mirror and had become stronger.

The other men that came with him barely survived, but overall they entered into the Mirror and found themselves warped to a Mirror World where everything was somewhat upside down.

Later, they had found out what the effects were from talking to the Mirror, and while they slept one night—Abra’am Valentine, one who had replied to the Mirror’s challenge had been transformed into the Mirror itself, and killed five of the explorers as they slept.

Leaving a hundred and ninety-five left out of two-hundred strong men, they fought hard and well within the Mirror and slowly but surely, they found their way to a Mirror world of Gui’damar. There they became entranced by many people who wondered what they were, for they were indeed not Vatheran or any known species that they had seen, and there they found a way to the planet of Valthera.

I will not speak of how they found their exit, but let it be known that they had come across the world of Valthera before the Virerussy, and yet remember this that the Mirror had somehow saw that there would be Je`kells in the world and had crafted his own… from an ancient deadly serum…

Therefore, it is often speculated that the Mirror Sidon is in fact a tool of Xerxes, however Xerxes has no cause for a Mirror of Insanity, he simply acknowledges it and uses it. Xerxes is one of the few beings who can speak against the Mirror and suffer no ill will.

No one can kill the Mirror or destroy it. It is simply one of the phenomenons of the link between Valthera and Lu-tn-atwe. However, this has long since fallen into mere legend and is no longer thought to exist.

Third Tower of A’vah

Victor, Dante and Sis’traini’dei were within a hands breadth of a close encounter with a Ne’frell that had suddenly appeared and disappeared into a small crack in the boulder and somehow disappearing into the hidden caverns underneath.

Victor slid his Wind Sword out of its sheath and the wind circled in a cyclone around the two blades of the sword, his siblings were simple wind-wielders or Tuitd oc Tne (Wind of Me), both Sis and Dante held peculiar techniques themselves however all of which being based upon Tuitd oc Tne.

Dilie was a user of Tuitd oc Tne as well, but also, a wielder of negative-energy blasts that so far the only two known beings who had the power of giant beams of power to shoot out of their hands was, Eon Genesis his brother, and Dilie Nerotoft. All of them wielded far less power than Eon but still it was enough to blast a hole straight to the core of the world, as long as that hole was the size of a ji’nelsi [penny].

Victor saw the trap; there was about a hundred Zies’lin outside of the tower. However, what was incredible was the fact that they were not even trying to hide.

In a hushed tone he blew words across the air without even moving his lips and off Sis’ and Dante went, climbing up onto the top of a giant boulder to draw the attention to themselves. With sudden ferocity the doors broke open with a massive horde of Zies’lin pouring outwards, some already jumping through the air to strike.

The two Beings stood calm and erect, with fierce power they pulled the winds from the sky itself and struck against them blasting them away with gusts over three-hundred miles per hour.

Their wind picked up rocks shooting them out at the speed that they were picked up.

The small pebbles and sharp angular pieces of old bone flew, going through the chests and heads of the Kreeper. Even tiny pebbles became deadly; shooting out through tender spots on their skulls killing some instantly, while others were rolling in agony as their chests were crushed and their blood pooled around them.

The two Beings twisted their hands and arms with beauty and grace turning the wind into sheets and splinters, the wind itself cut through some of the Zies’lin killing half a dozen.

Victor watched quietly, studiously, as the Puppeteer on top of the tower twisted and curved with his eyes closed. The Kreeper below moved away from the entrance to move around a different way.

Victor summoned the wind to himself, concentrating it underneath the soles of his feet, and lifted up into the sky towards the roof of the tower. Victor always fidgeted under the pressure of flight, a pain would often build up at the base of his spine.

Several Kreeper formed a tower of bodies their growls harmonized like locusts as they stared down Victor with unseen eyes, they lept off of the tower of bodies one after the other cutting off his sight of the Tower of A’vah. He dropped down while bringing his sword back up. Before the blade even cut through them, they were already screaming out in agony as their muscles imploded. Victor sliced through their hips and chests ending some of their lives while others merely fell to the hard rock below.

Victor held onto his wind as if he were on large leaf being taken up into the sky.

He increased the flow of wind, forming a vortex beneath as he hurled himself to the one he now recognized as Nien Jekyll atop the tower, and before Nien could open his eyes, Victor slammed into him smashing against his chest with the soles of his feet.

Nien fell backwards, slamming onto his back before immediately lifting back up to his feet. He launched himself at Victor bringing a strange metal staff around from his back, extending it with a click. The tip of the staff emitted pure energy and could sever a body part in a swipe.

Victor ducked as the energized tip passed over his head scorching the top of his scalp, burning away some of his hair. He raised himself back up as the tip passed by and snap-kicked Nien’s kneecap; shattering it like a 3-inch decayed branch of a tree. It’s audible crunch made his teeth grit, yet he continued. He then leaned back as Nien screamed in pain, swinging his staff wildly trying to cut through him.

Nien sustained himself somehow, charging through the air, Victor caught the staff on his sword, and with his other hand he grabbed him by his throat and threw him backwards, in the next motion he crushed him sideways with wind. Breaking something with Nien’s chest.

Nien cursed wildly as he stumbled backwards and before Nien could gain his balance Victor with a few quick strides was in front of him and grabbed him by the lapel on the cloak he was wearing and tossed him off the roof.

Nien screamed as he fell through the air but before the reassuring thud Victor looked down and saw a portal of darkness form below him, in an instant he was gone into the Realm of Darkness.

Victor smiled at the demise of Nien Jekyll even if it was not a death—for he had just beaten a Master Puppeteer with ease. He then turned around, looked down at the Zies’lin, as they suddenly turned berserk as their master no longer held the reigns of their minds. They rushed against the two Beings.

He leaped off the roof to bring his sword about. Charging headlong against one-hundred of the ten-foot tall Zies’lin.

He launched himself backwards and with the wind in his sword swiped it at head level, a wave of fierce wind erupted from the blade, killing all one hundred Kreeper.

Within ten minutes the rest of the Zies’lin were dead on the ground, or in their last minutes of death.

Victor stood among the carnage and even after all of these years he still could not believe his eyes. These beasts always impressed him by their gigantic size, they stood four feet above him.

He wiped the sweat that had formed across his forehead, from the short panic that he had felt, and held onto his knees as he breathed heavily for a moment before continuing.

He moved forward looking ahead through the doors of the tower of A’vah, seeing the dead bodies inside of monks, scientists and old friends.

Victor glimpsed up at the staircase going to the upper corridor where the door to darkness and light was said to be in every tower. It was funny he was alive to protect the Towers of the Sleeping, but he did not know what specifically was in them. So this was like something completely different from what he was used to, he was used to watching the world from the outside and never peering on the inwards.

The wind changed as he entered, it breathed down his neck. He shrugged it off as if it were nothing before then remembering that the towers had always drawn the Ne’frells to their borders, they had always wanted to destroy the towers of the Sleeping A‘vah.

The Great Beings stopped them every time, but never killed them.

They were simply beyond Victor and the Beings, they were able to attack from impossible places, from steel itself to ceilings, they blended in perfectly with the rocks around them, and have the patience of the Universe.

Now that the monks and scientists were dead…what was supposed to stop them?

The Tower would die, along with the people sleeping inside of its deep wells beneath the ground.

Victor wandered in, stepping across a body and then another. It reminded him of the stories told of the origins of Ne`kell Norse within one of the towers and his apparent slaughter to escape, back when there was a group called the Blood Monks.

They came to the towers to claim Ne`kell as their own, and also to steal the light and darkness that suspended the people into a stasis of animation.

One of the Blood Monk’s was none other than Eon Genesis [Leon Valentine] as well as Nien Jekyll who was the head of this group along with being the Lord of Iop; he had led them through the town of the First Tower of A’vah and with all One-hundred and Nine members seemingly leveled the place only to encounter Ne`kell Norse when he had untamed power.

Xerxes had unleashed Norse when he saw the group B.M. making their way to the domain, coming near to kill him, but they never made it that far.

The Dark Lord known as Ne`kell of Norse had come through the Door of Dir’thir’um and had nearly killed all of the members, even the powerful Eon Genesis.

The rest of the story about what happened after Eon left the group B.M. was unknown to Victor but eventually he would find the answer…

As his mind trailed, he paid no attention to his surroundings.

A Ne’feralis crawled across the screen of a giant computer, it blended in perfectly with the flickering images on its screen. It watched him with eerie intent, and as he passed the monitor it nearly struck out to kill him, but it withheld its hand for it knew that this one was not of darkness but of the light; and so it let him live.

Victor continued walking with his head down unable to look anywhere in the area, there were too many of the ones he called allies strewn about—some without their flesh.

When he heard metal clad footsteps from behind. None of the Beings had worn armor, and so in a fury he turned quickly unsheathing his sword in the same instant and what he saw before him was strange…

Victor could not think of any other word for it, what stood before him was a Ne’frell its sharp curved helmet with the front ending in a sharp edge at the jaw point with edges and spikes, two horns pointing out the top with wild red golden hair extending from the helmet behind and below.

The armor was barbaric with edges and lines going down its length.

A human had never seen a Ne’feralis this close before and indeed Victor felt his heart shoot a mile before then retracting with a thud. The Ne’frell looked him up and down with its pure black slits before grabbing him by the collar of his white cloak. It looked deep into his eyes…

“What izz your purpose herez?” The Ne’frell spoke to him with a snakebite at the end of each word and hiss, “The dharknezzz izz overwhelming and the Kreevers are engulfing— why would you be herez?”

But Victor could not find his tongue, he stared until finally his courage caught up with him and he said something much like this in a long dead tongue and so the transcription is only along these lines: ‘Because the dark lord is the true menace behind the Kreeper and we are here to find the door to the world of darkness…’

The dead language that the Ne’feralis used was known as the Shire tongue which was used by the ancients, such as Cle’vier Shire the first of all Shires.

“The Warlord iz watching evenz now you fool, I can feel his gaze, and it would do you goodz if you were to broaden your horizenz.” The Ne’frell’s extreme anger almost burst forward to strike Victor but then looked away, it disappeared as all things did when they had been shown for too long.

Victor swallowed hard, he then turned around and steeled himself, and there before him lay a door of twilight and cleverness, as he moved to push it open the darkness overwhelmed him and he was whisked away to that world of Darkness…

However, before the darkness took his sight with his last glimpse he saw the Ne’frell destroying the computers and suddenly the screens began to flash a sequence of numbers that shot in rapid too fast for an untrained eye to comprehend, a vast assortment of numbers were never good…

There Victor became tainted by the darkness what he truly was, and then even later in the future Victor would become a fugitive along with the other Beings, and would disappear into the Mirror World.

Next Chapter: Chapter 8: Death of an Aeon