Daelen took the form of a tall, muscular man with shoulder-length dark hair and grey eyes. He flew across the world, seeking, searching. Remembering why he loved this place, this world, this reality. He recalled his very first visit: He had never seen a world like this before.
That is, he had never seen anything like this before.
Forgive me, gentle reader, but that’s still not quite what I’m trying to say. Let me put it like this: He had never seen anything in this way before – light and colour; form, texture and shadow; unfiltered, unenhanced. It was pure and precious and beautiful. Then there were sounds and smells, taste and feeling. To have only five senses, to be capable of only a superficial perception of reality was stunning. An electrical storm gathered around him as he flew. He had never felt the rain on his skin before. That is, he had never before had skin that could generate such sensations. The clouds blew away and the heat of the sun and the cold of the altitude combined to create such incredible, unfamiliar sensations.
He snapped his thoughts back to the present. He didn’t have time for reminiscence.
At last, he spotted her. Someone he knew well. An ally and friend. Someone he knew would be on his side. She looked very different in her human form – she had many others – but her aura was unmistakable. She had hazel eyes and brown hair bound into a long, thick braid. She wore a short dress of brown leather in the style favoured by huntresses of this age, with tall boots to match.
This individual is known to us as Blessed Alycia, Mother of Nature. No-one knows what kind of entity she was, or even if she was ever truly more than a myth. The way Daelen told this story, it was always open to interpretation. Still, whether she was a real person or a metaphor, according to this legend, Alycia was particularly fond of a group of mortals who had always shown her much kindness and friendship. They seemed especially receptive to her form of power, expressing it as nature magic, making them the very first druids. While this nature magic was an aspect of her own self, it was a form of expression unlike anything she had encountered before. It was gentle and serene, but also intense and violent. It was a power that favoured balance and harmony and yet strived for constant change and progress. It seemed to her that it was at once the most creative and the most destructive power this world had to offer. Alycia looked up at Daelen and gave him a dazzling smile and a wave. For a moment, he was relieved. He had found her…but so had Kullos.
It all happened in slow motion. Daelen saw Alycia’s expression change from surprise and shock, to fear and terror as Kullos lashed out with the power of their native realm. Alycia hastily tried to shield herself, but some of his power got through and slammed into her mortal body, which collapsed to the ground, barely moving.
Daelen flew down as fast as he could, placing himself between them, praying to the gods he had once taunted to use their limited powers to keep her alive and help him. He prepared to defend himself and the fallen Alycia, but it seemed Kullos wasn’t going to attack him. In fact, he seemed to think Daelen was on his side.
“Daelen!” he called out. “You came to help me. I knew I could count on you. You know, don’t you? You can see it, can’t you? Just like me. No-one else can see it, Daelen. Or no-one wants to. Only you and me. We’re the only ones who see the evil all around us. They’re all against me, Daelen. All of them. All except you.”
He was ranting and raving, paranoia in total command, all rational thought gone, but still, Daelen hesitated. He didn’t know what to do – attack Kullos or try to help Alycia. If he did the latter, he knew Kullos would take that as a sign that he, too, was against him and his reaction was predictable. Daelen didn’t know if he had the power to defend them both. But if he spent his time and energy on attacking Kullos, he might not have enough of either to save Alycia. He felt frozen, paralysed. He was a trained fighter, powerful and deadly when he needed to be, but he was totally unprepared for the magnitude of this choice: save Alycia or save the world.
Kullos continued his raging. “Your mother is working for the enemy. Plotting against us, against me! I had to stop her, you know that, don’t you? She made me do it. I tried just hurting her a bit, to get her to admit her betrayal, but she wouldn’t. She kept claiming innocence, thinking me a fool that would believe her lies. She just kept on defying me. I would have destroyed her, but I realised: It’s not just your mother – it’s everyone! They’ve all gone over to the enemy. She was just distracting me, keeping me busy while others completed the weapon.”
“Weapon?” Daelen wondered.
“Yes!” Kullos cried. “They tried to hide it in this disgusting world of flesh and matter – the one place they believed I’d never go. Well, it won’t do them any good. No! I’m going to make sure they can’t use it. You can help me Daelen. Help me destroy this foul, stinking place and take the weapon with it!”
“I cannot allow that,” came a new voice.
The voice belonged to a man – a man of almost impossible size. More than seven feet tall with a colossal barrel chest and limbs like those of a tree. His dry skin stretched thin as parchment over a bony frame, the horns on his head poking through holes in his wide-brimmed wizard’s hat. This being was a demigod, granted the powers of all of the gods, equally, in a rare moment of agreement between them.
“Daelen!” he called out, “I am Ossian Miach Kaidool, and your prayers have been answered. The gods have seen your plight and sent me to stand at your side at your times of greatest need. We have made a pact with Alycia. She has become a friend to this world, and I will defend her. You deal with Kullos.”
Kullos was enraged, turning on Daelen.
“So even you betray me. You seek to use the so-called gods of this contemptible world to destroy me, but it won’t work. All of Creation is against me, but you shall not have your satisfaction!”
There ensued a terrible battle as Kullos sought to destroy Daelen. The younger shadow warrior bought the demigod the time he needed to kneel beside Alycia and use his powers to slowly, carefully revive her. Leaving Alycia to recover, the demigod moved to fight by Daelen’s side. Daelen and Kullos were too evenly matched. They could probably battle for hours without ever breaking the stalemate, but the demigod’s presence was enough to tip the balance of power in the younger shadow warrior’s favour. Kullos was beaten back until he was forced to retreat and Ascend. To aid his escape, he ripped energy from Ossian Miach Kaidool whose mortal body was slain by Kullos’ might. Daelen was saddened by his loss, but he knew that death was not the end, not for a demigod. Indeed, the gods sent Daelen the knowledge that this was Fated to be at the end of every Final Battle. Daelen wondered how many of those there would be.
He set aside the upper chamber of the temple he had built so long ago, where his friend and comrade would sleep, protected until needed once more. He knew that day would come, for Kullos was bound to return.
Over time, Daelen became increasingly aloof, setting himself above and apart from this world. Where it had once been an escape, now it was a prison, albeit one of his own making. He was a prisoner of conscience, but a prisoner, nonetheless. Despite Alycia’s efforts, one day Daelen chose to leave the world entirely. While he could not Ascend, he could use his power to move ‘sideways’ to another mortal world. He created a Prismatic Sphere, a portal to another world he had seen. A very different world, a world without magic. There to heal his scars and forge a life. It didn’t last; he supposed it never could.
Daelen received a distress call from Alycia. Kullos was once more Descending to rain death on Alycia’s world, and Daelen was honour-bound to answer the call to arms. He raised Ossian Miach Kaidool from his slumber and together they fought as they had before. For her part, Alycia would not fight but instead extended her powers to protect and shield the world she loved. Once more, Kullos was driven back, forced to retreat and Ascend, again killing the demigod in the process. Daelen returned his friend’s body to the crypt and when it was sealed, he once more left this world behind.
This dance became familiar over the centuries. Each time Kullos was defeated, but never utterly defeated and each time Ossian Miach Kaidool was slain. The demigod was weary of this and wished only to be allowed to remain in peaceful oblivion forever, but he knew this was the purpose for which he had been placed in this world.
Just when they believed nothing would ever change, once – just once – they danced to a different tune and the world was ripped asunder.
Kullos had by now completely lost control and this time he Descended while retaining more of himself than ever before. More than this realm could handle. Ossian Miach Kaidool was raised, Daelen fought, Alycia protected and shielded, but the power that Kullos commanded this time was unstable. He channelled the full force of his power at Daelen, ripping the shadow warrior’s shields apart. It slammed into his body, not destroying it, but changing it. Daelen tried to absorb as much of the power as he could, trying to use it, assimilate it so that it would not destroy him, but the power was not what it should be. He didn’t know why, but it seemed as if two incompatible powers had somehow been forced together. The two halves of the power were too different to assimilate. They were equal and opposite, containment of both was impossible, and the resulting reaction caused Daelen to split in two. Each a reverse copy of the other, light and dark clones, and as they separated, excess energy spilt out before they each managed to staunch the flow. They both fell unconscious.
Alycia had not Daelen’s power and knew she couldn’t fight Kullos the way he did, so instead, she tried to deflect it away to protect the mortal creatures of the world she loved. Trying to take advantage of this break in the pattern, Ossian Miach Kaidool implored her to rip away his power herself, rather than let Kullos do it. He would die the same as always, either way, but at least this way his death would do some good. So, with apologies, Alycia slew him and tried to use his power to force Kullos to Ascend. She didn’t quite manage to get rid of all of him, but a good-sized portion was ripped away. Caught in the backwash of all this power in his already drained state, his mortal form was thrown out into the void, floating somewhere between this realm and that of the gods.
Under the stress of such immense, unstable power, the void threatened to collapse. The combined forces would rip the world apart if something drastic wasn’t done to prevent it. In terror, agony and distress, Alycia could not, would not see her beloved world destroyed, robbing the mortals of their boundless potential, so she acted.
No-one knows precisely what happened next. Even Daelen never understood it. All we know is that, if this legend is to be believed, that was the day the void storms began, swirling and dancing in the sky. Alycia gave herself wholly to the protection of our world, but even as she lay there, exhausted, she looked around at this mortal, physical realm and smiled. It was saved, and it was beautiful. Her actions bound her to this world. It would forever be her prison. Unlike Daelen, she could never leave this world for another, but she could think of no greater justice than to accept this sentence as her penance. Her mortal friends, the ones who called themselves druids, flew to her side to help her if they could. She knew there was nothing they could do, but she appreciated their efforts. Even as she surrendered to her sleep, she vowed that her power would always be theirs, so that their druid magic might help heal the scars that the shadow warriors’ battles left upon this world.
Alycia’s actions shattered Kullos’ control device, so he could no longer Ascend. Nor could any other shadow warriors Descend to the mortal realm to wreak further devastation, for she had placed a barrier in the void between the mortal realm and the plane of the gods, preventing such travel.
Alycia reflected on how often the druids spoke of the Mother of Nature as a mythical force that protected their world and needed their protection in return. In their eyes, she had become just that: Blessed Alycia, Mother of Nature. With that beautiful thought, she slipped into a blissful sleep.
And, gentle reader, she remains in that state to this day, even my day, if one is to believe the legend. As I have said, I do not know for sure how much of this is true, or what to make of it if it is. Only one thing is certain: Daelen was not the man he was and he had not his former power. Fortunately, neither did Kullos.
But they were still extraordinarily powerful and dangerous by mortal standards, and it wasn’t long before the dance began again. Only now it was a three-way struggle between Kullos, Daelen and his dark clone.
*****
When he finished his tale, Daelen implored Catriona to believe that he would give anything to stop Kullos harming Tempestria any further, to stop him permanently or at least take the battle back to the higher planes.
“But I don’t know how to do that,” he told her. “None of us can penetrate Alycia’s Barrier. My dark clone and I have no control device and Kullos’ is destroyed, so all I can do is battle him forever and try to minimise the damage we do in the process.”