Chapter 653: Ancient Battlefield
As the shape moved, Laz was taken aback at how massive it was. Just as he was trying to decide what the hell he should do, a light suddenly rose in the distance, lighting up the entire area with a red glow, like liquid blood spreading over the ground. A dark red sun was rising in the distance and with it, the area was revealed.
Laz was standing in a massive clearing with nothing but rocks as far as the eye could see. Grey ground of compressed dirt along with outcroppings of grey rocks doted the landscape. Off in the distance, Laz could see mountains of some sort surrounding the entire area. And in the sky, close and yet so far, was a massive green planet that seemed to hover overhead, far closer than the red sun.
"So... now what?" Laz asked himself out loud, noticing that there was air to breath.
"Actually, am I really breathing?" Laz asked, trying to blow breath on to his hand but feeling nothing.
A loud noise got his attention as he noticed a dust cloud in the distance. As Las watched on, the dust cloud got larger and larger as tens of thousands of figures appeared from beneath the cloud. It might have even been in the millions as the only thing Laz could see were the ones in front.
As Laz was staring slacked jawed at this sight, he noticed out of the corner of his eye another massive dust cloud on his left and then another one coming from behind him.
"You’ve got to be fucking with me."
Laz quickly made his way over to the only cover in the area, a small outcropping of rocks that had appeared to have collapsed around one another.
Just as Laz dived behind them, he saw the first group appear, their bodies clearly not human as their green skin and scales lead Laz to believe they were more like some sort of evolved lizard. They had massive beasts carrying huge loads that as soon as they stopped, the ones closest began to move the massive cargo into place. Under Laz’s amazed gaze, massive cannons were set up as anchors were punched into the ground. After that, cow sized grey and blue devices were set up in front of the cannons. All in all, they were arranged in a half circle as it seemed like they were waiting for the other dust clouds to arrive.
The next ones to show up were strange. They had long white tentacles that grew out of the sides of their heads and laid flat as though it was some kind of hair while their white skin seemed like it would look more at place on a creature in the ocean. The while they didn’t have any weapons of war, they still had large octopus type creatures that seemed to be being carried by smaller, shrimp like solders. It was only after watching them being positioned that Laz was able to determine that these octopuses were their weapons of war, probably serving the same purpose as the guns the lizard people had.
"You betrayed ussss...." Hissed the larger lizard person with blue skin, to which a white fish person with golden accents all over their body responded,
"We put our people first. We were never there to become your sacrifices nor your slaves. Your ego and arrogance brought about your downfall, not us."
"Speak pretty words, sssstiillll die later."
And with that, they stopped exchanging words.
Just then, the third faction arrived. Their skin was pitched black while layers of white bone protruded from their bodies like a natural armor. They didn’t have large beasts carrying their cargo, instead it seemed as though some human like creatures were in charge of dragging everything. But the most surprising part was that the cargo was floating on the air, as though held up by invisible hands. As the human like people got closer though, he saw they weren’t all just humans as it looked like there were many other races mixed in, including members of both the gathered races.
"Despicable," said the white fish leader with golden accents while the blue lizard man spit on the ground.
"Oh come now. You knew how this was going to end. You could have chosen just to surrender half of your populations to us but instead resisted. Now look, you’re both without a home or even anywhere to go back to. You should have already figured out how this battle would end as well and yet here you are. I’m not sure if your bravery is commendable or foolhardy.
"YOU WILL BES THE FIRSSSST TO DIE BY MY HAND," the blue lizard growled.
"DON’T! They are bound just as we are. If you fight too soon, you risk giving up your chance," The white leader advised to the blue lizard who just barely managed to get a hold of their anger.
The black bone man laughed in response to this, not even the slightest bit concern that his plan had been seen through.
Just like this, the three armies faced one another as though waiting for something.
Suddenly, Laz saw something overhead that drew his attention, along with the gathered armies. A massive meteor was burning a path along the sky, it’s massive blue tail spewing fire in it’s wake. As Laz watched on, a large, clear metal pillar began to rise up from the ground, right in the middle of the three armies. It reached into the sky, so far that even with his almost god like vision, Laz couldn’t see exactly where it stopped.
As he watched on, the pillar of clear metal began to glow and in an instant, like a discharging weapon, it fired a massive bolt into the universe, hitting the meteor before exploding. As though it was playing a three dimensional game of billiards, the meteor changed it’s trajectory and began heading towards the planet.
"Finally," the leaders all said at the same time before remembering that the others were there as well.
"FIGHT!"
Just like that, blasts, explosions, screams and violence filled the air as the three armies engaged in combat. Blasts from the lizardmen’s guns rang out as they fired volley after volley, but some strange water like screen protected the white, fish people while a thin, veil like screen prevented damage from affecting the black bone people.
A similar thing happened in the other camps. While they volleys kept coming, some sort of forcefield protected all of the camps. And with that, solders were sent along with ground vehicles, racing to destroy one another.
While it all looked chaotic, Laz noticed that the lizard and fish people seemed to be more focused on the black bone people than each other despite showing clear hostility towards one another.
All the while, the giant meteor was speeding towards them, however it’s rock surface was breaking up in the atmosphere as it made contact with the outer rim of the planet they were on.
Looking up, Laz couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of damage it would do and whether he would be able to survive it.
BOOM!
DING!
DING!
DING!
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Laz huddled in the rock cropping even as the rocks themselves were blown away.
Once the dust settled, Laz sat against the only rock still present. It was barely waist height now as the ground all around looked like it was scorched, having turned from grey to black.
"Haa... Hee.... Fuck...." Laz did his best to get his breathing under control, but it took a while. Once he had calmed down enough, he raised his head to look over only to see the fallen bodies that now littered the battlefield, most of them being nothing more than skeletons and splash marks.
"HA HA HA... AMAZING. SIMPLY AMAZING," came the amazed laughing of the black bone man as his excited gaze was fixated on something in front of him.
A sword with a bone white blade and red handle was impaled in the ground, cracks that went on for miles had spider webbed all around it.
The black bone man looked at the fallen bodies of his counterparts, their remains still completely in tact.
"Heh. Fools. Take them back. Their bodies can at least off set some of the cost of using the soul bells," he said as he instructed the large bells that had just been uncovered to be recovered.
"As for you... you’re mine now..." He said as he reached forward and grabbed the sword.
All of the world blurred at this point and another scene appeared.
The black bone man lay dying as the sword was picked up by a heavily armored being, the metallic armor glittering in the light of a blue sun.
Another blurred distortion.
The armored man was cut in half as a being of light reached forward.
Blur.
The being of light shattered and the sword was then taken by a massive demon with wings that could cover the skies.
Again and again, Laz say scene after scene of death, tragedy and destruction as the sword passed from one powerful being to another.
The last scene was of the sword floating abandoned on a rock floating in the vast sky of space as the remains of what was once an ancient civilization decayed around it.
A massive, purple vortex opened, a hand reached through to grab the sword and then retreat.
Then the vision ended with the fading of the light.
