The Adventures of the Peculiar Enchanter: In the Nexus Force

The Adventures of the Peculiar Enchanter:

In the Nexus Force

 

            “Congratulations!” said the Assembly Vendor cheerfully.

                An Assembly Engineer was standing before the Summoner Vendor that served the Assembly recruits ever since Nexus Force had become famous and started growing fast. Meldric Steamvalve was behind his stall looking at an almost Rank 3 Engineer. He only missed the pants and shirt. Those Meldric had in his hands as he said the word.

                “It’s always nice to see another Assembly reach Rank 3, though it’s even nicer if he’s a Summoner!” Meldric spoke as he handed the Engineer the last pieces of his gear.

                “Leave it Meldric! I’m going to stick to this kit for now! Speaking of which, I’ve heard the new kits are almost ready! Any information you’ve got on the Assembly one?” the other answered.

                “They call it Inventor and it’s bound to be quite nice, but other than that I don’t know!”  the Vendor replied.

                 “Well, I guess we’ll find out soon!” the Assembly recruit started walking away.

                “By the way, you heard the news?” Meldric remembered something.

                “What news?” the Engineer was intrigued.

                “They say they’ve found the seventh hero!”

                “The seventh hero? Really? No, I’ve not heard! Well, good day to you, Meldric!”

                “Goodbye Shadow!”

                And indeed that was Shadow! Strange Odd Shadow! Some time ago he had found out about the Nexus Force and joined it. Assembly seemed to fit perfectly to him and he didn’t even hesitate joining it! Now, he had completed Rank 3 of the Engineer and he even had the Serratorizer!

                As he approached the centre of the Plaza, Shadow wondered where he should go next. He had thoroughly explored Avant Gardens, Gnarled Forest and Forbidden Valley by now, so he was thinking of Crux Prime or one of his properties to do some building.

                “Hey, Shadow!” he was greeted by a friend of his, Magical Heroic Dragon, who happened to be there, too.

                “Greetings to you, too, Dragon! What brings you here?” Shadow responded.

                “Oh, Mardolf the Orange returned from his mission and I thought to come by to welcome him back!” Dragon said.

                “You know him personally?”

                “We met in Castle Kingdom! He often comes there and you know it’s my home world!”

                Shadow had not met Mardolf the Orange when he joined the Nexus Force. He had left for some secret mission and was returning just now. Shadow had only dealt with Rad Eccles, the wizard’s assistant. Now, he felt some anxiety at the prospect of meeting him.

                The two minifigures took the path to Brick Annex and slowly walked between the beautiful tall trees of Nimbus Station. Soon, the path led them to the Assembly base of the Station. There among other people was on old man in orange robes, now marked with the Assembly symbol, and a wizard’s hat. He had long hair and beard that now was all grey and white and a wrinkled face. He seemed quite tired and older than he could have looked. Shadow’s eyes were slightly worried as Dragon and he approached the Sorcerer.

                “Hey there, Mardolf! It’s good to see you’re back! How did the mission go?” Dragon greeted the man.

                “Not too well! The Dark Shadow escaped!” Mardolf said disappointedly.

                “You were after the Dark Shadow? What happened did you find it?” Dragon was surprised.

                “Indeed I did! We located in an abandoned rock chunk of Crux! However, it tricked and someone even got smashed. Two months of work wasted away!” Mardolf said, but then he noticed Shadow.

                “And who might you be?” he asked.

                “I am Strange Odd Shadow, sir! I joined the Assembly during your absence!”

                “Do I know you? You seem familiar to me!” Mardolf asked.

                Shadow was tempted to gulp and was glad to wear his helm “I don’t believe we do, sir! I would have remembered such a meeting!”

                “Okay then! I’d like you to know that I don’t hold a grudge on you for lying to me! But you should have known better than to think you’d fool me like that! Whenever you feel like revealing me who you really are, come by here!” Mardolf said surprising Shadow.

                “I’ll leave you two to discuss your own things, while I go buy something from the vendor!” Shadow said and left them.

                Dragon was really confused by both men and looked at them astounded. As Shadow checked the vendor’s merchandise, he thought how right Mardolf was. Strange Odd Shadow of course was not his real name! No one in the Nexus Force used their three-word nicknames as anything more than nicknames. They really did have other names, too, whether they used them or not. And Shadow’s was Wiz Ardon, the name of a young wizard apprentice. But he was not a young wizard apprentice anymore, so he wasn’t Wiz Ardon anymore. He was Strange Odd Shadow, the Assembly Engineer. He wanted to let go of the past, so he couldn’t tell Mardolf who he really was.

                While Shadow was still there, he heard a rustle on his side. He looked towards the direction of the sound and he thought he saw something moving in the dark. Well, that was weird.

                As he turned around, he faced Dragon again. He was looking at Shadow curiously and worriedly.

                “Shall we go?” Shadow asked.

                “Okay! But Shadow… you never told me you knew Mardolf! And why did you lie to him?” Dragon spilled the questions immediately.

                “My past is my property to conceal!” Shadow answered firmly.

                That made it all even stranger.

                “But Shadow…”

                “What’s the Dark Shadow?” he tried to change the subject.

                “Don’t evade, Shadow!”

                “Strange and Odd are part of my name, Dragon! You are not supposed to understand everything about me!” Shadow gave his ultimatum “What’s the Dark Shadow?”

                Dragon looked at him with fear even. What was going on with his friend?

                “Well…” he said hesitantly “The Dark Shadow is some shadow-like figure that has been sighted in several places. It is known to strike terror in people and it has smashed many. We believe it might be Maelstrom and we wish to capture it!”

                “Doesn’t sound very nice!”

                “It isn’t! That’s why we had better hope we don’t meet it!”

                “That’s why we had better hope we will meet it!”

                Somewhere in the shadows, someone was waiting, watching the two boys go.

                “Challenge accepted!” he whispered.

               

                Mardolf approached Rad Eccles “That Strange Odd Shadow that was just here, he came to you when he joined the Nexus Force, didn’t he? To take his Assembly badge?”

                “That’s correct, Mardolf!” Rad responded.

                “Well, he is very good at building and he seems quite the smart person! He says he’s from Yorkanton City”

                “Well, that’s odd! Why would someone trying to conceal his identity choose something so striking as Yorkanton City to be his supposed home world?”

                “He could really be from Yorkanton, couldn’t he?”

                “There aren’t many people I know from Yorkanton and he isn’t one of them! I just wonder why he did not want to tell me who he was!”

                “Well, he is quite strange as his nickname reveals! But do you have any guesses on who he is?”

                “Yes, I have some ideas, but I can’t really tell!”

                “Well, I suppose we will see! It will certainly be revealed at some point, won’t it?”

                “These things do tend to come to the surface sooner or later!”

 

                Shadow’s rocket and Dragon’s landed on the landing spot of Crux Prime. Many minifigures were there, others coming, others going, others waiting, others meeting. Shadow and Dragon in particular found two of Dragon’s friends waiting for them.

                “Shadow, this is Crystallia Caleston and that’s Ultra Fire Burrito, my friends. Crystallia and Burrito, this is Strange Odd Shadow!”

                Shadow waved his hand at the blonde Paradox Sorcerer girl and the black-haired Sentinel Knight boy “Honoured to meet you!” he said and shook hands with them.

                Dragon, of course, had not forgotten the previous odd behaviour of Shadow, but he had set it aside for now. He did not know what to do anyway.

                “Shall we go fight some?” asked Burrito.

                “Sure thing! That’s why we’re here for, aren’t we” said Dragon who was a Venture League Daredevil.

                Thus, the four companions from all four Factions headed for a good fighting spot. In the end, they decided to go the Crystal Mines. At that place, miners used to mine for crystals, imaginite included, but now it was infested with Maelstrom. It was in the out of bounds area of Crux Prime, but none of the four seemed to care about the rules of Nexus Force so much and it just made it all the more thrilling.

                On their way there, they discussed several stuff.

                “Did you hear that the Faction Leaders discovered who the seventh Hero is?” Crystallia said.

                “Oh yes! Meldric told me just today!” Shadow answered.

                “I wonder who he or she is!” Dragon commented.

                “Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait for them to announce the name!” Shadow said.

                “Oh no, they won’t announce it! They said he asked for secrecy!” Crystallia explained.

                “But you are sure it’s a man?” Shadow asked.

                “I have my own suspicions!” the girl smiled.

                Once they were in, the infected miners attacked them instantly. Burrito’s sword and Dragon’s flare guns defeated the first few and soon the other two engaged, too. Using various skills and feats of their gear, the fellows continued on inside the caves. There were several kinds of Maelstrom Beings there, all of the Invader kind, just like in the rest of Crux. As they went deeper and deeper they became harder and more. Soon all of them had received several injuries, but for now they still had healing potions.

                Shadow had just drunk his third Strong Notion Potion when they reached a crossroad. Three openings in the rock led to different paths. After fighting the Mace Stromlings, the Grumpy Darklings, the Stromling Admirals and a Stromling Ape, they had to decide on what way to go.

                Before they could make the decision, though, a Maelstrom Dragon appeared out of one of the archways. Its presence became most obvious once it lit fire on Dragon’s clothes. Oh and I just realised the irony of this sentence!

                Shadow built an Assembly Turret and started firing at the dragon, while Burrito approached with his sword. One fire blast exploded Shadow’s turret and blasted him on the wall. Crystallia had put out the fire on Dragon and now came to help him up. As she did so, another fire blast passed between her back and her backpack, making the leashes of the latter get ripped. The backpack fell down as both it and the girl’s blouse ignited. Shadow helped Crystallia with the fire and grabbed her backpack to give to her. As he did so, a flare gun fell out of it.

                “Is that Venture League?” Shadow asked as he built some robot to fight for them.

                “Don’t tell the Nexus Force people!” she smiled.

                “How the brick do you have gear from two factions?”

                “Let’s concentrate on the Dragon, I say!”

                Indeed the other two were struggling with the beast on their own. They rushed to help them. However, things only got worse when more Grumpy Darklings appeared and made airborne attacks. Shadow was driven towards one of the archways while the others were forces on the one opposite to his. The tongues of fire the dragon breathed everywhere forced Shadow to make another step back and he tripped on a rock.

                Two Grumpy Darklings dived immediately and grabbed Shadow, carrying him away through the hallway of the mines. Shadow tried to release himself, but the Darklings wouldn’t let him. In the end, after some time they tossed him on the centre of a big almost circular room. There was a lit torch on the wall and Shadow could see the glistening of the crystals on the walls.

                The Darklings were gone as soon as they left him on the ground. Shadow got up and checked to see if there was anyone else around. Something moved in the shadows which the one single torch could not shed light to. The dark figure moved quickly through the room trying to confuse Shadow on its location. Indeed it was in one place one moment and the next in another, but Shadow could keep up.

                Finally, the creature approached the light slightly and Shadow could make more out. It seemed to resemble a minifigure, but had this liquidity of a material shadow. In a way, it looked like it was wearing a cape. Two red eyes were at the part that looked like a head.

                “You are the Dark Shadow, aren’t you?” Shadow said not letting his fear show.

                “Yes indeed!” came its whispering, slightly hissing, cruel voice “And what are you going to do about it!”

                “So, the Strange Odd Shadow and the Dark Shadow together! Isn’t it funny?”

                “We have a sense of a humour, haven’t we?” hissed the Dark Shadow “I don’t think you’ll find it all that funny when I devour you!”

                “What do you want from me?”

                “Well, you challenged me! Back there in Nimbus Station you said you hoped you’d meet me! Well, I rushed to make your wish come true and all you have to say is ‘What do you want from me?’. Careful what you wish for, Wiz, because sometimes our hopes are more dangerous than our fears!”

                “Wiz?!” Shadow was taken aback “How do you…”

                “How do I know? Well, I know a lot more than you think, Wiz Ardon! You were the apprentice of the Enchanter Geidrich the Azure. But now Geidrich is gone and you have lost your way! You think that the Nexus Force will help you, but you can’t escape your past no more than you can escape your fate, Wiz! The Nexus Force does not change who you are and you can’t run away from your own self! But it doesn’t matter anymore, because soon you’ll be gone like your master! It’s a shame I’m never going to tell you who did it!”

                “You know who smashed Geidrich?!”

                “I thought you had let your past in the past!”

                “That does not mean I don’t care about the people of my past anymore!”

                “Really? Then, why have you abandoned your village? Your parents? Your friends? You never returned, Wiz! Why did you do that?”

                “Stop this! Why are you doing this?!”

                “But to make your smashing even more painful of course!” the Dark Shadow made another step towards him and he started to take a different shape.

                With a few more steps, Shadow was looking at a man in a suit and a top hat, a scepter at hand and a freakish evilly grinning face.

                “The Darkitect! So, it’s you, the Dark Shadow!”

                “Who else could it be, you foolish boy? Now, hush and let me smash you!”

                “You’re never going to succeed! Now, I’ll have to tell you goodbye! I’m sorry, but I haven’t arranged getting smashed today!”

                Shadow moved his hand and there was a light blue explosion on the Darkitect’s face blasting him behind. Shadow turned around and with one step he was gone having teleported. He reappeared outside the mines.

                “I did not want this to come to magic!” Shadow said to himself.

                Geidrich had used magic and now he was gone. But this was not the reason Shadow did not want to use magic anymore. Almost everything he knew about magic, he’d been taught by Geidrich. And the remembrance of Geidrich was pain and sorrow!

                “Hey guys, I found him!” Burrito’s voice came calling to the others. “Dude, where have you been?”

                “Long story!”

 

                The four minifigures were around a table in a house built inside Crystallia’s nearest property. They were playing Risk-a-Brick, the latest thing of the board game industry. It was quite fun. Meanwhile, they were discussing the event with the Dark Shadow. Of course Shadow had not told them everything the Darkitect had said, but still there was much to say.

                “I still can’t believe he just appeared there to attack you, Shadow! I mean why would he do that?” Dragon was saying.

                “Well, I don’t know either!” Shadow replied.

                Dragon looked at him like he did not fully believe Shadow.

                “Anyway, next week, I’ll be going on a mission to a new world!” he announced.

                “Really? You know the place’s name?” Burrito asked.

                “It’s called Kingston, I think!” Dragon replied.

                Shadow was shoving a meatball in his mouth at the moment and almost choked himself upon hearing the word Kingston.

                “Shadow, are you okay?”

                “I’m fine! I’m fine!” Shadow responded despite having gone red “I was just wondering whether I’d be welcome to join you!”

                “Sure thing!”

 

                One week later, Shadow’s rocket landed on the world that contained the city called Kingston.

                “I’m coming for you, little Enchantress!”

 

                “You underestimated him!” said a man in the dark with a voice just as cruel and cold as the one that responded.

                “I did not expect him to use his magic! But even if he did, you said he wasn’t more powerful than you are!” the Dark Shadow answered.

                “Then, you have clearly underestimated me!”

                “Do you think you are equal to me? Really?” the Darkitect scorned the other.

                “I don’t! I know it!”

                “Don’t be a fool! I am the Master of Maelstrom! No one can reach me! Who are you?”

                “You know very well who I am! And you know who my master was! Even you were afraid of him! Tell me again what did it take for you to imprison him after you arrived in Crux?”

                The Darkitect frowned. He clearly didn’t like where the conversation was going.

                “I had to…” he paused “collaborate with Imagination beings” he sighed.

                “Exactly! As I recall, it was some Mythrans, whoever of the Council of Enchanters could come and you –disguised of course! And you still wouldn’t have managed, if I hadn’t helped you! And that was my master! I am his apprentice, the one whom he chose, because he knew he would be more terrible even from him!”

                “And if you are so great, why do you want to exterminate Wiz Ardon so much?”

                “He was the other option for my master! And I need him out of the way!”

                “Hmm! Still there will be plenty of chances to smash him! I will do it!”

                “You’d better do! You wouldn’t like me to interfere, would you?” and his tone was a bit threatening now.

                “Of course not!” the Darkitect frowned.

                “Good!” the other man then disappeared in black smoke.

                “I’ll show you! You think you’re so great, but in the end, I’ll show you!” and the Dark Shadow left, too. . .