Across the Threshold

Rescue

Shade

He appeared on the stage, right between the strange woman and the skeleton. He raised his armblade and blocked the skeleton, just as he tried to cut off the woman's head.

The skeleton looked at Shade, evidently shocked. It wasn't often that someone just spontaneously appeared in front of you.

Shade shoved forwards, pushing the skeleton back. He turned to free the woman, but stopped when he remembered the Endermen.

"They'll be killed if I leave them," he thought. "I should at least give them a fighting chance."

He lifted his other arm and shot bolts of Arcane Lightning towards the imprisoned Endermen. The lightning struck their bindings, freeing them.

Shade turned back to the woman, meeting her eyes. While she was once resigned to her fate, she now was full of determination. She would not go down without a fight.

She shifted her eyes to behind him, just as Shade had the impression to dodge. He rolled, coming to a crouch with his armblade pointed at his attacker.

"What are you?" the skeleton asked. "You're not an Enderkin, though you display all the powers of one. And you are most certainly not an Ender Watcher, as they are all either here, dead, or hiding."

"My name is my business," he replied. "And my business is stopping you."

He laughed at that.

"You think that you can stop me?" he asked. "The conqueror of the End and defeater of the great Ender Matriarch Ceris?" He gestured to the woman tied up behind me as he said the last bit.

"You will never win, Naeus," she retorted. "Not as long as there are those that defy you."

"But that's just the thing," Naeus crowed. "Soon, there will be no one that defies me. They will all be dead. Starting with you two."

As Naeus launched himself forward, Shade dropped, using his armblade to free Ceris. He grabbed hold of her and teleported them to the other side of the island.

Shade's instincts told him to turn, and when he did, he saw Naeus pointing his spear at them. Energy started to collect around the tip of the weapon.

He suddenly realized what was about to happen. Shade looked over at Ceris and saw that, while she was no doubt a powerful warrior, she was very weak.

Shade crouched over her and raised his armblade, just in time to block an Arcane Beam as it tore towards them.

Shade could feel his armblade start to fade, running out of energy from blocking the beam. He poured energy into the blade, trying to keep it going. The blade's flickering stopped, keeping Naeus's magic from killing him and Ceris.

The pressure on Shade's armblade suddenly vanished. He looked over at the stage and saw that Naeus was gone.

On instinct, he turned and blocked, stopping Naeus's spear just before it hit Ceris. Naeus faltered, surprised.

"How?" he asked. "You anticipate my moves before I even make them. And the amount of energy required to block an Arcane Beam of such magnitude is so great, that only the Ender Arch Enchantress could manage it, and even then it would leave her reserves exhausted. But you didn't even block it with a shield spell and are still fighting like it never happened."

That wasn't entirely true. Blocking the beam had taken a good portion of Shade's energy, but he wasn't going to tell Naeus that.

"It's almost if..," Naeus's eyes widened. "So that's how you do it. I wondered where those had gone."

Naeus teleported away, leaving Shade wondering what he was talking about. He turned and blocked the strike directed at him, but was blasted backward by a burst of magic contained within the strike.

Shade landed on his feet, placing one hand on the ground to keep his balance. He looked up to see Naeus charging at him.

As Naeus closed the distance between them, he teleported into the sky, trying for an overpowering overhead blow. Shade teleported behind Naeus, stabbing him with the armblade. He then kicked off Naeus's back, launching into a backflip.

As he landed, Shade felt a hand on his shoulder. Ceris had grabbed him and teleported the two of them back to the Overworld. His last view of Naeus was of a look of fury.

They appeared back where Shade had first entered this world, with the same four people still standing there. Ceris collapsed after the teleport, evidently having used all her energy. Shade looked at the others who stared back at him in shock.

Shade suddenly stumbled, as if coming out of a trance. He frowned, looking first at the collapsed figure of Ceris, then back at the group.

"I know this will sound strange," he said, "but what just happened?"