Astral Flow

Chapter 73

When Ryder opened his eyes again he was still mid march with everyone else, their journey back to Resovult being a slow one.It wasn't a pleasant time to come back though... that ringing was still piercing his ears.That ringing that never ceases. It echoes endlessly, always signaling the end of the dream.The outcome though is always fixed, no matter how many things change. The burning mud floods the land.The Dark Lord's army marches on Resovult. The Chosen dies.This twisted dream begins again. The end returns to the beginning and the chosen begins their journey again. This hollow "contest" for a throne only one was meant to set upon.Yet they could never make it.Not one single time could they make it.Nor will they... and then the final battle begins.Ryder shudders at the erased memories as they begin to resurface as they always did, for he wasn't allowed to fully forget them.The malformed creatures the burning mud would spawn, the pain they would inflict, the way their screams and madness would claw into the back of one's mind, it was all engraved into his mind. At some point Shade had gained the ability to regress, but even that variable couldn't change anything. No amount of murder, sacrifice, pleading, or dragging the chosen to the end would change anything. Ryder always had to stand before the horde again and beat it back.His sword being broken down before being forced to swap to a spear, his armor being melted and broken apart, the insanity being the only thing keeping him going.At the end of it all he'd see the final sight once again.The Amalgam waiting for him, its egg growing in size each time and the sea of his dead bodies surrounding it.All he needed to do was kill it or survive until The Chosen restarted the dream once more. Something else was different this time though, she carried the stargazer with her, the biggest mystery of this dream.Things have changed far far too drastically, even the arrival of The Dark Lord isn't certain now, and all Ryder can do is worry and wonder.Wonder what is going to happen.Have things actually changed?Is it even possible? "Hey, Ryder, what're you doing? you're lagging behind back there!" Lily calls out to him, snapping him from his thoughts.All he can do is sigh at this and pick up his pace a bit, trying to hide his worry as best he can. "Sorry, I thought I saw something, I think I was mistaken though.""You probably were" Shade interjects "There's nothing that lives near something of that scale, not unless it can easily absorb the amount of mana its putting off.""Oh, so like a witch? or a dragon?" Aranea asked innocently enough, her interest seemingly genuinely piqued at this. "After everything's been so derailed I haven't gotten to learn much about the history of this world or even the magic system itself, not as much as I'd have liked anyway.""Kinda, but it's more complicated than that." Shade responds with an annoyed huff as he begins to slow his pace a bit so he can focus more on explaining the details. "What lives near that large of a source of mana is something called an Elder Beast, think of it like a monster from one of those kaiju films.""Something that big can live here?!" Aranaea seems rather shocked at this, struggling to even figure out how they'd fight it. "We won't run into one, yeah?" "It's not possible to run into one, not from what I've experienced anyway." Shade looks over to Aranea "Much like the gods of this world the Elder Beasts seem to be sleeping or missing as well, making it impossible to see them or gain help from them.""So Ryder really was seeing stuff then..." Lily let out a sigh of relief as she moved up to his side. "If he did see an Elder Beast out here we probably would've been screwed, right?""We would've for sure" Ryder nods in confirmation while looking in the general direction Resovult should be "It would've been able to take out that entire city in under an hour.""SERIOUSLY?!" Aranea and Lily both cry out, looking horrified at this claim."Yeah, though that's not the only thing that could end our survival quickly." Shade remarks as they keep walking. "I take it there's more than the magic we saw as well?" Laurence, who had been quietly marching in the middle, finally asked. His eyes were focused on Shade who seemed to shrink back a little in response. "Yeah... the big things are The Dark Lord, The Witch of Eternity, and The Stargazer.""Okay I know I've heard of two of those... The Dark Lord is one of the immediate threats as he's gunning for the throne and The Witch is a wildcard as no one really knows her too well." Laurence begins "So, who's The Stargazer? None of the texts we've searched even mentioned that title.""It's because he doesn't exist, yet he does." Shade groans a bit while explaining this, clearly annoyed at having to even talk about this. "Look all you need to know is his existence in and of itself is a paradox, something that can't be and yet is, and just like The Gods and Elder Beasts there's no way to meet him before he calls down The Starfall and wipes out everyone including whatever is waiting beyond that fucked up portal.""There's really no way?" Laurence probes as he looks over at Shade."Not as far as I know" he grumbles in response, getting more annoyed by the second. "Look if there was I'd have gone looking for him already, at this point the only way I can see us surviving this is by getting the help of one of those three, that's why I've been trying to get on The Dark Lord's good side.""Oh? Is that why you're so high leveled in comparison to everyone else? By my estimation Demea was talking about how your kind of gear and spells should only be obtained late game by siding with The Dark Lord's faction." Laurence points out causing Shade to shrink back a bit more."But the servers didn't open up until the launch day, how did you join him before that?" Lily was the one asking questions now, there were answers she needed before her own regression after all. "It's simple really, before the servers turn on the game still has an offline mode and during that time it still feels like a game." Shade replies surprisingly honestly "So since my second loop I've been getting the game a couple days in advance from a local shop and speedrunning it to prepare, it hasn't really mattered though.""You got it or stole it?" Ryder accuses while looking at Shade. "Even my friend who runs a shop refused to give me a copy until launch day.""DOES IT MATTER IF I STOLE IT AT THIS POINT?!" Shade retorts rather loudly while throwing his hands up into the air "ALL THAT MATTERS IS THAT THROUGH ALL MY LOOPS THERE'S BEEN NO WAY OUT AND I'VE TRIED EVERYTING SO FAR!""Everything you could think of." Laurence points out. "Yeah, what if there's just been something you've been missing? Like a secret quest somewhere?" Aranea chimes in again, rather excitedly this time. "These types of games like to hide secrets after all.""Oh gee, thanks, that's so helpful... without an active guide through the game though I'll just have to go through constant trial and error to find that stuff." Shade reminds them while trying to focus on the path back to Resovult now. "Besides if there is a secret it's probably well hidden since only The Dark Lord even knew of The Stargazer.""Why don't we ask Demea when we get back?" Aranea throws out. "She worked on the game, chances are she knows something, right?" "That's if you can get her to talk, she's refused to talk about it plenty of times even when I got close to her before." Shade spits back, growing increasingly tired of this conversation as he speeds up a bit. That's when Lily chimes in one final time, a strange smile on her face. "Let me talk to her when I get back, I think I can learn a thing or two."A strange sense of unease washed over the group as they looked at this smile, it didn't seem like one her normal smiles but there was really no reason to say no.What's the worst that could happen after all?