The Ruler of Light

Prolouge: Divided is the World

     Hide. Run away and hide. This was the only sane left in Jay's mind as he tore, with adrenaline like afterburners, through the shaded forest. Fleeing from a danger unknown, he ripped open his pants and cut the whole length of his remaining arm up, but nothing seemed to matter except escape.
     Go. Go as fast as you can, or die as painfully as you can.
     As his broken, tired body slowed down, the thing he was running from came gaining, close enough to hear the earth shattering and sum how sinister rumble that reverberated from it. He hoped, with all hope that hadn't been torturously drawn from him, drop by drop, that this encouragement would be enough to power his fragile body to where he wanted to go- to safety, to home.

     That word gave him just a single drop of courage, but now, even that felt like a tidal wave. Like switching into another gear, he received a boost- one just large enough for him to leave the dreadful noise behind him.

     The next sound was one he had been dreading ever since he opened the gate to the enemy camp and run into the night- like the wing beat of an eagle, but a thousand times louder and fiercer.The sound of the creature lifting itself into the black sky.

     He run at what seemed beyond human speeds, running faster even then before. Slowly, it seemed to him, he leaped and ducked his way closer to his goal. Finally, he reached the edge. On the other side of his line of sight was a flat expanse of clearing, then a gap; which if he jumped over, it would greatly improve his survival chances.

     Driven half mad by his recent suffering, he sprinted into the open without thinking. Within three yards, 2 flaming projectiles hurled his way, one glowing white hot, the other a sinister, irregular black. In his heightened state of awareness, he managed to register all of this and dodge them both in the split second the fireballs ripped their way towards his unprotected self.

     The twin intense heat alone was enough for ordinary people to instantly have a double heatstroke, but then again, if he was normal, he would have died his first night at the place. Instead, he barely registered the pain before continuing his desperate shot at safety. Next he rolled to avoid black sabers of rock and a 15 foot gray spear of sharpened ice, which evaporated in the heat.

     15 meters. 10 meters. 7. 6. 5. When he reached four the unthinkable happened: a white fireball grazed his back, melting his heat-proof clothes and literally searing his back open. Even with his trademark ability to nullify pain, it felt like an explosion had been produced from within his back.

     No. No, no, no, no, no. I refuse to die like this. Steeling every fiber of his being, he pulled himself up and leaped 10 straight feet: across  the remaining area and over the edge, preparing himself for a running start.

     As he hit the ground and left the edge as far away as possible, the sound of it engaged in combat with the outer automatic defenses echoed past, the thing screaming, the blast of the water cannons...

    Of he went. All of this had gone by so fast, he was reaching a human limit where, no matter how strong his will, he was doomed. In his mind, which was going fuzzy, he saw a measurement tool, which told him how much energy he had left. It was already in the red zone- or maybe he was just delusional.

     As he stumbled to the ground for the last time, he saw feet and heard voices ... or was this imaginary as well? Down he fell, down, down, down. He thought, as his sight went black, Well, if I'm dying, at least they didn't do it.

      Points of light appeared, blaring and jarring his vision. As the light dimmed, he croaked, "Get Eldra." Many voices went around, saying things like, "just recovered" and "not ready". "I said, go get Eldra!" He put all the strength he could muster into the words, and as the doctors realized the importance and fetched Eldra, he rested. He needed to have enough strength to tell him.

     "Hey, I'm here, I'm here," came a familiar voice. Though he still couldn't see clearly, he said, "Eldra," and made an estimation of where he was to look him straight in the eye. "Eldra, they're back. The tenebrii have returned."