"The Portal" - Chapter 4: Unlikely Allies

            Helixea and her squad soon reached the outskirts of the town they had seen in the distance. It consisted of a small settlement surrounded on all sides by a wall made of bricks of this land’s stone and with a heavy, metal gate barring entry. Outside the gate stood Erebus, backed by a double line of armed and armored enderman militia as well as a few watchlings, blastlings, and snarelings. The snarelings looked like slightly hunched-over endermen with yellow arms that bend backwards in a sickle-like shape. Each one had a translucent, yellow-green lump on its back that seemingly connected to an opening in its chest.

            As both sides began to draw their weapons, another enderman appeared in a violet cloud, standing between the two forces. This enderman wore loose, purple robes and dark hand wraps. She motioned for the other endermen to lower their weapons as she approached the members of A.L.E.R.T.

            “Greetings, I am Tenebrea,” the enderman spoke.

            “You’re the first enderman we have met that speaks our language,” Dr. Bones thoughtfully commented.

            “I have learned to harness my ki to allow all intelligent races to understand my speech, and me to understand theirs,” the monk explained.

            “So, you can translate between us and Erebus then?” Helixea hopefully questioned.

            “Certainly. First off, I believe that you were attacked because Erebus is this town’s captain of the guard, and he saw you as invaders. It did not help that you were making eye contact, which is considered a sign of aggression in our culture.”

            “I assure you that we have not come to invade this land. The company we work for accidentally opened a portal to this dimension and we were sent to investigate. We are here for peaceful research,” Helixea detailed.

            Tenebrea turned and relayed the message to Erebus in the language of the endermen, and the two of them had a short conversation before the monk turned to face the group once more.

            “Erebus apologizes for the misunderstanding and says that we can have peace,” she translated.

            “Excellent! With that out of the way, I want to propose a trade partnership, seeing as each of our dimensions appears to have materials the other does not,” B.I.L.L. suggested.

            “Who is speaking in my mind?” Tenebrea warily questioned.

            “That is B.I.L.L. His name is an acronym for Ball of Integrated Lore and Learning. He is a sentient crystal ball that is monitoring our journey on behalf of our company’s leader,” Kethra clarified.

            “May we stay the night in this town while we discuss the trade deal and wait for the other half of our group to return?” Helixea asked.

            “Yes, you may,” the interpreter acquiesced.

            “The other half of our team went through some kind of gateway to another part of this dimension and were attacked by a masked enderman with telekinetic powers. Can you give us an explanation for that?”  the team leader queried.

            “They must have traveled to the city of Choros,” Tenebrea explained. “The enderman who attacked them was Lord Aurack, the governor of this region of the End. He is very distrusting of outsiders.”

Ì

            A short while later, Morthos flew over the town’s wall and landed in the square. He almost immediately spotted the rest of his squad and sprinted over to them. As he reached his teammates, he pulled the bag from his back and dumped his injured allies out of it.

            “That did not go well,” he affirmed with a sigh.

            “I can see that. Give me a few minutes and I can have the others patched up,” Kethra responded, summoning her medical supplies from within her gloves.

Ì

            Cries of alarm rang out from atop the town walls as the sentries spotted an army approaching. Erebus drew his greatsword and teleported atop the wall, motioning for A.L.E.R.T. to follow up the stairs. The guard captain looked out over the terrain in front of the town. Assembled before the gate was a small army of robed and armored endermen. At the head of the army stood a dark figure with glowing, white eyes who was flanked by two endersent, giants that looked much like endermen, but stood much taller and had massive clublike hands. Above the army hovered a ship much like the one that the members of A.L.E.R.T. had spotted above the city of Choros, except this one was armed with cannons.

            “Who are you and why are you threatening my town?”  Erebus shouted in his native language.

            Null stared up at Erebus for a moment before motioning to his troops and shouting, “Destroy this worthless town in Nihil’s name!” in the language of the endermen. A few seconds later, the end ship’s cannons began firing on the town’s walls. Erebus and his men quickly teleported outside to meet the invaders, and the members of A.L.E.R.T. charged through the space where the now-destroyed gate had been.

            Darvin was taken by surprise as Null emerged from his shadow and kicked his legs out from under him. He rolled out of the way of a punch and regained his footing just in time to be sent sprawling by an uppercut to the jaw. The entity kicked the security guard in the face in rapid succession until the man was unconscious. Null knelt down, snapped Darvin’s neck, and took the electric baton from his cold, dead hand.

            The dark monster turned just in time to block Erebus’ shadowy copy’s greatsword. Null delivered a mighty kick to the echo’s midsection, which caused it to burst into smoke. The entity leapt back, barely escaping the reach of the real Erebus’s swing. Null formed an orb of darkness in his hand and hurled it at the enderman commander. Erebus disappeared, allowing the orb to pass through the space he had been standing in and hurtle into the void.

            Tenebrea faced down one of the hulking endersent. She stood for a moment, concentrating her ki. As the towering creature approached, a wave of astral power shot out from the monk in all directions. The endersent put its arms in front of its face to protect itself and was pushed back a step, while several of the endermen under Null’s command were knocked from their feet. Tenebrea stood, her body enveloped in her astral form. Her face was covered by an expressionless spectral mask, and translucent arms hovered above her own. The endersent swung its massive fist down at the monk, but she nimbly leapt over the attack. Tenebrea delivered a flurry of spectral punches to the giant’s leg, causing enough pain to force the beast to fall to one knee. She sprung into the air attempting to deliver a blow to its jaw, but the creature teleported out of the way, reappearing twenty feet behind where it had been.

            Thunder appeared behind the second endersent in a cloud of mist and slashed his energized, twin scimitars across the back of its leg. The giant emitted an otherworldly howl of pain as it slammed its fist into the ground where the tabaxi had been standing. As the endersent whirled around looking for its assailant, it was struck by a blast of arcane energy from Arveene’s rifle. The hulking creature teleported in front of the human security guard and swung its terrific arm down at her. She leapt to the side of the endersent and fired off a duo of shots into its arm.

            Thunder returned from the ethereal plane, standing atop the wall. He leapt down and stabbed both of his blades into the giant’s shoulder. Before the diplomat knew what was happening, the beast’s massive fingers closed around him and plucked him from its shoulder before flinging him bodily against the town’s wall. As Arveene fired more shots into its torso, the roaring monster put its hands together and slammed its fists into the ground, the resulting shockwave sending the security guard flying. Arveene landed prone next to the injured tabaxi.

            Morthos landed upon the deck of the end ship. Before him stood an enderman wearing a captain’s hat and a fancy coat made from some dark fabric. A cutlass materialized in the captain’s hand, and he motioned for the six guards scattered around the deck to attack. Morthos summoned a small, metal box into his hand, which he tossed to the ground. The cube rapidly unfolded and transformed into a miniature, arcane ballista attached to four spiderlike, metal legs. Mort blocked the first guard’s sword with the shaft of his spear and drove him back. Before he could swing again, the cultist was struck in the chest by a shot from the ballista and stumbled back. As the demon impaled the guard on his spear, the captain reached out his hand and Morthos’ mind was assaulted by dark whispering. Mort managed to shake off the whispers, but was distracted just long enough for one of the cultists to slash him across the shoulder.

            Dr. Bones looked out over the battlefield, seeing that the defenders were outnumbered. The skeleton chanted an arcane incantation and summoned a sinkhole in gravity itself that sucked in and crushed several cultists.

Kethra ran to an injured member of the militia who was lying on the ground, then summoned a syringe from her dimensional storage. She jabbed the enderman with the needle and he was quickly revitalized. He got back to his feet as the medic’s construct bodyguard hoisted a nearby cultist into the air by the throat and hurled him away.

            Luth the Wight and Kethoth the mummy stood back-to-back, fending off several of Null’s soldiers with their blades. Luth grabbed a cultist’s arm and drained the life from his body as, on the other side of him, Kethoth impaled another foe upon his sword. Above them hovered Stedd the ghost, who shot a cultist between the eyes with his spectral revolver.

            Erebus lunged forward, swinging his greatsword down at Null. The entity leapt to the side and jabbed his stolen baton into the enderman’s midsection, delivering a painful shock. Null kicked Erebus from his feet and pulled back his arm, preparing to deliver a devastating baton strike.

A moment later, the entity was thrown to the ground by an impressive blast of electricity and thunderous force. He rolled out of the way of Helixea’s incoming fist, which slammed into the ground. Null leapt to his feet and swung his baton at his new foe. The medusa pressed a button on her armored wrist, and her armor was wreathed in thin, wispy flames that did her no harm. As the entity’s weapon connected with Helixea’s shoulder, her aura of flames flared out for a moment, scorching Null’s arm.

Null retreated a few steps and summoned an inky tentacle from the ground, which wrapped itself around Erebus as he attempted to charge the shadowy monster. Erebus concentrated for a moment, and a new dark echo of himself materialized next to the tentacles’ base, slashing it with its inky blade. The militia commander barely managed to land on his feet as he fell from the dissipating tentacle.

            Tenebrea dashed towards the endersent as it got to its feet. It punched down at the monk, but she vanished in a lavender cloud and appeared atop its arm. The enderman sprinted up the giant’s arm and delivered a flurry of punches to its face using the spectral arms that hovered above her own. The endersent staggered back and forth before finally collapsing to the ground with a tremendous thud.

            Thunder got to his feet and sidestepped a blow from the other endersent’s fist. The tabaxi’s blade glowed with green light as he slashed it across the beast’s hand. Several vines sprouted up from the stone ground in response to the blow and began to wrap around the giant’s arm. Meanwhile, Arveene regained her footing and fired her arcane rifle into the monster’s leg. With its massive strength, the endersent pulled its arm free of the vines and grabbed the human security guard, lifting her into the air.

            Thunder sprinted toward the endersent, but a stomp of its foot generated enough of a shockwave to keep him at bay. Arveene struggled against the giant’s grip as it began to brutally squeeze her. A moment later, a series of sickening crunches echoed across the battlefield as the security guard’s bones were crushed within her armor and the endersent tossed her mangled corpse aside.

            The cultist was blasted by a wave of fire from Morthos’ hands and stumbled off the ship’s edge while trying to put out his robes. The captain teleported out of the way of a shot from the demon’s miniature force ballista and reappeared next to the turret. The warlock grabbed the ballista with one hand, hoisted it above his head, and tossed it over the side of his vessel.

Morthos jabbed a guard in the stomach with the butt of his spear, then shouted in anger as another foe slashed him across one wing. The demon turned to face his assailant and knocked the guard’s next strike aside with his own. The spear’s head briefly separated into two halves as a beam of arcane power fired from the weapon’s end and fatally struck the cultist in the chest.

The captain pointed his cutlass at Morthos, and the weapon’s blade glowed with malevolent green energy. Two bolts of eldritch power shot from the cutlass and painfully struck the demon in his armored chest. Mort furiously plunged his spear into a charging guard’s chest and then howled with pain as another cultist stabbed his uninjured wing.

            Null channeled his hatred, rage, and spite into his baton, and the crackling of electricity was joined by that of shadowy power. The entity lunged forward, swinging wildly and ferociously at Helixea, but the medusa avoided the attack with serpentine grace and delivered a thunderous punch to Null’s midsection. In the moment it took for the dark figure to recover, a few of the snakes that comprised the A.L.E.R.T. commander’s hair lashed out and bit the entity, but the venom had no effect upon him.

            Helixea blocked her foe’s strike with her armored gauntlets, but was taken aback by the incredible force of the blow. Null followed up with another swing that struck the mask from the medusa’s face, shattered the reinforced visor, and knocked Helixea to the ground as her armor blasted the entity with flames.

Before Null could swing again, he was sliced across the back by a greatsword. The entity spun around and struck his assailant in the head, dissipating Erebus’ duplicate. The real Erebus leapt at Null, but the entity’s baton bashed his weapon out of the way. The dark creature furiously slammed his weapon into the enderman’s chest, and before he could recover, the militia commander was struck in the leg, causing him to fall to one knee. With a scream of rage, Null slammed his weapon against the bottom of Erebus’ jaw, sending him sprawling. The entity swung his weapon down a final time, but his blow connected only with stone, exhausting the last of the baton’s dark energy in the process.

            Null was caught off guard as Helixea wrapped her tail tightly around him, knocking the weapon from his hands in the process. Null struggled against the medusa as he was painfully constricted and burned by her armored body, and he found himself unable to teleport due to the bright light the flames emitted. The A.L.E.R.T. commander’s eyes locked onto those of her foe in an attempt to petrify him, but the dark creature easily shook off the effect. In his desperation, the entity managed to reach up and grab a handful of Helixea’s snake hair.

The medusa cried out in pain and momentarily loosened her hold on her foe as her hair was yanked to one side. In her brief moment of distraction, Null managed to force his way out of her coils and deliver a powerful kick to her abdomen. “Get her!” he furiously shouted in the endermen’s language as he pointed at the squad leader. Holding one hand on his injured midsection, he limped to the nearest shadow and plunged into it as several nearby cultists rushed at the winded medusa.

            The endersent pulled back its arm to strike down at Thunder with its massive fist, but stopped when a tiny meteor collided with its face. Both the tabaxi and the giant quickly turned to look for the source of the projectile and spotted Dr. Bones standing a short distance away with several minute meteors orbiting his head.

            “Seemed like you could use a hand,” the skeleton commented as another projectile flew from its orbit to hurtle towards the endersent.

            The towering beast teleported to the side of the meteor, but did not anticipate the skeleton quick-drawing his arcane revolver and firing directly into its eye. The giant roared with pain and collapsed to the ground, creating a minor earthquake.

            Morthos spun around and stabbed at his attacker, but the enderman disappeared in a haze of purple particles. Another guard leapt through the air and slammed his feet into the demon’s back, shoving him over the ship’s side. As Mort plummeted through the air, he attempted to take flight, but due to the damage to his wings, he was merely able to control and slow his fall a little and he landed hard on the stone ground.

            Kethoth swung his sword toward the advancing cultist, but he suddenly found himself unable to move his arm. The mummy turned to see Null holding onto his wrist, and before he could try to free his arm, the mummy was impaled by the blade of the cultist he had tried to kill. The entity twisted the sword from Kethoth’s grip, caught it with his other hand, and sliced the head from the mummy’s shoulders, before vanishing into the shadow of the attacking cultist.

            Helixea struggled to dodge the cultists’ onslaught as she regained her breath, taking a few glancing blows to her sides and tail in the process, however her flaming armor punished her attackers and kept them at bay. The medusa managed to catch her breath and assume a ready stance, but she realized that she had been surrounded. The cultists charged in unison, but two of them suddenly dropped to the ground as they received blows to the back of the head. Behind them stood Tenebrea, who leapt into the fray, punching Null’s soldiers left and right. Helixea turned to deal with the cultists on her other side and immediately downed a cultist with a thunderous punch. The next foe in line was unfortunate enough to meet the medusa’s gaze and became a statue. The two women fought back-to-back, expertly holding off their numerous foes.

            After her construct bodyguard had been destroyed by Null’s troops, Kethra retreated to within the relative safety of what remained of the town’s walls and began having injured soldiers brought in for her to heal. Presently, Erebus teleported, still sprawled on the ground, to appear in front of the medic. A few seconds later, the militia captain’s echo strode up to the pair, dragging behind it the unconscious form of Morthos. “Looks like you two got messed up pretty bad. I’ll see what I can do” Kethra somewhat nervously observed.

            Null stood behind his forces, observing the battle from the back. There were multiple powerful foes carving through many of his troops, but despite that, his forces still significantly outnumbered his enemies and the entity felt that it was only a matter of time until victory was his.

            The fighting suddenly ground to a halt as a roar echoed from the sky and across the battlefield. The soldiers on both sides turned to look up at the source. Flying towards the town was a huge dragon with black scales, purple eyes, and dark grey back spines, horns, and wing edges. The dragon swooped over the battlefield, expelling a torrent of lavender acid from its maw onto the entity’s army.

            The beast strafed the battlefield a couple more times before seemingly spotting Null. It flew over the entity’s head, and its dark-robed rider leapt from its back, flipped through the air, and landed a short distance in front of Null. “So, you can come back from the dead, can you?” the endermen rhetorically questioned in his species’ language, speaking in a tone that was equal parts mocking and threatening.

            “Aurack?!” the entity furiously spat.

            “Indeed,” the governor responded as he ignited the twin orange blades of his strange weapon.

            After strafing the cultists with its breath attack a few more times, the dragon glided down and landed next to Helixea. “Want a ride up to that end ship?” The dragon cheerfully offered in draconic, a language that the medusa understood.

            “That would be rather helpful,” she responded.

            The dragon scooped up the medusa with its claws and carried her through the air before dropping her gently onto the hovering vessel’s deck and flying off to rejoin the fight.

            Null conjured an orb of darkness in his hand and hurled it at Aurack. The enderman nonchalantly caught the projectile with telekinesis and flung it into the void. In his injured state, the entity struggled to fend off the many strikes of his foe’s whirling blades. Null leapt backwards and sunk into a nearby shadow, appearing a short way behind Aurack, then summoned a cloud of arcane darkness to blind the enderman.

            Lord Aurack closed his eyes and focused on his surroundings. After a few seconds had passed, he sensed the fiend’s approach and reflexively spun his weapon to block his foe’s stolen blade. Having been shocked by the ease with which his enemy foiled his attack, Null was caught off guard by the sudden wave of force that threw him from his feet and flung him backwards. Aurack confidently strode out of the cloud of darkness as beams of electricity arced from his fingertips and into his foe’s body.

            The gems on the back of Helixea’s hands flared with intense electricity as she slammed her knuckles together. The two charging guards were thrown backwards and slammed hard against the stairs leading up to the helm. Unlike his comrades, the ship’s captain managed to teleport out of the way of the blast and appear next to the wheel unscathed. The two guards got to their feet and teleported behind the medusa. As foes appeared behind her, Helixea turned around and sprayed an oil slick from a nozzle in her forearm armor. The two endermen attempted to lunge at the enemy commander, but slipped on the oil and fell on their faces before being swept over the ship’s edge with a flick of the medusa’s tail.

            The captain conjured a whip made from lightning in his hand and swept it toward the invader of his vessel. The whip wrapped itself around Helixea’s wrist and delivered an electrical jolt through her armor, and the enderman began magically reeling the weapon in, attempting to drag his foe towards him. The medusa grinned as she grabbed hold of the cord with her free hand and leaned back, pulling him with her full might in a single, tremendous tug. The captain was yanked towards her and landed unceremoniously on the ground, the whip dissipating from his hand and the sword clattering to the ground a few feet away.

            The enderman stood up and found himself face to face with Helixea, who had raised herself up on her snake-like lower body to match the lanky creature’s height. The captain prepared to cast a spell, but suddenly found himself unable to move as his form began to harden. A few seconds later, the end ship’s captain was nothing but a stone statue, which Helixea shattered with a punch before slithering toward the vessel’s controls.

            Luth and Stedd struggled desperately to fend off the horde. No matter how many foes they put down, more seemed to arrive. Just as it seemed the pair would be overwhelmed, a shadowy greatsword blade emerged from one cultist’s stomach, and an ender steel greatsword emerged from another. A third enemy was blown away with an arcane blunderbuss. Luth and Stedd turned to see that the newly healed Erebus and Morthos had rejoined the fray.

            Null lay on the ground, being blasted with lightning from his foe’s fingertips. The entity struggled to get up, but was unable due to the pain. In his fury at his current circumstance, he hurled his sword at his foe with a scream of rage. Aurack deftly deflected the weapon with his own and the alchemos sword spun off the edge of the island. In the process, however, the enderman had halted his electric barrage, and the entity capitalized by standing up and sinking into a shadow.

            Aurack was flung to the ground as his adversary appeared behind him and kicked him in the back. Null’s follow-up punch slammed into the stone of the island as the enderman utilized his race’s innate ability to teleport. The governor appeared behind the monster and slashed him across the back three times in quick succession before slamming the hilt of his double-bladed weapon into Null’s head, sending him to the ground. Null struggled to regain his feet, but found himself too injured to do so. Aurack used his telekinetic might to lift his fallen foe into the air.

            “You cannot destroy me, mortal!” Null bellowed in a furious, but strained, voice.

            “Maybe I cannot… but I would like to see you try and come back from this one!” the masked enderman responded with a maniacal laugh.

            Before the entity could respond, Aurack telekinetically hurled Null off the island’s edge and watched as the dark creature plummeted out of sight and into the darkness of the void.

            Helixea coiled herself up like a spring before leaping off the doomed vessel’s deck as the ship continued its crash course with the ground. The medusa landed gracefully on the stone ground as the vessel plummeted into Null’s remaining forces and burst into shrapnel.

            With their leader gone, their ship crashed, and the majority of their comrades dead, the remaining cultists almost immediately routed and teleported from the battlefield. Aurack turned off his weapon, replaced its hilt within his robes, and strode over to Erebus and Tenebrea, where the three enderman leaders began conversing. A few minutes later, Tenebrea appeared next to the remaining A.L.E.R.T. personnel.

            “Erebus and I have spoken with Aurack. He has decided to make peace with you and agree to your trade deal,” she cheerfully explained.

            “Excellent,” Helixea responded. “Do you think Null will ever return?”

            “Our people do not know much for certain about the void, but what we do know is that nobody who has fallen into it, without immediately teleporting or flying back up, has ever been seen again,” the enderman enlightened. “So, what will you do now?”

            “We will collect the bodies of our fallen comrades, and the bodies of some of yours if that’s OK with you, and take them back to our dimension to have them resurrected by the priests of Ravius.”

            “Yes, you may,” the monk acquiesced.

            “And I, for one, will be researching how to translate your language into ours,” B.I.L.L. excitedly announced.

"The Portal" - Chapter 3: Otherworldly Threats

Dr. Firehammer and the other researchers stared in shock and horror as a shadowy figure with blazing white eyes emerged from the portal. Null stood for several seconds, looking from side to side and surveying the room.

“Bill, show Wendellor what’s going on in here, quick!” Firehammer demanded to the crystal ball in the corner in an urgent whisper.

“On it,” B.I.L.L. responded.

“Open… the… door,” Null commanded in a low and threatening voice.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the dwarf firmly declared, having steeled his resolve.

The dark being shook his head before raising one hand into the air, conjuring forth a large, inky tentacle from the ground on the other side of the translucent magical barrier. Null swung his arm to the side and the tentacle followed suit, smashing the testing chamber’s ceiling light and leaving it dimly lit by a few arcane lanterns.

“Anyone who can’t hold your own in a fight, run now!” Flint shouted gruffly as he unlocked the room’s door with his keycard. Most of the researchers immediately fled through the open door, leaving only Dr. Firehammer, a human named Dr. Kosef, a vampire named Dr. Armand, and the room’s duo of security constructs.

Null laughed wickedly as he vanished into the floor and reappeared in one of the room’s darkened corners. First to react to his arrival were the security constructs who took aim with their magical rifles. The gems along the sides of each rifle rapidly lit up in series from back to front as the guns began firing rounds of glowing green projectiles.

The shadow man deftly bobbed and weaved between the shots as he approached the nearest droid. In a flash, he drew a katana with a midnight black hilt and gleaming white blade. In the same motion, he swung it through the air and sliced his assailant’s firearm in twain. The guard extended its arm-blade in time to parry the next swing, but it was mightily kicked backward, and the third strike relieved it of its arm.

Null thrust his katana through the construct’s abdomen and held up the damaged automaton to block the next few shots from its companion. Once the impaled guard had been rendered inactive by its ally’s misplaced shots, Null hoisted it into the air, pulled his blade from its torso, and hurled it against the second construct, smashing them both against a wall.

The monstrous figure grunted angrily as he was struck in the shoulder by a shot from Dr. Kosef’s arcane handgun. A moment later, Null rose from the floor behind the human researcher and separated his head from his shoulders with a well-placed sweep.

Dr. Arman leapt through the air and struck down at the murderous nightmare with his enchanted saber, but Null leapt back, avoiding the strike before striding forwards and crossing blades with the vampire. After a few swings back and forth, the two got into a blade-lock, which Null resolved by forcefully shoving Armand back with his immense strength. With a wicked grin and a wave of his hand, the monster motioned his summoned tentacle to strike at his off-balance foe. Armand was flung into the far wall by the dark tendril’s mighty swipe.

A loud boom rang through the facility as Dr. Firehammer discharged his arcane blunderbuss into the tentacle, dispersing it into smoke. The dwarf grunted in surprise as the firearm was wrenched from his grasp and thrown across the room. The grizzled scientist grabbed the enchanted hammer from his belt and swung it hard into Null’s midsection. The strange creature recovered from the pain with inhuman speed and easily deflected the next few hammer blows. Null grabbed hold of the dwarf’s wrist and twisted it to breaking. Dr. Firehammer screamed in agony as the weapon dropped from his limp hand. Before his adversary could recover, Null rammed the hilt of his katana into the researcher’s chin with enough force to knock him into unconsciousness. The monster threw Firehammer to the ground and stopped to survey his handiwork, just in time to see Armand turn to mist and fly through the crack between a door and a wall.

Null quickly turned to look at the entrance corridor as he began to hear metallic footsteps coming from it. Walking down the hall was a tall construct shaped much like a full suit of armor and made from adamantine. It was obviously highly advanced, judging by all of its blinking lights and gizmos. Blue light shone from within its visor. The construct examined the scene for a few moments before projecting a voice from the speaker built into its helmet. “I see that you were able to best Dr. Firehammer and the alchemos guards. While that is rather impressive and I would be quite interested in studying whatever it is that you are, I am going to have to ask you to return to the dimension on the other side of the portal.”

            “Who are you, a mere automated security measure, to command me, one of Nihil’s most favored creations?” Null disdainfully sneered.

            “Big talk from someone that, by my analysis, has next to no grasp of the situation,” the voice mocked in a voice full of confidence and amusement. “You see, I am not a mere ‘automated security measure’ as you say. What you see before you is one of my drones, which I am controlling remotely.”

            “So who, then, do I have the pleasure of speaking to? A retired technology professor?” Null questioned in an insulting, irritated tone.

            “Wrong again, whoever you are. You truly know nothing of whom you are speaking to. I am Wendellor the great, Phoros’ first artificer, member of the Undying Council, inventor of many types of constructs seen throughout the world, and CEO of SkullTech, the company whose headquarters you now stand within,” Wendellor smugly detailed. “Now that you know who I am, who perchance are you who dares to slink out of that strange dimension, break into my lab, disrupt my research, assault my staff, and impudently insult me in my own place of business?”

            “I am Null, one of the entities, great and immortal beings the whims of which mere mortals should not interfere in!” Null spat, a venomous edge to his voice.

            “So, the entities are not mere folktales, after all. I am hardly surprised, mind you. However, knowing that they are real shall make for some fascinating research . . . once I deal with you, of course,” Wendellor mused.

            “I have heard of you, a mad scientist who left his people and threw his lot in with the dead because he could not get funding for his worthless inventions. So then, this must be the Empire of Undeath I have heard so much about. I honestly thought the Great Builder Empire would have wiped your foolish, rotting kingdom off the map by now,” the entity disparagingly commented.

            Boisterous laughter echoed from the droid for several seconds before the company’s CEO voiced his response, in a tone that demonstrated more amusement than outrage at the insults. “Given that you know so much about our dimension—and I find it unlikely you could have learned these things from spies—I gather that you must have hailed from our dimension and somehow become stranded in that one,” Wendellor theorized. “However, if my theory is correct (and I very much think it is), then you must have been gone quite some time longer than you think.”

            “You must have at least some intelligence, seeing as you are correct about my origins, but while I have certainly been gone a while, it cannot have been more than a few decades, and that time has done nothing to dull my hatred for the accursed crafters who put me in that place,” Null frustratedly responded.

            “A few decades, you say?” the brain chuckled over the speaker. “Given that the dimension from whence you came has no obvious day-night cycle or other indicated marker of time, I believe I can see how you became so woefully confused. Now then, let me explain to you just how long you must have been gone and how outdated your information is. For one thing, the Great Builder Empire of which you speak was wiped out by the collective might of most of this continent’s nations a little more than six centuries ago, and the people of that extinct empire are now referred to as the ancient builders. Furthermore, the facts you have listed about my past are accurate, apart from the fact that my so-called people were avaricious fools who cared nothing for the advancement of science. However, the time period in which it would have been at all accurate was before the ancient builders were crushed, and I have since become an accomplished and well-known inventor who has published many of the greatest scientific works this world has ever seen,” Wendellor thoroughly corrected.

            The dark figure stood stunned for several moments, seemingly unable to process the situation at hand.

            “Do not be alarmed, surprise and anger are typical side-effects of having just found out that several centuries have passed you by,” the artificer reassured.

            Null remained in place for a few more moments, shaking with rage. A moment later, he let out a terrifying and otherworldly scream, raised his blade, and leapt at the scientist’s proxy. The drone held out its hand, which emitted a violet glow as space twisted around Null, mid-air, and sucked him into a vortex. An instant later, the entity was shot out of another vortex a few feet to the side of where he had been, burying his blade in a wall.

            As Null dislodged his weapon with a mighty heave, Wendellor’s adamantine hand detached from his arm and flew through the air, propelled by an arcane thruster. The gauntlet slammed into the entity’s side in a burst of magical power and flung him to the ground. Raising his hand into the air, Null conjured up a large dark tendril from the floor. The gauntlet reversed its course and returned to the drone, reattaching itself. A hatch opened in the construct’s metal forearm, from which four metallic tubes emitted a volley of small projectiles. The tentacle swung through the air, but the projectiles curved their trajectories to intercept it, vaporizing it in a series of small explosions.

Null emerged from the ground behind his foe and swung his blade in a deadly arc, but it was blocked with surprising speed by the drone’s arm. The katana struck the arm with full force, but the cut only managed to make a small gash in the adamantine. Wendellor’s other hand suddenly began to glow red-hot, and his arm swung in a wide arc. Null disappeared into the floor just in time to avoid the punch, which made a sizable dent in the wall. The entity reappeared at the other end of the room and stretched out his hands. From his palms flowed a stream of darkness that blotted out all light around the impressive construct. A moment later, the blue light from the drone’s visor increased greatly in intensity, emitting a bright beam of light that erased the magical darkness.

            Electricity started to rapidly build up around the drone’s right hand, crackling loudly. A concentrated beam of it launched from the robotic arm, followed by another, and another. Null nimbly sidestepped the first and barely dodged the second, getting hit by stray electrical arcs in the process. He was flung backward upon being struck dead in the chest by the third.

            The entity regained his footing in no time and sprinted toward Wendellor with astounding speed. The construct took off into the air with the aid of magical thrusters on the bottom of its feet. Null’s strikes passed just under the drone as it took to the air. A hatch opened in one of the metallic warrior’s gauntlets and a massive projection of a hand emitted from it, which followed the gauntlet’s every move. The projection grabbed hold of Null and hoisted him into the air, before slamming him against the wall of force. The entity tried desperately to teleport away, but held within the beam of light from the construct’s visor, he had no shadow to sink into. The drone’s other hand began to glow with the same heat as the first and both gauntlets flew toward the defenseless Null.

“This is the first time in ages that I have been able to test my creation’s full might in the heat of battle. I thank you for the data,” Wendellor excitedly declared. The next moment, both red-hot fists collided with Null in dual bursts of fire and magical energy, and the projected hand vanished.

From the cloud of smoke came a ball of dark energy that crashed into the mechanical champion’s chest in a burst of darkness that pushed it back several feet. Null emerged from the dissipating smoke, dashing toward the open doorway while clutching his chest with one hand. The drone’s fingertips emitted a terrific and precise burst of magnetism that violently slammed shut the heavy steel door. The construct hovered rapidly toward the entity, pulling back one hand for a punch.

            Null channeled his dark powers and his rage into his blade, setting it alight with crackling dark energy. As his foe approached, he hurled the weapon with all of his might. The katana planted itself in the drone’s chest, the tip of the blade sticking out from the construct’s back, and waves of vile and destructive energy surging through the machine.  Despite the damage it had sustained, the drone’s thrusters suddenly flared with a boost of power and bolted ahead, taking the entity by the throat and slamming him against the door.     Null struggled against Wendellor’s grip as his neck was seared by the red-hot gauntlet.

            “This is where your survival odds go into the negative,” Wendellor victoriously announced as his drone’s other hand began charging with power. The entity was too injured to free himself and struggled in vain as the construct charged its weapon. A powerful sonic pulse emitted from the outstretched hand and blasted the dark creature with a tremendous pressure wave. The door crumpled inward and was flung several feet down the hall and Null was evaporated into a cloud of dark and evil smoke that soon vanished into nothingness.

            “Everyone, you can return to your stations now,” Wendellor announced, his drone pulling the blade from its core before collapsing to the ground and deactivating due to the massive damage it had sustained.

Wendellor briefly pondered the tapestry on the back wall of his office. It was black as night with the monotone only being broken by a ring of six sigils, with a seventh in the middle. The central symbol was that of a test tube. Around it were a crown, a bat, a sarcophagus, a pumpkin, a crossed sword and flail, and an eye. With a thought, the brain channeled his arcane powers and telekinetically pressed upon the symbol of a crown.

Ì

            Valerach paced up and down the rows of bookshelves, browsing the collection of books that had recently come into his possession, adding to his tremendous library. Suddenly, a raven appeared from thin air above the shelves and flew toward him. The bird dropped a small, rectangular slab of stone above the lich’s head, which he deftly plucked from the air with his skeletal fingers. The tablet’s back was covered in glowing runes and its front was dark and possessed a picture of a test tube in its center. Without hesitation, the lich pressed the symbol. In a moment, the tablet’s front shifted from blank and dark with a sigil in the middle to a live image of the interior of Wendellor’s office.

            “What’s gone horribly wrong this time?” Valerach questioned with a tone that had a hint of both concern and annoyance.

            “One of my employees tested a prototype teleportation device yesterday. It exploded and ripped open the fabric of reality, creating a portal to a strange and unknown dimension,” Wendellor explained.

“That doesn’t seem like something you would need my help for. Don’t you have a team for this sort of thing?” the wizard queried.

            “Yes, I do, and they are exploring said dimension as we speak, but that is not why I contacted you,” the artificer began. “A few minutes ago, a humanoid creature, seemingly composed of pure darkness, with a pair of glowing white eyes and a sword with a blade of the same color, stepped through the portal and into a testing chamber. He viciously beheaded one of my researchers, beat another into unconsciousness, and destroyed the room’s security constructs. I piloted one of my drones into the room to deal with him, and prior to fighting, we had a brief conversation, during which I gained some important information. It turns out that this guy is named Null and that he is one of the entities that I have heard about in legends. I called you because one thing that the legends say about the entities is that they can come back to life in their lairs within a short time of death. Thus, I decided that I must disable the portal to prevent him from returning through it, but I cannot just leave my reconnaissance team in some strange dimension. That realm could still be extremely valuable to my research, so I need you to create an antimagic field to temporarily suppress the portal’s magic.” Wendellor finally finished.

            “I can see why you need my help then. I will teleport there right away,” Valerach responded.

Ì

            “What’s that up ahead?” Morthos wondered aloud as he spotted a strange structure in the distance.

            “I can’t tell. I suggest you fly over and check it out,” Helixea responded.

            Mort swooped down and landed next to the structure. The construction consisted of a circular base made of dark gray rock, a cylindrical beam of what looked much like the night sky, and a circular top of dark gray stone that mirrored the base.

            “I think it is some kind of portal,” Morthos shouted. The rest of the research team quickly came forward and gathered around the demon, staring at the portal.

“One of you should step through and investigate,” Bill chimed in.

            “I’ll go,” Igan the skeleton volunteered as he stepped through the gateway.

            “I can see from Igan’s perspective that the other side is safe and seems to be another part of the same dimension,” B.I.L.L. explained.

            “I think I see a town in the over there!” Kethra shouted, pointing at what appeared to be a small, walled settlement in the distance.

            “Helixea, I suggest you split the group and investigate both the town and the other side of the portal,” B.I.L.L.’s voice directed.

            After a short discussion, the recon team split into two groups, with Mort, Thunder, Igan, Abzug, Darvin, and Luth going through the portal, and Helixea, Kethra, Dr. Bones, Arveene, Kethoth, and Stedd heading towards the settlement.

            Morthos, Thunder, and the four security guards emerged from the other side of the gateway. Before them spanned a stretch of floating islands that were almost identical to the one they had just come from except for the patchy, yellow grass and purple-brown trees with yellow leaves.

Ì

            A short trek later, the group arrived before a tremendous tower made from bricks of the same stone that the islands are composed of, as well as some kind of purply-pink bricks. The tower appeared to have many floors, several of which had walkways that stretched outwards before connecting to smaller offshoot towers that hovered in the air despite a complete lack of obvious support. At the top of the tower there was seemingly a dock, and hovering next to it was a sizable ship made from the same materials as the tower. It had no sails or oars, and levitated on its own.

            “Should we go in and investigate, Bill?” Mort queried as he looked the structure up and down.

            “Yes, seeing as this place is likely a settlement of some sort, it could provide valuable information regarding this plane’s inhabitants,” B.I.L.L. answered.

            The entrance to the tower was a large gate made of violet bricks and guarded on either side by creatures that seemed to live inside of cube-shaped shells made of a substance that looked much like that of the door. When the group approached, the bizarre creatures got spooked and disappeared in a brief lavender mist.

            The facility’s interior consisted mostly of long halls lined with doors to what the researchers guessed to be apartments or homes, and large rooms housing communal facilities such as fountains of weird, dark liquid and markets of miscellaneous goods. Despite the tower exhibiting all other signs of being inhabited, the team observed no endermen or other creatures out and about as they traveled, only catching occasional glimpses of faces through windows or around corners.

            Eventually, the group came to what they guessed to be akin to a town square. The place was a massive room, surrounded by buildings that looked to be shops and offices. In the center was a large platform that was likely used for delivering speeches or addresses. Five endermen wearing dark robes materialized on the platform. The one in the center also wore a flowing black cape and a mask made from the same cyan metal as Erebus and his men’s armor. The mask was in the shape of some kind of alien skull and, unlike all the other endermen the researchers had seen, the masked enderman’s eyes were orange rather than purple. In a few inhumanly long strides, the masked enderman was at the edge of the platform. The creature’s booming and aggressive voice rang out through the square speaking in his native language.

            “All I was able to tell from that is that his name is Aurack, and I think he has some sort of title. From his tone, I don’t think he likes us very much,” Thunder explained.

            Realizing that he had not been understood, Aurack made an otherworldly growling noise and he and the other four endermen drew bladeless sword hilts made from blue-green metal. The members of A.L.E.R.T. drew their own weapons in response as Aurack’s subordinates stepped off the platform and towards the outsiders. As they approached, the disciples activated their weapons. Violet blades of pure energy began projecting from their hilts. Aurack raised his left hand into the air and Luth the wight was levitated upwards. Using his right hand, the enderman produced a double-bladed hilt from within his robes while he drew the security guard toward him with his left.

            Thunder stepped into the ethereal plane and maneuvered behind the leading enderman as twin orange blades of energy materialized from Aurack’s weapon. The tabaxi exited the ethereal plane and swung his dual scimitars at his foe’s back. Aurack immediately sensed Thunder’s presence behind him and whirled around, blocking the twin scimitars with the two blades of his own weapon. The enderman laughed as he telekinetically hurled Luth against a wall and let go of him. He then extended his hand toward the tabaxi, throwing him across the platform with a wave of force. Aurack gripped his weapon with both hands and rapidly twirled it through the air as he strode toward his prone assailant.

            Abzug swung his energized greataxe down at the acolyte in front of him. The enderman blocked the strike with his blade of pure energy, but staggered backward from the impact. The robed warrior sidestepped two more mighty swings and retaliated with a slash of his own. Abzug caught the weapon under the blade of his axe and twisted around, bashing the enderman with the haft of his weapon and disarming him. The enderman blasted the orc with a wave of telekinetic power, but the security guard stood firm and held his footing. Abzug swung his axe a great arc, liberating his opponent’s head from his body.

            Darvin blocked the energy sword with his electric baton. The human forced the enderman’s weapon to the side with his own and jabbed his baton into his foe’s abdomen. Before Darvin could press his advantage, the acolyte shoved him back several feet with a wave of force, then flipped through the air, sailing over the security guard and landing behind him. The two combatants turned to face each other in unison and blocked each other’s strikes with their own.

            Igan drove his opponent back with a series of strikes from his baton. The enderman lifted her hand, levitating a plant pot that had been sitting in a shop’s window, and sent the vase hurtling toward the skeleton. Igan leapt to the side, but the pot caught him in the shoulder and sent him tumbling to the floor as it shattered into numerous shards. The acolyte deflected the shrapnel with her violet blade and advanced toward the security guard. Igan tried to stand, but the enderman held him down with her telekinetic might. With a swing of her energy blade, the enderman sliced the skeleton in twain.

            Morthos barreled toward the acolyte and bashed the shaft of his spear against the enderman’s energy blade. With his brute strength, he shoved his foe back before twirling his weapon through the air and sweeping the enderman’s legs out from under him. The apprentice rolled to the side just in time to avoid being impaled by the spearhead as it lodged itself in the ground. With a few beats of his great wings, the demon flew up and over his now standing opponent’s incoming energy sword and dislodged his own weapon in the process. Mort swung his spear down in a great arc, slamming the shaft against the enderman’s head, sprawling his unconscious form on the floor.

            Beams of lightning arced from Aurack’s outstretched fingers and blasted the tabaxi. Thunder lay on the ground writhing in pain and unable to get his footing as the enderman advanced. The diplomat gathered himself enough to mutter an incantation which caused him teleport in a cloud of mist. Thunder appeared next to one of his fallen scimitars, which he retrieved and used to block the incoming beams of electricity. Aurack ceased his barrage of lightning and telekinetically flicked his enemy’s other weapon from the platform.

            Thunder and Aurack crossed blades in a series of strikes that soon ended with the tabaxi’s weapon being twisted from his grip. The ranger ducked a strike aimed at his head, but was too slow to avoid a slash across the chest that left a long, diagonal gash in his armor and scorched fur and flesh underneath. The enderman mercilessly kicked his opponent in his injured chest and flung him from the platform to the hard floor a few feet below.

            Abzug heard another foe approaching behind him and turned around just in time to catch the incoming blast of electricity with his face. He stumbled back and dropped his axe as he was wracked with sudden, sharp pain. The acolyte thrust her purple blade forward and impaled Abzug through the chest. In his last moments, the orc stared in shock at the enderman as she contemptuously kicked his dying form off her blade.

            Darvin deflected his opponent’s energy sword using his baton and kicked at the enderman’s stomach. The acolyte leapt backwards, dodging the attack and unleashing a telekinetic blast. The security guard planted his feet and resisted the force, only sliding back a couple of feet. He charged forward and leapt into the air, striking downwards with his weapon. The enderman stopped the strike with an overhead block and took one hand off of his weapon, punching Darvin in the gut. The human’s alchemos chest plate absorbed the punch, allowing him to drive his foe back with a mighty shove.

            Morthos flew towards Aurack as fast as he could, determined to stop him from slaying Thunder. The head of the demon’s spear split in two before firing a bolt of arcane power and then sliding back together. The enderman spun around and deflected the shot with his weapon, sending the bolt careening through a nearby store’s window. As Morthos touched down, he thrust his spear at Aurack, but the experienced duelist deftly knocked the thrust aside.

Morthos barely managed to block the incoming whirlwind of blows with the shaft of his spear before being flung backwards by a telekinetic shove. With several hard wing beats, the demon was able to slow himself enough to avoid being flung off the platform. As he tried to advance again, he was struck in the chest by several arcs of electricity. Aurack watched in awe as the lightning had little effect on the demon, who dashed forward, ignoring the electricity coursing through his body. The enderman ended the beam of lightning and gripped his weapon with both hands, blocking his foe’s thrust.

            The two combatants’ weapons clashed for a moment before Morthos forced Aurack back with a mighty shove and dismissed his spear to his gloves’ pocket dimension in a flash of blue light.  The demon put his hands together and launched a fiery blast at his foe. The enderman nimbly leapt out of the way, but a portion of his robe was set alight. Morthos took to the air and pulled the bag of holding from his back as his foe was busy patting out the flames. The demon landed next to Thunder and scooped the tabaxi into the bag before returning the item to his back and flying into the air once more.

            “Retreat!” the demon’s voice boomed over the din of battle.

            Having recovered from being slammed into the wall, Luth sprinted towards the town center’s exit. He quickly found his path blocked by an acolyte who was standing over Abzug’s lifeless corpse. The wight readied his energized alchemos sword as he advanced toward the enderman. She blocked the security guard’s blade with her own and retaliated with a swift series of strikes. Luth blocked the attacks with his weapon but was forced to take a few steps back in the process. The enderman disappeared in a cloud of lavender particles and Luth was suddenly electrocuted from behind. He spun around and dashed toward the acolyte, feeling little pain from the lightning due to his undead state. The enderman realized at the last moment that the lightning would not hold her foe at bay, and she let go of the energy just in time to block his strike, however she was unable to prevent herself from being shoved backwards against a wall.

            Luth fended off the acolyte’s energy sword with his own weapon as he grabbed her arm and began to drain her life force, wisps of pale green energy flowing from her arm and into his hand. A hollow laugh emanated from the wight as his injuries began to rapidly heal themselves. The enderman let out a horrible, otherworldly scream as she felt the very life being drained out of her. Before Luth could sap the last of his foe’s energy, she managed to muster the strength to thrust out her palm and fling him across the room with telekinetic power. Luth made a break for the exit as the acolyte teleported away from him and towards the center of the room.

            Darvin stepped forward and slammed his baton down on the shoulder of his staggering foe, sending electricity coursing through the lanky creature. The human jabbed his weapon forward, aiming at the enderman’s stomach, but it disappeared in a cloud of purple mist, leaving him to stumble forward as he jabbed the air. Darvin threw himself to the ground, narrowly avoiding being impaled by the acolyte’s glowing blade of energy. The security guard rolled to his feet, causing his opponent to lodge his weapon in the floor. Darvin swung his baton up and into the enderman’s jaw, knocking him from his feet. Before his foe could recover, he turned and fled from the room, following Morthos’ command.

            As the demon attempted to fly over his foe, Aurack, who had put out his flaming robe, reached out and restrained Morthos in his telekinetic grip. The demon summoned an arcane blunderbuss into his hand from within his dimensional storage gloves and managed to maneuver himself enough to fire it. Aurack released his hold on Morthos, instead using his power to stop the burst of magic projectiles in their tracks. The enderman launched the energy beams back at the fleeing demon, but Mort avoided them with a barrel roll and was out of the room moments later.

            As the members of A.L.E.R.T. ran from the room, Darvin looked over his shoulder to see Aurack striding toward the entrance to survey the battlefield as his two still-standing students approached him. A moment later, he turned and put a hand on the female acolyte’s shoulder, saying something in his native language in what Darvin guessed to be a congratulatory tone.

Go to Chapter 4 ⏩