Rivin's Legend: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

'What? You have more of these?' I instinctively back away with my chair away a bit. The last few times with these spikes hadn't been good. The memory spike is not actually a spike, more like a stick, really. It is the size of a pencil, so it might be confused as one from a far distance. The thing is black in colour, just like many of the other things the Raix made.
'Yes. We came here just a few minutes ago, so I hadn't had to time to give it to you. Here,' He takes the spike and pushes it on the table to me. 'Use it. I think you'll like it.'
I stare at the spike blankly. If Daniel thinks I'll like it, I probably will, but what if I don't? I'll get the same experience and vision the last time. With all the pain and destruction and death, I don't think I can take it again.
'I know what you are thinking, Rivin. You're thinking about how this would turn out, and I can promise you, nothing of the sort like last time will happen again. I've studied your speech and action patterns long enough to accurately guess an answer. I know you more than you think.'
I hesitated for a moment, before quickly snatching up the memory spike. The cold metal feeling I remembered so well long ago returned, the spikes rolling about in my hand.
'Who's this from? The Raino? My people?'
'You'll see.'
I held the spike like I would to a stick, and then the memory spike shudder, vibrating under my touch.
The world suddenly started swirling. I'm expecting this, so I had a level of mental preparation for this. Then comes the.....
The swirling is immediately accompanied by a deafening bang. I covered my ears quickly as the swirling intensified. I see the dining table in front of me disappearing for a moment, before I started swirling myself. I can't see it, but I can feel it happening. My internal organs seem like they are being twisted in a very weird manner.
Everything darkened. Nothing. I was only aware of nothingness for a second before I got blinded by an immediate white flash.
When I opened my eyes again, I was somewhere else. I recognized this place immediately. Raixien. The air was special to my home planet. The feeling was familiar.
Where I was exactly, I'm not sure. I'm standing in the middle of what seems like a park. There's no one there with me. The trees loom above me. The trees here on Raixien is magnificent. Instead of green leaves, we have a perpetual state of yellow leaves. The grass beneath me sways a little, and the wind feels cool on my skin. Like I said, Raixien is fantastic. I can't wait for the day I finally return home and restore it to its former glory.
The only thing wrong here is that, there seems to be nothing else. Trees seems to go on and on and on, I can't see any trace of civilization here. Where the hell am I?
'Hello' I whirl around and see a man standing there, where he wasn't a few seconds ago. What kind of memory is this?
The man is in his mid-30s, though I could never tell with the Raix. I was fairly certain he was Raix, after all, he has the distinctive features of one, like the black hair and the dark brown eyes.
The man's features are warm. His chiselled face is smooth and tan. I could say the same for his body, and his hair is swept to his right, in a little mess, like he just woke up and didn't have the time to mess with his hair.
'This is your father.' He said matter-of-factly. This man, is my father. I don't feel any resemblance to him or anything. I raised my eyebrows in surprise, though I know that he wouldn't be able to see me. Just a memory, after all.
'Let's start over again,' he sighed, 'Hello, Rivin. I am your father. Today is the 4th day of the Losac-Raix war.'
Right now, I believe he is my father. I can start to feel how we are alike. Call it an intuition, but I just can tell he is my father. 'But, right now, I don't have the time. I must get back to my people.' The trees shake violently. The grass starts tearing up, revealing the rich brown soil under it. A loud scream pierces through the air, and followed by a thud. I can hear something exploding in the distance, as more screams tear around me. Where are we?
'But, son, hear this.' Before he can finish his sentence, something crashed through the roof. A yellow stone the size of a small car smashed down next to my father, and a wave of dust gathered around it, and my father raised both his hands to cover his eyes. More thumps can be heard from above, likely more stones crashing down somewhere else.
The rock has golden shards sticking out of it. The rock is black, like many of the other things here, or it could just be the environment that's messing up my eyesight. My father looks panicked for a moment, and immediately stiffens up. He swipes away his white jacket and swiftly positions his hands over his waist. As his hands hover past his waist, a little handle, with delicate carvings on it appeared.
The handle is small, and curved at the ends. It's white in colour, and I could recognize a few Raix symbols on it. My father holds it with his right hand, and he brandishes the handle like a weapon. It looks unusual since it looks like just a little stick that you couldn't harm a squirrel with, but I was proven wrong quickly.
When he finishes his motion brandishing the handle forward, a blade shoots out from one end. It happened so fast, I barely heard the chink sound. The blade is a pure white, and the blade perfectly reflects my father, even in the dark. It's at about arm's length long, and the metal is razor-sharped.
My father immediately jumps in the air, and I'm surprised at how high he can actually jump. The air around him starts shimmering. With a little resonance, he disappears and appears even higher. I understand now. He's a teleporting Raix. That explains how he got here so quick when I was sure nobody was here.
He's high up in the air now, and he holds his blade down in a thrusting motion, towards the golden rock. He starts falling, and his eyes are determined, ready to fight anytime, anywhere, even if this is his last chance to talk to his son.
He didn't even grunt when he plunges his sword deep into the rock. But it was too late. The golden shards start glowing, and the rock explodes into a thousand flurry pieces. My father lands on the grass behind, and he groans. The destroyed crystals slowly floated, hovering above the ground.
Where the rock once was, stood two Losac warriors. I've never seen a Losac before without their Armor on, but now, I finally see what's under the golden, twisted Armor of theirs.
The Losac closely resembles the humans and the Raix, with their obvious human-like features, except not quite there yet. They have a face, two hands and legs, sure, but not really anything else. One of the Losac have a crystal arm, and the other has half his face glimmering with the yellow crystal as well. They are wearing a chest piece and under that, a cloak made with a very familiar fabric, with yellow stripes on them, forming their Losac symbol on their chest. It's more like a crest, really. An arrow point with a T underneath it. There was a little dot in the conjunction of the T. I've seen enough Losac ships in these memories that I can dread seeing the symbol every time. Their faces are normal enough, except for the yellow eyes, and the signature blond hair.
Their chest piece is intriguing to watch. They were a twisted yellow crystal, adding to the whole yellow theme that they got. The chest piece only covered them from the shoulders to the waist, and they wore no armour except for the piece.
The two Losac are kneeling where the rock exploded, and waited for the dust and smoke to disperse around them. When they do, they stood up in full height. They aren't especially tall or anything, but they look menacing enough for a human to feel threatened just by their presence. They open their hands, and crystal yellow rocks started swirling in their hands. The crystals spin around and around until they form a handle that looks exactly the same as the one my father has, save the different carvings and the material of the handle. Where the Raix sword looks smooth to the touch, the Losac variant is jagged on the end, and the crystal handle looks really hot to touch. Do they even feel it? I'm not holding the handle, yet I feel the heat radiating from it.
They brandish the sword, and two blades shot out again. Like the handle, the blade is glowing yellow, and I wonder what it is made of. The Losac grinned, then charged my father.
They look at my father, who is beginning to stand up and get into a defensive stance, his right leg positioned in front, stabilizing his balance to better fight. He gritted his teeth, and his left hand is left at his side, touching at something in the dark.
The Losac hesitated for a moment as my father charge them, his blade ready in a forward thrusting motion. When he reaches the first Losac, who has his blade ready in a defensive move, my father teleports behind and stabs forward, but the Losac expected it. When the resonance sound started coming, the Losac turns around and sidestepped, deflecting my fathers' blow.
I blinked. He was a teleporting Raix, so how could the Losac possibly react quickly enough to anticipate such a strike? These are definitely well trained soldiers, not your average grunts.
The other Losac steps forward and makes a quick slashing motion, but my father teleported above him and plunged his blade into the Losac.
The second Losac must've been feeling over confident, because he made no attempt to dodge it. My father, stabs down with his blade, and it goes straight through his back. The Losac make a cracking sound, and he shattered into little golden pieces. The first Losac seemed surprised for a second, then reverted back to his blank emotion. The Losac made a fist with his left hand, and the broken glass shards on the floor started swirling. Demented yellow crystals start forming on it, and the glass starts sticking together. Not waiting to see what the Losac is trying to do, my father teleports in a zigzag motion, and tries to confuse the Losac. The Losac paid no attention to my father, and continued with his creation, which I can clearly see now. He's making a little round shield surrounding him, and when the yellow crystals start solidifying and glowing, too late does my father realize what he's doing. He teleports straight into the crystal shield, and my father gets blasted back once again, and I cry out in fear, but this time, he doesn't land on the floor.
Right as he's about to hit the floor, he teleports behind the Losac again, and lands upright. His blade starts darkening, and he slashes the crystal shield away. The Losac wasn't paying attention and the shield broke. The Losac turned around just in time to see my father's blade coming horizontally, taking his head off cleanly. Where the stump should be, there was only a golden crystal as the neck bone, before he broke apart into shards again.
My father moved swiftly, and there was little to no resistance when the Losac had his head decapitated. My father teleported back in front of the camera, or whatever he used to record this.
My father pants, and he shakes the sword backwards. This time, the blade retracts and he looks at me in the eye. I wonder how he's recording this. His eyes are warming, and he starts speaking.
'As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted,' he said with a trivial tone as he shot a tiny glance at the sky, daring any more Losac to challenge him. The sky thundered, like it was responding to his threat.
Then I saw something wrong with the sky. Isn't it supposed to be blue, like ours? If so, then why... is it blood red?
What has the Losac done to this beautiful world?
'The war is ending. We're losing. Even know, your mother and I, along with a Coror, is bringing you to the Gateway. None of us will be living through this, and if you're watching this, it'll be your Coror showing you this, a long time after the dust here has settled.'
'I just want you to know... Even if I won't get to see you grow up, nor be there with you, I love you, son.'
I tried opening my mouth, then thought better. My father couldn't hear me anyways. But I wanted to reach out and touch him, just to get a feel on what a father would feel like. Would it be warm, or cold, like the air right now?
'But always remember: We bring the Terror.' My father smiled, reminding me of what I looked like when I smiled. Just something we have in common with.
The Terror... That sounds strange. It seems like something I have heard before, but where?
I looked at my father again, trying to remember his face, trying to remember the face that I will never see again. The world darkened and the same loud bang rang in my ears, and suddenly, I'm back at home, sitting at the dinner table. Daniel is looking at me with a sympathetic look, even though he couldn't actually feel anything, that all he can do is mimic a feeling, an emotion, without feeling what it's really like.
I don't know what to think. In that short period of time I have spent with my father, I feel like I've learned so much about my parents who I don't even remember that much. I feel like I've known them my entire life. I suddenly remember the times when he bought me to the same park I was in, the times when my mother cradled me in her eyes, singing me a Raixien lullaby. What was it called? Beautiful sky. Yes, that was it. Beautiful sky.
'How does the reset button work on Raixien?'
Daniel genuinely looks surprised that that is my first question, though he answers it all the same.
'Every fifteen years, the Raix can enter the gate to the core, and they reset the planet. By reset, it means that you can restart life, starting from the most basic living organism in the water. From a single drop of water, oceans can form. From a little seed, forests can flourish. You get the point.'
'But the Raix will not be restored?'
'No. In time, they will, but they will not be the same as the last generation. The Raino will be different, and an entire different set of Raix will be born.'
'Then what have the Raix been resetting for the past few million years?'
'The reset only happens where the Raix commands it to, and since the Raino handles these resets, they only reset places which has been heavily polluted or damaged. Life flourishes in those places, and the Raix can do it all over again for a near eternity. The Raix are long-living, so the Raino only changes every' Daniel calculates for a moment. 'Five hundred years.'
Wow. We lived long, but five hundred years and more? It's a wonder we can stay sane after all these time. I wonder if I would live that long.
'So I can't see my parents anymore?' I look down glumly, staring at the spike now on the table.
'I'm sorry, but no. You can't. I have no more known memory spikes in my chassis. But what you can do, is restart all life there. You can do it again. You can help the Raix rise up again.'
'Did you ever see that memory? I'm guessing not, because clearly, you think I can take down the Losac army, their unwavering leader and their battalions or warships? No. In that memory, my father struggled to fight against two Losac warriors. What makes you think I can take down an entire army?'
'First of, those two Losac were powerful. Aerilosacs. They could manipulate crystals to their will, and that gives them an upper edge, since there were two of them. Second of, you're not just a Raix, nor are you alone out here. You combined with your Others will be powerful enough to take their leader down, along with his army.'
'Who's their leader?'
'I do not know. I was built on the 3rd day of the attack, and the knowledge and history they could implement in me was limited.'
I don't know what to think. I always thought that I could do what I was sent here to do. But seeing my father, the Losac and the amount of destruction the Losac can do, I wasn't so sure anymore. What can I do against that unstoppable force?
Would the skies ring with yellow stones? Would the sky grow entirely red, and will the waters run dark with poison?
'His name is Rien.' Daniel said out of a sudden. What? 'Your father is named Rien. I met him once, on the 4th day of the attack. I was carrying you to the mountain to be send you to Earth, which the Raix have knowledge of for quite some time.'
'What can I say, I was not created to judge nor to define a person, but from what I can learn and see, your father was a very brave man. You were given to me by your mother. We were at your parents' house, far away from the mountain in which we sent you off. Both your parents were there. Getting to your house was easy enough. It was getting away that was hard.'
'It might be better if you were showed what happened on that day.' Daniel took the memory spike, and touched the tip. The tip vibrated, and Daniel gave it to me, which I took at the last second. I was dragged through the swirling and sound again, before appearing back on Raixien again.
I'm in a house. I looked around. I suppose I am in the living room, where there is a big flat screen TV on one side of the wall, and a black five-man couch on the other. I walk around and everything seems so......familiar. Something suddenly clicked, and I understood why this looks so familiar. It's an exact replica of the house I'm currently living in. Even the floor patterns are the same. Did Daniel purposely make it like this?
The different thing is the feel. Like I said, the air on Raixien is very much different, and it feels very cold in here. And the sounds of wailing reaches my ears again. I've heard too much today. A second later, a man kicked open the front door, and barged right in.
It's Daniel, thirteen years ago. Being a robot, he looks exactly the same as he did now. He walked right through me and into the kitchen. I tail him and sees a knife jut out of the corner. Daniel immediately leans backwards and grabs the knife away from the bearer. We both turn the corner at the same time, and see a woman in her mid-30s, same as my father, cradling a baby in her arms. Her hair is a flowy black, and her soft face is a contrast to my fathers'.
This must be my mother. And the baby she is cradling must've been me.
'Thank god you're here, D4N.'
Daniel nods. Here, he's still called by his serial number. He reaches into his pocket and pull out a little handle, just like the blade I've seen used by my father. He throws it to my mother, who catches it out of the air in an instant. She looks at it and a suddenly, it's a pistol. The pistol looks old fashioned, except it's made of some kind of black metal. The shape is sleek, and resembles an old flintlock. The pistol is simple on the outside, but looks can be deceiving. I suppose it doesn't require a reload or ammo, since we love energy blasts. Reloading is unnecessary at this level of technology that we have.
My mother holds me with one hand, and the pistol with another. They both quickly run out of the house, but is interrupted by a dozen of Losac.
My mother didn't wait for them to shoot. She raised the gun and quickly shot four of them in quick succession, before the Losac got their rifles up and started blasting at her. Daniel lunged to the right, while my mother went left, getting behind a broken car for cover. She stays there while Daniel quietly sneaks behind the Losac, who are intensely focused on blasting the car, and every shot that lands on the car, little yellow crystals started spreading. Daniel stands behind the remaining seven Losac, and looks at them from left to right, as if thinking which one he should rip apart first.
Daniel chose to start in the middle. He jumps and clocks the Losac in the back of his head, and he breaks apart instantly. The Losac notices what's happening, and they focused their fire on Daniel instead, who is now jumping and dashing around like a madman.
Daniel ducks under a blaster fire from the Losac, which accidently hit his own friend, who crumpled quickly. Daniel follows up with an uppercut and a gut punch, which makes the Losac double over. He quickly grabs the Losac blaster rifle and shoots him in the chest. Three down, four to go. All of them quickly yells, and I turn in time to see my mother standing up with her pistol, now whirring with energy, signifying the pistol charging up for a stronger shot.
Daniel finishes the last one off by backhanding him with the gun. The Losacs' skull cracked and fell to the floor in pieces. The miniature battle was over in a minute. I was standing there, mouth wide. I never seen anyone move like that. Daniel was a literal devil in battle. He doesn't even looked fazed as he waved his hand to the distant mountain, being bombarded by dozens of glowing rocks. My mother nodded, then left her cover to join Daniel. They looked at the mountain again, then back to the town.
The town is in flames, and for some reason, I'm getting the same feel as the place I'm in. The sky is an even bloodier red than my last vision.
'Come on, Cora. We can't save everyone, even with your Rengars.'
My mother, Cora, looks crestfallen. She looks wistfully at the town and the screams, before turning back to Daniel.
'Ok.' They started going into the woods. As soon as I try following them in the vision, my world swirled and darkened again.
I'm at the base of the mountain. The last I saw of this mountain, it was a hundred miles away or so. Did I do a memory time jump?
I see mother and Daniel coming out of the woods behind me.
Mother is scratched up, and she has a cut on her cheek. Where the open wound should be, glowing white light replaced it. What kind of Rengar is that? A healing one, I think.
Daniel looks unharmed, then again, robots and their metal plating. Daniel look at the tall mountain, and onto the path that runs in circles around the mountain, eventually leading up to the peak.
'Let's go.'
'No wait, I see Rien!' Mother points excitingly at a shadowed figure running swift and silent in the dark. As the figure approaches my mother and Daniel, I could see it is my father, just like my mother said in the memory.
My parents hugged each other briefly, and my father addresses Daniel with a slight tip of his head.
'You're the Coror.'
'Yes, I am. Come on, we have lost time. We have to make it up there quick.'
My father looked nervously behind him. Through the woods, I can make out several glowing figures, flying at us fast.
'The Aerilosac are coming. Come.'
My father took the lead, and started up the long paved stone path up the mountain. Then, he is followed by mother and finally Daniel.
All three of them broke into a jog, and they started to ascent at a really high speed. They never stopped for air or to eat, and I can hear rocks or crystals shattering behind me, though I don't stop to look what's on my parents' tail. Being a visitor to this memory, I can hover and move anywhere I want, however fast I want. But I stuck with my parents the entire time.
I don't know how long it took for my parents to scale the mountain. Four hours or so, I think. Around two hours in, they meet two scores of Losac who are also happening to be climbing the mountain. I was surprised at how much energy my parents had left in them, as they both started to draw up so much energy, I could feel it as a visitor.
The legion of Losac are all heavily armed, decked out with full body armour energy rifles. They growled menacingly at the sight of my parents, and raised their blasters to fire.
My father's body started swirling with a dark aura, a feat I have never seen before. I positioned myself in front of my father as I stared at the aura, twirling around his body, slowly creeping its way up to his head. The dark was... unnerving. I had never seen true darkness, but realized that the darkness that swirled around my father must be close. The dark moved like the wind, and started spinning around my father, blurring his figure. I heard brief flashes of yellow light as Losac blasts hit him square in the chest, and moved forward a little. I had to remind myself that this was the past, and all had already happened.
Strangely, my father doesn't seem to register the shot. He surged forward and reached out and swiped the first score of Losac, taking them out in the single blow. I gasp. I hadn't even see him attack. All I caught was a dark, hulking mass of a hand for a split second, then there was shards on the floor.
My mother went the complete opposite, and went completely bright. Instead of a dark aura moving up to her head, a blinding white shield appeared in a circle, surrounding her entire body. Her eyes were defiant, staring down the last score of Losac stopping them from getting to the mountain. Losac shots were fired, but once again, the blaster fire hit her shield, and she moved forward unharmed.
Suddenly, the red sunlight projected on the rocky floor below started rising. Pillars of light darted up, reaching up as tall as herself. The Losac continued firing, paying no attention to the pillars around them, as the blaster hit her shield.
My mother clapped her hands, as the pillars fell and slammed down onto the Losac, who instantly vaporized without a single sound.
These Losac either didn't put up much of a fight, or my parents were just that powerful. I started to question why my father struggled so much to fight the two Aerilosac when he can decimate these scores of Losac in seconds. A question I might never get the answer to.
Even Daniel looks impressed for a robot. They continue up the mountain before I see it. The gate. I've heard of it from Daniel, that this is the place where the Raino go to the rest chamber.
The gate is gigantic and circular, and it's made out of grey slabs of stone, forming a pattern on the gate. I hover around the mountain, and check the surroundings. Only one way up and one way down.
My parents both took the charge, and stood on both sides of the gate. They put their hands on the gate and commanded it to open, and the gate responded. They stood back as the gate starts shuddering, and a moment later, I couldn't see through the gate anymore. It was a gigantic portal to another place. The reset chamber, I presumed. I tried to peer through the gate, but couldn't see much. The gate is fuzzy, and all I could make out is grey stones and walls, and six figures I saw as the Raino.
Somewhere along the run, my mother has transferred me into Daniels hand. He looks at baby me, then back to my parents. My father and mother looked at me one last time as I realised what they were trying to do.
I watched as a legion of armoured Losac climb up the final step to the mountain. My parents stood firm, and didn't even flinch. Even in the face of death, they stood strong. My parents embraced each other, and touched me softly on the cheek one last time as my father pushed Daniel towards the open portal.
Daniel looked back at the legion of Losac, then leaped through the gate. The gate shimmered as he crossed, like it was resisting him, then finally let him in. The gate closed immediately after that, the barrier closing in on itself.
The last sight I have of my parents are them standing with their swords brandished, daring any Losac to come forth and take down the Raino. The legion roared, then charged forward with an army or Aerilosac, sword wielders and snipers, all ready to kill.
They are ready to kill, but so are my parents. My father cackled madly as the shadow folded around him, and spikes of darkness appeared over the horizon, right behind him. My mother smiled, and gently shook her head as if saying 'Stupid man' one last time. Pillars of hazy light rose up from behind her, and she raised both hands in defence.
My parents both gave each other loving nods, and my father turned that face into a deadly shade of pure darkness as he charged forward to meet his impending doom on his own terms. My mother followed, and I heard a whisper before I was sucked back into the real world, before I could see how my parents... died.
Before the world swirled and I was thrust back into my own world, I heard the words, loud and clear. My parent's voice, striking hard and deep into even my heart. The Losac soldiers trembled in fear, and it was a wonder they didn't turn tail and ran at the amount of power coursing through their voice. A whisper, yet it rang strongly through the air.
'We bring the Terror.'