Vescrutia: Legacy

Vescrutia has uncovered the face of its otherworldy horrors, The Horsemen. The Fall of Arcturus left a hole in the heart most anyone who could feel the shift in the air. A legendary venue where myths are born and housed, an impregnable fortress of the planet's most mighty and ambitious, a handcrafted colosseum of ancient, irrevocable materials, laid to waste in the blink of an eye. Arcturus' fall took with it the hope that any new legends could be born, just as the might of their cosmic foes quieted the light of the people's spirit. News of that fateful night has now spread to far corners, and the threat of The Horsemen and their Heralds has become a very real fear among most. This unspeakable tragedy might turn out to be the last legend ever told on Vescrutia. But there are some who would dare to forge ahead and create their fate still, in spite of The Horsmen's looming threat, and chart a path to shape their own destiny and challenge forces previously unknown to the world. They stood against the first Herald at the site of The Fall and walked away with their lives, showing that there was still a chance to save Vescrutia if they could save themselves.

They have not seen one another in some time, but have reunited for this journey together because of the gravity of its importance. According to intel by the Lucis Acolytes of Sol Gamera, there is a vestige somewhere across the Desert of Aeon, a desolate stretch of frozen ice on the continent Aeon, far toward Vescrutia's South Pole. Somewhere across the ice is a land known as the End of the World, home to the Journeyman Mirror. Most anyone who has attempted the journey has not come back to tell the tale, and those who do have not shared word about it.

It was his second time on the continent in recent years and Zero looked forward to it all the same. The continent just seemed to have a mystical community that just kept on giving, rife with hearsay and curious grumblings. Before now, he knew it to be the home of a distant friend and very cold, but he grew to enjoy the chilly climate on Aeon, it reminded him of the good ol' days. And what better way to reminisce on some good times than with a good friend, one who had shouldered the weight of the world with him once and agreed to help him do it again. They crossed the Tarkan Plains on back of Mantagolems, stony creatures with silvery wings that floated over stone like air. Zero made sure to take his friend through the mountain passes they lived in to make the trip a bit livelier, if they had to be cold at least they could have fun. Mantagolems are easily tamed and ridable with ferrous metal boots, and can be controlled like a snowboard from their back. Zero was able to tame one large enough to carry both he and his friend, and it proved to be faster than he thought it would be.

He enjoyed the few changes they went through to get here, crossing the Big Blue Sea in a small boat in a few hours. It definitely beat the days of travel he was used to on a larger ship with more crew, this way he could carry enough food and a select inventory he thought would make sense for the nature of their expedition. The Journeyman Mirror he heard of in some holy texts he read from Edo, they always referred to it as the link to some oasis where souls go to rest, a beautiful place untouched by civilization and perfect for departed souls of the living. He almost couldn't believe it when the Acolytes mentioned the name of the item they intended for him to add to the Bestiary, but that only stoked the flames of his curiosity. The flames grew so, he retrieved his friend and comrade, the Cursed Flame, as his only companion to the End of the World. Surviving The Fall together bonded them to one another in a trust they could share with sparse few others, as the harrowing battle born bonds proved yet to be broken.

Zero pulled back on the Mantagolem as they reached the end of the golden waves of hay the Tarkan Plains grow in abundance. The soil grew firmer and more rocky, frozen and harder to grow in even for the hardy grains. Before setting off into the thick of the Frozen desert, he thought it a good idea to check in, there was nowhere to stop in the desert, the mountains to the west were covered in thundersnows, and he might run into Diamond Dust if they lingered too long on the edge of the plains.

"Last chance for anything before we beat it right across the desert. Speak now or forever hold your peace."

Zero turned to his passenger and shivered a little bit. His Maku vestments were warm enough in the tundra temps of the plains, but as they approached the expanse of the Desert of Aeon, its warmth faded dramatically. He stopped to check in with Zeik and to make any last adjustments he could for himself before they set out into the frozen white where few have returned.

He was silent their entire journey, from start to finish, the vesta crown hadn't spoken a single word. Zk, not just an old friend, but probably the only loving being to know each side of the enigmatic sage. Barring the exception of romantic involvement, no other person could rattle zeik from his inner world like the young fairy.

Yet today, nothing could shake his silence. His body was covered in dark tinted bandages from head to two, even covering his eyes. He was wrapped like a cleche mummy and despite the days journey and the hours of pestering and prying, he never gave an answer.

Like a spector or inanimate object he sat in silence, ate nothing and wouldn't so much as knod to the smiling youth, the joy boy of vescrutia most feared trinity. The cold winds didn't make him shiver, his arms rested at his side, like lifeless logs attached to his torso. It was hard for Zk to see him like this, zeik was known to live in his own world, often silent except when he felt his words were of value. Yet, even when Zk mis pronounced a word for an incantation or misrepresented an ancient artifact the bandage covered crown remained quiet.

"Of course, what else would I expect?"

Zero thought Zeik would have been at least a little excited to see him in such a long time, the idea of conversation even ran across his mind at some point, but Zeik trusted Zero enough to follow him just on his word. Had he felt any twinge of deceit, he probably would have ditched him already and booked it back to the Astral. The Cursed Flame likely had a contingency for the harsh cold at the bottom of Vescrutia. Zero knew he was asking the Astral King to step away from his realm, but the fact that he traversed the Forest of Resonance just to invite him along spoke to the magnitude of the task.

The Lucis Acolytes who charged Zero with this task are a curious group in the southern forests of Jaida. They are made up of some locals to the Jaida Coast and natives to Madeira, but also pilgrims who travel far across Vescrutia to understand the nature of their ascetic undertaking. They use a combination of esoteric martial arts, meditations, and energy work to harness the power they called Anchors. Their discipline informs them of the fact that these Anchors can exist in each Vescrutian and in certain places on Vescrutia as well and interacting with them unlocks new paradigms of abilities within someone. The time he spent there informed him in the power of Anchors and their place in the folk tales and legends of the Jaida Coast or even further abroad. It reminded him of his own tribe's history and how the Reliqs du Ven were scattered all across Vescrutia. Though he didn't join the Acolytes' monastery outright, his natural adaptability let him take to their disciplines with less effort than many other pilgrims before him. The Acolytes recognized his proficiency with Naten and his role in The Fall of Arcturus as a chance to make a grand step toward their goal: Completion of The Bestiary.

The Bestiary had been a collective work that the Lucis Acolytes devoted their lives to. Their whole discipline was founded on the Works of Io, founded on principles meant to harness an energy that flows between all living beings and the land itself. The legend of her journey is laid out in scripts and texts from all over the world, compiled over millennia into The Bestiary itself. It holds guidance on mastering the personal tools to wield such power, the conditions its tools can be utilized, and a set of dynamic abilities hidden deep within its reservoir. Zero jumped at the chance to take on a journey charted first by another legend, especially when it could take him to the End of the World and back.

It seemed untimely in the moment they revealed to him their request, the B'halian Empire approached him with an offer he shouldn't have refused, acknowledging the lighthearted ex-warlord as the Sovereign of Madeira, ruler of the Astral's sister continent. He wondered what that would mean for Muu, since B'halia had crossed half the world just to speak with him personally and offer him his own corner of Vescrutia to rule as he saw fit. A decade ago, his corner was the entire Big Blue Sea. He ran the world over at the helm of Leviathan Order, commanding the syndicate from the shadows of Vescrutia's mystic marketplace. Though he had distanced himself from them in the recent years, he assumed his reputation as their Dragonhead still carried weight in the global community and that was enough for a foreign empire to offer him a realm all his own. Had it been a decade prior, he might have agreed to the arrangement. Now, he left the Jaida Coast to its own devices, preparing their own military while hunting for a solution to the more pressing issue, The Horsemen.

In the decade and some change since The Fall new rumors and stories quickly circulated Vescrutia about The Trinity, the sole survivors of a timeless creation's disappearance. They implicated them as the perpetrators of the event, laying waste to the city of Arcturus with their own hands. Others painted them as psychopaths, slaughtering everyone in the region one by one. Ther ear even stories that describe them as heroes, the only individuals left to stand against a timeless threat to all of Vescrutia. Though The Horsemen let themselves known to Arcturus 10 years ago, and had since revealed the truth of their arrival to the rest of the world. Though Jaida had its own crisis to deal with in the B'halian Empire's march, The Acolytes saw a greater threat at work and tasked Zero to find another Anchor to add to The Bestiary. The Horsemen revealed them to the minds and hearts of everyone on Vescrutia, but only in presence. They could only feel the change in energy as sinister actors grew emboldened by the knowledge of their approach. Zero, The Conservatory, The Acolytes, everyone with light in their heart wanted to find some way to beat back the approach of darkness, and had to work their own way to defeat their malevolent machinations. Finding The Traversing Mirror was just another step along the way.

In his heart of hearts, Zero felt a twinge of guilt when he accepted the mission. The Conservatory could be run with him abroad, the Jaidans who believe in its mission could rely on one another in spite of his absence. Still, on the approach of a decisive battle, he went where his skills would be most useful.

Explaining this all to Zeik took the whole of a lunchtime chat, with Zeik remaining mostly silent taking it all in. Before they left the Astral, Zero just asked if Zeik was down to clown and he stood up, following him out of the door and onto their expedition. They departed on the back of windsprinters, horselike creatures with horns that could carve down massive trees in full stride. Off the coast of Muu, they set out on an obsidian speedboat that Zero summoned in a thought and powered with just his feet and his intention. Zeik remained silent, dismounting the beasts and boarding the vessel silently. A relatively uneventful course from Muu to Aeon took some time, but far less since they barreled across the water's surface at supersonic speeds, simple work for the speed demon. They landed at the edge of the Tarkan Plains, hiked out of the watchful eye of Diamond Dust, and commandeered a mantagolem at just the right juncture to trek across the Desert of Aeon. Through all of it, Zeik remained silent, a testament to his focused and determined nature.

"Legends say that the Traversing Mirror links our world to the afterlife. I remember you saying your people have a special relationship with the afterlife since you live so long. Have you heard myths of Hel and Iden before?"

Zero kipped the back of the mantagolem and its silvery wings flapped in energetic sync. He found it lucky he could wrangle one at the feet of the Hyperion mountains, they were some of the only creatures not native to the Desert of Aeon that could make the trip across its frosty, arid landscape. They air was harshly cold, easily freezing the innards of the unequipped and underprepared. Zero found the climate exceptionally unappealing and respected any creature able to call this biome their home, but with the descriptions of Iden as an oasis, a patch of verdant, beautiful life in an expanse of frost, he knew a truly special location was on the horizon. Zero leaned forward and the mantagolem took off at full speed. Zero's Anthem allowed him to bend the air currents around them to reduce the drag on their bodies and the wind chill from frosting them shortly, but he hoped his fiery friend could apply some much needed air conditioning to their vehicle.

His eyes were shrouded in thick bandages, a necessity to protect his fragile form. It was a secret he’d kept from Zk, choosing silence over revelation. There was so much he could say—perhaps even should say—but the wounds left by his recent encounter with his daughter ran deep, carving scars into both his body and his mind.

It had been a decade since he and Zk had last stood in the same space, not since the collapse of Arcturus. Their paths had diverged, and now, after so many years, they faced each other again. For Zk, this was a reunion, an unspoken chance to rekindle a bond. But for him, every glance in Zk's direction was a trigger, unleashing visceral memories of blows exchanged—fists, kicks, wrestling with speed he couldn’t comprehend. All of it orchestrated by the hands of his daughter, Nagase.

He carried his pain with stoic grace, the bandages concealing the anguish that burned within. Without his eyes to betray him, Zk remained oblivious to the storm raging inside. The bitter snap of Aeon’s frigid winds brought him back to the present. He didn’t speak, didn’t flinch. Instead, he reached within, weaving his ava into a protective barrier.

The spell formed three concentric layers around the group, softening the howling winds into a warm breeze as they passed through. Beyond the barrier, the cold retained its bite, untouched and undisturbed. The delicate balance of the environment meant everything to him; even in his weakened state, preserving that harmony was not just a choice—it was instinct.

The warmth settled over the party, and for the first time in what felt like years, a faint glimmer of satisfaction flickered in his hidden gaze. If joy still lived within him, it was buried deep beneath layers of sorrow and duty. His bandaged body, thin and frail, gave him the unsettling appearance of a walking skeleton. Even his scalp was bare, stripped of its former vitality.

He started to speak, but the words caught in his throat, frozen by the weight of his constant overthinking. Finally, with great effort, he rasped, “Long…”

The words were dry and barely audible, muffled by the bandages. “...Long lived,” he croaked, his voice cracking like brittle parchment. “My… people?”

The strain was too much. He staggered, retreating into the depths of his mind. From there, his words no longer passed through the physical realm. They came instead as a clear, resonant voice within Zk’s head, devoid of the frailty that marked his earlier tone.

“Hel, yes… Im more versed on Hel than...Iden . The connection between what we call the physical and spiritual realms has long been a pursuit of the Nine Families. Life, death, what lies beyond our bodies. Yes...these are topics of great concern. Most breathing souls of today dismiss its significance, comparing it to mana’s dwindling relevance next to naten, but the old Hellgates understood its worth.

“Hel, Makai, Limbo, Valhalla—these are but a few of the known resting grounds of the soul. Life’s journey is a heavy burden, and sometimes the soul requires respite before it can move forward. Why do you ask?” His voice lingered in Zk’s mind like an echo, somber yet unyielding.

“Are we… going to Hel?”

The sound of Zeik’s voice speaking directly into this mind startled Zero, his eyes shot back to his friend and for the first time, he noticed what was off. Zeik normally held a stoic demeanor, but this level of silence spoke to more ding hidden beneath his calm, collected exterior. That exterior looked like a corpse compared to the last time they met. Normally no news is good news between the two, but this weight loss seemed extreme. Zero grew up with manners though, so he would let Zeik tell him if the journey became an issue.

“Thanks for the heat, but I don’t think we’re ‘going’, to Hel” Zero thought back to Zeik. “We are going to find a Vestige said to be a bridge between here and there, though.” Zero and the mantagolem shared an electric current he surged for high speeds. The Desert of Aeon had the luxurious flat, frozen landscape that any speedster dreamed of, wide open ranges with little obstacles, just frozen. Their blazing tail of dusted snow shimmered in the northern light behind them, a sight Zero appreciated just over Zeik’s shoulder leaving the Tarkan Plains on the horizon. Nothing but ice awaited them for the next few hours.

“We’re going to Iden, an island really close to the South Pole. Remember hearing legends a about this place, they called it the End of the World and it’s a nidyllic oasis. I’m talking tropics level biodiversity, tons of fruit and abundant gentle creatures.” Zero’s thoughts ran over with excitement. He loved the idea of finding an oasis in a sub zero desert, it reminded him of the geographical charm of his home and the same charm that drew him to the Jaida Coast. With the expanse of ice, the mountains to the east covered in flashing lightning and thick, dark clouds; if even half their information is accurate, he could grind through this frosted landscape.

“We have a few hours ahead of us, maybe I should rephrase the question earlier. Are you good?” Zero asked, burning frost straight ahead toward the southern island. He registered that Zeik looked way less in shape that a decade ago, but he still had a fiery presence that assure Zero he could still trust his friend’s judgment in the state he was in. He may have failed to mention the legends often mention a guardian spirit residing in Iden, but Zeik didn’t ask, so it would be a surprise just like everything else coming up. As long as his legendary mage craft was intact, they could make the best of whatever befell them.

The stillness that followed Zk's question was oppressive, heavy with unspoken tension. Zeik stood motionless, his gaze fixed on the horizon of the Aeonian frozen desert. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet, hollow.

"No."

His hands moved to the bandages wrapped around his face. Slowly, methodically, he began to unwind them, revealing the horrific truth beneath. The sunken voids where his eyes had once been stared back at Zk, empty and lifeless. Burnt bone gleamed beneath the harsh, pale light, and strands of regrowing tissue clung desperately to his jawline. His tongue shifted behind the exposed framework of his skull, grotesquely visible through gaps where flesh should have been.

"These bandages..." Zeik murmured, his voice low, as though speaking the words aloud cost him something. "They're the only thing keeping me together-literally. They're holding me in place, facilitating some pathetic semblance of recovery." With deliberate care, he began rewrapping his face, the motions mechanical, practiced.

"Our time away..." He paused, his tone laced with an emotion Zk couldn't quite place. Grief? Resignation? "It hasn't been kind. I've lost..."

His words trailed off, replaced by an unsettling silence that stretched long enough for Zk to wonder if Zeik had fallen back into that terrible, impenetrable quiet. But then, like the breaking of ice over a frozen lake, his voice returned, stronger this time, though edged with bitterness.

"I hope Iden has answers," Zeik said, his voice carrying a weight that pressed down on the frigid air. "Because in all the time we've spent apart, I've learned nothing. Nothing about the Horsemen. Nothing about their army, their intentions. Only what I already feared." He turned his hollow gaze to Zk, his bandaged face offering little solace. "We cant fix this because they're an immutable truth, the inescapable- destiny."

The frozen desert stretched endlessly around them, an unyielding expanse of frost and ice. The howling winds screamed in Zeik's ears, but he paid them no mind. Neither the cold nor the surreal beauty of the landscape could stir him. His spirit was as broken as his body.

"I was so confident once..." Zeik continued, his voice distant, as though recalling a memory from another life. "After Kurai and I created Astral City, I thought we had won. I could feel it. I saw it. Victory was tangible, real. Perhaps thats why it hurts my who soared higher than icarus could dream..." His voice faltered, and his shoulders slumped as though crushed under an invisible weight.

"Now Azazel is missing. Nagase...is changing, turning into something uglier than me. The Crowns are mobilizing and...then there's Arcturus..." He let the name linger in the icy air, its weight sinking like a stone into the abyss of his despair.

"This doesn't feel like just another chapter in my life. Nor , in [/i]our[/i] lives." He looked down at his trembling hands, the faint tremor betraying the emotion he tried so hard to suppress. "It feels like the universe itself is conspiring against us. Willing us to fail. To end."

The wind roared again, but Zeik didn't flinch. He stood there, a shadow of the man he had once been, his spirit lost to the wasteland of his grief.

“Yikes, bro.”

Zero flinched at the sight of Zeik’s mangled face clad in cloth. The pair of them survived massively harrowing ordeals in Arcturus more than once and he never saw his friend with this kind of lasting damage. The man was a mage supreme with an effective range that kept most opponents from landing a single hit. Whoever did this to him showed themselves to be a threat to their operation today. Zeik’s ordeal weighed on Zero’s mind, dragging him out of the house and right back into the fray, but he possessed a specific aptitude that Zero trusted to guide them to the relic’s location.

“I know things are looking bleaker by the second, but I’ glad you were able to pull yourself together and ride out with me. Maybe we can swing around and find Azazel on the way back.” Zero said, completely committed to a detour to pick up Zeik’s son from the jaws of danger, the Acolytes could wait a bit longer after he comes back successful. “You still have your city and your… Health, so once you heal up, we can come up with a better strategy to stop The Horsemen and get the Astral family back on track.” Another detour meant nothing to Zero, just another in the long list of friendly adventures that filled his life with rich experience and even more valuable comrades In these trying times.

Zero picked up speed, the mantagolem’s body hummed with an electric blue hue where his feet met the creature’s crown. It’s gemstone eyes glowed in response and the shimmering white wings astride its own metallic fins exploded in size. Zero still saw nothing but ice ahead of them all the way out to the horizon. The slow procession of the storms over the Hyperion Mountains was the only visual stimulation the region offered, and they were hundreds of miles away. “If all goes according to plan, we’ll be able to put some of the energy of this Vestige to use for us. We know the Horsemen wanna pick a fight, so we can definitely be ready to fight back. I feel like the world depends on it.”

The only reason he left the Jaida Coast to venture abroad was for this specific, but very important Anchor. Zero mostly understood how the Acolytes treated these journeys, field research in the nature of Vestiges. This particular journey felt more like a scramble against the clock against uneven odds. The tilted opposition gave himself the drive to truly shine, but the reality of the level of magic craft ahead of them kept him focused. It had been a while since he set out to find an ancient relic, even longer since he was on an adventure with his good friend, at a breakneck speed across a frozen desert, Zero knew victory awaited them.

The Desert of Aeon stretched out in front of Zeik and ZK for quite some time. The mantagolem they ride is proving a reliable vessel to ferry them the southern coast. Within 3 hours the white expanse topped with a layer of blue, the Strait of Skeith, approached from afar. The winds whip across this body of water from the Desert of Aeon giving it a strong riptide and swift currents with excessively choppy waves.

A mantagolem approached from long, dead stretch of the Desert of Aeon. Though it looked plain, a sophisticated network of sensors rested just below the frost in the area near the Strait of Skeith. The Arcenaux Corporation partitioned off a range of 100 acres from the water to keep anyone unauthorized by their chains of command from approaching the strait. Once they crossed over into their claimed territory:


The silent alarm awakened a turret line grown out of the frozen earth below. These turrets were a staple of the Arceneaux Arsenal, sold all over Vescrutia for the copetitive edge in security and defense. The network is designed for coastal areas with access to saltwater, creating molten sea salt artillery to down the target. The frozen metal barrels scorched to life, black towers made of rugged metals mined from the mountains of Mek. Its forged luster glowed in the northern light, and the white hot, ornate engraved barrels showed the balance between craftsmanship and well researched design principles signature to the Arceneaux corporation. One after another until the fleet of 50 made a line on the horizon. They loaded up their first volley and within seconds opened fire on Zeik, Zero, and the mantagolem steed with accuracy trained by their Arceneaux Arsenal Nav Sights, powerful enough to chart their trajectory from the stratosphere.. A short volley with stopping power enough to incapacitate heavy armor units and smaller, more mobile opposition as well. Right behind the first volley, the turrets fired another synchronized round of molten salt at the trespassing trio.


T-T-T-T-HOOM!!!


Again and again the scorching artillery barrels fired thier salt shells at Zero, Zeik, and their mount, molten ordinance so hot that it dimmed the painted sherbert sky above on its molten approach to their target. They screamed through the air, seething a pungent steam as they made their way to down the intrepid challengers. The Arceneaux Corporation quartered off this sector for a reason and would use every tool at their disposal to keep intruders out.

Further out near the coast, the intruder alert hit the receiver of a single piece of Arc Tek.