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A clash of Realms (FF XIV-W:AOS crossover)

Lord Kragan

The one and only Lord of Mutton Chops.
Author
Chapter 1. Spellhunters.


Five years into the seventh umbral era.

Ruprecht and Doyle sprinted across the thick canopy of stranglevines. The bloody plants whipped and snapped, seeking an opening in their targets. Unfortunately both adventurers were allergic to death, so that wouldn't fly.

Leaping and sprinting like madmen, the duo tailed Einhard through the gauntlet of killer plants. One of the vines snapped at Rupretch's arm, blowing away a bit of plate and cutting the red and blue fabric of his puffy sleeves, eliciting a curse from the gruff man.

For over four minutes they kept running for their dear lives, only stopping once they reached a patchwork of ruins almost drowned in the burgeoning vegetation. These couldn't be that old, given how virulent vegetation got in Ghyran, the Realm of life. Ruprecht turned southward. In theory the grand metropolis of Hanmerhal should still be visible, but the trees were so dense that one couldn't see it. The Mortal Realms grew more bizarre the farther you went of civilization, but Ghyran's own brand particularly annoyed Ruprecht.

"Every day's almost like a whole season here, for the bloody plants," grumbled Ruprecht as he took off his brimmed had to rub off the patina of sweat that bathed his auburn hairline.

Ruprecht was a stout and bulky, some dared say chunky, man. Armed with a greatsword, the blade hung on his back, clunking from time to time with his breastplate's back. He sniffed, his broken nose shifting a bit and his mustache tickling as he stared at his companion.

Doyle was a sallow fellow, a native azyrite, from the looks of his incredibly fair skin and meticulous grooming. The sons of the Celestial City were incredibly uptight on that matter. The once immaculate white and blue uniform, made out of quite fine fabrics, was also a dead give away, but the jungle made sure to tear apart that one. Doyle's blue eyes flickered to the Gurdishman adventurer, and Ruprecht stopped the whole staring affair.

"Do you think we are far from the mark," asked Doyle in a ragged voice as he inspected his now damaged clothes.

"I hope so," grumbled Rupretch. He paused for a second before making a second remark. "We are charging twice if not."

Doyle made a razor thin smile. Which quickly vanished as they both heard the incoming screed.

"C'mon here guys!" Bellowed a maddened voice between cackles. "I FOUND IT!"

Ruprecht grunted as Einhard popped up, chanting non-stop about how 'he found it'. The hedge mage, had been kicked from all wizardly institutions for a reason. Just by looking at his disheveled and dirty clothing, his goat-like and unkempt beard too, one could hazard a guess. His eyes said it loudly, he was a madman.

One that was pretty damn handy as a guide and seeker of targets from the contracts, mind you.

"Just what it is?"

"It's a realmgate!"

The old coot ran again, as if shot from a cannon. Ruprecht grunted as he hauled Doyle through the shattered stone tiles of the abandoned settlement. Almost around the corner, in the middle of the abandoned plaza stood a realmgate.

Realmgates… those portals to almost everywhere took almost any shape. They were so varied that Ruprechts almost gave a wide berth to those that resembled a proper gate, like the bleached archway in front of them.

"Jump!" cried the maddened warlock as he entered the shimmering portal.

Ruprecht's jaw went slack and he blanched.

"He's going to kill us all," deadpanned Doyle.

"He better up his game, then," murmured Ruprecht as he barged in to snag and get back the old coot.

Doyle uttered a cry of complaint but, seeing himself alone, decided to follow Ruprecht.

A flash of blinding light enveloped them, so potent that was almost eyesearing. They had activated the realmgate and would jump on to its linked location. Where was a damn good question, though.

Ruprecht grunted in pain, as he scrambled to touch some sort of support. He found it, something soft, like leather, but before he could secure it, he felt a painful slap on his hand that almost sent him reeling backwards.

"Freeze, intruder!" commanded a feminine voice oozing anger.

Rupretch did not stop at the words, but the feeling of steel almost biting into his flesh, as the sword pointed at his neck. That and the breathtaking beauty of their ambusher, those mesmerizing golden eyes and flowing silky silver hair.

And the white bunny ears cropping out of her head

"What in Sigmar's name!?"

=== 0 ===
Earlier that day. Near the Octant square of the city state of Limsa Lominsa, southern Vylbrand.

Lyna's gaze wandered through the city. Under the shadow of ancient cliffs worn by the relentless onslaught of the Rhotano Sea, Limsa Lominsa stood radiant. Llymlaen, goddess of navigation, had clearly blessed the countless and spread out tiny islands that formed the city through an interwoven network of bridges of iron and wood construction. It was both a bewitching sight both from afar and up close, thought the Viera officer.

Lyna shook her head, her rabbit ears trembling slightly, waking up from her stupor and focusing on the order given by admiral Bloefyshwyn.

"By the twelve, I've not slept well today," cursed the captain as she pinched the bridge of her nose, pincering the coppery skin with her gloved hands.

Neither last night, nor the last three. She'd spent her nights having ghastly nightmares. Their contents eluded Lyna by and large, but that amethyst skull screaming and lurching at her was something branded unto her psyche. Choosing to drown her issues in workload, she went to business.

"Officer, report!" Commanded the captain to one of her adjutants, Nappi. She didn't wait for an answer and instead marched northwards.

A dozen Lominsan guards followed her and the elezen Mappi as he did a briefing of the situation.

"There's been sightings of a black trail that's left out… quite a few corpses, I guess we could be that generous."

"Are you implying they were butchered?" Curtly inquired the captain.

Nappi nodded no, his bald head shimmering a bit in the dawn's light as he did so.

"Desiccated, some reduced to dust."

That almost gave pause to the guard captain. She was about to further ask, but the look of her adjutant told her she'd get a far better picture by seeing rather than hearing the words of someone that had only a vague understanding of such a bizarre affair.

Soon after, they departed the city stated their chocobos striding two abreast. Outside the battlements of Limsa Lominsa, La Noscea's plains spread out up to the horizon and the volcano that split Vylbrand in two regions. There, at the lower areas of that mountain they'd find their trail.

After the better part of the morning riding they reached their destination. Lyna grunted. She was nowhere close to a good rider, her skills being on par with potato sacks, and her legs ached a bit more than usual.

They were close to a small forest that nested on the foot of the mountain to the east of their position was a trail that crawled up the slopes of the volcano. One could make the shapes of ancient ruins amidst the dense foliage.

Lyna quickly noticed the details. At the right edge of the forest was a section of trees that had been reduced to desolate carcasses. From there the otherwise verdant grass had been reduced to a shrivelled gray carpet, filled with near mummified bodies. The captain got close and saw a victim. By the size of the corpse, she had to be a miqo'te child, but she looked like a wizened hag reduced to a husk.

Lyna got close and her breath made the corpse crack down into dust. The Viera winced horrified.

"What in the twelve's name!"

She stood there, slack jawed at the implications of this. Nappi cut that fool's errand short.


"Madam look at the forest!"

She turned and saw a spire of light surging amidst the trees. She quickly connected the dots and knew that light had some relationship with the reported event.

Lyna sprinted alongside her fellow troopers. Their blades hissed as they were unsheathed. Lyna held from following suit, least they could be provoking something they couldn't deal with.

From the clearing of the forest stood ruins the likes of which she had never seen, their style utterly alien to the Viera. She felt her skin goosebump as she saw the source of the light.

An archway thrice her size, decorated with a near saturating array of icons depicting apocalyptic battles, that shimmered ominously. Lyna's eyes widened as she gulped down.

"Stay put,

"I am the captain, I give the orders," shot down Lyna. She then added, in a tenuous attempt to lighten the heavy atmosphere"And I am not in the mood to deliver bleak news to any would-be widows or orphans, I just have a pestering kitty."

The guards obeyed and she slowly advanced to the strange archway. She wanted to check the think up c-

All of a sudden she was enveloped in a blinding flash of light, she saw nor heard nothing a wall of white and a deafening buzz.

Something touched her. A grasping talon.

The gracing touch sent her ballistic. By instinct she slapped the groping hand. Adrenaline from the surprise shifted into annoyance, which in turn lead to anger at the moment of lowered guard. She acted in reflex, drawing her side arm blade as a preventive measure

"Freeze intruder!"

=== 0 ===

What was going on?

Ruprecht was quite befuddled. It wasn't just the rabbit lady, but also some cat guy, a very young aelf* and two humanoid looking fellas with blue hued skin and hair.

Doyle did not doubt that much. Swiftly he aimed his double barreled shotgun at Ruprecht's attacker. Cries of alarm ran through their ranks as they readied their weapons.

"Dear ma'am," said the azyrite in a cool tone. "I am positive you'd like to keep your brain case intact as much as my companion would like to not bleed to death, so," he made a nod towards the other guardsmen before adding anything else. "I think we'd all appreciate a minuscule mutual favour."

"Why should I trust you, outlander?" Hissed the bunny girl as she subconsciously shifted her stance a bit, locking on the sallow gunner.

"Why should I trust you from not gutting my friend?" countered Doyle. "By the same token you do not trust me, I too have no reason to take you at face value, but this is certainly not a comfortable posture, aint it?

For a second she weighted in the choices.

"Lower the weapon now," threatened the woman.

"You first," quipped Doyle.

" willI tell my men to drop the weapons down and you will put the weapon away," counter-offered the rabbit gal.

"Deal."

The woman turned and made a gesture to their comrades. Blades and staffs lowered, leaving the duo at a tense impas for a few moments.

Almost like a spasm, the two turned their weapons away. Ruprecht let out a relieved sigh as he rubbed the irritated neck.

The rabbit girl mused for a second before speaking again.

"I am captain Lyna of Limsa Lominsa's guard," introduced the rabbit woman. "State your business, why did you come here."

Ruprecht coughed to clear his throat.

"Name's Ruprecht, and this is my colleague Doyle," said the ghurdishman as his hand pointed at each other. "We are professional spellhunters, ma'am."

"Spellhunters," parroted slowly the captain.

Her voice was much like her expression: a mixture of bafflement, disbelief and a bit of disgust at such a blatant lie.

Doyle was taken aback at such a strange reaction.
He made to further elaborate but Einhard's cry broke his train of thought.

From the trail eastwards ran Einhard like a hound. Sprinting like there was no tomorrow, the mad wizard barely kept distances with his pursuer.

The ground trembled and nearby trees withered a bit and shed dying leaves.

Their target was coming

"Well, there goes charging double," noted Doyle dryly.

=== 0 ===

"Wha- what is that!?" Shouted Nappi.

Following the disheveled vagrant was a massive orb of pure amethyst. From it lashed a hundred ethereal tentacles withering away any trace of life, reducing all things it rolled over into dust.

"Well, thankfully that Sun of Xereus is small," said Ruprecht to Doyle.

"Sun?" Inquired a flabbergasted guard.

"It is a figure of speech, sun of xereus, sun of shyish," explained the man named Doyle as he took off the red cartridges from his shotgun and replaced them with silver ones. "It is just an endless spell, a concentration of Death magic that runs rampant all over the Realms."

Lyna felt no need to argue about what, under normal circumstances, would sound like total horse shit. She focused on a small and unimportant detail.

That was the skull that haunted her nightmares
 
Last edited:
Chapter 2. Into the jaws of death.

The flow of time died off for Lyna. An acrid stench punched her nostrils, so potent it almost gained solidity and assaulted her taste buds, leaving a horrible aftertaste that slithered down her drying throat. Her chest was clutched by the biting chill that struck the clearing rapidly. Her legs froze, unmoving except by the terrified shivers that had assailed her. Her eyes were locked in that sphere.

The world disappeared. The dying trees faded away, the rapidly withering grass following suit. She did not perceive the sky growing darker with the release of the amethyst smog that emanated from that orb, nor the dying birds careening to the ground as they breathed that poisonous miasma. Lyna's reality was reduced to just her and her brain systematically and rapidly shutting down at the sight of her inevitable fate, shaped like a roiling tangle of lilac flares with a howling skull plastered at the forefront, fighting to get out of that maze of strings and rampage through the land to extinguish all life, screaming in a nerve shattering screed.

She was going to die.

She made to surrender to the inevitable, kneeling before her doom as her legs finally gave up their last stand. She began to crumble down when an arm locked on her neck, and pushed her away.

She choked for a second, letting out a strangled cough, as she was manhandled away. She brought her hands to the lariat, trying to fend it off. But she was still too shaken to muster any serious attempt. She couldn't even scream a protest as the man named Ruprecht threw her out of the sphere's path, just manage to not fall flat on the ground.


"Spread out, spread out!" bellowed Ruprecht as he placed a hand on Lyna's shoulder and propelled her further away.

Lyna began to regain her senses. The viera's survival instinct finally took down her fatalism and took control of her body. She ran away to the sun bleached cobblestones of the ruins, seeking a high ground, as fast as she could, going on full overdrive. Her body brimmed with terror-induced adrenaline, and though she was submitting her body to a strong strain with such a rapid sprint, she felt but a small pinprick of pain. Pearls of sweat formed and raced down her now lustrous skin as she kept on with the neck break pace under the noon's scorching sun, her breath starting to get ragged after a while as her legs oared her away from the danger.

She turned sideways for a second, seeing how most of her fellows followed suit, joining in the desperate run. She didn't see Nappi, though, nor the outlanders for that matter.

She then looked backwards, seeing Nappi paralyzed on the ground, much like she'd been. His expression was petrified in a rictus of sheer terror and mesmerizing at such entity, like a mice hypnotized by a hungering snake about to break fast. The gargantuan orb ran through the elezen.

There was no scream. No crunch, no sound at all. When the orb left the elezen be, only a crystal statue bearing Nappi's resemblance remained. A small gust of wind stroke the clearing, destroying the fragile statue, and scattering the remnants alongside a volley of dried out leaves, branches and the remnants of lesser creatures caught on the deadly trail.

"What is that?" she managed to say as she reached for the ruins.

The man named Doyle shoved the remaining guards further into the ruins, and made to grab the captain, but Lyna swatted him aside.

"Explain me this madness, now!" commanded the captain as she tried to reign in her nerves.

Doyle snapped and shouted at her as he fully closed the gap between in a single stride.

"It's a ball of magic gaining will of its own and hellbent on killing the stuff it finds in its path!" bellowed the spellhunter as he leveraged his shotgun right next to Lyna's face and pointing at the Sun still hunting the maddened wizard. "Does that help you die better?"

It was an answer, Lyna had to admit as she glared at that voidsent monstrosity. Not one that made any lick of sense to her, though. Or rather, it was so bizarre to her that she just couldn't wrap her head around that answer.

"The crash course will have to wait for later," interrupted Ruprecht in irritation as he barged through the guards. He turned and asked to no one in particular "Is there a mage amongst your number?" he said in a shout filled with irritation. As the padjal wizard of their unit rose her hand he added. "One that knows how to dispel a Sun of Shyish," he sighed in disappointment as she proved to be useless and pinched his nose and then continued. "Welp, there it goes."

Doyle grumbled as he stared at Einhard. The hedge wizard was dancing circles around the sun, skirting danger far too many times in a single row.

"We need that madman to get things going and dispel the bloody thing, or else we are all doing a one-way trip into Shyish," murmured Doyle.

"What do you need?" Asked Lyna intently, her voice betraying a bloodthirsty edge.

The two spellhunters turned at each other, utterly baffled. Ruprecht rose his eyebrows in disbelief.

"We need 'you' to stay put," explained pedantically Ruprecht. " If your wizard knew how to tangle with that spell, it would be one thing. But as is, there's no need to further feed that thing."

"Ah ha," Lyna's voice took a chill tone, her eyes hardening at the implied condescension, her lips pressing until they became a narrow slit. "And your plan is, oh brave and selfless heroes?"


"You're going to meddle in, aren't you?"

Doyle made the question rhetorically. There was pure steel in that glare, all tempered with a healthy dose of murderous hatred.

"That was one of my men, I will be damned if I sit through this bloody mess and let you be gentle to that voidsent monstrosity," he said solemnly as she unsheathed her sword.

The sallow azyrite scoffed as he shook his head in faux disbelief.

"That toy will not do much against an endless spell," pointed out Doyle. "We can at best stall and distract it, but this kind of monstrosities need a wizard to deal with them," he said as he gestured at the madman.

Lyna weighted in the situation for a split second, scanning swiftly the rapidly decaying environment.

"I get him, attack from its southern and western flank to better distract him, start with that shotgun from the south, then retreat as eastward," decided the Viera, taking control of the situation, taking by surprise the two spellhunters. "You fend him off," Munny!"

She turned towards the padjal wizard and gestured for her to come. Her comrade knowingly approached as she began casting haste. The two spellhunters let out surprised gasps as the spell took effect and she started moving at blinding speed.

Lyna felt the magic through her body. An exhilarating experience, she thought as a mirthless grin plastered on her face. She felt the world slowed down around her as she turned to see the other two.

Doyle had fired the first shot, his shotgun spewing a literal comet rain. The now darkened forest illuminated as the heavens descended from the barrel and upon the Sun of Shyish, a dozen stars striking it with a blinding, searing light that made the thing release an agonizing scream. Ruprecht charged ahead, pounding the ground with his ironshod boots as he held his two hander and bellowed profanities at the thing.

Lyna kept running, her body now a projectile that cruised through. She passed by a fleeing bird, its frantic flap a slow motion to her senses now. She closed down on the wizard.

Now came the trickier part.

Maneuver wrongly, and she would punch through the man's flesh and turn him into an explosion of bone shrapnel and gore. Grab him the wrong way, and you will break him. Stop the wrong way and he will be ripped apart from the opposing forces.

No pressure, really, she thought sarcastically.

She silently prayed to the twelve, almost shutting down her eyes for a split second as she felt compelled to look away from the potential mess. She steeled her resolve, kept her eyes locked on the madman and went for the grapple.

Her arm locked on the emaciated torso, instinctively she turned around the old man. She buckled down and halted, the earth was torn apart by the sudden change in centrifugal force and the bleeding dirt scattered around in a burst. The wizard was thrown upwards, doing a pirouette once, and then landed flatly on Lyna's arms. Her hair flowed right into her face, causing her to shake off wildly, and almost lose the hold on the elder man.

Hopefully she hadn't broken anything.

Lyna wasted no time. The spell was running its course, her movements and senses slugging down to more natural levels, her muscles panging with the extreme ache derived from such an impossible sprint. She felt the prelude of a crank, eliciting a pained grunt as she ground her teeth and bloodshot her eyes, forcing herself to one more run.

She turned slightly to the right, seeing the Skull bearing its bale glare upon her, rampaging towards her despite the adventurers efforts.

Death. The end. Those were her two thoughts as they began repeating ad nauseam, hammering her skull from the inside.

This time Lyna didn't freeze. A combination of the spell's effects and her utter terror kept her on this time. The captain ran and this time her gaze didn't divert nor waver, locked tightly onto the other edge of the forest.

For the worst, she realized as she noticed she was careening into the sky. As Lyna turned she saw the roots she had bumped into, now uprooted and left swinging a feet over the ground level by the sheer force of her kick, but an obstacle big enough for her to lose the footing.

She could not move now, as the flabbergasted surprise was added onto the mix, and proved to be the finisher for any chance of her moving. Thankfully her wild mane was covering her face. She'd only feel, not see, the whole mess.

Lyna stopped. As in, completely halted, her hair unmoving in the same position, her arms and legs frozen in time. Her eyes wide open, so she could see how she slowly and gently approached the ground. Until she was about a foot or two, then she crash landed. Everything went back into motion swiftly, her hair waving wildly and her extremities flailing in spasmic surprise as she realized the wizard had stopped her.

Lyna grunted in pain as she barely avoided eating dirt, the Viera rose up in aching pains as she blew many of the locks of silvery hair away from her face with an exhausted huff. She stared at the wizard, the man's gaze was filled with a sensation she couldn't describe, but best stroke her as utter madness.

"Why, thank you, young woman!" said the wizard as he stroke his goat beard. "That sun proved most appalling, not giving me time to cast spells to fly away!"

Lyna's exhaustion started to kick into full gear. She let out a pained moan,as her whole body burnt from the sheer extertion. Arcing down, the Viera captain clenched her hand in a trembling fist.

"Just give me a second," announced the wizard, his voice now more reassuring than deranged.

He began a chant, coils of azure and white light forming around him, the heavens lightening up as he did so. A soothing, spirit raising light began to feel the clearing, as Lyna's eyes lit at the strange powers displayed in front of her.

The skull noticed it. It shrieked in pure hatred, and charged at them. Lyna tried to rise up, but her body decided against, making her plummet hard against the ground again. She'd used haste on occasions but never in such a limit breaking fashion.

She turned and saw the wizard's incantations keep on, but knew things were going awry as his chant gained a more nervous note and his voice was starting to fill with a measure of terror.

Doyle fired twice again, a rain of stars hammering at the sun, but the voidsent entity knew its ending would not come from the strange bullets but at the wizard's hand, so it kept rampaging on.

"HOLD RIGHT THERE!"

Ruprecht charged through, jumping right straight into the maws of the skull. The spell shrieked in annoyance, surprise and wrath as the suicidal man barged through and halted its advance as it was engulfed by the flames. For a few seconds the deadly orb faltered, nailed on the spot as it tried to move in vain.

Right enough for the unbinding to occur. The coils around the old man were unleashed, slamming against the surface of the predatory spell, unraveling its very fabric.

As the sun's energies were pulled apart, its mouth opened grotesquely wide. From its jaws came a death-scream, so brutal and soul shattering that Lyna felt she'd lost a whole decade of her life. As it reached the peak of the cacophony, the sun blew in a column of lilac flame.

It was gone.

So to was the man named Ruprechts.

She had failed Nappi. She had failed the stranger that had saved her not once but twice. Biting bitterly her lips before letting out an enraged and saddened scream, she cursed her weakness, pounding the ground with her fist in a pitiful attempt at displaying her impotent frustration.

"Is everyone alright?" Asked Doyle in a ragged voice.

Lyna rose, her eyes filled with blood and rage. There she found the strength to rise up again.

"What do you think!? Snapped Lyna win a viciously angry tone as she lurched towards the azyrite.

The two of them stopped as a moan emerged from the column of amethyst smoke. There, much to Lyna's surprise was Rupretch. His forearms were covered in the same purple crystals as the ones Nappi had been turned into. With a disdainful swipe, he wiped them out and waltzed towards them, smiling gingerly.

"Ah, hale and whole, I see."

The man couldn't sound more sardonic.
 
Chapter 3. Misunderstandings.


Lyna and the other guards finished gathering the stones and made the mound. Clasping her hands together, she knelt to pray to the Twelve. A last farewell to Nappi, she thought amidst a gentle trickle of tears. She had to keep composure versus some of the most emotional members of her unit. She turned slightly, watching the trio of strangers. Einhard frolicked around, while the other two men stared at them warily, murmuring to each other.

They were strange fellows, thought Lyna as she wiped out the tears and approached them. A sense of wariness took over her as she started approaching. The distraction of that… thing, had made her lower her guard too much. She frowned but removed the expression, her face neutral and all business when she came to talk to them.


"Well, I guess I should thank you for helping us with that sun... or whatever you want to call the screaming ball of death," said Lyna as she tentatively extended her hand, quickly studying all their movements.


Doyle made a ghost of a smile, while Ruprecht took the offer and clutched her hand in a hell of a handshake. The captain was caught by surprise but quickly adapted and managed to hold her ground.


"There's nothing to thank, we are sorry for what happened to your companion, it's one of the office's downsides," commented apologetically the spellhunter, his expression bearing no ill will. "We will be leaving soon, so I hope your travel back is safe."

"Leaving?" said the captain in a cool tone. "Oh no no no, you're not leaving. You're coming to Limsa Lominsa and explain the Admiral, and me for that matter, what the hell just happened."


The adventurer snapped the handshake out and quickly complained.


"Absolutely not!" as he saw the expression of the captain gain a tinge of anger he quickly explained. "We need to come to Hammerhal or else some fakery may as well take our reward! I know those truants who falsify proofs of capturi-"


He was cut by the last question he expected to hear.

"Hammerhal?" She rhetorically asked, her anger mixing with bafflement.


The duo exchanged a concerned glare.


"You know, the crown jewel of the God-King Sigmar Heldenhammer, who rules from High Azyr! What realm is this anyways?"


"What? This Hydaleyn!"

"Hysh?"


Lyna's jaw went slack for a second before grunting in exhasperation.


"Hydaleyn!" she claimed furiously in utter frustration as her index finger poked at the cuirass angrily. "The one and only one in this one and only round star we inhabit!"


Something she said earnt the horror of the two strangers. What, exactly?


"Oh gods," uttered Ruprecht in mounting dread. "You're a spherical-realmer."


Such quacks could only be found amongst the most deranged groups to ever populate the Cities of Sigmar. All of a sudden the two spell hunters started to give a slow yet wide berth to the guard captain.


She did too in turn.


"What do you mean 'spherical-realmer'?" Asked the captain. "What kind of non-sense is that?"

The duo was further baffled, looking at each other in utter disbelief.

Lyna snapped out, fully realizing how absurd and nonsensical the situation was becoming. She took a deep breath and collected her hair, which had started to loosen out a bit.


"Fine, compromise time: I will accompany you to this 'Hammerhal' of yours," concluded the Captain. "And you better stop muddying the waters."
 
chapter 4: Welcome to hammerhal.
Chapter 4. Welcome to Hammerhal.



Lyna kept running across the burgeoning forest. Her muscles ached, her breath was a ragged mess and she was drenched in sweat. Yet she kept running, just like the three spellhunters, for pretty solid reasons.


"What are those things!?" She managed to shout in terrified confusion as she skipped over a massive knot of roots and barely avoided a tangling branch.


She didn't turn. The bizarre shapes were engraved on her memory. Those were supposedly trees, by the look of their bark and green foliage and moss.


Why they were shaped like lions again?


"Those are -huff- Ghyrlions!" yelped Doyle as he almost fell to the ground, barely maintaining both momentum and equilibrium.

That certainly explained a lot, she managed to think sarcastically.


Lyna was blinded for a second, as a hail of lightning bolts ran through the sky and close to her. She floundered against the ground as she had kept running without sight and bumped into yet more overground vegetation. Her arms protected her somewhat, though going by the pang of pain she felt, it hadn't been a good landing.


Grunting and cursing the Viera turned around, her eyes still sore from the blast. As her sight readjusted, the captain raised her torso, expecting the beast-trees to hurl themselves at her. As a pleasant surprise, that was not the case.

The tree-beasts laid slain, their bodies torn, charred at spots, smoke trailing from the gaping wounds as the nascent flames' sparks crackled and began consuming the dead carcasses.


Grappling a knot of gnarled wood, the viera captain put herself at a more comfortable position, turning her head slowly to the right.


She gasped, almost jumping backwards as she was greeted by an arrowhead a feet away from biting her nose, a massive archer clad from head to toes in baroque silver plate staring at her, his face hidden beneath a stern warmask.


She made to look at the other directions, noticing more of the silver figures emerging from the foliage and vegetation.


Then, something blunt hit her nape, making her neck jerk at the suddenness, everything fading into darkness a split second afterwards.



=== 0 ===


Still dazzled, Lyna regained her senses, the foggy environment gaining substance and defined silhouettes. She murmured incoherently, shutting her eyes in irritation at the strong sunlight and shaking her head in a pointless reaction. With effort she re-opened them.


It wasn't sunlight.


Lyna froze still in the chair, her body shackled by surprise and fear at the lumbering behemoth in front of her. He was covered in the same kind of plate as the ambushing archers, but his was even more ornate, covered in a myriad of sigils of stylized lightning bolts, comets and astral signs. The silver plate was covered by a cloak styled after the fur of a massive black beast, and the impassable helmet peaked with a crimson feather crest.

And in his right hand rested a coppery lantern, emitting a blinding burst of light that was almost painful to look at. The viera flinched.


"Where a-"began the captain.

"Silence!" boomed the titan, his voice the peal of thunder.


Without a single word, the giant slammed the ferrule of his stafff against the tent's ground, the clang a thunderclap that hammered Lyna's skull. She grimaced and looked at the lamp for a second time.


A grave mistake.


Her eyes were locked now, ensnared like a moth to the purging flames, light came from Lyna now unto the lamp, as the bloody damn thing swallowed and bursted luminary. And more.


Too Lyna's horror, she saw and understood what the lamp did. It was just not casting an eye searing blast, it was not scorching her. She was extracting her memories.



For an eternal moment the light kept searing on, the flow unstoppable and every single hidden thought inside Lyna's mind and memory revealed. The very depths of her soul scoured and being judged with impunity, her being a hapless witness.


All the mistakes she made in her life passed through her eyes as the blinding stream of truths and secrets poured unto the searing lamp, even that one time…


That one time she had to work as a 'bunny waitress' to pay off a student loan.


She groaned, more in annoyance at her stupidity than pain at that one.



The light dimmed down, eventually fading, as the giant groaned in disgust and left the room, leaving an exhausted Lyna utterly confused.


=== 0 ===


Evria, knight incantor and sorceress of the Stonehides, waited outside the tent. She folded her eyes as she mused.


The Stonehides, alongside the Swiftblades and Ironguard Chambers*, had been on joint training exercises when they found the four interlopers, far from the beaten path and the standard travelling routes. Two claimed to be profesional spellhunters, one was a cappering nutcase and then there was the woman…


Her ears showed she was clearly not a human, but her kind were unheard of.


Bunnykind?


She had to repress a smirk at the silly thought.


There was a noise of thunderous steps, and Evria creased an auburn eyebrow as she saw Agrian leave the tent. Lord Veritants were the prime interrogators of the Hosts, trained and equipped to gleam every secret from their quarry. Him taking as long as he did to do a cursory check was curious.


She took a step back and flinched as Agrian smashed his lantern against the poles of the tent, grunting laboriously with each strike.


"Why.Don't.You.Work!" complained the Veritant.


That weirded out the sorceress, those lanterns didn't just 'do not work'.


"What's happened?" she took a step ahead as she cocked her head in puzzlment.


"The lantern found no sign of wickedness or corruption!" shouted an indignant Agrian.


That kinda lit up Evria. That meant yet another potentially sanctioned source of knowledge and lore to learn from!


"Good then!"


"She's got Sigmar-damned bunny ears!" complained Agrian, outraged at the comment. "She's clearly a chaos tainted wretch, a new breed of beastmen!"


Ah, it was that. Evria had to pinch her nose bridge as she braced for yet another round of that nonsense.


"You've seen the snake-women hiding in the temples of khaine, haven't you?" countered Evra in a polite tone.


"The cult of Khaine was a mistake!"


She sighed in tiredom. Let the former potato farmer be the interrogator on matters of witchcraft. He surely will have no baggage on the matter.


She made another reply, eliciting a loop of the ears clearly being a sign of chaos taint.


Seeing as they were getting nowhere, Evria rolled her eyes and decided to go for a low blow to finish this circular talk.


"How did the leave to find your family go?"


=== 0 ===


Lyna stood frozen for a few minutes, unsure what to do. She started hearing sobs from behind the door, the suggestion of shapes looming behind the tent's curtains as the hulking interrogator crumbled down and leaned on the other figure.


Unhealthy curiosity and fear for her dear life battled over whether take a peep or stay put.


Curiosity won.


"She took the kids!" Lyna, as she approached, heard the bawlings of the man that had interrogated her. "She-"


Lyna heard him breaking further down, now an incoherent mess of cries, a comforting femenine voice rising up to soothe the inconsolable titan.


Frowning in utter bafflement, the viera thought it wiser to go back where she was, undoing her path with a permanently befuddled expression, brows furrowed at maximum capacity.


For a few awkward moments she waited, her strained patience rewarded by the appearance of a woman, clearly hailing from Ul'dah or whereabouts, judging by her dark skin. A giant like the interrogator… maybe an Othardian Roegadyn?


"I am knight-incantor Evria, and I'd like to apologize in the name of my colleagues and the Hallowed Knights."


Lyna frowned, the name ringing hollow and alien. This in turn elicited some mild puzzlement on the giantess. She shrugged, instead craning sideways her head, gesturing her to go out.

Dubitavely the viera followed suit, abandoning the tempt, observing a clearing not too far from a cliff. Then she saw it, and gasped in surprise.


A gargantuan golden wall rose above a massive moat of molten magma, soaring to the skies and barely covering the endless metropolis it protected. Lyna's eyes widened, trying to grasp the full extent of that sprawling city, all in vain. Too many spires, too many palaces, just too much to process overall.

"Welcome to Hammerhal, I guess."



=== 0 ===

* Chamber is basically a stormcast fighting unit that ranges anywhere from a big platoon to a battallion.
 
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