An Unexpected Turn of Events: Part 3

"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl,

but whatever you do you have to keep moving."

- Martin Luther King

In an unknown location and time:

In the unending void, we know as the universe something spectacular was happening.

An uncountable number of beings were all flying in a certain direction.

These beings had a certain glow to them that if a normal being one were to see them they would think these beings were immortals or even gods.

At, the centre of all these beings was a massive city or better said a massive moving city.

This city was so large that it seemed to be even larger than some of the planets in the nearby vicinity.

The city had a mythical and powerful feeling to it.

As if it were a utopia of peace and prosperity, yet at the same time, it was a mighty fortress that could withstand any attack.

Strangely enough, though this city even had its own atmosphere and gravity, as if this city were so powerful that outside forces had no effect whatsoever on this city.

In, the depths of this city there was a very large and tall mountain.

From, the top of the mountain till the bottom of the mountain there were a few large golden and mystical letters engraved into the mountain.

These letters when said together were: "Warlock Mountain."

Yet despite these letters being golden and having a mystical feeling to them, there was another not so visible aura behind these words.

Tiny, rough and rusty words were engraved into the mountain.

Although, they seemed to have an even stronger presence to them than the words that covered them, but something was holding it back as if to hide its true aura from coming out.

The letters had a chaotic feeling to them as if there was something ancient and deadly hidden in these letters.

Yet, even if one were to try and read these letters, one would find it impossible because of all the rust covering them.

One would have to remove most of the rust before one would be able to see what the letters were.

Further away though, way at the top of the mountain, there were 10 large golden pillars in a circular formation, the pillars were all around 10 meters high.

These pillars were all connected by transparent, occasionally silver shining chains.

They also had ancient and archaic symbols on them that shined with a bright silver splendour, as if wanting to illuminate everything around them.

At the very top of these pillars, there was a glass platform.

Currently, 3 people were standing on the platform.

One seemed to be a human, while the two other people were far from being anything close to a human or even a humanoid being.

The one "human" was a 25-year-old looking man.

He had a platinum golden set of armour on, as well everything else about him was golden. His hair, his skin, his eyes, everything about him was in a golden colour.

He even had a beautiful radiant golden shining sword.

The two other beings were also had very unique appearances.

One of the beings was, strangely enough, a floating humongous octopus.

It was around 5 meters tall and 4 meters wide.

If a normal person were to look at it, they would think this octopus would be some kind of sea monster.

This octopus had two ominous green eyes, while black lines and symbols covered its body.

The other being was an ominous dark black cloud that had an extremely unpleasant and wicked aura.

These three beings all were staring into the void, with complex expressions.

Even the ominous cloud had a horrendous cloud formed face which showed it was thinking about something serious.

As they were doing this, the golden man shook his head and raised his voice, trying to get the attention of the octopus and the black cloud.

"Ahem! My two fellow elders, since the other elders are not yet here, I would like to discuss something with you."

Said the golden man with a charming smile.

Hearing this, the two beings turned their attention towards the golden man.

"What is it, elder Goldia?" asked the cloud with a raspy sounding voice.

As this was said, the golden man known as Goldia smiled with an even brighter smile and walked to the edge of the circle.

The two others followed him, while still being confused about what elder Goldia was up to.

"Now dear elders, we all know that we are currently in the Desolate Sector and that we are heading towards the GLK 123 system, better known as the Milky Way, by the natives of that system.

"We are heading there to exterminate those arrogant and idiot fools before they endanger us all."

"They are planning as you know to do a "Merging", those fools think they can actually pull off a merging!"

"They do not know, that of all the merges that have ever happened, only a handful have somewhat succeeded and the rest that didn't, have failed catastrophically!"

"These fools will drag down thousands of sectors in their attempt!"

"Because of this, you know why we have to eliminate them, every single one of them!"

"It does not matter if they are a celestial or not!"

"They will perish!"

"That's why the other elders have gone to gather their forces and rally the other high-ranking factions to join us in this campaign."

"We cannot have a repeat of what happened in the past!"

"Now the reason I had you two here is that the elders and I need you two to do a reconnaissance mission for us before we can engage with them."

"You two are the only elders in the council that have the required and necessary abilities for this."

"Because even though they are only a low-ranking faction at the moment, it doesn't mean that they don't have some powerful high-celestials."

"Like that irritating brat Rogen!" as Goldia mentioned Rogen's name, both the cloud and the octopus showed signs of irritation as if the mentioning of that very name made them furious and frustrated.

As Goldia wanted to continue, the octopus interrupted him.

"I see, I think we understand the gist of the situation, we will prepare ourselves and our forces to set off and investigate, the reason why all of this has happened." said the octopus as he then vanished.

The cloud said nothing and also disappeared like the octopus.

Seeing that he didn't have to convince his fellow elders any further, Goldia sighed in relief and the stared off into a certain direction.

"Just you wait you filthy mongrels, I shall burn you all with my righteous sword and I shall make sure that the past shall never be repeated!"

As Goldia said this, he also disappeared, and the platform was now empty.

Unbeknownst to the elders that had left though, something had been listening to them.

It was a disgusting being that represented pure chaos and evil.

This being hid by the rusty and unreadable letters that were behind the grand and majestic letters on the mountain.

This being had used the letters aura to mask its presence, which allowed it to listen to the elders freely without having the fear of being discovered.

The beast had an unsightly appearance, its body was decomposing and a foul odour was emanating from its flesh.

This creature chuckled with glee as it got what it came for, it then as well disappeared.

What the creature wanted was unknown and what it would know do with the information it had gotten only time would tell.

Following this the city and the massive amounts of celestials surrounding it still carried on moving towards the Milky Way, towards a war, that would decide the fate of the entire Sector and the other Sectors surrounding it.

Location: Unending Primal Forest

Time: Year 16 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

In the vast and seemingly unending forest known as the Unending Primal Forest, big things were happening.

Things that would shape the future. One of these things was a sizable group of people heading North West somewhere in the forest that wasn't too far away from the River of Greed.

There were around 215 people in that group.

Two people were the old man and Temarr, with an eagle in his arms and a little moose trekking next to him.

While the others were Phillip and his comrades.

The atmosphere was extremely tense at the moment.

Because of what was awaiting them, they weren't all too excited. For it wouldn't be too long before they would come in to contact with the Foundation Factions Array and warn the Faction of their presence, and when that happened they would face many Foundation Faction troops and high-ranking members.

Although this didn't make them fearful, for they had confidence in each other and their abilities. For even though they were only around 200 people, they were one of the most elite members in their organization that was fighting for freedom and the eradication of the Foundation Faction.

They also had immense confidence in their leaders, the Crowned Knights of Freedom. They had seen what they were capable of and knew they could count on their leaders.

They had no qualms in laying down their lives for their leaders and their cause, for only those parts of the organization would know how much anguish and suffering they had gone through the last years to survive.

They didn't care how much it would cost and how much they would have to sacrifice. They would never stop in their goal of eliminating the Foundation Faction and finally becoming free.

As they thought of this, they steeled themselves once more for the inevitable tough fight that was about to happen.

Phillip though was not even thinking about this, rather he was looking at the surrounding areas to see if the high-ranking observer was nearby.

He didn't want to be caught off guard and suffer losses so early on, for they still had a vital battle ahead of them and they couldn't afford to lose anyone before the major battle for the harbour had begun.

As he was thinking of this, though, he suddenly noticed something. The old man had stopped before him and pointed to a large tree that unlike the other trees had lost of all its vitality as if its vitality had been sucked away an instant and nothing but a hollow shell was left.

Seeing this, Phillip's eyes narrowed, and he looked at Temarr and the old man.

He nodded at them and started walking forward with a stony expression towards those trees.

As he saw this, the old man gave Temarr a signal to tell him to be ready and to follow Phillip.

Understanding what was going on, Temarr nodded his head as well. He then with the old man started following Phillip.

Phillip's comrades noticing something was going on also prepared themselves for anything that could happen.

As this was all happening, Phillip was around 6 meters away from the tree when he suddenly stopped.

Temarr and the old man nodded to each other and then stood next to Phillip.

Phillip's comrades and the other Crowned Knights of Freedom slowly pulled out their weapons and started spreading themselves across the area, as to not stand in each other's way if they were to engage in combat.

As this tense atmosphere continued to dominate the area, suddenly the sound of someone clapping could be heard.

Two men in dark black then appeared at the bottom of the tree.

They both had a mysterious and ominous aura to them.

One of the men was clapping and slowly started walking forward. He then stopped after walking for 2 meters.

Following this, he stopped clapping and took off his robe. What could be seen was a heavily disfigured man.

This man had half of his face burnt to the crisp so that only the other half could be seen.

The other half seemed to be average looking. Nothing special. He had almond brown hair and two violet, red eyes.

The man wore leather armour that covered his entire body. This armour must have come from a very strong beast, as if it was normal leather armour, it would be easily cut through as if it were butter.

On his side, he had a green coloured short sword. This sword was an elemental steel sword that had been enhanced.

As Phillip saw all these things, he proceeded to pull the massive pickaxe on his back down and hold it in both of his hands.

"I see you and I both know what we want, no?"

"So, I shall make it simple for you, have a duel with me."

"And if you manage to win, I shall help you get to the harbour undetected and I shall join your little cause." said the scarred man with a crazy-looking smile.

Hearing this, Phillip was confused. He didn't know what this man in front of him was planning, but he knew he didn't have much of a choice in terms of what to do.

"So, what happens if I lose?" asked Phillip while preparing himself for combat.

"Oh, good! Very good! I knew I could count on you to have a good battle!"

"Well, since you are asking, I will brutally and painfully torture your comrades and then kill them."

"If that's what you want to know:" answered the man while still smiling wildly.

Knowing that he had no other option but to duel this man, Phillip nodded and told the people behind him to back off.

Seeing Phillip's comrades didn't want to, but as they saw how adamant Phillip was, they had no other choice but to back off.

Temarr and the old man on the other hand didn't move from where they stood and stared at the scarred man in front of them.

As he saw this, the scarred man smiled and said:

"Now, now, you can play with the man behind me."

"As he seems to be very upset that you touched his precious little pet."

He then nodded at Philip and started walking off into the distance. Seeing this Phillip sighed and followed him.

The other man in the dark robe saw that he now finally had the chance to punish the pathetic mongrels in front of him for daring to touch his precious companion.

He then pulled out a poison coated dagger that had also been enhanced. Following this, he charged to the old man and Temarr, smiling at them with eyes full of hatred.

Temarr observing all of this sighed in frustration and then stepped forward while saying:

"Oye, it's all your fault old man that I'm always seen as some weak chump and miss out on all the good battles."

As the old man heard this he scoffed at Temarr, thinking of how could he have such a disrespectful disciple.

"Shut up!!! You dared to touch my precious!!!"

"I will make you pay!!!" as the man in the robe shouted this, he was almost at Temarr and swung his blade towards him.

Although, before a battle of any sorts could happen, Temarr sighed and swung his fist at the man.

Following this, the man felt as if time had slowed down; he saw a fist heading towards his face at incredible speeds, a speed that he wouldn't ever be able to dodge.

Before he could think of anything else, the time had come back to full speed, and the fist had already arrived.

The man's eyes widened in shock, yet just like that the fist hit his face and he was sent back tens of meters, dying instantly.

Without even putting up a fight, Temarr defeated the man with ease.

As the eagle saw its previous master die so easily, it made up its mind not to dare to disobey the man in front of him, as to not encounter the same fate.

Further Away:

Phillip and the scarred man had already started combatting. The scarred man was superior in close combat, while Phillip was able to hold his ground, relying on his physical power and his berserker-like abilities.

The battle though was slowly becoming less and less advantages for Phillip as the scarred man's blade had been enhanced.

The enhancement on the sword made anyone it cut deplete a lot of their energy.

And while Phillip was a powerful man, his stamina wasn't that great because of him having never been properly trained as well as never having faced a truly strong opponent.

Thinking of what to do, an explosion of in the distance could be heard and an enormous cloud of smoke followed, rising to the sky.

Both the man and Phillip were both distracted by this, yet thankfully for Phillip the scarred man's right eye where the most prevalent burn marks were, was almost completely blind.

Meaning he had to somewhat turn his body and attention to the explosion and not concentrate on Phillip.

He thought to himself that Phillip wouldn't be able to do anything to him anyway, because of him not even fighting seriously.

But this thought quickly changed as he saw Phillips pickaxe flying directly to him and then being tackled by Phillip.

As the man was tackled to the ground he struggled to fight out of the lock Phillip had on him, yet to his dismay, Phillip was like a rock not moving and being heavy as hell, slowly choking him to death.

Sighing, the man realised he had been too arrogant and excited to have a battle that he let himself be distracted.

He then proceeded to entirely give up and say:

"Alright! Alright! You damn brute! Fine! I give up!"

"I'll keep my word, now let me go!"

Hearing this, Phillip didn't stop and prepared himself to kill this man, yet he knew he couldn't.

He had to find a way to get to the harbour with his comrades without the Foundation Faction knowing.

Additionally, due to the explosion that had just happened, he was anxious something had happened and that his comrades were already fighting,

Leaving him no other choice, he chose to not kill the man and stood up.

"You better keep your word or else ill kill you!" said Phillip while glaring at the man.

"Heh don't you worry, I hold no love towards the Foundation Faction, these scars of mine is one of their many "gifts" I have received over the years!"

"So, don't you worry, ill get you and your friends there, without being noticed!" said the scarred man with a venomous tone.

Hearing this, Phillip thought maybe the scarred man had let him for a reason and that reason was to get revenge on the Foundation Faction.

Although not having a lot of time, Phillip didn't think long about this as he started running towards where his comrades were.

The scarred man sighed and then picked up his sword while standing up.

He then ran after Phillip, while cursing at himself for being so stupid and arrogant.

Location: Underground Mining Area 50-G

Time: Year 16 of the Era of Change

Era: Era of Change

Steven slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was in an unknown area and the only other person who was there was the woman he had been carrying for the last year.

Everyone else though was nowhere to be seen.

Not knowing what was going on, Steven stood up and put the woman on his back.

The woman seemed to still be sleeping and had not even noticed what had happened.

Seeing this, Steven couldn't help but sigh. He wished he could have such a simple approach to life.

Yet before he could think of anything, he noticed something terrifying.

Not too far away from where he and the lady were, a decaying man was staring at him with a disgustingly ominous smile.

"Boy… finally you've awoken!"

"Now come with me!"

"My queen wants to speak… with you!"

"Don't… tr… anything… you will die if you do!" said the disgusting-looking man as he then turned sideways and gestured Steven to go ahead of him.

Not knowing what was going on and being overwhelmed with fear, Steven proceeded to slowly walk forward with the woman on his back, while thinking of what he could do.

As he then went past the rotting man though, he suddenly felt a cold and sticky hand on his arms.

"Leave the girl."

"I am starving! And the queen only wants to see you!" said the decaying man with glee as he couldn't already help to imagine eating the beautiful and fleshy women in front of him.

Hearing this, Steven was enraged. How dare this sad excuse for a sack of meat tell him to give up the women he had been carrying for a year and he was trying so hard to save and keep alive!

Yet this disgusting creature wanted to eat her just like that!

Being overwhelmed with his emotions, Steven swung his fist at the decaying man's head.

The disgusting man didn't even see it coming as he one didn't think Steven would dare do anything and being too weak to do anything.

He was also preoccupied with the thought of devouring the women in front of him.

So just as he noticed something was wrong, it was too late.

Two fists had hit his face, and he was sent into one of the cavern walls.

Steven sighed in relief as he saw his plan had worked.

Steven knew his normal weak fist wouldn't be able to hurt that decaying man, even though he was decaying his body was still an enhanced one and it wouldn't be affected at all by a fist like Stevens.

So, he came up with a plan at that moment. He took the women's fist with his and swung it at the decaying man's face.

He thought at most it would make the decaying man fall and buy him some time, but it seems he had truly underestimated the woman on his back.

Even a simple fist of hers while being unconscious was so powerful.

Thinking of this, Steven hoped he would never be on the side of this woman because he would most probably die instantly if she so even wished to hit him.

Yet at the same time while Steven was now running with the woman on his back trying to find an exit.

For he swore to himself that he would never abandon this woman just so that he could live.

No matter the cost, he would get her to safety.

For if he left her to die, that would mean he would give up on everything he believed in and stood for, and he would be nothing but a pathetic liar and coward.

Who only talked the talk, but never walked the walk.

So, no matter the cost, he would get this woman to safety, even if he would have to crawl with her to safety while being exhausted.

Unbeknownst to Steven, this would be an event that would shape his character, his future, and how he interacted with others immensely.

For this was not something anyone would do, especially in a world like this, where most people would even let their lover die if it meant they could live.

For in this world the person themselves were always first, there was no choice but to do this because the world was so harsh.

Yet Steven, despite being weak and despite him maybe even dying because of his decisions, chose to save a person.

This would later impact the world as no one had ever seen before.

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Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, if you have any questions or corrections, please do voice them in the paragraph comments or just the normal chapter comments.

Once again thank you and I hope you enjoyed it!