User blog:DaWalkinWaffle/King of Steel: Part XLIX

HE DEAD?

The world pulsed around him.

Everything hurt. Why did everything hurt?

The world pulsed again.

Was he dead? No, he couldn't be, could he?

Did death hurt so much?

"Hey...who..you?" someone asked. His eyes opened. Strangely he was in his astral form and he couldn't deactivate it. The world was different...more natural. There was more magic in the air. The man talking to him was a soldier. He was lying on the floor, a bloody gash in his chest.

"What?" Winter asked.

"You...appeared...here." the man rasped.

"My name is Winter. Who're you?" Winter asked.

"K-kuda...I tried to kill Light Legend Atro...I...failed."

"Is that a bad thing?" Winter asked. Kuda shrugged.

"It's up for...debate." Kuda gasped. "Please...put me out of my misery...Atro didn't get the chance to."

"Why not?"

"Him...it was him...he beat Atro."

"Who?" Winter asked.

"The...The Oracle Knight."

"Thank you." Winter said and stabbed Kuda with Varnen-Zor. He turned around. "Ark? Where are you?"

"How is it you know my name?" It was Ark.

"I know many things." Winter said.

"Then you should know that I am not someone to mess with." Ark said.

"I fought you before."

"What are you talking about?" Ark asked. Winter smiled.

"You wouldn't know." Winter said. Ark's eyes narrowed.

"I don't like you." Ark decided. Winter readied Varnen-Zor. Having fought Ark once already, Winter knew what he would do. He dodged all of Ark's attacks and lunged when Ark habitually dropped his guard. He realized that these openeings came more often then the last time he fought Ark and realized...

"Chaos, you idiot. Dealing with time now are we?" He realized that this fight now helped Ark improve to fight himself later...at least that's what he think is what happened.

"What are you talking about?" Ark asked. Winter smirked.

"Nothing just contemplating the best was to beat you." Winter said and sprayed the cosmic and steel energy dust into Ark's face. He reacted them same, blinded. Winter kicked him down and held him at sword point, similar to Uda.

"Next time we fight, I expect better competition." Winter said. He smacked the flat of his blade on Ark's temple and knocked him out. Done with that issue, Winter floated up and towards the battle field of the first God War. He searched the battle field for Chaos, or was he actually Xenex? Whichever. He had already come to terms with everything. Nothing could be weirder at that point. Of course, at that moment, he was proved wrong. Chaos was kneeling on the battle field, surrounded by dead men. In his arms was a woman. She was dead, perhaps only recently so. Winter landed next to him. Chaos looked up.

"So I did my job." he said. He turned his gaze back to the woman. She had dark hair and the indescribable face of a goddess. Revan was strapped to Chaos's back and an axe was hanging at his waist. Chaos pulled a spear out of the woman's hand.

"Who is that?" Winter asked.

"This? This is Kyra. One of my oldest friends. She was one of the God Slayers." Chaos said mournfully. "I'll probably tell your future self about it so this can actually make sense. Actually, I already did to you. Does that make sense?" Chaos said.

"No? Anyways, you have some explaining to do." Winter said.

"I do. So you are called the King of Steel. In...this time period the King of Steel was a powerful warrior. He wielded cosmic and steel energy. In the ancient language, steel means north. Your power comes from the north itself. You were a god, disgraced because you were not like the other gods."

"I was a god?"

"Not specifically you, but yes, the King of Steel was a god. But you could still die. You were disgraced as a god but you were too powerful to be put down." Chaos paused and set down Kyra's body. "If your predecessor was more...god-like you could have ruled them all."

"Your story...there were three God Slayers."

"Yes. Me, Xenex, or Chaos to you. Kyra the Shadow Hunter and Jason Master of the Vortex."

"Where's Jason?"

"Gone. Blew himself up and took half the God Army with him. What you see here is the cleaning up. The remaining gods are cleaning everything they don't want up. Any humans that survived are long gone. But we were talking about you."

"Sorry. Continue."

"Your predecessor is already dead. The Four Fallen Gods finally killed you. They got past their differences and...opponents to kill him."

"What opponents?"

"That's a story for another time. What you have to do now is...?" Chaos trailed off, Winter already knew what to do.

"Save the survivors." he said. Chaos nodded.

"You'll know who to save. When you're done, don't come looking for me. I'll be long gone...so will you." Winter floated up again and began looking for survivors. He zoomed down to a pair of gods manhandling a man and a child. He cut the pair down mercilessly, but the man was already badly injured.

"Save my child...please..." the man whispered. Winter nodded. He took the blue-haired child.

"What's his name?"

"...Karl..." he whispered before he stopped breathing. Winter smiled sadly at his future friend.

"I think I know where to keep you safe." He created a cocoon of northern energy around Karl and with a bright flash he disappeared to where he would be preserved at that age until someone found him. Speaking of which...

"The sky is the same...I'll always remember the Ryvern sky." Winter whispered. He flew back to where he had left Chaos. As he had said, Chaos was long gone. But sitting there was the spear and Revan. He picked up the spear, it hummed with nature energy. Carved into the shaft was the word Jezerez. Using the spear, he carved a rune into the air itself: hal-vaj, forest. He poured his power into it and the bodies of the dead warriors sunk into the ground. In their place rose trees, powerful ones, the ones in the Stokhelna Forest. Once that was done, he blew a crater into the clearing in the forest and filled it with water. He picked up Revan and gazed into its blade.

"We'll meet again." he whispered. He dropped Revan blade first into the pool of water for himself to pick it up hundreds of years later. He turned to a small tree. It wasn't as large as the others but it was sturdy. It was also the tree that grew from Kyra's soul. Winter pressed Jezerez into the trunk and watched it sink it. It might be needed later. Chaos had Arlar but Winter didn't need it. He rose above the forest that now covered most of the land. He turned to the direction Mistral was.

"It is time we meet again, Maxwell." he whispered and flew at lightning speed to Mt. St. Lamia.

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He landed atop the mountain. He knew the route in, he had been here before. It was time he faced Maxwell again, but this time he sensed he wouldn't be alone. He entered Maxwell's future throne room. The same circular rune pattern was in the floor. Winter stood in the center of it. He knew where he had to be.

Winter closed his eyes and focused. He held his hands down, palms forward and fingers splayed out. With every breath he took, everything changed. The world seemed to snap and there was a loud crack as Winter travelled through time.

He opened his eyes.

It was almost over.