The Immortals of Notoriouslandia
Chapter Eighteen: Ashes of Vrystallion
The team stepped through the crystalline ley gate—returning from the sacred ruins where they had claimed the four legendary crystals. The wind shimmered. The light of Vrystallion welcomed them.
At first.
Then the smoke hit them.
Dark. Thick. Burning.
What they returned to was not the city they left behind.
Vrystallion in Ruins
Once-pristine towers of crystal lay shattered. The floating islands had crashed into buildings. Fires burned blue. Screams echoed from all directions. The once-shining capital of Sapphire's universe was now a battlefield soaked in chaos.
"No," Sapphire whispered, voice breaking."No no no…"
She collapsed to her knees, tears streaking down her face, fists clenched against the glassy floor.
Descentedrain touched her shoulder.
"We can cry after we save what's left."
The Black Figures
Across the streets and rooftops, they saw them—black figures, humanoid but warped, oozing with shadows. Eyes like pinholes into void. They moved fast, hacking civilians apart, throwing them into ruptured ley rifts. Their limbs split like blades. Their screams weren't voices—they were echoes.
Mr. Shonk growled, Bontaine flaring off him in waves.
"Permission to slaughter?"
Descentedrain drew the Galactic Sword of Wisdom, its blade now burning with fire, light, gravity, and lightning.
"Burn them all."
The Battle for Vrystallion
They charged.
Sapphire blinked through six enemies, slicing with adaptive crystal blades, enhanced by Grandelifer's lightning and Halrualry's intelligence, predicting enemy strikes before they landed.
Mr. Shonk ripped three in half with plasma-enhanced punches, each hit blasting them into smoldering shadows.
Kukranchunlikryting unleashed clouds of telekinetic toxin, guiding poison trails into the enemy ranks—making the shadows scream and melt like wax.
Descentedrain leapt high, spun in the air, and slammed down with a wave of gravity-infused solar fire, vaporizing a crowd of shadow beasts in one sweep.
But then—
The Giant Appears: Shadow Sage Brute
The street split open.
Out of the flames emerged a giant—nearly the size of Mr. Shonk, but layered in robes of living darkness. His hands pulsed with the power of ancient dark sages, casting waves of null-energy that turned air to void.
His voice cracked the sky.
"You have stolen what belongs to the shadows."
He raised a hand and fired a beam that dispelled Sapphire's crystal shield instantly.
Mr. Shonk countered, slamming him with a charged tackle—but the brute absorbed it and backhanded him into a building.
Kukranchunlikryting launched mind-scrambler toxins, but the brute consumed them into his chest.
"This one's tougher," Kukranchunlikryting snarled.
Descentedrain stepped forward, eyes glowing gold-white.
"Then hit harder."
Full-Power Assault
Sapphire used mirror-teleportation to distract him from behind, while Shonk re-engaged head-on with a rapid-fire barrage of plasma-infused punches.
Kukranchunlikryting fired poison-laced lightning shots that blinded the brute's second sight.
Descentedrain unleashed his new form—telekinetic manipulation combined with Rubabranas fire and Galactic Sword slashes, each one leaving shockwaves in the air.
"FOR VRYSTALLION!" Descentedrain roared, plunging his blade into the brute's chest.
The brute exploded in a swirling hurricane of black energy, vaporizing the remaining shadows.
Restoration and Resolve
The battlefield fell silent.
Burning buildings flickered.
Then Descentedrain extended his hand.
Using a combination of Halrualry's intellect, Grandelifer's lightning, and the Sword's gravity, he summoned a radiant light into the city's leylines.
Stone reassembled. Towers rose. Streets stitched back into place. Citizens re-emerged from hiding, watching in awe as their city restored itself.
Vrystallion stood again.
Not whole—but healing.
Sapphire took his hand.
"You saved my world."
"We saved it," he replied quietly.
Preparation for the Final Portal
Descentedrain looked toward the glowing rift on the edge of the horizon—the portal they had built to return to Notoriouslandia.
"That's where they came from. The shadows. The brute."
He clenched his fist.
"And beyond it… is Septiceye."
The team gathered.
Armored. Empowered. Ready.
"One last breath. One last war."
The portal roared behind them as the Unbound Team stepped into the heart of Notoriouslandia.
But what waited on the other side wasn't the city they remembered.
It was a nightmare kingdom.
A City Devoured by Darkness
Towers once radiant were reduced to blackened husks. Roads were torn apart. Statues of the old Immortals lay shattered. The sky pulsed with red lightning, and the air hummed like a song played in reverse.
And then they saw them.
The shadows.
Thousands of them.
No longer the shrieking, fragile darklings from Vrystallion.
These were evolved.
Taller. Armored. Some with wings. Others with multiple heads. Some crawling like insects. Others moving like liquid void.
And worse—
The brutes were back.
Each one larger than before, rippling with muscle and ancient darkness, some carrying weapons made of human remains fused with shadowsteel.
But that wasn't the worst part.
The Monstrosity Appears
As they leapt into battle—Descentedrain carving waves of plasma through enemy lines, Sapphire teleporting through the air like a dance of deadly light, Mr. Shonk roaring with thunder fists, and Kukranchunlikryting melting monsters with intelligent toxins—
A shadow blocked the sky.
A colossal figure, as tall as the Eiffel Tower, stepped through the edge of the void horizon.
Its fingers grabbed entire buildings—biting into them like chocolate bars, chewing on glass and steel.
Its torso was stitched with glowing red eyes. Its arms were spiked with buildings and bones. A crown of broken galaxies floated above its head.
It did not roar.
It laughed—a deep, layered sound of madness and memory.
"They've multiplied," Kukranchunlikryting hissed, back pressed against Descentedrain's side."We fight… but they grow."
"We're wasting time," Descentedrain muttered. "The Door of Never is our endgame."
They turned and raced through streets soaked in ash, climbing walls, vaulting wreckage, dodging shadow tendrils as they made their way to the epicenter.
The Door of Never – Cracked and Waiting
It stood in the center of the city, wrapped in chains of broken light and dying runes.
Its final chain was nearly snapped.
Its center had begun to glow with green spiral light, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The door shook with every breath. Energy leaked from its edges, distorting the air like heat.
"We're almost out of time," Descentedrain said.
Then—
A massive black claw erupted from behind the door, shooting forward straight toward Sapphire.
She froze.
The claw curled midair, black flames dancing off its edges.
And then—
"SAFFI—!" Descentedrain leapt forward, slammed into her, spun midair, and raised his palm.
The Galactic Sword ignited.
A beam of pure solar and psychic light shot from Descentedrain's body, striking the claw at point-blank range.
It screamed—a sound like twisting universes—and burned away, dissolving into sparks of void ash.
The Door shuddered again.
Regroup and Reflection
Sapphire blinked in Descentedrain's arms.
Her hands clenched the front of his chestplate.
"You saved me."
He nodded, standing, offering a hand.
"I told you. Always."
Her lips curled upward, even as her eyes burned.
"You know, charisma suits you when it's earned."
She leaned in. Not quite a kiss. But close.Just enough to leave him breathless as she turned and walked toward a ruined archway for cover.
A Moment of Planning
They ducked into a shattered metro tunnel beneath the city. The walls were cracked, but the shadows hadn't found them.
Sapphire pulled a projection up from her crystal wrist-band.
"We have to plan. Strategize. This isn't just a war—it's a countdown."
Mr. Shonk leaned against the wall, eating another bar—this one with scorch marks on the wrapper.
"Big claw guy almost got her. Door's breaking. It's game time."
Descentedrain paced slowly, eyes still glowing faintly.
"Tomorrow, we finish this. We go through the Door. We face Septiceye."
"And we either close it forever…"
"Or get erased trying."