Mogul vs. Remnants Pt. III

Following the events of the second part, Decen's ninth remnant, Lucius "Brickhouse" Cassidy, has awakened his powers of Spike Formation. Relocating to Corinth, home of the Corinth Inquisition, Guardian Merrow Rivenlight seeks refuge from a long time friend, Kyrael Prima to aid in the development of Decen's third remnant, Deacon Chow. Along with Michael, and Meena, Merrow hopes to allow Deacon to master his powers of pyrokinesis, in his battle against Prime Aspect Mogul, alongside his fellow Remnants, and to save a catatonic Remnant 1, who is slowly dying from Loz-Q.

Chapter 28 (Remnant 3)

"I hate portals..." I grumbled, as Meena held my hand, stepping in.

I also didn't need Meena to hold my hand either. She kept doing things like this, and I was kind of sick of her treating me like I was too feeble to do things myself. It also didn't help that Lucius was giving me the most annoyed look ever.

My surroundings elongated, as I was thrust into the portal, emerging into a new world. My surroundings were.. beautiful. Perhaps even magical. Lucious greenery, vegetation, and a clear sky. Nothing like the run down buildings Meena and I used to do contracts in. At least this place had color.

I responded, aptly, by vomiting on the ground.

"Deacon!" Meena ran by my side, rubbing my back.

"I'm fine Meena" I groaned.

Lucius walked up to me. I couldn't help but stare at his right hand, which was completely corrupted. The black spikes had receded, but it was still evident, and his entire hand looked... demonic. Claws, and pulsating with a dim red light at the cracks that ran up his forearm, and into his shirt. At least the rest of his body was okay.

"The hell you lookin at?" Lucius scowled.

"Um. Nothing. Sorry." I responded quickly.

Lucius was holding the frozen body of Arman, our eldest brother, delicately. I never really knew him. In fact, I didn't know him. But from what Merrow, Michael, and Lucius have told me, he was an incredible person.

If someone like Lucius was so delicate and gentle with somebody, you knew he meant a lot to him. And I could probably guess that. I've been told that Arman had fought three Olympian Titans at once. Yeah, you heard me right. Titans. The same ones that had ruled the world. The same ones I read in the stories who required other gods to beat.

And he didn't just fight one. Not two. But three. Thinking about that made me queasy. Lucius' powers were incredible, yet he claimed to be far weaker than Arman.

Meaning Arman must have been that much more powerful. The fact that he had fought Mogul and ended up like this... I could only imagine how strong Mogul must had been.

Of course, I didn't tell anyone this. Because whenever I brought up Arman, Lucius would yell at me. Well, more than anything else. Lucius was always mad about something.

When I ask Merrow about Arman, she just becomes sad, and tries to change the topic. But I know one thing. As the first Remnant, he definitely had more experience than all of us.

But then again, wouldn't that make me the third strongest of all the Remnants? It certainly didn't feel that way. Especially considering Lucius was the ninth oldest. Meaning there were six other Remnants who I was obligated to surpass.

And here I was struggling to even summon a tiny spurt of flame without it going out of control.

"Hey, little man. You good?" Michael held out his hand. I took it.

"Yeah."

"No worries."

We walked down a stretch of land. The scenery was amazing. Forests, wildlife. Occasional monsters appeared, but didn't seem to mind as we kept our distance.

"So." Michael walked next to me.

"You tryna bulk up for your lady?"

I could feel my ears turning pink. "I... yeah. Yeah I am. I just don't want to be so weak anymore. I feel like I'm burdening her. Please don't tell her that though."

Michael laughed. "It's all good man. I heard you're learning from Lucius. I don't know if that's a good idea."

"What do you mean?" I turned to Michael.

"You're tryna push yourself to be something you ain't. You're a good kid, Deacon. Just be yourself. No need to push yourself to do things you don't feel is right just because Lucius thinks it's dumb. He's never had a girlfriend before, so he wouldn't understand."

"I... I guess."

Michael laughed. It echoed across the plains. "The last thing Meena wants is for you to end up like that psycho. Lucius is brave and he's got major guts. It's just who he is. But Meena loves you for who you are. Sure, it's good to step up, but don't try to walk in someone else's shoes. Cuz oftentimes, you'll realize there's a lot of shit that goes into someone else's life than you realize."

Chapter 29 (Remnant 3)

So we basically got locked up.

"I thought you knew this Curly Prima of the Inquisition. How the hell we end up behind bars." Lucius asked Merrow.

Merrow looked at Lucius sheepishly. "I didn't think her Garrison unit had expanded that much. Maybe they're just taking extra precautions. Once Kyrael recognizes me, you'll see."

I slumped on the ground. Meena was in the other holding cell, and she started to light up a cigarette. I had tried to get her to stop smoking, and at some point, she did. But the habit resurfaced. Our weapons were confiscated, but for some reason, Meena was still allowed to have her lighter. Which didn't make much sense. I guess the guards were newly recruited too.

The guards tried to confiscate Pariah, but with massive difficulty, as you would expect.

"Your sword." They told Lucius.

"Yeah sure, take it." He smiled at them, evilly. Lucius threw Pariah at them, and all three of the guards were flattened by the sheer weight of the blade. They needed at least twelve other guards to step in and take the weapon. I think at some point, they even got Michael to help them out. They locked him up too shortly afterward.

"The hell, man?!" Michael exclaimed.

That was pretty funny.

That was really the only highlight of the day. Other than that, we spent it locked up. The sun was going down, and this Kyrael person had not arrived yet.

I was getting really tired, and I had no choice but to sleep.

I didn't like sleeping. That might sound weird to you. But for me, sleeping was terrible. Because of the dreams.

I have two kinds of dreams. The first kind, is the ones that are, now I realize, linked to my Remnant nature. I dream of Decen, and his adventures with Merrow. In a way, I feel my level of connection to Decen is one of the stronger ones. Because when I asked Lucius, he had told me he only ever had slight vision lapses of the Paladin. The one time he had dreamed of Decen, it was when he had manifested his spike formation.

The other kind of dream... is disturbing. And it disturbed me for so long, that I never told the others. Not even Meena.

It's kind of like what Lucius had encountered, with Decen, in his vision. But this person... was not Decen. He was someone else. Something else.

Unfortunately, it was just my luck that the dream I had was of the second kind.

"You are weak." The boy muttered. I was in pitch darkness, standing in front of me, was him. The person, he looked like me. He had chin length snow white hair, just like Decen's, but the bangs were even longer, covering his eyes and his nose almost. Strands and gaps between the bangs made way for his large eyes. His eyes, even more menacing than Decen himself. He looked... psychotic, and maniacal.

"You are nothing." He approached me, and grabbed my collar, breathing down my neck.

"A mere shell, an inferior vessel, for me to emerge. You cherish your life, knowing it is merely temporary. A mere stepping stone, for me."

This is what I mean by these dreams being disturbing.

"I won't let you come out." I said, sternly, but this kid was making me so nervous, my knees began to shake.

The kid smiled, menacingly. His body suddenly became wreathed in a blazing orange flame. Contrasting with his hair and his crazy face, he looked... demonic. Along the left side of his face, was a partial skull, glowing from underneath his skin. The kid laughed maniacally.

"You are nothing to me. If you want me gone, you will have to kill me."

I tried to summon my own flames, but I could only manage two small spurts of fire at the palms.

The kid approached me, and shoved me across the darkness.

"Where is Meena? Going to run off to Meena? To Lucius? To Merrow? They can't save you from me. Because you ARE me. None of them stand a chance, they will all..."

The kid lifted up his finger, causing a massive torrent of flame to rise up, flooding the surroundings.

The inferno subsided, as I saw his sinister face, his eyes, glowing with malice.

"BURN."

"NO." I shouted. But the kid leapt into the air, landing on me as I was pinned down.

"Take off that mask.

Embrace who you truly are...

Fury."

The kid laughed, his breath even resembling flames. His white hair, glowing bright just like his flames. His superior flames, far hotter than mine. Probably the strongest I ever seen from a fire user.

"Why not let loose a bit? Decen was a killer. We came from Decen. Why can't we be killers?" Fury tilted his head, his hair shifted to reveal his one eye, which glowed orange at the pupils.

"No..." I muttered, choking, and struggling to breathe.

"Why not?"

"Because... if I let you loose...

I won't ever come back."

Chapter 30 (Remnant 9)

I woke up.

"Damn... this is cozy. Which one of y'all brought in a pillow?" I joked. I repositioned myself, then realized I had fallen asleep on Merrow's shoulder. She was giving me a sarcastic smile.

"AAH! The hell is this?!" I yelped, falling backwards.

"What's wrong? Months back you would have paid to have this moment." Merrow laughed.

"Yeah, real funny, mermaid girl. How the hell are we still locked up?"

Merrow glanced at the guards, who paid us no attention.

"Kyrael's on mission right now. I guess we'll just have to wait until she gets back."

I sat in silence, watching as the sun made stupid shadows in our holding cell. At least I had the gift of silence.

"AAH!" Deacon woke up, nearly banging his head on the wall. So much for my silence.

I scowled. "How do you freak out even when falling asleep?!"

Deacon rubbed his head. "I'm sorry... just nightmares."

I sighed. "You know, for someone who is supposed to be the older brother, you sure ain't acting the part."

Deacon looked down.

"Lucius..." Merrow said.

"What? I'm just saying! He's what, the third eldest? I'm like the ninth, shouldn't there even be a level of maturity around here. Like come on."

I turned to Deacon. "How old are you? 9? 10?"

"I'm 25."

"Like... biologically?"

"Chronologically."

Merrow's ears perked up. "I'm... sorry? 25 years?"

That made no sense at all. Arman was only 11. There was no way Deacon was 25. I resolved this the only way how.

I grabbed Deacon and slammed him against the wall. Of course, the guards didn't pay attention.

"Lucius!" Merrow scolded me, but Deacon held up his hand.

I glared Deacon up and down. "What game you playin at? There's no way in hell you're 25. That'll make you older than Arman. And he's 11."

Deacon struggled to breathe. Merrow yanked me off of the Remnant, as Deacon began to explain himself.

"Where I'm from, time flows faster. When I was born, I was told that I ended up in the Chron Formation. Time was accelerated dilated there. A year in there would only be a few weeks out there. I was cared for by the keeper, Khan. But eventually, when I had grown to the age of 15, I left the Formation and travelled to the town of Blackwater, where I ended up looking for work for five years. Ended up working for The Organization. Here and there, I worked with some of their mercenaries, but I wasn't worth much, so I constantly got sacked. At some point, I got picked up by Meena."

Merrow smiled. "And it was love at first sight?"

I cringed.

"Not really..." Deacon smiled nervously.

"She hated me, like a lot. Found me annoying because I was so soft."

"Ay, that's facts. She's a real one." I joked. Merrow elbowed me.

Deacon laughed. "Meena today is completely different from the Meena back then. She was a mercenary, an outlaw. Hated everybody and everything, and had the worst temper imaginable. She would literally pull her gun out if something so much as got on her nerves. I lost count of the times she beat me up, threatened to kill me, or actually almost killed me."

"Reminds me of somebody." Merrow chimed in.

"Real funny." I grumbled.

Deacon continued. "She always beat me up, calling me pathetic and a loser and stuff. But I guess at some point, she started to see how much I cared for her. Because under all that toughness, was someone hiding, and trying to protect herself. I helped her open up. It did take a few years for that to happen, but still."

Deacon smiled at Meena, who had fallen asleep, her arms crossed.

"She changed, and became kinder. She's always looking out for me, hoping I would keep being me. Because in a way, I was kind of like her voice of reason. The crime, the darkness of Blackwater, it really got to her. And I guess I kind of helped her resurface. When we had our first kiss, it was also her first smile. Of course, she was super embarrassed about it and threatened to shoot me in the head if I told anybody."

Merrow put her hand on Deacon's shoulder. "That's so sweet. You two are meant for each other."

Yeah. Real sweet. A real love story. Maybe once the fight was over, I could be his best man in his wedding. Bring in Mogul too, once I beat him senseless.

But it still wasn't an excuse for him to be so damn weak. If we were going to fight Mogul, he needed to bring in his A-game. Mogul was definitely not going to be waiting for this kid to summon a tiny ass spurt of flame. The only real practical use I could see was using him as bait, for me to take down that guy myself.

Chapter 31 (Remnant 9)

Kyrael Prima of the Inquisition is a goof.

Hey, someone had to say it.

"Oh my goodness! By the Makers! Merrow! I'm so sorry, this is like the third time you've been behind bars! I'm sorry. Sorry sorry sorry!" Kyrael ran in, like a mess. She had pointy ears, her hair, blonde, streaked with white. She had a cute face I guess. Sort of looked Scottish. Actually I have no idea. She just looked European. I don't know if that makes sense, and if I offended some of you.

Anyway, I watched as Kyrael ran to our holding cell. One of the guards saluted her.

"Lady Prima of the Inquisition!"

"Officer." Kyrael saluted back, but tripped on his boot.

"Lady Prima!!!" The guard yelped.

"I'm good! As you were."

We were finally free. Merrow and Kyrael were busy catching up, complimenting each other on their looks.

"New armor?"

"Wow, you noticed! Really brings out my eyes, doesn't it?"

I tried to hide the annoyance in my face. But of course, Michael had to ruin it. "Hey ladies, Lucius here has something to ask!"

I glared at Michael, who grinned. I bet he was enjoying this.

"Where's our gear? You lot took Pariah. Gonna need someone with super stren-"

"Oh! You mean the big scary glowing sword? Hold on, I'll get it, one second!"

I raised my eyebrows. "There ain't no way you can carry that sword on your own lady."

The guard instantly ran up to her. "But Lady Prima, you shouldn't stress yourself. Let us take the blade."

Too late. Kyrael returned, holding the sword with both of her hands. She was struggling a lot, but considering it took like fifteen guys plus Michael the Chad to even lift it into the air, it really showed I freaking strong Kyrael was.

"Wow... this thing's heavy! You wield this thing in battle?! You're crazy! Must be the Decen genes!"

I took the sword, and put it back into its strap. The guards all stared at me. Other guards were ordered to return our stuff too.

"How did you know I was Decen's Remnant?" I asked.

Michael smirked. "I don't know. Cuz Merrow told her?"

My ears went pink. "I... uh..."

Kyrael began to squeeze Deacon's face. Meena stepped forward, about to take out her gun from under her arm, but momentarily stopped. "Wow! The resemblance is uncanny! You two are like his kids! That's so cute!"

She went up to me, but I held out my sword. "Stay the hell away from my face."

The guards stepped forward, Kyrael laughed. "And you.... definitely remind me of him! That confidence. Those SPIKES! Wow!"

Meena stepped closer to Deacon, like she was marking her territory. Kyrael apparently noticed.

"Aww, you must be his girlfriend! How adorable."

Meena's face turned red in embarrassment.

"Umm, Kyrie?" Merrow asked.

"Yes?"

"We're still in the slammers. You mind taking us to the Council room?"

"Oh! Yes, of course. Yikes, definitely not bringing in my top game today! Man, it would be weird if we were talking in here!"

Yeah. This was the leader of the Inquisition. How it had become one of the growing military and peacekeeping forces in Corinth was honestly beyond me.

Chapter 32 (Remnant 9)

"So you see, we need your help to train Deacon here to use his powers." Merrow explained.

Kyrael put her hand on her chin. We were in the Council room. Apparently, it's where she and her advisors plan missions and determine which forces to send to which mission. She had three advisors. A stealth corps, a military corps, and a diplomatic corps.

I didn't care about all that stuff though. The chairs were comfy.

I propped my feet on the table, and Merrow shot me a deadly glare. I sheepishly put my feet back on the ground.

"I don't... wanna be rude or anything, Miss Prima, but how can you help me control my powers?" Deacon asked.

Kyrael smiled, and leaned forward, opening her hand. A small fire manifested, then transformed into constructs, just like Merrow's Hydropower constructs.

"Who do you think taught Merrow here how to control her water powers? Hm? Dear old me!" Kyrael started laughing. Like she had said the funniest one liner ever. We all just sat there in silence as Kyrael continued laughing.

"Oh goodness, I'm sorry. Well anyways, I have the ability to manifest fire. Since my dad was a meta human, you know what those are right?"

Deacon nodded like a five year old.

"My father was known as Vectane Prima, the most powerful pyrokinetic in history, being the son of Exodus Prima, the Paladin of The Elements. Which sort of makes us cousins, isn't that awesome?!" Kyrael turned to me.

"Yeah. Fantastic." I grumbled.

Kyrael continued. "But in terms of control it wasn't my dad's side who had the skill. That belonged to I'hael Raena. A dark elf outlaw. She had incredible ice powers. Making me a hybrid of fire and ice!"

Kyrael held out her other hand, which steamed with frost.

Okay, I had to admit that was cool. Wait. She had fire powers. And ice powers. Could that mean...?

"Well, that's besides the point. I can help you master your powers, Mister Chow! And soon, you'll be able to do so much more in the battlefield-"

"Can you free Arman?" I accidentally blurted out.

Michael nearly choked on his drink, probably from a laugh.

Kyrael put her hand on my shoulder.

"Young Remnant, I wish I could free your brother. But the ice being generated from that sword isn't normal ice. It's celestial and Titanic in nature. I can't control or melt it. It needs to be a celestial flame, and unfortunately, neither of my parents' powers are celestial."

My heart nearly dropped a hundred feet to the ground.

"You're telling me that... Deacon can't reverse it?" My hand clenched into a fist. Dammit! After all this... Arman was going to... going to...

"No." Kyrael cut me off.

"He can."

I looked up, in shock.

Kyrael went up to Deacon and held his wrist. Meena became super protective again, but Deacon waved her off.

"It's okay, Meena."

Kyrael inspected his wrist.

"Deacon here has celestial fire. I don't know how, but his flames aren't natural. It sure isn't Darkfire either... but it seems, similar. Almost to another level of celestial flame. If he masters it, he might become one of the strongest fire users in history!"

I sighed, with relief. That was all I needed to do. But I still needed to get stronger. Just because Deacon was a special cookie didn't mean we could slack off. Mogul was still out there. And we needed to get stronger.

"Hey, Kyrael? Got anything we can use to train and get stronger?"

Kyrael raised an eyebrow.

"We have a gym..."

"That's not gonna be enough." I responded.

Suddenly, someone came into the room, he was holding a huge report.

"Lady Prima, we need more resources for construction. We don't have enough people hauling in the raw materials for our construction progress."

Kyrael inspected the paper. "Damn. We seem to be lacking behind. What's the cause? It's not enough workers to transport stuff right?"

"Precisely."

"Maybe we can get some more guys on it."

"We can't house any more cohorts, ma'am."

I suddenly had an idea.

"I can do it."

Everybody stared at me. Michael raised his eyebrows. "You gonna be a construction worker?"

I stood up, and looked at the paper. Hauling and lifting logs, metals, everything. This was perfect for strength training.

"I'll carry them all, it'll be great training for me, and it'll ease out your workers."

Kyrael took the paper.

"You sure? The metals and raw resources in Corinth aren't like conventional wood and metals you're accustomed to out there. This stuff is super dense, and way heavier. It's how we make our fortress so durable to attacks."

I mashed my fists together.

"Yeah. Let's do it."

Chapter 33 (Remnant 3)

I concentrated, and summoned a tiny spark of flame. It immediately began racing up my sleeve.

"Focus... Deacon. The fire is part of you, it's not against you." Kyrael reassured me.

I focused, and the flame stopped climbing.

"Good. Now see if you can redirect it back into your palm."

I closed my eyes, clearing my mind. I imagined the energy radiating out of my palm, then a sphere constraining it.

Easy.

Easy....

"AAAARGH!!!" A yell broke the silence, as I immediately lost focus. The flames raced up my sleeve and set my shirt on fire. Kyrael quickly doused it with a blast of frost.

I marched to the window, and looked out.

Lucius was dragging log after log after log in a massive chain. His face was contorted in pain as he trudged forward. Yelling and grunting, forcing the logs to keep moving with his wire rope harness.

"Yeah... Lucius said he needed harder training. So I gave him a dampening collar made by one of our mages in the Inquisition. He's running at 10% of his usual strength."

"10%... and he's carrying all that..." I muttered.

Kyrael put her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay. His path is to build his strength and conditioning. Your path is to control your powers. You two have different ways in getting stronger. There's nothing wrong with that."

I smiled. "Thanks, Kyrael."

"Call me Kyrie!"

"Uhhh... okay." It felt weird calling her that, considering she was literally the leader of the entire Inquisition. Was I supposed to bow or something? I just didn't know. But she was so friendly with me, probably because I reminded her of Decen, who was a dear friend of hers, just as he was to Merrow.

I spent the next few months training with Kyrael. She was a really good teacher. And soon, I had begun to master my pyrokinesis, to generate fireballs in each hand.

"Look at you, Deacon! Pretty soon, you'll be the one doing all the candle tricks on your dates with Meena!"

I laughed. "If only Meena did 'candlelight dates', or even dates in general."

By the fifth month, I was able to use my fire as propulsion, and began working on increasing the intensity of my flames. It was during this time where I found myself training alongside Lucius.

Whenever I flew into the air through a bunch of ice obstacles Kyrael had made for me, I would see Lucius dragging enormous truckloads of mined ore with just a couple of wire rope straps, which was said to be even heavier than celestial steel.

Whenever I would throw my fireballs to work on its range, I would see Lucius doing pectoral flies with literal chunks of boulders, the boulders going up to the top, where workers would extract them one by one, then whenever the harnesses reached the bottom, the workers would load the chunks inside for Lucius to repeat the movement.

Whenever I would shoot as much fire from my palms as I could to overcome the gravity magic one of the mages would put on me, I would see Lucius doing one arm pull-ups with tonnes upon tonnes of mining ore.