Valiant immediately removed his golden helmet, the wind from the beach moved his hair like the waves of the sea, he stared at Ragna, who for showing no reaction made him speak:
- "Ragna, it's me, Valiant..."
She showed no reaction, Valiant kept insisting:
- "Ragna, don't you remember me? We were always on the same team..."
- "Valiant, you are pathetic, but I must admit, you have guts", Ragna replied rudely.
Valiant knew deep down that Ragna was lost, that her soul already belonged to Variphor, but he still had some hope of getting her back, every moment it seemed to run out. He immediately put his helmet back on, and Ragna, following his movement, equipped her arbalest.
- "I have looked for you for a long time, Valiant.... Do you really think you can easily abandon me?", Ragna spoke, as she pointed the arbalest toward him.
- "Ragna... Don't make me hurt you, get out of my way."
She sketched a smile and shot her first arrow as Valiant approached. The arrow, as it approached Valiant's imposing armor, began to dissolve, turning into a dark, harmless powder.
- "Is that what you intend to kill me with? Hahahahaha, Ragna... I'm sorry, but you will disappoint Variphor. You know, I won't even use weapons against you, one punch will be enough."
As Valiant approached Ragna, who was constantly shooting arrows, an explosion separated them, throwing them into the air and dragging them for meters in the sand, it was Fardos. Valiant immediately felt great relief that he could finally deliver the wand with the crucial information to neutralize Variphor's forces, but Ragna on the other hand ran in desperation, using a strange apparatus and disappearing into thin air.
- "I see you have found her again, she is no longer that friend you were used to, she has become a threat, just as you are also a threat to Variphor's followers, Valiant."
- "Yes, Lord Fardos, I already suspected that she was no longer the same, I thought there was a way to reverse this... to save her, but today... with this unexpected encounter, I was certain that I have lost her forever.", Valiant commented, with great sadness.
- "Her soul already belongs to Variphor, and he is the provider of much of her strength... She didn't even seem like a threat to you, but remember, should some of Variphor's strength be present in this dimension, her strength will increase, don't underestimate her", spoke Fardos as he touched Valiant's back.
Valiant accepted the advice with a nod and soon said:
- "I am holding the wand of dimensions, and it should now contain the exact location of their hiding place."
Fardos' eyes lit up with a powerful, strong white light, he raised his arms and said:
- "Finally Valiant, son of Light and guardian of time, prepare yourself for we shall go to War!"
A strong flash temporarily blinded Valiant, when he regained his sight he was in the library of Fardos, Valiant removed his helmet and walked towards him, who was speaking:
- "Place the wand on this pedestal, I won't be able to touch it, but I can extract its information anyway."
Valiant carefully propped the wand on the pedestal and slowly walked away. Fardos extended his hands strongly illuminating the scene, the wand activated, and in a split second the light ceased. He looked at Valiant and said:
- "I have the exact location, it is in an underground area below the ocean floor, in a region northwest of Rookgaard."
- "Valiant, I will tell you the end of the plan, you will have to be quick at the right moment..."
- "I need you to take this wand of dimensions, in a moment you will have to use it to open a rift in space-time, with that we will force all invaders through the newly created portal. Once this is done I will seal the portal keeping for a few seconds a spherical form floating in mid-air, you will again go into action: you will have to activate the Godbreaker and shoot this sphere, only this way we will be able to direct a large part of the energy to that dimension and thus neutralize Variphor for a good while."
Valiant looked at Fardos with immense insecurity, but seemed to repeat in his mind everything he should do.
- "You will succeed, Valiant! I know about your abilities, I know all about you, and what you've been through to get here."
- "One moment you thought you had it all: a close-knit team, a great friend, a quiet life. Suddenly, at the threat of a war and possibly the end of everything, you see fear and insecurity take over your mind, but you didn't give up, you never even thought about it, you always maintained your stance..."
- "I have seen that in you, I always knew we would arrive at this moment, you are a man of courage, Valiant. And I know we will defeat them."
The expression of fear and insecurity changed drastically to an authentic smile that took over Valiant's face, he was very proud to hear these words from a god, many words passed in his mind, but he could only speak:
- "I am very happy to hear this from you, Fardos. I am ready for war.", as he spoke, Valiant put on his helmet and took the wand of dimensions from the pedestal.
Fardos smiled, raised his arms, a huge white mist appeared and in the background a huge golden hand with a whirlpool in its center appeared emitting a strong light.
- "Get ready Valiant, we will storm the hideout in 3, 2, 1...."
The loudest bang Valiant had ever heard reverberated through the walls of the huge hall, a huge troop of extra-dimensional beings and traitors were startled and turned towards Fardos and Valiant, who shone like the light of a hundred suns.
The hall looked like something totally makeshift, with uneven bricks and at some points weathered by crumbling, the huge Godbreaker stood to attention at the back of the room, there were at least a dozen workers preparing it, all standing still in shock. In the center of the room was a creature very similar to the World Devourer, but with an entirely red color, Ragna was standing next to it.
After these few seconds of analyzing the environment, everyone began to run towards Valiant, he drew his sword and began to defend himself from the attacks of the creatures, he had noticed that Fardos was no longer by his side, but even so he continued to attack everyone who approached him. In the background Ragna sketched a sarcastic smile as she headed towards the godbreaker, a shout in the background startled Valiant:
- "He's already here, we have no more time, activate it the way it is", it was Ragna ordering one of Variphor's servants who was standing over the Godbreaker.
A strong light seemed to emerge from inside the Godbreaker's cannon, Mazarius was in charge of the controls. Valiant saw that the powerful artifact was aimed at a strange sphere of such a dark hue that it seemed unreal, he ran towards it in order to try to prevent the godbreaker's energy from reaching the sphere, but it was too late, the cannon shot out a strong white light, which blinded everyone.
Silence took over, everything was white, everywhere he looked, Valiant was confused.
- "Valiant... We don't have much time, the Godbreaker is hot and won't be able to be used for a moment, it's time to act", was the voice of Fardos.
All he could see was an eternal white plain. Fardos came walking up to meet him.
- "Am I dead?" said Valiant.
- "No Valiant, you just fainted because of the godbreaker's high energy flow passing close to you, but calm down, everything you see and feel here will occur in a split second and you will barely feel that you have temporarily lost your consciousness."
- "I hid at the beginning of the fight to prevent them from using the GodBreaker against me, but that unfortunately allowed Variphor to finally enter our dimension using the body of a Demon Prince as a receptacle... We will have to be quick, I will keep him busy, but you must fight Ragna and all the other followers."
- "Right! It's all or nothing", said Valiant.
- "Oh, and don't look at him, Valiant..."
Valiant nodded, the white plain seemed to fold in on itself, and in an instant he was conscious again in the great hall, lying on the floor with a trail of tens of feet.
- "Finally!!! It's Working! HAHAHAHAHA!", Exclaimed Ragna in the background.
A great flow of a strange energy filled the room and surrounded Sephorath - the demon prince of agony - he joyfully accepted his fate, his eyes closed before the great whirlpool of darkness that swirled around him at an ever increasing speed. Valiant knew that something very bad was going to happen, Variphor was taking on a physical form in that dimension at that very moment, he stood up without his helmet, it had flown off his head with the explosion, he hurriedly walked away a few steps slowly until it hit the wall of the place, he didn't want to be close in case another explosion happened. The whirlwind finally began to cease, being absorbed by Sephorath's body, he opened his eyes again, smiled and shouted:
- "HAHAHAHAHA, Fardos, I KNOW YOU'RE H..."
Variphor cannot finish his sentence, Fardos emerged and threw a huge ball of extremely bright concentrated energy that dragged him for dozens of meters and made him strike the wall of the hall heavily, causing the whole section of the hall to collapse.
The powerful blow frightened everyone, including Valiant, he quickly ran towards the Godbreaker that was overrun by minions who were working to reactivate it, he drew his sword and continuously hit everyone who tried to attack him, in the background was Ragna smiling and looking at him, she got down from the Godbreaker structure and slowly walked towards him.
Few meters separated the two, Valiant was glowing like never before in his imposing gold armor, and Ragna seemed to possess an aura of darkness, she looked much more menacing than she ever had before.
- "Valiant... I warned you while there was time, now there is nothing more you can do."
As she spoke, in the background was Variphor striking heavily at Fardos, this one possessed powerful armor that acted as a force field around his battle aspect.
Valiant shouted "Utani Tempo Hur", and ran fiercely towards Ragna, he attacked her with all his might, but she managed to contain his attack using her arbalest, pulled him up and brought his face closer to hers, and before he could react she kissed him. Everything seemed to go into a strange silence, time seemed to pass very slowly, Valiant was clearly stunned by this, but he heard in the background the voice of Fardos:
- "Don't fall into her trap Valiant, she's buying time! Stick to the plan!"
Ragna gave Valiant a strong shove, he quickly took several steps backwards as she equipped her arbalest and started shooting constantly in his direction, but something seemed wrong as they all hit only the ground and didn't even pass close to him. She seemed to lose some of her strength or just couldn't hurt Valiant, in the background was Fardos pressing a giant energy sphere into the chest of Variphor's physical receptacle as he conjured a vortex of darkness. Despite being attacked, Variphor shouted:
- "Kill him Ragna, and steal the wand of dimensions!"
Valiant was still somewhat confused by the situation, but these words were like lightning in the darkness. He knew that Ragna would make it difficult for him to get through to the center point of the hall, the ideal place to activate an interdimensional portal. He saw in his backpack a dozen chameleon runes, an idea flashed in his mind. Valiant looked again at Ragna who was pointing the arbalest in his direction, she shot the first arrow, he broke it in mid-air with his sword, she then followed continuously shooting and he rebounding with his sword, at the same time he approached with soft steps.
The plan was set up in his mind, he would confuse her. When the distance was adequate, he again shouted "Utani Tempo Hur" and struck her from behind with the hilt of his sword, the goal was not to hurt her, but to knock her down so that she would lose sight of him. In this short interval he used a chameleon rune and transformed into the wand of dimensions.
Fardos realized Valiant's plan and at the same time conjured an exact copy of Valiant who was running towards an opposite region of the hall.
Ragna was enraged, she saw the copy of Valiant running away to the other corner of the hall with a dozen more servants of Variphor chasing him, but her facial expression changed radically when she saw on the ground the "wand of dimensions", she raised it and in a tone of victory shouted:
- "HAHAHAHAHA, The end of you has come!"
Fardos continued to fight fiercely with Variphor on the other side of the hall, he constantly made force fields so that the strong bursts of magic and massive energies would not destroy the whole place. Variphor seeing her running with the wand shouted, "Quick, create the portal."
Variphor and Ragna also had a plan very similar to that of Fardos and Valiant, except that Ragna would have to conquer Valiant and steal the wand from him so that she could make a portal and send both Valiant and Fardos to her domains.
At the same time this was happening, the copy of Valiant was heading towards the Godbreaker again, this one was almost cold for its use again, at any moment it would be reactivated. This copy of Valiant didn't have his fighting qualities, so he just pushed and knocked down all the servants that approached as he ran in an almost unruly manner.
Ragna ran towards the center of the hall where previously the great sphere of darkness that transported Variphor between dimensions was, she pointed the wand but nothing happened. She looked strangely at the object, abruptly it exploded releasing Valiant who pushed her to the floor, he was wielding the real wand, pointed it and activated a portal.
Fardos immediately used a strange magic and swapped Valiant's place with his copy, he was now on the Godbreaker with dozens of Variphor's minions chasing him, Valiant attacked and killed them all with ease, climbed the Godbreaker and gave the signal to Fardos.
Even though she was on the ground, Ragna readied his arbalest and fired at what she believed to be Valiant, but ended up just blowing up his copy.
Fardos conjured a powerful vortex around the newly created portal, which attracted everything around it, Ragna was the first to succumb and disappear, along with her some servants' bodies and others that were still standing were also swallowed. Variphor already felt that Sephorath's body was severely weakened by the battle against Fardos, since the simple vortex was defeating his strength, little by little he saw himself being dragged away, with what power was left he tried to throw energy spheres in Valiant's direction, but Fardos fought back and prevented any of them from reaching him.
- "Your end has come in this place, Variphor... Go back to where you came from and don't think anymore about invading any other dimension, otherwise at the next opportunity I will destroy you, without any fear of violating the multidimensional treaty."
Part of Sephorath's body was already being absorbed by the portal, but Variphor, still in command of his body, expressed a smile and said:
- "Your creations will still go on worshipping me, that's the price for giving them free will! HAHAHAHAHAHA"
The body of Sephorath possessed by Variphor was completely consumed by the portal, immediately it changed from the white hue to an extremely dark color, Fardos shouted:
- "NOW! Activate the Godbreaker!"
Valiant didn't know exactly what he was doing but something flashy and what looked like a button made it look like an easy choice, he pressed it with all its might, the cannon ignited and fired a powerful beam of energy lighting the sphere and sealing it, a flash illuminated the entire hall for a few seconds but soon everything quieted down, the only sound that still followed present was the rushing footsteps of Variphor's servants who took off in flight.
Fardos approached Valiant, who was already descending from the huge godbreaker structure, and said:
- "Valiant, you were amazing in this battle, I am proud of what you have become".
Valiant couldn't hide his joy and relief after this battle full of strong emotions, but he was so tired that he couldn't even stand up, he fell to the ground and slept right there.
To be Continued ...