The Inner Gambit of Darkness - Continued (Part 3)

Lucan slowly regained consciousness. The last thing he remembered was a wall of water absorbing much of the monster's explosion. He assumed Dalikos must've created it, and for that he was thankful.

The flower nymph looked around and spotted Dalikos in all the rubble. Lucan floated as fast as he could over to the man's side to make sure he was alright.

"And yet after his first corruption, he crawled back to Daimus like a pup who ran away from home." Daekronos said, watching as they mourned.

He then dodged Nuala's blade. "What's wrong Konbei, Does the truth hurt?" Daekronos taunted him over Nuala before summoning his own blade.

Dalikos saw Lucan and was glad that he was ok.

"H-ey Lucan. Glad to see your ok." Dalikos had bruises and cuts all over him, but nothing to major.

"First the forest, now this... We really need to put a stop to Daimus..." Dalikos then fell to one knee, groaning ain some pain.

Lucan placed a frail hand on Dalikos' cheek, as if to say "we'll get through this". He then zoomed away to try and find any straggling fish-people who may have gotten trapped from the blast.

"Truth is a matter of opinion." a voice said all around them "The fact his son was able to resist a much more powerful force says a lot."

Daekronos lowered his blade and without looking to see the source of the voice, he asked, "...And who are you?"

Hyrule's General walked into view from the darkness. "I think you know who I am."

"Rausten. The General of the troglodyte army...and servant of the Goddesses."

Daekronos growled with loathing before turning to face him. "Are you here to smite me with the wrath of the Goddesses, General?"

"Rausten?" Konbei said, it had been a long time since he had seen him. Nuala heard and recognised Rausten's voice but didn't pay him any attention as she kept her eyes fixed on Daekronos.

"Goddesses?" Rausten said "I am here on my own accord, killing evil, it has become a sort of a hobby of mine. But you, what a waste of space."

Daekronos laughed lightly before disposing of his blade. "Oh, I see. I take your insult as retribution for my own words."

He took a few steps towards Rausten and clenched his metal fists. "If you wish to wipe me clean from this realm, then come forth."

Rausten laughed lightly "Do not take me for a fool. I know your demise will only be a temporary fit. But I will warn you, crawl back into the hole you call the Evil Realm and never set foot here again."

"Hm, I shall do so." Daekronos said. "I await the arrival of your so called Sages in the Evil Realm. It shall be entertaining to break them physically and mentally. Troglodytes are all equally fragile, no matter what title they possess."

With that, Daekronos exploded into a swarm of shadow keese and flew off.

"Be prepared...Sages..."

"Hmph, unlikely." Rausten huffed. He looked to the others "You all alright?"

Konbei just gave a weak shrug. He wasn't okay, but he tried not to show it.

Rausten looked to Nuala "Konbei. Gwene. Can you leave, I would like to speak with Nuala."

Gwene nodded "Come on." she went to lead Konbei away.

Konbei followed Gwene, looking over his shoulder at Nuala as he walked away.



(Where the fuck did I leave Celeste? Oh well lol...)

Rausten watched them off, he gently took her broken wrist in his hand taking a proper look at it. "Hmm. A clean break, I don't have the proper materials here to fix it, I'll have to take you back up to the castle to get it properly set."

With that both disappeared in a flash of green light and reappeared in the castle infirmary where Joce seemed to be waiting for them "Well, good evening. What seems to be the problem?"

"Broken wrist." Rausten replied, showing the clean break.

"Oh dear. Well, I can fix that right up for you." Joce said as she disappeared in to the back room, reappearing moments later, she placed her materials on the bed beside Nuala "Now dear, this is going to hurt." she rubbed her hands along the break getting a good feel. "Hm. I'll definitely need to re-set it. I'm sorry, but this one will hurt." with a quick movement, and a loud pop, Nuala's wrist had realigned.

Nuala flinched as the pain shot up her arm, but already it felt better, reduced to just a dull throb. She didn't say anything, she just let Joce go about her work.

Joce gently lay her wrist on a perfectly straight splint, and wrapped it tightly, but not so much it would hurt Nuala. When she was done, she picked it up and smoothed her hand over it "There we are, it should be fine. But I have something to speed up the healing process."

She went back into the back room and come out with a bottle of a red liquid "Here, it may not taste nice, but your bones will be healed in no time."

Nuala took the potion. Joce was right; it didn't taste nice, but it was tolerable and Nuala took a dose of it.

"Thank you," she said.

"Thank you Joce." Rausten said in a dismissive tone.

Joce nodded, and left the infirmary.

"So, tell me what happened?" Rausten said pulling over a seat and sitting on it, to face Nuala who was sitting on the bed. "I sensed a lot of power coming from the forest and went to check it out. Did that being of darkness kill Ryan?"

"I killed Ryan," Nuala said and looked at Rausten. "It was me..."

"I see..." Rausten said in his simple tone. He was quiet for a few moments "Why?"

"I told him I didn't want him around Konbei anymore, his influence was too dangerous over him," Nuala started. "And then he became enraged and attacked Gwene..." she fell quiet again.