1 Ashan 720
In the courtyard there was a large open floor with small stand for spectators at each corner- and the seats were not empty. Within the stands there were many faces Balthazar did not recognize merely because the decay of death had inflicted them so greatly. Skeletons stat with their legs crossed and their heads transfixed towards the arena in the middle. At the head of the courtyard there was a large sort of stand with an empty throne on it. Balthazar walked up the steps to the throne and ran his hand along the chair while looking out at the arena. What would it have been like to sit here and rule this island? What was it like? What was this place?
Exiting out the gate to the right of the courtyard, Balthazar found himself in a small forest of sorts- only the trees seemed twisted unnaturally. Some of them even seemed to have faces with looks of agony on them. The dead woods, as Balthazar chose to call them, had an unsettling mist that seemed somehow contained to the treeline. Balthazar explored for some time and found nothing more than a gazebo worth looking at. So he left the forest the way he'd come into it and reentered the courtyard where the dead remained in their stands watching the empty arena. There was another egress to the left and so Balthazar crossed the courtyard to the other gate in curiosity. When he pressed his hands to the gate and gave it a small push, the gate budged but did not open.
The mage's brow furrowed and he pushed harder, this time managing to knock aside the fallen statue that seemed to be pinning the door shut. One more shove and the door was open. Balthazar walked through it into what seemed to be a shrine to all the warriors who had fought in the arena behind him with one statue having decayed enough that it fell over in front of the door. When Balthazar put his hands on the statue it seemed easier to move than it had been while pushing the door and so he set it upright. There were ten statues in all- each in a different pose unique to the champion who had fought and won. Balthazar admired them for a moment, he had to afford a certain respect to any warrior bold enough to have a statue made in their honor... but where were they now?
There were two lines in the ground dividing where the statues were from the walking path and small flames burned as if to direct you even in the darkness. Balthazar followed the path of fire till he came to a stone wall. It wasn't even a door, just a wall... and Balthazar could not pass it. He tapped his knuckles on the wall, tried to reshape it with his powers, and nothing happened so he stopped trying and went back to the warrior shrine where upon closer inspection, Balthazar realized they were not merely warriors, they were the Immortals.
Ten Immortals had been set in this stone shrine in differing poses with differing weapons. In this dream, Balthazar recognized all of them. From left to right; Treid, Llaren, Faldrun, Delroth, Moseke, Edasha, Qylios, Lisirra, Karem, and Chrien. Yet it was the statue of Treid that drew his fixation. Treid's statue depicted him holding a sword high in the air while standing with his foot resting on what was probably meant to be a glacier but just looked like a stone given that it was made of stone. He looked the most lively of the statue that were there to be gawked at.
It was the one he had been forced to set back into place and for some reason it seemed to call to Balthazar. At the base of each statue the names of the Immortals were inscribed in a language Balthazar could not read, but still for some reason felt drawn to. He reached out and as his fingers touched the inscription, it began to glow a bright blue. The blue glow shimmered up the statue to the blade where it began to get brighter and brighter until finally a chilling blue beam fired from the tip of the statue into the doorway Balthazar had come through, lighting the door up with a light so blinding even Balthazar had to shield his eyes from it.
When the light died down and Balthazar could see the door again, the edges were covered in a thick frost. Balthazar stepped warily towards it and held out his hand, sending a blast of wind to push the doors open less there be a trap awaiting him. The doors did indeed swing open and when Balthazar stepped through one thing became very clear.
He wasn't on the island anymore.
Now he found himself in a small village made of wooden buildings that was being beaten by a snowstorm. Balthazar blocked his face with his arm as he moved towards the center of the village. He didn't know why he went that way but he knew it was the way. He knew where he was meant to go... so he did. Balthazar trekked through the cold and beating snow towards the village square where the buildings seemed to widen out in a circle and there were various tents standing... somehow the storm didn't affect them. Yet it was the being standing in the middle of the square who garner Balthazar's focus. A man with long blonde hair and armor, standing strong against the storm. Treid... and Balthazar was going to kill him.
Treid held out his hand to the side and a sword of ice formed within his grasp. Balthazar assumed his open palm stance and neared the long lost Immortal slowly. He could almost hear the ground shaking words out beneath them. He could almost hear the dead in the stands calling for battle... and he'd give it to them.
"Who are you?" Treid asked, his voice laced with a sort of gloating hubris.
"A nightmare for you." Balthazar replied, driving two quick punched to the air. Each time, when his fist reached a full extension, a small burst of flames flew forward towards the Immortal. Treid swung his sword in a wide arc and when the flames reached him the sword seemed to bat them aside like nothing so Balthazar moved in, and so did Treid.
Balthazar leapt into the air, propelling himself with a tornado of wind that formed around his waist, and he rained fire on the Immortal of ice who conjured a thick wall of said element to absorb the blasts-
-then Treid drove his fist into the wall, firing a dozen spikes of ice from his elemental shield.
Balthazar brought his hands in a circular motion, using a strong spiral of wind to throw the spikes off course before he thrust his hands out and sent a veritable inferno down on the wall of ice which began melting quickly. Treid was a quick thinker though, and powerful to boot, so when he realized the flames would burn through his shield he let himself fall backwards into the snow, his body seeming to explode into snow was it collided with the ground-
-then Treid rose up from the snow atop one of the buildings behind Balthazar and fired another spike from his hand. Balthazar realized too late, having been absorbed in the burning of the wall, and the spike ripped through his left shoulder like butter. He let out of scream in pain, losing focus and consequently dispelling the whirlwind holding him in the sky. As Balthazar fell Treid fired more spikes to try and hit him again, but he wouldn't.
Balthazar twisted in the air, encasing his body in fire before it collided with the ground and when it did, the flames flattened out and died on the snow, but Balthazar was nowhere to be seen. Trills later in another burst of flame, Balthazar shot out of his portal and collided with Treid, knocking the two of them off the rooftop. They hit the ground with a loud thud but Treid was back on his feet moments after the crash. Balthazar, still favoring his limp left arm, rose with his right at the ready while Treid conjured a blade of ice in each hand.
"Stay down, or I'll-" But before he could finish his sentence, Balthazar stomped on the ground causing a large earthen spike to suddenly jut from the earth towards Treid who instinctively backed away from Balthazar as he stopped... only the spike was coming from behind and so it pierced right through Treid's chest. He eyes widened in shock and blood bust forth from his mouth.
Finish him. The words rang in the bloodthirsty mage's mind.
Balthazar waved his hands over each other, amassing a ball of blue flame as Treid seemed to try and slide himself off of the spike but he couldn't quite do it and when it seemed like he might, Balthazar stomped again to drive the spike further through the Immortal. When the flames between his hands burned hot enough, Balthazar propelled them at Treid who was summarily burned down to the bone with only the echos of his screams to imply he'd ever been there. Balthazar took a deep breath, the damage on his shoulder seeming to materialize at the death of the Immortal.
Suddenly the world around Balthazar grew brighter, the snow seemed to glow with the light of the sun and Balthazar shielded his eyes again- only this time when the light faded, he was back on the island in the Warrior Shrine. Treid's statue had crumbled and on that stone wall at the end of the path of flames, Treid's name burned in the same unreadable language it had been on the statue. That was when Balthazar realized the path. His head turned slowly to the other nine immortal statues... who would be next?
