Stygia

On the quiet edges of the universe, far from their quaint homeland of Aquila, the displaced ones stared at the pitiful vessel of the one they once called an ally, then a hated foe, and perhaps now a friend. The wounded knight yielded his blade, his mind free of corruption after decades but his conscience forever scarred; for every drop of innocent blood spilled under the influence of the looming Mad King he bore mortified witness to, but was nonetheless incapable of showing restraint or otherwise defying his nebulous master. The screaming in his head finally ceased. His strange new friends had restored something in him that he thought he had lost forever. Ever so briefly, he had accepted his death, but they did not allow it. He breathed the foul air of Urghast by the grace of Zoomer's serendipitous intervention. The same hand that slew Herobrine showed wise restraint for the first time in years. The archer that ended the reign of an eternal tyrant laid down his bow. The jaded wanderer offered no misguided protest.

Triton owed the Outlanders his life, and thus revealed the only way for them to leave the infernal dream world in one piece: a portal the likes of which they had employed the use of in the past. He sent them on their way to stop the sinister plan that he had unwittingly set in motion years in the past, neglecting to mention his anxiety that this portal may not lead where they were hoping.

Looming
A familiar yet breathtaking sensation. As the Outlanders plummeted from the vast skyline to the obfuscated surface of the strange new world, they braced for deadly impact, cradling their fragile frames and struggling for air. Through nothing short of divine intervention, though, the four heroes crashed on to the dense green ground with a thunderous boom, their tremendous thud blowing dirt and rock in all directions.

The Outlanders awoke one by one as they always had. Brushing the grime from their tattered clothes and bruised bodies, they narrowed their eyes to examine their surroundings; thick jungle as far as the eye could see, and one's eyes were especially deceptive and imperceptive in settings as these. Cannonwalker gestured towards a dark figure looming on the horizon, floating effortlessly among the clouds - watching. The visage vanished as soon as soon as the others turned their heads to glimpse its subdued splendor. To accompany the ceaseless chirping of the unseen creatures of the jungle, there was a brief whispering, barely audible, and then a cackling; the sort of laughter that split apart the unwillful at their seams.



Survive
Ned estimated that in this odd new world that they had arrived in, it must be roughly high noon, a guess that his peers concurred with. Swatting away bloodthirsty insects, the men trudged through the thick vegetation, desperately searching for shelter in the oppressive heat and their own biting hunger. As they traveled deeper into the jungle, it became harder to differentiate between their friends' voices, and harder still to see more than a meter ahead of them.

Sam lost sight of the others. Feeling around for something to grip, to pull him up from this all-consuming void of nature, he brushed aside a pair of branches to reach a clearing occupied by a hooded figure. Calling out to get his attention, he flinched and reached for his bow as the phantom leapt from his kneeling position and charged at him with a golden blade. When he realized his bow had left him, the specter had made deadly collision with him.

Zoomer sprinted. He no longer cared for what was behind him; he was singularly focused on regrouping with his allies, leaping from branch to branch and shouting their names like a madman. As the leaves and bark whipped and lashed his exposed face, he abruptly halted at what appeared to be a dead end created by vegetation far too thick to ever cross. As he turned to go back the way he came, he caught a brief glimpse of a red-eyed skull floating just above the ground, piercing him with its searing mechanical gaze.

Ned crawled under the thick brush, hoping to avoid any potential predators that may see him sneaking along the grass. He kept a keen eye out for any movement, but kept his gaze fixed on the ground ahead of him, ignoring the sky. As a mighty roar screached out from the heavens, he was helpless as a winged beast descended upon him.

Cannonwalker made quiet conversation with an invisible presence that was quite familiar and in some ways soothing. The wise invisible presence guided him through the dense jungle, directing him towards his friends, though with each step they seemed to grow further away, as the voice described. The presence abruptly hushed. When Cannon inquired as to what had happened, the shadow he called Wisdom simply replied, "The Stygian approaches."

And approach the Stygian did. The being, clad in dark armor and a terrifying helmet, stepped out from the shade and examined the Outlander before him. Cannonwalker instinctively drew his blade in defense, but was dismayed to recall he was defenseless. The phantom merely welcomed he and his friends to his realm, Stygia, and asked where they had come from. When the hero confessed Aquila, some stunning revelation fell over the Stygian, who chuckled in delight, for they were "the ones the Emissaries warned of."

The four Outlanders, panting heavily, finally reunited with one another, all of them shrugging their visions off as simple hallucinations, bar Cannonwalker, who told them of Stygia and its seemingly sole inhabitant, the Stygian. Making sure not to lose sight of one another, they soon arrived at a great precipice overlooking a massive hillside teeming with cave mouths and a grand waterfall.



The Prisoner
The Outlanders drank from the running stream just outside the mouth of the cave they had set up temporary camp in. Food was scarce, but every now and then Ned and Sam would catch a squirming fish as Zoomer and Cannon discussed where they may be and how they would get back home to stop the plot of this Ancient Fear, as described by Triton. They surmised that, through the portal in the dream world, they had landed in some new world far from theirs with its own god: this Stygian creature.

Alien sounds haunted the resting Outlanders. Distant yet disturbingly close, overbearing yet subtle, all originating from the walls of the cave. They recognized a series of taps and a faint yelping somewhere near, perhaps just behind these rock walls. Following the noises, the heroes arrived at another cave mouth not far from their base camp, detecting a faint red glowing in the darkness. A delicate, weary voice guided them to a small cage in the shadows, its sole prisoner a small man in regal clothing and, strikingly, bearing a white mask that covered the right side of his face, his mismatched blue and green eyes eyeing them curiously.

The man, who introduced himself as Reyer, gestured towards the glinting silver key just beyond his grasp on the other side of the bars, placed there by some man he called "Adrian" as if some sort of cruel and ironic punishment: his freedom inches away as he slowly rotted. As the Outlanders sprung him free, he explained that Adrian was the true name of the being they called the Stygian, a once benevolent and divine ruler of the realm who was corrupted by an unknown external force. When Zoomer bluntly inquired as to the purpose of the mask, Reyer said it was to hide a hideous birth defect.

Upon hearing that the Outlanders had arrived from Aquila via a void portal, Reyer nodded in understanding, proclaiming that had studied interdimensional travel by void in the past, even alluding to once peering into another reality. As repayment for freeing him from his cruel prison, he vowed to help them return to Aquila in any way he could; as Adrian had sealed off entrance to both the Nether and End, he explained, they would need to use the power of the god himself to open a rift to another world.



Labryrinth
Imparting wisdom and guidance that seemed far beyond the young man's years, Reyer, a long-time resident of Stygia, told a mythical tale surrounding Adrian, detailing his kind reign as a gentle god for many years until the arrival of some higher power that stole his heart and locked it away in some dark and foul place beneath the ground, forever binding the benign god to do his bidding - to prepare for the arrival of some other outside interloper, or interlopers, that posed a threat to the ever-approaching grand coda to be written by this dark and ancient threat. Reyer led the Outlanders to where "the wisest scholars believed Adrian's heart to be hidden." When asked if others in this world sympathetic to their cause could lend them some aid, the man explained that he had long thought himself to be the last mortal inhabitant of Stygia.

Sooner than they had anticipated, Reyer and the Outlanders arrived at a precipice overlooking a massive plain; on the other side, a grand temple with high walls and bright lights, guarded by no living sentry, but a gargantuan labyrinth. Preparing to enter the maze, however, the invisible presence of Wisdom, apparently familiar to Reyer as well, returned to them, guiding them through the winding halls to the end with little struggle.

Exiting the labryrinth, the five men passed through a small forest before arriving at the gates of the temple, which was surrounded on all other sides by preculiar distorted landscape. Within, they came to a winding spiral staircase, the descent of which took several minutes. Far below the surface of Stygia, they navigated a long hall, at the end of which was a gleaming red light. All the while, they felt as if they were being watched.

Arriving at the display case at the end of the hall, the source of the light was revealed to be a small boxlike object that pulsed with dark energy. Reyer examined it closely before carefully removing it from its glass display, which instantly prompted a ferocious roaring. Adrian, in his dark armor, appeared in the room and prepared to smite them all. Thinking quickly, however, Reyer clutched the heart tightly and gestured towards the seething god, commanding him to kneel. Adrian first cackled in amusement, but then found himself unwittingly falling to his knees before Reyer.

The Outlanders urged Reyer to return the heart to Adrian so they he may help them get home. He flatly refused, however, ripping off his bone-white mask to reveal the scarred left portion of his face, apparently a grievous injury inflicted by none other than Adrian. Reyer reasoned that, after glimpsing into so many different realities, including Aquila, the gods had been nothing but burdens for the worlds they were supposedly sworn to protect (but from whom? And by whose authority?). Citing the mass slaughter of the mortal population of Stygia, Reyer secreted the heart away in his robes and demanded that Adrian begin constructing a portal to send the Outlanders home.



Down Once More
Reyer, the Outlanders, and the enslaved Adrian stood at the shore of a small beach the next morning. As Reyer held the god's heart in his hands, the Outlanders remained both skeptical and concerned that this would end in disaster. Before they could enact their plan, however, Adrian exploded in rage, hurling bolts of fiery lightning at the mortals before him. The god revealed his true allegiance was still to his old master, proclaiming them to be fools to fall for his gambit.

Reyer sprang to action, using the protective powers of the heart to shield himself from Adrian's onslaught. The god was relentless, however, his supernatural barrage ripping apart the beach and scorching Reyer. As the heart fell on to the sand, Cannonwalker lunged and grabbed it himself, aiming it towards Adrian with the silent intent to return what had been unjustly stolen. The heart lifted from his hands and slipped into the god's chest, ending his rampage.

The Outlanders rushed to the rapidly expiring Reyer's side. He explained that he was confident that they would not approve of his actions, but nevertheless intended from the beginning to repay his debt. As he passed on to the other side, he bid them good luck urged them "Remember, you are the Phantasm..." When they rose to confront the restored Adrian, Reyer bid "When you see him, give my regards to Clockwork," chuckling lightly as he shut his eyes, surrendering to death.

Adrian recalled every detail that had escaped him. Retelling disjointed memories of how some being claiming to be his father invaded his world and stole his heart and his power, the Outlanders looked to each other in realization. The god concluded that, though it would cost him his life to do so (the gods were tasked, above all, to keep the barriers between the worlds intact), he would open a portal to Aquila so the Outlanders may stop his father, Moros, before his sinister coda was written.

As preparations were made, however, what sounded like a symphony playing some dark and minor tune erupted, signaling the arrival of a towering being, clad in blue armor with a horrific ashy skull countenance. The Outlanders recognized the being.

"We are His Emissary, and we are many," the beast proclaimed.

Wisdom urged them to strike before it was too late. On cue, a great rumbling was heard, and the benevolent spirit's words were hushed as the Emissary summoned a dark spell. The messenger demanded the god and his accomplices yield, lest they incur the wrath of the Ancient Fear. Refusing to bend, Adrian summoned a brace of weapons for the Outlanders and led them into battle against the Emissary of Moros.

Though the Emissary they faced in Urghast was formidable, defeating it on their own was feasible; this Emissary was at least thrice as powerful, as if their arcane order's influence over the universe had increased in a short span of time. Its blade, however, was not meant to slay mere mortals, but to silence the power of the gods. As the Emissary slashed Adrian's exposed chest, the god, in his dying breaths, opened a violent rift in the water that began to tug at them.

Worn down by Adrian, the Outlanders soon overwhelmed the Emissary with the help of their new weapons. Ignoring its warnings that the world on the other side may not be as they remember it, they slew the dark messenger and braced themselves to leap into the portal, hoping that the fallen god retained enough of his power in his death to configure it to lead back to Aquila.