Behind the Gate [Story]

[Mtoto Wamoto]

((Inspired by the recent stories put up here, I decided to put up one of my own. I've decided to start writing out my character's post dalamud/pre-ARR story line out. I'm debating if I want to make a little comic out of this, but no promises there. Any case, hope you guys enjoy.))

 

“Professor! Professor, come quickly! I...I believe we’ve found it!” a rather excited Dunesfolk exclaimed across a field of fallen pillars and distraught walls. 

 

Looking up from his leather bound journal which seemed to only be hanging together by a tattered cord of sinew, an elderly Godrick Babington grinned voraciously as he quickly snapped the imperfect book shut before he began making his way towards to the screeching Lalafell who had just been crouched before a pile of stone rubble and debris. “Ah! Just one moment, lad! Don’t touch anything lest you risk setting off another one of those traps! Let me take a look at that!” he bellowed out as he strode over, his other young assistants in tow.

 

The Lalafell scholar nodded as he stepped back from what he had found, being careful not to disturb the site. His voice was still filled with excitement “Look Professor! These ruins possess the same symbols and markings as the ones you showed us in the tome! Surely this has to be it!”

 

Kneeling down to take a better look at what appeared to be the remains of a large stone tablet, the professor removed a handkerchief from a pocket in his dusty overcoat to wipe his forehead of sweat which had begun to seep behind his gold rimmed bifocals. “Hmmm...ahh...AHA! I do say, this just might be what we’ve been looking for, old boy! Well done! Well done indeed!”

 

Gasps erupted among the crowd of excavating archaeologist and quiet whispers of excitement broke out between the young scholars gathered behind the elderly Hyur in drab. Dusting off the tablet as best he could, Godrick leaned in closer, running his hand across the surface across the faint carvings engraved upon the stone relic “Totorito! Be a lad and fetch my rucksack just over there.”

 

The young Lalafell who had called him over nodded once more before running as fast as he could, hopping over toppled columns and sprinting past the ruined remains of what was once a temple before the assault on the realm by Bahamut not even a cycle ago. With the sun hanging high above the group, Totorito panted as he came to a stop by the bag the professor had requested. The sweltering heat of Thanalan was clearly affecting him. 

 

Picking up the bag and racing back towards his colleagues, Totorito stumbled as he tripped over the remains of a what appeared to be the decapitated head of a stone gargoyle, its cold empty eyes staring back at the boy. Not sure what to make of the odd statue remains, the Lalafell righted himself up back on his feet before dusting himself off.

 

“Come now, lad! We haven’t all day! Hurry with that bag!” 

 

“A-ah, apologies Professor! I’ll be right there!” 

 

As he panted for air once again, Totorito handed the dusty bag over. Godrick quickly took the rucksack in hand before turning it over to dispense of all its contents onto the ground. Pens, measuring tools, parchments and journals all cascaded out of the mouth of the professor’s bag. 

 

“Where is it...where is it...ah! There you are!” The professor muttered to himself as he picked up a black leather bound tome from the pile before him. As the others continued to watch with curiosity, Godrick flipped through the pages of the large book before stopping near the middle, his finger placed on what appeared to be a magical symbol surrounded by arcane letters. Setting the book down, he reached into his coat once again and procured what appeared to be a vile of uncoagulated blood of unknown origin. 

 

“Right then, my young students! This is it...The moment of truth! Places everyone! Places!”

 

With that, the group of twelve formed a circle around the professor. Each individual drew up brands or scepters from their belts or packs, nodding to the professor in turn to give him the go signal to proceed.

 

Totorito, now standing just behind the professor with a rather ornate jade scepter of his own, began chanting out the words to the incantation the professor had made them all practice earlier.

 

As his students chanted, Godrick opened the vile and began pouring its contents onto the stone slab they had found. 

 

A burst of aetherial light emitted from the tablet as the crimson blood filled the carvings of the slab. With a flash of electric purple, a large glowing glyph bearing the same symbol of the tome and the tablet suddenly appeared beneath the encircled group. A few of the chanting casters exchanged wide eyed glances and shocked expressions with one another, but none of them stopped their incantation out of fear of ruining the spell. 

 

As the glyph below them began to grow brighter and brighter, the surrounding scene seemed to grow darker and darker as if nightfall had descended upon the group. The professor, lost in the mystique of it all, seemed oblivious to the changes.

 

Suddenly, a surge of aetheric energy erupted from the tablet laying on the ground, firing skyward like a bolt of lightning high above the group. It seemed to reach a peak before halting its vertical ascension and splitting open, widening as if it were a flesh wound being pulled apart. A haze of purple light and umbral fog filled the space that was created as aetherial energy surrounded the opening, giving it a form resembling a doorway of some sort. 

 

A mixture of excitement and fear began to settle upon the group. Though the chanting had stopped, it was far from quiet. A loud humming noise seemed to emit from the stone slab’s projection, as if an electric surge of umbral and aetheric energy pulsated through the strange construct. “P-p-professor....what...what is this?!”, a panicked Totorito called out to his teacher.

 

Godrick seemed enraptured, his focus only on the purple haze as he stared directly into the gate. He was wide eyed and his pupils seemed dilated; fixed towards the center of the gateway. The professor slumped down to his knees in submission, surrendering himself to the light.

 

“PROFESSOR!” Totorito screeched as he watched his teacher fall to his knees.

 

A roaring groan seemed to echo from deep within the contents of the gateway. 

 

“What was that noise??!” squealed a young Miqo’te, her ears flattened against her head and her tail tucked between her legs. 

 

As if on cue, a flood of imps and an army of lesser ahriman spilled out from the miasma filled void coupled with what appeared to be a body being flung out of the rift. Panicked screams erupted among the group as several scholars attempted to flee while the more courageous ones took up their brands and began firing spells at the voidsent.

 

Totorito peddled back, wide eyed and shocked, unsure what to make of the whole situation.

 

“Professor! You never said this was to happen! You said we’d all be safe! You said-!” Before the Lalafell could finish his sentence, a bolt of magic made contact with his body sending him flying backwards and slamming against an erect column of stone behind him.

 

As the chaos ensued, Godrick continued to gaze upon the gateway with a mystified stare. He didn’t notice the magical blast of lightning skirt past him and strike Totorito. He didn’t seem to blink as his students and assistants fell to the attacks of the voidsent darting around them. In fact, he didn’t seem to take anything else into account other than the pale gate before him. Tears of what appeared to be joy streamed down the old man’s face as his mouth gaped opened in awe. 

 

Screams continued to pierce the air as magical blasts erupted and shot across the ruins. Totorito attempted to regain himself, sitting up as he pushed himself up against the pillar he was flung against. “Nnngh..” he winced in pain as he looked down to his chest to gaze upon the tattered and blackened hole where the bolt of lightning had struck him. “Damn you Professor...Damn you to hell.” 

 

As he tried to stand, his knees buckled and he wobbled as he tried to maintain his footing. He looked to the thing that had been flung out of the gate along with the fiends. His eyes focused on it as he tried to make out what it was from a distance. It was a woman, a Miqo’te no less. Her skin was of a light brown complexion and covered in dirt and blood  and her head was topped with a dark umber bob which was tied into a long braided tail behind her. She was garbed in white leather armor and chainmail, though much of it left was tattered and soaked in dry blood. Unable to do anything for her, he looked back to the Professor who was still left in his daze. 

 

Darting towards the man slumped before the gate, an imp flew towards the Professor, stopping just short of its casting range and readying a spell to fire at the man.

 

“THUNDARA!” Screamed Totorito as he fired a returning bolt of lightning of his own towards the imp who had attacked him, knocking it from the air and to the ground. Looking back to the professor, Totorito screamed out once more.

 

“PROFESSOR! CLOSE THE BLOODY GATE LEST WE ALL MEET OUR END! CLOSE IT PROFESSOR! CLOSE IT!!!”

 

It was as if the creature still within the gate was being summoned by those words. As Totorito screamed at Godrick and as the remainder of his still living companions continued to fend off the voidsent, the loud echoing groan from earlier began to grow even louder. Without any notice, a demonic looking pair of claws erupted from within the rift and placed themselves at the inside edges of the gate, as if it intending to expand its width even further. 

 

Then...it came. 

 

Totorito knew what it was as soon as the creature reared its demonic head through the umbral light. The crumbled statue of the gargoyle he had tripped over from earlier was nearly identical to what had appeared before him. 

 

“...Gods forfend...” 

 

Attempting to force its way through the gateway, the horned demon continued to reach out as if to grab hold of something. For the first time since the opening of the gate, the professor stirred,  standing up with both arms spread wide as if to welcome the creature.

 

“Creature of the deep! I, Lord Godrick Babington, servant to you, have summon thee! I offer you the blood of these scholars in exchange for the wisdom and power I seek! I ask you grant me the secrets to the Void! Tell me th-guhh!” 

 

Godrick looked down as he was abruptly cut off from his sentence. The long nails of the demon’s fingers had pierced through his chest and throat, severing his vocal chords and depriving him of much needed air. As blood gurgled up in his throat and mouth, he returned his gaze to the demon, tears still streaming down his weathered face.

 

Totorito screamed at the top of his lungs, “PROFESSOR! NO!!!” 

 

"FIRA!"

 

It happened almost instantly. A horizontal column of flames roared towards the demon, erupting against it, and sending it backwards into the gate, forcing it to reel in its long spear like nails from Godrick. As the man slumped back to his knees he turned slowly to face the source of the blast of inferno before falling forward on his stomach to bleed out. 

 

The unconscious woman who had been flung out from the void had seemed to have awoken. Crouched with one knee bracing her and her casting hand still aimed at the demon with her other arm to support it, she glowered at the creature with intent to kill. 

 

Raising her arm to get a better aim, she cringed in pain as she tried to move. Using the little reserve of energy left she could muster, she attempted to cast another blast of fire.

 

“FIRAGA!” she screamed.

 

The conjured flame was much larger this time, as if she had put much more focus and energy towards this attempt. The scholars who had been fighting ducked for cover and lept out of harms way as the great flame scorched across the air, nearly disintegrating the membrane like wings of the attacking imps and ahriman which remained in the way as it surged towards the demon within the gate. 

 

The blast of fire seared over the stone tablet, causing the blood that was spilt upon the slab to boil and evaporate under the intense heat, severing the gate from its catalyst. The rift quickly began to close shut as the umbral energy that held it open began to fade and dissipate. 

 

Clearly exhausted beyond her limits, the woman collapsed over, falling unconscious once more...

 

----

 

Three.  Of the twelve young scholars that came to look for what was believed to be an ancient Sil’dih tablet, only three had survived the chaos that erupted. 

 

Totorito looked upon the fallen bodies of his comrades and the decimated voidsent. 

 

“Hold still, I’m almost done.” crooned the frightened Miqo’te from earlier as she attempted to mend the young Lalafell’s wounds by use of conjury.

 

“I...I can’t believe what we did...Frederick...Kopopo....they’re all dead...Twelve...why did this have to happen? Why did we follow that mad man?” the boy sobbed as he buried his face in between his knees.

 

“We can’t blame ourselves, we didn’t know what Godrick had intended to do all along...If we only knew...” the girl continued to heal and comfort her shaken colleague as best she could. 

 

“Hey! This one isn’t dead!”

 

A large Hellsguard called to the two as he stood over the collapsed woman who had managed to shut the gate. He kneeled down next to her, placing a pair of fingers on her neck to check her pulse. 

 

“Yep. Definitely still alive.” 

 

As his healing companion assisted him to his feet, Totorito limped over to the Roe and the unconscious Miqo’te. 

 

“We’d likely all be dead if it wasn’t for this woman...”

 

“...Yep.”

 

“What should we do with her?”

 

“We owe her proper treatment at the very least, just look at the poor dear! She looks as if she’s barely hanging in there.”

 

“We can’t exactly take her to the Phrontistery...If they find out we took part in opening a gate to the Void...we’re all likely to be banished from Ul’dah, if not imprisoned...You know something like that is forbidden.”

 

“So what then?”

 

Totorito sighed. “....I have family in Hyrstmill. We can take her there. I planned to return there after all this anyway...”

 

“And what of their families?” The Roegadyn shook his head mournfully as he looked out to the bodies of the fallen.

 

“There’s not much we can do but send notice to the Ossuary.”

 

"I'll do it."

 

“...Right then.”

 

As the Hellguard reach around the girl to pick her up and throw her over his shoulder, he noticed something dangling from her wrist. “Eh? What’s this?”

 

“Hm?”

 

“Look here. Looks like a dog tag of some sort.” The bulky man peered over the engraving on the bracelet. “Mtoto? Ever heard of that name?”

 

Totorito shook his head. “...Can’t say that I have.”