#my brain: the longer you put off writing the next part the longer tomix stays alive

[theloverofdragons]

The Void War

The stars in the deep purple sky of the Void winked down at Tomix as he leant over the railings of one of the balconies of the Void Ship. They were close, so close, to reaching Envy and he could finally complete his quest, even though that meant he had to…

The sound of approaching footsteps made him turn his head, and despite his sombre mood, his lips quirked up at the sight of the Hero. "Hey. How's Pandora?"

"She's…calmer," the Hero rubbed the back of their neck. "She's still pretty emotional after regaining her memories – and as she's the Elemental Spirit of Woe, she tends to feel that particular emotion pretty strongly – but she's determined to help us stop Envy."

"I'm glad to hear it," Tomix nodded, turning back to watch the sky.

The Hero bit their lip as they examined him, noting his paler skin and dimmer eyes, concern for the wellbeing of one of their closest friends welling up inside them. "How are you holding up?"

Tomix sighed deeply, hanging his head and closing his eyes. "I'm tired, Hero. I'm so very tired... I've been on this quest since I was just a kid. Thirteen years. Thirteen long years and my journey is finally at its end. He's the only one left." Opening his eyes, he raised his head again and inhaled deeply. "You know, I sometimes wonder what my life would be if I had not released them. The six corrupted spirits and... Aspar. I'd graduate from Edelia, travel the world, find a partner." His lips curved into a small smile. "We'd get married, open up a small weaving shop, age together, get fat and have many children."

The Hero snickered.

The smile vanished and Tomix sagged against the railing, looking as tired as he said he was. "And instead my life is a series of unfortunate events."

The Hero stepped forwards so they were alongside him. "Surely there must have been at least one good event?"

Tomix paused before turning to look at them. "You."

"Me?"

The small smile returned. "Yeah. After we met, during my hunt for Greed, I was always looking forward to your arrival in Ravenloss. I've really enjoyed adventures with you. It was good having someone else watch your back."

The Hero blushed slightly before grinning. "Hey now, we'll have many more new adventures ahead of us after we banish Envy!"

Tomix's expression dropped again and he turned back to face the Void before his eyes widened. "We're here!"

****

The Void Ship circled the strange building of towers and corridors, with the swirling purple and black Void Core situated in the middle, sending up a beam of lighter purple light. The ship was keeping its distance and Tomix had sent Aegis to have a look at the building's layout, so the crew could plan their next move.

A flash of icy blue light alerted the Soulweaver that his SoulAlly had returned. "Good, you're back! How are things?"

"Give me a second," Aegis raised his hand and began to draw a birds-eye map of the structure from ice, revealing several large corridors circling around the open centre, with the Void Ship at the entrance. "There. No one has spotted me, and I got a good view of the entire structure. This is how it looks like from the top." At Aegis's direction, the open centre began to glow softly. "The core is here." The square block in front of the centre began to glow. "The chamber is the only way leading to it." Next to glow was a block of ice connecting the ship and the chamber. "This corridor goes straight into the main chamber." The two corridors on either side of the main corridor lit up. "These two corridors on both sides do not connect to the main chamber itself, however...The door leading into the main chamber appears to be enchanted by Envy. It is engulfed by a weird, swirling green energy."

Aegis dissipated the map and turned the face the rest of the crew. "All the corridors are swarming with void creatures. And... that's not all. These two corridors that I've mentioned... there is an ‘unlocking mechanism’ at the end of each of them..."

Tomix frowned. "How can you possibly know this? Envy wouldn't be that daft."

Aegis sighed, his expression twisting slightly. "Because... it literally says 'unlocking mechanism' in big, bright letters...over the two human beings who are connected by this weird green energy to the door."

Izaac gasped, his eyes widening in horror. "Oh Avatars, I know what Envy did..."

"What?" Riadne asked in trepidation

"Seal of Ativa!" Izaac choked out. "He used the very existence of those two people in order to lock the door shut. The only way to unlock them is to– "

"–Kill those two people..." Tomix finished, expression tightening.

The Hero snarled. "That's sick!" Through their bond, they felt a pang of intense sadness from Pandora and they brushed their fingers over the cube by their side. ‘It's not your fault Pandora, I promise. He did this himself, and we will stop him!'

"There has to be another way to unlock it!" Riadne insisted.

Izaac shook his head. "No, you don't understand. Seal of Ativa is one of the few legendary and forbidden magics. Magics like this don't have any loopholes. You can't break their rules."

Tomix clenched his fists as Aegis rested his hand on his shoulder, sending support through their bond. "We are too close to back up now! I am aware that this whole situation is sick, but we have to do this... we are too close..."

" I will do it," Yashta intoned solemnly.

"Blimey! And so will I," Captain Mazurek added. "I did worse thin's than that."

Riadne whirled round to face them. "I... can't believe you people are even considering this! What's wrong with you?!"

Mazurek scowled. "Sweetie, leave sailing t' the sea legs."

"Stop fighting!" The Hero broke in. "We have to be united, now more than ever!" Once things had calmed down, they nodded and turned to Tomix. "Okay. We all need to do this together. Tomix, what's the plan?"

Tomix watched the building in the distance. "I'm fighting my way through the middle corridor to the door. Hero, Aegis, you're in?"

Aegis and the Hero nodded determinedly. "Absolutely."

****

As Aegis had promised, all three corridors were packed with Void spawn. Izaac, Riadne, Yashta and the Soulweavers had gone down the left hand corridor and Mazurek, her crew and Vaal had taken the right, leaving the Hero, the Dragon, Tomix and Aegis to go down the middle.

A Void elemental lunged at the Hero, but they dodged out of the way. "Oh you, stop ticking me!" they smirked before finishing the elemental off. Next to them, Tomix was completing his retribution attack to defeat a Decadere youngling.

A group of Void monsters decided to charge at once at the Hero, hoping to overwhelm them but in a flash of white and yellow light, Pandora appeared before them, armed with a large scythe with a rainbow blade and her sigil in the middle of it. Twirling the scythe in her grip, she proceeded to hurl in at the approaching enemies, with the scythe turning into a spinning disc that sliced through them all before returning to her grasp.

"Wow!" the Hero whistled appreciatively. "Nice moves, Pandora!" Their SoulAlly smiled in thanks and the Hero turned their head to check on Tomix before their eyes widened as another Decadere youngling tried to attack the Soulweaver's turned back. "Tomix, look out!"

Tomix whirled around but before the monster could attack him, Aegis appeared and batted the Void creature away with his shield. "Thanks, Aegis."

The elemental spirit grinned. "I've got your back!"

A flicker of pain passed over Tomix's face and he lowered his head as memories of when he and Aspar were bonded, when he thought his best friend had his back the way that Aegis did now, filled his head. Fortunately, he was jerked out of the painful trip down memory lane as one of the communication balls that Eirn had given them on the ship crackled into life.

"Hello? Is this working? Hello?"

"Yes!" Tomix replied. "Izaac?"

"Tomix, bad news. We lost a few Soulweavers and the majority of them are injured. Riadne's patching them up and Yashta is doing his best to keep us safe, but there are simply too many Void creatures. We have to go back!"

"Izaac, please... you can't..." Tomix implored. We're so close…we have to stop him…I have to…

"What's going on?" The Hero asked, fighting their way over to Tomix as Pandora and Aegis kept any approaching Void monsters from attacking while the two of them talked.

Tomix hung his head. "Yashta's team isn't doing well, Izaac wants to retreat."

The Hero glanced at the two elemental spirits. "Could Aegis help?"

Tomix exhaled shakily. "You're right; he could. Are you alright with that, Aegis?"

"Of course!"

Tomix nodded and turned back to the Hero. "I don't know why I didn't think of that…"

"You're under a lot of stress," the Hero reassured him. "You take a moment to catch your breath while I sort this out, then we can get back to fighting, okay?"

"Yes…thank you, Hero."

The Hero turned to the communication balls. "IZAAC, CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Gaaah... yes!" Izaac yelped. "You don't have to yell!"

"Oh, okay. Listen, we're sending Aegis over to you, he'll make an ice wall between you and the creatures. You'll be able to rest and gather your strength."

"That would be very helpful master!" Yashta's voice sounded over the speakers.

The Hero scowled. "Stop calling me master!"

"Apologies. That would be helpful, Hero."

Aegis gave Tomix and the Hero a thumbs up before teleporting away with a flash of ice.

"Now, excuse me," the Hero turned to Tomix and grinned before calling their dragon. "Let's go!" The two of them charged towards the enemy lines and Tomix allowed himself a small smile before returning to the communication balls.

"Maz?"

"I be a wee busy dear."

Tomix frowned slightly. "How are things on your side? Is Vaal helping at all? Is he fighting?"

"Oh, he be fightin' alright..." Mazurek replied, sounding very amused. "But wit' his Soul Lass."

Tomix blinked. "His... what?"

From the background of the speakers he could just about hear a very irritated female voice. "...And you're summoning me after five years, expecting me to help you?!"

"Alee, this is NOT the right time for this!" Vaal protested. "I need Transcendence! I need my weapon to defend myself! Or would you rather let me die?!"

"I really don't care."

"TRANSCENDENCE!" Vaal bellowed.

Evidently, Vaal's SoulAlly acquiesced as Mazurek gave a hearty laugh. "Yarr, we be doin' great darlin'."

"Erm... alright," Tomix shook his head as his brain raced to catch up with what had happened. "Keep me updated." Allowing himself another small smile, he raced to catch up with the Hero as they continued to defeat the Void monsters with their Dragon and Pandora by their side.

"Everyone okay?"

"Yes; Aegis will help Izaac's team and Mazurek's team is good to fight together, now that Vaal has stopped squabbling with his 'Soul Lass', as Maz put it."

"I…see," the Hero raised their eyebrow before grinning. "You'd never catch me fighting with my Soul Lass, would we Pandora?"

For the first time since the island that held her memories, Pandora let out a tinkling laugh.

Tomix let out a small chuckle (how long had it been since he had laughed? Not since he had found out that…) as he and the Hero ran forwards together into battle. "We're halfway through, let's go."

****

They didn't know how long it took to defeat the rest of the Void creatures but eventually, Tomix and the Hero reached the doors to the chamber. Aegis had rejoined them a while back – with Pandora returning to her cube so her presence didn't cause any mishaps, although she would emerge every so often to deal with a group of Void creatures with her scythe – and Izaac and Mazurek had alerted them over the communication balls that the seals had been lifted, although Mazurek's message had come with the added problem that Vaal had run off.

"Tomix, the doors!" the Hero pointed as they paused to catch their breath. "They're open!"

Tomix hung his head sadly. "But at a cost of two innocent lives..."

The Hero placed their hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. "They will be remembered, and they will be honoured. We can't save everybody. But their demise will not go unnoticed. Envy will pay for this, Tomix. He will."

"The Hero is right," Aegis nodded solemnly. " After all this is over, I can search for their souls and notify their families."

Tomix inhaled deeply, collecting himself, before raising his head again and adopting a look of determination. "Let's go–"

"You can't," a voice broke in, and three figures stepped into the doorway, blocking their path.

Tomix scowled. "More of Aspar's minions?!"

The Hero folded their arms. "Let me guess..." They looked at the dark green humanoid gargoyle, the one who had spoken. "You are Green..." Next they turned to what looked like a fusion of a basilisk and a human. "You are Brown-ish- Red..." Finally they turned to the final minion, a moglin with a human face. "And you arOHMYGOODNESSWHATAREYOU?!"

"I'm very sorry," Green intoed. "But we can't let you through."

Tomix snarled. "Well I'm sorry too, because I don't care!"

The battle that followed was long and hard – Envy had obviously prioritised fighting skills in his minions that made it very inconvenient for whomever they were fighting – but eventually they were defeated, Red and Blue having dissolved the way Yellow had.

Green had sunk to his knees. "I have failed...but it's okay..." A wry smile formed on his lips. "I'm free."

Tomix looked down as Green shattered into pieces. "Now we can go, come on!"

"Tomix, I think we should wait for the rest of the crew," the Hero cautioned. "We don't know how exactly strong Envy is..."

"I think that is wise," Aegis added. "I shall go and check to see how far away they are."

"Okay…" Tomix nodded reluctantly as Aegis vanished. "But we can't wait too– "

Before he could finish his sentence, the building shook with an ominous rumble.

The Hero glanced around them. "That doesn't sound good. The more of us there are to confront him, the more likely we are to be able to stop him."

Tomix's chest was heaving and his eyes flashed about wildly. "No…NO! AEGIS!"

A block of ice materialised and fell away to reveal Aegis, looking rather confused. "Is everything–?"

"Synchronisation!" Tomix yelled, desperation colouring the edges of his tone.

Aegis frowned in concern. "Tomix, we've never tried it. Besides in your current state, synchronisation would be very unwise…"

"PLEASE!" Tomix begged, his voice breaking.

Aegis met Tomix's eyes before bowing his head and nodding, resting his hand on Tomix's chest. There was a flash of icy blue light, as it looked like Aegis melted into Tomix's body before it cleared to reveal the Soulweaver standing there, eyes and hands glowing white and blue, a helmet like the one Aegis wore over his head, the colour back in his face but the corruption from his shattered SpiritLooms having worsened and spread down to his elbows.

"I don't care if there are more minions in my way," Tomix declared, voice echoing slightly and sounding like a mix of his normal voice and Aegis'. "I'M GOING!" With a flash, he shot off into the chamber, only leaving behind the faint blue glows of his figure.

"TOMIX!" the Hero yelled after their friend. "Damn…we need to go after him. Are you two with me?" The Dragon gave a determined chirp and Pandora murmured 'Always' over their bond. The Hero nodded before running after Tomix. "He doesn't have to do this alone."

****

Disclaimer: DragonFable is owned by Artix Entertainment. Dialogue taken from ‘Void War Intro’, ‘Halfway Through’ and ‘Through The Door’.

Also on AO3 and FFN