The Dark Ages [Dark Data]

[Okor]

The world crumbled around them. Chunks of masonry fell from above, crashing into the cracked cobblestones beneath the blood-soaked sand. What few Darkspawn remained scurried through the shifting sands, attempting to avoid the doom overhead, more than a few fallen boulders splattered with darkling blood, bent and broken limbs emerging from beneath.

The perpetrator of this apocalypse squirmed under Okor’s grasp, his necrotic claws hooked onto the Black Knight’s Gorget, raising them upwards as armoured legs failed, drained of vitality by the venom and viruses that Okor wielded. Only one eye stared back at Okor; a bloody gash carving through the other. Bloodied lips cracked open, broken teeth struggling to speak.

“It would have worked, you know,” spat Nebula’s fallen champion, coughing up blackened vitae, slowly greying as it left his dying body. “We could have brought peace and prosperity to the Omniverse, under Nebula’s rule.”

The Plague Marine chuckled darkly, drawing his corroded cleaver, its tained tip pressing against the base of the Knight’s armoured rib-cage. ”Perhaps.” He pushed forward, the shrill grinding of rusted iron on blackened steel contesting the volume of the crumbling arena. ”Perhaps.” Charred, deadened nerves felt a change; flesh parting beneath his touch, rather than metal. Blackened hearts began to beat, slowly crumbling as they came alive, the scent of blood more familiar and reassuring than a mother’s touch.

”But I don’t want peace, do I?” He was running on spite, bloodlust, and Nurgle’s beneficence, now. His arson-touched anatomy should have collapsed long ago, but not now, not while there was still murder in the air. The sanguine sacrament spilled out from the steel carapace, crimson rivers paling, a translucent trickle marking the two warriors as brothers in blood.

”This realm stagnates. Corruption swells, rot and ruin bubbling beneath the surface.” A rusted blade scraped against ribs, a sweet siren song. ”All it takes is a strong enough hand to tip it all over, and send every failure and festering wound back in their face.” A twisted smile grew beneath his soot-stained helm.

Blood bubbled up from the Dark Knight’s split lips, pale blood running across bruised, black skin. “T-then why-”

The blade sunk deeper inside the knight’s body, the tainted tip piercing his heart. ”Because mine is the hand that shall cast down this broken order. Not yours.” Okor drew his blade back, dropping Nebula’s warrior in a slowly growing pool of his own translucent vitae. He laughed as he turned, Darkling beasts crying out in pain and terror as their realm collapsed around them, the only exit from this place barricaded with broken boulders.

”I am the architect of Armageddon! I am the herald of The End!”

A stone fell not five feet from him, shards digging deep into his fire-kissed flesh and broken bones. Peals of raucous cackling echoed off the crumbling walls as he spread his arms wide, accepting his fate.

”Come for me, Nebula! Send me back, and let us start this cycle anew!”

Doom fell from overhead: the keystone of the arch, the ceiling of the coliseum crumbling, cascading downwards towards the damned warrior.

He met it with a maddened grin.

[Samus Aran]

The castle was crumbling. There was no time to politely trot down to the front entrance.

“We get to the side of the castle!” Samus bellowed. “Then we jump! We might break a leg or two but it’s better than being buried alive by rubble.”

Hiro didn’t offer any complaints, though the suggestion didn’t bring a smile to his face, either. It was true that being on the lower floors and being crushed by the many ceilings and pillars of the castle above seemed like a very bad idea.

So they ran. Dodging and darting between patches of intact flooring, even as it groaned and died beneath them. A horrible thought occurred to the bounty hunter – that it was sinking. Being trapped underground in an imploding dark verse would be horrible. There was no guarantee that it would even let them revive as normal. The rules didn’t apply here, Doctor Regal’s assistant had made that extremely clear.

“We’re there!” Samus suddenly cried out. “It looks like this is the castle’s outer perimeter!”

They couldn’t see to the outside, but down the long, once-ornate corridor in which they stood, there was indeed a wall, which curved. That meant it went round the castle in a circle.

“Break through it and we’re out,” observed Hiro.

They wasted no time, Samus’s heart seeming to leap into her mouth as every nightmarish step threatened to take that escape route from them. Just one more step. Then another. Then another.

Of course, it was never that easy.

They reached the wall and immediately Samus slammed a cannon-encased fist into it. Hiro likewise slammed his shoulder into it. Despite the hunter’s augmented strength, it wouldn’t budge. “Why?! The whole castle’s crumbling, so what’s with this wall?!”

The sound came from a voice to the hunter’s left. A familiar voice. “Infuriating, isn’t it? Having victory snatched away at the last moment.”

They turned. Hiro’s eyes widened. “Son of a bitch …”

It was the alchemist. The alchemist they’d killed, all the way back in the real world. It seemed months away now. The time they’d spent in this verse had been harrowing, challenging all of their stamina. They had gone from five members to two – and the two remaining members of their party had been changed for the experience. Covered in gore, both their own and that of others. It went some way towards representing how gruelling the day had been.

The alchemist, though …. he looked worse. He’d looked like an older fellow when they’d first encountered him, now he looked … somehow ancient. His mouth was stained like a child who’d been eating blueberries ... though that particular scenario seemed unlikely. Where before his eyes had been alight with danger and intelligence, now they were sunken sockets that seemed to drag in what little dim light the purple fires of the castle gave off.

“You underestimate Nebula,” he spat. “You underestimate dark power. No mere sword could kill me.”

Hiro spun his tanto. “I disagree.”

With that one word, he leapt past Samus. The hunter would have acted in support, but in the same motion, the alchemist drew from his coat and lobbed a sphere of pulsating … acid? It was all Samus could do to dodge it.

Hiro, meanwhile, simply redirected his angle of attack, zig-zagging out and then back in. His sword met the alchemist’s wrist – but instead of a clean cut, it appeared to catch halfway, leaving the ruined man’s hand half-off and the hacker’s tanto stuck inbetween globby blood and sinew. The alchemist turned, almost as if in slow-motion, and opened his mouth. It was like something out of a horror movie. Hiro let go of the weapon, jumped backwards – but even as he did, the alchemist’s head extended on a protruding neck, teeth bared.

The charged blast from Samus’s arm cannon cut him off, putting ‘U’ dent into the alchemist’s neck. The hunter moved in, still in her Predator state, grabbing the neck even as she vaulted over it. The alchemist’s face quickly turned from hunger to dismay as his body was slammed into the wall of the castle like a ragdoll.

“End this curse!” barked the hunter. “Let us free, or you’ll die too!”

The alchemist seemed not to care. He simply giggled, and then his head extended further, coiling around to attack his own attacker.

Hiro ripped his tanto out of the alchemist’s hand and slammed it into the alchemist’s face. “Listen to the lady. We’re in kind of a hurry.”

Figured I’d give Hiro something to work with. If not, Blink can decide what happens here. It’s been a lot of fun! Thank you, all of you for writing with me. It’s been an epic, year-long journey through this hellish verse, and we are ready to end!

[Nebula]

A mix of violet and ebony smoke billowed out of what remained of Nebula Castle. The large towers of the structure had caved in on themselves and were burning brightly with an oddly-colored flame. Around the devastated castle, the rest of the darkness-inspired Camelot verse was crumbling in a similar, bright fashion. Farms were suddenly being covered in flames as whatever was holding this land together was losing its grip swiftly. Even the sky itself seemed to light up with flashes of electric bolts, seemingly unable to hold its own weather pattern. The Camelot Nebula Verse was disappearing.

Inside the ruins of the corrupted fortress, Samus Aran and Hiro Protagonist found themselves with no exit. Their last remaining companion, Okor Paleblood, remained behind to see his battle through to the end. Though they didn't see the true ending of his fight with the Black Knight, they were fairly certain what happened. The Black Knight was vanquished, having given up his control over the verse just before the end. Okor very likely embraced his own destructive underneath the center of Nebaula's Camelot Verse.

Hiro was holding a man against the outer wall of the castle. He appeared to be a further corrupted version of the alchemist they had met at the very beginning of this long journey. Samus had her arm cannon extended just behind Hiro's left shoulder, aimed at the man threateningly. "Let us free, puppet."

The corridor began to quake again as it caved in about a dozen yards away. The top of the castle was collapsing towards their position. Soon, it would be covered in rubble. "Nebula is not with you yet," the man promised, smiling through a strange, purple stain around his face.

Hiro punched the old man in the face. "We'll decide when we're done," he said directly.

The elderly figure just laughed. He closed his eyes briefly. When they opened, they glowed a bright violet. His smile faded immediately and his voice spoke with a much different tone. It was loud, as if amplified. It sounded almost like someone was speaking through him. "You didn't have a single choice of your own since you arrived in the Omniverse. That does not change today. You survive today only because I allow it."

Before Samus or Hiro could argue with the fact, the man suddenly began to almost literally ooze away. His body turned into a dark purplish liquid which melted against the wall and dripped down around Hiro's gripping hand. The cyber-warrior quickly backed up with Samus. Behind them, they could hear the sound of some kind of magic energy whirling. When they spun, a familiar-looking portal greeted them. They looked at each other and then felt the shaking of the castle once again. The roof above them collapsed. They raced for the portal as the passage-way became enveloped in its own dark destruction. They could only hear the farewell of the alchemist. Or at least, whoever was speaking in his voice.

"See you soon, liberators."

Congratulations to Samus Aran and Hiro Protagonist for surviving to the end of Dark Data: Camelot! Another big congrats to Okor for massive contributions up until the end, and for everybody who participated or read this thread! Thank you for sticking with us, even when it got rough. Hope to see you in the finale!

Okor has died. You can either start your 'death' timer retroactively from when you posted (since I know you were waiting for this post), or you can start it now. Up to you.

Samus and Hiro both survive and appear in Camelot, where they find the darkspawn threat has almost completely disappeared. They will be greeted as liberators. Up to you if you wish to roleplay it out or continue on your own threads.