POV Rio
It had been over a week since I started investigating the strange situation at the Pentagon, and I found that I just had to go in person, as all clones dispel as soon as they get close. I really didn't want to go, but I didn't have much of a choice. I was even more hesitant to bring Cait, Quiet, and Dogmeat, but they convinced me. It was thanks to Dogmeat's extremely well-articulated and refined reasoning. (He begged and exposed his belly to me with puppy dog eyes.)
That brought me to where we are right now. We were camped in a building a bit out of the range of the effect. I also tested to see if it was a distance issue, but no, all clones still auto-dispel when getting any closer.
"Hmm, I still have no idea what is causing the anomaly," I say aloud.
"Maybe it's one of those freak spatial whatchamacallits," Cait comments.
"Distortions and no. This doesn't seem to be the case. I can see into the Pentagon, but what I see doesn't seem real," I reply.
"Trap?" Quiet asks.
"That's the real issue, I have no idea. If this is a trap, then it is very weird. It doesn't trigger with my clones, and any signals into the Pentagon vanish. This thing screams suspicious," I reply.
"Maybe that's the point. You came this far to check it out. So maybe it's meant to capture any curious cats," Cait replies.
"Sigh. You're probably right. Question is, do I ignore it or not?" I ask.
"Why hesitate. You go in, and you won't lose much, right?" Cait asks, referring to my respawn ability.
"Which is why I didn't want you guys to come," I reply.
"Eh, too late now. So let's stop pussy footin' around and get in there," Cait responds while walking towards the Pentagon.
I sigh and grumble, but I don't stop her. We walk into the Pentagon, and as soon as I enter the building, I freeze. The others stop as well and look at me.
"What's wrong?" Quiet asks.
"This place... It feels wrong. My instincts are screaming at me to leave," I reply.
"Wrong how?" Cait asks while looking around.
"Like this place isn't real. Or like we are in some sort of murky area where things are both real and not. I don't think we should stay here," I reply.
Cait looks around but eventually agrees. We walk back and open the doors, but I freeze as on the other side is a wall of fog. I touch the fog and find that the wall is both solid and not.
[Image Here]
"Looks like we can't leave," I state with a grim look.
We leave the wall of fog and continue deeper into the Pentagon. The more we explore, the stranger it becomes. The things in this fake Pentagon are real. I can store them in my inventory, but this entire building feels fake. We also had to fight many strange creatures. Zombies, Wraiths, Skeletons, and other undead. They were weird because they were wearing very out-of-place clothing.
[Image Here]
Clearing them out wasn't too hard, just annoying. We cleared out each wing of the Pentagon, which only left the basement.
"Of course it's in the basement. Why not?" I complain.
"Usually I would make a joke, but yeah, even I think this is cliché," Cait replies.
"You just made a joke," I say while staring blankly at her.
She responds by flipping me off.
The basement was weird. More than the rest of the building. Specifically because it looked nothing like the one seen in Fallout 3.
'In fact, it kind of looks like.'
I can't finish that thought as I hear the guttural yell of someone.
"Fetch me their souls!"
"What? D-Did you guys just hear that?" Cait asks.
"Yes, prepare for battle," I reply.
The sound of electricity is heard around the corner, followed by the barking of many dogs. When they come around the corner, we open fire, but there are hundreds of them.
[Image Here]
The hounds make it past the initial gunfire, but they don't cause much damage thanks to our armour. But once they were all dead, the area was a mess. As with all the previous bodies, they turned to ash upon death, but that still left a lot of ash. We kept going and found that there were no more enemies. But I knew there should be at least one more enemy. It took a few hours, but eventually we found what made the call that summoned the hellhounds.
"Huh, this one looks a bit different, doesn't he?" Cait comments.
"Kennedy?" Quiet comments.
"Huh? Wow, that's a good catch, he really does look like Former President John F Kennedy," I reply while targeting him in VATS.
It turned out he was JFK, just a Lich by the looks of it. But once he was dead, I noticed something bad.
"Uh oh," I say.
"What?" Cait asks.
"I don't think he was responsible for this," I reply.
They all looked shocked. However, before we can react, I feel the area start to shift again. The walls and floors cracked and then shattered with the sound of a breaking mirror. We started falling into an empty black void. I opened my wings but found that I couldn't fly. Or rather, I couldn't tell what direction I was going. Up and down became interchangeable, and there was no light to use as a basis for what was happening.
I feel a wave come over me, and I feel as if we have passed through something. Not long afterwards, I could feel like I was flying again. And I grabbed the others before coming in for a newly appearing floor.
"What the hell was that?" Cait asks.
"I don't know," I reply while peering into the dark room we find ourselves in.
I couldn't see the walls, and the only source of light was coming from farther in. I decided to approach the light source to try and see what it was, as my Hoshigan hadn't been working ever since we went inside the Pentagon. As we got closer, I started to make out a silhouette.
"Hello? Is anyone there?" I ask cautiously.
The silhouette moves and faces me. I freeze for a moment as I recognise it from the trials I faced on Equus. My eyes go wide, and I go to warn the others, but it is too late.
"Fall," it commands.
A wave of weakness overcomes us, and we all fall to the floor. The others are out cold, but I barely manage to stay awake. As I struggle, I hear the Lich approaching.
"Hehehehehe. You are alone, Child. You have led your friends to their demise," the Lich says.
I try to get up but fail over and over again.
"There is only darkness for you, and only death for your people. You have interfered with my plans before, but they were only a means to an end. Earth is just the beginning. I will sail to a billion worlds. I will travel across the cosmos until every light has been extinguished. Until that silence returns," the Lich responds.
I force my body into a kneeling position so I can stare at him.
"Your resistance is pointless. You can try all you can to stop me. You can run. You flee upon a starship to other galaxies. You travel through time. Nothing will stop," the Lich says as he gets closer.
My eyes go wide in surprise.
"Yes, I am aware of your ability to travel through time. Every time you use the ability, it sends a small ripple through time. I admit I was unable to find its origin. Until now," the Lich says.
"I won't give up," I say after mustering the energy to speak.
"You are strong, Child, but I am beyond strength. There is nothing you can do to stop me. I am the end, and I have come for you, Rio," the Lich says while reaching towards me with was skeletal hand wreathed in green flame.
As the flame touches me, my eyes glow white, and a wall of light engulfs me, forcing the Lich back.
"NO!" I say in a deep and ethereal voice.
"Hahahaha, you cannot stop what is to come," says the Lich.
"Perhaps not. But I will never rest until this world is safe from your evil," I reply.
"Hahaha, you will fail. You cannot destroy me. Even my past defeats were merely delay. I. Am. Inevitable!" the Lich responds.
"There will always be darkness in the world. But there will also always be those who find the light. I know that even if I fail, there will always be those to stand up after me," I reply.
The Lich shoots a blast of corrupted fire at me, and I block it with my shield. I wasn't even sure what I was doing. I didn't know what power I was using, but I didn't care. Right now, I need to destroy this monster.
I retaliate against the fire by shooting a beam of pure light at the Lich. The fire is slowly being over taken. But even as the beam hits the Lich, he doesn't seem to be surprised or worried. But before I could figure out what he planned, his body started to disintegrate. When it was I got to see why everyone told me he couldn't be destroyed. His soul... It was powerful enough to be seen with the naked eye. And that meant it was fully manifested.
'Oh no.'
I knew why he let me destroy his body.
"Hahahaha. We shall meet again, Rio," The Lich says as his soul leaves the disapates, and I can feel he is gone.
I fall to the ground as whatever power I was using wears off. It was at this time that Cait and the others woke up.
"Ugh. What happened?" Cait asked.
"We won the battle, but the war is far from over," I reply.
Cait responds, but I get distracted by the shiny object I see poking out of the Lich's ashes. It was a green gem. I decided to activate my Hoshigan, and as soon as I did that, I heard a massive crack. I didn't hesitate and activated Chrono Collapse. It seemed I was just in time as the gem shattered, and the immense energy contained was released. I grabbed Cait, Quiet, and Dogmeat and started running as fast as I could.
I had less than 15 seconds to escape the Pentagon. Thankfully, I was able to find a hatch that led to the outside. But by the time that was the case, I had less than 2 seconds left. So I activated my Infinite Rage Form and threw everyone as far as I could. Then I activated the Barrier and braced for impact as time resumed.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM
SHATTER
The barrier lasted less than a second, and I was instantly replaced by a wooden log. But even that didn't help, as I was soon shattered, and that gave me enough time to activate my Temporal Seal ability to get farther away. That still wasn't enough, so I used the Bewithcing Bell to turn into my Lich-like state. I didn't take damage from the spell, but it still launched me several miles away.
When I finally stopped crashing through things, I look back, and I see a green mushroom cloud with what looks like screaming faces. The explosion was truly massive. On the bright side, I was launched in the same direction as the others, so it wouldn't be too hard to find them. I did throw them with the effective strength of 50, so I was fairly confident they were flung far enough to avoid the blast. The fall damage would absolutely knock them out, but it was better than taking that bomb to the face.
I sat back down and just took a breather. I was exhausted, and I was now clear on one thing.
'I can't kill the Lich.'
I could destroy his physical form, but since his soul was so strong, his physical form was closer to a puppet than his actual body. And any damage wouldn't affect him. At best, I could keep destroying his physical forms, but even that was unlikely to do anything beyond delay the inevitable. And that is assuming it would do anything at all. For all I know, the Lich doesn't need a puppet to kill things. And finding his puppet over and over again will take time. Time that they could use to cause more death and destruction.
'Sigh. This is a mess.'
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Author's Note:
So yeah, Rio is not capable of harming the Lich permanently. And the Lich was very thorough in getting rid of anything that could actually harm him. As for the first half of the chapter, you can think of it as a space-time distortion. In fact, Rio was very, very lucky he managed to escape and not die. As if he died in there, there were no retries. He would be D-E-D Dead. This was technically the Lich's plan to try and remove Rio, but it just barely managed to fail. Though the Lich didn't do that because he knew Rio could respawn, instead, it was to prevent Rio from travelling through time. As for why the Lich was able to sense the Save Loading, it was because the Lich is very ancient and has been on Earth for a long time. Knowledge of time and ways to counter travel through it would be needed to prevent any mishaps in his grand plan. And it should also be noted that when Rio loads a save, it only sends out a very faint ripple. Something that only people close to Rio and very sensitive to changes in Time would be able to feel. Until next time, Ciao.