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Cloud McCloud and the Curse of Godhood
Part 5 - The Ender and the Black Plate

Cloud didn't know exactly where he was going, but he was on his way somewhere.  All he knew that he was headed toward something significant, and that was good enough for him.  A few hundred feet from the ground a short distance from where Cloud sensed a powerful enchantment, he jumped off his Dragonskull Carriage and landed lightly on the roof of a shack not unlike the one he lived in before he became a god.  Pandora's Box rested in bag where the Golem Rubies were before Cloud put them away.  A bald man in his sixties came out of the hut.  He wore a white robe, or as Cloud would call it, a dress.
Darn hippies, he thought.
"Good day to you," he said. "I am Air. Have you come seeking enlightenment?"
"What would you know about enlightenment?" Cloud replied.
"You are grumpy beyond your years," Air observed.  "If you don't want a teacher, why have you come?"
"I'm looking for something," Cloud said.  "I don't know what it is, but it's not wisdom."
"You seem to be an adventurer.  I've seen a few others in the same business, though none like you.  You must be after the Ender."
Now that sounded like an artifact worth obtaining.
Air continued, "It is a sword that once belonged to the ancient warrior who became the world's first king.  The sword was enchanted with runes to boost its power with flames from Hell."
Cloud had studied ancient empires, and he knew about the legendary King Og and the mythical Ender.  In his mortal life, he dreamed of some day wielding that sword.  For the first time as a god, Cloud felt excited about a mission.
"I hate to tell you this," Air said, "but the Ender is not real.  You wasted your time coming here.  You shouldn't be throwing your life away on things like this.  Life is too short, even for a young man like you."
Cloud couldn't help but laugh, even though the irony was in his misery.  Irony is irony, after all.
"Maybe you'll understand in twenty years," he said, pointing his head in the direction of the sword.  "But I can only hope that you never do.  Nobody deserves this."
Air didn't know what he meant, but he had a feeling that there was much more to Cloud than met the eye.  There was no way for Air to know that Cloud was many years his senior.  It still annoyed Cloud to be spoken to like he was a kid, and monks irritated him as well.  He wanted to find the Ender so he could rub it in his sanctimonious face.
A quick flight away from the hut revealed a forest so dense that almost nobody had ever entered it.  The trees were too strong for an axe to chop them down, so they just stood there keeping whatever secrets the forest held.  That changed when Cloud told Gold and Silver to tear through it.  They found a huge clearing a few tree layers in.  In the middle of it was a hill, and on top of that was a sword stuck in the ground.  It was very much like something out of King Arthur, but with a twist.  As soon as Cloud approached it, the hill suddenly shook and stood up.  It was actually a very large ogre.
"What are you doing here?" it bellowed.
Cloud had never heard an ogre speak, so he was confused.
"You can talk?" he asked.
"You can understand me?" the ogre replied.  "It doesn't matter. Get out of my forest!"
"Give me that sword and I'll be on my way."
The ogre swung a huge hand at Cloud much faster than a 15 foot tall mound of muscle should be able to.  Cloud jumped out of the way just fast enough to avoid becoming part of the crater the blow created.  Before he could launch a counterattack, another fist came down from the sky.  All he could do was dodge again, and barely even that.  Cloud wished he had a weapon.  Then he realized that he wasn't completely without arms.
The trouble that the ogre was having hitting him was multiplied tenfold when his nimble foe disappeared completely from view.  He tried punching even more furiously, but all he hit was the ground.  Then he felt pressure on his back.  Somehow, Cloud had gotten behind him despite the barrage.  The sword began to come out, but the ogre reached back and pulled Cloud off, throwing him into a tree.
"This sword is not for you," the ogre said.  "Only Og could handle its power, and as he enjoys his eternal rest, so does his blade."
"You're eloquent for an ogre," observed Cloud.  "I have as much respect for the great king Og as anybody, but this sword is needed for a campaign that even he would approve of."
"Not that it makes a difference, but what campaign would that be?"
"I seek to destroy Om."
"The god of evil himself!  Og had the same mission before it killed him.  I vowed never to allow anyone to use this sword unless he is at least as strong as Og.  The only way to prove that is to defeat me.  Your entrance into this forest was impressive, but you have not shown me much since then."
"I'm just getting warmed up."
Cloud ran around behind the ogre and tried jumping on its back again, but it heard him and punched him into another tree.  Cloud began to get angry.  Invisibility wasn't helping, so he turned it off.  He jumped up to punch the ogre in the face.  When a huge fist came at him, he teleported to the side and hit his mark with a hard right.  The ogre flew into a tree and knocked it down.  Cloud teleported near where the ogre landed and picked it up.  He threw it into trees on the other side of the clearing.  The ogre landed on its side with the sword facing away from the fallen trees, so Cloud teleported there and pulled it out.  The ender was a broadsword with a blade nearly as long as Cloud's leg, yet it was nearly weightless.  Despite its lightness, it swung with the power of the heaviest claymore.  The blade was barely visible through the flames surrounding it.  The flames were blue, hotter than anything else in existence, and almost as bright as they are hot.
Nearby leaves shriveled in the heat generated by the sword.  The ogre got up and shielded its eyes.  It appeared dizzy.
"You did it," he said.  "I had no idea you were so strong.  Why were you holding back so much at first?"
"I have a better question," Cloud replied.  "How can you talk?"
"I've never communicated like this with anybody," he said.  "Though I've never really been in contact with anyone since Og summoned me.  I know I wasn't created to talk."
Cloud thought about how a magically summoned ogre might pick up the ability to speak, and then it hit him.  The diamond he left in the carriage gave him power over magical creatures.  Its full effect was contained, but part of it was imprinted on him permanently.  I shouldn't have spent so much time with it in my bag, he thought. At least I didn't absorb it all.
Cloud motioned to Gold and Silver that it was time to go, so they ran by as Cloud jumped on to the carriage.  They trampled a second entrance to the clearing before taking off into the sky.  They flew to the University of Greattown.  Cloud didn't feel any obligation to the school as a student, but the resources there were very valuable, and he didn't want to talk to any more monks to find out what he was looking for.  He didn't even want to go back to show Air that he found the 'nonexistent' sword.  He waved it around like a child with a new toy.  Finally a weapon worthy of him.  As he enjoyed his new acquisition, Cloud was struck with the headache to end all headaches.  Along with the pain came a vision.
On the ground in the middle of a cemetery sat a black chest plate.  It had a picture of a dragon on the front that covered a quarter of it.  The cemetery seemed eerily quiet, and there was a heavy stillness in the air.  Something big was getting ready to happen.  That something was Cloud.
Cloud awoke suddenly, his head feeling much better.  He was still on top of his dragonskull carriage, which was still in the air circling the university.  Never did Cloud know such diligent creatures as Gold and Silver.
"Thanks, guys," he said to them. "I'm okay now. Let's land."
They obeyed, landing on the roof of the library.  Cloud jumped off the carriage and touched down in front of the open stone doors.  The students studying in the garden out front looked up from their scrolls and smiled.  They ran into the library after their new colleague in hopes of getting a word with him.  Cloud turned a corner and became invisible so he wouldn't have to waste time telling the kids to get lost.  As the kids split up to look for him, Cloud headed quietly for the main room where the book he was looking at before was kept.  He became visible and had Frektor find it again for him.
Cloud found the page he was looking for eventually.  It described the Black Plate, a chest plate that allowed its wearer to shape shift into anything living.  It seemed fairly useful, though not particularly powerful.  But since it was in his dream, he decided to go after it.    Once again, Cloud left the book on the table and teleported up to the carriage.  "Go," he said, pointing in the direction of the cemetery.  The horses went, and so did the carriage.  They flew many miles to the place in Cloud's dream.
Rather than stop at the entrance and walk through like he did in the dream, Cloud had Gold and Silver fly over the cemetery and land right where the plate was. He jumped down, landing with his feet on either side of it.  He looked around for the usual guardian, but there was nothing... at first.  After a minute or two, the Kiss of Death began to glow and burn intensely.  Cloud was used to constant pain via arthritis during his mortal old age, but he did wonder why it was happening.
"Cloud," whispered a creepy voice from all directions.
Cloud closed his eyes and tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.  He sensed the presence of the undead to his left.  It was powerful and ancient.  It had to be a vampire.
"It has been a long time," the vampire said, emerging from the shadows. He was tall and bald with red, glowing eyes and pointed ears.  His black robe nearly made everything below his neck invisible in the inexplicable darkness.
"Count Mantooth," Cloud said. "So this is where you fled."
"Where is your army?" Mantooth inquired.
"I'm here alone.  Is that music to your ears?"
"It would be, but something is wrong.  Shouldn't you be wrinkled and feeble?"
"I was," Cloud replied.  "But now I'm not.  If you think this is your chance to finally kill me, you may be in for a surprise."
"I tried to find you for decades," Count Mantooth said, "but the spell your wizards cast worked too well.  Your blood became as invisible to me as my own reflection.  You were a fool to come here.  Why did you come anyway?  You can't have known I was here."
Cloud picked up the plate and said, "I'm here for this.  I have bigger fish to fry than you, but I have plenty of time to send you where we sent so many others of your kind, and this time you won't get away."
"I only flee from armies loaded with crosses and stakes, and only when I am among the only ones left.  Now the fight is much more fair.  Your blood will give me great strength.  Then you will live forever as my slave."
Cloud unsheathed the Ender and shed some much needed light on the dismal scene.  He then leaped at the vampire with the ancient relic aimed at his heart.  With as much speed as he had, Mantooth shouldn't have been able to get out of the way in time, but he was and he did.  He sidestepped the charge with ease and scratched ad Cloud's face with his razor sharp claws.  Cloud regenerated too quickly for any blood to escape.
"What?!" Mantooth exclaimed with rage.
Cloud took the momentary lapse in his opponent's concentration to teleport behind him and drive the Ender through his neck.  It didn't kill the vampire, but it did hurt a lot.  It left him unable to speak or scream.  Count Mantooth summoned speed that would impress even the god of speed, and he tried to launch a fearsome attack, but Cloud moved just as fast to even the playing field.  Every few thunderous punches the count flew out of the onto the ground.  His body became covered with burning cuts, and before long even his vampiric strength wasn't enough to get him off the ground.
"How?" he asked, staring up at the young immortal.  "You weren't this strong before."
"You don't have enough time to hear the story, vampire," Cloud replied.  "It's time for me to finish what we started those many years ago in the war.  Without their commander, the others will no longer be able to pass on the curse."
"I am only one of many with the ability to spread this blessing. Kill me and they will know. They will--"
Cloud was tired of talking, so he put the ender through the vampire's heart.  Mantooth became a dust sculpture of himself.  Cloud put on the Black Plate and tried transforming into some things.  He briefly became a wolf, a komodo dragon, an eagle, a regular dragon, and then a worm. It was fun, but he didn't want to enjoy it too much.  He had a family to get to after all, and this power was not for his enjoyment.  That was what Om wanted.
Cloud returned to the university to recant his tale to the principal.  He ended up teaching a class on ancient artifacts and another on the Vampiric War.  In a way, the war was still going on.  Many vampires and vampire lords were slain, but not all of them.
Once all that was done and Cloud avoided talking to any of the students, he left on the Dragonskull Carriage.  Kids ran outside to watch him fly off into the sunset.

Description
Cloud McCloud and the Curse of Godhood
Part 5 - The Ender and the Black Plate

Cloud didn't know exactly where he was going, but he was on his way somewhere.  All he knew that he was headed toward something significant, and that was good enough for him.  A few hundred feet from the ground a short distance from where Cloud sensed a powerful enchantment, he jumped off his Dragonskull Carriage and landed lightly on the roof of a shack not unlike the one he lived in before he became a god.  Pandora's Box rested in bag where the Golem Rubies were before Cloud put them away.  A bald man in his sixties came out of the hut.  He wore a white robe, or as Cloud would call it, a dress.
Darn hippies, he thought.
"Good day to you," he said. "I am Air. Have you come seeking enlightenment?"
"What would you know about enlightenment?" Cloud replied.
"You are grumpy beyond your years," Air observed.  "If you don't want a teacher, why have you come?"
"I'm looking for something," Cloud said.  "I don't know what it is, but it's not wisdom."
"You seem to be an adventurer.  I've seen a few others in the same business, though none like you.  You must be after the Ender."
Now that sounded like an artifact worth obtaining.
Air continued, "It is a sword that once belonged to the ancient warrior who became the world's first king.  The sword was enchanted with runes to boost its power with flames from Hell."
Cloud had studied ancient empires, and he knew about the legendary King Og and the mythical Ender.  In his mortal life, he dreamed of some day wielding that sword.  For the first time as a god, Cloud felt excited about a mission.
"I hate to tell you this," Air said, "but the Ender is not real.  You wasted your time coming here.  You shouldn't be throwing your life away on things like this.  Life is too short, even for a young man like you."
Cloud couldn't help but laugh, even though the irony was in his misery.  Irony is irony, after all.
"Maybe you'll understand in twenty years," he said, pointing his head in the direction of the sword.  "But I can only hope that you never do.  Nobody deserves this."
Air didn't know what he meant, but he had a feeling that there was much more to Cloud than met the eye.  There was no way for Air to know that Cloud was many years his senior.  It still annoyed Cloud to be spoken to like he was a kid, and monks irritated him as well.  He wanted to find the Ender so he could rub it in his sanctimonious face.
A quick flight away from the hut revealed a forest so dense that almost nobody had ever entered it.  The trees were too strong for an axe to chop them down, so they just stood there keeping whatever secrets the forest held.  That changed when Cloud told Gold and Silver to tear through it.  They found a huge clearing a few tree layers in.  In the middle of it was a hill, and on top of that was a sword stuck in the ground.  It was very much like something out of King Arthur, but with a twist.  As soon as Cloud approached it, the hill suddenly shook and stood up.  It was actually a very large ogre.
"What are you doing here?" it bellowed.
Cloud had never heard an ogre speak, so he was confused.
"You can talk?" he asked.
"You can understand me?" the ogre replied.  "It doesn't matter. Get out of my forest!"
"Give me that sword and I'll be on my way."
The ogre swung a huge hand at Cloud much faster than a 15 foot tall mound of muscle should be able to.  Cloud jumped out of the way just fast enough to avoid becoming part of the crater the blow created.  Before he could launch a counterattack, another fist came down from the sky.  All he could do was dodge again, and barely even that.  Cloud wished he had a weapon.  Then he realized that he wasn't completely without arms.
The trouble that the ogre was having hitting him was multiplied tenfold when his nimble foe disappeared completely from view.  He tried punching even more furiously, but all he hit was the ground.  Then he felt pressure on his back.  Somehow, Cloud had gotten behind him despite the barrage.  The sword began to come out, but the ogre reached back and pulled Cloud off, throwing him into a tree.
"This sword is not for you," the ogre said.  "Only Og could handle its power, and as he enjoys his eternal rest, so does his blade."
"You're eloquent for an ogre," observed Cloud.  "I have as much respect for the great king Og as anybody, but this sword is needed for a campaign that even he would approve of."
"Not that it makes a difference, but what campaign would that be?"
"I seek to destroy Om."
"The god of evil himself!  Og had the same mission before it killed him.  I vowed never to allow anyone to use this sword unless he is at least as strong as Og.  The only way to prove that is to defeat me.  Your entrance into this forest was impressive, but you have not shown me much since then."
"I'm just getting warmed up."
Cloud ran around behind the ogre and tried jumping on its back again, but it heard him and punched him into another tree.  Cloud began to get angry.  Invisibility wasn't helping, so he turned it off.  He jumped up to punch the ogre in the face.  When a huge fist came at him, he teleported to the side and hit his mark with a hard right.  The ogre flew into a tree and knocked it down.  Cloud teleported near where the ogre landed and picked it up.  He threw it into trees on the other side of the clearing.  The ogre landed on its side with the sword facing away from the fallen trees, so Cloud teleported there and pulled it out.  The ender was a broadsword with a blade nearly as long as Cloud's leg, yet it was nearly weightless.  Despite its lightness, it swung with the power of the heaviest claymore.  The blade was barely visible through the flames surrounding it.  The flames were blue, hotter than anything else in existence, and almost as bright as they are hot.
Nearby leaves shriveled in the heat generated by the sword.  The ogre got up and shielded its eyes.  It appeared dizzy.
"You did it," he said.  "I had no idea you were so strong.  Why were you holding back so much at first?"
"I have a better question," Cloud replied.  "How can you talk?"
"I've never communicated like this with anybody," he said.  "Though I've never really been in contact with anyone since Og summoned me.  I know I wasn't created to talk."
Cloud thought about how a magically summoned ogre might pick up the ability to speak, and then it hit him.  The diamond he left in the carriage gave him power over magical creatures.  Its full effect was contained, but part of it was imprinted on him permanently.  I shouldn't have spent so much time with it in my bag, he thought. At least I didn't absorb it all.
Cloud motioned to Gold and Silver that it was time to go, so they ran by as Cloud jumped on to the carriage.  They trampled a second entrance to the clearing before taking off into the sky.  They flew to the University of Greattown.  Cloud didn't feel any obligation to the school as a student, but the resources there were very valuable, and he didn't want to talk to any more monks to find out what he was looking for.  He didn't even want to go back to show Air that he found the 'nonexistent' sword.  He waved it around like a child with a new toy.  Finally a weapon worthy of him.  As he enjoyed his new acquisition, Cloud was struck with the headache to end all headaches.  Along with the pain came a vision.
On the ground in the middle of a cemetery sat a black chest plate.  It had a picture of a dragon on the front that covered a quarter of it.  The cemetery seemed eerily quiet, and there was a heavy stillness in the air.  Something big was getting ready to happen.  That something was Cloud.
Cloud awoke suddenly, his head feeling much better.  He was still on top of his dragonskull carriage, which was still in the air circling the university.  Never did Cloud know such diligent creatures as Gold and Silver.
"Thanks, guys," he said to them. "I'm okay now. Let's land."
They obeyed, landing on the roof of the library.  Cloud jumped off the carriage and touched down in front of the open stone doors.  The students studying in the garden out front looked up from their scrolls and smiled.  They ran into the library after their new colleague in hopes of getting a word with him.  Cloud turned a corner and became invisible so he wouldn't have to waste time telling the kids to get lost.  As the kids split up to look for him, Cloud headed quietly for the main room where the book he was looking at before was kept.  He became visible and had Frektor find it again for him.
Cloud found the page he was looking for eventually.  It described the Black Plate, a chest plate that allowed its wearer to shape shift into anything living.  It seemed fairly useful, though not particularly powerful.  But since it was in his dream, he decided to go after it.    Once again, Cloud left the book on the table and teleported up to the carriage.  "Go," he said, pointing in the direction of the cemetery.  The horses went, and so did the carriage.  They flew many miles to the place in Cloud's dream.
Rather than stop at the entrance and walk through like he did in the dream, Cloud had Gold and Silver fly over the cemetery and land right where the plate was. He jumped down, landing with his feet on either side of it.  He looked around for the usual guardian, but there was nothing... at first.  After a minute or two, the Kiss of Death began to glow and burn intensely.  Cloud was used to constant pain via arthritis during his mortal old age, but he did wonder why it was happening.
"Cloud," whispered a creepy voice from all directions.
Cloud closed his eyes and tried to pinpoint where the voice was coming from.  He sensed the presence of the undead to his left.  It was powerful and ancient.  It had to be a vampire.
"It has been a long time," the vampire said, emerging from the shadows. He was tall and bald with red, glowing eyes and pointed ears.  His black robe nearly made everything below his neck invisible in the inexplicable darkness.
"Count Mantooth," Cloud said. "So this is where you fled."
"Where is your army?" Mantooth inquired.
"I'm here alone.  Is that music to your ears?"
"It would be, but something is wrong.  Shouldn't you be wrinkled and feeble?"
"I was," Cloud replied.  "But now I'm not.  If you think this is your chance to finally kill me, you may be in for a surprise."
"I tried to find you for decades," Count Mantooth said, "but the spell your wizards cast worked too well.  Your blood became as invisible to me as my own reflection.  You were a fool to come here.  Why did you come anyway?  You can't have known I was here."
Cloud picked up the plate and said, "I'm here for this.  I have bigger fish to fry than you, but I have plenty of time to send you where we sent so many others of your kind, and this time you won't get away."
"I only flee from armies loaded with crosses and stakes, and only when I am among the only ones left.  Now the fight is much more fair.  Your blood will give me great strength.  Then you will live forever as my slave."
Cloud unsheathed the Ender and shed some much needed light on the dismal scene.  He then leaped at the vampire with the ancient relic aimed at his heart.  With as much speed as he had, Mantooth shouldn't have been able to get out of the way in time, but he was and he did.  He sidestepped the charge with ease and scratched ad Cloud's face with his razor sharp claws.  Cloud regenerated too quickly for any blood to escape.
"What?!" Mantooth exclaimed with rage.
Cloud took the momentary lapse in his opponent's concentration to teleport behind him and drive the Ender through his neck.  It didn't kill the vampire, but it did hurt a lot.  It left him unable to speak or scream.  Count Mantooth summoned speed that would impress even the god of speed, and he tried to launch a fearsome attack, but Cloud moved just as fast to even the playing field.  Every few thunderous punches the count flew out of the onto the ground.  His body became covered with burning cuts, and before long even his vampiric strength wasn't enough to get him off the ground.
"How?" he asked, staring up at the young immortal.  "You weren't this strong before."
"You don't have enough time to hear the story, vampire," Cloud replied.  "It's time for me to finish what we started those many years ago in the war.  Without their commander, the others will no longer be able to pass on the curse."
"I am only one of many with the ability to spread this blessing. Kill me and they will know. They will--"
Cloud was tired of talking, so he put the ender through the vampire's heart.  Mantooth became a dust sculpture of himself.  Cloud put on the Black Plate and tried transforming into some things.  He briefly became a wolf, a komodo dragon, an eagle, a regular dragon, and then a worm. It was fun, but he didn't want to enjoy it too much.  He had a family to get to after all, and this power was not for his enjoyment.  That was what Om wanted.
Cloud returned to the university to recant his tale to the principal.  He ended up teaching a class on ancient artifacts and another on the Vampiric War.  In a way, the war was still going on.  Many vampires and vampire lords were slain, but not all of them.
Once all that was done and Cloud avoided talking to any of the students, he left on the Dragonskull Carriage.  Kids ran outside to watch him fly off into the sunset.