The Sol Terminal

Note: This story is designed as a prequel to Thunder, so if you haven't read that, prepare for spoilers!

Introduction
True evil existed in Cradle long ago. It was during the Spiral Era, from when the Skylark crashed into Cradle to when a squad of Vanguards unlocked the Core. Before the knights, there was never true evil. No monster willingly slaughtered others. Fighting others was always in self defence, or natural. Beasts only attacked those in their territory. Constructs had no control over their actions. Gremlins had none to fight before the knights. Slimes had no minds to grasp the concept of evil. Fiends were never interrupted before the invasion, and had little to fight. The Undead only killed because it was in their nature. Even the corrupted Swarm was born of chaos, and made up of chaos and no evil. In the Spiral Era, there once was a knight, like many others. He was a normal knight, excelling in sword combat and loyal to the Spiral Order. He was always willing to carry out orders given to him, until the accident. The accident itself only scarred him mildly, but it was what happened after which truly changed him. He became evil.

Part 1: Health and Safety
It was morning in Haven. A knight in a Magic Cloak rubbed his eyes as he woke up. It was a new day, full of possibilities. He opened up his comlink and checked the Mission tab. To his delight, the group down at the Core needed some more supplies, so a knight would have to go and deliver a Supply Crate. He instantly signed himself in for the mission, unaware what one simple mission would do to his sanity.

He slid his hands into the straps of the crate like he would normally carry a crystal, and staggered towards the elevator. The crate was heavier than he thought. As he walked to the elevator, it occurred to him that he could do more good if he just put another crate on the elevator. He went back to the pile of crates and carried similar looking crate to the elevator. As he placed the crate on, he noticed a little warning tag. It said “Do not have more than 500kg on the elevator at one time”. His eyes widened as he checked an identical tag on the crates saying “300kg”. The elevator cables snapped as the carriage plummeted down the shaft. The depth meter on the console began spinning out of control before exploding. The knight desperately tried to cling to the sides of the shaft, even managing to grab a cable, but not fast enough. He knocked his head against the safety rails as the elevator hit the floor and he blacked out.

“Are you sure that we want one of... them?” asked a gremlin with a modified welding mask.“I'm positive. If we took one from Emberlight then they'd get suspicious” replied another standing next to him. The welder turned to the other and, “But... the serum has only been tested with gremlins before. We don't know if it might have any side effects on knights”. The other gremlin laughed, “What do we care about knights? We are gremlins. Knights are merely test subjects for us to experiment on.”. The welder sighed, “You know best”. The other gremlin carried the knight onto a stretcher, “Come on,” he grunted, “We have work to do”.

Part 2: Fort Scragmuth
Fort Scragmuth was originally used by gremlins to imprison traitors until extinction, but is now inhabited by two outcasts wanted for crimes against nature. The mere word “Scragmuth” is said to strike fear into all knights, and is seldom mentioned.

The knight in the Magic Cloak woke up, finding himself wired up to tubes. He appeared to be in some sort of hospital, but instead of the nice clean walls he'd expect to find in one, he found mould growing in the corners of the room. He tried to get out of bed, but he couldn't for some reason. Whatever was being pumped into him was clearly affecting his strength. Two gremlins walked into the room. One with a blue eye, and one with an orange eye. The blue eyed gremlin appeared to be in charge, as he walked in front

“So, you're awake” said Blue; as the knight in the Magic Cloak decided to call him. He called the other one, the hunched over gremlin, Orange. “We have a very important task for you.” continued Blue. The knight in the Magic Cloak sniffed in disinterest, “I have no business with evil creatures like yourselves”. Blue growled “Evil?! We're only doing it in self-defence. You creatures are the ones invading our planet and stealing our only power source!”. The Magic Knight replied, somewhat ignorantly, “Knights are superior to all beings. You don't deserve to live. If you think that I will participate in any task of yours, then you're wrong. I would never do anything to betray the Spiral Order willingly”. Blue chuckled, “Who said anything about doing it willingly?”. The Magic Knight's eyes widened. “You see,” Blue continued, enjoying the pained expression on the Magic Knight's face, “Myself and my assistant here have developed a serum which will make any living creature into a super soldier. You may have already seen some of its results with the Snarbolax. However, we have not experimented on knights that many times. Sometimes, we turn them into Trojans, as was the case with Arkus,”. Blue paused for a moment, seeing the reaction on the Magic Knight's face. “I remember him, he was quite a fighter. We found that he was very resilient to the serum,” continued Blue, “Fortunately, all knights break at some point. Some knights die, some knights turn into Trojans, but we are awfully short on subjects. Luckily for us, we have you. The super soldier serum conveniently gives us full control over your actions, and only requires a re-administration every 48 hours”. Blue smiled before concluding, “You are now a slave for us, made for destroying the Spiral Order”.

The Magic Knight closed his eyes as Orange injected him with the serum. The knight felt the liquid circulating through his body. He could feel it making him stronger, but also his mind weakening. He couldn't control his own body. He could only watch as his body was led out of the room into an elevator. Orange pressed a button and the elevator went up. The Magic Knight heard Orange grumble, “Stupid job. I never wanted to be a scientist. Why can't I go to Emberlight or somewhere and be a blacksmith or something?”. The Magic Knight wanted to feel pity for him, but couldn't find it in himself. After all, Orange was one of the gremlins developing the serum which now coursed through his veins, ridding him of all control over his own body. The elevator stopped on a forest level where a few Wolvers were roaming around. Orange sighed and recited orders given to him by Blue, “Your task is to attack the two knights we found on this level. This is to test your strength and to see your limits. I will be waiting here. Return when the task is done. You will be given this weapon”. Orange held out a Sealed Sword. The Magic Knight grabbed it and started towards the knights. The knights looked at him and waved, not seeing the murderous intent in his eyes. The knights wielded Tempered Caliburs, and expected no threat from the Magic Knight. Only when he raised his sword, did they see the truth. One of the knights shouted, “Kill the traitor!”. The Magic Knight wanted to stop, to apologise and go back to Haven, but he couldn't. As he sliced through the knights, he realised the extent of what had happened. The gremlins had made him a monster.

Part Three: The Sun Beneath

Two weeks later:

The Magic Knight groaned. It was time for another injection. His life for the past few weeks in Fort Scragmuth had been a never-ending cycle of injections and murder. The serum weakened all the time, but he was always given another dose to stop it from going. He could even begin to feel his head clearing now, but not enough to run away from this foul place. He couldn't even remember his name anymore. It must have been Inhuman-Potato or something. He couldn't remember it. He couldn't remember anything any more. Over the days he killed enemies with more powerful gear. Right now he had a Divine Veil and an Avenger. They made him feel awful. The Divine set was meant to be worn by saints, by protectors of good and justice. Pretty ironic now that he was a ravenous murderer only responding to the whims of Blue and Orange. He didn't even know their real names. He turned the corner into the administration room when he heard raised voices. He had enough willpower to hide behind the corner and eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Punch and Vise, you are under arrest for crimes against nature and for unusual experimentation” said one of the voices. Somebody groaned. The Magic Knight recognized the voice. It was from Orange, or Punch. Blue, or Vise snarled, “Seerus? What are you doing here?”. The original voice, Seerus replied, “Here to arrest you of course. What did you think?”. Vise growled, “You'll never catch us alive. Come on Punch, we're leaving!”. They dashed to the nearest elevator. The Magic Knight listened as they whispered, “Where do we go Vise?”. Vise thought for a few moments and replied worriedly, “We'll have to go to Haven. I think it's the only place we're safe”. Haven! That was where knights lived! Feeling the serum wearing off, he lunged towards the elevator, but it left before he could grab it. Exhaustedly, he collapsed as he heard Seerus order some gremlin demos, “Level this place. I don't want anybody to know that this place even existed”. They were going to blow this place up! The Magic Knight frantically dashed for the exit but tripped on a test tube rack.
Crap, he thought as the place blew up to smithereens.

He survived the explosion, but it was the fall that killed him. He fell towards the Core terminal, before smashing his skull on a barrier. This should have killed him and it did, yet it didn't. You see, reviving is done using energy and energy comes from the Core. The energy seeping out of the Core reacted with his suit reviving systems and restored him. The Magic Knight woke up, What was his name? He looked around for some indication but couldn't find any. He walked around for a bit and found a Fort Scragmuth sign, but with the Fort Sc-- part missing. He looked at the sign saying “Ragmuth”. It had a nice ring to it. He chose it as his name. Ragmuth walked to the Core terminal and looked down. He had always heard about the Core, but he had not expected it to be so bright. He collapsed in shock and sat there shivering looking at the Core.

In the months he spent there, he was driven insane. Nowadays, some say that it was the Core that drove him insane, some say that it was the serum. The most realistic explanation however, is that a combination of seeing the Core reacted with his already fragile mind from the serum. A few days later, Ragmuth tried to make his way to Haven. It was the only thing from his past that he remembered. He stopped on Depth 27. He felt something here, a calling if you will. A glowing knight in Valkyrie armour stopped him. “Ragmuth Heavensglare!”. Ragmuth stopped. Was that his name? The Valkyrie continued, “We angels have a very important task for you. We have heard that the knights are trying to find the Core. They must be stopped. Do you understand?”. Ragmuth nodded his head fervently at thin air. He would protect the Core at all costs until his death.