by Lucas Flint
Beams was taken aback by Scorius’ statement. He had not thought that the Elder would ever say something like that to him, yet Scorius seemed to mean every word he said. Clearly, Beams had earned Scorius’ trust a lot faster than he thought.
“I agree with my father,” Pesa spoke up suddenly. “Losing you would be … well, it would not be good for the world.”
Pesa blushed when she said that, while Beams just felt kind of awkward. It sure seemed to him like Pesa had a crush on him, but he didn’t quite know what to say in response to that. It wasn’t like he wanted to die, after all. He just wanted to get the God Slayer and this was the only way to do it.
“I understand, but like I said, I want to do this,” said Beams. “As I was just telling my friends, this is much more personal than just defeating the Dread God. It feels like I’ve come home, to where I am truly supposed to belong. It’s about connecting with my roots and with those who came before me.”
Scorius nodded. “I understand. Many challengers who came before you have told me that in the past. Alas, each one has died. I can’t say if you will die or not, but I thought I would mention that.”
“I know,” said Beams. “Anyway, I’m ready to go inside. Is there anything else I need to know or do before I go?”
“Yes,” said Scorius. He glanced at Pesa. “Pesa, the necklace.”
Pesa stepped in front of Beams, still blushing quite a bit. She pulled out a necklace lined with golden fangs and carefully rested it around Beams’ neck. Then she stepped back, holding her hands together as if she was afraid something bad was about to happen.
Feeling the necklace around his neck, Beams said, “What’s this?”
“The necklace of Arius,” said Scorius. “By wearing it, you will be protected from the Guardians of the Gauntlet.”
“The who?”
“The Guardians of the Gauntlet,” Scorius repeated. “Their true nature is unknown, but it is known that they protect the Gauntlet and only allow sons of Arius wearing his necklace to enter the cave unmolested. If anyone else were to enter the Gauntlet, they would be immediately killed and their bodies dumped into the city graveyard not long after that.”
“Is that why he has to go alone?” said Mr. Space, glancing over his shoulder uneasily at the gaping cave mouth. “Because these Guardians would kill us if we went in with him?”
“Correct,” said Scorius. “As I said, we have never seen the Guardians, so we do not know whether they are human or … something more. But we do know that they respect Arius and those who wear his necklace. They even return the necklace to us whenever a challenger fails. It is how we are able to give it to new challengers, despite the fact that we are not allowed to enter the cave ourselves.”
Beams rubbed the necklace, feeling the smooth texture of the fangs. He normally wasn’t one for jewelry—that was his mom’s domain—but this necklace somehow felt right on his neck, even natural. It felt as though it belonged on his neck like he was born to wear it. It also looked really cool and Beams wondered if he would be allowed to keep it after he completed the Gauntlet.
If I complete it, Beams thought as he fingered the necklace. I hope I do.
“Is that all I need?” said Beams, looking at Scorius again.
“Indeed,” said Scorius. He pointed at the cave mouth with his staff. “Now you may go beyond the cave mouth. Enter the shadow. Once you do, you will not be allowed to leave until you complete all three challenges.”
“Right,” said Beams. He turned toward Mr. Space and Shade. “This is goodbye for now. If I don’t come out of this alive, then you guys should head to the Endless Forest and help Bolt and the others find the Starborn. Don’t worry about me. Just do it.”
“All right,” said Mr. Space. “But until we know you’re dead, we’ll wait out here for you. Right, Shade?”
“Of course,” said Shade. “Not like we have anything better to do at the moment. Besides, we know you can do it, Beams because if you don’t, I’ll murder you in your sleep.”
“But I’ll already be dead if I fail,” said Beams.
Shade chuckled and patted Beams on the shoulder. “It was just a joke. If you fail, though, we are all going to die. So, no pressure.”
Beams just nodded once. He turned toward the cave mouth and walked up to it, stopping right at the threshold between the cave mouth and the rest of the world.
Behind him, the frozen ruins of a once mighty city. Before him, a pitch black cave mouth, one he would not emerge from unless he completed challenges which no man before him ever had. He was going in totally blind, with nothing but a necklace for protection.
For a moment, Beams almost choked. He almost turned around and walked away, but then he remembered what Rubberman would say if he chickened out at this moment.
Then Beams took one step forward and vanished into the darkness.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Standing on the other side of the moat, Bolt stood with his arms in front of his chest, waiting for Aster to join him, Captain Galaxy, and Hypno. The three of them had left the Castle already and crossed the lowered drawbridge. Aster was supposed to be with them, but he had told them to wait while he talked with the Spirit. What he wanted to talk with her about, he did not say, but Bolt guessed it had something to do with the relationship between the Spirit of the Woods and the IEA.
Maybe he’s trying to negotiate better terms with her or something, Bolt thought, watching Aster speak to the Spirit underneath the Castle’s main gate. Makes sense. Probably would be helpful for the IEA if they were on the Spirit’s good side.
Underneath the Castle’s main gate, Aster and the Spirit spoke. They were too far away for Bolt to hear clearly, but he did see Aster’s arm movements, while the Spirit stood still as she listened and occasionally chimed in with words of her own. Little Kyra sat on the Spirit’s back, playing with a vine, which she used like a rope to tie all kinds of weird and creative knots. Bolt wondered if he had been as creative as her when he was six-years-old. He couldn’t remember much from his childhood, aside from the time he drew with crayon on the walls and Dad yelled at him and made him wash the walls himself.
I bet Kyra gets into a lot more trouble than drawing on the walls, though, Bolt thought. A lot more.
Finally, Aster said one last thing to the Spirit and then ran across the drawbridge. He covered the distance quickly, coming to a stop before the others, panting slightly. He looked tired from the run, but he was also grinning as if he had just gotten the present he wanted the most for his birthday.
“Sir, what were you talking about with the Spirit?” said Captain Galaxy curiously.
“It’s not important,” said Aster, waving off Captain Galaxy’s question. “Just giving her a few things to think about, which might work out well for the Agency in the future. Or they might not. Either way, I feel like it was time well spent.”
Captain Galaxy looked like she was about to ask Aster to elaborate when, without warning, the drawbridge began to rise. The creaking and clanking of the drawbridge’s metal chains echoed off the moat as it rose up higher and higher. Bolt got one last glimpse of Kyra waving goodbye at them happily before the drawbridge closed against the gate with a resounding boom.
“All right,” said Aster. “The Spirit told me that she and Kyra are going to stay in the Castle until we defeat the Dread God. They’re very safe in there, so it’s unlikely that the Dread God will get them even if he attacks with his entire army.”
“I hope you’re right,” said Hypno. “Kyra reminds me of my own daughter, who is about her age. I’d hate to find out what the Dread God would do to her if he ever got his hands on her.”
“Like I said, she’s going to be safe with the Spirit,” said Aster. “For now, our job should be to go to the Starborn. Captain Galaxy, do you have the coordinates the Spirit gave us?”
“Yeah,” said Captain Galaxy. She raised her right arm, showing her touchscreen display that depicted a complicated series of numbers. “It’s unusual,
though, because my portal generator had a hard time locating it at first. Seems to be a pocket dimension, of all places they could have gone.”
“Well, if the Starborn don’t want to be found, then it makes sense that that universe would be hard to find,” said Aster. “But good job finding it anyway. Open a portal and let’s go through. We’ve wasted enough time here as is.”
Captain Galaxy nodded and turned away. She held out her hand and tapped the touchscreen a couple of times.
An instant later, a dimensional portal the size of a door opened in front of them. Bolt could not see what lay on the other side aside from what looked like endless darkness, but he looked at the others and said, “I’m going in first. We don’t know what lies on the other side, so I should go first just to make sure it’s safe.”
“Makes sense,” said Aster. “We’ll follow as soon as you tell us it’s safe.”
Bolt nodded. He rolled his shoulders and, bracing himself for whatever was on the other side, stepped through the portal. As usual, stepping through a portal felt just like stepping through a doorway. One moment, he was in the bright, sunny Endless Forest with a cool breeze blowing through. The next, he found himself standing in an area heavy with darkness and shadow. It was almost like stepping into a cave, except the light of the portal behind him showed that he was actually standing on top of what seemed to be a hill. A strange-looking tree, with bark that looked like wood and leaves that were purple with sharpened edges, stood next to him, but he couldn’t see much more than that. Bolt thought it was nighttime at first, but then he realized he saw no stars in the sky and there were no clouds, either.
“Bolt?” came Aster’s voice from the other side of the portal. “Are you okay? What’s the place look like?”
“Dark,” said Bolt, glancing to the left and to the right. “I’m standing on a hill, I think, and there’s a weird tree here, but other than that, this place seems entirely deserted.”
“So it’s safe to cross over?” said Captain Galaxy.
Bolt looked over his shoulder and nodded. “Yeah, sure. But be careful. It’s really dark here and we have no idea what is out here.”
“Okay,” said Aster. “I’ll go through first and—”
Without warning, the portal started flickering in and out of existence. Before Bolt’s startled eyes, the portal closed with a pop, plunging him into complete and total darkness.
Instinctively, Bolt channeled red electricity through his right fist, which illuminated the area around him somewhat, but nowhere near as well as the portal had. He turned around to look for the portal, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“Galaxy?” Bolt said, raising his voice. “Hypno? Aster? Are you guys there? Hello?”
But, of course, he received no answer. The portal had indeed closed, and he had a feeling that Captain Galaxy had not been the one to close it. Someone had shut it off, but who? And how was he going to get back to the others?
Maybe I can ask the Starborn to take me home, Bolt thought, trying not to panic. Surely they would be willing to do that much for me, right?
Bolt’s thoughts were interrupted by what sounded like a billowing cape somewhere behind him, followed by the very clear sound of a sword being unsheathed. Bolt whirled around just in time to see a long, sharp sword coming at his face.
Without thinking, Bolt ducked, avoiding the sword easily, and then fired a blast of red lightning into the darkness directly ahead of him. But whoever had just tried to take his head off must have moved already, because his lightning bolt just vanished into the shadows somewhere ahead of him, quickly being eaten up by the thick darkness around him.
But Bolt heard movement behind him and jumped forward just as a sword stabbed into the ground where he had been standing. Landing on the ground, Bolt launched two more lightning bolts into the shadows behind him, but again, they both missed and simply disappeared like the last one.
Who is trying to kill me? Bolt thought. A Starborn? One of their Servants? Or someone else entirely?
Bolt had no time to speculate on that, however, because he heard the sound of a cape billowing somewhere behind him. He whirled around just in time to see the sword coming at him, but he ducked again and then reached out and grabbed the wrist of the swordsman. His grip locked around a metal gauntlet of some kind and he heard a grunt of surprise come from the swordsman.
“Got you,” said Bolt with a grin. “I don’t have very good night vision, but—”
Bolt didn’t get to finish his sentence because an armored fist came out of the darkness and slammed into his face. The blow made Bolt let go of the wrist and stagger backward, seeing lights flashing in his eyes as his brain scrambled to recover from the blow. He stopped and rubbed his face, feeling his tender nose, which hadn’t broken under the punch but nearly did.
So this guy has a sword and is also strong enough to hurt me? Bolt thought. This is going to be fun. Oh, and he can also move around in the darkness without being seen, but somehow can see me just fine.
That was the real problem here. As long as this darkness held, Bolt was severely handicapped, while his mysterious attacker was at a clear advantage. He had some training in fighting in dark conditions—it was one of the settings you could set in the House’s Training Room back on Hero Island—but he’d never been good at it.
Then maybe it’s time to light things up, Bolt thought, cracking a grin.
He knelt on the ground, putting one hand on the harsh, dry earth under his feet and the other on his knee. He closed his eyes and drew upon all of the electricity crackling within him. He could feel it building to a breaking point, growing bigger and stronger with each passing second, but he didn’t unleash it just yet. He was waiting for the right moment to let loose because he had a feeling that if he didn’t time it right, his opponent would somehow dodge it.
Let’s see him dodge an electrical explosion, Bolt thought without opening his eyes.
Then he heard it. The whistling of a sword as it came at him from behind. Bolt’s eyes snapped open and he yelled as loudly as he could.
A huge explosion of red electricity expanded from his body like a bomb. He heard his assailant cry out in surprise and fall to the ground behind him, and in the brief light created by the massive explosion, he saw what looked like the ruins of a crumbling temple in the distance silhouetted against a dead gray sky and surrounded by dead trees.
But the light vanished as quickly as it came and then the darkness returned, like water filling a void. A sudden weariness overcame Bolt, and it wasn’t just because he had used up nearly all of his electricity, either. There was something about this darkness which was very draining as if the shadows themselves were sucking out his energy.
I’ll figure that out later, Bolt thought, rising to his feet. Gotta see if my attacker survived. Kind of doubt it, but you never know when you’re dealing with extradimensional creatures.
Bolt held up his hand. Summoning what little electricity he had left, Bolt turned his hand into a mini-lamp. The light from his hand immediately showed a bundle of cape and armor lying on its side behind him, with a long, dark sword lying not too far from it. A deep groaning sound was coming from the bundle, a groaning which sounded disturbingly human to Bolt. He wondered if he had accidentally hurt another human being.
But what is a human being doing here in this … place, wherever it is? Bolt thought. Oh, well. He was trying to kill me, so it wasn’t like I was unjustified in taking him down. Let’s find out who he is.
Bolt walked over to the armored man lying on the ground and turned him over to get a better look at his face. He gasped because he recognized the man lying on the ground at his feet, clutching his chest and groaning in pain.
It was the Midnight Menace, the leader of the Independent Neoheroes for Justice, the second largest superhero organization in America.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The shadow of the cave felt almost like tar to Beams. He struggled to walk through it, feeling the darkness clinging to his
skin like mud. That was how he knew this darkness definitely wasn’t normal darkness. He believed that the only reason he could walk through it at all was the necklace around his neck, which glow slightly in the darkness.
Maybe the necklace somehow protects my body from the darkness, Beams thought. Makes me wonder how anyone else who isn’t a challenger could enter. Without this necklace, I am pretty sure that the darkness would be literally impenetrable.
It could have been worse. When Beams saw those stalagmites and stalactites in the cave mouth, a part of him had worried that the whole cave would be full of them and he would have to grope around in the darkness to make sure he didn’t walk into any of them. But after getting past the cave mouth, the rest of the cave had been a smooth walk so far, aside from the heaviness of the darkness around him.
That’s nice, Beams thought. It’s a lot cleaner than my room, or at least that’s what Mom would probably tell me. I wonder how my parents are doing. I hope they’re okay.
Beams knew they would be. Rubberman would most definitely protect them while he was away. While Rubberman was just his boss, he had also become more or less a friend of the whole family since Beams had started working for him. He knew that Rubberman would protect his parents and his brother, James, even if the Dread God himself attacked them.
That reminded Beams of something Arius said, about how Rubberman had a role to play in the Dread God’s defeat. Arius had not explained what he meant by that, but Beams figured it had something to do with the fact that the Rubber Ball had given Rubberman his powers. He still didn’t quite know what a resurrected Dread God meant for Rubberman and he felt a twinge of regret for not going back to Golden City, even though he was back in his universe now.
I’m sure Rubberman will understand, Beams thought as he picked his way through the shadow. If I told him about the God Slayer and why it is so important that I get it, he probably won’t be that offended. Even so, I probably should go back and see him after I complete the Gauntlet. Maybe he’ll have a better idea of what Arius meant about him playing an important role in the defeat of the Dread God.
