by K R Leikvoll
“Your doubts of our abilities are becoming quite the nuisance,” Vince said in my mind. “Get up. The longer we draw the fight out, the more likely we are to lose.”
Get up? I looked down at the wound I was bleeding from. No way. I wasn’t walking away from that one. Definitely not against the monster bigger than fucking Godzilla. Despite that, I couldn’t control my left hand that gripped the dirt and started to drag me to my feet. I fell to my knees once, which was more debilitating than standing itself. I was swaying horribly, but gripping the nearby rock wall helped me gain my balance. I coughed and hacked blood into the white sand until the sound of a loud crack pulled my attention back to the fight.
The domed structure below the hill I was on came toppling down in a shower of crystal shards. Nakarius’ spaded tail pursued Kirin’s flying form through the building and into the sky in an attempt to impale him. Almost before I could react, the splinters of crystal were launched my direction.
My response to the assault happened in an instant. Rather than attempting to dodge by jumping out of the way or trying to use a barrier, Vince’s will dominated my body and mind. My arms and legs moved slightly. I turned the smallest amount to the side. The shards flew like crystal javelins impaling the rock wall all around me. The meager movement was enough to narrowly avoid every single one without using physical energy. It still was enough to pin me and make it hard to shimmy out of their hold.
The Void Lord wasn’t sparing in any of his powerful movements. Kirin hardly had time to attack as he weaved around his vicious spiked arms, tail and wings. Each passing of a limb caused tsunami-sized waves to swallow more of the island. The wind whipped so ferociously with the force that the air had turned thick with sand.
The tail swung at me while the rest of Nakarius’ focus was on Kirin striking every open spot he could, spike or not. Thankfully, Kirin was paying attention and cut across his tail enough to divert its target. Even from the distance I could see the black shadowy blade slashing the demon moments after. Every time he was almost impaled, my heart stopped beating completely. He intended to win or die, and the doubt was strong on the former. My mind pled over and over for something, anything to happen. A miracle.
In a tangled mess of wildly swinging body parts, Kirin flew upward from the sea toward his face. Weaving between the spikes, he brought the blade down on Nakarius’ flesh, dragging it with him as he flew toward his massive horned head. A hint of dark crimson and black glowed from the line, all the way to Nakarius’ center red eye. It was a well-placed attack, but too shallow to cause any real damage.
Despite the copious amounts of adrenaline being pumped through my system, I was starting to fade out of reality. The fight seemed like a different plane I wasn’t a part of. White on the edges of my vision was overpowering me. I wanted to lie down for a little while. My body was feeling almost too dense to blink.
Nakarius’ mouth opened revealing teeth that made Levia’s look like an infant’s. A black source of energy was forming from its abyss. Vince and Kirin both knew in an instant that we needed to move. I was practically useless, hardly capable of moving, but somehow it happened. I wasn’t sure whether it was my will to survive or Vince’s. The tug of sacrifice was miniscule, but enough to exhaust me as Vince aided with sending us up the last part of Ashena’s mountain.
If we had hesitated even for a moment, we would’ve died right there. A blast of shadowy fire erupted from his throat engulfing the final lowlands. Kirin managed to spin out of the way of the attack, but he didn’t have enough of an opening to dodge Nakarius’ fist that punched him like a bug out of the air. He was sent sailing into the craggy upper wall of the mountain leaving a crater upon impact. Another mass of fire charged in Nakarius’ maw before being released on our final bit of land.
Kirin dropped from the wall in front of me and held Famine out against the darkness. Channeling whatever power he could, he blocked the flames with a purple barrier not unlike Raven’s. The burst continued so long that the residual heat felt like it was cooking me alive in my armor. The assault stopped as Nakarius swiped at us with his claws; I only got out of the way in time because Kirin covered me, getting swept out toward the sea.
I had to spend a moment throwing up blood before I could bring myself to look up. Vince forced me to brace my back against the wall to climb back to my feet. My left hand clutched my wound while I began to lose my senses. My ears were ringing. My sight was so foggy I could barely make out Kirin flying back toward the black titan for another attack. All I could taste was metal.
“I refuse… to die… to that reprobate imbecile,” Vince’s voice struggled to say.
Despite my yells of pain and determination, I couldn’t fight the fog. Nothing was going right. What had we done wrong?
Kirin and Nakarius were having their own Mexican standoff which I couldn’t comprehend. Neither seemed to be moving or speaking. They were simply staring at one another at a distance waiting for the other to make a move. Kirin adjusted his grasp on his scythe until he was holding it upside down. No… I could tell what he was going to try before either of them moved. Nakarius could, too.
Without hesitation, Kirin rushed forward, flying through the air almost faster than I could track. The spectral shadow of Famine had grown in size to compete with the Void Lord’s. In a fluid motion, Kirin swung the scythe upward into the cracked line on Nakarius’ chest. The blow imbedded the steel into Nakarius entirely. The massive shadowy blade followed up a second later, actually knocking the titan off balance. Nakarius let out a supersonic scream in response as the crimson light seeped out of him at a greater rate. It still wasn’t enough to stop him.
The Void Lord’s massive hand clamped around Kirin, ripping him from both Famine and himself. I could see Kirin being crushed as soon as Nakarius pulled his spiked hand away. His long middle finger was impaling him straight through his body while the others hooked around his legs and shoulders. “Poor move,” Nakarius said, staring down at Kirin's dying and tortured form. The giant third eye on the Void Lord's horned head glowed abysmally dark.
Despite his wounds, Kirin turned to look at me. He wanted me to be his final, living memory.
A fiery crimson aura engulfed his hand, consuming Kirin right in front of my eyes. One moment he was whole, the next he was ash. When Nakarius opened his fist, only an obsidian crescent shard of Famine remained.
No… No. This can’t be happening. This wasn’t happening.
Purple shadows swirled around the titan’s form as he absorbed the last shard of the Dark Essentia.
Nakarius roared with a laugh that made the mountain crack. The final pieces of land were crumbling into the ocean all around me. More sets of horns grew from Nakarius’ head. His wings bubbled and spasmed before splitting to form four wings, each different: one of bone, one spectral, one draconic and one black and feathered. He was getting taller, scraping the cosmos.
What was I supposed to do? Death was a pleasant dream looming over me.
“Vince,” I whispered because it was the only thing I knew. My hand clutched the silver necklace around my neck.
“Yes?”
“We’re going to die now, aren’t we?”
“Perhaps…”
I closed my eyes for a moment. I wasn’t afraid anymore.
“There might be a way…”
I looked up in time to see Nakarius’ grasp coming to pluck me from the mountain. His sharp hands gripped me so tight I thought my insides might spill out from my wound. I may have been screaming, or I may have been silent. All I could see was the Void in his eyes.
“You were always my greatest disappointment, Vincent,” Nakarius said speaking directly to him within me. “Writhe in your last breath knowing it was all for naught.”
Instead of disintegrating me like Kirin, his grasp moved to his massive, shark-like mouth. A deep laugh finally caused my eardrums to burst. He let me go, dropping me into the abyss.
“Listen to me, Valentine. You must channel forward
any ability you can when I say.”
I couldn’t respond. My hands clawed desperately at the hellfire-like texture of Nakarius’ throat as I was yanked further into the depths. Everything was so dark, as if the light never existed at all. The flames I felt against my skin were indistinguishable from sacrifice and true fire. We fell in the void of his being as if it would never end. Something was wrapping its way around my ankles to prevent me from fighting the pull.
“Now,” Vince’s voice said calmly and clearly.
If this was all truly real… if it had any meaning, help me. Don’t let everyone die for nothing. If not for me, for them. For Kirin, for Eve, for Alex, for Arturio, for James. I was the Nephilim.
The ring responded. A white beam of light shot from my right palm like a laser of divinity.
The blast seared through Nakarius' internal flesh while my surroundings rocked viciously. I could feel him scraping at his insides with his claws. The holy fire continued until it connected with a black orb embedded in his body. An electrical charge of shadowy energy jolted back at me in response. I anticipated some sort of counterattack, but the closer I drifted, the more I realized I was being sucked into its gravity.
“Take it. Do it now.”
There was no fear in my being as I reached out to touch it.
The Dark Essentia’s frigid grasp overwhelmed me as it was absorbed through my palm without warning. It was an insurmountable sensation to feel Pestilence, Famine, War and Death adjusting to their new owner.
My left hand tightly gripped the hilt of Death as shadowy feathers enveloped me. With one motion supplied by an invisible force, I cut myself through Nakarius’ body. The onyx blade tore open the wound caused by Famine from the inside, giving me enough room to propel myself free.
Black, feathered wings carried me to eye level with the Void Lord.
“Poor move,” I said to his widening sockets.
His titan-sized form shuddered once. The line I had cut and the line made by Famine formed a cross on his chest. It glowed brightly near the core and seeped off in white smoke. The third eye on his horned head faded to a dim gray. Starting at his limbs, Nakarius began to dissolve to ash.
The shadows coating the world dispersed, channeling into my being without sensation. The orange glow of Asinea warmed my face.
“Let’s go home.”
Epilogue
Dreams are strange…
It’s like a thick layer of mist drags you so far beneath the depths you can’t remember if you’ve ever lived in true reality. Sometimes it’s so deep, so dark, all that exists is the dream. What was real life in the first place? Have I ever laughed? Have I ever cried? Is there anything that exists outside of the mist?
I really wish the answer was no.
Trust me, I do.
Everything made sense in that place. I was Valentine, just Valentine. The only other being that existed was a shadow. It wasn’t so scary if I ignored it.
In fact…
If I kept walking further and further into the fog, it was sort of like I was alone. Being alone was better than the alternative.
The thing about reality is that it’s gritty and grungy. It’s sharp and rough around the edges. Full of pain, blood, tears, and lies. Everything seemed so chaotic and complicated. In the fog, it was nothing. Soothing in comparison to a reality that’s absolute hell.
But the worst part about falling in love with a dream is waking up.
It's unavoidable.
One moment you find yourself in some sort of respite from the suffering.
The next you are human once again.
Leikvoll is an 18th century, horror-loving vampire queen from the west coast. Though her explorations have taken her across the globe, she currently resides in the Pacific Northwest. When she is not tending to the dark whims of her adoring husband during the day, or performing rituals under the moon at night, she is writing tales to haunt your dreams. Sign up for her email list to be the first to get news on releases, sales and events by clicking HERE.
