He landed hard on a snowy surface. Frozen wind battered his face as he gazed upon the vast mountain range in front of him. “Impossible.” He muttered to himself.
“Think again.” The Black Knight whispered in his ear.
“How did I get here? This is…the Dividing Line.”
“That stone you picked up was a teleportation stone. Seem to only activate when in comes in contact with you. Someone lured you out here, Vincent. We’ve walked right into a trap.”
As Vincent got to his feet, a whip of pure energy wrapped around his arm. It sent a bolt of electricity through his. He screamed out in pain, but it wasn’t enough to drop him. He looked over and saw a woman dressed in a black cloak hold a staff. A witch. He reached up and was about to grab his sword when another whip wrapped around his arm, then two more around his legs, and finally one around his neck. Each sending volts of electricity through him. Yet still, he would not fall.
He grabbed the two whips around his arms, both scorching his hands. He began to pull them in towards him. Either they let go or get close enough to where he will make them let go. They began to panic. They couldn’t let go because that meant him being able to transform. Sending volt of electricity through him was the only way to keep him unfocused so he couldn’t.
They were close. Only a few feet. When Vincent himself was forced to let go. Everything but his head became frozen.
“That’s enough.” Mama Murphy stepped out of the shadow. “Can’t very well have you killing them now.”
“You…” Vincent muttered.
She blew some strange dust in his face. His eyes became heavy as he could no longer keep his eyes open. “Sleep well. We have much to do.”
Vincent awoke, completely unaware of how long he had been asleep, he was being dragged by a floating magic hand. His hands were bound, his sword was taken, and he was unable to call the armor. As he was being dragged, he noticed the men and woman around him marching in two lines. They all wore black robes, had their faces hidden, but he knew that each one of them was a witch. His unseen and oldest enemy have made itself known to him. And who should be leading them? Why Mama Murphy herself.
“Is this necessary, Kristy?” A familiar voice asked.
Vincent looked over to his right and saw Piña. Did she say, Kristy? As in Vincent’s old childhood friend. But the woman she was speaking to was Clara. Yet, why is her face familiar? His head began to spin again. It was like that time when he was trying to remember how his sword got into that dead willow tree. Kristy…she’s Kristy. He tried to yell, but no sound came out. They must be keeping him mute using magic.
“Trust me, my love, we are…” Kristy was stopped dead as she caught Vincent’s gaze. He had the eyes of a man with nothing left to lose. The eyes of a man who had been betrayed. The eyes of a man who is going to kill everyone here.
“Are you okay? You look pale.”
“What? Yes, I’m fine. We’re almost there, Piña.”
Vincent was hurried to his feet. His arm began to pain him greatly as he was taken in front of a stone door. The marking that was carved into the door began to light up red as did Vincent’s hand. As if being pulled by some unseen forced, Vincent was being dragged closer and closer to the door. The bandages on his arm burned off. It was listening to him. It had a mind of its own. He couldn’t break away. No matter how much he struggled. Before he knew it his arm was on the door. Specifically in the handed shaped keyhole on the door.
Red and black lightning began to strike the ground around him. His hand was almost magnetized to the door and it was starting to burn. He lets out a scream until finally, a crimson bolt struck him and everything went silent.
The snow and dust settled. Vincent was on the floor. Alive, thankfully, but unconscious. Piña instinctively ran over to check on him. That was when the door began to open. It opened up to a dark passageway with an eerie like at the end.
“Finally.” Mama Murphy said. “Yennefer’s staff shall be ours. What are you all waiting for? Go get it?”
A group ran towards the door. The became ash once they passed the thresh hold. “Fuck! Are you kidding me?”
“That’s wrong?” Kristy asked.
“A blood barrier. Samantha erected a blood barrier! Fuck! Only someone from her bloodline can pass through.”
From behind came fireballs. Killing off a great number of the witches with Mama Murphy and Kristy. “Then I suppose that means the staff shall be out of the council's hand for now.”
Mama Murphy may be blind but she knew that voice. “Kordana.” She said under her breath.
Kordana stood with a large group of mages. “How has life been, master?”
“Why are you here?”
“To stop you and the council. “Now stand down. You will be taken before the Lodge and be sentenced.”
“I haven’t lost. Not yet. I…”
A shining blue light began radiating behind her head. “It’s over, Mama Murphy.”
She clenched her jaw. “You…you traitor. I should have known. You never had the stomach for this. You didn’t even have what it take to kill your little girlfriend. Me on the other hand…” She snapped her fingers. The ground beneath Piña feet began to the glow as the snow melted away. They were runes. Runes that explode and they were armed. “…I have no problem killing her.”
“You wouldn’t dare. You’ll catch Vincent in that explosion. You wouldn’t risk his life.”
“It seems you’ve been neglecting your studies again, no doubt because you’ve been playing double agent. That armor Vincent can summon can will automatically appear when his life is in critical danger. Piña doesn’t have that luxury. So tell, will you take the risk?”
Is she bluffing? Would Kristy be willing to take that risk? No. No, she wouldn’t. She lowered her hand.
“What are you doing?!” Kordana barked.
Mama Murphy laughed. “Love. The mother of all Achilles heels.” She proceeded to stamp her staff onto the floor. Multiple portals opened and from them emerged an army of mages. “You fall to recognize this, Kristy. While you're playing checkers I was playing chess.”
A battle erupted between the Council of Six and the Lodge of Sorceress. Fire, ice, and lightning all be hurled. Bodies turned to ash, shattered into ice shards, or exploded into blood. Kristy erected a barrier protecting herself, Piña, and Vincent. “Stay behind me!”
Piña didn’t hear her. She was in a trance. Her eyes were fixated on the light coming from inside the cave. She got to her feet and unknowingly stepped on one of the exploding runes. When she stepped off it explodes. Vincent was sent over the side into the freezing water and she was thrown through the threshold of the door. Only she wasn’t turned to ash.
As Kristy turned around she was in awe. Then the doors closed. “Piña!” she yelled.
Piña continued to walk in. Her eyes still locked onto that light. The light was coming from an anti-chamber. Torches on the wall ignited as she entered. At the center was a stone tomb with a woman’s face carved into it. The tomb opened and the white light became brighter. A staff emerged. The wood was white and black with a smooth surface. The crystal at the top was radiating the light she was seeing.
“Welcome.” A mysterious voice said.
Piña finally snapped out of the trance. “What? Where am I? Who’s there?”
“Don’t be afraid. My name is Samantha. Welcome, granddaughter. It is time for you to embrace your destiny.”
“My destiny? What destiny?”
“Take the staff and everything will be made clear to you.”
The staff floated towards her. She was hesitant. She slowly reached up and grabbed the staff tightly. She was engulfed inside the blinding light. Her clothes burned from her body leaving her in nothing but her long white undershirt. As the light died down and her hair became unbraided she noticed that it was now white.
Meanwhile, outside, the battle still raged. Dead bodies were everywhere. They were so fixated on killing one another that the
y didn’t notice the storm clouds forming overhead. The only one to nice was Mama Murphy. “Oh no.” She muttered. Then…BOOM!
The fighting stopped in that moment as Vincent Valentine, now in his Black Knight armor emerged from the freezing sea out for blood. They tried to bind him up in the electric whip again, but it was useless. He pulled them in and crushed their heads together turning their brains to paste. He found his sword on the ground and let out a roar that caused an avalanche on several mountains to occur.
It was at that moment that the tomb doors opened. Piña emerged, now changed, wielding Yennefer staff. She slammed the staff on the ground causing a massive shock wave sending everyone flying, Vincent included.
“What power…” Kordana said. “Fall back! Everyone fall…”
Something was gripping her throat. In fact, many them were having their throats crushed. Piña used one finger and raised them in the air. Then…she snapped her fingers. The ones that were raised into the air were torn limb from limb. Their screams of pain echoed throughout the valley.
Mama Murphy used this time to slip away.
Blood was everywhere. The two not dead was Vincent and Kristy. His armor now dissolved off his body. Vincent rose to his feet. “Piña?” he asked.
She looked at him. “Hello, Vincent. Been some time.”
“What happened to you?”
“Nothing. I’ve just…awaken. I must go now. I’ll leave her to you.”
Across the way was Kristy who was trying to get away. She was clenching at her side as left behind a trail of blood. Piña appeared in front of her. “Where are you going?” she asked. Piña held out one finger and began crushing her throat. “I should kill you for what you did to me. You raped me, lied to me, killed my brother. But I’m not the only one you’ve wronged here.”
She dropped Piña. Vincent Valentine was hovering over her. As he glanced back up Piña had vanished.
He grabbed Kristy by the collar of her robe and dragged her to the cliffs edge. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you now?!” he yelled.
The last thing Vincent expected was to see tears. “I can’t…” she muttered. “Do it. I deserve it. I’ve wronged so many people. I hurt you. I hurt Piña. I lied to so many people because I thought it was the right thing to do.”
“Tell me something. Were we ever friends?”
“You already know the answer to that.”
Indeed he did. Perhaps that’s why Vincent put her back down on the ground, but he would not let her get away with this. As she breathed a sigh of relief, Vincent rammed his sword into her chest. “Unlike you, Kristy. I don’t hide from my enemies. When they die I want them to look me in the eye so they know why I killed them and why they had to die.”
With those last word, Kristy fell over the edge with a broken heart, a broken spirit, a broken woman. She was alone. She knew that now. Such a shame it took the end of her life to see that.
Did he do the right thing? He wondered. Perhaps. Or perhaps not. Only time would tell.
Vincent began hearing muffled voices. He thought he was going mad but it turned out the voices were coming from inside the satchel. From two mirrors actually. He could make out a word they were saying but he knew that witches were on the other end of this.
“SILENCE!” he yelled. Both mirrors fell silent. “My name is Vincent Valentine, but you all knew that already. I want you all to know that you made a very dangerous enemy here today. Kristy the woman who brainwashed me is dead. That’s right I know. You all played with my lives and now I’m going to end yours. So run, hide, but I promise you all this, there is nowhere you can hide, nowhere in this word that you can run to that I can’t find. I’m coming for you. War is coming for you!”
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The Return of Constantine (The Blackest Knight Series, Book 2) Page 12
