A sharp pain struck my shoulder, and I was pushed a few feet away from him. I dropped to the floor, and turned to my shoulder, noticing a long arrow embedded in my skin. I broke off the shaft with my arm and pulled the arrow out.
Huh, I blinked. That didn’t hurt at all.
I looked ahead of me, behind the Time Lord. Irmeia stood there, dressed in scaly armor of dark green. She held a violet longbow in her arm, and the weapon was adorned with two crystal dragon heads on either end of the structure.
I surged to her, my thoughts a muddle, and before she could even flinch, my fist had slammed into her stomach. The Eternal went flying up into the air. I heard footsteps from my left and turned away from her, just in time to see the Time Lord surge toward me.
I held my sword up, and blocked his strike with the flat of my blade. A thunderous shock wave surged out from the impact point, ripping branches and leaves from the trees. I spun around and landed a kick at the man’s chest. He blocked my strike with his arms but still went sliding back over the ground.
“Quite some strength you have there, Eternal,” the Time Lord said.
“Shut up!” I surged at him once again, with the rage within me growing stronger by the second. I slashed at him with my sword and slammed him with my fists, using every part of my body to land a flurry of strikes at the man. He held his hands up in defense, blocking me with his forearms, but I kept pushing him back.
I heard the whistle of an arrow from behind and jerked around. My hand lashed out and caught a flying projectile by its stalk and snapped it in half. Irmeia stood there before me once again, her body covered in bruises, yet her eyes looking at me in hatred and disgust.
Usually I would have ached at the sight, but I felt no such thing. There was only room for one emotion in me right now.
A burning rage.
The Time Lord shot at me from behind. I simply turned around, using his momentum and adding my own as I moved aside and struck at him, sending him all the way to Irmeia. The man slid across the ground, and came to a stop before the Queen of Dragons. He stood himself up, and I heard a chuckle.
“You know, Diablo,” he said. “You were to be a battery for me. I needed your strength to use powers I hadn’t used in a very long time. However, to defeat you right now, I realize I will need the strength of another battery.”
“What?” I blinked, with rage still clouding my thinking. It took everything I had to prevent myself from wanting to smash this man’s face right in, even for just a second.
“Farewell, Irmeia,” the Time Lord chuckled.
Tentacles of darkness broke from the ground and wrapped around Irmeia’s limbs, holding her stagnant. She looked at us, bewildered. “What are you—”
A tentacle of golden light struck out of the ground, and pierced her right in the chest, emerging straight out the other side. The Eternal screamed, and the sound vibrated painfully in my ears. Irmeia’s body glowed a bright gold, and her limbs writhed violently as pain took her prisoner.
“Ahhh,” the Time Lord said, his body slowly setting itself aglow as well.
“He’s absorbing her strength,” Nyx said. “That’s what he meant. She’s the battery.”
“Do not worry, Diablo,” Horace said. “This process here is not what you were supposed to go through. The pain you will experience will make this seem like nothing.”
I looked at Irmeia, at her trembling body. I felt no compassion for this woman, but I was bothered that she was causing this Time Lord to become stronger now. He was already stronger than me as is.
I put my hand in the air. “UHER!” I yelled.
A phoenix of darkness surged out of the ground, its size much larger than any dragon I had seen. It cut through trees and broke through rock, flying through the air and smashing into Horace. The Time Lord however stood his ground, and simply put hands up, stopping the bird. He only slid back a few feet before the Phoenix dissipated into the air, no longer strong enough to pushed.
He just took that out like nothing, I grit my teeth.
“We need to use stronger spells,” Nyx said.
Send Freya a message, I said. We need a distraction. A loud explosion. In fifteen seconds.
“On it,” the spirit said.
“You are not strong enough, Diablo.” Horace walked up to me.
“She’s seen the message,” Nyx said.
Good, I thought.
I put my hand up. “Beltair. Qeteria. Uher!”
The sky darkened, and the ground shook. A fissure opened up, and a dark phoenix rose from within, threatening to take Horace down to the darkness.
However, this wasn’t my final move.
I closed my eyes and focused, channeling my energy into my arms. I felt the darkness around me, and my rage fueled my strength even more. I counted down in my mind, moving from ten to one before I even knew it.
I opened my eyes, with my mind concentrating hard. The Time Lord had broken through my chain attack, and was now standing a few yards in front of me with his hand held out. Before I could even blink, a blast of gold shot out of his palm, and struck me. I shifted my body weight, and maintained my concentration. I bore his attack, sliding back only a foot.
“Freya sent a message asking you to close your eyes,” Nyx said.
“Oreolis!” a voice yelled.
I shut my eyes, just as a bright flash of light shot out, half-blinding me. I opened them up a moment later, and gained my vision quick. The Time Lord shook his head, and I knew he’d fallen for the attack.
“Poor you.” I pointed my hand to the air, and rage amplified my voice. “INJELA REIKIAN!”
A massive blast of darkness surged down from the sky, and struck the Time Lord, crushing him into the ground. I watched as his health went down, and quickly at that.
“Solar Equatoria!” he yelled.
A golden light exploded from within the darkness, and a sphere of translucent gold expanded out, cancelling my attack in a mere second. I stood there, completely stunned.
That was one of my strongest moves. I looked at my trembling hands.
“I did not want to use my spells too much, Eternal,” the Time Lord said. “I did not want to hurt you more than I had to. However, you seem to be pushing that concept out of my mind.”
“I’m glad,” I muttered.
He snapped his fingers, and tentacles of darkness surged out of the ground, binding me still in seconds. I thrashed, trying to break out, but the outgrowths held me tight, their grip too strong.
“How unfortunate,” the Time Lord chuckled.
Before I could even open my mouth to reply, a golden tentacle struck out of the ground and pierced my chest. I screamed, as pain and rage swirling into my body, with heat and horror drowning me in their hateful waters. My vision began to die, with my mind unable to hold on.
And then, it happened.
All of the tentacles turned red, as if blood had suddenly coated them. They quickly withered away, and I dropped to the floor, my body shaking, my lungs gasping for breath.
“What?” The Time Lord collapsed, and his shoulders trembled. “What…is this?”
“The rage.” Acnologia’s voice shook. “The rage has taken a hold of him.”
I blinked, realizing that I no longer felt the rage I was supposed to. He absorbed all of my rage. I looked at him.
The Time Lord threw his head back, a red aura glowing around him. His existence had been polluted by pure rage. He yelled out uncontrollably, his voice dual toned and echoing into the sky.
What kind of rage is this? I shivered.
“I think he’s losing control,” Nyx said.
“What?” I asked, picking myself off the floor, Dawnbreaker in my hand, ready to slash into the Time Lord.
“AHHHH!” the Time Lord yelled. A massive pillar of golden light surged up from behind him, and in a flash a sky of golden portals emerged all around us, thousands of images held within them. I glanced through, realizing that these portals led to other places, and possibl
y other times.
“ZORAN!” Nyx yelled, and somehow the spirit guided my vision, up to a portal about a hundred yards above the Eternal. An image lay within it. One look, and I knew where this was.
Ikarius.
“The way home,” I whispered.
The Time Lord clawed the ground, trying desperately to handle his rage, and I needed to take full advantage of that. I shot away from him, and used the distraction to find Freya and the others. “We’re leaving,” I said, lifting Raffyr. Freya was in the same mindset as me the moment I saw her, and picked up Viola and Oris as she shot ahead of me.
“Up there!” I pointed to the portal, and Freya caught on. She placed her foot on the ground and jumped up, taking Viola and Oris with her as she surged into the air, heading into the portal.
One down, I thought, and shot forward. But before I left, I still had one thing left to do.
I charged up toward Irmeia, grasping her by her waist and using my momentum to pull her free from the tentacles. The portals around me immediately flickered.
Uh oh, I thought.
The portals slowly faded away, and flickered frequently. The Time Lord’s screaming calmed down, and his mind came under control of this rage we had infused.
Dammit. I surged into the air, and headed straight for the flickering portal.
“DIABLO!” A voice tore through the sky.
Dark tentacles shot from my right, and smacked me back toward the ground. A tentacle of gold shot up to us as I fell, aiming right for my chest.
“Tell Viola I said goodbye.” Raffyr whispered in my ear.
Before I could even respond, the old man slipped from my grip, and gave himself away. The golden tentacle pierced him instead of me. His body immediately lit up, and his screams filled the skies.
Pain exploded within my heart, but I did not let the emotion mess with my mind. The moment my feet hit the floor I surged back up into the air, heading right for the flickering portal, even before the Time Lord could react.
Darkness surrounded me the moment I pushed into the image. I blinked for a second. This isn’t Ikarius.
A spirit of white appeared before me, and my heart clenched at the sight.
“Raffyr,” I whispered, recognizing the form. “You…died.”
“Do not feel guilty, Eternal.” The old man smiled. “I have achieved everything I wished to and more. This sacrifice was something I chose to do on my own.”
“You’re an idiot.” I watched as the spirit slowly faded away. I could restrict it, I could anchor it to myself with my Spirit King special ability, but…
“That is not what I wish for myself,” Raffyr said, as though he’d read my mind.
“I know.” My voice was a whisper.
“We must make amends where they are due, Eternal." The spirit looked up. “For everything that I did to you, I hope as I leave now, I leave as your friend.”
I looked at him, unable to bear with what I was hearing, and yet I coughed up the words, biting through my sorrow. “I am glad to have called you a friend, old man.”
“That is all I wished to hear,” he said. His form slowly rose into the air, floating up into the world of black. I gazed at him, unwilling to pull away from the sight.
“Thank you for everything, Diablo,” Raffyr said. “Take care of little Viola for me.”
I nodded. “I will.”
And with that the old man faded away from existence, leaving but a sole word echoing through the unending darkness.
“Farewell.”
***
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Is she better?” Freya asked.
I shook my head as I walked up to the table she sat at. I took a seat across from her, and sighed as I reclined back.
“Still quiet?” the elf asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Didn’t speak a word to me.”
“It’s only been two weeks. Give her time.”
“I know. It’s just…”
“It’s not your fault, Zoran.”
My lips parted, but I said nothing.
Of all the wounds that exist in the world, grief is by far the deadliest. Grief in the face of a loved one lost is the worst kind of wound to possess.
And thus, here we were, two weeks later, unable to get a word out of Viola’s blank face. The young woman now stayed at Ikarius, occupying the nearest house from mine. I visited her more than once every day, but every single time, she just stared blankly out the window, in silence. This was better than last week though. She’d spent days locking herself up in a room on the upper floors, not eating, not talking. Nothing.
After such a thing, even this seemed like a great turn of events.
And it wasn’t that I didn’t understand how she felt.
Raffyr had taken care of her since she was a little girl. The old man was like a father to her, and now she’d lost the only family she had. That was always devastating.
What bothered me was that she’d specifically avoided the funeral we held for Raffyr. That told me a lot about where her state of mind was in the five stages of grief.
Denial.
“What about everyone else?” Freya asked.
“Ijyela and Krof are still contacting people,” I said.
“No word on the Time Lord?”
I shook my head. “None of them seem to have heard of him.”
From what we knew, it appeared our stint in the past had not changed the future in any drastic way at all. Other than that, however, we’d asked Ijyela and Krof to look into this Time Lord, but so far, the results were concerning.
“Give it time,” the elf sighed
I heard a knock on the door and a black-skinned elf walked in, accompanied by an old man dressed in robes of midnight-blue.
“We were just talking about you two,” I smiled.
“Good that you’re here,” Ijyela said. “I wanted to take a look at the Eternal.”
I nodded, and got up from the table. Freya sat where she was, and looked away. Talking about Irmeia was still a touchy subject for us. And I didn’t blame her. She thought it was completely unnecessary for me to save a woman who had betrayed us like that.
Honestly, even I questioned why I had done it. I knew Irmeia had betrayed us. I felt that pain. And yet, I’d tried to save her. A part of me even wondered if saving Irmeia was what had caused Raffyr to die.
“We’ve had this conversation multiple times,” Nyx sighed. “I knew you were an idiot, but this is like idiot 2.0.”
“Grief takes time to process, spirit,” Acnologia spoke. “Diablo, try not to think about this for a few more days, at least until things calm down.”
Meanwhile, Krof had pressed his hand into the wall, and had opened the secret trap door in the floor. “Shall we?” Ijyela asked and led me down the staircase.
The healing chambers were as they were before, three beds, and one injured Eternal on the one in the middle. Her eyes were closed, and her hair was dry and fuzzy. She no longer wore a white robe, and had been changed into some plain gray ones Ijyela had procured for her.
Irmeia lay still inside a crystal casing, and I could feel the chill inside the structure, even though I was this far away.
“The cryo-stasis looks good,” Ijyela said.
Krof nodded. “She’s still stable.”
When we’d gotten back, Irmeia had turned completely unresponsive. She’d basically gone into a coma once again. Only this time, her body was dying. And fast.
Though Freya said we didn’t have to work extensively to keep her alive, Ijyela and I thought there’d be some use in saving another Eternal, especially one called the Queen of Dragons. And so right now Irmeia’s body was in a frozen environment, slowing down her biological processes enough so we can give her ‘Eternal’ healing properties time to do their thing.
Plus, this way, she wouldn’t really wake up even if she was completely healed, meaning there wouldn’t be any accidental, unplanned rampages raging across the town.
“Alright,
” Ijyela said. “Everything seems good.”
“Did you guys find anything on the Time Lord?” I asked, as the three of us headed back up the stairs.
“Nothing,” Krof said. “It’s almost like uhh…”
“Like what?” I headed up, and noticed that Freya had taken her leave.
“Like he doesn’t exist,” Ijyela finished. “One of the people we know even questioned us quite a bit because he thought we were just pulling his leg.”
“Why is there no documentation on this guy?” I mumbled.
“Not a single ancient scroll has anything about him, or anyone like him either. Not a single mention of anyone with the power to manipulate time.”
“It’s perplexing,” Krof added.
“Let’s just keep searching,” I said.
The two of them nodded. “We’ll head out then,” the elf said. “I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thank you for helping me with this.”
They both smiled. “Mysteries intrigue us.” She smiled and walked out, with Krof right beside her.
I glanced out the window nearest to me and saw Oris walk by the street, decked out in his new black armor. The young Knight had decided to join the Knights already working here at Ikarius village. Of course, he’d needed some initial motivation to make the decision.
“Zoran, you threatened him,” Nyx said.
Well, different people call it different things okay? I grinned.
I walked out of my place a minute after, but I wasn’t planning on going anywhere. I simply jumped up, landed on the roof three stories up, and lay back on the tiled surface.
The cold wind of the night blew past me, tickling my skin, and howling in my ears. I looked up, glancing at the ever-glowing stars, and my eyes traced a path up to the brightest one in the sky.
“Polaris,” Acnologia’s voice resonated in my mind. The Dragon emerged before me, and flapped his wings as it hovered in the air. “Are you thinking about the Time Lord, Diablo?”
“His race tag bothers you, doesn’t it?” Nyx asked.
Yeah, I said. A race that can’t be displayed is more than perplexing. It’s unsettling.
“Well, we’ll probably figure it out later,” the spirit said. “That’s how it usually works, you know. Just have some big battle, defeat the bad guy, question the bad guy, and then get answers.”
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 73
