Earth closed his eyes and his essence went flittering across the ocean floor, bouncing through tectonic plates in search of Xander. He stood stoically, unmoving, for less than a minute before he opened his eyes again. With a groan of boulders being moved, the Earth Elemental smiled.
“He’s still very much alive. You hurt him, no doubt, but he lives.” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “But there’s more to him. I sense… I sense he’s already become so much more than just a Wind Warrior. He… interesting. He holds within him both the Wind and Water Elementals. No wonder he’s such a threat to you.”
The Earth Elemental appeared as though he wanted to say more, but the smug expression on the dragon’s face stopped him. He narrowed his eyes and glowered at the Fire Elemental.
“I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Not at all,” the dragon replied. “I’m well aware of the power he possesses. Tell me where he is.”
The Earth Elemental guffawed. “He’s hidden himself from you, hasn’t he? You can’t find him.”
“It doesn’t matter if you tell me or not, I’ll find him just the same. I’ve already defeated him with both the Wind and Water Elemental powers at his disposal. I’ll destroy him before he gets more.”
“If you already know the power he possesses, then why come to me? To brag? To mock me? Why…?” the Earth Elemental began before his words faltered.
“Why indeed?” the dragon asked brashly.
“If he has the power of Wind and Water, then he’ll be coming for me next,” he replied, realization dawning on him. “I’m the last piece before he can stop you. You didn’t come here to berate me about my creation.”
“No, I didn’t,” the dragon replied, snapping its jaws shut threateningly.
The Earth Elemental’s eyes widened in fright. “You can’t kill me. I’m the embodiment of the Earth. If you kill me, continents will split, crops won’t grow, and plants will wither and die. I am the Earth.”
The dragon slithered forward, its belly nearly scraping across the exposed stone ground. “You’re right. The world will spiral into chaos. Yet, I know something you don’t know. Nature abhors chaos. It demands order. It won’t let a vacuum exist in your absence. Nature will find another Earth Elemental, perhaps one a bit more amicable to my position. The world may be in ruins, but it can be rebuilt once your replacement is found, and I’ll be there every step to guide the new young Earth Elemental.”
A boulder rolled from the beach, picking up speed as it rushed toward the dragon. The Fire Elemental turned as it approached, twisting at the last minute to avoid being crushed. Hissing angrily, it spun back toward the master of the stones. The Earth Elemental’s arms were outstretched as the ground beneath their feet began to shake.
The dragon slashed with its claws, striking the Earth Elemental in his shoulder. The stone of his arm shattered from the impact. The fist and forearm crashed to the ground, shattering further without the Earth Elemental’s control. The Earth Elemental cried out in pain and stumbled backward, the burgeoning earthquake falling silent. The stones of his broken arm rumbled and began rolling back together as the limb began reforming.
Pressing its advantage, the dragon’s tail whipped around, striking the Earth Elemental in the chest. The stone creature flew through the air, crashing roughly onto the ground. The volcanoes surrounding them rumbled their approval as more magma poured from their ruined tops.
“You’re too weak to oppose me when you first awaken, regardless of what the elemental cycle foretells,” the dragon explained as it stalked toward the prone figure. A spider’s web of fractures were visible across the Earth Elemental’s bare chest, and sand poured from between the cracks like blood seeping onto the ground below. “I’m at the peak of my power while you have no caste of your own.”
“I’m not dead yet,” the Earth Elemental said, his voice weak, unsteady, and carrying none of the bluster that his words demanded. “I trapped you in a stone prison once before, and I’ll do it again.”
“No, you didn’t. An Earth Elemental that appeared very similar to you trapped me, but he was strong, full of power and might. You? You’re a feeble Elemental past your prime.” The dragon reared up on its hind legs, towering over the stone man. “And now, you’ll die.”
It drove its weight downward, front claws extended toward the prone figure. In a brilliant flash, the Earth Elemental disappeared. The Fire Elemental crashed into a dome of solid rock, the impact jarring it and sending it tumbling to the side. The dragon regained its footing and glared at the stone orb, in the center of which the Earth Elemental had retreated.
The ground beneath its feet shook violently, far worse than when the Earth Elemental had first emerged from his slumber. Lattice cracks spread beneath the dragon’s feet, speeding quickly across the island as the landmass threatened to break apart. It dug its claws into the ground for support, as fear raced through its chest. Assaulting the Earth Elemental had been a risk, one that it was willing to accept even if the Fire Elemental didn’t fully appreciate the repercussions of its actions. It had confidently replied that Nature would bring about balance should the Earth Elemental be destroyed. The time between the loss of one Elemental and its rebirth, however, would be full of violent upheavals. Even without the Earth Elemental’s demise, the ground below was threatening to tear itself apart.
Water rushed over its feet, and Fire craned its long neck toward the ocean behind where it stood. Tall waves, created by earthquakes deep in the planet’s crust, slammed into the shore, engulfing the sand and clashing aggressively with the molten lava seeping from the volcanoes. The dragon lifted its feet nervously as the salt water quickly receded, pulled back into the ocean in preparation of yet another massive wave.
The Fire Elemental turned back toward the stone sphere under which the Earth Elemental resided. Raising its claws, the dragon scratched futilely at the surface of the stone, leaving small gouges in the rock but making no real progress at breaking through the impenetrable dome. Howling in utter frustration, the dragon stepped back as brilliant white flames stewed in its gullet. The light from the burning flames illuminated the scales of its throat from behind as it prepared its blast. With a loud exhalation, the dragon breathed searing flames onto the dome. The rock on the surface began melting, turning to liquid slag. It slid from the dome and pooled on the ground around it.
The dragon kept the flames pouring for as long as possible, but it eventually grew exhausted. The fire sputtered and died. The dragon’s shoulders slumped as it examined its handiwork. The surface of the dome still glowed yellow and white but was already hardening as it watched. Though slightly reduced in stature, the dome remained as impenetrable as always.
“Damn you!” it screamed at the Earth Elemental, unsure his counterpart could still hear him or not. “It makes no difference if you hide from me, Earth! I’ll kill Xander Sirocco, and then I’ll return to finish what we began.”
It struck its claws against the molten rock once more, sending flecks of lava spilling onto the ground. In frustration, it spread its wings wide and leapt into the air. Its buffeting wind knocked aside the loose dirt and spread the growing wildfires around the newly formed tumor on the surface of the island.
General Abraxas raised his head, sensing something was amiss even before the first tremor shook the parapet beneath his feet. He grasped the battlement as the obsidian keep shook. As quickly as the earthquake began, it ceased its shaking. The general ran a hand over his bald, tattooed head and glanced into the interior of the castle behind him. A few stands within the marketplace had collapsed, spilling assorted wares into the street. Dust rose from a few rooftops, which had crumbled in the unexpected quake. The city and castle as a whole, however, remained sturdy and unmoved.
He turned his attention back to the man dangling a few feet below him. Lord Balor hung as though unaware of the earthquake or, more precisely, completely uncaring. The older man’s thin, blond hair wa
s unkempt and his expression haggard. Despite his stoicism, the ropes were biting into his wrists, leaving trails of blood dripping down his upper arms and pooling on the armpits of his thin shirt.
“The first blow has been struck,” Abraxas said. “Our master is finalizing his rule on the surface world.”
“Your master, not mine,” Balor corrected, his voice hoarse and unsteady despite his defiance. “I didn’t know the Fire Elemental was capable of causing earthquakes. It felt more like something has gone so very wrong for your master on the surface.” Lord Balor laughed roughly. “It seems to me that your master is failing, just like you so epically did.”
Abraxas grasped the ropes in his hand and pulled firmly. They tightened on both wrists simultaneously as they pulled apart from one another, stretching Balor and threatening to pull him in two. Lord Balor grunted at the pain but refused to cry out, even as the coarse ropes bit even tighter into his worn skin.
“Our master was a fool to let you live,” the general said as he relaxed the taut ropes. “As soon as he gives the word, I look forward to tearing you apart with my bare hands. I’ll send parts of your body to the corners of this planet as a warning for those who would stand against our master. Your head, though, that I’ll keep here in the castle, mounted on my wall like you were a trophy kill, like you were nothing more than a mindless beast I struck down.”
The castle wall shook again, this time more violently than it had moments before. Abraxas slipped as the stones beneath him shifted. He dropped to a knee for support and grasped the black, stone battlements for balance.
A crash behind him drew his attention. He turned in time to see a home collapse, a cloud of dust filling the nearby streets. Cries of pain and fear filled the air as the ground began to shake without an end in sight.
The parapet beneath his feet cracked along the mortar between stones. General Abraxas leapt backward as a stone slid free of its mooring and fell to the ground twenty feet below. The obsidian stone shattered on impact, sending fragments flying through the air like a grenade.
Beyond the wall, the bridge connecting the castle to the underground cavern network swayed dangerously. The stone supports wobbled unsteadily as they strained against the force of the earthquake. The cavern’s far wall shifted opposite of the plateau on which the castle stood, and the bridge groaned in protest. The hole in its center widened as stones fell away. The small half walls on either side splintered and broke, falling away. The stones plummeted hundreds of feet before being consumed by the river of lava far below.
Though brash and overly confident, Abraxas felt the same fear his people did in the city behind him. The castle was balanced precariously on the peak of a plateau, one that was on the cusp of shattering. Their demise would be swift if the castle fell, as it would be swallowed by a river of magma flowing from the heart of the planet.
The parapet ceased its shaking abruptly, though the sound of cracking stonework and collapsing rocks was heard for long minutes afterward. General Abraxas clamored to his feet, his gaze drifting across the damaged city. A number of buildings had fallen. In the distance, a tall spire on the castle had broken free and fell, crashing into the outer wall and destroying both in the process. Though the castle was mostly abandoned, its warriors and nobility engaged in the world’s conquest, there were still servants and staff that would have perished in the fall. He wasted little thought on the waitstaff that might have been killed, nor was he concerned about the elderly, young, or infirmed that might have been trapped beneath debris within the city. They were cowards for not engaging in glorious combat. He was far more concerned, however, with the fact that the Fire Elemental’s city, the heart of its kingdom, was partially ruined by the unexpected earthquakes.
A faint laugh broke his concentration. Abraxas turned angrily toward the outer wall.
“I hoped your part of the wall would have collapsed,” the general said, “and you would have been crushed beneath the stones. Then again, that would have denied me the pleasure of destroying you myself.”
Balor’s response was continued laughter. “Did that feel like glorious victory to you, Abraxas? It didn’t to me. It felt like humiliating defeat. The Earth is being wrathful.”
“Or it’s merely its death throes,” Abraxas countered. “The last rebellion of a dying Elemental. It doesn’t matter; no matter the damage inflicted, the Fire Caste survives, as we always do. We’ve weathered the worst it has to offer.”
The mocking laughter ceased. Curiously, Abraxas leaned between the thick battlement stones and stared down at the older Fire Warrior. Lord Balor was staring at him as though he were a child, unaware of the ways of the world.
“You’re no fool, no matter how much I mock you,” Balor said. “But even you can’t be foolish enough to believe that was the worst the Earth Elemental has to offer.”
Before General Abraxas could reply, the keep’s wall buckled beneath him. The ground lurched, driving the wall forward before jerking it abruptly backward. Despite his grip on the battlement, Abraxas was thrown from the top. He fell twenty feet below, crashing heavily onto the stone ground. For a long moment, he lay unmoving as though dead, seemingly oblivious to the cavern-crushing earthquake tearing the cave apart at the seams.
The northern wall, the one nearest the castle and already damaged by the collapsing tower, crumbled inward, filling the courtyard with massive, black stones. The front of the castle cracked as well. Stones that withstood millennia were sheered from the face of the medieval building, exposing the crumbling rooms within.
Within the inner market, where many of the Fire Warriors had gathered when the earthquakes began, the ground split. The heart of the plateau proved to be hollow, leading straight into the lava far below. As the sinkhole spread, cries of anguish filled the air moments before those screams of fear were swallowed. Their yells of surprise faded as Fire Warriors plummeted hundreds of feet. The spreading chasm swallowed nearby buildings, sending tons of debris collapsing into the sinkhole.
Adding to the utter chaos, the stalactites that dotted the ceiling of the cavern broke under the jarring swaying of the chamber. Stone formations dozens of feet tall fell into the keep like massive spears, piercing the rooftops as easily as passing through water. The stalactites shattered on impact, decimating the nearby buildings with the force of their explosions.
General Abraxas opened his eyes slowly, though even the faint glow of the surrounding cavern hurt his eyes. He could feel the stickiness on the back of his skull and knew that he was bleeding. It was matched by a harsh, coppery taste filling his mouth. He turned his head, despite the flaring pain moving caused, and spit a mouthful of blood onto the black flagstones.
He tried to stand, but his body refused. Bones were broken, he knew, though he could feel the Fire Elemental’s power coursing through him, beginning to repair the damage. He laid his head back on the warm ground, allowing his body to heal as he stared at the ceiling high above. He could hear the pleading calls for aid nearby, but he couldn’t care less for their needs. Only two things concerned him at that moment: self-preservation and the well-being of Lord Balor. He had failed his master before and had been relegated to guarding the former clan lord. He wouldn’t fail again by letting something befall Balor or, worse, let the prisoner escape.
As he focused on the cavern’s roof, he furrowed his brow in concern. A rather pointed stalactite wobbled unsteadily in the violent earthquake, its tip passing over him like a swinging pendulum. His breath caught in his throat every time it passed over him, pointing toward him like the tip of a sword, threatening to run him through.
As though sensing his fear, a thundering crack sounded, louder than all the other destruction nearby. The stalactite stopped its swaying and instead plummeted toward General Abraxas. The general closed his eyes, knowing he lacked the power to move aside even as he stared into his demise.
The giant stone sword crashed into the flagstones a few feet away, shattering the ground and launching deadly fragments i
nto the air. They bit into Abraxas’ flesh, slicing his cheek and side to ribbons. He screamed in pain, unaware that the bulk of the stalactite was tilting. It fell forward, striking the keep’s wall before falling toward his prostrate form.
Lord Balor had little choice but to close his eyes and await his impending death. Dangling as he was from the parapet, he could do little to avoid any debris or destruction. On the contrary, he was likely to be run through where he hung, his prison becoming his tomb.
When the stalactite struck the wall behind him, Lord Balor was thrown forward. His arms were still tied behind him but his legs were thrown forward until he felt his shoulder break. The pain was excruciating, but he had far greater concerns. His legs weren’t swinging back toward the wall. In fact, the entire wall was tilting forward. He was dangling out over the ground far below, tilting slowly forward as the weight of the stone sword pressed against the collapsing wall.
With a deafening crash, the obsidian stones of the wall gave way and he tumbled forward. Amidst a sea of falling stones, Balor fell forward, his arms still tied to the stone behind him, the stone that would surely crush him upon landing.
As the wall broke apart in its collapse, the battlements splintered and fractured, crumbling into pieces as they also fell. The mortar holding Balor’s stone in place broke as well, spinning the battlement through the air. The ropes holding him in place slipped free from the obsidian stone, leaving him flying through the air, no longer connected to the heavy stonework.
He landed abruptly among the fallen stones. With a dislocated shoulder, he stood no chance of stopping or slowing his descent. The same injured arm fractured in the impact as it twisted awkwardly beneath him. Another flare of pain raced up his arm and through his neck, stealing his breath. The pain was unbearable, and his eyes fluttered shut.
Earth God Page 14
