“Stop! Don’t you dare!” Blaze yelled at him.
Bogdan turned around and said, “Try and stop me!”
When Bogdan turned around, however, standing in front of the pillar was none other than Gavril. He was still weak, but had recovered enough to hold out his sword and block Bogdan’s path.
“How many of your bones do I have to break to get you to back down?” Bogdan yelled at him, but Gavril simply glared back without a single word. He swung his mighty sword at Gavril, but even though his body was still weak, Gavril stood and blocked the blows with his sword. However, with each swing, it became more and more difficult to hold on, and so with one final blow from Bogdan’s sword, Gavril was disarmed.
“Fool! Now I’m going to make sure you are dead once and for all!” Bogdan yelled. He swung his sword again, but this time, Blaze stepped in the way and blocked it with his own sword.
“Get out of my way!” Bogdan yelled.
“Never,” Blaze growled.
“I said move!” Bogdan screamed. Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing to watch as Bogdan swung his sword again. Blaze blocked it with his own sword again and glared at Bogdan.
“I will not let you hurt him anymore!” Blaze said.
“Don’t tell me you feel sorry for him now that you know he slept with your mother?” Bogdan joked.
“What? How . . . did . . .?” Gavril stuttered. Blaze turned to him and gave him a reassuring look, then turned back to Bogdan.
“I promised my mother that I would carry out something she couldn’t do before she died, remember?” Blaze asked Bogdan.
“Yes, of course. Your dead whore of a mother gave you some important task,” Bogdan muttered.
“What are you talking about . . .? You . . . met your mother?” Gavril stammered in disbelief.
“Yes. She is in the Lost Realm and she told me everything that happened . . . or rather, showed me. There is something she asked me to tell you so that her burden is lifted,” Blaze said to Gavril. He never took his eyes off of Bogdan.
“Fine, Blaze.” Bogdan interrupted, “Let’s all hear what great and important task your mother wanted you to do.”
Blaze smirked and while still staring Bogdan down, he said, “She wanted me to tell Gavril that he is my father.”
CHAPTER 23
The entire throne room was so silent that the sound of the wind outside was all that could be heard. The cold, cruel irony drifted in the air and completely drained the color from Gavril’s face. Crystal’s whole body trembled with shock while the other rebels looked around, absolutely confused and lost.
Blaze however, stood proud and confident as he continued to glare at Bogdan and asked, “How does it feel, Bogdan? How does it feel to know that you’ve raised a son that wasn’t yours? After mercilessly killing my mother and trying to kill my father, my real father, how do you feel now that their son is here to destroy you?”
Bogdan shook with anger, unable to respond. His face grew red hot and a vein grew on his forehead like a ticking time bomb.
“Blaze . . .” Gavril muttered from behind him.
Blaze turned around to see Gavril staring back at him. He was still quite pale and seemed to be growing faint. Blaze reached for Gavril as he saw his legs threaten to collapse and held him up by his good arm.
“Don’t worry; now that you know her secret, my mother’s soul is no longer trapped in the Lost Realm. I have lifted her burden,” Blaze whispered. Gavril bowed his head, trying to fight back tears, and Blaze put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.
“And just how does your mother assume that this wretch is you father, Blaze?” Bogdan blurted out.
Blaze faced him and said, “Actually, she knew for a fact that Gavril is my father as soon as she realized she was pregnant. You had been gone for about six months at one point in time and she estimated that the time she got pregnant was within that time period, so you couldn’t possibly have conceived me. Considering the only one other man that she had been with was Gavril, she knew he was the father. To protect him, Mother paid her midwife to lie to you about how far along she was. When she went into labor, she also told the midwife to tell you that I was born early so you wouldn’t suspect a thing.”
Bogdan remained silent for quite a while. He trembled with rage, and every guard in the room began to step backwards as if to avoid the effects of an explosion.
“Why didn’t she tell me . . .?” Gavril muttered.
“She was going to after the three of us were safe across the border in Cierith. Unfortunately, your plan got a little sidetracked and she was killed before she could tell you the truth,” Blaze replied. He then glared back at Bogdan when he was done speaking.
Finally, Bogdan took a long, deep breath and began speaking again.
“No matter.” he calmly muttered, “As a matter of fact, Blaze, this will make killing you much easier on me. Before, when I thought you were my son, I felt disappointed that you were no longer the fierce and merciless warrior I was once so proud of. Now, I will have no trouble destroying you. In fact, I think I will enjoy it.”
“I don’t need you to be proud of me anymore.” Blaze retorted, “I’m no longer the puppet that does your dirty work.”
Bogdan chuckled. “That’s a shame. Before I planned to take the Eye of Gaull, I was looking forward to having you rule under me.”
“Save your breath. There are more important things to me now,” Blaze remarked.
Bogdan laughed and said, “You are truly a pathetic fool for letting yourself be seduced by that girl. Now move.”
“Eat shit,” Blaze barked.
“Don’t make me slice you in half,” Bogdan growled.
“Don’t make me laugh,” Blaze retorted.
“Get out of my way!” Bogdan raised his voice.
“We will not move,” Gavril suddenly said. He was able to grab his sword during the argument between Blaze and Bogdan, and he now held it out in front of him and stood by Blaze’s side.
“I am done with the both of you! You WILL step away or you will die!” Bogdan yelled.
“Then you will have to kill us!” Blaze yelled.
Suddenly, Blaze heard Crystal yell, “Watch out, Blaze!”
However, it was too late. An enormous gust of wind knocked both Blaze and Gavril off of their feet away from the pillar. Both of them landed several feet away onto the ground. Blaze stumbled around and looked in the direction of the gust and saw Saitar readying another spell. Before he could attack them again, however, Thaddeus yelled and shot an energy beam from his staff at the traitor elder.
“I have had enough of your cheap trickery, Saitar!” the old mage yelled. Saitar sent an enormous energy beam back at him and the two forces met with so much intensity that all of the soldiers in the room ran for their lives and the rebels had to cover their faces to shield their eyes from the light.
Even Bogdan found himself disoriented by the light, and Blaze desperately tried to find Crystal to shield her from a possible explosion. He spotted her crouched down a few yards away and after Gavril assured him that he was all right, Blaze rushed to her side. Once she realized he was there, Crystal grabbed his arm and held it while he crouched in front of her with his back facing her.
Both Thaddeus and Saitar continued to release more energy to outmatch each other, and each time they did so, an enormous ball of energy moved back and forth between the two of them. The situation was becoming quite dangerous, and Blaze felt he was forced to turn around and shield Crystal. He wrapped his arms around her and tried to block every inch of her body from a possible blast.
“We will level this whole castle if we continue this, Thaddeus!” Saitar yelled.
“I’m afraid that if we release this much energy at once, Saitar, we will destroy this place as well!” Thaddeus yelled back.
“Thaddeus!” Crystal cried, looking over Blaze’s shoulder. Blaze turned around to see the two struggling to keep control over the massive amount of energy.
The old mage glanced at Crystal momentarily, and even though it was for a brief second, Blaze saw what looked like a glint of sadness and sorrow in his eyes. He suddenly realized that it was an apologetic look when Thaddeus spoke to her.
“Crystal, this is the only way to save everyone!” the old mage cried. He then grinned back at his opponent as the two of them suddenly began to hover above the floor.
“W—what are you doing?!” Saitar screamed.
Suddenly, Thaddeus began to glow just as Malcolm had in the City of Magi, and the horrible realization of what he was doing hit Blaze like a brick wall. Apparently, Crystal realized it as well, because she then cried out, “No Thaddeus! Don’t!”
“You fool! You’ll kill us both!” Saitar screamed.
“Then so be it!” Thaddeus yelled back.
“No!” Crystal cried again.
She then tried to rise and run after her magic mentor, but she had to struggle to break free as Blaze used all his might to hold her back. He had one arm around the front on her shoulders and the other around her waist and she tried in vain to move them.
“Goodbye, Amelia. I am so proud of you!” Thaddeus cried.
The old mage then shot a brief glance at Blaze that silently said, take good care of her before he and Saitar along with the built up energy between them shot through the door to the throne room, went outside, and flew a hundred feet into the air.
Blaze continued to hold his grip on Crystal as she tried to run forward. A large blast of light flooded the room and the explosion was so fierce that despite being as high as they were above the castle, the throne room still trembled violently causing the people who were standing to lose their balance.
Blaze held Crystal as she sobbed hysterically. He hated the sound of her tears and his arms tightened around her as she cried into his shirt. He couldn’t get the image of Thaddeus’s sorrowful face out of his mind, and he even though he had always considered the old mage to be a senile old man, he still had come to respect him for his eccentric, but cheerful ways. Blaze could honestly say that he shared Crystal’s grief.
Everyone else was so focused on what had just happened that before anyone could stop him, Bogdan suddenly rushed to the pillar with the Eye of Gaull held out in front of him.
“No!” Gavril yelled, but it was too late.
Bogdan shoved the Eye of Gaull into the stone pillar and in less than a second, a red and black aura surrounded him.
“Yes . . . I feel Gaull’s power surging through my veins! I feel my body changing! I feel like a god!” Bogdan yelled. He cackled maniacally as his body shifted into a monstrous form. The clothing covering his torso was ripped apart as his arms and chest grew bigger. Horns and scales began to form on his back, shoulders, and head. His skin became a grayish brown color and his right eye turned red while his blind eye glowed yellow. Bogdan roared with laughter as the transformation halted momentarily.
“This feeling is amazing! I feel like there isn’t a single soul that could stop me now, and I can still feel power building up! Now I can crush all of the rebels once and for all!” Bogdan yelled with a distorted, bellowing voice. Bogdan then looked back at Gavril, who was now standing and had his sword drawn again. Bogdan laughed again before saying, “And I will start with you! This time, however, I will watch the life leave your body instead of throwing you out to die in the cold!”
Bogdan summoned a large dark aura in his hands and then shot it at Gavril. Though he tried to block with his sword, it was no use; Gavril was hit by the dark blast and fell to the ground, still encaged by the darkness. Bogdan then held out his hand, which now had claws instead of fingers, with the palm facing up and slowly clench it into a fist. As he did, the dark aura surrounding Gavril tightened and crushed against his already weak body. He cried out in pain and before Blaze could stop her, Crystal fearlessly charged head on at Bogdan.
“Crystal, NO!” Blaze called after her, but she didn’t listen.
Instead, the enraged Crystal summoned a swarming, electric tornado and sent it flying Bogdan’s way. The destructive twister hurled towards the monstrous Bogdan, pulling everything in its path into its core. Once it hit Bogdan, however, it did not do much damage, but it distracted him enough to break his spell over Gavril, who then quickly rose to his feet to assist Crystal.
Bogdan howled with rage as he shot the same spell at Crystal, but she blocked it with an energy shield, causing the dark aura to disperse, and she continued to charge at Bogdan. She leapt into the air with her sword drawn and drove it down onto him, but he blocked the blade with his arm. In a split second, he then swung the same arm after blocking her attack and struck Crystal in her side in midair. Crystal was flung several feet away and rolled onto the floor.
“Crystal!” Blaze cried. He desperately ran into Crystal’s direction, but Bogdan hit him with another blast of darkness and sent him flying backwards onto his back. Gavril and Sigurd tried to run to her aid too, but Bogdan flung them both to the side with a gust of shadows that he cast with his hands. Kerali stayed a little ways away and tried shooting arrows at Bogdan’s face. They annoyed him, but did no damage, and so with another wave of his arm, the elf was thrown off his feet by another gust.
As Bogdan stomped closer to his intended victim, Maryn and Taryn made a last resort effort to protect her. The twins stepped in front of her with their arms held out in front of Crystal, which got another roaring laugh out of Bogdan.
“Foolish little halflings! Your larger friends couldn’t stop me, and yet you mock me by standing in my way?” he taunted.
He then shot another gust of shadows directly at them, sending the small twins flying and hitting the wall several behind them. They hit the wall hard and fell to the floor with all of the energy knocked out of them.
Bogdan hovered over Crystal and laughed as he watched her struggle to get up and cast a spell. Before she could finish her incantation, Bogdan reached down and wrapped his enormous hand around Crystal’s neck and lifted her into the air. He then squeezed so hard that she couldn’t even cry out, and Blaze felt rage pulsing inside him as he watched Crystal desperately try to pull his hand off with her own hands. Blaze screamed as he charged at Bogdan again like a bull seeing red, but Bogdan continued to knock anyone out of the way who tried to attack him, and most attacks did nothing to him anyway.
Suddenly, Blaze saw Valamar run up to Bogdan and yell, “What are you doing?! We had a deal!”
Valamar had been hiding on the side of the room somewhere, so when he suddenly appeared, everyone had almost forgotten about him.
“I have had enough of this impudent whore!” Bogdan roared, “I’ve decided to kill her and be done with her forever!”
“I held my end of the bargain! Release her!” Valamar screamed.
“Fool! All you did was lure the rebels into the temple; I could have done that on my own! I only wanted you to keep your mouth shut about the Gaull shard!” Bogdan retorted.
“Release my wife, you bastard!” Valamar screeched.
Bogdan finally had enough of Valamar, and so with his free arm, he punched the aristocrat in the gut, sending him flying into the wall. After he fell to the floor, Bogdan then summoned an enormous ball of dark fire and blasted Valamar with it. Valamar screamed as the fire covered his entire body and in less than five seconds, he was completely reduced to a pile of ashes.
Blaze finally recovered from the previous blow he took and his eyes fell upon a horrifying sight: Crystal’s body became limp in Bogdan’s clutches. Blaze could swear that his heart had stopped as he watched his love’s eyes close and her arms fall limply to her sides. He suddenly felt an empty feeling in his body, and all sound surrounding him was gone. He ran towards her again and even though he knew he screamed her name, he could only hear the sound of his heart pounding. He saw Bogdan smirk smugly at him and he finally released his grip on Crystal’s neck. Her still body then fell to the ground, and Blaze reached her just in time to catch her.
Crystal lay limp in Blaze’s arms,
and nothing else in the world could take his mind away from her. Tears poured from his eyes as he begged her not to die. He paid no attention to his surroundings whatsoever, not even when Bogdan bellowed with maniacal laughter again as he sprouted enormous, spiny wings and flew out of the open doors and into the sky to wreak havoc and chaos on the world.
CHAPTER 24
Crystal couldn’t move or feel a thing in her body. She heard distant, muffled voices, but couldn’t tell who they belonged to. She couldn’t see anything and she could not open her eyes. She tried to speak, but her mouth wouldn’t move. No sound escaped her throat. She couldn’t breathe, but oddly enough, her lungs weren’t burning for air. The last thing she remembered was Bogdan’s fist clenching her neck, and she began to fear that she was dead.
She suddenly saw light through her eyelids, but still couldn’t open them. She tried to speak again, but failed. She realized that there was some kind of silhouette blocking the light in front of her, and soon, there was a second.
“She’s grown so much!” a woman’s voice said. It didn’t take Crystal long to recognize it.
Mother! She tried to say, but she still couldn’t speak. She could still picture in her mind her mother’s light blonde hair, fair skin, and blue eyes. She imagined her mother’s smile and even though she had a feeling that her mother was smiling now, she still wished she could see it. Then another voice spoke, and once again, Crystal knew who it belonged to as well.
“Yes she has! I cannot believe my little girl is already an adult!” she heard her father say. She also remembered well what he looked like: his brown hair and hazel eyes were burned into her mind forever, and she remembered the confident grin he always wore and how despite his amazing strength and skills in battle, he was always held her gently and sweetly in his strong, enormous arms.
She tried to call out to her parents and tried to open her eyes to see them, but it was no use. She wanted to tell them how much she missed them and loved them, but her heart sank when she continued to remain still and silent. August and Elaine were both in their daughter’s presence for the first time in ten years, but she was frantic at the realization that she couldn’t acknowledge them.
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