by B. A. Scott
“Strike me down then,” he said confidently. “If you dare.”
Vega plunged his spear and Skull Dagger between the plates in Daro’s armor, straight into either side of his torso. For a moment, the Dark Lord was still, and the Aerolus felt a swelling of triumph in his heart. But when Vega looked to the weapons that stuck out from Daro’s body, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The spear and Skull Dagger slowly turned to ash, then blew away in the howling wind, leaving Daro’s skin unmaimed.
“Impossible!” Vega gasped.
“Now, accept your fate,” Daro told him. He filled his blade with Verdure, and its black metal glowed bright green as the air about it glittered with shimmering particles of green and golden light. He thrust it into the stone before Vega, birthing a deadly growth of black, thorny vines that spread across the floor, tangling around one another until Daro withdrew his sword.
With a motioning of the Dark Lord’s hand, the thorny vines raced to Vega’s wrists and neck, wrapping themselves tightly around the Aerolus as he tried to leap into the sky. Another motion of Daro’s hand caused the vines to tightened their slack, spreading Vega’s arms wide, and bringing him to his knees.
Daro lifted his blade and brought it to the back of Vega’s neck, then scraped its dark metal to the base of the Aerolus’s wings. Vega struggled with all his might against the vines that bound him. Every muscle in his body strained against their holdings, trying to break free. Daro slowly raised his blade, as the creature before him fought uselessly against his bonds.
“No,” Vega pleaded. “No—stop, damn you! Alakai!”
But Daro brought his sword down upon the base of Vega’s wings, slicing through his flesh. The Aerolus’s head shot back, and he roared as his great, mighty wings fell to the floor. Blood dripped down the feathers on his back, and tears streamed from his eyes. His entire body stopped struggling, and Vega knelt before the Dark Lord like a wilted flower upon the stone.
Daro released the vines’ hold on the Aerolus, then levitated Vega’s body into the air, past the edge of the platform, into the snow-filled sky. The last thing Vega saw before being launched from the tower was the dark man winding up what looked to be a mighty punch, then thrusting his palm straight toward him, like he was striking an invisible man in the heart.
Daro sent Vega’s body soaring beyond the city gates. It crashed to the ground far to the east of the city, cracking, scarring and breaking, tumbling over itself until at last, it came to a halt upon the snow-dampened grass.
Then, Daro held his hand to the sky, and ignited a single burst of flame. Ten Fated flew down to the platform, and Daro levitated Vega’s wings to two of them.
“Keep these from harm,” he said. The Fated grasped the massive wings, bowed, then all soared back into the air as Lord Daro looked out upon the burning city of Caleton.
“Daro Malus Alakai!” shouted Athiux from behind him—his eyes aglow, and the Earth Sword drawn. Lord Daro turned to see the panting Erygian Sage ready for combat. Though he bore a face teeming with anger, Athiux appeared exhausted beyond end.
“The wielder emerges,” Daro said, “bearing an Earth Sword and the garb of a Sage. Tell me, does a veil spell hide the Fountain from my eyes? How traditional. I assure you, I needn’t find its requirement to tear it down.”
“Have you fallen so far—” Athiux said, then noticed the Amulet of Oblivion around Daro’s neck. “No.” he said. “It can’t be. It can’t be!”
“The Amulet!” Kade said only a moment later, her grandfather’s thoughts racing through her mind. Everyone in the group looked to her. Asos held a finger to his lips, but Kade was engulfed by rage.
“Lord Daro has the Amulet of Oblivion!” she tried to whisper.
“What?!” asked Kaven.
“That’s impossible,” Gabrel gasped.
“He stands before my grandfather as we speak, wearing it around his very neck!” Kade told them. “How is this possible?!”
“Kade!” Asos tried to hush her again.
“How?!” Kade demanded an answer from the brothers. Kaven looked to Gabrel, whose head hung low.
“I—” Gabrel began, then looked into the eyes of the Enchantress. “I thought it could save the city. I thought it could wipe out Daro’s army. So I took it from the chamber.”
“You did WHAT?” Kade asked.
“I’m sorry,” Gabrel said.
“You were warned, Gabrel! And now the unthinkable has happened! Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!”
Gabrel thought for a moment. “I—I gave it to my father,” he said, looking from Kade to Kaven.
“But if Daro has it now,” Kaven’s mind put the puzzle pieces together. “Gabrel,” he tried to speak.
Gabrel gazed at his brother with glossy eyes. “I didn’t think—” he said. He no longer cared if Daro had the Amulet. His thoughts fell only on his father’s life. “He’s dead, isn’t he?” he asked Kade.
But the Enchantress’s eyes gave him no answer. Only rage, bound within a body that was forced to keep silent.
Athiux eyed the Amulet of Oblivion cautiously. “That thing is beyond even your control, Alakai,” he said. “You haven’t the power to tame its horror.”
“Do I not?” Daro asked. “This city has drowned in the ocean of my power, Sage. So will you!” The Dark Lord flashed a beam of white light from his palm, attempting to bind the Sage in a holding spell. Athiux’s arms spread wide as the spell overtook his body, but he fought against the restraints with every spark of magic inside of him, and with a swelling of defiance, he broke free of his hold.
“I am not so weak as to be bound by a holding spell,” Athiux told Daro. “There is still fight in me yet!” He thrust his palm toward the Dark Lord, beaming an icy blast of Suspension at him. But Daro stood stoic, not moving to block or repel the attack. Before the magic could touch his body, it dissolved into nothingness, while the jewel in his dark mask glowed brightly.
“An Alluvian jewel,” Athiux gasped.
“Magic cannot save you, Sage,” said Daro. “You will be bound, and taken to the Adorcenn Tower. There, you will stay, alongside the Human Sage, shackled for the remainder of your days.”
“Finwynn has not half the power I hold,” Athiux said. “If he did, he would have broken your bonds long ago. It will not be so easy to bind me!”
“Then I shall break you down!” Daro yelled, filling his blade with Flame, and sending a crescent of fire racing toward Athiux. The Sage instantly conjured a shield, but the fiery blast shattered it to pieces.
Daro charged, raising Redentor in a mighty hack. Athiux lifted the Earth Sword to block, but in a single, powerful blow, Daro’s blade fractured the Sage’s furentus into a spray of amber shards. The impact sent a shockwave through the air, and knocked Athiux to the ground. The back of his head struck cold stone, and his vision went white, then faded to black.
Athiux laid unconscious, unmoving.
“Pity,” Daro said. “I could have put that blade to use.” He levitated Athiux’s body into the air and placed a powerful holding spell on him, binding his entire body in its magic. When he finished, Daro stepped back from the floating man. “Another Sage,” he said to himself, “bound and broken. And now, the Fountain of Evindar shall be veiled no longer.”
He sheathed his sword, and ignited a ball of Flame in each of his hands that hovered just above his palms. With every second, he fed more magic, more power and more heat into the blazing fires. He moved his hands closer together, until at last, he joined the conjurings into a ferocious orb of heat and magic.
The Dark Lord elated beneath his mask as he watched something spectacular unfold before his eyes. The ball of flame began to burn something hidden in the air, like a hot coal, buried beneath a mound of invisible leaves. Tiny particles of light ignited, then faded out of existence. Soon, the lustrous fire show filled the air all around the platform as Daro’s flame burned away the powerful spell.
A dome-shaped shell around the platform appeared. Its
surface undulated like a heavy, semi-translucent curtain. Daro brought the fireball high above his head, and levitated it so that it touched the roof of the veil spell. Bright hairline fractures raced from the top of the dome, down over its entire surface.
The tower shuddered as the veil spell’s integrity was shaken. With a mighty yell, Daro ignited the flaming orb with such heat that it exploded, and shattered the spell to its core.
Like an earthquake upon the high stone, the force proved great enough to bring Athiux back to consciousness. He jolted awake, and tried to bring his hand to the pounding in the back of his head, but found he could not move a muscle.
As the last of the veil shattered, the Dark Lord was shaken from his feet. He expected his back to collide with the cold, hard stone of the platform, but when he opened his eyes, he found that he had landed in what appeared to be a pool of water. He put his feet down, and eyed the Fountain’s ivory white basin around him.
“Oh save us,” the Sage whispered.
“You’re beyond saving now,” Daro told him.
Table of Contents
Chapter 28: Evindar Unleashed
Lord Daro brought both hands to his mask, then slowly removed it from his face. Athiux, expecting to see the visage of an Erygian man either grotesquely aged or youthfully preserved, gazed in shock when Daro finally revealed his countenance.
Instead of deeply tanned skin, Daro’s face bore rough, hardened flesh of dark violet—almost scaly, like that of an enduring desert creature. The effects of his own making—his Draught of Resilience—masked the handsomely evil features beneath with a twisted, beastly semblance.
“What have you done to yourself?” the Sage asked. But Daro ignored the question. He knelt upon both knees, waist deep in the shallow basin, and laid his mask upon the surface of the pool, where it floated by his side. He cupped his hands together, submerged them in the waters of the Fountain of Evindar, and brought them to his mouth. Athiux watched as Daro sipped, waiting for the waters of Fury to take effect. A distant boom of thunder came from a far off cloud as Daro gritted his teeth.
The burning spread throughout his body, and Athiux could see the magic coursing through the veins in his neck. The Sage fought against his bonds. He strained to let his magic overtake him, but the holding spell kept him well from it.
The power of Fury traveled to the outer corners of Daro’s eyes. The Dark Lord trembled as he fought to endure the pain within. Lightning flashed overhead, and struck Daro’s body—an occurrence unfamiliar to Athiux, as the Tower had always protected its drinkers from the skies. When Daro appeared to have regained control of his mind, Athiux knew it would not be long before he calmed the waters of Fury.
Finally, Daro composed himself, then rose to his feet.
At that moment, Athiux overcame the limits of the holding spell, filled himself with magic, and landed upon the platform in a poised crouch that suggested he had been expecting the fall. He sent an impellment spell straight at Daro, which, to Athiux’s great surprise, knocked the Dark Lord out of the Fountain.
“You haven’t your precious mask to protect you,” said the Sage. “The fight is evened.”
“Never,” said Daro.
Athiux summoned Gale, and brought a savage wind toward the dark man, who ignited a shield, deflecting the gust. Step by step, Daro made for the fountain, reaching for his mask. When Athiux realized what he was doing, he darted toward it as well.
They came together, each grabbing the furentus with both hands at the same time. They struggled against each other’s pull, the hate in their eyes building with every passing moment. A soft gleam from the jewels inside the Amulet of Oblivion caught Athiux’s eye. He took a hand from the mask, grabbed the Amulet, and with a powerful yank, he tried to rip it from its chain. Daro’s head jerked toward the Sage when the chain around his neck did not break.
“NO!” yelled the Dark Lord with such hatred, that the Amulet’s jewels began to glow. Athiux sought to lift it over Daro’s head before its terrible magic could be unleashed, but the Dark Lord seized his wrist, letting go of the mask with one of his hands. Athiux had never seen such hatred in a man before. His own eyes suddenly filled with sheer terror when he realized what would happen next.
“Grandfather,” Kade said as she froze amongst the others. They had crept through the grasses, and were very near to the docks.
“Kade, come on!” Asos urged her. But the Enchantress did not move. Her face looked like she would burst into tears at any moment.
“Kade!” Domini tried to break her from her stare.
High on the platform, Daro’s hatred consumed him. Athiux pulled hard on the Amulet with all his strength. Its chain slid halfway up the back of Daro’s head. The Sage’s eyes widened with hope, but with a roar that seemed to echo from the deepest caverns of hell, Daro bellowed against the Sage’s impending theft. He ripped his mask from Athiux’s grasp, and the Amulet, fueled by his hatred, released a hellish red flame that spread across the entire platform. The instant it touched Athiux’s skin, his flesh turned to ash.
Kade yelled at the top of her lungs. The head of every Primen, Blessed and Fated in Palthea turned to the direction of her scream.
A beam of white light shot up from where Athiux once stood, and burst toward the heavens. Daro was blasted back by the force of the eruption, and all who fought below looked to the tower.
“Dear god,” Treäbu said as he, Dareic and Hadaan stopped fighting to see what had illuminated the ground below. “A Transference!” the Skaelar gasped. “A Sage has died!”
The column of white light proceeded into the heavens, and left the top of the tower. When it was gone, Daro got to his feet, and turned in a circle, searching every horizon. He peered through the darkness, utterly oblivious to the fighting below. Then, he saw what he was looking for. Far to the south, a beam of light, identical to the one he’d just seen, raced from the clouds to the ground below.
“There you are,” he spoke.
“Kade, come on!” Asos yelled as the Fated on the rooftops leapt into the sky, and flew toward the group.
Suddenly, all the fields around Palthea were illuminated as if moonlight had dissolved the clouds, and shined such that it rivaled the sun. The group looked to the sky, where a beam of light raced toward them from above. All leapt away from where it would collide with the ground, for fear of it being some instrument of death.
All, but one.
When the column struck Kade, she fell to her knees, her head shot backwards, her back arched, and her arms spread wide. The beam fed the power of a Sage into her soul, for it had chosen her as the next among the Erygians. A mighty wind accompanied the beam, and the grasses around Kade were all but torn from the ground. The rest of the group dug their fingertips into the cold earth, clinging desperately to where they lay.
“What the—?!” Gabrel yelled, realizing that what secrecy they had was completely lost.
Kaven saw the Fated soaring overhead. “Here they come!” he said, then noticed a line of bow-wielding Primen upon one of the rooftops. “Asos, Domini!” Kaven yelled to the Guardians. “Archers from the city!”
As the beam filled her with new power, in her mind, Kade saw flashes of Athiux in the moments before he died. Flashes of the Spawn of Mirrorblood from his perspective. Flashes from Norphenus, the Erygian Sage before her grandfather, as well as others, until, in a final flash, she saw a vision of Idonitus thrusting his mighty sword into a stone floor beside a great throne that overlooked the desolate city of Avenalora. When the last of the column was consumed by Kade’s body, the Enchantress fell to her back, exhausted.
“Kade!” Gabrel shook her. His eyes were still red from tears shed for his Father. “Kade, get up!” At the sound of the arrows launching from the rooftops, Gabrel’s head turned to the city. “Shit!” he yelled, then conjured a wide shield of magic, just as the arrows hissed down from above. They ricocheted off its golden surface, not one passing through.
When at last the air was clear of
arrows, Gabrel released his shield, only to find the wall of Daro’s charging demons nearly upon them.
“Make for the port!” yelled Domini.
“Kaven, help me get her out of here!” said Gabrel. “I’ll hold them off!”
“By yourself?” Kaven said. “They’ll rip you to shreds!” But only a moment later, a distant thundering echoed across the skies, and an idea came to them both.
“Fury,” said Gabrel. They filled themselves with magic, reached their palms toward the oncoming attackers, and felt the current connect them to the world around them—the skies overhead, the earth, each other, but more importantly so, the bodies of the approaching demons. Then, Gabrel and Kaven summoned the power of Fury, and burst lightning from their palms.
They struck seven of the dark creatures, killing them instantly, while those around them leapt aside to avoid the fatal magic. Gabrel examined his hand with fearful fascination. What power he had now, he thought. He felt energized, invigorated, yet somehow uneasy about what he knew he was capable of.
Another look to the approaching creatures startled Gabrel. Without even raising his palm, he summoned Fury, and lightning struck from the heavens. Some of the bolts found Primen and Blessed, while others struck the ground, sending dirt and rock into the air.
“Good glory!” Kaven said at the spectacle they had just created.
“Now’s our chance!” Gabrel said. He knelt quickly to lift Kade into his arms. She seemed to be regaining what awareness she had lost since the Transference, but was still struggling to overcome its effects.
“Caleton has fallen,” Kade said softly, tears streaming from her closed eyes. “Everyone is dead.”
As they raced toward the docks, Gabrel couldn’t see the others, but at the sound of clashing metal, he could only presume that Ayden and the soldiers had reached the boats, and fallen under attack.
