Resurgence of Ancient Darkness

by Vincent Trigili

  Rigal and I slowly moved forward. He kept his shield up in front of us as we carefully entered the room. As I cleared the door, I sensed power build around me. Suddenly blue energy fields went up, blocking all three exits. Rigal and I were trapped; but before I could react to this, power was building again. I turned towards the source of the power and saw a magus just on the other side of the shield blocking the third exit. He laughed as he finished his spell, and a massive demon appeared in the room with us.

  With one quick sweep of its massive arm it slammed the two smashers into the wall where they shattered and crumbled to pieces on to the floor.

  “Flame, teleport your team and go after him. I will take care of this. Rigal, join them,” I sent without taking my eyes off the demon.

  “But, Master,” he started.

  “No buts. Get out of here,” I sent back. “Flame, you are in charge until I can rejoin you. Keep watch on that magus and do not let him summon anything else!”

  With that I unwove the shields that locked us in the room and wove their power into my passive energy shielding. I did not watch to see if Rigal rejoined the other team, as I had to keep my focus on the demon. I put my staff away and drew my sword of pure power. The demon was faster and stronger than any human, so I would have to rely on my powers and instincts to stay ahead of it. I stretched out my awareness through the use of my Weave Sense spell and began to circle the creature.

  Demons were a different class of summoned being, something no wizard would summon, but any sorcerer, given enough time and training, could. Even then, most sorcerers were wise enough not to summon them because they were often far more powerful than the summoner and served the sorcerer only as long as it suited them. They also lacked the connection to their source realm that many summoned creatures possessed. This meant there was no easy way to banish them once they were here.

  It just stared back at me, slowly turning to make sure it always faced me, but did not attack. At first, I could not understand why, but then it occurred to me: as long as I was tied up with the demon, I could not help my team. I could not risk turning my back on the demon, so its mere presence in the station effectively eliminated me from the fight.

  I did not intend to let that go on, so I crouched and leapt at the demon while bringing my sword back for a strike. It moved with even greater speed than I expected to counter my attack, but I still had all the time I needed. Instead of continuing through the air towards it, I teleported over its left shoulder while swinging my sword downwards.

  The demon howled in pain as my sword bit deep into its shoulder. It whipped around, swinging wildly with its good arm, but I had teleported away already. I could see the rage building in its eyes as it turned towards my new location and began a charge. I planted my feet and lowered my sword as if I meant to meet its charge head-on but at the last moment teleported away again.

  This time I landed behind it on the floor and swung my sword low across the back of its legs, digging a deep gash into one before it managed to perform a back kick that sent me flying across the room. My passive shielding saved me from death as I slammed into the wall, but I was still stunned by the blow.

  As I struggled to regain my footing, the demon collapsed to the floor. It had attempted to use its injured leg to leap at me, but the leg could not support it.

  Gasping for breath and trying to shake the blurriness from my vision, I tried to regain a good battle stance with my sword at the defense. Judging by the pain that my breathing was causing I had probably broken some ribs; but I did not have the time to worry about that, as the demon was regaining its footing. Too weak to try another attack with my sword, I switched tactics and pulled in power from the station. I quickly wove an arrow of pure power and launched it at the demon, and then I launched another. As fast as I could make them, I kept sending them.

  Normally I could not conjure powerful arrows fast enough to stop a demon, but its injured leg prevented it from holding its ground and charging me. The demon howled again in pain as it tried to block the arrows with its massive arms, but they slowly took their toll, and it fell back into the wall. That gave me an opening, and I pulled out one of Shea’s explosion potions and threw it hard at the monster. The demon did not recognize the danger in time to dodge, and the potion hit it directly in the chest.

  As I threw it, I dove out the door, hoping to escape the worst of the blast, as I did not have time to weave a proper shield. A massive explosion ripped through the base behind me and sent me flying down the corridor. I could not risk that what was left of my shields would stand up to another crash, so I shifted my body into the weave where there was nothing solid to hit.

  Chapter Sixteen

  At a location far removed from where Shadow and his team were fighting pirates, seven ancient-looking magi gathered around a stone table. Each wore thick black robes that were so black it looked as if all the light around them fell in and was swallowed up, never to be seen again. Their faces were more like skulls than the faces of any mortal men, and their eyes seemed completely nonexistent.

  Each magus was holding a staff personalized to himself alone, as was his hood. One of them, whose hood was a deep red color, raised a staff that had the color of driftwood and the likeness of a comet. He said, “My brothers, we are finally free to rule again!”

  An evil cheer came from those gathered there; the kind of sound that made even the bravest warriors quake in their boots. Another magus with a deep blue hood had a staff that looked like it was made of bones and was topped with a skull from some unknown beast; he said, “True, Rubius, but the curse failed to stop the rebirth of the wizards.”

  Rubius cackled, “Yes, Thazure. That it did, my very pessimistic friend, and that is unfortunate, but they are not a threat to us now.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Thazure.

  Rubius grinned with a mouth full of razor-sharp fangs that belied his vaguely human-looking head. “They are far too weak to face us.”

  “That will change,” responded Thazure.

  Rubius laughed and waved his staff over the table. The surface of the table shifted from solid and ancient-looking wood to a highly-viscous silver liquid. Another wave of his staff, and the liquid began to spin faster and faster. As it spun it took on a bowl-like shape, dipping in the center and rising on the outer edges. Soon images began to form in the pool, images of events all around the universe. It seemed nothing was hidden from their view.

  “Look … ” said Rubius.

  “I do not see anything of importance,” said Thazure.

  “Exactly!” called out Rubius with a vile chuckle.

  Thazure and the others looked on with amazement. It was clear they had no idea what was causing Rubius such joy. Rubuis, meanwhile, was almost beside himself with excitement as images flashed by faster and faster in the pool.

  “Rubius, control yourself! What is the meaning of this?” said Thazure.

  “We survived, and they did not! We won!” he called out.

  Almost as one, they all turned and watched the pool in amazement, and slowly they seemed to understand and join in Rubius’ excitement. Everyone, that is, besides Thazure.

  “It is much too soon to know that,” he said.

  “We live!” cried out Rubius.

  Thazure waved his staff over the pool and an image came up of Grandmaster Vydor. He said, “So does he!”

  “That baby of a wizard is of no concern,” said Rubius, and with a sharp sweep of his hand the image was gone.

  “Babies grow up,” said Thazure. “Strike him down now, while we can.”

  “No,” said Rubius. He drew back to his full height, and silence fell over the room. He waved his hand over the pool and several more faces appeared. “We are alive again, but we are a long way from our full power. We must continue with our plan and take no digressions. We will only have this one chance, and if it fails we must return to the shadows forevermore.”

  The coldness and authori
ty in his voice made all the other magi in the room fall back in fear. Even the brazen Thazure seemed to be pacified by the speech.

  “What is our next step, then?” asked one of the other magi.

  “We must continue the harvest and build ourselves an army,” said Rubius. “But we must do it in secret.” As he said that, the image in the pool shifted, and a planet came into view. “There is where we will begin.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Shadow sent us all away from his fight with the demon, and once we were clear I stopped and gathered everyone. I was completely unsure what to do next.

  “Master, what are your orders?” asked one of the Dark Knights.

  I was still in shock. Shadow gave me command. I could not believe it! He never left me in charge, not even in easy simulations, never mind live combat like this! I had served with him in this navy for years, and never once had he recognized me for command. The pressure on my shoulders was suddenly immense. “Which way did they go?”

  “Master Flame, we did not see them leave, but the place they were most likely to head towards is main engineering. From there they might be able to keep us from obtaining control of the station.”

  “Then let’s head there. You two, take point. Rigal, take rear. Let’s move quickly. I don’t want them to have a chance to dig in,” I said. More accurately, I wanted to prove myself to Shadow. If I could handle these pirates without his help, that would show him I was worthy of more responsibility.

  The Dark Knights moved ahead of us and set a hard pace through the corridors. I used our telepathic network to help Rigal stay with us, as we were practically running to keep up. As we came around a bend in the corridor I saw the Dark Knights drop behind some cover. “Take cover,” I sent across our telepathic network, and then moved to join the Knights. “What’s up?”

  “Master, they seem to have made a tactical error and are down that corridor to the left. It is a dead end, and we can use this entrance as a choke point,” said one of the Knights.

  “I thought the intelligence we had on these guys said they were smart,” I commented.

  “Yes, it does. Master, either we overestimated them, or this is a trap,” he said.

  I raked my mind hard trying to figure out what to do with the information. If they were being stupid, then this was a perfect chance to take them down. If not, it might be the perfect chance for them to take us out. “Think, Flame! Think!” I thought to myself. “What would Shadow or Bill do?” Then it occurred to me: every time Shadow hit a tough spot, he asked advice of those around him whom he trusted. “What do you suggest?” I asked the Dark Knight.

  “We set up movable barricades and slowly move down the corridor, making sure to leave someone behind to guard our backs. I suspect it is a trap, but we need to draw them out,” he said.

  “I could send some smashers ahead of us,” suggested Ferran. “That way they would set off any traps before us.”

  “It will be a simple matter for me to seal off this intersection with energy barriers,” said Rigal. “If they mean to come after us and trap us in the corridor, the shields will buy us the time to turn the tables on them.

  “Perfect. Let’s do that, then!” I said. I was not really sure if it was a good plan or not, but everyone else seemed to like it. I would much prefer us to run down the corridor casting mage bolts as fast as we could. As good as that plan sounded, I had to admit their plan did seem a bit safer.

  Once Rigal was in place, Ferran summoned his smashers and sent them ahead of us as we slowly worked our way down the corridor. I could not make out what was at the end of it, as it was too dark, but I knew once the smashers reached the end we would have our answer.

  We received our answer sooner than expected, as blaster fire erupted out of the darkness and slammed into the smashers. They kept walking, largely unaffected by the attack. We continued to press forward using a movable barrier and the smashers for cover.

  As the smashers were about to reach the source of the blaster fire, several mage bolts leapt out of the darkness and destroyed the smashers. They were almost immune to mundane blasters, but highly susceptible to mage bolts, it seemed.

  “Return fire!” I ordered. Suddenly it dawned on me that there was a very real danger to the lives of the people under my command. If I gave bad orders, it would not just be Shadow’s disappointment that I would face. People would die.

  The Dark Knights’ weapons lit up the hall with brilliant flashes of light, but for some reason the blasts did not pierce the darkness. The bolts merely entered into the darkness and vanished.

  “What is going on?” I asked of no one in particular.

  “Master, I think they have some kind of magical darkness covering their position,” said Sharalyn, a fellow pyromancer that was under my personal tutelage.

  “Hmm, I think you are right,” I said. So now what? I thought to myself. We could not be effective against targets we could not see. Judging by their attacks, they could see us fine, so that gave them all the advantages. “Do you think we can charge their position?”

  “No, Master. They could easily gun us down as we approached,” responded one of the Knights.

  “What about a grenade?” I asked.

  “Master, this corridor is too narrow. The blast would be channeled right back at us,” he said.

  I looked again at the darkness and wondered how they were creating it. It seemed to swallow any light we sent at it in a very unnatural way. “Of course! It’s an illusion!” I exclaimed. “And that is my game.”

  Suddenly there was something I could do. This was in my realm of expertise. I cast Disperse Illusion on the darkness, and instantly the end of the corridor was visible. There were about ten men hiding behind barriers, controlling blasters mounted on the barriers from behind the safety of their screens.

  “There! Him! The magus is our primary target!” I sent. “Everyone, cast! NOW!”

  Now that we had targets to see, all at once our wizards began casting their mage bolts. There was a massive wave, blindingly bright, of pure energy in various forms flying down the corridor all at once. The mage bolts tore through their defenses and slammed into their bodies, sending them flying. All at once the enemy went from having the clear advantage to a scattered pile of broken corpses on the floor.

  “That might have been a bit of overkill,” commented Ferran. He looked visibly shaken by the carnage in front of him.

  “I guess so,” I responded weakly while trying to keep my stomach from jumping out of my throat. “Check for survivors,” I said to the Knights. It still sickened me to kill, even though I knew we had no choice.

  Moments after the Knights had verified that all enemies had been eliminated, Shadow appeared and collapsed against the wall. “Well done, Flame,” he said through struggled coughing.

  I propped him up against the wall and made him drink one of Shea’s potions. Immediately color returned to his face, and his breathing eased. “I need to get you to sick bay,” I said as he passed out.

  “Knights, we need to get Shadow back to the Nevermore,” I started.

  “Master, we are close to main engineering. We should go there. From there we can disable the station’s defenses and the Dust Dragon should be able to safely pick us up.”

  “Okay, then let’s move out. Same set-up as before: Knights on point, Rigal on rear.”

  As we quickly moved through the station, I wondered if we had found all the pirates yet. Most reports had them numbered at close to thirty, but so far we had only found about twenty bodies. That could mean as many as eight or ten more were hiding somewhere.

  I knew that Shadow would want us to search the station and verify that we had found them all, but I couldn’t think about that until I had him safely on his way back to the Nevermore.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ferran carried Shadow while we pushed hard through the corridors. I knew that we would not be able to keep up this hectic pace for much longer, as
everyone was already showing signs of being worn out. “Knights, hold up,” I sent to the Dark Knights.

  Once we were regrouped I said, “We need a safe place to rest. How far are we from engineering?”

  “Master, maybe another half-hour or so. We should push on. We are too exposed here,” said one of the Knights.

  I looked everyone over, and they were clearly exhausted. “No, we rest here for fifteen minutes. Everyone, eat some of your rations and drink some water. If engineering is being held by the remaining pirates we will need our strength.”

  “Master, there is wisdom in that, but we should find some place more defendable,” said the other Knight.

  “Is there anywhere nearby that would do?” I asked.

  “Yes, a weapons locker, Master. It’s not far from here, but it is off our path and will add some travel time to engineering.”

  “Then take us there,” I said.

  We reached the weapons locker without incident, and it was larger than I expected. Our entire team fit comfortably inside, and it was fully stocked. We set guards to watch the corridor and did our best to rest for a while. While we waited, I watched over Shadow. He was sweating profusely and murmuring something, but I could not figure out what. “We need to get him help.”

  “Yes, Master. The doctors on the Nevermore can help him. Until then it is best he sleeps,” said Ferran.

  This was getting worse. Not only was I now responsible for the lives of the entire team, but also my husband’s life was completely in my hands. I could not fail. I had to be perfect, but I had no idea what I was doing.

  “Master, it’s time,” said one of the Knights, and we quickly pushed out.

  It was not long before we reached engineering, and as we came around the corner to approach it weapon fire slammed into our group. We all dove for cover, but whatever weapons they were using punched easily through our barriers, forcing us to fall back.