Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3)

by Travis Bagwell

  And Finn could see what he was doing now…

  He watched as flames forged a connection between Kyyle’s Najima and Brock’s mana core, trading energy between those two clusters of energy. The process sped up quickly, Finn’s focus honing to a fine point. His thoughts were only on the words and gestures – the flow of the mana passing between the pair. He could see Kyyle’s Najima disintegrating, drifting into Brock’s core and the gem expanding in size, its energy flaring brightly.

  And as the last traces of Kyyle’s Najima disappeared, Finn finally dropped the spell.

  Exhaustion swept over him in a wave, and he stumbled, Julia just barely managing to catch him. He wrapped an arm over her shoulder, shooting her a grateful look. While the spell might not have an obvious mana or stamina cost, the Forging had taken a larger toll on his mind and body than he had expected. And the infection lingering in his body had responded to his casting, surging with renewed strength, burning and searing its way through his chest and arms in a way that had him releasing a hissing breath.

  When Finn looked up again, he saw that one of Kyyle’s Najima was gone, surgically cut from his body with bands of fire, and transferred to the earth elemental. Even without his borrowed knowledge, he would have been able to see that Kyyle had bound a part of himself to the elemental, a faint emerald cord of energy now stretching between them.

  “It’s done,” Finn croaked, his throat feeling unnaturally dry and his legs still trembling. It seemed the spell had a cost that was more than just raw mana and stamina. The level of concentration needed to perform the spell alone was nearly overwhelming.

  “This is… strange,” Kyyle murmured, his eyes distant as they jumped back and forth between a series of invisible prompts and Brock.

  “Indeed. This is an unusual sensation,” the earth elemental rumbled.

  “You will acclimate to the bond quickly,” Nar Aljahim said. “But our remaining time grows short. And there is still one more matter for us to address.”

  Finn turned back to the towering fire elemental to see his attention hovering on Finn’s face. He pulled away from Julia, wavering unsteadily for only a moment before he regained his balance. “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “There is one last gift I wish to grant you, a fitting reward for the Prophet of the Flame and a final gift to aid you in recovering my mate’s heartstone,” the elemental replied. “I wish to help repair your injured limb and cure the corruption that lingers in your Najima.”

  Finn’s eyes widened, and he saw his teammates glance at him in surprise. Even without switching to Short-Sighted, he could imagine the way Julia was likely glaring at him right now. And he could certainly hear her let out a frustrated sigh. He might have forgotten to mention the part about the magical infection that was spreading from the Najima in his left arm. There had been no point in worrying them.

  “I sense that you recovered a gem – a Focusing Prism,” Nar Aljahim continued. “You also carry a quantity of the neurogem material. May I have both?”

  Finn’s brow furrowed, but he complied with the fire elemental’s request, digging in his pack. Only a moment later, he held the gem they had recovered from the Supervisor and a dense bundle of the crystalline wiring they had scavenged from the powered-down security mech.

  With a wave of Nar Aljahim’s hand, a table rose from the floor of the chamber just outside the wards, and Finn set the materials on its surface.

  The elemental’s hands began to wind through a series of gestures, those same strange, guttural words flowing from his lips like the crackle and snap of the flames. Fires surged up and around the table, glowing so brightly that they nearly blinded Finn with his Mana Sight active. Yet Finn forced himself to keep watching. The neurogem material floated up into the air, suspended in a globe of flame. The fires turned a brilliant white for only an instant, and as the heat receded, it left a glowing molten sphere of the crystal floating in the air.

  Then the elemental molded and shaped the material with a deft series of gestures.

  In only an instant, Nar Aljahim was finished, and the flames dissipated.

  What was left on the table looked eerily familiar. It was an arm – or at least part of one – composed entirely of brilliant, semi-translucent crystal. And atop the hand rested a small socket. With a final gesture, the Focusing Prism drifted into the air, carried on coils of flame, and then clicked into place, flashing once as it welded itself to the hand.

  Nar Aljahim gestured at Finn. “Come closer and set your left arm on the stone.”

  Finn did as he was told, staring in fascination at that hand.

  He knelt and set his stump on the table. Dark metal coated his skin and curled up his bicep, ruined fragments still clinging to the base of his arm where his blade had once rested.

  “Do you consent to forge a bond with this object?” Nar Aljahim asked.

  “Yes,” Finn answered. Tamping down on the nervous tremor in his right hand, he balled those fingers into a fist. It wasn’t really a choice. He could only accept the opportunity to repair his hand and stop the corruption that was spreading up his left arm.

  “This may be a bit… uncomfortable,” Nar Aljahim explained. “I must fuse the hand to your arm as part of the Forging process, as well as purge the corruption lingering within your body. That infection has spread considerably. There will be pain.”

  “Just do it,” Finn ground out, touching his stump to the base of that crystalline hand.

  If he had managed to survive learning the Forging, he could handle this.

  With a nod, the elemental began casting again.

  A now-familiar lattice of flame formed in the air, encircling Finn’s arm and the newly formed hand. Yet as the fire wrapped his arm and entered his flesh, Finn felt a searing heat following the infection’s path, burning up through his arm and into his chest. It took every ounce of strength he had to weather that pain. It felt like he was burning from the inside out – like Nar Aljahim was cauterizing a massive, gaping wound within his body.

  Amid the pain, he vaguely registered Julia placing a hand on his other shoulder – an attempt to comfort and steady him against the table.

  You are doing this for her. For Rachael, he told himself, grinding his teeth and willing himself to stay still.

  What felt like an eternity later, the fires had lanced away the corruption in his Najima, and Finn let out a sigh of relief. Then he felt a strange tickle of numbness in his arm, pinpricks that raced down his skin. He saw his mana drifting out of his Najima, across the few inches of open air, before seeping into that crystal limb. The energy caused orange and red flames to coil within the depths of the translucent material.

  He squeezed his eyes shut as he saw bands of fire wrap the base of that crystalline hand and the dark metal along Finn’s arm. Rapidly, the air began to heat until it was almost overwhelming, sucking the breath from his lungs as the flames briefly turned a blinding white.

  He braced himself for what he knew was coming next.

  The molten edge of the dark metal and crystal touched…

  And then fused.

  However, Finn felt no pain. His eyes shot open in surprise. The hand blended seamlessly with the dark metal, tendrils of crystal jutting from the new limb and burrowing through the molten metal before inching up into Finn’s bicep – likely connecting with his nervous system, he realized belatedly.

  There was a faint sense of discomfort but no pain.

  And then it was done. The flames winked out.

  Finn crouched there, the newly formed hand bound to his arm, anchored against the dark metal. The crystal glowed with an orange light, the power of his Najima now stored within the neurogem material.

  “Can… can you move it?” Julia asked from behind him, her hand still on his shoulder.

  Finn tilted his head as he stared at the hand. There was only one way to find out.

  He urged his fingers to move, holding his breath.

  And he saw the crystal twitch, and then the
fingers curled inward to form a fist. It almost looked impossible, this visually rigid substance moving so fluidly. But that was the marvel that was the neurogem material. He doubted he would ever encounter such a substance again.

  Finn flexed and shifted the arm more aggressively, testing the range of movement. It moved much like his old hand – although he had no feeling in his wrist or fingers. His guess was that the neurogem material was picking up on the electrical signals from his nervous system, much like a modern-day prosthetic limb.

  “This is amazing,” Finn murmured.

  “You will come to find that your new limb and the gem imbued in its surface are capable of many astonishing things,” Nar Aljahim interjected. “You will have to practice and experiment to fully discover their uses. Even in this facility’s time, such prosthetic applications of the neurogem material were merely experimental.”

  Finn met the elemental’s eyes. “Thank you,” he said.

  “Some of this facility’s knowledge must survive. Use the Forging and your new limb well. That is the only repayment I require,” the elemental said.

  Even as Nar Aljahim stopped speaking, a mechanical voice echoed through the chamber. “Interior security breach. Unknown corruption detected in the earth mana section.”

  The map of the facility still floated nearby. The corrupted had made it past one of the blast doors and were now spreading into the adjacent section, scurrying toward the mana storage crystals embedded in the floor and that section’s pylon chamber.

  “Unfortunately, our time here has come to an end. You must leave. Now,” Nar Aljahim said curtly, his body flaring to life as he stared at the screen.

  The yellow-tinted blast door across the room slid open. “Take the air mana section. I have opened all of the barriers leading to the reception area. Once the scanners show that you have made it back to the entrance, I will initiate the facility’s self-destruct sequence.”

  Finn forced himself to his feet as his group started heading for that blast door, their steps harried. He spared one last glance over his shoulder at the ancient fire elemental that towered in the center of that massive chamber, his eyes still staring at that map. There was a sadness to his flames, perhaps the way they dimmed and flickered more erratically.

  It was at that moment that Finn could understand what Nar Aljahim intended to do. The fire elemental was about to lock himself inside this facility permanently, sealing himself away underground and behind layers of wards. Alone until he perished.

  “Thank you. For everything,” Finn said.

  The fire elemental met his gaze. “Do not mourn for me, Stormbringer.”

  Finn’s brow furrowed at that title, but he held his tongue.

  “This is not the end – for you or for me,” Nar Aljahim continued. “Life and death are an endless, revolving circle. We flare to life in an instant, burn brightly, and fade back into darkness… only to return again,” the elemental replied solemnly. Then he turned his attention back to the map, his flaming hands darting through the air – likely bringing the facility’s defenses online to attempt to stall the corrupted and buy them time to escape.

  “Dad, come on! We need to go!” Julia shouted at him.

  And he answered her, forcing himself to turn away from Nar Aljahim and ordering his legs to start pumping – his feet soon thudding against the dense stone floor. Only moments later, Finn darted through the yellow-tinged blast door, and the massive portal slid shut behind him, crashing into the wall and the metallic locks slamming into place with a certain finality.

  Perhaps Nar Aljahim was right. Perhaps death wasn’t the end. Perhaps the elemental would survive to see his mate again – to form a new star or planet. Perhaps Finn would be able to return with the heartstone someday… with Rachael by his side.

  Finn clung to that hope, despite the kernel of doubt that lingered in his heart.

  Because, in his experience, some doors – once closed – never opened again.

  Chapter 29 - Ordered

  Finn’s feet thumped against the stone floor, his breath coming quick and short. The sound was echoed by his teammates as they sprinted alongside him. In this section of the facility, the walls were awash in yellow energy, the light fluctuating erratically as pulses of ivory light swept past at regular intervals – likely Nar Aljahim scanning the facility. They turned a corner, and a final blast door lingered ahead of them. The barrier began to slide open as soon as they crested the turn, letting out a reluctant, grinding screech of metal and stone.

  As they sped through that final portal, a flash of orange light rippled along the nearby wall, and the blast door started to slide closed. The door slammed shut with a bang, followed closely by the repetitive thump, thump, thump of the locking bolts sliding into place. The group paused for a moment in the reception area as they tried to regain their breath.

  That respite was short-lived.

  “Self-destruct sequence initiated. 60 seconds until detonation. Please evacuate the facility immediately,” that familiar mechanical voice chimed.

  “Shit,” Kyyle gasped as Julia pushed him toward the tunnel leading back to fresh air and sunlight… and hopefully out of range of Nar Aljahim’s purge of the facility.

  The group continued their headlong sprint, ignoring the burning sensation in their lungs and legs as they raced down the long entry hallway, leaping over and winding around the piles of rubble and metal scrap that lay along the floor. Finn winced as he suddenly remembered that Spider’s vine barrier would be waiting for them at the end of the tunnel – several feet of thick vegetation blocking their exit.

  He rummaged in his pack, pulling two metal orbs free.

  Feels like a good time to test my new hand, he thought to himself. Under other circumstances, that would have been exciting. As it was, he just hoped the damned thing worked as well as his old flesh-and-blood fingers.

  He heaved an orb down the hallway, his fingers moving as soon as the sphere left his hand. Arcane words spilled from his lips, but his legs never ceased their continuous rhythm. Fire sprang up around the ball of metal. He threw the second, and his diamond-like fingers responded, weaving through the pattern of the spell without faltering. Unable to feel the movements, Finn had to look down at the translucent limb to make sure that the fingers were actually moving. It felt strange – almost disconnected in a way – to see the limb in action but to feel… nothing.

  That was going to take some getting used to.

  As flames wrapped the second orb, Finn tugged up the heat rank on both spheres, maintaining the channel with each hand. For the first time in what felt like ages, he was using his Multi-Casting. As the metal spheres began to glow, he directed them forward, the flames just barely illuminating the overlapping lattice of thorny vines and vegetation that loomed ahead. He pinched his fingers and pulled, a coating of spikes erupting from each of the molten metal spheres. Then he dropped the heat down to heat rank level 1 and set those spiky orbs to spinning, picking up speed as they ran.

  “30 seconds until detonation,” that voice chimed again.

  “Uh, there’s sort of a wall up ahead,” Julia offered in a frantic voice, glancing at Finn.

  “Not for long…” he panted.

  As soon as the thin line that denoted his control range met the vine-covered barrier, he launched the spheres forward, and they rocketed through the air in a blur of orange flame. His fingers urged them into a spiral pattern, the two orbs twisting around one another and grinding up the vegetation like a makeshift drill – sending bits of fleshy, charred plant matter flying in every direction and burrowing a large hole through the barrier. Sunlight soon shone through that new opening, and the group charged toward it.

  They emerged from the tunnel, and Julia shoved Finn and Kyyle off to the side, pulling her shield from her back and taking up a position in front of them.

  “Kyyle, build us a barrier!” Finn barked. There wasn’t time to get away from the entrance to the Forge facility. So they were going to have to entr
ench their position.

  The earth mage was already moving, ribbons of emerald energy curling around his staff and liquid stone drifting up to create a dense stone wall in front of the group. Kyyle didn’t stop with just one layer. He reinforced the stone over and over again with his few remaining seconds. That wall rose from the ground and curved, the earth mage likely hoping to divert any of the flames that reached them.

  Finn saw the facility self-destruct before he felt the blast.

  A massive haze of orange and red energy blossomed deep within the Forge. The energy was so bright and intense that it was visible even through the dozens of intervening layers of the facility’s crystal-laden walls. That inferno rushed outward rapidly, and Finn could visualize what Nar Aljahim had done – opening all of the interior blast doors at the same time and letting his fires sweep the entire facility clean of the corrupted. And with the flames went all of the remaining technology hidden within the Forge. There was more than enough fire mana to melt the walls and doors to slag and cave in portions of the facility.

  However, Nar Aljahim had gone even further than that…

  Finn’s eyes widened as he saw six spikes of brilliant energy, the mana backflowing up the columns of crystal that stretched through the mountain. Six beams of light speared up into the sky, mixing with the river of energy that flowed through the clouds. That avalanche of power barely reacted to the newfound energy, its surface only rippling slightly. The surrounding clouds weren’t so lucky, the columns sucking in the air and moisture and creating six white-hued tornadoes that quickly obscured the energy from sight.

  He opened the doors to the pylon chambers, Finn realized.