Death Cloud: The Senturians of Terraunum Series (Book 2)

by R. J. Batla

  Quick as a whip, he rolled under my raised shield and hit me with an uppercut to the jaw.

  I flew backward. My left wrist burned with the intensity needed to keep the Morsenube at bay, and I grabbed at it with my right hand.

  Malstrak strode toward me. “Ah, now I see what the problem is. There’s a stopper. Let’s take care that right now, shall we?”

  He struck at me again with his sword. I parried the first blow, then used my shield on the second, when suddenly he was inside my guard, much too close. “Here we go,” he said, and he grabbed my left wrist with a Morsenube-laced hand. Right on the angel wings tattoo.

  White hot fire raced through my veins as the Morsenube pulsed inside me. The burning was most intense on my wrist, and I let out a scream. A sound like glass breaking hit my ears, and my resolve scattered. I couldn’t stop it.

  My vision turned black, and I felt nothing but hate and rage.

  Yet I was held at bay and strangely calm as Malstrak stood there. In some far-reaching corner of my brain, I knew I’d lost control of the Morsenube, and that it had taken over my body, yet here I stood, still as a statue. Every other time, I had immediately broken into a fevered rage and started destroying things.

  As a matter of fact, it was odd that I could think these thoughts at all. Usually all higher brain function was suspended when the Morsenube took over. Because of this, I was able to watch as Malstrak reached inside his robes and pulled the Darkstone from its hiding place.

  Malstrak grinned devilishly at me. “It’s about time you brought out your most potent weapon – the Morsenube. Alas, it won’t help you, but it was just what I needed.”

  Mentally, I screamed. Even though Gabe had told me, I hadn’t believed it until I’d seen it. Malstrak had the Darkstone the whole time!

  He laughed. “Yes, foolish Ranger. The tournament, your entry, the Darkstone as a prize – it was all a ruse.

  “Now you’ll get to see your power used to defeat the very people you entered that bogus tournament to save! I’m sad to say, you’re about to lose your mind, and everything and everyone you know and love will most likely die. Goodbye, Fire Eyes. Thank you for providing me with my greatest victory.”

  I watched as grotesque creatures emerged from the trees, then stood next to Malstrak. They looked like a walking funnel, covered in black scales and black teeth. They linked hands as Malstrak turned back toward the West Gate. Looking over his shoulder, he said to me, “These are the Gatherers. They’ve been siphoning off energy from every attack your friends have made at my army, storing it inside themselves. Now watch as your Morsenube is powered by your own army’s energy to bring them all down.”

  Malstrak made a small “come here” motion with his left hand and I extended my own. Somehow still aware, I watched as the Morsenube streamed out of me, into the Darkstone and then into Malstrak. He grew larger and more powerful as my power fed him, further enhanced by the power of the Gatherers.

  No! Despite my screaming inside, I wasn’t able to make a sound. The deadly power of the Morsenube finally consumed me, though I was still in my own mind. It was like being a puppet – knowing what was happening but having no control.

  “Yes, the power, the power!” Malstrak said. “More, Jayton Baird, more!”

  With a wave of his hand, he coerced more Morsenube from me, the black energy raging forth and channeling into the dark Senturian, his robes billowing around him.

  In my periphery, I saw my friends scrambling to fight off the enemies Malstrak had brought with him, but they were having a tough time. They wouldn’t be able to help me. I felt my reserves depleting, my energy draining at an alarming rate. Yet more and more power emanated from me and disappeared into the Darkstone.

  With so much power pouring out of me, there was plenty of excess, and the Gatherers sucked it up like water, inhaling through their overlarge mouths, then somehow pushing the energy to Malstrak.

  As I grew weaker and weaker, I felt Malstrak growing stronger.

  Then the pain hit.

  Apparently at a certain level, when you’re completely out of power, your life energy can actually be drained away. And that. Freaking. Hurts. Bad.

  This time, I was able to scream, yelling as loud as I could as I was being torn up from the inside, literal fire pulsing through my veins.

  When I felt like I would die from the pain, suddenly Malstrak paused. Managing to open my eyes, I saw the crazed mage looking around wildly, like he himself was lost. With a shake of his head, he quickly regained his composure, and thrust his left hand at the West Gate.

  Raw destructive power – my Morsenube – burst from his hand, streaking toward the gate. With an earth-shattering impact, the blast of dark power slammed into the West Gate, flinging rocks and people in all directions. For a second, it looked like the power of the Gate would hold, but then the stone and metal of the Gate started to crumble, exploding out from the impact of the dark power.

  The Darkstone pulsed with black energy as Malstrak poured more into his attack, carving through the West Gate. The malevolent energy melted stone where it impacted, causing countless warriors of all Races to die, disintegrating instantly.

  For a full minute, Malstrak kept up the assault until there was a vast section of the Gate missing where he and his army would be able to get through. With a visible effort, he broke off the stream, staggering to his knees and clutching his arm to his chest. For my part, I collapsed as well, falling onto my back, breathing like I’d sprinted ten miles. Yet I was still emitting the Morsenube, the devilish power still raging from my body. I felt my mind and resolve start to slip.

  Other creatures emerged from the trees to tend to Malstrak. They quickly sat him on a chair, then lifted the chair off the ground and carried him away. He looked weak, but when he turned back to me, there was nothing but sheer delight in his eyes. “Farwell, Jayton Baird. You’ve served your purpose.” Gatherers followed him, feeding him their stolen energy. “Thanks for the power! You won’t have to worry about the Morsenube any longer – you’ll be down to a level one since I drained you. The Darkstone absorbed your power levels and gave them to me. I’ll take good care of it and use it to rule all of Terraunum. But no matter.” He turned to his side. “Kill him.”

  Suddenly there were several soft thuds, and the next thing I knew, another group of creatures who clearly had been bidding their time in the trees, came strolling out of the forest, heading straight for me. But I was still incoherent and defenseless, unable to do anything, and still the Morsenube emitted from every pore.

  I heard my teammates battling around me when another sound hit my ears. A very distinctive sound. Like scales rubbing across one another. “Hello, puppet.”

  It was the Shifter. Hiss. It had to be him. Heaving with all my might, I struggled to move, but my body wouldn’t respond, ravaged by the power transfer.

  “I’m going to enjoy killing you, Fire Eyes. Then I’ll use your blood to get close to the East Side fools. Just before I thrust a dagger into their throats.”

  “No!” I heard from my left. Leona leapt over my body, putting herself between the shifter and me. “You’ll never touch him!” Her armor was significantly damaged, and blood ran from several cuts on her body.

  The Shifter laughed, then pulled out a black staff with a gleaming red stone at the top. He thrusted it at Leona. A boulder-sized stream of pure red energy launched at her. She got her shield up in time, but it was no use She was thrown backwards and away from me.

  “No!” I finally managed to scream, forcing my ragged body to stand on shaky legs.

  The Shifter laughed and said, “Goodbye, Fire Eyes.” He thrust the staff at me, the same red energy racing toward me.

  There was nothing I could do. I couldn’t block, couldn’t dodge, couldn’t do anything. I just had to stand there has red death raced towards me.

  Out of nowhere, the executioner was suddenly standing there in front of me. With his shield up, he took the brunt of the attack. His shield quick
ly collapsed, and the red energy slammed into him. He screamed as it burned into his skin, but he pushed forward, screaming the whole time. The Shifter panicked and increased the intensity of his attack, but the executioner advanced quickly, drawing his black bladed dagger.

  Reaching the Shifter, he stabbed faster than Hiss could dodge, the point of his dagger punched through the Shifter’s throat. With a twist, he completely severed the Shifter’s head, then collapsed himself.

  Leona was already running to me before Hiss’s head hit the ground. The rest of the crew, battered and bloodied but alive, followed.

  But it was too late – they wouldn’t be able to get to me in time. I felt the Morsenube creeping into me, burrowing further, searching for power to use. In my mind, I saw my own soul, represented by a small shining ball about the size of a walnut. A black tendril reached out and touched the ball.

  The Morsenube had directly linked to my soul and was using it to power itself. Apparently your very soul contains much more concentrated power. With my friends still twenty yards away, I threw my head back and screamed as the area around me was engulfed by a black sphere of energy, completely obliterating everything within ten feet of me.

  Yet I could still hear and see everything going on, and it shook me to my core. I could do nothing about it – the Morsenube had me at its will, the power all-encompassing. Just like before.

  I saw my group back up, Leona in front, shielding her face from the debris.

  I saw Royn turn on the Ignis Oculus, his Mimic Quantum, allowing him to see what was going on.

  I heard him talk, but didn’t understand it really, with the power and my essence pouring out of me.

  “Leona, you have to get in there! Amplify your shield and I’ll teleport you! The Ignis is telling me you have to ‘Soul Connect’ or Jayton’s going to explode like a bomb, taking out the whole area, including us and what’s left of our forces!”

  “But I don’t know what that is!” Leona screamed as a gale of wind and black energy smacked into them.

  “I don’t either, but you have to try!” Royn screamed into the maelstrom. The grass around them flattened, trees blew over.

  She nodded. I saw her shield power up and envelop her in yellow energy before Royn reached out and touched her shoulder.

  In a flash of blue, she disappeared only to reappear right beside me.

  Thankfully the Morsenube was already scattered and pushed away from me, so she was able to stand there and shout things at me.

  “Come back to me, Jayton!”

  “This isn’t you, Jayton!”

  “Fight it, Jayton!”

  Words didn’t matter, really. I wanted to respond, to do something, but the darkness consumed me, rushing out of my body, destroyed everything it touched. With a scream, the power pulsed out even further.

  Malstrak had attacked me at the back of his army that was laying siege to the West Gate, which held firm two miles to the east. We stood in the open, the prairie trampled flat by the army’s marching. That army was spread out for several miles. Senturians stood atop the Gate and for miles behind it. Thousands of souls locked in battle, one camped in the open field in front of the Gate, the other defending it. All eyes looked my way.

  With a snap, all the lights within a ten-mile radius were extinguished, throwing me, my friends, and the entire battlefield into total darkness. All fires disappeared, all glowstones went dark. It was like an eclipse on the darkest cloudy night you’d ever seen. No light shone from anywhere.

  At all.

  Except Leona.

  She was like a beacon, burning bright in the night, a tiny pinprick of light beside me. Tears streamed down her face. “I love you, Jayton Baird,” she said. “Come back to me.” When I didn’t respond, she burst into tears. “I don’t want to say goodbye.” She pulled me into a kiss.

  Something stirred inside of me where the Morsenube touched my soul.

  Chapter 68 – Ames Talco

  AMES TALCO HAD BEEN blown off the West Gate when Malstrak attacked it.

  He’d just escaped the Wall when the treachery was discovered, then barely managed to rally the troops at the West Gate to shore up the defense before the evil army arrived.

  When Jayton appeared, he thought they’d been saved. The kid had beaten the Uland and was somehow able to make it back here. Ames knew it was destiny, that Jayton would somehow prove to be the deciding factor in a victory for the East Side.

  He was wrong.

  From afar, Ames had watched in horror as Malstrak drained the poor boy, watched as the evil warlock attacked the Gate, destroying it like it nothing more than a stack of matchsticks, and throwing the aging general to the ground, killing a great number of his surviving Senturians, and scattering the rest as they tried to recover from the blast.

  The enemy had been waiting and rushed through the now open portal, killing indiscriminately. The Senturian corps hadn’t had time to rally together to form a defense, and thousands died. Orders were given immediately to fall back to their tertiary position, their back-up plan was already destroyed.

  Ames himself barely made it behind the lines as a giant rushed behind him, swatting him with a backhand that sent him flying into a pack of Dwarves who were able to catch him. It took fifty Senturians to bring the giant down, and over half were lost in the fight.

  “We’re doomed! General, what do we do?” someone asked beside him.

  Ames opened his mouth to reply when the world went dark.

  No light.

  Nothing.

  No sound.

  Everyone and everything froze at the unnaturalness of the what was happening.

  Panic spread among his troops until suddenly there was a pinprick of light, incredibly bright, like a lighthouse at sea, far to the west. The exact spot where Ames had last seen Jayton Baird.

  Ames started laughing.

  “What’s so funny, Councilman?” one of his commanding officers said. “We’re about to die!”

  “A light shines in the darkness.” Ames watched as the light pulsed and grew larger. It doubled in size. Then it doubled again. “And the darkness did not comprehend it. Get ready, everyone, we’re about to be given a second chance.”

  With an enormous rush of sound, the light exploded from its source, throwing the enemy down while empowering his own troops.

  Their courage and resolve restored, the Senturian army was quickly able to kill the invaders who had rushed through the open West Gate. Dwarves and earth Senturians quickly threw up dirt and stone to close the breach, temporarily keeping the invading army at bay.

  At least for a now, but it wouldn’t hold. Senturians rushed to the gaps, attacking the army outside the Gate. Ames hoped they could hold out long enough to evacuate the Break Pass. Despite their best efforts, it had been lost.

  One of his commanding officers rushed over to him, explaining to Ames what he’d seen happen with Malstrak. Ames listened intently, then dismissed the officer.

  A flash of blue behind him signaled that Royn had survived. Ames rushed to where his old friend had appeared to see if Jayton Baird had survived as well.

  Chapter 69 – Jayton Baird

  I WOKE UP IN AN EXTREME amount of pain in a tent, in some location I didn’t recognize. Damn, I was getting tired of that happening. White canvas surrounded me in a ten-yard room. We were either underground or somewhere out of the wind – the canvas stayed perfect flat. Lying in the only bed, I blinked my eyes to try to gain some of my vision back. Blobs finally formed into people sitting in chairs.

  And one lying next to me.

  Leona was beside me, snoozing, as was the rest of my squad.

  “Well, glad to see you’re awake.” Ames Talco had just thrown back the flap of the tent, letting in the light of more glowstones and giving me a glimpse of a roughly hewn cavern. “Though I wish times were better.”

  “Councilman, what...what happened?”

  “I think I’ll let your squad fill you in on the details, but I did want to sa
y that I’m amazed you survived, Jayton. Defeating the Uland was a monumental task, and I’m sorry I had assigned it to you for nothing.” Ames hung his head. “I just wish we hadn’t been so blind to the treachery in our midst and prevent this loss of life.”

  Royn chose that time to wake up and then proceeded to wake the others. They immediately launched into asking me how I was before Councilman Talco shushed them.

  I took the opportunity to say, “Okay, will someone please explain to me what happened? I pretty much remember everything until Leona teleported to me, then things get fuzzy.”

  I wasn’t surprised that Royn started talking. “Your soul was being drawn out of you, the Morsenube having taken total control. It would have drained you completely, leaving you an empty husk. In addition to destroying the entire area with a huge explosion.”

  “Yeah, that seems about how I had it pegged,” I said. “So what stopped me?”

  Royn pointed at Leona. “She said ‘goodbye.’ Apparently that gave you enough sense of yourself to stop the Morsenube and prevent the explosion. But what it did was douse every light within ten miles.”

  “Holy crap.”

  Ames Talco said, “No kidding. Your connection to Leona must be strong. Once all the lights went out, there were a few seconds of complete panic. Suddenly, Leona was glowing, and she was the only light able to penetrate the darkness. Using her as a beacon, Royn was able to make his way to you, and still using the Ignis, connect your souls together.”

  “Um. What?” I said. “That doesn’t even make any sense.”

  Royn laughed. “Love doesn’t make sense either, Jayton. Because you two genuinely love each other, I was able to connect your souls at the energy level. Far more intimate than you could ever be physically. When I did, the light exploded, basically showering the area in the inspiration and power of the Ignis Oculus for miles. Even Malstrak was affected. And that’s why we’re still standing here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Ames answered. “We had someone who was watching him when the light hit him. Suddenly he became weak, like the Morsenube he’d absorbed from you was having an adverse reaction. The creatures around him rallied to his side and swiftly took him away.”