by Kyle West
The Nameless One seemed disappointed. Maybe he thought my choice was foolish.
“So be it, Elekim,” the Nameless One said. “Walk forward, into the light. Your answer waits above.”
I walked forward, the light no longer restraining me. I half-expected to see the Nameless One standing there, in human form. But there was nothing – nothing but the light that began to dim as I walked forward. Soon, it was dim enough to open my eyes fully. I looked behind to see a ball of light floating in the air like a miniature sun.
“Go, Elekim,” the Nameless One said. “You haven’t a moment to waste. And think about what I’ve told you. There is still time to reconsider.”
“That won’t be happening.”
“I am merely the voice of wisdom. Do with my words as you will.”
I entered a tunnel that sloped upward. I began to ascend, the tunnel curving into the darkness. The light faded behind, so I felt my way along the wall. After another few minutes of darkness, the tunnel ceased its curving, and daylight shone at the end. I increased my speed.
I reached the exit, finding myself a good way up the northernmost hill. The lake spread out below, a clear blue-green in the early morning light. Samuel, Makara, Ruth, and Michael stood on the lake’s shoreline. I noticed Anna was missing, but her head resurfaced in the center of the pond.
“Hey!”
My voice echoed off the surrounding hills and forest. All of them began looking around, not able to pinpoint the source of my voice. As I walked downhill, I waved my arms. Makara was the first to spot me, pointing me out to the others.
When the slope evened out, I increased my speed to a jog. The others were running to the other side of the lake in order to meet me at the foot of the hill. Anna swam toward the shoreline, emerging from the water soaked and shivering.
Finally, I made it to the bottom. Anna ran forward and wrapped her arms around me, her body wet and cold.
“What happened?”
“I found him,” I said. “We...talked for a while.”
“He was underwater?” Anna asked.
“Yeah. Something like that.”
“What did he say?” Makara asked.
“Well,” I said. “We talked about philosophy, death, and resurrection.”
“Seriously?”
“Actually, yeah.” I remembered everything he had told me, about having to not only die, but take Askala’s place and live forever. “I don’t really want to go any deeper than that.”
Anna could see that I was troubled, but we couldn’t focus on how I was feeling at the moment.
“He said the answer would be out here, somewhere...”
“You mean over there?” Ruth asked, pointing.
We followed her gesture to the treetops above, where two dragons were flying toward us. Even with the distance, their familiar shapes told me immediately that it was Quietus and Askal.
“Where did they come from?” I asked.
“I think they were here all along,” Samuel said. “Maybe that Nameless One kept them somewhere nearby.”
“You mean, imprisoned?” Ruth asked.
“I think he wanted to talk to me first,” I said. “Now that he’s had his say, we’re free to do what we want.”
Both dragons landed on the far side of the lake. I wondered why they didn’t land closer, but I realized I had left all my stuff over there, anyway. We walked along the lake until we reached the other side. I grabbed my belt, putting it on, along with putting on my jacket and picking up my pack.
I went to stand in front of the dragons. Something about the both of them looked haggard and worn. They’d had to fly hundreds of miles.
Forgive me, Elekim, Askal said as I stood before him. The Nameless One prevented me from speaking to you until now.
I know, I said. It’s good to see you, but I thought you were at the battle.
The rest of the Elekai are, but the real battle is here. Even as they flew west, I flew north.
I’m glad you came, I said. Because we need your help to get to the Crater.
I turned to Quietus, whose movements were slow and lethargic. Her white eyes didn’t seem as bright as usual. Her large wings wilted, dragging against the ground. She closed her eyes, as if in pain.
Quietus?
Yes, Elekim?
Are you alright?
Her eyes seemed to look deeply into mine, filled with a pain that was haunting to see. It was hard to believe that Quietus, before she had become Elekai, was a creature of violence. Now, she was a gentle giant.
I...just returned from the Crater. Askala, of course, knows you’re here, and I barely managed to escape once she discovered me. Before that, I succeeded in convincing her to send much of her swarm to the battle, so it is too late for her to recall them. She is proud, Elekim. She believes that you will never make it to the Two Seas. Askal and I can at least see you as far as the Crater.
The Two Seas?
Yes, Quietus said. The Two Seas lie in the deepest part of the Warrens, far below the surface. At their joining is the Point of Origin, the entrance to Askala’s sanctum. Quietus looked at me, sadly. I would take this cup from you, but I believe you shall drink it in full, in due time. I could not bear the hypocrisy of telling you that you will win. There is little to no hope, Elekim. Despite my persuasion, great monstrosities still lurk in the shadows of Ragnarok – Askala’s most dear pets, raised with a cruel love only she can instill. It is best not to comprehend such darkness, Elekim – but you will know this darkness better than even I, Quietus, who endured it for untold eons. You must ask – is it worth it? If you understood even a fraction of this question’s implications, you would cower in fear.
I could say nothing in response. Maybe the only reason I could go on was because I didn’t know what I had to face. I couldn’t imagine what I was risking, or the pain I would feel.
But I couldn’t turn back. Not now. Too many had died to get me here. I had to fight, no matter the cost.
“We’ve come too far,” I said. “Whatever happens to me...I need to be at the Crater. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”
Then come, Quietus said. Askal and I will fly you to Ragnarok, to the deepest darkness of the world.
I turned to my friends, looking each of them in the eye. Makara. Samuel. Anna. Ruth. And finally, Michael.
“This is our last chance,” I said. “Our final battle. Nothing but death or worse is ahead. There’s no turning back. There’s no one I’d rather be here with than you. Without all of you, I would have never made it this far. We’ll need each other every step of the way. We lost Julian today. We’ll lose more. I can almost guarantee that. This might sound weird, but...it might be best if we consider ourselves dead already. When we go down into the Crater, there’ll be no coming back up.”
“If we are dead,” Anna said. “We have nothing more to lose. There’s nothing more Askala can take from us.”
“I have no regrets,” Ruth said. “Let’s get moving.”
“For Julian,” Michael said.
“For Julian,” Makara agreed.
“Let’s not forget Ashton, too,” Anna said, “and Grudge, and everyone who has died to get us here.”
“This is the moment,” Samuel said. “I know none of us asked for this. When we first found the Black Files, I never imagined our road would lead here. Some doors, once opened, can never be closed. Our only choice is to go through them. And right now, we’re walking through the wide-open door of Hell. Whatever may be said of us, if anyone lives to tell our stories – it’s been a hell of a ride. All of us should have died a long time ago.” He cracked a rare smile. “Maybe we can surprise ourselves one more time.”
It was time to get moving. The longer we dragged this out, the harder it would be. Everyone became focused, determined, maybe even defiant.
“Anna and I can take Askal,” I said. “Everyone else can go on Quietus. She’ll be able to carry four easily.”
Everyone agreed, so Anna and I went to mount Ask
al. He lowered his wings as we climbed onto his back. Meanwhile, Samuel, Makara, Ruth, and Michael got on Quietus. Each of them had plenty of room, occupying a different spot between Quietus’s spikes, the spikes themselves serving as natural handholds.
When everyone was seated, I gave the order.
Go.
As Askal lifted into the air, the grove below dropped away. The wind cooled as we rose up into the sky, leaving the grass, forest, and pond behind. From above the grove, I could see the bright light shining from deep within the pool. I wondered if the Nameless One was watching us.
It wasn’t long before we had passed out of the hills and over the surface of the Great Blight. The morning sky was surprisingly clear – still red, but the clouds weren’t so thick. In the distance, I could see the northern perimeter of the xenoforest. It was hard to believe we had run all that distance through the night. Even now, I was weary, and could have fallen asleep on Askal’s back if I had wanted to.
Anna wrapped her arms around me more tightly.
“How are you feeling?”
I took her hands, sheltering them within my own.
“I don’t know. I think I’m just ready for all this to be over.”
She held on, saying nothing.
“I guess it will be, soon,” she said.
“It’s hard to see a happy ending coming out of this,” I said. “I’m trying to think about it as just another task, without emotion.”
“You can’t keep your emotions out of something like this,” Anna said. “Without emotions, without love, you have nothing.” She paused. “It’s not over, yet. Nothing has ended the way we expected. Why should this be any different?”
I had no idea how to answer her.
“We need to believe there’s a happy ending,” Anna said. “Not just for the world, but for ourselves. How else are we to go on? If we don’t believe that, there’s not much point to this. Even if we die, maybe life will go on for us, afterward. At least, that’s what I hope.”
Those words brought me back to what the Nameless One told me. If I defeated Askala, it meant there was life after death, but not in any human sense of the word.
I couldn’t think about that, though. At this point, I didn’t even know if I was going to make it to Askala alive, to the Two Seas and the Point of Origin.
I had no idea what came after that, so all I could do was keep going.
Chapter 20
As the day brightened, we flew directly south over the xenoforest. The trees were a blaze of orange and pink, glimmering in the crimson morning. The forest ended on the horizon, the land rising toward a jagged line. I couldn’t see beyond that line, but I knew it was the beginning of the Crater. As the minutes passed, the line became bolder, but I still couldn’t see over its edge.
In time, that line moved and I could see into the Crater itself. Its size took me aback, because it was so much larger than I had expected. I knew Ragnarok Crater was about one hundred miles wide, which meant the whole thing couldn’t be seen in its entirety. All the same, I could see the curvature of the rim, wrapping from horizon to horizon. To the south, there was no way I could see the other side. A thick haze blanketed the Crater’s interior, making it impossible to look far within. It was probably large enough to have its own weather patterns. From what I could see of its descending slope, nothing grew inside it – not even xenofungus.
The rim fell away in a sheer cliff, dropping thousands of feet into the cloudy murk: sheer, deadly, impassable. There was no way down except by air. Even if we had managed to get here on foot, we would have had to go through that. I thought of the meteors destroying our ship – maybe they had been Askala’s way of keeping out unintended visitors.
Looking down into the Crater, I wondered how Askala’s monsters even got out. There must be tunnels that led from the Crater to the surface.
A meteor as large as Ragnarok had been would have struck deeply into the Earth’s crust. Visibility was clear for the first mile or two into the Crater, but anything further was lost in reddish haze. Depending on how deep the Crater went, the atmospheric pressure would be greater than on the surface. If it went down for even a few miles, the pressure would be substantially greater.
Askal and Quietus flew side by side, bearing us over the rim of the Crater. We began our descent. No movement or sound came from the surrounding haze.
Askala and Quietus glided downward in silence, rarely beating their wings. I looked behind and saw that the Crater’s edge was fading through the miasma. We were far below the edge by now.
The air warmed as we continued to descend. Soon, all we could see was the haze – I couldn’t see the sky above, or the ground below, and the cliffs had been left behind. This journey was nowhere near over.
The minutes passed in silence. The air thickened and became hotter, until sweat collected on my skin. The air reeked of sulfur. And still, we descended. All was silent save for the flapping of Quietus’s and Askal’s wings.
The heat became altogether sweltering, and the air thick and difficult to breathe. In time, through the haze, the ground itself appeared – black, scarred, and cracked. Thick smoke billowed from vents. We passed right over one, sending me into a fit of coughing. Askal did his best to avoid the smoke, but this was impossible at points.
A red glowing abyss materialized in the distance. This was the entrance we were looking for. Fissures had cracked away from the opening, smoldering with molten heat. Smoke hissed from the vents, adding to the thick atmosphere and oppressive heat. Heat waves riddled the air, and the thick, red clouds clung to the ground.
If there was a Hell on Earth, we’d just found it.
Over the opening of the abyss, several dragons spread their wings, rising in the hot updrafts. The hellish Radaskim glowed red from the light of the magma below. Their high-pitched shrieks shot through the air, piercingly loud.
For now, the dragons seemed unaware of our presence. We had to get out of this heat and find refuge underground, hopefully in a dark passageway. Otherwise, we’d be cooked alive.
Askal and Quietus, however, didn’t seem to mind the heat. They flew at the same speed and with the same intensity as they had been. About halfway from our position to the fiery edge of the abyss, a dark tunnel opened into the ground.
Land there, I said to Askal.
Askal changed trajectory, flying toward the opening. Quietus followed suit.
“We’re going in there?” Anna asked.
“Yeah. Getting out of the heat is the number one priority.”
As the ground neared, it became even hotter. The heat, I realized, was being reflected from the rocks. This entire crater was a heat trap. The atmosphere was thick, so any heat that entered would never escape.
When Askal landed, I jumped onto the ground immediately. I stripped myself of my jacket, leaving it on the Crater’s floor. As everyone else rid themselves of unnecessary garments, the heat rose in waves from the cracked rocks. Smoke and haze curled from cracks, and the molten glow of the abyss lit the ground in the distance, about half a mile ahead.
I turned to the dragons, addressing both of them.
Askal...Quietus...thank you. We have to go the rest of the way on our own.
Be careful, Elekim, Askal said. We will help you, such as we can.
I had no idea what the dragons had in mind. All I knew was that we had to get moving.
You are entering a dark place, Elekim, Quietus said. Be on your guard, and choose your path wisely.
I’ll do what I can, Quietus. Stay safe. Save yourselves.
The dragons merely watched, not taking flight, as I turned to the others.
We drank deeply from our canteens. Everyone’s skin was reddened from the heat.
Then, we ran toward the tunnel, the heat from the rocks penetrating the soles of my boots. I remembered that my watch had a temperature setting. I switched the display until a number came up, too large to even be believed.
“One hundred and seventy-two,” I said.
As we crossed the Crater’s floor, Askal and Quietus took to the air, keeping watch on our progress.
A few minutes later, we had reached the dark tunnel entrance. Cooler air emanated from its depths, a welcome relief. We entered the tunnel, the descending slope so steep that we practically slid our way down. Where the slope evened out, we stood. Samuel and Makara retrieved their flashlights. When they clicked them on, it revealed a twisting, angular path ahead.
“Be ready for anything,” Makara said.
She started forward, the rest of us following her into the darkness.
***
The tunnel twisted in tight angles, tending to go down rather than up. As we descended, the air cooled somewhat, though it was still stifling.
After about ten minutes of our navigating the tunnel’s strange angles, it forked into two paths. The right definitely seemed to be the easier path, continuing the same course we were on. The other tunnel, however, was little more than a hole in the floor, its slope steep. Only one person could fit through it at a time.
“Here comes the fun part,” Makara said.
“How do we know which way to go?” Ruth asked.
Samuel shook his head. “We don’t. We have to guess.”
“Well, I know which way I’d rather go,” Makara said.
“We should go with the one that has the coolest air,” Anna said.
I went to the passageway to the right, lifting a hand to test the air. “This one feels the same. Warmer, if anything.”
“That leaves this one,” Makara said, kneeling down. She placed her hands over the opening. “Can’t really tell.”
“Let me go in,” I said, stepping forward.
Makara held up a finger. “No.”
I paused, watching Makara sit at the edge of the opening. She shone her flashlight down.
“It goes down a good ways,” she said. “It’s not a complete drop-off. There’s a slope, but it’s very steep. I’ll have to climb down to see anything more.”