by Jamie Murray
"I think the Skeleton did something to him," Jameson said.
"It could be trying to use his body to host," Baloric said as he helped lay Luke down flat. "But it doesn't make any sense because those parasites only go after dying people."
"He's quickly becoming in not such great health," Jameson pointed out.
"I can't move right," Luke said in a strained voice through clenched teeth, though his statement was painfully obvious. "Am I going to die from this?"
"You're not going to die, Luke," Jameson said as he looked hopefully to Baloric, wanting him to immediately follow up with an agreement. Unfortunately, Baloric was only looking Luke up and down, not confirming or denying Jameson's statement. "Baloric!"
Jameson's voice was surprisingly commanding, but at least it finally got Baloric's attention. He turned to Jameson and paused a moment, then looked at his brother and sister. "If I had my power, I'd be able to help him," Baloric said finally.
"Maybe I could—"
William hardly began his statement before Baloric interrupted with, "It's outside the realm of Gislan magic. It was magic I acquired from the stones. You know, Jameson, when I would use my magic to enhance and direct the power of the stones. I used to be able to use those powers freely, but not anymore."
"Why can't you do it like you used to ten years ago?" Jameson asked.
"The stones don't work," Baloric pointed out in a frustrated tone. "You don't even have the Rain Stone anymore—"
He abruptly stopped himself as he stared down at Luke, then directly at Raven.
"That's why we're collecting them," he said quietly.
"What?" Raven whispered.
Baloric slowly waved his hand over Luke in an ominous sort of way and, at first, nothing happened. As he moved his hand back over him, a small trail formed. Jameson was unsure what the trail was supposed to symbolize, but then Baloric pulled his hand away and stared at the wisps of visible air.
"We're not just resurrecting the Spirits, we're also resurrecting the power of the Spirits," Baloric said. "They don't work when you hold them anymore, Jameson, because they only work when held by the…"
He trailed off thoughtfully and Jameson finished his statement with, "The Spirits." The air Baloric had manipulated over Luke had transformed into clouds; he was able to use his power with only Luke's help, so that surely must have meant he would be able to use the power of the Shadow Stone once it shattered and Raven absorbed the light.
"I might be able to help him after all, if my theory is right," Baloric declared as he stood up, pulling Raven to her feet as well. "Come on, Raven. You have to resurrect the Spirit before Luke is completely lost to us."
"You'll be able to use your power again?" William exclaimed, following after them.
Jameson watched them go back towards the wall Jameson had been inspecting earlier, but decided he would stay with Luke.
"What's happening?" Luke asked shakily, his face quickly becoming very pale.
"You're going to be fine," Jameson assured him. "Just wait a few minutes longer."
Luke nodded vaguely, closing his eyes and clearly trying to concentrate on other things. Jameson turned to see the others' progress, but they were still searching the wall for where the stone would go. He felt as though he should offer his expertise since he had already seen what it would look like in the previous Shrine.
Reluctantly, he put his hand on Luke shoulder and told him, "Wait here, I'll be right back."
"All right," Luke said, keeping his eyes tightly closed.
Jameson got to his feet and ran to the wall. "The one in the Rain Shrine was about waist height," he said, trying to hurry them along.
As soon as he put his hands on the surface of the wall, he felt a strange but familiar sensation; a voice, distant and young, echoed in the large room of the Shrine, filling every corner. "I do know that I miss him being around. I generally don't like it when people go away, and that seems to happen too much."
Jameson didn't even realize he had completely frozen in place as he listened to the voice. It simultaneously sounded like a booming entity and a quiet whisper in his ear.
"What is it?" Baloric said, clearly noticing Jameson had stopped moving. "Do you hear something?"
Jameson raised his eyes and met them with Baloric's confused expression. Slowly, he turned his head and looked at Raven whose eyes were wandering around the ceiling, perhaps trying to find the source of the voice.
"Can you hear it, Raven?" he questioned.
"Yes!" she exclaimed, looking back at Jameson. "What is it?"
"You," Jameson replied. "When we met the first time ten years ago. It's the memory I heard when we first went into that place below Market City."
"The world could use a little more happiness, couldn't it?" Raven's disembodied childlike voice asked. Jameson and Raven's eyes met as soon as the voice began to speak, and Jameson moved his hands slightly, grazing a small groove in the wall.
"Here," Jameson instructed. "Put the stone right in this hole."
Jameson pointed at the wall and Raven practically threw the stone into the hole as she was instructed. Instantly, just as it had done in the previous Shrine, the black Shadow Stone shattered into dust and sprinkled to the floor. Raven gasped out loud as soon as it happened, perhaps afraid she had done something wrong as the remaining pieces of the stone flittered to the floor. The wall began to shift and, instead of scrolling up like it had in the Rain Shrine, it began to slide backwards, compressing in itself. The sound of the stone wall sliding across the floor echoed in the hall as Jameson listened to a continuous replay of the memory he shared with only Raven.
Finally, he took her by the arm and led her away from the door, allowing the wall to open itself up. After it pushed back into itself, it began to fold over and, as the wall compressed against the other side, the light began to become overwhelming. A massive ball of light almost levitating behind the door quivered and shook, expelling light in all directions. Raven continuously lunged forward like she was going to touch it, but Jameson held onto her to make sure the door opened completely before she went wandering in.
When the sounds of the door scraping finished, Jameson finally let her go.
"What now?" William asked from an equally confused stance by Baloric's side.
"Touch it," Jameson said to Raven.
She extended her hand and began to walk towards the giant ball of light. With every step she made, she leaned forward as far as she could in hopes her finger would graze the light without having to get to close. Unfortunately, it was still completely out of reach.
"Raven," Baloric said in a tone which sounded like confidence for her.
"I know," Raven said adamantly. She took a deep breath and finally took the proper amount of steps towards the ball of light and extended both her arms at it. As soon as her hands touched the ball, it immediately dissipated; the light ceased and the apparently solid ball of light became transparent and soon disappeared all together. It was as simple as blowing out a candle, though not even a trail of smoke showed any indication that the light had once been there.
Raven stood in front of where the light once was with her head down while William, Baloric and Jameson stood idly by, waiting for her to turn around and report on what had just happened.
"The world…" Raven began softly. "…Could use a little more happiness…" She looked around at the others and finally faced them. "Couldn't it?"
"That's the memory," Jameson said. "Come on, we have to help Luke."
"Hurry!" Raven ordered, grabbing Jameson by the elbow before he could return to his friend's side. She let go of him and merely pointed towards the hole just beyond where Luke was still lying patiently. Jameson waited for just a second, and then saw the beast as it began to rise.
48. Kill the Forces
Chapter 48
A massive mound was slowly rising from the abyss, swaying as it came into view, revealing its enormous head was significantly larger than the Forces they had faced
in the maze. As Jameson began to run, drawing his sword as he did so, he concluded that this Forces must be the same one they saw outside the Angel's complex.
He couldn't gather enough speed as he desperately tried to reach Luke before the Forces did. It appeared to be focused only on Luke, pulling its massive body up over the ledge using its relatively small legs, causing the ground to shake slightly as it did. Luke struggled to prop himself up on his elbows and winced at the sight of the Forces, unable to do much more than that.
Jameson suddenly felt a quickly burst of speed practically push him from behind, and when he glanced over his shoulder, he saw William's arms extended towards him. He made it with only instants to spare before the Forces lowered its leg on Luke; he managed to slice it off cleanly, causing the monster to roar in pain, immediately recoiling and writhing in response. Of course, the Forces was also the source of the poison gray gas, and Jameson was prepared to receive it, but a gust of wind from William's direction redirected the gas up into the air.
Luke was wheezing in a terrified sort of way as Jameson knelt down and struggled to lift him off the floor. His friend cried out in disoriented pain as Jameson tried to pull him away from the Forces and where the gas was inevitably going to get thicker.
"Give him to me," Baloric ordered, basically appearing next to Jameson and trying to take Luke's weight away from him. Jameson didn't think Baloric would be able to support Luke's weight alone for very long, but it wasn't the ideal time to point this out because the Forces was quickly recovering, using its remaining legs to hit the ground. The ground shook loose some pieces of the ledge, crumbling the very edges of it, as Jameson dumped Luke on Baloric. As expected, Baloric buckled under Luke almost immediately, but luckily Raven was there a few seconds later to help him.
"This way!" William yelled to Jameson.
"How do we kill it?" Jameson questioned hastily as the beast finally settled with the idea of losing a limb, and now directed its attention at the reason for its dismemberment; Jameson.
"William, keep the gas directed away from us," ordered Baloric quite suddenly as he approached the beast as well, bearing Luke's bow with only a handful of three arrows. He faced Jameson and added, "Throw everything you have at it."
He loaded up one of the arrows and pointed it at the area he assumed was the creature's head, then fired it. Jameson didn't know why he expected anything aside from a direct hit as the arrow pierced the monster and sailed right through it, lodging in the ceiling. The monster bellowed again as the gas poured freely from the gaping wound, but was quickly redirected by William's power. Jameson ran to contribute his own attack to the mix, but as he approached, he saw one of the creature's massive legs swinging towards him. He barely dropped down to the ground in time to dodge it, and as he was standing, he saw the leg turn around and come right back at him in a split second.
He braced himself for the hit and it punched all the wind out of him, colliding with such force that he was actually knocked off his feet. It was painful enough to paralyze him for a good few seconds as he rolled across the ground, but he managed to extend his arm to stop himself from careening over the ledge and down the hole. His legs slipped over the ledge and he pulled himself back up, getting to his feet fast enough to dodge another frantic attack.
The Forces lowered its upper body in an attempt to crush Jameson, but he jumped to the side with almost no time to spare. When the Forces hit the ledge, it broke right through it, falling into the hole. At first, there was a moment Jameson thought it would rise its head right back up to continue fighting, but it fell, bellowing all the way down.
Jameson almost couldn't believe that was the end of its assault, so he looked over at Baloric for confirmation. Baloric was already running towards Luke and Raven who were crouched against the wall, waiting patiently for him to return. Jameson joined them as well as Baloric laid the bow and remaining arrows down and cautiously began looking Luke over. Luke still seemed lucid and coherent, but even his knuckles appeared rigidly contorted by his side as he drew in breaths with great difficulty.
"Raven, try to stay still," Baloric said. "Jameson? We only have a few seconds. Keep your eyes open."
Jameson knew he was being warned to watch out for the Forces which was undoubtedly going to come back; the depth of the hole was not going to keep it at bay for very long. Only when he turned to face the hole again did he realize just how much pain he was feeling in his chest from the hit. It hurt to inhale and was almost debilitating to exhale. The palm of his hand and fingertips were scraped and bleeding from when he had grabbed onto the edge of the rocks to keep from falling into the abyss. Discreetly, he wiped the blood off on his pants, checking over his shoulders to ensure progress of helping Luke's condition.
Baloric was concentrated very hard as Raven sat idly by, clearly wishing there was more she could do to help. One of his hands was hovering above Luke's ankle where the scratch was, and the other hand was stretched towards Luke's face as far as he could reach. Jameson found himself mesmerized by the colors that were pouring from the seemingly inoffensive cut, following in sync with Baloric's hand gestures. He looked like he was grabbing at the air and pulling away from it and, with each time his hand opened and closed, more of the dark colors emerged almost endlessly from the cut.
At least Luke looked like he was relaxing a little bit, his breaths lengthening and his body calming. Jameson met eyes with him and tried to give him a reassuring nod, but Luke didn't appear to be paying attention to anything except keeping his breathing regulated. William finally came over as well to watch, asking quietly if there was anything he could do, but he was ignored.
"Jameson!" Raven said, her expression contorting to that of true fear as she looked past him.
Jameson spun around to see the Forces was rising from the hole again, slightly off balance because it was missing a leg and had a fairly significant wound in its middle. William returned to his job of redirecting the gas as Jameson tried to quickly brainstorm any possible method of drawing its attention away from where Luke and Baloric would undoubtedly be unable to defend themselves.
Finally, unsure if he was even capable of shooting an arrow, Jameson lifted the bow and unloaded another one of the arrows at the Forces. He imagined it would have been difficult to miss such a gigantic creature, and he managed lodge the arrow near the wound Baloric had caused, causing it to writhe again. He dropped the bow and moved in a direction away from the others, and it seemed to lock right in on his movements and crash down on the ledge, lumbering towards him. Backing up, he kept on eye on Luke, Baloric and Raven, but also knowing there was not any space to let his guard drop.
The Forces was advancing right at him single-mindedly, taking its time to reach its desired target. Jameson stepped over a large rock that shook free from the ceiling and, just as he redirected his eyes for only a moment, the monster struck. It slammed its upper body down to the ground, missing Jameson so slightly that he felt he could actually smell the beast as it almost knocked him off his feet again. Jameson lunged with his sword, cutting into the creature as deep as he could extend his sword. He held onto the handle as tight as he could as the creature raised its head, nearly picking him right off the ground with it. Luckily, the sword cut right through the monster's body, creating a clean slice down the entire front that Jameson speculated he would have been unable to do himself without the monster offering some assistance by moving prematurely.
Jameson watched as the Forces' head careened up into the air, coupled with a pained howl, and nearly doubled over backwards. For a second, he celebrated his success in damaging the creature enough to cripple it so significantly, but as William called to him in horror, he realized the downside of the creature's instinctual actions. Its weight was falling over sideways directly towards where Baloric was still working at pulling the dark essence of the Skeleton out of Luke.
Initially, Jameson was unable to act except to just allow his heart to fall into the pit of his stomach. The creature was alrea
dy on a crash course for the small group, and even William was not in reach, because using his power to push them out of the way would likely send them dangerously close to the ledge. Raven looked up as she heard the Forces bellow, and then stood to run away, only to glance back momentarily to see Baloric was not even paying attention.
Jameson began to run towards them even though he knew it was hopeless to even attempt to close the distance in such a short amount of time. Raven abruptly threw herself into Baloric, catching him completely off guard and sliding with him across the floor, as William raised both his hands in an attempt to redirect the Forces with his wind. His attempt was almost ineffective, however, and only managed to delay it as it continued to fall.
The split second delay seemed to be enough; he saw Jameson run past him and used his power to accelerate his speed enough to push him towards where Luke now lay alone. Jameson nearly fell over, unprepared for the increase in speed, but caught his balance and raised his sword just as the Forces tumbled to the ground. He sliced through the creature's torso, separating it into two pieces as it toppled down. His insides twisted, still terrified for Luke, and it didn't help when he heard his friend expel a pained moan following the monster's crash with the ground.