It got darker and colder as we descended deeper. Mountains of coral formations rose all around us, waves of orange and red that rippled across the ocean floor. We made our way down one of the ridges, occasionally startling banks of fish that depended on their camouflage resembling the corals to survive.
They scattered in what struck me as some kind of organized panic, their bright red and orange scales shimmering as they moved upward. Phosphorescent plants and creatures dominated the bottom of the ocean—not that we needed any additional light to guide us. Eirexis itself was a powerful beacon at this point.
“Over there,” Eira said, pointing ahead as we reached the bottom. White sand stretched endlessly beneath our feet, and clouds of red and yellow jellyfish hovered here and there. As if reacting to music only they could hear, they danced their way up, their tendrils twitching rhythmically as they pushed through the water.
Following Eira’s gaze, I could see what had caught her attention. A mound rose from the white sand, approximately fifty feet away. Next to it, someone stood upright, unbothered by the physics of liquids. “The Widow Maker,” I murmured. “He found it.”
“How is he just standing there?” Amelia asked.
“I told you,” Herakles replied. “Reaper, not from this dimension, not necessarily subject to our physical rules.”
“That’s actually pretty cool,” Raphael said.
We swam toward him, aided by Lumi’s bursts of telekinetic energy that pushed us closer to the mound. As we reached it, I realized it wasn’t just an ordinary pile of dirt. No, it was a cluster of dark purple corals, and it was the size of a cathedral’s dome, big enough to hide all sorts of incredible secrets.
“Can you see through it?” I asked Varga.
The corals’ arms stretched in a wavy, circular pattern. I wasn’t sure there was a way in, but that had never stopped us from making one if we had to. Shimmers traveled along the mineral-like surface of each of the corals, as if they’d been sculpted from precious gemstones.
“No,” Varga replied. “My True Sight can’t get past the corals.”
“Not surprised.” The Widow Maker’s voice echoed in our heads. “Zetos is protected from all.”
“Dammit, get out of my head!” Herakles snarled.
“Then you won’t be able to hear me,” the Widow Maker said, matter-of-factly.
Eva laughed. “I think that was the point.”
Looking up, I couldn’t see anything headed our way. No strange lights. Nothing to make my skin tingle. For the first time, I felt as though we might have a decent extraction mission on our hands. Maybe Pyrr and the others had pulled through, and then some.
“Okay, what do you think?” I asked the Widow Maker. “You got to this thing before us. You’ve already implied that Zetos is here.”
The Widow Maker nodded. “I can feel the Soul Crusher’s presence.”
“You guys really went all out on those names, huh?” Varga muttered.
“What did I tell you earlier?” the Widow Maker shot back, and Varga joined him in unison. “Perks of being my age.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Varga added. “We get it. You’re old and cool.”
I swam around the mound, looking for a way in. The others spread out, doing the same thing at different heights up and down the domed coral.
“I don’t know how to get you in, if that’s what you want me to tell you,” the Widow Maker said. I saw him below, his boots in the white sand, as he looked up at me. I made my way back down, grasping the coral fingers to pull myself along the dome’s surface.
“If it’s in there, then we can get to it, somehow,” I replied.
I crossed paths with Eira, who shook her head. “Nothing at this level. Maybe head for the top?”
“You should know, though. If I can feel the Soul Crusher, he can feel me too,” the Widow Maker added. “He knows we’re here. He’s likely waiting for us.”
“Can’t you just zap yourself in there?” Nethissis asked him, pointing at the purple coral.
“Don’t you think I would’ve, if I could?” he retorted and shifted his focus to me, cocking his head to the side. “Seriously, are you all redundant like this, or is it just the deep pressure getting to you?”
Despite our supernatural origins, we could all feel the ocean weighing down on us. There wasn’t any magic to fix that. But it was manageable. I swam upward, following the coral dome’s shape, until I found the top. My nerves were stretched, a little too ready to snap. The thought of the Soul Crusher waiting for us made me anxious.
The Widow Maker had subjected us to absolute hell back on Cerix. What was the Soul Crusher ready to do in order to protect Zetos and relinquish it only to those whom he deemed worthy? What kind of torture or sacrifice would we have to subject ourselves to, in order to get the second piece of Thieron?
Reaching the top, I sucked in an icy breath. A burst of bubbles left my breathing device, and my gaze fixed on a small, circular opening in the purple coral mass. “I think I found something,” I said. Soon enough, the rest of the crew joined me, while the Widow Maker stayed down at the bottom.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Why not come up here and see?” Herakles replied dryly.
A second later, the Widow Maker stood on top of the coral dome, inches away from the small opening, towering over us. “Like this, you mean?”
“I hate you,” Herakles grumbled, and Riza gave him a soft nudge, as if beckoning him to play nice. There was obvious tension between the Widow Maker and Herakles, but not enough to spoil our quest here, fortunately. We were all too focused and determined. It dawned on me, then, that maybe the Widow Maker was still testing us, somehow. Maybe his jabs and sarcasm were meant to poke and prod us until he found our limits, even though his task had already ended.
“I can fit through,” I said. “It’s wide enough.”
“We’ll follow,” Lumi replied firmly.
I poked my head through first and my arms next. It was dark, but as I moved my hands around, I could feel the space widening, the coral lightly scratching my fingertips. I gripped two rough branches and pulled myself down. “There’s some kind of tunnel,” I added, following the gentle current.
Glancing back, I saw Eira, Lumi, Nethissis, and the others slip through and swim after me. The tunnel descended in a spiral. The cold water numbed my limbs, but I kept moving. Eirexis cast a powerful light, making it easier for us to swim down to the very bottom, where a small oval chamber opened up.
“Whoa,” Raphael said when we all made it inside. “This is incredible…”
The light from Eirexis shone across the dark purple coral walls, causing a play of colorful glimmers to dance all through the room. As I moved, so did the glimmers, waltzing through the water like flakes of pink, purple, and blue fire.
“What’s that?” Amelia asked, looking down at the center of the room.
Settled in the middle of the sandy floor, a box awaited. It looked old and was likely made of some type of metal, though most of it was covered in rust and algae. I swam toward it, feeling Eirexis’s vibrations pulsing through my thigh. Zetos had to be in there, for sure. The box was long and wide enough to fit the blade that would match a handle as long as Eirexis.
“Did you find it?” the Widow Maker asked, though he was nowhere to be seen.
“Where are you?” I replied.
“Still up here. Why?”
Raphael scoffed. “Gah, you’re about as useful as shoes on a dragon.”
“Was that supposed to be an insult?” the Widow Maker retorted.
“Yeah, I think we found it,” I said, dragging the conversation back to where it needed to be.
“What does it look like?” he replied.
“Come down and see for yourself. I’m about to…” I reached out.
The water felt hot around the box. It seemed to solidify as my fingers got closer to its latch. I encountered a peculiar kind of resistance—the water was perfectly normal, yet something coming fro
m the box tried to push my hand away.
“You might want to be careful with that box. Maybe don’t open it yet,” the Widow Maker said.
Too late. I’d already pulled the latch, my heart pumping erratically. I was so close to getting Zetos that nothing else mattered. As I opened the lid, the same heart that had been thundering excitedly inside my chest suddenly stopped.
Something was released from inside the box. The blast was so powerful, it blew through me. It disintegrated my consciousness, and I felt myself hurled backward through the water. My ears hurt. My chest tightened.
Darkness engulfed me, and I felt myself floating. Unable to breathe. Unable to move, to react. Darkness prevailed, and I was helpless.
Amelia
My body weighed a ton.
Or so it felt, anyway. The last thing I remembered was watching Taeral opening the box. Something had exploded from it. Something that had knocked us all out. Coughing, I managed to open my eyes. Blinking rapidly, I realized that we weren’t in water anymore, but in a room.
“What the…” I whispered, my shaky hand pulling the breathing device down. The floor was hard and cold against my face. All I could hear were the breaths of others.
I tilted my head slowly, to find Raphael on his back, as his eyes peeled open. Startled, he shot up—by far the quickest reaction. He helped me up. “Are you okay?” he asked, worriedly watching me as I fully came to. I’d been in a daze until now…
Nodding slowly, I glanced around. Taeral. Eira. Herakles. Riza. Lumi. Nethissis. Eva. Varga… We were all here, except the Widow Maker. The rest of the team woke up, gradually realizing, like me, that we weren’t in the coral chamber anymore.
Taeral rubbed his face and looked at me. “I don’t know what happened.”
“You opened the box, then boom.” Raphael sighed. “I’m not sure what that was. Or where we are, for that matter.”
Eva gasped, taking in the details I’d yet to discover. “Guys. Check out the walls.”
It was a simple room, about forty feet wide and long. There were no doors, but all the walls were covered in levers. Hundreds of them, made of iron, unmarked and in no way differentiated. My pulse started racing.
“Well, that can’t be good,” I murmured. “How is everybody holding up?”
“Aside from all the confusion, I think we’re okay,” Riza replied. “What the hell is this place, and how did we get here?”
Taeral’s expression went blank, the color draining from his face as he glanced down at Eirexis, still strapped to his thigh. It no longer glowed, but there had to be something about it that made Taeral uneasy. “The Soul Crusher. I think he did this.”
Lumi groaned as she pulled herself up, wobbling back and forth slightly before she regained her full balance. “Please, don’t tell me we’re in some kind of ancient-Reaper-created dimensional pocket or… whatever.”
“You’re actually on to something!” A strange voice echoed through the room.
I jumped to my feet, my instincts immediately stirred and ready. “Who’s there?!”
“If I give you a second or two, I’m sure you’ll figure it out by yourselves,” the voice said. It sounded soft and male, not as harsh and raspy as the Widow Maker’s. It was smooth and filled with knowledge that had yet to be imparted to us. And that made me uneasy.
“The Soul Crusher,” Herakles said, getting up slowly and carefully.
“Ding, ding, ding!” the Soul Crusher exclaimed. “You get a prize!”
Herakles stared at me, clearly confused. “Is he… off, someway?”
“Hey! That’s rude!” the Soul Crusher replied. “You’re in my house, now. Be nice.”
“Then show yourself,” Taeral said.
Looking around, it wasn’t difficult to tell that we were all scared and uneasy. On further thought, however, we likely all saw something like this coming. I would’ve appreciated more information, though.
“I’m not going to,” the Soul Crusher answered. “That’s not how this works.”
“Then tell us,” I shouted. “We’re in the dark here. Figuratively speaking,” I added, noticing the light beams mounted on the ceiling. It looked artificial and man-made, a strange thing to see on the bottom of an ocean on the Fire Star. Then again, the levers weren’t a normal fixture anywhere in this dimension or the next, either.
“Well, I think we should start with an official introduction,” the Soul Crusher said, while I turned around several times, trying to pinpoint the source of his voice. There weren’t any holes or speakers anywhere. It had to be ancient Reaper magic. “I am the Soul Crusher, faithful agent of Death and protector of Zetos. I am also genuinely impressed that you made it this far. I thought I would never get to try my puzzles on anyone, ever! The Widow Maker hogged all the players.”
“Where is he?” Herakles asked.
The Soul Crusher giggled. There was a tinge of “deranged lunatic” in his voice, but I dared not mention that out loud. Whatever this room was, it was part of his domain, his magic. If we wanted to get out of here in one piece, we’d need to be smart and calculated about everything we did or said, going forward. “Why? Miss him already?”
Herakles scoffed. “No. Just wondering. He promised he’d help us.”
“Oh, he can help you outside. In here, you’re all mine. Don’t you think Death’s spell would’ve seen this coming?” the Soul Crusher said.
“So you locked him out,” Taeral concluded.
“Should you survive, I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see you all again,” the Reaper replied. “Should you survive. Emphasis on that, please.”
“Where are we?” Lumi asked, moving around the room and analyzing each of the levers. She threw us the odd I-have-no-idea-what-these-do look, every now and then.
“In my domain. I thought I said that already,” the Soul Crusher said.
Eira moaned. “Guys, there is something wrong. I feel… wrong.”
“Ah, there it is. It’s finally dawning on you,” the Soul Crusher said.
Raphael took my hands in his, watching me closely. “Do you feel it?”
“What, exactly?” I replied.
Indeed, there were plenty of strange sensations to pick from. The uneasiness, the sluggishness, the sense of doom lurking in the back of my head, the dull aches in every single muscle… the heavy breathing, the lead ankles. I noticed our breathing devices were gone. We’d had them on before getting sucked into this place, since we’d been underwater.
“There are a few things missing here,” Raphael sighed.
Despite our awakening daze, we could all see the things that were off. We could feel them, even.
“I can’t teleport,” Taeral said, his voice faded.
Varga covered his mouth in shock, his eyes wide with horror. “I can’t use my True Sight. I don’t see your auras anymore. What the…”
“Crap.” Lumi’s response stated the obvious, as we all looked at each other, the reality of our new situation dawning on us.
“You took our powers?” Eva hissed, shaking. “I can’t even turn into a snake anymore. That is so not cool!”
The Soul Crusher laughed wholeheartedly, and I instantly understood what was going on. Nevertheless, I kept quiet, waiting for him to elaborate. I figured he was dying to tell us himself. “This is how you’ll take up my challenge for Zetos,” he said proudly. “You must find your way out. You must solve my puzzles. That is, of course, if you want the blade.”
I remembered I’d felt like this before, back when I was still human. I’d experienced similar muscle pain and heaviness after a rough gym session. We’d all been reduced to our most basic selves, without our supernatural abilities. We shared common ground, now. We were all equal, and that was not good. At all.
“What puzzles?” Taeral asked, a shadow drawn deep between his eyebrows.
“Oh, I’ve been working on them for millions of years. You’ll love them,” the Soul Crusher replied, then paused for a moment. “I’m kidding. You won’t like
them. You’ll probably hate me for it. Some of you might not survive, either, so you might want to take that into account. It will require wit, courage, patience, and, most importantly, cooperation.”
My stomach was heavy, as if an iron ball had been dropped in it. We kept exchanging glances, wondering what it all meant. What kind of puzzles could a Reaper this old come up with? How did he intend to test us, and, most importantly, how dangerous would it be?
“Should you fail, you will never leave this place,” the Soul Crusher added. “You will die here, eventually. Maybe the hunger will be too much for some of you, and you’ll end up eating one another. Three of you will survive, doomed to spend an eternity down here, with me. Here’s looking at you, Taeral, Eira, and Lumi. You guys will have it the worst.”
“Jeez, you’re sick,” Varga mumbled, pale as a sheet of paper.
There was one thing that worried me. I’d sensed it before, though it had been mild and barely noticeable to most: there had been tension between us since we’d lost Acantha. It had gotten slightly worse after we’d learned about Sherus’s abduction. It wasn’t serious, in my opinion, but I’d noticed the occasional scowl and scoff. This whole trip had taken its toll on us, and now, we were stuck in a room together… for what could easily be a very long time.
The world could end under the Hermessi, and we’d still be here. That thought alone was enough to terrify me. My lower lip quivered as Raphael put his arms around me and held me close. I wanted some comfort out of it, but little came. There wasn’t a single thing we could do to survive this, to live to see another day as free creatures… except beating the Soul Crusher at his own game.
Only, we didn’t know the rules. He did.
We still had our swords, but the pulverizer weapons were gone. Briefly checking my backpack, I saw the healing potions and invisibility paste capsules, but no pulverizer ammo. Would healing and camouflage doses still work? Even so, what good would invisibility do in a Reaper’s realm? The Soul Crusher called the shots, and he’d already stripped us of our powers and magic. “I think I’m getting a headache,” I said, shutting my eyes for a moment. This couldn’t be real. It had to be a nightmare. Right?
A Shade of Vampire 75: A Blade of Thieron Page 10