The Blade Guardian

by Darren Hultberg Jr

  With trepidation, I walked over to the silver tomb and gave it a quick inspection but found nothing to identify its contents. Hilda walked up beside me and gave it a look for herself, Ivan perched on her shoulder and wearing a look of worry. “Do you... do you think this is the tomb of Cadmus Black?”

  I shrugged. “I mean, that would make sense. Does that mean that his weapon is buried in there with him? Are we... are we going to be grave robbers?”

  “What the hell are you two talking about?” Rhylor asked, backpedaling towards us with an axe in each hand. The ranger remained ever-vigilant, keeping his eyes on the large, stone doors as he approached.

  “Well, you see...” I began to explain, but a sudden wave of screams filled the chamber, drowning out my voice.

  “What the hell’s going on?” Rhylor yelled, but the answer to his question was already unfolding before us. The stone doors to the temple slowly began to slide open as the ravenflight weapons pried at the entrance. Inch by inch, the doors began to give way, allowing Aetheria’s natural light to pour in and bringing us ever closer to decimation.

  “Stop them!” Ezry shouted, joining her wolves as they slammed their swords into the opening, stabbing at the ravens as they tried to work their way in.

  The prying seemed to stop momentarily as some of the iron wolves withdrew their weapons, blades now stained with fresh raven blood. A few of the soldiers even grinned, thinking they’d begun to repel their foes.

  Unfortunately, these men didn’t know the ravens well enough.

  Suddenly, the floor of the chamber began to rattle as pounding began to echo off the temple’s stone doors... a consistent, deafening drum that began to produce cracks in the seemingly unbreakable portal. It was clear then, to everyone in the chamber... the ravens would not be deterred.

  I forged nevermore from shadow as Hilda withdrew her flaming blade and called my familiars to my side. My natural regeneration had restored most of my mana and my wounds were minor at best. When these ravens entered the chamber, I would be more than ready to give them hell.

  Seconds passed as the pounding continued and my eyes drifted across the room. The refugees from Lorethain had gathered against the far wall, leaving the wolves standing, armed and ready at the door. Unfortunately, many of them wore looks of fear and uncertainty... a combination that would prove deadly for us all.

  “Men!” Ezry shouted, grabbing their attention as she slammed her blade hand against the wall. “Death is knocking at our doors. It has come for us, seeking to drag us into the abyss.... but now is not our time! We may be outnumbered... we may even be outclassed... but we are iron wolves!”

  The men shouted, raising their weapons in the air.

  “I know of many who would cower when faced with annihilation, but not the wolves. No, we turn to danger, bare our teeth and remind them of why they call us iron! That is why we’ll be victorious! Now fight... for the pack and for Aetheria!”

  The iron wolf soldiers let out an exhilarating howl, one so loud that the ravens surely heard. Their looks of fear had vanished, replaced by the faces of warriors hardened by battle. The men were ready... ready to give their lives to take down those damned ravens...

  Just then, the temple doors shattered.

  30

  Mortality

  The doors to the chamber crumbled, flooding the chamber with the sun’s rays and leaving me momentarily blind. I winced, rubbing at my orbs as the sound of clashing steel filled the chamber.

  “Zander, look out!” Razyr shouted as the sound of footsteps rushed towards me. My vision returned, and I opened my eyes to see Morose just feet in front of me, his bastard sword leveled at my neck.

  “Goodbye, Darkblade,” he uttered, swinging his blade at me with vicious force before I could even think to react. In a flash, my life would be over, my second chance taken by a man who I once called an ally. It was the end...

  Then my father arrived.

  Candor leapt in at the last second, using Sledge to bash Morose in his side and knock the man away before he could finish his strike. Morose absorbed the blow with a growl, sliding on the balls of his feet before shifting and recoiling with an attack of his own. My chest tightened as I moved to react, as I tried to leap to my father’s rescue...

  The assassin moved with a speed so profound, with an efficiency earned through a lifetime of killing. Dark energy pooled around Morose’s blade as the man called on his Asuran power and stabbed his sword directly into my father’s chest.

  “NOOOO!” I screamed as his health reticle plummeted and his lifeblood spilled out onto the cold, stone floor. My father had already been weakened by his use of spiritform... saving me had likely taken everything he had. Dammit all, this couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t!

  “Fool,” Morose uttered as he withdrew his blade, allowing Candor to slump to the floor. Around us ravens and wolves engaged in an all-out battle... Ezry, Hilda, Rhylor and even Vic all fought in a struggle that nearly consumed the entire chamber... but I heard none of it. No, my tear-filled eyes remained fixated on that bastard Morose, and with everything that I had, everything that I was... I would make him pay.

  “To me!” I commanded my familiars, drawing the trio into my chest as balls of light. Their Aether flooded my veins as it cycled through my body, lending me their strength, their speed, their vitality.

  “That’s not going to be enough, Darkblade,” Morose spat as his body began to take on a transformation of its own. His skin turned a pale red as a pair of horns emerged on his forehead, splitting his long, black hair. This Asuran... he was nothing more than a demon hiding in man’s skin... A plague on the realms, and one that I intended to finally put an end to.

  “How dare you,” I growled, gripping nevermore in both hands as I took a step forward. “You slaughter innocents... you attack my friends... you... dammit, you even dare strike down my father!”

  Morose grinned, glancing to my fallen father before turning back to me. “Perhaps I find that the title orphan fits you much better.”

  “I’ll kill you!” I roared, channeling Salence’s draconic rage as I charged in with my sword. I swung high with a strong, visceral blow, but the assassin parried, stopping my attack in its tracks with his own blade. I recoiled without pause, this time swinging low for his abdomen as Aether pooled around nevermore’s edge.

  “Azure Blade!” I howled as my sword slammed into the assassin’s once more, releasing a torrent of energy that caused the man to wince.

  I acted on pure instinct, slamming my blade into the assassin’s defenses over and over, forcing the man to take a step back with each passing blow. I was hungry for revenge, hungry for blood... so hungry in fact that I didn’t notice the grin forming on his pale, red face.

  My next attack went high, though this time Morose ducked before nailing me in the chest with a well-timed elbow. I stumbled back, gasping for air as the man pounced, stabbing into my chest with his own blade...

  But I wasn’t there.

  My form faded from view, re-appearing behind Morose as I activated illusionary strike. It seemed that the assassin had gotten caught up in the heat of battle as well, and he paid for it with a stab directly into the back of his shoulder, an attack that drained a small chunk from his health reticle.

  “Die!” I yelled, ducking the man’s spinning recoil before hitting him with another slash at his abdomen. The assassin stumbled back, regaining his composure as a thin line of Asuran blood ran down the length of my blade.

  “Perhaps, I underestimated you, Darkblade,” he said as crimson energy began to swirl around his form. “But no matter... now you’ll be lucky enough to get a glimpse of true power before I end you for good!” The crimson aura completely enveloped the assassin, causing his muscles to expand and his size to increase as small spikes grew from his elbows, shoulders and chest. The black armor that he once wore fell off his body, revealing a torso covered in strange, runic markings cut directly into his flesh. If there was any doubt that these creatur
es, these Asurans, were some form of demon, then that doubt was completely gone.

  Death Aura

  The Asuran channels the power of death, transforming his body into a weapon of war. The Asuran’s strength and speed are increased.

  Done with words, Morose charged at me with another straightforward attack, swinging his bastard sword with both hands in a vicious overhead strike. I brought nevermore up to block, thinking to make a swift counter... dammit all, was that foolish.

  Morose’s blade crashed into nevermore, shattering its obsidian edge and completely shearing the weapon in two. The assassin followed through with his strike, slamming his blade into my bladesinger coat, dragging it across the coat’s folds until the sword clipped my exposed chest waiting at the coat’s edge.

  I fell hard, skidding backwards several yards as the impact of Morose’s blow knocked me clear off my feet. Blood began to pour from the laceration on my chest as my health reticle plummeted into the red. One blow... one blow and I’d nearly been defeated. No! This was not how things were supposed to go!

  “Dad….” I said, gazing to my left as I continued to bleed out on the stone floor. My father lay just yards away from me, his body quite still as his familiar Sledge tried to nudge him awake. The thought of reuniting with him again brought me an inkling of comfort, a feeling I quickly pressed away. I could never back down to these bastards! I would fight them until my final breath… even if I couldn’t stand!

  Morose was on me again in seconds, standing over my body as he prepared to rain down certain death. I turned to face him as he prepared to rain down certain death, even if I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction... apparently neither did Rhylor.

  “Get off of him, you piece of shit!” the ranger roared, slamming his twin axes into the assassin’s unguarded back. Morose let out a howl of pain before pivoting and slamming his blade’s pommel into the ranger, sending him careening through the open air of the chamber.

  “He said get away from him!” another voice shouted as Hilda charged in from the left. She raised her shield and bashed it into the demon-man’s side, drawing a growl of ire from his mouth. The guardian struck at him with her flaming blade, but Morose caught her wrist with his hand. With his other, he grabbed her around the neck, hoisting the woman into the air before taking a step forward and slamming her into the silver sarcophagus, causing it to crack down either side.

  Again, Morose turned his attention to me, and again he was foiled as another blade stabbed into his side, this time belonging to Ezry. “We won’t stop coming for you,” she growled, giving the weapon a twist as the assassin’s lifeblood began to spill.

  Morose turned and smashed her with the back of his hand, causing her head to snap back and her body to go limp. “Quiet now,” he said, grimacing as he dislodged the sharp weapon from his side.

  How... how could this happen? Everyone had rallied to my side, and still we couldn’t stand against the Asuran’s dark might. No, it couldn’t end this way... it just couldn’t. Using every last bit of strength that I could muster, I pulled myself back to my feet, putting a grin back on the assassin’s devilish face. “You... won’t win this,” I muttered, raising my fists up to fight. I cycled the Aether of my three familiars, trying to desperately to call on strength that I knew wasn’t there.

  “Pathetic,” Morose replied as he gripped my face in his palm. He squeezed, digging his fingertips into my flesh before giving me an effortless shove, sending my body stumbling to the left. I put my hand out to catch myself, but it didn’t find the stone floor. Instead, my open palm rested on the hard back of Sledge, my father’s mighty familiar.

  Suddenly a wave of emotion washed over me as a connection to Sledge began to form. I could feel it... the sprite’s love for my father, his hate for Morose... and his resolve to avenge the man with whom he shared a bond.

  “Lend me your strength,” I urged, sensing Morose approaching from behind. Perhaps if the familiar took his hammer form, I could fend the assassin off until the others rallied. “Please... help me end this madness.”

  The sprite gave me a wide-eyed look, as if he were peering past my flesh and into my soul. Time seemed to stand still for the briefest of seconds as the sprite’s judgment was passed. Then, to my utter surprise, the creature recoiled before entering my chest as a ball of light.

  My muscles tensed as the Aether of a fourth familiar coursed through my veins like lightning, sending jolts of what felt like electricity through every inch of my body. Then came the heat, like a raging inferno had begun to grow inside my chest, a swelling power that I fought with every fiber of my being to contain. I let out a cry both primal and raw as Sledge’s Aether cycled through me with the others. It was going to destroy me.... it was going to tear me apart from the inside!

  “Zander! You can do this! Focus!” Razyr’s voice echoed in my mind as ripples of energy passed over me. Through the pain I caught glimpses of Rhylor, of Hilda, of Vic... and of my father. They had given me this one chance, and dammit all, I would seize it!

  I clenched my fists as the storm raged within, ignoring the pain and cycling the Aether through my body at a rapid pace. I could feel Sledge’s power syncing with the others, melding to create an energy in my core stronger than anything I had ever witnessed. It felt like I had tamed a hurricane churning inside of my body. It was terrifying, it was exhilarating... and now it was mine to wield.

  Boots scraped the ground behind me as Morose made his approach, sword raised as he prepared to finish me off. The fool had enjoyed exercising his power. He’d toyed with my friends, he’d picked them apart and left them for dead... well, now it was time to show him the error of his ways.

  I spun to face the assassin as my body flooded with Aether, fully embracing the power of four familiars. My eyes illuminated with a bright, azure glow as an aura of blue energy swirled around my body, encasing me like armor as trails of pure Aether began to dance in my palms. I focused on them, forming the lines of energy into a pair of curved translucent blades in each hand... I was armed and ready for war.

  Suddenly, a notification appeared in the corner of my vision…

  Mantle of the Azure Warden

  1st Sequence

  “That won’t save you!” Morose said as he swung his blade in my direction. The attack seemed to come slower than it had before, allowing me to dodge low and counter with a pair of sidelong slashes. The assassin growled in pain as his blood sprayed across the stone. It was amazing... My body felt so much lighter, but my strikes carried a profound weight to them, like a power strong enough to shatter stone.

  Morose eyed his wounds, then clenched his teeth and charged in anew, swinging his blade with a fury unmatched. I backpedaled, spinning my newly crafted blades in rapid succession, knocking away his attacks before they managed to reach my flesh. Suddenly, Morose shifted, stabbing low with a deft strike that slipped past my blades. I winced, preparing to feel the sting of his sword pierce my stomach, but the attack never came through.

  To my utter shock, the Aether swirling around my body latched onto his weapon, coming to life like a symbiote as it latched onto his blade! Morose gasped, foolishly retaining his grip on the sword as I slashed away at his defenseless form.

  In less than a second, I managed to land three successful strikes across his chest, shoulder and neck, leaving thin lines of aetherial blue etched into his skin where my blade had just been. His health reticle had also taken a massive hit, nearly dropping below a third.

  “It’s over, Morose,” I said, pointing a blade at his face as I moved in with a newfound resolve. Having the minds of four familiars inside of me had brought me such strength, such clarity. “You’ve lost.”

  “No!” the assassin howled. “This realm will crumble under the claws of the Asurans.... and you with it!”

  The assassin’s blade began to glow a bright crimson as he made his charge, calling forth his dark energy for a single, devastating attack. “Asuran Revenge!” he roared as the blade came crashing i
n, swinging downward in an attack that would cleave any normal man in two... but I was no normal man. I was a slayer, a warrior built for battle. I was one of the chosen, a protector of the realm... I was an azure warden.

  I slammed my translucent blades together, melding their Aether together, molding them into the form of a large kite shield that I held high. Morose’s weapon crashed into my shield, nearly causing my knees to buckle as the blade slammed down and dark energy rippled across the chamber. I dug my heels in as the pressure mounted, nearly losing my footing under the weight of the blow, but dammit all I would not relent!

  Suddenly, the Aether swirling around my body reached out and anchored itself to the ground, giving me the stability that I needed to push back against my powerful foe. I clenched my teeth and pushed forward with everything I had, knocking away the assassin’s bastard sword and hitting him with a shield strike directly on his face. The Asuran stumbled back, his breathing labored as he eyed me scornfully.

  “Impossible,” he growled. “Impossible!” Morose tried to rise, but I pulled on the Aether shield, stretching the aethereal energy and creating a translucent longbow that I used to fire a pair of shimmering arrows into his leg. He wouldn’t be escaping... I couldn’t let that happen. Not after what he had done.

  “I’m going to hunt down each and every one of you,” I said to Morose as I stood over his body, Aether swirling wildly in my palms. “I’m going to wipe your people off the cosmos. Not a single Asuran will be spared... and no one will remember you.”

  Morose let out a roar of defiance, climbing to a knee as the Aether in my hands formed into a massive great sword.

  “Azure Justice!” I howled, bringing the blade down with unbridled force. The weapon sliced through the Asuran with ease, shattering him, engulfing his body in bright blue light as tiny pieces of him began to break away, disintegrating and scattering to the wind... and then there was nothing left.