by S L Gassick
Theus stirred abruptly. “I do not know for sure. I have obviously said too much. The powers that be have advised that something great is about to happen, for better or worse.”
“What powers that be? What do you mean? The battle?”
“This goes deeper than the battle. The coin doesn’t just control the dead. If used correctly, it opens up the doorway to another world. A dark world where an evil army subsist. A monster lives there now, one that was banished there a long time ago and since then he has become dark, bitter and twisted.”
“What of the coin? How do you have it?”
“This Lord of the Underworld was a tyrant called Bludula. He was on this Earth during the time of Gaea and had a powerful kyu ability to control the dead, or what was left of them. Gaea battled him, but understood that this man’s control of death, and the death of his own army, meant that they had life eternal. There was no stopping them.”
“So he banished them?”
“Yes. Using a very powerful magic, he was able to open a gateway that enveloped their entire base, sending them to a dark abyss in another existence.”
“And the coin?”
“Merely one of the few coins Gaea had on him. In order to make a lock, he had to make a key, and the coins were in his pocket.”
“You mean to say the coin was just convenient?”
“Yes. Until he had to pay for his night’s meal!” Theus started laughing until it turned into another wet cough. “One coin was special, Gaea was able to extract some of Bludula’s kyu and keep it within the coin.”
“Why would he do that?”
“To control Bludula, but also for the power. It could be a powerful weapon should anything threaten the safety of the people.”
“But isn’t the coin the biggest threat itself?”
“Yes but, it’s a complicated issue.” Theus closed his eyes. “I was given the coin a long time ago by Moros.”
“Moros? He saved my life.”
“Yours and many others. He was given certain artefacts by Gaea himself, yet the Kalad he would not dare keep. It needed hiding and only I knew where it was. Which of course meant my other half knew where it was, and thus revealed its location to the Dark Clans. This is all my fault. I have failed as a protector of these lands.”
“No,” Milius replied, “you did all you could. But I will need to meet your alter-ego after this affair. And I only hope he is not as stubborn as you!”
Theus suddenly realised the joke and chuckled. Milius joined him and for once, in the cold, dark despair, they were able to relax.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Nayakax had followed what looked like the largest Herald, hoping it was the most powerful so that the others might be able to potentially defeat theirs more easily. Inside himself, Naya knew that Phin was not near powerful enough to stop these creatures. No training in the Valhalla could have prepared any of them for a battle with one of these Heralds. Yet Nayakax abolished any negative thoughts from his head and ran on looking up at the winged creature as it flew through the air. Nayakax was gaining on it for he believed he had remained unseen, yet he was finding it harder to spot the dark creature as it flew higher into the air.
Had the sky changed colour? No longer was it pitch black, it had grown warmer – in fact it looked like it was on fire. It was a deep red and grey, yet almost black. The opening of the portal had definitely unleashed something on this world. What else might have come through while they were all busy? He hated to think.
Suddenly, the flying creature disappeared; Nayakax kept running but started scouring the skies looking for a sign until he ran straight into a fist. Knocked to the floor, Nayakax was more stunned with surprise than pain. He got up slowly.
“Why…” the winged creature sighed, “are you following me?” he rubbed his fist.
Nayakax took a good look at what was in front of him, trying to see if he could spot a weakness. The creature was tall, about seven feet at the very least, Nayakax thought, and had broad shoulders and huge arms. His skin was pale but the slick black oily patches were not paint, but what looked like burn marks, crisp dry flesh that was flaking like ash. About half of his face was covered with these patches. His eyes were dark and his hair ran long and grey almost to the floor. It swung and flew as he turned. On his back were two large black feathered wings that must have had a huge wingspan when fully expanded. He wore rusty silver shoulder guards and a tatty, burnt, disintegrating brown leather torso guard that ran into old, tatty black trousers.
“To see where you are going,” Naya answered.
The creature laughed. “I go to herald the end of your world. We will bring death and destruction and pain. I guess I once had a mortal name, but now they call me Heretic, though … you shall call me Master.” Nayakax raised himself off the ground and prepared himself for battle, kyu glowing from his body. “This kyu of yours won’t save you. My power is pure and has grown in the darkness, untouched by anything else. If you die here, I will personally see to it that you spend your eternity in the cruellest pain imaginable.”
“Stop mincing words and come at me!” Naya shouted. It had the desired effect and the half-man, half-creature stormed at Naya with incredible speed. Though it might have seemed foolish, Nayakax was fully prepared to defend himself and wanted to see what attacks the dark angel was capable of.
He guarded himself with as much kyu as he could muster as the beast hammered both fists into Nayakax’s chest. There was a sudden burst of heat and Nayakax flew back into the sky in a great fireball.
“Fire,” Naya thought, “then maybe he can be beaten.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
“Oh… bums.”
Phin had intercepted one of the Heralds in the forest and was staring at him plain in the face. His idea was to get in front of him and it hadn’t gone much further than that. As he looked closer he realised it wasn’t a man, it was a woman.
The female Herald had a long drawn face, like it had been pulled by the chin. It was bordering on the grotesque and yet beautiful in its strangeness. The eyes were sunken and her cheekbones were high and dominant. Her blonde hair fell over half her face, which lacked any colour or vitality - it was emotionless. She wore tight, shiny armour with what seemed to be at one time a crest of some sort in the middle. Her tiny armoured legs stuck out like two twigs underneath and her wings were almost transparent, like they were made of thin glass, as if they were valuable. She drew close to Phin’s scared little face and breathed in his scent, deep and long.
“Mmmm,” she moaned, “I love the smell of fear on children.”
She seemed to expect some sort of reaction. Maybe a defiant gesture, but Phin made none. Instead it was as if she had said nothing at all.
“Hel… Hello,” he came out with. The Herald leaned back in surprise. “I’m Phin.”
“Well, hello Phin,” she replied, “I’m Forlorn the White.” She held out her thin white, bony hand. Phin put out his hand and smiled. She suddenly took hold of it, twisted it and threw him against a tree. Phin cried out in pain as he realised his nose was broken. Blood poured down his face and all over his clothes. “Oh no,” he thought, “what will my mum say?”
Forlorn walked up to him. “Did you want something?”
“Please,” he got down on his knees and begged, “please don’t do… whatever it is you’re going to do.”
“You cannot stop me, young one. Now this has been fun and all, but I must set about destroying your family and friends.”
Just as she went to fly off she suddenly realised there was something pulling her back. Somehow Phin had used his kyu to tie an energy ribbon around her wrist and onto a rock near the tree where he fell. She tried to pull it and yank it off.
“I wouldn’t do that,” he said dabbing his nose with his shirt, “you’ll just make it tighter around your wrist and believe me, it’ll cut right through.”
Forlorn knew she had let her defences down and completely underestimated this boy. However, she
could lose a hand, it meant nothing, but she enjoyed watching him think he had got her. She decided instead of rushing to her position, she would have some fun here and make him pay.
Rose realised her plan was probably the smartest and congratulated herself on it. She had trapped the Herald in a bubble of kyu for about two minutes now and it looked like there was no way of him getting out. The Herald had just stood there looking at the bubble, getting acquainted to it. It was a kyu ability normally used for defence, but here it served as a prison.
“This will be your new home for a while now,” she had told him, “so you’d better get used to it!”
The Herald just stared in her direction. It was hard for Rose to tell exactly where he was staring for he had no eyes, nor either a face. He was a slender, genderless figure and that’s all he was, a figure. He was pure black and shiny, like he was wearing an all-over PVC costume, but he clearly wasn’t. His plastic-looking skin had no marks, no features nor anything else. The only thing that stopped him looking like a plastic model that Rose’s mum would design her dresses on, was the wings on his back. They resembled something bats might have, or a large waterproof sheet, but one that looked alive and moving. He was a strange sight to look at, and that’s exactly what she was doing. His movements were slow and graceful, like he wasn’t quite sure what was happening.
Rose sat back and wondered if the others were finding it as easy as this. Just then, the creature seemed to be making some kind of noise. It was like a low quiet squeaking, like a dolphin, and then got louder and sounded more uncomfortable like it was piercing Rose’s head. Then she looked at the bubble, and that’s exactly what it was doing. It was cutting through the bubble, making an escape route.
“Gaea, help me,” Rose whispered to herself as the featureless creature stepped out of the bubble with great ease and slowly turned to her direction and cocked his head. Rose started to move back as the creature began walking towards her. Whatever she was going to do, she decided, she had better do it quick.[DG42]
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Hemero had tumbled for some way now, it had been a fifteen minute free fall and his heart was set to burst until he felt himself float like a feather onto a hard, hot ground. Everything was fuzzy and he couldn’t see properly - it was like that hot heat you see coming off metal in the sun - but this was everywhere, it was hard to even keep his eyes open it was so hot. There was only a small purple flame of light nearby, but apart from this little purple glow everything else was shrouded in darkness. The glow was Shui.
“Too hot for you, is it?” Shui spoke, “it is for me too. Let’s turn the heating down a bit.” Suddenly there was a chill in the air and after a few seconds of intense steam, the temperature had cooled slightly around him. “See, young one? My power isn’t always for evil!” Shui laughed out loud. “Why follow me down here? You crazy bean! Believe it or not, I couldn’t have guessed that actually simply thinking about opening the gateway would work, but oh well, a fitting end I suppose! Well, now that you’re here, what do you want? Be quick about it because I have to figure out a way to get back.”
“You know why we’re here,” Hemero said.
“To get the Kalad. Of course. Well, I’m afraid I have to keep hold of it for the moment until the Dark Clans have won the battle. What’s your name, son?”
“Hemero,” he stated as he stood up, preparing himself for a fight.
“Now, Hemero. You might think that the Dark Clans do nothing but evil. That is apparently how it all began after all. But no-one is still alive from those days and things have changed. We are not evil, we merely rebel against the authoritarian power of Gaea.
People say I believe I am Gaea. But I do not. I believe I was sent from something higher in order to change this word of Gaea. For the word is but a lie. Your Valhalla was the first built, it was here that Gaea appeared and remains the most powerful Valhalla on this planet. Which is why I am here, Hemero. We are not evil, we are trying to change the world, to denounce this dictatorship, we want to express freedom, truth and we will do whatever we can to do this.”
“Even kill innocent people.”
“Who is truly innocent? People are guilty for not doing anything. I do not care if they wish to stand up against me if it is for what they truly believe in, but sitting around doing nothing is even worse.”
“People just wish to live their lives, what you believe in doesn’t matter to them.”
“But it should,” Shui replied, “Gaea only began to tell us about these hidden powers. Did you know there was once a unity between myself and the leader of your Valhalla?”
“Theus?”
“No. Before him. We decided we were going to combine our forces to truly find out what potential powers we can all have. But he started to get cold feet and realised I was unlocking powers within myself at a much faster rate than him. This scared him, so he tried to have me killed whilst sleeping within the very Valhalla you pray to Gaea in today.”
“I’d like to hear his side of it.” Hemero replied.
“You think you are smart, Hemero. Now tell me, where are you from? Who are your parents?”
“I don’t have any. My village was wiped out by your people.”
“Ha!” Shui laughed, “is that what they tell you? Do not believe everything you hear, Hemero. It was the people of Gaea who massacred your village. It is they who killed your parents.”
“What?”
Just then Lirilius dropped down with a thud and Shui let off a hiss. Then out of the darkness behind Shui a booming deep voice, like the earth itself was speaking, blared out,“Shui, who are these people?”
Shui suddenly looked slightly frightened.
“They are from the other world. Sent to stop our mission,” Shui answered.
“Dispose of these mortals and bring me the coin, they should not be here. I am on the other side of the river and cannot cross. A deal is a deal.” came the voice.
“River, did you say? How delightful. Well, do not worry, I will take pleasure in killing these two, just please make sure they stay dead,” Shui hissed.
Shui moved forward to where Lirilius lay, slowly trying to get up, and kicked him in the stomach with such force that Lirilius was thrown back against a dark, stone wall that sent debris flying across the darkened room they were in. Shui turned to point at Hemero. “Don’t move,” he said, “or I’ll do worse than kill you,” and he turned to head towards Lirilius again.
Hemero sat struck[DG43] with fear. Around him were all kinds of strange noises and in the distance screams were heard, but it was the silence in-between them that was even scarier. Where were they? Just then in the darkness he saw the boy from the village and froze. He could no longer move.
Hemero stood motionless watching Shui hold Lirilius up by the neck and banging his head against the wall. Just then Hemero’s eyes caught something for a fraction of a second on the back of Shui’s neck. A strange lump. Had it not been for his extraordinary ability of sight, he would not have spotted it. Once again, as Shui was fighting Lirilius, the lump appeared briefly. It was circular, like … a coin. “The Kalad” Hemero realised.
With that he looked at Lirilius, who was covered in blood and had just been sick on the floor. He needed to last a little longer for Hemero to cut it out of Shui’s neck. How was he going to do it? He needed a plan and fast, because he knew Lirilius was on his last legs and once he was gone, Hemero would be suffering a fate worse than death.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Milius came out of his tent and surveyed the morning scene. People were eating and were merry. The entire camp seemed to be in good spirits, momentarily forgetting that they might never see the sun set tonight. Then he looked to the sky and realised he could in fact no longer see the sun, the sky was a dark bloody red which was strange.
“Shepherd’s delight!” said a passing knight, noticing him looking up. Milius returned the gesture with a half-hearted smile.
He seated himself with his men and they ate f
ull and hearty, not one word of the impending battle or the change in the sky was announced. They sat sharpening their swords over happy stories of training, school and parties until a deathly bellow sounded from the hills. It was to signal the arriving hordes of Undead. The horrid first wave of attack. The men didn’t look at each other, but instead slowly got up and started to prepare, their speed building as time went on.
They had set themselves behind a hill known as Trafador, which was usually used by children and couples to sleigh down when the snow hit the peaks of Norheath. It was a place of happiness, of families, couples and friends. Milius himself had often brought girls here, at least the ones he liked, and suddenly Cyrene flashed into his head. Had he fallen for her? He could not be sure, but to think of her on the eve of battle must be saying something. He decided there was no time for these thoughts and he needed to clear his head. He strolled to his horse and stroked its back, soothing it, hoping the creature will survive this to live a long healthy life.
He spared a thought for his brother Phin. He dared not even entertain the idea that he had perished, for he still had hope that the forthcoming battle would never come. That somewhere out there, he was still riding along with his friends, perhaps under the protection of his fellow knights, that they had somehow found a way to stop the Kalad being used by Shui. Another horn interrupted his thoughts, it meant there was merely an hour left until battle would commence.
Milius jumped on his horse and ordered some last minute commands and tried to speed everyone up so they were ready. He forgot just how many people had turned up to fight in this final hour and to look out on such an army of people was very liberating, but to raise his gaze slightly to the hordes of Undead coming their way filled his heart with doom. Surely a battle this large had never taken place, but a feeling inside him told him that there was a good chance Norheath would see even greater ones in the near future. Theus had talked of the Second Coming, and Milius wondered what that meant for them all.