by M. M. Reid
Trosian wielded Gungnir as if it were his own body. He impaled one Shadow with his scythe blade and, with his own infused Vitae strength, tossed the body toward a small group who had already opened fire upon some of the Pagans. The five Pagans that accompanied Selene fell immediately in a mist of crimson. Despite our greatest attempts, the Shadows had already halved our standing force in a blink of an eye. Selene’s wail was that of a banshee as she threw herself at them with fury I had never seen before. This courageous act would probably cost Selene her life. With Pagan morale in the balance, I could not allow her to be compromised.
“Go!” cried Trosian as he cut a Shadow down behind me, breaking my hesitation.
Like lightning, I leapt into the fray, energy fuelling me to preternatural levels of human ability. With her dagger, Selene had already gored one Shadow but was struck down almost immediately by another of the surrounding Shadows with his rifle butt. She dropped to the ground and was struck many times as others began to open fire upon me. Bullets whizzed by me, tearing holes in my clothes and flesh. I felt my body contort under the pain and I whipped Balmung like a throwing knife. The Shadows ducked under it but I hit my target as the blade exploded into an assailant’s chest. He fell to his knees just as the Mother Pagan rolled onto her back and lifted two bleeding palms open to the sky. Unlike before, when the Shadows were frozen, they slowly dropped to their knees gasping for air as Selene’s circle was broken. A chill went up my spine as I arrived at the small group of Shadows that had already perished, leaving only a battered Selene gasping on the forest ground, blood gushing between her fingers. Her breath was wheezing and labored and blood was now dripping from her nose and mouth. I knew I had to move her as I sensed more Shadows were emerging from the forest, drawn towards us by the Vitae. The plain itself was covered in smoke and smelt of burnt wood and flesh. This was becoming more and more like a living hell.
“Augrais, incoming!” Ben shouted just before the gunfire continued.
I scooped Selene up into my arms, ignoring the cracks from her broken bones and her screams of agony. Using all the strength in my legs, I was away again; but injuries from bullet wounds were beginning to take a major toll on my now much slower body. Lee attempted to cover me, as his arrows whizzed over my head. Unfortunately for me, it was not enough. Just as I took to the air to reach behind the cover where my comrades were hiding, something fast and hard struck me in my shoulder blade, causing me to spin about and tumble to the ground. Selene rolled out of my arms and finally stopped, face down, just a few metres away. Pain blinded my vision and I saw only white. Even my Vitae could not hold back the waves of nausea and dizziness.
“Holy crap, Augrais!” Ben cried and moved to help me.
“Stay where you are!” I screamed, partially out of my own desperation. I spat the bits of blood and dirt from my mouth as I struggled to right myself. I had to get to Selene, for if the reinforcements arrived and saw her like this, they would be finished before they started. Shooting pain erupted in my damaged shoulder and I fell to the ground again. Bullets were raining upon us like hailstones.
“I’m out of arrows!” Lee exclaimed.
I panted and used my one good arm and both legs to pull myself towards Selene, who no longer seemed to be breathing. I attempted to dull the pain with every last bit of energy I had, as my other wounds now began to hurt. With one hand beneath me, I pushed myself onto my knees, gasping for a moment as tufts of grass literally exploded a few metres ahead of me. The Shadows were closing in, there was no sign of our reinforcements, and Selene was dying. Her stomach protruded outward as it slowly filled with blood. She was going to die. She was going to die and it was my fault. If I had been faster, if I had been more cautious, maybe she would still be fighting with us. There had to be something I could do. There had to be. A wrack of pain hit me as the bullet in my shoulder shifted slightly. It was at that point that the pain became like a messenger from the fates, calling out to me. It was Shin: the energy of need. I could use it to heal the both of us.
Rain began to fall softly upon me. I could hear Lokus’s warning echoing in my head but I saw no alternative. With us back at full strength, I might be able to hold them off long enough for the other Pagans to get here. The choice weighed heavily upon me. The Lion’s book had warned me that using Shin would potentially kill us both. Was I willing to take that chance for a woman I barely knew? Was I prepared to sacrifice everything? Clashes of steel and Ben’s curses told me that the Shadows were coming over the barricade of rocks. I had precious little time. I tried to concentrate on Selene herself rather than her individual lesions and abrasions, just as the Lion had taught me in his journal. I felt nothing. Come on! Do it! I thought. Please do this. Again, nothing.
Trosian cried out for Lee to do something as bullets drowned out his voice. This wasn’t a choice anymore. There was no grey area, nothing else mattered as I realized I needed to act. I opened my hands wider, my skin stretching as I summoned every last ounce of energy I had. At first, nothing. But then…the chilled energy of the soul pumped from my chest. It was as if frozen metal itself was flowing from my heart and into the veins that reached my arms and legs. As my power rose, the air itself cooled down until I could see my breath. The energy came out in such great surges that the beating of my heart slowed as well as my breathing. Then it slowly washed over her, a small light falling from my fingertips like liquid molasses.
It was then that I noticed a beast had begun to stir in me. It was like a darkness was growing, festering, eating away at the remaining light in my soul like a selfish plant. I ignored this feeling as the Shin was working. Slowly at first, her heart began to beat then her blood and sinew and flesh started to regenerate themselves. I, however, could almost feel her injuries in me. The pain made me grit my teeth and increase my concentration. She would live. If the Shin could not save her, my will would. I could not let her die. I had to keep going. I had to!
Selene gasped loudly and then hyperventilated as her life returned. I commanded the remainder of my Shin back to the depths of my body.
I felt completely drained but my pain was gone and my blood had stopped flowing from my injuries. Physical injuries aside, a strange sensation washed over me as I floated and swayed in and out of consciousness. From the very depths of me, the beast had reared its ugly head. I had just brought someone back to life! I should be revered and treated as royalty—no—a God! Humans should bow before me like the weak, helpless slaves they are. I wanted to watch the world burn. Images flowed through me like water into a basin. I pictured flames and a city burning as explosions tore it apart. Men and women who rose up against me were cut down like grass, streets full of the dead. Laughter echoed through my mind like a monster in a nightmare. Was I laughing? Had I finally found the truth of my destiny? The laughter grew louder. And then I was snapped back to reality.
My vision was blurred and my body still nauseous, but I was no longer in pain as the rain softly kissed my skin. Selene was still unconscious but breathing lightly, sweat coating her pale skin like a dress. How long had I lost touch with the world around me? The battle! My mind snapped to full awareness of my surroundings. Ben, Lee, and Trosian were hostages—I was a hostage—with forty or so Shadows pointing their loaded rifles at us. Why were they hesitating? They had killed the Pagans without hesitation. So why spare the Mystics? Ben and Trosian looked pale and terrified as Lee wept silently next to them. This was going to be the end of us. We were going to die here. That thought should have petrified me, but there was no rumble of fear, no feeling of helplessness.
“Augrais,” Trosian’s eyes flicked past me. I could hear his heart beat faster and faster, the noise like tribal drums in my head.
My spine tingled as I realized that someone or something was here with us, something I had been searching for since that day in my childhood home. I slowly looked over my shoulder to see what had struck terror into the fearless Trosian.
“Welcome back, Master Augrais,” came the voice of th
e monster, the voice of the demon with violet eyes. It reminded me so much of a dream that I wasn’t sure if I was truly awake. There it stood, the thing that filled my nightmares. Its black robe covered most of its body and a black hood covered its head and made it impossible to see into its darkness. The clouds began to darken and roll as the surreal image finally clicked into reality like a radio tuning to a station.
Flashes from my past flooded back to me as if a dam had just been broken. I saw my forest home on fire, and my father slain by this devil. Emotions that I had thought were long past erupted in me in a roar that made all the surrounding people, save this demon and I, fall to their knees in agony. Vitae reawakened within me, vivifying my strength to a level I never thought possible. I was going to kill him. I was going to make him pay. I was more than just Master Augrais, I was an avatar of vengeance.
Wasting no time, I ripped Balmung from the ground and charged, the earth itself becoming a blur under my fast moving feet. The clash of steel was so great that the wind and sparks from our conflict gusted like a small gale, blowing the hood off of my sworn enemy. His face was revealed. It was chiseled like the Devil himself, beautiful like a thunderstorm with deep midnight hair. And there were his eyes, the violet eyes that haunted my sleepless nights, the eyes of the monster that killed my father!
“I’m going to destroy you,” I was frothing at the mouth, blood pounding in my ears as the flames of my Vitae exploded off me as if they were sparks from a downed power line.
“That would be a very nice trick,” he smirked. “I remember your father said the same thing.”
I screamed, driving my heels into the wet mud as I attempted to knock him off balance. He stood there, his sword placed in one hand, unmoving as if he were a great marble statue.
The air shifted around us as the Vitae inside of the demon was released, twisting and corrupting everything about him like a black cloud. The weather shifted and a cold wind blew, causing the temperature to drop drastically around him.
“When are you Mystics going to understand,” the demon said, as his powers dwarfed mine and all of the others around us combined, “this is a fight you cannot win. I am a God and you,”—a slow laughter escaped his lips, something I heard so many times in my mind—“you are insects.”
I didn’t even understand what had happened before I was tumbling across the wet ground, bits of mud and blood spinning to the sky until I slammed back into the rock wall with a resounding thud. My lungs felt like they had popped and I could not breathe.
“Augrais!” Ben cried in desperation
If I had been a regular human, my ribs would have been broken and my aorta burst. I would have been dead. The monster waited patiently, snow lightly falling around us as the rain froze by his awful supremacy. Ben and Lee were cowering whilst Trosian was desperately trying to find a way to help me.
“I sincerely hope that this is not everything you have, Master Augrais.” His voice was taunting me. “I had such high hopes for you.”
I slowly rose to my feet and strode towards him, picking up the fallen Balmung in mid-stride. Blood dribbled from my lips as I took a more tactical approach to this engagement. This demon was far the stronger of the two of us in terms of energy, but I didn’t care. This was about revenge. This was about death. This was about darkness itself. Two super powers stood on opposite sides of a cultural war, but the same evil ruled our hearts.
I lunged forward with all of my speed, thrusting my sword forward at what I thought was his belly. He stepped to the side, easily parrying my blow. His sword flicked up effortlessly. He smirked in a way that suggested that a thousand opponents of my caliber had done that to him and that he understood how to deflect my charge all too easily. I gritted my teeth and attacked again, this time swinging wildly and recklessly. He stepped away then and used my body to twirl me around. I twisted to parry his next blow but was met with a hard strike to the face. This time the blow was much harder than the first and I was literally taken off my feet. The energy generated was enough force to shatter my jaw and right cheekbone. There was pain in my mouth as I struggled to get to my feet, the world around me a hazy, tear-filled globe. I could hear Ben shouting something desperately to me while the Shadows held my friends in place. I could hear the monster laughing as I finally came to my senses. Again, he motioned me to come forward to attack. I shook my head. It was his turn. The demon bowed, accepting my challenge. At this point a large crack filled my ears. I was on the ground again, blood flowingly freely from my broken nose. His laughter poisoned the last remnant of my will to fight.
The monster’s Vitae burned me like acid as I flipped over onto my belly, attempting to rise again. My breath was rapid and shallow as I struggled to numb my damaged limbs with my own energy. The demon waited patiently for me, a small smile of amusement dancing across his lips. I wanted to gut him, make him bleed and feel the pain that had pushed me to this inhuman path.
“That’s it, Augrais.” The demon’s eyes glittered with excitement. “Struggle for your life.”
My hand shook as I grabbed my sword, grasping it like it was my very life in my hands. My friends just watched in helpless silence. Their eyes wide with fear for my life and for their own. But I would not allow them to die. I would not allow them to suffer for my mistakes, my arrogance. I vowed then that I would see to it that they survived, even if it cost me everything I could give.
You have one shot, my Earth gift shot out to Trosian. Take the others and run and don’t look back.
My mind interrupted Trosian before he could tell me to abandon this insane plan, that the reinforcements would come soon. Staggering in place, I attempted to right myself, my breath steaming in the cold air. Blood dripped from my nose like a fountain as my hands shook with the effort. Despite this, there was a resolution in my heart. This was the only way.
It was then I summoned, from the very depths of my being, all the destructive force I could muster. Slight tremors began to wrack my body as the Vitae flowed faster and faster. The bioelectrical field began to turn the falling snow around me into globs of slush. To make this happen, I needed to heed Lokus’s wisdom and stop thinking, fighting, feeling like a human and begin embracing who I truly was: a monster.
“Incredible,” said my twisted reflection, in a voice that was not of awe but of pure excitement.
Everything I have, in one moment, I repeated within my mind. Everything I have!
The ground exploded from my feet as all the Vitae within my body was unleashed. Blades whistled in the air and then exploded into sparks as steel met steel. But this time, it was not my own sword. The Violet-Eyed Demon, just like before, grounded himself against his enemy. Two Vitae forces clashing like two armies rushing into battle. The area erupted into chaos as gunfire exploded from the high ground of the ravine.
“Lokus!” The monster was no longer smiling as our two blades shuddered like two trees in a hurricane. “Your student and I were having a private duel. Where is your honour?”
Though he was turned away from me, I could tell from the stiffness of my opponent’s body that Lokus’s intensity was unrivaled. “Do not speak to me about honor, Laucian. You should choke if you even utter the word.”
The air shifted and they engaged, like bolts of lightning forking across the sky. Their blades dancing a swift duel of death in a dazzling display of martial skill. Lokus immersed himself in his battle, using Laucian’s enormous strength against him by quickly shifting his weight and giving way before brutal swings that would easily have cleaved anyone else in half. Despite this, Laucian still managed to keep his upper hand by using his superior speed and reflexes to recover quickly from the feints and unleash his hell upon Lokus’s defences. It wasn’t long before my teacher retreated backwards, unable to keep pace with a younger, stronger enemy.
“You’re not looking as spry as you usually do, Lokus,” Laucian smirked as he relaxed.
Lokus breathed heavily, clearly spending every last ounce of Vitae he had just to survive
. “Perhaps not. But I am not alone this time.” The firing had ceased, the Pagan cheers of victory echoed across the ravine.
Laucian did not look fazed. “Don’t think this saves you for long, old friend,” he snarled, his eyes flickering dangerously at Lokus. “You will pay for what you have done.”
In less than a second, the monster was in front of me, staring into my eyes. Everything began to slow as if we were moving in water as Lokus’s face contorted into a mask of horror and he screamed something that I could no longer hear. My knee slipped out from under me as the force of the sword entering my chest knocked all the wind out of me. The blade itself propped me up, a pool of blood now puddled around me as the demon of my nightmares got very close. He uttered something in my ear—a small parasite that would twist and tear its way into me and rip apart my reality—but I could not understand it now.
Everything was out of focus, coming to me in waves. It was then that Laucian saw it, saw something about my throat. I couldn’t concentrate any longer as the world began to slip away. With a look of rage and disappointment, the monster disappeared just as Trosian, Lokus, and Ben arrived telling me to hold on. Hold on, I thought, that’s silly. What could I hold on to? Was I dying? Is this what those people felt when I killed them, what my father felt before his light dimmed to nothingness? The light around me began to fade just like the curtains descending slowly in the theatre. Maybe I’ll see him again... Ben was now shaking me, demanding that I not die on him, tears streaming down his face. My last breath escaped like a wisp of smoke, never to be seen again, and the world around me disappeared, fading to black.