by A. R. Crebs
“Ivory,” Aria whispered. Uncloaking herself, the female soldier appeared in the middle of the room. Taking quick steps, she neared the throne. Dovian and Troy did the same, looking to the sides with weapons at the ready as Aria looked over the imprisoned woman.
“N-no. No,” Ivory whimpered. “You shouldn’t have come. You should have stayed away.”
“We had to come for you, Ivory. We couldn’t just let Euclid take you.” She looked at the massive metal ring clamped around the blonde’s wrists. “Dovian, can you get this off of her?”
“No, no,” Ivory said shakily. “You don’t understand. You don’t understand what’s happening.”
Dovian quickly neared Ivory, grasping the chains. He looked at the delusional woman with worried eyes.
“It’s not just Euclid. It’s far worse,” Ivory whispered to Dovian. At any moment, it looked like she could have a nervous breakdown.
“What are you doing here?” A small voice invaded the conversation, echoing against the stone walls.
Troy and Aria spun, aiming their weapons at the intruder. Dovian locked eyes with Ivory’s frightened ones. His hands trembled, slowly letting go of her binds. With trepidation, he cautiously turned toward the source of the little voice. It was sweet, and it was innocent, but there was an underlying tone within it that left the Sorcēarian feeling the worst dread he had felt since his people were annihilated.
“We can ask the same to you,” Aria replied, rifle aimed at a small child. “Were you kidnapped, too?”
The ghostly little girl, with pale skin and ashen hair, giggled to herself. Her blue-grey eyes shimmered in the firelight that decorated the chamber walls. She shook her head carelessly, her tiny fists gripping the sides of her white dress. Dovian clenched his staff tightly, looking at the child with a face that clearly expressed he was frightened of her.
“What’s your name?” Troy gently asked the girl.
Giving another sweet giggle, she replied, “Sapphire.”
"Losing Hope"
Chapter 22
Dovian, a giant statue frozen by his own fear, watched the child in the center of the chamber. Digging deep into his palms, his fingernails began to draw blood, the crimson a lively contrast to his pale skin. A deep breath of the musty air flared his nostrils as he had momentarily forgotten how to breathe. He watched with his glowing eyes the amused little ones coming from the girl named Sapphire. The giggle that tore past the wretched girl’s lips burned his ears. He couldn’t move, couldn’t process a thought as he gaped dreadfully at the small intruder. Two hands clamped around one of his legs, tearing the Sorcēarian out of his trance. It was Ivory. Her hands were cold, the icy appendages felt through his robes.
“And how did you get here, Sapphire?” Aria asked. The name repeated from the woman’s lips caused Dovian to cringe. Luckily, she never lowered her weapon, holding a much more concerned pose.
“This is my home,” Sapphire replied.
“Shoot her. Shoot her now!” Dovian shouted in the soldiers’ minds.
Troy looked at Dovian, bewildered. Aria flinched but still hesitated.
It was too late. Sapphire’s eyes tapered, pupils enlarging to cover the irises in blackness. An invisible blast exploded from the child’s body, slamming into Aria and Troy. Their shields flickered and became obsolete from the blast as they collided into the rock wall, sending fractures up the sides. Loud grunts sounded from the two soldiers, and their limp bodies dropped to the floor.
“You invade my home and then think you can attack me?!” the child shouted. Her mouth was unmoving as the voice erupted in a dual oscillating tone, one pitch octaves lower than the other.
Dovian guarded the blast with his staff, a transparent shield sparing him and the frightened Ivory. Sapphire’s dark eyes glared at him, slowly flickering between black and blue.
“Euclid!” Sapphire’s monstrous voice called out for the estranged man.
With a quiet rumble, a vibration distorted the air near one of the entrances, and a shimmer of azure emerged. “You called?” A smile lined Euclid’s face, his eyes looking at the fallen and broken soldiers on the opposite side of the room before looking upon the stiff Dovian. He chuckled quietly. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Dovian.”
“What is this that you’ve brought to this plane?” Dovian gruffly asked, eyes shooting daggers in Euclid’s direction.
Euclid laughed heartily at this statement. “Dovian...” he shook his head, “Dovian, Dovian, Dovian.” Walking around Sapphire, making sure to keep a safe distance away from the child, Euclid clasped his hands together. “You mean to ask what this is that brought me back to this plane.”
Dovian’s face fell further. “Then it is as I feared.” He returned his attention to the angry child, her appearance returning to normal.
Giving a small sigh, Sapphire shook her head. “Euclid, his weakness is overwhelming. Destroy him.”
“My pleasure,” Euclid quickly spat.
Before Dovian could even budge, Euclid was ramming against him and crushing his body into the back wall. Ivory dropped to the side, her head slamming against the arm of the throne.
“Careful of the prisoner, you idiot!” Sapphire shrieked, staring at the now unconscious blonde. “We need her.”
Euclid shuddered under the child’s terrible tone but kept his menacing stare fixated upon Dovian, who was sagged, his body pinned into the rocky surface. “Get up. At least try to accept your defeat with dignity,” he snarled.
“You always pride yourself before the battle’s even begun,” Dovian growled back. His eyes glistened with double the intensity. From his resting place, he lunged forward, his enormous, feathered wings pushing him outwards. He tackled Euclid, the two flying past Sapphire as she sidestepped out of the way with a perturbed look upon her small face.
The two Sorcēarians rolled to the side, both guarding themselves as they slowly circled in the middle of the room. Noticing the struggling bodies of Aria and Troy, Euclid gave another cocky smile. “Can I kill the humans? Make him watch as I tear them limb from limb?” He sent multiple images into Dovian’s mind of his disgusting plans for the two militants. Dovian gritted his teeth, taking a millisecond to look upon his comrades. Troy’s shaking hand reached out for Aria, nudging her gently.
Sapphire watched the two armored humans with disinterest. “No. They are weak and insignificant. I want to watch the hope drain from their souls as they watch their Sorcēarian die a terrible death. Afterward, you can do what you like with them.”
“Your quarrel is with me; leave them alone!” Dovian roared. “Besides, I’ve been the only one who’s prevented you from carrying out your plans. Without me, they are no threat to you.”
“You have no say in the matter,” Sapphire monotonously replied.
Sending a blast at Euclid, Dovian rolled on the ground and twisted to the side, pulling his staff around. The winged tip dragged the azure man’s legs out from underneath him. He grabbed Euclid’s blue overcoat, lifting him off the ground and smashed his fist into his nose. Dovian followed through with his foot against the other Sorcēarian’s chest, sending him crashing into the wall.
The loud shouting and booming of the magical beings’ battle brought Aria out of her painful daze. She moaned, her hands trembling. Troy shook her shoulder again, sending waves of pain throughout her body.
“Are you alright?” Troy asked. It could have been the first time he asked or the tenth; she didn’t know for sure.
“I feel like every bone in my body is broken.” She grimaced.
“You too, huh?” Troy muttered. “God damn….”
“I feel like I’m going to throw up.”
“Do these suits have morphine?”
Aria slowly tugged her arm up to her face. A sharp stabbing erupted through her shoulder, making her gasp. Quickly pressing a button labeled with a medic symbol, her suit hissed, and her body quickly numbed and tingled as injections traveled up her spine into her nervous system. A quiet mo
an passed her lips as she gave a small, relaxed smile. Her mind swirled with giddiness. With a shaking hand, she patted Troy on the shoulder and blurted out a giggle.
“P-push the button,” she whispered.
Troy quickly complied with her request. His curved body finally uncoiled. Rolling onto his backside, he smiled stupidly from behind his helmet, staring through the visor at the pointed rock ceiling.
“Much better,” he sighed.
A loud scream alerted the two. With quick twitches, they looked to the source of the noise. Blurs of red and blue sped across the flickering orange light, shadows bouncing around the room. Troy’s eyes darted anxiously from left to right, trying to make sense of the movements as Euclid and Dovian crashed into one another, the walls shaking with each tremendous impact.
Euclid’s hair was fallen over his eyes, blood dripping from his nose. He glared at Dovian, cupping his face as he healed his broken features. “You know how redundant this is?”
“Very,” Dovian replied.
Euclid lifted his eyes to the ceiling in irritation. “Then why do you keep fighting? You know I will only heal myself in turn.”
“And I will do the same, so why are you fighting me?”
“Because you stand in my way.”
“And what is your way?” Dovian twirled his staff, the wings scraping against the cave floor as he walked to the side.
Euclid’s shoulders sagged. “You already know my way, Dovian! Stop wasting time!”
The azure-robed man held both of his hands out to the side. Closing his eyes and breathing in deeply, he pulled his palms together, elbows out like in prayer. Then he rotated his wrists, turning his hands upside-down. He watched Dovian from behind his long raven-black hair. A portal opened up behind Euclid and numerous Brawlers lunged out, surrounding Dovian, howling and snarling like dogs. This was a new power that Euclid had learned. No doubt something Sapphire had attributed him.
“You tread on the dangerous side, Euclid,” Dovian said.
“Likewise,” he replied.
“You’ve betrayed your purpose.”
“Purpose!” Euclid shouted, the sound reverberating loudly. “Like the tool that I am? Why? To live an enslaved life living by morals I do not agree with? To let terrible things happen in a corrupt and disgusting world? And you think I’m the evil one?”
“You are blasphemous with every breath you breathe!” Dovian was angered by Euclid’s transgressions. “You are just as fallen as those who were before, yet you think you are somehow better and more deserving of His love.”
Sapphire, now seated at her thrown, raised her eyes, sending a heated glare at Euclid, one that he could feel without matching eyes with.
“No…not love. You don’t want His love. You want His power,” Dovian said accusingly.
“I want His control!” Euclid snapped.
“There is no control! Everything you have done, everything you have felt–every tear, every pain, every laugh, and every cry has been your own doing!”
“He threw us in this hellish world and left us, forsaken us! To live by His selfish design because He did not want to deal with it Himself! He didn’t want to admit He failed!”
Euclid lunged forward, sending a potent wall of power against Dovian’s body. The six monsters that Euclid called upon surrounded the other fallen man. One clicked its nasty talons against the floor, anxiously waiting to taste Dovian’s blood. The scarlet-robed Sorcēarian picked himself up from off the ground, kicking one of the creatures in the face. Shrieking, the others darted forward. Dovian twirled and cut across three and instantly sent them to ash.
“They are no match for me, Euclid,” he muttered. “Just as you are no match for me, and you are no match for Him!”
Dovian ducked as one creature jumped for his head. Expertly, he sidestepped, avoiding a second, and shoved his staff behind him, planting the wings of his weapon around the creature’s neck. The blue orb electrified its body as Dovian pulled up and over, throwing the demon directly at Euclid. Frowning, the black-haired man raised a palm, sending the nearing monster’s body into ashes.
“It was never He who left! It was you who had forsaken His gift!” Dovian shouted as he continued his attack on Euclid. They tussled about, each one exchanging powerful blows that slowly deteriorated the cave walls. Dovian spun, his staff sending a horizontal wave toward Euclid and then rolled his shoulders to bring the weapon downward, sending a vertical wave after. He had pinned Euclid against the wall as the man ducked beneath the first attack and tried to jump to the side. The second shot cut through Euclid’s left leg, and he dropped heavily onto the ground.
Dovian gripped Euclid’s front, tugging him close to his face. “He didn’t leave; you left Him.”
“Says the one who destroyed everything He stood for,” Euclid sneered. “Dovian, has it ever occurred to you that you followed through with the largest part of my plan?”
Dovian gaped at his enemy, looking slightly shocked.
“You were always a little slow, weren’t you?”
“It was for humanity’s own good!” Dovian growled.
“Was it? Look at them, Dovian. You are only postponing their untimely demise!” Euclid gestured toward Aria and Troy. The two soldiers were sitting up, resting their heads against the wall. “He saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. They always have and always will be of darkness!”
Dovian frowned, his mind flickering to the horrors of humanity. “It wasn’t our job to judge.”
“It should have been!” Euclid shouted.
Glowing eyes stared at glowing eyes as the two argued back and forth. One of the creatures dared an attack. Dovian staffed it in the jaw, cracking its skull open. Only one remained in the shadows, watching curiously over the two.
“The darkness of the filthy creatures is overwhelming, overshadowing any miniscule amount of good that may still exist,” Euclid scoffed.
“There can be no darkness without light,” Dovian muttered. “Even in the midst of entire annihilation, they maintain their hope.”
Euclid glared, his hand gripping at the large wound in his knee. Blood gushed freely onto the brown earth. Sweat beaded on his brow. He breathed heavily as he pulled energy to heal himself. “And there can be no light without darkness,” Euclid said behind closed teeth. “Without enemies, there can be no heroes. Without heroes, there would be no enemies.”
“This is your problem, finding the balance.”
“The only way, Dovian, is for all of us to die.”
“Not if we do as we are supposed to. It’s our job to maintain the balance within ourselves.”
Euclid’s hands gripped Dovian’s forearms. Lifting the other man off the ground, Dovian pushed away.
“And you’ve done such a good job at that, eh?” Euclid jeered. He limped, scowling in pain as he struggled to heal himself. “Without that back apparatus, you’d give into your selfish, evil inhibitions just as easily as anyone else.”
“At least I care enough to try to do what is right.”
Euclid snarled and disappeared. Dovian tensed and awaited impact as Euclid reappeared behind him, wrapping his arms around Dovian’s neck. Euclid kicked at the back of Dovian’s legs, sending him to his knees.
“Your hypocrisies amaze me, fool!” he hissed in Dovian’s ears.
Gasping, Dovian’s face turned red, matching his robes. “Yet, you are too ignorant to realize your own,” he groaned.
“Enough! You will die now!” the madman shouted, his lips grazing Dovian’s ear.
“This won’t do it,” he replied smugly to the dark man.
“I will incapacitate you. While your system regenerates, I will sever your head like you did to me all those years ago.”
“Not very climatic, is it?” Dovian chuckled, coughing as he tried to gain air.
Euclid faltered, momentarily loosening his grip. How badly he wanted to break Dovian’s neck
, snap every bone in the other man’s body, rip out his hair, and skin him alive. And it all wouldn’t do the trick. Dovian could just slowly heal himself. Euclid preferred torture, but he needed to annihilate Dovian quickly, not give him any chances to escape. He pondered his plans for a few seconds, catching Sapphire’s boiling stare.
“Kill him already!” she screamed.
“Dovian…” Aria whispered. She lifted her weapon and aimed. The child that sat upon the throne glared at her, sending another shockwave in their direction. Troy pushed Aria out of the way, and they both crashed to the ground, narrowly escaping another atrocious blow.
“Don’t interfere,” Sapphire ordered.
Dovian’s body fell limp in Euclid’s arms. Pulling from his distracting thoughts, images of Dovian’s gruesome end, Euclid quickly dropped the Sorcēarian. He snatched up Dovian’s weapon and raised it over his head.
“It’s over!” he laughed. “You may be able to regenerate yourself, heal yourself better than any Sorcēarian before you, but you can’t grow back limbs! You can’t grow back a head!”
A bright flash temporarily blinded Euclid from Dovian’s staff, filling the cave with intense light. It had lasted only a second before it dissipated. Dovian’s body remained on the floor at Euclid’s feet. Relaxing a bit, the evil Sorcēarian laughed manically once again. “I can feel the power course through my veins!”
Bringing the weapon down, the winged blades cut through Dovian’s armor and body. The grey-haired head bounced away and into the shadows. Euclid’s frenzied scream echoed loudly within the chamber. Shakily, he released the staff. It clanged noisily in the silent room. A soft cry erupted from the corner, tearing the azure-robed man’s attention to the soldiers. A wry smile crossed his pale face as he looked at the worried Aria, who was being held back by Troy.
“Your turn,” he hissed.
A soft crackling sounded from beside Euclid’s feet. Frowning, he looked back down at Dovian’s dead body. The headless form was splintering with yellow light. The beams crackled over the body, and within seconds, it was crumbling to ash. Euclid’s eyes widened. Sorcēarian bodies didn’t do that, at least not from what he had ever seen. Turning his gaze toward Dovian’s severed head in the corner of the room, Euclid shouted. In its place was a detached Brawler head, its long tongue hanging out in the middle of its hot blood. It began to crackle and turn to ash as well.