“So how do we kill it?” Theseus reached over to her belt and ripped off the lantern containing her half of the Fire of God. Despite the dented iron and cracked glass, the lantern remained intact, the Flame waving undisturbed inside.
“With this,” he growled, a wolfish grin spreading across his face. “The Fire of God is pure enough and powerful enough to consume the Black Heart without being corrupted, and since it is neither a human made weapon nor a casted spell, the Black Heart will have no way to channel into your body and possess. We’ll probably need to unite both halves, just to be sure. But I lost my lantern earlier.”
After a quick search, Pearl found Theseus’s lantern covered in rocky debris against a wall, its light signaling its location. With Theseus’s help and instruction, she reunited the two halves by pouring the oddly water-like Flame from his lantern into hers.
“Now all we need is for the Ghost Boy to bring Beatrice here. How do we contact him?”
“Why not just talk to him?” Beatrice’s voice suggested through haggard breath. Her return silent and unnoticed, she stood behind Pearl, the damage from the battle still fresh. The Ghost Boy’s bolts had burned her hair into short and ragged mess. Her ruined silk dress revealed grievous wounds bleeding over her entire body. Her left eye sat at the bottom of a large crater crushed into her face, and her left arm hung limp at her side. In her right hand, she held the Ghost Boy by the collar of his armor, his arms and legs dangling down into the dirt, and his head hanging down, making him look like a child’s doll. She threw the Ghost Boy towards Pearl and he crashed into a pile of lifeless armor at Pearl’s feet.
“Ghost Boy,” Pearl cried as she knelt down beside him. She lowered her head down to his helm and heard his troubled breath. She sighed and smiled. Strands of metal strings wrapped in different colored coatings protrude from the large tears in his armor. But as Pearl stared at the damage, the metal strings pulled themselves back into place and the armor itself started to grow back.
“Is he alive? I only wanted to break him so no one else could play with him. He’s going to pay for being such an insufferable pain in my ass.” She growled and, with a shout, unleashed a wave of energy over her body. Her hair flicked back to its full length, a new silk dress cascaded over her body, and her wounds washed away like dirt. Though her eyes filled with undying anger, Beatrice looked exhausted, and she panted for breath. Realizing the extent of her exhaustion only stirred Beatrice’s wrath more and she directed it all at Pearl. “I’ve wasted enough time with all of you. You know what I want and I know you won’t do it. As always, Theseus has spoiled all of the fun. One last game then, Pearl, with only one rule: kill me, or you all die.”
Chaos energy sparked up Beatrice’s raised arms and rolled off her fingertips, dispersing into the air. The entire labyrinth shook, loosening debris from the broken ceiling, as the thundering of a stampede surrounded them, growing louder as it drew closer. Stone cracked as the Khaous broke away large sections of the ceiling and walls to pour into the chamber. Pearl drew Ragenoz Rako as she dropped back to protect Theseus and the Ghost Boy from the swarm rushing towards them. She slew the Khaous with ease, pulling energy from the bastard sword as she slayed the Khaous, replenishing her strength and making it easier to kill other Khaous. But no matter how many she took down, more crawled into the chamber. Theseus did what he could to fend off the monsters, firing bolts of lightning from his fingers, but his pain disturbed his focus and he had used most of his mana easing the agony from his knee.
“Creating the Khaous is nothing to me,” Beatrice shouted over the bestial sounds of the monsters. “I could create hundreds, thousands, millions. Wave after wave of them will crash upon you until you fall. There is only one way to end this, Pearl.”
The Khaous moved out of the way to form a path between Pearl and Beatrice, and waited to see what would happen. Beatrice spread her arms, inviting Pearl to attack her. Pearl looked back at Theseus, who nodded at the lantern hanging from her belt. She nodded back and took a step towards Beatrice. As soon as Pearl walked away from Theseus and the Ghost Boy, the Khaous lunged on top of them, predators fighting over a small scrap of food.
“No,” Pearl screamed. A burst of light evaporated the Khaous around Theseus and the Ghost Boy, who stood at the center of the burst. His armor, still damaged, had repaired itself enough to function.
“Go,” the Ghost Boy commanded her, as he punched away a Khaous jumping at him. Pearl smiled and charged at Beatrice, raising Ragenoz Rako, but reaching for her lantern. Beatrice laughed and pointed at Pearl, a ray of black light shooting from her fingertip and knocking the lantern out of Pearl’s hand. Pearl shouted a desperate plea and reached out to catch it, but it disappeared in the swarm of Khaous around Theseus and the Ghost Boy.
“Now, now,” Beatrice wagged her finger. She summoned her crooked axe into her hand. “You know what they say about playing with fire.”
“Damn you,” Pearl cursed Beatrice. “You said no more games.”
“I wasn’t going to make it easy for you,” Beatrice taunted. “Existence is a struggle between what was and what is. Would be successors fighting their predecessors for the right to live on. Rest assure, this ends here.”
Pearl charged again, swinging Ragenoz Rako out and cutting through the Khaous lining the path to Beatrice. The runes on the sword soaked in the Chaos energy and burned with divine radiance. Pearl grabbed the bastard sword with both hands and leapt into the air at Beatrice, who pulled back her axe and waited for Pearl to fall. They slashed out at the same time, and their blades rung with a melancholy tone as they clashed, neither yielding to the other.
Then Ragenoz Rako chipped into the axe’s blade. The entire axe broke apart into Chaos energy and the sudden influx overwhelmed her. Ragenoz Rako exploded with divine fire, which swept out in every direction and reduced the Khaous within the chamber to a field of ash. The inferno wrapped around Beatrice like a blanket, as though her body resisted it. She looked at the flames consuming her and ran her fingers through it. She stared at Pearl and her wicked smile cracked across her face.
“Thank you, Pearl,” Beatrice giggled, and then laughed, and then cackled with mad glee. Her last mad laugh echoed out as the fire covered her and devoured her. Then, silence. Pearl looked around, waiting for something to take hold of her. But nothing happened. Just her, Theseus, and the Ghost Boy. The lantern with the Fire of God still intact.
“We did it,” Pearl whispered to herself to make it real.
A cloud of shadows formed into the shape of Beatrice before her. Even though it didn’t have any facial features, Pearl knew it smiled at her. Then the shadow let out an unearthly scream, a scream from an ancient, dark, long forgotten place, and rushed at Pearl, colliding into her and pushing its way through her skin to invade her body. Pearl thrashed about to throw off the darkness, but its grasp on her tightened and its weight forced her down to her knees. She only knew she had blacked out when she awoke in the Ghost Boy’s cold, armored arms as he carried her to Theseus. When the Boy set Pearl down, Theseus pushed himself onto his one knee and looked down at her.
“Pearl,” he shouted, as though to someone miles away. She flinched at his voice, then held up a hand to stop him.
“Theseus, there’s not much time.” Her vision went dark, then returned in between heartbeats. Theseus still hovered over her, lantern in hand.
“Here it is.” Somehow, she had told him to get the lantern.
“Good,” she told him. “Now you need to use it on me. You need to burn out the Black Heart.”
“But, Pearl,” Theseus questioned. “The Flame will—“
Pearl grabbed at her chest, her body’s instinctual attempt at ripping out the darkness. She glared at Theseus and growled, “I know. Just do it.”
Then everything went dark and silent.
Chapter 19
A strong wind woke Pearl, blowing right over her and whistling through the spaces between her arms and her head as she tried to shield her face. C
ertain the wind would knock her back down if she stood, she resigned to lay face down on the ground and try to resume sleeping. But her Forewarn kept her awake, bursts of noise in her head like the incessant barking of a frightened dog. She tried to ignore it, but when it didn’t stop, she opened her eyes and pushed herself to her hands and knees. She leaned forward to keep her balance as the wind roared in her ears and tried to force her back down. At first, she thought she had gone blind, seeing no ground beneath her, until she noticed her feet and hands. The landscape was barren darkness without a horizon as sky and earth melded together. She took a step forward, wary if the ground continued in front of her, and sighed when her foot landed on something.
“Theseus,” she called out. “Ghost Boy.” Her shouts didn’t travel far as the roaring wind drowned out her words as they left her mouth. She tried again and again, but only the wind answered her. She alone resided in this place.
“Oof,” she grunted as a burst of air punched her in the stomach and knocked her onto her bottom. The wind swept down and kicked her in the chest, rolling her backwards head over heels. She managed to stretch out and lay down on her side, but the wind kept rolling her around. The occasional gust would lift her off the ground and an invisible force would knock her back down. She stood again and what felt like a punch to the back of her head made her fall forward to her knees.
“Alone,” a voice echoed out from all around her. With that word, something threw Pearl backwards into the air. She looked for the ground to land on her feet, but with no way to judge her height off the ground, she crashed onto it. “Give up.”
“I’m not alone,” she growled as she stood up again and faced the windstorm. “And never.”
Someone screamed, but Pearl saw no one else. She touched her mouth, found it open, and realized the screaming came from her. The voice returned, this time whispering in her ear, each word echoing within her. “There’s no use in fighting. Just lie down and let it all end.”
The voice belonged to her, just like the screaming. Yet she hadn’t screamed or spoken. Before she could process the possibility of this, a weight dropped on her shoulders and forced her to her knees. As she struggled against the weight, something in her chest threatened to rip it open.
“Stay down. Sleep.” Something knocked her knees out from under her. She tried to stand up, but a weight held her down on her back. Maybe she didn’t want to get up. The darkness seeded her thoughts with her doubts, invasive ideas that she struggle to discern from her own. If she went back to sleep, she wouldn’t have to worry about the weight upon her. She could be at ease.
“No,” she whispered to herself. The idea of resisting filled her and speaking it breathed life into it. She pushed herself back to her hands and knees.
“No. You want to stay down,” the voice, her voice, another’s voice, whispered and screamed at the same time. The weight on her back increased, but she got one foot beneath her and then another. The winds returned, crashing into her, roaring like a demon, yet she stood tall and strong.
“I will stand,” she defied the voice.
“You will suffer,” the voice shrieked and growled. The wind stopped and silence fell over the dark world. Something approached with the ringing of shattering glass from far to her right, but she saw nothing. Then a piercing shriek cut and smashed into her, throwing her onto the ground. Her entire body ripped apart and a pain greater than any she thought possible coursed through her. In her desperate flailing, she grabbed at her hair and threw her body around, doing anything she could to distract her from the pain. Pearl looked down to see her body splitting apart into different pieces.
First her heart and veins ripped free from her body, followed by her muscles, then her skeleton, then her innards, and last, the systems of her body she didn’t know existed, each fragment of her being hovering above her in tiers. She saw herself existing as components of a whole, and on each of these layers, black liquid oozed and spread. It squirmed within her, and wherever the darkness touched pained her the most. She fought it mentally, but nothing helped, and the darkness spread through her body unchecked.
“Help,” Pearl breathed out through gritted teeth. “Help…someone…anyone…”
“Anyone?” An all too familiar voice asked, and with a finger snap, the pain ceased and the wind died completely. Pearl’s components merged into her body without any physical sensation, but knowing the darkness remained within sent a shiver down her spine. A cold sweat covered her body and she just laid on the ground taking deep, comforting breaths. Approaching footsteps reverberated through the ground, but Pearl ignored them, staring straight up into the ebon sky. “If it’s any consolation, this isn’t the worst you’ve ever looked.”
She tilted her head back to see Lucifer standing over her, his devilish smile across his face. Despite the torture and strain her body had just endured, Pearl scurried to her feet and faced him. Her hands shot down to her sides, but she discovered her weapons no longer hung on her belt. She raised her fists and shifted into a combat stance, the shift of weight almost throwing her off balance and threatening to drop her to the floor. “Where are we? What have you done with my things?”
“Me? What have I done?” Lucifer laughed as he looked around. “I’ve done nothing, save answer your plea for assistance. I’ve come to help you escape this predicament of yours, and it would appear I’m the only aid available.”
“Where are we?” Pearl demanded. Lucifer stepped towards her, but stopped when she shifted away. He approached slower, treating her like a frightened and cornered animal, until he stood right in front of her.
“These are the confines of your mind,” Lucifer gestured with a sweep of his arm. “I imagine it is a much more inhabitable, not to mention fuller, place when you’re not being possessed by a Chaos Artifact.”
“My mind?” Pearl repeated, looking around for any proof. Then she looked down at her body. “How am I in my mind? Why do I look like this?”
“This isn’t your physical body,” Lucifer explained. “Your physical body is without and currently around this place. The ‘you’ I’m conversing with is your mind’s version of you, an avatar of the entirety of your mind’s contents.”
“But…if this is my mind, shouldn’t I be…everywhere in here?” Pearl waved her arms out in every direction.
“Isolation, protection,” Lucifer suggested. “The Black Heart is corrupting your body. Your mind withdrew itself into a more concentrated state, this avatar, to protect itself from being invaded, and the Black Heart filled the void left behind. Or perhaps the Black Heart forced your mind into a more singular state to contain you while it infects the rest of your body.”
“It did try to pacify me,” Pearl recalled. She mulled over everything he had said, one thing not making sense. “Why are you protecting me?”
Lucifer smiled. “A vested interest. You have to understand: the Black Heart will possess you completely. This is one fight you cannot win, at least not by yourself.”
“And you can save me?” Pearl asked, skeptical. He gave her a gentle, devious smile and with flick of his hand, produced a large, black, leather-bound tome. The leather shone like the gold embroidery decorating the book and the three golden buckles keeping the book shut.
“I can save you,” he assured her, his pride bleeding into his words. “Just sign my book, fulfill the promise made to me years ago, and I will stop the Black Heart from taking over your body.”
“How do you know it will work?” Pearl questioned, her voice harsh. Lucifer suffered the slight with a smile and held out his hand.
“Child, if I couldn’t keep my end of the deal, then ‘making a deal with the devil’ wouldn’t be such a tempting proposition,” he gloated. Then his smile faded, and concern settled over his face. “There is no other way, Pearl. Neither Theseus nor the little boy can save you now. You may fear me and what it means to sign my book, but remember what the Black Heart does. I will give you purpose, and make you a soldier for my cause, a threat only
to my enemies. The Black Heart will leave nothing of you left as it uses you to eradicate all that was, is, and will be.”
Images of what Beatrice had become flashed through Pearl’s head and, despite her best judgment, she considered the Devil’s hand. Her body, or at least this avatar of her mind, grew hot, like the sun frying her on a windless, cloudless day. Sweat poured off her, drenching her clothes, if such a thing was possible in this mindscape.
“Time is not a commodity for you mortals to waste, and yours is running dry faster than most, Pearl. Do we have a deal?”
A new fear bloomed in Pearl. Not the obvious one she expected in these circumstances, but the fear of reuniting with her mother and brother as Lucifer promised. She never knew her mother, her memories of her included a few vague, time-distorted images and her mother’s lullaby. As for her brother, her father had declared him stillborn, so Pearl had never seen him. They were blood, more so than anyone see had ever met, but they were also strangers to her. Would they accept her as family, or shun her as a pariah? What if they didn’t love, or even like, her? What would they say? What would she say?
Her vision clouded and her head swirled. Her tongue stuck to every part of her dry mouth. A star burned within her, feeding itself on her core. Running out of time, she had to make a decision. Either choice damned her, but the Black Heart’s powers seemed permanent while a deal could break. She reached out for Lucifer’s hand, but missed, her arm heavy for some reason. She stared at his hand and it shifted from in front of her to a mile away. She took her time as she reached out again. She took hold of his hands, his fingers frigid against her burning skin.
The Lamplighter (Lamplighter Saga Book 0) Page 19