by Clayton Wood
“But Ariana,” she began.
“I need to make sure you're safe first,” Kalibar countered. “Then I'll look for her.”
Petra nodded, then rested her head against his shoulder, putting a hand on his chest. She gazed up at him silently. Looking down at those eyes – and feeling her closeness – made his heart beat faster. She smiled.
“One of these days,” she stated, “...I'm going to save you.” Kalibar smiled back.
“I think,” he replied, “...you already have.”
He wove magic then, and felt himself floating upward into the air, his black cloak rippling in the wind. Higher they rose, until they cleared the treetops above, the magnificent sky opening up all around them. Kalibar turned to face the Spine of Grimore, staring at the spot where Kyle had been only a short while ago, and felt a surge of grief come over him.
Then something above caught his eye.
He turned his gaze upward, far above the Spine, and stared at the blue sky there. He could've sworn that he'd seen something there. Something moving.
The sky rippled.
Petra lifted her head off of his shoulder, staring up at him, then following his gaze. The sky rippled again, then it pinched inward for a split second.
And then it exploded.
Gray mist shot outward in all directions from the once clear sky, high above Mount Grimore's peak. Above the mist, Kalibar saw a massive, hulking shape appear. A sound as loud as a dozen thunderclaps rolled through the air, followed by a blast of wind so powerful that it knocked Kalibar back through the air, making the trees below bow outward violently, the white mist around them blown away instantly. The wind faded as quickly as it had come, and Kalibar recovered, staring up at the monstrosity in the sky once more. His eyes widened, his breath catching in his throat.
It was a massive island, so large that it rivaled the mountain below it, floating miles above Mount Grimore's peak. Its underside was enormous, like a mountain of rock turned upside-down. Halfway down this, the rock gave way to an incredible tapering mass of gunmetal gray, almost as if the rock had been dipped in molten steel. The shadow of the island cast all of Mount Grimore in relative darkness, extending even to Kalibar himself.
He heard Petra gasp, felt her hands grip the front of his cloak.
There was a flash of brilliant blue light at the seam between the rock and the metal portions of the island's underbelly, and suddenly the enormous metallic end broke off.
Kalibar swore, then spun around, weaving magic in his mind's eye. He burst away, accelerating toward Mount Kress in the distance. He glanced over his shoulder.
The metallic base of the island fell slowly through the air, descending toward Mount Grimore miles below, picking up speed as it went.
Kalibar pushed more and more magic into his stream, shoving as much power as he could into it. He felt his blood drain from his head with the enormous G-forces of his acceleration, felt his vision starting to blacken. Still he pressed on, the edge of the island's shadow now only a short distance away. He crossed over it, then glanced backward.
The base of the island fell straight toward one side of Mount Grimore's peak, the tapered metallic monstrosity slamming into the mountainside. Stone and dust burst outward from the incredible force of its impact, shooting outward and upward in an enormous explosion. The shockwave blasted across the landscape, ripping the surrounding trees out of the ground and tossing them into the air.
Kalibar pushed even more magic into his stream, pushing himself beyond his limits, his vision blackening completely. The shockwave rippled across the forest after them with terrifying speed, even as he felt his consciousness starting to slip away. His concentration wavered, his magic stream threatening to collapse on itself. He felt himself slowing down, his vision clearing as he did so, and saw Mount Kress looming a quarter mile away, the steeply-sloped mountainside to his left. He grit his teeth, angling leftward.
If I can just get behind the mountain...
He focused, pushing himself to go faster again, balancing himself on the razor's edge of his consciousness, arcing around the mountainside. He felt a blast of wind strike him from behind, hurtling him forward and blackening the air around him with thick, choking dust. He wove magic deftly, trying to stabilize himself in mid-air, and turned left hard, descending toward the rear of the mountain. He aimed between the treetops on the mountainside below, weaving magic rapidly, feeling the blood rush into his head with the violence of his deceleration.
The rocky face of the mountain rushed up to meet him, right as a wall of flying trees and boulders slammed into the other side of Mount Kress, destroying everything in its path.
* * *
Kyle clung to Ariana's unconscious body, wedged between the Void crystals at the bottom of Sabin’s massive lair. He stared in horror at Sabin's ancient avatar, at the shimmering facets of the green shard Sabin held against Ampir's bare forehead. The tip pressed into Ampir's flesh, denting his skin. Ampir grimaced, jerking his head to the side suddenly, the shard's vicious point sliding off of his forehead.
“It's pointless to resist,” Sabin stated, grabbing Ampir's chin with one hand and forcing his head to face forward once again. He pressed the shard against Ampir's forehead. “You're mine now.”
Ampir struggled mightily, his hands curled into fists, and jerked at his arms, still embedded in the crystalline wall. But they didn't budge.
“Go to hell,” Ampir growled.
“I've been there,” Sabin replied. He pressed the shard against Ampir's forehead, pressed hard. But the green crystal's tip did not pierce Ampir's flesh. Ampir's visor flashed, and it vanished suddenly, revealing his blue eyes. They stared right into Sabin's, even as Ampir's lips curled into a smirk.
“Time to go back.”
Then the ceiling above them exploded.
Void crystals burst free from the ceiling with a tremendous, ear-splitting roar, shattering into millions of glittering pieces that fell downward all around Sabin and Ampir. Sabin lurched backward from Ampir, gravity shields appearing around him. The cords of blue light emanating from Ampir vanished, and his visor reappeared, the hole in his armor repairing itself instantly.
From below, Kyle watched as the massive chamber collapsed inward from above, the entire ceiling crumbling downward in a hail of translucent white crystal fragments.
“No!” Sabin shouted, retreating his avatar to the massive cylindrical crystal that housed his true body. Layers of shimmering blue gravity shields appeared around the entire structure, completely enveloping it. The upper base of the cylinder cracked where it connected to the falling ceiling, large hunks of it sliding off and falling down to the Void-crystal-lined floor below. Kyle saw one of those huge chunks falling right toward him and Ariana, and cried out, throwing an arm in front of his face right before it reached them. But it veered to the side at the last minute, crashing into the floor beside them, shattering the crystals there with an incredible boom. The walls around them caved inward and downward, millions of Void crystals falling toward the bottom of the cavern.
And from those shattered crystals, the Chosen began to rise.
Thousands of pale forms lifted up from the gem-strewn floor, many with severed limbs, some reduced to severed heads. They flew into the air, a few of them coming right for Kyle.
“Ampir!” Kyle cried, holding Ariana close. But the Chosen ignored Kyle and Ariana, passing by them and flying toward Sabin's central column. Thousands of them congregated there, surrounding the massive column from bottom to top, blue light emanating from their foreheads. Layer upon layer of gravity shields appeared around the column, chunks of crystal from the ceiling bouncing off of them, leaving the column intact. But huge chunks of the ceiling continued to descend, white crystal shards and huge fragments of rock crashing downward. Some of these slammed into the rising Chosen, knocking them out of the air and crushing them against the floor below. The mass of gravity shields around Sabin's cylinder began to waver as more and more Chosen fell...and the
n it vanished altogether.
A crack appeared in the middle of the crystal, right at Sabin's pale, entombed waist. More cracks appeared where the cylinder met what remained of the ceiling high above.
Then, as Kyle watched, the massive crystalline column broke free from the ceiling, separating at the crack at Sabin's waist. The flesh there tore as the cylinder broke free...falling right toward Kyle and Ariana.
“Ampir!” Kyle screamed. He kicked his arms and legs frantically, trying to break free from the Void crystals around him. It was useless...he was wedged in too tightly. Again Kyle tried to weave, but his mind was utterly empty. “Ampir!” he screamed again.
And then the massive crystalline column was upon them.
Chapter 36
The air screamed around Kalibar as he pressed himself against the mountainside, dirt, rocks, and ripped-up trees hurtling through the air at deadly speed hundreds of feet away on either side of him. He maintained his magic stream to his gravity shields, knowing full well that they would be useless against such a barrage. He felt Petra clinging to him, her face buried into the side of his neck, and held her tightly.
All around them, the maelstrom roared, surging around Mount Kress's massive flanks.
The barrage eased suddenly, the last of the tree trees hurtling past, a dense fog of swirling brown dust all that remained. Kalibar stayed where he was for nearly a minute, then relaxed his grip on Petra. She opened her eyes, looking around her, then turned to him.
“It's over?” she asked.
“It's over,” Kalibar agreed.
“What was that?”
“I don't know,” Kalibar admitted. He stood up then, carrying Petra in front of him. He wove magic, feeling his boots lifting off of the ground, and flew up into the air, circling around Mount Kress until Mount Grimore was once again visible in the distance.
What remained of it, that was.
For there, miles below the huge floating island in the sky, the once-formidable peak of Mount Grimore was no more, having shattered under the incredible force of the impact from the fallen base of the island. A huge plume of dust surrounded the site of impact, making it impossible to see much of anything through it. The entire base of the mountain was surrounded by that earthen fog. But beyond it, the surrounding forest had caved inward, sinking down to form a deep crater in the forest floor. Easily hundreds of feet deep, the crater extended nearly a mile around, forming a bowl-shaped depression filled with shattered trees and rocky debris.
Kalibar stared, landing on a small clearing on the mountainside, his jaw slack.
“My god,” he breathed.
He felt a vibration in the earth then, following a low-pitched rumbling sound that permeated his very bones. He felt Petra tense up, and instinctively he wove magic in his mind, holding the pattern to fly away in his mind's eye. He saw the massive dust cloud covering Mount Grimore swirl, saw a dark shadow deep within rising upward. Suddenly a plume of dust burst upward from that cloud, followed by the silver gleam of metal. It was, Kalibar realized, the fallen base of the floating island, that massive hunk of metal, rising upward through the air. The vibration in the ground stopped, the low-pitched sound ending. Upward the metallic base flew, rising steadily toward the floating island far above. It slowed its ascent as it neared the island, coming to a gentle stop as it reconnected with the bottom of it.
And then the sky around the island rippled, and in an instant, the island vanished.
Kalibar stared at the blue sky that remained, his jaw slack with wonder. Then he felt a vibration in his skull, followed by a sudden gust of wind.
“Kalibar!” he heard a young voice cry from behind.
He turned around, and saw a very familiar young boy standing there on the mountainside before him, an equally familiar young girl at his side.
“Kyle!” Kalibar exclaimed, his heart leaping into his throat. He eased Petra to the ground, setting her down gently, then ran frantically to Kyle, his heart pounding in his chest. Kyle jumped into his arms, and he embraced the boy, holding him tightly, tears welling up in his eyes and streaming down his cheeks. His legs began to wobble underneath him, and he fell to his knees, bringing his hands up to the sides of Kyle's face and staring at him in wonder.
My boy!
To his immense relief, and utter astonishment, there was no crystal in Kyle's forehead. His skin was not pale, or cold. He was Kyle, alive and whole!
Then Kalibar turned his head, seeing Ariana – Ariana! – standing there beside Kyle. He gestured for her to come close, and he embraced her as well, holding his two children in his arms. His whole body was trembling.
“My children,” he murmured, his voice cracking. Words streamed out of him, and he hardly registered that he was saying them. “Oh thank god,” he blurted out. “Thank god.”
“Thank him,” Ariana replied, pulling away and twisting around. Kalibar opened his eyes, wiping the tears from them, then followed Ariana's gaze. There, standing where Kyle and Ariana had appeared only moments ago, was a man. A tall man clad in black armor, blue light coursing through the countless runes inscribed into its metallic surface. The man's mirror-like visor reflected an incredible blue vista of the sky, and the shattered remains of Mount Grimore.
“Ampir,” Kalibar breathed, feeling a chill run through his body. He knelt there, staring at the legendary Battle-Runic, the man who had somehow, someway, come back from the dead. Ampir strode forward wordlessly, stopping before Kalibar and extending one gauntleted hand.
Rise, a voice reverberated in his mind.
Kalibar took Ampir's hand, and the man pulled Kalibar to his feet. Kalibar turned then, seeing Ariana and Kyle kneeling before Petra, still lying on the ground. Petra was sweating, undoubtedly from the pain in her ankle, splinted though it was. Kalibar turned back to Ampir, staring at his impenetrable visor.
“Please,” he pleaded. “If you could help her...”
Ampir turned to face Petra, then stepped past Kalibar toward the fallen woman. Petra looked up at Ampir, clearly confused.
“Who is...” she began, then her eyes widened. The runes on Ampir's armor shimmered blue, and suddenly a great flare of blue light burst forth from his body. Kalibar felt a tremendous force slam into his mind's eye, filling him instantly with overwhelming power. He closed his eyes, unable to help himself from savoring the moment, the incredible rapture of it. Within seconds, the feeling ended, the blue light fading, and Kalibar opened his eyes.
Petra stared at Ampir, her eyes wide open, her mouth forming into a perfect “O.” Moments passed before she finally blinked, her mouth snapping shut. She reached down to touch her ankle, tentatively at first, then more confidently, running her fingers over the once-mutilated flesh. The wound was gone, her ankle whole again. She gathered herself then, pulling her legs under her and rising to her feet. She stared at Ampir
“Who are you?” she asked. Ampir said nothing, turning away from her, and Petra turned to Kalibar.
“He's Ampir,” Kalibar explained. “He was an...associate of Sabin.”
“The Outsider?” Petra asked, her eyes widening.
“The same,” Kalibar confirmed. He turned to face the remains of Mount Grimore then. The great cloud of dust still obscured the devastation wrought upon it. Then he turned back to Ampir. “I take it you did that.”
Ampir nodded.
“Is he dead?” Kalibar asked. Ampir didn't answer, but Kyle nodded.
“He says Xanos is destroyed,” Kyle said. Kalibar nodded, turning back to Mount Grimore, a strange feeling coming over him. As if this weren't happening, as if it was just a dream.
It's really over, he thought.
He'd never really allowed himself to believe that it would happen this way. Never imagined, despite what he'd told Kyle and Ariana, that Sabin could ever be destroyed. They'd been teetering on the edge of annihilation for so long now, pummeled by the sheer hopelessness of fighting against such an overwhelming power, that even the idea of defeating the self-proclaimed god had
seemed impossible.
It's over, he told himself again. He stared at Mount Grimore, expecting to feel some sort of profound relief, a burst of joy. Something. Anything. But all he felt was dazed. He'd seen the same looks on the faces of his men back in his military days, after surviving against all odds to win a battle. That blank look, an unwillingness of the mind to admit that the fighting was over...that they didn't need to be afraid anymore.
He felt a cool hand take his them, and turned to see Ariana standing beside him, her eyes on Mount Grimore. She stared for a long time, then looked up at Kalibar, her big brown eyes looking questioningly at him.
“What now?” she asked. And the way she said it, he knew that she was feeling exactly the same as he was. Kalibar smiled, squeezing her hand and pulling her in to kiss the top of her head. Her hair – long again after healing from the Void Chosen’s fireball – tickled his bare face.
“Now,” he replied, drawing back from her. “We learn how to live.”
He felt a hand on his back, and turned to see Petra standing on his other side. She too was staring at Mount Grimore, but she was hardly smiling.
“What about my family?” she asked. “And the tribes?”
“They're fine,” Kyle answered. The boy blushed when Petra turned to look at him. “Ampir says so,” he added, staring at his feet.
“And the Immortals?” she pressed.
“Gone,” Kyle answered.
“Why don't you speak for yourself?” Petra demanded, looking at Ampir. Ampir's lips curled into a smirk, and he gestured at what remained of Mount Grimore with one hand.
I have, his voice boomed in Kalibar's mind. Petra must have heard it too, because she stepped backward, her eyes widening. She swallowed visibly, clearly shaken.
“Where is my family?” she asked.
Safe.
“Can I see them?” she pressed.
Soon, Ampir answered. He lowered his arm, turning to Kalibar. Go with him, he added. I will protect your family.