The men are still rushing through the obstacle course, a whole lot better than they were two days ago, for sure.
"They're progressing quickly man, but they're not ready yet. We went on a small mission at 0600 this morning, we managed to loot a small police station in a village north of here, and an army base to the south. There wasn't much left at either, but we have enough guns to go around now. Mostly hand guns, we have two m16 assault rifles and an L115A1 AWM sniper rifle. Patrick is a wiz with the long-range sniper and I'll be taking one of the assault rifles. We could cause a lot of damage to magi without protection with these weapons, Thomas. But they're not ready yet, soon." he tells me, I just nod. They're coming along quickly, I just hoped it would be quickly enough, we are running out of time.
I leave them to their training and head back through the safe house, it takes me a minute to get to the forge. I step into the back room, ten suits of armour are waiting for me. Specially crafted for the elite squad that Macklin would be leading, thin plates of steel magically lightened to allow the soldiers to move easily without being weighed down or over encumbered.
I move to the first one and pull on my light, shaping it into a small blade of flame and I begin engraving the casting for the wards Gandrea had showed me. It takes me a few minutes to do each one for each suit, I also add a storage for light to each one and put a small slither of light into them. I don't tell anyone about this, a small precaution. If the soldiers turn against the magi when the war is won, a small tug on the light stored would cause the wards to break. But another thought occurred to me, if I lost my power, who would be able to break the wards? A worrying thought.
I send my light out into each suit of armour and displace particles inside the steal, this will make the armour even lighter, it will also allow the armour to be flexible. It would still be strong enough to deflect a blade, if the magi try a different form of attack on the soldiers after their magi fails them.
I head back through the sanctuary, the sun has gone now, it was starting to get late. I head back to mine and Katie's room, she's waiting for me. She rushes over to me and gives me a hug, she leans up on her tip toes and kisses me softly. She tells me she loves me, I tell her I love her too. And then I carry her to bed. I'm kissing her neck and she's moaning softly.
The black cloaks were closing in on me, I was running down a long street lined with houses. I could make out the sanctuary at the end of the street. Large wooden door and the thing red flame. The red house. But I wouldn't make it, they were so close now. I could feel the heat rising from their shields. And then a burst of flame. A small globe of fire exploded in front of me, I reached for my light to hastily throw up a shield.
My light was gone! I dived into the ethereal, I could see the light there. I reached for it. I couldn't grab it. It was just out of reach. I felt the fire touch me, my skin was burning and melting. The light refused to come to me. I screamed.
I woke, covered in sweat. A nightmare.
My fears were growing every day. Ever second that passed, the final battle got closer. Soon I wouldn't have access to the light. I had the smith create a new suit for me, identical to the first. But with only one crafting. The wards would make me impervious to magi attacks, one final line of defence once my power was gone.
But I wasn't going to accept my fate without a fight, I had come up with a plan of training. I needed to access a well of light without using my own, and once my light is no longer within reach, I would be able to reach it without using my well. But it wouldn't be easy, probably wouldn't even be possible. But I knew I had to try.
I made my way through the safe house. It was the middle of the night. Achilles and Phil were in the courtyard, drinking.
I sat by them, Phil passed me his bottle of wine and I took a swig. A beautiful blend of fruit and alcohol. I groaned with pleasure. Phil laughed.
"What has our fearless king awake in the middle of the night in a sweat?" Phil asked, mockingly.
I looked to Achilles. He watched me silently. He nodded once.
"Did it ever get any easier Achilles? Did you ever stop reaching for your power? Did it still talk to you, guide you? Could you still hear it out there?" I asked him, my voice quiet.
Phil passed me a new bottle.
"No, I won't lie to you Thomas, it doesn't get easier. You will never stop reaching for it, not ever. You can feel it still; the warmth still touches you. Fleetingly. Occasionally. But I couldn't hear it or feel its emotions, I couldn't sense it. It is going to be hard, and it will break you. It broke me. It took me a long time to regain enough composure to actually live." he tells me, his eyes sad, his voice shaking as he remembered.
I just nod to him.
I close my eyes and dive into the ethereal. I can see his light. I reach for it. My light automatically shoots out, Achilles feels it and his face registers surprise. I apologise and pull my light back, confining it to my crown. I try to reach for his light again, without my light.
I can feel it. I try to pull on it. Nothing. I try again. And again. And again. Ten times. Twenty times. I'm sweating and getting frustrated. I roar and throw the bottle away.
"Don't give up Thomas, if anyone can do it, you can." Achilles tells me. Then he bids us goodnight and leaves Phil and myself alone. Phil puts his hand on my shoulder.
"It'll work itself out buddy." he says. I just nod again and take another swig from the last bottle.
"Bring Wident to me Phil, there's one thing left for me to do."
Thirty-Eight – The Fall
Wident was warm. The sun was shining today. He stood in the ruins of a sanctuary. The smell of decaying flesh in the air around him. His eyes darted all around the rubble that lay scattered around him. He had been here before. The sanctuary of the Earth Born, deep in the countryside of Ireland sitting at the foot of a mountain range that stretched out as far as the eye could see.
Just up the mountain lay an enormous forest of tall green trees. Past the trees lay a scattering of rocky outcrops. He made his way to the foot of the mountain and out of the destroyed sanctuary.
He had heard talk of a small tribe of earth born that had abandoned their sanctuary and moved into a cave up this very mountain. There were rumours of a power within this forest, a power that needed to be protected. This group of earth born were the last line of defence for this forest, some told of a battle that took place here thousands of years ago, but there were no records to prove such a claim, Wident had considered it extensively.
Thomas had sent him in search of these Earth-born so he could hopefully learn to master earth castings, he believed completely that to defeat the darkness he needed all four elements. And it made a certain kind of sense, they were called the elements of creation. Light, Fire, Earth, Water and Storm.
Wident takes one last look at the remains of the sanctuary, everyone inside was dead, Wident had checked. Forty-four bodies in total. He had investigated every single one, hoping for a miracle, a survivor. But none had survived. The darkness had annihilated them, perhaps leaving the world without earth magic.
Wident makes his way up the mountain, it's a big mountain. He spends two hours hiking and reaches the outskirts of the forest, he stops and gets out his pot and portable hob. He uses his magic to light the thing and then starts cooking himself some soup, Melanie had made it for him before leaving, she's about the only one that can cook a halfway decent meal.
Wident enjoys his soup, once finished he begins packing up and starts his trek through the forest. He loses his way a few times, the forest was pitch black, the trees so tall and wide they blocked the sun, small rays here and there lit up small sections of the pathway, bus aside from that, Wident walked in darkness. Tripping over rocks, walking into trees, smacking his head off branches. It was a painful hike.
He exited out of the forest and it was still dark, he stops and finishes his soup before taking a nap. The sun has risen when he wakes. His body is tired, not as young as it used to be. He pushes on up the mountain, it's ar
ound midday when he hears a huge rumble and a massive vibration beneath his feet.
The mountain begins to shake, Wident throws up a shield, expecting the worst. He looks around him and spots the source of the noise. A landslide. Huge boulders and a cloud of dust rolling down the side of the mountain towards him. It hits him like a tidal wave, throwing him back a hundred yards, the dust and rocks landing all around him.
Wident is pouring every inch of light he has into his thing heatshield, he can see the rocks smashing against it trying to break through, and break him, he's sweating now, panicking.
The rumbling stops. The landslide has run its course. But Wident was trapped, his heat shield the only thing stopping the huge weight of rock from crushing him.
His light is drained, his energy gone.
His shield wavers.
Snap.
His shield shatters.
Thirty-Nine – The Light Shines Bright
I'm starting to freak out now. It's been a week since I had sent Wident to Ireland, nine days since I sent Gray to London. I had used my pulse a few times since first spotting Gray, and I could still find him even now. His shackles of fire were gone now, but he still had not returned. I was hoping that Achilles was right, and that Asrath had fought against the darkness inside him this entire time, and remained true to the light. But I didn't believe it fully yet. Gray still had not come back. He was still being held. But I also couldn't believe that Horal would turn traitor. He had lost so much to the El-Guul. More than any one.
I was standing in the mess hall now, watching Macklin and his men training. They had come so far in just two weeks. Macklin had told him he thinks they're almost ready, and I agreed with him, watching them now I would go as far as saying they were ready to go this instant. But I trusted Macklin, especially when it came to this area, his area of expertise, he had spent his whole life as a soldier. Enlisted when he was eighteen, two tours in Iraq before being recruits by special forces. Six years of training, eight years of ops. He had trained seals and Indian Special Forces for the last five years of his career. And now he was here, training a small squad of elite fighters to kill magical beings that had been corrupted by an ancient evil.
The world had gone to shit in under a year, the population of earth dead and hiding. The biggest cities in the biggest countries lay in ruins of fire and darkness. And here, at a safe house in a small village in the middle of the English countryside, magi and non-magi, the last of the resistance, were readying for one final battle against the darkness.
But before we could take on the darkness, I needed the power from the vault, I also needed to master earth castings.
I call Macklin over to me, I tell him to gather his squad and follow me. I lead them through the safe house. They don't speak a word, not even to the survivors that greet them along the way. Macklin and I do the talking, the soldiers keep straight faces. Professional. Macklin had performed a miracle with these guys.
I lead them into the forge, the smith is waiting. He nods at me and shakes my hand, then greets Macklin the same. He leads us into the back room. Arrayed against the wall are the ten suits of armour the smith had forged and I had crafted. Macklin whistles.
"Oh boy." he says.
He goes to his, gold and silver plated with flames of red spiralling around the right leg and left arm.
"Beautiful." he tells us.
"Try them on, all of you." and they do. It takes a few minutes, but they're standing in front of me now, suited up. I ask them to do a few things while wearing them, to test their weight and flexibility. They have no problem performing any of the tasks they would be expected to do in the field. Macklin laughs and admires himself in the mirror.
"I love them. They're crafted to prevent magi attacks?" he asks me.
I summon a huge burst of light and turn it to flame and let it roar at him. He throws his arm up in shock and fear, a little gasp. But the fire hits him and disappears, causing no damage. Macklin checks himself out, making sure all his limbs are still intact and there's no hole through his chest. He laughs again.
I leave them with the smith to do any alterations needed and make my way through the safe house to the court yard. The rest of the survivors are here training also, they come here every day to train, ever since I had begun my training her. They were split into groups; one group were standing around holding long swords and watching a duel. Another group were on the other side of the courtyard. Two magi face off against another two, firing attacks at each other.
I made my way over to the first group to check out the days’ duel. It was Achilles and Phil. I smiled. Achilles had proven as good a swordsman as Phil, albeit with a different style. Phil was quick, his two swords a blur. But Achilles was strong, his control of his huge broadsword better even than my own, his sword caught ever blow Phil threw and returned a few of his own, each swing of the huge sword leaving Phil gasping for air.
Achilles had taken on a much larger role since arriving at the safe house, he had joined Phil in training the survivors with the sword now that the smith had returned to the forge full time. And it was paying off, the survivors were improving massively, each one could now escape a duel with Phil with only a dozen bruises.
I smile at the duellers and move over towards the casters. I had spent the last week here, trying to draw light from them in every possible way. I had spent an entire day sitting in the middle of the courtyard trying to access the light being stored in my ring without using my own ethereal, and it had not worked. I had then switched to trying to draw the light from these casters while they were pulling their own light. And I had been left frustrated once more, now I was trying to draw in the castings after they had been unleashed. But I couldn't grasp any of it, not without my light.
It annoyed me greatly. I was pissed off right now. I sent my light out at a fireball that was refusing me, the fireball was flying towards a small female caster. I extinguished it and sighed. The casters all around me laughed as the fire winked out.
I take a seat on the ground near the casters and begin pulling on my light. I was trying to convert the light into an earth casting. I was using the knowledge I had gained while learning storm and water. I pushed the light down into the ground and tried to convert it into stone. But it wouldn't.
I raged. I smashed his hands into the ground and an explosion of fire roared up. The fire surrounded me and closed in. I was enveloped in darkness.
No, not darkness. It wasn't darkness, no. Thomas had felt the darkness... this was something else. He had always thought of the dark as nothingness, but he was wrong. This was nothingness. The darkness had a presence, what Thomas felt now was nothing. No entity, no being, no movement, just emptiness, a true void.
He tried to stand, but he had no legs. No body. He was floating in nothing. Then Thomas felt the light close to him, it was sending calmness. The light was showing him this. And then something new appeared. This was the darkness, a cloud of black appeared out of the nothing, it had emotions and feelings, it was alive and it coiled and uncoiled, stretching. The darkness spread everywhere, and quickly. And then a whisper. The whisper came from everywhere, nowhere, from the nothing itself - was the nothing a being?
"Beware the wielder of the elements of creation, for with his coming I return and I bring the end of all."
The voice shook Thomas.
I woke in my bed, I looked around, Katie was here holding my hand. I was sweating. I had never felt a fear like this, I was shaking, I couldn't stop.
"Oh Katie. Katie." I say, she looks up at me, tears in her eyes. She nods.
"Katie. We've made a terrible mistake," I tell her, "a terrible, terrible mistake." I close my eyes and remember the prophecy, the light understands. This is the real prophecy. The Inferno Prophecy in full. Oh, we had made a fatal error.
The door to our room burst open, Macklin stormed in.
"Thomas! You're awake, you need to come to the council room now." He tells me.
"Why?" I ask him, in no f
it state for a conversation, or anything right now.
"Come, quickly. It's Gray." he tells me before rushing out. I kiss Katie and tell her I love. She nods and mumbles it back, still with tears in her eyes. She's confused now, unsure of what I meant before, but no time to question me.
I stumble out of bed and put my armour on, just in case. Katie does the same. We look at each other. I nod.
We make our way out of the room and into the long cold corridor that leads straight through the centre of the safe house, we head for the council room. I push open the doors and step inside. A portal is active at the end of the hall, Macklin is there pointing an assault rifle directly at it. In front of the portal is Gray, and he has guests.
I pull on my light and push on into the room, pulling the light through the ethereal.
Forty – A Hero Rises
The Darkest Light: Book 1 of The Inferno Prophecy Page 18