The Rise of Ancient Fury

by Ben Wolf

  “We won’t let you kill him,” Calum said.

  “We will fight you to our last breath.” Magnus’s nostrils began to smoke, a telltale sign that he was preparing to loose his dragonfire.

  Lilly and Condor readied their weapons, and Riley took up a position next to Calum. Behind them, some guy in a set of golden armor and wielding a matching golden spear directed a group of silver-clad soldiers to surround the King.

  Now it was Lumen’s turn to laugh. “You are all fools. Solace will fall within the hour. Valkendell is already mine. Only one thing remains: to kill the King and seize the throne.”

  Axel nodded. It was finally happening. They were exactly where they needed to be.

  He wished Calum would’ve come back with him, but he’d made his choice, and it was the wrong one. Now he’d have to deal with the consequences.

  “And you will all get to watch me do it.” Lumen clapped his hands together, and then he began to pull them apart.

  The white stones making up Valkendell had some sort of protective quality to them that prevented Axel and Lumen from simply opening portals and entering the fortress, but now that they were inside, they could both use them freely.

  Beneath Calum’s feet, a gleaming white void tore open. It widened rapidly, growing larger and larger until it had stretched wide enough to devour Calum, Magnus, Lilly, Condor, Riley, and the female Shadow Wolf.

  It happened in an instant, and in the next instant, the void inhaled them all into it. Not even the Windgales managed to fly away in time, though Lilly got close.

  They reappeared high above—on the outside of the garden’s dome. They realized what had happened quickly enough, and they pounded frantically on the diamond panels. They struck it with their weapons, and Magnus even hit it with a blast of emerald dragonfire, all to no avail.

  As the King had said, the dome was impenetrable. Unbreakable.

  That’s why Lumen had done it this way.

  Now that the others had been cleared out, Axel saw the golden-armored man for who he was: Captain Anigo.

  Before Lumen did anything else, Axel dashed over to Captain Anigo and appeared before him in a blink.

  “Hello, Captain Anigo.”

  To his credit, Captain Anigo reacted by swinging his fancy new spear at Axel. But as with the Shadow Wolves, Axel saw it coming, and Captain Anigo’s attack wasn’t nearly as fast as any of theirs.

  Axel caught the spear in his hand, anchoring it in place.

  “It’s General Anigo now,” Anigo grunted.

  “Great,” Axel said, his voice flat.

  “Let go of my spear.”

  “Sure.” Axel released it, and General Anigo immediately thrust it straight at Axel’s chest. He dodged it easily enough, and he avoided the next several attacks General Anigo threw at him as well. Finally, he caught the spear again. “Satisfied?”

  “I will not let you harm the King.”

  Axel shrugged. “That’s no longer your concern.”

  He yanked the spear, and General Anigo jerked forward with it. Then Axel opened a void of darkness behind General Anigo and shoved him inside. A second later, a dull clank sounded overhead, followed by more desperate pounding on the dome high above.

  Axel ignored it. Instead, he focused on the soldiers surrounding the King. They stood there like lost puppies, confused and scared, but unwilling to abandon their guard duty.

  Axel would put them out of their misery soon enough.

  But before he could do anything, vines and branches latched onto each of the soldiers from every direction. The plants were doing their King’s bidding, just as they had when Calum had tried to kill the King the first time.

  The vines and branches flung the soldiers away, sending them tumbling toward the entrance to the garden, where other plants ferried them out entirely. Then those same plants formed a thick network of foliage that sealed off the entrance to the garden.

  It all made for an erratic and humorous display, but ultimately, the King had only delayed their inevitable deaths by saving them.

  Axel watched as the King struggled to rise to his feet. He resembled a toddler pushing himself up after having fallen over—and then wobbling some more once he got upright again.

  It was pitiful.

  Once he found steady footing, the King stared at each of them in turn with those verdant green eyes of his. But now, due to his weakened condition, his eyes were the only part of him that still held any vigor.

  “All that effort,” Lumen chastised, “just to save a few souls from a quick and merciful death. You bought them a few more days to live, at most, unless they are willing to bow to me as their new King.”

  “You will never be King,” the King said. Even his voice sounded worn out and tired, as if he’d been shouting for hours on end.

  “Your delusions are never-ending,” Lumen said. “But your tyrannical reign, on the other hand, ends now.”

  “My power comes from the Overlord Himself, and He will never grant it to you,” the King said.

  “Then call out to Him, and let Him save you.” Lumen drew his gleaming sword and drifted forward.

  The King’s eyes flashed bright green, and plants attacked Lumen and Axel from every angle. Axel grunted and peeled off vines left and right, but none of it even slowed Lumen down. He continued to float toward the King, and the vines tore free from their bases behind him, fell off his body, and then withered and died.

  The King recoiled a step and summoned a faint green light into his palms, but Lumen was too quick. In a literal bolt of lightning, Lumen shot forward, leading with his sword.

  When the flash subsided, Lumen’s sword was buried in the King’s chest.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Calum screamed as he clawed at the diamond dome, unable to reach the King. Even if he could have, he knew he couldn’t have stopped Lumen. At this point, he couldn’t have even stopped Axel.

  Axel’s transformation was horrible enough, but Lumen’s murder of the King was heart-rending. The King of Kanarah was dead, slain by Lumen.

  He’d accomplished his goal, and now it was only a matter of time before he conquered the remainder of the King’s forces and took over Valkendell—and with it, the city of Solace and all of Kanarah.

  With tears streaming down his cheeks, Calum hammered on the dome with his fists until a gigantic green hand curled around from behind and lifted him up. Then, with one powerful flap of his wings, Magnus launched into the air.

  The dome and the garden below dropped away as Magnus climbed higher and higher. When Calum got control of his emotions, he looked to his left, stunned to find that Magnus had also snatched up General Anigo into his other hand. Riley and Windsor had mounted Magnus’s back and rode him as he flew, and Lilly and Condor flew alongside them as well.

  To Calum’s surprise, they weren’t the only Windgales accompanying the Dragon. General Balena and hundreds of other Windgales quickly joined their flight. They hadn’t sided with Lumen after all; they’d remained loyal to Lilly. The entire group turned south and flew away from the city.

  From their vantage overhead, Calum saw the gates of Solace lying just inside the city’s towering walls, now reduced to shards of wood and twisted iron. Throughout the city, Lumen’s army battled with the King’s soldiers. Even from high above, Calum couldn’t tell who was winning, but he suspected it wouldn’t be long before Lumen’s forces overwhelmed the King’s.

  The whole situation had hollowed him out. Calum felt worthless, which confused him, as he’d been on the other side of this conflict only days before, but that somehow made it all worse. After all, this was all his fault.

  He’d freed Lumen. He’d raised an army for Lumen to use to overthrow the King. He’d revealed Valkendell’s secret entrance to Axel, who’d returned to Lumen and shared it with him.

  And now the King was dead because of it.

  How could Calum have been so wrong the whole time?

  When Magnus finally landed, it was so far south of So
lace that they couldn’t even see it anymore. As soon as Magnus released Calum, he collapsed into the grass and dug his fingers into the earth, hoping he could somehow sense the King. It was a wild, random thought, one that made hardly any sense, but in his desperation, Calum didn’t know what else he could do.

  He felt nothing but the cool dirt on his fingers, now turning to mud from the wetness of his tears. He was truly helpless, and now he’d cost all of Kanarah everything.

  Lilly landed at his side and placed her hand on his armored shoulder. It should’ve been all the comfort he needed, but it wasn’t.

  “Calum,” she said.

  He tried to ignore her, to continue to dwell in his pain instead, but her next words hijacked his attention.

  “Someone is here.”

  He turned to look.

  There, standing in the field between Magnus and Riley, stood Matthios and Gavridel. Behind them, the rest of the field was filled with silver- and black-armored soldiers, at the head of which stood General Anigo.

  “The King’s soldiers have fled the city, and Matthios and Gavridel have retreated, my lord,” reported the human messenger. “We’ve won!”

  Lumen didn’t react to the news aside from offering a slight nod. He was too focused on the corpse of the King still lying in front of him.

  “Thank you,” Axel said from somewhere nearby. “You may go.”

  Lumen had really done it. He’d killed the King. It had taken him more than a millennium to do it, but he’d found a way. His army had successfully taken the city. He’d proven he was worthy to reign over all Kanarah.

  All that remained now was to take the throne.

  Instead, Lumen continued to stare down at his nemesis.

  Once Lumen had extracted his sword from the King’s body, the King’s blood had all but totally drained into the ground below. His once-vibrant green eyes, two beacons of vitality, were now dark and lifeless, staring far beyond this world.

  Lumen couldn’t help but wonder if the King was now freer than Kanarah would ever be, now that he’d returned to the Overlord.

  “Lumen?” Axel said, again from somewhere behind Lumen. “I mean, Your Majesty? Your army is awaiting you.”

  “Let them wait,” Lumen said, still scrutinizing the King’s lifeless form. “There is one more thing I must do.”

  Lumen sheathed his sword, then he reached down, picked up the King’s body, and hefted it over his shoulder. The grass beneath where the King had lain glowed with an even brighter green than the rest of the immaculate garden.

  “Maintain order,” Lumen told Axel. “I will not be long.”

  With the King’s seal of protection no longer in effect, Lumen was again free to warp out of Valkendell, and he did so through a portal made of light.

  He emerged in a place that was all too familiar to him, deep under the Central Lake: his prison.

  For a thousand years, he’d been locked within this cavern of darkness, sealed away from the rest of the world—from his world—simply for trying to serve it the best way he possibly could. The King had confined him to this awful place, and Lumen could think of no better resting place for the King than a prison of his own making.

  Lumen brushed aside the lingering chunks of stone and rubble that remained from when Calum and his friends had released him from the column of stone, and he laid the King on the platform.

  Again, he pondered the King’s death. Lumen had indeed killed him, but it had been far easier than he’d expected. The amount of resistance the King had put up was laughable, especially compared to the all-out war they’d fought during Lumen’s first rebellion. This time, the King hadn’t even bothered to use his spear.

  From the look of him when Lumen had first appeared in the garden, the King probably couldn’t have lifted it anyway. Something had weakened him, just as Axel had reported, and that same weakness had enabled Lumen to destroy the King quickly.

  Regardless of how this rebellion had concluded, Lumen was decidedly the victor. Now he would claim his prize, and he would rule Kanarah in the King’s place. Lumen was the king now, and he would reign forever.

  With one last glance at Taleph’s lifeless form, Lumen, the new King of Kanarah, vanished from his prison for the last time.

  He reappeared in the garden, where he was alone. Axel or some of Lumen’s other soldiers must’ve cleared out the dead and wounded Shadow Wolves, or perhaps they’d escaped instead.

  Either way, it wouldn’t matter. With the King dead, there was no question now that Lumen was the most powerful being in all of Kanarah. No one could challenge him now.

  As he headed back into Valkendell, Lumen noticed a patch of brown grass on the spot where the King had died.

  He chose to ignore it.

  “We must reclaim the city of Solace and Valkendell before Lumen can establish his power there,” Valerie said, her smile stern and hopeful, but as ever-present as usual. She still wore a fine dress and her blue-and-yellow sapphire necklace with matching earrings. “There are still many who would fight to prevent him from…”

  Calum listened to her words, but they did nothing to inspire or motivate him. Despite the incredible showing of soldiers who’d fled Solace after the battle, they couldn’t hope to take back Solace or Valkendell. Not without the King. Lumen was too strong, and Axel…

  Calum closed his eyes and pushed Axel from his mind. They’d each made their own choices, and despite the outcome, Axel had clearly made the wrong one.

  Gavridel had gone back to the city in search of survivors. He’d never been any good at talking anyway—worse than Matthios, according to Valerie—so in his stead, Valerie and Matthios had gathered everyone around to discuss their futile plans of trying to continue to fight Lumen.

  “It won’t work,” Calum interrupted.

  Valerie stopped her speech, but her smile remained. “Why not, Calum?”

  “The King is dead.” Calum folded his arms. “Kanarah is going to die without him, no matter what we do.”

  “We can still fight,” Valerie encouraged. “If we can defeat Lumen, perhaps there is a way to save Kanarah as well.”

  “But we can’t defeat him.” Calum shook his head.

  “We can,” Matthios asserted from Valerie’s side. “Gavridel and I together are more than his match.”

  “Not anymore. Not with those abominations at his side. Not with Kahn and Rhaza. Not with—” Calum cringed at the thought. “Not with Axel.”

  Lilly took hold of Calum’s hand. It felt warm and reassuring to have her skin against his, but he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy it. Not when everything else was so bleak.

  “And even if we could defeat him, we can’t save Kanarah,” Calum said. “I’ve seen what will happen. The King—”

  Calum stopped. How could he convey what he’d come to understand about the King to everyone else? Perhaps Valerie and Matthios already understood, but he doubted the rest of their soldiers would.

  “The King was Kanarah’s core,” Calum finally said. “Without him, the rest of Kanarah will die. Imagine if someone ripped out your heart. You wouldn’t live very long. It’s the same thing.”

  The imagery shocked everyone to silence, or perhaps it was the message itself. Either way, no one else spoke for a long time.

  Then Valerie finally smiled and said, “Then we will just have to find Kanarah a new core.”

  Calum blinked at her. Apparently she didn’t understand after all. “That’s not how it works.”

  Her smile persisted. “I am certain you believe you understand the true extent of the King’s power and influence across Kanarah, down to every blossoming flower, every germinating seed, every drop of rain, and every newborn baby’s cry.” Her eyebrows rose. “I can assure you that you do not.”

  Calum felt a bit like Axel probably had whenever he’d insisted on something, only to be proven entirely wrong—except that Valerie hadn’t proven anything yet.

  Still, he’d only known the King for fewer than three days. Valeri
e seemed to have had regular access to him for a long time, and Matthios would’ve been with the King for well over a thousand years. Perhaps they knew something Calum didn’t.

  “What do I not understand?” Calum asked it as earnestly as he could manage.

  Valerie’s smile widened. “Yourself.”

  Calum’s eyes narrowed at her. Was this some sort of philosophical musing on Valerie’s part? It sounded like something Magnus might’ve said to him while he’d been educating Calum and Axel as they traveled.

  “I don’t get it,” Calum confessed. “Is this some sort of ‘we’re-all-connected’ thing? If we all band together, we can save Kanarah?”

  “Not really,” Valerie replied.

  “Then what are you talking about?”

  “You, Calum,” Valerie replied. “You will be the next King of Kanarah.”

  Chapter Forty-Three

  In the deepest depths of the Central Lake, the water began to stir. The fish scattered away from a particular spot on the lake’s floor as something disturbed the mud.

  It rippled with movement, and then something long and lean snaked from the soil at the bottom of the lake floor. It had no definition, no true shape yet, but it was strong and bore the determined resilience of new life.

  The water around it continued to stir, to move, to dance.

  The appendage continued to grow, reaching ever higher, climbing toward the surface far above.

  As flattered as Calum was at the notion, he could think of a million reasons why it would never work. The first reason was the reality of the situation: they wouldn’t be able to defeat Lumen. If they couldn’t take back the throne, everything else was irrelevant.

  Then there was the fact that Calum had never ruled anyone. He hadn’t been born into royalty.

  He supposed someone could make the case that he’d led a group to free Lumen in the first place and then helped to lead his army afterward—though both of those should count against him more than in his favor. More importantly, it didn’t equate to ruling… well, everything.