Silent Requiem (Tales of Ashkar Book 3)

by Kayl Karadjian

  And that was just how Raxxil wanted it.

  He lunged again, using his momentum to swing his hammer from left-to-right in a wide arc. Once again the two weapons collided, but Raxxil used his momentum to roll to the side just in time to dodge an attack that would have lopped his head off.

  Raxxil swung once more, then a third time, and a fourth, and so on. Each time he was thwarted, fully understanding what the others had meant about Liberty’s power.

  There was no getting past him. At least, not like this.

  Raxxil moved away from Liberty, creating about a dozen feet of distance between the two. By now, the resulting explosions had all but decimated the room. Most of the shelves were burned, and parts of the walls and roof had collapsed.

  He collected his breath, this time waiting for Liberty to make the advance.

  “You’ve delivered yourself unto me,” Liberty said, his breaths steady and his body poised despite the raging inferno around him. “This whole time I’ve tormented myself on why we were pushed back in Arcadia, why we failed to liberate this world of its woes. But now, God has spoken to me. How could the Order of the Faith move forward if it could not rid the specter known as the Volcano plaguing it for almost a century.”

  “Liberate this world!?” roared Raxxil, the memories of back then rushing at him. With each word that Liberty spoke, he was reminded of the lies fed to him and the false hope that had taken him up high only to bury him deep. “You’re everything that is wrong with it in the first place.”

  “Is that so?” Liberty said, and while his voice did not mock Raxxil, his eyes sure did. “Then what is this I’ve read about the Skyward Hands?”

  Raxxil clenched his teeth.

  “All this text wasn’t for naught,” Liberty continued, and as he gazed around at his burning collection he shrugged. “Don’t be so proud. I have no more use for them, not after I send your soul far, far away. But I did read some curious things about you. Ask yourself what the difference is between your order and mine.”

  “We don’t kill in the name of God,” Raxxil answered.

  Liberty scoffed. “But you do kill in the name of goodness, or so I’ve read. What is this about fighting against tyranny and helping the people? The Order of the Faith was on its way to do just that.”

  “Are you going to attack or not?” Raxxil taunted as he brought his hammer back.

  “Well, you’re in a hurry to kill me,” Liberty responded. “And, you came all this way to do just that. It only seems fair that I give you another chance. As the Faith dictates in its scripture, hard work is always to be rewarded.”

  The taunt was effective, but Raxxil didn’t care. He raised his fist high into the air, channeling the Second Flame of the Golden Son onto his arm. Intense flames from the raging inferno around him wrapped around the entirety of his arm like armor. While the First and Fourth Flames took too long and too much energy to perform, the Second and Third were the opposite.

  “How curious,” Liberty said. “I don’t suppose that you intend to strike me with your fists after your hammer failed?”

  “I was taught these techniques by someone else,” Raxxil said with a grin. “Here’s one of the tricks that he taught me.” Raxxil pointed his clenched fist in Liberty’s direction, releasing the energy of the Second Flame of the Golden Son and performing the Third Flame of the Golden Son. The flames shot forth from Raxxil’s arm in a series of intense blasts, each one striking Liberty with loud booms. Fire and smoke consumed the room, and without waiting to find out if Liberty was still standing, Raxxil threw down his hammer in the middle of the room.

  The ground collapsed, sending whoever and whatever falling to the level below. As soon as he landed he struck the floor again, and continued in that fashion until he fell into the grand ballroom at the first level of the palace.

  Up above Raxxil could see the many holes that he had made from the top floor all the way down to this one. Burning paper and scorched stone rained down into the ballroom, marring what was just moments before a pristine work of art.

  As the smoke cleared, Raxxil beheld the still-standing form of Liberty. Despite the blasts and fall, he stood without so much as a stain on his flowing robes.

  He gave Raxxil an approving nod. “An impressive show of force, but—“

  Raxxil interrupted him with a blast of lava from his mouth, but neither the fiery attack from before nor his signature own managed to grace Liberty’s flesh. The remaining lava gushed to the floor, boring a hole in the ground near where Liberty stood.

  By now, Raxxil had expended a decent portion of his energy. The consecutive use of fire techniques now left him nearer to hypothermia than he wanted to be, especially after knowing the fact that none of it had worked.

  “You must have more tricks up your sleeve,” Liberty said. “Or… was my army just so weak?”

  “You speak of liberty,” Raxxil said. “You delude yourself into thinking that what you seek is to remove evil and all that comes with it from the world. I knew someone like that, before his dream cost him his beloved, his elemental, and his wellbeing. This whole time he had been wrong. The Skyward Hands are wrong. There is no saving this world. There is only chaos and fire.”

  Raxxil lifted up his hammer so that the end was pointed right at Liberty. “Raging inferno, the flames that never die. Bring forth your fiery destruction. I call you out unto Ashkar, Vrand!”

  With the utterance of Vrand’s name, Raxxil’s hammer burned hotter than ever, the runes that ran along its length glowing bright as fire was expelled from the grooves at its head. That fire coalesced just behind Raxxil into a humanoid form, thrice as tall as he was and twice as wide.

  The blazing form of Vrand appeared, his body of pure molten flame and armor, his burning eyes peering at Liberty with fury. In Vrand’s hand was a hammer much like the one Raxxil wielded.

  And just the same as Raxxil had called out his elemental, so too had Liberty uttered words of power. A suit of armor that matched the size of Vrand wielded a sword much like Liberty’s, only much larger.

  The two sword wielders moved into an identical stance, beckoning for Raxxil and Vrand to strike first.

  “No holding back, Vrand,” Raxxil said.

  “TURN IT ALL TO ASHES!” roared the elemental, and this time, Raxxil heard the words not in his head but just behind him.

  Epilogue

  323rd Dawn of the 5010th Age of Lion

  Darius trudged through the deserts east of Lenas on his way toward Port Lenas situated on the coast, stopping every once and a while to look back in the city’s direction.

  From where he was now, he could still see the black plumes of smoke rising into the sky from the burning remnants of a once great nation. He thought about going back, but he didn’t imagine it serving him nor Raxxil much good.

  Besides, the damage had been done. Mostly by Raxxil of course, but the Order of the Faith was no more. With Samantha, the Faith’s teachings would live on, and perhaps with her, it could be rebuild into what it should be.

  But Raxxil was a lost cause. Darius had seen it in the man’s eyes all the way from Arcadia to Lenas, and it had been the most intense at the pond. Darius saw his own eyes in Raxxil’s, that look where the soul was lost and was latching onto anything that it could stay afloat with. It was a look that he had seen many times when he looked at his own reflection.

  Darius turned around, bounding over a large sand dune—

  He tripped, rolling forward down the dune until he recovered enough to stop himself from going all the way down like that. To his dismay, his hat had come off in the tumble and his hair had collected bits of sand. He grabbed his hat, stood up, and then brushed off his coat. Looking at what he had tripped on, he noticed the body of General Von Doley sprawled onto the sand.

  Dried blood coated the gash on his neck and the sand surrounding it, and when Darius inspected the surrounding area for clues, he found a bloodied, sharp rock not too far from the general’s body.

  What’
s he doing this far from Lenas, and who took him out?

  None of the four were earth-users, so that ruled them out. Darius looked around in all directions for anyone else, but he was alone. He remained there for a few minutes, then turned away and continued heading east.

  _ _ _

  Raxxil and Vrand brought down their hammers in unison, and what was left of the ballroom exploded. Stone and earth shattered, the palace crumbling all around them to reveal the hot sun and blue sky.

  The smoke and dust hadn’t even cleared when Raxxil and Vrand descended upon Liberty and his elemental. With broad strokes of hammer and fire the two painted on the canvas that was Lenas, adding a whole lot of red, orange, and yellow to what was once mostly white.

  And though the earth shook and the inferno raged with each attack, the same could be said about Liberty and his elemental. In fact, the story was the same as it had been before the two had called out their elementals.

  With each attack Raxxil found his armor ripped at, while Vrand bled liquid fire. Cuts ran deep into Raxxil, his body whittling away with each attempt at delivering the final blow to the Order of the Faith.

  “So this is what they spoke of on that day,” Liberty called out. “This is why they gave you the name Raxxil the Volcano. And yet, look at you now. A man who has taken out armies is brought down by just one sword. God needs no angels to do his bidding. He has the power to do it himself. Perhaps that is what I need to hear.”

  “Still going on about God, you idiot?” Raxxil barked as he picked up his hammer again while Vrand went at it against Liberty’s elemental. Despite Vrand having unlimited energy, Raxxil felt sluggish and his hammer was heavy.

  By now, the vast courtyards and the buildings situated near the crumbled palace were leveled. The cathedral was gone. The barracks were gone. Even the pond had been burned away.

  All that remained was a desolate, charred wasteland where the heart of Lenas and the Order of the Faith once stood. That was the futility of Raxxil’s fire. While the inferno claimed everything in its path, the one thing that stood its flames was the man himself.

  Liberty was the only thing that his fire could not burn.

  “Has the flame been snuffed out?” mocked Liberty.

  Raxxil clenched his teeth. He watched as Vrand brought ruin and flame to everything but the sword-wielding, armored elemental. There was no way to pierce Liberty’s impossibly-fast riposte.

  Unless…

  “It’s time, Vrand,” Raxxil called out to his elemental, and the being of fire jumped away from his foe to regroup with Raxxil. “There’s no other choice.”

  A grin flashed across Vrand’s flaming mouth, and an expression of amusement etched itself on Liberty’s face. He remained where he was, and so too did his elemental, basking in his arrogance.

  “LET ASHKAR FEEL THE FIRE OF VRAND!” roared the elemental, and together, they lunged at their foes.

  Only this time, neither Raxxil nor Vrand made any attempt to evade Liberty’s counterattack. They embraced it fully, putting all of their weight behind their hammers. In the midst of the ensuing explosion, Raxxil felt Liberty’s thin steel pierce through his chest plate until it poked out his back. The same fate had befallen his elemental, a larger blade through Vrand’s fiery essence.

  The taste of metal hung on his tongue, and he spit out onto the ground a large bolus of blood. And even though Raxxil would soon breathe his last, he had just ensured that Liberty would suffer the same fate.

  “In the end, the Faith repels the flames of the Volcano,” Liberty said with a triumphant face, unaware of the fate that the two elementalists were about to share.

  With Liberty’s blade still inside him, Raxxil grabbed hold of the sword-wielders arm with his free hand and pulled him even closer. He grunted as the sharp steel slid further and further through his chest, but he would not let go.

  Looks like this is goodbye, Serraemas. I wish that I could have gone on another adventure with you.

  Liberty’s smug look changed to confusion as he tugged on the hilt of his sword in vain. When he could not shake Raxxil’s grasp, his elemental tried to do the same with Vrand. Neither of them could get out of fate’s grasp.

  I’m sorry, Samantha. I have to break my promise to you. I hope that in time, you forgive me.

  As Raxxil kept hold, Vrand’s fiery essence and the essence still held in his hammer slowly fused into his flesh until Raxxil’s armor, hair, and skin all turned to pure flame. Warmth filled Raxxil’s heart as the last remnants of Vrand and his hammer absorbed into him.

  And I’m sorry to you, Arwynn. I placed onto you things that I shouldn’t have. I could never reciprocate what you felt for me. I’m sorry.

  “Let me show you why they called me the Volcano,” Raxxil said to Liberty as the latter’s eyes turned fearful.

  Don’t worry Mother, Father, and Tanaria. I’m coming to see you all now.

  The air quieted for a moment until Raxxil unleashed his fiery essence, the blast and flames so intense that it consumed everything as far as the eye could see. Both Raxxil and Liberty were burned to crisps instantly, and as Raxxil’s mind turned to blank, he could not help but smile.

  He was free now.

  Kicking the sand doesn’t leave much of a mark

  But scorching it leaves a reminder forever

  The only remedy was to burn it all

  And burn I did

  In these last moments I think of you and smile

  Even as I expire my heart is not burdened with the weight of regret

  Does that mean that I was right all along?

  Or did I just die a fool?

  _ _ _

  Samantha, with Arwynn still slung over her shoulder in unconsciousness, stopped and looked back in the direction of Lenas after an earth-shattering explosion almost knocked her off her feet.

  Fire covered the horizon as what was left of Lenas and everything around it for miles went up in smoke. Even under the sun’s rays she could feel the heat of the explosion.

  And as she realized what had just happened, tears rolled down her cheeks. She buckled onto her knees, Arwynn bouncing off her shoulder and falling onto her back in front of Samantha.

  Samantha could not hold back the surge of emotions ripping through her, and she stared at the fire beyond. Somehow she knew that this would come. Raxxil’s demeanor at the palace had solidified that.

  Now he was gone.

  Samantha sobbed and sobbed and sobbed until her dry throat ached and nothing more came out of her eyes. She watched as Arwynn awoke, first confused at Samantha and then at the funeral pyre that had been Lenas.

  When the realization hit the younger girl, she screamed.

  “You… you let him die?” Arwynn lashed as she unsheathed her blade, holding the tip just above Samantha’s lowered head. “Why didn’t you save him… why did he have to go alone?”

  Arwynn sobbed too, her blade shaking yet still held up at Samantha. Her face contorted as she too could not hold back the pain that stabbed her. Tears and mucus alike rolled down her face.

  “I had to take you to a safe place,” Samantha said, but she knew that her words had no weight. Arwynn knew it too.

  “Raxxil is gone, Samantha!” she yelled. “He’s gone for no reason. He’s gone because of the Order of the Faith. He could have just let go of his past, but no! You could have stopped him, why?”

  Samantha looked away in shame.

  “He loved you, you know that?” Arwynn said in between sobbing. “I loved him, but he chose you. And you failed him.”

  “Stop, Arwynn,” Samantha warned.

  “I’m going to kill you, Samantha,” she said as she steadied her hand and assumed a poised stance.

  Samantha stood up and unsheathed her own blade. “So be it, Arwynn.”

  _ _ _

  Serraemas stumbled across the ruined wasteland brought forth by Raxxil. By the time that he had reached Lenas there was nothing left. Whatever Raxxil had done, he had turned the city into a crat
er that was almost fifty feet deep at its center.

  The crater stretched on for miles, and for miles Serraemas walked with a weight so soul-crushing he thought that he would fall to the center of Ashkar and out the other end.

  His mind was numb, unable to cope with the realization that his best friend, and perhaps his only friend aside from Zaranet, no longer walked Ashkar. Upon hearing of Raxxil’s mission, he had set out to find the hammer-wielder and the others.

  He had arrived too late on Arcadia, and the same was for Lenas.

  Serraemas reached the middle of the crater, collapsing onto his hands and knees with the orb right underneath his head. He gazed at it, still pure like nothing was amiss despite the ravages around it.

  He could not hold back the tears that streamed down his face, droplets of water landing on top of the orb and making their way down its side.

  Even woe could not penetrate the light’s core.

  First Elena, then Zaranet, and now you, Raxxil. Everyone is gone, and yet the light continues to shine. Why?

  Other works by Kayl Karadjian

  Broken Blades Don’t Sing: Tales of Ashkar Book One

  Dragonsoul

  Halcyon’s Dream: Tales of Ashkar Book Two

  Avedik Mekhdjian: Memoir of an Armenian Genocide Survivor

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