Everything Is Worth Killing- Isaac's Tale

by Alex Oakchest

  Adi’s spear was stuck fast in it, and the demon wrenched it free.

  That was the last thing it did, before it toppled like a huge tower and smashed into the ground.

  Kayla loosened arrow after arrow at the demons in front of Cleft, but they fell uselessly to the ground. Harrien and I cast spells, but nothing we could fire at the bastard had any effect.

  It was useless. Whatever these demons were, they must have been resistant to our magic. By now I had fired dozens of spells, and I hadn’t even hurt them. At this rate, my haul of elementals would be gone but with nothing to show for it.

  There had to be something I could do.

  Judah started to go to the other side of the room, where Adi-Boto was collapsed on the ground. Tosvig grabbed him before he could take another step.

  “Runenmer,” was all he needed to say.

  The two charged forth, and as they closed the gap Judah swung with his sword, grunting as he put all his effort into it.

  His sword glanced uselessly off a demon, and he cried out and dropped his blade, holding his hand and roaring in pain.

  We couldn’t get around them. The demons in front of Cleft weren’t attacking us, but they were resistant to any spells or attacks we could offer.

  Damn it!

  The imps were burned, the giant demon was dead, but Cleft was protected, and nothing could get through.

  I wracked my brains, desperately searching for anything that would help. Other spells? Buffs?

  No. Judah had a bear buff, and his sword blow had hurt himself more than the demon when the force of his strike reverberated back through his blade. Buffs wouldn’t help.

  Then what?

  And then I saw it.

  This might work…

  I kneeled. The demons were completely blocking Cleft from us, but I could see through the gap between their feet. There, I saw the sarcophagus, with the giant stone lid on the ground next to it.

  In front of Cleft, a rune began to take form on the ground.

  Another attack. Who knew what the hell he would spawn next?

  It was this or nothing.

  I built spell energy up inside me. Not just one elemental’s worth but two. I remembered my lesson with the boulder and the komonaut, and how letting more spell energy build inside me consumed more elementals but made the effect stronger.

  “Hrr-levita!”

  I aimed it not at the demons, but at the sarcophagus lid. My levita spell energy wrapped around the great block of stone, raising it from the ground until it hovered in the air.

  With a flick of my wrist, I sent it flying into Cleft’s back, where the demons weren’t protecting him.

  I heard bones crunching, and Cleft gave a cry that was cut off instantly as he and the stone lid went hurtling through the cavern, where they smashed into a wall. Blocks of stone rained down, crashing onto Cleft.

  His demons charged over to him and began grabbing stones and flinging them away until they uncovered his hand, and then his shoulders, and his head.

  His face was smashed, his skull broken, his skin covered in blood.

  And even then, he focused on the ground. He stared intensely, and I knew he was going to try casting another rune.

  I focused on him, edging around so that I could get a clear shot without the demons absorbing the spell.

  “Hrr-chare!”

  Cleft shrieked as the fire devoured him, and he flailed his arms and smashed his palms against the stones crushing him in place, screaming an ungodly cry until finally, he was still.

  His trio of demons crumbled like ash, and then, the cavern was silent.

  It was as Harrien sank to the ground, exhausted, and Kayla and Tosvig ran to check that Cleft was really dead, and Judah rushed to Adi-Boto, that words appeared in front of me.

  I felt a strange glowing sensation on my head.

  [Kinesis] discipline improved by 5%!

  Rank: Grey 33.00%

  [Ice] discipline improved by 15%!

  Rank: Grey 40.00%

  [Fire] discipline improved by 28%! **RANK UP**

  Rank: Red 8.00%

  Your [Fire] discipline has ascended from grey to red!

  CHAPTER 48 – Adi-Boto

  I couldn’t even focus on the words.

  I had ascended from grey to red? After all this time, all those chare spells, I had finally moved from my grey rank?

  The more I tried to comprehend the words, the more fatigue wrapped around me, squeezing the energy from me. Cleavon’s powder was just starting to wear off, although Cleavon had told us that it would last days, so I was okay for now. But couple that with having just faced a bunch of demons and a rune-spawning lunatic, and I was looking at the mother of all crashes soon.

  The cavern was covered in rocks and the blackened patterns and spirals of spent runes. The only remnants of the demons were piles of ashes littering the ground where they had fallen. Smaller piles for the flying imps, and a giant mound for the demon Adi had slaughtered.

  “Isaac!” shouted Judah. He was across the cavern, by the wall where Adi-Boto had collapsed after getting punched by the demon.

  I rushed over to them, where I found a sorry sight. Adi-Boto was propped up with his back against the wall and his legs spread out, looking limp like a discarded doll.

  Staring at his chest made nausea rise in me. Just one punch from the demon had smashed his ribs, making his chest a sunken cavity smeared with blood. His mouth was open, and his tongue flopped over his lips. If there was life in his eyes, I couldn’t see it.

  “Isaac, the alchemooze!” said Judah.

  “I don’t think it will be any use,” I said.

  Almost instantly I knew I could have worded that differently.

  “I’m sorry. I just mean…this stuff is good, but…”

  Judah held his finger in front of Adi’s nose. “He’s breathing. Just use it!”

  I just didn’t see how using it could help. For swords wounds, yeah. For easing stomach pain after an ice-dweller smashes its frozen webbing into you, sure. But this?

  Judah grabbed me so suddenly I almost lost balance. “Isaac!”

  I had to try it. I took the ooze from my bag, popped the tin lid and scooped a handful of it. I stared at Adi then, with no idea where to begin. I mean, his whole chest was ravaged.

  Fighting my growing nausea, uncomfortable with Judah’s ever-increasing panic, I started smearing the alchemooze over Adi-Boto, following the edges of the wound. I winced when I touched his broken bones, but I carried on, all the while thinking that there was no possible way this would help.

  Judah scooped some ooze and smeared it over Adi-Boto’s chest. The parts of it that could even be smeared on, anyway. Soon, Adi’s skin was a mess of green goo and blood.

  With the tin empty, Judah flung it across the cavern, where it hit the ground and rolled for a few feet before falling on its side.

  “More,” he said.

  “Judah, look at him. We just used a full tin.”

  Judah put his finger in front of Adi’s nose. “Breath feels stronger…I think…”

  I put my finger in front of his nose, and sure, I could feel something. But the alchemooze had done nothing for Adi’s chest cavity. The guy was done.

  Looking at him like that, I felt a stirring in my gut. I’d seen so many people die or get hurt since I first got to this place. Kaleb, Nino, Siddel. Death and pain were just a part of things here in the wilds.

  But Adi…well, it felt like months had passed since we’d left the Tallsteep camp and set out for the mines. Adi and I had barely exchanged a word, but he was a good guy to have around. Loyal as hell to his clan, strong, and with a reassuring calm.

  The chain that I’d felt earlier, that forging of tension between us, hadn’t left now that Cleft was dead. But now it felt different; it had turned into another kind of chain binding us all together.

  Adi had seen a demon big enough to smash a man’s skull with its little finger. He’d seen a demon that killed his parents,
striking him into a state of muteness that lasted all his life. And, when he saw it, he’d charged at it.

  The demon was dead, and this was Adi’s reward.

  No. This wasn’t good enough.

  “Wait here,” I said.

  I left the cavern and sprinted back through the tunnel, emerging from the entrance with the horn-like rocks above it.

  There, I found Cleavon huddled against a wall, his arms and legs tied up.

  And with two enormous dwellers advancing on him.

  Screw this.

  “Hrr-chare!”

  I was shocked by the fire that left my hand. It exploded from me with such a roar that I felt like my ears would pop, and I stumbled backward under the force.

  It warmed the air in an instant, giving that cold, dank mine space the temperature of the Sahara.

  It didn’t just blast into the dwellers but instead devoured them, spreading over every inch of them so that they didn’t even have time to register what had happened. They stopped moving as if they were stuck in place, and the flames ate through their skin and bones and then spread deep inside them.

  So this was what happened when you ascended to red and then played with fire – your hrr-chare became like handheld napalm!

  So what else had my ascendancy gotten me?

  No time to check yet. With the dwellers gone, I grabbed Cleavon and cut the ropes around his legs and pulled him to his feet.

  “Isaac…your color,” he said, staring at my forehead.

  “That can wait. Move it.” I pushed him into the tunnel. “Hurry up. Adi’s in a bad way, and you’re going to fix him. If I see anything I don’t like, it won't just be the dwellers burning alive.”

  Kayla and Harrien were waiting for us by the entrance when we reached the cavern. Tosvig and Judah were kneeling beside Adi on the far side, while Erimdag was over by the sarcophagus, inspecting it.

  I pushed Cleavon. “Go fix him. If Adi lives, then you live. That’s your deal, and I’ll make sure Mardak takes it into account when we get back to the clan. But if Adi dies, then you better take a look around and get comfy, because you’re already standing in your grave.”

  Cleavon gave a grim nod and headed away from me.

  As I watched him, one thought rose about the rest; could we trust him?

  I mean, the answer was a cold, hard no. I’d never trust him again.

  It seemed like there was no choice but to let him help. As it stood, Adi was dying. If we didn’t let Cleavon work on him, he was done anyway. And if Cleavon tried anything, we’d cut him down. Besides, he was never a fighter. With Cleft gone, I doubted there was much that Cleavon could do.

  If he did, Judah would probably cut out his tongue and strangle him with it. No need to worry.

  While Cleavon attended to Adi, it was time for me to check something.

  I knew that I had ascended from grey to red in my fire discipline, but what did that mean?

  For one, I knew that I had a god damn flame thrower in my palms. It had made hrr-chare quicker and stronger. But was that all?

  I checked my fire discipline stats now.

  Fire:

  Rank: Red 8 .00%

  Spells:

  Chare

  Chare-blynd

  Chare-sken

  Chare-sken? Chare-blynd?

  I had never heard of these spells before, and there certainly hadn’t been any mention of them in the hrr-chare guidebook. Not that I had noticed, anyway. Until now, I had learned all my spells through rigorous practice of stances.

  But this made sense. I had never seen the Lonehills’ stock of spell books, and I knew that their more advanced mages, with more color in their forehead circles, knew spells that others didn’t. It seemed to me that beyond their basic set, most Lonehill mages had different spells from each other.

  There had to be other ways of learning spells, and this was one of them; through using a spell discipline enough that you ascended in color rank.

  So, how did I cast them? How did I put batteries in my new toys?

  As soon as I had the thought, I felt something shift in my mind. Images flicking through it like pages in a book turning one after another, whizzing through my mindscape in a blur. I felt my muscles tense up as if my body was ready to cast my new powers.

  I willed my [fire] stats to mind again.

  Spells:

  Chare

  [Cast a ball of flames from your hand.]

  Chare-blynd

  [Cast a sphere of fire that burns so brightly it blinds those around you, leaving you unaffected.]

  Chare-sken

  [Flames coat your skin, burning any who touch you, but leaving you and your clothes and other possessions unharmed.]

  Woah!

  Suddenly, I wanted to stockpile as many fire elementals as I could get my grubby hands on. Checking my supplies, I found I had only 12 left. That figured, I guessed, given how many times I’d had to cast hrr-chare lately.

  There were so many uses for blynd and sken, and this would have to figure into my battle tactics from now on. It gave me a whole range of new offensive possibilities to try out.

  Hell, I almost wanted another fight, just so I could try them.

  I realized now that everyone else was on the other side of the cavern, over by Adi. They were surrounding him, and I couldn’t see him.

  I got up and started to walk toward them, worried I was going to find out that Cleavon had failed and that Adi was done for.

  Suddenly, Judah leaped to his feet. He grabbed Kayla and pulled her into a hug. When they separated, he shouted over to me.

  “He wakes! Adi will make it!”

  I sprinted over. There, I saw that Cleavon had smeared some kind of paste all over Adi, and he’d wrapped a bunch of twine-like herbs around his chest and back, again and again, so that I could barely see the cavity now.

  “Is he going to live?” I asked.

  Adi groaned, and Judah kneeled next to him. He ruffled his hair. “Easy, my friend. Easy.”

  Cleavon faced me. “He needs stronger magic and medicines. My work will keep him breathing, but we must get him to camp.”

  “How long do we have?”

  “He is lucky his bones did not pierce his heart and lungs. I have stopped him bleeding, and my pastes and my twyeg wrapping will encourage healing, though he will be in great pain. He will make the journey back to camp.”

  Harrien grabbed Kayla by the arms. “Hear that, Kayla? He lives!”

  He grabbed her and planted a kiss on her cheek. No sooner did he separate from her, then she slapped him.

  “Stupid Lonehill,” she said, but a flicker of a smile curled on her lips.

  It was hard to describe the relief I felt then. Killing Cleft, ascending to red…if there was ever a time to fist pump, that had been it. But it was as if I had put the joy on hold while Adi’s mortality dangled on a thread. Now that he would live, the feelings surged inside me so strongly I felt dizzy

  I’m not one for emotions, but I let myself enjoy that one. We’d come through it. The komonauts, the dwellers, Cleft and his stupid-ass runes. We’d taken our punches and stayed standing.

  While Judah stayed by Adi’s side and the rest of the group enjoyed the sense of relief, I found Erimdag sitting by the wall near the pile of rubble where Cleft had crashed into the wall.

  “Why did I come down here?” he said. “Why did I think this would help? I should have stayed with my family. Seeing the dwellers…this won’t stop the nightmares. At least up there, I can face them with my wife. With my son and daughters.”

  “We’re through the worst,” I said.

  “You don’t know that.”

  “That pile of rubble says otherwise. We’ll be fine.”

  “And if more dwellers come?”

  I thought about my new turbo-charged hrr-chare. “Don’t worry about them. You’ll get back to your family.”

  “The nightmares are just something I will have to live with. I thought that by coming down here, they
might stop. I know now that they never will. But at least I can live with them. I can be strong for my family.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  I left Erimdag and approached the pile of rubble by the wall. There were three piles of ash where Cleft’s demons had dispersed when he died. Cleft’s corpse was blackened beyond any kind of recognition, with not a piece of him untouched by fire. Looking closer, I soon became disappointed.

  Damn it. No elementals to take. No flesh.

  I had to admit, a part of me had wondered…

  Forget it.

  He was gone. Sure, he might come back, but he was gone for a long time. And now, we could finally get what we came here for.

  I looked at the others, at the way Judah smiled at Adi, at how Harrien shot glances at Kayla. I decide to let them enjoy this for a few more minutes.

  CHAPTER 49 – The Return

  Cleft felt himself floating in the Crevice again. It was a sea of darkness, black everywhere he looked with no respite and no chance of light. It was like the deepest part of the ocean in the bleakest part of the night, and it would be years before the sun came up.

  He called it the Crevice because that was what it felt like; this wasn’t death and it wasn’t life, it was a place he had to float and wait before finally, a portal would let him return. It was the Crevice; a forgotten place where nobody ever visited.

  How many times had he been here now?

  Twice that he could remember personally.

  It was dozens, perhaps hundreds of times, if you counted the memories that weren’t his own. Memories of all the ones before him who’d consumed what they needed to and earned his powers, just as he had all those years ago.

  He guessed that someday, another would take his place. They would inherit his powers, perhaps even some of his memories.

  That was all he wanted now; to be at peace. To stop coming back. To become a memory. But this thing, whatever this power was, wouldn’t let him.