But a few moments walk away from the platform, in sight loomed a large cathedral. It stood out among the many homes and buildings, and its brickwork was a blasphemous black, as if it were twisted beyond holiness... beyond whatever was worshipped in its halls.
“Etienne’s power has seeped into this place…” Halcyon grumbled.
“So this is it? This is where that power lies?” Amoria raised a brow. “I don’t feel anything.”
Oh… but I did. My heart raced at what lay beyond that door.
“Perhaps it isn’t magic…” Amicus said, receiving an approving nod from Tarrien.
“I think the same…” Tarrien responded.
A rumbling fell once more, but deeper than just the earth beneath our feet. It was in the air and spirit, as if something foul was about to take place… the feeling you get in the presence of true terror and evil.
Halcyon looked at me, his eyes a blood red, glowing in rage. “He begins… I feel it.” He growled.
I turned to everyone, “We have to…”
My voice was cut off immediately as a thunderous screeching pierced our ears. Cracks formed, floating upon the air.
“Gods are those…?”
“Reality tears!” I answered Amoria.
“He has that kind of power!” Tarrien shouted.
A tear collapsed in on itself, forming a portal. “Everyone, get ready!”
Halcyon grabbed my shoulder. “No, étienne is our target; we have to stop him now!” His grip was hard, as if he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Tarrien and Amicus drew their blades, and Amoria stood at the ready behind them.
From the tear, arms, numerous and wretched, reached through like some eldritch horror. The air vibrated as another burst open forcibly, and its roar radiated from it, shaking the very atmosphere around us.
Amicus’s face fell into horror. “What… is that?” The first one crawled forth, inching out of the portal, its many arms stretching and snapping, and its bloodied, twisted maw focused on each of us.
“A child of Dormos!” Amoria yelled, “Again?!?!”
“Dread Maw!” Tarrien shouted.
And from the second portal, the creature from within finally began to emerge, pushing through like the Underworld giving birth to evil. A large skeletal arm burst through, gripping the ground ahead of us.
I could see Amicus shake in his boots, attempting to stay calm. Terror itself was a horrific beast, but these, such creatures, are beyond belief… Perhaps it had finally gotten to him.
“Amicus! Still yourself! Together we can conquer these beasts!”
I summoned my Magispear. “We can take care of these first! We have time!”
The others awaited the beasts to make their move, fixed and focused.
“No… we don’t!” Halcyon said, pulling at my shoulder.
“Let me go!” I yelled. But he grabbed me by my clothing and arm.
“They can take care of themselves; we don’t have the time!” He used his superior strength to throw me through the door and lunged in himself.
“No… no!!!!” As the door closed, I could see the massive skeletal beast emerge next to the Dread Maw, looming tall over Amoria and the others! The doors slammed shut. “No!!!!” I raced over to them, pounding my fists against them. “What did you do?!?!” I turned to Halcyon, red in the face. “They need us… we need them!”
“I did what I had to!” he said bluntly.
“This wasn’t your choice to make!”
“And so I made it!” he yelled. “étienne threatens us all. Better they die defending us than us giving étienne the time he needs!”
My eyes grew wide and cracked. “What did you say…” My voice fell hollow.
He eyed me… a look I hadn’t felt from him before, but my chest was tight, gripped with a rage I’d never felt. “Sebastien, this was the only way… I am sorry.”
My voice shook as my eyes welled, “You… save your pointless apologies!”
“Sebastien!”
“Stop…! Saying my name. I—I can’t listen to you anymore!” It took everything I had to hold back my tears or fury… It was all so red.
“I…”
My fist met his chin, sending him stumbling backwards. “I said be quiet! Your words are… poison!” I yelled, my hand hurting.
He grasped at his chin, his eyes averted…
“Your… careless disregard for people—for their lives and their feelings—it sickens me! You’ve killed them! They will die because of you!”
He looked back at me, silent with an almost sorrowful expression.
“I can’t trust you anymore…” I said.
A darkness, though, washed across us. How could we not have noticed it? A faint light within it lay at the far end of the cathedral, almost consumed in the void.
For a moment, we laid our feelings aside. It beckoned us forward… unto the dark, I choked back my tears and anger, “Let’s go…” I said hoarsely.
As we approached, the light dimmed slightly, as the darkness seemed to grasp at it.
“What is it…” Halcyon whispered.
Floating amidst this pitch, a body… or person, held itself fetal, its face covered from our view, but the light it radiated had Halcyon hesitant.
“Perhaps we shouldn’t get too close...” he said, holding an arm in front of me.
I batted it away, scowling at him, “Perhaps you shouldn’t…” He eyed me, but I moved forward. Whispers… numerous distant voices seemed to fill my mind the closer I moved. “Who are you?” I whispered.
“That does not matter…” another voice said. A force, like an invisible hand, pushed me backwards, sending me stumbling back to Halcyon. In a bloody mist, étienne appeared before us, standing with a straight, almost arrogant posture, arms held behind his back regally.
“étienne,” Halcyon growled.
“Yes… it is I,” he rolled his eyes. “Your penchant for stating the obvious is tiring.”
“Enough with the posturing!” I shouted. “What is this power? Who is he?”
“Oh… you mean this?” He held out his hand toward it. “A pawn, nothing more than a tool…” he smiled.
“You lie,” Halcyon growled. “That light that comes from it; how can you stand to be near it?”
étienne laughed, “It was much brighter when I first arrived. But— having already tasted of its power, I find it nothing more than tedious.” He smiled. His hand gripped its white hair, revealing its face.
My heart dropped, and Halcyon seemed to take two steps back.
“This… if you must know, is the key to my ascension!” He sunk his teeth into its neck.
“Sebastien… he—it’s… you!”
A harrowing tightness gripped my heart and mind, as if I could almost feel étienne’s teeth sinking into my own neck… like a personal assault. Its face was emotionless, and its cheeks were sunken in. “étienne! Explain yourself!” I yelled.
He tore his mouth from its neck, blood dripping down his jaw. A dark energy, blackened and bloody, radiated around him, and his voice seemed to grow almost feral. He laughed maniacally, “Answers! You wish for answers!”
We stood as his regal posture twisted, becoming more bestial in appearance.
“And you shall have them!” He growled lowly, “Once my teeth have sunk into your necks!”
Enraged once more, I burst forward with Godspeed, “Damn you!” My spear clashed with his hand, him having grasped the blade. The force tore away his skin, but almost instantly it healed.
“Yes… yes! Entertain me!” He gripped the blade harder and pulled with vicious force, sending me across the room and into a wall.
The wind was knocked out of me as I fell to my knees trying to catch my breath… such force, I couldn’t not take many of those hits. I looked up to see him lunging at Halcyon, who just barely ducked his assault, but étienne's arm swung down quickly. “Halcyon!” I screamed as he blocked. His arm shattered upon impact; the gruesome sound of bones breaking and the deafening thud as étienne slammed him to the ground made my stomach queasy. Halcyon's screams were silent; the pain seemed to take his breath away.
With Godspeed, I ran to the monster again. He held up his hands as if to block. “Godspeed impact!” I shouted. An invisible force shattered the floor beneath us and battered his stance, but he was unmoved.
“That’s it, give me your rage! Show me the depth of your anger!” He grabbed me from the air by my cloak in an attempt to slam me to the ground against.
“Feint,” I said, disappearing from his grasp, “and reform!” I rematerialized directly behind him. “Tenfold thrust!” My spear attempted to pierce through him, but the force reverberated back onto me, causing my hands to let go.
He grabbed my spear and kicked me to the ground. I grunted in pain as he stood over me, “This is what dispatched so many of my thralls! Pathetic!” With little effort he broke my spear right in front of me like a twig.
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“No!” I grunted.
I almost didn’t realize when he stabbed the blade end into my shoulder… until the pain burned through me, and the embarrassment. Hurt by one's own weapon, I screamed in pain.
“Sebastien!” Halcyon reached out. étienne dropped the other half of my spear, leaving me to suffer.
“You wish me to continue with you! Gladly!” he said.
I watched as he picked Halcyon up by his hair, grinning with evil intent, and slammed him into the ground multiple times.
“Stop it!” I tried to yell, but my voice failed me. He continued his assault; my helplessness would get him killed. I slammed my fist to the ground, forcing myself to my feet. I stumbled, gripping the piece of my spear lodged in my shoulder… gritting my teeth. With a sickening tearing of flesh, I pulled it out, falling back down to a knee. My sight blurred under the pain, and Halcyon’s struggling cries ripped through me further.
“Restore,” I grunted. My wound healed, albeit grudgingly. Why was he toying with us? All the power he displayed before, and he fought now only with brute force. Did he truly think so little of us? I wouldn’t let this continue! I picked up the two separate pieces of my spear, holding them in each hand. My heart quickened. “Reforge!” The pieces grew hot in my hand, glowing brightly and bending to my will. For so long I used only my spear; I’ve always stuck to what I knew best. I needed something new… something better! “Now, come forth, Magiblades!” Two twin swords formed in my hands, golden and adorned with a gem in their hilts just like my spear. A grin took to my face as I was filled with a new sense of hope…
With étienne’s focus still fixed on Halcyon, and opportunity arose. I readied myself, and stronger conviction than any before. “Burst forth!” Much like Godspeed, my body propelled forward toward étienne, blades held outward.
His eyes turned to me, and within but a split second he held Halcyon out toward me… But just as my assault neared, I vanished!
“What…!” He shouted.
Above him I rematerialized, “Feint Slash!” One of my blades fell down upon his shoulder, though barely slicing through.
He grinned widely… Though his face soon winced as he met my eye.
“Godstrength!” I screamed. My blade sliced clean through his arm, freeing Halcyon and dividing the ground below us.
Etienne bellowed in anguish, and quickly I threw Halcyon over my shoulder and moved a safe distance.
“I’m sorry,” Halcyon said as his wounds were healing.
“Stop… There’s no time for apologies.”
He pushed himself up. “You’re right.” He said.
Blood flowed from étienne’s mangled wound. His malicious smile beamed as he began to laugh. “I suppose toying with you was foolish,” he said. “I will underestimate you no longer.” He said.
The blood pooled onto the ground as he raised his hand.
“No!” Halcyon shouted. In a moment of panic, he formed red spikes from the pool, impaling étienne’s body and impeding his movement. “He means to cast! Strike him down, quickly…!”
With only a second of hesitation, I burst from my position, bearing down upon him once again, eyes and blades set upon his neck.
But it was too late.
He broke from Halcyon’s spikes, and the air seemed to still… Caught afloat, my assault halted as if time had frozen.
A small eternity passed, as a blackened gaze now glared down upon me… wretched and vile. The blood boiled at his feet, and the air grew hot.
“Die…”
A flash of red took my sight, and everything seemed to fade for a moment.
The pain… it came swiftly.
My skin singed and flayed, and I hit the ground with violent force. My hearing had broken, and my body as well… I forced my eyes open.
The destruction…
“Ha… Halcyon.” I pushed my words through shallow, labored breaths.
The cathedral was gone, and the surrounding area lay in the ruins of a large crater. My sight shifted as I struggled to stay conscious.
“A… Amoria!” My eyes widened as she lay but a few feet from me. Was she caught up in the blast? “Damn it,” I cried, weakly slamming my fist into the ground.
I crawled to her side… She was unconscious but alive, relieving my worry, though I had not seen anyone else. Tarrien and Amicus were nowhere to be found, nor were the beasts they had fought.
Just to my side, earth crunched underfoot… as someone descended.
An angel of death, I thought.
“This was inevitable… you realize?” Halcyon’s body landed in the dirt next to me. His clothing torn and singed, his wounds not healing.
“It is true that I toy with my foe… I know,” étienne sneered. “I cannot help myself.”
“Stop…” I pleaded.
“Begging,” he said, “is that what we’ve resorted to? That just won’t do.”
A heavy kick collided with my chest, like the wrath of God… and my ribs cracked from the assault.
There was no air, and I hit the ground again.
He walked over to me once more. “You… whose words create and destroy. I had thought you stronger,” he said. “How disappointing you have been.”
I gasped, finally catching my breath. “W… why are you doing this? What—is your goal?”
“Godhood…” he grinned.
“That can’t be all…” I said through strained words.
He glared upon me again. “Clever,” he said, “or perhaps foolish. It matters not.”
I tried to push myself up, falling each time.
“If you must know, I have told you only the truth. Godhood has always been my goal.” He paced in place, a sick excitement filling his words. “Have you heard of the Bloodborn?”
“Blood… born?” I questioned.
Halcyon grumbled suddenly, “What… do you know of Bloodborn?” he asked.
How long had he been awake? Though… my heart calmed at his waking, if only a little.
“Ah… I had thought you dead for a moment. It seems another pawn has escaped death.”
“Answer his question!” I yelled.
“It is no surprise you haven’t heard them,” he laughed. “A lost people, gods in their own right,” his words echoed. “And the progenitors of our kind.” He looked to Halcyon.
Gods… vampires. “Impossible,” I said.
“They were purged in the late first age, before the mortal races recorded much of history. A purge upon an innocent people…”
“Monologues now… Just how highly do you think of yourself?” I said.
Another heavy kick fell upon me. “Do not seek your death so quickly!” he yelled.
“Leave him alone!” Halcyon screamed.
“Oh… you choose now to feel for him.” He smiled.
Halcyon glanced at me, unable to meet my eyes… What did étienne know?
He walked over to Halcyon, who, with all his strength, attempted to get up. “Let me help you!” He grabbed Halcyon by his hair again, lifting him into the air. “You are… quite pathetic!” he said dramatically.
Demeaning, to hold someone in such a way… It sent my mind into a spiraling rage. Halcyon cried, grasping at étienne’s unyielding grip.
“You’ve spilled much blood in your pursuit of me. It flows richly, singing of your fears, your insecurities, and your feelings. There is no blood that sings quite like yours."
He held Halcyon at eye level, who continued to struggle.
“Secrets… yes, held deep and unseen. And feelings of love that you so stifle for nigh pointless reasons. They drip from you like wounds upon your soul… even now, I can hear it.” He held his ear to Halcyon’s chest. “What was it that you said to me back then? That you’d ‘bleed me dry?’ I cannot help but wonder what I’d learn if I did the same!” He bared his fangs, pulling Halcyon’s neck close.
My heart raced, willing my body to move, but only failing… My head pounded with adrenaline.
He stopped just shy of his skin. “I could do it, you know?” He whispered, “Take all that you are. All that you’ve ever wanted to be.” He pulled away, “But I won’t. This suffering you inflict upon yourself is… most pleasurable to me.”
He threw Halcyon to the ground again.
“étienne!” I yelled. “Whatever you mean to do! Get on with it!”
“Oh, I shall!” He chortled. “With this power I shall ascend to Bloodborn. And once I have ascended, I will revive the race in all its former glory!”
Halcyon’s breaths quickened, pained grunts pushing him to his feet… With struggle, I would do the same.
étienne continued, “We shall fly upon the winds as we had in our golden age! We will feed as we see fit! The sun will not plague us, as we shall blot it from the sky with our might! None shall oppose us!” In his assuredness, he turned to the body, which had remained floating, unharmed, in the center of the crater.
Halcyon rose to his feet, barely maintaining his stance, and we inched our way over to each other.
“Are you… okay?” He asked. He grabbed my shoulder as we supported each other's weight.
“No… but I suppose that comes with the territory.” I laughed.
He chuckled painfully at my words, clutching his side, eyes welling.
“Let me… ease the pain.” I said.
“No…” he said, “I won’t let you… Compromise your morals… for me. I can heal.”
“If it is for someone important to me… how can I not?”
His gaze fixed on my eyes…
“Restore.” I whispered. A healing energy fell upon both of us. Bones that had broken, snapped, and cracked back into place, and skin reformed, healing our burns and wounds.
We both gasped… in pain and relief.
“We can do this!” He said, resting his forehead against mine.
“We can!”
étienne continued on his way toward the body, as if having forgotten us.
“I will deliver the kill…” Halcyon said, no doubt laced into his words.
“Very well… With all I have left, I will distract him!”
With another nod to each other, we readied ourselves. “Come, Magispear and Magiblade!” I forged once again my spear in one hand and summoned my blade in the other.
“Now! Go!” Halcyon yelled.
Swiftly, we bolted toward him… His attention finally turned back to us. “Godstrength!” I infused my body, readying a combo.
étienne held out a hand, a bolt of red lightning bursting from it, but Halcyon, having outpaced him, gripped his arm, pulling him downwards.
The bolt arced past me… and my assault fell upon him.
Midair, I spun my body, colliding the length of my spear upon his shoulder with crushing force, “Skyfall impact!” With the weight of the heavens themselves, my spear crushed through his skin and bone.
I doubled back, Halcyon diving out of the way. With a swift slash of the sword in my left hand, I shouted, “Forty-fold Godstrength slash!”
Lacerations cut across his body, blood painting the air.
He smiled menacingly.
The blood in the air lit aflame, growing in power as if about to burst.
“Not again!” Halcyon shouted, and with a wave of his hand, the flames sputtered out.
étienne, enraged, radiated with a dark red energy. “Unacceptable!”
Using my abilities, I appeared in front of him immediately. “Ascend,” I shouted, the flat end of my spear’s blade collided with his chin.
His fast ascent slowed to an abrupt halt as he clutched his chin in anger. “I will not accept this!” Using the blood that dripped from his wounds, he weaved the lacerations together, quickening his self-healing. The arm that I had taken from him grew back as well, much to our surprise.
“Sebastien, we can give him no quarter!”
“Right!” I nodded, raising my hand. “Descend,” my voice echoed on the air.
Pulled from above us, étienne crashed to the ground with force like an earthquake.
But quickly he stood again.
With a growl, Halcyon held out his hand like a puppeteer. “Stop right there!”
étienne’s muscles seemed to tighten, Halcyon’s blood magic grip upon him like innumerable chains.
“Descend!” I shouted again, his body colliding with the ground once more.
Still he breathed.
“Descend… Descend… Descend!!” My words crashed down upon him, each time his body cracking against the cratered earth.
He breathed heavily, “How… insulting and—barbaric.”
“My grip is weakening!” Halcyon said.
étienne stood, though with resistance. “This… is not how I am to end!”
Halcyon tightened his grip upon him again, every vein in étienne’s body bulging from his skin, the grisly sight of blood dripping from his eyes.
“Yes… yes!” His maniacal laughter shook the area again. He strained against Halcyon's grip, blood pulling under his skin and bursting out.
My stomach felt queasy… “That… can’t be good!”
“If I let go, it’ll be much worse!”
As his blood poured forth, he clasped his hands together. It began to flow and pool between his palms… They parted, and within, a macabre orb of heinous blood magic shone its wretched aura.
“No!” Halcyon said, “I've seen this before!”
“What!”
The orb grew rapidly, seeming to drain magic and life from the surrounding area.
“So foul!” I said. “That is… not magic. That is evil!”
“Move, Amoria! And the others… Oh Gods, where are they?”
“I don’t know!” I said, racing to my sister.
His gaze pierced me… a chill climbing up my spine. My eyes shifted; his attack had been launched my way. How could I have not noticed!
“No!”
My sight seemed to betray me as the orb collided… but not with me. Had he truly jumped in front of it, taken the full force of it… saved me! No, it couldn’t be, not him!
His screams rattled my ears, just like the night I found him. Tortured and pained, he suffered before me, but this time I could do nothing.
Reality fell back upon me, and before me, Halcyon floated in the air, his body twisting and wailing within the orb as if struggling not to be consumed.
Tears ran down my face; his self-healing fought against the orbs effects endlessly.
étienne laughed fiercely, “A selfless act from a selfish fool. How lovely!”
“Stop it! What are you doing to him!”
étienne appeared in front of me, ripping my weapons from my hands and grabbing me by the throat. “You… have exhausted my patience!”
A pain seared like fire through my body as his teeth clamped down on my neck. “Aaaagh,” I screeched, blood choking my mouth.
He pulled away, “Ah, yes!!!” He laughed, Halcyon still screaming. “You! Are mine!”
Such pain…
“Halcyon,” I struggled. “Disperse!”
The orb persisted, and étienne clamped upon my neck again. My body fought as if to preserve its life; my limbs and actions were mindless.
He pulled away again. “Blood Magic is absolute,” he breathed heavily, his face crazed and bloody. “You cannot break it!”
I held out my arms, pushing against his face—anything to stay alive!
A pain seared through my arm as he bit into it! “Aaagh!” I choked. My sight grew dim, and my limbs weaker… limp.
Blood dripped from his almost inhuman grin… But my eyes, fixed on Halcyon, if these were my last moments, he would be the last thing I saw.
But his screams had ceased, and through my foggy vision the orb seemed to… shrink.
Sharp teeth still pierced my arm, but behind him, a figure stood— perhaps it was my daze—as what looked like dark wings raised wide with anger.
I grasped the back of étienne’s head, urging him to feed more.
The next few moments were a haze. The sharp pain had been ripped away, and arms held me gently. Words of comfort and safety embraced me, and my sight slowly began to return.
Below us, étienne stood in awe, and the shadow of an angel stretched wide, engulfing the area.
“Thank you!” He said.
I turned to meet the angel’s eyes.
“Halcyon…” I said.
His red eyes had changed, a crystalline violet…
“I’ve got you now, it seems.”
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