20. A Realm Too Far
Chapter 20
A Realm Too Far
“ F uck!” I hissed the moment I saw the portal opening and the dark figure I would recognize anywhere stepping through it. Because it was the same man that had haunted my dreams for as long as I could remember and well, now I knew why. And just like we had feared, he had found me again. Just like Lerna had predicted would happen should I be reckless enough to use my powers.
My first thought was to run, and for good reason because I knew what would happen should he manage to take me. But now I had something that I didn’t have back then… a way to protect myself.
A way to protect both of us.
A single thought was all it took before the book of souls was floating right next to me and I felt its power encase me in its green flame. The sight of him fueled the anger inside me and it was an emotion the book eagerly fed from, alerting him to the fact because he at least took pause at the sight of me.
His army of Hellhounds followed him through the large portal, one big enough to allow for at least fifty of his snarling creatures passing through the swirling vortex of black and grey smoke. But this wasn’t all, because four men led his army, stepping through and coming to stand either side of him. They were wearing armored robes like some kind of warrior priests. As if Garmr was their cult leader, because he was shroud in darkness with his own robes moving as if they were a living entity within themselves. An entity that was connected to him, circling his feet, like tentacles ready to strike. All that could be seen was the glowing of his eyes from beneath the hood that concealed his features.
“At long last, fate has brought you back to me,” he said, his voice so chilling, that it had an immediate effect on me, like reliving a nightmare over and over again, only to find it real. The fear was so deeply rooted that it caused my powers to faulter, making the book flicker as if it was becoming its own ghost.
“No… no…” I muttered, and I took quick steps back as my own form of defense started to diminish. Half of the souls were there one second, and the next they were gone. One by one they began to disappear. In light of the numbers of souls that were dwindling, I shook my head at the realization of the sheer power he held over me.
So, before any more could leave and from what little power of the book that still remained, I ordered,
“Fight! Fight them all!” I then let my flickering power expand as best I could, commanding what souls remained to do as I instructed. But I didn’t really hold out much hope because I could see that even as they ran toward the enemy, there were still more that were disappearing. It was a clash of green souls against his snarling, furless beasts trying to tear through vapor and finding half of them re-emerging.
As for Garmr, he laughed, the sinister sound acting like a weapon against my waning nerves. Yet despite this growing terror I felt building, I tried to hold it together long enough to fight against him. And he knew it, because he simply held out his arms as a way to give his own beasts the signal to move quicker, their one goal clear the closer they came.
Back in the cabin when my rage had far outweighed my fear, my souls had been relentless in fighting back against his army.
But not now.
No, now they were vanishing from sight quicker than they could take down even a single foe. Knowing now that I was going to lose, I realized that our only shot was getting out of here. So, I quickly tried to create my own portal. But even this didn’t go to plan because as soon as glimpses of one forming could be seen, it would quickly evaporate altogether. As if I just didn’t have enough power to generate one, no matter how hard I tried to concentrate.
As for my army, they were doing the same. If anything, the only purpose they served was a way of slowing them down, preventing the HellHounds from reaching us.
After looking back at the gate, I knew there was only one way out of this that seemed possible. So, I ran back to Lerna, who was still trying to get her message across to Jared, hoping that she had now achieved this because we had run out of time.
“You need to leave this place!” Argus told us, picking up his giant spiked mallet, at the ready to fight.
“They are here for us, if we leave, they will also,” I told him, making his eyes narrow toward Garmr.
“I believe you are right,” he agreed, and as if to reaffirm this, Garmr called out,
“It is time, Fate is once again ours. Now come to me, my niece, for this will only end in bloodshed if you do not!”
Argus raised a few of his eyes on his right side as if questioning what he had just called me, making me add,
“Don’t ask… Now as for getting out of here, I can’t create another portal, my powers are…”
“Controlled by your fear,” he guessed, cutting me off and giving me enough cause to lower my head in shame, the sound of fighting and snarling beasts not helping in that fear.
“You must go through the gate,” he said, making my head snap up.
“But no souls are to enter or to leave,” I said as if he needed reminding of his job here.
“Yes, but I know now whose soul you are connected with… little soul queen,” he added in a knowing tone, and I didn’t know who he was referring to, Jared or Hades. Not that it mattered, because all I needed was for a way inside. I knew now it was our only shot of escaping this attack. But then I still had to be sure about this next move, asking,
“And what about him? Won’t he follow?”
“No, for they must be allowed entrance,” he replied, his eyes scanning everywhere for the oncoming threat. A threat I knew he would be left with, and that was the part that I struggled with.
“And if they just kill you?”
“If a guardian dies the gate is automatically sealed.” Well, that answered that question as to why there had been a few guardians since Cerberus and about the comments he had made to Lerna.
“Now take your sister and go… but take heed of my warning and do not trust anyone… not even under the guise of family.”
I frowned at this, wondering who he could mean… surely not Lerna? But then when a few of his eyes were cast her way, I gasped.
“NOW GO!” he roared, hammering his hand to the center of the glowing portal of fire, making it suddenly disappear as if a Hellish veil had been lifted. Beyond, there was pale stone town that looked to have been carved right out of the mountain.
This was when I grabbed Lerna from the place she still seemed frozen to, like she had no idea what was going on.
“Lerna! Lerna, we have to go!” I shouted, shaking her enough that finally her eyes flickered until they came back to their aquamarine blue.
“What… what happened… oh Gods no!” she hissed the moment she took in the sight of HellHounds racing toward us, fighting through the disappearing souls like some unstoppable force.
“Garmr found us, we have to leave, now!” I told her, grabbing her under the arm and walking her quickly to the center of the gate.
The second Garmr saw this, knowing that we were about to become lost to him once more, he roared out in anger. No longer the sinister laughter of someone about to get what he wanted, but that of a mad man about to lose all he needed to achieve his tyrannical goal.
“I will seal it! Go… GO!” Argus shouted, rushing us to step through the gate.
With no choice…
Into the Underworld we went.
The second we made it through, I quickly looked behind us to find the gate closing, the sight of HellHounds trying to swarm Argus gave us both cause to gasp as he swung his large hammer-like weapon, hitting out at the first wave. These unlucky lot were tossed to the side and ended up broken, their bodies landing with a deadly crunch against the mountain side.
As for the entrance, I watched as the flaming orange and red barrier started to flow back down from the top of the arched portico, reforming the gate. However, I ended up screaming,
“LOOK OUT!” As one HellHound slipped past a fighting Argus and leapt for the opening. Its snarling mouth was open and at the ready to sink its fangs into us, at the ready to take us back to its master. It’s razor teeth dripped with a blood-red saliva and pooled on the ground as it stalked toward us.
Lerna and I backed up, our eyes trailing its movements as both of us waited for the moment it would strike. It quickly transported me back to that day in the woodland area when I had run from Jared. But unlike that day in Germany, my hero wasn’t here to fight my battles for me. Which was why I found myself slowing lowering to the floor, picking up the only thing I could find… a rock.
“What are you doing?” Lerna asked me between gritted teeth.
“What I should have done back there,” I told her, letting my power flow through me and now that Garmr wasn’t in sight, I felt it traveling with ease down my arm. It enveloped the rock in my hand, transforming it into a weapon, so that by the time the beast was about to make its calculated move, it didn’t matter. It had no hope as I threw my weapon, making it land behind the HellHound, the other side of the gate. One that was still closing and getting closer to the ground by the second.
“Oh no! You missed!” Lerna shouted just as the HellHound leapt toward us but before she could run, I grabbed her hand and squeezed it, keeping her next to me. Then we both watched as the rock exploded into a ball of fire. A glowing orb that suddenly fired out long ropes of green electricity, causing them to branch out and grab the HellHound’s back legs.
The ball of energy started to pulsate before it began to reel the HellHound closer and back through the gate. A gate that ended up dealing out its own fate. The HellHound was no match for the power it was trying to fight against. Its claws dug in and gouged out long lines in the stone floor in an attempt to free itself. Only it was no use because it had run out of time. The gate finally sealed shut and a single second was all it took to slice the HellHound into two pieces.
“Oh Gods,” Lerna muttered in disgust as the front end of the now very dead beast fell with a slap to the ground, its insides gushing out and pooling around its corpse.
Meaning we were safe, but the question then became for how long? We weren’t in Kansas anymore but instead, we were in the very last place our father ever intended for us to be.
In his dangerous and deadly…
Underworld.