Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
WOLFE
Iwas still falling in the dark.
It had consumed me.
I didn’t know where I was, or where I was going. All I knew was down, down, down.
Occasionally there had been a flicker of a laugh. At least I thought so.
I couldn’t be certain if I had imagined it or not.
The dreadful descent continued. I kept my grip on my sword.
Mustn’t let go.
It gave me something real to hold on to.
A peek of red flashed across my face. Then there was more. The sudden color jarred me. I’d almost thought I’d never see another color again besides the pitch darkness of the abyss I’d fallen into.
The redness spread around me then I landed with a heavy thud on the ground.
I scrabbled to my knees and looked around.
Red earth stretched in every direction beneath a sky dominated by twin crimson suns.
Twin suns.
It wasn’t the Land of the Dead.
This was somewhere else. Someplace I didn’t know.
The surroundings hardly looked different from the barren wasteland that lay before the fortress but I wasn’t there either.
The ground here was so red it could be covered with blood. Heat shimmered across the earth, distorting the air.
I could feel…
I glanced around.
I wasn't alone.
They were here with me.
The deathless. I just couldn’t see them.
“Do you know, people used to worship us,” that was the silver-haired one. I recognized the arrogant cadence of his voice.
He seemed to be the leader and my guess was he was the oldest.
“They thought we were gods because we couldn’t be harmed,” he continued. “Right through the ages, we evolved and soon became immune to death.”
“Then soon we became gods,” that was Zyrra. “Immortal. Invincible.”
“Can you imagine what it must feel like to live forever and be stuck in one place?” that was the other brother. The corpse faced one. I hadn’t heard him speak before.
I sensed a change in the air, so I stood, and shifted into the Deathwalker. I held my sword close, though I knew using it on the Deathless would be like water on a duck’s back.
“Is that why I’m here?” I challenged. “You want me to know what it feels like to be stuck?”
I wasn’t making small talk. I was trying to see what the hell they were up to. They would have brought me down here for a reason.
Most likely to torture me first before I met my end.
Suddenly, the three Deathless stood around me. They just flashed into existence, but their feet never touched the blood-red ground.
They hovered there in the air, in a wide circle.
Zyrra and the corpse-faced brother regarded me with amusement while the silver-haired brother sized me up.
"It's been an age since anyone worthy stood before us," the silver-haired brother stated, still analyzing me.
“You never answered my question,” I threw back.
“Because there is no answer,” Zyrra answered with a laugh.
“Alright. No problem. But answer this—where are my wife and Arielle? Where the fuck are they?”
The silver-haired brother smiled deep.
I didn’t like it. Whatever he found funny, did not bode well for me.
“You said we could talk,” I reminded him. “Where is Arielle. I need to see her alive.”
With a light wave of his hand, a glass cage appeared across from us with Arielle inside.
Her face brightened when she saw me, only to fall again when she saw them.
“You are all fools,” the silver-haired brother stated.
I snapped my gaze to him. “In what way?”
“Humans and immortals alike. Sell you a little hope and you buy it without question. You fully believe in what you were promised, though the person making the promise is the last person you should trust.” His smile widened.
“Not one of you ever stop to ask, if you just believed what you wanted to believe.”
Though he spoke in riddles, his intentions were clear. He didn’t plan to release any of us.
I never had any hope before but it was nonexistent now.
“Release Arielle and Elariya. You have me and I have the ring. You have no need for either of them.” It was time to change tactics.
“No.”
“I suppose you’ve never heard of honor.”
“Oh we’re quite accustomed to the term, but we choose when we exercise such things. We won’t start with you.”
I cut a quick glance at Arielle. Her face had fallen completely. She’d heard him and understood the trap.
“We like to watch suffering,” corpse face said. “Hope transition into desolation.”
“Then you become forsaken.” Zyrra giggled. “You weren’t to know that by coming to Kazavania that you’d be useless here. Or… that we’d be our strongest.”
“It takes effort and far too much essence to manifest,” silver-haired said. “Thank you for your visit today. It was most welcomed.”
“How about we stop talking and get on with whatever the fuck this is,” I growled, looking right at her.
The gravelly tone of my voice irritated her.
I noted that. She was still weary of me. That meant I could still do some damage.
“Here’s the short version of what’s going to happen,” silver-hair took back control. “You’re going to die. Then we’ll take the ring, bathe it in your blood, and activate it.”
I levelled him a hard stare realizing the ring was the only thing I had going for me.
This was always the plan. We were back to that again.
The only way they could get the ring was to pry it from my cold dead fingers or for me to give it to them.
When they killed my father they couldn’t use his blood because it would have been corrupted with the poison. That just left me. They needed my blood or someone like Elariya with my essence who could activate the ring.
No one else could have done it. Not Dreynthor. Not Alaric.
"I do hope you survive long enough to entertain me." Corpse-face cracked lips peeled apart into a grotesque grin.
Zyrra giggled. "When we're finished..." she said sweetly, her silver eyes fixed on the ring upon my hand, "...we'll peel the flesh from your bones, bathe the ring in your blood..." She tilted her head. "...or perhaps we'll simply eat you."
Mad. Every last one of them.
I slowly raised my sword. “Why don’t you show me your real face. If I’m to die here, show me the real you.”
If I was going to die here then I didn’t want that thing wearing my sister’s face. I didn’t want it to be the last thing I saw.
The smile on her face never wavered. “Certainly. I’ve been in this form for so long I just got used to it. And your sister wore the prettiest dresses.”
She waved her hand over her face. The transformation happened instantly. The black hair became silver and the bright blue eyes that had once belonged to my sister became a silvery blue. Her skin was flawless. She looked exactly like the silver-haired brother, only female.
“Think I’m beautiful?” she smiled unhinged.
“As beautiful as dog shit.”
The smile dropped from her face.
“You’ll pay for that.”
“Can’t wait.”
The silver-haired brother grinned. Then they vanished.
All three.
They disappeared leaving me standing there and Arielle in the cage.
But they hadn’t exactly left.
Instinct took over and Deathwalker magic rolled from my body, swallowing the ground beneath my feet in shadow.
Something was about to happen.
I sensed the attack and threw myself sideways as a torrent of black fire ripped through the space where I'd been standing.
I hadn't even landed before Zyrra appeared behind me.
Her fingers brushed my shoulder and agony exploded through my body.
I spun, slashing, but she dissolved into mist.
The corpse-faced brother crashed into me from above without any warning.
I barely caught his strike, my sword shrieking beneath the weight of his power.
He smiled inches from my face. "Better..."
Shadow erupted from my free hand, blasting him backwards.
The silver-haired brother was already waiting. He unleashed a white ball from his hands and it struck me like lightning.
I stood my ground, though I was injured and answered with a ball of my own.
It struck him but all it did was make him smile.
Then Zyrra was beside me again, smiling away.
The back and forth continued for a few more rounds and I realized we truly were going around in purposeful circles.
Every attack I defended created another opening.
Every time I forced one of them back, another appeared to exploit it.
I never even got a heartbeat to recover.
The silver-haired brother attacked from the front again, then, Zyrra slipped through the corner of my vision, striking from behind. I twisted away just in time, only for the corpse-faced brother to appear above me, driving both fists into my guard.
The impact sent me crashing to the crimson earth.
I rolled, forcing myself back to my feet before they could capitalize.
But I was too late.
They were already there.
Again, and again, and again.
They fought together. Not like three warriors taking turns. More like three parts of the same mind.
One attacked. One anticipated my escape. The third punished it.
Every movement I made was already being answered before I'd finished making it.
That was how they would kill me. By draining me.
They could go on forever while I had an expiry date.
The thought struck me just like on the battlefield that I had to do something else.
There was something about Deathwalker powers. Something that turned their focus on me. Or I wouldn’t be here.
Zyrra laughed somewhere behind me. I tightened my grip on my sword.
One of them would attack again. I needed to change things up. I just didn’t know what that change would be. I’d thrown already all sorts of attacks and magic at them.
I couldn’t kill them. No one could. But I knew I could hurt them in some way.
What could I do that was different?
They attacked again in the same fashion. Something came to me.
What if I broke the wheel by just focusing on the one I got to most?
Zyrra. She was the first to exhibit fear of my powers.
She didn’t preempt my attack so got thrown off guard. I grabbed her neck and the widening of her eyes told me I was on the right track.
My shadows seeped into her burning that flawless skin. She screamed.
A bolt of energy struck me from behind, forcing me to release her. Then she threw an energy ball at me.