The Vitalis Chronicles: Steps of Krakador (11 page)

He pressed forward, the pressure against him growing dramatically with every few steps. He could see the dais from here, blood-red light pulsing through the cracks in the triangular doors that made its surface. Runes inscribed around the base flared dazzling purples and blues. Aside from the dais and the rumbling of the whole structure, the naked eye would have been completely unaware of the struggle taking place in the Tomb.

White mists churned, pressed to the outside of the room and against the walls. It made Ardin's throat knot subconsciously. A thrumming sensation grew in his ears, like the pressure of the room itself was vibrating at a low hum. It felt like it took ages to reach the dais; in reality he assumed it could have only been minutes. He willed himself forward, pulling on the Atmosphere to propel himself onward when his legs would have otherwise been unable.

The doors making up the surface of the dais were shuddering now, lurching upwards violently as if being pounded from the other side by massive fists. A deep roar rose to match the rumbling of the mountain. Large flakes of granite fell around Ardin now, cracking and paffing into dust on the floor. He couldn't reach the dais; he realized that now. If he put everything he had into keeping himself where he was, there would be nothing left to fix the seals on the doors.

And how am I even going to do that?
He hadn't thought that far yet.

Ardin stopped and put his hands in front of him. He focused, willing everything in him into his hands, imagining his senses working their way to the dais. The two converging powers convulsing around him were making it nearly impossible to force his own in between. He pressed on until he could feel the surface of the stone, the engravings that ran along each door. The seal set over them was stretched to the breaking point.

It's about to snap...

There was no time left. He recognized these enchantments; Charsi's fingerprints were all over them in his mind. Their connection with those above were nearly cut off. The Demon didn't even need to dismantle the rest to escape, he simply needed to choke the doors off from their support.

Ardin didn't even think; the reaction came naturally to his discovery. He forced his own power into those enchantments, supplementing the strength of the bonds until they forced the doors completely shut again. Another roar erupted from below, churning his gut as tingles ran down the back of his neck. Fear made itself present now.

Sweat began to sting his eyes as he forced a path for the enchantments above to renew their connection, staunching the attack long enough to funnel them downwards and bolster his own strength. He could feel the Demon's power everywhere, like a low, dense fog.

Ardin...
the voice pierced his mind like an obsidian dagger.
Ardin, stop!

He couldn't distinguish it, couldn't identify it beyond the sense that he knew it.

Don't do this, Ardin! You'll destroy yourself!

“
Alisia?” His concentration wavered.

Ardin!

“
Alisia?!”

The risk is too great, Ardin! Run!

The pressures around him fought to push his presence from the room. He could feel his grip on the doors slipping.

“
I can close them, Alisia. I can do this!”

RUN ARDIN!

Ardin's sense of certainty crumbled like the mountain around him. He could feel his own power being forced back. The ground he had gained so steadily lost in each passing moment of doubt. His vision of the world twitched again, the Shade within destabilizing him. He blinked away the intrusion, but then his whole body convulsed, and the roar erupted into laughter below. The voice no longer pushed into his thoughts, resonating from the Tomb darker and deeper than any he had ever heard before.

“
You cannot contain me, boy. I will be free this very day.”

Ardin fought to contain himself as fear broke into terror through every part of him. His grip on the Tomb of the Relequim had slipped. What time he had bought was all he would now be able to buy. He could feel the weight pressing against him again, the force physically sliding him back the way he had come in small starts.

“
All mankind, Grandian and Verian alike, shall bow before me. Then I will rend their corpses from their souls.”

Ardin put his hands up reflexively to guard his face as he began to back towards the door, each step carefully planted to keep him from toppling over. The voice was so confident he could barely keep his abject horror in check to hear it.

“
I am God, little Ardin. You have chosen to oppose God. In turn, accept my wrath.”

The steady force was replaced with a sudden shockwave that would have cut Ardin to pieces had his guard not already been fully in place. He was thrown from his feet, flying with the metaphysical currents and slamming into the Gates with such force as to knock him senseless. He fell to the ground, his body making the jump on its own and reappearing without his consent.

“
I will remake this world! And nothing,
NOTHING WILL STAND IN MY WAY!
”

The roar of the voice rattled the very foundations of the mountain. Cracks formed around the dais, shooting out in spurts towards the supports and walls that surrounded it.

Ardin's heart raced, every nerve in his body tingling with a potent combination of pain and terror. Focus was fleeting, but he fought for it. He had to escape this place. Now. He scrambled for the door.

“
I know who you are, Ardin Vitalis!”
The voice echoed and reverberated through the stone as if the mountain itself were shouting down at him.

Even pure sunlight was fighting to keep its hold on the floor before him, as the wrath of the Relequim warped everything in the room. He had to escape.

“
And what I do to this mountain will pale in comparison to the fate I have in store for you!”
The howls of the Relequim turned to roars of hate as he forced his way from his tomb.

Ardin fought for every yard he gained, bursting through the door like a fly escaping a spider's web. Sweat poured off him as he floundered and fell on the rolling bridge.

“
Ardin!”
Tristram grabbed Ardin's shoulder, pulling him up by the white-and-gray armor he had barely taken time to account for.
“
We must flee,
NOW!
”

The ethereal warrior waited for no consent as he heaved Ardin from the ground and soared into the sky with a burst. Boulders crashed into the bridge as they flew. Cracks formed as the mile of slender granite attempted to absorb the waves of malice that rolled through it.

Ardin's mind swam as it sought equilibrium, his balance disrupted far worse than any bout with the seas could ever cause. Ishtel waited for them in the distance, a hovering specter; he looked passive in his vigil. Then the mountain screamed.

The shearing of granite being forced apart in dozens of directions at once made for the most spectacular and terrifying noise Ardin had ever heard in his life. The sound of continents colliding couldn't have been more intense. The air around him shuddered even as Tristram soared to escape the peaks, and then it went silent. For the briefest of moments, even the rushing wind was nullified in his ears. Ardin looked down.

The nameless mountain broke into thousands of pieces, each one twisting and pulling in on itself until the whole floating peak imploded. But the implosion only lasted a heartbeat before it was thrust out again in a display of power that took Ardin's breath away.

Boulders the size of houses shot past faster than Tristram could fly. The warrior twisted and spun, diving and dodging each chunk of rock that spiraled his way. He pulled up on Ardin, climbing as quickly as he could to avoid the largest ring of debris.

Dust and pebbles enshrouded them for a moment before Ardin realized that a number of the whistling stones were flying right through him, each passing yet leaving him unscathed.
I never thought I would be grateful to the Shadow for anything.

But his thoughts were fleeting, and soon they reached Ishtel, who appeared unmoved by the display in the abyss below.

“
Continue onwards.”
The deep rasp of Ishtel's breathy voice was barely audible to Ardin, whose entire being still churned inside of him.
“
Take the boy where he is needed. I will stay behind.”

Tristram hesitated briefly, turning to look at the churning cloud of dust below. Black streaks were forming in the haze, a red glow at their edges. Whatever pride in himself or care for his brother flashed in his mind, Ardin never knew. It was gone before it had even fully registered.

“
Don't do anything foolish, brother.”
And before Ishtel could answer, Tristram tore through the sky with Ardin in tow.

Ishtel had been born into a union few fully understood. The Greater Being of Veria was once a single creature, one so powerful that only the Creator was said to be superior, and only the Greater Being of Grandia could claim to be his peer. But the fall of the Grandian Greater Being into darkness had left him alone in his purpose: the guidance and care of mankind.

It was that purpose that kept him from leaving Veria to fight his nemesis. Even when the Relequim, as he chose to be known, had enslaved those under his care and launched an all-out attack on Verian soil, the Greater Being would not leave his people completely. To do so was to court the dangers that had seduced his counterpart.

The growing interest of the Relequim had been his dabbling in spiritual power, of which neither Being had been given much in the way of intrinsic knowledge. The way the physical world worked was as plain as breathing to both. The metaphysical realm was similarly a simple thing to explore and manipulate. But the spiritual realm was the conduit for souls to unite and for discovery of truth. That was the realm of the Creator, and in its plane, only a select few creatures had even been permitted so far as to exist.

The Demon watched those under him with curiosity. He observed as the outlying clans and tribes created their own deities to worship, and saw how it gave their leaders a power he could not explain. There was something very real and manipulable there, and it was the key to his victory over his enemies. Of this he had become increasingly certain. His efforts to master it grew until he was obsessed.

The Greater Being of Veria knew that his greatest call was to the spiritual well-being of his people, yet his attempts to both stand against his enemy and remain with his people would ultimately be counted among the causes of their rebellion.

The Brethren were formed from his metaphysical and physical presence, formed to fight the Demon in his stead. Their personalities and abilities were a rough division of his own. They left Veria to follow the Magi and pit themselves against their single adversary. But being equal to the Demon in wholeness meant inferiority in division. The Brethren had required the help of the most powerful Magi to overcome the Relequim, and the process had nearly cost them all their lives.

Ishtel knew all of this, though much of it had preceded his individual consciousness. He represented the darker side of the Greater Being, the part that not only understood death but welcomed it openly. Silence enshrouded him as much as darkness, not for absence of thought but precisely for its presence. And now he looked down on the release of the monster whose capture had cost so much, at the beginning of a war that he remained uncertain he could win.

The Dark Brother flew slowly downwards, spiraling broadly so as to gain perspective on the Abyss before he came too close. Most of the Dragon's Teeth were now hidden in clouds of ashen granite dust. Black swirls and tendrils worked their way through it all, feeling out the lay of the land before the Demon would make his move. Ensuring he was as alone as he thought he should be.

It would be best for Ishtel to keep his distance, he knew, to avoid giving the Demon his chance to permanently cripple the Brethren by removing a member. But he had to be sure of what was happening, and his curiosity drew him closer as much or more than any necessity.

The dark, exploring tendrils began to withdraw as the dust clouds settled or floated down through the valleys. The one question that burned in Ishtel's mind was where the Relequim would go first. If he could discern that, it would be invaluable information in itself. Images of the mountain erupting returned to him, giving him cause to hesitate. He needed to remove himself from this place rather than draw near it.
What have I been thinking?

No sooner had his internal reprimand emerged then a roar came flying up from the Abyss below. The dust swirled in the broad cavity in the Dragon's Teeth. Ishtel pulled back, flying as quickly as he could for the nearest peak. He had barely gotten any farther before a howling, dark blur erupted from the Abyss below, flying through the northernmost peaks at a rate that was difficult to track. The rush of wind that followed sent dust and snow spinning off the slopes. And before he had realized it, the Relequim had gone.

N
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