The Rising Sun: Episode 6 Page 9

  The tablet, Valicros, stood at the centre of the giant cave, with Redgarn sitting on the floor behind it. His eyes were closed, and his hands drawing circles above the tablet, placed over which was the crystal. As he wove imaginary designs over the mystical tablet, a silent hum seemed to fill the cave’s insides.

  The rest of the Xeni stood lurking in the shadows of the cave, their dark forms robed by the darkness. But Zardin knew that every drop of attention within the cave was pooled on the man sitting behind the tablet, at the centre. Watching hungrily. Waiting for the new age…

  Zardin flicked a file of his long black hair falling upon his face, feeling his lips part in a humorless grin.

  In a few minutes from now … the world would be changed.

  Forever.

  14

  Dantox’s words seemed to echo inside of the room for a few hours after he had finished saying them.

  Qyro and Vestra’s postures had gone rigid.

  Mantra gazed at Dantox with an unnatural stillness, not the most feeble twitch crossing his expression. “It’s already started?” he repeated softly.

  Dantox gave a trembling nod.

  Ion looked sideways at Qyro and Vestra, and saw the shock in their faces slowly fade, leaving utter hopelessness take over.

  Mantra continued to pin Dantox in his unnaturally still gaze, nothing betrayed in his wizened features. His calm demeanour hadn’t faltered, but Ion had the strange impression that there was some very heated thinking occurring beneath that unfazed expression.

  He slowly turned and trotted over to the other end of the room, leaving the other three staring after him.

  Then, arriving at the door, he gestured for them to follow him. Without a sideways glance wasted, the three of them headed after Mantra, stopping at the door to the room.

  Mantra looked about the three of them, pausing to gaze serenely into each one’s face for a quiet, clear moment. A clear moment where his hazy white eyes seemed to study them with a depth like never before.

  “I will be ready to lead you to this final crusade.” he said silently. “If we decide so, then we will brave this one last battle. Whatever be the cost. I guarantee you I will stand by it. But this is a decision that I shall not make. This is a decision that you must now make.”

  The three of them exchanged a quick glance, before turning back to him.

  “As of now,” continued Mantra. “there will be a grand force awaiting the release of the demon army, in the Xeni’s lair. The spell has already started. It will end anytime now. The first of our worries is reaching the planet in time, before the spell is concluded. And our second worry is facing the Xeni’s force, to stop the spell from completion. The first part may be accomplished, though the chances are slim. The second part … is one that is beyond chance. For the four of us against an entire order of them.”

  He paused to let the words’ effect settle in them. “I won’t lie to you about this. But our situation could not have gotten any bleaker that it is now. And whatever feeble hope we stood of stopping them died with the watchmen. Now, if we decide to continue, to move on in this path regardless of what may come … then we should proceed with a true vision of the reality. And so, let me have you known that if we now go on … we would be fighting all odds. Because right now, literally all odds have been thrust against us.”

  As his voice stopped, the silence falling after it seemed to compress upon all of them. Ion, Vestra and Qyro all stood with the same unblinking faces, their eyes fastened over Mantra.

  Ion was speechless, stumped.

  He hadn’t dreamt that it would end this way … his quest to redeem himself for his evils … it was over. He had achieved nothing. Only the dark taint of his life as a criminal would survive after him. And that was what he would hit the grave as…

  He remembered this entire journey crawl past his head … a flow of images crossed his head, starting with when he had met Mantra and the masters in Sacrogon, to now. He blurrily recalled everything, as the images sped past his head…

  But one of the images paused before him, swelling and engulfing his mind…

  Jedius…

  For a moment, as the three of them stood there, feeling the weight of the situation press upon them, something arose within Ion…

  Something powerful.

  “All odds have been thrust against us.” he repeated, facing the three of them. “But isn’t that the very reason we’re here?” He felt a smile flash on his face. “To fight all odds, and to do what must be done?”

  He brought his gaze from one of them to the other, looking at them all intently.

  “The brotherhood of Nyon endured for eight millennia.” he continued. “We’re all that remains of the age of Elderon, and we ploughed on to the very end. To stand guard to the world. Our journey wasn’t easy … and it couldn’t have been harder. But we did it: we fought our fight for eight thousand years, and we’re still here. The four of us were spared for a reason. And I think that reason is this. The moment is here for our brotherhood to make its stand … for Elderon to make his stand. Through us.”

  They were quietly listening, but Mantra gazed at Ion with something twinkling in his clear white eyes.

  “Even if we’re all that’s left in the way of the Xeni,” Ion felt his voice go sturdy with resolve. “We need to show them that we are. That we will do what we must whatever the cost may be. And that no matter how far they push us, and how helpless we may be … we aren’t gonna step aside and let them take control. Even if the price is getting slaughtered by them for it.” He gave a sharp nod. “I’m in.”

  Mantra continued to hold him in a serene gaze, before his lip curved at the corner.

  Ion turned at the other two.

  “I was always with you, master.” Vestra said, turning back to Mantra. “Right from the start, when I found you and came to you years back. And I still am.”

  “If the empire’s swallowing the world anyway,” Qyro gave a complacent shrug. “We’ve really got nothing to lose. Let’s take some of the Xeni with us where we’re heading at least.”

  Mantra looked about the three of them steadily, something kindling in his eight thousand year old pair of eyes.

  “Very well, then.” he said softly, making no attempt to hide his smile. “I see now that our brotherhood is not long dead after all. Its spirit still lives. It resides within you, our only three apprentices. My apprentices.”

  He turned to face the inside of the room, at the far end of which lay Dantox. “Very well, Dantox. We’ve found you a reason to live. You’re going to lead us to the Xeni’s lair.”

  15

  The darkness which had enveloped the cave earlier was gone. The air seemed to simmer with a blood red glow that spread across the walls and ceiling. And red lights streaked the inside of the cave in ribbons.

  A sensation of quiet rumbling came over the entire cave, and seemed to slowly stretch over the entire world. The roar of an ancient evil bound and caged for eight millennia, and now … waiting to be released once more.

  Redgarn’s incantation’s boomed over the entire cave as he waved his hands over the tablet on which the crystal lay.

  The red lights swirling within the cave grew rapid. And the flare of red soaking the inside of the cave grew brighter … almost blinding.

  Zardin stood lurking at the corner of the expanse in which Redgarn and the tablet lay, and a quiet smile creased his face. The spell was almost finished. In less than a minute or so, it would be done.

  16

  Through the window at the front of the ship, they could see starlight glinting. Dantox was tied up and placed at the corner of the ship, the stray ship they had acquired to reach that planet in. It was now peeling through space towards Synistros, the Xeni’s lair.

  Mantra was standing amidst the three of them. His quiet gaze lay pinned to the window ahead, and it hadn’t shifted a whisker since. Ion and the other three stood around him, casting occasional anxious glances at eac
h other. The tenseness in the air was unbearable.

  The low growl of the ship’s engine was the only sound heard. Every ticking second of silence was louder than the last.

  Ion glanced sideways, and saw Vestra biting her lower lips as she did usually when anxious, her hands cradled. Qyro twiddled with his fingers absently with his hands behind his back. His tousled bronze hair seemed to have wilted, no longer as messy as it always stood.

  Ion felt panic claw at him. What next? What if they failed to stop the spell before it ended? And even if they managed to reach the lair before the spell ended, would they be able to fight through the entire Xeni army…?

  As the ship exited the space jump, its speed dropping suddenly, the destination planet rose over the screen ahead, a large brown orb. The ship was soaring right in, so that the planet swelled over the window, engulfing it.

  And then, suddenly, Mantra’s voice cut the stiff rumble of the ship:

  “It’s almost time. The spell is almost finished.”

  __________

  The spinning of red lights grew intense, so that even the Xeni lurking behind the walls outside the expanse felt their eyes burn with the light. All of them shielded their eyes with their hands, slowly backing off into the darker depths of the place. Melting away from where the ghastly spell was occurring. Redgarn’s incantations were now booming across the entire cave. He flung his hands around above the tablet in a lunatic fashion, his tangled white hair flying.

  Zardin watched with hunger, as the streaking wild lights completely filled the inside of the cave. The glow of crimson devouring all in it. The large clearing was now fully empty, with only Redgarn and the tablet resting right amidst it. But as the spinning of the fiery red lights reached a climatic speed, Redgarn, the tablet, and the entire clearing drained from sight … and only the senseless storm of violent, swishing red occupied the entire cave. All that was left to be seen in it.

  And then … there was now a distinct, uncontained roar that was heard over Redgarn’s chanting.

  It seemed to shred the very air itself … booming across the realm.

  Zardin felt as though the lights were setting his entire being aflame, as he stood there, watching the dawn of a new era.

  __________

  The air slashed at Ion from ahead as the four of them tore down the land. In a senseless race towards the mountain ahead. Dantox had pointed them to the Xeni lair, which they noted was a cave. They had landed the ship as close to the cave’s entrance as the roughened lands of the planet permitted. Now, they were ripping across the hundred or so metres remaining from the cave in a breathless dash.

  Almost there…

  Far ahead of them, through the entrance of the cave, they could see a horrific, blood red glow devouring the inside of the cave. Pouring out of the entrance that they were pelting towards…

  “They’re done!” shouted Mantra, as the four of them swept down the land. “That’s proof that the spell’s over!”

  Ion heard the words vaguely, as if reaching him from another dimension. But the moment he heard them, they set off a fiery rush through his veins. The four of them were now literally flying down the distance remaining: their motions would be an edgeless haze to anyone who saw them streak past…

  Ion’s eyes almost streamed as he split the air in his mindless speed, the three others seen as an unclear blur that raced along with him. For now, everything else had faded from their sight, save for the cave’s entrance up ahead. And they were dashing into the cave…

  And there, sitting in the middle of the clearing, with the red lights spinning around him, was Redgarn, with the tablet in front.

  Mantra waited not the splinter of a second … his sword was out and blazing, and he was in a mid air launch towards the man in the centre.

  Redgarn slowly raised his eyes, following Mantra’s form as it soared over the air towards him. In the flash of a moment, the two of them had collided and Redgarn was tossed back, sent rolling over the ground. Without even bothering to stop and steady himself, Mantra ran his sword right through Valicros, stabbing it from the centre, and the plague crystal lying in the middle of it.

  The red lights vanished the very next instant, and darkness descended back upon the cave.

  And as Mantra’s sword lay buried in the tablet, a piercing silence fell over the entire cave. That one moment seemed to grind across a few hours as all attention in the room, every pair of eyes, settled over the Nyon at the centre, with his sword clutching the destroyed tablet.

  Ion and the other two stood rooted a few metres before Mantra and the tablet, their eyes locked with what they were witnessing before them: the final, undisputable proof that it was all over. Despite everything, it was over. The spell had been stopped, even though at the very nick of time.

  They had won.

  Ion realised he had been holding in his breath, and exhaled slowly…

  And then a sudden gush of light found the cave, dispelling the darkness to utter clarity. A greenish, unnatural light.

  And as the three of them slowly turned, Ion saw the source of the light.

  Standing spread over the cave’s inside, all of them as still as stone, were smoky, hazy figures … An entire army of them.

  And Ion saw that the lands outside of the cave, seen through the entrance behind, were also spread with a seemingly endless number of the creatures…

  The sight made something glacial scoop Ion’s insides out. Because he knew what they were.

  Demons…

  The deathly silence was lifted as Redgarn’s laughter rumbled within the cave. The Xeni leader slowly straightened himself from where he lay, laughing.

  “Poor Nyon,” he called, his beady red eyes on where Mantra stood a few feet ahead, and then moving over Ion and the other two. “You came here all the way to save the world … Only to die in complete vain: you’re too late. The spell’s finished.”

  As he said it, the entire army of demons shrieked with laughter. Cold, ice like laughter that reminded Ion of frost. The shrill, skin crawling noise seemed to suck out all warmth from the world.

  “And now,” said Redgarn, his voice booming over the demons’ laughter. “we have the finest possible sacrifices to conclude the ceremony with. Get them, boys.”

  17

  Before Ion could comprehend what had happened, cloaked figures came jumping in towards the three of them from everywhere. A pile of bodies slammed over him, pushing him to the ground.

  He saw Mantra standing before them, surrounded by the cloaked men with their blades drawn. Heaving a deep breath to re gather the calm upon his face, Mantra slowly raised his hands. In surrender.

  Meanwhile, Ion struggled with all the might he could muster, thrashing on the ground with the Xeni all over him. Beside him, he could hear muffled groans from Qyro and Vestra as they too, wrestled helplessly against their captors.

  Then, a familiar face slowly strolled up before them, holding a Sparkler. Zardin smiled as he slowly lifted the Sparkler, aimed straight on Ion’s face, and fired…

  A flash of brightest blue. And then the crippling, ice cold sensation shot through his entire body, turning every nerve in it rigid as stone. His form crumpled and went still on the ground, with the freeze shot effecting in an instant.

  Zardin turned the gun to the other two struggling beside Ion and sent two more jets of blue that found their targets, so that Vestra and Qyro both stiffened in the midst of their thrashing. The Xeni trying to pin the three of them down rose and circled where they lay on the ground, paralysed.

  And soaring over the air, right over the circle of Xeni, came a fourth frozen body. Mantra gave a rough groan as his body slammed to ion’s left, before lying as still as the other three.

  Zardin spread his hands, and the last faint chuckles and mutterings among the Xeni died in an instant, leaving a clear silence to fill the entire cave and the grounds outside. Spread over which stood the entire demon army.

  Redgarn walked forwar
d from where he’d been standing. He turned over where he stood, his gaze scanning the entire army of smoky, evil creatures clustered inside of the cave and outside.

  “Demons,” he called, his voice loud and echoing within the cave. “All of you, servants of Mezmeron. We, the Order of Xeni, have waited eight millennia to give you this, as I myself have awaited it … your grand return to this world. And now, at long last, it’s here. And this could not be a warmer, and a more delightful welcome. As of now, this world is under the grasp of anarchy deeper than ever before. We’ve made it the perfect place for you. For your welcome. This is your time. Your time to strike, and relish the task of ripping the world apart … as it was meant to be.” His lips parted in a diabolical grin. “Get out there and have some fun.”

  As Ion watched with gnawing horror, the entire army of smoke figures suddenly uncoiled into vapours and shot off, through the opening in the cave. The ones who had been standing outside of the cave joined the procession, melting into a puddle of vapour that took off from the ground and streaked into the skies of the planet.