Within fifteen minutes, Axle was done with his hot shower. Towel wrapped around his waist, he called out that he was done. By the time he had gotten into his room, he heard the familiar sound of multiple feet running up the stairs but he closed his door before he could find out who got in the bathroom first.
They all had extra sets of their clothes in his wardrobe because of how frequently they visited, so he knew they would be at his door soon to ask for them. He dried his hair and got dressed quickly, putting on a simple grey nightshirt and space themed pajama pants.
His attention was focused on the book now.
He sat on his bed beside it and then picked it up, studying the covering intently. The rich dark brown leather that made up most of the covering had a certain mixed scent to it... somewhere between earthy and burning... and then there was the faint undescribable odour that he couldn't comprehend, thinking about it alone made him dizzy but only if he focused on the scent. If he didn't then it was like none of that existed.
He shifted his attention to the gilded parts, marvelling at how... intricate... every detail seemed. He could almost feel a story being told in every pattern from edge to edge as he traced a finger across.
He opened the book.
Every page was black.
Everything was written in symbol runes, in white ink and he could only make out a few of them, others seemed familiar, like something he once knew but had now forgotten, and the rest he could not fathom at all. As he flipped through pages, he saw diagrams and what seemed like schematics for things he could not comprehend, lines and drawings popped up every few pages and sometimes they would be the only things for five or more pages in succession.
After a few hundred pages of fruitless scanning, he came across an oddity at the end of the book.
A white page, with a single line of spoken runes written in black ink at the top of the page.
A request...? No, an instruction...
"Axle" he whispered to no one in particular. Nothing happened.
Dissatisfied and strangely compelled to seek a result, he said his name again... but in the ancient tongue that his mother taught him... his runic name.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the page suddenly crumbled to dust and then to nothingness.
Before he could react, the world around him clicked out of existence.
Suddenly, he found himself suspended in a lightless space, feeling his entire being ripped to shreds, down to his soul, the phantom pieces coming to be before a vast, unseeable and unrecognizable presence.
He was in convulsive pain but he couldn't move due to the pressure being exerted on his shattered mind by simply being in the presence of this seemingly untamed and unlimited being.
Far off in the distance, if that was even a thing in this strange space, at the center of that unseen being... was a man.
Just standing there.
The moment he noticed it... him, they were suddenly face to face... his existence still in phantom shreds though he was in one piece.
And then he saw the man's face.
First he was shocked and then confused...
This was... him?
No... Yes? An older version.
Emotionless.
But still him... he could feel it. Somehow... Was he dreaming?
His older version seemed like it wanted to reach out, but he paused.
The next moment seemed to be a blur... a sharp migraine ridden blur, his older self seemed to say something but he couldn't even hear or think about it, without causing more pain to his already shattered mind.
And then his older self sighed... Had there been tears on his cheek before?
"I'm sorry."
And then after a few moments, he turned his back and began walking away into the limitless space and added,
"I have no reason to do it, because reason has lost meaning now. It just has to happen..."
Axle wanted to speak, but couldn't. He wanted to cry from some unrecognizable sadness, but he could do nothing.
He felt himself being pulled away from his older self and the presence and suddenly he was back in his room, sprawled on the ground and sweating profusely with a near brain-melting headache.
His eyes opened weakly to see the book on the ground as well, opened face down. He was too weak to move, to call out for help, to stay conscious... but not so weak that he didn't feel the air in the room shift...
There in the center of his room, the world seemed to deepen... and then fracture.
A terrible and awful aura gushed out of the fresh wound in reality and out of the room, so much so that his friends outside could feel that something was off.
Keno felt it first from the bathroom.
A worried frown made its way onto his face and he began to hurry out of the jaccuzi to check on Axle.
Asle himself was still weakly watching in his room as black dust began pouring out of the rift and onto his room floor.
The dust was... alive.
Swirling and surging and slowly eating away at everything it touched, growing faster the more of it poured out of the rift. The floorboards creaked as they slowly became weaker from the corrosion of the dust.
Just as Axle was about to fall unconscious, a growing bright light shined out from the rift causing some of the dust to retreat and dissolve into shadows... and then his eyes closed.
Keno, still wet, had just tied a towel around his waist and was about heading out of the bathroom, when the door to Axle's room suddenly shattered and caught fire, and then the door to the bathroom, and in an instant he was covered in white light and felt himself accelerate faster than he could comprehend.
By the time his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he found himself on the ground, along with his other friends..., about thirty feet from Axle's house, with an unconscious Axle laying close to them.
And right there in front of them a figure made out of and dressed in orange flames stood facing the house, with a tense grip on two long blades made entirely out of white flames. He radiated a pure and regal aura, the effect heavy on them as they were so close to him.
He spoke without looking back, in a crystal clear and refined voice,
"Not a single one of you should move unless I command it"
Too awe-struck and confused to protest, they watched in horror as Axle's house began to decay and crumble in certain parts. Black dust emanating a terrifying aura as it ate away at every single thing. The dust rose and fell, consuming the last bits of the house that were left. They did not know about the rift, but it was gone now.
Finally it was done.
The burning man tensed even more.
Then the dust began to dissolve. Wisps of shadows, deep and oppressingly cold, coagulated and compressed, coming even closer together and solidifying until they formed a crouching figure.
The figure was still for a moment, it's back rising and falling periodically from what seemed like deep, measured breaths.
And then it moved... Its pale and tattoo covered skinny frame swaying slightly as it moved to stand upright. Wisps of darkness escaped it's body with every movement and every breath. As it's sillhouette was bathed in moonlight, a deep and maniacal laughter escaped it.
The surrounding darkness rose to clothe the figure, tenebrous torrents of smoke rising and solidifying into a ragged loincloth and a thick hood, casting a shadow over his pale face. But as he turned to face them fully, the darkness of his eyes proved to be even deeper and more malevolent than the shadow over his face.
The friends looked down in terror, avoiding the gaze of the dark entity before them.
"You could have at least allowed me a few moments to stretch before coming after me...", the entity spoke, the night itself seemed to speak for him, carrying his words directly to them. White fangs glistened from beneath the hood, inidicating a maniacal smile. He flexed his pale and tattooed arms and curled his clawed fingers, popping his knuckles in one fluid motion.
"And my my... the fates smile on me...", he tilted his head to focus on Axle, "Could that be... the one?" More teeth showed from beneath his hood...
"You have no place in this world Mōrūn" the burning man said fiercly, tightening his grip on his blades even more.
Mōrūn laughed, the darkness around him seeming to laugh as well.
"Oh, but I do! And we both know you wouldn't be here if that wasn't true... Besides, I can't exactly skip the only part of the prophecy that makes me happy now, can I?" the shadows pooled on either side of him, weaving upwards into long obsidian daggers similar to the ones the burning man wielded. He grabbed a hold of them as they finished forming, he and his weapons leaving trails of shadow behind as he took one step forward.
And then another.
"So, Sārūn, help me make a decision here... Should I kill him first...?" he dragged the tip of his blades across the ground as he walked, "... or should I kill his seeker friends and make him watch?"
Sārūn turned his head slightly and spoke to the terrified kids in a hushed tone.
"I'm going to need you to run soon and one of you needs to carry your unconcious friend as well... The direction doesn't matter, just as long as you stay together. I will find you..."
He turned to face an approaching Mōrūn.
And lifted his weapons with a firm grip.
The flames that made his form suddenly turned a bright yellow and the intensity of light surrounding him suddenly increased, the world around him becoming as illuminated as daytime.
The darkness around Mōrūn was instantly diminished, but his own shadow became sharper and deeper. His face was still completely hidden by the darkness under his hood, but his fangs were still ever-visible.
"Now!"
Kenov was the first to stand, immediately lifting Axle into a fireman carry and then the rest followed. By instinct, they began to run forward putting as much distance between them and whatever was about to happen.
Sārūn shot forward and reached Mōrūn almost instantaneously, lifting his right blade for a strike.
Parrying with his left, Mōrūn swung his right blade with more force than his nearly bony frame should have been able to muster, launching it after the kids, manifesting another one into his hands from his own shadow. He moved that one to meet a second incoming slash from his right, sparks flying as the weapons connected.
The blade he threw had almost reached it's target until suddenly a pocket of light appeared and solidified into a dagger, striking it down. The obsidian dagger fell and stuck into the ground, dissolving into a shadow instantly and began to form a long trail towards it's owner.
Still parrying the attack from such an unnatural angle, Mōrūn lifted his right leg and kicked Sārūn to the side. The shadow of his dagger connected to his at that moment and he dissolved immediately, rippling through the trail instantly, now closer to the friends.
Sārūn flashed and appeared in front of him again. He dismissed his right blade and sent his fist flying, a shockwave spread as the blow connected with Mōrūn's face, sending him flying back.
Arrows of pure light chased after his flying frame. He righted himself in the air, momentum pushing him back as his feet touched the ground, and waved one hand in the air to manifest a shadow wall. The arrows ripped right through, one of them ripping his left shoulder as he side-stepped to dodge, shadows leaked out of the wound.
He grunted and sealed the injury with more shadows. Then he used the shadows around him to form shadow hounds, twenty-three in total, and sent them after the kids, while he himself dissolved into the remaining shadows.
Sārūn was not liking this one bit. Mōrūn could only be as fast as whoever he was chasing, but he was still extremely cunning.
He ditched the bow he was holding, causing it to crackle and fizzle out, and then flashed to the side of the children. Two hounds were already in the air jumping at them, three more had surrounded them.
The group slid to a stop as Sārūn darted in front of them, catching one of the hounds by the jaw and swinging it at the other one, both bursting into a cloud of shadows. Three more hounds jumped through, replaced by another seven on the ground running towards them.
Sārūn gritted his teeth and levitated off the ground.
Pockets of light materialized everywhere around them and then started firing at every hound in his sight.
One hound was making it's way to the group, and then another and another, all three craftily dodging the blasts fired at them. A shot connected with the head of one of them, blowing it up into a cloud of darkness. Another took its place.
One leaped up at Ashton, but a shot of light tore right through its stomach... and right through Ashton's left shoulder.
He screamed in pain as he dropped to his knees, clutching the bleeding shoulder with tears in his eyes. Hailey knelt beside him immediately and took off her jacket, pressing it against the injury to lessen the bleeding.
Sārūn turned to face them and muttered a curse, dispelling the pockets of light and switching to his bow again. The area arround them suddenly dimmed, becoming brighter towards the ground, and then spikes of light suddenly shot out from the ground facing away from them. There were suddenly four clouds of smoke behind them and three to their right.
Pulling on the bow string, an arrow materialized and fired off as he released. Almost immediately another one was forming, his firing speed increasing as he targeted every hound he could see. Some dodged and some got caught, clouds of shadow settling almost as fast as they had come up.
And then an arrow struck one of the hounds.
An arrow that wasn't his...
The cohort watched as a figure in a purple cloak jumped down from a nearby tree, performed a barrel roll and fired another arrow immediately she got up.
"It's about time" said Sārūn as he turned and fired another two arrows at the approaching hounds. The spikes dissolved to allow the newcomer get closer.
'Why isn't he regenerating them...?'
"Apologies lord Sārūn", the seemingly mirthful voice of a woman sounded from under the cloak, "Though I find it surprising that you can't handle a few dogs yourself".
"Unfortunately I can't use any more power than I'm currently displaying without hurting the children more... Heal him and open the gateway, we need to leave this instant"
Then she loosened a strap at the neck of the cloak and threw it off, revealing a toned and athletic figure in a silver chestplate and .... with purple accents. She had a grey leather mask on the lower half of her face, burning orange eyes and brown hair that was running wild. And smooth ebony skin.
She ran to Ashton's side and knelt beside him, placing both hands his wounds and muttering some strange words under her breath. A soothing orange light covered the wound as he felt his flesh mend and adrenaline flood him to overcome the pain.
"Alright kids, ready to get out of here?" the woman said. The couldn't see her mouth but they knew she was smiling.
"Who... who are you? What's going on?", asked Keno.
"I'm scared...", Lyssa was crying.
The woman lifted her hand and wiped Lyssa's tears.
"It's alright sweetie, we'll be out of here in a minute"
She turned to Sārūn who was blitzing around to a new location every moment, handling the hounds head-on. Convinced he could handle it, she squatted in front of the group and closed her eyes.
And she spoke.
Words that were soundless whispers. Meaningless words that shook the world.
And Axle who was still unconcious was speaking with her, every breath labored as he recited unknown words under his breath.
A pillar of mist gathered before them, thin and loosely hanging strings of blue and green and gold becoming visible inside of it.
The strings began to weave themselves, forming a wide rift in front of them and stretching impossibly deep into the rift.
Sārūn finally caught wind of what was happening.
"Get in NOW!"
Their shadows had slowly been growing darker as time passed as the shadow of every hound that died had snaked its way into theirs.
The darkness of Kenov's shadow rippled and the head of a massive snake shot out, aiming for Axle's head. Right before it's jaw snapped, two blades flashed in the air, severing the upper and lower jaws at the same time. The severed parts became puffs of shadow and rejoined the head, reforming it into a tentacle.
Sārūn lifted Keno and Axle at once and tossed them through the rift. The dark pools were left behind as they moved. He made a downward slash on the dark tentacle which caused it to split in two and shoot past him on either side.
Another pair of blades intercepted the tentacles while the rest of the cohort crossed the rift, and then the woman herself waited at the rift for Sārūn.
"Go"
"But..."
"Go... I have unfinished business with him"
The woman paused, unsure for a moment. The she remembered who he was and steeled herself, crossing the rift.
"Heroic as always, aren't you?", the dark night spoke.
Tentacles receeded and wrapped around themselves and the form of the dark incarnate stood before Sārūn.
"You know you can not go in there, right?"
Mōrūn laughed.
"Of course not, years of an impromptu imprisonment is enough for me not to want to risk it... at least not yet", his fangs flashed beneath the hood, he relaxed and re-tightened his grip on the daggers by his side.
Sārūn sighed.
"You don't have to do this... any of this. None of it is worth it..."
"You amuse me, Sārūn". He did not seem amused in the slightest.
Mōrūn lifted his right hand to his face, staring intently at his obsidian dagger.
"This is all I am...", he said wistfully.
"Have you ever considered change...?"
Mōrūn scoffed and brought his hand down.
"Years of battling me out of my prime must have made you forget what I'm capable of... who I am... Primordial concepts such as ourselves aren't exactly equipped to be something other what Ṣēndūl'Rā has created us to be. You are Rūnūndā, you know this. If anything, you only talk like this now because it's in your nature to do so..." He said with a blank stare.
Sārūn hung his head and turned to the rift.
Then he looked back over his shoulder and spoke,
"We'll be meeting again soon then..."
Mōrūn's smile widened again,
"Oh I don't doubt it. But take your time... we've spent too long together in that accursed book... I wouldn't want you to get sick of me now, would I?"
Sārūn said nothing and walked into the rift. A flash of light sealing it as the brightness he had been producing suddenly ceased.
Left alone in the embrace of his element, Mōrūn looked to the full moon and took a deep breath.
And then he laughed.
He laughed a cruel laugh.
And the night laughed with him...
The Black Chapter 4: When exactly does this birthday end? (Part 2)
Within fifteen minutes, Axle was done with his hot shower. Towel wrapped around his waist, he called out that he was done. By the time he had gotten into his room, he heard the familiar sound of multiple feet running up the stairs but he closed his door before he could find out who got in the bathroom first.
They all had extra sets of their clothes in his wardrobe because of how frequently they visited, so he knew they would be at his door soon to ask for them. He dried his hair and got dressed quickly, putting on a simple grey nightshirt and space themed pajama pants.
His attention was focused on the book now.
He sat on his bed beside it and then picked it up, studying the covering intently. The rich dark brown leather that made up most of the covering had a certain mixed scent to it... somewhere between earthy and burning... and then there was the faint undescribable odour that he couldn't comprehend, thinking about it alone made him dizzy but only if he focused on the scent. If he didn't then it was like none of that existed.
He shifted his attention to the gilded parts, marvelling at how... intricate... every detail seemed. He could almost feel a story being told in every pattern from edge to edge as he traced a finger across.
He opened the book.
Every page was black.
Everything was written in symbol runes, in white ink and he could only make out a few of them, others seemed familiar, like something he once knew but had now forgotten, and the rest he could not fathom at all. As he flipped through pages, he saw diagrams and what seemed like schematics for things he could not comprehend, lines and drawings popped up every few pages and sometimes they would be the only things for five or more pages in succession.
After a few hundred pages of fruitless scanning, he came across an oddity at the end of the book.
A white page, with a single line of spoken runes written in black ink at the top of the page.
A request...? No, an instruction...
"Axle" he whispered to no one in particular. Nothing happened.
Dissatisfied and strangely compelled to seek a result, he said his name again... but in the ancient tongue that his mother taught him... his runic name.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the page suddenly crumbled to dust and then to nothingness.
Before he could react, the world around him clicked out of existence.
Suddenly, he found himself suspended in a lightless space, feeling his entire being ripped to shreds, down to his soul, the phantom pieces coming to be before a vast, unseeable and unrecognizable presence.
He was in convulsive pain but he couldn't move due to the pressure being exerted on his shattered mind by simply being in the presence of this seemingly untamed and unlimited being.
Far off in the distance, if that was even a thing in this strange space, at the center of that unseen being... was a man.
Just standing there.
The moment he noticed it... him, they were suddenly face to face... his existence still in phantom shreds though he was in one piece.
And then he saw the man's face.
First he was shocked and then confused...
This was... him?
No... Yes? An older version.
Emotionless.
But still him... he could feel it. Somehow... Was he dreaming?
His older version seemed like it wanted to reach out, but he paused.
The next moment seemed to be a blur... a sharp migraine ridden blur, his older self seemed to say something but he couldn't even hear or think about it, without causing more pain to his already shattered mind.
And then his older self sighed... Had there been tears on his cheek before?
"I'm sorry."
And then after a few moments, he turned his back and began walking away into the limitless space and added,
"I have no reason to do it, because reason has lost meaning now. It just has to happen..."
Axle wanted to speak, but couldn't. He wanted to cry from some unrecognizable sadness, but he could do nothing.
He felt himself being pulled away from his older self and the presence and suddenly he was back in his room, sprawled on the ground and sweating profusely with a near brain-melting headache.
His eyes opened weakly to see the book on the ground as well, opened face down. He was too weak to move, to call out for help, to stay conscious... but not so weak that he didn't feel the air in the room shift...
There in the center of his room, the world seemed to deepen... and then fracture.
A terrible and awful aura gushed out of the fresh wound in reality and out of the room, so much so that his friends outside could feel that something was off.
Keno felt it first from the bathroom.
A worried frown made its way onto his face and he began to hurry out of the jaccuzi to check on Axle.
Asle himself was still weakly watching in his room as black dust began pouring out of the rift and onto his room floor.
The dust was... alive.
Swirling and surging and slowly eating away at everything it touched, growing faster the more of it poured out of the rift. The floorboards creaked as they slowly became weaker from the corrosion of the dust.
Just as Axle was about to fall unconscious, a growing bright light shined out from the rift causing some of the dust to retreat and dissolve into shadows... and then his eyes closed.
Keno, still wet, had just tied a towel around his waist and was about heading out of the bathroom, when the door to Axle's room suddenly shattered and caught fire, and then the door to the bathroom, and in an instant he was covered in white light and felt himself accelerate faster than he could comprehend.
By the time his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he found himself on the ground, along with his other friends..., about thirty feet from Axle's house, with an unconscious Axle laying close to them.
And right there in front of them a figure made out of and dressed in orange flames stood facing the house, with a tense grip on two long blades made entirely out of white flames. He radiated a pure and regal aura, the effect heavy on them as they were so close to him.
He spoke without looking back, in a crystal clear and refined voice,
"Not a single one of you should move unless I command it"
Too awe-struck and confused to protest, they watched in horror as Axle's house began to decay and crumble in certain parts. Black dust emanating a terrifying aura as it ate away at every single thing. The dust rose and fell, consuming the last bits of the house that were left. They did not know about the rift, but it was gone now.
Finally it was done.
The burning man tensed even more.
Then the dust began to dissolve. Wisps of shadows, deep and oppressingly cold, coagulated and compressed, coming even closer together and solidifying until they formed a crouching figure.
The figure was still for a moment, it's back rising and falling periodically from what seemed like deep, measured breaths.
And then it moved... Its pale and tattoo covered skinny frame swaying slightly as it moved to stand upright. Wisps of darkness escaped it's body with every movement and every breath. As it's sillhouette was bathed in moonlight, a deep and maniacal laughter escaped it.
The surrounding darkness rose to clothe the figure, tenebrous torrents of smoke rising and solidifying into a ragged loincloth and a thick hood, casting a shadow over his pale face. But as he turned to face them fully, the darkness of his eyes proved to be even deeper and more malevolent than the shadow over his face.
The friends looked down in terror, avoiding the gaze of the dark entity before them.
"You could have at least allowed me a few moments to stretch before coming after me...", the entity spoke, the night itself seemed to speak for him, carrying his words directly to them. White fangs glistened from beneath the hood, inidicating a maniacal smile. He flexed his pale and tattooed arms and curled his clawed fingers, popping his knuckles in one fluid motion.
"And my my... the fates smile on me...", he tilted his head to focus on Axle, "Could that be... the one?" More teeth showed from beneath his hood...
"You have no place in this world Mōrūn" the burning man said fiercly, tightening his grip on his blades even more.
Mōrūn laughed, the darkness around him seeming to laugh as well.
"Oh, but I do! And we both know you wouldn't be here if that wasn't true... Besides, I can't exactly skip the only part of the prophecy that makes me happy now, can I?" the shadows pooled on either side of him, weaving upwards into long obsidian daggers similar to the ones the burning man wielded. He grabbed a hold of them as they finished forming, he and his weapons leaving trails of shadow behind as he took one step forward.
And then another.
"So, Sārūn, help me make a decision here... Should I kill him first...?" he dragged the tip of his blades across the ground as he walked, "... or should I kill his seeker friends and make him watch?"
Sārūn turned his head slightly and spoke to the terrified kids in a hushed tone.
"I'm going to need you to run soon and one of you needs to carry your unconcious friend as well... The direction doesn't matter, just as long as you stay together. I will find you..."
He turned to face an approaching Mōrūn.
And lifted his weapons with a firm grip.
The flames that made his form suddenly turned a bright yellow and the intensity of light surrounding him suddenly increased, the world around him becoming as illuminated as daytime.
The darkness around Mōrūn was instantly diminished, but his own shadow became sharper and deeper. His face was still completely hidden by the darkness under his hood, but his fangs were still ever-visible.
"Now!"
Kenov was the first to stand, immediately lifting Axle into a fireman carry and then the rest followed. By instinct, they began to run forward putting as much distance between them and whatever was about to happen.
Sārūn shot forward and reached Mōrūn almost instantaneously, lifting his right blade for a strike.
Parrying with his left, Mōrūn swung his right blade with more force than his nearly bony frame should have been able to muster, launching it after the kids, manifesting another one into his hands from his own shadow. He moved that one to meet a second incoming slash from his right, sparks flying as the weapons connected.
The blade he threw had almost reached it's target until suddenly a pocket of light appeared and solidified into a dagger, striking it down. The obsidian dagger fell and stuck into the ground, dissolving into a shadow instantly and began to form a long trail towards it's owner.
Still parrying the attack from such an unnatural angle, Mōrūn lifted his right leg and kicked Sārūn to the side. The shadow of his dagger connected to his at that moment and he dissolved immediately, rippling through the trail instantly, now closer to the friends.
Sārūn flashed and appeared in front of him again. He dismissed his right blade and sent his fist flying, a shockwave spread as the blow connected with Mōrūn's face, sending him flying back.
Arrows of pure light chased after his flying frame. He righted himself in the air, momentum pushing him back as his feet touched the ground, and waved one hand in the air to manifest a shadow wall. The arrows ripped right through, one of them ripping his left shoulder as he side-stepped to dodge, shadows leaked out of the wound.
He grunted and sealed the injury with more shadows. Then he used the shadows around him to form shadow hounds, twenty-three in total, and sent them after the kids, while he himself dissolved into the remaining shadows.
Sārūn was not liking this one bit. Mōrūn could only be as fast as whoever he was chasing, but he was still extremely cunning.
He ditched the bow he was holding, causing it to crackle and fizzle out, and then flashed to the side of the children. Two hounds were already in the air jumping at them, three more had surrounded them.
The group slid to a stop as Sārūn darted in front of them, catching one of the hounds by the jaw and swinging it at the other one, both bursting into a cloud of shadows. Three more hounds jumped through, replaced by another seven on the ground running towards them.
Sārūn gritted his teeth and levitated off the ground.
Pockets of light materialized everywhere around them and then started firing at every hound in his sight.
One hound was making it's way to the group, and then another and another, all three craftily dodging the blasts fired at them. A shot connected with the head of one of them, blowing it up into a cloud of darkness. Another took its place.
One leaped up at Ashton, but a shot of light tore right through its stomach... and right through Ashton's left shoulder.
He screamed in pain as he dropped to his knees, clutching the bleeding shoulder with tears in his eyes. Hailey knelt beside him immediately and took off her jacket, pressing it against the injury to lessen the bleeding.
Sārūn turned to face them and muttered a curse, dispelling the pockets of light and switching to his bow again. The area arround them suddenly dimmed, becoming brighter towards the ground, and then spikes of light suddenly shot out from the ground facing away from them. There were suddenly four clouds of smoke behind them and three to their right.
Pulling on the bow string, an arrow materialized and fired off as he released. Almost immediately another one was forming, his firing speed increasing as he targeted every hound he could see. Some dodged and some got caught, clouds of shadow settling almost as fast as they had come up.
And then an arrow struck one of the hounds.
An arrow that wasn't his...
The cohort watched as a figure in a purple cloak jumped down from a nearby tree, performed a barrel roll and fired another arrow immediately she got up.
"It's about time" said Sārūn as he turned and fired another two arrows at the approaching hounds. The spikes dissolved to allow the newcomer get closer.
'Why isn't he regenerating them...?'
"Apologies lord Sārūn", the seemingly mirthful voice of a woman sounded from under the cloak, "Though I find it surprising that you can't handle a few dogs yourself".
"Unfortunately I can't use any more power than I'm currently displaying without hurting the children more... Heal him and open the gateway, we need to leave this instant"
Then she loosened a strap at the neck of the cloak and threw it off, revealing a toned and athletic figure in a silver chestplate and .... with purple accents. She had a grey leather mask on the lower half of her face, burning orange eyes and brown hair that was running wild. And smooth ebony skin.
She ran to Ashton's side and knelt beside him, placing both hands his wounds and muttering some strange words under her breath. A soothing orange light covered the wound as he felt his flesh mend and adrenaline flood him to overcome the pain.
"Alright kids, ready to get out of here?" the woman said. The couldn't see her mouth but they knew she was smiling.
"Who... who are you? What's going on?", asked Keno.
"I'm scared...", Lyssa was crying.
The woman lifted her hand and wiped Lyssa's tears.
"It's alright sweetie, we'll be out of here in a minute"
She turned to Sārūn who was blitzing around to a new location every moment, handling the hounds head-on. Convinced he could handle it, she squatted in front of the group and closed her eyes.
And she spoke.
Words that were soundless whispers. Meaningless words that shook the world.
And Axle who was still unconcious was speaking with her, every breath labored as he recited unknown words under his breath.
A pillar of mist gathered before them, thin and loosely hanging strings of blue and green and gold becoming visible inside of it.
The strings began to weave themselves, forming a wide rift in front of them and stretching impossibly deep into the rift.
Sārūn finally caught wind of what was happening.
"Get in NOW!"
Their shadows had slowly been growing darker as time passed as the shadow of every hound that died had snaked its way into theirs.
The darkness of Kenov's shadow rippled and the head of a massive snake shot out, aiming for Axle's head. Right before it's jaw snapped, two blades flashed in the air, severing the upper and lower jaws at the same time. The severed parts became puffs of shadow and rejoined the head, reforming it into a tentacle.
Sārūn lifted Keno and Axle at once and tossed them through the rift. The dark pools were left behind as they moved. He made a downward slash on the dark tentacle which caused it to split in two and shoot past him on either side.
Another pair of blades intercepted the tentacles while the rest of the cohort crossed the rift, and then the woman herself waited at the rift for Sārūn.
"Go"
"But..."
"Go... I have unfinished business with him"
The woman paused, unsure for a moment. The she remembered who he was and steeled herself, crossing the rift.
"Heroic as always, aren't you?", the dark night spoke.
Tentacles receeded and wrapped around themselves and the form of the dark incarnate stood before Sārūn.
"You know you can not go in there, right?"
Mōrūn laughed.
"Of course not, years of an impromptu imprisonment is enough for me not to want to risk it... at least not yet", his fangs flashed beneath the hood, he relaxed and re-tightened his grip on the daggers by his side.
Sārūn sighed.
"You don't have to do this... any of this. None of it is worth it..."
"You amuse me, Sārūn". He did not seem amused in the slightest.
Mōrūn lifted his right hand to his face, staring intently at his obsidian dagger.
"This is all I am...", he said wistfully.
"Have you ever considered change...?"
Mōrūn scoffed and brought his hand down.
"Years of battling me out of my prime must have made you forget what I'm capable of... who I am... Primordial concepts such as ourselves aren't exactly equipped to be something other what Ṣēndūl'Rā has created us to be. You are Rūnūndā, you know this. If anything, you only talk like this now because it's in your nature to do so..." He said with a blank stare.
Sārūn hung his head and turned to the rift.
Then he looked back over his shoulder and spoke,
"We'll be meeting again soon then..."
Mōrūn's smile widened again,
"Oh I don't doubt it. But take your time... we've spent too long together in that accursed book... I wouldn't want you to get sick of me now, would I?"
Sārūn said nothing and walked into the rift. A flash of light sealing it as the brightness he had been producing suddenly ceased.
Left alone in the embrace of his element, Mōrūn looked to the full moon and took a deep breath.
And then he laughed.
He laughed a cruel laugh.
And the night laughed with him...