An angel’s road to hell

21. Of cures, ignored advice and a little bit of song

Cassandra Pendragon

The smell of decay wafted over the training grounds, blood spatters, seemingly black in the light of the illumination runes, and Roberts’s head defaced the shining wood of the platform. My eyes were stuck on the decomposing remains of our guards while they slowly turned into a tangled mass of liquified flesh and rotting bones. The cold was still spreading and I couldn’t move my legs anymore, my heartbeat had slowed down to a bare whisper and the smell made me dizzy. Fear grabbed me and turned into panic as I could feel less and less of my body. I could only move my head a little but I was still bound by the sight before me, my eyes glued to the disgusting aftermath of the fight. By all that’s holy, I didn’t want my last impressions to be the gruesome display before me, but than again, probably no one who had fallen in battle did. Through sheer willpower I made my body move, slightly, and turned towards my brother. His anxious face loomed over me and blood dripped from a nasty cut on his face. I tried to smile, but the ominous red glow, coming from the garden behind and below him, reflected on a low hanging cloud, wiped it off my face before it could even form. The garden stood in flames and over the still ringing alarm bell I could now hear the crackling of burning wood and smell ash on the wind. My home was burning and I couldn’t do a single thing about it.

Mordred whipped around and followed my line of sight, maybe expecting another attack, but he froze immediately when he saw what had caught my attention. With a snarl he rushed towards the railing and looked down. His features became illuminated in the glow from below and his eyes reflected dancing flames. A single tear rolled down his face. “Bastards,” he cursed, “what have you done?!”

Mephisto didn’t seem to care much about what was happening. He carefully turned me over while mumbling to himself: “now, what have we got here… huh… a cursed poison, strengthened threw sacrifice. Uhh..nasty business…” my concentration wavered and a ringing sound started to fill my ears. Dense fog encroached on me and I couldn’t feel my heartbeat anymore. A sharp slap brought my attention back to the looming demon above me and my vision cleared a little.

“Listen, I can extract the poison but it’s already deep within you, close to your heart. It’ll probably take most of my energy to keep you alive throughout the process. I don’t think I can sustain this form afterwards for a while. Without a real body or my core my energies regenerate at an abyssal rate. You’ll be on your own for the time being. I know you probably won’t listen, but you should get off this island. I don’t know what’s happening exactly, but it’s a safe bet that whatever the emperor has planned is well on its way. You won’t be able to stop it. Flee, save yourself and maybe we can return later to sort this mess out. But if you charge in now, you won’t survive.” He inhaled deeply and gently put one hand over my heart and the second one on my head, both were smeared with my blood, flowing freely from my side. “Here it goes. This won’t be pleasant.”

He was right. My vision turned dark as my body became a battlefield. I couldn’t even scream, but I could feel Mephisto’s energy enter and chase along my veins flooding my body within seconds. All over I felt him encounter specks of something alien that clung to the smallest parts of me and was continuously growing. Wherever he found one, his energy formed a bubble around it and tore it straight out. It was a bloody mess, tissue and small parts of my bones were also encapsulated and ripped away along with the poison. I couldn’t describe the feeling. The most apt metaphor would be having a million meat hooks sink into you and enduring them being torn out once again, flesh and blood still sticking to the blades. It wasn’t as all-encompassing as the weight I had felt when I had broken the contract, but the pain was sharper and there was no escape. I didn’t lose consciousness and had to suffer through the whole process time and again while mental blades pierced my body and tore away every last piece of infected flesh. Damn, my life sucked.

I couldn’t tell how much time had passed, to me it felt like a million years, until the storm of energy ravaging my body slowly became weaker and weaker. But still there were particles left within me, I could feel them clinging to my organs and actively dodging Mephisto’s search. I became terrified that even after the ordeal, Mephisto wouldn’t be able to extract everything and I would still succumb to whatever that shadow had used to poison me with.

A final surge of power rushed through me, stronger than before and tainted with a foreign life force, I felt it burn through my veins and along my nerves, incinerating every last speck of poison along the way. Within a heartbeat the pain vanished and blessed silence reigned within me. The cold was gone, the torment over and all that was left was a tingling feeling all over my body, my nerves still firing from everything I had been through.

With a groan I opened my eyes and coughed. I spat out a mouthful of blood, I had bitten through my tongue during the procedure and took a deep breath. The air was laced with ash, smoke and a hint of rotten and burning flesh but I had never before tasted anything sweeter. My strength rushed back and even though I still felt groggy a small smile spread on my lips. I had survived!

Unfortunately my elation was short lived. The first thing I registered was the rather bright night, illuminated in red with wisps of smoke curling over the platform. The temperature had increased and I could hear the deafening crackle of burning cherry trees. I could feel a shudder run through the branch we were on and Boseiju himself seemed to quiver in fear. Directly besides me, Mephisto’s home, the once pristine emblem, lay charred on the ground, the metal blackened and Mephisto’s face blurry and distorted, I could only recognise it because I knew what it was supposed to be. Mordred was kneeling besides me, his face sweaty. I could smell fear and grief emanating off of him. I laid in a puddle of blood, my clothes completely soaked and I could see small bits of flesh and bone drifting over the surface.

When I had opened my eyes a small yelp escape my brother and he smothered me in a hug, drenching himself in my blood on the ground but he didn’t seem to care: “By the great fox, I thought you were dead! How are you feeling? Can you stand up?” Despite everything I felt better, it was good to be loved. Pushing him off of me I replied: “I have been better, but I will survive. Could you give me a hand?” He scrambled to his feet and extended his hand. I pulled myself up and a light vertigo hit me but it passed quickly enough. I wasn’t injured anymore, as far as I could tell, my white skin was flawless and I didn’t see a scar or a mark, even though a good part of my blood and body was scattered around us, adding another grizzle feature to the training grounds. Leaning heavily on my brother’s supporting arm, I scooped down and retrieved the emblem, storing it in my back pocket again. When I had straightened again I tugged on his hand and moved slowly towards the railing.

“Help me, I need to see what’s happening.” Wordlessly Mordred escorted me to the edge of the platform so I could peer down. Below me a hellish field of fire and dancing shadows sprawled to the horizon. Most trees in the garden had caught fire and it was only a matter of time before every last one of them would light up and burn to ashes. The protective runes on the ground and within the bark of the trees were dull and lifeless, not a single spark of energy contained within them. Kitsune of all ages ran around panicked, their voice unable to carry over the raging fire that consumed their home. I could see shadowy figures dancing through the flames, hunting for the kitsune. Whenever they got close to one, they didn’t simply kill it like they had with Robert and Henry but forced it to the ground and smothered it with their bodies. When they moved on, the kitsune was gone, not a trace left of their victim. I couldn’t tell how many shadows were down there exactly but I didn’t think that many members of the second palace were still in control of their souls. That wasn’t a political game, an abduction or a plot against my family. That was an all out assault on our home! Home… my home!

I hastily drew away from the railing and focused on the palace. The alarm bell was still ringing but I didn’t see flames erupting or heard the sound of battle. Maybe there was still time to… a burning torrent of greenish energy erupted somewhere from the second floor, blowing through the wall and continuing on into the night for hundreds of meters. Rubble was blown away and scattered through the night, the shockwave tussled my hair, I had to lean heavily on my brother to not fall over. I was stunned for a moment, but than I rushed off as fast as my strained body would allow. Mom, Ahri, Greta, Dad, Eva, Adam! Even if it was going to kill me, I wouldn’t flee while those I loved were in mortal peril. I half expected and maybe even hoped a little that Mordred would stop me. Truth be told I was terrified of facing one of these shadows again, but I wouldn’t let fear rule me, never again! He didn’t though. With a growl he overtook me easily and sprinted towards the soldier’s barracks. Thinking of which, where were they? Shouldn’t they have reacted to the bugle by now? It made no sense, unless… they were already dead or incapacitated. With a curse I changed direction and rushed off around the palace edge and towards the royal wing. Clenching my teeth I unfurled my wings and shot into the night air, heading directly for the still glowing hole in the wall. I didn’t have any experience flying, but I could use my wings instinctively and going in a straight line wasn’t tremendously difficult. Faintly I could hear Mordred exclaim: “Cassy, don’t, you can’t…” but the wind blew away the rest of his sentence. I didn’t care much either way. I hadn’t cared for Mephisto’s warning and I didn’t care for my brother’s. Not to say that I thought they were wrong, it simply didn’t matter to me.

Silently I soared through the night. When I was no more than a couple of meters away from the passage and slightly above it, I stretched my wings behind me and slammed through the hole, feet first. I came in way too fast and only got a slurry impression of my surroundings before I crashed with bone shattering force into something squishy and movable. And move it did.

I had entered Ahri’s room at a break neck pace. I got a quick glimpse of her in a white nighty, her rapier dancing in her hand. I couldn’t see what she was fighting but I had a rather shadowy idea. Her room was a mess, torn apart by a swift but obviously violent struggle, the nightstand was in shambles and the blast that had blown through the wall had incinerated everything in a straight line, originating in the centre of the room. There Greta was laying on her back, deathly pale and unmoving, her eyes bleary and unfocused. A shadow with three tail-stumps and a blown away arm was crouching above her, ready to tuck into his meal. Until my full weight slammed into him and my inertia catapulted us both into the wall. Lucky for me, it didn’t have time to react and cushioned my impact. I didn’t break all the bones in my body but it felt like it. My knees crumbled under the force and my torso smashed into the shadow while my head collided with the wall. A ringing noise filled my ears and my eyes swam out of focus for a second while I slid down.

Before I could get my bearings, the smell of sulphur and ozone assaulted my nose. When my Vision had cleared, I saw the last dark sparks of the shadow turn into nothingness. My wings had trailed behind me like banners and sprawled all over us when we had crashed. The surprised shadow had become entangled and its already damaged form had instantly disintegrated, well better lucky than skilled I’d say. I shook my head and used my tails for balance to scramble to my feet. My wings soared back into the air and slithered through the room, reaching for Ahri’s opponent.

My grand entrance had made Ahri flinch and misstep, her guard wide open while she scrambled for balance. As a saving grace her assailant had been closer to the centre of the room and had been caught in my mad manoeuvre. He had had to jump to the side but still a silvery blue torrent of energy had raked across its right arm and torso and even severed one of its dark tails which had turned into motes of shadow immediately. Before I could reach for it with my shaken mind, its form dispersed. I thought it unlikely that it would return before it had the chance to replenish its energies from another victim. The adrenaline rush subsided and I slumped back down, my whole body shaking, my energy spent. But there was no rest for the wicked.

With a cry of: “Cassy!” Ahri rushed over, dropped to her knees and pulled me into a tight embrace. My already bruised ribs protested loudly enough that I half expected her to ask where the noise was coming from. But I smiled never the less, the faint smell of pine trees and sweat that rose from her calmed my nerves. I patted her head awkwardly and croak: “I’m fine. Could you check on Greta? I don’t know if I can move just yet…” From where I was, Greta’s colour was even worse and I could barely see her chest move.

“Don’t worry, she used too much of her soul energy and is suffering from backlash. She’ll be fine soon enough.” A little quieter she added: “she saved my life.” Despite her words she got back up and scooted over to Greta, checking her pulse and lifting up an eyelid to peek underneath. With a groan she lifted her up in a princess carry and gently lowered her onto the bed. “There, that’s better. She really is alright. Satisfied?” I nodded and struggled back to my feet. I felt a little dizzy but all in all much better than I had expected. I was mainly concerned with the rest of my family, my imagination running wild and I was anxious to look for them.

“Are you hurt? Can you still fight?” I asked with barely a tremor in my voice. “I can, but I can’t hurt these flea-ridden things. My blades just pass through them. I guess they aren’t corporal and can only be hurt with higher energies” She was right. “What about you? You look like death. What happened to you?”

“Same as you. I met a bunch of rather deadly and pissed off shadows. Have you seen anyone else?”

“No, I woke up barely 5 minutes ago when Greta screamed. I didn’t see a thing at first until she conjured some kind of strange light that drove them into the open. She kept them occupied while I scrambled for a weapon. The amount of spells she used was insane. When she finally collapsed, I thought it was over until you came flying through the wall. Thank you by the way. For saving my life, twice now.” She hugged me again and I was relatively sure I felt her suppress a sob as she clung to me. Or maybe it was mine.

“Always,” I whispered into her neck, “I have no idea what I’d…”

Before I could finish my sentence, a resonating drum beat made Boseiju tremble and from far away deep, gravelly voices joined together in a war chant that made me almost feel sorry for the shadows:

Hammer, axe, drum and chain

We will see the magics slain

Crossbow, powder, plate and song

We will hunt what’s dark and wrong

Fight the dragon, kill the witch

Throw them in the darkest ditch

End their lives, kill them all

Dwarfs unite, make’ em fall!