2025-03-02 20:15:47Chapter 10: The Call of Darkness
Kael's scarlet eyes remained fixed on that derelict shrine, battered flesh and stones throbbing with a vague darkness that echoed the seepage running under his veins. A sigil branded into his chest smoldered with burning but tacit demanding to him step nearer; take the hidden power that waited beyond.
There was Malek standing nearby. His eyes had swept over him with caution. "I've seen many fools come to places like this," he muttered and tightened his hold on his staff. "None of them ever went away whole."
Kael smirked, never removing his eyes from the shrine. "Fair enough then, I am not like most men."
Malek sighed. “You’re worse.”
Ignoring the old man’s warning, Kael took a step forward, his boots crunching against the dead earth beneath him. The air around the shrine was thick—almost suffocating—charged with an unnatural energy that made his skin crawl.
He pressed his palm back against the cold stone. This time, a rush of dark energy coursed through his veins even more strongly as if the shrine itself had somehow come to recognize him. He saw images: glimpses of forgotten ruins, whispers indicating ancient power, and something else... something far deeper and darker.
He could hear it now... A voice.
“Kael Ardentis... We remember you.”
And Kael's breath caught. The voice was low, guttural-murmurings that echoed in his mind as might a dying wind rustle through dead leaves. For this was not simply the Abyss speaking to him-it was something older, waiting for him.
"What do you want?" Kael whispered, fingers curling against stone.
Seductive and insidious, the voice coiled around him. "To see you rise...or to see you fall. The choice is yours."
Kael tightened his grip. "I don't fall."
A cold chuckle sounded into the air, and then the darkness of the shrine surged forward. It struck Kael like a wave, flooding his senses, dragging him into a chasm of swirling shadows. He staggered but didn’t fall, his will an iron wall against the invading force.
Suddenly, he was no longer in the forest.
He stood in a vast, empty hall bathed in flickering crimson light. The marble floors had cracks, with veins of pulsing darkness going through them, and towering pillars that filled the overhead space, providing an impression of being skeletal remains. At the far end of the hall, sat throne covered in shadow, waiting for eyes to notice it.
Kael walked forward slowly, with every sound of footfall booming against the silence within that shadowy hall. This was not the first time he had been here. He had dreamed of this place. The Throne of Shadows, a relic from the Abyss said to grant dominion to those who could lay claim to it.
But he wasn't alone.
Figures emerged from the darkness, their faces obscured by tattered hoods and hollow eyes that burned with the same crimson glow as his own. They whispered his name in voices replete with reverence and fear and a peculiar eagerness.
"The Overlord returns..."
Kael's pulse quickened. The whispers surrounded him, shoving him forward to the throne. The power-emitting throne called him, and he felt that this was what he wanted. This was his birthright.
But something wasn't right.
A figure emerged from the shadows and stepped out into the dim light. Kael's breath was caught in his throat.
It was... himself.
The doppelgänger was yet tall, in a similar form of dark armor as Kael had worn as ruler of his empire. Both faces appeared sharp and calculating but the eyes...burned with a deeper, much more evil light.
"You think you could claim back that which had already been lost?" the shadow-Kael sneered to him. "You're weaker now- in pieces, a pitiful king crawling through the dirt for broken silt."
Kael clenched his fists. "I am not broken."
Then the doppelgänger prowled hungrily around him. "Aren't you?" he muttered. "Lost everything, throne, army, pride. Now, you think you can get them back? With what? Empty promises and a curse that you hardly understand?"
Kael clenched his jaw tighter. "It will be taken back."
The shadow-Kael halted just in front of him, leaning towards him. "Then prove it."
The throne behind them flared with power, the air thickening with tension. Kael could feel the challenge in the air. This wasn’t just a vision—it was a test. If he wanted to claim his destiny, he would have to face himself.
Without hesitation, Kael lunged.
Back in the real world, Malek watched in grim silence as Kael stood motionless before the shrine, his body trembling. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and the sigil on his chest flared like a dying star.
"This stupid idiot," Malek mumbled, keeping quite a distance from the drama. He knew that it would be completely wrong to interfere. Whatever battle Kael was waging now, it wouldn't be a battle of installments.
The coldness turned very cold and the trees got little closer, almost drawn to the pulsing darkness in the shrine. Malek tightened his grip on his staff and muttered some soft easily-heard incantation under his breath.
"Man, if he dies here he better not think I am dragging him back out," he grumbled.
Kael suddenly burst back open his eyes and staggered backward with gasping breaths. Dimmed and indeed fading pressure prevailed from the shrine, but Kael looked..., well, ...different. Stronger. More focused.
"You still breathing, or should I start searching for a new travel companion?" Malek arched an eyebrow.
Kael stood, slowly curling his lips into an all-too-familiar yet predatory smile. "I'm alive," he said, his voice rough but steady. "And I know what I need to do."
Malek looked on. "That's either very good news or very bad news."
Kael rolled his shoulders to feel the power coursing through him. 'The Abyss has tested me and made me face myself in the darkness. The throne is still a distance away, still far from me, yet I am closer now than I used to be to reclaiming what rightly belongs to me.'
"We should move," Kael said, facing away from the shrine. “Whatever’s coming... it’s bigger than this village.”
Malek sighed. “Of course it is.”
As they walked away, the shrine behind them remained quiet, but Kael could feel the weight of unseen eyes watching him. He had stepped into the abyss, stared into the darkness, and emerged.
But the whispers weren’t gone.
And deep inside, Kael knew the real battle had only just begun.
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