Rend Hope (26 page)

             
"I'll understand if you don't forgive me, I never expected it anyways from those who were lost.  All I can do is promise you I will kill the man responsible for destroying our home." Markus vowed.  The necromantic glyph had finished repairing the ghoul's giant eye.  Ghoul-Erik removed his left hand from that eye to stare intensely at the short blonde man.

             
"Forgive me if I'm skeptical Markus.  You don't look like you've changed much since the last time I saw you." The bloated ghoul replied, getting back to its feet.

             
"Maybe not on the outside." Markus responded, his eyes suddenly flashed yellow and suddenly a goldish-colored lightning bolt shot through the roof of the building and crashed right into the top of the bloated ghoul's skull.  Ghoul-Erik only had a moment to shriek in agony before the lightning bolt fried him.  Just as fast as the lightning bolt struck it was gone, leaving behind the undead creature's blackened corpse.  "But on the inside I have changed quite a bit old friend." He finished.  He had finally finished gathering the magic energy for this spell and had originally intended to use it on Ebrim.  However, ending Erik's suffering took priority in his mind.  Markus couldn't think of a better way to swiftly destroy his old friend's undead form and release his soul from the shackles of necromancy.

             
"I...see..." The charred corpse actually spoke.  "You...Really have...grown powerful...haven't you?"  Markus gave a sad smile in response.  "Perhaps killing Nobellus...is the great thing...I imagined you doing...I still can't forgive...but...I would be able to smile...in the afterlife...if Nobellus was dead..." The fried ghoul managed to choke out.  It's body slowly disintegrating into ash.

             
"Then I hope to bring you a smile from beyond the grave soon Erik." Markus replied softly.  Only the disfigured head of the ghoul remained, it contorted its lips into a passable smile.

             
"You’d better make good…on your promise Markus..." The ghoul requested.  "...You really...piss me off...but I suppose that even with all you’ve done…I still consider you family…." And with that the undead creature's head finally dissolved into ash.  Leaving Markus alone with his thoughts.

             
Encountering Erik again had been unsettling.  Markus had always felt guilt about the friends destroyed in the collateral damage during his battle with Nobellus.  To actually be confronted by someone who was killed by his hand was worse than he could ever imagine.

             
Still, the blonde aeromancer couldn't help but feel a twinge of hope.  Even as a twisted ghoul, Erik had informed him that killing Nobellus would bring him a partial sense of satisfaction.  It was something at least.  If he could destroy his former master, then he could finish his own life with no regrets and maybe at least give the fallen at Havenway their much deserved vengeance.

             
A sharp pain abruptly permeated through Markus.  Looking down, he noticed that the blade of a dagger was sticking through his stomach.  Blood was flowing freely from it, dripping down to the floor.

             
"Shouldn’t let your guard down." Ebrim whispered from behind the Aeromancer, the bastard had snuck up on him and stabbed him from behind.  "How unfortunate, it looks like you won't be keeping your promise to kill Nobellus after all."

             
And then the necromancer twisted the dagger.

Chapter 23

              "Cheap Bastard..." Markus said, a small trickle of blood flowing from his lips.  A sinister grin was plastered on Ebrim's face.

             
"You should never lose track of your enemy's location.  Didn't Nobellus teach you that?" Ebrim scolded, removing the knife from Markus' back.  The short blonde man collapsed to his knees.  Blood flowing from the holes in his back and stomach.  Ebrim moved so that he was in front of Markus and knelt down so that they were at eye level.  "I have to begrudgingly commend you.  You have taken out many of my creations and have made the strongest case for humanity yet.  You are indeed worthy to be Nobellus' apprentice."

             
"Former apprentice..." Markus corrected.

             
"Even so, the fact that you were trained by him speaks volumes in itself."  Ebrim held the knife in front of him, blood dripping from the blade.  "You will become my greatest creation yet Markus Logarr.  You will watch, helplessly, as I wipe humanity off the face of the earth."

             
"You will fail..." Markus replied, Ebrim grunted in response.

             
"Many have said that before you, they're dead now." The dark-haired man remarked.  "You will be no different."

             
There was nothing Markus could do as the knife plunged into his chest.

**********

              It was all gone.

             
As far as Rosalind and Mayor David Watkins could see, there wasn't even any rubble lying around.  Just a barren landscape.  The founders of Midas City could only look upon the destruction in disbelief.  City Hall and just about the entire Southwestern District had been completely obliterated.  Absorbed by Sahiron's powerful necromantic spell.

             
"Any sign of Sahiron?" David suddenly asked, he knelt down and gathered some of the dirt, sifting it through his fingers.  Rosalind focused on sensing any sign of Sahiron's necromancy, but she was picking up nothing.

             
"Not at the moment." The stoic woman replied, increasing her concentration.  "All I sense are some ghouls occupying the Southern District."

             
"Could he really be gone?" David mused.

             
"I don’t know, even though I can’t sense his necromancy, something tells me he’s not dead." Rosalind remarked, staring at the spot where City Hall once stood.  "Looks like you're going to need a new office."

             
"Don't remind me." David responded, suppressing a groan.  "All my records are gone."

             
"At least the basement should be safe, thanks to my protection glyphs.  It would be bad if we lost the stuff in there."

             
"That it would." David agreed.  "Looks like all we have to do is mop up the straggling ghouls and the city should be safe."  Rosalind lips curved downward in a frown as she gazed towards the southern district where Markus and Marie should be.  She couldn't shake the feeling of dread that suddenly overcame her.  Something was wrong over there.

             
"I don't know.  I got this bad feeling that it isn't over yet." The stoic woman told him.  "Head to my clinic for now and see if you can rally whatever deputies are there.  The entire southern part of the city might be done for, but we can at least prevent the ghouls from getting any further."

             
"Going to help the others?" David prodded.

             
"I'm going to help Marie." Rosalind answered.  "Markus better not need any help if he knows what's good for him."  With that, she conjured up her white wings and took flight, she did her best not to think of all the lives that Sahiron took with him in his suicidal tactic.  There was still work to be done.  However, she couldn’t help herself from using her clairvoyance to scan her immediate surroundings for the cannibalistic necromancer, one last time.  Logically, all signs said Sahiron was dead, but the twisting in Rosalind’s gut told her otherwise. 

**********

              It looked like a giant seed pod.  That was the only way Benjamin could describe it. 

             
Hanging in front of him from a ceiling about forty meters in the air was this giant seed pod.  Dark green leaves covered a glowing yellow pod and as the flame-haired youth watched the pod began to glow an even brighter shade of yellow.

             
"Stop!" Benjamin heard the cowboy shout from behind him, the pod reacted instantly and the teenage necromancer-apprentice felt it pulse with...magic energy? did this pod really have magic energy?  A moment later, thick dark-green vines sprouted forth behind him, preventing anyone else from coming in.  Benjamin was still trying to figure out just what the hell was going on.  In any case, his situation just suddenly took a turn for the better, no longer cornered, the flame-haired youth decided to continue on.  Even if he didn't find a way out, uncovering what the fuck these weird plant things were would still be better than being captured by that damn cowboy.

**********

              "Damn it!" Kendal cursed, stopping dead from his running pace when the dark-green vines burst forth from the ground, blocking the path that lead to the red-haired teenager.  He turned back to Janine and his team of deputies, "Everyone back up! I'm going to blast my way through!"

             
His deputies complied without question, running back a good twenty-five meters to give him some space.  Janine also backed up, but more slowly, taking her time to examine the vines.

             
"Kendal we need to get to that kid, he's an apprentice to the necromancer!  !" She called out to her boyfriend.  Kendal growled in response, a sudden thought caused him to halt from firing.

             
"I know that!  But these vines could be helping to hold this place up, blasting them might cause a cave-in!"  The sheriff of Midas City called back.  The two exchanged a glance.

             
"We won't get another chance like this." Janine replied, Kendal couldn't argue with that, if they let the red-haired youth escape, then they lost their best lead for finding the necromancer that was currently harassing the city.  The only other option would be to wait until he was ready to strike, and that would mean allowing more innocent lives to be lost.  The sheriff sighed, it was troublesome, but he did have a duty to protect the civilians and right now catching the stinking fiery-haired juvenile was the best way to do that.

             
"Fuck." Kendal spoke out loud to no one in particular and without another word fired at the wall of vines blocking the passageway.  As soon as the blast made contact the room that they were currently occupying began to violently shake.  Kendal turned back to his girlfriend with a look of conviction, "See?"

             
"It's worth the risk." She shot back, glaring stubbornly.  Pieces of the ceiling began to fall on the group, some as large as a land rover.  Janine was forced to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed by one such piece.  As the vice-sheriff went to get back to her feet, she noticed how sluggish she was, the previous battle she had had with the red-haired teenager was still taking its toll on her.

             
A strong hand suddenly gripped Janine by her right bicep and hastily pulled her to her feet.  It was Kendal, he was already firing at the falling pieces of rock with his revolver, shattering them into smaller less dangerous pieces so that the deputies could retreat more safely.

             
"Come on, the passageway is collapsing." Kendal stated, the two took off at a running pace towards where they came from.  Thankfully his team had marked the walls so they could make it back to their camp and hopefully not get buried alive.  Janine and him had barely gone twenty meters when they saw the deputies had stopped ahead of them.  One of them turned towards him his face full of alarm.

             
"Uh sir, we got a problem." He said to Kendal, who snarled.

             
"Another one!?  How many damn problems are we going to run into?"  The sheriff complained, shouldering his way through the deputies only to see the passageway blocked by dark green rock.  In frustration, Kendal slammed his right fist into the wall, causing cracks to spider from it.  "You've got to be kidding me!" He huffed, but his sharp eye noticed something, this wall was solid, it wasn't a pile of rocks lodged free from the violent shaking, it was a solid wall as if it was designed to fall like this.  Janine noticed it too

             
"Kendal, I don't think the cave is collapsing." She spoke up, everyone's attention turned to her, "I think it's moving."  The sheriff didn't like the sound of that.

             
"Moving?" He repeated, eyeing his girlfriend suspiciously, "Moving, how?"  Janine hesitated as she quickly tried to rearrange the theory in her mind.

             
"I think, that these caverns aren't natural, they must have been designed by someone long ago and they can rearrange themselves.  Sort of like shuffling cards in a deck."

             
"Great, just great, so chances are we'll get lost and stuck down here forever?" Kendal inquired, Janine nodded, her expression serious.

             
"It's a strong possibility." Janine answered.

************

              "You just stay in here, the deputies will keep you safe okay?" Marie said to the little six-year-old girl, who was still covered from head to toe in ghoul blood.  She looked at Marie with her big brown eyes and nodded slightly.  The poor girl was probably still traumatized from all the people the ghouls had killed, her parents were probably one of the victims.  The young magi-apprentice stood up and exited the sheriff's office, closing the door behind her as quietly as she could.  Marie was certain that Kendal wouldn't mind letting a frightened girl rest in his office.  He was lazy, but he wasn't cruel.  The teenage girl didn't even get five steps down the hallway before a deputy ran up to her.

             
"Lady Marie, what's the situation out there?" The deputy asked, he was rather young, probably only a few years older than her.

             
"Extremely hostile, the southern gate is a warzone.  Gather your forces and set up a barricade at the southern edge of the Barter District.  We can't afford to have those ghouls get any further into the city.  Bring any wounded you find here or to my master's clinic, whichever is closer." Marie ordered, the young deputy nodded enthusiastically

             
"As you wish." He said quickly and rushed down the hall to carry her orders.  The young magi-apprentice's brow furrowed as she planned her next move.  Should she go see if her master was okay?  Or should she head back to Markus and assist him?  It hardly seemed likely that either of them would need her help.  Markus looked like he had things under control when she saw him utterly destroy the entire flock of undead birds in one spell.  It was the last thing she saw before she whisked the little girl away to the relative safety of the sheriff's building.

             
Once she walked out the front door, Marie decided that she would check on Markus first since he was closer.  If he was alright then she'd go find her master and lend a hand.  She took off at a sprint towards the south gate area, mentally grumbling at the fact that she couldn't fly like her master or use the air to propel herself like Markus.  Nope, she had to get from point A to point B the old fashioned way.  Putting one foot in front of the other.

             
Markus wasn't where she had left him, but Marie expected as much.  She just followed the stirred up dust and wrecked buildings.  Her search brought her to the Midas City Library of all things where Lorekeeper Osric kept any books people found while scavenging the old world ruins.  The big hole in the side of the building was her first clue that Markus had been there.

             
As she stepped through the hole, the sight in front of her caused her blood to freeze.  Lying in a pool of blood was Markus, staring into the ceiling with vacant eyes.  Standing before him was Ebrim, a bloody six-inch and wickedly curved knife in his right hand.  Blood was dripping from the tip of the blade as he turned to regard her with a sinister smile.

             
"I'm afraid you are too late little lady, this man's life is already lost." He informed her.  Marie couldn't believe it, although the risk of dying was always there.  She just couldn't fathom that Markus would die.  The way she had seen him fight, the power he displayed, she didn't think he would lose to the bastard standing in front of her.  The young lady stared at the corpse of the man she had only known for days, half-expecting him to rise back to his feet and show everyone he was just doing a clever trick or spell.  It was not to be however, as Markus continued to lie in a pool of his own blood, lifeless.

             
Marie didn't realize she was bellowing a war cry and charging at Ebrim until she saw her right hand swinging her sword in a horizontal arc from her right to her left.  The dark-haired man merely leaned his tall form backward, the blade passing less than an inch in front of his eyes.  Marie continued to pressure Ebrim, following through with her first swing with a diagonal cut, aiming for his neck.  The smiling necromancer ducked under it, losing a few strands of hair from the proximity of the slash.