Mortal Kombat (20 page)

Peeking in, Kung Lao first saw the kneeling wizard looking at a small, impish monster whose head was in his lap. Beyond them, the Order of Light priest saw Kano fighting with the woman who had been part of his band of cutthroats. The young woman was attacking with a ferocity that surprised Kung Lao, and apparently Kano as well: the criminal had been backed against a wall and was on the defensive as she battered him with high punch, uppercut, and jumping knee combinations that kept him completely off-balance. Kung Lao couldn't imagine what would have turned her against her leader, but Kano's desperation was evident in the absence of the glib talk that was characteristic of the man.

Kung Lao's gaze turned back to Shang Tsung as he stepped into the doorway.

Shang Tsung glanced over. "Now my day is complete," he said, his nose crinkling, tone bitter. "I expected you, Kung Lao, to come and profane this room with your sanctity. You stink of it."

"I only want the amulet, Shang Tsung," he said.

"Is that all?"

"You've been defeated," said the priest. "I have no desire to destroy you."

"No desire?" Shang Tsung snickered. "Rubbish. It's just buried beneath gooey layers of piety. Well, I won't surrender the amulet, Kung Lao. If you want it, you'll have to come and take it." Wicked life still flickered in his eyes. "Let's see if you're as charitable as you pretend to be."

"Don't go near him!" Sonya Blade yelled. "The door between the worlds is still open and that demon's still breathing! Shang's not out of it yet!"

The priest approached slowly. "What is wrong with the creature?"

"Despite Ms. Blade's optimistic proclamation," Shang Tsung said, "the demon is dying. That woman, that stupid American agent with her big American feet, breached the enchanted circle and broke the lifeline between Ruthay and the Outworld. I haven't the strength to restore it."

"I'm sorry," Kung Lao said.

"We're touched," Shang Tsung replied.

"I don't like to see any life end," said the priest, "even a life that has been devoted to evil. There is always a chance for redemption."

Shang Tsung snickered as he watched Kano try vainly to regain the offensive. But after Sonya Blade parried two of Kano's desperate high kicks, she moved in with a sweep that threw the criminal back against the wall. She followed it with an air-kick to the jaw that sent teeth and blood flying.

"If it pains you so much," Shang Tsung said, "why not help him? Use the amulet to reopen the lifeline."

Kung Lao stopped outside the circle. "All right," he said.

"
Don't!
" Sonya cried. She redoubled her efforts to defeat Kano, throwing a scissor-lock around his waist and bringing him down. While she drove the side of her hand repeatedly against his nose, she screamed, "If you reopen the portal, who knows
what'll
come out!"

"She's an alarmist," Shang Tsung said, his brows dipping. "Don't taunt me, priest. If you can help, do so quickly. Ruthay will not cling to life much longer."

"
No!
" Sonya yelled. She left Kano still conscious and raced toward the circle. "You don't know what you're doing! Shao Kahn needs just one more soul–"

"I am aware of Shao Kahn's needs," said the priest. He held up one hand toward Sonya, and held out another toward the wizard. "Give me the amulet and I'll send the demon back," Kung Lao said to Shang Tsung. "You have my word."

Sonya ran into the circle, breaking more of it and sending a tremor through Ruthay.

"
Masssssterrrr...
" The dying regent shuddered.

Kung Lao glared at Sonya. "Come no further," he said. "If you're on the side of good, you have nothing to fear."

"Bull!" she said. "My fiancé was on the side of good, and now he's on the inside of a brass box."

"Only his body," said Kung Lao, "not his soul." He looked back at Shang Tsung. "The amulet?"

The wizard bowed his head toward the priest, though his eyes never left him.

"Priest," said Sonya, drawing out her knives and approaching, "this is a really, truly idiotic thing to–"

A flying kick knocked her into the brazier, which rattled but didn't fall. Kano followed it with a crouch-kick to her chin.

"I really hate the sounda yer voice," he said through bloody lips.

When Sonya tried to rise, Kano tucked his arms and head into his chest and leapt at her, pulling in his legs for a savage cannonball blow. The two of them went flying across the room, where they grappled in the dark.

Kung Lao looked back down at the wizard, then reached for the strap. He removed the amulet from Shang Tsung's neck and put it around his own.

"I can only reach into the white Aura of the Order of Light," said Kung Lao. "The black Aura of Death and the red Aura of the Outworld are not known to me. What are the words you use?"

"Before I tell you, you must repair the circle," Shang Tsung said.

Walking to the breaks, Kung Lao bent beside them in turn. "It is done," he said.

Shang Tsung didn't even bother to suppress a smile as he said, "The words you must use are:"

To the land beyond, beyond, I wish to go,
From the dismal world of this and now.
To the timeless realm where chaos is order,
Where darkness is light and demons dwell.
Open your arms, Lord of the nether-reaches
To embrace your subject. Hear my prayer."

Accustomed to study and repetition, Kung Lao shut his eyes, bowed his head, folded his hands above the amulet, and made his silent recitation.

When he was finished, flames erupted from the brazier, rising high and crawling outward like the cap of a mushroom.

"The sea of fire, Ruthay!" Shang Tsung cried as the fire spread overhead. "The fool has done it! Kano, finish the woman off! Let hers be the soul that brings forth Shao Kahn!"

But as the wizard dropped Ruthay's head to the floor and climbed to his feet, the flames changed... and so did his expression.

In the courtyard, chaos flourished as a god and Outworld demons, ghosts, the shells of the dead, Salinas – mutant-ape foot soldiers – and mortals battled for control of the day.

While Liu Kang and Scorpion concentrated on Reptile and Goro, Rayden flung lightning at the countless retainers of the palace and temple, creatures who had no soul and had to be blasted to still-throbbing chunks of dead but moving flesh, or Salinas whose capacity for punishment was both awesome and brutal. The white-and-black-garbed creatures kept charging Rayden, despite the loss of limbs and large slabs of sinew, and the Thunder God would regularly teleport to a different spot in the courtyard or on the pagodas to resume his assault.

And then all the monsters of the Outworld, as well as Shang Tsung's dead servants from this world, stopped fighting. As one, they turned in the direction of the shrine.

"What's happening?" Liu Kang asked Scorpion as the seemingly unstoppable Goro and Reptile stopped fighting and looked toward the palace.

"I don't know," Scorpion said.

"Maybe someone's coming–" Liu Kang suggested.

"–or going. Do you feel that?"

Liu Kang stood still for a moment. "You mean, like a
pulling
sensation?"

"Yes," said Scorpion.

A moment later, the smallest of the Salinas began sliding toward the palace, as though the courtyard had tilted and they were being spilled in that direction. They yowled as they clutched their long desperately at trees and at their larger neighbors, their long toenails clawing frantically at the ground. Something was definitely pulling them... and, a few moments later, their larger companions began scudding toward the palace as well.

Even Reptile and Goro felt the tug.

"Something has happened to the portal," Goro said as a Salina skidded past him. The poor creature picked up speed and slammed into the wall of the palace, followed by other creatures who landed on top of him or crashed through windows and were swallowed by the darkness inside. Soon the wall itself gave way, and the Outworlders piled upon it sailed inward.

Goro turned so he was facing the palace and then leaned back, pushed his elephantine heels into the tiles of the courtyard. Despite his weight leaning in the opposite direction, and the strength in his heels, he, too, was drawn toward the strange force that affected all but Liu Kang, Scorpion, and Rayden.

As Reptile was pulled off his feet and dragged toward the gaping hole in the palace wall, Liu Kang shielded his eyes from the sun and looked for Rayden.

"Thunder God!" he shouted when he saw the deity standing by the gate, creatures flying away from him. "What is happening?"

The Thunder God's eyes were changing from white to gold. "
Something has turned Shang Tsung's magic against him,
" he said. "
The portal is closing, and taking its evil spawn with it.
"

"What could have caused that?" Liu Kang asked just as one of Goro's massive hands latched on to his leg, flipped him on his face, and began dragging him faster and faster toward the break in the wall.

As soon as the flames in the brazier had reached the ceiling, with its decorations of demented constellations seen in the skies over the Outworld, the column poured back in on itself with a deafening rush, snuffing the fire. The embers in the air around the brazier imploded as the air itself poured inward, as though drawn into the mouth of a huge funnel. Soon the entire circle was alive with tumult as the air spun round and round.

Kung Lao stepped from the circle and stood by the doorway. Kano and Sonya Blade stopped fighting and Shang Tsung also left the circle, all four watching as Ruthay wiggled, began inching across the floor on his back, and finally was sucked into the vortex so quickly that he left a brown-and-white trail in the air behind him.

Shang Tsung asked the priest, "What have you done?" The wizard listened to the shrieks from the courtyard and the sickening thud of bodies slamming against the wall. Then he noticed that Kung Lao hadn't repaired the breaks in the circle, and even as he watched, particles of powder were already rising high and then spinning downward in a glittering whirlpool.

"What have you
done
?" Shang Tsung screamed.

"No less than I promised," Kung Lao said. "I sent Ruthay back to the Outworld, where he will revive."

"What
else
!" the sorcerer demanded.

"Since I was already opening the doorway, I decided to send the rest of your servants back as well."

"But you lied!" Shang Tsung growled. "A priest of the Order of Light went back on his word!"

"I did no such thing."

"You said you didn't know the words to enter the red aura!"

"And I didn't," said Kung Lao. "But I am well versed in Shaolin mysticism, Shang Tsung. I knew that you are a being of deceit and trickery, and that the prayer you gave me would enable you to send a soul to Shao Kahn and open the doorway to our world."

There were several heavy splats against the outside wall of the shrine. The wall began to bulge inward.

"I simply spoke the prayer backward," Kung Lao said, "which is the common way to reverse an occult process. By keeping the circle unclosed, I have enable
all
of your guests to return home."

"No... not
all
!" Shang Tsung said desperately as he looked toward the wall, which was beginning to crack now. "Goro! Reptile!"

As he watched, small pieces of the wall fell off, then hunks, and then blocks flew in all directions as a sea of Salinas tumbled in, along with the animated flesh of the dead that was about to be rejoined with its multitude of souls and free them to journey to the black realm of death rather than damnation.

"
Shang Tsung!
"

The roar was heard even over the din of the vortex, as Goro's huge shape came into view, his shoulder plowing through intervening walls, overturning chairs and tables, pulling down columns as he sought to stop his forward flight. Behind him came the struggling Liu Kang, who was still in his grasp, and Reptile.

"Shang Tsung – help us!"

The wizard brightened when he saw the captive member of the White Lotus Society.

"Goro, I'm here!" the wizard cried. "Hold on to Liu Kang! If you take him through, Shao Kahn will have his soul and return with all of you!"

As the giant was drawn into the shrine, Rayden and Scorpion both materialized in the room, facing Goro, their loins girded.

"No!" Shang Tsung cried. "You won't stop him!"

With the last of his strength, the wizard stepped back into the screaming whirlwind. His long, white hair and rich robe were whipped round him as he stood there.

"Lord Kahn! Take the last of my soul to send these two elsewhere! Let my failure be your triumph! Send the red lightning to–"

Suddenly Goro and Reptile stopped moving.

Shang Tsung's hair and robe settled around him in peaceful disarray.

The winds stopped and the dust of the circle settled to the floor like fine snow.

And Kung Lao took his fingers off the amulet, which glowed with cool fire.

"Shang Tsung," said the priest, "there will be no more souls sent to Shao Kahn... not even yours. The door to the Outworld is closed."

There was a moment of thick silence. It was broken when Kano stood.

"In that case, I'm outta here," he said, vaulting through what used to be a wall and disappearing into the sunlight.

Despite her painful wounds and bloodied jaw, Sonya Blade got to her feet and ran after him.

Rayden and Scorpion faced the dazed Goro and Reptile, while Liu Kang managed to free himself from the loosened grip of the Outworlder and join his comrades.

"It's over, wizard," Kung Lao said to Shang Tsung.

Shang Tsung managed to put a little smirk on his long, shriveled face. "For now."

"No!" said Kung Lao. "You have killed–"

"This is my island," said the wizard. "My laws. I've broken none."

"There are other laws," said Liu Kang. "Laws of honor and decency."