“No, this isn’t real,” I said.
“The two elves are already protected by your spell and the man has his enchanted chainmail,” Renak said. “As for your princess, you underestimate how much she cares for you, and she has the blood of Alexander in her veins.”
“What does that mean?”
Renak stared at the creature and the battle while anger rippled through his face for the briefest of moments. “Stories have basis in truth, Hellsfire, but over time that truth becomes distorted. Yes, Alexander may have sided with Shala in the fight against me and a dragon carried him, but he wasn’t the ordinary man the stories have painted him. He was a magical...anomaly. He was able to do things with magic, despite lacking his own power. I was never able to find out more—or maybe I did, after this ritual.” His eyes settled on me for a long moment before looking back at the battle. “Should you really be focusing on things long ago, or more current concerns?
“Time flows different in here, Hellsfire. Not much has passed for you, but plenty has passed in the outside world. The elves took care of that wizard who’s squatting in my tower, but they had no chance to escape Masep without you. This princess of yours got tired of waiting.” Renak put a thoughtful finger underneath his chin. “I do wonder how many people died in order for her to enter the tower?”
I couldn’t trust Renak. I couldn’t trust for this to be real. He was responsible for the war, the Wastelands, the Great Barrier and the spreading blight. But what if he was right? I stared past him to see my friends fighting.
Krystal led the fray, not wanting to back down. For a moment, our eyes met and my heart knew it to be her. I had gotten lost in those enchanting eyes many times. Magical or not, there was no way the nexus could imitate her eyes. I left the copycat and rushed to help Krystal and my friends.
I ran as fast as my long legs could carry me. I reached the battle just as the creature puffed out a long stream of flames. I raised my hand, halting the fire.
Krystal blew a piece of loose hair out of her face and gave me a small smile. I knew that smile. It
was
her. “Thank the gods I found you in time.” She raised her sword and parried one of the monster’s arms, cutting it. It bellowed in pain.
I guarded her flank while Ardimus defended her other side. Behast was in front and Prastian was behind us, shooting his arrows at the monster. A few had pierced its thick hide.
I summoned my magic, unleashing a torrent of fire and flame. The creature held its arms together, blocking its face. A dull sheen of magic glowed around it. When I stopped the fire, it smiled. It was unharmed.
I gathered in more mana, readying myself to strike with a harder spell, when the creature turned its head towards me. Its yellow eyes flashed and it spoke in a strange, foreign tongue. Its spell breached my defenses and I cried out in pain. I toppled to the ground, a surge of agony coursing throughout my body. It bound me into place and I couldn’t move.
“Hellsfire!” Krystal said.
The monster grinned and renewed its attack.
“Princess,” Ardimus said, “Guard Hellsfire. We’ll keep the creature occupied.”
Ardimus and Behast held off the creature with their swords while Prastian tried to find a weak spot with his bow.
Krystal knelt down and leaned over me. “Hellsfire, what can I do?”
I couldn’t answer. I accessed my magic, trying to cast it, but my body stiffened. I sought to cry out against the pressure on my spine. Yellow sparks of magic sizzled around my body. I latched onto my fire, pushing past the pain, using it to combat the monster’s magic. I motioned with my eyes to the princess.
She nodded. “I understand.” She laid her hand gently on my heart. “I didn’t come all this way to lose you, hero.”
My fingers twitched. My magic had begun to overwhelm the creature’s, but I needed more time.
“I’ll buy you time,” she said.
I wanted to tell her not to, that the others would take care of it, but I couldn’t. I screamed in pain as my muscles fought against each other. I was useless. As I struggled to recover, I could only watch in horror as my friends battled Renak’s beast.
The creature distracted Behast, fighting him with its multiple arms and keeping him off guard. Behast struck the creature and dark red blood oozed from it, but it didn’t matter. Within another fist was a huge fireball. The creature let it go, the magic consuming and burning the elf.
Prastian’s quiver was empty and he drew his sword. He charged the monster in a blind frenzy. He dodged the beast’s spells and claws. Running up the creature’s massive arm, he leapt about to strike its eyes, but it opened its mouth and spewed a massive fireball, incinerating Prastian.
I cried out, reaching toward them. My arms moved, but I couldn’t yet rise. I fueled my spell with more magic. In response, the creature’s own spell renewed its furious attack, electrifying my body with a powerful and painful glow. I struggled to sit up, wanting to stand. They needed my help and I wasn’t going to let them down.
Ardimus had enchanted chain mail, protecting him against magical attacks. The beast’s magic bounced off of him. Ardimus sliced through one of its fireballs, shattering the spell.
The creature sacrificed one of its hands, plucking away Ardimus’s enchanted scimitar. Ardimus drew a dagger and swiped at it, but the tiny weapon wasn’t enough. I could only stare in horror as it grabbed hold of Ardimus by a leg and an arm. The creature heaved on his limbs and the hardened warrior shrieked in agony as his body snapped in two.
Krystal screamed as she saw her protector fall to the ground. My power crackled at my fingertips. I staggered up, letting my rage burn away the creature’s magic. The flame encompassed me until I burned like the sun. I stumbled forward and yelled out Krystal’s name, warning her to stay away. I would deal with this creature myself.
Krystal dropped her sword and retrieved Ardimus’s scimitar. She used the heavy sword as best she could, deflecting the beast’s lunges at her and cutting it. It roared in pain, unable to heal its wounds. Krystal chopped off one of its hands and in return, it sliced off her hand.
She screamed and dropped Ardimus’s sword, but didn’t slow down or show fear as blood gushed from her wound. With her only remaining hand, she drew her dagger. The creature grinned in anticipation and swiped at Krystal. Its razor claws sliced into her, leaving huge gashes in her side. She spun and fell, her clothes overflowing with her own blood.
“No!” I yelled.
I limped along as fast as I could, dragging my numb right leg and arm. I stopped trying to fight the spell, instead using all of my power against the monster. My body stiffened and started to slow down as the thing’s magic renewed itself.
Before it could bring down the killing blow, I conjured as much wind as I could and blew it at the monster. The wind sliced off its claws and it stumbled backwards. I used my momentum and more air magic to force it to the ground before I barreled into it.
My body froze again, but not before I unleashed all of my magic into the creature’s gaping mouth. I poured the raging fire into it until its red body could take no more. Its spell on me collapsed. I rolled off it and felt its body threatening to explode.
The fire ate the creature from the inside. It burned, and its huge body collapsed in on itself until there was nothing left to fuel the fire.
Krystal’s body twitched and I crawled over to her.
“Hellsfire,” Krystal said. I strained to hear her weak voice.
“Shhh, don’t move. I’ll try to heal you.”
I placed my hands on her blood-soaked clothes. The blood was so cold and sticky and she so pale. I turned my head aside so I wouldn’t focus on how badly hurt she was. I reached out to the white mana. It was elusive to me at the best of times, but I couldn’t get more than a flicker here. I didn’t have enough time to gather in all I needed and I was exhausted after warring with that creature.
“Damn it!” I said. “Come on!”
But all that came was the roaring fire. I stifled it, not wanting to hurt her. As powerful as it was, it was useless here. My fire couldn’t heal her. I took off my black wizard’s robe to staunch her wound. My robes soaked up far too much of her blood.
Krystal struggled to raise her remaining bloody hand to my cheek. I nuzzled into it, my face becoming smeared with cold blood. “Why didn’t you save me?” Her violet eyes, always so full of life, dimmed and her hand went limp. Tranquility passed across her face.
I cradled her dead body in my arms. She was right. I should have saved her. I should have saved them all. Despite having all this power at my fingertips, I was powerless.
I sat there for a long time with her body against mine. Her sweet smell was gone and her body was so stiff and icy. I pulled away from her, staring at my lifeless friends, their bodies forever motionless.
I thought about leaving the nexus. So many people had died on this quest of mine. It was all to fulfill my former master’s last request and retrieve a book. I now understood why Stradus had locked himself up in the White Mountain. It wasn’t only to wait for me. It was to hide from the pain of being responsible for people’s deaths, and all the burdens of being a wizard. What would life be like now, without her?
Could I do what Stradus had done and hide from everything? More importantly, should I? I brought nothing but death and destruction to those around me. I wasn’t Shala, who had mastered the white mana of life. My ability was with fire. It burned and destroyed.
I sat in the nexus for what seemed like hours. My arms were wrapped around Krystal and I stared at her lifeless body, dark thoughts playing through my head. I had no idea what to do and there was no one I could share my thoughts with as I had with Krystal.
Krystal’s open eyes stared through me. I gazed within them and even though I found no life, she seemed to be telling me I had a duty to finish. She would have finished it if our roles were reversed. That’s what I’d learned from her. I was going to finish this. I was going to find the
Book of Shazul
and heal the land, even if it wouldn’t shine as brightly without her.
I kissed her on the forehead. There were so many things I wanted to say. So many things I should have told her while she was alive. I opened my mouth to tell her now. I closed it, realizing it would do no good.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,” I said, staring at the ineffective necklace I had given her. I pulled it from her neck, wanting to bury it in Alexandria, since I couldn’t afford to take her body with me. I put the necklace on. “I’ll do my duty, princess. For you and the others.”
I gently laid her back on the ground and closed her eyes. I took my blood-soaked robes, rose, and walked away. I was going to defeat the nexus and Renak and be done with this place. If possible, I was going to give that wizard a second, more permanent death.
I paused and turned around, taking one last look at my fallen friends and my heart. I left them, journeying deeper into the Nexus of the Wastelands. It wasn’t long before he appeared.
“Renak,” I said in a whisper.
“Hellsfire.”
I barely lifted my head to stare at the reflection. Those brown eyes were devoid of all emotion. The man who had sacrificed his soul because of his lost love was gone. All that was left was this phantom.
“What do you want, Renak?”
He cocked his head as his intense eyes studied me. Finally, he spoke. “Given up?”
I took a deep breath and met his eyes. “No. They’re not going to die in vain. You’re going to tell me what I have to do to bring down your barrier and end your destructive spell. Too many people have died for this.”
“One more thing and you’re done,” he said.
“What is it?”
“You have to get by me.”
My body tensed and my hands tightened around my robes at the thought of fighting the legendary wizard, but then I remembered my friends. “Very well. You’ve killed Krystal and my friends. You deserve to pay for what you’ve done.”