The Lord of the Slaads-The Heart of Chaos

Chapter XI-The Source of all Evil

     A few hours later after Scar, Rickalas and Lord Alastair had teleported to Plutopua, the rest of the Guardians had already woken up, all except for Johnkal who's still sleeping inside the medical building. He opened his eyes, sat up, his head hurting and he has no idea where he is. He looked around and noticed a load of beds which were empty, he's alone in the room, he looked around some more and noticed medical equipment, which made him realise he's in an infirmary.
     He stood up out of the bed and knocked something of the stand which stood by his bed side and as he did that the medic came rushing in from the other room, he's a chirpy fellow, he's old and has a great bushy beard, he couldn't see all that well so he wore a pair of glasses to compensate, he wore black pants, he has a white shirt on with a brown woolly jumper over the top. "Slow down sir," advised the medic, as he slowly sat Johnkal back down, "you have had a very traumatic experience," as he checked Johnkal's heartbeat, with what looks to be a horn.
     He put the thin end to his ear than the large circular end to Johnkal's heart, "let me check you over than you are free to go," he promised, Johnkal agreed with him and the medic replied with a smile, "I am fine medic," Johnkal said, the medic asked him to open his mouth and then put some kind of thermometer in. "Where is my team, medic," he asked as the medic pulled the thermometer out of his mouth, "I will be the judge of that," the medic laughed as he began shining a light in Johnkal's eyes.
     They obviously don't have electricity so they have to make do with a flame at the end of a small stick, "they are fine, they are at the mansion, you can go to them when I release you," he promised while clucking his tongue and then smiling at Johnkal, "it looks as though you have sustained a concussion, not to worry, you will be fine in no time, just take it easy, you are free to go," said the medic as he licked his lips and pulled something from inside his jumper, "lollipop," smiled the medic, "I have work to do medic," he laughed.
     The medic started frowning at him and  began tutting, "sorry medic, but I do not have the luxury to take it easy," after Johnkal had finished speaking, he got out of the bed and went to leave the building, he managed to find the front door and as he got outside he noticed it's still morning time by the position of the suns, as he looked around he didn't know where he was, he's far west of the front gate. "Where do I go from here," confused Johnkal, he's just stood there scratching his head looking in all directions, "I will just after ask someone," and then he set of walking hoping to bump into someone to point him in the right direction.

     Inside the throne room the Guardians and Isaurus were discussing how to deal with the Kananarku, whilst waiting for Johnkal to arrive although they have no idea he had woken up yet, they were all stood in the centre as Isaurus wouldn't sit upon the throne, he believed it to be disrespectful to the lord of Faryal, even though Lord Alastair wouldn't be bothered, as it is just a chair to him after all. "Isaurus, when did the nothing, first appear," asked Damo, as he looked from the ground than into Isaurus's eyes, "I think, about five or six days ago," he answered.
     He turned his back to them all, looking upon the throne Isaurus continued to speak, "we lost many people that day," a tear swept down Isaurus's eye, the reason why he turned his back to them all. "We are sorry to hear that, know that we will do anything in our power to save your home," said Kelsia, trying everything to comfort him, "we have already learned that the source of the nothing, is coming from the forest, do you know an exact location, as the forest is vast," she asked.
     They are hoping for an exact location so they didn't have to search the whole forest as it would take weeks, "yes, actually..." Isaurus was interrupted by the sound of the doors to the throne room opening, it's Johnkal and he had finally found his way to the mansion. "Sorry, I got lost, this city is vast," he explained, he walked over to join them in conversation and began to speak, "did I miss much, what happened I thought we was dead for sure," Isaurus started smiling, knowing he will have to tell the story again of how he saved them and it made him feel good every time and so he proceeded to explain to him what happened with the Kananarku.
     After Isaurus had told Johnkal what had happened Spiros asked Isaurus to continue telling them where the source of the nothing, is, "yes, during the first encounter, a group of people were gathering herbs in the outskirts of the forest, when they happened upon a cave," he explained, they all continued to quietly listen to what he was saying, "they looked inside and they heard noises coming from within, so they all went in curious to know what the sounds were," Isaurus began pacing up and down as he continued to tell the tale, the others became very tense as they listened to his words.
     He continued to explain that one stayed outside and that she was obviously the smart one, "it was midday and as you know the nothing, fears the light, but the sunlight can kill them," he explained, after they went inside all the woman could hear was the screams of her friends. A few of the Guardians gulped, they knew they had to go to this place, fear got to them but they continued to listen on so they didn't miss anything of importance, "as they were massacred one by one, she panicked and ran back here as quickly as possible, I believe this is the place you are looking for," Isaurus finished.
     They all agreed that this is the place they need to go, or at least check it out because there maybe valuable information there, "so it is settled than, we leave now," commanded Johnkal, "it is best we do this under cover of day, we do not want a repeat of last nights events," the all definitely agreed on that, it was one of the most horrific and traumatic experiences of their life's and they hoped never to experience it again, which they most probably will. "I will join you on this hunt," said Isaurus, "you could use my skills," they all wouldn't have it any other way.
     They all agreed that he could be a valuable asset in this suicide mission, "we are glad to have you, Isaurus," Johnkal nodded, with that said they all walked out of the throne room, out of the mansion and followed the path. They went pass the cross flame dragons down the steps until they reached the front gates and they took their horses from the stables. They then walked down to the gates climbed onto their horses and began riding west towards the forest.
     At full speed it didn't take them long to reach the forest edge, were they realised the trees were too narrow to ride through so they decided to go on foot. The forest is misty and hardly any sunlight pierced through the thick brush of the trees, they were all on high alert not only from the nothing, but the dreaded chimaera is also known to make its home in this forest, the animal itself is a monstrous fire breathing hybrid.
     Which is composed of the parts of more than one animal, being the head and body of a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back and a tail that ends with the head of a snake. Nothing but a legend to the people of Terra, on Azurdenea the mythical creature is the real deal, you will find a lot of myths and legends from planet Earth originated on other planets. The chimaera is nothing but the results of experiments that took place in the forgotten histories. "How far is this place," asked Niklaus as they continued battling their way through the thick vegetation.
     Isaurus quickly replied, "not far," as they continued their descent they heard a noise coming from the trees on their right, it was the rustling of leaves and Lucyia thought she could make out what sounded like a growl. "Chimaera," screamed Spiros as the chimaera plunged over his head and landed on the left hand side of them, they all turned to face it and quickly drew their weapons. The chimaera is just pacing up and down, the lion growling whilst the snake staring at them with its deep red eyes and at the same time it was hissing at them. It's waiting, waiting for them to make the first move.
     Rosarlea fired an arrow which hit the goat in the side of the jaw but it just bounced off and just agitated the chimaera, which forced it to vanish. "Where as it gone," asked Isaurus, as they all were looking around trying to see were the monster is going to strike from next. "The chimaera as the ability to hide in the Veil," answered Trogen, everyone still had eyes everywhere, "brace yourself, it can attack at any time, even in the Veil, take out the goat first, that is what takes it in and out of the Veil," they were all stood in a perfect circle, protecting each other's flanks.
     Rosarlea took an arrow out of her quiver and loaded her bow when Trogen spoke, "Rosarlea, your arrows will not work, the skin is strong you need to get it in the goats mouth, think you can handle it," she nodded and smiled at him, took a deep breath, flicked her head so her long bright red hair went behind her instead of in her face and began to focus. She closed her eyes so she could hear the environment more and then she heard it, rushing them from the south which she could almost see with her minds eye.
      She opened her eyes, pulled back the draw string and she let it go as she released her breath, the arrow flew through the air which had also acquired a spin to it, eventually the arrow vanished and a screech could be heard from the Veil. The chimaera reappeared not four feet from them, it gave the Guardians in front a nasty fright as it's still rushing them. Luckily, they have their weapons ready and Trogen smashed down his war hammer upon the monster's lion head, Spiros swung his long sword down in a back slash motion and Lucyia who is crouched on the floor used her short sword to slice from its left leg to its right leg, the chimaera turned to flee.
     The goat was dead as it was motionless and as the chimaera span round the snake readied itself to spit its venom at them to cover its retreat but Johnkal saw what it was about to do, rushed over, raised his sword, forced it back down in a straight downwards motion and cut the tail of the chimaera. The chimaera rushed of, they waited a few minutes but it never came back, so they put their weapons away and continued on to the cave while Isaurus led the way. "That shot was amazing by the way Rosarlea," smiled Niklaus, "you shot it right out of the Veil," everyone else agreed that it was amazing.
     They didn't even know how she managed to pull it of, "yeah, it was strange, it was as if I could see it, even though I could not," she tried to explain, but she couldn't because all her memories hadn't returned yet, so there maybe things about her that she doesn't even know. She said, "it is hard to explain," even the others hadn't got their memories back yet, only Rickalas, Lucyia, Scarr, Kelsia and Damo as had them returned, mostly. "Still, it was amazing," whispered Damo, "even inhuman," they were all still walking through the forest but as Isaurus cut through some brush he happened upon a clearing.
     He pointed over to the cave some ten feet away, "we are here," they all gathered in the clearing, there were bodies gathered all over the place and the smell was revolting and indescribable and as they looked over to the cave they noticed a few sharp poles pointed towards the sky with a few dead bodies skewered to them. "So, who is ready to take a trip into the mouth of hell," Spiros laughed, no one else found him amusing, even Kelsia' she just smacked him across the head. "Glad you find this funny," she frowned, Spiros wasn't happy, he sighed, smiled and grabbed her arms, "you know you are lucky to be my wife," he whispered.
     Kelsia smiled at him and gently kissed him on the lips, "it is a good job you love me than is it not," he smiled in return and held her tight as she looked into his eyes, "right let us get in there, you three," said Isaurus, he's talking about the three royal guards that accompanied them. "You wait outside cover our retreat," to be honest they was kind of relieved not to go into the cave. While they stood guard outside the rest of them entered the cave, it's dark inside, musty and smelt like death, before they went any further they all let up their torches and continued to descend into the cave.
     Wherever they looked there's cobwebs, body parts, blood all up and down the cave walls, it seemed quiet, too quiet, but they continued on. No one spoke as they didn't want to wake the dead but truthfully they were to scared to speak so they just kept descending, fear slowly took hold of them but still they kept going, until they turned around a bend and around that bend, they could see a light at the end of the tunnel. They followed the tunnel all the way to the end, they entered a large room, the light appeared to be coming from a singular place in the centre of the room, as they approached it they realised it is some sort of portal.
     There's another room on the other side of the portal and Damo tried to pass through it, but it's as though he was trying to pass through a glass window. As they looked through it they noticed a chest, it is open and the light is coming from inside it, upon the front of the chest there appeared to be pictures, in the centre is a man facing towards them, holding up what appears to be a glowing heart chakra, he has his hood up, in front of him appeared to be a man with his back to them, he is on his knees before the other man with his heart chakra ripped from his spiritual body and to the left and right of them appeared to be drawings of the army of death in a line, facing towards the two men.
     Lucyia slowly gazed at the chest and whispered to the others, "I have heard of this before," they all turned to face her waiting for her to explain, she explained to them that Rickalas told her about it and she said he saw it the first time he entered the cave called Doom back in Earthrealm. "He was the one that opened it, although he said it was empty," Isaurus moved towards her as he is curious, they all are and then he proceeded to speak, "so you know where this is, obviously physical matter can not pass through the portal," he paused, he then began to say that if the box can be opened than it can be closed.
     They heard a noise coming from the ceiling so they all looked up, it's the nothing, but they are in a dormant state. They then looked back to the portal and another Kananarku shot out of the box, screaming in a tone that would surly wake the dead. "Get out," screamed Johnkal, as the nothing, shot through the portal, he whipped out his long sword and pierced it through its jaw, as he did it disappeared, but it was too late. It had already woken all the others up, "get out now," again Johnkal screamed as the nothing, started shooting towards them, they all turn tailed and ran as fast as they could whilst holding their torches behind them to keep the nothing, back.
     Eventually they jumped out the cave entrance, but the nothing, didn't follow as it's still light out, the three guards rushed over to help them up, they all stopped for but a moment to catch their breath. Isaurus asked the three guards to keep watching though, they did and as they all stood there they thanked the Elder gods for another lucky escape. They noticed the light in the area had become dimmed, so Trogen looked up to the suns as he knew it couldn't be dusk already and as he looked, he noticed something quite supernatural. "Run," Trogen screamed, as they all looked up at what he had been looking at.
     They all followed his lead and began running as Trogen repeated himself, "run for your lives," what he was looking at is a planet that's furthest away from both suns capable of blocking them both out and also far away from Azurdenea as not to interfere with her obit around Haven. The planet is larger than Azurdenea, it's a bright blue colour, a water planet more commonly known amongst Starseeds as Artuvia.
     Artuvia orbits around Jovenstar just as Azurdenea orbits around Haven, every so often when Artuvia passes Haven, Haven traps it around her in an orbit that takes one Azurdenean year for it to get enough momentum to slingshot back into orbit around Jovenstar, but every two thousand years Artuvia lines up perfectly with Azurdenea blocking out the suns for a whole year, like what is happening now. As the sun is almost blocked out the nothing, emptied the cave like a swarm of bees, screaming and screeching, the Guardians and Isaurus wasn't even out of the forest as the nothing, approached them.
     You could hear them all shouting things like run, quick and they are gaining on us, "Isaurus, some of that magic would be nice right about now," Johnkal shouted while they were all running and killing the nothing, at the same time, "yes of course," he laughed as he grabbed his staff which is resting on his back, "illuminatum," he screamed as a bright light lit up the entire forest, he tried his best to hold it there and he did. Although the more he maintains it the weaker he'll get, the light pushed the nothing, back all the way to the edge of the light, they could all see the nothing, swarming about, there were thousands of them.