Blood of Decusia

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

"No," Sage muttered, stumbling back into me, "That's impossible."
"It would seem that way, wouldn't it?" he asked, "But here I stand, a centuries old man, on the brink of glory."
"I think what you meant to say was murder," I spat back, "Genocide."
"If  that's what you want to call it, that's on you."
My brother was still fixated on the true identity of the man that stood in front of us.
"How?" he asked, his voice was kind of shaky, "How are you here?"
The man laughed.
"It was a funny thing," he said, contemplative, "I was about to win. Even with those pathetic humans on their side, the Fauna were nearly to their knees. Then the Queen decided that the only way to save her pathetic people was to call upon magic she was too weak to handle."
He started walking, making his way to the throne. Sage and I backed away, keeping our distance as he slowly made his way and sat down on the throne. He examined his staff and his own power that sat on top.
"I decided to level the playing field by driving my sword through her beating heart."
Chills went down my spine at the harshness of his words. The smile dropped down his face as he remembered the next part.
"I was naive," he said, "Even with all of my wisdom and power, I didn't think about what would happen when you interrupt pure energy. The only consolation is that her filthy lover thought himself a hero and thought to shield her. Such idiots humans are. I mean look at you two, there may be some Fauna in you, but in your half-breed blood, it was the human that brought you here. The human that believes, even now, that you can beat me."
"That doesn't explain how you survived," I said.
I needed to keep him talking. Distract him until I can figure some way out of this.
"I did the only thing I could to level the playing field," he said, "The Queen called upon the forces of nature, of all things pure. I called upon the darkness, every evil thing. That's how I survived."
It didn't make any sense to me, but I could tell he was toying with us.
"You called us half-breeds," I said, hurriedly, "What does that mean?"
I could feel my brother getting antsy, just like the man was. I prayed that he would hold out a little longer, just until I could think straight, come up with a plan.
"Your mother was a Fauna, one that came from a long line of power. Your father, one of the strongest warriors."
"I thought you called them weak!" Sage snapped back.
"The strongest of the weak is still weak. But with you two, there's power coursing through your veins. The power of nature and that of the ordinary warrior, together a dangerous combination. A powerful combination."
He stood up, examining his staff again before turning back to us.
"Unfortunately for you, the only thing more powerful than two mixed bloods, is that of the Original Evil."
Before we could even react, an arc of black lightning exploded from his stone and collided with us, sending us flying back into the rocky wall. Pain exploded in my back as I made contact and crumpled to the floor. My vision was blurry, but I could hear Sage groaning beside me.
"That was only an ounce of the power at my fingertips."
His voice had grown harder. I stumbled to my feet, wincing at the quick forming of the bruise at my back.
"I can only imagine what it's going to be like when I rip that stone from your neck."
            I could see Sage, rising slowly, his knuckles whitening from his tight grip on the blade.
"So much potential," he clucked, "Wasted on two children, living in the shadow of their parents."
He sent another arc of lightning for me, but Sage shoved me out of the way. My head bounced off the ground and I saw stars. I heard a cry as another bolt came, hitting Sage and causing him to fly back against the wall again.
My vision cleared, just in time for me to see a thin line of smoke creeping toward me. I backed away, but I wasn't fast enough. It was like a snake, curling around my ankle. It suddenly took on a solid form, dragging me closer to him. I struggled, digging my fingers into the ground, trying to find any form of traction.
I was a few feet from him when the smoke released, but before I could even try to escape, the snake-like smoke shot to my neck and squeezed. I clawed, struggling to breath as I was lifted in the air. I kicked my feet, my toes scraping the ground.
"I wish I had been there," he cooed, "To watch your parents beg for mercy, to watch the light leave their eyes."
My vision was darkening, I could feel my whole body getting hot as I kicked and clawed at my neck.
"You look enough like your mother that I guess it's some kind of consolation."
The heat burned my body. The darkness turned into a blinding light, so bright, so hot. The tension on my neck released. The air rushed into my lungs and I coughed. I coughed so hard I thought my lungs were going to fly out.
My vision cleared and I was laying on the floor. My head pounding, I sat up, just in time to see another arc of black lightning heading toward my face. I brought up my hand and closed my eyes. There was a crash and an assortment of rocks falling and hitting the ground.
I opened my eyes, and around me there were the fallen, broken pieces of rock. I looked down at my hand and saw that it was glowing.  I suddenly saw out of the corner of my eye, more lightning, heading toward my brother, who was now on his feet. Instinctively, my brother held up the dagger.
The lightning reflected off the dagger and shot into the ceiling. I rolled out of the way from the rocks that came crashing down. This was different then before. The stone was no longer a fight or flight trigger, but something we could control. I got to my feet, just in time for another lightning bolt to come flying at me, which I quickly deflected it out to the side.
What followed was a series of lightning bolts flying toward Sage and I, with both of us narrowly avoiding them, deflecting them into the walls, ceilings, avoiding the falling debris. Venefcius wasn't even breaking a sweat, meanwhile I was panting, my entire body burning.
A bolt narrowly missed my neck, singeing a little bit of my hair. I rolled to the side as another came inches from my foot. This was never going to work. We were playing defense, not even good defense. We weren't going to beat him this way. We were going to tire ourselves out.
Sage and I glanced at each other. In that glance, an entire conversation, a plan was formed. It was like the stones were connected, we were connected. I took a step forward, in front of Sage, deflecting the brunt of the blows coming our way. I could feel him creeping behind me, dodging an occasional strike of lightning here or there.
I needed the attention away from Sage, on me. I held up my hand and a shield of light appeared in front of me.
"Still think I'm weak?" I asked, begging he took the bait.
His smile grew, as cold and as evil as ever.
"A parlor trick," he mocked, "Not a show of power."
I could see out of the corner of my eye Sage's back was pressed against the wall, out of Venefucsia's line of vision.
"Maybe I'll drive it right through your heart," I challenged, "If you had one."
"You don't have it in you," he mocked, "You're not a killer."
He shot another bolt at me, I deflected it with my shield, the light flickering. I moved to the side, further away from where my brother crept closer, closer.
"I should kill you," I snapped, "You took everything from me."
I walked closer to him, not faking the words that came out.
"My mother, my father, Una," the light burning brighter, "The Fauna, the Lupidium. They suffered and died because of you."
"And many more will," he smirked, "Because you can't kill me. You don't have the hate your brother does."
The mention of  Sage made my heart skip a beat. He was behind the throne. He brought the knife up, the hate gleaming in his eyes.
"Which is why he's the one trying to take the kill."
The next thing I knew, Sage was flying through the air, colliding with the wall behind me. He let out a cry as something no doubt broke from the sheer force he was thrown.
"Sage!" I screamed, turning to face him.
Before I could move, a bolt came at me. The edge of my shield deflected, but the force knocked me on my ass. I turned back to Venefucusia, the smile was gone.
"I'm done with talking, I'm done with the games," he walked toward, the stone glowing brighter than ever.
I knew at that moment, everything he had hit us with, the lightning, wasn't to kill. He was toying with us again, this was one big game to him. Let us think we stood any chance by deflecting something meant to stun. Now he was truly bored with us, he was ready to take on the world.
This time, it was a pure white lightning bolt that shot at me. It broke through my shield, connecting with my chest, setting my body on fire. I screamed. The pain was more intense than anything I had ever experienced. Whatever hit me, it was deep in my body, ripping it up slowly, cell by cell. My body was writhing, every fiber of my being screaming.
Death. I wanted death. Death meant a release from this, no more pain, no more suffering, no more fighting.
"Had enough?"
The voice sounded far away, or like I was underwater. I couldn't tell whether my eyes were open or not. I couldn't see, couldn't breathe. It was both everything and nothing.
And just like that, the fire vanished. The pain was still there, but it turned into a dull roar. My vision cleared. Venefucusia was holding the staff high in the air, a swirl of black and white energy, like the wave of a tsunami flowed around him.
"I'm going to enjoy this," he murmured, "Your family has been a thorn in my side for decades. I'll watch the life leave your body, then I'll kill your brother, your friends."
He laughed harshly.
"Then I'll turn to the world. It will fall in a wave of fire and everyone and everything shall burn. Maybe once I'm done, I'll move into the Other World. Nothing is stopping me."
I could see the death, that promise in his eyes as he brought that staff, that stone down towards me. I could see, feel the full power of raw energy of black and white come hurtling towards me. I knew at that moment, no amount of shielding was going to protect me.
Time seemed to slow down. Right before it hit, Sage jumped in front of me. His screams roared in my ears as he dropped in front of me, the dagger clanging to the ground beside him. He lay there, unmoving.