A Dark Descent

The Sword

Alex opened his eyes again and was on the road. In front of him was a glowing stone in the ground with a slit at the top of it. He touched it but it's glow never left. The slit was very thin and he had an idea. He put the sword through it and the glow climbed to handle and shot out into the air. It floated down and turned into a tall male cat. Older than all the others he had saved.

"Hello." The man said. His voice was warm.

"Hi there." Said Alex. "Here, I brought these for you." He held out the stones.

The souls flew out in front of him.

"Gerald?" Said the mother and a tear fell to the ground.

"Grace!" He said. And the two rejoiced in their love, finally being able to touch after 100 years of being apart.

"Dad!" The kids yelled and hugged their father.

"Thank you so much young one." Said the mother. "You are the only reason that we can finally be together." She said another tear.

"Well, it was hard, but I'm glad it's over."

"Wait, but what about big brother?" Said Abigail, pulling on her mothers leg.

"Yes you're right." She said.

"Oh my god are you kidding me?" He said tiredly.

"I'm so sorry but I promise this is the last one."

"Ok, I'll be ready."

"Would you like us to try to help find your enemy?" Said the father.

"No, it'll be fine." Alex smiled. "I always find my way." And the mother smiled.

"When you are ready to come back, put your sword into the rock, to stop all evil." Said the mother.

Alex smiled and they flew into the moon.

The world around Alex had grown back to life and everything was nearly back to normal, he just had to bring everyone back. He heard lightning strike from behind him. The bolt moved frantically but stayed in one place, pointing to one thing.

Alex knew what to do.

He picked up the stones and walked up the path from the market and into the forest. Everything was normal as before. The pantheon had disappeared and there was no path for Alex to follow. He couldn't hear anything but himself. There was no life at all except him.

No animals. No monsters. Nothing. Just Alex, entirely alone for the first time. He looked into the sky but saw nothing forming from the clouds and the moon seemed to stop following him and it just towered over the town.

He made it to the lightning and it stopped flashing once he appeared. Left in its wake was a small note. He opened it and felt complete and utter dread upon him as he suddenly realized what he had done. Inside was an evil face drawn in red, smirking and winking, silently letting him know that he fell right into its trap. The ground shook and the forest beyond began to deform into the basic concept of trees, the sloppy lines piled on top of each other and then morphed into anything but a tree until it disappeared leaving only a white void behind it.

He ran down the forest and saw that the destruction was circling one thing.

The stone.

And he knew what he truly had to do.

He ran as quickly as possible and made it to the market. Everything around him had become nothing and quickly destroyed the homes and nearly consumed Alex when he had stabbed the sword inside the rock.

He felt hot air shoot out of the rock and waves of light that pushed back the wall of destruction until everything was white and nothing could be heard nor seen.