The Darkest Souls

Three- How The Mighty Fall

Eli and the queen stood each other down once again, the tension of the moment stretching seconds into hours. Eli was in a defensive stance, which would've worked great if he'd been fighting a human. But he wasn't; he was fighting a larger-than-life, overgrown bug- a powerful, intelligent one at that. But the queen had gotten cocky. She'd believed the source of Eli's power to be the staff; with it gone he was now powerless... Gnashing her razor-sharp pincers, she charged forward with reckless abandon, ready to take her opponent out in one fell swoop.

Yet Eli remained still, calmed his breathing, and kept his body as relaxed as possible. He had a plan, but it wouldn't work unless he waited until the last possible moment. As the queen came crashing toward him, he readied himself: prepared his muscles to move faster than they ever had before. Triumph gleamed in the queens eyes as she opened her pincers and moved to slice Eli in half. To her surprise, her pincers closed on empty air. The human was gone.

As the queen opened her pincers, Eli had pushed himself toward and slid across the sand-covered ground, sliding until he reached the middle of her abdomen. Confused, the queen looked around, giving Eli just enough time to form a ball of pure yellow energy in between his hands. He concentrated and poured all of his energy and focus into the ball until it became just bit bigger than his head. He then thrusted it upward, toward the unprotected underbelly of the queen lion ant. As the ball made contact, electricity arced through the queen's body. She jittered and shook as she lost control of her limbs.

Scrambling to avoid getting crushed by the massive ant, Eli pulled himself across the ground until he was clear of the queen's thrashing body. Even as she moved uncontrollably, she maneuvered her head towards Eli. He watched as she tried to move toward him in one last-ditch effort to finish him off.

It was futile. With a final snap of her pincers and one last shudder, she collapsed. Eli breathed a sigh of relief- it was over, and he was exhausted. Making the lightning ball had taken most of his energy, but there was still work to do. Eli made sure the body had stopped moving before carefully approaching the dead queen. Placing his hand gently on the lifeless queen, he closed his eyes and muttered, "Dimmitte mihi anima tua, et in aeternum pacis."

"Release your soul to me, and may you forever rest in peace."

With those words, the queen's body began to glow, then slowly dissolved into white, twinkling light. Eli pulled his hand away, and an orb of blue-white light came with it. As the rest of the body vanished in a flourish of light, Eli reached for one of the many jars he kept in his bag. With some difficulty, he unscrewed the jar one-handed, then carefully placed the orb of light inside the jar. Once the orb was safely floating in its container, he tightly sealed it and put it away.

Capturing the soul of creatures was one of the very important jobs only Saviors could do. If the souls weren't safely captured and contained, the creature's body would just regenerate and the cycle would repeat over and over again. This wasn't necessarily true of all creatures, but it was certainly true for the more monstrous ones. Capturing the soul was important for another reason: the removal of the soul, for some unknown reason, reversed most magic cast by the creature. Indeed, as Eli watched his surroundings, the copious amounts of sand began to dissolve, or was blown away by the wind.

In a matter of minutes, Eli was standing in a grassy clearing, a large forest about a hundred feet away. The lesser lion ants also dissolved as their source of magic, the queen, was gone. Eli's staff clattered to the ground a small distance away from him. He picked it up and looked around one last time. There was almost no trace of the ants; it was almost as though they were never there. Smiling to himself, he turned and walked away.

Another job well done, he thought to himself.

* * *

Nova leapt to the side as the giant brought his club down. Dust swirled up behind her as she landed, coating her in grit in dirt. She shuddered as she realized how close she'd come to getting crushed, again. She'd been at this for some time now, but had made little progress. She couldn't get close enough to the giant, but she was too fast for him to hit her. They were evenly matched.

If she could pull off the vanishing trick again, she could probably get the upper hand; but that spell took time that she didn't have. Even worse, she had lost one of her swords. It was most likely still stuck in the boar's nose, and the boar still had not returned to its master.

Thinking quickly, Nova's magic flared to life around her hand once again. As she dodged another swipe, she quickly formed an orb of bright light and flung it at the giant's face. It fell short of its mark- it struck the giant's bare chest rather than his face- but did the job anyway. The orb exploded in a brilliant display of vibrant colors and flashing lights. Unprepared for the sudden explosion, the giant stumbled back and fell. Nova however, had been ready and covered her eyes, and was now retreating back into the forest, where she seemed to melt into the darkness.

The giant roared. "Where are you, human?!" It bellowed. "Coward! Dog! Fight me with honor!" Yeah, thought Nova. Not happening. Still hidden in the trees, she circled around until she was behind the giant. Breathing deeply, she closed her eyes and concentrated. "Occulto," she murmured. Seconds later, she had completely vanished. The only tell to her location was a slight shimmer in the air.

When she opened her eyes, the giant had mostly recovered and was getting back up. Moving with care, she approached the giant. Sudden movements would break the spell and reveal her location; with this spell, the less she moved the better. Ever so slowly, she reached for her one remaining sword.

"Where are you?!" Screamed the giant. "You will pay for making a fool of me!" Ignoring the giant's ranting, Nova began to charge her magic, concentrating it into her legs and feet. All she needed was for the giant to turn around, and it would be over. As soon as the raving giant faced away from her, she screamed, and her magic released in a flash of light, pushing her forward, her sword outstretched.

The giant turned, but it was too late. Nova drove her sword into the back of the giant's knee then violently twisted, slicing through tendons and muscle and sinew. Blood sprayed out of the wound as Nova pulled out the sword, covering Nova in thick, gooey liquid, and the giant screamed. Cat-like, Nova landed on the ground as the giant collapsed.

The giant screamed and cursed, but could not get up again; his knee was completely disabled. Realizing that struggling was futile, the giant stopped moving. Nova approached the giant's head. "Well fought," she said.

"Perhaps," murmured the giant. "Make it quick." He said.

Nova positioned her sword, and with one quick slash, she obliged.