The Rise of The Powers vol. 1

Chapter 19: The Land of Fire

Chapter 19: The Land of Fire

I blinked and woke up from the darkness, into something darker.

The first thing I noticed was the fire, than the smoke, than the fact that this place was not in Alembria.

Lilith stood by my side gaping. Volcanoes erupted every few seconds. Lava splashed onto the ground, ash filled my lungs. Fires blazed for no apparent reason. Smoke swirled around. Endless, black chasms looked deeper than the height of the tallest mountains. Things yelled. Things.

"Lilith-" I started, but it was too late, one of the things saw us and rushed at us. It awkwardly sprinted toward us on all four legs. A few, thin strands of brown, frizzy hair hung limply from its head. Its skin was sickly green, warts covered its body. It wore no clothes. His mouth was twisted, distorted. Its fingernails were sharpened to points and were a disgusting, moldy black.

It snarled at us. It said something in a strange, rough language. It sprang upon Lilith, tearing holes in her clothes and making gashes in her stomach.

"Oh my-" Lilith started to say, but couldn't finish. The thing had crawled up to her neck and tore into her throat. Lilith tried to scream, blood gurgled out from her mouth. It was the size of a full grown human being and its weight caused Lilith to fall backwards. Her eyes turned a milky white. Her irises rolled back into her head. Her chest stopped moving. A book fell from her back pocket and onto the ground.

"Lilith!" A scream erupted from my throat. I choked back on a sob. This was my fault, it was all my fault.

The creature gave a satisfying growl at the death of its victim. It started to tear into Lilith, chewing on a chunk from her stomach. It hollered at its kin to come over.

Something bubbled up inside me. It was that force. The curse. The one that made me kill Kralchon, and almost kill Pierce, but this time it was for something good. I grabbed Saphara's blade from my sheath and I slashed the creature's head who was eating Lilith. The blade hit its head so hard, it was cut off and tumbled onto the ground. Black blood bubbled from its neck. Its body slumped off Lilith and onto the ground.

The others swarmed me then. I slashed at them. I was unstoppable. I killed them all, but it wasn't me who did that. It was someone else, something else, and I was just standing in their place. Their heads crashed onto the ground, hearts were torn out, chests were slit open. Within minutes they all lay dead at my feet.

I rushed over to Lilith. I shook her desperately. "Come on, Lilith! You can't be dead! Not here, not now! Your the most powerful and magical human being I've ever met! Your 3/4 immortal, doesn't that mean you can't die?"

I grabbed onto her hand. It was ice cold. I wailed. It was hopeless and there was no way to get back, to the world I hated so much, but was the only home I'd ever known.

Soon, more of those things would come. I couldn't fight them off this time, no matter how angry I was.

I cried silently. Tears stained my face. I was blinded by the water of sadness. So blinded, that I almost didn't notice when the gash on Lilith's neck slowly stopped bleeding and started to fill with skin. I almost didn't notice when the chunk missing on Lilith's side started to fill in what once was there. I almost didn't notice when Lilith's chest started moving again and Lilith's blinked, confused.

But I did. I noticed all of those things and sputtered unbelievably as Lilith slowly rose from her crumbled position. Her cold hand slowly became warm again. I squealed like a little kid. I squealed with the joy that a person feels when the impossible becomes possible.

Lilith smiled sadly at me. She mouthed something at me that looked like, What the hell were you dreaming of, Duke?

I smiled back at her. Her hand squeezed mine and we were hurtled back into the darkness.

We arrived back onto the mountain top. Lilith collapsed on the ground from unbelievable exhaustion, but she was breathing that was all that mattered.

I sighed and paced the rocky mountain top. What to do now? We were in the middle of no where. Lilith was dying. We couldn't transport anywhere without her magic, and I'm sure she'd exhausted herself just by dragging us here. Walking, was also definitely not an option, too.

I prodded Lilith "Lilith, what do you want to do now? I'm sure you don't want to just lay here, do you?"

Lilith groaned and rolled over to face me. "No, I don't. You can take us somewhere, I know you can." She winked at me. "Just imagine the place where you want to go and whisper the ancient words, placae opque."

Lilith fell limp in my hands. Her luscious brown hair draped onto the ground.

I grimaced. Okay, I thought. Let's do this.

I thought of The Forest. I thought of Lilith and Soren's creation and the events that had taken place there. The first night of Lilith and I's-whatever this was called.

I thought of the kiss and the waterfall. I held tight to Lilith's body. "Placae opque." I whispered.