The Ethereal Saga - Volume One - The Child of Light

Chapter Twenty - Zenith

The swirling vortex continued. Alex lay on his back holding his side. He looked at the sky as it grew darker, while the sun continued its descent. His eyes traced the shape of a  rain-cloud hovering above him. The cloud spilled a drop of rain on to Alex's cheek, a second and a third fell all around him. After a while, the rain began to pour; he closed his eyes and treasured the feeling of the water on his skin, the feeling of something painless.
"You've failed," whispered Lestrat. His familiar icy tone making Alex grimace.
"You're going to die alone," he continued.
Alex found it hard to argue. He was definitely dying, he agreed. However, some part of him found strength in Lestrat's taunting.
He rolled on to his front, and pulled himself to all fours.
"I'm not alone," he spluttered moving toward the central pillar where the orb lay, "Not really."
He heard the swirling shadows around him hiss.
Alex continued rebutting his taunts, "It's you I pity. You're the one who's truly alone."
Alex forced himself to his feet and he staggered toward the orb. He fell back to his knees scarcely a foot away.
Alex reached up to the orb and said, "Not when I have family to count on."
His fingers touched the orb for a split second. The shadow dissipated and morphed in to Lestrat's physical shape, removing the shadow wall and revealing the others once again. Lestrat grabbed Alex's hand and swung his bloody body around in front of him. Zach, Aaron, Michael and Laura surveyed the carnage in front of them. The bodies of their friends and foes strewn across the scorched soil. Lestrat held Alex at his feet, his freezing grip tightly wrapped around Alex's hand. Alex, nearly out of strength, did not put up a fight because he was pale and dizzy from blood-loss.
"Let's end this," Lestrat implored, "Give me the last Child of Light and I will spare the boy."
"Don't do it," spluttered Alex.
His rebellious words met with a harsh smack to the back of his head.
"Alex!" Tom shouted.
Tom went to move toward them as Zach grabbed him and pulled him back.
"No!" demanded Zach, "We can't risk him hurting Alex."
Michael stepped forward, holding Linda in his arms, still.
He spoke slowly and carefully as though the words did not come easy, "Spare him. Save her. Take me."
"Michael, no!" protested Aaron.
Michael looked at his friend with sadness, "No powers. No plan. Can only sacrifice."
Michael carried Linda to them. Lestrat licked his lips and increased his grip on Alex, careful not to release his hostage.
"Dark is greater power," Michael said, "Greater power can save her."
"Snap out of it!" Alex insisted, "Please! It's now or never."
Lestrat smiled a crooked smile of victory, "I will save the woman and spare the boy. If you come with me to the abyss. To my Lord."
"Deal," said Michael.
"No!" Alex begged, "Please, no. Use your light! Snap out of it."
Michael looked at Alex apologetically, "My mind...I don't know how."
Alex looked in to his father's eyes, his look silently pleading for his help.
"Dad," he muttered, "please."
Michael's eyes focused on his son.
"'Dad'..." he repeated, "son."
"On with it!" Lestrat insisted, "Give her to me and let's go!"
Michael looked at his wife in his arms and then to his son.
"Alex," was all he said.
His hands glowed white and Linda gasped for air, awaking suddenly.
Lestrat let go of Alex and shouted, "No!".
Michael dropped Linda to her knees as she tried to gather her bearings. Seeing his opportunity, Michael moved for Lestrat. His fist glowed bright white and struck the dark's disciple clean in the side of his chin. Lestrat collapsed in a heap on to the ground.
"Michael!" shouted Zach as he ran to his friend's side.
"Help him!" demanded Michael gesturing to his son.
He ran to the orb and pointed at Laura and Tom, "With me."
Aaron ran to Linda's side and attempted to help her to her feet, while Tom and Laura did as Michael asked. The three of them gathered around the orb.
"What now?" they asked.
"It's different this time," Michael explained, "Every time an orb breaks, it comes back stronger. Now I can hit it and crack it, but I'm going to need help."
"How do we help?" Tom asked without hesitation.
Michael continued, "When I crack it, the core will expose. The good news is the core is weaker than outside so your lesser powers should be enough. Now, I saw you both produce some pretty impressive auras, can you do it again?"
"Yes sir," Tom assured.
Michael smiled, "We've got this. On three."
His hands glowed the same bright white once again and he placed them either side of the orb.
"One," he said as the orb began to shake violently in his hands.
"Two!" The orb began to crack through to the centre. The cracking continued all around the orb until the orb split exposing a gooey centre.
"Thr-" Michael began.
"STOP!" A voice interrupted.
The three of them turned, surprised. Lestrat had recovered the scimitar and grabbed Linda, pressing the blade in to her back with his other arm around her throat. The others had been surrounded by a pack of ghouls practically laughing and squealing.
"Shut it!" Lestrat demanded and the ghouls silenced.
Alex had all but collapsed, he was on his front, unmoving.
Lestrat gestured to him, "You've lost one loved one today. Shall we make it another?"
"Michael?" Linda asked, still tired and dazed.
"Lestrat! Stop this! It's over!" demanded Aaron.
Lestrat hissed, "I know when I'm beat, you idiot. But, I can't let you keep the orb. My Lord would never forgive me. Give it to me, and I will take my ghouls and banshees away from this place."
Zach and Aaron looked at each other, taken aback. The deal was a good one, they thought.
"We can't," said Michael.
"Why not?" Aaron argued, "With them all gone, there's no one to ever bring it back here. If we never go back to Earth, we're safe! Forever."
"Do you know how I evaded this idiot all those years, mate?" Michael asked Aaron, "Do you know why Alex was the only one who could have brought me back?"
"Your madness..." Aaron began.
"You went to beyond," Zach clarified.
Michael nodded, "I went further than that. I saw paradise. I saw heaven."
"But it drove you mad," Zach said, "Beyond is too much for any mortal mind to take."
"I thought I was finished. Then they saved me. The Rays kept me alive. And... they gave me a task."
He turned to Lestrat, "I can't give you the orb. And I think you of all people know why."
Lestrat hissed again, "So your family will die! To facilitate a quest that will never succeed."
"Let her go," Michael suggested, "Your lord will never forgive you for losing the orb to us. We can protect you."
Lestrat's lip quivered as he fumed with anger,
"No one can protect me from him. He'll always find me."
Michael stepped forward and raised his palm, "It doesn't have to be like this."
Lestrat's quivering lip steadied and grew in to his crooked smile.
"Congratulations," he said sarcastically, "You win."
Lestrat drew his arm back and thrust the blade forward.
Michael yelled, "NO!"
An aura erupted from his hand.
BOOOOOM
Everything went white.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Their ears were ringing badly. Their sight fuzzy and slowly returning.
"Did you just flash-bang me?!" Tom shouted.
The white haze lifted and Lestrat staggered back clutching at his chest in agony. The ghouls had vanished, replaced with a pile of blue goo.
Lestrat fell to his knees still clutching his insides.
"A light bomb," he said surprised, "I didn't think you had it in you."
He smiled his crooked smile and dissolved in to dust.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tom had a splitting headache, he had fallen on to the pillar, the orb cracked open next to him. Though he was temporarily blinded by the light-bomb, he felt the orb besides him and followed it's ridges till he felt the edge of the crack. He fired his red aura and the Orb separated. In the distance, he heard the familiar ghoul squeals as their anchor was destroyed and they vanished from Ethereum.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Michael," Linda begged.
He ran to her, desperate and afraid. He had been too late, he realised. Lestrat had driven the blade in to her back.
The others were still down, dizzy and confused by the light bomb. He had hit Lestrat, but the others were caught in its crossfires. He held his wife's head and sobbed.
"Michael," she muttered quietly, "I can't see you, where are you?"
He realised she was still blinded by the flash-bang effect, "It's okay my love. Your sight will return soon."
He wasn't lying, it would, if she survived long enough.
"I remember," she whispered, "I remembered."
Michael sobbed uncontrollably holding his dying wife, "Please. I just got you back."
She smiled softly, "We got each other back."
"I can save you," he begged, "The temple. We can get ambrosia, I can save you!"
"Not me," she said, her voice quivering in pain, "Alex."
He saw his son, lying bloody and cut on the ground.
"Help me!" he yelled to his friends.
Zach and Aaron staggered to their feet before tripping and falling.
"I can't see!" Zach yelled back.
Michael yelled defiantly and pulled Linda on to his left shoulder. He stumbled over to his son and attempted to pick him up with his spare arm. He wrapped his arm around Alex and yelled another time as he tried to force himself up with them both on each shoulder. Michael fell to his knees unable to carry the weight of two people.
"I'm not strong enough," he sobbed as he laid them both down.
Linda gripped him tightly, "You can't carry us both."
She reached and took Alex's cold hand, "It's me or him. You know what to choose."
Michael sobbed and knelt next to them, "Him."
She smiled again and placed a hand on his cheek, "There you are. Now I see you."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rain continued to pour relentlessly as Michael ran through the fields carrying Alex, unconscious, over his shoulder whose blood had soiled his shirt. He moved quickly and desperately as he made his way through the final patch of woodland and darted in to the last clearing. The Temple of the Earth was in sight, its large imposing pillars greatly implying it's divinity. Michael barged through the entrance and ran for the Altar where he laid Alex down. Michael knew the Ray's hadn't sent ambrosia ever since the acolytes came but he was confident he had a way to convince them. He looked up to one of the tapestries, a simple design of white balls of light floating above red, green, blue, yellow and grey auras.
"Save him," he demanded, "Save him, or I won't do what you asked."
He stood there in silence and waited. Nothing happened.
"Don't you get it?!" he shouted, "No one else knows about the quest. It will die with me unless you save him!"
The smell of smoke filled Michael's nostrils and he looked back up to see the Tapestry burning with a white flame. Quickly, the white light consumed the tapestry. The light faded and a small vial of a golden fluid levitated a few feet above Alex.
"Thank you," Michael whispered as he took the vial and poured the fluid in to Alex's mouth.