Nightmare Crusade

Chapter 20 - Last Ritual

Norman snarls and violently sprints through the snow toward them. He mercilessly rips each one he comes in contact with to bloody pieces, painting the snow red. He glides on his new wings, lands on one of the mindless attackers, and pries open his ribcage, brutally eviscerating him with his powerful claws. Another man charges him, whom Norman telekinetically lifts into the air, rips in half, and hurls away.

Soltail lands inside the top floor of the dark tower, out of breath.

"Gods help me, what have I done?"

Bloodied fingers trembling, he grabs the Revenantial Blade and collapses in his throne. He takes a sip from the chalice and stares down at the sword, blood leaking from his crooked jaw. The tormented screams of the one he just murdered stew in his mind.

"I thought I wouldn't feel a thing... I'm a monster..."

Sunlight filters through the red sky and hits the sword, presenting Soltail's reflection on the blood-stained blade. He grunts before turning it out of sight.

"Well," the dragon rasps, clearing his throat. "No turning back now. Let's finish this."

Soltail twirls the Revenantial Blade and swings it upward in front of himself, tearing through the air and ripping open up a rift in space. He flies through the portal, which closes behind him. Only a moment later, he returns with the sword, which is now glowing ominously red.

Soltail pulls a torn-out page from under his throne and stands in the sunlight to read it. He licks his lips and raises the sword. Then he begins reading the inscription to himself. He closes his eyes, positions his feet in a very specific way, and readies the sword at his side, which then begins vibrating.

Meanwhile, Norman rapidly glides across the frozen lake towards the tower. Being an inexperienced flyer, he falls on his face and nearly cracks through the ice. In an angered daze, he raises his head and to his confusion, a red pillar of light is now engulfing the dark tower. Norman quickly gets to his feet and takes off across the ice towards it.

Soltail lowers the sword, now out of breath. Outside the window, one can only see a swirling, psychedelic wall of red waves moving upward. The blade no longer glows, save for the tip, which faintly burns red. He lifts the sword up to get a better look and notices how the glow increases slightly, luminating the room around him.

Norman dives through the red pillar, entering the twisted vortex. The atmosphere grows heavy and silent. Besides that, everything inside the expanding pillar appears the same as it was. Blinded by vitriol, Norman does not notice. He gazes up to the tower wall to see Soltail with the hilt of the sword in his mouth climbing up toward a black swirling void high above the spire, which appears to be closing in on itself.

Norman takes a horse-width stance before jumping straight up in the air and spiraling upward. His black wings slice effortlessly through the thick air, propelling him upward. As he ascends, something catches his eye causing him to quickly twist his body out of the way mid-air. A long, metal chain ending at a blade strikes past him, just barely missing his chest and stabbing through the side of the tower, sending bricks tumbling from its wall. Panic sets in as he stares hard into the swirling red barrier. As it expands out more, a massive, shimmering eyeball fused to a cliffside comes into view. Pointed tentacles wriggle out at its sides and its pupil pulsates as it stares him down. The flesh-cocooned chain protrudes from a sharp-toothed maw just below the socket.

Another chain, originating near the first one, strikes from the crimson fog, impaling through Norman's right wing. It pulls his body powerfully through a window of the tower, and nails him into the floor, knocking the wind out of his lungs. After the initial shock wears off, Norman instinctively rips his wing off the chain and rolls out of the way, dodging another chain which strikes through the tower's wall and stabs into the floor where he just was.