Two darkened hearts were to become one, but they were separated by the threads of Fate.
Now they find themselves stranded in a cold, hostile world alongside only a handful of survivors, ruled over by a dark, omnipresent force.
Though they are not to...
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"Thamun, arakus, oglechai." The wizard spoke, outstretching his blood-soaked hands. Around him stood a large group of what were once men, now mutated in to teeth-covered flesh golems, and that meant subservience to his every whim. With every passing moment, I understood more fully why we needed to kill this man.
The vast stone room, lit by a lurid crimson light, smelled of blood and sweat, and there was a distinct tense feeling in the air. We needed to end this quickly.
It was only a few seconds before the golems noticed us, staring at us with cold, dead eyes. It was finally Margo's turn to do the heavy lifting.
With a cry of fury, forward the knight lunged, wielding a greatsword in both of her hands. The way she moved was like a rage-fueled dance, cutting and slicing in to the foul creatures with an intensity and ferocity that the violations of the sacred human form could never hope to match. Though built for nothing more than combat and servitude, the creatures attempted to strategize, surrounding her as she made her way toward the wizard. I followed behind, readying my arming sword to strike any golems that had somehow slipped past her whirlwind of blows.
The next thing I knew, something had crashed in to my side, something weighty and fast. I flew several feet before landing badly on my arm. It was sprained, for sure, but not broken. If it was broken, then any spell requiring precise arm movements would be useless. I turned around to see one of those anthropomorphic tumors lunging at me, and in a moment its head was sliced clean off by my knight in shining armor, who then pulled me forcefully back to my feet.
I had to make my way to the center of the room, where the wizard was, before he finished casting whatever malevolent spell he was trying to quite literally rain down upon the city's population. Margo at my side, we made our way through the creatures' defenses, the dark beauty of her swordplay only making me love her more.
"Theris! On your right!" Margo called out, and I instinctively readied and threw a fireball in the face of the flesh golem who was leaping at me. With a scream, it went up in flames, and I stopped becoming its priority. I internally congratulated myself for a job well done, and turned my attention back to the dark wizard who we were finally coming up on.
He had begun to levitate, as many wizards did when they reached the final stages of their work. Even I had caught my emotions driving me in to a quite literal high as I began a final incantation.
I looked at him, noticing that he, in fact, was the source of the crimson light, and thanks to my magic vision, I was able to see that he had surrounded himself with a shield.
"Margo!" I cried. "Protect me at all costs, he has a shield!"
"Right!" she yelled back to me, and with the utmost trust that I was in good gauntlets, began the procedure to take down his shield.
I focused on the translucent red shell that surrounded him, imagining taking it apart with force, of ripping in to it like a child with their birthday presents. Indeed, my birthday gift started to become unwrapped, and little by little, cracks and rips formed in the shell as he continued his chanting. Finally, with one last great effort, I tore the shield asunder, and he dropped to the ground, laughing like a madman.
"You're already too late!" he cried flashing a rude gesture at me, one that turned out to be the proper hand movement for a spell. As I flew backwards and hit the ground, the breath was knocked out of me. I tried to get up, but some kind of invisible force held me to the ground with unmatched strength. It was as if an ethereal barrier had appeared from nothing and now held me captive. It was undoubtedly a spell at work, and the red light that now filled my vision completely was a sure sign that this wizard had trapped me in the same kind of shield that had protected him only a minute ago.
I got to work taking the shield apart piece by piece, feeling the exertion beginning to take hold of me. Such mental concentration came easily to some, more difficultly to others, and I laid somewhere in the middle. Though my talent, born of many years of training was nothing to sneeze at, and would give most wizards or spellswords issue, there were others in the realm who would find me nothing more than an inconvenience at the end of the day. I hoped and prayed at that moment that this wizard was not one of those.
Why, of all nights, did we have to fight one of the most powerful men we had ever faced? Was it symbolic of the new arrangement between Margo and I? Did fate see it proper for our last night of battle to be hard-fought? It mattered not; I tore in to the red shell around me like a dog rending in to a fresh leg of mutton. The tastes of victory and freedom were equally delicious as I broke through, only to find that Margo was also trapped under a barrier, hacking furiously against the side with her sword, creating small hairline fractures in the red shell. All around me was blinding red light, so much in fact that I had to change my vision back to normal. The ground beneath me shook violently, piercing screams and strident roars filled the air, around me were the golems, violations of flesh and blood, all looking toward the sky with a glassy look in their eyes. I, too, directed my attention to the sky, and through a large, jagged hole in the roof, I witnessed the moon turn to the color of a sapphire gemstone.
In front of it, in silhouette, was the form of a man, his arms and legs outstretched. A deafening sound of thunder filled the air, and the earth shook more fiercely and viciously than ever. All was in upheaval, and then, turning to the shell that Margo was attempting to break through, I ran to it, concentrating with all of my might on her freedom. Every ounce of my mind went to her. To her survival. To these moments that told us only to run. I could not run. I could not abandon her. With one last mighty cry, as the rain poured in, I focused on unraveling the shell, and struck the shell with my sword.
If fate had finally called us to the grave, I thought to myself in those last moments, at least we would be called together. As one.
Author's Note: This chapter marks the end of the prologue part of the story, I hope you've enjoyed it so far. Please vote and tell me your thoughts on it in the comments below. Thanks :)
