Dolos' Destiny

7 - To Oblivion

Gate looks down the sinkhole, and at the dark powers left behind from it. The whispers he heard were more clear now, more than ever.

He was alone, and going down to what could be his death.

Before, I had my brothers beside me, not today.

As he goes deeper and deeper into the ground, the roots of the tree begin to darken more and more, with a red smoke shifting inside them.

Eventually, it got too dark to see, the sun only reached so far. He had to turn on a flashlight, holding it in his left, with a scratched and weathered Ace of Spades in his right.

Coming upon a dark and large chamber, a voice rings out in the dark.

"Someone's here? Already?! I have barely begun the ritual!" It was the voice of a Cabal, it was a deep and old voice.

"Show yourself!" Gate demands, looking around the chamber for any sign of the Cabal.

"These chambers are too deep. For you to even get a glimpse of me, The Demon would have your head."

"Demon?!" Gate looks around for a path to continue deeper, while trying to keep conversation with this beast.

"Yes....the Demon. It has freed me from the chains of guilt....given me greater powers than that of the Psions..."

"What powers?"

"Powers forged out of the Lake of Fire of course! My abilities are unlike anything a Hunter such as you could fathom."

"You're mistaken, I've seen a thing or two." Gate feels himself getting closer to the Cabal.

"I know, you are Gate-4, a great warrior. You will perish, just like the rest of this world."

"What is this ritual you speak of?" Gate asks, placing a few explosive charges on the wall between them.

"I am opening the Rift, my lord will enter the physical world....and leave destruction to all!"

Gate activates the charges, and bursts into the huge temple, deep inside the Tree's core.

The Cabal, heavily armored and deformed, turns around quickly.

Gate looks past him at the unstable Rift, and the screams behind it.

"Who are you?!"

"I am Zotov. I am the Votary. I am the harbinger of the Demon Luc."

Zotov summons a grand and dark staff out of red smoke, aiming it at Gate.

"You are a Lightbearer no longer, prepare to meet your doom!"

A giant laser fires out of the staff, coming straight towards Gate!

Gate dives out of the way, scraping his armor on the roots. He fires at Zotov with Ace of Spades, straight into his visor, cracking it and cutting into his eyes.

Zotov falls on one knee to recover, giving Gate the chance to jump on top of him and stab him repeatedly with his knife, but the Votary grabs him by the hood and chucks him across the temple, causing him to crash into a wall.

Gate struggles to recover, forgetting his limits.

As he stands up, he sees Zotov charging towards him like a bull, the staff in hand. Gate leaps out of the way, but is grabbed by the leg and thrown to the ground once again.

He coughs and hurts.

"You're weak! You're nothing of the stories I was told." Zotov growls, circling around him.