Heart of Ashes

Death's Wall

"What's happening?" Mercedes asked as soon as he ended the call.

"We need to go to Castle Dracula immediately," Caine replied, "all hell's broken loose. There is a horde of zombies ravaging the castle and they're apparently invincible."

Mercedes' eyes narrowed, "Sorry? Did you just say invincible zombies?"

"I did."

"That means an invincible necromancer," Mercedes sounded very panicked.

Caine nodded, "I know. That's why we need to go there."

"How are you planning to get there in such a short time?" Evelyn asked, "It's not like your weird teleport-y power thing is going to help now considering... y'know."

"I know," Caine replied, "but that's not what I'm going to do, I have many ways of doing many things. I may be cursed but I can view it as a blessing sometimes."

Evelyn squinted at him, "What?"

Caine waved his hand, there was no time to explain, "Never mind."

He got up off the floor and went to his room to look for something in the wardrobe. He moved all his clothes aside and started feeling around on the wardrobe's backing. Then his fingers found a switch. He pressed it and there was a popping sound as the backing came loose. He reached in and pulled it out. Behind it, hung something he hadn't worn for eons. He took the hooded black robe off its hanger and held it for a moment. It was soft. Mercedes and Evelyn had walked in behind him. Evelyn looked confused and Mercedes, worried. Her worry quickly turned to fear and panic when she saw the robe.

"No," she said, "you can't seriously be thinking of this."

He didn't look away from the robe, "I am. I have to."

"What's going on?" Evelyn asked from somewhere in the corner, "Why is it such a big deal? It's a robe."

"It's a magic robe," Caine said, "like Vlad's suit of armour, it is infused with my essence. The essence of darkness."

***

The battle was getting more intense. The zombies had managed to actually kill a few vampires and weren't getting any weaker. Dmitri was getting tired of fighting. He'd been able to get the few Nekrosenti he could find into a safe place but there was still no sign of Caine.

A zombie with a sword ran at him. He side stepped it and ran his own blade through the thing's stomach - or what there was of it. He was getting anxious, more and more ghouls flooded into the castle and there were still more outside, along with the Blood Witches.

Suddenly, Dmitri became aware of the unmistakable stench of death wafting through the great hall and everything had taken on a grey-ish haze. The temperature dropped and the great hall was filled with some unseen, unholy presence. Dmitri looked down and he could have sworn he saw shadows creeping along the floor, towards the middle of the room. The fighting stopped and silence ensued, as the shadows started coming together in the middle of the room. They met on the floor and began forming something. A tall, thin, hooded figure in a long, shadowy black robe. Dmitri struggled to comprehend what was going on. The figure raised its arm. A ghostly-white hand stretched out skeletal fingers with sharp, claw-like nails and something else began to form from the shadows that writhed around the figure's body - it seemed that the very robe he wore was made from shadow. First an ebony shaft appeared and then a reaper's blade. The scythe was beautiful, shining as it caught the moonlight that filtered through the windows.

An owl flew through a window and perched on the figure's scythe blade. He reached up and took the bird from the blade and held it up. It launched into the air and, after a brilliant flash of light, a woman in a blue dress landed in a crouch in front of the figure. She stood up and began running towards Dmitri. Light from goodness knew where twinkled in her emerald eyes and her dark, brown curls bobbed up and down as she neared. Dmitri's eyes widened when he realised that he recognised her.

"Mercedes?" he squinted at her, "Am I seeing things right now?"

She shook her head, "Its good to see you again, Dmitri. Have you gathered the Nekrosenti. We need to work quickly, he can't hold them for long. It's not good for him."

Dmitri's eyes flickered to the hooded figure in the center of the room that seemed to be holding the zombies with the shadows, "You... what? Is that...? No way."

"It's Caine, I'm sure he'll explain it all later if you ask him very nicely but in the meantime we need to beat the Blood Witches. Where are the Nekrosenti."

Dmitri shook his head to clear it, "Th.. they're in the towers."

He watched as Mercedes started for the gates. Katrina didn't move. She was transfixed on Caine. Dmitri went to the gate and seized the keys from Katrina's hand. He unlocked the gate himself to let Mercedes through.

Once she got all the Nekrosenti together, she led them - the nineteen, or so, there were - to the great hall she lined them up behind Caine and started speaking in hurried tones.

"You've probably never heard of this before," she began, "but what we're about to do is called a Death's Wall incantation. What it will do is block out the souls of the dead. When I give the indication, you need to channel your focus into my wall..." she hesitated for a moment, "Caine's wall."

Dmitri watched in awe as one of the most intricate spells was cast before him. Mercedes chanted under her breath with her hands raised. Caine raised his scythe and began walking forward. Pushing the hordes back with the shadows. The two vampires guarding the portcullis opened it allowing the corpses to pass through. Caine gripped the shaft of the scythe with both hands, driving them back further. His alabaster skin seemed to glow against the black of the shaft. His bare feet looked just as skeletal as his hands. Dmitri could see the bones and joints moving in them as he walked. Caine raised the scythe. Mercedes didn't stop her chanting. She raised her hand indicating one... two... three. Caine slammed the scythe down on the ground and the Nekrosenti snapped to attention, immediately channeling their power into whatever Mercedes was trying to achieve. A giant shield simmered in the air in front of the line and started moving forward. It was slow at first but once it was out of the castle it rushed forward, shoving Caine into the middle of the horde. It stopped outside the portcullis, it grew higher and wider until it formed a dome around the castle.

Through it Dmitri could see that Caine had dropped whatever he was using to control the zombies and he was slashing them with his scythe. The shadows around him lashed out as well. If anything got close to him, it was enveloped in darkness. Chaos reigned as Caine's shadows ripped through the unkillable monsters and Blood Witches fled for their lives. In five minutes, Caine had achieved what Dmitri had been trying to achieve for over three hours. Then, all that remained was a shadow clad figure standing on the pass.

_________________________________________

Hello everyone,

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please leave a comment or vote if you liked it. Also a question, should I put Caine in the Watty's this year? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks so much for reading.

Yours,
Raine Chandler