[The Desert of Ashes]
Elisabeth grunted as she encountered an intersection in front of her. Her eyes darted from left to right, trying to recall where each path led to. “Darn it, should have put a sign here,” the woman murmured. She immediately crouched down, resting her right palm against the ground.
“Are we lost?” Rupert whispered to his sister. “We’re lost, aren’t we?”
“No, we are not,” Lucy swiftly replied.
Sam approached Elisabeth and squatted down next to the woman, asking her, “So, should we split up?”
“No, that would be too risky. We don’t know how stable this tunnel is. Just give me a moment.” Elisabeth closed her eyes and knocked on the floor with her fist. In that instant, the layout of the entire tunnel manifested in her mind, including the images of cave-ins and the Disciples walking on the surface.
For a brief second, Elisabeth caught a glimpse of Silva on the topmost level, conversing with two hooded figures. However, their silhouettes quickly disappeared as soon as they walked into a room – much to her ire.
“Liz,” Sam called her name, instantly snapping her back to reality.
“Sorry, um…the control room is that way,” the amber-eyed woman pointed her finger to the right.
“I won’t go there if I were you.”
The four Accursed fidgeted after hearing a child-like voice spoke to them. Sam, in particular, stood up and spun around to find the source of the mysterious voice.
“What was that? Did you guys hear that?” Rupert spouted.
“That was Anemone,” Sam replied, nodding his head firmly.
“Anemone? That Echo lass?” said Elisabeth, although she still wasn’t convinced of the girl’s existence.
“How did you know my name?” a little girl suddenly appeared from the left pathway; her face and gown were slightly tainted with grime and sand. “You’re…not one of those people in the suit.”
“What do you mean, how? You’re the one who told me, remember?” Sam replied as he lowered himself to the girl’s level.
Anemone frowned and eyed Sam from top to bottom before replying, "No…I don't think we’ve met you before. Who are you guys anyway? Your outfits are kinda weird, and how did you know about this passage?”
“Weird? Weird!?” Rupert exclaimed, obviously offended by Anemone’s comment.
Sam quietly gazed into Anemone’s fatigued eyes, making sure she wasn’t bluffing. Then, it dawned on him. An Echo is incapable of creating and preserving new memories, so it came as no surprise that she could not recall who he was. “This is just great,” the man sighed.
“You…,” Anemone shifted her focus toward Elisabeth. “You look kinda familiar. Have we met before?”
“Um, I…,” Elisabeth stumbled over her words, a reaction which baffled her three companions. Shortly after, dozens of images flooded her brain, causing the amber-eyed woman to fall to her knees, clutching her throbbing head. “Wait, you…I know you…You’re Anemone Ortega.”
“Okay, this is getting very, very odd. I think I’m going to go…now,” the girl countered before she scuttled away into the darkness, leaving the four Accursed behind.
“Wait, Anemone! Ah, shit!” Sam yelled out in vain.
“Are you alright, Liz?” asked Lucy as she helped Elisabeth get to her feet. She could hear her friend breathing heavily against her shoulder.
“God…must be punishing me right now…”
“I beg your pardon?”
“That…was Anemone Ortega. She lived next to me when I was…,” Elisabeth gulped, unable to finish her sentence. “That’s strange. I should have remembered. I should have! But, why…?”
“Who is she?” Rupert inquired; his arms crossed together.
“She’s…one of my closest friends. In fact, she and I built this tunnel together to escape this place. But, how is she…”
“My guess is you’re the one who created her,” Sam interjected. “For an Echo to come to life, they require a memory of the deceased, and the only one I could think of is you.”
“So…she’s here, because of me? I guess…that makes sense.”
“But, even if Liz remembered who the girl was, that is still not powerful enough to give the Echo a physical body,” Lucy explained.
“Unless…something happened to her,” said Sam, staring intently at Elisabeth. “Something so terrible, it caused Liz to consciously forget about Anemone. However, her repressed memory proved to be strong enough for the Echo phenomenon to happen.”
Elisabeth hung her head low; her lips were quivering while her eyes gradually become glassy. “It was on the day the Faceless launched an assault on the Disciples. Silva and his subordinates started to panic and it led them to destroy their years of research – to prevent the Order from getting hands on their life works. That includes terminating any living test subjects – all the children – all my friends.”
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“That is so cruel,” Lucy remarked with a grimace across her face.
“Cruel? Yeah, I guess that’s one word to describe what kind of man Silva is,” said Elisabeth before turning around to face the wall. “Seeing the incursion as a good distraction, Anemone and I tried to make a run for it but we were soon caught by the scientists. Sadly, I was knocked out cold before I could wrestle my way out of their holds. Everything after was a blur – until…”
“Until what?” Sam asked.
“Until I woke up to Anemone dying in my arms,” Elisabeth croaked as she could no longer contain her grief. “I…I didn’t know what happened, and I did not know what to do. There was blood everywhere – on her clothes, on mine, and even on the sandy ground. Claw marks covered her little torso – they were vastly different than those afflicted by the Lacerators.”
“Claw marks?” Sam exchanged looks with Lucy who seemed to share a similar idea. “Like the one in the corridor?”
“The Disciples’ guardian angel,” Lucy added.
“Well, angel or not,” Elisabeth muttered as she wiped the tears off her face. “If I found that bastard, then it’ll be answering to my fists – that includes Silva.”
“That is a great motivation. So, should we follow her then?” Sam suggested.
“Oh, hold on, hold on,” Lucy intervened. “You want to follow a ghost? What if she leads us to a trap? Or worse…”
“I don’t know how to explain it, but…I’m confident she will not lead us into a trap. You just have to trust me on this.”
Lucy glanced at her brother who in turn shrugged both of his shoulders. “Fine,” the younger Nightingale relented. “We are already 50 feet underground with a high possibility of being buried alive. I don’t think it can get worse than this.”
“Then, let’s not waste any more time.”
ɹɹ********************************************
||| THE PATH OF THE EMPYREANS |||
[Meanwhile…]
[The Opal Sun Kingdom]
Jason drove the rapier into a Lacerator's chest before kicking the creature's lifeless body out of his way. He raised his head, and the first thing he saw was a large group of Bulbheads running down a green hill. "Aria!" he called for his sister.
The raven-haired princess immediately spun around as soon as she beheaded a Distorted; her shining tangerine eyes caught sight of the source of her brother's agitation. She swiftly reached for the black longbow strapped to her back and aimed it toward the incoming horde. As Aria brought the string to her face, an arrow made of light appeared out of thin air -- pulsing warmly between her finger. "1000 yards, 30 Lacerators. That's disappointing," she spouted proudly. Then, she released her hold on the bowstring and watched as the arrow cuts through the air before splitting apart into hundreds of similar size arrows. Their sharp tips embedded themselves into the bloodthirsty creatures, spilling dark viscous liquids everywhere. In a blink of an eye, all 30 Lacerators were torn into pieces, leaving behind a single group of Distorted. All of a sudden, the last horde turned their back on the trio and scampered off into the horizon.
"What the? That’s weird," said Aria, lowering her bow. She had never seen the Distorted retreat from battle -- not even when the odds were against them.
"Weird, indeed," Jason concurred, his eyes darted around -- searching for Theo. Seconds later, he saw the bespectacled man with twin longswords dashed toward him.
"Something's not right. The Distorted are acting out of their usual behaviors," Theo sighed worriedly.
GRRR!
A rumbling came from beyond the green hill, loud enough to startle the trio. Then, a tall figure appeared on the peak of the hill with nearly a hundred log-sized arms attached to its stocky torso. Its face was decorated with horns, making its entire head resemble a morning star.
"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Aria uttered, gawking at the peculiar-looking Distorted.
"A Hecatoncheires – in the flesh," Theo calmly said in return, "How is this even possible? That thing was wiped hundreds of years ago."
"Ponder about it later. We've got a job to do," the Opal Sun Prince responded before he ran up the hill. As he got closer to the enemy, the Hecatoncheires buried one of its arms into the ground and ripped off the grassy patch below Jason's feet. The prince staggered, but he managed to roll out of the way before the hundred-arms monster threw the green patch away like a piece of paper. 'Terrakinesis?' Jason mouthed as he wiped the dirt on his cheek.
Suddenly, a white arrow embedded itself into the Hecatoncheires' chest, but the creature barely reacted to the attack. Instead, it yanked the arrow of light out of its body and casually crushed it with its right hand.
"What in the world?" Jason gasped. It was the first time he had seen Aria's arrow snap like a toothpick. Soon afterward, a shadow ran past the prince's left shoulder, followed by the sound of clattering steel.
It was Theo swinging his longswords against the Hecatoncheires' armored torso. He gritted his teeth frustratingly. Not only did his blade leave nary a scratch on the monster's thick skin, but it felt like he was hitting a solid brick wall.
"Theo, get away!" exclaimed Jason, catching a glimpse of the Hecatoncheires raising all its arms over its thorny head. However, the bespectacled man didn't move -- not out of fear, but because his legs were slowly sinking into the soil below. Then, the Hecatoncheires stumbled backward as five arrows hit it squarely in the face, thus giving Jason the chance to charge forward and drag Theo out of the quick soil.
"Better hurry it up, guys! That mean-looking dude is coming back!" Aria cried out. True to the princess's words, the Hecatoncheires had regained its composure and was now turning its attention to both men.
Jason grimaced. His mind was racing, trying to think of ways to defeat the once-extinct Distorted -- until he saw the small puncture hole on the creature's chest made by Aria earlier. "Now, this is going to be interesting," the prince grinned.
"Now, hold on a second. Whatever it is you're planning to do-," Before Theo could even finish, Jason had already pushed on toward the hundred-arms beast. "Damn it!" cursed the bespectacled man, "Ariadne, cover him!"
The princess silently nodded and started to shoot another barrage of arrows at the Distorted - each one pierced the Hecatoncheires' sturdy limbs, effectively preventing the monster from using its arms.
With a sly smile across his face, Jason jumped on the monster's limp arms and thrust the rapier into the minuscule opening. "Checkmate," the prince uttered after feeling the sharp tip penetrating the soft flesh beneath the Hecatoncheires' carapace. The hundred-arms creature shuddered before it burst into a flash of blinding white light.
Jason was thrown back by the force of the explosion, but luckily for him, Theo and Aria were able to catch him. "Huh, that was close," the prince chuckled -- much to his companions' chagrin.
"Close?!" Aria ranted, "You used Solar Flare at point-blank!"
"I did," said the prince as he straightened himself up. "But at least we defeated the Hecatoncheires."
"For that, I commend you," a distorted voice congratulated the trio out of the blue. A dark mist swirled in front of them, forming a hooded figure with a sinister black mask.
"What the...?" said Jason, pointing his rapier at the mysterious visitor, "Who are you! Identify yourself!"
"Your new master.”
||| THE END OF THE PATH OF THE EMPYREANS |||