Authors: Doug Backus
Phanthus stopped speaking for a moment and looked around as if considering what he had just said
. “And you were right to trust in me, so for now, I will trust in you. Now, apparently I have missed out on quite a bit. Please tell me what my mind has chosen to forget over these past few days, and let us determine what our next move will be.”
Deo could not believe his ears. Deke had been right
, and now they would have one of the most powerful assets in Rhol fighting with them. Their odds of succeeding had drastically improved. Any fear that Deo once had was gone, aside from the screams that came from behind him causing him to jump momentarily. He didn’t need to investigate. Delca and Mary had quite obviously made an appearance.
Deke and Deo immed
iately calmed their friends’ nerves explaining what had just occurred. When they had calmed down Phanthus began to tell them how he had come to fight for Solharn. He told them of the wars that followed their pact. Deke could see the sadness in the mighty dragon’s eyes as he recounted the story of Elissa’s capture. Phanthus told them that he had felt a strange connection to the Queen. He believed that Solharn had sensed that connection as well and that was why he insisted that Phanthus stay behind when he flew off to imprison Elissa. It was because of that connection that Phanthus would eventually become enraged with Solharn’s ways.
Once Phanthus was finished speaking,
Deke explained what they had been through. He finished with Mary’s explanation of why she believed Elissa was being held by the Phits. Phanthus concurred with Mary’s logic.
“Then, that is where we must go…
,” Deke began to say.
“Ugh
, those Chumpralas, I thought they had become accustomed to you after they calmed down, but there they go chirping again,” Mary said to Phanthus in frustration.
It was not Phanthus
however, that had the Chumpralas so upset. It was the thousands of Phits that swarmed down upon them. They were everywhere, and were attacking Phanthus in particular. They tried their best to gouge at his eyes. He let out a stream of fire disintegrating several of them, but they came far too quickly, one after another. Phanthus was unable to gather enough breath to cast more flames in their direction. He attacked many Phits with his powerful jaws but it did little to prevent them from continuing their offensive. He would soon be overtaken.
“Phanthus, go! Leave us and fi
nd Palto! We will need his help!” Deke yelled.
Phanthus looked down upon them. H
is tail was waving frantically in the air at the Phits. “I cannot leave you here. You will die at the hands of this filth. You do not have the energy to transform again.”
“Do not worry, Phanthus. Mary knows these swamps. She will be able to find
us refuge. Go! Before it is too late! Solace is where the battle will be. It will not be easy to convince Palto of your change of allegiance, but you must!” Deke yelled.
With a heavy heart, Phanthus flew up into the sky. He owed the boy his life
, yet he was leaving him here in the midst of the swamps. It was not much of a thank you. If the Phits found them, they would stand no chance in their weakened states but he also knew the boy was right. They would need help if they were to save Elissa, and he was the only one that was in a position to get it.
Once Phanthus found himself in the open air he h
ad no trouble escaping the Phits. He could fly much faster than them, and in time they were left behind as the wind carried him to Solace. The boy had made a valid point. Palto would be next to impossible to convince. They had been enemies for many years and there was no love lost between them. All he could do was to try. If he failed he would return to fight and most likely die, alongside the boy.
Solharn stood looking out over the Blackpool. He was still reeling from losing the connection with the boy. A few more seconds and they would have been joined. His power along with the boy’s control over the Amulet of Rhol would have made things much simpler. They
...he would have been unstoppable. The boy was still not out of his reach. Solharn was confident that he was getting to the boy. He was slowly making him realize what his true purpose was, but he did not have the luxury of time.
The boy was a far more ferocious opponent than he had realized. Avoiding his armies and the many traps he had set for him was
one thing, but what bothered Solharn the most was how quickly the boy had mastered the amulet. Solharn never expected that the boy would figure out that he could use both his and the girl’s paladin together by letting her feed off the amulet too. The sheer arrogance of the boy enraged him. Even while engaged in a conversation, he was able to change their paladins into small enough creatures that they were able to slip behind him unnoticed. The fact that he then changed them into two of the largest creatures in Rhol was also quite astonishing, but to hold their form for that long was extraordinary.
No, he could wait no longe
r. The boy was more powerful than he would like to admit. If the boy was able to save Elissa it would not bode well for Solharn, but he had not used his greatest power yet. It was a far greater power than Elissa could ever command. Elissa would never be as strong as him, mainly because she felt such a need to protect the ungrateful degenerates that inhabited the five worlds.
He had to agree that those degenerates
had their uses. Without them, he would never have gained the energy he needed to exact his revenge. He laughed remembering how they begged for their lives. They did not even understand that it was not their lives he was after, nor their useless bodies. They were so beneath him. They didn’t even comprehend the energy of their outer souls; they didn’t even know they had one. It was their outer souls which gave him the energy he needed, not their flesh and blood. So he took their souls from them and left them to wander aimlessly as their bodies stopped growing and slowly decayed. Eventually they became Pintante. They had begged for their pathetic lives and he had given them that, temporarily. Without their outer soul, they became devoid of energy, devoid of their aura. Elissa could never do such a thing, nor would any other in the Order. That was why he was superior.
The souls he
devoured on Rhol had given him the energy he needed to bring the people of Beltic to their knees. He had easily regained his power by feeding on the souls of the weak, hapless people of Beltic in the aftermath of that war. When he returned to Rhol, he continued with his depraved ways, soon gathering more power than he had ever experienced before.
Elissa’s power was all but gone. The power she used to protect the inhabitants of Rhol over the last ten years had dissipated, thanks to the boy’s
appearance. Because of this, Solharn believed he could conserve the power he had gained to conquer the remaining worlds. The destruction of Rhol should have only required a little cleanup. It was unfortunate that he had underestimated them, especially the boy. No, it had not been his plan to have to use so much of his power to destroy Rhol, but he would regain it all. He had already conquered Beltic, but there were still three worlds remaining with thousands upon thousands of souls waiting for him to feed on.
Rhol would soon be his. He could feel the currents of power begin to course through his body as he began to conjure up the life energy of the souls he had appropriated. With his arms outstretched, his soulless figure began to slowly rise from the ground until stopping high above the
Blackpool. Slowly he began to turn in circles. The Blackpool began to bubble and froth as hundreds of small funnels of the dark liquid began to rise up.
In minutes they were the size of twisters swirling around him, waiting to be released onto Rhol. It was not time though. Lightning struck out against the dark skies, torrents of rain poured down feeding the
Blackpool. No, the twisters would not be released until they had formed great tornados, swirling masses of wind and energy that would leave a path of destruction in their wake, taking everything with them into the dark depths of the Black Abyss.
They would all feel what Solharn had when he was banished into its depths, the feeling of nothingness, of helplessness all while surrounded in an eternity of darkness.
They would not escape it as he did. They would be in his command, slaves forced to do his bidding whenever he chose to call upon the energy of the souls. It would be a fitting end to Rhol, one that all of the Balance of Five would eventually face.
Solharn’s eyes burned like fire as the wind and rain whirled around him. Soon the transfer of energy would be complete. One by one the tornados would leave the Blackpool and surge out over Rhol
consuming everything in their path, as if they had a never-ending appetite for destruction. They would feed off the terrain of Rhol and take any life that walked upon it. It would help them grow. It was almost ironic, Solharn thought. In a matter of days the energy of the very souls that had at one time fought so hard to save their precious world, would be responsible for destroying it. It was an irony Solharn relished in, an irony that would bring darkness to the entire planet.
“To arms!” Palto screamed at his troops.
W
ithout a second of hesitation, the mighty Pegapires flew from their perch. They did not know why Palto had suddenly decided to call them to battle, but it did not matter. They trusted him. Only when they turned in the skies did they understand the urgency of his tone. Phanthus had somehow managed to fly in behind them unnoticed.
But even as they flew from the cliffs, Phanthus had not reacted as they might have expected. In fact, he still had not moved, seemingly content with simply staring down Palto.
“I do not come to fight, Palto.”
Palto did not seem convinced by the dragon’s statement. “Then why have you come at all Phanthus?”
“In hope, that we could wage war as allies, not opponents.”
Palto did not believe a word he heard from the dragon. No more than a day ago he was willing to kill anyone that stood for Rhol.
“You must take me for a fool, Phanthus. You were an integral part of defeating Queen Elissa, and you are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of my people, innocent people.”
“Innocent, Palto? Come now. You have been around almost as long as I. Do you remember nothi
ng of the way my kind, were quite literally slaughtered by your people?”
“Neither the Pegapire
s, nor the Lealians had anything to do with the slaughter of the dragons. It was you who attacked the innocent inhabitants of Rhol!”
“Then perhaps your memory does fail
you Palto. The dragon attacks were only a reaction to the inhabitants of Rhol hunting us down and killing us for fame. We reacted to save our species. It was a war of survival. One that regretfully, became bitter when the dragons came closer to extinction, eventually leaving only me.”
“That is not the way I remember it
, Phanthus, but I have been around long enough to know that there are two sides to every story. Even still, you have been an enemy of Rhol for centuries. As recently as yesterday you attacked me and my people. I have no reason to trust you.”
“Nor I you Palto, yet here we stand. It is true
that I have been your enemy for what seems to be an eternity. As far as the last few days, I have no recollection of what I did. I was under Solharn’s spell until a boy saved me. I would have never thought there would be a day when we could become allies, but then I never had any faith in the inhabitants of Rhol, or for that matter, anyone but my kind. Then I saw an unexpected side of a boy who was brought here to save Rhol, a side that showed compassion for another kind that was quite unlike himself. If he is in fact the prodigy who will save Rhol, then I will fight alongside him because he has a unique view of life. To him, every life is precious and everyone is equal. The boy put his life at risk to convince me of this. He knew that your chances of defeating Solharn would be far greater if I fought alongside of you. He counted on his faith that I would believe in what he had to say, and he is counting on your faith to believe in me.”
“The boy you speak of. What is
his name?” Palto asked.
“His name is
Deke. He is in the Tiqor Swamps and he and his friends desperately await our help to free Elissa.”
“They have found Elissa?” Palto exclaimed.
“The girl, Mary, claims to know where she is. They make their way to her through the swamps as we speak.”
“I would like to believe you Phanthus
, but what you say could be nothing more than another trap. I cannot trust you.”
“Yet you still have not given the order to attack. Why?”
“I don’t know,” Palto answered.
“Perhaps it is because you know I could have wiped out your entire army within seconds. Yet even as they flew from the cliffs
they remained unscathed. Maybe it is because you would like so very much to be able to trust me, for I would be a valuable ally to you Palto, as you would be to me.”
“If what you say is true then why did the boy or one of his friends not come with you?”