Ascension (35 page)

As he drew nearer the flames, he soon experienced a most unsettling revelation; for the light belonged to that of spectral spirits waning in emptiness. These spectres quivered as he approached, and cursed him in many different archaic languages. Of those he could understand call out to him, they pleaded the gryphon to join them in their eternal slumber.

He tried to contact Katherine through their celestial bond.
Katherine, where are you?
He asked, focusing his thoughts.

Only, the masked Corrupted answered in her stead. “You may want to watch your step and lower your voice. We wouldn't want to wake them…”

Anzu looked on, gnashing at the Corrupted with his beak, as Alu moved his gloved hands through the air and unveiled both Aleisha and Gavin before him. Hanging like rags from his gloved fingers, the operatives lay motionless with their eyes closed.

“Tut-tut, think before you act. You are now within my realm,” Alu said coolly, wrapping his fingers about their necks. “Have you the slightest idea of what might happen to them if they were to awaken in such a place? Of course you don't. Look around you at the spirits aimlessly hovering about within the darkness, spirits I stake a claim as my own. This is the fate that awaits your friends, once I consume their dreams and replace of them with nightmares.”

Anzu brandished his talons. “You can't expect me to remain idle and do nothing. Why wouldn't I want to wake them?”

“Because of the risks involved in doing so,” the masked Corrupted responded calmly. “The risk of irreversible damage to their essence; those few souls left intact could be lost inside the emptiness of space thereafter.”

“You're still not offering me much of a choice; they're either allowed to run the risk of losing pieces of themselves forever to the void, or linger inside an empty realm…, If I was the one trapped; I'd insist the others ensure I don't assist you in your cause: no matter the risks involved to my own existence.”

“Whoever said you weren't trapped?” Alu questioned, floating toward him. “Tell me guardian, what is it that your heart so desperately desires? For within this realm, I can make what you dream a reality.”

A bright flash illuminated the space, distorting of the guardian's senses, and transforming the darkness into the citadel of his dreams. Having opened his eyes, and blinking profusely, Anzu found himself soaring through the sky and weaving between many buildings forged from crystal.

“Atlantis…,” he gasped, immersed in the majesty that lay before him.

He peered down admiring the streams of water; glistening an emerald green, and weaving their way around the foundations of so much pristine crystal architecture. With his heart aflutter, he looked on in awe at the many wooden airships hovering up above amidst the clouds. Overjoyed, and wanting to roar out a proclamation of his happiness, he saw two figures emerge that set his soul on fire. As they proceeded along a golden footpath that gleamed beneath the intense rays of the sun; both Zu and Ra were now beaming up at him.

This is pure ecstasy
, he believed. Anzu he could not think of anything that made him happier than this moment. But there was something bellowing from the depths of his subconscious; telling him not to believe or give in to the falsehood of this desired reality, and to think about who he'd left behind.

“Katherine…,” Anzu mumbled, fighting to break free from the Corrupted's spell of temptation. “Leave me be, and bring this illusion to an end. I won't let you trick and hinder me.”

“Are you dissatisfied with your dream world?” Alu asked Anzu, abruptly returning him to the gloomy void of this Corrupted's making.

“Why would anyone wish to linger on a vacant plane devoid of reality? Doing that is to live a lie.”

“It's simple really. To acquire what one desires and could never hope to accomplish alone,” the Corrupted replied, trying to coax him to indulge the façade. “It is an easier way to realise one's ambition, without the strain and torment that accompanies trying to achieve the impossible.”

Anzu gazed at Gavin and Aleisha; the pair appeared so peaceful while they slept, likely enveloped within a world of their own creation and wish fulfilment.

“It is within my power to grant you a second chance. I can reunite you with both your mother and your precious lord. I can end your ill-fated struggle of revenge in which you can't possibly hope to succeed.”

Anzu peered down at the floor, curious over what it would be like to live a dream and forego the struggle.
Revenge…, is revenge all that really drives my ambition?
He wondered.

“I've learned so much about you in the brief time we've become acquainted,” the Corrupted continued. “I know that you'd decided to form a celestial bond with this young Indigo for the sole purpose of exacting your revenge. It is truly hysterical to think of you as a guardian. You have cursed this poor girl and deprived her of a normal and healthy life. All you've achieved is the hastening of both hers and your own demise. Besides, defeating the lord of shadows will not bring any of your loved ones back. So what's the point of revenge? When I alone can return to you what you've lost?”

Guilt ridden and his eyes watering, he observed in silence as the Corrupted snapped his fingers and transported him back to the ‘
Project's'
underground facility. Before him, and running around in pursuit of his own tail, he saw a childlike version of himself clowning before the watchful gaze of both his mother Zu and her Indigo.

“You must often find yourselves wondering when he's going to grow up and start taking things more seriously,” he heard Robert say, as he was leaving the control room and pulling his beard. “But there might just come a time when we're in need of his…unique gifts.”

Zu sighed, peering down at Anzu from an over bridge. “Thousands of years have passed since we first came into this world, and yet he still thinks of me as his mother…there is something to be said for his innocence; for it brings me peace of mind, and reminds me of why I fight to preserve the future.”

“I'm not deaf,” Anzu heard his younger self cry out. “You should treat me with more respect. One day, I'm going to be the strongest guardian in service to this organisation. And with my young Indigo we'll confront even the wraith of Atlantis and bring him to his knees.”

“Well then young one, you'd best keep up with your training,” Robert responded, glancing off toward where his own guardian bustled about the facility. “Perhaps Kusarikku and I might even let you join us one day when we challenge some stray Corrupted.”

“You mean it?” The little gryphon cheered, only to quickly change his tune. “Wait, did you refer to me as a ‘young one?' I'm much older than you, human. Stop talking down to me as if I were a small child.”

It's difficult for me to believe I was once so tiny,
Anzu chortled. As Alu kept sifting through these moments that made up his history, he soon found himself revelling in the nostalgia that came from retracing his past. Another memory that resonated with him, was the time when both he and Zu first met Monica and joined the organisation.

“What are you? What do you want with me?” A young Monica had cried out, cowering as this slimy and reptilian Corrupted crawled up a grassy embankment.

It was then that he relived the moment that made him first want to become a guardian: when the Corrupted scuttled toward the young Monica and Zu swooped down to her rescue. Together they then vanquished this scaly and slippery foe. It was also then and there that they formed their bond. The intensity of their energies had ignited and overwhelmed Anzu's senses, leaving him hungry for more of the same. And when Zu was slain by the wraith of Atlantis, his hunger had only grown greater. He had known he would also use this craving to fuel his new desire for revenge.

Anzu, where have you gone?
He heard Katherine whisper to him within the depths of his mind.

Just as quickly had the illusions taken hold of his senses and made him yearn to relive his past, Anzu broke free of the spell and repelled the masked Corrupted by beating his wings.

For too long I have obsessed over revenge. Although I will confront Namtar again, I must ensure my desire is driven by a more honourable motive. All that matters right now is the safety of my young Indigo; I will not let her down again.

His decision made, he soared past the Corrupted, and plunged deeper into dark void.

Chapter 28

As Katherine's element of fire smouldered deep within her, it seemed irresistible to restrain her from self-immolation. But with no idea of how to rescue the others, she resolved to persevere in accepting what Justin and Alu had chosen to tell her, and to suppress the urge to lash out at them with undisciplined raw emotion. She listened carefully as Alu incessantly mumbled to himself in an indecipherable and archaic tongue. The more he spoke, the more intense the elements in the space on top of the precipice became. Rumbling thunderclouds evolved and discharged electrical currents across the skies, keen winds cut and pierced from every direction, and a downpour of hail and rain fell like needles against solid rock.

She desperately tried to reach her guardian.
Anzu, can you hear me?
She called, but it felt as though their telepathic connection had weakened since he'd been sucked through the walls.

When Alu eventually fell silent, his long-winded incantation complete, a lone figure dressed in dark robes trudged forth from a thick and enshrouding mist. Wielding a scythe of bluish flame and with a grin of insatiable glee on his skeletal face, the wraith of Atlantis placed a fleshless palm heavily down on the damp turf.

From the opposite side of this precipice, Katherine could see the members of the ‘
Project
'
s'
past carefully approach the wraith with their weapons pointed. Dressed in the dark navy uniform of this organisation, with the ‘
Project's'
insignia of two rifles forming a cross at each shoulder, the operatives encircled the corrupted and withdrew plasma grenades from the belts about their waists.

Amongst these operatives, she spotted a total of four guardian spirits. She instantly identified the sprite-like Kishar: sitting on a younger Margaret's shoulder. The pintsized guardian glared back at Namtar with a sombre loathing. She also recognized of another familiar guardian within their ranks. Zu the gryphon, and Anzu's mother, stood firm toward the rear with a young Monica at her side. Having only seen the guardian in her mind's eye, Katherine now got a great view of this winged spirit's majesty, and she couldn't help but admire the elegance and grace this particular gryphon possessed. Much like Anzu: she had the proud head of an eagle, the regal body of a lion, razor sharp talons, and an impressive wingspan. But where Anzu was bulky and rugged, Zu was more slender and sleek. What captured her imagination most was the colour of this guardian's plumage: an alluring navy with specks of silver that glistened in the moonlight, and the red of the gryphon's mane streamed down from her neck and fell like ribbons of a delicately woven silk.

Then there were the other two guardians, those which she hadn't seen before. Walter's guardian, Mamitu: a relatively feminine looking creature dressed in fine robes of white, and carrying an old tome covered with runes. Although the guardian was in essence humanoid, Katherine believed she had many prominent great-like characteristics: two keen beady eyes above a flat bridged nose, long cloven hooves in place of fingers, and curved black horns that bulged out through tufts of thick silver hair.

Within the space of Alu's illusions there was the bearded man she'd recently become acquainted. This Robert, who her father had engaged in a war of words, was positioned before the front of the pack. At his side perfectly poised next to his master, was an imposing creature with a massive battle-axe resting atop its shoulder. This guardian went by the name of Kusarikku, and was easily the most intimidating-looking guardian Katherine had seen so far. Similar to Mamitu, Kusarikku was also an animal-human hybrid that was reminiscent of a Minotaur. Kusarikku had an absurdly muscular body covered in a husky bull-like hide, horns which protruded fiercely out from the sides of his head, and looking as though they could skewer a large vehicle, and a pair of burly arms the size of tree trunks.

“You stand before an immortal,” she heard the wraith proclaim, swinging his ghastly scythe through the darkness. “What is it that makes you believe I can even be defeated?”

Robert grunted, sucking at his teeth. “History, for another has defeated you once before. It is only fitting that we, the children of the Naacal, will be the ones to defeat you a second time. Of the countless number of fiends you've unleashed upon this weary world, most have been torn asunder by the might of this organisation that now stands before you.”

“Such confidence,” said the wraith, his cold and raspy voice slicing through the air. “Step forth, son of the Naacal…, and let us begin.”

Robert and Kusarikku in unison charged at the wraith. Clutching tightly at the hilt of his battle-axe, the guardian swiped and slashed at the wraith with reckless abandon. But Katherine could tell immediately this was far from enough to worry the Corrupted. The wraith glared back at the guardian unimpressed with his belligerent display, effortlessly parried each passing blow with his scythe, and soon countered, knocking the bovine Kusarikku backward.

The wraith yawned. “Come now…, if this is the fullest extent of your powers, then I suggest you let your comrade's join in the fight. If it's the only way I'm to receive such a challenge, then I shall take you all on at once.”

“We have vanquished so many of your followers,” responded the guardian, as he persisted with his assault. “Immortal or not, such arrogance will be your undoing.”

Katherine scanned the scene in search of Monica, wondering what the other operatives were doing and thinking as the fight evolved. Soon she heard her engage Walter in heated debate. She was frustrated by being restricted to the side lines.