Authors: M. R. Merrick
Massive slate rocks still jutted from the earth, but now they had flowerless vines wrapped around them. Green, blue, and yellow plant life wrapped itself around the stones and spread out over the cold ground. Patches of brown grass and pools of black, frozen liquid littered the cracked earth as we started our final stretch towards the temple.
Now that we were out of the valley, it was even colder. The wind was harsh, like tiny beads of ice cutting into my skin. A thick fog rolled off the pyramid’s stones in the wake of the cold air and I shivered. I had to pull my fire up to keep my teeth from chattering, but no amount of heat could keep this chill from my bones.
The moon rose up above the pyramid, silhouetting it in an eerie beauty. With the exception of the rocks crunching under our feet, there wasn’t a sound, and the saying
it’s a little too quiet
flashed through my mind.
“Anyone else find it strange we haven’t run into any other demons?” I asked.
“They are here,” Tiki said. “I can feel them. They’re waiting on orders from their master.”
A chill ran down my spine, but it wasn't from the cold air.
As we approached the pyramid, it looked out of place, reminding me of something from ancient Egypt. It was built out of small brown rectangular stones that rose into the sky in a triangle of power. Each set of stones was set further into the pyramid, like a giant staircase leading to the peak, but as I came to the base, I realized there was no doorway.
“Fascinating.” Vincent was in awe as he gazed upon the structure. “I can feel Ithreal’s power beating like a pulse.” He took in a deep breath through his nose and smiled. “Pure, godly energy calling me forth.”
“Interesting.” Marcus rubbed his hand along the stone and pulled it away quickly. “They’re burning.”
Energy poured from the temple and heat rolled off in waves, revealing that it was not a fog, but steam coming off the rocks. I reached out and touched the stones, pulling my hand back just as Marcus had. “Dammit.” I waved my hand in the air. “How are we supposed to get in?”
“In the Underworld, only true darkness allows one to see.”
I reached for my dagger as the voice echoed around me.
“What is it?” Rayna asked.
“Elyas says we need full darkness to open it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we need to cover the moon and stars in shadows,” Marcus answered.
“I’m not powerful enough to do this alone,” I said, my eyes meeting Marcus’.
Marcus nodded and stepped forward. “But together, we are.”
Marcus and I drew our air to the surface and shadows leaked from the darkness. I’d never merged power with anyone but Rayna, and feeling Marcus’ was strange. It was profusely powerful and he had intense control.
Pools of black slid over the ground like liquid. Our magic linked together and pulled shadows from every direction. Thick black arms reached out from the cracks in the earth and into the sky until a blanket of darkness covered us. The blue and green moons vanished behind a wall of shadows, and each pinhole of light a star created was filled with an inky blackness.
My vision vanished as shadows covered the area and I felt lost in space. The darkness was thick, physically weighing me down. Heat filled the air and power throbbed from the pyramid. The clatter of stones sounded in front of me as each brick began to vibrate. They lit up in a glow of red, chattering together and sliding over one another. The pyramid became a tower of inflamed bricks, glowing in the solid night we’d created.
A rumble came from the earth and the pyramid moved. The top few bricks vanished first. Then the next level followed, dropping down inside the pyramid. Steam rolled off of the steps, growing hotter as each layer fell into the next, until there was a four-sided staircase leading into the earth.
The staircase shook and continued to change. Scalding bricks slid over top of each other until they created a small entrance at the bottom. When the stones finally settled, a fire ignited from the base and crawled up each step. Smoke billowed from the bottom, and as the flames grew higher, they reached into the black sky with ember arms. Marcus and I pulled our magic back and the shadows withdrew. The darkness collapsed and the moon and stars exploded in light above us.
“Great, how the hell are we supposed to get in now?” Rayna asked.
“We’ll send Vincent; he loves fire.” I smirked.
Vincent’s cool and unfriendly gaze met mine. “I think this is more your area of expertise.”
I turned my focus to the flames and cast my own element over them. Water exploded from my hands and showered the heat in a wash of cool liquid. The sizzle of boiling water was loud as it hit the stones, but the flames didn’t react. I pushed harder and a single wave of ice blue power rushed over the fire. The flames hissed and the steam thickened, but the fire crackled higher, responding to the water like an accelerant. I tried a different approach and channeled the fire element. Magic reached into the flames, trying to extinguish them. They wavered against the magic but didn’t recede.
They only swayed like a soft breeze had blown through.
“Magnificent. Our brave hero is sterile.” Vincent rolled his eyes.
I wanted to unleash my fire on him, but I didn’t lose focus. I kept a hold of my element and let it retreat just beneath the surface. I reached my hand into the flames. I couldn’t control this fire, but just as I could survive my own, this flame didn’t burn me.
“I have to go alone.”
“Absolutely not,” Marcus responded.
“Do you have another way?”
“Yes, we return home. Together we can keep the ring safe.”
“No, we can’t. Deep down inside you know that. Riley gets stronger every day and we haven’t seen a sliver of his true power. Don’t you see? Destroying the ring is the only way and the weapon to do it is down there.”
Marcus sighed.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said, and I stepped towards the staircase.
“Wait,” Rayna said. “Maybe Marcus is right. We could try and keep the ring safe. If all of us–”
“Rayna, stop. We need to destroy it. If we don’t, sooner or later, Riley will find a way to get it. We’ve come this far; we can’t turn back now.”
“But the dagger might not even be down there. It could just be a trap.”
“It could be, but I have to try.”
Rayna watched me and sadness shone in her eyes. “Just come back in one piece.”
I turned back to the staircase and faced the flames. They danced and rolled inside themselves, and I called my element to the surface before taking the first step.
The smell of burning rubber was instant as my shoes hit the steps. They stuck to each stone as I walked down the staircase. I descended quickly as the flames nipped at my clothes, jumping down two at a time.
When I reached the bottom, I patted the ankles of my pants and parts of my shirt to extinguish the embers that crawled up them. The soles of my shoes were soft, and with each step, the bottoms became more uneven.
I reached the bottom and stepped through the entranceway into a corridor.
The passageway was a long, stone hallway, twisting and turning as I moved. The further I went in, the darker it became as I left the burning staircase behind. The air was cold and damp with the smell of rotting flesh lingering around me. The light from the flames faded as I made a second turn, and darkness took over the hall. The sound of my footsteps echoed off the walls and I ran my hand over the cool stone as a guide. I’d only made it a few steps around the corner when the sound of screams sounded behind me. Hissing followed and panic set it. My body moved back towards the staircase, but the bricks began shifting again. I pushed myself faster and the stale death that rode the air whipped past me.
I summoned my element to protect me and jumped out of the corridor and into the flames. The bricks moved and folded back up into the air. The stairs vanished and I could hear screaming and fighting as I tried to scale the wall.
“Marcus!” I screamed, but there was no answer. “Rayna!”
“Chase!” Rayna’s voice sounded distant.
I scaled up the wall and the bricks were hot, but I kept my element just beneath the surface, trying to protect my skin. The stones continued to move, making each inch more difficult to climb than the last. As I neared the top, I was hanging at an angle, only holding on by the tips of my fingers. Bricks began sliding as the top of the pyramid formed, and at the angle they were at, I could no longer climb. I strained to listen for any hint of my friends, but there was nothing. The last level began sliding into place and the bricks pushed my fingers, breaking my grip.
I flailed back and a hand grabbed me from what was left of the opening. Relief washed through me, but as I looked up to see a hissing Visceratti, that feeling vanished.
“I told you you’d pay hunter. Ithreal will give us many blessings for our sssacrifice.” The Visceratti lashed out at me and grinned, revealing a mouthful of jagged little teeth.
I tried to pull myself free of its grasp, but I didn’t have anything to use as a foundation. I was hanging above a pit of shadows by the hand of a demon.
“Your friendsss will pay for your choicesss and you will watch them die!” She hissed, and sharp nails dug into my wrist before she let go.
I fell through the darkness, my limbs flailing, trying to grasp onto anything that could slow my fall. Nothing but shadows hung around me and the last flicker of light that the night sky provided vanished as the final bricks closed into place. I screamed through the shadows, waiting for my body to hit bottom. I tried to focus my power and bring my air element to life. I wanted the shadows to reach out and grab me, to save me from the impact.
The power surged and the air became thick. I thought I felt my body slow, the shadows ready to break my fall, but it wasn’t enough. I hit rock bottom. Literally.
My body crashed into the bottom of the pit and my head smacked the ground. A flash of light exploded, and the pain was sharp, shooting through me like a bullet before the darkness claimed me.
My eyes opened and panic filled me. My entire body felt broken. I tried to sit up, but even in pure darkness the world felt fuzzy. I reached inside and the water came with ease. It soaked my body from the inside out, sliding through me as it closed my wounds.
A tingle moved at the back of my head, and as the pain receded, my stomach tensed. I pushed myself to my feet, carefully feeling around me. Blue flame filled my hand as I called the element, allowing myself to observe my surroundings.
I sat at the bottom of a pit, the smell of rotting corpses alive on the air. I turned in a circle until I found the corridor and I walked along it, using my hand to brace myself. Objects jutted from the wall; a long metal rod was embedded in the stone, and as I brought my flame up to it, it caught fire and flickered to life. Torches that lined both sides of the corridor ignited one by one.
Light and shadow danced in the cool tunnel air. They were still far enough apart that I had to walk in darkness every few feet until I reached the next blue flame. I followed the winding path, my nerves rattling inside me each time I entered a section of shadows. My senses strained in the eerie silence, begging to hear anything, but all there was, was my own breathing.
I stopped in the next segment of light and leaned up against the wall. My body ached. Adrenaline and fear tore through my veins. The sounds of Rayna screaming echoed in my mind and guilt cut through me. Images of my friends’ dead bodies played through my head, blood and flesh hanging from the lips of the Visceratti that stood over them. I shuddered and shook the images away.
The rotting smell that lived in the air was briefly lifted as a sweet scent passed by me. It was foreign and familiar and filled me with a new wave of hope. I pushed off the wall and continued, quickening my pace. I didn’t know if they were dead and I couldn’t assume. The sooner I got out of here, the faster I could find them. There might still be time to save them.
I moved down the corridor until I was running, row after row of torches blew past me and I followed the winding walls until they came to an end. A set of three short staircases stood before me, each leading to a single door with a knocker on it.
The first was black with soot, and the knocker’s ring was held in the mouth of a dragon. Red jewels sat where its eyes should’ve been and they gleamed as if freshly polished.
The second door was the largest, covered in flakes of brown rust. The knocker was gold– although tarnished with dirt–and made to look like a creature I didn’t recognize. It had a horse’s body, a wolf’s legs, the wings of a bat, the tail of a tiger, and the head of a snake. Blue sapphires occupied its eyes and the knocker weaved through its legs.
The last door was plain. The steel was cold and dark, and in the center, the warped imprint of a hand reached through. The fingers pushed out of the steel and gripped a round black knocker.
My gaze flickered between the three doors. Which was the right door? Where did they each lead? The thoughts reminded me of Elyas’ words. “In the Underworld, only true darkness allows one to see,” I whispered.