For those of you who had thought I had died and left fanfiction.net (or at least the Diablo part anyway…) I'm not dead! I'm just really busy with school, life, and problems :P Lots of problems. Lots of work, lots of sports. I'll try to finish the up coming last chapter as soon as I can so I can start with the Expansion Set sequel that's been digging at my brain for a few months now. Pray that the inspiration bunnies will hit. Oh yeah – and I forgotten whether it was Tizual or Izual :P
Everything that should belong to Blizzard and Diablo belongs to Blizzard and Diablo.
Amen.
Chapter 19: Hell's Bones
As soon as she felt the ledge give out under her, she dug her fingernails into whatever matter she could, but it didn't seem to help. She toppled backwards and somersaulted through the hot air and fell towards the boiling lava.
She screamed and frost shot straight from her fingers and into the fiery death that awaited her in the bubbling redness. Waves of heat and cold from the vapor that rose from the lava surrounded her in a thick, cloudy mass. She was blinded for a moment before hitting the block of ice she had created.
She cried out as she slid on the rapidly melting ice and shrieked as she felt the tips of her steel-toed boots hit the lava. Faster than anything she had ever done in her life, she pulled out the dagger she had hidden in her boot and stabbed it on the ice, using all of her strength she could muster. The ice sprayed out as the sharp blade pierced through it, and she gasped for a breath of air.
She would not survive for long.
She tried to use Telekinesis, but all she managed was a sharp flicker of electricity that hovered in the air in front of her before flickering away. Sweat ran down her body, and the front of her torso was chilled from the ice.
The rapidly melting ice.
I came this far…I'm not going to die.
Using what felt like the last of her strength, she flicked her feet and managed to slide up a few feet. She jerked her dagger out of the ice and jabbed it in front of her again. She pulled her body up, sweat catching on her eyelashes, mixing with the tears of pain. She jabbed at the ice again, and this time, she let go of the dagger with one hand and clutched at the hot dirt in front of her, but she lacked the strength to climb up.
"Moran!"
She looked up and saw Kail looking at her from above the ledge; a large head wound streamed blood across his face and the look of terror in his eyes was enough to make her want to drop her dagger.
"Don't MOVE!" He shouted.
And started down the broken cliff.
"KAIL! No!!!" She shouted. "Please…no…"
A burden.
A burden to the Five, a burden they have to protect. Now she was going to kill Kail.
"KAIL!" She screamed. "Go back! Go back or I'll let go!"
"OVER MY DEAD BODY!!" He roared back and slid down a few feet down to a rock that jutted out of the red clay.
"Kail!! NOOOO!"
The reddish clay cracked underneath his weight and the rock slipped down, taking the Necromancer down with it. Moran felt like a knife had been stabbed in her mind.
As if a miracle had been proclaimed from heaven, the rock hit another boulder that rose from the side of the cliff and it stayed still long enough for Kail to regain his balance. "Moran, give me your hand," he held out his gloved hand, and it strayed a few inches from hers.
"Kail, I'll pull you down with me!" She screamed at him.
"Quick! My strength isn't going to last very long!" He roared back, the anger flushing from his throat. A drop of his blood landed on the ice and ran in a thin river towards her hands. It diffused as it went along with the ice, life deteriorating as the red color mingled with the melting water and turned into nothing.
She released the dagger and grabbed his hand.
"Try to stand up."
Her boots slipped against the ice, but finally, she managed to rise up halfway, her muscles screaming in protest. Kail bent down before she could protest and grabbed her waist with one hand, her arm with the other.
She knew that if either Kail or her did one small, wrong move, both of them could end up tumbling into the river of fire that awaited them. Their only source of balance rested with Kail's leg, and the hope that the rock will not move.
Inch by inch, he finally pulled her until she was resting on her own legs. Her knees wobbled and she grabbed on the side of the cliff to stay still.
Kail stared at the wall, unanimated. He raised his hand and Moran covered her mouth in horror. Every fingernail was embedded into the flesh of his hands and blood flowed freely from them, covering his palms.
He gave a flick of his wand and a ladder-like structure composed of bones shot up to safety above. He roughly grabbed her leg and boosted her up before she could protest. As fast as she could, she climbed over the bones with Kail close to her heels. With a final push of her weary hands, she shoved her weakened body onto the surface and laid still.
"Moran!" She heard Nikan cry out and she looked up to see the Amazon crouching down, trying to help her up.
She felt a hand slap across her cheek and she fell back on her knees.
"DAMN YOU MORAN!"
Kail stared at, his teeth gritted in madness, or terror, she couldn't tell, with his legs spread wide apart and one bloody fist clenched into a tight knot in front of his chest. His hair had come loose from its knot and blew widely around his face, the unearthly white strands contrasting against the dark ruby of the sky. Blood streamed down his face and his hands and the veins on his neck and arms popped out. For the first time, she knew she knew she had a reason to fear him.
"Damn you!" He shouted again. "If you might as well give up hope just because you nearly went sprawling into that river of flame, you might as well give up hope of ever defeating Diablo!! You said 'I'll let go'." He slammed the fist against his chest, on his heart. "The terror you experienced there is nothing like what you'll come to see – "
"I don't care about dying, I don't care about being killed by this Diablo – I don't want to be a reason for you to die!" She shrieked, clutching her head.
"Over my dead body I'll let you die!" He jabbed a finger into her chest and she threw a punch at him, which he grabbed her arm. She twisted out of his grip and shook, resisting the temptation to squeeze her hands around his neck and shake him.
She felt Thorn's heavy hands on her shoulders, and surprisingly, she found them comforting. She turned away from Kail and buried her face in Thorn's leather armor, trying to control the anger that was sending shockwaves through her muscles.
"It's all right, lass," he said.
All right… when will anything be all right?
She started running after the others.
With every breath of the dank air, she found it harder and harder to breathe. Ahead of them, Kail scouted the trail they were running upon, his face as stiff as stone. Moran panted, pressing a hand to her side, but she didn't dare mention she was tired. Coals crunched underneath her boots as they came upon a dark ladder leading underneath the earth. Steam rose from the hole and the smell of decaying fire reached her nostrils.
Without a word, Kail dropped down the ladder and Ollan followed him. Thorn went down next and Nikan looked at Moran. "I'll go down," she said.
"No, you go first," Moran, said, wanting to keep her distance from Kail.
She watched Nikan's blonde hair disappear underneath the steam and the darkness.
Taking a deep breath, she placed a hand on the railing and prepared to slide down.
Blood exploded her face and her mouth was suddenly filled with something warm and copper-like.
Blood.
Her own blood.
She screamed, as she was pulled out of the hole with a force greater than a human's. She screamed as she saw the long, metallic claw protruding from her shoulder. She screamed as she saw her own ruptured flesh and bone.
"What's this? A sorceress in the Village of the Damned?"
She panted, knowing her life hung upon a thread as her own body swung from the claw of a large metal beast, with wings that rose above her head. She started shaking severely as the inhuman face of her captor grinned at her.
"IZUAL!" She heard Kail shout. "Let her go!"
"Kail, don't! You'll kill her!"
She forced her eyes open and saw Kail with his wand raised up high, ready to execute a curse upon the fallen angel, but Ollan had grabbed his arm.
"You'll curse Moran in the process – she'll die!" He said.
There was a ruthless cry from Nikan and Moran saw her release a javelin at Izual. The fallen angel merely laughed and Moran screamed as she felt her body slide against the metal claw. Thorn gave a war cry and leapt in the air, his axe high above his head. She heard, felt, and saw the blade of the axe falling against the large claw, slicing it through. She felt her body leave Izual's hold, and Thorn grabbed her before she hit the ground.
The pain was so intense the only thing she could do to prevent herself from fainting was to bite her tongue. Thorn dragged her away from the mutilated creature and deposited her into Kail's arms.
"Moran!" He said.
She pushed him away and clutched at the dirt in front of her. A wave of cold ice passed over her and frost collected on the ground, forming a path that led to Izual. The heat of the air melted it in less than a few seconds.
"What are you doing, sorceress?" The fallen angel said, smiling. "It will take all off the snow and ice to be found in the Barbarian Highlands to freeze me."
Gritting her teeth, she plunged her hands into the water.
The spell of the charged bolt erupted from her fingers and ran across the water, sending strands upon strands of pure electricity. Stars exploded in front of her as Izual screamed in pain.
"Tyrael – never – should have – trusted – me!" She heard the metallic voice cry. "Tyrael – stone – soul stone – fool! "
"Moran let go!"
She pulled her hands out of the water and she felt like a thousand tiny batteries had suddenly had suddenly shocked her. She fell back a few feet and Kail wrapped an arm around her neck and the other around her waist.
Ollan pulled out his sword and leapt into the air, and with a clear swing, he brought the sword through the metal neck of the fallen angel that was still crackling with energy and lightning. Ollan came down on his knees and stayed still as the severed neck toppled off the powerful body and landed on the dirt.
Stars exploded again, but this time, it was in her own head.
"Moran!"
Her eyes fluttered open and she cried out in pain as soon as everything came to focus. She arched her back and promptly felt strong hands pushing her down.
"Don't move," Ollan said as he bent over her.
"NO!" She screamed. "You are not sacrificing part of your life for me! It's not worth it!"
She clutched at her torn shoulder and looked at him. "The rest of us needs you – it's better to have one broken, than to have two weak," she said. She took a shaky breath and held out her hand. "Give me a healing potion."
Kail slid the vial into her hands and she tore the cork away before pouring the whole thing into her mouth. The hole in her shoulder shrunk, but the pain it was giving her seemed worst than before.
"We have to keep going," she grunted, trying to push her heavy body up with one elbow. "There's no time to go back to town, and from what I'm guessing, each and every one of us needs to be there to bring down that bastard."
"Moran!" Kail took her hand and gave it a brief squeeze. "You can't fight like this."
"I'll just stay behind and try to electrocute him from afar," she grinned. "Come on, wrap me up."
Nikan tore a long strip of cloth and leather from her undershirt and tied it as tight as she could around the open wound, and Moran stood up. Except for a slightly woozy head and the wound that was threatening to rip her whole arm off, she felt almost normal.
"We're going to be scarred at the same place," she turned to Kail as soon as the others started walking down the smoking black path. She placed a hand on his quilted armor underneath the field plate and pulled it away to reveal the scar that he had received from Mephisto in Kurast. "I'm really sorry," she said.
"Sorry for what?" He thumped her head gently with his hand and took her arm. "Come on. The Chaos Sanctuary and Five seals await."
He dropped a kiss on her forehead and handed her staff to her. "You be careful now."
She weakly smiled back even though just holding the staff made her want to scream in pain.
"Ah – ah – ah –" she panted, as she tried to run after the others. Finally, she fell on one knee and managed to hold on a rock before falling on her face. She took a deep breath and held onto the stitch at her side. "Ow…" she moaned.
"Here," Thorn handed her a thin vial – almost as thin as a test tube with a milky liquid swishing around in the inside. "This might help you."
She tore through the cork with her teeth while running and poured whatever the white liquid was inside her mouth. Immediately, she felt warmth spread through her limbs and coolness through her burning head, and every tired muscle in her bone instantly came alive, save for the damned bleeding hole in her shoulder.
The instant spurt of adrenaline rushed through her veins and she started running, ignoring the stabbing pain in her shoulder. Kail cast her a look over his shoulder before continuing on the rocky path.
Finally after a few moments, Moran realized loose stones and gravel were no longer biting into the soles of her thick boots and she didn't trip over loose boulder so often. She looked down and saw a clear path of roughly cut stones was laid out – haphazardly at first, but slowly, they merged together and formed a straight path.
"Ollan…" she whispered to the paladin as they slowed down to a walk. "Where does this path lead to?"
"The Chaos Sanctuary," he ran a hand over his sweating brow, and turned to her. "Where the Five Seals awaits, and where Diablo rests in fury in the Pentagram."
He raised his hand and pointed to the distance and Moran followed his finger with her eyes. An ominous black shadow – so large it could have covered the entire Rogue Monastery wavered in the heat. She shut her eyes and she heard what sounded like a thousand humans screaming while their still-beating hearts were being ripped out of their bodies.
"How does one cause Terror to flee in fear, Moran?" Ollan asked her.
"But terror is fear," she said.
"Terror is much deeper than fear," his gray eyes bore into the looming darkness. "Fear is something you know – something you expect. Terror is something that comes upon you, something that you don't expect – something that is strong enough to make you mad. You don't have terror within you – terror comes after fear, and fear comes after terror. Even Terror itself has fears."
"And what is it?" She asked, clutching her staff with her unharmed hand. Terror…
"Terror's fear…fear of becoming nothing more than fear, Moran," he said. "Don't you understand? If Terror itself turns into nothing more than something frightful, then it is no longer real."
Ollan gave her a nod and trotted a few yards away from her.
She bit down on her lip, and with newfound determination, she kicked up her heels and hurried to join the front of the group.
When she was younger, Moran used take large globs of clay and turned it into creatures that looked like nothing more than distortions of the real thing. But gradually, it would take shape if she continued to work on it, to shape her hands around it, to take a small needle and etch lines into it. It would start to take shape and become a horse, a dog, or a dragon.
That was how the Chaos Sanctuary looked like. Developing from darkness into a Black Cathedral – made with bricks carved out of black bone, and plaster mixed with marrow pulp and blood. Reddish-black smoke rose from the carved towers and loomed in a frightful darkness over her their heads.
Kail threw out a hand and signaled for them to stop.
Moran looked ahead of her at the path and took a deep breath. An archangel – not as beautiful or glorifying as Tyrael was, but frightening all the same. He gave off a blue aura and the blackness inside his hood seemed to look straight at her, as if it was nothing but a thousand eyes clothed in a black veil.
"Wait," Kail whispered. "Before we approach the Sanctuary…we have to…" he held out his hands and showed a large blue stone, longer than Moran's finger and about twice as thick. It threw patterns of light on the ground before them. "Mephisto's soul stone. Stay here."
Nikan looked like she was starting to protest until Thorn laid a heavy hand on her shoulder and shook his head.
Kail disappeared in the smoky darkness for what felt like hours as they waited for him. Suddenly, a sound like a small baby crying broke through the silence – which rapidly grew to a bellowing of a grown man. The sky flared red and Moran heard herself whimper.
Kail appeared, his silver hair splattered with blood, and Moran saw a thin line of what looked like broken glass on the left side of his cheek. A bloody hammer fell out of his hands and he fell on his knees, panting.
"KAIL!" Her throat tightened as she fell down on her knees next to him and took his hands.
"I'm fine," he stood up. "The Soul Stone had to destroyed." He stared at her. "You'll have the pleasure of beating Diablo's damned Stone to pieces, like I have done to Mephisto's."
Limping slightly, he walked up to the Archangel and bowed his head in greeting.
"Tizual," he said. "Gaurdian of the Sanctuary."
"Procees Mortals, into Terror's lair," the organic/metallic voice boomed over them and the blue aura surrounding the large wings expanded. "Know this, that Diablo's innermost sanctum lies within the Five Seals…Five seals…five heroes."
"Five seals…Five Heroes," Moran felt the breath catching in her throat.
"Go."
She raised her staff, the Shiver Armor around her flashed once, and she stepped on the path that led to Death.
"Flee in fear, Terror," she hissed.
Welcome to Hell.