Chapter 20: Showdown
The alchemy laboratory was a Gothic, rectangular room with brown stone walls. A solitary sceleton rested in a rusty cage hanging from the ceiling, seven metres above Lara. The intruder entered the room from a sandy tunnel. She quickly ran her eyes over Eckhardt's impressive collection of occult manuscripts, alchemic experiments and torture devices from the Inquisition – head crushers, knee splitters, tongue tearers and other unpleasantness.
Lara walked up to the wooden tables and glanced at Eckhardt's experiments. Phials of purified hydrogen, oxygen, salt and other elements were placed in odd circuits of calcination, putrefaction, solution, distillation and conjunction. The smoke and stench clogged Lara's nostrils and brought tears to her eyes. Coughing, she grabbed some parchment from the table and stepped back to study Eckhardt's writing. It looked like a journal entry from 'Autumn, 1345'.
I have 100 summers to prepare for the revivifying of the Nephilim bloodline. And the reward for my labours will be immortality.
1425.
By the means of human sacrifice, the Sanglyph is complete! I have today cast the Nephilim metals into five symbols of power. The Glove, attuned in like fashion, is almost complete. With it I shall harvest those essences necessary for the Sleeper's awakening. By the Glove and Sanglyph combined shall I bestir the Sleeper to my bidding.
My every attempt to extract Nephilim essences has come to nought. I need the true cask of the Sleeper. It must be found!
The thrice cursed Shard of the Lux Veritatis maggots I have placed beyond reach. With it hidden, none will stand against me. And wherever they lie, I will have the Obscura paintings. Never again will mortals be armed against me and my sacred quest.
"Sacred quest? I doubt it, Eckhardt," Lara said and dropped the parchment on the stone floor.
She walked through the laboratory and into a round side room with a pool of water in the middle. The clear surface was approximately two metres in diameter. Lara could see a thin pedestal sticking up from the bottom. A dagger-like shard rested on the top of the pedestal, five metres below the water surface. It looked just like Kurtis' two shards – dark blue blade, white handle.
"This looks too easy," Lara figured. She reached out a tentative finger and touched the surface. It felt cool and clear.
Leaving her backpack on the floor, she slowly lowered herself into the pool. It still felt like normal water, but Lara remained suspicious. She took a deep breath of the stale air and easily dove down to the top of the pedestal. The words 'Periapt Telum' were inscribed on the shard. This was obviously one of the Lux Veritatis artifacts she would need to defeat Eckhardt. Lara snatched the crystalline shard.
Noises of ancient machinery immediately reverberated from the wall of the pool. Lara catched a glimpse of trapdoors opening, a black substance spilling out.
The tomb raider whirled around and swam back, kicking one foot against the pedestal to propel herself upwards as rapidly as possible. The oily substance rose below her like a menacing shadow. The water turned thicker, warmer. As Lara frantically swam towards the surface, she felt the water start to boil around her legs. She wanted to scream, but opening her mouth would hardly improve the situation. She clenched her eyes shut and fought to rise to the surface, fought to survive …
… and as she was almost ready to lose the fight, her head broke through.
Lara gasped for air before letting out a high-pitched scream of agony. Her arms shot out of the water, slapped onto the floor and pulled her up from the hellish pool. She instantly dropped the Periapt shard on the floor, picked up her backpack, searched through the pockets and produced a bottle of spring water, which she had purchased at a German gas station last night.
Lara's legs were as red as a lobster's claws and felt even worse than they looked. Even though the pain had been caused by water, her skin felt like it was being consumed by fire. She ripped the screw cap off the bottle and poured the cool water over her limbs. For a horrifying moment, her entire body went numb, and Lara thought she was going to pass out. Then the searing pain returned, but it was slowly wearing off.
Lara leaned back against the wall. The pool surface had turned utterly black, bubbles and smoke rising from the thick substance. Lara wondered what it could be. Pitch? Oil? Some kind of acid? Whatever it was, it made a remarkably sadistic trap. But Lara was also a remarkably fast swimmer.
The raider picked up the artifact from the pedestal and examined its blunt-looking, yet razorsharp blade. "The third Periapt shard. Let's see what Eckhardt has to say about this." Lara stood, tucked all three shards into the pockets of her khaki shorts and walked back through the main laboratory.
A gate had risen in the wall, revealing a steep slope beyond it. Lara walked through the doorway and slid down the tunnel like a surfer riding a wave. The slope twisted around and led her to a hallway ten metres beneath the lab. Her feet skid to a halt in front of a dark blue gate. She pushed the wooden doors open and entered the final area of the Strahov complex.
The round hall looked at least thirty metres high. Three square pillars supported the dome ceiling, arranged in the points of a triangle around the centre of the hall. Lara gripped her pistol tightly and walked out onto this centre. Three metal walkways hung above, surrounding the arena. Ladders led up each pillar to the next walkway.
On the highest walkway, Eckhardt stood at the edge with five occult symbols from the Obscura paintings laid out on the platform before him. As he fused the symbols with telekinetic energy, a blue beam of light shone from the metallic coalescence. "The Sanglyph! Finally!" Eckhardt felt a rush of satisfaction, along with the Sanglyph's power surging into its maker. His head lolled back, mouth dropping open to utter a piercing roar of triumph.
Lara's eyes widened as she saw the Cubiculum Nephili being lowered from the ceiling. The Sleeper hung in a leant-back pose as if screaming at the heavens themselves. Intricate patterns and symbols were cut into its pale skin, especially across the face. Horns jutted out from the shoulders, and grotesque tendrils hung from the back of its head. Its body was that of a thin, male human being, and yet an otherworldly beauty emanated from it – signifying its once angelic ancestors.
Lara, however, knew that this was nothing short of a demon. Eckhardt's work had to be stopped. She aimed for the man on the walkway three storeys above and squeezed the trigger.
BLAM
Without even blinking once, Eckhardt held out his Sanglyph disk and deflected the bullet.
"Still alive, Miss Croft. You are resilient," Eckhardt said, his voice reverberating through the immense hall. "But over the decades, I've killed more mortals like you than I can remember."
"And stole their body parts, like a cheap grave robber," Lara snapped.
"As I will now take yours." Eckhardt started marching down the walkway, making his way to the arena. Lara fired at him, but he effortlessly dodged the bullets by slipping behind the metal pillars.
"You degenerate throwback!" Lara yelled. "All those organs you ripped from your victims were for waking this … thing!"
"Only my great arts can cause the higher race to flourish again."
The alchemist's voice seemed to echo off every single wall and pillar, making it impossible for Lara to determine which direction to take aim at. She spun around while slapping a new clip into her Scorpion X. "So, I guess it's up to me to stop you then?"
"I hunted down and killed the last of the Lux Veritatis," the ubiquitous voice said. "I am immortal!"
Lara merely pulled out the Periapt shards and held them up for Eckhardt to see.
"The shards!"
"Scary, huh?" Lara gave a wry grin. "For you."
"It is my destiny to breed Hell on earth."
Lara suddenly heard the voice coming from one specific direction. She pivoted and saw Eckhardt standing between two pillars, where he had just jumped down from the lowest walkway. The alchemist glared at her through his crescent-shaped glasses. "You are nothing to me."
Lara raised her pistol to aim at his head. "D'you know, it's going to be a real pleasure to shut you up."
The moment Lara had finished her sentence, a vertical ocean surface of colours billowed forth from the floor. The energy field rose and formed a circular wall around the three pillars, trapping Lara in the centre of the hall. She cursed and fired the Scorpion X. The bullets glanced off from the swirling mist, and Eckhardt stood protected on the other side. Even if the shield hadn't been there, bullets would only weaken the alchemist. Lara had to finish him off with the shards.
"You can't win!" Eckhardt bellowed. "I will harvest your organs!" He swung the Sanglyph out, and flames emerged from its bronze surface. The majestic wave of fire broadened in the blink of an eye and rushed across the entire arena.
Lara waited for the right moment, then jumped up as the wave passed under her. For a splitsecond, she felt the tongues of countless flames licking up towards her feet. Then, the fire vanished behind her and she landed on the floor, unscathed.
Eckhardt roared again and jumped up behind the force field. In mid-air, he vanished in a flash of blue light, teleporting himself. Lara whirled around in time to see him appear and land on the opposite side of the hall.
"Surrender to your fate." Eckhardt held the Sanglyph out again, energy streaming through his gloved fingers. A blue light swept over the arena. Lara dropped to the floor, narrowly dodging the electric shock.
Eckhardt ran to the middle of the energy field between two pillars and abruptly stopped, bowing his head. Lara frowned. The concentrated man reached his arms up, and a reddish glare appeared between all three pillars. As the light faded down, Lara saw three figures standing around the arena, just outside the energy field. The figures were charred and blackened by flames, their heads and arms hanging limply, but they were obviously copies of the alchemist himself. Lara spun around and restlessly aimed her pistol from one Eckhardt duplicate to the next. The original maker was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly, all three copies sprinted into the arena. Lara briefly thought they were going to attack her, but the unholy trinity merely ran to the center and fused together in a flash of light. The ground shook as the real alchemist appeared in the middle of the hall.
Lara quickly regained her balance and ran towards Eckhardt. He looked weak and exhausted, reeling with closed eyes. Lara didn't hesitate to deliver a hard kick to his head. Eckhardt slumped on his knees. Lara pulled out a Periapt shard and jabbed it down …
"For Luddick."
… into the man's chest.
Eckhardt opened his eyes and uttered a long, deafening scream. His agony echoed through the entire hall. Lara savoured the noise.
Eckhardt scrambled to his feet and tried to run away, but Lara flung the second shard after him. "For Werner."
The blade plunged into the alchemist's back. Eckhardt screamed again and collapsed against a pillar. He sat hunched up and silent, awaiting his demise. Now that the Periapt shards were restraining him, the energy field vanished as abruptly as it had appeared. Lara produced the third and last shard. She walked up to her fallen enemy and raised the shard above her head.
"For Kurti-"
A vice-like hand gripped her wrist and wrenched the Lux Veritatis weapon from her fingers, while the other hand effortlessly pushed her to the floor. Lara landed on her stomach, spun around and trained both pistols on the assailant. The blonde Englishman stood motionless, Periapt shard clutched in his gloved hand, ready to strike.
It took a second for Lara to recognize the last remaining Cabal member. "Karel?"
Eckhardt looked up weakly, two shards already stabbed into his torso. "Go on! Kill her!" he hissed.
In one fluid movement, Karel kneeled before Eckhardt and drove the shard into the alchemist's forehead. Eckhardt never even had time to realize his colleague's treachery. With one last rattle, his head hung limply over his blood-drenched chest. The Black Alchemist had finally been defeated.
To be concluded ...
