The Darkest Hour
By Ultima66
Chapter 3
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People take everything forgranted until they lose it, or do they? One questions this when it comes to life, but one thing is certain: that death strikes us all eventually.
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It was hopeless now, the two's fates. I had sealed them, and their souls would be free to roam soon, here in the Valley of Wind.
I paced forward, to the valley's entrance. Arche was long out of sight by now. Of course, I could sense her presence in the valley, so I followed her. This was a small place, and there would be nowhere to escape, not that escape would have helped their cause any.
I could feel her heart racing. How quaint it is, to be able to know how others feel, yet never having such warmth inside yourself. The main part of the Valley was straight, with high cliffs hanging over the sides. I walked toward the end of the valley, where Klarth was and Arche was headed.
Arche had now alerted Klarth. I knew her to be a quite loud girl, and quite a rebel, but she was loyal to Klarth. Klarth was her mentor, and the one she would turn to for help in the worst situations, and this was definitely a bad situation for her. Moments later they appeared in front of me.
Klarth was relatively tall, wearing a pointed brown hat and long vest, and an orange suit. Tattoos covered his body, and he held a large tome. Several rings were visible on each hand: his summoner's rings that granted him contracts with all the spirits.
Arche followed on her broom, pink baggy pants with a white shirt. They both looked determined to stop me at whatever I was going to do.
"Why are you here, and who are you?" he asked.
"Didn't Arche tell you already? I'm assuming she did, which means that you know I'm here to claim your lives. Of course, if she didn't I see no reason you'd be so angry to see someone you don't know," I said, almost jokingly.
"So she's correct. In that case, I have only one thing I can do, and that's to stop you," he said, solemnly.
"It's so interesting you're acting as angry at me, seeing as you are normally so carefree, and flirt with every woman you meet," I said, still making fun of him.
He didn't say a word. I knew it mean that the battle has begun. Apparently, Arche took to this as well, as she held up her arms, yelling "Lightning!"
A green spell circle appeared behind her. A moment later a bolt of electricity flared forward and right at me. In quick action I jumped to the side, my hand now on the hilt of my sword. The bolt hit the ground, leaving a burn mark. I pulled my sword.
Then I suddenly noticed Klarth. He had his tome open, and was now saying the oath of the contract. An enormous spell circle was on the ground under him. I leapt towards him, only to be met with a fireball, almost striking me. Then, Klarth raised his hand, and shouted the name of the ruler of this place.
"SYLPH!" he yelled.
A group of three sylphs appeared above. They held their hands in front of them, and sent a burst of wind forward at me. I was knocked to the floor, dirt flying everywhere. Klarth stared at me solemnly.
"Leave now, and bother us not. I will spare you," he said.
Getting up, I sheathed my sword. I realized this was not a battle to be fought with my blade. Not this time.
"I'm nowhere near done fighting. If you want me to actually start fighting, then so be it. You're through," I said, menacingly.
It was my turn to attack. I held my hand upwards and with my own spell circle behind me, shouted "Fireball!" and sent a flurry of fireballs roaring at the sylphs. They blocked with another burst of wind, which caused one fireball to go flying at Arche. She managed to avoid it, but only barely, and she was shaky getting back up.
I continued to channel fireballs. They were all avoided, but the sylphs and especially Arche were having a hard time avoiding it. They all fired at me at once, Arche with a blast of frost. I leapt upwards, and channeled my own spell in midair.
"Lightning!" I yelled. This time, I was up in the air, so the sylphs didn't have a chance to avoid the attack. The dematerialized back into their own world, like ghostly spectres vanishing into thin air.
By the time I landed, however, Klarth was already calling another spirit.
"Luna!" he called. The spirit of the moon came down from the clouds, piercing the sky. She fired a barrage of crescent beam at me. I quickly brought up an energy shield, but the barrage was doing it's damage. I quickly focused on a spell, and I noticed the green spell circle had appeared behind Arche too.
Moment later, I released my shield.
"INDIGNATION!" we both yelled simultaneously. Lightning bolts started exploding everywhere, annihilating anything around. The enormous spells met between us and caused a huge explosion.
I was thrown back. Klarth was apparently out of the blast range, and Arche and Luna had apparently flown high enough to dodge.
"I think it's time for some moves you've seen before, perhaps performed by Cless?" I said.
I focused myself. Suddenly, I burned with fire. Becoming a deep-red flaming bird, I took flight and dive-bombed Luna, past her barrage of crescent beams. As I hit I reverted and started falling down. Luna then dematerialized just like the sylphs.
"So, how do you like a Phoenix attack used against you?" I said
Klarth looked unconcerned. He started chanting another spell. And before I could react, Arche had readied a spell of her own.
"Lightning Blade!" she yelled, as a stream of lightning pured forward and covered the area with bolts. I quickly blocked, but this time I was thrown down. I got up slowly, watching Arche for any spells she might decide to throw at me.
Suddenly from behind, a burst of fire erupted, and there were minuscule explosions and heat that I could feel on my back. I wheeled around, and in front of me now hovered the god of fire: Ifrit. Ifrit pelted the area with fireballs, and it was the most I could do to block. Waiting for and opening, I found one and leapt upwards, landing behind a rock, temporarily blocking Ifrit and Arche's assault.
"Alright, then. Klarth is getting to be a huge pain. Every time I take down one of those damn spirits, anotehr takes it's place," I said to myself, thinking. I drew my sword.
I held the sword upwards, as a blue barrier enveloped me, containing an enormous gust blowing straight up, lifting me up a few inches. Suddenly, I vanished.
"He can teleport!" said Arche in surprise. By now Klarth was looking shocked. Who in the world can use the most powerful skill of their leader, Cless?
I reappeared next to Klarth, slashing at him. He fell back, but was unharmed. I warped back to where I had began, behind the rock. I thought for a second.
"Alright, time to prove why I have this sword. It better hold a charge," I stated to myself. I knew what I was doing now. My sword was able to hold a spell, so that I wouldn't have to charge it myself. Unfortunately, my past attempt at this didn't work right. It had released too early, sending my fireball spell exploding in every direction, without me having the time to aim it.
I began focusing energy towards the blade. I ran out from behind the rock, discovering Arche having a Tidal Wave spell ready, sending a torrent towards me. No time to worry now, I thought. I just kept on running forward, avoiding the torrent. Ifrit saw me and began throwing more fireballs, in a rapid flurry rivaling that of an entire army of bowmen. I kept on running. I dashed behind Klarth, making him have to jump to the side to avoid Ifrit's attack.
Then suddenly, my sword glowed. I dug my foot into the ground, wheeling all the way around mid-motion, and pointed my sword at Klarth.
"Indignation!" I yelled, as the enormous explosion of lightning roared out, heading straight for Klarth, who had still not gotten up after Ifrit had fired his direction. He was sent flying, shocked and severely hurt, hitting the cliff on one side of the valley.
His eyed glowed with shock. He didn't speak, but even Arche could tell what he wanted to say. He knew he had met his match, someone that could beat his summons and still be able to attack him. I wasted no time. I dashed forward, holding my sword forward, and ran right at him. The blade sank into his stomach, and as I pulled it out, blood freely gushed from the wound. He dropped his tome and fell to the floor, almost in a sitting position, then fell forward and closed his eyes.
"No!" yelled Arche, "You can't die! Klarth!"
"It's over, there's no denying it.," I said. Ifrit had now begun dematerializing, for without a contract, the spirit would not follow the orders of anyone else.
"You... you MURDERER! You're nothing but a no-good murderer!" she yelled at me.
"If you must blame me for something by yelling it in my face, why don't you make it a less obvious quality of mine?" I said coyly. She couldn't do anything about it. I didn't care about killing anyone. A normal person would feel guilt, but I didn't. I held up my sword, covered in blood, and turned to Arche.
"I... You're... ugh. God! I have to try to stop you! It's the only thing I can do, and I have to do it!" said Arche.
"That's futile thinking, as for one, you won't stop me, and besides, your death will be this part of my quest coming to a close won't it? So you really do stop me by dying, not that I haven't done what I wanted," I said.
We stared at each other. Silence. Moments passed.
"Indignation!" we both yelled simultaneously. Again, the two enormous spells hit, but this time, Arche was obviously really after me, and I conformed to her anger by making my attack just as large as hers. The resulting blast caused a rock slide on one side of the cliff, and I dodged, while she flew higher. Using the falling rocks, I jumped upwards towards the top of the mountain. With another momentous leap, I was in the air only a few feet from Arche. I slashed, this time using the properties of the sword to engulf it in energy, extending the range. Arche flew backwards, but the tip of the blade caught the broom and it started falling. Arche tried to regain balance, but couldn't, as she fell towards the mountain.
She regained balance at the last minute, and stopped, but now she was floating dangerously near a cliff, with nowhere to go. I used my own spell.
"Explode!"
A flare ripped through the mountain, sending Arche flying. The broom flew upwards, toward me, and I caught it in my own fall. I landed cleanly, while Arche slammed into the ground, a few feet from Klarth's dead body. I tossed her broom behind me. All the better for me if I could actually reach her.
She got up slowly. She was weakened, but I knew from the burning look she gave me that she could take me on. We stood facing each other silent again.
Minutes passed. We were both focusing our energy so that we could cast a chain of spells. This was going to be one firefight I wasn't going to forget. I started.
"Fire Storm!"
A torrent of flaming debris flew forward, and a burning tornado formed. The storned towards Arche, scorching the ground in their wake.
"Stone Wall!"
Arche conjured a wall of rock, repelling the fire and the wind. She was now out of sight, but not out of trouble.
"Explode!"
The wall shattered, leaving us facing each other again. Now Arche decided she would be the one to fire at me.
"This is for Klarth F. Lester, the greatest researcher I have ever known. God Breath!"
A freezing wind picked up, and the scorched rock was now frozen over as the water in the air suddenly condensed and became solid.
"Fire Wall!"
I raised a wall of fire, completely reversing the flow of condensation, causing a massive explosion of as the water in the air struggled to change temperatures this fast.
"Ray!"
Arche's spell tore through the steam, as beams of light covered the area.
"Black Hole!"
A dark hole began forming over us. I felt the immense gravity push me upwards. The rocks around were now flying upwards toward the hole. I looked into it, and found the core.
"Indignation!"
The bolt struck the core of Arche's spell, canceling it. We were both breathing hard, after that test of reaction.
"You still got any left?" I asked, knowing she was more tired than me.
She remained silent. We both focused for a few seconds. We knew what was going to happen, and this real test would show the victor. A few seconds...
"METEOR STORM!"
Enormous rocks flew from everywhere to everywhere. Neither of us could tell what the hell was going on; the insane amount of power a single Meteor Storm packed was almost beyond measure. Two being cast at the same time was unheard of. I used what energy I had left to make a shield, and allowed the assault to continue. Several minutes later, the rocks stopped falling. I looked over and saw Arche on the ground, almost no enrgy left, sitting next to Klarth's body. I knew she cared. She didn't love Klarth or anything, but to her, Klarth was a really important figure. Klarth was her teacher, her role model, and she used all of her energy to shield his body, even though she could barely protect herself.
"Please. Don't leave him down here. I'm going to die, and I don't know what will happen to me, but at least show him some respect," she pleaded, knowing the end was here.
"Arche, is it that you fall in with every guy you know, or that you'll be stupid enough to fight for whatever sentimental cause you have even though there's no point?" I said, "You don't love Klarth and you never did. So what is it that's making you care so much now?"
"It's... it's because I can't let someone like you prevail with destroying the memory of my friends. You just don't understand. You don't have a heart!" she said.
"Very well then. I don't care. I'm just here to do this, and I'm going to no matter what you say," I said. I tensed my grip on my sword. Slowly, I walked over to her.
"Please, don't leave him here..." she said again.
I walked forward. I grabbed her by her shoulder, lifting her up. She couldn't stand up, but I kept my grip. She turned her head towards me, tears flowing down her cheeks. I turned her around and pulled her close, grabbing her by the stomach. I held my blade up to her neck.
"So," I asked, "Any last words?"
She remained silent.
I pulled the sword closer, now touching her neck. I pulled the sword across her neck in a swift motion. A last breath escaped her, and her eyes flew open, staring forward, an empty look. Blood flowed down her chest, staining her blouse a deep red, then down to my other arm that was gripping her around the stomach.
She fell down as I loosened my grip, and closed her eyes. She fell to the dirt, and lay in a heap, stained with blood.
"Goodbye, Arche Klaine. You'll be missed, I suppose," I said, staring at the bloodstained corpse that lay in front of me.
"So, you wanted me to not leave Klarth here? Come on Arche, would I really give a damn about Klarth? If someone finds you two, I guess they can worry about it. I have things to be doing," I said, turning away from her, "Half of my mission is complete, so now it's time for me to move on to my own time, and finish off the other 3 heroes of time."
With that, I started walking towards the entrance of the valley. Half of the mission was now over, and I was to go on to finish it, my dark nocturne of a quest of death and destruction. It was time for the darkest hour to reach it's climax, and I would be the driving force behind it. My dark heart burned with the will of murder, and I was off to follow it.