21- In Every Human Soul…
Kurtis recoiled from the firmness of her words, and looked at her without understanding.
"Who exactly d'you think you are, Croft?"
But the young woman ignored him completely and forced him to turn around to expose the tattoo to the light. Ignoring the mercenary's protests, she leaned forward slightly, concentrated on the ink lines deeply drawn on the young man's back. With her fingertips, she followed the rightmost one. Kurtis fidgeted.
"What the hell's wrong with you?!"
"Of the five locations, we've managed to identify four of them precisely..."
Kurtis frowned as he tried to catch her gaze over his shoulder.
"... and even though we couldn't figure out what the fifth was, the constellation's location was accurate."
He felt Lara's fingers caressing the lines of his tattoo, as if she was following a path drawn on a map. The expression on the mercenary's face suddenly changed.
"Cassiopea...", he murmured.
"Iran."
Their eyes met.
"PARSA," the young woman added in a whisper.
Kurtis slowly turned around, keeping his gaze on hers, but he didn't seem to understand what the adventuress was referring to. He asked for more details with a slight shake of his head and raised eyebrows.
"The letters. They form the word 'Parsa', I guess. This is the ancient Persian name for one of the largest and most powerful ancient cities, the former capital of the Persian Empire, one of the largest the world has ever known after the Egyptian Empire. And this city was located in what is now known as southern Iran."
She faced the mercenary's blank face.
"This is the original name of Persepolis," Lara explained in a soft voice.
Kurtis shook his head, as if he could not believe what it meant. And yet it all made sense, all the details and clues fitted together. It all fit. He too was thinking fast now.
"The portal's symbols that sealed the Nephilim cradle in Cappadocia, and everything we discovered over there… It was all written in ancient Persian...", Kurtis noticed.
"It can't be a coincidence."
All of a sudden, they heard a thud in the distance, like some kind of bang. The two adventurers turned around in a hurry. The noise seemed to be coming from the monastery's main buildings, and muffled screams suddenly echoed in the stillness of the evening. Lara and Kurtis glanced at each other quickly and frowned; Lara rushed to her belongings to grab her firearms, and Kurtis rushed to the door and opened it. Outside, his chirugai was floating in the air, waiting for them and already on the alert.
"Where is the glove?", asked the Englishwoman as they took position near the door, glancing outside in all directions.
"Hidden in Azarias' office. He kept it safe for me when we were busy those days. I was on my way to retrieve it when I passed by here."
They heard another thud in the distance. A little further away, the monastery's main door suddenly opened wide, and they saw a monk rushing out of the building in panic. The two adventurers immediately noticed the huge hole in his chest and his blood-soaked clothes. He staggered for a few feet before finally collapsing to the ground with a teerifying death rattle. Lara and Kurtis exchanged another puzzled look, before rushing out of the room.
Kurtis entered his own bedroom and disappeared for a few seconds. He came back with his belongings, Boran X in hand. Lara was waiting for him outside, her eyes focused on the monastery's main building down below. After a common nod, they slowly started making their way in the corridor and headed for the stairs that would lead them to the lower levels. The chirugai took the lead.
They went down the staircase as quietly as possible, made a stop at the end of it to quickly check the surroundings, before crossing the central courtyard at full speed, hurrying so as not to be attacked or taken by surprise while they were in the open. They carefully stepped over the monk's mutilated body, who had left large traces of dark blood on the ground before collapsing face first into the dry earth. After a last look around, Lara and Kurtis entered the main hall. It was quite dark in there, and a strange smell filled up the air. A smell of dust and blood.
There they found another body lying a few feet away on the ground, like a disjointed puppet, as if the man had been mowed down as he tried to flee. The heavy metal cross which normally stood in the center of the room had been destroyed, and its debris were scattered everywhere.
Behind them, the refectory was empty, and strangely silent of all the monks who usually stayed up late at night to say their prayers. But as the two adventurers glanced around the large room, they noticed that some of the chairs and tables had been moved and even overturned. They took a few steps forward and then noticed several more bodies scattered around the room. They exchanged a concerned look before turning back and heading for the council chamber, where they found nothing special this time.
They made their way back to the hall's center and took a look at the main staircase. Somewhere above their heads, they heard other screams and cries of agony, before silence suddenly fell again. Kurtis looked up at the steps, which were disappearing into the darkness, before looking down at the adventuress, who was holding her position behind him to cover their backs. She nodded slightly to give him the green light, and followed the mercenary as he entered the stone staircase. As they slowly made their way up, another bang, much closer and much louder this time, shook the walls around them. Lara and Kurtis suddenly stopped. Other loud noises rose in the distance. Screams, sounds of banging and fighting. Furniture and objects falling over or breaking. The chirugai passed by them with its usual whistle and disappeared up the stairs, the two adventurers followed it apprehensively.
When they finally reached the first floor and the huge library, they found themselves in a surreal scene: it was dark in the great sinister alley, but they could easily make out the bodies of several monks lying on the floor, or against some of the bookcases' collapsed shelves. There were furniture overturned and pieces and splinters of wood everywhere, bloodstains all over the floor and walls around them. Papers and grimoires and manuscripts were now mixed up with pools of blood. The Englishwoman and the American moved silently forward, weaving in and out of the monks' battered bodies. Some of the bodies had been cut in half. Arms, legs alone sometimes lay on the ground here and there. Lara clenched her fists a little tighter around her 9mm and followed Kurtis, who took the lead and led the way.
What happened here?, she asked.
They each positioned themselves on one side of the main library aisle, moving in parallel. At the far end, the door to Azarias' office was wide open. They glanced at one another, and Lara saw Kurtis shake slightly his head. He tried to focus on what lay ahead, his gun raised in front of him. He walked over another corpse, but did not dare to look down at the monk's ripped face who lay at his feet.
A book slid off a shelf and fell to the floor with a clatter, startling them both. They stopped walking, watching for any movement. Despite the heavy silence in the room, the traces of blood were quite recent, it was obvious to them both the incident or whatever had happened here had just happened. But strangely enough, there was no sound anywhere. Everything seemed to have frozen around them, and for a moment Lara felt as if she had returned to the Argentinean underground base. She almost expected to see mutant men emerging from the dark corners. After a few seconds, the two adventurers resumed their walk.
Something moved in the darkness, and a figure appeared through the door of the patriarch's office. But it was not him, judging by his height and build. He was a much younger man with brown hair, his piercing eyes shinning in the darkness, as bright as the light emanating from what he wore on one of his hands. The adventurers' eyes suddenly widened as they realised what it was. But before they could react, the man raised his arm and sent a jet of energy in their direction. Kurtis had just enough time to step aside and take cover behind one of the bookcases, and Lara ducked and ran to hide behind an overturned table somewhere near.
At the other end of the aisle, the possessed monk let out a shrill, almost inhuman scream, like that of a beast that had just missed its prey. They saw his face twisting with rage. From where they stood, Lara and Kurtis recognised Brother Giannis, and Eckhardt's glove, which seemed to heat up and vibrate dangerously on his arm.
How is this possible? How did he get past the glove?
Lara bent down a little more as another flash passed right over her head. Kurtis took the opportunity to come out of hiding, and fired, even though he already knew his bullets would not be of much use here. And as he feared, they hit an invisible force field, which surrounded and protected the monk. The mercenary hurried back to safety before the man could counterattack. The chirugai also attempted a surprise attack, but Giannis knocked it off course and pushed it back. The man let out another cry of rage, the two adventurers exchanged a brief glance.
'Have no idea, Kurtis finally replied. I just hope he's not one of those I-dunno-what beings with super powers we didn't know about
Lara suddenly stood up and fired. Giannis raised an arm to protect himself, and the bullets got lost and ricocheted in all directions. The magnetic field rippled for a moment, as if it had absorbed the shocks. Lara crouched to take cover as the monk returned fire. A piece of the table exploded over her head as she hid behind it.
The silence fell abruptly in the room, Lara was panting. She glanced at Kurtis who was lurking in the shadows nearby.
"Come and face me, you miscreants!", the monk suddenly shouted.
The American's piercing blue eyes finally met those of the adventuress.
We have to try to get to him before he destroys everything
And us too, she agreed.
They heard a kind of sizzling sound, like a burnt-out light bulb, and Giannis let out another scream. But this time it was a cry of pain. The man slumped over himself and writhed in pain, a very strange light shone from the glove. They saw the field of protection diminish slightly around him. The two adventurers looked at each other, almost surprised.
I think you have your answer, Lara said mentally.
As if revived by this weakness, the monk screamed again and a jet of energy exploded a chair not far from Lara. But Giannis was visibly losing strength, no doubt too possessed by Eckhardt's weapon. No mortal could control it, its power was destroying him from within, he would not last long at this rate.
Lara and Kurtis didn't have the advantage at the moment, but any moment now, the protective shield would break, or at least weaken enough to give them room to manoeuvre. Enough room to attack.
"Are you afraid to face me, you little filth?", Giannis shouted in his distorted and unpleasant voice.
Kurtis suddenly came out of his hiding place. Mentally, he grabbed a chair that was not far from him and sent it with force in the enemy's direction. The object flew through the air at full speed and smashed against the transparent protective shield. The man, already weakened, fell to his knees. Lara stood up and fired again, and although the bullets did not hit him directly, they seemed to weaken him a little bit more.
They had to seize the opportunity while they had the chance to. In the same movement, the two adventurers straightened up and ran towards the monk as long as they could, and as long as the protective field dropped in intensity, thus gaining the advantage over the monk for a moment. The chirugai whistled through the air once more and struck Giannis's glove and arm hard. The man groaned but tried to stand up, resisting the attacks of his assailants with all his might. Lara and Kurtis were now close enough to him to see the evil effects the glove had caused on him: most of his skin looked burnt, almost melted, large brown patches had formed all over his arms, neck and face. His hair had fallen out, burnt by the heat, and his green eyes were now a rather disturbing and frightening red colour. A slight trickle of blood was coming from one of his nostrils. The glove was killing him, and had sucked out all that was left of the human side of him, if there had ever been one. On his arm, the Devil's hand had taken on a golden, slightly reddish colour, as if it had been tinned, and seemed to be eating away, or perhaps melting the skin beneath.
As Lara and Kurtis finally reached him, they were taken by surprise by the monk, who suddenly stood up and pushed them back with a powerful jet of energy. The American was thrown against the nearest wall before falling to the ground, and the Englishwoman rolled on the ground for several feet before finally stopping abruptly, slightly stunned. Her weapons slipped away from her, but she did not have time to catch them. Giannis was already back on his feet and striding towards her. This time, a blue flame enveloped the glove on his arm, and his mad gaze fell on the young woman.
"Didn't you understand what this glove is capable of? Don't you understand that such a power could be used for an unimaginable number of things?"
Lara tried to sit up on her elbows, but she felt her body protest with pain, especially where the lightning had struck her. She winced but looked up at the enemy who was approaching with a heavy step.
"Is that why you massacred and slaughtered all your brothers? What do you think this glove will give you, Giannis?"
The man took another step towards her, his bloodshot eyes fixed on her.
"Power, eternal life," he replied with a wide, toothless smile.
His eyes shone a little brighter, and Lara couldn't contain a feeling of disgust. She knew the glove fed on the energy of its victims, but she had never seen it with her own eyes. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Kurtis, who had finally come to his senses and stood up, lurking in the shadows. From where he was standing, and anyway too busy attacking Lara, Giannis did not see him silently approaching from behind. The monk looked bad, hopefully he wouldn't last much longer and wouldn't resist the glove. The young woman kept her eyes on the man as a diversion.
"As well as being a complete misogynist, you're a complete moron. But I can't say I'm surprised."
The monk's face twisted into an expression of terrible anger.
"Shut up, you whore!"
Lara had just enough time to curl up and roll to the side to dodge the flame of energy Giannis had just thrown. The light hit the spot where she had been a few seconds before with a deafening sound, just like a lightning. Lara tried to sit up as the monk took another threatening step towards her.
"I'm quite used to being complimented, but don't worry, I'm not taking it badly, I can't be to everyone's taste," she articulated, a bit out of breath.
"To have such a source of power at hand is unexpected," the man interrupted. "These powers are a gift, a gift that it would be foolish to destroy when I can use it for my own purposes."
The aventuress couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Come on," sighed the young woman in an exaggerated manner. "Spare us the-big-bad-guy-who-wants-to-rule-the-world cliché, please, I think we've had enough of those."
The monk gave a cynical laugh that had nothing human about it.
"The return of the Guardians won't change anything," he said firmly. "You can do nothing against me. I control the glove now."
Giannis raised his arm to aim at the young woman, but he was clearly exhausted. His face, distorted with anger, suddenly changed expression. The energy field vibrated and weakened for a few seconds. Behind him, Kurtis took another step, and reached into his back trouser pocket for something. Lara saw something glowing in the hand he slowly raised above his head as he approached the monk, who seemed to have completely forgotten about his presence.
"Do you really think so?", Lara hissed through clenched teeth.
Though he tried to hide it and hold back, the monk's face twisted with the pain that invaded him from within. His body gave way, he staggered, unable to control his own body anymore. It was then the adventuress saw the crack she had hoped for. The discontinuity and weakness in the protective field the glove generated. The transparent bubble surrounding the mad monk suddenly lost its intensity.
Everything happened very quickly. Lara rolled to the side to grab one of those 9mm guns and turned to fire. The bullet pierced Giannis's shoulder with a heavy splash of blood, the man fell backwards from the impact, taken off balance. Kurtis leapt up and out of the shadows, his periapt shard raised above him. At the same time, Lara pushed on her hands to get back to her feet and charged straight at the monk, who, realising what was happening, tried to turn around to counterattack the mercenary. But as they had hoped, the man was now too weak to counter two consecutive attacks and to hold the energy field at the same time.
The young woman grabbed Giannis' arm to block him, but the glove was getting seriously hot under her fingers. She winced in spite of herself and pushed back with all her might to contain the monk. Kurtis slipped his arm around the man's neck to block him and planted the periapt shard in the monk's chest with a sharp, precise blow.
The man screamed at the top of his lungs and flailed about. He broke free from Lara's grip and pushed her forcefully to the side. He then tried to get rid of Kurtis, who resisted. He grabbed the handle of the shard and pulled it out of the flesh, before lowering it again into the monk's belly this time. Black, or perhaps very dark red, blood poured out of the wounds the mercenary had caused. After a final effort, Giannis managed to free himself from the American's grip, but immediately collapsed to the ground, unable to resist any longer. The glove had taken over.
A blinding light, coming from the Devil's Hand, suddenly filled the room and the space around them. The monk began to scream and convulse violently. Flashes of light shot through his body, shaking him in all directions. Kurtis, still on the ground, narrowly avoided a jet of energy from the glove and turned to protect himself. Lara put a hand in front of her eyes to avoid being blinded, but the sight of Giannis' agony was terrible. His skin, which now looked like a pasty mixture of flesh and blood, suddenly seemed to burst into flames. He tried to scream, but his cry was stuck in his now melted throat. He continued to wriggle and writhe as if desperately trying to breathe, until after yet another flash of light his body fell limply to the thick stone slabs of the library.
There was a brief silence, during which the two adventurers did not dare to move. Then, slowly, Kurtis was the first to stand up. He staggered towards the monk, his Boran X pointed at him. Lara shook her head to clear her thoughts, before grabbing her weapons and straightening up too. Her head was spinning badly, she could still feel the palms of her hands heating up from contact with the metal and leather of the glove. She joined Kurtis, who was standing over the still smoking body of the monk, his weapon pointed at his face. But just as the young man was about to shoot, Lara grabbed him by the arm to stop him. When their eyes met, the adventuress nodded negatively, before sheathing her pistols in silence. When he looked down at the monk he was holding at gunpoint, Kurtis knew there was nothing more to do. It was over.
The young man put his weapon away, and called back his chirugai. He then bent down to remove the periapt shard from the monk's blackened carcass, whose empty eyeballs seemed to stare at him. He looked away and concentrated on his movements. After carefully trying out his dagger, he crouched down and set about undoing the glove on the arm of Giannis' corpse. He carefully undid the thick leather straps that bound it and then noticed the glove bore no trace of burns or tears, as if nothing had happened. It was absolutely intact.
To his own surprise, the mercenary had no trouble sliding it off the monk's arm. He handled it carefully, almost fearing it. He straightened up and stood for a moment contemplating it.
"Looks like every single dumb people of this mad world's trying to get that damn glove now," he finally told her in a bitter voice.
He looked at the adventuress, and Lara shook her head gently, before glancing around at the chaos around them.
"Giannis wasn't very neat, but I never thought he would have killed them all."
The two adventurers suddenly looked at each other and realised the same idea had just crossed their minds. They rushed without thinking to the small room at the back of the library, jumping over the debris that blocked their path. When they finally entered Azarias's office, they could only see the mess that was there. The office was upside down. All the books and papers the brother had been working on were scattered all over the place, the big desk had been blown to one side. Underneath was the lifeless body of Brother Azarias. Kurtis rushed forward, although his hopes were soon dashed when he realised the poor man had been crushed and almost cut in half by the large piece of furniture. He let out a frustrated sigh. Distraught, he turned back to Lara who was looking around the room. They looked at each other for a moment, both a little lost.
"What do we do now?", the young woman asked.
Kurtis ran a nervous hand through his hair and looked away. He seemed to be thinking.
"Dunno how the Guardians are supposed to cope without their mentor. He might have known things that could have been useful to us."
The aventuress took a deep breath and shook her head sharply to contradict him. She couldn't help but look down at the corpse lying a few feet away.
"I'm not sure Azarias knew much of anything. I don't think he could have helped us much more, or given us any additional information. He told us himself his order had never found a serious lead on the Prima Materia. He clearly didn't know about the stone and the paintings. And then, from what I understand, the Guardians have managed to survive without a mentor for centuries, am I wrong?"
The mercenary considered the young woman's answer seriously, his blue eyes fixed on her. Then he took a deep breath and blew out, hands on his hips.
"Guess we'll just have to deal with it, then," he said, almost annoyed, or perhaps discouraged.
"Are we not getting used to it now?"
He turned to the young woman, who was watching him attentively from where she stood. Despite the seriousness of the situation, they exchanged a pale, knowing smile. But as Lara was about to turn around and leave the office, she was caught by the expression that had frozen on the mercenary's face. He looked worried.
"What's wrong?", she asked, frowning.
He looked at the corpse which lay at his feet.
"There's one last thing we can do before leaving."
—
Kurtis gave a final stroke with the shovel to flatten the earth at his feet. He slowly stood up and wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, before dropping the tool beside him. His hands were getting seriously hot, and the muscles in his arms were aching. One by one he contemplated the clods of earth they had spent the night digging with Lara to decently bury the monks slaughtered the day before. The cool morning air made him shiver as his eyes wandered over the large expanse of grass in which he stood. Strangely enough, the mercenary took a moment to savour the calm of the dawn that was emerging far to the east. He had thought this place, a little higher up above the monastery, not far from its gardens and the great pine forest, was an ideal one to honour the memory of these men.
He felt a movement behind him. When he turned his head, he saw Lara coming up to him with their belongings.
"I took some food for the journey," she said when she finally reached the mercenary.
She dropped the bags at their feet and glanced at the graves around them. The mercenary saw her shivering, but more from the fact it was still cold at that early hour of the day. But she looked worried.
"Is everything alright?"
The young woman took a few moments before answering him frankly.
"Once again, I can't help but feel that it's our fault if all those men died," she said softly in a bitter voice.
"You know very well that it's not our fault," the American retorted. "Giannis made a choice, he was blinded by his arrogance. Neither of them could have survived the glove anyway."
Lara bent down to pick up her bag. A little suspicious, she took a side look at the one in which the glove was. She straightened up and turned to look at the monastery below. The sun was finally breaking through the horizon, in a light as red as the one in which it had set the day before.
"The Agio Oros is no more. All their knowledge is now reduced to nothing, a whole part of history is lost forever..."
"But we are still here," Kurtis told her softly.
The young woman turned to him. They looked at each other wordlessly in the early morning light. She knew he was right. They had no other choice than moving on now.
Kurtis grabbed his belongings. They took a last breath of fresh air and finally set off, leaving the now deserted monastery behind.
"At least we know what's next and where to go," said Lara after several hundred feet as they climbed a steep ridge overlooking the Aegean Sea.
"We'll see where this gets us."
Lara looked down at the medallion she had slung around her neck.
"I don't know why, but I have the feeling this damn prophecy is going to do some serious damage on our way, no matter what we do, no matter where we go."
She heard the mercenary who was walking in front of her laugh.
"Believe me, you don't need that to do damage on your way."
She couldn't see his face, but she could clearly imagine the smirk that must have been on his lips at that very moment, and the sense of self-satisfaction he must have felt at his own joke, and that made her totally crazy.
"Fuck you, Trent," she said, unable to hold back.
The young man turned his head slightly, and she saw his eyebrows rise exaggeratedly, and an expression of false surprise come over his face.
"That was very delicate. And so much… like you."
The aventuress rolled her eyes in exasperation, and in the morning light, they walked the path that would take them away from Mount Athos for good.
—
OSLO, IN THE MEANTIME
Her empty gaze could not turn away from the hand she held tightly between hers. No matter how hard she squeezed, she could feel the tension in her muscles release as the flesh cooled against her skin. Her head hurt like hell, not to mention her broken leg. But that was nothing compared to the pain she was feeling at that very moment. She couldn't even feel the tears that kept rolling down her cheeks. All she could see was that damaged and intubated body. All she could hear was the continuous beeping of the monitor beside the bed. A steady, straight line, without the slightest variation. The point where everything stops.
There were people in the room. They were bustling around her, but she paid no attention to them. She was jostled several times, but she didn't notice it either, until she was grabbed firmly and forced to stand up. But she would not let go. Her hands remained clamped around his until the last moment, until her fingers slipped and finally abandoned him.
It had all happened very quickly, and yet time had seemed endless since their evacuation from Antarctica. They'd been rushed back. Luckily, Tobias had been taken to the urgencies services right away. But they had not been able to save anything from the base, and very few of them had survived. Everything had been destroyed, and was now buried in the ice. All the years of work and research had been wiped out in a matter of minutes.
She felt herself being pulled into a seat in a dark hallway. Unlike the room, it was strangely quiet here. Someone grabbed put their arms around her.
"I'm so sorry Miranda...", she heard in her ear.
She lay there for a long time, her head resting on this shoulder, drained of all energy. But she couldn't cry any more.
When she finally stood up, she faced the swollen face of young Saija, whose arm was stuck in a large bandage. Her long hair was pulled back and revealed a bruised and battered face. A staple closed a thick wound that had split her upper lip in two.
For long minutes, perhaps even hours - she had lost all sense of time - she lay there stupidly, slumped in her seat and staring into space. Several nurses came to meet her, but she did not hear them. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the lips of the young Norwegian woman sitting next to her moving as she tried to speak to her, but she couldn't hear any of the words coming out, as if her brain had disconnected from the real world.
Everything was falling apart and she couldn't hold anything back. Absolutely everything around her was falling into pieces, she felt as if the world was collapsing like the base had collapsed on her a few days before. The difference this time was that it wasn't the weight of stone and debris that was crushing her this time, but the weight of the emptiness. An immense, infinite emptiness.
She raised her hand in a clumsy movement and managed to slip it into one of her pockets. She rummaged around for a moment before grabbing something. She placed her closed fist on her lap, and when her hand finally opened and her fingers unfolded, her assistant discovered a relatively small object, made of glass it seemed, with an almost hypnotic blue colour. Saija frowned.
Miranda stared at the small vial for several minutes, before her fingers finally closed on it. The half-breed suddenly looked up at the young woman next to her, who looked at her with big, round eyes. Her gaze, which had been completely extinguished a few seconds before, suddenly came back to life, shining with an almost unhealthy glow.
"We have to find them. We have to find that glove," she said in a voice as cold as ice.