Chapter 9 - Blasphemous power
Nothing worked! Absolutely nothing. She tried to concentrate on the artefact with everything she had; she rubbed it, called out to it. She even cut her hand and bled a few drops of blood onto the useless thing, but it was all in vain.
Bondrewd all the while just watched in silence. It was so humiliating how she repeatedly failed in front of him and he just stared her down. She really tried her best, but that was obviously not enough.
"You did good Tanya. If all your efforts could not activate it then we will have to wait and see if the right moment will trigger it. Some mysteries are not easily understood, much less predicted. Now let us get back inside."
They were just outside the gates of Ido Front to not damage anything should the abilities her relic bestowed her with prove to be unexpectedly destructive. It had seemed like a smart decision until she heard a faint rumbling noise above her.
She looked up and saw something moving in the darkness. A part of the crystallized cave ceiling had loosened and was in the process of falling down. This was a remarkably uncommon phenomenon in the Abyss. Normally the walls and ceilings in here were unnaturally stable, to the point that it was believed to be part of the curse of the Abyss.
But from time to time it did happen after all. Corsen the Untamed had allegedly lost his life that way in the third layer. Now dozens of tons of rock were directly hurtling towards her. And she knew she would not be fast enough to get away.
Shock and disappointment about her unavoidable demise kept her legs stuck in place even as Bondrewd screamed for her to run.
And then... Time stopped. Literally. At first she didn't realize it, but then she noticed the absence of sound and saw that the stones above her had stopped falling. What was that? Then the ice-cold recognition hit her. Being X was here.
"Hello there, my lost lamb."
She knew that horrible voice. The cacophony of a thousand men, women and children speaking in unison was unforgettable. And she hated it more than anything else in the world.
"You fucking bastard! Go play your sick games with someone else!"
"No need to be so unpleasant, my child. I mean no harm. Quite the opposite in fact."
The voices all sounded unbearably smug.
"What do you want?" she snarled.
"I saw that you were in a pretty precarious situation and I want to help you."
Tanya huffed. As if!
"How? What do you want in return?"
"I will gift you with incredible power from the device above your heart to use at your leisure. All you have to do is praise my name and you shall receive wonders beyond your imagination."
She remembered that attitude: Pompous, arrogant and amazingly stupid.
"I will never worship you." she spat out in defiance.
"We will see about that, my lost little lamb. In my unending kindness I will also gift you with a few precious seconds. Use them well."
Although visibly nothing had changed, she instantly felt the absence of its presence. Now she knew that her finding the amulet in the sand had probably been no accident. That bastard had manipulated her and now wanted her to pray for him.
Just thinking about it brought honey-sweet words of worship to her tongue and she cringed in disgust. Nonetheless was it a necessary humiliation. She had no time for despair and no choice if she wanted to live.
"Almighty one," she intoned. The phrase came naturally to her and she let it flow from her mouth like syrupy venom. Golden energy radiated out from her artefact.
"Glory onto your name," she continued and her lips twisted into a joyful smile against her will.
"For you have delivered us from the darkness." Her hand raised like it was pulled by invisible strings.
"Bless us lowly creatures with your holy light" The golden veins in her chest pulsed and the palm of hand began to glow in blinding white light.
"To prove that none can hide from your judgement." she ended the incantation. The flow of time resumed to normal and a lance pure blistering power shot out of her hand into the air above them.
So overwhelmingly hot was the blast that air around it seemed to boil. A shockwave of scorching winds blasted around her and pushed everything except her away from the epicentre of the inferno. When the beam of white burning energy hit the falling rocks it did not only melt them, it evaporated them into nothing. The beacon of light punched through the debris like a sword through butter and continued its burning path to the ceiling.
After five long seconds, which felt like an eternity to her, the flow of power stopped and the spear of pure devastation disappeared into her palm. Looking up revealed a red glowing circle at the cave ceiling kilometres above them. Thinking quickly in spite of her shock she ran away from the place she was standing before molten rock dropped onto the sand with a loud hissing noise.
Bondrewd had somehow remained standing even if he was bracing himself against the scorching gusts of wind.
"How very interesting." was all he had to say.
Tanya wavered slightly on her legs and was promptly caught by Bondrewd before she could fall to the ground. All these raging emotions tired a five year old out quickly it seemed. She fell asleep in his arms.
