Chapter Five -
Sarah and Krixa walked along the Gable Street, which was more overcrowded than other streets. They spotted the cathedral five hundred meters away from.
"You haven't told me how you knew where Clay and Cedric were" Sarah asked.
"It's very simple. I can control water in all forms and I can feel the water. It sounds weird but if someone is taking a bath in my territory, I can feel it. The bandits were hit by a lot of rain drops, so I knew exactly where they were." Krixa answered.
"And how do you disappeared so quickly?" she asked.
"I can travel through stretch of water, so I became liquid and I shifted myself in a puddle. After I left the puddle, I've materialized myself" Krixa responded.
Sarah looked surprised at her and asked "Like a teleport?"
"Yeah but I can only teleport when water is involved. I can't teleport to you if there is no Water next to you" Krixa replied.
"Sounds cool" Sarah said.
They continued their walked and passed the cathedral. Hundreds of people were standing in front of the building which was over eighty meter tall and two hundred meter long. The cathedral was build out of yellow sandstone, every 10 meter was a thin, large tower bordered on the wall. A lot of large windows which were made out of expensive, transparent glasses in different colours, were built-in the cathedral. The cathedral's front door opened and the people pushed themselves inside the building. Sarah did not notice that she kept staring at the beautiful religious building.
"Keep going" Krixa said.
"Sorry, I was lost in thoughts" Sarah apologized. "
It's beautiful, isn't it? Krixa replied. Sarah
"Yes it is "Sarah responded. They admired the beauty of the building for a couple of minutes, before they walked to the citadel.
Clay and Cedric were waiting there for almost an hour.
"It took too much time for you to travel here, I thought we agreed that we met each other here an hour before" Clay asked.
"I'm sorry, I needed new clothes and it was hard to find good ones." Krixa answered.
"You haven't told us what you want to do in Stillmaw" Cedric asked.
"I have to find a druid or a shaman, maybe a fortune teller will also help. Do you know any druids, who live here?" Sarah responded.
"No, I don't know any of them. But maybe someone in the library can help you with your problem. Maybe you find someone who can help you finding these guys. Clay replied.
"I can try it. Let's go in the library", Sarah said. The others agreed and the group passed the giant front door. The citadel looked similar like the cathedral but it was larger and longer by a lot. They went through a few chambers before they used the large stairs. They stood in front of another giant door and they opened it and entered the room. They were amazed as they recognized the room's beauty. The room was extremely large and tall and filled with several thousands of shelves with a minimum of one thousand books for each shelf.
"Wow" Krixa said astounded. "
It's beautiful" Sarah replied.
"Yes it is. We should split up and meet each other in five hours exactly at this spot" Cedric proposed.
"Sounds good" Sarah said. Cedric and Clay nodded and they walked in one of the hundreds aisles.
"What are we doing now?" Krixa asked bored. "
I want to ask one of the librarians about someone who can help me with the prophecy. Maybe we can find a book about prophecies or powerful shamans, druids or fortune tellers" Sarah said.
Sarah asked Krixa if she could ask the librarians about powerful people who could help her with her prophecy. At first Krixa did not want to do it, but after a small discussion she had agreed.
"Okay I'll find the librarian and you can search the books. I don't like to read at all" Krixa said.
"Fine see you later" Sarah said thankfully. Krixa walked slowly and bored to the other right sight of the library. Sarah looked around to make sure that nobody was watching her.
She has not spotted anyone so she used her magic to create hundred versions of her, who distinguished themselves in size, hairstyle and hair colour.
Sarah and her versions spread out and they examine the shelves for books, which could be useful for the search for information about the prophecy. They looked through millions of books without finding any useful book. Sarah got frustrated a little bit, but she did not give up. She found a large, heavyand thick book with a damaged cover. The books title was 'Mythical & Powerful Creatures and Persons'.
She opened the list of contents and looked quickly over it. She saw a Chapter about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from page 245 to 294. She turned over to page 245. "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, also known as "The Four Riders of the Apocalypse", are ancient living beings, which exists since millions of years before the human kind. Their names are Death, Famine, Plague and War. They don't belong to a specific race, they are four special individuals. Some say that they created the world of Astaotov and each living being, which exists or had existed in the past, but nobody had proved that neither right nor wrong. According to many legends the Four Horsemen live in four different palaces, which are the largest ones in the world. The palaces locations are unknown. The Four are equal that means they have no leader", Sarah murmured as she read the first paragraph.
She skipped a few pages and saw a map of Astaotov on page 247. The land was formed like a skull and was parted in four kingdoms of almost the same territory on the left side of the skull around the left eye belonged to Death. The territory around the other eye belonged to war. The territory under Death's was the one of Plague and the territory under war belonged to Famine. Two years ago each Horsemen ruled his or her own kingdom but since Plague and Famine disappeared, War had three quarters of Astaotov.
Page 252 was about Death. 'Death is the Horseman who is responsible for the end of the life of each mortal living being. According to legends and rumours Death is a woman with dark silver hair, but that is not proven at all. Only a few individuals insist that they have seen Death as a tall over one meter and eighty centimeters tall woman, who wore silver-grey total-body armour. Other legends say that Death appears in random forms in front of his or her victims. On the other hand there are a few legends, which insists that Death appears as the victim's biggest and terrifying fears. Her weapon is a large scythe made out of an indestructible material. Death has many names like the Grim Reaper, the Reaper, the Widow maker, the Undertaker, the Soul Eater, the Soul Hunter, Soul Collector, Soul harvester and Devil's biggest Fear and a lot more. Death kills only those, which she believes deserve to be killed. She collects their souls or absorbs them to get stronger, but she prefers to collect them. She only absorbs a few powerful souls' was readable on the page. There were a couple more pages about Death but Sarah skipped them and opened the chapter about War.
She read that War is the strongest and cruellest one of the four Riders. His main task was to inspire people from different world's to battle each other, which created wars between worlds, nations and races. He got stronger for each warrior and living being which died by the hand of the creatures he had inspired. Usually he made one of the nations stronger to make sure that the side he had favoured had won at the end. But sometimes he empowered both of them to the same level, because he wanted to see an exciting battle. Sometimes he had joined the battle because he loved to slaughter weaker creatures. He loved to conquer other worlds in the universe and he takes the heads of strong creatures, he has slain, as trophies. She took a quick glance at the pages which followed page 258 but the information she got from there weren't useful at all.
"Did you found something interesting?" Krixa asked as she appeared behind Sarah
"Yeah I found a lot of interesting things"
"About a druid or a shaman?"
"Nah, about the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, or also known as Riders of the Apocalypse"
"I never heard that they were called Riders instead of Horsemen in my entire life"
"Because everyone thinks that they are male, but there is a high chance that Death is a woman, so HorseMEN wouldn't fit to them."
"Smart-arse"
"What? It's the truth. We don't want to discriminate anyone of the Riders by calling them Horsemen"
"Nobody cares. If that is the truth, everybody calls them Horsemen not Riders"
"But…"
"I don't care"
"Fine, can I at least tell you what I read in the books"
"Is it necessary?"
"Not really but…"
"No buts, if it's not necessary I don't want to know it. I help you with the prophecy only.
"Fine then not" Sarah said a little bit upset as she looked at Krixa, who looked annoyed in another direction.
Sarah asked Krixa about her search for a shaman or a druid and Krixa told her that she had heard about an old male druid who lives three kilometers away from here. The druid should be the best prophecy and dream interpreter in the whole world. Sarah told Krixa that she wanted to travel to the druid on the next day but they have to get some sleep before. Sarah said that she needed more time to read the book and Krixa told her to put the book into the backpack. Sarah told her that would be stealing but Krixa responded that if nobody see is its okay and nobody will miss the book anyway because there are millions of books in this library. She also told her that she should stop being a wet plankedand should act like a bad ass and not like a coward. Krixa placed the book in her backpack after she made sure that nobody saw them. They were silent while Sarah searched for other interesting books, because Krixa did not want to speak to her. They found a lot of books about magic, common creatures, magical artefacts, special and magical places. She put a large, heavily damaged book about the history of Astaotov in the backpack.
Clay and Cedric returned after two hours with a large, heavy and thick green book. Sarah asked them which kind of relic, they were searching but Cedric told them that it is a secret so he could not say anything about it because he searched the relic for his clan and they had forbidden him to tell anyone anything about the object. Sarah asked him about his clan and he told him that he is a high ranked leader of the clan, which is called "The Four Flames of Vengeance". He said that his clan was established to save and protect normal people who are not able to defend themselves by their own, against monsters, bandits and rogues. He had not told them any details about his clan, but Sarah guessed that the head of the clan was made out of four skilled warrior or mages.
She made them the suggestion to spend the night in rooms of one of the taverns. The men agreed and the four left the library after they put every book, they had chosen, in Krixa's backpack. They walked to one of the larger taverns and they entered it through the front door. The tavern was filled with more than three dozen tables, with four chairs on each table. Most of the tables were taken by costumers, from different age and race. Judged by their appearance, most of the costumers were male and older than forty.
They asked the barkeeper, an old man with a bald head, if a few rooms were free. He told them, that there were only two rooms free and in each room were two beds.
"Krixa and I will share a room and you both can have the other room" Sarah said. The men agreed and the barkeeper gave them the keys to the rooms. Sarah took Krixa to their room and they entered the room. In the room were two beds, two chairs and a small wardrobe. The room had no windows and the floor was made out of light brown wood whereas the walls were made out of marmot.
"I have to tie you on the bed" Sarah said
"Why?"
"Because I don't fully trust you"
"But you freed me from my cuffs to help Clay and Cedric and I did not run away instead"
"Yes that is true but you have to earn my trust before I free you from your cuffs"
"Ah c'mon that's not necessary"
"It is. Prove me that I can trust you.
"Alright, do whatever you want"
Sarah pushed her to the bed, which stand next to the door. She laid Krixa on the bed and tied her left hand with an extra cuff to one of the four bedposts. Sarah locked the door and she laid herself on the other bed. Sarah slowly fell asleep. She woke up the next day and she looked for Krixa, who was still asleep. She is cute while she sleeps Sarah thought. She unlocked the door, left the room and locked the door from outside. She walked back to the bar and ordered some breakfast for her prisoner and herself. She went back in their room and she waited almost half of an hour before she heard knocks on the door.
She opened the door and expected a man or a woman with the food but instead she found Jane Telkin, who stood in front of the door, with a big grin on her face. She looked exactly like the version of her in Sarah's visions. She wore a heavy and grey armour, which was very thin for its weight. The armour was decorated with pattern, which looked like skulls and demon horns. She was as tall as Sarah. Her hairstyle was comb in a side-cut, so that most of her hair covered the right side of her face. The rest of her face was covered with war paint, which looked like a combination out of circles, stripes and weird looking symbols. She had applied a thin blue grease on her lips. She wore her two swords on her back, which were taller than herself.
"We finally meet each other" Jane greeted provocative.
"What do you want from me? Why are you persuading me? Who has sent you and your team?" Sarah asked angrily while she looked closely at the pink haired woman.
"Too many questions. I will answer one of them. I'm here to kill you" she said and her grin got wider and her eyes sparkled, but the sparkle was not a beautiful one it was an evil one. Sarah tried to draw her sword but Jane was faster and she jumped in front of Sarah and punched her right into her face, which such a powerful strength so that Sarah flew through the entire room, through the room's wall and she pierced the wall from the house behind the tavern and landed in the living room. Dozen large wall pieces laid on her but she pushed them away with a magical shockwave.
As she stood up she immediately felt a lot of pain, the punch and the landing had hurt her a lot. She noticed the two giant holes in the tavern wall and the wall of the house, as she glanced in the direction, where her attacker stood. Jane disappeared and appeared within two seconds in front of her and dug her elbow deep in Sarah's stomach. The silver haired woman grasped for air but the other woman laid her hands immediately around Sarah's neck and strangled her. Sarah did not get enough air so she almost pasted out. She heard the muffled sound of the pink haired woman's evil laugh, as if she was thousand kilometers away from here. Jane looked at Sarah's face which colour had become white as chalk.
"It's over now" Jane said as she strengthened her grip around Sarah's throat. Sarah's resistance got weaker and weaker and she finally gave up. Jane let the lifeless body drop to the ground and she turned around and walked to the hole. She was ready to jump in the room where the water spirit was tied up to the bed. She heard a strange noise and she turned around and saw that Sarah stood there upright, as if her body wasn't affected by any wounds or any pain. Her whole skin was covered by the black marks, which were caused by the curse. Her eyes shinned pitch-black and her body radiated a dark, uncomfortable and scary aura.
"This is getting more interesting, I like it" Jane said with a smile.
"You will not enjoy this, I'll promise" Sarah said with a deep voice.
"Show me what you have" Jane taunted.
"As you wish" Sarah replied, before she leaped right in front of the other woman and she hit her right in the face so that she staggered back. Sarah pushed her out of the hole and her enemy landed hard on the ground. She groaned in pain but she stood up in the same moment as Sarah landed on the ground next to her. Sarah clenched her left fist and performed a strike, which she aimed at Janes head. Jane was fast enough so she could dodge the attack.
"Too slow" she said as she drew both of her swords and attacked Sarah but Sarah blocked her attacks. Her swords were two meter fifty large and their blades were wide, thick and made out of illamatria, one of the most stable materials. The blades had a dark blue colour but the blades edge was dark red. A large black crystal was forged into each blade's tip.
How is she able to move so fast with her heavy armour and these heavy swords? She has to be pretty strong. I should not underestimate her Sarah thought. Sarah looked around and noticed that they were in a small street, which wasn't used by the inhabitants at all. Sarah thought about running away instead of fighting but she was sure that she doesn't want to run her whole life away from Jane and her team. She noticed that the street behind her becomes narrow the further the street went.
Sarah saw an opportunity to defeat her opponent. Her plan was to lure Jane into the thin street and fight her there. The buildings walls would probably reduce her movement because the large swords would bump into the walls if Jane tries to attack or block Sarah's attacks. Which should weak Jane by a lot, because she would not able to attack her or parry her strikes. Jane's upper body would be a perfect target for her attacks, but her armour was to stable, so that her blade wouldn't pierce through it, her head would be a safer target. She went back slowly in a defensive posture, while she kept an eye on the pink haired woman. Jane followed her slowly. Both of them kept their focus on their opponent, they wanted to make no wrong movement. She lured her into the small street and she dashed forward and aimed a quick blow on Jane's head, Jane tried to parry the attack but her swords crashed in the wall, which bordered on the street. Jane was not fast enough to completely dodge the blow, but the blade grazed her left cheek and it left a large cut in her face.
"You stupid bitch" Jane hissed in anger as she crushed the walls around her easily with her swords in one strike.
"Damn it" Sarah whispered as she noticed that her plan has failed. "
You really thought that you could beat me in his thin street. You are really stupid if you thought that" the Obliterator said amused.
Shit, what do I do now? That was my only chance to kill her quickly before her team appears. I wonder where they are. Do they wait until one of us dies or do they support Jane if I would be able to defeat her? Sarah though as looked closely on the debris, which laid next to Jane. She took a quick peek in the inside of two buildings and saw a few scared children with their family, on the house. They hid behind a large table and hoped that nobody hurt them. In the tavern's room stood a lot of shelves with food and bottles filled with different liquids, a storage room.
"These marks make you look very ugly, you know that? Is this a kind of a transformation or how do you got stronger within a few seconds? And how could you fake your own dead?" Jane asked.
"It's not a transformation, it's a curse" Sarah hissed while she kept her focus on her opponent.
"A curse? I didn't know that curses save one's life. I only heard about curses, which harm people" Jane asked confused.
"It's a bit complicated, but you are not here for talking, so let's finish this quickly" Sarah answered and a visible golden aura, which was made out of million flashes, appeared around her swords' blade.
"Now you use magic, you little cheater" the pink haired attacker said as she stepped forward in Sarah's direction.
"It's not cheating if you are too dumb to learn magic" Sarah taunted as she puts her index and middle finger of the right hand to make a special hand gesture.
Jane immediately taunted back "I can control magic but I don't need to use it, for defeating a little worm like you".
She roared and a red visible aura appeared around her body, and her size was increased by a quarter.
"Prepare to die" Jane shouted as she run in Sarah's direction, but she immediately jumped back, after a few meter and dodged a lighting strike, which almost hit her.
"Nice try", Jane said amused, "but not good enough".
"You forgot one little detail" Sarah said while she was smiling.
"What?" Jane asked.
"Lightning always strikes twice" the silver haired fighter responded amused as she watched that her opponent got hit by a second lighting strike. The strike was so powerful and large, that Jane lost her hold and fell to the ground. Jane groaned in pain as she slowly got up in a kneeling position, a big hole was in her stomach and a lot of blood flowed out of her wound and her mouth. She pressed on hand on the wound, which was as big as a plate.
Sarah noticed that the lighting strike had pierced Jane's stomach with her armour.
"H…H..How.. is this possible? How c…could your attack pierce…th…through my armour?" Jane stuttered horrified.
"Because no armour can resist Zeus's lightning." Sarah responded. "
Y…You..You have the power of Zeus" Jane said, her eyes widened.
"I don't have all of this power, only a part of this full power, but it's enough so that I can create powerful lightning strikes, which destroy most materials. Now tell me who send you and why he or she wants me dead, or I'll finish you now" Sarah said impatient.
"Zeus power protected you and faked your death, now I understand why you live after your breathing stopped. But I don't concede, the time has come, it's time to show you my true battle form", Jane replied with a huge smile in her face.
"You want to transform yourself, that sounds cool but you forgot one thing, a transformation always requires some time and I won't let you have enough time for that."
"Don't worry I will buy her the time she needs" a strange voice shouted from behind. Sarah immediately turned around and noticed that a person stood at the end of the street. According to the sound of the voice, the person should be male. The person was almost ten centimeter taller than her and he wore a long and red cloak with a hood, which reached to its knees. The person's head was hidden behind a grey mask, which looked like a skull. The man's boots were made of black leather, and they reached to his knees. His gloves reached to his elbows and, they were made out of the same material. She saw that he carried no weapon, but she guessed that he hid his weapons under his cloak.
He pulled out a long necklace, which was made out of a lot of violet pearls. Sarah closed the distance between her and Jane, but shr stopped immediately, as she felt a penetrating pain in her head. It felt like that her head stood closely before an explosion. From the corner of her left eye she saw that the pearls shinned bright. She kneeled down and dropped her weapon and laid both of her hands on her temple with the hope that it would reduce the pain.
Jane stood up slowly and she smiled down at Sarah.
"You have to transform yourself now, commander, or you will bleed to death soon" the strange man said. "
I know" Jane answered as she walked to Sarah and lift up the chin of the silver haired woman.
"I want that you will see the whole beauty of my transformation before I kill you". Sarah looked at her with an expression, which showed pure hatred for Jane. Jane stroke Sarah's chin and she stepped back.
"Witness the true power of the Obliterator of Dju'Kan", she shouted.
Her face twisted and her eyes glowed in a dark and fearsome red. Her hair changed its colour to a light-pink which looked almost blond. Out of her head spread two large horns, which curved over her head like a ring with a small opening. From her horns spread three large and two small spikes, with regular distance between the spikes. Each horn looked like a wing without the feathers. Under her piercing red eyes was her well-formed sharp nose and her lips, which were red like a rose, her entire face was beautiful. Her armor started to disintegrate and the armor of her arms and legs started to melt together with the skin and bones of her arms. Her shoulders looked like her armors shoulder plates with many keen pikes. Her fingers were long and sharp. Her forearms were strewed by small red crystal eyes, which stared dangerously at Sarah. Her upper body was almost naked, only her big breasts were half covered by the same skin like her arms. Her wounds disappeared.
Damn her body is so hot…. What the fuck am I thinking? I have other problems. I have no time to admire her sexy upper body and her round breasts… Damn it I thought about her curves again… I have to concentrate myself. I have to free myself from his physical attack. Sarah thought.
She looked closely at Jane. Jane's ass and legs were covered by the same black skin, which looked very though. Her kneecaps were black skulls with red, piercing eyes and her feet were large with three sharp toes. She was a demon now. She clapped and a large axe appeared in her hands. The axe's shaft was over two meters long and the blade was curved and its size was twice as large as her upper body. The axe's blade was glimmering in a mixture of red and orange and it looks like that the blade heated up.
She stepped in front of Sarah and sent her with a forceful kick into the wall of a building behind her. Sarah groaned in pain and she tried to stood up but the piercing pain in her head denied her attempt. Jane walked to hear and lifted her up and punched her hard in the face so that blood flowed out of her broken nose. Jane threw her against the opposite wall and Sarah landed hard on her back.
"Do you want to say any last words before I will kill you?", Jane asked amused.
"Tell me who is responsible for my death", Sarah answered and Jane responded
"His name is Krayn, Zetaii Krayn" and she lifted up her axe, ready to smash it into the silver haired woman's wounded body. She heard a painful scream from her team member and she turned her head around quickly. She saw that in his chest stuck a large spear, which was made out of black ice. Blooded flowed out of his wound and his mouth as he collapsed forward, his necklace fell to the ground and shattered, the pearls immediately stopped shining.
"What the hell?" Jane screamed in anger. "Who are you?" she asked
Sarah saw as a familiar person entered the street. "Don't worry Sarah I got this" Krixa said as she stepped in front of the dead body. "
Be careful she is pretty strong, don't underestimate her" Sarah replied and she used the opportunity, the distracted Jane gave her, to roll a few steps to the left before she stood up. She immediately felt small amount of pain drove through her entire body. Jane noticed that she was surrounded by the two women.
"I guess the fight is fair now" Krixa said as she created a dozen ice bullets. Sarah pulled up her sword and she charged at Jane with a loud battlecry. She brandished her sword in the demons direction but Jane was fast enough to parry her attack and hit her with the shaft of her axe while she cut through Krixa's ice bullets, with the blade of her axe, in the same movement. She kicked Sarah in her stomach, which caused that Sarah felt backwards and landed on the ground. The demon sprinted in Krixa's direction. She was only a few meter away from her, ready for a jump attack. Suddenly a strange person stood in front of Krixa, the persons eyes glowed golden.
"Feel the power of the sun!" the person shouted. It happened so fast that the three women couldn't discern the person's appearance, because in a split second all women were blinded by an incredible bright light.