*Heaves a collective sigh, cue sweatdrop* So I guess I really shouldn't even try to come up with an excuse. I'm so sorry that this took so long, you guys. I have been feeling under the weather as of late and just had zero motivation to do any form of writing. That and I had no honest idea where I wanted this chapter to end. The Foundry is HUGE, and it all flows so weirdly. Good news is, I think I only have one chapter of the Forge Lands left. I know that a lot of people are probably going to ask me why I'm not doing any of the side quests yet. It's because I have planned to do a series of one-shots for them, as I am mainly focusing on the main mission here (with my own liberties set in, of course.) That being said, I cannot wait. I know a lot of you also inquired if I would do a continuance of 'A Caged Bird's Faith'. In honor of the first anniversary of its completion, I had hoped to release a short one-shot sometime in October, so keep your eyes peeled for that in the very near future. ^^ With that being said, I present the seventh chapter of 'Sole and Born Creation'. Thank you all for your patience and please enjoy.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of Darksiders or Darksiders II or anything of that universe (minus, of course, Sariele and Eleyna). The games, characters and universe belong to the original creators and developers of the games. The wonderful picture of Eleyna was made by 'The phantom's girl' on the Dark Fairy Creator on the Azalea's Dolls website.
Chapter Seven: The Foundry
While Karn was happy to see some action as he took his hammer to the small group of Corrupted constructs, Death and Eleyna ventured through the first open doorway they came across, which led into a tunnel lined with the Corruption shards. More constructs sprouted out of the ground in order to hinder them, but they were quickly reduced to stone fragments, thanks mainly in part to the thick roots Eleyna summoned from the ceiling, strong enough to break through the stone, he noted with astonishment. His attention was brought to a small group of the eerie green crystals huddled together in front of an entryway; if he were to wager a guess, he would say that this particular gap in the wall led into the room previous, where he had let Eleyna and Karn in. Making note of it, he passed into the room at the end of the tunnel, which led to another wide room.
Over the center of this room's floor was a circular grate. He could hear the gentle lapping of water beneath it.
"That was a nice warm-up." commented Karn as he stepped down into the room to join them. As Death's gaze fixed upon a higher ledge, Eleyna took a look at an ascending sloped hallway. At the end of it was another bowl-like cavity. Her gaze fixed then upon the large gate-like door at the end of the hall.
She didn't realize that Karn had helped Death over the far wall until she heard the splash of water on the other side of said wall. With a roll of her eyes, she crossed her arms.
"I didnae think ye would come an' help, Eleyna." Karn commented, arresting any thoughts surfacing in her mind. She gazed at him.
"Oh, and why now would ye not think that, Karn?" she asked.
"The Horseman." he explained. "He told me that ye punished him for cuttin' one of yer friends down. I can understand you helping him into the Drenchfort, but what reason did ye have to stay after if ye disliked him so much?" Eleyna could only laugh a sullen, quiet laugh.
"He and I developed... an understandin', Karn." she explained. "I'm not sayin' he's pleasant to be around; he's arrogant, impatient, cynical..."
"Oh aye," laughed the maker, "reminds me of someone, almost." The girl narrowed her eyes at him.
"But I have to stay with him, at least until the Guardian awakens." she finished pointedly. There was a loud, sudden noise at the other side of the door, like the heavy 'click' of a lock. The heavy, gate-like door rose up and Eleyna saw Death push through a massive sphere once Karn caught the door and held it open. She followed him, intending to make herself of good use. Death used his spectral arms to give a boosting push forward up the sloping hallway. When it seemed as if it was to bounce off of the wall, Eleyna caught it with vines which she rapidly made appear. Moving on their own, the vines pulled the orb toward the cavity high on the wall. When the orb and the runes surrounding the now full cavity glowed a fiery orange- followed by the rune stones along the floor- there was a loud, long, metallic screech followed by the motion of the grate raising upward. Death approached as it settled and thrust the Maker's key forward. The great construct immediately pulled itself together. He climbed atop of it and led it forward, towards the smaller constructs that had sprung up from the ground. A few great swings was all it took for the enemies to be rendered to mere heavy stones.
The trio backtracked through the tunnel and into the antechamber that lead to the Guardian's resting ground after he had the custodian swing its great arm and clear away the crystal. Off to the side of this antechamber, he noted another hall from a hole that seemed to have been blasted through the wall. He guided the construct through it. What he found there was a long, broken hallway. Beyond the bowl he settled the creation's spherical base into, there was nothing save for a wide crevice of magma and a switch at the other end of the hall.
"Wait here." he told them.
"What else can we do?" Eleyna quipped as he stepped onto the chain and moved forward. In truth, she envied him and his quick, easy movements. He balanced perfectly on the chain and did not waver once, even with fiery doom beneath his feet; then again, he was Death. What had he to fear?
He veered to the left, leaping onto a wall that had growth stemming up it's length. After he had gotten to just the right height, he leapt onto the splintered remains of a vertical beam and then another until he leapt back onto a vertical beam and out of their sight. From the door that he entered, Death continued along the wall of a turning hallway, timing it so that he would avoid an unwanted collision with the streams of magma pouring overhead.
The next room he entered had him barred in as constructs stemmed from the ground. Death glared at them as they surrounded him before he flourished his scythes once again. They fell easily. The same could not be said about the larger one that came up after them. He stood before it, ready for anything- lunging like a springing cat at the last moment.
He forced himself through the door afterward and took full advantage of the silence now that the 'guards' were taken care of. From the chest he found in this high alcove, he had his spectral hands take the key hidden there and then approached the edge. Carefully did he position himself and then he dropped down towards the magma below, catching the chain from the construct custodian's arm and pulled himself up onto it, backtracking until he was safely back on the creature's shoulder once more. When he rejoined the party, he moved them towards the spectrally locked door. When the door was unlocked, they found themselves at the base of a spiral staircase. Death led the way up until at long last, they reached the door at the top.
In this open area, there was no visible way across to the other side, where another door awaited. Karn stepped forward.
"I'll get ye over there." he offered to the two of them. Death went first; just as his feet touched the ground, up sprouted more of the smaller constructs. So when Eleyna was launched across by Karn, she was ready, her staff poised to swing. It was a crippling swing that she managed to catch one trying to come up behind him. She departed from him with a knowing smirk that caused Death to narrow his eyes at her. As he finished up the small group that had come upon him, he noted that she was just finishing off the last with a nasty, one-handed uppercut swing. When she turned to him, she still had that smirk on her face.
"I didnae think I would be havin' to watch yer back, Horseman."
"You don't." he rasped.
"Oh aye," she said with a lilting tone in her voice, "I'm certain, and yer welcome, since you were kind enough to thank me."
"You are mistaking me for another- kinder- being, child." he said with nonchalance in his voice, in spite of the amusing irony.
"Are ye done dallying about all day?" called Karn from across the way. "The Guardian willnae awaken itself." The most faint color sprouted up on Eleyna's cheeks as she turned to glare at her friend across the way. He was right, though, and Death had already moved ahead, forcing the door open with his spectral arms.
This last room was actually a dais that overlooked the mountaintops over the rail. What rested floating over the center, emitting an eerie purple glow, was what captured their attention. It was a stone cask with stern carven faces at nearly each corner. Eleyna watched as Death took his blades and began hacking at it mercilessly. At first, it did nothing, but then, it finally reacted and glowed far more brightly than it had in the past. It rose high into the air and then split apart. At its center was a strange-looking skull, surrounded by runes for a moment before they and the cask itself faded and the strange apparatus drifted slowly down towards
Death. The Horseman willingly took it, reaching up and letting the energy soak into his right hand.
"What was that?" Eleyna questioned.
"Only one way to find out." he replied, turning away and leading the way back out the door. When they approached the ledge, he took note that above, there hung a hook that glowed with the same eerie purple energy that now rested in his right hand. In fact, it seemed to him almost as if the two energies were calling to each other. Death pulled Eleyna to him and before the girl could verbally react, he allowed the energy between the two to meet. With it, the two were pulled into the air and he used the momentum to flip back and propel them safely toward the other side with a few flips. Either than a little shaken and more than a little irked, she seemed to be just fine.
"Again, warning." she snapped. Death could only give an amused chuckle.
The trio retraced their footsteps back to the courtyard where the Guardian rested. There was another gate that rested to one side, emitting a sulfurous glow. From the entrance, they surveyed (after defeating the sentries that came up and placed themselves as guards, despite the lack of chance in their favor) that the way across was a drawbridge that raised with the pressing of a switch on the other side. He grabbed a bomb from a cluster growing on the wall to the right and lobbed it toward the switch. The switch was pressed in as predicted and they crossed, into the next room.
Like the last, the dropped drawbridge was the only feasible way across.
"Wait here." Death told the other two. She could only snort, and as Death made his way across the planks, Eleyna looked to Karn. The young Maker rolled his beady eyes and lowered his hand for his young friend. She sailed through the air for but a moment, landing with a slightly clumsy tumble, but not otherwise harmed. Just after Death had pulled his, she pushed hers and the two halves of the drawbridge came up. He could only roll his eyes and climb back up on the wall, leaping to another suspended hook and onto growth on the ceiling. When he dropped, he almost contemplated leaving her there when he saw that expectant stare.
Instead, he focused his spectral grip on the girl and then projected it out on her. It gripped her around the waist and with a jerking pull, he brought her over to him. When she finally stopped and opened her eyes, she was pressed against the Horseman's cold chest. Her hand was held back by her wrist, away from where the shards were embedded into his chest. She had nearly touched them as she collided with him. His impeccable reflexes had not failed, but she cringed at the feel of his tight grip. It was over nearly as quickly as when it had started, with him setting her down, away from him.
The trio then continued on, through to the next room. The floor was an entire platform- an entire rising and descending platform from the look of it. It rumbled to life as Death pulled the switch and slowly began descending. The heat from the magma below made Eleyna feel faint and the smell of sulfur made her woozy, but she did not complain, even when it stopped and the magma was just a few feet beneath their soles. It was a slight relief when they ushered her through the doors, down a short hall and into a cavern that split off into a series of tunnels. Up above the main walkway, where they stood, there hung in a claw-like fixture a large boulder that glowed a beautiful blue color. Karn stepped forward.
"Ahh... a Heart Stone." he commented. "Within lays the soul of a great maker. Find a way to bring it down and I'll carry it." He then stepped to the left and held out his hand. With another eye roll, Death leapt into Karn's hand and let the young maker throw him over the gap.
From there, he leapt from that outcropping onto the first, the second, the third horizontal wooden beam, up on clutch onto the exposed wooden ledge. After following a series of these exposed ledges (using the Deathgrip to help gain some momentum), he leapt down onto a central outlet of rock. From there, he had to exercise proper precaution, as streams of lava had taken to pour from the cracked pipelines overhead, sometimes directly in the Horseman's path. Once or twice, they came a little too close to the Horseman's liking and he could feel the heat licking at his skin.
When at last he reached the end of the ledges and jumped down on another bridge of rock, he took note of a lower level, a ground level in this heated sub-basement, free of magma. It was also on this patch of solid land that he found a heap of stones, which immediately became a Construct Custodian. With the stone being beneath his feet, Death was able to traverse carefully yet quickly through the labyrinth. Thankfully the only true roadblock was a cluster of Corruption crystals, which were efficiently smashed into oblivion. From there, Death guided it to another small patch of earth. Here awaited another cavity and from here, he aimed his creation's hand toward a round switch in the wall, bridged by the thick chain. He followed the chain and leapt up onto another exposed ledge and then another, pulling himself up to an area that was level with the Heart Stone.
He pulled himself up to one of the claw-like apparatuses with the Deathgrip and then, with one of the twin scythe blades began to chip away at it. It took only a few good hits before it became loose. With the last final push Death crouched and then jumped to build momentum; the Heart Stone fell to the walkway below with a heavy thud and he followed lightly after.
"Don't fret, Horseman." joked Karn. "I'll get it." It was impressive to Eleyna that Karn could lift it- and make it seem so easy- as he hefted it onto his shoulder. "Let's put this stone to good use."
"Aye, thank you Master Obvious." retorted Eleyna as she and Death passed him, leading the way. "Let's make haste." she said. "I don't like this place one bit." The Horseman almost chuckled at that. With that, the three returned to the elevator. When all of the small party were accounted for, Death pushed the lever. Again, there was a massive rumble all around them, but this time, they were so close to the magma that it caused the burning material to splash and spark up around them. Eleyna flinched at his side with a small cry.
To make things worse, enemies began to sprout around them. Death had no qualms about rushing in and decimating them as quickly and mercilessly as possible. Even Karn had few difficulties with using the Heart Stone as a makeshift hammer, clobbering any that came too close. Eleyna, despite her difficulties with the stifling heat, made the best with what she had and still was able to fend herself and Karn from the stone aberrations. When at last the elevator came to a complete stop and the bridge was pulled up, she bolted from it, slamming the doors open and dashing out.
"Aye, I knew that it would get to her sooner or later." remarked Karn as he came up behind Death. "There's a reason she would nae go near the Cauldron, however close to it she may live."
When they caught up with her, they found her hunched over, balanced on the balls of her feet, her head between her knees in the central room with the slumbering Guardian. She was flushed as if she were boiled alive and sweat dripped in heavy droplets on her skin. Her breathing was hitched and her hands were clenched in her hair.
"Best to let her get it out, Horseman." the Maker remarked. "She is a creator, a bringer of life; it cannae be easy to have powers and connections like that and be in such near contact with somethin' what can destroy so easily." Death narrowed his eyes as a thought crossed his eyes. True, Karn had meant the rising lava- which had also flooded out into the heavy basin beneath the Guardian's feet- but a part of him, deep in the dark depths of his mind, knew that those words could easily describe he, himself. He nodded Karn over towards the center of the ledge. As he got nearer to his intended destination, the stone began to glow brighter and brighter.
"The old stone awakens." he noted aloud.
When they got to just the right spot, just at the base of the Guardian's feet, Karn lifted the stone over his head. As if by a connective magic, the stone rose of its own accord, leaving behind blue wisps of energy in its wake, and drifted toward the Guardian's enormous right shoulder pauldron. When it found just the right spot, it glowed a bright blue once more and then rapidly flew into the cavity that bore its shape, sealing itself on there tightly.
A set of wooden scaffolding nearby burned and crumbled to the destructive force of the magma, revealing another hook-like apparatus. Death grabbed a still-recovering Eleyna around her middle and connected the energies between his newfound power and the hook. As he landed safe on the other side and ignored her weak attempts at thrashing in his hold, he noted with interest a pipeline. He looked back towards where again Karn awaited on the other side, next to another large, gate-like door. Likely, he would need the giant, and this pipeline would provide the way forward.
"I'm fine now." grunted the woman folded over his arm, emphasizing her discomfort with a sharp elbow to the gut. Were it any other, it would have been crippling, to say the least; Death felt nothing from it. "Put me down, Horseman." Against any snide comment that was brewing in the Nephilim's head, he set her down and allowed her to gather herself with a huff before looking at him with a narrowed gaze before she marched down the pipeline. Slightly amused, he followed suit.
The pipeline lead down into a small room with a wide aquifer, similar to the structure within the Drenchfort. He opted for the first pipeline, closer towards the position he had seen the large gate. When they reached the other side of mentioned pipeline, they walked into a bare, narrow room where there awaited a pressure switch on the floor. Death granted Karn passage by standing on it, cueing Eleyna to pass under the second door as it opened. Karn caught the door before it came down completely, keeping it open for Death to also pass.
The wide cavern echoed with the sound of lazily falling water, which covered the floor beneath the walkways in a pool only a few meters deep. It put Eleyna in a better, calmer mood to hear such a sound, to take in the cool moisture in the air here. After Karn had thrown Death over, he offered his hand out to Eleyna. She responded with a gracious smirk and settled herself into his enormous palm before he threw her over with practiced care. It was with a tumble that she landed, but she was no worse for the wear. The Horseman had continued on without her. A few moments of silence passed before an ear-splitting, animalistic screech and a thunderous slam echoed through the cave.
A few moments later, she witnessed as Death appeared on the rounded balcony overlooking the cavern and pulled the lever. From the shallows, there rose grated bridges that crossed over to where Death had disappeared to and also across to the way forward, which was blocked by the Corruption crystals. Eleyna waited for Death as he arrived on the shoulders of a large construct. They crossed the bridge forward, allowing him to go first so as to clear away the Corruption along the twisting tunnel.
The tunnel broke out into open light, to a ruined courtyard that fell away to a wide, flooded quarry. It was safe to surmise that water was carried back into the main part of the foundry from here; yet from the level of the water, it looked like it hadn't been operated in decades at the very least. Under the formerly domed roof of a raised pergola, there dangled yet another Heart Stone.
"They certainly did not aim to make this easy, did they?" asked Eleyna.
"After you." said Karn, gesturing to the two of them. Death urged the construct forward as he noted that there seemed to be corrupted constructs fighting nearby. A swung fist was all it took to end the feud between the two before said fist was put to a more practical use- clearing away and accessing a hidden alcove overhead. With a little help from Karn, Death was able to access it and open the chest hidden there, finding a key that would lead into the building just beyond the pergola.
The inside of the building was nothing impressive. There was a small pond beneath a hanging track and another basin for a carved stone, but no stone nearby- just a very irritated Earth crag. The creature reared onto its back legs before attempting to charge them. It stood no chance as Karn blocked it and kept it at bay with his sheer brute strength. Death leapt in, slicing its legs from underneath it in a motion so fast it hadn't a prayer. As it faded back to the earth it was formed from, they surveyed the room.
When at last they concluded that there was neither a carven orb nor a way to bring Death's construct into the building, they emerged into the openness once more. It was with a small utterance of recognition that Karn realized that the machinery they had passed in breaking apart the fighting constructs earlier. Apparently it could cut down the construct so that they could use the part they needed.
"The only problem," concluded the maker, "would be that we need water to power it."
"Which we seem to be short on." agreed Death with a slight nod.
The silence then alerted him to the absence of the third member of their party. An unknown emotion filled Death- almost like that of dread- as well as the biting voices from the souls of the Nephilim on his consciousness- that was until he spotted a series of vines that climbed up the face of the dam wall across the water. It was fresh and green and reached all the way to the top.
"Couldn't wait to get it over with, could she?" grumbled Death.
"Aye, but that's Eleyna for you." replied Karn.
There was a sudden thunderous noise, accompanied by a slight tremor.
"What has that girl done now?" rasped the Horseman before Karn gave a jovial bark of laughter. It started slow at first, but before they knew it, water began to pour from the main pipeline down to the massive mill wheel below. Overhead, more of the long, metal crucibles began moving along the track, through an opening in the wall into the building.
"She's brought water to the machine, she has!" shouted Karn over the sound of the falls as water continued to fill the quarry. A few more minutes passed and while Death had expected to see Eleyna make her way back by now, this delay had started to stir that feeling of dread once more. At last, he craned his neck and saw a flash of red flitting about the top of the dam wall, followed by lithe movement. With narrowed eyes, Death realized that she was being chased by Prowlers and had been dodging the lethal swipes of their claws, but just barely. She rushed down the length of walkway with one right on her tail and one awaiting her at the end. At the last possible second, she ducked as she felt the one behind preparing to lunge and she ducked at the last possible second. The last-minute collision was just the distraction she needed. As a last-ditch effort, she made for the outcropping and with a deep breath leapt over the side, just as a third Prowler came up behind her. The last thing she felt as she was falling were razors digging into the flesh of her back
Down, down, down towards the water she fell, managing just enough momentum to straighten herself so that she dove in headfirst. It was a few moments before she surfaced again, but she was wincing in pain. Death hastily approached the edge and reached for her, extending his grip down towards the water, to her outstretched arm. When they connected, he pulled her up with such force that she missed the edge, but landed instead on her feet. She stumbled a bit, likely from the pain- three long gashes now carved into the skin of her upper back and along her left shoulder.
What amazed Death was how clean such wide gashes were. The blood was minimal and as he noted that Eleyna's eyes were scrunched shut in concentration. Looking back at the gashes, he noted that they were closing on their own until they were left to nothing but three pale scars, nearly invisible on her already ashen skin.
At this point, he was not sure if he was impressed or angered by her recklessness; after all, it had saved them quite a bit of time, but he was not going to comment on it, either. Instead, he turned back to his construct and climbed atop its shoulders, guiding it over towards the machine. Eleyna did not need explanation as to what Death was trying to accomplish, but she was not as eager to watch it, either. As he settled it into the metallic frame, she turned away. It bothered her, truly, for though the constructs had neither skin nor bones nor heartbeat, they constituted in her mind as still living beings. They were nearly like children, innocent and willing to be taught. She was not sure why she felt such a connection with animated stone, but to have to sentence one to death... She bit her lip to counteract the stinging in her eyes and closed them tight when she heard the metallic screech and then the loud crash.
What was left was the carven stone, which sank beneath the circular hatch of the machine. What followed next was a screeching, metallic sound. From the machine rose another crucible, but this one appeared to be going along the track rather clumsily, leaning a little more to its left. Luckily it didn't collapse from the track and release the giant orb until it was hanging over solid land. Death sauntered over and got a hold of it, guiding it toward the inner part of the building and settling it into the cavity. The stones leading to the grate blocking the way forward lit up and the grate spires sank into the ground.
Taking this as his cue, Death began scaling the wall, alternating between one and the other until he was able to grab onto an exposed ledge and scale along it until he could put his feet onto solid ground. All that was left for Death to do was use his new grip to pull him forward and again chip away at the claw-like apparatus holding the blue glowing Heart Stone. Karn was again quick to pick it up and the trio left quickly.
They were met with a roadblock, however, when more Prowlers emerged. He nearly learned the hard way that these kind were not to be trifled with after nearly being frozen as one attempted to lunge at him. As he was about to retaliate, he suddenly felt something pull him back and Eleyna was already working her magic, he noted. All of a sudden, there sprouted from her hands what looked like long vines. From these came a series of buds that bloomed within moments, revealing flowers of such a vibrant color they looked almost like living flames. He watched as she forced them forward and entangled within them the icy demons.
The next thing Death and Karn knew, the flowers were giving off a strange sap, yet when it touched them, the Prowlers began shrieking in horrid pitches; in that moment, as he watched the skin begin to melt off their bones, he realized that the sap was not sap at all. Even Karn was amazed, to say the least. With a wave of her hand, she banished the fire-flowers and cleared the path before turning to her two associates with a wide grin, indicating that her mood had lifted.
"Ye have no idea how long I'd waited to use that." she said with a light laugh in her voice. With a look at Death, she allowed him to pass her and they made their way back into the caverns.
As they entered, the great rumbling occurred once again and the water beneath the bridges rose. The surface was close to exposed ridges on the wall.
"I suppose this is where ye leave us." she commented. Death did not retort, but dove into the water. After scaling the exposed ledges and traversing the pipes, he reentered the narrow hall and allowed Karn and Eleyna to pass through. When the gate shut, he took the long way around, virtually retracing his footsteps until he was back in the main part of the foundry.
"From the heart to the stone, the life blood flows." Karn chanted almost to himself as he stood at the Guardian's feet and released the stone. This one embedded itself into the Guardian's left shoulder. "Looks like we're not done yet." he commented, motioning to the final cavity, in the center of the Guardian's stony head.
"Then let's make haste and find that third Heart Stone." commented Eleyna. Death found at that moment that he could not agree more.
So more interesting occurences with Eleyna... I look forward to reading your thoughts and comments, as always. I intend to keep these chapters coming, so please excuse my tardiness and inconsistency. I really do hope you, my readers, enjoy reading this fic as much as I enjoy writing it. As I said, one more chapter before we move on to the land of the dead. The Guardian awakens next chapter...