Golden Sun: The Sands of Time

Chapter 9: Dying Screams

Mia stared down at the strange rod. It was already glowing so bright it acted as a torch, dispelling the darkness in the cave. Lifting it up, she glanced around, marveling at the strange shadows it threw around the cavern. Strange, one of the shadows almost looked like-

The Ghash roared and lunged at Mia. Diving to the side, she barely managed to avoid it. Screeching in annoyance that the strange human had managed to evade it's attack, the worm turned once more and fired a blast of acid at the human. Ducking, Mia lifted her hand.

"Glacier!"

A thousand ice shards formed in mid-air, before coalescing around the fireworm. The worm struggled against the icy cage for a second, before breaking free. Mia jumped back, then felt herself pressed against the wall. "Damn." She whispered to herself. The worm lunged at her, and this time, there was nowhere to turn. She stared in anger at the gaping maw rushing to her. No time to do anything, but only watch her death rise up to meet her-

"Ice Missile!"

A multitude of icicles, sharp as swords, rained down on the fireworm. The fireworm, surprised by the sudden attack, halted momentarily, trying to find the other oppressor. Suddenly, Mia heard footsteps, heading rapidly for her. Then a flash of blue, as something pulled her into a small depression in the rocky wall. Gasping for breath, she managed to gasp out a word of thanks.

"Nice to see you saying something positive to me once in a while, Mia."

Mia gasped as she realized just who had saved her. Settling for flipping Alex a rude gesture, she peered from the hole out to observe a very pissed Ghash heading straight for them.

Isaac sighed. He had been trudging alongside Picard for what seemed an eternity, and still had seen no sign of the others. As he glanced around the dark caverns, he wished that he could see beyond a foot in front of him. The darkness seemed almost a living being, as it sucked out the liveliness in the air. Isaac shivered ever so slightly. This place gave him the creeps.

Picard glanced around, then lifted up a hand to stop Isaac in midstep. "Wha-"

"Shhh. I hear shouts."

Isaac listened as well. Yes, there were cries of pitched battle.

"C'mon!" He yelled. "We gotta go help the others!"

Picard nodded, and the two adepts rushed off down the tunnel, into the blackness.

Davion dodged the flying axe an instant before it would have beheaded him. Drawing an arrow, he fired it straight through the throat of the nearest Karan, dropping him. Behind him, he could hear shouts and glows of light as Felix, Garet, and Jenna fought against the remaining brutes.

Davion still could not, for the life of him, figured out how Karan would have ambushed them deep in the caves. He had just made contact with the others, when suddenly, they had been surrounded by a group of approximately twenty Karan, all armed to the teeth. Now they were engaged in a fight for their very lives. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Garet hewed the legs from one Karan, and blast another away with Heat Wave. He had long since used up his Djinni, and was fighting on pure strength now. Felix, by comparison, had been disrupting their attack patterns with constant quake spells. The downside of this was that a fair portion of the cave had collapsed, effectively blocking the elven prince from his friends. He was fighting to the best of his ability, but he couldn't last forever…

"Rising Dragon!"

Davion gaped as two bluish dragons, shimmering with mercury psynergy lanced forward from the Masamune, smashed into the nearest Karan, effectively beheading him. A second later, three psynergetic swords pierced the air, slicing through another Karan and dumping him onto the ground. Isaac offered a quick thumbs up before turning back to the battle, dueling a raider nearly twice his size. Picard glanced at Davion, and murmured a few quick words, before casting Ply Well on Davion. Davion stood, feeling his wounds mend, and gave a small nod of thanks before arming another arrow and shooting the Karan that had tried to sneak up behind Isaac. The red-skinned warrior fell as if both legs had been cut out from under him.

Isaac stood, wiping sweat off his brow. The battle had taxed him a lot, and the warriors he had faced had been almost as good with the sword as him. At least it was over now…

A whirring sound alerted him to the huge slabs of rock behind him being slowly ground to dust. A second later, a tiny explosion sounded, and the remainder of the stones crumbled into dust, allowing the weary figures of Garet, Felix, and Jenna to emerge.

"Toldja we should have used Grind first."

"Where's Mia?"

Isaac shook his head. "Not with us. Alex too."

Felix noticed Davion pacing, and staring at the Karan corpses.

"What is it?"

Davion merely shook his head before replying.

"I wonder why Karan would enter these caves. The underground network is quite large. Is there another entrance?"

Isaac shrugged. 'We can't wonder about that now. We need to find Alex and Mia."

"You've found me." Alex teleported in front of Isaac, holding an unconscious Mia in his arms. "We'd best get moving. Our worm friend is after us."

"Just a sec." Isaac stepped forward, and placed his hand on Mia's chest. Golden light surrounded the both of them, and Mia began to stir.

Just then, the wall burst open and the humongous form of the Ghash appeared through it.

Ivan crouched to the ground clutching his head. Visions were flowing through his mind faster and faster. A thousand Karan warriors, sweeping through Jorgmund. People crying, running through the streets, before stumbling and not getting up. The buildings going up in flames. A soldier with his head severed, tossed onto a bonfire to celebrate the victory of the raiders. A single child, crying as a sword slashed it perfectly in two. An elf, standing tall in the face of his doom, as the raiders swarmed upon him. And through it all, the screams of a thousand dying elves echoed through his mind.

"Ivan?" Ivan glanced up, to see the worried form of Sheba staring down on him. "What happened? You suddenly just started moaning and fell to the ground like that…"

Ivan shook his head. No time to explain. "Sheba, we need to get back to Jorgmund, quickly."

"What?" Sheba's sea-green eyes widened. "Ivan, it's nearly an hour's walk!"

"Then we run. You have Zephyr, right? Unleash it. We need to return. Now."

Davion dived out of the way as tongues of flame licked at his heels. Glancing up, he noted that most of his friends were pounding the beast with their best Psynergy, but their exhaustion was clearly showing. His eyes narrowed. This wasn't good. If they played the endurance game with the worm, they were going to lose. And losing meant death. The worm was firing blast after blast of flame at them, and so far it seemed they seemed to be as potent as when they first started. Davion drew another arrow. There was only one place he could aim…

Waiting until the worm reared back to fire another flame blast, he released the arrow, and his aim proved through. It pierced the mouth of the Ghash, and Davion thought he could see part of the steel head peeking out from the back of it's throat. The worm howled in anger, before taking a deep breath of air. Davion's eyes widened as he realized what the beast was about to do.

"Take cover!" He yelled, an instant before the worm whipped the sand in the tunnel into a raging storm, covering everything with a coat of sand. Davion cursed silently as he crouched. There was no way he'd be able to release another arrow at that thing.

Just then, he heard he slow chuckle of Alex. Raising his head, he was able to catch a glimpse of the blue-haired adept in the sandstorm.

"Deluge!"

A gush of water spurted forth from Alex's hand, swirling towards the fireworm. Davion grinned slightly. Oh, very clever…

Isaac glanced up. The water from Alex's psynergy spell had s merged with the sand to create a muddy pit, one that the smaller, more nimble adepts were able to maneuver around in. By contrast, the gigantic Ghash was trapped in the mud, unable to break free. Isaac shook his head. Defeated by it's own weapon…

Just then, he heard Garet yell. "Everyone! Now! Release our strongest attacks!"

Isaac smirked, and raised his sword.

"Odyessey!"

"Stone Spire!"

"Liquifier!"

"Dragon Fume!"

"Diamond Berg!"

"Ice Missile!"

"Freeze Prism!"

The overgrown beast howled in agony as the psynergy attacks rained on it non-stop. With a final despairing cry, the fireworm crashed to the ground, and lay still. The Ghash was defeated.

"A breeze?"

"Yes, you feel it too, don't you?"

Felix nodded. "But the entrance should not be here… I am almost positive about that."

Davion shrugged. "We might as well take this path. The sooner we can get back to sunlight, the happier I'll be."

Felix nodded, and the rest of the adepts followed Davion into the caves.

Davion could see sunlight ahead of him. About time, too. He was seriously getting sick of seeing endless underground caverns, big worms, stray Karan warriors, and whatnot. Quickening his pace, he covered the last few feet in a couple of steps, and burst out into the bright light. He was apparently on one of the rock outcroppings that dotted the landscape. This one was exceptionally tall, but he could see a path leading down to the sands. Behind him, the adepts emerged into the sunlight, their eyes unused to the glare after being stuck in almost complete darkness for so long.

Far below him lay the town of Jorgmund.

And even from this distance, Davion could see that it was burning.

Sheba's eyes widened as she stared at the scene of carnage in front of her. Hundreds of dead and dying littered the streets of the town. Even in her long travels she had never seen this kind of senseless carnage and death. This wasn't even a battle. This was slaughter. Staggering over the corpse of another elf, she leaned over and vomited for a long time.

When she finally stopped, she realized that Ivan was tugging at her. "We can't stay here! They'll find us!"

Nodding, she began circumventing the streets, staring numbly at the cadavers strewn here and there. Once in a while, they'd find a survivor, and bring them along. They had encountered no Karan as of yet, but that wouldn't last. Sooner or later, they'd-

An arrow flew through a tower to embed itself in the wall right in front of her. "Keep absolutely still, whoever you are."

"Davion?" Ivan ventured. 'Is that you?"

The smoke cleared enough for Sheba to see the elven prince, along with the rest of their gang. Davion instantly lowered his bow, and ran up to them. "Ivan! How is it that you are here?"

"A premonition." Ivan whispered. "Too late for the town, though."

Felix strode forward. "We need to evacuate. Most of the survivors have been sent to the town center, but the Karan will find them before long."

Davion shook his head. "How? There is no vehicle we… can…. The ship!"

Picard nodded. "Yes. My ship is the one way we can get any large amount of people here. It was docked near the square, was it not?"

Davion didn't bother to nod as the adepts took off down the streets.

Felix tore his sword from the dying Karan's chest. A patrol had ambushed them halfway to the square, and now they were busy fighting them off. He felt a blast of lightning of to his side, and saw Sheba frying a pair of unfortunate raiders that had tried to sneak up on her. Isaac and Garet were like maelstroms, slashing and tearing at any karan that came too close. Davion was loosing arrow after arrow, dropping more of the raiders than the rest of them combined. Even from this distance, Felix could see, and feel, the pain and fury of having lost his town and people to the attackers in his eyes. Whatever the raiders had expected, this was far too much for them. Yelling in fear, the majority of them fled. Jenna and Garet cast a joint Flare Storm to cook the last brute, and they continued further in.

At the town center, a horde of karan had covered the doorway, and was trying to push it down in order to slaughter the remaining villagers. A few elvish archers were shooting at the karan from within, but it was obvious that this slight deterrent would not hold them back. Felix was about to charge into the melee when he heard Jenna's cry.

"I summon a master craftsman of ancient times! He who forged the first flight of man! He who traversed the ocean, and journeyed to lands unknown! Daedelus!"

In his mind's eye, Felix saw a huge robot, stomping over an alien landscape. Compartments on it's arms opened, and a wave of rockets launched from it. After that, a single large rocket flew from it's chest, into the air.

Reality aligned itself again, and the wave of rockets cascaded onto the ranks of the karan attackers, causing tiny explosions, bruising them and opening some wounds, but overall doing little. The karan took note of this new threat and turned to face them as one. Brandishing sharp weapons and war cries, they charged towards the ragtag band of adepts.

"Jenna?" Davion questioned. "Impressive looking spell and all, but I think you just wasted a lot of energy doing nothing ."

Jenna smirked. "Just you wait, Davion."

An instant before the charging crowd reached them, the heavens split open once more and a gigantic missile streaked towards the ground. A massive explosion devastated the area, throwing huge plumes of dust into the air. When it cleared, all that was left of the attacking bunch were various weapons and armor.

"I take that back." Davion muttered under his breath.

Garet could feel Jenna slumped against him, her breathing labored. Summon spells required massive amounts of mental energy and concentration. He could hear her panting. Silently, he offered a supporting arm, one that she gratefully accepted.

"Let's move on."

Thesthene aimed his arrow at the doorway. The attacks had stopped momentarily, but he knew they'd return. And when they did… He shook his head. He'd given up all hope of survival long ago, and had now merely resolved to protect the survivors of Jorgmund for as long as possible. Just then, he heard a commotion outside the door. Instantly, his bow was tightened, as he mentally vowed to put an arrow through the first Karan that dared show it's face past the door of the center.

Davion rushed in, nimbly dodging a fallen Karan. "Let's get out of here."

Thesthene decided keeping silent and complying would be the current best option.

Grisnakh grinned to himself as he strode through the streets of Jorgmund. Most of the populace had already been slain, and those that weren't had been holed up in the town center. Only a matter of time until they fell.

"Sir." One of his soldiers tramped up. "We've shattered the resistance at the southern portion. All that remains is to eliminate the elves at the town square."

Grisnakh nodded slowly. "And what about the party we sent to the nearby caverns?"

"We've received no word from them."

Grisnakh shrugged. All these concerns were secondary to him. All that mattered now was destroying the elves still cowering in fear in the-

Abruptly a ship soared through the air on wings, before dipping slightly and flying off into the distance. Grisnakh stared. Yes, that was the same one that had flew through Banehallow mountains. What-?

Another soldier rushed up. "Commander! The survivors in the town center have escaped!"

Grisnakh growled softly. These people… they were involved with the escape. He knew it. His eyes flashed darkly before turning to the fast retreating ship in the distance. He could see several arrows flying for it, but they either fell short or stuck uselessly into the woodwork. The ship… the direction it was heading…

He licked his lips. "Send word to all the commanders in all regions. Tell them to gather their forces together. We meet at our next target."

"And that target is?'

Grisnakh allowed the ghost of a smile to flit across his face. "Anthis. High home of the elves."