Two new reviews and a few story alerts. I'm sorry I have taken a while to update this story (again). This must have been the hardest chapter for me to write.
All of us stood there watching Tikal laying on the black altar in the middle of the room. Typhoon was standing on the right side of her ; just a few inches away from the red markings on the floor. Eclipse had just taken one of the lit torches that were hanging from the wall and was now walking over to the four jet black, goblet-shaped lanterns surrounding the matching altar that the peach echidna was on. Then, he used the torch to ignite the vessels clockwise. Flames roared within the lanterns, giving more brightness to the room.
Eclipse walked over to a jet black pedestal and took a black book that was on top of it. Then, he walked back over to the altar as he thumbed through the pages, looking for a certain one. He eventually stopped walking when he was a few inches away from the strange red markings that surrounded the black altar on the floor. As I stood there watching, Knuckles started muttering under his breath. I turned my head towards the red echidna that was behind me on my right.
"Knuckles," I said to him quietly so the echidnas in the room couldn't hear me. "What's wrong?"
"Sonic, Eclipse is going to kill Tikal" he replied.
"What?" I wanted to say it out loud. "How do you know that?"
"Because I saw it before my own eyes."
"What do you mean?" I asked not knowing what he was talking about.
"Ever since Typhoon bit me, I've been getting strange dreams. Every single one I had matched a part of his story. He somehow managed to transfer some of his memories to my brain and I just saw one of them. Summer was on the altar just like Tikal is right now and Eclipse had cast a spell to make a portal appear. A hand came out of it and grabbed her. That must be what had happened to her."
That's why Typhoon was so reluctant to tell us what had happened to Summer. He did say that he cared about her. So, it didn't really surprise me that losing her would have been devastating to him.
"So, Eclipse is the one that did something to Summer?" Rouge asked.
"Yes, and he's planning to do the same thing with Tikal," Knuckles said.
I knew there was something strange about Eclipse! He was going too far! Trying to kill Tikal? She was one of the few people that didn't even deserve it. I clenched my right fist ; anger rising inside of me like magma inside of a volcano.
"Not if I can help it," I said.
I sped down the stairs and into the room where the three echidnas were with Tails, Knuckles, and the others following close behind me. When I was close enough, I screeched my feet to a halt. Everybody else behind me did the same and they piled behind me like a crowd of people following their leader.
"It's over Eclipse!" I told the hooded echidna that was standing a few feet away from me. "Your weird rituals and vampire spells end tonight!"
"On the contrary, hedgehog," he said to me placing the black book he was holding on the altar. "My power is never going to end and I think it's time that you and your friends were finally taken care of."
Eclipse took hold of the jet black stone attached to his necklace with his left hand. Then, he waved his right hand away from his chest a few inches over the stone. At first, it seemed like nothing was happening. But then, all the vampires in the room started straining like they were struggling to keep control of themselves. When they finally stopped, they stood up and just stared at Tails, Shadow, and I the same way Tikal looked at Eclipse after he put a spell on her.
"Sonic," Tails said to me, trembling. "Why are Knuckles, Amy, and Rouge looking at us that way?"
"I don't know Tails," I answered. "But, I'm betting Eclipse has something to do with it."
"All of you, take care of these intruders!" Eclipse ordered the vampires standing still in the room. "I have some business to attend to."
All the vampires turned their attention to Tails, Shadow, and I, with scorn in their dark, lifeless eyes. They flashed their teeth at the three of us. Then, they charged at us using that supernatural speed of theirs. We dashed around the room with the vampires in hot pursuit.
Knuckles was hot on my trail. With that new speed of his, it was hard for me to lose him. As the red echidna chased me around the room, I heard Tails cry out. I looked up above me to see him using his namesake to help him fly across the ceiling, trying to keep away from Rouge. The white bat was now flying so fast that my twin-tailed buddy only had a moment to rest before he had to move again. I could tell that he was getting exhausted.
"Shadow, I could really use your help right now!" I called out to the red-streaked hedgehog.
"I've got troubles of my own!" he shouted back to me. Shadow darted out of the way just in time to dodge one of Typhoon's spiked fists and Amy's Piko Piko hammer. The black hedgehog had it the worst because he had two vampires after him instead of just one like Tails and I did.
"Why don't you just use Chaos Control?" I shouted out to him.
"I tried! For some reason, I can't use it in here!"
When I looked at the altar in the middle of the room, I screeched my feet to a halt. Eclipse was standing a few inches away from the crimson markings on the floor around the jet black altar and was thumbing through the pages of the black book again.
Just before I could see him find the page he was looking for, Knuckles came up from behind me and punched me in the jaw with the spiked fist on his right hand. I cried out in surprise as I was knocked down to the cold stone floor on my backside. When I began to stand up, I looked again at the black altar. Eclipse had found the page he was looking for and was now chanting in some language that I wasn't familiar with.
Oh no! I thought. He's going to kill Tikal! I've got to stop him!
"I hate to do this again to you, Knuckles," I said to the red echidna that was standing over me and was possibly about to kill me. "But you leave me
no choice."
I stood up on my legs and ran around Knuckles, creating another whirlwind. The red echidna was sucked into the vortex and then sent flying into the air ; giving me time to stop Eclipse. When I looked back at the middle of the room, I noticed that the flames in the goblet-shaped lanterns were as black as the four vessels they were burning inside of.
Using all my speed, I jumped up in the air, and used my homing attack to charge at the hooded echidna. Eclipse cried out in surprise as I knocked him to the ground on his back ; causing him to lose the spell book he was holding in his left hand. After I was standing on my feet again, I leaned over and picked up the black book a few inches from me.
When Eclipse was making an attempt to get up from the ground, I saw Knuckles and the other vampires straining like they were before. After a moment, they all stopped. Knuckles was a few inches away from me when he finally spoke to me.
"Sonic, what happened?"
I was surprised when I heard that. Did he mean that he didn't remember attacking me earlier? I turned my attention back to Eclipse. When I looked back at him, I couldn't believe what I had just seen. The jet black stone attached to his golden necklace had a huge crack in it. It was similar to the windshield of a car after being hit with a huge rock.
As I looked at the stone, I remembered Eclipse using it before Knuckles and the other vampires began to attack us. Then, it hit me like lightning! The stone was how Eclipse was able to control them! When I cracked it using my homing attack, he lost his power over them.
"Give me back my book, hedgehog!"
Eclipse was walking dangerously slow towards me. His golden eyes full of anger were fixed on me and his mouth was in the form of a sneer. From the tone of his voice, I could tell that he had lost his patience with me. I looked at the black book I was holding in my hand. Then, I turned back towards one of the four goblet-shaped lanterns that surrounded the altar in the middle of the room. The strange black fire that was burning inside the lantern looked very creepy. A spell turned the fire's colors from the usual orange and yellow to an eerie black. The book was obviously too dangerous to keep, especially when they were in the hands of an evil sorcerer. When I realized that, I knew what I had to do.
(Knuckles)
I couldn't remember anything that happened before I spoke to Sonic. One minute, I was struggling to keep control of my body. And the next, I was standing just a few feet away from the blue hedgehog, still trying to figure out what had happened.
"Give me my book!" After hearing that voice, I turned towards Eclipse who was nearly standing inches away from Sonic.
"Okay, here you go," the blue hedgehog said to him. Before he could hand the book back over to the hooded echidna however, Sonic tossed it over his shoulder and into the black fire-filled lantern behind him. Eclipse cried out, "NO!" as the spell book was consumed by the black flames.
"Oops," Sonic said. He gave the hooded echidna a cheesy grin and had his arms out like he was embarrassed about what he had just done. I wasn't fooled for one second. I knew that Sonic had done that on purpose.
When I looked back at Tikal on the black altar in the middle of the room, I could see that she had awakened from the trance she was in because she was trembling like she had been turned into gelatin. A few feet above her, I saw a grayish-blue portal. The size of it made it look like it was big enough to swallow her whole. Out of it, a hand with long fingernails appeared. The nails were so long that they might have resembled claws. The peach echidna continued to tremble as the long-nailed hand began to descend from the portal in order to grab her.
It didn't take me long to recognize the hand and the portal it was coming out of. They were the same ones from the vision of the temple I had earlier that night. The hand had taken Summer and now it was going to do the same to Tikal. I dashed towards the black altar where the peach echidna was laying on and scooped her up in my arms. Then, I used my supernatural speed to rush the both of us away from the hand that was just about to snatch her and pull her into the portal. Her sapphire blue eyes were wide open with fear as she looked at me.
"Knuckles?" Tikal said to me in an uncertain voice.
I didn't say anything. At that very moment, I was terrified! Just a few seconds before, I was watching a hand reach down and try to grab her. If it had gotten hold of her, she would have been gone forever. The both of us continued to look at each other like we were in a trance as I held her in my arms.
"You will pay for that, you fool!" When I looked over my shoulder and saw Eclipse, I could tell that he was enraged by what I had just done.
Eclipse had really done it! I was so furious that Typhoon blasting me with that green energy of his earlier that night seemed more like he had just pulled one of my dreadlock spines! I had nearly lost Tikal because of Eclipse and I was going to let him have it! I set Tikal down on the stone floor and then turned back towards the hooded echidna.
As soon as I did, I saw Typhoon rushing behind Eclipse. He looked like he was heading straight to the altar Tikal was laying on earlier. He got up on the altar and then jumped into the portal and vanished. I called out his name like I thought that it would bring him back, but there was no doubt in my mind that he was gone. After all the things I did to him and the way I acted, I couldn't helping feeling guilty. Even though he jumped into the portal willingly, I felt like it was my fault that he did it.
When I turned my attention back to Eclipse, I remembered how angry I was at him. Clenching my fists, I charged at him with my vampiric speed and pinned him to the wall. My rage consumed me as I fixed my eyes on the hooded echidna and bared my teeth at him.
"You jerk!" I said to his face with an angry tone. "You're responsible for turning me and some of my friends into vampires! You tried to kill Tikal! I'm going to make you wish that you never even touched that spell book!"
After I said that, I took my right fist and used it to punch Eclipse in the chest. As soon as I did, I heard a cracking noise where I had sent the blow. When I looked at the spot where I hit the sorcerer, I saw some strange black energy emerging from the golden circular base where the jet black stone was supposed to be. Then, all the flames in the goblet-shaped lanterns and the torches on the wall went out like gusts of wind came and blew them all out at the same time.
The crimson markings on the floor surrounding the altar began to glow, filling the room with an eerie red brightness. The pictures of the deities painted on the walls began to glow as well, adding to the red luminance of the floor markings. When I looked at the paintings of the deities on the wall behind me, I saw that they now had the wings of dragons. Their faces were also sinister looking, like they were evil.
"You fool!" Eclipse said to me. "Do you realize what you have done?"
As soon as he said that, a black vortex started to form from the markings on the floor. It continued to grow until it had reached the ceiling of the temple room. The sound it made was like a mix between a howling wind and the roaring of a fierce beast.
"Eclipse!" a sinister voice coming from the black whirlwind said. "Your time has come!"
After the voice said that, a hand similar to the one from the portal earlier had come out of the swirling vortex and grabbed the hooded echidna. Then, it pulled him back into the whirlwind with it. Even with the howling wind drowning out nearly every sound in the room, I could hear Eclipse screaming like he was in pain.
Suddenly, the suction from the vortex became so great that the torches from the wall were being sucked into it. I ran over to the room entrance where Tikal and the others were standing. When I looked at the jet black goblet-shaped lanterns in the room, they were being sucked into the vortex as well.
"Sonic, I think we better leave," I told the blue hedgehog.
"Good idea," he replied.
The seven of us dashed out of the glowing red temple room, up the spiraling, stone stairs, and back into the ancient passageways. Even after leaving the room, I could still hear the howling wind and Eclipse's horrifying screams from inside the vortex. And then all of a sudden, there was nothing but silence.
End of Chapter Thirteen.