Epilogue
Okay…so this is the final chapter of Into the Darkness. I know I posted all of this awfully quickly, I think I'll wait a few days before beginning the posting of volume two, The Shadows Coil. Anyway, to anyone who reads this or has read this, could you take the time to review the story? I'd like to know what you think of the Xaterex storyline so far.
"No! I will not tell you where he is, Ix!" the Toa of Fire spat with venom.
Valkyria smiled coldly. "If you do not tell me where the Spirit Toa is, I will have to kill you."
"Kill me then, Ix, but you'll never learn where he's hiding, no matter what you do."
Valkyria thought back for a moment to her first kill, that young Ko-Matoran in the outpost. She'd come so far since then. She was an Ix warrior now, perhaps the most respected of her generation. She'd become more skilled with ranged weapons and daggers than any of the warriors save Khazin Thaer and Scrall.
"This is your final chance." she said, completely calm and emotionless.
The Toa simply stared at her with hatred and disgust.
Valkyria did not hesitate. She was ready to throw her dagger and end his life in a moment before Scrall Vhokyn, her old mentor, moved to stand beside her and cut open the Toa's poured from his wounds for a few moments, then his eyes glazed over.
Valkyria and Vhokyn strode back to the group of Ix warriors. Beside Vhokyn and two robed Ix Lords stood Khazin Thaer and a group of senior Ix warriors and apprentices.
"He would tell us nothing." she said calmly.
"That is unfortunate. Then he is dead?" asked Thaer.
"Yes." said Vhokyn.
"You have done well, Ix warriors." said Thaer. His emotions were completely cloaked, but Valkyria sensed a shiver of excitement run through him as he spoke his next words.
"We were, however, able to locate some information from poor Toa Melnox's mind earlier." said Vhokyn. "You did well capturing this Toa, but your next mission will be the first major step toward our unity with the Ix of the Core Universe. You will be assigned to this mission under my command."
Scrall paused, and let Thaer speak, believing, as Scrall and Valkyria did, his words had sealed the death of a single being.
"Your mission is to track down and kill the Spirit Toa, Shardak."
At the edge of the Grand Abyss, in a destroyed arena, another Toa stood. While he could not know that, hundreds of miles away, another Toa was thinking the same thoughts, he whispered a single sentence that mirrored Shardak's as his companions and he leapt into the Void.
"I will return," said Fairon.
To be continued in The Shadows Coil…
Okay, so here's where Into the Darkness ends. I'll begin posting the (much better) sequel over the course of the next few weeks, but I'll do it more slowly than this one, maybe a chapter every other day. Thanks for reading!