Chapter 38: Keep Away

  “Yes,” Pi said in a moment of straightforwardness. “I am one of the few who remain. I originally chose you and your friend as my vessel to bring about the apocalypse. I have since changed my mind, at least for the short duration of your lifespan. Perhaps I’ll grow bored with the light when you pass into it.”

  “What about my children?” I asked, looking for Bori’s pink light in my arm. All was blackness. “Where did Bori go?”

  “She’s in your arm right where you left her,” Pi soothed. “At present, you are in a pocket dimension I made out of the black relic to show you what my world was like. It will shatter if you choose to go back to your world.”

  “I want to go back,” I whispered.

  “Hey!” Bill kicked and struggled against Pi. “Don’t I get a say in this? What do you want me to do? Stop existing?”

  “You will carry on as before,” Pi replied, not bothering to turn to the boy. “Or you can move on. I will let you decide.”

  “I want to be with Alex!” Bill went slack when he realized his tiny frame wasn’t making any headway against Pi.

  “And you shall be.” Pi patted him on the head with a shadowy clawed hand. “So, Alex, are you prepared to return to your reality? I assure you, many foes will be waiting for you there.”

  “Yes,” I replied, trying to muster all the courage I could.

  “Be prepared,” he said as his voice faded along with the darkness.

  Moments later, I was once again standing in a room with Primith and the Puppetmaster. I clutched something. It was black, slimy, and pulsating in my hand.

  Scanning object…

  Error…

  Item description not in database…

  Determination: Enchanted object created pre-era.

  “Is this?” I asked as all eyes turned to what I held in my hand.

  I smiled as a familiar system message popped up in front of me.

  This is The Heart of Umbral Damnation. You must dispose of it before anyone else can use it.

  I tried to crush the slimy thing. It only beat faster. The Puppetmaster tried to lunge at me, but Primith’s vines held her tight.

  “You might want to figure out what to do with that thing,” Primith gasped, the signs of exertion etched into her face. “I don’t know how long my vines will last.”

  “What am I supposed to do with it?” I wasn’t sure who I was asking, Primith of Pi.

  The heart felt disgusting in my hand. I wanted to throw the thing away, but that would be the equivalent of handing it over to Donn or the Puppetmaster. Out of desperation, I tried encasing it in Cornerstone, but the stone melted off of it, dripping to the floor in what looked like black molten slag.

  Suddenly, shadows erupted from everywhere once again. This time, they didn’t blot out the light, but formed into the large imposing wraiths I was familiar with. My instincts told me to draw Excalibur, but I couldn’t do that without dropping the heart.

  I tried to store the cursed thing in my bag, hoping that would free my hands and prevent my enemies from getting it.

  Error, storing this item is not possible.

  “Pi?” I asked nervously.

  Guard the heart. I shall deal with the wraiths.

  My whole body shuddered as I cradled the dark heart like a football and tried to make a dash for the door. The wraiths started for me but my shadow exploded into a thousand wraiths of my own and they clashed in a sea of black that swirled around me like a tornado.

  Through it all, I caught a glimpse of the old elf breaking free of Primith’s vines and dashing through an opening in the storm to get to me. She lunged at the dark heart.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Give it to me!” she shrieked. “My people depend on it.”

  “I can’t let you kill people!” I yelled as I yanked the heart away from her clawed grasp.

  I ducked into a hallway, running for all I was worth. Where I was going, I had no clue.

  Make a right and proceed downstairs.

  I’d almost forgotten. With Pi at my side, there was no way I could lose. I followed his instructions with newfound vigor adding a pep to my step. We soon arrived at Luna’s version of the nail room. The spike stuck out of the floor in a similarly spacious room as the one in Celestea Castle back on Gaia.

  Take hold of the nail and hold your breath. I’ll do the rest.

  While I wished Pi could teleport like Melvin, his ability to operate the spike meant we weren’t trapped on Luna. I knelt and clutched the nail with my good hand. The pull hit me just behind the navel, just before I held my breath. My lungs burned as what little air I had was drawn out of me when the magic had its way with me. For several agonizing moments, I saw nothing but colors and heard a loud whoosh before being deposited unceremoniously in Gaia’s spike room. I hacked and wheezed until I caught my breath.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  Proceed to the airship. It is imperative that you hide the relic to buy time.

  “Time for what?” I asked as I sprinted down the hall following a red line Pi conveniently provided.

  There is a way to seal the dark heart. It will require some preparation. Your best option presently is to flee at present.

  Shadows erupted in the halls and materialized into wraiths. I shifted the relic to my stone arm and drew Excalibur, effortlessly vanquishing the shadows without losing speed. The knights stood at the ready on the landing pad. It was fortunate that I’d left the airship in Celestea as opposed to Solitair or Albion.

  I sprinted up the gangplank and shouted. “Take off, now!”

  Faster than I thought possible, the knights had us untethered and in the air. It was only when Celestea grew small in the distance that I stopped to consider what I’d just done. I abandoned everyone. Isa, Nax, Zelle, and even Primith were still on Luna with the Puppetmaster. All I knew about Donn was that he had been trapped in the throne room in Gaian Celestea.

  “Where are we going?” I asked finally.

  There was no reply. I walked toward the bow of the ship, and something strange happened. A shadow followed me that wasn’t my own, and a pair of beady red eyes looked up from the deck.

  My brother has followed us. Do not get involved in what happens next.

  Pi then did something he’d never done before. He melted off of my shadow and materialized in front of me, looking just like the phantom from my dreams. Donn did the same, and I suddenly had two massive shadow monsters squaring off on the deck. They were much larger than any wraith. I also noticed Donn had abandoned the corpse he used to surround.

  “Greetings brother,” Pi began the conversation. “It’s been far too long.”

  “Since our apocalypse,” Donn replied with a nod. “Are you here to help or hinder me? We must restore the home of our people.”

  “Our people are no more,” Pi replied, squaring off between me and Donn.

  “Don’t deny me this, Brother,” Donn took a step closer to Pi. “I have put up with these filthy homo sapiens for far too long, serving as their armor, to be denied this.”

  Pi placed a clawed hand on his shoulder. “Brother, give the light a try. Stand beside me and this human. He might just surprise you. We can always devour the light when he dies. The lifespan of a human is short.”

  “The heart of the father is right here,” Donn pointed over Pi’s shoulder at the relic I still cradled in my arm. “I have the ultimate sacrifice trapped in the machine at this very moment. Let us perform the ritual, and I’ll let you have this human as a pet in the glorious world Lord Sephirot creates.”

  “You forget, dear brother, we are and have always been equals.” Pi pushed forward, forcing Donn to move back. “And I, for one, never want go to back under that tyrant’s rule. If we use the heart, we do it without resurrecting him.”

  “Blasphemy!” Donn roared while backpedaling. “We are born of him.”

  “And we are finally free,” Pi countered, matching Donn step for step. “In this world, we can be gods.”

  I was surprised Iris didn’t chime in when somebody mentioned gods. She was normally all over that. Her silence added gravity to the situation.

  “We are at an impasse, Brother,” Donn spread his arms and darkness billowed out like a cape. “Either step aside, or fight me.”

  Rather than spending his own darkness to fan out like Donn did, Pi grew in size until he towered over Donn like a nightmare creature emerging from an inky black sea. The knights stood stoically at their stations, resigned to the fact that this fight was way above their paygrade.

  That left me squeezing the hilt of Excalibur in one hand while trying not to drop the slippery heart of darkness on the floor. All I could do was swat helplessly at Donn’s shadow tendrils as they tried to reach around Pi.

  The standoff between the two primordials shook the ship, threatening to break it apart hundreds of feet above the ground.

  “Land!” I shouted. “Quickly!”

  I was grateful Isa wasn’t with me, as I barely stayed on my feet when the airship dropped like a falling star. The sudden dip in altitude had no effect on the battling primordials. Donn went the route of summoning hundreds of wraiths while Pi absorbed them into his massive footprint as they tried to get past him.

  I realized neither was trying to defeat the other. Donn was after me, or more importantly, the relic in my hand, and Pi was doing everything in his power to not let him pass.

  I staggered to the edge to see how close we were to landing when one of Pi’s shadowy arms shoved me. Even though The ship was supposed to be shielded, but I flew right through it and plummeted toward a canopy of trees below. With only moments until impact and no time to think, I expelled some of the wraiths I’d captured at the Puppetmaster’s castle and willed them to form a parachute using my mana.

  My descent slowed a bit, but I still hit the tree’s hard. My stone arm snagged several branches and threatened to rip right off my body. A jolt shot through my spine when my butt made impact with the ground. A rain of debris cascaded around me as the trees wept leaves over my abrupt intrusion.

  When I came to my senses, panic flooded me as I realized I’d dropped the dark heart. I pushed myself to my hands and knees and scoured the forest floor for it.

  “Thu-thump,” it called from its landing spot about a dozen feet away.

  I raced over and scooped it up, looking in every direction to see if anyone had witnessed my crash landing. Satisfied nobody was around, I looked up through gaps in the trees for any sign of the airship. It was gone. I couldn’t even hear sounds of it in the distance. For that matter, the wraiths I’d used as a parachute had vanished as well.

  Was I still in Celestea, or had we passed into Dabian territory before Pi unceremoniously ejected me from the ship? My head was still spinning. One thing I knew for certain was that it was my top priority to find a hiding place for the relic. If what Pi said was true, we could find a way to seal it away for good once we dealt with Donn and the Puppetmaster.

  “Now, where do I put you?” I asked the heart as I looked at it like some Shakespearian prince admiring a skull.

  I jumped when Bori suddenly appeared beside me. “I have an idea, Daddy.”