Legacy of the Defender (The Defender Series Book 1) (47 page)

It burned.

Finding my feet was no small effort, but I managed to roll off the giant bat-like wing.  Sickness washed over me and vomit followed.  My protection was off, so my focus turned to healing, but there was no response.  Everything inside was depleted and a horrible realization hit me.  The portal was not only open but large hands reached through, bigger than the one lying on the ground at my feet.  Panic washed over me.  They tried to grab ahold of the special fabric around the portal but could not secure a hand hold.  My head shook in disbelief, having witnessed this today.  Uncertainty of whether another battle was possible in my condition flooded over me and despair took hold.  It was not a matter of training at this point, but sheer will power.  My knees gave out and I was down again before any decisions on the matter formed.

Air escaped from my chest.  Flowing blood mixed with small air bubbles made it frothy and thick.  I saw this kind of wound in the campfire runes so long ago.  For a second, I remembered my teacher, bringing a faint smile amidst the chaos of combat.  Glancing at the flow running down my skin, the pace was showing signs of slowing, which meant coagulation, but that did not solve drowning in my own blood. 

My eyelids felt heavy, so heavy, and I just wanted to sleep.  Breathing was laborious.  Each draw caused shooting pains.  They were the only thing keeping me conscious.  Those large clawed hands continued reaching though and trying to gain access to my world.  I was the only one that could stand toe to toe with whatever wanted through.  My mind could not fathom the irony that getting this far only to fail was the plan, and I definitely believed in plans.   

My imagination raced.  How many sons of Lucifer could there possible be?  I prayed only one.
Wait
… prayer.  I looked up and offered a blessing to God, and although speech was not possible at the time, the words ever present in my mind were simply, “Thank you.”  Slight warmth encapsulated me for a moment...perhaps it was a blessing of healing, but it left a moment later.  I felt cold due to fatigue and blood loss.  Laughter wracked me with more pain.  My clothes were gone...naked as my birthday. 

Talk about being humble
.

A few moments passed.  The hands did not find a grip on the portal and a displeasured voice come from beyond, which chilled me to the bones.  The language was guttural and very much like that of those before.  It said one phrase.

“You will pay.”

A roar ensued.  The hands found a way to grab on and the portal started to throb as if being torn open.  I could actually see fractures forming.  Small pieces of material fell to the ground while some dissipated.  Tendons, bigger than those of the monster I had fought, flexed in exertion.  More of it collapsed but it fell inward this time.  Only one thing ran through my mind: “Not again!” 

Failure was not an option.  A single memory, like a Minotaur in a ceramic shop, pushed its way to the front of my mind, crushing everything else that had been a concern up to that point.  Large panes of glass formed in my mind that held a memory or feelings of affinity or affections that were in my foremost thoughts. 

My eyes fell to Eryn where she lay on the ground behind me.  She looked helpless now but had a strength that astonished me.  I wondered if she would be okay but could not move to look.  She had such tenderness about her that I loved and needed so much to have her love in return.  The thought of never being able to hold her again drove me to look over that cliff of instant insanity for just a moment.  I felt the desire to leap off of it, especially considering I might have failed my love.

Memories of my teacher lingered, how he died saving me.  In reality, his death is what made me the man I was.  I thought of him lying on the make shift alter where they had killed him to open the portal.  He was part of God...
the
God...who gave his life for me to survive by throwing me over a hill while he called down fires from Heaven.  I thought of how they removed his finger and stuck it in an amulet which empowered the foe I had just slain.  This weakened Heaven so the horde could breach its sacred walls.  Right as I looked at this memory, a thought came crashing to the front, smashing all of the others.  That moment destroyed everything I loved up to that point.  I was on my feet without even realizing it.  My fists clenched and an empowerment of rage coursed through me.  I wanted to slay every one of these daemons and send them back to Lucifer in a container for him to choke on.

“Close the portal!”
my swords yelled silently in my thoughts.

A voice, my voice rang out to the now destroyed glade.

“Close the portal!”
they said aloud.  Their voice did not sound soft and supportive, but commanding. 

Again, I heard it. 

Clarity came over me.  My eyes focused on the now gaping hole that had one foot stepping on the bottom portion trying to force down while lifting with its hands.  Time was up.  Inside my mind, those precious shards of my memories came back together like a large puzzle, pieced together by some inner form of me.  I almost laughed when a dejected image that I looked like as a teenager sat there, putting each broken piece back in place...but the picture was reforming.  The dawning of a new age in my life was upon me.

Like one of my many projects and things I used to build, this one meant something more to me than anything.  It was all happening in rapid pace; the last piece went into place.  There was an image of Eryn.  She was smiling at me.  It was the day in the park when I gave her a flower and she was absolutely glowing.  I felt like the luckiest man in the world that day.  It hit me as the last piece affixed to the rest.  She was my heart.  My skills may be able to kill monsters and slay daemons for God and to save the world, but in the end, my heart needed her.  She needed me now more than ever.

From my depleted depths, tendrils of energy shot from all parts of my body.  A burst of energy left me and shot towards the portal.  Latching on the areas that flapped in the breeze, this mental image of them stretched and reattached to the other side formed, just like wrapping a present.  This filled my thoughts.  My energy grabbed a hold of the portal and began to fold its sides down.  The giant hands tore and clawed to no avail.  A verbal outburst told me there was success.  I smiled and continued to crush this portal down, and each fold gave confirmation because the icky sensation faded gradually.  The portal was about a third of the way closed when the body of the prince rose from the ground.  It floated toward the opening as if something was levitating it.  I did a double take, for its head was that of a large unicorn.  I almost could not believe what it looked like.  The myth was true.  Somehow he masked his true self.  I guess we all have things we hide.  As the body got closer, things got worse.

The ichor expunged from every possible wound on it as the body collapsed into a dried husk.  Suspended right in the air its blood transformed into energy.  The particles broke down and faded to a neutral color.  The color went translucent save for the small jumps of energy that occasionally occurred before fading all together.  Suddenly eldridge fire engulfed the clear mass as it floated towards the collapsing portal; it was as though this blood energy had tendrils of its own and began to grab the edges of the torn fabric. 

Then it started to pull it apart
. 

Fighting with all my might I tried to counter it.  My inner core of energy reserve collapsed inside me, and my own connection to the portal fractured and broke free.  Trying to reestablish it was not working as my mind kept reaching out to grab it again and it felt as if it slapped my hand away.  Maniacal laughter echoed through the glade.  The air started to move towards the opening and began to interact with the portal like before when it was opening. 

Then it happened.  The silence before the storm simply vanished.  Starting right at the portal, dirt vibrated on the ground breaking free then slowly moved towards it.  Bodies of coven members began to slide before the suction took them and pulled them towards the portal.  The bodies, like the big one before, flattened with a sickening, suction sound, as the red blood extracted.  It had coalesced in a huge cloud of crimson before it flew apart, shedding its color and becoming raw energy.  With each coven member's floating corpse, this process repeated, the blood coalesced from each.  This energy shot toward the portal.

Everything here began to move.

A vacuum...It was time to go.

This area had a barrier around it that had kept prying eyes out and unwanted guests from entering.  I had to rely on that barrier keeping whatever was here contained while I got Eryn clear.  It had to hold.  My thoughts turned towards getting that tome then on to my love.  Turning back towards Eryn, I ran.  The air tore at my flesh, trying to take me with it towards this maelstrom of death about to consume everything here. 

The vacuum reached where the large tome was.  The stand it fell from lay near it and started to roll towards me.  I leapt over it, feeling the suction grab a hold of me for a moment before my feet touched down again.  Steps became difficult.  All around me bodies rose up and moved towards the rift.  One caught my eyes in particular and made me stumble for a moment.  The face of the priests that tried to kill me months ago had just floated by wearing the robes of one of the Coven.  I heard the coven leader mention names of all three, but I never a good look at him.  My focused stayed on her at the time.

Anger rose.

It made no sense.  One question hit me as I reached for the book. 
Why would this group want me dead if they needed me here now?
  I promised myself better answers to this quandary later and perhaps this book had some.  It was a lot heavier than it looked and felt icky in my hands.  Not having any clothes, I put it under my right arm...using the three of my appendages to claw my way forward.  The ground shook harder.  More topsoil came free in large sections.  I could see the path behind Erin’s form lost all its leaves.  Even the light was bending towards the rift... just like a black hole.

Oh God!  No!

A surge propelled me forward as if by an unseen hand.  On the ground in front of me was the mangled body of the wizard that offered his assistance.  He was a mess.  Most of his torso was torn open but his heart and lungs, although exposed, were functioning.  A look of shock must have betrayed my thoughts for he said to me without even moving his lips.

“I got this.  Remember me...Sigvard is my name." 

Pain stabbed me in the heart over his majestic sacrifice as my momentum carried me passed him.  Scooping up Eryn, I clutched her using her using the tome to hold her in place.  The winds tore at me filled with the dirt and debris.  It was like being sand blasted.  Particles embedded themselves into my skin pealing it away.  I knew I could take it, but she could not.  The book shielded her from some of it when thoughts of protection from the elements came to mind.  Debris sliced at both of us.  To my surprise a small version of my shield appeared.  It began to drain my life to maintain it.  My thoughts did not even think to question where this came from, but a thank you was a secondary thought. 

Each step was harder than the last.  It was difficult to find the way out.  Strong winds still made it hard to keep my eyes open.  The location of the path leading out was a mystery.  My senses through my blades required me to be holding them, but my surroundings channeled through them when they chose to share.  Occasionally I had to open them to peek.  Faint light ahead aided me in finding the path now strangely lit, filled with bending light heading towards the portal.  I passed the car we came in.  The glass was already missing and the seats were starting to rip apart.  Tires blew out right as we went by and it began to slide forward.  Metal groaned in protest.  The maelstrom of intensity finally forced my eyes closed, for even though the particles could not get through, the air dried them out.  Blindly moving forward, my feet managed toward the direction we came in.  I did not even know if we could get out.  Air came through so there had to be a way. 

A bright light appeared before me.  Around the entrance, images cast from this source illuminated a fabric like illusion disguised like woods.  It contained this area were the coven practiced their ways in secret.  With them gone, the magic weakened.  Trees threatened to uproot, creaking in protest as smaller limbs snapped and disappeared behind.  Ripples rolled across the opaque protective barrier like waves as the stresses on this side taxed the magic that it contained inside here.  It looked like what my mind imagined being inside a hot air balloon at night with spotlights out the outside.  It flexed just like a container does when you suck the air out of it and it starts to collapse inwards.  The tension made it quiver.  It was clear, the covens dimensional haven was about to collapse. 

I stumbled forward.

Blinding light hit me in the eye and pouring rain thundered.  Internal reserves finally depleted and my strength gave out as my foot found pavement before I could even see it.  The driving rain felt good as it washed the grime off me from untold places.  As my body pitched forward, I managed to hold onto Eryn.  We fell and rolled.  The tome landed hard on the ground and skidded off somewhere.  Ahead a car door opened and closed.  Footsteps ran towards us.  Not knowing what was about to happen I tried to get up but could not.  We made it outside.  I glanced again towards the barrier and saw the light upon it blinked out for a second as a figure moved into the light, blocking it for a moment.  A shadow of a man cast upon that surface and then I felt hands on me pulling me up.