Sentinels: Forsaken Knight (27 page)

            Kiya used the distraction to her advantage and flew up to Anye quickly without her noticing until the last second, and moved to kick her in the head. Unfortunately for Kiya, Anye’s reflexes were well honed, and she managed to lower her head beneath her shield and push the mage away from her.

            “Damn you, Kiya!” Anye shouted. “You and Amador will pay for this!”

            “If it weren’t us it would merely have been someone else, Anye,” Kiya told her. “The dark one’s influence is quite strong. There are those who don’t even realize they were having their strings pulled…like your friend in Belrun. What was his name? Micah?”

            “What?”

            "Well you didn't believe he really thought it would be wise for you to come here by yourself, did you?" Kiya taunted. "You're more foolish than we thought."

            "And yet here I still stand," Anye replied. "I suppose it's too bad for you I'm not as dim-witted as you."

            Kiya's attitude changed in response to the taunt thrown her way. Her smile and cocky gesture faded and were replaced with aggression and annoyance. "So you got lucky," she snorted. "Everyone's luck runs out."

            "Yes, it does!"

            Anye acted on instinct and reinforced the enchantment on her shield as she sprinted towards her opponent. The magic boost she had tapped into before felt more natural as she summoned its energy, and she felt herself feeling what Kiya was planning on doing as the spells materialized.

            She blocked away a few small bolts of magic with her shield as she approached the blonde mage and readied her sword to strike. Anye was a skilled fighter, but Kiya was an adept mage who wasn't wearing any armor, and thus was more agile than Anye. When Anye swung her arm, she released some magic she had charged into the blade, which appeared to cut the very air where Kiya was standing, leaving behind an after-image of the weapon swinging.

            The women danced around each other, each trying as hard as they could to kill the other. Kiya was too fast for Anye to follow completely while casting her own spells continuously, but whatever defensive and enhancing charms she could conjure she did due to the nature of her enemy. Safety and survival were paramount; she’d reminded herself enough in the recent days that brash thinking and acting without forethought could be fatal. Still, whatever she did manage to land on Kiya didn't seem to be enough. Each second that passed made it feel more evident that she would need to fully enter the enlightened state.

            "You can't defeat me with your amateur level abilities, girl," Kiya teased as she created some distance between Anye and herself. "Just give up. It'll be easier!"

            Kiya launched another fireball at Anye which she easily cut through with her sword. "And why would I want to do that?"

            Both women ran at each other again, each flinging insults at one another and simply pissing the other one off even more. Neither really gained any ground on the other, a small cut or a burn here and there but nothing particularly threatening to them aside from each woman's growing fatigue.

            "Master, you need to stop holding back!" Alistair yelled at her. "You can't beat her as you are. You
will
lose!"

            "What if I become too weak to fight against Stragus?" Anye asked.

            "You can't help your friends fight him if you're
dead
!"

            "Starting to go delirious?" Kiya teased. "Allow me to put you out of your misery!"

            Kiya lit her hand on fire and swiped at Anye with her hand like a blade. Anye avoided the attacks but doing so was draining. Anye knew that she should tap in to the powers that lay dormant, but her pride didn't let her. She wanted to beat Glenn's traitorous wife,
needed
to, without them.

            "Master, listen to me!" Alistair pleaded with her.

            The sword's incessant begging was making Anye even angrier and agitated, but she noticed that in her building rage she was becoming more focused than before. Her attacks were getting more accurate, and her shield strikes more powerful. She had focused, and started turning the tide of the battle in her favor.

            Kiya seemed to become annoyed at her inability to easily dispatch the red-haired knight, and was getting sloppy with her spell casting. Each fireball, blast of wind, lightning bolt, and shard of ice she conjured grew weaker and weaker. "Why won't you die!?" she yelled as she floated herself away from Anye to get some distance and hopefully regain some of her strength.

            Anye wasn't having it and made a gamble based on her instincts. Alistair knew what she was planning and shouted in protest, but she ignored him. Using all of the strength she could muster, she flung the weapon point-first at her foe.

            Kiya saw the weapon flying towards her and swatted it away easily, placing a grin on her face as she expected to be able to throw some quick witted remark about what a fool Anye was, but the moment she opened her mouth to speak Anye's shield came upward and slammed in to her chin. Her head jerked back as the cold metal hit her jaw.

            Anye, in a moment of tactical genius, had used the thrown blade as a distraction to cast a speed enchantment on herself and sprint up next to Kiya so she could land the blow with her shield. While Kiya was stunned from the impact, Anye reached her hand outward and summoned the sword back to her. When the weapon reached her fingertips, she gripped the handle tightly and quickly shoved the tip of the blade through the witch's gut, forcing it through her body until it was exposed through her back and dripped with her blood.

            Kiya's eyes opened widely, shocked at what had happened, and lowered her head slowly to see the blade that stuck through her. Anye was holding her up with her shield arm, but the cold, stern look of determination in her eyes spoke volumes. Kiya had been defeated, and Anye was damn proud of it. The blonde mage tried to speak, but the words wouldn't form. Anye pushed the blade further through her body, prompting her to cough up some blood in place of what she was trying to say while increasing her already obvious pain.

            Anye remained silent as she stared into Kiya’s dying eyes. The woman had essentially stood in her way for many years, and had betrayed the man she loved. There was no room for mercy, only disdain and pity for the sorry state Kiya had placed herself in.

            Anye pulled her sword from her dying opponent's chest, but held her up for a second to say something before she let her fall and die. Her honor as a knight compelled her to, no matter how much she hated the woman. "Find peace in the afterlife, for there is none for you here," she told her, and gently let the woman go.

            Kiya fell on her back. The blood from her mortal wound stained the black robes she wore, and spilled into a large red puddle that contrasted the gray timeless landscape. Her eyes looked around painfully, filled with panic as she coughed her last breaths of air, still apparently in disbelief that she had been beaten. She tried to raise a hand towards Anye, but whether it was out of anger and a vain attempt to cast one last spell, or a final gesture of pleading, Anye didn't know. When she gave her last breath, the hand fell to the ground and the woman remained motionless.

            Anye remained standing over her fallen opponent for a few minutes while catching her breath and calming her nerves. Each fight she found herself in had been increasingly more difficult than the last, but she always survived. And just like the battles she fought in during the war, she always would.

            "Alistair," Anye said as her breathing finally slowed. "
Never
doubt my abilities again."

            The sword remained silent.

______

            “Glenn!” Anye yelled while she ran around the timeless capital. “Can you hear me!?” For as loud as she cried and as far as she ran, Anye’s companion was nowhere to be found. Even Alistair, who claimed that the very nature of his, Darius, and Legeia’s existence allowed them to feel one another’s presence, said that he could not find her friends.

            The window Kiya had opened showing Glenn’s battle with Amador had faded shortly after her life came to its end. There were no identifying landmarks shown in the bland landscape, and they were likely far from where she stood. There were no sounds of battle echoing anywhere, and although Eisenzahn and Oscar had fought in the air she could not see them above. Either the battle had concluded, or Stragus was preventing Anye from finding them somehow.

            She paused to look around at her surroundings, hoping to gain some bearings using the temple at the center of the city as a base. She had already traveled a good distance from where she left Kiya’s body and needed to keep from getting lost.

            Anye’s suspicions aroused suddenly, prompted by an unexpected sensation of magic, which faded quickly. There was still no wind, and Stragus had remained silent, but there was definitely something that had happened. It felt like a pulse, or perhaps a sudden spark of magical concentration coming from the direction of the temple. It was very brief, but it was enough to get the woman’s attention.

            “Alistair, did you feel that?” Anye asked the blade.

            “I did, but I do not know what it was,” Alistair replied. “Proceed with caution, Master.”

            Anye, determined to find Glenn, stepped towards the massive building through the frozen landscape. She hoped that whatever the sensation was would be felt by him as well and she’d find him there. Alistair remained silent, keeping watch for anything Stragus may have planned, but nothing happened. Aside from the sound of her footfalls they were surrounded by absolute silence.

            The steps of the temple, a massive square-shaped building with a tower jutting out of the center, were littered with the frozen bodies of man and demon alike, each trapped in perpetual battle. The damage to the area from the magic and steel being used was extensive except for the temple itself, which looked pristine amidst the chaotic battle. The doors were open, and so Anye stepped inside.

            The section of the temple Anye entered was shaped similar to the tower she had claimed Alistair in, though based on his description of the area there were many more sections of the structure that served different purposes. Stairs climbed upward in a spiral fashion. The condensation of magic was also just like the desert tower, only much more potent. It caused a dizzying sensation in Anye’s head that prevented her from going any further until she got used to it.

            “The center of the seal is located in the upper chambers of the temple, Master,” Alistair explained. “It is possible that the pulse we felt earlier has something to do with it.”

            “That explains this concentration…” Anye commented while her eyes remained shut. “I don’t think I’ll ever really get used to this.” When she could look straight and move without issue again she proceeded up the stairs.

            The pulse of magic Anye felt from outside came again, this time also accompanied by the light sound of feet shuffling in one of the corridors above her. The sound did not remind her of armor. Anye drew Alistair from her hip and gripped his handle tightly, ready for anything.

            After several floor breaks and having to move closer to the center of the building before climbing upward again, Anye entered a room more ornate and decorated than any other. It was magnificent, decorated with beautiful drapes embroidered with the finest looking threads. Murals had been painted on the walls by master artists, and in the center of the room on an intricate pedestal was the largest gemstone she had ever seen, surrounded by three people. There was a tall slender man with smooth long hair wearing armor just like Anye’s, a large muscular man with short hair wearing armor identical to Glenn’s, and a woman dressed in robes with long black hair tied into a single thick braid. None of them were holding any weapons, but they each looked like they should be or had been at some point. Both of the men were standing in combative poses facing the large gemstone while the woman had a single arm out, like she was holding something to touch the stone with.

            Anye was about to ask Alistair if he knew what that room was and what she was seeing, but the thought was interrupted when the magic pulse happened again. She turned her head to the side to see a shadow the size of a man rushing towards her. It made a sound like it was yelling at her, but she heard only foul demonic noise coming from it.

            Anye raised her shield and pushed back against the shadow’s attack, focusing her magic in to her shield. She pushed, using the charge to launch the creature away from her, and moved on the offensive. She raised her arm to strike when a second shadow appeared from one of the adjacent stairways. Before Anye could lower her arm, the second creature threw a sphere of darkness towards her. She had no choice but to halt her advance and raise her shield again to protect herself.

            The second creature yelled in its demonic language, visibly angry at her quick thinking. Anye turned her head to look towards it, but the distraction left her guard open, and the first shadow’s foot kicked her in the chest. She tumbled away, but the quality of her new armor took the brunt of the damage and she remained unharmed. Outnumbered two to one, Anye had to think quickly. Alistair tried to say something to her but she wasn’t paying attention, choosing instead to deal with her immediate predicament.

            The second shadow raised its weapon in the air and swung. A blast of darkness flew towards her, but to her surprise another blast also flew towards the first creature, which swatted the magic away with its own black staff.

            “They’re fighting each other?” Anye asked herself.

            Before she could think about what was happening, the first shadow leapt towards the second while it ran towards her, and she found herself in a three-way duel with the two creatures. Their actions were strange; they didn’t move like the demons she fought in her trial, but rather like particularly skilled humans. They even had the same basic shape as people. Their fighting didn’t last long, as Anye had swung her sword down from overhead. The shadow she was attempting to strike down slid away quickly, and the blue material of the blade in her hand struck the giant gemstone in the center of the room.