31/06/337

Audra

Sweat dripped from Audra’s brow, as she continued to do another set of push-ups. The soft soil of the farmlands brought little comfort to her tired body. Her arms trembled under the pressure and exhaustion before she fell flat on the ground. She rolled to her back and sat up.

“Think fast.” Zadkiel threw the waterskin to her.

“Thanks.” She said, catching it and drinking hungrily from it. She sighed and looked around the fields. Their training had gotten a lot of attention from the townsfolk, a few men and women exercised with each other, some sparred, others were running, some were just relaxing. Including Audra, Zadkiel, and Cabana there were 15 people in total.

Audra stood from the ground and stretched her limbs.

“Shit this is tiring.” She complained. Her arms felt like they were about to fall off.

“Well until your limbs break from your body and begin to complain, you’re going to work them out.” Cabana claimed.

“It’s not so bad, could be around the heat of the forge.” Zadkiel added, “It’s a lot hotter in there than it is out here.”

“Whatever you say. When did Noelem say he was going to meet with us?” Audra asked, Cabana looked at the position of the sun in the cloudless sky.

“Mid afternoon, I’d give it another hour or two, unless something comes up.” Cabana said, “Sparring time, shark girl.” Cabana said, rolling her shoulders.

“Before you take your pants off, how about you let me have her this time around?” Zadkiel asked, “I may not know why you’re sparring your ass off, but I used to practice with some of the knights around town. I might impress someone here.” Zadkiel pointed out.

“Please don’t talk about sparring that way. That sounds way too sexual.” Audra complained. Zadkiel put his hands up in defeat.

“I’ll make sure to calm it down a bit.” Zadkiel promised before gripping the handle of his shortsword, he quickly pulled it out and held it backwards.

Audra now saw why it looked so much smaller than it’s scabbard. The shortsword had a curved crimson blade with four large grooves on the back side, each groove contained a large tooth-like metal spike. He held the black handle of the weapon and kept his arm twisted so that the flat part of the blade was parallel to his arm.

“Holy shit!” Cabana claimed, “Audra, be careful that bitch is going to hurt!” She sounded a little worried. Audra gulped. She pulled the longsword from it’s scabbard. She could feel power coming from deep within the center of her being and begin to travel through her veins.

“Etherea.” Audra thought, Lusalene was definitely testing the water. A cloud blotted out the sun. She looked up to the sky to see a storm cloud had formed above them.

“What the fuck?” Audra was puzzled by this, the sky had just been clear before.

“Just ignore it, Daemerall gets weird weather all the time. Focus on the one holding the sword in front of you.” Zadkiel demanded, his voice fought for authority.

Shock entered Audra as Zadkiel threw his sword at her, she smacked it with her blade, he was very different than fighting Cabana. That was when she noticed the blood on it’s teeth, she looked up at Zadkiel, his left arm was covered in crimson liquid.

“Are you okay?” Audra asked, letting her guard down. He smiled in response. His blood came alive and shot out to the ring at the base of his sword, it swung at her, this time the blade caught her cheek.

“Take it easy, Zad. This isn’t a fight to the death.” Cabana ordered, angrily.

Audra felt a flash of rage over his trick. She watched the world go dark around her then come back, she had walked a bit farther ahead than she had intended, but still had the element of surprise. He had pulled the sword back to his hand by the rope of blood, catching it as if he had done it hundreds of times. His stance changed completely, now standing lower to the ground. Audra called forth a large quantity of water to hit him directly in the side of the face, causing him to fall to the ground, she then froze his sword to the dirt below. He looked up to see her sword directly in front of his face. She took her sword away from him before kicking him in his cheek.

“That’s for cutting my face you asshole!” She yelled.

“Yeah...I deserved that one.” Zadkiel claimed, rubbing his jaw.

A bolt of purple lightning danced across the sky. Audra looked around to see everyone making their way to town, rain had begun to fall. She tilted her head, confused, she held out her hand and noticed the rain was soot colored.

“Shit! Shit! Everyone get to town now!” Cabana screamed, pulling Zadkiel to his feet and shoving him towards the town, “Storm Cluster! Everyone get the hell back to town!” She ordered. Audra turned the ice on Zadkiel’s weapon to water, letting him grab it from the ground. She began to run to the town when her blood went cold. The smell of rot and decay filled her nose. She pushed her legs harder, black rain turned from a light drizzle to a downpour within seconds, she looked back to see Cabana standing in the rain, as if she were waiting. Audra looked forward again and skidded to a stop, fear shot through her as she saw a large four-legged beast walked into existence from nothing.

“What the fuck are you doing!?” She looked to see Zadkiel looking back to her, “Do you know what a Storm Cluster is? Demons are going to kill her and everyone else that isn’t in a safe place.” The feeling in her veins grew stronger. She could have sworn she saw rain dripping down something over his shoulder but it didn’t seem right, she blinked and it was gone, just a trick of the eye. She looked forward and noticed the familiarity of the demon, the fear she felt began to subside, a fear of something else came to her.

“I know what a Storm Cluster is. I stopped because of that.” Zadkiel looked in the direction of the town, he was taken aback as the large Barakusr walked towards the two of them.

“No!” Cabana yelled, Audra looked back, Cabana was mid-stride towards them. Everything had paused in place and began to fade from existence. She looked back at the Barakusr, it’s lapis colored horns and bladed tail were the only things colored in the space around them.

“Hello again, Audra Sandalious.” The demon said, sitting.

“Hey. I’m not dead yet, am I?” She asked. The demon shook it’s head.

“Unfortunately for you, no, you are not.” She smiled, strangely unafraid of the giant demon in front of her.

“No harm in asking.”

“No, there is not. Do you remember the path I took you down?” She shook her head, she had no idea where to go.

“I don’t think my answer is going to change anything, is it?” The Barakusr shook it’s head in response.

“You will start on the path I took you, whether you take the correct route, or get to your destination another way is up to your choices.” The Demon spoke, to Audra’s right something blinked into being, a black wooden doorway. She grabbed the black onyx handle, before she looked back at the demon.

“You got a name?” She asked.

“Bora.” He replied, “I’d suggest steeling yourself.” Bora added. Audra nodded her head, gave a small smile, then twisted the door handle.

Heat blasted against Audra’s face as the door slammed shut behind her. She traced her eyes back and forth, she could hear blood-chilling laughter in the distance. She unsheathed her longsword and began to look at her surroundings, she was back in the Nightmare. She stood on a stone bridge over a river of flowing magma. It seemed she was in some kind of hollowed out mountain, as the river flowed to a wide open crag of rock and dropped into the ocean of hellfire on the outside.

Audra crossed the stone bridge with no difficulties but immediately after she heard an ear-shattering scream. She flinched and looked at the source, a naked pitch black figure, in the shape of a woman, with bat-like wings flew around her, two large golden eagle talons replaced where her feet should have been. Memories of the beast entered her mind, Lusalene had killed them by spearing them with ice in the middle of a field, the memory was fuzzy but at least Lusalene was with her in this ordeal. However, she doubted she could conjure any ice, anywhere near, long enough for it to spear the thing in this kind of environment.

The harpy-demon-thing flew at her, razor-like talons coming down. She raised her sword in the way and held on tight as the demon lifted her, by the sword, off the ground. She grabbed the demons wing as it flapped downward, it started to panic in the air, letting go of the sword, it began to claw and scream at Audra. She received a few scratches on her chest and face before she cut the feet off of it with a quick slice, then ended the encounter with the demon by stabbing it in it’s throat.

The two of them landed with a hard thud on the rocky floor, knocking the wind from Audra’s lungs. She gritted her teeth and sat there until her breath came back to her. She stood up and wiped her face off with her shirt. She needed to get to where she was going, and quick. There was going to be more demons and she might not get so lucky next time. She looked down at the harpy, it’s face was in an eternal, silent, scream, it’s pale purple eyes seemed to stare deep into her soul. She cringed at the terrifying sight and began to walk through the caverns.

It wasn’t as fun alone, at least with Bora she had someone to talk to, she doubted that the small imps that stalked her wanted to have a nice and friendly chat. Every time she looked behind her she would see a glimpse of a thin forked-tail, or a small black wing, quickly soaring behind a pillar of rock. She heard something to her right and the memory of Bora holding her back leaped into her mind, she dove back as a plume of magma shot past where she had been standing, she heard the imps giggling behind her.

A howl took her attention and the laughter of the imps quickly faded as they flew away from where they were. She looked forward to see three large dogs with those pale purple eyes most demons had, a crimson glow exuded from cracks that ran along their bodies.

“Shit.” Audra muttered, she quickly ran from the pack, and the three dogs gave chase. She climbed up one of the tall pillars, thanking Runahera for making them covered in small crags and hand-holds. She felt a sharp pain sear into her ankle, she looked down and saw one of the dogs had been able to jump up and bite into her boot. She felt intense heat against her ankle. She kicked at the dog until it released it’s grip, landing on it’s back with a loud thud, and a high pitched yelp.

Eventually Audra was high enough off the ground that they were no longer a threat. She had heard they could breathe fire but it didn’t seem like they cared to, or these just didn’t know how to. Looking down, she could see the three Hellhounds were lax, laying around and licking themselves, one was even writhing around with it’s back to the ground, exposing itself to her. Looking up, she realized, she could see almost the entire cavern around her. She went around the pillar of stone, making sure she didn’t fall until she thought she spotted the stone bricks in the rock wall, it was so different than the rest from such a long distance that it seemed almost obvious. She hoped her plan would work, if it didn’t she would be killed, but if she didn’t try something her only hope was for a harpy to grab her and take her there, she didn’t think that would happen anytime soon.

Leaping from the stone pillar, she felt the sparks of Etherea rise in her stomach to her chest, her legs went numb, the entire world went dark around her, walking through the Rift. She came out the other side with the same speed as her leap of faith, she barely had time to react before her face met the stone door. She fell to the ground, unable to feel her legs, then cried out in pain. She watched in amazement as the stone separated down the middle. She looked back to see the Hellhounds were watching her but didn’t make any attempts to give chase. They must have known something she didn’t.

When the stone door closed behind her she found herself at the base of a spiral staircase, lightless, even for her dragonic eyes it became very difficult for her to see. She decided to lay there for however long she needed to. After about an hour, or so, she wasn’t really sure, she could finally, shakily, stand on her own.

When she placed her foot on the first step a torch, just five steps up, lit itself. As Audra slowly, and achingly, ascended the stairs she would find it growing dark as she left the light of a torch only for another to light itself just a few steps ahead of her. It was unnerving, but she found herself more bothered by the burning her ankle was giving her. Eventually the stairs came to a stop and she found herself staring down a long hall way, torches on either side of the room lit up, one row after another. On the walls, in between each row of torches, emblazoned with gold, outlined with embers were insignia’s of wolf heads. At the end of the hall was Bora, sitting in front of an opening.

Bora’s eyes drifted to her right boot.

“Forgive me for the encounter with the Hellhounds, some demons don’t quite do what they’re told. Slaying the Harpy was punishment enough for her.” He sniffed towards her, “I can smell the venom, though, it’s too strong to be in your skin. Your boot must have been thick enough to keep you from getting infected by Scourge. They are young, we thank you for not killing them.” That explained why they weren’t breathing fire at her.

“Those things, they were the size of full grown wolves.” Audra noted, aloud. Bora nodded.

"Hellhounds do become quite large compared to your standards."

“Mind telling me what I’m doing here?” she asked, limping towards Bora. He didn’t speak, instead he walked to the side and she found herself staring at a large circular room, it’s walls were just waterfalls of magma.

In the room there were ruins, of what looked like buildings of some kind, decorating the floor at seemingly random spots. Across from the entrance stood a large, slightly broken, onyx colored throne that could easily fit four people. Instead of people there was a creature placed upon the pedestal of monarchy. A red beast, resting it’s face on it’s left fist. It’s red, nude, body was covered in muscles. It’s face looked humanoid but the mouth was far too wide for any human. The eyes were a glowing crimson color, and two powerfully strong horns erupted from it’s forehead, each black with cracks of magma swirling around them. A large, jagged, obsidian war axe leaned against the side of the throne. Audra knew without a doubt that this was Runahera.

Runahera slowly looked at her, with a sickened curiosity before he let out a long sigh, black smoke puffing from his mouth. There were countless teeth, all of them were as sharp as knives. He stood at his full height, nearly as tall as the throne, two black wings erupted from his shoulders.

“Audra...Sandalious.” He spoke, his voice was deep and there was a breathing sound behind each word, “You are very...interesting.” He reached forward and pulled back, as if he were pulling powerful strings. Audra felt like a hole was ripped into her being. The air escaped her throat and she fell to the ground, she wheezed in panicked pain.

When Audra finally looked up she saw Lusalene laying in front of her, trying to get up to fight. Runahera, walked towards them, each step causing the ground around them to tremble. He grabbed Lusalene and held her up to his face.

“It is indeed a pleasure, Lusalene Nuul. You caused my son a great deal of hardship in your last life. This time...you won’t be able to stop us...from our goals.” He claimed, gently caressing her face with a single finger, she struggled in his grip.

“What are your plans? Who are you planning them with?” She asked.

“Zaurah. We already have our plans in motion, there’s nothing you can do to stop them. Nothing you can do...to stop us.” He claimed before throwing her back at Audra, she felt the hole that had been torn out of her become full.

Audra looked at Runahera, he lifted her up, gently, and smiled.

“What do you want with me?” She begged. He gave a razor teeth filled smile, smoke rising from in between them. Audra coughed from the smoke, his breath smelled like death. He put the tip of his claw into the middle of her chest, her entire body went numb, yet seized up.

“I want you to be...my...new…” he dug his claw deeper into her during each pause, “Messenger of Destruction. The one to lead the Coming Storm.” She felt something enter her body, something corrupt, something demonic, something completely, and utterly, tainted.