11/07/337

Audra

Audra’s head was pounding. During the night she could only toss and turn in her sleeping bag, she felt as though she were being watched the whole time, her fight-or-flight responses firing off warning alarms. They had taken rotations, first Zadkiel, Cabana second, then Audra would watch for the last stretch of the night. She pulled the pocket mirror from her bag and clicked it open. Lusalene was breathing heavily.

“Are you okay?” Audra asked, “What’s going on?” Lusalene shook her head,

“Don’t...come in here...I just sat down for a break...not sure how much longer I can...fight it.” Lusalene claimed.

“Tell me, what’s going on.” Audra demanded. Lusalene shook her head.

“No time, I-” She seized up and screamed out in pure agony her eyes wide with horror, tears began to stream down her cheeks as her lungs ran out of breath to support the scream.

Audra wasn’t sure how much time had passed with her simply looking at the mirror, waiting for her Ascender to return to her reflection. The embers of the fire had begun to fade, the chill of being watched was a never ending thorn directly into her nerves, shivers ran down her spine like an icy waterfall.

“Can you reach her?” She, mentally, asked.

“Unfortunately no, something is happening, not just to her, but to you.” Faust responded. Lusalene was still silent, what was happening to her that made Lusalene scream in such a way.

“Can you look in my soul? See what’s going on?” Audra pleaded.

“I can, but only when Lusalene allows it. Can you not enter on your own?”

“It’s crossed my mind, but I have no idea how to. Lusalene was always the one dragging me in when I slept.” Audra claimed, throwing a small stick in the fire, “Where would I even start?”

“When you ascend, where do you feel your soul at?” The demon asked.

“The lake in my soul...is it really the same place though?” Audra questioned.

“It would be the best start. It’s not the same place as Lusalene, as I didn’t feel your soul there, only hers.” Faust claimed.

“So not a guarantee...but what else can I do?” Audra felt herself shiver, she was getting colder, and the headache began to spike in pain before coming back down.

Scooting closer to the fire, Audra put her hands near the bright flame, she shivered as the warmth spread on the palms of her hands. Her vision blurred from tears that had somehow formed in her eyes. She tried to reach up and wipe them away but found her body had been frozen. Instead she let the tears fall, the fire...it was so beautiful. The orange light, she wanted more, she wanted to feel the warmth surround her, wanted it to envelop her in it’s terrifying force. It began to change, she could see the flames give off a blood red light, elongated faces were screaming within it’s depths, the souls of the damned...they were...calling to her.

“I will release you…begone to the cities man left unguarded, begone to the people that can’t defend themselves, begone...to the weak...” She shook her head before putting her hand to her forehead. She was sweating heavily, her heart was pounding like a drum against her chest, each pump so powerful she could feel the blood pumping in her ears. She closed her eyes, and rubbed them.

“Audra?” Faust asked.

“What was that?” She asked.

“I’m uncertain, I believe the Storm is calling to you for you to release it.”

“I figured it was something like that. I...almost can’t wait. I’m excited to release it.” She looked down at her hand, it was slightly shaking, she balled her fist and tried to breathe.

“Don’t blame yourself, Runahera’s power is almighty. There’s nothing you can do to fight it.” Faust claimed, “And nothing Lusalene can do to fight it either. I assume she was fighting the tainted parts of your soul. The only way to know for certain is to enter it yourself.” Audra sighed in frustration, her arm began to cramp. Looking down at her left arm she noticed the dark serpents slithering down her arm and wrapping around the middle of her forearm, like some sick tattoo.

“Fuck it.” She said, steeling her resolve.

Another piece of wood in the fire to keep what little flames remained. She closed her eyes, trying to avoid the feeling of being watched, avoiding the feeling of hot breath going down her neck. She focused only on Lusalene, reaching out to find her. She found herself standing in front of the floating flame that brought the warmth of Ascension.

“Hey, little guy. I need your help.” Audra said, crouching so that her eyes were level with the spark. It seemed to move in response. “Can you show me the way to Lusalene? I can’t seem to contact her.” Embers flew off the flame in the direction behind her. Standing up straight she turned to see black mist, so foreign yet it called to her with a familiar voice. Audibly it was comforting, but in every other way it made her feel as if Death was standing directly in front of her.

“Hello, Storm Bringer. It’s good to see you again.” It said, it’s voice was like the feeling of running your hand over freshly polished marble.

“What are you?” She demanded, she felt the Spark hold to her right shoulder.

“You don’t recognize me? How disappointing.” Through the mist she began to make out a face, one with large black horns and obsidian skin, then it was gone.

“Runahera...what are you doing in my soul?” Audra asked.

“You’ve gotten big for your britches. So assertive!” He said, the mist got a little larger, “Have you forgotten what you are? The black serpents wrapped around your arm isn’t enough to tell you how demonic you are? You are my Storm Bringer! You are the new Harbinger of Destruction! Do you not realize that yet?” Runahera asked, a demonic echo followed his every word.

“Where is Lusalene?” Runahera began to laugh, before his voice became deep and gravelly.

“Why don’t you come find her?” She felt black tendrils reach out and grab her wrists. She felt them pull at her with each of them stronger than the push of a horses legs.

Audra lurched forward and fell into the water, only to feel the Spark wrap around her and Etherea flowing through her body. She pulled back, even infused with the new strength she was still too weak to pull herself back. She leaned forward and bit down on one of the tendrils, black blood filling her mouth tasted like rotten meat. She felt the spark vanish from her body and her body went limp as the blood went down her throat. Her body felt weak and she thought she’d end up choking from the thick liquid flowing into her body. She heard Runahera laughing as she coughed and choked.

“You should know better than to consume demonic blood.” He claimed before yanking her into the dark mist.

Audra’s eyes weakly fluttered open when she felt a cool liquid hit her face, when she came to she finally saw the hellscape she had been taken to. The sky was a deep maroon, the clouds were black, and the cool liquid that she was surrounded by, which was currently falling from the sky, was the color of blood.

Sitting up she looked at her surroundings, there was an island in front of her, behind her was an ocean of blood, the tail end of a black serpent was entering the water. She gulped, quickly stood, and ran towards the small island. She found herself getting tired extremely quickly.

As she fell to her knees on the char colored beach of the island the Spark from earlier dropped from her shoulder and seemed to look at her.

“Hey there. Glad to see you’re okay.” She claimed, laying on her back, trying to catch her breath, “Where are we?” She looked around her, the grass up ahead was an odd ash color. She rubbed one of the strands, it had a rough char-like texture and left an ashy residue on her fingers. She let the Spark climb up her arm before coming to a stand, she didn’t really see anything else worth of note and began to walk forward, but the feeling of being watched was only getting worse.

What felt like an hour passed of her walking, there was no wind, just the chilly rain that not even magic would keep away from her, yet it didn’t stain her clothes so the idea of it being blood was out of the question...at least not normal blood. She wondered what was going to happen to her from swallowing demonic blood, it couldn’t be good whatever it was. And she’d have to find the answer out at a later date.

A loud bang echoed in the distance, followed by a deep purple beam going into the clouds. Audra covered her eyes and then began to run towards the light once it weakened enough for her eyes.

“Faust, can you hear me?” She asked, she could still feel the contract but there was no feeling of him anywhere nearby. She reached to her waist and unsheathed Keen Piercer as she approached the base of the beam of purple light.

In front of the tower of magic there was a woman with deep purple, vacant, eyes and sunset colored hair, she looked as though she was in deep water, her body hovered off the ground at a slight angle. Over her skin black serpents seemed to crawl, like moving tattoos.

“Lusalene? Are you...okay?” Audra asked, already knowing that she wasn’t. Light seemed to enter her eyes at the sound of her voice as she stared at her.

“The Storm...it...calls…” She claimed, lightly landing on the ground, “It needs to be...answered.” She reached forward and held her palm open. Black lights began to float towards her palm, she clenched her hand over the darkness, in the small abyss a handle formed and the golden saber appeared in her grasp. Except now it was drenched in a black and purple ooze that dripped to the ground.

“Lusalene, listen to me, you have to fight it. You can’t give in to Runahera’s corruption.” Audra claimed. Lusalene’s shoulders tensed and her brows furrowed.

“Do you know what it’s like?! I’m in this hell every damn day, all damn day. I no longer have freedom, I’m trapped within the chains that you call a soul!” The purple beam seemed to get stronger as she screamed. Then she began to laugh, “You can’t give in to his corruption…’ Do you have any idea what it’s like to fight it? I was born to fight, only born to fight. I wasn’t meant for love, not meant for friendship, not meant for anything but war to fight against demons. I know not if I had a life before my fate was thrust upon me. And I died not knowing, now I’m stuck inside some entitled cunt!” Lusalene took her blade and pointed it at Audra, the blade shook in her hands. Tears began to stream down her face, the light of the sunset tried to peak through the corruption in her eyes, the purple beam seemed to weaken.

“Lusalene, please, let me get you out of here.” Audra begged.

“You think I can leave here? After he’s taken me, he’ll take you too. Take that Spark...and leave this place...don’t come back. You’re still not ready.” Lusalene claimed, dropping the shaking blade in her hand and falling to a kneeling position as the serpents began to crawl over her skin faster and faster. Audra took a step closer,

“We can fight this to-” “Leave! Now! Audra! Don’t you get it?! I’m fighting the urge to kill you right now, to take over you body and raise hell!” She keeled over holding her stomach and screaming in pain, before yelling through the pain. “Don’t talk to me through the mirror, don’t come back here! And if you can help it, don’t ascend!” She made a quick pushing motion with one hand and Audra found herself sitting up in front of a dead campfire, the early morning light just barely peeking over the horizon accompanied by a faint humming noise.

Something told Audra to look at herself, perhaps it was Runahera wanting to give her just a little bit more anxiety, she wasn’t sure what made her do it. Opening the pocket mirror she looked at her reflection, her right eye was a shade of pale purple while her left eye was completely normal.

“Audra? Are you alright? What did you see?” Faust asked.

“Lusalene’s gone...she’s taken over by Runahera, we can’t contact her. If we do contact her...I don’t think she’ll be able to hold back. She’ll do everything in her ability to take over my body, and raise hell.” She explained, “I can hear it, a faint hum, the Storm is calling for me to unleash it.”