Refuge: Kurt's Quest (33 page)

Chapter Twenty-Two

[He has no soul,] cried out the Black Blade in
Krug’s mind.

[What do you mean?] asked the Ogre, trying to
concentrate through the surge of energy that was flowing through his body or
mind.  [Everything has a soul.]

At least that was what every religion on the
planet taught, and it seemed to hold true for every living creature above a
certain level of intelligence.  Priests had proven the existence of the soul
for thousands of years.  People came back from the dead all the time,
contacting the living, telling them of the rewards and punishments that awaited. 
Of course, not all souls made it to the other side.  There were creatures that
ate souls, utterly destroying them, and not all came back for rebirth.  New
souls were created all the time, as every living, intelligent creature needed
one.  But…

[This one does not have one that I can find. 
It’s as if he was not made to end like other mortals, like he was made to go on
forever.]

[Then he can’t be killed?] sent the Ogre, still
feeling the rush of energy coming through the blade, only now it was not so
pleasureable.  In fact, it carrried with it a twinge of discomfort, almost like
a meal that had been eaten past satisfaction that was now starting to stretch
the gut.

[He can be killed,] sent back the blade with
certainty.  [And he may have a soul hidden somewhere that I cannot find.  But
there is no way I am going to drain this being.]

[What should I do?] screamed the mind of Krug,
the discomfort turning to pain.

[Disengage, you idiot,] sent the blade with an
almost frantic urgency.  [I am no longer holding myself in him.  Only your arms
are doing so.]

Krug grunted and pulled on his blade, then
looked down as it didn’t budge, to see the hands of the large human gripping
his wrists and holding the sword in place.  Krug pulled harder, but the human
clamped down with his grip and locked his arms in place.

“Let go, damn you,” yelled Krug, trying to pull
one of his hands off the hilt so he could strike the human, to try and knock
him away, anything to get the sword out of the man, and stop the energy flow
that was now starting to burn through his body.  But his hands were locked to
the hilt as long as the sword was pulling energy, and he was trapped in the
energy loop.

[Can’t you stop feeding on him?] sent the
frantic Ogre, his head splitting in agony from even trying to communicate
mentally with the sword.

[I have no control over feeding,] sent the
Black Blade.  [As long as my blade is in contact with a living creature, I must
draw energy.  It is my purpose, what I was made for.]

The flow of energy was starting to actually
burn through the body of the Ogre, heating his muscles past the point where
they could even metabolize.  His muscles locked into place when they could no
longer burn ATP and move the fiber arms that were necessary for movement. 
[Help me,] he yelled with his mind, no longer able to move his jaws or vocal
cords.  His body continued to burn, the temperature going up, until his cells
started dying.  Moments later the cells were bursting as the liquid within them
boiled and ruptured their walls.  Krug wasn’t aware of this, as his life had
already fled his body, his soul absorbed by the sword which could not allow
such to go to waste.

*     *     *

Kurt jerked the sword from his body as the Ogre
fell to the floor, letting go of the hilt.  Or at least the ashes of the Ogre
fell to the floor, billowing from the black armor.  He was about to drop the
sword to the floor along with the remains.  And then the Black Blade spoke into
his mind.

[You have earned me, Master.  I am yours.  And
together we will be unstoppable.]

The big Immortal turned the blade and gripped
its hilt in his hand, and the communication grew even stronger.

[I will help you to get everything you want. 
Drop that blade of the effeminate Goddess and belt me on, and we will rule the
world.]

[Do not listen to him, my Master,] sent
Lenoris.  [Drop him, before his evil infects your mind.]

“I have a better idea,” said Kurt, reaching
down and grabbing the breast and backplate of the Black Armor, the largest
piece he could handle while still holding the sword.

“Kurt,” said Jackie, stepping in front of the
man.  “What are you doing?”

“Trust me,” said Kurt, smiling at his lover. 
“I know what I’m doing.”

He glanced over at Garios, who gave him a frank
look, then nodded his head.

[What are you doing, Master?] sent the Black
Blade as Kurt started walking back the way they had come before entering this
chamber.  Back to the walkway over the lava pool, the pool that had the forge
on its shore that the Dwarf had told him had been used to make magical weapons
of great power, if not God artifacts.

[What are you doing?] shouted the Blade in his
mind, a scream that blurred his vision and weakened his knees.

[Sending you to Hell,] sent Kurt, holding the
Blade over the side of the walkway.  [Have a great trip.]  He opened his hand
and let the Blade fall, screaming the entire way until it hit the lava with a
splash and sank out of sight.  He tossed the part of the Black Armor he was
holding to follow it, then turned to find Jackie carrying the helmet and
gauntlets, while Drake carried the remainder of the armor.  They tossed their
loads into the pool to follow the rest.

“You know this won’t destroy them,” said Garios,
looking down into the lava, squinting against the rising heat.

“I figured as much,” said Kurt, looking down as
well.  “But they are in a place where it will be very difficult to recover
them.  And I have one more task to finish.”

The Immortal walked back into the cavern where
the battle had taken place, to the alcove where the carven table stood upon
which the Crown sat.  He moved to that table, looking down at the object they
had come for.

[Take me,] sent the crown, a beguiling
transmission that would have swayed the minds of most men.  [I am yours.  And
when you have me, the world is also yours.]

Kurt kept his mind blank, not allowing any
thought to pass his shield that the object might be able to pick up.  He
reached out a hand and grabbed the crown, lifting it from the table.  It was
beautiful, the light of the glow globes in the cavern shining off the many
jewels it was set with.  It added a hypnotic effect to the already strong
mental control of the crown.

[You can have the world, and rule it forever,]
repeated the crown.  [No one can defeat you.  No one can plot against you
without your knowledge.  You want to do good, then take the throne of the world
and give it peace.]

The peace of the concentration camp
, thought the Immortal,
recalling that shameful period of his own nation’s history.  He turned without
responding to the crown, and walked with quick steps toward the exit that went
over the bridge across the lava.

[I know what you think to do, and I cannot
allow that,] sent the crown, and Kurt felt as if his muscles had locked up on
him.  He could still move forward, but it took a supreme effort of will to move
one foot at a time.

[I am not your slave,] he sent at the crown,
forcing himself to move forward again.  The floor seemed to stretch ahead
forever, never ending.  He felt a sense of hopelessness fall over him, a dark depression,
which threatened to drop him to the floor, crying.

Kurt brought up a memory, the one that lived in
his mind most nights, coming back to him in nightmares.  Falling out of his Hanomag
half-track, his flesh burning, screaming at the pain, knowing that he was dead
whether he died right then and there or not.  He had fought his way through
that pain, crawling away from the vehicle, his command track of the
panzergrenadier battalion.  Using willpower to overcome the muscles locking up
from the heat damage, his lungs sending waves of agony through him as he tried
to breath.  Refusing to fall down and die.  Getting away from the track, which
blew up behind him, then rolling on the ground to put out the flames on his
clothes.  Kurt looked at the floor, concentrating on continuing to put one foot
in front of the other as he used this memory to fight the crown.

He looked up and saw that he had reached the
exit from the chamber.  The bridge was ahead, and he could feel the heat of the
lava rising into the air and coming through the opening. 
I’m here
, he
thought, taking the first step onto the bridge.

[Stop,] yelled the crown into his mind, and he
found himself freezing in midstep.  The Immortal forced himself through the
command and took the next step, but another shout stopped him as that foot hit
the floor.

[I’m getting rid of you,] he yelled back with
his mind and forced his hand to move, holding the crown out over the drop.

[No,] yelled the crown, and his hand locked up,
refusing to release the artifact.  His arm started to bend, moving the crown
toward his head.  And Kurt knew that if that headpiece landed on his head the
world was lost.  The world would enter a dark age, with an Immortal body
controlled by the evil mentality of the crown.  He would never die, and the
crown would not allow his rule to fail.  It would control hundreds of thousands
of minds, maybe millions, all of those who might fight the evil rule of the
puppet king.

Something hit the crown, some invisible force,
and it flew out of Kurt’s hand, flying out over the chasm and starting its fall
into the lava pool.  [No,] yelled the crown.  [Catch me.]  But Kurt’s mind was
now his own again, no longer in physical contact with the source of that which
had tried to control him.

He looked over the bridge to see the crown
spinning through the air toward the lava, its mental cries of rage coming
through clearly.  It hit the molten rock and sank into the viscous, hot
liquid.  A normal metal object would have already started to melt, but this was
a God artifact, and nothing known could destroy it. 
But if it stays buried
in that liquid rock, no one will be using it again, or that damned sword and
armor.

Kurt looked over as soon as the crown had
disappeared, to see a smiling James Drake looking down at the lava as well. 
The young man looked up at Kurt, and the Immortal realized that the young man
had thrown a ball of force at the crown.  The magic wouldn’t have effected the
Immortal, but it had hit the crown with enough force to knock it out of his
hand.

“Thank you, my young friend,” he told the Mage,
as the rest of his friends came out onto the bridge. 
No, not all of them. 
“Where
is Fenris?”

“Fenris died in the fight,” said Garios in a
hushed voice, looking down at the stone of the bridge.  “He was the only one of
us who didn’t make it.”

“Oh, that poor Princess,” said Jackie, her hand
going to her mouth.

“The quest required sacrifice,” said Garios,
shaking his head.  “One of us had to die, and the fates decided that it would
be him.  Though I wish it could have been me.”

And his Princess will wait for him to contact
her once we get within the range of her scrying ball.  But the contact will
never come, and we will have to tell her of her loss, of how the man she loves
is no longer in this world.

“At least we got rid of the damned evil
things,” said Sir Gromli, looking down at the molten rock, distorted by the
waves of heat rising off it.  “It will be a good long time before they see the light
of day again.”

Drake let out an awful shout, as if he had gone
mad.  Everyone knew that he had grown close to the Ranger on the trip, while
the man was teaching him how to use his magic.  “They must never see the light
of day again,” he yelled, looking up at the ceiling, then back at the lava. 
Everyone present could feel the power flowing into the Mage, the heat of the
lava rising, swirling, sucked into his body.

“Everyone,” said Drake, looking back up at the
roof of the cavern.  “Get out of here, and I’ll make them even harder to find.”

Kurt nodded and walked to the end of the
walkway, waiting until everyone else had passed him, and stood there as James
stood beside him.  The Mage said the almost undecipherable words of a spell and
waved his hands, then tossed his right hand toward the roof, a brilliant ball
of energy springing into existence and growing as it flew toward the top of the
cavern.  It radiated heat like the sun on a very hot day, and looked unlike any
fireball the Immortal had ever seen.

“We need to get out of here,” yelled Drake as
he ran from the bridge into the cavern.  “I’m not sure how much is going to
come down.”

Kurt nodded and ran, waving for the others to
run as well.  Behind them sounded a great explosion, then the rumbling of rock,
like an earthquake, vibrating through the cavern.  Large stones fell from the
rock ceiling, the natural bridge cracked from several hits, then broke up and
dropped into the lava below.

“Keep moving,” yelled Kurt, grabbing Garios by
the material of his robe and lifting him off the ground, charging ahead at a
much faster speed than the Dwarf could with his own short legs.  The chamber
they were in was also shaking, and stones were dropping to bounce from the hard
floor.  Kurt looked up, his eyes zooming in on the cracks that were appearing
through the solid stone.  “Hurry,” he yelled again, pulling the Dwarf, keeping
behind the others so he could pull them back to their feet if they fell.