Rupture: Rise of the Demon King (36 page)

“That’s not my fault,” Keith said. “They attacked me, and so did you.”

“Hey!” she yelled. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have known to go to Caligula. I helped you get Hannet back.”

Keith stopped in his tracks, and a smile spread across Bianca’s face. He looked back to Rhemos but the guards had given up in their pursuit.

“So it was you who sent that bandit,” Keith said.

Bianca nodded, stopping with the rest of them and catching her breath. “Yep. One can play both sides to get what they want, and I would do anything to get what I want.”

“And what do you want?” Keith asked, already knowing the answer.

“You,” she said without hesitation.

Keith cringed at the thought.

“We used to get along so well. Why would you let one person change that?” Bianca asked.

“She wasn’t just another person to me,” Keith answered.

He continued walking ahead and the others followed.

“Yeah, she was a pest,” Bianca said.

/ / / / /

The next couple of hours were silent besides the crunching of their footsteps. The sun went down but Keith continued to walk. It was well past midnight before Keith finally stopped. A river ran nearby, following alongside the path.

Seeko dipped his feet in the clear water, sending ripples along the intricate mesh of fish, weeds, and rocks. The planet’s ring reflected off the waves and revealed a figure behind him. He turned and saw Mori.

“Hi,” Mori said, smiling. “How are you holding up?”

He shivered from the cold breeze following the river. “It’s the thing between Keith and Hannet. He really liked her, but of course she died following me.”

“It’s not your fault. Yoshino attacked us when he knew we couldn’t defend ourselves.”

He cast a stone into the river. “I … fear for you. He knows I care for you. I don’t know what I would do if I lost you,” he said. “Once we close this last portal, we’re done.”

“No, we still have Yoshino and this war to worry about. But … it was a nice thought.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I just feel like a weight is lifting as we get closer to this last portal.”

Mori drew closer and kissed him. “Don’t get so caught up in what’s ahead of you that you miss what’s right in front of you.”

Seeko smiled and wrapped his arms around her. He pulled her down, rolling on top of her. They both stared deeply into each other’s eyes, then he pressed his lips to hers.

Roses …
he thought as he let himself be swept away by her.

32: Last

26 Seek, 112 AV: Day 215

Vornal Castle towered over the surrounding city, overpowering and imposing. Built out of solid black stone, many jagged towers reached high to scratch the blue above. A worn-down bridge crossed the Sulaina River and separated the walled city from the company.

“The final portal is over there, somewhere in that castle,” Mori said.

They followed Bianca across the bridge. “There’s a sally port in the side of the wall,” she said, finally revealing her thoughts on how to enter the city. “When I was young, I would use it to get into the castle.”

“Then why do we need you?” Keith said.

“They locked that door after they found me. So there just happens to be another way in.”

“And that is?” Keith asked.

“The sewers. They flow right into the Sulaina River.”

Mori balked at the sound of that. “I’m not walking through a sewer system.”

“Well, then, you can just stay outside. There’s no other way in.”

Mori sighed. “I guess I could use my magic to move the water out of the way.”

They followed the river for about a half-mile until they came to a small pipe where sickly green water flowed out below the wall.

“This is the pipe?” Mori asked. “It’s barely two feet tall!”

“My shoulders are two feet wide,” Keith said.

“I don’t want to hear your complaints,” Bianca responded. “It’s this way or no way.”

Cursing the bandit, Mori took the lead, using her spark to move the sewage around her. Keith was next, using his spark to protect himself from the rest of it. Seeko followed behind him, trying not to get any sewage on him.

Bianca brought up the rear. “I’ve never fought a humanoid demon before. Is it hard?”

Seeko laughed. “No, they’re all chumps. Only masters of five elements. So easy.”

“What if I’m not ready?” Bianca said.

“Who’s ever ready to fight a demon?” Keith said with a laugh.

Bianca smiled when she heard Keith laugh. “Maybe the old Keith is in there, somewhere,” Seeko heard her whisper.

Soon they were out of the small pipe and into a larger maze of sewers. Narrow walkways followed the water canals through the labyrinth. They moved onto a walkway and dried themselves off. Then, following Bianca, they made their way through the gloomy sewers.

They eventually found their way into the castle basement. Bianca led the way to the throne room.

“Why are we going to the throne room?” Seeko asked.

“Because we can ask Lady Peria where the portal is,” Bianca said.

“She’s not going to tell us,” Keith said.

“She will if we threaten to kill her …”

After some sneaking and wandering, they stood at large double doors that led to the throne room. Keith and Bianca quickly dispatched the pike-wielding guards at the door, then Keith used his spark to blow the doors open. They rushed toward the dais, where a woman sat on a throne with a female servant nearby. Two guards stood on opposite sides of the dais.

“Lady Peria! We will protect you!” The guards moved in front of their lady, pikes at the ready.

Keith blasted one to the side with a gust of wind, and Bianca slammed the other into a far wall with a pillar of stone. Only Lady Peria and her young servant remained on the dais.

“I will have you arrested for that!” Lady Peria said. “Who dares barge into my castle?”

Seeko looked at Lady Peria and the servant. “Where is the demon portal?”

The servant took a deep breath and placed a hand to her mouth.

Lady Peria rose from her throne. “Demon portal? You are mistaken …” She stared at Seeko with cold eyes. “You! You’re the Irenic hero, aren’t you?”

Seeko nodded. “Where is it? We’re here to close it!”

“No!” Lady Peria said. “I will not allow you to! It is our only hope to defeat the wicked Irenic Empire!”

Mori took a step forward. “Resorting to demons to defeat your foes? Are you any better than the
wicked
Irenic Empire?”

Peria pointed at Mori. “You know as well as I do that the Halcyon did not start this war! You know exactly who is to blame!”

Mori looked confused, but Seeko shook his head. “The demons have to be stopped, regardless of the war! They are only here to breed chaos!” he said.

“And how do you know that, hero?” the lady asked.

“Because I am part of the chaos! This is so much bigger than just a war between two nations! This is the beginning of anarchy!”

Peria sat back down.

The servant moved forward, looking at Seeko. She spoke, her voice low and bitter: “You can’t stop his dream. No one can.”

Only then did Seeko realize who the small servant was, for the Voice had already told him:
“Serkima. She is a master of dark magic, able to see in the darkest night. She is the true ruler of Vornal; Lady Peria is her puppet.”

“She’s the guardian! The servant!” Seeko yelled to his companions.

Quickly, they readied themselves, spreading out to surround the servant. As they did so, Seeko shouted to Peria, “Where is the portal?”

Peria began to speak, but suddenly a rock slammed into her temple and she hit the ground. The servant, Serkima, spoke again. “I grow tired of hiding behind the
lady
. It was no fun.” She frowned. “The last lord was so much more fun. He was so … sensitive.”

Bianca fired an arrow at the demon, but she knocked it away with a gust of wind.

“You’ll never close the portal, Seeko,” Serkima said, then smiled and slammed her foot against the floor.

The room shook, a fissure appearing in the flooring. The crack expanded rapidly—too fast for Seeko and his friends to do anything—and the company fell downward into a room of darkness.

“This pit will be your death!” Serkima said.

Seeko lit a green fireball. “Is everyone okay?”

Acknowledgements rang through the dark room as Serkima began to shut the fissure above them.

“Not so fast!” Seeko shouted.

He summoned a dark claw from the ground. It plowed through the closing fissure above them and grabbed Serkima. She struggled and escaped after a moment, but not before being dragged down into the room with them.

“Bianca, shut the crack!” Seeko shouted.

He heard the ceiling above them closing, and soon shadows engulfed the light from above.

“So you’d rather have me kill you than starve in a pit?” Serkima’s cold voice said as she rushed past Seeko, putting out his light source. “I can accommodate this.”

Seeko listened in the darkness for any movement.
There!
He fired a green fireball toward the disturbance …

… and almost hit Bianca.

“Watch where you’re aiming!” Bianca yelled.

The demon laughed from wherever she hid.

Seeko approached Bianca and grabbed her arm. “Stick close,” he whispered. Then he heard a rumbling noise—and Mori scream.
Mori!

“One down,” the demon whispered, almost from behind Seeko’s ear. Seeko turned quickly, lighting the area above him with orange fire. Serkima hissed. “No lights!”

Water put out the light above Seeko. Then, from out of nowhere, Bianca was lifted high into the air and Seeko lost his grip on her. She shouted until her voice cut off abruptly.

“Two down, two to go,” Serkima said.

“Coward!” Seeko heard Keith shout. “Come face me!”

A laugh, then, “Gladly.”

Seeko heard the sound of scuffling, then a thud, as if something heavy had hit the ground.

“Three down. Just the hero and me, now.” More laughter.

Seeko stood still, listening. Well, he tried to, but the muttering madness of the Voice was so loud. Still, he did his best.

“A demon that hides in the darkness! How pathetic!”
Kerodesis roared.
“Light up the room! Ignite the corpses of your friends!”

“Shut up! I’m trying to—There!”

He launched a green-and-orange torrent at the sound, connecting squarely with the demon crawling on the floor. She went flying and Seeko used the momentary light to find his friends. He glanced quickly around, seeing Bianca and Keith, both knocked out.

The attack ended and he was swallowed by darkness once more.

The demon laughed. “Powerful!”

Seeko didn’t feel powerful. The darkness reminded him of when he had been trapped in his own body.

Serkima laughed. “Using sound to find me in the dark … No one’s done that before.” Then she screamed a high-pitched, blood-curdling scream. The agonizing ringing echoed long after the demon stopped yelling, forcing him to cover his ears. He could no longer discern the demon’s location because of the sound, and instead focused on the ringing—the awful ringing.

“Jump!”

Seeko instinctively listened to Kerodesis, which was for the better, for at that moment a sheet of rock flew toward him at ankle level. He landed on the sheet and was flung into a far wall.

“You saved me … Why?”
Seeko asked Kerodesis as he got up.

“Demons are so predictable. Plus, we’re in the same body.”

Seeko sent a weak fireball above him and discovered Serkima crawling along the floor toward him again. Disoriented and still hearing the ringing, Seeko placed a palm to the ground and dark hands rose from below Serkima, grabbing her. He launched several dozen tiny fireballs in the air, casting them throughout the room. He smiled, watching Serkima struggle in the light. He fired a stream of dark energy into the demon, but she teleported away and clung to a far corner, dazed in the glare.

Seeko teleported to Keith, waking him with a kick. While he did this, Serkima rushed around, putting out fireballs, which Seeko would replace as she extinguished them.

Keith rose to his feet. “What happened?”

“Don’t worry about it! Just attack; I have to keep her distracted!”

Keith obliged him, using his magic to launch himself at the demon. He swung his sword at Serkima, who barely dodged it by leaping to the side. Keith landed and so did Serkima. They stared at each other while Seeko moved to Bianca.

Keith was about to rush the strangely twitching demon girl when an earth pillar flung her into the air. Another came from the ceiling while she was in midair, slamming her back down to the ground. Serkima landed on the ground, dazed.

Keith dashed toward her but froze when Bianca shouted, “Stop! She’s mine!” She grinned, pulled out an arrow, and fired.

Serkima shifted into dark smoke right before the arrow hit her and appeared behind Keith. Again she screamed, disorienting Keith, then rose a clawed hand and raked him across the back. He yelled and fell to his hands and knees.

“No!” Bianca yelled. She fired two arrows at the demon, but Serkima gestured and a wave of air knocked them off course.

Meanwhile, Seeko found Mori under a rockslide. “Bianca! Help! I can’t free Mori!”

“I’m busy!”

Seeko teleported in front of her and pointed to where Mori was. “Switch places! I can take the demon!”

Bianca looked to Keith, making her decision. She sunk into the ground, reappearing near Mori.

Seeko turned quickly and saw Keith bleeding out. Mori needed to heal him. He transformed into a fiery being and rushed toward the demon, tackling her. Serkima’s clothes caught fire and she teleported away, batting out the horrible light. Seeko pressed on, reverting to himself and hurling more fire at her.

Serkima was soon put on the defensive, teleporting around and dodging Seeko’s fireballs.
“She’s lost control and it annoys her!”
Kerodesis laughed.
“She underestimated us!”

While Seeko and Serkima hopped around the room, Bianca cleared out the landslide. She moved her hand and the landslide moved with it, shifting away from Mori. Then Bianca slapped her, perhaps a little too hard.

“Get up, Princess,” Bianca said.

Mori opened her eyes and found brown eyes staring back at her. “Seeko? Your eyes are back to normal?” Her eyes opened more and she realized who was holding her. “Let go of me.”

“Calm down. Keith needs your help.”

“What’s wrong?”

“He was cut across the back. You’re water, right? Heal him.”

Mori nodded, turning to water and reappearing near Keith.

Seeko flung another fireball at Serkima, but she dodged again. This time, Serkima appeared next to him, grabbing his hand in an iron grip. He ignited his other fist and sent it into the demon’s stomach. She flinched and used wind to put out the fire as she grabbed his other hand. They struggled for a moment, but the demon was stronger and she overpowered him. Seeko teleported several feet back, shaking his aching hands.

Bianca lined up her shot while the two were struggling. As soon as Seeko teleported, she let loose her arrow, which found its mark in the demon’s chest. Serkima screamed and sent a rolling wave of earth throughout the room, sending Seeko, Mori, and a revived Keith to the wall. Bianca summoned a pillar to shield herself at the last moment, then fired a piece of the column at the demon.