Legend Slayers
/ Legend Slayers 22 The Other Side of the Door
7 minutes 56 seconds had passed.
Another tug on the chains and he stumbled forward. The all-consuming darkness had eaten away at the door handle. Kyrie's breath caught in his throat. He needed that handle, he needed to close the door before he killed anyone – everyone. It tugged again, the thing pulling on his chains whished for the darkness to consume him.
Kyrie's sweaty fingers grabbed onto the door frame. His heart and blood pounding as he released his right hand. He slipped it into the darkness. At first, it was his hand, then his elbow and shoulder. He could feel nothing in the darkness. And his fingers were growing numb. It was the irritating tingle of nerves having brushed something that told Kyrie he'd found it. He'd found the door handle.
7 minutes 41 seconds had passed.
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Another tug by the one that wanted him gone. His sweaty fingers slipped. Shit.
Kyrie stumbled and fell into the darkness. His hands fumbled for the door handle. His fingers shook as he grabbed tightly onto the cool surface.
His legs trembled and he fell onto the first two steps. He could see nothing, he could hardly feel his limbs. Kyrie had been too slow. He was too late.
7 minutes 20 seconds had passed.
They were dead. Hogswell, Syra, Candor. Centra, Jasper, DJ, and Liza. Ren would make it but she'd lose Amity and Ana. Caleb survived, out of sheer luck and tenacity and luck. James –
James, Kyrie pulled himself up with the door handle. He couldn't let James die. He couldn't kill James.
Kyrie held tight to the door with both hands as he trudged up the stairs. He could feel nothing with his hands. He had no clue whether he was closing the door or simply trying to escape.
Slam. Kyrie slumped against the door. He'd made it, he'd closed the door. His shaking legs dropped from under him and Kyrie hit the cool floor. He watched numbly as thick tendrils of darkness faded into nothing. He'd been to slow they were gone.
7 minutes 20 seconds had passed since they entered the waterway.
"Did you truly want to kill them?"
Kyrie turned and looked at the form of a young man. He was wearing leather and armor. His brown hair was chopped raggedly short. His eyes were sea blue. A cape fluttered behind him in a non-existent wind. He had military rankings on his chest and a pin. The pin was of a crescent moon and half a sun with a sword through the middle. The young man was wearing the kind of clothing and emblems Kyrie had only seen on ghosts.
The ghosts walked forward and knelt in front of Kyrie. He waved a hand in front of Kyrie's face as he said, "Hello. I am Guard Captain Roland of the Emerilla Dragon Knights. Are you with me sir?"
Kyrie shook his head. Did he just say Dragon Knights?
Roland smiled and said, "Shaking your head no is a real sign of you being in shock."
Kyrie smiled a bit. Roland must've been a good Guard Captain in his time.
Roland's smile dropped and he stood up. "I am incapable of holding your attacks form intact for much longer. I require your answer. Do you truly wish to kill them?"
"No." Kyrie watched the ghost before him with interest. He was a dragon knight so he must've killed many dragons and he was strong enough to contain Kyrie's slip up. Not only that, Roland was dead and holding a conversation with Kyrie in his mind.
Roland nodded. "Then I shall protect them and consume what I can. You must promise me something first."
Kyrie stood up. He was much shorter than the ghost. "What is your condition?"
"You must help me."
Kyrie's eyes narrowed. "How?"
"You need not worry. It will be nothing bad. You will understand my request soon."
Kyrie hesitated, he didn't want to make a vague promise with anyone let alone a ghost. But he had no choice. It was a promise to help Roland or kill almost everyone he knew. "I promise to help you."
"Thank you," Roland's voice echoed through Kyrie's mind as they both left the depths of it.
8 minutes 30 seconds had passed.
♢ ♢ ♢
When Kyrie opened his eyes he stood in the middle of a scene of carnage. The Vodiona was dead and the cuff around Kyrie's boot broken. Taru's blade was embedded in Syra's aura. The wall to his left was broken and crumbling. The path to his right had crumbled into the water and the other wall was crisscrossed with cracks.
Kyrie yanked his blade back from Syra's trembling throat. "Sorry."
Syra's eyes were wide and she gulped as she said, "S'okay. It wasn't your fault."
Kyrie shook his head. She may believe that but he didn't. He'd been careless. In fact, Kyrie had been growing more and more careless over the last year or so. It was the result of losing his will to live. But now in a strange turn of fate, he wished to live. The family that had kept him bound was gone. The ones that were never there or did nothing but fight for him were all that was left.
Kyrie nodded to himself and tightened his grip on Taru's blade. His emotions had been running on high and he was losing his edge. But that would happen no more, tonight he would train as he killed legends for the labors.
"Well that wasn't so bad," Hogswell said as he peered down the hall Kyrie's destruction had revealed. It was dusty and had ancient writing on the upper corner. Some rubble littered the floor. Plants had sprouted in a corner and scorch marks ran down the hallway. It was hard to tell if the destruction was from Kyrie or an ancient battle that had been waged there.
Hogswell glanced from the hall to Syra and Kyrie. They should probably head back. He sighed as he turned to the hall. His adventures wonder and curiosity said to explore the new hallway. But his responsible Professor side said it was time to take his students home.
Syra and Kyrie glanced at each other. "You okay?"
Kyrie smiled awkwardly at their asking each other the same question.
He nodded as Syra said, "Yeah." She was shaken. Everything had happened so quickly. And, Syra glanced at the hallway, his ability was beyond the close combat one everyone had thought it was.
Candor rolled his eyes as he watched Hogswell. Of course, Hogswell would be so interested in a newly discovered hallway. It seemed okay to go and they still had 12 minutes. "We can go down the hallway a bit."
Hogswell grinned as he inspected the start of the hallway. "I'll go first. Kyrie you're behind me. Syra'll follow and Candor will watch our backs."
Hogswell took quick and careful steps down the hall. At the end of the hall was a three-way juncture. Hogswell went left.
Kyrie followed him but paused for a moment a dragon symbol had been inlaid into the floor of the juncture. Its head was pointed towards the wall and its tail down the hall they'd come from.
"Look at this!" Hogswell yelled from ahead.
Kyrie shook his head and followed Hogswell's path further down. That dragon probably meant the guard Captain Roland had worked here. The construct below the city had belonged to the order of dragon knights.
When Kyrie turned the corner he saw Hogswell kneeling in front of a door. It was missing a handle and well half of the door. But the shimmer of a pink aura shield covered the gap. The door was intricately inlaid and seemed to depict some kind of battle. Hogswell was in the process of brushing the dust from the image when Kyrie arrived.
"It is. Oh, Math it is." Hogswell spun to look at the group gathered behind him. "There are people riding dragons."
To Hogswell that image, the possibility of having people ride a dragon – a legend, meant everything. It meant he may not have been some laboratory experiment but rather someone born from a couple that had held sexual interest in each other. It meant he may have parents in this world. That the Chars philosophy of getting along with legends may be the right one. That people and legends may have gotten along centuries before. The possibilities were endless and the meanings heavy.
Yet, Kyrie, Candor, and Syra saw it as nothing more than the depiction of one's wishful thinking. A tall tale to be told or nothing more than a beautiful and fanciful figment of someone's imagination.
Kyrie edged closer to his right so he could peer through the missing half of the door. Another door of a similar design lay a short distance down the hall or across the room.
Kyrie and the other's inspected the walls and tapped on the stones. They found no way to open the door. Only the scorched remains of what was probably the doors control mechanism.
Kyrie held Taru's blade in one hand as he said, "Shall I try breaking the barrier?"
Hogswell shook his head no. He didn't want to risk damaging the place more or setting off any traps forceful entry was bound to trigger.
Yet, Kyrie was anxious to complete his help request for the ghost Roland. And Candor believed it would be helpful to know if Kyrie could break the barrier. So Kyrie tried. It was in vain, his first attempt had been a light one though. But his second did nothing. They turned back and headed down the other hall.
The door they found was completely torn off its hinges. And as they walked down the path they found the old skeletons of many humans. Some were small like children and others could've been teens or adults. Kyrie found one that had the same pin as the Guard Captain. He cupped it in his hands. This had to be what Roland wanted help with. He wanted free of his earthly bound.
The pin cupped in his hands, Kyrie said, "May you who've fought and died for the sake of others move from this world to the next." Kyrie coated the pin in his aura. "With this binding to myself, I free from you your bounds. Move on old one for it is time to seek a new life once again. Forget your pains and sorrows of the old for it is time to live once again."
Kyrie stood up as a warm breeze ripped through the hall in a thank you. He carefully replaced the pin on the skeleton he'd taken it from.
Syra and the others recognized Kyrie's words as the ones said for the final parting of a soul. It was a parting that sent the soul to no gods care and removed the lingering ghost in a manner more peaceful than a slaying. Depending on one's beliefs it was the best and simplest of partings, or one that was the cruelest of all.
With Kyrie's quest for help completed the four of them headed further down the hall. At the end they found another door. That door was broken in a similar manner to the first. They tried to open it but time was running short. They had five minutes left to return and it had taken them for longer to get there.
♢ ♢ ♢
Their steps thudded down the waterway as they ran. They were racing back for the timer. The area had been cleared and was fairly clear to begin with. Now they had to make it back before they lost the lights. It was never a good idea to fight legends in the dark. And in the aura flooded tunnels it'd be hard to tell how many were around. Kyrie slammed his palm to the light panel just as they flickered out. They were too late. The message for help had been sent, the panel had been locked, and they were in the dark.
"Candor," Kyrie called as he flipped on his holo-watch's light. "Will the hatches let you open them?" In Avalon being trapped like this was a death sentence. After all, anyone could become a legend. All it took from some creatures was a bite or a scratch.
"Yes." Candor slipped passed the other three and began his climb. When he reached the top he began to turn the handles of the well-oiled lock. Once turned a blue glow shown from the hatch Candor placed a hand in the middle and it opened.
Candor climbed out, Syra was next, than Hogswell and finally Kyrie who'd steeled himself to be alone in the dark. His heartbeat faster but he was leaving. Everything would be okay because he was leaving.
♢ ♢ ♢
Hogswell and Candor remained to inform the guards they were fine. They also notified them of the new hallways and that Kondiara Academy had claimed first research rights to the ruins. Kyrie and Syra returned home to their dorms. It had been a crazy afternoon. And they still had a ton of homework to do.
Chapter end
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