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    TWENTY-FIVE


    <h2 style="text-transform: uppercase">SARIEN</h2>


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    Once his father and Kax returned, Sarien had regained most of his strength. Opening a gateway to the building where they located the void cubes was an easy enough task.


    With his gray flame in his grasp, Sarien found an incredible number of void-cubes in the rubble. Each held a Slayer, and he released them all at once before hastily closing the gateway. Even from across the city, they heard what was left of the building crumble.


    A Slayer pulled the canvas off himself and sat up, groaning. Followed by another. And another. All around the storage facility, Slayers woke, confused and disorientated.


    “Friends!” Ein shouted, lifting his arms to draw everyone’s attention. “Calm yourselves!”


    Dawn had come to Sanctum and was filling the room with a soft glow.


    “Ein, you vermin! What have you done?”


    One of the Slayers broke away from the nearest group, jabbing his finger at Sarien’s father. He looked to be a few years Ein’s senior, with dark hair streaked with gray and white with a stony face and a crooked nose.


    “Stolpe, you bastard!” Ein yelled, mimicking the man’s jabbing motion. “I saved you all, of course!”


    “Full of bluster, same as always! You were in here with the rest of us, admit it!”


    Sofia cut in, “We did come to your rescue, uncle.”


    “Uncle?” Sarien said.


    “Meet your nephew, you old goat,” Ein said, holding out his hand to Sarien.


    Stolpe narrowed his eyes and sniffed. “No woman would take you.”


    “He is my father,” Sarien said, shifting his weight from foot to foot and looking out across the mass of Slayers. They turned to face them. “We released you from your void cells. Well, I released you.”


    “Impossible,” Stolpe said. Sarien couldn’t tell if it was more unbelievable that someone freed them or that Ein was a father.


    “Let’s strike back at the Wayfarers!” someone yelled from the crowd.


    “Kill the Gatekeepers!”


    The crowd cheered.


    Sofia held both of her hands in the air. “The Gatekeepers were overthrown by a group calling themselves the Council. They have the backing of the Prime of Chaos, and a priesthood formed around him called the priests of Wyndemir!”


    All fell silent.


    “A Prime?” Stolpe asked.


    “Afraid so,” Ein said.


    Stolpe turned to the crowd and roared. “Down with the treacherous bastards! Arm yourselves!”


    Ein leaned closed to Sarien. “Pretty impressive that their first instinct upon hearing that a Prime is free is to take up arms, no?”


    “Not the brightest idea, but I admire their courage,” Sarien whispered back. “Though, who could have imprisoned all these Slayers?”


    “I think I know.”


    “I did,” a familiar female voice said from behind them.


    Sarien spun to face the new arrivals. Ein struck out with his fire, a massive torrent roaring from the palm of his outstretched hand.


    “No, you bastard!” Lila shouted. A glowing purple darkness sprung to life between them. Ein’s fire twisted in the air, the color shifting from bright orange and red to a sickly pink as it was sucked into the void. The discoloration crept toward Ein until he extinguished his flame.


    “Lila. Is that you? What are you doing here?” Stolpe asked.


    Sofia looked horrified. “She’s with them. The Council.”


    To Lila’s left stood two others, a rhinn wearing the robes of priesthood, unwashed and stained. This man wore no mask to hide his grotesque features, including his large, purple tinted eyes. An open-mouthed grin split his face, showing a distinct lack of teeth. Next to the priest stood an unknown council member in white. By his height and width, it was a man.


    Instead of answering, Lila deferred to this rhinn priest of Wyndemir, who spoke with a lisp so thick it was difficult to make out his words. “The priesthood has decided to deny the Council’s request of keeping you alive until such a time you can be persuaded to join our glorious future in Wyndemir’s shadow. We are here to execute our god’s will.”


    A few Slayers stepped up beside Stolpe as Sarien’s uncle spoke. “You three expect to defeat all of us?”


    The priest looked at Sofia, the unknown Wayfarer, and then across the gathering crowd. “Yes. However, as a precaution, we have surrounded the building with our god’s most glorious creations.”


    As if on cue, a low growl emitted from beyond the closed doors, followed by many more. Inhuman barking mixed with eager yelps. The storage room darkened as something enormous brushed up against the windows before disappearing.


    The crowd shifted, but Stolpe would not be deterred. “Dealing with creatures is a Slayer’s entire purpose.”


    One of the younger Slayers grew impatient. Darkness pulsed from the palm of his hands as he hurled it at the priest. Before it connected, the unnamed Wayfarer met the attack with its opposite, a white light. They clashed in the air and the purple hue over the light rippled, tearing the darkness apart. The Slayer’s eyes widened with shock before he burst apart. Blood showered all those who stood nearby.


    A few screamed, but most stood frozen with shock.


    “You can’t attack them with the slaying!” Sofia shouted.


    “Enough of this,” the priest of Wyndemir said, holding out his hand. Sarien heard the screams intensify as the monsters clambered against the wall.


    To the credit of the newly awakened Slayers, they readied themselves for battle.


    The monsters suddenly fell silent.


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    Confused, the priest of Wyndemir turned toward the door. He was about to speak when it banged open, revealing a figure drenched in blood.


    “Hiya!” Daisy called. “Did you miss me?”


    The priest’s eyes bulged. “Who are you?”


    “Give it some thought and I’m sure you’ll get it eventually, priest.” She leaned up casually against the wall. “You were talking about something. Don’t let me interrupt’cha!”


    Lila withdrew a slim, sharp blade that she whipped in an arc through the priest’s neck. His head slid off his shoulders, his mouth parted, words dying on his lips. Lila then stepped forward and swiftly thrusted her knife into the Wayfarer’s chest. Both bodies toppled to the ground.


    “Lila,” Ein breathed.


    Lila turned to him. “This is all so messed up! It wasn’t supposed to end like this. You were all supposed to be safe!”


    Her voice trembled. She removed the mask, revealing her hideously deformed face. “I’m sorry.”


    Sarien’s father took a step toward her, but she held up a hand. “There will be consequences for disobeying the Prime. Ready yourselves.” Her body began to contort, twisting upon itself violently. Her blade clattered to the floor.


    “You did well, Slayer!” Daisy said.


    Lila glanced at Daisy before collapsing onto all fours as her skin ripped and muscles bulged obscenely. Her tunic darkened with blood.


    Haunting wails ripped out of her throat before turning in to hacking coughs. Blood gushed from her mouth. The seams of her robes popped open as the fabric tore off in shreds.


    Lila raised her head and screamed, the bones in her face snapping and reforming, growing long and thin.


    Sarien watched with horror as Lila’s life and consciousness faded behind a pair of yellow, feline eyes. The beast roared.


    It turned to face Sarien and the others, a hulking beast with writhing skin and oozing pus.


    Kax was first to react. He closed the distance in a blink, tearing through the monster’s flesh with arms elongated into swords. Kax slashed, but the wolf-beast didn’t react as its arm fell to the floor with a dull thud. It swiped at Kax, losing its hand. Before Kax had a chance to attack again, it kicked with enough force to push him back.


    Sarien stared as the tendrils of putrid flesh grew from the thing that was once Lila, questing for its missing body parts. When it found a piece hacked away by Kax, the flesh melded together. Even as Ein set it ablaze with fire hot enough to force everyone back a step, it collected the bodies of the priest and Wayfarer, incorporating both to its bulk while its flesh sizzled and popped from the heat.


    It lashed out with the now healed arm, but Ein side-stepped quickly to get out of its path. A fleshy tendril flicked, flailing wildly and landed a glancing blow to his midsection. Ein was thrown to the floor, his fire extinguished.


    Two Slayers, one of them Stolpe, hurled darkness at the beast. He held an intricately carved, metallic cube in his free hand. His intent was obvious, but the result deadly.


    The thing that had once been Lila only glanced in their direction before a Wayfarer’s white light met their attacks, the telltale purple hue to it spelling the Slayers’ doom. They both painted the floor and their comrades in red, bursting like waterskins run over by a wagon.


    The monster took its first steps toward the three heaps of flesh that had once been men. The glistening look of its tendrils made Sarien think of the rotting innards of a dead, escaped sheep they’d found once in the hills above the Karm estate. The crowd of Slayers stepped back, horror painted across their faces as the creature once again added to its bulk by repurposing the dead. Stolpe’s head ended up on the monster’s thigh, his eyes swiveling and his mouth open in a soundless cry.


    “Stolpe!” Ein cried, darkness forming in his hand.


    Sofia slapped him. “Don’t be stupid! Look what it did to them!”


    Purple tinged, but still pale, light sprung to life in one of the creature’s clawed hands, by its chest and by one of its many fleshy tendrils. Darkness followed, emanating from both its shoulders and above its head.


    Six manifestations. Three of wayfaring, three of slaying. All corrupted by Wyndemir’s filth.


    Sarien summoned his gray flame. He could not let this abomination claim more of the Slayers. Gray flames met corrupted white light, black darkness, and sickly purple. The three clashing with so much force Sarien was physically pushed back. With the power of six people behind it, the thing pushed him far more than he’d anticipated, and it quickly became apparent he could not do this on his own.


    He glanced at Daisy, who shook her head. The message was clear. She could not, or would not, help.


    “Slayers,” he said, teeth gritted. “I need your help.”


    Sofia’s gaze flickered to his. “We can’t attack it!”


    “Just bring forth your power and I’ll do the rest.”


    No one moved.


    “Father!” Sarien cried, his legs buckling. The sickening light began to envelop him, crushing the breath from his lungs. His gray flame wavered.


    Darkness manifested in Ein’s hand and Sarien reached for it desperately. The pressure lifted as Sarien drew on his father’s power. The monster screeched, withdrawing slightly.


    “What are you waiting for, you thick-headed nobodies!” Ein shouted.


    Darkness rose all around him. Sarien drew it all in. His body seized as his gray flame devoured the darkness.


    Sarien roared, pushing the hideous monster back a step. He returned to his feet, triumphant and sure of his victory. The elation lasted only a brief moment before the creature adapted, lashing out into the crowd with thin strands of wayfaring. Swathes of Slayers burst at its touch.


    Kax appeared, cutting at the grasping tendrils and ignoring the way their very touch rotted his flesh beyond recognition. Chunks of flesh fell from the beast as Kax sliced into it.


    Sarien drew ravenously from the Slayers, ignoring their mounting looks of horror as he drained away their power. His gray flame darkened as he struggled against the monster’s attack.


    He held his own but could not find a way forward. Not until he saw the purplish wayfaring and equally discolored slaying pull towards each other like they wanted to become one.


    Before he had a chance to think it through, Sarien forced the creature’s two powers together.


    White touched black. The monster screamed in confusion as all magic fled its grasp. It clutched its head with its claw-tipped hands, muffling its scream. A heartbeat later, the monster that was once Lila exploded, showering the room in gore, innards, and putrid blood.


    A cheer erupted from the Slayers, and Sarien’s father stumbled forward, clutching his side. “Well done, son. How did you know touching the Slaying and Wayfaring wouldn’t give it your gray power? It was possessed by the Prime of Chaos, after all.”


    Sarien blinked. He hadn’t thought of that possibility.


    “Knew you could do it!” Daisy skipped across the floor, jumping on two skinny, blood splattered legs.


    “Where have you been, Daisy?”


    She waved the question away. “Here and there. Also, I should get going again.”


    “Already?”


    “Dear father is stirring and there is something.” She paused for a moment, frowning, then resumed her sunny expression. “I’m sure it’s nothing!”


    “Can’t you give us some hint on how to defeat the Prime?” Sarien asked.


    The Slayers were gathering around. A haunted expression marked their faces, but their eyes shone with interest as they regarded Daisy.


    She glanced up at them, then shrugged. “I don’t know. There are plenty of books on father. Maybe you’ll find something that will help you.”


    “Books? Where?”


    “Nexus, of course! That Deidra woman might also know some more, I suppose?


    “How do you know about her?” Ein asked.


    “Well, I have to go. Great to meetch’a all!” Daisy waved to the crowd. She gave Sarien’s father a cheeky wink. “Einy.”


    Ein sighed. “Spawn.”


    Sarien’s sister disappeared, leaving a small pool of blood behind.


    “Now take us to Nexus!” one of women Slayers shouted. She was about Sarien’s age, fair with blond hair.


    “You saw what happened to the others. We can’t fight them!” a man deeper in the crowd called out.


    Sarien yelled over the rising voices. “You saw how I was able to hold this monstrous creature back and defeat it. To dethrone the Council, I’m going to need you all to lend me your strength.”


    “All of us can’t follow behind you,” the woman who’d previously spoke grumbled.


    She was right. There were several hundred Slayers in the room. “I need some of you to stay here for the time being. Reclaim Sanctum. We can’t confront the Council until we better understand Wyndemir.”


    Confused faces looked at him from the crowd and Ein stepped forward. “Wyndemir is the rhinn name for the Prime of Chaos. They worship the Prime as a god.”


    Understanding rippled through them. Sarien was surprised that instead of fear, he was met with steely determination at the mention of the Prime. He knew that Slayers were accustomed to danger, but fighting a Prime was something else altogether.


    “Thank you,” he said, addressing the crowd one final time.


    “We have libraries on Sanctum too,” Sofia said. “I’ll stay here and research with the help of some of our less hot-headed Slayers.”


    “Thank you,” Sarien said.


    “Don’t mention it, nephew.”


    Sarien turned to Kax and his father. “Ready to return to Nexus?”