Chapter 13: The Darkness Rising
“He wasn’t kidding when he said Brendan was spot on.”
The entire team looked up at the sky in shock. It was completely black; there wasn’t one star visible in the sky, not even the moon. The sinister sky seemed to gaze over the team, tempting them to make their next move. Then, as Garion looked around him to make sure him and his team were alone, he saw it.
At first he thought it was part of the sky, the way it blended in with the darkness all around him. Then Garion started to notice small pulses around the area of the peculiar shape, almost as if the sky had a beating heart. He then noticed that whatever it was, it wasn’t part of the sky. It seemed to be a cylinder-shaped beam of energy that was attached to the sky, seeming to be shooting into it. Every now and then a small pulse of energy came out of the shape and morphed into the sky.
“There,” Garion motioned, pointing to the peculiar shape.
The whole team stared at the shape in awe.
“That’s the source,” Mason realized. “That’s where we’ll find Draktos.”
“Then let’s go,” Purstan said, motioning towards one remaining jet on the runway, the rest probably taken by the fearful staff when they evacuated.
“I’m going alone,” Garion said without hesitation.
“Are you crazy?!” Malix asked in shock.
“This is it,” Garion told them, “this is the battle that was meant to happen. This is the battle that Draktos wanted me to fight. Today, I can defeat Draktos once and for all. Today, I can fulfill the prophecy. I’ve already caused three of your deaths, so I refuse to cause anymore. But I can promise you this. I will kill Draktos. I will stop his scheme. And I will return home to you with triumph on my face.”
The team, respecting his heroic decision, backed away from Garion as he walked toward the last remaining jet on the runaway. As he stepped onto the jet, ready to start what may be his second but last battle with Draktos, Garion looked back again at his team.
All of them made a commitment when they first joined this team; while it may not have been a verbal one, they all pledged to stick by Garion to the very end. They knew their stakes, they knew what they were getting themselves into. They knew the enemy, and what he would do to succeed in his destructive quest to destroy the TLS. Yet they still accepted this job, they still we’re willing to pay the ultimate price for Garion. Some of them did have to pay that price. Like Nelkima.
He mouthed the words, “For Nelkima,” and then turned back towards the jet. Getting into the cockpit part of the jet and sitting down on the black leather swivel chair, Garion started to search for the autopilot button, praying that it existed. After much time of searching and what must have been awkward for the teammates to watch, Garion found the button, switched it on, and suddenly a speaker popped out of the detailed control panel below him.
“Where shall you be headed today?” the speaker asked in a robotic-like tone.
Garion, trying not to look like an idiot in front of his team seeing him off, replied, “Follow the big dark black light towards my right.”
“Scanning,” the speaker repeated for around 10 seconds.
Eventually, the speaker retracted and the jet took off on it’s own. As the jet lifted off the runway, Garion never looked back.
...
“Where is this?” Garion asked himself aloud in amazement.
The whole area was covered from head to toe in fog, the mist being so hazy and dense Garion felt like he was inside a never ending cloud. As he looked around through the see-through glass of the cockpit window trying to establish any hint of where he might be located, the jet’s speaker seemed to have picked up his question.
“Current location: The Bermuda Triangle.”
Garion’s blood ran cold as he heard of their current location.
Just to be sure, Garion asked, “How long until the destination is reached?”
“Checking,” the speaker replied in its monotonous tone. “You are 3.7 miles from your destination. ETA 4:33.”
Garion checked his watch. It was 4:31. He couldn’t believe it. Draktos’ machine was located in The Bermuda Triangle. Remembering the source of the energy drain from back at the training facility, Garion couldn’t comprehend the confusing thought. Why would Draktos steal energy from Garion’s trap to feed his machine? What was the point of even trapping him to begin with, then?
As the plane started to lightly shake, Garion started to have some sort of daydream, going into some sort of meditative state. He wasn’t able to make out much; the dream seemed to appear as random pieces of film from a movie set. Though while it was just in flashes, Garion could still make out the basic shapes: he seemed to be on an island of some sort, and he seemed to be crawling, crawling towards....
“The cylinder-shaped machine,” Garion muttered as he awoke from his trans with a shock.
The plane suddenly started to shake more violently, feeling as though a 9.8 earthquake had just been thrown at the plane. Garion, trying to find something to cling too, started to get worried. If this plane crashed, then he would be stuck in one of the most haunted places in the world. So with Draktos lurking somewhere on this mysterious land, Garion knew that couldn’t be good. The words that came next hit Garion like a lightning bolt.
“Auto pilot malfunction. Auto pilot malfunction. Switching to manual control.”
Garion knew he had to act fast, but at the same time knew he didn’t know the first thing about flying a plane. As the plane seemed to be shaken by an angry boxer punching his opponents multiple times, Garion tried to think if he knew anything about how he could keep this plane in the air. He then noticed what seemed to be a circular type steering wheel, instantly recognizing it from every action movie he has ever seen.
“Let’s hope those movies paid off,” Garion said to himself as he thrust the steering wheel upward as hard as he can.
Steadily, the plane started to rise away from the murky waters beneath him. Garion knew though that he couldn’t rejoice just yet; the tedious task wasn’t over. He was still in some sort of violent type of storm, thrusting him from one way to the other, almost at the point of ripping the jet apart. Garion then, remembering more about action movies, thrust the steering wheel forward to the maximum amount of speed, almost seeming to break it as all of his might and weight pushed against it.
With major struggle, the plane managed to survive the brutal storm. Though, as the plane passed through the last remnants of it, both of the engines not only died out, but fell off of the plane.
The plane immediately started to thrust downward, aiming for the ominous yet treacherous waters below. Garion quickly clicked the eject button he had been glancing at for most of the flight, and his seat popped out of the cockpit seat as a parachute opened shortly afterwards, slowly drifting him towards whatever lied below.
As Garion started to land though, he noticed that it wasn’t water waiting for him, but land. As his seat touched the soft beaches of the island, Garion noticed that there was no more fog to clog his sight.
Looking around at the island, Garion noticed the beauty of the palm trees and mountains. The entire environment itself seemed to be at peace. Garion just felt like throwing down a bag and settling to live here. He knew better, though. After much searching around in the sky, he finally spotted the black beam of energy, dead inside the forest ahead of him.
Garion trudged forward, ready to face Draktos once and for all. As he crawled through the murky forest, Garion noticed many anomalies; squirrels with two tails, rabbits with three ears. The entire forest seemed as though someone had dumped genetically altered biohazards waste onto the land, and let the animals soak in it for a good 50 years. After crossing the thickness of the trees without approaching any of the animals, Garion finally saw him.
Looking up, marveling at his creation was Draktos, cape off, seeming to smile at the sight of his sinister work.
Garion realized that
, since Draktos wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings, a sneak attack may actually succeed. As he started to creep up on Draktos, getting ready for his pounce to attack, some sort of knife seemed to slash him right in the stomach, as one of Garion’s strings fell out.
Garion cried in pain as Draktos turned around and walked towards Garion. When he approached the weakened Garion, he simply grabbed him by his shoulder strings, shot an energy ball straight into his gut, and waited for the explosion.
Strings were flying all over the area once the explosion hit; it was as if someone had just mixed too much Mentos with a giant bottle of Coke. Garion felt like he had just been hit with a concentrated atomic bomb, shattering not only his physical body but his soul as he fell to the ground in defeat. As Garion stood on the ground in sadness, part of his human side starting to show, he watched as Draktos turned around and picked up a piece of his string.
Walking towards the machine, Draktos then lifted the string up near the cylinder shaped part of the machine and, right before he was about to toss it in, Draktos finally spoke.
“Any last words?” Draktos asked.
“Why?” Garion managed to make out. “Why drain your own base? Why block out the sun? WHY?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Draktos asked in confusion. “I didn’t need you trapped. I needed you stalled just long enough so I could set up my machine. After that, I set the bait and watched you fly towards me. Once you came here, all I needed to do was steal a piece of your string and place it in my machine. Then, you can watch the shadows fly.”
“Why not just kill me then?” Garion asked. “Why go through all of this trouble and then just keep me alive?”
“Because the machine needed a living strand of your DNA to work,” Draktos replied, “furthermore, I wanted you to suffer like you made my family suffer.”
“What are you talking about?” Garion asked in confusion.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Draktos replied angrily. “Now, you can sit back and watch your world die before your very eyes.”
As Draktos dropped a piece of his string into the machine and as it lit up, Garion knew he had to act fast. Persistently, he started crawling towards the cylinder-shaped machine, trying to reach it before it had time to start.
Garion felt agonizing pain as he tried to crawl towards the machine, hoping to stop the evil resonating from it. He kept crawling closer and closer to the machine, each step closer causing more pain to his insides.
The machine seeming to be the only thing he could recognize as a tangible object, Garion reached for it as a lifeline; hoping it would stop this agonizing pain he continued to feel. As he crawled, his head continued to spin, but he kept on crawling, the goal of the machine in his mind.
The machine seemed to be beckoning towards him, as well; an unknown force seemed to be pulling him towards the machine, begging for his arrival. It seemed to be as though it was a voice, coming from the machine, forcing Garion to keep trudging along.
But as he approached the machine, attempting to complete the mysterious forces’ task, something seemed to stop him dead in his tracks.
He looked up to see Draktos looking over him, laughing in joy. Draktos, cape off, took his foot and stomped onto Garion’s face, erasing all sight from him. Garion was able to hear Draktos’ sinister, cackling laughter in the background, as he continued with the act.
This time though, he dodged the foot. He barrel rolled to the right, missing the foot, and then attempted to sweep kick off the ground. Draktos smiled as the leg went right through his skin, not leaving even a mark.
“Don’t you get it?” Draktos smiled. “This darkness isn’t only a portal. It’s eternal invisibility! No one will ever be able to touch us!”
Turning towards the machine, Draktos screamed at the top of his lungs, “Rise my shadows, rise!”
Garion managed to make out the shadows from the rest of the darkness, and his heart stopped at the sight of them. There had to be at least a billion of them, the shadows scouring the sky like flies near a dead body. The entire sky seemed to be made up of a shadow; each spec being an individual warrior ready to fight for Draktos. The entire night sky seemed to come alive as the shadows were about to pour out into the world like water into a cup. Garion knew he was cornered, that there was nothing he could do to stop his horrible and undeniable fate. The shadows felt like a mob targeting only him, slowly backing him into a corner until he could no longer avoid his imminent death. So Garion breathed in, and prepared for the worst. But he got the complete opposite.
Out of nowhere, a giant flash of light seemed to swoop in from the heavens like a ray of sunshine, destroying the barrier of darkness it penetrated. Garion could not get a good look at it; though what he could make out of the creature was amazing.
It seemed to be completely human in every way, just with a fancy suit on. Nirem could only make out that the suit appeared to be dark black (covering everything but his eyes and mouth), but besides that this “man” could have walked down the street and not be second-guessed. But the things he did in just seconds amazed even Garion.
In about a second’s work of time, Draktos’ machine was gone, and all the shadows started to disappear instantly, vanishing into the night sky before Garion could even notice their departure. Then after a couple seconds of delay, the sky slowly started to turn back to normal; the normal, Earthly sky now seeming to fight back against the dark night sky, eating it away in the same manner the darkness did when it first arrived on Earth.
“What the hell was....”
It was too late. There was another swoop of light, and Draktos was gone.