Soon, they had stopped moving. The time had come. The Great Ayatollah tried to remember the name that had been lingering all along in the back of his mind; the name that had taken away his power of speech. His frail mind almost let him down, but there, he had it… it had been so long since he had thought of that name.
They had almost managed to reach the archway, the entrance to the Temple. The diversion attempted by the Arab warriors had succeeded, but even so they had lost almost half the mercenaries. James and Sir Philip were carrying wounds and marks all over their bodies. Travis had somehow managed to lose one of his silver knuckles, but at least his wounds were instantly healing.
Upon reaching the archway, Erica pushed the humans inside, while she and Lucas were defending the entrance against the Dead ones. With their backs covered, the battle had become somewhat easier. Their two swords were slashing up and down at dizzying speed. The young vampire turned to look towards the direction Lahifa had followed, along with her sisters and father, wondering how she might save them. The warriors were still holding out. Not a single Dead one had managed to breach their defenses. Their circle was moving away, leaving behind charred bodies which, however, soon enough were rising again, their wounds and burns healed, as if the undead had never suffered them.
The small group had moved so far away that, even Erica, despite her sharp vision, was unable to see clearly their faces. Yet she could see them all fighting on with fierce grace, as the Temple afforded her a vantage point. They looked as if they were dancing, their scimitars were flaming and the women were spinning around, beheading unholy creatures to their left and their right.
Their father, the elderly Ayatollah, raised his staff in the air and slammed it on the sands with what strength he had left. A thunder, as if a storm was brewing, rumbled from up above. The battle at the archway stopped, as the Dead ones, upon hearing the thunder, turned and growled towards the Great Ayatollah. His six daughters performed one last spinning attack and, as one, touched the tips of their swords on the old man’s shoulders, no longer attempting to defend or attack. The undead rushed to get them in desperation, in a final effort to slay them, but it was already too late.
The old man, who had not landed a single blow during the entire battle, broke his long silence, regaining the power of speech for the first time in decades, and spoke the word he had in his mind: the hundredth name bestowed upon him by their God.
A pillar of white fire struck down from the sky, straight at him, engulfing the man and his daughters. But it did not stop there. The flames spread out, the scorching heat consuming the undead and turning the sands beneath them into glass.
The two vampires standing at the archway to the Temple were stunned, watching the flames spread like a fiery wave, rising ever higher, blasting everything, like a fiery tsunami; ever higher the flames rose, closer and closer to the Temple. Lucas and Erica exchanged a frightened glance, while the rest of their team closed ranks behind them, watching the terrifying blastwave rushing towards them
“Back, everyone, go back!” Lucas tried to warn them.
The flames reached the Temple, but could not penetrate a protective red dome that suddenly surrounded the structure. As if they were alive, the flames tried to break through this unexpected shield, which was being projected from the top of the Temple, but it was a vain effort. Erica suddenly felt something like molten lava burning through the flesh of her hand. Terrified, she raised it and saw the orb, which she had forgotten that she had been holding, the orb she had used to raise the Temple to the surface; it had turned fiery red and scorching hot. She tried to toss it away, but the orb had stuck on her. She screamed in pain. Lucas tried to help her, tried to pry the orb off her hand, but it burned him as well, but at the very last moment he managed to pull his hand away, before he, too, became stuck on it. The flames around were blasting at the dome with increasing fierceness and the orb was becoming redder and redder. It was torture for Erica. She could feel part of her powers being absorbed by the orb, which was trying to defend the Temple from the attack it was under. Marcos quickly came to her side, baring his wrist. Without waiting this time, Erica bit at it and began drinking his blood.
Everything stopped as suddenly as they had begun.
As if starved of oxygen, the flames died out and the orb in Erica’s hand shattered and fell to the floor. The solar eclipse ended, but the three vampires were now safely inside the Temple, under its magical protection. Around the structure, a large part of the desert had been turned into glass. The flames had created a great number of unusual shapes from the scorched sands, with the surrounding area now resembling an alien planet.
Dust had begun gathering around the glass crystals in the sand; dust which was beginning to bond and take humanoid forms.
Stunned, Lucas and Erica stood still for a moment, before running to the back of the archway, where the door to the Temple stood. They both seized one of the metal rings that opened the door and began pulling at it with all their strength. The veins in their arms thickened by the pressure, but the door would not budge. Travis and Marcos joined them, along with James, and together they began pulling at the ring, in desperation.
Then, with a deafening and screeching sound, as stone was sliding on stone, the one side of the twin door began to open. Redoubling their efforts, they managed to open it enough for one person to be able to squeeze through.
Outside the Temple, the Dead ones were starting to reanimate. Most of them had been impaled on glass, but not even that could hold them for long. The sun above was burning them, but their bodies were able to regenerate faster than the damage they were suffering.
“They’re coming back, the lot of them. Go! Go, we will stall them”, shouted Lucas to Erica, grabbing her by the shoulders. “We will stall them”, he repeated. “You finish this!”
Without the slightest hesitation, the young vampire entered the Temple of Blood.
Each corridor branched into at least two more. The interior of the Temple resembled a labyrinth. The place seemed rather plain, save for some magically burning torches, until someone decided to pay closer attention to the walls. Most were engraved, but not masterfully. The result resembled more that of the early attempts of some child, who did not even have the right tools to work with. Not that Erica saw much of it as she was running by. Based entirely on her recollection of the plans by Archytas, she was trying to get to the main room, at the center of the Temple. The lives of her friends depended on her getting there in time.
Right, left to the end of the corridor, across the room with the weapon racks, again to the right and straight ahead to the large room at the far end.
If she were human, she would have needed at least five minutes to recover.
But she wasn’t.
Neither was the Creature at the center of the main room.
In fact, “room” may not have been the correct word to describe the place she had reached. The interior of the Temple was one large structure, without separate levels. Massive arches stood around, supporting the upper part of the building. The roof disappeared towards its center. Looking upwards, one could see an opening leading to the topmost part of the Temple, as well as the underside of the brazier burning up there. A reddest crystalline orb was floating at the center of the room, close to the floor and the energy flowing between it and the brazier was visible. Under each of the arches, save the one Erica had entered from and served as the entrance, stood a statue depicting one of the Ancients, the first vampires. Each statue was clothed in the manner the respective warrior would be dressed, heading to battle.
One of these original vampires, Cheops, was standing at the center of the room, next to the magical orb. He resembled his statue a fair bit, but his face was deathly white and filled with deep lines, like cracked porcelain. His eyes were pitch black and all the veins on his naked torso were also black. He was watching Erica with intense curiosity, from head to toe. In his hands he was yielding two Egyptian swords, two khopesh and he was turning the
m around, almost absent-mindedly, as a child might do with his toys.
“I was expecting to see my brother, to tell the truth”, he told her in perfect English.
His voice sounded weird, almost teasing. Erica looked at him, puzzled, as she was slowly approaching, taking note at the same time of her environment, in order to be prepared for the duel certain to follow.
“Well, yes, I imagined he would like to see through what we started so many millennia ago. Not to mention that it would suit me to perfection, as this body I’m wearing right now is not as powerful as I would like. It’s already crumbling”, he explained, while he was beginning to walk sideways around her, ready to attack.
“And who is this brother you had been expecting?” asked Erica, trying to show no emotion in her voice, although she could imagine the answer.
“Hmm, which is the name he’s currently going by? Archytas, is it? I think you know him, he was a close friend of the one who created you, the way I created him, one Naram-Sin. Now, which hole has he crawled into, trying to escape me?” he asked, as innocently as he could.
“No one created me”, Erica answered proudly, ignoring that last question.
“Ah, in this you are mistaken. See, when you take a plain, graceless and weak creature, such as a human, and you raise it from the mire, make it your own, you shape it according to your wishes. Take me, for example. I took the so called ‘champions’ of the human race, and turned them into the best this race had to show: hunters, conquerors, even philosophers. Whatever humanity has attained up to this point, it owes it to them, who were there to guard them against the demons and the angels. And what was the price for all that? They would offer their bodies to me, when I needed them to fight the demons! Would you call that a price? I’d say it’s a favor, a gift!”
Erica was trying to absorb all the things the Creature was telling her. At the same time, she was glancing at the orb, a few feet away. She only had to stall for a few more seconds, and she would get within striking distance to capture it.
“Your brother, then, what do you need him for?” she asked, trying to distract the Creature.
It looked at her as if she had asked a question with a blatantly obvious answer.
“To free me from my prison, what else? The runes he engraved weaken over the millennia and I am able to move my spirit wherever I please, but…” it said, pointing at its body, “…one body, that is all the good gods have given us! And mine, remains imprisoned below a lake. Very inconvenient!” it said. Pausing for a while, it added, “Especially if you’re looking to battle some demons!”
The second it paused, Erica jumped at her chance. Drawing her two pistols from their holsters, she fired at the Creature and, employing her powers, she materialized next to the orb. She grabbed it with one hand, letting a pistol fall to the floor and tried to wrest it from its place, as she kept on shooting at the Creature with the second gun.
The first bullets struck their target, but soon the Creature had disappeared, turning to the same powers Erica had used. Looking around, she tried to locate it while she kept pulling at the crystal orb, but it would not yield. She looked to the right of the room and at that very moment the Creature materialized to her left and slammed her head with the pommel of its sword, sending Erica flying for several feet. She lost the second gun when she slammed to the floor. The bullets that had struck the Creature were ejected by its body, falling to the floor.
“To be honest, I am disappointed in you, all of you. What makes you lot think that you can defeat me with the powers I granted you?” asked the Creature, without looking for an answer.
Gripping both swords and taking a battle stance, it disappeared once more in the shadows.
Shaking her head, trying to recover, Erica got up and pulled from behind her back the sword of Saint Peter, focusing all her mental powers there. Silver shadows began flowing along the blade.
“I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve”, she announced to the empty air around her, slamming the sword on the floor, which sent a magical pulse around her.
The creature materialized some feet away from her, clearly irritated that its spell had been shattered.
“I heard that you were looking for the child of an archdemon and an archangel. Well, you found her”, Erica added and attacked.
Thanks to the archway and Lucas, they had managed to keep the Dead ones at bay. The mercenaries had turned to their sidearms, and those undead who managed to reach their positions were met by the sword of Lucas. The two knights supported the giant to the best of their abilities.
Travis and Marcos split the charges, kneeling over the suitcase in which they had carried the explosives.
“You take the upper levels of the Temple, since you’re faster than me, and I’ll deal with the central one”, Marcos suggested to the vampire.
Travis looked at him and sneered.
“Who would have thought that we’d finally agree on something?”
The two of them got up, exchanged a glance and spontaneously shook hands. They entered the Temple with no further words spoken, each determined to see through his part of the operation.
Erica’s sword fell on the crossed blades Cheops, possessed by the Creature, held above his head. Had she been a little quicker, she would have buried it straight on his skull. She kicked him and the man stumbled backwards. Taking advantage of this opening, she turned her blade and attempted to strike lower, towards the legs of her opponent. The Creature, anticipating the attack, jumped back, almost defying gravity. It landed like an acrobat and readied its weapons, right on time, as Erica had closed in fast. The Creature managed to parry her next blows with relative ease and then counterattacked. It attempted a purposefully clumsy blow against her head, which Erica had no trouble parrying, and pressed its attack, attempting to slash her stomach with the second blade it was yielding. Erica tried to parry that second strike but wasn’t entirely successful. The tip of the sword left a rather long mark on her abdomen, piercing the silver cuirass as if it were made of paper. The wound, although not particularly deep, hurt because of the silver blade.
The Creature attempts to solidify its temporary advantage. It recalls its duel against Cheops and follows his moves. He attacks her hand and lands another glancing blow on her arm, at the place where it is unprotected. Next, he strikes at her thigh. Erica stumbles. The Creature reenters the shadows and materializes behind her. It lands yet another blow, this time leaving a gaping wound on her back, shattering the silver armor there. Sensing her weakened state, it calls upon its powers residing within her to return to it.
“I want my powers back, princess”, the Creature says, sneeringly, as it focuses on the dark powers flowing freely within Erica’s body.
Yet, something is amiss. It reaches its arm towards her, to better focus on its powers. All that comes out of Erica’s nostrils is a wisp of smoke.
“I entered no pact with you”, the vampire explains, realizing what the Creature was trying to do.
Incensed, with her wound now healed, she lunges, attempting a risky attack with her sword and manages to hit her opponent right on the wrist. The severed hand flies off and turns to dust. Now it is her sword against Cheops’ khopesh and the advantage is hers, as the blade she is yielding is significantly longer. Grabbing the weapon in both hands, she launches into a series of slow but powerful blows against the Creature. She is no longer concerned with speed. Cheops’ body, like a puppet, parries the blows, but the gaping wound on his wrist won’t heal fast enough. The magic with which the sword of Saint Peter is imbued prevents the Creature from properly regenerating.
This battle must end before I tire, Erica is thinking. Already the blows she had suffered are affecting her. She feints a clumsy strike, the Creature easily parries it and she lands her knee on its side. She dances around it, looking for some opening in its defenses. Her enemy attempts to counterattack, blindly, and suddenly Erica sees her chance. Using her powers, she changes slightly her position. At the same time, she raises
her sword and brings it down right on the blade of her opponent’s sword. Her magical sword slices through the blade of the enemy like a hot knife slices butter. Cheops’s eyes widen, but he is no longer able to defend himself. Erica spins around, returning her sword to its original position and lands the decisive blow against her enemy, lopping of his head.
Cheops’ beheaded body drops to the floor. The young vampire is pleased to see her opponent quickly turn to dust, but her excitement is immediately shattered, as from the pile of ashes the Creature emerges, unscathed.
“I do hate surprises”, it announces, referring to its inability to sap her strength. “Let us even out the battlefield a bit, shall we?” it adds and immediately flows up to the air, away from Erica.
The Creature lets out an otherworldly screech and from around the room humanoid shadows emerge; shadows with red eyes and sharp claws, like their master.
Setting up the charges proves particularly simple. He sticks a slab of C-4 on the wall. He fixes the detonator on the malleable explosives and actives it by throwing a switch. He walks some thirty feet down the corridor and repeats the process.
The biggest challenge for Marcos was remembering the plans to the Temple, but he had had enough time on the airplane to memorize the layout, on their flight here.
He has already set most of the charges, when he notices some movement with the corner of his eye. Turning towards it, he can see nothing but the magically burning torches on the wall. His heart clenches; he knows that something is amiss.
There! A shadow on the wall, moving as if it is alive! He looks at it more carefully and is terrified to realize that the shadow is staring back at him with its red eyes.