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CHAPTER
9: Journey into the night
"So now I want you to tell me
something," said Losnyr, as they left the
main
city of Cope. "Does this 'Mort'
who Jedd spoke of happen to be the
same
as Mortimer Nightingale? You know, The
Lord of the Night?"
"Yeah!" Kennen quickly responded. "But me and Jedd call him Mort. We are
all
pretty tight, ya know. His tower is a
rather long journey east. We'll
have
to cross a desert, I hope you can handle it..."
Losnyr gulped. He had never really traveled that much in the desert
before. He wondered if there was a problem with a
Merfolk entering the
desert. He would have to devote all his power to
keeping himself alive and
nourished...
Their journey continued for about a
month. Through Kennen's tales of his
battles
and Losnyr's observation, he learned a few things about Kennen. One
thing
that intrigued him was Kennen's armour.
It had a powerful spell cast
on it
that would immediately bring feelings of fear and intimidation on
anyone
who combated him. But that was nowhere
near interesting as what was
in
his sword.
Kennen's sword, dubbed the name
"Vampire's Kiss", which looked like it
weighed
at least several hundred pounds by it's length and width, seemed to
weigh
almost nothing to Kennen, yet when it struck something, it was as if
the
sword's weight was unaltered at all. It
seemed to have an enchantment
that
would make the sword handle light for Kennen, but heavy against his
opponent. Another thing the sword would do is drain
energy from his
opponent
as it wounded, whether it be magical energy from magical beings, or
life
energy from living beings. Kennen
seemed to be able to do many things
with
this energy. He could send the energy
out of both edges of the blade,
the
pommel, and the tip, which in turn would propel the sword into the
opposite
direction. Kennen had incorporated this
into his fighting style,
to
add great speed to his swing. Another
interesting technique he would use
that
he liked to talk about was this: he
could point the tip of his sword
towards
the ground, send energy out of it, which could propel him off the
ground. It seemed to be quite handy for attacking
enemies who flew above
him.
There were also other things Kennen could
do with his sword, but Losnyr did
not
pick up any of them.
Their journey spanned mostly across a
forest, went into a foliage-lacking
field,
which Losnyr thought would eventually turn into desert, which it did.
As they crossed the desert, they were
attacked by humanoid shaped beings
made
of water, which Losnyr knew as water elementals.
"Strange," said Kennen, as about
6 water elementals surrounded them.
"You
know,
you normally wouldn't find these things in, you know, a DESERT.."
"I sense the presence of a much
higher power," said Losnyr.
"Deranral is
near."
Kennen easily dispatched the great being
with his sword. With each hit,
his
sword glowed a little brighter.
Deranral appeared in front of them. As usual, he was hovering several feet
from
the ground. He smiled when he
recognized Kennen. "I see you have found
some
allies, Losnyr," he taunted, "But a warrior will only provide you
with
cannon
fodder, I'm afraid."
As he spoke, he pointed his spear toward a
patch of sand about 100 feet
away,
which exploded, sending sand flying in all directions. In its place,
a
massive dragon shaped completely out of ice rose to its full height.
Kennen charged it. He held his sword down, propelling himself
into the
air. The dragon responded by spitting a large
boulder of ice at him, which
would
have hit him directly, if Kennen did not skillfully bring his sword
up,
cutting it in half. Before the dragon
could react again, Kennen's sword
was
propelled down, then straight into the dragon's right eye.
There was a slight pause, before Kennen
used his energy to propel himself
down,
cutting the ice dragon in half. Soon
after it instantly crumbled into
small
chips, before it disappeared in a puff of steam. Kennen let out a
sigh,
and quickly turned and looked at Deranral.
Deranral's expression did not change from
the sadistic grin he had when he
arrived. "Impressive, for a powerless one such
as yourself. But allow me
to
introduce you to a being which will provide you with more than enough
entertainment."
Deranral pointed his spear again, this
time a few feet in front of him.
Another
water elemental, this one much bigger than the rest, appeared.
Losnyr
recognized it as a Greater water elemental.
It stood about 10 feet
tall.
Losnyr recognizes something else. Kennen's sword was glowing a very bright
white
from the defeat of the ice dragon.
Kennen jammed the sword into the
ground,
and concentrated. His body flashed in a
black light as Losnyr felt
him
transfer all the energy which was in the sword to his body. Kennen was
now
surrounded in a transparent black flame of pure dark magic. He charged
again,
this time much faster than the first.
Kennen's sword became a blur as slash
after slash was laid upon the
elemental. Within seconds the elemental was nothing but
a formation of
puddles
around him. Kennen again turned and
looked at Deranral, this time
with
a growl instead of a sigh.
Deranral's expression was now that of
anger and frustration. "Losnyr,
you
cannot
hide behind mercenaries forever." he said, as he smiled again. "You
amaze
me though, as the summoning of your challenges has left me quite
drained. Summoning has never inspired itself to me as
much as attack magic
does,
but you will see enough of that in the future.
As for now, I have
more
pressing matters to attend to on Alteria, so I will see you later."
With
that, a blue light again surrounded him, and he was again gone.
CHAPTER
10: The Lord of the Night
"Jerk." said Kennen. He stopped glowing, and put his sword back
into its
equally
oversized scabbard, which resided on his back.
He then started
again
to walk eastward. "You
coming?" he asked, tilting his head slightly
in
Losnyr's direction.
Losnyr was speechless. Kennen was a strong warrior, but Losnyr
didn't
think
he was strong enough to beat such powerful magic. Losnyr didn't sense
as
much power as he felt in Jedd, but there was power in Kennen, he was sure
of
that.
Their journey continued for another month
and 3 weeks. After crossing the
desert
they entered more grassland, before finally they arrived at their
destination. A black tower, stretching to the heavens,
appeared on the
horizon. It seemed to have runes inscribed all around
it, and it generated
an
aura of extremely powerful magic, which seemed to travel from the top
down.
"There it is. Good ol' Mort lives there. He would defidently be able to
help
you find yer orb." explained Kennen.
With every step they took the tower seemed
to grow larger on the horizon.
Finally,
they arrived at the entrance, an intimidating pair of doors that
were
easily large enough to allow entrance to the biggest of dragons.
"WELCOME TO MY TOWER..." Started
a deep, booming voice from above. "IN
ORDER
TO SEE ME, YOU MUST PROVE YOURSELF WORTHY BY PASSING THE LOWER FL..."
The voice was interrupted. Kennen, turning his head up to face the sky,
shouted,
"Hey, Mort! Calm your ass
down! It's just me."
The voice sounded much more natural this
time. It was still deep, but
minus
the booming. "Oh, Kennen, long
time no see. I sense you have a
companion."
"Yeah," Kennen replied,
"It's a Mauriac. He's the
apprentice to the one we
met
before, I guess."
"Ah yes," confirmed the
voice. "This is urgent. Please, come in."
With that, the doors opened. They made no sound at all while they were
opening,
not even a click. They didn't even seem
to have hinges to creak.
It
was obvious that this tower was very magically controlled. Losnyr
doubted
that even Jedd's magic would be able to penetrate its defenses, much
less
Deranral's.
As Losnyr and Kennen entered the door,
they came across an empty room with
a
triskadecagram drawn on the floor. (Editor's note: A Triskadecagram is a
13-pointed
star, and on Flaerie, the symbol of magic.)
Kennen routinely stepped in the middle of
the star. Losnyr, following his
example,
did the same. There was a purple flash,
and Losnyr found himself
in a
large room with a domed ceiling at least a hundred feet high. The
walls
were lined with bookshelves that continued up to the ceiling.
In the center of the room, was a much
larger Triskadecagram. In the center
of it,
was a meditating figure floating 5 feet off of the ground. He had
long,
flowing, well kept dark brown hair. He
was very well dressed, his
long
cape had a lining which showed a picture of the night sky.
The Lord of the Night, Mortimer
Nightingale, opened his eyes. They
showed
much
wisdom and age, as young as the rest of his body was. "You are late,"
he
said. "Alteria is due for
destruction in less than a week, Losnyr."
CHAPTER
11: Kennen's Folly
Losnyr did not bother to ask how LotN knew
his name. Something told him
that
this man knew many things. Besides, the
lord's previous sentence had a
much
more urgent statement to make.
"Less than a week? But..."
LotN interrupted him. "Your journey here on foot took time
that we did not
have.
Why did you not get here
magically?"
"The kid looked a little green,"
Kennen explained, "I thought I would give
him,
ya know, a little travel experience."
Mortimer's face fell into his hand. "Kennen... you are an idiot."
"Hey! Lay off, I was just trying to..."
"I know what you were trying to
do. But let us not worry about it. I've
been
speaking with Jedd telepathically, he told me of your arrival, Losnyr.
I..."
Kennen was looking around, mostly behind
him. "Who's Losnyr?" he
asked,
eventually,
interrupting LotN.
"Shut up, Kennen. Anyways, fortunately I have already taken to
time to
magically
locate the orb we are searching for.
The problem is, it is
guarded
by many of Deranral's minions, or to be more precise, his water
elementals... there is a small army of them."
Kennen smiled. "No problem. I can cut through those things like
nothing."
"I have no doubt of that. But there is a problem. The orb resides in an
underwater
temple. Kennen, despite your great
resourcefulness and combat
abilities,
you have no physical or magical way of surviving underwater.
Losnyr,
you are a Merfolk, therefore you can breathe underwater. But you
are
not powerful enough to deal with Deranral's creatures by yourself. I
would
go down there myself, as I have a spell that allows me to breathe
underwater,
but I must stay here and use the energies in this tower to guide
whomever
goes there, or else it could take theoretically take months to find
the
right place."
Losnyr sighed. Then it came to him. "Does
Jedd have the ability to
breathe
underwater?"
LotN smiled. "My thoughts exactly,
and yes, he knows the same spell that I
do. Let me
contact him."