Chapter Seventy-Three: Ulima Dom Sekar

  Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

  Ruling Government: Talum Merchant Federation

  Solar System: D-447

  Planet: Ora

  Location: Tarvashal, upper residential district, Near Private Shuttle Bay

  ***

  Realm of Dreams

  ***

  Agony, more so than I knew one could feel. I did not know that pain could be so visceral, so all encompassing. Thoughts bleed from one to the next, splintering any coherence until I hear the cruel demon’s voice.

  “Why are you trying to resist me.” She whispers in my ear softly, “It will only make it worse.”

  Resist her? How could I? I feel my body slam against the hard stone, up and down. Were I not a spirit in this realm, my body would be broken many times over. It does not stop the pain though. My teeth grit as I try to fight against her, but I feel powerless. Whatever force she uses to hold me, it swallows all hope of fighting it. Yet still… I am too stubborn to give in. Something deep within me calls against the pain, wishing to meet it with its own.

  On the edges of the island of stone, I see the spirits of light being pulled into the depths by the shadowy ones. Barnak is nowhere to be found above the surface.

  “Why can’t I peer deeper?” she seethes, as though angry, “This doesn’t make sense. What am I missing?”

  The pain stops, abruptly as she releases me to the cold embrace of the black stone. I try to crawl towards the waters, the depths somehow now feel inviting against her torments. Before I reach it, she swipes a hand, the stone cracking and forming around me, holding me in place. She paces now, back and forth curiously. My mind wanders as I struggle against the stone, more so now that the pain has abated… Luna. Does she live? Do the others? I need to leave the realm of dreams. How though? Memory flashes in my thoughts, from when Arrum and me fought a Carver. When I was on the edge of life and death before he saved me, I felt something, something like the rhythms that Luna showed me with Etheric Maka… but this rhythm was for Netheric. Can I find it again? Can I use it? Can I escape here to help Luna? She is kind, she no doubt carries my useless body while trying to survive. She would not abandon me… would she? No… she is not like the rest, she is different, she is more.

  Then I must help her, I must find the rhythm again. There is so much Netheric Maka here, it saturates the air, so much that it presses into me, begging to be used. Find the rhythm… help Luna.

  “Persistent defiance in the face of despair.” The demon cackles, “What a pointless thing.”

  “You cannot keep me here,” I say through gritted teeth. The defiance in me is rising.

  She gives me a curious look, tilting her head to the side again, coming closer. Her mouth opens, some of her teeth are sharper than normal. Her crimson eyes ignite at my words. Her breath is heavy, and a sick feeling swells in me as I realize that she wants me to struggle… she enjoys it. I should not show her anything. It will only play into her depraved hands. Focus. Find the rhythm.

  “Show me the depths of your resolve, mortal,” she says, tracing her painted red nails across my neck, “In exchange, I will show you the depths of despair.”

  Pain flickers back and forth in my mind as her eyes spark with light, the energy in the realm of dreams trembles under her command. Yet… there is something else, something beneath the surface that I feel. Pressing away the pain, I search deeper, for the rhythm still. Trying to call for Netheric Maka, trying to make it resonate with me, and not against me. The demon woman does not try and stop me, she looks on with curiosity.

  “Interesting,” she says, pacing around me, her eyes ablaze, her lip quivering.

  My eyes close, feeling deeper the rhythm. Each tone of it strikes another melody that rises and falls. I try to mimic the ones that Luna showed me, but the speed of Netheric Maka is different, it does not follow the same patterns. I must make my own, or force it into unnatural shapes. Can I even do that? Focus, curiosity can wait. Right now, my body in the Realm of Reality is a burden to someone I care about. Rise. Find a way. Help her. Save her.

  “You really are a strange one,” the demon says.

  I do not open my eyes nor respond, my mind is in a trance, searching for the chords that will play within my blade’s new song.

  Just as I am about to feel it though, my mind’s focus is shattered by the chorus of energy that she sends through the Netheric Maka, the complexity of it is almost beyond comprehension.

  “Why do you fight me?” she asks, pulling up my chin, leaning closer now, her grin has disappeared, she is only a breath from my face “What drives you?”

  What drives me? My teeth grit. She lets out a sigh, sliding her hand from my chin up into my hair. I groan as I feel the pain of her sifting my memories. She looks at recent events. Swirling her hand in front of me, creating a reflection of the memories on a crimson disc of light. It is of me and Luna, the time we have spent together. The demon replays all the times I stole glances at Luna, and all the times I caught her stealing them at me. My heart thuds with new determination seeing her face so clearly.

  “Ah,” she smiles, “So, even though she has betrayed you, still you hold something for her.”

  Betrayed me? No, Luna would not. She is not like the rest.

  “You don’t believe me?” she says, leaning into my ear, “Then I will show you the truth.”

  She removes her hand from my head, now swirling both hands in the air, the seas around us thrashing from her mighty works. Dancing across the field of air she has encapsulated us in. The disc grows larger, showing something strange, it shows me on the ground, in the realm of reality. My body hangs from the broken metal walkway that we were on. Luna is there, she carries the twins, Fennec helps her, hope brushes against me, they live. Good.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The demon looks back at me, licking her lips as the next scene plays upon the disc, I can hear now, the words spoken in reality. Fennec speaks first.

  “We need to hurry,” Fennec says, coughing loudly, his mask split in half, blood seeping from his brow.

  Luna turns back to look at my body, it twitches with dark ichor tracing my neck, there is a look of hesitation on her face.

  “He is gone, there is nothing you can do for him,” Fennec says, pulling her forward.

  My heart falters as she turns slowly from my body, moving toward where the shuttles are with Fennec. They are leaving me… she is leaving me.

  The melody that was building in me before has fallen flat, becoming empty of notes. Despair sings its wicked tune instead, pulling into the deepest recesses of my heart. So I am to die then.

  “Abandoned… forsaken,” she says, coming behind me, the stone releasing from my body, “Fear not, for I shall show you the path… to revenge. All you need do is submit to me, call my name, become mine and I will give you a glorious end.”

  Her arms slide over me from behind, and her embrace makes me flinch, yet there is no pain now, instead, it is strangely comforting. As though her touch has only ever been bliss, the feeling pulses through the Maka she moves. Her words burn into me, reminding me of the words that the being Amara wrote in the old tongue.

  Ulima Dom Sekar

  Only three words, yet they can summarize my entire life so easily. Forsaken by man.

  I had thought that Luna was different. I did not think she would forsake me. Even though it is the right choice, it burns that she left me. Still, she will survive. The sorrow does not become hate for Luna. While she may have left me, I know it was the best action she could have taken, and I know that she will go on and help more, much more than my hands could ever hope to. She is good, truly good. There was merit in my death, value in it even, helping one such as her. Perhaps pride as well. There is no remorse for giving it, the scales between Luna and I feel more balanced. At least there is that. At least… pain swims in my heart, I didn’t even know that it had healed, now ripped asunder again. Deeper even than before somehow. More swims to the surface, regrets, unfulfilled promises to free the brothers and to get revenge for Riza and the Arasha woman. A deep pulse swells in the waters as I ruminate on it, letting it fester in me.

  “I do not care for revenge against her, demon,” I say, looking up at her, “There is honor in giving one’s life for the sake of another who is good. Honor that even your tongue cannot slither from my bones.”

  The demon tilts her head again, seemingly annoyed that I am not upset more by the visions that she showed me.

  “Apathy to one’s own life, yet another strange quality,” she says, there is bitterness in her tone though, “Then perhaps you wish to know the truth.”

  The truth? What truth is there? Was what she showed before a lie? My eyes move up to hers now, searching for truth beneath the malice they hold.

  “Speak it or be silent in your tortures, demon,” I say, the defiance that still clings almost surprising me.

  The demon laughs at my words. Making me grit my teeth tighter.

  “I have been known by many names across the eons of time,” she says, musing her hand through her long black and red tipped hair, “Demon, as you called me, Bringer of Ruin, The Night Mother, Krotha…”

  My eyes widen at the last name, so much so that she pauses.

  “So, you have heard of me?” she asks, there is a grin that accompanies it.

  Krotha, I have heard this name before, in the word Krothaspawn… the word that the masters use to call the Shulka by. My eyes grow even wider as I remember the strange things the Shulka did near the Cursed Edict, how they all stopped and spilled their own blood. My eyes take in hers, a new feeling rising deep from the abyss of my soul… it is fear. No longer fear of the unknown but of the known. This demon named Krotha, why is she here? Why does she torment me? Is it just because her mind is twisted? No… there must be more, or perhaps there isn’t. Perhaps that is why I am afraid.

  “You need only call my name and submit, and my power can be yours… for a time.” She says, pulling up my chin to look into her eyes again, “Call my name, beseech my blessing, let me in.”

  I pull my face from her grasp, a defiant grin of my own now.

  “No.”

  She is somehow related to the Shulka, I cannot trust her, no matter what she offers. She laughs again, this time, it makes me sick, as though she wanted me to say no… so that she could pry a yes from me. Have I played into her sickness again? Her affliction to cause pain for pleasure.

  “How long can you say no, I wonder.” She says, the grin enveloping her face. Her hands swirl into the Maka again, creating another image upon the disc of light. Back in reality. My eyes widen at the scene.

  It is Luna, Fennec and the twins are gone. She stands on a platform high in the sky, exposed on all sides to the air. She stands across from a man with a retracted helmet. I can see shuttles in the distance. This must be the place that Fennec was leading us, but where is he? Where are the twins?

  Four heavily armored warriors stand next to the man in the center, two on each side, wearing dark red and gold armor, much more refined than the mercenaries from before. These are not simple warriors.

  The man with his face uncovered looks to be in charge, his eyes are red, not quite like Netheric sickness, but similar in shade. His hair is very light blonde, he is bleeding from his lip. Looking at Luna’s hand, I see fresh blood smeared on it. He is an enemy then. Looking closer, I see that he has long pointed ears, longer than Luna’s. He is definitely a master then. The men beside him, they stand over something.

  The demon, Krotha, she moves her hand through and the image shifts to another angle. Her face growing more sinister with its joyously evil smile. My heart thrashes, now seeing that they stand over my body.

  There is nothing behind Luna, she could run, though she looks very weary, red lines mixing with black ichor running up her neck. One of her eyes is half crimson. Still, she is strong, even weakened, she could save herself. They are more than ten paces away, she should run, survive. Why does she linger? Her eyes flash toward my body, her face becoming strained. Does she stay for me? No…

  “Leave him be, Dallus.” She says, my heart crashes, she looks like she can barely stand, blood seeps from her body in many places, dark ichor rises higher in her, “I will do anything you ask, please, do not kill him.”

  Dallus, the one she thought was behind the attack, so, this is him.

  “Anything?” the man she called Dallus asks, a cruel smile finding his lips, “Oh, I like the sound of that, my own little Raven whore.”

  Her face flinches at the words, yet she does not back down, she does not leave me as she should. Instead, she moves forward more paces. She is weakened by the Netherium that courses through her veins. Do not do this Luna, please, run, save yourself.

  “The things I’m going to do to you,” he says, licking the blood from his lips, “Even the Gods will shudder at the sight of it.”

  “Give me your word, Dallus.” She says, my heart aches at the sight of her giving everything for me, run you fool, leave me. My heart tears at the thought of what he will do to her, I have seen eyes like his before. Perverse eyes, unfit to be among the living.

  “You have it, whore. But first, you need to beg,” he smirks, pointing at the ground, “On your knees, like a good little whore, beg for mercy.”

  Her face grimaces at the words, and she moves another pace forward, her hand reaching for something behind her back. The man looks at her warily. In a split second, she lunges, but he grabs my body first, holding it over the edge of the railing. He is fast, and strong, holding my body in one hand like it is nothing to him. His suit of armor is trimmer than the others. More form fitted.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” he growls, she raises her hands, worriedly taking a few steps back, panic in her eyes. He pretends to drop my body for a second, just to see her panic rise once more before saying, “Beg, and beg well.”

  She is four paces from him, her eyes looking over at my body, her hand gripping her chest. As her knees strike the ground to beg on my behalf, the first chord of my blade’s song strikes a melody causing rage and anger to rise with the other emotions… becoming Wrath.

  The red disc showing the Realm of Reality shatters as energy pulses throughout the Realm of Dreams, and so too does the orb of air that holds back the wind and the water. The demon, Krotha is pressed away by the energy, holding up her arm to try and block it. Heat billows from me like a raging inferno, evaporating the water that strikes me, turning it to steam, clouding the area.

  “In my dreams,” I say, trying to summon the horned woman.

  Time dilates, her form coming through the steam. Her silver eyes are ignited. Even with time stopped the steam continues to rise, and cracks are forming in the periphery of the realm of dreams. She looks towards the waters of the endless seas, pointing to it before being swallowed by the fog. Time rips back into full swing, I do not hesitate, I plunge into the frigid waters. Leaving Krotha behind in the fog. The horned woman wants me to help Luna, whatever lurks beneath, that is what I need to do it.