Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Sin in Stone

He was an old god of combat, dormant for centuries until this very moment.

They crossed spears again, stealing another moment in time to test each other's strength and resilience. Her hands ached, not simply from the climb but from the reverberation of power that sent shock waves through the steel.

When Naktan looked at her, his expression offered nothing but pity, "Like mother like daughter."

The sudden outburst surprised her, extending the freeze Naktan seemed to have placed upon very time itself, "Such talent." he said softly, and when he spoke, even the thundered showed deference, quieting and becoming still. The rain still fell in heavy curtains around them, dripping in long, silver rivulets from his bare, unarmored carapace in diamond cascades.

"Endeavor." he spoke the word and it was as if her entire soul quivered, shrinking before a vast welling of memories just beyond her reach. When she next looked into his eyes, she could see the gold of his Iris clouded with memory that did not belong to him, "And you are the one that never gave up." His voice was soft, choked with deep mourning and sadness that could not have been described by proper words, but cut her down to her very core until it seemed her very essence would bleed,, "You who were granted such a gift, to survive and thrive and move forward and simply become.... To cast your lot in with the ones that would destroy the beauty of your nature."

The clouds lifted from his eyes, but his words left her staggered, confused, and scared.

Fear morphed into anger, and as such, she lashed him with it like a whip forcing him to retreat backwards over the moss, "choke on your riddles, fallen one."

She forced him back, and his feet skidded through the moss, leaving two foot long furrows in his wake, already collecting long, silver puddles of rainwater.

He looked up at her.

And the sadness on his face was still apparent

"He intended so much for you. Together you and Apotheosis would have led the war against the stars. You could have been unstoppable."

Apotheosis, the name passed over them like a cloud, and just as before,she felt as if she stood just before the door behind which rested all the secrets to her life. Rain continued to batter down upon them, tapping a staccato beat against her armor, "What do you mean?"

"I mean what I said."

Her brain worked furiously piecing together the strange prophecies that gushed from his mouth.

"I thought.... Impetus." she began, but her voice died away, carried back and down through the canyon on a light gust of air.

They continued to circle. Naktan's war paint seemed to glow and pulse in the dim light. Kazna was struck then by an unusual flight of fancy, wondering if, perhaps, she wasn't speaking to a Drev at all.

When he spoke again, his voice was distant, "It was never about Impetus.... He is what his name says, a catalyst, a pilot, but not the meaning." Water lashed against his his midnight skin and fell in streams from his fingers.

Naktan Chal possessed all the bearing and knowledge of an old god, but she cast off the idea and shook her head with a snarl.

It didn't matter what he was, dead, alive, old god, or Drev.

She was going to kill him.

She charged forward, thundering through the curtain of rain, shedding droplets like crystal sparks.

He met her with steel, throwing her back with a strength she had yet to experience properly.

It was becoming clear that Naktan's skill far surpassed her own. She may have had natural talent, a lifetime of war at her back, but that was nothing compared to the guardian of war himself. When he struck, he did so with perfect precision. When he blocked, he cast her weapon away with finality.

Every move he made was guided by precision itself.

She could not let this continue.

Overhead , more lightning.

The ground rumbled beneath their feet, and the blue torches flickered. Kazna blocked an overhand sweep, and just managed to avoid the reverse spike of his spear, which he drove up and towards her throat. She caught his blade on the reverse spike of her armored forearm and twisted sharply.

To her shock, he didn't seem prepared for such a move, leaving him open for the first time since the fight began. Kazna herself was marked with a savage crisscrossing of blood orange gashes, opening slits in her skin as he slowly dismantled her, but in that moment it was her chance to strike.

Dropping her spear rapidly to a lower hand, kazna flicked the spear upward, aiming for his unarmored armpit.

The blow fell with all the finality of the reaper's sythe.

But then at the last moment Naktan caught the shaft of her spear.

It was a move that should have been impossible. At their speed, and at their level of power, nothing could have been done, but then his hand was simply there, clasped hard around the shaft of the spear, just below the bladed head, and all of her driving force was ground to a crushing halt. The sudden impact sent a shockwave of pain through her body that nearly drove her to her knees.

She snarled in surprise as much as pain.

Naktan stood over her, golden eyes still glittering.

"You are pride etched in stone Kazna Daughter of none, but you may yet be of some use."

And that is the moment, she felt his hand loosen.

It was an almost imperceptible thing, and may have gone unnoticed by anyone elss familiar with the weight and pressure of the weapon, but not her.

The war cry clawed its way from her throat and roared against the driving rain, and with it came a new strength to her legs which thrust hard against the ground, driving herself forward.

A shaft of lightning cut through the sky above, illuminating the shaft of her spear, doused in diamond droplets as it drove forward plunging itself deep into Naktan's flesh, God or no, she had come to collect his breath.

Blood welled in great rolling tears from the wound, but the crow of triumph was stolen away from her tongue as she looked up into Naktan's eyes.

She expected to find fear there maybe surprise,

But all she saw was an incredible calm, like an unbroken puddle of water reflecting the sky.

Even with the barbed head of her spear buried in his heart, he did not flinch. Kazna took a step back, as Naktan tightened his hand around the haft of the spear and Drove it further inward, never breaking eye contact with her.

She let go of her spear in shock, watching as naktan's lifeblood mingled with the rain and trickled in rivers down his body. She had bestowed a deathblow, so why did she feel as if she had lost?

Perhaps it was the look of pure certainty in his eyes as he stared at her.

She took a step back, disquiet growing along with the puddle at naktan's feet.

Slowly, he tilted his head back and upwards, closing his eyes against the baptism of rain, "And so the end nears... but I have done my duty."

Kazna stared at him, incredulous and still unsure.

Had he meant for this to happen?

Eventually, Naktan turned, trapping her under his pressing gaze, and then he sank to his knees head bowed at the center of a massing pool of blood and rainwater, stark against the white moss, soon to be stained.

But instead of feeling Triumph, Kazna was overcome with a sudden sense of fear and confusion?

Naktan did not cling to his life, but gave it away freely, and as he died she couldn't help but wonderer.

What had she done?