The Caverns of Carnage

Chapter 11

BloodLust now turned to me.

"Back to your ordeal," he stated.

"You promised to tell me the Calamitous Phrase." I said.

"Yes, If you join me."

"And how do I do that?" I asked.

BloodLust smiled. "It's quite simple really." He pulled out a shining sword from his armor and handed it to me. He pointed at Nakia.

"Kill her."

I looked with alarm at BloodLust and then at Nakia, whose face was filled with dread. I walked closer to her, and her eyes grew pleadingly wider.

"I'm really sorry," I said, and brought the blade closer to her. Her eyes brimmed with tears.

"Don't move." I whispered.

I dramatically held the sword over my head.

"Hurry up! Get on with it!" BloodLust roared impatiently.

I turned around swiftly and snatched the Blood Orb from the floor. I focused and tried to imagine the vision in my brain. Immediately the Orb started glowing and the entire cavern was filled with a blindingly white light, and we were gone.

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BloodLust, Nakia and I were standing on the summit of a high hill. The gigantic, weary red sun was setting, casting red shadows on that dreary, gray world.

Behind the hill on which we stood, there was a sprawling, empty city which cast sinister shadows in the light of that dismal sun.

BloodLust looked around in alarm. "No..." he panted. "It cannot be."

"It is." I replied gravely. "This is the vision that you showed me."

"There isn't anyone here..." said Nakia.

"Because he destroyed everything..." I pointed at BloodLust.

He looked at me with an indignant expression.

"I most certainly did not," he said, in a vexed tone. "Not yet, anyway."

"This isn't...real, is it?" Nakia asked.

"That's what I don't know," I replied. "Either this is the future, or an incarnation of the vision that BloodLust showed me."

"Why on earth did you bring us here?" BloodLust asked.

I pointed across the horizon. "To show you that."

Far in the distance, in the area of Los Angeles where BloodLust's cavern was located in the past, built into the side of the hill, stood a huge citadel.

Everything was dark around it, the ground and the sky, but it was illuminated by light. Lighter indeed than the dim sunset it was, cold and blowing like an expiration of wither, a dead light, a light that lit nothing. Contrasting the giant quartz walls, the tower windows looked like countless black holes staring into emptiness. It was an unsettling sight.

"What is that?" asked BloodLust.

"Your citadel." I replied. "In the future."

BloodLust straightened up promptly. "Aha. Let us go at once."

"What.. you don't mean to go there?" Nakia asked, nervously.

"What else?" He grabbed both of our arms and flicked his finger. Nothing happened. With frustration, he flicked again.

"I don't think your powers work here."

He looked at me with a contemptuous look.

"Fine. We shall walk if we have to."