The Shadow Wanderers

Chapter 35

Calista's body, though drenched in cold moments ago, felt like burning to its core. For a moment, she feared that someone had thrown her into a pool of lava, but she realized she was on solid ground. And it was burning.

Letting herself off the surface, she tried to stand up in an attempt to distance as much skin from the ground as possible. She couldn't breathe in the extremely humid air and her throat felt parched. Within seconds, sweat drenched her body and stuck her clothes to her skin.

As her eyes flickered in the hot air, she saw only black with neon flashes of orange here and there. With the Stormrage in her hands, she looked around, flabbergasted at the disaster of a place she had ended up in.

Black as coal rocks and hills stood everywhere. Where she stood, visible cracks were drawn in the surface with an orange bubbling liquid protruding from beneath. Heat waves stung her eyes, making everything appear blurry.

"See how I destroyed everything you call home?" came a voice from behind her, startling her at her core.

She turned, her heart already sinking at the terrible familiarity of that voice. Arik stood in all his glory, a hood hiding his face. Calista realized he appeared much bigger than the last she'd seen him at the Vakenian Palace.

She realized with a start that she was standing in his home. The very planet he drew his strength from. The utter silence of the place drained her blood. She was all alone with the demon.

"What do you want?" she asked, surprised at the fragility of her own voice. The heat was going to kill her before Arik did.

Arik offered her a smile. "Bold of you to assume I'd want anything from you."

He pushed his hood away and let his cape fall to the floor where it turned into ash. Calista could see his face; so confident, so calm. The scar that blinded his one eye glowed red and the veins running down his neck blackened before meeting the black scriptures carved onto his torso.

An irresistible itch settled on Calista's head and she wanted nothing more than to pull off her hair from her scalp.

Arik turned and walked around Calista; his eyes fixed on the sword in her hands. Calista cautiously turned with him, making sure he was never to her back.

"The whole realm was at my command when that sword cost me everything," said Arik, his eyes never wavering from the Stormrage.

"It will still cost you everything and then some if you don't back down," said Calista, unsure of her own words.

Arik seemed to take her words in contemplation but then burst out laughing, unable to contain himself.

"Come on, mortal. Let's be real here. You can't defeat me. What makes you think you can defeat me? Stop me from getting what I want, when even the little king was useless with it?"

"What do you want?" urged Calista.

"To perish you!" he suddenly bellowed, taking her off-guard. "You're the weakest kind existence has ever seen. What makes you think you deserve to live."

"The fact that we do, in fact, exist must be proof enough that we're deserving of life. But better yet, we may not deserve to live, but that's not for you to decide," she said with all the strength left in her throat for words.

"Oh, I will decide, once I conquer everything; when everything will be at my command."

He was enjoying himself, gesturing his hands towards a lake of lava and making it fly between his blackened fingertips.