Guardian(Part II): Soulborne

Chapter 25: Finn

Princess Anne couldn't tell me an exact location for wherever Azzuran was hiding, but she knew that it was somewhere east of Quorias. It wasn't much to go on, but it was a start. I studied a map of every single piece of land east of Illondas' capital, including every mountain, basin, valley, river, and canyon. While Haemon assisted Florian with warding the section of the wall that was destroyed last night, I asked around the palace for something that would help me. One lord I spoke to said that the Scraper Cliffs were home to a whole family of gray-scaled dragons, but I was going after an Archdemon, not a dragon. A noble-born girl who was half my age told me that her parents had told her bedtime stories of a lake that was supposedly haunted by the souls of children who had lost their way in the forests surrounding it, but her father interrupted our conversation, and privately told me that it was only a story to convince his daughter to stay near her parents when they left home. There was one place to the east that caught my attention, though, and that was the Fire Serpent Canyon. Apparently, on the other side were the ruins of an enormous fortress that was conquered and destroyed during the Third Great War. Before I returned to Valedon, Mom had warned me that every one of the Seven was a tactician that rivaled the greatest mortal commanders that Zenartha had ever seen. From what I'd been told of the Flame Serpent Canyon fortress, it would be the perfect place for an Archdemon to assemble an army to attack a heavily defended city. That's where I was headed.

I took off east on horseback alone, since Queen Marie needed Haemon's help more than mine at the moment. The sun was setting when I began to sense an aura of darkness up ahead. I was still in a frozen, snow-caked forest, with what must have been miles between me and the canyon, and I was already feeling something. It was definitely an Archdemon.

"Azzuran," I grumbled. I climbed off my horse and smacked its behind to send him back to Quorias. He must have felt what I felt, since when I looked back after just a second, he was gone.

"Get back as fast as you can," I whispered, pulling my bow from my back. I continued forward, eventually arriving at the top of the deep, wide Fire Serpent Canyon. I couldn't see anything on the other side, but that might have been because I was staring straight into a bright sunset when I was looking east. I wanted to keep my eyes covered, but I was right on the edge of the canyon. I would fall right off the cliff if I didn't see where I was going. There was a ledge lower than where I was, hopefully low enough for me to fall down to and not injure myself. I jumped down my ledge and landed on the lower one. Now that the sun was out of my face, I saw what was under me more clearly. A snowy canyon so deep that I couldn't see the bottom.

"Woah," I whispered. Even with my body able to heal any kind of injuries instantly, I wouldn't take the chance of dying if I tried to jump to the bottom. I would die for sure. I looked around and managed to find a ledge on the other side of the canyon that sat under the opening to a tunnel in the wall. I warped to the ledge and into the tunnel. I couldn't see anything in front of me, especially in the dark tunnels ahead.

"How do I do this?" I whispered to myself. I waved my hands forward, blasting flames out in front of me. For a second, I saw three ways for me to go.

"Damn," I cursed. I waved another fire blast, but I kept the flame from leaving my hand. It was a small fire, but enough to light the tunnel for me to see clearly. I needed to hold it, though, and the darkness wasn't helping.

"Hold it," I grumbled, staring into the small fire with both of my eyes. I concentrated, channeling every bit of power I had into my hand to keep the flame lit, but it suddenly went out, and the tunnel went dark again.

"Damn it!" I cried, throwing my bow against the wall. Haemon had told me that what I could do depended on how much I could control my power, and I couldn't hold a fire in my hands! I was able to use it for combat, but nothing more. I jerked my head from side to side. I wasn't here to test my power. I was here to kill Azzuran. That was if he was even here, though. He had to be. I picked up my bow and continued, but I had no idea which of the three tunnels I had gone through. All I had to follow was an aura of darkness from something that was either an Archdemon, or something else.

"Azzuran, Archdemon of Envy," I whispered to myself. "What about Illondas makes you so... envious? Or Zenartha?"

That was a question I had no answer for. Then again, "Archdemon of Envy" was only a name. A title. Just like "Butcher of Dormanine". I smiled with that realization. I knew I wasn't what people said I was, or what Lord Thatch told Queen Marie. I knew exactly who I was. I wasn't a murderer. I was a Guardian. A friend. A son. A brother. The thought of them gave me comfort, and I gave a half-smile. I closed my eyes and gave a sigh of relief, thinking of Mom, Haemon, Connor, Ruth, Morgan, Zephyr, John, Penny, Emma, Jerome, Princess Anne, Queen Marie, Florian, Commander Jonas, Major Lawrence, and now, Nato. They were the ones I would die for if I had no other choice. They were also the ones who would die for me if it came down to that.

I opened my eyes.

Both of my hands were engulfed in bright, orange flames. What had changed?

"What the hell?" I cursed.

It was more than thinking of my friends and family that had truly awoken my power, but I didn't know what else happened. I felt my chest. My heart was beating normally. Just a minute ago, I could feel it against the inside of my chest, pounding against my ribs. Now, it wasn't. Xyhra herself had taught me that I couldn't allow my emotions to overcome my judgment. I had to put what I actually needed to do before what felt I needed to do. With what I was doing now, though, I had a serious decision to make. Was I hunting down Azzuran because I actually needed to, or because I felt as though I needed to? I couldn't tell, but I was already here, and I was going to kill the Archdemon of Envy before he could kill the thousands of innocent men, women, and children in Quorias. What I was going to do was hunt down the rest of the Seven myself if I had to, before they damaged Zenartha more than the Dark One did in the Third Great War. It was what I had to do, and nothing would stop me.