Volume 2 Chapter 15 Sanctuary of Assassins

Chapter 15 Sanctuary of Assassins

I

Inside the sanctuary was a world of mystery. Not only Aisling but also the others could sense the energy of streaming magical power lingering in the air.

Walking past several corridors, they arrived at the central chamber of this sanctuary of assassins.

The floor of this chamber had been enchanted. The surface of the floor was turned into images depicting star sky of the night. It was some sort of magical illusion, and because of it, walking inside the chamber was like walking above a sea of stars.

Clearly, the floor had been twisted by the magical power inside the Arcane Orb which was floating at the centre of this chamber, which channelled the images of the psychological cosmos into this room. The Arcane Orb was a small glowing crystal ball with visions of the outer space inside it.

When walking on the floor, some illusional ripples would appear under the feet.

Around the Arcane Orb sat a group of assassins in a circle. Their eyes were closed and their minds were absorbed in the ritual they were doing. There was a grand magic circle beneath the assassins, which kept turning infinitely.

This chamber was not a normal chamber. It was a bridge between reality and a greater astrally magical domain, a domain that existed in the conscious of the great thinkers.

Past, present, future. All those concepts were materialized inside this room. They were big enough to dominate the whole universe, but they were also small because they were sometimes tied to the fates of the mortal humans and the secularity.

Obviously, the assassins were more like thinkers instead of fighters. They were philosophers and the power from Arcana was only a small part of them. Although their power was no match for the power of elves who were real magicians, they thought more highly than them.

When Ramesses entered the room, the assassins stopped doing the ritual and looked at him respectfully. Though Lower Desertia had been destroyed, Ramesses was still a king.

The leader of this group of assassins was an old man with long beard. He must be Cheops, Ramesses’ master.

He looked at Stasha and smiled. With just one look, he knew who Stasha was. After that, he turned to Aisling, and his expression was changing. Upon seeing Stasha, his mouth was opened in surprise unconsciously.

Leaving the magic circle, he walked up to Stasha and looked at her.

Cheops was pretty tall, even taller than Yanni. His eyes were as vigorous as a flame of burning fire. There were lines and wrinkles on his face, which were marks of his old age.

“אֵי מִי הוֹנוֹרֵי הַ קוֹנוֹשֵׁירְטִי, פְּרִינְצֵיסַהַה אַנַאסְטַאסְיַה.׃” [It’s my honour to meet you, Princess Anastasia,] said Cheops, bowing. (Anastasia was Stasha’s full name)

“גְרַאזְיֵי… מַאֵיסְטְרוֹ… קֵיוְֹפֵּי.׃” [Thanks … Master … Cheops,] returned Stasha.

After greeting with Stasha, Cheops turned to Aisling.

“You’re an elf, aren’t you?” asked Cheops.

“Yes, I am,” Aisling nodded.

“My name is Cheops. You can just call me Cheops, my first name. Assassins don’t like politeness which we think is a sign of hierarchy and discipline,” proposed Cheops.

“OK, Cheops. It’s nice to see you. My name is Aisling,” whispered Aisling shyly.

“Aisling. That’s a fantastic name. I have only seen pictures of elves in books. All those who have seen elves say that elves are a beautiful race devoted to protecting the world of nature and wilderness. I like nature too. You must have seen my garden outside this Sanctuary. I’ve planted all kinds of colourful flowers there,” commented Cheops.

“It’s a beautiful garden, Cheops,” Aisling praised.

“For sure it is. I can foresee many things. I’ve told Ramesses that he would reunite with his daughter one day, but he has never believed me. Now, my prediction has come true. However, I haven’t foreseen the arrival of you, Aisling, the last elf,” narrated Cheops.

“I may not be the last elf, Cheops. There may be other elves in the Sanctum of Life,” argued Aisling.

“Sanctum of Life. It’s the most glorious place in this world. Some people think that it has existed since the dawn of history. However, I always doubt its existence. It may be unreal, just like the stellarite weapons,” drawled Cheops.

“So the Sanctum of Life is unreal?” breathed Aisling.

“I don’t know. Although I am an old man, I am just a mortal. My knowledge and wisdom are limited, elf. In the past, I even thought that this world was hopeless. However, hope has come back to me now because I see you, Aisling. You’re the hope to this world,” replied Cheops.

“I am the hope …” whispered Aisling.

II

Ramesses took out a Future Stone made by the ancient high elves and burnt it with fire. Taking in the smoke, Ramesses saw the future:

Midnight was coming but no one was going to sleep. Since that exquisite feast, their last dinner, all foods had run out and it would be a make-or-break for assassins.

The magical barrier which protected the sanctuary had disappeared because the Arcane Orb that used to power the barrier had run out of magical energy.

After a mere five minutes, Nephthytia arrived at the scene.

The assassins were wating for her, along with Aisling, Floria, Yanni and Stasha.

“:צֵירְקַארֵי דִי קוֹמְבַּאטֵירְטִי אֵי וּנַה שֵׁילְטַה שׁוֹקַה אַסַאס׃יוֹ טִי דִיסְטְרוּגֵיירַה֫ סְקוֹלְטֵירוֹ֫ לַה טְווֹ מַאגַייה אֵי דוֹמִינֵירוֹ֫ טְוַה פּוֹטֵינְזַה” [Trying to fight me is a silly choice, assassins! I will destroy you, drain your blood and dominate your power! ] scoffed Nephthytia.

“נוֹן סוּצֵידֵירֵיטֵי׃ לַה מַאגַייה אֵ֫י סַאקְרַה׃קַה מַאטְרִיצֵי נוֹן אִימְפַּארֵירַאנוֹ מַאיְ לַה סוֹסְטַאנְזַה דֵילַ֫ה מַאגַייה׃” [You won’t succeed. Magic is sacred! The matrix will never learn the substance of magic!] argued Cheops.

Aisling cast a rain of spores to attack Nephthytia.

All those spores conjured by Aisling fell towards Nephthytia like meteors descending from the outer space. When this epic rain of spores fell down upon Nephthytia, she looked so small and helpless.

Boom!

The earth was shaking and dust filled the air because of the explosion of Aisling’s spores. The land was tearing and the beautiful garden planted by Cheops was destroyed within seconds.

That rain of spores impacted on the power armour of Nephthytia, who was trying to parry this epic attack with her pair of wings.

After this attack, the air at the scene was filled with floating dust. When the dust dissipated, Nephthytia was gone.

“דוֹוֵוי סטַה לֵייְ?׃”[Where is her?]

“דוֹוֵוי סטַה נֵיפְטִיזְיַה?׃”[Where is Nephthytia?]

The assassins began to panic.

“לֵייְ אֵי֫ לִי֫!׃” [She’s there!] exclaimed one of the assassins, pointing at one of the balconies of the sanctuary. Upon seeing Nephthytia, Floria began to shoot arrows towards her.

Nephthytia dodged those arrows while jumping from one balcony to another and parrying some of those arrows. Nephthytia was so dexterous that she wasn’t hurt by Floria’s arrows at all.

Now it was the time of slaughtering …

Elegantly and swiftly, she moved through body of the assassins. Slashing her wings, every strike of her aimed precisely at the vital parts of the assassins:

Nephthytia’ sharp wings moved quickly through the necks, heads, and hearts of the assassins. They were falling down, bleeding and dying one by one. The ground was dyed red by their blood and Nephthytia just kept slashing and killing.

No one dared to fight back, because those who tried to fight back would get Nephthytia’ attention and die faster …

Within a minute, almost all the assassins were killed, except Cheops, the strongest one among them.

Stasha looked at the corpses in anger.

Ramesses had been killed too but Stasha didn’t even know when was he killed by Nephthytia because she was too fast. Stasha didn’t know where his corpse was either because all those corpses, lost limbs and torn organs piled up on the ground chaotically together.

Slowly, Nephthytia reached out her hand. Blood flew out of the corpses of the assassins and floated all the way into Nephthytia’ hand as if her hand were a magnet of blood. Nephthytia was draining the essence of the blood as research sample to reconstruct her artificial magic.

The number of samples was nearly enough, but she still needed the last and the strongest sample: the blood of Cheops.

Like a hunting vulture, Nephthytia walked towards Cheops, but Stasha walked to the front of him and blocked Nephthytia’ path.

Her eyes were brimming with anger.

Nephthytia had killed her father. Now, it was time to revenge.

Charged by anger, Stasha’s attack was fast and precise. It was a miracle that she parried every strike of Nephthytia while trying to fight back at the same time.

Assisted by Floria and Aisling’s range attack, one of her strikes even hit Nephthytia, leaving a ugly scratch on her flawless armour.

Irritated, Nephthytia knocked Stasha down to the ground with one kick. Seeing that Stasha was in danger, Yanni charged towards Nephthytia in aid of her, his shield held tight in his hand.

Sensing Yanni approaching, Nephthytia turned to him and began to shoot flechettes from her wings. There were a hole in Yanni’s shield, which were poked by Nephthytia’ flechette.

This time, learning from his mistake last time, Instead of parrying Nephthytia’ flechette with his shield, Yanni tried to dodge her attack, because the machinite that composed the flechette was hard enough to pierce through the shield.

However, Yanni was bad at dodging because his advantage was always strength instead of dexterity. Therefore, one of the flechette pierced into his ankle. Screaming in extreme agony, Yanni fell to the ground. Quickly, she walked up to Yanni in an attempt to slash him into half.

At this very moment, Aisling summoned two strips of vines and wound it round Nephthytia’ pair of wings. She pulled her vines with full strength in order to take this lethal weapons of Nephthytia away from her.

Aisling was so weak in strength that she was no match for Nephthytia at all. Luckily, Floria dropped her bow and pulled the vines together with Aisling.

Nephthytia’ wings were pulled off her back and sent flying by Aisling’s vines. Aisling conjured a flytrap at the place where the wings were about to fall to.

After the wings were eaten by the flytrap Aisling summoned, she manipulated it to sink under the ground and thus buried the deadly wings of Nephthytia.

“I’m going to tear you into pieces, elf!” cursed Nephthytia in Normanish.

The instant her voice broke off, Stasha jumped onto her back and attacked her by surprise with the lunarite daggers slashing crazily on her golden armour. Her attack worked!

Some parts of that seemingly unbreakable power armour of Nephthytia were pierced through by Stasha’s insane melee attacks and she had even cut a wound out on Nephthytia’ skin.

Nephthytia was bleeding. She was not invincible. Wrathfully, she threw Stasha over her shoulder, and smashed her on Yanni’s body.

Punching her fists madly on Stasha’s vulnerable belly, she incapacitated her temporarily within seconds.

Floria shot a series of arrows towards Nephthytia while Aisling shot a series of sharp magical leaves, but she seized those arrows and leaves easily with her right hand and dropped them on the ground as if they were useless toys instead of lethal missiles.

Knowing that magical leaves wouldn’t work, Aisling shot a bolt of spores instead but Nephthytia grabbed the whole spore bolt and crushed it.

Her wound was bleeding but this wound was the best the four could do. Nephthytia was still invincible to them.

Bathed in an aura of killing, Nephthytia walked up to Floria and Aisling.

When close to enemies, Floria was unable to shoot arrows so she tried to strike Nephthytia by her bow as if it were a staff, but being awful at melee attack, she was soon subdued by Nephthytia and knocked to the ground.

Aisling conjured a strip of vines and wound it round Nephthytia’ ankle in an attempt to trip her, but she failed since her strength was no match for Nephthytia’.

While Nephthytia was about to grab Aisling’s head and crushed it, Yanni and Stasha dashed up to her.

Suddenly, Cheops shouted: “Stop! Run! Leave here! Quickly! Her target is me, instead of you. Stay alive and you will have the power to change the world in the future!”

The four had no choice. They had to leave or they would die along with Cheops. Nephthytia was too strong for them. However, when Stasha, Yanni, Floria and Aisling were hesitating on whether to run away or not, Nephthytia shot a barrage of flechettes.

The flechettes pierced into the hearts of the four. Screaming painfully, Stasha, Floria, Yanni and Aisling died.

Cheops stared at Nephthytia peacefully, waiting for his inevitable death. He tossed his scimitars towards Nephthytia, but they weren’t useful at all. With a swift kick on Cheops’ chest, Nephthytia hit him down to the ground and broke several bones of him. Vomiting blood, Cheops coughed weakly.

Nephthytia shot a flechette from her wing, which pierced into the heart of Cheops.

Vomiting scarlet blood, Cheops fell to the ground.

He died too.

The hallucinational vision of future faded in the mind of Cheops.

Even with the help of the four, the assassins could not beat Nephthytia …

III

Ramesses took the four to a balcony where they could drink some afternoon tea.

The sunlight had been weakened by the magical boundary powered by the Arcane Orb so that the temperature was comfortable during the day.

All magic users were great cooks, because they could add some fantastic flavours to their foods using magic. Therefore, the afternoon tea was wonderful, especially the cheese cakes.

Long shadow beneath the four were cast under the sunlight of the afternoon and those weaving lights and shadows formed a temporary scene of harmony.

While eating the cheese cakes, an assassin walked up them and said that Cheops wanted to talk with Ramesses, so Ramesses left the balcony. Stasha was not very happy about this since she wanted to spend more time with her father with whom she just reunited.

After finishing the afternoon tea, the four stood up to their feet and looked to the distance.

Outside of the sanctuary was the grassland which served as Cheops’ garden. Although assassins always lived in fear brought by Nephthytia, nothing could stop them to appreciate the beauty.

Suddenly, a stream of melodies went into the ears of Stasha. This melody was simple and peaceful, unlike those addicting and flawless contemporary music. The lyrics of the song were rough too, but Stasha could sense that they carried the emotions of the singer.

“Music …” breathed Stasha. In an era when music could be mass-produced by machines and all songs were perfect, this kind of rough song was rare …

Butterflies were dancing in the air above the garden of Cheops. Even though surrounded by sapless dunes and lifeless sands, flowers could still flourish and grow up; even though trapped in a desperate world, assassins still sang for felicity carefreely.

“It’s so comfortable here. When travelling in the desert, I always feel down because surrounding me are infinite monotonous sands. This place is so good. Look at those flowers. They remind me of Dream Forest,” recalled Aisling.

“I am missing the Dream Forest too. After finishing this journey, I want to play in the Dream Forest once again,” drawled Yanni.

“Me too,” consented Floria.

“This world is beautiful,” expressed Stasha.

“Do you think the world will be more beautiful without humans, Aisling?” queried Yanni.

“I used to think so, but now I don’t … The ugliest things in this world are brought by humans, but the most beautiful things in this world are created by humans too. I want to be a human too … I want to age together with you three …” replied Aisling.

“I understand,” Yanni nodded.

Aisling looked to the distance, where lay the endless yellow sea of dunes.

“Does the Sanctum of Life really exist? Even a knowledgeable man like Cheops thinks that the Sanctum of Life may be fictional,” asked Aisling.

“Cheops isn’t omniscient. He can be wrong too … After all, he cannot even defeat Nephthytia, a silly woman in power armour,” Floria reassured her.

“Macchina Gloriosa is too powerful. We’ve encountered powerful enemies before, like Master Mortis, but Macchina Gloriosa is totally different. Those mechanists are almost invincible,” breathed Aisling.

“There must be some weaknesses of those power armour,” Floria pointed out.

“Impossible. Those power armours are designed with the Mother Matrix which can compute and analyse every single detail of them,” argued Stasha.

“I feel like as if we were trying to fight against an enemy who is nearly omnipotent and omniscient,” commented Yanni.