Coming Back From The Dead

The shadows answered before I'd even finished the thought, a black spear condensing in my hand, its tip hovering an inch from Atos' throat. Everything about him looked and felt normal, but finding him here made no sense to me. He looks like he’s doing just fine too. I squinted my eyes.

He raised both hands slowly, still perched on top of the dead serpent.

"Easy, Zo. Easy."

"Start talking."

He gulped, scratching the back of his neck.

"When the ground collapsed, I fell into a river. One that flows under the mountains, right below that cursed city. The current dragged me for gods know how long, bashing me against every rock on the way… I washed up in some town, half-drowned and bleeding out. Someone picked me off the riverbank and brought me to a healer."

He shrugged.

"I was lucky to make it out alive."

Lucky. Right. My grip tightened around my weapon’s hilt, my breathing intensified. It can’t be him. I saw him die to that thing… I blinked hard once, twice. He’s still there…

"Are you another one of his?"

Atos raised an eyebrow.

"Of his?..." His eyes drifted to the purple braziers lighting up the castle, and his face hardened. "Oh. No, I'm not."

"So you really are Atos?"

I lowered my spear. His shoulders relaxed as he jumped down from the dead monster, the serpent's scales squelching under his boots. Feels pretty real to me…

"Yes, hun."

He stepped close to me, his blue eyes clear as day even in the stained lighting. Better make sure! I punched him square in the face, feeling his skin sink and his teeth crack under my fist. I looked at my hand. I can’t believe it… I looked up at Atos. So he’s not a hallucination?

"Ow! What the fuck?!"

He staggered back, clutching his cheek. My hands shook, tears swelling up in my eyes. He’s not dead? I reached out and stroked his face with my hands, checking every detail: the way his beard brushed against my fingers, the way my fingers would run along his scars, the way he would gently grab my hands and bring them to his temples. I stifled a sob, a faint smile appearing on my face. Dad…

“I thought you were dead!”

I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight, warm hug that almost broke down the rest of my barriers. He squeezed me in his arms, exhaling a long-held breath.

“I thought so too.”

We remained in our embrace, comforting each other, until I took a long sniff out of him. I froze.

"You don't reek of alcohol."

A dagger slid out of the shadows into my palm, and I levelled it at him, holding it against his throat, squinting my eyes at the man in front of me.

"Why don’t you smell of alcohol?"

"Will you stop trying to stab me?" He pushed the blade away with one finger. “I’m me! Atos! I just lost my gourd somewhere in the river where I got picked up! I don’t know how you want me to prove that I’m me!”

“How about you start with how you got here? How did you know where to go? How are you not in withdrawal from years of addiction and drinking?! How come you’ve survived here all on your own?!”

“Hey! I’m not incompetent!”

A chorus of howls rolled through the chamber before I could press him any further.

They came from everywhere at once. Blue and purple beasts spilled out of the darkness, some on four legs, some on six, their heads overlapping and fused together in ways that made my stomach turn. Crests ran down their spines, rattling with loose spikes that quivered like the quills of a startled porcupine. Their huge claws sliced through the obsidian as easily as through butter, and they crawled over the floor, the walls and the ceiling alike, closing in on us from every direction.

“Now’s really not the time!” I stepped in front of Atos, raising my sword.

I spared a look back at the man.

"Just… whatever you do, stay behind me."

"Sure."

He shrugged and sat down cross-legged on the floor. I didn't say ‘pretend you're on vacation’! The frustration shot my adrenaline through the roof, my blade shivering in my grip.

The first beast dropped from the ceiling. The eight-legged arachnid slammed onto my shoulders, its fur bristling with hundreds of tiny legs that latched onto my armour, my hair, my skin. It hoisted me clean off the ground, mandibles clicking beside my ear. I groaned, twisted my wrist around and drove my blade up through its belly, then dragged it all the way down. The creature split open like an overripe fruit, and I dropped back onto my feet in a shower of black ooze.

A crested beast, built like an oversized dog, shook its back at me with a snarl. The spikes along its spine tore loose and shot towards me like a volley of crossbow bolts. I threw myself into a roll, feeling them whistle over my head and hammer into the stone behind me, one of them grazing my calf. I came up running.

A hulking brute swung a claw at me, heavy enough to cave in a door. I caught the blow on the flat of my blade and let it slide off, steering all that weight sideways. The strike smashed into a two-legged furry beast lumbering up beside it, caving in its thorax with a wet crunch. Before the brute could recover, I grabbed its foreleg, planted my heel and pivoted, using its own momentum to hurl it into the pack charging behind it. They tumbled over each other in a heap of thrashing limbs. My spear was already in my hand, reaching out for more souls to thirst on.

The corridor turned into a slaughterhouse. Black blood pooled across the floor, rising over the soles of my boots and splashing up my shins with every step. The stench of it clogged my throat. My grip slipped on the hilt, and I wiped my palm on my trousers without taking my eyes off the next target.

Some of the beasts finally realised what they were throwing themselves into. They hesitated, then turned tail and scrambled for the exits.

Oh no you don't.

"Where are you going?! The party's just begun!"

I lunged and grabbed a black and purple lizard by the leg, yanking it back across the blood-slicked floor. It twisted around and hissed at me, its eyes clouded grey where one of my earlier slashes had carved straight through them. I roared and dragged it closer, beating it down as I couldn't catch them all with my bare fists.

"Stop. Wiggling. Around!!!"

I punched the lizard's lights out, and its head slumped against the stone. I straightened up, wiping my sweaty forehead with the back of my wrist, and only succeeded in smearing more black blood across my face.

Atos picked himself up off the floor and walked over, stepping carefully around the bodies.

"Since when do you enjoy fighting this much?"

I turned my back on him and started towards the end of the tunnel.

"Since when do you care?"

His smile soured as he fell into step beside me, the two of us walking through the carnage in silence.

"I guess war makes people do all sorts of crazy things."

I side-eyed him. He kept his gaze fixed on the path ahead. I guess I’ll trust you… for now. I couldn’t figure out why I was so paranoid of him.

Nobody could’ve survived what he did.

Didn’t I just run off the side of a falling tower a few days ago?

Besides the point. I rolled my eyes. Of course it is.

“Come on, we’ve got to find the others.”

“The others? Your friends are here?!”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Didn’t you give them a big speech about not letting their best friend go off on her own?”

He scratched the back of his head, his neck turning red.

“I might’ve been slightly drunk…”

Yeah, no kidding. Echoes of battle clashed through the corridor ahead of us: the crack of stone, the shriek of something dying, a woman's voice yelling. Atos and I shared a look, and broke into a run.

The corridor spat us out into a wide, open room. The floor was bare, empty of furniture, of rubble, of anything at all, except for two chandeliers standing upright on the ground, their crystal arms pointing towards the ceiling. The whole room is flipped upside down!

"Look!" I tapped Atos' shoulder.

The ceiling was the real floor. Marie stood on it, upside down, flailing her arms around as arcane energy surged through the room in shimmering waves. She was standing guard over Kai, who lay passed out at her feet, her chest and shoulder wrapped in bandages already stained red. Beasts swarmed them from every side.

"Marie!"

She glanced up at us, and all the while, giant cleavers of pale, glowing energy swung back and forth around her like the blades of a windmill, taking care of population control. Every beast that came within reach was carved to pieces, the chunks crumbling to ash before they even hit the ground.

"Coming!"

Marie dragged her hands through the air and pulled hard, as if she was ripping through the fabric of reality itself. The air around her tore open. The monsters caught in the rift were stretched and twisted, their bodies coming apart at the seams, unravelling into streams of black dust that scattered through the air. The walls groaned, then collapsed inwards, burying the beasts still hunting her beneath tons of obsidian. Woah! She can do that too?!

Marie rose through the air towards us, Kai floating along beside her, held aloft by a soft green glow. The moment her feet touched our side of the world, she froze. Her eyes landed on Atos, and she recoiled, stumbling back a step, her gaze darting between him and me.

Atos threw his arms up.

"Do you seriously also think I'm not real or something?!"

"Well, I was told you were dead!" She turned to me. "Is it him?"

I shrugged.

"So far he hasn't turned into a gross three-headed purple glowing flesh-hungry beast, so I'll go with ‘Yes’. Let’s keep each other posted about it though."

"How is that even a criteria?!"

Marie ignored him and threw her arms around both of us in a warm embrace. I patted the top of her head, then leaned in close, Atos doing the same. Marie let us go, discreetly removing the water from her eyes.

“I’m so glad you’re both okay,” she whispered.

I rubbed my hand against her bloodied arm, smiling softly at her. Atos gently took Kai from the glow and hoisted her onto his back, groaning under her weight. She was so much taller than him that the tips of her toes dragged along the floor.

"I'm glad you're both fine too..." I kept my voice low. "I'll have to make it up to Kai. I fucked up."

Marie side-eyed me.

"You sure did..."

I looked away, my chest squeezing, biting my lip until it stung. Marie tugged on my arm.

"But it's okay. Who would've thought it went the way it did with Sam..."

Atos stepped up behind us, Kai's arms dangling over his shoulders.

"Wait, what's happened to Sam?"

My stomach lurched, and for a second I thought I was going to throw up right there on the obsidian. I turned my back on both of them and started walking.

"We have to get to the hall."

"Zelo was on his own last I checked, still hunted by some beasts," Marie called after me as she swiftly dropped a sigil pill in Kai’s mouth. Our friend’s body began steaming and convulsing slightly.

Damn it. What about Bjorn and Ior?

We ran back the way Marie had come, following the trail of destruction she'd left behind her, until the corridors led back into the great hall further ahead of us.

It was unrecognisable, even from afar.

Craters pockmarked the floor, some so deep I couldn't see their bottom. Half the balconies had collapsed, their railings dangling over the void like broken teeth, their floors spilled across the tiles in mounds of shattered obsidian. Several of the massive pillars had snapped in two, and the chunks of ceiling they'd once held up lay strewn across the room, leaving gaping holes through which the grey sky peered down at us. Black blood streaked the walls. Scorch marks spread across the floor in wide, blackened stars where arcane had exploded. The purple runes still slithered along the floor, weaving between the debris before looping back towards the throne, pulsing brighter than ever, as if the destruction had only fed them.

The moment we stepped near the throne room’s entrance, the shadows along the walls peeled away and came alive. Dozens of beasts crawled out of every crack and doorway, claws clicking against the obsidian, heads swinging our way.

Marie flung her arms out. A shimmering veil rippled over the four of us and faded, leaving only a faint heat haze in the air where it stood. The beasts halted mid-stride, confused.

Then their nostrils flared.

One by one, they crept closer, sniffing the air, snouts twitching, heads tilting as if they could taste us on the other side of the invisible wall. A crested beast pressed its muzzle right up against the shield, close enough that I could count the rows of teeth behind its lips. Marie's arms trembled, the arcane flowing and glowing over her arm fading.

Atos lowered Kai onto the floor, gently laying her against the wall. Then he rolled his shoulders and took a step towards the edge of the shield.

"Don't you fucking dare!!" I slapped his arm. “I’m not going through that again!”

He froze, looking down at me. My hands shook as I grabbed his collar, bringing him closer.

“I’m done losing!” I gritted my teeth, “Elyah, Max, the faeries, you… I will not let anyone else die on me again. I don’t care what it takes! I don’t care how much shit I have to go through. I will NOT fail… So enough ‘hero plays’, let’s use our damn brains for a minute and go knock that bastard out. Got it?!”

I was panting by the end of my monologue, my breath coming out as smoke. The whole corridor had gone freezing cold, ice appearing everywhere, shadows snuffing the brasiers until they ran out of fire. The monsters slipped and wandered aimlessly in the dark. The darkness at my feet densified, turning pitch black on the stone, yet my sword was nowhere to be seen. Did I do that?

Atos stared dumbfounded at me, nodding mindlessly. I turned to Marie and Kai, who had just awakened in the middle of my speech, and signaled them to move on through the crowd of friendly tenants. The surrounding darkness and Marie’s invisibility arcane blanket allowed us to quickly reach the main hall, where most of the monsters had gathered in a circle, ‘Sam’ standing in the middle, drawing a circle of purple glowing runes around him, and the bloodied figure at his feet.

Yumii…

Ior, Zelo and Bjorn were all roped down and watching from the sideline, likely kept alive to bait me and the others to come save them. It sure is working. We sneakily got behind ‘Sam’ and got into action.

I rushed out of the invisibility field, a massive mace appearing in my hands mid-swing. The thing controlling my husband’s body turned around just in time to have its face bashed in by the weapon, sent flying once again through the room, this time crashing in the opposite wall as last time. A wind slash cut Yumii free at the same time, while Kai and Atos released the rest of our party from their jailers.

The faery roared back to life, her green hair burning red as a massive ball of fire swung around the room, atomising everything in its destructive path. The arcane energy blasted through the room, my friends swinging back and forth as their bodies struggled to handle it. I looked down at my steady legs. How come I’m unaffected now?

Atos put a hand on my shoulder.

“Be at the ready,” he pointed towards the raging fire ahead.

A dark figure calmly walked through the flames, purple eyes staring deathly at us.

“Can’t you see I’m busy freeing myself?”

“We really don’t care what you want.”

“You might want to. If I don’t free myself…” he grinned cruelly, pulling the skin off his face, “I’ll keep this body. You don’t want that, do you?”

Just a little closer…

“...As I thought!” he walked into range. “Now just hand Yumii over, I collect her soul and-”

I squeezed my fist. ‘Sam’ jumped to the side, expecting my blade to come up from his shadow. He looked at me confused when nothing happened. Gotcha! I pointed ‘right’ with my thumb, smirking. Atos punched him in the jaw, a shockwave shaking the hall, the already crumbling throne now almost nothing more than a pile of rubble. What a punch! I blinked hard and wiped my eyes, trying to remove the dust.

‘Sam’ hadn’t budged. He stood still in front of my father, a mad smile growing.

“Hello Holr,” grinned the entity. “We haven’t met in a while. How’s my bestie going?”

“Shut the fuck up, Elek.” growled Atos, blue eyes glowing in the dark. “You sound stupid with that raspy voice, forgot to take your throat medicine?”

Elek growled, Sam’s face distorting.

“Ready to face me again after so long? Last time didn’t go so well, if I remember… By the way, how’s your son? Ah, right, I tore his soul out of his body. My bad.”

Atos, Holr?, growled like an animal at Elek’s speech. Arcane rolled off him in waves, burning away the hair on my arms. The darkness at my feet reached my legs, rooting me in its power.

“Are you ready to join your brethren six feet under?” Atos cruelly smiled, eyes wide, cackling while baring his teeth. “How’s your sister?! Ah right, last I saw her, she could see behind her back!”

“I will rip you to shreds until your soul breaks, Hollow!”

The energy surrounding them exploded, my feet sliding backwards as I hid my face from them to protect myself from the heat. I exchanged a look with Marie and Kai.

What did he just call Atos?!