Child of Death

I did a little scouting from the air, looking down on this desert city. Every building was designed in such a way to face inward toward a large pyramid temple at the very center.

The buildings appeared to be made out of some sort of pale stone, not sandstone though from what I could tell. It had a surface similar to marble. Accents of gold appeared all over, especially lining around doorways and across the edges of roofs. To build something like this in the middle of a desert had to have been purposeful, not practical.

The buildings didn’t look like houses or shops, and I’m not just saying that because I’ve never been to a desert city. They looked ornate, built to express their details and pay reverence to the pyramid, almost like people kneeling and praying.

The buildings had some odd shapes. Some looked like animals with human heads and hands, and others looked like crescent shapes with candles at their center. Those crescents were lighting a great deal of the city up as the sky fell to dusk.

The weirdest part of it all was that not a single soul was here besides me.

I flew back to Marek and Hanako to give them the details. Both of them didn’t have the courage to head inside the city. All it took to encourage them was to say that I couldn’t protect them from demons if they stayed out here. That got them going a bit.

Traversing the streets felt like we were exploring a piece of history. Everything looked so old, yet still fresh, as if they’d been carved in stone just yesterday. Not a grain of sand could be found on the streets, even though very little protected it from the desert. Was someone keeping it clean?

We took a peek inside of one of the more decretive looking buildings.

As with the outside, there were lots of gold decorated walls, painted to depict a prehistoric scene from a persons life. Coins were scattered everywhere, perhaps as a final tribute to a powerful warrior or king. Surprisingly, not a single Pier token to speak of.

At the furthest part of the room were catacomb-like slots in the wall, housing caskets with faces on them. No doubt they were mummy sarcophagus.

“We shouldn’t touch anything here.” Marek cautioned. “Let the dead rest.”

“Yeah.”

In a world of magic, you never know what defenses are left behind in places like this. But evidently, they left things here on display, so it was a ‘Look don’t touch’ sorta thing.

~☆☆☆~

How could we explore this city and not head straight for the pyramid? That thing was huge!

It was actually made of gold, topped by a ginormous chunk of platinum. This must have been expensive!

There was an entrance about halfway up the pyramid, leading inside to a big chamber. The view from here was impressive, you could see way off into the horizon. But nothing but sand for miles on one side, and endless waters on the other. Two very contrasting sights.

Inside the pyramid chamber was an altar, surrounded on each side by many small trees and vines. Grass patches adorned steps around the chamber, and a primitive irrigation system occasionally dripped water over all the plants to keep them hydrated.

“Ahhh…Waaahh…” There was a baby crying! She was just sitting on the altar, like someone had set her down there for a nap. She had little gold flakes all over her, that was a choking hazard!

I went to grab the baby, but loud voices flanked me and warned not to come closer.

“Stop!” two very massive statues, like men with the heads of dogs, ordered me. One was solid white, and the other was pitch black. “Do not disturb this child.”

“But she’ll die here!” I shouted.

“The gods must claim her soul to be purified.”

A human being was in danger of dying. My First Commandment Protocol was activated. Nothing could convince me that saving her life was going to be a problem.

“I can’t let her die.” I glared at the statues.

“Would someone so pure assist the seed of darkness?” Both the statues animated, brandishing bronze tipped spears. “Can a Malakim save this soul of treachery?”

-THREATS’S SIGHTED!-

-Ancient Statues tagged ; Foe-

Soul of treachery, seed of darkness…I could sense something certainly off about this baby, but it was still a human child. Letting these gods take her life was out of the question.

“Nobody deserves to die for a crime they haven’t committed!” I argued.

“Then touch the infant, and observe its transgression for yourself.”

I had to snatch up the baby before those two poked her with their spears. I flew in and quickly held her up.

But something was wrong, because she stopped crying, and looked at me with red eyes. Glowing red marks scratching across her smooth skin.

She started laughing. Not like a baby, but like a full grown woman.

-WARNING! DARKNESS LEVEL REACHING CRITICAL!-

From the core of the child, radiation of darkness quickly overtook everything in a sudden wave of black. I froze at how overwhelming the power was. Shivers tingled down my spine and I fought a seizure.

The wave of darkness then returned back to the child, causing her to fall asleep.

As I calmed, I was in control of myself once more. I turned to see my friends…

They were laying on the ground. The light of their souls had been snuffed out.

The vines and plants growing along the walls and edges of the room had withered. The statues crumbled, but quickly reformed.

“What was…?” I was in shock. What had just happened? Where my friends sleeping?

“Do you not see, Malakim? Are your eyes blind?” The statues spoke. “Only death awaits those who care for her.”

Death…was he saying my friends, and all the life teaming in this room…it all was…

No. No way. They still had vital signs.

“They’re not dead, they’re just sleeping,” I said.

But, was that really true? Looking upon their lifeless, cold expressions, were they really sleeping?

“Do not be a fool. This child shall remain here, under the watch of the god of life and death.”

Something was dearly wrong with this child, but I think I had a feeling I knew what it was.

The baby was possessed by a demon.

Darkness exists in the absence of life energy, which is mana. That’s why demons go out of their way to feed on the spirits of living things, so they can gain mana to power themselves up.

Stardust kills demons, because it’s full of light energy, which is the natural enemy of darkness.

Mana feeds, and Light kills.

I think what happened was this child stole all the mana energy from every living things in this room. Their bodies were fine, but their spirits were dead. I only survived because my crystal heart was so strong at producing mana energy.

My theory was that if I reintroduced mana back into their bodies, everyone would be revived. But, wait, wouldn’t the child just take all it away again?

“I have a question.” I looked back up at the statues, thinking maybe I could resolve this without a fight. “If I were to purify this baby, would you let me walk out of here with her?”

The statues both took their time coming up with an answer. Their heads turned to a skylight opening above us while contemplating.

Finally, they turned back to me.

“If you can, this would be acceptable.”

Great! Now what the heck was I going to do about this?

The baby woke up, then glared at me with an unnaturally foul face. Her screams tore through my ears, echoing loudly around the whole chamber. Holding a screaming baby really wasn’t helping me think, so I shut off my sound receptors for a second.

Then she started kicking and wiggling like mad, but I held her steady so she couldn’t do that.

I’d need mana, and I’d need stardust. Mana to reintroduce life energy into everything here, and stardust to cleanse the darkness within this child. Even if something truly evil dwelled within her, a good old fashion stardust exorcism should do the trick of getting it out.

Oh! I got an idea!

Placing the baby down, I charged up my crystal heart as if I were activating the mana cannon. Rather then simply let mana pool up, I also introduced stardust energy to the charge. A visible swirl of twinkly blue light appeared in front of me

The spiral of energy was very loosely accreting together, so chunks of it would break off and float around the room. It turned into a haze, which saturated the environment with heavenly energy.

The haze of life magnetized to anything once living, flowing into it and revitalizing it. New plants were growing back in place of the old as a result.

EUREKA! It was working!

But this swirly energy required me to move around to get it to splinter out. So I took to my wings and spiraled up into the air.

The mana and stardust energy shimmering down faded into the bodies of the plants and my friends. Some even gathered on the baby.

The baby let out a scream! It sounded like it was in terrible pain, torn a sunder by wicked forces.

I’m sorry, little baby! But this has to be done!

Her screaming quickly started to sound like a grown woman again. It turned blood curdling, then finally silencing altogether.

The baby was still. I quickly flew back down, checking its vitals…

-No Vitals Detected!-

“Oh no, that’s not good! You’re not going out on my watch!”

Stardust infused mana was still flowing into the baby from the air, but not much. I upped the ante a bit, directing all the remaining energy I’d pooled up into the baby. Then something changed…

-Vitals Detected!-

-BPM = 20-

“YES!” We got a heartbeat! But that wasn’t good enough. I had to get her beats per minute up to 80 at least.

I quickly started to preform CPR to get her heart beating faster. That had a little reaction, but we needed a big boost in the beats per minute. Time to try something a bit crazy.

My body can synthesis small amounts of chemicals using my Quark Fusion Core. So let’s see if the tried and true epinephrine can make an impact here…

A small needle pricked out of my fingertip. I injected her with a tiny bit of adrenalin to get her blood pumping.

“God, please let this work!” I prayed.

-BPM = 90-

GOOD STUFF! That baby was going to make it after all! But I had to keep working, or her heart rate might drop again.

~☆☆☆~

The others were recovering nicely behind me, and all the life in the room was rejuvenating back to the lush green it once had.

I cupped my hands together and closed my eyes.

“Thanks, God. I really was scared that wouldn’t save the baby, or everyone else. Amen.”

This whole situation was nothing short of miraculous. I’m glad the baby’s condition stabilized, and I might have saved her from all that darkness in her soul too. I hope.

The statues seemed content with my actions, backing up to the pedestals they once were standing upon, also placing their weapons down, showing no aggression anymore.

“You’re actions have spared the child, but for only a short while. Be prepared to face her destiny someday.”

What’s her name?” I asked.

“This child is without name.”

No name, huh? What kind of parents wouldn’t give their child a name? To be fair, these parents didn’t seem like great people if they tried to let their child die here alone.

Buuut…could I blame them for that primitive decision? Not everyone was an Exceed breaming with useful demon fighting utility. If I hadn't been here, she probably would have been left for dead.

Since I’d saved her, the statues gave me permission to leave. The others were completely confused at what was going on.

I gave a dodgy explanation of what happened. Marek fainted when I told him he died.