Kalon

Chapter One-Hundred-Eleven: Dashkatul

Galactic Quadrant: Darna Quadrant

Ruling Government: Talum Merchant Federation

Solar System: D-447

Planet: Ora

Location: Research Facility

***

Realm of Dreams

***

The waters rage against the torrents of energy coming from Leora's hand as it presses my chest. It churns into me, etching runes upon my spirit. Countless words and images flowing into my mind. Until something begins to shift, a feeling rising from the depths, the waters tremble and vibrate from it. Something strange is happening as she pushes her energy into me. The light becomes twisted, pulling deep within the center of my being and disappearing into what feels like an endless void.

Leora pulls her hand away suddenly as though alarmed. Her hand's light has become dimmer. The dream world shakes as I feel a chill sweep over the fabric of it. Flashes of images blur in my mind. The golden eyes in the darkness stirring, the feeling rising. Defiance building from within. The embers of it are trying to become more.

Suddenly everything in the Realm of Dreams stops, the waters do not move, and the air is still. Eerie silence for three beats of a heart until… violent motion. My body of spirit burns with the black flame. The Realm quakes again. Leora's light receding from me and being sucked into the void of my soul. The air becomes thick and crackles with energy. The towering tree shakes and becomes ablaze with the fire, silver and purple leaves falling and dancing in the changing lights of the Realm of Dreams.

Something is not right, something deep within feels like it is rupturing. Spindling and rushing. Columns of water from the endless seas erupt into the air. Striking high against the firmament of endless stars, creating thick clouds. I feel something expanding. Like a boundary is being bent, yet not quite broken.

Leora's shining light bends and folds, stripping from her body in arcs of wild energy, being pulled into the epicenter of my heart.

Her face finally shows itself to me as the blinding light is swallowed. Glacial blue eyes that hum with Etheric maka, black hair like her sister Krotha, except the ends look dipped in blue, instead of red. She is beautiful like Krotha, they are similar in features. The polarity of their hair and eye color is not lost on me, but it is far back in my mind. The golden eyes flash in my thoughts again. Connected to a body bathed in a black fire that somehow burns the darkness. The eyes pierce me… it is only now that I realize whose eyes they are… my own.

The supposed Goddess Leora glides back from me, her eyes taking measure. Something past the curiosity… fear. My eyes are flickering with a golden hue now, cracks of energy rippling up my spirit. It's not enough though. My spiritual realm is trying to expand into the sky… the Etheric boundaries. But I can't break it, I know that. Leora's energy was a taste of what I need to pull against the gravity of the abyss beneath from the Netheric boundaries. They fight against me. Just like when I tried to channel both Etheric and Netheric Maka.

"I need more power…" I say, my voice distorted, as though taken with the strange fluctuations of energy that ricochet inside me. Compressed a thousand times after a thousand more, there is a pattern to it, but it is so complex I don't fully understand it, yet somehow it is familiar… as though I have basked in it before. The golden eyes ignite brighter in the visions. The energy dissipating. Leaving me crawling upon the island of stone beneath the tree. I was so close to understanding it…

The torment of what I have witnessed in the Realm of Reality begins to press back into the forefront of my thoughts as Leora steps slowly toward me. Cautious but deliberate steps. I can tell from her expression, she will not risk herself to help me. Whatever I am, whatever the golden eyes in the darkness are… she is afraid of it.

I need power… I need to free the brothers, I need to free the twins, even Fennec. My face flinches as I see the burning Golden eyes again, they draw closer in the visions.

"I am not strong enough to bless you alone," Leora says, coming closer to me.

My eyes drag up toward her, then the clouds above.

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"Amara…" I say.

The air stirs, energy rippling. Until it fizzles out. She does not answer the call.

"Fine," I mutter, "Then I will call her."

Leora does not speak against it.

"Krotha…"

Dark clouds begin to form above, red lightning arcing. Leora's head whips towards it, the worry expanding across her brow slowly, the tips of her blue hair billowing in the wind that rises fervently once more. Villainous laughter from above echoes.

"She will be weakened this far from Dashkatul," Leora says, giving me a small nod.

Dashkatul… A fitting name for the Edict which holds her, Fate's Prison.

"A blade that calls the names of others, yet still remembers who it belongs to," Krotha says from the clouds above. Thunder rumbles. A wide grin wraps her mouth as she looks at the burning tree, then back to me. She moves toward us, parting the storm as she does. My teeth grind, eyes falling to the black stone on which I kneel. I need whatever power I can get.

She stands over me now, "In my absence, you have forgotten your…"

"Be silent…" I growl, the golden ember of defiance growing inside me.

"Do not…"

"Silence!" I boom, eyes rising up to meet her, and the ground beneath me shakes.

"You dare to bare your fangs at me?" she snarls.

Everything is always taking from me the peace that I seek. My hands are shaking, not in fear… in anger… in rage…

Black fire ruptures from the ground, cracking the stone. Krotha's foul tongue falls silent.

"You take… They take… Always taking… it is never enough…" I say while looking at my hands. They look different in the spirit realm, like they should. Strong.

Neither sister speaks. The rocks from the ground tremble upwards, suspending in the air.

"They must all die… every last one of them," I say, the hollowness that rotted my resolve is filling with the fire of defiance, ember no longer.

The legions of dead begin to rise from the waters, thousands of eyes upon me. Krotha turns, looking out amongst them, a strange look upon her face.

"Use them," Leora says, her eyes burning with excitement, "Harness their souls."

Harness the souls of those who seek only justice? No, my eyes are set on something stronger, something deserving of the grip of my hand.

"Do not presume to command my blade," Krotha seethes at Leora.

"He is not your blade, sister."

Staggering to my feet. I move towards the sisters who have laid the foundations for my life to become ruin. I am not a fool. I can see the brushstrokes of their work upon the canvas of fate. Both turn to look at me, both uneasy with the way I peer at them. I can feel it. The energy they command. Even trapped in the Cursed Edict, Krotha is powerful. More so than Leora. The golden eyes flash brighter in my mind. Blinding wrath comes from them. So too does purpose… memories of feelings, tied to the compressed Maka that these false goddesses both wield. Feelings rise to instinct as I raise my hand toward Krotha. Her eyes squint at me.

"Give me your power," I say, leveling my eyes into hers.

"You disobey me and yet still…"

My hand springs forward, grasping her by the throat. She tries to claw away, but the black flames rise higher engulfing us. Sapping her strength as it feeds upon her. She is not as strong without the Edict nearby. I need more than this. I need the Cursed Edict. They will feel the wrath that hums from my blade's song… Mallock… all of them will perish.

"It was not a request."

"Release..." Krotha begins, but my hand tightens, strangling her as she kicks at me, clawing at flesh that does not rend as the golden eyes swallow me.

"Yes, take her strength, channel it, call the Edict," Leora says, a smile cresting her lips.

My eyes turn to her, the smile fading as she backs away, blinking fast against the current of my will rising higher.

"You should…" Leora begins.

"Silence."

She nods, backing away further. My focus turns to Krotha, her eyes still bulging. Scratching, and clawing. She is weak as she is now.

"Today I will take, and you will give me what I seek…"

Calm begins to seep into me, mixing with the rage, becoming wrath. Thunderous amounts of Maka swelling into me from Krotha. I need more. I call to it now… the Cursed Edict. The Realm of Dreams shakes asunder, I feel the pull towards reality as Krotha's eyes bulge even more beneath my grasp. I know that when the Edict comes she will gain power again… It does not change my mind… before she takes me, I will slay them all. Golden eyes flash again and I feel the pull toward the realm of reality, surging power flowing into me as Krotha's eyes widen.

***

Realm of Reality

***

My mind stirs in the waking realm. Energy swells from my chest into my extremities like a flame inside me.

"What the hells is going on?" Mallock's voice says.

I hear the displays sending alerts and sparks flying from the machines. Looking down I see my chest glowing with runic lines shaping into strange patterns that bend and bow with the fluctuations of power. My power, taken from Krotha. I feel her will straining against mine. Still weak.

Images of the Cursed Edict form in my memories, and I outstretch my hand as it showed me. I feel something pulling towards it, drawn to the desire in my heart. The desire to be free of torment, the desire to return the pain I have received.

"Boss, I think you should put this one down. I got a bad feeling." One of his mercenaries says.

"What a beautiful doggie." Mallock says, his eyes glistening "By the gods, beautiful I say."

"Boss he's right we should put him down. That arm glowing, could be a weapon." Another mercenary says.

"You will not touch my prize!" Mallock yells, spit flying from his mouth his hair going askew. He turns to me now, petting my face "That's a good doggie, shine for master."

Call for it… Call for the Cursed Edict.

"Come to me, lend me your power," I say aloud, looking to Mallock and the others, "And I will give you an offering of souls."

I feel my call heard by it… it sings back, like it is welcoming me home. Images flash in my mind. Countless dead raising their hands to pull me into the abyss. I feel it whispering to me.

"I'm going to kill him, sorry boss," One of the mercenaries says, pulling out his gun, Mallock wrestles with him for it.

The building tremors as the wall in front of me explodes from the force of the Cursed Edict ripping through it, knocking everyone to the ground. It slows as it reaches my hand almost in my grasp. Undulating and changing its shape to fulfill my desire. A large blade forms into existence, and the mechanical locks on my bed sputter and unlatch. My hand moving now to greet the blade which rends existence itself.

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