Bertan`s quest - Michelle Tarynne (best beach reads of all time txt) 📗

head off.
Suddenly, his unsuspecting hand was stopped midair and dropped lifelessly at his feet. Ash of the Second Line stood to his right, fully armed and ready to fight with his Swords pointed at him.
"How dare you strike your own King?!" The Sword King roared furiously through his pain.
"Ah, but are you really a King?" Ash mocked his earlier tone "Never mind that. Not one Sword is present here to live and tell anyway." Smaller in size as Ash was, now that the King could wield his Sword only in one hand, Ash felt cocky enough as he had the advantage.
"I am your king, and the penalty for treason is death," Cassess screamed attacking Ash with his size, speed and the biggest Invisible Blade in the Sword history, leaving the Red Axe King forgotten on the floor. The battle of Titans lasted but a quick moment, the crippled King overwhelmed and disarmed Ash with a power of his rage.
"Your whole House Line will cease to exist. I will exterminate the rest of your family and friends for your betrayal," Cassess said just before dealing the final blow, "The ones that are unlucky enough to be still alive," he sneered raising his sword.
"You are not the King of our kind. You are the real usurper, and deep down you know it too. You broke the laws, and you even don't know how." Ash smiled waiting for his death to come when a great thunder broke the sky. He looked through the windows to witness the exploding inferno that fired up the skies unlike any storm in history, closing by dangerously fast.
The Fire-Wells had finally lost their stability. The uncontrolled white fire spilled across the land and through the air into the sky, igniting and scorching the surface in one moment. Cassess looked through the window too. His eyes widened in fear. Ash was waiting for the last blow that never arrived for the Sword King fell limply to the floor.
Both of the Swords immersed in their battle, forgot about the Red Axe King who watched and waited. His crude axe burrowed deep in the neck of the fallen New Sword King at the first opportunity the Fates had granted him.
Ash spared no glance to the fallen body of his King. The raging cloud of white fire was speeding in the Inner Block direction so fast he hoped to at least reach the elevator hidden within the Axe Throne. He prayed to the long forgotten Gods that it still worked when he opened its doors. He entered the small cubicle of the elevator, and looked back at the Red Axe King who still deeply gone within his Blood Madness, still ravaging the fallen body of the Sword King. Ash called him three times to enter the elevator too, but the Red Axe King was too far gone to listen.
Crisp, white fire took the land for its own. Not one scream got through the ashes that had been of life, blood, and bone just before the end. No time registered in between of being and un-being of the surface- infected with the white, scorching nest that brought the end of the known worlds. All of life was erased where the Fates purged and cleansed. Destruction cycles within cycles of time.
There was no other choice for Ash than to ride down to the Melting Place alone in the hopes to outrun searing flames that started to assault the Inner Block. The chains he chose to ride with sped down in an instant, much faster than the elevator would, but it was still too slow to escape the surface-born inferno. His tight and armored clothes grew hotter and hotter to the point where they started to melt and drip down. Every inhale burned his insides. The clothes that covered Ash' body. Fire took him for its own to spit the scorched body out at the bottom of the Melting Place. Ash the Savior, nudged with the remains of his leg the mechanism that would unlock the Ice-Cold blockade of the only known way into the Core.
  19

 
Six pure Sword hearts ventured into the past rites and places of old with no questioning minds at hand. It's only the youth that accepts Fates and their paths without a question, filled with joy and happiness to be of help for the future to come. Where the truth burns like acid unsuspecting minds, the faith gives the wings and seals up the lips with courage to meet the end that is the beginning of the world to end.
Something was finally visible in the distance. A bright, crystal light graced them from afar. Repetitive patterns of the past under their feet revealed the fated path to take. The narrow, dust covered stony trail urged them down, its stones almost silky soft of time and service. The path closely followed a lazy but persistent river of fire, right into the core of their creation. There was no need to look for any directions anymore.
Genes could feel the faraway place calling him to hasten his steps. There it was. The source of the longing in his core, the beauty of life itself beckoning at him to witness its power, hopes and wishes to fulfill. He didn't realize, it was the Madness claiming him again with the greedy force of the insatiable hunger feeding off his sanity. All of them followed their uneasy fates. The freshest, moist and fragrant air engulfed their senses.
Time lapsed in silence, their bodies burned with fever, bringing their inner water to the surface of the skin. The burning heat was calling them to submerge in the black water lake, just off the path they were following.
Time lapsed again, bathed in the music of splashing and giggles as they reverted mentally into frolicking toddlers. Though still, no word has been uttered and would not be uttered when the death dealt the hidden blows right into their breaths.
Time lapsed for the third and final time as the water washed away their bodies at the faraway shore of fine and sticky white sand. Home welcomed them at last. The Great Wait of the Anaerthers Stronghold has ended upon their arrival. Lone emptiness was filled once again with death to be broken in the most unexpected and peculiar ways.
Genes was the first one to regain his senses, while his Sword companions were still fast asleep. He looked around as if he was being guided to do so. His sight centered on a lone crystal pillar of light that was not too far away, the same that led them from afar. It was deeply rooted into the ground with its irregular veins. Its grand and eternal light was powered from the areas deep below the known inner spaces. Not even the oldest and the most obscure legends of lore told of what could lie beneath. Not one creature met the real source of the bright glowing light that still graced what was left of the Anaerther Stronghold. Genes looked up to it like he was hypnotized with hope for an answer. He dragged Bertan’s body to lay next to the pillar.
 
“Syltears,” he muttered disoriented, not knowing where those words were coming from, “Syltears, the first daughter of the core, please hear my plea, bring Bertan back to the life she is still to lead.”
Genes touched the crystal vein that was the closest to him. It was so sleek, it almost felt soft, wet from the moisture of his fingers, its light was calling to his core, and it calmed his fears. Safety was the only thought left in his mind as the world around faded away from his senses. The only thing he was able to do at this point was to detach his mind from his body till he was nothing more than a stone fused with the crystal light.
Just then, his wish was granted. Bertan took her first breath. The half of the non-beating heart became whole again.
 

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Publication Date: 02-13-2017

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