Blood and Sand (19 page)

43

I kneel, touching my forehead to the orichalcum sarcophagus. The light vibration I felt in my hand is now a buzzing in my head. I try my best to stay relaxed, but it’s a little difficult under the circumstances.

Thousands of visions—no not visions—memories fly by. Every single one of them is being absorbed into my mind at light speed. And it’s not just one person’s memories, its three sets of them.

I see the four twins playing as children in the king’s palace. I see Thoth educating the kids as well.

I see the brothers as grown men—maybe in their early twenties—arguing.

I see Thoth again, this time entrusting the four brothers with the elixir, making them immortal, like himself.

I see chaos and destruction.

I see heartache and loss.

I see Thoth on his knees weeping for his lost child, the three loyal defenders standing beside him, consoling their father…their king.

I see the king cry out in anger and frustration and strike down Nannot, the same way the priests did in my second dream. He used an unbelievably strong energy beam to subdue him and then used the very Earth itself to entomb him.

Then all at once, I feel the love these three brothers share. I feel their hope for healing and their continued forgiveness for their sibling.

Wow, they never stopped loving him
, I think. Then a warm, tingling sensation consumes my body, almost like I’m fully immersed in the most relaxing hot tub in the world.

You are one of us now, son. You have been given a power—a gift greater than anything you could ever dream of.

This is a different voice…an
older
voice.

“Thoth? Is that you?” I ask continuing in my mind.

Yes, my son. It is I, Thoth. The Last King of An’tala. Use these gifts well and do this world justice.
There’s a pause in his statement.
But, could you please tell him that he is forgiven. Please, tell him that.

“I will, my…king.”

The last part was awkward and strange, but it felt like the right thing to say.

Then I’m released, back into the
real
world. I’m not even violently thrown back into reality this time. I’m just freed from the mental incursion, which included none other than Thoth himself.

He is forgiven.
After all he did to his homeland and to his family, they still ultimately forgive him. Humanity could learn a lot from this.

I stand and remove my glasses, rubbing my eyes, removing some of the built of tension and face the others. They all gasp and take a large step back away from me.

“What?”

“Hank…your eyes,” Nicole says her face pale. She stares at me with fright and what looks like a hint of wonder. I’m not quite sure what’s happening. Everyone is just staring at me, mouth agape.

Nicole digs into her pack, producing a small compact mirror. She offers it to me, stepping back a few feet. I take it and look into its reflective glass and see myself, looking normal. That is except for my…

“They’re the same,” I say lost in a memory.

“What do you mean the same? Nicole asks. “They weren’t like this before.”

I look back down into the mirror, staring into my reflection. When the priests revealed themselves to me they all had wonderfully disturbing eyes. They swirled like storm clouds made of pure orichalcum.

“I’m like them,” I quietly say, staring at my reflection with astonishment.

“Like who?” Kane asks.

Click.

We turn as one.

“Omar?” Dad asks confused. “What is this?”

Omar is standing only ten feet from Nannot’s prison. He must have been slowly making his way over there while everyone’s attention was on me. And…he has a gun pointed in my direction.

“Shut it old man! I’ve dealt with you and your sorry-excuse-for-a-son long enough!”

“What the hell, man!” Kane shouts. He still has his Desert Eagle in his hand about to raise it.

“Ah, ah, ah Mr. Kane, you wouldn’t want me to accidentally pull the trigger and shoot Mr. Boyd would you?” Omar sneers. He takes another step back, towards the obsidian tomb.

“Omar, please don’t,” I plead. “You have no idea what you’re doing. If he gets loose—”

“Who says he will get loose? He will be freed yes, but I will control him! Zero has plans for his power.”

“Zero?” Nicole asks. “You’re with Zero!”

“You son of a bitch, you set us up!” Kane yells stepping towards Omar. “That’s how they got here so quick. You told them where we’d be and when we would be there.”

Omar matches his stride and takes another
large
step back, now within reaching distance of the worst enemy in the known world.

“What happened to the excavation team, the men and women outside?” Dad asks concerned for his crew.

“Those who didn’t flee would have been killed,” Omar remorselessly replies.

Dad lifts his hands to his mouth, officially freaking out. I know what he’s thinking. If he loses another team, like the one in Spain…

“Why would Zero want to set Nannot free? He will just lay waste to the entire world, killing billions. What could they gain from that?” I ask.

“We are Zero: The Beginning of All Things. We believe—I believe—that we can control him. That it is our right, our destiny to do so. He is The End of All Things, we will be complete together.”

“You’re insane…” Nicole replies looking like she’s about to vomit. She’s right too. The look in Omar’s eyes is unnerving to say the least.     

“You have completely lost your marbles,” Kane says rubbing the frustration off his sweating face.

Omar reaches out his hand, never taking his eyes off of me and with a smile says, “It’s been a pleasure Mr. Boyd, but you’ll have to excuse me. I have a date with a god.” He places his palm on the motionless fire and screams.

44

The sound resonating from the man’s lungs is like nothing I’ve ever heard. Its one part agony and one part pleasure. A look of anguish and ecstasy is slathered all over Omar’s face. That’s when I notice that the crazy zealot’s body is suspended a foot off the ground, back arched, arms out wide. A slight breeze seems to be holding him aloft. The current of air suddenly becomes a strong gust and forces us to our hands and knees.

Kane tries to aim his weapon at the thing that used to be Omar, but can’t hold his hand steady enough to take a shot. He gives up and lowers his gun.

That’s when the wind dies down and Omar lands. He is gently deposited on the floor of the cave standing in a relaxed stance, head dropped forward resting on his chest. He takes in a deep breath, looks up and opens his eyes…his red, bleeding eyes.

“We are so delighted to see you again…slave.”

It’s Omar’s voice, but it sounds like ten of him talking at once, all in different octaves. He stretches and yawns, like he just woke up. Actually, I guess part of him did just awake.

“Omar?” Dad calmly asks.

“Ahhh, you must be Dr. Boyd. No, I’m sorry Mr. Jafari is no longer with us. He is shall we say, out of town for a while. It’s just me, The End.”

“No! You selfish, sadist bastard! What did you do with him?” Dad yells.

“Where are your manners, William? You are addressing a god. And do you know what happens when someone disrespects a god?” Omar’s body raises his gun. “They die!” He fires his weapon straight at my father’s chest. One clean shot.

“Nooo!” I scream. I put all my emotion into the thought and thrust out my hand. The bullet covers the distance and hits my dad and…turns to dust.

Dust
? No, not dust, sand. I turned the bullet to sand? Is that even possible?

“
You! How?
”
Omar—I mean Nannot—screams. He actually sounds confused. He must not have put two-and-two together. 

Now I’m freaking pissed. This jerk-off just tried to kill my father and is upset about it?             

“No, not me…us!” I react with pure emotion and instinct. I leap the thirty foot gap between the two of us and unleash the strongest punch I’ve ever delivered. I throw a right uppercut straight into his jaw. I feel my hand accelerate as fast as his bullet did. The wave of pressure accompanies it as I lay into him.

I connect with a bone cracking thump, like he just got mule kicked by a herd of elephants. I send him flying a hundred feet to the stone wall with a crunch of bone. He hits with a disgusting smear of flesh and blood, exploding on impact.             

“What the…?” I say.

Then the unthinkable happens. He starts putting himself back together. His spine, which was broken, pops back into place. His skull, crushed by the impact, which could only match getting hit by a semi going ninety, does the same. It’s the orichalcum. It’s like the Atlantean Gorilla Glue. No wonder they thought of it as more valuable than gold.

The fully healed, former Atlantean priest stands holding his side. His grimace turns to a smile and he stands upright completely fine.

Damn,
I think.
I didn’t put a dent in him. Well, I did for about thirty seconds.

“Back up, all of you. Find somewhere to hide!” I yell to the others. Then I charge and swing another hammer blow, but am met by a gust of wind that slams into me and sends me flying. I land with a flop and a crack.

“ARGH!” I scream in pain, but it only lasts a moment. I look down and find my legs have both healed already.             

Um, okay…That’s a new one.

I stand, in no pain, absolutely none. I honestly feel like I just woke up from the perfect nap. My heart rate is normal, not even raised the slightest. I lift my hands and see they aren’t even shaking.

“What…who?” Nannot asks not understanding.

I take another giant leap forward and will the air to carry me. It works perfectly. I land twenty feet away from him as confident as ever.

“My name is Hank Boyd and I am the Last Priest of Atlantis!” I kick out and slam an invisible bus-sized column of energy into Nannot sending him sprawling to the ground. He tumbles to a stop, looking up at me, confused.

“Your brothers say hello,” I say letting my natural cockiness get the better of me.

I crack my knuckles and lay into him with three more savage punches. His face pieces back together and he stares up at me through bleeding eyeless sockets.

“Oh, and by the way…so does your father.”

45

Now if I had actually thought this through, I wouldn’t have antagonized an immortal-city-killing-death-monster. We’ll call this one a rookie mistake. The bad news is, he killed me five times. The good news is, I came back after all of them stronger than ever. And that’s something I’ve noticed too. Each time one of us dies, we come back sturdier, harder to kill. It forces us to come up with an even stronger attack the next time we have a go at each other.

Like when he used a burst of fire to melt my face and I came back with a move I learned in the arcades as a kid playing Mortal Kombat. I hit him so hard that I knocked his head off, Johnny Cage-style. All I needed was the sunglasses, but dammit-to-hell, he mended back together.             

“You know…we can keep going at this all night…but I’m not sure anyone…is going to
actually
kill the other. Why don’t we…try to figure out…another solution—?”

He grabs me and launches us both into the air. We hit terminal velocity and slam straight into the ceiling of the cave, bursting through. We explode into the courtyard, directly underneath a stone column. We hit it at full speed, turning it to dust, and go tumbling in different directions when exiting.

I go sailing into the patio, taking out an unsuspecting man-lizard combo. I hit him so hard he basically disintegrates. I even saw a leg go flying into the air. I finally come to a stop by slamming into a very hard and very unrelenting mass.

In the time it takes me to realize what I hit, Nannot lands and just stands there, staring daggers into me.

“So, what did he have to say?” The man-demon asks.

“Who?” I croak out. My throat’s meat literally just reconnected and he wants to have a conversation? Come on man, have some manners.

He glances up and I follow his deadly gaze, recognizing the object I hit, and dented. Oops. It’s the gleaming monument to Thoth, Nannot’s father.

“Your father—”

“He’s not my father!” Nannot screams in anger.

“He said that he and your brothers forgive you.”

“Forgive me? They forgive me? For what? I did nothing wrong. They saw me as an oppressor and an executioner—”

“You murdered thousands! I saw it with my own eyes. You killed your own people, the ones you swore to protect. And after all of the vile things you did, your family still loves you.”

“ARGH!” Nannot’s form flickers and just for a moment I think I see Omar standing there, no sign of the evil parasite.

“Ha-ha-ha, little one. Nice try,”
And then he’s back, just like that. “Your little game of love and affection can’t save you and this wretched race of abominations.”

SCREEE!

I jump to my feet and turn at the sound of something to my left. It sounded like a very large bird, maybe a hawk.

That’s when I see it perched on a pedestal, wings outstretched. The Peregrine Falcon has a wing span of about twelve feet. The talons on its feet are the size of butchers knives. The human face and bird beak mix gives me the chills, but the eyes aren’t focused on me like Rhonar. They are focused somewhere else. The creature looks in the air behind me.
             

SCREEE!

SCREEE!

The Nightmare screeches into the air as if calling someone, and that’s exactly what happens.

Shit.

Three more of these things appear surrounding us. It’s basically a petting zoo from hell, and I’m in the middle of it.

We now have a Tiger-lady, a silver-back gorilla-man and a bat…man. I swear to you, an honest-to-god eyeless bat-guy is perched on one of the other stands.

A bat-man…if only Kane was here to see this,
I think while trying to put together a battle plan.

That’s when I remember my friends down in the basement under the pyramid. I hope the roof didn’t cave in when I got body-slammed through it. That would really ruin my day. The minute I turn immortal my team dies.

I turn, doing a 360, and take in my surroundings. Nannot is in front of me, back to the iron gate of the pyramid. I have a flying creature on either side of me, paired with another stone Minotaur.

“This may end badly,” I mutter to myself realizing I’m seriously outgunned.

“Looks like your little freak show family arrived just in time to watch you get your ass kick Na—”

POP!

A bullet tears into the back of my shoulder, the force of it spinning me around. Before I can register the pain it quickly heals over. Confused at who just shot me, I turn to see a loan man, covered in blood, standing at the edge of the forest, automatic rifle in hand. He takes a step forward, but doesn’t make it any farther.

ROAR!

A humungous beast leaps out of the taller trees lining the courtyard and lands directly on top of the shooter, smearing the ground with his blood and whatever innards survived the impact.

Ugh, gross.

This thing is an absolute monster. Yes, it’s a literal monster, but it’s also huge in size. It stands on all fours, but is still easily two stories tall from foot-to-back and just over that from snout-to-tail. Oh, and it’s covered in blood…human blood.

“Holy mother! Is that…a bear?”

Its body looks exactly the same as a polar bear would, except it’s bigger than a bulldozer on steroids. Its maw and front paws are dripping with blood, looking like it just ran through the men from Zero, pulverizing them.

And now he’s here to do the same to me,
I think planning my own funeral in my head.

But, the strangest thing about this particular stone giant is that it looks completely normal, besides its massive size of course. What I mean is that it doesn’t have the human traits like the others do. No humanoid features what so ever.  

The look of amazement on my face must be pretty easy to see.

“Impressed are you? Ares was my first and greatest.”

Ares? He’s named after the Greek god of war?
I think, an awestruck look on my face.

“Yes, as you may have guessed, the beast’s temperament is where the myth comes from,” Nannot replies, as if he read my mind.

Great, a goliath the size of a large dump truck with the attitude problems of a volcano…must be a sweetheart,
I think to myself, biting my lip.
How the hell I’m I supposed to kill that?

“Is he human? Any of him?” I ask trying to keep the monologue going. The longer the conversation continues, the better chance I have of formulating one of my ridiculous plans.

“Perhaps, once,” Nannot answers. “But now…” He smiles slightly. “There’s just enough to control him.”

He needs the human aspect in order to control them? Is that the secret? I put that idea away for later. I’m not sure how much it could possibly help at this time. Maybe there is something I can do to turn things in my favor.

The colossal stone bear lumbers toward me, ground shaking and stops twenty feet away. The power lurking within Ares must be amazing. It took out at least six trained assassins—all of which carried modern firepower. And what’s even more impressive, it did it without taking very much damage at all, barely a scratch.

Crap. How could this get any worse?

“Harrison!”

I spin around, back towards the pyramid’s gate entrance, and see my dad, along with Kane and Nicole. They have their weapons drawn and pointed at Nannot.             

Then as you would imagine…the shit really hits the fan.