Soul Under the Mountain (Legend of Reason Series) (37 page)

"Your powers will not truly rival any of the other gods while there is another Tirinius living. When your father moves on to another world,
assuming you do not have offspring,
you will be granted the full power of the god of war. This will make you immortal and unstoppable
."

Rommus thought it over for a moment before answering. "I will take my chances. I don't really have a choice in the matter. If I want to save my people and have any chance to maintain freedom through the ages, I have to take the risk. If gods or man kill me and send me to some grand afterlife, I will have failed the world. I will risk my soul being erased if it means I can help mankind."

"You have to be sure, Rommus
Tirinius
. This cannot be reversed. Are you sure that you understand what you are committing to?"

"The total annihilation of my soul if Archenarius causes my death, but a normal death at the end of any other blade. Do I have it right?"

"Yes, that is correct. But you must understand that it will not be long before the gods of darkness and their cohorts realize that killing your father is the best chance of killing you. You will need to get back to your world swiftly and be there to protect him from the sword. But as long as it is in your possession there should be little threat."

Rommus gulped. "It was stolen. I have not been able to get it back yet."

"Stolen!" Arius yelled. "How could you permit such a thing? This adds tremendous complications to your cause."

"Two twins attacked me. They were much stronger than me and they came at me with war hammers. They were not men; they were more like animals. I couldn't fight them off."

"War hammers? Was their skin an odd color purple?"

"Yes."

"The hounds of Maeris.
You must return to your world as soon as possible and retrieve that sword.
With
your powers restored, the sword cannot harm you directly, but t
hey are hunting down your father. I am sure of it.
They possess eye of Indahinar, which allows them to spy upon anyone wherever they are. There is no hiding from those fiends.
Do you still wish to risk your soul to regain your powers?"

"I do."

"Then let it be done."

Arius stretched his arms up to the gray firmament and called down dark cords of black lightning. It tore up the earth around them as he screamed. The air crackled with energy and a tremendous roar of thunder followed. The whole void trembled under the power that Arius called forth, and the ruins nearby began to topple. All of the dim light of the void began to swarm in streaks and veins toward the
area
until
it gave color and light to the black lightning. Soon the
bright
shafts of light were all that could be seen in the darkness surrounding them.

When the light went out there was only a tiny floating spark hovering between Rommus, Song and Arius. The tiny light enter
ed
Rommus's chest and his whole body began to glow slightly for a moment. He felt
alive and awake;
complete for the first time in many months.

The gray light of the void began to return, and this time thousands of the bright lights of souls of the void came with it. They hovered gently nearby, casting their lights onto what once were ruins. Their radiance showed the world for what it really was. It was not the terrible emptiness of death; it was a world alive in its own way.

Rommus looked around as he spoke. "Are they happy here? Is this place a prison?"

"It is a sort of prison, but these souls are not tortured. There is happiness here carried over from the preceding worlds."

"And you, Arius? Are you happy here?"

"No, god of war,
I am
not happy here. But this is my fate. Happiness is of no consequence."

"You are a hero, Arius. You could easily have us return to the past and warn you about your death, but you remain here for a chance for me to save mankind. That is an honorable thing to do. I am not used to the gods caring for the fate of mankind."

Arius put a glowing hand on Rommus's shoulder. "Do not judge all of the gods by what you have seen thus far. Oderion and the gods of darkness may be indifferent to the trials of man, but the gods of light are not so foul.

"But these are things you will need to discover on your own time. You must return to your world and prevent the sword from being used to kill your father. You must hurry."

"What about the guardian of the void?" Song asked. "How can we get back into our world without being destroyed?"

"I do not know that answer. But there is one more thing about the hounds of Maeris that you must know."

Chapter
40

Gorin swung his hammer at the bristling line of spears and shields. Every time he was lucky enough to break a spear, another took its place. Several had stabbed him and the pain made attacking the phalanx difficult. His brother
s
uffered similar injuries, but they
continued to fight on.

The Bhoors were terrified of them, and so they stayed as far away from them as possible. This made it difficult to attack the phalanx as a unit, a
s
the twins could not break the line on the
ir own. It was understandable; since
the Bhoors had just watched the twins hack through hundreds of their countrymen just to get closer to Tannis at the front line.

But t
he Bhoors still crashed against the Medoran shields farther down the line. Their efforts were almost useless, but on occasion they would injure or kill a Medoran.
They had finally come up with the idea of crafting spears longer than the Med
oran spears in order to reach the men behind the shields, but their length made them difficult to control. The Medorans either batted them away or snatched their shafts, yanking the spear from the grip of the Bhoors or pulling them into Medoran spear points.

"Use the sword, brother," Gewin yelled as he fought.

Gorin shook his head. "It is too dangerous. We
cannot
risk losing it."

"But it will bring these mortals down instantly. Show them the blade and put fear in their hearts."

"No, brother. We cannot risk them taking it from us."

"Then the hammer. It is time for the hammer."

Gorin paused
conversation but not his attack on the Medorans. "We can do it without the hammer. That is something that cannot be undone."

"We have nearly captured the older Tirinius. We must use it now before he escapes us."

Gorin stopped swinging his war hammer and backed up a few steps away from the line. He looked long and hard at his treasured war hammer, flipping it over to see all the scars on the surface from long-forgotten battles. He gripped it firmly but tenderly, trying to memorize the feel of the perfectly balanced weapon in his massive hand.

"Now brother!" Gewin roared.

Gorin stepped closer to his brother and they held their mighty war hammers up to the sky. Suddenly the wind picked up and the clouds thickened, boiling faster and faster overhead. When the brothers
crossed their long war hammers, a tremendous boom echoed across the battlefield. Many soldiers on both sides fell, and nearly all of them made an attempt to cover their ears.

But when the hammers finally touched, an even louder sound, loud enough to wake the dead rang through the land. No sound could be heard after it except the piercing ring of temporary deafness stabbing through every skull. A blinding light came with the sound, and any soldier who looked directly at it could see nothing in his vision but blurry streaks of white.

When the light faded, the clouds rolled back and the sun lit the battlefield once more. Disoriented soldiers fought to get to their feet and resume the battle, but some were unable to keep their balance or wits. The majority of Medorans at the front line were able to get the shields o
f
the phalanx in position, but there were a few holes.

At Gorin's feet, stuck in the mud, was
the hammer. It was not the war hammer that he had held moments before, but a much more powerful weapon. It was larger than his own hammer, as it was both his and his brothers combined. Gone were the scars of war, along with the blues and purples of hardened steel. This new hammer was flawless. It was bright, shining gold; the same as the golden sword of Arius.

The twins who had been split from a single man thousands of years ago had possessed the hammer of Maeris for their entire lives. It too had been split, just like the twins, in order to protect it from discovery. The golden artifact of the gods was far too dangerous to allow to fall into the hands of man. With such a weapon any man could lead an army to victory over any other.
It
made an army fearless, and it ensured
that every soldier would act for the benefit of the collective, and not himself. Fear would be eliminated from every soldier, and every last man would sacrifice himself for the greater purpose of the collective. That purpose would be decided by whoever held the mighty hammer of Maeris.

Gorin reached down and gripped the handle. He pulled it from the mud and held it high above his head. Both sides of the battle had gone silent, wondering what had just happened. Gorin scanned the Medoran ranks briefly, and then turned to the army of Bhoors behind him.

"Bhoors! Advance!"

The entire Bhoor army immediately fell into orderly lines. All of their eyes had gone wide and
fierce
, and a haunting
look came upon their faces
. They all faced the Medoran shields and began marching in perfect unison towards them. It was choreographed
with such precision
that it appeared to be a dream
and not reality
. Every man
moved at the exact same speed, and e
very footprint left behind was filled
with the foot of the man that followed.

Gorin swung the golden war hammer at any soldier within range. Their feet came out
from under them and they tumbled
through the air smashing into their fellow soldiers. The Bhoors crashed into the phalanx and pushed it back. Medoran spears stabbed over the top of the shields over and over, but there were just too many Bhoors to kill. The dead fell to the ground and the Bhoors behind them stepped right over them, advancing no matter the cost.

The Medorans dug their heels in, but the weight of the advancing army was far too great
. Medorans toppled backwards as
the line of shields began to splinter and break up. Other soldiers rushed in to try to repair the line, but most of them failed to reach it before Bhoors crossed over. Once behind the shields, they rhythmically dispatched all the Medorans surrounding them before finally being brought down.

But Gorin and Gewin didn't care. All they cared about was stabbing through the phalanx and breaking through the front line. Once they were beyond the shields, they hammered and slashed their way through the rest of the Medorans on
their
rampage towards Brinn.

Chapter
41

The black haze surrounding the doorway to the void began to dissipate and Rommus could just barely make out the colossal statues at the far end of the cave. The eerie green light from the glowing under
ground river flooded the cavern
with ghostly luminosity. Shadows were muted by a still mist that hovered carelessly near the cave floor.

The statues
had been turned around somehow, and
no longer faced the ent
rance to the cave
. Once again they faced them as they approached; glaring at them with the
ir chiseled faces. Between the statues
was that shade of a being—the keeper of the gateway to the void.
Dark shadows twisted
and writhed to give him form as light from inside him fought
to escape its shadowy prison.

Terrible wings sprung from his back. They were made of the same otherworldly shadow that the rest of him was made of,
resembling
the wings of a bat. He flapped them and took to the air, flitting about between the statues but never taking his attention away from the approaching intruders.

Song and Rommus made numerous attempts to call out to Demeos and disarm the situation. Their efforts to avoid any sort of conflict were coldly ignored, as Demeos gave no reply. He moved about violently, sometimes disappearing and reappearing in other places.

Song was blinded for a moment by crimson light when Rommus called forth his armor. "Do you have a plan, Rommus?"

"Nope."

"Well what do we do
?"

"I don't know. Remember that he said the guardians cannot see you; but Demeos can. I can only assume that those statues are the guardians."

Song repositioned his pack on his back.
"If that's the case, how do we fight stone? You don't even have a sword."