Night Descent

Twenty years ago, something horrible happened in Hilikhkzia country. It happened in the early morning within the capital castle city, Avendeur, during a time when people, civilians and soldiers alike, would normally find respite from a long night of terror. Such fears came from the many attempted invasions by the forces of Darkness.

This was just like then, twenty years ago. Or it was going to be; as Bastar sat up in bed, blanched and eyes wide in horror despite the taste from sweet tendrils of Darkness, he could feel it. It was so far away yet so close, so close it was almost difficult to ease the catastrophic, hopeless thoughts from entering his mind.

He knew what was going to come.

But not if he could help it.

Snapping out of his stupor, he roused himself from bed. Snatching his uniform, he quickly donned it, not bothering with the bells and whistles that indicated his rank, then gathered his sword, guns, and emergency bag. It was nearly upon them.

As he pulled on his bag, his left hand gathered Darkness, and he tugged on the Dark energy in the cosmos. There was an immediate response, and he turned to face the nearly shapeless Entity that arose from the floor before him. With a mere thought, he told it what to do. He then waved his hand, wordlessly ordering it to leave, and turned to sweep his gaze around his room one last time.

He sensed the creature crawl out under the cracks of the window to slink about outside. The sweet taste of Darkness grew stronger every second. He wet his lips, taking just one precious moment to savor the intoxicant, swaying on his feet and his eyes fluttering.

He could bathe in this ambrosia...

But he caught himself and willed his body to teleport from his home to the entrance of the castle. He swiftly passed the guards and hadn't even walked ten feet when the blaring alarm of an oncoming invasion sounded off in the darkness. The Entity completed its task. All at once, the night became day as lights switched on to permeate every crack and crevasse. Bodies moved without orders, like clockwork, and he moved faster.

He teleported into the castle's living quarters in time to catch the form of Tallulah running his way. She wore her day robe, and her expression was wrought with fear.

Upon seeing him, she exhaled sharply but said nothing. They exchanged knowing, uneasy glances, then approached the door leading to Briél's room simultaneously. She rapped urgently on the door before entering with haste. He remained outside, aware that his ward was already awake.

"Bri—Briél! Oh, goodness, you're awake!" he heard Tallulah say.

Antithesis she may have been, but he and Briél were nonetheless similar. She had sensed it, the Darkness, approaching the moment he did, if not sooner. It took no more than three minutes for her to leave the room, fully dressed, and Tallulah led her out holding an emergency bag.

The girl appeared bewildered, confused, and frightened, casting a scared look at Bastar as her grandmother led the way down the hall.

"Gra'anan, where are we going?" she asked. "Why are you bringing the bag?"

This was a rhetorical question, or so Bastar hoped. She knew the bag's purpose.

She glanced at him once more before addressing her grandmother again. "Where is your bag?"

Talulah only shook her head. Wisely, Briél remained quiet.

As they left the living quarters, urgent activity visibly began to make Briél even more concerned. The castle's inhabitants, consisting of staff, civilians, and guards alike, rushed around, and the sound of order confirmations resounded around them.

The sounds of life roused by the Night Guard could be heard from outside. The noise of the Aer Gar's ships as they flew overhead was abnormally loud and disorienting as they readied for battle. The Nth Regiment soldiers were gathering to fight and protect. The sounds of large barriers being erected all around by the White Mages were followed by glimpses of spun magic as they passed windows.

Both Briél and Tallulah jumped from the booming cannons as the ground forces fired toward the sky, casting bright white, yellow, and blue flashes in what should have been the darkness of early morning.

All were familiar sounds, in a jarring, traumatic way, but familiar and ordinary nonetheless.

They were nearly at the castle foyer when Bastar almost tripped over his own feet. He blinked rapidly, silently gasping as the Darkness grew more powerful than ever, more than it did even twenty years ago.

Reaching out with his power, he gently tapped into Briél's Light to stave off the desire to drink the Darkness in the air. She sensed this and fed a bit more to him, bringing him back to full coherence despite the stinging.

They swiftly descended the foyer steps from the right side. The giant chandelier had been lowered, its flames extinguished, and its sides extended as a platform. At the center of the foyer was a large hole that had both a staircase leading down into the ground and enough space for the lift to descend, if necessary.

Ahead, the king himself stood past the open doors to the castle and looked out at the flashing sky with Royal Guards Till and Yune at his sides.

Talulah came to the side of her old friend and former mentee, placing a hand on his back to get his attention. He broke away as if from a trance to look at her and did not smile, but was relieved. He then glanced back to see Bastar and Briél.

"I sense it, too," he said suddenly, solemnly, turning to look towards the sky again. His amber eyes reflected the abnormal lights before lowering as he contemplated. "The Darkness is more powerful this time than it has ever been in all my lifetime."

Bastar's eyes narrowed. It was indeed something if even someone only slightly sensitive to the Forces could sense the intensity of the invasion.

King Belvon shook his head, then swiftly turned to face them. "Do what must be done, Bastar."

Giving a salute, Bastar stood at attention. "Atr!" He bowed. "Final order, Your Majesty?"

A booming noise nearby shook the castle. King Belvon's expression was absolute. "Deploy the Knightreign."

Wordlessly, Bastar stood upright and moved aside. He tapped and then rotated his fingers over his communicator. A screen came up before him that indicated a connection to four other people and a severed connection to a spacecraft.

"What?" he heard Briél ask. Her voice was high with anxiety and fear. "What's going on?"

He focused on his task, radioing the guardians. "We rendezvous at the Caverns. This isn't a drill, kids—last I checked, we don't get those."

"Aye."

Bastar glanced behind himself to see Ellion entering the foyer with Nevan behind him. He and Nevan exchanged knowing looks.

"Aye," Khante responded over the radio.

"Aye," said Renor, the sound of voices loud behind him.

Returning his attention to Briél, Bastar saw she was in tears. Both King Belvon and Talulah wore calm but stern expressions as they spoke to her. Bastar looked back at Nevan. The man hadn't turned his gaze away from him.

He held the crystalline-green gaze in his, looking upon his beloved old friend as if for the last time.

"Take care of her, Bastar'Qal."

He broke contact with Nevan to meet Talulah's gaze and acknowledge her words with a nod. On cue, he scooped Briél up and over his shoulder. As she protested, crying, punching, and kicking, he gave one last, quick smile to Nevan and was met by a sad one in response, before teleporting to touch Ellion's shoulder, disappearing from their sight.

The three of them reappeared in a secret passageway within the walls of the castle. He ran forward with Ellion beside him, aware of the distant footsteps echoing in the near distance behind them.

"Put. ME. DOWN!"

He glanced at his ward, thinking about it. He didn't even feel her blows. Only once the other three members of her guard were close did he stop and gently let her down. She did not, however, move, and neither did he. Instead, she stood there for a moment, head lowered and hands balled into tight fists at her sides.

"We got to go," he calmly reminded.

"What's wrong?" Alecai asked as he and the others caught up to them.

Bastar didn't respond, meeting Briél's eye when she looked up at him with a shaky exhale. To her, he said, "We'll talk about it when we get to the rendezvous point."

Her lips tightly pursed, and she wasn't happy with this, but she nodded regardless. She turned and ran forward with admirable determination in her steps. Ellion was the first to follow after her, then Renor, Khante, and Alecai, and Bastar glanced back before taking up the rear.

Since Briél had no idea where she was going, it didn't take long for Bastar to take the lead. They were surrounded by darkness, which was only illuminated in the distance by dimly lit lanterns. After a short minute, they found a staircase that led them into an intersection of tunnels. Without faltering, Bastar led them down the passage to the upper left.

Truthfully, the way to the Caverns was only shown to him once, but he nonetheless remembered. He could sense the Norstone further ahead acting as a beacon beckoning him forward.

Hall after hall they passed, and after some time of running, he came to a sudden halt, holding his hand out for them to all stop. He tensed, swearing harshly to himself.

There were at least two Noctifers ahead of them.

"We have company," he said before someone could ask. He wanted to say more, but he kept it to himself; there was a plethora of Entities ahead as well.

"Entities." Briél, fortunately, explained it in his place. "Two other presences, too. They're like the one that tried to abduct me."

As everyone but Bastar bristled, he beckoned them forward. "They're probably still far away, but the passage we need to pass through could bring us near them." He took up one of his guns from its holster at his hip. "Ready yourselves."

Their movement was quiet, swift, and as they neared the split passageway, googly red eyes were just becoming visible in the distance. Bastar led them to the right, taking them up a rather tight staircase, forcing them to move single-file.

Not even a minute passed when both he and Briél cried out in shock, but not in time.

A portion of the left wall imploded, knocking them all off their feet and causing the lights to dim further. A large orb of fire launched overhead, giving immense light to the dusty area, and revealed a man with glowing violet eyes; a Noctifer. Behind him, a multitude of Dark creatures began to lunge at them.

"Found you!" he chimed with a maniacal grin.

Already on his feet, Bastar lifted Khante up. "Move, Khante, move!" he ordered, and the young knight did just that, grabbing Briél to run ahead.

Ellion and Renor scrambled up the staircase while Alecai and Bastar immediately opened fire, blasting the insect-like creatures back or into pieces. Bastar worried when the Noctifer only stood there, watching them. Not giving a chance for something to happen, he erected a barrier to close the opening the implosion caused.

From seemingly out of nowhere, a giant's hand shattered through the barrier to grab and then throw him away. However, he reappeared aerially before the creature, slicing the black statue-like being into four quarters with his sword. Within seconds, he reconstructed its pieces around the Noctifer, trapping it in the creature's body.

Landing, he snapped his fingers and the creature was sucked into a hole that he ripped open in space. Before it could affect the rest of the area, he sealed the hole by holding up and clenching his hand. He turned to see that Alecai, Renor, and Ellion were no longer behind him. Before he could think of what may have happened, a blast of fire, followed by Alecai's shouting, emerged from down a dark hall to his left.

"Alecai!" he called, running up the wall parallel to the initial staircase.

"What?!" the pyrokinetic barked, followed by another fiery wind.

He's going to set this place on fire, Bastar idly thought. "I'm going up! We'll meet at the rendezvous point!"

"Yeah, whatever!"

Teleporting through the wall above, Bastar landed on the floor they were supposed to have arrived at together. No one was there in the dim light, but he sensed two beings in particular. One was Briél. The other was yet another Noctifer, one different from the two he sensed earlier. It was gaining on her.

He grimaced and teleported over the distance. He appeared in a tube-like, vertical alcove above the hall he sensed Briél was approaching. He fell, and the moment he spotted her running, he teleported above her direct location and opened fire on the Noctifer that had been chasing her.

She gasped. "Bastar!"

"Go!"

He sensed her leave, and he frowned as he realized she was alone. The rumbling from below was either Khante or Alecai or both, but where were Renor and Ellion?

As the dust from his laserfire died, he saw the Noctifer had raised a Dark barrier of their own. "You know, he said you were powerful, but I am disappointed," they sighed.

He spun and holstered his guns, unsheathing his sword. His brows furrowed, but he decided to ignore the Noctifer's words. For now. He cocked his head to the side.

The environment changed into a dark, warped version of the hall devoid of light. He saw the Noctifer startle, then their shoulders slumped.

"Ah, shit."

He raced forward, smirking to himself. This person was at least somewhat aware of what he was capable of.

They clashed, his blade against one made of pure Darkness. Normally, he liked to play with his adversaries, but for the first time in six years, he was going to take every fight from here on seriously.

As if realizing his mentality, the Noctifer teleported to reappear a short distance away with large hands bearing claws made entirely of Darkness.

Bastar narrowed his eyes. He truthfully didn't have time to waste on this enemy. He didn't even think about it; he simply sheathed his sword and teleported out of the pocket dimension. He returned to the hall and held the space in his hand. He tried to crush it, but the being inside fought hard against him.

Shrugging, he tossed it behind him, and it disappeared.

Teleporting, he arrived at the rendezvous point in time to see Renor, Ellion, and Briél running his way from the tunnel behind him. He was glad to see they arrived so soon and together, but something was off. He glanced around with a narrowed eye. Someone was approaching.

"Where are Khante and Alec—"

A loud boom made nearly all of them jump, and from behind, right where the three had come from, a blazing inferno approached. Ellion sighed and moved forward to place a barrier up, easily protecting them from the blaze.

"I still kinda think bringing him was a bad idea, hate to say," Bastar chuckled while shaking his head.

"Yes, well..." Ellion parroted his movement.

After the fire died, Alecai stood there behind the barrier with a grin. "Sorry."

Lowering the barrier, Ellion only gave him a look that made the raven-haired man laugh.

Bastar looked to his right with a grimace. Khante was what he had sensed.

Walking forward, Alecai sheathed his sword. "Khante was with me. No idea where he is—"

A wall broke, completely crumbled, in the direction Bastar had been looking, revealing the young man in question. He wasn't quite himself, breathing heavily with glowing violet eyes. His hands were black claws at his sides, and Darkness rolled off his body.

Bastar approached him calmly, holding up a hand. "Calm down, Khan." He gently touched the younger man's forehead, and after a few seconds, Khante left his berserk state, groaning and slumping against Bastar.

"C'mon." Bastar guided him forward, glancing back and rearranging the walls behind them to block off the path to the Stone.

They moved swiftly, but not as fast as before. The air and atmosphere were quickly changing as Light became prevalent. Khante softly groaned but otherwise didn't react, and Bastar briefly grimaced, bracing himself for further discomfort. Fortunately, the sixteen years he spent as Briél's guardian somewhat readied him for what was going to happen next.

The organic rock walls of the cavern were slowly replaced with white piping and glowing blue energy behind small oval-shaped panels. Shortly after that, a white ceiling with decorated metal flooring and walls appeared ahead. The blue energy pulsed on both, running through the designs themselves.

They came to a large room with a control panel before a wide door and a hall to the right. The entire space was luminous, as if the ceiling itself provided light.

"What is this place?" Renor asked.

"Well, the ship's behind the door and the Stone's down the hall," Bastar explained, walking to the controls and bringing up the holographic menu. It demanded a password he quickly inputted. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Briél walking down the hall. "Briél, we don't have time to dally."

She ignored him, continuing.

The door to the ship hangar began to open, and he huffed. To Alecai, who helped Khante, and the other two, he said, "Go on the ship and power it up."

"Aye."

Exhaling heavily, he followed after his ward. Down the hall, a magnificent light even stronger than the one from the ceiling shone against the opposite wall, where a door was open on the other side. He could sense the Light clearly, so painfully clear, and his insides were already beginning to hurt, his skin tingling uncomfortably, and his left eye stung. Regardless, he walked forward.

At the end of the hall and to the left was a wide open doorway revealing a ridiculously large room with tubes and pipes in the four corners of the space. In the center was a large orb of pure light hovering a few feet over the floor. Briél stood before it, her hand on the orb.

Bastar went no further in than the doorway, his eyes squinting. "Briél," he said calmly, "we got to get going."

"We're not going to fight?" she quietly asked.

He frowned. "No. We're not. We gotta get you off this aster. Bad enough there's a Stone down here." He eyed the orb with a grimace.

"And Gra'anan?" She turned to face him, revealing her glassy eyes.

He didn't respond immediately, his lips parting slightly, but then he settled on shaking his head. "She made her decision. She wanted to stay. Atr'Belvon gave the order." His gaze darkened as she began to shake her head, but he continued. "We get off this aster. We regroup on Memereon. There are allies there."

"I don't want to leave! Why can't we fight back as we've done before?" she demanded, taking several steps forward.

"Because at least three beings like me are here, and there may be more." He waved his hand down the hall. "They met us on the way down here! This Siege is not like the others, and you know it. We think they want you."

"So, if I leave, the others have a chance, is that what you're saying?"

He held out his hands, shoulders rising. "I don't know. There's a chance everyone's gonna die," he said, but he meant his words.

She flinched at this.

He crossed his arms. "We've never had an invasion like this before. Lulah and Atr'Belvon want to make sure you get away." He didn't hesitate as he entered the room, approaching her. "Anyone who knows you wants you to escape, because in our minds, if you get away, everyone has a chance."

Her head lowered, and she stood with her hands in fists and her lip trembling. "But...why? It sounds like they're sending me away."

He frowned and slightly leaned forward to place his hands on the sides of her face and tilt her head up. Her eyes were closed, gentle white tears cascading down her cheeks. "Briél. Look at me."

She shook her head, but he didn't let her go, and she placed her hands on his arms.

"We're not sending you away to save anyone's skin but yours. Understand?" he said gently, his voice an unusually soft, parental tenor.

"Just because I'm a Lucifer?" she opened her eyes, silver-white into warm brown.

His expression softened. "Yes. It's because you're a Lucifer. There is something you need to understand from here on out, etch it into your heart." He briefly closed his eyes, exhaling softly. "Alecai, Renor, Ellion, Khante, and I—each of us, from now on, will be putting your life before ours, but not just because of that, and I know you know that. However, you will encounter those who will be willing to sacrifice themselves for you because of who you are. And you will have to live with that. You must live with that."

The understanding and realization formed on her face as she trembled. She closed her eyes, murmuring, "I don't want—"

A muffled booming from the surface shook the room, and her eyes snapped back open to look at him.

He moved a hand to give a one-armed hug and a small smile. "You're strong, Biri, way stronger than you think." The hug was brief but heartfelt, and he moved away to beckon at the Stone. "Now, let's seal this place up before we leave, yeah?"

She nodded, wiping her tears, and they left the room. She stood outside the doorway, but he moved further down. She held a hand towards the Stone, and it shone brightly, forcing Bastar to turn away. Only when he felt its power seal away did he look back at her.

The entrance to the room was gone, nothing more than a decorated wall, like all the others, in its place. They stared for a moment. When she turned around and ran by, he followed her.

Twenty years ago, and exactly so, something horrible happened to the country of Hilikhkzia. In his mind's eye, he remembered it clearly.

His fingers were busy pressing buttons on the holographic console before him in the air. All five of them stood on the bridge of the ship, and on the viewscreen, a large holographic display with coordinates entering the navigation system came up. The ship would be autopiloted to the aster Memereon.

The display dissipated after he moved it away, and then the spacecraft began to rise into the air. He wasn't looking at the screen, his mind elsewhere.

He remembered seeing the horde of black in the pinkish-black sky of early morning, staring up with wide, frightened eyes and feeling helpless.

The voices of his companions barely registered to his consciousness. He stared at the screen, watching the white of the cavern become distant as the ship rose higher.

He remembered his fear and wavering, novice resolve when he summoned Dark creatures consciously, by his own free will.

The ship quickly passed the surface, and it wasn't facing the direction of the battle happening in the castle city behind them. They would be in deep space shortly.

He remembered forcing his wildly beating heart to bend the creatures' will to submit to his order, his order for them not to kill, as they had once, only to run rampant and summon the alarm.

And they obeyed.

"Look!"

Renor's shout snapped him back to the present. The ship was turning, rising swiftly above the Hilikhkzia Kingdom, and revealing the many bright lights amidst a sea of black. The higher they went, the more Bastar realized with a sense of horror that it was past sunrise. But there was such a cloud of thick Darkness over the kingdom that Photo's light couldn't break through.

He saw Ellion comforting Briél as she softly cried, but he knew it was only a reaction.

She was strong.

He focused back on the screen as they passed the clouds and then the atmosphere. The ship shortly took off at lightspeed.

Once more, he reminisced.

Thanks to that decision he made, that he otherwise wouldn't have dared to consider, the Hilikhkzia Kingdom had stood as an unwavering pillar of strength for the rest of the aster for twenty more years.

Now...

He closed his eyes.

Now, he hoped they would have a home to return to once they learned the reason behind this unusually strong attack. Otherwise, he wouldn't know how to react.

He looked at Briél, who sat calmly in thought in a seat closer to the screen.

Everything would be alright. All she had to do was survive. Hands clenching at his sides, he swore to himself that he would do everything to make sure she would.