The Iron Forest: Ancestor's Legacy

Sweat poured down Victor’s face from the thick, humid air. For hours, he and Jinlin splashed through the tunnel toward Gathal. Soreness shot up his legs. Behind him, he heard the old wizard puffing. It wasn’t a full run, but a never-ending cycle of jog, halt, walk, and jog.

“How much further?” Victor asked.

Jinlin took longer to gain enough wind to speak. “Another hour, at least.”

Their run turned to a brisk walk. Victor wondered if they would have the strength to stop Abaddon once they reached the Chotukhan city. He worried too there would be a legion of troops waiting for him to emerge from the tunnel. Either way, he would be glad to get out of the oppressive heat and humidity laced with sulfur.

The tunnel felt like it continued forever. There was no feature or indication of where they were. No light at the end made the trek seem longer. An occasional station with ticket counters and waiting chairs appeared out of the darkness. They also passed beneath ancient vents in the ceiling, once used to pressurize the tunnel. Some showed sunlight, while others appeared impassable.

Through exhaustion, Victor needed to keep focused on the objective. Somewhere nearby, Sana took the fight to the Chotukhan. She and the rest of her tribe were counting on him to use his data stick to stop Abaddon.

After the run-in with the Destroyer a few hours ago, it was clear the AI returned and maintained control over his machines. How many were there? Hundreds? Thousands? Just a few would tear apart Sana’s army.

“We need to go a little faster,” he said to the old wizard that was falling behind.

“The last time I checked, I wasn’t a youngster with unlimited energy.”

They walked at a quick pace until Jinlin halted and stared toward the ceiling. Another vent-hole appeared, but this one took the wizard’s interest.

He turned to see the old man pacing in a circle. “Is this it?”

“I think so.” The wizard studied the shaft in the ceiling.

Sunlight illuminated the upper half of the vertical tunnel. “Are you sure?”

“No, but I’d rather not be in this accursed tunnel for another minute.”

Victor couldn’t agree more, but they stood little chance of crossing over the walls around Gathal. “How do we get up there? The ladder rungs have rusted away.”

The tunnel opening above stood twice the height of Victor. He thought about standing on Jinlin’s shoulders to reach the top, but the old man’s frail frame made him decide otherwise.

“Another challenge, my boy.”

Victor kicked at the water in frustration. They almost got killed by a Destroyer and traveled all the way down a sultry tunnel, only to be stopped there. “We can check further down for another access point,” he suggested.

“It’s worth a try. We’re not getting anywhere from here.”

Victor sighed as they sloshed through the water. He assumed Sana must have gotten close to the castle by now, which should create plenty of commotion to divert attention away from the temple and notice of their arrival.

Behind them, a splash echoed through the tunnel. Victor stopped, unsure if it was from their footsteps. “Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That splash.”

A quick glance with the light showed a rope hanging from the ceiling and a bucket tied to the end. It rose upward in a steady pace, faster than Victor could sprint through the water. He leaped, grabbing the edge of the bucket. The sudden weight poured water into his face as the wood crashed down on his head.

“You alright, my boy?” Jinlin asked, pulling him out from the flowing stream.

Victor coughed, but still clutched the bucket with both arms. “Yeah. I found a way up.” He jerked the rope and tested it against his weight. “I’ll go first.”

One hand over the other, Victor climbed toward the daylight. Each pull upward caused it to groan with his weight. The multi-corded hemp was meant to lift a bucket, not a full-grown man.

The walls turned from carved stone to poured concrete, ending to what Victor assumed was a water well through the blinding sunlight that prevented him from seeing anything else. Once his eyes adjusted, he noticed a few frightened young girls rushing away and towering buildings surrounding him.

“Little help,” Jinlin muttered from behind him.

“Oh yeah, sorry.” Victor pulled the old man, who felt heavier from his drenched robes. “Where are we?”

Jinlin scanned around, wiping his eyes. “Were in Gathal.”

“You sure?”

The city was more than Victor expected. Rows upon rows of mud-covered brick buildings, sometimes two or three stories tall, lined the street that sprawled in all directions. Towering above the rooftops, an overwhelming castle and temple set within the city’s center.

A few people, most looked like peasants, scurried through the streets in haste. The rest were soldiers, some with swords while others carried spears. All had faces of intensity and fear. They lined the walls, looking out toward the valley. In the distance, Victor heard thunder, but the sky had few clouds.

He turned to face Jinlin. “Oh shit!”

“What?”

He grabbed a fist full of the wizard’s robe. “You shouldn’t have worn this.”

“Nonsense! I rather like my outfit. Thank you.”

“Do you see anyone else wearing red?” Victor gestured to the surrounding people dressed in white and black. “You look like a damn Shainxu wizard.”

“Charred circuits!”

Several men in ringed armor approached with swords drawn. “Halt! Stay where you are!”

Victor pulled out his rifle, but a scrawny hand pushed the barrel down.

“We’re in the middle of the Chotukhan capital, my boy. Not a good place to start a fight.”

A quick glance around revealed armed guards looking at the commotion in the neighborhood square. Victor cursed under his breath.

“We surrender!” Jinlin said with arms flailing outward.

Victor stared at the crazy old man. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked in English.

“I’m getting us in the castle. Trust me. Give them your weapon.”

Handing the guard his weapon felt wrong, but he had a habit of trusting the old wizard. So far, Jinlin had yet to steer him wrong.

The guards bound them at the wrists and lead them through the streets, giving an occasional push and shove.

“The battle is still going on,” Victor said, still speaking English to prevent the Chotukhan from overhearing. “It sounds close.”

“It is. We need to hurry, since I doubt it will last much longer. No telling who is winning.”

Victor gasped at the sight of the castle entrance. “I don’t think it’s the Chotukhan.”

Pools of blood covered the tan streets leading toward the castle, with screams of men echoing off the walls. The morbid sight sent bile up Victor’s throat. Some soldiers walked aimlessly with severed arms while others did what they could to cover gaping holes. The streets smelled of death, with torn bodies littered everywhere. Priests and women rushed from one soldier to another. The sight and smells of burning flesh sickened Victor and put a scowl on Jinlin’s face.

“Did the Shankur and Shainxu do all of this?” Victor asked, wishing his hands were not bound so he could cover his nose.

“I don’t think so. Our magic is deadly, but not like this.”

Victor paused, despite the guard’s protest. “The Destroyers… Sana.”

He bolted toward the wall for a fleeting chance to get a glimpse of the battle that raged outside. He wanted to see if Sana was still out there, but his attempt to move further fell short from the butt of a sword in his back.

“Do that again and I’ll use the other end,” the guard shouted, sending him back to Jinlin’s side.

“Not very bright, my boy,” the wizard muttered.

“I need to see if she’s alright.” Victor tried not to view the surrounding carnage. His imagination ran wild with visions that Sana shared the same fate.

“She’s fine.”

“How do you know?”

“An old man’s intuition. Besides, it can’t change what we need to do. Keep yourself together.”

Victor nodded, but his attention diverted at the face of a soldier in polished Reaper armor that stood among others at a table. A general, perhaps, judging by the man’s poise.

“We found these two by the well,” a guard reported, handing the leader his rifle. “The old one appears to be a Shainxu wizard.”

Victor could see they were pouring over maps of the city walls and surrounding valley. The one with the general turned and looked at him. “What about the other?”

“Not sure, General. He might be Shankur.”

“He’s not,” Jinlin blurted. “This man is one of the Ancients. You may have heard of him—the one who fell from the sky.”

The soldiers froze and stared at the wizard.

Victor’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Shut up and follow my lead.”

“The man who fell from the sky,” the General repeated. He glanced around at the dead and dying with an obvious lack of desire to not deal with this new revelation. “Take them to Lady Karmera. She was asking about him.”

Victor knew that name. Sana spoke of her when she addressed Chief Batan and the elders during his first day in Dirasha. At the time, he understood little, but her later recollection told him what she did to Sana. After hearing the stories, he began to share in her hatred of the woman.

Jinlin was correct. Their surrender granted them access into the castle, but with an armed escort. The guards shoved them through the castle gates and around groups of worried sentries. It was bigger than he expected, with corridors and halls of bare stone that seemed endless.

“Now what?” Victor asked in English.

“Patience, my boy,” Jinlin answered with a grin.

The castle shared the same energy as the rest of the city. Even through the stone walls, servants and soldiers moved with purpose. Gathal was under attack, and everyone knew about it. Victor wished he knew more.

“Get ready and close your eyes,” Jinlin said.

“Ready for what?”

The hall leading to the lower chambers flashed in a blinding white light, sending the two guards leading them to drop their weapons and cover their faces.

“You could have warned me.” Victor scoffed, rubbing his eyes.

“I did.” Jinlin picked up a sword and with a wave of his hands sent a loud pulse that tossed the guards aside. “Here, take this. You know how to use it?”

Victor checked the sword for balance and weight. “Yeah, I should manage.”

“Good, because we may have to fight our way to the temple.”

A gun would be better, Victor thought. “Where’s the temple?”

Jinlin shrugged.

They hurried through the halls and up several large staircases. The castle seemed to go on forever. To Victor, the place felt like a maze, with every corridor looking like the other.

A window overlooking the valley caught his attention. He paused to get a glimpse of the distant battle, but it wasn’t as distant as he expected. To his surprise, the fighting appeared just outside the walls and gate. Chotukhan soldiers fired arrows down while Shankur and Shainxu warriors alongside Guardians poured into the city.

“Gaia has joined the fight,” Victor said, searching for Sana, but a bony hand grasped his shirt and pulled him away.

“No time, my boy. We have a god to kill.”

They worked their way through the castle and onto the bridge leading to the temple. It seemed a little strange to Victor. There were no guards or priests in such a sacred place. He stopped when he noticed metal sand pouring from the temple peak.

“What’s wrong?” Jinlin asked.

Victor held out a hand to catch some sand. It appeared dry and twinkled silver with the sunlight but poured like water. “Nanites,” he said. A glance upward showed the structure seemed to dissolve into strange metallic material.

“Nanites?” Jinlin poked at the powdery sand.

“Tiny machines, smaller than the eye can see. Remember what I told you about nanotechnology? These are the machines that can create whatever their programed to.”

“Their dying?”

“They are no longer communicating with the host.”

They entered the dark temple chamber. At the center sat a cylindrical console. What was once wires and cables was turning to lines of metallic sand. A small amount of blue light still radiated from the console, but the dim amplitude made Victor suspicious of what was going on.

“Well, we are here,” he said, searching for an insertion port. A triangular slot fluttered with dim light. “Here goes nothing.” He pushed the stick into the hole and backed a step, waiting for the machine to power down.

Nothing happened.

He pushed the data stick in a little harder.

I don’t get it. Everything is here: the mainframe, power distribution, yet no AI. A surge of panic began to overwhelm him.

“I expected more,” Jinlin commented.

Victor nodded. “Yeah, me too.” He joggled the stick but still nothing. “Abaddon’s not here.”

“What do you mean he’s not here? This is it. This is what we came here for.”

“I know, but the console is dead.” He grabbed a fist full of sand. “Everything is dead.”

“Abaddon has chosen King Shunlin as a new vessel in which to walk the Earth,” a woman’s voice said from the temple’s entrance.

Victor gripped his sword as Jinlin’s hands started glowing green.

“I assume she is bad,” Victor said, leaning toward the wizard.

The old man nodded. “Yes. My boy. She’s bad, very bad.”

The woman strolled into the chamber with an elegant confidence. A collar of crow’s feathers around her neck, fluttered in the breeze. “Master Jinlin, what a pleasant surprise.” She turned to Victor. “And you must be the Ancient I have been hearing about.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know, or care, who the hell you are.”

“Lady Karmera, the Chotukhan High Priestess,” Jinlin said to Victor before glaring at the priestess. “Step aside, witch, or we will do what we must.”

She laughed before a crackle of electricity surged around her hands and arms. “You may try to kill me, but it won’t matter. Abaddon has been unleashed on the world.”

“Where is he?” Victor asked.

“He is waiting for her, your love, the queen.”

“Sana’s alive?”

Lady Karmera nodded. “Oh, yes.” She stepped toward him. “He fears you and the queen. You are both a threat—The Shankur warrior, driven by revenge, and the return of his creator.”

Victor gripped his sword harder when Jinlin glanced at him, asking, “What did she mean by that?”

“Abaddon is also learning about revenge,” Lady Karmera said. “Mother Gaia has helped our fair queen, and he wants to show her what happens when she deviates from her directive. That, and he feels King Shunlin’s vengeance against his lost bride. They both want to teach them,” she chuckled, “a lesson.”

Rage churned inside Victor. A force of evil hidden behind a facade of a woman stood between him and Sana. Sana was heading to face off with an AI of unlimited power and he still held the data stick that could destroy him.

“Careful Victor, she is using a magic I’ve never seen before.”

“There’s no magic, only technology.” He noticed wires connected to rings that disappeared beyond the cuffs of her sleeves.

Lady Karmera held her arms outward. Electricity popped and sparked with the wave of her fingers, flashing through the room in white light.

Jinlin unleashed a ball of plasma, but the energy flew past, bursting the stone wall behind her. With a blur, she dodged and sent a bolt of lightning into the wizard. The sheer power of the blast took the old man off his feet.

“Jinlin!” Victor shouted but received no response. A glance showed his friend lying on the ground. Wisps of smoke rose from a black burn on his red robes.

“I expected more from a master mage of the Shainxu,” Lady Karmera said with a grin.

Victor checked one more time and found the wizard moving—alive, but still down. The battle rested on his shoulders. There had to be a way to stop the woman who harnessed the power of lightning.

She let loose another bolt.

White crackles of light met with his sword and spread across his body. Every muscle convulsed in pain, sending him to the ground. Burning hair filled his nostrils. He tried to get up, but his nerves failed to work. It took all he possessed to keep a grip on his sword, even though he had no ability to use it.

“Killing is too final.” She leaned over to him. Close enough, he could feel her breath. “I will break you, as I did your love—your sweet Sana.”

The dark room burst in bright white light. Lightning surged in and around Victor’s body, sending pain across every square inch. The priestess taught him a lesson of agony, but no matter how he flailed and twitched, it didn’t stop.

He screamed. And screamed.

Lady Karmera bared her teeth as she fed raw energy into his body.

The world fade into black. Victor’s heart struggled to beat, and the muscles in his chest no longer allowed him to breathe.

He was dying.

Through the pain, he thought of Sana and the way her dark hair flowed down her pale shoulders, her green eyes, and her gentle smile. His mind shifted to the night they shared and his desire to hold her in his arms one more time. But that was only part of it. Billions of people died because of his creation, and he held the only weapon to stop it. Only then would he be free of the guilt that bore deep in his heart.

“No!” he shouted through the agony, swinging his sword.

The light extinguished and Lady Karmera froze in confusion.

Through his hazy vision, she held up her hands that no longer had fingers. His sword parted them all between the last knuckle and rings that spit out the lightning.

Saying nothing, Victor stood and swung his blade.