The Gathering Chapter 6
Kaervek's Purge
By Xyris
Hours fostered into days as Micheal and George coasted across the drawn-out regions of the United States. It wasn't long after they left in which they began hearing of all types of atrocities on the radio emerging from around the world. Granted, things had become bad in the past, but the two of them began to miss even the slightest hint that anything good was happening in the third-world countries, not to mention their own.
NATO began to launch more unauthorized air strikes throughout Europe. Cubatao's pH levels were acidic enough to digest a car battery, leaving its scarce inhabitants hideously deformed for life. Worst still, the scientists working for the American government had developed a new strain of influenza and its highly infectious symptoms began to crop up all over the western seaboard due to a fowl-up in Seattle's inane attempts to keep the bug isolated.
Needless to say, their world would be quick to perish from the growing tide of evil.
In the middle of their excursion along a lone stretch of highway, Micheal's 4Runner got a flat tire. George and he had to push it six miles to a gas station in order to have it replaced. As George ordered something for the both of them at the restaurant, Micheal desired some solitude in the burning red sands of the New Jersey Salt Flats. He walked for a while, then reached into his pocket and found something he wished he never found in the first place.
The box of a diamond ring.
"Samantha." he lamented, fingering the small blue box between his fingers. "Why did you have to leave me? I was so close to telling you..."
Nostalgia crashed to a halt. His gaze suddenly centered onto a plateau in the distance. Atop its platform were two individuals that were hellbent to kill one another by way of mystic warfare. As the duel unfolded, that same unearthly vocalization gouged at his head.
-He imprisoned Jamurra out of jealousy but he taints Mangara out of spite.-
One looked as if the moonlight lit up his entire body but the other literally appeared to be completely in the dark, a shadow if you will. Being on the ground, Michael could only gaze in awe and wonderment as they brought the air to life, with mixtures of green, blue, red, and white. In the rare moments in which they weren't using magic attacks, they battled barbarically with conventional weaponry. It was the light's Baton of Morale against the dark's Celestial Orb. A stunning display of valor, the voice sounded again.
-He imprisoned Jamurra out of jealousy but he taints Mangara out of spite.-
Michael then realized who the two of them were, and that's when the battle ended with the darkened one colliding into the eclipsed figure and said:
DRAIN LIFE!
With that, the two fighters seemed to explode in a whirlwind of bright orange and yellow light that turned the night into day.
Kaervek.
"Mangara is gone." he cried, "Who among you doubts that I have taken his power?"
The obscure warrior looked down upon him and grinned.
"Yes." Kaervek said, diabolically bearing his teeth.
"Michael?"
He spun around. The night vanished and daylight took over. He then saw that it had been George that had addressed him.
"Huh?" Michael managed to get out.
"I said the van is ready. We can go now."
Michael looked back up to the plateau in which the duel took place but it was as if nothing had taken place to begin with.
.
George hung on the young man's every word, like he always has, but the reputation of its vividness quickly soured as the long hours of the road almost dominated the two of them with sleep. But they pressed on. Days later, they had made it to New York, though its streets were anything but welcoming. Rioting tore the place apart one vehicle at a time as the city's inhabitants, weak with insanity, struggled against reason to ensure supremacy over everyone else.
"Is there some kinda higher force at work here?" George asked, frustrated.
Micheal could barely hear him. The pain in his head was now excruciating. The voices an organized jumble of everything he had heard since this foolish journey had begun.
"Micheal? Micheal, what's wrong?"
"He's here."
"Who?"
"Stop the car."
George pulled over and parked his Ford close to an apartment building. Micheal was breathing heavily as the two of them stepped out of the car.
"He's in there." Micheal said, pointing to the building.
.
Through the guidance of his pain, Micheal led George up through the empty recesses of the edifice. Papers blew about the place as torrential zephyrs scourged the erection violently. The stair-climbing ended when Micheal nearly passed out from the agony he was feeling. Down on his knees, Micheal had genuflected down in the middle of a corridor, with one door remaining open at its far side.
"Come on, Micheal, get up!"
He stood, relying on George to carry him the rest of the way. When they stepped in, they saw that the apartment paid complete and total homage to the world of the Dark Ages. And there, sitting in anxious expectation in a easy chair, was a man dressed in pitch black with a like complement of hair and eyes.
"Kaervek?" Micheal said groggily in forcing his head to see him.
"And you're Micheal Cole." Kaervek said in an utterance so dark and bottomless that it sent chills down their spines. "I was expecting you much sooner. Typical mortals."
"Kaervek." Micheal repeated, walking under his strength. "I keep having these voices. Voices that tell me that they need my help. But they can't be real, right? They're RPG's, aren't they?"
The man in black smiled evilly at him.
"You'd like to think so, wouldn't you?"
"What?"
Kaervek grimaced satanically.
"All of reality is relative. The world is but pieces of one's perception."
"They're real." Micheal said absently.
"You shall be the harbinger to the end of days."
"Me?"
"It's in your birthright. The only thing between you and the Apocalypse is a spell."
"A spell."
"The Mox Jet rests in its personal amongst the Astral Plain. All it takes is the right words in the right place."
"Micheal, what are you hesitating for?" George said to him. "You're not honestly believing any of this, are you?"
"What are the words for the Jet?"
"Micheal!"
"You know what they are. You always have."
And he did. It hit him like lightning. But then, he thought of Samantha and how much he wanted to see her again. Kaervek grew cross.
"Puerile mortals!" the man of darkness spat. "You will give us the Mox Jet or Samantha will pay for your negligence with her life!"
"What?! No. You leave her alone!"
"We have waited too long for all of this to be blown away! Give us what we want or we shall take what you hold must dear!"
Here, Kaervek appeared to just explode and set the room ablaze in a fiery black inferno. George grabbed Micheal by the collar and pulled him out before any of the flames ignited upon them. They immediately left and saw seething black bolts ripping ugly overhanging patterns into the sides of the surrounding buildings as the rioting continued to rage out of control.
"I have to find my girl, George. I can't let anything happen to her." Micheal pleaded as they both piled back into his 4Runner.
.
And so, the two of them were off for Urbana, Illinois, not realizing that the small blue orbs that were once so far off were now a whole lot bigger.
.
When a man lies,
He murders some part of the world
These are the pale moments
Which men miscall their lives
All this I cannot bear to witness any longer
Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home?
Cliff Burton, To Live Is To Die
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