<h2>CHAPTER 94 – THE DARK LORD’S CURSE</h2>


    The dark cloud diminished but was not defeated. The surviving breaths of shadow and the dying breaths of the dark lord’s minions swarmed around the pile of dead bodies on the ridge outside Zepathorum. They swooped in, slowed, and slid through the cracks of the pit of death. The dark cloud heated up and fused with the pile of corpses, melting it all together, boiling it down to a throbbing black and yellow egg. From inside an elbow ruptured the sack. The Dark Lord spilled out, a changed man. If his new form could even be considered human.


    Malinor stood up, still in his fused vanity mask, and long pointy, dragon-like ears, creepy armor, and dark cloak. His army was obliterated. Beaten, but not yet defeated. It mattered not. He summoned the voidstabber scepter from his tenure in the Southlands. He blessed it with the ancient shadow caster chant and hurled the Scepter of Apophas into the black clouds over the Serengeti, as they retreated south. The voidstabber scepter altered its course and hooked the clouds, plunging them into Lake Niobi.


    Shadow met water.


    The darkness swirled inside the lake. All the winds stopped. Mitakahn felt distracted. The lake water began to boil and spoil. A growing shadow spread over the bottom of the lake. It transformed the water into a dense swamp of darkness and disease. The water oozed out and sank into the ground. The black algae caked over the lake and spread its filth. The shadow swirling around and the Black Abyss opened.


    The Dark Lord walked out onto the lake and the living shadow crawled up his legs. He laughed. The ecstasy of so much energy coursing through his body overwhelmed his senses. He dropped to his knees and let his physical form melt away into nothing but cloak and cloth, which was absorbed into the mutated lake.


    The lake bubbled in blackness and then drained in an instant. Out from the black abyss sprang two gigantic chains tight as if attached to something. Connected to those chains were sledgehammers with sharpened, pickax-like edges on the backs. The chains tightened and the hammers caught the ground, grabbing a hold. From the Black Abyss came a figure larger than the entire citadel and almost as wide as the lake it crawled out, the giant slowly climbed out of the abyss and onto the Serengeti.


    Too big to go unnoticed, it attracted the unanimously horrified attention of everyone rejoicing in the Citadel courtyard. Mitakahn and Axion stood side by side, in awe, and completely caught off guard, looking up at the unbelievable sight. It was some sort of abysmal combination of the dragon and lion gods, the Dark Lord’s ultimate juggernaut form. Now he hungered for the Phoenix.


    Malinor was covered in a dark growth and his eyes were carved out like glowing white oblong orbs. Wild horns and fangs curled out of his hideous face and mouth. Worn skin patched together by infected scars covered his massive head. His head was wide, and his eyes were flat and empty. There was barely any self-awareness behind the burnt metal vanity mask forged into its face.


    The giant was the primal Malinor, pure chaos harnessed inside a massive hollow body. Its movements were slow but momentous. Its legs moved as if they had no sense of gravity. The gigantic harbinger of death threw its hammers around on the chains connected to its wrists, reaping havoc on the abandoned Serengeti.


    “Juggernaut!” screamed Anilithyìstad in a sweeping declaration.


    Everyone scrambled.


    Excelsior motioned Orion to head for the Citadel, but the pup remained by his side.


    “Just go, Orion!” demanded Excelsior. “We have no more use for you here.”


    The loyal canine lowered his ears. Excelsior was preoccupied but could feel the spirit of his soulmate dwindle, when not needed, so he charged Orion with a mission, “Protect the Queen at all costs.”


    Orion’s short furry ears popped back up and he followed Anilithyìstad and Adyána. The giant came for the citadel and raised its arm. The chain followed, bringing up the sledgehammer. Anilithyìstad put Adyána on top of Orion and helped Paxikahn carry Jericho as they all ran inside with the civilians.


    The hammer came down on the Citadel. It was deflected by a blast from King Axion’s FireSword. The young lion king lunged forth into the air, clashing with the juggernaut before the citadel. A fraction of the giant’s size, Axion had trouble staying airborne. He tried his best to fight back. Eberlyn swooped in and prevented the king from pushing himself too far.


    Cel’a escorted Adyana and the rest back into the Citadel. Orion stood by the doors, guarding Adyána and already eagerly anticipated the return of his master. Paxikahn began to carry Jericho up the spiraling stairs. Adyána started barricading the door, but her brother stopped her.


    “What are you doing?” Adyána asked.


    “If that thing comes for us, it’s going to tear the walls down and not come through the front door. All we do now is pray they stop it.”


    “Worry not, my queen. We will secure the main doors and the assembly. Take care of your family.” said Cel’a.


    Without their own chariots like the chrome-faced condors they were not able to fight as the others do. The bravest among them sought out ways to be helpful at the Citadel. Adyána listened to Cel’a and headed upstairs with her brothers and Jericho.


    King Axion and Eberlyn would not last long against the monster. Mitakahn and his company took flight once again. Chronis perched himself on the roof of the Citadel and watched Mitakahn fly off on the Phoenix. Mortikahn jumped on the back of Anilithion’s condor, and they flew off together, brothers united.


    Adyána was stopped by Anilithyìstad as they passed through the Throne Room. There was Jericho lying down at the center of the floor. The balconies were still down and opened around the Throne room. Paxikahn had walked to the other side after putting Jericho down, peering out south, watching the fight in the distance.


    Adyána checked on Jericho, who was sleeping on the ground. Anilithyìstad walked over to Paxikahn. They both watched in silence at the epic battle unfolding before them. Anilithyìstad had seen many strange and horrible things in his lifetime, but never anything like this. His first born nephew was flying by fire, while his sons were riding a titan bird at a towering monster. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    The company of heroes approached the rampaging juggernaut. The first one there, Mitakahn took the Phoenix in front of the giant.


    “DARK LORD MALINOR!” Mitakahn screamed at the top of his lungs. He pulled out his sword and held it high. “IT IS TIME TO MEET YOUR END!”


    The Dark Lord juggernaut turned face to face with Mitakahn.


    It bellowed one drawn out word. “DIE!”


    Its grumble was a monotonous baritone, shaking the very foundation of MagnaThora; all without a single movement from its mouth. Everyone moved into action.


    Bridger led the archers, including: Anilithion and Mortikahn (on the same bird), Tron, and Kunezar. Humbler flew down the giant’s arm towards his shoulder, as he passed its head he brought the face of his hammer across the giant’s temple. The mighty beast roared in pain and swatted after the escaping Humbler condor.


    Excelsior moved up the juggernaut’s spine. Axion and Eberlyn both blew streams of fire onto it. The giant growled again. Excelsior came over its head and jumped off of his condor. He pulled out both of his swords and swung his hips forward, putting his feet in front of him on the traveling winds.


    Malinor picked his hammers back up. Mitakahn pulled out an arrow from his quiver and loaded it. Malinor’s chains retracted into his arms. He lowered the loaded arrow onto the Phoenix’s head and lit it aflame. Mitakahn brought the bow back up and lined it with his sight. The giant Dark Lord focused on the Phoenix in front of him. Mitakahn fired the arrow. It soared through the air as Axion and Eberlyn flew up on either side of Mitakahn, blocking Malinor’s hammer strokes. Axion clashed with the hammer and the FireSword cut clean through. It fell, in two halves, from the juggernaut’s control.


    Malinor knocked Axion out of the sky with his empty hand and then picked up the chains. Excelsior, still free falling through the air, planned for a face-side landing. Mitakahn’s flaming arrow finally hit the juggernaut in the throat and it went into an uproar once again. The giant’s mouth opened up and Excelsior fell straight down into its throat. Mitakahn and others who saw it watched in utter dismay, as the giant demon ate Excelsior alive.


    Kunezar swept in and caught Axion. Mitakahn panicked. He did not know what to do about Excelsior. Was he dead or alive? The metal links emerged once again from the giant’s flesh.


    Eberlyn rushed to Axion’s side. Anilithion and Mortikahn rose up to the head of the juggernaut, both still firing arrows, to where Excelsior’s chrome-faced condor was flying. They lined up with the condor and Mortikahn jumped onto it.


    Anilithyìstad barely caught them getting separated back at the Citadel. What was happening to Lake Niobi was getting harder and harder to ignore. The darkness inside the abyss was just as alive as the juggernaut. He tapped his younger brother on the shoulder and motioned at the black abyss. They both looked down at its slow pulsing and lethargic infection. Its shadow algae ate into the shoreline.


    “We have to get down there.”


    They told Adyána to take care of Jericho as they ran back downstairs. Anilithyìstad shook his head as he followed Paxikahn down the dreaded spiral staircase.


    “All these contraptions built into this fortress, and they couldn’t come up with a faster way to get downstairs?”


    Jericho awoke as they left. He turned to his aunt and asked what happened. She began to inform him of the most recent account of horror.


    Anilithyìstad and Paxikahn boarded their steeds in the lobby. Orion was no longer waiting by the doors. In fact, the canine was nowhere to be found. They rode out onto the beaches of Lake Niobi for the abyss. The Borigini brothers approached the black hole apprehensively.


    It was consuming the lake’s edges. That could only mean one thing. The beach was eroding, and soon it would devour the Citadel. Paxikahn got off his horse and knelt down close next to the shadow-filled algae.


    An Andromeda Orchid bloomed right before him. An ancient deadly flower, its effervescent amethyst roots made it look like liquid crystal. Its soft poisonous petals gradually faded to white. In the center of the flower were a couple of sharp needle stigmas.


    “Don’t get too close, Paxikahn.” But just as Anilithyìstad said that the flower shot its darts out. One hit Paxikahn directly in the neck as the others all sailed past them into his horse.


    Anilithyìstad ran his horse over to his brother and dismounted. The shadow of the abyss slowly spread onto the beach. He got down beside Paxikahn who was already feeling the effects of the stigmas and lethargically lying on the sand. Anilithyìstad watched helplessly as he approached. The algae plague splattered onto Paxikahn’s foot. Anilithyìstad pulled his brother’s boot off, and lifted him up, getting underneath his arm to drag him away. Paxikahn’s horse fell to its side, as they limped by it.


    Halfway to the Citadel door he decided they were far enough away, for now. Anilithyìstad stopped and treated his brother. The darts were still in his neck. Without any hesitation, he reached down and pulled them out, tossing them away. Anilithyìstad kept one and brought it up close to examine. The tip was emitting a small line of black blood. A good amount was fed into Paxikahn.


    Suddenly, the horse screamed as its heart stopped beating. The darkness infested its body and rotted it from the inside out. The ever-growing abyss in the lake felt the presence of newborn darkness and pulsated in the direction of the horse. It leapt forward, swallowing the horse up whole. Anilithyìstad looked on as Paxikahn started hyperventilating, cradling himself, and mumbling, “That’s me! That’s going to be me! That’s going to happen to me! I’m dead!”


    Anilithyìstad lifted Paxikahn up and onto his horse. “Listen to me, Pax. You’re going to be fine. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He looked deep into his brother’s eyes. The veins had swelled and turned the white around his pupils black. Anilithyìstad tried to cover his own discomfort and remounted. He kicked open the doors and ran into the lobby. He yelled his new orders out directly and clearly as his horse galloped up the spiral staircase, saying, “EVACUATE THE CITADEL!”


    Cel’a watched him fly up the spiral staircase in haste. She did not argue. She did not ignore his orders. she merely carried them out as slowly as possible. The Metuchen knight had forgotten in his panic that an entire city of people were sheltered down there.


    When Anilithyìstad got back up to the Throne Room, Adyána was sitting on the edge of the balcony with Jericho lying on the floor beside her, leaning his head on her lap. They both were watching the juggernaut and the abyss ravage the Pride.


    “Sister,” Anilithyìstad begged, “Paxikahn has been infected by the darkness.”


    “By what?” Jericho asked superfluously.


    “By these…” Anilithyìstad showed them the flower dart he was carrying, when he noticed the tips of his fingers holding the darts were turning black. He too was infected.


    “Get back!”


    He tossed the dart off the balcony and showed them his shadow-cursed hand. Adyána looked back at her fallen brother. Paxikahn’s eyes bled black tears down his cheek as he began to turn. Anilithyìstad sat near the edge with Paxikahn who began to cough and hack up bile. Adyána cried on her knees in the throne room, with a battle raging behind her in the background and her brother slowly dying before her.


    Anilithyìstad rubbed his hand as he watched the fight from afar. After all, that was all he could do now. It seemed that passing up the chance to continue fighting was his ultimate downfall. Right now, he could be helping in the great fight to slay the massive demon, but instead he would rot helplessly as an onlooker. The Phoenix rose up and flew towards them.


    Anilithyìstad got to his feet. Paxikahn could not. Paxikahn’s eyes were closed by the growing shadow inside of him. Anilithyìstad tucked his black hand into his cloak and Adyána approached them on the edge of the balcony. Silently they watched the fight outside.