//------------------------------// // Chapter Seven // Story: A Beacon of Light // by Nobrains //------------------------------// Chapter Seven Hours passed by while the two trekked the forest's roads. Eventually the road simply ended and they were forced to maneuver around trees and foliage once more. My favorite, Titus thought to himself bitterly. Something was wrong; however, he wasn't able to make sense of it until Lyra voiced the concern out loud. “The sun should have been up by now.” She said, her head looking up to the sky, desperate to find any beam of light through the canopy up above. “Celestia should have brought the sun up by now...” He looked up and found the same thing, darkness. “You're right.” He turned to her, hanging her head over his shoulder. “Your god's control the sun and moon?” She looked at him for a second in disbelief. “I told you that!” She looked away from him. “I thought you were paying attention when I explained all that...” Titus nudged her with his shoulder and she tightened her grip on him in response. “Ack! I'm sorry! It was my fault!” The grip loosened, and Lyra looked at him, pleased. “Next time pay attention then!” Titus laughed for the first time this dreadful night. “Alright alright you win.” He kept his mouth out of her sight. “Women...” he muttered. The grip tightened once more. “What was that?” “Nothing, I swear!” “Good.” She loosened her grip for the last time and looked around, hoping to find some way out of this place. “How much longer do you think we have to go?” There was no answer, and Lyra got irritated. She smacked Titus upside the head lightly “Anypony home? Hello.....” A gloved finger came up to her mouth, and she stopped speaking that instant. Titus looked around frantically, seeming to take notice in something. “The trees are starting to resign. You can tell if you look closely.” He pointed around to the evidence. “See how they're becoming farther spaced?” She did take notice, but she also noticed another thing. Shadows. They were twisting across and around the trees, closing in on them. “It's time to go, Titus!” She yelled at him. “Run!!” The Paladin saw what was enfolding around them now also, and broke off into a heavy sprint. He had not run like this since the day in the Mana-Tombs. That only made him run faster, and soon he was diving around and about tree by tree. Lyra looked back, and found that the shadows were not only following them, but were tearing up the trees as they passed through them, in a torrent of wood chips and cackling laughter. “Don't go Beacon... we only wish to return you to the dark...” they laughed sinisterly. “What do they mean?!” Lyra cried out to Titus. “What’s this Beacon they're talking about?” “No time to explain!” He panted “We've got to keep going before they get us!” She kept her eye on what was enfolding behind her. They were only getting closer, and they're cackling and destruction only increasing. She wasn't afraid, however. She was with Titus, her guardian and protector. She knew she would make it out of here. If she just kept her hold on her love, she would be alright. For Titus it was a very different mindset. He had to get out of here for two reasons: to find Eleii, and make sure Lyra was okay. He had no real concern for himself, the training and teachings had taken away any form of self-centered beliefs from his very being. So he ran, and ran, and ran. While Lyra held on for dear life, confident in her companion. Every time a shadow closed in and began to nip at Titus, he hopped and skipped with uncanny speed. Even he couldn't believe what he was doing. Then he saw the break in the trees, the end of this violent chase. But before he got out of here, he had a going away present of their shadowy pursuers. “Close your eyes!” He called to Lyra. He suddenly pulled around, Lyra's hind-legs flailing outwards from the sure speed of his rotation. He raised his hand into the air and clenched it once, saying a silent prayer to the Light, and asking for the strength to utilize its holy power once more. His prayer was answered once more and beams of light shot out of his hand like an explosion of Gnomish shrapnel. It honed in on the shadows that had been trailing them, and exploded into even more strands, hitting every last shadow in a violent explosion. They were dissipated in an instant, and the few remaining shadows soon retreated as Titus kept his hand up to further threaten another wave of pain for any that chose to pursue them. Lyra looked upon the destruction he had caused. “That was amazing! Are you sure you aren't using magic?” Titus wiped his face. “I'm sure.” After he made sure they were clear of any potential threats, Titus walked out through the last row of trees, marking the end of the Everfree forest. What lay before them surprised even Titus. They stared upon a dead and abandoned land. It was like staring into the complete opposite of the world he had seen so far. Dead hills stretched for far as the eye could see, with no growth or any sign of life amongst the gray, dead dirt that covered the land. The moonlight shined down upon the land, doing little to censor the sense of dread and foreboding the land possessed. “By the Light...” Titus muttered. “I've never seen anything like this...” Lyra said softly. He looked around for any sign of civilization, and caught a strand of buildings far in the distance, with a dark castle looming over the patch of pony-made architecture. He began his march towards the buildings. If Eleii was going to be here, it was going to have to be around there, they couldn't hide her behind dead land, it was impossible. Each step seemed to suck a little bit of the will out of him, as if the land itself was draining him of his energy, and each step becoming more and more of a challenge. Damn this plate mail, he thought bitterly. For the extra protection it just wasn't worth it, not when it was doing this to him. He wanted to throw off all his armor and just fall into the dead dirt and sleep. Sleep for a long time, but he knew he couldn't. Not when there was two people counting on him for protection and guidance. No, the Light would not have it, and his mind wouldn't either. The body would suffer for unbelievable lengths before he would give up. He took each step with gritted teeth, his head kept down. “We're almost there.” Lyra informed him. He lifted up his head and found that the buildings were just as dead as the land. Upon further approach, they were stripped of all innards that would make a house from the interior. Even the ground within the buildings had been torn up. All that laid within them now was dirt, dust and...... bones, pony bones. Titus had seen enough of this to be desensitized to the images of death. This was the very stuff he had dealt with on many of his journeys, and did little to waver his resolve. Lyra had never seen like it before and was soon forced to bury he face into Titus' neck, horrified by the remains, thoughts of her skeletal captor rising up within her mind again, her grip tightening around Titus' neck once again. Titus took notice and put a hand on her hoof. “Hey, we're going to be fine.” He smiled faintly. “We'll be out of here soon enough.” She fought back tears and mimicked his smile, believing him fully. Suddenly, the faint sound of rattling began to surround them. Titus quickly brought Lyra around to his front and withdrew his hammer from behind his back. Lyra dropped to the ground in front of him, leaning on one of his legs for comfort and protection. From the ground, emerged more of the pygmy skeletal beings, their faces smiling violently, or lacking a jaw. Their surrounded the Paladin slowly, the eerie red light from their eye sockets dominating his sight. He had to be careful with Lyra at his side, he did not want to accidentally hurt her or blind her with the Holy Light. As they closed closer and closer he whispered to Lyra through clenched teeth. “As soon as I begin fighting, I need you to hop into one of the buildings.” “But there's dirt and dead things in there!” She cried. He looked down to her. “Please. Do this for me.” She seemed to get the message, and nodded quickly. Seconds seem to be like minutes as the skeletal beings circled around him. They were trying to intimidate him, he knew it. They lashed out in feigned attempts trying to get him to recoil. Lyra just wanted to scream but knew that she couldn't risk it here, not with Titus depending on her to hold through and be strong. She just waited and waited until it started. Suddenly, the first skeleton began to charge with Titus' back turned. He heard its scream before anything and quickly turned around and swept the thing of its bony legs and smashed its rib cage apart with a quick downward swing from his hammer. The others charged in as result. “Go! NOW!” Titus called to Lyra. She obeyed and ran for the nearest building and hopped in. A flurry of dust and dirt shot up around her, and she was scared she had just given away her position. She looked over the edge of the frame of the building she had dove into and found Titus smashing through what seemed to be an army of the vicious little skeletons. She fell slipped and fell onto her back. She did not land on anything flat, however. She looked to see the bumpy structure she had fallen upon, and quickly fought back a scream and shot back into her previous position by the frame. There laid the shattered remains of a small pony, its mouth opened agate in silent agony. It seemed to be staring right at her, begging for some kind of help or closure. Titus was fighting tooth and nail. Smashing through hordes of the skeletal beings and constantly calling upon the Light for assistance, either to smite his enemies or to repair his flesh if a claw connected somewhere he was unarmored. He swung his hammer with flourish, striking down 4 skeletal beings at once. He hoped it would stop soon, the actions he performed were beginning to tax his energy greatly. But they kept coming, and didn't seem to be stemming at all. They crawled out from the ground constantly, and Titus soon realized what was happening. They weren't coming from any kind of burial that had taken place under the city. Something was sending them up here in troves. There was a master mind to this attack, not just random violence. He smashed through one more set of assailants and quickly called down a Consecration to surround him. Cracking through the ground and sending up beams of light, burning anyone that dared step on the ground. But that was just the beginning. Titus brought his hammer high above his head, and brought it down onto the exposed ground with a deafening thud. Tremors shot through the abandoned town as Titus ran for the building he had seen Lyra retreat too. He flew over the frame into the dusty pit for protection. He looked for Lyra, catching sight of her by the frame and quickly snatched her and curled up around the green Unicorn to protect her from what was to come. The site where Titus had stuck the earth had begun to implode and collapse into the ground. Many skeletons that had just recently emerged looked around to see where their target had gone. But as the ground began to collapse and fall apart around them, they were forced to fall away from the sight or fall to their doom. Many did just that and simply plummeted to their ends below. The tremors finally ceased and Titus opened his eyes. He struggled to get up, but found a little Unicorn reasserting herself onto his back. He smiled as he felt the familiar warmth of hooves wrapping around his neck. It was good to have her back in check. He poked his head over the house's frame to get a glimpse at the destruction he had caused. There was a huge gaping hole in the middle of the settlement now, and the ground was still chipping crumbling away. Luckily his attackers seemed to have deserted for the time being. He pulled himself and Lyra out of the house, looking around for where to search first. The place did not seem significant at all. It was just a dead settlement in the middle of a dead land. He sighed, and looked up at the castle that loomed over them, its darkness foreboding and off putting. It lay up above on a hill overlooking the town, and it was obviously the main place of a government once when this land had been alive and well. He had seen all of this too often, places just left to fade away in time. It was disheartening, but he was still working on borrowed time, and he needed to find Eleii. He started to push towards the hill footing the castle. “Let me guess.” Lyra said bitterly. “We're going to go in there. The big scary castle and we're going to fight hordes of these things?” Titus loosened up and looked back at her. “More than likely, yes.” He started to head up the incline of the hill, “you can leave whenever you like.” He was answered with a smack to his head. “You sound like a broken record!” Then in another instant, she was nuzzling his face. “I am not leaving this place without you, and you know that!” “Hey, I could only hope.” He said with smirk. “I really don't want you to get hurt is all.” She used her horn to control one of Titus' arms and bring it to her head, rubbing her softly. “Don't worry about me. I'm sure we can handle anything.” She lipped the last sentence so he wouldn't hear. As long as we're together...