The Ultimate Sacrifice

by DarkWolf

Chapter 20: Darkness

Chapter 20: Darkness

The Princess did not exaggerate when she said it was dark. It was damn near pitch black! It was still morning too, and yet it seemed like it was midnight. When the group first went in, it was still decently bright in the woods. A little gloomy, but not really dark. It was after they travelled for a half hour that it really got bad. However, the night guard who was in their group looked as though he was in heaven. Sandman had to use the flashlight attached to his helmet, which was graciously given back to him before they left. Apparently the Princess had been holding on to it, and had forgotten to return it. He didn’t have it on for more than two seconds until the night guard whispered in an urgent tone to him, which made him jump like hell. He forgot how deep their voices were.

“Turn it off!” It whispered harshly.

“Turn it off? I can barely see!” Sandman whispered back.

“Yeah, don’t turn it off! I can’t see either!” One of the royal guards behind them whispered, followed by some whispers of agreement.

“Many of the monsters that lurk in these woods are attracted to light. Keep it off, I can guide you.” The night guard said reassuringly, but Sandman was still not completely convinced.

“Your eyes will adjust to it if you keep the light off.”

Sandman sighed, and eventually gave in and turned it off, leaving him and the others reliant on the one night guard to keep them on the thin trail.

“Just keep moving forward. It is an almost straight path for a while it looks like.”

“I doubt we will be able to stay on it for very long. The castle is North East from here, so once the trail turns we will have to go off-road.”

“Very well… I will inform you when the trail turns.”

The group walked for a about another ten minutes until the night guard stopped in front of them, causing Sandman to run into his flank.

“What is it?” Sandman asked as quiet as possible.

“The trail turns sharp to the left here… but there is something in front of us…” It said in a hushed tone. “Something is moving in the bushes, about twenty five feet away.”

Sandman slowly switched off the safety on his ACR, making only a faint clicking noise.

“I can’t see anything, remember? I can only see about five feet in front of me.” Sandman whispered angrily.

“Is it big?” A voice whispered behind Sandman, who he believed was O’Tipsey.

“I don’t hear anything.” Swift Wind whispered, coming from somewhere to his left.

All of a sudden, a deep growl came from in front of them, causing all of them to freeze on the spot.

“It’s a Manticore… a really big Manticore…” The night guard said, taking a small step back.

“I don’t know what the hell a Manticore is. Does it have naturally thick skin?”

“No, not really.”

“Does it use shields like a Unicorn?”

“No…”

“Then I can kill it…”

Sandman raised his ACR up, pointing it in front of the group. He raised his hand up to the light, but hesitated at the night guard’s voice.

“If you turn on that light, that thing is going to charge us…” The night guard whispered slowly. “It doesn’t see us right now…”

Sandman hesitated, staring into the pitch black. After a few more deep growls, heavy footfalls could be heard in front of them, slowly fading off until everything became quiet. The night guard let out a long sigh of relief.

“It is gone now. He did not see us.”

“What are you guys doing? Why are we stopped?” A familiar voice said from behind Sandman. He turned to make out the outline of a figure standing next to him.

“Frost?” Sandman asked.

“Yeah, it’s me. Why did we stop?”

“A Manticore was sitting in front of us.”

“What the hell is a Manticore?”

“An animal you do not want to mess with…” The night guard said in a more normal volume.

“Anyway, the trail cuts off here. We have to go off-roading from here on out. Hey, how well can you really see out here?” Sandman asked the night guard as he fumbled around in his pack.

“Very well. How do you think I saw that Manticore?”

“If I leave behind small white reflective tacks on the trees, do you think you could see them on the way back?”

“I suppose so.”

“Good. Frost, tighten up the splits between the two groups. Since it is not easy going anymore, I don’t want to get separated.”

“Got it.”

“Ok, let’s go.” Sandman said, but just as they start to move forward, another loud growl came from in front of them. Heavy footfalls followed, and it sounded like it was coming straight for them.

“What the hell is that?” Frost said, unclicking the safety on his ACR.

“I thought you said the Manticore went away…” Sandman asked the night guard.

“It was… it went off into the woods…” He responded a little shakily, turning his head this way and that, trying to lock onto the location of the noise.

“The hell with this, I can’t see shit!” Frost said angrily as he moved to switch on his light.

“NO!” Sandman almost yelled, trying to pull Frost’s hand away, but it was too late. His light flicked on, illuminating the small patch of forest they were in. No more than thirty feet away, a large figure stood, a small glare off of its eyes shining back at them. It let out a bloodcurdling roar that near shook the ground, and began to charge right at them.

“YOU IDIOTS!” The guard yelled out, pulling out a sword held on his small gear pack with him, and launching himself up into the tree branches out of sight. Night Weave, the other night guard, followed suit and did the same.

“Oh screw this! OPEN FIRE!” Sandman yelled as he turned on his light as well. Both him and Frost aimed and began to shoot directly at the charging mass of angry animal. The bursts went and hit the target directly, peppering its chest and head. After a few rounds, the Manticore fell to the ground mid-charge and slid to a stop in front of them.

“Well, that wasn’t so…” Sandman started, but simultaneous roars in the distance cut him off.

“Oh… that is not good…” Frost said. His voice was nearly a whisper.

Sandman took out the current magazine and replaced it with his fresh one, and Frost did the same.

“TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!” He heard a yell from up above him.

“GET OFF OF THE TRAIL!” Another one yelled down.

In one swift motion, both lights were off and the group began scattering off into nearby bushes and behind fallen trees. Most of the pegasi launched themselves up and landed in some branches hidden by the canopy. The roaring kept getting louder and louder, until footfalls were audible, and soon enough, about six or seven Manticores came bursting out from the woods.

“Don’t move… don’t make any noise…” Haybrun whispered quietly to the surrounding ponies.

The group of Manticores began to gather around their fallen comrade, roaring and making all sorts of noise that echoed throughout the entire forest. It continued on like this for what seemed like hours. Eventually, the biggest looking of them grabbed the dead one and threw it over its back, and made its way back into the deep woods along with the rest of them.

None of them felt like moving for a good while, but eventually, Sandman stood up and tried his best to walk back on the trail.

“What do you make of that?” Frost asked. The rest of the group made their way back onto the trail as well. The two night guards flew down out of the trees and landed in front of the two humans.

“Well… I… I don’t even know.” Sandman grumbled. “What is your name?” He asked to the night guard in his group.

“Shadow Prowler.”

“You think we are going to see any more of these, Shadow Prowler?”

“Hopefully not, but more than likely so.”

After a few glances between Sandman and Frost, they both spoke up.

“Good enough for me.” Sandman said.

“Same.”

“Well, we need to get moving. Catch up on lost time.” Sandman called out to the group. After regaining their bearings, they set back off into the woods, hoping there wouldn’t be anymore delays.

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Alexander walked down the deep, dark passageway that he had walked a couple thousand years ago. The place inside was torn apart, no doubt by his battle with the other elements so long ago. After a while, he managed to stumble into the central cavern, which was somehow still intact. Over at the center, what remained of the six pedestals stood. Most of them had large chunks missing or were completely toppled over. However, the sixth, and by far the most important, was still standing strong.

He approached the central pillar, and as he did, it slowly began to emit a faint aurora around it. The closer he got, the more pronounced and colorful it got.

“Could it be? Could it still work?” He thought out loud. It required at least five elements to be present, and he already had more than he needed at his disposal… but could it really still work without the other pedestals? He slowly reached out and touched the top of the central pedestal, causing the cavern to begin to shake. Fearing the whole place would collapse, he pulled his hand away as quick as possible, and the shaking stopped… but a second passage was revealed before him into another chamber.

He stepped inside, only to find what looked like a giant library. Books lined the walls and shelves of bookcases, although many looked tattered or near destroyed. He searched around for a little while longer, believing he was wasting his time. Just as he was ready to leave, he stumbled on a rather important looking book sitting in the middle of the cavern on a small pedestal. He stepped towards it, only to set off what appeared some form of trap. A small burst of magic shot out of the celling down on him, creating a shield around him.

“Well… this is going to be irritating…”

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The group had been walking for a very long time now, and they were actually starting to be able to see. The tacks that Sandman had placed were almost gone, and they only had a few left. They walked a little further, and hit a clearing. The newfound sunlight hit them like a train, causing them all to shield their eyes from such brightness after enduring what seemed like never ending darkness. It drastically affected the lunar guards, who kept to the edge of the forest.

“How far have we gone?” Haybrun asked Sandman when the groups rejoined one another.

“I believe we are almost there…” He responded, looking up at the sun. It looked as though it was around 4pm, a little off schedule

“Ok, I need one of you to fly up and see if you see anything.” Sandman called out. Swift Wind was the first to respond.

“I will do it, sir.” He said as he flew up into the sky.

The group began to lay around for a little bit, waiting for Swift Wind to come back. After a few minutes, he returned and landed down next to Sandman.

“I think I found it, sir… well, at least some form of structure.” He said excitedly.

“Where? What direction?”

“A little ways to the East. I saw what looked like a tower sticking up out of the trees, sir.”

“Ok, we are moving out! Get your gear!” Sandman yelled to the groups. After a minute or two, they were off towards what they hoped was the castle. Sandman and Frost were damn near ecstatic. There was only one thing on their minds… and that was home.

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After a few more traps and a few more incinerated books and destroyed walls, he managed to get to the book. It looked old and tattered, just like most of the other books, but it had a different feel to it. He opened up to find that it wasn’t a book, but really a tome of some sort, but he could not figure out the language that was scribbled all over the torn pages. He caught a few words in Latin, but most seemed like gibberish.

“Hmm… its some sort of… teleportation spell?” He thought out loud. “Could come to be useful…”

He took the book up off of the pedestal, only to set off another trap.

“Oh, for the love of…” He started, but ended up getting trapped in the middle of multiple shield traps. About eight went off at the same time, all hitting him and trapping him in another bubble.

“Irritating indeed…”

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After a few more minutes of travel, they indeed found the tower sticking up above the canopy. After a few more steps, a castle came into view… well, what was left of it anyway. It was torn apart in many places, and looked as though a bomb went off on it.

“Well, I guess we are here.” Sandman said as he stumbled around the ruins until he found a good entrance.

“My group, stay out here. Frost’s group, come with us.” Sandman announced as he turned on his light and began to walk inside. It was dark and gloomy on the inside, and overall seemed like a deathtrap. A strong wind looked like it would knock it all over on them. They all searched the remaining rooms and passageways, but to no avail.

After some time, they managed to find a passage that lead down into some tunnels.

“Did anyone find anything up here?” He called out, receiving a lot of no’s from the group.

“Well, down it is then…”

They didn’t have much trouble on the way down, as the tunnels were mostly straight. Although, many passages were blocked off by rubble.

“I sure hope the tome isn’t behind one of these blocked passages…” Sandman said to no one in particular.

“If it is, we got some serious problems…” Frost replied.

The passages widened into a large cavern that looked like all hell had broken loose in it. Chunks of the ceiling and walls were blown apart, and the center was littered with rubble. In the dead center, they saw what appeared to be some form of ritual altar. It consisted of a few knocked over pillars and a standing center pillar. As Sandman approached it, it started to glow with vibrant colors.

“Whoa… um… Frost?” Sandman asked cautiously.

“Yeah, Boss?”

“What is this?” He asked, pointing towards the pedestal.

At this point, most of the group had begun to gather around the pedestal, as it was the only portion of the room still intact. As Frost got closer, it began to glow even brighter.

“It’s a… wait, what? It’s glowing!” He said, causing Sandman to facepalm.

“Oh, thank you. I didn’t notice… Do you know what it is or why it is doing that?”

“I think I do…” A voice across the room said in a strong voice, which echoed throughout the rest of the cavern. They all turned to find a human standing near an open doorway that looked like a library of some sorts with a large leather book in his hands. He looked like he had been through hell and back. His clothes were torn in some places, and he was absolutely covered in dirt and mud.

“Who are you?” Sandman asked cautiously, keeping his hand over the trigger on his ACR.

“Who I am doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is the fact that the altar sees you two as element bearers. So, you must tell me. What element do you represent?”

“Element bearers? What the hell are you talking about? Who are you?!” Sandman shot back.

“Oh… so you don’t know… Oh well, it doesn’t matter. Makes things easier for me.”

Comments

[mccullou29]

AHAHAHAHAAAA! The plot thickens!

[Slireon]

Oh boy.

[CIA]

Oh frost you gullible scrub

[Fat Autistic Weeaboo2222]

Oh nuu its discord quick shoot him in the head

[Section Zero]

1503408

Nice Pic
What's your favorite scary movie?

[Section Zero]

1503408
Leadership
Obedient
Willpower
Ideals
Diversity
Support

[Lucky Aces]

Hey look what I found again! Sorry I didn't read it sooner but a few weeks ago I had just fixed my internet so I've been plowing through some 200 updates.

[damnaion]

dam

[PrincessLunaTheGamer]

1503408
I can so see that happening!