DT4 - Chapter 43

DT4 - Chapter 43

Everywhere the strange crimson eyes looked, space twisted, and the princess felt a piercing pain in her stomach when one eye glanced at her. Before the pain could get worse, a strand of hair spun into a needle, stabbed through it, causing it to fade away, and taking the pain it had caused with it. With a roar, the masked man launched himself forward, more eyes appearing around him, as he attempted to fight his way through the sea of hair between him and the queen.

Isabelle, who had been hiding in the charm Garrett had given the princess for the last month, fought furiously, trying to eliminate each of the eyes as it was manifesting, while also blocking the masked man's path forward, letting out a shriek that caused him to stumble backwards. She held the queen with one arm as she pointed her other hand forward. There was a flash of silver as a mysterious needle shot towards the man's mask, but the large vertical eye glanced at it, causing it to bounce away, as if struck by a physical force.

The chaos, which had largely died down in the palace after the princess was captured, erupted once again, as Garrett's supernatural forces battled against the masked man's nightmares. Though the masked man and Isabelle were evenly matched, Garrett had no attention to spare for them. He was currently sitting against the wall in the room where Duke Argov was trapped, desperately trying to undo the effect of the mysterious artifact that kept him in place.

Garrett had plenty of experience with liminal spaces, between the hollow space in the mirror controlled by Isabelle and Kabod's Maze, which he actually had on him. This, however, was a completely different matter, as there didn't seem to be an object it was tied to. Instead, whatever the masked man had activated had pulled the duke into the dream world, forcing him into a space inside his mind that consisted of only the single room he had been in, making it impossible for him to escape.

Garrett had been examining it for the last few minutes, and was at a loss. Had there been a mysterious artifact for him to deal with, he was confident that he could have at least disrupted it, but the folded space in front of him felt as if it would devour him entirely if he got too close. Wishing for the umpteenth time that he had the dreamer's throne, Garrett finally took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and sent a strand of mental energy into the prism.

The dreamer's throne was without a doubt his greatest advantage, yet Garrett knew that he couldn't wait until it was available to deal with this. As risky as it was, it was a risk he had to take. To Garrett, it felt like he had stepped into a world of mirrors. Everything bent around him, replicated millions of times in every direction. As soon as he entered, he felt the familiar air of the dream, and stood up, his finger twitched, and a dream flower bloomed at his feet.

He could see Duke Arkov in the distance. Yet the problem was, there were millions, maybe even billions, of copies of the Duke, spreading out in front of him. Garrett had no idea how many iterations of the same room the Duke had been through, but he had a suspicion that the Duke was burning through them as fast as possible.

Taking a step forward, he created another dream flower, planting it at his feet. One step after the other, he proceeded into the fractured world, leaving a trail of dream flowers behind. After walking for a minute, he stopped and turned to look behind him, where there should have been a single dream flower. There were dozens, which quickly multiplied to hundreds, and then thousands. The longer he looked, the more dream flowers he saw, until they filled his vision.

"Well, that's not good," he muttered.

Feeling a hint of a presence behind him, Garrett turned and saw a sight that chilled him to the bone. Hanging in the air was a single vertical crimson eye that blinked slowly. It carried the aura of the crimson eye of Shalmoroth, and it widened ever so slightly as it caught sight of Garrett.

"You are that thief."

Even as the voice rippled around Garrett, his surroundings changed, transforming into a wide, empty space. Realizing he had just been pulled into a mental landscape, Garrett saw the eye in front of him had transformed, into a tall woman whose beautiful body was shrouded in a sheer red dress. Her face was perfect, and all the more inhuman for it. And above her closed eyes, in the middle of her forehead, sat a vertical crimson eye that stared at Garrett emotionlessly.

"We finally meet. Tell me, what is your name?"

"Isn't it more polite to introduce yourself first?" Garrett asked, doing his best to calm his racing heart.

The woman's lips rose into a perfect smile, creating a creepy feeling when combined with the emotionless eye on her forehead.

"I suppose you're right, though one doesn't normally treat a thief politely. But have it your way. My name is Karis, Crimson Eye of Shalmoroth."

"I can't say I'm pleased to meet you, Karis, but my name is Garrett, Dreamer on the Throne."

For a moment, the inhumanly emotionless eye trembled, revealing fury and a hint of terror. As quickly as the emotions had come, they were gone, and Karis took a step toward Garrett.

"Will you return to me what you stole?"

The word rolled off of his tongue, landing with physical presence, shattering the world around him as his shadow screeched in agony, crimson eyes opening all over it. The emotion in each eye was different, but as the shadow was twisted by the power of Garrett's command, more and more of them transformed from anger and disdain into fear and terror. The image of Karis opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but before she could, her body cracked apart, joining the shadow in death.

As the air shifted, Garrett found himself back in the prism, his head pounding from the exertion of wielding the throne's force through his soul spark. Gritting his teeth as he fought through the piercing pain in his head, Garrett spoke once more.

"Shatter."

An overwhelming force erupted from him as his soul spark unleashed its energy, smashing the scattered images and causing them to fracture. Without hesitating, he turned and ran, his feet landing on the trail of flowers he had left behind. Even though there were thousands of them spread out, the ones he had planted called to him, ushering him out into the waking world.

With a gasp, his eyes snapped open, and he felt a trickle of blood running from his nose. Wiping it with his sleeve, he breathed as deeply as he could, trying to ease the pain running amok in his skull. In front of him, the folded space shook, a large crack running down it. And then, with a bang, Duke Arkov was free. His presence exploded outward, blasting through the walls and roof of the room, completely obliterating a huge chunk of the wall as stone was sent flying into the distance, and blowing off the roof.

Realizing he had finally escaped, Duke Arkov let out a loud shout, causing every living being in the city to feel a deep sense of fear. A massive sword manifested in the air behind him, and everywhere Duke Arkov looked, the world seemed to peel away, as if cut by a blade. The man in the red mask had still been fighting against Isabelle when the Duke stepped from his prison. And when he heard the furious roar, he shivered. Even as the Duke's gaze swung over, he frantically tore at the air in front of him, producing a thick gash that opened like a crimson eye, diving through just before the Duke's gaze landed where he had been standing. The eye was only half closed when it was torn apart, cut to shreds under the weight of Duke Arkov's aura.

Isabelle was still holding the Queen tightly, protecting her. With the dregs of his mental energy, Garrett commanded her to retreat. Moving so fast it looked like he teleported, Duke Arkov suddenly stood in front of Isabelle, his hand reaching for her, past the Queen's head. Isabelle's body flickered as she retreated to the flower pendant. But before she could jump away, the Duke frowned and grabbed it. Seeing that he was about to crush it, Queen Eloise shouted for him to stop.

"Don't harm her. She was protecting me."

Her shout came just in time to save the small pendant from being crushed into a million pieces, likely taking Isabelle along with it. Duke Arkov looked around once more, the sword behind him thrumming, as the door was ripped apart.

"Follow me," he said, as he began to walk out of the room.

Her face pale, the Queen followed, while Garrett, who was lying as still as possible in the room Duke Arkov had just left, desperately sent commands to the flower ghouls to retreat. As the Duke walked through the palace and witnessed the devastation, his anger grew. Yet strangely, he found not even a single enemy alive. By the time he reached the ground floor, he had seen hundreds, all half-eaten or drained of their life force. Yet not a single living creature appeared in front of him.

Garrett, who was still up in the room where Duke Arkov had been trapped, finally let out a sigh of relief as the last of the flower ghouls slipped away. Quite a number of them had died in the fight, but he had had their companions drag their bodies down into the earth to re-purpose in the nest. It was unfortunate that he hadn't been able to take the rest of the bodies as well, but Garrett knew better than to push his luck. He was just trying to pull himself toward the edge of the ruined wall when a dark shadow poked up over it, flowing into the room before rising to reveal Ryn.

"Wow, you look rough,” she said, flashing a wide smile as she looked Garrett over. Her gaze turned to the ruined room and the massive hole in the wall and ceiling, and she let out a long whistle. "This wasn't you, right? I mean, I know you're strong, but—"

Interrupting her, Garrett shook his head.

"No, it was the Duke. But we don't have time to mess around. We need to go.'"

"Sure."

"Come along," she said. Crouching next to him, she picked Garrett up and then whirled around, before dashing to the edge of the room and diving out through the hole Duke Arkov's aura had formed. Massive black wings snapped open on her back, catching the air just before they began to fall, allowing them to glide forward. The wind whipped at Garrett's hair and clothes, and he felt a lurch of vertigo as he caught sight of the ground slipping past almost two hundred feet below. But Ryn kept a good grip on him, and after a moment they were already over the palace wall.

"Hold on," she said, and the wings behind her suddenly tucked as she dove down towards the city below.