A Darker Shade of Sorcery by - (books to read fiction .TXT) 📖

each Venator only acquired seconds before the trial took place.

“And remember,” he warned as Evan turned towards the swirling portal, “if in doubt, just blast ‘em to pieces.”

As Evan made to jump into the portal, he knew something was dreadfully wrong.

Screams erupted throughout the Fortress.

*

It was a weak wind tonight, one that struggled to rustle a leaf, and failed to part the thick layers of fog surrounding Veneseron.

The gloom was fathomless on this starless night. If the wanderer’s eyes hadn’t been long accustomed to his surroundings, he would have surely lost himself. Deeper and deeper he wandered, delving into the very heart of Veneseron forest.

His breathing was ragged with excitement. Tonight at last would put an end to it all. An end to the existence of those filthy vermin who thought they belonged here.

This was his forest, it had been for hundreds of years, his ancestors for millennia

334

before that. Tonight he would reclaim it. Let Kurrlan do what he wants with the Fortress, but the forest is mine, that was their arrangement.

The wanderer wandered no more, striding with a purpose into the vast clearing. He took the object from his cloak and hissed the word Kurrlan had instructed him to speak. The instrument ignited like a sparkler, triggering a violent eruption in the very fabric of the world.

A portal opened before him.

He stepped back, lowering the instrument and surveying what he’d done. Only an insider could've done it. Veneseron was protected by Vanderain from all outside magic, but Vanderain wasn’t here.

He’d stolen a Rambrace from one of the Master's chambers. He'd used it to travel the realms, to find one such as Kurrlan who would help him destroy the Venators.

Lord Kurrlan had used his own sorcery on the Rambrace, creating a direct link between Veneseron and his realm. This would be the third time he or his accomplice opened the portal, but this time Kurrlan was going to unleash his army.

Tonight the wanderer and his accomplice had disabled the magic traps which warned the Masters of demonic intruders. They’d never see the invasion coming.

The crimson portal gave one final pulse… then the demonic horde spewed forth.

Slow at first, grotesque limbs groping for ground. Then faster, as the otherworldly hands found purchase and moved in. Erratic, frenetic, gruesome, the demons clawed their way out of hell’s abyss, polluting their new home.

The wanderer obscured himself in the shadows, his work done.

*

335

If someone in the Fortress happened to look out of a window, they may have seen them approach and been able to give warning. Unfortunately they did not.

Unnatural shadows exploded out of the trees onto the fields, not yet taking clarity under cover of darkness and rolling mists.

They loped, they slithered, they crawled, they scuttled and they leapt. All the awful amalgamations the human mind could comprehend, and some it could not, made their way to the Fortress. For once the fiends were silent, it was in their nature to shriek wildly, laugh ghoulishly and roar thunderously as they prepared to attack, but this time they had been ordered to not make a sound, at least until the killing started.

They were ordered to kill all but one. At all costs they were to leave the boy untouched, he was important above all.

The first of them reached the nearest castle.

With silent mirth and insatiable hunger those who could began to climb, scuttling up the walls like giant spiders, mammoth insects whose forms were worse than any giant bug could ever be.

The first of them reached the first window, where inside; sleeping, lay the first Venator victim.

336

Chapter 23- Demon Invasion

The scream still rang in his ears.

Not any scream, a scream so full of horror and agony it could only mean one thing.

As Evan stepped away from the trial portal, he heard Gettelung cry out as the door exploded open.

Mad cackles and insane shrieks filled the chamber. Evan surveyed the scene in dismay. Five demons already lay dead, burned to a crisp. Three more had Gettelung pinned up against the corner of the chamber, trying to rip him limb from limb.

Evan surged into action, ripping his sword from its sheath and plunging into their midst, whilst simultaneously flicking the switch to make Ruaden morph from a dagger into a sword.

The first demon wasn’t aware of Evan until his sword had sloshed through its rubbery back. It keeled over as Evan yanked Ruaden free. Gettelung dealt with the others himself. His hands now released, he placed each one on the remaining minion’s heads and burned their brains from the inside out.

As the demons fell, their heads blown off, Evan heard more shrieks reverberate around the castle.

Gettelung opened his mouth to speak but then a black blur struck him in the side, throwing him to the floor. Evan spun to see the wounded body of the demon he

337

thought he'd killed rise back up, having just deposited its stinger in Gettelung’s body.

With half a roar of anger, half a scream of terror, Evan hacked its body into chunks.

He hurried over to Gettelung. The demon’s stinger was lodged in his stomach, oozing green venom.

“Gettelung,” Evan pleaded, but the Master laid a hand on his shoulder, trying to speak as the poison took hold of him.

“Go, Evan! Find Tarensen and stay with him, you need to get out of here.”

“But what about you, I can’t just leave you-”

“You must,” Gettelung gasped. “I will only slow you down, you need to get yourself to the Master's Citadel immediately, you’ll be protected there.”

“But--you’ll die,” Evan choked.

Gettelung pulled the venomous stinger out of his body with a groan, throwing it away from him as he gushed crimson.

“Maybe… maybe not…who knows how potent this poison is.” His eyes stared grimly into Evan’s own.

“But if more demons come here, you’ll be vulnerable.”

“Then pray they do not. Now go. Get to the Citadel before the Fortress is overrun.”

Evan continued to hesitate.

“NOW!” Gettelung roared.

Evan ran, desperately wishing one of his magic abilities had been healing, and dreading what he would find beyond the door.

The passageway appeared empty, yet a second later it echoed with a demon’s keen.

His blood boiling, his head spinning with chaotic thoughts, Evan raced down to the end of the corridor, and into the next, and the next.

338

In the fourth corridor he encountered a wolf-headed brute with the wings of an eagle. Its lupine head snapped towards Evan as he crossed its path. Evan never stopped running. Before the demon could spread its wings and take flight, he rammed Ruaden straight through its chest, piercing the heart.

The demon died silently, and Evan hurried on, moving downwards through the castle, praying he could find Tarensen before any Venator was killed. What if someone's already dead?

As he streaked down a colossal set of stone steps his worst fear was confirmed, the fear he’d purposefully refused to think about since the demons attacked the trial chamber.

He overlooked a banister down to a landing below. This vast space of the castle had become a battlefield, a battle where Realmers fought against a multitude of abhorrent monsters.

A demon army had invaded Veneseron. No longer had they come for him alone or in small groups, a whole horde had assaulted the Fortress just to get him. All his fellow Venators were fighting for their lives because of him.

Evan couldn’t bear it. With a roar of rage, filled with more anger than he'd ever felt in his life, he vaulted the banister and landed in the blood drenched chaos below.

It was anarchy.

Magic blazed, demons screeched. Condensed energy shot out of Venators hands to smash into twisted bodies. Flames engulfed, ice froze, bullets ripped into demon flesh and the element of air flung bodies across the room.

Evan saw one girl firing flame tipped arrows at a crowd of fiends, whilst another lobbed grenade after grenade at the minions, causing electric explosions which sent body parts everywhere.

339

He even saw Halfrigg in the commotion, with what looked like a powerfully enchanted spoon, slapping demons’ heads off.

Evan whipped through the confusion like an inferno, his sword cutting down here, his magic striking down there. A tempest of emerald flames swirled as he cast it at his foes. He then willed the flames to ignite Ruaden’s blade as he cut a bloody, fiery swathe through them all.

A trio of demons surrounded Evan, but he beheaded two of them simultaneously, before stabbing the third through one of its five eye sockets.

Another group of monsters crashed through a window. These demons were armed with their own enchanted blades. Fortunately an Arch-Realmer burst on to the scene, carrying a Spellzooka.

“Everyone down,” he roared to his fellow Realmers.

Evan threw himself to the floor as the Spellzooka fired off a huge bomb of electricity that exploded amidst the new demon group with a terrifying blast, frying them to ash.

Evan longed to continue venting his rage, but he couldn’t ignore Gettelung’s command. The demons were here to get him, not the other Venators. He needed to find Tarensen.

He hacked a crimson path through the room, tearing down yet another flight of steps and racing across more stone floors until he burst out into the misty night.

Horror clasped at his throat as he saw demons everywhere.

They ran in all directions, many crawling up the castle walls and sneaking in through windows. Other demons flew through the air, picking out their victims.

Fortunately many higher ranked Realmers were using their guns and bows to shoot the monsters down. As Evan arrived an Arch-Realmer threw his spear at one fiend

340

climbing the Fortress. The spear sunk deep into the demon’s back, it screeched once, then fell to the ground with a messy splat.

Evan struck out towards the Master's Citadel, but he didn’t take more than five steps before a huge winged brute was on him.

It hit him from behind, landing on him as they fell to the floor. Ruaden clattered out of his hand, but his other reached instinctively for the demon’s beak. Within seconds the beak had melted and the beast wailed in agony.

An axe soared past Evan’s head next, cleaving the demon in half.

Evan turned to see Jed standing over him.

“You noob.” Jed grinned.

“Jed,” Evan exclaimed, getting to his feet and retrieving Ruaden.

Jed wasn’t alone, Emillia, Zeke, Xavier and Elijah were with him. They were all tense and ready for battle.

Where was Brooke?

“They came through the windows at Ethanc’s,” Jed gasped, “smashed the aquarium and everything, we were lucky to have gotten out without drowning.”

“I’m so sorry,” Evan started.

“No time for that now,” Jed intercepted him.

“We need to find Brooke,” said Elijah.

“You can’t go into Castle-Coterie, there’s more of them,” Evan said, hoping against hope Brooke wasn’t inside.

“They’re everywhere, mate,” Jed argued, hefting his axe and moving in the direction Evan had just come from.

“No, we need to get to the Citadel,” said Evan. “Tarensen and the other Masters will be there.”