Chapter 20
The Mother of Demons

Hiss! The sound was cold and piercing in Oscar’s ears. It was one of the most morbid and frightening sounds that he had ever heard. Even in his current state, Oscar knew that any sane man would run away as fast as he could, but Oscar could not. The call propelled him onward, leaving him no choice but to obey.

Hiss!

He and the shadowman arrived at another area where Oscar had to choose between a half dozen caves, but he had no trouble choosing which one would lead him to his unwanted treasure.

He was getting closer.

…

“Donn,” Garnash said near the massive bull’s ear. “Can you tell me more about your story? I know about a war that was started over you and that you were a prized bull, but most of the tales about you and Finnbhennach have been lost to the ages.”

“Perhaps another time, young Gnome,” Donn Cuailnge said. “Coming events are more important.”

Garnash agreed, but his curiosity was still high. “How did you get through the tough times since, from what I hear, you basically lived a hellish existence?”

“That’s true, but one lady lifted my spirits and stayed loyal to me,” Donn Cuailnge revealed. “The Morrigan befriended me and brought me to the Chamber in my darkest hour. Hundreds of people had already died, and thousands more would have without her involvement.”

“Really? The Morrigan?” Dorian asked in shock. “I was always told that she was death to any who came in contact with her.”

“No,” Brendan interjected. “She can be quite helpful.”

Dorian turned to face Brendan. “How do you know?”

“She helped me, too.” He lowered his voice and whispered in Dorian’s ear. “And I’m pretty sure that she sent Donn here to help as well. Let’s hope he gets us there on time.”

“Worry not, Protector,” Donn bellowed. “The portal is close.”

The giant bull began to trot a little faster, encouraging his riders to hold on tightly. His hooves found solid footing on the dirt and stone path, running in the dead center to avoid the overhang of the bare branches of the bordering trees.

The air rushed past them swiftly, reminding Brendan of his time on the Clair. Dorian’s Uncle Sean could really get that dilapidated ship moving. Thinking of Sean made him appreciate all of the people and various species of magicks who had helped him along the way. So many of them sacrificed their time, their resources, or in some cases, their lives. If Brendan and the others couldn’t reach his dad in time then many more lives would be lost.

Brendan couldn’t fail.

“Donn, tell me what you meant by it being up to me to get us to the destination?” Brendan inquired of the bull.

“The entry points to the Chamber of the Nether are fleeting and fluid for the most part,” Donn stated. “There are four fixed on Earth, like the one that you went through in New York, and then there are other portals that we call floaters. If the ones who enter the floaters have enough focus and power, then they can send themselves pretty much anywhere in the world.”

“That can come in handy,” Rohl said, clinging to some bristly bull hair near Donn’s tail end.

“There, up ahead,” Donn announced. “The floating portal!”

…

Hiss!

It was coming from just around the tight curve, but when Oscar got to the bend he noticed that there was a deep fissure with only an eight-inch ledge to cross. There was no way that he could turn around or give up, so he and the shadowman flattened themselves against the cave wall as best they could and began scooting along cautiously. The wall varied in texture being both smooth in sections and jagged in others. The real challenge were the patches of footing littered with bits of rubble and debris that made Oscar’s foot lose its grip a few times.

Finally, they reached the end of the fissure, and the ledge merged with the cave floor. They walked on for another one hundred feet and came to an unexpected stop. A rock pile blocked the path. Several of the rocks weighed thousands of pounds and were too massive for Oscar to move or dig through. All he could think to do was stand there and try to come up with a way past. He didn’t have to wait long.

The shadowman floated forward and hovered near the rock pile. He started vibrating, slowly at first, and then faster and faster until the rocks disintegrated in front of Oscar’s eyes. The shadowman floated through the dust and out of his sight. Oscar coughed a few times and waved the dust out of his face. He followed the shadowman in, stepping on and over rock chunks that had survived the implosion.

Hiss!

Oscar made his way blindly through the cloud of pulverized rock and into the clearing. He had entered a cavern that felt as big as any football stadium in America with a ceiling that loomed hundreds and hundreds of feet above the floor. The width and length of the cavern was every bit as impressive as the height. There was so much floor space with only small variants in the heights of shelves along the perimeter. A small stream kept a steady flow as it meandered through the cavern.

The most surprising thing to find was the trilithon near the middle of the floor with the shadowman hovering nearby. Oscar was fascinated by the structure, and even if it wasn’t the source of the beacon he would have been drawn to it.

He took a deep, calming breath and began to walk across the cavern floor, fearful of what he would find.

…

Brendan was the first to hop down from the bull’s back. Once he reached the ground he used his powers to bring everyone else safely to the stones and dirt of the path.

“Thank you, Donn Cuailnge, we are in your debt,” Brendan thanked him.

“If you can stop the end of days, then we are all in your debt,” Donn replied. “I pray that fortune be in your favor.”

Donn turned back to the way he came and trotted away. Brendan didn’t waste any time and marched straight over to the stone wall that sat in among the line of trees. The archway was clear, but what was less obvious was how to open it. Stone slats were built up in the center of the archway affording no clue as to how to open them. When they had first entered the Chamber, they had to wait for the time to be right; at this moment they simply needed it to open.

“How do we open it?” Garnash asked.

“Not sure,” Dorian replied. “There’s no manual for something like this.”

“Wait, yes there is,” Brendan said, placing his hand in the center of the stones of the archway. “Donn said that I control this floating portal.”

“Good luck figuring that one out,” Rohl said in frustration.

“Not luck, Rohl, intuition,” Brendan corrected.

The stones felt cool to the touch, almost icy, but he kept his palm flat against the center stone. He closed his eyes, aware of the collectively held breath of his friends behind him, and concentrated on where he wanted to go. Flashes of thoughts burst in his mind while he concentrated on the cave in the southwest and on Caoranach and her prison. Mostly he thought about his father and what the poor man must have gone through since Elathan had snatched him away. That thought made him furious. Take us to my father, now!

The stone began to heat up beneath Brendan’s touch. The heat radiated out from his hand and brought a healthy coloring to the entire archway. It became warm and inviting as if the very doorway to hope was opening up.

He looked back at the others before pushing the doorway open. “I don’t know what or who we’ll find in here or what kind of danger we’ll be in, so if anyone wants to stay back, now’s the time to decide.”

“We’re in,” Lizzie and Frank said together.

“We’ve come this far,” Patty barked. “Me and Wanda are in it to win it, honey.”

Garnash and Rohl nodded and Dorian took Brendan’s hand. “We’re in it until the end, love.”

Brendan looked back at Ken and Simmons. “You guys don’t have to come.”

“Try and stop me, O’Neal,” Simmons said, reloading a magazine into each of his 9mms. “How about you, Ken? You up for a little adventure?”

He nodded. “Let’s do this.”

Brendan pushed the door open and had to block his eyes from the blinding light that poured in through the portal.

“Here we go,” Brendan said as he led the way into the portal.

The entire group stepped in and the door shut behind them, returning to its icy state and closing them in to wherever it ultimately sent them.

…

Conchar didn’t really know what to expect as he approached Caoranach’s prison trilithon. The being was known as the mother of demons, a serpent master, a manipulator of twisted life. Part of him was excited to cast eyes on her, but a small piece feared for his own life, feared that she would mutate him and his mind would belong to her. He knew it was hypocritical since he created Ruas on almost a daily basis, but he reasoned that the mind of the greatest necromancer on the planet was far too important to be tainted by some ancient demon maker.

Conchar crept closer, maintaining his shadow cover charm, and eventually he stood just outside of the trilithon, weary of its invisible boundary. It was pretty much an empty area from his point of view, so he moved along the circular boundary until he had examined the entire prison.

Empty.

Conchar looked back at the Seeker as he marched closer to the trilithons. A bit of panic rose up in his mind. What if this wasn’t the right location? What if Elathan is not pleased? It would be the Seeker’s fault!

The Seeker reached the invisible field and stopped. He stood there for a moment or two and then he began to step under the plank stone of the structure. Conchar was going to stop him, but it was too late, he had already passed too far in, but to the wizard’s surprise, nothing happened.

Conchar watched the Seeker walk to the center of the prison and stand. The Seeker pulled several blue crystals from his pocket and placed one right between his shoes. The crystal began burning into the soil and sank out of sight. The only sign that it was even there was the trail of smoke that piped up out of the hole.

It dawned on Conchar that the mother of demons was being held in this prison, but she was buried well below, trapped between the cool of the crust and the heat of the mantle.

The Seeker was going to set her free.

…

Traveling through the floating portal was a much different experience than entering the one at the CHH. There was no vacuum this time, though there was still movement, only it felt more like being flung through space. They were all oriented so they were vertical, but their feet never touched any solid surface and their legs never had to exert a single muscle. They just scooted along without friction or force.

“A door!” Garnash shouted.

“We’re moving too fast!” screamed Ken, holding his arms in front of his face to brace for the impact.

“No,” Brendan said calmly. “We’re slowing down.”

Gracefully, the groups decelerated and touched down gently on a dirt and stone path that lead to the exit. They checked to see if everyone was fine, and then Brendan placed his palm on the door and pushed.

The door creaked open and the group was met with darkness, complete and utter darkness.

“Where are we?” Wanda whispered.

“Smells weird in here,” Patty noted.

“Smells like a cave,” Simmons offered. “We used to go spelunking at Howe Caverns and a few other caverns when I was a kid. It’s an unforgettable smell.”

“If Dad is here and whoever is with him has a way of seeing in the dark and we don’t… ” Lizzie said, pausing for effect. “Then that puts us at a huge disadvantage!”

“I’m on it,” Garnash replied.

Brendan heard the scuffling of the Gnome’s feet as he left the group, apparently going further into the cave.

“I have pretty good vision in the dark,” Rohl offered. “All Púcas do.”

“What do you see, baby?” Patty asked.

Rohl stepped forward and squinted his eyes, allowing them to make a few adjustments for the amount of darkness. “I can’t tell you how big of a cave this is, but I know it’s enormous! I see a small stream, some boulders here and there, and there’s a structure out there.”

“Structure?” Dorian asked first.

“Like Stonehenge,” Rohl replied.

Something about that statement caught Brendan’s attention. “That’s significant. That’s where we need to be.”

The group began shuffling along, holding hands and following Rohl’s lead, who was nice enough to transform into his horse form and let the Smith sisters ride on his back.

“Hey, I see someone in the middle of the structure,” Rohl announced. “Human for sure.”

“Dad!” Lizzie exclaimed. “Brendan, I know it’s him.”

If it was, Brendan was determined to not let him slip away again.

…

The Seeker was a master at what he did and Conchar could only marvel that there was a human able to decipher the messages from Otherworld, whether from a relic, a dominion pulse, or an ancient mother of demons; of course Conchar knew that he was partially responsible for the Seeker’s abilities thinking of that time so long ago in Oscar O’Neal’s youth. Conchar watched the Seeker walk four paces and placed another blue crystal between his feet. Just as before, the crystal burned a hole in the cave floor and vanished from sight.

Caoranach would soon be free and there was nothing Brendan O’Neal or Nuada could do about it.

…

Garnash moved about the cave more by instinct and feel than by anything else. He would scale a part of the wall and then clap his hands together to ignite the Gnome magic that his father had taught him and slapped his palm against the wall leaving behind a tiny blob of plasma that softly pulsated like a lightening bug.

“A dozen more should do it,” he said to the cave.

…

Brendan’s group drew closer to the structure without too much stumbling due to the fact that he was able to use his powers to keep everyone—even himself—upright. As they got closer, he began to sense the presence of someone else, and it wasn’t his dad.

“Here come the lights!” Garnash shouted from overhead. He clapped his hands together and the entire cave was illuminated like a stadium. Several points of light were scattered on the walls and some spots on the ground, many shadows being left untouched. Somehow Garnash was able to make it work, but Brendan didn’t really know how the Gnome did it. What Brendan saw in the light did not surprise him in the least.

A floating shadow hung near the edge of the structure and Brendan recognized who it was right away. “Conchar!” he shouted.

The shadow shifted and began to spin away until the world’s most powerful sorcerer stood between the group and Oscar. His wand was held tightly in his hand and a snarl could be seen beneath his beard.

“O’Neal,” he hissed. “How did you find us?”

Brendan and his group stopped about thirty feet away from the wizard with Brendan, Dorian, Lizzie, and Frank standing in the front of the group.

“Gut feeling,” Brendan replied. “Give us my dad, now.”

Conchar glanced back at the Seeker and watched him pace off another four feet from the center and place another blue crystal in between his feet. He wasn’t sure how many times the Seeker was going to do that, but he was sure that when he was finished Caoranach would make her full return.

“I don’t think so, not when he’s so close to finishing his purpose.” Conchar’s wand tip began to glow as he prepared for battle.

“Listen, jerk, if you don’t give him up now, we’re going to come and take him from you,” Lizzie declared, her staff zipping to life in her hand.

Dorian’s hands glowed blood red and Frank pulled his falcata from his back. The entire group was ready to pile on Conchar and reclaim Oscar, but a rumbling across the cavern drew everyone’s attention.

The ground across the way shook like mad, rocks cracked and crumbled, and debris was tossed into the stream as three distinct areas vibrated more than the surrounding rock floor. Then in a massive explosion of rocks and dust, three obsidian megaliths shot up out of the ground and loomed.

“Oh, no,” Dorian said, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth.

The symbols on the megaliths came to life, glowing and flashing over with golden energy leading up to a dramatic flash of light. This flash was brighter than any Brendan had seen before in megalith travel. It was like watching a solar flare from eighty feet away.

A towering figure, dressed in golden battle armor, emerged from the center of the megaliths, his golden hair was flowing down to his shoulders, his eyes were two balls of golden fire in his skull, and his obsidian sword was hitched on his belt.

“Elathan,” Brendan said, the pit of his stomach knotting up with anxiety and fear. Last time he had barely been able to stop Elathan’s pulse from killing him and his friends, but how could he hope to stop Elathan now that he was so much more powerful?

Elathan strutted forward and cocked his head sideways as he spotted Brendan and his friends across the cave. “Protector,” he began. “You’ve made a bad habit of interfering in my business, a mistake that can cost you your world.”

“All I want is my dad back, Elathan,” Brendan said, stepping in Elathan’s direction. “Let us take him and then we’ll go.”

“Wrong!” His voice bellowed through the cavern making everyone cover his or her ears. “Only your souls will leave this cave.”

The megaliths flashed again and a small army of Goblin clans—Brags, Redcaps, and Bendiths—and a group of fachen streamed out of the obsidian megaliths and flanked the golden god.

“Tear them apart,” Elathan ordered.

…

The hissing was growing louder and louder in Oscar’s ears and he was starting to feel more apprehensive about unearthing this treasure. It didn’t really matter, though. He was compelled beyond his control, so he walked off the four paces from the center, this time to the north, and planted the crystal just as he had done in the eastern and western directions. He watched it bore its way into the cave floor, spitting out a burst of exhaust as it went. He had to wait until it finished drilling before he could move on to the last crystal’s position.

One to go and then his biggest fear would be unleashed.

…

Lizzie and Frank sprinted directly towards Oscar. Conchar growled and blasted a spell that sent a streak of fire directly in their path sparking up off of the stone cave floor.

“Whoa!” Frank shrieked. “Are you out of your mind?”

“The Seeker will finish what he’s started—no matter what, humans.”

“You say human like it’s a dirty word,” Lizzie noted in surprise. She spun her staff around and pointed it at the wizard with grit in her expression. “You are not going to stop us.”

Conchar’s wand was crackling with energy as he slashed it through the air. “Die!” Miniature daggers appeared out of thin air and shot the distance at them with serious speed.

“Look out!” Lizzie warned. Lizzie moved her staff with amazing speed and slapped the daggers out of the air.

Frank stepped around Lizzie and charged at Conchar with his falcata loaded above his head for a killing blow. He brought it down at the wizard who just managed to change his wand into a sword and deflect the blow. Lizzie watched as the two swordsmen slashed and clanged metal on metal—Frank holding his own in each slash—so she sprinted towards her father.

She broke through the trilithon’s barrier without a problem and called out to Oscar. “Dad! Come on, let’s go!”

Oscar turned from his position and walked four paces towards her and then stood over the top of a small hole that had a thin tendril of smoke leaking out from it.

“Dad, didn’t you hear me? Come on!” Lizzie shouted in frustration. He was right there, so close to her, and all he had to do was follow her to safety, but he was just staring at the ground and muttering to himself.

“You leave me no choice, Dad,” Lizzie walked forward and poised her staff to bonk Oscar on the head. An unconscious man didn’t have to follow; he could be carried.

She swung her staff forward but it vanished from her hands just as she neared his head.

“What the… ” she began to say, but her sentence trailed off in a shout of pain and surprise as she was plucked from her feet and thrown the distance of the cave. Her body was slammed harshly into the ground at Elathan’s feet.

She rolled over and found that she didn’t have enough hands to clutch every part of her body that was in pain. Strangely enough, she didn’t think anything was broken, but when she looked up and saw the golden god standing over her, she knew that could change in a hurry.

Elathan grinned with metallic energy dancing in his smile. “I remember you, Lizzie O’Neal. You deprived me of my kill. It looks like you can make up for it now.”

…

The Brags were shape shifters and charged at Rohl, Simmons, and Dorian, turning themselves into a variety of visages from demented-looking werewolves to centaurs to dragon-headed humanoids and a whole bunch of levels of ugly that the heroes had never seen before. Rohl countered by shifting into a large, dark-skinned bear with eight arms and razor-sharp claws. He bounded forward and met a dragon-headed Brag in an aggressive pounce, biting down on the creature’s neck without mercy. A werewolf Brag hopped on Rohl’s back and began to claw and bite, but Rohl used three of his arms to snatch it by the ankle and swing it into a dragon-head.

A Bendith stretched its leathery wings and soared towards Rohl, aiming to pile on top of the brave Púca, when two gunshots tore through its wing and chest and it was thrown off course into the nearby wall where it convulsed briefly before it died. Simmons ran forward and blasted a second Bendith from the air and glanced up at Rohl in his new form.

“Okay, you be Octobear and I’ll be the Terminator since none of this makes any sense anyhow.”

“Who’s the Terminator?” Rohl asked, puzzled.

Three fachen didn’t allow the lesson on 1980s cinematic history to continue since they ran at the duo with sharp claws slashing and jaws snapping. Only the small jolts from the wands of Patty and Wanda distracted the fachen long enough for Simmons and Rohl to duck out of the beasts’ reach.

That’s when Dorian blasted the nearest fachen and launched it into the other two, scattering them across the cavern floor.

“Man,” Brendan said admiringly after kicking a Redcap clear up to the ceiling. “You’re blasts have grown even stronger.”

“Girls workout too, you know,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

“I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he replied.

“Brendan!” Dorian cried. “Look! Lizzie!”

Brendan followed her finger and saw Lizzie lying at Elathan’s feet, golden smoke trailing up from his eyes. Brendan bent his knees and built up as much strength as he could muster before he leapt into the air.

He hoped that he could get there in time.

…

“You are no match for me, human,” Conchar grunted.

“Oh, I think I’m doing alright, weirdo,” Frank said, blocking a thrust from Conchar.

Conchar slashed down at Frank three consecutive strikes and then kicked the teen in the chest, knocking him onto his back. He pointed the sword down and gripped the handle with two hands high above his head, creating as much leverage as he could muster to drive the blade into Frank’s chest. There was no comment, just a downward push of the blade that would have found its mark had a searing blast of red magic not knocked the sword from his grasp.

Conchar looked up and saw the Queen of the Leprechauns sprinting in his direction. He glanced down at Frank. “Protect your maker.”

Dorian raised her palm and tried to blast a whole through Conchar, but Frank’s falcata moved in and deflected the beam. Frank stood up with a bent back and craned his neck at Dorian, his eyes red with the curse of the Ruas.

“No, Frank!” Dorian cried, knowing the only way to free him from Conchar’s control was death.

…

Elathan wielded so much energy that his eyes were boiling in their sockets and sending crackles of golden bolts randomly into the air around him. Some of them zapped Lizzie, causing her to cry out in pain.

“Humans, even chosen bloodlines, are broken so easily.” He raised his hands and directed his palm at her. “Your friends will be joining you shortly.”

The energy built up in his hands until he felt like they were on fire, and then he discharged them, sending out as much energy as there was in a surface to air missile. Tons of dust and rock plumed up and he waved it out of his face to peer down at the gore that should have been left behind from the girl.

“What!” he exclaimed, looking around to see where she had gone.

He spotted her soaring through the air away from him, back towards the trilithons and her father. He was just about to yank her back when he caught a kick to the side of the head. He lost his balance and fell a few steps backwards in his surprise. Looking back to where Lizzie O’Neal once was he found the Protector instead.

“You,” Elathan snarled.

“Me,” Brendan replied snidely. “Can’t let you kill my little sister, goldie.”

“I was going to kill you last so that you could watch all of your friends die and lose every bit of hope you had, but you’ve ruined the suspense. You meet your end now, Brendan O’Neal.”

…

Oscar took one last step and then dropped his last crystal to the ground. The crystal buried itself quickly and disappeared out of sight. Oscar backed away from the center of the prison and stepped outside of it so that he could duck behind the stones. Fear and death was coming.

It started as a disturbance in the center of the cave compass Oscar had created and then it intensified. The cave compass quickly turned to fine powder then it began to swirl down the hole like a drain until all that was left was an empty circle. The ominous moan of an ancient and nefarious creature sang from the pit, shaking Oscar to his core.

Oscar hid his eyes and wept.

“What have I done?”

…

“Snap out of it, Frank,” Dorian pleaded. “You can beat it!”

Frank’s jaw unhinged, and he tried to snap at her, but she quickly moved her arm out of the way. He leapt in the air off his left foot and carried his body into a spin, bringing his falcata into a high arc as it zipped around his body. He slashed at her over and over again, backing her up until her back was literally against the wall. She couldn’t allow him to kill her—self-preservation was a powerful instinct—but she wasn’t sure of what else she could do without harming Frank.

As the blade edged closer and closer, Dorian’s eyes glowed red and her hands readied to blast her friend away, but out of the corner of her eye she spied a thin white line dropping in from above. It landed on top of Frank’s shoulders and then bounced up twenty feet and attached itself to the cave wall. Frank didn’t seem to notice and kept coming.

Her hands pulsed with red energy and just when she was ready to hit him, Frank was yanked straight up into the air, hung from the wall by the thin, white string. He dangled from the wall like a fish on a line.

“Sorry, mate,” Garnash said, rematerializing next to Frank as he growled and swung wildly with his sword. “Stay up here a bit and we’ll see what we can do for you.”

…

Conchar didn’t see Garnash’s acrobatics with his new Rua. He was too busy gazing inside the prison, waiting for Caoranach to emerge.

“Change him back,” Dorian demanded from behind.

Conchar glanced back at her. “Stupid Leprechaun,” he spat. “So idealistic, like your father. He, too, thought magicks’ best days were behind us and that we should just hand this world over to the humans. He thought peace could come that way. He was wrong and that’s why he was chosen, why you were chosen.”

“What are you talking about?” Dorian said crossly, knowing she shouldn’t listen to a word the wizard was saying.

“It was a set up all along, girl,” Conchar curdled. “You’re too stupid to see, but you were led to Galway, and O’Neal was led to Corways. Destiny had nothing to do with your relationship, it was Elathan’s will that made it happen.”

“Shut your ruddy mouth, liar!” Dorian screamed. “You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“We’ve been pulling your strings from the beginning. The Leprechauns and the O’Neals were always so predictable.”

“Are you going to release your hold on Frank and Oscar or not?” she asked flatly, a cold stare passing through her eyes.

Conchar held his fingers out low at his side and his wand shot back into his grasp. He raised it up and smiled. “No chance, princess.”

Dorian wasted no time and butted the base of her palms together, sending a searing beam of energy straight through Conchar’s chest. He dropped to his knees and looked up at her, the color leaving his face.

“How was that for predictable?” She turned and began to walk back towards Frank and Garnash but paused and looked back as he fell over onto his side. “And I’m the Queen of the Leprechauns, you blasted fool.”

…

Elathan’s body was entirely overtaken with gold energy as he stood near his megaliths. His armor crackled as the energy touched it, making it look like veins that couldn’t quite settle in.

He moved forward at Brendan, faster than the Protector would have thought he could, and delivered a hook directly to his jaw. Brendan flew thirty feet back and skidded on the cave floor creating a rut with his back. Elathan took his time following up his initial attack and stalked towards Brendan. He leaned down and picked the boy up by the shirt.

“I am a god! You have no chance of defeating me, human, I don’t care who chose you.”

Brendan’s head was floppy and his chin bounced off of his chest. Elathan backhanded the Protector and launched him again. Brendan’s body bounced through the stream and landed near the trilithons. This time the golden god took in the action of his ferocious band as they began to wear down O’Neal’s paltry group.

This was going to be a sweet and easy victory.

…

“Frank? Are you yourself, buddy?” Garnash asked.

Frank had stopped moving entirely and hung limply against the wall, his body swaying slightly. Garnash edged closer to the kid and shook his shoulder gently. “Frank?”

Frank inhaled a massive amount of air and the sudden motion nearly gave Garnash a heart attack. “What happened? Where’s Conchar? Lizzie?”

“Easy,” Garnash said soothingly. “Dorian killed Conchar and thankfully that freed you.”

“Freed me?” Frank looked at Garnash as the Gnome began to lower them both to the ground.

“Yeah, you were a Rua, and we thought we were going to have to kill you,” Garnash said offhandedly.

“What! You wouldn’t have killed me, right?” Frank croaked.

Garnash finally got them all the way to the ground and very subtly—or not so subtly—ignored the question. “Look, Dorian’s found Oscar!”

…

Dorian approached Oscar slowly and knelt down next to him. The moaning from the pit called out again, but Dorian put it out of her mind. Oscar needed her.

“Oscar, are you alright?” she asked softly.

Oscar was still hunched down behind some stones weeping. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” That’s all the man would say, and when Dorian looked up at the center of the prison, she could see why.

Two pale hands with slender fingers complete with yellow talons dug their way into the solid rock of the cave floor. Caoranach was rising and Dorian wasn’t about to let that happen. She held her glowing hands out ready to blast the demon mother when the time was just right.

…

Elathan eventually got to where Brendan was struggling to get up.

“Earth’s Protector,” Elathan said with venom. “Hard to believe this is the line of Arawn.”

He was just about to finish the Protector off when out of the corner of his eye he saw Dorian aiming her energy in towards the prison. “Caoranach!”

Brendan followed Elathan’s eyes and traced them to Dorian. He watched the Bringer of Death raise his palms as his eyes burst with golden heat.

“Nooooo!” Brendan screamed, bloody teeth accentuating his pain.

Elathan let loose a directed pulse that he knew would turn the Leprechaun Queen into nothing more than vapor. Brendan reached out with his own powers and encased her in a silver shield just as the golden beam slammed into her. The impact drove her body into the cave wall thirty feet back where she collapsed to the ground, groaning and holding her head.

Elathan looked at the Protector in utter shock. How could the boy be so weak and so strong at the same time?

He kicked Brendan in the face as hard as he could and knocked him away from the trilithons. He marched over to the invisible barrier and placed a blue crystal in the barrier’s stream and watched it dissipate. Elathan used his powers and pulled Caoranach’s weak form to him, and with her under his arm, he jumped across the cave to the megaliths.

“Caoranach,” Elathan said, holding her head so that she could hear his voice. “I have freed you and protected you from those who seek your destruction.”

Her eyes narrowed and she squinted to look out over the battleground. “They shall see my might.”

She opened her mouth and exhaled the yellow spores necessary to cause the creatures among them to change. The spores wafted on the subtle air current in the cave and found their symbiotic specimens in the Redcaps, Brags, Bendiths, and fachen. Instantly, the creatures began the change.

Elathan carried Caoranach into the midst of the megaliths. “Let them suffer your wrath, mother of demons, let them all suffer.”

In a flash, the golden god and the mother of demons escaped, the megaliths turning to rubble as soon as the ancient symbols cooled.

…

“Lizzie, wake up,” Ken said, lightly slapping her cheeks. “We need you. Come on, get up!”

Lizzie’s eyes fluttered and she rolled over onto her side. When she opened her eyes, she saw that the room was in chaos. The Goblin clans and the fachen had somehow doubled in size, had long split talons on the ends of their hands, and bright yellow veins that were easily identifiable under their skin. She had no idea what she was looking at until it hit her.

“Caoranach is alive?” she asked Ken.

“I guess, but things are much worse than before,” he replied.

Lizzie got to a sitting position even though she was feeling like a bus had just hit her. She held her hand out; her staff appeared and she used it to get to her feet. Her headache forced her to close her eyes for the briefest of moments, her balance a bit wobbly. She opened them in time to see a juiced up, mutated Bendith dropping like a predatory bird in her direction. She drove the end of her staff up and slammed it into the creature’s midsection, flipping it into a Brag that tried to sneak up on her from behind.

Ken was nimbly evading the daggers of a Redcap, which was the size of a professional wrestler. To his credit, Ken was delivering serious sidekicks and strikes to the beast, but the Redcap was too strong to feel it.

Lizzie thwacked the beast as hard as she could to stun it, then she spun and batted it into the stream.

“Where’s Brendan?” she asked in a panic.

…

Brendan pulled his body off of the ground, but his head was feeling too heavy to lift. He felt the hot blood drip from his nose and from a gash above his eyebrow. Probably needs stitches. He placed his legs beneath him but remained in a bent position, trying to gather himself enough to see what was happening in the cave. He didn’t even notice the mutated fachen standing above him, lifting its arms into a double ax handle high above its grotesque head. The creature brought its fists down with a massive amount of force right on Brendan’s back, but instead of falling, the Protector looked up at the giant fachen with eyes blazing and silver energy crackling in his sockets. His whole body was overtaken with the silver glow, pulsing with untapped power that he didn’t even know he had. His wounds sealed up instantly as he glared at the abomination before him.

The energy grew too hard to contain. His mind raced with all of the horrible outcomes that would follow Caoranach’s release. He did the only thing that he could: he emitted a massive pulse of silver energy. He screamed as he tried to control the silver pulse radiating from his body, willing it to pass through his group and to destroy the mutated creatures that opposed them. The pulse ballooned throughout the entire cave, disintegrating all of Caoranach’s creations where they stood, as if a nuclear bomb had targeted only the mutants.

Lizzie and the others were confused. She was just about to battle a pair of Brags one second, and then in a blink of an eye they were gone, the only evidence of their existence was a black stain where they had been standing.

Brendan dropped to his knees exhausted. “Elathan!” he screamed.

Lizzie and Ken walked warily over to Brendan because he was still emanating small static bolts of the silver energy. Simmons, the Smith sisters, and Rohl approached, each just as exhausted as Brendan. Garnash and Frank were cut and bruised but still breathing and joined the group. Lizzie wrapped Frank up in an extremely tight embrace.

Brendan looked up at the faces of his friends, bloody, sweaty, and tearful, and knew that his heart matched theirs. “Where’s Dorian? Did she make it?” he asked quietly, his words softly echoing off of the cave walls.

“I’m fine, and look who else is here,” Dorian’s voice called from just out of sight.

Simmons and Ken stepped aside and Brendan’s tears streaked his face when Dorian and Oscar approached the group. Oscar dropped down and hugged Brendan and Lizzie who had dropped to her knees as well. The O’Neals cried together again and rejoiced in their reunion.

“I’m so sorry,” Oscar cried. “I couldn’t stop myself.”

“Dad,” Brendan said, pulling him out to arm’s length and grabbing the back of his father’s neck, urging him to look into his eyes. “It’s not your fault, Dad, and I promise you, we will not let them win.”

Oscar crumpled into his son’s chest, guilt-ridden and broken, repeating his apology. Brendan glanced up at Dorian with a newfound strength and motivation burning within him. The couple shared a bond that was stronger than anything he could have ever imagined. He wasn’t just making a promise to his father, he was also making vow to Dorian.