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Chapter 16 (Rusted Ashes Cemetary)

The rest of the house was just as lavishly decorated as the front, Christian noticed, as they were led through to the back.  In his heart, he hoped the back had been untouched by this nightmare that claimed the rest of the city.  “Let it be as beautiful as the house is,” he thought.  To his dismay though, it was almost more depressing than the parts of the city they were forced to bear witness to.  Trees barely climbed for the sky as if an unknown force was pulling them, leaning them, back to the ground.  Mud covered the ground.  Not a single flower.  Not a single patch of grass.

“Is that?  Are they?”  Tiberius sputtered, pointing at the mud.  Cryo nodded, humming to himself.  “An abomination of Sephiran’s creating.  They are called mini-minions.  They were originally considered imperfect, unshapable forms of Sephiran himself.”

Sephiran.  Sephiran.  That name for some reason struck a chord in the back of Christian’s mind.  Just before the thought began to burrow its way to the surface he shook it off, concentrating on Cryo, who was oddly at peace with his surroundings.

As had happened before, the mini-minions began to take shape when the boys got too close.  Their bouncy, muddy bodies covered the entire back yard.  There were at least a hundred of them.  Christian and Tiberius readied their weapons.  Cryo, as usual, was one step ahead of them with an arrow already knocked.  “They aren’t very smart,” Cryo stated belligerantly, aiming where half of the minions had formed a straight line.  With that, he loosed the arrow.  Sticking out of a tree two hundred feet back, mud dripped off the arrow.  Cryo looked over at a shocked Christian and gave a cocky smile.  Christian spinning his sword aroung caught Cryo’s attention this time.  “That sword,” he pointed, incredulously.

“My grandfather’s sword?  What about it?”

“That sword,” Cryo half choked, “is made of the same material as my bowstring.  DIdn’t you ever wonder why it is so light?”

“So this is mithril?  That would explain a lot.”

“Enough monkey babble!”  Tiberius screamed.  “We’re not done yet!”

Christian and Cryo looked at each other, astounded at his sense of urgency.  “Let’s do this!”  Christian exclaimed.  Cryo gave a nervous groan.  At the sound of that, Christian turned back, shocked.  “What’s that about?  With your bow, you’re Billy badass, but now you’re all nervous?”  Cryo looked at Christian, ashamed.  “I’m not very good at hand-to-hand.”

“GOOD!!”  Tiberius yelled.  “More for us!”  Hacking and slashing, all the mini-minions, save one, were mud puddles in less than two minutes.  The boys decided to play rock paper scissors for the last one.  Tiberius turned, smiling victoriously, and threw his axe.  A sickening crack sound, followed by the mini minion falling apart were sign enough.  Tiberius’s axe stuck in the tree with half an arrow sticking out from either side.

“You like?”  Tiberius taunted.

In that moment, the entire backyard simultaneously formed one large mini-minion, swallowing Tiberius.  “Tiberius!” Christian screamed.  “Don’t worry,”  Cryo reassured him.  “He’s fine.  Tiberius!  I know you can hear me!  Push outwards just above your head!”  He fitted an arrow as he yelled intructions.  AS soon as the protrusion appeared, he loosed the arrow.  The giant minion fell to pieces and evaporated.  There stood an unscathed Tiberius.

“Thanks,” Tiberius said, smiling.  He turned around and the smile faded.  The arrow was stuck in the back of his axe.  “Show off,” he mumbled.  Cryo, obviously pleased with himself, motioned for the boys to follow him.  “Come on!  On the other side of this eyesore some would call a fence, is the cemetary.”  The fence was nearly rotten all the way through.  “My family’s house backs up to the cemetary.  We were placed in charge of disposal of all remaining bodies, so we made a cemetary and placed the bodies here.  The cemetary used to be a nice looking place, but as is the same with everything else, it has fallen to ruin.  An unknown force haunts our cemetary now as well.  At night, you can clearly see four red eyes.  Hopefully, with you obtaining the axe, this place can see some peace.”  Christian nodded in agreement, looking at Tiberius.  With that, Christian pushed on the fence.  The entire length of it collapsed.  The sight revealed was horrifying.  Large chunks of the ground were missing, gravestones were deformed, and to make matters worse, it was dark and raining.  “Ever since that cloud appeared over the city, it has rained here.”

Christian stepped over the fallen fence onto sodden ground.  The sky grew darker, obstinate to its guests desire.  A few feet in, the boys saw what Cryo had been talking about.  Four red eyes seemed to float around near the back of the cemetary.

“The gravestone you are looking for will be marked by my father’s name,” Cryo called out to them.  “His name is Akion!”

“You’re not going?!”  Tiberius exclaimed.

“I don’t step foot in here.  This place has cursed my family,” Cryo explained, pointing to the numerous holes in the ground.

Christian and Tiberius shrugged it off, noticing the annoying pattern.  When it came to anything with his family, he didn’t want to get his feet wet.  “Ok, lets find this gravestone.  You check that side and I’ll get this one,” Christian delegated.  Christian walked up to one of the gravestones and read: “Here lies Mack.  A dead soul, a rotten soul.  He needed to be here.”  Tiberius walked up and read another.  “Susy LIES.  Some things will never change.”

“What’s wrong with these people?”  Tiberius questioned loudly.  “This is just sad.  Here’s another one.  This one says, Frank resides here.  Home is where the heart is.  He forgot his.”  Disgusted, the boys continued to move forward.  The next four rows were broken and unreadable.  Looking ahead, Christian noticed the four eyes hadn’t moved.  They were simply content watching this spectacle… for now.  There were only three more gravestones ahead of them that were unbroken.  Tiberius walked up to the first one, reading out loud.  “Marie brought us dust, ashes, and curses.  Keep that in mind.”

“Only two more!”  Christian exclaimed.  “I’ll get this one,” he yelled, pointing to the small, simple headstone.  All it said was duck.  “Duck?  Who names their kid duck?”  Just then, flames shot out of the ground, engulfing the four eyes.  Christian did what the stone said, he ducked.  Tiberius looked up to see where the roaring sound was coming from.  Climbing over broken headstones and debris, he saw the high wall of flames near to where Christian had ducked behind a headstone.  He rushed to the final headstone.

“Hurry!”  Christian bellowed, unsheathing his sword.  “I’ll do what I can, but we’re gonna need that axe!”

“This one is it!  This one says AKION!”  Tiberius exclaimed.

“Great!  Grab the axe!”  Christian yelled, dodging fireballs left and right.

Tiberius, confused as to what to do next, did what anyone would have done.  He pushed and pulled on the gravestone.  Of course, nothing happened.  Leaning in for a closer look, a finer print appeared directly under Akion’s name.  “Here lies Akion, reaper of humanity.  Weapons harm him not, yet soulless creatures did.  His memory rests here, but his soul does not.”  Below the inscription was a small box with four letters jumbled up.  The edge of the box had instructions.  “Unscramble this word to reopen the gates of hell.  Open this box to release the unforgiven, the savior.”  Thinking out loud, Tiberius said,”Ok, Cryo said the password was Akion’s son’s name.  Wasn’t Cryo an only child?”  He arranged the letters in order.  A loud crack, followed by smoke was proof of success.  Looking up for a moment, Tiberius stared.  The four eyes had revealed themselves.  The four eyes belonged to two horses, which were drawing a Ghost carraige.  The carraige itself was engulfed in flames, as well as its rider.  The rider was nothing more than a skeleton.  The flames gave it a very malicious look.  The skeleton looked directly at Tiberius with its empty, fiery sockets, and uttered one word.  “Bone!!”  Fire erupted around the carraige!  “Bone!”  It screamed again.  Fire shot up into the air and fell all around Tiberius.  One fireball headed straight for him.  He ducked as low as he could get.  Peeking upwards, the fireball had dissappeared.  Just then, the grave opened up, revealing the most amazing thing he had ever seen.  Double bladed, long handle, a spike at its base, rope criss-crossed the handle, and the upper torso of a man with its arms reaching towards the sky on the tip.  Between the crossings of the rope, were about twenty upper torsos of people.  About half of them were a dark red, while the other half glowed bright red.  As soon as Tiberius touched the handle, he was recognized.  The axe spoke to him!  “I am all that’s left of Akion, previous weilder of this soul stealer.  This meter,” the axe explained, “is the soul meter.  The more souls that have been absorbed, the more power, the brighter the meter.  Do not be alarmed when silver and blue flames come out of the axe.  This is simply more of the axes power, which cannot harm you, as long as you are its weilder.  You are Tiberius and my weilder now.”  Picking up the axe, a strange power surged through him.  He stood up and looked at “Bone.”  He knew what he had to do.  Tiberius gripped the handle tighter.  Bright flames shot out of the axe.  The axe itself began to glow blue and the meter started to fill.  There were quite a few souls here.

Bone turned his attention on Tiberius.  Christian was of no concern now.  He had been placed here to make sure no one was able to obtain that axe again.  It will never leave the cemetary.  Flames shot out of the carraige again.  Tiberius didn’t move.  The flames completely surrounded him, yet he was never burned.  Not even touched.  Tiberius swung the axe, sending a flaming soul ball towards bone.  Flames of blue, silver, and orange erupted as the ball made contact.  The roar was deafening.  Only two red eyes remained.  Bone was furious.  The flames covering his body burned brighter, hotter.  Flames shot high into the air, some of them falling near Christian.  Tiberius averted his attention to Christian.  Bone saw this and smiled maliciously.  He sent flames hurtling directly for Christian.  Tiberius ran as fast as he could towards his friend.  Closer and closer the flames got.  Christian ducked and covered his head.  The flames were so large, even from the sky, Christian could feel the heat.  He closed his eyes tight.  He never even saw Tiberius run in front of him.  “No!”  Tiberius yelled defiantly as the flames fell on them.  He swung his axe towards Bone.  Flame and soul ball melded together and hurtled at an incredible speed towards Bone.  A large explosion ripped its way through the carraige and all around it.

Tiberius looked down at Christian.  “Are you ok?”  Christian looked up at him.  “Yeah, I”m… Watch out!!”  He screamed.  Bone was right behind Tiberius with bony fingers outstretched.  Tiberius turned, looking right into his eyeless sockets.  “Time’s up.”  Axe blade connected with skull.  Bone turned to smoke and dissappeared.  The soul meter filled completely.  Rusted ashes cemetary was now nothing more than a crater.

–

My name is Chris Bryant.  I’m 26, born and raised in Lexington, Ky.  I love to write.  I have been writing since I was little, always short stories about action or adventures I’d have liked to have been on.  The Sword of Hope is my first of many books to come.  My dream has always been to be able to get one of my stories published.  This is my first full length story.  I can’t wait to see how everyone likes it.

Learn more at: http://theswordofhope.com

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