Unlike the others, the explosion occurred once inside the “desert mountain”, sending several surges of sand spraying the land in all directions, until a peek of fading colored fabric was revealed. It wasn’t the only thing my sand bomb unearthed.
Multileveled ruins made of orange and gold peeked through, the broken structure slightly gleaming under the burning sun. Somber scraps of brightly colored flags still clung from what appeared to have been towers once. Its tribal symbols and crest ripped in half, ruined by Raithian just like everything else.
They were the ruins of the Cresting Sun Empire. What remained of the castle Knight showed me in his memories… when it still rose to its full glory.
Clenching my fists, I lowered myself until my boots sunk into the ground.
“It was a remarkable kingdom once,” he pondered, calling my flaming gaze to him.
“Until you destroyed them because you wanted power, and nothing was ever enough.”
Raithian’s face contorted with disgust. “Until they destroyed themselves for refusing to recognize me as their true king. I never set out to destroy this realm, Braxton. I set out to be the most powerful king Caelisium ever saw, but they refused me my rightful place. Their options were clear, but this is what they chose.”
He gestured to the ruins.
“You were never their true king,” I seethed, ire coursing through me with the audacity of his statement. “You killed the king and stole his power. Angus Devenish III was their true king.”
The Warlock’s eyes narrowed fiercely on me. “You are too young to know that name.”
“And you are too old to be so naïve, Raithian. You had everything you wanted, yet you shattered it for this…” I gestured to the dead land that once thrived under our family’s protection. “A half dead world that is only the shadow of what it used to be… Was it worth it?”
His narrowed gaze relaxed, a certain resentment clouding his features instead. “You have no idea what my life was like. I—”
“Oh, boo-hoo!” I snapped. “So, you didn’t have a perfect family, a perfect childhood. Guess what? No one fucking does! But the rest of us choose to rise above the bad moments. We learn from them and move on. We don’t take it out on everyone else and kill the only people who ever loved us. We don’t enslave innocents, then set out to destroy an entire world only because we went through tough times.”
Fury returned to his gaze, and he hovered closer to me. “You have no idea what—”
“Oh, shut the fuck up!” I grumbled, rubbing both hands over my face while the magic that formed my sphere returned to my core. I was so fucking tired of him. “Actually, tell me something. If you succeeded in defeating us. If you actually won and enslave the rest of us, or killed us all,” I shrugged because what the fuck, “what exactly is left for you to enjoy? What is your prize?”
I gestured all around us yet again, there was nothing but solitude.
“All that is left are the ruins of a world you consumed until there was nothing left. There are no more royals to scare into bowing at your feet. No more kingdoms to fear you and offer their riches or daughters to you to calm your wrath. Gold coins aren’t even worth anything anymore. You said it yourself, Raithian, your fortress is done. You don’t even have use for slaves now.”
“I can always find use for slaves,” he growled.
“Fine, so we are all your slaves. What exactly is your reward, Raithian? What do you get from centuries of war? Who the hell is left to fear you? Without us, there are no more people to fight.”
Surprisingly enough, my words sobered him. The energy sphere vanished around his form while he slowly made his way towards me. A strange emotion captured his face, his gaze seemingly lost behind me.
“You didn’t plan that far ahead, did you?”
“Two hundred years have come and gone,” he answered instead, his attention shifting back to me when he stopped a few feet away. A new light entered his gaze. “Join me, Braxton.”
Raw shock swept through me with his words. “Join you?” I repeated, dumbfounded.
“We do not have to be enemies,” he urged, a certain madness capturing his gaze. “Consider how much I have taught you so far. In just a few days your magic has grown far beyond what a mediocre Wizard could ever achieve. Now consider how much more I could teach you if there was no threat of war between us. You could have real power, rule your own slaves.”
I wished I could have laughed it off in his face. I really did, but the disgust was too real. “Are you serious?”
“Yes!” he answered, disturbingly excited.
“What the fuck makes you think I want to own slaves? That I would ever do to my people what you did to them?”
“Do not be shortsighted, Braxton. Everyone wants power. Everyone has a price; I just need to find yours. You will never have any real power if you limit your own mind and allow it to hold you back. If we worked side by side, I could give you everything you ever dreamed of. I could infuse some of my magic into you to make you even greater. You could be a Warlock too…”
“No,” I assured. “I’m good.”
“You could have your own kingdom,” he persisted. “Take all your people and set them loose. In fact, you can have Caelisium. Be my pupil, Braxton, my legacy, and I will leave it all to you.” Taking a step closer, he slowly smirked, knowing he had my attention. “You would never again have to hide in fear from me. Your people could leave the mountain and build a fortress for you. They would have their freedom, and you, Braxton, you could rule what is left of the Soulris however you see fit.”
For a moment, I felt bad for him. He had fought so hard against everything he knew only to end up wanting the same thing any other king wanted. Someone to pass on everything they knew. Someone to continue their legacy, though in this case, it was a disturbing one.
“And you would no longer drain me of magic?”
“No,” he assured, the possibilities shining in his darkening eyes. “I would feed it instead. Show you how to sustain yourself.”
“I don’t buy it. Why would you just give up Caelisium to me?” I asked, skeptical, because he was still the Warlock King after all. “Two centuries fighting for it to just let it go now. What is it you really want?”
“I want you to let me make you as powerful as you could ever be.”
“Why? Why would you want me to be so powerful?”
Ding. Ding. Ding! The look in his eyes said I’d just asked the right question.
“Caelisium is not the only realm that exists. There is another, called the Mirror World.”
Holy shit. No. Not the human world.
“I travelled there once,” he continued, summoning his staff, and beginning to walk in a slow circle around me. “Azazel took me there through a portal somewhere in these lands, but access to it has since been lost to me. Hidden by the Dragons.”
Puncturing the sand with his staff, he stopped right in front of me, and every muscle in my body went rigid. He wanted the Earth now.
“If you joined me, Braxton, we could use our combined power to uncover the portal once more, so I can use it to reach the Mirror World and make it mine just like I did with Caelisium.”
Flashes of the chosen family I left behind, and the friends who had always been there for me captured my mind instantly. Every moment I’d shared with Ms. Reyes and Little Suzie, the guys at the coffee shop, my best friend, Josh, and his girl, Rebecca, all came rushing back to me.