The Cursed Inheritance

The mass of the Veil Gate weighed down on Alaric and Seraphine like a strangling pressure, dense with air and hard to breathe.

The titanic sentinel that had risen up from under the archway stood still for a moment, its burning eyes fixed on them, balancing, waiting.

It stirred.

With the crackle of stone, the guardian advanced, its armored figure appearing to radiate an unnatural sense of direction.

The glaive in her hand—a huge glaive that vibrated with dark power—glowed with an evil sheen in the vacuum-like blackness. Raising the sword high, the earth under them trembled.

"Close in on it," Seraphine gasped, tightening her dagger hilts. "It's not a battle. It's an examination. The Veil Gate examines all who would pass through."

Alaric had not moved fast enough to even process her words before the guardian had made its move.

The glaive bit downwards with horrible force, cleaving the earth where the two of them had just stood a moment ago.

Alaric and Seraphine rolled clear, sliding on shattered earth as bursts of dust and debris shot up around them.

The bare muscle of the blow was enough to make Alaric's blood rage in his breast—the animal was no common animal, however; it was a killing implement.

Seraphine was the first to turn things around. She flared out with spectral quickness, her daggers glinting in the faintness of the rune light.

She flicked a blade out with a snap of her wrist, and it flew straight at the guardian's throat. It bit deep—only to ricochet harmlessly off the darkened metal creature.

"Shit!" she cursed, falling back as the guardian swung its glaive in a giant arc, thrusting her backward.

Alaric clenched his teeth, thinking. This was not a fight they could win with bare arms.

If Veil Gate was serious, then they were going to have to prove it—somehow.

Spurring his horse on low, he made a sprint along the guardian's flank, searching for any weak spot in its armor.

He slashed his sword across its side, the jarring clank as metal met resistance. Sparks flew outward, but the strike was shallow at best.

The guardian was proceeding at light speed. There was a blinding flash of dark energy that exploded out of its body, knocking Alaric backward.

He came crashing down onto the ground, his head spinning.

He jumped back up just in time to see the guardian come to life, moving slowly, deliberately, its gaze now on him alone.

The whispers started after that.

Whispering, hushed, insidious as ghostly whispers carried on the wind. They spun themselves in his brain, threads of self-doubt creeping into his awareness.

You are not worthy.

You are weak.

Withdraw now before all that you have accomplished has all meaning stripped from it.

Alaric gritted his teeth, pounded his head as if he could shake the voices away.

He sank to his knees, holding on to his sword. "I've come too far to turn back now," he growled, his tone steady despite the creeping doubt eroding his resolve.

Seraphine moved toward him, her eyes darting between him and the guardian. "This monstrosity—it's an eater of doubt. If we lose, it has won."

Alaric didn't hesitate, took a deep breath, his hand firm. "Then let's show it that we're more powerful."

They attacked in droves.

Seraphine struck first at the guardian, her daggers flashing as she thrust them between its armor spaces.

As she did, Alaric struck, his sword falling in a ferocious arc to its weapon arm. Steel clashed on steel, the whole field shuddering.

The guardian reeled back.

Alaric's heart seethed. It wasn't proof.

The whimpers grew into a multitude, but Alaric clenched on, calling on the fire that had burned within him in all desperation.

He remembered his mother—her soul trapped, waiting. He remembered Magnus—the beast who'd taken everything from him. He was not going to fail here.

He could not.

Breathing like a beast, he ran again.

The guardian bellowed, darkness enveloping its body. The earth below them tore asunder, the energy of the Veil Gate bursting forth.

And the field shifted.

A low-throated vibration shook the air as the Veil Gate began to hum with unbridled power.

The form of the guardian shifted, its body elongating into something even more monstrous.

Its glaive became a writhing mass of darkness, pulsating and shuddering with tendrils.

The test hardly completed.

Alaric had no time to fall back when the shadows struck, horrifically quick.

He parried one, and another wrapped around his arm, pulling him towards the twisted form.

The chill was seeping into his bone, this unnatural chill that was sapping his energy.

Seraphine's blade flashed as it cut through the tendril and released him. "We have to stop this—now!" she shouted.

Alaric gritted his teeth and tried to shift, though paralyzing pain stiffened his limbs. The guardian's body thrummed with dissolving and reforming solidity, as if reality struggled to maintain it whole.

Whatever trial this was, it had become a trial of endurance.

Then Alaric caught sight of it—a brief glimpse of light deep within the monster's chest, behind writhing walls of darkness. The center. The source of power.

He charged forward impulsively. The tendrils wrapped out once more, but he did not retreat. He dodged between them, his eyes fixed on that single patch of light.

Seraphine protected him, daggers cutting into the shadows, buying him valuable seconds.

With his final burst of strength, sword held high above his head as he charged at the guardian.

The howls of the whispers wailed up to him now, attempting to immobilize him in uncertainty, but he roared over them, pouring all wrath into his strike.

His sword flashed to the guardian's heart.

A moment of blinding shadow and light which burst around him. The monster uttered a final, shuddering cry as its form shattered into fragments, disintegrating into the air itself.

There was silence.

Alaric fell to his knees, gasping. The Veil Gate vibrated again—then, in tiny degrees, incrementally, inch by inch, the archway in front of them groaned and slowly swung open, displaying a road behind. 

Seraphine touched him, hand on shoulder. "We did it."

Alaric's eyes, which used to be strait ahead of him, now swept the highway as if they were searching for something to bound out at them around the next bend. They'd done it. But beyond the gate—what?

Only one way to find out.

Swearing silently, he got up. Secretly from everybody, they moved—in into the unknown.