Chaos Lives in Everything - 53. Chapter 53

Skold led the charge into Paladin’s castle.

As he strolled purposefully through the thick drifts of sulfur smelling smoke he could see inhuman shapes looming out of the smoke, coming towards him. He didn’t have to fully see them to know that they were more of Samhein’s abominations.

He unsheathed his sword and slashed one down and ran forward. It was impossible to tell where the abominations were coming from. Gun fire rattled from all corners of the entrance hall. A stampede of abominations pushed forward and Skold’s men clashed with them in the middle.

Each abomination that dared to cross paths with Skold met a nasty end at the tip of his sword. He slashed and kicked and rendered them. He was back in war mode, doing what he did best. At the top of the staircase before him something caught his eye. It was Samhein. The raven haired elf was looking at him, a smirk on his face.

“You shouldn’t have come here, Skold!” he shouted gloatingly. “You can’t stop what’s coming! You and all of your men will die for nothing!”

A cold fire of rage was ignited within Skold. “Fuere!” he cried, blasting through several abominations with a beam of fire that disintergrated them to ash. With another shout he threw another lance of fire at Samhein. Samhein swooped out of sight just in time. The spear of fire hit the wall where he had just been standing a second ago with enough force to tear stone from the wall.

Skold cursed and shoved an abomination out of his way. The stupid creatures were always getting in the way. They were ruthless and there seemed to be an infinite number of them. It was clear that Samhein had been busy. He caved another’s head in with the hilt of his sword. His fury and aggravation only made them eaiser to kill yet no less infuriating. I’ll kill every single one of these ugly monstrosities if that’s what it takes to get to Samhein, he thought.

“Dom! Candestine!” he barked, fighting his way towards them. “I need you with me. We’re going after Samhein. I just saw him. Let us end this night once and for all.”

“Take the lead,” Candestine huffed.

The trio pushed and shoved their way back up the staircase. At the top of the stairs they came to a long carpeted corridor. The air inside of the castle was cold and icey. Not even the lit torches in the brackets had any warmth to them. Samhein was nowhere in sight. The corridor was clear. Strange.

At the end of this corridor they came to another corridor that looked almost exactly like the last one. The sounds of the battle grew fainter the further they traveled. After two more corridors they came to another flight of stone steps and still had not encountered a single foe. The castle was humongous. Even stranger than the lack of adversaries was the feeling of familiarity that came over Skold. It made him feel almost nauceous. Each corridor they passed through, every room they checked, gave him the feeling that he had walked through them before. But of course, no matter how hard he tried, he could not remember. Still, he let that feeling guide him, filled with the certainty that they were heading in the direction where they needed to be.

The second floor wasn’t nearly as well lit as the first and was even draftier. The stone floor was dusty and the air smelled wet. Still, everything about the castle was immaculate. The hallways were dimly lit, casting shadows in the corners of the corridors. This made the hallways seem longer than they really were, made the walls feel as if they were closing in.

Skold stopped, swearing that he heard something.

“Did you guys hear that?” he asked.

Dom and Candestine both nodded, listening silently.

The sound came again, the sounds of multiple paws skittering across the stone floor. The smell of wet, filthy fur and sulfur penetrated the air.

Skold cursed. Hell hounds.

Candestine seemed to be thinking the same thing. She groaned. “Great, this is going to be fun. There’s nothing like fighting a pack of mangy hell hounds in such close quarters. Samhein just keeps the surprises coming, doesn’t he?”

As he did most times, Skold ignored his sister’s obnoxious attempt at sarcastic humor, sheathed his sword, and switched to the Uzis. He was on his last three clips. After that he would be relying completely on his sword. The hell hounds came around the corner one by one. It was impossible to tell how many there were of the hulking dogs from Hell. There were at least a dozen of them, and that was just from what Skold could make up. Samhein’s playing games with us, he thought. He’s probably up there somewhere laughing at us, laughing at what idiots we are. That was fine. It would only make the challenge of killing him more joyous.

When they charged they charged at once, three at a time. It surprised Skold that that many hell hounds could fit their broad, muscular frames in such a small space. Still it did not stop them. They moved quickly, smoke rolling from their muzzles. Their eyes burned red with murderous intent. They made short work of anything they got a hold of. Not only were they strong and fast but they were cunning too. Fighting a single hell hound wasn’t so bad, but fighting a pack as big as this one was...well it certainly wasn’t easy.

Skold aimed at the closest hell hound but before he could fire it somehow clung to the side of the wall and continued bounding towards them. It moved so fast that it was a blur of bristling black fur and rancourous drifts of smoke. Skold barely had enough time to turn, take proper aim, and fire. The rapid report from his Uzis rocked the hell hound’s body before it exploded. Skold stepped back, barely avoiding the flame inferno that threatened to engulf him.

Already another hell hound was soaring towards him, claws outstretched. Skold hardly managed to raise a Shield spell. The beast slammed into the shield of shimmering kinetic energy with enough force to throw Skold on his ass. A third hell hound, seeing him as easy prey, charged for him. Fortunantly Dom stepped swiftly in the way and cut the beast in half with a single swing of his axe.

“At the rate we’re going we’ll never catch up to Samhein,” Dom growled. “He’s probably got an escape plan already in motion.You go after him, Skold. Candestine and I will take it from here.”

Skold shook his head, knowing that he was being foolish. The idea of being seperated from Dom and Candestine, the idea of them perishing, was more terrifying than anything he could have imagined.

“We’ll be fine!” Candestine grunted, blasting a hell hound with a ball of fire. “Go!”

Skold got to his feet, suddenly feeling tired all over again. He knew that it was the fear that was bogging him down. Emotion, he thought. The very thing that my father tried to purge me of. Perhaps he was right. Perhaps it does make me weak. Love makes me weak. It’s better to be cold. It’s better not to care.

But even as he thought it Skold knew that he was wrong. What Kane, his father, had done to him was wrong. No loving father would ever mutilate their own child just to preserve the family name. He had watched Skold and Candestine’s mother die from the Black Death without shedding a tear. He had never smiled at his children, never told them he loved them. And for the last six centuries Skold had stumbled drunkenly through life, a thing of flesh wrapped around hollow bones. Asleep. Dead.

To feel is to be awake, he thought. To be alive. To love is to be strong, not to be weak. How is it that I am only realizing this now when the world is about to end?

“I love you both,” he whispered. “More than you could ever know or imagine.”

Dom and Candestine had managed to create an opening for Skold to get through. Risking one more fleeting glance at them, hoping that it wouldn’t be his last. Skold sprinted down the corridor.