The Awakening: Artifact of Creation Read Online Free PDF Page B

his fingers across the rough cold stone. Asher felt
as if he had stepped backwards in time, into another age. He
imagined to himself what the Awakened warriors must have been like,
he imagined the power they possessed.
     
    “And these statues, are they of
the Awakened?” Asher asked.
     
    “Yes, yes, there was seven great
ones among them. These statues are they. Seven great warriors for
seven Artifacts of Creation.”
     
    Asher continued to explore the
ancient structure. He searched for any sign of who they might be,
or if there was any indication if this was the Temple Anin’Nar that
he needed to return the necklace to.
     
    “I only had heard stories of the
Awakened, I thought them nothing more than myths.” Asher said to
Alby.
     
    Asher continued to explore the
structure. Weaving through arched doorways and broken walls of
yellowed stone. At the center of the structure, was a piece of
architecture which resembled a water fountain. It was cracked and
covered with moss and vines.
     
    Asher then returned out of the
structure to speak with Alby. He expected Alby to be sitting on the
nearby stone that was just below the rock pathway they had
descended. Instead, all Asher found was dirt, trees, and bushes,
Alby was nowhere to be found.
     
    “Alby! Where are you?” He called
out. “This is no time for games. We need to get back to Kayla.” He
scanned the area about him, nothing. The elf seemed to have
vanished without a single trace. Then something moved in the
shadows of the trees.
     
    “Alby? Is that you?”
     
    Out of the shadows a dark caped
figure emerged. Asher recognized the man by his gruesome mask,
though he did not see it before as clearly as now. The man’s black
metal mask, glistened in the emerging light of the dawn. Asher
could hear the masked man’s mechanical breathing. Its sound hung
heavy in the silence of the small valley. In both of his arms, the
man held Kayla and Alby, each struggling to break-free. Anger
swelled up inside of Asher.
    “You are clever boy, but not
clever enough to hide your trail.” The cloaked man stepped further
out of the surrounding trees, his cape billowed softly as he walked
toward Asher. “This is a perfect setting to take back what is
rightfully mine. Do you know what this place is?” Asher shook his
head ‘no’. “This was the place where I lost the remaining artifact
and my soul was caste into the Forbidding by those who possessed
the power of the pure bloodlines, the power of the Awakened. My
brethren, those of the fallen bloodlines, did battle with them and
pushed the Awakened to near extinction but not without their own
demise. Now I Elixir, the Lord of the Fallen, have returned to take
back what was rightfully mine. It is destiny that I should fall
into possession of the artifact once more, in the same location
where it was stolen from me and had led to my demise. Hand it here
boy, or they die.”
    Asher hesitated and exchanged
glances between his friends and the masked man. His heart pounded
in his chest, sweat already drenched his shirt. His mind raced
through different scenarios of how he could rescue his friends. A
quick glance around the surrounding area revealed that there was no
route of escape, they were trapped.
    “Come on boy, at least spare their
lives. I will have the artifact one way or another.” A terrible
energy emerged from the man, feeling the space about him with a
dark hazy light. The energy hung heavy in the air and its effect
was astonishing. To Asher, it felt like the very essence of death
and decay, he felt his confidence slip to despair. The anger that
swelled inside of him began to sway to the same feeling of
powerlessness as before.
    A hazy dark purple aura, emerged
from the masked man’s being. It whisked about the man, as if it
were a dark flame, and then the aura started to gather and funnel
into the eyes and mouths of Kayla and Alby. Elixir dropped their
bodies to the ground, where they began to convulse violently.