All Chapters of The Akashic Mandate: Chapter 51
- Chapter 60
104 chapters
Chapter 51
Elijah turned his gaze toward the girl. He saw her "Code." It was falling apart. The lines of the holographic grid were snapping around her. She was a "Null Event." In a few seconds, she would simply cease to exist.Elijah didn't think. He didn't have time to be a King. He had to be a protector. He "Void-Stepped" across the square, appearing instantly next to the fading girl. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders. "I have you," Elijah growled.He used his "Void-Grip." This was not a physical grab. He was using his will to hold her atoms together. He was forcing the universe to remember that she was there.But the "Erasure Light" of the ritual was still working. The Blight was still being burned away. Elijah was caught in the middle. He had to feed her his own "Essence" to fill the holes in her soul."Take it," Elijah commanded.He pushed his own energy into her. It was the golden light of the Archangel and the black fire of the Mandate.The strain was too much.Crrr-ack.A loud s
Chapter 52
The screaming finally stopped. In the center of Haven’s Drop, the air was hot and still. The black smoke from the "Blight-Erasure" had blown away, leaving only a strange, silver dust on the ground. The thirty-nine volunteers had gone through the fire, but not all of them were standing.Elijah lay in the metallic sand near the base of his throne. His neck felt like it was made of broken glass. When the Seventh Sister had snapped the doll in the sky, Elijah’s body had reacted as if his own bones were being crushed. His obsidian skin was cracked, and his golden blood was pooling in the sand. He was the Lord, but he was a Lord who was currently broken.But he was not the only one on the ground.Marcus lay just a few feet away from Elijah. For ten minutes, Marcus had been a storm of black smoke and purple fire. Now, he was quiet. Steam rose from his body in thin, white curls. The glass-blue skin he once had was gone. It had not just changed color; it had changed its very nature.Marcus
Chapter 53
The black stone walls of the Grey Sanctuary were silent. Outside the dome, the white light of the Archons still tried to push through, but inside, the world was still. The metallic sand did not blow in the wind. The glass leaves of the silver tree did not rustle. Everything was waiting.Elijah stood at the base of the half-finished Obsidian Spire. The tower was already a hundred feet tall, a jagged tooth of black glass reaching for the gray clouds. It hummed with a deep, low sound. It was the heart of the camp, and Elijah was the heart of the spire.His skin was cracked. The golden blood had dried into dark, shiny lines on his arms. He looked like a statue that had been broken and glued back together. His eyes, one a gold sun, one a black hole, were fixed on the nine figures standing in front of him.The nine Vanguards stood in a perfect line. They did not move. They did not blink. Their silver eyes shimmered with a soft light. Marcus stood at the front, his marble-white skin glow
Chapter 54
One by one, the others began to manifest their weapons. Elena created two short daggers that hummed with a purple light. Silas’s nephew, Leo, created a curved sword that looked like a moon made of ash. They were learning. They were starting to realize that their bodies were just containers for the darkness.But Marcus was not happy with his giant blade. He felt something else inside him. He didn't feel like a sword. He felt like a wall."Mistress," Marcus said, looking at Lyra. "The shadow... it doesn't want to be sharp for me. It wants to be heavy.""Show me," Lyra said.Marcus dropped his black glass sword. It turned back into smoke before it hit the sand. He stood in a defensive stance. He didn't look at his hands. He looked at the air in front of him.He thought about the "Erasure Light" of the Archons. He thought about the people he had failed to protect. He felt a sudden, hot need to stand in the way."Harden!" Marcus roared.He pushed his hands forward. The ozone fog in front
Chapter 55
The Obsidian Spire was tall, but it was not happy. Elijah stood at the very top of the tower. He was a hundred feet in the air. The gray clouds of the dome were so close he could almost touch them with his hand. The spire was made of black glass, but today, the glass was shaking. It was a deep, low vibration that Elijah could feel in his teeth.Thrummm. Thrummm.Elijah placed his ash-colored hand against the obsidian wall. He felt a sharp, cold pull in his chest. It felt like a freezing wind was blowing out of his heart and into the tower."Stop," Elijah whispered.The spire did not stop. It was "hungry."Elijah realized the problem. He had built this tower out of the things he found on the ground—broken concrete from the old streets, rusted steel from old cars, and red mud from the Blight-lands. He had used his power to turn those weak things into black glass.But the "Grey Domain" was too heavy. The power of the Void was like a mountain sitting on a piece of thin wood. The wood wa
Chapter 56
The bridge was a skeleton of rusted iron, stretching across a dark river. Elijah stood at the very top of a bent support beam. His six wings were hidden, but the gray fog of his power still leaked from his skin. He looked toward the city of Empire’s Reach.On Earth, a city in the middle of a war usually looked dark. It usually looked broken. There should have been smoke. There should have been the smell of rotting meat from the Ever-Blight. But as Elijah looked at the city, he saw something else. Empire’s Reach was not dark. It was glowing.Elijah took a step off the bridge. He did not fall. He slid through the air, his boots landing softly on the cracked pavement of the highway. He began to walk toward the city gates.The first thing he noticed was the smell. It was not the smell of rust or mud. It was a thick, heavy perfume. It smelled like a thousand roses being crushed at once. It was so sweet it made Elijah’s throat feel tight. It was a Holy smell, designed to make people feel
Chapter 57
Elijah looked at the crowd. Thousands of people, all with the same glassy eyes. All with the same frozen smiles. They weren't living here. They were waiting.He looked closer at the people. He saw that the golden vines were not just growing near them.A tiny, thin golden thread was attached to the back of every person’s neck. The thread went into their skin, right at the base of the skull. It hummed with a soft, white light.[Vitality Scan: Commencing.][Subject Status: Living Battery.][Human Essence Levels: 15% (Critical).][The Aether-Vines are draining 0.1% of their soul-spark every hour. The humans are being kept in a state of 'Holy Bliss' to prevent the soul from resisting.]"A ghetto," Elijah muttered. "A golden ghetto."The Angels weren't just harvesting souls. They were farming them while the people were still alive. They were using the humans’ own life-force to keep the city beautiful. It was a circle of horror. The more the vines drank, the brighter the city glowed. The br
Chapter 58
The square of Empire’s Reach was a lake of white silk and golden light. Thousands of humans stood there, their eyes fixed on the massive silver statue in the center. The Aether-Vines pulsed with a soft, warm rhythm. To any human from the outside world, this place looked like heaven. There was no mud. There was no blood. There was only the sweet smell of roses and the feeling of a warm sun that never went down. Then, Elijah walked in.He was a crack in the mirror. His skin was the color of burnt wood and cold ash. His right eye was a burning gold sun, and his left eye was a hole into the deep night. He wore a torn blue cloak that smelled like ozone and old metal. Everywhere he stepped, the silver grass turned black. The shadows around his feet didn't move with the light; they crawled toward him like loyal dogs.The humans near the edge of the square noticed him first. They didn't scream. They didn't run. They simply stopped their slow, happy walking and stared. To them, Elijah was
Chapter 59
The thousands of humans in Empire’s Reach did not look like people anymore. They were a wave of white silk and mindless hunger. Because Camael had pumped them full of Holy Adrenaline, they moved with a jerky, terrifying speed. They were rushing toward Elijah, their glassy eyes fixed on his dark skin.Elijah stood his ground. He did not want to kill them. He looked up at the sky, where the two-winged angel was floating.Camael did not draw a sword. He did not use fire. He raised his wooden crook and began to sing.The sound was beautiful, but it was a trap. It was the Hymn of Binding. To the humans, it sounded like a mother’s lullaby. To Elijah, it felt like his blood was turning into cold lead. Every note of the song was a heavy weight. It was a Divine Law that said: “Be still. Be silent. Obey.”"Kneel, Shadow-Born," Camael sang. The words vibrated in the air, creating golden rings that settled over Elijah’s shoulders. "Kneel before the Shepherd. Return to the earth where you belong
Chapter 60
The city of Empire’s Reach was no longer a city of gold. It was a city of ghosts. The Aether-Vines that had covered the skyscrapers were now black and brittle. They looked like burnt hair clinging to the stone. The beautiful perfume smell was gone. In its place was the sharp, stinging smell of sulfur and the heavy scent of old mud. The artificial Holy Light had been sucked away when Elijah pulled the World-Heart Fragment from the statue. Now, the sky was a bruised purple, and the darkness was creeping back into the streets.Camael, the two-winged angel, was no longer a god. Without the Life Essence of the humans to feed him, his pale gold wings had turned a dull, dirty gray. He was small. He was pathetic. He tried to crawl away across the silver grass, his wooden crook broken in two.Elijah walked toward him. Every step Elijah took made the ground vibrate. His obsidian skin was still cracked, and the golden blood was glowing in the dark. He looked like a nightmare that had come to