Path of the Forsaken Sigil

Chapter 24

High Inquisitor Bontus charged forward on his massive horse of solid sunlight. Behind him, fifty elite Inquisitors marched in perfect time, their golden shields and flaming swords pushing the dark shadows of the cavern away. 

"Burn everything until only God remains!" Bontus commanded. 

High up on the black obsidian platform, Lady Hestia’s face twisted in pure panic. But her panic quickly turned into furious anger. She looked down at the High Inquisitor, completely forgetting about Bruce for a moment. 

"You liar!" Hestia screamed at Bontus. Her voice echoed loudly over the marching boots. "We have a deal! The Iron-Heart Clan paid the holy tithe! We gave the Order of the Solar Flame your share of the magic! You promised to protect our secret!"

Bruce froze. He stood on the wet stone floor, his newly enhanced ears picking up every single word. 

The High Inquisitor did not slow down. He pointed his flaming sword up at the Matriarch. "Deals change, Hestia. Your clan has become sloppy. You let a Void-Born bastard summon a Forbidden Angel. You have drawn too much attention to this place. The church can no longer protect you. Today, we purge the Iron-Heart Clan, and the Order takes this battery farm for ourselves!"

It was all a giant, sickening lie. 

The Order of the Solar Flame was supposed to be the most righteous, holy group in the world. They traveled the kingdom hunting demons, stopping dark magic, and protecting the innocent. People prayed to them. 

But they were corrupt. They knew about the kidnapped people in the glass vats. They knew about the tortured spirits. They were secretly taking a cut of the stolen magic to power their own holy spells. 

"You will not take my prize!" Hestia shrieked. She looked completely crazy. Blood dripped down her chin. She turned around and slammed her bloody hands onto the center of the black stone altar. 

She pushed a hidden glowing rune. 

Instantly, the thick golden chains holding Victoria Thompson began to pull downward. The center of the obsidian platform split open with a loud crack. It revealed a perfectly smooth, round hole leading straight down into the deep earth. 

Victoria, still unconscious and hanging in the chains, was rapidly lowered into the dark hole. 

"She is taking the core! Secure the battery!" Bontus yelled, kicking his horse of light to run faster. 

"No!" Bruce roared. 

Bruce did not care about Bontus. He did not care about the fifty Inquisitors. He only cared about his mother. 

Bruce bent his knees. His new Void-Forged Body buzzed with incredible, stolen energy. He pushed off the stone floor with all his might. The dark stone actually shattered under his feet, sending pieces of rock flying into the air. 

Bruce shot forward like a bullet shot from a gun. 

He moved so fast that the world around him turned into a blurry streak of red and gray. To the Inquisitors, Bruce was just a sudden gust of dark wind. He bypassed the entire army of golden knights in less than a second. He leaped high into the air, soaring up toward the top of the eighty-foot obsidian platform. 

Lady Hestia saw him coming. She screamed and tried to raise her purple dagger, but she was far too slow. 

Bruce did not even look at her. He flew right past her, aiming straight for the open hole in the center of the altar. Just as the black stone floor began to slide shut to seal the hole, Bruce dove inside. 

The heavy stone doors slammed shut right above his head, plunging him into darkness. 

Bruce was falling again. But this tunnel was different. He reached out his hands to slow himself down, pressing his palms against the walls. The walls were not made of rough, wet rock like the rest of the Catacombs. They were perfectly smooth, polished white marble. 

Bruce slid down the steep, angled tunnel. He felt the Ashen Seraph gliding right behind him, keeping pace in the dark. 

As Bruce slid deeper, the air changed completely. The smell of old blood, wet dirt, and rusty iron faded away. Instead, the air smelled sterile. It smelled like a hospital mixed with the sharp scent of a lightning storm. 

A bright, warm light began to glow at the end of the tunnel. 

Bruce hit the ground running. He sprinted out of the tunnel and stumbled into a massive, open chamber. 

He stopped and looked around, completely amazed. 

This was the Deepest Vault. It looked absolutely nothing like the grim, bloody nightmare of the battery farm above. It was beautiful, but in a terrifying, cold way. 

The entire room was shaped like a perfect circle. The floor, the ceiling, and the walls were all made of pristine, spotless white stone. There was no moss. There was no dirt. It looked like the inside of a holy temple. 

But there was no peace in this temple. The air was filled with a loud, high-pitched humming sound. It sounded like a million bees buzzing at the same time. The sound made Bruce’s teeth ache and his skin itch. 

In the exact center of the pristine white room floated a massive sphere. 

It was a cage. But it was not made of iron, or glass, or stone. 

The cage was a perfect, ten-foot-wide sphere made of pure, blinding Holy Light. The light was so bright and solid that it looked like a small sun trapped in the middle of the room. It gave off waves of intense heat that pushed against Bruce’s face. 

Bruce slowly walked closer, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the extreme brightness. 

"Mother?" Bruce whispered, his voice shaking. 

Inside the sphere of humming light, suspended in the center, was Victoria Thompson. 

Bruce felt a physical pain in his chest, sharper than any blade. He could finally see her clearly. 

She looked terrible. The beautiful, strong woman from his childhood memories was gone. She was painfully thin, her skin pale and stretched tight over her bones. She looked like she had not eaten a real meal in almost twenty years. She was wearing the remains of a white dress, but it was torn and ragged, hanging off her frail shoulders. 

Her long, raven-black hair hung down, hiding her face. 

She was not held by metal chains anymore. Here in the Deepest Vault, she was bound by chains of "hard-light." Thick beams of solid, glowing golden energy pierced right through her wrists, her ankles, and her collarbone, holding her completely still inside the sphere. 

"Mom," Bruce choked out. Tears cut clean lines through the gray ash and dirt on his face. 

He took another step closer. The intense heat of the holy sphere made the Brand of the Void on his shoulder throb with a strange, dull pain. His dark magic did not like this light. It felt wrong. It felt dangerous.