The Akashic Mandate

Chapter 6

The cold shock of the thick liquid hit them instantly. The splash was massive. They sank deep beneath the surface, surrounded by absolute darkness.

The river was thick and heavy, pulling them down toward the bottom. Elijah held his breath, keeping his eyes shut tight. The salt and iron burned his fresh wounds. The Hellhound thrashed violently in Elijah’s grip. Its jaws were still locked onto his left shoulder, its glass teeth digging deep into his flesh. The pain was blinding, but Elijah refused to let go.

Underwater, the rules of combat changed. The beast’s terrifying speed was useless here. The thick blood slowed its movements down. The swirling black shadows that made up the creature's muscles seemed to hate the blood river. The shadows sizzled and smoked beneath the surface, dissolving slowly into the water.

Elijah opened his eyes. The water was dark, but the glowing red eyes of the beast provided enough light for him to see.

The beast realized its mistake. It opened its jaws, releasing Elijah’s shoulder, trying to swim back to the surface. It kicked its legs wildly.

"No you don't," Elijah thought, a dark, primal rage taking over his mind.

He reached out and wrapped his thick, muscular arm completely around the Hellhound’s bony neck. He locked his hands together in a tight, unbreakable chokehold. He used his heavy boots to kick against a large, submerged rock, pushing them both deeper into the water, away from the surface.

The beast fought wildly. Its back legs kicked out, its sharp claws slicing through Elijah’s pants and tearing deep gashes into his thighs. Blood clouded the water around them, mixing with the crimson river.

Elijah’s lungs began to burn. The pressure in his chest built up until he felt like his ribs were going to crack. He needed to breathe. He had seconds left before he inhaled the thick, deadly liquid.

But he held on. He tightened his grip around the bone neck, squeezing with every single ounce of strength he had left in his body. He pushed the back of the creature’s skull against the solid, muddy bottom of the riverbed, using his own body weight to trap it down.

The beast scratched. It tore Elijah’s flesh. The red eyes flashed with sudden panic.

Elijah squeezed harder. His vision started to turn black at the edges. Small bubbles escaped his lips. He was drowning. He was going to die right here at the bottom of a river of blood.

Snap.

The sound was dull underwater, but Elijah felt the vibration in his arms. The thick, white bone in the center of the Hellhound’s neck finally cracked under the immense pressure.

Elijah didn't stop. He pushed harder, putting his entire soul into one final, desperate squeeze.

CRUNCH.

The neck bone shattered completely. The skull disconnected from the spine.

Instantly, the beast went limp. The glowing red eyes flickered wildly like candles in the wind, and then, slowly, they died out. The red light vanished, leaving Elijah in total darkness. The thrashing stopped. The black shadow-flesh rapidly melted away into the river, leaving only dead, heavy bones.

The beast was dead.

Elijah let go of the bones. He pushed off the bottom of the river and kicked furiously toward the surface. His vision was almost completely dark. His chest convulsed, begging for air.

His head broke the surface. He gasped loudly, sucking in a massive gulp of the horrible, sulfur-tasting air. It was the sweetest thing he had ever tasted.

He coughed, splashing weakly toward the shore. He pulled himself out of the thick liquid, dragging his bleeding, exhausted body over the sharp rocks and back into the mud. He collapsed on his back, staring up at the cracked purple moon.

He was bleeding from dozens of cuts. His shoulder was torn open from the bite. His legs were shredded. He was covered in black mud, red river water, and his own blood. He could barely lift his arm. He was totally and completely spent.

"I won," Elijah whispered breathlessly to the empty sky. "I killed it without a sword."

He turned his head to the side, looking at the edge of the river.

To his great surprise, the body of the Hellhound did not wash up on the shore. Instead, the heavy white bones that were floating in the shallow water suddenly began to dissolve. They turned into a fine, gray ash, right there in the liquid.

But it wasn't just ash.

From the center of the dissolving bones, a small, bright, glowing orb of pure golden light floated upward. It looked like a tiny, captured star. It hummed with a strange, musical sound.

Elijah watched in awe as the golden orb floated through the air, moving directly toward him. He was too weak to move away. He just lay there as the warm golden light hovered over his chest.

Then, it shot downward, sinking straight into his heart.

Elijah gasped, arching his back. He expected pain, but there was no pain. Instead, a wave of incredible, comforting warmth washed over his entire body. It felt like drinking hot soup on a freezing winter night. The exhaustion that weighed down his muscles completely vanished.

He looked down at his body. The deep bite mark on his shoulder stopped bleeding. The torn flesh slowly stitched itself back together, leaving only a faint pink scar. The scratches on his chest closed up. The deep cuts on his legs stopped hurting. He felt strong. He felt energized. He felt more alive than he had in years.

Suddenly, the world around him seemed to freeze.

The sound of the rushing river vanished. The wind stopped.

Right in front of Elijah’s eyes, floating in the empty air, glowing blue symbols began to appear. They formed strange words that he had never seen before, yet he instantly knew exactly what they meant. The glowing text burned itself directly into his mind, echoing with a robotic, powerful voice inside his head.

[Entity Devoured: Lesser Hellhound.]

[Soul Essence +10.]

[Hidden Condition Met. The cycle of True Death has been witnessed.]

[Cosmic Authority Identified: Akashic Mandate Awakened.]

[Warning: The Mandate is a forbidden law. You are now the Devourer. You are a Heretic to the Gods.]

[New Skill Unlocked: Hellfire Grip.]

Elijah blinked rapidly. The blue text slowly faded away, dissolving into sparkles of light.

"Akashic Mandate?" Elijah repeated the strange words out loud. "What is a system doing in my head? Entity devoured? I didn't eat it... my body absorbed it."

He looked down at his right hand. He concentrated on the feeling of the golden energy inside his chest. He imagined pushing that energy down his arm, into his fingers.

FWOOSH.

Instantly, his right hand caught on fire.

Elijah jumped back, startled, but he quickly realized the fire was not burning him. The flames were pitch black, rimmed with a sick, glowing purple edge. They danced over his knuckles and wrapped around his fingers. He closed his fist, and the black flames flared upward, hot and hungry.

It was the same energy that made up the Hellhound’s shadow-flesh. He had stolen the beast’s power.

"Hellfire Grip," Elijah whispered, staring at his burning fist. A slow, dangerous smile spread across his bruised face. If he was trapped in this hell, at least he was not helpless anymore. He had a weapon. He had magic. If he killed more monsters, would he get stronger? Could he absorb them all?

He stood up tall, the black fire lighting up his face. He felt powerful. He felt ready for anything.

Awoooooooooooo!

The sound tore through the quiet night. It was not one howl. It was a chorus of them. Dozens of terrible, screeching howls overlapping each other, echoing off the canyon walls.

Elijah’s smile vanished. The black fire on his hand flickered.

He slowly turned his head, looking past the rocky shore, back toward the line of dead, twisted trees where the first beast had come from.

The purple light of the cracked moon barely reached the shadows of the forest. But inside those dark shadows, small lights began to turn on.

One pair of glowing red coals appeared.

Then another.

Then three more.

Ten more.

Within seconds, the entire tree line was lit up by dozens and dozens of glowing, hateful red eyes. Low, rumbling growls shook the ground beneath Elijah’s boots. The sound of heavy bones clicking together echoed through the night air.

A massive pack of Hellhounds stepped out of the shadows, their jagged glass teeth dripping with black saliva. There were at least thirty of them, and they were all staring directly at the human holding the stolen black fire.

Elijah stood on the edge of the blood river, completely surrounded, with nowhere left to run.