38

  “They aren’t here…” Shay mumbled. The chamber he just took the three out of now remained nothing more than a vacant tomb. The cracked stone of the throne and its tomb where Omar stood mightily, resembled no trace of his presence. Leonidas disappeared also. All that remained was a large gaping crater between where the man were.

  Shay peered down at the crater that plagued the pristine chamber. His face trembled when he saw glimmers of light dancing around. “No… Omar.” Shay bit his lip.

  …

  A flushing waterfall rapid fell down the edge of a monument lost by time. Light peered behind the clouds, revolving from the heavens. Wherever this place existed, it neither lived with the heavens, nor with the mortal realms of Eurafalia.

  Omar’s vision blurred, yet he very much awoke. Over his head, a monument from stories his father told him. He had been here before, when his father had been named Chronicler. “The Cathedral of Dreams.” His father called it. Where men seek eternal glory and the fate they seek.

  Omar made it to his feet, a balcony railing keeping from falling thousands of feet below where the waterfall’s endless river flow continued. The sun escaped the clouds and nearly blinded his crystal blue eyes. Power restored him, as he observed the surrounding area. For he was beneath the clouds to heaven, and above the clouds of man. An eternal home for beings capable of being both in the mortal and immortal realms.

  The Cathedral of Dreams, stood at the edge of reality, shimmering like a vision caught in-between waking and slumber. For this realm Omar knew too well, the lands in-between. The cathedrals architecture was unlike anything the human mind could comprehend. An endless number or spires and arches, twisting into the star-streaking skies, as the sun casted a warm orange glow around them. The walls glew of blue translucent crystals reflecting the light of unborn moons, casting rainbows, that pulsed different colors at each heartbeat.

  The entrance a grand portal where a number of different archways opened to endless possibilities. The silver aesthetic design rippled like the flow of water coming from the cathedrals center. Omar stepped closer to the main deck long balcony that stood at equal height with the sun. The air was thick, with a scent of apples and cinnamon.

  The balconies were naves of the cathedral, all connected by the doorways, separated between the monuments between them. The convergence of the balcony naves impossible from the vast and familiar monuments. To Omar’s left a statue of a white horse, with its feathered wings out mightily. Its long mave and tail curved like lightning. To his right, a lost warrior of time, ten foot high, decked in crucible black knight armor. He stood with prowess and conviction. The statues of Pegasus and Boracius, the Shardbearer gifts of both he and Leonidas.

  Omar searched the pillars of luminous mist rows that supported the open ceiling of the mirrored cosmos. Galaxies were infinite inside of here. Every known realm was connected to the moving vortex of windows that represented each realms stationary colors. Light passed through them, and the cathedral turned the color of that realm. The large scaping white mountain of the Pale lit up Omar’s side of the cathedral in white and light blue.

  Despite its grandeur the Cathedral was alive. It breathed of life and aspired to find its way into the hearts of every passing being that found its way here. For each person carried a part of this cathedral with them. A flicker of eternal light bounded into a tapestry of dreams. Omar’s eyes lit up staring into its light.

  The Blade of Elysium sat beside Omar, as he slowly reached to grab it. “So, Elysium has picked tis protecter.” A voice rung in the air, low, beating on a metallic drum. It quivered, echoing around the entire rooftop.

  Omar turned seeing a clock shifted between light and day. It turned to high noon with a large bell ringing. Leonidas stood upon the top of the clock. Though, he changed. His face covered with a corrupt black veiny mutation. His left eye, now crimson red, revolving around his onyx shaded eye. One side he appeared a regular Diborn. The other, something extraordinary.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “No matter.” He lunged from the clock to the balcony in front of Omar. “Was it the combination of our blades which brought us here, makes no matter.” He rose holding the uncocooned lotus blade. He pointed the tip of the blood red sword at Omar, with its eye peered him. “I have waited so long to kill you, for taking my life. Wasting this power. We could have been brothers. We could be rulers, yet you chose to protect a realm of weaklings.”

  His voice lowered, possessive and narrated by an entirely different entity. Omar noticed it. He chose every movement carefully, slowing pacing in a circle around Omar. “Listen to yourself. You’ve gone mad. You have let that blade consume you. We both joined the Kingsguard to do good for this realm. Are you even the same man, I once knew? Do you remember who you are Leonidas?”

  Leonidas peered away, then pulled his glare back at Omar. A glint in his eyes told the whole story, something unnatural lived inside of them. Something inhuman. His movements felt forced, they were off to the normal eye. Every movement felt as though a marionette of invisible strings moved the Diborn.

  Omar gasped, reaility finally struck him. “Where were you born, Leonidas?” Omar knew the answer but did Leonidas.

  Omar staggered back, lowering his guard slightly, a brisk of wind ran a chill down his entire spinal cord. Leonidas didn’t move. He froze for a heartbeat, raising a charismatic glance. “Why of course, the Pale?” It confidently answered.

  “You were born in Glamis…” Omar restated. His face dwindled twisted by the realization that set in. “You were born a gladiator and fought all your life. You moved to the Pale, to start anew. You told me this the day I met you. You gunned to lead the Kingsguard, because you believed in being truly free.”

  Leonidas, or whatever stood before him froze. “But, Leonidas has been dead since that day hasn’t he?” Omar questioned. “He really fought me out of jealously and lost. So, my question…” The Diborn’s face curled into a cruel smile, but its eyes flickered with fear.

  “Who really are you…?” Omar concerningly demanded.

  Leonidas’s body jerked unnaturally, their hand twitched with an otherworldly presence wrestling for dominance. “Don’t you remember me?” The voice sneered a sinister smile, awakening the truth. Omar gasped, the blade beaconed with a red glow. His heart sank, knowing the identity of the being, but he waited for it to reveal itself.

  Omar thought back to the moments before his crusade began, before everything in his life changed. The betrayals, the devastation, the questions, and everything after. It all had been controlled by one force. One admired by evil. One created by evil and sin. A true monster.

  “Leonidas never became Boracius.” Omar understood it all now. “Boracius became Leonidas, because of you.” Desperation shouted out from his voice.

  “All because of you. His vessel became a grand consort for my spirit.” The Lotus Blade arrived. Its glowing red eyes, matched Elysium’s, but this one reeked of darkness.

  “So, just what I thought. You aren’t Leonidas, nor an entity, you are… the Lotus Blade.”

  The consort which was Leonidas’s body stiffened. Laughter came like a murmur from the blade, as the face of the consort froze. “Yes… we never thought after that night you would bare Elysium.” The blade laughed so sinisterly it evoked fear to the sun, it quickly set ablaze.

  “For centuries, since I have been created, I searched for a consort capable of carrying my mission. Destroying the heavens and hells, to revoke the balance of power.” The blade explained, as Omar slowly readied Elysium. “We never thought a lowly child would become the perfect vessel. So, we waited. Letting you live, but you were so weak. But now, Elysium has taken you, showing us what it is we desire. A Diborn capable of holding weapons from Altira and Shieva. You could become a god, if you wielded both our powers.”

  Omar pondered the thought of it. The Lotus Blade and Elysium, two stables of the twin sisters. Purity and evil. The greatest powers of man yearned for him. With both, everything in this world would be his to hold.

  “Come on…” The blade baited Omar. “We killed your father already. What’s another million other useless souls…” His father came to his mind. The agony of the blade forcing that kill. It changed him. Made him who he is now.

  Omar couldn’t bother with the thought. He sighed, pulling Elysium fully out. “I never wanted to be a god among men. That’s to much work for someone like me.” Elysium tip of the blade touched the consort’s heart. “I just want to stop the Specters and protect my home. So, fuck off, I pass.” Omar grinned.

  The blade commanded Leonidas to ready his weapon. “Twas not a request child.” It laughed. “You will make a fine vessel for my grand plan. Once I dine on your soul once more!”

  “Rise Boracius!” Dark magic tainted the vessel that was Leonidas. “For you have served your purpose. We are no longer Leonidas… nor Boracius…” It summoned a shroud of black and purple magic that consumed the vessel, entirely. It laughed from within a vortex of energy, Omar backed up, feeling the entire air shift with its power.

  “We are…” A crimson glowing red eye peered from the darkness inside the shroud. “Insidious!”

  The entirety of the cathedral felt its devastation, shaking into an earthquake rippling through the earth, The entire lands between collapsed from an explosion of its power. Omar held the balcony for a lifetime, understanding that the rising phenomenon from the ashes of the shroud was a true monster. “It’s like you said father, the Lotus Blade… is an insidious being.” A red sky melted the air.