Kapitel 180: The Scarlet Portal
---Aaron---
I stood up slowly, shaking off dust and small pieces of rubble from my clothes. Surprisingly, I was still in one piece. A little bruised and aching, but in one unbroken piece nonetheless. Indigo and I were separated the ripple of magic hit and the protective dome broke. Looking around, I saw her picking herself up from the ground not far to my right. "Are you alright, Indigo?" I called out as I made my way to her.
"I'm okay," she answered, brushing dust from herself. "Where's Katherine?"
We both looked toward the remains of the orb. A swirl of red magic was hovering there and gradually increasing in size. No matter, we would deal with it later. When the orb exploded, the magic hit Katherine first, and it hit her full on the chest. I prayed that she was okay.
"Kath? Where are you?" Walking to where she last stood, I caught sight of a glinting rosestone behind a pillar. "Kath!"
Katherine lied on the ground facing up. Her eyes were closed. I skidded to a stop beside her, fearing the worse. "Kath!"
I reached out and shook her shoulder. With a groan, her eyes opened. Her gray eyes blinked a few times before focusing on me. I helped her into a sitting position. "Is the orb destroyed?" she asked. I nodded.
"You did it. You destroyed the orb." I couldn't help but grin. A smile appeared on Katherine's face too. "Everything's over now."
"Um, not quite." Indigo's worried voice sounded exceptionally loud in the silent throne room, pouring a bucket of ice water on our short-lived happiness. "You two might want to come see this."
Without another word, Katherine began to stand. I grabbed her arm and helped her to her feet. She leaned against me, still a little unsteady. "Thanks, Aaron."
"Don't mention it. Let's go see what Indigo wants us to see." Together, we walked around the pillar and immediately saw why Indigo sounded so worried.
Where the nebulous swirl of red magic had been, a dark red elliptical portal now hovered there, two feet off the floor, right above where the orb had exploded. It was about fifty feet tall and seven feet wide, stretching high into the air. Its edges shimmered with magic. Unlike the portals that Lord Victor created earlier, where each portal showed a destination, this portal simply showed a kaleidoscope of swirling, churning, wispy red magic three shades lighter than the edges. It hummed lightly.
Indigo eyed the portal warily from where she stood, a good thirty feet away. Katherine and I joined her. "What is this?" I asked.
"It's a portal, Aaron," Katherine said helpfully.
"That's not what I meant, Kath." I shot a look at her, and she smiled mischievously.
"It's a portal, yes, but to where? Why did it form when the orb was destroyed?" Indigo rested her chin on one hand thoughtfully. "Most importantly, what are we supposed to do now?"
The three of us stared at the portal, unsure of our next steps. A few moments later, Katherine suddenly jolted up straight. "Guys, where is Lord Victor? What happened to him?"
Indigo pointed towards the door, where Lord Victor laid on the floor with his back to us, impaled by the spear of light that had long since stopped glowing. Lord Victor looked like a chunk of meat strung on a kebab skewer. Blood pooled around him. He was not moving.
Katherine looked at Lord Victor, then back at Indigo. "Is he—is he—" She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Is he dead? For real this time?"
Indigo frowned. "I don't know," she whispered back. "The spear impaled him right around the time you destroyed the orb. Theoretically, since the orb holds his power and it is now destroyed, he should be dead, right?"
The three of us looked at each other, uncertain. We should go up to him and check, but none of us wanted to get near the evil lord especially when there was a chance that he wasn't dead. Just as we were trying to figure out what to do, we heard the Evils, still huddling in the corners of the room, began to howl and whimper. Darn it, they didn't combust and die! Katherine and I brandished our swords immediately and looked around in alarm. Were they going to attack us?
Before us, the portal began to glow. The Evils howled louder. As we watched in amazement, the swirls of magic in the center of the portal churned faster and began sucking the Evils in. The monsters struggled futilely as they were picked up and flew straight into the portal. Every time an Evil was devoured, the portal gave off a short burst of light. The three of us backed away, not wanting to be caught in the vacuum.
As the portal glowed brighter, I noticed that some Evils were disintegrating even before they reached the portal. "Look! They're disintegrating by themselves!" I pointed it out to Indigo and Katherine.
"Fantastic. Now we don't have to kill them ourselves." Katherine nodded approvingly. "I'm so tired of these monsters."
"I wonder if all the other Evils around Crystallea are also disintegrating," Indigo said. "If not, hopefully they are now weakened enough to be killed easily."
"Where do they go once they enter the portal?" Katherine asked.
"I don't think they go anywhere; I think they're getting destroyed." Indigo pointed as another handful of Evils approached the portal. "Watch carefully as they reach the portal."
Katherine and I both watched carefully. As the Evils touched the surface of the portal, their skin immediately began to dissolve into dust, which was then sucked into the portal. Soon, the entire group was no more. "You're right; they are getting destroyed!" Katherine exclaimed.
The last Evils clawed at the walls in the edges of the room, trying to escape. The portal plucked them off one by one and sucked them away. Indigo's eyes swept around the room and landed back on Lord Victor. "Guys, if the portal is sucking up and destroying all things evil, let's throw Lord Victor in as well. That way, we can destroy him for good."
"Good idea. With the portal there, even if he was alive, I doubt he can do much harm to us." Katherine agreed.
The three of us carefully walked around the back of the portal toward Lord Victor. He seemed a lot…smaller than before. Indigo circled to the front and gasped when she saw Lord Victor's face. "Guys, he—he's all shriveled!"
Katherine joined her and gaped. "He looks like a three-hundred-year old mummy."
I had to see for myself, so I walked to stand beside Katherine. Like my friends, I was stunned. Instead of the young man whom we had spoken to and battled, there was only a shriveled corpse in the now-oversized cloak and robe. His skin, now dirt brown instead of porcelain, stretched tight over his bones. His mouth was still twisted in an angry yell, and his teeth were unnaturally white against his withered skin. His eyes were black hollow sockets, which I quickly looked away from. I felt like if we even just prodded him a little too hard, the once-dominating evil lord would crumble into a pile of dust.
At that moment, I felt a small inkling of pity. This was a boy who helplessly watched the love of his life and his best friend die in front of him, who embarked on a path of no return for revenge, who lived alone for endless days and nights long past his natural time as the only person to know the truth of his past. For a brief moment, I wondered if I would make the same choices if I were in his shoes—if the Elders had wrongfully killed Katherine and Lucian and I was too late to save them. The answer my heart gave frightened my brain.
"Quick, we have to get him into the portal before it stops glowing!" Indigo said in alarm. I looked up to see that as the last of the Evils were pulled into the portal, the light from the center was dimming.
"Alright. Kath, Indigo, step back." I crossed one arm on top of the other, palms facing up. A gentle breeze lifted Lord Victor from the ground. I flipped my palms outward and pushed out. The breeze carried Lord Victor toward the portal.
"Wait, my spear!" Indigo ran around the floating Lord Victor and grabbed hold of the shaft of the spear. She tugged on it a few times before she was able to extract it. Lord Victor's shriveled body slumped as the spear was taken out.
Just as the last Evil disappeared into the portal, I made the wind throw Lord Victor in as well. The portal glowed bright scarlet and hummed louder. The edges began to thrash and twist. We turned our heads to shield our eyes from the blinding glow.
Then the light disappeared. We slowly turned back to see the portal return to a calm state, like when we first found it. Gradually, the magic inside stopped churning and began to fade. As we watched, the magic disappeared altogether a mirrored reflection of the throne room appeared. The only thing was that when Katherine, Indigo, and I walked in front, we didn't see ourselves reflected in it.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein