It had been ages since I had actually seen a space ship, let alone ride in one. But, there I found myself, on my way to a castle in space, a castle that in all actuality should not be there. Rune and his companions had explained everything to me. We were on our way to the Air Castle, the one supposedly destroyed by the explosion of Parma, to retrieve the stolen Eclipse Torch and to confront the dreaded Lashiec. As stressful and frightening as it should have been, I was not in the least bit afraid. As we hurtled through the empty void of space, my mind wandered. Would the children ever see their parents again? Would we actually be able to destroy Dark Force? Would we be crushed in one fell swoop, to be laughed at by the root of all evil? I was so caught up in my thoughts that I barely heard the conversation going on around me. "There appears to be something there," Wren said. "Is it the Air Castle?" Chaz questioned. "Whatever it is, it's huge!"
As we rocketed closer to the unknown object, it became very clear just what it was. In the distance, floated a giant fortress, seemingly unaffected by the destruction of Parma, some one thousand years ago. It was massive, gleaming white in the pure, unfiltered sunlight of Algo. Wren put the Landale in hover, just above the ground that was left underneath the castle. Using the ship's on-board computers, Wren determined that a pocket of air enveloped the citadel in space. "Someone is obviously expecting us," Chaz commented. When we were all armed and ready, Rune used Hinas, and in a matter of four seconds, we were on the surface, looking up at the gargantuan structure looming above us.
As the party entered the huge doorway of the castle, the air was chill and dry. "Boy, I guess Lashiec forgot to pay his heating bill," Chaz commented. At least he was keeping a sense of humor, it lightened the atmosphere. We zigged and zagged though a maze of hallways and rooms, being fairly lucky not to get into too many skirmishes along the way. We had just exited a room in which we found a wonderful new weapon for Rika, the Genocyclaw. She equipped it on our way through the massive hallways. The setting seemed too perfect, too void of enemies. I could sense impending danger was near.
As we rounded a corner, we came face to face with four giant Dimensworms. They were one of the ugliest creatures I had ever seen, and that says a lot. As they slipped in and out of our dimension, they hissed and wailed. Chaz immediately struck, along with Rika, with conventional weapons. It barely scratched them. From my left side, I heard Chaz say, "I think we have a problem here guys, our weapons don't work!" One of the giant beasts, as it slid into our dimension, cast a bolt of Gra, hitting the party with great force. As soon as we were back on our feet, Rune shouted, "Kyra! Cast Gra on them! Let's see if we can fight fire with fire!" The two instantly cast Gra, and hit the Worms with massive intensity. The demons screamed in pain and in a matter of seconds, were gone. "We got the bastards!" Chaz yelled. Wren congratulated Rune on his idea of using Gra, we caught our breath for a moment, and then were on our way further into the Air Castle.
It seemed as though we had been walking for hours, but in all actuality, it had only been thirty-five minutes. As we wound our way through the labyrinth of halls and passageways, we were all on our best guard. The air had a certain aura about it; one could almost sense pure evil and hatred. It was everywhere, pulsing from the walls, floors and ceilings. You could feel it under your feet as you walked, feel it palpitate through your hand when you touched the doorknobs. This fortress was a place of pure evil.
Just about the time we rounded a corner, a ChaosSorceror rounded the other one. We actually caught it by surprise, which was a nice advantage. We got one attack, a blow of Efess from Rune, before it had time to attack us. When the Fifth Lutz's attack caught its attention, it retaliated with Tandle. The lightning attack, blazing and searing hot felled us all. Wren was the first to regain his feet and attacked with his Burst Rockets. Rune, seeing what he was trying to do, cast Nafoi and the ChaosSorceror was badly damaged by Shooting Star. With one final attack, Chaz used Crosscut and the menacing devil was gone. Where the ChaosSorceror had been, rested a Star Dew, a nice reward after such a hard fight. We collected our prize, and were on our way. We knew we were very close to something…
The hall we had been walking in seemed to have a light at its end. We realized soon after discovering the light that its source was a cavernous room, lit by hundreds of tiny torches. "There's something not quite right here," Rune spoke. 'Yeah," Kyra agreed. "Something feels strange, like we're not alone." At that instant, hideous, deep laughter came from the shadows at the end of the chamber. "So, Lutz!" the demonic voices said. "You came, even when you knew who you would face!" Rune stood tall and with a booming voice said, "I knew Lashiec would be the one we would face, but I didn't expect to see you thieves! Where is the Eclipse Torch?" The Xe-A-Thouls, the giant witches who had stolen the Eclipse Torch laughed together and bellowed, "Your precious flame is with our lord Lashiec, and you will never live to get to him!" Chaz, standing ready to fight at any moment, drew his sword from its sheath and said, "We fight you to get the Torch Back, we WILL make it to Lashiec!" The necromancers laughed once more and screamed, "We will kill you weaklings! Observe the power of Darkness!" As we started to move forward, Rune grabbed my hand and said, "I love you."
The battle was over faster than I thought it would be. The demons, despite their bragging, had a weakness…Grand Cross. Thank the Light Rune and Chaz had their act together. But our fight was not without distress. Kyra was injured slightly by a very powerful blast of Giwat, and required two doses of Trimate. After resting for about twenty minutes, long enough for the Trimates to take effect and for Rune and I to get our telementals back in order, we proceeded down the dark staircase that had materialized out of the stone floor behind the Xe-A-Thouls.
