The words of Earl Harbinger, Hunters can't lose control. Got that? You never lose control.
I had said it to Trip myself the night he had talked me out of quitting. When I get mad, when I lose control, people get hurt.
I was the one. I tasted the foul blood in my mouth just as Lord Machado had tasted the copper in his own five hundred years before… What had I done?
'The sacrifice is complete,' Koriniha said, her voice now clear.
I spun around, ax in hand. The priestess stood at the opposite end of the pyramid. One black arm encircled Julie's neck. A ceremonial dagger was pressed into her throat, unleashing a thin trickle of blood. I began to move forward, but the priestess pressed the knife harder and Julie cried out.
'That will be enough, Hunter,' she said. The power of the Old Ones evaporated from my body. Suddenly I was dizzy and weak. Stumbling, I went to my knees, feeling empty without the power. 'You've had your taste.'
'Let her go,' I ordered. Julie was frightened but angry. She fought against the priestess. Her chains had been broken, but she could not break free of Koriniha's steel grasp. The priestess was still a patch of oily darkness, but her features had changed to the point that she looked almost exactly like she had in the memory. The red eyes had been replaced with the cunning human eyes that I remembered. She was looking at something behind me.
There was a bellow, sounding even over the hurricane above, the battle cry of an unstoppable force. I turned just in time to see Abomination's blade tearing toward my throat. There was no way I would be able to move in time.
Koriniha's eyes fixed on the bayonet.
It stopped instantly, the edge pressed into the flesh above my jugular. Abomination vibrated, the silver blade dissipated friction heat from the sudden stop into my skin. The Tattooed Man looked at me, pitch black eyes wide in surprise, then down at the shotgun in his thick fists, then at the priestess. She glared at him, and suddenly he was slammed backwards as if hit by a truck. He rolled across the pyramid, instantly springing to his feet near the vampire's now skeletal corpse. Thrall lifted my shotgun, the skull image on his face twisting into grim determination. The black lines on his body moved in unison with the crackling energy above. He began to walk toward me.
'What took you so long?' the priestess asked nonchalantly.
'T'was a mighty werewolf about. There was a great battle to gain entrance to this foul place. Who art thou?'
She laughed. Julie cringed as the knife twisted against her neck. 'Do you not remember me, Captain Thrall? It was I who led your general to his fate.'
'Thou evil thing. I took thy life once. I shall do so again.' Thrall's voice raised in volume and intensity. He changed direction away from me, now heading toward the priestess. 'Thou stole the artifact from my hands. Thy minions left me buried beneath a mountain, but I will not die. I have vowed to keep the power from all. I have vowed upon the spirits of my Jarl ancestors. I have-' Koriniha's eyes narrowed and the Tattooed Man was again hurled through the air.
'Fool. I tire of you. Your use to us has ended,' she hissed. He landed with a sickening thump. Abomination bounced out of his hands. 'We needed you then. We needed a protector for the Kumaresh Yar, but no longer. Lord Machado had to work for it. He needed a nemesis. We could not just give him the artifact before the time was right. Thank you for your services, good Captain.'
Thrall surged to his feet. He must have retrieved all of my weapons from the snow. He drew both of my. 45s from behind his back and pointed them at the priestess, fingers seeking triggers. The priestess pushed them aside with a thought. Bullets struck the pyramid and ricocheted harmlessly into the distance. The STIs were torn from his massive hands and sent spinning away.
The unkillable man charged her with a roar. For five hundred years he had protected the device from any mortal who would dare to unlock its powers. He had sacrificed his life, always in hiding, constantly in battle, always struggling to protect the object from the minions of the Cursed One. It had been stolen once before with the help of the Nazis, and he had regained it. It had been stolen from him again by the hands of seven Masters. He was here to get it back, and destroy any who thought to use it. He was the Guardian.
But the Old Ones no longer required his services.
He stumbled to a halt, clutching at his face in alarm. 'What foul sorcery is this?' he bellowed, and then roared in pain as the twisting magic tattoos were ripped from his body, taking parts of his flesh with them. 'No! ARRGGHH!' He gnashed his teeth together in agony as his skin was torn off. The black curling lines snaked upwards, crackling into the black sphere, returning to their home. His clothing rustled as the blood-stained lines searched for an escape, poured through the fabric, leaving it clinging to the now blood-soaked form. He went to his knees, twisting and convulsing as he was peeled like a piece of fruit. I had to look away. I had never seen anything so horrible.
He fell onto his face, now all visible sinew and twitching muscle, barely conscious in a spreading pool of red.
'It must hurt. To be a mortal, and to be branded with such glory. Immune from age, sickness, death-' Koriniha appeared to be enjoying his suffering. '-only to have it all stripped away.'
'What art thou?' Thrall gasped through his gash of a mouth, white teeth glistening in the pulped mass. The black had been torn from his eyes, and the things were now huge, milky orbs, quickly covered in blood. Eyelids gone, he could no longer blink it away.
'I have been known by many names. You knew me as Koriniha, but that was just a part to play. Oh, how I tired of that act, fawning over your Lord Machado. He should have been the one, but he lacked the will. I have lived a thousand lives. I have trespassed upon this world since the beginning. I am Unwelcome, Uninvited. O mighty Captain, your people knew me as Azgeroth. The tribes that conquered your people thought of me as Hel.' She turned to glare at me, her oil-slick face dripping onto Julie's hair. 'I am a thing of legend. To your mentor, the ghost, to his people I was Lillith, though they have the story all wrong. To the nation that carried them away into captivity I was Zaltu, daughter of Tiamat. Temples have been built in my honor across this world, all forgotten now. I am a false god in your pathetic mortal pantheon. You sad apes have made idols of me for ten thousand years. I have waited patiently while you fools were sacrificing slaves and forming cults in my name. But who I am is not important. All you must know is that I am the one who prepares the way for the return of the Great…' she hissed an impossible sound that hit my brain like a sledgehammer. Julie cried out in pain and tried to lift her hands to cover her ears. The name of her master left me nauseous and stupefied.
'Do you understand now? In your visions, I was not speaking with that fool Machado. I was speaking to you. You are the one. Infinite power is at your fingertips. You are the rightful ruler of this world. You are destined to be a prince of…'
The impossible sound again. I clamped my hands over my ears. Julie screamed.
'Use your will to unlock it. All you have to do is wish for it.' She glanced upwards at the roaring sphere. 'Do it now or I will kill your love.' She pressed the tip of the knife in deeper. Julie cringed.
I understood now, understood more than the priestess thought I did. I knew what was waiting on the other side of that gate. They could not exist in a plane like ours. They were outside time. They needed the fabric of the universe twisted into their image, and that was something that they were not able to do on their own. If I were but to will the sphere to open, then the Old Ones would descend on this world to rule. It was a trick. It was all a trick. Lord Machado had just been a pawn, a man used and broken by them to lead events to this moment. A pawn like me.
'Don't do it, Owen. Let her kill me,' Julie shouted. Koriniha tightened her arm around her hostage's throat. Julie was undeterred. 'Do it, you whore. I dare you!'
'I won't open that gate.'
'That is up to you. You are the one. The one prophesied by the great ruler itself. You can control time and matter. You have been tested before and you have proven yourself ready. Now all that remains is for you to satisfy the rest of the prophecy.'
The last lines appeared glowing in my mind, obsidian chips flying, ax madly descending.
Only he will have the will
And the power
Through his love of another
To break time and the world
