“When did this happen to you, Khaine?” D’Arden gasped. “What changed you from the man who taught me?”
Khaine was so shocked that he hadn’t moved. He simply stood there, dumbfounded, staring at D’Arden.
Once again, D’Arden dragged his body along the blade. Closer.
“What evil touched your heart so deeply that you chose the path of corruption?” D’Arden’s voice was ragged, labored. He stared into the eyes of the man he’d known and cherished, searching for some sign that he might still be in there.
There was nothing. Only madness.
“I have done nothing but open my eyes to the truth of the universe,” Khaine sneered, though D’Arden could see a flicker of panic in the elder man’s insane glare.
“I don’t believe you. What happened to you, Havox? ”
“Just die!” Khaine shrieked.
Khaine wrenched his sword around and released the handle, dumping D'Arden and the blade onto the ground. D'Arden wrapped his hands around the hilt and tried to wrench it from where it had lodged in his breastbone, but the conflict between the red energy that flowed from Khaine's crystalline sword and the pure blue manna which filled D'Arden's veins was too strong. His fingers were weak, slipping along the edges as he tried in vain to pull it free.
'My power will consume you in short order, Tal,' Khaine said, turning away. D'Arden looked up weakly, watching as crimson flames crept over Khaine's body, healing his wounds and restoring his strength. The blade lodged in D'Arden's chest burned with the corrupted power as it sought to overcome his will. The pure manna which pulsed within him refused to succumb, battling against its opposite. He gasped desperately, trying to pull air into his damaged lungs, but he could not breathe.
Khaine turned to the immobilized Elisa, and with a gesture, released her from her prison. D'Arden watched helplessly as she collapsed to the ground on her knees, breathing heavily. She struggled to rise, but he could see that Khaine's power was beginning to overwhelm her.
'Now you see the truth, little one,' Khaine said, raising his arms expansively. 'Now you see whose power is the stronger.'
Elisa looked up at the twisted monster before her with wide eyes, glowing with the azure fire that D'Arden had instilled in her. 'I see.'
Agony gripped D'Arden's mind, agony stronger than that which immobilized his body. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them again to watch.
Khaine approached Elisa, dropping his bulging arms back to his sides. 'There is a greater power here than you imagine. You, who have only been introduced to the manna within the last few days, have a greater potential than any who have been suppressed by the heartblade. It is more than a drug, you know… more than anything, it is designed to limit the power of those who are gifted with the ability to see the manna flow.'
D'Arden strained to see Khaine, to see if perhaps his former mentor was telling lies, but Khaine's back was to him. The heartblade was designed to limit his power? How much could he have gained without it?
'So… I could be even more powerful than you?' Elisa asked.
'Indeed,' Khaine said, nodding his grotesque visage sagely. 'You may become my apprentice, child – follow me and my power, and we shall remake the world in the image we desire. My power is limited – but yours is without constraint. All it requires is time and training.'
Elisa rose to her feet slowly, still gripping her crystal sword in her hand. The cobalt power within her radiated outward as an aura, but as D'Arden watched, it began to slowly take on an amethyst cast. She was succumbing to temptation.
Khaine laughed – a horrible sound which echoed off of the walls of the chamber, ringing in D'Arden's ears. It felt as though his brain might begin to bleed as the monstrous laughter infected his mind. 'You see, Tal? Even your apprentice can see the truth! If only you could have seen it before I was forced to kill you!'
D'Arden felt his vision beginning to darken. With Elisa losing her focus and willpower, the last bastion of his own power was rapidly disappearing. He was going to have nothing left to draw on shortly, and then he would die, vanishing forever into the flow of corrupted manna which had taken over the city of Calessa. Khaine would be victorious, and all would be lost.
Khaine turned back to D'Arden, staring down at him from his massive, inflamed height. 'You should have accepted my offer, Tal.'
'Never,' D'Arden managed to spit.
'Fool!' Khaine thundered. 'Even now you refuse to admit that my power is the greater?'
'Forever, Khaine. You are… a failure,' the Arbiter wheezed.
His former mentor's red eyes blazed hot white. 'A failure, am I? Who lies dying upon the floor, and who stands victorious? Who failed to stop me from conquering Calessa? Who is the one who refuses to see truth when it stands before his very eyes?'
'You failed… your ideals. You failed… your friends. You failed… me,' D'Arden choked out around the pain in his chest.
'I have seen truth!' Khaine proclaimed righteously. 'I have seen the truth of the universe, and now you will die without ever seeing it for yourself!'
'You may be right, Khaine,' D'Arden said, though he felt himself disappearing rapidly. He was going to die. 'But there's something you… didn't count on.'
'What?' Khaine demanded.
'You overplayed…your hand. Overestimated… your power.'
Khaine laughed again. 'I've done no such thing. I've won, Tal. What could I have possibly overlooked? I've…'
He never saw the blade that Elisa drove down through the back of his neck, severing his spine and protruding from a point just above his navel. Khaine stopped mid-sentence and gave a choking cough. He looked down to see the blazing blue crystal of Elisa's sword sticking out amid blood and crimson flame.
Azure fire rolled off Elisa in waves. Any trace of violet was gone from her blazing aura, replaced by the pure blue of the uncorrupted manna font.
Khaine dropped to his knees as Elisa drove her sword further through his body. He choked again, blood spouting from his lips as he opened them.
'It was me,' she said, her voice cold as midwinter.
D'Arden met her eyes over Khaine's shoulder, and he gave her a weak, but approving nod.
Cobalt fire burned over Khaine's entire body, rapidly consuming the crimson that tried to fight back. As Khaine toppled over to the ground, Elisa rushed past him and knelt down beside D'Arden.
'I'm going to… die,' he gasped.
She stood once more and, with both hands, grabbed the protruding handle of Khaine's curved manna blade, and placed one foot against D'Arden's chest. She pulled with all of her strength, and though D'Arden gave a hoarse cry of agony as she did, the sword scraped free of his breastbone and came away covered in blood and weak curls of blue fire.
Elisa tossed the blade away, where it landed several feet from both them and Khaine.
'Don't die, D'Arden,' she said, kneeling down beside him again. 'You can't die. I just saved you.'
He coughed. He was able to draw on her power once more, but it was too late. He could feel himself beginning to slip away. There was not enough power within him to heal the deadly wound. It was a miracle he had survived this long.
'I'm sorry, Elisa,' he whispered. 'The Tower is to the north. Go there, and…'
'I'm not going anywhere without you,' she said fiercely. With one hand, she reached into his vest and fished about, finally pulling free the heartblade. It glimmered weakly, the corruption having leached the power from it as he lay there.
'There's… not enough,' he said.
'Like hell there isn't!' she exclaimed. The heartblade glimmered brighter. 'There damn well better be enough here to save you, because I am not leaving without you.'
D'Arden watched as the glow of the heartblade slowly changed from the tiny glint of a faded star to a blazing white light nearly worthy of the sun itself. 'Elisa…'
