Blue Nexus Dark Soul Pt. 2 - Red Eyes

Previously in "Blue Nexus Dark Soul": Kyle and Brenda continued tracking down the strange new mage group, the Mystic Sven, as they attempt to bust free some of the Six Pillars. The world continues to reel from the events of Rafael's attacks and question if mages are meant for this world or not. Kyle and Brenda are soon accosted by a displaced in time Brother Time, who points them in the direction of Corbin. Kyle and Brenda travel below Magus Forest to the Halls of Penetanon, an ancient building that holds dark, dark secrets below...

            Brenda’s red barrier coated Andreus, Sandy, and the other two mages as they continued to heal. Sandy hadn’t taken any damage from the battle, but wanted to have her magic running at full blast should another sneak attack occur. Kyle remained by the small doorway leading down into the deeper parts of the tunnel. Brenda slowly made her way over to him.

            Kyle felt a cold shiver run throughout his body as the freezing temperatures of the tunnel below wafted up. It seemed to just leak darkness and dread. How anyone with nonmagical, or limited magical, abilities could survive down there was beyond him. He grimaced. Someone had done, it though: the Mystic Sven. They must’ve had the necessary magic types to get through the door, and then somehow didn’t trigger the stone sentinels. Kyle shook his head.

            That just seemed impossible though. How could there be a way around them? It wasn’t as if any of their magic was tainted…

            Kyle turned back around, looking at Brenda. Her right hand crackled with dark red magic, unlike the rest of her regular scarlet magic. Perhaps there was a bit of darkness that signaled the sentinels to attack. Brenda had absorbed the Shield magic from Clarke, one of the malevolent Six Pillars of Magic, and had managed to incorporate Clarke’s abilities with her own spells. She may have even absorbed some of Rafael’s twisted Shield magic.

            Brenda joined him, smiling at him. She stopped and shivered as well.

            “They should be ready to go in a few minutes,” Brenda said.

            “But,” Kyle said, looking at his friend.

            “They shouldn’t.”

            “I know.”

            “Maybe Sandy could handle whatever’s down there. I’m not sure if you can sense it, but, it’s pure, concentrated evil. Think Black Nexus, but, not given form.”

            Kyle nodded. Black Nexus had the anti-Nexus abilities: where the regular Nexus was good, pure, capable of empowering life, the Black Nexus sucked the energy out of anything and everything. Simple blasts could reduce mountains to ash by training the power from them; Black Nexus himself had the abilities of destroying entire planets. Kyle witnessed that firsthand, and hoped never to see a power like it again.

            “I can’t sense all of it,” Kyle said. “But it just doesn’t really make me happy we have to go down there.”

            “We have to find the Mystic Sven, though,” Brenda said. “And I think you and I are the only ones capable of handling it. I mean, who else? Lalay? She’s not a mage like me, nor does she have the Nexus to protect her. Riko might be strong enough but he won’t have any magical or cosmic protection around him.”

            “It might be best to have Sandy head back into the main area and see if she can’t contact the Zanderia,” Kyle said, looking over his shoulder at the group. Andreus was up, recovering from the severe hit he took from one of the silver guardians. He had no…no, yes, Andreus did have business being here, but that business was over. Kyle needed the group just to open the doors, he didn’t want to push them any further than necessary.

            “Agreed, I’ll let them know,” Brenda said. She started, then turned and rested a hand on Kyle’s shoulder. He immediately felt soothed, relaxed. He touched her hand.

            “I’m fine,” Kyle said. “I’ll be waiting.”

            He watched her go. She sprinted down the hall. Kyle smiled, still feeling the warmth from her touch on his shoulder. It’d been only a little over a year ago that she first arrived in his life, helping him defeat Gargador and artificial monstrosities called Aberrants, and he could barely imagine life without her. There’d been a time when he felt he wanted to be with her romantically—possibly something about her exotic, alien nature. She was so unlike the other girls in his life.

            But the more they operated together, the more they fought and struggled and learn to rise above their limits, Kyle realized that he didn’t love her romantically so much as he loved her as a person, as someone he wanted to go and fight with. He couldn’t imagine fighting a major threat without her. Brenda was his better, he knew, in every sense. Stronger, smarter, more capable with her abilities. She was the one that gave him the kill-shot against Black Nexus, the one who saved East City from Alucard’s demonic army, and the one to deal the killing blow on Rafael.

            Brenda started running back toward him. He observed her while she ran. She had long scarlet hair that bobbed about down to her midsection. It wasn’t tied, like it normally was for battle. She wore a small red shirt and a long black jacket that allowed her scarlet eyes to seemingly pop. She had dark blue pants and black boots. Her hands naturally emitted magic. Her skin wasn’t as pale as it’d been when she first came to Earth; she was a bit tanner, now.

            She pulled to a halt next to him, nodding. Kyle held out his hand. She raised her eyebrow, then took it.

            “It’s been a little bit since we got to adventure together,” Kyle said. “Let’s go have some fun.”

            Brenda led the two down the dark tunnel, holding her hands up with small magical circles to give them some light. Kyle’s aura was up, but not at full-blast. They weren’t worried about clutching the shadows so tightly; Brenda would be able to sense if anything were around them. She just wanted to ensure they didn’t pass by anything, or anyone, important.

            They’d been walking for fifteen minutes in dead silence, with not even their footsteps giving off sound. The temperature deceased significantly with each passing minute. Brenda had to giver her body a coating of magic to keep it warm. Kyle’s aura was giving his body a natural warmth, too, but there was something about the cold that spoke more than just temperature. It was a feeling, a sensation.

            Brenda extended her hands out and then back in to temporarily illuminate the plain black walls. They dripped with little bits of water. They were deep under the lake near Magus Forest now. The water, though, also made no sound. Brenda glanced over her shoulder, to make sure that Kyle was still there, and then continued on.

            The hallway was just wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side and had, clearly, been hand-carved when it was first dug up. The walls and ground were uneven at many parts. Brenda felt her feet nearly slip and give a few times. She didn’t want to brace herself against the wall, though, fearing it would trigger some sort of trap.

            They continued on until Brenda stopped them, feeling her heart skip a beat. Kyle stopped her urging but then also raised his hand to his heart.

            “You feel that?” Brenda asked.         

            “Something’s…something’s different,” Kyle said.

            They both looked over their shoulders. The tunnel was still there, but the walls were glowing with iridescent light, completely unlike before. They had a natural sheen to them, almost as if they were obsidian. Brenda pooled a bit of magic and then flung it ahead, just to light the corridor, before yanking it back, confirming what they saw.

            “How’s that possible?” Kyle asked.

            “It shouldn’t be,” Brenda said.

            The coldness of the air was also slowly lifting, as if the worst were behind them. She took another step, and then ran into a sharp piece of stone. She backed away, thankful for the protective coating around her body.

            “Oh, fantastic,” Kyle muttered.

            Brenda looked to the stone, noticing how it divided the path directly in two parts. Kyle stood before one while Brenda was at the other.

            “Should we split up?” Brenda asked, and Kyle immediately shook his head.

            “No way,” Kyle said. “We need to stick together for this. I doubt we’re going to just walk through here and not find anything. We have to be together for when that happens.”

            “Then which way do we go?” Brenda asked, intensifying her light. Kyle did the same.

            She squinted ahead, peering further down the light. She saw the darkness extend and then come to a stop. Dozens of rocks had been jammed into the corridor blocking any way of getting down there. She took a step down the path, and felt that coldness return. She saw Kyle watching her in her peripheral.

            Brenda filled her hands with magic, and then released a plain concussive blast that knocked against the boulders. A few rattled but ultimately stayed in place. She shook her head. Using magic in such tight quarters, where there was likely a trap didn’t seem to her to be the best-case scenario. She took another hesitant step down the hallway, keeping her center of gravity low and her body on her toes.

            She walked right up to the stones, which were so cold she may as well have touched glaciers. That odd freezing sensation seeped into her body. Brenda had to shut her eyes and intensify the layering around her. She nodded.

            “We go this way,” she announced, and her voice bounced through the corridor. “I imagine the Mystic Sven decided this would be a good idea to impede our progress.”

            “And they wouldn’t take the open path?” Kyle asked. He’d come around the corner.

            “No,” Brenda said, turning to face him. “Come here and you’ll feel that this is the way.”
            She sighed and saw her breath, plain as day. That was all Kyle needed. Brenda stepped aside and watched Kyle’s hands wash over with Nexus energy before it was released in two quick bolts. Two boulders disintegrated in the air, and caused the others to topple forward or backward and tumble to the ground, opening the path.

            A blast of frosty air shot through the opening. Brenda’s hair blew back, but she held strong, even as the tears formed in her eyes from the stinging gusts. When the gale subsided, she took the first step forward in pitch-darkness. She created a small aura around her body and then held her hands tight together to create little lights in her fists.

            “That might’ve slowed them down a bit,” Brenda said, half-turning to Kyle. “Maybe we’ll be able to catch up with them.”

            She looked back, and her eyes widened. A jolt shot through her body, and she stepped at the precipice of a deep, impossibly dark pit. Kyle came to a halt next to her.

            “I think we just might,” Kyle said. He flicked a bit of Nexus energy down the hole.

            It dropped, and was immediately swallowed by darkness. Brenda created a small magic cube, but Kyle lowered her hands.

            “No magic yet,” he said. “Could still be traps, right?”

            Brenda felt a crackling around her right hand and saw her skin start to give as the red lines along her hand became more apparent. She kept her hands on the cube and gave it a darker red color.

            “This’ll be better, then,” she said, and tossed the cube into the dark sea. It dropped, further, until it came to a halt on an obsidian floor fifty feet below them. A dark cloud came over it, absorbing the magic.

            “Fantastic,” Kyle muttered.

            “We need to go down there,” Brenda said. “It’s where the Mystic Sven went.”

            “They couldn’t have survived a fall like that down there,” Kyle said.

            “We still need to go down there,” Brenda said. “You said something’s down there? It’ll be in that pit. It’s swallowing light.”

            Kyle sighed. He grimaced and then lightning arced from his aura and his body seemed to pulse magic before his aura intensified. Wave Two. Brenda nodded and increased the protective layer around her. She held her hand out, and he took it.

            Among the cold of dread around them, the mysterious, changing black cave of pure darkness, Brenda felt a warmth from her friend’s hand and power. They nodded to each other, and then leapt off the pit, dropping through the thick air toward the bottom.

            It felt much deeper than it appeared. Brenda even wondered if her cube had even hit ground, or if the dark powers in the pit had just stopped it and then swallowed it whole. Their auras still blared incredibly bright, but it hardly seemed to make a difference. In each direction the pair looked, there was naught but darkness.

            Brenda and Kyle exchanged a look. Brenda squeezed his hand for reassurance. She couldn’t sense anything down here; if only for her aura and the feeling of Kyle’s hand in her own, she would’ve thought that the darkness numbed her entirely.

            Then, just up ahead, even as she felt as though they were still falling the slightest flicker caught her attention. It seemed to grow larger ahead of them, even as they dropped. The radiant light took an outline, that of a human, and then Kyle and Brenda finally stopped falling. They braced against the cold ground and stood amidst pure shadow. They kept their hands together, watching the humanoid form of light approach them.

            Long golden hair tinged with dark, that still stood out against the shadow, began to form around their head. Brenda held her hand open, filling it with magic that just seemed to go away when the entity raised her hand. Brenda resisted, and the entity lowered her hand.

            Her toes stretched out and then her feet flattened. When they met the darkness, the world around Brenda and Kyle seemed to shimmer for a moment before the darkness retreated, ebbing back into what was now clearly just a large cave. It stretched endlessly, but the lights of their auras allowed them to see the glowing black walls, now reflecting blue and red lights in wavering points.

            Brenda stole one quick look around the room and felt her heart sink. She squeezed Kyle’s hand, and then let go, kneeling down to the body that was at her feet. It was a fresh corpse, and frozen to the touch. They had an insignia on their shoulder for the Mystic Sven. Several other bodies in the cavern were in the same state, and there were dozens of skeletons and small heaps of bone-ash scattered about.

            “Welcome,” a small voice said.

            Brenda rose, filling her hands to the brim with her magic. The entity took form, finally, and turned to a glowing, angel-looking little girl. She girl smiled and opened her arms to the two new arrivals.

            “You monster,” Brenda said. “How long have you been luring mages down here?”

            “It is not I who would have them come here,” the little girl said. “For I wish them not to be here.”

            “Corbin’s body isn’t here,” Kyle said. “He’s still alive.”

            “One indeed lived,” the little girl said. “Though I know not where he went. The cavern is large, you see. If he sense your arrival, he may be back yet.”

            “What are you?” Brenda asked. “And why don’t you want anyone to come down here? Is there something here, still?”

            “No longer,” the little girl said. She flicked her hand, and a radiant light shot past Brenda’s head, cutting through the cavern behind her. Brenda followed, and watched as the cavern turned to the ruins of some sort of old, massive temple. Pillars still stood, and ancient paintings adorned the walls, fresh and colorful as they day they’d been drawn. “These halls no longer guard the thing which they stood for. They now serve as a prison for me, and for the monsters.”

            “The monsters?” Kyle asked.

            The little girl tilted her head at Kyle. “You know, don’t you? You’re the other warrior, the one who…” She nodded. “Ah, so you are like him. The little boy who came down here. You’re not of my time.”

            “Who are you?” Brenda asked.

            “My name has been lost for untold generations, Shield mage,” the little girl said, turning to face Brenda. She had piercing gold eyes to match her glowing body. “When I speak, they say She or Her.” She curled her hair. “I seem to have forgotten my name, too, as my identity and power fades to the dark. Soon it shall be all gone. I shall exist as a formless being, too weak to resist the pull of the Dark Soul, and the age shall begin anew.”

            “Wait, the Dark Soul,” Kyle said, stepping forward. “Someone we know, a mage, has been hunting the Dark Soul. Is that what’s down here?”

            “The Dark Soul has left the Halls of Penetanon, and I know not where it now resides,” She said. “Thankfully, neither does my foe.”

            Brenda heard something trembling behind them, like a slithering sound, before it went away. Pit-pat.

            “Your foe?” Kyle asked.

            “One who would seek to the possess the Dark Soul as I once tried,” She said. “A man you shall soon know, Nexus wielder.” She smiled at Kyle. “You shine brighter than Aequitas did.”

            Both Brenda and Kyle stiffened at the sound of the name. Kyle took a cautious step forward. Brenda hadn’t met Aequitas, but knew from Kyle that he was one of the Sentients, beings that had merged themselves with the ethereal power of the Nexus. Once, Aequitas had been a Nexus user like Kyle, and was one strong enough to challenge the almighty War Gods. He died and merged with the Nexus; his brother would eventually become the Black Nexus, and Brenda could see why that family would be so feared.

            “You know Aequitas?” Kyle asked.

            “We come from the same era,” She said. “Far different from yours. The Second Civilization was the first to introduce magic to the world, and the first to bring us to our dark cyclical nature.”

            “So, what, like when the Egyptians were around or something?” Kyle asked.

            She shook her head. “You seem to misunderstand me, Nexus wielder. The world has experienced four different human civilizations. You, by my reckoning, come from the fourth, the current world. It has been nigh two thousand years since it began, no? That is when I began to sense tremors of magic within the world again, following the destructive nature of the Third Civilization.”

            “That’s not possible,” Kyle said. “We would’ve known about other civilizations before the Mesopotamians.”
            “How does one know where history begins when history itself forgets?” She asked. She grinned again. “I believe you shall come to understand in due time.”

            “And all of this has to do with magic?” Brenda asked.

            “And the Dark Soul,” She said. “The Dark Soul is the foothold upon with all magic in this world once rested, before a great expansion. But do no underestimate its destructive abilities.”

            “The Dark Soul is what Corbin was after, we need to leave here and destroy it,” Kyle said, and Brenda nodded.

            That same slithering sound crept up around them. She didn’t seem to notice. Kyle and Brenda both looked about. The lights from their aura illuminated the cavern, leaving just little splotches of shadow.

            “Do you have any idea where the Dark Soul could’ve been taken?” Kyle asked.    

            “No,” She said. “There are no clues in the Hall of Penetanon, or the we all would have known. The beasts trapped within these halls would have escaped to find it.”

            “Sounds like we shouldn’t let them leave, then,” Kyle said.

            Brenda nodded, and turned to the glowing little girl, whose form was fading. She bowed respectfully to them both.

            “My time with this form is nearing its end,” She said. “I have faith, Nexus and mage, that you shall know what to do when the time is right. Beware the Dark Soul.”

            Her voice trailed off into the ether, and darkness slowly began to settle, uncaring for the light that Brenda and Kyle put off. The two glanced at the other, and then turned back for the hall.

            “We need to find Corbin down here, even if the Dark Soul isn’t around,” Kyle said. “And I don’t believe her for a second about all of this Civilization stuff. It doesn’t make any sense.”

            “Some of Corbins notes seem to indicate that she may be telling the truth,” Brenda said. “But the Dark Soul is important. If it’s destructive in any way, Corbin may find a way to manipulate it.”

            The pitter patter from before echoed from down the large hallway until the dark swallowed that area up and the footsteps vanished. Brenda, though, increasingly felt as if there were another being approaching them. She held her hand out to Kyle, and then motioned for him to move slowly ahead. He did so, and Brenda took point.

            Brenda had her magic at the ready. If there were monsters, they were likely going to attempt to use the dulling effect of the shadows to their advantage. Brenda hoped they’d be beings of magic; that way, she could at least sense them and mark them for Kyle to be able to see or sense as well.

            A shadow flickered into view from her aura, and the two stopped. She saw small feet, and then a child crept into view. He was pale, with sunken eyes and tattered clothing. He clutched his clothing nervously.

            “Have you found it?” the boy asked.

            Brenda knelt to be level with him. He was still looking over her. “Hey, what are you doing down here?”

            “Oh, guess not,” he said, and turned to Kyle. Brenda did the same. Kyle seemed perplexed by the child. “I’ll just have to keep searching, then. I know it’s going to be down here somewhere.”

            “What are you looking for?” Brenda asked. “Maybe we can help.”

            “That’s okay,” the child said. “I had friends down here with me, but, I think they got lost. I can’t seem to find them, either.”

            “What’s your name?” Kyle asked.

            The boy broke his gaze from Kyle and then turned and started head back. “I think it’s Corbin.”

            Brenda immediately had a barrier up in front of him. “Corbin Alkeste?”

            “Yes,” the boy said, stopping at the barrier, but not moving.

            “You’re searching for the Dark Soul,” Kyle said. “It’s not here.”

            Brenda felt movement nearby. That slithering sound again. It skittered against the floor around them. She didn’t have any visual on it; the dark had taken them again, leaving just their auras and Corbin visible.

            “Not here?” Corbin asked, and Brenda heard a low rumble. “No. It is.”

            “It isn’t” Kyle said. “How did you get so young? You’re a man, an adult.”

            Corbin turned and his face was mostly hollowed out and his eyes were pitch black before they glowed red once and his form began to shimmer. The skittering sound from nearby rushed forward.

            Brenda whipped her arm out and immediately blocked some sort of arm from stretching out and catching Kyle. The arm broke upon impact with the barrier but also shattered the barrier into millions of tiny fragments. Kyle’s aura flared around him.

            “Corbin!” Kyle yelled.

            The boy roared back. His red eyes seemed to light the cave and two large arms clasped onto either of his arms. Brenda looked beyond Corbin to see two beast-like eyes glowing behind him, and were radiating pure dark magic. A blue energy ball streaked across the opening and hit the beast but it hardly seemed to do a thing.

            “If I can’t find the Dark Soul!” young Corbin shouted. “Then I’ll…” He grunted and Brenda saw his skin starting to break while his body stretched, growing into an adult form. “I’ll take his power and make a new one!”

            Brenda coalesced her magic and then launched it from her fingertips. It slammed the grown Corbin, but he ignored he. Brenda sensed a heavy amount of Demon magic before a wave nearly knocked her from her feet. She dove forward and rolled, then blasted Corbin with her Shield magic. He flipped end-over-end in the air and then something leapt up and caught him.

            “I’ll kill the beast!” Brenda shouted, seeing the outline of a titanic monstrosity propping Corbin up. “You keep Corbin occupied!”

            “What the hell is this thing?” Kyle asked.

            “We’ve had millennia in the dark to prepare for the day when the Dark Soul would return!” Corbin roared, with an echo and new bass in his voice. Someone else was occupying his body. Brenda continued to sprint ahead, toward her unseen opponent. “Face the power of the dark, the power you laid to rest, Nexus!”
            “Still have no idea what you’re talking about!” Kyle exclaimed, and launched a series of punches into Corbin while Brenda clapped her hands together and two walls of Shield magic crashed into the side of the beast.

            Corbin roared a heavy shout and Brenda was blasted back by cold, dark energy that bore some magical properties, but…

            She bounced once off the ground and then caught herself in the air. What the hell was this thing made of? Demon energy? No, this was far too complex for that. Had darkness itself somehow melded itself into a monstrous form?

            Moreover, was this the beast that was responsible for killing the Mystic Sven? Why let Corbin live? Brenda shook her head and straightened up. Corbin would know. He would have to know. That, or She would know.

            Brenda dashed forward, sliding her fingertips along the ground. It was laced with coldness. She worried she’d get her fingers stuck to the ground. She saw the cracks on her hand reopen as she flung magic forward, then formed it into a spiked wall and slammed it into where the beast had been. It flew through the darkness, vanishing into its nothingness. Brenda held tight and heard the skittering again. She leapt into the air, forming a cube around her, that was promptly broken from one side.

            She spun away, punching out with a barrier and destroying some sort of a tail. Corbin wailed. Brenda slammed her shield down and Corbin cried out again, before Kyle silenced him with a punch.

            Brenda saw the vague outline of the monster in the darkness. It had four arms and two heads. She could still see those red eyes, staring…

            Down…

            “Brenda!”

            At…

            Her…

            “Shindari!”

            Brenda’s magic fell from her body and she felt the coldness begin to swell where it’d been emptied out. Her vision, all of her being, stared into those deep red eyes. The black pupil slits glowered back at her, and she could swear she heard a low rumbling of approval, but she couldn’t do anything for or against it.

            Had she fallen to her knees? Perhaps. Brenda’s hands touched something cold and she felt the magic almost vanish from her hands. She leaned her neck back as her body became too heavy to sustain itself.

            Something whooshed nearby before she was struck in the head by something bright and blue. Brenda’s vision went black, and when her hands left the cold, she felt something warm touch her hands. She saw a blue gloved hand holding her own, warming it.

            Brenda skid against the ground, and felt a sharp pain in her right hand. It was a familiar pain, one that wanted to break her, but one that she’d managed to control. She clenched her fist, snapping the magic back into place, before getting back up.

            “You can’t control me,” Brenda said. “I…I shall never allow darkness to take me.”

            Her aura exploded around her, and she leered her own vicious red eyes right back at the beast, but as her body stitched itself together, she could not feel its affects on her any longer.

            “Now I know your weakness,” Brenda said. “And how to destroy you.”

            Her hand arced magic. Brenda sprinted for the beast, holding her right hand back. She leapt once, then leapt off a barrier, and was high in the air when she released a pulse of crackling magic right down in the beast’s eyes.

            A deafening screech loosed from Corbin’s mouth. Brenda, keeping flight, held a spiked cube aloft and then slammed it down on the beast. It doubled back over, bleeding from the eyes. Brenda dropped next to it, holding her hand over its scarlet eyes, feeling the life force drain from it. She intensified the draining powers in her left hand before clenching a fist and wrenching her hand away.

            A misty shadow exploded above the beast and Corbin let out one final whimper before he crumpled to his knees. The blast, though, knocked Brenda from her feet, and flung her down the hall.

            She slammed against the back wall, managing to catch herself. The cave felt suddenly warmer; not uncomfortably so, but, not the frigid cold she’d been used to. She flung light ahead to signal Kyle where she’d gone. She heard that slithering again, and immediately turned to face it.

            Brenda sprinted forward, back toward where she’d come, running as fast as she could. She heard cracks and kept stepping on things, but had no idea what they could be. Something sharp stabbed at the back of her leg but she ignored it.

            She eventually reached the obsidian walls where they’d met She. Brenda spun around, flaring her aura.

            “Kyle?” she asked. The cavern, even this far in, was still warm. She formed a cube around her, and then pushed it out to give her some light.

            Mounds of dust formed on the edges of the cube and Brenda could see, now below her, splatches of dried blood along the floor. Had that been there before? Brenda refocused to the stretching cube. Corbin and Kyle were both missing. Had she been briefly knocked unconscious?

            “She!” Brenda exclaimed, but gave up on it. Her form had been meek at best.

            Brenda hesitated. Was she just supposed to leave Kyle to his own devices down here? She closed her eyes and lowered her shield. Within moments she sensed magic around her, and beyond that, above her, on the surface world. That hadn’t been possible before, the darkness kept her senses at bay.

            Brenda leapt up, ignoring the stinging in her leg, and landed on the cliff. She kicked away whatever had jabbed into her leg and sprinted up the corridor, which was sealed once again. She grunted and pushed through it, forgoing keeping her magic hidden. The stones blasted up and Brenda was, instead of brought back into darkness, shoved into a dim daylight.

            She reeled back, away from the light that almost blinded her, and was immediately knocked with a stick in the gut. Brenda slid to a halt, slipping to the ground. She lowered her hand from the sun, and looked around at the dingy mess she’d wandered into. The world was overcast, and there was nothing around but small huts and tiny ponds for miles.

            “Impossible,” a familiar voice, though aged, said.

            Brenda stood up, and was face-to-face with an much-aged Andreus. His skin was wrinkled and eyes laden with blue. He lowered his staff.

            “Shindari,” he muttered. “I thought you’d been taken by the Purge.”

            “The Purge?” Brenda asked. “Andreus…what…”

            Andreus looked back up at her as tears welled in his eyes. “You…you’ve been missing all this time. Yes, you’ve missed the Purge.”

            “What Purge?”

            “The Purge that took away magic in the world.”

            Kyle followed the dark caverns into the main Halls of Penetanon, starting to feel the pressure around him increase as if he were going deeper underground. Yet, he felt as if he were moving up, through a tunnel.

            He blasted energy in either direction, spotting that, indeed, he maneuvered his way into a tunnel. He’d been wandering in the dark for a few minutes, after Brenda slayed that beast that’d been possessions Corbin, and after he’d been knocked by some sort of shadow explosion. He tried and failed to call for her, and the Zanderia communicator was basically busted for some odd reason. So, he took to exploring.

            Corbin’s body was gone and the smell of the cavern changed. It smell liked some sort of musty incense, a smell that was completely unfamiliar to Kyle. He followed the scent through a new part of the hall and into this tunnel. Kyle raced down the tunnel, keeping his aura alight, as it cuved up and around something before he reached a walled-off part of it.

            Kyle heaved Nexus energy forward and then burst free into the world, feeling both a pull from ahead and a push from behind.

            He slammed against the ground and spat out some of the soil that’d been forced into his mouth. The air was fresh, much fresher than he’d ever smelled or tasted. Kyle braced himself on a knee, and then a pointy dagger tapped the underside of his chin. It tapped his chin and Kyle looked up.

            Right into the blazing blue eyes of a Nexus wielder. This guy, though, was adorned pretty well. He had cerulean earrings on either ear and had a dark hood and shoulder-cloth adorned on his torso while wearing comfortable looking dark-blue pants. He had one dagger in a scabbard. His hair was also a thin purple color, and he had a marking just below his right eye.

            Kyle heard a whooshing sound nearby and the winds picked up overhead, but his attention was drawn to the Nexus user.

            “Who are you?” Kyle asked.

            The man smiled and flipped the dagger end over end, sliding it into its place. He gestured for Kyle to rise, and Kyle did so.

            “Much younger than the Nexus often chooses,” the man said. His voice was deep, but familiar. “Interesting. And you managed to open the doors to Penetanon, though I suggest we keep this entrance to the tavern sealed. The Reality Mages would have a fit if they found out this entrance were opened.”

            “Who are you?” Kyle asked.

            The man shrugged and lowered his hood. Kyle’s jaw dropped. He almost lost control of the Nexus right there.

            “Glad to know my face is recognizable,” a younger, human, real version of Aequitas said. “Now, my friend, who are you?”

            The whooshing happened again, and then a deafening roar consumed the world around Kyle. He braced himself and covered his ears. The winds picked up, and a dark figure landed just behind Aequitas. A spiked tail curled around the two of them, and wings slowly lowered down to lightly touch the ground as the massive black maw of a dragon lowered to be just next to Aequitas, and sharp, blue eyes stared Kyle down.

            “My friend and I would like to know,” Aequitas said.

Next time: Brenda learns what's happened to make the future as dreary as it is and realizes that to save this world, she'll need to conquer a War God in "Blue Nexus Dark Soul Pt. 3 - The Sins of Man"