The Iron Forest: Ancestor's Legacy

One final backwards glance at Tashimur proved enough to fill Victor with an overabundance of gloom. He and Jinlin started their journey eastward toward the wizard’s home, but the palisade walls illustrated the barrier between him and Sana. Soon, miles of cedar forests and snow-capped mountains would separate them as they raced to stop Abaddon from purging the last remains of humanity.

The rising smoke ceased, allowing the stone walls to glow with sunlight, but it wasn’t the town that caused his internal troubles. The idea of leaving Sana behind to fight a war against a powerful enemy weighed heavy in his thoughts. Yet again, they parted with no guarantee that either will get another chance to see each other.

One thing pleased Victor. They didn’t have to walk the long distance around the Talons. A pair of bull elks carried them across the mountainous ridge. He saw them before, both recently and thousands of years in the past, but these creatures appeared bred for carrying a heavy load. Their legs were thicker, with broader hooves to compensate for the extra weight. Victor patted his elk, whose ears twitched.

Jinlin took the lead since he had better knowledge of the land. A few hours into the trip, the old wizard paused and stared into the valley. Victor rode alongside to see what piqued his attention.

“What is it?” Victor shielded his eyes from the sun.

“There’s something different about Gathal.”

Victor never visited Gathal and only seen the walled city once. He got a good glance as they passed through a couple days ago, but after seeing it a second time, the wizard was right. The temple, shaped like a pyramid, stood prominent over the castle proper. The sandstone structure carried a pavilion at its peak. But over the last couple of days, a new metallic spider-like structure was erected with two legs stretching over each side. The center glowed a strange blue light.

“Ever seen anything like that before?”

The wizard shook his head. “No, never. Have you?”

Victor felt a tinge of dread. He knew this technology and the fact it still existed added a new level of danger to an already perilous situation. “I’ve seen similar stuff like that before. It looks like a power generator, but smaller. If I had to guess, they’re using nanotechnology to form the structure.”

“Nanotechnology?”

“Instead of building something with solid material. We created tiny machines, smaller than a grain of sand, to print a structure according to a specific design.” He glanced at Jinlin. “Have you ever seen ants clump together to form a raft after a rainstorm?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it’s like that.” Victor used his hands to illustrate the ants clinging together. “The tiny machines are programmed to clump together just like the ants. Only they can build just about anything, buildings, electronics, even weapons—very high-tech stuff.”

Jinlin nodded. “Indeed. Let’s get moving. It looks like our time is running out.” He tapped his elk with a heel, lurching his mount forward.

A trail headed northward that skirted the first of The Talon’s towering peak. Victor couldn’t see a stream, but the sound of rushing water gave evidence of its existence beneath the tall trees of cedar and fir. He followed Jinlin’s brisk pace up the rocky trail that led to the trapping village of Sevid Zos. This part of the world seemed familiar to Victor. He and Sana walked this path, but the frigid temperatures and almost freezing to death left a cloudy image of this place.

They approached Sevid Zos with care under a noon-day sun. Victor felt anxious as the thatched roof buildings came into view. They left the town after a fight with Chotukhan soldiers in an abandoned barn and returning was likely a big mistake. Yet, Jinlin was insistent they stop here to get food and supplies.

“Don’t worry, my boy. I’ve been to this town a thousand times and haven’t died yet.” The old wizard grinned. “They know better than to mess with a Shainxu Master of the Arcane. Look what happened last time.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Victor scoffed.

Elk hooves reverberated off the stone walls that surrounded the tavern where the two men first met. Something about the place seemed different. Snow no longer covered the dwellings and streets, but something else bothered Victor. There was no longer the normal haze of smoke from several chimneys, and he should have seen a glimpse of townsfolk at this distance.

“Jinlin, things are a bit quieter here than I remember.”

“I agree. Something’s not right.”

They passed through the houses toward the village square. Not a soul was seen, not even animals. As far as Victor could tell, the village was deserted. The opposite side of the square told a grimmer story. Bodies of men and women sprawled across the streets. Some were mangled so bad, it turned Victor’s stomach and sent bile to his throat.

“Charred circuits!” Jinlin shouted. “What in Gaia’s name happened here?”

Victor inspected one of the victims. A gray-haired man lay face first, with a gaping hole in his side. “The blood is still wet,” he said, lifting the man’s arm with his rifle. “This happened recently.”

“Yes, but by whom?”

“I don’t know.” Victor scanned the village. “Someone gunned these people down.”

“You’re not suggesting it was the Shainxu?”

“I hope not, but who else has weapons like this?”

“The Shainxu may be strange, but they are not murderers.”

Victor nodded. “You’re right, sorry. Let’s get out of here before we find out who did this the hard way.”

“Good idea, my boy.”

They continued north toward the building Jinlin once called home. No trail guided them through thick trees and ancient building foundations. It was dark, the last time Victor traveled this route, and they retreated from angry Chotukhan soldiers, so he had little idea where the wizard headed.

The spring scent of cedar changed to an odor of smoke and ozone. The trees parted to reveal Jinlin’s home, at least what remained. Rubble and concrete scattered the ground in large, jagged chunks. Most of the structure still stood, but the roof looked as if it peeled away like an old tin can.

They dismounted their elks that struggled to traverse the sharp steel and concrete. Once Victor approached the building, he saw the main roll-up door. “All in all, the damage is not bad. Considering you ignited a thermo-nuclear detonator.”

Jinlin nodded in agreement, but his frown increased the more he discovered his destroyed experiments. Glass crunched beneath his feet as he searched his former lab for anything that survived. “The blast was thorough enough to leave nothing for the Chotukhan.” He observed a half-shattered vial then tossed it to the ground.

Victor yanked open a door that led to the maintenance garage, the room that held Jinlin’s pet. The wall cracked and settled on the frame, making the door stick. He grunted. Suddenly, the door slammed open with a spray of fine concrete dust—.

“Jinlin. The Destroyer, it’s gone!”

“Of course, it’s gone. Everything is gone. I blew the place up, you know.”

“No. I mean, gone as in not here. It left.”

Jinlin shuffled closer. “Charred circuits! Someone stole my baby. It apparently survived the blast, and someone took it.”

The roof appeared intact, but on the opposite wall, something smashed a hole twice the size of a man—or the size of a Destroyer. Dust spread across the floor showed three-toed prints leading through the hole.

“I don’t think someone stole your machine. It looks like it walked out on its own.” Victor glanced back at the old wizard. “I’ll bet we now know what happened to Sevid Zos.”

“Impossible. I tried everything to fix the Destroyer, and nothing work—”

A thump from outside interrupted the mage.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Each sound grew louder, with a slight crunch of rocks against the hard dirt. It stopped, followed by a mechanical whine.

“Get down!” Victor shouted, tackling Jinlin.

Plasma projectiles pierced hand-sized holes in the walls where the old wizard once stood. Bits of concrete and metal rained down over them.

“It’s functional!” Jinlin said, brushing dust off his bald head.

“Yeah, and pissed off.” Victor pulled the mage to his feet. He flipped his rifle’s safety and crouched behind a partial wall for protection. “Any ideas?”

Jinlin peaked over the wall before taking a position behind him. “Yeah. Shoot back!”

Victor did just that. He swung the rifle around and squeezed the trigger. Plasma bolts surged from the barrel in a stream of green glowing shards. He caught a glimpse of the Destroyer before it unleashed a volley of its own. Concrete showered them as the wall deteriorated one bullet at a time.

“Great idea,” Victor said, irritated. “Where’s the door to the well?”

Jinlin tossed a glowing ball of plasma. A small explosion jutted the machine back, which grunted a mechanical protest before it sent another blast from its weapons—the wall became smaller.

“Through that door, and down the stairs,” Jinlin said, nodding to an iron door next to the one that once entered the nonexistent dwelling. It wasn’t far, only a dozen paces, but with a Destroyer bearing down its weapons...

“Can’t you just use some sort of wizard stuff and take this guy out?” Victor asked, ducking from another burst from the machine.

“Like what? Profanity?” Jinlin said. “Remember, most of what I know are tricks, not miracles.”

Victor scanned the area behind the his cover in just enough time to not get his head blown off. The entry wall to the garage looked heavy and unstable. If it weren’t for a few pieces of re-bar, it would have collapsed. “We need to draw the Destroyer into the room. I have a plan.”

Jinlin laughed. “And how do you suppose we do that?”

“Simple. We’ll use profanity.” Victor smiled. “Oh. Yeah. And a couple of those plasma grenades.”

The old wizard nodded, backing into a corner. He pulled out his metallic disc that glowed and projected an identical image of himself. The hologram casually strutted toward the machine, which bore its green plasma, doing no damage. Jinlin’s image twitch and distorted from the interference.

He rested his fists on his hips. “You piece of junk. Is that the best you can do?”

Another blast from its guns, but the rounds only hit concrete and not the wizard. The Destroyer leaned over and growled in confusion, taking a few steps forward.

“Keep going. It’s working,” Victor whispered.

Jinlin waved the metal beast toward him. “Come and get me. I’m right here. Take your best shot.” He stepped backwards.

One more step, Victor aimed the rifle barrel. His heart pounded with anticipation as he flipped the switch on a plasma grenade. The explosive device beeped to show it was armed.

The beast crossed the garage door’s threshold, sending a rush of adrenalin through Victor. He lobbed the grenade that rolled across the floor and stopped at the base of the entry wall. Pieces of stone and dust filled the room with a blast of green energy. The explosion pierced his ears, followed by a crash of concrete and steel. Even Jinlin’s holographic image didn’t recover from the energy pulse.

It took a few seconds till the dust cleared. A pile of rubble taller than Victor rattled above the downed Destroyer. He leaped from the wall that protected him and unloaded his plasma rifle into the machine wherever it glowed. Sparks and fire burst with each bolt, making the Destroyer groan. Jinlin also bore down with pistol fire that sent fluid in thin streams across the floor.

The red glowing eye twitched and extinguished.

“Is it dead?” Jinlin asked, not taking his eyes off the machine.

Victor shrugged. “It was never alive.”

There was truth to that, but a hard truth. Victor recalled the time when they last studied the Destroyer. It stood dormant, waiting for a communication source to bring it online. The fact that the machine was moving around and probably attacked Sevid Zos, meant only one thing. “Abaddon’s awake.”

“It appears so. That would explain the strange structure we saw atop the temple at Gathal.”

Victor glanced back at Jinlin. “Are there any more of these?”

Jinlin shook his head. “I’ve not seen them myself, but from what the old mages claim, there are many more buried in the southern part of the Great Valley, hundreds perhaps.”

Victor backed toward the cellar door. “We need to hurry. I feel Sana is marching into a trap. If this one is awake, then the others could be too. The Shankur will be slaughtered if we don’t stop them.” And Sana as well.

“Then what are you waiting for?” Jinlin placed a round metal disk on the door. It beeped, slow at first, then ramped up to an explosion. After the dust settled, a hole was left where the door once stood.

Victor took the lead, using his flashlight to see through the dark. The stairwell was concrete for the first ten to twenty feet before it ended at a ladder at the edge of a pipe opening. It pointed straight down, farther than Victor’s light could reach. To him, it might have been a path to hell, but gaining access to Gathal and stopping Abaddon was worth the risk.

They climbed down the ladder that Victor guessed descended a dozen stories, splashing down into knee-high water. There was a slight current, and, in the distance, he could hear trickling. Almost instantly, sweat beaded down his brow from the warm, humid air.

“When I first moved here, I expected this place to be cold. But it turned out quite hot.” Jinlin sniffed. “And smelly.”

Victor rubbed his nose, which burned from an odor of raw eggs. “It’s sulfur. This water is heated by a nearby volcanic crack in the earth and bubbles up as a spring.” He submerged his hand to feel the warm temperature like steamy bathwater. “I hope there are no alligators.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Victor forgot the big lizards have no place in this part of the world and no one would know what they were.

He stepped through the knee-high water that looked black in the darkness. He shined his flashlight to see no end to the tunnel, just a long-dark tube of rock.

Jinlin splashed around, trying to keep his robes dry.

“How far is Gathal from here?” Victor asked.

“A day by foot through trees and mountains. This tunnel looks straight and level. I would say half that time.”