The Iron Forest: Ancestor's Legacy

Gentle and comforting was not in the sentry guard’s protocol. They pushed Victor through the halls of the Citadel as fast as his legs could carry him. Close behind, he could hear Jinlin cursing in his scratchy, high-pitched voice.

“Damn you!” Victor shouted. “You’re making a big mistake!”

The closer to the exit, the more the guards pushed and shoved. Outside, crowds of people gathered. It was no surprise since Victor began ranting loud enough for the entire city to hear, as Jinlin turned quiet. His narrowed eyes showed a mix of anger and disappointment.

The guards shoved them towards a truck constructed from reclaimed components of old vehicles. At its rear, was a cage made from iron bars.

“The Chotukhan is waking Abaddon! Abahar and all the Iron Forest are in mortal danger!” Victor shouted, the on-looking crowd surrounding the truck grow bigger.

“You might want to stop making a scene, my boy,” Jinlin suggested as he climbed into the cage, with Victor right behind.

“No! The people must know what fools they have overseeing the Shainxu. If we don’t get the word out, then who will?” Victor said. “Abaddon is awakening!”

“Quiet!” one of the guards shouted, jabbing a long pole through the bars to deliver an electrical shock.

Lightning crackled. The world spun as numbness tingled his fingers with a racing heart.

“Victor? You all right?” Jinlin called.

Victor sat upright to a pounding head. His heart thumped to the beat of the road beneath the now moving truck. Large cracks in the ancient asphalt road jostled the vehicle as it passed between rows of tall buildings.

“Where are we?”

Jinlin glanced around. “Still in Abahar. You weren’t out for very long. Only a few minutes.”

His clarity returned in waves, remembering what had just happened. “So that’s it? They’re going to drop us off outside the forest?”

“It appears so. I’m sorry, Victor. I wish there is something I can do.”

Victor shook his head. “No. You’ve done enough already. I’m the one who should be thankful.”

Jinlin’s smile faltered.

“What’s wrong?”

The old mage searched around the passing city. “I don’t know. Something’s not—”

Concrete and soil exploded into the air. The truck lifted a couple feet from the blast, slamming to the ground and throwing them to the front of the cage. Gunfire erupted from the surrounding guards at an unseen enemy. Men all around shouted orders and commands.

“What the hell is going on?” Victor shouted above the chaos.

Jinlin ducked behind a spray of rocks and dirt from a second blast. Enough to rattle them, but not enough to break the cage. “We’re being attacked.”

Balls of green plasma burst from the top of nearby buildings. The bright spheres of light slammed into guards, sending them flying. Before Victor got a sense of what was taking place, the city streets silenced to an eerie quiet.

Two men in red robes and a woman wearing a tight burgundy leather suit approached the cage.

“Lady Tani?” Victor shouted in surprise.

She paid him no response but shouted orders to the other two mages: “Keep a lookout while I open the cage.” She pulled out a thin metal device that reminded Victor of a large pen. A red beam of light seared through the steel lock, sending the door to the ground. “Hurry! Follow me!” she commanded him.

Victor and Jinlin disembarked from the truck in a frantic dash to get away from the scene. Sirens blasted from all around, sending the few onlookers scrambling to safety. The streets flashed with red warning lights. Lady Tani and her two mages darted from one intersection to another, keeping watch around corners for guards.

“Where are we going?” Victor asked.

She stopped and crouched, scanning the distance and upper levels for approaching threats. Tall buildings of concrete and steel surrounded them. “We’re going to see Gaia.” She ducked at a plasma burst near her head.

“They’re coming!” one of the mages said from across the street, dodging incoming fire.

“Then what are we waiting for? Fire back!” Lady Tani shouted, handing Victor and Jinlin each a pistol. “Try not to kill them if you can. Only wound them.”

A plasma bolt seared Victor’s arm as it whizzed by. He hissed. “It doesn’t look like they received the same orders.”

Green streaks of concentrated plasma popped back and forth from one side of the street to the other. The once quiet Shainxu neighborhood turned into a battlefield. Several other mages joined their fight, but Victor noticed their opponent still had the advantage in numbers. He fired a few more rounds and glanced aside to see more Shainxu century guards scurried toward an adjacent street.

“We need to get moving before they surround us,” he shouted over the chaos.

Jinlin and Lady Tani nodded.

They rushed forward with a wall of plasma bolts and flame, leaving Victor and the two others to catch up. A mage jerked back against Victor with a burning hole in his throat and chest. The bolt incinerated his flesh into a charred cavity.

Victor ran. Green streaks passed by him, sending bits of concrete and dirt airborne. He dove, meeting back up with the rest of the group. “Any ideas?”

Lady Tani waved her hand to get their attention. She pulled out a black can and the rest of her group did the same. They twisted the top, causing LED’s on top to flash, and tossed the devices into the streets. A dozen blasts sent massive clouds of smoke in all directions. It created a curtain that flashed green with stray plasma bolts.

“Let’s move,” she commanded.

They ran through the streets, using the fog as a veil to hide. Victor’s lungs heaved from the pace and the smoke, making him struggle to keep up. They weaved from one alley to another, trying to stay away from the century guards. The air cleared as the pavement turned to dirt and buildings became woods—they left the city and entered the Iron Forest.

The further away from Abahar they ran, the more the land shifted to an incline, and the trees thinned.

“How much further?” Victor struggled to ask through labored breath. His pace slowed from exhaustion and the fact they were running up a mountainside.

“This is Gaia’s Mountain. Her lair is on a shelf, past the next ridge,” Jinlin answered.

They crawled across and around rocks in an upward path. Lady Tani led the way, with only Jinlin and Victor following close with their heads kept low. As they scaled Gaia’s Mountain, forest thinned to waist-high shrubs and granite outcroppings. Their cover ended at a clearing where a path connected Abahar with the mountain.

Lady Tani crouched behind a pile of massive rocks and sat with her back against the stone. Jinlin nudged in beside her and directed Victor to keep low.

The old mage peeked through a crevice in the rock. “Charred circuits,” he whispered. “They have two mechs guarding the tunnel.”

Victor peeked to see a pair of two-legged machines like the one that greeted him upon arriving at Abahar. There were also a dozen Sentry guards and red-robed mages patrolled the front of what appeared to be a hole carved into the mountain. “That’s where we’re going?”

Jinlin nodded. “Through that tunnel is the home of Mother Gaia. Getting through the guards will not be easy.”

“I have that taken care of,” Lady Tani said.

Jinlin pointed a shriveled finger at her with a scowl. “Before we go any further, you’re going to tell us what’s going on.”

“I’m taking Victor to see Mother Gaia,” she said in a hushed voice.

Victor cleared his throat. “And…?”

“Fine. The Quorum was never going to let Victor see Gaia nor take part in stopping the Chotukhan from waking Abaddon, even before the assembly started. They know who Victor was and where he came from long before arriving at Abahar. For the past few months, there has been a rift in the Assembly of Mages. Half see him as a threat, the other as a savior.”

“A threat? I’m no threat.” Victor said, raising his voice and getting shushed by the two mages.

Jinlin tapped his fingers to his lips in thought. “So that’s why Gaia has been so quiet all these years. Like the Shankur’s claim, she’s been waiting for the Ancestors to return.”

Victor looked confused. “I’m not following.”

“You, my boy. You are the Ancestor that will return. Of course, I expected more of you.”

Lady Tani nodded. “He’s right. Some mages feel you have come here to destroy Gaia. Others, including myself, feel you should meet her. No matter what it takes, we swore to take you to Gaia. That’s why I was late to the assembly hall earlier.”

Victor took another glance over the stone pile. “So, what’s the plan?”

“You’ll see.” She grinned, pulling out what he recognized as a small communicator. It had a red button that she pushed in a sequence of repeating code. “Now we wait for the signal.”

“What signal?” Victor asked.

A barrage of green plasma and fire slammed against the mechs. The mages returned with bolts of their own, followed by the bipedal machines. The mountain side erupted into a chaos of flying dirt and stone.

“That signal,” Lady Tani said, scurrying along the shrub-line with Victor and Jinlin staying as close as possible.

With the guards’ attention diverted toward the tree line at the base of the mountain, Victor and his two companions darted into the tunnel. It was carved from the surrounding stone and appeared to continue forever. They ran, faster than Victor knew he could, down into the belly of the mountain.

After a few minutes, a light appeared within the tunnel. Dim at first, but it grew as they narrowed the distance. Victor was not surprised to see a massive door of solid steel… and more guards.

“Halt!” they shouted, with weapons ready.

They spread out and took positions behind rock outcroppings on the tunnel walls. Plasma bolts from the guards hitting stone rattled Victor. The walls resonated sound, amplifying the fight. “What’s the next step in your plan? How are we going to get through these guys?”

Lady Tani shrugged. “No plan. I didn’t think we would get this far.” She ducked from a spray of rocks from a wild plasma bolt.

Back and forth, green streaks of light illuminated the tunnels in random flashes. The door stood behind the guards, taunting Victor. He darted forward to the next outcropping and felt the heat from a plasma blast. He gritted his teeth with frustration.

More plasma bolts zipped by but in the opposite direction. Centurion guards and a row of mages were running towards them; Master Corvus among them.

“They’re coming from the rear!” Victor shouted.

Lady Tani turned to fire towards the new arrivals, but jerked back from a plasma bolt to the chest. Shards of green light sprayed in all directions from the impact that left a sizzling hole above her left breast. She screamed. Jinlin pulled her aside and away from the oncoming fire. The wound appeared bad, but not lethal.

They were trapped, outnumbered, and out gunned. Victor breathed deep and lurched toward Gaia’s door—a metallic ringing echoed down the tunnel from a small sphere. Red lights flashed with a beep as it rolled to a stop between Victor and his companions. There was no time to react.

The explosion took him off his feet and sucked the wind from his lungs. He opened his eyes to several Centurion guards aiming plasma rifles toward his face.

The battle for Gaia’s Mountain ended.

Victor glanced at Jinlin, who sat resting on his back with Lady Tani in his arms. Her hand, streaked with red blood as she applied pressure to her wound. Both looked at him with grim expressions.

“I suggest you stay still,” Master Corvus commanded, weaving his way through the armed guards. “My men have orders to kill on-site if you try to run.”

Two guards yanked Victor to his feet, dragging him away from the door.

Victor snapped, “I need to speak to Gaia. You are making a terrible mistake.”

Master Corvus backhanded him across the face. “There will be no more of that. This is a sacred land which you have violated. You are fortunate I don’t shoot you all right here, right now.” He scowled. “Take him away!”

The guards drug Victor toward the tunnel entrance. He glanced behind, for a last look at the massive door. It was right there, almost in reach. Rage boiled, overtaking his diminishing courage.

He twisted and lunged toward the door. No matter how hard he tried, the guards held on.

“I am Commander Victor Murphy of the Global Space Agency!” he shouted in a voice that echoed through the tunnel.

Master Corvus snatched a rifle from a nearby guard and slammed the butt of the weapon into Victor’s gut. “You had your chance.” Tossing the rifle back to the guard, he pulled out a plasma pistol from within his robes, pressing the barrel to Victor’s temple.

Victor closed his eyes when the safety switched clicked off. A second click—a thud reverberated around them, but not from the gun. Instead, the sound came from the door. It groaned like a waking beast. Steel pins clanked as they retracted, sending clouds of dust into the air.

Mages and Sentry Guards dropped to the ground in reverence, leaving Victor standing alone. They whispered in prayer.

A rush of air blew across Victor’s face when the massive square door lumbered open. Beams of light radiated from the inner chamber, turning the tunnel from dark brown rock to monochromatic white and gray. His eyes burned.

Victor glanced back to see everyone slumped low with their faces toward the dirt.

“You must bow to the Mother Goddess,” Master Corvus hissed.

Victor did not bow. Instead, he approached the door, wiping a line of blood from his upper lip.

The light dimmed a little after the door finished cycling open with a loud clang. He peered in, but the internal chamber had a strange shadow despite the outward radiance. He thought it was his imagination at first, but with a second glance, he saw a woman walking toward him.

She was a personification of beauty. Staring back at him with violet eyes in a face like fine marble carved by the greatest sculptor. Her platinum hair and pure white gown flowed in a slow motion from a wind that didn’t exist. Victor gulped.

“Victor, it’s been a long time. Welcome back.”