Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

A crystal, enormous in size, hangs suspended several feet from the ceiling. It pulses a soft white light, almost like a heart beating.

“What is it?” Miko asks.

“That,” James explains, “is the source of the magic maintaining the barrier.”

“You sure?” he asks.

“Not entirely, as I didn’t create it,” James replies in exasperation. “But I can’t imagine it being anything else.”

“Now what?” he asks.

Turning to him, he says, “Miko, stop asking me questions. I can’t think of what to do with all of your interruptions.”

“Sorry,” he apologizes.

He begins to move around the dark pool as he tries to consider his next course of action. There’s nothing here but the pool and the crystal.

Coming back to where the others are waiting, he says, “Jiron, do you think you could hit the crystal with a stone?”

“Maybe,” he replies as he bends over and picks up a fair sized rock. “Isn’t this going to be dangerous?”

“I hope not,” he says. “I just want to see what will happen.”

He takes aim and then throws the rock toward the crystal with all his might. They watch as the rock soars upward and then is suddenly deflected away by a barrier when it nears the crystal.

“Thought so,” James says when he sees it being deflected.

“Then why have me do it?” Jiron asks.

“Now I know for sure,” he explains.

He stands there, staring up at the crystal as he considers his next course of action. Then from the corner of his eye, he catches a glimpse of a ripple out near the center of the pool. Turning to Miko he glares at him and says, “Stop throwing rocks in the pool.”

“I didn’t,” denies Miko.

Looking to Jiron, he sees him shaking his head. “Then what…?”

They all turn and look out to the pool. Four separate rippling formations can be seen in the water. “James,” says Miko with fear in his voice, “what’s going on?”

Staring out at the ripples, he replies, “I don’t know.” He gestures for everyone to begin backing toward the stairs as the ripples begin moving in their direction.

“James?” asks Jiron.

“I don’t know!” he replies vehemently, never once removing his eyes from the pool.

They pause a moment at the base of the stairs as they continue watching the ripples approaching the edge of the pool. When the ripples are a mere three feet away from the shore, something begins to emerge from the water.

In growing horror, James watches as a headless torso makes its way out of the water and begins shambling toward them. “Run!” he yells as he turns and shoves them, propelling them up the stairs.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he pauses as he looks back down and sees the torso, along with others, reach the base of the stairs. Without pause, the lead torso steps onto the bottom step and begins climbing up after them.

“Up to the surface!” he yells as they turn as one and break into a mad dash for the next set of stairs.

They race up them to the upper level and then run down the corridors to the winding stairs which lead to the courtyard above.

Jiron is the first one to reach the stairs and takes them two at a time, Miko follows close behind. James reaches the stairs and begins to follow them up when Jiron stops suddenly and crouches down near the top. As Miko nears him, he grabs him and pulls him down as well.

“What’s wrong?” James asks as he comes up behind them.

Jiron motions for him to move up and join him at the top of the stairs.

He moves past a shaken Miko and settles down next to Jiron. Outside is dark, night had fallen while they were down below.

“Over there,” Jiron says as he points off to the right.

Looking in the indicated direction, James sees a ghostly apparition moving among the ruins. And then he sees another one. Scanning the entire courtyard he sees a dozen or more ghostly apparitions moving about, both men and women.

“What do we do now?” he asks.

Suddenly from behind them, Miko screams, “James!” as he shoves his way between them.

Looking at the bottom of the stairs, James sees one of the headless torsos from the pool. It steps upon the bottom step as it reaches for Miko.

James lets loose with a blast of power which knocks it back but fails to stop it. Blasting it again, he motions for the others to follow him back down. “If there’s only the initial four we saw coming out of the pool, we’ll have a better chance with them, than out there,” he tells them.

Jiron stands up as his knives appear in his hands. He moves down to meet the headless torso where it’s returning to the bottom of the stairs. Fear and revulsion war within him as he strikes out at it.

His knife strikes it, cleaving a long, deep wound across its chest. To his horror, he watches as the wound rapidly closes itself back up.

“They’re healing themselves,” he shouts back to James as he presses on with the attack.

Three more of the torsos come shuffling toward them from down the hallway. “Get back here!” James hollers to him.

Jiron back peddles as he hurries back toward the stairs, just as James lets loose with another bolt of energy which practically sizzles as it passes through the air.

When it strikes the torso, it’s blasted apart. Pieces fly back down the corridor covering a good six feet with torso chunks.

“Yeah!” hollers Miko.

The other three continue to lurch their way toward them. James is about ready to let loose with another of the bolts when he notices the pieces of the blasted torso begin to work their way toward each other. It’s almost like iron being drawn to a magnet. When two pieces touch, they come together and make one larger piece.

“There’s no way to stop them!” he cries, letting loose with another blast that takes out another one. But as with the first one, the pieces begin to work themselves together.

From behind James, Miko screams as he sees a ghostly apparition at the top of the stairs staring down at him.

James turns and sees the man there, his mouth moving as if he’s trying to say something. The apparition reaches out to try to grab Miko.

Miko screams again and loses his balance. He falls and begins rolling down the stairs, knocking both Jiron and James off their feet.

As James falls, he twists and lands on his back with a thud. The medallion bearing the Star of Morcyth slips out of his shirt.

Suddenly, a bright light erupts from the medallion. The shattered pieces of the torsos begin to smoke and then dissolve into nothingness.

Realizing the effect the light from the medallion is having, he grabs it and holds it up high as the light from the Star fills the corridor with a blinding light. The torsos moving toward them down the corridor begin smoking when the light from the Star touches them. Continuing to shamble toward them, the torsos begin smoking more and more. The corridor begins to fill with a nauseating smoke as they dissolve. When the last piece of the last torso has dissolved into nothingness, the light goes out.

“What did you do?” Jiron asks.

“I didn’t do anything,” James replies, staring in wonder at the Star he holds in his hand. “It happened all on its own.”

Miko looks up to the top of the stairs, but the ghostly apparition is gone.

“Follow me,” James says as he gets up and turns to head back into the complex. As he starts to move, Miko asks hysterically, “What’re you doing?”

“If this worked on the torsos,” he explains, “maybe it’ll work on the pool.”

“Will that get rid of the barrier?” Jiron asks.

Shrugging, James says, “I don’t know. Let’s worry about one thing at a time.”

As they proceed through the levels back down to the pool, they come across several other torsos shambling their way along the corridors. Each time, James holds up the Star and each time it blazes forth with life, returning the torsos to nothingness.