65)
It was the Deluge that surrounded Alex and had been the root cause of the blockage all along. It had not yet acknowledged his presence and seemed unaware that he was actually inside of it; somehow it was the arrowhead in his pocket that was protecting his psychic self. He knew that he didn’t have the power to fully defeat it here, but he could do enough damage to it to make sure that it would no longer be a threat to the Stone and block its energy.
The only way for him to banish the Deluge from the Stone’s energy field was to force it to become physical. That would undoubtedly create a whole new set of problems for them both to deal with which would probably involve a lot of running. Alex smiled to himself at the irony; even here, amongst such concentrated evil he knew that there was still room for humor; something he never thought possible before. Humor brought the light into existence, raised the vibrational energies and made it possible for people to triumph over anything.
Using the humor as a starting place, Alex focused on the light that he knew was deep inside of him. He concentrated on the spark amongst the darkness; allowed the spark to grow within him, nurtured it, fueling it with all the positivity that he could muster. He thought back to Allura and Anjinn and gave them love and strength as they took back the Mirror of Sfel; he thought of Onyx and all the support and understanding that he had been given.
Alex drew on all those feelings and used them to nurture the growing spark. He could feel the energy build; his whole body shaking with the effort, but still the energy levels rose. He felt the very energies of the Stone resonate in harmony and merge with his own.
He experienced the love of the very earth itself; felt Bellkipeg flow into him until he could take it no longer. With a cry of such force and magnitude Alex released the energy in one huge blast like the start of a new universe. The Deluge screamed in pain and suddenly disappeared.
66)
Alex suddenly woke up and found himself lying flat on his back with the stone behind him; Onyx stood over him with concern crowding his normally calm face.
“We need to move, Creator, very quickly.” He cautioned. “Just as you came back to your body, so the Deluge suddenly appeared. It is writhing in agony at the moment but that condition will not last long. We need to find sanctuary.” Alex agreed, though he could barely stand; releasing that much energy had severely depleted his own. Onyx helped him.
“The church.” Alex pointed, “We need to go inside, the Deluge won't be able to attack us once we are safe inside there.”
“We will, however, be trapped.”
“We haven’t got time to argue.” Onyx took his shoulder and they walked slowly towards the church, keeping a watchful eye on the Deluge; which was phasing in and out from the shock of being forced into corporeality.
They were but a few feet away from the church, Alex stumbling along the best he could. Behind him he could hear the Deluge start to regain its physical form and he could now sense its anger and vile hatred for what he had done to it. Though it was still weak and could only move slowly it was rolling at a faster rate than Onyx could walk. Neither Alex nor Onyx were strong enough to offer any resistance this time if it attacked, but the church was so close now.
With inches to spare Onyx pushed the warped wooden door open and shoved Alex inside before shutting the door again. The Deluge launched a tendril of viscous evil at the door as it closed, sending a shock-wave of force through the wooden panels as it impacted. The noise echoed around the church, but they were safe; it could not penetrate their sanctuary.
67)
“Rest now, Creator.” Onyx consoled. “You’ve had a busy day.” Alex smiled.
“Now do you see why I said to run to the Church?” He asked. Onyx nodded. “We’re safe here as I’ve freed the blockage from the Stone’s centre.”
“Yes, I understand that, but my biggest concern is how we’re going to escape from here.”
“Let’s cross one bridge at a time,” Alex remonstrated. “We both need to restore our energy and here is as good a place as any!”
Onyx nodded his head in agreement and helped Alex on to his feet again.They had been so preoccupied with escaping from the Deluge that they hadn’t realised that the church was far from empty. The stilted silence was at complete odds to the myriad faces that stared back at them. Nearly all of the pews were full and the people had the same vacant look in their eye. Alex initially mistook it as shock but upon closer observation he knew that he’d seen it before, back in the townage of Haywreath.
“Onyx…” He warned.
“Aye, Creator. I know, it would seem that by escaping the Deluge we may have walked into a situation far more dangerous.”
Row upon row of faces stared back at them, men and women of all ages, even
children; Alex now understood why the village had been so empty. Everyone was dressed in their finery; immaculately tailored puppets.
“It must be connected to the Deluge blocking the energy to the Stone. But they should be free, surely…. The Deluge is no longer in control!”
“Yes!” The shout seemed to come from everywhere at once, reverberating from the walls, deafening in contrast to the silence that had haunted the church. Alex tried to pinpoint where the voice had originated from, he relaxed his gaze and scanned the church. Standing by the pulpit Alex could see a man in long, flowing robes of the darkest crimson he had ever seen.
“We know what you’ve done, Creator.” The man sneered, his voice booming with such power. “But it will do you no good here. This village is ours, regardless of your machinations.”
The man walked towards them slowly, his magnificent robes flowing after him. His form was surrounded in a similar dark red aura and pulsated with every footstep.
“Trying to read me, are you?” The man goaded. “And what do you see? No Skin-Crawler am I… I gave of myself freely to the Deluge; to The Presence, and so did the villagers you see around you now. They are all part of the darkness that will soon cover the whole of Bellkipeg.”
68)
Alex couldn’t believe what he was hearing, after going through the trauma of destroying the Guardians and banishing the Deluge from the Stones energy centre, it was a travesty to be faced with this monstrosity and to learn that he had given himself freely?
“NO!” Onyx boomed. “You may have given yourself to the darkness, but these villagers are under your thrall.” Alex saw the villagers react to Onyx’s voice.
“But your hold over them is weakening, isn’t it?” Alex shouted. “The Heart Stone is waking up and it’s angry. It knows what you’ve done and it won’t be long before its
back to its full strength. When that happens I doubt you’ll be here…”
“Maybe not, Creator.” Sneered the priest. “But long enough to do this!” He pointed at Alex with both his hands, and emitted a low gluttural moan. Alex could feel the force emanating from the man, his whole psychic field pulsated, firing off sparks. The congregation rose and moved towards them.
“Creator, we must force this priest to release his hold on the crowd.” Onyx said. “As you managed to do in Haywreath.”
“But in Haywreath I had no idea what I was doing!” Alex stated, weakly. “And I was fit after resting…” He still felt so drained from freeing the Heart Stone.
“Your true self is endless, remember, changeless and boundless. Call on that energy; that life force and you will stand strong.”
Alex did as he was told, focused on the energy that he felt when he connected with the Heart Stone. The inrush of energy was instantaneous and within seconds he was on his feet again.
“You have no power here.” He shouted back against the priests intonations, and clasped Onyx’s outstretched hand. Together the power surged through them and they directed it against the priest as the crowd moved against them. Alex had never felt such an rush of energy flowing through him; whatever he had felt connecting to the Heart Stone was now easily dwarfed by this; the very air crackled with intensity.
The priest was shaken by this force and stepped back. The crowd stopped and wavered. Alex intensified his efforts forcing his awareness to merge with Onyx. He felt another wave of strength emanate forth and this time the priest was knocked off his feet. The crowd was now free from his control and collapsed. Alex broke contact with Onyx who took a step back as the priest got to his feet again.
“You may have bested me, but there is no way that you are escaping this church.” He boasted. “The Deluge will never tire, it has feasted on the Heart Stone for so long its strength has intensified.”
Suddenly the church was plunged into darkness. Alex looked to the windows and could no longer see any daylight shining through them. The Deluge had swallowed the church whole.
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