Arcane Advent: The Dark Bible

By R Kain

The nightmare ended and a new day began. The Ruined City was left behind for a new life of adventure and danger, as The Mage and The Girl joined hands with a group of mystic mercenaries.

Meanwhile, a holy artifact is stole from The Church and brings The Mage into conflict with an enemy he cannot face and old embers stir into a raging flame. Will the battles smother them before it becomes an inferno?

This novella-length story is the second in the Arcane Advent series—a chronicle of dark fantasy tales where magick and mages do battle in the current age.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R Kain
• Release date: Mar 29, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476045443

R Kain

Author:R.Kain is an author of various short stories and novellas centered on Urban Fantasy in contemporary settings. These tales tend to be dark, where good may or may not triumph over evil, but the price will be high, and sometimes the line between them is non-existent. Heroes may be just as dirty as the villains, but in the end, the only one they must answer to is themselves.Hobbies:* Reading* Writing* Playing Videos GamesFavorite Genre Book: FictionFavorite Genre Game: RPG

Book preview

The Dark Bible

(Arcane Advent #2)

By: R. Kain

Published by R.Kain at Smashwords

Copyright © 2013 R.Kain Fantasy

Second Edition

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The characters and events portrayed in the book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons—living or dead—is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Warning: This ebook contains content that is considered unsuitable for those under the age of 16, due to graphic violence and adult language that may offend some readers.

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Table of Contents

Epigraph

Ch 0

Ch 1

Ch 2

Ch 3

Ch 4

Ch 5

Ch 6

Ch 7

Conclusion

Epigraph

Trust is easily lost and hard to acquire.

Only through trial by fire or an open heart can it be gained.

However, if one does not trust others in their time of darkness,

That darkness may consume them, leaving only sorrow and fear in its wake.

Captured

Light pierced flesh that went dead, yet it did not bleed. Leidolf clutched the numbed shoulder while standing in front of the child behind him, Aria. The arm felt completely useless and lame, unusable in its current state. As he heard the magical energy woven into an arrow of light hum, he never averted his gaze from the mage ready to fire the second shot from the cyberpunk-themed spellcraft.

The mage was a woman named Luna. She had been assigned to uphold an inquiry into the events that transpired at the behest of her employer. Upon encountering Leidolf, she moved to capture him and unsealed the spellcraft inside her silver chain necklace’s archery charm, the Lunadrop Bow. Her second and final warning was issued. Submit and you will not be harmed further. Any signs of resistance and the next shot will go between your eyes.

Leidolf’s fingers tightened into a fist. Who was she, where was she was from, why she attacked him—all those questions meant nothing before the weary runic mage. Questions were meaningless to him in the face of an enemy brandishing a weapon at him while the child was at his back. He moved to kill.

Despite the fact that his body was barely being held together, he drew his blade and lunged at her like a demonic wind was at his back. Luna, true to her word, released the string and the arrow flew to intercept him as it took a violet hue and streaked across empty space. Black steel, illuminated by runes on the blade, knocked away the violet flash and the distance was closed in three rampant heartbeats. He moved to sever her head at the neck in a horizontal motion, only for sparks to fly as the bow itself was used like a shield.

Foolish, Luna chided him. You are in no condition to fight. Yield.

Shut up! Leidolf attempted to silence her with his foot as the blade slid off the bow, thrusting a sidekick towards her abdomen like a spear. The impact was absorbed as the archer leapt back several meters in an instant.

"Okay, the hard way then…" The sliver pupils of her eyes seemed to drink in the moonlight as they became luminous. Granted sight that was unparalleled through the activation of Artemis Eyes, the bow was raised and muscles tensed as an arrow was reformed and nocked. You brought this on yourself.

Death was unleashed. A single bolt splintered as it crossed the distance, becoming a barrage of a thousand needles. The black steel and his arms were used to shield Leidolf’s head. Arms, legs, chest, stomach—the thorns pierced Leidolf’s body and turned him into a literal human pincushion.

The runic mage fell to his knees, his body failing. Even the grip on his blade that kept him upright was slipping. The difference between them was clear, especially considering he was running on fumes from the battle not too long ago.

It was unacceptable to him. He chased power and grabbed it with his own two hands so he wouldn’t be powerless. He refused to fall down after coming so far and tried to call forth whatever he had left to kill the person in front of him, no matter the cost…but that dredge of energy was suppressed before it could form.

The arrows forged of magical energy had begun hampering his own, clogging the magick channels that flowed through his body. The moment he was struck by her technique, one that hailed from a school of magick that specialized in energy manipulation, it was over. Ending the futile struggle, a final arrow embedded itself firmly into his skull.

He tumbled to the ground wordlessly, not even a finger twitching as he lay still on the concrete. His best efforts simply weren’t enough. He had failed.

Aria screamed as the shock kicked in. It was all she could do. Her hero had been murdered in cold-blood right before her eyes and there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop it…just like with her parents.

Forcing her body to move against the fear and desperation, she tried to reach his side…yet she was denied even that as an arrow of light pierced her heart mid-step and her small body fell backward onto the ground. Robbed of consciousness, empty eyes stared at the fallen mage as a single tear escaped.

The wind blew throughout the ruined landscape and let loose a somber cry at its destruction. Catching the inside of the cowl of Luna’s cloak and lowering it exposed the silver eyes that lost their light as light-blue hair that seemed almost alien began dancing in the breeze. There was only silence after the dying wind’s last whisper.

To ensure that her Suppression Arrows had sedated the pair properly she waited a minute more. There was no incident during that time. Calmly exhaling, the arrows protruding from the bodies dissipated at her willing it. It seemed the danger had passed, so she could remove the mask of a mage and let her soldier’s face melted into one of anxious relief. With the situation contained she begun to inspect the bodies.

The child was the first. Her pulse was still strong, her heart beating normally even with her consciousness severed. She closed the child’s eyes and then moved to the mage…

Her expression changed the moment she noted that Leidolf wasn’t breathing. Placing her ear to his still chest, she could not pick up the sound of a heart beating. There was no time wasted as she tried to resuscitate him.

Things seemed grim until she got his lungs breathing again and his heart pumping as the sound of sirens began emerging from the outskirts of the city. No longer hidden from sight and mind, rescue workers were dispatched and would begin their search for survivors. Members of the Arcane Syndicate would be among the arriving workers, seeking to investigate the actions and results of one of their own.

The vibration of her phone in her pants told her of an incoming call at roughly the same time. Pulling it out and seeing ‘Fai’ listed as the caller, she accepted the call. The screen of the phone shifted to reveal the face of a young man in his early twenties. Where are you?

His response was to the point. "I’m in driving one of the rescue vehicles that just arrived. Did you find anything interesting?"

She looked to the two lying on the ground. Two witnesses: a mage who was involved in the incident, currently in need of immediately medical attention, and a child who seemed to be under his care. Both are near a house in nearly perfect condition and have been sedated.

"Alright, I’ll pick up your location from the phone’s GPS. In the meantime, search the house for anything useful and then destroy it. A lone house standing in the middle of disaster area is the first place they’ll investigate."

Understood, she stated, before hanging up the phone. Leaving the two where they laid, Luna activated her eyes once more and inspected the house as thoroughly as she could in the small time-frame. Traces of magical energy were clear to her, exposing the hidden compartment of his closet by the remaining unconsecrated runestones. They were barely permeated with the runic mage’s magical signature, which she memorized as she tracked him here.

Checking the rest of the house revealed much of the same. She noted he lacked the amount needed to label it as an atelier or workshop belonging to another mage. He must be an amateur then…

Her search ended once she retrieved what may have been of use to them as Fai arrived. Once the two were safely loaded into the vehicle, her bow was summoned into her hands once more. She proceeded with the secondary objective.

A rain of arrows was unleashed, imbued with destructive and penetrative properties. The defensive enchantments and wards that allowed the home to weather the destruction of the city were torn to pieces. The bastion that had been Leidolf’s home was leveled without a second thought as she watched it collapse on itself.

She then joined her companion in the vehicle and drove off.

Drafted

Leidolf slowly opened his eyes to a white world while in a daze that seemed endless. There was a fog of confusion in his head, which caused it to throb madly against his skull. As details began to bleed in he realized that the world hadn’t changed. It was his vision that was distorted.

Squinting his eyes to bring clarity to them, he found that the reason the world still seemed white was because he was directly under the ceiling light of an unknown location. His muscles ached as he sat up. The cold sensation of the clean linen sheet sliding down his exposed chest brought his attention to what covered his flesh and the white spread underneath him. When he tried to bring his stiff hands to cradle his head, he discovered the I.V. drip plugged into his arm.

Am I in a hospital? he wondered. The shroud of thick fog in his head hampered his memory of what transpired to land him in the hospital. There was a nagging sensation that he was doing something important with someone else. While in the throes of confusion, he spied the curtain separating his bed from someone else’s.

There was a silhouette of another person, small and short…like a child. Agony struck at that moment and he clenched his head in a vice-grip. Like fuel to a spark, his mind was set ablaze and, within the flames, the fog cleared and his memories came flooding back. Saving Aria, facing earth-clad mage, his defeat at the hands of the archer—they came back to him all at once. He realized the fact that he was being treated meant that he had been captured. That meant that the person next to him must have been Aria.

He tried to move. To check upon the child who he swore to save, he tried desperately to move his weakened body. But his legs wouldn’t respond at all. Damn it.

Taking a deep breath, Leidolf recalled the basics of his craft. He calmed himself and then sank his consciousness into his body to call forth the power he fought so desperately to attain. He focused on the magick channels in his body.

They were like a network of pathways that he imagined to be flexible, plastic tubes. Flowing through his body like a secondary circulatory system, they were used to carry magical energy throughout his mortal flesh. It was at the center of it all that his reservoir of magical energy dwelled. He used what dwelled inside to flood the channels.

Leidolf could feel the energy pulsating throughout his body, but there were leaks that felt off within the channels. He forced himself to ignore them and continued so that the physical exhaustion would be removed and the limits of the human body would be surpassed, all so that he would be able to move. If he maintained his concentration, he would be able to fight once more.

However, the very thought of combat was literally denied to him as if the door in his mind was shut. The knowledge of how to regulate his own magical energy vanished from his mind, ceasing the flow. He slumped onto the bed, suddenly tired and weak. What…just happened?

The answer came from a small voice in the doorway. You have my apologies for that. However, we cannot have you attempt to cause trouble so soon.

Forcing his head to turn, his gaze fell towards the entrance. There, standing there without any fear or uncertainty, were two women. One was a child and the other a voluptuous woman.

You shouldn’t put that kind of strain on your body after just waking up, the older woman said. Her body was mature and beautiful, dressed in an open doctor’s coat with a red shirt and a long black skirt underneath it that covered her long legs. Glasses with red frames covered her brown eyes, matching the scarlet high heels that decorated her feet, and her long black hair was wrapped in a ponytail that hung in front of her left shoulder.

The small girl was roughly Aria’s size and perhaps age if Leidolf had to guess, even though she dressed far more professional than a girl her age should. The black dress that extended to her ankles was adorned with a