Cursed
Yoshi
Chapter 84 = Embrace the darkness
Disclaimer: Although all
characters here are of my own invention, but the original idea of Yoshies,
Birdos, etcetera, are copyright of Nintendo, and I make no money from writing
this.
It
was an incredible sight. The floor was finely polished marble, reflecting
images of everything upon it, and marble support columns lined the outside of
the main room they were in, with bright torches casting their light about the
room, burning without smoke. Statues of all eight of the Octothesian gods
circled the room, and in the centre of it all a single altar stood alone, with
a ghostly image of Karlo-Shin hovering above it…
Darkmark
ran straight for the altar, but Karlo-Shin coughed as he arrived. “I know what
you’re thinking… this isn’t the marble altar.” He said solemnly. “But no
matter. It’s time for you to come to us… give me the jewel.”
Hesitantly,
Darkmark put the jewel into Karlo-Shin’s ethereal hands, but in a bright flash
he suddenly became solid, with a wavy, pale azure cord of some kind trailing
from his body to the surface of the altar, which had become a bright sapphire
colour, and was swirling with many shades of blue, almost hypnotising Darkmark
as he stared at it. Reaching out, he tried to touch it and found that his hand
passed straight through it, and throwing caution to the wind, he vaulted over
the edge and jumped in, with Karlo-Shin following him.
He
felt himself falling as swirls of blue cascaded all around him, before there
was a bright flash and found himself standing within the church of death he had
seen before, surrounded by all the Dark Gods but Klashkna, who was nowhere to
be seen.
“Welcome,
Darkmark.” Karlo-Shin said, stepping out from behind him. “Look familiar?”
“Very.”
Darkmark replied. The stench of blood was no less intrusive than it was when he
wasn’t there in person…
The
others whom he did not know merely nodded at him in acknowledgement, saying
nothing as they continued to stare at him with their blazing red eyes. They
stood motionless, watching intently, unblinking, and unnerving him to no end.
“Don’t
worry about them.” Karlo-Shin muttered. “They won’t speak to you until you have
proven yourself, and we will get to that in just a moment. But first you need
to know the full extent of your psionic powers, so that you will be able to
prove yourself when the time comes…”
He
stepped forwards suddenly, but instead of bumping into Darkmark, he simply
passed straight through him. As he did, Darkmark felt a sudden flow of energy
into him, starting with just a trickle and building into a great rush, filling
every part of his body with a great power. He then felt some of the energy
flowing away from him, and back again, forwards and backwards, faster and
faster as Karlo-Shin kept moving at a slow pace…
Darkmark’s
sight suddenly whited out, and he found himself seeing a bright white vision of
somewhere…
“Marcus, the time of your test has come. To prove yourself, you must defeat your inner evil…”
Marcus nodded solemnly, holding the silver sword by his side as it shone faintly. Shiala gently put a hand on his back and wished him luck in her soft voice as the brown Yoshi stepped forwards, into the portal that the image of Laryshka had just opened for him…
Snapping
back to his senses, Darkmark suddenly fell forwards as Karlo-Shin finally
passed through him, and their bodies disconnected. He felt different, he felt
something powerful within him, something that perhaps the black feral had put
there during whatever it was he had just done…
“And
here comes your test.” Karlo-Shin murmured. Darkmark stood up shakily and gazed
in the direction he was pointing, towards a bluish portal in the middle of the
large empty space of the church of death. “Can you feel the knowledge I have
just imparted upon you? It is all of my life’s work, all that I have discovered
about the use of my psionics, and now it is your knowledge, too. Use it well…
Darkmark, the time of your test has come. To prove yourself, you must defeat
your inner good… the Marcus you could have been. I suppose you could call him
Lightmark.” Karlo-Shin chuckled at his own little joke, before clearing his
throat and continuing when Darkmark didn’t follow suit. “In his life, Manny
died but Shiala lived, and now he follows the light… you must defeat him, for
us to accept you.”
From
out of the portal stepped Darkmark… except that Darkmark was already there,
watching it happen. It was him as he had been in the short interim between when
he had had his wings fused to his back, but before Foryo had hit him with the
final degenerative curse that had changed his appearance so. The Marcus he was
watching had bright red membranes on his wings, and the brilliant eyes of
Karshina that Darkmark now lacked, carrying a duplicate of the silver sword
that Darkmark slowly withdrew from its sheath as he strode forwards to meet his
alternate self. The only thing absent was the two black eyebrows that Darkmark
had put above his head, but since they were borne from a conversation with
Skafria, it was only natural to assume that that was the reason Marcus didn’t
have them.
Sparing
no words, Marcus rushed for Darkmark with his sword held high, and Darkmark was
able to easily catch the swing on his blade, swinging it around and making a
counter-slash. Marcus easily dodged the attack and came forward again, stabbing
at his eviller self, but he held his blade up and deflected the strike off of
the flat of the sword. Taking the offensive, Darkmark leapt forwards and
slashed as he went, using the momentum he had gained to roll when he hit the ground,
dodging the counter-slash the nimble Marcus has made.
Both
versions of the brown Yoshi threw psionic spells at each other; a bolt of
energy from Darkmark, and a flat disc of it from Marcus. Neither was hurt and
both simply absorbed the charge of energy, turning back to their weapons and
slashing at each other, their blades meeting and forming a cross, which they
held as they glowered, staring hatefully into each others’ eyes.
“For
my family and my people, I will defeat you.” Marcus hissed.
“I
have no family.” Darkmark replied. “I do this only for the Yoshies.”
Both
broke away, and Marcus made the next strike, but Darkmark turned to his side
and deflected the attack, sweeping around in a full circle and bringing the
shining blade past Marcus’s head as he ducked. Darkmark quickly jumped over the
low slash that Marcus made, before bringing his blade down to intercept the
upwards strike Marcus was about to make. Seizing an opportunity, Darkmark
stamped his foot down on the sword to pin it to the ground, but Marcus leapt to
his feet and backflipped, kicking Darkmark in the chest as he did so, picking
up his sword with a psionic cable as his adversary stumbled back, recovering
from the attack.
When
Marcus ran for him again, Darkmark tried to sidestep quickly, but instead he
suddenly shifted at lightning pace about six feet to his right, feeling the
flow of energy through him as he inadvertently used his psionics. Feeling
triumphant as Marcus’s attack missed, Darkmark drew a charge of energy to
himself and, trusting to whatever he might do with it, intentionally or not,
charged forwards.
In
a bounding slash, as soon as Darkmark’s feet left the floor he again
spontaneously jumped forwards about three feet, leaving a faint mirror image in
the space where he had been, which faded out after a moment. His slash traced a
rainbow arc through the air, and struck the surprised Marcus’s sword with such
force that a loud metallic note rang through the air, sending Marcus flying
backwards into the nearest wall. Though stunned, he was able to roll aside to
dodge Darkmark’s next attack, and slashed upwards in self-defence, landing
gracefully on his feet. Quick as a flash, Darkmark’s blade was down in front of
him defensively, and he caught the strike before swinging the blade around to
counterattack, jumping instantaneously out of the way again, able to watch
another of Marcus’s attacks slice harmlessly through the fading mirror image.
Running
quickly in a circle and executing the teleport as he did so, he ran rings
around Marcus, who held up his blade while attempting to follow Darkmark as he
ran around, but when Darkmark tried to leap forwards and slash Marcus, his good
self put his arms out to his sides and brought up a barrier of energy that
expanded around him, bouncing Darkmark away, before it faded and dissipated.
Trying to regain the upper hand, Marcus threw his sword at Darkmark,
controlling it like a puppeteer and making it keep thrusting forwards as its
target continued to knock it away. Finally Darkmark ran away and leapt over
Marcus, who deftly caught the sword as it came flying towards him, swinging
around just in time to catch what could have been the final attack.
Jumping
back and then forwards again, teleporting both times, Darkmark made a powerful
slash that knocked Marcus’s sword from his grip, but with his other hand he
grabbed hold of Darkmark’s sword, and wrenched it from his grasp, activating
the ownership enchantment upon it and dropping it to the floor as its weight
suddenly increased. In fury Darkmark called upon another hitherto unused power,
and the air buzzed around Marcus as it became static with energy, allowing
Darkmark to throw his doppelganger across the room and into the wall, knocking
bits of plaster loose from it. Repeating the manoeuvre with more ease now that
he had done it once, he picked him up and slammed him against the floor
repeatedly until he let out a loud, despairing groan.
“This
is the difference between you and me.” Darkmark growled, stepping up to Marcus.
“This is the parallel between Darkness and Light. I see my chosen path and what
it has come to, right here, and I see my decisions were the right ones. And as
long as you, or me, or whoever you are… as long as you follow the path of
light, you will never become as strong as I am.”
He
hauled Marcus up off the floor by the flesh on his chest and threw him back
through the portal he had entered through, which collapsed shortly afterwards,
and turned back to where the others had stood, watching. Karlo-Shin came
forward to greet him, suddenly grabbing him around the wrist and hauling him
back up to the altar, heaving the startled brown Yoshi up on top of it and
pinning him down.
“Don’t
worry…” Karlo-Shin told him, as he took the Octagram from Darkmark. “When you
wake up, you will be one of us, free to wreak your vengeance upon the world…”
Something
flowed up from the altar to Darkmark’s body, and he blacked out…
To
be continued…