Behind them lay the Valley of Stars as Aiden, Lyra, and Caelum pressed on toward the land of the Shadow King. This last journey was somehow different: darker, it seemed, as if the earth itself opposed every step forward. The Guardian's Blade thrummed with an almost irritated energy, its light casting an otherworldly glow on the path before them.
Aiden looked around the dominion of the Shadow King. Once a beautiful country, now it was transformed; trees clawed against the sky, and twisted branches appeared to be hands pointing up towards the heavens, bony fingers reaching up with a kind of grim laughter. The ground beneath his feet was cold, coldly lifeless. Heavy shadows hung over the land as silence became oppressive. Sometimes the wind broke the whispering with voices that only seemed to be carried on with the whispers.
"We are near now," whispered Caelum, his eyes staring forward to the skyline, where a dark shape like that of a fortress was towering up into the sky. This was the stronghold of the Shadow King, said in whispers of fearful retellings.
Lyra slipped nearer to Aiden and peeked about the land. "The Shadow King's beasts will be out to meet us. They are aware that we will come."
Aiden gripped the Guardian's Blade tightly as he felt warmth infuse into his skin. "Then we won't give them a chance to strike first.".
As they marched, shadows began to stir in the distance. Dark shapes moved in the twilight. Out of this gloom emerged figures attired in black armor and masks twisted and snarling behind them. They used weapons forged from a strange metal, dark as if absorbing light around them.
Aiden, Lyra and Caelum dropped into a defensive position, his back to each of her as the soldiers closed in. The Guardian's Blade blazed like some beacon, its light carving through the darkness, but the soldiers forged forward unyielding to it.
"Steady," Caelum whispered, raising his staff, the crystal at the tip glowing fiercely. Lyra held her dagger. Her gaze was fierce, unyielding.
The soldiers charged, and Aiden met them head-on with the blade of the Guardian slicing through the air as if made of blinding light. He felt his power increase as he was fighting, with the blade being the one that led him in some way and its light tore through armor as if they were but cloth.
Lyra ran with nimbly quick lethal strikes. Blasts of light spouted from Caelum's staff, scattering each group of soldiers like a scatter of autumn leaves with every blow. But each death spawned ten more who emerged out of darkness unrelenting in their will to live.
Just when it seemed that the drakes would be crushed beneath them, a deafening roar shook the air. Coming from above, the mighty creature swooped toward the earth, its body swathed in flames. A fire drake-this creature was born of myth and legend-its scales shining like molten metal. Aiden gazed at the beast, his mind too numbed to tell friend from foe.
The fire drake turned on the soldiers, spewing a torrent of flames that consumed them. The soldiers fell back, their dark forms writhing in the flames before dissolving into shadows.
A voice echoed from behind them, deep and resonant, as if it came from the very ground beneath their feet.
"So, the Guardian's chosen finally arrives."
A figure rose out of the darkness. His eyes were burning embers. The Shadow King.
He was overpowering-cold, suffocating as if he sucked the light from the air. Ice squeezed Aiden's heart but he did not back away, gripping the blade of the Guardian.
"Shadow King," Aiden said, his voice steady despite the fear gnawing at him. "Your reign of darkness ends here."
The Shadow King laughed, a sound that echoed through the valley like a death knell. "You think a mere boy can stand against me? You are but a flicker in the darkness, a weak, fading light."
A vein pulsed in Aiden's neck, and in a bellow, he attacked the Shadow King. The Guardian's Blade erupted into brilliant light as he charged toward them. Without warning, however, the Shadow King lifted a hand, and a wave of darkness hurled forward and struck Aiden to the ground.
Pain shot through his body, but he gritted his teeth and made himself stand up, ready to face the Shadow King once more. Lyra and Caelum came to his side, their faces full of intent and determination.
"You can have power," Caelum said in a clear voice. "But the darkest night also has to give way to the morning."
The Shadow King laughed, his eyes narrowing at Caelum. "Then let me show you the true strength of darkness.".
He spread his arms and stretched them wide, the night drawing closer to him like a shroud. Into it, it flowed. Heaving, coalescent darkness, something born out of darkness itself-a shadow beast whose body was heaving masses of darkness, yet within its eyes burned with foul light.
Aiden and Lyra and Caelum prepared for it when it lunged forward on those claws swishing through the air. Aiden swung with the Guardian's Blade and its light cut deep into that creature yet which barely recoiled as from every blow it changed again and took shape.
Lyra shot forward, dagger flashing toward the heart of the beast. But her blade slipped through it as if the beast were smoke. Caelum called up a blast of light, and the shadows swallowed it whole, growing bigger and more menacing.
"Light alone won't stop it," Caelum shouted, his voice straining. "We must hit the source!
Aiden's eyes locked onto the Shadow King, who sat watching them with a mocking smile. The blade pulsed in his hand, urging him forward, and he suddenly knew what he had to do.
"Cover me!" he yelled to Lyra and Caelum, and before they could protest, he charged at the Shadow King, his every step fueled by the power of the Guardian's Blade.
The Shadow King raised his hand, and tendrils of darkness shot toward Aiden, but Lyra and Caelum intercepted them, their weapons flashing as they blocked the Shadow King's attacks.
Aiden closed the distance, his heart pounding as he raised the Guardian's Blade. He could feel its power surging through him, filling him with a strength he hadn't known he possessed.
He drew the blade down, letting out a fierce cry, and its light flared like the sun on the Shadow King. The Shadow King let out a screaming rage as the blade bit him, its light piercing the dark as it shattered his form into pieces of glass.
The beast let out one last, anguished roar as it dissolved into mist. The darkness lifted, fading away with the power of the Shadow King.
Aiden stumbled back, his vision obscured as the last trace of the Shadow King disappeared into the wind. The valley was silent. Its air was heavy with pale, diffuse light due to the first rays breaking the horizon.