Malacaroos ran down the dark hallway. Enough time had been lost already. Neryza, his navigator puky gave him an update through the iserial audio link:

“This is bad Caroo! At this rate the iserial cannon will fire at Aidenous in half an hour at most! And if that happens...”

“I know,” Malacaroos look was grim “it’ll be the tradgedy of Vaught all over again. I’m not letting that happen!”

The gray fox wel quickened his pace, keeping a firm grip on his trusted blade Excalibur, gifted to him by two deities in a time that now almost seemed like a completely different life to him. That divine blade had never failed him, and he knew it never would. He would fail before the blade did, but not today! He couldn’t!

And then there was a light at the end of the tunnel. A soft orange glow at first, growing stronger and stronger yard by yard. It must have been several hunderd yards of heavy creatanium armoring that the tunnel had led him through. There could be no doubt, this was the core of the massive fortress Obelisk! This was what the High Inquisitor Jonathan nal'Rekenelo and all the other followers of Nova were willing to die to protect. And now Jonathan was somewhere down that hallway, waiting for him. Having prepared who knows what in the time it had taken Malacaroos to break through the divine barrier Jonathan had erected by sacrificing a fragment of his soul to Nova, goddess of war and strife. He thought he’d be ready for everything...

But then he entered the chamber, and the sight was enough to make even him gawk.

It was huge.

He found himself standing on a ridge of a gigantic spherical chamber with maybe half a mile in diameter. And in the center of it was floating an enormous energy crystal, radiating power outward with an almost blinding shine. Malacaroos could feel his fur tingle simply from being exposed to such huge amounts of iserial energy. Fragments of smaller crystals, charged up with that energy orbiting the crystal formed a dangerous storm protecting the crystal itself. A web of power, and at the center of it...

At the end of a shaky pathway of platforms defying gravity, in front of the crystal...

There he was.

High Inquisitor Jonathan nal'Rekenelo.

Absorbing the crystal’s unending power into his mortal body. Jonathan had to be aware that it would kill him eventually. But death didn’t matter to the followers of Nova. As long as it achieved their goal, every death was tolerable. Even their own.

Malacaroos could hear Neryza gasp through the iserial audio link. “What is that? I’ve never seen such a power reading in all my life!”

“It’s our mark.” Malacaroos replied coolly “The energy core, and...”

Neryza interrupted him “Wait... you’re not trying to say me that second reading I get here is...”

“It is.”

“Oh crap. Crap! Caroo, it’s just a small fragment of the energy core’s power, but... I don’t think we even have data on anyone this strong!”

“Relax, Neryza.” Malacaroos kept a calm voice “I’ve traversed the River of Dreams, met the unnamed sage, sipped tea with the Mother Vixen, and raised my blade against the Nightmare Dragon and lived.” He smiled “This is nothing. And I most certainly won’t let some power-mad fool like that Hedgehog go around and destroy cities as he pleases!”

Neryza seemed a bit more relaxed now, but still uneasy. “Okay, Caroo, but just... be careful, okay.”

Malacaroos nodded, then realizing she couldn’t see him he replied: “Okay, I will. Just concentrate on your job...” he looked over towards Jonathan, bathing in the power of the crystal several hundred yards away “...and I’ll do mine!”

And with that he made off. He’d have to jump over the floating rocks and dodge the crystal storm. And after that, he’d finally face...

Jonathan.

---

My very first digital artwork I made for Level Design class in college.
Got almost full score for it, though I'm not too happy with it.
But oh well, at least it gave me an excuse to write a nice story, nya?
=^,^=