Gaia's Champion Ch. 30

She found them with no trouble, seeing all three sitting there, waiting to be sprung. The first was knockout packet, which was loaded with a dust that would knockout anyone within ten meters of the unit. The second was a poison gas bomb, which would explode with a cloud of deadly gas that would kill anyone who tried to walk into the small room. The third was the deadliest of all, a unique dart gun that would fire a spread of poison darts, which would kill anyone who opened the door.

It was easy enough to disable these traps, which Phalmina did with relative ease. She double checked each trap, ensuring they were disabled before moving around. The Fairy took a quick beat and cast a brief spell to see if there was anything else left behind. Her magic detected nothing magical in nature and no additional traps, so she went back to dust size and found her way out to her friends.

"Well, the traps are deactivated, and I saw nothing else in there that would say there is more waiting. You should be good to open it now, Jay," Phalmina told her fiancé.

"Anything magical?" Sheena posed.

"Nope. It should be good, so let's crack this thing open!"

Nodding, Jason did just that, using the key to unlock the door, and he slowly opened it. As he opened it, nothing happened, like Donald said it would, as long as the traps were disabled. Once the door was wide open, the lot of them breathed a sigh of relief as the traps lay dormant.

"Well, glad to see the old man wasn't lying," Karla sighed as she walked over to survey the storage unit.

"Damn! This is a lot of stuff that Don had put away! All of these are his own personal reports and findings?" Sheena breathed.

"Looks like it! This is going to take a while to sort through!" Jason stated.

"But it will be worth sorting through it! I don't think I need to remind you about the many and varied allies we could find with those they didn't get?" Phalmina told her friends.

"Nope! Gaia knows we will need all the help we can get!" Jason replied.

"Damn straight! Hell, who knows? We might also get lucky and find any info about other groups or sects that were truly evil bastards!" Luke put in.

"Well, I think we get this all moved to the house, ASAP! Knowledge like this could do so much good now that it's in our hands!" Karla proposed as she dialed a number for a moving truck service.

"Agreed! A little info like that would go a long way to seeing us get ahead of the curve for once! Something tells me we'll need it!" Sheena said out loud.

"Something wrong, hon?" Jason asked his fiancé.

"Just... a feeling. Almost like it's saying that... what we've encountered so far was just a warmup! Like the real battles are just ahead!" Sheena responded with a serious look on her face.

******************************

Later that day, just as evening hit at the mansion of the High Priest, the acolytes of the Dark gathered. A sense of excitement was in the air, as they had all been preparing for this day their entire lives. Many had not expected to see this day, and few feared it would even come. But with everyone gathered there with the assurance that tonight was the night, more than a few were thrilled that this was happening.

Many of the group were busy mingling, enjoying food from the sumptuous feast the High Priest had provided. This sort of thing didn't happen regularly, so they all took the time to enjoy and avail themselves. The air of satisfaction and anticipation hung heavily on all of them, as they were eager for news of when the package would arrive. Just then, a young acolyte burst into the room and sought out the High Priest, who was busy telling a joke.

"My Lord!" the acolyte said as he genuflected.

"What is it?" the High Priest groaned as the punchline of his joke was interrupted.

"They have arrived! The delivery crew is coming through the gate as we speak!" the young man replied nervously.

"Wonderful news!" the High Priest responded, his mood brightening instantly.

"Shall I inform the rest of the people to assemble?" the acolyte posed.

"With all due haste!!"

Like a shot, the acolyte was off to inform the people meandering through the mansion's grounds. Those who were by the High Priest also heard the news and quickly informed the attendants of what was happening. In a matter of minutes, everyone was headed down to the ritual chamber, where the night's main event would take place.

The High Priest was there, as was everyone else, having donned robes that marked their station in their order. Most of it was simply a black robe, with various adornments, some with more than others. The High Priest had the most on his robes, wearing the one thing only he was permitted to wear; the Mantle of Darkness. It was not only a ceremonial item, but it was an artifact that was steeped in Dark Magic, which is also what amplified the High Priest's power to the level he had.

The chamber itself was made out of black stone, but dressed with various markings and runes of the Dark. Torches sat in sconces set at regular intervals, giving a good amount of light down in the massive chamber. Candles were lit as well, not only providing additional light but also warmth beneath the cold earth.

In the floor were channels that were hewn into the rock, which all fed into a rectangular receptacle at the center. There was a grate that sat there at ground level, which could then be lowered into the small hole via a winch system. Though many people there knew what their role was, they couldn't help but chatter idly as they waited for the delivery to get there.

Moments after everyone had assembled, they all heard the mechanical whirring of the elevator system at the back of the room. Their attention was focused on it as they waited for the elevator to finish its descent. Once it had, the door opened and in it was the delivery crew, all dressed up in their own robes.

The service that was hired to bring the item from the airport was one that the High Priest owned and was staffed by acolytes of the Dark. He would have trusted no one else with deliveries such as this, as that was the whole point of creating the service in the first place. The men had dispensed with the wooden box that the item was carried in and brought it out of the elevator.

It was a sarcophagus, one that was made of a black stone which the room was crafted from. The eight of them huffed with the effort, but were able to bring the sarcophagus to the grate in the center. It was a little smaller than the grate was, which would work perfectly. As the stone tomb touched the ground, the men then shifted to push aside the lid, which they managed, but only after a tremendous effort.

As the men carried the lid away, the High Priest regarded the corpse in the center of the sarcophagus. It was little more than a skeleton, but being sealed in such a tomb did preserve some bits of flesh and sinew, of which there was little. Stands of hair clung to the skull like a macabre cap, while remnants of a once voluminous robe hung over it in tatters. The most notable thing of it was a massive hole in its chest, where the heart would be.

"We have found her! Our Dark Mistress has been brought back to us!! Let us see her returned to the land of the living!" the High Priest called out and everyone stopped their chatting and staring, and moved to their assigned places.

Once the delivery men had placed the lid in its proper place, they stepped into their own positions and the High Priest began the chant. It was in a forbidden, dark tongue, one that humanity had forgotten. This tongue was used to bring out the darkness that resided in everyone, even the people who were good and righteous. As the High Priest began it for the second time, those who were beneath him in rank began to chant in time with him.

Soon, the chant echoed off the walls of the chamber, as the dozens of Acolytes of the Dark chanted in unison. As the chant intensified, a dark energy materialized from within everyone. For some, there was more energy to be had, while others had lesser levels of it. This was due to everyone's personality, as the levels of darkness differed due to the type of people they truly were at heart.

This energy eventually was guided to the center of the room, eventually coalescing into one solid ball of blackness. The High Priest continued to chant as he maintained control over the ball of energy, guiding each mote that flowed from the Acolytes. Using his own Darkness and the Dark Magic he drew from the Mantle he wore, the High Priest started chanting in a darker, more savage tongue.

Runes began to appear on the Darkness that was centered over the sarcophagus. As more runes formed upon it, one of the Acolytes then pushed a lever, sending the tomb down into the recess beneath it. A few seconds later, they all heard the clank of the grate, telling them the sarcophagus was at the bottom. Once they heard that, they then drew ceremonial knives at the belts of their robes and cut into their own wrists.

Blood dripped from their wounds and into the channels, which all led down into the recess where the sarcophagus lay. They all continued to chant, as their blood moved quickly into the alcove, pushed along by the Dark Magic the High Priest was invoking. Once an Acolyte began to feel woozy, they staunched the flow of blood, knowing that the only way to serve was to continue to live. The dead could serve no one.

The High Priest continued to chant and spilled some of his own blood to add to the growing pool in the center. The sarcophagus was filling, so the High Priest stopped his own blood flow before turning to the pedestal behind him. Upon it sat the crystalline heart of Dark Magic, Carman's Heart, which he took in his hands as he walked towards the center of the room.

He continued to chant in the language of Darkness, bringing Carman's Heart to life in his hands. It writhed in his grip, full of Darkness and potent magic that would have killed anyone lesser than he was. The High Priest approached the tomb where her body lay, kneeled before the recess and carefully placed the heart above the skeleton.

The Dark Magic held the heart aloft, but slowly lowered it to the corpse until it finally touched the wound in its chest. In a rush of magic, the heart bonded to its place within the corpse, its Dark Magic spreading throughout the remnants of it. The blood in the sarcophagus soon covered the entire body, but the blood then bubbled and boiled as Carman's Heart invoked its final magics.

In a matter of moments, the blood in the recess was sucked up by the corpse and it changed rapidly. The bones pushed off the dust of centuries and darkened to become more pink in color. Organs formed inside the rib cage, each one coming into being in seconds. Muscle and sinew followed soon after, as the flesh on the body was rebuilt into what it once was. Skin and hair came last, looking bright and in the pink of health.

As the transformation, fueled by Dark Magic was completed, one final thing happened. The heart that was once crystal became living flesh once again, and it beat within the corpse's chest. With this first heartbeat, the body that lie within the sarcophagus was alive once more as her eyes snapped open. The woman took a deep breath, inhaling air for the first time in centuries.

"Dark Mistress," the man above her said in adulation as he continued to kneel before her. The mechanism that put the sarcophagus below then activated to bring her up, stopping when it was finally level with the rest of the floor.

She caught sight of the older, yet handsome man there and smiled before raising her hand to him. Seeing the gesture, he reached out gently and took her hand in his, helping the woman to her feet. The woman stood up, naked as the day she was born, but for the dark tatters that hung from her frame. She stepped out of the sarcophagus and stood next to him before she stripped the rags from her body, discarding them.

"I require a robe," she demanded in a voice like silk.

The High Priest snapped his fingers and a pair of Acolytes rushed over with a silk robe in their hands. She raised her arms and waited as the men placed the robe on her respectfully. The woman noted their glances, as they were the stares of hot-blooded young men. She almost giggled, as it was interesting to see that even though she was centuries old, that she still had that effect on men.

She stood at around five-foot-nine with an ample bust, which would be noticed wherever she went. Her ass was high, heart-shaped and taut, every ass lover's dream. She was curvy and had a modest amount of muscle on her, but was considered what many today would call thick. It wasn't just her body that was the stuff of dreams, but her face as well.

The woman had raven dark hair that hung to her ass, but was curly, like she'd just had a perm done. Her eyes were the deepest green to where they almost looked teal. She had an aquiline nose, full pouty lips, a soft, yet pointed chin and a feminine cast to her eyes. While her body was thick, her face was that of a living goddess, a fact that many men there, along with some women, noticed.

"Thank you. I see that many of you have given of yourselves to bring be back. Allow me to return the favor," the woman stated as she raised her hands.

From them, a fluttering of dark motes, almost like black butterflies, burst from her fingertips. Each butterfly flew out to an Acolyte there and settled on their cuts, beating their wings gently. As they did this, they slowly disappeared into each mark and healed it instantly. A general groan of thanks and gratitude escaped the lips of each Acolyte, as they were grateful for her thoughtfulness.

"When I told my sons to find a way to bring me back, I never anticipated this! Though I am grateful that I am surrounded by the faithful, who have given much to see me returned," the woman stated.

"Your return was foretold, Dark Mistress. How it would be was difficult to interpret. You may not know, but this world you now reside in is very different from the one you left behind," the High Priest told her.

"Oh? How much time has passed since I... died?" she questioned.

"Nearly two millennia, Dark Mistress," the man told her.

"What? How has it been so long?" she demanded.

"Your place of burial was... lost to time. Those foul Gaians did much to obscure where your final resting place would be," he explained.

"Yet... after all this time... you persevered. It is good to see that there still remains such devotion, after all this time," she told the High Priest, taking him by the chin, directing him to stand.

"Because of this, you, for your unwavering devotion, may call me... Carman," she told the High Priest with a sultry smile.

"As you wish... Carman," the High Priest replied with a bow and a grin.

"As for the rest of you, who followed your High Priest's lead, you will be exalted before any of my other followers! You have kept the faith and done well to bring me back to the land of the living! Rise... my children!" she told them in an exultant voice. Hearing this, they all stood up and listened for her next command.

"What is your command, mistress?" a young Acolyte asked.

"Since my... passing, what has happened in the centuries since?"

******************************

And that's where chapter 30 ends!! I know, I'm an evil SOB for making liberal use of these cliffhangers!! But hey, it does keep everyone on edge and guessing, and I'm sure this chapter will leave many people speculating! What becomes of this new power, now that they have raised Carman, The Dark Witch, back from the grave? What sort of threat will they pose to Gaia and her champions? How will they fight an entity that required old 'Gods' to defeat her? For that bit of news, stay tuned to find out!

Anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my work and I do hope that you've enjoyed it! I'm open to constructive criticism and will seriously consider any suggestions made about various story arcs. Please feel free to rate and comment on my work down below. If you like what I write, don't be afraid to follow and share, though your views, ratings and comments are quite enough for me.

In the meantime, this is C.H. Darkstrider, signing off to grab a beer and some quality time with the wife! ;) You will attain whatever you most desire, as long as you believe in yourself. Cheers!