Kingdom Chronicles Collection - Books 1-3

Chapter 8

The camera was focusing on something coming from the smoke.

“We have a new development coming to you live, something is coming into view and, oh Taro, it"s a golem of some kind. I"ve never seen this before,” the news lady said and the camera began to shake.

“Great, Brule has already started,” Tinea said with a sigh. “Brule is the Mist Blade, one down six more to go,” Tinea finished as she watched the television. Brule appeared to be about seven feet tall, and if the misty look is what it was going for, it failed as it appeared to be a juggernaut of black steel looking like a demonic knight from the bowels of some unknown hell.

In its right hand was the blade that was five feet long, jagged and just as black as the rest of him.

The three watched as the Mage Special Forces started to fling various spells at the brute. The energy slammed against his armor but had no effect. Pen and the others watched as Brule raised his left hand to summon black smoke.

This smoke was alive and it flowed into the attackers through their eyes and mouth. It only took seconds for the mages to turn around, their eyes filled with swirling black mist.

That same smoke was leaking from their pores, mouth and ears. Now the cops started to attack people with blasts of the same smoke, everyone they hit was infested by the stuff and started to do the same, mindlessly.

“Gotta hand it to Brule, he gets right to the point. Anyway, we"re not too far away from that so what do you say we get the hell out of here,” Tinea suggested again with a bit more urgency.

“All these swords have powers right, what"s yours?” Pen asked her, trying to come up with a plan. “Does it matter, she"s right, if we stay here we are going to die,” Shane said as the camera and station went off the air.

“I mimic, genius, that"s what I do. You"re looking at it. I am a lover not a fighter and the last thing I want to do is take them on and trust me that"s the last thing you want to do too. We need to get out of here while we can,” Tinea urged again.

“I know your both right. But they have to have a weakness. I am responsible for this so I will do it alone if I have to. Shane, Tinea, take my car and get out of here. I am going to see what I can do,” Pen said to them and knew that he had to try.

“Sounds good to me buddy, Shane, is it? let"s get out of here while we can,” Tinea said and stood up. She was ready to go. Pen didn"t quite understand where this need to be responsible came from all of the sudden. Normally he was more than ready to get out of town.

He also realized, however, this was the beginning of the end. There was nowhere to run to.

“We can"t just let you go alone, Tinea, surely you can help us do something, right, I mean you are one of the magical blades Pen is your guardian and without him you"re at risk. I am sure you can take care of yourself but I"m not going to let my best friend die alone for something he did without knowing or believing in. Can you please help us?” Shane pleaded with the blade and Tinea rolled her eyes.

“What is it with you, is reckless heroism contagious these days or what?” Tinea asked and was getting annoyed.

“If you really want to face an army of darkness, I"ll help you, but please don"t get me killed,” Tinea said to them reluctantly.

“Okay, great, so we are going to face the legions of the damned but we need a plan first. So are any of us immune to their powers. Do we have a weapon that"d work for us?” Shane asked, glanced out the front window to see a smoke infested person shambling down the street.

“Well good news, we"re out of time,” Shane added to his rant. “Yep, looks like we"re out of time,” Pen agreed with him.

“So, what are we going to do now, heroes?” Tinea asked and leaned back into the couch, but her eyes never left the shambling smoke infested figure.

“Let"s get out of here and say hello to smoky out there. Maybe we can get through to him,” Pen said, stood up and walked towards the door “Woah there, talk about ending this plan before it starts, are you sure this is a good idea?” Shane said and stopped him by grabbing onto his shoulder.

“No, I"ll need my weapon,” Pen said and looked at Tinea. “Do you mind turning back into a blade?” Pen asked her. She rolled her eyes then there was a great flash of blue light that caused them both to cover their eyes.

When it faded, the sword was laying on the couch. Mirrored blade, silver handle, the whole thing even more polished in the daylight. Almost painful to look at when the light reflected directly off of it.

“So, she"s beautiful in both forms,” Shane said with a smile. “You"re damn right I am,” Tinea responded to him and Shane shook his head. “See, I told you she could talk as a sword,” Pen said as he picked her up and still felt weird about doing it.