Chapter 35: Interlude: Darkness Gathers
Sharp durasteel cut through tough flesh, driven by Force-enhanced muscle. The massive k'lor'slug screamed once before collapsing to the tomb's floor, its innards spilling out onto the ancient stones to join with those of the seven other beasts beside it.
Olia straightened up as the last monster fell. A strand of black hair had slipped out of her ponytail and had fallen down in front of her face. With an annoyed huff, she blew the errant hair out of her way.
She would have used her hands, but the black gauntlets covering them were coated in the gore that had sprayed out of the k'lor'slugs' wounds.
Blood oozed down from a gash on her left arm where one of the beasts had managed to land a grazing hit. Giving it a contemptuous look, she used the pain flaring up from the wound to bolster her strength.
Upon activating the Engine, she had slightly regretted ordering Kalista to guard the door as dozens of k'lor'slugs had poured out from the walls, attracted by the potent Dark Side energy pervading the tomb. But instead of retreating, she had grit her teeth, let out a battle cry, and exploded into a flurry of durasteel and lightning.
This was a trial she would face alone.
And now, all of them lay dead. Her limbs ached, but she merely snarled and adjusted her grip on her sword. The former Jedi could feel that the battle wasn't over yet.
The ground beneath her feet shook, the shrieks of something enormous echoing through the musty halls.
On the far side of the chamber, the wall cracked as something heavy slammed into it. The air seemed to fall still as the sounds stopped. Suddenly, the stone exploded outwards as the k'lor'slug queen smashed through the wall, a pair of towering broodguards at her sides.
Her massive bulk was nearly three times the size of her fifteen foot tall guards.
Olia stood her ground as huge chunks of rock rained down around her. Far above her, the queen's spiked maw dripped with saliva, sensing the flesh below.
The chamber descended into silence as none of the combatants moved, each sensing the danger. In the end, it was Olia who attacked first.
Using the Force, she lifted one of the k'lor'slug corpses at her feet and threw it at the queen's head. The creature shrieked as the mound of flesh slammed into its "face." As it staggered back, she was already moving.
The broodguards scrambled forward to bar her path and protect their mother. Pausing only for a moment, Olia deftly leaped over their heads and landed on the back of one of them. Taking her sword in both hands, she drove the point of the blade down into a slight crease where the head met the neck, straight into the creature's largest nerve cluster.
As her impromptu mount started to fall into a boneless heap, she jumped onto the other one, quickly repeating the strike and killing it.
Without looking back, Olia jumped straight up, neatly avoiding the queen's sudden lunge. Touching down on the creature's back, she drove her sword into its flesh, not bothering to aim for anything in particular. The monster was far too large to effectively target its nerve clusters.
The k'lor'slug queen let out a deafening shriek that echoed endlessly in the chamber and thrashed about in an attempt to dislodge its unwanted passenger. With one hand, Olia held onto her blade while the other grasped at one of the massive spikes jutting out of the monster's back.
After ensuring that she wasn't immediately going to fall off, the acolyte called upon the Force, gathering it into an electrical charge in her hand. Lightning crackled for only a moment before travelling down the metal blade and into the living flesh it was impaled into.
Olia winced as the monster's shrieks of pain rose to new heights, though she couldn't afford to let go and cover her ears.
Instead, she pumped more power into her lightning, drowning out the queen's screams with the roar of thunder. Spiked limbs twitched as the electricity played havoc with the creature's nervous system and flesh blackened as the heat slowly cooked it.
Finally, the queen collapsed, her body still writhing from the electricity dancing inside.
Removing her sword from its skin, Olia grimaced at the blackened and warped durasteel. She would have to see about acquiring a new weapon. The ruined blade clattered to the ground as she tossed it aside before advancing towards the obelisk in the middle of the chamber, which miraculously had been undamaged by the fighting. She came to a stop in front of it and stared at it.
And continued to stare at it.
"…Blast," She cursed, "How in the hells do I use this thing?"
More lightning sprang to mind, but was immediately dismissed. The Red Engine was supposed to be a computer of sorts. She wanted the information inside of it, not to fry the databanks.
'Then again, it is a computer constructed with the Force…' Olia quickly shook the thought from her head, "Come on, Tulak, couldn't you have made this a bit more user friendly?"
Silence answered her. After Ragnos' tomb, she had been half-expecting to see the Lord of Hate's specter greet her. No dice, apparently.
"Figures," She sighed. Glaring at the obelisk, she muttered, "I might as well try something."
The leather of her gauntlet creaked as she opened a hand, drawing in the ambient dark power of the tomb. The rush she felt as so much energy filled her was exhilarating, but she refocused herself by reminding herself of her reason for being here.
With an effort of will, she directed the energy she had collected into the mechanisms above. Suddenly, everything came to life for one brief instant, blinding her with a flash of light. As she instinctively covered her face with her arms, she felt bits of stone pelt her exposed skin.
When her sight returned, the obelisk in front of her was a shattered ruin. From the loose stones now surrounding it as well as the ones that had hit her, it appeared that it had exploded outwards. In the center of the destruction was a single tablet.
Eyebrows furrowed, she cautiously approached and knelt to examine it. Inscribed on the ancient stone were words that were definitely recognizable as Ancient Sith, but there were a large number of unintelligible words. With a grimace, she realized that the writing was probably in a dialect that was no longer used.
She could almost imagine Tulak Hord laughing at her.
'You didn't think it would be that easy to get my teachings, did you?'
She didn't think he'd use those words exactly, but it was close enough for her imagination.
Olia reached out to brush a stone shard off the tablet. When she accidentally touched the tablet itself, the words shifted, though still in that damnably indecipherable dialect.
She blinked in surprise, before grinning. How interesting.
Her joy was short-lived as her commlink chimed. Grimacing, she answered it, knowing full well who would be on the other end.
"Acolyte."
"Overseer," Olia greeted curtly. She didn't let her eyes dip down. She knew he was wearing her confiscated lightsaber just to infuriate her.
But damn if it wasn't working.
"It is time for your Second Trial," Iren stated simply, "Return to the academy as soon as possible for your briefing."
And then the commlink shut off. The ex-Jedi's lip curled, "Finally."
Still, she was frustrated that she wouldn't get time to study the curious tablet properly, but the opportunity would be available later.
Stuffing it into her bag, she bandaged her arm and retrieved Kalista before starting the hour-long trek back to the surface. The Twi'Lek shot her a questioning glance, but kept her mouth shut. Olia ignored her.
When they reached the speeder, she paused and looked towards the deeper desert. With the sun beginning to dip down over the horizon, the sea of sand shone gold.
Olia stared out into the wastes. She knew she needed to go out there, but the reason escaped her.
The acolyte shook her head and got in the speeder.
'Later,' she told herself. Just like with the tablet.
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