Legends of Amacia Attack on Tartarus
Chapter 25: The Core Elevator

The Core Elevator

While the elevator room descended, Ana gave everyone a quick healing touch, especially Horace, who had not fared too well. He bore significant lacerations and burns from the battles. Ana’s healing touch stabilized Horace’s wounds so he wouldn’t bleed to death. However, her treatments stopped short of completely healing Horace because she had other people to help. Her healing power had limits so she rationed it, only using it enough to keep the team members from becoming incapacitated.

Three minutes after they entered the elevator, the far wall seemed to vanish. It surprised everyone except Hannibal, Ana, Horace, and Nemesis. Hannibal opened the visor on Grimm’s Mask and grinned, saying, “There it is, people: the core of Kartoom.” They gathered at the edge of the vanished wall. Hannibal put his hand out and touched the transparent wall, saying, “Never fear. There’s a wall here. We can just see through it. It’s just like the transport car, only the window is reinforced and shielded because of where we are.”

The team marveled at what they saw. The elevator they were in was descending into a seemingly bottomless pit nearly two thousand yards wide. The shaft was exactly like that of the cores of Tiamat and Acheron: lined with the strange metal and crystals. Colossal energy bolts arced up and down the shaft like lightning, being drawn to a giant crystal hanging from the top of the shaft. Hannibal looked up, seeing it. He pointed it out to everyone. They gawked at the receiver as it looked like a giant satellite dish. Crystal covered the entire ceiling of the shaft, formed into a parabolic dish shape with a giant crystal protruding from the center like a great satellite dish receiver. The main crystal spanned nearly fifty feet in width by a hundred and fifty feet long. It glowed brightly as the energy from below hit the dish and reflected to the center crystal. Giant lightning bolts streaked from below, bouncing off the walls of the shaft until it reached the giant dish where its shape funneled it into the center crystal spire. The center spire literally attracted the energy bolts from below. Hannibal looked down as they descended. All that was seen was darkness punctuated only by the energy bolts that continually raced up the shaft, briefly lighting up the darkness.

“You might as well relax for a few minutes,” Hannibal told everyone. “This ride is going to take a little while. I suspect this shaft is more than a league to the bottom.” They spread out in the strange elevator. Some leaned against the walls while some sat down. Hannibal remained standing at the window looking out. So did Andrew and Nemesis. Ana finished helping them with her healing ability and approached Hannibal: the only one whom she hadn’t helped. He had insisted on everyone else being helped first. Hannibal’s gashes and burns oozed as he stood there, gritting his teeth in pain. He had taken some serious hits that had penetrated his armor and Ana knew it. She approached silently, meaning to use her healing gift on him when he stated flatly with his back turned to her, “Are you sure you want to do that? Do you have the strength to do it? I don’t want you incapacitating yourself on my account.” She was totally surprised at his response because she was sure that he didn’t see her coming.

“Yes,” Ana answered softly. “I do. Besides, I’m drawing strength from Morpheus’ staff. It’s helping me to heal. I don’t know how but it is. Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to heal everyone to the extent I have. It’s as if the staff is acting as a battery backup for me.”

Hannibal turned to her with pain in his eyes, but also a strange twinkle. He looked odd to Ana with the visor on Grimm’s Mask open, unearthly. The alien nature of Grimm’s Mask had infused Hannibal with a nearly godlike aura, especially when Hannibal had the visor of the Mask open like now. “Is that so?” he asked with intrigue, seeing her reaction to him. “In that case, proceed. But don’t push yourself too far.” When Ana hesitated, he said softly, opening his arms while holding on to the Scepter, “It’s okay, Ana. Don’t let this Mask shake you. I don’t bite, at least not today.” He flashed a warm smile that drove away Ana’s hesitation.

“Thank you,” Ana replied, stepping in and embracing Hannibal while holding on to Morpheus’ staff with her machine hand.

Hannibal groaned as Ana’s peculiar healing ability set his nerves on fire. He could feel the power flowing from her into him from her touch through his armor. The wounds closed up and ceased to bleed. She remained latched on to him like a tick for several minutes, long enough that he became a bit uncomfortable with it. “All right, that’s enough, Ana,” he told her softly, disengaging from the embrace and pushing her back. Immediately, he noticed that she didn’t want to let him go for a moment before she did. “Ana? What are you doing?” he asked when she refused to let him go.

Ana suddenly shook her head like someone snapping out of a trance and backed away with shock and surprise on her face. “I... I don’t know,” she stammered, unsure of what she was even doing.

Hannibal noticed the strange look on her face. It was one of confusion as if she didn’t know what was going on. “What is it?” he asked her more concerned with her confusion than the fact that she had made him uncomfortable by holding on longer than she needed to.

Ana looked him in the eye, very confused and surprised by what had happened. “I don’t rightly know,” she said with some irritation at her confusion. She looked to him for answers as she added, “I latched on to you to do the healing like I always do and everything was going normally up still a few moments ago.”

Hannibal looked at her soberly and asked, “What happened? All I know is there was a point where I became uncomfortable with the way you were latched on to me.”

“I don’t know,” Ana admitted softly, “Something happened. I can’t explain it. It was like all the energy that I was putting out to heal you suddenly reversed and came back to me seven-fold. It was strange. I felt the energy coming out of you and into me. It was very strange and the thing that surprised me was that I liked it and wanted more and more of it. I wanted to soak up all the energy I could from you. I was becoming intoxicated by it when you broke the contact.” She looked at him and shook her head, her confusion still evident. Her heart pounded like a jackhammer as she said, “I can’t explain it. I’ve never had feedback like that before. I...I just didn’t like it, I loved it. With that energy was such love that it surpasses all understanding. Do you understand; I loved it, and wanted more of it. It made every fiber of my being tingle. I wanted it. No, I wanted you.”

At that point, Hannibal stopped her, saying, “Hold on. I think I understand now. No wonder I was becoming uncomfortable. Don’t give in to that dark spirit. Don’t do it. You know where my loyalty stands. I’m not for you.”

Ana was taken aback by the reproof. She stopped and pondered it for a few moments as everyone watched. They had become the center of attention. She suddenly understood and begged forgiveness. “Oh, please forgive me, milord. I don’t know what came over me. These feelings are alien to me. I would never want to cause you or her any grief. Forgive me,” Ana cried, dropping to one knee and bowing her head in shame.

Hannibal smiled warmly, reaching down and lifting her to her feet by her organic arm. “It’s okay,” he said gently, “I forgive you. I understand something triggered these feelings in you, something that wasn’t of you. I know that you love me as a brother, and that is perfectly fine. But when you go beyond that, that’s where it ceases to be okay. Just remember, not everything is as it seems, and not every thought you may have may be your own, especially in this dark place. You seem to forget where you are. We are literally in the heart of darkness. All around us are the dark demon spirits of the Cadre. They can as easily put a thought in your head as you can. I suspect that the thought you were having was a spirit of lust trying to invade you. You must guard your mind and fortify your soul against these foul spirits.”

Ana’s face exploded in understanding as she cried, “Oh! I understand now. That wasn’t me.”

“You catch on quickly,” Hannibal chimed, pleased with her reaction.

“But what about the energy flow? I felt it and loved it,” Ana replied.

Hannibal thought a moment as he looked at her, seeing that she had no wounds at all. He paused at that because she had been just as wounded as everyone else was, with minor cuts and several major gashes in her side and legs. “Did you heal yourself before helping the others?” he asked pointedly. “I know you took some pretty hard hits on your organic parts. When we entered this elevator, you were bleeding almost as much as I was.”

Ana paused, looking at herself in amazement. “What? Gods, how did that happen?” she breathed, “I didn’t heal myself before helping the others. I didn’t think my wounds were all that bad.” She looked at Hannibal in utter astonishment and cried, “You did it. You healed me! That’s why I felt the energy reversal. You have the healing gift like I have!” Everyone gawked, including Hannibal.

“Incredible!” Andrew breathed in awe. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Hannibal’s mouth hung open for a moment, and then snapped shut as he realized that another gift was being awakened in him, and Ana was the reason for it. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know, not for sure anyway,” he replied, humbled by the revelation of a new gift. “Because of my growing elemental power, particularly about the elements that give life, I started suspecting the Almighty may be awakening a Healing Element within me. I’ve always wanted to be a giver of life rather than a slayer and destroyer. Now, it seems the Lord is answering my prayer. The gift of the Healing Element is opening up, thanks to our God and you, Ana. Understand, this is the first time I’ve actually healed in this manner. I don’t even know how I did it. But you have to be right, Ana, because I did feel energy flowing out of me at the end. It felt very similar to what I felt when the Almighty used me to raise Jacob and to restore little Rachel’s hand. I felt like a conduit, channeling energy to you, healing you in a dramatic fashion I’ve never done before. Had I known I had this power before now, I would have used it. It seems I was too dense to see it before now. It took you healing me in the manner you did, Ana, to trigger the gift of the Healing Element.”

“Whoa,” Andrew declared, “So you think our God used Ana to jumpstart your Healing Element, Uncle?”

“It seems so, nephew,” Hannibal stated soberly. “Some time back, Gabriel told me I have gifts, plural, and that they would come into use as I grew with the ones that I already had. Apparently, the Almighty saw I needed to start mastering the Healing Element now, so He used Ana to jumpstart it for me. It’s humbling to know the Almighty wants me to not just be a sword in His hand, but a healer as well. Of all the gifts and abilities given to me, the gift of the Healing Element is the one I’ve always prayed for. It provides a profound way for me to atone for a lifetime of being a destroyer. I pray I can use it to His glory.” He paused as understanding came to him from the Almighty about the incident and the blossoming of his Healing Element. His eyes grew wide and a soft gasp escaped his lips with the revelation. “Ana, you said you felt love with the energy flowing from me?” he asked intently.

“Yes, milord,” Ana answered humbly, stunned that the Almighty had chosen to use her as a tool to open Hannibal’s Healing Element. “It was so warm and filled with such love it touched my cold metal heart. I still yearn for it.”

Hannibal nodded warmly, putting his free arm around Ana. “I’m so happy for you; Ana,” he chimed, “What you felt with the healing energy coming from me was the love of the Almighty. It’s not often that He chooses to touch a soul like that, but He did. He wanted you to feel His love so you’d know He hasn’t abandoned you. He wanted you to know that even in the heart of this abysmal darkness, He can still touch you with His love. It’s His love you want, Ana, not me, and believe me, He wants you to have and embrace His love. He has more than enough love to go around.”

“That’s majorly deep,” Tyr admitted, “I wish our God would touch me like that.”

“All you need to do is open your heart to Him and let Him,” Hannibal stated, looking at Tyr. “By Him showing Ana His love when He had her jumpstart my healing ability, it shows He can literally touch anyone anywhere in this multiverse, even in this hellish pit. Just have faith, my friends. He will not let us down.”

Nemesis had been watching the shaft as the incident unfolded and stated categorically, “This is all well and good, but we should get back on focus. We’re getting closer to the core. The darkness below us is not so dark now.”

“Thanks for the heads-up, Nemesis,” Hannibal replied, “I’m glad someone here is keeping watch.”

“It’s what I do,” Nemesis rumbled stoically. “I do not intend to be caught unawares again like we were when we entered the Archive.”

“Good point,” Hannibal stated, giving Ana a friendly hug. “Ana, if you want the love and joy you felt, all you need is to ask our God. He will give you all the love you could ever want. Our God is good like that. He likes giving His love, and likes it even more when it is responded to in kind. Just chew on that for a little while. But for now, we all need to get back into a proper state of mind for where we are. Our goal approaches, and don’t think that we are going to have an easy go of it. You can be certain that the control room is going to be guarded by the Cadre’s best and most lethal. That goes for the rest of you.”

Ana nodded, saying, “Thank you, my friend. I will indeed ponder your words.”

“Good,” Hannibal said, smiling pleasantly at her as he let her go. Turning to look out the elevator window into the shaft, his cold hardened warrior face returned in an instant. The aura of power and dread returned too, giving him a menacing quality every bit as potent as that of Nemesis. The instantaneous change in Hannibal’s demeanor caused the team members to edge away from him in fear. Seeing and sensing this, Hannibal turned to them, saying in a sober tone, “Calm down and be not afraid, my friends. Don’t let my harden warrior face shake you. I consider every one of you friends and comrades in arms whom I will give my life for if necessary. Abolish any thought that I might turn on you. I’d sooner throw myself into the core of this place than betray you. Like you, I honor the code of the warrior, so when you see such drastic changes in my demeanor like you just saw, don’t worry about it. I have your back. Come; let’s swear an oath to protect each other before we face the ultimate darkness of this place.” Hannibal held out his free hand, declaring, “We are a team. But more than that, we are family; and we will fight for one another to our last breath; I swear it by the most holy Ancient of Days. If I violate this oath, may the Almighty instantly take my life and cast my soul into the Abyss forever.”

Ana stepped up, putting her organic hand on Hannibal’s hand. “I stand with you, brother, until the very end,” she swore. “May the Almighty destroy me utterly if I violate this oath.”

Nemesis placed his hand on Ana and Hannibal’s hands. “To the end, my friends,” he stated. “I pledge on my eternal soul not to betray this team.”

“Me too,” Andrew stated, putting his hand in the circle. “Let’s make the Emperor pay for his crimes against humanity.”

“Same here,” Horace agreed, putting his hand in the circle. “Better to die among friends than to perish alone surrounded by enemies.”

An avian hybrid named Po stepped forward, placing his hand in the circle with the only other hybrid there. “Morpheus taught us to honor our friends and oaths,” Po stated. “We too will uphold this oath with our lives. We swear it by the Ancient of Days.”

Tyr and the remaining Cimmerians put their hands in, swearing the oath to the team. Once they did, one of the Cimmerians said, “I’m glad you allowed us to do this, milord. It sets my mind at peace.”

“It’s quite all right, my barbarian friend,” Hannibal said, smiling soberly. “I admit my moods and countenance can change rather quickly and dramatically. It can be scary thing to behold at times, too. Sometimes it even scares me. Just know that I will always have your back when you’re with me. If the Almighty is very merciful, we’ll all walk out of here.”

“Amen to that,” Andrew chimed. “I hate this place with a passion.”

“Me too,” Hannibal agreed, seeing the darkness of the shaft diminishing rapidly as he looked solemnly out the window again into the void. He also noticed the speed of the elevator increasing too, along with the growing darkness in his mind as the elevator plummeted towards the center of that infernal pit. The thought of the dark terrors that awaited them in the core of Kartoom put him on edge, galvanizing his resolve to put an end to it.

Ten minutes later, the darkness of the shaft below them dissipated as the elevator plummeted like a stone toward the bottom. “You guys might want to take a look at this,” Hannibal suggested urgently. “It’s not often you get to see technology of this level.” Everyone came forward and looked out and down into the shaft. Even at four thousand feet above the bottom, they could see the lake of molten lava swirling around a central spire that peaked just a thousand feet below them. It consisted of a fusion of an unknown metal alloy and crystal with odd metal conduits running over its surface between the crystals. Less than a minute after seeing the spire, they passed its peak as they descended. Everyone except Hannibal gawked at it for he was very familiar with the design. It was a carbon copy of the one in Acheron except that it was much larger. Continuous streamers of raw energy ran from the spire to the walls of the shaft. From there, the energy raced upwards like lightning toward the receiver at the top of the shaft. The energy output was phenomenal. Energy beams thirty feet wide laced and arced up and down between the spire and walls.

“By the Elder Gods,” Tyr breathed in astonishment. “How in the name of the Ancient of Days did the Cadre construct that? It’s beyond comprehension! Surely, the Emperor enlisted some dark god to build this thing!”

“You’re not too far off on that,” Horace stated bluntly. “The core you see here is an alien construct built in the 1st Age. Legends state the original Emperor had the Old Ones help build it.”

“Now there’s an interesting piece of information I didn’t know,” Hannibal admitted, looking at Horace. “Are you sure the Old Ones built it, or was it the Etherians? I know for a fact the Etherians constructed Tiamat and its core long before humanity arrived on this planet. This core is almost a perfect copy of the one in Tiamat, only bigger. It seems to me that Tiamat’s core may have been the master blueprint for all these power plants.”

“I didn’t know Tiamat was an Etherian construct,” Horace admitted. “Its structure was never recorded in our archives, nor who made it. How did you replace that out?”

“It’s recorded in the Tiamat archives,” Hannibal answered. “But I don’t remember exactly where. After all, I stumbled into Tiamat’s Teacher and it nearly fried my brain with that download it gave me. Even though I’ve mastered most of that information, some of it is still dribbling out of my subconscious mind. The tidbit about Tiamat being of Etherian construction is one of those bits that came to me recently.”

“I see,” Horace said with a raised eyebrow. “When and if we survive this present operation, I’d like to hear more about Tiamat. All we knew from the ancient records is that Tiamat was one of the four original planetary engines key to unlocking the Nexus. We had no idea the Etherians were responsible for them.”

“I’d be happy to enlighten you should we survive the next few minutes,” Hannibal declared, “In exchange I’d like to hear what you know about the god-worms. I’m having recurrent dreams about them.”

“Sure,” Horace agreed, “One thing I can tell you now is the god-worms are the true masters of Tartarus, not the Emperor or the Cadre. The Cadre just learned how to stay out of their way.”

“Interesting,” Hannibal murmured as the elevator passed back into solid rock, startling nearly everyone there except for him. He chuckled at their reaction, noticing that the elevator’s descent was slowing. His face hardened significantly as he told everyone, “All right people, this is it; lock and load. Now comes the really hard part.” The team prepared their weapons. Hannibal closed the visor on Grimm’s Mask and drew the Caverias sword so he could use it in tandem with the Scepter. Ana drew her sword to use alongside of Morpheus’ staff. “Be ready, people,” Hannibal warned. “I don’t rightly know where the door will be so be alert. When the door opens, do not be standing in the open. We don’t need a repeat of the Archive elevator.”