In a world where power awakens from the depths of despair, Cyrus Drachenstein finds himself thrust into a deadly game, hunted by forces beyond imagination.
Everyone has a spark inside of them. A small bit of magic that is born the day you are brought into this world. It could grant you untold powers if you learnt how to harness it. It could let you create things out of nothing or enhance your own physical abilities. Some people could use a fraction of it. Some could not use any of it. And some could use all of it. It all depended on you.
In a remarkably rare case, a spark could become a raging inferno that consumes everything in its path, leaving only ashes and smoulders in its wake. This was called a spark eruption. That was what happened to me. I was young; my life was not the best nor the grandest. It was always far from easy, but I was surviving just fine. Skirted along with not much troubles in my way.
I had met a girl who made my life wonderful. We had good times; we had bad times—really bad times. Yet, somehow, despite our differences, we got through it. We generally always made it through the storms that came our way. We always managed to find a way to make it work. I believed we were happy. I thought we would have made it to the end, seen it all the way through. I was mistaken—so horribly mistaken.
Then, one day out of nowhere, it happened—she left. I was blindsided, and too focused on other problems that sprung up. I felt powerless to get her back. I could do nothing to get her to stay. I looked back on our time together and could see where things went wrong. I tried to pull her back, yet she continued to drift away. She floated away like a ship unmoored with me fruitlessly pulling on a rope to get it back.
I was broken, damaged and destroyed. My own weakness was too much for me to bear. I went to a clearing where I had come for years to collect my thoughts, but today my intentions were different. I was prepared to end my life, to end all the suffering and pain that I held inside myself.
As I was about to take my own life, I faltered and fell to my knees. I reached for the wolf necklace that had hung around my neck since the day she gave it to me. The image of her appeared in my mind, shaking my resolve. My eyes became a waterfall of tears. I screamed out my pain, grasping the necklace tightly. My emotions bursting out. It was in that instant, my spark erupted causing an enormous pillar of spiralling flames to surround me. Suddenly, I was not alone in that field.
“Oh, how easy it is for you, humans, to be consumed by your emotions,” he said in a booming voice with a smug tone.
I looked up, before my eyes stood a large hulking demon. His skin was a red so scarlet that he almost glowed. Muscles bulging at sizes that no mere mortal could compete with. Cloven hooves for his legs that almost seemed impractical for his upper body. A jaw so squared; you could cut iron on it. Two pitch black horns jutted out from his balding head and curved backwards to the part where he had a small black pony tail. His eyes were red with black sclera and held a sinister twinkle that said he was up to no good.
He looked at me with sheer intrigue and amusement, then started pacing around me slowly. As if inspecting me for flaws or surprises.
“I like you, mortal,” he finally spoke after he took his lap in the circle of flames that we were in.
He pointed to his long-nailed finger to the sky, “See that?”
I strained my neck to look up and saw how high the flames had erupted into the sky and still burning.
“There aren’t many mortals that sparks erupt in this way,” he stated, “even fewer that can master it.”
My eyes widened in surprise; I could hardly believe them. The sight was terrifying to behold. The tower of flames shot unbelievably high into the night sky that I could no longer see the stars. The heat was intense as I felt the sweat start running down my face and torso. This was the power of an erupted spark. This was a spark’s power in its purest forms. Unleashed and unrestrained.
“You hold some frightening power there, mortal,” he said, clearly impressed.
I heard a sword jabbed into the ground, right in front of me. I glanced down at it slowly.
“That’s yours now. Call it a gift and show me what you can do,” he said as he turned around to leave through the flames.
I was in a daze. This was happening all too fast. All too quickly for me to even begin to understand what was going on.
“Oh, one last thing. I’m Balthazeer, and you are?” he asked.
“Cyrus Drachenstein,” I replied with my mouth dry.
“Good luck.” He smirked evilly and vanished through the flames.
I struggled to get to my feet. The world felt as if it was spinning around me. Once I steadied myself, the fire tower had ebbed away. Taking in my surroundings, I saw that I was still in the clearing. I glanced down to see a charred circle around me with a sword in the ground.
I yanked it out. The hilt wrapped in the softest leather I had ever felt and ended in a small spade like shape. There was a red stylised heart glowing quietly surrounded by a black steel ring, held there by four black spikes piercing the ring and heart. The blade was polished black, it had a grey diamond shape tip. Running down the middle from the diamond was a grey line that spilled off five times to add a slight serration to the blade.
The weapon gave off a wrathful air, yet at the same time, I could feel it held a pain like no other. It gave off a sadness that no one else could possibly see. It called to me, pulling me in. There was a sensation that felt like the sword was trying to get into my mind. This weapon was meant for me. It felt right, perfect in my hands. It began to shine and transformed into a bracelet around my wrist. A black chain that had the heart with the ring and spikes dangling from it, but smaller now.
Shouting rang out behind me from the trees that surrounded the edge of the clearing. People from the nearby town were coming to investigate the scene I had caused. Not wanting to get seen I ran off into the woods to hide them out.
Fallen Angel of Fire by S. C. Goodwill is available to pre-order now in paperback.
