The hunger of the abyss was calling out to the shadows in his blood. Kaelen watched as Gideon stepped forward while his mechanical joints emitted a high pitched screech that echoed through the dead trees.
"Your shadow is a feast that I have been forced to crave for a lifetime," Gideon said while his solar eyes flared with an unnatural heat.
He raised a metallic arm that was fused with glowing crystal and a beam of white energy sliced through the fog like a hot wire through fat. Kaelen barely tilted his head as the heat singed the ends of his dark hair.
"You are not the man who taught me how to survive the northern winters," Kaelen whispered while his shadow dragon coiled around his feet.
Kaelen felt a sudden and violent surge of the forbidden curse as it reacted to the proximity of its mortal opposite. His skin began to peel back like scorched paper to reveal a void of violet stars beneath the surface.
"I am the perfection of your failures and the light that will bury your darkness forever!" Gideon roared while lunging forward.
The impact of his metallic fist against Kaelen's shadow blade created a blast of sound that flattened every rotted tree within fifty paces. Elian shielded his eyes from the sparks as the two brothers traded blows that defied the laws of physics.
"Master, the curse is eating your memories to fuel the strength you need to win!" the shadow dragon screamed in his mind.
Kaelen felt a fragment of his childhood home vanishing into the black smoke as he parried a strike that would have crushed a stone fortress. He realized that the forbidden power was a greedy merchant that demanded a price for every second of survival.
"Is this the price you paid to become a puppet of the empire?" Kaelen asked while locking blades with the mechanical soldier.
Gideon did not answer but instead opened his chest plate to release a wave of concentrated solar radiation. The light was so intense that the shadows in the forest began to evaporate into thin air.
"The empire gave me a purpose while you only gave me a grave in a nameless valley!" Gideon shrieked with a voice of grinding gears.
Kaelen saw a single tear of golden oil rolling down Gideon's metallic cheek and realized the man was still trapped inside the machine. He reached out with his blackened hand and touched the glowing crystal heart of the mechanical giant.
"Then I will give you the peace that the light has stolen from you," Kaelen promised while closing his eyes.
He poured the entirety of the forbidden curse into the crystal and watched as the purple darkness began to infect the solar core. The light turned into a sickly violet shade before the entire machine began to vibrate with the force of a volcanic eruption.
"Elian, take cover because the abyss is about to claim its due!" Kaelen shouted while the ground began to liquify.
The explosion was silent but it felt like the world had been turned inside out for a split second. Kaelen felt the weight of a thousand souls passing through him as the solar energy was consumed by the shadow.
"You have opened a gate that can never be closed by mortal hands," Elian whispered while looking at the massive crater.
Kaelen stood in the center of the smoking hole and saw that Gideon was gone but a small piece of his old mercenary badge remained in the dust. He picked up the metal bird and felt the cold wind of the dead forest growing even colder.
"We have to move because the scent of this power will attract things that were never meant to walk the earth," Elian warned.
Kaelen looked toward the deep part of the woods where the trees were replaced by stone pillars that reached into the gray clouds. He felt a presence watching them from the canopy that was neither light nor shadow.
"What is wandering in the dead forest besides us and the dead?" Kaelen asked while his shadow dragon hissed.
Elian looked up at the stone pillars and his face turned the color of dry bone. He grabbed Kaelen's arm and pointed toward a figure that was standing on top of the tallest pillar.
"That is the one who keeps the keys to the library of whispers," Elian replied with a trembling voice.
Kaelen saw the figure leap from the pillar and land in the middle of the fog without making a single sound. It was a woman with skin as white as snow and hair that flowed like a river of blood.
Wandering in the dead forest was the only way to reach the truth.