Chapter 8

The Zanatos Saga

Chapter 8 – The Dark Citadel


The halls were dark and dusty, lit only by the gloomy flames of torches, which lined the several stone columns in the vast hall. Leon stepped about cautiously on the marble floor as who knows what traps saturated this place…
As he took a step forward, the floor tile slowly began to sink down. Leon heard a click to the left of him and swerved his head in that direction. With tremendous speed, he jumped high up into the air and clasped onto a rocky outcrop as he watched the arrows fly past him below. Leon had avoided one trap, for now.
Dropping down to the floor, Leon delved further into the citadel, weaving his way through its dark corridors whilst searching for the staircase that would lead him to the throne room at the top of the structure. Suddenly, Leon stopped and turned to face a large painting on the wall. It was of a large figure, demon like but with the emotion of a human. It was of his father, yet it had been slashed to ribbons by Raziel’s Sword out of his hatred for the family. Leon smashed a stone structure with his fist out of anger for his brother. “No one should see you like this father” Leon said, as he draped the curtains over the painting, out of respect of his bloodline.

As Leon swerved around, he unsheathed his sword and blocked the axe that was flying towards his head. At its handle were two great big hands belonging to a huge troll. Leon sidestepped and ducked to avoid the axe swing as he did a side cartwheel and sliced at the legs of the beast, making it fall to the floor. The marble tiles began to crack and cave in. Leon jumped into the air and grabbed the chandelier above him as the floor collapsed below, engulfing the troll and taking it down below. Jumping from the chandelier to the staircase at the side. Leon ascended to the next floor of the citadel.

Inside the throne room, Elizabetha stood inside a dried up fountain, chained to the structure. As she awoke, she saw Raziel stood across the room assembling the shards together into the giant crystal. She shouted out to him “Your plan will never work you know!” He turned around smirking “And why do you think that little princess?” he spoke as he walked towards the fountain. “Leon will come for me,” She shouted out at him. Raziel gave a chuckle of amusement as he stepped closer to the fountain “You really think so? I’m…. COUNTING ON IT!” He shouted as he slammed his fist into the fountain next to her face. “You will die…He will die…everyone will die, and then this world will be mine to control, and if you think Leon can stop me, you have a vivid imagination as he couldn’t even beat me when we were children together. However, if you cooperate, I could find a little place for you at my side as I rule the world” At this remark, Elizabetha spat in his face in disgust. Raziel smirked as he wiped his face and with a quick flick on his wrist, he slapped Elizabetha across the cheek and knocked her out cold.

A door flew off its hinges as Leon barged through it into the next corridor of the Citadel. He glanced about as he thought where to go next; every corridor seemed to lead off to a dead end. Leon sat down in a chair and crossed his legs as he pondered on what he was going to do. “This is insane” Leon thought to himself, and then he saw the visage of a lion’s head engraved onto a stone in the wall. “Odd…I wonder…the hilt on the sword of Raziel is of a Lion…could it be?” Leon stepped up and ran his fingers over the image. It began to glow with a red light as the entire wall vibrated and slowly moved to the side. A staircase leading upwards was revealed as Leon smirked as he ran up the staircase. This led him to a long corridor that was lit by several flaming torches along its walls. Leon darted down the passageway until he reached a double iron door with the visage of a Lion. The metal work was also stained with blood. “This has to be it” Leon thought to himself “But there is no handle, no keyhole, yet the door is locked. You finally get somewhere then you get suck back at square one…” Leon tracked back along the corridor to look for a switch of some kind that would open the door. In a corner he found another stone with the same image of a lion he saw earlier. He reached down and pushed the stone in, and then looked towards the door, it had opened. Leon charged into the throne room where he saw Raziel working over the crystal and Elizabetha chained to the fountain. “Ah Leon, you made it, much quicker than I expected to be honest but you are still too late. The crystal is ready and you shall see first hand my transformation into the ultimate demon!” Raziel turned his back to Leon and walked away as 3 goblins charged towards Leon. He drew his sword and cut each of them in turn as they fell dead to the floor.
Raziel turned back he scowled at Leon “Very well then Leon, if that’s how you want it, prepare yourself as you are about to die…”

Copyright 2006