Chapter 7

Varzoth opened his eyes to see nobody standing around him, and only him holding his sword. He pulled it out, and examined it. It seemed normal. He felt strong in a way, was that it? What happens now? Out of the fog a large orb appeared in front of Varzoth, it stayed there for about three seconds before two others joined it. Then one more joined those, the ones that showed up after the first were all a bit smaller than the first. The first orb approached Varzoth, he stepped back. It kept coming, but when it did it felt calming in a way. It went straight into his chest, and vanished. He patted down his chest to see what had just happened, but shook his head and grabbed his sword.

“Alright sword, what do I do now?” There was no response and Varzoth, for some reason, felt bad about it. He looked to the entrance of the mining facility, then remembered all of the people trapped here. He looked through the fog, and saw a bunch of cages. “I know what I have to do.” He tightened his fist into a ball, and grew. When you think of growing you think over time. No, he grew into a ten foot tall giant. Like the emperor. He looked at his hands, and smiled. He ran to the cages, waking almost every one of them up. Once he got there, they cowered. Varzoth didn’t expect that, “No, I am not the emperor.” His voice was deeper, and he felt powerful. He bowed to them, “I am Varzoth Soulrender, keeper of the forge, wielder of the sword of flame, and piecekeeper of all children of Romania.” They looked at him, and he slowly released all of them by pulling on the cage locks just a little. Everyone walked out of the mine, and Varzoth told them where to go. He led them to the entrance and saw Lilith, Malakath, Selene, and Zaroth there.

Lilith gasped, “Who are you?”

Varzoth laughed, “I’d thought you’d recognize me.” They all looked at him, he sighed. “It would probably be better if I did this.” Varzoth shrunk back into his normal demon form, and realized his sword grew and shrunk with him.

Lilith's mouth hung open, “What just happened?”

“I did it, I released the souls of the guardians. One went into me and made me able to do that.” He smiled, “I kind of liked it.”

Selene gasped, “That’s what those were!? Can I do that?”

Varzoth turned to her, “They went into you too?”

Lilith smiled, “They went into all of us.” Varzoth was at a loss for words, all of his friends old and new were guardians of the forge? This was going to be awesome.

Varzoth and Lilith led them all back to the village. It was a few weeks' journey but all of them stayed together in time to arrive. When the villagers saw Varzoth in his new form, some bowed their heads. He smiled then ignored it, he didn’t want to be like the emperor. He knew he’d avoid it. Whatever journey he went on though, he thought it led to just that.