The Dark Bible

The nightmare ended and a new day began. The Ruined City was left behind for a new life of adventure and danger, as The Mage and The Girl joined hands with a group of mystic mercenaries.
Meanwhile, a holy artifact is stole from The Church and brings The Mage into conflict with an enemy he cannot face and old embers stir into a raging flame. Will the battles smother them before it becomes an inferno?

This novella-length story is the second in the Arcane Advent series--a chronicle of dark fantasy tales where magick and mages do battle in the current age.
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Excerpt:

Light pierced flesh that went dead, yet it did not bleed. Leidolf clutched the numbed shoulder while standing in front of the child behind him, Aria. The arm felt completely useless and lame, unusable in its current state. As he heard the magical energy woven into an arrow of light hum, he never averted his gaze from the mage ready to fire the second shot from the cyberpunk-themed spellcraft.

The mage was a woman named Luna. She had been assigned to uphold an inquiry into the events that transpired at the behest of her employer. Upon encountering Leidolf, she moved to capture him and unsealed the spellcraft inside her silver chain necklace's archery charm, the Lunadrop Bow. Her second and final warning was issued. "Submit and you will not be harmed further. Any signs of resistance and the next shot will go between your eyes."

Leidolf's fingers tightened into a fist. Who was she, where was she was from, why she attacked him--all those questions meant nothing before the weary runic mage. Questions were meaningless to him in the face of an enemy brandishing a weapon at him while the child was at his back. He moved to kill.

Despite the fact that his body was barely being held together, he drew his blade and lunged at her like a demonic wind was at his back. Luna, true to her word, released the string and the arrow flew to intercept him as it took a violet hue and streaked across empty space. Black steel, illuminated by runes on the blade, knocked away the violet flash and the distance was closed in three rampant heartbeats. He moved to sever her head at the neck in a horizontal motion, only for sparks to fly as the bow itself was used like a shield.

"Foolish," Luna chided him. "You are in no condition to fight. Yield."

"Shut up!" Leidolf attempted to silence her with his foot as the blade slid off the bow, thrusting a sidekick towards her abdomen like a spear. The impact was absorbed as the archer leapt back several meters in an instant.

"Okay, the hard way then..." The sliver pupils of her eyes seemed to drink in the moonlight as they became luminous. Granted sight that was unparalleled through the activation of Artemis Eyes, the bow was raised and muscles tensed as an arrow was reformed and nocked. "You brought this on yourself."

Death was unleashed. A single bolt splintered as it crossed the distance, becoming a barrage of a thousand needles. The black steel and his arms were used to shield Leidolf's head. Arms, legs, chest, stomach--the thorns pierced Leidolf's body and turned him into a literal human pincushion.

The runic mage fell to his knees, his body failing. Even the grip on his blade that kept him upright was slipping. The difference between them was clear, especially considering he was running on fumes from the battle not too long ago.

It was unacceptable to him. He chased power and grabbed it with his own two hands so he wouldn't be powerless. He refused to fall down after coming so far and tried to call forth whatever he had left to kill the person in front of him, no matter the cost...but that dredge of energy was suppressed before it could form.

The arrows forged of magical energy had begun hampering his own, clogging the magick channels that flowed through his body. The moment he was struck by her technique, one that hailed from a school of magick that specialized in energy manipulation, it was over. Ending the futile struggle, a final arrow embedded itself firmly into his skull.

He tumbled to the ground wordlessly, not even a finger twitching as he lay still on the concrete. His best efforts simply weren't enough. He had failed.

Aria screamed as the shock kicked in. It was all she could do. Her hero had been murdered in cold-blood right before her eyes and there wasn't a thing she could do to stop it...just like with her parents.

Forcing her body to move against the fear and desperation, she tried to reach his side...yet she was denied even that as an arrow of light pierced her heart mid-step and her small body fell backward onto the ground....