War of DrekisChapter 11:The Finale Upon the Red Snow-----The cold winds seemed to pick up speed and increase their fury as the two armies came closer. The cries of the demons in the Drekis hordes seemed to wane against the overwhelming boom of metal legs smashing into the snow; androids of various shapes and sizes stormed ahead, feeling no exhaustion, knowing no pain or fear. -----Even as Deminite Wolves moved in and extended their aura of fear upon the land, the androids came forward without a flinch, raising their weapons and releasing a synthesized battle cry. Oddly enough, the lack of fear in the emotionless machines inspired the living soldiers to display a similar resilience to the fear effect; their courage growing alongside their confidence as the battle began to look far from hopeless now. -----By the time Jon Avalon’s army reached Uberman’s defense forces, the tireless androids had already ran past the tarnished vehicles and formed an impenetrable barricade of moving metal. Their rifles were readied, and barrages of plasma fire cut through the deminites as they came. The beams lit up the arena with such intensity that trails of snow melted down as the beams past overhead. -----The deminites and reptillions attacked them with claw and sword, but found their baser weapons useless against the armored exterior of their new opponents. The androids even proved to be equally effective in close combat, crushing heads left and right with punches far beyond human capacity. -----Not willing to be outdone, the remaining vehicles that, moments before, had been running away from their enemies now made a full turn and took a stand. As the androids marched ahead, the vehicles released cannon fire and blazing missiles over their heads, cutting large open spaces into the otherwise dense cloud of the Drekis army. The doors on the sides of the military transports hissed as they flung open, and from the mist and steam that was released came soldiers who were all too eager to see things to the end…to set things right. -----Tim looked down from the hill tops, clenching his fists around his glowing sword, trying to ease the tension, the apprehension his body was producing. The freezing cold no longer bothered his senses, but it was not because of the new protective armor suit he was wearing; fear and anger were mixing into a volatile liquid inside him, producing an intensity that begged for so much attention that everything else to him was irrelevant. All he could see were the deminites and the reptillions, the frontlines of the Drekis army that wailed and kicked as the robots pushed their way through. For all of their bestial appearance, the creatures seemed to regroup quickly, refusing to display the same fear Tim felt now. It almost amazed him, gave him a sickening respect for their ferocity had it not been for the anger that forced him to hate them, to look at them as if they were not living things; inanimate objects to be slaughtered. -----His anger intensified when the regrouped army backed up, still taking hits from the robot plasma rifles, and began bombarding their mechanical enemies with flame bolts. Now the machines were taking casualties. Casualties! Yes, Tim gave the robots more credit for life than he did the Drekis minions. That was the extent of his hatred, and as the reptillions, now rendered useless, scurried away to forge a path for the Devonox brutes to take their place, he felt the need to come down from the hill like an avalanche and bring his blade down upon any one of them. -----Strange, then, that when no other sense reached him, he was awakened by the touch of Raea’s hand, her gentle touch as he forced one of his hands away from the hilt of his sword and clenched it. She was still with him, right here on the top of the hill; how was it he had forgotten such a thing? Only then did he realize that he had almost lost himself, just like he had back at the MidGate in New Xaelis. But Raea had saved him; she had pulled him out somehow, away from that feeling of being lost in a torrent of emotions. -----The fear and apprehension, he then believed, were perhaps the creations of his conscience which was all too aware that he might fall into that state again. He shook his head and cleared his thoughts. There was no need to feel that way…to think that way. Raea was here with him, he just had to remember that, and never let him forget it the way he had before; she would save him, the way she always did. -----Her grip tightened, and she smiled as if to say that their dependency was mutual; that they would make it out by being together. -----“Whatever happens, we stick by each other’s side,” she said, her eyes staring at the battle below. -----Tim nodded, “Yeah, and as long as you’re here, I can do this…please don’t worry about me.” -----Tiara was still behind them, and she placed her hand on Tim’s shoulder to reassure him. “The important thing for you to do, so that you don’t repeat what happened back in the city,” she said, “is to believe in yourself. Just remember that a lot of people, some that you haven’t even met, seem to believe in you already.” -----“Thank you Tiara,” Tim replied. Nothing else needed to be said. -----Tiara lifted herself into the air, taking a moment to indulge in the feeling of the cold winds passing over her soft skin. She opened her eyes, taking in the carnage far in front of her, and stretched her arms out wide. The wind itself seemed to mimic her, stretching out and pulling snow and hail to the sides. Within moments there was no more wind surrounding the Khazan army. The blizzard itself had been picked up and tossed aside, but not the violent storm was beginning to move again, only this time it directed itself onto the Drekis army. -----The apprentice of the Powers waved her hand and motioned her fingers like a musician guiding an orchestra, and the weather of the Frozen Wastes was her music. It separated and broke off into pockets, forming smaller storms that each spread out into the Drekis army. They moved and writhed like living beings, freely smashing into deminites and devonoxes while the robots appeared unaffected by the trepidation. -----Tim and Raea both charged forward, their hands separated but remaining perfectly in synch with each other’s steps; staying side by side. Despite the great size of the hills Tim was incapable of perceiving much of the time that it took to move past the vehicles that had been set up into a defensive perimeter. They joined with the ranks of many soldiers, all of whom applauded their arrival and then quickly returned their attention to the battle with an encouraging vigorousness. -----The soldiers quickly took up rank behind the robots, firing their weapons over their shoulders and tossing explosives far into the horde of Drekis fiends. They were all willing to take the risk of being killed in the frontline, but in all honesty the Drekis minions were too preoccupied concentrating their efforts on the robots to attack them. -----The vehicles began to join the combat, arching their cannons up and firing into the horizon to stop the endless flow from approaching. -----The bulbous deminite gunners, hunched over in the very last lines of the army, returned the favor, spewing blasts from the biological cannons that extended from their backs. Their shots flew in and bombarded the arena, just as they had bombarded Sevarian City, but the vehicles withstood the first barrage. -----Now the smaller machines began to play their part. Small robots, the size of footballs and almost indistinguishable amidst the chaos, flew in so fast that Tim and Raea barely noticed their passing. They hovered above the ground only slightly, but darted forward like insects weaving in-between enemy legs with admirable precision. The deminites and devonoxes were too busy dealing with the enemy to notice the small machines flying to the back of their army, and before long the mechanical bugs had arrived at the horizon of the horde, face to face with the deminite gunners. Before any reaction could occur, the robots self-detonated, releasing the full fury of the quantum explosives they carried within their compartments. -----Tim could barely see the explosions individually, for they were so small, but there were so many that the horizon was filled with flashing lights that flickered like fireflies. But Tim didn’t need to see to understand what they had accomplished; the enemy bombardments had stopped. Uberman’s Decision -----“Do you really feel the need to go out there?” Scout asked as Uberman opened the hatch door. “It may not be necessary now.” -----“The tide doesn’t turn that easily,” Uberman replied, “this has done a lot to help us, but Avalon has yet to respond. I can’t be sure of a victory, or even of our survival unless I’m out there. I’m not a normal soldier Scout, you know that. I have a responsibility as the leader of the SLJ, so I’m going out there to fight for my people.” -----Scout nodded. Indeed, he did know this as well as anyone. “If I may make any suggestions, I’d help the Mecha-nized divisions in the air. The enemy’s new aerial weapon seems to be giving them some trouble still.” -----“I will,” Uberman said, turning to exit the transport. “In the meantime, please have all of our troops gather at the front behind the robots. The vehicles will remain behind them for long ranged support fire. With the deminite gunners gone, we have an advantage now.” -----“Do you think it’s wise to concentrate our forces only on the front?” Scout asked, hoping to get his attention before he took off. -----“Leave forces protecting the left side!” Uberman yelled back, the sound of the outside combat beginning to overpower his voice. “The enemy won’t attack from the right, they’d have to move around those hills there before they get around, and the fortress is the only thing behind us!” -----“Very well then. Good luck to you sir!” Scout saluted him in traditional military style, but a gleam on Uberman’s back caught his attention, something that was different about his mechanized armor. It was a small detail, but something in his instinct told him that it was wrong, that it didn’t fit with the rest of the suit. -----One of Uberman’s feet was outside the door when he called out, but the SLJ leader grabbed hold of the sides of the exit and pulled himself back in. A look of worry was in his eyes; as if Scout was going to suddenly report that something horrible had just happened. -----“Turn around sir, I…it’s hard to explain but something seemed to stand out on your suit.” He motioned his hand for him to turn around and Uberman complied. -----“Are you certain? Where is it?” -----Scout looked closely at the back of the right shoulder, where the armor plating was still polished and smooth, having escaped the damages of battle. It was very small, and its color matched that particular plate of armor perfectly, but a keen eye could see that it was crystalline and not mechanical. He placed his fingers on it and pulled. It was not wedged into the plating, yet it simply stayed on as if held by an adhesive. Nonetheless, it didn’t take much effort for Scout to remove the object. Uberman turned and looked at the small crystal Scout was holding. It was a small piece of jewelry, a red crystal that he had never seen before. -----“Any idea how this could have been on your suit?” Scout asked. -----“I have no idea, I…I don’t know anyone that I was in contact with today that…but…” -----“What is it? If you think you know something, even think it, tell me.” -----“That woman…the young one we brought on board earlier, the survivor from the city! I think that this kind of jewel was inside her earrings.” -----“Why would she place one of them on your back?” -----“You think she did it on purpose?” Uberman wondered. “Then again, perhaps…but why would she…” -----“Where is she right now?” Scout inquired. -----“On the civilian vehicles that departed from us a long time ago. They’re heading for the Great Wall of Carnage right now. Do you really think that woman could be with them?” -----Scout seemed uncertain, but there was a look of suspicion in his eyes. “I remember her now, and yes, she was very human looking, a pretty young girl in fact. But what if they were capable of producing such a deception? Look at their General, Jon Avalon, he looks virtually human, nothing like those beasts he commands. What if there are more than just those generals, that look human I mean? We don’t know if they do…” -----“And that would make them the perfect spies,” Uberman finished his thought. “So right from the start, back at MidGate when I saw her running through the streets. I thought nothing of it, my heroic instincts told me that she was one of the last survivors and that I should help her. I never imagined that she could be one of them.” -----“This thing could be magical,” Scout said, “I’ve seen plenty of things like this before, but it’s well beyond my understanding. I’m just a military man, magic and enchantments aren’t my specialty. So I can’t be certain if my suspicions are correct.’ -----‘However,” he threw small jewel down upon the cold metal floor and crushed it beneath his boot, “I’m not going to take any chances. We can contact those transports later and tell them to run an investigation, see if they can look up birth records of that woman, just so we’ll know.” -----Uberman nodded in approval. He took one more glance at the cracked gem pieces on the floor before flying out of the vehicle. The open hatch was quickly closed by the soldiers as soon as he left. Discovered -----The jewel on her left ear cracked a little, then broke suddenly and dropped to the floor. No one else on the civilian transport seemed to notice as she sat their quietly, showing no indication of any change. -----Maria waited almost ten minutes before she looked at the fragments, now scattered on a cold metal floor like its sister likely was now. It was such a pity that the thing had been discovered, but then again it was only a matter of time before someone had noticed it. In reality she had been getting rather bored and had longed for the discovery to have been made, though she had also desired to hide her identity for a while longer; perhaps parade through Khazan city and enjoy a wild night out on the town, engage in its many vices and pleasures, maybe even spend her evenings with drunk men, all of whom would see her as just another lovely lady for company. How could they ever imagine that days later she could come back to kill them? Those thoughts entertained her for a while, even brought her an almost sensual pleasure, though it was the product of her baser instincts and she shook it off with disgust. -----The jewel may have been shattered, but she had heard enough to be useful one last time, and nothing material in this world could be broken to shatter the connection that she and her pet Gellan had. She had done her job well enough, and soon it would be time to drop the charade and return to Drekis. Now it was Avalon’s turn to work his wonders. The Flame of Saramach -----There were more deminites in the halls than could be counted, and yet minions of every kind scattered as the individual approached. The cloaked figure continued his advance deeper into the caves; his gaze, invisible behind the darkness of the hood, was apparently fixed on the open spawning grounds. Somehow the intruder knew exactly where he was going. He gave no indication of being in awe of the great craftsmanship and power which had transformed this section of the Endless Caves into a formidable lair, nor did he show any sign of fear despite the number of ferocious beasts that surrounded him. -----The stranger carried with him a torch, and its light seemed to fill the largest chambers; a giant sphere of luminescence that traveled alongside him. The minions followed him just like this sphere, their distance never shrinking or expanding. It was not fear, strangely enough, that stopped them from attacking this individual, but a sense…the result of something emanating from the intruder that spoke directly to the mind, saying: You do not have to attack me, I mean you no harm. -----In this manner he traveled unimpeded through the spacious hive, this time taking note of the numerous minions who were spawning from the bubbling liquid and the slime on the walls. He traveled onward, his destination now clearly being Drekahnis Khazan, the fortress where Drekis himself resided. -----The ruckus had caught the attention of Relinqiest, though he chose to wait by the doors to Drekis’ chamber before confronting the individual. When he finally came the cloaked figure paid him no more attention then he gave to the lesser minions, and at once Relinqiest was prepared to strike him down for his insolence, but again that creeping thought came about, that he shouldn’t strike this man down. -----By the time Relinqiest could question this feeling; the man had casually opened the door and entered the chamber. Drekis was already standing, staring at the cloaked man while he himself was concealed in the endearing darkness that hovered around his figure. -----“This is an outrage!” Relinqiest shouted, walking behind the stranger and attempting to peer through the disguise and identify the loathsome intruder. Apparently the strange sense didn’t prevent him from voicing his displeasure with the man, so the general was happy to continue, “Who dares to walk into our lair and intrude on our master’s land!? Such blasphemy, such insolence! This cannot be tolerated…” -----“I wish to speak with Drekis,” the man said, his voice was calm, with no signs of agitation. -----“Do you now,” Relinqiest said, “that much was apparent ever since you started for this fortress, but the fact remains that you don’t come to speak to Drekis, he calls you to speak to him, and I have heard nothing of…” -----Drekis held his hand up, and though Relinqiest had been staring intently at the stranger he took notice of this immediately and held his tongue. -----“You have responded adequately enough,” Drekis said to his general. “But I shall make an exception in this case.” -----“But my lord,” Relinqiest turned as he spoke, a look of surprise upon his face, “Is this not wise? To let an intruder so casually walk amongst us like this, and he could have been sent here by the Khazanians to mean us harm…” -----“What threat does any one man pose to me!?” Drekis boomed in response. -----Relinqiest looked into his master’s eyes and could see that he had insulted him unintentionally. He bowed and asked for forgiveness and stepped back to allow the stranger to take the spot light. -----Drekis moved his right arm to his face and clutched his pointed fingers around his chin, as if resting his head upon his hand. “You’re quite the mysterious individual, aren’t you stranger? But I’m afraid I don’t take too kindly to mystery in my lair, especially from unexpected guests.” A single finger left his chin and pointed in the direction of the cloaked individual. The hood lifted and flew back as if of its own volition, and the light of torch he carried now illuminated his face. -----Half of the face looked perfectly normal, with the features of a human male, brown hair and eyes like aquamarine. His skin was white, though slightly red as if sunburned, and hair had grown to cover most of his ear and expand down to his cheek. The left half of his face, however, was a much different sight to behold. It was an emaciated thing, almost like a skeleton, save that it was covered here and there with pieces of dangling flesh and colored by dried blood. His other eye twirled around loosely in the skeletal socket, the iris moving from one direction to the next, never quite focusing on any one thing like his other eye. On the cheek of this skeletal half there was a small crack bordered by the dried blood, and from within it something pulsed, causing a blood red bubble to expand from the crevice and then return, in and out like the throat of a frog, as if something was hidden inside of his face that was struggling to escape but lacked the power to do so. -----Drekis was unmoved by the sickening sight, having seen too many things that a normal human would call disturbing to ever be surprised by what he encountered in this bizarre universe. “So then, why have you come here to speak with me, that you would risk your very life to walk down the halls of my lair so casually?” -----“My lord,” the creature began, “I am Ashvaraad, the Flame of Saramach, and I have come here with a message.” -----Drekis looked upon the torch he carried. It was simple enough, but those were magical flames that danced upon the ordinary stick. “Flame of Saramach you say?” -----“Yes, great lord Drekis! I am the Torch bearer, the messenger, the ambassador.” -----Relinqiest interrupted, now in awe of the visitor, “Of Saramach he says. So then my first thoughts are confirmed, he is of the living dead! Why I had heard that such products of necromancy existed in large numbers upon Khazan, but I could find next to nothing of details concerning them!” -----“Yes, we know little other than a name Ashvaraad,” Drekis hissed, causing Relinqiest to shrink back into the darkness. “Quickly give me the message, before I grow tired of your presence and reunite your spirit with the status of its body.” -----Ashvaraad held out his other hand and turned his palm towards the ceiling. A light appeared above his hand and formed into what appeared to be a scroll, yet even in that form it held the texture and look of energy; a phantom in the guise of paper and writing.. -----Runes appeared on the phantom scroll, each one appearing as if it had been freshly burned into the scroll. Without hesitation Ashvaraad read: -----“This letter comes to you now from my lord Saramach, who says to you, great lord Drekis, that a grand time has come, and that visions of the future have been clouded with a darkness that beckons for an unholy union. Truly this is what the mortals call providence, in a twisted way perhaps, for you should know that we are the children of Selegon, and from the moment your presence was known on Khazan I have felt the connection between your Empire and mine.” -----“Selegon he says!?” Relinqiest broke in. -----“Interesting,” Drekis replied, his eyes narrowing. “So the undead of this Saramach Empire was the result of my old Master.” -----“Your master my lord?” Relinqiest said, unaware that someone such as Drekis could ever serve another. -----“He was the Lord of Chaos, who bestowed upon me the title of Avatar, though he is of no concern anymore in the grand scope of things. He is gone, and his essence now mine, but if it was his power that made your kind, Ashvaraad, then indeed a connection exists.” -----“It further reads,” Ashvaraad continued, “We, the undead legions of Saramach, were birthed in an age long forgotten, when Selegon came to Khazan and waged his war in a time before society! We were of the first born races, and we fell into what others deemed corruption when we sided with Selegon in the Khazan war. For our punishment, the Powers struck us down and destroyed any chance of forming a civilization; forcing us to remain primitives while the Elves and other firstborns prospered. We rose up against the Powers in dispute, and in return were destroyed, but Selegon brought us back again, restoring our vengeful spirits in the form of the living dead. But sadly, we were insects compared to the Powers and Selegon. We could only watch as those two heavenly energies collided. When the second moon of Khazan was shattered, and its pieces landed in the ocean forming the continent of Denes’Takai, we moved to that land and formed our empire, but we could do nothing but remain underground when Selegon was cast away from Khazan by the Powers that Be.’ -----‘We were an exiled blight upon the land, and we developed a hatred for the Khazan people. We raised hell in what was called the First Age of Conflict, but have since been greatly reduced. We are no longer a threat to this world; alone that is. That is why I call this providence! It is surely a sign that Selegon’s work will here be completed! We stand ready to join you, to assist you in your purpose here. Our legions have already prepared for battle, and ships have departed for Cretalia! I trust that you shall have no problems with our assistance, but I await your response with great patience my lord.” -----The phantom scroll fizzled out, and the Flame of Saramach awaited Drekis’ response. -----“So, the fruits of my old master’s labor,” Drekis said. “This was rather unexpected, though it could prove useful. The Undead legions, they could make a formidable weapon out of numbers alone; though they may not be a threat to this world now, with my guidance behind their power, they could prove to be very promising.” -----“Then your answer is yes, my lord?” Ashvaraad asked eagerly. -----“I do not think that help from anyone is necessary,” Drekis replied, “But since the Saramach Empire is distantly related to my Chaos Legions, I would welcome it. If nothing else, it shall serve as a means to destroy any hope the Khazanian’s have left. But be aware that this is not what you would call an alliance. This is an amalgamation! The Saramach Empire will cease to exist, and become a part of me! If this is suitable to your master, then bring your legions here, and we shall storm Khazan City as one. If not, then we shall do as I have said by force.” -----Ashvaraad smiled. “My master told me that such would be the way. He has said that the Saramach Empire is yours, my lord. In any other way it is a dead power, no pun intended.” -----“Very well then, leave and tell your master of this, I must prepare for other things,” Drekis said. -----“Of course,” Ashvaraad politely responded and turned to leave, covering his face with his hood again. “When next a member of our legions speaks with you, it will be a man of great importance, the being Atragon who has spent so many millennia with us on the Continent of Darkness. My master trusts that he will be of great use to you.” Avalon’s Persistence -----Regulus Morikai hated the cold, but he entered the Frozen Wastes upon order and held his arms up to block the flying snow from striking his face. He found these conditions to be detestable, but it was the command of Jon Avalon that demanded he come, and the order of a general was not something to be contested, even by a commander such as himself. Regulus did not blame Avalon for any of these inconveniences; rather, he fixed his hatred solely on the Khazanians who, in their undying persistence, had forced them to chase the Khazan army through wind, rain, and snow. -----Regulus had not expected the battle to become so complicated, and it was because of that poor presumption that his small regiment arrived late to the final battle. He had still been recovering from the Khazanian attack at the village that he had occupied for a short time. Originally, he had figured on leaving the village once the distraction had succeeded and would then rendezvous with Avalon’s main force in New Xaelis. However, by the time his regiment arrived, he found that most of Avalon’s forces had moved North-West in pursuit of retreating Khazanians. -----He had contemplated staying in the ruins of New Xaelis and simply overseeing the production of the new hive fortress, all the time knowing that Avalon had his own kind of persistence, a predator instinct which would aptly counter the prey’s will to survive. Unfortunately, those words still echoed in his head, the sound of Avalon’s voice saying so softly, as if whispering: When you are finished, return to me. -----And so he had, but to a sight that he had not quite expected. The defense forces were not running, but fighting back with such intensity that they were actually driving the frontlines of their deminite hordes away. It was a disgrace to be sure, but as his regiment joined with the minions still pouring over the horizon, he realized that this battle had just recently begun and that they still had the resources to insure a victory. -----As he walked through the snow he noticed how peculiar it was that the weather seemed to be on the Khazanian’s side. The blizzard went against its own nature, circling around the Drekis army while conveniently avoiding Uberman’s defense forces. This only made him hate the Khazanians even more, though he lacked the imagination to think of how such a defiance of natural law could be achieved. He had, in his time with the Drekis Empire, seen only so many planets with his own eyes, and in that same time the most impossible things he had ever witnessed were the machinations of Chaos magic, the likes of which Drekis himself produced. Obviously, though, there were other magics out there; powers he had not witnessed that could be wielded by those who did not belong to their legion. -----Regulus had just begun to ask a question that, oddly enough, he had never stopped to ponder before: Why had Drekis come here of all places, to a world where its people fought back with such determination, but he lost his train of thought as a new figure had appeared before him. -----A lesser minion? No, and it had not merely walked in front of his path either, but materialized out of nothingness, the kind of shady entrance the phantom sorcerers were known for, but this was no phantom. His dark robes were too extravagant and full of royal markings and designs, while through his small cloak he could just barely make out the sickly gray color of his skin. -----“Morlos Gao, what is a pest like you doing here?” Regulus demanded, none too happy to meet with the spy. “I was under the impression that you had received duty to spy on the Marauders? Or could you not even do that correctly?” -----Morlos made no attempt to snap back or excuse his errors, though Regulus would have liked to have seen the shape of his mouth when the comment had first struck him. -----“There is no longer any need for me to spy on the Marauders,” Morlos said plainly. “And in any case, it would not have been long before my identity would have been discovered. Toc had always been suspicious of me, and that would have only increased after the Zel’Myas incident. So here I am, and so discontented to find that you are not pleased to see me…” -----“Hmph, you were not called upon by Avalon to take part in this battle! If your job is over you could return to the hive fortress for further instructions…but instead you come here…why?” -----Morlos noted that Regulus’ anger had degraded into some kind of peculiar curiosity. “What kind of person do you take me for Regulus? Surely you must know that some of us are willing to give our all for our master’s sake, do you not? Unlike some people who only follow up on what they’re told and nothing more.” -----Regulus frowned, knowing that he could go nowhere in a conversation with such a character. “Leave me to my own priorities, and I’ll gladly leave you to yours, but you were not called here and you will likely just get in the way.” He pushed Morlos to the side and continued towards the front of the army. -----“Actually I have come to seek out a specific individual,” Morlos said, following Regulus down the slopes. -----“Is that so?” Regulus replied as he walked, only half curious this time. -----“Indeed, someone I met in Zel’Myas during the battle with the SLJ. A rather young man who held a most interesting blade. I don’t know why, but I feel that I would be contributing greatly to Drekis’ cause if he should die, and what better way to increase my spoils if he should die by my hand.” -----“And did you come to gloat about this to me Morlos?” -----“Perhaps, though a part of me might have wished for some competition. Just think of what you could earn…” -----“I don’t follow up on your silly premonitions. I can’t waste time going after one kid that you think is so important! If you still think so, then so be it, get out of my sight and hunt him down, as long as you get out of my way!” -----“Very well then, if that is how it shall be, but you’d best be careful, you might be out of a job soon,” Morlos whispered. He disappeared into the snow storms before Regulus could even turn to snap back at him. -----A most disgusting creature, Regulus thought. Amongst the entire Drekis Empire, he had met none who emulated the egotistical competitiveness of industrialized business men quite like Morlos. And yet, it was that very same personality trait that allowed him to fit right in with an industrialized society. He was useful as a spy, but nothing more. Morlos would seem to think that his uses went far beyond that, but Regulus wasn’t about to waste his time contesting his delusions of grandeur. -----At last he found Avalon, sitting upon the back of his pet Zegrin not too far from the frontline. From here he could see Devonox beasts moving forward and swiping at mechanical humanoids while shots were exchanged from both sides. Cannons roared, and soon explosions shook the ground and deminites were flung into the air while wisps of melted snow followed them like wailing ghosts. -----“Master Avalon, my lord, I have arrived at last!” Regulus shouted triumphantly. “Where shall I make my stand my lord?” -----“Be Quiet fool,” the voice of Kalia retorted. She stood not far from Zegrin, a sight for sore eyes in Regulus’ mind; how did he not notice her standing there before. And Korruptus to, stood at the opposite end, his hulking figure now hard to miss. -----“Avalon is busy communicating with an operative,” Kalia continued. “Be quiet and wait for Lord Avalon’s acknowledgement before addressing him.” -----Regulus turned his head to sneer, not wanting Kalia to see his anger. Such a pity that she bore such an unruly personality. Even now her speech was completely hypocritical, for he knew that she gave Avalon no such respect in conversation. -----Avalon was not speaking, despite Kalia’s claims, but he noticed later that the dialogue was being conveyed telepathically, and that the recipient of the conversation was the lion sitting next to Zegrin with a look of uncanny intelligence in his eyes; the kind of intelligence that a creature of his kind should not have. -----Avalon finally raised his head, though Regulus could not see his face; he knew only that the conversation was over. -----“So then, Maria has provided us with her last report,” Avalon stated. “The enemy is to concentrate their forces in front and to their left. They do not believe that we will attack from the right because we must move around those small mountains to reach the canyon below eh? Well then, we shall have to show them just how much they’ve underestimated our resourcefulness.” -----“My lord, tell us your plan!” Korruptus said eagerly. -----“Our force is going to break up as I explained earlier,” Jon said. “Korruptus, you will lead your division to attack them from the right where they are presently weak and not expecting an offense from that direction.” -----“But my Lord, you shall be forced to wait while we cross around the mountains…” -----Jon gave him a hard glare, silencing him immediately, then smiled, “You’re not going to go around the mountain Korruptus, that’s why you’re leading the division. You’re going to get rid of the mountain and plow straight through. It will cause chaos within their ranks.” -----“Ah, I see,” Korruptus said, now understanding his general’s plan. He wasted no time in readying his division and marched off, fully confident that whatever Avalon told him to do would lead to success. -----Kalia was displeased to be left out of the spotlight; to simply let Korruptus have the glory of the night, but then again she knew that of the two of them Korruptus was the one known for pure might, the kind that was necessary to smash through the mountains as Avalon had suggested. Still, she would not be denied at least some role in the glorious defeat of their enemies. -----And not surprisingly, Avalon had a purpose for her already in mind. -----“Have you noticed the way the weather has been on their side Kalia?” Jon asked, his tone indicating that it was more a test of her perceptions than an honest inquiry. -----She thought of saying something impressive in response, but could find nothing to say and so simply admitted that it was a mystery to her. The blizzard had become bothersome, though harsh weather had usually been of little concern to them. Even she, standing there virtually naked save for the cloths and ribbons that were wrapped around her body, felt perfectly fine even in this stark cold. However, the strange behavior of the wind and hail was beginning to push the lesser minions around, and the flames of the deminite soldiers were becoming less and less effective as the blizzard began to deteriorate the magic fires. -----“At New Xaelis a few hours earlier I encountered a woman who so rudely interrupted my combat with Uberman,” Jon revealed, “she displayed an impressive power to control and manipulate the weather. I wonder, then, if that woman in the distance there, flying above the hills, is the same woman I fought. I believe it might be her who is responsible for this unnatural weather…I want you to get rid of her.” -----“The little lass with the aqua-blue hair?” Kalia said, squinting at her target, “So you want me to kill that one?” -----“Kill her, or take her down any other way, as long as you stop her from doing this I will be happy.” -----Kalia’s eyes shook with a sudden wonder, a fulfillment that she couldn’t explain; that illogical pleasure she gained from his happiness. “If it will make you happy, my lord,” she bowed and moved her right arm over her chest, “then I shall kill her five times before she even knows what hit her…” -----The ribbons around her body loosened, as if to fall off, but instead circled around her, forming a wall of cloth and tissue and then a solid sphere that completely concealed her. -----Regulus stepped back, having never seen Kalia take action in such a way. The very display of the wildly dancing and spinning ribbons startled him, and he then realized that it was not only surprise that made him step back, but a kind of force being emanated from Kalia’s sphere. Even the snow beneath the sphere was spun along with the ribbons and flung out in all directions until the bare rocky ground of the Wastes was visible; against this torrent, Jon remained unmoved and only looked forward, apparently having witnessed the procedure many times before. -----The ribbons of the sphere launched themselves into the air, becoming a tornado and spiraling into the sky; the strands twisting around each other like DNA. Kalia’s actual body was no where to be seen. She had been carried off into the sky…carried by her ribbons. -----“And now, Regulus,” Jon said, addressing him at last. -----“Yes my lord?” -----“I have unfinished business to attend to here. I will leave the remainder of my army in your hands. Continue to push forward, be relentless no matter what they do in response. Even with these robots—useful as they are—we can still beat them in a battle of attrition.” -----“You do me a great honor sir, I will not fail you,” Regulus replied. “As to your business, my lord, I hope that everything gets resolved this time.” -----Zegrin’s wings flapped, and a single leg was thrust down onto the ground, striking the ground hard and propelling the creature up high where its wings took over and carried it even higher. “I hope so as well!” Jon yelled back as he continued to disappear into the night sky. “Either way, the battle for New Xaelis will end here.” -----The vision of Zegrin was lost against the tumultuous rampage of Mechs clashing with Bio-fighters in the clouds. Aerial Combat -----Things had become much easier for the Mecha-nized divisions once the weather had subsided, or at least vacated to a new location. The Lieba, still casting out smoke from its damages, still held up strong in the air, now supported by the anti-aircraft cannons of the vehicles down below. It’s own weapons fired as well, occasionally obliterating a target, but for the most part its guns had become too slow to keep up with the fast moving bio-fighters, regardless of whether they were in their mech form or not. -----The reinforcements that had come in the form of the machines from WinterScar had forced a large portion of the bio-fighters to leave the clouds and begin skirmish runs on the surface of the planet in an attempt to destroy the newly reinforced frontline that Uberman’s men had successfully created. This in turn allowed for the aerial combat to become much easier, but the Drekis forces still outnumbered them greatly, and for a while many of the mecha pilots doubted their odds of survival. -----Flying amongst flaming wreckage that was slowly burning up and falling to the ground, Uberman could see that only a little more than sixty of the mecha remained. He had talked briefly with Captain Kitazawa, the man who had taken command of the remaining mecha, and had told them to maintain a defensive sphere around the Lieba and nothing more. Survival was the new priority for those wounded soldiers now; there was not a single mech in the air that hadn’t suffered some sort of damage which impaired its combat capabilities. -----As more bio-fighters came into the battle, intent on closing in on the defensive sphere Kitazawa’s units had formed around the airship, Uberman stormed ahead, occasionally smashing his way through the bio-fighters that seemed to take no notice of him. -----A few of the grotesque things transformed into their mech mockeries and fired their weapons; a biological power the likes of which Uberman had rarely ever seen on Khazan, and a testament truly to what the Drekis empire was truly capable of. Yet his agility, and perhaps more importantly, his small size compared to the mecha allowed him to avoid their aggressions and sneak in to attack them where they could not see. His blasters pierced through their carapaces just as easily as they did the armored skin of a devonox, though admittedly they had to suffer many more wounds before they even began to show signs of going down. -----In fact, even the ones he tore to pieces seemed to reattach themselves as they fell from the skies, slowly forming and regenerating as if his wounds had done nothing. But the Mecha-nized infantry had dealt with their incorrigible nature before, and as he tore them apart, the mecha finished them off with unrelenting concentrated fire. -----Of course, as only one man Uberman could only take down so many while others flew past and went into battle with the mecha. Each time one bio-fighter went down he asked himself if they would ever stop coming; if the enemy would ever run out of minions to send to their death, but every time he asked that question he saw ten more fill the night sky, and ten more, and twenty more, until the question became pointless; though with some endearing, and perhaps vain sense of hope he asked it anyway. -----He heard a roar then, quite distinguishable from the guttural noises that the bio-fighter seemed limited to, and it was one that he had heard many times before; a sound that was not welcome. -----The bio-fighters stopped firing at him, allowing Uberman to float in place while the fighters sped off to fight with the mecha. It seemed as if someone had directed them away, and there was only one person that he knew of that could direct the army without a shouted command. -----Zegrin moved in quickly and snapped at him, but he responded quickly and flew up and away from those gaping jaws. His agility turned out to be unnecessary, however, as Jon reared the beast away to prevent the clasping teeth from every making a connection. He had just planned to startle him apparently, but Uberman found nothing humorless about Avalon’s actions. -----“Wipe that smile off of your face Avalon,” Uberman said sternly. “You’ve led us up to this point…all of this death; so useless and at the cost of innocent lives, this suffering…it’s unforgivable, and you have no right to smile while this is happening around you.” -----“We’ve known each other for a rather short time,” Avalon replied, “And yet you speak so passionately, with such condemnation and superiority in your voice. Haven’t you realized by now, Uberman, that I am beyond your words? What you see as right and wrong, I see only chaos, a single pure truth to this universe, where darkness is no less pure than light, and life no more meaningful than death.” -----“Despicable…” was the only thing Uberman could mutter. -----“You may think so, but that is the way Drekis sees things, and consequently that is the way his generals see things. Nothing is going to change that Uberman, so if you still feel so strongly about us being wrong, then oppose me with action! Come at me like the warrior that I know you are, locked deep inside that metal shell of a body!” -----Uberman shook his head, “If you think to make me lose control…if what you’re trying to do is make me kill…” -----“Don’t start that Uberman,” Jon cut him off, “You’ve already been forced to kill the deminites and the other lesser minions. Are you saying you have the right to deem their lives less meaningful than the people in your army?” -----“It was you…” -----“That is exactly the problem with your people. You do not see how your own actions contradict your own perceptions of light and dark, of right and wrong. You do not see yourself for what you truly are: chaotic and conflicted beings.” -----“I don’t care about how you think anymore!” Uberman yelled. “I don’t care what you say; I’m not a monster like you! You’ve wrought destruction upon our home, and all I need to know is that I’m going to protect it, and if I have to take you down to do it, then maybe I’ll have to, but…I’d much rather see you suffer in a Khazan City Security Prison, and Drekis too and all of his other generals.” -----“Dreams, Uberman, nothing more than delusions and fantasies, always hoping and longing for justice in a world that is chaotic,” Jon responded. -----Uberman wanted to shout out, to tell him quite simply to shut up, but he knew that Jon was only trying to make him uneasy, and so instead he did as the Drekis general had suggested earlier: he answered him with actions instead of words and flew directly towards where Zegrin hovered. The Sword’s Voice -----Tim was prepared to storm into the frontlines of the Drekis hordes, but he was forced to stand and wait as Khazan soldiers and rangers lined up behind the humanoid machines that were still holding their own ground. The closer he came to the vicious creatures, the brighter his sword became, and he soon became aware that his own emotions flared along with it. He could feel the intensity overwhelming him, fogging his mind and leaving only the path of anger and vengeance before him. -----But then Raea was there, her comforting arm resting on his shoulder for a second, instantly pulling him back. She said something to him, but her words were lost amidst the battle cries. Then again, he didn’t need to hear her exact words; somehow he felt them on a deeper level and they comforted him just the same. -----Telissa was there as well, though he did not know when the bounty hunter had come to their aid. No doubt she had been present on another of the armored transports, all along doing her part. Both Raea and Telissa stood close by and fired their weapons, but Tim could not see over the crowds to see the outcome of their efforts. -----His eyes shifted from left to right, trying to keep track of how the frontline was doing. The machines were still trying to push forward, but the Devonox brutes that had now filled the frontline of the Drekis army were much stronger than the average deminite soldier. Casualties were massing on both sides, and Tim heard shouts—though from whom he did not know—telling the Khazanian soldiers that melee fights with the enemy could become a reality any minute. -----Somehow this news excited Timothy, and he was disgusted by that excitement. To be vigilante and courageous was one thing, but what kind of hero could he profess himself to be if he liked the processes of war? -----Telissa pointed far to the right, indicating a spot in the frontline where an entire segment of the machines had been ripped apart by a concentrated swarm of deminite soldiers and devonoxes. No sooner had this small hole opened in their defense did the Drekis creatures pour through like water; an unstoppable flow. -----“Tim, assist them before they breach our defenses completely!” Telissa shouted. Both she and Raea moved in that direction as well, shooting randomly at the minions that pushed their way through. The deminites seemed eager to once again be fighting against people of flesh; digging their claws into skin and sinking their teeth into blood. -----It seemed as if it had been only a single moment, but in that time dozens of soldiers were killed, and their bodies were flung over the heads of the Drekis minions to land lifelessly on the battlefield. The blood of the injured and the blood colored the snow, and the Drekis minions, too, made the snow black with the pulsing liquid that spilled from their wounds. -----Tim felt the weight of his feet falter; in fact, his entire body was beginning to feel much lighter as he closed in on his enemies. Everything around him seemed to pass by so quickly, and before he knew it he had surpassed Raea and Telissa and already buried his glowing blade into the side of a deminite soldier’s skull. -----His own power surprised him, forcing him to come to a complete stop. But he had been moving so fast that slid straight into the torrent of monstrosities. How had he been moving that fast? It was a power he had never possessed before, so was it the product of the sword? Like that ethereal awareness, that keen fighting ability that he inherited so unconsciously, and the pure power of the blade; all of it must have been connected to the sword, but what kind of item could expand its magic to such an extent that made the user himself physically stronger…faster. -----A few swipes came at him from all directions, but they were so slow and cumbersome that he couldn’t help but move out of the way. Instinctively he directed his sword, swinging the blade up and in the next moment finding himself standing above five demonic corpses and almost completely unaware of what he was really doing. -----A devonox swung its arm at him; the large talons protruding from that fist shoveling up snow as it flew out. Tim lunged back, performing an acrobatic maneuver that he never knew he could do, and as the creature moved in closer to try again he made a perfectly timed slice that cut the brute’s arm in half. In yelled out in pain for a few seconds, but the sounds turned into bitter anger as it raised it’s other hand; a few shots to the head from Telissa’s disruptor rifle suddenly changed its mind. -----By this time the soldiers had pushed the Drekis creatures back and reformed the line, but more deminite soldiers leapt overhead and came crashing down upon their victims. -----Tim was about to move forward, perhaps even past the frontline, but he found himself panting involuntarily. Again and again he breathed, but not once did he feel tired or exhausted, though his body told him otherwise. As he began to relax his muscles he began to realize that his own senses had been dulled, allowing him to endure pain and fatigue mentally, but physically he was just as human as anyone else in the army. -----“Catch your breath!” Raea advised, seeing that he was in discomfort. “We can cover you for now!” -----His body relaxed even more as she spoke to him, and all at once he felt safe enough to kneel down and collect his strength. He put one hand into the snow to balance himself, but it was void of any cold or texture; the heat of his body was already destroying the substance when he came in contact with it. -----Tim wanted to stay kneeling for a while, for he could feel his strength returning slowly in those moments, but a dire voice in his head told him to move. And that voice was neither simple advice, nor was it truly an order. It was a response, a sense that he should move if he valued his own life. -----He leapt back, once at first, then again and throwing himself into a sideways roll as he realized that he had no real indication as to where the danger would come from. However, his senses proved to be dependable, for not long after he had thrown his body from the area it had become a crater; completely vaporized in a blast that showed no signs of resistance when it had struck. At the center of this rather deep crater stood a cloaked figure, his feet slightly submerged in the shadows around him. -----“You!” was all that Tim could yell. He had seen that hooded creature before, but he could not remember a name, if he had ever been given one in the first place. Nevertheless, he recognized him as one of the Marauders from Zel’Myas. -----“So, you’re very perceptive then. I had doubts that that spell would kill you…” he began. -----“I remember you from earlier,” Tim disclosed, “but you don’t work for the Marauders do you? No, I see now. You’ve been working for them the whole time…those demons…” -----“You’re not the one who gets to do the talking here boy!” Morlos retorted. “I am Morlos Gao, your executioner, and you can prepare to die here and now!” -----Raea approached the edge of the crater cautiously, in shock at what she had just heard. “What!? Why would you want him dead!?” She didn’t wait for an answer, instead choosing to fire the arm cannons on her suit, causing the crater to expand deeper and deeper as the poloron shots struck him. But when she ceased fire he was no where to be found in the ruins of the crater. -----“He sunk into the shadows, just like when I fought him last time,” Tim said to the girls, “Watch the shadows, all of the shadows including your own. He can move through them like gateways.” -----Telissa and Raea stood back to back, occasionally glancing back at the frontline that was still holding strong against the Drekis hordes. This one was not a lesser minion; that much was for sure. He had past by all soldiers and machines and attacked them without being seen. They circled around, keeping their eyes trained on every shadow as Tim had suggested, looking for any sign of Morlos’ presence. -----“There!” Tim shouted. He ran forward and swung his sword through the air just as the dark form was emerging from a shadow. There was a rip and a tear, and by the time Raea and Telissa could see what was happening Morlos had already landed on solid ground, a few pieces of torn cloth fluttering around him. -----“But how did you…” Telissa began. Nothing had appeared on her visor scanner, not even a single warning blip. This creature was using some means of dark sorcery that defied all reason, and yet Tim followed it all as if it made perfect sense to him. -----“Not bad,” Morlos freely admitted, “I didn’t expect your senses to be quite that good. But there is a weakness in you, my young boy! A weakness in your heart…in your mind…in your soul. You do not have what it takes to wield that artifact you hold there. You would be wise to hand me that sword and leave before you get yourself killed.” -----“Back off!” Tim shouted, taking a swing at the hooded figure. Morlos moved out of the way, and with such speed that Tim was following light after-images that trailed in the wake of the creatures movements. -----“What’s the matter?” Morlos asked. “Am I too fast for you young one? Care to rethink what I just offered you.” -----“This sword belongs to my family!” Tim shouted, somehow feeling the need to defend his ownership of the sword. -----“Ah, so it is then,” Morlos said as beam shots fired from Telissa and Raea were deflected off of some strange energy bubble that appeared around his body. “How interesting, I shall have to examine that artifact when I am done with you, but first I must get rid of these detestable women.” -----Morlos lifted into the air, flying effortlessly and pointing his right index finger at Raea. -----“No!” Tim yelled angrily. “Don’t you dare lay a finger on her!” Light poured out of his sword and enveloped his entire body, transforming him into a living beacon. He took off like a rocket, leaving the safety of the ground to match Morlos’ short altitude. He struck at him again, but the nimble figure darted from side to side even when in the air. Tim tried to keep up with his enemy, but he could not keep his body in the air. He had only propelled himself to those great heights, but now he plummeted back down and landed on both feet with a large thud. -----“How disappointing really,” Morlos said with a laugh. He pointed his finger at Tim now and at once green bolts of lightning flew out from the fingertip and enveloped him. The pain surged through is body, his brain, and his spirit; attacking every form of psychological, physiological, and philosophical notion of self at once. It was as if his very being was being shut down, and as he fell to his knees, grinding his teeth to bare the pain of the shocking bolts, the light of the sword dimmed. -----“Tim, no!” Raea cried, and fired her cannons determinedly, but to no avail. -----“And as for you two,” Morlos said while their weapons bounced off of his shield. “I remember you two as well. You were present at that Marauder city, and it was your fault for everything that happened there. For what you have cost me, you shall both die alongside your young friend here.” -----Bolts of lightning now escaped from Morlos’ shoulders, splitting off into two streams that targeted one woman each. Shrieking in pain, both Raea and Telissa dropped their weapons and fell to the ground, clutching the sides of their heads and writhing in agony. -----“Yes, feel the pain, the torment…” Morlos snickered as the bolts continued to pour out from his body. “Your pain brings me more power and more vitality…screams are such music to my ears!” -----Even as he tortured the two women, Morlos still had his finger pointed at Tim, never letting the flow of electricity stop. The pain was becoming unbearable, enough so that he was forced to close his eyes lest they be melted in the storm. But he could not keep them shut, for even as he tried to ignore everything to avoid the pain he heard their screams. Raea and Telissa, no doubt being subjected to even worse pain then he was now. He opened his eyes against his own will and looked down at his hands to see the little streaks of lightning jumping from one finger to the next. -----Every bit of pain he experienced seemed to invigorate the monster, making his power stronger and thus subjecting them to more pain. Tim began to feel unconsciousness coming over him, but Morlos felt this too and consequently eased the power of his lightning. He would not give Tim any method of escaping the torment that was to come before his death. -----He wanted to turn around and reach for Raea, to touch her hand and see her reassuring smile, but his legs refused to get back up; no, his entire body defied him! Even the sword began to betray him as its shining light dulled and even the metal shine of the blade itself began to rust over. -----Please! Tim thought, struggling to even think through the pain. Please give me…give me your strength sword…I beg of you…your power…lend me your power…the power to destroy this fiend! -----WHY? -----What had he just heard? A voice it seemed, which asked that single question; posed that one word. -----“What?” Tim shouted out loud, looking around him even as the lightning blazed around his body, searching for some newcomer who had just spoken. But he found no one; no source of the sound. -----A few soldiers had turned away from the frontline, having heard the screams and realizing that an enemy floated just above and behind them. They fired their weapons at Morlos, but were no more effective against his shield that Telissa and Raea had been. Morlos had quickly brought his other hand to bear on the soldiers and strafed his lightning through the regiment, killing them quickly since he thought them a waste of his time. But none of those soldiers had been the ones to speak to him. -----WHY? The voice came again, repeating that same word. -----What do you mean why? Tim thought to himself, as if thinking in response would elicit a reaction. But it did elicit one; the voice responded to his thought, saying “Why do you ask me for this?” -----A voice inside his head? What do you want, why are you asking me these questions? Tim thought in response. ----- -----The sword began to glow again, albeit rather faintly, and Tim knew then that the voice was not a figment of his own imagination or the ravings of his tortured mind. It was the voice of the sword, it was speaking to him, yet only he heard that ethereal sound echo off of the sword. -----Tim took a moment to look around him, but the image of everything else had blurred horribly, becoming doused in blue and white colors and appearing as a blur. Not only that, but as he looked at the mixed mosaic of images he saw that nothing moved at all. He could even make out—ever so slightly—the green streaks of the lightning that had become a frozen image. -----Has time stopped? Tim asked himself. What is going on here? -----YOU HAVE ASKED FOR A POWER THAT IS BEYOND THE VEIL OF HUMAN PERCEPTION. A POWER THAT PROVIDES, BUT ALSO CORRUPTS. SUCH POWER CANNOT BE GIVEN SO FREELY. THOSE WHO ASK FOR IT MUST COME BEFORE A TRIAL BY LIGHT. -----You ask me why I want your power. Tim thought. Are you blind to our situation!? I ask for your help, I want you to help me destroy this creature who threatens us. -----YOU ASK FOR THE POWER TO KILL. -----I ask for the power to protect! I…Raea and Telissa are over there, screaming in pain, and I can’t do anything to save them…please, I need more power to help them! Why can’t you see that? -----YOU ASK NOW FOR POWER TO PROTECT, FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS, BUT IT IS THE SAME POWER THAT CORRUPTS NONETHELESS. -----No, that’s not true! I don’t want the power for any other reason than to save them! To save everyone here who is willing to give their lives to protect what they believe in…and I…I just want to be able to do the same…to give everything I can give. -----YOUR INTENTIONS ARE PURE, BUT SO WERE HIS INTENTIONS ONCE, NOT LONG BEFORE HE FELL. -----Who? Who is this “his” and “he?” My Father, are you talking about my father? Answer me, who!? -----THIS POWER YOU DO NOT FULLY COMPREHEND, BUT IT IS YOUR DESTINY TO FORGE A PATH…YOU WILL LIVE OR YOU WILL DIE BY IT, AND SO BEHOLD WHAT YOU ASK FOR, BUT BEWARE, FOR IT WILL LEAD YOU TO PAIN AND SUFFERING, AND BE WARY OF HOW IT TEMPTS THE SOUL. -----The voice vanished, but the sword’s energy came back, shining just as bright as before. No, it shone brighter! The ground beneath him shook, and the snow all around his feet flew out. The entire Frozen Wastes seemed to tremble, and the solid ground began to crack as the sword let out what seemed like a tremendous roar. For a moment light filled the Wastes, blinding all who were there, but once it faded Tim was standing suddenly, not remembering having ever been down. -----His body felt light, but filled with an unspeakable power that couldn’t be seen or described; an impalpable might. The light of the sword now moved into his hands which gripped the handle and moved around his figure until it wrapped him tightly in its warm grasp. He was luminescent now, and as he looked down at his own hands he saw that it was as if his body was on fire, burning in blue flames while he felt no pain. Yet he did feel through the fires, as if the aura was an extension of his own skin. He could see the magic lightning still crawling around his exterior, prickling at him like insects, but these things also gave him no discomfort. -----Tim too several steps forward and the snow parted as if a creature reeling away from its most feared enemy. He held up the sword and pointed it at Morlos; the blade was emitting so much energy that the metal behind the light could scarcely be seen. -----“Impossible!” Morlos cried. “How can you be standing now? Just moments before you were groveling on your feet, but now what is this radiant power? There was no transition at all! Where did it come from!?” -----The lightning sprouting from his shoulders moved away from Telissa and Raea, allowing the women to fall into the snow with a sigh of lingering pain. Both streaks now flew into Tim; the combined might of all three blasts coming together on his body. -----Tim could feel them against his chest, like the hand of a weak man desperately pushing back, but we walked forward in spite of the pressure. -----“No…he couldn’t be,” Morlos said, a trace of fear in his voice now. The lightning, having been proved useless, stopped flowing from him. “But how…on this world? Master Drekis! Lord Drekis I have…” -----Tim thrust his sword up, pointing its tip directly at Morlos. The sword shook with a clinging sound, like a bell struck with a hammer, and as the blade vibrated the light around it spiraled round and round. -----The dark clouds in the sky parted, sharing the fear that the snow and the ground had for the power of that sword, and just as Morlos began to fly off Tim let out a barbarian cry and there was an abrupt quake that shook the foundations of the Frozen Wastes, cracking the ground ever so slightly from where he stood to the farthest horizon. -----The spiraling light came together and a bright beam shot out from the sword. So bright that it demanded the attention of all who fought in that battle, and so large that as it passed through the sky the atmosphere seemed to part and the clouds, unable to escape, were obliterated. -----Only the beginning of Morlos’ cry was heard, but it was cut off as soon as the beam had struck him. The immense light then shrunk slowly until it had become no wider than the blade from which it had originated, and then it flickered and died out. There was nothing now where Morlos had been floating. No ash, no bones, no particles even occupied that space now. -----“He…he did it,” Telissa managed to say, spitting out some blood from her mouth as she pulled herself up from the ground. -----“Tim…” Raea said weakly. She had never seen anything like that come from Tim, and it somehow frightened her, made her worried for Tim despite the fact that the light had just saved their lives. -----Tim twisted his upper body around to look at Raea as he stuck the sword into the snow to balance himself. He smiled slightly and gave her a thumbs-up, then collapsed onto the ground. Tiara vs. Kalia -----Tiara had seen the creatures break through the ranks of machines; by now showing no signs of being concerned with the blizzard that she had summoned around them. The thought had crossed her to simply concentrate the blizzard into a fiercer storm, but the Drekis minions were beginning to fight with Khazanian soldiers up close, and she couldn’t risk collateral damage. -----She kept the blizzard going as it was, quite unconsciously, while flying towards the battle, looking down to see if she could identify Tim Shinestar. It was, after all, her current job to bring him before Queen Relissan, and thus she had to make sure that he survived. Raea had been adamant about him being able to fight if that was his choice, and despite her own opinions she had ultimately come to the conclusion that she had no right to tell him what he could or could not do. But if he died in battle tonight, then surely she would look down upon that decision. -----Nevertheless, she managed to hold onto an open mind and stay focused on the more optimistic possibilities. Tiara had learned through past experiences that losing sight of those possibilities led to self-defeat, and she had no intention of letting that happen. -----She was elated, then, when the Khazanian soldiers managed to mend the tear that had allowed the Drekis minions to break though, and although there were barely holding the enemy back it was quite an impressive sight. The machines had been forced back and were now standing side by side with flesh and blood; coordinating their attacks to stop the closest deminites from reaching them. Tiara noticed—much to her delight—that the blizzard she had conjured around the minions had severely weakened, if not completely diminished, the fire bolts that the deminite soldiers attacked with. -----Not all of the enemies had been rendered so useless of course; there were still the wolves whose radioactive beams pierced through the steel plating of the robots and the devonoxes that simply tore their way through everything. -----Her eyes, keen as they were, had just picked up what she thought to be the unmistakable silver head of Timothy, and even the familiar frame of Raea not too far from him, when suddenly she noticed something writhing towards her in her peripheral vision. -----At first she thought it to be a snake of some kind, but as she turned to see what kind of serpent could travel so quickly through the air she realized that it was no living creature that moved towards her so intently, but a lifeless strand of cloth. A ribbon of sorts, like the wrappings of a mummy given a mind of their own, and it slithered towards her as if it sought to strangle her neck. -----But the ribbon didn’t move to wrap around her; instead, it continued straight at her and nearly pierced her neck had she not spun out of the way. She had though it to be a clean miss, but later as she watched the ribbon whip away she felt the sting at the side of her neck and the tingling of the blood running down her cold skin. -----It was a small cut, and her blood quickly coagulated, but the sting remained. Tiara glanced around her but found no aerial opponents. Only the bio-fighters and the occasional ptera-deminite haunted the skies, and they were preoccupied with the mecha that were circling around the airship Lieba. -----She heard it then; coming from below, like something cutting through the air at high speeds, and before she could look down she felt the ribbon tighten its grip on her ankle and pull her down. -----Tiara was approaching the ground at such a velocity that she felt as if she were falling; rarely had someone with such a gift for flight such as her experienced the fright of an uncontrolled plummet. Her body struck the snow hard, and she was certain that at least some of limbs had penetrated through that soft, white cover and felt the unmerciful hardness of the solid ground, but thankfully the snow had cushioned the impact overall. -----She shook off the pain in her head and felt it wise to immediately move; throwing herself up with her hands and rolling to the side just as several strands, all coiled around tightly into the form of spikes, drove themselves into the ground where she had just fallen. -----The ribbons uncoiled not long after the impact and each started after her with a different path. She moved her head to the side to avoid one that came at her straight like an arrow, then returned to the air as another came across the ground like a python and leapt up at her. -----Again there was little that Tiara could see around her, but she followed the ends of the ribbons far into the distance and found that the source was a young woman…a human woman! -----Not wanting to float in place for the ribbons to find her, Tiara flew towards the woman, all along keeping her eyes on that human shape to see if she had not been mistaken upon her first glance. -----But no, the woman was human, or at least she looked human. The only difference was the look in her eyes, so dark and void of any warmth that might indicate emotion or feeling. To any man Tiara reasoned that she would be stunning; a provocative brunette, young and athletic looking. Yet she was abhorrently voluptuous; nothing more than those strands of cloth and ribbon wrapped around her naked body. It was a wonder that the woman did not freeze to death in the Frozen Wastes. -----“Why do you attack me!?” Tiara demanded, still not quite sure that what she saw with her eyes was the truth. -----“Why?” the girl repeated. “Because that is what I was told to do, and that is all I need to know.” She smiled just then, as if the thought of killing and battle brought her pleasure. -----A few more strands uncoiled from her small figure and came at her like tentacles: lashing, thrashing, slashing. Tiara darted from left to right, quickly avoiding each strike, but more and more strands joined the assault with each second and she was beginning to have trouble tracking them all. -----As the ribbons moved in to circle around her, Tiara raised her hand above her head and forged a personal whirlwind to form with her at its center. The incoming ribbons were knocked away by the spiraling winds, and as the whirlwind picked up speed and its currents intensified into cutting gusts the ribbons were sound sliced to pieces. -----“So then you are the weather-witch,” Kalia said with delight. The ribbons around her body didn’t seem to decrease despite what had just happened. “Then again, my master is rarely wrong.” -----“Master? What do you mean…how are you connected to the Drekis empire?” Tiara asked as the whirlwind shrunk down and was concentrated into her open palm. -----“So I strike you as different from the beasts in our army then?” Kalia guessed. “But yes, I am part of the Drekis Empire…you may call me Kalia, and I serve the leader of this particular army. You’ve given my beloved some annoying problems my little weather-witch, so I need to take you out.” -----“Don’t call me ‘weather-witch!’” Tiara shouted as she outstretched her hand and let the condensed whirlwind in her hand fly out. The winds became like tunnel whose powerful gusts twisted their way towards Kalia. As the wind drove towards its target it ripped up the ground and carried pieces of stone and ice along with it. -----Kalia crossed her arms over her chest and the ribbons seemed to dance around her body. They formed a shape around her that grew into a complete sphere. The winds smashed into this mockery of a shield, and at once the tightly knit ribbons began to waver and shake under the pressure; some of the gusts even began the chip away at the layers of cloth, but ultimately the shield held. -----Undeterred, Tiara pushed her hand out even more and felt her joints and muscles reach their limits. She even sneered slightly as she focused all of her power into increasing the power of the gale force, and then all of a sudden it came out like an explosion; such an overwhelming strength in the gust that it seemed as if all of the ground in front of her was lifted up and carried towards her target. -----The increased power of the windstorm began to tunnel deeper through the wrappings of the shield until at last it broke apart. The winds separated each strand, knocking them away as the shell unwrapped to reveal the woman inside. -----Kalia seemed surprised, but she raised her hands up and regained control of her strands, though by now many of them were flapping away loosely from her body, leaving her mostly naked. Most the strands now wriggled like the arms of a squid and then began to strike at the rocks and debris that Tiara’s windblast had forced toward her. -----“Impressive, weather-witch, truly impressive,” Kalia said. -----Tiara was uncertain if the comment was honest or if the woman was mocking her efforts with indecent superiority, but she did not waste any time thinking about it. Instead her thoughts dwelled on shaping the wind which had just smashed into Kalia’s barrier to gather together once more, this time taking the shape of a large, masculine hand which swiped downward at Tiara’s mental command. -----The attack was completely unexpected; a clean swipe that hit Kalia from the side and drove her body into the snow with such force that she dug through it for over thirty feet and plowed it into a pile. -----The fragility of the woman’s body was only an appearance; however, for though she showed much indication of taking a hard hit, she raised herself onto her hands and knees with a cough and divulged more anger than pain in her scowl. The strands had quickly regrouped and coiled around her body once more, but a few of them looked ready to leap out at any minute. -----“Damn you, witch!” She cried out. A few of the strands flew into the air and pierced the hand of wind, dispersing the image that Tiara had formed. Two other ribbons went into the ground and tunneled through the rock cleanly without resistance. Not two seconds after they had dug inside, the two strands came out from right under Tiara and came up as if to strike through her heart. -----So swift, Tiara thought as she flew up into the air, but the two strands stretched out as if their reach was infinite, and even as she moved to the sides they followed her. With no choice left, Tiara prepared to conjure more storms to come to her aid. But it was then that it happened; a brilliant light that seemed to fill the entire Frozen Wastes. It was like a second sun suddenly appearing in front of her, so blinding that she couldn’t help but raise her hands to her eyes. -----She might have thought herself dead in this blind state had she not realized that the light had not been generated by her enemies, and seemed to distract the Drekis minions in the area just as much as it did the Khazanians. But the ribbons that had been following her were still coming; driving towards her with a little less control behind their approach but just as much tenacity. -----Tiara had little time now, and as she stopped her flight in favor of falling beneath the approaching ribbons a single strand still managed to strike just above her shoulder. The edges of the ribbon were nothing like cloth or paper, they were blades that felt as solid as those on swords and axes. The very tip of those edges had scraped her left shoulder, and that had been enough to cut into it. -----She brought herself down to the ground gently, clutching the wound with her right hand and some of the blood dripped off onto the snow. It was a worse wound than the one on her neck, but still not a very grave one. Things could have been much worse, that was for sure. But what was the source of that light which had distracted her? It had dimmed now, or at least its sphere of influence had shrunk, but now a beam flew out from that dome of light and cut through the air towards an unknown target. -----Kalia was on her feet now, and also gave much of her attention to this anomaly, but even as she looked away she directed two more strands into the ground. This time the ribbons came out from behind Tiara and seized her legs, holding her to the ground and preventing her from taking to the skies. Before she could move her hands the ribbons pulled slightly and forced her to kneel into the snow. -----“This ends now, weather-witch,” Kalia said as another ribbon coiled into a spike and pointed at Tiara. “I’ll tell my master that you fought bravely.” -----There was a roar in the sky that stopped Kalia from issuing her attack command, and as she turned her attention to the clouds she was caught in the shadow of the approaching creature. A dragon it seemed, but made of a gleaming ice that was the color of the clear night sky. -----“Do it Neva,” Tiara whispered to herself. The words didn’t have to be shouted for the dragon to hear, for she and the dragon were connected as one. The command passed smoothly to the dragon, which opened its massive jaws and came down upon its comparatively small enemy. -----Kalia summoned all of her ribbons again into a defensive sphere, and Neva tackled it like a dog against a ball, taking the sphere in his mouth and carrying it up into the air. He gnawed at it continuously and with each pressing bite more and more of the ribbons ripped away. Even the strands which held Tiara down loosened and then disappeared back into the ground. -----Just as the shield looked like it might crack, the ribbons unraveled as if on command and flew straight up; out of Neva’s mouth and into the air. By the time the last ribbon had left Neva’s gaping maw, Tiara could see that Kalia was no longer there. It was not in Neva’s nature to devour an opponent, and so the woman had escaped into the sky along with her ribbons, and good riddance! -----The light which had distracted her moments ago had faded now, and she looked inquisitively for its source; the pain of her shoulder becoming irrelevant. She found her gaze drawn to the sword that was still retaining a mere fraction of that glow which had just recently filled the battlefield. Timothy Shinestar was there holding that blade, and she saw him collapse to the ground when the light finally disappeared. Third Duel -----Uberman swung his fist towards Avalon’s face, but the creature Zegrin swiftly lowered his altitude and the SLJ leader came flying overhead. The monster had proved itself to be an effective flier despite its bulk and weight. In fact, Zegrin seemed almost unnatural to Uberman in the way he flew, as if his wings carried him up like some product of weird science rather than in a natural manner. -----Even as the dragon-like beast had swooped down to avoid Uberman’s punch, it quickly spun around and came up again, promptly snapping at Uberman from below and eventually closing its teeth around his left leg. -----Uberman could feel the teeth grinding against the exterior plating of his mechanized armor, but they did little more than slightly dig into the outer shell. Zegrin realized this, apparently, and resolved to tightening his grip and began to retract his neck back, pulling Uberman towards him where Jon waited on the beast’s back; sword in hand. -----“Get…off!” Uberman shouted as he gave Zegrin a swift kick to the side of its face. The monster held on stubbornly and continued to pull him down, but it changed its mind once a concussive blast struck it in the head. Uberman could even hear the cracking of the skull as his blasters hit their mark, forcing the jaws to loosen, but even then Zegrin remained airborne. -----Jon pointed his sword at Uberman, the green glow of that energy casting a ghostly aura over him and the wyrm; with a quick shout the glow became brighter and a bolt of energy flew out from the sword. -----Uberman expected this and crossed his arms, allowing the blast to shrug off of his armor. The beam had actually ‘broken,’ if such a word could be applied to energy, upon the impact and separated into smaller beams that took off in all directions; leaving no marks or scars this time, but the force still sent him into an uncontrollable flight backwards, forcing him to pull his feet back and flare his leg thrusters to slow him down to a halt. -----The blinding light came at that moment, just as Uberman was formulating his counter-attack, and it was not the light of Avalon’s sword, but a bright white radiance that expanded over the area like an explosion. Uberman shielded his eyes but managed to squint through the illuminating energy just enough to see that Jon was equally disturbed by the lights presence. -----The thought occurred to him then, that Avalon himself had never displayed the power to fly like some of the other minions had. Indeed, he seemed to rely on his pet Zegrin for any instance of aerial combat, and perhaps that could be his greatest advantage over the Drekis general. -----The light was still bothersome to both of them, but for some reason or another Uberman’s eyes seemed to adjust to the brightness better than Jon’s did, and in his mind the SLJ leader felt the voices pressure him…heard the words of his own conscience say that now was the time to strike. If he could just dismount the man, then he could no longer fight in the air! -----Those were his only thoughts as he pierced through the walls of light that were between him and Jon Avalon. He knew that it would likely go against the Drekis general’s odd code of battle conduct—it annoyed Uberman in fact, that if their roles had been switched Jon would have likely waited for the distraction to pass before they would mutually begin the fight again—but Jon had glorified their individual duel into something far greater than what it was. To Uberman, this fight was not important in the scheme of things, not when people around him were needlessly dying. He had a responsibility that went far beyond owing this crazed lunatic any favors in showing tact in battle; it was his duty to see that this threat to the innocent people of Khazan came to an end, and he had to seize every opportunity that arose to do just that. -----Jon was surprised at his enemy’s determination to take advantage of the blinding light, whatever it was, but he was not entirely unprepared for such an action. Uberman had always displayed a completely selfless personality, from what Jon had seen, and he knew that the hero would follow no rules of combat, but would rather do anything to save the life of another. -----The general sought to reward his selflessness with punishment, for it was that very same altruism which simultaneously annoyed and impressed Jon. He had seen in the SLJ leader a vitality that was unmatched when compared to his past combatants, but it was also those vain ideals he held onto…so useless and impersonal. How could one live properly when wasting their life serving a chaotic world, and how could one better themselves if all they thought of was others? -----It was illogical to Jon, and that is what he hated about Uberman and all the others who used the cliché title ‘hero,’ so he challenged his opponent’s intentions by summoning the dark, spiraling energies of the DarkenFire aura. The vortex quickly consumed him, becoming that sheath and a violent storm around his body. -----But Uberman had already closed much distance between the two of them and would not be stopped because of the vortex’s appearance. In fact, it was quite possible that he had already come too far, too fast to have ever stopped even if he had wanted to. -----He focused all of his power into his right hand, pushing the powers of the concussion blaster to its maximum and throwing his hand straight into that dark cloud which shrouded the faded image of Jon Avalon and Zegrin. When his hand struck the vortex felt solid, like a steel wall, only at the same time he could feel it the energies beneath his fist moving, crawling over the textured surface of his armored hand like billions of insects. -----And suddenly there was lightning and fire breaking out from the impact spot, and Uberman began to feel the heat against his hand as well as a kind of indiscernible power which simply emanated from the storm that Jon had cast which seemed to push him away. But he was not willing to give up and expelled more power into the concussion blaster. The system must have come close to overload, perhaps 110% or even 120% of the usual power limits; enough that when his arms began to cast out smoke he was unsure if his own hands were breaking apart of if they were the result of the flame and lightning that was constantly scorching him. -----Consciously he transferred power from his left blaster to the right, allowing both arms to share the pressure of the attack and also devote more power to it. Slowly now he felt his hand break through; an odd feeling like plunging one’s arm into the ocean and meeting the resistance of the depths. -----Jon grimaced at Uberman’s success, and for a moment looked as if he could have intensified the storm—and Uberman had no choice but to believe that he did indeed possess that power—with a mere thought; Uberman would not let him have even one moment to collect that thought, throwing all of his strength behind his right arm and thrusting it further into the DarkenFire aura until it had collided with Avalon’s face. There was a crashing sound, as if he had broken through a wooden wall, but it had been Avalon’s cheek which he had crushed, and the Drekis general immediately flew off of Zegrin and plummeted down towards the ground at such speed that Uberman didn’t look down fast enough to see him hit the snow. -----The Darkenfire aura which had surrounded his body did not merely disappear, but instead exploded violently, as if furious that its conjurer had been separated from itself. The storm was uncontrolled now, an utterly chaotic mess of dark energies that hurled the SLJ leader far away. Even Zegrin seemed to have been caught up in the storm and was flown in a different direction, though it would no doubt persevere if it had been able to maintain its composure throughout that battle with a cracked skull. -----He also doubted that that last blow had finally ended Jon, though in the back of his mind he was somewhat happy, for he hated to resort to such extremes as death even in mortal combat and Jon had appeared to be human just as he was underneath the mechanical suit. But there was also the rather disconcerting realization that although Avalon had been momentarily removed from battle, the Drekis army was unlikely to simply scour away without the voice of its leader, and so what had been accomplished here, with the defeat of this one enemy, and only a momentary defeat at that? -----The thought occurred to him to go down and find Avalon there in the snow; pick him up and threaten him to call back his minions…end the battle for tonight. He also realized that he could take Avalon away possibly to be imprisoned and interrogated, although in all likelihood it would take much more fighting to reduce Avalon to such a condition that he could be so easily carried away. -----Jon was also the type who would have laughed at Uberman’s groundless threats and allowed the army to continue on with its violent rampage, regardless of what happened to him. Drekis had probably instructed all of his generals to be this way, and so Uberman came to decide that helping with the combat abroad was his only option. Survival had to come before victory, and victory, sadly, would have to come before justice. -----The light had dulled considerably in those last minutes of battle, but he had been scarce aware of that since he was battling with the DarkenFire aura. As he looked down to pinpoint the source of that great light, he saw that his right arm had been burnt considerably; the armor plating around it now charred and reduced nearly to his actual flesh. A few flames remained on his arm, and he could even feel their heat pierce his own skin every so slightly, the kind of direct feeling he rarely had ever since he had been forced to use this kind of technology. He waved his arm in the air, allowing the cold winds to extinguish the flames, but the in that moment he missed the disappearance of that bright beam. He could no longer locate the source, or even guess at where or who it might have come from; however, he did see in the immediate aftermath a small crowd gather around a young man lying face down in the snow. He recognize Raea run over to the man and raise his face onto her lap. It was the last person that he would have expected to produce such a blazing light, but it was definitely Tim there, lying unconscious in Raea’s arms. Downed Mountains -----Korruptus may have looked like a creature who lived in the darkness, but he was actually quite accustomed to the light and all too familiar with bright, sudden flashes. He had, in many battles in the past, walked through entire battlefields while encountering explosions of all kinds, which of course he shrugged off and scoffed at. For years he had thought that there was no weapon that could be developed by technology that could ever make him blink, let alone do any real damage. -----The flash of light that had consumed the entire Frozen Wastes immediately forced him to question his life philosophy. He was completely unaware of the source of the light; he only knew that he had never seen any minion, not even a general, produce something so strikingly large. Perhaps Drekis could do it, but he knew that his master was not here. -----At first he imagined it to be some sort of weapon that had been dropped down from above without notice. Perhaps something related to nuclear or neutron weapons that he had seen on other words before, but the flash had been far more ominous. -----And yet, when the light had finally disappeared there was no damage that Korruptus could perceive. Those that occupied the Frozen Wastes on both sides seemed dazzled and confused regarding the incident but unharmed; upon realizing this, the two sides began waging their war in less than a minute. No doubt they had reasoned that their enemies had launched the blazing light as some sort of distraction, but from what Korruptus could see it didn’t appear as if either side had contributed, at least as a group, to the event. -----As the anomaly had not done any damage, as Korruptus had feared for a short time, the event quickly faded into obscurity and became unimportant to him. It had not harmed his mission in any way, and thus it was not his concern. -----With his great hooves pulling him through the deep snow, the Minotaur marched down the hill, his minions behind him like a trail of ants, and waved his mighty hand for his servants to pick up their speed. He touched upon the bottom of that hill soon enough and was pleased to find that the ground was far more level and not covered with so much snow. -----He looked to his right and saw his objective: three small mountains stood before him, and ahead of them was the area where Uberman’s forces had made their stand. Without the mountains it would have been a rather convenient canyon leading straight to their targets, but as it was now the only way to reach the Khazanians was to march around and back up the hills, where they would be forced to make another trek down to attack them from behind. -----But Jon had sent Korruptus down with the army detachment to make the scenery somewhat more…agreeable with their constitution. -----“So then,” Korruptus said to himself, “I suppose this is where I come in.” -----Korruptus rubbed his hands together, which was rather unnecessary and done only for flare, then reached down to his side and unsnapped the leather clip that held his hammer to his hip. He raised the weapon into the air, to which many of the minions behind him cried out as if it were a symbol of their power. -----His second hand gripped the handle as his muscles flexed; his arms brought the hammer down with all of his strength behind it, causing the air around him to fly away as the massive head of the weapon came towards the ground. At that moment the blizzard seemed to pull itself towards him, enveloping Korruptus’ body in a cloud of white. When the hammer hit the ground the cloud dispersed and the ground trembled, but the force of the blow was only a minor detail in the scheme of things. The ground in front of Korruptus had begun to crack and break apart, but deep within those cracks could be seen the red, flickering lights of emerging flames. -----The cracks spread out, forming a pattern in the ground like a spider’s web until they reached the base of the mountain. The fires then erupted from these cracks, spouting out like volcanic magma to such an extent that everything in front of Korruptus had seemed to spontaneously combust. -----Defiant of the blizzard and snow that ruled the Frozen Wastes; the flames pushed forward without any resistance and consumed the mountains. The Final Charge -----There was a thunder that nearly forced Telissa off balance; a deafening sound followed by a tremor that made many soldiers close their eyes in preparation for what they thought might be a second coming of that tremendous light. -----But Telissa knew that the source of the light had been Tim, or at least, Tim’s sword, and now he was unconscious. The thunderous sound was followed by an explosion of equal magnitude as the mountains to the far right became bright with the orange flames that burst out of them. Though the mountains were relatively small, it was an impressive and somewhat horrifying sight to see the cracks appear throughout the entire structure and spew out flames so unnaturally. Within seconds the fires were sprouting from every inch of the rocky spires, and then as the fury of the volcanic fires increased the mountains fell apart; broken by the tremor and the eruption of the flames. -----Whatever had caused the explosion was hidden now by the falling debris and ash that fell from the sky, but the enemy didn’t wait for the battle smoke to part before showing themselves; rather, the Drekis minions stormed through the newly formed canyon, bloodthirsty as ever, and found no opposition to greet them. -----Telissa shouted out a warning at the top of her lungs, and those within the ranks of soldiers and rangers who had noticed the approaching army did the same. -----“More coming from the right!” they all shouted, but as more and more people turned to cover the western side the frontlines power diminished. The minions who were pushing their way towards the defense forces sensed the tension rising in their enemy and began to attack with a vivacious passion; they seemed to be enjoying the battle, even smiling as they ran and leapt into the hell of combat. -----The Khazan soldiers could not reciprocate this misplaced thrill that their enemies displayed, and as they fired back they realized that it was only a matter of time before one of the armies managed to break through. Even now over half of the frontline—the living soldiers comprised most of this while the various machines held their ground in front—had relegated themselves to the west front where the enemy had unexpectedly attacked. -----Fear snuck back into the hearts of those who became unsure of the situation; the aura of the deminite wolves returned with a vengeance, enhancing the fear that the Khazanians had and forcing thoughts of dread and uncertainty into the minds of the most courageous fighters. -----For some the effect was too much, causing some soldiers to abandon their line and make a break for the vehicles. Others managed to fight the fear effect; to hold their ground and continue fighting, but for some the psychological damage had already taken its toll. They were afraid of death, and they had forsaken all hope. -----Telissa made this known to those who began to shake and stumble back, telling them that it was only a mental trick…that the enemy was manipulating them into running away. But no matter how she attacked them with her voice, whether she spoke of their honor, their bravery, or their loyalty, none of it seemed to reach them. -----Believing it to be a lost cause, Telissa turned her attention instead to Raea, who was still holding Tim’s unconscious body on the ground. -----“Raea, I have a bad feeling about this!” Telissa shouted at her. She repeated when it appeared that Raea did not hear her, and then said: “We need to get Tim out of here; we’re beginning to lose our ground!” -----“You…you have to help me carry him,” Raea said worriedly. -----Telissa took the man’s right arm and threw it over shoulder, then indicated for Raea to take his left side. Together they carried, or rather dragged Tim through the snow towards the military transports. -----Just as they had reached the vehicles there were screams coming from the west; the enemy had pushed through the steady concentration of gun and blaster fire to pierce their claws into their prey. The first line of men guarding the west front fell down in agony as the deminite soldiers lunged past them and cleanly swiped their talons across their chest as they came by. Blood spilled out onto the snow, and as soldiers rallied to counter the enemies advance, the reptillions came in and began slicing throats with their swords. Devonoxes came in next, shrugging off gunfire as they marched in and took out dozens of soldiers with a single swipe of their massive, ape-like arms. -----By now the Drekis minions had apparently adapted to the presence of the blizzard, which no longer annoyed them as much, and at such a close range the storm had begun to issue some collateral damage. Thankfully, Tiara had noticed this unfortunate turn in events and cancelled the storm with a single thought. -----The apprentice of the Powers had reached Telissa and the others at the same time that Uberman flew down from the sky, a look of worry on his face. -----“Is Tim alright?” he asked as soon as he touched the ground. -----“He looks like he’ll be alright,” Telissa replied, “Raea just needs to get him inside a transport. We have other things to worry about right now! They’re breaking through…” -----“I know,” Uberman interrupted her, “We weren’t expecting them to actually break through the mountains…we weren’t ready to face an attack from that side.” -----“And now it may cost us our victory if we don’t stop them!” Telissa said. “Tell the vehicles to begin concentrating their fire on that detachment or else they’re going to slaughter our troops in close combat.” -----“But the machines are growing weaker,” Tiara broke in, “They’re numbers have dwindled to half of what it was when they first arrived. They won’t be able to hold off the enemies in front for long. How would you expect us to divide the army if both fronts are in such dire need of assistance?” -----“Shit!” Telissa shouted. She stared down at the ground as if surprised at her reaction, and then looked back at Uberman with such a tormented look that it appeared as if she were crying. “What do we do then? Can we call for the Mecha to come down…is there anything more that we can do…damn it! Everything was…we were going to win, I know we were; how can it come to this?” -----Uberman shook his head, “I don’t know, but we have to keep on fighting, even if it does seem hopeless. There’s no where left for us to run now, and I’m sad to say that the battle in the sky has never been as promising as it had been on the ground moments ago. Those mechs, as tough and fearless as their pilots may be, are fighting a losing battle up there.” -----“So then,” Tiara said solemnly, “we can’t count on them for assistance.” -----Multiple robots were crushed to the ground under the weight of Devonoxes who hurled their own massive bodies into the air and landed upon the machines that were too slow to avoid the crushing fall. As soon as the devonoxes had smashed into the snow there were deminite soldiers and reptillions crawling over their backs and leaping into, and occasionally over, the front line. -----“They’re coming from the front!” a soldier yelled just before a deminite soldier latched onto him with both hands and summoned a terrible flame that burned off the skin of his face. -----“We have no time anymore!” Telissa said, almost completely dejected now. -----“We can’t give up!” Uberman said as he saw Raea carry Tim into one of the transports. Half of the vehicles had now turned their turrets and cannons to the west to stave off the attack, but as the army divided its attention to two fronts it became more difficult to hold the enemy at bay. “I’ll charge directly at the enemy if I have to! Tiara, if you want you can help them deal with the division coming from the west, I’m going to the frontline!” -----By the time Uberman charged forward the enemy had already stormed past the machines. Like a swarm they overtook the robots that remained until not a single mortal eye could see them. The minions spread out; a blight upon the land that expanded and overtook everything in its path. Even as cannons and rockets flew into their ranks, killing twenty, thirty, or forty of their kind in a single stroke, their army remained endless. With the machines gone, the enemy poured through the frontline and freely ran towards the vehicles with a lust for blood clearly written upon their demonic faces. -----Some of the vehicles suddenly started up their engines and moved in reverse as they fired, but it was too late to escape. Already the minions dug their claws into the metal exterior of the vehicles and climbed upon them until they had formed a dark wall of living flesh that clung to the sides of the craft. Meticulously they searched for any openings or weaknesses and burned through the armor with their teeth while devonoxes used brute strength to rip open the hatches. Deminite soldiers came in, turning down every corner and killing any personnel they encountered. Blood stained the windshields as the minions broke into the pilot chambers and spread their hapless victim’s innards over the command console. -----Uberman put both of his hands together and fired his blasters, though his right arm responded slowly, likely due to the damage he sustained during his battle with Avalon. And that Drekis general, where had he gone? Perhaps the man had awakened and retired to the horizon where he could smile and gloat at his inevitable victory. -----Uberman sneered as he thought of what Jon would say: “You see, my friend? I told you so; this was to happen no matter what you did. You could never win!” -----He wished that his hatred could fuel the power of his blasters. Then maybe his beams could engulf the land as Timothy’s light had done just minutes earlier, and the entire Drekis army in front of him would cower and fall back. But he could only blast his way through a straight line of the approaching enemy; meanwhile, hordes of minions ignored the SLJ leader, moving around him as if they were ignorant of his presence, or perhaps—as was more likely the case—they choose to ignore him in favor of attacking the far more vulnerable people in his defense force. -----He couldn’t stop them…there was no way he could stop all of them. There were too many of them now, and no frontline left to halt their advance. -----Telissa and Tiara did everything they could to enforce the west front, but as the Drekis hordes began to come at them from the south they were left with little else to do but run for their lives. -----There was now perhaps not a single person who was unaffected by the fear aura of the deminite wolves, for now even the armored vehicles which had represented the closest things they had to a sanctuary were being ripped apart and subsequently violated. There was no safe place now. They could only run up the hills where the robots had first appeared, but their enemies were tireless pursuers; it would only be a matter of time before they caught every single one of them. The men and women there felt like cattle now…cattle being hunted by wolves—millions of wolves. -----Telissa fired in every direction, no longer concerned with aiming. No matter where she pointed her rifle there would be the face of the enemy, howling and screaming at her. She could press her trigger to her heart’s content and know that every one would take one of those monstrous bastards down, but again for every one that fell two more came to take their place. She was facing a sea of enemies; there was no question of that now. The only question left was how long she could avoid the wave…how long could she escape the tide? As she looked back she saw many fail; many who ran behind her, screaming for someone, something to help them, and then turn around as the enemy came upon them and release their last spurt of gunfire before they were tackled to the ground and torn into. -----Deep inside one of the vehicles, Raea caressed Tim’s silver hair while wiping her tears with her other hand. She sniffed and raised her shoulders up high, but no matter what she did or thought she could not command the emotions inside of her. Tim was still unconscious, lying in her lap as if dead. She couldn’t give her support to him any longer, nor could he support her. All they could do was wait, while the only sounds that could be heard was the resonance of blades and fangs sinking into flesh, of blood splattering against the snow, and the echo of the screams that followed those bloodcurdling deaths. -----There were few gunshots now; no sign of retaliation except from a few. The cannons on the top of the vehicles were no longer roaring, for they too were under attack. It was a constant reminder to her that even though they were encased in this metal room it would only be a matter of time. That was why her tears flowed so uncontrollably. She had promised Tim that they would make it together as long as they stayed by each other’s side. And now she looked down at him, together with her now while the enemy closed in to end everything. -----There was a sound outside the hatch, then another, and another, then twelve more, then a hundred more. The sounds of sharp objects prickling the hull, scratching the armor. She heard devilish laughs, almost reminiscent of children gleefully opening up their presents. -----Massive spines drove through the hatch then, and Raea screamed as the hatch came loose and was pulled away by a devonox. The creature roared as soon as he saw the couple sitting their on the floor, but before he could reach his hand through the gaping hole which he had just carved into the side of the vehicle a blast struck the side of his head, and abruptly there came a second shot that crushed the creature’s left eye, creating a crater in its face. -----Uberman came into view, striking the beast with his fists until it fell down. He latched onto the vehicle as it began to drive away from the Drekis army, but its movements were futile. They drove away at a snails pace while the enemy, invigorated by the thrill of the kill, circled around them like sharks. -----“Are you alright?” Uberman said. -----Raea found him to be incorrigible and looked at him with a puzzled expression. At a time like this, how could he so casually walk in and ask if they were alright? What was it that drove him to fight on with such a complete rejection of the horrors around him? -----“Hold on!” Uberman shouted without awaiting her answer. There were minions swarming in from all sides, and Uberman nobly blocked the hole with his own body and pushed the minions away when they attempted to tackle him. -----“Uberman, you…you can’t!” Raea yelled, “Please, you have to leave us. Khazan still needs you…please…just…you could fly away from here…make it to Khazan City!” Were these words truly hers? Was she truly ready to die here today? -----“I’m not forsaking anyone here today!” Uberman shouted back as he fired his wrist blasters at the enemies. A few deminite soldiers crawled down from the top and clawed at his face, but the Uberman was quick to reach up and pull the creatures off of the vehicle and throw them into the vehement crowd of minions. -----“You’re the leader of the SLJ,” Raea reminded him, “They’ll need you to fight the Drekis army at Khazan City. What about Cretalia, or Axia, or Araelis? You need to be there Uberman, you need to live! You can get out of here now if you…” -----“I don’t want to hear that talk from you!” Uberman said, never taking his eyes away from the Drekis hordes around him. “Are you really prepared to give your life away so casually?” -----Raea paused for a moment, then replied, “I don’t know, but I’ve fought for what I believe in, and I’ve always known that if I had to I’d die for what I want to protect! I’m ready to accept my fate, and Tim…Tim…he and I shared the same dream together…I know he was willing to give everything to protect those he loved.” -----“That’s not what being a hero is about!” Uberman retorted. “A hero is willing to put his life on the line, but he is not a sacrifice. Never, never acknowledge your death…never welcome it, never tolerate the very thought of it! You fight to protect the things you love because you never give up, and you never look upon the possibility of failure!’ -----‘No ideal, no matter how noble, and no fight, no matter what the cause, is worth a human life…not enough so that it can be sacrificed so easily! There have already been far too many deaths today Raea, and I have no intention of letting them harm another person here! And if I have to stand right here and stop every minion myself to do it, then so be it!” -----There was then an unfamiliar sound which echoed through the Frozen Wastes; the blowing of a horn, deep and foreboding. Another sound of the horn overtook the cries of the Drekis army, and the various minions began to turn their heads in confusion, unaware of where the sound was coming from. -----Uberman did not recognize the sound of the horn, but as he looked for its source he saw a devonox beast lunging towards him, intent on using its weight to tear into the vehicle and throw it over onto its side. Uberman raised his arm and fired, but the creature lost no speed even as his bones broke from the impact. His thunderous footsteps caused the vehicle to shake: thirty feet away, twenty feet away…ten feet away! And as he came within arms reach, to the point where Uberman could smell the putrid musk dripping off of the creature’s drooping tongue, something came down from the clouds so quickly that that its shape was indiscernible until it had pierced through the devonoxes back and drove its way out of its lower belly. It was a lance of some sort, double pronged with its twin blades stabbing through the monster, the pointed ends digging into the ground. -----But it was no ordinary lance; for just as it had pierced through the creature did it cast off a glow and a torrent of electricity. Bolts flew out in all directions, and such energy erupted from that weapon that both it and the devonox that it had skewered disappeared, becoming little more than small, scorched pieces that burned away in the freezing winds. The lightning that the lance had released spread out, attacking one random enemy, then jumping to another, and another, as if the lightning were wyrms lunging from one foe to the next, destroying them in the process. -----“What’s happening?” Raea asked, only able to see the faint flicker of light as the lightning bolts died down and eventually dissipated. -----“I…I don’t know,” Uberman replied as he looked up at the sky. He saw the unexpected shape of horse flying among the clouds with white, feathery wings. A Pegasus! Atop of the flying steed was a woman Uberman had never seen before, dressed in golden armor that shined so brightly as if the sun were still in the sky, and her blue hair falling out of her crested helmet, illuminated by the moonlight. -----She was not the only one in the sky, and it took some time before Uberman could see that there were hundreds of pegasi in the air. No, not hundreds, thousands! Somehow, as those majestic animals swooped down, allowing their riders to throw down their lightning lances into the Drekis hordes, he was compelled to look in the direction from where they came and stare out into that horizon. From far in the west he could see vehicles quickly flowing over the hills, all of a design that he did not recognize. And as those machines, many of which appeared to be hovercraft, came forth, he saw their hatches open and thousands of foot soldiers dressed in equally elaborate armors storm out and begin to run towards the Drekis minions. Some held lances and swords, no doubt enchanted like the lances that the pegasi riders threw down at their enemies, while others brought military-grade weapons to the fray, firing beams and explosive artillery into the swarm. -----He could not recognize these mysterious people from their appearance, but as the vehicles came closer and fired their tremendous cannons he saw the emblem that they bore on their sides. -----The shouts of other Khazanian soldiers in the area confirmed what had just appeared in Uberman’s mind. “It’s Axia!” They shouted, “The Axian forces have come!” -----The Drekis army, confused by the appearance of the Axians, turned away from the retreating defense forces and brought their full attention towards the new Khazanian army that was charging fearlessly towards them. The monsters showed their fangs, summoned their fires, and howled viciously, but as the Axian soldiers swept over them, it became apparent that the enemy was tarnished. -----In the sky, Pegasus riders circled around the Lieba and attacked the bio-fighters, but a hundred more pegasi riders remained to strake through the Drekis forces on the ground. -----As the minions fell in groups, their howls became whimpers, and their flames evaporated. Slowly, the horde began to shrink away from their new enemy. -----“It’s Axia,” Uberman said, at last answering Raea’s question as he came to understand what was happening. “The State-Kingdom of Axia…their army has come!” Fallen Angels. |