Sunscorch (Rise To Omniscience Book 8)

by Aaron Oster

  Sure, she could probably take a couple of them down with her, but that wouldn’t really be of much comfort to her corpse. She needed to either break through and make it to the bottom or break up their teamwork, and she had to do it all before the other assassins arrived.

  8

  Katherine paced back and forth in their small cottage, stopping every few seconds to peer out the window before repeating the process. Beatrice, by contrast, was sitting with her chair tilted back on two legs, her feet up on the table and eating a bunch of grapes. Hilda sat on the ground with Grace, who was doing her hair and chatting animatedly about the new and emerging styles in the East. Lumia was snoozing on one of the small sofas.

  “Where are they?” Katherine muttered, stopping to peer out the window once again.

  “Calm down,” Beatrice said, waving a dismissive hand. “The storm is gone, so the Pinnacle King is probably dead. He’s probably just taking his time getting back down.”

  Katherine ignored the woman, instead turning to Grace and Hilda.

  “What do you think?” she asked. “Do you have any idea why it’s taking so long?”

  Hilda shrugged.

  “Maybe Elyssa just wanted to talk with him alone. There would be no better opportunity than now.”

  “Should we go check?” Katherine asked, looking back through the window and trying to see past the rise of the hill.

  She’d felt several tremors and had the distinct feeling that something was very wrong. But why was she feeling that way? Grace had checked twice and assured her that both Morgan and Elyssa were at the top of the mountain, and since she couldn’t sense the Pinnacle King, it was obvious that it was dead.

  But still, she couldn’t relax.

  The storm had vanished over half an hour ago, and she’d yet to hear from either of them. It was very much unlike Morgan not to report in after a fight, especially one this monumental.

  “I’m going out,” she said, heading for the door.

  “Do you really wanna risk it?” Beatrice asked lazily. “He did ask everyone to stay put until he came back.”

  “You’re just saying that because you’re too lazy to be bothered!” Katherine snapped.

  If she’d been expecting her words to aggravate the Queen of the South, she’d have been sorely disappointed. Beatrice just shrugged, then popped another grape into her mouth.

  “What about you two? Are you going to come?” she asked, turning to Grace and Hilda.

  “Well, I want to,” Grace said, seeming eager to go. “But Hilda’s hair is almost done, and if I leave it, it’ll look horrible! I couldn’t do something like that to her.”

  Hilda looked up and flashed Katherine a grin.

  “I won’t argue with her,” she said. “I do look fabulous, which makes the trip in the rain more than worth it.”

  “Can you wait another five minutes?” Grace asked, pulling a section of Hilda’s hair up and curling it around the heating rod. “I do want to come along.”

  Katherine ground her teeth together and debated just leaving them all here. She knew something was wrong. She could feel it in the air. But how could she convince them?

  “I’ll wait. So long as you check again and tell me that nothing’s wrong,” she said, crossing her arms.

  Grace rolled her eyes but nodded.

  “Fine, I’ll check, but I’m telling you that nothing is…” Grace trailed off, her eyes going wide and muscles locking up.

  “What? What is it?!” Katherine asked, closing the distance between them in a single leap and grabbing the smaller girl by the shoulders.

  Grace was pale, and her hands were beginning to shake.

  “Cores,” she said. “Hundreds of them. All closing in on our location.”

  Now Hilda was paying attention as well.

  “What about Morgan and Elyssa?” Hilda asked, turning and allowing the heating rod to slip from her hair.

  “Morgan is at the top of the…Wait, now he’s at the bottom…No, he’s at the…He’s moving around a lot,” she said, growing more and more worried.

  “Who’s he fighting?” Katherine demanded.

  “I…I don’t know,” Grace said, starting to wince visibly. “I can’t feel them.”

  “What do you mean?” Katherine demanded.

  “Ease up on the poor girl,” Hilda said, rising to her feet and pushing Katherine back. “You’re hurting her.”

  Katherine wanted to hurl the woman through the wall for getting in her way, but instead, she took a few deep breaths to calm down.

  “Grace. Why can’t you sense who Morgan is fighting?”

  Grace just shook her head, not understanding why her skill wasn’t working.

  “What about Elyssa? Where is she?” Hilda asked, turning and placing a comforting hand on Grace’s shoulder.

  Grace’s brow furrowed for a moment as she tried to find her, then, her eyes went wide.

  “She’s more than halfway down the mountain and surrounded by other cores!” Grace exclaimed.

  “An ambush!” Katherine said, tearing a portal open in the center of the room.

  Lumia was up on her feet now, shaking off the last vestiges of slumber, and Hilda looked ready to fight.

  “I’m coming with you,” Grace said, stepping forward.

  Although Katherine wanted to refuse, she couldn’t, as she knew that the girl’s sensory skills would be invaluable.

  Elyssa would be too busy fighting, so they’d need Grace to tell them the location of their enemies. Katherine had no doubt that the hundreds of fighters closing in were indeed enemies.

  “Are you coming?” she asked Beatrice, but the Queen of the South merely waved her hand.

  “I’m fine here, thanks,” she said, popping another grape into her mouth.

  “You do realize that there are hundreds of enemy combatants closing in on our position, right?” Katherine retorted.

  “So? I have my army. I’ll be fine.”

  “In case you’ve forgotten, your closest citizens are well over a hundred miles away, and your only mode of transportation there is me,” Katherine snapped back.

  “Fi-i-ine,” Beatrice said, allowing her chair legs to thump to the ground. “I’ll come with, but I won’t be doing any fighting.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Katherine said, grabbing her and shoving her through the portal.

  “Do you even know where we’re going?” Hilda asked.

  “Nope,” Katherine said, shoving her through as well.

  “So how are we…?” Grace began to ask, but Katherine just shoved her through as well.

  Lumia just fluttered through after, saving her the trouble, and Katherine stepped through next, exiting about halfway up the side of the mountain.

  “Alright, Grace. Which way?” she asked, urging the younger girl to give a direction.

  “That way,” she said, pointing right and slightly down. “But we need to move fast. I can feel more people coming. They’ll be here in just a couple of minutes.”

  Katherine took off running without further ado, tearing in the direction Grace had pointed. Hilda was right on her heels, with Beatrice lagging behind. Lumia transformed into her hybrid form and scooped Grace up, as the younger girl wouldn’t be able to keep up.

  Wind rushed past Katherine’s ears, her hair streaming in the wind behind her as she began to pick out the sounds of combat, both from the top of the mountain and further down. The ground was trembling and bright flashes of light lit up the sky, but she couldn’t concentrate on that now.

  Morgan was a powerful fighter, one who could recover from just about any injury. Elyssa, on the other hand – much as she didn’t like her – was a diplomatic guest, and if she were to be killed on their continent, the alliance would fall apart.

  She jumped on a protruding stone shelf, reaching into a portal and pulling her mace from the pocket dimension, then landed and slammed the weapon into the ground, opening a small portal just as it did. The corresponding portal opened some fifty y
ards away, and the mace slammed into the head of the troll who was raising a massive boulder to drop on an incapacitated Elyssa.

  With a cry of pain, the troll was hurled away, giving Elyssa the time she needed to slip her bonds and put some space between her and her attackers.

  A portal sprang open, and Katherine dashed through, appearing right beside the elven queen, warding off a blast of fire that rose from the ground by swallowing it in one of her portals.

  An elf with twin blades made of light came running at her then, but Hilda flashed from the still-open portal and clubbed him across the head, sending him flying off the side of the mountain.

  “You came,” Elyssa panted, reaching down to clutch at her sides. “How did you know?”

  The woman was in bad shape, her dress doing little to conceal the cuts and bruises covering her frame.

  “Just a feeling,” Katherine said, swinging her mace up into a defensive posture and eyeing their remaining opponents.

  The troll was back on his feet and trying to sneak around behind them, but Katherine could hear him coming. The elf, judging by the power behind Hilda’s attack, would not be bothering anyone again. This left the three of them to face the dwarf, gnome, beastman, and injured troll.

  Katherine liked their odds, especially when Lumia appeared from within the portal and unleashed a torrent of crimson fire, engulfing the gnome in an inferno. The gnome tried to use his own fire to defend, but Lumia easily had the highest rank among them, and the unprepared gnome stood no chance.

  “He was their leader,” Elyssa said, then spun in place and waved her arm.

  The ground turned to liquid, engulfing the troll in a wave and swallowing him whole. Then, the earth rapidly restructured itself, turning into a massive, hollow tube. There was a loud whump, and the troll was launched from the other end, his body flying at such velocity that he vanished from sight in less than a second.

  The other two, seeing that they’d lost the fight, tried to flee, but Katherine and Hilda were on them before they could move more than a couple of steps.

  “Thank you,” Elyssa said, leaning over and breathing hard. “I don’t think I could have beaten them on my own, and we have more incoming.”

  “I know,” Katherine said grimly. “Now, tell me what happened. Who is Morgan fighting?”

  Elyssa straightened then, her eyes going wide.

  “He’s in trouble,” she said, her voice deadly serious. “He needs our help, and he needs it now!”

  Katherine nodded, but when she extended a hand to try and open a portal to the top, space resisted her. Her brows furrowed as she concentrated, trying to force the skill to obey her will. But no matter how hard she pushed, she could not force a portal to open.

  Elyssa looked grim when Katherine turned to them, as though she already knew.

  “If you can’t open a portal, Morgan can’t teleport. We’re going to have to run.”

  Katherine didn’t hesitate for a moment, taking off at top speed up the mountain, with the others hard on her heels.

  9

  Morgan wove his spear through a complex movement, battering aside the black spear from his godly counterpart, turned to deflect Sarah’s scythe, then used Compression to blast himself out of the path of Gwendolyn’s sword slash. It was all he could do to keep up, and with the gods pressing him on all sides, he knew that if he didn’t start dealing some damage, it was only a matter of time before he fell.

  He breathed, fighting back his instincts to force an attack, and instead, he decided to focus his attention on a single target. Fighting a group was impossible, but taking on a single fighter and avoiding the rest of the group was far more feasible. The only question was which one to try and take out.

  Sarah lunged in and swiped at him again, the massive scythe cleaving through the air at breakneck speed. However, Morgan couldn’t bring himself to take her down. No matter who she really was, she was still Sarah, and he couldn’t be responsible for her death. Not again.

  He dodged to the side and right into the path of Katherine’s attack. He threw his spear up to block, then lashed out with a kick, sending her reeling back in the air. But this time, instead of moving to create some distance between him and the others, he moved in, his target chosen. His Katherine was still alive, so taking this one out wouldn’t bother him at all.

  Katherine whirled her metal pole, bright crimson fire spreading across its surface as he thrust at her throat. She dodged to the side, swiping the pole at his face. Morgan used his Compression once more, blasting a wide area with the powerful wind and throwing himself half a foot back.

  He was then forced to defend himself from another thrust of the black spear and was then caught by Gwendolyn’s sword strike, sending him crashing back into the ground. The mountain split beneath him once more as his body tore through over a hundred feet of stone. Bones broke, and his legs twisted horribly to the sides before his skill kicked back in, restoring him to full health and zapping his quickly diminishing time. He shot from the crater, only to find all four of them converging on him at once.

  Gritting his teeth, Morgan reached for the stone beneath him and pulled a massive boulder from the ground. Then, with a force of will, he shattered it, fragmenting the boulder into thousands of smaller pieces.

  They shot toward the gods, impacting with enough force to tear through steel, but he knew that it wouldn’t be enough. That was fine with him, though. As they moved to defend, Morgan shot up, catching Katherine around the waist and pulling her clear of the group. She tried to bring her elbow down on his back, but he released her, flying to the side and slashing out with his spear.

  Finally, an attack connected, and Morgan felt the distinct satisfaction of tearing a wound open in the hide of a god.

  Katherine screamed, reeling back as a bloody furrow appeared across her chest. Gwendolyn had reacted much the same way, which told Morgan that just like her, Katherine was unused to feeling pain. He lunged, aiming for her heart, but the others intervened.

  The other Morgan’s spear caught his, deflecting it away. At the same time, Sarah swung at his back, and although he used his Stormforge to pull a shield into place, it did little to soften the blow. Morgan cried out as the blade of the scythe punched through his back, shattering bone and tearing muscle.

  He felt blood begin to fill his lungs, and when he looked down, he saw six inches of blade protruding from his chest.

  Gwendolyn struck next, her blade sinking into his stomach up to the hilt, and it was all Morgan could do not to pass out. The pain was horrific, and when both gods discharged an attack inside him, Morgan’s torso was blown apart. The spear spun from his grip as both gods pulled back, leaving him hanging in the air.

  Morgan gasped, feeling his skill fighting to restore him, even as the time on his Soulstream ran out. It only managed to partially close the wounds before it did, leaving him with two grievous injuries.

  His vision was beginning to blur, but Morgan was not done. He reached for the spear with his mind. He would not go down like this. Not when he still had a promise to fulfill. There were too many people counting on him, and this was not a fight he could afford to lose.

  The other Morgan lunged in, but Morgan deactivated his Flight and fell from the sky, avoiding being hit. His hand closed around the haft of his spear at the same time, and he slashed upward, opening a shallow cut along his counterpart’s calf. The other Morgan hissed in pain, but the wound wasn’t deep enough to do much more than irritate the man.

  Morgan caught himself with his Flight once more, then struck out with a powerful punch that caused pain to shoot through his body. His Compression skill blasted Sarah back, and he twisted in place, thrusting back with the spear and catching Katherine in the stomach. Only the tip managed to slice into her before Gwendolyn yanked her back, but it was enough to give him a second to breathe.

  Morgan didn’t dare look down at himself because he knew it was bad. There were two gaping holes in him right now, one in his chest and anoth
er in his stomach. His Soulstream had managed to stitch his body back together, but that was all it had done. He was still losing blood at a far faster rate than before.

  Breathing was becoming more difficult, yet he pushed the warm embrace of unconsciousness away in favor of attacking once more. He lunged, thrusting with his spear, but Gwendolyn knocked it aside, then returned with a strike of her own. The blade bit deep into his shoulder, Morgan unable to dodge in his current condition. But when he twisted the spear, bringing the haft to crack across her jaw, she was sent reeling.

  “Just give up,” the other Morgan said as the gods moved to surround him.

  Morgan’s eyes flicked between the four of them, feeling very much like a cornered animal. They weren’t trying to inflict any major injuries on him anymore – they didn’t have to. He was already injured enough and bleeding out quickly. All they had to do was keep him pinned and chip away at him until he fell.

  Then, his eyes flicked downward, and he felt his heart leap in his chest. Approaching the top of the split mountain, he could see his friends, the few people he cared about in this world. Katherine, Grace, and Lumia were all streaking toward him, looks of worry and horror on their faces as they beheld his condition.

  Elyssa, Hilda, and Beatrice were there as well, though Morgan had no idea why. He’d kicked Elyssa off the mountain to keep her from this, and now she was risking her life and that of their alliance to come help him along with the others.

  It wasn’t just them, though. That much was obvious. From his vantage point in the sky, he could see more. Hundreds of figures all swarmed near the bottom of the mountain, and although none of them seemed to be stronger than him, their overall strength was formidable. More than enough to kill all of his friends and pretty much ensure a war started.

  “So, this is your plan,” he said, glaring around at the people surrounding him. “Take us all out. Get your war, and Chaos rules supreme.”