by Casey Eanes
“Call out approach,” Willyn commanded her rook, and an automated voice called out in reply.
“Fifty meters.” Willyn lifted her thumb from her weapons control and the explosions in front and beside her subsided as she shifted all weapons energy back to her thrusters. She pushed the accelerator forward another click and watched as Isphet seemed to jeer at her accelerated charge.
“Thirty meters.”
Willyn pushed the throttle further still and the rook rattled beneath her as morels bounced off the vehicle.
“Twenty meters.” Willyn flipped a switch to her right and pressed herself back into her seat, readying herself for what had to come next.
“Fifteen meters.”
“Fire now! Fire now, Adley!” Willyn screamed as she slammed her throttle in full reverse. The impact of the sudden change slammed the rook’s nose into the dirt, sending a spray of dirt and rock in Isphet’s direction and slamming Willyn’s jaw against the rook’s primary console. Willyn’s head whipped back and slammed down again as the reverse burners pushed full power through their turbines and rocketed the craft backward.
Alarms screamed as the rook alert system called out that all engines were overheating and the right turbine had shattered during the direction change. At the same time, the console lit up and blared in bright red, announcing the payload from Adley and the incoming army overhead.
“Impact in five, four, three...”
Willyn held the throttle in reverse and uttered a simple prayer under her breath as the glowing green payload landed three feet from Isphet. Willyn braced herself as the orb began its inward pull, Isphet himself struggling to keep from being pulled into its gravitational field before it released its fury.
The explosion pulsed outward, sending morel bodies, dirt, and rock flying in every direction, sweeping up Willyn’s rook and tumbling it end over end. Willyn screamed out as her craft tumbled like a tin can, rolling over the mass that had surrounded their enemy.
Willyn braced herself as her rook crashed and skidded against the ground. Every system was chirping with alerts and critical error symbols as Willyn flipped the start over and pressed to try and engage the systems one last time.
“Do you dare throw stones at a god?” Isphet’s agitated voice invaded Willyn’s mind and stole her breath away as the dust cleared, revealing Isphet standing in the middle of a scorched circle, cleared fifty feet in every direction.
Aleph above. Aleph above. Aleph above. It was all she could think as the cursed god approached her destroyed rook.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Willyn punched at the cracked displays inside her crashed rook, fighting with every jammed switch, trying to power it back to life. She peered from the shattered windshield and continued to mutter prayers beneath her breath as she fought against her downed craft. Isphet took controlled steps in her direction, his burning eyes locked onto her.
“Calling out that name will do you nothing. I will enjoy introducing you to the void after death.”
“Get out of my head!” Willyn screamed. “Leave me!”
“Oh no, Willyn, I will enjoy crushing you.”
Willyn pulled at her safety harness, but the nylon strap over her left shoulder was jammed, refusing to release from its coupling. She tugged at the strap, but each movement tightened the strap against her. She reached to her waist, unsheathed her knife, and slashed at the harness. The belt made a loud snap as Willyn fell forward against the rook’s console. She peered up and shuddered as Isphet’s figure grew in the distance. He stepped slowly toward her, a wicked smile painted on his face. He knew she couldn’t outrun him and he was making it painfully obvious that her death would be nothing but a trifling affair as he pushed further.
“You lost, little girl.” Isphet’s voice rang in Willyn’s ears. “And you thought you could stop me with these...toys.”
Willyn found the release latch for the shattered hull and pulled it back. The latch worked and the windshield was ejected, allowing her to crawl out from the craft. Morels streamed past her, lurching into the valley below. Willyn scooped up a single jave held on the underside of the rook’s ceiling. Its light titanium metal felt comforting in her hand. A sea of morels rushed by her crashed craft, and Isphet pressed on toward her. Willyn turned and limped in the same direction as the shambling horde, trying to avoid eye contact with Isphet as he trailed behind her.
“You made my job too easy, Willyn. It’s just a matter of minutes now before I rip the essence from each and every body that you neatly huddled together for me.”
Willyn brought her datalink to her lips and called for Adley. “Call for a full retreat. If any units can punch through to the north, have them scatter!”
“It’s too late!” Adley’s voice came over the line, scrambled with the sounds of gunfire and Rot barking in the background. “They are already swarming our location. I don’t know how they got up here so fast. Ewing got the doors locked in time, but I don’t think we have long.”
Willyn turned back to Isphet. His smile widened, his cruel face marked with deep ruts of crimson wounds, radiating with the green glow of the pred tech weapon. It damaged him. It damaged him. The thought comforted her as she reached to free a grenade. She snatched the pin and hurled it at Isphet, who calmly plucked it from the air with his left hand, squeezing it like a toy ball as it exploded in his grasp.
“Stand still, little one. It’s time for us to talk.”
Willyn held her ground, flinging out the long dark jave, the weapon extending itself out like a staff. Willyn stood as a river of the dead marched by her, her crisp blue eyes marking Isphet. The gunfire and the explosions of the chaos behind her began to fade, and Willyn could feel her body prepare for what was coming. The wall of morels spread out, leaving a barren patch of dirt with Isphet standing on the other side. The snow now poured from the sky, indifferent to the reek and stench of war.
“So... this is what you want. To fight a god?” Isphet flashed a cruel grin. “Very well, little Sar. I will give you what you wish.”
Willyn held her datalink up to her mouth. “Adley...when I go down, unleash all that weapon has on my spot. No exceptions.”
“Aye.” The communication was quick, but long enough for Willyn to hear the shattering sound of a thousand bodies against the weakening defenses of the Lottian bunker.
Willyn twirled the jave in her hands and sneered at the cursed god. Isphet roared, rushing at her like a bull, his fingers shifting into points, like dark daggers. Willyn met him, her jave flying, countering the volley that Isphet landed. They each landed on her weapon like a sledgehammer. She felt her boots slide back in the cold, stiffening mud as the sparks lit off her jave.
“You will not last long, little Sar,” Isphet cooed. “A few more blows and then you will die alone, unloved in this world, your body only fit to be trampled on by the shambling dead.”
Willyn’s mind alit with fire and she flew the jave up, its point piercing Isphet’s right eye.
Isphet roared as black blood streamed out of the wound, and Willyn cracked her jave against the demon’s skull. The jave bent against the contact, the blow useless and damaging to her weapon.
“Enough!” Isphet roared and Willyn felt her body stiffen and seize. Each joint and muscle contracted and squeezed as if she had been bound up in invisible chains. Her feet lifted from the ground and she slowly turned in place, like a wobbling top.
“That’s better.” Isphet purred as he came within inches of her face. He ran a jagged fingernail down her cheek as he tilted his damaged face to the side, trying to lock eyes with her. She snapped her eyelids shut, refusing to look on the cursed god.
Isphet grasped Willyn’s face like a vice. He leaned in, whispering into her ear.
“Look on what you have done, little lord of war. You have done what you do best. You have helped bring death and destruction to Candor. You helped stoke the war that freed me. You brought me the Keys. Now you have brought all the Realms together in one place. Y
es, once again you did exactly as I wanted.” Isphet drew in a hissing breath. “You have served your purpose, and now you will fulfill your destiny as you surrender your essence for my Master.”
Willyn screamed as she felt a searing, knife-like pain slicing over her entire body. Her head felt like her brain was being pulled out through her forehead. Willyn fought with every ounce of energy her body had left. Trying to resist the pulling she could feel happening from the inside, working its way out.
The horizon grew darker as a cloud of inky black drew in from all angles. Willyn could feel her resolve weakening by the second. She whispered a curse, her crisp blue eyes locking on the god’s. “Damn you to the hottest hell, Isphet.” Then she shut her eyes and silently said a simple prayer as the pain crashed over her like a tsunami. A black line darted over the horizon, moving quickly in her direction.
“Isphet!” The voice boomed over the din of war.
Willyn crashed to the ground and gasped for air as the strangling pain immediately alleviated.
“Kull?” Willyn whispered as she strained to focus her eyes through the pouring snow and the madness that surrounded them.
“Isphet!” The voice sent chills down Willyn’s spine.
“Seam!?”
Seam moved over the horizon like a bolt of black lightning, dashing between the few morels still moving over the hill. He sliced through the crowd of undead bodies and crashed into Isphet, bulldozing him to the ground. Seam lifted his arm, the obsidian blade glinting brightly in the dimming sunlight. He hammered it down into Isphet’s chest, causing Isphet to howl with a cry that shook the hillside.
Isphet countered with a powerful right hook against Seam’s jaw, sending the fallen High King flying into the air like a spinning top. The Serub jumped to his feet and threw a pulse of energy in Seam’s direction as he landed, but the concussive blast tumbled him another ten yards before he righted himself again.
Seam’s hand returned to normal form and he reached out with an open palm in Isphet’s direction. Isphet grasped at his wrist as Seam pulled at the bracer and its Keys with some invisible energy. Isphet crashed to the dirt as he grasped at the Keys with his opposite hand.
Isphet leapt to his feet and lunged for Seam, crashing against him, knocking him off balance. Isphet swiped with his left hand, his fingers slashing four parallel lines across Seam’s chest. Isphet drew back again with his right hand and slashed four more lines of crimson across Seam’s neck and shoulder.
Seam staggered back and grasped at the severed chain dangling around his neck. He could feel the energy coursing from Aleph’s Key as it hung from the broken chain. He drew it into his open palm and took a deep breath as Isphet’s eyes flew to the source of Seam’s newfound power.
Willyn steadied herself and placed a hand against her temple as she fought to keep her eyes focused on Seam and Isphet trading blows. She staggered back as a rook flashed over the horizon far to her left. The craft kicked up a plume of dust and rattled off rounds as it mowed down a wall of morels separating it from Willyn.
The craft slid to a halt and the rear hatch flipped up. Willyn glanced up as Kull leapt from the back of the rook and took her hand. “Come on, we have to move quickly. Where are Adley and Ewing?”
Willyn pointed past the swarming multitude of morels pressing into the hollow and up at the overlooking hills. “There.”
The exhaustion was too much for Willyn and she stumbled forward into Kull’s arms. He put a shoulder under her right arm and lifted her to her feet. “We don’t have much time. Let’s go.”
Willyn nodded and pulled herself into the rook’s rear hold. “You sure you know how to drive this thing?” she chided Cyric as he looked back from his controls.
“Nope,” he quipped. “Better hold on.”
Ewing threw another empty clip to the ground and slammed a new one in place. He drew back his rifle’s bolt and pointed it back out the narrow slot in the cement pill box. He squeezed the trigger and let off a fresh new burst of rounds as his rifle jolted to the right and wrenched from his grasp.
“What tha?” Ewing gasped as his rifle was ripped from the window. “That thing swiped my rifle!” Ewing unholstered his pistol and fired it off, ripping through the morel that had stolen the rifle issued to him when he first joined the Academy as a cadet.
The banging intensified across the metal door. “We don’t have much longer, Ewing!” Rot pounced against the door, barking savagely as if begging to be released to fight. Adley yelled into her datalink. “How much longer? How far are your jets?”
“Just fifteen minutes now and closing.”
“We don’t have fifteen minutes! Our position is compromised,” yelled Adley as she closed the line and screamed in frustration.
The crashing continued and the iron door jolted with each massive hit, each one bringing a new creak and groan from the heavy iron hinges. Adley took out her rifle and leveled it on the door. “They can’t squeeze through the window, Ewing. Let’s focus on this door.” As Ewing turned, a morel arm flashed through the window and grasped the soldier to his left by the throat, pulling him against the opening by his neck. The soldier let out a bloodcurdling scream as he smashed against the cement and fell to the floor with his throat gashed open.
Ewing fired at the morel, but it had already scampered over the bunker. Ewing and the two remaining soldiers moved quickly away from the opening to avoid a similar fate.
The door shuttered with each new impact until one loud crack announced the first hinge breaking free. The top of the door bent inward and arms grasped through the thin opening, clawing through the door’s interior. Adley called Rot back as he lunged for the door. She squeezed the trigger and quickly landed three shots on the morel trying to press through.
A new impact hit the door and the top half bent down further. Adley glanced down as the middle hinge bent back, its bolts freeing themselves from the cement wall. Morels immediately surged for the new opening with heads and arms pressing through the space as Ewing, Adley, and the two soldiers fired at the trespassers, but quickly stopped as several shots ricocheted inside the pillbox.
One of the soldiers screamed. “I’m hit!”
Adley cursed beneath her breath and rushed to the soldier’s side, inspecting the wound in his abdomen. She pressed her hand into the wound as crimson gushed around her fingers.
“Hold your fire, soldier!” yelled Ewing. “Get with me against this door, we just have to try and hold it or we will get hit too.” Ewing glanced at Rot and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Looks like you’ll get your chance soon, boy—” The door took another heavy hit, and Ewing and the soldier pushed back against the intrusion.
The clamor continued to escalate, and Ewing could feel his feet slipping in the wrong direction. He readied his pistol in his hand and yelled out to Adley. “We fought hard!”
One last shot to the door knocked Ewing to the floor. The impact sent a sharp pain stabbing through his shoulder as a loud snap rang out. Ewing tried to move his left arm but it dangled by his side. He scrambled to grab his pistol as it slid across the floor into the same corner as the nearly decapitated soldier. Ewing pressed his back against the wall and leveled his pistol on the breached door, waiting on the flood to start.
The room went silent aside from Rot’s non- stop barking as he lunged for the opening. Then the sound of rumbling feet rolled over the bunker. Ewing and Adley jumped to their feet and ran to the door, pulling Rot back as he tried to squeeze through the opening and make chase. Beyond the door there was nothing. Not a single morel was waiting. The two scrambled back to the slit window and peered out in time to see morels crashing down the hill and swarming away from their position and out of the hollow.
Seam steadied himself for another punch and smiled as his fist crashed against Isphet’s skull. Isphet reeled backward and staggered to his feet, only to be met by another blow. His eyes went black as he took another shot to the jaw. Seam morphed his arm into its obsidian blade and drew back, aim
ing for Isphet’s neck.
As Seam pulled forward, a heavy force slammed against his right side, tumbling him to the ground. Within seconds a flurry of hands grasped at him, pulling him away from Isphet. Seam spun, slicing with a wide arc and cutting down four morels that had leapt onto him. But those four were replaced by seven more that rushed in from Seam’s blind side, crashing over him and piling their weight onto him. Seam let out another flurry of blows, hammering his fist against several morels while using his opposite arm to pierce or slice through others, but the swarm would not relent.
Isphet stepped forward and jeered. “Are you done playing god, Seam?”
Seam stared up at Isphet as he stalked forward. Boldly, he called, “You’re the one pretending, Kalec!”
Isphet stopped and tilted his head to the side. “What did you call me?”
Seam sneered as he struggled against the morels piling onto him. “I know your past! You and I...we are the same, but I am your better.”
The Key of Aleph began to emit a radiant heat as Seam pulled against his attackers. “When I took Dyrn, I took his memories and I saw what you are! A street urchin with delusions of grandeur and nothing more. You always thought you were a god, but—”
Isphet flicked his wrist and the horde of morels was hurled from Seam like ants being blown from their mound by a stick of dynamite. Isphet closed the distance between them and clasped his hand around Seam’s throat, lifting him into the air.
“I will show you my power…human. Your meddling ends now!”
Isphet’s eyes drew up into his skull, and Seam could feel him pulling at his essence. The feeling was familiar, similar to his struggle with Dyrn, but amplified. His head throbbed and he felt as if his mind was being peeled from his skull. He fought to focus, but the assault came quick and with an immeasurable force. As Seam grasped at the bracer on Isphet’s arm, he felt Aleph’s Key continue to pulse with raw energy in the pocket where it was stashed.