by Greg Ballan
The silver warrior shouted, ANA KOLAR!!!! At his command, the alien reddish purple sky unleashed a continuous searing lance of energy. The stream of power impacted his outstretched hand, bathing his whole body in the glowing purple radiance. The warrior harnessed the power and redirected the force through his other hand and pointed, open palm, toward the approaching behemoths. The purple energy combined with his own aqua bioelectric force and a beam generated by the sentient staff's myriad power. The triple lances of energy braided together and sped toward the lumbering giants. The sound created by the superheated air was deafening. The braided beams of energy slammed into the emerald giant, penetrating it's shielding, burning a hole clear through its body. The searing energy impacted the titanic red creature, sizzling and charring its rutted hide. The beam washed over the creature's chest and throat, then worked up to its sensitive blood-red eyeballs exploding three of them, vaporizing the ruby organs on contact and incinerating several bat-winged flying creatures. The creature shrieked in agony and raised its hands, swatting at the painful lances of energy.
The hybrid didn't waver. He kept pushing more and more power at the massive entity. The braided lance dropped lower, impacting the creature's neck, boring a hole clean through. Glowing ichor sprayed from severed arteries, flowing down the massive creature like a raging waterfall. The beam moved slightly left, vaporizing the rest of the neck tissue, severing the massive head. The severed head dropped and rolled several feet before the horn impaled itself into the ground. Blood and ichor erupted like a geyser from the headless torso. The great body teetered back and forth, stumbling forward, a titanic marching corpse. The headless entity took one last step, then fell like a massive oak cut by a chainsaw. The headless body flattened another section of the marketplace. The concussion from its impact shook the very ground like an earthquake. The dust and debris from the ruined buildings settled into a wide concentric debris field.
The silver warrior dropped to one knee, pausing to survey the destruction. The soul market was decimated. In the distance dozens of ships were airborne and launching. Several craft disappeared, jumping through multicolored portals escaping the destruction. Erik looked over to where Martin and his mother were hidden. Martin, are you both okay?
Martin walked out from behind a massive boulder, followed by the wispy pink apparition that was his mother. She floated toward him, her hand gently caressing his silver face. "My baby boy, what happened to you?"
Erik changed, becoming human. He reached over to hug her, his hands passing through her ghostly form. "It's a long story, but now we have to leave before they can conjure up more creepies." He pointed. "The portal is this way."
"Erik," Martin whispered, blushing slightly. "Do you want my jacket to tie around your waist?"
Erik suddenly realized he was naked. "Oh shit! Staff, body covering, please."
The sentient staff flowed around his torso and limbs. The weapon's color changed to a dark coal black with a silver stripe. Erik was covered in a form-fitting body suit with skin tight shoes. He looked over at Martin and smiled. "Thanks, Counselor. Now let's get moving."
Martin shook his head. "Metal underwear. Just when I thought I've seen everything."
They walked in silence. The sound of distant alarms and voices carried. Erik looked back and scanned the red horizon for any signs of trouble. In the distance, he saw something, something big—even bigger than the reddish demon. The being towered over the alien spaceport control center, the tallest structure in the soul market. Erik estimated the being was easily over a two hundred and fifty yards tall and still growing, as if it arose from the very ground. Its roar reverberated throughout miles of open space.
"Oh boy, we've got more company coming. They called in their 'Godzilla.'" Erik waved his hand over the space in front of him. "Thank God we've reached the portal."
The ground began to shake worse than before. They heard screams of panic. Erik made a gesture and the portal flowed open. They passed through, leaving behind whatever terror had been conjured to attack them next.
Erik stepped into the corn field and knew they were back. Martin and his mother were already through. The feeling of disorientation passed quickly. The old farmer turned to regard them. The look on his face was one of pure rage. His face split, and spiny barbs protruded from his face and limbs. "You stole a soul! You must die!"
Erik prepared for an attack. The sound of a gunshot rang out and the demon's skull split. It fell to the ground, writhing in agony as purple fire consumed it. Erik looked over at his friend. "I'd like some of those bullets."
Denton shook his head. "Sorry, this is my last clip."
Erik turned to his mother, tears flowing. "You're free, mom. I don't know how to help you now, but I have some new allies that can."
The pink specter became corporeal. Erik slowly reached forward and touched his mother's cheek. He burst into tears. "Mom!" he embraced her as he cried. "Oh God, Mom, you're alive!"
"No son, I've just been given a moment to say goodbye. Look at me, Erik." She held his tear-stained face in her hands. "Your father and I loved you and still love you, always. I am so proud of you, my son. You've become such a fine young man. You saved me. I don't know how you found me, but I'll tell your father you saved me. Take care of yourself, and live a full happy life." Mother and son embraced one last time as, bit by bit, Andrea Knight dissipated and made her final journey home. Erik fell to his knees weeping, heartbroken, as he endured the loss of his mother.
Chapter 8: Power Play
Mendon MA. Uber Café & Music House
Erik absently stirred his iced coffee and picked at his turkey rollup. Martin sipped his tea and was staring at the musician performing on the corner stage. The three-hour ride back from Connecticut had been in absolute silence. They spoke briefly at an outlet store when the embattled detective purchased some clothing. Martin reached out to Vatican City informing them that they had driven Molec back to Earth. The counselor avoided going into more detail regarding their terrifying escapades, but judging from the frosty tone, he'd assumed they already knew of the calamity. Both men were lost inside themselves, processing the mind numbing events of the day. Erik would occasionally let a sob escape as his eyes stayed locked on the road.
"Hi. Is everything okay? You haven't touched your food? You both look like you've seen a ghost or something." The young girl smiled.
Martin looked up, doing his best to be pleasant. "My dear, you don't know the half of it. But seeing someone as pretty and pleasant as you certainly takes the edge off an incredibly bad day."
The girl blushed perfectly and smiled. "Do you need anything else? How about a song? Jimmy can play and sing just about anything."
Denton smiled. "A song would be perfect. Surprise us with something upbeat and light, please."
Erik took a sip of his coffee and finally spoke. "Counselor, I thought I'd seen everything, but today … today just dwarfs it all. I met my mother, Martin. Her soul was abducted and held in a glass globe for sale to some soul-sucking wretch to feed upon like a leech." Erik took another sip of his coffee. "How do you process that?" A tear rolled down his cheek. "I saw an Esper … an honest to god Esper being sold into slavery and I couldn't save her. What if she died during that onslaught? Now I'll never know. I can never go back there again—if there's even a market to go back to after what those creatures did."
"Son, I don't know. I can't imagine what you're feeling right now, but let me say this. You had an opportunity nobody else in the world will ever have. You got to say goodbye to your mother after you believed the opportunity was long gone. You saved her. She's in a better place because of you and your actions. That's something no one can take away from you. Not too many people get to say a final goodbye at all." Denton paused, "And we both got something else positive from this nightmare."
Erik tilted his head. "Enlighten me."
The old man sniffed and a tear leaked from his eye soon followed by another. "Comfort. We know our loved ones are the
re waiting for us. William, my wife Edna, your parents…" he wiped away a tear. "They're all waiting for us."
Erik nodded. "Yeah, that's true." He tensed, and his hand formed a fist. "Martin, I just don't understand something. When I broke that orb, I knocked over some shelves, overturned some chairs and caused a few canopy fires and fractured a few walls."
Denton's lips turned up in a sardonic grin. "Yeah, not to mention several windows."
Erik leaned forward and tapped the table. "Okay, so we caused a bit of wreckage, but look what their guards did. My God, they leveled miles of stores and carts. I mean those things vaporized buildings and God only knows how many beings just to get us." Erik sighed. "That final sentinel. Cripes! It was a monster! The caretakers of the marketplace did all that to keep us from taking a single soul? That's a hell of a high price to pay. I don't understand the cost benefit of having that kind of security."
Denton rubbed his chin. "I don't know, Erik, I honestly don't understand that kind of threat response. Would you call the police if you were being robbed, knowing they'd burn down your house in the process of capturing the thief?"
Erik shook his head. "No. I think Molec's disastrous arrival had already pissed off some powerful entities. Freeing my mom was the straw that broke the camel's back though." Erik took a deep sip of his iced coffee, relishing the sensation as the cool beverage slid down his throat. "We pissed off that first purple guy that tried to steal your soul. We had a firefight and freed the Space Mariner stranding an alien crew for who knows how long, and I freed my mother. I guess we were like the annoying mosquito that keeps buzzing around your ear finally forcing a swat." Erik's eyes squinted and he frowned. "A hell of a big swat. How many other flies, gnats, and bugs got squashed in that smackdown? That's a hefty price for justice."
"There are different sets of rules and we have no idea what they are," Denton took a small bite of his sandwich. "All I know is I don't ever want to go back there again."
Erik grinned. "Yeah, I'm with you. I think maybe Congressman Anderson was right. We really don't know what we're up against, what kind of power they can bring to bear." Erik flexed his arm. The burn scars were still visible but had faded considerably. "I was hurt, Martin. Even in my warrior form, I was hurt. With all this Esper power, I still felt the pain." The detective grimaced. "Those beams were devastating." Erik leaned back. "I don't think I could have taken much more of a pummeling. I unleashed more focused energy on that reddish creature than I even unloaded on the Observer battle drones several years back. That thing took those blasts full on and kept coming forward despite the beating it took. I couldn't get a sense of intellect, just a desire to mindlessly kill…" Erik took another sip of his coffee. "Not just us, but everything that got in its way. That thing was just a mindless killing drone. Why would the keepers, whether it be Molec, Lucifer, or whatever force runs this place, trash all of it?" The detective looked up. "Or did we cause it by our actions." Erik considered that. "Correction, my actions. You were just a bystander."
Denton shook his head. "We're in this together. I snuffed out the gate guard, so my hands aren't lily white. We're in the middle of a brewing war, Erik. Molec can't keep a grip on his prize for much longer if we're to believe our large whale friend and that both scares and concerns me."
Erik nodded. "Yeah, the classic next step for somebody pushed too far is…" He let his words hang unfinished.
"The last act of desperation that usually unleashes chaos," Martin took another sip of his tea. "For all parties involved—and I'm not fond of mutually assured destruction. I'm trying not to imagine a similar cast of horrors unleashed on our world that was let loose at the soul market."
Erik took a large bite of his rollup, studying the people laughing, enjoying their food and the music. "I envy them, Martin. I envy their ignorance. I'd rather be blissfully numb to all this drama. I just want to hug my boy, and hold my wife in my arms for a while and live a quiet, boring life." He leaned back sighing heavily. "The vastness of all of this blows my mind. I feel insignificant, irrelevant even, knowing all of this. Maybe it's all just a game played by higher beings and we are pieces to be moved about for someone else's amusement. Maybe our world is just a microcosm of the larger struggle happening the universe." Erik shrugged. "That's how it appears to me."
"Oh Lord thy sea is so vast and my vessel so small," Martin whispered.
Erik tilted his head. "The Breton Fisherman's prayer. It seems appropriate."
Martin frowned. "What did you make of the merchant's last warning, regarding the theft of your mother's soul, saying Lucifer would never let that stand? I don't much welcome the king of the underworld putting a mark out on me."
Erik lifted his eyebrows. "I think our pitchfork carrying, pointy tailed opponent has bigger fish to fry than an old man avenging his son's murder or even a half-alien agent running amok. I admit we've tipped over some apple carts and maybe kicked him in the balls a bit, but we're small potatoes compared to Molec. Lucifer wants the archdemon's head on his trophy case. I don't blame him. I want to get my hands on him too for the soul bounty on my son. But I get the feeling we're just small players on one world in a game occurring across an entire universe with millions of galaxies and billions of planets. All controlled by these Ethereals." Erik took another sip of his coffee. "Does that make you feel any better?"
"Not really. Just more insignificant in the cosmos."
"My point, exactly." Erik nodded with a smirk. The detective seemed to loosen a bit.
"So what's our next move?"
Erik leaned back in his chair. "We go back to the last place we encountered Molec. I want to do a full search of that building. Our creepy friend has been hiding right under my nose for a while and he left in a hurry. There has to be some clues where he'd be. We didn't do a thorough search while our heavenly allies were here. I want to do one tomorrow." Erik pulled out his cell phone. "I need to check in with Shanda and see how things are going with her and EJ, then I'm going to sit here for an hour or so and soak up these positive vibes. After that, I suggest we crash at my place and search that mill from top to bottom first thing in the morning."
Denton nodded as he gestured toward a curvy waitress. "Can I get another tea and some more coffee for my friend here?"
◆◆◆
Molec's Stronghold
"Three emerald sentinels were destroyed, one completely vaporized, the other two have gaping holes through their corpses. Kannaro the giant had his head severed by some beam of incredible power." The voice on the monitor paused. "And the hybrid freed the Space Mariner. The Kenecian crew has to wait ten years for another craft to pick them up from their galaxy. All the cargo and souls inside the mariner's body are a complete loss. The Kenecians hold you responsible Lord Molec and they are demanding compensation. They claim had you not forced the crew to attack the hybrid, they would still have their ship and cargo."
"Damn him. How did he know I'd be there? The forces of Light are using him like a blunt instrument. They cannot go to the marketplace so they send their alien half-breed puppet after me."
"The amount of damage caused when the sentinels fell was substantial. Hundreds of human souls were freed when their containment vessels shattered. Merchants and customers alike were crushed, trapped inside their ruined stores. Our sources say Lucifer is most put out with both you and this Erik Knight being."
Molec leaned back in his chair, stretching his arms, shaking his massive horned head. "I was told he found his mother's soul and managed to free her."
"Yes. That was the lynch pin that set forth the sentinel forces. Many things are tolerated in the Soul Market but theft of any kind unleashes the sentinels and they live only to destroy. Out of fear, no one steals from another knowing the price for such an act is the ruin of all. Erik Knight wasn't aware of that and many merchants paid the price for his ignorance. Now four of the most powerful sentinel guards in the galaxy are terminated and the market will be sealed until all can be restored. This hybrid warrior is fas
t becoming a nuisance we can no longer afford. If the forces of light discover the Soul Market had been abducting and selling Heaven-bound human souls, they would wage such a fit no place in the galaxy, let alone the known worlds, would be safe. We fear that Erik Knight will inform his allies. If his mother's soul passed through to the next realm, all will be revealed."
Molec frowned. "That's Lucifer's problem, not mine. If Heaven decides to snuff him out, I certainly won't weep over the loss. My problem is the damned hybrid. I can't keep looking over my shoulder having the Esper half breed pop up. He's proving to be more of an inconvenience than I anticipated."
The being on the screen snickered. "What did you expect? You put a soul bounty on his child, sent a demon to rape and slaughter his bride and kill the child. You act stunned when he hunts you without mercy? The hybrid is tenacious, and now his family is out of our reach. Lucifer, for all his prattle, is lazy and content—a fat poodle happy to lay in the sun while others do his bidding. Erik Knight is a wolf—hungry, lean and quick to anger. This wolf has sharp fangs as you've seen, and that wolf is looking to sink those teeth into your backside."
"Don't mock me! I'm in no mood! Knight just needs to have his attention diverted."
"My apologies, Lord Molec, Washington shares your concern about the hybrid, but his family hides under the umbrella of the Vatican. Powerful forces of Light protect his other offspring and those dear to him. We cannot get to his family and thus, he is free to hunt you and us at will."
Molec laughed and flames shot from his nostrils. "I've got it. We can't get into the Vatican, true. But we can make it so that no one else can either. We can prevent people from going in or out by blockading the holy city with our forces. We could erect a demonic barrier around the city and starve the humans out. The soft, pampered priests would beg for a compromise and gladly turn over the child to free themselves." Molec grinned. "We could sack all of Rome and force Knight and the armies of Light and Dark to engage in a war of mutual extinction. All we need is a catalyst and the forces to make it happen."