by Eric Vall
Orenn switched to his metal form, and his skin rippled with a chrome coating as magic reinforced his body.
“Varleth and I can help carry Gawain,” the metallogue shouted. “You guys have to do all the fighting!”
As the words left his mouth, a figure appeared at the end of the hall. For a moment, I recognized her as a blue-skinned child.
Phi had appeared in that form to us before, but instead of facing us as a child, she quickly began to change.
Phi walked toward us, and with every step, her legs lengthened while her body matured. I watched as her face sharpened into an adult’s as she approached with casual, slow steps. Then beautiful white wings unfurled from her back and stretched across the hallway.
She looked like Sera’s light-kissed twin.
“I appreciate that you’ve fixed my toy,” Phi said lightly, but her voice was serious and mature, and it clashed badly with the childlike words that came from her mouth.
“We’re just going to leave now, if that’s okay with you,” I called to her down the hallway as I backpedaled.
I glanced at Orenn and Varleth, and it looked like they finally had a firm grasp on Gawain. I turned sideways to jog after them as my team retreated down the hall.
“Actually, it’s not okay with me,” Phi answered with unnatural volume as she advanced. “The ciphers are mine. His body is mine. The human realm is mine. Give them back.”
“No!” I shouted shortly.
Phi bared her teeth and snapped her fingers.
I glanced behind us to see a flood of snarling monsters turn the corner of the hall some hundred yards behind her. They rushed past Phi as their teeth snapped and their claws scraped across the floor. Bandersnatches, shadowcats, and grey prowlers careened down the hall with murderous intent.
Even worse, the monsters that I could identify were accompanied by a variety of terrifying beasts I’d never even seen before.
“Erin,” I ordered, “make a wall!”
The mimic spun out a spell just as the beasts leapt within a few feet of us, and a solid wall made of black marble and dirt sprang up between us.
I flinched as horrible scrapes and thudding sounds pounded against the surface of it while monsters tried to tear their way through the wall. From the sound of it, they were succeeding quickly.
We gained ground as the hall disappeared behind us, and our team limped and jogged around several corners.
Then an awful crack and a crumbling sound emanated from the space behind us and echoed around the palace walls.
“They’ve broken through,” Erin gasped.
A horrible pounding noise beat rhythmically through the hall behind us.
“What is that?” Layla demanded as her hazel eyes flashed.
I didn’t know, but our question was answered as a hulking monster rounded the corner and slammed into the black marble with erratic speed. It shook the rubble from its hide and turned to us as it fixed its glittering, beady eyes on our team.
“Tunnel giant,” I breathed out as my mouth dropped open in shock.
The giant roared and beat its enormous fists on the ground as it realized we were the prey it had been chasing. The skin on the back of its hands was rough and covered with short, serrated spikes. Its feet were similarly large and tipped with long, flattened claws that would be perfect for digging.
It was an ugly brute and not nearly as large as other species of giants, but tunnel giants were perfectly designed for fighting in cramped spaces like this. Even worse, one could burst straight through a wall of earth like it was nothing. Erin’s versatile earth magic would be useless in defending against this monster.
“Keep running!” I shouted as I pulled an essence crystal from my bandolier. “I’ll take care of this one!”
I threw out my kalgori and commanded them to multiply as I grabbed my entire collection of speed slugs from my belt. I only had eight, but it would have to be enough.
My teammates shot me worried glances as they approached the corner, but they listened to my orders and kept running.
The tunnel giant roared and began its charge. The rough hide on its back scraped the ceiling of the hallway and showered debris and rock to the floor as it lumbered after me.
I attached speed slugs to the backs of as many kalgori as I could.
The tunnel giant pounded toward me as I stood alone in the hallway across from it. Vibrations from its charge rumbled up my spine and chattered my teeth. There was nowhere for me to dodge, and nowhere for me to hide.
When the tunnel giant reached me, I would be crushed.
I closed my eyes and commanded the kalgori to fly.
Chapter 18
My kalgori peaked at their maximum speed just as they reached the charging tunnel giant.
The two monsters collided without a hint of ever slowing down, and the immense speed worked in my favor exactly as I had planned. My kalgori folded their wings and tore into the tunnel giant’s flesh like living bullets.
The tunnel giant bellowed and collapsed like a felled tree before it slid across the floor toward me. I backpedaled even as my monsters continued to carve deep, uneven holes into the giant’s flesh. The tunnel giant came to a rest and thrashed wildly as it moaned in pain and rage.
After a quick mental command, my kalgori buried themselves even further as they flailed their metal-edged wings with speed-slug fueled strength.
The giant suddenly seized up, so one of my kalgori must have gotten lucky. The enormous monster thrashed just once more and coughed before it went completely limp.
Perhaps my butterflies had managed to hit some vital organs, or maybe the flesh wounds took a while to kick in. However it had happened, the result was clear.
The tunnel giant was dead.
I panted and wiped the sweat from my forehead before I recalled my kalgori. Then I turned and ran after the path of my teammates.
I found them in a wider hallway as they slew an enormous group of flying ice imps. The ground was coated in frost an inch thick, and icicles hung from the ceiling.
I threw out a couple axe goblins to help, but the ice imps stood no chance anyway. My team was doing a great job of taking care of the situation.
Gawain leaned against the wall and aimed his gun with a trembling hand, but he shot off flaming bullets with impressive aim worthy of any sharpshooter. Orenn pounded approaching imps flat with his metal-strengthened fists while Varleth felled them from the sky with his banisher sword.
Layla’s keichim flitted across the room on near-invisible wings as it shocked large swathes of ice imps at a time, and Cyra directed Kalon as the dragon swooped at the imps with fangs and claws. Erin dislodged chunks of black marble from the ceiling, and the dark slabs of rock crushed several ice imps at once.
Finally, the last of the ice imps fell to Orenn’s fists, and the fight was over.
“Let’s move,” I ordered with a toss of my head.
Orenn and Varleth grabbed Gawain again to help him walk, and my team jogged into the next large room.
We were stopped by a trio of prowling monsters in our way. Their heads spun around, and their gazes locked onto us as we froze in the doorway.
“I’ll get the gryphon,” I commanded rapidly. “Everybody keep your eyes away from my battle! Erin, Layla, and Cyra, you’re on the basilisk. Varleth, Gawain, and Orenn, you deal with the ice troll.”
The gryphon had the spotted body of a muscled, powerful jaguar. Its head was that of a hawk or a falcon, and the beak curved wickedly at the tip. Its front legs ended in birdlike talons which left white scratches on the black marble of the palace floor. Two brown wings with pale white undersides extended from the gryphon’s back, and it mantled them as it screeched out a challenge at my team.
The space was too small for my roosa, but I had the next best thing. I grabbed a crystal from the middle of my bandolier and threw it out before it shattered on the marble floor.
My arachness emerged, and her large spider’s body shifted unpredictably
across the ground on eight spindly black legs. Her face was that of a beautiful woman with golden skin and black hair, but I dared not look at her eyes. The reason I asked my team to look away was because my arachness’s gaze was paralyzing.
The gryphon flew at her with its dangerous claws outstretched toward her face, but she dodged the attack effortlessly as she stabbed out with two of her powerful spider’s legs. They left deep scores across the gryphon’s flank.
The gryphon beat its wings and lashed out with its hooked beak as it pawed at my arachness. She was knocked over, and the gryphon clamped its beak hard around the fragile underparts of her torso. For a moment, it seemed like it was the end for my arachness.
Her final skill came into play soon enough, though. The gryphon unknowingly locked eyes with the arachness and sealed its fate. The gryphon’s jaguar limbs froze, and its bird head seized into total stillness. The entire body trembled once more, and then it became completely paralyzed.
My arachness had won.
I stepped forward and drew my rhin knife before I sliced a clean line across the gryphon’s unmoving throat. The monster collapsed into death as the fatal blow took effect.
I turned my attention to my teammates. The ice troll was thoroughly dead already, and its hairy body was sprawled out across the stone floor. Gawain, Varleth, and Orenn had joined forces with the girls to take care of the green basilisk. The serpentlike monster looked close to death, and as I watched, Kalon sank her fangs into the back of its scaled neck.
The basilisk thrashed and drooled onto the floor, but it was over within a minute. Its motions stilled, and Kalon stepped away from the corpse with a flutter of her pink wings.
“Wow, good job,” I complimented my teammates as they stood back proudly from the felled beast. “Basilisks are tough.”
We knew it from experience, since some of us had been forced to try to kill a yellow basilisk a few months ago that emerged from a rift. It had been a tough challenge, but I was glad for the experience, since it was how I first met Ashla.
“Thanks, but that’s enough monsters for one day, so I vote we run,” Layla proposed with an exhausted giggle.
“Not a bad idea. Let’s go!” I directed.
My team filed in behind me as we jogged through the final few hallways. A bandersnatch leapt from the shadows at us, but Gawain took it down with a fire bullet before I could even react. A small group of goblins tried to give us trouble further in, but Layla’s keichim doubled in size before it discharged an electric shock that fried them instantly.
The pale, sickly light of the open Shadowscape shone through the door into the hallway, and I smiled at the thought of being back in the fresh, open air. Well, not exactly fresh, since all of us except for Gawain had on gas masks to take care of the horrific stench of decay and death.
We stepped through into the light, and I sighed in relief as my team put distance between us and the entry into the black palace.
“Does anybody have an extra mask?” I asked as the thought occurred to me.
“I do,” Cyra replied with a wave toward the pack on her back.
“Layla, get the mask out and give it to Gawain,” I requested as my eyes scanned the barren field in front of us.
The area looked clear, so maybe this would be a good time to open the rift.
Put more space between us and the palace, Sera commanded with uncharacteristic concern in her voice. Opening the rift will take time and drain you. If I know my sister, she will not allow you to escape so easily.
As if on cue, a figure emerged from the destroyed opening in the palace wall. We were only a few dozen feet away, so I could clearly see the two white wings that stretched from her shoulders. Her hair was long, like Sera’s, but it was pale as new-fallen snow. Her milky-white eyes sent a shiver down my back as she gazed at the seven of us, and her clothing was mostly gone, save for a few golden chains that wrapped around her pale blue skin.
It was Phi of course, and she wasn’t giving up on us yet.
I prepared for a physical fight or another childish taunt, but what I got was nothing at all like what I had expected.
Phi’s voice whispered through my head with a ghostlike echo as she spoke directly into my mind. Gryff, I’m saddened to see you’ve chosen the wrong ally to side with. Sera will only ever lead you astray. Unlike me, she cares nothing for the good of humans and monsters alike.
“Don’t listen to her,” Erin urged, and I realized Phi had decided to speak to all of us, rather than just to me.
I took an angry step toward the white-winged Archon. “You, caring for humans? I’ve never heard anything more ridiculous.”
Phi’s voice sounded hurt. But I do. It’s why I seek to reunite the two realms and bring monsters back into the human world. As things are now, we will only destroy each other with bitterness and the desire for vengeance. When we live in the same world, we can share in the benefits. We can live in balance.
“Fucking liar,” I scoffed. “When you say balance, you mean that humans will have to live in complete terror of monsters roaming the Wilds at all times. We can’t achieve peace like that, and you know it.”
Can’t we? Phi asked in an elegant voice. Things aren’t working out right now. What if this is the only possible path for success, and you’re just throwing it away?
That’s not true, Sera rebutted. My sister wishes to destroy humans. She has for millennia, and there’s no way she would change her mind.
“Sera seems pretty confident the only thing you want is vengeance,” I spat back.
Sera is a liar, Phi replied with a sad sigh. But what can you expect? Just look at her. There’s a reason angels in your myths have white wings, not black ones. Her treachery is what forced me and the other Archons to lock her away. Didn’t you wonder why she was in the crystal cave and not me? She was the corrupting force in our midst all along, so we banished her. Unfortunately, it was too late.
I hesitated for a moment at the news that Phi hadn’t been alone in banishing Sera. Was I trusting the wrong Archon?
Of course Phi had allies among the Archons, Sera explained. Our infighting knew no bounds, and sides changed often. I’m sure Phi betrayed them once I was gone.
I shook my doubts off. It would do me no good to start questioning Sera now. It wasn’t like I didn’t know she was evil and dangerous all along. I knew she didn’t care about human lives, but she’d been honest about it the entire time I’d known her.
I had to be strong against Phi’s influence.
“You hurt Gawain,” I snarled. “You almost killed him. I’ll never trust you after what you did.”
Gawain … Phi murmured with remorse in her voice. Gawain was a mistake, I’m afraid. Really, I chose the wrong body to inhabit. It’s not my fault he didn’t stand up well to the possession. How was I to know he was so fragile? It’s been hundreds of years since I last claimed a body.
“Right,” I answered sarcastically, “and you just conveniently also forgot humans can be ripped to shreds when you send hordes of monsters after them. Your beasts could’ve killed Gawain right now.”
I’m sorry, Phi apologized with a soft voice. Gawain really was just a waste of time, but that can’t surprise you too much. You know you’ve always been the better fighter, the nicer man, the kinder leader, the more attractive option. I don’t want Gawain, Gryff, I want you. I’ve always wanted you. Abandon Sera and join me. Together we can fix our realms.
“Like hell that’s ever going to happen,” I exclaimed with a disbelieving laugh. “I don’t believe a word you say, and you don’t deserve a second chance after everything you’ve done.”
Phi’s white eyes flashed with anger as she stepped closer to us. You would reject my offer out of hand? How dare you. If Sera told you she’s more powerful than I am, she’s lying to you. How else do you think I imprisoned her? I’m the one with the power, not her. I’m better, Gryff. Pick me, and I can help you fulfill all of your desires. You want to be a hero? I’ll make you the grea
test hero to ever walk Mistral.
“You just told me you had help imprisoning Sera,” I argued with an irritated frown. “At least keep your lies straight if you’re going to try to deceive me into joining your cause. Now, get this straight. I’m not going with you.”
Your mine, Sera whispered smugly. Phi can’t have you.
Phi’s soft voice cracked as anger filled her. She’s speaking to you right now, isn’t she? I’ll show her how strong I’ve grown. I’ll make you mine, Gryff. You’ll see. This is my world, and you belong to me.
Suddenly, the mental conversation dove inward and turned sharp. Chainlike ropes of power looped around my skull and pulled tight like a vice, and I cried out in pain.
Phi was trying to invade my mind.
I managed to push her out with some effort, but this was no dream, and Phi hadn’t been imprisoned for centuries like Sera had. Furthermore, here in the Shadowscape, Phi’s mental attacks were multiplied many times over in strength. No wonder she’d gotten her hooks into Gawain the last time he’d come here with me.
Phi redoubled her efforts, and I felt whips of blunt energy lash at my mind as I threw up wall after wall in an attempt to stop them. She dug in a toehold as one of my walls fell, and I panicked as Phi’s immense power threatened to overwhelm me completely.
In an instant, I felt Phi crash through my defences and flood into my mind. I struggled to push her out, but she had too firm a grip on me.
Are you going to help? I screamed in my mind at Sera.
I’m trying. Fight against her. You are strong. Stronger than she even knows.
I felt my arms raise against my will as Phi forced them up. My hands trembled as I tried to force them to stop, but Phi wouldn’t let me go.
No! Sera shouted in my head as Phi’s laughter also filled my ears. Resist her, Gryff!
“She got him!” Cyra cried in fear. “Stop Gryff!”
I was too preoccupied with the battle over my own head to pay much attention to my teammates until now, but my hope surged as they approached. If they could help put a stop to Phi, maybe she couldn’t use my body to do anything terrible.