by Molles, DJ
A single flit of his eyes to the left, and then he refocused on his optic, but left both eyes open, watching with his peripheral vision as the entrance to the chamber was flooded with shapes.
Capes billowed. Black armor shuffled. Dozens of praetors poured in, taking up positions on either side of the doorway, several trained on Mala and Rixo and Perry, and several others trained on Stuber and Teran and Sagum.
Three squads at least, Stuber thought, and in the breadth of a few heartbeats, he did the math. It was bad. He knew he had a few rounds left in his magazine, but that was it. Best estimate, he had five rounds. One of them was for Rixo. The others would do very little against the praetors, and the second Stuber pivoted to target them, he’d be shredded.
“Perry!” Stuber called out, even as he watched Perry’s shield shrink to only a couple feet in diameter. “We got company!”
“Drop that weapon!” one of the praetors shouted at Stuber.
“Not gonna happen!” Stuber yelled back, wondering if his stubbornness was finally going to earn him his ticket to The After.
A tall figure split the middle of the praetors, and Stuber didn’t need to look to know who it was.
Inquisitor Lux stood in the middle of the room, a few yards shy of Stuber. He leveled his longstaff in the direction of the three Confluent fighters and their spitting, sparking energy shields.
“Silence!” Lux’s voice boomed in the chamber. “This is not the place for a battle! Legionnaire, lower your rifle or I will have my praetors kill you and your friends. Rixo, Mala, Percival—all of you will lower your shields this instant!”
Stuber gripped his rifle tighter. Blinked rapidly. The reticle quivered over Rixo’s face. Perry was about to lose his shield. “You tell Rixo to give up, and I’ll lower my rifle!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Stuber watched Lux swing his longstaff—not in Stuber’s direction, but behind him. Targeting Teran and Sagum. “This isn’t a negotiation, legionnaire. You will lower your rifle, or I will disintegrate your friends. This is your last warning.”
“Stuber!” Perry strained over his shoulder. “Just do what he says!”
Stuber gnashed his teeth as though attempting to move a heavy object. Then he lowered his rifle. Let it hang from its strap. Lifted his fingers from the grip.
And at that moment, Perry’s shield gave out.
Perry attempted to backpedal, but Rixo was too fast.
In the time it took Stuber to blink and process what he saw, Rixo had shifted all of his shield into Mala’s, and brought the butt of his longstaff up, catching Perry in the chest with a sharp and powerful jab, sending him spilling backwards.
Lux swung his longstaff towards Rixo.
Perry’s body hit the ground with a grunt.
Rixo’s longstaff twirled, the muzzle coming around towards Perry, already glowing green.
And so was Lux’s.
The Inquisitor intended to take Rixo out.
But he hadn’t seen what had happened before—he didn’t know the danger they were in.
Stuber reached out a hand to Lux and only had time to issue a single word: “Don’t!”
It was too late. Lux’s longstaff spat a bolt of green energy.
Rixo saw it coming, his stimulant-fueled reflexes responding faster than thought—it was pure reaction. Rixo twisted, tilted his energy blade up, slashing it into the path of Lux’s energy bolt.
The bolt caught the blade, and ricocheted straight up.
Every eye in the chamber watched it go.
It slammed into the ceiling over their heads in an eruption of energy and molten rock.
Stuber jumped back as a ribbon of super-heated stone splashed down where he’d been standing, but his eyes were still up, still fixed on the ceiling. He didn’t breathe. No one did.
The chamber rumbled. Something shifted. Dislodged.
A chunk of stone the size of Stuber’s torso plummeted down, through ice-cold air gone silent with dread expectation. All eyes upon it, and everyone seeing its course, seeing the inevitability of it, and yet hoping that perhaps their perspective was skewed, perhaps it would not hit that son of Primus directly over Rixo…
It did.
Of course.
It struck the being’s shoulder, the very one that Mala had identified as Batu the Trickster, and for the first time, Stuber saw one of those massive, statuesque beings move. The shoulder jerked under the weight of the impact, ripping the being from where it was moored against the Immobilizer that had held it captive for five centuries.
The stone tumbled off the shoulder, and arced down, towards Rixo.
***
Perry watched Rixo, and Rixo watched the stone.
No one paid attention to him except for Perry. Their eyes were upon Batu, a son of Primus, snapped from his prison by a bad decision and an ill-fated reaction. No one else saw Rixo, or heard his last words.
Rixo hissed, “Gods be damned,” and jerked his longstaff upwards, the blade glowing brightly.
The stone struck it, splitting in two. One half slammed into the ground at Rixo’s feet, but the other half hit the inside of Rixo’s shield and immediately turned to magma. It stood out, stark red in the ambient green glow, and it splashed down across Rixo, and he had no time to say anything else before it burned straight through his head and chest, rendering him instantly into a mess of steaming, flaming flesh.
Only when Mala staggered and recovered her shield over the burning remains of Rixo, did Perry shift his gaze to the object of everyone else’s focus.
Batu’s massive body teetered. Perry had the brief, stupid hope, that perhaps he hadn’t been jerked from the hold of the Immobilizer, perhaps—
No. The body continued to lean forward, and Perry clearly saw the Immobilizer, no longer attached to the back of Batu’s head.
“Gods in the skies,” Perry breathed. But they were not in the skies. They were not in The Clouds. There was a god right there before him, on earth.
Batu’s body reached that point in its dreary lean when gravity began to take over. The face had changed, Perry saw. No longer did it grimace in an expression of permanent rage. Now it seemed slack. Insensate. The glowing green eyes half-lidded, like a drunk on the point of passing out…
Perry only realized at the last moment that Batu’s body was falling towards him.
He watched that great, unnatural head, looming over top of him.
And then a flash. A spark. A blink of two glowing eyes.
Consciousness.
The body jerked in mid-fall. The knees buckled and hit the ground with an impact that Perry felt in the stones at his back. Both arms, each as big as Perry, lunged out, and hands the size of Perry’s chest slammed down on either side of him.
Perry flinched back involuntarily, his longstaff held in both hands, straight upwards, as though to ward off this being that hunkered over him, now on all fours.
He stared into the face of a real demigod, not one of its watered-down progeny, who could only use Confluence if they possessed the right tools. Here was a being that did not need tools. Here was a being for whom Confluence flowed through every cell, every neuron, every particle.
Perry stared into the eyes of Batu, one of The Nine, a son of Primus.
And the eyes stared back.
Awake.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CONFLUENCE
Batu stood, his movements slow and forceful.
Perry rolled out from under him and then staggered to his feet, his longstaff upraised, though he was conscious not to brandish it in a threatening manner. He did not know what thoughts might be circulating behind that green gaze, what madness might have metastasized in that mind under so many years of empty hell.
Batu seemed to regard Perry briefly, and then dismissed him, looking across the others gathered in the chamber. Everything about him was languid, methodical. Relaxed, and yet with an undercurrent of power only just repressed, seething in the green light that showed in the cracks of his armored skin.
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br /> The eyes panned over the praetors, over Lux, and then Mala. No one spoke. No one knew what they should say. No one knew what would happen next, only that the moment hung on a precipice, and everything beyond it was a change in the course of history.
Gradually, Batu dismissed those gathered, as he had dismissed Perry, and he raised his eyes to his brethren. He turned in a slow circle, taking them all in, taking in the chamber where they’d been trapped for time that must have seemed infinite.
Perry cast a glance to Mala, and found her looking back at him. She jerked her head towards the entrance to the chamber and began moving in that direction. Perry backed up, the silent communication very clear.
They needed to get out of here.
Batu clenched two massive fists, and then stretched his back. His broad chest filled with air, seeming to suck the life out of the chamber, and when he exhaled, it was the sound of eons of pressure being released. Steam plumed from Batu’s mouth in that long, rumbling sigh.
Perry’s backward steps were halted by a hand on his shoulder. Stuber gripped him hard with one hand, while the other took firm hold of his rifle. Stuber spoke in a heated whisper. “Well, what the fuck do we do now?”
Perry shook his head. “We get out of here. There’s nothing else we can do.”
If Batu heard those breathed syllables, he ignored them. He turned to the first of his brothers, another unidentifiable figure to Perry’s eyes. Batu tilted his head, regarding the Immobilizer still attached to his brother. He reached up both hands, placed one upon his brother’s shoulder, and with the other reached for the Immobilizer.
“No!” Lux’s shout broke the petrified stillness.
Batu’s hands stopped moving.
“Lux!” Mala hissed at him. “Shut your mouth!”
Lux ignored her. He took two steps forward, his longstaff pointing at Batu, and Perry felt his heart and his stomach bid eachother farewell and head for opposite ends of his body. What was this idiot doing?
Batu turned his head. Regarded Lux without expression. He didn’t speak.
Lux’s grip shifted on his longstaff. “You cannot release them! The Watcher may already be aware, he may already be sending his Guardians to destroy this world!”
Batu’s craggy brow furrowed. The green eyes seemed to blaze brighter. The lips parted, revealing those perfect, white teeth. A sneer of cold disregard. And then Batu turned back to his brother. Seized ahold of the Immobilizer.
Lux fired his longstaff.
Perry couldn’t believe it, even as the bolt streaked through the air, right at Batu’s back.
Batu didn’t even react to it. The bolt of energy reached a point, just before it struck his reticulated hide, and then it simply blipped out. A swirl of smoke wafted in the air where it had been. The glowing lines between the cracks in Batu’s flesh seemed to pulse brighter, and then subside.
But Batu had stopped.
Perry tore his gaze from the son of Primus and stared, agog, at Lux. The paladin’s longstaff shook in his hands. His face was clenched in terror at what he’d done, and Perry could not determine whether he regretted his action, or simply knew that it would not be forgiven.
Batu whirled, his hand coming off of his brother’s shoulder and sweeping across the room. There was the sound of a roaring wind, and a flash like the detonation of a power cell, and Lux flew across the room, his obliterated shield trailing after him in a shower of sparks.
Mala did not wait to see what happened next, and Perry thought that was the best idea they’d come up with in a while. She sprinted for the exit, and Perry spun, shoving Stuber in that direction and shouting to Teran and Sagum, though they were already on their feet and moving.
All around them, the praetors opened up with their rifles, as Inquisitor Lux hit the wall to the left of the entrance, smashing the stone, and crumpling to the ground in front of Perry.
Perry spared a single glance over his shoulder, and watched hundreds of rounds simply dissipate against Batu’s skin. He did not project a shield to disintegrate them—his skin seemed to be his shield. They puffed into nothingness.
Perry skidded to a stop to keep from falling over Lux’s body.
For a fraction of a second, he considered jumping over Lux and fleeing. But then his eyes fell on Lux’s, and he saw that the demigod was awake, still alive, though shocked, his eyes wide and unsteady in his skull.
Perry grabbed at the paladin’s hand and heaved, though the seven-foot figure was too much for him. Stuber didn’t take the time to argue with Perry, but grabbed the other arm and together they hauled Lux to his feet and propelled him into the tunnel ahead of them.
All around them the praetors fired their rifles on automatic, and almost at the same instant, they all ran dry. Three dozen hardened warriors swept down for a reload, but never got the chance to fire their weapons again.
Batu thrust his hand out, almost casually, his nose curled in disgust, and green light blazed from his fingertips, and everyone it touched exploded.
Perry and Stuber, side-by-side, pushing Lux into the tunnel.
Teran and Sagum right at their heels. They threaded the miniscule gap between the praetors and the left wall of the tunnel, and to their right, where the praetors had stood, havoc and destruction supplanted all reality.
Body after body popped like swollen bubbles.
Shattered helms, ruptured armor, smoking bones, and sprays of blood erupted in every direction.
Perry felt it all hit him on his right side. His eyes were wide, his mouth open, pure disbelief scalding away any sense of emotion. Bits and pieces of gods-knew-what peppered him, and a wave of vaporized blood washed over him like a hot mist, bathing him instantly, turning his arms to crimson smears, turning his vision red. He felt it as he sucked the air into his lungs, like a blast of humidity that tasted of copper and smelled of burned flesh.
And then they were in the tunnel.
Perry gagged and spat. “The fuck was that?”
Stuber gave Lux a shove to the shoulder as they sprinted down the tunnel. “This asshole pissed him off!”
Perry released his hold on the back of Lux—he no longer needed to be pushed, and his feet were catching up now. Perry looked behind him. Mala was beside them, coated in gore, as were Teran and Sagum, both of them looking shell-shocked.
Only three praetors had escaped, running a few paces back from Teran and Sagum, with no regard to the duties they’d considered important only seconds ago. They bypassed Teran and Sagum, not even giving them a second glance.
Through the door at the end of the tunnel, past a swamp of viscera, Batu stood beside his brother, and for that fleeting moment, Perry thought that he looked right back at him, and he wondered if he was about to die.
Batu raised his hand, his teeth bared.
“Oh shit!” Perry managed between ragged breaths, every part of him bearing down into the center of his core like he could try to hold the pieces of him together against the explosive power of Batu’s Confluence…
Batu waved his hand, and the massive door to the chamber slammed shut.
The tunnel shook with the impact. Perry saw it coming before it happened—he saw the trickle of debris fall from the ceiling ahead of them—and, after all, he had some experience with cave-ins.
“Stop!” He pulled up short, thrusting his hands out to his sides to keep the others from proceeding further, as the ceiling ahead of them let out a terrible, grinding moan, and a massive chunk of concrete collapsed, blocking their way past.
Mala’s shield came up on instinct, as a wash of stones clattered after them, then exploded into glowing embers against her shield.
Perry was all forward motion. He felt the relentless threat of The Nine behind them. Yes, Batu had shut the door, but that didn’t mean he’d want to be left alone forever. And if they were caught in this tunnel with the sons of Primus…well, Perry didn’t want to spend any more time down here. They needed to get out.
The second the tunnel stilled, he s
trode to Mala’s side, gripping his longstaff and already feeding his mind into it. Bit by bit.
Mala gave him a glance. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to blow that shit out of the way,” Perry growled, staring at it as the muzzle of his longstaff began to glow. “Take your shield down, but the second I release this bolt, I need you to put your shield around everybody.”
Stuber cleared his throat, close by Perry’s shoulder. “Uh, not to distract you, but…don’t explode the tunnel even worse.”
Perry shook his head, remaining focused. “I’m not gonna explode the tunnel. I’m going to destroy the blockage. Intense and direct application and all that shit. Just trust me.”
Mala stared at the end of Perry’s longstaff, from which a ball of blazing green energy grew. And grew. Now two feet wide. Now three. She cringed back from it, and lowered her shield. But she stayed there at his side. Ready to activate it again.
No one spoke.
Perry’s eyes blinked against the heat coming from the energy bolt. Massive. Crackling. Ready to fly. But he held onto it. Strained against it, even as the entire longstaff vibrated in his hands. A beast that wanted to slip its leash, but he wouldn’t let it, not until…
Now.
Perry let it go.
Mala’s shield shot back into life around them.
The huge bolt of energy blazed into the concrete and for a moment, Perry’s heart lodged itself in his throat, just as hard as that concrete had lodged in the tunnel, and he was sure that he had, in fact, exploded the tunnel and killed them all.
Everything was a wash of hellish fire. Super-heated rock and molten splatter lanced in every direction, sizzling against Mala’s shield, and coating the entire tunnel. But it only took a few moments to cool, to darken again.
Stuber’s weaponlight pierced the haze of acrid smoke.
The way was clear.
Mala extinguished her shield, and as one, they all began to run again, threading their way past chunks that still glowed and threatened to light anything that touched them on fire.
“I need to know how you do that,” Mala demanded as they slipped past the remains of the blockage.