by Marc Mulero
Jason peered from the center craft’s cockpit, using Eugene’s body to walk the world again. His eyes were wide with lust, enthralled with what was to come. “Behold!” he shouted through comm. “Asura desires the great followers to witness this with their own minds. Do not cower!”
Mirroring waterfalls fell loudly into the endless pit, disrupting the seamless flow of the ocean, and flattening an otherwise turbulent water that dared get close to the rift. A black hole sucking everything into it. Then thunder boomed once more from within, more growling like a giant beast, or perhaps the planet itself.
Either way, one thing was certain - the planet was not yet done tearing at the fabric of reality.
Uohhhh!
A noise that could’ve been mistaken for a foghorn boomed so loud that it must’ve circled the entire world, and out burst invisible waves of magnetic force to follow, shooting the falling sea back up like a geyser in protest. Unseen energy zoomed into the atmosphere in the same fashion as a gust of wind, reaching the Aura jets and testing their stabilizers.
“Hold!” Jason shouted, staring at the smoking island below.
Chemical interactions no longer made these disruptions invisible.
“Incoming!” a pilot roared.
Plasma pulses – enigmatic, otherworldly, bright yellow arcs of energy sailed outward from within the fractured ground. One even cut in between two jets, forcing them to evade at the last second. It was an announcement. Some sort of finale, and with it came a gravitational storm that perverted physics right before their eyes.
More and more continued to break tether from Asura on Jason’s earlier command. Some prayed, others gawked, but all hoped to get past this. It was out of their gods’ control at this point.
Against everything logical, the separated oceans were becoming contained behind the fissures, smashing up against invisible fields like they were rock-hard dams.
What was happening? Not Jason, not even Asura could calm them in this instance of panic.
As if it couldn’t get worse, or weirder, the Aura’s attention was diverted to the island, to the sound of tearing beneath the smoke. No, they thought collectively, but by way of watching the smolder waft abruptly apart, they could tell their land was beginning to break off. Viciously too, ripping into four irregular landmasses. Among crunching and whirling, the devil’s pulls eventually laid waste to the holy ground, leaving choking silence to spread throughout the aircrafts.
Paralysis was sparked by a concoction of fascination and terror. What was next was anyone’s guess.
No more, they prayed. No more.
A collective gasp resounded within the jets. The fragmented island was being willed toward an implausible direction - up. Gravitational wrenches jolted the broken structures into the air and held them there, eventually transforming three cement-like platforms into floating, suspended steps. The fourth piece remained unmoved at the foot of the stairs, beckoning the Aura down for landing.
It is the great Asura. It is she who enhances our home. A divine kingdom. Yes.
The cerebral tide began to shift and the turbulent waters began to quiet. The earth’s bellows lulled, as though the giant creature was put to rest.
Minutes of silence followed. The tenseness could be felt all around – anticipation – was there more to come? Why was the island still floating?
Jason refused to ask himself these questions and instead eyed the pilot, signaling to begin their descent. The floating steps were wobbly in their bizarre suspension, and all eyes fixated as if this was some magic trick being played, or maybe one of the smoke’s illusions. Each pilot was wary, as their vertical landings were slower than normal. Jet’s bounced in place as engines powered down. Carrier doors slid open to present cowering scarlet members desperately awaiting their god’s direction. All faced Asura. Possess me. She felt the thoughts trickle back to her. Take me back.
We want an existence of purpose. Take us over.
Jason walked off the landing platform with his arms spread, beholding the next gift that the world had to offer the Aura. He inhaled with satisfaction and let his eyes roll back as he shut them. “A fitting space to expand our collective being. We will evolve here, Asura. We will take what Auront has given us and indulge in this harmonious existence,” he said, uncomfortably twisting his wrists toward the floating steps above.
Asura appeared last from the center jet, smoke cycling through her. Her head dipped to exit, hand massaging her forehead, and mind notably preoccupied. She was likely juggling the ingrained mental network she had just reactivated.
“Preservation, Jason… that’s what the Hiezers have agreed to. They will feed us, build us shelter, keep our bodies from decay so we can focus on true purpose. There’s only one goal. Remember that, my companion - we must elevate consciousness to a higher state, uninterrupted from outside elements.”
Jason winced. “My vision is cloudy in this vessel. I cannot see whether they will keep to this contract.”
Vapor swirled around Asura, wrapping her in a phoenix-like cocoon, rebirthing her with renewed poise. To inspire confidence. “They will. We don’t need to see it, we know the mutual benefit in letting Mulderan inspect our home. They are curious creatures, drunk on anything that contains power. Just keep him from the geyser and he will only be able to peer into our domain as a spectator. He must never be allowed to enter it.”
Jason’s eyes flickered. “To think, there was a time when you thought taking me from this world was the answer. Look how far you’ve come, Asura. Our vision has finally aligned.”
The goddess pursed her lips. “The smoke guides us. It navigates us through our past and our present, testing us, seeing if we’re worthy of its future.” She turned to him. “When I killed you, I was holding onto a past that was reinvigorated within me. I am free from that now. That part of me is as dead as your old body. When I heard your call from beyond the grave, it became clear what true purpose is. We must grow our connection. Our fate awaits us.”
“You murdered her! Everything about her is gone because of you! Drag me into this hell, fine… but pollute her mind and force me to watch? I’ll haunt you forever!” Eugene shouted, entrapped in his own body.
“Quiet, ant. You should have learned by now not to distract a god,” Jason replied in thought.
The two streams of consciousness battled as they often did, muddled within Eugene’s brain.
“Does my fleeting companion still pester you?” Asura asked, looking into the eyes of a man she once loved.
“An ever-stinging thorn in my side,” Jason responded.
Asura turned to fully face Jason, still fixing her auburn eyes on him. “I know you’re in there, Eugene. For what it’s worth, I am sorry for my deception. I did care for you back then... what we shared was real.” She looked down at her smoking hands for an instant. “But I need you to understand, this is destiny. I’ve been handed the serum for an evolved life, and my responsibility is to harness it. I have to nestle this gift and grow with it.”
The eyes of Eugene’s body trembled while the sniper let out an explosive scream, transcending his captivity and forcing Jason’s teeth to clatter.
Asura’s brief moment of empathy was over. “You will quiet him, Jason. His resilience will fade, and his body will be yours. You’ve taken control. Now all that’s left is to bury him for good,” she declared, turning to face the marvelous pieces of the floating continent above her.
Those words of betrayal… it was legendary. Silenced even after his last desperate cry to reconnect. Eugene felt like a psychic communicating with the other side, his internal shout draining him of everything. It wasn’t natural anymore to be up there, behind brown eyes, paralyzed. His own body didn’t feel like his, and it was terrifying. Then fatiguing. He didn’t belong in control. It was time for him to disengage, spiral into despair and drop into a dream state far away from here, whatever here was, leaving Jason free to continue taking the reins of his body.
He descended from a bl
ackened sky with the impression of wind at his back. It gusted right through him, some kind of force or flow rippled whatever it was that he’d become, slowly fading him out of existence. It was cold. Like frigid air in the arctic somehow passed into his torso, tickling every inch of his insides. A sense of self still persisted however, in his mind’s eye, a warming sensation to fight the frost. Was this the battle between him and Jason? At a molecular level? No. This was somewhere independent of the physical realm, a place where he plummeted endlessly, watching above as an infinite hazy tunnel sped past. Further and further he slipped from reality.
Onward into the abyss, as though he were traveling within a warping channel of time itself – pictures of his past began to illuminate around him. So clear. So crisp. Images of his younger self marching in disciplined formation – cadet training as Hiezer military support. These were memories locked deep away within his psyche that he didn’t even know he had.
An itch begged him to turn the other way - another living recollection, one that remained level with him as he fell. What’s this…? A classroom? So many years ago, students that he recognized… that stupid boy’s haircut, a smell of cherry perfume from the girl beside him. Ugh. Why were all heads turned, all eyes focused towards the back row, toward him? There sat a young Eugene, who likely just blurted out some morbidly blunt answer to a teacher’s question by the looks of it. This was a third-person perspective to his own history… strange… like a recording. But for some reason he knew what he was being reminded of, that throughout each ephemeral thought, one constant remained – Eugene never belonged. He knew that something was missing and that merely existing in the world exhausted his persona, leaving him in perpetual misery.
His reflection was short-lived though, for his timeline was becoming darker, regretful, in a vividness more intense than reality. Now experiences raced by faster as he fell harder down the rabbit hole until, finally, one slowed and loomed, becoming larger and all-encompassing. A recent memory. Profound. One that he held close to the chest at all times.
His ethereal heart stopped when he saw it.
The first encounter with the one person who gave him will to strive - the god that betrayed him, the woman that loved him, Jen. Just as her bashful eyes peered up to him, just as he mustered the courage to ask her on a date, the scene melted away like burned plastic. The reel snapped, sending the dominos to fall quicker than he could handle. All of the events cycled around him like a tornado, stopping just so he could steal a glimpse before carrying on - all leading up to his last dark action.
He could see himself turning his rifle on those he promised to protect. He could feel himself firing his weapon and killing a friend that he would’ve died for.
“How did it come to this…?” he whispered on his boundless fall.
What a world I’ve been left to wander. A career prisoner couldn’t ask for anything more.
Dendrid peered from the window of a boxy ground vehicle, vision bouncing with every bump over the battered terrain. He sat hunched, wrapped tightly in convict’s garb that hugged his slender, muscular frame. Soft fabric covered his feet - not the best wear to explore rough lands, but it would have to do. Better for sneaking about, easier to hunt for prey. Certainly.
Draped in black from neck to toe with two golden stripes that twisted around his jumpsuit made him an unmistakable sight to all of the hierarchy. A Hiezer prisoner of use. Everyone knew. Freed from their cage only when the need arose. But not this time, and not this prisoner, for the Mentis Shade had served his sentence. Recovering his two deeply curved blades amongst the clamoring of the Quake, Dendrid broke free of the Grand City of Nepsys and had traveled westward, refusing to be swallowed by the ground whenever it tried.
The days of evading the planet’s ire seemed to be behind him. Now it was time to embrace the new world. Crooked mountains appeared as though jagged bolts of lightning had seared right through them, formerly flat lands were torn up like giant snakes had slithered underneath, and dark homes bowed at the mess. All of this whizzed past him and the thirteen or so others riding alongside him.
Westbound. The Sins. Where else would a runaway Hiezer go, but to his enemies? There is no place else. Could they possibly accept me after what I’ve done to harm them? Taking life in the night. Overcoming that will be no easy task. I will earn their respect like I’ve earned my value with the Hiezers, somehow. Until the day I find the shadows that cursed my mother and polluted my late family, I will work to reside with the exiled. The journey is long, Dendrid… sit back and enjoy this endless melody, this endless bliss.
A child rudely poked at the intravenous bag strapped to his arm, which may as well have been a trigger, causing his dark orbs to dart toward her. It wouldn’t be the first time he meant to strike innocence down. She was instantly startled, little arms flailing back after one look into the eyes of a killer.
Pfah, he scoffed, irrationally angered by the distraction from a glorious symphony playing in his head. Always at the best parts. He grunted, then snarled at the youth, forcing her mother to tug her back after taking one glance at the dangerous-looking stranger.
An unkempt bristly stubble, layered dark blue hair, and hooded eyes bestowed an unsettling appearance, conveying a cool and deadly poise.
“You remember our agreement, stranger?” the driver shouted from way up front.
Dendrid averted his gaze to a set of hardened female eyes staring back at him through a dusty rear-view mirror. He raised his eyebrows in acknowledgement, choosing not to frighten the civilians any further with his coarse voice.
“Well, we’re approaching a Hiezer blockade, and there’s no swerving around this one unless we want to take a dive into the pits of hell,” she spoke.
The Mentis Shade passed a look around the transport as he rose from his seat, eyeing the shaken Vacal citizens that were still traumatized by the Quake and the horror that followed.
“I’d ask that you don’t stalk your prey. Make it quick,” the driver requested. “The Hiezers still have orders to shoot Quarantine deserters on sight.”
Before unlatching the trunk, Dendrid turned his head and said, “You needn’t speak in words of fear any longer. Our paths are one and the same for the time being, and you’ve been awarded my blades.”
He ripped open the door of the speeding vehicle to a gust of wind that splashed over his face, and then slipped down under the transport’s clamorous gears in between two revolving tires that kicked up dust in its way. Hearing the trunk slam shut above him, he maneuvered himself horizontally out of sight, acting as an invisible extension of the machinery.
My former captives have loose orders to end lives, for little reason. Even for them, this seems unusual. No matter though, as I have once done their bidding, they will now suffer mine.
The Mentis Shade fastened his limbs around thick metal spokes and held himself close to the rumbling machinery, the tips of his hair grazing the ground on its windy run. He watched the tires turn and the vehicle come to an abrupt stop near four sets of Hiezer boots. The time was right to crawl forward, soundlessly inching himself closer to the threat.
“IDs,” one guard said suspiciously.
Dendrid’s heart jackhammered inside of him, blood pressure rising from the thrill of the hunt. He couldn’t help it. It was automatic, preprogrammed like a lion was to pounce a gazelle. Every sound was amplified – he could hear the driver pretending to scour through belongings in an awkward stall; if there were ever an unspoken signal, this was it. He bared his teeth for no one to see, quietly reaching over his shoulder to grip his blade’s handle.
Chhrcht! The sound of a cocking gun echoed above him, and the closest set of Hiezer boots spread to an alerted stance.
A swift slice to the guard’s Achilles tendon split skin and muscle, leaving him to fall to his knee. Dendrid rolled out from under the vehicle, jabbed the point of his blade through the immobilized man’s heart until the metal reached the floor. He then pressed down to usher himself upright.
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Every Hiezer spread around the beaten vehicle already knew who he was. Fear was a given. And when shaking weapons lifted, he laughed, taunting the enemies who were reacting in slow motion. Loosening the meat from his skewer was a satisfying release, and before the body dropped, he was already beside his next victim, wanting more. With each kill, he spun off dust and a Hiezer’s head before dashing to the next.
“You’ve taken enough. Your hollow path has led you to me, puppet,” Dendrid’s throaty voice spoke while his swords carved.
Onlookers piled to the other side of the vehicle, far from the mass murderer. They were fearful of the Hiezers at first, but it was the man that killed as easily as a child cries that truly terrified them.
The last Hiezer trembled after hearing the screams and seeing his brothers torn to bloody shreds. He was terrified, desperate, shooting his rifle over the hood to get a few aimless shots in. Clang. Clang. Clang. Metal on metal. No flesh was found. He rose to see nothing, still on edge, gun held close… and then his aim jerked to a torn-up corpse that was tossed out beside the tires to distract him. It worked. And like a pouncing wolverine, the Mentis leapt over the hood, kicked off a side panel for more momentum, and contorted into a dextral spin, blurring his two curved swords into one and slicing the Hiezer’s chest, sawing deep into his heart and forcing him backward in a lifeless flail. Halting his whirl, Dendrid flipped both of his unwieldy weapons into the straps on his back, spattering fresh blood into an X on the ground below him.
The burly driver hopped out from the passenger’s side and kicked the door shut, hearing a civilian shout “Onessa!” before the voice was drowned out. She put a square-fingered hand on Dendrid’s shoulder, feigning no fear toward the most dangerous person she had ever known.