The Beginning of the End (Universe in Flames Book 4)

by Christian Kallias

  “Me too, Daddy. I’ve missed you so much.”

  “So have I, Sendra, so have I.”

  * * *

  Chase hovered a few miles away from the city and then let himself fall towards the ground. The moment he felt the ground under his feet, he closed his eyes and concentrated a lot more energy within himself. He checked his power levels and they were, surprisingly, at more than sixty percent. His son’s help deflecting the general’s giant fireball into space had probably also acted as a top up of his own internal pool of energy. Chase focused to bring more of it to the surface, to continue his fight.

  That’s it, Chase, said Ares in his mind.

  Hey, I wondered where you had been.

  I’m not really here; only a part of my consciousness is.

  You’ll have to explain how all this works one day.

  I’m honestly not sure I could explain it. The usual laws simply don’t apply in this non-corporeal form, I guess.

  If you’re not really here, then where are you?

  We have very little time to talk. I’m visiting my Olympian brothers and sisters.

  What about Zeus?

  Well, I tried earlier but he didn’t seem keen to listen to me. I’m trying to gauge how other Olympians are reacting to the resurgence of Furies.

  I’m about to attack Arkoolis, so I’d love to stay and chat but . . .

  I’ve slowed down time at the exact moment you started powering up, so don’t worry about it.

  Practical. So what did they say?

  It’s a little early, but I feel we could enlist a few of them. Perhaps in time they can help us make our case with Zeus. If he would agree to help us, every Olympian would fall in line.

  I thought not many of you were left.

  We’re only a few compared to how many we once were, but the most powerful of us . . . Let me rephrase that, most of the powerful ones are still alive.

  Is that what you came to tell me?

  No, not really.

  What is it then, Ares?

  You’re just inches away from accessing the power you managed to attain when you fought Argos before. With that intensive training of yours you’ve really got a better grasp on your powers and it’s within your reach.

  Why do I sense a but coming?

  However, that last inch requires an emotion to trigger it.

  And that emotion would be?

  I wish I could say love, and one day it might very well be, but at your current level of power and state of mind, I think you need to feed yourself some anger, or even rage, to reach your higher level of power.

  How am I supposed to do that? The other times it was Argos who brought these emotions to the surface, like when he nearly killed Daniel. I’m far less angry and prone to rage now than I was back then. You’ve always told me I let my emotion get the better of me, and now that it’s taken me months to get them in check you actually want me to let them guide my actions again?

  I know, and that’s actually a good thing. You might have felt that boost of confidence in you.

  Yeah, I even surprise myself.

  It’s all a matter of balance, Chase. You should not overdo it either. If your ego is too strong, you may become overconfident, and in a fight against the Furies, you really don’t want that.

  I see. So how do I reach my maximum potential?

  You need to use anger as the trigger. Perhaps try remembering how you felt when you had to shoot Sarah’s ship?

  I don’t want to go back there, Ares. Once was hard enough.

  I’m not telling you to relive the scene, just let the anger that memory brings infuse and overload your current powering up.

  Look, Ares, I had a really hard time putting all this behind me. Thanks to the training I managed to control these emotions and I’d rather not go there.

  It’s your choice, Chase, but these are powerful memories. They deal with life, death, love. No matter how much pain they bring they might be needed one day.

  Let’s say today isn’t that day, then what?

  Can’t you bring another moment of grief to the surface? Perhaps something more fresh, that you haven’t really dealt with yet, like the fact you couldn’t save Fillio? I can sense the bottled frustration within you, even though it was not your fault and you know it. She didn’t want to go on. There was nothing you could have done.

  That does make me angry and I haven’t really expressed it.

  This could work, then. Just focus on that anger and let it blow. I’ll resume normal time now. Hang on to this feeling. Make it grow a little if you have to. Good luck, Chase.

  Chase felt Ares consciousness leave him, and as he powered his aura he brought back the memory of losing Fillio, the anger he felt not being able to save her from the claws of death. Chase felt a surge within him but didn’t feel that spark he was looking for.

  Got to dig deeper, I guess. Here goes nothing.

  He then brought the memory of Yanis telling how he hated him. He felt his anger, frustration and self-hatred grow and something in him snapped.

  When he opened his eyes his aura was no longer glowing purple but orange. He could feel his hair flowing on top of his head. His muscles tightened and he felt a jolt of pure energy flow through his veins, amplifying every one of his senses and bringing a tremendous amount of power for his disposal.

  Arkoolis was already flying back towards Chase, an expression of utter madness on his face. But it all seemed to happen in slow motion. Chase saw his attack coming a mile away and then some. As the general threw a powerful, fireball-enhanced right hook, Chase moved his head out of the way and grabbed the general’s wrist. He snapped it with little effort and heard bones break.

  The general screamed from the pain and took three steps back.

  Before he could react, Chase was all around him, phasing in and out of thin air at such speeds the general had trouble following him with his eyes. Every time he thought he saw him, Chase was well into his next move.

  The general flailed his good arm, trying to hit Chase but hitting nothing but air.

  “Who’s the low-class Fury now?” said Chase, before appearing yards in front of the general.

  He disappeared again, and when he reappeared right in front of him, he hammered Arkoolis with a single punch. He heard facial bones crack under the pressure of his punch. Blood flew from both his nose and mouth, and a few teeth flew out.

  Chase didn’t let the general hit the ground. Before that happened he had already created an extremely powerful fireball with crackling, purple lightning bolts dancing around it. He threw the attack at the general’s torso. The impact was devastating. The general’s armor blew up as if it was made of glass and he crashed onto his back. Smoke rose from Arkoolis’ burned and bloody rib cage.

  Chase walked towards the general and caught a glimpse of fear in his eyes.

  Arkoolis got back up and unleashed a flurry of powerful fireballs at Chase. The multiple explosions lit up the valley one after the other. The sheer power in these attacks would have taken out a city. But when Chase walked through the flames unscathed, the general could not believe it.

  “This is not possible,” said Arkoolis.

  Chase launched himself at Arkoolis and planted his knee deeply into his enemy’s stomach. Blood shot from his mouth as he staggered a few steps back, blood still dripping from his mouth.

  “What are you?” he spat.

  “You tell me. I thought I was just a low-class Fury. Then again, I didn’t buy into that bullshit of yours about classes.”

  The general cast two basketball-sized black fireballs in each of his hands. Red, crackling lightning shot between them. He merged them together and shot a column of dark energy towards Chase, but it hit nothing but air. Chase was already behind Arkoolis.

  “Game over, General,” said Chase, before thrusting his right fist through the general’s back. It burst through the Fury’s ribcage as if it was made of silk paper. Bones and blood were thrown outwards from the power and speed at w
hich Chase’s hand had traveled through the Fury’s rib cage. The last thing the general saw was his own heart stop beating in Chase’s bloody hand. Chase squeezed it into nothingness and forcefully removed his arm from the general’s back. Arkoolis was dead long before his corpse hit the ground.

  Then Chase heard Ryonna’s voice in his head.

  He reacted instantly and vanished into thin air.

  * * *

  Inside the Valken the gravitational forces prevented Ryonna and Ronan from moving. She had grabbed him by the collar the moment the ship lost control. He in turn had grabbed his friend, not ready to let him be crushed against the nearby bulkheads.

  Ryonna felt a sensation that she hardly knew. She was terrified by the sound of the engines and the disorienting G-forces that pulled on them from every direction. She had just laid eyes on her son after all these hours of worrying whether or not he was alive, and their ship was about to crash onto the planet’s surface.

  She closed her eyes and only one thought came to mind. Chase, please help us.

  The Valken crashed into the middle of a forest and uprooted many trees as it skidded along and emerged into a clearing. Smoke rose from the damaged ship’s engines.

  When Ryonna opened her eyes, she felt a tremendous pain in her right arm. The one that had held onto Ronan’s collar with every last bit of energy and strength. It had dislocated upon impact, but she never let go, even when she eventually lost consciousness.

  Ronan was still unconscious, and she feared that Arknon couldn’t possibly have survived the rough landing.

  She was still holding Ronan’s collar, even though they were both on the floor. She checked her son’s pulse and found one. His shoulder wound bled alarmingly. She tried waking him up but was unsuccessful. Smoke from a nearby conduit filled the cargo hold at an alarming rate.

  “Keera! Can you please open the Valken’s cargo-hold ramp? Keera! Please respond?”

  But there was no answer. She was probably also unconscious or worse. But Ryonna couldn’t be everywhere at once, so she needed to focus on the most pressing issue and that was to get some much needed air inside the cargo hold, before the ever-thickening layer of smoke choked them all to death.

  She crawled towards the nearest console, ignoring the throbbing pain, and tried opening the cargo-hold ramp, but she was unsuccessful and sparks from the damaged console shot into her eyes. When that failed she crawled towards the manual release.

  She popped the lid, grabbed the mag-lock release handle and pulled on it. She then rotated it counterclockwise for forty-five degrees and pushed it back in. More smoke was released from the grinding emergency hydraulics systems, but soon the ramp jerkily lowered towards the ground, revealing the large and long trail of dirt the ship had created upon landing, as well as a gap in the tree line.

  The smoke vented from the opening and fresh Droxian air filled the cargo hold. Ryonna decided to check on Keera. She would need her help to revive Ronan and tend to Arknon. That is, if he was still alive. But the moment she was back on her feet and walking towards the cockpit, she heard a loud noise behind her.

  She turned around and her blood froze.

  There stood Miseo. He had a huge gash on the left side of his face, no doubt from the Valken ramming into him.

  His eyes were bloodshot and he looked utterly mad. His teeth were clenched. Thin lines of blood showed between them.

  “You’re gonna pay for this, you scumbags.”

  He raised his left hand and opened his palm towards interior of the shuttle. A red fireball was created out of thin air.

  Ryonna grabbed her blaster with her good hand and shot towards Miseo, but the blasts never reached him.

  He had stopped them with his mind. In the meantime, Miseo’s fireball grew to soccer-ball size.

  Then Ryonna’s motherly instinct kicked in and she lurched forward to cover Ronan. She didn’t care if that made a difference or not. In the middle of her jump she saw someone’s knee impact with Miseo’s face. The impact was so violent that the Fury flew out of view at an impossible speed, just as he fired his fireball towards the inside of the ship. It went higher than intended and burned through the ceiling of the cargo hold as if it was made of plastic, letting more daylight into the ship.

  Ryonna adjusted her landing at the last moment and instead of landing on top of her son she rolled forward. That’s when she saw him.

  “Chase!”

  “Sorry I couldn’t get here any faster. Are you alright, Ryonna? Anyone need healing? This guy,” said Chase, pointing his thumb in the direction of the Fury, “will be back very soon. And probably even more pissed than he was before.”

  Her entire face lit up and she pointed at Arknon. “I think Ronan is just unconscious but his friend over there . . .”

  Chase moved so fast that Ryonna felt a strong current pass her. By the time she had finished pointing at Arknon, Chase was already healing the Droxian commander.

  “His wounds are critical. Another few seconds and he would have been beyond my help,” said Chase. It painfully reminded him of his failure to save Fillio earlier.

  Keera stumbled into the cargo hold, her entire face covered with blood. She tripped on some equipment that had fallen during descent. Before she hit the deck she was in Chase’s hand. He healed her in less than a second.

  “He’s coming back,” said Chase, sensing the approach of Miseo.

  “What about Ronan?”

  Chase shot a bolt of white light at Ronan’s body. It startled Ryonna, and she was about to complain when she saw all his wounds recede and his eyes started blinking. Before she could say thank you, Chase was already flying out of the shuttle, but he rotated in midair and shot yet another white bolt of light at Ryonna, who felt the weirdest sensation. Her arm relocated itself into her shoulder socket and all pain vanished.

  “That’s new. Thanks Chase—” But Chase was already outside and fighting with the Fury.

  C H A P T E R

  XVII

  When Saroudis landed his shuttle at the rendezvous coordinates Daniel had given him, a few hundred yards beyond the cabin where his family had found refuge, he ran towards his daughter the moment the back ramp had been lowered. A terrifying growl stopped him dead in his tracks.

  “Reaper! Watch your manners. That’s my father you’re growling at. Stop it at once!”

  The wolfen understood from the tone that he had been unwise in his overzealous attempt at protecting Sendra and took a few steps back, lowering his muzzle and gaze to the ground.

  Sendra ran the rest of the way and jumped into her father’s arms.

  Daniel looked at the scene with a smile on his face. The commodore was crying tears of joy as he kissed his daughter on her face and hair. Daniel could read in his eyes that he still couldn’t believe what was happening.

  “I’m still unsure if this is real or if I’m dreaming,” he said as he hugged her tightly, his hand caressing her golden hair.

  “I know what you mean, Dad.”

  But then Saroudis saw his wife approach.

  “Give me a second will you, Sendra,”

  She wiped her tears of joy and nodded at him with a beaming smile.

  “It’s about time!” Alexandra said in an icy-cold tone.

  “Alexandra,” said Saroudis, with more than enough caution in his voice as he approached her.

  Daniel didn’t know what would happen next. She looked utterly pissed.

  But then she took him in her arms and started crying as well. “The boys . . . I’m so sorry, Adonis, I couldn’t save them.”

  Saroudis affectionately patted his wife on her back. “There, there. None of this is your fault. I just wish I was there with you when all hell broke loose.”

  Daniel decided it was way past time to go back into his shuttle and let the reunited family have their deserved moment of privacy.

  Now was as good a time as any to try to get some news from Fillio. He looked forward to holding her in his arms the same way the commodore
had held his wife and daughter.

  When he established a channel with the Hope and Sarah’s face appeared on his holo-display, he immediately understood that something was wrong.

  “Daniel,” she said with watery eyes.

  “What is it, Sarah? Is Chase alright?”

  “Chase is fine. At least I hope so. He left for Droxia a while ago now and I haven’t had much news since then. But I’m afraid I’m the bearer of very sad news . . .”

  Daniel’s heart skipped a beat and before Sarah told him more he knew something had happened to Fillio.

  * * *

  When Miseo returned he was infuriated.

  “You’ll regret taking me by surprise!”

  “Hello to you as well. Miseo, is it?”

  That only further inflamed Miseo and he threw himself at Chase.

  Chase dodged Miseo’s first set of attacks with ease. He was still partially in angry mode. He had little difficulty anticipating his enemy’s attacks, and when Miseo least expected it, he planted a powerful, fireball-charged right punch to his stomach. Miseo staggered backwards and his expression changed. He looked really surprised to have been bested so quickly in the fight.

  “What the fuck are you? You shouldn’t be able to move that fast.”

  “Says who? If you’re thinking of your friend the general, he wished he could come. But at the last minute he had a change of heart.”

  Miseo took a deep breath and calmed himself.

  “Impressive. Argos might have undersold your actual level of power. Fortunately, you’re still no match for me.”

  Chase tapped a finger on the right side of his mouth. “You still have a little blood running from your mouth. I hear Fury acid reflux is a bitch.”

  Miseo chuckled. “You seem pretty confident. I can already feel that it will be your undoing.”

  “Beside my asshole brother, I’ve only met two other Furies, but you guys are walking clichés.”

  A vein in Miseo’s right temple started throbbing.