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

by Christian Kallias

  Ares understood the strategic value of moving her to the surface of their world. It made sense. If someone was to find a way to remove her from the machine, it stood to reason that the Furies would be sent back to their dimensional prison, but then whoever had done so would be as well, and this time forever. Still, Ares wouldn’t put it past Chase to accept such a mission, even if it meant sacrificing his own life. But not enough was known about the device itself to make that assumption. Only the device’s inventor could say with exact precision what would happen in such a case. Ares made a mental note to try to learn more about the device.

  The device was better guarded on a planet filled with extremely powerful Fury warriors, and Argos had surely told Supreme Commander Arakan what Chase had promised Aphroditis just before she willingly accepted her fate and fused with the machine. Perhaps Arakan even intended to use her to attract Chase to him if needed.

  Ares teleported inside a very dark room with no windows. It was a cold and humid place, a hostile dungeon in which to spend every living moment of one’s life. But could Aphroditis still be considered alive at this point? Certainly her heart still beat, but was she anything but a shadow of her former self?

  Ares could not sense that.

  He appeared inside the windowless cell and illuminated it with his golden presence and warmth. He could have stayed invisible, of course. The room was probably being recorded and monitored, but no Fury could hurt him in his current form. Not that he knew of, anyway. And on some level he wanted them to know that he could not only visit her anytime he saw fit, but he also would know every time they move her around.

  He scanned the room for a recording device and saw one on top of the closed and reinforced door. He waved at it, but then felt compelled to extend his golden middle finger at it. Such an impulse achieved nothing, and was very childish for a being that had lived for thousands upon thousands of years. But the damp and cold hole in which they had put his sister had that effect on him. It gave him the impulse to tell them to go fuck themselves.

  Ares wished he could retake corporeal form and give Arakan a piece of his mind right this instant. But that would not be wise. If Argos had easily dispatched him, he could never dream of bringing the supreme commander down, at least not if he was the one on the other side of this fight.

  Hopefully Chase one day . . .

  Ares realized he had got carried away, and that was not why he had come here. He approached his sister. The warm glow he was emanating casted a light golden hue on his half-sister’s face, but even so she looked more livid than the last time he had visited. He caressed her cheek affectionately and talked to her telepathically.

  I don’t know if you can hear me. I haven’t been around much lately and I’m really sorry about that. Things have been kinda crazy. Chase has trained and he is now a formidable warrior. He killed general Arkoolis today, one of the Furies’ top generals. He is now fighting Miseo, and I guess I should go to see how he fares as soon as I leave here. He has come a long way. He is more focused, more aware of his own weaknesses, and I sense more hope and determination in his heart than ever before. Perhaps you were right. Perhaps all of this needed to happen. Still, I wish I could take your place. I wish I was in there while you were out here, still advising him.

  Ares thought he saw one of her eyelid move just a tiny bit.

  Aphroditis? Can you hear me?

  But there was no answer.

  Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. Unfortunately, today Droxia fell. Whether Chase manages to save the few million souls on it or not remains to be seen, but the main attack fleet has been destroyed and there is a good chance that his fight with Miseo will give him pause. I have no doubt Argos is behind it all once again. He knows how powerful a message it sent the rest of the universe when Droxia joined the Alliance, so I’m sure he decided that it should be the first to fall. Things are going awry all over the place. The Furies have colonized, destroyed or enslaved worlds rich in resources. All of that in order to destabilize the trust in the still growing Alliance, but mostly for Argos to secure the Furies the right amount of resources to build their new fleet of shadow vessels, like the one in orbit right now.

  This time Ares was certain he saw a twitch on Aphroditis’ face.

  Can you hear me? Try and twitch again if you can.

  But nothing happened, and he sighed.

  Ares shouldn’t raise his hopes about communicating with Aphroditis while she was inside the machine. In fact, she might never get out of it, which frustrated him more than he would care to admit to anyone.

  But he understood why she did it. And why she put all her trust in Chase. One could debate all day long that if he hadn’t done this, the Alliance would have won the war against the Zarlacks, but who was to say if someone else, later on, wouldn’t have released them anyway?

  No, deep inside his soul Ares knew that the one truly responsible for their current predicament was his father Zeus. He should have dealt with the Furies once and for all when he had the chance. Trapping them was always going to be a ticking bomb, and that bomb was already in the process of exploding and taking the universe with it.

  Chase’s unborn child, Chris, also has demonstrated impressive abilities already. Perhaps he will play a role in all of this yet. Though I wonder what will be left of this universe by then. Will anything be left? I don’t even dare let my thoughts go in that direction.

  Aphroditis blinked. It was the first time Ares had witnessed it and he wondered if perhaps some of her natural bodily functions simply acted automatically. Her eyes were still all white, and she looked more like a scary, gray-skinned flesh-statue than the smiling and full-of-life Olympian he remembered.

  I really hope you don’t mind me telling you all this. If there’s even the slightest chance you can hear any of this, then I hope it helps you a little. I’m sure if you feel anything at all, these days spent here must feel like centuries and a little change of pace could probably help you.

  Something started shining on her forehead. At first Ares thought his own golden light was shining on some dust or a particle of some kind. But, much to his surprise, a hair-thin golden energy wire grew and connected with Ares. He heard her in his thoughts, but her voice felt weak and far away, as if she spoke from the top of canyon that was hundreds of miles away and Ares only heard a very weak echo.

  Ares, I am still here. Thank you for coming. But listen to me carefully. Chase is in trouble. His fight with Miseo . . . I . . . Her mental voice was trembling, as if she was in such pain that the act of speaking was excruciating. I’ve lost most of my powers. My mind and body are constantly bombarded with darkness and it takes all my energy just not to succumb to utter madness in here.

  Ares was deeply hurt, just listening to her feeble and tortured voice, and anger rose within him.

  I will get you out of here, soon. Chase and I will find a way.

  Ares, no . . . listen . . . I saw Chase . . . vision . . . he . . . will . . .

  “He will what?” exclaimed Ares out loud.

  Go . . . Droxia . . . before . . . late.

  The energy wire connecting them solidified and turned black for just a second, before it turned to dust.

  Ares felt her fear resonate deeply within his entire being in the last moment of their brief communication, and knew what it meant.

  He instantly teleported out of the cell and back to Droxia.

  C H A P T E R

  XX

  Chase was starting to feel tired, having fought for hours now, first with the general and now with Miseo, who was a much stronger opponent.

  He needed to find a way to end this fight, and soon. Perhaps he needed to provoke Miseo and hope his anger would force a dip in concentration, because it had been near perfect up until now.

  When Chase back flipped three times in a row to escape Miseo’s current combo, he landed on his feet and adopted a defensive stance.

  “Where’s your maximum, Miseo? If that is it then we both know that if I had all my en
ergy, I would easily win this fight.”

  “Think what you will. Argos told me how you let your emotions guide the way you fight. Everyone with power can use hatred and rage to unleash more potential for brief moments. Doing it while not letting emotions get in the way is the true way of the Fury warrior.”

  Chase wondered if that was true. He was proud to be a little more in control now than before, but he didn’t feel as much power flow through him as when he went after Argos in Tokyo, for example. His rage really made him that much more powerful. Was that the key to defeating Miseo as well? he wondered.

  “To be honest, I’m a little disappointed by your technique, or should I say, lack of? You’re a skilled warrior, but you lack the mental discipline to best me, whether your energy levels are low or high. You have witnessed how I can also raise my power levels at any time, and I don’t need hatred to boost them.”

  Miseo’s aura doubled in size, and before Chase could react he had planted a powerful blow into Chase’s stomach. He then took Chase by the hair and unleashed three terrible blows to his face with his knees. He then struck Chase with a powerful kick to the torso and sent him flying and crashing backwards. Blood flowed from Chase’s mouth.

  “See what I mean? I did not need hatred to put you down just now, just perfect control of my powers and emotions.”

  Chase’s ribcage hurt really badly, and he had to heal at least half a dozen broken ribs as he stood back up, using energy he was running out of.

  “Perhaps, but at least I’m not a heartless robot intent on destruction of all life in the universe.”

  “Not all life, just the weak and useless. And as distracting as it has been fighting you today, I’m starting to believe you belong in the ground with them.”

  Chase spat blood on the ground. He looked for any doubts to exploit in Miseo, but he only sensed utter confidence. Whereas Chase’s doubts, which started as a small nagging thought at the beginning of the fight, were slowly but surely taking over his entire psyche.

  What if I fail? What then? Will the universe fall? Will Sarah and Chris be killed?

  “I believe these people will rally even if I lose today,” said Chase, though he had no idea what would happen if that came true.

  “When you fall, not if! You have lost, and deep inside you already know it. I can smell it on you now. It would take a miracle for you to win now.”

  Chase regretted appearing overly confident before. “This fight isn’t over. I may have been arrogant but not more so than you and your pathetic friend the general.”

  “Do not speak ill of the dead!”

  “Or what? I’m not afraid of you. I think I’ve proved that much.”

  “All you proved today is that you’ve been training to become a formidable warrior, but one that has no sense of true technique. You should have left this world after defeating Arkoolis. But you let your pride convince you that you could take two of the most powerful beings in existence in a single day. You bit off more than you could chew and I will look forward to bringing your head to my father.”

  “Fuck you, daddy’s little boy. My father this, my father that . . . Why don’t you call him to your aid right now?”

  A vein bulged on Miseo’s forehead.

  Chase decided to antagonize him even more, see if he could break his icy-cold demeanor now that he sensed anger in his enemy.

  “So much for controlling your emotions, asshole! This one right here is anger. The truth is you are just as unsure as I am about how this fight will end up. Sure, you’re better at hiding your emotions. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t buried behind that ugly mug of yours.”

  “THAT’S ENOUGH!” shouted Miseo as he shot a fireball at Chase in an attempt to shut him up.

  Chase blocked and absorbed the attack with his hand. That gave him a small but needed boost in energy.

  “That one’s called rage.”

  “I’m going to make you regret this. So let’s finish it once and for all. I’ll tell you what, once I’m done with you here, I’ll make it my personal mission to find your wife and show her what a true warrior is, just before I rip your unborn child from her still-living body.”

  Something in Chase snapped and the sky darkened almost instantly. A thick layer of cloud covered the sun and soon it felt like nighttime on Droxia.

  Chase unleashed the most inhuman of all animalistic growls as his pupils shone a bright orange before disappearing altogether. His aura was also tainted orange, and golden lightning sparked madly all around him. A powerful lightning bolt crashed down on Chase and boosted his energy. His hair flew upwards.

  “You will not touch a hair on their heads. I won’t let you!”

  Chase flew so fast towards Miseo he left a trail of light behind him. He started by unleashing a powerful butterfly kick upon Miseo, who didn’t have time to react as his head was thrown downward. But it was thrown back up quickly when Chase kicked it again and again with his right leg. He then alternated between shin kicks and powerful elbow blows to the face, and finally sent Miseo flying with a spinning crescent kick.

  One of Miseo’s tooth flew from his mouth, as well as a huge amount of blood. Before Miseo hit the ground again, Chase extended his arms and mind as he grabbed two of the biggest boulders around and crashed them into Miseo. Chase then grabbed Miseo with his mind and held him there. Miseo’s limbs dangled. He hadn’t recovered yet from this powerful cascade of attacks.

  Chase approached a floating Miseo with fire burning in his pupil-less eyes.

  He prepared a powerful fireball and let it grow until it almost engulfed his entire arm.

  He thought he heard Ares in his mind—No, Chase, don’t do it!—but he ignored it.

  “Time to join Arkoolis in hell!”

  He sent the fireball towards Miseo with all his might, but then everything went wrong. It all happened very quickly. Miseo’s crimson aura exploded out of nowhere, firing impressive, red bolts of lightning all around him. The entire planet shook. The debris from the boulders Chase had crashed into him a few seconds before all rose from the ground, and sizzling, dark-red lightning bolts shot between them, obliterating every one of them.

  He released himself from Chase’s mental hold with ease, extended both his arms in front of him and sucked in every last bit of Chase’s extremely powerful attack. He syphoned it all.

  Chase did not believe his eyes. He was certain that he had just landed the finishing blow of this fight, putting most of his remaining energy into it.

  Miseo smiled from ear to ear.

  “That’s the difference between a true Fury warrior and a pathetic traitor like you. Would you like to know what just happened? I used your emotions against you. I willingly provoked that transformation in you and you fell for it. Partly because I wanted to see how powerful you might become when you unleashed all that raging power of yours, but also to make sure you hit me with everything you had next, like Argos told me you did when you entered that furious mode of yours. I knew I could use the power of your own attack to replenish mine, and I did. Thanks for the power up.”

  Chase’s hair fell down his back and his aura returned to its usual purple.

  He played me all along.

  “I told you from the start that very few warriors ever live to see me deploy my abilities to the fullest. Well, now you have. And like the very few others before you, it is time to die. You’re on empty now. I can feel it. Let me give you some of that energy back.”

  He extended his arm towards Chase and unleashed a super-fast series of small fireballs. In less than a second, Miseo had fired one hundred of them, all flying towards Chase.

  Time seemed to slow and Chase realized how foolish he had been.

  He heard his son’s voice in his mind. Dad, you can’t die here today. You must survive!

  Chase used the last of his energy to fly upward into the air in an attempt to dodge the attacks. He traveled miles in an instant, but Miseo closed his fist and all one hundred of his attacks arched upwards at
various angles and they all hit Chase simultaneously. The resulting cascade-explosion and shockwave pushed back every one of the dark clouds in the sky and soon the light of the sun burned Chase’s broken body while he plummeted back towards the planet’s surface.

  * * *

  When Ares arrived on Droxia he realized he was too late. He saw Chase falling from the sky and felt that he had no energy left. Miseo had also expended most of his own. He had a lot of battle damage on both his armor and face, but he was smirking while Chase plummeted from the heavens towards certain death.

  Dammit! I should have come back earlier.

  But what could he have done? Perhaps affect gravity around Miseo at a strategic moment, or try to add his own energy to Chase, to give him just a nudge when he most needed it. Instead, he saw his friend, his protégé, hit the ground at tremendous velocity head first. Chase lay there, defeated and unable to move a single muscle.

  I’m sorry, Ares heard.

  Chase, no, you can’t die now. You promised you’d stop the Furies and save Aphroditis. You have to!

  I failed you just like I failed everyone else. Please promise me you’ll tell Sarah and Chris how much I love them both.

  Chase, I can’t let you die!

  I don’t think there’s anything that can prevent that now.

  Ares’ mind raced to find a solution.

  Miseo took a few steps towards Chase and stood above him. He extended an open palm towards Chase’s face. A dark-red fireball crackled into existence.

  This can’t be happening!

  To Ares surprise, Argos shouted towards Miseo, asking him to stop.

  “Not now, Argos!” answered Miseo.

  Ares flew towards Chase. He needed to teleport him away from Droxia before it was too late. He had no idea if Chase would survive the trip in his current weakened state but there was no choice. He couldn’t let Miseo finish him off. In order to do so he had to materialize into his energy-based form, and so he did a few yards before reaching Chase. But Ares hit an invisible wall.