The Sphere of Time

by TIME, S. O.

  I race after her as the nymians howl again. She hops deftly over the rubble as I struggle to catch up, sliding on loose shale. As I stumble from the tower, I see her a few meters ahead. She sees the nymians racing toward us and places her hand on the mountain as the rocks begin to smoke. She turns to me and says, “Tell Hitori I cope by reminding myself that one day, I’ll make it back to mama.”

  “Come back and tell her yourself!”

  Alma shakes her head. “Papa asked me to be brave.”

  That’s exactly what Sahra said before she passed through the Tear. Could they be—

  “Done!” I hear Hitori yell from inside as I activate my shield and run after Alma. The nymians behind her are only a few strides away when she closes her eyes and lets everything go. All of her energy bursts into an explosive fireball, ripping chunks off the mountainside and shattering my shield instantly, sending me flying back toward the tower. I land hard and I can feel my skin burning. Massive rocks thunder down the side of the mountain, and I hear nymians squealing in pain. Dizzy, I try to get up as Hitori races down to me. She screams at me, but I can’t hear a single word she says. My ears are ringing from the blast. All I can do is look back down the path we came from and see that it’s completely gone. The nymians are gone. Alma is gone. All that remains is rocks and dust.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I can see Hitori mouthing Alma’s name as the ringing in my ears persists. Hitori kneels beside me and places her hands on my chest to heal me. Her whole body is shaking and teardrops run down her cheeks, splashing onto me. She struggles at first to activate her crystal, but after a few moments I feel the soothing sensation of her healing.

  Within moments my hearing returns, and I hear nymians crying out in the distance—but it’s not the usual cry. These cries sound pained. After regaining some of my strength, I pulse out weakly. I sense the energy of several nymians, but they rapidly blink out. Something is killing them—efficiently.

  The white aura around Hitori fades, and she stops healing me. She leans forward, exhausted. Instinctively I sit up to hold her, ignoring the sting of my half-healed burns.

  “Alma…” Hitori whispers under her breath.

  “I didn't get to her in time.” My voice sounds strange, far away. My eyes feel scratchy, and I realize I’ve been staring, unblinking at the place where Alma stood.

  “What happened?” she asks as she lifts her head. I close my eyes and respond automatically.

  “Botan sent her a message saying he loved her. I don't think he thought he was going to make it. She lost it after that, and I couldn't stop her.”

  “And that's how you got these burns…”

  “She said to tell you she copes with her loss by remembering that in the end, she'll make it back to her mother.”

  Hitori pulls in closer and hides her face in my chest while she weeps. I feel something welling up within me and cling to the numbness, afraid of the emotions to come. Hitori shakes as she sobs as if the grief wants to tear her apart, and I grit my teeth as that same monster starts to sink its claws into my chest.

  I try to focus on our situation to avoid the reality of what happened. In the distance I hear more explosions and cries, but I’m far too exhausted to pulse or move again. The weight of my body coupled with the extent of my injuries makes it difficult to keep my eyes open. I can't even summon the energy to pulse again for nymians. I wonder if this is where I'm going to die. It’s not as scary a thought—something about being here with Hitori makes it less frightening.

  Hitori has just started to heal me again when we hear a sudden, sharp crack ring out from the pile of stones blocking the path. We both flinch, heart rates skyrocketing as more strikes ring out. Someone on the other side is breaking the rocks apart. Unable to pulse, I turn to Hitori, who pulls away from me and gets up.

  “We have to go!” she whispers.

  She grabs hold of one of my arms and pulls me up as I try to keep from yelling at the pain. She puts my arm over her shoulder and starts walking to the tower. After a few steps I collapse, but she picks me back up and we move forward once more. Behind us, more of the rocks are blasted away—whatever's behind it will soon have a clear view of us. Hitori pulls us into the staff room on the ground level of the tower. At least here we can hide inside while being able to see what's coming our way. She gently helps me lie down on the floor. It hurts too much to sit. She turns off the lights and peeks through a crack in the wall. I can't see what she does, but after a short while a large explosion stirs me as the ground shakes. Whatever was trying to get through has succeeded.

  “What do you see?”

  “It's… people,” she replies.

  “People?”

  “Hold on, I think they're veterans,” she says as she stands and heads for the door.

  “Where are you going?” I panic as she begins to leave.

  “They're probably here to help us—they must have been fighting the nymians,” she answers. “I'm going to get you some help.”

  “Hitori, wait!” But she's already gone by the time the words leave my mouth. Minutes go by and I hear nothing. I try to pulse but I still can't. I can't even reach over to grab my holo.

  Finally, I hear footsteps heading in my direction.

  “He's in here!” Hitori shouts, and four people in military uniforms walk in.

  All but one are older—veteran age. I think I recognize a man with a prosthetic left leg—he was in the studio that day Isao confronted Hitori and Kou about their backpacks. Two white users kneel beside me and begin healing me. The remaining pain vanishes almost instantly, and I can feel my energy returning.

  “It’s going to take them a while, Eiji. I’ll be back in a bit,” Hitori says. I nod and close my eyes.

  It takes nearly half an hour for the healers to get me back in shape enough to move. I occasionally hear a nymian scream, but it is always followed by the sound of red energy blasts, and then silence.

  “Alright, you should be good enough to move. We’ll finish your treatment when we make it back,” one of the healers says as the other gets up.

  “Make it back?” I ask.

  “Back to Maluii. The Commander sent several squads to find Hitori days ago. We're one of the squads he sent to the Fall.”

  “I told Ramirez we'd find her first,” says the other healer, her grin somewhat disconcerting thanks to the vicious scar that cuts through the right side of her face.

  I look for Hitori once I'm able to move and spot her by the door, shoulders tense and arms crossed. I don’t have to see her face or read her energy to know how concerned she is about Isao deploying troops.

  “How did you find us so quickly?” I ask the healers.

  “That SOS you sent from this tower really helped. We'd been searching blind, unable to locate Hitori’s holo. After we got the signal, pinpointing your location was too easy.”

  “What about the people underground?” I ask.

  “Hitori filled us in. I've already advised the General about sending the remaining search squads over to evacuate. They'll be fine.”

  I get up. The move makes me light-headed, and it takes me a few moments to regain my composure. After a few deep breaths I'm able to walk normally, and we all head outside. Three people appear to be standing watch.

  “I've already called for the evac helo to come to us,” one of the men says as we approach.

  “Good,” the older healer replies. “As soon as the other squad makes it here, all we have to do is hang tight and wait for extraction.”

  I turn back to the now open path and pulse once more—this time with regained strength. I feel a very faint, weakening energy signature partway down the mountainside. My heart nearly stops. Alma.

  I rush over to the edge, now scattered with new boulders from the small rockslide. All I see is rubble and shrubbery, but I know I feel her energy. She’s down there somewhere.

  “Eiji, is everything alright?” Hitori asks after watching me.

  “I need help,
Alma’s down there!”

  Hitori’s energy spikes. “Can you see her? What about the blast?”

  “Hitori, she’s down there, alive—we need to get to her!”

  I start looking for a way to get down and spot a patch of shrubs that was sturdy enough to survive the rockslide. I hurry over, make sure they can handle my weight, and begin my descent.

  “Eiji, wait! Can one of you help him?” I hear her say as I continue to drop. Ignoring the stinging in my palms as I hurry down the jagged rocks, I climb down about thirty meters to where I sense her energy. Above me, I hear someone else descending, but I pay them no attention. If Alma is in here, I’m getting her out. As soon as I can, I begin pushing stones out of the way, moving as quickly as possible without causing another rockslide.

  After a couple of minutes one of the veterans gets to me. He snaps a carabiner onto my belt, securing me to him and the rope he hangs from.

  “Here, this should help.” He activates his crystal, but only his arm grows red. He starts smacking the stones hard enough that they break and become easier to remove, but lightly enough that it doesn’t cause the whole pile to collapse. After about twenty minutes, we’ve moved most of the stones, and I notice an indentation in the mountainside. I pulse again and I feel Alma right beside me. She’s still alive! The indentation where her body lies is just inside the reach of the pile of stones. She must have fallen in here before the rest of the mountainside collapsed, burying her inside without crushing her body.

  I reach in and grab hold of her shoulder, slowly pulling her out. She’s unconscious, but still very much alive. Nasty burns cover her arms, and I feel faintly sick at the sight of her charred flesh. Slowly I sit on the side of the hole we’ve created, and I put her on my back, wrapping her arms around my shoulders.

  “You okay?” the veteran asks. I nod. He carefully ties Alma’s wrists together, and then secures them to a short rope attached to my belt so that her arms won’t slide back and choke me as I climb.

  “Go ahead and climb ahead of me so I can catch you should anything happen.”

  “Right.”

  I make sure Alma is secure, and we start climbing back up the mountain. Fortunately, the winds have calmed and we make it back without any issues. As soon as we make it up Hitori frees Alma and holds her in her arms before setting her on the ground. She and the two other healers immediately begin working on her.

  “How did you know she was down there?” Hitori asks me without taking her eyes off of Alma.

  “I…I don’t know. I just, kind of knew,” I reply, too tired to bother with a more elaborate excuse.

  “Eiji, I—” Hitori begins, but stops as we hear running from the path behind us. We all turn and see two other veterans carrying an unconscious man.

  I pulse out and smile at Hitori. “It’s Botan, they have Botan!”

  Hitori’s energy lightens. Alma and Botan are both weak, but they’re both alive. After Alma’s blast, I must have been too weak myself to sense their diminished energy.

  Botan seems to be missing most of his right arm. It’s tied up by a ripped up shirt, but I can see blood seeping through.

  “Who’s that?” one of the healers asks the men carrying Botan to us.

  “We found him fighting a whole pack of them. He’s lucky we made it in time,” one of the soldiers says as he and the other veteran lay Botan on the ground beside Alma. One of the healers moves to him.

  “They’re both hurt pretty bad—we need more than just two healers and a recruit,” says the other veteran who had been carrying Botan.

  “And where’s Hilu? Wasn’t he supposed to be with you two?” the healer with the facial scar asks.

  “I don’t know, I guess he’s still out there killin’ those things. He’s been acting strange since the second injection. He’s been on a rampage since we first made contact with ‘em.”

  “Shut it, that’s classified.” The healer shakes her head. “Let him know that if he’s not here by the time the helo drops, we’re leaving him for the evac squad.”

  The veterans’ discussion fades from my focus. For the first time in the last few days, I finally feel like I can drop my guard. My eyelids snap shut like magnets and I feel the true weight of my body hit me. I want to just lie down and sleep.

  After a time—I’m not sure how long—the wind seems to pick up, and I open my eyes to see the helo we’ve been waiting for. The rotorless jets of air from the helo’s twin condenser engines stir up the dust loosened by the rockfall. There isn’t space for it to land here, so instead it hovers above us. After a moment it drops a carrying pod where both Botan and Alma are placed. Their energy signatures remain weak, but they’re both more stable than before. They’re lifted away and placed inside the helo. The crew then deploys a pair of cables with simple harnesses so that they can lift us up next.

  Hitori helps me stand again. We are about to reach the cables when I feel an immense surge of energy heading our way. I instinctively grab Hitori’s arm and push us both to the ground—half a second before a red energy blast tears a hole on the mountain behind us.

  “Hilu, what are you doing!” one of the healers yells. “You could have killed her!”

  “Are you alright?” I ask her. Hitori nods and we stand warily. Up the path comes a man whose muscles have ripped through his uniform. His eyes are a burning red and flickers of unstable red energy dance around his form. He has to be at least fifty meters away, yet I can feel the heat from his energy all the way here.

  “Corporal Hilu! Restrain yourself! Don’t make me detain you,” another veteran barks, her voice echoing off the mountainside.

  The man they call Hilu snarls at us and prepares another blast. Two of the veterans standing watch activate blue shields and block off the path just in time to deflect another oncoming attack.

  “For crying out loud,” says the third veteran standing watch, before activating his red crystal.

  “You won’t be able to stop him alone,” says one of the men that carried Botan in. “Not in his present state.”

  “In what state?” Hitori repeats.

  “That’s classified, even for you, miss,” says a blue user.

  “Get them out of here!” the woman with the booming voice orders.

  One of the healers waves us over to the cable and helps us buckle in. The two red users approach Hilu as the blue users fend off his next attack. I can see both of their shields cracking from here. Two shields cracking from a single attack.

  We’re lifted into the cabin of the helo and fastened in as it starts to pull away. One of the red users deactivates his crystal and approaches Corporal Hilu, I assume to talk to him. As we pull away, the last thing I see is Hilu rush up with inhuman speed and punch him, ripping right through his body. The other soldiers attack and the scene turns into a powerful violet storm as the colors clash.

  Hitori and I look at each other, eyes wide. Before we have a chance to talk or process what happened, a woman in civilian clothing marked with a Matsuo emblem brings over a holo and shows it to Hitori.

  “Ms. Matsuo, a message from your father.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  N o video appears, but a voice message comes through the holo.

  “I’m sure you have many questions. In time, I hope you understand why this all needs to happen. For now, you are to come to the university and follow Bernard’s orders until General Bartek returns. I’ll meet you there when the time is right.”

  The audio cuts out and the aide takes the holo away. She sits in a seat across from us.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” Hitori musters.

  “My orders come from Commander Isao himself. I’m sorry miss, I can tell you no further.”

  “And so what, I’m just supposed to sit here in the dark and pretend nothing is happening? What was that back there? What did he mean by ‘what needs to happen’?”

  “My orders are to ensure your safe return and nothing more. I’m sorry. Perhaps you could try and rest y
our eyes. We have a twelve-hour flight before our return.”

  “But—” Hitori begins, but I place my hand on her shoulder and shake my head.

  Maybe we should get some rest. It’s been a long week. Whatever is happening she won’t tell us, and we’re in no shape to demand any further.

  I show her through my holo. Hitori’s energy builds up before she takes a deep breath and nods silently. I hate being left in the dark as much as she does, but it’s getting progressively harder to maintain consciousness, and it’s clear from her drowsy complexion that she feels it too. We really have no options here.

  I don’t remember falling asleep, but I wake up to sunlight filtering into the cabin of the helo. My seat is now outstretched into a bed. I move to face Hitori’s seat, but she’s not on it. Instead I spot her sitting up by the right wall of the helo, looking out one of the windows into the sky around us. I consider sitting beside her, but I feel like she’s using this time to think things through. I don’t want to be a bother. Her energy is muted and she looks exhausted. I’m not sure if she was able to get any sleep—the bags under her eyes haven’t lightened. Her hair has been braided and is a frazzled, dusty mess. Her clothes are tattered and dirty. She appears to have lost weight since we left. I imagine I don’t look any better. I feel the side of my stomach where the branch had pierced me. The wound has been reduced to a scar, but my whole body still aches from the experience. I feel oddly swollen and dried out, fuzzy-headed and numb from both the physical and emotional ordeals. I almost laugh as I note my pathetic state. To think that Death would succumb to such mortal weaknesses. For a while I’d almost forgotten that I was Death. For a second there, before the issues with the Fall, and maybe even then, too, I think I may have actually felt like Eiji. I think...I wanted to be Eiji.

  I look over to where Botan and Alma are resting in their pod. They’ve been out for longer than we have and they’re still not waking up. I hope that’s not a bad sign. I glance out the window beside me and see the mountainous terrain that fills the gap between Maluii and the rest of the world. There’s no way anyone could walk through all of that. I’m distracted from the view by a rumble from my stomach, and I am abruptly aware of how empty it feels. My gaze falls on a container marked “Rations” buckled under the set of seats across from me. A couple minutes later I’m wondering why I never properly appreciated the deliciousness of nutrient paste before now. I offer Hitori a can of the grey mush, feeling a twinge of relief when she accepts it and begins to eat as well.