Into the Fire Part I_Requiem of Souls

by Christian Kallias

  Trust your instincts.

  He was probably going mad and hearing voices that weren’t there. A side effect from the pain, he decided. But part of him wanted to let go, he just didn’t want to give Arakan the satisfaction of dying, not before he could fight him once more. Still, the more he resisted, the worse it hurt. Perhaps letting go was the answer.

  Here goes nothing.

  For just a second, Menelas didn’t try to resist the electricity coursing through his body, and the most amazing thing happened. The unbearable pain disappeared and he felt as if he could use the power that was now flowing through him. He let it flow within and as seconds passed, he could feel his own energy grow at a tremendous pace, as if he was being healed by the current, which made no sense. But the sensation was intoxicating and even pleasurable.

  With his ability to think restored, he remembered Arakan’s face and his defiance moments before the madman had activated the weapon that had been torturing Menelas for god knows how long now. He also remembered the supreme commander’s threat of cutting Athena’s head off and that brought rage and fury inside Menelas’ heart.

  When he opened his eyes, electrical arcs shot from them, while his rage took proportions he didn’t understand nor care to fathom. He could feel sensation in his body again and decided that it was time to break free.

  With an inhuman roar that made the walls around him tremble, Menelas focused all his strength into both his arms. His biceps nearly doubled in size as large veins appeared on the surface of his muscles as well as on his temples. With gritted teeth, he focused on the hatred he harbored for Arakan and started moving his hands closer together. Lightning bolts of electricity started shooting from one hand to the other as he continued to bring them closer and closer.

  Almost there.

  His hands were only an inch away now, but it was getting harder and harder to bring them together. Menelas closed his eyes again and focused all his might on the one and only task at hand. Before he knew it, his fingers touched. Inside his body he felt the current explode in every direction and when he opened his eyes again, lightning bolts of electricity were shooting around the room, some scorching the walls while others were being diffused by the cell’s impenetrable force field. Menelas pressed more until his palms joined together fully. The result was explosive and the emitters that were firing the beams at him exploded on the spot.

  The pain feedback was also very intense and for a second, Menelas thought he would lose consciousness. When he looked at his palms, they had been burned to a crisp. Menelas used his own energy to start healing the burns but before he was fully done he felt three projectiles hit his chest.

  Looking down he saw three darts planted near his sternum.

  Son of a bit—

  But Menelas never finished his thought and collapsed on the floor of his cell.

  Arakan’s wrist remote control and holo-device started vibrating, unpleasantly ripping him out of his slumber. It took a couple of seconds for his brain to remember where he was. He was still onboard the ship he had taken to go destroy Zeus and Olympus.

  I think there’s something wrong back on your planet, said the shadow.

  Arakan didn’t bother answering and checked the holo-alert instead. His now mind-buddy was right. An alert came from the palace’s dungeon. Were Chase and his friends already there? That was a possibility. But the alert was reporting that the electro-cannons had malfunctioned and been destroyed.

  If this Menelas is as resilient as his son Chase, you may want to stop playing games with him and just kill him already.

  While Arakan knew that the shadow was providing good council, he still didn’t like being told what to do.

  Perhaps, but I’ve designed that cell myself. Menelas isn’t going anywhere.

  What about just detonating the cell and be done with him altogether?

  Because I may need to use Menelas to draw out Chase, Argos and his friends, that’s why.

  I think after killing Zeus, you don’t need Menelas to do that; they’ll be coming, and soon.

  When I have confirmation of this, I can release Menelas from his torment. But, not before.

  We both know that’s a lie. You enjoy having this power over him. You enjoy being able to talk to him and put him down. And while this is your choice, and I will respect it, this serves little to no purpose and you know it.

  Was Arakan just enjoying tormenting Menelas? He wondered. During the long torture sessions he had inflicted upon his once right arm, Arakan had felt that Menelas hadn’t told him everything about his betrayal. A piece of the puzzle was missing, and his instinct told him that this piece of information was important.

  Be that as it may, added the shadow. What if that piece of information is more important to your enemies than it is to you?

  Arakan had thought about it, but still didn’t like the idea of just killing Menelas without knowing what it was he was still hiding from him. Even though he half expected him to succumb to the electro-cannons. His wrist holo-device had confirmed that the secondary protocol had been deployed successfully, and that meant Menelas had been successfully incapacitated and currently in a deep sleep state.

  I wonder why I bother telling you these things, added the shadow.

  If you wonder, then perhaps you should stop altogether. While I welcome your council, I don’t like my every decision questioned.

  Very well. I’ll let you deal with this how you see fit, for now.

  What the hell is that supposed to mean?

  But the shadow didn’t answer, and in fact, Arakan couldn’t feel its presence anymore inside his mind.

  Finally, some alone time. About fucking time.

  9

  Tar’Lock reacted instantly. He grabbed Keera and ran out of the way of the incoming fireball that would have incinerated them both.

  “What the hell?” exclaimed Keera.

  Tar’Lock clicked nervously, pointing toward where the fireball had appeared. Keera turned around to look where Tar’Lock pointed and was terrified by what she saw. A Kyrian dragon, flapping his wings, hovered over a throne made of skulls. On the throne sat none other than Argos himself, smirking. The dragon’s eyes flashed red before flying down and landing its large clawed feet at the top of the skull throne.

  “Kill her,” Argos said, pointing a finger forward. Keera’s eyes followed his finger and saw Ryonna standing there, with her silvery blade drawn and drenched in blood. A couple of Zarlack lizard-men were decapitated around her.

  “What the hell is she doing?” said Keera.

  “Blowing off some steam, I’d say,” answered Tar’Lock.

  “With the safety protocols off? Is she insane?”

  “Well, you know her; if it’s not at least a bit of a challenge, she wouldn’t be able to enjoy herself.”

  Before Keera could rebut Tar’Lock’s casual answer, five Zarlacks threw themselves at Ryonna, determined to turn her into a corpse.

  “We gotta help her,” exclaimed Keera.

  “I don’t think that’s wise; she’ll kick both our butts if we try. I’ll keep an eye on the fight and intervene if needed.”

  The first and largest of the Zarlacks was nearly upon Ryonna when she flexed her knees and gracefully somersaulted over her foe. Before the warrior could react, she had already thrust her long thin blade through the back of his neck. Her purple blood-drenched blade emerged from the warrior’s mouth, a look of shock permeating through his scaly face. Making sure to finish the job, Ryonna thrust the blade upward, effectively splitting the top half of the Zarlack’s head in two. Purple blood sprayed all over Ryonna’s face, making her appear as if she wore war paint markings. A drop ran near the corner of her mouth, she licked it and spat it on the ground.

  “Told you she doesn’t need our help,” said Tar’Lock, with a series of joyfully admiring clicks in tow.

  “There are still four incoming and Argos up there.”

  “Just watch and enjoy the show.”

  Keera didn’t
like the idea of Ryonna taking unnecessary risks, even though she understood her friend’s need to blow off some steam. Fighting so many opponents, coupled with a dragon, seemed simply and purely reckless, especially with the holo-room safety features turned off. Just to be on the safe side, Keera left a hand on her blaster. If needed, she would intervene; no matter how much that could anger Ryonna.

  Before the next two Zarlacks arrived near Ryonna, she threw her blade upward causing it to spin in the air and grabbed the already dead Zarlack by the tail. She swung his massive corpse toward the two warriors almost upon her, hitting them both and sending them crashing to the ground. She released the lizard’s tail, and the Zarlack unceremoniously kept rolling on his side, spilling more viscous purple blood on the ground.

  She then leaped forward and stopped in front of the two temporarily downed lizards. One of them flailed his tail at Ryonna’s face, but she grabbed it just before it impacted. Her eyes ignited with a furious fire. She rewarded the lizard with a powerful kick to the throat, successfully preventing him from getting back on his feet.

  Ignoring his painful screech, she raised her free hand, opened her palm, and intercepted her blade on its way down. She spun the blade one more time and severed the immobilized Zarlack’s tail, getting another moan out of the warrior. Then just as the second Zarlack was getting back on his feet, she beheaded him with a swift and lightning fast three-sixty turn upon herself, guaranteeing her blade had enough velocity to cut through the beast’s thick scaly neck. Its head fell on the ground and rebounded a couple of times, making squishy sounds.

  “I think I’m gonna be sick,” said Keera.

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” protested Tar’Lock. “They are just holograms.”

  Keera was surprised that the gore suddenly gave her a weird kind of tingling. Is the image of Ryonna cutting lizards one after another turning me on? she wondered.

  The previously immobilized Zarlack jumped back to its feet, screaming in anger at the top of his lungs. Before he could make his move, Ryonna was upon him and shoved a sonic grenade in his mouth. With a large smirk on her face, she launched him away from her with a powerful kick from the sole of her battle boots straight to the Zarlack’s sternum. Before he even hit the ground, his head exploded like a watermelon.

  That seemed to give the other two Zarlacks pause, which was just what Ryonna needed. She quickly drew her blaster, aimed at the lizards’ feet, and produced two successive and precise shots in lasso mode. Taken by surprise and stunned that they couldn’t move, they both stumbled and fell forward. Ryonna changed her weapon-firing mode from lasso to maximum charged shot. She lined up her sights on the head of the first Zarlack, and while her blaster charged a super powerful shot, she grabbed another sonic grenade, activated it and threw it at the exact moment the blaster fired.

  The shot burned through the skull and brain of the first foe while the second one tried to get back up. He struggled with her lasso energy beam still restricting and binding its feet together. The more he tried getting free of it, the stronger it constricted him. When the sonic grenade rebounded in front of him, he switched his attention to the sphere-shaped device, but it exploded a split second later, taking off half his face.

  “Wow,” said Keera.

  But when Tar’Lock’s mostly cheerful clicking turned to a somber tone, Keera looked toward the throne and saw Argos rise.

  Argos clapped his hands appreciatively.

  “Impressive work for a Droxian,” said Argos with a leer. “Now let’s see what you can do with a different kind of beast.”

  Argos’ eyes flashed red, and the Kyrian dragon flew from the throne and landed about twenty yards from Ryonna’s position. Upon landing, the ground shook. The dragon’s eyes flashed red also as if controlled by Argos. It unleashed a terrible roar that echoed around them.

  When Spiros arrived at storage bay three, the source of the explosion, he was unable to gain entrance until the automatic fire suppression system had finished extinguishing the fire and venting the toxic smoke from the large room. While the life support system was siphoning out the smoke, Spiros brought up the holo-panel next to the blast doors and checked on the inventory of the room. He had only come here once since he had arrived at Argos’ secret lab, but somehow it felt familiar, and he was dreading what sort of content had been lost in the explosion.

  He scrolled a list of possible unimportant items on the holo-interface until his eyes caught a crucial item.

  “Cloning Biomass - Section 8, row 15.”

  Spiros swallowed hard. With his replacement clone destroyed, he would need the biomass to start growing another one, and time was of the essence. Soon after his discovery, the blast doors whined open with some difficulty, which didn’t bode well for what was inside the storage bay.

  He rushed to section 8. As he approached it, the state of the storage looked worse than what he anticipated. He could barely read the number 8 from the aisle where the biomass had been stored. A large amount of fire-extinguishing solid foam had crystallized over what was left of the rubble.

  Shit. Now I’m really in trouble.

  “Computer, where are the spare cloning pods located?”

  “Storage bay five,” answered a cold and synthetic male computer voice.

  I miss Gaia’s sweet voice.

  “Status of storage bay five? Was it damaged in the blast?”

  “Negative; storage bay five is operating within normal parameters.”

  “At least there’s that,” said Spiros out loud.

  “Computer, are there more cloning biomass in other storage bays?”

  “Negative.”

  Of course not. What is it the humans of Earth love to say? Murphy’s Law.

  A sense of dread started taking over Spiros’ thoughts, and he could feel his stress elevate by the minute. Without a new clone he would lack the necessary time to fix Gaia, and even if he managed to install the neuronal implant and somehow that allowed him to stabilize Gaia’s code before his temporary clone expired, he would perish shortly after.

  He needed to find a solution. While Spiros was a proud man that didn’t like asking others for help, he no longer was in a position to try and fix everything himself, and he found himself regretting refusing Cedric’s offer to join him. But it was done, and thankfully with the help of the super-fast FTL engines of their new allies, the Asgardians, he could get the biomass he needed in time.

  “Computer, open a subspace channel to the Hope.”

  An unpleasant beep resonated before the computer spoke.

  “Subspace communication offline.”

  “Why?”

  “Subspace antenna has been destroyed.”

  “You’ve got to be shitting me!!”

  When Daniel entered the sports and recreation room on deck seven of the Victory, he noticed Chase diving into the pool. Daniel thought Chase looked quite concerned. He crouched by the pool and gestured to his best friend.

  “Hey, Chase, enjoying a late-night swim?”

  “Just trying to relax; water usually helps, but I guess not tonight.”

  “You do seem quite concerned lately. Anything you want to talk about? Maybe getting it off your chest will help you relax.”

  Chase pondered the question for a moment.

  “There are just too many things happening at the same time, really.”

  But Daniel didn’t buy it. He knew Chase better than that.

  “Come on, that can’t be it. Something else is troubling you, I can tell.”

  Chase swam nearer to his friend and put both his elbows on the side of the pool edge.

  “I’m a little disappointed with, well, with some people.”

  “Let me guess, Oryn?”

  “To tell you the truth, I am sad that she is so aggressive and laser-focused on revenge—”

  “Yet, that’s something you should be able to understand and even relate to.”

  “Well, if you had let me finish—”

  Daniel smiled. “My
bad; go ahead, buddy.”

  “I wanted to say that, indeed, I know how she is feeling, and losing her father so suddenly after learning of his existence, that must sting. Her entire life has been turned upside down in a very short amount of time.”

  “Again, something you know about very well.”

  Chase nodded.

  “Then,” Daniel continued, “Who else has been a disappointment? Did you get annoyed at Athena for giving us the warning speech?”

  “Bro, when she started, believe me, I thought I would. But somehow she vocalized the exact things I didn’t want to deal with.”

  “Then I’m running out of candidates.”

  “It’s actually not someone you know.”

  “Wanna tell me anyway?”

  Chase cracked his neck. “Sure. It’s Hades.”

  “That’s the Olympian who trained you in the Underworld, right? Zeus’ brother?”

  “Right. He trained me while all of you were risking your lives to bring me back. It’s thanks to him that I can transform into an Ultra Fury.”

  “Hey, you’ve been risking your life so many times, that’s the least we could do.”

  Chase gave his best friend a timid smile.

  “What did he do to disappoint you?” continued Daniel.

  “It’s more what he’s not going to be doing, which is help us.”

  “Isn’t he confined to the Underworld anyway?”

  “Zeus took his place; long story.”

  “I got time,” said Daniel with a wink.

  “Well, long story short, Zeus is now the keeper of the Underworld while Hades is free.”

  “And I take it you invited him to join us, and he refused?”

  “Pretty much. He said that he had better things to do with his time than risk his life now that he was free after so many thousands of years confined to the Underworld. Having been a mentor for me when I was there, I guess I just expected better of him.”