Into the Fire Part I_Requiem of Souls

by Christian Kallias

  What? He can’t possibly do that?

  “Oh, but I can; goodbye, Oryn.”

  Spectre Arakan moved so fast in front of Oryn it felt as if he teleported; a shadowy echo catching up to his movement with a small delay. He pushed his hand through Oryn’s chest, and as it went through, it felt as if the Spectre wasn’t made of matter. At first, it wasn’t painful, but then Oryn experienced being violated like nothing she thought possible nor did her brain fully comprehend what was happening to her. A hand had grabbed what she could only surmise was her astral body, her soul.

  Spectre Arakan pulled his hand toward him, and a transparent blue Oryn-shape emerged reluctantly from her body. Oryn’s soul struggled and tried to break free, but there was no escaping the Spectre’s grasp.

  “You’ll soon be mine. A prisoner inside me for all eternity; you’ll witness everything, feel everything, but without ever being able to say or do anything on your own, or even have a thought. It’s the ultimate prison. But, you’ll live forever through me, as a trophy, through the ages.”

  No, I prefer death; someone, please kill me, kill me now!

  Chase teleported not far from them. Seeing Oryn in trouble, he started shooting fireballs at Spectre Arakan. All five concentrated spheres of energy impacted Arakan’s body and were absorbed without even a single trace of damage of any kind.

  Spectre Arakan laughed. “These tickle. They are not worthy attacks for the Ultra Furies of legends. Hopefully, once I’m done assimilating your friend’s soul into my own, you’ll show me what you can really do.”

  Chase teleported near Spectre Arakan and sent his knee flying against Arakan’s face. It didn’t budge, and Chase’s knee exploded inside accompanied by a level of pain he had rarely experienced.

  “Wait your turn, Fury,” said Spectre Arakan, calmly.

  He then playfully flicked Chase away and sent him crashing and bouncing off the ceiling and back to the floor. Many more of Chase’s bones shattered.

  What the hell is this thing? It broke three-dozen bones just by flicking its finger at me. How are we supposed to fight something like that?

  Chase healed himself, and while doing so, he tried sending a message to Argos, Chris and Menelas telling them to turn tail and return to the Victory at once. After Argos didn’t answer, Chase tried Chris, as well as Menelas. He couldn’t communicate with them.

  Dammit!

  He got back on his feet and wondered what he should do now.

  “Wait your turn, and perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll lower my power levels to give you guys a shot at me. I like a challenge, and just swatting you like bugs won’t bring me much pleasure.”

  For the first time in a very long time, Chase felt not only fear, but also terror, which took hold of his soul. That thing that now animated Arakan seemed powerful beyond any of Chase’s worst nightmares.

  Chase saw the translucent Oryn-soul being sucked away from her body. He recognized it as being her soul since he had helped Spiros transfer his soul to a cloned body not long ago.

  No!

  “Let her go! Please…” pleaded Chase.

  “What is it to you? I really like her powers and want to make them mine.”

  If he can assimilate the powers of the people he steals souls from, we’re in serious trouble; that would increase his power every time he does that.

  “What do you want from me?” asked Chase.

  “I’ll consider releasing her soul if you kneel before me. There’s something appealing to the idea of having an Ultra Fury kneel at my feet.”

  If you think my pride and ego are stronger than my loyalty to my friends, you don’t understand how easy is it to grant you this wish.

  Chase knelt.

  “Now, please, let her soul go.”

  “Hmmm. I think not; if I hadn’t heard your rebellious self-justification, then I might have considered it, but I heard you loud and clear, Fury. Say goodbye to your friend; I’m afraid her time has come.”

  Chase jumped back to his feet and launched himself at Spectre Arakan, but his body stopped, and he couldn’t move a muscle.

  “I’ll be with you in just a minute,” said the Spectre.

  The Spectre ripped the rest of Oryn’s soul out of her body with a strong pull.

  Chase heard Oryn scream in his mind.

  He transformed into an Ultra Fury and recovered some control over his body. But Spectre Arakan threw a pulsating crimson sphere of power that looked like a cross between energy and electricity. Chase hadn’t regained enough control to dodge the attack. When it impacted on his chest, he felt stuck in a loop where all of his muscles spasmed then relaxed uncontrollably, preventing him from advancing any further as he trembled like a leaf, barely able to stand.

  Oryn’s body slid down to its knees and fell face first on the cold stone floor of the palace, which became its final resting place. Chase felt her heart had stopped.

  I need to at least recover her body; perhaps there’s a way to recover her soul, too.

  “You can try, but you will fail.”

  Chase swore for even thinking of what he wanted to do, which apparently was giving away vital information to the enemy. When he felt the effect of the last attack diminish, Chase started moving around by doing short and instinctive teleporting jumps, so as not to mentally broadcast his destination to the Spectre.

  Spectre Arakan fired a couple more paralyzing attacks toward Chase, who dodged them both. When Chase felt he had recovered most of his mobility, he decided to get to Oryn’s body and teleport it away from the throne room.

  Seeing he couldn’t hit Chase as easily as he had before, Spectre Arakan looked straight at Oryn’s frightened soul.

  “You’re mine for all eternity,” he said before opening his mouth wider than any being should be able to.

  Particles of soul detached from Oryn like grains of sands and were siphoned inside the mouth of the Spectre.

  Listen to me, Chase, said Oryn in his mind. Let me go, and just save yourself. Try and destroy that monster from orbit with the soul ships by activating the machine. But to do this, you and Menelas must survive.

  I need to try and get your body; perhaps with it, we can bring you back somehow, someday.

  Chase, please, just save yourself.

  I gotta try!

  It’s too late, now. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. Thank you for your friendship, Chase. Goodbye.

  Seeing the Spectre occupied as he was finishing assimilating Oryn’s soul, Chase flew toward her body as fast as he could. When he was just a yard away from touching it, Chase impacted with something solid and bounced off it.

  A thick and perfectly flat wall of ice had been erected in front of him, preventing him from reaching Oryn. Before he could try and teleport through, the Spectre unleashed a powerful lightning bolt that struck Chase in the shoulder and sent him spinning in the air before tumbling and crashing yards away. Smoke rose up and a nasty looking burn appeared at the point of impact.

  The Spectre had fully assimilated both of Oryn’s abilities: cold and lightning.

  Chris, Argos, Menelas and Thor flew in the throne room.

  “Dad!” screamed Chris.

  “Chase,” shouted Argos.

  “Stay back, all of you.”

  “Here,” said Spectre Arakan, “let me put your pathetic hopes at rescuing your friend to an end once and for all.”

  He opened a palm in front of him, and Oryn’s body flew from the ground; her head locked into the Spectre’s palm as if magnetically attached. Chase’s heart pounded hard and fear filled his soul.

  Spectre Arakan laughed out loud as his hand turned as red as molten metal and Oryn’s body was burned from head to toe in a few seconds. Her skin turned black, her once beautiful white hair consumed by fire almost instantly. The Spectre’s hand turned back to its normal skin tone, and he released Oryn’s burnt body; it stayed hovering there, not moving.

  The Spectre looked straight at Chase as he blew on Oryn; her dust dissipated into the
room like she never existed.

  “There, that should put an end to your disillusioned hope of ever saving your friend. She’s mine for all eternity, as you all will be once I’m done with the lot of you.”

  Chase could feel the fear grow in the hearts of all his friends as their minds were still trying to process Oryn’s execution.

  “We need to get the hell out of here,” said Chase out loud, knowing that the Spectre would hear his telepathic messages anyway.

  Chase knew he was slowly but surely running on fumes energy wise, so he couldn’t teleport them all away at once.

  “Scatter, now; just run, fly, hide, do whatever you need to survive. I’ll get to each and every one of you,” said Chase, his voice trembling as he knew that he couldn’t guarantee that with absolute certainty.

  Chase turned toward his friends and screamed at them. “Now, gods dammit, NOW!”

  It took a split second for them to understand that their lives depended on listening to him and doing as he said.

  “I’ll stay and cover your escapes,” said Argos.

  “No! Go now!”

  “Get our father out, first.”

  Chase was glad his brother didn’t say more than that, it would have most certainly given the Spectre information that would have made Menelas his next target. And with that, Chase teleported next to Menelas and teleported away again.

  “You heard Chase,” screamed Argos as he turned into Ultra Fury mode. “Out, run, now!”

  Thor threw Mjölnir toward Spectre Arakan who stopped the hammer with his mind just an inch away from his face; the hammer turned one hundred and eighty degrees and flew back at Thor ten times faster than he had thrown the weapon. It impacted with his chest armor and probably broke every one of his ribs and multiple vertebrae as it sent Thor flying and bursting through one wall after another.

  “Chris,” said Argos calmly. “Get the hell out of here.”

  “I’m not letting you fight this thing alone, uncle.”

  “I need to be alone; if I have to think of your safety, it will make me weaker.”

  “That won’t make the slightest difference, Argos; I would get to him no matter where he ran,” said Spectre Arakan.

  “You won’t touch a hair on his head,” threatened Argos.

  Spectre Arakan smirked. “Or what? You’ll break every single one of your frail bones trying to stop me? Be my guest.”

  Chase appeared for a split second, touched Poseidon who was still encased into the wall, and teleported away.

  Argos grew his energy and aura to its maximum, and when he reached what he thought was max power, he kept pushing more and more.

  “Don’t do this, uncle, you’ll die!”

  Argos’s hair flew upward, and bright flames burned in his eyes. He shot nearly one hundred fireballs toward the Spectre, who let a few of them be assimilated into his body but, eventually, some of Argos’ attacks scored impacts on Spectre Arakan’s skin. When that happened, the Spectre started moving about, dodging, repelling and blocking Argos’ attacks.

  Chris launched himself toward the Spectre and scored a powerful knee strike to Arakan’s cheek and sent him skidding a few yards away, but he never lost his balance and managed to stay upright.

  Both Argos and Chris fired large columns of energy at Spectre Arakan who blocked both streams with one hand. The Spectre’s hand, skin, and bones were consumed by the combined power of the Furies’ attack. Spectre Arakan shot yellow lasers from his eyes toward Chris, and Argos interrupted his attack to push his nephew out of the way, getting hit in the stomach in the process. The lasers burned through his armor, skin, organs—everything.

  Argos tumbled and rolled for a few yards. Large quantities of blood were expelled from his mouth.

  The Spectre looked at his missing hand. Black smoke took the shape of the missing limb and recreated Arakan’s hand in a matter of seconds.

  Chris felt anger fill his soul and he unleashed a deafening roar, his green aura turned orange, his hair shot toward the heavens, and two miniature suns shone in place of his pupils. He had transformed into Ultra Fury as well.

  “Interesting; so rage and anger are the key to a Fury’s powers, at least it seems to trigger them in you, even when these powers are dormant,” said the Spectre. “I can only imagine how powerful I would become should I get any of your souls.”

  When Chase returned, he was stunned to see Chris in Ultra Fury form, but Chris pointed a finger to Argos, signaling his father to get him out first. Chase teleported by his brother’s side and teleported away but not before sending his son a telepathic message.

  Be careful, Chris. I’ll be right back.

  “You should heed your father’s advice,” encouraged Spectre Arakan.

  Chris launched himself at him and unleashed a flurry of powerful combo attacks, mixing punches, kicks and knee strikes with such force and power that each impact on Arakan created visible shock waves. It seemed as if Chris was finally scoring hits and doing some substantial damage. When he had delivered a good two hundred blows, he stopped, panting and in dire need of catching his breath.

  Bruises and wounds on Spectre Arakan’s body healed before Chris’ very eyes. And the Spectre grinned.

  “My turn.”

  He moved so fast, Chris didn’t see him coming. The Spectre caught Chris by the hair and in a split second delivered a flurry of punches, one more powerful than the next, breaking most of Chris’ facial bones. Chris attempted to retreat by launching a circle kick. He immediately regretted doing so when the Spectre grabbed his ankle and smashed Chris on the ground repeatedly, breaking more and more of his bones with each throw.

  Upon his return, Chase kicked the Spectre’s legs with all the energy he could muster and managed to down Spectre Arakan to the ground, giving Chase just enough time to grab his dying son and teleport away.

  We’re all back onboard, except Oryn; she didn’t make it, said Chase telepathically to Sarah. Get us out of here, now.

  I’m sorry to hear that. Where to, Chase?

  We need to regroup, so first let’s swing by Athena’s ship, and then we’ll probably go back to Alpha Prime.

  Jumping now.

  As the Victory jumped, Chase allowed himself to breathe a little easier and the fear inside his soul diminished to a more manageable level. They were putting some real distance between themselves and that utter monstrosity of unspeakable power.

  Chase still couldn’t believe that a being could be so powerful. How would they ever manage to defeat that thing?

  Chase continued healing Chris, but as he was running out of juice, it took longer than he wanted it to. During the last moments of the fight, and after having teleported Poseidon back to the ship, he had also revived and partially healed Thor before putting him in a regen tank. A decision that could have cost both the lives of his brother and son; doing so had cost him a precious minute during which the Spectre greatly hurt them both. In the case of Chris, within an inch of his life.

  Argos was still on the floor, a tear of rage traveling down his bloodied face. He healed most of his critical wounds, crawled near Chase and Chris, and painfully, he rested his hand on his nephew’s shoulder.

  With Argos’ combined healing powers, Chris’ main injuries mended faster and once all his bones had been repaired and his damaged organs healed, they all went to the regen tanks.

  Before entering his own regen tank last, Chase called Kvasir.

  “Please, tell me you managed to reprogram the machine before I snatched you out of there.”

  “Yes, Chase; just under the wire, but the machine has been successfully modified.”

  “Thank you, Kvasir,” said Chase before turning off his comms.

  He climbed into the regen tank and activated an extensive healing cycle.

  Epilogue

  Chase entered the bridge and saw his father at a nearby station, scanning the holo-database for star systems.

  “Admiral on deck,” announced Sarah.

  His en
tire bridge crew rose and saluted him.

  Chase saluted back. “At ease, everyone; back to your posts.”

  He went to sit down in his captain’s chair.

  “I’m surprised Argos and Chris didn’t come with you,” said Sarah.

  “Argos didn’t take our defeat very well, and well, Chris, being the empathic son and nephew that he is, preferred to stay with his uncle for moral support, even though his injuries were way worse than Argos’.”

  “That must have been one hell of a fight; I wish I had been there with you.”

  Chase reflected on that for a moment.

  “Believe me you don’t. This Spectre thing is more powerful than anything I could ever have imagined. Arakan may have perished today, but I’m certain that only made things worse. And it wasn’t a fight, really, it was a massacre; one we’re lucky to have survived, except for Oryn. It’s a small miracle that no one else died.”

  “Technically, Aphroditis and Ares too; wouldn’t you think so?”

  Chase hated the fact that he didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to his mentor; as for Aphroditis, as long as she was in suspended animation, Chase thought there was still a chance to bring her back. It was a real possibility that Ares’ spirit could be consumed after seeing the toll the machine took on Aphroditis.

  Menelas was still sifting through hundreds of star systems on the console.

  Feeling his sadness, Sarah kissed Chase on the lips and passed her hand through his hair. He tried smiling as best he could. But his confidence had been shaken to the core.

  “Thank you,” he whispered to her. “Hopefully, we’ll soon finish this war.”

  Chase’s voice lacked its usual conviction.

  “We will; soon we’ll have the means to do exactly that, thanks to your successful mission to Erevos.”

  Chase didn’t like to call it successful. They had lost Oryn to that Spectre, not to mention that he had royally kicked all of their asses in a way Chase hadn’t expected nor thought possible. They were lucky to be alive, and it was ironic; all this time he had worried about fighting Arakan, when, in fact, there was an even deadlier enemy hiding behind him, waiting to rise. And now, they needed to deal with an undead, overpowered version of Arakan on steroids that feed on souls. The thought both flash-froze Chase’s blood and scared him to death.