Soullord (Soulguard Book 2)

by Christopher Woods

  I felt something squirm in my right fist. I looked down to see the tattered remains of the Soul I had ripped from the Farrara'Ti. I had ripped it to shreds.

  I looked back up to see everyone and everything looking silently at me. Some in horror, some in rage, some with stark terror. That was both human and Kresh alike.

  "Damn, Son," Kharl said softly.

  I was still shaking with the pent up emotions roiling inside me.

  "Initiate Code Alpha," I heard Dietrich's voice on coms, "I repeat, Code Alpha."

  "Copy," returned the voice of Lyrica.

  "Copy," I said hoarsely.

  "Five supports!" Kharl ordered and the five strongest of the Mages around me stepped back inside the ring. The others closed up the ranks in one fluid movement.

  Code Alpha. This is what we were waiting for. The Demons were no longer trying to escape the lines. The Mages were free to give me the power to do the damage needed to end this.

  "On your command, Soullord One."

  "Standby," I answered, and looked out at the seething hatred rolling through the thousands of Demons outside the circle.

  I raised that tattered Soul high into the air.

  "You want me?!" I roared, "Come get me!!!"

  My challenge ripped across the massed Demons, and they returned a roar that literally shook the ground.

  "Oh, shit," Daphne repeated her earlier assessment of the situation.

  I tossed the Soul to the side and it was sucked into the Gate.

  "Come and burn," I said softly, then I clicked my coms, "Pull."

  The Demons charged our little group, and two hundred and thirty two Mages Pulled into the sky. The world seemed to vibrate with a huge THRUMMM!

  Lyrica snatched that power, and created the giant maelstrom of power in the sky above us. I closed my eyes and just used my inner sight to track the power. I could sense the flows all around us and the mighty vortex above us. I raised my arms to the sky and when they came down, gouts of fire slammed into the Earth.

  I began the steps of a new dance. This dance was a dance of the mind, a dance of power. This was a dance of destruction. The Dance of Death. I could see all of the power around me, and I brought down Hell on Earth. All around us the fires slammed into the ground.

  MOTHER! FATHER! The names of those who had died for me slammed outward from my mind. They were pushed by rage and hate each accompanied by a gout of fire from the sky.

  SEARSON! JAYDEN! The names of a hundred and two children and teachers from Morndel slammed outward. They had died for me just as much as my mother and father. Or died because of me.

  WILSON! JANICEK! My friends and fellow warriors. Every name of those who have died under my command is etched into my mind. Each gout of destruction to slam into the ground was accompanied by a name.

  The earth shook as I added name after name to the list of the Fallen. My friends, my brothers and sisters, all of the fallen Soulguards I have known were names on that list.

  NORA! JENNA! The names roared out across the field. I didn’t even realize that they were slamming into those around me from my mind. The list was in my head, and I was Lashing each time with those names. Both Kresh and Human alike felt those names slamming through their minds like hammer blows. The list continued through every single one of the Fallen.

  FORTRAINE! A Gout of fire hit thirty feet in front of the interlocked shields held in a circle around the Jaeghernauts with a mighty BOOM!

  RICTOR!!! And the world began to shake in one continuous blast at the very last name on my list. As the name of my friend slammed outward with all of the loss and pain I was feeling, I began ripping Power down without the tempo of the list. I ripped multiple gouts of destruction down from the heavens all around us.

  BUUURRRRNNN!!!!! The word ripped out from my mind, and rolled across the massed horde of screaming Kresh. It was Lashed out with all of the rage and hate I felt.

  I was lost in the destruction. Lost in a world of hate and rage. My tears fell as fiery drops of Soulfire. So many people had died for me and that list had grown this day, I knew. There would be a whole new list of names for me to remember.

  "Enough, Son."

  I heard Kharl's voice from my right, and I felt the squeeze of the hand on my right shoulder.

  I opened my eyes to a sight right out of Hell. The ring of Mages were standing in a circle around me and outside that circle, the earth was melted. Some spots flowed like water. What few Demons were left scrambled for the Gate or just stood dazed out in the midst of that apocalypse.

  I looked out at the stragglers and a vision of my friend's Soul being snuffed like a candle in the wind flashed through my mind.

  "It will never be enough," I said bitterly.

  I stood there motionless as I watched the remainder flee through the Gate. Then the Gate simply winked out of existence. There wasn’t even a trace of the huge portal that had been there.

  Then I heard a new sound. It began some distance away but it grew louder. A mighty cheer rolled through the ranks of warriors surrounding the smoking field. We had won but I couldn't bring myself to cheer. I saw a dying Trainee I had brought into this place, I saw my best friend incinerated by an explosion. These are what I will remember from the Second Battle of Kansas. These things will haunt me for a great deal of time.

  Both of them died as heroes. And they will be remembered as such. Even after letting the Soul free from my grasp, I could feel the new well of hatred and rage inside me.

  Yes they will be remembered, and yes, they will be avenged.

  Chapter 48

  My body felt like it had been seriously abused. So much power had ripped through me in a short amount of time. I felt drained, even though I was filled by a fifteen inch Soulstream. It was not just a physical weariness, it was emotional weariness. I was just tired and sore all over.

  I made myself move toward the melted earth to the west of us, toward the spot where I could see her Soul. It shone like a beacon in the darkness and I walked toward it. I crafted a bridge across the melted and blasted earth as I walked toward her. The Jaeghernauts followed behind me in rows of four with Kharl walking directly behind me.

  I met her at the edge of the blasted landscape, and she was in my arms and holding me. Her head rested against my chest and I held her tight. Our Soulstreams merged and some of the physical weariness fell away but the emotional weariness would take time.

  Not only had I lost my best friend, I had become something else out there on that battlefield. I'd known for years about the Demon DNA, but I now had a second Soulstream that led to that spot that had always been empty. It was an ugly Soulstream and it fluctuated with the opening and closing of the portals out on the field. It seemed to vanish as the last of the portals shut down but I could still feel the reservoir of that ugly power down inside me.

  I don't know where that ugliness will take me in the future. It is the price I paid for the victory we achieved. The price I will always have to pay for the things I can do that no one else can. The things needed to fight this war against the Kresh.

  As we walked toward the crowds of Soulguards and National Guardsmen the cheers continued, louder and louder. Let them have their moment of victory. We are far from finished, but the Kresh now know that the first battle of Kansas was not just a fluke. They were destroyed because we destroyed them. They'll think twice before coming back to Kansas.

  The crowds parted as we walked through toward the headquarters. We must have been a real sight. A lot of my insane charge toward the shielded Demonmages I had been unshielded and I was covered in both Demon blood and a lot of my own. Once it was on me it was there. The shields would burn the blood away but my shields were outside of that. There is a certain distance from the body that is imbued with my Soul, or I would always come back from a fight naked. That would be a sight as well I guess.

  Here I was covered in blood, and beside me walked Lyrica with some of that blood smeared on her from our embrace. It wasn't bothering her very m
uch as she held tight against my side. She was just worried about me. She had seen what I had done, seen what had sparked my unstoppable rage. She could see into my Soul, see what I had done to myself.

  The crowd parted as my group made our way through toward our HQ. I just wanted somewhere I could sit and be still for a few minutes. We reached the HQ and I walked inside. The Jaeghernauts remained outside in formation at the door facing the cheering crowd.

  As the door closed behind me I turned my back to the wall and slid to the floor. Everything began to register on my mind, and the new well of rage was right under the surface. There were things I needed to know. Where was my mom? How many trainees had died out in that mess for me? How many Guards? How many of my friends?

  My mental state was a far cry less important than these things. It was more pressing on me right this moment than the others, but I didn't have time to do anything about it right then. Lyrica sank to the floor right beside me, and her arms wrapped around me. We didn't say anything, we didn't need to. Our Souls merged, and she could feel everything I did. Just as I could feel everything she did. We just sat there for a while.

  ***

  "It was easy to say Code Alpha," Marcus said, "but to actually see it is something else, Colin."

  I sat in the office of General Polomo. Marcus Stratton and Polomo sat in the other chairs in his office.

  "You can say that again, Marco," Polomo said.

  I looked at Polomo and Stratton.

  "You didn't think we hadn't heard of your little nicknames for us, had you?" Marco asked.

  "It just seemed a little disrespectful to call you Marco and Polo," I said with a short chuckle.

  "First time I've heard a laugh from you since the battle, Colin," Polo said. "I know some serious shit happened out there, but you know we stand right behind you don't you? If you need someone to talk to, either of us will be there."

  "I thank you both," I said, "and perhaps, I can talk about it later. Right now there is too much to get done and not a great deal of time to do it in."

  Polo nodded, "That’s a damn fact. We're still sifting through the ashes, so to speak."

  "I do have one question, Colin," Marco said. "Were you aware that the names you were calling off were heard in the minds of everyone within five miles of here?"

  I shook my head. I had known they were slamming outward telepathically, but I wasn't aware of how much power I was throwing behind those names. It seems that the link I made to their Source boosted my telepathy much more than it had been before.

  "I learned I could use this telepathy on other humans some time back, but I never realized it was so strong. It didn't hurt anyone, did it?" I was worried about the effects of my telepathy on others since the forced Mark of my Romanians.

  "No, it didn't hurt anyone," Marco said, "but who were they?"

  "All of the people who have died for me in my thirty three years, or because of me. That list grew quite a bit Monday."

  He nodded, "I thought as much. You know we are here because this is what soldiers do, don't you? This isn't your fault, they invaded our world and we'll fight them tooth and nail. This isn’t because they want you alone. If you only listen to one thing I'm saying, listen to this."

  "If not for you we would have lost the battle today. There would be a radioactive wasteland where we now sit and none of us would have survived. There isn’t another person who could have done what you did out there. The fact is, we all expected to have to call down the bombs long before this even started."

  "After the horde spewed out of that gate, we almost knew it would take nukes to stop them. We've never faced anything like those bastards. What they sent to the cities were just the 'attack dogs' you were describing to us. We thought we had a handle on the situation until Monday."

  "But your Soulguards are amazing," Polo interjected, "just straight up amazing. It's hard to believe that a normal human can become what you have made of them."

  "None of which was anywhere near what you did, personally," Marco said. "It was unbelievable, and if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it at all."

  "There's film of it from fairly close up. Mostly from behind you. That camera man who was out there shot your run from the moment you left that shield to the Code Alpha. They tried to get him to leave the shield and go to safety, but he and the reporter refused to budge, and the engineers said the safest place they could think of was that shield they were inside of so the whole group stayed till the battle was over."

  That sounded like Alstead, all right. She would walk through Hell if she could get the story she sought. I wasn't too happy with the fact that they had been focused on me. They had to have seen things I would prefer not to have ever been seen by another human being. Things I don't even like to think of myself.

  "But back to the work at hand," Polo said. "The forts are not usable anymore. We need facilities farther out. No one realized how fast our lines would be pushed back. And we need more planes."

  "I can get those," Marco said, "so if we can get enough Mages to work the guns we can get as many planes as we want."

  I nodded, "And we need to work as fast as we can. I don't know if they'll come back here, but we need to be prepared for it. My fear is that they will just start opening Gates all over the world. So far, they focused on the US because, if I'm guessing right, I am here. If they decide to just pour their numbers through in other countries, we're looking at a long bitter fight."

  "Casualties will be catastrophic," Polo agreed. "We don't have any ideas where these other Gates are?"

  "There was the one in Romania, but we buried it under about a hundred thousand tons of mountain. We don't know where the others are. I've spoken with my Shak'Tar, and they don't know where the others are either. They all came here through the Romanian Gate."

  "The future looks bleak," Marco said, "but we'll face it as it comes. It's what we do, we Humans, we survive."

  Chapter 49

  I was looking for my mom. She hadn't been with Kharl when I went to the barracks. He was pretty shaken. She was blaming herself for the loss of eighty-seven Trainees. She had been very distant for the last two days, and I wanted to talk with her.

  I left the barracks and opened my inner eye, my Sight. I found her Soul and headed toward the remains of the battlefield. I know how she feels, but her actions saved more lives than I could count.

  I passed several Soulguards as I headed for her.

  "That's him," I heard whispered.

  "You see what he did?"

  "Ripped that things Soul apart."

  "Saved our asses, he did."

  They were unaware of the sensitivity of a Mages hearing. I hated that what some remember is what I did to the Farrara'Ti's Soul. I hated to even think I could torture another living being as I had done the Kresh. It's one thing to kill them. It's another thing altogether to torture one as I had done. The Soul is a living thing until it is absorbed back into the Source and it had been aware of all that I had done to it.

  I got far enough that I didn’t hear the whispers. They were always present now, every time I was near anyone. Both Soulguard and National Guard, all of them had seen what I had done and they felt the hammer blows of my telepathy as I recited the list of my dead. They all know I am not just human now. Some don't understand what it is that they know exactly. But some understand much more than I would like anyone to know about me.

  I found her out at a spot that I had visited several times already. The spot where Rictor had died. It still doesn't completely compute in my mind, I can't quite believe that my friend is gone. I've come out here and sat, just as she was sitting and tried to figure out what the Hell is going on in my head.

  I walked up beside her and sat down.

  "Why did he do it?" she whispered.

  "It's what we do, Mom," I answered. "We do whatever it takes to save our brothers and sisters. We do whatever it takes to save our race. You think it would be easier if he hadn't saved you? Not to thos
e of us who love you. I would be mourning the loss of my mother instead of my friend."

  "But I brought them out into this," she said softly. "It was my place to die for them. Not them for me. They were children."

  "They were Soulguard," I said, "And they were soldiers, and they saved more lives than they even knew when they joined the fight. The next line of defense was the National Guardsmen. How many of them would have died without the Trainees actions?"

  "Hundreds, maybe thousands," I said, "but your actions are the same as I would have done in your place. And I would feel the same as you feel. But the action was still the right one. Your forces held the lines. Without them we would have failed. They learn their dedication from you, Mom. They need you back and teaching them just as before. We need you back and teaching them. Don't give up on me, now."

  She took a deep breath, "I won't give up, Son. It just makes me feel so damn old. I've lost friends before but this is so different than anything the Soulguard has faced in my lifetime. No one except maybe Dietrich has seen anything like this."

  "I know," I said, "And I fear it's going to get worse before it gets better."

  "Me too," she said and stood up, "Thanks, Son."

  She placed her hand on my shoulder and squeezed. Then she turned and walked back toward the base. I don't know if anything I said helped her. It helped me to take those same words, and apply them to myself. She blamed herself for the loss of eighty-seven trainees. I feel the loss of those Trainees just as well. And the thirteen hundred and twenty three other lives lost in the Second Battle of Kansas.

  Out of the six thousand three hundred and thirty Soulguards who participated in the battle, we lost fourteen hundred and ten men and women. They were still running the figures from the Gate. There had been drones high in the air, observing the Gate. The consensus was somewhere around six hundred thousand Kresh came through the gate. It's unknown how many escaped back through the Gate. The maelstrom in the sky had blocked the drones from seeing anything after the Code Alpha.