Apocalyptic Life (Era Series Book 2)

by Patrik Mielonen

  Nay, it’s no longer Louir’s sight; it’s the Void’s.

  “Hahaha! Finally! Let us spar, old man!” Both Louir’s and the Void’s voices are blended together.

  The old man stomps the floor, crushing the stone. Then, he lunges at the Archon with primal ferocity. The Archon clashes with it, and they’re both briefly knocked back.

  But it’s only a setback for them.

  The guardian of the tower slams its fists to the floor like a gorilla, sending forth a destructive shockwave at the Archon. They dodge the blow by stepping through the Void to appear on the old man’s flank some dozen yards away. The Archon sends a powerful wave of Void flame at the old man, and the very instant it is hurled, the Archon steps behind its adversary, delivering a heavy, explosive Void blast to knock him towards the incoming wave of Void flame the Archon has hurled a moment earlier.

  The old man collides with it, suffering greatly. His skin has disintegrated, his flesh exposed. Clearly pissed off, the guardian recovers quickly. After a quick salute, it goes on the offensive, and it lands its flaming fist, delivering a powerful blow to the Archon before they can react.

  They crash into a wall, and the flesh doll is about to strike again. They step out of the way, appearing on the other side of the floor.

  “That hurts, really.”

  Their adversary doesn’t speak nor even groan in the state it is. Louir and the Void are having a conversation in their shared mind, one that’s discussed in less than a second.

  I feel like my real body in the Void got the hit. How? —Louir

  That creature is an anomaly in itself, one that bends the boundaries of reality and the conceptual reality. Theoretically, we cannot defeat it. However, she is doing her best to disrupt him, the one who controls that creature. —Void

  So, in other words, we have a handicap here? From the looks of it, we can tear that thing apart slowly. —Louir

  Piece by piece? Not going to happen. If we cannot kill it in one go, it will just build a new body it can use to fight. It happened once already. There was no old man inside the knight in the first place. —Void

  Then let’s hit harder. What do you suggest? —Louir

  Take control of the left hand. I will have the right. Let us deliver a combination of destruction that erases even the Elementi lords. —Void

  Louir can feel the Void’s grasp disappear from her left hand. She has total control over it, but zero over the right. It feels as if she didn’t have a right hand in the first place.

  The guardian is coming at them like some berserker running amok. With each step, it crushes the stone floor beneath its feet.

  Living Weapons! The Void commands swiftly in their shared mind.

  Louir summons a sword of violet substance, and the Void calls forth a whip in turn. Louir uses the left hand she’s in control to parry the incoming blow with exceptional sword mastery. Upon contact, the sword causes a weak eruption of Void energy on the spot where the blade comes in contact with the flesh of the guardian, damaging the arm.

  The Void lashes it with the whip, erasing a huge chunk of its flesh. Louir cuts off the right arm. The Void sweeps the legs, dismembering the limbs with ease. Louir slices the belly open.

  Now, let it die and reform.

  Understood.

  The Archon retreats. They watch the guardian burst, turning into a spray of blood, only to spawn a black orb on the spot of its brutal death.

  Tentacles spew from the dark sphere, thick, black, leathery ones. As the limbs keep growing in size, so does the core of the whole thing, namely the orb itself. In short, it’s reforming, turning into a huge mutant with hundreds of tentacles.

  Now! Let us use all of the stored Void energy used to maintain this Archon form. The power of it is enough to erase a dimension with everything it includes. Direct the power to the creature, or we will all disappear into nothing.

  I thought the Void is the realm of nothing.

  The Void is a place that can be destroyed.

  Without further talk, the Archon glides upward, escaping the tentacles that are after them. Once high enough, they divert all of the energy stored in their Archon to one Void orb. The single thought Louir has had for a while now is verbalized.

  “Die!”

  The huge Void bomb that has all the energy of the Archon stored within it is hurled at the hideous monster forming on the floor. The Archon dissipates, and Louir’s physical body can be seen again.

  The loud sound of Void exploding upon impact resonates in the tower.

  ***

  Those few citizens who dare to walk outside their homes in Hantor can see their own doom. The Titan can be seen clearly in the thunderstorm of red lightning. It’s so close in less than half an hour, it will stomp the city and send Phantoms to slaughter all life.

  ***

  “I was almost caught in that explosion!” Ion complains.

  “But you weren’t.”

  Be thankful. We managed to destroy it for good.

  “Shut up, perverted raven,” Louir snaps. She was in the Void’s mind. She knows what the raven has been saying to her.

  The raven says no more.

  “You don’t know what it means to be a Void Archon, huh? So, you were just afraid that I’ll get to have a peek at your thoughts, and that’s all? Seriously, I can’t believe it.”

  “Let’s get going. I don’t feel like discussing a topic I don’t get.” Ion has yet to learn the meaning of the word ‘perv.’

  They dash up the stairs, sweating. Louir has enhanced them with Void powers, which isn’t the same as Life Elementi empowerment. Not even halfway, they fear they’ll never reach the top in time. Louir has thought of gliding, but with the enhancements, they’re faster on foot.

  “Can’t she just appear and make a portal for us? Or could it be that she’s having the same problem as me? I still can’t Teleport safely.”

  “No idea.”

  Leave Ion behind, step all the way up. The raven reminds Louir of her own powers.

  “Don’t we need Ion?”

  All we need is you for the final confrontation.

  “Am I that useless?”

  No. We need you later on.

  “Uh-huh. Like, for the after-party?”

  The raven won’t answer.

  “Fine. Ion, catch up with me. I’m going up there.”

  No sooner than that, Louir is stepping through the Void repeatedly. She’ll reach the top in less than a minute. The raven flies straight for the top. Ion is left behind to climb on his own.

  ***

  On the very top of the tower that spans over the clouds, a figure of a male human stands at the edge, where he could easily slip and fall. The rain is weak up there, for most of the clouds are below, but the thunder up there is so loud it can damage hearing, and the red flash may blind an onlooker.

  But not him.

  The king of Poer Haem stands drenched, watching the Titan coming his way. No, it’s wrong to call him a mere king of a country. For all this time, he has been impersonating a human sovereign for reasons unknown. He isn’t a god, and he isn’t a human either, so... what is he?

  Louir stands behind him. “What are you!?” She asks the question no one can answer.

  He doesn’t turn around, nor does he reply, not right away.

  “Answer me!”

  “I am the...” He begins, but stops halfway.

  “What!? I can’t hear!”

  He turns around. “I’m your king.”

  “No, you aren’t.”

  “I am offended.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “You should. You would not exist if not for me.”

  Louir’s cold expression doesn’t change. “If you create life, why’d you seek to ruin our world? Why did you release the Titan? Why!?”

  He stays silent.

  “At least tell me why you aren’t trying to kill me right now!”

  The reply she gets catches her off guard. “I... I’m lonely.”


  “What?”

  “I’m lonely. I’m not trying to imply anything else. It’s just as you hear it. I’m lonely.”

  “Is that your reasoning for forcing the apocalypse?”

  “You are the one bringing the apocalypse,” he points out.

  “But you are the one who’s forced my hand.”

  “What is your plan anyway?”

  “To eradicate the humans in the other dimension. They’re threatening the Elementi, aren’t they?”

  He nods. “That is not a lie. But you do not need to bring the apocalypse in this dimension to achieve that.”

  “Oh? So you’re telling me that we should ignore the Titan you released?”

  He states outright, “I did not release it.”

  Louir stands still in the storm, hair fluttering. Has she been lied to? Ion told her she said that he released the Titan.

  “You are not siding with the wrong entity,” he speaks, “but know this; she is not aware of the truth.”

  Louir yells, “Then tell us the truth! Or must we fight you!?”

  “I cannot.”

  “Then tell us what you are!”

  “I... cannot.”

  “Why not!?”

  “Because you deserve not to know.”

  “However,” he continues, “I can show you what I truly look like, if you wish.”

  Seeing Louir nod, he removes the disguise. The King of Poer Haem is thus no more. A vague shape of something is in his place now. He looks like a mountain, but then again, he also looks like a horse. Nay, he does look like a human too.

  Louir is struck with an intense headache. “The hell...!?”

  Then, a newcomer speaks up, “Don’t look at him. You’ll only suffer if you do.” She has appeared out of nowhere.

  Louir turns to the devil girl at once. “Who released the Titan?”

  “Ah, err, I guess I did it,” she explains, scratching the back of her neck.

  Louir is confused. She is holding her head. “If you won’t explain what the hell’s going on, I’ll seriously just walk away.”

  “I was going to do that anyway,” the devil girl says. “You see, he created the Titan. He made a weapon none of us can stop alone. I, on the other hand, am trying to get rid of that weapon. I’m trying to save this world at the cost of human lives. The Titan would’ve broken free at some point anyway. So, my plan is to have all the destroyers of the world set free simultaneously so that they can destroy each other. However, the Void must survive, and therefore, I need you, Louir, to defend the Void. If the Void is vanquished, the dead would have no place to go.”

  “So,” she finishes her explanation, “I had to make you a Void attuner, Louir. I had to make you kill mercilessly. I had to make you raid the Order. If not for me, you wouldn’t have the power of the Void, which you need to keep this world intact. The humans in the parallel dimension of this world cannot be defeated with the Elementi other than the Void. And if they’re not stopped in time, you’ll all cease existing.”

  “She is not lying,” he adds. “However, she does not know the truth.”

  “Until the day I know the truth,” she declares, “I won’t stop fighting you. And even if I knew it, I’d still fight you because the path you walk isn’t benevolent. Like, you’ve erased a whole world, haven’t you? The Second World, I mean.”

  “It was an accident,” he says.

  “An accident!? I wonder what happened.”

  Louir speaks up, “Is it true?”

  ““It is,”” he and she answer Louir in unison. If the enemy and its rival are in agreement, she can only believe it.

  “In that case,” Louir declares, “I will fight with her.”

  Then, a group of strangers shows up from the stairs. The Void attuner is leading them, followed by the Poer Haem Wolf and the two Dragoni Priests.

  Louir is stunned by the sight of them. She expected the other Void attuner to be there already, but apparently, she wasn’t. Not only that, she never thought the Wolf would come as well, along with two more strangers to crown the group.

  “Hello, Louir,” the other Void Elementalist says.

  “Who are you?” Louir demands.

  Beneath the bandana, there has to be a wry smile. “I’m a person you know all too well.”

  “Then show your face so that I can confirm it.”

  “As you wish.”

  She removes it, and the face of a young woman is revealed. She has a scar below her left eye, a straight line.

  “We are one, Louir. We both are Louir.”

  For a brief moment, the world seems to freeze as the words ring in her head, until Louir shakes her head. “How?”

  The other Void Elementalist is Louir as well. The killer in the tavern, the killer in the woods, the killer in Tereon, they were all Louir.

  “You’ll see soon,” Louir from the future says.

  He speaks, “Emily,” everyone turns to him, “I’ll see you in the Fourth Era.”

  “““Huh?””” Both Louirs and she exclaim.

  Red lightning roars between the tower and the Titan.

  Are you just letting the Titan come? The raven speaks aloud. The Void’s been silent ever since Louir got to the top.

  “Wait!” She shouts at him, “I’m not Emily! And what do you mean by Era?”

  “I hope you will never know,” he says, vanishing.

  The Titan is very close now. With he gone, silence follows, a silence that’s interrupted by the thunder and the quaking the Titan causes.

  The male Dragoni Priest speaks up, “Ohan, this is why we’ve come here. Let’s destroy the Titan.”

  “Agreed.”

  The two Dragoni Priests walk over to the edge to challenge the Titan. The massive destroyer’s head is on the same level as the top of the tower, and hence, it’s not looking down, but straight, staring at the two Dragoni.

  They leap off the edge. Louir is perplexed by their act. However, when two Serpent Dragons, black in color, dart upward to the sky above the Titan, Louir is awed. They look malevolent and huge, but tiny in comparison to the Titan. Their fiery eyes gleam, and their mouths are flaming. Horns crown their heads.

  They fly over the Titan, attracting it away from the tower. Their black figures disappear into the storm, but they cannot use the dark as camouflage, for the Titan sees all, no matter what.

  “Let them fight,” she says.

  Then, something out of the ordinary happens, something she never expected to happen. A pair of teenagers appears next to her, a girl and a boy. The thunder roars, reverberating.

  She cries in pain.

  The others are perplexed, even Louir from the future who doesn’t seem to be so clueless. They never thought the devil girl can be tormented. But there she is, suffering for an unknown reason.

  “What the fuck!?” She can’t stand the pain.

  The boy, who’s appeared along with the girl, looks pathetic. The girl, however, looks triumphant. Her smile is evil, and she takes a look at everyone.

  Then, she speaks up, the girl that has appeared out of nowhere, the girl whose name no one knows, the girl whom even he doesn’t know.

  “Hello.”

  Then, she takes the boy’s hand and runs over to the edge, jumping to their deaths. No one comprehends. They come and go without further explanation. The agony she feels is beyond mortal coil. If she were a human, she would be dead because of the shock.

  “Those two...!” She utters.

  ***

  The Titan is nimble with its arms, but it can’t move its legs as easily. The long, thin arms are threateningly lengthy for the two Dragoni. They slither through the clouds like some predators hunting for prey. Tereahn is taunting it, whereas Ohan is behind it, waiting for an opportunity to go all-out, ripping the Titan’s back open with the massive claws.

  Tereahn is put to his limits as he dodges the arms with his Serpentine body. Once he finds an opening, he inhales, spitting out a flaming orb that, upon hitting the Titan, expl
odes with destructive power, causing worse sound than the thunder.

  The Titan’s belly is damaged. Black substance is pouring out of the wound down to the ruined city of Hantor. The Titan doesn’t care. It keeps hunting Tereahn.

  Ohan finds an opening. She lunges at the Titan’s back, clawing it with such recklessness that one can only wonder if she enjoys it. The abnormal flesh is torn off en masse.

  The Titan’s arms don’t have any joints, and thanks to it, the arms bend easily to confront Ohan. Tereahn doesn’t let it happen. He darts forth, delivering a barrage of Dragoni fire at the left arm, and then, he lunges at the right arm, sinking his fangs into the Titan.

  Ohan keeps tearing at the Titan’s paranormal flesh. Black substance is spilling out in massive quantities, coating Ohan’s Serpentine body.

  The massive destroyer tries to catch Tereahn with its wounded left arm, but he flies away before it can do so. Ohan just keeps drilling the Titan relentlessly.

  Pieces of dark flesh are sent flying everywhere, and where there is a building below, destruction claims it. People down there die like insects. They can do nothing when the destroyers are set loose.

  Tereahn escapes into the clouds, trying to confuse the Titan for a second. However...

  Ohan is bewildered as the Titan disappears into thin air.

  And Tereahn is caught off guard as it appears in front of him.

  The Titan catches him with its hand. And in a flash, the faceless Titan opens a mouth that wasn’t there just a moment ago, showing white, sharp teeth like needles. And then, it bites Tereahn, swallowing half of his body, letting the tail piece drop down to the city below. The blood of the Dragoni is spilled in the air, and those few humans in Hantor who’ve survived thus far are drenched by the rain of blood.

  Surprisingly enough, Ohan isn’t panicking or enraged. After all, she’s a monster, just like the Titan. But there’s one problem; since the Titan has consumed half of the Heart of the World, it has also erased half of the Dragoni deity. The death of Tereahn should have given her the full power, but since that power doesn’t exist anymore, she remains as she is, facing the Titan alone without any help.

  The Titan disappears again, and Ohan knows what it means. She darts to a random direction with explosive speed, dodging the arms of the Titan. It has appeared behind her, and once far enough, she turns around to breathe Dragoni flame, bombarding the massive murderer with a relentless barrage.