In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater

by J Alex McCarthy

  Wilker leaps onto the rooftops and as soon as he lands an Iseul meets him. They clash, rooftop to rooftop. The battle around them seems to stop, it’s just Wilker and the multiples of Iseul. As they land on another rooftop, Wilker defends himself from the onslaught of the two Iseul’s when a foot rocks against his face.

  Wilker crashes into the ground. A third Iseul flashes in front of him and then a forth. “When I said escalate I fucking meant it!”

  An energy sword appears in all their hands. Wilker can’t fight all of them there are too many, he’s too fast, even with his advanced cognition. If Iseul isn’t going to slow down, he’s going to die.

  “I said escalate!” Iseul yells. Wilker jumps up as all the Iseuls disappear. They swirl in a vortex around him. Moving so fast around him he can’t concentrate.

  Concentrate, Wilker!

  A slash splits open his left arm. Then his right. Blades come from every direction, tearing into him like he’s getting slashed by thousands of shards of glass. Impaling into him from everywhere.

  Wilker spits out blood, Iseul missed all the vital points. He’s prolonging his death. Wilker falls to the ground as he leaks. He closes his eyes and breathes in.

  I can’t fail now.

  His wounds close but his body is slick with blood. His wounds are healed but he doesn’t have the power yet to replenish his blood.

  Iseul stands in front of him, “Done already, are we?”

  Wilker struggles to stand. He stares at him. He needs to end this. But how?

  Iseul splits apart again, Wilker concentrates, his mind isn’t yet able to understand multiple things at once. So he needs to concentrate on a single thing. On a way to defeat him. He thinks back to their fight. On what Iseul moves, his natural cadence, his fighting pattern.

  He stares at Iseul’s body, an incredible amount of blue power flows through his veins. There is so much that Wilker can’t pin point where the source is coming from. Somewhere in Iseul’s body the power is getting pumped through his body. A heart.

  But Wilker doesn’t have a single idea to where it is in this alien body of Iseul’s.

  Iseul splits in four again and approached him. Wilker staggers forward, his sword in hand. The Iseul’s stop and grins.

  “Oh a final stand, I always wanted to do one!” Iseul says with glee. His clones disappear. “So how are we going to do this, maybe some kind of javelin type game? Whoever gets up first wins.”

  “I’m tired of playing your games,” Wilker says.

  “You really don’t have a choice, human. You and your race don’t have any choice in your destiny or your future anymore. We will make your choices for you from now on. And our leader says it’s your destiny to die. Now come die like a man.”

  Wilker charges him and Iseul charges back. Time seems to slow for Wilker. In front of him as Iseul charges, there are thousands, millions of blurry images of him approaching him. Iseul was never using his full power.

  Iseul’s approach is a blur to Wilker, he can concentrate on every single Iseul that’s in front of him. But he must make his move, he must decide when one to attack.

  In a flash, their swords swing and they both skid to a stop, both facing the opposite direction. Wilker’s sword is only a single inch in width. Wilker made his move. But so did Iseul. Wilker falls face first to the ground.

  Iseul turns around, but there is no smile on his face.

  “Heh, I guess you won.” Blood explodes out of his mouth and he falls back.

  Wilker struggles to his feet, blood pours out of his stomach. He clutches it and closes the wound. He walks over and looks at Iseul’s blood stained face.

  “How…How did you know how to stop me?” Iseul mutters through his teeth. Wilker waves his hand around, a sword appears in his hand and shrinks to a tenth of its size.

  “Luck…I guess. I only needed a single touch. I didn’t know at which exact point your power flows through you but when you split again I was able to pinpoint the general area, the heart. Even with your powers it still has to come from somewhere. And even for heartless monsters you still have a heart. Because you limited yourself and because of your arrogance you lost.”

  Iseul sputters blood out of his mouth while he laughs. “That’s funny… coming from… someone like… you.”

  With a final grin the light in Iseul’s eyes leaves. What did he mean that’s funny coming from me?

  He’s been called arrogant many times before but only from someone he’s actually met before. Not some alien who claims he knew him.

  He was lucky that it was his heart that was his source of power. They can’t just manifest their power from nothing. He can use this.

  Serena and Noata are nowhere to be seen. He hopes they’re still safe. He looks around. He forgot about the battle around him. It’s still raging on. He hopes the other teams are having an easier time.

  A fist erupts out of Jake’s chest. It’s Molotiz’s. Molotiz’s face is bruised and discolored, he’s had a hard fight, but so have the chosen.

  “Now!” Jake screams. Lawrence’s sword shears through Molotiz’s neck. Molotiz’s head plops on the ground as Jake collapses.

  “Molotiz!” Subac yells. Lance jumps in front of him and launches a fist into his chest hard. Subac hurls back and Lance flies for him and punches him so hard in his face that Subac’s head explodes.

  Lance lands on his feet as Subac’s body continues to skid some distance from him.

  Holy shit.

  Lance looks at his hands. He never thought he could punch anybody that hard. Hard enough to blow up their head. Dirt and soot covers Lance’s body, he has a few cuts and bruises on his face. Around him, while the Alpha’s are dead, so are some of the chosen. Ming’s bodies lie on the ground in multiple pieces.

  Travis kneels over Jake’s dead body, his brother sacrificed himself to save them. Everyone else on Travis’s team is dead. Lance’s team only lost Ming.

  “Let’s group up,” Lance says. He’s lucky, he didn’t lose everyone. Next time he might not be as lucky. It’s only Him, Lawrence, Travis and Ryan left.

  A bullet wheezes past Lance’s ear. Hundreds of grunts advance up toward them, past the air base they were defending.

  “The hell?” he mutters.

  “We can’t fight that!? We have to run.” Lawrence puts a hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Come on!”

  Julio crashes down in the pavement as ten thin energy pillars slam into him. He screams as they pull out. He lies bleeding out in the streets of Washington, D.C.

  His wounds closes in a blue light. Julio slowly gets to his feet. His watch dings. His power level drops from 20% to 10%.

  Julio feels weaker. This isn’t good.

  “How many times are you going to heal? Until you run out of power? I keep stabbing you and stabbing you yet you keep getting up.” Panatil floats ahead of him, his hundred shields surrounding him. He’s right. Julio hasn’t found a weakness in his shields.

  “You could’ve killed me already.”

  “I never said I didn’t like stabbing you over and over again like some cockroach. It’s just surprising to me that your people are so persistent when you’re clearly losing that you keep trying and trying. Do you really think you can win?”

  “I won’t ever know unless I try.”

  Panatil laughs, “Well you do know that only five Alphas are fighting in this battle but even if I lose, that there are millions of us in this galaxy alone. You will never win.”

  “I don’t care as long as I kill you, I’ll worry about the rest later.”

  “Well then, come at me bro.”

  Julio charges him, with energy swords in both hands. Thin pillars shoot pasts him as he ducks and weaves toward Panatil. Panatil laughs as he closes in, all his shield collect in front of him, forming a blue energy wall. A pillar pierces Julio’s left leg but he doesn’t slow.

  “Surprise,” a voice comes from behind Panatil. Panatil glances back, Reese is behind him, with his shotgun cocked. Panatil lurches f
orwards as the buckshot unloads on his back.

  Julio’s sword passes through his neck. Panatil halts, he sighs.

  He stands and turns to Julio.

  “What the hell!?” Julio mutters.

  “Dammit, I guess you beat me, with the same damn trick you used on Boul. This is kind of embarrassing. I’ve should’ve killed your friend when I had a chance.”

  “You don’t have to talk like I’m not here,” Reese mentions.

  Julio waves him to be quiet. Reese’s shotgun didn’t break Panatil’s skin, it just staggered him enough for Julio to get the upper hand.

  “How are you still alive?”

  Panatil points to his neck, “Oh this? Well, I guess I underestimated you, you were able to cut so fine through my skin that my veins still pump my blood to my brain. It’s easy to separate like so.”

  Panatil pushes on his head and it slides off. He’s body collapse to the floor. Dead. Blood spurt out of his stump.

  “The hell was that?” Reese says in shock.

  “Damn,” is all Julio can say.

  The pillar disappears from his leg. His watch dings again and he collapses to his knees.

  Reese helps him up.

  He’s tired, he used too much energy fighting that psychotic fucker. His chest feels heavy, his eye lids feels the weight of the world. He’s not in fight shape anymore.

  “Let’s go.”

  Julio and Reese limp down the street off to the next battle.

  16 – Goodbye World

  “The Eliite aren’t shit,” Julio says as he and Reese limp down the street, they each hold each other up as they pass all the dead in the streets.

  It’s been a long day and Julio already feels like he’s near his limit.

  “Says the guy who just got his ass kicked,” Reese says.

  “Hey, I’ve been through a lot of shit, alright. Once we meet back with my team, we should be good.”

  He has been through a lot, crashing a plane into a building and fighting the alphas. He looks at Reese, he limps forwards with determination.

  How does Reese do it?

  To keep powering on when he only has the strength of a normal human being. Reese is a stronger man than himself. Julio doesn’t think he can handle much more. But he’s going to keep talking, because all of these dead bodies surrounding him are getting to him.

  “Run!” Someone yells.

  Lance and the rest of his team rush down the street, past two abandoned armored trucks. They all look like they’ve just been through a cage match.

  “We lost the Airbase we have to—“A bullet bursts out of Ryan’s chest, splattering his insides on Julio’s face. He falls dead.

  “Shit!” Julio exclaims.

  Twenty grunts run up behind Lance and the rest. The team splits in half. Julio, Reese and Lance run behind the armored truck on the left and the rest behind the one on the right.

  The grunts bullets quickly chip down the truck. The chosen return fire, Julio peeks out and fires back but they just dodge it and fire back. They’re more serious than they were before it seems. They’re starting to show some tactics, some of them lay cover fire while the others start to advance, this battle has just gotten a lot harder.

  Julio’s hit in the shoulder, he yells as he flings back, blood spurts out his back. Bullet went right through the truck, its shielding did nothing to stop the far superior round.

  In a stadium, Thora holds Neil, who cries softly in her arms as the building shakes from the battle outside.

  Julio lies face flat on the ground.

  His perception is lost, his world is blurry and shaky, blocking him from the battle around him.

  Lawrence looks up from his cover and sees Julio, he runs to him as the truck explodes behind him, killing their other teammate.

  Lawrence flips Julio over, the world comes back to him. He just wants to leave this place and relax in a nice Jacuzzi somewhere.

  He’s tired.

  Lawrence tries to help him up, but Julio barely responds.

  A loud explosion rocks over them, Julio hazily looks up.

  What now?

  A bright blue light streaks across the gray sky. Is it another omen or finally a blessing? He doesn’t have enough faith to believe in miracles.

  Just chances.

  Orbs spinning around the light like a turbine.

  Another weapon.

  It skips to the ground in a flash. It sporadically goes across the battlefield. It travels between skirmishes in an instant. A delayed sonic boom echoes across the city as it moves, moving closer to Julio.

  It approaches Julio. He hopes it makes his death quick. He stares directly at it until it just disappears. Right as it gets over them. Back in the sky it hovers over them. A strong sudden gust of wind hits them.

  Nothing else happens.

  But as the grunts are hit, they are ripped into the sky. Julio stares up in awe as the grunts disappear into the sky.

  A miracle it is.

  Cole hovers in the sky, he feels alive again. This power is amazing. He can stop this war. He can stop murder, muggings, almost every crime, hell maybe even world hunger.

  He can do anything he wants.

  He got the enemies ship’s attention. They’re ahead of him.

  Exactly what he wanted. He’s going to take care of them once and for all.

  His spheres continue to spin around him, from what he understands, they are him. He can feel the wind caress each individual orb as they spin around him. It’s a strange sensation feeling something like that, yet it not being physically connected to his body.

  A trail of grunts finally come twisting up from below. He moves slightly forward as the grunts fly over him. He simply watches them, screaming and falling back below to their deaths.

  He smiles.

  Let’s do this.

  Ahead of him, hundreds of Peons fly toward him. He puts out his hands, a group of spheres spin around his hands. He points and shoots them forward, spinning in a controlled manner until—

  The spheres hit the first Peon and immediately explode out. The spheres bounce ship to ship, tracking like a ping pong ball and destroy every ship in its immediate vicinity.

  On top of his concrete pillar, Ulbe lurches to his feet. He stares at the ruin and destruction above. He felt each and every single one of their deaths. Shock, curiosity, fury, and hate all sweep across his face as he grimaces at the destruction of—

  “My CHILDREN!!”

  The roar is heard across all of Washington.

  Ping! A bullet bounces of his skin, he’s shot at from below.

  It’s a team of titans, two women and three men, five of them, unbroken, unhurt. Ants! Down below they continue to fire until—

  The Damon disappears.

  The titans look around.

  “I told you this was a bad idea, we should’ve stayed hidden,” one of them says. He decides to walk forward and—

  Ulbe lands directly on top of him, his limbs explode off his body and into the air. The team staggers back.

  How could they call themselves titans if they cower back like this?!

  Ulbe steps forward and pulsates, an invisible force comes off him and hits one of the titans.

  His eyes roll to the back of his head as he spits up blood. As he collapses, Ulbe grabs his legs and swings him into one of the titans to his left. The third titan starts to run.

  Coward.

  Ulbe opens his mouth and shoots off a beam of energy, blowing off her top half. He turns to the last titan standing.

  The titan staggers back and pisses himself.

  Fitting end for a human.

  Ulbe grabs him with both hands and squeezes, the titans screams.

  “YOU’RE ALL JUST ANTS!” The Damon yells. He squeezes harder and harder until—

  The titan pops like a grape. His guts splatters across Ulbe’s pissed off face.

  Cole continues the fight above. This is absolutely nothing to him. Two faires come at him from below. He flies
down. His spheres pool to both of his arms and twirl around them. They go back and forth as he speeds for the faires.

  The first faire fires at him. Cole thrust his left hand forwards and a force field blocks it. The spheres circle around his left hand and spins fast as hell as—

  He unleashes a volley of energy blast, like a mini gun. Hundreds and hundreds of projectiles shoot out to destroy the first faire.

  The second faire comes quickly.

  Cole shoots head first into it and rips right through it.

  The faire explodes behind him.

  This is way too easy for him, he almost feels bad for them.

  Almost.

  He sees the ground, he slows and lands gently in front of the Washington Memorial.

  Before he has a chance to account for his surroundings, Ulbe lands in front of him. A powerful energy comes off of Ulbe. Wings rips from his back and spans out fifty feet each.

  Now this is what Cole wanted.

  “My name is Ulbe, you will pay dearly for your sins against my children ascended.”

  Cole smiles.

  Finally, a challenge to see how powerful he has become.

  Julio and his team cheer as they stare into the now empty sky. The tides are turning, it’s about fucking time. There are only three of his teammates left, Lance, himself, Lawrence and of course Reese.

  “I don’t know what the hell that was but let’s hope it stays on our side,” Julio says. The blue thing in the sky felt kind of familiar, maybe it’s that thing that Jahum told him about.

  A new hope.

  A weapon.

  “I don’t know about you guys but I’d like to peace out or better yet get the fuck out of here. No matter if we are winning or not,” Reese says.

  “We can’t. There’s some kind of instant death zone nobody bothered fully explaining to us,” Julio says. Although he kind of gets it, it’s some kind of invisible electric fence but he’s too tired to explain it.

  “Jahum said it would be lifted at the end of the battle, win or lose,” Lawrence says.

  “If you just tell me where it is, I’ll just chill outside of it until the end.”