by Greg Dragon
Alysia didn’t expect the field to work so she scurried to the side. She was relieved to see the rocks bounce off of their net and fall into the crowd of V’Kosha gathered around them. She glanced up at the dragon to glimpse what it was that hit him and saw a large wooden spear protruding from under its wing, a projectile fired from a Garot ballista.
More spears slammed into him, but the creature was tough. It beat its wings and showered them in flames. Though the net kept them safe, it didn’t do enough to ward off the heat, and it began to feel like a microwave. Flicks of fire caught the V’Kosha and set them ablaze as well, but Alysia put away Bliss and stabbed into them with Euphoria, robbing as many lives as she could before the dragon’s flames.
It took an entire minute for the dragon to exhaust its flame reserves. When it was finished, Alysia and Lenorela were drenched with sweat, and the lightheadedness forced them to find each other to stay standing.
The dragon seemed tired, as if the flames were a last-ditch effort, and it slowly kicked off from the mountain and flapped its wings to leave. Shots from the ballista followed its path, but most of them missed while the others found scales and bounced off.
“Oh, no you don’t” Lenorela mumbled, and shot her hands forward and made a pulling motion. The massive dragon’s head dipped and its flight slowed, and then it looked as if invisible hands pulled it down to the ground. Lenorela collapsed, but the damage had been done, and hundreds of Garot warriors ran over to the beast and started to drive lances and spears into its massive body.
“Lenny!” Alysia gasped and ran over to her side, but Lenorela stood up and touched her reassuringly.
“There’s V’Kosha everywhere, CeeCee, I can get reenergized.” She collapsed the field and slipped into the ground, and off in the distance a red explosion turned several V’Kosha powdery white. Alysia smiled and pulled out Bliss, then took a deep breath and went back to the fight.
An hour later, when Alysia thought that the worst part of the V’Kosha attack had come and gone, it was then that the ground stopped shaking. It was a frightening silence beneath her feet, though the screams of the hurt and dying continued their symphony everywhere.
Alysia countered the swing of one V’Kosha, forcing him to stumble, then ran him through with the other free blade, letting his life flow up through her body.
By now her cape was shredded and drowned in black demon’s blood. Her cloak looked as if she had waded through tar, and her hair was wet and curly. The bloodlust was upon her from the long fight and she barely paid attention to the Garot that followed her.
The fever of fighting had made the silence of the ground go unnoticed, so when a giant arm thrust up in front of her, she was snapped back into her senses immediately.
Lenorela was screaming at her, telling her to retreat, but by the time it registered, she was trapped and the giant had his torso out, pulling himself up from out of the ground. He was the size of a two-story building just from the waist up, and Alysia saw no way of getting around him.
So the tremors were from you, trying to break free of whatever demonic hell world there exists below, Alysia thought. She was wedged between the creature’s torso and a mountain of bodies that had been the result of a shot from Chaos’s siege machine. The dance of the battle had not slowed when he surfaced, and as her eyes climbed his muscular features all the way up to his face, she couldn’t help but think of the Statue of Liberty.
The giant clawed his arms forward to pull himself out, and his ragged hands crushed several of the Garot warriors. Alysia saw that he still hadn’t noticed her, so she dashed forward and put Euphoria into his navel, flinching as the blood showered her body. The giant’s roar threatened to leave her deaf.
“CeeCee!” Lenorela screamed as the giant snatched her up with a grip intended to squeeze the life out of her like pulp. He moved so fast that she didn’t have time to evade, and as she heard Lenorela calling her name, the world slipped from her as the giant’s fist tightened. Alysia’s saving grace was that she had her hands above her head when the giant closed his fist around her body. This allowed her to retaliate, and she jammed Bliss down into his wrist, then pulled it free and jammed it again, stab after stab after stab, even though her breath was cut off by the giant’s grip.
On the fifth stab, the giant’s hand opened up, but he caught her in his other hand and then used his damaged fingers to try and pull the sword from out of her hands. Alysia kneeled on his calloused palm and swung Bliss wildly at his fingers as he pinched at her to catch it and take it away. When she stopped coughing and could breathe again, she got to her feet and ran up his arm. He swung a slap to try and stop her, but she anticipated the move and slid along the hairy surface, jamming both Bliss and Euphoria into his arm. The giant bellowed and swung his arm, throwing her several feet into the air where she hung for several moments before falling towards the fighting demons.
She clenched her teeth in anticipation of the pain that would come from breaking her bones from the fall, but as she neared the ground she was airborne again, her right foot in the talons of a leathery bird. Euphoria almost fell from Alysia’s surprise, and she struggled against the decision to kill the bird in order to win her freedom. In a weird moment of panic she thought of something that Lenorela had said in the past: “But you are different, you are complete.”
She had always wondered if she was being kept alive for some reason other than what she had been told. So many opportunities to die had come and gone, yet somehow death had avoided her on every occasion. So what if I die? she thought suddenly. It isn’t like I can go back to my old life anyway. I’m so damn tired, and this isn’t my fight. I just want this all to end.
Despite the aches she felt deep down in her bones, Alysia twisted violently and swung her blades wild, cutting the legs from the flying demon. She fell like a rock, crushing several V’Kosha below her, but death didn’t come like she expected. She climbed to her feet and spit out blood, then was cutting a path through their lines.
Several minutes into this and the sky grew so dark that she was forced to look up. Towering above her were several giants swinging cruel blades and stuffing young members of the Garot into their mouths. Seeing this brought Alysia out of her rage and she could hear her name being shouted from several places. Whirling to see who it was that called her, she saw that she was the sole warrior fighting in a sea of V’Kosha, and the army had retreated behind the line of war machines.
A sole red-garbed warrior was riding towards her, and his mount looked like a hyena with metallic skin. She saw that it was Chaos, wielding a scythe, and he swung it in wide arcs as the hyena bowled over the demons. When he got to where she stood fighting, he held out a hand in her direction. Alysia clasped his forearm and he swung her up behind him, then turned the animal on its heels and rode back through the crowd towards his cheering Garot.
Tired and hurt, Alysia reached around his waist and lay her face against his back. She closed her eyes, feeling the muscles in his back expand and contract, only flinching once when blood from his scythe splashed her as he cut them a path.
“For once I get to save you, Ambriel,” he said quietly, his voice a deep boom through his back. She wanted to answer, to say something clever, but what could she say to someone who had known her as another, more spectacular person?
“You fight like you once did, like a true archangel,” he continued between swings of the scythe. “Is there any room in your warrior’s heart for forgiveness? Can I win you back into believing in me?”
“The only way that will happen is if you give me back my life, Syphert,” Alysia said. “Lancert said that it was an impossibility, that an alternate Earth is what awaits me.”
“Lancert, pah!” Chaos guffawed. “He doesn’t know anything. He only tells you what he assumes will force you to stay his course. There’s an alternate Earth, yes, but,”—he swung the scythe and jumped his mount over a large mound of bodies—“it is all connected, CeeCee. They can be mad
e to remember you, to love and accept you, just like your old world.”
Alysia grew quiet and thought about what it was he was saying to her. She would be an outsider to her parents, Tracy, and Jaime, but they would remember her somehow. Was it through dreams that they would know her, or a deep knowing that none of them would understand? Still, it was hope, wasn’t it? A chance to start over, and she would be able to see her mother again.
“There’s one other thing, Ambriel, that I’m sure Lancert neglected to mention. You must find my portal, the one that started the destruction of your world, seal it permanently, and guard it for a time. Agents of the V’Kosha will try to slip inside your world, especially now that the war has begun. They will need vessels and recruits for this war, and they will do everything possible to get access to your people.”
“So, I get to go back but I have to reintroduce myself to friends and family, and then I have to play guardian of the Earth?” Alysia chuckled. It was just another link, not the great period of peace that she was expecting.
“I would apologize, Ambriel, but you set this in motion, and everything was of your design. I did as you commanded, and now we have war, and a chance for the V’Kosha to be destroyed. You gave up everything, including your life, and charged me and Lancert to finish it up. Lancert produced you, I need not explain, and I have started the war to end all wars.”
Alysia closed her eyes against him as they rode across the battlefield, the screams of the V’Kosha fading behind her. When they finally stopped, they were among a deep ocean of tents. There were so many that they stretched out as far as the eye could see. Chaos had somehow amassed an army in the hundreds of thousands, and the sight of it forced her to think of him differently. I orchestrated this, she thought as she climbed down from the large metallic animal. All around her the warriors knelt, except for two familiar faces.
“Are they bowing to me?” she asked Chaos, and he looked around and smiled.
“They are your Turevila, your Bloody Garot, here to destroy the V’Kosha horde, Ambriel,” he said.
“Come sister, let’s get you healed up,” Lenorela said as she slid between the ranks. “It’s getting late and we all need our energy. The siege machines can hold them back until we reconvene tomorrow.”
“How long do you expect this to go on for?” Alysia asked, and Chaos turned to leave after exchanging a glance with Lenorela.
“Wars go on for months, sometimes years, CeeCee. This one is just beginning, and it is a bigger war than any I have seen before. This was just a taste, and they have leagues of V’Kosha demon spawn to throw at us before we see any of their true warriors. They will tire us out—or at the very least, try to tire us out—and then they will come in, fighting our weary with their strongest and healthiest troops. This is why Chaos only sent in a handful of Garot. He is smart in rotating them so that they can rest, but it won’t be enough, CeeCee.”
“What are you saying, Lenny?”
“I’m saying that once again we’ve fallen into Chaos’s trap. This war will go on so long that you will probably become more of Ambriel Ilyse. If we win, you will be committed to Yalem, and James Knight, your mother, Kendra… they will be distant memories to you. He promised that your return will be after the war, didn’t he?” she asked, and Alysia laughed and shook her head, seeing for the first time what Lenorela was telling her.
“There has to be another way, Lenny. I cannot spend my entire life fighting in this black pit.”
“You won’t have to, CeeCee, not while I’m alive. Let me find our resident Lord of Crap and see what can be done to get you home.”
Lenorela slid off in a snakelike manner, and Alysia realized that she wasn’t walking. Magic was addicting and Lenorela was hooked, using it now to float silently instead of dirtying her soles on the damp camp grounds. It was almost funny, but Alysia couldn’t laugh. She remembered how desperate the witch had been when she was strung up by the V’Kosha.
Now with the rings, Lenorela had immense power, and it could easily be replenished by killing the V’Kosha. If I could float, I would float too, she thought. Float my butt right on up out of here. She glanced at the sky. It was a brilliant burgundy, and as her mind went to the war, she held up the twin blades to look at their condition. The blades of the magical weapons were flawlessly silver. It was as if they shunned the black blood that coated them all day, and sometime during her escape they had managed to clean themselves.
Alysia stood there for a long time, wondering what was going on between Lenorela and Chaos. She considered that it was taking too long and decided that she should go and find her. As she made to leave the area, she was caught off guard by a loud flapping noise. A large black tent opened in front of her, and she rocked back and lowered her body as her right hand caressed the hilts of her two blades.
It was Lenorela’s magic and she stood at the entrance, beckoning for Alysia to come inside. When the young woman obliged her, she produced a ball of light which took to the ceiling to illuminate the interior. There were several bedrolls against the wall but one had been placed on the ground next to a portable table. Maps, diagrams and a crystal ball were spread across it, and on the ground was a patchwork of animal skins, forming a soft carpet for their feet.
“This was Chaos’s tent but it’s now ours,” Lenorela said. “Someone will be showing up with a tub and a privy, so that we can clean up before we eat. You look a mess, but don’t we all? So much fighting and it was all a distraction.”
Alysia removed her muddy boots at the entrance and stepped down on the fur. It felt like a cloud of heaven to the soles of her feet. She wiggled her toes and unstrapped her sword belt, then sat on the ground and ran her fingers through it. Coming back to a tent like this would not be bad at all, she thought, even if it was for a few months. It wouldn’t be bad if they kept it stocked with food and Lenny was here with me.
Lenorela removed her shoes and her clothes, till she was down to her underwear. She grabbed a cape and wrapped it around her, cinching it with a belt at her waist. She sat in front of Alysia and slumped, her long white hair covering her face.
“When I spoke to Chaos he assured me that he wasn’t trying to deceive you, but take that as you will, CeeCee. You have had enough history with him to decide for yourself whether or not to believe him. In any event, I found out from him that it is a major risk to put you back on Earth before the time of the invasion. He intends to honor his promise by killing one of the V’Kosha elite. Without the elite, they will be unable to send their creatures through the portals, so that will prevent them from following you through.”
“So we kill this elite, and he will send me back. What about the Erts? Can’t they help us, Lenny?”
Lenorela looked around, as if checking for spies, then leaned in to Alysia and cupped her ear. “They are coming, sister, but they didn’t say when. Their entrance will decimate the V’Kosha and move up the timeline so that you can go home. I spoke with Amarah, and they want to help. Apparently it was Orwan’s dying wish to get you home.”
“Orwan is dead?” Alysia asked, her voice cracking, but she couldn’t bring out the tears that begged her eyes for escape. A dry cry overcame her, and she rocked back and forth, moaning. Lenorela took her into her arms and held her as she shook. “I need to leave this place,” she whispered to her friend.
“I know,” Lenorela replied, “I know you do.”
Chapter Six
It was a day just like that first day when Amarah showed up with an army of Erts. She was clad in silver, with a helmet of wings, and she looked like a Valkyrie from Norse mythology. Alysia remembered that demons had been coming through portals to take recruits from Earth for hundreds of years. Maybe an Ert was seen, clad in the same getup as Amarah, and that had spawned a myriad of myths.
She mused over this momentarily as she sat atop her war mount. She had waited for months, fighting alongside Chaos, and had given up hope that the Erts would ever show. Like all things hopeless
, the waiting had made her refocus, and despite Lenorela’s warnings she had become more like Ambriel.
War became her life, and she forgot about home. It was too depressing to think of a world she may never see again. What she focused on was the decimation of the V’Kosha, and every night she joined the other generals, discussing strategy with Lord Chaos. She had conquered a V’Kosha lieutenant and reduced him to ash, then took the beast that he rode upon for her own use.
It was a large animal that resembled an elephant, but its skin was plates of bone. It had a long trunk that ended in a barbed ball, and its tusks were spirals of blackened bone. It had six strong legs with ropes wrapped around them, with boards fastened to create stairs. The saddle was a comfortable assembly of wood and fur, and she sat atop it, throwing down spears and barking orders at her Garot.
When Amarah saw her, she looked sad, as if she had failed her human friend. Alysia saw her and took in her appearance, but showed no signs of excitement at their arrival.
The Erts came down through a column of light, but Lancert wasn’t with them. Amarah swung a silvery blue blade that set the V’Kosha on fire, and she sent a wedge of death through the enemy ranks. Slowly they moved, killing anything that barred their way, and Alysia could see that she was working her way towards her.
In the distance to her right, Lenorela sat on her own enormous mount, a V’Kosha giant that she had charmed and who now carried her into battle in the palm of his hand. From this high vantage point she could rain down spells, and since she was Lenorela, and appearances were important, she dressed in all white so that the V’Kosha would not miss her.
The war had spread out from Cormer to take the entire countryside, and the desperate V’Kosha had taken to attacking villages and cities. Though innocents were dying, Chaos forbade his generals from helping, but elite members of his Bloody Garot were dispatched to help defend against these invasions. The fighting was spreading and it would soon consume their world, but they hoped to draw an elite out in the field, to cut him down and send Alysia back to seal the portal.