Godling (Kairenz Jistora Book 1)

by Dusks, Rydre

  I looked up at Sylvain standing near a project tank. We were in Zone 7, the same floor where Sylvain had once been held. He must have felt Crane's psychic calls for him. I wasn't sure how much time had just passed in that moment of warping, but it had been enough for Sylvain to make it down here.

  The red haired androgyne looked perfectly fine, at least for what was normal for him. But he did appear sick with concern.

  "Please let Crane go," he begged.

  I kept my hand on Crane's head, the gun pressed to the base of his neck. "I won't. Crane has Stelliot, and you've known this."

  "Crow, Crane is doing this for the betterment of the world. He isn't killing everyone. He is asking for Stelliot's help," Sylvain tried to explain.

  I glared at him. "Bite marks and bruises all over his throat? Attacking his own father? Who knows what else Crane did to him?"

  Sylvain looked at the creation underneath me. "Crane, you promised me you would not abuse the godling."

  "Stelliot is my weapon," Crane grunted. "You are my weapon, Sylvain. And Crow is dead... because he lied to me about you."

  "The only one dead in here is you, Crane," I barked. My forefinger badly wanted to squeeze the trigger.

  Please stop, Sylvain begged within my mind. He is just as confused and scared as you are. If you pull that trigger, you will make another enemy here.

  I think you're the only one confused and scared, I answered. Persuade Crane to let Stelliot go, and I will spare his life.

  Sylvain didn't have time to decide. In my carelessness, I'd forgotten about Crane's ability to inflict pain through touch. A deep spike of heat shot through my wrist as he grabbed my arm holding the gun, and he twisted it hard enough to break my grip when I gasped in discomfort. In a wild scramble, Crane managed to slink his finger over the trigger of my Jux and shoot. His aim was poor, as his face was still pressed against the floor from my other hand, and the bullet hit the metal ceiling. I heard it rip apart the target spot as Sylvain flinched from the sound.

  Crane managed to squirm out from his pinned position. He rushed to Sylvain, the Jux still in his hand, and turned around to face me, pointing the weapon in my direction.

  "You're a terrible person, Crow Hightower," he uttered, his eyes fierce and feral. "Needlessly attacking me when it is you who is the abomination. Everyone is treating you so wonderfully, welcoming you back into the family." The words were spat out like they tasted foul to him. "You're a wreck! You mistreat the laws, the family; you're a murderer, a terrible father!"

  I flared with rage. Crane could say all he wanted about me except that. I was not a terrible father. Everything that had happened to Stelliot had been beyond my control.

  "Crane, wait!" Sylvain began, but Crane cut him off with a shot from my Jux.

  Luckily I'd been ready for this. I'd raised my arms just moments before, and the bullet stopped halfway between me and its shooter. Because it hadn't hit a target yet, it didn't explode, but it would the moment it dropped. For a lengthy second it simply floated there, then in a bout of rage from Crane's earlier statement, I flipped it around with a thrust of my arm and sent it straight back at Crane.

  Sylvain had been waiting for this as well. With a single step and a round of his own energy, the bullet coated over in something white before slamming into Crane's chest, but he only staggered back a little as the bullet bounced off his front and landed in a puffy ball on the floor. Sylvain had turned it into a lump of cotton.

  "Am I going to need to incapacitate you, Sylvain?" I threatened, glancing his way but keeping at the ready.

  Sylvain backed away as Crane took another shot, and I redirected the bullet once again. This time Crane was quick to save himself, and the bullet struck an occupied project tank. The glass shattered in a massive explosion, sending shards, chemical fluid, and dormant creation gore in all directions. I covered my face from the assailing mess, and Crane ducked for only a moment.

  "Obviously you've strengthened too much for me to make you explode," he hissed after the chaos had passed, tossing the gun to the side.

  "Stop! Now! Crane, please stop this ludicrous fight!"

  Crane and I glanced toward the destroyed tank where Sylvain now stood. His legs shook a little as he stood beside the wreckage. He had been in the process of tugging a piece of glass from his hip, biting his lip hard.

  Crane eyed him for just a moment before answering, seeming uncaring even though Sylvain's frail body bled down his leg from the injury. "Sylvain, if you truly wanted this to stop, and you truly loved me, you would help me kill Crow."

  Sylvain wept. From the distance I couldn't see the tears, but his eyes had reddened considerably. It was the face of a used and brutally abused child, scared for his life and his feelings. I didn't get their relationship, and I knew in my heart that I never truly would. One moment Crane had acted terrified by my lies about hurting Sylvain, and now he seemed completely uncaring.

  "Sylvain, don't think you have to prove anything to him. He's only using you," I tried to say, but I knew Sylvain wasn't going to listen.

  He ducked his head and raised his arms after dropping the bloody piece of glass to the floor. His clothing was blotched with a growing red stain. "I'm sorry, Crow. I must. You would never understand."

  A couple of the tanks beside me clouded over and marbled, crackling with tiny fractures. The air around me grew cooler than it already was, and the changed glass hissed away steam.

  "Your gift of Alteration has never failed to impress me, my Sylvain," Crane cooed with a smirk.

  Sylvain dropped his arms to his sides with a small sigh, and the glass-turned-ice shattered. I lunged forward for my gun, but Crane charged for it as well and reached it before I did, kicking it as hard as he could at one of the altered tanks. My Jux flew among the falling pieces of ice and disappeared in the mist and mayhem.

  "Oh, Sylvain, you broke one of Dentrin's favorites," Crane stated before clucking his tongue. "We'll leave Crow to it, then. It's too dangerous in here for us now."

  Instead of rushing toward the mist since I couldn't see much, I turned back toward the other two creations. Crane was looking for a way to get back to Stelliot while keeping Sylvain safe. He wanted the upper hand, and I wasn't about to give it to him.

  I dashed around Crane before the green god could head for Sylvain and grabbed the redhead, picking him up easily in my arms. He wasn't much heavier than Stelliot, if at all. Sylvain gasped but didn't resist.

  That infuriated Crane. His full attention was pulled away from the settling destruction of the tanks, resting on me as I raced for the exit doors. He utilized his teleporting abilities and was in front of me before I could escape.

  "Put Sylvain down!" he demanded, his eyes burning lividly. He'd spread his arms out to indicate a stopping gesture, shielding me from the door.

  Pain enveloped every corner of my body. My breath left me as my legs buckled, and I realized I'd made the mistake of catching a glance at Crane's eyes again. I ripped my eyes away and turned, but something behind me kept me from escaping through a different route.

  Standing slightly stooped and in half of a lunging position was a ragged figure of a human being. He wore a drenched, white lab coat spotted with old brown blood across the front, still even with a nametag on it. Most of the letters had faded from chemical wash. He was grotesque and frightening, but what was truly a horror was that he had no eyes. It looked like he'd had bandages over them, but they'd long since fallen off. Pieces of gauze instead clung to what was left of his hair, but for the most part his scalp was missing. All that was left seemed to be his hollowed-out skull.

  "Mr. Orlan," Crane introduced. "Sylvain told me you two are acquainted."

  It took me a short while to process that name. It then brought me back to one of my first days in Saydea, of the poor man who'd had his eyes permanently gouged to blindness from a glass explosion. Oh gods... Saidias Orlan. I'd barely recognized him, frightened even more by how badly decomposed he was.

  "One o
f Dentrin's favorites."

  “What happened? He told me he was quitting,” I uttered in disbelief.

  “He quit,” Sylvain answered me as Orlan took a staggering step my way. “Dentrin's response to employees threatening to quit is to erase them from society. They are all under oath to speak of nothing about Saydea to the outside world. By quitting, they indefinitely break that oath, and Dentrin could not risk having his precious mistakes leaked to the public.”

  “So he turns them into... undead?”

  Orlan took another stumble forward. I didn't understand how his body functioned without a brain, or how it even functioned at all when dead.

  “Projects,” Sylvain clarified. “Works of art in his opinion. He's not alive. Just... functioning. This is only half of Mr. Orlan. The rest of him is inside a machine. But you would be doing all of us and Orlan a favor by killing that shell of a body.”

  Why would I do anything for you now that I've discovered you've lied to me? I want to kill Crane and get back to Stelliot, and now thanks to you I've missed my chances, I thought, keeping my gaze on Orlan.

  Crane skipped dimensions to appear in front of me again, only a few feet away from the decayed Project, almost mocking the dangers. "Let's make this easy, Crow. Put Sylvain down, and I will spare you. I'll help you out of here unscathed."

  I directed my attention back to Orlan for just a moment.

  "If you want to talk about weak and corrupted, Crane, why don't you look at you and Sylvain? I don't think he deserves to be around you anymore."

  "Crow...?" Sylvain whispered in question.

  "In fact, Sylvain is better off with me anyway. He's my best friend--not yours. You know how well he treated me when we first met, Crane? We were practically inseparable."

  Although I'd never desire to have a connection with Sylvain like that, Crane soaked up the lies like a sponge. His eyes almost physically flashed more neon when he heard this.

  "Sylvain and I share so many secrets that would never reach your ears. He's on Sol's side, and always has been."

  "Crow, please," Sylvain begged. "Crane, I'm with you. I've always been--"

  "No, he's not, Crane," I argued, keeping my eyes on the green god this time. Crane looked too awfully confused to use his pain tricks. His eyes flicked from my face to Sylvain's, then back.

  As I'd hoped would happen, Crane forgot about the half dead figure behind him, and Orlan stumbled into the boy before seizing his shoulder with a grip so hard the scientist's fingers popped wetly. Crane had lost all confidence. He shrieked in panic, attempting to yank his shoulder away from Orlan, but the other now had both arms wrapped around him, squeezing him hard.

  Orlan let out a moan that could have been words during his living days.

  Sylvain thrashed in my arms. "Let go of me! Let go! Crane!" He managed to worm his way out of my grip and stumble to the floor. Ahead of us Orlan had Crane by the hair now, yanking his head to the side to bite at his throat like an animal. Crane fought as much as he could. His expression showed agony as Orlan's blunt teeth sank in and broke his skin. He tried wailing, but was cut short from the bite. Sylvain picked himself up off the floor and raced around them both, heading towards the back of the room. I tried to follow, but Sylvain reached my gun before I could have an idea of what he was doing.

  "Sylvain, stop!"

  He shot my gun anyway, and his aim was precise. The bullet pierced Orlan's back and ruptured in a horrendous display of old organ matter and shattered vertebrae. Orlan's body collapsed on top of Crane, who struggled out from under him and staggered into a shaky stand, holding the side of his neck. He didn't bleed much, but what he did bleed came out in a strange mucky brown color. The smell of rotted meat and pungent chemicals was almost more than what my stomach could handle, and it was more than Sylvain had been willing to take. He leaned in from where he stood and retched.

  Crane gathered himself, looking shocked but more sinister than he had a minute ago. Instead of going after me, he stepped over Orlan's body and fixated his eyes on Sylvain.

  "You deceiving little wretch," Crane spat as Sylvain finally straightened. "I should never have trusted you."

  "N-No," Sylvain began, taking a couple steps back as Crane aimed for him. His feet crunched on ice from the broken tanks behind us. "I just saved you, Crane. Why would I betray you?"

  Crane removed his hand from his neck and brought it around Sylvain's, pushing the frail being up against an undamaged tank and squishing goopy blood substitute over his skin.

  "You'll die for all this, Sylvain! You're no different from the rest!"

  Although I knew Sylvain was not working in my favor, I couldn't allow this. I almost felt bad manipulating Crane to turn on his companion, but it did give me the upper hand. I started forward, but Crane shot me a fiery, merciless look. I halted as my muscles seized from the pain.

  Not a moment later the doors to the room opened, and there were several pairs of footsteps.

  "Head down, Hightower!" a familiar voice shouted.

  I didn't have to listen--my body was already on its way to the floor, crumpling from the amount of agony Crane had forced through it yet again. Two gunshots sounded, and I watched as one of the bullets struck and passed through Crane's skull. The boy let go of Sylvain as the other bullet slammed into his ribcage. He dropped in a sprawl on the floor without another movement. As Sylvain sank down, gasping and clutching at his throat, I looked to the other side of the room where Insidd and three other Strejca stood. Insidd didn't lower his gun, and he didn't look my way. He walked across the floor, keeping clear of Orlan, and approached Crane's still figure with more caution than I'd ever seen.

  "Insidd--" I started, but he shushed me.

  "It'll take more than that to kill this little monster," he uttered.

  I pulled myself into a stand, and the other two Strejca approached. One of them was Phazer, and the other I didn't recognize. He stood over Orlan's body, though he had no eyes to see from, at least from what it looked like. Instead there was a long metal strip across his upper face, just above his nose. It extended to his hairline and ran in rivets to his ears. He had a shock of forest green hair with a few lighter strands, and his entire throat was an open display of cording, wires, springs, and an exposed spine of real vertebrae. The odd mix of real material and robotic mechanics was slightly off-putting, especially since he wore a Strejc tailcoat.

  "Orlan, get over here," Insidd barked.

  The Strejc straightened and approached, stepping away from the body.

  Orlan? I was confused.

  "That's the other half of Saidias, Crow," Sylvain whispered. His breaths came in and out in shudders.

  Phazer walked over and knelt beside him. "Let me look at your side, please," she insisted, her voice much softer than I remembered. It didn't surprise me that she didn't even acknowledge me. As Sylvain lifted his bloody shirt to show Phazer his hip the other Strejc approached me, offering a metal-jointed hand to me to shake.

  "Crow Hightower. Good to see you again."

  "...Saidias Orlan?" I asked in question as I took his hand. The metal felt cold, but the rest of his hand was warm to the touch. A strange vibration came from underneath his realistic skin.

  "That would be me," he stated bitterly. "Yet no longer in the flesh. You don't want to hear the amount of chaos I had to go through to get on the good side of the Strejca."

  I would have loved to have a conversation with him, but Insidd shouted.

  "He's gone! Stay on your guard!"

  The place where Crane had been sprawled was now empty, which didn't come as a surprise to me. I knew Crane had been faking death. Having snapped his neck back in Esha, I was certain there was no killing him in a mortal sense.

  Sylvain moaned a little in discomfort as Phazer peeled back more of his clothing to get a better look at the gash. "Please don't hurt Crane," he pleaded.

  Something cold and hard was to the base of my neck, and I knew immediately what it was.

  "Why do you ca
re so much, Sylvain? You are only in this for our father's favor anyway," Crane spoke from behind me. I held still, knowing the Jux to the back of my head could go off any moment.

  Saidias and Insidd whipped around after he spoke, pointing their own firearms toward Crane's voice. Phazer stood up and aimed with hers, so swift she was a blur. The barrel was pressed harder to my skull in response.

  "Anyone who is serious about shooting at me again will have Crow Hightower's brains splattered across their body," Crane threatened.

  I knew Crane knew that he was losing, or that he hadn't expected the Strejca to arrive. His voice sounded strained and wavering, like he was about to cry and laugh at the same time. Or it could have been most of his insanity finally leaking through.

  "Crane, please don't do this," Sylvain urged.

  "Shut up, traitor. Speak again, and I'll make my threat happen for real." I heard Crane's finger tapping at the trigger of the gun, and I suddenly felt my body grow hot and sweaty from the realization of how close I was to death. If only I could will something, anything else to happen to stop him.

  The doors opened a second time, and the sounds of light boots strode several feet into the room. An answer from the gods.

  "GaenVrellec!"

  Hearing Velzae's voice, Crane's grip on the gun wavered just a little, and I was able to twist around and grab his wrist, bending it down until he gave a sharp gasp and dropped the Jux. I continued holding Crane by his arm as Velzae stood just a few yards away from us, his arms folded. A sudden rumble shook the ground, followed by a horrible rending. I watched in astonishment as the metal floor began to raise as if inflating. The grating sounds were nearly deafening but finally released in an explosion of debris as two giant, golden serpents emerged from the warped and decimated metal. I saw a flash of Sol's sacred mark along the snake hoods, and the two creatures twisted their way out of the messy holes they'd just emerged from.

  Insidd and Phazer shouted in alarm. I heard someone's gun clatter to the floor behind me.

  "The Eyes of SolTansra," Velzae introduced. "Now that Sol can see what you are doing, Crane, are you ready to ask for forgiveness?"