Against the Fading of the Light (Action of Purpose, 3)

by Stu Jones

  The earth shook as the single light-filled seraphim collided with the ugly behemoths along the top of the dam, two on one. Buzzing with magical power, the seraphim grabbed one behemoth by the neck and, rising high, slammed down into the other monster’s skull with an armored fist the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Battering into each other with blows that could level buildings, the two behemoths clamored around the vital seraphim, as the titans brutalized each other again and again in a display that might well have belonged before the backdrop of a ruined Tokyo.

  The earth shuddered again, and in the blink of an eye, Kane had returned to the world he knew. The screams of men rang in his ears, his nostrils full of smoke and dust. He felt like he was losing his mind. One minute he was fighting for his life among droves of bandits; the next he was fighting for his life among hordes of demons. Gunfire rang out all around him, and he ducked lower. He checked his rifle and found that it was jammed—a double feed. Kane stripped the magazine and tried to free the bolt, but the thing was frozen in place. He was still in the fight, and he had to move. Slinging the jammed AR-15, Kane drew his GLOCK 17 and tucked it to his chest, clasped in both hands. He could just make out the path he would take toward Malak. He would have to navigate a few bad spots, but it was the most direct route.

  Double-checking the round count in his GLOCK, he could just see Malak ahead of him, screaming at his forces from an elevated platform. Behind the monster of a man, he saw, for the first time since they’d been so brutally taken from him, his dear Michael and Rachael. He had to move. The worlds were shifting into each other faster now. Time was running out.

  Through her scope, Ari watched Kane crouching behind the debris pile. She made a sucking sound through her teeth. “I don’t like it.”

  “You don’t like what?” Jenna looked exhausted as she peered down her rifle sights.

  “Why is Kane going after Malak alone?”

  “He’s not alone.”

  “Yeah, OK, Courtland, the Indian kid, and an army of angels are with him. But right now I’m watching him, and he’s alone.”

  Jenna rubbed her face, the stress cracking her resolve. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take. I really hope it doesn’t change back anymore. I’ve seen enough warfare to last ten lifetimes. I think I’m losing my marbles.”

  “Jenna, focus!”

  “Yeah, Kane’s alone. So?”

  “We should be down there with them.”

  “What? Are you crazy? Besides, Kane told us to stay here. We should.”

  “Why?” Ari’s tone gained an edge. “Because we’re women? Screw that. Let’s go.”

  “Ari, I seriously don’t think I can!” Jenna cried. “I’m not like you. I’m not a warrior.”

  “You are today, sister!” Ari pulled Jenna to her feet and shoved her toward the last intact Hummer. “We’re not going to sit here and watch our friends die.”

  “Lord God, be my shield against this evil! Only you! Only you can save us from this!” Kane chanted to himself as he ran farther into the sprawling madness. He stopped sharply, his legs spread in a stable platform, his arms punching out into a combat shooting stance. The GLOCK recoiled in his hands as he fired and acquired a new target again and again. The bandits were unable to get a shot off as Kane leveled each one with critical hits to the chest and head.

  In an instant, he was running again, his legs driving him forward in a desperate attempt to reach Malak and his children before it was too late. But he could now see that the way was blocked. He had taken the best route he could, but now the bandits had shifted, and a large group was blocking his path. Kane gnashed his teeth in desperation. He would have to fight his way through them. There was no time. He had no other choice.

  Kane spun at the noise of tires screeching against the pavement behind him. The beaten Hummer slid to a stop. Ari jumped from the driver’s door and ran at a full sprint toward the thugs ahead of him. She slowed, chopping her feet against the ground to stop herself while drawing the Beretta from her waist. Flaring her elbows high in the Israeli point-shoot method, she punched her weapon forward and began firing into the bandits with astonishing accuracy. Behind her, Jenna’s head was just visible in the heavy-machine-gun turret. Clenching the weapon in fear and desperation, Jenna began to fire into the surging mass of bandits on their right flank, the .50-caliber machine gun flashing and barking as it tore their ranks apart. These two amazing women had come to his aid, carving a bloody path to his destination.

  Kane didn’t wait another instant. There was nothing to be said. He ran for the platform, now closing within fifty feet. Just as he reached the platform, the two dimensions collided again, everything blurring and twisting against each other. A titanic boom made the world around him shudder. He turned and saw one of the behemoths shaking, a gaping wound through its chest. The monstrous beast flashed into flames, screaming as it dropped to its knees and fell over the side of the dam. The massive seraphim now wielded an unbelievably large sword, a weapon of unsurpassed size and power; the second behemoth raged and collided with the armored titan again as the dam came apart under them. Around him, the armies of heaven and hell screamed and threw themselves against each other as the forces of light began to overwhelm the forces of darkness. But Kane could no longer be concerned with them; his focus fell like a laser beam on the ugly warlord who held his children hostage.

  As he flew up the stairs onto the platform, he heard their frail voices call his name, and for a moment, he feared he might shatter inside. His babies looked so worn and used, not at all the way young children should look. A deep and consuming fury bloomed within his chest as he prepared to confront the demonic warlord. This time, Malak would pay for his injustices.

  “You just won’t stop! I should have killed you myself !” Malak shouted. “You and your merry band of idiots have been a thorn in my flesh from the very beginning, but you’re too late. You can’t stop it now. All you can do is watch as I suck the life from your precious children!”

  Another tremor shook the dam as the seraphim slammed into the behemoth with the magical sword, dealing a fatal blow. The beast bellowed and fell directly toward them, crashing against the dam behind the platform. Everything crumbled, and Kane, Malak, and the children fell through the floor as it disintegrated beneath them.

  An instant later Kane was struggling to his feet in a darkened room swirling with smoke and dust. The spartan, gray walls of the interior of the dam surrounded them. The floor had collapsed under the weight of the behemoth, and they had all fallen down into the next level. Kane’s weapons were now lost in the rubble at his feet. He looked up, coughing, and could just see the dim light from the sky above through the occluded room.

  From across the room, the vile, chortling laughter of the demon rippled toward him. As the air began to clear, he could now make them out. There Malak stood, next to Kane’s dust-covered children, who now whimpered quietly. Kane made a motion to move, and Malak held up his hand.

  “Ah, ah, ah, hold on there, tough guy. One more step, and I shatter their little necks easier than I would a handful of baby birds.”

  Kane froze, the sickening feeling of helplessness before this demonic tyrant filling him once again. He watched the dark tentacles twist around the necks of his children, causing them to gag and struggle for breath. It was the worst sort of déjà vu he could imagine. Kane turned his eyes back to Malak, whose human appearance was beginning to fray at the edges. Dark mist seeped from his black eyes, his massive musculature bulging with inhuman power.

  Kane, save our children. Promise me.

  “Why not just face me? If you’re so powerful, killing me shouldn’t be this difficult.”

  “Why so eager to die, Kane Lorusso?” Malak said, as two of the fallen army, black blades poised to strike, appeared beside him.

  “Come on! You really need them? What are you so afraid of?”

  “Afraid? Who said I was afraid? Maybe I’m just stalling for time.” Malak motioned, and Kane noticed the
Machine, still clutched in Malak’s viselike grip.

  “So all I can do is stand here and watch you suck the life out of my children?”

  “Yes, but don’t worry, Kane. I’ll let you tell them that it’s going to be OK one last time before I turn them inside out—for old time’s sake!”

  Kane shook with the words. “You’ve taken enough from me!”

  “I haven’t even begun to take from you!” Malak snarled. “I will make your pain and misery last forever when I enslave this pitiful world and topple the kingdom of heaven!”

  “You’re a powerless child, bitter and discarded. All you know is destroying what others cherish. Stop your talking and finish me!”

  “Yes! I believe I will!” Malak intoned. “But first, the children must suffer!”

  Kane grabbed two pieces of heavy chain from the debris at his feet and coiled them around his hands and forearms. He prepared himself as his children squirmed and the oily black demons flanked him, their black blades ready to strike him down.

  “Holy God, Jesus, spare them. Please…”

  With a flash of light and the squall of thunder, Courtland fell through the hole in the roof, slamming his boots into Malak and launching the warlord across the room. Crackling with power, he stood between the children and their foes, an impenetrable fortress of righteousness. The demons immediately turned on the giant, screaming. Above them, more began to drop through the ceiling.

  “Destroy him, Kane! I will stand for your children!”

  Kane launched himself forward, his body moving faster and feeling stronger than it ever had before in his life. His eyes took in his chain-wrapped hands that now glowed white hot with an unmistakable holy power. A demon came for him, slashing down as Kane jumped, deflecting the blow with a chained gauntlet and punching through the creature with a flash of holy fire that rendered the creature burning ash. Kane charged across the room, striking the demons in his way, turning each one into a pile of smoldering carbon.

  Behind him Courtland cried in desperation, “You shall not have them!” He swung his white-hot blades, obliterating the demons that swarmed around him and the children.

  Kane strode across the dimly lit room with unparalleled purpose. At the far side, Malak raised himself up, his form distorting hideously as the demon inside took over his physical body.

  Malak launched himself at Kane, but this time Kane was moving just as fast. The two collided in a flash of energy as Kane groaned, striking Malak again and again with his chain-covered fists. The tyrant swung at Kane with a balled fist, but Kane ducked and delivered an uppercut to Malak’s ribs and then followed up with several hard strikes to his head and neck from behind.

  They went back and forth, blow for blow, Kane deflecting with his gauntlets, Malak absorbing an unbelievable amount of punishment. Malak struck with his coiling tentacles, wrapping around Kane and slamming him into the ceiling. For a moment everything washed out, the room now white and hazy, bells ringing, Malak laughing. Swinging his arm in a downward arc, Kane severed Malak’s grasp on him. He fell to the floor, disoriented, everything spinning. Kane struggled to his feet as Malak came again.

  Dodging another swipe of the dark, smoky tentacles, Kane slammed into the warlord with the force of an entire army. He was fighting faster than the mind could comprehend, faster than should be humanly possible, fueled by an everlasting holy power and an unquenchable thirst for justice. Again and again he slammed his fists into the brute, crushing him, defeating him. Whirling with dark power, Malak crashed into Kane, knocking him off his feet and into the far wall.

  Kane was empowered, suddenly too much for Malak to defeat. Instead, Malak would take from him again, wounding him worse than any physical blow ever could. The demonic man launched himself across the room, desperate to kill all that Kane loved. Courtland saw him coming and stepped in front of Michael and Rachael, his body a human shield, just as Malak lashed out with a dark tentacle that severed the giant’s right arm from his body. A second tentacle whipped across low, striking at the giant’s legs. Falling back and clutching the ragged stump at his shoulder, Courtland looked at where his arm used to be. Blood pumped through his fingers as he tried to stop the flow of life from him and protect the terrified children at the same time.

  “No,” Courtland gasped, “you will not have these children. You’ll have to kill me first!”

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way!” Malak said. He stooped, grabbing Courtland by the neck. “When you see your God, preacher, tell him I’m coming for him next!”

  Without warning, Kane flew onto Malak’s back with a scream, locking him in a brutal choke with his chained-wrapped arms. Malak gagged, choking and sputtering, and released Courtland, who slumped to the ground, still shielding the children with his body. Across the room, Kane and Malak flailed, crashing back and forth into walls and groaning in the darkness of the room.

  They lurched back and forth, Malak gasping for air.

  “You want to destroy everything God has created. But now it’s your turn to fall!” Kane groaned.

  “You can’t! This can’t be!” Malak gurgled, falling to his knees and grasping fruitlessly at the chained arms that now choked the life out of him, arms that were suddenly so impossibly strong for a mortal man.

  With a wrenching movement, Kane pulled hard and felt Malak’s trachea crush beneath the force.

  “Agggggggggggh!” Malak groaned in terror as he suffocated, unable to stop what was to come. Kane rode the savage man to the floor and immediately began to pummel the warlord’s head against the ground with his chained fists. “You murdered my wife! You murdered my friends! You enslaved my children!”

  “Kane, it’s done,” Courtland said.

  Kane struck again and again until nothing remained of Malak’s deformed skull. Kane sat back gasping, rising from the warlord’s corpse as his hands dripped blood and bone.

  “Now it’s done. I had to be sure.”

  For a moment all went still. Nothing moved in the room around them, save for the soft humming of the Machine—still clutched in Malak’s cold, dead hand.

  Kane was just stepping away, gasping for breath, when Malak’s torso lurched against the ground. Kane jumped back, watching in horror as the warlord’s body animated unnaturally, twisting bonelessly in the dimness of the room.

  “No,” Kane said with a moan, “I knew that was too easy.”

  “Kane,” Courtland moaned in terrible pain from behind him, “you have to get your kids out of here while you have the chance.”

  Kane stepped backward, hearing his friend but unable to pull his eyes from the writhing form on the ground. “How bad are you hurt?”

  “Pretty bad.”

  “Hang in there, Court. I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet.”

  The flesh of Malak’s back split open, the white disks of the spine pushing to the side as something black began to emerge from Malak’s body, leaving the deformed carcass crumpled on the floor like a used suit.

  The black form laughed with evil intent. As it stood free of Malak’s body, the huge, dark, bestial form of a creature came into view: Abaddon, the destroyer. It stooped and pulled the Machine from the frozen clutches of Malak’s hand, glowering. “You should know by now, human. I can’t be destroyed by mortal men!”

  Kane swallowed, terrified. “I don’t care. I will stand in the name of my God!”

  “But you won’t have to,” another voice said, as the form of Raziel stepped forward and stood between Kane and the archdemon. “This fight is not for you.” With a singing sound, the Blaze slid from its sheath and hung burning in the air. “Kane Lorusso, take your people and get as far from this place as possible.”

  Abaddon laughed and produced his own terrible blade. “Raziel, my old friend, it’s been too long.”

  “Not long enough.” Raziel spoke with an edge.

  Abaddon laughed. “You cannot stop the turning of the Machine. The gateway is now fully open, and the Machine cannot be destroyed. You all
have failed.”

  “There is still time to stop this, and such is my duty.”

  “You are such a fool, Keeper. You think you can stand against me? Even with your holy sword, you are outmatched. You always have been.”

  Raziel shifted defensively and raised the Blaze. “I once was, but that was eons ago, and since, while you have been consumed with selfish greed, I have set myself to mastering this holy blade. It alone has the power to destroy the Machine.”

  Abaddon sneered. “You must be joking.”

  “I am not. I stand ready for you this time.”

  Abaddon laughed again. “Yes? Alright, I’ll entertain your delusions, Raziel. Show me what you can do!”

  With a terrible snarl, Abaddon flew forward, but Raziel was ready, parrying the dark blade and stepping past gracefully, the Blaze leaving a streak of flame across the thick, black hair on Abaddon’s ribs as it sliced through him. Abaddon faltered, astonished, and with a scream of rage flew at Raziel again, slamming into him and knocking them both through one of the walls and into an adjoining room.

  Kane shook the chains from his arms and searched frantically through the rubble of the ruined room.

  “What are you doing?” Courtland murmured.

  “I have to help.”

  “Kane, this is a feud that has lasted for millions of years. It’s not your fight.”

  “Forgive me if I disagree.” Kane tossed a chunk of concrete aside and pulled his GLOCK from the pile. Holding it in his hand, it began to glow as all their weapons had in this strange place, trapped between dimensions. “Stay with the children!” he yelled as he ran through the hole, following the sound of commotion in the next room.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Something really stupid!” Kane’s voice echoed back.

  Courtland stroked the children’s hollow faces, their eyes full of all the horror they had endured. Courtland held his huge, blood-covered hand to their tiny cheeks, as a radiating light flowed from him into them. “Children have no business looking so used. Maybe this will help these precious ones recover some of what they lost.”