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

by Stu Jones

  Above them, Ari and Jenna, along with Tynuk, poked their heads over the edge of the hole.

  “Guys?” Jenna called. “Is everyone OK?”

  “Jenna, get these children out of here,” Courtland said.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Sharing what I have to give with them. They need it more than I do.”

  Courtland pulled the children close, whispering a few sage words and rocking them gently. Jenna and Ari watched in astonishment as their little gray faces filled once again with color and life. The children were returning, but their eyes remained far away, clearly still in shock.

  “Courtland, your arm!” Jenna called.

  “It’s OK, dear. My healing ability has slowed the bleeding. I’m just a little weak,” he said.

  “We need to get you out of there,” Ari called.

  “The children—get them out. I will stay with Kane.”

  “But—”

  “There is no but. I am staying. Take the children to safety.”

  With supreme care Courtland raised each child with his good arm. Ari and Jenna pulled them out of the hole while Tynuk watched for threats.

  “Take them and go! I don’t know how this battle will end, and I won’t leave Kane to fight it alone.”

  Tynuk looked into the hole toward his wounded friend, his bow and quiver glowing with holy light. “Then I too will fight with you.”

  “I would welcome that, my friend.”

  Tynuk dropped into the hole and readied his bow, scanning.

  Ari cradled the children close to her, Jenna looking down to Courtland one last time. “You guys finish this, and then you come to meet up with us. You understand that?” She wiped a tear from her face. “We will be expecting you—all of you.”

  “I understand, my dear Jenna. We will see you soon.” Courtland smiled with effort, knowing full well that would be a difficult promise to keep.

  Striding through the jagged hole in the wall, Kane followed the sounds of the melee as Raziel and Abaddon clashed again and again.

  “What are you doing, Kane?” he hissed to himself, pushing through the dust and crouching low to get a better look. He looked at the glowing weapon in his hands once more. He was either going to be able to help, or he was going to piss off an archdemon and sign his own death warrant. Only one way to find out.

  Kane moved to where he could see the two forms locked in immortal combat. Raziel moved like a master swordsman, his black wolf-skin cloak swishing as he moved, the Blaze leaving a tail of magical flame as it sliced through the air over and over. Abaddon filled with a mighty rage, bloodred eyes glowing in the dimness of the room. He shrieked and struck at Raziel, pushing the angel back with the sheer force of each strike. Clashing, they continued on, bits of white flame illuminating the darkness with each clang of their weapons.

  Kane drew down on Abaddon, taking the demon in his sights. The GLOCK recoiled in his hand as a light-filled round fired like a tracer from the barrel. Abaddon howled as the glowing projectile pierced his side.

  “Kane, do not—!” Raziel yelled.

  Shoving Raziel back, Abaddon took advantage of the opening as his dark blade found its mark, and Raziel staggered back and fell to the ground, terribly wounded. Abaddon turned and flew across the room toward Kane. With a pull of the trigger, another round fired, streaking across the darkened room, as Kane tracked the demon. Round after round struck the creature, causing it to howl with rage as it came for him. He had nowhere to go.

  As Kane continued to fire, he felt a presence come alongside him, though he dared not pull his eyes from the enraged demon as it charged.

  “We are with you, Kane!” Courtland shouted as he came along one side of him and Tynuk pushed forward on his opposite side.

  “Go, Courtland,” Tynuk called. “Draw it away!”

  But Courtland was already running off to the right. On the left, Tynuk broke into a sprint, firing light arrows from his bow as fast as he could draw them.

  Screaming with rage as the light arrows lodged in his flesh, Abaddon turned, swinging his dark blade at Tynuk. The agile boy dodged back and forth, jumping, ducking, and bounding off the wall. Abaddon swung again and again, tearing the wall apart in a flurry of blows. Faking one direction and moving in the opposite at a speed that was nearly incomprehensible, the demon outmaneuvered Tynuk, grabbing the boy’s body and flinging him against the wall. Unconscious, the warrior boy fell to the ground in a pile of concrete rubble.

  With a roar, Courtland hit the demon with the hardest tackle he could muster, knocking the demon’s sword from his clawed hand. Wrapping the demon with his good arm, he groaned as Abaddon struck him again and again with deep, savage blows from his claws.

  Courtland slumped to his knees, his energy fading. From across the room, Kane dropped an empty magazine from his GLOCK and slapped a new one into the weapon. Stomping forward with righteous fury, he fired as fast as he could pull the trigger.

  “Why don’t you just die!”

  Abaddon, now in a wild, frothing lust for death, focused on Kane and smiled maliciously.

  “Yeah, that’s it!” Kane shouted and charged. “Come on! Kill me if you can!”

  Kane continued to fire, Abaddon flinching as each glowing round struck his flesh, searing into him. He was injuring the terrible beast, but it wasn’t enough, as it closed the gap and struck the weapon from his hand, grabbing him by the throat.

  “Human worm! You dare to challenge me?” Abaddon snarled with hate. “I could destroy you a hundred times over with a twitch of my finger. But since you have been such a terrible irritation, I believe I will have some fun pulling you apart.” Abaddon raised the Machine between them and began speaking in tongues that Kane could not understand. The Machine hummed, buzzing and vibrating in the archdemon’s clawed hand. “With this, I can remake anything I desire in the image of the Master. What is it you fear most, human?”

  Kane gasped in the clutches of the demon as a pall of despair began to cover him.

  “I know because I can see it in your fragile soul. You fear failure. You fear your inability to hold to your insignificant faith. You fear that this all has been for nothing!”

  Behind the demon, Raziel stirred upon the ground. Kane’s eyes grew wide in the presence of such pure evil. “No. You are not greater than the one true God.”

  “But do you really believe that? What happens when the faith of a worm dies out? When it is replaced by nothing but loss and despair and hopelessness?”

  Kane struggled in the viselike grip, the hope that he would hold his children in his arms again fading, the faith that he could succeed at his mission dying. “I’ve been there already. My God has gone before me!” Kane cried as the Machine whirred, and he felt himself begin to change, darkness filling him from the inside.

  Abaddon laughed with glee. “Release yourself unto it. There is no fighting the darkness of the Master!”

  Kane faded, slipping into an eternal hellish darkness. It was then that he saw the movement behind the hellish beast.

  “Gotcha distracted, didn’t I?” Kane murmured with a smirk.

  With a flash of fire, Kane fell to the ground and scrambled backward to see a look of absolute shock and terror on Abaddon’s face. The archdemon looked down slowly to see the Blaze protruding from his chest, the Machine severed by the thrust.

  “Die, foul traitor!” Raziel groaned from behind the demon, twisting his flaming sword in the creature’s chest. The Machine, cut in two by the holy sword, fell to the ground in pieces and began to shake violently.

  “No. No!” Abaddon shrieked. “I am too powerful to be destroyed!”

  Without a word Raziel snatched the Blaze from Abaddon’s chest and pivoted, cleaving the foul beast’s head from its shoulders in a magical flash of white fire. Abaddon screamed a sound that made Kane cringe, as the archdemon caught fire and flared into ashes, whipping away into the wind.

  Kane gasped and ran to Courtland’s side. “Come on, brother; we gott
a go!”

  Courtland tried to raise himself, his whole body quaking.

  “Come on, man; I’ve got you.” Kane slipped under the massive arm and heaved with all his might to help the giant stand. He turned to Tynuk, who was now stirring. “Come on, Tynuk; we’ve gotta go! Now!”

  “Hurry,” Raziel urged. “There is little time! The Machine has been shattered. Our worlds will not hold together much longer. If you want to survive, you must go now! I will try to contain it and buy you some time!”

  They pushed blindly through the smoke and dust, as the earth began to shake like a great sleeping titan beneath them. Stumbling in a panic back into the room they had first fallen into, Kane let Courtland rest below the gaping hole in the roof. Behind them came the warrior boy, coughing.

  “We did it,” Courtland said and smiled. “We stopped Abaddon.”

  “We sure did, brother.” Kane panted for air.

  “It’s going to be alright. I can feel it, in my bones. Like a good omen.”

  “OK, Court.” Kane looked around frantically. “I think the Machine is going to blow. How do we get out of here?”

  Courtland spoke, holding a bloodied hand against the dripping of blood at his shoulder. “We can’t, but you and Tynuk can.”

  “No. Stop with that. Come on; I’ll help you out.”

  Courtland shook his head. “No, brother. I am badly injured. That last bout finished what strength I had left. This is the end of my journey.”

  “Stop screwing around and get up through that hole! I know you can!” Kane yelled.

  “I can’t, and both of you together couldn’t lift or pull me out of here in time. You’ll die trying. Go. Live. Enjoy the time you have left. I am proud to have given my life at your side and in the service of my God.”

  Tears of loss and frustration filled Kane’s eyes. “You stubborn old man! You’re my magnetic north. I’m not going to leave you.”

  “You’re not leaving me, my friend. I’m asking you to go. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be around to keep an eye on you,” the giant said with a weak smile and a wink. “Now get out of here. Get the others to safety. Take care of them for me.”

  The typically stoic Tynuk swallowed hard, fighting to check his emotions. “You are a true friend, Mr. Courtland. I am sure we will see each other again.”

  “I know we will, Tynuk. I will miss you dearly, my young friend.”

  The three comrades stared at each other for a long moment as each intimately remembered the depth of history between them.

  Courtland nodded to Tynuk and, grabbing him, pressed him up through the hole.

  Kane wiped the tears from his face and nodded resolutely. “After all this, to say goodbye…” He paused, struggling to master himself. He looked deeply into Courtland’s eyes. “I’ll earn this, Court. I won’t forget you. I won’t waste this gift.”

  “I know you will, my brother. I know you will.” He grasped Kane by the arm. “Don’t you ever stop believing in a God who loves to achieve the impossible!” Courtland grabbed Kane, groaning and pressing him upward with a single arm, struggling with the task after having passed his heavenly power to the children.

  Kane grabbed the concrete slab, pulling himself up and onto the surface of the dam as Tynuk grabbed his shirt and pulled from above. Smoke wafted through the air and passed over the orgy of blood, body, and bone. Ari and Jenna had left the Hummer for them. Kane stood and gave one last look to his old friend, who now sat calmly in the rubble below, pulling the tattered picture of his daughter from his shirt pocket.

  “I’m ready to come home, Mar,” Courtland whispered. “I have fought the good fight. I have kept my faith, and now, I’m ready to see you and your mama again. I’m ready to come home to my Jesus.”

  With a wrenching of his heart, Kane turned from his friend. He and Tynuk made for the Hummer, the ground shuddering violently beneath them. Entering, Kane cranked the heavy vehicle, saw Tynuk holding on, and slammed on the gas. The Hummer rocketed forward, jumping and jostling over bodies and debris as it picked up speed. There was a thump below him and a dull flash of blue light that seemed to radiate from the center of the dam. Without warning, a concussion launched the Hummer forward, nearly off the edge of the dam, as the surface began to crumble apart and fall away beneath its tires.

  “Step on it!” Tynuk yelled.

  “Yeah, I got it! Just hold on!” Kane stomped the accelerator.

  Bucking, breaking contact with the ground, the Hummer soared from the dam and onto the desert highway as a second flash, much brighter than the first, leveled the dam and sent the entire thing crumbling in on itself. Water from the lake launched into the air as millions of gallons of Lake Powell dumped into the Glen Canyon basin along with the final remnants of the Glen Canyon Dam.

  Sliding to a stop, Kane jumped from the Hummer, his eyes locked on the crumbling fortress of concrete and steel. Jenna ran from around the vehicle, seeing Tynuk clinging to the side of it. “Courtland? Kane, where’s Courtland?”

  “I couldn’t get him out, Jenna. I tried…I just couldn’t. He’s gone.”

  “No!” Jenna collapsed to the ground, weeping.

  Kane shook his head, gasping for breath. “He stayed with me till the very end, just like he said he would.”

  As the dam crumbled and the water gushed, Kane thought he saw Raziel standing against the background of destruction. The barbarian figure gave a definite inclination of his head, a gesture that seemed to say, “Well done.” Kane returned the nod, as Raziel turned and disappeared along with several other majestic angelic warriors.

  Tynuk, apparently seeing it as well, spoke to the fading image. “Farewell, my friend. I was glad to have you by my side for a time.”

  “Daddy!” Michael and Rachael cried as they rounded the vehicle with Ari.

  Kane turned and dropped to his knees as his dear children plowed into him, their little arms encircling him in a smothering vise of love. Kane cracked, as tears of love and loss and relief and sadness streamed down his face. He shuddered, sobbing and clutching his sweet babies against him, their little faces now full of warmth and life. Courtland’s final gift had made the difference.

  “It’s over! We did it! God stood with us, and we did it.” Kane pinched his eyes and clutched at his children as the others gathered around. “I got ’em, Suz.” Kane wept openly, shaking with emotion. “I got ’em, and I won’t ever let them go.”

  Epilogue

  IN THE DARKNESS, nothing stirred, save a faint whisper of some lost soul wandering amid the nothingness. Beyond the black was more of the same, an endless horizon of emptiness, like ink sloshing carelessly inside its occluded bottle.

  “Where am I?” Abaddon spoke, his voice strangely frail in this place. He twisted his limbs, reaching out, and felt nothing but the dark of this prison. Looking down, he could see nothing of himself— no body, no existence inside this place.

  “What has happened to me! I cannot be destroyed!”

  “And you have not been.” The familiar voice spoke back to him.

  “Raziel! What sort of sorcery is this?”

  Raziel continued unamused, “To say you cannot be destroyed is a fallacy. The Blaze, a weapon unlike any other, created by the hands of the high king, has the power to destroy you. And as much as I wish it had, it did not.”

  “What are you saying? Where am I?” Abaddon fumed.

  “As I said, the Blaze was created by our father, and he saw fit to imbue it with certain magical properties. One might even say this weapon has a mind of its own, since it can choose the fate of its victims.”

  “Stop your driveling and tell me what has happened.”

  “I really shouldn’t. I should leave you in this place, with only your own voice to comfort you. The perfect retreat for a self-absorbed creature such as yourself, don’t you think?”

  Abaddon did not reply.

  “But alas, I will tell you,” Raziel continued, “since I find it amusing.” He paused. “You see, instead of
destroying you, our king had the foresight to use you instead.”

  “What is it you are saying to me?”

  “I’m saying that your essence, your consciousness, has been captured and imprisoned within the Blaze.”

  “What?”

  “Yes, naturally, after all you have done, you could not be allowed to continue to roam at large, so instead, the high king in his ultimate wisdom imprisoned you within this weapon.”

  “I am inside your sword?”

  “Yes, indeed,” Raziel replied. “Right now all of our brothers probably think that I am crazy, talking to my weapon like this.”

  “Where is my body?” Abaddon whimpered, and for the first time, Raziel sensed fear within his voice.

  “It has been destroyed, and you have been repurposed. You will now be the engine behind my holy weapon as it uses your life force to generate even more power.”

  “What am I supposed to do in here?” Abaddon thrashed about madly within the unending blackness of his prison.

  Raziel laughed. “Nothing, of course. You desired a world ruled by darkness, and now you shall have it. Farewell, my old foe; we will not speak again.”

  “Don’t leave me in here, Raziel! You can’t—”

  Raziel slid the Blaze into its sheath, silencing the voice within, and turned to see Michael, Jophiel, and Zadkiel approaching, royal-purple robes swishing beneath mirrorlike armor. They stopped short as Michael gave a nod to Raziel, and Zadkiel and Jophiel followed with slight bows.

  “Commander,” Raziel said, nodding and bowing. He then looked to his standards and added, “Gentlemen.”

  “Keeper,” the standards replied.

  “It’s good to see you, Raziel; welcome home.” Michael spoke with formal sincerity.

  “Thank you, Commander. It’s been a long time.”

  “Too long,” Michael said. “So long, in fact, that much has changed.”

  “Yes, I see. Little is how I remembered it.” Raziel scanned the celestial fortress with a sigh.

  “Is there anything I can do for the former keeper of secrets?”