Blessed

by Michael, David

  Panic began to rise in his stomach. His blood had never lead him wrong before, but there was always a first time for everything.

  There couldn’t have been a more terrible time for this particular first.

  Not wanting to waste what little time he had left driving around the city in search of his next target, he let himself and the bike fade into shadows and willed himself in the direction the beast was pushing him.

  He solidified in the middle of a large expanse of lawn and searched for some sign of the Druids that were sure to be creeping around the place. Before he could turn a full circle, something slammed into him from behind with the force of a freight train. Before his body slammed into the ground, he faded to a shadow and flashed to a spot a hundred yards to the east, solidifying his armor a split second after his body.

  The beast raged within him and he jumped to the left right before a large green blur slammed into him. It faded away almost as soon as it passed the spot he had been standing, missing its mark. A moment later, the beast warned him again. Not moving fast enough, he was clipped on the shoulder, spinning him on his heels. The beast was going nuts and something slammed into the back of his legs before he even had time to process the first hit.

  He willed himself to the mountain side several miles to the west before whatever it was could launch another attack. He took the time to regroup and do a thorough assessment of his energy levels. They were running dangerously low and, given his inability to fend off his attacker, he knew that he wouldn’t last another five minutes against it.

  Without any warning, the beast exploded out of him, ravaging the landscape around him and reducing everything to ash. Not a single living thing escaped his swath of destruction. As the energy coursed into him, his head began to clear and he went into battle mode. His armor thickened, and the force of the tentacles that were sucking the energy out of the surrounding miles of forest became even more powerful. When he couldn’t see anything but ash in every direction, he summoned every ounce of willpower he had to reign in the beast and cage it.

  The last of the ash that was swirling around him settled to the ground and he cringed at the realization of what the beast had done. It had been more centuries than he could hope to count since he had lost control like that and he hoped that it didn’t end up costing him later on.

  Thankful for the darkness, he faded to into darkness and willed himself to the edge of the clearing where he had been taken by surprise. He spotted them right away and the beast within him snarled.

  He counted six Druids prowling the grounds, each accompanied by three green companions of varied shapes and sizes. The only common traits between the group of glowing beasts were claws, luminescence, and teeth. Lots of teeth.

  Glowing with an intensity paling in comparison to the creatures was the building they were surrounding. His goal was to get what was contained within it. The fastest, most apparent way to reach that goal was to take out the mortals that were directing the beasts that were quite capable of causing him serious harm and hope that they would dissipate without their consciousness to give them purpose.

  It was a plan with obvious flaws and filled with possible peril, but it was all he had to go on. Out of time and options, he settled on the only choice he had and descended the hill, sticking to the shadows and moving as slowly as he could. Not wanting to alert the beasts to his approach any sooner than he had to, he pulled his energies tight to his body, virtually blinding himself to anything beyond what he could see with his eyes.

  Without the vantage point from the top of the hill, he quickly lost sight of all but two of the patrols and focused in on them, pausing a moment to assess his position. He stood a few dozen yards away in the shadow of a large pine tree. The sharp scent of the tree took away from the other senses that he needed in order to focus on the matter at hand, forcing him to strain those senses to override his nose.

  Of the twelve creatures he could see, ten of them stood a few inches taller than his waist. The other two towered several heads over him. Luckily, the two towering trolls were part of the patrol furthest from him.

  Deciding that the troll patrol was far enough away to be of no immediate concern, he paid them no heed other than devoting a small fraction of his concentration to keeping tabs on their location. The group closest to him was comprised of six creatures with varied features from large cats, boars, and bovine mashed into one beast. Two of them had rather large horns protruding from their heads, three of them prominently displayed barbed tails, four of them had raptor-like talons, and all six of them had more razor-sharp teeth than any creature he had ever come across. An arrayed combination of scales, feathers, and fur covered each animal, providing varying degrees of protection.

  He willed a ball of energy to form in his hand. Black spikes slowly grew from the surface of the orb as it floated off of his palm. It lingered in front of his face at eye level for a moment before he shot it off in the direction of the closest human. Just before it smashed into her skull, the tail of one of her little minions lashed out and swatted it back at him. It hit the tree next to his head and exploded, leaving a large black scorch mark on the bark.

  The other five beasts and the human turned simultaneously to look in his direction, poised to attack. Chaos moved first, flashing to a spot to the left of the pack, lashing at the Druid with a vine of energy as he solidified. In the blink of an eye, one of the beasts had its teeth latched onto it. The razor sharp dentals separated the lethal end of his weapon effortlessly, the energy evaporating harmlessly, wasted.

  He willed himself to the other side of the pack and tried again, this time thwarted by one of the barbed tails smashed into his chest ruthlessly, causing him to stumble several steps backwards and sending his attack careening off into the open air.

  The small part of his mind that he still had focused on keeping track of the other pack forced its way to the front of his awareness. From his peripheral, he saw the other seven members of this small army approaching.

  Without even a nanosecond between movements, he created a shadow of himself and faded away to momentarily retreat from the onslaught, hoping that the decoy would distract them long enough to keep them from realizing that he had fled.

  It worked long enough for him to will himself to a dark alley a few blocks away.

  No doubt would they have changed their patrol tactics by the time he got back, so he was now forced to change his plan of attack as well. He was certain that all six of the miniature platoons would now be much closer together, if not within an arm’s length of one another, and they were all going to be on high alert and poised to rip off any and all limbs they could get their hands, teeth, or claws on.

  While he didn’t exactly love the thought of being ripped limb from limb by a mob of angry beasts and their masters, it was a walk in the park compared to what he would be put through after if that were to happen and he failed his mission.

  All-out erserker-assault seemed to be his only option. He didn’t have time to divide and conquer like he would like to and the sheer number of them made the success of that plan highly unlikely. He settled on a plan and faded into the shadows to put it into action.

  He solidified several hundred yards away for a moment to get his bearings and hope that he had been right about their change in tactics. The beast all but purred when his expectations were not only met, but exceeded. The six mortals seemed to be in conference with each other and the beasts were all standing guard in a tight knit group like a herd of elephants.

  Moments later, he solidified in the middle of the knot of beasts. Lashing out with wild force, he instantly disintegrated all but two of the humans. As their ashes fell to the ground, the beasts they had been in control of faded away with varied sounds of agony. It was music to his ears.

  The two people he had missed were quick to respond and in an instant, their snarling beasts were between them and him, out for blood. Clearly fueled by the emotions of their masters, the remaining claws and teeth tore at him
with a renewed ferocity. His armor didn’t completely deflect their attacks, but lessened the damage taken to his physical body. As the beasts dodged and parried his attacks, he did his best to do the same as they pressed forward. With each crushing bite and slash he could feel the barrier between them and his mortal flesh weakening. He felt a moment of slight panic as the weaker points in his armor began to give way and he felt the beasts’ teeth and claws sink into his body.

  All at once, the world turned black and he was convinced that he had been taken. It took a moment for him to realize that the howls and shrieks filling the space around him were not his own, but those of his attackers. His eyes flew open and his brain fought to translate what he was seeing. The walls of a giant black dome were rushing away from him, obliterating everything it came in contact with. Grass, beasts, humans, buildings, everything.

  When the dome seemed to reach its breaking point and fade out of existence, he took a few deep breaths and rose to his feet. All around him, ash was raining from the sky and as he walked, it rose from the ground in small puffs and settled on top of his shoes.

  Only a few yards away, an orb hovered several feet above the ground. The closer he got, the faster his heart raced. He knew that he needed to hurry it up and get on the process, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not seem to make his feet move any faster than the plodding pace he was already travelling at. Step by silent step, the orb grew larger. He reached out with his bleeding right hand and paused a moment. The blood was an unfamiliar sight to him and he watched it flow for a moment before grasping the orb in his hand and crushing it, absorbing the information and energy and watching the wounds on his hands and arms quickly close themselves as he grew slightly stronger.

  He took a few deep breaths to calm his pounding heart as he realized that he had no choice but to return to his own plane one last time. This had been a disaster and he had nearly been beaten, he couldn’t risk that happening on this last leg of his journey.

  His heart slowed to almost a stop and his molecules scattered into the Universe.

  Taking down both temples so quickly had been risky. It had been a major drain on his energy stores not only to travel that quickly, but the battles with the wards had nearly sent him on a direct flight to the Astral Plane to suffer tortures far worse than the damage inflicted by the thrashing green vines.

  The trip from Denver to Salt Lake was going to take much longer than he would like it to now, but the information he had received from the two orbs he had just found was very enlightening. He was confident that this would be over soon. With his new knowledge of the Bloodline, all he had to do was find the girl, destroy her, and go home to reap his rewards.

  One slight setback.

  He didn’t have enough energy to travel the way he had from Nauvoo to Omaha to Denver. He didn’t even have it in him to summon his motorcycle. He’d have to either take out a huge chunk of land and draw even more attention to himself, or go back to the astral plane and hope that the information he had gathered so far was good enough to stave off the boss for a little while longer.

  As much as he hated taking the risk of being flayed alive, he couldn’t see any other way of recharging enough to face another ward and the girl. It was going to take some pretty hefty fire power if all the hype surrounding this prophecy was any indication. He took a deep breath and braced himself for the confrontation that was sure to ensue.

  He felt himself fade from the physical plane and shift over to the only place in the universe where he wasn’t just comfortable, but actually became a part of his surroundings. He was made of the same stuff that the entire plane was comprised of. As he fell more and more out of the physical world and deeper into the astral one, he became acutely aware that he could feel every single molecule. Every one of the black stones scattered about the place was part of him. Every bit of even the air itself was plugged into his nervous system.

  It was but a split second in real time, but felt like a slow awakening to him. The consciousness stirring and zeroing in on him, raising every hair on his body. Being acutely aware of the fact that so much power is focused in on you, expecting an answer you don’t have and more than willing to literally shred you over and over again for the rest of eternity for giving the wrong answer is, to put it plainly, scary as hell.

  Another split second went by and Chaos felt a surge in the power that he was now connected to. The answer that the boss was looking for, unfortunately, wasn’t where it should have been and he wasn’t happy about it.

  Another split second passed and a familiar presence flooded into him, filling his mind.

  The terrifying voice in his head asked, Why is she still alive? You’ve had plenty of time to locate and take care of this problem.

  “Well, it’s turning out to be quite a bit more difficult than I originally expected it to be. The wards around the temples have been well maintained and are quite powerful thus far. I thought all of the Druids had been eliminated during my absence but it appears that there are some with enough of the Bloodline to keep them strong. I took out two of them in one of the temples.”

  He hoped the news would derail the anger that he felt growing inside the second personality inside of him and save his skin. It didn’t.

  No excuse! You can reduce entire cities to nothing without lifting a finger! You are the most powerful tool under my command and you’re giving me these pitiful excuses as to why you have failed me? I’m very disappointed in you Chaos. You know I don’t like being disappointed.

  Every molecule in his body became super charged at that instant. Speeding up and sending his temperature through the roof. He was being rent into hundreds of trillions of pieces. There is nothing like every cell in your body trying to disperse in every possible direction at once. He was swelling in size and shrinking in density all at the same time. After the longest five seconds he had ever experienced, he began to turn transparent as the force inside of him pushed him apart and the molecules that made up his being tried to fight back into the spaces they were meant to fit into.

  It stopped as suddenly as it had begun and he collapsed to the ground, everything snapping back into place. Another second and he was positive that he would have been scattered to the ends of every plane, known and unknown, in the Universe. There really is no recovering from something like that.

  Last chance Chaos. I won’t be seeing you again until you have completed your task, will I?

  “Certainly not. I am so near complete that I will not need to recharge my energy stores until after the deed is done.”

  Good. Hurry. I’m growing weary of waiting.

  The master’s attention turned to other matters and Chaos could focus on drawing in the planar energy that he would need to complete this last step of his mission. His molecules slowly bound back together to form the solid cells that comprised his body. The energy in his chakras was slowly being replenished and he could feel himself growing stronger and returning to his normal state of strength and power.

  Without thinking too much about it or drawing attention to himself, he tried to hurry the process as much as he could.

  He unplugged himself when his energy stores were full and let himself quickly fade away.

  “He’s coming.”

  She jumped up from the couch where she had fallen asleep, scaring Kaiser out of his own nap and sending him skittering across the tile.

  What? Who’s coming?

  He shook his head, trying to clear the confusion out of his muddled brain and focus on his surroundings.

  “Chaos, Kaiser! Chaos is on his way here! This is not good! I’m not ready for this! What are we going to do?”

  The panic rising in her voice cleared the rest of the fog out of his head and it was suddenly his only focus in life to get her calmed down and thinking straight.

  Ardra, what are you talking about? How can he be on his way here? The last we heard of him was in Nauvoo.

  “I was napping and I just got flashes, like I was seeing through
someone else’s eyes, of him at the temple in Denver. As in Colorado. Meaning the state that shares a border with most of the eastern side of this state! It was awful Kaiser! There was darkness everywhere! He’s too strong, Kaiser. He sucked the life right out of the entire property. I watched the building turn to ash and blow away in the wind.”

  She was up and pacing now. Voice rising more and more with each pass. She got more animated as well, her hair was shaking out of her pony and she was starting to look like an A.S.L. translator with her hands flying and flapping in front of her. He needed to get her focused and calm. Fast.

  The bark that jumped out of his mouth surprised him and definitely got her attention. She jumped like someone jabbed her with a cattle prod and spun in a full circle in search of what he was barking at, panic instantly setting into her eyes. He took advantage of her moment of surprise.

  Ardra! You need to calm down. You are not going to be prepared at all if you allow yourself to stay worked up like this. You may not be able to control the energy inside of you when you’re agitated like this, but if you can get yourself calmed down and focused, you have a fighting chance. There’s a degree of what you can do that will take over and do its own thing if you can just get your mind focused enough to channel it, bring it to the surface and give it a purpose. I need you to take a deep breath or two right now and get a grip on yourself.

  Instead of doing what he had instructed, she stood stalk still and didn’t breathe at all. She had the appearance of a statue; not breathing, not blinking and not moving.

  The only difference being; statues don’t change color.

  After a good thirty seconds, she finally took a deep breath and folded herself into a seated position on the floor. A few deep breaths later, he could see her relaxing. The tension flowed out of her shoulders and she went from being rigid to deflated right before his eyes.

  “What are we going to do, Kaiser?” She asked in a quiet voice.