by Jacob Holo
“Administrator, I strongly suggest you do not allow them to land.”
“What? And pass up an opportunity to capture their seraphs? Come on, Dominic. They’re dangerous in their seraphs, but once we get them outside, they’re just regular people. We’ll kill the Bane and capture two more seraphs as a tidy bonus.”
Dominic grimaced. “Perhaps, just to be safe, you should evacuate the schism.”
“Are you joking?” Gurgella scoffed. “There’s no call for that.”
“Administrator, I feel very strongly you should not allow those two to approach the schism.”
“What are you getting at?” Gurgella asked. “This will be one of the greatest victories in all of Grendeni history, and I get to be at the forefront. Don’t tell me you’re jealous.”
“That’s ridiculous, administrator, I… Gurgella, would you please listen to me for once. Do not let them land.”
“We need to double check our preparations. Thank you for your opinion, Dominic. I’ll be in contact soon.”
The hologram vanished.
No, Dominic thought. You’re already dead.
Chapter 18
Their Unbreakable Will
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
With Imayirot’s defenders activated and the Aktenai fleet on its way, why not coordinate one last time with the Grendeni?
Jack and Vierj took a tram from the archangel bays and entered an isolated corridor within the Righteous Anger’s factory zone. It was then that the floor split open.
“Oh crap!”
Jack slipped towards the widening gap and the star-speckled darkness below. A powerful air current roared out and made his ears pop. The chamber was decompressing!
“Vierj!”
The howl of the air drowned out his scream. He lost his grip on the floor and plummeted away.
“VIERJ!”
The roar stopped. He dangled over a black chasm that no longer had stars. Vierj had sealed it with her talent.
Jack looked up and saw Vierj floating over him, his hand in hers. Six great wings of black energy flexed out from her back. She drew him up so that he could wrap his arms around her waist.
“Thanks, Vierj.”
“It seems these peasants no longer consider us allies.”
“Yeah, I think we’ve overstayed our welcome. Let’s get back to our seraphs.”
“No,” she said firmly.
“Vierj?”
“Remember what I said about people being beneath our notice.”
“Yeah? As long as they don’t try to stop you.”
“That line has been crossed.”
Vierj flew to the far end of the floorless corridor and caressed the airlock with her fingertips. It shattered and blew open.
Jack placed one foot on the ledge and staggered in.
“Look, I can have my seraph here in less than a minute.”
Vierj landed next to him. Her wings vanished into a mist of black specks.
“This way, Jack Donolon. I can see a great many eyes watching us, and their sources all converge in a nearby tower. We will go there.”
“Why bother? We should just leave and head for Imayirot.”
“Not until I have a word with whoever tried to kill us.”
Jack followed Vierj deeper into the schism, dread filling his stomach. He couldn’t see any way this would end well.
The corridor led them straight ahead. A dozen heavy mnemonic doors slammed in their way, but Vierj turned each of them to frozen ash.
“I doubt the decompression was the only trick they have,” Jack said. “We should really turn back.”
“This will not take long.”
“Look, they can still kill me.”
“I will ensure no harm comes to you.”
Vierj cast the last door aside and caught sight of an empty elevator shaft. She stuck her head in and looked up.
“Maybe you should hit the call button,” Jack said.
A rhythmic hum echoed down the shaft.
“Uhh, is something coming down?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“That can’t be good.”
Vierj backed away from the shaft. The elevator car arrived and opened, revealing a fat cylindrical device that filled the car from end to end.
“That’s a nuke!” Jack shouted.
Vierj put her hands on her hips and let out a slow, frustrated sigh.
The Grendeni fusion warhead exploded. For the briefest of moments, it flooded the entire corridor with blinding light. Then, as quickly as it started, the light was gone. Where the elevator car had been, a black cube stood in its place. Vierj let the cube fizzle into a rain of soot.
“Damn, they set off a nuke inside the schism,” Jack said.
“That weapon was controlled by the people above us.”
“Crazy bastards. Maybe the top of this tower is fortified.”
“Whatever defenses they have will not stop me. Come, Jack Donolon. Let us ascend.”
Jack wrapped his arm around her waist. Vierj unfurled her black wings and flew up the elevator shaft at breakneck speed. Near the halfway point, the shaft’s exterior became clear, providing a view of the schism’s northern factory.
A Grendeni dreadnought entered the factory zone from the space dock and turned its main guns towards them.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Jack shouted.
“Close your eyes,” Vierj said calmly.
Jack scrunched his eyelids shut and buried his face in Vierj’s shoulder.
The dreadnought fired. A lance of plasma obliterated the elevator shaft and a wide stretch of factories behind it. Except for a brief moment of seeing the red of his own eyelids, Jack felt nothing. When he opened his eyes, he found a black circular shield between them and the dreadnought.
Vierj sent the disc flying outwards. It engulfed the dreadnought and reduced it to cold, floating scrap.
“Jack Donolon?”
“Yeah?”
“I have decided how I will punish these peasants.”
“What are you going to do?”
Vierj grinned at him. It was not a cheerful expression.
“You will see.”
The top of the tower looked like it could serve as some sort of oval-shaped transport craft. It disengaged from the upper remains of the elevator shaft, letting the clear, half-melted frame fall away. The transport lit a pair of drive blades at its base and began moving away.
Vierj snapped her fingers. The oval transport halted, its drive blades gone.
“Let us greet our would-be executioners.” Vierj lifted them to the transport and cut a triangular hole in the side. Its mnemonic hull was over five meters thick.
Jack stepped in. “No wonder they weren’t afraid of setting off that nuke so close.”
“They should be more afraid of me.” Vierj landed next to him and took the lead.
Jack followed her into a round chamber, its walls taken up by screens showing their seraphs, the decompression corridor, the elevator shaft remains, and the dreadnought’s debris.
Eight technicians formed a rough line with railguns leveled at Vierj. The stubby weapons shook in their hands. A short, bald man cowered behind them, his green jacket emblazoned with golden administrator sigils.
“Gurgella, you idiot,” Jack spat.
One of the technicians fired. The bolt ricocheted off Jack’s hand when it should have blown it off.
“Ouch! Damn it, that stung!” Jack sucked on the back of his hand.
“You have made a grave mistake today,” Vierj said.
Another technician aimed his weapon at Jack and fired, but this time he was ready. He dashed aside with inhuman speed, let the bolt fly past, then rushed his attacker. With a brief grunt of effort, he formed a dagger of blue energy in his left hand and cleaved the man’s head off. Blood spurted out of the stump, and the corpse flopped limply to the ground.
Gurgella put his back against the wall. “W-w-what are you people?”
&
nbsp; “Didn’t anyone tell you?” Jack gave him a frigid grin. “We’re monsters.”
“Drop your weapons,” Vierj said. “Or fight and die. Either way, you cannot harm us.”
“Help is coming,” Gurgella said.
“It will not be enough.” Vierj walked towards him. “Make your choice.”
“You’d better do as she says,” Jack said.
“D-drop them,” Gurgella stuttered.
The technicians threw their weapons to the group and hurried out of her way.
“There. We’ve done as you asked. We’re completely at your mercy.”
“You were defenseless before you dropped those toys.” Vierj stopped in front of him. “Nothing has changed.”
“What are you going to do to me?” Gurgella asked.
“This.”
Vierj stabbed Gurgella with her bare hand. His ribcage provided all of the resistance of wet tissue.
“Gah!” Gurgella gasped and looked down, unbelieving. He grabbed her arm with shaking hands.
Vierj twisted her wrist and pushed in further.
“Nngh!”
Tendrils of black energy spread from Vierj’s hand, running across his chest and up his arms.
Gurgella’s eyes bugged out and he screamed. It was a sound of absolute, indescribable pain. And when he finished screaming, he filled his lungs and screamed again, lips foaming with spittle and blood.
One of the technicians dove for his gun. Jack grabbed him by the shoulder and threw him into the wall. The technician hit with a wet thunk and crumpled to the ground unconscious.
Gurgella sucked in a gurgling breath and cried out again. The tendrils of energy spread further, enveloping his chest, running down his legs, and sliding up his neck. They reached his mouth and poured down his throat.
His eyes were the last part of him still visible, frantically turning every which way before the black liquid encased him.
Vierj slid her hand out of his chest.
The darkness dispersed, and Gurgella reappeared, locked in his last pose. Vierj tapped a finger against his forehead, and he crumpled into a pile of glittering, frozen dust.
Vierj closed her eyes, spread her arms, and manifested her wings.
“Now hold on,” Jack said, reaching for her.
Her black seraph arrived at the transport, clutched it with both hands, and broke it in half. The technicians cried out and fell to the factories below.
“Whoa!” Jack shouted, only to be buffered softly to the seraph’s open palm. A thin barrier formed around him, sealing in a portion of breathable air.
Vierj floated backwards into the seraph’s cockpit.
“You don’t have to do this!” Jack shouted.
From within the seraph, Vierj held Jack aloft, then stretched out the seraph’s free hand. A ball of black energy appeared. She cast it into the factories below, linking herself to it with a thin strand of darkness. The ball hit the surface and rushed across the factories in two directions until it met above, forming a continuous ring around the schism’s interior.
The black ring parted down the middle, then began moving in opposite directions. It engulfed the entire factory zone, the space dock, and pushed into the northern city. Chilled debris spat out the other side.
“Vierj, stop!”
“You are too soft, Jack Donolon.” The voice reverberated from the barrier around him. “You must harden yourself if you are to survive, for you are still vulnerable to attack. Even this vacuum I shield you from is deadly to you. Do not show these lesser creatures pity, for they deserve none.”
The twin rings expanded out faster, consuming the forests, mountains, lakes, and quaint villas within the schism’s cylinder. It ate through the southern city in seconds, then enveloped the southern factories and space dock.
When it was over, a ragged field of dark, cold debris was all that remained of the Righteous Anger, its two cities, and millions of inhabitants. His seraph floated amongst the wreckage, completely unaffected by the attack.
“There, it is done.” Vierj spoke those words with an air of boredom.
Jack knew he alone was to blame for awakening this sleeping beast. If he had not set out on his fool’s errand, the Bane would still be in hiding. But Jack had suspected when he set out what he was becoming, and the terror of that revelation drove him to act.
He had found the Bane. He had earned this murderer’s trust. And now he stood on the cusp of helping this creature return to the place she was banished from.
But Jack could not let that happen, would not let that happen. The Gate, his goal and the Bane’s goal, remained the key. Even now, as powerful as he was, Jack could not harm her. No one could. But near the Gate’s dimensional rupture, this creature’s powers would weaken.
She would be vulnerable to attack.
So many had died to provide Jack this one opportunity, and no one, not even Seth, would stop him. He would kill anyone who stood between him and his goal. In the end, at the very edge of this universe where the Bane was at her weakest, Jack would finally kill her.
***
Seth slipped his arms through the i-suit coat. A wall screen in his quarters displayed the black silhouette of Imayirot, transmitted to the Resolute by surveillance exodrones. Lines of white light lashed back and forth around the dead world, signs of the growing battle between Grendeni ships and Imayirot defenders.
Quennin stared down at her clasped hands. “Seth, I want you to reconsider.”
“I don’t have a choice,” he said, sealing the front of his i-suit.
“Of course you do. There’s always a choice.”
Seth stopped. After a long pause, he nodded slowly.
Yes, you’re right, he thought. I do have a choice, especially after all that’s happened.
The reality he knew was disintegrating before his eyes. Jack, a trusted ally and friend, had killed their son. The Choir, their eternal and indivisible leadership, had splintered. The Original Eleven, founders and masters of the Aktenai, had betrayed them.
The Bane, a being of incomprehensible power and malevolence, had returned.
And we’re all attempts to recreate that abomination, Seth thought, then pushed the fact away, burying it beneath layers of resolve.
Quennin came beside him. “And?”
“I’m still going.”
She smiled sadly. “Somehow I knew you’d say that.”
“My duty remains clear, even after all that has happened.”
Quennin picked up his gloves and handed them over. When he finished putting them on, she placed her hands around his.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “But everything we’ve fought for is a lie. You don’t have to go.”
“But I do,” Seth said. “We cannot let the Bane pass through the Gate. I will not throw away what little purpose we still have.”
Quennin sighed. “I suppose there’s no way I can change your mind.”
“You know I have to do this. My blade lies at Aktenzek’s side, now and always.”
“You cannot stop them.”
“Maybe.” Seth let go of her. He picked up his sidearm and set it firmly into his holster.
A thin smile slipped onto Quennin’s face. “You have always been the stubborn one. There’s no reasoning with you sometimes.”
“You would know best.”
“I won’t be able to watch your back. I think that’s why I’m so scared for you this time. Even with the holes in my mind, I don’t think I’ve ever been afraid like this. I want to be out there with you, protecting you even as you protect me. Instead, all I can do is sit here and wait.”
“Quennin, I understand why you don’t want me to go.” Seth picked up his sidearm and set it firmly into his holster. “But I cannot deny who I am, nor deny my path when it is so clear. The Bane must be stopped.”
Quennin placed a hand on his cheek. “Then I will not ask again. Fight well today, beloved, and come back to me.”
“I will.”
&nb
sp; Seth stepped up to Quennin and looked long into those beautiful green eyes, recognizing all the tumultuous emotions behind them. Perhaps his beloved’s injuries had not changed her at all. Now that she could no longer be at his side, actively confronting her fears, those long denied emotions had surfaced.
Perhaps she merely hid her fears for my sake, just as I hide mine from her. We are not so different, my beloved.
Seth brought her close and kissed her gently on the lips. Quennin wrapped her arms around him and squeezed him tight. They stayed like that for what they both wished could be an eternity, both afraid that this might be their last moment together.
After more than a minute, Seth broke away, and they looked into each other’s eyes.
“I will come back.”
Quennin only nodded with moistening eyes.
“You will see.” Without another word, Seth left for the seraph bays.
He took the lift down to the bay shelf and looked up at his seraph. Two Grendeni swords were docked against the wing clusters. All the seraphs onboard the Resolute now possessed refitted arms for using the Grendeni weapons. Seth was the only pilot who would carry two into battle.
Will these weapons be enough? Or do I go to my death?
Seth knew he had to stop Jack and the Bane, but he was no fool. Only the crucible of battle could judge now.
I must try to engage Jack alone if I am to have a chance. Either these swords will grant me the edge I need, or I will die trying.
Seth accepted his helmet from the waiting technician, donned it, and boarded his seraph. He leaned into the pilot alcove and let the cockpit close in around him. The ethereal connection with the seraph surfaced in the back of his mind.
Seth closed his eyes, letting the sensations of his physical body fade until they constricted into a small pearl of consciousness. The seraph’s senses supplanted them, growing in strength and clarity. The white lights of the bay, the restraints of the catapult system, the heft of the swords and conformal pods, all this filled Seth’s mind.
Seth didn’t pilot the seraph. He was the seraph.
He let a trickle of power flow into his chest cavity’s arterial pump. Pressurized fluid pulsed through his body, carrying raw chaos energy to his arms, legs, and wings. Shunts on his armored skin blazed to life, burning hotly with purple fire.