Until We Break

by Scott Kinkade

“Maybe not,” Ev said. “But the four of us together can.”

  “What are you thinking?” Maya said. Ev had let go of her and she now stood on her own.

  He moved in close so he could whisper to them. “It’s simple, really. Just hold her off while I go in close.”

  “Think we can do that, mate,” Jaysin grinned.

  “You can count on us,” Maya said.

  “Oh, yeah!” CiCi added.

  Ev cocked his head. It was now or never. “You guys ready?”

  “Ready,” they said simultaneously.

  Ev began running forward. Frigga responded by throwing all her whips at him. Jaysin got in front and struck the ground. Half of them flew upwards—along with Ev—but the others kept coming. Maya furiously fired off arrow after arrow, each of which hit the whips head on, knocking them off balance. CiCi added to the attack with her chakrams.

  With Frigga’s weapon momentarily neutralized, the now-airborne Ev came crashing down onto her. He wasted no time and began pulverizing her with his gauntlets. Despite what he had told Priscilia when they had fought, he hated having to hit a woman. With every blow, he felt a piece of his soul die, and he didn’t know if he would ever get them back. Memories of his father beating up his mother flooded his mind.

  Nevertheless, he knew what he had to do, and he did it, no matter how much he despised himself for it. He smashed Frigga’s face until he was sure she had lost consciousness. Only then did he get off of her.

  Maya and Jaysin came over to gawk at his handiwork. “Damn,” Jaysin said.

  “Ev,” Maya said.

  “I didn’t want to do it,” Ev said. “She was trying to kill us.”

  Maya said, “It’s OK. We’re not judging you. We know you had to do it.”

  She’s right, mate. This is war. Now come on; we need to help Daryn.”

  * * *

  Daryn Anders continued going toe to toe with the brute known as Gurzil, and he was proud to say he was holding his own. Gurzil’s club was certainly a weapon to be feared, but Daryn had so far managed to counter it.

  That was, until Gurzil unleashed a savage kick that knocked him on his ass. The bruiser then wasted no time slamming his truncheon down towards Daryn’s throat. Only the latter’s quick thinking saved him when he brought his hammer up to block. Nevertheless, he felt the impact all throughout his body and knew he could not survive very many more of those.

  Unfortunately, ‘more of those’ was exactly what Gurzil had in mind. He repeatedly slammed his club down. Daryn felt his strength faltering with each hit, and after several of them, came to the chilling realization the next one would finish him off. After competing in the God Games, he was at his limit.

  Gurzil brought the truncheon above his head and was poised to finish the fight. But out of nowhere, an arrow flew in and pierced him in the throat. He ran around frantically while gurgling blood before dropping to the floor.

  Daryn knew he had to capitalize on this, so he picked up his hammer and smashed Gurzil’s head where he lay, resulting in a sickening display of gore. He took no joy in this, but it had to be done.

  Ev, Jaysin, Maya and CiCi came over to him. “Are you all right?” Ev asked.

  “I’m fine, thanks to Maya’s arrow.”

  “My pleasure,” Maya said.

  “You monsters!” Loki yelled. “What have you done?”

  “We took care of business, mate.”

  The students looked the two remaining Carnaval members over. Only Loki and Vidar were left standing, and it seemed Vidar was useless without his tricks. Daryn said to them, “Give it up. You’ve lost.”

  “No!” Loki rushed them, but Maya put him down with an arrow to the heart.

  They stared at Vidar. “I’m hoping you’ll listen to reason,” Ev said.

  “Not so fast, you cretins!” Loki suddenly rose to his feet before ripping the arrow from his chest.

  “Impossible,” Maya said. “I shot you in the heart.”

  He laughed at her. “Ah, yes, the heart. A god’s greatest weakness. Unfortunately for you, it’s one I found the solution to.” They watched in horror as his body began pulsating. Within moments, every inch of it started getting bloated with what looked like tumors, each one beating.

  “What is this?” Ev said, disgusted.

  “My heart,” Loki said. “All of them.”

  “You mean?” Daryn said.

  “That’s right! I added many new hearts all over my body. You’ll have to destroy them all if you want to kill me.”

  Maya unloaded several more arrows into the pulsating points on his body, but he just laughed them off before ripping them out. “Laughable! Pathetic! I don’t believe you realize just how many hearts I added. In fact, my body is now seventy percent hearts.”

  “That’s impossible,” Ev said. “Your body couldn’t function if it was mostly hearts.”

  “A normal body, perhaps. But I modified all my organs to double as secondary hearts while still performing their original functions.”

  “That’s disgusting,” Daryn said.

  “Yuck,” CiCi added.

  “Say what you will, but I have no weaknesses. Do your worst!”

  Ev leaned in to whisper to Maya. “Use a freeze arrow to pin him down.”

  “Don’t underestimate my hearing!” He then vanished, and Ev was barely able to register him reappearing behind him a second too late. Loki delivered a savage kick which sent him flying.

  “Ev!” Maya shouted. She didn’t have time to do anything else because Loki punched her in the face, sending her sailing across the court as well.

  Daryn charged in with his hammer, but Loki disappeared again before he could bring it down on his head.

  “How’d he get so fast?” Jaysin asked.

  Loki suddenly appeared in front of him, causing him to jump back. But Loki didn’t attack. Instead, he stood there smirking. “With all the blood my hearts are pumping, I can do incredible things.”

  Jaysin moved to strike the ground with his staff, but Loki was gone. “Bastard’s quick.”

  By now Ev was to his feet. “We’ll have to work together to defeat him.”

  Maya was as well. “We need a plan.”

  “I’ve got one,” Daryn said, stepping forward. He threw down his hammer. “Hey, cuck socker,” he shouted to the air, “let’s settle this with our fists.” He then closed his eyes and seemed to focus.

  Before any of them knew it, Loki was behind him. But Daryn ducked the resulting punch, grabbed Loki’s arm and swung him over his shoulders onto the floor. “Maya! Now!”

  Maya fired two freeze arrows at Loki’s legs, pinning them in place. He shouted in rage at this development.

  Ev said to Jaysin, “You’re up, buddy.”

  Jaysin surged forward and struck the ground at Loki’s feet. Loki roared as his upper body broke free from his legs and rose into the air.

  Ev then leapt after him, intending to meet his sorry ass up there. But CiCi’s chakrams suddenly sliced through the air, taking off Loki’s arms. Ev made a mental note to thank her later.

  But for now, he had a job to finish. He overtook Loki and buried his fists into his chest, slamming him back down to earth. He then landed on the bastard and began pummeling him to a pulp.

  Before long, Daryn strode over with his hammer. “Time to finish this.” He brought it down on Loki’s chest, squishing everything out.

  They stood there, silent, for several minutes. When it became clear Loki wasn’t getting up from this, they allowed themselves to breathe a sigh of relief.

  * * *

  Vidar, who had sat back and watched, put his hands up in surrender.

  Suddenly, the ship’s computer chimed in. “Repairs to God Dampener complete. Death of acting captain registered. Please designate new captain.”

  Well, this was interesting. “Uh… me?” Ev said.

  “Please identify yourself.”

  “Ev Bannen.”

  “Transfer of command completed. Awaiting o
rders, Captain Bannen.”

  Ev beamed from ear to ear. “‘Captain Bannen’. Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”

  “Your mom would be so proud,” Maya said. She was completely sincere.

  “Thanks, Maya. I wish she was still here. Her love is the only reason I didn’t turn out like my father.”

  “She was a very good person,” Maya agreed.

  “Ahem,” Jaysin said. “Hate to interrupt, but we have a few prisoners here. What are we going to do about them?”

  Ev’s eyes went from Vidar to Frigga and back again. “Good question. Computer?”

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “Do we have… I don’t know… a brig or something?”

  “There is a fully automated containment facility on Deck 13.”

  That was good news, but there remained the possibility of their prisoners escaping. “Can the God Dampener reach in there?”

  “The God Dampener is fully integrated with the ship’s systems and has been modified to use the holographic projectors. It can reach anywhere on the ship with projectors installed, including the containment facility.”

  Ev smiled. “Good to know.”

  * * *

  They made their way to the bridge. They found it to be spacious and sterile. Strangely, there were chairs but only one console near the bridge entrance. Other than that, it was just like the starship bridges on old sci-fi TV series from several decades ago.

  Ev took his seat at what he assumed was the captain’s chair. It was very comfortable, and for the first time since leaving the Academy, he allowed himself to relax. He may have been completely exhausted, but he was content.

  The others—who were gathered around him—weren’t thinking about the chairs. “Weird,” Jaysin said.

  “You said it,” CiCi said.

  Maya surveyed the room and then said, “Computer?”

  The AI politely replied, “My designation is Ragnarok.”

  “OK, Ragnarok. Where are all the computer consoles? In the old Star Explorers series, the bridge had one in front of every chair on the bridge.”

  “Never figured you for a sci-fi fan,” Ev said.

  She shrugged. “My dad liked it.”

  Ragnarok responded, “Most functions are handled by me. Simply tell me what you want to do, and I will comply. The role of non-command crew members is to provide energy for the ship.”

  “How does that happen?” Daryn said.

  “Automatically. I have been siphoning off your energy since you became my new crew.”

  Daryn looked nervous. “I don’t think I like that.”

  “I assure you, it is not dangerous. I do not take more than your body produces.”

  “But there are only five of us,” Ev said. “Do you have enough energy to run the ship?”

  “The previous crew installed solar panels along the hull. I have been able to put away ample energy in my reserves.”

  Ev nodded, satisfied. “Good. Activate the forward view screen.” An image of the Dokiu skyline appeared in front of them. “Initiate cloak. Damn, I always wanted to say that.” The ship hummed lightly.

  “Cloak engaged,” Ragnarok said.

  “All right. All crew, take your seats.” They did so. “Ragnarok, take us to Mt. Orleia.”

  “Understood. Traveling there now.”

  * * *

  Soon they were staring at the imposing mountain crags of Mt. Orleia.

  “Ragnarok,” Ev said. “Open hailing frequencies.” He then added, “Another thing I always wanted to say.”

  “I do not understand. Please restate the command.”

  Ev groaned slightly. “I want to talk to the people inside the mountain to, you know, let them know we’re not the enemy. They’re probably freaking out right now.”

  “I am detecting a primitive radio inside. I can commandeer local frequencies to let you send a message.”

  “Fine. That’ll work.”

  After a moment, Ragnarok said, “Frequencies commandeered. You may transmit your message.”

  Ev cleared his throat. “Attention, Divine Protector Academy. This is Ev Bannen. My team and I have taken control of this ship. Do not be alarmed. We are allies. I repeat, we are allies. We won the God Games and have obtained the location of Zero Grade’s base. We will now be coming in. Over.” He turned to his friends. “Was that good? I wanted it to sound good.”

  “It sounded very good,” Maya said.

  Getting up from his oh-so-comfy chair, Ev said, “All right. Time to receive our heroes’ welcome.”

  * * *

  They touched down inside the hangar. “We’re back!” Ev triumphantly declared.

  But there was no one there to greet them. “Hello?” Maya called. “Anyone home?”

  “Where is everyone?” Jaysin said.

  “Beats me,” Daryn said.

  “Maybe they didn’t get our message,” CiCi suggested.

  Suddenly, Bethos, Brandon and Freya burst into the hangar. “Thank goodness you’re all right!” Freya said.

  Within moments they were face to face.

  “Yeah,” Ev said, not quite sure what to make of this. “What’s going on?”

  “Didn’t you feel it?” Bethos said. There was a hint of panic in his voice, very uncharacteristic for the Academy president.

  “Feel what?” Maya asked.

  Brandon explained, “There was a light from the sky. This is going to sound crazy, but we think it came from the moon.”

  “The moon?” CiCi said.

  Ev immediately knew what it meant. “Zero Grade.”

  Bethos stared at him. “What?”

  “Zero Grade’s base is on the moon. They must have launched an attack in case their side lost the God Games. That must be what damaged the Midgard. I’m guessing the ship’s shielding protected us.”

  “That’s not the worst part,” Brandon said. “That light took away our powers.”

  “What are you saying?” Ev said.

  “I’m saying everyone at the Academy is as helpless as a mortal right now.”

  To be continued.

  Afterword

  I published God School on December 9, 2014, and the reception was positive. It has already sold better than all my other novels combined, which makes me hopeful for the future of this series. As I write this, I’m getting ready to send Incident 27 into beta mode, get it edited, and commission a cover for it. These three steps are vital for a successful book launch. Thankfully, Amazon has made this easier by enabling indie authors such as myself to put our books up for pre-order, something I wasn’t able to do before God School. Getting pre-orders is a good way to gauge interest in your novel, and I love it.

  Let’s get on to the what, when, where, why and how of this novel, starting with the story. Until We Break is much longer than God School and Incident 27, and that’s the way I wanted it. I had been building up this epic story from the very beginning, and it begins to culminate here. You see, in God School, Zero Grade was present, but they were overshadowed by Belial and his machinations. In Incident 27, I gave them a bigger presence, but they still weren’t the ultimate nemeses I needed them to eventually be.

  Enter Until We Break. I had been planning the next great god war for quite some time, and I knew it had to be big and dark. I decided to kill off Ev’s mother to bring the point home that the Flawless Few are irredeemably evil and they mean business. I also wanted to show the consequences of Ev’s actions in Incident 27 and fulfill Priscilia’s promise that “the killing has only just begun.” I knew there had to be serious casualties in this war, or else you wouldn’t buy into it. Hopefully, you feel I succeeded and are ready to see what happens next.

  Let’s talk characters now. I introduced a lot of new faces in this book, and you might be wondering just where the hell Carnaval came from. Well, “Carnivàl” was the original name of Zero Grade. But my beta reader on God School said it sounded festive rather than evil, so I changed the name. I felt “Zero Grade” sounded dark, myste
rious, and, above all, cool, so I went with it. But the idea of festive bad guys still appealed to me, so I decided Carnaval would make an appearance in the third book. I introduced Loki and the Midgard in Incident 27 with the intent to have them play a bigger role later on.

  Speaking of new characters—in this book I delved into more obscure gods than I had previously. In this story, I shed some light on lesser-known deities such as Izanagi and Izanami, their children, as well as some Norse gods you may never have heard of. I also got to dive further into Celtic mythology and bring you Fionn mac Cumhaill, the legendary hero of the Tuatha Dé Danann whom I referenced in God School. Being of Scottish decent, I have a particular fondness for anything Celtic, and it’s always a pleasure to explore that area.