Void Legion

by Terry C. Simpson

  Melori roared. His marble skin reddened as he engaged Dementia. For the next thirty seconds his speed and power were multiplied tenfold.

  The gurash vaulted up, higher than Umesh. He Spurted forward while in midair, covering the distance between them in a blink. He delivered a punch, Gravity Bomb, to Umesh’s midsection. The blow knocked Umesh from the air.

  Arms spread, Umesh flew backward down into the ground. His impact sent up a great splash of mud and brown water. The colossus skidded some twenty feet on his back, carving a path through mud and grass.

  Umesh slammed his massive clawed hands into the ground. The move left rents and brought him to a stop. Roaring, he bounded to his feet and charged through the mud and rain toward the two men.

  Frost and the others reached Matahu and Nepia. The girl was rocking back and forth while holding the wizened old man. The water around her was a bloody pool.

  Gilda was the first off her mount. Frost dismounted and then helped Tia down. His sister clung to him, buried her head in his shoulder, and let out a whimper.

  Frost squeezed his eyes tight while whispering soothing words to Tia, telling her all would be well now, that she no longer had to fear the evil men. Tia held his arm in a death grip when they followed Gilda to Nepia’s side.

  Gilda touched the girl’s shoulder. Red-rimmed eyes in a face framed with dark hair stared up. “Let me take a look at him.”

  The girl shied away at first. Her mouth opened and closed. She burst into sobs.

  “Nepia, we’re here to help,” Frost said tenderly. “Trust us.” The girl nodded but her eyes were still fearful.

  Flightmaster Matahu’s eyes fluttered open. Recognition flashed in them when his gaze passed over Frost.

  “Anefet’s first born,” he wheezed. He reached a trembling hand up to his daughter. “Nep-Nepia.”

  “Yes, Papa?”

  “Do as I begged you.”

  “Papa, you’re going to be fine.”

  “Just… just say yes, my rose. Fulfill… my dying wi–” His body went limp. A last breath escaped his lips. He stared up sightlessly.

  “Papaaaaa!” Nepia bawled.

  “I’m sorry,” Gilda said. “I’m so sorry.”

  But it was as if Nepia hadn’t heard. She climbed to her feet, her gaze riveted upon Umesh Madara. Her face contorted from a mask of grief to one of hate. Pure odium. “I will do as Papa asked on one condition.”

  Frost frowned. He had no idea to what she referred but a part of him said to agree. “Name it.”

  “Promise that one day you will kill that monster.” She had eyes only for Umesh Madara.

  Nebsamu and Melori were still fighting him. Only three guards remained.

  “I promise,” Frost said. Immediately, he had a quest for killing the GUM.

  Nepia’s shoulders slumped. She let out a deep, shuddering breath. She got down on her knees in the mud and muck and kissed her father’s pale lips. She stood. “Follow me.”

  She led them through the drumming rain to the simurgh’s stable. A whiff of rankness and shit carried on the wind. The great beast-bird cocked its head and regarded them with intelligent eyes.

  Frost had seen simurghs grow to over two hundred feet from snout to tail. This one was perhaps half that. Yet, the rows of teeth lining its jaws were anything but friendly. On one side of the stable were man-sized droppings. Frost grimaced.

  Nepia closed her eyes and held up her hand. Long moments passed. The simurgh made a chattering sound. As if on command, the simurgh lay flat on its belly in the grass. Nepia directed them to climb atop its back.

  Frost couldn’t help his chuckle when Saba complied. Despite his years playing Ataxia Online, he’d never seen a centaur ride a simurgh. Or ride anything, for that matter. And though Saba had been deft enough climbing atop the simurgh, she looked utterly ridiculous as she folded her legs under her to lie down. Frost kept seeing a horse riding atop a bird.

  If looks could kill, the glare Saba shot his way would have made him keel over right there. Frost covered his mouth in a half-hearted attempt to stifle his mirth.

  Folding his lips before he burst into a cackle, Frost waited for Tia and Gilda to get aboard before he scrambled onto the simurgh between the sorcerer and his sister. He wasn’t new to the experience, yet he couldn’t help but marvel at the difference in the feel of the creature under Total Immersion. The mixture of feather and fur was soft yet pliant and had a strong odor that reminded him of a dog.

  Nepia was the last to join them. She sat close up to the simurgh’s neck. “Get comfortable before I give the command to harness.”

  Frost wiggled about for a bit before voicing his readiness. Ahead of him, both Saba and Gilda did the same. Tia wrapped her arms around Frost’s waist and buried her head in his back. Frost fought his own small trepidation at the idea of harnessing.

  But a moment passed before the feathery fur elongated and twined together. It was as if it grew on the spot. It coiled up and around Frost’s legs, ankles, and his waist. Frost leaned forward to grab a bunch of the feathery fur and wrapped it around his hands. The fur tightened on its own.

  “Hold on tight,” Nepia said.

  Drakes shrieked. Half a dozen of them soared up from the direction of the town’s gate. Frost had no idea what took the Sky Swords so long to reach nor did he care.

  At the battle with Umesh, only Nebsamu and Melori were left. Both had sustained wounds. Their chests heaved.

  Umesh bled from a few cuts. His armor was singed and battered in several places, but he appeared unperturbed. His body blurred. And abruptly, there stood a dozen Mimics of the GUM.

  A blue glow emanated from Nebsamu. Legs spread, he pointed Noobstick at the GUM. An Aether Shot burst from the cannon. Korbitanium Projectiles followed. Then Divergence. Aether Bomb. And the red shot.

  The attacks were slow at first but steadily increased in pace. The buzzsaw bled into whines and whomps. They alternated. In moments, the separate discharges blurred into one, became a solid roar, a rain of metal and aether that was Stand and Deliver.

  Umesh’s Mimics separated. They leaped into the air above Nebsamu’s onslaught and flung their quaker axes. A dozen of the weapons spun end over end toward Nebsamu.

  Melori roared. He spun and punched up, all in one motion. The crescent-shaped wave of a Sonic Blow sliced through the air toward the incoming axes. In the same instant, a blue-tinged, oval-shaped Aether Barrier sprang up around him and Nebsamu.

  With a screech, the simurgh lurched upright. It beat its wings. A musty wet wind buffeted Frost like a storm. After a final cry, the simurgh took flight.

  The Flightmaster objective completed.

  The ground, the town, Nebsamu, Melori, and Umesh dwindled, smaller and smaller, magics and aether and cannon fire streaking between them. The Sky Sword drakes had almost gained the landing. The view widened to encompass the verdant Gerza Valley. People became specks. Clouds blotted out Frost’s view. Soon, they were flying above the storm, above clouds crowned in sun gold.

  Khertahkan Trials

  Objective Complete

  Survived Umesh Madara:

  1000 experience points

  Saved group from slavers:

  1500 experience points

  Khertahkan Trials passed:

  4000 experience points

  Gained 500 Khertahka dominion credits

  For the first time in a while Frost felt himself relax. He took in a deep breath of clean, cold, yet fresh air. Solemnity ate at him as he considered Nebsamu and Melori’s fates. And yet, he was safe. So was Tia. But most of all, he had direction, a path to Adesh Hamada. In Kituan, he would grind out quests until level ten or eleven, and then head to Maelpith Island.

  And though a part of him feared the thought of failure against GUMs similar or worse th
an Umesh Madara or Emperor KiGyaba, there was something about the chance that lit a fire within him. And not just the prospect of helping his mother, Regi, Rayne, and Kai and eventually seeing them all free. He relished the challenge of the battle itself. The learning. It was as if he was raiding again for the very first time. His lips twitched with a small smile.

  Until six drake riders speared through the clouds behind them. Their drakes shrieked.

  CHAPTER 19

  The drake riders flanked them, two to either side, and two above.

  Frost gritted his teeth against the swirling wind. “This is what I get for giving up my fucking cannon.”

  “It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Saba said, voice a bit disorienting since she’d engaged Concealment. Frost imagined she was smirking. “Simurghs hate an aether cannon’s discharge. And a cannoneer noob like you hitting anything while flying is unlikely. The wind and movement would throw off your aim. I’ve practiced and I’m barely decent at it.”

  “But you’re not a cannoneer,” Frost pointed out.

  “Same principle,” Saba retorted.

  Frost almost argued the point, but it seemed childish. He had supreme confidence in his skill and knowledge from years playing gun sims, first person shooters, extensive firearms experience, and excelling at 3-Gun tourneys.

  Saba continued, “Even if you got lucky, all the riders would have to do is dive as soon as the muzzle lit up.”

  “I woulda lowered the power and taken my chances.” He chided himself for answering.

  “Remind me how well lowering the power worked out in Snakewood Forest.”

  Frost scowled. “You can sit here and do nothing, but I’d rather not be target practice if one of them happens to be a caster.”

  “I’m hardly doing nothing,” she said. “I’m waiting for them to get close enough. They won’t see my arrows coming. And for any casters to be effective, they’d also be putting themselves within Gilda’s spell range.”

  “She’s right,” Nepia called from up front. “Tenefer would have tossed you from her back. Low power or not, the noise upsets her all the same. And those riders are smart enough to be cautious about a caster themselves. Doubly so if they caught sight of your dresdor friend before she Concealed. None of which will matter in the next few moments.”

  Won’t matter? Frowning, Frost opened his mouth to ask Nepia if she’d lost her senses when the simurgh swelled beneath him. His unspoken question became a grin. In his absence from Ataxia, he’d forgotten about the simurgh’s ability, its magic, the reason it was the preferred vehicle for long distance travel. The Velocity Surge.

  Bracing for the Surge, he leaned forward, his face touching Gilda’s back. He relished the perfume of her muskiness. He sucked in a breath and pushed hard against his midsection, stiffening his abdominal wall.

  With a screech, the simurgh beat its wings and shot forward as if it had been fired from an aether cannon. The sudden acceleration drove Frost further into Gilda, made his stomach lurch up into his throat.

  Behind him, Tia let out a strangled cry. Her grip on his waist tightened.

  Frost’s skin tingled. The world blurred. Frost cackled. He would have looked back if he could, but the velocity pressed down on him. He imagined the drakes as mere specks. And then completely gone.

  He reveled in the adrenaline rush as the simurgh repeated the process again and again. Its speed increased every time. The trip brought back memories of the few times Pops had taken him to Hell’s Descent, a roller coaster atop a skyrise Downtown Brooklyn with a drop of some thousand feet. A smile touched his lips before melancholy stymied the recollection.

  In an hour, the simurgh burst through the clouds and into the glare of the afternoon sun above the human dominion of Ignis, the Grendesh Coalition’s birthplace. A myriad of cities, towns, and villages dotted the landscape. Rivers snaked through lush plains. Forests, both great and small, marked the land in a thousand green shades. Far east, the Empyrean Sea was a rippled reflection of the bowl of heaven.

  Frost’s hands grew clammy at the sight of the ocean. He struggled against memories of almost drowning. Helplessness in water’s embrace. To fight his fear, he focused on the peninsula known as the Glaive. Northeast of the Glaive was Sippar Island, and directly east of Sippar lay Maelpith Island and its cloak of mist in which lightning flickered in fitful spurts.

  With a screech to announce itself, the simurgh began its descent toward the capital city of Kituan. A few beats of the simurgh’s wings and Velocity Surges made Kituan grow from a speck to a vast citadel built upon the River Segia’s delta. For the first time since he had taken her from atop the crevid back in Marna, Frost felt Tia relax.

  Below, Kituan was as rife with villas, spires, avenues, and streets as it was with canals and waterways. A great curtain wall surrounded the noble acropolis, which had once been the city entire before the days of Commander Aureliano Grendesh and the Coalition. Now, the wall served as a barrier between nobility and lesser folk.

  Buildings sprawled far beyond the acropolis’ rich accoutrements in the Tiberium District, to modest affairs in the Limne and Sumne Districts, to the jumble of structures in the Gregis and Caesia Districts, which extended to the city’s outskirts dotted with homesteads, farmlands, and vineyards. Great time towers reached into the sky in each district, their timespheres glowing with aether as they rotated.

  The metallic glint of the Aetherium dominated one end of the Tiberium District. Wrought from korbitanium, the collection of spires and buildings was said to hold the greatest magical secrets and powers in Mikander and claimed the best hierkaneers. Within its walls the Vindicators learned their trade. The trade of death. The wielding of aether enough to challenge the draconids and their advanced technology. Rumor had it that deep beneath the Aetherium, the Coalition had hidden away a Genesis Engine.

  They were gliding down to the citadel, the air thickening with the Segia delta’s briny scents, when Nepia spoke. “Which district do you want? I can land at any Aviary outside the Tiberium District.”

  “Nebsamu said Adesh would be in the Wyvern’s Eye in the Gregis District,” Frost said. “That’d be our best bet.”

  “Do you know someone there who can protect you or act as your guide?” Nepia asked.

  “Why?” Frost furrowed his brow.

  “Because,” Saba said, “the Gregis District has become home to every criminal you could imagine. It’s a hard place. I personally wouldn’t go in there before level twenty without guards.”

  “There’s four of us.” Frost shrugged. “We can hold our own.”

  “I doubt it,” Saba said. “Especially since you don’t have a weapon. What will you do if we’re attacked? Kiss someone? Punch them? Are you adept in Hand-to-hand combat? As it stands, it’s more like two and a quarter of us because your sister is absolutely no help in a fight.”

  “I don’t like agreeing with her, but she’s right,” Gilda said.

  Frost glared at Gilda’s back. “You’re supposed to be on my side,” he grumbled.

  “I am, trust and believe,” Gilda said, matching his timbre.

  Saba spoke again. “Back at the mines, Melori was actually saying it’d be better if we left your sister at a Temple of Nif with some mystics.”

  “Not gonna happen,” Frost growled.

  “I’m not setting foot in the Gregis District without proper protection,” Saba said. “Either we do something easier to level up and then return. Or we hire guards.”

  “Guards, it is,” he said grudgingly.

  “Then that leaves three districts to choose from,” Nepia said.

  Tenefer banked to begin a circular path over the city. Other simurghs floated higher up. Drakes flitted this way and that below them on their descents to various Aviaries.

  The most prominent of all the sky traffic were zephy
rs, the humans’ favored flying mount. They came in various shades or mixtures of white, brown, and black. They were as big or bigger than drakes, with muscular bodies, diaphanous wings, and faces like owls.

  “Limne would be your best choice,” Saba said. “It’s home to most eradae in the city. You might even find a protection guild like the Granite Order that will take KDC rather than rip you off in converting them to IDC.”

  “Protection guilds used to be pretty expensive.” Frost took a look at his Khertahka dominion credits.

  “Still are,” Gilda said.

  “How much KDC do you have?” Saba asked.

  “Fifteen hundred.”

  “Might be able to get one level thirty guard at that price. Or two level fifteens.”

  “I still need a new aether cannon.” He felt naked without a weapon. And Saba’s earlier jab didn’t help. He would have to do something about unarmed combat when the chance and the credits presented themselves.

  “I could loan you some credits,” Gilda said. “I’ve got about a thousand to spare.”

  Though grateful for the offer, Frost shook his head. “You need them to advance as much as I do.”

  “No doubt,” Gilda said.

  “I got a better idea.” Frost eyed a human Bloodguard atop a zephyr. “I know a friend who plays the Auction Markets. He’ll be able to help. Head to Caesia.” Frost fully expected an objection from Saba and was surprised when she offered none.

  Nepia had the simurgh veer off its line and glide down to the Caesia District and its red brick streets and buildings. A maze of waterways and canals intersected those streets. They headed directly toward a Landing: a large roped off field where runners dashed this way and that, directing incoming flights by waving short phosphorescent glimmerwands. Tenefer glided down, then beat its wings not far from a runner, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris as it slowly lowered to the ground.

  Trek to Kituan

  Objective Complete

  Arrived safely in Kituan:

  1000 experience points