When he awoke, the earthquake had ceased. The cavern was dangerously still and silent. No longer did he hear screams of anguish or fear. It was as though his world had frozen in place. Only the falling dust reminded him of the destruction the cavern had endured.
Lord Balor tried to push himself up, but his arm refused to acknowledge his commands. He realized the limb he wanted to use was trapped beneath him. Though the arm felt numb, pain began radiating around his shoulder, spreading through his chest and head. His head ached, like knives were being driven into his skull.
Using his uninjured arm, Balor pushed himself upright, allowing the wounded limb to fall limply to his side. Glancing down, he saw the tip of a fractured white bone jutting through the skin of his wrist. He cringed at the sight but had little time to dwell on his injuries. Forcing himself to a standing position, Balor stumbled away from the keep.
He stole a glance behind him, admiring the collapsed outer wall. It appeared that a giant’s hand had crushed the centermost portion, scattering massive stones in its wake. The city was visible beyond the broken wall, though it looked like little more than ruins. Few buildings still stood upright, most having collapsed under their own weight.
In the distance, he could see what remained of the castle. All the many spires had been sheared from its top, leaving only a squat, blockish core of the castle remaining. The face of the castle was gone as well, exposing the rooms within. He saw no one moving among the ruins of the castle, leaving him wondering if anyone he knew was still alive.
Remembering all those he knew from his previous life, he quickly glanced about for signs of the malicious general, but the Fire Warrior was nowhere to be seen. If Abraxas still lived, he had far more to worry about than an escaping prisoner.
Turning away from the city, Balor clutched his arm close to his side to keep it from moving unnecessarily. The bridge before him had seen better days. Only a few catwalks remained, spanning the wide gap over the lava flows below.
As delicately as possible, Lord Balor hurried across the ruined bridge, praying all the while that another earthquake didn’t occur and drop the remains of the bridge into the magma. As he reached the far side of the chasm, he disappeared into the dark tunnels without another glance toward his former fiefdom.
The world was a frozen wasteland. A stern wind blew powdered snow into the air until it was difficult to tell where the grayish white of the snow blended into the steely gray of the sky above. The wind would die periodically, only to surge back with such strength that the blowing ice could pierce skin.
Xander stood on a precipice, a small outcropping of ice, peering down on an endless, uniform sea of ice that stretched to the horizon. The cold had no impact on him; he hardly seemed to notice, despite wearing only his jeans and a thin, short-sleeved shirt. He ran a nervous hand through his shaggy, black hair but paused as he realized it was nearly frozen solid. The individual strands of hair were stiff and plastered to his forehead.
“Hello?” he called out. The words were stolen by the sturdy wind, fading before they had gone far beyond his lips. “Is anyone there?”
No one replied, nor did anyone appear. He stepped fearlessly off the edge of the cliff and floated gently toward the ground below. The wind flowed around him as he buffeted himself against the gusts. Seconds later, he touched down on the ice flow below, the hardened surface crunching under his weight as his foot passed through and into the powder beneath.
Unperturbed, Xander lifted his foot from the ice and stepped forward. His feet became buoyed by small clouds of compressed air, and he walked a few inches above the ice rather than directly on it.
“Hello?” he asked again, hoping someone would hear his cry. “Where the hell am I?”
“You’re in the depths of your mind,” a familiar female voice replied.
The ground shook gently as a shard of ice emerged before him. It stood nearly as tall as Xander. Within its crystalline depths, a female figure appeared. Despite being formed of refractive ice rather than currents of water and undersea creatures, the shape of the Water Elemental was unmistakable.
“You,” Xander said. “What is this place? What do you mean I’m in my mind?”
The Water Elemental seemed amused by his obvious concern. Her lack of empathy clearly hadn’t changed, even after he absorbed her powers.
“What is the last thing you remember before arriving here?”
Xander opened his mouth to reply but paused as a flood of memories sped quickly through his mind. He remembered confronting the Fire Elemental. He also remembered the Fire Elemental beating him relentlessly and trying to kill him.
“Good,” the Water Elemental said, clearly able to read his mind. “Then you remember everything that matters most.”
“The dragon tried to kill me. I’m not dead, am I?”
The Elemental laughed, her trill laughter sounding like a bubbling brook. “No, though there may come a time after you awaken when you would have wished you had.”
Xander turned around slowly, glancing at the endless ice in all directions. “Then why am I here?”
The wind increased, forcing Xander to concentrate on not being knocked over by the sudden gusts. The wind drove more loose snow into the air. The billowing snow gathered together, coalescing into a female shape. Xander lowered his hand from where he had been protecting his face and peered at the snow-bound woman. She looked remarkably younger than when they had first met, but she still exuded a motherly aura.
“Your body required time to heal,” the Wind Elemental replied. “Your mind retreated here while your body rests.”
Xander glanced back and forth between the two Elementals. He knew they were telling the truth. They had both been absorbed, their physical bodies destroyed when he assumed their mantles. The only place they still existed was here, in his mind. Despite the oddity of the situation, he couldn’t help but feel concerned about his body. The dragon had beaten him severely. He remembered the breaking of bones and the wetness that covered his face, how nothing felt like it was quite in the right place.
“My body will heal, then? I’ll survive?”
“Your survival was never in doubt,” Wind said. “You’re an Elemental, more than one, in fact. Despite your lack of confidence, you are nearly indestructible now. The truth is, you’re here for a different reason. Your body isn’t the only thing that needs healing.”
Xander shook his head. “No, stop. I’m not playing your cryptic games anymore. Don’t speak in riddles or half-truths. Just tell me what you need me to know. What else needs healing?”
“Your mind,” Water said.
Xander furrowed his brow. “There’s nothing wrong with my mind.”
“Isn’t there? Would you have us believe that there’s nothing weighing heavily on your mind? Keep in mind, of course, that we are now part of your every thought.”
Water glanced down and Xander, begrudgingly, followed her gaze. The ice beneath his feet grew opaque before it took on a glassy appearance. There, in the ice, images began to appear. Xander watched as he returned to a burning home in White Halls, knowing his parents had been trapped inside. He saw himself cradling his grandfather as the old man passed away. He both saw and felt his anguish when he realized Sammy had been taken. The scene changed to London and Xander quickly looked away, but every icy surface from where he stood to the horizon reflected him and his friends standing on the London Bridge, surrounded by Fire Warriors. He knew what came next but was helpless to look away. He wasn’t even certain closing his eyes would block out the image, since all this was happening within his mind.
As the wave crashed over the bridge, sweeping away all those Fire Warriors and dragging them to a watery grave, the scene changed one final time. He was in the forest outside Paris. He didn’t need to be told what would happen next. Xander bit his lip until it bled as he saw himself lying prone on the ground, his body broken, and a naked Sammy standing above him. She summoned a massive fireball over her head, though Xander kn
ew it wasn’t really her. She was just the host, taken by the Fire Elemental.
When he was positive he was watching his own death, a flicker occurred in her eyes. They went from smoldering red to crystal blue. Her features softened and he knew she was still there, trapped somewhere within that monster.
The ice turned solid white once more, returning to its natural state. Xander hadn’t even realized he’d been crying. The wet tracks of the tears felt suddenly cold against his face, as though they were freezing in place.
“Why would you show me that?” he asked softly. “Don’t you think living through it all once was bad enough?”
“We didn’t show it to you to torture you. It’s not just your body that’s broken. Your mind is fractured, too.”
The Wind Elemental glided forward, her outstretched hand brushing against his cheek. The gesture was supposed to be one of affection, but it merely left Xander feeling cold.
“You’ve become so overwhelmed with sadness that you can no longer focus on what matters most—defeating the Fire Elemental and saving the planet.”
“I’m unfocused?” Xander asked. “I’ve lost every biological relative I have, not to count all the non-biological family who’s died in this stupid war, too. How do you expect me to react? I’m a human being.”
The Water Elemental shifted to a shard of ice within Xander’s line of vision. She wore a stern visage as she shook her head. “No, Xander, you’re not. That’s the point we’re trying to make. You’re not a human; you never were. You were created for this purpose. You’re so much more than a human.”
“I had parents. I’m not some damn robot that was built in a laboratory somewhere.”
“Parents who were also bred for the sole purpose of birthing you. Every member of your family served a purpose of advancing your lineage until you were born.”
Wind stepped in between them, her smile soft as she blocked his view of the Water Elemental. “You’re not helping, dear,” she said, though Xander somehow knew she was talking to Water. “Water isn’t wrong, but neither are you. You were designed to bring a stop to the Fire Caste before they could destroy humanity. You are an empty vessel with untapped power, the ability to harness all four elements within yourself and rebuild the planet. Yet all that power is stored within a most human frame—you, Xander. From our perspective, it’s sometimes hard to remember that the all-powerful elemental wielder is not a separate entity from the young boy with whom I imbued the wind powers not so long ago.”
The snow drifted toward the ground before reforming into a sitting woman. She patted the ice beside her, inviting him to sit. Xander crouched, oblivious to the cold that soaked through his jeans.
“Tell me what it is that bothers you the most right now.”
Xander laughed, though the sound lacked any semblance of humor. “Where do I begin?”
“Wherever you want. This is your mind and the world you created within it. Time is irrelevant, so take all of it you need.”
He sighed and fidgeted with his fingernails, as though trying to loosen some unseen dirt from beneath his thumbnail. “I’ve failed everyone. My parents, my grandpa, Sammy… even my own morality. I killed people. I watched them die.”
The facsimile of a hand fell over his knee and patted it affectionately. “No, you didn’t. You killed Fire Warriors.”
“They looked like people to me,” he said defiantly.
“Much like you were designed,” Wind said, “so were they. They’re not human. How do you think the first generation of each caste is made? We don’t select humans to become our avatars. We build them, from the very elements. They appear as humans, speak and move as humans, but they are nothing more than embodiments of our elements. Take apart the first Water Warrior, and they would dissolve into salt water. Destroy the first of my Wind Warriors, and they’d evaporate. The Fire Warriors were crafted, their lineage passed down through their few generations for the sole purpose of destroying humanity. They exist solely to kill humans. Does that sound like a person to you?”
A woman’s face appeared in the ice beneath him. “Do you feel bad when you hear on the news that a murderer was shot and killed by police before he could kill a hostage?” Water asked.
Xander shook his head.
“The Fire Warriors are murderers of the worst kind. They don’t have a specific type of victim; they exist only to kill every human they find. You are the police. You exist to protect humanity in the worst possible way. Humans, every one of them still alive, are the hostages. You now have your hand on the trigger and must make a decision. Will you let the murderer live, knowing he’ll kill your friends, or do you pull the trigger and save the world?”
The ice beneath Xander changed, no longer reflecting the face of the Water Elemental. Instead, it showed a mosaic of his friends’ faces: Sean, Jessica, Thea, Giovanni, Alicia, Patrick, and Wilkes. Surrounding those faces were first dozens then hundreds and then thousands of other faces he didn’t recognize, but the point was made. Every face was another person—a hostage—who was counting on him. Saving them was the reason he existed and it would take everything, even killing Fire Warriors, to do it.
“How do I do it?” he asked as he raised his head toward the two Elementals.
“You find the Earth Elemental,” Wind said. “He’s the last piece to the puzzle before you can stop the Fire Caste.”
“How? The dragon knows where he is better than I do, and it kicked the crap out of me last time we faced off.”
“You have to trust in your powers.”
“Yeah, sure, that sounds great and all, but I’m just not as confident with my water powers yet.”
The Water Elemental scoffed at the idea. “Yes, you are, Xander. They’re a part of you, infused in your very essence.”
“The changes that allow you to use these powers are written in your very DNA,” Wind said. “You just have to remember that they are every bit as inherent to you as your hair color or skin tone. Do you remember in White Halls, the first time you used your powers and saved that man from being hit by the bus? You summoned those powers without thinking, without realizing you even had the capability within you. It was natural. Be natural.”
Water glanced toward her counterpart. “What she means is quit over-thinking everything. You have the power within you, if you’re only willing to use it.”
Xander glanced at his hands, as though expecting them to turn to water or summon small tornadoes. As he watched them, though, his mind wandered to Sammy and his last confrontation with the Fire Elemental. He had been crestfallen when he realized she had become a host but soon realized that Sammy, his Sammy, was still alive, trapped within her own body. She had appeared and saved his life and, in the process, partially forced the Fire Elemental from her human form. He remembered the ghostly dragon appearing behind her, perplexed and angry, before reassuming control.
“How do you separate the two?” Water asked, anticipating the question.
“When I absorbed both of you, your bodies were destroyed in the process. I can’t absorb the dragon until I know she’s safe.”
Wind floated past him, forming again in a standing position before him. “Like many of our kind, the Fire Elemental doesn’t know how to handle strong emotions.”
Xander laughed, despite the seriousness of the situation. “Oh, I beg to differ. It seems to have a pretty good grasp of anger.”
“Anger aside,” Wind corrected. “Strong emotions like love and compassion are foreign concepts to the Fire Elemental. Sammy’s concern for you overwhelmed the dragon, nearly forcing it from her body. Her love for you alone, though, wasn’t enough to separate the two. You’d have to find a way to completely overwhelm Sammy so that they could be forced apart.”
Xander glanced around at the icy plain. “All right, so we have a plan. When do we get out of here and back into my body?”
Wind and Water glanced at one another. Wind finally smiled dotingly. “Not much longer now, but only when your body is ready.”
Xander glanced at the two women before sighing heavily. He knew what Wind hadn’t said, that until his body was healed, he’d be stuck in the mindscape, with only one another for company.
“We really should have dragged out this conversation a bit longer,” he said, dejected.
Leftenant Wilkes drew a bead on the Fire Warrior emerging from the woods and squeezed the trigger. The blonde woman lurched as her head snapped back and she collapsed into the grass, another body among the growing pile nearby.
A ball of flame soared over his head and struck the barn, igniting the nearest corner. The dry wood caught fire and burned brightly, the flames licking quickly up the side of the building.
“Get water on that barn or the whole thing will come down on top of us!” the British officer yelled, trying to be heard over the din of gunfire and the crackle of nearby flames.
Jessica and Sean ran outside, buckets in their hands. Water sloshed over the tops of the rusted buckets. They threw the water onto the blaze, tempering the heat but not fully extinguishing the flames.
“We only have a couple more buckets,” she yelled as she handed her now-empty metal bucket to Sean. “We’re going to run out of water before they run out of fire.”
“We need to get someone down to the river to refill them,” Sean added.
Jessica shook her head. “They have us surrounded. No one’s getting away from this barn any time soon.”
“Then the barn is going to burn down. We can’t stop it, not with only two more buckets of water.” Sean turned toward Wilkes, who hid behind a small mound of dirt. “I thought you said they weren’t smart enough to form a big group.”
Wilkes buried himself behind the mound as a jet of flame licked the leeward side. When the flames died, the Brit rose and shot another Fire Warrior. “No, what I told you was that you should pray they don’t get smart enough to band together. You Yanks only hear what you want to hear.”
Earth God Page 15