Villain

by Ivan Kal

  But she knew she was too late. His shield was recovering, and the Sha inside the structure was resonating. The weapon was getting ready to fire. She was just an arm’s length away from him, and yet that was so far away. The Sha was getting thicker. She had failed. They all failed.

  But then she realized that she wasn’t moving, that Aranis wasn’t moving. Something about the feeling familiar to her. There was a dull throbbing inside of her head. She saw the color leave her sight, and then everything around her that wasn’t Aranis and the sphere disappeared, and she realized what had happened. She had felt it before—when her father had brought her inside his mind, had used his ability to allow her into his mind space.

  Her father’s ability to speed up his mind’s processing speed, to create a mind space inside his head where he could spend days while only moments passed in the real world… It was the thing that had set him apart from others, that had allowed him to push so far, an ability that was supposed to be an evolutionary trait of humanity, and yet no one other than him had ever achieved it. Now it had awoken within her. She didn’t know how to control it, how to do anything other than stand there looking at Aranis as he was grasping the sphere, the firing mechanism of the weapon.

  She saw the shield around him flickering, the disruption seemingly starting near the sphere and spread all of it. A few of her plasma bolts had passed through and scorched his wings and back, but she hadn’t been close to really hurting him. There were only a few holes in his shield, and it was recovering.

  She tried to think what she could do. She had gained some time—she just needed to find a way to stop him.

  She had to get him away from the pedestal, she knew. Grabbing him with telekinesis wouldn’t work, she thought, as he could just disrupt her hold, but then she remembered something she had seen her father do. She had never been that good with it, but she had no choice. She could feel her mind space slowly abating, could feel time speeding up. She reached out with her will focused on the Sha around Aranis, on the Sha that was the part of gravity in that area, the Sha that allowed it to propagate, and she pulled, twisting it.

  The force of gravity intensified and changed direction, and Aranis was violently thrown backward toward her. She felt his surprise as he reached out to the Sha around himself to stop it, but she was too close. The blade inside her armor extended out, and she added a layer of Sha energy over it. Aranis twisted midair and saw her as she flew toward him, her blade punching through the hole in his shield and stabbing into his stomach. He readied his power to strike back, but a massive mental attack slammed into his head. She felt her father’s power and took advantage of Aranis being distracted. She grabbed him with her other hand and twisted, cutting into him as she rolled in the air.

  She fell to the floor, her head throbbing from both the effort of doing something as difficult as messing with gravity and probably her awakening her mind space ability. She cursed as she turned around and saw Aranis land on the ground. She had cut half of his stomach open, but she’d missed his spine. There was blood, or something like it leaking out, and he grimaced.

  He raised his hand to attack, but then her father reached him. Aranis turned around, surprised at him just appearing like that. Ryaana saw that her father looked injured, his armor had broken up in places, and his skin seemed to be flaking off—it even had cracks in places—but he put his hands on Aranis’s head before the Enlightened could react.

  And then he screamed, and Ryaana felt a massive surge of telepathy.

  * * *

  Adrian watched as Aranis reached for the weapon, and he knew there was nothing he could do. Ryaana was behind him, but she wasn’t going to be able to do anything, as she wasn’t strong enough. He was barely holding on, his body falling apart, and he felt like he could just let go, that there was no point in fighting anymore.

  And then the Sha in the room surged, gravity twisted, and Adrian’s eyes widened. Ryaana pulled the Enlightened back even as she was flying at him, the blade of her suit extending and a sheen of Sha covering it. Adrian saw her stab it into Aranis as they passed each other, cutting him open, and he realized that he couldn’t let go, that he had to fight.

  Aranis was injured but he was still on his feet, while his daughter was on the ground, nearly exhausted. Aranis raised his hand and Adrian knew that he had to act.

  He pushed all of his power into his mind, into his mind space, and he felt time slow down. He forced his will on the Sha in his body, ordering it to stop, to stay inside of him. He felt cold seep into his mind as he dropped deeper into the Sha state. There were things there that offered understanding, but he ignored them, wanting only to save his daughter. After losing Anessa, he couldn’t survive losing Ryaana as well.

  He felt the Sha tremble inside of his body and then obey. He could feel his body stop deteriorating, and then the Sha all around him filled him. Something was happening with the Sha state, but he didn’t have the time to think on what that was. His ability allowed him to think faster, but Aranis was preparing to attack his daughter, and he was across the room. He needed to be there, and somehow the Sha knew that. Adrian saw the stifling effect all around them that made it hard for him to bend space, but it didn’t prevent it. Aranis had done it, and now Adrian could see how to do it himself.

  He pushed his will to the maximum, and the space around him bent. He appeared just next to the Enlightened, and before he could react Adrian had placed his hands on Aranis’s head, more to steady himself than because he needed to, and then he slammed all of his will, his mind, into that of the Enlightened.

  He smashed through Aranis’s defenses and entered into his mind construct. Adrian’s avatar appeared inside space, standing on a massive plate that was floating in the void. To his left loomed a planet, a jewel unlike any that he had ever seen before, reminding him of Earth.

  Across from him stood Aranis, his form hunched over, as if in pain. Adrian’s invasion of his mind had hurt him.

  “You think that this will help you?” Aranis asked. “I don’t know how you survived what I’ve done to you, how you bent space when you don’t understand what the Conduit is. But you came to my mind, where I am the stronger. You cannot think that you will win here.”

  Adrian walked forward. His body might be injured, but his mind was whole. The Sha state inside of him trembled, making him feel stronger than he ever had.

  Aranis straightened and gestured with his hand. A beam of pure starlight flew toward Adrian, but he leveraged his mind and it bent aside. Aranis grimaced but did so again, and again, and while Adrian was powerful, Aranis was right. He had come into Aranis’s mind, and already he could feel Aranis’s attack growing stronger while he grew weaker.

  “Aranis,” Adrian started, and to his surprise, the Enlightened paused his attacks. “I have always wanted to push myself, to reach new heights, to overcome challenges. Fighting against you, the Enlightened… I always saw it as the ultimate challenge. But I see now that it isn’t.”

  Adrian pulled on the wall he had built inside his mind, slowly bringing it down. “What you want to do, whether it is right or not, doesn’t matter much to me. I don’t want life to end—I need it to remain. I haven’t really realized just how much I need others, not until I had lost the one closest to me. She alone knew me, and accepted me. If for no other reason than she gave her life to kill one of you, I must stop you, here and now.”

  Aranis opened his mouth to speak, but Adrian wasn’t interested in hearing what he had to say. The last part of the wall he had built to keep his grief out fell, and Adrian felt it all: the pain of loss of the one person that he had loved more than anything, so much so that he hadn’t even realized how painful it could be to lose them. The grief hit him like an exploding star inside of his chest, threatening to overwhelm him, and he felt a wave of it leave him and hit Aranis, staggering him.

  And just like he had learned from his master, Lurker of the Depths, Adrian grabbed hold of it—of his grief, his loss, his pain, his love—and in on
e massive surge of power and will, he smashed it all into the Enlightened.

  A wave of force exploded out of him and into the avatar of Aranis.

  Adrian saw the Enlightened buckle, his mind tremble. The mind space around them cracked as if it was a background of glass, light coming in from the cracks. The Enlightened stepped back, the attack eroding his mind. Adrian felt like his mind was breaking, like it was cracking under the pressure and wear of the fight.

  Aranis screamed, and then his scream turned into a roar, and he lashed out with one powerful attack. It hit Adrian with the force of a rage that had simmered for eons, and he was thrown outside of the Enlightened’s mind.

  In the real world, Adrian felt the attack as if he had been physically struck and he stepped back from the Enlightened even as Aranis did the same. Both of them fell to their knees, their minds screaming at them in protest and pain. Adrian tried to move, to do anything to end it, but his body was worn and injured, and he could barely move.

  Then Aranis slowly, shakily, got back to his feet, and Adrian despaired.

  It hadn’t been enough.

  * * *

  Ryaana felt the aftereffects of the massive attack her father had thrown, and she caught the edges of it herself. She felt his pain, his grief at her mother’s death, and she felt shame for doubting him, for thinking that he had felt nothing for her. The intensity of his feelings, of his pain, brought tears to her eyes, and she had only caught its edge. That love that was there for her to see made her realize just how wrong she had been about her father.

  The attack brought both Aranis and her father to their knees, and she hoped that it was done—only to have that hope crushed a moment later when Aranis stumbled to his feet. He was barely standing; the wound in his side had seemingly stopped healing, but he was standing, and his eyes glared even as tears streamed down his cheeks.

  “Oh, Adrian, I understand the grief, and the pain. I never wanted to be this, to do this. But to protect life, to protect those in the future who would feel as you feel, and live as you’ve lived—for them, we must do this. I don’t want this, but it must be done,” Aranis said, as he raised his arm, preparing to strike her father down.

  Ryaana moved, flying across the room and smashing into the Enlightened. He was so weakened that he couldn’t even bring up a shield, his reactions were too slow, but still he was beyond her. They tumbled on the ground and then he caught her with his telekinesis and threw her away. She twisted in the air and threw a kinetic blast at him. He pulled one wing and shielded himself with it, but still he was thrown to the floor. She followed but her concentration broke and she fell back to the ground.

  She managed to get to her feet just as Aranis did himself.

  “Ryaana, don’t, please. I don’t want to hurt you. You have attained the Sha state; you can survive this. You can be there to guide the ones who are yet to come. We can watch and make sure that none of this happens again, together.” His eyes were pleading with her, and in that moment he reminded her so much of Vas.

  “I can’t do that,” Ryaana said coldly. “You know me. You were my friend—you know that I must stop you.”

  Aranis closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I know,” he said sadly. “You were my friend, too.”

  And then she felt him pull power to him. She was barely able to stand, she had the power in her, thrumming through her, but he was so old, so powerful. If her father couldn’t do it, how could she?

  Still she would try, as she had no other choice. Steeling herself, she charged at him.

  Aranis raised an arm, Sha bending around it. But then Ryaana felt her father reach out to her mind, and she felt him trying to get inside, to touch her power.

  And she let him.

  * * *

  Adrian was barely holding on. His body was on its last legs. He watched as Ryaana fought Aranis, as they spoke, and then as she charged him with no hope of winning. He couldn’t help her, not from here, but then he felt Moirai’s presence there at the edge of his mind, helping to keep him together. She couldn’t interfere much, couldn’t lend him her power, but she had given him an idea.

  Adrian reached out to Ryaana in the same way that he did with Moirai. He didn’t even have the strength to form words, but he touched her mind. Ryaana let him in, and he grabbed hold of her power, of her will. He felt her deep power, the will that was unyielding just like her mother’s, but he saw her lack of training and understanding.

  And so he showed her.

  Guided by him, she shaped the Sha around her hand into an attack of great power, the one that Aranis had used against him. As she moved toward Aranis, he knew that they needed to protect themselves, or the Enlightened would kill them. Doing so would probably warn Aranis of the attack, but that was unavoidable. Then Ryaana took control back, and he was too weak to stop her. She ignored his desire to protect her, and while he sent her impressions, images, emotions, everything he could manage in order to make her return control to him, she ignored it all.

  With no care for defending herself, she struck toward Aranis’s chest, even as his hand was coming down toward her head. Ryaana looked Aranis straight in the eyes, and Adrian felt that she knew she was going to die.

  And then Aranis’s hand stopped just a hair from touching Ryaana, and her palm struck his stomach. The Sha ripped through the Enlightened, and Adrian’s mind slipped out of hers.

  * * *

  Ryaana watched as the attack that her father had shaped, an attack intended to break down the molecular structure of matter, landed on Aranis’s stomach. She looked in disbelief as his body sank in. A hole opened up to the other side, and then the edges of that hole started to spread as his body disintegrated.

  His hand, the one that had stopped just before hitting her and killing her, dropped onto the side of her face. The look in his eyes was one of utter despair. Tears streamed down from them, and while his face was that of Aranis, she saw only Vas.

  “I’m sorry,” Vas said, and she knew that he had stopped on purpose, that he had let her kill him in a moment of doubt.

  Ryaana couldn’t even muster the strength to speak as Vas’s legs gave out and they both tumbled to the ground. She held him close to her chest, sitting on the floor with him in her lap. She used her imp to remove her helmet, and he looked up at her face.

  “I am just…so tired…of trying…to make things right,” he said.

  “I…” Ryaana didn’t know how to respond, what to say to him.

  “I enjoyed our time together. You were…my best friend,” Vas said. “Perhaps even more than Axull Darr once was,” Vas whispered, the hole in his stomach spreading. “What a thing…”

  He tried to speak again, but the hole had spread to his chest and he spat out blood. Ryaana saw her tears falling on his face and she managed to find words. “And you were mine,” she admitted quietly. “I loved you. If only…” she started, but there wasn’t time, and she didn’t know how to put such complex emotions into words. He had tried to do something that she could never forgive, and yet… As Lurker of the Depths had told her, who he was didn’t change the time they had together, the moments. He was her friend, and he was dying.

  She saw him turn his eyes from hers, and she noticed that her father had walked over, holding one hand over his stomach. Vas tried to speak, to say something, but he couldn’t, and she felt his life slipping away.

  He reached out with his mind toward her father.

  * * *

  Adrian was barely able to move, his body barely keeping together. He had managed to get to his daughter and the dying Aranis, who couldn’t bring himself to kill his friend. An Enlightened, a being that was supposed to be a cruel monster, had let himself be killed rather than hurt someone he cared for.

  Adrian looked down on the man, seeing only sadness in his eyes.

  Aranis was trying to speak, but he was unable. Adrian wondered what his last words would be, and then Aranis reached out with his mind. It was feeble, a fading connection, impossible to be me
ant as an attack. Adrian allowed him to make the connection and as he saw how weak Aranis was, that he didn’t have much time, and so he pulled him inside his mind and into his mind space. His mind sped up, pulling Aranis’s with it.

  The two of them appeared inside a massive cavern in the middle of a mountain. Aranis was standing across from him and looked around, confused, but then realization entered his eyes.

  “Your mind space?” Aranis asked.

  “Yes. Your mind is dying, however, and you will not be able to take this for long,” Adrian said. “You shouldn’t waste your last words on trying to convince me that your way is the only way. You have lost. There will be no killing off all life.”

  Aranis looked sad. “I don’t… I don’t know which one of us is right, but it doesn’t matter, not anymore. You don’t understand, Adrian. You were too late. I activated the weapon, and it cannot be stopped.”

  Adrian looked at the Enlightened. “I don’t believe you.”

  “It is the truth. But, Adrian…the weapon was never designed to be fired without guidance. Left unchecked, it will draw all the Sha in the galaxy to it, ripping the dimensional barriers apart and ending the universe.”

  Adrian looked into his eyes, and there he saw the truth. “What? You are trying to prevent that! Why would you build a weapon that could do that in the first place?”

  “It was the only way. To repair the damage, we needed Sha. We spent so many years gathering it, and our Created were designed as batteries of kind. Every life that they took, they took their Sha along with it. This structure was built with all the Sha we have gathered, but in order to repair the dimensional barriers, far more will be required. A galaxy worth of life filled with Sha. I was supposed to drain the Sha from every living thing, and use it to mend the holes. The device is a massive amplifier as well as a vessel for the Sha. It is connected to hundreds of thousands of relays across the galaxy. It was to allow us to cover everything. Now it will drain everything—not just life, but the Sha from the planets, from the stars, until eventually it begins to pull from the Sha that kept the barriers between our dimension and others.”