Enigma: Awakening

by Damien Taylor

  Many soldiers died. Nova vomited twice and almost a third time when a nasracan ripped a man’s head off with brute strength. Piles upon piles of the slain were everywhere in the dark streets. It was nighttime now. Somehow, someway she was still alive and running down the few empty streets there were beyond the dead bodies. She reached the end of an alley where there was nothing to obscure her view across the vast meadow. She froze. She could go no further without the beasts spotting her, but there was no other way home.

  She leaped out, and instantly there was a nasracan in front of her. This one wasn’t hunching like the rest. It stood tall and poised, with the confidence of a leader. Neat horns like hair curved from its head behind it, to the ground, and then curved upward. Its bare chest was terribly muscled like a man’s, and the bottom half was like a man’s also, except smooth like polished black marble with clawed feet. A thick tail was stiff behind it.

  Nova crouched low, a plan quickly forming in her mind. She could have gone left or right, though, either way, she didn’t think she would make it very far. Adrenaline was still pumping through her. When the Abyssian advanced, suddenly it jerked and arched its back. Something sharp sprouted from its chest, and it fell, writhing and dissolving.

  On a building, ten yards ahead was a woman of unnaturally long hair and blue eyes that glowed even in the night. She stared at Nova oddly and then killed a nasracan that came from behind her with a strange weapon. Nova looked down, finding that the nasracan before her had dissolved—a weapon on the ground resembling the very same with which the woman fought. Nova found the woman’s leer again. And then, as if it had been a question, the woman’s accented voice called. “Nova?” Nova gulped and bolted home, sprinting through reed grass, never stopping until she reached her destination.

  She leaned and careened with fatigue when she could finally stop. Her mother and their neighbors rallied outside when they spotted her. Lucia, who was still sickly pale, yet vibrant with energy, gasped with relief and rushed into Nova’s arms. “Momma!”

  “I’m here, darling! I’m so glad you’re safe. I didn’t know what had happened to you.” She squeezed her beloved daughter’s face and kissed it. Annette came beside them, her copper hair swaying in the brisk wind. “We’re all safe at the moment, but what will we do?”

  “We run before they get here!” a man shouted.

  Nova panted. “He’s right. So many have died, Momma. Markus, he...”

  “Shhh... It’s all right, my darling. Where will we go, Gresham?” She asked the mid-aged, stubble-haired fellow of oiled, ebony skin.

  “Into the city, as close to the castle as we can manage. There will be many more soldiers there.” He commanded his sons off to get their horses. “It’s our only chance.”

  “He’s right,” said Annette. “Nova, did you see Russen and Alexander?” Nova shook her head no. Annette’s posture stiffened with angst, warring with tears that came gleaming in her eyes. They were her husband and son. “Wait here, I’ll get us horses,” she said before darting off, clenching her shoe-length dress. Everyone scattered as they prepared to leave. But they returned just as quickly when the fray found them—nasracans and sifters blasting across the meadow.

  “Go!” Gresham and his sons bolted first and then Annette, Lucia, and Nova, and then all the rest. There were thirty people and not all of them with horses. Inevitably, the ones on foot died, nasracans pouncing upon them half way across field. Nova looked back and then shut her eyes, forcing her gaze forward. “Don't turn around, my love,” said Lucia from behind, snapping the reins, spurring the horse into fierce speed. The horseless kept Abyssians at bay, occupying them with quenching feasts. The horror.

  Only twelve of the thirty remained, all of them riders. Annette yelled at Gresham to press on. The bawling man had lost a son along the way. The path before them burned. The bodies strewn across it, filled the air with discomforting silence. There were more soldiers dead here than in the center of the outskirts. Wherever the responsible Abyssians had gone, Nova didn’t know. There was only fire and destruction. The twelve kept going, not finding anyone or anything alive for a mile. All hope was beginning to bleed from their souls. “There it is! The gate!” Gresham belted. An impossibly large hole had ruined it, evidence of a deadly invasion. Screams and beating land resounded. From the burning inner-city proper came a multitude of soldiers and noblemen, all sprinting for their lives. Like a spilling stream, they spread from the opening.

  Nova looked with terror, as did the rest of them. The last drop of hope to survive was gone.

  Roth

  Water sloshed in my ears, soaking the back of my head. I was drifting, fast at first and then slow, until I struck something hard and rigid. I was lying back down in the dark gravel off the bank of the Tucson River. The bridge was a mile in the distance.

  A reverie of a burning Lucreris flashed before me and was gone again in a blink. I stood upright massaging the corner of my head as I clunked through the wet sand making way to the forest high grounds. Back east, the arid air warmed and then simmered.

  The Amethyst glinted simultaneously. It fit perfectly in the center of my palm. I could close my hand naturally, but as for fighting two-handed with a sword, I wasn’t sure it was possible—not that I had a sword to practice. Blast.

  I kept going, stumbling forward until I gained the strength and balance to jog. Two hours whisked by and I had jogged all the way out into Endless, not feeling an inch of fatigue. The sun was going down, evening on the approach. A surge of energy galvanized me, and I broke into a sprint, advancing as fast as I could for two leagues before realizing there hadn’t been a dip in my stamina since the river. My heart beat at a steady pace; my breath relaxed. Astonished, I looked at the orb again. With a grin, I took off even faster, not stopping until Lucreris was on the horizon. The horror struck when I magnified my gaze.

  A thick haze came into my nostrils from the city a half-mile afar. Smoke. The ivory stone of the outskirts was ablaze. When I squinted, everything zoomed closer as if I were but yards away. sifters swarmed like pestilence, riddling the town with carnage. nasracans patrolled the streets. As I hurried, screams blared in a long painful chorus with the feasting screeches of Abyssians. Attacked from the moment of my return, I strayed from harm’s way by the guidance of the Amethyst and disarmed an older nasracan of its iron sword, swiping it headless.

  A sifter soared from the dark sky with glistening claws. A hair’s breadth from its attack, I disappeared and reappeared thirty yards away. Magic. Stop, I said to the stone. I can do this on my own.

  The Amethyst urged me onward. Dashing through dark streets again, I sliced through the foes, never stopping to finish them off, never looking back.

  The marketplace was in a knot of slaughter, filled with the screaming and screeching of the fleeing. I stopped, hoping the path that led to mother’s house would spring to remembrance. My mind leaped. The orb resonated with mild energy, and it felt like I had jumped as I had in the shrine. I caught a vision of Irvina fighting nasracans on the flat roof of an old house near the inner-city wall. A breeze restored my sight to the path before me, and the gazes of pearling black nasracan oculars made me shutter. I’d paused for too long. Before they closed in, I shook them off and ran down the nearest road out of the market.

  I turned down a narrow alleyway. The nasracans were in close pursuit, though more of them rushed me from ahead. Impulsively, I kicked off a wall and leaped high over the throng before they cornered me. Using the walls on either side of me, I bound them, skipping up to the rooftops. I hopped from one house to another, leaping with ease across distances mortally impossible to clear. The nasracans still followed. I ran faster, but their terribly animalistic speed would soon outrun me. Escaping a reaching monster, I jumped three stories and soared toward the night sky—five nasracans thrusting after me.

  As their claws shredded the wind after my flesh, I vanished from thin air leaving them airborne and then reappeared back onto the roof a second later.
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br />   Did I just...

  “Teleport,” said the Amethyst.

  I had no time to stop and take in what had happened. I went on, looking frantically across the city until I spotted Irvina a quarter mile north pulling her chakram from a nasracan’s back. The naiad wore her native warrior garments from our first meeting.

  Just as another sudden Abyssian ambushed her with its iron sword raised, I cut its arms free just in time and kicked it from the rooftop. Irvina turned to me with weapons ready. “Darwin,” she said as she realized I wasn’t an enemy. “I thought—”

  “I know. Where are my mother and sister? Did you find them?”

  Her eyes fell broodingly. “The girl... she ran.” She pointed toward a massive hole in the gate that separated the outskirts and the city proper. I went to the edge of the roof in horror. “What such power could have done this?” said Irvina.

  I glared with immediate rage. A deep roar rumbled across Lucreris. Footsteps of something immense shook the land. Beyond the hole, there was a path created by the destruction of something much more terrible than nasracans or sifters. It led to a large courtyard scattered with fiery debris. Screams echoed. There was a devastating crash. A house across the courtyard burst into the air from a monster that came bursting through it.

  Standing amidst the rubble was a dreadful display. A beast, taller than buildings with red flames dancing on the fur of its hide appeared. Curved horns protruded outward from its ears. Leather wings curled from its massive back. It was large enough to swat a tree from the ground.

  Watching closely, I found Nova running from a narrow street. My heart raced. The hair on my neck and arms stood. I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Nova.”

  She turned to my infuriated call, but another had cried out to her from a smoldering, dark street. It was Mother. She ran to Nova, grasping her in an anxious embrace. “Get out of there before...” The towering monster veered its fire red eyes in their direction. It burst toward them, freeing a long, petrifying roar.

  “Run!” They retreated, but the monster’s giant strides collapsed the distance in seconds. With another roar, it lifted an arm as thick as a log and hammered it down.

  Mother grabbed Nova and pinned her to the ground, a selfless act that saved her daughter from a terrible fate. The black, sword-length claws of the ferocious beast swiped Mother across the air. She tumbled across the ground, stopping on her back, soundless and unmoving. With a lifeless stare, she lay bloody and slain.

  I sank to my knees and dropped the sword, breathing heavily as I leaned on my palms. No! Is this happening? It was surreal. Like I was yet again in a nightmare. I bit hard and hid underneath an arm. This isn’t real.

  “Darwin!” Irvina called. “The girl.” Nova.

  I snapped my head up. Nova was crawling away from the monster. Hold on. The Amethyst flashed and glowed with a brightness that concealed my hand. Irvina came beside me. “Such evil. Darwin, let us be rid of it. We fight. Together.” Suddenly I looked upward as if something had called me. There was a twinkling dot in the violet night. It grew until it revealed itself as an object spinning toward us. Irvina looked up. “What is that?”

  A voice sounded in my head. “The blade, Rahginor. You need only speak its name, and it shall come to your hand. Use it well... for its presence is fading.”

  It was a sword. Piercing into the stone, it leaned within proximity of the building. Courage raged through me. “Irvina, stay here,” I said in a commanding tone. She looked wildly and confused. “I’ll explain later, just trust me.” It was a concept never exchanged between our kinds. She stared quietly, and I returned a look of sincerity. She nodded. And I leaped from the roof, falling and landing with ease down a distance that would’ve sprained an ordinary man’s ankles if it did not split them.

  Briskly, I walked to the sword. It was a broadsword, nearly all gold and two swords in length with a long two-handed handle. Symbols lined the length of the blade, and the hilt was a compound of silver and dark gold. I extracted it from the stone. As I held it, I saw a vision of the Arkangel Airius clad in gold armor holding his sword—the same sword.

  Might and spirit emanated from it as if it had been a living, breathing entity. I twirled it overhead and swung it through the air. It was lighter than it looked, surprisingly manageable with one hand but better with two. As I went to grip it with both hands, the Amethyst flatted in my palm and stretched easily as flesh, enabling me to hold it comfortably. The blade whistled with refined resonance when I swiped downward, like the chime of flawless crystal.

  A roar brought my attention back to the monster. I ran before Nova and faced the towering beast with a mass of confidence and quiet fury. It glowered at me, bellowed, and then bounced with laughter. “What’s this?” it said. Its tongue was profound and guttural, twisted, and a cacophony of bewitched voices. A chill ran down my spine, but I kept eyes on it.

  “You dare to challenge me, human?”

  “Nova, you have to go—now. The woman on the rooftop there, go to her. She’ll keep you safe.” She wept hysterically.

  “Brother?” she barely got out.

  “Go.”

  “I... I won’t leave you.”

  “Get out of here,” I yelled. She did as I asked, running not for the building but toward our mother, dragging her somewhere secure from an impending battle. I called to the monster.

  The blazing Abyssian turned to me, laughing again. “We are called Roth, you inferior being. We are necrein.”

  I took a deep breath. A necrein. This was a problem. “What fool unleashed you upon this land, beast?”

  More laughter. “There are traitors amongst your kind, human. It was a man who summoned us here.” I gritted my teeth and squeezed Rahginor’s handle. “Enough talk. Your soul gleams like a polished jewel. We want it!” A torrent of flames appeared out of thin air, forming into a long and curved sword in the Abyssian’s hand. Swiftly, the necrein, Roth, came and hammered it down, the blade’s edge trailing with rippling flames. I brandished Rahginor high, clashing with the burst of heat. “Your courage is impressive, mortal,” said Roth. “But it is futile. We will devour you.”

  “Like you said, enough talk.” Vaulting into the air, I claimed Rahginor from the hold of the necrein’s fire blade. Roth came swinging. Vanishing free from a line of whipping flames, I appeared again at the monster’s backside. A quick slash to its spine forced it to turn wildly. Teleporting countless times around the towering creature, I pierced cleanly into its flesh. It howled in pain.

  When Roth charged, I evaded with more teleporting, rendering the sharp blaze a failure. Repelling its onslaught, I forced the monster to stagger. My anger nourished the Amethyst's power, and I brandished the blade Rahginor through the wind like a knife, pouring my wrath into unyielding retribution.

  I teleported above the necrein and hammered against his stainless fire-blade. “Your magic tricks serve you well, but we will not be defeated by the likes of a mortal,” it uttered. Lucreris trembled. Flames engulfed our arena. Coughing, soot-covered men came plodding from the streets into the courtyard, pointing and gesturing at the battle transpiring.

  Rahginor was unfathomably light in my orbed hand. Roth struck me with its claws, and I defended before returning a blow in kind. As its claw came swiping overhead, I ducked and charged. Rahginor trailed the ground spitting sparks from its tip until I jumped into assault. I swung across Roth’s abdomen, cutting deep.

  The fire sword dropped from the necrein’s hand, splashing upon the ground in flames, vanishing into wafting ash and black salt. Plagued by the salt-leaking wound across its muscles, Roth sunk to its knees. But when I let my guard down, it attacked, swinging an arm abruptly with a backhand that swatted me afar.

  Like a small stone, I soared across the courtyard, crashing into the rubble of a house in shambles. It should’ve killed me.

  I rose unscathed, unlike any mortal after such a blow. Stepping through the destruction, the screeches of animals let off in the sky. A cloud o
f darkness darted, one that unveiled itself as a cluster of bats. In their center was a red and black creature with dark wings and a whip-thin arrowhead tail. Its skin was rigid and plated like armor; its head vaguely V shaped. Not another necrein.

  Fast as a hurled spear it came to the ground fifty feet behind me. This one was nine feet tall with symbols carved into its sleek build.

  I staggered from the rumble of a stampede. When I looked forward, Roth was rushing toward me at full speed with his claws ready and mouth wide. Behind me, the black-winged demon shrieked as it leaped into flight, darting for me like a riled dragonfly. Blast. Both were closing in fast, coming from either direction. They reached me at the same time, and upon attack, I teleported to my escape in the middle of the open courtyard and fell. My sight landed on a building to my left where at first, I thought I saw the blackened silhouette of a man standing at the edge of the rooftop—a cloaked, hooded figure in armor. Huh? I blinked, and the figure was gone.

  The monsters collided. The newest contender mauled into Roth’s chest, drawing Black Salt from the necrein's flesh. It was fleeter and mightier, efficiently maneuvering around Roth who struggled through waning strength. The second beast seized the necrein by the neck, dangling it from its gauntlets like a weightless child. The black armor-faced beast then turned its head toward me and rasped in an unnatural whisper.

  “Darwin.”

  Huh?

  Breaking free of the chokehold, Roth knocked the second monster’s claws away, bashed it with its horn and slammed it to the ground, summoning its fire blade again. Another bout of might ignited between the two. Their battle revolved across the courtyard, and the people watched and shrieked. The beasts’ roars were ear-splitting.