by Marc Mulero
A loud scream soaring by made him flinch. Then another to his right. He tripped, rolled and watched. Crescent bodies flew by him like they were being mauled by a vicious beast. One after another, they were freed from the cloudy prison thanks to the mysterious man.
“Have to… get…” he crawled elbow over elbow, seeing less darkness after every inch, “out.” Finally, the air was clearing, allowing him back to his feet, stumbling to find the clunk of armor also struggling to stand.
“Melissa.” He plodded to her side, and then lifted his eyes to see Orin emerge from the smoke behind them.
“Nothing is what it seems,” Orin’s deep voice sounded. “Asura is the source of this betrayal, but there are other elements at play. Factors that we do not yet understand. Try to keep these reinforcements alive while I track her down.” He stared mercilessly into Biljin’s eyes before fleeing the scene.
Eugene crashed the butt of his rifle into Sabin’s jaw before he had a chance to react. This sniper was numb to treachery, numb to the heinous acts he’d just committed. Foreign expressions contorted his face like a drug attic suffering withdrawal. Blood red lines coated his irises and spilled into the whites of his eyes… all the while he patted Sabin down harshly, looking for something useful to take before grunting and ripping his metallic glove off of a limp hand.
“You still feel the sting of that dagger, don’t you, Eugene? It doesn’t matter how much time passes, does it?” a mysterious voice spoke through his mind.
The sniper then swung Sabin’s String Blade underhand with immense strength, sticking it firmly into the bottom of the roof’s ledge.
“I did promise that you would become a ‘message’ at some interval of time. Now, here you stand. Your body a vessel that no longer belongs to you. Sit back and enjoy the ride, and watch this message play out…”
With wire in hand, Eugene hopped the ledge and kicked down the Senation mansion to the furious battle below, avoiding the windows occupied by Sin snipers. He descended until the line tightened, at which point he was left enough distance to allow him a harmless fall.
“The dagger that I impaled you with, I’m guessing you didn’t realize what it was coated in before it penetrated your body. That weapon bled the geyser’s crimson, which now forever flows through you. Now, I, flow through you.”
The sniper freed himself from Sabin’s glove and dropped to a mass of Aura members awaiting his arrival. He adjusted his posture awkwardly, passing a crazed stare to the goddess upon their reunion.
“Jason, what have you done?” Eugene shouted, a consciousness trapped within his own body. He wanted to run, break free from wherever “this” was… harnessed and struggling like a mental asylum’s worst patient.
“I’ve taken over.”
“You’ve done well in my absence, Asura,” Jason said, inspecting his new hands curiously.
The scarlet goddess smiled softly. “Apologies that it took so long. I had to be sure his wound still contained the geyser’s vitality.”
“She played me this entire time.” Eugene sighed in a state of paralysis, peering through his own eyes with no control. “I should’ve known better.”
What took place just moments prior replayed in the sniper’s mind’s eye, serving to haunt him. “Lito…”
“It feels good to inhabit a body once more,” Jason boasted, watching the Aura combatants defend their position around him. “Thank you for carrying my consciousness, Asura. It’s endlessly satisfying, after all, to live out what my mind has already perceived,” he said, flexing his forearms. “Has Mulderan agreed to our terms?”
“He has. I paid him a few visits while he was captive here in Senation. He will permit us to evolve freely and harmoniously in exchange for uninhibited access to Auront for research. As you can foresee, it doesn’t matter. We will be beyond his control soon enough.”
A devilish laugh erupted from Nemura, who advanced closer to the gods and pushed back his hood to show his face. “Now that’s why I joined this group. We have the edge of connection.”
“It will only grow from here,” Jason said. “I have envisioned greatness and experienced it in my bodiless state. We are all one.”
Bullets whizzed past Nemura’s head, causing him to duck. “Uh, I think we’ve worn out our welcome here.”
“We got what we came here for.” Asura held her arms high to rein in the vaporous protective barrier. “Retreat to base. Go.”
The smoke funneled back to engulf them, to shroud their existence and offer them safe passage to trek back to their jets, to make their way home to Auront.
“All teams! Retrea-”
For a second, Lesh thought the electric netting had fried her brain. She stopped in her tracks, convinced that she was hallucinating – the Grim Reaper was charging straight for her.
Even if you are death… we’re going to fight this one out.
She reached for two knives and twirled them into ready position, one foot sliding back to brace for impact. There were no skips in her vision, no feeling of haziness, which meant only one thing…
I’m not crazy… this person is real, but whose side is he on?
Valor flipped his spear to the blunt end, also recognizing that the fearsome woman could be an ally. He was nearly parallel with the ground in his wayward sprint, legs ablaze with Cryos to propel him faster. The Neraphis then leapt into a momentous flip, straightening into a horizontal twirl in position to dropkick the assassin.
Lesh responded in-kind, leaning backward to the point where her knife ring nearly scraped the floor. Her leg strength was awe-inspiring, but in vain, for Valor hadn’t flown overhead as expected. With the bang of her elbow on solid ground, she shot herself back up, stopping an inch away from an ethereal blue disc lingering in thin air. She watched in disbelief to see the trail of energy that proved Valor had used it as platform from which to kick off.
The element of surprise was his. A tumble onto the ground and a forward dive got him into position behind the assassin, and to certain victory. He held his lance sideways, stretching it across her neck to crush her windpipe. For but a second, the harsh grip was loosened to grab hold of her bright arm. He lifted it to uncover a Cryos glow beneath her sleeve and immediately kicked her away before her backward swing could impale him.
“Same side, same side!” he shouted through the fabric that obscured his face.
The plea fell upon deaf ears, as Lesh was already mid-dash in retaliation.
“There’s no time for this, woma-” Valor was cut short by the burst of slashes with which he could hardly keep up.
She swung high with one knife and low with the other, swiping like an uncaged panther.
The Neraphis lifted his lance to parry both strikes in one fluid motion, just barely preventing her from drawing blood. Clang. She slashed forward harshly. Clang. Again. Each strike driving him another step back until, finally, Lesh windmilled her blades all the way to the ground like a Shaolin master - her hands slapped the floor before she flipped into a two-legged kick that straddled either side of Valor’s spear and sent him airborne.
Disoriented and shocked, he scraped the ground with his feet to a stop, shaking off the blow. He watched the unique assassin fall onto one hand and flip upright in the same motion.
“You’re more impressive than Blague,” Valor laughed.
Lesh heard him and ceased her advance. “What did you just say?”
“Are all of the Sins this well trained?” he wondered.
Lesh pushed him, attempting to steal his focus.
“We’re on the same side, and you’re going the wrong way,” Valor said, facing her with his hooded cowl. “I’m with Blague. So, let’s go save your friends, demon-woman.” He resumed his forge ahead to the original target.
The two unlikely allies hastened atop the eastern cliff, weaving around jagged bolts spawned from the electrical netting, hissing and buzzing whispering all around them. The voltage was cranked like they were in some mad scientist’s lair. No matte
r though. They blew past unscathed and into balloons of smoke spawning from the inferno on the flatlands below. Finally, the castle far ahead was now clear – tucked in between two rows of cascading mountains. But if they were ever to make it there, they first had to tend to the bridge housing enemy fire.
Valor’s charge erupted into a soaring leap that ended with the point of his lance skewering flesh. He retracted his thrust, leaving a splatter of blood and one less marksman to wreak havoc on the masses below. His actions alerted a nearby Hiezer who turned his weapon, but the leg the enemy had been kneeling on suddenly went numb. Blood leaked from an artery cleaved by two knives, and then a third caught him between the eyes to make his world go dark.
The Neraphis passed a quick look of approval to the assassin while summoning Cryos to imbue his own weapon. Lesh looked back as she shook her knives free to the sound of cracking bone.
Bellowing to announce his next strike, Valor fanned his weapon out of his grasp like he’d propelled helicopter blades ahead of him before bursting into a blur. Three Hiezer guards were decapitated in the lance’s path, which was stopped mid-air where the Neraphis caught up to catch it.
The assassin refused to acknowledge the outlandish display, knowing that the Hiezer threat was still at large. Instead, she worked to provide backup for the blood-drunk ally who would’ve likely been shot down if not for the sting of her blades.
“You’re a reckless fighter,” Lesh commented, sheathing a recovered knife into her ring.
“Perhaps because I recognize the skill of my ranged support,” Valor responded.
“Ugh. You remind me of another idiot that I know.” She brushed past him, readying to meet their next challenge.
Valor reveled in her words silently, likely grinning under his hood.
Jayce observed the cliffs and the remaining enemy snipers that still had life atop them. “Ten, twelve,” he spun, “eighteen to go.” He scoffed and waved down his Volt soldiers. “Disengage!”
Watching the electrical netting spring back may as well have been a green light to do what he did best – become the pyro. With his flammable harpoon, he shot and ignited one fish line at a time. “I’ll burn your cities down until my daughter is in my arms again. All of you will burn!” Appearing like a circus ringleader putting on a fiery show, he laughed, loud and far. Before long, the entire western cliff was set aflame, leaving that much less ammo to be unloaded unto his people.
These small victories didn’t overcome the devastation, though.
Coe climbed over a mountain of bodies, fighting his way toward Vleece, who was brought to her knees by an explosion of shrapnel. He shouldered his way forward, past green capes and around Sin marks, only to meet an elite Hiezer who was blocking his path face to face. The enemy jabbed his rifle, but Coe jumped into the swing to stop the momentum and absorb the blow. Ribs felt like they’d been stung by a jellyfish. He ignored the pain however. A wince was all that was shown as he kicked at the elite’s shin to distract him. Crack. He heard a bone snap, watched a leg bend invertedly, unnaturally, and used the suddenness of it all to reach for the Hiezer’s skintight mask with his voltaic hand. Fingers flexed, and just like that, the duel was done. A rushing flow of electricity burst the Hiezer’s head into a thousand bloodied pieces.
He swung grime off of his hand, shoved the headless body down to add to the pile and rustled onward, finally reaching his friend. His flesh arm then wrapped around her body to drag her back.
“We aren’t going to win this one,” Coe spoke into Vleece’s ear. “It’s time to call it.”
“The Sins fought valiantly,” she said, noting the endless corpses of the militia. “We should consider ourselves blessed to fight alongside such passionate warriors.”
With a hardened look, Coe gazed at the mix of fallen brethren. “Fall out!” he shouted, pulling Vleece to safety. “Fall out!”
Blague handed Volaina off to a medic and turned back to the sound of large machinery fastening in the distance. What appeared to be giant, thin pillars decorating the castle beyond began to bend like slowly falling trees. Once the hollow black mouth of each pillar showed itself, it became clear that they were anything but decorative.
Thin cannons that were mere columns a moment before transformed the fortress… less regal, fiercer, like a warship in a bottle. They lowered into firing position, mechanical sounds thundering far once all gears locked into place.
Pressure ramped up – Blague rummaged faster to find a transistor, scouring the floors, belts of deceased Sins, anything. He dropped quickly to the floor and scraped his hand under a dogpile of upside-down faces, grating his skin on the ground, under deadweight, until he finally snatched one from a lifeless soldier’s belt.
“This is Blague. All units retreat immediately. That’s a direct order,” he shouted, peering ahead to see the cylinders firing up and the black mouths turn to hot orange.
The Hiezers wouldn’t launch a weapon of that magnitude unless their numbers were dwindling. This battle isn’t lost - it’s tied. Mulderan won’t send any more reinforcements to defend this Dome, though. Disarming those cannons will award us another base, if we make it out of this.
Senation Sins and Templos Rogues withdrew with haste. All but a few crossed into the tunnel without wounds, burns, and blood staining their skin, but their fates were better than those who ignored the order of retreat. The rest had disintegrated on the spot from the first cannon’s blast.
Blague stayed by the door, shouting and pushing wounded soldiers across the threshold of protection. He watched Coe valiantly drag Vleece to safety, and then noticed Jayce follow closely behind, surrounded by Volt soldiers. As another cannon explosion shook the ground and sent shattered rocks soaring past, Blague shielded his face before shouting, “Move! Move!”
Lesh and Valor were in the worst position, far ahead on the connecting bridge looming over the battlefield. The Neraphis thought they were doing a service, clearing the bombers, the snipers, successfully too. But one look back showed a sea of bodies receding like the tide, and turning ahead again marked their doom. What’s worse, they may as well have had a target on their back in the form of the Neraphis’ shining blue lance sticking out amid fire and smoke. A cannon operator noticed. Sounds of clicking and churning carried for a mile in the Dome, and all of a sudden that stampede of forfeiting rebels rushing back to the tunnel made it look like two sacrificial runts were left behind, abandoned for the predator.
“Rise up, slayer!” Valor called.
Finally locked in place, the cannon’s cylinders ceased gyrating and its mouth ignited, bouncing in place with a visible shockwave funneling from its base. Out came the missile, propelled like a Roman candle, tailed flame following the projectile all the way to the bridge.
There was nothing else to do but take a deep breath. Quiet before the storm, just the whistle of an inbound shell. Coming closer, shrilling harder, like a timer that was almost up. An intermission to reflect for the assassin, who had taken so many lives. Now, in the end, left fittingly alone with this dark death figure. A brief moment of vulnerability.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Valor rise. What was this? He didn’t come back down… how? The mortar was now on the latter edge of its trajectory. No more time left to think. She just leapt to follow, airborne, grasping at an ethereal plane that surely should not have existed.
“Higher!” Valor shouted under him, flipping to the next vaporous step.
Lesh’s arm began to sting, clasping to nothing but air. Apprehensive, she looked to the disc and then up to Valor who was still ascending.
Three seconds left before incineration. There was no time to have a revelation at this point. She had to accept the madness for what it was and do what the shadowed man had asked of her. Two seconds. In a mad rush of adrenaline, she swung up like a cat and pounced higher, flipping faster onto the next lingering platform. One second left. She did what she was told, rising higher with the help of her newfound ally, soaring from the f
ifth plane to create a forty-foot gap between her and the ground below.
The mortar’s shell touched down, collapsing the bridge on impact and shooting pinwheels of fire at their feet. In the peak of her flight, she glanced down to see Valor engulfed in flames just before her inevitable descent.
Fire from the explosion evaporated, revealing Valor’s cloak immersed in a fiery blaze before the wind of his drop blew it out. His wilted body was suddenly flailing, consciousness regained just in time, for the landing would’ve been fatal. He drew a wide circle with his finger and through some quantum summon that Lesh would never understand, conjured a platform to break his fall. It worked. Crashing through a Cryos bed led to a subdued touchdown onto the bridge of ruin. Phew. Instead of not breathing, he was grounded and groaning. A better fate.
Lesh rebalanced once falling through as if she were surfing and soon after landed on her feet.
That’s when Valor lifted his head with dread, witnessing another shell project from the cannon. The assassin tensed her jaw, grabbing at her ally’s arm to remove him from harm’s way.
“A warrior’s death. What else could we have asked for, brother?” Valor croaked.
“Fucking move!” She lurched to drag the dead weight, but the shell was arching overhead, coming in fast. There was no way they would escape this time. It was over.
Three more tugs before she let out an anguished exhale and dropped Valor’s arm. Defeat. Acceptance of her fate. All she could do now was stare ahead, watching as if a shooting star had direct coordinates to her location. Eyes finally closed as it came. An explosion so loud that eardrums felt as though they burst immediately. Then nothingness.
The battlefield suddenly sounded far away, muffled… but she could still hear.
What the hell is going on?
Lesh clenched her fist in disbelief, still trying to comprehend what was happening.