“So much for the Project’s secrecy though, now the world will know all about us,” she replied, as they rushed forward.
She pondered how she’d ever even begin to explain what had occurred on this day, when the questions would inevitably surface once she returned to school.
My past life really is over, she realised, and now she would have to accept a role within the organisation as one of its soldiers.
“It is of little consequence. We still have to quell of this attack on the city before it escalates. Our secrecy is of little importance at this juncture,” Monica asserted, as they advanced. “Besides, few would have witnessed the existence of these Corrupted, and will deem this to be another natural disaster. And then there is the Senator; she’ll resolve of any potential issues we might face with the public.”
How is the Senator going to be of any help? She wondered. Is she also in some way involved with this organisation?
She wanted to think on it further, but quickly recognized pondering would have to wait; for she felt a sudden tremor, and heard the deep booming roar of yet another earthen Corrupted.
“These things are relentless. How many more could there possibly be?!”
The corrupted pounced down from a nearby rooftop, and readied to attack.
“These are mere underlings of a more powerful Corrupted,” Monica huffed, reaching for a plasma grenade. “If you still intend to leave the organisation, and are still under the misapprehension that you’ll be fine with what little you’ve learned… then you will die. And I’ll be damned before I let that happen.”
How does she know what I’ve been thinking? Katherine wondered with dismay. She glanced down at Anzu. Did he tell her? Has he betrayed me again?
Her suspicions were only amplified when she dwelled on it, for the gryphon was the only other with access to her mind. At least, that’s what she’d come to understand.
There is little doubt, she decided, thinking back to what he’d told her earlier. For he’d said there was too much at stake, whatever that meant.
But he’d already chosen his side, she thought, so why would he have any problem with betraying my trust again?
Chapter 17
Darkness had finally descended upon Anabasis. There was a cool wind wafting through the air, and a full moon illuminated many fallen earthen bodies from high above. From the early hours of the afternoon up till sunset, Blake and Kulullu had dispatched a countless horde of these golem Corrupted, scattering their remains about both footpath and roadway.
“Their numbers appear to have dwindled. We haven’t come across another for a while now,” said Blake, looking to his guardian who lingered fresh and reserved despite the carnage she’d inflicted throughout the day. “But I sense we’ve yet to find their leader.”
“You don’t think that this ‘leader’ might lie amongst what’s left of this rabble?” Kulullu questioned.
“No, there is someone else present,” he replied. “I can feel the faint signal of another’s energy.”
Then, stepping into the light, they spotted the weary and frail figure of the Anabasis police chief. He slowly hobbled toward them, clutching his face and mumbling to himself.
“How many more of my earthen brethren must I bare to lose,” the police chief muttered, shards of rock falling from his face.
Blake frowned at him as he drew nearer. “Who would have thought it…, It’s not exactly surprising that it’d be you now when think of it. I had often wondered about you: an old man who’d always been such a nuisance and who actively interfered with all our endeavours…, and now it all makes sense.”
“I shall no longer remain idle,” the old police chief cursed, the façade of his fleshy complexion replaced with that of coarse stone. “Now that you know the truth, do you not fear me child?”
“Who me? Be afraid of you?” Blake responded. “Don’t flatter yourself. Have you not seen what I’ve done to all your friends?”
The police chief shed of his cloak. “I’ve seen enough.”
Blake looked on as the police chief’s torso bulged, jagged scales of rock thereafter erupted from beneath his wrinkled skin. With bearing witness to the demise of so many earthen Corrupted, and now to be laughed at by a mere child, Blake could see the police chief’s frustration surface and his transformation begin. He no longer stood so feeble and weak. The Corrupted now towered over him as a living and breathing monolith; a muscular and grotesque golem with a rock hard exterior of sand and stone.
“May you writhe in agony whilst I crush the life out of each and every limb,” the Corrupted cried, scampering forward at a deceptive pace, seeking to strike with gargantuan fists.
With Kulullu at Blake’s side and armed, she launched a spear of ice directly toward the belligerent behemoth. But the Corrupted proved more than equal to the task. Where many of his brethren had keeled over in an instant, in face of their power, this Corrupted shaped his arm into a shield of solid rock and warded off her attack.
“You will need to do better than that to best me,” the Corrupted snapped. “We who are one with the earth stand resilient in face of even the harshest elements.”
“You talk too much.”
Kulullu charged at the Corrupted while wielding a newly constructed spear of ice. She thrust at the Corrupted, and repelled his retaliatory advances. But the Corrupted slammed his deformed foot with such immense power that the earth trembled, knocking Kulullu from her webbed feet.
Groaning, having fallen heavily on his knees, Blake clambered to his feet. “I tire of this tactic. Let’s see how you like it...”
He retrieved a plasma grenade from his belt and scuttled toward the Corrupted’s feet. The corrupted raised his foot, ready to stomp it down and crush him to a pulp. Only, Blake slid underneath and caught the golem off balance. Having released the grenade, it exploded, and the Corrupted crashed against the pavement with a resounding thud.
“So…you are not entirely dependent on your guardian after all,” said the Corrupted, seemingly impressed. “But I still suspect you’d offer little real resistance; that is if you were to fight your own battles without the aid of a guardian.”
Blake retrieved a new plasma grenade from his belt and looked back at the Corrupted with a wry smile. “You know what, just this once I will humour you.”
Once Kulullu had stepped aside, the Corrupted roared at him through gnashing teeth. “You arrogant little fool.”
The corrupted sprinted toward Blake with a flurry of punches. But much to this creature’s noticeable astonishment, Blake had proved adept at dodging his assault and even succeeded in catching the golem off guard. Through using his mind, he had forced the golem to stumble backward. Blake moved in to deliver this earthen Corrupted a fatal blow. Boom! The grenade had detonated, Blake having pitched it directly against the golem’s chest.
Silence soon followed. Blake intently peered through the cloud of dust and shrapnel. There’s little chance the plasma grenade possessed enough firepower to annihilate a corrupted of that size and girth, he believed, but where is he? I can no longer sense his presence.
“Show yourself; there’s little point in hiding. I know that was nowhere near enough to finish you off.”
Deep bellowing laughter ensued. It emanated from beneath the concrete. “Not bad kid. “But you alone are no match for my brute strength.”
“Then why are you hiding from me?” Blake shouted. “Don’t tell me an earthen golem, crafted from solid rock, can be so easily scared by someone made of skin and bone? I thought this notion was impossible. But then again, we saw many a terrified expression on the faces of your kindred. That is, before we decided to put them back in the ground.”
“You little brat,” the corrupted wailed, bursting up through the pavement behind Blake and pressing forward with his shoulder raised.
“Laughable…,” Blake sighed, as Kulullu had swiftly intervened.
Before the Corrupted had even reached Blake, to reduce him to a bloody mess, the water s
pirt had pierced its rock hard chest with a javelin of ice and ploughed directly through its harsh inner shell.
The Corrupted creaked and gurgled, grasping about the hole in his chest. “It seems I was right…At least I will retain my pride. There is no shame in being defeated by one of my own; it isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last.”
“I think that you’re mistaken friend,” said Blake. “This is the last time.”
In a moment of desperation, the Corrupted stumbled forward and dived toward them with his body outstretched. But any risk this Corrupted might still possess was quickly nullified; for Kulullu immediately countered, blasting the fiend with a powerful spurt of water. The pressure of Kulullu’s attack relentlessly hammered against what remained of this Corrupted’s stone body, a force which only escalated when Blake fused his own element with that of the stream. The water, solidifying into a sheet of ice, slashed cleanly through the Corrupted’s solid waistline, splitting the golem in two. What little remained of this creature’s body, collapsed in a pile of rubble against the pavement.
“You may think that humankind is weak, and that might very well be true,” said Blake, as he looked down on the shattered Corrupted’s body. “But with Kulullu, our combined strength is more than enough to handle one of your ilk, and one day it may even rival that of Thoth himself.”
The Corrupted spat at him. Half his body had sunken beneath the concrete. “Blasphemy! You are yet so young and naïve to think in such a way.”
“So, this is the Corrupted we’ve been searching for,” said Monica abruptly, arriving on the scene accompanied by both Katherine and Anzu. “Has anything been learned of whom he serves?”
“Clever girl, you are quite correct in your assumption that my actions were in service to another’s cause,” the Corrupted responded, before he diverted his gaze to Blake and Kulullu. “Together…, you are indeed powerful. I was foolish to believe I could defeat you alone. However, this was nothing more than a diversion, and I’ve served my purpose. By now, his Reaper has had ample time to feed, and will have grown even stronger.”
Blake scuffed his shoe on what remained of the golem’s chest. “You sure do prattle on a lot for one who’s been torn in two. This Reaper you speak of, you mean to say the winged Corrupted?”
“Yes, he is one of Lord Namtar’s own,” the earthen Corrupted coldly replied.
They all fell silent. Even Blake felt his sense of dominance wane upon the utterance of the wraith’s true name.
“Even if you were to defeat his Reapers; the day would soon follow where you’d face lord Namtar himself. I can only hope to bear witness of his most glorious return to the surface world. You shall then learn how your strength pales in comparison to that of a god…”
The golem’s body became fully submerged beneath the thick cement of the pavement, all remnants of his body vanished from sight. With the Corrupted’s final words replaying over and over again through Blake’s mind, he wondered when this Namtar would appear, and whether his years of training had readied him to face such a threat.
“Anzu, wait…,” he heard Katherine cry out, for the gryphon had trudged back along the street with his head hung low.
Perhaps he now sees the folly of his mistake, Blake thought as he watched Anzu walk off. After all, and as I had suspected, it is evident that his new master might not be up to the task.
He didn’t blame him for feeling that way, and not only because of his dislike for Katherine. He knew too well the pressure which came with being an Indigo, and that this power was not something to be envied. Every day he sensed himself lose a little more of his vitality, his spirit drained by the immense demand of his celestial bond. Kulullu had also paid a hefty price by losing her immortality; her life force bound to his own. But he too had come to understand what he’d sacrificed. Such was the price to vast quantities of power.
“He spoke of all this being a distraction…,” said Monica, as she spoke into her wrist communicator.
“That’s because we’ve just learned there was another attack,” Walter replied, his voice coming through the speaker so loud that all could hear. “It pains me to say it, but the Corrupted have played us for fools.”
“Walter, what exactly has happened?” Blake questioned, his anger rising at the notion they’d been toyed with.
“There was an attack on a party of students in the Anabasis suburbs,” Walter replied. “And that is where we are to next mobilize. You are all to head back for the city outskirts; I have Lance already on his way to pick you up.”
“What party?” Blake heard Katherine ask.
Ignoring her question, Monica ran off in pursuit of Anzu. “We need to hurry back.”
“Monica this party, at what address was it?” Katherine questioned distraught, running at her side.
“Sixty six Phocis Avenue,” Monica finally replied, as they hustled past a series of crumbling buildings.
Blake glanced over to Katherine, the girl looked deathly afraid. She was sniffling. Her bottom lip had started quivering, and her eyes were wide as if she’d seen a ghost. At first he thought this fear was only bearing on what had recently transpired, but he then remembered what he’d seen at school on so many posters about an upcoming party.
That address…, he realised, it must be one in the same.
“Do we know if anyone is hurt?”
“There is no time,” said Monica. “We must keep moving.”
Blake soon spotted one of the organisation’s utility’s hurtling toward them. The utility pulled up alongside the curb. It had anticipated their arrival. He saw Lance jump out from the driver’s side and dash behind the vehicle to open its back hatch. Once Blake had reached the vehicle, he darted for the back and leapt up inside with Kulullu following closely behind.
“What are we to make of this?” His guardian asked him.
“It’s difficult to say,” he replied. “Hopefully we’ll get an idea once we arrive.”
When everyone was aboard, he felt the vehicle jolt forward and start to accelerate. As the vehicle raced along the damaged roadways and out toward the suburbs, his thoughts fixated on what the Corrupted had said. Although he was too proud to admit it, the golem Corrupted had put up a good fight, and he’d exhausted a significant amount of energy in bringing him down. What also bothered him was how this earthen golem had implied there were other Corrupted much stronger than himself, and this had only made him begin to question his own strength. He’d often believed that Walter pressuring him to grow more powerful was simply his way of ensuring that the pair didn’t become complacent. But now he wasn’t so sure if that had been the case.
He glanced about the vehicle’s interior. They’d exchanged few words had been exchanged since they’d departed. He felt there was an unsettled ambience inside. His colleagues looked both tired and uneasy. But it didn’t take long for someone to break the silence. It was a typical of Katherine to make sure of that.
“Monica, I need to know if they’re all okay,” Katherine whimpered. “Is it possible that others have already arrived and can tell us the situation?”
“And what good would that do? We still can’t do anything until we get there,” he responded.
“I’m sorry Katherine; we don’t yet know what we’re dealing with. I really wish I could tell you more than that,” Monica said solemnly.
“Monica, about earlier…you suspected I’d thought of making a run for it, to escape the organisation. Why didn’t you believe me when I first agreed to be a part of this?” Katherine questioned. “What gave me away? Did Anzu tell you? Or could you also read my mind? Why even bring me along?”
Blake grunted. He was sick of hearing her pout and question everything to the minutest of detail. “If you insist upon asking so many questions, seeming it’s the only thing in which you show any competence, might I suggest you ask just one question at a time? Although, in all honesty Monica, I must admit to being curious as to why you thought it a good idea to bring her along?”
> He apprehensively awaited Monica’s response; for her head was bowed and she had donned a familiar expression of quiet contemplation. It quickly became apparent to him that his instructor had heard enough, and her patience had finally waned.
“First, I’m not exactly a mind reader,” she started. “But I have become fairly adept over the years at reading a person’s body language; to know when someone is being sincere, or when someone is hiding something. Second, Anzu didn’t tell me anything, so don’t look to him as a scapegoat.”
Third,” she continued, briefly glancing back at Blake, “I brought you along for the experience Katherine, which you most desperately need. I believe it is the best way for you to learn, particularly since you are without a doubt your mother’s daughter. I can be sympathetic for only so long, regardless of the circumstances. I know that you didn’t sign up for this. I imagine you wish to wake up and for this all to have been another crazy dream. But now it’s time for you to wake up and accept reality. You need us, and I’m trying my best to keep you alive. That’s not just for now, but for also when I’m gone. Now if you will both excuse me, I need to concentrate upon what lies ahead.”
Although her words were mainly for Katherine’s ears, some of what she’d said also resonated with Blake. The thought of Monica no longer being around scared him. But he had also come to realise that Katherine was going to be around for good; and that was whether he liked it or not.
Chapter 18
As the vehicle pulled up alongside sixty six Phocis Avenue, Katherine brooded over Monica’s lecture of home truths. She was unsure how to respond, or what to take from it. She wasn’t surprised that Monica denied intruding into her thoughts, but she wasn’t exactly willing to accept her denial either. She figured that Monica probably could read her mind. This was especially suspicious when she thought about her instructor’s uncanny powers. However, and with further self-reflection on what Monica had said, she felt a hypocrite.
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