The Esoteric Design: Civilization Lost

by A. R. Crebs

  "Those lizards could eat all day," Dovian grumbled.

  "And I know a few boys who are just the same."

  "We're growing boys! Well, I am at least," Orin said.

  Dovian shot him a glare. "Yeah, yeah. Keep it up with the short jokes. You'll see, one day I'm going to outgrow you."

  Orin's mouth twisted as he looked Dovian up and down. "My eyes can see many things, Dovian. And I highly doubt you're going to outgrow me."

  "I could blast you in the eyes right now if you'd like.”

  "Okay! Enough!" Elysia shook her boy. Orin laughed. "Violence doesn't suit you, Dovian."

  "He's been spouting off all day," Dovian sighed.

  "Only because you never leave that cave of yours! If your father allowed you out now and then I would be able to relent some!" Orin chuckled, slowly lifting off the ground, his wings beating.

  "Well, seems you are the master of the house tonight. Your father will not be home until tomorrow morning." Elysia straightened the boy’s robes.

  Dovian's eyes lit up. Orin looked as amused as he did.

  "Party!" Orin shouted.

  "No parties." Elysia pointed.

  "Can't promise anything, ma!" Dovian said, pushing into the air.

  "The house had better be in one piece when I come back!" she shouted as they began twirling higher.

  "What? I can't hear you!" Dovian hollered, soaring into the sky.

  "Yes, you can! And you had better give me a kiss goodbye, young man!" she called out.

  Dovian sped down toward his mother, stopping just before her to kiss her on the cheek.

  "Love ya, ma. Be safe," he quickly said before speeding off again.

  Elysia turned, watching her child swim through the air with Orin. The other boy waved and shouted a goodbye. Elysia smiled and waved back.

  "You be safe, boy," she whispered as she watched Dovian touch the clouds.

  Looking to her wristband, she caught the time and the news update on the war. The casualty count had risen further. She frowned.

  "Best be off."

  Pushing a few buttons on her band, she pulled up a message log for her husband. Speaking into the device, she simultaneously twisted her frequency tuner dial. The air around her opened, and in a flash, she disappeared outside the timeline.

  Comparatively, being outside time was a silent, meditative experience whereas the battlefield was a living nightmare. As Elysia neared her destination, her peaceful travels came to an abrupt halt. The world around her saturated in crimson. Sand and dust spiraled in the wind, pelting her body, tinkling against her armor. Explosions thundered around her, and she instantly pulled up a shield to protect herself. Gunfire snapped from all around. Smoke and dust clouded the sky, casting a red hue to the desert landscape. Blood from the fallen soaked the sand, the gritty mess covering the woman's boots.

  "Elysia!" A male voice called out to her.

  Elysia lifted her head, pulling up a draping piece of cloth to cover the lower half of her face. Narrowing her eyes, she caught sight of a man in deep blue robes. She recognized him instantly and made her way toward him.

  "Rhondin!" she called back.

  "I'd received news from Sir Gaius that you were coming. I made way to this area in hopes of finding you," the dark-haired man replied.

  "I expected chaos, but I am still shocked. This is devastating, Rhondin! How is this possible?!" Elysia looked to her feet once again. "So much blood."

  Rhondin nodded slowly. "Clinic is over here!" He pointed, leading the way to one building that received little damage.

  Elysia eyed the landscape from her current position. If it weren't for her tracker, she would never have guessed this was her destination. The city had been completely annihilated. Hardly any building was left standing; those that remained teetered and crumbled. Bodies littered the ground. Some soldiers had resorted to piling bodies atop one another to form a wall for protection. Civilians and military alike were battling together. One, two, three, four nations. Four nations battled against Russia now. It was a wonder how on earth they had become so lopsided in the first place. To have so many of the world's finest militaries up against only one, and to still lose by the masses, something wasn't right.

  The woman caught sight of a child across the way. He was small, probably seven or eight years old. His lifeless body lay in the middle of the street, riddled with holes. The woman tore her horrified glare to the horizon where an awful electric current danced along the sandy dunes. An atrocious crackling sound followed not long after. It looked like a thunderstorm on the base of the desert. Not only was the enemy playing against the rules, but they were using weapons unseen before.

  "Elysia!" Rhondin called out once again.

  The woman hurried into the clinic, removing the cloth from her face. She exhaled sharply, feeling kicked in the gut. Bodies covered the floor. There was barely a path to walk. The tabletops were shared by two and sometimes three at a time. The nurses and doctors were exhausted, if not sick themselves. Elysia groaned, feeling an overabundance of emotion and pain swirling about the room.

  "A little unnerving at first, isn't it?" Rhondin asked.

  Elysia nodded. "So much negative energy in here. It's nearly suffocating." The woman tiptoed around the injured humans, making her way to one station where a grouping of human nurses busied themselves. "Where are the other Sorcēarian medics?" she asked.

  "They are scattered one to a clinic. Our numbers were cut in half," Rhondin numbly stated.

  Elysia turned, looking at the man in disbelief.

  "What?" She placed her hand on one of the tables, stabilizing herself.

  Rhondin shrugged. "They're targeting us. They don't want us healing the soldiers."

  Elysia's rage surfaced. "They...don't want us healing...." The woman strode over a few fallen men. "Don't want us healing them?! Oh! Oh! Are they in for it! I'm going to heal all these people!"

  He smirked. "They don't know who they are messing with."

  "No! They don't! And when I'm finished here, I'm paying them a personal visit!" She gently pushed the human doctors to the side, her emerald eyes blazing. They quickly moved out of her way, allowing her to inspect the patients.

  "Don't you worry about that. I'm heading to the enemy side right now. Your mission is to heal as many as you can and get them to evac immediately. This war has gotten out of hand. Once the survivors have been cleared, Sir Gaius will be moving in," Rhondin explained.

  Elysia shook her head. "The sooner, the better. Gather what intel you can. I'll try my best here!"

  Rhondin pounded a fist against his chest and gave a curt bow toward the woman. With a twist of his dial, he disappeared from the room.

  "What happened here? I need as much information you can give me!" The Sorcēarian woman shouted, her voice booming within the small building.

  The human medics scurried to her side, thrusting their data and paperwork in her hands. Elysia scanned the pages with her armband, gathering the records. She eyed one of the patients sprawled on a slab. One female nurse stood by her side, administering an IV.

  Elysia's hands lit up with blue light. She gently poked and prodded the patient's bare torso. He had been shot three times—once in the shoulder, another grazed his side, and a third had gone through his leg. She immediately closed the wounds without much more than a whisper. The patient gasped for air, waking from his state of unconsciousness. The Sorcēarian woman quickly placed her fingertips on either side of the patient's head.

  "Shh. You'll be fine. Relax." Her words immediately pulled the man into a deep sleep. Looking to the nurse beside her, she frowned. "I've not seen anything like this before."

  The young woman, her eyes heavy and sunken in, shook her head. "They're using some kind of new weaponry, some kind of ray gun."

  Elysia moved her hands over the man's body. Her armband projected a molecular diagram. She eyed it warily and then waved to bring up more info. Next, the image swirled into a form of DNA. She gasped.

&nb
sp; "Terrible biological warfare! How on earth have they managed to create something like this?" With panic, Elysia whispered a spell.

  "Do...do you know what it is? We've all been getting sick from it, whatever it is. We've lost half of our medical staff the past two days. We don't have the proper equipment to run all the tests." The woman halted, coughing suddenly.

  Elysia turned toward the girl and quickly palmed her forehead, her fingers brushing through the nurse’s brown locks. Waving a lit fingertip around the girl's eyes, Elysia checked the nurse's vitals and reactions. She gave an exasperated sigh.

  "You've got a fever," Elysia murmured as she lowered the young woman's temperature. "This weaponry is injecting the soldiers with high amounts of radiation. They're trying to break down your DNA, cook you from the inside. This is an advanced form of nuclear radiation. With the patients being radioactive, all of those treating them are also becoming sick." Elysia palmed the girl's chest and grit her teeth. "My dear, you have cancer."

  "I...what? I have what?!”

  "Not to worry, I'll get you fixed right up. All of the patients, and now including you and the medical personnel, are all highly radioactive. They are most likely using these ray guns you speak of to inject the bodies with radiation. They then spread it to the hospitals, creating more devastation along the way." Elysia finished pulling out the cancerous cells from the young nurse and returned to her previous patient. "Very clever, if not completely sadistic!"

  "Are...are we all going to die?" one man shakily asked from another table.

  Elysia scoffed. "Not while I am here."

  Clapping her hands together, Elysia closed her eyes and formed a spell. Whispering, her voice trailed throughout the room. Pale light bubbled around her, churning outward to fill the entire building. The glow beamed through the windows. Her voice echoed into the sky. Soon, a dome formed over the small clinic. Silence filled the room. After taking a slow, deep breath, Elysia opened her eyes and grinned.

  "I still got it," she whispered.

  All the coughs and moans immediately ceased. Looking to the humans in the room, Elysia was proud to see that their eyes were bright, their skin had color, and no signs of sickness or disease picked up on her mental radar.

  "Did...did you heal them all?" the female nurse asked.

  "I did. And I've shielded this clinic. It should withstand any mortar blasts for at least another hour."

  "I've never seen anything like that before!" the young woman exclaimed.

  The clinic filled with murmurs and quiet laughter.

  "I'm a bit rusty. That was a good warm-up." The Sorcēarian winked. Rubbing her hands together, Elysia huffed. "Okay. Where's the next clinic?"

  The young nurse grabbed Elysia's arm and guided her toward the front door of the clinic.

  "Just across the street! But please! You must help those who are out on the streets! We'd run out of room, and we couldn't house them!" The lady stepped out of the clinic first, darting ahead of Elysia. "I'll show you!"

  With a spurt, the poor young woman was shot clean through by a bizarre ray of light. Elysia quickly clamped her hands together, shielding herself just as an explosion went off, annihilating the young woman and the surrounding soldiers in the streets. Elysia was sent flying back against the wall of the clinic. She dropped to her knees and pushed her hands out, forcing the sphere of her shielding light over the entire square city block. Her helmet slipped off by the force of the detonation; her wine-colored hair twirled about her face. Glaring green eyes locked onto the menacing weapon’s silhouette in the far-off distance.

  "We're going to need Sir Gaius soon," she mumbled.

  ***

  Rhondin hid in the shadows of the giant mechanical vessel planted on the backside of the enemy lines. His cerulean eyes glared upon the general of the Russian military. The Russian stood tall, burly, and had a horseshoe of gray hair. The Sorcēarian hadn't been in position for long, but he was already disgusted with this human.

  "What's going on down there? Why isn't our mortar fire getting through?" the husky man bellowed.

  "Sir! It seems another batch of Sorcēarians has arrived. This time, it appears they've sent in some of their best," a soldier replied. He sat at the console, his fingers diligently at work pushing and pulling an assortment of levers and buttons.

  This vessel was mobile. It stood on two legs and had a massive rectangular head that housed the staff. Fixed upon the front of the machine was a colossal cannon, the largest of its kind. Instead of use for mortar, missiles, or bullets, the cannon was a highly radioactive ray-gun. Its heat alone could devastate and melt matter. Whatever survived impact became contaminated with high amounts of radiation. It was one of the most advanced forms of biological warfare Rhondin had ever seen.

  "More angels, eh?" the general scoffed. "Why don't we light them up with some fire like the last dozen?"

  "Sir, another blast from the cannon? Do you think she can handle another one so soon?" the soldier asked.

  "Does it look like I give one rat's ass about whether or not she can fire again? Make it happen! We've got bodies still moving on the opposite side. We're not quitting until they're all down. A couple of fairies aren't going to stop us." The general marched to the front of the vessel and leaned forward to look over the battlefield. "What's that?" He poked the glass toward a blue orb on the landscape.

  Pulling up the image from a nearby computer, the soldier moved the video to the large screen beside the older man.

  "Seems one of the Sorcēarians has put up a shield. We can't cut through it," the soldier said. "She's a medic, sir. We're not meant to fire upon medics."

  Rhondin narrowed his eyes. The Sorcēarian they were speaking about was Elysia. She was stranded in the streets, wasting her power on shields to protect the civilians. His hands clenched. He had to get things straightened out immediately. A civilian evac was not possible at the moment, but anymore hesitation would leave no one alive.

  "Fire it up! We're going to have ourselves some Sorcēarian barbecue." The general patted the soldier on the back. "Sorcēarians don't play by our rules, so why should we play by theirs, right?"

  "Y-yes, sir!" The other man nodded quickly. He immediately slammed his palm against a large switch. An alarm sounded, a red light blinking overhead.

  "Twenty seconds till detonation," a robotic voice called from the speakers.

  Rhondin stepped forward. Reaching out, he grasped the general's head.

  "You're a complete failure. You've lost the war; you've lost everything. What do you do now?" Rhondin whispered in the man's ear. The power of suggestion was one of Rhondin's greatest espionage tactics. He could gain all kinds of information with nothing more than a simple whisper. Likewise, he could suggest an action or instill mental fear in the same manner. In this case, he placed the illusion of complete failure within the Russian's mind.

  The general gasped, his fingers digging into the sides of his head. He screamed, "No! NO! How is this possible?!" and collapsed to the floor. He stared blindly out the window of the large vehicle, lost in a mental illusion.

  "What the hell?" The soldier operating the vessel jumped from his chair, his pistol aimed at Rhondin.

  Rhondin teleported to the side, avoiding a bullet. The noise was ear-shattering as it ricocheted against the metal interior. The Sorcēarian wrapped his arm around the human's neck and arm, locking him in a sleeper-hold. Rhondin's eyes shimmered. He whispered in the man's mind.

  "The general took his own life. They will blame you for it. You'll be found guilty and sentenced to death. What do you do?" Rhondin released him.

  A horrid scream of terror erupted from the soldier. He searched the room, looking to all sides, seeing nothing that the Sorcēarian was seeing. Not concerned with the two screaming men inside the vessel, Rhondin approached the console. The cannon was about to go off, and there wasn't enough power to correctly fire which meant the entire machine could blow with the next blast.

  "Damn," Rhondin winced. Palmin
g his tuner inside his jacket, he disappeared just as the two humans decided to press the barrels of their guns inside their mouths.

  Rhondin appeared outside of Elysia's protective sphere. His black hair tangled in the dust storm. Time seemed to slow as he gaped at the beautiful woman across from him. Her powers were faltering, flickering and dimming. She groaned, her fingers pressing against her temple. It wasn't normal. Elysia's powers never failed her. She was one of the best at healing and protection. She could work for days without ever once tiring. With a low hum, her power dissipated altogether, and the woman fell to her knees. Shaking, she turned her head toward Rhondin, her face holding an expression of horror and realization.

  "Elysia!" he shouted.

  A monstrous blast erupted from the opposite end of the battlefield.

  Rhondin could leave, simply press his frequency tuner and be outside time, but then he would leave behind Elysia—his best friend's wife, the woman who so often looked after his son, Euclid. He couldn't do that to her. It would be cruel, and he would never live with himself. In that split-second decision, he clasped his hands together, sending a secondary sphere around them in the hopes of adding more protection. It was too late, however, as a stream of light zipped between them. It was a brilliant wave of electric-blue with streaks of crackling yellow. It flashed only for a blink, and then the world splintered outward into a million pieces around them.

  Rhondin flung backward, his shield shattering to dust. The right side of his body went hot, and then he felt wet, soaked in blood as his entire right arm severed. The Azure Sorcēarian slammed against a nearby collapsed building, his body further destroying it. Unconcerned by his injuries, he struggled to sit up to gain a vision of Elysia. Much to his horror, the woman lay smashed into the ground. The concrete melted to glass around her, fused with the metal of her armor. She was pinned. Elysia tried reaching out to him with a trembling hand. There was no light, not even a hint of energy could be felt.

  "Elysia!" He pulled forward, trying to crawl toward her. Rhondin struggled with his one arm. His vision spun to a blur. "Leave...you must leave."