by Jacob Spadt
“You will pay.”
A roar ensued. The hands found a way to grab on and the portal started to throb as if being torn open. I could actually see fractures forming. Small pieces of material fell to the ground while some dissipated. Tendons, bigger than those of the monster I had fought, flexed in exertion. More of it collapsed but it fell inward this time. Only one thing ran through my mind: “Not again!”
Failure was not an option. A single memory, like a Minotaur in a ceramic shop, pushed its way to the front of my mind, crushing everything else that had been a concern up to that point. Large panes of glass formed in my mind that held a memory or feelings of affinity or affections that were in my foremost thoughts.
My eyes fell to Eryn where she lay on the ground behind me. She looked helpless now but had a strength that astonished me. I wondered if she would be okay but could not move to look. She had such tenderness about her that I loved and needed so much to have her love in return. The thought of never being able to hold her again drove me to look over that cliff of instant insanity for just a moment. I felt the desire to leap off of it, especially considering I might have failed my love.
Memories of my teacher lingered, how he died saving me. In reality, his death is what made me the man I was. I thought of him lying on the make shift alter where they had killed him to open the portal. He was part of God...the God...who gave his life for me to survive by throwing me over a hill while he called down fires from Heaven. I thought of how they removed his finger and stuck it in an amulet which empowered the foe I had just slain. This weakened Heaven so the horde could breach its sacred walls. Right as I looked at this memory, a thought came crashing to the front, smashing all of the others. That moment destroyed everything I loved up to that point. I was on my feet without even realizing it. My fists clenched and an empowerment of rage coursed through me. I wanted to slay every one of these daemons and send them back to Lucifer in a container for him to choke on.
“Close the portal!” my swords yelled silently in my thoughts.
A voice, my voice rang out to the now destroyed glade.
“Close the portal!” they said aloud. Their voice did not sound soft and supportive, but commanding.
Again, I heard it.
Clarity came over me. My eyes focused on the now gaping hole that had one foot stepping on the bottom portion trying to force down while lifting with its hands. Time was up. Inside my mind, those precious shards of my memories came back together like a large puzzle, pieced together by some inner form of me. I almost laughed when a dejected image that I looked like as a teenager sat there, putting each broken piece back in place...but the picture was reforming. The dawning of a new age in my life was upon me.
Like one of my many projects and things I used to build, this one meant something more to me than anything. It was all happening in rapid pace; the last piece went into place. There was an image of Eryn. She was smiling at me. It was the day in the park when I gave her a flower and she was absolutely glowing. I felt like the luckiest man in the world that day. It hit me as the last piece affixed to the rest. She was my heart. My skills may be able to kill monsters and slay daemons for God and to save the world, but in the end, my heart needed her. She needed me now more than ever.
From my depleted depths, tendrils of energy shot from all parts of my body. A burst of energy left me and shot towards the portal. Latching on the areas that flapped in the breeze, this mental image of them stretched and reattached to the other side formed, just like wrapping a present. This filled my thoughts. My energy grabbed a hold of the portal and began to fold its sides down. The giant hands tore and clawed to no avail. A verbal outburst told me there was success. I smiled and continued to crush this portal down, and each fold gave confirmation because the icky sensation faded gradually. The portal was about a third of the way closed when the body of the prince rose from the ground. It floated toward the opening as if something was levitating it. I did a double take, for its head was that of a large unicorn. I almost could not believe what it looked like. The myth was true. Somehow he masked his true self. I guess we all have things we hide. As the body got closer, things got worse.
The ichor expunged from every possible wound on it as the body collapsed into a dried husk. Suspended right in the air its blood transformed into energy. The particles broke down and faded to a neutral color. The color went translucent save for the small jumps of energy that occasionally occurred before fading all together. Suddenly eldridge fire engulfed the clear mass as it floated towards the collapsing portal; it was as though this blood energy had tendrils of its own and began to grab the edges of the torn fabric.
Then it started to pull it apart.
Fighting with all my might I tried to counter it. My inner core of energy reserve collapsed inside me, and my own connection to the portal fractured and broke free. Trying to reestablish it was not working as my mind kept reaching out to grab it again and it felt as if it slapped my hand away. Maniacal laughter echoed through the glade. The air started to move towards the opening and began to interact with the portal like before when it was opening.
Then it happened. The silence before the storm simply vanished. Starting right at the portal, dirt vibrated on the ground breaking free then slowly moved towards it. Bodies of coven members began to slide before the suction took them and pulled them towards the portal. The bodies, like the big one before, flattened with a sickening, suction sound, as the red blood extracted. It had coalesced in a huge cloud of crimson before it flew apart, shedding its color and becoming raw energy. With each coven member's floating corpse, this process repeated, the blood coalesced from each. This energy shot toward the portal.
Everything here began to move.
A vacuum...It was time to go.
This area had a barrier around it that had kept prying eyes out and unwanted guests from entering. I had to rely on that barrier keeping whatever was here contained while I got Eryn clear. It had to hold. My thoughts turned towards getting that tome then on to my love. Turning back towards Eryn, I ran. The air tore at my flesh, trying to take me with it towards this maelstrom of death about to consume everything here.
The vacuum reached where the large tome was. The stand it fell from lay near it and started to roll towards me. I leapt over it, feeling the suction grab a hold of me for a moment before my feet touched down again. Steps became difficult. All around me bodies rose up and moved towards the rift. One caught my eyes in particular and made me stumble for a moment. The face of the priests that tried to kill me months ago had just floated by wearing the robes of one of the Coven. I heard the coven leader mention names of all three, but I never a good look at him. My focused stayed on her at the time.
Anger rose.
It made no sense. One question hit me as I reached for the book. Why would this group want me dead if they needed me here now? I promised myself better answers to this quandary later and perhaps this book had some. It was a lot heavier than it looked and felt icky in my hands. Not having any clothes, I put it under my right arm...using the three of my appendages to claw my way forward. The ground shook harder. More topsoil came free in large sections. I could see the path behind Erin’s form lost all its leaves. Even the light was bending towards the rift... just like a black hole.
Oh God! No!
A surge propelled me forward as if by an unseen hand. On the ground in front of me was the mangled body of the wizard that offered his assistance. He was a mess. Most of his torso was torn open but his heart and lungs, although exposed, were functioning. A look of shock must have betrayed my thoughts for he said to me without even moving his lips.
“I got this. Remember me...Sigvard is my name."
Pain stabbed me in the heart over his majestic sacrifice as my momentum carried me passed him. Scooping up Eryn, I clutched her using her using the tome to hold her in place. The winds tore at me filled with the dirt and debris. It was like being sand blasted. Particles embedded themselves into my skin pealing it away
. I knew I could take it, but she could not. The book shielded her from some of it when thoughts of protection from the elements came to mind. Debris sliced at both of us. To my surprise a small version of my shield appeared. It began to drain my life to maintain it. My thoughts did not even think to question where this came from, but a thank you was a secondary thought.
Each step was harder than the last. It was difficult to find the way out. Strong winds still made it hard to keep my eyes open. The location of the path leading out was a mystery. My senses through my blades required me to be holding them, but my surroundings channeled through them when they chose to share. Occasionally I had to open them to peek. Faint light ahead aided me in finding the path now strangely lit, filled with bending light heading towards the portal. I passed the car we came in. The glass was already missing and the seats were starting to rip apart. Tires blew out right as we went by and it began to slide forward. Metal groaned in protest. The maelstrom of intensity finally forced my eyes closed, for even though the particles could not get through, the air dried them out. Blindly moving forward, my feet managed toward the direction we came in. I did not even know if we could get out. Air came through so there had to be a way.
A bright light appeared before me. Around the entrance, images cast from this source illuminated a fabric like illusion disguised like woods. It contained this area were the coven practiced their ways in secret. With them gone, the magic weakened. Trees threatened to uproot, creaking in protest as smaller limbs snapped and disappeared behind. Ripples rolled across the opaque protective barrier like waves as the stresses on this side taxed the magic that it contained inside here. It looked like what my mind imagined being inside a hot air balloon at night with spotlights out the outside. It flexed just like a container does when you suck the air out of it and it starts to collapse inwards. The tension made it quiver. It was clear, the covens dimensional haven was about to collapse.
I stumbled forward.
Blinding light hit me in the eye and pouring rain thundered. Internal reserves finally depleted and my strength gave out as my foot found pavement before I could even see it. The driving rain felt good as it washed the grime off me from untold places. As my body pitched forward, I managed to hold onto Eryn. We fell and rolled. The tome landed hard on the ground and skidded off somewhere. Ahead a car door opened and closed. Footsteps ran towards us. Not knowing what was about to happen I tried to get up but could not. We made it outside. I glanced again towards the barrier and saw the light upon it blinked out for a second as a figure moved into the light, blocking it for a moment. A shadow of a man cast upon that surface and then I felt hands on me pulling me up.
“Happy to see me?” the voice said. I recognized it instantly.
“We need to go now!” I yelled over the rain. “I need to find that….”
“You mean this?” A sly grin scrawled across the Sergeant’s face as he raised the large home up. “Can you carry her?”
“Yes, forever.” The words came and I knew at that moment, it was a lie. Tremendous fatigue had already won and I struggled to catch myself. “You better grab her.” The world spun faster.
“How could a mighty warrior be so vulnerable?” I thought.
I had all my memories. My training and knowledge would dwarf most army generals. Yet my body was still subject to damage...just like a human, even one with an angel for a father. As I looked back towards the barrier while handing Eryn into his arms, a slight twinge of pain ran across my heart. The ripples in the surface flexed and I could see the integrity of it was about to fail. I turned to yell to the Sergeant to get her in the car when I felt my ear drums pop.
No one was safe until this was over.
XXXVII
Unity
The containment burst like a star going super nova.
A brilliant flash of light moved so fast that the human eye could probably not detect it except in hindsight or perhaps as a revelation in a dream. The rainbow spectrum of colors formed patters and runes for only a fraction of a second. That was the only warning I had and no time to react. For in that moment an object of scientific horror came into existence in the dimensional pocket we had just left, and it died within the same time span.
My face impacted the hood of the car with perfect accuracy to leave a facial imprint. Gravity shifted to behind me instead of below, but instead of flaying backward, it swept my feet towards it first. It was more of an insult to injury in my eyes because the daemon hit a lot harder. The winds shifted as if a hole suddenly opened into a vacuum chamber, sucking everything into a void. This is probably what it would feel like to be in a ship decompressing in the darkness of space.
An image flashed of a bubble popping and showering the area for micro seconds with the rainbow effects visible in the soapy opaqueness. Weightlessness took me up and away. I had nothing. No strength nor energy could help when I was not in control of my motions since all my abilities helped me defy the physics set in place to govern a planet or realm. Gravity had me in its claws just like where I had been when killing the daemon; only this time, the foe could not be defeated with steel or tactical maneuvering. Mercy would play no role here.
The items before me began to peel away only to fly with me. Pavement, grass, and the earth itself erupted from its place for centuries taking trees out by the roots. Nothing was safe form my vantage point. The wizard Sigvard had bought us time... perhaps his actions slowed the inevitability of what just happened. I felt sorry for him dying the way he did. First he got his entrails introduced to the light of day by a large clawed foot. That was no way to die. Yet he survived long enough for gravity to rip him apart.
Suddenly it hit me. The wizard had all the time he needed because he was in the middle of it; he just had to survive long enough to do whatever he was about to do. Hours if not days could have already passed out here and with him inside based on my little knowledge of black holes, he has not had time to finish his incantation. I based my theory on the idea that he was still alive. I had to trust that he would finish what he started. That bore to mind one thought, however. What would happen out here if he was still finishing his spell and it took a day?
Changing my thoughts to survival, I looked behind me. Not enough debris was in the air to block vision. Light started to dim slowly. My vision was bending and blurring in slow motion. Yet my mind functioned normally, and my awareness of time still stayed the same. Only its flow around me changed. Like everything else I had no idea how much time had passed.
A thought hit me when closing my eyes to combat the effects of nausea starting to form in my core. I decided to use this time to relax and stop fighting the storm. My mind centered on myself, and pulled the conglomeration of the events of the day into one cohesive thought and began to file it away. Inside my mind was the answer I needed save myself. If the Sergeant managed to get Eryn to safety, then all was not lost.
Guilt filled my thoughts, not over concern for me but for being more worried about Eryn than humanity. Mankind was my responsibility. The issues at hand were larger than the sum of my and Eryn's life together. From this point forward, my thoughts included everyone’s safety. Perhaps this was why angels had to prove themselves before they could take a mate...it was not because they were denied love, but because their duty was just as important. This journey was about keeping my oath as well as my family on equal footing.
Somber reflection took its hold as I focused on my breathing. My energies slowly crept out from my core to the tips of my fingers. The flow was so slow that I wondered how many years of my life fell away. How much of the depletion would be permanent? All this hinged on surviving this event, of course. My thoughts turned towards trying to turn on my healing and to my surprise, it came on. The warmth spread through me, pulsating as it flowed. My tired bones felt leeched of the core essence that empowered me. Only when I stopped fighting did it re-emerge to assess and reverse the damage done by overtaxing myself. I knew it would take time. Right now time around me slowed, but to my
amazement, my conscious thought was unaffected, as if anything that went on beneath my skin remained unaffected by the effects of time.
My thoughts kept me company. With the ability to mull them over, it felt like this time was not a total waste. Hope that Sigvard, with his arcane abilities could deliver was starting to weigh heavily on me. If he did not, imagination ran amuck with the level of the devastation that would occur before the dimensional pocket collapsed and severed its connection to this world...to my world, which I was responsible for now. Focus on such things would only add to the stress of the situation. Eryn was with the Sergeant and trust, as minimal as it was, did fall to believing in the badge he wore, not in the appearance of his bad suits.
He did give off a “protect-and-serve” vibe. Perhaps my mistrust stemmed from his punching me in the face many weeks ago.
Why was S.W.A.T. at a hospital when I awoke? The randomness of this thought hit me but did not follow the thought process to its extent before I came back to the now.
To a have a total memory influx of gargantuan proportions in the middle of an epic fight that happened to be the catalyst of those returned memories has its own complications. I do not know the exact amount of time that passed in the other realm, but Father told me it was significantly longer than the time I spent in my coma. Six years to the day seems trivial. I know I had a physical body there and that it really was not just a spirit realm. There were all the same things to worry about there as there were here. Eating and sleeping were such a small part of the dynamic because surviving was a combination of everything.
In my wildest imagination, I could never imagine my dreams were memories.
I had all these skills and none of them fully prepared me because my mind was not in unity. Had my mind, body, and spirit been one, the outcome of today would have been different. I paused. The life I knew now was a series of tests…one leading to the next and each progressively getting harder. Perhaps that is the never-ending challenge. Maybe the steady progression is why life flows the way it does. A constant challenge to defeat or resolve greater problems; this keeps the mind moving forward and always sharp.