Into the Fire Part II: To End All Wars (Universe in Flames Book 10)

by Christian Kallias

  In hindsight, he felt most comfortable piloting a StarFury even though in his wing commander position he was no stranger to being responsible for other people’s lives. But on a much smaller scale.

  He looked at the latest generation of thin, cylindrical-shaped neuro-interfaces resting on top of the left armrest of his captain’s chair and decided to try it out. He stuck the device to his left temple.

  His vision was enhanced with a holographic HUD projected into his mind. That, too, was not new for him; he had a similar experience at the seat of his trusty StarFury. A ship that had escaped death so many times that other pilots on the roster were often placing bets on how long a streak Daniel would go. He had made so many kills inside the fighter that it had been repainted not long ago as they were running out of space to paint red X’s on its fuselage.

  And every time Yanis made a new design for the craft, Daniel had requested that his ship be upgraded, not replaced. He was superstitious that way. He’d rather miss out on some of the new features if that meant he could keep his trusty starfighter. As Yanis had learned, Daniel hated surprises. The last time the engineer had fiddled with the ship without telling him, it nearly cost Daniel his life. Now he was even more protective of the craft.

  But he wasn’t piloting his StarFury, and the amount of data he was mentally receiving made using the neuro-link much more tiring due to the size and complexity of the Victory. After a few minutes, he adjusted to the mental strain, and while he could dispatch orders either through the neuro-link or via vocal commands, he knew he needed to make some split-second decisions such as micro-jumping much faster.

  The shields were recharged to ninety-seven percent and when another Earth Alliance destroyer exploded in the distance, with a single thought, he micro-jumped the Victory back into the fold.

  Spectre Arakan painfully raised himself up from the rubble of what was once the throne where he spent most of his days since usurping it from Arakan.

  A thin line of black blood ran down the corner of his mouth as his black eyes filled with anger and hatred.

  “You’re going to regret this.”

  “Promises, promises,” said Chase.

  I would like to point out that antagonizing your enemy instead of fighting him might not be the best use of your time, said Drakos.

  Not now, Drakos. Let me enjoy this a little.

  Chase could tell Drakos was not happy about Chase dismissing him, but right now Chase was laser-focused on beating Tanak’Vor. With Drakos providing armor and multiplying his powers, Chase’s entire mind and body surged with anticipation.

  Very well, but I need to tell you something.

  Later, okay?

  As you wish.

  Tanak’Vor dusted himself off and looked straight at Chase.

  “You have no idea how uncomfortable it is moving this putrid and weak excuse of a body. You Furies are badly made; your bodies are frail, and I have trouble understanding why evolution has let you reach such long lifespans in these horrid conditions.”

  “And I suppose Spectres are more evolved.”

  “Our DNA is stronger, purer, there’s no doubt about it. As you’ll soon discover.”

  “Are we going to fight, or are you planning on boring me to death?”

  “Hmm, impetuous, too. Look at you; you get an armor upgrade and all of a sudden you’re a picture of confidence. Another failing of your limited mind’s comprehension on what true power is. My race understood long ago, that true power lies in consuming and eliminating the weak. The more souls I assimilate, the stronger I become; for instance, your friend Oryn, I can feel her power adding to the thousands that I’ve already devoured. In a way, I grant these poor, pathetic souls immortality.”

  That angered Chase and before Tanak’Vor could say another word, Chase’s foot connected with the Spectre’s neck and sent him flying and crashing through the nearest wall.

  “Don’t you ever mention her name again!” screamed Chase.

  “Or what?” said Tanak’Vor behind Chase.

  Chase began to turn around, but Tanak’Vor planted his knee deep into Chase’s back and sent him crashing yards away. Chase was surprised that the blow had not been very painful, thanks most likely to Drakos’ armor.

  “You’re still not fast enough,” said Tanak’Vor. “You didn’t even feel me move behind you; you expected to see me climb through the hole in the wall. Another advantage of my superior DNA, you can’t sense me unless I allow you to, like I did when I connected with your mind earlier.”

  Just as Chase had theorized earlier, Tanak’Vor had indeed given Chase clues on his whereabouts; he had wanted him here. But it mattered not, Chase was sure he could take the Spectre down.

  “Oh, and by the way,” added Tanak’Vor, “before I forget. Oryn.”

  Chase’s aura grew as much as his inner anger. He flew toward Tanak’Vor and unleashed a series of brutal punch combos that sent Tanak’Vor’s head swinging and black blood flying all over the place.

  Chase then grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up from the ground. He put his other palm on the Spectre’s chest and blasted a hole through it with a powerful burst of energy.

  When Chase heard hands clapping to the side, he looked to the sound and saw Tanak’Vor with a smirk on his face and no trace of damage whatsoever. Chase looked forward only to see his hand grabbing a fading illusion.

  What the hell?

  “You see the problem with your universe and the pests that inhabit it is that not only are your bodies frail, but your minds are weak, easily fooled or controlled.”

  I’ll have to be more careful, thought Chase. I might have underestimated him.

  You have, and soon you’ll be outclassed, too, Chase. The armor has a time limit, and yours is almost up, said Drakos.

  What? Why didn’t you say so earlier?!

  You’re not serious, Dragonheart? I’ve repeatedly tried telling you, but you kept shutting me out.

  Fair enough. How long can I count on the armor boost?

  Not very long, I’m afraid; my energy is almost fully depleted.

  The moment Chris and Sarah landed near the large emitter structure, Chris threw a fireball at it. A red shield lit up, deflecting the fireball and sending it flying up in the sky until it was swallowed by dark crimson clouds.

  “That thing is shielded.”

  “Let’s try together,” said Sarah.

  They both extended a palm and created larger fireballs; when they were about to fire them in concert, something behind the structure decloaked. Sarah couldn’t believe her eyes. It was the ship that had attacked them when she had been captaining the Victory. The spider ship. Its legs were mended and painted with a different shade of black, which made them appear newer than the rest.

  Chris and Sarah instinctively raised their palms toward the new threat, but before they could fire, the ship fired first. An enormous explosion engulfed them in flames and sent them swirling in the air. As the concussion of the blast expelled them out of the resulting inferno, they regained balance and levitated.

  Chris looked at his arms and the rest of his body. “I didn’t even feel warmth; that’s so strange, I would think such a blast would have caused burns.”

  “I didn’t feel a thing either. I can feel Fenix telling me that the armor provided extreme temperature protection.”

  “Yeah, Tigris just told me the same. I wish we had had this armor when we battled Spectre Arakan a few weeks back.”

  The spider ship realigned itself and fired a second time at them. Sarah flew in front of Chris and deployed her wings to protect them both.

  “Well, your father and uncle have them now; let’s hope their combined power is enough to defeat the Spectre. Since fireballs bounce off that force field, I propose that you go at it with Tigris’ claws while I distract that thing.”

  “Alright, be careful.”

  “You too, Son.”

  Chris let gravity take hold of him, and the moment he landed, he darted forward, exte
nding the large claws of his Tigris armor as he charged at the emitter.

  Argos was flying through the air faster than any ship, projectile, or energy weapons ever could. He was consuming more energy than he was comfortable with, but his energy pool had been vastly improved after their ten-year extended training. The upgraded gravity generators they had used had also done wonders for improving their speed.

  He would soon reach Arakan’s stronghold, the palace in which Argos almost died on the day he had brought the Furies back from the alternate dimension. But he had been someone else back then, his rage and misplaced thirst for vengeance toward his brother had led him astray.

  You may want to stop taxing your power drain before you reach the palace, said Python, you are using some of the power granted to you by the armor.

  So?

  In armor form, we can only sustain the energy for a certain amount of time, the more you use us, the sooner the armor will fade.

  Argos instinctively cut his flight speed by half.

  What!? What do you mean fade? What will happen then?

  The armor will simply disappear.

  Are you telling me my brother is facing the most powerful being in the universe with an advantage that can vanish at any time?

  That’s exactly what I’m telling you, yes.

  Fuck!

  For a fleeting moment, Argos felt like speeding up again, but he knew that would also mean that his armor could vanish earlier than he needed it to.

  How’s my speed now?

  You have adjusted to the right amount of energy that doesn’t require you to drain the armor’s power. But it’s already pretty low.

  A heads up a little sooner would have been nice.

  You seemed dead set on arriving at your destination the fastest way possible; we share a symbiotic relationship at the moment, if you had listened to your body better, you’d have felt that you were draining not only your energy but mine as well.

  Argos was mad and knew very well that Python could feel it, but he had the good sense of not sharing his feelings with Argos on the subject.

  His slower flying speed meant he would not reach Chase for another few minutes, a fact that angered him even more. Argos hoped that his brother’s armor would last until that time.

  Chase blocked Tanak’Vor’s incoming fist by cradling it in his palm. He sent the Spectre flying upward in the throne room with a powerful kick. Chase was now laser-focused in the fight and hoped he wasn’t a victim of another illusion. He followed Tanak’Vor in the air, and when the Spectre fired three black fireballs at him, he dodged the first two and deflected the last one with the palm of his hand.

  Tanak’Vor stopped in midair and started flying down to Chase, who dodged the Spectre’s punch and swiveled and smashed Tanak’Vor with one of his metallic wings. This sent the Spectre crashing unceremoniously onto the floor, cracking it upon impact.

  It’s now or never, Dragonheart. I’m almost out of juice; unleash one last attack as you did with the Fury battalion. It’s your only chance.

  Chase hated putting his fate into this one attack, but he had no choice. He raised his aura to the maximum, and it turned into the shape of a dragon. He focused all his Ultra Fury powers into a single attack as he unleashed a dragon roar.

  The purple dragon-based energy attack left Chase’s fist and descended upon Tanak’Vor at a speed simply impossible to dodge. The energy consumed the Spectre, and he screamed in agony as the dragon devoured his flesh.

  Chase’s attack ended, and his armor disintegrated before his eyes. As it did, Drakos spoke to him.

  You should return to the soul ships, and fast.

  Chase felt that Drakos was no longer present in his thoughts. He let himself fall to the ground as he looked at the damage his last attack had dealt to his enemy. Tanak’Vor stood in a black pool of blood, more than a third of his flesh had been consumed, and the smell of burnt flesh impregnated itself in the throne room.

  Chase didn’t wait to see if the Spectre was dead or incapacitated at this point, and he unleashed a multitude of fireballs at Tanak’Vor, determined to press his advantage and finish off his foe.

  The multitude of impacts generated one explosion after and another, and Chase felt compelled to keep firing for another minute. Even though his energy pool had been increased tenfold thanks to the training, he was aware he was draining a lot of power. However, if he could end the life of Tanak’Vor right here and right now, it would be worth it..

  Once he stopped firing, Chase breathed heavily as he waited for the smoke to settle to confirm his kill. There wasn’t much left of Tanak’Vor, and Chase felt an intense satisfaction at seeing the dead body of the Spectre.

  The feeling was short-lived when the undead looking body of Arakan levitated on its own, at first vertically until it rotated without flexing a muscle and then touching its bony feet to the floor of the throne room.

  What the hell?

  The damage to Arakan’s body was extensive. More than half of his flesh was missing, many internal organs had been burned or ripped off, and Chase could see most of the Fury Supreme Commander’s bones through the battle damage, which was covered in a black and gooey substance equivalent to blood.

  When Tanak’Vor’s half-missing face spoke, it froze Chase’s blood.

  “What happened to your precious armor? You do realize that if you couldn’t kill me with it, you stand absolutely no chance of defeating me now.”

  Chase’s heart pounded hard inside his chest. Things were not going as he had hoped.

  The black blood oozed over whatever was left of Arakan’s flesh and expanded into a hundred black tendrils and blood vessels that joined around the missing organs, membranes, and damaged bones. Miraculously, organs regenerated, then flesh and muscles, and finally layers of skin reformed, making Arakan’s body whole once more.

  This isn’t happening.

  25

  Chase looked on in horror as he realized that the extensive damage he had inflicted upon the Spectre was not worth a damn. His enemy had been completely regenerated.

  “I’ve been trying to tell you,” said Tanak’Vor, “but you are blinded by your arrogance as well as your overconfidence in your new gadget. You thought you could just barge in here with your shiny armor and take me out like one of the multiple Furies you have dispatched in the past. And, I’ll grant you this, seeing the four of you kill ten thousand of my Fury puppets with so little effort was somewhat worrisome, for a minute or two, that is. Now that I see that your armor upgrades were never even meant to last, well, I don’t have to tell you what you already know in your heart…”

  Tanak’Vor’s words echoed in Chase’s head as he tried to fathom the enormity of the situation and the consequences of his utter failure to kill the Spectre.

  “You have lost this battle already, and you know it,” continued Tanak’Vor. “It is true, I do sense tremendously more power in you than I did last we faced each other, even without your precious armor. I admit, I’m baffled as to how you could have acquired such power in so little time, but we both know that it’s not enough to bring me down, not today, not ever.”

  Tanak’Vor pointed a single finger at Chase. Before he saw anything happen, Chase felt intense pain in his left shoulder. When he looked, he saw a huge icicle had pierced it.

  “Remember her?” said the Spectre. “I sure do, and not only is Oryn’s life force a part of me now but also her powers. Whether I use hers or the countless other techniques I’ve learned from other souls I’ve fed over the millenniums makes no difference, I am composed of over a thousand warriors I’ve acquired in mortal combat. In essence, you’re fighting all of them at once now, and guess what? Many of them were infinitely more powerful than you are now or ever hope to become. It’s only a matter of time until I cleanse the universe of the Ultra Furies and then open the door for my brethren to enter this realm and feed upon all your souls until the very last one.”

  Chase heard a familiar voice in his mind.

/>   You need to complete your mission, Chase, said Ares. You need to send this planet back to the other dimension and let the soul ships detonate it. If just one Spectre can do all of this, imagine what the rest of them will do if they are ever allowed to enter our universe. You can’t let that happen. You must survive, and you must make sure the soul ships destroy Erevos and hopefully the rest of that dimension with it.

  Hearing his former master and friend filled Chase’s heart with hope.

  “No!” said Chase to Tanak’Vor. “I don’t know how yet, but we’ll stop you.”

  Tanak’Vor sighed. “I have no doubt that you’re sincere in your wish to do so, but wishing it to be true won’t change your destiny I’m afraid. You may have thought, up until this very moment, that you were the immortal Ultra Fury of legend, just as Arakan feared you to be, but we both know you can be killed. In fact, you can feel it inside your heart now, deep down you know your soul will end up adding to my power. I don’t just want to destroy you, Chase, I want to assimilate everything you are, your powers, your energy, your very essence. For what it’s worth, you’ll make a fine addition to my collection of souls.”

  Chase’s anger replaced his fear, and he ripped the icicle out of his bleeding shoulder. He intensified his aura and the projectile melted in his hand at the same time as his wound mended. He hesitated, wanting to teleport away and back to his family, but he felt compelled not to.

  Chase took a defensive stance.

  “When you’re done yapping, would you mind continuing this fight? I grow weary of your monologue.”

  Sarah continued flying around the spider ship, dodging its plasma discharges and retaliating with fireballs, but the craft’s shields absorbed her attacks with ease and kept firing at her.