The Heartstone Saga

by Archibald Bradford

  Despite the uncharacteristic behaviour of the demon inside her, Evadne laughed, stretching her arm out above where the floor was missing, as if to check if it were raining outside the broken room.

  “Funny, you’re all glowy but I don’t really feel anything.”

  “You wouldn’t.” The Dominar countered coolly; “Your heart is long dead. Your body soon to join it.”

  Abruptly she dashed forwards, faster than she had ever flown, a harsh cry escaping her lips as her blazing sword slashed at the smug Chimera.

  No more would she fight on the defensive.

  The smirking Evadne brought her claws up, sheathed in the same darkness that had never before failed her and set to parry the blow.

  But a moment later she was stumbling back and screaming in agony, four fingers shorn from her hand.

  “Simple fool! I wield the very antithesis of what you have become!” Volka’s eyes grew distant as she looked into the face that no one else could see, still cowering behind the Chimera’s black eyes; “Spawn of entropy! You cannot hide from me! Leave this poor husk behind and return to nothingness, for you are not meant for this world!”

  Volka drew her shoulder back and swiftly lunged again, her sword seeking Evadne’s heart.

  “And you are a whore for the humans that took my children from me!!” The Chimera sobbed out between gritted teeth as yet more darkness enveloped her chest.

  This time she shifted back with one shoulder so that her armour managed to deflect the Valkyrie’s thrust, the ethereal blade skittering to one side with a shriek as chips of obsidian broke free and burnt away into nothing under the might of the golden blade.

  Undeterred, Volka’s light blazed ever brighter, her wings lashing forwards to launch a barrage of glowing feathers as she struck again and again with her sword.

  Despite Evadne’s rage and bluster, despite her malice and her grief, and despite her stubbornness in persisting long after the rest of her people were dust, the light Volka wielded against her was dissolving her dark armour faster than the demon inside of her could form it.

  Eons ago Volka’s goddess led the first Dominars of the Valkyrie into the field of battle to pit themselves against the heralds of entropy. With her divine might and her daughters’ indomitable will together they cast the Unmakers from the mortal world so that life could flourish upon it.

  Despite the story being lost to time, and although all but one of the Valkyrie were gone, the being inside of Evadne remembered well its defeat at the hands of her forbears.

  And it was afraid.

  With a cry of frustration at being thwarted yet again by the angel, Evadne, or more accurately the creature that now controlled her dark heart, opted to flee from the mighty Dominar, diving out of the destroyed chamber and taking to the sky.

  But Volka was quick to follow, her golden eyes tracking her foe.

  “Not this time!” She swore as her powerful wings carried her in swift pursuit.

  Chapter 38:

  Chaos, Above and Below

  While Evadne sought to escape from his bond-mate’s glowing sword, Nameless picked himself up off the floor in the sudden silence, but as he did he felt an odd tickling sensation on his neck as something slipped free.

  His hand reflexively snatched at it, only to come away with the remains of Milly’s braid.

  About a quarter of it had been consumed by the Chimera’s magic.

  “Master! Are you alright?!” The Minotaur demanded as she checked him over frantically.

  “Milly...”

  Stricken, he held up the braid that meant so much to both of them.

  “Oh!” She blinked rapidly for a moment, stunned.

  “I’m so sorry baby, I-”

  But she interrupted him before he could finish his thought.

  “Why that! Dumb... dumb...”

  Her face was beet red with a mixture of indignation and frustration as she tried to find words strong enough to describe the Chimera.

  With a huff of air out of her nose and a hearty stomp of one hoof, she found them.

  “That dumb-dumb!”

  “I know how you feel.” He offered sympathetically; “But we need to check for survivors.”

  He shuddered though as he remembered the nearness of Evadne’s magical attack, trying to focus by looking out into the open air where a good portion of the room used to be.

  “Is Nina okay?” Milly asked with a sullen sniffle.

  She was pretty sure she was, but she still felt some relief at Nameless’s nod.

  “Yeah, just... angry. She’s not happy to have two buildings dropped on her in the span of an hour. She’s digging herself out now.”

  While he spoke he checked amongst the still bodies on the floor, but his hopes were soon dashed; there were no survivors, and his heart ached for them.

  But they had to keep moving forwards.

  “Come on, it’s not safe.”

  Milly sniffled again and pointed out the painfully obvious, highlighted by the dead around them.

  “Is anywhere safe anymore?”

  He opened his mouth to respond, but then gasped when he remembered what Evadne had said.

  “The council! She said something about murdering the council! We need to-”

  “They’re dead.”

  He turned to face Sadie Essig, his friend and mentor as well as the only other known Empath.

  She came out of one of the levitator cars, her shoulders slumped as she looked around at the bodies in the ruined room, her expression hopeless.

  “I found them a few minutes ago, I… Xalanth was in the city, if she was here we could have-”

  “Don’t.” Nameless said as he pulled the frail woman into a hug; “We don’t get to second guess, not yet. We don’t even know if this is over.”

  Nameless was more right than he knew, because down on the streets it was chaos.

  A frightened mob of people had taken cover in the auction house, while just outside of it Baron, Ginger and their girls were doing their very best to fend off the Ogre that had kicked in the front door.

  A Naiad was blasting her watery form into the Tenebrae’s face whenever she could to distract her while Celeste swooped in to peck at her head and Baron’s Raiju franticly rubbed against each other to build a strong enough charge to take down the massive girl.

  On the other side of the building Tora was rolling over with one of her cousins, sobbing and begging her to stop even as the girl bit, punched and kicked at her. Meanwhile Kriss was on the dark Ogre’s back, relentlessly hitting her in the temple over and over with the hilt of her blade to try to knock her out.

  And three streets away from them, Grant Semper and his bond-mates were enduring the fight of their lives.

  Nameless’s training officer was on the ground with his Gnome on his chest, protecting him with a half-dome of her clay from the two Ogres hell-bent on crushing them.

  The blue-skinned girls were raining heavy blows down on it, distorting the rim of it and trapping Grant beneath it.

  “Aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-ah!” Linda shouted out in the same oddly slow cadence with which she did everything.

  Despite her bizarre outcry, it was a genuine expression of fear that her bond-sister Bruti recognized, on the ground not far away after having taken a brutal hit from one of the Ogres.

  But there was a reason that Nina was wary of the big bear girl when they first met: she knew what a Grizzly could be like when riled.

  And with her bond-mates’ lives in such jeopardy, Bruti was riled.

  Below the dome, Grant had tears standing in his eyes as he coughed away the dust from the destruction around them, his hands helplessly pushing upwards against the bottom of the clay.

  With Linda screaming above him and being blind and disoriented he saw no other way but to give the order no Aegis operative ever wanted to give.

  “Bruti! G-Go lethal!”

  He had no idea if she could even hear him, but it didn’t matter, because at that point the bear was
n’t asking for his permission.

  Once she was back on her feet she roared at the Ogres as only an angry bear could, the pair of them turning away from trying to pummel Grant and Linda flat, unable to ignore the smaller monster’s challenge.

  The both towered over her, but she outmatched even their dark ferocity as she charged at them and latched her thick black claws into the leg of the taller of the two.

  The Ogre swatted at her back, but Bruti tore deep into the dark girl’s flesh and climbed her as readily as she would a tree, leaving deep bloody gouges in her wake.

  The other Ogre likewise tried to strike her with her massive blue fists, but succeeded only in pummeling her giant sister instead.

  And once she reached her shoulders Bruti wrapped both of her massive paws around the Tenebrae’s neck, digging into her flesh before tearing back again.

  A massive goat of blood flooded from the grievous injury as the giant let out a piteous whine, mortally wounded by the Grizzly’s savagery.

  Again the other Ogre swatted at her, and this time her fist landed a glancing blow across the bear’s back, but she barely felt the hit, too deep into her bestial ferocity.

  Instead she threw one paw back and latched onto the Ogre’s fist, pushing off of the dying girl with her feet to pounce onto the other’s chest, her claws tearing into her face with relentless purpose.

  Soon two dead Ogres were lying in the street, shocked people all around watching as the Grizzly that ended them roared again, this time with a plaintive note of grief amidst the rage.

  Bruti was a grumpy girl most days, but something that few other than Grant and Linda knew: she was amongst the kindest of souls.

  But today no one could afford to be.

  __________

  Meanwhile in the air far above the stricken city Evadne and Volka were trading magically charged attacks.

  Bolts of darkness and enchanted feathers flew back and forth between them as they ducked and wheeled through the sky.

  “Can you afford to keep chasing me?” Evadne taunted in a strained voice; “A whole lot of people are dying right now!”

  “We both know that a great deal more will die if I let you escape!” The Valkyrie shouted as she darted in and swung with her glowing sword.

  The tip of the blade whistled past the Chimera’s face as she flinched away from the light of it.

  “And I know your story now, Evadne Contrail! I know the depths of your grief, and the source of it!”

  “That, that name means nothing to me!” The off-balance Chimera hissed as she flapped her bat-like wings furiously to try to put some distance between them.

  “I know of Malcolm’s treachery!” Volka countered; “I know of what he did to your children! To your babies!”

  The demon within her breast still hid from the Valkyrie, her aura as toxic to it as her sword, so Evadne was free to feel everything, all of the pain that had driven her into accepting the demon’s promises.

  Dreadful agony and rage twisted inside of her, each emotion striving to drown out the other and pull her into chaotic madness.

  But before the advent of the Empaths it was the Valkyrie’s duty to confront the Tenebrae, so the Dominar’s aura seeped into the broken Chimera like life-giving water into parched earth.

  As such, Evadne’s jaw shook while she struggled in vain to control herself, her teeth grinding together as she remembered her daughters and the man who once upon a time held her heart in sway.

  They flapped their wings, circling in the air not far from each other as Volka concentrated more power into her aura and forced the other monster girl to open her fractured heart.

  Never before had the dark Chimera spoken openly about Malcolm’s betrayal, such was the might of the Dominar’s compassion.

  “He was always distant with our children, I thought it was the nearness of my mother, who never liked him, never trusted him! I now know he kept himself aloof so that when the time came he could stand by and let them die.” Black tears traced down Evadne’s face and her eyes blazed with grief and hatred; “Show me a monster who could do the same!”

  Volka shook her head as she called out over the sound of the wind in her ears.

  “I’m looking at one! You lost your children, which should have been tragedy enough. But how many children have you now slain Evadne? Let go of this madness, find peace in death as you should have done so long ago! Your people are waiting for you!”

  For the first time in centuries the Chimera felt something other than rage and hate: temptation.

  But the compassion of a single Valkyrie, no matter how powerful, was not enough.

  Evadne was too far gone, and the fleeting thought of release was squashed beneath the weight of a millennium of twisted desire cultivated by the malevolent being that dwelled in her breast.

  “I will have my peace when all is dust!” She threw one arm out to the side, her fist wreathing in shadow as she cast out another bolt.

  The Valkyrie raised her shield reflexively, blocking the wild attack with careless ease.

  “There is a word for what you have become Evadne!” Volka cried out, her tone holding a hint of exasperation; “Evil! You must see that what you are is evil!”

  The Chimera let out a throaty chuckle as more black tears streaked down her face, her madness swallowing what little reason the Valkyrie’s aura had drawn out of her.

  “I am past caring! I will have my vengeance! The world will burn until there is nothing left! No one can feel the pain I feel if they are all dead!”

  A beat of silence hung in the wind between them as Volka accepted with absolute finality that she could not save the dark creature before her.

  “The corrupted logic you use to justify yourself is an affront to the memory of your children.” She called out sternly.

  Her voice was lower than before, but even over the wind the black creature heard her condemnation.

  And she felt it keenly.

  “Do not speak of them!” Evadne snarled.

  Volka raised her sword and braced her shield again as she committed herself to fulfilling her duty, now using her words as cruel weapons to unsettle her foe.

  “The Amazons would call you neucta, but you are beyond even that. Your ancestors would turn their backs on you, of that I am certain, but so too would your precious babies! Petra and sweet Kaylen would fear this thing that their mother has become! As well they should!”

  “DO NOT SPEAK OF THEM!!”

  Evade surged forwards with a feral shriek, blackness engulfing her entire form as her uninjured fist struck at Volka’s shield.

  Her shadow was broken apart by the Valkyrie’s light, but much of it remained, hanging in the air as a dark cloud over the imperilled city.

  Silently directed by a frantic demon’s will.

  She attacked again and again, but the Dominar was imbued with the power of all of the Valkyrie that came before, and had grown far beyond her.

  Once again a part of Evadne craved the release that Volka’s glowing sword offered, craved the peace of the grave, but the darkness inside of her had too strong of a hold upon her soul.

  It forced her to pull back from the Valkyrie’s deadly weapon and taunting words, to push down her grief and to fight with purpose.

  And when the time came, that purpose was fulfilled.

  There was a massive concussive wave as the cloud of shadow that the demon had been releasing throughout her reckless assault detonated all at once.

  It was a stronger version of the same attack Evadne had once used against Oldeera and her hive, to devastating effect.

  But the Hornets were not imbued with the same divine protections as the Valkyrie, nor were they as cunning in battle as Volka.

  Reading the intent of the attack a moment before it came, she folded her golden feathers around herself and crossed her arms behind her shield as she dropped a couple dozen feet in an instant to fall free of the cloud of shadow.

  Afterwards she unfurled her wings to regain control
of her fall, bringing her shield to bear against any follow up assault.

  But the Chimera was gone.

  She caught sight of her just as the last of the shadows she wrapped around herself pulled her into the realm of shadow within the veil between life and death, somewhere the living angel could not follow.

  Volka ground her teeth together in frustration at Evadne’s escape, but she couldn’t dwell on it long.

  Screams of terror coming from Garland far below were calling her away.

  “Your death is coming.” She vowed into the wind, the memory of Nina making the same pledge innumerable times before filling her mind.

  With a flap of her wings she turned and flew back to face the carnage in the city to save as many lives as she could.

  Chapter 39:

  Triage

  Kavanaugh and his team had enlisted the help of several stout folk to carry the goo-bound Ogres towards the supposed safety of the Bastion, and once they reached Divinity Square they found a sea of people, Aegis and otherwise, working around hundreds more wounded and dying streaming in from every part of the city.

  A scene from a nightmare.

  “Becks?! What the hell are you doing here?!”

  Miranda came running towards them with Jan and Kala, Jez preoccupied keeping an Ogre’s wrists and ankles contained with her tongue.

  She had beads of sweat on her forehead from the effort it took to keep the Tenebrae from escaping, but she was nothing if not stubborn.

  At the sound of her bond-mate’s words, Rebecca tore her eyes away from the nightmare, her ears straightening hopefully in relief.

  “Mistress!” She called out as she surged forwards to meet her; “I was at the academy when the call came in! Are you alright?!”

  “Am I- fucking hell Becks!”

  The grey-haired Aegis operative sighed while pulling the bunny into her arms.

  “Helluva girl you’ve got here Holt, your Lapine saved a lot of lives today.” Kavanaugh offered.

  Miranda pulled away from her and nodded.

  “Yeah, but we’re hardly done yet.” She looked to the two Ogres they had bound; “Nice job with the take-downs, but it will be for nothing if I can’t find our damn Empath.”