“You won’t have a very fun eternity if I cut all your limbs off.” she called out.
“I’m really starting to not like you, bitch.” he said nastily.
“Watch your language, that is a woman you’re speaking to!” Henry scolded, blinding the man with yet another beam of light.
Marcie’s emerald eyes sparkled with an enraged fire, and she lunged at Pink with extraordinary speed. She fell on top of him, knocking the man hard onto the ground. But Pink had managed to stop her, twisting his legs around her torso and trapping her in place.
“Not so tough are you now, little Huck girl.” he sneered.
“Oh me? Says the one cut in half!” she yelled.
Pink looked down in confusion and saw that Marcie’s armored knee had slid out a medium-length blade, which she rammed into his abdomen.
He let out a cry of pain as Marcie kicked her knee forward with all her power, forcing the blade to slice through Pink’s stomach all the way up to his neck.
The man writhed around on the ground as Marcie stood up, relinquishing the blade back into its place within her armor. She watched, slightly disgusted, as Pink’s body attempted to string his skin and organs back together. The flesh on either side of his cut stomach reached out as if to connect, but seemed unable to span the distance. Marcie approached the man, sliding a blade out of her right arm.
“Here, let me save you the trouble. Bitch.” she said as she swung down with her arm, slicing Pink’s head clean off.
“You’re a true gentleman, Henry. This guy could use some pointers.” she said to the little A.I. as she picked Pink up by the hair on his head.
His sliced neck had sealed itself back up in a gruesome looking stump. Henry and Marcie hurried back towards the viewing deck with Pink’s head swinging in her right hand as she ran. As they made it onto the balcony they found Alfred and Sham-Bon locked in an intense duel.
“Alfred!” she yelled.
Alfred’s eyes remained only on Sham-Bon, but he yelled back as they continued to exchange blows with one another.
“Marcie! Look you’ve got to get--” Alfred paused for a moment as he ducked under the king’s high-swinging blade. “You’ve gotta help Flux and the others, they can’t be in good shape.”
“But I can’t leave you here alone!” she yelled back.
“Leave this to me, Marcie. Go help the others.”
“I won’t leave you!” she called back defiantly.
“I’m probably going to regret this move in the long run.” Alfred said bluntly to Sham-Bon, whose face turned into a look of confusion.
Alfred swung at the king, who managed to move his sword in time to block it. But Alfred punched upward hard with his left fist. Sham-Bon stumbled back for a moment and Alfred did something very unexpected. Something he would indeed likely come to regret. He threw his Rift Blade at Marcie, and her face lit up in shock as it stuck into the hand holding Pink’s head. The head fell to the floor and Marcie disappeared into a rift portal.
Alfred sprinted over quickly to where his blade lay on the floor beside Henry and the severed head. Sham-Bon made a run at him, but tripped over his feet as Henry blinded him yet again.
The man rubbed his eyes roughly and turned back to see Alfred standing, now re-armed with his weapon.
“How cruel of you, Moreno. We’re more alike than I thought. To kill a girl who so obviously loves you, just to keep her out of your way? Why we’re practically twins, my boy!”
“I didn’t kill her. I sent her safely back to the main lobby in the sanctuary with a minor hand injury. Seriously though man, you managed to convince an entire planet that its sun was exploding and you honestly think I just murdered the girl I love?”
“Oh, my! A little romance story playing out right before my eyes! I’ve never really been much into the chick flicks.”
“Sir, you love Marcy?!” Henry asked excitedly, completely ignoring the dire situation at hand.
“Did I say l-love...jeez. Well now’s not the time for me to be sorting out feelings, okay Henry?” Alfred stuttered back.
“You know, you should be asking for my blessing. I’m the closest thing she’s ever had to a father, after all. Always did have a soft spot for the kids, especially when you have their parents murdered slowly by disease. But what do you know- they all turn into betraying brats.” Sham-Bon raved.
“You are nothing to her. You’ve killed so many, ruined so many other’s lives. Making an entire planet believe their home would be destroyed. There are no words to describe a soul like yours Sham-Bon. I pray to the Universe that you are truly one-of-a-kind because men like you don’t deserve life. That’s why I’m sending you to the eternal emptiness.”
“Oh what’s that, eternal emptiness you say? As appealing as that sounds I think I’ll have to pass on the offer. Aren’t you forgetting about something Alfred, I told you it was far too kind of you to bring me the crystal.” Sham-Bon opened his palm, in it glimmered the Crystal of Gosia.
Alfred looked surprised to see that the king had picked up the crystal, but then again he had lost track of where it was during the intensity of their battle.
“Oh would you look at that! Is that shock I see on the great Al Moreno’s face? You do realize this gives me the power of the god Gosia himself!” Sham-Bon roared as he took his sword and cut a slit into each one of his palms.
Alfred watched, puzzled, as the man clasped his hands together with the crystal between them and yelled, “GOSIA I DEMAND YOU GRANT ME YOUR POWER!”
The king tensed his muscles tightly as if preparing to endure some sort of extreme pain of the god lending him its power. He stopped a moment later and looked at his hands in bewilderment.
“Why...why hasn’t it worked?” he mumbled.
“You guys are all so uneducated about ancient Universal artifacts. The crystal’s a gateway to Gosia’s realm, and the only way I’ve been able to use it is with my Rift Blade- which you don’t have. Oh, and a ceremony with a bunch of creepy old men under the moonlight. Looks like you shouldn’t ever have gone chasing after the crystal, eh little prince?”
“I am a KING!” Sham-Bon spoke indignantly. “So what, I wanted to use the crystal to conquer other planets eventually- but at the end of the day being emperor of Hemphion can keep me content for awhile until I find a new way.” The king threw the crystal brutally at the floor, and it skidded into the far back corner of his office.
Alfred ran at the man, managing to stab another gaping hole in his chest. Sham-Bon fell back in pain, but wiped one of his palms across Alfred’s face.
“Eww, come on man! Blood to the eyes, really?” he wiped his eyes frantically in disgust against his already bloodstained jacket.
It didn’t do much good and Alfred found his eyes twitching with irritation as he had to dodge Sham-Bon’s attacks. The man’s reflexes were definitely slower than before, but even so Alfred struggled to avoid them with his watering eyes. He found himself getting pushed back farther and farther across the balcony. Sham-Bon swung down viciously with his longsword and Alfred leaned back- the blade’s tip grazing across his chest. He tried to regain his balance but the king kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.
Alfred found himself falling over the railing and he reached out his hands desperately to grab anything that could give him a hold. His left hand found nothing but emptiness, but he had managed to clutch the rail with his right hand. He felt his muscles tense as the weight of his hanging body fought against him.
“Henry, the crystal! Get the crystal!” he shouted to the egg who was scooting around the floor in sheer panic.
“Yes sir, hang on sir!” he voiced back with worry as he scurried into the main office.
Sham-Bon, feeling the effects of two pieces of his soul being utterly destroyed, limped over toward Alfred who was fighting to pull himself back to safety. He was having a hard time reaching up to the ledge to grip it with his other hand. Finally he had grasped it but had to release it immediately as
the king swung the Altarian Rue sword down onto the ledge where his hand had been moments before. Alfred reached as if to grab his Rift Blade and teleport himself to safety, but had to jump his gripping hand over on the railing again as Sham-Bon swung down with his sword.
“You’re not teleporting out of this one. Tell me, how does it feel to see everything you care about crumbling away right in front of you? And here you are, their last hope- hanging on to dear life!” the king laughed crazily, the hatred for Alfred shimmering in his eyes.
Sham-Bon swung down once again, and Al barely managed to jump his hand over and avoid his sword. He felt his grip starting to slip with the fatigue of shifting his body weight around to dodge the attacks.
“Why do you bother? We both know you can’t keep this up much longer.” the king stated grimly, and Alfred knew he was right.
Henry had picked up the crystal with an extended claw, and held it tight out in front of him as he zoomed back towards the balcony. He was about halfway across when he heard his companion yell.
“Henry, I need the crystal NOW!”
Henry processed the level of urgency in his friend’s voice instantly. Not a nano-second later he had arrived at the only possible thing he could do in that moment to give the man who had given him life, a chance to live himself. Henry may not have had a soul, but in that instant he ignored the percentage calculation of Alfred’s survival probability (0.000041%) and he felt a new sensation. One that no A.I. had ever experienced before. It was faith.
The little golden egg reached its claw back far and swung it forward, catapulting Gosia’s Crystal into the air at a very specific trajectory. In the moments that Henry watched the crystal rotate through the air, he had time to explore over 3,000 thoughts. But he chose just two:
1. The percentage for Alfred’s chance of living ended in the numbers 041- the name of the elevator that had taken him to his date on board the Lonely Hearts Neptune Cruise Ship.
2. The Universe has a sense of humor.
Alfred tried to swing himself over to avoid Sham-Bon’s sword, but it had been too much for his body to manage any longer. He felt his hand miss the railing and he began to fall through the air. In the first few moments of his plummet he stared at the triumphant face of Sham-Bon who gazed down at him. Al decided he wouldn’t spend his last moments looking at the face of the bastard who had killed him. He made as if to close his eyes and accept his fate, as he felt the air rushing all around him. Then a raging thought surged inside of him:
I have always accepted the destiny that the Universe has long set out for us all. I have served my whole life to protect it from those who attempt to disrupt its all-knowing flow. So Universe, he thought in his head, if you don’t want it to end like this, and I can do anything at all to prevent it, please give me a damn sign!
Alfred opened his eyes, a glimmer in the air immediately catching his eye. It was Gosia’s Crystal falling just above him.
“Henry you’re the best! UOGH!” Alfred choked as the crystal fell into his mouth and down his throat just as he had opened it to thank his friend.
Alfred could feel the crystal lodged in his airpath and forced himself to gulp down hard so that he could once again breathe. He felt it slide down his throat as he swallowed. Not exactly what I had in mind, he thought to himself.
Suddenly it seemed as if he weren’t falling as fast. In fact, everything had happened quite quickly and he was surprised to see he was only a dozen or so meters from the ledge he had tumbled over. He looked to his right and almost pissed himself as he saw a giant owl diving through the air beside him.
“Duplication, Al Moreno.” it said softly to him, and its voice reached Alfred clearly, as if the words had been put directly in his mind.
The owl disappeared. Alfred once again felt time shift back to normal and he found himself plummeting seemingly a hundred times faster.
“Gardtrof!” Alfred’s shout was lost in the blasting wind around him.
Alfred closed his eyes once more, paying no attention to his impending impact on the ground far below the warship. He cleared his mind and focused his energy until he could feel its presence pulsating throughout his body. He thought of the crystal- now inside him. If he was going to try become one with the crystal’s energy, it being inside him didn’t seem like such a bad thing. Alfred ignored the Universe’s Divine Energy that he had so long been trained to accept and harness with his own. He blocked it out entirely until his mind was clear of everything but the powerful spirit that seemed to be resonating out of the crystal in his stomach.
Alfred felt the crystal’s energy combine with his own, until the overwhelming sensation of its power seemed to vibrate through every nerve in his body. He focused for the first time on not one location to teleport his body to- but three separate places.
Alfred’s eyes snapped open.
16 MULTIPLE MORENOS
The Rift Resolver found himself back on the balcony of the command office. He felt strange, almost as if he suddenly weighed no more than the air that surrounded him. He looked up to see Sham-Bon kneeling on the ground and inspecting Pink’s severed head. Further ahead of the kneeling king he saw something incredibly bizarre. It was him, standing just a little way in front of the shattered glass wall of the office.
Alfred’s awareness suddenly flashed into his body across from Sham-Bon. The man was talking to the head and hadn’t yet noticed his arrival. I need to be in both places at once, he thought, I’d say it’s impossible but I don’t think I believe in that term anymore. He focused on where his body stood near the balcony railing. Slowly, yes, he felt it! He raised an arm up and each copy of him raised it simultaneously. Then he moved his left arm on one copy while moving his right on the other. Yes, he was getting the hang of it- he was able to be in both places at once and have each body perform its own separate functions.
“What the hell! How are you alive, how are you here?!” Sham-Bon roared, noticing the Alfred that stood in front of him.
Pink’s head spoke from where it sat on the ground beside the king, “Hey, I thought you said you killed that guy?” he asked ignorantly.
“I did kill him, it’s impossible!” he declared.
There should be one more, Alfred thought, feeling for the presence of the third copy he had tried to split himself into. Yes- he felt it. There it was in the main lobby of the sanctuary. Take control, yes you can do this, he encouraged himself. It felt as if he had grown even lighter, but he had done it. His soul was split into three individual copies of his body, and he had command of them all.
“Nothing is impossible, you should know that Sham-Bon. Even you claim to be immortal. Your soul may remain forever, but it’ll spend those countless eons in the ultimate abyss.”
Alfred ran at Sham-Bon with his Rift Blade, using both the body that stood in front of him and the one the king was unaware of on the balcony behind him. Sham-Bon managed to meet the front copy’s blade with his own.
“I suppose I’ll just have to kill you yet again. Perhaps you’ll be more of a challenge this time around.” he ridiculed.
“This match’s outcome has already been decided. And I’m sorry to tell ya Princy, but I win.” Alfred flashed back as he forced his blade harder into the longsword, knocking it from the king’s grip onto the floor.
The second copy of Alfred had now reached Sham-Bon, and he wrapped his arms around the unsuspecting man tightly so that for all his strength he was held still. The king forced his head to angle behind him, his face dumbfounded when he saw another Al Moreno was his captor. The front copy of Alfred wasted no time and thrust his Rift Blade in and out of the man’s body several times, careful to avoid his copy’s arms. The second copy released his hold as Sham-Bon fell to the floor screaming at the pain of his soul being sent into the eternal emptiness, piece by piece. He had only the strength left to glare at the Rift Resolver in pure hatred as Al sliced upward through what remained of his patchy body. The king’s eyes flashed once more with despise as what was left
of him vanished into a dark void, forever trapped in the Place of No Return.
Alfred stood up from where he had kneeled on top of the king’s body. He looked over to his second copy and they reached out to connect a high-five.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” they said at the same time.
“Hey over here! You can’t leave me here, please!” Pink’s head shouted from the floor.
“I think I know what to do with him.” Alfred’s second copy said.
“Be my guest.” the other Alfred replied.
The copy picked up the head by its hair and ran a few yards before tossing it into the air and punting it off the balcony with a hard kick. Pink yelled something inaudible as his head disappeared over the side of the railing. The copy took a bow and Alfred allowed that portion of his soul to return to him.
“Henry buddy, I don’t know where you’re at but I hope you’re okay.” Alfred spoke aloud and he allowed the current portion of his soul to connect with the one he had summoned back down in the village of Bratvia.
***
Alfred found his third and now only copy opening its eyes to the sound of someone yelling.
“Wake up! Alfred, please don’t be dead...please.” it was Marcie crying beside him.
“Not quite.” he said sitting up and taking hold of the girl whose eyes became filled with pure relief.
Alfred held her embrace for a moment longer before he let go and got to his feet, giving her a hand up.
“Look, no time to explain really. I’m about to do something really, really crazy. It’s going to sound like a terribly stupid idea, but you have to trust me. You haven’t seen Henry around here have you?”
Al Moreno And the Crystal of Gosia Page 14