Chosen of Chaos (Eve of Destruction Book 1)

by Benjamin Medrano

  Evelyn got between the mech’s legs easily, and the pilot paused to try to localize her, which was damned stupid. Placing a hand against one ankle, Evelyn focused her magic again, then jumped away. As she reached a safe distance, the magic ripped the ankle apart, dropping the mech a good half-meter as it lost several servos.

  “That was a mistake,” Evelyn said, crouching for a moment, straining, then jumped, leaping a good eight meters in the air, then reached out to grab onto the mech as she reversed her energy sword and punched it deep into its armor. Oh, it took a few seconds to pierce into it, but she was already inside any shields, and the armor wasn’t enchanted. Twisting around as the mech tried to turn in place, Evelyn launched herself farther up as one of the machine’s hands tried to swat her like a fly, and this time she was up near the mech’s flight system.

  A couple of swipes of her blade disabled that, which was the most important aspect to Evelyn for the moment. She couldn’t help a grin as she punched the blade deep into the machine, and it lurched around. The woman inside was saying something, but Evelyn ignored her, especially as the air seemed to explode when she fired the mech’s heavy cannon into a wall. Oh, the splash off the walls hit Evelyn with a tiny amount of molten silver, but her shields shrugged that off, even if they were down to four percent. No, Evelyn carefully gauged where she’d seen the woman floating, and decided that she’d found the spot she wanted.

  “Eternal energy of destruction, come to my hands and let all be reduced to nothing.” Evelyn chanted, focusing hard… and a pulse of energy left her free hand, punching into the mech’s back.

  The metal shimmered, dulled, then fell to dust before her, and the war machine lurched, rocking as the woman piloting it began to turn, anger in her eyes. Evelyn wasn’t giving her time to figure out how she’d gotten into the back of the piloting chamber, though, and she simply thrust her blade without an ounce of mercy.

  The energy sword met resistance, of course. There was some form of defensive field around the Senne, but it wasn’t enough. The burning blade punched through the Senne’s neck, severing her spine. Not that Evelyn thought that would kill her, not if she’d wished to become a goddess.

  “Ravening forces of annihilation, enders of all life, eternal eye of destruction, I call upon thee. Let your shadows show all things despair, and bring even the works of the heavens to naught!” Evelyn exclaimed, focusing all the magic she could muster into her next spell, which consumed almost two thirds of what she had left… and took form in a tiny, black orb that appeared just in front of the stone embedded in the woman’s chest.

  Evelyn jumped back out of the cockpit with alacrity, and as she did so, she asked. “So… can a wishstone survive a miniature black hole, Fya?”

  “A what?” Fya demanded. “What did you do, milady?”

  Evelyn made a nice, three-point landing, and watched as an orb of utter darkness ripped the entire torso of the mech apart, consuming everything that fell into it as well, and for a moment she could hear the air howling as the darkness spread farther and farther… then, with an odd popping sound, the darkness vanished. She straightened, hooking her energy sword back on her belt.

  “I created a micro-black hole on top of the wishstone after stabbing my sword through her neck. Will it do the job?” Evelyn asked, watching the spot warily. She wasn’t going to get overconfident just because she thought it was dealt with.

  “Milady, sometimes you scare me. I didn’t know you could cast spells like that!” Fya replied incredulously. “Yes, it’ll have dealt with it. Sheesh.”

  “Good,” Evelyn said, relaxing slightly as she considered, then shrugged. “As for the spell… yes, I can use it. It’s one of the few that requires a chant, and casting it once, even lasting only a handful of seconds, consumes almost half my mana. It’s horribly inefficient, but I wanted to ensure that the woman underwent spaghettification.”

  “You know, I really hate that term,” Fya said, sounding particularly revolted. “Anyway, so… problem solved?”

  “Pretty much. Just keep things secure outside, I’ll make sure this lady is gone, then we can start looting,” Evelyn replied. “Let Relka know?”

  “Sure!” Fya replied, cutting the line a second later.

  Evelyn shook her head, then used some of her remaining magic to take flight so she could look over what was left of the mech. She doubted she’d find anything useful, but it was always possible she’d be wrong.

  Epilogue

  The aftermath wasn’t too bad, Ilyra decided, glancing out the window of the shuttle again as she looked at the station. Oh, being aboard the station when the explosions had rocked it had been frightening, yet at the same time, Zelirana’s reassuring presence had helped her keep calm, as had the steady reactions of the Dolls. Yes, they weren’t people, but they looked like they were, and their lack of worry helped ease her nerves.

  Of course, shortly after Evelyn had informed everyone that she’d dealt with the insane, would-be goddess who’d killed everyone, a couple of other ships had tried to bull their way in, but they’d been fended off by the mercenaries and Djinn’s Gift. Ilyra was a little fuzzy about who the attackers had been, she’d thought that they were pirates, but one of the nearby mercenaries had muttered something about privateers and adventurers. She’d also been too busy to put much thought into it.

  Instead, the last three days had been spent going through the station stores and taking what they thought they could use. That’d been helped by the station AI deciding that since Evelyn had defeated the previous stationmaster in single combat and that there wasn’t another appropriate leader, it’d follow her directions. That struck Ilyra as bizarre, as where she was from, if the leader of a house died the entire family would vote on a new head. What she’d heard about senne hierarchies sounded strange to her. Why would anyone want three people in a single leadership position?

  In any case, after taking stock of all the valuable minerals, including the immense amount of wealth in the blasted chamber where Evelyn had destroyed her opponent, they’d split the winnings with the mercenaries. Ilyra couldn’t believe how bad the destruction had been in the room, and she wondered what had dealt so much damage to the mech. Not that she felt like asking.

  But they were done at last, and Ilyra let out a soft sigh as she tried to relax. The holds were full of valuable minerals, and Evelyn had promised that each person would get a healthy bonus once it was dealt with.

  “Where do you think we’re going next?” Ilyra asked after a few seconds.

  “From what I heard Star discussing with Evelyn, most likely back to Nald to sell off most of this,” Vaneryth replied, piloting the shuttle carefully. “I think they’re planning to keep some, but I’m not entirely sure. After that, I don’t know.”

  “Mm… well, I guess we’ll find out,” Ilyra said, taking a deep breath, then smiled. “So, um… I heard you spent last night in Zel’s room?”

  The angel’s cheeks flushed, and she cleared her throat before speaking, her tone prim and proper. “I’m afraid that’s a private matter.”

  Ilyra giggled.

  “Finally done,” Evelyn said, rolling her head to try to pop her neck. She’d had to put off doing proper maintenance on her armor due to everything that happened. Oh, it was in good enough shape for combat or even space travel, but it had needed repairs, and that had to wait. She was the one the mercenaries respected, so she’d been the main point of contact.

  That was why she’d spent the last few hours going over the armor, carefully repairing it and ensuring that it was in optimal condition. It required a great deal of tools and attention to fine detail, even with the automated maintenance unit, but doing it herself made her happier. Evelyn was a believer in doing maintenance yourself so that you knew it was done right.

  Not that she expected anyone else to do that. Evelyn didn’t think anyone except Fya had the training to be able to fully repair their armor the way she just had, so… she sighed, pushing the thought aside. Now it was ti
me for her to take a bath and go to bed. A nice, luxuriant bubble bath sounded perfect to her.

  The door to her room hissed open and Evelyn stepped inside, then stopped, stunned.

  Vania’s blonde hair and sun-kissed skin was unmistakable, at least to Evelyn, and she raised her gaze to meet Evelyn’s. The empress was wearing a simple white sheath dress, and for an instant Evelyn just stood there, looking at the woman sitting on the edge of her bed as her brain came to a gibbering halt. Then the woman spoke.

  “Hello, Captain. I was told that you would like my company this evening,” the woman said, her voice eerily similar to Vania’s, but the way she talked, and the slight differences told Evelyn who this was.

  Evelyn’s eyes narrowed as she looked at Control, anger surging through her, strangling the confused… no, she wouldn’t think about that. She wasn’t going to let anyone manipulate her emotions. Not even the woman who she knew was responsible for this. There was only one person who knew enough about both Vania and Evelyn to have done this.

  “It was Fya, wasn’t it?” Evelyn asked, folding her arms.

  “If you are asking who suggested I join you this evening, you would be correct,” Control agreed, and her voice sent a shiver down Evelyn’s spine, it was so eerily familiar. “She also assisted in adjusting my appearance, voice, and gave me the dress. Are you upset?”

  “Yes, but not with you. You don’t know any better,” Evelyn told her, taking a deep breath, then made a decision. “You wait here. I’ll explain once I’m done with Fya.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Control replied, looking somewhat mystified but accepting Evelyn’s order.

  With that, Evelyn turned toward the door, anger simmering inside her as she focused on finding the djinn and muttered under her breath. “Fya… oh, you’re going to regret this prank.”

  She wasn’t going to murder the djinn. That would be far, far too kind. If Fya was wise, she’d run… but it was a small ship. She’d only prolong the inevitable.

  The End

  I have no idea what to make of this book. It’s like my id ran wild and told me to do whatever I wanted. Evelyn is… so strange. I think I’ve combined my love of high fantasy, powerful characters, and old pulp fiction into one insane whole. I think I like it, but I’m not entirely sure. That’s how it goes, sometimes.

  I have thoughts on how to continue the story, and maybe even give it a more focused plotline, but for now this story is done. I hope you enjoyed Chosen of Chaos! If you’d leave a review, I’d greatly appreciate it!

  If you want to find more of my books, you can find them at the following link.

  Books by Benjamin Medrano

  If you want to see early drafts of my work or help select secondary characters to be illustrated, you can always join my Patreon, or you can get early chapters of upcoming novels and their announcements through my newsletter, both linked below.

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  Also, if you’d care to review this story, I’d greatly appreciate it! Again, thank you for reading Chosen of Chaos.

  Glossary

  These are a few of the common terms and a few items of note in the world of Astral Saga, where Evelyn and the others live.

  Astral – Astral is the alternate dimension which is used by most species to travel between star systems. It is accessed via a combination of magic and technology, and ships are able to travel through it. It has an atmosphere any species can breathe but it has no gravity. Many alien creatures live in the astral, and there are seemingly limitless resources that can be found in it. While star systems location in normal space roughly determines their relative position in the astral, they do not line up perfectly, and sometimes a system which is close in normal space is much farther away in astral.

  Aquana – A species that evolved from aquatic ancestors, the aquana are amphibious and generally peaceful as a species. They prefer particularly humid planets with lots of water, and while they can travel on ships with other species, they tend to find them dry and uncomfortable. They’re known to have particularly good relations with other aquatic species such as merfolk.

  AU (Astral Unit) – The standard unit of measure in astral space. A ship can generally travel seven and a half AU in a day, with some vessels being somewhat faster or slower.

  Celestine – A species of human-like creatures who are believed to be descended from angels in the distant past. They are insular and xenophobic, as well as known for being extremely ruthless about keeping their bloodlines pure.

  Cluster – A cluster is a designation of a group of systems no more than 100 AU across. There is almost always a hub system which is the center of a cluster, usually in a system which has a wyrmgate.

  FTL Node – Also called an FTL link, these devices allow instantaneous communication to their twin within 50 AU. These devices are large, power-intensive, and must be built in pairs, if one of them is destroyed, the other is useless and a new pair needs to be built as replacements. Most star systems have only one or two nodes, and many of them are privately owned. A hub system usually has the most nodes, as it is ideally placed to relay messages within a cluster. Most owners charge for the use of their nodes.

  Mythrite – A silvery metal similar to mithral, only a handful of groups know how to smelt mythrite into a useful state, with primarily dragons knowing how to refine it. Mythrite is the basis of their economy, as it is useful in many advanced technological items which also use magic. Many other species use mythrite as well, often called chips in some cultures, and a great deal of emphasis is placed on a currency’s exchange rate to mythrite.

  Senne – A humanoid species, the senne are taller and somewhat more muscular than humans, and are known for their generally blue skin, star-like eyes, and warlike nature. They are prone to multiple births, and have an innate psychic gift that allows them to link with two other senne, forming a close bond until they choose a new trio. This is heavily emphasized in their culture, and while many senne are honorable, they vary wildly in their responses to other species.

  Wyrmgate – A creation of the dragons, the wyrmgates allow instantaneous travel between linked gates. They have built chains of wyrmgates across known space, and while the gates are expensive to use, the dragons allow anyone to pass through, so long as they have not attacked a wyrmgate or the dragon clans themselves. Other species have attempted to replicate the magitech used to create the wyrmgates, but none have created one that allows vessels to pass through safely yet.