by J. Cee
The fight was over. Ceph saw Jexaka’s eyes lose their focus and her head loll back. Aeri didn’t stop, though. Her Steelstrike sliced the body in half at the torso, the dead woman’s upper body falling forward while her lower half crumpled.
The crowd’s cheers had been growing louder and louder as the match drew to a close. They thundered now in approval of the killing blow. The official signaled the end of the match and declared the winners.
Ceph was still reeling from the fight. He had won. He had fought and won. Jexaka’s disturbing betrayal had left a bittersweet taste to the victory, but it was still a victory. He looked up to smile at Aeri and congratulate her, but she was staring into the distance. Something was wrong.
Ceph followed the direction of Aeri’s stare with his own eyes. A black cloud was approaching. As the crowd started screaming, he saw that it wasn’t a cloud. It was a swarm. An impossibly large number of locust-men descended upon the Gladiator Pits.
Chapter 21
Aeri yelled at Ceph, but he couldn’t understand her over the chittering of the oncoming Swarm and the screams of the people around them. Aeri grabbed him, and they leapt out of their fighting pit towards the side opposite from the approaching locust-men.
Ceph looked back as they ran. Clusters of locust swarmed over individuals, but the Swarm itself didn’t slow. Ordinary people disappeared in an instant under the weight of the creatures. Everborn stood for longer and fought back, but they too soon collapsed. There were too many locust-men. Ceph and Aeri’s encounter in the Wild had been against hundreds of them. The numbers in this swarm were beyond counting. It was a force of nature.
“We’re not going to make it!” Ceph screamed at Aeri.
Even with their Onceborn speed, they wouldn’t be able to outrun the Swarm. Ceph could already make out individual faces on the closest locust-men.
“Come on!” Aeri led the way.
Ceph realized that Aeri had a destination in mind—she was heading to Zeudah’s tent. Ceph could make out the campgrounds not too far from them. He squinted. Zeudah stood in the open, surveying the scene. A squad of guards stood next to him. He didn’t see Lisha.
“Why aren’t they running?” Ceph asked.
Aeri didn’t answer.
As they grew closer, Zeudah recognized them. He seemed to have reached a decision. The Everborn guards charged forward while Zeudah stayed in the rear. The Everborn cast Soulstrikes in their direction. Ceph cringed and slowed down, but Aeri pulled him back forward.
“Keep going. Look.” Aeri pointed behind her.
The Everborn’s Soulstrikes hadn’t been aimed at the Onceborn. Instead, they exploded behind them, sending the locust-men into a chaotic mess of twisted limbs and bodies. The guards passed Ceph and Aeri, crashing into the Swarm.
Ahead, Zeudah attacked from a distance, sweeping the Swarm with his own Soulstrikes. His body shimmered. Ceph rubbed his eyes. Another Zeudah appeared several meters away. There were two of him.
Each Zeudah blanketed the ground behind Ceph and Aeri with more Soulstrikes. The other Everborn guards had already fallen, but they had slowed the tide. Heaps of earth and bodies littered the ground, forming an obstacle. However, the delay was short-lived. The growing mass of locust-men spilled over the broken ground and lurched forward, overcoming Zeudah’s attacks.
“I can’t stop them! There’s too many!” Zeudah cried.
Aeri and Ceph ran to Zeudah and took up positions on either side of him. In seconds, the Swarm reached them, but the creatures stopped at a distance, forming a circle around them. Zeudah stopped attacking.
Zeudah faced Aeri. “What’s going on?”
“We don’t know,” Aeri said.
“This must be because of you,” Zeudah replied. “This has to be the Word’s doing.”
Ceph looked at the Pit Champion. He didn’t seem frightened or nervous. If anything, the man looked excited.
“I suppose she’ll explain what’s happening.” Aeri pointed toward a figure wading through the swarm.
The figure drew closer. Ceph gasped. “We killed her!”
“Who?” Zeudah asked.
“We killed Jexaka in the tournament fight,” Ceph said. “She’s like us. A Onceborn. She shouldn’t be able to come back.” Ceph flinched at Aeri’s glare. He wasn’t supposed to tell Zeudah that but had forgotten with all the ongoing chaos.
Zeudah didn’t seem perturbed by the news. “Interesting,” he said.
The familiar figure walked past the last line of locust-men to stand before them. Jexaka smiled.
“Hello again, sister. Surprised?”
Aeri’s voice wavered. “What’s going on? We killed you.”
Jexaka sighed. “A wasted life. I got caught up in the fun. In the challenges. I should have used this from the start.” Jexaka indicated the horde of locust-men around her.
“A life?” Ceph blurted out. “You have more than one?”
Jexaka smiled but didn’t answer his question. “I could use another pet. Join me, and I’ll show you.”
Ceph made a face. “I saw what you did to your last partner.”
“That hulking idiot? You’re not like him, though, are you? You’re smart. And handsome. I could use someone like you.” Jexaka’s eyes gleamed. “Yes, I can use you.”
Zeudah interrupted. “What’s the meaning of all this?”
“Patience, my love,” Jexaka said, reaching out to caress Zeudah’s cheek.
Zeudah brushed her hand away. “That’s enough. You said you were going to test her strength.” He gestured towards the Swarm. “Not destroy the Pits.”
Ceph moved behind Zeudah to stand by Aeri. He didn’t know what was happening, but the only one he could trust was her.
Jexaka studied Zeudah. “Don’t worry, I have plans for you, Alejandro. I always intended to use you, too.”
“What?” Zeudah looked stunned. “What did you just call me?”
“Isn’t that your other name? Alejandro Reyes, the Warrior King?”
Zeudah seized Jexaka by her throat. “What’s going on?”
Jexaka laughed, coughed at Zeudah’s rough hold on her throat, and laughed again. “I know all about your world. And I know something that you don’t.”
Zeudah lifted Jexaka so that their eyes were level. “What are you talking about? We made you. We play here. What could you possibly know? You don’t use us. We use you.”
“You’re right. Use me, my Warrior King. Use me.” Jexaka wrapped her legs around Zeudah, pulling him closer. She kissed Zeudah’s neck. He didn’t resist.
“Holy smokes!” Ceph whispered.
Aeri made a disgusted sound. “Really?” She saw Ceph’s expression. “Stop gawking!”
“I wasn’t gawking,” Ceph protested, unable to rip his eyes from the scene.
“Wait, what’s she doing?” Aeri reached forward.
Neither men heard her. Ceph had a vague impression of Jexaka reaching for something at her side.
Zeudah’s screams drove Ceph out of his stupor. The Pit Champion was holding something on his neck. He fell to the ground thrashing.
“Get this off me! Get this off me!” Zeudah roared.
Ceph and Aeri didn’t dare move with the Swarm around them. They watched in horror as Zeudah flailed about on the ground. After several more seconds of thrashing, he went still.
“What did you do to me?” Zeudah said in an icy voice, pushing himself up into a seated position.
“His aura,” Ceph said in shock. “It’s… gray?”
Ceph heard Aeri gasp as she confirmed what he had seen. Zeudah’s rank was below theirs.
“No, no… no!” Zeudah cried out, clenching his fists. Veins bulged against a glowing red sigil on the side of his neck. It looked like a small cross or ‘X’. “Get this off me!”
“This isn’t possible,” Aeri said. “You removed his power points.”
Jexaka laughed. “Yes, but that’s not why he’s so mad. Ask him.”
Aeri knelt at his side.
“Zeudah, what’s happening?”
Zeudah looked up, a mixture of confusion and rage flitting across his face, then a shadow of fear. The fearful expression on the Pit Champion’s once proud face terrified Ceph more than any number of locust-men. Something was wrong, very wrong.
“I can’t leave. I can’t leave. I can’t leave!”
“I’ve trapped him here. In Xero,” Jexaka said. “He can’t return to his world, and he doesn’t know it yet, but I’ve turned him into a Onceborn. If he dies here, he dies forever. In any world.”
Aeri looked up in horror. “No, no. This isn’t possible. This is wrong. The Tetramorph would never allow that.”
Jexaka only laughed. “I’ve been saving the best news for last.” Jexaka leaned over to speak into the Pit Champion’s ear, but everyone could hear her. “Your world? It never existed. I’ve set you free.”
Zeudah remained frozen. Ceph was too confused to say anything. Eventually, Aeri stood up to reply. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” Jexaka replied. “You have too much faith in your Creator, in your Tetramorph. You will see.”
“What’s she talking about?” Ceph whispered to Aeri.
“Ah, the loyal pet,” Jexaka said, smiling at Ceph.
“Not now, Ceph.” Aeri faced Jexaka. “What do you want? Why all of this?”
“Oh, I have plans for you.” Jexaka followed Aeri’s gaze to the weeping Pit Champion. “Trust me. I have better plans for you, sister. But business before pleasure.”
Jexaka walked over to Zeudah and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him to his feet, as he’d done to her earlier. He struggled, but in his weakened state, he couldn’t resist. She tugged at the front of Zeudah’s mystic robe. For the first time, Ceph noticed the petite claws on her fingertips. She tore the front of the robe open, ruining it.
A gray medallion hung in the center of Zeudah’s chest. Ceph looked more closely. It was embedded into his chest. Jexaka tore the medallion out with her clawed hands. Zeudah cried out in pain, a bloody wound visible on his chest. How was that possible? Everborn bodies didn’t bleed.
Aeri moved towards Jexaka, but Jexaka raised her hand. “Take another step, and my Swarm will kill you and your pet.” Aeri stepped back.
In a sudden rush, Jexaka bit down on the gaping wound in the middle of Zeudah’s chest. Ceph cried out alongside Zeudah in surprise. The woman drank greedily from the open wound. Zeudah struggled to free himself, but Jexaka’s arms encircled him, clamping his chest to her hungry mouth.
“Aeri, Aeri. What’s going on?” Ceph grabbed Aeri’s arm. “This is crazy.”
“I don’t know,” Aeri said. “I don’t know.”
Zeudah’s face turned pale as Jexaka drank his blood with loud slurping sounds. Blood dripped all over the front of Jexaka’s own clothes and onto the ground. After a minute, she tossed Zeudah to the ground, where he lay unmoving. Ceph didn’t know if he was dead or not.
“You can’t!” Aeri said. “It’s soulbound!”
Ceph looked back at Jexaka. She was placing the gray medallion inside her tunic on her own chest.
“Can’t. Isn’t possible. You have so much to learn.” Jexaka grinned. Her body shimmered and a second Jexaka appeared to her right.
“You stole his artifact?” Ceph looked at the twin Jexakas in astonishment.
“But how?” Aeri asked. She stared at the blood dripping from both Jexaka’s lips. “You stole part of his soul. His blood.”
The extra Jexaka disappeared. The remaining one stretched her neck. “I have to get used to that.” She beckoned to Aeri as she stepped away from the others. “Follow me, sister. I have much to tell you.”
When Aeri didn’t move, Jexaka pointed at Ceph. “Come, or your pet dies. I only want to talk.”
Jexaka retreated further into her Swarm, which formed a wall of bodies around her. An opening was left for Aeri. Aeri reluctantly joined Jexaka, and the locust-men closed ranks around them, separating the men from the women.
Ceph raced over to check on Zeudah. His body stirred.
“Zeudah,” Ceph whispered. “Can you hear me? Can you move?”
“Lisha,” he croaked.
“Lisha?” Ceph looked around in confusion. “She’s not here.”
“I sent her away for insubordination. She was right.”
Ceph knew that the Everborn were his enemies, but he couldn’t help feeling some sympathy for Zeudah. The man’s life had been torn from him, and if what Jexaka had said was true, his world too. That had been him not too long ago.
“Is there anything I can do?” Ceph examined the wound on Zeudah’s chest. Everborn weren’t supposed to bleed when alive. Did their bodies even heal? His finger moved to the glowing mark on Zeudah’s neck.
“Don’t.” Zeudah stopped him. “It won’t come off.”
Ceph was missing Aeri right now. She was the leader, the tactician. She should know what to do. He saw her head rising above the mass of locust-men in the distance. Aeri listened to Jexaka, shaking her head. That didn’t look good.
Zeudah caught Ceph’s gaze. “We have to leave her.”
“What?”
“I can get us out, but we have to leave her.” The Pit Champion’s hand moved to a pouch inside his tattered robe.
“We can’t leave Aeri!” Ceph’s voice had disturbed the closest locust-men. They twisted their heads, peering at him with large insect eyes, their mandibles opening and closing.
“Quiet!” Zeudah hissed. “We have to go now. We don’t know if we’ll have another chance, while she’s distracted.” Zeudah’s eyes indicated where the two women were talking.
“But Aeri…” Ceph began.
“If you want to stay, stay. I’m leaving.”
Ceph’s heart raced. He didn’t want to run. He had struggled with all his might to change, and now that he was ready to fight, Zeudah was asking him to run away again. But Aeri had also taught him to retreat when needed. What was he supposed to do?
Aeri was still listening to Jexaka, whose back was angled to the men. Aeri looked over Jexaka’s shoulder and met Ceph’s gaze. Her red eyes shone with understanding. She made the slightest motion with her head, nodding once. Jexaka spun around.
“What is it? Kill them!” Jexaka shrieked.
“Go, go!” Ceph yelled to Zeudah.
Zeudah raised one hand to Ceph. Ceph grabbed it immediately. The locust-men lunged with outstretched claws as his vision began to fade.
Chapter 22
Ceph found himself in a circular room lit with torchlights. The stone walled room was bare except for a chest in the corner and a small wooden door. The sparse furnishings seemed to match Zeudah’s style. Zeudah sat with his back to the closed door.
“Where are we?” Ceph asked.
“In the middle of the First Zone. I used a recall gem.” Zeudah held a crushed gem in his hands. He closed his fist and let the fragments sprinkle to the floor through the cracks in his hand.
Ceph checked the Everborn’s aura. It was still gray. “You’re still a low rank.”
“That doesn’t matter. I can’t leave.” Zeudah fingered the red mark on his neck.
“You mean return to your world?”
“Yes, I’m stuck here.”
“Do you think she was telling the truth ? About you being a Onceborn?”
“Onceborn?”
“Like Aeri and me. We won’t return if we die.”
Zeudah’s face darkened. “I don’t know.” He lifted his head to look at Ceph. “Why are you Onceborn? You’re not normal Everborn?”
Ceph hesitated. He wasn’t sure how much he should tell the former Pit Champion. “It’s a long story, but we’re Onceborn now.” He brightened with an idea. “We can test you. Aeri said she can tell I’m a Onceborn by the way I move. Something about moving more smoothly.”
“So that’s what it was. Yes, I noticed that too about both of you. That could work.”
“Aeri said it’s a sign of someone who isn’t a regular Everborn. Sh
e said the Everborn move differently because they come from another world.”
Zeudah stared at Ceph. “What are you? You’re not one of us?”
Ceph sighed. There was no point keeping it a secret. “Aeri and I were mortals. Ordinary people. I almost died. We became Onceborn through some ritual, but it’s not perfect.” Ceph held up the stump of his left wrist to demonstrate the point.
Zeudah stared at Ceph’s wrist. Then, he laughed, touching his own torn chest. “I’m like you. Another Everborn with a broken body.”
The man didn’t speak for a long time. Ceph was unsure how to proceed. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Plan?” Zeudah blinked.
“Jexaka took Aeri.”
“I don’t care about Aeri. All I care about is getting this damn thing off me.” Zeudah scratched at the mark on his neck again.
Ceph leaned against the stone wall as he went through his options. He could do nothing, but that would be the same as running away. He was a wanted man, at least here in the First Zone, if not the rest of Xero. He could try to get stronger on his own, but he wasn’t sure how to proceed without Aeri’s guidance. The higher ranked Everborn had used different styles of fighting, and he had no idea how to train for that. Saving Aeri was the right thing to do, but he didn’t know how to do that, either. That was his problem. He didn’t know anything.
“We both need more information, and I know someone that can help,” Ceph said. “Want to come along?”
Zeudah waved his hand in a vague motion. “I suppose.” He concentrated on something unseen. “Damn. Nothing works.”
“You wouldn’t happen to have any coppers, would you?”
“What for? No, I don’t think so.”
Ceph planned to visit Myrtle again, but he didn’t have any money. The Everborn rarely bothered paying for what they wanted, but Ceph didn’t want to go down that road. He’d have to hope Myrtle was in a generous mood. Ceph sighed. She might still be mad at him for breaking her crystal ball the last time.
“Nevermind. We can try seeing Myrtle for information.”