Wolves of the Tesseract Collection

by Christopher D Schmitz

  More screams went up as stray blaster fire caught friendly troops. A shimmering humanoid shape reached out from the inside of the tree where the girls hid. Jackie screeched and fell backward, banging her head against the ground and switching on Respan's Darque scanner. The demon took clear shape through the scope as the fallen soul tried to grab her.

  Jackie opened fire but the bullets passed right through the supernatural being. She howled and poured on more fire as it grabbed her—its hands phased right through her, doing no damage except increasing her terror and giving her a fell chill worse than any she’d had in Antarctica. Its frigid tentacles tried to take root in her mind and control her.

  She staggered back and reached down to find her inner grit. Jackie latched on to all of that pain and loss; she refused to let this apparition have any power over her. The spirit retreated, snarling.

  Nearby, Gita wailed with horror, battling her own demon. The supernatural darkness that clouded the forest intensified and deepened.

  “My parents! My family—they’re killing my family, even though they promised! They promised!”

  “It’s not real!” Jackie screamed. “They can’t hurt you!”

  She glanced backward to see the Clerics wielding their hammers. Each fiend they smashed burst into fragments like glass and evaporated into the ether. Still, soldiers screamed in very real pain from attritionary fire and a tentacle beast that sprinted through their forces on all four legs.

  Jackie could only see it through her scanner as it eviscerated her comrades. “No!” she screamed—recognizing the enemies' trap—it was after the clerics, the only ones who could damage these ghostly creatures.

  Gita recoiled as she struggled against the demon that tried to crawl inside of her again. Steeling herself against the spirit that tried to possess her, she resisted the nameless thing. It finally fled the strong-willed girl.

  As soon as Gita drove it away she stood and shot Jackie a relieved look. A blaster bolt caught her directly in the chest, burning a hole through her armor. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed in a heap.

  Jackie shrieked as her friend went down. The smoldering hole burned brightly as she looked up to see Jenner holding a blaster. His eyes had turned black and his face went gray and emotionless.

  She snapped her pulse rifle up to take aim. Jenner’s body glowed with a faint corona indicating the Darque being controlling him. Behind the young corpsman, the beast glowed as it attacked even more of her friends and turned to pursue a cleric whose hammer also glowed with a faint shimmer, radiating an aura from the ingot.

  The mission! We must not fail! Her inner voice shrieked, demanding she pull the trigger. Please don’t be him. Please don’t be him! Jackie bit her lip and chose between her animal targets.

  Shandra charged ahead and smashed Jenner in the chest with her hammer even as Jackie squeezed the trigger. The lethal burst of energy flew through the shimmering debris of the disrupted spirit and pierced he skull of the abyssal auraphage that had been wreaking havoc in their forces.

  Looking back, Shandra spotted the clean kill and nodded her thanks. A thunderhead rumbled in the darkness but the light began to return as the remaining two clerics finished banishing the foul creatures. Besides the hammers, only Wulftone’s aura remained aglow on the scanner.

  “You must have really have known that Wulftone could resist the dark lure of the spirits. I’m glad you have found such a deep connection with someone,” Shandra said as she glanced at Sam who helped Jenner to his feet.

  “Yeah. I knew it couldn’t be him taking out our soldiers,” she lied.

  Jenner dashed over to Gita in a panic. “What have I done? What have I done?” He wailed with distraught.

  Jackie could only tearfully watch.

  Sam slid to his knees as he and Jenner began first aid. The archaeologist wasn't a medic but had more training than anyone else who'd made it through the portal.

  “Will she make it?” Jenner’s voice broke.

  Sam shook his head. “I do not know.”

  Jenner sank back to his butt and sobbed. “Please save her… please. She and I… we were kind of… it can’t end like this!”

  Wulftone sprinted over and dropped to a knee, assessing the situation and checking for a pulse. “Can you help her, Sam?”

  The archaeologist grimaced and shrugged.

  “We’ve got a mission that cannot fail,” he insisted. “There’s barely more than half of us left. We’ve got to move right away!”

  Jackie hardened her heart and hoped Sam could pull off a miracle. She turned to form up with the ranks. Jenner didn’t move.

  “Hey!” she spat, getting his attention. “What did Wulftone tell you before we planeswalked?”

  “Don’t fall apart on him.”

  She blinked back a tear of her own and hissed a threat. “And don’t you dare go back on your word, now.”

  Chapter 19

  Akko Soggathoth fumed when the enemy forces finally killed his pet, but the abyssal creature had served its purpose, and he could always find another if necessary. He drew his presence back together and concentrated himself into the inky mass that housed his consciousness.

  Taking ahold of his victim once again, he tapped Sisyphus and signaled he’d taken possession of his toy once again. The wrestler released his body.

  “Greetings,” he called to Percival Wainsmith. Akko Soggathoth walked over and touched the faithful man’s face. “So glad you could make it.” He reverently stroked Theresa’s face next.

  “Bring her,” he commanded.

  Theera obediently scooped up the unconscious woman and followed.

  “There is no altar, here,” Idrakka noted.

  Akko Soggathoth sneered. “No. Only this place is strong enough to hold my brother.”

  Theera laid the sleeping woman down next to the goat figurine, the hierophanticus which would unlock Akko Sxkakzacros’s prison, and began tying her wrists and ankles. He hooked two lengths of rope to each end of the woman’s body, looping it around her waist and torso.

  Wainsmith leaned low and kissed his wife one last time. She groggily began to wake.

  “What… where?”

  "Shh," he put a finger to her lips. "You are exactly where you need to be to unlock your destiny." Wainsmith grabbed one of the ropes.

  Akko Soggathoth’s fair features shrank back and revealed his horrific visage. He pointed to the rope ends affixed to his prey.

  Several vyrm hopped into action and grabbed sections of the tether and pulled, stretching the woman in the air above the dimensional key. Akko Soggathoth glared at the humans of the Heptobscurantum who’d turned pale at the notion of pulling a woman in two rather than mercifully bleeding her with a knife. Even Sisyphus blanched and hesitated before following through on his orders.

  Placing a hand on the hilt of his ancient khopesh, the wizard tapped into the mystic blade's power and telekinetically yanked his minions into position where they could grasp the lash.

  Amid the pain, Theresa snapped back to consciousness and yelped. She screamed for help from her husband until she realized he held the first length of rope. Her eyes went gray and she fell catatonic. All hope had left her.

  Akko Soggathoth snarled, urging his minions to pull harder as the braided line cut into Theresa Wainsmith’s armpits and hips. A tear fell from her eyes and her spine cracked under the tension.

  Finally, the pain was too much for her and she shrieked with a blood-curdling yell. The goatman watched, cackling gleefully.

  ***

  An ear-splitting screech split the air and stopped Wulftone and his team in their tracks. They paused only long enough to share their concern over the seriousness of the situation with a worried glance.

  “We’re running out of time!” Shandra insisted.

  “Let’s move!” Wulftone shouted, sensing their enemies were only a short distance away.

  “For the Prime!” Chira yell
ed his battle cry. The rest of the soldiers took it up and they sprinted ahead at full speed, howling at the top of their lungs and with fingers on the triggers.

  “For the Prime!” Jackie yelled. “And for Gita!”

  ***

  A bubble of pure evil burst into existence around the gore-soaked hierophanticus, crackling with negative energy and filling the breadth of the haunted Hoia Baciu forest circle. A greenish murk obscured everything within the bubble and a low rumble growled in the mist. The space shared a presence between both worlds: the Darque, and the Tesseract’s Earth realm.

  Akko Soggathoth glanced at Theera and the acolyte retrieved his master’s arcane book. The goatman focused his energies and snapped his fingers; they lit with an eerie black flame. Suddenly, the sickly vapors caught fire and burned off with a flash. The trees at the edge of the circle peeled away in purple flames to reveal a circle of curved obelisks which angled towards them like claws clutching the area caught between the Tesseract and the Darque.

  A second, rotting man-goat—a behemoth of one—stood only a little ways away, chained to an obsidian spire by engraved, silvery shackles. A twisted face moved around the belly of Akko Sxkakzacros as if some creature tried to push itself free from within. Standing taller than a minotaur, the bellowing creature roared when he recognized his brother.

  “Akko Soggathoth!” he hissed “Traitor!” Akko Sxkakzacros shook his mighty hands and rattled the chains.

  All eyes of the vyrm and Heptobscurantum locked onto the younger brother. Akko Soggathoth merely shrugged and grinned playfully. He approached the monster who stood nearly twice his height and poked him in the belly. “What was I supposed to do? Let you devour me, too, and steal my power as you did to Akko Quarnyk?”

  “Free me or I will destroy you!”

  The younger laughed. His minion held out his book and indicated the brother should make his mark.

  Akko Quarnyk squirmed in his belly and Akko Sxkakzacros spat in the brother’s face. A howl went up in the distance and blaster bolts began flying all around. Akko Soggathoth never broke his spittle-soaked gaze with his older, more powerful brother.

  “Sign it.”

  The vyrm and Heptobscurantum snapped into position, trying to protect the bubble for as long as possible against the opposition hiding amongst the trees. A trio of disruptor blasts hit Akko Sxkakzacros in rapid succession; they barely managed to scratch his hide and made him leak a trickle of metallic blood. The beast grinned and glared at his ambitious brother.

  “Sign it!” Akko Soggathoth shouted again.

  Akko Sxkakzacros growled in response.

  Sisyphus watched with rapt interest at the exchange between the brothers when he caught sight of the enemies' new tactic; blaster fire tore up the ground around the hierophanticus. The wizard tightened his hand on the khopesh and lifted Wainsmith's UTV with is mind. He slammed it down into the dirt on its side to make a shield. Bullets and blaster fire deflected off of the vehicle as the opposition tried to burn through it.

  ***

  Jackie watched Wulftone absorbing damage on the far side of their line as he smashed the enemy ranks. They’d arrived just in time to watch the enemy open the dimensional locks that sealed Akko Sxkakzacros within the Darque. She pushed her anxiety deep down and trusted him enough to stay safe.

  The enemy threw all of its disposable troops at them—both lower caste vyrm and Heptobscurantum zealots. They kept coming and they kept dying. The enemy had no cover against the better-protected forces of the Prime who hid in the dense foliage and wore body armor.

  Vyrm and cultist bodies piled up but they continued the charge in order to buy their masters time.

  “We’ve got to close that portal and seal the gate,” Chira yelled.

  Jackie turned and fired, trying to get an angle on the distant hierophanticus, a tiny target only a few square centimeters in size. It lay amid a pile of revolting gore where some poor woman had been torn in half.

  Her first few shots landed all around the target. She cursed and retrained her aim down the weapon’s sights.

  Suddenly an invisible, supernatural force lifted the nearby sport utility vehicle and smashed it down as a barrier to shield the arcane key from her bullets.

  She growled and opened fire, pouring on an onslaught from her pulse rifle. Jackie aimed for where she knew the fuel tank was and pulled the trigger over and over.

  Nothing. Apparently, it wouldn't work like that. Jackie cursed every movie she'd ever seen for lying to her about bullets and vehicular explosions.

  She howled with feral rage and took out another wave of enemies who crawled too close.

  ***

  “What would Mother and Father say?” Akko Soggathoth spat. “Now make your mark! I’m carrying us all to the chamber for a family meeting.”

  Akko Sxkakzacros glowered at the whelp. He curled a defiant lip.

  “You know the rules and our purpose. It is time for the Winnowing. Now, write your name—make your mark!” He turned and batted away a hail of blaster charges that would’ve otherwise struck him. “Don’t do it because you are obligated to by law and relation. Do it because you are answering destiny’s call.”

  Another trio of blasts cut down Theera and he toppled dead. A few seconds later, the undying vyrm gasped for air, collected the book, stood, and regained his composure as if nothing had happened. Sisyphus merely stared at the sight.

  With a glower, the enormous fiend pressed his finger to the page and drew his sign on the parchment. He snarled in his brother’s face as he did so.

  Akko Soggathoth glanced back and cocked a suspicious eyebrow at the ambitious wizard who watched every moment of the transaction, taking careful note of every detail of the binding process.

  As if he turned to smoke, Akko Sxkakzacros evaporated, the sigil he'd penned upon the page consumed him like a vacuum devouring a mist. Micro-explosions burst against the obelisk where the empty shackles hung in the place of the demon who'd been fettered there.

  The clever demon smiled with more mischief and malevolence than Sisyphus had ever seen. He looked up and spotted a glowing triangle of energy piercing the air just beyond the bubble zone of Darqueness that overlapped with Earth’s space. The science team hadn’t yet cracked through the dimensional boundaries in order to pierce beyond the veil of the Tesseract’s thirty-three dimensions and access the Darque.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Sisyphus yelled as he spotted Percival Wainsmith and a few other key members of their cadre leaping through Walther’s transport portal.

  Theera, holding the book, waited dutifully for his master at the edge of the energy gate, unwilling to leave him behind as the nameless members of The Black and low ranking cultists threw their final, few numbers at the armies of the Prime.

  Sisyphus paused mid-step and locked eyes with one young man at the edge of the woods—he recognized him from the memories that had leeched off his prisoner, the blood donor he regularly victimized. He’d chained this boy’s father deep within his inner sanctum and siphoned the primal energies off of him. “Jenner,” he hissed at his son from another dimension.

  The boy narrowed his eyes to slits and opened fire, standing recklessly amid the vyrm’s final volleys of hot death.

  Sisyphus smirked, ducked his head. He sprinted towards the escape portal with supernatural speed.

  ***

  Caivev, Skrom, and two other vyrm popped out of the crack where it terminated within the parched wasteland of the Darque. Despite the puff of ozone, the stink of their peers’ incinerated flesh clung to them stronger.

  After taking a brief headcount, Caivev looked ahead and spotted what looked like a black dome in distance. She squinted to try and get a better view.

  “Skrom. What do you see?”

  The tall tarkhūn shaded his eyes. “It looks like a ring of black towers… curved pillars like an arena, maybe?”

  Suddenly, it burst open with ethereal purple light. Th
e quartet immediately sprinted for the landmark.

  “It’s the prison of Akko Sxkakzacros!”

  The barren ground shifted beneath their feet as they pumped their legs against the sand and sediment. Darque gates only opened with a purpose—and once that purpose expired, it was sure to close and leave them trapped.

  Brilliant lines of blaster fire crossed through the shared space between dimensions and they watched the battle unfold as they ran headlong into the chaos. A crackling triangle of light opened in the distance, visible just beyond the Darque; it glowed like a light below murky water.

  “Walther’s portal!” Skrom howled, continuing his mad dash.

  They dared not spare a glance at the hierophanticus which fell under attack in the corner of their eyes. Their chests tightened and breaths came in ragged gasps as they hurried—they couldn’t miss their window of opportunity or they would be trapped—possibly forever!

  ***

  Jenner locked eyes with the man he’d seen once before—a muscular version of his father who’d kidnapped his real parent and then murdered his family. His eyes glazed over with red and he jolted to his feet, screaming with rage and pouring all malice into his trigger finger.

  His father’s doppelganger sprinted for that same triangular portal he’d used to attack his home three years previous. Jenner fired over and over, ignoring the fatigue in his hand.

  The weapon cycled and then chirped a low energy warning. He ignored it, even as his armor deflected a few glancing blows from flanking enemies. Jenner struck down the enemies and felt a hot trickle of blood as their blasts tore free the staples at his neck. The energy magazines depleted and sounded a shrill whine while he ignored the pain and hot leakage melting down his chest from his neck wound.

  Jenner reached for a replacement magazine but had none. He cursed and watched his nemesis flee towards the escape.

  A tunnel vision of rage overtook his vision as he reached for his last round: the explosive bullet Harken had given him during the academy. He remained so fixated on his enemy as he chambered the round that he didn’t see the small group of new intruders breach the circle and break through the Darque and into the Earth realm beyond.