by Ramy Vance
Myrddin pointed at the image on the holoscreen. It looked like a sun, solar flares flashing hot off of its sides. "Initially, we called you concerning what is on the screen, but the situation has grown exponentially worse. Something similar to what we're looking at has appeared over New York. I need you, Terra, and Roy to investigate it."
The image on the screen made Anabelle's skin crawl, but she didn't know why. "Anything to do with this?"
"I have my suspicions. Report back on what you find out."
The New York skyline was blood-red, the clouds black and crackling with lightning.
The scene reminded Anabelle of the Netherverse. She'd never seen anything like this on Earth before.
Tumultuous winds buffeted the helicopter as they approached the city.
Roy, who was strapped into the back with Anabelle and Terra, was busy checking his comm. "We should be coming up on the anomaly in a few minutes."
Anabelle looked out the window, still concerned by the sky she saw. "You ever see anything like this, Terra?"
The Hand didn't seem to be bothered by the blood-red skyline. "I think I saw something like this in Ghostbusters."
"I meant in real life."
Terra laughed as she popped a piece of bubblegum into her mouth. "Nope, never. Looks kinda exciting, right? You think it has to do with the weapons that have been cropping up in New York?"
Roy undid his seatbelt and headed toward the back of the helicopter. "Doubt it. That was some small-time stuff, and most likely tied to the Dark One. Whatever we heard in the lab wanted to speak to him."
Anabelle's stomach swirled, and she felt pressure in the back of her head. A headache was coming on, and from the way her body felt, it would be a whopper.
She also felt something wet, warm, and sticky trickling down onto her lips—a nose bleed. She gingerly dabbed at the blood. When she looked at Terra, she saw that her nose was bleeding as well. "What's this all about?"
Terra wiped the blood off of her face. "Ugh. Gross."
Roy lowered the back door as the chopper rounded the last row of towering skyscrapers. "Jesus Christ. You two are going to want to see this."
Anabelle undid her belt and went over to check out what Roy was talking about.
A brightly burning sphere was hanging above the skyscrapers, blocking out the sun. The sphere was blood-red, and massive flares burst from its surface, the raw energy unleashing unbearable heat.
As Anabelle stared at the false sun, she felt an overwhelming dread crawling up from her stomach. Her nose started bleeding again, as did Terra's and Roy's.
Terra wiped her face. "That's straight-up anime shit."
A voice thundered in Anabelle's head, overpowering her thoughts. It vibrated loud enough to make her fall to her knees and grab her skull in pain.
"We will speak to the Dark One."
The voice disappeared and Anabelle looked around, noticing that Roy and Terra had fallen to their knees as well.
Anabelle grabbed the door handle of the copter, unsteadily making it back to her feet. "That thing can talk?"
Roy pulled up his comm. "It's exactly what showed up on Creon's holoscreen. Hold on, I need to get in touch with Myrddin."
As Roy walked to the front of the chopper, Anabelle and Terra stood together, watching the flaming ball in front of them.
It wasn't the Dark One.
It was something worse.
The whole world was watching the flaming ball that hung over the New York skyline. It seemed that all the inhabitants of New York had heard the sphere’s incessant demand, and their heads vibrated with the sound as blood trickled from their noses.
"We will speak to the Dark One."
This event wasn’t just in the human world. Similar reports were coming out of all Nine Realms.
Anabelle and Roy were in the war room with Myrddin, listening to him speak to the United Nations. Anabelle could hear the frustration in his voice as he encouraged the United States’ representative not to panic.
The balding representative’s frightened face took up the majority of the holoscreen. "How are we supposed to know these things won't start appearing all over the country? The people of New York are already having extreme reactions to whatever the hell that is. When we agreed to open up our world to all of this magic nonsense, you assured us we would be protected."
Myrddin rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sank into his seat. "And you will be. We are in the process of putting together a coalition to handle the recent—"
Anabelle stepped in front of the wizard. "This is why we need you to keep your shit together and keep giving us the information we need to keep you safe. All of us are trying to figure this out, and you are no exception. The more you work with us, the better we'll be able to do our job."
The representative looked taken aback by Anabelle's words. He cleared his throat and looked around as if the rest of the representatives in the room were watching him. "Uh, fine, we'll do what we can to cooperate."
"Good. Now, we have agents getting in touch with their offices. If you have any questions, speak to them. We have to figure out what to do about this thing. Goodbye."
Anabelle swiped the holoscreen away, and Myrddin nodded at her gratefully. "I'm getting far too old for this," he muttered. "Goddamn bureaucrats."
Roy stood beside Anabelle, brushing his hand against hers. "We're still waiting for reports from Terra and Cire. So far, we haven’t been able to establish communication with the sphere. We can hear it, but it doesn't seem to be able to hear us. You thinking it might be alien? Or interdimensional? Maybe like that thing Boundless came across?"
Myrddin shook his head as he watched the holoscreen showing the sphere over New York. "Perhaps, but that doesn't explain why there are so many of them. None of this makes any sense yet, and it's only a matter of time until people start to panic. We have to find something to tell the public."
Anabelle didn't think they needed to be wasting time coddling the public about what was going on. That was valuable time they could spend trying to figure this thing out. "We don't even know if it's hostile. It could want to talk to the Dark One for the same reason we do—to destroy him."
Myrddin shrugged as he swiped up on his holoscreen. "That won't matter if we can't find a way to communicate with it."
Terra appeared on the holoscreen. She and Cire had been dispatched to the orc homeworld to manage the situation there.
"How is everything?" Myrddin asked.
Terra smiled and jerked her thumb over her shoulder at Cire. "Great. The orcs don't care much. They're kinda stoked to have another sun. Some of them are curious about whether or not we can kill it, but you know, nothing out of the ordinary."
Anabelle sighed; she wished humans would comport themselves as well. She realized that she was embarrassed by them the same way she would have been for a friend who had spilled wine on themselves. It was an interesting feeling.
Myrddin sat up, his ancient face sagging slightly and his blue magic-infused veins shining beneath his thin skin. "I'm glad to hear you don't have to do too much damage control. That's good. We've waited long enough. It's time to see if we can communicate with this thing again. Mobilize your forces. Prepare for engagement if it’s necessary, but first and foremost, this is an attempt at conversation. No trigger-happy hero antics."
Terra flashed Myrddin a thumbs-up. "Gotcha. We'll keep in touch."
Myrddin closed the holoscreen and turned back to Roy and Anabelle. "Same thing goes for you two. Oh, and one more thing…Team Boundless will accompany you. We're going to use Alex’s psychic abilities to try to make contact."
Chapter Two
The orcs’ flying squadron was mobilized at dawn.
Terra stood on the balcony of her room, overlooking the arena where she had battled Grok and suffered through the trials necessary to learn the Path of the Lost. She looked up at the flaming sphere that hung over the arena like a massive eye full of malice and hatred.
Even if the sp
here wasn't evil, it sure as hell looked like it.
Hell, she thought as she remembered the battle in the Circle of Lust. Things here were a bit too similar to that dream for her liking.
She didn't want to think about how excited she had been to see her troops. It felt wrong. Lustful. She'd beaten the vision in hell, but it had revealed what she really desired in the core of her being.
Power.
Terra thought back to the first few days when she'd fought in the arena after she'd been abducted by the Dark One's orcs. It had been the first time she felt strong. In control.
Unbeatable.
Was it so wrong to love that feeling?
Cire walked out onto the balcony. He was dressed in his shabby fur cloak. "They're waiting for us."
Terra looked at the sphere. "What do you think it is?"
Cire craned his neck to follow Terra's gaze. "Honestly?"
"Honestly."
"Something dangerous."
The orcs were lined up throughout the arena, standing in front of their steeds, which were phoenixes. The giant birds looked like the most beautiful cranes Terra had ever seen, the smallest of them easily nine feet tall. Each possessed pale white wings that rested on the ground as if they were the train of a regal gown, but that was not what made them beautiful.
No, their true beauty sprang from the bright red plumage that looked like crowns made out of flames.
One of the orc generals approached Terra and Cire as they walked toward the giant birds. "We're prepared for the ride, and your orders have been stressed to the Fireflies. Nothing close to an attack until you call it."
Terra raised an eyebrow. “Fireflies?”
As soon as the word left her lips, the platoon of riders stamped their feet. Fireflies was the battalion’s name.
Cire nodded. "We should check them over."
Terra led the way to the assembly of orcs. They looked more official than any other troops from the twelve tribes. They all wore a patch on their shoulder.
The Crest of the Phoenix.
A few of the Fireflies petted their steeds, running their hands through their elegant, sleek feathers.
Two phoenixes were saddled but had no orcs next to them.
Terra smiled widely when she saw the creatures, one of them clawing the dirt beneath its feet and craning its neck backward as it picked at its feathers. "Don't tell me that these are for us?"
The general of the Fireflies nodded. "Two of our best. You do know how to ride, don't you?"
Terra didn't answer. Instead, she walked over to the taller phoenix and scampered up its side, quickly fitting her feet into the stirrups. She retrieved the reins around the phoenix's neck and snapped them to urge the bird forward. Without hesitation, the phoenix spread its wings, flapping them. Within an instant, they lifted into the air as its wings burst into flames.
Hovering a few feet above the ground, Terra laughed loudly. "Seems easy enough to me."
Cire climbed onto his phoenix and coaxed it over to Terra. "Obviously, you are a natural. Are you ready?"
Terra stared at the fiery sphere. "Yeah, let's go see if we can get a couple of words with it."
She turned her phoenix around so she was facing the Fireflies. "Come on, boys, let's see those conversational skills at work!"
With that, they took off, the Fireflies whooping and hollering as they followed their chieftain to whatever hung in the sky.
Terra couldn't help but smile as she raced through the clouds. Even with the flaming sphere in front of her, she felt an ever-flowing amount of joy. These were her people. They'd accepted her. There wasn't anything wrong with that.
Closer now, Terra could see how large the sphere was.
It was hot, too.
Beads of sweat rolled down her body, yet somehow the heat was inviting, almost as if it were calling Terra to it. As if the fire itself was reaching out to her, inviting her to join it.
Then its voice rang in her head with such force it nearly knocked her off her phoenix. “We will speak with the Dark One."
Anabelle was on top of Roy's mech, flying over the skyline of New York, breathing in as much of the rushing air as she could. She'd never been on a run with Roy before—not like this at least. The only thing keeping her from being tossed into a free-fall was her mana, which was anchoring her to the steel of the mech.
The two of them were flanked by Alex Bound and her squad of dragonriders. Anabelle hadn't seen the group since the wedding. They looked battle-scarred, and Anabelle realized that it wasn’t just the DGA tasked with policing the Nine Realms.
Roy's voice came through on Anabelle's ear comm. "How you doing out there?"
Anabelle let out an ecstatic "Woo-hoo" as she pumped her fist in the air. "I think I'm going to have to learn how to ride a dragon after this."
"Might not be a bad idea. You could always get one of these bad boys. Just as fast with twice the firepower and half the upkeep. You don’t want to see what those dragonriders have to do to take care of their dragons."
Alex's voice came over the comm next. "It's not that much. Besides, you actually have a relationship. Can't have much of one with a flying bucket of bolts."
"Obviously, you've never owned a car," Roy countered.
The group headed toward the sphere, talking about the info that they had just received from the orc homeworld. At HQ, Creon was doing everything he could do to relay intel to them in real-time. Terra and her group had just gotten to their sphere. So far, the conversation was not going well.
Anabelle's head throbbed as her eyes fell on the burning sphere in the distance. She recognized the feeling as being similar to when the Dark One had spoken to her—a blunt-force attack on the inside of her skull. Whatever this thing was, she didn't like it.
Boundless moved to the front of the convoy, swooping close to the burning sphere. They spread out, ready for whatever was going to happen.
Roy came in after them, flying above the group. "Time to do your thing, Anabelle."
The elf cleared her throat and tried to train her eyes on the bright sphere of unearthly fire. In any other situation, she would have felt stupid trying to talk to a celestial body, but there was something about this one that made Anabelle feel like it was listening intently. "We want to talk. We heard you say you wanted to speak with the Dark One, but before that, we need to know what you want. Why are you here?"
The voice thundered through Anabelle's head, and it felt like it was stripping her brain down to the nerves. "We will speak with the Dark One."
"I know you want to speak with the Dark One, but first you have to answer a few questions."
"We will speak with the Dark One."
Anabelle hung her head, massaging her temples. The voice was giving her more than a headache. She was feeling sick to her stomach and light-headed. She hit her comm and connected to Creon. "Doesn't seem like the thing can understand me. Either that or it doesn't give a shit what I'm saying."
Creon replied, "Sounds like the same thing Terra is experiencing. Does it seem hostile to you?"
"I can't tell if it's hostility that's radiating from this thing or if that’s just how it communicates."
Alex flew up to where Anabelle and Roy were. "Let me give it a shot. Maybe Chine and I can reach it telepathically."
Anabelle nodded.
Alex's eyes narrowed at the flaming sphere, then blood spurted from her nose in a torrent of red. She swayed to the side, as did Chine, his wings going limp as he crumpled and dropped out of the sky. Alex's dragon anchor disengaged, and her feet separated from her dragon as she fell.
Anabelle released the mana from her feet and jumped off Roy's mech, pulling her arms in tight to increase how aerodynamic she was. She zoomed toward Alex and wrapped her arms around the girl, holding her close.
The rest of Boundless swooped after Chine, and the dragons caught him.
Roy hit his thrusters and rocketed downward, flying under Anabelle. The elf exerted her mana to cushion her fall onto
Roy's mech.
Anabelle laid Alex down as the mech stabilized.
Alex's eyes fluttered open. They were bloodshot and wild with fear. "What the..."
"You blacked out," Anabelle said. "As soon as you tried to speak to it. Did you see anything? Hear anything?"
Alex shook her head. "There was something, but it was confusing. It was...I don't know, like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat. Even talking to the Dark One didn't feel anything like that."
A flare tore loose from the sphere. As it exuded heat, it increased in size, pulsing as it radiated.
Anabelle watched as the sphere's body grew more liquid, looking to have been composed of liquid flame. "What is that thing?"
Abby's voice crackled through Anabelle's comm. "You won't believe what just showed up in hell."
Anabelle sighed as she helped Alex to her feet. "You know, I'm pretty sure I only need one guess."
Chapter Three
The shape of hell had changed. Abby didn't know how to describe it to Anabelle in their brief exchange, but once she stepped outside of Grok's modest throne room, she could tell that its very fabric had been contorted to something more bizarre than it already was.
Grok had left Abby and Rasputina to carry out the first part of their plan, cutting the Netherverse off from souls to create a backlog that they would eventually use to flood it. She'd been gone for some time, leaving Abby and Rasputina to marvel at the deconstruction of hell.
In some ways, it was similar to the Netherverse, chunks of rock and platforms floating around as if they had never been introduced to the law of gravity, the difference being that the circles of hell were also loosed. They spun around each other like a gyroscope, the final circle of hell which Abby and Rasputina were on being the nexus.
The scientist watched as the circles slowly moved past overhead in alternating patterns. It reminded her of the seraph that she and the other DGA agents had fought.
