by Ramy Vance
As soon as she got to her feet, she sprang forward as fast as she could, straining against the limitations of her body. She hit a shade and tore straight through it as three more dog-piled her.
Plasma blasts cut through the shades as Abby caught up with Anabelle.
Five shades behind Abby melted into one and then swirled around as if they were made of liquid, forming a tidal wave filled with screaming faces and outstretched hands, that crashed on Abby, sweeping her away.
Terra, who was next to Anabelle, clasped the elf’s hand and spun in a circle, slinging her around. She built momentum before releasing her, sending the elf straight into the tidal wave.
Anabelle grabbed Abby as she came out the other side and the two of them skidded across the ground, ripping through any shades in their way. Anabelle tried hard not to lose her footing.
There was no time or room for strategy. All Anabelle had was brute force, so she was going to have to make it work. In the distance, she could still see Grok's warpath.
Anabelle let out another discharge of mana to give herself space, then took a step forward and fell to one knee, coughing blood.
The physical exertion was starting to take its toll.
A shade stomped Anabelle in the face as another climbed onto her back.
Instinctively, Anabelle let fire cover her skin, reducing the shades to ashes. She continued on.
The three Dark Gate Angels battled their way through the horde, pushing themselves to the limits, their bodies screaming in agony as they struggled to catch up with Grok.
Anabelle couldn't even imagine what the next wave was going to be like. This was already shaping up to be the hardest fight of her life. "We're not losing her!" Anabelle shouted.
Terra slammed her skull into a shade's. "Speak for yourself. I don't know if I can keep this up."
Abby blasted her plasma cannon, the energy output significantly lower than before. "We're fading."
Anabelle reached down deep, farther than she’d ever had to before. "We're doing this!"
A wave of mana shot out of her, shredding hundreds of shades and leaving a smoking hole that the DGA agents stood in.
Anabelle grabbed Terra by the collar and pointed at Grok. "We're not fading. We're strong enough to get through this."
Terra nodded and bounded after Grok.
Anabelle turned to look at Abby, who was hunched over, breathing heavily. She rested her hand on the girl’s shoulder. "Come on. We need to keep moving."
Chapter Ten
Sarah stormed into Creon's laboratory.
The gnome was passed out in front of his computer, the Omniverse sphere projected on his holoscreen. Cire was sitting next to Creon, reading an ancient-looking book. He looked up as Sarah walked into the room. "You seem excited about something."
Sarah smiled widely. Her eyes were half-mad, and there was dried blood smeared across her face. She looked as if she had just gorged herself on a living creature. "We can talk to it without any of the bullshit Abby had to do just to get that thing to listen to her."
Cire closed his book and leaned back in his chair as he watched Sarah intently. "How do you know that?"
Sarah pointed to her bloody nose. "Because I spoke to it. Sort of. Mostly, I guess I just heard it speaking to me, but it wasn’t repeating that nonsense about the Dark One. I heard something completely different."
"What was it?"
Sarah told Cire what the Omniverse had said to her about the Path of Pain. "Have you heard of anything like that?"
Cire shook his head. "Since becoming an orc lich, I have gained access to the orcs’ sacred archives, but most of the books about the Paths of the Travelers are housed in the elven archives. Even with all the strides we've made to improve interracial relationships, I still find it hard to believe the elves would allow us access to their libraries. Based on your expression, I'm assuming you haven't heard of it before this."
Sarah shook her head as she took a seat. Her mind was still racing. The Omniverse's voice continued to echo in her skull. "No, but I never received the proper training as a Traveler. Also, the way I access the Path of the Lost is completely different than Terra and Anabelle. I doubt Anabelle knows about this. She was surprised when she found out Grok could walk the Path of the Lost. I think there's a lot she doesn't know...or maybe wasn't taught."
Cire stood and placed his book on Creon's desk. "Hm..."
A random thought crossed Sarah's mind. "Wait, why did you refer to yourself as a lich? I thought you were the orcs’ shaman?"
Cire smiled, his face looking somewhat tired. "Slip of the tongue. I am the orcs’ shaman, but I am also a lich. When I consider it, I think of myself as a lich. ‘Shaman’ is simply a title. I'd prefer not to allow myself to forget what I'm capable of becoming."
Sarah nodded. She could see the validity in that.
Cire softly tapped Creon on the shoulder. The gnome jumped out of his chair and pulled a dagger from his side. He hissed something in Gnomish before realizing where he was.
Creon cleared his throat awkwardly as he pulled his greasy hair back. "Sorry about that. Bad dream."
Sarah smiled approvingly at him. She was glad to see he still was armed, even if he spent his entire day in a magically protected lab. "I'm coming with you," Sarah said as she turned to Cire.
The orc headed toward the door. "I assumed so." He looked at Creon. "Would you please send a request to start the Hadron Collider? The destination is the orc homeworld."
Creon, whose eyes were still half-closed, nodded as he fumbled with the conjuration pad, which put a cup of coffee in his hand. "Will do," he muttered.
Abby was having a hard time keeping up with Terra, Grok, and Anabelle. She'd been trying to produce more nanobots as fast as she was burning them, but it was too hard. Martin had already informed her that if she increased production too much, she would overheat, throwing her body into shock.
She was slightly bitter that she couldn't just push through the pain like Terra and Anabelle could. Their resilience was noticeable. The two of them were in the lead, and even though they were both tired, it was obvious that they weren't going to give up.
Abby wasn’t as strong as they were, but she did share their determination. She would give it everything she had, choosing death over giving up.
The first wave of shades was nearly behind them. Grok was somewhere ahead, lost in the red fog that blanketed the valley. Grok knew where Rasputina was, which implied that she'd made this journey before.
There was a clear path behind Anabelle and Terra, so Abby slightly diverted her course, blasting her thrusters to catch up with the other two agents as they relished the brief respite from the onslaught of attacks.
Terra suddenly stopped running. "I need a break. I feel like I'm going to snap in half." Her eyes returned to normal, and the white aura of energy around her disappeared.
Anabelle did the same, and her fiery red aura vanished. "There's no way Grok is still alive."
Abby looked around, trying to see through the red fog. "It's getting worse. The fog. The farther in we go, the thicker it gets."
Terra clapped Abby on the back. "How you holding up, kid? Must be nice not to have all those pesky muscles to hold you back."
Abby smiled weakly. "Yeah. It's pretty great."
A shadowy figure approached from the fog. "I’m definitely still alive," Grok said as she stepped into view. "Glad to see you three are as well."
Anabelle's eyes flashed white for a second as she walked up to the orc. "Where do you get off leaving us behind like that? We could have—"
"Been killed? Yeah, that's the point. If you can't survive this, you're not going to be ready for anything ahead. But you guys aren't doing too bad. It took me and Rasputina ten attempts to break through the first wave. Just keep at it. You're already getting stronger."
Terra looked at Abby uneasily before leaning over to whisper, "Still not sure what I think about Grok trying to win Coach of the Year."
Gr
ok pointed into the fog. "It's coming. I advise you to get ready to fight." With that, she ran into the fog.
Abby pulled out her scanner and took readings in the direction Grok had pointed. "What is she talking about? We're not getting anything."
The fog suddenly sucked itself in as if there were a giant vacuum before the DGA agents. Then it shot outward, forming into a variety of shapes before breaking apart and coming back again, this time taking the shape of a giant dragon.
Terra snorted as she crossed her arms. "So, what, we're fighting clouds now?"
Abby raised her hand and charged her plasma cannon. "Technically, it's fog."
The fog solidified, turning to flesh and blood, and collapsed on the ground, its red flesh moving back and forth in a rhythmic manner. The dragon's eyes were attached by stalks that swayed like those of an insect. Five wings were attached to the dragon's back, the odd wing stretching down the spine like a mohawk.
The dragon opened its mouth, and dozens of red shades were vomited out. They were greasy and oily creatures with malformed bodies, limbs hardly set in their bodies, their heads lopsided and caved in, and mouths ajar, rows of teeth lining their insides.
The shades moved as fast as Grok had as the dragon breathed fire into the sky behind them.
Abby launched her thrusters, flying backward to pick off the shades, but they were too fast. One leaped onto her and drove her into the ground. It roared and opened its mouth, its jaw stretching wide enough to fit her entire head inside.
An axe hit the shade in the neck and severed its head. Terra's foot came next, hitting the shade in the waist and sending it into the fog.
Terra helped Abby to her feet. "Think you can take the dragon?"
Abby looked up at the dragon and tried to swallow her fear, but it stayed in her throat, a massive knot. She didn't think there was any way she could take down that dragon. "We...we're not as strong as you two."
Anabelle was fighting four ghouls at once, her movements as fluid as water as flames and electricity crackled from her body. She was holding her own.
Abby could see that Grok hadn’t been lying. Fighting down here was enough to increase Anabelle’s and Terra's strength.
Terra spun and caught one of the shades flying at her. She lifted it and brought its back down on her knee as Abby watched.
That was all Abby could do, stand there and watch. She was frozen with fear. Everything was moving too fast.
Terra looked over her shoulder at the girl. "Come on, kid! We don't have time for an existential crisis. You can do this. You always figure something out.
The dragon vomited out another pack of red shades just as grotesque as the last. They wriggled their way out of the dragon's sludge, screeching.
Abby tried to clear her head. She took off toward the dragon. As she leaped into the air, one of the slithering shades shot off the ground and wrapped its body around her. It dragged her down, and the other shades quickly piled on top of her.
There were too many of them, their bodies too slippery, and they were far too strong. Abby struggled to get out from under them, but she couldn't find the strength.
Panic set in.
Abby had forgotten what it felt like to panic. Now she was watching her life flash before her eyes.
Terra's words echoed in her head. She could figure this out. She always did. There had to be a way for her to get strong enough to handle this. After all, she'd figured out how to handle the trial of fraud without her tech. All she had needed was her mind. This wasn't any different.
Actually, it was. She still had her tech.
A pair of sharp fangs sank into Abby's leg, and she screamed in pain as she tried to fly away.
She couldn't. The shades had her pinned.
Another set of fangs bit Abby's arm. The shades were going to eat her alive.
A memory passed before her eyes—sitting with her father at his computer. He had been having a hard time playing video games on it since the graphics card wasn't up to date and the processer wasn't running fast enough for the game. He was disappointed since he'd been looking forward to locking himself in the barn to play all night.
Now Abby was a little girl, standing next to her dad, watching him pout as if he were a child. "There's got to be some way to get more juice out of this thing," he muttered to himself.
Suddenly, it clicked.
Abby stopped trying to struggle. She felt another set of jaws sink into her skin. "Martin, open all my operating procedures."
Martin popped up in the blackness of Abby's mind. "You sure this is the best time to be running a diagnostic?"
"First off, cut all my pain receptors. I need to concentrate."
"You're the boss."
A bright web of icons showed up in front of Abby. She knew exactly what she needed to do and rearranged a few of them, turning off certain functions. "That's it. Initialize, Martin."
The paperclip showed up again and looked at the changes. "Shit, I would never have thought of that. You sure you want to do this?"
"Do it. And turn my pain receptors back on."
Abby's body woke up with pain, but that wasn't all. Newfound power surged through her like a live wire. It was almost too much to contain, so she didn’t try. Instead, she let it out.
Anabelle looked over her shoulder to check on Abby as an explosion went off near the dragon. It looked like a giant dome of light.
Abby leaped out of the explosion, leaving the charred remains of the shades beneath her.
She raised her hand and aimed her palm at the dragon. "We found the juice."
A plasma blast the size of a small house shot from Abby's palm and hit the dragon square on the face, burning through it and instantly vaporizing it.
Abby floated back to the ground as Terra walked over to her. Anabelle was still dealing with the last of the shades.
Terra whistled loudly. "Now, that is some serious power. I dig the new look too."
Abby's hair had a techno-organic covering, as did the rest of her skin. Her armor had lost its bulk, and there was barely a distinction between her skin and the nanobots.
Anabelle approached the two. "How'd you do that?"
Abby smiled bashfully. "We figured we should try something like you two. Instead of trying to operate at the same level all the time, we'd make a different combat profile, one that conserved certain energy so we could use it for other things. Also, we overhauled the entire system. Why limit nanobots to our bloodstream? Now they're infused with our skin cells, nerves, and brain. A more precise arrangement."
The fog began to clear, revealing Grok, who had been watching them. "If I had to pick one of you that I didn't think was going to make it, would have been you, Abby. Didn't think she could do this without going back to HQ and adding something to her current rig. Guess I was wrong."
Abby tapped her head. "The weapons don't make the fighter."
Grok smiled. "That's what I like to hear." She turned and walked into the fading fog. "Follow me. We're almost there. You're going to want to see this."
Chapter Eleven
Sarah paced. She was in the orc archives with Cire and was starting to get bored. It felt like she'd been waiting for him to find the answer for a long time.
The shaman had encouraged her to search with him, but she was hampered by her inability to read Orcish. For a while, she had busied herself looking through the different armories of orc weapons that had been passed down through the generations, but there were only so many swords and axes to look at. That being said, there were a lot.
Sarah flopped on one of the large ottomans near Cire and groaned loudly. "I didn't think you were going to have to read every book here."
Cire looked up from a book and smiled politely. "Most of the archive hasn't been updated yet, and hardly any of it has been transferred to HQ. We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."
Sarah picked up one of the books on the ottoman and languidly flipped through its pages. When she got tired of lookin
g at what could have easily been a picture book, she stood up and went to the window.
Outside, orcs were walking back and forth, transporting building materials as large container ships flew behind them. "Do you know how the containment's going?" Sarah asked.
Cire made a few arcane gestures in the air, causing his book to disappear and be replaced with another one. "Wouldn't be much of a shaman unless I did. It’s been difficult is the answer. Initially, we thought that only a few of the larger cities had been invaded by the dead. We were very wrong. They are all throughout the planet. Anywhere the dead fell in this world's history, the dead rose."
Sarah looked over her shoulder at Cire. "Fuck. Part of me was hoping Earth was the only one that got hit that hard, but it makes sense. How are you going to contain them all?"
Cire stood and stretched, groaning slightly as he touched his toes. "As best we can. Holding pens for the larger infestations. The entire army is working on the cleanup. How about you humans?"
"Pretty much the same thing, except our governments have been ridiculous about it. Myrddin won't step in because he says it's treading on too many people's toes—which he never seems to have a problem with.”
Cire joined Sarah by the window. "He's been pulling the strings of humanity for years, prepping them for war with the Dark One. I wouldn't be surprised if he was simply tired. Nor will it be good for humans if they're babied throughout the integration. Your government will have to quickly figure out how to deal with the many crises of the realms."
Sarah chuckled. "Yeah, it does seem like there are a lot of them. I'll catch you later, Cire. I'm going to see if I can find someone to spar with."
Cire nodded and headed back to his books, tripping over one that had fallen off of a pile. He reached down and picked it up. "Hold on. You might want to take a look at this."
Sarah, who was already at the door, looked over her shoulder. "Cire, I told you, I can't read orc."
"Humor me."
Sarah joined Cire in the middle of the archives. "Why would you want me here for this?"
