by Gareth Otton
The next punch will hit you, she realised, analysing how Elias was moving and realising it was too quick for her to do anything but try to block it. She prepared herself for the pain of what was to come next, but then Leon was there, shoulder barging Elias and sending him flying into the nearest soldiers and ghosts, knocking them all out of his way as he tumbled and fell.
In a mere second, he was back on his feet, and those poor soldiers didn’t stand a chance as he started batting them aside in his fury, shrugging off bullets and magical attacks alike as he let nothing stand between himself and his two targets. The mockery in his expression was long gone now as fury reigned.
“Really, Leon? This is the guy you’ve been so scared of all this time?” Stella asked her cousin, hoping her voice would carry. Again Leon gave her an incredulous look, but she just stared back in a way that she hoped would portray the message that she wanted him to play along. “He’s not that impressive. I mean, he’s only been here ten minutes and already he was knocked on his arse by a simple dreamwalker shield, and then again by just the two of us. I thought this guy was supposed to be a big deal.”
Growling was Elias’ first response, followed by a shock of white light and the crack of thunder that accompanied a bolt of lightning as thick as Stella’s leg rushing at her. However, while lightning may move far too fast to ever dodge, Elias didn’t. He was letting his rage get the best of him and telegraphing his movements early enough that Stella could read him like an open book. She had more than enough time to push Leon aside and jump out of the way herself.
The lightning shot between the two of them, connecting with a poor soldier who was fighting behind her and didn’t even know what hit him before he died. Stella felt terrible because he might have lived without her goading this man, but she had no other choice right now. She needed her plan to work if they were going to somehow defeat this false god and she couldn’t let herself worry about anything else.
“Ha. Look at him, Leon. I mean, it’s flashy and all, being able to shoot lightning from his hands, but if you can’t hit what you’re aiming for, then what’s the point?”
Leon still look confused, but it showed just how much he trusted her that he played along regardless.
“I know. It looks like you might be right, the man doesn’t live up to the myth.”
Elias didn’t growl this time. He outright screamed as he threw both arms forward, hurling lightning from both hands that forked like the branches of a tree. The thunder this time was ten times louder, and the shock wave knocked people aside. But again Stella saw this coming and dodged the attacks, helping Leon along the way. It helped that it didn’t look like it was going to hit them anyway, as the lightning was wild and out of control.
Is this working? Stella asked herself. She hoped it was, but wasn’t ready to test the theory just yet.
“Missed again, Elias,” she crowed. “So much for Zeus come again. More like—”
She never got to finish her insult, because Elias was close enough now that he could charge her. Once again she saw what he was about to do a second before he did it and acted in time to save herself and her cousin, but this time she couldn’t make a show of making it look easy as he was far too close. She dodged and ducked away from his furious attacks while Leon went on the offensive. Elias somehow blocked everything Leon threw at him, allowing Stella to try a few attacks of her own. However, she had never been a fighter, and Elias had no trouble turning the tables, forcing her to dodge yet again.
His attack didn’t last long before once more Leon was there, picking up the slack and drawing attention.
For a minute, the pattern repeated until Stella saw what she was hoping for. There were beads of sweat forming on Elias’ forehead, his breathing was becoming laboured and his movements were slowing.
It’s working, she realised, and this time when she smiled, it was a genuine smile.
“What’s wrong, Elias? Realising you’re not up to defeating two baby eidolon?”
And there it was.
It was only for a second, but her taunts caused a flicker of emotion behind his eyes that had nothing to do with anger. There was a touch of fear, and in that instant, she knew she had him. He was doubting himself, and hopefully, the millions of people that must be watching this live stream would doubt him too.
It turned out the answer to defeating this man had been right in front of her from the start. Her grandmother had given her the answers she needed in their very first conversation. The counter to belief was doubt.
Elias had spent his entire life building belief in himself, creating a reputation as a living legend that allowed him to do incredible things. But just like his shadow organisation couldn’t survive in the light, his belief couldn’t last long when the people watching were given reason to doubt. The longer this fight went on, the more it looked like Elias could not finish the job, and the more that happened, the more doubt it created.
However, they didn’t have all night to diminish his belief all the way, so Stella gathered the last of her strength and took a serious risk.
“Give up. You’ve lost.”
Stella fell to her knees as all strength left her. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open, let alone catch herself with trembling hands. Exhausted and vulnerable to the most mundane of attacks, Stella lifted her head and knew her risk had paid off.
The strength of Stella’s Authority washed over Elias like a wave, and where before he would have been able to stand against that wave without flinching, now he staggered back. He only hesitated for a second, but it was long enough to matter. Leon stopped outright, unable to distinguish between an order for Elias and one for himself, but Stella didn’t care. What was important was that in full view of the cameras streaming this fight live to the world, a god had paused when a mortal spoke.
Elias’ eyes widened in surprise and that glimmer of fear returned as he understood what she had done. Once more, his fear turned to anger and he attacked her with new fury, but his attack was clumsy at best and slower than it had been even a moment earlier. More than this, Stella felt a surge of new strength that erased her weakness as doubt about Elias’ strength had turned into belief about hers. She stood and knocked Elias’ fist aside, then struck back. Her knuckles caught Elias in the jaw and knocked him to his knees.
Elias blinked, shaking his head like he couldn’t believe what happened. And it was in that moment that Stella saw him break. He was not just losing the belief of the people watching on the internet, he just lost belief in himself.
In another second he was on his feet, but not to attack this time, but to run.
“STOP!”
Stella’s voice rang over the crowd like rolling thunder. Even through the gunfire and explosions, the cries of the injured and the shouts of the dying, Stella’s order was heard and obeyed. In an ever-expanding circle, the fighting ceased and the sounds quieted, but most importantly, Elias stopped.
Shaking with fear, the man looked back, the terror on his face clear for everyone to see. Gone was the arrogance, strength and mockery. In its place was a man who didn’t know how to react to vulnerability as he hadn’t had to deal with this for the vast majority of his life.
“You can’t do this. It’s impossible,” he said, his voice shaking with the effort of denying her order.
“Clearly not,” Stella said.
When Elias couldn’t reply, Stella realised that for the first time she held a man’s life in her hands and suddenly felt a moment of sympathy for Tad. She knew he had faced this battle many times, and he struggled with it still, but she hadn’t understood what it meant until this moment.
The detective in her wanted to arrest this man so he could face the law for the full extent of his crimes. But the logical part of her mind told her the truth of what she was risking if she let that happen. Even though she had damaged his reputation and cast doubt on his power, did she want to give him the chance to rebuild? He was still the head of a powerful organisation, still ha
d impossible wealth, and who knew how long it would be before he regained what he had lost to come back stronger than ever.
The more she thought about it, the more she appreciated Tad’s decision to end Joshua King over a year ago. He hadn’t just killed the man, he had destroyed him, though he hated the act of doing it. It was the most awful thing Tad could think of, but he did it anyway rather than risk Joshua King ever somehow returning.
Logically, she always understood that choice and agreed with what Tad did, but only now did she realise the cost of doing the right thing. Feeling like she was putting a permanent stain on her soul that would haunt her for the rest of her life, she gathered her Authority and said, “Kill him.”
The sound of a hundred gunshots filled the air as fire balls chased away the darkness. Every soldier, dreamwalker, and person armed with dreamcatchers, be they friend or foe, had no choice but to react to her order.
Weariness hit Stella like a brick as she had pushed her Authority too far so soon after having used it before, and she staggered back, her vision swimming and her muscles feeling like jelly. She would have fallen had Leon not been there to catch her.
However, weakness and wavering vision were not enough to keep her from witnessing Elias’ last moments and the look of surprise on his face as his once near invulnerable body was pierced by hundred bullets before fire consumed him. He fell forward, blackening and still as a new, stunned ghost stood over that body, staring down in utter shock. Its gaze moved to its own hands, then looked around in surprise as it realised what happened and where it was. Then, it turned and ran, sprinting for the exit to the compound and trying to get away.
Stella let him go, exhausted and just wanting all this to be over. With the fighting stopped and Elias out of it, that left only Kuruk and his people to contend with for now. She hoped she could take advantage of what just happened so that she could end this.
Leaning against Leon, she looked around at the startled faces that were just now shaking off the spell of Stella’s words. The men and women that crowded the compound looked like they didn’t know what to do with themselves, but Stella knew that wouldn’t last. They would only need one person to act before the chaos kicked off again, so she knew she had little time.
Kuruk had to be here somewhere. He was over seven foot tall so she didn’t think he’d be hard to find even in a crowd this size. Sure enough, she was right, and the moment she spotted him, her weariness was forgotten and she gasped in horror.
Kuruk was coming out of his stupor like the rest of them, but he had acted before she had passed her order for people to stop. He had frozen in place while holding Tad’s body from the ground by his neck and the handle of a blade that was sunk to the hilt in Tad’s chest.
“No,” Stella screamed, seeing that Tad looked moments away from death, and it was the worst thing she could have done.
That shouted word, free from the magic of her Authority, was the shock everyone needed to realise where they were and what they were doing. Kuruk was among the first to recover. Blinking away his surprise, he noticed the expression on her face and grinned as he turned back to Tad and pulled out his knife, ready to stab him once more.
“No!” Stella screamed again, lurching forward so that she could do something about this. But it was no good. Her legs were still jelly, and she had done too much when fighting Elias. Again, she would have fallen were it not for Leon, and there was no way she could get to Tad in time to save him. She could only watch in horror as Kuruk raised the knife to Tad’s throat, ready to finish him forever.
Then there was a flash of light that blinded her for a second and made her look away. By the time she looked back, Tad’s body had crumpled to the ground and he wasn’t moving.
42
Saturday, 31st December 2016
23:11
Tad’s eyes snapped open as he sensed a nearby spike of Dream. Only this time, the usual tingling sensation felt like an electric shock, and his whole body shuddered. Somewhere close, someone had just pulled over a massive amount of power and when he opened his eyes, he expected to find a smoking crater.
Instead, he found only pain as his shivering had aggravated his injuries. He sucked in a breath and realised two things. The first was that by some miracle he could breathe again, and the second was that it was pure agony to do so.
Not a miracle, a Tony, a teenage voice teased from within his mind. Don’t celebrate too early. I don’t think you’re out of the woods yet. But you should be good enough to connect to some other ghosts so that you can throw some power around. Trust me, you’re needed right now.
What happened? Tad asked.
Elias is dead, Rodney answered in a no nonsense tone. But the fighting has kicked off again and things are chaos out there. Kuruk was about to finish you, but then Mitena showed up and slapped a piece of paper on his chest. Suddenly, the big guy lit up like he was a nuclear reactor or something.
A piece of paper? Tad asked, looking around frantically to see what happened.
He found the evidence of the chaos Rodney spoke about. Guns were firing, Brad and his dreamwalkers were locked in magical duels with soldiers armed with dreamcatchers, and hundreds of ghosts swarmed over the compound, some helping people while others fought other ghosts. It was mayhem, and further proof that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. This was not what Tad envisioned when he thought up this plan.
Finally his eyes fell on the rising smoke that he expected, but bizarrely it wasn’t coming from a crater, but from a giant man who was climbing to his feet. The clothing on the left side of his body had burned away and beneath that was blistered and red-raw skin in the shape of tattoos that had overloaded.
Kuruk was a mess. Not only was half of his chest, his left shoulder and arm burnt, but his face was blistered, as even the tattoos on the side of his head had overloaded. His left ear was missing, almost like it had melted off. Yet somehow, the man found the strength to climb to his feet.
Tad remembered being burnt that bad and the pain that went along with it, and couldn’t imagine finding the strength to stand when he was in that much agony. The only reason he had been able to move before was because Tony had been with him, but Kuruk was somehow managing it under his own will. His eyes were wide, and he was breathing hard, but he was climbing to his feet and he was glaring at the person who had done this to him.
Mitena stood ten feet away, tears in her eyes as she looked at her brother.
“Please Ruk, stay down, don’t make do this,” she begged, but Kuruk only growled in answer.
She was holding another piece of paper in her hand and Tad could see a dreamcatcher on the surface.
She just slapped that on him and it caused that damage? Tad asked his ghosts, but he didn’t need an answer because their memories of the event rushed into him.
Tad might have blacked out, but his eyes had been open. His ghosts had seen Mitena jump on her brother’s back and slap the piece of paper on Kuruk’s chest. It timed perfectly with the spike of Dream that woke Tad up, and he realised what she had done.
That dreamcatcher in her hand didn’t have any purpose but catching and collecting massive amounts of Dream. Once unleashed, she did the same thing with that dreamcatcher that Tad did to Kuruk when they had fought in Chicago. She poured more Dream into those dreamcatchers than they could handle, and she overloaded them.
There was a flash of light that brought Tad’s attention back to Kuruk and he saw that the man was activating dreamcatchers on other parts of his body. To Tad’s amazement, the skin on his chest, arm and face healed over, almost like Jen was working on the man.
Then another dreamcatcher flared to life, and Tony hissed in warning as Kuruk took a menacing step forward. However, for once Tad didn’t need to hear his ghost’s warning as he was already acting, calling on the strength of the ghosts in the vicinity and throwing up a hastily pulled together Dream.
A shield of condensed air sprang into existence between Mitena and her brother just
in time to stop the blur that Kuruk turned into as he tapped into a speed dreamcatcher and rushed at his sister. He struck the shield with enough force to make Tad wince, adding the mental strain of holding that shield to the pain of his other injuries. He tried to sit up, hoping that might help him get his breath better, but pain exploded in his shoulder and he remembered he had been shot.
We haven’t got to that yet, we’re still concentrating on your lungs, Tony apologised in response to Tad’s pain, but Tad ignored him and doubled down on his mental strength because Kuruk was in a rage and he clearly wanted to kill his sister. He fired up another dreamcatcher and took a run at Tad’s barrier, and Tad suspected this time his shield wouldn’t hold.
Frantically he cast out another mental fishing line and connected to another ghost. The shield intensified and this time when Kuruk struck it, the impact was not so painful on Tad’s mind. On Kuruk, however, there was a much bigger impact. He bounced off the shield and was thrown away, sending him rolling over broken ground from where Tad had smashed the floor earlier and aggravating his already painful injures as he bumped and rolled.
He roared and there were more flashes of light as he lifted himself onto his hands and knees and glared at Tad with the kind of hatred Tad had only seen on Marcus Riley’s face. This man hated him with a passion and even from a monster like Kuruk, Tad hated the feeling that came along with that look.
“Why won’t you die already?” Kuruk asked, half growling the question even as his muscles bunched in a way that told Tad what was coming next, even without Stella’s talent.
Tad, this is the chance you’ve been waiting for, Tony shouted, but once again Tad was one step ahead of him. It was time to end this once and for all.
Light exploded from two places at once. From Kuruk’s tattoos as he tapped his strength and speed, and from the beam of light as Tad did what he had only done a few times in his life, breaking the rules of nature by creating something from nothing. A beam of brilliant white light burst from his hand, brighter than ever thanks to the ghosts he was connected with. It moved at the speed of light, and even with his dreamcatchers enhancing his speed and perceptions, Kuruk couldn’t outrun that.
