Admiral Conway stepped forward, but a powerful slap from the back of Vengeance’s hand rendered her unconscious. The infested woman had inhuman strength, toying with the group, taking them out one by one at her pleasure.
Elaine cried for help, pinching Vengeance’s hands, kicking, and screaming. Nothing slowed the monster. Not for a bit.
“Leave her be,” a sudden growl caused her to hesitate. It was the old priest. “You killed my lands, you killed my people, and you are killing my friends. Not anymore, no.” Brother Cavil’s voice was low and dark.
“Stay where you are, human.” Vengeance focused her gaze on Brother Cavil.
“No.” Brother Cavil threw his body over the console, tumbling to the other side and putting it between himself and his guard. His face was tightened and flushed from the effort. He wheezed and trembled.
Vengeance hissed as Brother Cavil stood before her, panting.
“No.” Brother Cavil looked around in his lunacy, “I will not let you take her.” He reached for a chair and swung it at Vengeance. His eyes were maddened, anger washing over his face. “I will not let you kill her. Not you, not that stupid boy, or this stupid legacy will cause any more harm. Enough!” he roared.
“Help me,” Elaine’s begs filled the room. The ant guards stepped forward to incapacitate Brother Cavil, but Vengeance stopped them with a hiss.
“What…” Admiral Conway came to her senses. She rolled to her side slowly, and her eyes grow wide. “No—Brother, be careful! Sarah!” She tried to stand up but couldn’t.“Sarah, stop him, she will kill him!”
Sarah felt helpless. She was still trapped, unable to break free. The infested woman was probably taking Elaine to her death, and if Sarah knew Ray, he would do something stupid to save his daughter. Brother Cavil stood between them and the rift, but Vengeance was serene, a lion inspecting her midday meal.
“Brother!” Admiral Conway cried.
It all happened in an instant. The old man screamed, “Light guide my path!” and charged blindly. Where she stood, Vengeance grew two limbs like thick tree branches mashed with insect legs with sharp, spearhead tips. Sarah saw Brother Cavil’s eyes tensing but not because of fear but of anger.
Then those eyes bulged, and blood sprayed from the poor priest’s mouth as the two spears ripped through his chest. Vengeance lifted Brother Cavil’s body, letting it slide slowly toward her, his blood dripping from his chest like a sick fountain.
“I…” The old priest’s voice trembled. “I… will… not let…” His words died in his mouth, his eyes losing their focus.
“No!” Sarah screamed as much as her throat allowed her. “No!”
Vengeance’s smile grew wider, and she barked a victory shout, splitting Brother Cavil’s body in half. A half-bitten kumat fell from one of the pockets of his robe and rolled slowly at Sarah’s feet, covered in the old man’s blood.
Sarah closed her eyes, weeping. “Oh no,” she repeated over and over. When she found the courage to open her eyes, Vengeance was at the edge of the rift with Elaine. The two disappeared into the black void.
Admiral Conway’s eyes were locked on the rift, reflecting the room's sick, dark light. There were tears. Her face was sullen. Beaten. Sarah thought Samir and the other men were lucky to be unconscious while their comrade was mutilated.
“My my—” Captain Samir’s voice came as he opened his eyes. “What has happened?”
Admiral Conway’s dry voice gave the answer no one wanted to hear.
“We lost.”
ENEMY OF MY ENEMY IS FAMILY
“Dad!”
Ray felt his heart skip when he heard Elaine’s voice in distress.
“Ah, our guests have arrived,” the female Architect announced in her mocking tone. “So, we can get on with things.”
“Leave her be,” Ray yelled in madness, dashing toward Vengeance, who still dragged Elaine. He jumped on the infested woman. Without the power of the stones, he was only an angry father. Vengeance caught his throat, ignoring the punches and the kicks Ray swung blindly.
“Know your place, human.” She smiled, her eyes glowing with glory, and threw Ray all the way to the first steps of the dais.
Sim’Ra was on alert, spear in his hands, but unlike Ray, he moved cautiously, and Ray realized it was smarter than charging an impossible enemy. Sim’Ra hissed and rolled to his right with lightning reflexes and threw his spear with tremendous speed. The weapon met Vengeance’s flesh before she could duck and ripped her shoulder, passing through her sick skin and sticking into the wall behind her.
Vengeance howled in pain and anger and dropped Elaine to the floor, stepping toward the Baeal prince with death in her eyes. She started to morph but stopped short at the male Architect’s words.
“Enough.” His voice was neither hard nor loud, but it commanded. “You may be our new left hand, but you are still ours. I will not let you spill unnecessary blood.”
Vengeance said nothing but Ray was sure he saw annoyance in those eyes. “Elaine,” he mumbled, standing up slowly.
“I’m okay,” Elaine said, rubbing the back of her head. “The old man…” her words turned into a whisper.
Ray closed his eyes. He somehow knew her next few words like a farmer knew when a storm would hit. What did you do, you old fool?
“He tried to stop her,” Elaine’s eyes were red, but her face was stern, filled with fury. “She… monster!”
Ray opened his eyes, focusing on Vengeance. Everything was black and white for him except for those red eyes. The old priest had recently entered his life, but Ray realized he had come to see him as a father figure. He was crazy—but that craziness was to cope. With the loss of his wife and his unborn child. With the loss of his father and his homeworld. Ray felt hollow. There was nothing in his heart but the deep scars inflicted by this treacherous woman. “Even if it means the end of the universe, I will see you suffer and die. I promise your death.”
Vengeance hissed.
“Lohil.”
“What!”
“The power of Arinar. Reach the plane walker’s mind. He can distort this reality long enough to free me and reconnect you to the stones.”
“How?”
“He is Marakhunassan. He can walk the planes.”
“It is time for your judgment to be executed.” The Female Architect was near him, and Ray cursed at her sudden, dry voice itching in his ear. The female passed by him, her mechanical legs clicking on the stone floor. “You defied your purpose, Lohil. And your punishment has been decided. Of course, you will be separated from the stones, and Vengeance will probably have you in her hive. But first,” the female nodded at Vengeance. “You will watch Vengeance have her.”
“Wait—” Everything was in slow motion now, and Ray had weights chained to his legs. His body didn’t respond to his commands. He was trembling.
Vengeance threw a triumphant look at him, smiling, then grew two limbs, sickeningly brown like ill branches of an old apple tree, dry and yet somehow alive. Elaine screamed in terror, blood leaving her face. She stepped back and stumbled in her panic. Vengeance walked to Elaine lazily, toying with Ray’s daughter as much as torturing Ray. She enjoyed it.
Ray watched his daughter kick Vengeance from where she lay, but Vengeance simply pushed the leg away and stepped on Elaine’s chest, blowing the air from her lungs. Then Vengeance threw a mocking glance at Ray over her shoulder and thrust one of her limbs into Elaine’s forehead.
“Elaine!” Ray roared, finding the strength to stand up, but an invisible force pushed him back. He saw Sim’Ra thrown to the opposite side of the walkway as the dark prince grabbed at the new insect queen.
Elaine’s body trembled. Instead of blood, however, tiny creatures poured from where Vengeance struck her limb. Her eyes grew wide, her mouth opening to scream her agony, but more bugs poured from her. She fell to her knees, her hands and arms slowly crusting over.
“Lohil, please.”
“She’s infesting her!”
“You can stop this, Lohil,” the Devourer’s voice begged in his mind.
“She’s infesting her!”
“Reach the prince, Lohil.”
“Elaine… how… I hate you all!”
“Lohil. Free us all, and we can save her.”
“How? I thought this was irreversible!”
“Together, we can. You and I are like the Sun and the Moon. Let me be your Moon.”
Ray looked at his hands. Invisible chains kept him paralyzed. He took a deep breath and focused on Sim’Ra. Failure was not an option. He had mere seconds to stop the madness. Suddenly Sim’Ra’s neck tensed, his head jerking. The Baeal’s eyes narrowed, locking with Ray’s from the other side of the audience hall.
“Lohil?”
“I’ll set you free, and you’ll release us both.”
“You want me to release the Devourer?”
“She’s on our side.”
“Lohil, no. She destroyed my people. My world.”
“She’s only a weapon in their hands. It’s not her. It’s them.”
“Lohil…”
“You’ll help me save my daughter, or I’ll rip everyone apart, including you.”
“…”
“Sim’Ra!” Ray’s eyes glowed red, and for a brief moment, his anger breached the barrier the temple had put on his mind. The female Architect was lost in her zeal, watching Elaine’s metamorphosis, but the male turned to Ray, his calm face turning to terror in a flash, his eyes bulged in alarm.
“No,” he yelled. “He is breaking free!”
“What—” the female started, but everything shifted like a broken video feed. Ray saw himself standing half a meter from where he stood, yet he was still inside his own body. There were two copies of everyone inside the temple.
“What’s happening?”
“Lohil, I cannot distort time for much longer without the Architects finding us at this exact moment. Reach the stones and break free. And I hope, for all our sakes, you know what you are doing.”
Ray didn’t need to hear it twice, or a call for motivation was necessary. He stood up, his mind reaching the stones in his backpack as he closed his eyes.
“We are here, Lohil. What is your bidding.”
“We’ll tear this place a new one.”
“You are not powerful enough to take this place all by yourself.”
“I know.” Ray opened his eyes and walked toward the Devourer with purpose.
“Lohil,” the Devourer spoke. She was free of the mental cage she was in but still cut from her powers.
Ray touched the woman’s forehead, his hand glowing with all the auras of the Arinar. “Now, you’ll help me save my daughter.”
And a blinding light filled the temple, illuminating the darkest depths of its colossal construction.
ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
“Fire, fire,” Stefanu yelled. He looked over his shoulder at Lieutenant Commander Jong. “Fire, damn it, or I’ll rip out your other eye myself!”
By blind luck, the rest of the survivors had been brought to the Omar installation, and when the group arrived at their predestined graveyard, Stefanu realized the creatures were not as high in numbers as they first feared. A quick tactical assessment led him and Ga’an to concur on a strategy to attack before the infested Deviator's reinforcements would arrive.
They didn’t have to wait long for an opportunity. After the first group entered the base, by the same divine luck lingering over them still, Stefanu and Ga’an found themselves standing near the gate guards' secondary armory locker, grouped with Major Kasper’s men. Stefanu smirked as he remembered the gleam in Ga’an’s eyes when the first officer laid his hands on a Hydra grenade launcher. They had lost three marines to the affray when they made their move, incapacitating the ant guards, but they had managed to arm themselves to the teeth before the bigger creatures interfered. Then it turned into a base defense scenario—or more like total chaos.
“Kasper. The main armory!” Stefanu ducked a flying piece of insect.
Major Kasper yelled over his assault rifle fire, but his words died in the noise, a roaring, rapid-fire followed by small explosions burying his words. The man’s face was red and sweaty, and he was covered in insect pieces.
“Damn it. Stop firing that thing over my head, Ga’an. I can’t even hear what I’m thinking!” Stefanu flared. He was crouched behind a crate in the courtyard, near the main entrance. Ga’an stood over him with the Hydra launcher in his hands, firing at the mantis creatures as they appeared from inside the fog. “You know, we still have people inside that fog.” Stefanu could’ve sworn the first officer was grinning.
“We gave them the chance to break free, mercenary. Now it is time for them to fight for their lives. Casualties will happen. May they find a glorious death.”
“Yeah, I get it.” Stefanu fired a burst and took down an ant guard jumping on one of the crates at the other side of the courtyard. The entrance was primarily a big rectangle with enough room to pile up a few dozen walkers. Sadly, all they had bunked were a few crates to use as cover. Stefanu and Ga’an stood under the entrance eaves, using them to shield themselves from aerial attacks. “Still, it would be nice to have some men left after the battle. We need all the power we can muster to save the admiral.”
“We will fight until every last one of these foul creatures is dead. Never worry, mercenary. The—” Ga’an’s speech cut short.
The fog opened up like a valley, revealing everything before them. Stefanu’s eyes hurt from the sudden sunlight brightening the courtyard. “What the hell’s going on?”
“I do not know.” Ga’an looked up. “The sky is different.”
He was right. A ripple was forming right on top of them. The cloudless blue sky was still there, but Stefanu saw an energy field starting between the ground and space, like ripples in a pond when a rock was thrown.
“I don’t like it. It looks distorted.”
“Our enemy does not concern itself with such distractions.” The first officer fired another round from his devastating weapon, blowing another mantis creature into pieces.
“Gods!” Stefanu muttered. The fog clearing increased their vision a hundred times but what the fog had hidden was a massacre. Creatures assaulting the unarmed prisoners. Some eating, some toying with their prey for fun. Dozens of eggs lay on the sand, recently cocooned by a new form of insect.
“All right, we weren’t that accurate with the odds.”
“They look like bedbugs,” Lieutenant Commander Jong winced.
“It must be one hell of a bed,” Stefanu fired at a flier passing over the building. “That thing’s half my size. You don’t like bugs, Jong?”
“I hate bugs.”
“Shut up and fire!” Ga’an reloaded his weapon. “It is not the time for idle chatter.”
Stefanu shot a quick glance at Ga’an. “Are you kidding me? I shot down more with this rifle than you with that thing!”
“Hah! Only in your dreams, human.” Ga’an aimed the Hydra launcher on his shoulder. “Watch and learn, mercenary.” One by one, the guided grenades left the barrel, gliding into the air from the launch tube, their rocket motors sending them toward the bull creature charging the compound gate. The grenades reached the monster with deadly precision, sending flesh and bone to the sky in a bleak rain of meat and gore.
“Gods, the reek…”
“That is how you kill in battle, human.” A sudden tremor hit where they stood, shaking everything violently. “What is this treachery?” Ga’an scowled.
“I don’t know.” Stefanu looked for evidence of an explosion. It must have been one hell of a blast to create such shaking. “Maybe your magic guy is doing it?”
“The Lohil has his own battles to win, but it may very well be the case.”
“Yeah, well—” Stefanu’s words hung in the air. “Um, Ga’an,” He slowly rose from behind his cover. A crest formed in the distance, growing rapidly and steadily. “I sincerely hope y
ou have some more tricks up your sleeve.” Stefanu touched the communicator they had found in the armory. “Major Kasper, are you seeing that?”
“Everyone sees that! What is it?”
“A groundhog, maybe?”
“Ha-ha.”
“A big groundhog with horns? Heck, man, look around you, it’s a zoo!”
None of them had to guess any longer, for the crest exploded with a huge dust cloud forming over, and a howl filled the sky, deafening everyone.
“Holy…” Stefanu lowered his rifle. “Ga’an, we really need a plan B.”
First, two massive bony legs came out of the hole like an arachnid’s legs without the hairs. As the creature pulled itself out of its hole, tentacles of all sizes followed the legs, wriggling madly. The body was nothing less spectacular. Its mouth reminded Stefanu of the drilling machines they used to dig tunnels in poor mining colonies. Several different mouths merged with one another, opening in every direction. Stefanu could see the teeth from where they stood.
“Those things must at least be a few meters each.”
“They certainly seem dangerous.”
Stefanu’s jaw dropped, looking at Ga’an. “Are you kidding me? Ga’an, we wouldn’t even be midnight snacks for that thing. Hell, it can eat the building in a few bites.” Stefanu touched his communicator one more time. “Kasper, reach anyone you can and tell them to regroup near our position. We need to use the shuttles. Now!”
“The sky is full of fliers,” the task force leader responded, his voice interrupting with his panting.
“I’d take that chance any day. We can’t even think to hurt this thing. We don’t have the firepower.”
“What’s the plan?”
Stefanu’s mind raced. Kasper was right—shuttles, and then what? They had no ship to return with their numbers so divided. It would be a hopeless nightmare to clean the superdreadnought from alien infestation anyway. “Well,” he said, grimacing, “we’ll fill the shuttles with as many as we can, and we go pick Admiral Conway from the other compound. We’ll see how it goes from there.”
Balance of Power: The Blackened Prophecy Book 2 Page 30
