by Prax Venter
He locked eyes with Jezebel in the darkness of the hut and everyone felt the same thing. They were facing a much larger force than any of them imagined.
With a chop of two fingers through the air, he signaled for Abby to get out there and take a look at what they were facing. The petite abyssal horror held a looped tentacle up to her new android protector and Angel nodded, seeming to understand that she should wait where she was.
The little combat drone was not mentally linked to the others, and Mark wondered if bringing her here at all would become a liability. It was too late now.
Abby crouched low to the ground before she slipped out of the curtain and into the night. A few minutes went by in silence with everyone focusing on their link to her mind, and although she was gone longer than they expected, Mark breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her green tentacle slip in to pull aside the cloth over the door as she snuck back into the hut.
“There are many large and small Skeema occupying the area,” she whispered. “I stopped counting at fifty. Most are positioned on the road or in front of the dome’s entrance. I was able to see inside. Whatever existed within the dome has been reduced to ash and there are approximately 27 Awysai held captive. I believe they are currently being questioned by several of the smaller variants.”
“Only 27?” Jezebel whispered back a little too loudly.
Abby nodded.
“Mistress,” Angel whispered in her slightly robotic voice. “I have no anatomical weakness data on Skeema and wish to protect you with optimal efficiency.”
“Of course,” Abby said. “They are human-like in every way with the exception of possessing two sets of arms. There are also two variants to their species. Trees are ten feet tall and serve as aggressive warriors. Stones are four feet tall and fill civil roles. Both have innate abilities. Trees can emit a ranged Healing beam while Stones are gifted with crafting skills.”
She paused, and her minion android nodded once.
“You never met Loa,” Sasha said. “but she is a six-foot hybrid and a sexy-ass dancer. I hope she is okay during all this.”
Jezebel put her hand on the succubus’s arm. “She’s smart and capable. I’m sure we’ll see her again.”
Abby waited for the exchange to be over then turned to Mark and continued her report.
“I’m unsure of our intentions, but it seems unlikely we will be able to eliminate the army holding this position and there are far too many Tree variants between here and the Awysai captives to mount a rescue without engaging the entire enemy army.”
Mark felt a cold sweat run down his spine. There had been hundreds of the muscular warriors living here and they could all be dead because Maliah set the world on fire to find them. He wondered if Amina was still okay and hoped the others were just being held somewhere else instead of… the alternative.
The concept of Awysai being somewhere other than here gave him an idea.
“Abby,” he whispered. “Do you think we could take the ones in the dome if we were able to get in undetected?”
She nodded. “There were only three Stones that appeared to be warriors while the others were outfitted more like bureaucrats. It’s impossible to know for sure. There may be others out of view, or the finely dressed foes could be spell casters. But I would say yes.”
“Okay,” Mark said. “We’re here now, and we can’t just leave them like this. My current plan is to find a way to sneak up to the dome from the back and poke a peep hole to get a better idea of what’s in there. If I can confirm there is a dimensional crossover point inside- and I’m willing to bet there is at least one near where they serviced the goddess echo, we bust in, destroy or subdue the Skeema inside, and then escape with everyone through the portal. Thoughts?”
“Can we leave this hut without being seen?” Sasha asked. “Most of us can’t turn invisible.”
Abby nodded again. “The doorway faces the lake. We should be able to wade in and use the liquid as cover as we circle around to the east.”
“If one of the big variants come in,” Jezebel said, “I could Vine them at the entrance and create a blockage for thirty seconds. After that, according to Abby’s reconnaissance, we would likely be overrun.”
Mark nodded. “This could work. Remember, if there’s no crossover point, we’ll need to come up with another plan.” He sighed. “Or leave. I won’t risk everything on a battle we cannot win.”
With their plan loosely set, all five of them quietly moved past the curtain and out into the cool night air. He scanned the area as they crept into the frigid lake and saw the occupation forces for himself.
Bonfires had been built around the open space leading up to the dome and along the road. Where there once were hundreds of wiry black salamanders practicing their techniques with magical weapons there were now what had to be hundreds of the tall, Tree-type Skeema standing around or sitting.
The devastation gripped his heart as the icy cold waters tightened his skin. Would the Awysai people ever recover from this?
A burning hatred of these asshole Skeema took root- and that was before adding Loa to the equation. The mesmerizing, medium-sized twig had found purpose and joy by turning her life around and working for the Awysai as their traveling merchant. If either she or Amina had been murdered by these people…
Mark tried to control his anger as they moved quietly through the dark water up to their necks, but he couldn’t remember a positive encounter with any Skeema, and the desire to wipe out the whole species began to sound like a fine idea.
He forcefully shook off his dark thoughts and focused on the task at hand. Rescue first, perhaps genocide later. Looking around at his party members, he noticed that the robot they’d named Angel had dimmed her glowing, pixelated eyes to almost non-existent, and he was grateful that she seemed to know what she was doing. The droid was still an untested wildcard, but he had a feeling that the little bare-assed bot was going to be a valuable asset in the long run.
Turning his gaze upward, he saw that the sky above was currently clear of airships, and huge swaths were blocked by cloud cover, but the infinite multitude of stars could clearly be seen reflected in the body of water called Mirror Lake. The thought led Mark to check his new, epic ability to copy his teammates’ powers and found that it was still a long way off from being ready again. Should they have waited for it to cool down before coming here? Maybe they could wait out the cooldown in the forest depending on what they saw in the dome.
By the time they all crawled out of the freezing water and onto the far muddy bank, he decided against waiting. He had his new Charm ability. That would have to do. There might not be any Awysai left if they waited any longer to try and do something about it.
The bikini-wearing Abby was shivering violently as she led them around the side of the massive mud dome and since the Skeema didn’t seem to be interested in guarding the forest on this side, Mark called for a momentary stop so they could huddle for warmth. They all needed to be at the top of their game for this rescue, and if she slowed down from quaking instead of casting, it could cost them their lives.
Jezebel and Sasha joined in too, but they all knew that the videogame physics of this world would kick in soon enough and everyone would be relatively dry again. As they shared a quiet huddle among the trees, Mark looked over to see Angel intently watching her new mistress.
There wasn’t exactly longing there as this group of people were practically strangers to her, but he waved her into the huddle anyway. Her pixelated, white eyes flicked to his for a moment before she crept to join the closeness of the group.
She looped one armored arm over his shoulder and one over Abby’s, then to everyone’s astonishment, the short droid began to radiate warmth from her chest as if she were a space heater.
Mark squeezed her shoulder as a sign of his approval and appreciation. They still hadn’t seen her fight beyond the now-defunct arm lasers, but any doubts evaporated like the chilled lake water from his skin.
A few minutes later, they’d moved through the thick dark forest around the circumference of the dome and stopped at about a quarter turn away from the entrance. After they approached its smooth dry surface, Angel came in handy once more as she shoved her professed indestructible finger through the solid structure to create a small hole.
Mark patted her on the back again. If he’d had his weapon-summoning energy, it would have been no problem for him to get the job done himself, and as he pressed his face against the dried mud of the Awysai dome to peer inside it finally hit him that he may never have access to that ability again.
Any stray thoughts vanished when he saw the smoldering black ashes of their home. Where once there was life and thick rows of berry-filled hedges, he now only saw a few dozen Awysai kneeling on the ground in the very center of the empty space, surrounded by several four-foot, four-armed Skeema. He counted five standing around the group and each was armed in some type of high-level fantasy armor. Quickly scanning the whole dome, he noticed two of the ten-foot warriors standing guard by the entrance.
Turning back to the Awysai captives, his heart soared when he spotted Amina kneeling front and center, but the bloody wounds and terrible sorrow emanating from her mind grounded him once more. When one of the short bastards struck her in the face with some sickly green, magic gauntlet, Mark almost lost his mind.
That monster was going to die before they left.
“…know you can produce more Eternal Echo!” He barely made out the words as the Skeema’s demanding voice rose in volume.
The nearby slab that had once been where the glowing goddess echo lounged as her attendants pleasured her day and night was now empty. But, exactly as he’d assumed, Mark found several Wrongside cross-over points scattered around it. He was about to pull away and tell the others that it was time to go to work when he noticed a unique glimmer right in the middle of the obsidian dais.
Rays of a hazy pink light shone through this new pinpoint, and Mark realized it led to a plane of existence he’d never seen before. The trickle of energy leaking through was powerful, and he didn’t think he was strong enough to open it yet, but-
The Skeema struck Amina again, and Mark had seen enough.
He pulled away from the peephole and turned to his team. “There are multiple Wrongside cracks close to prisoners. The goal is to go in and kill every Skeema in there before we escape through a tear. Let’s fucking hope we don’t jump into something worse under the Red Tortoise dome on the other side.”
The distant chopping sound of airship propellers caught his attention and then felt his own adrenaline spike even further from one of his Enthralled’s sudden clever idea.
“Audio disturbance can cover our assault!” Abby said as she encircled his bicep with a tentacle.
He nodded then turned to Jezebel and spoke quickly. “Bear up and ram us a way in. Fly straight into the fuckers. Sasha and Abby, rip them to pieces while I test out my Charm on the entrance guards. I don’t want you wasting time casting Vines. Angel, guard Abby from harm.”
Everyone nodded when he whispered out their role and before he was done speaking, the party’s Druid shifted into an iron-clawed, leather-armored, flying bear with rams’ horns.
Jezebel hovered backward, her massive paws scraping lines in the dirt. As the patrolling armada of airships entered the area, she angled her snout toward the ground and launched herself through the primitive structure made of sticks and mud.
Sasha’s sharp hooves kicked aside any remaining blockage as she followed close behind, then Angel, Abby, and finally Mark dashed in among the ashes of the Awysai people.
Jezebel was already halfway to the group of five Skeema, and Mark saw the lead interrogator spin around just in time to make a surprised face before she collided with him at top speed. Mark watched long enough to see the tiny asshole land in a crumple of broken bones on the other side of the dome before turning to Charm one of the Tree variants by the entrance.
Each held two savage-looking swords and two kite shields in their four fists, and both began sprinting toward him. As Mark mentally reached for the new ability granted from She Who Pleases, he discovered that the untested power had a specific and potentially disastrous limitation.
A dry click snapped behind his eyes then returned a clear message that neither of these male Skeema were valid targets because his Charm skill only worked on entities who were attracted to males. And these dudes were apparently not into dudes.
Mark cursed under his breath and vowed never to enter combat with new skills again before testing their functionally. Instead of tearing open a crossover point to the Wrongside as he intended, Mark made a sharp left turn and sprinted toward the two approaching Skeema Trees.
The pair of snarling warriors closed in with glee on what they thought was not only an easy kill, but also the one and only human whose death would grant them godhood. However, just before they were able to slice him into small chunks, Mark closed his eyes and channeled all his burning hatred for these despicable people into forming an epic magic barrier.
Using the same accidental utility that had tossed Amina into the air when they sparred in the grass outside, his red-tinted Lover’s Bubble expanded outward from him with such force, both ten-foot Skeema were shoved violently away. They had to weigh over 600 pounds each, but they rocketed upward as if they were dolls.
With his truth-seeing eye turned to its maximum from the life-or-death gamble, Mark felt both of their necks snap like twigs when they impacted the curved roof of the dome.
He didn’t wait for them to land before he turned around and sprinted back toward the others.
The magic barrier was about twice the size it had ever been, and Mark was reminded once more that that the flow of magic within The Crystal Heart could be bent by those with a strong enough will.
The shorter Skeema interrogating what was left of the bruised and bloody Awysai were all dead by the time he returned to the group. One was in several separate pieces and he attributed that to Abby’s upgraded laceration spell.
“Mark…” the sleek black salamander called Amina croaked as she stood, but he could barely hear her over the sound of the Airships passing overhead. He wanted to heal all of them as soon as possible, but no one seemed to have life-threatening wounds, so he held back.
“I’m opening that unknown portal,” he said as he clasped her arm and pulled the chieftain’s daughter to her feet. “I don’t know what’s over there. But this is our fault and we’re going to get you all out of here.”
“We need to go!” Bear-Jezebel snarled as she lifted up on her hind legs and started casting Vines on the inevitable reinforcements.
Mark dashed away from the devastated warrior and started the process of coating his hand in the crackling black energy that tore open trans-dimensional doorways. Hoping there was a safer situation on the other side, Mark took hold of a sanguine point of light with his ability-enhanced fingers and pulled open their escape hatch.
The flap of reality peeled away to reveal a long hall where a handful of musicians were putting on some type of performance. He only took a moment to make sure they weren’t rushing into certain death before turning away, but his brain registered the scene on the mirrored Wrongside as a royal court packed with creatures that looked to be green versions of Awysai.
“This way!” Mark yelled back at the others and saw that Sasha and the glossy new droid were already helping to usher the confused survivors toward the portal. He shot a glance over to the mud dome’s entrance to see Skeema of various sizes pouring in, but between the Druid’s Vines and his rage-upgraded magic barrier, they might be able to pull off this insane rescue.
One of Sasha’s hurled Shock Bombs vaporized one of the smaller bastards then all the remaining attackers skidded to a stop and began retreating back out into the night.
Something was wrong, they shouldn’t-
That’s when Mark noticed that the chopping blades of the airships hadn’t faded away. He turned his gaze
upward to see one of the massive wooden boats hovering close over the central hole in the mud dome’s roof.
“Move!” Mark yelled at the top of his lungs as one of the sleek black salamanders with vibrant blue markings stopped to gape at the otherworldly scene through the portal. A moment later, a concussive boom reverberated inside the dome as the ships above began to fire cannons at the primitive structure. As the broken tribe of spiritual warriors passed him and into the Wrongside, he noticed a few cradling the onyx stones they called Goddess Anchors to their chests. Maybe all wasn’t lost.
Huge hunks of dried earth began to crash to the floor, and Mark realized that the Skeema were simply trying to bury them alive at this point.
With the final remnants of their home raining down around them, what remained of the Awysai limped through the dimensional portal followed by Abby, Angel, Sasha, and Jezebel- the latter of which had shifted back to her satyr form.
They shared a glance before his True Sight eye whispered an impending attack into his skull, and as the entire structure started to collapse, Mark roughly shoved his doe-like love through the portal then dove through after her before letting it snap shut behind him.
- 14 -
Mark landed hard on his elbows and came face to face with a red crystal floor as chunks of dirt from the crumbling Awysai dome landed on his back. The clamor of the epic battle had been replaced with hushed whispering and muffled sobbing, and he looked up to see that the king and queen of this strange new kingdom had stood from their matching ruby thrones.
The equivalent of heavily armored knights surrounded everyone who’d poured through, threatening to stab anyone who made sudden moves with razor-sharp shafts of red, translucent material. The burly creatures also wore gem armor that mostly covered their backs, and he could see why people would label them Ruby Tortoises. Everything around them looked as if it were made from Crystal Heart shards.
