Naero's Valor

by Mason Elliott

  How could such a monstrosity exist–or be vanquished?

  Yet there was something definitely wrong with the creature. Naero could tell that from its sputtering Darkforce Cosmic flows and flickering Ultrium cohesion frequencies.

  Khemathrykal stood before them broken, crippled, diseased and greatly damaged or reduced in some major way.

  Somehow a Thing this great and terrible had been nearly destroyed, even if that had been long ago, and in another universe. And though it clearly remained very dangerous and deadly, it was now but a remnant, a mere shade of the horrific power that it once must have been.

  That alone scared Naero.

  She did not know how they were going to defeat or destroy it even in this greatly reduced form.

  The basic question remained.

  What was it, even in its current fallen existence?

  It turned its baleful gaze their way and prepared to fire its deadly hyper beam straight at them.

  Scatter and note it’s direction and potential; targets! Naero warned her companions.

  Enemy forces swept over them at that exact instant.

  The hordes swarm upon them, trying to hold them in place.

  Even as Naero broke free, blasting the minions away, the Prime Leader’s first shot streaked toward her.

  Too late to get away.

  Baeven rushed in and slammed into her, sending her flying.

  The hyper beam meant for her cut her uncle in half at the waist, even in his near-Darkbeast form.

  No!

  From a distance she felt her uncle dying right before them.

  Khemathrykal clearly saw his chance to finish off another of the most powerful GSA Champions, and positioned himself for the kill.

  The abomination took careful aim with the massive hyper weapon set within its midsection, while it’s fluctuating layers rippled and sucked in great gouts of the Darkforce in order to concentrate them into that destroying beam.

  Naero’s uncle floated helplessly in the black, already fading.

  She struggled to recover.

  Jia and Zhen came together, fusing their forms.

  They transmogrified into a new combined battle form never seen before, and swelled up into the higher spheres, interposing themselves between Baeven and the G’lothc Leader.

  They unleashed a barrage of pummeling Cosmic fire of many hues that continued to ram into Khemathrykal and drove even his mighty form back upon itself.

  To Naero it was like witnessing a Cosmic auto gun going off.

  In the respite, Jia and Zhen scooped up what was left of Baeven between them and flashed through one of the waiting escape wyrmholes.

  If any could save Baeven, it would be the two of them.

  Naero and Tyber pursued Khemathrykal as he reeled backwards.

  Naero swelled up into a form big enough to contest with the monster one on one, set within the lowest of the higher spheres.

  She went on the offensive, hurling a blistering series of high level attacks at her enemy to daze him and keep him off balance.

  She needed to get in close so that he couldn’t shoot her with that hyper beam.

  Ty and their energy being support layers held off the minions and continued nailing Khemathrykal with energy drain attacks each second.

  Wheeling, flashing, blinding Cosmic Power kicks tore into the existence of her foe. Like her mother before her, using many of the same combat moves and combinations, Naero transformed into a gigantic invincible cyclone. Her attacks chewed and tore into Khemathrykal in spinning wheels of light, energy, and power.

  “Haisha, we’ve got him!” Naero cried, sensing his energies beginning to fail.

  Disaster detonated all around them, even as Om parsed it out in nano-seconds within their combined minds and intellect.

  The enemy had waited for just such a moment, drawing them all in, even to the brink of the G’lothc being defeated.

  Then they all crashed together in a great whirling, burning, smashing explosion of ruin and destruction.

  They mashed together and multiple Cosmic explosions rippled among them all, as friend and foe took damage within such total Chaos. Yet the defenders were not made of the Darkforce or spirit force Ultrium, and took the worst of the damage.

  Naero sensed them all shielding themselves as best they may.

  In the aftermath, Naero and Om struggled to locate the other Champions, at the same time that their critically damaged energy form struggled to regen.

  “Here Mom,” Shetharra said from within their link. “Take my current energies for now. I can’t use them yet anyway because of my veil, and our Seven will sustain me. You need these energies very badly. I can only do this once every few days, so use them wisely. Let my power enter and aid you now.”

  At their lowest, worst possible moment, when all seemed lost, Naero felt Shetharra’s might flooding into, filling her to the brim.

  All of the others had been stunned or heavily damaged.

  In desperation, Naero split off Om from within herself.

  She sent him flashing among the others, helping the remaining energy beings to collect and aid her stricken companions.

  Only Khai and Janner struggled to rise and keep fighting.

  Get them back up if you can, Om. If not, save them and get them out of here. Get them far away.

  The three enemy leaders had all taken serious damage.

  Naero had no choice.

  She faced off against all three of them by herself.

  She swelled up and tapped into all of the Higher Cosmic spheres, gathering in even more power.

  Outnumbered as she was, as damaged as they were, they still maintained every advantage over her.

  Shetharra, how close are we to being able to unleash the Songs of Power.

  “Almost two standard hours, Mom. Sorry.”

  She wasn’t going to last two standard minutes against the might of these three abominations.

  Still she would face them down, and fight them to the last.

  HAVE AT YOU!

  Naero flashed among them, falling upon each of them with fury for a few seconds each.

  They battered and blasted her. She sprang from one to the other until their attacks hit each other.

  She took great pains to avoid Khemathrykal’s deadly hyper beam.

  On strike missed her and hit Xath.

  He cried out in rage and agony within his obscuring maelstrom.

  She fought them for countless precious minutes, constantly depleting and replenishing herself.

  Her stricken companions made it out to safety.

  That had been her primary goal.

  Nahaxrathrax and Xath caught her between them and tried to rip her apart.

  Naero barely flashed away.

  They fell upon her again within seconds.

  Their lopsided contest carried them in several directions as Naero used every trick and deception she had to punish them and keep them guessing.

  Om flashed back inside her, just before she was ready to collapse.

  His energies were all that kept her going.

  Khai and Jan shot back through the wyrmholes, both of them nearly fully regenerated somehow.

  But the three G’lothc leaders focused directly on Naero still.

  They drew back a space.

  At first Naero thought they pulled away to gather their own powers for a moment, but it was not so.

  Just as Jia and Zhen had done, the three G’lothc Leaders raced to combine their abilities in some terrifying fashion.

  They merged their abilities and powers together.

  Xath the Hidden and the Dark Emperor merged with Khemathrykal, their whole becoming far greater together than they stood apart.

  Khemathrykal swelled up to a gargantuan magnitude within all of his spheres of power. He prepared to fire, not at Khai and Jan as they charged in.

  Naero felt the sheer hatred of the Great Adversary as it leveled the power of its all-destroying hyper weapon right at her.

>   She leaped at the enemy, hoping to deflect or disrupt the attack somehow. Yet at such close range, she could not hope to avoid it.

  FOR THE HONOR OF CLAN MAERIS AND THE BLOOD OF THE OMARIA!

  Naero charged into the line of Darkforce hyper beam fire.

  At the last instant, she heard Khai crying out to her as the darkness took her.

  When there was light again, the light suffusing all around her was so dazzling and radiant that she could not make anything out at first.

  Was this the next journey?

  Had she truly been slain?

  Then she heard Shetharra’s bright, ringing laughter, like a multitude of great and mighty bells, chiming, ringing, and hammering forth in the black like peals of Cosmic thunder.

  Her little duck stood before her with one small hand extended protectively, singing softly to herself, while waves and layers of the Flame Eternal shimmered around them in bright, crystal clear hemispheres of undeniable power.

  She floated there, completely encased in her Urtomium suit, sparking and glowing like the star she truly was within, and now without.

  Pulsing Urtomium coated each strand of her light infused hair.

  Perhaps she was even merged completely with the suit itself.

  The Seven wreathed her brow and her glowing, flowing white hot hair in a molten, golden ring as shining tresses rippled around her.

  And the three Prime Leaders of the G’lothc, as powerful as they were combined, hesitated in doubt and fear before the child of light.

  “I had to come,” Shetharra said to her mother’s mind. “I syphynged here through our link at the last moment. I am always with you; I could not let you fall. I am also sent here for a reason. I am a messenger.”

  Shetharra raised both of her hands and held them out toward the G’lothc. “The Cosmic Prophecies unfold with the slaying of the stars, and the end struggles shall culminate within this generation. As foretold, long ago in ages past, a final attempt at Mercy must be made.”

  Nahaxrathrax spoke in contempt and defiance, his great voice echoing with the malice of multitudes of G’lothc fallen souls and the great weight of their hatred for all that existed. BEGONE, MEDDLER. DO NOT WASTE OUR TIME. NO MERCY SHALL WE SHOW. ALL MUST PREPARE TO FALL BEFORE OUR MIGHT AND DESPAIR, EVEN YOU, BRIGHT ONE. YOU HAVE DEFEATED YOURSELF BY TAKING THAT SUIT. WE WILL MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU PERISH WITHIN ITS CONFINES. WE SHALL DRAG EVEN YOU DOWN BEFORE YOU ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO DEFEAT US. FOR LO! THE GREAT DESTROYER IS COMING, NO MATTER WHAT ANY OF YOU DO. NONE OF YOU CAN STAND BEFORE HIM. SO DO NOT SQUEAL OF MERCY FOR ANY OF YOU. YOU SHALL NEVER SEE IT!

  Shetharra laughed at them once more, as all things tarried upon her words. LISTEN WELL, THEREFORE, FOR THE FINAL MERCY OF WHICH I SPEAK IS FOR YOUR KIND AND NO OTHER. I AM BUT A MESSENGER, BUT EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE ALL DOOMED YOURSELVES MANY TIMES OVER BY YOUR CHOICES AND ACTIONS, YOU CAN STILL HEAP FAR GREATER HARM UPON YOURSELVES. FOR THE LAST TIME, RELENT AND TURN AWAY FROM THIS FOLLY. YOU ARE WRONG, AS SUCH CHOICES WILL EVER BE WRONG. KNOW YOU NOT THAT EVERY CHOICE HAS A PRICE? YOU CAN ALWAYS CHOOSE ANOTHER PATH. EVEN IF YOU TRIUMPH AND ACHIEVE ALL THAT YOU LUST AFTER, YOUR END SHALL BE THE SAME AS IF YOU HAD FAILED. AND A GREAT AND HORRIFIC CHOICE YOU HAVE THUS FAR MADE. STAY THIS MADNESS, AND TURN AWAY FROM THE TRAGIC FATE YOU ARE DOOMING YOUR RACE TO, EVEN NOW.

  Khemathrykal gave answer. THIS FROM THE SEVEN WRETCHES WHO FAILED AND CAN HARM US NO LONGER? PREPARE TO FALL BEFORE US, FOOLS. WE SHALL TAKE YOU ALL!

  NAY, FALLEN KHEMATHRYKAL, ESCAPED FROM UNIVERSE THIRTY-THREE VIGINTILLION AND NINE–THIS DOES NOT COME FROM THE SEVEN KEXXIAN DREAMERS. THE GREAT MYSTERY OF ALL THINGS CALLS OUT TO YOU DIRECTLY, AND YOUR KIND HERE, FOR THE LAST TIME. YOU HAVE SEALED YOU FATE WITH THEIRS. THERE IS NO ESCAPE NOW. THIS IS THE LAST WARNING FOR YOU ALL. PAY HEED. MY MESSAGE HAS ENDED.

  Xath finally spoke, in a chortling voice full of spite and contempt. THERE IS NO SUCH POWER!

  Shetharra lowered her hands at floated calm and serene before all their doubt and malice. “Day will come, when all shall be revealed, and you shall tremble before the truths you must then face, according to all that you have done. The bitter end that you have chosen is sure now, and soon, no matter what else you do.”

  REND AND BLAST THEM ALL! Nahaxrathrax boomed.

  Khemathrykal unleashed his lethal hyper beam.

  It struck Shetharra full force.

  She withstood the blast.

  It did no harm to her.

  She neither blinked nor moved.

  Then she shot straight at them in a blinding flash of white light.

  I AM SHETHARRA OF CLAN MAERIS!

  Khemathrykal fired again and again.

  I AM THE WHITE TSUNAMI!

  The three merged enemy leaders fell back and began to panic, continuing to blaze away at the child of light to no effect.

  I AM ONE WITH FLAME ETERNAL.

  A sheet of white flame arced out and sliced Xath away from the other two. All three screamed in searing pain.

  Another blinding flash, and she scythed Khemathrykal and Nahaxrathrax apart.

  A terrific Cosmic detonation occurred, sending all hurtling away in flames, trying to shield themselves from being immolated.

  The resulting hyper explosion sent Shetharra herself slamming back into Naero her mother, flinging both of them streaking into the nearest star directly behind them.

  39

  Though perhaps some thought them destroyed, Naero clung to the energy form of her oldest daughter, as both of them regenerated, bathed within the power of that mighty star.

  Let the enemy think them dead for now.

  Khai and others would know better.

  They had conceived Shetharra within the core of a star far greater than this one.

  But Naero and her oldest child had been closest to the explosion, and Shetharra took the brunt of it upon herself, shielding her mom.

  Only her indestructible Urtomium suit had saved their lives, as she explained to her mother along the way.

  The three enemy Prime Leaders also fell back, also horribly wounded. For a short time, the enemy advance was not only checked, but the foe withdrew to regroup and for their leaders to heal.

  This gave the defenders precious time to do the same.

  Naero and Shetharra kept watch as they healed, and sang softly and gently to each other, the mighty words of the healing Song of Power.

  Out in the black, the two sides constantly maneuvered for advantage.

  The peerless Spacer Navy stood at the forefront of the Alliance navies, as its vanguard before the assembled might of the Great Adversary, gathered mostly from three of the Galaxy’s four quadrants. Horde upon horde of enemy fleets, nebulae of mind wraiths, and vast clouds of destroying phage constructs and other minions remained poised to clash once again across the galaxy.

  Then there were also the countless guardians and bodyguards of the three great enemy Prime Leaders, all of their various minions, and mindless slaves. They also shifted position.

  Behind them all were the growing clusters of corrupted, Darkforce energy stargs, powering the enemy advance at every level.

  The battle rejoined when more of the stargs than ever before lashed out. These new massive hyper weapons created from infected star after star struck hard across multitudes of parsecs while the forces on both sides of the conflict continued to marshal their near limitless numbers.

  The existing stargs would only continue to infect others and expand like a plague spawned to darken the very light of the galaxy itself.

  The enemy attacks would continue to grow, until the foe became invincible behind the power of their might. Already they consumed their systems, actually digesting their planets, or merely draining them of all life and energy.

  Untold lives snuffed out like candles.

  Behind the fearless Spacers the amazing fleets of the free sentient races of the Alliance fought like lions, in defiant rank after rank.

  Still they remained vastly outnumbered.

  Ev
en with the addition of the lander fleets from throughout the Alpha Quadrant and beyond, the Alliance remained outmatched at least five to one.

  The few surviving Alliance Champions and the Alliance and Spacer Mystics gathered together in that same place, prepared to fight for the freedom of their entire galaxy alongside their combined fleets.

  Leading them all was Khai Williams, the Mystic Enforcer, with the Cosmic Sword of Light, Yii, radiant and terrible within his great hands. Janner, Ra, Poly, and Tyber stood with him. Jia, Zhen, and Shalaen returned to the war front, almost fully restored, along with other powerful Remos of Alala, Ommo, and Tarim.

  It was still not known if Baeven would survive.

  He was still trying to regenerate.

  Enormous Nahaxrathrax came forward at the head of the enemy to gloat. The Dark Emperor of the Dakkur and the G’lothc, so sure of their pending victory was he that he emerged from his bloodguard of his lesser White Queens.

  He used the Cosmic Voice once more so that all present might hear him chortle and rant. WHAT RABBLE IS THIS THAT YET LINGERS, AND DARES TO ASSEMBLE BEFORE OUR VAST AND TERRIBLE MIGHT? STAND AND BE BLASTED TO DUST AND ASH BEFORE OUR MATCHLESS POWER! AT LAST WE CLAIM THIS MOTE FOR OUR OWN, AND WITH IT—THIS UNIVERSE. FALL INTO DESPAIR AND UTTER ANNIHILATION. WHAT POWER HAVE YOU THAT CAN STAND BEFORE THE STRENGTH OF OUR WILL? NONE! WE HAVE OBLITERATED THOSE TWO SPACK BITCHES WHO THOUGH THAT THEY COULD DEFEAT US. WE HAVE BENT THE STARS THEMSELVES TO OUR WILL!

  “Vile Abomination!” Khai answered. “It is not we who shall fall, but you and all of the filth that you have wrought!”

  The Dark Emperor grinned, a toothy smile that yawned and stretched kilometers wide. “Half breed Spack vermin; we shall see who falls.”

  The Alliance went on the attack, but the sheer weight and blunt force of the enemy’s initial assault drove them back reeling, along almost every front.

  The spirit of the Alliance was not lacking, but the foe still carried the hour through both numbers and raw destructive power.

  The Alliance recovered quickly and fought with calm, fervent resolve, even as they retreated.

  Nahaxrathrax laughed aloud, his booming mirth poisoning the black itself. EXPERIENCE THE FULL WEIGHT OF OUR WRATH AND MALICE, FOOLS. WHO AND WHERE ARE YOUR CHAMPIONS NOW? WHERE IS THAT LITTLE SPACK BITCH THAT YOU CONTINUALLY HURLED INTO OUR FACES? BRING HER FORTH FROM WHATEVER HOLE OR CORNER SHE SHIVERS AND SLINKS IN, SO THAT WE MAY DEFEAT AND CRUSH HER AS WELL, ALONG WITH YOU ALL. THIS DAY AND THIS GALAXY ARE OURS. SHRIEK, GUTLESS VERMIN, AS YOUR FEEBLE POWERS FALL BEFORE US!