“Nah. I’m… I’m good,” I say. Some part of me understands how bizarre that is. How my thoughts shy from really pondering my new reality. But I don’t dwell on it. Maybe I’m just too used to pushing forward, at this point. At rolling with the punches.
Less than one tenth of the world’s population remains alive…
No. Not now. No time to dwell on what’s done. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. Ready to kick the shit out whatever this place throws at us next.”
“Well… Okay.” Astra hesitates like there’s more she wants to say. I wish I could see her expression, but she doesn’t sound convinced.
“Let’s scoot. We barely survived the first trial, but we bypassed the second. Mika and Syl will have progressed by now, and if we don’t pull them out…”
“No, they’ll be just entering trial one at this point.”
“Wait. What?”
“Aspirants are staggered. Why do you think Syl arrived at the Respite Chamber so late? After you and Mika had…” She coughs. Huh. She does sound jealous.
“So, you’re saying that if we hurry…”
“We might be able to help them. Rescue them from the first trial.”
A weight lifts from my shoulders. “Shit, let’s go, then! We survived the first trial. Knowing Mika and Syl, they’ll kill it. They have, what… Fifteen minutes?”
“Actually, they won’t enter the first trial until we defeat the second. But we skipped that, so my best guess is that they’ll start when we get out of here.”
“Makes sense. Mika and I were alone for hours.”
“I…I noticed,” Astra says, and I swear I can hear her blush.
I stand, flexing legs sore from crouching so long. “Let’s go. Stay alert, and–”
The moment I step forward, the room ignites.
For a split second, all I can think is that we’re dead. That we screwed up and it’s game over. The light is an incandescent, consuming green, so bright that I cover my eyes with my forearm. The air buzzes like thousands of bees swirl around us and there’s an electric crackle that raises every hair on my body. It’s what I imagine being electrocuted feels like… Except without the horrifying agony and death.
In fact, there’s no pain at all. The energy feels strangely like a caress.
I still take Astra and yank her stumbling forward as she cries out in fear. “Sam!”
The tingling at my skin ends, but it’s still so bright I can’t open my eyes. “Astra, what is this?”
“I don’t know! Don’t stop!”
Don’t have to tell me twice. We keep going, blind and half deaf, trying not to trip over each other as we try to get the hell away from… Whatever the hell is behind us.
Finally, my eyes adjust enough for me to open them and glance over my shoulder.
It’s an energy field.
And it’s not moving.
“Astra, hold up,” I say, halting.
She almost doesn’t, and only my grip on her hand stops her from dashing the rest of the way down the hallway. She spins in place, movements jerky, and her breath comes in little pants. She’s lost all color, and the details of her clothes and face are blurred like she’s lost the ability to hold form.
“What is it? Did it hurt you?”
“No, no.” She swallows, then does it again. “Just… Thought we were…”
I’ve got her in my arms before she finishes. She’s terrified. “Shh. It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not,” she says, pushing me back. “I can’t… I can’t go panicking every time something happens. Losing myself. I have to help you, have to…”
“Astra. Stop.” I pull her closer. Her arms are stiff against my chest but I don’t relent. “Most of us have been mortal our whole lives. You’ve had like an hour.”
“That’s no excuse.”
“Bullshit it isn’t. Just stay with me. Don’t beat yourself up and learn from it. That’s all you can do.”
She takes a long, calming breath. Color flushes back through her, and her clothes and finer details reform. “Okay. Sorry.”
“No more apologizing. You’re amazing.” I turn back to the energy field, still crackling with emerald brilliance. “Now. What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know, but if I had to hazard a guess…” She squints. “What’s that?”
“What? I–” It takes me a minute to realize what she’s seeing. The field spans the hallway from ceiling to floor and wall to wall. Threaded through it are tiny white lines, almost the same as–
My heart freezes. “The Shepherd?”
“No, this is different,” she says, taking a slow step forward. “The code is too orderly. Too regular.”
She’s right. It starts upper left, progressing down through the field in organized lines like you might see on a computer screen. “My only knowledge of coding is from bad movies and TV shows. Any idea what it’s doing?”
“If I had to guess, I’d say it scanned us.”
“Why? The Citadel knows everything about us.”
“I don’t know.” She holds a hand up, tentative, inches from the field.
“Hey, let’s not tempt fate.” I pull her back. “And that’s less terrifying than the Shepherd, but it still seems like a bad idea to poke the bear.”
“Bear? What does–”
The field shimmers, silencing us. The code that arteries its crackling energy thins, then disappears entirely.
And then it turns red.
Heat radiates from it like we’re standing next to an open furnace. “Back!” I yell, shielding my face. It’s so hot it feels like my eyes are burning in my skull, and I stumble back a dozen paces before realizing that Astra’s not with me.
She stands before the field, which of course is now slowly moving toward us. She’s silhouetted by the burning conflagration, utterly still.
Shit. Is she injured? Did she finally snap? “Astra?”
“Hold a moment, Sam. Just… Let me test something.”
“Is that something going all Human Torch on me?” I fall back a few more steps as the field gets closer. Jesus, it’s so hot. “Astra! Don’t!”
No response. She just raises her hand as the field reaches her, letting it envelop her hand. Then arm. And then the rest of her disappears, swallowed by fire.
“Astra!” I reach for my power, am about to grab her like I did before and yank her from the field. I don’t know what it’ll accomplish. Why she let it take her. “Fuck!” I shout, reaching, expecting to find nothing more than a pool of silver liquid where she stood moments before.
But before I can find her, she steps forward, out of the energy. Her face is serene, her grin triumphant. “I knew it.”
I stand, gaping a moment. “What…?”
“It’s a similar field to one used in several trials,” she says, coming close and taking my arm. She pulls me along before the heat overwhelms my good sense. “I didn’t recognize it before when it scanned us. But when it changed… I knew I’d be safe.”
“So, wait. It’s harmless?”
“Oh, no. You’d die instantly if you touched it. It’s attuned to living flesh and bone.”
“Oh. Great.”
We’re moving faster now as she takes the lead. “Don’t worry. The lock at the other end is probably tuned to our abilities, now. This isn’t a challenge, not in the traditional sense. More like a gentle prodding. The Citadel’s way of telling us not to hang about.”
“Oh…” I say. Astra’s in her element, now. I can tell, by her forced march and the smile that hasn’t left her face since she stepped from the field, that recognizing what was going on has galvanized her. Given her confidence.
That’s a good thing, even if I’m confused as hell.
“Quite clever, really. Aspirants who found their way back here could stay forever, in theory. No timer to call the Shepherd. No hunger or thirst to force them onward.”
“Yeah,” I echo, glancing at the blazing energy as it slowly chases us. “Clever.”
“Hah!” She laughs, almost doing a little dance. “Right again! Look, this is easy.”
Ahead of us, the hallway ends. The white door before us isn’t like any I’ve seen before. In fact, it looks deceptively like a normal doorway, handle and all. “We just… Open it?”
“No, we still have to use our powers to proceed. But like I said, it’s easy.” She gestures to each side of the door. Small panels I didn’t notice before, both squares about three inches per side, are set into the wall halfway up the door. “A lock for each of us.”
I bend over, peer at mine closer. It’s a glass panel, and behind it I can barely make out a button. There’s no way to reach it; it’s completely shielded by wall and the glass. But with my powers… “Got it.”
Astra’s panel is a small hole, tinier than a keyhole. She holds her hand aloft, and it dissolves, thinning until it’s a little thread, small enough to worm its way in. She winks. “Simple.”
The roar at my back is worse by the second. My bare back is so hot I’d be surprised if it’s isn’t burned. “Good. Let’s scoot.”
She reaches forward, and her silver thread is a millimeter from the hole when something hits me. “Wait!”
“What? Now?” Astra glances back. “Sam, we don’t have time–”
“Where will this pop us out?”
She pauses. “This skips the second chamber.”
“So, the healing room right after?”
“Yes. These are shortcuts past the tests. Well, the first few, if I’m correct. After…”
“Shit.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll find a way to avoid them.” She smiles. “We wouldn’t survive them, so we’ll find a way to–”
“No, no, not that.” The heat behind us is an inferno. I can barely think. Sweat runs down my skin in little rivers. “The next convalescence chamber’s no good. We need a way to save Mika and Syl. Need to escape this maze.”
Astra frowns, lines of worry at the corners of her eyes. “Sam, we don’t have time. You won’t survive the field.”
“Think, Astra. Please. There must be some other way. If we come out in a convalescence chamber, this starts again. We find a way out, into another hall like this, and we can’t help them.” I pant. “There has to be something.”
“Maybe…” Astra sticks her silver thread into her lock and chews her lip. “I think I can… Yes!”
“What?” I gasp. I can barely breathe. Barely think. The field’s still fifteen feet back, moving at a snail’s pace, but it’s like I’m standing inside an oven. “Hurry, I can’t…”
Astra spins in place, takes in the field. Turns to me. “Sam, I can use one of my tricks, change our exit point. Inside my lock, there are keys I can manipulate in a way I couldn’t in the main chambers. But it’ll take time.” Her fear shimmers through her in waves of silver. “You’ll die. You go, and I’ll stay behind. Find a way to… To find you again.” She swallows. “I hope.”
“No… Not leaving you… Not after all this. Got to… To be a way.”
“There’s isn’t, Sam!” The field’s ten feet away. “We’re out of time! Hit your lock, hurry.”
It’s so hot. So hot. She’s right, I have to escape. Going to die.
My power’s slippery. I try to grip it, take it like I have so many times before, but I can’t. The heat is too intense, my panic so palpable, and I can’t concentrate.
It’s too late. I waited too long. “S… Sorry.”
“Sam, no! Try, dammit! Don’t give up!”
“No time.” It feels like the field’s right on top of me. Like it’s cooking me alive. God, what I wouldn’t give to slip into a cool lake. For the soothing sensation of…
Astra.
“Coat me,” I manage. “Like before.”
“What?”
“Field… Didn’t affect you.”
I’ll give her one thing. She’s quick, and doesn’t ask unnecessary questions, thank God. Her eyes widen for a fraction of a second and then she’s melting, flowing over me like a second skin. Like she did before, in the dungeon. In seconds, every inch of my body’s coated in a thin film of Astra.
She’s barely finished when the field, roaring like an oncoming train, blasts over us. I close my eyes, pray that I’m right…
No pain. I’m not burning alive.
In fact, I feel wonderful. Like before, in the dungeon cell.
When I open my eyes, the entire world is tinged bright red. But the heat is a distant thing; I can still feel the intense ferocity, but it’s like sensing heat through the insulated door of an oven. The relief Astra gives is immediate, like I’m back in the ocean of my dream with her at my side.
And I can’t deny the fact that her material hugging my cock feels incredible. It tries to harden but can’t. She’s armored me too tight. I laugh, groaning in frustration.
There’s a gasp from… Somewhere. “Now? Seriously, Sam?” She doesn’t sound angry.
“Sorry! I can’t help it!”
“Humans. You’re all crazy.”
“Sorry,” I say again, grinning a little madly. “Guess there’s something about narrowly surviving when I should be dead that gets the blood flowing.”
“Don’t apologize,” she says. She sounds a little breathless. “Just… Let’s get out of here. Can you concentrate, now? Hit your lock?”
“I think so.” I try to take a deep breath, center myself, but she’s armored me too tight. I can barely expand my lungs. “Uh, Astra? Any chance you could… You know. Relax just a little?”
“Yes, though I’m suspicious of your motives.”
“I’ll keep him under control. Scout’s honor.”
“Him?”
“Human thing.”
Another laugh, somehow radiating from all around me and vibrating into my flesh. Vibrating in a way that definitely isn’t helping. “Like I said. Crazy.”
Material softens, reforms, and I sigh in relief. I’m not sure how she’s allowing me to breathe through the inferno still raging around us, but I’ll chalk it up to another one of her little miracles.
Trying really, really hard to ignore Astra’s soft, wet liquid against my skin, I once again reach for my power. It’s still there, as ready as it ever is, but this time it’s much easier to take it in my mental grasp. Flipping the button behind the glass panel takes barely a flick of my mind.
At the same moment, a tendril of silver branching from my chest to Astra’s lock shifts, and she does something inside the wall.
Instantly, the flames die, from the sun to midnight in a tenth of a second. But it’s not dark, not like before. The door lights neon blue and begins to dissolve.
Hang on, Mika. Hang on, Syl.
We’re coming.
The danger is passed, but she doesn’t recede from me. Doesn’t reform. There’s something unspoken between us, comfort deeper than touch.
When we step through the open door, we do it together.
6
Chamber 1.1
Aspirants #3 & #4
Room Timer: 00:04:37
Breathe.
Something sails into perfect, cerulean air. Something huge, its green surface reflecting the light from a madly grinning sun that hangs above like the grim reaper. Something that tears forward, spinning fast enough to pulverize stone and rend flesh.
Breathe…
From a floating platform ahead, a cackling monstrosity hurls a ball of liquid flame that hurtles downward. It impacts the ground with an explosion that melts golden bricks before bouncing madly forward, arcing high enough to liquefy flesh and skull.
Breathe… Get ready…
Spinning shell and bouncing flame converge in two beats of a desperately beating heart. A body hangs heavy in weak arms, its scorched scales burning Mika’s torn and bleeding skin. Legs, powered by the Citadel’s upgrades but still so close to failing, bunch for a last, desperate leap.
Breathe… And… Now!
Mika throws herself to the side with a strangled cry, praying
that she’s fast enough. That Syl’s limp form doesn’t slow her. That her torn body responds enough to take them to safety. She tumbles, losing her grip on her alien partner, and they roll across the ground bonelessly, delirious with pain.
A green shell the size of a horse tears past, clipping Mika’s foot. She cries out even as she rises, throwing up a shield of flame that absorbs the bouncing lava ball. She buckles as she strength fades and the last of the heat breaks her barrier. It’s the lightest touch of flame, but they moan in fresh agony together.
Pixelated stone is cold against Mika’s bare knees. From ahead, more laughter as two… Somethings… Approach. She raises her weary head and takes in their forms; turtles, one on all fours, its sparkling shell already replaced and ready to be thrown forward like a cannonball. The other, on two legs, a dark hammer in one hand that reflects the flames of another fireball that dances in the other.
Syl rests before her, strength gone. Most of her beautiful, iridescent scaling is scorched away, blackened by flames she leapt in front of to save Mika’s life. Her thin frame smokes in the still air. Her breaths are almost imperceptible, but she’s alive. Barely.
After everything they’ve been through… The trials they’ve faced… This is how they die?
Rage, dark and bubbling, races through Mika’s veins. A pulse of blood hammers at her temple, blacking her vision, as she staggers back to her feet.
The creatures before her pause and glance to each other before readying their attack. An emerald shell starts to spin and a hammer rises, both a millisecond from delivering instant death.
No. Not like this.
“Fuck you!” Mika screams as she throws her hands forward. Twin jets of liquid flame erupt forward, engulfing the creatures before they have time to scream. The flame lasts only a moment, and it dissipates as Mika’s voice gives out.
The creatures are gone. Twin streaks of black mark the ground where they once stood.
Mika falls back to bruised knees, wincing at familiar pain. She shimmies to Syl’s body, resting shaking hands on her friend’s chest.
“Didn’t… Know… You could… Do that…” Syl whispers, smiling weakly.
Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure Page 7
