by Paul Centeno
Dojin managed to rise to his knees, blood dripping from his mouth and forehead. He kept shooting at the quadrupedal, electricity enveloping its tall frame until it exploded. Just when he’d replaced his partially melted armor, more machines emerged from an adjacent chamber. They released beams, at which point he sprinted ahead to where the destroyed pod lay.
Reaching the corner, he threw a grenade at the pursuing entities. Upon hearing the explosion, he exited the chamber and made his way through a narrow passage. Every wall, including the ceiling and floor he walked on, appeared the same: prismatic energy with shimmering circuitry running through the infrastructure.
At the end of tunnel, he stepped into an enormous zone where at least a hundred steps lay before him. An abyss filled with explosive nuclear power lay below, but it didn’t stop him from climbing the steps. As he scaled them, multiple vessels materialized above. Without hesitation, they targeted him and unleashed their lasers.
Dojin returned fire, aiming at the pilots. Scaling the staircase, he didn’t stop shooting at the entities. The aircrafts careened out of control, plunging into the depths of burning energy. With a menacing smirk plastered across his sweaty face, the wrathful renegade charged up the stairs like a psycho.
Running upward, he could see the summit in the distance. A figure appeared to be sitting there as he drew closer to the top. While scaling the steps, he thought, Vokken, you demented piece of shit, I’m going to kill you. With less than twenty steps remaining, he slowed down and then stopped, gazing at the silhouette of a cybernetic woman.
“Zadoya?”
The renegade stood frozen, his mouth agape at the sight of her. Only the left side of her face remained natural. She was still wearing the mask he’d bought her after she’d been burned. Since a metal plate covered half her head, she only had visible hair from the righthand side. Both of her eyes appeared to have been genetically altered with technology.
As for her chest, where she’d been mortally wounded, it had been replaced with a metal husk. In fact, with the exception of Zadoya’s face, her entire body complemented the artificial arm she’d been given when humyn. Dojin had no words. Though immensely pleased to see her, he nevertheless felt uneasy.
“You have hacked into and infiltrated a classified zone. Surrender at once or suffer the consequences.”
“But you’re the one who guided me here.”
“Relinquish your weapons or face my wrath.”
“It’s me…Dojin.”
Compartments in Zadoya’s thighs opened, revealing fusion pistols. She pulled them out with each hand, targeting Dojin who took a step back. Even more threatening, a large cannon materialized on her shoulder. The renegade dropped his gun, letting it fall into the abyss whose nuclear energy swallowed the weapon.
“Remove your kinetic link device.”
Dojin surmised that obliging to her demands and letting go of his KLD wouldn’t affect him in the real world, so he discarded it. When she lowered her weapons—cannon included—he closed his eyes and used his mind to hack into the cyber realm, porting out his shotgun. Zadoya flinched, gazing at him in disbelief.
“What are you doing?”
“I know we can never be together again. Life, being the bitch that it always is, forced me to move on. But if you’re still in there somewhere…I love you,” he said, his face grim. “Which is all the more reason why I need to do this.”
Before she could pull out her weapons, he blasted her chest. The impact sent her crashing against the steps. Though rattled, the cyborg grabbed his legs and threw him off balance. The steps were so narrow that he fell into the pit—but not before he launched a grappling hook. Latching on to her waist, Dojin hung in the air and tugged hard.
At first, Zadoya did not budge. The renegade, once again, imagined himself hacking into the cyber realm and donned his heaviest armor. His unexpected weight caused her to tumble. As a result, they both fell into the nuclear abyss. Before disintegrating, Dojin held his former lover. Though she attempted to strangle him as they fell, he embraced her with tenderness.
“Why?” she demanded. “Why did you do this?”
“Whether you accept it or not, I’m pulling you out of this virtual nightmare,” Dojin said in a rasping tone. “Hate me all you want. I’ll never stop loving you no matter what. So go ahead. Kill me.”
“Dojin…”
The cyborg lessened her grip on him, her cybernetic eyes unexpectedly filled with tears. They embraced each other while falling and felt the scorching blaze of nuclear energy envelop them. Within seconds, their virtual bodies disintegrated. Dissipating from the cyber realm, their minds became free.
Enigma
At the birth of Ensar, I unfolded the void. Time and space awakened like an everlasting light, permeating through the darkness that is now Chaos. The sacred continuum remained ever infinite akin to our souls. The soundless gave voice; the shapeless took form; the All transformed with no beginning or end. Dimensions interlinked. Arcane gateways woven through the fabric of the cosmos. And there, within one such portal, my divine gift unto you lingers forevermore. It lies concealed—nameless and eternal—awaiting the discovery of a lifetime.
Transdimensional Origins 87:5
Chapter Nine
Spectral Pulse
I
Reunion
The renegade thrashed about in a comatose-like state. With the sensation of being consumed by the magnitude of burning energy, he jumped up from his bed and found himself in the infirmary on Marauder. Shirakaya sat beside him as he felt his body all over, looking around with a mad expression on his face and barely acknowledging the rest of the crew.
Wiping sweat from his brow, he sat back on his bed and breathed heavily. “No. It couldn’t have all been a dream. Tell me I wasn’t drunk.”
“Drunk?” the freelancer responded with a sly grin. “That would be too easy. No, I’m afraid you’re naturally insane. But that’s what I admire about you. And sometimes that special drive within makes you go the extra parsec.”
“What do you mean?”
“You really love her. I wasn’t sure if your feelings were genuine when we talked in the bar back on Pravura. But you truly—”
“Zadoya!” he blurted, rising from his bed.
“Calm down,” the cyborg said from a corner of the room. “I am safe now. Isn’t that what matters?”
Dojin limped over to her in disbelief. “Zadoya? Zadoya…” She looked exactly the same as he’d seen her within the cyber realm. He dared extend a hand; the cyborg caught it before he could touch her face. “It’s really you.”
“Yes,” she responded. “It’s hard to believe, but thanks to Vokken and you, I’m somehow alive. Well, reanimated to be more precise.”
The renegade’s face grew sullen. “Vokken? Where is that piece of shit?”
Shirakaya grabbed his arm, guiding him back to the bed. “According to him, he kept her a secret because he wasn’t sure if he could save her. Vokken’s claim was: Why mention his attempt to save her if, in the end, she’d die?”
“Bullshit! Her memory was dwindling. And there were some weird ass machines in that fucked-up nightmare zone trying to kill me. I’m telling you, he’s up to something.”
“Maybe,” she said pensively. “I was always suspicious of him. But we’ll never know for sure. The server within that network crashed and got erased when you pulled her out. We tried helping Zadoya recover it, but nothing worked. Whether the former Nempada emperor was attempting to rebuild his lost empire, none of us know. I can’t accuse him without definitive evidence. Besides, in a way, it’s thanks to him that Zadoya is alive.”
“Agreed,” the cyborg said.
Dojin sat back down, his mouth agape. “Yeah but…”
“Second chances,” Xorvaj blurted.
The renegade scowled at him. “Fine,” he said with an irritated sigh. At the freelancer’s nod, he went on, “How did you find me?”
“It was me,” Zadoya said in a cybernetic
tone. “After your infamous bravado, I awakened in an abandoned server room. Not long after, I hacked Marauder’s network and contacted Shira. I told her what had happened…that you released me.”
“Why didn’t Vokken release you if his intentions were pure?” Dojin inquired, not letting his suspicion dissipate.
Vokken finally manifested on his KLD and responded, “I may have recovered her body and kept her mind alive within the digital realm, but I did not know how to wake her from the virtual universe. Although what you did was risky, your actions of forcing her out ultimately solved the problem.”
“Your words are a disease,” Dojin said, terminating the transmission.
“It’s the truth,” the cyborg said. “Releasing me prematurely could have fried my brain in the real. Fortunately, that wasn’t the case.”
“Then what? You searched for me?”
“Yes,” she answered. “It wasn’t easy, but we followed the tram’s railway and eventually found you in a similar underground chamber, unconscious. The mercs and I helped get you back here.”
“True that,” Myris said. “It’s good to have you back, tantrum dude.”
Several members of the crew laughed softly. The sìsô, resting on the oracle’s shoulder, agreed with an urp.
Dojin stared at his hands, wiggling his fingers. “How long was I out?”
“Too long for comfort,” Shirakaya said. “I was hoping you’d wake up sooner. Three days did the trick. Now we can finally move forward.”
“What do you mean?”
“My brother and Del Vayso believe they have found a gateway into the Spectral Pulse. If it’s true, we might be able to enter the dimension where Xen’tarza dwells.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning there’s a chance the myth is more than just a legend. It’s possible that I can genuinely be cured and conjure magic once more.”
“Well then, what the fuck are we waiting for?”
II
Threshold
The crew gathered in the conference room. This time, Khal’jan and Del Vayso were also present. Even the necromancer joined them; Eladoris couldn’t help feel a sense of intrigue, considering this voyage concerned a seven-thousand-cycle-old legend of magic.
“So, what’s the game plan?” Myris asked.
“This escapade is far from a game,” Del Vayso replied. He held up the relic Khal’jan had found a couple of months ago. “The enchanted Eye of Soth’yugon is the key to us entering the Spectral Pulse.”
“Great…what the hell does it do?”
“First, you need to know the legend,” Khal’jan responded with passion. “Soth’yugon was believed to be an extremely powerful wizard. It’s said that those who abuse magic can be tainted and become twisted. He was once such a man. In time, he become cursed and was sentenced to a life of eternal torment.”
“Whoa,” the oracle said. “Seriously?”
“Tap into your divinity and you’ll know it to be true,” Del Vayso responded. “According to the ethos, the gods hunted him down. With his magic, he slipped in and out of dimensions. As clever as he was, however, he couldn’t hide from the god of time. It’s said that Xen’tarza sealed him away akin to how Maz’hura had banished Koth’tura.”
“In theory,” the archeologist began while holding up the relic, “with his incredible power in the palms of our hands, we should be able to go beyond time and space—beyond the twelve dimensions—into the Spectral Pulse. If we can succeed, I have faith Shira can commune with Xen’tarza in order to regain her arcane gift.”
Yarasuro rubbed his chin, leaning on a terminal. “The tale is fascinating but hard to fathom.”
“I’m finding it hard to swallow myself,” the sandstalker agreed.
“Are we able to use the Eye of Soth’yugon anywhere?” Eladoris asked, ignoring him.
“No,” the scientist answered flatly. “It’s one of the reasons why it took us so long. We’ve been searching for a gateway.”
“And thanks to Medeix Et Victum, we found one,” Khal’jan said.
“Potentially,” the scientist commented. “Legend has it that this book comes from another dimension. After translating the ancient tongue, I found coordinates that may lead us to the place of its origin…a realm of pure magic. However, nothing is fact until proven with experience.”
“When do we depart?” Rah’tera inquired.
“Right now,” Shirakaya said, approaching the helm.
Vokken’s snowy-like pixelated face appeared on the bridge’s primary screen. “What are the coordinates?”
“Jai’ryndar,” she called out, “can you upload them to the ship?”
“Absolutely,” the engineer replied. Ejecting a chip from his chest, he inserted it into a console by the main screen. “Upload successful.”
“Received. Processing. Confirmed.”
The battleship pulled away from Gritu and, at a safe distance away from the planet, entered dimensional space by means of the cosmodrive. Flying in the soudarian direction via FTM—faster than magic—Marauder crossed the sea of space and avoided the Drift Void, experiencing only a slight distortion and deceleration in speed. Upon breaching the Torpo Giayan Galaxy, Vokken exited dimensional space.
“My ravaged homeworld,” Xorvaj said to himself out loud, observing the starmap while the battleship passed Zieksar. “One day, I shall return. But far from today.”
Overhearing him, Jai’ryndar turned to the ghensoth. “What happened to your world?”
“Not in the mood to talk about it,” Xorvaj said, grimacing. “Some other time.”
Thirty minutes after passing the devastated ghensoth planet, Marauder slowed down as it approached its destination. Upon entering Oga Vay’tos, a star system filled with fourteen planets, the arcane intelligence changed his course from soudaria to esoria. When the worlds were far behind them, they approached an asteroid belt.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Vokken began, “but I have detected another star vanish from the map.”
Several crew members grew pale.
“Fuck,” the renegade muttered under his breath.
Yarasuro appeared sullen. “Where did this occur?”
“In the same vicinity as the others: Gydeim Scor, also known as the outskirts of the Drift Void.”
Xorvaj bashed a nearby wall, denting it. “Damn it all!”
“Time is of the essence,” Jai’ryndar commented.
“Now more than ever,” Shirakaya said, a grim expression carved on her face. “But we need to be patient and hold out a little longer. Vokken, what’s our ETA?”
“We’re almost there.”
Shirakaya’s heart raced with anxiety. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary in the dark void of space but knew they were approaching a destination that was once thought to be nothing more than a mere fable. Overwhelmed with trepidation, her eyes focused on a nebula shaped like a tidal wave that had appeared as if manifested from a raging tsunami.
“That’s definitely it,” Khal’jan said.
“Even if correct,” Del Vayso started, “I would avoid extreme, definitive proclamations such as ‘definitely’ until proven.”
The archeologist sighed. “You’re right. I’m just a bit excited, that’s all.”
Rah’tera wasn’t too fond of emotional moments, so he intervened with an inquiry, “How do we find the gateway?”
“Excellent question,” the scientist replied, seizing the Eye of Soth’yugon. “This relic was mentioned in Medeix Et Victum as a key of sorts, capable of finding and opening portals.”
With dazzled eyes, Xeza produced an awed sounding urp while gazing at the imbued artifact. Del Vayso approached the primary windowpane at the fore of the bridge, keeping the relic held up high. As the battleship approached the nebula, the Eye of Soth’yugon reacted with a bright glow.
Vokken increased speed, flying through the interstellar cloud. The freelancer stared at the wavy expanse of dust, wondering if what she had been doing meant
anything at all or if her actions were futile. Standing beside Del Vayso, she felt a terrible tightness in her chest. She breathed deeply, trying to remain composed.
“Where is this gateway of yours?” Eladoris demanded.
“Not even I have the precise location,” the scientist responded. “All we know is that it’s somewhere in this vicinity.”
In time, Marauder passed the nebula. The crew appeared confused, especially Shirakaya who no longer looked ecstatic. Steadily approaching one of three suns in the trinary star system, the arcane intelligence maintained his course while the other crewmembers—with the exception of Del Vayso—shared expressions of doubt.
“Um,” the oracle began, “why are we flying directly toward a star?”
Keeping a tight grip on the artifact, Del Vayso answered, “Because the gateway is in the heart of that sun.”
Some of the Shadow Mercs gasped.
“Yowzers,” the oracle muttered, holding Xeza tight.
“No fucking way!” Dojin said, standing up.
“Calm down,” Shirakaya replied, her arms raised. “There must be a logical explanation for this. Isn’t that right, Del Vayso?”
“There is a logical theory.”
Yarasuro gulped heavily. “Theory?”
After an awkward moment of silence, Shirakaya said, “By all means, do tell.”
“My hypothesis is that, eons ago, a sun never existed in this location. In recent millennia, the star must have manifested here. Whether from a black hole or remnants of a supernova, I do not know. However, what I do know is that the gateway is somewhere there, and the only way to breach the Spectral Pulse is by entering the star’s corona.”
Dojin scowled. “This is suicide!”
“I concur with him,” Rah’tera said.
“Perhaps we can find another gateway?” Jai’ryndar suggested.
