Chronicles of Eden - Season II - Act II

by Alexander Gordon

  “Are you about done?” Aeon complained, catching everyone by surprise as she was now standing off to the side of them. With a furious roar Minos swung her battle-axe around, slamming it down onto the chronofly and destroying the ground under her with a powerful eruption.

  “BE GONE, ACCURSED DEMON!” Minos yelled, giving her weapon a surge of magical energy as it steadily bloomed with a heavy sizzling blare. The minotaur lifted her fist up and swung it down onto the pole, driving her axe further into the crater it created while detonating a forceful explosion of light and fire from the impact, something that pushed Daemon back on his boots while the girls around him were thrown off their feet.

  “AND STAY DEAD THIS TIME!” Minos scorned, heaving her axe back onto her shoulder and stepping away from the smoldering crater she had ruptured open.

  “Watch what you’re doing, you lumbering idiot!” Tabitha shouted as the girls scrambled back onto their feet. “You could have blown us all up with that!”

  “A little warning would have been nice,” Forrus muttered as she shook the dirt off her fur.

  “And I thought Saffron was the careless one with her bombs,” Sasha retorted, earning a dull glare from Saffron who blew away her bangs while brushing out dirt from her hair.

  “Is the Dark Queen dead now?” Scay worried. “Is she? She’s not coming back this time, right?”

  Daemon and his girls walked up next to Minos and eyed over the smoking crater, the minotaur glancing to him with a deep blush and nervous gulp as she slowly slinked away from him with a shaky whine. After a moment Daemon slowly looked back over his shoulder at something, with the girls hesitating at first before doing the same, all of them making frustrated and edgy growls as they saw Aeon again standing behind them without a scratch on her.

  “Seriously,” she groaned with a dull scowl. “Are you done yet?”

  “Why won’t she die?” Rulo shouted in exasperation.

  “How is she doing this?” Forrus snarled as everyone tensed up to attack again. “How much can she survive before finally being exiled from this world?”

  Aeon stepped forward and began to speak, only to drop to her knees and begin vomiting uncontrollably, with everyone staring in bewilderment as the chronofly appeared to be seriously ill. After she finally finished and shakily stood back up, she managed to move a few more steps closer before again dropping down and repeating the process.

  “What the hell is wrong with her?” Tabitha asked.

  “She seems weakened by something,” Mika anxiously said. “Now’s our chance, we have to kill her before she recovers.”

  “How?” Sasha quizzed her. “We just killed her over and over again, and yet she still stands before us.”

  “Well, not exactly standing,” Forrus pointed out as the chronofly held up a finger and started to speak to them, only to resume her expulsion of what must have been everything in her stomach.

  “She’s… really sick,” Scay mentioned with a disturbed grimace.

  “What was your first clue?” Rulo flatly replied.

  Daemon walked towards the chronofly while the girls kept close behind him, all keenly observing the Dark Queen’s obvious disorder amidst her apparent refusal to die by any means enforced upon her.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Daemon demanded, coming to a stop before the pool of the chronofly’s vomit. “And I mean that in many different ways right now.”

  “For starters,” Aeon coughed as she seemed to finally get the last out of her. “Would you mind knocking off your futile efforts to kill me? You can’t succeed no matter how hard you try, so quit wasting my time with that nonsense.”

  She then lurched with a startled gasp and newly formed blush, her surprise turning into anger and shock as she looked back to see Saffron shoving something into her rear under her dress with a stern squeak. The ant girl grabbed Aeon’s feet and swung her around, throwing her into a wild spin away from the group before a powerful explosion detonated the chronofly into bloody pieces that coated the ground in a wide arc. Saffron huffed and squeaked something at the smoking remains of the chronofly with a sharp scowl and waving hands, the girl then blinking before noticing Aeon standing right beside her with an irritated glare aimed at her.

  “Knock it off!” Aeon yelled, startling Saffron who quickly ran away from her. “Oh my god, are you not listening to me? You can’t kill me! Open your eyes, you can’t kill me at all, so stop wasting my time with your stupid antics! Do you hear me, do you finally understand? Or are you going to continue your useless efforts to slay me and prolong your inevitable realization that I cannot be slayed by simpletons such as yourself? Well?”

  *****

  Ten minutes later, Sasha, Rulo, and Mika were catching their breath while having their weapons drawn before them. Beside them Saffron was pulling yet another bombstick out of her satchel with a murderous look faintly seen behind her long bangs. Scay was twitching with a crazed grin and dagger shakily held up in the air, Tabitha was holding her katanas in both hands while growling with noticeable anger, and Forrus was snarling like a rabid dog next to her, fangs and claws bared as she appeared very riled up just like her companions. Behind them Minos was gripping her battle-axe with a frustrated growl, her eyes and tattoos glowing strongly along with her weapon as she seemed just as cross as the other girls.

  Before them were multiple smoking crevices that were split through the barren plains, smoldering craters seen here and there with lingering clouds of dust floating around them, small patches of fire and flame left over from various explosions of mineral and magical might, and a chronofly who was seated on her legs while weakly glaring at the girls as she wavered slightly in her fatigue.

  “I hate all of you,” she flatly stated.

  “Why won’t she just fucking die already?” Rulo demanded, stomping her foot with a frustrated yell.

  “This is crazy,” Sasha cursed. “No matter how many times we strike her down, she just reappears again as good as new.”

  “Is she immortal like the gemini?” Forrus wondered. “Perhaps she can’t be killed by normal means.”

  “I can’t be killed at all!” Aeon yelled out in aggravation. “For crying out loud, I’m one with the timestream! You can’t kill me; I’m time itself, you fucking idiots!”

  Daemon and his girls kept a sharp watch on the woman as she slowly got onto her feet and began trudging towards them with a painful grunt.

  “Like I tried telling you before, you can’t kill me,” she hissed with a slight cringe. “My being is one with time itself. You can’t kill time with swords or magic, that’s simply impossible. So, do you get it now? Do you finally understand? You are absolutely… powerless… to stop me…”

  She dropped onto her knees in front of Mika, groaning with a few heavy coughs before she looked up at the sorceress with a weary gaze.

  “I… cannot… be killed by anyone,” she sputtered out. “I… am a god, you… bitch.”

  “Says the monster who looks like she’s terminally ill,” Mika countered. “You look like you’re dying right now, and yet you still claim yourself to be a god?”

  “Alright, I give up,” Tabitha said shaking her head. “I don’t understand how this is some sort of ploy to throw us off guard. She hasn’t even been using any of her magic against us this whole time, she looks like she’s half dead already. What in Eden is she up to?”

  Daemon walked closer and grabbed the chronofly’s jaw, yanking her to look up at him with a frustrated and sickly glare.

  “She does raise a good point,” he said, tilting the woman’s head to examine her while she gave no resistance still. “You’ve done nothing to fight back or even stop the girls from attacking you. You’ve made no effort to detain them or harm them in the slightest. All you’ve done is act pathetic and weak before us, something I’m not buying as of yet. However, seeing as killing you right now isn’t so easy to accomplish, please enlighten us as to what it is you’re after.”

  “I told you, I need your
help,” Aeon scowled.

  “What kind of god begs for help from the likes of us?” Mika quipped with a smirk.

  “One who has no other choice, human,” Aeon hissed back.

  “Help with what?” Daemon questioned. “Just what is it that the Dark Queen of Time has come to us on her knees begging us for?”

  “To help save all of us from annihilation,” Aeon growled. “Desperate times call for desperate measures after all. Now would you mind letting go of my face?”

  Doing as she requested, Daemon then grabbed her throat and lifted her into the air, the chronofly grumbling and choking in his grip while her legs weakly kicked beneath her.

  “We’re in no mood for your games,” Daemon threatened with a cold glare.

  “Trust me, I don’t want to participate in this any more than you do,” Aeon snapped. “But I have no other choice. Their arrival is just as much a blight to me as it is to everyone.”

  “Their arrival? Who’s arrival?”

  Aeon started to gag as his hand clenched tighter, the woman then instantly appearing next to him as she coughed and gasped for air, holding onto his shoulder for balance while everyone jumped a bit from her sudden reappearance.

  “I can’t believe it’s come to this,” Aeon cursed, stumbling back a few steps and wiping her mouth as she tiredly looked around at the deathly stares she was receiving. “You know, I must say, I’m rather upset right now. Everything was going to work out just how I wanted it to, everything was in place where it needed to be; everything would have gone as planned… until they showed up.”

  “What madness are you speaking of?” Sasha demanded. “Get to the point, accursed abomination.”

  “I’m not the abomination here, they are,” Aeon retorted. She looked over the reptile girl then derisively smirked at her. “By the way, congratulations on fucking your man. I know how much you longed for it. Tell me, how did it feel, being given such a gift at the cost of this insanity?”

  “Cost of this insanity? What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean you were never destined to have sex with him,” Aeon slyly informed her, much to Sasha’s surprise. “What happened tonight was not something fated to happen with either of you. It was quite a deviation from what was supposed to have occurred, all thanks to that abomination who destroyed the Archlight’s Blade. You know the one I’m talking about, don’t you?”

  “Cataclysm?” Mika questioned. “She changed Sasha’s fate by coming here?”

  “Cataclysm? That’s her name?” Aeon scoffed. “What an utterly ridiculously name to be branded with.”

  “She lived up to her name quite well regardless,” Forrus dryly remarked.

  “Be that as it may, you were going to die tonight,” Aeon coldly told Sasha, much to the reptile girl’s further shock. “But instead you received the seed of your beloved cambion. Oh how wonderful it must be having the fates acting so merciful towards you. You were supposed to be dead, but instead you were spared such a destiny and allowed the loving touch of your long-awaited suitor; all thanks to that thing coming here and screwing everything up.”

  “What do you mean I was going to die tonight? How?” Sasha demanded.

  Aeon groaned and dropped to her knees, holding her head with a painful cringe while everyone exchanged puzzled looks with one another.

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Rulo argued shaking her head. “If Cataclysm never showed up, how was Sasha supposed to be killed tonight? There’s been nothing else here that’s threatened our lives or given us any trouble.”

  “Everything was set the way I wanted it,” Aeon cursed through gritted teeth. “All I had to do was sit back and wait for the fates to take you all out one by one. I wouldn’t have had to lift a finger, I didn’t have to set anything in motion, it was already going to work out as I wanted it. But now those things have ruined everything a thousand-fold by coming here.”

  “Enough of your babbling,” Daemon ordered, stepping closer and grabbing the chronofly by the hair. He pulled her head back to face him while the girls gathered near and remained ready to slit her throat at a moment’s notice. “Explain yourself and what you’ve just said. Start from the beginning, and do try to give us one good reason why we should even consider the option of helping you by any measure.”

  “Everyone standing around you was going to die, Daemon Warrick,” Aeon hissed. “The reptile girl, the neko, the lycan, even that lumbering minotaur. All of them were going to die over the next few weeks, one by one.”

  The girls exchanged cautious looks from that while Daemon’s grip on Aeon’s hair became tighter. She cringed with her wings twitching behind her before she continued speaking with a bitter scowl on her face.

  “Why do you think I left you alone after our encounter? Things were going to work themselves out for me in the end, I had no need to try anything more with you. Instead I’ve been focusing my time working out a bigger problem. You see there’s going to be a great catastrophe rearing its ugly head in this land very soon, something that I cannot allow to happen for personal reasons.”

  “And what catastrophe is that?” Daemon asked.

  “The end of everyone, man and monster, in all of Eden. I was working out a way to avert this disaster, after all this is my world to rule over, nobody else’s. Unfortunately, my efforts have become useless due to the arrival of the one you call Cataclysm and her companions.”

  “You’re talking about the Ancients?” Mika carefully asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Aeon replied, glancing to her with a raised eyebrow. “That name eludes me, as does the centaur who appeared here earlier tonight. You see… I don’t know who they are, or what they are. They are the true abominations of Eden. It’s with great reluctance that I must admit I can’t… I can’t perceive them with my power.”

  “You can’t perceive them?” Tabitha repeated.

  “Whatever they are, they are… indifferent to my chrono magic. I cannot see their past, present, or even future. They’re shrouded, masked from my omniscient sight by means I cannot fathom. Not only that, but their actions are causing terrible aftereffects.”

  Aeon cringed from another migraine hitting her, the woman’s body shivering on reflex while those around her continued to watch the monster carefully.

  “They’re ruining the timestream!” Aeon cried out. “All this atrocious uncertainty has now clouded everything for me! They’re throwing fate into disarray! Everything they touch, everyone they interact with, these endless ripples of altered time and destiny are growing and growing, cascading into complete anarchy through the future. Everything is becoming a horrid mess, it’s absolutely insufferable!”

  “So that’s why you look like you’re about to puke again,” Rulo commented.

  “Everything has become muddled by their actions,” Aeon growled. “These headaches they’re giving me, this horrid nausea they’ve instilled in me, that I can handle. But because of them interfering with fate and throwing everything into disorder… I’ve lost sight of the catastrophe. I can’t foresee it anymore, nor how it will play out.”

  “You mean they’ve stopped it?” Daemon questioned.

  “No, they haven’t stopped it. It can’t be stopped, it’s inevitable. They’ve only clouded it from my vision. I don’t know how to properly prepare for it now, or how to handle it when it occurs. I don’t know how to resolve the problem anymore because those fucking freaks have ruined everything! In fact, all the precautions I’ve prepared to handle this disaster may not work anymore, I have no idea if they’ll have any effect now because those damn abominations robbed me of my sight and plunged nearly everyone in this infernal land into absolute uncertainty in the future!”

  “Just what is this disaster you speak of?” Sasha inquired. “What great tragedy is the despicable Dark Queen trying to prevent out of the goodness of her heart?”

  “That is for me to worry about, not you,” Aeon retorted. “What you need to concern yourself with is dealing with those monsters you call
Ancients. You need to hurry and eliminate all of them right away.”

  “I’m sorry, what was that?” Tabitha scoffed. “It sounded like you’re trying to order us to fight those monsters for you.”

  “Don’t get us wrong,” Mika quipped. “We’re not exactly on friendly terms with them, not after how one of them treated us. But I have to say seeing the sorry state they put you in has me feeling a little better about them being out there. Perhaps letting them roam free for a little while longer wouldn’t be such a bad thing.”

  “Alright, I’m not explaining the situation to you properly,” Aeon scorned at her. “If those monsters are not removed from this world and soon, we are all in great danger. How’s this for giving you some perspective, hm? If this disaster unfolds without my knowledge of how to resolve it beforehand, we’re all going to perish. You, your friends, your little brother, your pathetic race… and even me.”

  “You?” Daemon repeated. “You just told us you are one with time itself, how you’re supposedly immortal in your own right. Yet this event places your life in danger regardless?”

  “Will that bring you some comfort at least?” Aeon quizzed him. “The entire world may be damned to hell along with all who reside in it, but hey, at least I’ll be in those ranks as well. That must make you feel a little happy for once, yes? Knowing my end is near, just as it is for everyone in Eden.”

  “How will you die from this?” Sasha asked. “Seriously, how is it possible for this disaster to kill you after we were unsuccessful? Tell us so we can test that method right here and now.”

  “I don’t believe any of this,” Forrus scoffed shaking her head. “She’s up to something, but trying to save the world sure isn’t it. This is some sort of trick.”

  “Just what is this disaster anyway?” Tabitha asked. “What did you foresee happening to the world?”

  “I can’t tell you,” Aeon muttered.

  “She’s lying,” Rulo flatly said, lifting her hammer up to smash the chronofly again.

  “No, I mean I can’t tell you,” Aeon snapped back. “I wouldn’t dare tempt fate further by doing so. Haven’t you noticed by now? Can’t you see with your own eyes? Look at me! Look at what those freaks did to me!”